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These Necessary
Things
Acts 15:28
In our last message from ch. 15 it was
settled once and for all by Christ’s disciples in council: salvation is by
grace alone, thru faith alone, in Christ alone…plus nothing, minus
nothing…and good works have no part in our receiving of salvation.
v. 11 Only 1 plan of salvation for
Jews and Gentiles/good people and bad people. The Bible says we have a
universal problem…sin. It says nothing about the quality/quantity of that
sin. “There is no difference!”
Thank God there is a universal solution…the
blood of Jesus Christ!
This council settled this for the Jewish
believers that day. They understood the true basis of salvation and not to
add anything from their old traditions. Then the council decided, as a
follow up, to send a letter to the believers in the Gentile areas, to clear
up this matter…and to give them certain standards which should FOLLOW
salvation as a natural result. In other words, the council put forth a
Doctrinal Statement in v. 11, but then a Practical Statement which begins in
our text today in v. 28 and following. They first deal w/ how we are SAVED,
then they deal w/ how we should LIVE as a result.
You see, they have just downplayed
the role of good works in salvation, and now they uplift the fact that good
works do have their own place of importance.
It’s the chicken and the egg as we look at
good works in Christianity. [which came first?] Some believe they are the
cause and some agree w/ God that they are the effect!
v. 28-29 This is not a
contradiction to v. 11. These are not requirements of salvation, but
natural results of salvation.
If this teaches us anything at all it teaches
us that if you truly come to the Lord for salvation, it will affect the way
you live. What you believe should always affect how you behave. Your creed
should affect your conduct. Your doctrine will lead you to decision and
duty.
When I got saved, I got a new heart…but you
can’t see my heart.
God gave me faith…but can you see it?
The only things that give outward
testimony to what’s on the inside is what I do and what I say.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
I Samuel 16:7
…man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart.
Often I hear people use this verse to
justify sinful behavior…outward things they do. [“But God knows my
heart!”] Or, some use this verse to say, “don’t judge me, you don’t know
me!” They have the attitude that the only one they need to worry about is
God.
I’ll agree that He’s the One we should try to
please, and we cannot help but be falsely judged sometimes and we should
take comfort in the fact that He knows the truth…but, why did God leave us
here after we got saved anyway? To reach other people! And since man does
look on the outward appearance, it matters how we live!
Ill.—2 men were talking one day. “Are you
saved?” the first one asked the other. “Why would you ask me that?
I could tell you anything I want…it’s easy to say yes, I am. But why don’t
you ask my wife how I treat her…she’ll tell you if I am a Christian.”
Boss/children/neighbor.
He wasn’t saying that being good
would make him a Christian, but that being a Christian would make him a
better husband, father, worker, neighbor…and that if it doesn’t, then
something is wrong. [Jesus said, “by their fruits ye shall know them.”]
So, the Jerusalem Council wrote the believers
this letter, encouraging practical obedience in 4 areas:
1. Avoid idolatry
2. Abstain from immorality
3. Abstain from eating blood
4. Abstain from eating meat from animals
that had been strangled.
The last 2 don’t have much direct application
to us today…these were cultural things which applied to 1st C.
believers in the Jewish culture.
Ex.—eating meat offered to idols is not an
issue today, but would have been very offensive to the Jews…so, “don’t be a
stumblingblock in any outward way, whether it be wrong and you know it, such
as is w/ fornication, or even if you know it’s no sin…perception is reality
to your Jewish brethren, so don’t offend.”
So, the disciples are trying not to
put the Gentiles under OT law, but at the same time they were asking them to
be sensitive not to offend their Jewish brethren’s sensibilities. “Don’t
just please God, but also remember that men are watching!”
Well, we may not be able to apply all 4 of
these things directly today, but we certainly can see some principles to
apply:
Necessary Things:
1. To maintain a
moral responsibility to ourselves.
The moral standard was very low in that day.
Most of the believers were saved out of pagan worship, and much sexual
deviance. Priestesses were nothing but prostitutes, orgies were
commonplace…even in worship! “If it feels good do it”, “satisfy yourself.”
Now the Jerusalem Council says to
these new believers, abstain from fornication, live a clean, pure, moral
life that’s brand new to you.
We live in a day, once again, of very loose
morals, and all of us, inc. our new converts, have to be totally re-taught
because we’ve been brainwashed by the world that anything goes and it’s no
big deal…it’s commonly accepted today that you’ll take a test drive before
you buy!
Ill.—I read an article that quoted hotel
managers saying the number of unmarried couples checking in together has
skyrocketed and is off the charts. Even if the manager doesn’t approve of
it, they can’t turn down the business because it’s such a large part of
their business.
Folks, years ago that was considered
a shame, and tho’ it’s always happened at some level, they at least had the
decency to lie about it and check in as Mr. and Mrs. Smith. But now they
don’t even try to cover it up…it’s commonly accepted! Now that’s the
culture in which we live today!
But God says to you and I,
II Cor. 6:17
Wherefore come out from among them, and
be ye separate…
We’re to live by a higher standard/march to the beat of a
different drum.
Those new believers could have continued on
in their sexual practices and still fit in in their world, but they
needed to know that was displeasing to God, and they needed to maintain a
different moral mandate.
Profanity:
Many of you are immersed in it in your
workplace/school…it’s so common that many don’t even know they do it
anymore! Even young girls today say things that would make a sailor blush.
I’m not ashamed to say that I’m still
offended by that. Freedom of speech was never intended to include morally
offensive speech!
Ill.—restaurants ask you when you enter,
“smoking or non?” I think they should add a whole new category: “cussing
or non!”…and have a section where they let everyone just sit and swear at
each other! They should let us who don’t want to hear it sit in a different
section.
I don’t want my kids hearing that…but here’s
the principle of a higher standard: “I don’t want to hear
that either!”
In 1999 a new invention came out that filters
profanity from TV and movies, the TVGuardian…we got it and liked it so much
we “bought the company!” Seriously, I became a representative and sold over
a hundred of them…the youth have it upstairs…some of you here have it in
your homes. I commend you for that.
It was touted as something to help
keep your kids from hearing such things…but I recommend it to adults who
don’t want to just accept any old thing into their home!
When we get saved we have a moral
responsibility to clean up our lives, and that includes our mouths! Some of
you may have been saved for some time but you haven’t notified your
mouth…it’s time!
Joke—I heard about a farmer who was 2 hours
late getting home/wife badgered him about it/explained that on his way home
he saw his preacher on the road and picked him up/what does that have to do
w/ it?/ “Once that preacher got in the wagon those mules couldn’t understand
a word I said!”
Eph. 4:29
Let no corrupt communication proceed out
of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may
minister grace unto the hearers.
Believers have a new moral
responsibility as the temple of God, to guard our bodies, our
tongues, our eyes, our ears, our thoughts!
Yes, we’re saved by grace, but that does not
give us a license to sin!
Another necessary thing…
2. To maintain an
ethical responsibility to others.
This is the primary teaching of this
passage. That believers should be willing
to give up some of their rights for
the sake of not offending others.
Jewish legalists here gave up their
insistence on the Gentile believers having to be circumcised, and the
Gentiles gave up some of their dietary habits for the purpose of not
offending their Jewish brethren. It was a good compromise. Some things we
should never compromise, like doctrine. But these were all believers, and
yet from different backgrounds and cultures, and they needed to find some
common ground of fellowship.
Ill.—ever dropped a pebble in a pond?
There’s a ripple effect that grows wider and spreads far out! The same
happens when we get saved.
Our salvation is about a new
relationship we form w/ God, but it affects every other relationship we
have.
We have an ethical responsibility to others,
and “Others” includes:
·
The
saints—other believers in the body
of Christ. Jesus is the head, but we all make up the rest of the body w/
different functions…right now I’m functioning as the voice of the body as I
preach the Word. Many this morning or right now function as legs and arms
and hands, eyes and ears, and some in the nursery right now as laps! This
speaks of our interdependence…our “connectedness.” In other words…we need
each other. When one member hurts, we all hurt, when one rejoices, we all
do!
Ill.—just smash your thumb w/ a hammer…first
you’ll scream [but what do your vocal cords have to do w/ your thumb?], then
you’ll dance around, then you’ll suck on it! We’re connected…no man is an
island…we affect each other and we have a moral responsibility to each
other!
It matters whether you are here in services
or missing…we’re all affected! Sin in life/helping in the
ministry/tithing/how you live away from here…sin is a cancer, and it spreads
beyond where it starts!
If my eyes decided they weren’t coming today
I’d be in trouble in many ways: walking up to the pulpit, reading
scripture, singing a special, driving here…just getting out of bed or
getting a shower. The only thing unaffected would be my choice of
colors…actually, it probably would improve!
·
The
state—Christians should be model
citizens. God tells us to submit to the powers that be for the Lord’s
sake. When they asked Jesus if believers should pay taxes [I wish He’d said
no] He said yes, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God
the things that are God’s…a brilliant answer which left God on His heavenly
throne and Caesar on his earthly throne. We have a responsibility to God
and also to others!
·
Society—the
lost are watching, not for us to fit in, but for us to stand out. Everyone
is looking for something different, and they need to find it in us.
Ill.--
Several years ago a preacher moved to Houston, Texas.
Some weeks after he arrived, he rode the
bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered
that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he
considered what to do, he thought to himself, "You'd better give the quarter
back. It would be wrong to keep it."
Then he thought, "Oh, forget it, it's only a
quarter. Who would worry about this little of an amount? Anyway, the bus
company already gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a
gift from God and keep quiet."
"When his stop came, he paused momentarily at
the door, then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, "Here, you gave
me too much change."
The driver, with a smile, replied, "Aren't
you the new preacher in town? I
have been thinking lately about going to
worship somewhere. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too
much change."
When the pastor stepped off the bus, he
literally grabbed the nearest light
pole, and held on, and said, "Oh, God, I
almost sold your Son for a
quarter."
Our lives are the only Bible some people will
ever read.
We have a moral responsibility to
ourselves, we have an ethical responsibility to others…another necessary
thing is…
3. To maintain a
spiritual responsibility to the Lord.
When you know you’re saved, when you know how
much you were saved from, when you know how much you’re saved UNTO…you don’t
mind giving up some things for the sake of Christ.
When you remember what Jesus gave
up, it makes it easier! He did it for love, and
when we truly love someone we’ll make
changes for them too!
What a privilege it is to give up some
habits, to forgive some hurts, to get over some hang-ups, to make some
wardrobe changes, to develop a new vocabulary, to find some new friends, to
throw out some old CD’s, to cancel that premium channel, to add a new
spending category to the very top of our budget, to stop going to those
places…and what a privilege it is to replace the old ways w/ some new, Godly
ways, all for the sake of Christ.
II Cor. 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new.
Ill.—an artist was painting a picture of
Jesus/spent much time on it, making sure every hair, every line was just
right/someone watching was impressed and said, you must really love Him to
spend that much time painting Him/yes, I do love Him…but fact is, I know in
my heart that if I loved Him more, I would paint Him better.
Fact is, we all paint Him every day…may we
paint Him better!
If you are not saved, you are 1 heartbeat
away from hell. You can be saved today, and your life can be changed!
If you appreciate this sermon ministry
then help spread the Word and recommend it to pastors by
voting for this sermon.
These Necessary Things
Acts
15:28
Matthew 5:16, 1 Samuel 16:7
1. To maintain a m________
responsibility to ourselves. 2
Cor. 6:17
We’re to live by a h__________
standard Eph. 4:29
2. To maintain an e____________
responsibility to others.
Believers should be willing to give
up some rights for the sake of not o________________
“Others” includes:
·
The s__________
·
The s________
·
S____________
3. To maintain a s________________
responsibility to the Lord.
When you remember what Jesus
g______ u__, it makes it easier
When we truly love someone we’ll make
c____________ for them
2 Cor. 5:17
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