Speaker 1: This is Acts 15, 1-21.
Speaker 1: But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
Speaker 1: And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.
Speaker 1: So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.
Speaker 1: And when they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders and they declared all that God had done with them.
Speaker 1: But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said it is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.
Speaker 1: The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter and after there had been much debate, peter stood up and said to them Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
Speaker 1: And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us.
Speaker 1: Witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them having cleansed their hearts by faith.
Speaker 1: Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear, and we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.
Speaker 1: And all the assembly fell silent and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: And after they finished speaking, james replied Brothers, listen to me, simon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name.
Speaker 1: And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written.
Speaker 1: And this I will return and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it.
Speaker 1: That the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.
Speaker 1: Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled and from blood.
Speaker 1: For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he has read every Sabbath in the synagogues the word of the Lord for the people of the Lord.
Speaker 2: Amen, everybody can be seated.
Speaker 2: Praise the Lord, beautiful passage of Scripture.
Speaker 2: I am so thankful for the wisdom and the counsel that's C-O-U-N-S-E-L of the Jerusalem Council, c-o-u-n-c-i-l.
Speaker 2: Thankful for their wisdom.
Speaker 2: We are all here today because of their wisdom.
Speaker 2: So the theme, the title of today, is Defining Our Lives in Christ.
Speaker 2: It's a subject I've thought about many times through the years and the key point is as Christians, if we fail to define and defend our identity in Christ, we will suffer an identity crisis and we will give the enemy space to deceive us.
Speaker 2: Identity crisis some of you may not know what that is.
Speaker 2: It's one that identity crisis is confusion and doubt about the sense of oneself, often triggered by major events in one's life.
Speaker 2: Individuals may question their values, beliefs, goals and how they present themselves to the world.
Speaker 2: It's also called how we present ourselves to the world.
Speaker 2: It's also called a Christian worldview, isn't it?
Speaker 2: We present ourselves to the world.
Speaker 2: It's also called a Christian worldview, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Kay was in Kroger's recently and she was checking out and the bagger was bagging her groceries and she noticed that the young man had a cross on his neck and had a scripture on it and she said I like your cross and the scripture on it and he said thanks, ma'am.
Speaker 2: It reminds me of who I am.
Speaker 2: Too often as Christians and we're going to see this in the passage as we look at it more closely we can allow cultural and even religious influences to define our lives instead of Christ.
Speaker 2: If we do not clearly define and defend our identity in Christ, it will be defined by others.
Speaker 2: I mean, it will be defined by others, not by us.
Speaker 2: To be half-hearted is to be double-minded, and we know that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Speaker 2: James 1.8.
Speaker 2: The early church was faced with such an existential crisis.
Speaker 2: They identified the threat and wisely defined and defended the faith once delivered to the saints.
Speaker 2: Jude 1.3b.
Speaker 2: We should be thankful for the wise counsel at the Jerusalem Council, for they clearly defined and defended the foundation of our salvation in Christ and the grace of Christ that promotes unity in relationships despite our differences.
Speaker 2: Ok, so we're going to look at this just at the beginning here, verse one so they came down from Judea.
Speaker 2: It tells us later that they were pharisees.
Speaker 2: I won't go through the laundry list of rebukes of jesus of the pharisees would take us some time, wouldn't it?
Speaker 2: But here they go again.
Speaker 2: But there were literally, there were jewish converts, sincere christians from the jew faith.
Speaker 2: In Antioch, there was a large Jewish population, and they had been converted to Jesus Christ, and there were some major differences between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers.
Speaker 2: And so, immediately though, they were saying unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, and also later it says unless you keep the law, you cannot be saved.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you something Always be a little leery of someone who tells you unless you do this, you cannot be saved.
Speaker 2: Unless you do that, you cannot be saved.
Speaker 2: Unless you attend our church and keep our rules, you cannot be saved.
Speaker 2: And keep our rules, you cannot be saved.
Speaker 2: This is why we all, as Christians, we need to know our identity in Christ Jesus and not allow others to define it for us.
Speaker 2: So slide 22 here.
Speaker 2: I think they got that.
Speaker 2: There it is.
Speaker 2: So they get into this discussion about circumcision.
Speaker 2: So they get into this discussion about circumcision, which was a sign under the Abrahamic covenant.
Speaker 2: It was a requirement and it was a serious moral requirement of the Jews.
Speaker 2: Under the Abrahamic covenant, every male, not long after they were born, had to be circumcised.
Speaker 2: This was a covenant sign.
Speaker 2: It was important, and they also had to keep the law.
Speaker 2: The Jews believed that you had to keep the law all 613 commandments to be saved.
Speaker 2: How's it working out for you?
Speaker 2: How'd it work out for them?
Speaker 2: They make that point here.
Speaker 2: It was a burden we could never bear.
Speaker 2: So we still have this same debate today Faith versus works, don't we?
Speaker 2: Faith versus works and many Christian cults.
Speaker 2: One of the things that you can identify a Christian cult or a false teaching is it's not just by faith alone but by works, right, faith plus.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you something when you add something to Jesus Christ, no matter what it is, if you add any work to Jesus Christ, you subtract from the cross.
Speaker 2: Can someone say amen?
Speaker 2: You cannot add to Jesus Christ or add to faith without subtracting from the gospel.
Speaker 2: So we're going to hammer this out today.
Speaker 2: But I am glad these early believers, great men and women of God, stood up for the truth.
Speaker 2: And so we see here.
Speaker 2: This is just a picture, because it does relate to what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: People think there's a contradiction, which later in this passage we're going to get to james recommendation, and we'll see that james does not contradict paul here at all.
Speaker 2: James affirms peter's definition of the gospel right.
Speaker 2: So when james is writing in james 2, 26 and saying faith without works is dead, he is not contradicting apostle pa Paul, and this will explain it.
Speaker 2: You have Paul's teaching is works without faith are dead.
Speaker 2: What he is saying is that the only way our works are acceptable are through Christ, christ alone.
Speaker 2: You remember what did Christ say on the cross?
Speaker 2: It is somebody finished is finished.
Speaker 2: In other words, the price is paid.
Speaker 2: So what makes our works acceptable to god is the sacrifice of christ.
Speaker 2: And that's why, as christians, we want not only we saved which hunter talked about this not only we saved by the gospel, not only we saved by faith.
Speaker 2: We walk by faith and that's called good works.
Speaker 2: If you walk by faith, if you do it in your own strength, if you do religious works without Christ, the Bible calls that dead works.
Speaker 2: It's a dead faith.
Speaker 2: That's what James is talking about a dead faith that produces no works.
Speaker 2: How can you say you have faith?
Speaker 2: But if you know Christ, you're going to produce good works.
Speaker 2: So there is no contradiction.
Speaker 2: So we see here Paul said works without faith are dead.
Speaker 2: Hebrews 11, 6 says without faith it's impossible to please God.
Speaker 2: So it's our faith that makes our sacrificial works to God, pleasing in His sight.
Speaker 2: And then we see that the foundation of this house is faith in Christ, is the foundation of our salvation.
Speaker 2: First Corinthians, 3.11, says there is no other foundation other than what has already been laid, and that is Christ, amen.
Speaker 2: So the foundation of this is faith in Christ, is the foundation of our salvation.
Speaker 2: Good works, on the other hand, which is what James is talking about in James 2, 26, they are the evidence of that foundation, that that foundation of faith has been laid in our life.
Speaker 2: It's proof of our faith and so many of our controversies, even as we go through these scriptures, some of our conflicts and some of our controversies have to do.
Speaker 2: We put some things secondary doctrines and teachings and personal convictions we put those things on the first level, or foundation.
Speaker 2: Do you see where I'm going with this?
Speaker 2: We put them as a necessary requirement of salvation.
Speaker 2: And then we put things that matter on the second level where it says good work.
Speaker 2: So we will look at this, we will look at this.
Speaker 2: So they were trying to put circumcision and keeping the law into the foundation of salvation here.
Speaker 2: So we just got back from New England and actually went into a pretty cool K&I.
Speaker 2: Paul Revere's house.
Speaker 2: Can you believe that in Boston, big skyscrapers, you could barely see the top of them.
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, there's this street and there's a little log cabin.
Speaker 2: It's still there, paul Revere's house, silversmith, and some of you may not know you should have learned this in the fourth grade.
Speaker 2: But, paul Revere, what a?
Speaker 2: You know a mighty man, blue-collar worker, silversmith.
Speaker 2: He lived in that cabin and the British had occupied Boston and they also had occupied New York.
Speaker 2: And they were saying we can come into your house anytime we want and we can eat anything on your table and we can sleep where we want.
Speaker 2: And they said we're going to come and arrest Samuel Adams and we're also going to take your guns, your ammunition and your gunpowder.
Speaker 2: Now what would you do, brother Jerry, if that happened?
Speaker 2: You're going to defend your liberty, right?
Speaker 2: So, paul Revere, patrick Henry, the patriots, the colonists, they said, no, you're not, we will.
Speaker 2: We have defined our liberty and we will defend our liberty, some things that we're fighting for, right?
Speaker 2: And so I just want to read to you a quote here from Patrick Henry.
Speaker 2: When all this was going down, he said there is no retreat, but in submission and slavery, our chains are forged.
Speaker 2: Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston.
Speaker 2: The war is inevitable and let it come.
Speaker 2: I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.
Speaker 2: The line in the sand was drawn, wasn't it?
Speaker 2: Some things are worth fighting for, and so we see here, just like our ancestors fought a war to define and defend liberty, apostle Paul and Barnabas were also in a war here, but it was a spiritual war for the souls of men, women and children even yet to be born.
Speaker 2: It was a spiritual war for can we raise our hands, our souls, the Gentiles?
Speaker 2: They were fighting a spiritual war.
Speaker 2: The line was in the sand because what they were asking when they talked about circumcision and to keep the law, they were asking the Gentiles to become Jewish proselytes and they would have had to come under the authority of the Pharisees and of the Jews.
Speaker 2: And then what would have happened to the church?
Speaker 2: It would have been assimilated and it would have died out.
Speaker 2: And this is what the enemy of our souls was doing.
Speaker 2: But thank God they stood the ground.
Speaker 2: Antioch was a major trade city.
Speaker 2: I want to tell you a little bit about that 100,000 people between Egypt, asia Minor, greece, italy, mesopotamia, and this made this church.
Speaker 2: You remember back at the beginning, acts 1.8, the key verse which Pastor Chris has emphasized many times.
Speaker 2: He says you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit shall come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and now in the uttermost parts of the earth.
Speaker 2: Now we're getting to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Speaker 2: We've been going through the geography.
Speaker 2: Okay, praise God, now we're in a hub city, antioch of Syria.
Speaker 2: It's a key trade city.
Speaker 2: There's a large Jewish population there, a large Gentile population, and they've been worshiping false gods, but now they're all coming together in the house of jesus christ.
Speaker 2: Praise the lord, can we say amen?
Speaker 2: So they all came together at antioch and we see here there was a great revival happen.
Speaker 2: Let's leave no need to turn here.
Speaker 2: But acts 11, 26.
Speaker 2: It says this and the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord Acts 11, 21.
Speaker 2: And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.
Speaker 2: For a whole year they met with the church and they taught a great many people and in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.
Speaker 2: Praise the Lord, the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.
Speaker 2: What a move of the Spirit in Antioch.
Speaker 2: And from Antioch they launched the uttermost parts of the world to take the gospel, praise God.
Speaker 2: That was like their headquarters, their hub.
Speaker 2: How many know?
Speaker 2: When the Lord is moving in a mighty way, as sure as night follows day, the devil will launch a counterattack.
Speaker 2: This is what's happening here.
Speaker 2: So, paul and Barnabas, they knew this was an existential threat to the church of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: This was an existential threat to the church of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: You remember now that Paul was a Pharisee himself.
Speaker 2: Right, he said if anybody wants to boast, I'm the Pharisee of all the Pharisees.
Speaker 2: He was one of these people that was coming and arresting the Christians at one time.
Speaker 2: So he knew exactly what was at stake.
Speaker 2: And Paul had preached earlier this same teaching acts 13, 36 through 39.
Speaker 2: Apostle paul was preaching, and this was in antioch of pasidia, not antioch of syria.
Speaker 2: As he said uh, for david, after he had served the purpose of god in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.
Speaker 2: But he, whom God raised up, did not see corruption.
Speaker 2: Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, christ, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Speaker 2: What did he say?
Speaker 2: Through this man, christ, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Speaker 2: Did he say circumcision?
Speaker 2: Did he say through the law?
Speaker 2: Did he say through church attendance?
Speaker 2: Did he say through a dress code?
Speaker 2: He said through this man, christ, amen, that's the foundation, and it says and by him, by Christ, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
Speaker 2: Now, that's some good news, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Let me say with you that you know in this text today, this battle did not end at this time.
Speaker 2: It went on for decades after that, and because Paul said this later in Galatians, right into the church at Galatia, he said for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Speaker 2: He went back to the foundation of faith in Christ.
Speaker 2: So they were saying you have to become Jewish, you have to give up your identity as Gentiles, you have to be circumcised.
Speaker 2: You have to give up your identity as Gentiles, you have to be circumcised, you have to keep the law.
Speaker 2: And Paul and Barnabas stood up, and I think they so wisely, they didn't become dogmatic.
Speaker 2: They had a great dissension.
Speaker 2: It says here.
Speaker 2: They had a great dissension and a great argument and debate verse two.
Speaker 2: But then they did something very wise.
Speaker 2: They appealed to the elders at Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: They were under authority, so being sent on their way by the church.
Speaker 2: They passed through Phoenicia, samaria, verse 3.
Speaker 2: And so they come to the church.
Speaker 2: The Pharisees came again in verse 5, said it's necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses, verse you notice.
Speaker 2: It says there was no small dissension and debate.
Speaker 2: So, just like our early, the early colonists that founded this great nation, they got heated, they got upset when the British were trying to occupy their houses and take away their guns and their ammunition and everything, and it was a hill they were willing to die upon.
Speaker 2: And as Christians, there are times that we've got to stand our ground.
Speaker 2: And when it comes to the moral foundation, to the foundation of salvation in Christ alone, we've got to stand our ground.
Speaker 2: So they appealed to Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: And so it's very interesting.
Speaker 2: First you had Peter speak and I just want to say Peter very wisely spoke.
Speaker 2: Now, you remember, peter was the first apostle to the Gentiles.
Speaker 2: He preached to Cornelius right and his whole household.
Speaker 2: The Holy Spirit fell upon everybody, men and women and children, in the household of Cornelius.
Speaker 2: And through this sign remember, he had the vision.
Speaker 2: He said I won't eat any unclean thing.
Speaker 2: And he had this sign and he realized that God had offered salvation to the Gentiles.
Speaker 2: And so Peter said here he's reminding them of what happened at the house of Cornelius, verse 7 he said, brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you.
Speaker 2: Who made the choice?
Speaker 2: God made the choice right that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
Speaker 2: And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us.
Speaker 2: And he says and in verse 9, he says that God had cleansed their hearts by faith Verse 9, it's so important that we define our identity through Christ.
Speaker 2: Can somebody say it's a great feeling to lay your head down on a pillow at night and know your heart has been cleansed by faith, to know that your sins are forgiven?
Speaker 2: I'm 64, and at age 18, I surrendered my life to Christ and every night I've laid my head down.
Speaker 2: Since I've been 18 years old, I've known my sins have been cleansed by the Lord.
Speaker 2: Now, that's a great feeling.
Speaker 2: That's because of Christ.
Speaker 2: My identity is him, the old man, the old Ron Hamm.
Speaker 2: I left the old, sinful life, I gave my life to Christ.
Speaker 2: And that's what he says Our sins are cleansed by faith.
Speaker 2: And then verse 11 here is the key verse from Peter, acts 15, 11.
Speaker 2: He said but we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.
Speaker 2: So it's kind of interesting here that Peter basically outlines and I'm going to put these up if you've never seen these before the same issue happened in the medieval church, with the Catholic church teaching that you had to be saved through the sacraments, right?
Speaker 2: So there's a parallel there between the sacraments and circumcision and keeping the law.
Speaker 2: In other words, you have to become part of our church.
Speaker 2: To be saved, you have to keep the sacraments.
Speaker 2: And not only that if you want to shorten your time in purgatory, we've got some indulgences here that we want you to buy and you can get out a purgatory free card, right, if you got enough money.
Speaker 2: Well, this made Martin Luther pretty upset.
Speaker 2: Enough money?
Speaker 2: Well, this made Martin Luther pretty upset.
Speaker 2: And in 1517, martin Luther a monk and he had done everything in the world to feel assurance of salvation.
Speaker 2: He had done everything, but he finally came across Romans 117.
Speaker 2: He said, therefore, there is a righteousness revealed, a righteousness from God.
Speaker 2: That is by what Faith, amen, and Martin Luther and the reformers.
Speaker 2: They outlined what we call the five solas and this is the foundation of our salvation.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting even in this chapter, in Acts 15, it's interesting that all five of these are alluded to in this chapter.
Speaker 2: So I think we have a PowerPoint on the five solas, but I'll go through them quickly.
Speaker 2: Acts 15, 11,.
Speaker 2: You know, peter said but we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.
Speaker 2: So in that one verse, you have, you have faith.
Speaker 2: So it's faith alone.
Speaker 2: You have grace through the grace of Christ.
Speaker 2: It's grace alone and it's through Christ alone.
Speaker 2: As we talked about the salvation, the foundation of salvation is through Christ alone.
Speaker 2: And let's continue in the text, verse 22.
Speaker 2: It's a verse of when James began to speak, verse 12.
Speaker 2: And all the assembly, after Peter spoke, all the assembly fell silent and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.
Speaker 2: So why did that happen?
Speaker 2: That happened because Paul and Barnabas were sharing about people repenting of their sin and coming to Christ.
Speaker 2: I remember when I was a new Christian one time I was a brand new Christian.
Speaker 2: I knew very little about the Bible, but I met a Jehovah Witnesses.
Speaker 2: They knew the Bible seemingly inside and out, but they could have beat me in a Bible debate.
Speaker 2: But guess what?
Speaker 2: They were too late because I was already saved.
Speaker 2: I knew I was saved, and when you're saved, you know it.
Speaker 2: And so what they're saying here, paul and Barnabas, is that they had been already preaching the gospel and many Gentiles had already been saved.
Speaker 2: So they're giving a testimony of that.
Speaker 2: And then James begins to speak, verse 13.
Speaker 2: After they finished speaking, james replied Brothers, listen to me Now.
Speaker 2: Who is James?
Speaker 2: James is the brother of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine being him, the little brother of Jesus?
Speaker 2: He was born of Mary by Joseph, so technically he's half brother because Jesus was born of a virgin right.
Speaker 2: But can you imagine being James and your mom saying why can't you be more like your brother, jesus?
Speaker 2: You know we think we have it hard with the older brother or older sister, but James grew up in the household with Jesus, as did Jude, who wrote the letter of Jude and he's now the pastor of the church at Jerusalem and he gives some wise words here.
Speaker 2: And he gives some wise words here.
Speaker 2: He says listen to me, brothers, simeon, who is Peter he's talking about, has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take away from them a people for his name.
Speaker 2: And with this the words of the prophets agree just as it is written.
Speaker 2: After this, I will return and I will rebuild the tent or tabernacle of David that has fallen.
Speaker 2: So the Jews had fallen away from God and Christ came to rebuild the temple and he said I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it.
Speaker 2: That the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known of old.
Speaker 2: So what does James appeal to here?
Speaker 2: James appeals to Scripture, the authority of Scripture.
Speaker 2: The Scripture is the life and and teaching.
Speaker 2: So we, the five solas, are certainly, you know, uh, a foundation of our salvation.
Speaker 2: I think also the history, and I'm not going to take time to read, but we we have the apostles creed many times in the call to worship the apostles.
Speaker 2: Creles' Creed is a great teaching and it's a foundational teaching of what we believe as Christians and the moral law of God that's something that we need to identify with, which is the moral law of God, is the Ten Commandments, and I want to say this about the Sabbath commandment.
Speaker 2: The fourth commandment, the Sabbath day, was fulfilled in Christ.
Speaker 2: Hebrews 4.10 says For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works, as God did from his.
Speaker 2: So now, the Lord's Day we celebrate on Sunday is now the day of worship to celebrate the Resurrection Day is now the day of worship to celebrate the resurrection day.
Speaker 2: So then, so they appeared, they appealed to grace, faith, christ, to the, and they appealed to the glory of god, and that god had done all these things, brought the gentiles to salvation, and they appealed to the authority of scripture.
Speaker 2: And, and then they get to the point, verse 22,.
Speaker 2: Well, james, verse 20, 19,.
Speaker 2: Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, james said, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.
Speaker 2: For from ancient times, ancient generations, moses has been in every city, those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.
Speaker 2: So can we put slide 22 back up there?
Speaker 2: Slide 22 back up there?
Speaker 2: So we see here and this has caused a lot of divisions in the church not rightly dividing the word of God Faith in Christ is the foundation of our salvation.
Speaker 2: Eating things strangled or if you eat a rare steak, is that a requirement for salvation?
Speaker 2: That you not eat a rare steak?
Speaker 2: I don't think so, right.
Speaker 2: So the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: He said love one another.
Speaker 2: He said they'll know that you're my disciples by your love for one another, not by the lunches that you eat, right?
Speaker 2: So sometimes people make big issues not by the lunches that you eat, right.
Speaker 2: So sometimes people make big issues, they make mountains out of molehills.
Speaker 2: But even though the Gentiles could eat rare steaks and they could eat things strangled, under the gospel they were permitted to do that.
Speaker 2: It offended the Jewish believers.
Speaker 2: So there's another principle at work here.
Speaker 2: So we need to define the foundation of our salvation, but we also need to define the grace of Christ in our relationships that promotes unity despite our differences.
Speaker 2: And any married man knows this okay.
Speaker 2: When I was a newly married man knows this Okay.
Speaker 2: And when I was a newly married man.
Speaker 2: I remember trying to remake my wife into my own image.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you, if you're a newly married man, that's not good to do that.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I did.
Speaker 2: I tried to remake her into my image.
Speaker 2: That's not smart, okay, it's just going to lead to problems.
Speaker 2: So, the grace of God, this is wise what they said, because they knew the Jewish and the Gentile.
Speaker 2: It offended the Jews that they ate a rare steak in front of them.
Speaker 2: So why do that?
Speaker 2: They're brothers in the Lord.
Speaker 2: Why offend them?
Speaker 2: Paul said I won't even eat meat while the world stands if it offends my brother.
Speaker 2: Right, we have have differences, but the way to solve the differences is not to cut off the distinctive identities of those around us.
Speaker 2: It's not to make them think and look and dress and act like us.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 2: We want unity but not uniformity and everything.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: There's a word for that.
Speaker 2: It's called communism.
Speaker 2: I had to throw that in there, ok.
Speaker 2: But seriously, the you know, we as Christians, a lot of conflicts can be resolved in the church If we will walk, if we will realize that the grace of God, the grace, gives us space for our differences with one another, and that's why they outline this.
Speaker 2: You know, the Bible says we won't take time to turn there, but it says there's one body and one spirit and there's one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through, all and in all.
Speaker 2: But there's many opinions.
Speaker 2: It doesn't actually say that in the Bible, but it's true.
Speaker 2: But there's many opinions.
Speaker 2: It doesn't actually say that in the Bible, but it's true.
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 2: So there are many opinions.
Speaker 2: So we know there's one Lord, one Father, and we don't agree on everything.
Speaker 2: As Christians, we've got to give space for grace, Amen, and, like I said, any married man, married woman, we all understand this.
Speaker 2: But it's also brothers and sisters in the church, and that's what they did.
Speaker 2: They gave space to the Jewish believers so that they would have peace in their relationship with God.
Speaker 2: So how do we know, as a Christian, if we are identifying with Christ?
Speaker 2: As I said, if we do not clearly define and defend our identity in Christ, then it will be defined by others.
Speaker 2: Paul said for me, to live is Christ, his whole identity said for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Speaker 2: So we have to.
Speaker 2: Our lives need to be defined by our relationship with Christ.
Speaker 2: How do we know if we are doing that?
Speaker 2: Apostle James talks about this said be doers of the word, not hearers only deceiving yourselves.
Speaker 2: He said if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror right.
Speaker 2: He looks in the mirror, intently at his natural face in a mirror right.
Speaker 2: He looks in the mirror.
Speaker 2: He sees his identity.
Speaker 2: This is who I am For.
Speaker 2: He looks at himself and then he goes away and at once he forgets what he was like.
Speaker 2: Is that an identity crisis?
Speaker 2: It's identity crisis.
Speaker 2: He gets confused, he gets doubtful, he looks in the mirror and he believes certain things about himself, but then he walks away and he ignores the Scriptures.
Speaker 2: He doesn't obey the Scriptures.
Speaker 2: That's what James is saying here.
Speaker 2: He's saying he forgets what he was like.
Speaker 2: But the one who looks in the perfect law of liberty and perseveres being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing so.
Speaker 2: As Christians, we want to define our lives in Christ and we want to defend our lives in Christ and we want to give grace, give space for grace in the lives of other Christians, and not only other Christians, but not only other Christians, but unbelievers who don't even know their right hand from their left hand right.
Speaker 2: So I have, I think, a PowerPoint on the family mission statement my son, joe, my oldest son.
Speaker 2: I came one day to his house there it is, and this is an example, and I just saw this.
Speaker 2: You know, I hadn't talked to him about this or anything, but this was his ham family mission statement, and so he had defined his family's mission, and that got me to thinking.
Speaker 2: You know, as a Christian, and this would be this is the application of this sermon today, every single one of us, so we won't be carried away by the waves of this world, we need to sit down and use the five solas, use the apostle cre Creed, use the Ten Commandments, use the book of Ephesians right, one of Kay's favorite books Just take a little pencil and circle in Christ, by Christ, through Christ, for Christ.
Speaker 2: We need to write three or four sentences let's think about this this week.
Speaker 2: Three or four sentences about who am I in Christ, who am I Define who I am in Christ.
Speaker 2: Three or four sentences personally, because if we don't define it and we don't defend it, then we're going to be led off the path.
Speaker 2: And so if we're married, same thing with our marriage path.
Speaker 2: And so if we're married, same thing with our marriage.
Speaker 2: Let's sit down, let's define our Christian marriage before the Lord, make a marriage mission statement.
Speaker 2: If we have children, you know you could come up with a family mission statement.
Speaker 2: As Christians, I think sometimes that you know, we see here in this early, sometimes we just allow the circumstances of life to dictate to us.
Speaker 2: You know how we live and just like we see in the early church, here I'm thankful that Paul and Barnabas and James and Peter and the early church, they clearly defined their identity in Christ.
Speaker 2: They clearly defined the early church and it was not led astray because of it.
Speaker 2: So let's just pray, father, and musicians can come.
Speaker 2: Father, we just thank you for your love and kindness and thank you for your goodness and I pray your blessing today upon all of us, god.
Speaker 2: Thank us, lord, thank you.
Speaker 2: We just pray, god, that you'll teach us what it means, as Apostle Paul said, to live as Christ, to die as gain, lord, to have our identity in Christ alone, by faith, by grace alone, by faith alone according to the scriptures, alone to the glory of God alone.
Speaker 2: We thank you, lord, for the early church and their faithfulness.
Speaker 2: Lord, to define the gospel and to defend the gospel, and God, we also pray for unity in our church, lord, and that you'll bring unity in things that secondary things, secondary opinions that sometimes divide us.
Speaker 2: Lord, god, we just pray, god, we can be the people of God that you've called us to be, you said, by our love for one another, they will know that we are your disciples, lord, and we thank you for your Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: If somebody does not know Christ today, I pray that today will be their day of salvation.
Speaker 2: Lord, god, you are our helper and our strength.
Speaker 2: In Jesus' name, amen.