Paul, Barnabas, and some of the other brothers from Antioch journey to Jerusalem for the first apostolic council to answer the vital question, “What must a man do to be saved?”
Transcription (automatically-generated):
Acts chapter 15 requires us to set the scene so that we can understand the context of events. During the first decade of the Church, from around 32 Ad. To 42 Ad. Almost all believers were Jews who had recognized that Jesus was the Messiah and the Church was headquartered, so to speak, in Jerusalem.
In the second decade of the Church, from around 42 Ad to 52 Ad, the Gospel spread in earnest to the Gentiles, resulting in thousands and thousands of them turning to the Lord. It wasn't long before most believers were Gentiles, and the headquarters of the Gospel outreach to the Gentile world was the Church in Antioch in present-day Syria. So at the time in history we'll be studying today, the demographics of the Church had changed radically as most believers were Gentiles and their numbers continued to increase. Simultaneously, the influence of the Church in Jerusalem was decreasing, but the influence of the Church in Antioch was increasing.
And these dynamics created some cultural tensions in the Church at large. The Jewish believers in the Church had spent their entire lives living in an upright manner. They followed the law of Moses', the moral, ceremonial and civil laws given to the nation of Israel by God. They were okay with the fact that the Gospel was for Gentiles too, in the same way that they had been okay with a few God-fearing Gentiles sitting in the back of the synagogue service quietly to check out Judaism. But they were having a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea that pagan Gentiles could just convert, join the Church and immediately share equality with them.
How could that be? They had been partaking in pagan sexual rituals, some of them just a few weeks ago, and now they're brothers and sisters just like that. What? And now their numbers are overwhelming the Church and they're gaining more and more influence. The Jewish believers rightly believed that the Church had been founded upon Jewish believers and they feared that the Gentiles were bringing anarchy into the Church and threatening Jewish culture, Jewish traditions and Jewish influence.
But in addition to these cultural issues, there was a glaring theological issue coming to the fore that was increasingly unavoidable. And this issue put the Jerusalem Church on a collision course with the Church in Antioch. What was the issue? Well, even around 52 Ad. The Jerusalem church was pretty much still entirely Jewish.
And it turns out they were still to a large degree holding to the belief that since Christianity was the continuation of Judaism, since Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, it was necessary to continue obeying the law of Moses' to be a Christian. Yes, Jesus saved you, but you also had to keep the law of Moses to maintain your salvation. And for Gentile men who converted to Christianity, that included being circumcised. Circumcision was the outward mark that God had commanded the men of Israel to take, beginning with Abraham's to distinguish them from all the surrounding pagan nations. It was a sign of the covenant between God and the men of Israel, a mark in their flesh that meant I belong to God, I am his property.
And so, knowing that, you can kind of see the logic of the leaders and many of the men of the Jerusalem Church, because they would have been thinking, well, circumcision marks men as belonging to the people of God. And so, if Gentiles are now part of the people of God, then obviously they need to take the mark too. And to think there's some people who complain when we ask you to take an online course for membership could be a lot worse. I'm just saying. We ended last week's study, with Paul and Barnabas having returned to Antioch, where they are recovering from Paul's first missionary journey.
At some point in the months that followed, the Apostle Peter came to visit the brothers in Antioch. Peter has been just traveling all over the world at this time, doing missions work. And Paul writes about Peter's visit to Antioch in Galatians, chapter two, beginning in verse eleven. Let's read it together. Paul says, but when Cephas, which is the Greek version of Peter's name, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned or he was in the wrong, for he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from Jambres.
So, Peter comes to visit Antioch, he's having a great time, he's enjoying the grace of God in the church. He's rejoicing at how the Gospel has saved thousands of Gentiles. He's munching on some tasty pork chops at the communion feast. It's all God. And then some brothers show up from Judea.
And Judea is the southern part of Israel that includes Jerusalem. The Apostle James was the most prominent elder in the Jerusalem Church at this time. So, when we read that certain men came from James, it would seem that they were sent by the Jerusalem Church at James's request to just check up on how things are going in Antioch. And as soon as these guys show up, Peter's behavior changes. Paul says.
However, when they came, he that's Peter withdrew and separated himself because he feared those from the circumcision party again. Now, if you're thinking what the heck is a circumcision party? It doesn't sound like much fun. Just know that it means they were part of the majority group in Jerusalem who believed that Gentiles needed to be circumcised to follow Jesus. As crazy as it sounds, despite being an uppercase-A apostle for 20 years, Peter still gives in to the fear of man.
He craves the approval of those brothers from Jerusalem for some reason, and so he stops eating with the Gentile believers because these guys visiting from Jerusalem who were part of the circumcision party believed that every Gentile Christianity man needed to be circumcised. And if they weren't, then you shouldn't be eating with them. You shouldn't associate with them because they're unclean. They're not real believers. So, can you imagine how hurtful this would have been to the brothers in Antioch who were Gentiles?
Overnight? Peter shifts to treating them like they're unclean. He won't talk to them, he won't acknowledge them, he won't eat with them, he won't even associate with them in any way. They would have been deeply hurt and they would have been dismayed because as Gentile believers who had been taught by men like Paul and Barnabas, they would have understood the doctrine of salvation by faith. The Bible teaches explicitly that we are saved, our sins are forgiven, we are adopted into the family of God, we get to go to heaven, we are made right with God, all those wonderful things, solely because of what Jesus has done on our behalf.
We get all those eternity-altering blessings, not by doing good works, but by believing what Jesus has done for us in our place and placing our faith in him as our Lord and Savior. That is salvation by faith, and it's what the Gentiles brothers in Antioch would have been taught. But Peter's actions were communicating to them that they weren't really saved by faith. There were works that they needed to do to be saved, starting with circumcision. Instead of viewing them as brothers, Peter was now viewing and treating them as unbelievers and directly contradicting the Gospel message they had heard from their own elders.
And that meant that one of these two uppercase apostles, Paul or Peter, was wrong. They were in theological error. It was a serious situation. The issue at hand was, "Is salvation by faith alone?" We read in verse 13 then the rest of the Jews, the rest of the Jewish believers joined his hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was loved astray by their hypocrisy.
So all of the Jewish believers in Antioch followed Peter's lead and separated themselves from their Gentile brethren. Even Barnabas, an elder, got caught up in this, just tearing the church apart. In just a few days, the church that had been the model of Jewish and Gentile believers fellowshipping in unity had fractured. Why does Paul call this behavior by the Jewish believers' hypocrisy? He's going to explain in just a minute.
Verse 14 but when I, Paul, saw that they were deviating from the truth of the Gospel, I told Kefas Peter in front of everyone. So, Paul decides that public sin requires public rebuke. And because Peter has been communicating a wrong Gospel publicly, Paul confronts and corrects him publicly. When Paul wrote to his pastoral protege Timothy, he told him that if several witnesses affirmed a charge against a church elder as being true, he should quote publicly rebuke those who sin so that the rest will be afraid. Afraid of what?
Afraid of sinning. Afraid of hypocrisy, afraid of teaching false doctrine. So, Paul likely did this during a church service or during a communion feast. Can you imagine? Paul yells across the room.
Peter. Everyone falls silent. DJ like that. Paul walks right up to Peter. Peter stands up and Paul begins correcting.
Peter was loud enough for everyone to hear what's going on. And he says to him, if you who are a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews? Peter. You're a Jew? And a few days ago, you were fellowshipping with all of us here in Antioch.
You didn't turn down those tasty pork chops. Yes, I'll have more bacon, thank you. You were living like you were free from the Law, because you are. So why then did you suddenly turn into Captain Kosher as soon as those guys showed up from Jerusalem? You're an ethnic Jew, Peter, and you don't even follow the Law.
So why are you now telling these Gentile believers to follow the Law? Why are you being a hypocrite? Peter would have been kind of tense. Verse 15. He keeps going we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.
And yet because we know that underline this a person is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law. Because underline this, by the works of the Law, no human being will be justified. That's an emphatic statement.
Paul says, no one has ever been justified. No one's ever been made right with God by the Law. No one's ever been made right with God by doing good works, and no one will ever be justified by the Law. End of discussion. David, who lived under the Law, wrote of God in Psalm 143, verse two in your sight, no one living is righteous.
David's, one of God's favorites, if you've read the Bible. And David says, even me, I know in your sight I'm not righteous. Paul says, Peter, we've been devout Jews our whole lives, and yet we both believed in the Lord Jesus because we know that nobody can be saved by the Law. So if the Law can't even save a devout Jew, why are you pretending that it can save a Gentile? Verse 17 but if we ourselves are also found to be sinners while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin?
Absolutely not. It's a bit convoluted, but the original Greek tells us that what Peter is saying is something along the lines of Peter. Sorry. What Paul is saying is Peter, in your version of the Gospel, obeying Jesus would lead us to sin. Are you claiming that Jesus wants us to sin?
Don't be crazy. Because you see, Jesus had taught things like it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth. This defiles a person. Talking about the kind of food you eat. Jesus ate meals with people who were considered sinners by the Jewish culture.
Part of Jesus's message was that the Jews had missed the heart of the law of Moses' and were misinterpreting it as a result, Jesus David, things that appeared to violate the law as it was viewed in his day, it didn't actually violate the law, but the way they were interpreting it, it did. He ate with people he shouldn't have been eating with based on their view of the law. And Paul devastatingly points out that Peter is holding to a version of Christianity that would make Jesus a sinner because he ate with unclean people. And so as well, would anybody else who follows Jesus's commands also be a sinner? But Peter won't even eat with Gentile believers.
So, does this mean that Jesus was promoting sin? Peter, shall we correct Jesus for eating with sinners? Peter, verse 18. If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. Jesus has fulfilled the law on my behalf because I couldn't do it.
In a million lifetimes, I couldn't do it. But if I choose to then try and be saved by my good works through the law, then I'm rejecting Christ's work on my behalf and I'm making myself a sinner once again. When I'm under the grace of God, I'm righteous. But when I'm under the law, I'm a sinner. It's a binary option.
It's one or the other, works or faith. How are you going to be saved? Works or faith. And no man is saved by works. The second we say, well, you know what?
I'm just going to do my best to be a good person, and everything will work out in the end, we are chosen to try and be saved by our works, and we will not be, because none of us is perfect. And perfection is God's standard if we want to try and be saved by our good works. This is the mistake everyone makes. Everyone acts like you're going to be Judea by a mirror version of yourself, like you're going to stand before God one day and he's going to be you, and his version of good is going to be whatever you think good is. Like God's going to say to you, well, you know, what do you think good is?
And then tell me why you're a good person. You're not going to judge you. Your friends aren't going to Jude you. God is going to judge you by how he defines good. And I always say this.
He doesn't grade on a curve. He doesn't say, Tell you what, I'll let you into heaven if you can name five people, they're bigger jerks than you. It's not how it's loving to work. If you want to be judged according to your works, your good works will be compared to one person, and that's God. You're not going to hold up.
You're not going to hold up. It's faith in Christ or nothing. That's why Jesus could truthfully declare, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So, write this down.
When we add additional requirements to salvation, we claim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are insufficient, and we blaspheme the saving work of Christ. When we add additional requirements to salvation, we claim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are insufficient, and we blaspheme the saving work of Christ. That's why Paul couldn't do it, and that's why he had to call out Peter, verse 19. For through the Law, I died to the Law so that I might live for God. Paul says my whole life used to be about trying to keep the Law.
The Law controlled my whole life, and despite my best efforts, I was still guilty under the Law. I couldn't keep it perfectly, and so I was separated from God. But Jesus set me free from my dealings with the Law. He lived the perfect life that I could never live in my place, and then he took the punishment that I deserved under the Law in my place. Through his life, Jesus met the requirements of the law.
And through his death, Jesus paid for my sins under the Law. And because he did those things on my behalf, my business with the Law is done. My debt is paid, and God's perfect standard has been met. The Law is no longer my master. The Lord Jesus is my master, and he set me free from the Law so that I could live for Him.
Verse 20 is the gospel. If you don't have it underlined in your Bible, do it. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ loves in me the life I now live in the Body. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
When Jesus died on the cross, he died in my place. The old me died with Jesus, and when we place our faith in Him, he places His Spirit in us, bringing our dead Spirit to life in him. That's what Paul means when he writes Christ lives in me. His presence does not come and go based on my behavior or my performance. He never leaves me.
He never forsakes me. Christ lives. He permanently dwells. He's made a forever home in me. We're free from the power of sin and death, and all we want to do with that freedom is live our lives for the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Paul says. Don't ever forget that, Peter. As Paul would write to the Romans, we have been released from the Law since we have died to what held us so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the Law. Verse 23. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing.
If we could be loved by simply doing our best to be good people, then Jesus suffered and died for nothing. That would have hit Peter like a punch to the gut. We need to understand this on a theological level, because it destroys any notion of pluralism, the idea that there are many ways to get to God. If there is any other way for us to be saved other than by Jesus's death on the cross, then God the Father ignored the cries of his only begotten Son when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of his arrest. My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me yet, not as I will, but as you will.
The reason the Father did not provide an alternative is that there was no alternative. There was no other way. Jesus was and is the only way for us to be saved.
From an apologetics, from a philosophical perspective, it creates all kinds of problems when you claim that there are multiple ways to heaven because it would mean that God the Father let Jesus die unnecessarily and that Jesus chose to die for no apparent reason, and that is not something an all-powerful, all-knowing God would do. That's something a delusional, crazy person would do. There's no logical room to have Jesus be a great moral teacher and simultaneously a delusional fool who died for nothing. You can't harmonize those two realities. As C.
S. Lewis famously wrote, Jesus is either a liar, he's a lunatic, or he's Lord, he's who he says he is. Write this down. If we could be loved by our good works, then Jesus died for nothing.
And one last little note I just have to mention while we're here. If you come from a Catholic background, this interaction between Peter and Paul is very problematic, because if you're Catholic, you believe that Peter was the first Pope, and to this day, Catholics believe that Popes are infallible. In other words, they're never wrong when it comes to doctrine and theology. And yet here we have Peter, supposedly the first and greatest Pope, 20 years into the Church age, being publicly corrected on matters of doctrine and theology by Paul. So I would humbly encourage you to think through the implications of that, because it's here in black and white in the Bible, in Galatia, chapter two.
All of that is necessary context and serves as an introduction to Acts, chapter 15, which you can turn to now. Paul publicly corrected Peter and pastored the Church back to unity, even after elders like Barnabas had become caught up in this schism over Christians having to keep the law. Paul settled the issue. Salvation is by faith alone, except that some men in Judea didn't get the memo. And just a few months later, they visited Antioch verse 24 tells us they did this without authorization from the Jerusalem Church.
In other words, these were rogue troublemakers who were acting outside of their authority, but they did still represent the views that many Jewish believers held in Judea. And we read this about them in verse one. Some men came down from Judea and beggar to teach the brothers in Antioch, unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved. After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue. The debate was vigorous, and they were unable to change the minds of these men from Judea.
So, because it was such an essential theological issue and because it put the two most influential churches in the world at odds with each other, they decided to escalate the debate by bringing in the apostles and the elders who were in Jerusalem. Paul, Barnabas and some other elders and deacons from Jerusalem sorry, from Antioch made the journey south to Jerusalem for the first Apostolic Council in 52 Ad. Verse three when they had been sent on their way by the Church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters. So, as they journeyed south down the eastern coast of the Mediterranean toward Jerusalem, they visited churches in the regions of Phoenicia and Samaria that's southern Lebanon, northern Israel, Galilee and central Israel, which is Samaria. And as they visited these brothers and sisters in those regions, they reported how the Gospel had gone to the Gentiles all over the Roman world in places like Galatia, and thousands had turned to the Lord Jesus.
The churches in these areas consisted mostly of Hellenistic Jews rather than Hebrew Jews and Samaritans, who had been led to the Lord by men like Stephen, Philip, Peter, and John, because they weren't Hebrew Jews themselves, they were more open to the idea of Gentiles being part of the Church. And they rejoiced at the news that Gentiles were turning to Jesus across the empire. They agreed that salvation was by faith alone because they had been saved by faith alone. Verse four when they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the Church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. It's a subtle thing, but just keep noticing that whenever they report, they report what God had done.
They never take credit for anything. They give all the glory to the Lord. So, the team from Antioch reported to the leaders of the Jerusalem Church, including some of the apostles, all that God had done in their city. And through Paul and Barnabas's missionary journey, thousands turning to the Lord, churches being planted, elders being appointed, and the Gospel loving in power among the Gentiles. What a sweet time that must have been for these warriors of the kingdom as they shared battle stories about the things they had seen the Lord do.
I would have killed to be a fly on the wall for that discussion. But for some of the Jewish believers present, it was not good news that pagans were joining the Church in astonishing numbers. Paul and Barnabas are talking about all the Lord has done, and there's some guys there who are like, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah, god's moving. We get it, we get it. But some of the believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses'.
These guys who belong to the party of the Pharisees are Gentile believers. Verse five tells us that, and they're not saying, you can't be saved until you're circumcised. They're saying, okay, they're saved, but now they need to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to maintain their salvation. You can see from their statement that while they believe Jesus was the Messiah and that he had paid for their sins, they also believed that Jesus wanted them to keep obeying the law and bear the mark of circumcision. They believed it wasn't a prerequisite to salvation, but rather necessary obedience to Jesus following salvation.
They Derbe still committed to keeping the ceremonial parts of the law which Christ had fulfilled and put away. Paul would later chastise the Galatians when they got into this type of thinking, writing "Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?" So, you're saved by grace, but now you're going to keep your salvation by works?
How does that make any sense? Paul says you're delusional. Jesus is the one who saves us, and Jesus is the one who maintains our salvation. So, write this down we are saved by faith, and our salvation is maintained by faith.
In verse six, we read the apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter. History notes seven ecumenical councils that were convened during the first few centuries of the Church. These were special meetings with representatives from across the upper KC Church that met to settle doctrinal issues and establish what the official position of the Church would be on different areas of theology. Two of the most famous are the Council of Nicaea in 325 and the Council of Chalcedon in our 51. But the most significant council ever convened was the one that we read about here in Acts chapter 15.
For it settled the most important question of all what must a man do to be saved? Then we read. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up. Peter will not make the same mistake he had made in Antioch. He has received Paul's correction.
He's taken it to heart, and he's grown in his convictions and theology as a result. Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you're aware that in the early days, god made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the Gospel message and belief to refresh your memory, Peter's referring to the events of Acts, chapter ten, where the household of Cornelius was saved. That had happened 13 years earlier. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us. Peter says, Guys, I saw it with my own eyes.
God saved uncircumcised Gentiles and gave them his Spirit, just as he did us. Peter was able to observe the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles because they miraculously spoke in tongues, just as the Jews who received Christ on the day of Pentecost did in Acts chapter two. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just go back and listen to the teaching on Acts chapter ten, verse nine. He that's God made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts underline this by faith. God didn't seem to care about the fact that they were uncircumcised Gentiles.
They were saved the same way we are by faith. Peter's point is, so what right do we have to demand more from the Gentiles than Christ has? And he also points out that in order to receive the Holy Spirit, they had to be forgiven and cleansed by God, because God cannot dwell in an unregenerated person. As Paul would later write to the Ephesians, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. So, here's Peter's argument if the Gentiles have already been forgiven, cleansed, and filled with the Holy Spirit, what more is the Law going to add?
What's left? What's circumcision going to do that they don't already have? They've already been justified. Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples' necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? None of our ancestors Derbe able to faithfully keep the Law.
The Law has not been able to save anyone ever. So why are you insulting God by acting as though we can be saved by keeping the Law? Why are you demanding that we put this impossible standard on the Gentile disciples of Jesus? Have you learned nothing from our history? The Pharisees worked with the scribes to add all kinds of extra laws to the Law of Moses.
They did this by breaking laws down into practical sub laws that would tell you how to fulfill them. Things like do no work on the Sabbath. And they would decide at what point walking would become classified as work. It would be if you took more than this many steps from your house. It was classified as work.
So if you want to be safe, you get a rose that length, you tie it to your house, and then you can walk as far. As your leash goes, basically. And they would add all these kinds of additional laws to the law to make it even more cumbersome. Jesus said of their legalism they tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people's shoulders. The load was too heavy for them or their ancestors to bear.
All had failed to keep the law, and now they wanted to place that same burden on these Gentile Christians with no defensible reason or logic other than tradition. Well, they need to fail like our ancestors did too. Peter continues and says in verse eleven on the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way they are in contrast to the unbearable weight of salvation by works. Jesus taught the gospel of grace, salvation by faith. And he said, Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart and you'll find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
There's only one way to be saved. If there were more than one, we would have a Jewish church and a Gentile church, because why bother with all these issues if some can be saved by works and some can be saved by faith? They had to resolve this because there's only one way to be saved, and it's by faith in Jesus, verse twelve, the whole assembly became silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describe all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. So Paul and Barnabas keep driving home Peter's point by revealing all the Lord had done through them among uncircumcised Gentiles. They had countless stories, like Peter's experience in the house of Cornelius.
And again, the point was, if circumcision was required, God would not be giving his spirit to uncircumcised Gentiles, but he was, by the thousands. And if Paul and Barnabas were in the wrong in their understanding, why was God empowering their message by enabling them to perform miracles? Why was God giving their teaching of salvation by faith, his divine stamp of approval? The reasoning was inarguable.
Some believers get nervous when we speak strongly about salvation by faith alone, and I understand why I'm one of them usually because there are always people who hear salvation by faith alone, and I'll be blunt in their wicked thinking. They go Sweet, I'm saved by faith alone, and not because of anything I do. Therefore, I can do whatever I want and still be saved. Not true. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:21 I am not without God's law, but under the law of Christ.
We are not set free from the burden of the law so that we can sin. On the contrary, we are set free from the burden of the law so that Christ can be our master instead of the law. We are slaves to Christ, and gladly so, for he is the most perfect, kind, gracious, and loving master a man could have. Our brother Peter would later write, submit to Jesus as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God's loves. We are not our own.
We do not belong to us. Paul explained it to the Romans like this if you're quick, you can turn to Romans, chapter six, verse 15. We're going to read a chunk here. Romans, chapter six, verse 15. Paul says, what then?
Should we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? Absolutely not. Don't you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one? You obey either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. But thank God that although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.
I'm using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit has produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death.
So, he says, when you were free from even wanting to try to be righteous, how did that go for you? What did it produce in your life? Death. Relationships, thinking, everything death. But now, since you've been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification, and the outcome is eternal life.
So, he says, when you're a slave to sin, the only thing that gets produced in your life is death and destruction. But when you're a slave to Christ, a slave to righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit is produced in your life. Loves, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. All these good things begin to appear in your life when you serve the Master that is Christ and his righteousness. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Again. Ask the worship team to come up. In 1865, a 47-year-old widow named Alvina Hall was sitting in the choir loft during a Sunday morning service in Baltimore, Maryland. The pastor's concerning prayer was long. So was his sermon.
Her mind began to wonder, and on a blank page in her hymnal, she wrote a poem. She shared it with the pastor, who thought it might go well with the music from a new song they had sung that morning called all to Christ I Owe. And so Elvena worked with the church organist and turned it into a hymn that they titled fullness in Christ. That hymn would grow to become famous under the title Jesus Paid It All. And here are the lyrics of the 1868 version of the song when it was first published.
I hear my savior say thy strength indeed is small. Thou hast not thy debt to pay. Find in me thy all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Yea, nothing good have I whereby the grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lamb and complete in Him. My rose is righteousness close sheltered, neath his side I am divinely blessed when from my dying bed my ransomed soul shall rise Jesus paid it all shall rend the vaulted skies and when before the those I stand in Him complete I'll lay my trophies down all down at Jesus's feet Jesus paid it all and we are loved.
By placing our faith in Him as our Lord and Savior, Sola Fide the work of Jesus is sufficient. Whoever you are, whatever you've done, his life, death and resurrection on your behalf are sufficient. If you're not saved, believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. If your faith is wavering, if the enemy is trying to condemn you for your failures, remember Jesus's life, death and resurrection on your behalf are sufficient. It's enough.
Everything that Jesus says about what he did for you in His Word was written and inspired by the Holy Spirit with full knowledge of every detail of your life. At no point is Jesus surprised by anything that you do or think. The equation in which salvation was offered to you included everything that you've done, everything you will ever do. There's nothing where the Lord will say, man, I didn't see that coming. Nothing.
And the grace of Jesus purchased for us on the cross of Calvary is sufficient for you. It is enough for everything that you need right now. Everything. So if you're a believer, take communion today and praise our all-sufficient Savior, Jesus Christ. Through Him, we are forgiven and justified both now and forevermore.
No longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness and joyful bond. Servants of the Lord Jesus, would you bow your head and close your eyes? Let's pray together. Jesus. Thank you, Lord.
I'm just overwhelmed by what you have done for us, that we were slaves to sin and death, apart from you, doomed to reap the wages of sin, which is death. We were delusional when we thought we were free. We were completely enslaved to a master who desires our destruction. But then Jesus, then the life of Jesus, then the death of Jesus, then the resurrection of Jesus and freedom for us. And so, we thank you that we know that you never leave us or forsake us because we didn't do anything to get into your family.
You did it all. And if you're able to bring us in. You are able to keep us. You are able to sustain us. And Jesus, if you are able to conquer death on our behalf, how much horse will you provide?
Everything that is needed for our lives today, tomorrow, the day after and until we arrive in Your presence. And so we agree with Your Word in faith that You are the all-sufficient Savior. We lack nothing because we are in you. We are blessed beyond description because we are in you. We believe that every need is met because we are in you.
And so, Lord, we just ask that you would free us entirely from worry and anxiety about the things that you have told us you will already take care of. We want to be those who take You up on the invitation to seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness and leave everything else in Your hands. So, as always, Jesus, we... we just invite you to inspect us, to examine our lives. If there's any unclean way in us, reveal it that we might turn from it and follow our God. And faithful and kind and compassionate and gracious and merciful Master.
And Jesus, we lay all burdens at Your feet. You because you're sufficient. You're enough. We lack nothing because we have you. We love you.
Jesus. We bless you. It's in Your name we pray. Amen.