Acts 15: Choosing Unity Over Conformity for the Gospel

Now we can clarify the issues with a series of questions. The first one is this, the sinner saved by sheer grace of God in and through Christ crucified or not? Has Jesus by his death and resurrection done everything necessary for salvation? Or are we saved partly by grace of Christ and partly by our own good works and religious performance? That's the question that gets to us a little bit, I think. All of us tend to think, oh, you know, we we say it about ourselves or maybe about someone else. They're such a good person. You know, they go to church all the time. I go to church all the time. [00:16:48] (44 seconds)  #SavedByGrace

And your habits, your culture, your proclivities, the way in which you want to do things may harm the progress of the gospel. Now, you and I need to think about that as well. What's happening here is James says, you believers, you Gentile believers in Antioch. Yes, you have all this freedom. You'll see this echoed in other places in Paul. You have all this freedom but you can curtail your freedom for the sake of the gospel. Do it. He says, do it because we don't want to be offensive. We want to bring these people who are anchored in the Old Testament. Understand the word from the perspectives of the Old Testament. We want to bring them into the church. They're going to be strength for us. [00:36:52] (55 seconds)  #GospelOverComfort

Letter of James, the book of James, he lays out that saving faith in Christ always demonstrates itself in good works, works of love, and heavenly wisdom that is peace loving, considerate, full of mercy, and good fruit, impartial, and sincere, but he never ever ever says, you must obey a certain set of rules. Excuse me. What he says is, when you are changed by Jesus Christ, it does it's not just an inward sort of thing. It changes your behavior. He was big on behavior. Show me your faith by your works. [00:32:49] (50 seconds)  #FaithInAction

Donna and I have long made it our habit when we're when we're away, when we're traveling, we try to travel so that we're some place on Sunday where we can worship together with other believers. We try not to miss. We we we take three or four days off in the middle of the week whenever possible so that we can be back here with you. Sunday morning. Just wrong somehow when we're not here. That doesn't make me more saved. Happier, but it doesn't make me more saved. So at this moment at this moment, when Paul is is facing this in Antioch, the church is in danger of splitting into two meaningless parties, reducing the gospel of grace to meaningless system of works and making Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection meaningless. [00:17:32] (58 seconds)  #AttendanceIsNotSalvation