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Grace of God #5
Fred Coulter
Ok, well, we’ll see if we can finish up the series on grace today, but I
just want to mention that sometimes in reading in the English out of the
Interlinear, because I’ve studied it and I’ve studied the Greek and prepared
for the sermon, sometimes I will just go right through something maybe so
fast that you will miss the point. Or, knowing the meaning of the
Greek word, I will insert the meaning of the Greek word rather than going
through the King James and then stopping and saying what the Greek word
means. And sometimes I will pronounce the Greek word, which is Greek
to everybody. It’s Greek to me because it’s Greek. But it may be
just a little too fast in some cases, and I may do a little creative
thinking from the point of view of leaping ahead without filling in the
background as I’m going along. So if that occurs, or if I do that
please let me know so that I want you to understand.
It is not my intent to do anything other than have you understand and have
you learn and to grow in grace and knowledge and closer to God. And
that’s certainly the most important thing that needs to be. That will
help you to help me. So what I’m really asking is that if I do that I
want you to help me, and you can just raise your hand and say, “Hey, I don’t
understand, and that’s Greek to me”, or “Where is it in the King James and
what does it say in the King James.” Something like that. That
would help out an awful lot, and you don’t have to feel that if you ask a
question like that, that I am thinking, “Oh, well you don’t know. You
don’t understand.” Because that is not the point. That would not
be even a thought in my mind toward that. What I’m trying to do is
have it so you can understand it.
Part of the difficulties come in, is that it was written in Greek.
Some of that Greek has been translated out of the Hebrew into Greek, certain
portions of Matthew, Mark, and possibly Luke, so you’re twice removed from
what was originally said. And then you come into English and it’s
translated into the King James, and the King James is almost 400 years
removed from what we’re using today. So when you attempt to get back
to what was really said, you can get closer to it when you get to the Greek.
You can get the next step closer when you read through the Greek
Interlinear. You can come closer, if you know how to use concordances
and things like this, and try and put it all together. Now this is
where I’ve been coming from in it, so it’s not my intent at all to go so
fast. But in just listening to myself on the tapes I can see where I
was going so fast on some of these thing, and I assumed that you understood
this, or I assumed that you understood that, or I assumed that you
understood the other thing, and maybe it really wasn’t as clear as it ought
to be.
Now, I know in dealing with people who know more than one language, if you
know two languages then you’re in a situation where that you have greater
knowledge than other people, however if it gets in a situation where the
Greek is really Greek and confusing, then help me by raising your hand and
we’ll back up and we will go over it so you understand it, because I think
this is really very important that we understand it. So I hope that
will encourage you to help me in the situation. And don’t, by any
means, ever have it in your mind that if you ask a question I will look down
on you for asking the question, because that’s not the point. I would
be derelict if I did not answer the question so you would understand.
And I know that we’re trying to grow in grace and knowledge, and we’re
trying to come to a point of understanding God’s word that will be very
helpful to us.
Ok, before we get into the series on grace let’s go to this one place here.
1 Corinthians 12. And I know a lots of times I’ve caught it on the
tape when I was listening to the tape, that I will mention things and I will
mention a scripture and I’ll give you one clue. Unless you see me
turning the page to go to that scripture, don’t go to it. Because I
will mention a scripture and start talking about it and you’re busy turning
[trying to find it] and I’m only using it as a reference. Now I did
that about four times on this last tape, that I started explaining about a
scripture and I said, “Over here it says that, and over there it says, this,
and over here it says this”, and I could just picture someone there just
going like that trying to keep up with it. I didn’t intend for you to
turn to all of those scriptures.
Now, 1 Corinthians 12, and I hope that I can try and get this in the proper
perspective. Now, let’s begin here in verse 1. “Now
concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as
ye were led” (1 Cor. 12:1-2). Now to some people that would be a very
insulting statement. I suppose if I ever had the opportunity to walk
into Grace Cathedral there in San Francisco, I never had an opportunity to
stand up in the pulpit and say, “You Catholics are led away by these dumb
idols”, I don’t think I’d last too long there. (Laughter) They
would take that as a very insulting statement. But lots of things that
God has inspired to be said when people like that take it in a sense where
they might consider it insulting. It really is not meant to be
insulting. He’s stating it just as it is.
“Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of
God calleth Jesus accursed…” Now that was a particular problem at that time,
because there were a lot of Jews going around, and one of the things they
had to do before they could speak in the synagogue… Now when they came
to the synagogue you had where the one would read the scripture. Then
you could have others who had the authority to read scriptures. They
wore a little badge on their phylactery, and the one who was the leader of
the synagogue could invite them to come and read some scriptures. Then
you had the ones who could get up and they could talk. So when Jesus
became such a central figure in Judea and the heavy Jewish populations, what
they did to insure the purity of the synagogue was for those Jews to show
that they did not believe in Jesus, they had to stand in the synagogue and
curse Christ. And by cursing Christ they claimed that they had the
Holy Spirit of God because Christ was not of God. So this is not quite
the same problem that we have today. That was the particular unusual
problem at that point.
Now there may be also some pagans who believed in their own saviors, who
would call Christ accursed from their religion and claim they have the
Spirit of God. You know, things in the world, there’s a multitude of
everything. It’s a Babylon of confusion and everybody thinks they have
this or that or the other thing. That’s why we have to go by the word
of God.
“…And
that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy [Spirit]
Ghost” (vs. 3). And of course that is not just a statement like a
Catholic would say, “Well, I believe that Jesus is Lord.” What he’s
saying here and believing Jesus is Lord, by saying it, that means he had His
complete absolute control over your life. That’s what that means.
Whereas like with the Catholics, as we read here with the Pope, be faithful
to the teachings of the church, and the Pope is lord over you.
“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there
are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are
diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of
knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to
another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of
miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another
divers
kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these
worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as
he will” (vs. 4-11).
I just might mention that in some of the things that I’m trying to do, I
know that I’m not a worker of miracles. I know that I am not one that
goes around laying hands on people and they become healed every time I lay
hands on them. God does intervene, and He’s healed people that I’ve
anointed - that is true. There are some that I have anointed who have
not been healed in the sense that they have physically recovered. I
don’t think that I am one who is lacking in faith, but I am not the kind
like Stephen who is filled with faith. I am not a person who has a
direct revelation of prophecy. I understand certain prophecies.
I think some of the prophecies can be understood more clearly than others.
I am not necessarily one that can discern spirits. You know, walk in a
room and say oh, here’s this spirit or that spirit or the other spirit.
I’m obviously not one who speaks in tongues. Although I can read
Greek. I can pronounce the Greek and some German, and that’s about it.
And you haven’t heard me speak in any so called heavenly tongue, so
obviously I don’t do that. And you haven’t heard me stand up and
interpret for anybody, so obviously God has not given me that gift.
The only gift that I can see that God has given me in the way of a ministry
in portion, I hope that will be helpful, is to another the word of
knowledge. The knowledge of God’s word. Now this is what I’m
trying to impart to you. So if I go beyond where you are in your
knowledge of God’s word so you don’t understand it, I’m not serving and
fulfilling a purpose for you. I hope that by the Spirit I’m getting
the word of wisdom. I think some of my experiences indicate I’m not
filled with wisdom. I’m not lacking in some sense. But if I were
filled with wisdom no one could do things to me. I would have it all
figured out before they had it done, and such is not the case. So I
think it’s good, once in a while, and we’ll see as the apostle Paul did as
far as grace and ministry, there is a lot more to the ministry in
relationship to grace than maybe we’ve given understanding about. But
we’re not to credit ourselves with any great thing. We’re to give
glory to God in everything we do. About the only thing I feel that God
has given me, has been the word of knowledge concerning God’s word to be
able to just put it together. So I’ll let it just stand at that.
So if there’s any way that I can be more of help to you just raise your hand
and we can always… Sorry for you people on the tape list. You won’t
necessarily hear all of it, but we’ll try and get it for you.
I find that with my study, I have to go beyond the English King James
version of the Bible to study and to grow in grace and knowledge. Now
does that mean that a person cannot have the understanding of God’s word if
all they have is the King James Bible? No, it does not mean that
because God made sure that in every translation of the Bible there is enough
of the knowledge of salvation. There is. So I want us to get
deeply into the word of God as we can to understand God’s word as much as we
can but I don’t want to do it with a penalty to any of you of not being able
to understand and follow along. For example, when I would say in the
sermon here concerning grace, that not one work of law will bring you
salvation, don’t think as though I’m saying in any sense of the word that we
are not to keep the commandments of God. We are to keep the
commandments of God. Absolutely, yes we are. But that is not
going to give you eternal life. Jesus Christ alone, as a gift, will
give you eternal life.
When I say you cannot earn salvation, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have
your works. For example, if someone told you that you would inherit,
if you did certain things, a fantastic tract of land. What could you
do to earn it? A) you can’t buy it. B) there is no hourly wage,
or there is no set thing to earn it, but it will be given to you provided
that you follow all of the conditions of the will. So it’s the same
way with eternal life. God will give us eternal life provided we
follow all the conditions of the will, which is the New Testament, showing
the will of God which means keeping His commandments. That’s part of
it. But what can we do to earn the universe? I mean it’s all we
can do to struggle from month to month to earn enough to pay the people we
owe. So what could we do to inherit eternal life? How much could
we give? Nothing. We could give everything and still not have
it. I mean look at Howard Hughes. That’s why God has all these
rich people that… I hate to use an example because I don’t want
anything like that to happen to me. So I say it very cautiously.
In the world we see so many examples of rich people such as Howard Hughes,
who have billions, billions. They can buy this, they can buy that,
they do the other thing. They can snap their fingers and Presidents
squirm. But look at the miserable, miserable, miserable, miserable
life that Howard Hughes led, and became an absolute recluse. Yet, he
had control over Presidents of the United States, but look at his life.
And that’s just an example of living. That’s why Solomon said, “Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity. So when I say that there is nothing that
you can do to earn salvation, does not in any way diminish from keeping the
commandments of God. That’s a requirement to receive the gift of
eternal life. And too many people look to commandment keeping as
the means to eternal life. The tool for eternal life. When the
means is through Christ, and the tool is the Holy Spirit. And the
condition in which we stand before God is grace. Now to stay in God’s
good favor and grace we need to keep His commandments.
So as far as what I’m trying to do here, please help me. Because I
don’t know when I ask a question, “Do you understand?”, I look around and
everybody… Well, I think, “Ok, you’ve got it.” Fine, I’ll go to
the next one, when maybe you don’t have it. So you can help me to help
you if you just raise your hand and we’ll get everything all clarified that
way and that will help our. Because once you learn and you go forward
the way God wants you and God’s knowledge, it becomes very exciting.
It becomes very uplifting. It becomes very positive because you have
an extra tool of the knowledge of salvation through which the Holy Spirit
can work, the Holy Spirit can lead you and help you. And that’s what
really the whole goal is.
Now we will get into the Grace of God, #5, The New Testament #4. So
let’s review just a little bit what we’ve covered. First of all let’s
go to John 1:14. And it’s very interesting, especially getting through
the situation with the series in the Gospel of John, that John does not
spend much time on the grace of God. But he prefaces his whole gospel
here in John 1:14. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us…”, as it
says in the King James, and the Greek there means tabernacled among us.
“…(And we discerned His glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with the
Father,) full of grace and truth.” So he’s prefacing everything that
he is saying here in the rest of the gospel of John based upon: a) that
Christ was the God of the Old Testament and He was God; b) that He’s the
light of all men; c) that He was full of grace and truth.
Now why did Christ have to be full of grace and truth? Because He was
the very Son of God. He was God on earth. He was bringing the
gospel of grace. And as we’ll see, one of the things that the apostle
Paul said concerning grace, “This is the true grace of God.” And I
think that if we take those statements for what they are and think about
them, if he says this is the true grace of God, then that means that there
was a false grace called the grace of God, which was not the grace of God
because it was not the true grace of God. You see, we live in a
confusing world. And who is the author of confusion? Satan is,
and he loves to counterfeit everything that God does. So he comes
along with a grace, which allows you to do anything you want to do, and
that’s called the grace of God, but that is not the true grace of God.
Now, I don’t know how many of you saw the news last night, but I saw on the
news that they ran a test of U.S. currency in Florida. And what they
did, they just went around asking, “Do you have a ten dollar bill?”
“Yes.” “Would you exchange it for this brand new ten?”
“Certainly.” So they did this to a lot of people. They took the
money and they analyzed it and every bit of that money had traces of cocaine
on it. Just the money that’s in circulation in the general population,
which tells you that the drug trading down there is so massive, that it is
so commonplace, that you can go at random and you can pick up currency from
anybody and it’s tainted with cocaine. Now that’s really something,
isn’t it? So it is just like what Satan does. He will take the
word of God, part of it you see, and he will use it to his own advantage
although it’s tainted. Just like that currency is tainted with
cocaine, the doctrines of Satan are tainted with his way and it is not the
true grace of God.
Now we have the example of Matthew 4 and Luke 4, where Satan does use
scripture to his own advantage. So when John writes and says that the
Word became flesh and He was full of grace and truth, he’s prefacing
everything that he says about Christ all through the rest of the gospel of
John based upon that grace and truth.
Ok, let’s continue. “John witnessed concerning Him [that’s speaking
of John the Baptist] and cried [it doesn’t mean he was weeping, that means
he heralded or spoke saying], This was He of Whom I said, He Who comes after
me has precedence over me, for He was before me [that means that He existed
before me]. And of His fullness we have received…” Now notice what it
says. What have we received and what is the fullness of Christ that we
receive? “…Grace upon grace” (John 1:15-16, BGI, paraphrased). Now
what does the term “grace upon grace” mean? Grace upon grace.
Remember I had the one definition there for the definition of grace, that is
grace that increases to more and more. And it was very awkwardly
phrased and it kind of left you dangling. Well this is what it means.
Grace upon grace. By grace we are saved. By grace we are called.
By grace we stand before God. By grace we overcome. So it is
grace upon grace, and all of these things are a gift. All of these
things are given to us so that we don’t boast in what we can do, but we
boast in the glory of God. So when we come before God, we don’t do as
the Pharisee in saying, “God, I thank you I am not as other men, or as this
publican down here. I fast twice in the week. I tithe of all
that I possess. I’m not an extortioner. I’m not unjust.
I’m not an adulterer.” But he missed the whole point. He missed
the whole thing of the grace of God. See now, he was trying to receive
salvation by works. “God I do all of this, I must be in good standing
with you because I do this.” No, it is grace upon grace. That’s
why the publican down here, and he beat on his chest and said, “God be
merciful to me, a sinner. The sinner. I’m a dirty wretch.”
God gave grace to him. He said, “I tell you, that man went to his
house justified rather than the other.” So this is what it means,
grace upon grace.
Now notice verse 17, “For the law was given through Moses…”, which is true.
And the law is important. Now let’s stop here and ask the question.
The apostle Paul likens the law in Galatians 3 to a tutor while we were
children before we became adults. Now I want to ask you a question in
parallel to that. Is it important that you had a childhood, whether
for good or whether for bad? Sure it is, because you couldn’t be an
adult unless you had a childhood, correct? Do you cast away your
childhood? No. Did you learn from your childhood? Yes.
So it’s the same way. The law was given to lead us to Christ.
Christ did not do away with the law. He specifically said so.
But He came to bring something greater than the law. Something greater
than the law could give. Because the law could not give eternal life.
The law cannot give grace. That’s why when a person is hauled before a
judge on account of breaking a law, the judge must make a determination.
In some cases he is bound by the law because the law doesn’t speak.
And he can do nothing.
Now there is a recent case of that. I forget exactly what it was
right now, but I think it had to do with a murder, and since it was not
specified in the law about a certain thing the judge could not allow a
certain thing to come into evidence, and therefore the man was released.
So the law is very specific, whereas grace is broad and general. Grace
is a whole area and arena of living with God, which is greater than just
living with the law.
So he said, “For the law was given through Moses and the grace and the
truth through Jesus Christ came” (vs. 17). Now for those of you who
have your interlinear. The word came is the same Greek word which
means “came into being”. The same word used over in verse 3, that all
things came into being through Him. So the grace and the truth came
into being so it would be manifest to men and for God to man through Jesus
Christ. Not that God didn’t have it. Not that God was not
gracious. That’s not the point. But it did not come into being
for mankind until Christ came. Now for example you can take many
different chemical things, and until you have the right mix of it and come
up with the right formula, you have not brought something into being.
So the same way with Jesus Christ. Eternal salvation was not open to
all men until Christ came bringing the grace and the truth. It came
into being through Jesus Christ and in His very person.
And then the next one says, “No one has seen God at any time…” (vs. 18).
So this tells us the whole basis of what God is doing. And God is
interested in grace, not sacrifice. And that sacrifice means animal
sacrifice, or the sacrifice of human endeavor or deprivation so that you can
prove to God how good you are.
When “Shogun” came on we recorded it this last time. We got some of
our old tapes and wiped out some of the things we really didn’t want and we
recorded “Shogun”. But there’s one part in there that really shows the
attitude of works. And this is where the Jesuit priest, Father Albeto,
and the Japanese Jesuit candidates were together and there was another
Catholic priest. And before they would let them continue in their
Jesuit training, each of these Japanese candidates would have to confess
their sins. This one Japanese fellow confessed his sins and asked
forgiveness and then came the word. Yes, you are going to go without
food and you’ll have only rice and water for 30 days, and do this, and
furthermore you are going to be scourged. And the fellow said, “No,
I’m Samurai and I cannot be scourged.” And just would not relent.
The priest would not relent. He was ready to come over and kill him
rather than let the guy get off from being scourged. But if a person
has repented and asked forgiveness and they really believe it was to God,
what on earth good would a scourging do? See, that is salvation by
works. The works of so many of this, and so much of that. That’s
salvation by works. That’s forgiveness by works. Whereas when it
is by grace, it is God’s free gift.
Now let’s go to Acts 20, because here is the whole basis of the apostle
Paul’s ministry. Let’s begin in verse 24. “But none of these
things move me…” Or that is, none of the warnings that he would be in
trouble if he went into Jerusalem. “…Neither count I my life dear unto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I
have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
(Acts 20:24, KJV). Now that’s the whole basis of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. It is about the grace of God. Now I don’t want anyone to
take me to task because I may say that it has been emphasized in the past
concerning the Kingdom of God, which is true. The gospel of the
Kingdom of God must be preached in all the world as a witness, that is true.
The Kingdom of God is coming on the earth, that is true. Jesus Christ
is the King, that is true. But no one is going to get into the Kingdom
of God without grace. That’s why there is the gospel of grace.
And he says here concerning that, “…that I might finish my course…which I
received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
Now that is fantastic good news, isn’t it? And gospel means “good
news”, or as you will read the English in your Interlinear, it says “glad
tidings”. You know, the proverb says that good news from a far country
is like a well of spring water, which rejoices the person. Now if
someone comes up to your door and knocks on your door and they say [knock,
knock, knock] “Your car has been burned down in the driveway.” What
happens? Your heart sinks and you look out there. Sure enough
here is the cindering hulk of your car. It is gone. Or as some
people just recently in San Jose, they smelled a little smoke and they had
to get out their apartment and it burned everything they had. And some
of these people were just new immigrants to the U.S. They lost
everything, everything. That’s bad news, bad, bad news. Now it’s the
same way when we find out about how sinful we are as human beings.
That’s bad news. That’s terrible bad news. But what is the good
news? The good news is that if we repent to God and accept the
sacrifice of Christ and the grace of God, that is the good news and that is
the glad tiding that we are accepted of God.
Now I suppose that if we receive the telegram, which says, “This telegram
is from Heaven saying that you are in good standing with God.” Boy, we
would hold on to that and say that is great, but it doesn’t come that way.
It comes by faith and belief. And the grace of God is the good news
that God isn’t going to hold your sins over you if you repent. That is
fantastic good news. And then the gospel of grace also has to do with
receiving eternal life. That’s great good news. So that’s the
gospel of the grace of God.
Now verse 25, “And now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I have gone
preaching the Kingdom of God [so see, he relates the gospel of the grace of
God and the Kingdom of God right together], shall see my face no more.”
Now let’s go to 1 Peter 5:10, because this again, is one of the very key
things concerning the grace of God that we have to keep in mind. And
this is why regardless of whatever happens, don’t get discouraged. Or
if you do get discouraged, don’t let things weigh in on you so much that it
overwhelms you because God is the God of grace. Now notice what he
says here in verse 10. Remember how we read that we received of
Christ, of grace upon grace. Now that refers to the grace that we
stand in. That refers to the grace that we continually receive of God,
continually coming.
Verse 10 says, “But the God of all grace…” Now that’s a very interesting
statement, isn’t it? The God of all grace. “…Who hath called us
unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a
while, may Himself perfect you, may He establish you, may He strengthen you,
and may He found you…” (1 Peter 5:10, BGI). May He found you, that is
may He establish you. That’s what that means, to establish you in His
grace. So that’s quite a very inspiring scripture. This is the
one I turn to when things get tough. I always turn to that. That
one always encourages me. You know that hold out some hope. Even
if things are tough, God is there. Even when things look kind of bad,
God is there and He will help in every circumstance.
Now, let’s continue on in our study concerning the grace of God. Now
rather than go through every single scripture as I said I would, I will go
through the main scriptures and then send out a typed written list of all of
the scriptures that we have not covered so far. However I will mention
concerning the grace of God that all of the scriptures from Romans 3:24
clear through Romans 8:4, I have not put in this scripture that we’re going
to go through today because I covered that in detail last time. So we
have all that. You don’t hear me go through those it’s because we’ve
already gone through it. And let me just say if you’re taking notes,
you can put the note there, Romans 3:24 through chapter 4, 5, 6, and 7, up
to chapter 8:4 explains the entire operation of the grace of God. That
explains the entire need of the grace of God. That explains why God
has to give His grace. That explains why salvation by works cannot
bring you eternal life.
Now let’s go back and see some of the other scriptures, and I will take
these in sequence as I have them written down here, which will be a
progression through the New Testament in each particular case where I have a
lot of scriptures. So let’s go back to Acts 15:11. Now I think
we need to also refresh our memories that the New Testament Church was not
without it’s problems. It had its problems. And obviously those
problems were created because of the Jew/Gentile conflict. We don’t
have exactly the same problem we have today as they had back then. But
here Acts 15:11. Let’s go back to verse 6 so we can get the story
flow. Let me just mention before we begin in verse 6, that the Jews
were saying that a man had to be circumcised in the flesh in order to be
saved. When they said it was necessary that means that it was
obligatory, that there was no eternal salvation without circumcision.
That’s what was being preached, and that’s what the problem was.
So the apostles in verse 6, and elders came together to consider the
matter. And when there had been much disputing [that is talking and
discussion], Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye
know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles
by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe” (Acts 15:6-7,
KJV). And that is true. Peter was the first one to speak to a
Gentile about the salvation of God and in the person of Cornelius and his
household and God had to send him there by dream and vision and revelation.
Otherwise he wouldn’t have gone there because the Jews couldn’t even be in
the same room with a Gentile. That was a Jewish law, not a law of God.
Verse 8 now. And God, which knoweth the hearts…” Now that’s the key
important thing concerning grace. God knows the hearts. “…Bare
them witness, giving them the Holy [Spirit] Ghost, even as He did to
us…” Now, very important point here. That when they said it was
obligatory to be circumcised to receive salvation they were saying in effect
it was obligatory to be circumcised before you can receive the Holy Spirit.
Because if you don’t receive the Holy Spirit there is no salvation.
That is self-evident. So he gave them “…the Holy Spirit even as He
did to us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their
hearts by faith” (vs. 8-9). And that purification of the heart by
faith is an act of grace. That’s part of grace upon grace.
“Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the
disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (vs. 10).
Now let me be sure and just interject here what he was talking about was not
just circumcision alone but all of the traditions and rituals of Judaism,
which they could not bear. And even Jesus corrected the Pharisees and
Sadducees for that. And what it was, it was that there was, as you
will read in verse 5, a certain sect of the Pharisees. So you had the
problem of the Pharisees coming in there and saying they have to do this,
and after they’re circumcised they have to do that. And they have to
do this, and they have to do the other thing, that have to do that.
No, that puts a yoke of bondage of salvation by works. That’s why God
dramatically gave the Holy Spirit to Cornelius and his household before they
were baptized because God was teaching them that the Holy Spirit is going to
come with repentance. Purified their hearts.
“But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be
saved, even as they.” (vs. 11). So you are saved through grace.
That agrees with what we already covered in Ephesians 2:4-10. By grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God. Now notice what it says here. Let me read it again.
“But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be
saved…” That’s a future salvation. That’s not just being saved
from our sins and from Satan the devil and the present time. That is,
shall be saved in the future, even as they. So then they went on and
talked about the agreement that they would have there.
One thing I just want us to know is that in verse 21, the very last
sentence says in Acts 15:21, it talks about that Moses was read in the
synagogue every Sabbath day. So we are not talking about non-Sabbath
keepers. We are talking about Sabbath keepers.
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