Confronting Compromise of the Gospel

Transcript

GR1613
09/18/11
Confronting Compromise of the Gospel
Acts 15:1-5; Galatians 2:1-5
Gil Rugh

We’re going to pick up our study of the Book of Acts together. So turn to Acts 15, Acts Chapter 15. With Acts, Chapter 15 we are right about exactly in the middle of the Book of Acts as the historian Luke unfolds the history of the early church. And it has been a glorious beginning. God has blessed the ministry of His Word. The Church started in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost in Acts, Chapter 2 and then it expanded out from Jerusalem to Samaria and then to the uttermost part of the world. It has been carried to Gentile regions by Paul on his first missionary journey in Acts Chapters 13 and 14. Now we don’t want to lose sight. Often when people talk about the Church in the Book of Acts they pick out the great things happening, and there are great things, but we understand this takes place in the context also of opposition and persecution. In Chapters 4 and 5 of Acts we saw the disciples and the apostles getting arrested and on different occasions being in prison. Opposition primarily came from the Jews because they are in Jerusalem. But the Jewish opposition is going to continue to follow the ministry of the Word to other places. But the Jews stirred up opposition even among the Gentiles. So there are difficulties involved.

In Chapter 5 the apostles are beaten by the unbelieving leadership. In Chapter 7 we have the first martyr in the church with Stephen being stoned to death for his testimony. We come into Chapter 8 the church is being scattered outside of Jerusalem and so the gospel was carried to Samaria and other regions because it was difficult to remain in Jerusalem where the persecution was centered. Come to Chapter 12 and you have another martyr, James the brother of John who is executed by Herod Agrippa. Then Peter is in prison in Chapter 12 as well. Paul carries the gospel on the first missionary journey. Marvelous opportunities to carry the gospel but there was intense opposition. In Lystra Paul was stoned and they left him for dead outside the city but God miraculously raised him up. So God blessing the ministry of His Word and the devil constantly stirring up opposition to the ministry of the Word but the work of God goes on.

Chapter 15 brings us to the greatest danger that has faced the church to this point as far as the record of Luke is concerned because we’ve had opposition and persecution from outside. Unbelievers have opposed the gospel. Persecuted believers but now we are going to have the threat coming from within the church and from within the realm of professing believers. This has the danger of splitting the church, of compromising the gospel and having disastrous results. Not only immediately but of course long term. Keep in mind the setting we have here. Acts Chapters 13 & 14 recorded the first missionary journey. Then Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch where they have been out.

Then at the end of Chapter 15 we will start the second missionary journey. So it is particularly what is taking place now as the focus of the gospel is being centered on Gentiles. This is going to create difficulties within the church. One of the strategies of the devil is to infiltrate among believers and there are those who profess to be believers, profess to agree with the Gospel and yet they have really never come to saving faith and they become the devil’s servants if you will to sew dissention and false teaching among believers and it gets confusing because these are people who claim to be believers and that is the most effective strategy.

When the unbelieving world attacks the Word of God and attacks believers, believers are somewhat solidified and a reminder of the importance of standing together. But when we have those who profess to be believers and part of the fellowship of the church creating disagreement, promoting teaching that is not consistent with the Word of God now it is more difficult because it seems we have turned against ourselves. But this is just the impression. It is not the reality. The reality is it is the same battle but the enemy has infiltrated within. Peter warned about this. He is going to be a central figure in Chapter 15 but part of the transition is with Chapter 15 Peter drops out of the picture. His ministry goes on but Luke, the historian, goes on with the Apostle Paul and his ministry, the Gentile parts of the world. Jerusalem is the focus of what takes place in Chapter 15 but after Chapter 15 Jerusalem in not the focus any longer and the emphasis on the rest of the book of Acts is on the Gospel in other places through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. But Peter wrote and warned in his second letter, 2 Peter 2, Chapter 2, verse 1 that just as there were false prophets among the people in the Old Testament so also there will be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies even denying the master who brought them. And the result will be they will bring swift destruction upon themselves. So that is an ongoing strategy of the devil.

Turn over to 2 Corinthians, Chapter 11. Look at verse 13. Paul warns them in verse 11, I am afraid that as the serpent deceived thee by his craftiness. See the idea, the craftiness of the devil? So your minds will be lead astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. And the problem he has with the church at Corinth is that they pride themselves in their tolerance. They are intolerant where they ought to be tolerant and they are tolerant where they ought to be intolerant. They are attacking and criticizing the Apostle Paul and he is preaching the pure gospel. They are tolerating and accepting false teachers for teaching a corrupted gospel. And verse 4, if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached or you receive a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted you bear this beautifully. Now this is a problem for churches today. They pride themselves in being open and receptive and welcoming in the wrong way and so false teachers. Well, we don’t want to be too narrow and jump to conclusions here. Paul is very firm on this. Verse 13, such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds. You can’t get any clearer than that. Here’s the strategy of the devil. He disguises himself as an angel of light. He pretends to be something that he is not. The very opposite of what he is and how does he use his servants to disguise themselves and infiltrate with false teaching in false doctrine.

Come back to Acts 15. What is going to happen in Chapter 15 is a conflict between the Jews who profess to be believers. What happens anytime you have false teaching? It is promoted. The seeds are sown by the false teachers. But even believers can get confused and caught up because we begin to look, well there are certain things and I know them and I think they are sincere and they are genuine. They say they believe the Gospel. I take them at their word and we begin to look for points that we can say good things about them. Besides we have known them. We have had them in our home. They have had us in their home and I think they are good people. All of a sudden we lose the focus. The issue is the truth. So in Acts 15 we are going to resolve an issue. The Gospel is being carried to Gentile parts of the world. Are Gentiles going to have to be circumcised and to submit to the Law of Moses to be truly saved? Now the issue in not, in Acts 15, can Gentiles be saved? Is God’s work of salvation going to include Gentiles in the makeup of the church? That was resolved with Peter’s ministry in Acts, Chapter 10, remember. And in the apostolic leadership in Acts, Chapter 11 in light of Peter’s testimony of what had happened at Cornelius’ house. Agreed, well God is bringing salvation to the Gentiles. That is not the issue. Gentiles can be saved. The issue when Gentiles are saved do they have to submit to the right of circumcision and the Law of Moses? And as the Gentiles are hearing the Gospel and responding through Paul’s missionary trip. The first ones in Chapters 13 and 14. It becomes a more pointed focus; are these Gentiles going to have to submit to the law? And there is a strong Jewish element in the church who are saying, “Yes, it is necessary.” They are claiming to have the support of James and the leadership in the church at Jerusalem. So that is something of the context here.

Look at how Chapter 15 opens up. “Now some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses you cannot be saved.” Now when these men come down from Jerusalem of course we are going north 250 miles north from Jerusalem to Antioch. In the Bible you always go down from Jerusalem so don’t get confused. But coming from Jerusalem we will find out later as James speaks that these men have claimed in coming from Jerusalem to come with authority from the leadership. Remember the apostles primarily have been remained centered in Jerusalem. That they are representing the teaching of James and others in the church at Jerusalem. So that is the doctrine that ought to be disseminated. So they come down from Judea and began teaching the brethren. You see, they are among believers and they have to be circumcised. You cannot be saved without circumcision. You note that when we go through this they do not deny that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. They don’t deny that He died on the cross and was raised from the dead. There is no indication that they are saying that He is not the Savior but faith in Him is not enough. They did not see how dangerous this is. I mean at least you have people here. I mean the church has undergone serious opposition. Now you have people that you have a lot in agreement with. Morally, I mean the pagan Roman world it’s despicable. I read some of that in Romans, Chapter 1. You have the Jews who would promote morality, oppose sexual immorality, would have certain standards that say, “Well yes we have had agreement with that, and at least we have Jews that are willing to say yes, Jesus is the Messiah, He is the Savior, He died and was raised from the dead.” The last thing we want to have is a battle over whether you need to be circumcised or not, but it is a necessary battle. We have to be careful. Sometimes we say, “Well let’s just focus on the necessities and these are important.” Once you lose the details you really lose the truth of the Gospel.

So, they come to Antioch where Paul and Barnabas are and they begin to teach the necessity of circumcision. When Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go to Jerusalem to be apostles and the elders concerning this issue. We call these false teachers, the men promoting this, Judaizers. Judaizers were Jews and while professing faith in Christ also required certain circumcision and adherence to the Mosaic Law. This becomes a great issue, of course, when the Gospel’s being carried more and more to Gentiles because Jews would have experienced circumcision when the Jewish boy was circumcised at eight days. So in that sense when they are saved the circumcision issue is a non-issue. But now you have the Gentiles being circumcised and the Jews are saying no, no, no. For salvation they also have to be circumcised. So, Paul and Barnabas have great dissension and debate with them. This is a strong, heated disagreement but it can’t be dissolved here. Paul and Barnabas on one side and the Judaizers are on the other. The Judaizers are claiming to have the support in what they are teaching of James who seems to be leading in the Church in Jerusalem and the other apostles there. So the Church at Antioch is somewhat unsettled by this.

You understand, the New Testament has not been unfolded in its completeness yet. Some of the great epistles are yet to be written. They don’t understand fully here so this is confusing. And circumcision was required. It was a sign of God’s covenant with the nation of Israel. Now God has provided a Savior and His salvation comes through that Savior. That was promised in provision of the new covenant that Jeremiah talked about. These men say that James and the apostles at Jerusalem say, “Yes, it’s salvation by faith in Christ plus circumcision and observing the law.” That makes some sense because God gave circumcision. He gave the law, now we have the Savior so maybe it’s necessary to continue to do those things and also to trust Christ. So there is enough confusion in the church that they do not know how to resolve it. It seems like the apostolic leadership in Jerusalem may be disagreeing with Paul and Barnabas.

So it was decided that Paul and Barnabas and in the middle of verse 2, “some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning them.” Now you are not just going to have Paul and Barnabas go up because you want witnesses on the other side. This has to be resolved. Paul and Barnabas might come back and say, “No, they agreed with us.” Well, how do we know for sure so we are going to have other men go along with them? We will turn over to Galatians 2 in a moment where Paul gives a further unfolding of this event in Acts 15. He tells us there that in Galatians 2:2 that it was because of revelation that God specifically revealed to him. So the church agreed they should go but the real reason Paul went foundational here is that God told him to go to Jerusalem. It was the plan of God for this issue to be resolved so that the church remains unified and false doctrine does not get a hold.

OK, verse 3. “Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles and were bringing great joy to all the brethren.” It was a 250 mile trip down to Jerusalem. It could have taken them as long as a month to walk down there, stopping along the way because remember in Acts, Chapter 8, as a result of the persecution that began after the death of Stephen under the leadership of Saul, before his conversion, Phillip and others carried the Gospel to Samaria and Phoenicia and to other places. And, people were saved – Acts 11:19 where there is further discussion of these areas. So now, there are believers there and as Paul and Barnabas and the group with them are journeying to Jerusalem they are stopping to visit the believers and to perhaps stay with them and tell them what God has been doing, reporting to them on the results of their missionary trip to regions of Galatia and so on; carrying the Gospel there and Gentiles have responded. The end of verse 3, “they were bringing great joy to all the brethren.” That would be exciting to hear that not only had the Gospel moved out from the regions of Israel and into other areas like Samaria and Phoenicia. It’s gone all the way over to other places in the Gentile world. “When they arrived at Jerusalem they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders.” So here you see the church there where the apostles remained even under the persecution, remember they remained centered in Jerusalem by enlarge. And the elders involved in leadership there in the church they hear Paul and Barnabas reporting. Because remember when Paul and Barnabas were done with their first missionary journey they went back to Antioch. So now they can come back and give a firsthand report of the salvation no Gentiles and significant numbers as a result of the preaching of the Gospel. But note verse 5. “Some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed” (it is important here to see the identification of them), stood up saying ‘it is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the law of Moses.’” Have that underlined what they are saying. It is necessary to circumcise them, to direct them to observe the Law of Moses. The same thing is at the end of verse 1. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses you cannot be saved. That is the issue here. The issue is not is Jesus the Messiah? The issue is not did He die on the cross? The issue is not was He raised from the dead? The issue is – is faith alone in Christ alone enough to bring salvation to the Gentiles? The Judaizers say “no.”

It is amazing with the persecution that we have seen and the difficulty that comes you have Jews, Pharisees, and Paul himself was a Pharisee you remember and gives his testimony in Philippians 3 which makes note of that as well. Who have identified themselves with the church in Jerusalem. But they are promoting the necessity of something in addition to the Gospel as necessary for salvation. It says they had believed. It is true at different times in the Gospels that those who had believed when you look at the context more fully is talking about those who have made a profession of belief. We come over to Galatians and Paul talks about this meeting. He says they were false brethren.

Turn over to Galatians, Chapter 2. The book of Galatians is written to the churches Paul established on that first missionary journey. And these false Jewish leaders had infiltrated after Paul had presented the Gospel and brought confusion into those churches. Remember the Apostle Paul writes the letter back to these Galatian churches; the churches in the region of Galatia. It is his harshest letter that we have recorded in our New Testament. He pronounces a curse and says those who preach this compromised message of faith in Christ plus circumcision and keeping the law are cursed to hell. There is no room for compromise here. There is no room for meeting in the middle. Paul says “I don’t care if an angel from heaven came down and taught you that Gospel. That angel is going to hell as well.” This is serious business.

In Galatians, Chapter 2, Paul unfolds something of the meeting that took place in Acts 15. He starts out and says, “Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. Remember there was a group. Titus was included in that group. It says that after fourteen years; I think it is fourteen years after his conversion. Now we don’t have time to go on a sidetrack. We have covered that more in detail in other studies when we did Acts on another occasion. In Acts 11 Paul did visit Jerusalem in between his conversion and Acts 15. Remember he had collected money from the poor in Jerusalem and he and Barnabas took it there. But the indication is he didn’t meet with any apostles there. That was a time of persecution going on in Jerusalem. That is at the end of chapter 11. Chapter 12 opens up with Herod Agrippa having James, the brother of John executed and imprisoning Peter. And then Peter having asked for God to supernaturally deliver him has to leave the area for a time. So, with these conditions and the intensity of persecution Paul visited Jerusalem there, gave the offering but there is no indication of any kind of meeting going on with apostolic leadership and so on. So what Paul is concerned about here is meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem. After an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along also. Barnabas was the companion of Paul. He was the natural to go with Paul as he traveled with Paul on the first missionary journey. Remember Barnabas also had ties back to Jerusalem.

Go back to the early days of the church in Acts 4 and see when he sold property and brought it and laid it at the apostles’ feet and the church at Jerusalem when there were people being saved in Antioch. The church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas up there it see if it was a genuine work of the Lord and then Barnabas went and got Paul to join him in the work there in Antioch. So Barnabas has connections both in Jerusalem and Antioch and with Paul on the missionary journey so it is natural that he would be there. They took Titus along. We are told in Titus, Chapter 1, Verse 4 that Titus was a convert of the Apostle Paul. We don’t know the situation but there he calls him his genuine son in their common faith. A genuine son is in effect one that he had given spiritual birth to in the Gospel in the common faith they shared in Jesus Christ. Titus will become a key person for Paul. We have the letter written to Titus with instruction for him as Paul’s representatives. He is a Gentile. He becomes a test case if you will at Jerusalem as Paul will mention. Verse 2 says “it was because of a revelation that I went up.” So in this debate up there Paul is not going to Jerusalem because he feels he needs the input of the apostles there regarding the gospel because as he says in Galatians Chapter 1, he received the Gospel by direct revelation from God. That is good enough for him. It doesn’t matter whether an angel from heaven would disagree with the Gospel since God gave it to him from heaven there is no problem with Paul here. But in the midst of the dissension and God’s intention for it to be resolved God revealed to him perhaps through a trance as we will see Paul refers to that happened on another occasion. God made clear to Paul that you are to go to Jerusalem and to have this resolved. Paul says he went up as a result of revelation. I submitted to them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. I submitted to them. I laid it before them for their consideration. He is not submitting it to them for their approval but so that they can know that the Gospel he had received from God and that is what he is preaching. Now of course it is God’s plan when the apostles at Jerusalem hear the Gospel at Paul’s preaching they will recognize it as the same Gospel that has been given to them. And so there will be unity. So Paul submitted it to them. This is the Gospel which I preached. He used the present tense there. I submitted to them the Gospel which I am preaching. This is Paul’s continuing message. There is consistency with Paul. The focus in the conference in Jerusalem is going to be on the message not what you think about Paul; not about his personality; not whether you are a friend or not a friend, the Gospel is the issue. Stay focused on that. I presented to them the Gospel which I am preaching among the Gentiles. This is the issue. It is not an issue preaching the Gospel among the Jews. Like I say, the issue here is not can the Jews be saved or Gentiles be saved but what is necessary. For Jews to profess faith in Christ the Judaizers are already saying that’s not necessary and they have already been circumcised. And they may also continue to practice some of their Jewish practices as we studied in Romans, Chapters 14 and 15. They had liberty to continue not eating pork if they don’t want to eat pork. So for the Jews it is not an issue there. They can get by. Paul stresses here this is the Gospel that I am preaching among the Gentiles because that is the issue. Are you going to tell the Gentiles they have to be circumcised to truly experience the salvation that Christ died to provide? The end of verse 2 says “I did so in private to those who were of reputation for fear that I might be running or had run in vain.”

Later on down in verse 9 those of reputation are those that are viewed as pillars in the church at Jerusalem, James, Cephas and John. Peter, James and John, they are the leaders there. It is obviously a different James. Not James the brother of John that was executed in Acts, Chapter 12. These three men are of reputation. Paul went to them and had this interaction with them privately. Paul’s desire here and he uses wisdom. He didn’t want to run in vain. It doesn’t mean that his ministry was not worth while but he did not want to cause a split in the church when it is not necessary. If he just comes and want to address the whole church as group and all of a sudden you create an emotional environment. You have people of all levels of maturity so what is the best way? Let’s go and talk with the leadership of the church and have them work through it. Then the results of this can be presented to the larger group. So Paul acts with wisdom here. It’s not that he is going around Peter, James and John as this would raise questions. It looks like a different Gospel. He wants them to get it from him and any issues they can present to him. The issue here is the clarity of the Gospel. Look at verse 3. But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. That word Greek is often used in contrast to Jews; the Greeks and the Jews; Jews and non-Jews. Titus is a Greek, a non-Jew. He had not been circumcised. Now remember Paul will circumcise Timothy. We will get to that later. That is not a compromise. It is a different situation. But Titus is a Greek and he brings him with him. And here is the testimony of a man who had believed the Gospel and truly had been saved. But he is not going to be circumcised. Verse 4 – “But it is because of the false brethren secretly brought in who had sneaked it to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus in order to bring us into bondage.” I mean Paul really now – you see the intensity here. At the heart of this are false brethren and they have been secretly brought in. They have come in under the guise of being believers. Imagine the church; how wonderful it is. Here’s the Pharisees and they agree with us that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. They agree that His death on the cross was part of God’s plan in bringing salvation. His resurrection from the dead was real. Salvation is through faith in Him. What more could we want? I mean they agree with us that far. It is not good. Paul says they are false brethren. Secretly brought in; who had sneaked in. He cuts them no slack. They sneaked in. They are sneaky spies; to spy out our liberty. I mean there is nothing good to say about them. They are false; they have come in secretly covering up what they are really doing. Their purpose is to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus and bring us into bondage. They are driven not by a passion for Jesus Christ; they are driven by a passion to bring this new movement in submission to the Mosaic Law. They will require Gentiles to convert to Judaism to be truly saved.

What becomes confusing and would be confusing to the church in Antioch is it seems like they have a lot of the Gospel correct. But, you have to focus on what they don’t have correct. It is not enough if you add to the Gospel you have destroyed the Gospel. Paul, as he said in Chapter 1, “that is not another Gospel like the one I preached, that is a totally different kind of Gospel.” He denied any connection with it at all.

You understand, these Judaizers are more like Paul and the church than any other people on the face of the earth at this time. Paul saves his harshest language for them because they are the greatest danger to bring corruption inside the church. If the Gospel gets corrupted and now it is salvation in Christ plus keeping the law as Paul makes clear through the whole letter to the Galatians, you have no Gospel left. You have not salvation. What a masterful plan of the devil; bring opposition with intensity from the outside and then bring a group from the opposers to seem to have been won over and have them come as part of the inside. But, they have truly not been saved and have them spread their message. They come in to deny the liberty.

Turn over to Chapter 5 of Galatians. It was freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore keep standing firm, do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold, I Paul say to you that if you receive circumcision Christ will be of no benefit to you. I testify again to every man who receives circumcision. Talking about those Gentiles, who would want to go on to be circumcised to bring their salvation to completion? He is under obligation to keep the whole law. You have been severed from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by law you have fallen from grace. Can it get any clearer? There is no middle ground here. If you have responded to a Gospel that says you must believe in Christ and be circumcised and that’s your commitment and you are following through on that you have cut yourself off from grace. There is no salvation in the works of the law. I mean, we today get so mushy and soft on what the Gospel is.

We had a document done Evangelicals and Catholics together. What an oxymoron. Evangelicals and Catholics together? Paul and Judaizers together! Because we have points of agreement. We are in cultural wars. We need to stand for morality in our day. No, we stand for the Gospel, the purity of the Gospel. The very things that Paul would oppose we have found reason and then we respect within evangelicalism Charles Colson and others like him promote this. How does that fit with the Gospel? The very issue is that the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 that the letter to the Galatians is dealing with are being bypassed.

Come back to Chapter 2 of Galatians. Old language here; false brethren and all that goes with it secretly brought it. Come back to 2 Peter. I quoted this verse earlier. 2 Peter, Chapter 2, verse 1; but false prophets arose among the people in the Old Testament times just as there will also be false teachers among you. Note this, “who will secretly introduce destructive heresies.” How can you secretly introduce a destructive heresy that involved denying the master who brought them? You get some kind of hearing among believers. Well, how do you get professing Christians signing documents; Roman Catholics and Christians together; evangelicals and Catholics? What are you talking about? I mean that is a denial of Christ. When you deny the sufficiency of the work of Christ and say that salvation is other than by faith alone in Christ alone. We are talking about Roman Catholics here as an example just because it is a clear similarity to the Judaizers. They say salvation is by faith in Christ. They will not say it is by faith alone in Christ alone. That is a major difference. The Judaizers would have said salvation is by faith in Christ plus circumcision, the law. No, that is a denying of the master who brought them. It is a denial. That is what Paul told the Galatians we read in Chapter 5. You’ve cut yourself off from Christ. You have severed yourself from grace. You can’t be saved that way. They secretly introduce and this goes on down to our day. That is not the only thing. You have false teaching constantly and we are going to mix something with the Word. It gets a hold and it spreads. It gets a following.

You are in Peter. Just go past Peter through the Epistles of John to Jude. Jude intended just to write a nice letter to these believers about the salvation they shared in common, verse 3 and 4. “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, (secretly) those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” How do these kind of people creep in unnoticed among the fellowship of believers? I mean, the devil, you never want to underestimate him. I see some teachers parading around like they are talking down about the devil, “get out of here devil” and “I am kicking the devil out.” This is silly stuff. I mean, he is far more brilliant and clever than that when he disguises himself and disguises his workers. I mean when you think the devil was willing to go face to face to Christ in the temptation that is recorded in Matthew and when Christ objected to what Satan was saying he comes back to him with scripture? The audacity of it. I mean the devil knows scripture backwards and forwards. He knows what it is. Bring in someone that’s got a great personality who is likeable; who is friendly; who claims to believe everything we do. Have him be there long enough to have people gather around him and have him begin to teach things that are contrary to the Word. All of a sudden now we have dissension and if we are not careful with the people of God we lose the focus. The focus is what the Word of God teaches. Some churches get divided and the Gospel gets compromised.

Paul says back in Galatians, Chapter 2 and we are done. Verse 5 – “We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour.” I didn’t give them any space. I didn’t yield at all. There is no compromise at all. Paul is not going to Jerusalem at the conference which is going to be held there to see if we an work out a compromise. He is going there because God told him to go and present there the Gospel that he is preaching. Why did Paul hold such a firm line, because, he was stubborn? No, he did it so the truth of the Gospel would remain with you. Aren’t we glad today that by the grace of God Paul stood for the truth of the Gospel? If it would have gotten corrupted that early who would have gotten it sorted out? Then we would have had a church teaching this and a church teaching that. Praise God for the clarity that was brought from Paul and others down through the history of the church by the grace of God have stood for the purity of the Word of God; sometimes at great cost. But we are privileged to have the truth of the Word of God; to have had the Gospel presented to us in its purity. We want to follow in that line and the things being resolved we will talk about more as we move through Acts, Chapter 15. You might read Acts, Chapter 15 and then read Galatians 2 as we will be going back and forth in our next study of Acts next week.

Let’s pray. We thank you Lord for your Word. Thank you for the history of the early church unfolded by your servant Luke and Lord we would take these things to heart. We praise you for the faithfulness of those individuals you raised up in those early days. Thank you for preserving for us a pure Gospel so that we might experience your grace and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. We pray that we might be faithful with the Gospel. That it might be precious to us; and that your Word might be a treasure that we hold dear and that we maintain purity. Use our testimony to impact many in these days we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.