Turn with me to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 15 is what we'll be studying together tonight. Acts chapter 15. And it's going to bring up a question for you. Do you love the Law? That's the question. I'm not talking about the Law of America, the law of the land, I'm talking about the Law of Moses. Ten commandments, two tablets of stone, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And this is something we went through in at the end of 2019 and into 2020. We read through the Law here at this church, and we even made a t shirt, “I Love the Law.” Anybody remember that shirt? My wife came home the other day, she said, I saw somebody running down Edinger wearing the t-shirt. And I was like, take me home, Lord. That's awesome. Right? I mean, if you read through the Law with us, I don't know if you were here at that time, or if you really read it or not, but going through the Law together, we saw people get saved, we saw people really grow in their love. And we saw a lot of Jesus Christ in the Law of Moses. And it was amazing to me when I told other people at other churches, even pastors, that we were going to read through the Law together as a church, the looks I got from people were like, the whole thing? I remember a pastor, he asked me, what are you preaching right now, and I was like, Leviticus, and he was like, yeah? He couldn't believe somebody was preaching through Leviticus. So, what should you and I think about the Law, like do Christians today still use the Law? Or is it just like old and outdated, and we're not saved by Law, we're saved by grace? So, who even needs the Law? I mean, what is the right way to think about, as a Christian here today, the Law of Moses? And we're actually going to get that answer as we go through this council that takes place in Jerusalem. This is Acts 15. Let me start reading for you here in verse 1. We'll just read the first 5 verses to get started. Acts 15:1-5 says,
“But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’ And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.’”
So, let's just review that, starting in Acts 13. Paul and Barnabas got sent out and they started going to Cyprus, then they started going up into Seleucia and Syria, they started going around and preaching the gospel in different cities, and we got to track with them through those cities in Acts 13 and 14. And they saw many people, including many Gentiles, hear the gospel and believe. And now they're coming back and they're spreading that praise report, and they're finding people are coming to them and bringing up a question: Hey, don't all of these Gentiles need to get circumcised? Isn't that what it says in the Law of Moses?
So, if you've got the handout, if you want to take some notes with us here, as we go through it, there's a question in Acts 15:1-5. And the question is, do Gentiles need circumcision to be saved? Okay? And notice who's bringing this up. It's believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees. So, these people do believe the gospel, but they still are wondering, hey, don't all the Gentiles need to go through circumcision? Basically, what they're saying is, don't they need to become Jews like us to really be saved? So, this is a question that is coming up in response to the gospel ringing out among the Gentiles. Now, who here tonight is a Gentile? Okay? Do we have any Gentiles here among us? That's anybody who's not a Jew. And just in case you're wondering, right? If you're not a Jew, you're a Gentile. Do the males here among us need to get circumcised to be saved? We'll go to Genesis 17. Where does this question come from? Why would they say such a thing? This might sound like a very crazy question for us because I haven't heard too many people asking this question here at our church, but this was the issue, the question in Acts chapter 15. And if you go back to Genesis, God is making a covenant with Abraham, he's making him a promise, that in Abraham, he's going to make a great nation, which will be the Jews. And in fact, all the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham. And in Genesis 17, he's talking more about this covenant. He's saying, actually, instead of being called Abram, your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. And then he says this in verse 10. Everybody, look at Genesis 17:10-13, “This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.”
Now, when we come to the Law of Moses, we come with a lot of chronological snobbery. All right? Like this kind of stuff, first of all, this idea of circumcision being a covenant, we don't quite understand that. Then that that phrase, right there are people born in your house and bought with money. That sounds like slavery. We don't agree with that. We don't associate with that. But this isn't the evil kind of slavery that we have come to understand in America, man-stealing racist kind of slavery? No, this is how the world was at this time where if they were in your household, they needed to be circumcised according to the covenant with Abraham, according to the Law of Moses. So, the fact that this question comes up in Acts 15, just shows that the Jewish believers are still taking seriously the Law. Do they need to be circumcised? And apparently it's a fiery debate. And so, they're going to now have a council with the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem?
Go back to Acts 15. We see where the question comes from? How are we going to answer this question? And as they answer this question about the law, what does that teach us that we should think about the Law of Moses here tonight? Pick it up with me in Acts 15:6, “The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.” So, we know some of the apostles, we know some of the elders in the church. So, these are the leaders of where the church got started in Jerusalem. They're all there in the room. You can imagine this feels like a big deal, an important meeting. Acts 15:7, “And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, ‘Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.’ And all the assembly fell silent.” So, here's Peter, we remember Peter, if you've gone through the book of Acts with us, I mean, Peter, he was the guy doing the pointy-finger street-preaching where thousands of people were getting saved earlier in the book of Acts. And what he's referring to here is in Acts chapter 10. If you'll go back there with me to Acts chapter 10. He had a vision, he had the spirit tell him to go with some men who came from Cornelius, and he went, and he preached the gospel to some Gentiles because he was the clear, established leader of the early church. He preached the sermons; he did the miracles. I mean, this was Peter. And yet he is the one that the Spirit used to go preach the gospel to a group of Gentiles. And it says here in Acts 10:43-48, “To him all the prophets,” he's referring to Jesus, “to him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised,” the Jews, “who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking tongues and extolling God . Then Peter declared, ‘Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people ,who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, then they asked him to remain for some days.” So, at this council, there's much debate. But then Peter stands up, and he says, hey, don't you guys remember Acts chapter 10, when the Spirit sent me to the Gentiles, and I preached to them the good news, and when they heard the word of Jesus, and they believed in Jesus, they received the Holy Spirit the same way that we did, and they got baptized the same way that we did?
See, he's giving the answer here in Acts 15:6-21, he gives the answer, Gentiles are already saved is what he's saying. And they don't need to get circumcised to be saved. They're already saved. Don't you remember what happened? How the Holy Spirit already was given to them? So, Peter, he's answering the question in an emphatic way, a drop-the-mic kind of a way. And everybody, after much debate has nothing left to say, the Spirit is already in the Gentiles. They're already saved. And they get saved the same way anybody gets saved. When you hear the good news, you respond with faith, you believe it, you trust in Jesus, and by grace, you are saved. Can I get an Amen from anybody here today? That's how everybody gets saved. And Peter's saying, that's how we got saved. Were we out here keeping the Law of Moses? Were we out here as the Jewish people doing everything we were supposed to do? No, we got saved by grace through faith. And that's how they're already saved by grace through faith.
So, you’ve got a couple of dashes there, under the Gentiles are already saved. Let's get it down like this: Peter gives the history of the Spirit. Peter goes back and he says, hey, we've already seen the Spirit do this work. I was there. He had eyewitnesses. Other Jews who were there they saw the Spirit be received by these Gentiles. They baptize them in the name of Jesus. They're already saved. There's nothing they need to do to be saved. And this verse that Peter said there in Acts 15:11, we want to look at that verse. That might be the verse that you want to go, like, write on your message board this week. You might want to go post on the internet if you're into that kind of a thing. But Acts 15:11, “we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” It is Jesus who gives us the gift of salvation. That's how it works. And he gives his Holy Spirit, he gives a new heart to those that are born again, to those that are regenerate. This is a work that Jesus does, that God does to save us, not a work that we do to save ourselves. Drop the mic, and the debate. That's what Peter's doing. And as soon as he gets quiet, if you look at Acts 15:12, when the assembly fell silent, boom, now “Barnabas and Paul are passing on all “as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.”
So, not only do we have Acts 10 with Peter go into the Gentiles, but now here are Barnabas and Paul saying, hey, can we tell you what we've seen the Spirit do among the Gentiles, and maybe they take them through the whole trip they just went on. And so, they get in there with their evidence, what they've seen from the Spirit. And then it says in Acts 15:13-20, “After they finish speaking, James,” so we believe, we know this is James the brother of Jesus. Remember, James, the disciple apostle was already put to death with the sword. So, this is James, the brother of Jesus, who writes the book of James, who's become clearly an elder here in the church in Jerusalem. And now he's going to say it, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon,” which is how he's referring to Peter here. “Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles,” as in God saved the Gentiles, “to take from them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘after this, I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the…’” who does it say there everybody? All the who? “’Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’ Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turned to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality.” And he goes on from there and says, here’s what I think we should say to the Gentiles. But the first thing we see James do, after Peter has said, hey, remember how the Spirit sent me and he saved the Gentiles? And then Paul and Barnabas say, the Spirit sent us, and he saved the Gentiles. Now, James, he wants to really prove the point, and he says, isn’t this what the prophets have said? Best way to prove a point, hey, don't you remember the Scripture?
Let's get that down for our second dash here: James gives a prophecy from the Scripture. He's saying, hey, one of the things we know is that when Israel is rebuilt and the kingdom is restored, that there are going to be Gentiles who are called by the name of the Lord there in the restoration of the kingdom. It's not just going to be Jews, look, there are also going to be Gentiles, who are called by his name. So not only have we seen it in the book of Acts, as the Spirit is bearing witness and using the apostles to save many people through the gospel, well no, we also can go back into the prophets. I mean, really, you could go to many places in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, and you would see that they're not just written to one nation, but the message is going out to all nations, and that all nations, even the Gentiles, they're going to be there in the kingdom
And so that's Amos 9:11-12. If you want to write down that reference. He is quoting not so famous Amos there. And if you go to Amos 9:11-12, instead of saying the Gentiles, it will say Edom, which is the nation that comes from Esau. Remember, Esau and Jacob were twins. Right? Jacob was the line of Israel, well, Esau was the line of Edom. And so even the people in the line of Esau, even these neighbors, and another nation of Edom, well, they're going to get to be a part of the kingdom with us when he rebuilds Israel in the future. And if you've read through the Law and the Prophets, if you're reading through the Psalms with us, it'll be very clear to you that God is not just the God of Israel, God is the God of all peoples, and every knee is going to bow, and every tongue is going to confess, and there will be people of every nation, tribe, and tongue worshipping King Jesus forever. Okay? That's why they've been sent to the ends of the earth here in the in the book of Acts. So, Peter is saying, look what the Spirit has done. And James is saying, well, look what the Scripture says, you can still be a Gentile and be saved. You can be saved without being a Jew. Answer, no, you do not need to get circumcised to be saved because these Gentiles are already saved. And the Scripture says, there's going to be Gentiles right next to us when all things are rebuilt. Okay?
So, we want to make this a very clear here today that we are saved by grace through faith. It is not based on anything that anybody here has ever done. It is all based on Jesus and what he has done, and we'll get more to that, but look what happens next. Right? Pick it up with me in Acts 15:20, because he's saying we shouldn't trouble the Gentiles. But he does still want to do something to instruct the Gentiles. And notice this because this is where a lot of people would maybe check out. And I think even people who may be here tonight. Okay? So, yeah, we're saved because we believe in Jesus, been there, done that, heard that all before. Well, let me just challenge you. Let's dive a little deeper. Let's see what really goes on here. Look at Acts 15:20-21. He says, but we should write to them. Here's what we're going to write to the Gentiles, “to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
So, it doesn't sound like we're throwing the Law out at this point. Sounds like he's still got things he wants the Gentiles to consider. And he still thinks it's very important that the Law of Moses is being read in every synagogue all over the world. And so, here's what they do. Acts 15:22-23, “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter.” Acts 15:23-29, here's the letter that they send with these two witnesses, Judas and Silas, the “brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
Acts 15:30-35, “So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.” Okay, so we get a letter here, you'll notice, and it says that on your handout there, chapter 15: 22-35. And I just want to go through what is with this list of requests that they ask the Gentiles? So, when the Gentiles here, there's no burden, there's no yoke, there's no something else you have to do to be saved. They respond with great joy. But then they have instructions. And this might sound very weird to us if we don't know the Law. But let's just go through them again. Go back to the first time it says it in verse 20, and in verse 29, these same four things are given to us. First, James says them, then they're written in the letter. And it says, first of all, abstaining from the things polluted by idols. Okay, so do the Gentiles need to become Jews? Answer? No, definitely not. But do the Gentiles need to consider the Jews, as they're both now brothers in Christ? Answer. Okay. So, if you're a Gentile and you're getting saved out of some other belief, some kind of idolatry, well you need to get away from that idolatry. In fact, what would have been involved in a lot of idolatry in a lot of these ancient temples, the way that people would have worshipped their idols, would have been to engage in sex, sexual immorality. So hey, we can't be doing any idolatry. We’ve got to get away from all that's polluted with idolatry. And that's going to mean getting away from all of that immorality that was associated with the idolatry. And that's going to mean getting away from… now this is the part that's going to sound the weirdest to us… from what has been strangled and from blood, it says, Because in these other temples, or when they would sacrifice to these other idols, and there would be immorality going on when they would offer their sacrifices, see, they might do it in a way where they didn't really separate the blood from the animal, like the Jews were instructed to do in the Law, and that it's very clear that Jews could not eat the blood of the animal. And so, if they're still doing that in their sacrifices, well, they need to consider the Jews and not cause their Jewish brothers to stumble. So, see here that we're not laying a yoke on you, we're not putting a burden on you, we're not expecting you to become Jews, but we are expecting you to know the Law well enough that you could consider the Jews.
Let's get that down for what the letter is teaching us here: The Law can be used to consider the Jews. And this is going to go on to be regularly in the letters of Paul. The Law can be used to consider the Jews. 1 Corinthians 8. A couple of chapters you could write down that you could go and read about how this is going to become an ongoing issue is 1 Corinthians 8. And another chapter you could go read is Romans 14, because this whole idea of like, where do we even get our meat from? And a lot of the meat was involved in sacrifices, either maybe by the Jewish people, or even among all these idolaters. There were a lot of sacrifices. And was it okay to eat the meat that was sacrificed to idols? Well, here, they're asking them, please don't eat that meat, if it's still got the blood in it, if it's been strangled, if they didn't handle that animal the right way according to the Law of Moses, then don't go eating that in front of the Jews. Consider the brothers that are Jews. And see, there's going to be tension in the church when people just want to act like I'm saved, and it doesn't matter what I do. You're not going to find that in the Scripture. In fact, 1 Corinthians is going to be full of like, yeah, you're free in Christ, but, hey, will you consider one another and not divide from one another? Hey, if you know somebody else isn't okay with eating the meat sacrificed to idols because they consider it unclean, and it doesn't fit with the Law of Moses, could you be considerate of your brother? Like maybe you think that's not a big deal, but if your brother does, could you go out of your way and actually care about them?
So, this is interesting, because we're not going to say you’ve got to get circumcised; we're going to say, in fact, you're already saved, you've already got the Spirit, there's nothing you need to do to be saved. But there are things we would like you to do as people who are saved. See that little distinction that we just made right there is so hard for so many people today. To be able to say on the one hand, like there's nothing you need to do to be saved, but then to be able to say right after that, but there are some things you should consider doing because you are saved. See, that's the way they write this letter. And we've got to learn to think that same way. And they're not throwing out the Law. No, they're still saying some things that go along with the Law to the new Gentile Christians, because they want the Gentile believers to not cause the Jewish believers to stumble. They're saying, hey, we’ve got to care about one another, we're not going to make you become like us, but could you guys consider us in the process?
Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. And I want to show you some passages where it describes all four of these things. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 talks about when people turn from idols, and how amazing that was when that would happen in the cities where there were temples to Zeus or Artemis or all these different false gods. And when people would turn away from idols, that was big news. People were talking about that. It says it here in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 about this church, that the word about them was going all over Macedonia and Achaia, which is modern day Greece, like people all over Greece are talking about you guys, and they're saying, and “they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you how you turn to God from idols to serve the living in true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead. Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath that come.” Hey, there's one thing we need you guys to do. Get yourselves away from everything that's been polluted by idols. It needs to be clear; you guys aren't worshipping idols anymore at all. Well, you don't need to become Jews, but you can't be idolaters. You’ve got to show that you're something different than that. And here's the church that stepped up. Here's the church that's like, it became known. They had a reputation. This church, they were moving far away from idolatry. People are talking about it all over the entire region.
Go back to 1 Corinthians and let me show you about fleeing that sexual immorality it talks about. And here's 1 Corinthians chapter 6, one of those passages, where it says, hey, yeah, you're free in Christ. That's great. All things are lawful for you. Great. Yeah, yeah, there's nothing you have to do to be saved by the works of the Law. Correct. You don't have to keep the Law to be saved. However, let me give you some thoughts to think about here in 1 Corinthians 6:18-19. It says, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” See, this is a part of the idolatry in the first century world at this time, is there was prostitution as a part of worshipping these idols in their temples. And it's saying, you’ve got to get so far away from that. That is not it. If you're going into a temple and committing immorality, let me tell you, the Holy Spirit is in you. That's the context of your body as a temple. What does that mean? You've got the Spirit in you, and there should be no sexual immorality in your body, because you've got the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. If everybody who ever quoted my body as a temple meant that right there, then we would understand what they mean is, so I'm against sexual immorality, that's what it means. That I understand I have the Holy Spirit in me, so I'm not worshipping some false god. And if immorality is associated with that idolatry, I'm fleeing, that I'm getting away from that, because my body's now to worship God. Look at how it ends here, you are not your own. You were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that?
We may not be having temples, and we may not be offering sacrifices to idols in that sense in the American culture, but let me tell you, there are a lot of people worshipping false ideas through sexual immorality, and every single one of us, we need to flee it. How about another Amen on that right there? You’ve got the Holy Spirit within you. That's what it means when it says your body is a temple, it means you’ve got the Holy Spirit. So, get away from that immorality. So, you can see there was some expectations on these Gentile believers and what they're saved life, Holy Spirit filled life, saved by grace through faith in Jesus, what is that going to look like? Well, we're turning away from idols. We’re fleeing sexual immorality.
And then you’ve got to go with me to Leviticus 17. So, we've already been to Genesis 17, now let's go to Leviticus. Yes, Leviticus, everyone. This is a Leviticus slander-free Church. All right? You want to make your Leviticus jokes? You’ve got to go to another church for those, because we believe that Leviticus is Holy Scripture. Is everybody with me on that right here? If you're not with me, let's talk, because that's what they're quoting, that this idea that the life is in the blood. Okay? So, in Genesis 9, after the flood, when the beautiful rainbow comes out, which is God's promise that he's never going to flood the world again, and we get the rainbow in the sky, one of the things that God says in Genesis 9 is that you can now eat the animals, but don't eat their blood because the life of the animal is in the blood. And Leviticus 17, it picks up on this idea. If you're here with me in Leviticus 17, let's start in verse 10, “If any one of the house of Israel” and notice it’s not just the Jews “or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.” Now, that seems like a big deal to you, you got to try to get your mindset into why would it say that here in this Law? It's saying that any of the Jews, or even if it's a Gentile who are there among the Jews, if they eat the blood, God is not okay with that, and he is cutting them off from among the people. So, God is against people eating the blood. That's what he's saying. That's then now James is bringing that up right now in a letter to Christians. Interesting. Well, let's see, Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the…” what does it say they're, on the what? The “altar” to make what? “Atonement”. See, this is what is so messed up about the Christian church in Southern California is people don't want to read Leviticus, people don't want to understand the Leviticus, but yet every single one of them wants to be like Jesus is my sacrifice. Where do you think the whole idea of a sacrifice comes from? It comes from Leviticus. I mean, people want to say that Jesus is my sacrifice, or husbands, live your lives as sacrifices, or all of us, we should all be living sacrifices, offering ourselves up to God as the only logical response, as our worship in response to all that God has done for you, offer yourselves as a sacrifice.
We would have no idea what that means without this kind of instruction right here. That the whole reason there's blood, this is the point of blood, which is the life is that when you kill that animal, and the priest takes that blood, and he puts it up on the altar, that's your salvation right there. You get atonement through the blood; you don't just go mess around with the blood like it's no big deal. And you can just now eat it up? No, the blood is very serious. It is the life itself. The blood is for the purpose of atonement. That's the message here. This is very deep. This is something that all of us should be able to understand that Jesus is my sacrifice, and it is through his blood that I have atonement for my sin. That's from the Law of Moses, and that still applies to me and you right here today. In fact, look at how seriously it takes this. Leviticus 17:12. “Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood. Neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.” So, before people are ready to just throw out the Law, see, we don't need the Law to get saved. It's like, let's go burn the first five books of your Bible after the service. That's how some people act. Like I don't need those books anymore. Right? Well, no, the law, it's very specific in what it means. When we read Genesis 17, see, every single Jew had to get circumcised or they got cut off. Here in Leviticus 17, it doesn't just say the Jews, it says no person among you, whether you're Jew or whether you're a sojourner, nobody should be eating the blood. Notice there's a little bit of a different way that it's saying it here. This Law was not just for the Jew, it was for those who were maybe having dinner with the Jew, to those who were eating a meal with them too. This would also apply then to those people. Leviticus 17:13-16, “Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with the earth. For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I've said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off. And every person who eats what dies of itself, or what is torn by beasts, whether he is a native or a sojourner, shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening; then he shall be clean. But if he does not wash them or bathe his flesh, he shall bear his iniquity.”
So, here's God getting very specific to his people, but also the sojourner among them. Like hey, even if you're out there hunting an animal and you're going to kill it, and you're going to eat it, here's what I want you to do with the blood, and if the animal dies in some other way, it gets strangled and other animal bites it and the bloods all in there, hey, be careful, you will be unclean from that. That's the idea of this from the strangled and from the blood. So, let's just understand what happened. Do Gentiles need to be circumcised? The answer is No. Should they consider the Jews though? The answer is, Yes, and it all comes from the Law of Moses. Okay? So, do we need to obey the Law to be saved? Should we still read the Law of Moses, though? See, that's the kind of mature thinking that we need in the church in America, that's not there right now. That we can be against salvation by works of the Law, but for the books of the Law. That's the way we need to be thinking about. That's how it was done in this council. In Jerusalem, like, there's no burden, there's no yoke, there's nothing you have to do, you already have the Spirit, you're already saved. But since you've got the Spirit, could you be careful about these things because we don't want to cause anybody to stumble. See, that's a way we all need to mature in our thinking.
And this became the whole story of Paul's life. Like Paul is going to die on this hill of bringing the gospel to the Gentiles and Jews. The Jews, it seems who are not real believers in salvation by grace through Jesus Christ, Jews who are really just about being Jews, they're going to keep persecuting him, they're going to keep trying to kill him. And ultimately, he's going to appeal to Caesar. Like the whole rest of the book of Acts, we're going to go on adventure with Paul. And it's going to be because he's ready to die on this hill, that the Gentiles don't need to keep the Law to be saved, they do not need to be circumcised to be saved. And he goes off on this in the book of Galatians. If you could turn with me to the book of Galatians. This is a letter that Paul writes. And the area of Galatia is where we've been already in some of our journey so far, and where we're going to be going in some of the future journeys. Now, if you read Galatians, it's a lot about do Gentiles need to be circumcised to be saved? That's like a major theme in the book of Galatians. And there are a lot of scholars who debate when was Galatians written? Was it written at the time of Acts 15 we just read, or was it written before Acts 15? So has Paul already written this letter, like perhaps after he went to Jerusalem in Acts 11? If you remember when he and Barnabas took a collection to go give to the poor in Jerusalem, and so Barnabas and Paul already went to Jerusalem before Acts 11. Was that when he wrote Galatians? There's a lot of debate about when this book was written, but it addresses this idea. In fact, he goes so far as to say, if you have to be circumcised to be saved, that is a whole different gospel than the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if anybody's out there preaching another gospel, if you're preaching Jesus plus anything else to be saved, then you should be accursed. That's what he says. He's very fired up about it. There's some very strong language here in the book of Galatians. And then he says this, kind of as we get to a summary. Go to Galatians 5:2, let's get to kind of a summary statement of what they should do, how they should think. And he says here in Galatians 5:2-3, “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.” So, this is Paul's argument. Okay? If you're saying you got to be circumcised to be saved, then your hope is in keeping the Law to be saved. And if that's what you're trusting in, then you have to do everything the Law tells you to do. And you would have to obey the Law and fulfill all righteousness. That's how you would have to do it. If you're going to go down a path of works, then you're going to have to be perfect. And he says, you're no longer trusting in Christ. Galatians 5:4, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified,” and we want to make sure everybody knows what justified means. justified means counted or declared righteous. If you want to be seen as righteous by God, you've got two options. You can think you're righteous because of something you do. Or you can think you're righteous because of Jesus and what he has done. Those are the only two options right there. And the minute you think it's anything that you do, now it's not about Christ. Now, it's all up to you. And so, he says, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from…” what does he say? “Grace”. See, you're either saved by the Law or you are saved by grace, by God giving you the righteousness of Jesus. It's a gift given to you. It's not based on what you do. And then he puts it like this in Galatians 5:5, “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” See, by faith we understand that righteousness will be given to us. And that is the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. And before in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
So, I don't think, because I haven't talked to too many people here at our church, who are thinking that getting circumcised would be their salvation. That's the thing they need to do on top of believing in Jesus, but I have met people at this church who think that getting baptized will be their salvation. I've seen that time and time again. And there are a lot of people walking around today saying that you're not saved unless you've been baptized, and they mean baptized in water. I mean, think how ridiculous it is saying that somebody saved because they're circumcised, you're circumcised on the eighth day? Do you remember what you were doing on your eighth day when you were alive? You remember all that drama that you went through? Pooping yourself and all that stuff? You remember that? See? I mean, this is like, people are walking around like, hey, I'm one of the righteous ones. Dude, bro, you didn't even know what happened on your eighth day. What are you talking about? Right? But look at what we've done, what we've done in modern times. Well, let's start baptizing babies so that they will be saved. We do the same exact thing. Somebody's walking around thinking they're safe, because they got the water sprinkled on their head when they were a baby. Like, if the minute you trust in one thing that you do, you're not trusting in Jesus anymore. And it's either grace, or it's worse, which one is saving you? Which you think you're going to get your righteousness through good things are right things that you've done, or you're getting your righteousness as a gift through what Jesus has done? See, I bet there's some people here, they're like, oh, well, we don't believe that here at this church. You know, we don't believe you’ve got to get baptized to be saved. That's what other groups believe. That's what people down the street believe around here. We believe that you just go to church and read your Bible to get saved. That's what we believe around here. It's like, wait a minute, those are just more works. Like if you think because you prayed a prayer, because you walked an aisle, because you said certain words, because you had some kind of experience, if you are any part of the reason that you think you're righteous, you need to rethink that right here right now. Because you could not fulfill the righteousness of the Law. Many people here couldn't even say all the things that the Law is expecting us to do, much less than they have done them. No, the only hope that you have for righteousness is in Jesus Christ.
Let's get this down. Because we're actually going to start the sermon right now. If you flip your handout over, you'll notice there's a time for some points. Okay. So, point number one, now that we can start preaching because we've gone through the old text here. Point number one: Jesus is your only hope for righteousness. Okay? And the minute you add one thing that you have done, or has been done to you, on top of that, you have severed yourself from Jesus, you have fallen away from grace. It is either all grace or it is all works. And let me just tell you, you don't have all the works you need. And so, if you think that the answer to the question of why you should go to heaven when you die, is because I… fill in the blank. That's the wrong answer. There is only one who has righteousness. There is only one circumcision that has ever really mattered in the history of planet earth. There is only one baptism that has ever really fulfilled righteousness. There is only one who ever perfectly obeyed his parents, there is only one who ever perfectly resisted temptation, there is only one who has ever established a righteous life, that perfectly obeyed all the commands of the law. That's where righteousness comes from. There is one who has it, and one only.
Go back to the Gospel of Matthew with me. And let's just look at how much Luke and some of the other gospel writers… because this goes over the heads of a lot of us these days, when it's telling us stories about Jesus, it's telling us stories about Jesus to show to us that Jesus is the holy and Anointed One. He is the Messiah, He is the Christ. He is the one who came from God, and he is the only one who has ever been righteous. In fact, Jesus, when he got baptized, John the Baptist was like, why am I baptizing you? I'm out here baptizing people who repent of their sins. How can I baptize you? What does Jesus say to John the Baptist? He says in Matthew 3:15, “Let it be so ow, for thus it is fitting to fulfill all…” “Righteousness”. See, to tell somebody that they need to get baptized to get saved, well, whose baptism really saves any of us? Whose righteousness do you think gets you through the pearly gates to the streets of gold? Whose sacrifice, whose body, whose blood? It had to be a righteous sacrifice. It's not coming from you. It's not coming from anything you've ever done. Not one. It's all from him.
That's why here's a part of the story of Jesus' birth that doesn't make its way on the Christmas cards. If you go to Luke 2… Is everybody with me? And in Luke 2, and the shepherds, look at Luke 2:20. “And the shepherds,” oh, yeah, we love the shepherds. The shepherds, we know this is Christmas. They “returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” End of Christmas, end of story. Nobody ever reads the next verse right there. Right? What does it say in Luke 2:21? “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” That's the one circumcision that has mattered right there. Jesus got circumcised to fulfill all righteousness. I mean, when you just keep reading, Jesus is going to go to the temple, and his parents are going to be like, and look what they're going to say. Well, first, when they take him to the temple, note, look at Luke 2:22. Let's just keep going. “And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of…” who here? “Moses”. See, they're very intense, Joseph and Mary. They're going to do everything the Law told them to do about their baby Jesus. This is when Jesus says, I didn't come to abolish the law, I came to…” See, he did it. He did all of it. He did it perfectly. This is where righteousness comes from. If you're looking for the righteous one, these are all very important details. Like you have a checklist. If you really knew the Law, you're like, well, if Jesus didn't get circumcised, he can't be the righteous perfected Jew. Oh, well, he got circumcised. Well, there's these other things the Law of Moses says you’ve got to do in the temple. Oh, well, they did those things, too. Oh, okay. Well, I guess so far, he's up to it.
And you're reading through, looking to where Jesus falls short. And the whole point of the gospel is Jesus never fell short. He's not like you or me. He lived up to the standard perfectly. Only one who could ever do it. Look what the prophecy here is about Jesus. When Simeon here, when he sees Jesus, look at Luke 2:29. “Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the…” who? “Gentiles”. Oh, wow, he's going into the temple to get circumcised and to do these purifications in the Law of Moses, and there's a prophet there saying, look, he's fulfilling righteousness for the Gentiles. See, it's not what you did. It's what Jesus did that saves you. And we’ve got to make sure that's clear. If we want everybody here going into the kingdom of heaven, we're not getting there by what we do. We're getting there because of what Jesus has perfectly done.
In fact, when he later can't be found, and the boy Jesus in the temple, and Mary and Joseph are like, where does he go? Luke 2:49. Look way down at verse 49. It says here, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?” See, Jesus as a young boy, he's on a mission. He's out there doing his father's business. And in fact, it says in Luke 2:51, after Mary and Joseph find him, “he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.” This maybe the one son that's ever really obeyed his parents, our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, if you go into Luke 3, he's going to get baptized and what happens when he gets baptized? Luke 3:22, “and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ’You are my beloved son with whom I am well…’” what? “Pleased”. See he's doing what God expects him to do. He's the only one God has been perfectly pleased with. That's why in his body, in his blood, in his life, he is the righteous sacrifice, and he can offer you his righteousness. And that's why it's by grace you're going to get the righteousness of Jesus as a gift. And what you've got to do is by faith, transfer your trust and say, I will never have any righteousness unless I believe in his righteousness. That’s salvation. And so, there are some people who yeah, they believe in Jesus, that he was the Son of God. Did he die? Did he rise again? Is he coming back? Or I believe all of that, well, why did you get saved? Well, I got saved because I know I thought you just said you believed all of that. That's your salvation right there. You're trusting in what Jesus did. That's righteousness to you if you're trusting. If there's anything that you think you did, I'm saying, are you sure that you're really looking to Jesus as your only hope for righteousness? Because I think there's a lot of people out there, yeah, Jesus did some of it, and I did some of it, we kind of split it together. You are severed from Christ, you are fallen from grace, you have to keep the whole Law perfectly. It may not be circumcision that you're putting in that spot. But if there's anything in that category in your mind, that's not by faith. That's not by grace. That's something else. And you’ve got to make sure that you're saying, no, Jesus Christ is my righteousness.
And if you go to Luke 4, there he is being tempted by Satan. And it says at the end of that, Luke 4:13, “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.” So, the whole point, this is the part of the life of Jesus that often gets overlooked. We know about when he gets born, we know about his ministry. But see these things that like when he got circumcised, when he got taken to the temple, when he grew up and obeyed his parents, when he got baptized, when he resisted all the temptation, that's your righteousness we’re reading about here. That's God being pleased with him, so that righteousness could be given to you, so that you could be saved.
Now, go with me to 1 Corinthians 10, and let's look at this together. Because what are you and I supposed to think about the law? Like if we don't have to, if it's not about us keeping all the things in the law, in fact, if that's impossible for us to do, if Jesus has already perfectly fulfilled the law, then is the Law irrelevant? Do we need to use the Law anymore, or has it already served its purpose? It was for the Jews, Jesus perfectly fulfilled it. We believed in Jesus and received his righteousness. Do you, as a Christian brother or sister, is the Law of Moses for you? Look what it says here in 1 Corinthians 10:6-9. Look what it says. “Now these things,” and he's talking about things that happened with Moses and Israel in the wilderness, “these things took place as examples for…” who does it say they are? For “us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents.” 1 Corinthians 10:11. “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” Are you telling me the Law of Moses was written for me? I'm not telling you Paul is saying this, the Holy Spirit is writing that when we go and study how Israel fell short of the righteousness, that God had for them in the Law, and they needed a sacrifice, they needed to offer a sacrifice of an animal, they needed that blood to be by the priest to the altar to get atonement for their sin. See, as we learn from the example of Israel, it was written for you so that you could see, I'm not going to get saved by my own righteousness, look at all the sins they fell in. I’ve got to get warned about those sins. I need to make sure I'm turning away from those sins, and I'm going to need a sacrifice for my sin. Who could be my sacrifice? And it rolls right from here, and it begins to start talking about communion, which is what we want to take together here tonight. It goes right from, hey, you’ve got to know the Law where you learn about sacrifices, because we want to talk about the body, we want to talk about the blood, we want to talk about the one who was offered as a righteous sacrifice to pay for your sins.
So, let's get this down for point number two: Don't burn the scrolls, light the fire in your heart. Don't burn the scrolls, light the fire in your heart. Maybe you've been thinking about the Law of Moses the wrong way. Maybe you've been thinking it's outdated, it's old, it's not necessary for us. Well, I understand what you might have meant. It's not necessary for us to be saved to keep the Law. But it is through the Law that Jesus fulfilled that comes our righteousness, that is our salvation. And it was written down for you and for me, that we would see that it's through the sacrifice, through the blood, that is the atonement for our sin, and Jesus was the spotless lamb. He was the perfect sacrifice. And we have to, according to the Law, we have to have his righteousness for our salvation. In fact, look what it says in the in the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”
See, what we're going to do, and you have the communion there, it was on your seat, hopefully, you can still find it. If you want to pick this up. See, this whole idea of the fact that we're going to eat right now, this little wafer, and you’ve got to open it twice. Right? You’ve got to get the wafer here at the top, and then you’ve got to drink the cup there in the bottom. You're going to get a wafer and a cup, which is a symbol of your perfect sacrifice of righteousness, the body and the blood of Jesus. And we do this to remember that I didn't get my own righteousness. I needed Jesus to shed his blood for me. I needed Jesus to be my sacrifice. And so, this is something very serious that all of us, who have transferred our trust from ourselves doing anything, and we have trusted by grace through faith in Jesus and what he has done, this is for us to remember, I didn't do it, Jesus did it for me. That's what we're here to remember. And this is serious, because look what it goes on to say right here in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” Wow. “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” So, there are people at this church that, when they got to the body in the blood, they didn't examine themselves. They didn't say, hey, am I trusting totally in the righteousness of Jesus? Am I turning from all the sins that he died for? From idolatry from immorality? I mean, is this something that I'm really understanding what this is? Or some people hear they drink, it says judgment on themselves. So, when we take communion, it's a powerful reminder that it's Jesus who saved us, and it's a time for us to give Him thanks, and proclaim him his death. It's also only for the people who have really been made righteous through the blood of Jesus Christ. See, if you know right now that you're not right with God, you should just put these things away. Because I don't want you to drink judgment on yourself right now. If you have sin that you know is going on in your life, and you're not turning from it, if you even know that you're just trying to do the right thing and you haven't really transferred your trust Jesus. Right now, it's kind of Jesus, kind of you, well, you need to pray about that between you and God right here right now. So, I'm going to give us all a moment to examine ourselves, and then we'll take this all together. But I'm just going to be quiet for a moment, while I’ll pray, and then I'll give us a moment all to pray. Okay? So, let's go before the Lord.
Father in heaven, we want to thank you that your Son Jesus has done what we could never do to perfectly, fulfill your law. And we praise you for the righteousness of your Son, Jesus Christ. And we thank you that he offered himself as a sacrifice through his body. We thank you for his life that was in his blood that he shed for us. Father, I pray that we would examine ourselves as we come before you here tonight. And we would have turned away from our sin, that we would confess any sin to you. And then we would affirm that we're trusting in his sacrifice, his body, and his blood to be our righteousness. It's by the grace that you have given us in your son Jesus, it's by faith in what Jesus has done that we have been justified. So please hear our prayers as we remember your son right now.