Act 15 - Adding to the Gospel
Tom Shrader concludes his 'Dumb Mistakes' series by examining the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, where early church leaders debated whether Gentiles needed to follow Jewish customs to be saved. He emphasizes that salvation comes entirely by God's grace through faith, not through human works or religious requirements. Shrader warns against the dangerous mistake of adding anything to the simple gospel message that Christ died for our sins and rose again.
“You are saved by grace through faith and it's not of yourself, it's not a result of your works, but you're saved now that God might be displayed and His glory seen in your transformed life.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Dumb Mistakes: How to Avoid Them (2004)
Recorded: April 22, 2004
Duration: 46 min
Themes: grace, salvation, faith, gospel, works, legalism, freedom, truth, new believer, questioning salvation, legalistic background, pastor, church leader, struggling with works, religious confusion, seeking assurance
Scripture: Acts 15:1-29, 1 Corinthians 15:3, Galatians 2:11-14, Titus 3:3-7, John 3:16, Ephesians 2:4-5, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 1 Timothy 1:12-13, John 3:8, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Romans 13
Theological Themes: soteriology, salvation by grace, justification, faith alone, works righteousness, gospel clarity, biblical theology, grace doctrine
Full Transcript
Today is session 8 of 8, so this is it. As I just said, we'll start something new next week. I look forward to that, and that'll get us well into summer. Every once in a while, people ask what's the summer schedule? We just keep going, just so you know. We keep right on going until kind of end of July, first of August, and then we pull the plug for a month or so, let you get some rest.
Dumb Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. That's the series. I hope it's been helpful to you. Let me state the obvious. Our goal is not to mistake-proof your life. We can't do that. I think you understand that mistakes are just part of the deal. You're going to make them. What we're trying to do is identify some of the big ones, and maybe you can avoid these. I think the earlier that you get this figured out, the easier life is going to be. You don't need to necessarily go and experience all these things. We can look at other people, see what's happened to them, and hopefully learn from it.
Defining Terms
Today, we're going to start by defining some terms. It seems to me that whether it's management, labor, husband-wife, friend-to-friend, that so often in communications, at least this is what I find in my life, is I'm frequently talking to somebody. We're using a word that we're both familiar with, but we're using two different definitions. So we're using the same term, but we're defining things differently. All of a sudden, we've got a communication problem.
There's two words today that you've got to get your arms around, got to embrace, got to understand, at least understand how I'm using them. I never try to say to you, hey, do you buy this stuff? That's up to you to figure out. I want to just make sure that I communicate it to you. My hope is that you see it, that you understand it's true, that God opens your eyes, and consequently, it changes the way you live. But for sure, my job is to communicate this stuff.
The Gospel: Good News
Here's the first word: gospel. When we hear the word gospel, we know it means literally good news. 1 Corinthians 15, Paul's writing in 1 Corinthians 15 is the resurrection chapter, Paul's magnificent chapter. In verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said this: "For I deliver to you as first importance what I also receive. That Christ died for our sin according to the Scripture, that He was buried, and that on the third day He was raised according to the Scripture." And then He appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve, and then to the five hundred.
When Larry used to teach that, Larry would always start by saying, this is the gospel in a nutshell. So here's the gospel in a nutshell. Jesus died. Again, we're at a point where almost historically everybody's acknowledging this. We don't even have to argue for that anymore. What the Bible tells us is why He died. He died for our sin. He was buried, and then on the third day He rose again.
That's another thing that seems to me to be more and more of a given, and that is that on that Easter morning the tomb was empty. I really encourage you, if you're newer to this, or you're in this situation where you're kind of exploring and looking, go study the resurrection. In fact, if you're antagonistic toward the Christian faith and you want to see this thing come tumbling down, just disprove the resurrection, because our whole faith is built on that resurrection. If Christ didn't rise from the dead, that's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, our religion, our faith is useless. And then as evidence of that, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, there's people that are still alive who saw Him. There's Peter, there's the 12, there are even 500.
So that's the gospel. That's the good news. Now, here's what I try to emphasize, and I was going to say maybe it's out of proportion. I don't think it is at all. You can't begin to embrace the good news until you understand the bad news. You're not going to understand the good news that He saved you from your sin until you understand the bad news that you're a sinner.
Being Saved: Rescued and Delivered
That's our second term: saved. Some of you hate that word. In fact, you don't even recognize it unless it's in three syllables. Say-yay-yay. That's how you've heard it all these years. It's like fingers on a chalkboard. It should not be. It should be the most wonderful word you've ever heard. If Jesus is your Savior, then He's rescued you. He's delivered you. He's spared you from something.
What? Well, not just from hell, although hell is part of it, but He's spared you from a life that has no meaning or direction or purpose to it. So those are two really important terms for us to get a hold of today. Gospel, good news, the idea that Jesus died in my place, and that I've been saved, that I was lost. Of course, the great news about being lost is that there was somebody who's looking for you, and He found you. Not you found Him. He found you, the hound of heaven.
Going to the Core
As we talk today, we're going really basic. If we're talking about the gospel and saved, we're talking about the essence, the core of the Christian faith. For those of you that are Christians and truly converted, it's my hope that even though you're going to know almost every word that I say already, that you never grow weary of hearing this. It should be a sweet sound to you.
For those of you that are not Christians, this is a very important time. They're going to bring you face to face. Maybe you've had all sorts of excuses. I never heard that. I never understood that. It was never explained to me. In the next 40 minutes, we're going to take away all those excuses. There's a third group,
My suspicion would be that in a study like this, there's some of you in here who think you're Christians, but you really aren't. You would be very religious. You're going to pop into church, not just on Christmas or Easter, but sometimes through the year. You may be heavily engaged in what you identify as religious activities. You're exactly like the Pharisees were.
We studied John 3:16 on Sunday. "For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." As Jesus is sharing this, He's sharing it to one of the religious leaders of the day. Nicodemus. This is the guy that they came to with their spiritual dilemmas. This is the guy they came to for clarification. Now he goes to Jesus, and Jesus says, "You must be born again," and Nicodemus says, "That's not good news for me or my mom. I can't climb into my mom's womb a second time. What does that mean? I don't get it."
Maybe you're here, and you know you've won every game of Bible trivia you've ever played. You can parse verbs, but your heart's never been changed. Listen, and listen closely. Dumb mistake number eight is to begin to mess around with the gospel.
The Crisis in Antioch
Here's our story. Here's our lead in. Here's the account. Acts chapter 15, verse 1. We'll look at the major points here through 29. The question on the table is going to be, "What's it mean to be a Christian?"
"Some men came down from Judea to Antioch, and were teaching the brothers." Now remember this. All that early church, that beginning church, founding church, was all Jewish. What's happening now is that church, the church of Christ, the Christian faith, is now spreading out to the Gentiles. And this is radical stuff for the Jews.
Even when Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," for the Jews, this is tough. Because they're saying, "Wait a minute, we were the guys. You're telling us that this is broader than us?" And now these Jewish converts are coming down to Antioch. Here's what they're saying: "Unless you are circumcised according to the customs taught by Moses, you cannot be saved."
They're coming into these Gentiles, and here's what they're saying. Before you can be a Christian, you've got to be a Jew. What they're pointing to, specifically here, is circumcision. Now, if all I know is this, I know they've put a major obstacle into evangelism among adult males. If I don't know anything else, I've learned we've got issues with this.
The Heart of the Gospel at Stake
But it's not just that. If that were the thing, that's not the issue here. It gets deeper than what that symbolizes. What they're saying is, you can't be a Christian without being a Jew. It gets to the heart of the Gospel.
This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. Ever been on a construction site or walking maybe under one of those walks where they're working on a building up above, and the guys are up there welding, and the sparks and all the remnants are falling down? That's what's going on. Sparks are flying. Paul and Barnabas are saying absolutely not.
So Paul and Barnabas were appointed along with some other believers to go to Jerusalem to see the apostles and the elders about this question. Here's what's happening. What we're going to look at historically is called the first council of Jerusalem. Well, the first Jerusalem council. It's going to be a time when the apostles get together and they're going to solve, once and for all, this question: What do I need to do to be saved?
The Journey to Jerusalem
Paul and Barnabas are representatives from this group of Antioch. They're going to go up and along their way they're stopping and they're talking and they're saying and they're telling how the Gentiles had been converted and everybody was excited about this.
"When they came to Jerusalem they were welcomed by the church, the apostles and the elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said." So here you go. Remember the Pharisees. They were the separatists. It's not that they were isolationists, but they set themselves apart. Strict legalists. Now these guys have been converted, but they still got a little of that remnant in them. "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses," and that was the issue.
"The apostles and the elders met together to discuss this question." What's the question? Is there anything I need to do? Or what do I need to do? Or how am I saved?
Modern Applications of the Same Question
Fast forward to our context. Here's how we would ask it. Can I be a Christian and to be a Christian do I have to be baptized? Do I have to be confirmed? Is there some church that I need to join? Is there something I need to do? Is there some act that I can perform? Do I have to work in children's ministry to prove that I'm really truly committed to this? Is there a certain amount of money that I have? Is there something I have to do?
Now I get probably a little exercised on this because what we're talking about here is religion and God hates religion. God hates anything that somehow conveys to you, "do this, do this, come over here, join this, stand over here and you've got it made." This question is getting settled once and for all.
Peter's Testimony
"And after much discussion Peter got up and addressed them." Now there's something uncharacteristic about Peter in that, isn't it? It says after much discussion. We're not used to Peter being patient and slow.
Peter said, "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He purified their hearts by faith."
Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe that it's through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved just as they are. Now this is explosive. Here's what Peter said: I was appointed to go and speak to the Gentiles.
Remember, Peter had a dream one night and he saw this dream where there were animals being lowered down, and there were things that were unclean and now it was okay to eat them. What God was saying to him was, "No, Peter, I'm going to use you to move out to the Gentiles. Those things that I've called unclean, that was the Old Testament. That was dealing with the Jews."
Remember, God had strict things about how they'd dress, how they'd eat, how they'd plow their fields. Why? Because they were set apart and it was to be visually different. They understood it and the world understood it.
God's Requirements Then and Now
To those of us here in 2004, it's the same idea. He doesn't say to us, "Dress like this," though if you did dress like this, I think it would be a plus for you. He doesn't say "Dress like this." He doesn't say "Eat this or don't eat this" or "Plow your field this way." Here's what He says to you: Be different.
We're starving for Him to say, "Do this, do this, do this, do these 10 things and you'll be all right." He doesn't. What does He say? Love. How much? Well, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Love me and then love your neighbor as yourself.
How does He say that I can tell the Holy Spirit's in your life? He doesn't say because you're praying in tongues or doing miracles or studying your Bible. He says, "You'll have love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness, faithfulness and self-control." If you have those, you have the fruit of the Spirit and it says to the world, "The Spirit of God is in you." If you don't, you aren't.
The Reality of True Love
So in the strictest biblical sense, this is pretty interesting to me. In the strictest biblical sense, you can't even love unless you're a Christian. Whatever you have is a knockoff.
I was in the store the other day. I'm not putting well. I went through this drill before. I've been out to the ping factory several times. The last time I was out, he said, "Haven't you been here quite a few times in the last year?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe it's you?" I said, "No, it really didn't. I'm assuming it's your product." I've been in the store lately and just traded some stuff yesterday for a new putter. We'll find out shortly if this works.
As I'm putting and working with different stuff, there are guys over there saying, "I don't want to spend $400 for this club." He said, "We've got a knockoff. We've got one you can buy for $99.99. It looks like it. Oh, it's just like it." It's not just like it. It's not just like it.
You may have love that you see around you, but if you're not a Christian, it's a knockoff. It's not the real deal. It's a fake. It's a counterfeit. Why? Because unless you have the Holy Spirit, you can't love. You can't have joy.
A Stunning Reversal
So that's the issue. That's what's going on. And then in the midst of this, Peter says, "They got the Holy Spirit for He purified their hearts by faith." Will you remember that? Because I have no idea how many times I've read this passage 48 billion times. I have no idea until yesterday how this jumped off the page at me. So I'll try to tie it together at the end.
But then he says this: "We believe that through grace, our Lord Jesus that in our Lord Jesus, that we're saved like they are." Their debate is, "Can they be like us?" And Peter says, "No, we're like them."
Well, now the whole assembly is quiet and Barnabas and Paul are talking about all that's been done.
James Takes the Lead
When all this is finished, James stood up. Now, this is a significant point. I apologize if I hammer this home too often, but it's important. James is the leader of the early church. If you want to try to figure out who's driving this early church, it's not Peter and all this other stuff. It's not Peter. Peter plays a role. Peter, James and John, they're pillars. But the leader, the guy that issues this statement here, the one who speaks and that's the end of it is James.
James is an interesting guy because James is the half brother of Jesus Christ. Wait a minute. What do you mean half brother? Same mother, Mary, different father. His father's Joseph. Jesus' father is the Holy Spirit.
Now, I'm extraordinarily sensitive to this, especially in the Catholic church where it's taught that Mary was perpetually a virgin. I went to Holy Family grade school. And so our icon at Holy Family grade school was there's Joseph and there's Mary and there's Jesus. There they are. There's the Holy family. Here's the problem we got. When we get in the Bible, we discover that Jesus had brothers and three of them are named and then He had sisters.
Mary and Joseph's Family
So now we got issues because Mary is held up as being perpetually a virgin, which by the way, always explained for me the frustrating look on Joseph's face on these statues. He always looked like there was something wrong with him anyway. Now I understand why.
So I don't know how to say this, but we name at least three brothers and we got sisters. So Jesus has at least five siblings. I don't know how to say this. Let me just say it. So Mary and Joseph did it at least five times, and I hope much more frequently.
Here's the basic rule on sex. Sex is pretty easy to figure out. If you're single, you're celibate. If you're married, it's celebration. That's the whole point. If I'm single, I'm celibate. And then we got to define all what that means because we've got confused on that. If I'm married, it's celebration. And I talk about this frequently. And again, it's a lot of my pet peeves. First Corinthians...
James's Argument and the Sexual Drive
Here's what Paul says: It's better to be single than married. So there's the issue—better to be single than married. But if the sexual thing is such a drive for you, then you ought to get married. So wives, remember this: your body's not your own, it's your husband's. Husband, your body's not your own, it's your wife's. And don't deprive each other. In other words, don't stop having sex except by mutual consent for a season to pray and fast, and then come back together again lest Satan tempt you.
This is really fascinating to me. This is how well God knows you and me. Here's what He says: You're better off single. You're better off single because there's just not as many hassles. You're more devoted to Me. You're more flexible in serving Me. It's not to make your life smoother—it's to make it easier to be fully devoted to Me.
However, the sex thing's a big part. So you get married. If you get married, don't you stop having sex. Why? Because Satan's going to tempt you. Why is he going to tempt you? Because you acknowledged at the beginning there's a sexual part was a big part of it, or you wouldn't got married. That's fascinating to me, and it explains an awful lot of stuff to me.
So when you get into this area of sex, what you understand again: basic rule—single, celibate; married, celebration. Unfortunately, most of what I see is single celebration, married celibate. But that's a whole different thing we'll talk about.
James and the Deity of Jesus
Here's what happens: James gets up and speaks. Let me make one more point, and this isn't going to stand up under heavy scrutiny, but I think it does stand up under common sense. I think James is a powerful argument for the deity of Jesus.
There are not many people I know—in fact, no one—who would consider their sibling God. We've had fun with it before: how frustrating this has to be when your brother's God come in the flesh, and now you go through just the normal things that kids go through. Now you're arguing, and Mary's come on: "Break it up! Break it up! Break it up!" And James is saying, "It's not my fault!" "It's all right, it's my fault." "This is terrible! This is awful! I hate this guy!" And that would be what you—and as you study through, you'll see that there was a period in there where the brothers weren't necessarily believing this.
We don't want to build this big massive case around it, but I think it speaks to it. The point is this: James stands up and says, "Listen, you're saved by grace through faith." Now he says to these Gentiles, "Can you be sensitive to the Jews? So don't be eating this meat that's offensive to him, and don't be doing these—didn't use your head here." But when it comes to the final declaration, here's what he's saying: "No, the Gentiles are saved just like we're saved."
Mistake Number Eight: Adding to the Gospel
Mistake number eight: and that's to add anything to the gospel. We're going to have you make two more turns in the Bible that you have in front of you—Galatians chapter 2, Galatians chapter 2, and then we're going to go to Titus chapter 3. We've got 20 minutes.
Here's what happens. This is Paul writing. He said, "When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly wrong." Now understand this: here's Peter. Peter's a major figure in our economy. I would suggest that Paul vastly overshadows Peter, but that's not what's going on there. Peter's the main guy, or a main guy. Peter's the guy when he came to town—he said, "Will you sign my Bible?" kind of a guy. So Peter's this kind of a guy. He's significant.
Peter's Hypocrisy at Antioch
As the gospel expands, Peter's been used by God to reach out to the Gentile. He comes to Antioch, and Paul says, "I opposed him to his face because he was clearly wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back"—some of your translations will say "withdraw"—"draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision group. And the other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray."
How many of you have seen the movie "Peter and Paul"? Many of you have seen that movie? Anybody in here? Couple of you. Let me tell you something: this movie came out—CBS, I was on CBS Easter years ago, then it just went away, came back and ran one of the time. Let me tell you something: run out and get this movie. I don't know if you can rent it. I think you can. I think I saw it at a Blockbuster. If not, you can go online and buy this thing for 29 bucks. It's terrific.
In this movie, Paul is played by Anthony Hopkins. Anthony—you sound like a girl, like Roger Ebert here—but Anthony Hopkins just brings Paul to life. It is magnificent. I love that movie. This scene that Paul's talking about here is depicted in the movie.
The Movie Scene and Peter's Fear
Here's what happens: Paul's at Antioch with all the Gentiles, and they're being converted. God's working in their life. Great stuff is happening. Peter comes, and he's stunned by this. This takes him out of his comfort zone. He's still got a lot of that Judaism in him. But all of a sudden, he sees their joy, and it's contagious. He sits and he's eating with them. He's eating food that under that dietary system would be declared unclean. It's just a picture—he's ripping it off, and the grease is in his beard. It's a great scene.
All of a sudden the Judaizers come, and they say to—"What are you doing, Peter?" See what Paul tucks in here: he drew back because he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision group. All of a sudden his motive wasn't—he was afraid. He pulls back, and he pulls away, and he takes away in a sense his stamp of approval from this.
Verse 14, here's the result of this: Paul goes nose to nose with him. Galatians 2:14, "When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of all of them: You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not a Jew. How is it, then, that you
Paul's Passionate Confrontation
Why would force the Gentiles to become Jews? I want to add the human touch to this. We don't know a lot about Paul physically. We don't have a movie or a picture or even an audio tape to hear his voice. He didn't look anything like Anthony Hopkins. He was receding hairline, balding, he had a hooked nose, he had a thorn in the flesh. Some suggest it was a drooping, drooling condition. He was bow-legged, he was short, although accounts would say he was an inch taller than me—I find that discouraging.
In the midst of this, here's Peter. We don't know much about Peter, but I see Peter as this big fisherman with raw, tan, leathery skin. Here's the picture: here's Paul going nose-to-nose with him just like this, and he's doing it publicly, and he's confronting him.
Now if you're watching this, you're thinking, "Wait a minute, I've been to a lot of weddings. Love is patient, love is kind, love is gentle. Paul, didn't you write that? And now look at how you behave!" You know how we are—we're going to shove those words right down his throat.
Fighting for What Matters
What is it that would exercise Paul to this extent? The answer is they're messing around with the gospel. I find two extremes in the Christian community today. I find this Neville Chamberlain approach that says, "Can we get along? Can we all get along? Let's all live at peace. I know we disagree over all of these things—we disagree over something fundamental—but let's all get along. Sing Kumbaya, Amazing Grace. Somebody get a guitar." I can't get into that camp.
The other camp are these guys that want to fight about everything. They want to argue about everything. Everything's a major issue. I frustrate that group because I go, "I don't care" about a whole bunch of stuff. If I can make my pitch, obviously I'm going to try to persuade you to think a little bit like I would. But I think somewhere in the middle is where you want to be, tending toward the side that says there aren't many hills to die on.
A Lesson in Choosing Your Battles
Years ago when we finished our church building—we're about a quarter of a mile off McQueen and Elliot—one day we got a phone call from a city inspector. He was at a stoplight at McQueen and Elliot, looked over at our building that's now done and occupied, and called and said, "I can see the top of the air handlers from the corner. You need to come in and put another row of three or four blocks around the top to block the view of the air handler."
I said, "Well, we can't be doing that. You signed off on this. Somebody at the town stamped this. Somebody walked this. Somebody gave us our approval for us to move in. It changes the look, it changes the design, and it's very expensive. We can't be doing that." Having said that, we believe in Romans 13, and you're the law, and if that's what we've got to do, we've got to do it. So I hung up and called the contractor. I said, "Get over there and get rid of him. We can't live with this."
So the contractor comes out, meets with him, and we go through the whole thing. He calls and gets this lady who represents the town. This guy's an ex-marine—and not all ex-marines are like this, but he had just a presence about him, a calmness. He's on the phone, and he said, "I think her name was Cindy, these are great people here at this church, and they'll do what you say. Now, they're going to use their recourse. They'll go before the city and the town, and they'll bring the full force of people to it. But you know what? You guys approved it. You guys signed off on it. You guys gave him certificate of occupancy. Cindy, let me give you a little advice, this is just from me to you: This isn't a hill to die on."
I was scared when he said it. I thought, "Oh my, I don't know what that means." But you know what? Some of you are dying on every hill. Paul's got it dead right here. Paul's saying, "Listen, we can't mess around with this."
The Heart of the Gospel Issue
The issue is the truth. What does it mean to be a Christian? What's a Christian life? How do you become a Christian? Turn to Titus chapter 3. This is where we're going to spend the last 12 minutes that we have. This, my friend, is absolutely crucial.
Here's what Paul's writing. "At one time," Titus chapter 3 verse 3, "we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." That sounds strikingly similar to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6.
Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 6:9: "Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminates, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers shall not inherit the kingdom of God." We're not going to break that down. That's not what we're trying to get at. We're trying to get at this verse: 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11: "And such were, past tense, some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified."
Our True Condition
Paul's saying in both instances here we got an accurate view of who we were. Paul doesn't deceive himself. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12 and 13, he identifies himself as the chief among sinners. He said this is what we were. Nobody's perfect. You got that? Nobody's perfect. I think we just don't have to fight very hard for this anymore. Everybody understands this.
Sunday, I'm moving from the 8 o'clock service over to the 9 o'clock service. I'm going by the section where apparently we store the babies. As I'm going, they're getting them out. So there's a mother holding maybe this 6-week-old, I don't know. This other mother had a little carry thing with a 3-month-old and one with maybe a 5-month-old, and they're there.
And as I can hear, your baby's cute. So they're lying to each other. They just came out of church and they're lying. "Your baby's so cute" and "your baby's so cute." So I felt this was an opportunity, though I don't have a lot of time. I said, "Oh man, these are beautiful babies. They're so cute. I don't know which one's the cutest. It's so hard when they're like this to just understand how sinful and wretched and lost they are." Then I left. I like them to think about that stuff for a while.
Here's the deal. Once they can talk, what's their first word going to be? "No." "Mine." They'll throw in a "mom" and a "dad" just to screw you up. But they know what they're doing. "Me." "Mine." "No." That's knit in their heart. All Paul's doing is acknowledging it. That's what we were.
Saved by His Mercy, Not Our Works
But now, in Titus chapter 3, verse 4, He says, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of the righteous things we've done, but because of His mercy." Here's what He's saying. He didn't save you because of religion. Can we just wash this idea out of the whole spiritual context? There's nothing you can do.
Paul said He saved us not because of anything we did. There's nothing you can do. Yet I know that most of you come from some sort of religious background. Or frankly, even if you're not religious at all, you're flinching to try to figure out what to do. That's why you'd even say, "Well, I'm not a member of any organized church. I just try to be good." Because that's what you've got to do. And He strips it off. No. There's nothing you can do. He saved us.
There's a very important question that people wrestle with. You live at a time, unfortunately, where the majority of Christians got it wrong. What they believe is that God did a whole bunch of stuff. Jesus came and He died and He did a lot of stuff. But now you've got to do something. Now you've got to decide.
I heard a pastor explain it this way regarding your salvation: "God's voted heaven. Satan's voted hell. Now you decide the issue." That's not what the Scripture teaches. Scripture teaches He saved you. He chose you before the foundations. That's what it says.
God as the Actor in Salvation
I'm going to go back to that verse. I don't know why, but it sure struck me, back into Acts chapter 15. In verse 9, he said, "He made no distinction among us, for He purified their hearts by faith." He did it. God saved us.
Years ago, they taught me how to diagram sentences. I thought I'll never use this in a million years. I was right until now. Here's the sentence: God saved sinners. If you're a Christian, put your name in there. God—He's the noun, He's the actor, He's the subject. Saved—it's the verb, the action, the predicate. And then there's the us, the you, the Christian, who's the direct object. A direct object doesn't do a thing in a sentence but whatever the noun and the verb tell them to do. I threw the ball. The ball didn't sit and say, "I don't know whether I'll go or not." I'm gone. God saved you. You're the recipient of that. That's His whole point.
If you're a Christian, this ought to explode your heart into thanksgiving and praise and worship. You're one of those people who say, "I really can't get into worship." Well, then you don't understand this. I don't know what possible other reaction this can have in you than to explode your heart into thanksgiving and praise. You're saved by His mercy.
"And He saved us through the washing of rebirth, the renewal of the Holy Spirit, who He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that having been justified by grace, we might become heirs, having hope of eternal life." God saved you.
The Consistency of Scripture
The book of Ephesians—Paul is writing and he's making this point dramatically, especially in Ephesians 1. He's talking about God knowing us, God choosing us, all that's going on. Then in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4 and 5, Paul writes this: "But God, being rich in mercy"—here's the same idea that we have here from Titus. By the way, if you're one of those students, you ought to be ripping this apart and getting into it.
In verse 5, Titus 3:5 says, "Not because of righteousness we've done, but because of His mercy." Here in Ephesians 2:4, "God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive with Christ, for by grace you've been saved." That's what saved you. You're born again by an act of God.
The True Gospel Requires Bad News First
The gospel is Jesus died. It has to be preceded by the bad news. Let me read you a quote here. Normally, I don't attribute these quotes, but what I found is sometimes that's not helpful, because you're trying to figure out who this is, and then you miss the quote. So I'm going to tell you up front, it's Robert Schuller.
Now, this isn't a shot at Robert Schuller. It is a criticism of Robert Schuller, but I'm not trying to undermine him. I know people have been saved by him. That's a testimony to God's grace, in spite of this awful, heretical teaching. I might have tipped my hand.
Here's what he said, and I quote: "The core of sin is a lack of self-esteem. The most serious sin is the one that causes me to say I'm unworthy. Once a person believes he's an unworthy sinner, it's doubtful he can receive the saving grace offered by Jesus Christ." That comment is 100% in opposition to the true gospel. You could not invent something that's more anti-gospel than that.
Do you hear what he's saying? If I think I'm a sinner, if I think I'm unworthy, I'll never respond. Jesus starts at exactly the opposite spot and said—
Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the spiritual bankrupt. In fact, here's what Jesus says: unless you understand you're unworthy, you'll never come. And this Shuler stuff, that's the junk that's floating around in one version or another all over the joint today. Afraid to hurt somebody's self-esteem and their little id and all the other stuff.
Look, you want the truth. It's early. Why would you come here? I presume. Why would you come here unless you're serious about this? And my assumption is you are serious about it. Therefore, I take my role very seriously and that's to tell you the truth.
The Truth About Our Condition
And the truth is, you aren't all that great. In fact, you're a sinner. To call you pond scum is to flatter you. I can't get you lower enough. You are totally, entirely unworthy. You don't deserve to take your next breath. You don't deserve a second of heaven, let alone eternity there. But God in His mercy saved you, in spite of you, not because of you. How incredible is that?
See, that's why, and I don't pick a lot of hills to die on. This is a big hill. Does faith precede regeneration? In other words, do I believe so that I'm born again or am I born again and then I have faith? The dominant view in the churches today is that I have faith and that causes me to be born again. The biblical view is no.
I'm born again by an act of God and the evidence of that is I have faith. You're dead in your sins and trespasses. You're a natural man who, in a natural man, 1 Corinthians 2:14, cannot understand spiritual things. So how are you going to have faith until you're born again? So you're born again and the result of that is you have faith.
The Revolution of Understanding Grace
This is extraordinary. This is, my view, this is sweetness in teaching right here. Not me, this truth. This revolutionized my life because, see, here's what I thought. I thought I chose God. Granted, I didn't have a lot of faith, a little dinky mustard seed, but I had a mustard seed that when it was set down, it was explained to me, boom, I got it.
That mustard seed of faith that maybe you're carrying around today is nothing but pride and arrogance because the Bible said you don't have mustard seed of it. You're dead. You're not kind of dead. You're dead. You're a corpse spiritually. You have to be made alive. That's why we say, what's a dead man need? We talk about this all the time. Dead man doesn't need money. Dead man doesn't need sex. Dead man doesn't need drugs. Dead man doesn't need a new house. Dead man needs life.
So I'm born again. Now, if you're a Christian, I want you to rejoice in that truth. If you're not a Christian, if this is making sense to you, because I hear all these, well, if I'm chosen, then why would I even share the faith? Why would I even talk about this? Because this is how God communicates through His word.
God's Work in Opening Hearts
If this is making sense to you, here's what you need to understand. It's not that you're getting smart. It's not that somebody explained this clearly. It's that God, the creator God of the universe, is opening your eyes and your heart and your mind. And in spite of you, and you know how wretched you are, in spite of you, He's chosen you for salvation. That's incredible truth.
So what do you do? You come. What does that mean? That means you reach a point where you understand and you acknowledge to God, I'm who You said I am. I'm a sinner. I'm helpless. There's nothing I can do. And I embrace Jesus Christ and who He is for my salvation.
When that happens, give me 60 more seconds. When that happens, all these works, things that we identify as religion, now come into play. They happen because I'm saved. They're not the cause of my salvation. They're the effect of my salvation.
The Wind of the Spirit
That's how Jesus explains it to Nicodemus. He says, it's like the wind. Can't explain it, don't know where it came from, can't see it, but I can't deny its effect. There's the tree laying over in the ground. That's the way it is with anybody, He says. John 3:8, who's born in the Spirit. Can't explain it, can't control it, can't manipulate it, can't maneuver it, but I can't deny its effect. Look at the changed life. Isn't that great?
Dumb mistake number eight is to start dinking around with this gospel and trying to add anything to it. You are saved by grace through faith and it's not of yourself. It's not a result of your works, but you're saved now that God might be displayed and His glory seen in your transformed life.
Next week, something new to probably many of you, something we did eight years ago, seven years ago. We're going to take a trip into the Old Testament next week and look at a guy that's got an awful lot to teach you and me about how to live in the year 2004.
Father, help us see this truth, let it transform our life. For those that are here today are listening on the tape and this is new stuff. God, I pray that You'd open their eyes and their hearts and they would come to You in brokenness and repentance, realizing that they're unworthy, empty to their pride. God, we love You for one reason only, because You first loved us. Thank You for saving us from ourselves. God, thank You for saving us from Your wrath and for Your pleasure. We pray that to You in Jesus' name. Amen.