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Book: Acts
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Acts 15:11 Salvation By Grace
I. The subject is salvation. What must one do to be saved? What does it
mean to be saved?
A. What are we saved from?
1. Our past life in to sin.
a. Sin has a way of wrapping its ugly tentacles
about our lives and holding us in its grip.
b. Experience of catching squid when in sixth
grade.
2. The consequences of our sin.
a. The wages of sin is death. Spiritual death,
separation from God.
b. Facing the wrath and judgment of God. "For the
wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men who hold the truth of God in
unrighteousness."
3. To speak of being saved assumes the condition of being
lost. One must be lost to be saved. If you are not
saved you are lost.
a. Jesus said that He had come to seek and to
save, those who were lost.
b. What does it mean to be lost?
1. To be without hope and without God in
this world.
2. To not know what it is to live now, and
have no hope for life to come. "He that
hath the Son hath life, and he that
hath not the Son, hath not life."
3. Paul said, "For me to live is Christ."
4. Paul spoke of those who were dead while
they were still alive.
5. It means to spend eternity in hell.
B. What are we saved for?
1. To enjoy fellowship with God. To come into a
meaningful, loving relationship with Him.
a. Fellowship with God brings contentment and
satisfaction, for I am now discovering the
basic reason for my being.
b. Fellowship with God brings indescribable joy
that is full of glory
c. This fellowship is not possible while you are
bound up in sin. "If we say that we have
fellowship with God and walk in darkness we lie
and do not the truth."
2. To experience the eternal joy of heaven.
a. In His presence is fullness of joy, and at His
right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
b. Jude tells us that Jesus is going to present us
faultless before His presence with exceeding
joy.
c. Jesus promises to His disciples, everlasting
life. "And this is the record, God has given
unto us eternal life, and this life is in the
Son, he that hath the Son hath life."
II. The problem. Certain Jews had come from the church in Jerusalem to the
Gentile church in Antioch, and began to teach the people that you
cannot be saved if you are not circumcised. i.e. if you are not a Jew.
A. These people created a great dissension in the church as Paul
began to dispute with them over the issue.
B. It was decided to take the issue to the whole church leadership
in Jerusalem.
C. The early church fathers gathered to seek the mind of the Lord
on the issue. This was the first general church council.
D. What must one do to be saved?
1. Are we saved through faith and works?
2. If works, what works?
a. Some were saying circumcision, and keeping the
law of Moses.
b. Basically they were saying that you had to be a
Jew to be saved.
c. This was a prevalent belief among the Jews,
they felt that salvation was for the Jew only.
3. There are many today that still teach that salvation is
by faith and works.
a. Most of the cults teach that there are certain
works required for salvation.
b. It is interesting to find out what people are
basing their hope for salvation and eternal
life upon.
c. I had a young man come up to me who used to be
in my Sunday school class and declare that he
was no longer a Christian for he had become a
Mormon. I knew that he did not fully understand
what the Mormons taught by his declaration, but
I asked him what was the basis for his hope for
salvation and eternal life? He responded, faith
in Jesus Christ, and my continued membership in
the Mormon church. Or faith and works that are
required by Mormons.
d. So many are led to believe that they must work
for their salvation.
e. You may object saying, "Doesn't the Bible say
that faith without works is dead?" Yes it does!
True faith saves. True faith works. The works
are a proof of the genuiness of my faith. But
the works do not save me.
f. If we could be justified by works, then Christ
did not need to come and die on the cross.
III. The declarations of Peter.
A. God had chosen him to take the gospel to the Gentiles that they
might believe.
1. When they believed the gospel they were obviously saved
for God gave to them the gift of the Holy Spirit.
2. None of them were circumcised, nor kept the law of
Moses.
B. God put no difference between the Jew and Gentile, purifying
their hearts by faith.
1. In his letter to the Romans, Paul greatly amplified
this very issue.
a.
ROM 3:9 What then? are we (Jews) better [than the Gentiles]? No, in no
way: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they
are all under sin
ROM 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
ROM 3:11 There is none that understands, or seeks after God.
ROM 3:12 They have all left the path of God. They are all unprofitable;
There is not one of them that does good.
ROM 3:13 Their throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have
used deceit; the poison of asps [is] under their lips:
ROM 3:14 Their mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness:
ROM 3:15 Their feet [are] swift to shed blood:
ROM 3:16 Destruction and misery [are] in their ways:
ROM 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:
ROM 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
ROM 3:19 Now we know that what things the law saith, it saith to those
who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God.
ROM 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight: for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin.
ROM 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
ROM 3:22 Even the righteousness of God [which is] by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no
difference (that is between the Jew or Gentile)
ROM 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
ROM 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus:
ROM 3:27 Where [is] boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works?
Nay: but by the law of faith.
ROM 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law.
D. We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we
shall be saved even as they.
1. Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
EPH 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:
EPH 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
EPH 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them.
EPH 2:11 Therefore remember, that you who in former times were Gentiles
in the flesh, and were called Uncircumcision by that which are
called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
EPH 2:12 That at that time you were without Christ, and were aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of
promise, you had no hope, and were without God in the world:
EPH 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who were at one time far off are
now a part of the family by the blood of Christ.
EPH 2:14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken
down the wall the partition that once stood [between us];
EPH 2:15 He abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of
commandments [contained] in ordinances; that He might make in
Himself of two one new man, [thus] making peace;
EPH 2:16 And He now reconciles both unto God in one body by the cross
EPH 2:17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to
them that were nigh.
EPH 2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father.
C. Thus the first divisive issue in the church was resolved by the
conclusion that salvation is by the grace of God imparted to us
because of our faith in Jesus Christ.
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