WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.400 --> 00:00:05.600 Grace and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 00:00:10.200 --> 00:00:14.300 The title of this devotion this morning. 3 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:18.700 I entitled when concession is not right. 4 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:22.100 And if I want to give a 5 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:27.600 main idea of this text 6 00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:34.800 I entitled want to give it an idea is concision is never right if it 7 00:00:34.800 --> 00:00:38.900 compromises essential truth from God's word. 8 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:48.000 We living in a day of March spiritual and moral compromise. 9 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:50.800 For that reason 10 00:00:52.400 --> 00:00:54.900 we see two kinds of people around us. 11 00:00:56.200 --> 00:01:01.900 Some of us abhor any sort of concession or compromise. 12 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.099 Those words imply a weak 13 00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:09.300 wishy washy kinds of Christianity 14 00:01:09.300 --> 00:01:12.000 that is not worth following. 15 00:01:13.800 --> 00:01:18.300 We value man of conviction who stand firm no matter what. 16 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:23.600 We want nothing to do with concessions. 17 00:01:25.100 --> 00:01:26.100 On the other side 18 00:01:26.100 --> 00:01:33.100 we see people who are so strong on their conviction even about minor 19 00:01:33.100 --> 00:01:36.700 issues that no one can get along with them. 20 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.300 And if you do not agree with them on every minor point of doctrine 21 00:01:42.300 --> 00:01:47.900 they write you off as being a liberal or heretic. 22 00:01:49.800 --> 00:01:54.900 If you want to come from such a man with his lack of love, he will 23 00:01:54.900 --> 00:01:59.500 write you off as a person who does not stand for God's truth. 24 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:03.400 What is the point here? 25 00:02:03.400 --> 00:02:08.600 How do we navigate these two extremes? 26 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:17.300 The answer is spiritual maturity that requires discernment. 27 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:20.400 Spiritual maturity does 28 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:26.400 requires discernment stands firm when it comes to essential truth. 29 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:34.500 But on matter not essential to the place where godly men may differ 30 00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:39.000 we elevate love over our rights. 31 00:02:40.700 --> 00:02:45.800 In other words, there are times when unity is wrong. Namely when it 32 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:51.200 compromises the essentials of the Gospel of Salvation by God's grace 33 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:55.100 alone through faith alone in Christ alone. 34 00:02:57.100 --> 00:03:03.300 We see both sides of this important principle in our text today. 35 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:12.900 The whole chapter of Acts 15 reports the conclusion of the Jerusalem 36 00:03:12.900 --> 00:03:16.000 Council and we know this is the first Council. 37 00:03:17.700 --> 00:03:20.400 The main issue show at stake was 38 00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:26.500 must a person be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved? 39 00:03:28.200 --> 00:03:34.200 Peter powerfully showed that we are all saved in one way only. 40 00:03:35.600 --> 00:03:40.100 By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ through faith in him. 41 00:03:41.600 --> 00:03:47.000 To add our works to faith alone is to prevent the Gospel and put ourselves 42 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:54.700 under God's eternal condemnation as Paul argues in Galatians chapter 1 43 00:03:54.700 --> 00:03:56.500 verses 6 through 9. 44 00:03:58.500 --> 00:04:03.800 Paul and Barnabas did not set aside this crucial truth in the name of 45 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:04.600 love and unity. 46 00:04:05.900 --> 00:04:11.300 Rather they had great dissention and debate with those who told them 47 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:16.200 the necessity of for being added to faith for salvation. 48 00:04:17.700 --> 00:04:24.600 The force of Peter argument silenced even those who have disagreed, at 49 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:31.200 least for a moment. Then Paul and Barnabas began to relate how God has worked through 50 00:04:31.200 --> 00:04:35.900 them as they preached the Gospel to the Gentiles confirming their 51 00:04:35.900 --> 00:04:38.200 message with signs and wonder. 52 00:04:40.100 --> 00:04:43.100 Paul could have launched into a defense of the doctrine of 53 00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:48.800 justification by faith alone as he did in Romans 3 and 4. 54 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:57.200 But to hear his emphasis was on what God has done through them so that 55 00:04:57.200 --> 00:05:01.700 their opponents would know that the spread of the Gospel among the 56 00:05:01.700 --> 00:05:04.900 Gentiles was God's doing. 57 00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:13.500 This is the miracle that he granted and confirmed his will through 58 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:13.900 them. 59 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:22.600 After Paul and Barnabas finished speaking James took the floor, which 60 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:23.000 is today 61 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:29.200 we commemorate the memory of James the brother of Jesus. 62 00:05:31.100 --> 00:05:33.500 This was the half brother of Jesus who later 63 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.200 wrote the Epistle of James. 64 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:44.800 He was the presiding Elder of the church in Jerusalem. When he stood 65 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:48.500 up to speak the the judaizers 66 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:53.100 we're hoping that he would champion their cause. 67 00:05:54.600 --> 00:06:01.800 But they were taken aback when he affirmed Peter's message. Backing it 68 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:07.100 up with Amos chapter 9 verses 11 and 12. 69 00:06:08.200 --> 00:06:10.600 And without mentioning them by name 70 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:13.700 he backed Paul and Barnabas. 71 00:06:15.300 --> 00:06:24.400 Their view about the Gentiles need to be circumcised. Then out of concession he enumerated four 72 00:06:24.400 --> 00:06:29.700 things that the Gentiles should abstain from so as not to offend the 73 00:06:29.700 --> 00:06:29.900 Jew. 74 00:06:31.200 --> 00:06:36.500 Everyone agreed with James judgment. The church choose two leading man 75 00:06:36.500 --> 00:06:42.300 to return with Paul and Barnabas to relate verbally to the Gentile 76 00:06:42.300 --> 00:06:43.000 churches. 77 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:44.500 the outcome of the council. 78 00:06:46.300 --> 00:06:53.100 This act would protect Paul and Barnabas from any false charge, but 79 00:06:53.100 --> 00:06:59.700 by the judaizers that they slanted the report in their favor. 80 00:07:01.100 --> 00:07:05.200 Also the final resolution was put in the letter that was to be 81 00:07:05.200 --> 00:07:08.200 circulated among the Gentile churches. 82 00:07:09.400 --> 00:07:16.100 The outcome was the Gentile churches were greatly encouraged and the 83 00:07:16.100 --> 00:07:22.000 unity of the church made up of Jewish and Gentiles believers preserved. 84 00:07:24.900 --> 00:07:27.200 This is a summary of what happened in chapter 15. 85 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:30.200 Looking at this chapter 86 00:07:31.900 --> 00:07:35.000 as I went yesterday all morning 87 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:37.200 I was studying this chapter. 88 00:07:37.200 --> 00:07:42.700 There are like 6.8 lesson learned, but I'm not going to keep you for 89 00:07:42.700 --> 00:07:44.000 another 45 minutes. 90 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:51.800 So I'm going just to focus on what I started. Just one idea. 91 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:58.400 That concession is never right if it compromises essential truth from God's 92 00:07:58.400 --> 00:07:58.800 word. 93 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:04.700 Okay, that's according to versus 12 to 18. 94 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:10.400 The Gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ 95 00:08:10.400 --> 00:08:16.600 alone is not to be set aside or compromised in the name of love and 96 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:19.400 unity. That's what we see around us. 97 00:08:19.400 --> 00:08:24.200 You know, how many of you know, I'm involved in cross-cultural 98 00:08:24.200 --> 00:08:24.700 Ministry. 99 00:08:24.700 --> 00:08:27.700 I work with different Christian group. 100 00:08:27.700 --> 00:08:29.100 I work with Muslim. 101 00:08:30.100 --> 00:08:36.000 And sometimes you are tempted to compromise, you know, when you work 102 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:40.900 with Orthodox Catholic, Protestant, Arab Christian from different and 103 00:08:40.900 --> 00:08:47.900 Arab Christian are very denominational and then when you work with Muslim different groups so 104 00:08:47.900 --> 00:08:49.300 with what would you do here? 105 00:08:50.900 --> 00:08:54.300 You don't compromise your stick to the story of the Gospel. 106 00:08:57.700 --> 00:09:05.500 It is it is it is the only way of Salvation both for Jews and Gentiles 107 00:09:05.500 --> 00:09:09.300 and Muslim and Catholic and Protestant and everybody else. 108 00:09:12.400 --> 00:09:14.800 If we compromise the Gospel. 109 00:09:15.800 --> 00:09:19.600 We have given up the very essence of the Christian faith. 110 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:25.700 Any unity that is achieved through such compromise is not Christian 111 00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:29.000 unity in the biblical sense of the word. Okay. 112 00:09:33.100 --> 00:09:36.600 Beyond the matter of the Gospel and how we are saved. 113 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:42.300 There are several other biblical truths that we cannot yield or we 114 00:09:42.300 --> 00:09:45.300 compromised the essence of the Christian faith. 115 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:52.900 The inspiration for example. The authority of the scripture and the total 116 00:09:52.900 --> 00:10:02.300 trustworthiness of scripture must never be compromised. Or we have no 117 00:10:02.300 --> 00:10:09.700 objective or authority basis for our faith. Does the classical question, you know, I 118 00:10:09.700 --> 00:10:15.600 face when I teach about Islam ministering to Muslim I get phone calls 119 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:17.900 on Facebook asking me question. 120 00:10:17.900 --> 00:10:24.300 Is it okay to talk to Muslim about Jesus being God or about Jesus 121 00:10:24.300 --> 00:10:24.700 crucifixion? 122 00:10:24.700 --> 00:10:26.600 Does it offend them? 123 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:28.200 I said it does not offend them. 124 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:32.200 You don't go and tell them you are bad on your book is bad and 125 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:33.200 Muhammad is bad. 126 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:34.500 You stick do the story. 127 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:42.200 Okay, you proclaim the gospel story as it is written in the gospel and 128 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:44.700 then let the gospel convict them. 129 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:53.600 And that's what we do. Other ways if we go and talk and compromise 130 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:57.000 because the Quran speaks about Jesus we 131 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:02.100 better then Muhammad or any sense. 132 00:11:02.100 --> 00:11:04.400 He is Miracle Worker. 133 00:11:04.400 --> 00:11:10.500 He is so and so 93 verses the nicest thing about Jesus. But when it comes 134 00:11:11.500 --> 00:11:18.600 to him as the reason of our whole being crucified on the cross, died 135 00:11:18.600 --> 00:11:20.700 rose in the third day. 136 00:11:20.700 --> 00:11:22.700 He seated at the right hand of God 137 00:11:22.700 --> 00:11:23.300 the father. 138 00:11:23.300 --> 00:11:25.700 He is the Incarnate God. 139 00:11:26.800 --> 00:11:28.100 They said this is blasphemy. 140 00:11:30.200 --> 00:11:33.300 What do we do we compromise this truth? 141 00:11:33.300 --> 00:11:37.300 The reason of our hope for the sake of unity? 142 00:11:37.300 --> 00:11:41.200 And you said yeah, Jesus was a good man miracle worker like any 143 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:41.600 prophet? 144 00:11:43.100 --> 00:11:45.200 No, this is not called unity. 145 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:46.500 This is called compromise. 146 00:11:50.700 --> 00:11:53.600 The nature of God as a Triune being. 147 00:11:57.900 --> 00:12:03.600 For Muslim in the Quran the worst blasphemy is to associate god with other 148 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:08.700 gods. And for them the way they look at Trinity is to worship three 149 00:12:08.700 --> 00:12:09.100 gods. 150 00:12:10.400 --> 00:12:14.100 God had a conjugal relationship with Mary and they conceive Jesus. 151 00:12:14.100 --> 00:12:16.900 This is the Trinity God, Mary and Jesus. 152 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:25.200 So they are accusing us of worshiping associating God with other God. 153 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:26.600 What do we do? 154 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:31.600 We compromise we take off the doctrine of the Trinity from 155 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:35.400 the Christian doctrine just to please our Muslim friends. 156 00:12:38.900 --> 00:12:43.500 One God who succeeded in three equal and Co Eternal person in another 157 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:46.600 is another essential truth, which is a Trinity. 158 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:52.800 We must affirm both the full deity and full humanity of Jesus. It is also 159 00:12:52.800 --> 00:12:57.600 essential to affirm his sacrificial death on the cross. His bodily 160 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:02.000 resurrection from the dead. His bodily ascension into heaven. His bodily 161 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.100 return in power and glory to judge all the living and the dead. All this we 162 00:13:07.100 --> 00:13:08.600 proclaim in the Nicene Creed. 163 00:13:10.400 --> 00:13:15.600 Any concessions on these essentials, even if it is for the sake of 164 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:21.600 unity is wrong because it is to join with those who are Christian in 165 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:22.300 name only. 166 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:29.000 But nothing God's said concession is never right if it compromises 167 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:34.300 essential truth from God's word. And I think that was one of the points 168 00:13:34.300 --> 00:13:39.700 that they were talking about in chapter 15. When when the disciples set 169 00:13:39.700 --> 00:13:43.000 together an said, what is the essential and what is the 170 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:43.200 nonessential? 171 00:13:44.900 --> 00:13:49.600 Okay, the judaizers wanted the non-essential. 172 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:52.000 Okay. 173 00:13:57.800 --> 00:14:02.800 During 1977 millions of people lined up at the museum across United 174 00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:09.000 States to view the treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamun. 175 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:10.300 Okay. 176 00:14:10.300 --> 00:14:13.700 I will I will say it again Tutankhamun. 177 00:14:13.700 --> 00:14:16.700 I hope I say it right, of Egypt. 178 00:14:16.700 --> 00:14:23.000 They got they brought it from Egypt for people to see it. It is interesting that 179 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:28.000 Ali Musalem, this one is here is right because it's Arabic name so I can say it. 180 00:14:28.900 --> 00:14:32.100 The curator of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. 181 00:14:32.100 --> 00:14:37.900 He discovered something very important that some of the jewels in the 182 00:14:37.900 --> 00:14:38.300 Tomb. 183 00:14:38.300 --> 00:14:44.200 We're not genuine, but were only colored glasses, fake. 184 00:14:45.500 --> 00:14:51.500 When he was asked how this could go undetected for so many years. 185 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:52.900 Mr. 186 00:14:52.900 --> 00:14:54.700 Hassan answered. 187 00:14:54.700 --> 00:14:58.600 We were blinded by the gold. 188 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:06.000 One just assumes that real gold and real gems go hand-in-hand. 189 00:15:08.100 --> 00:15:14.100 This is a case where they don't and that's what's happening 190 00:15:14.100 --> 00:15:18.600 sometimes when compromises happen. The jewels, the fake jewels, the glass jewels are mingled with the real 191 00:15:23.400 --> 00:15:27.200 gold which is the essential and then we are confused. 192 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:29.900 What is the real and what is the fake? 193 00:15:32.500 --> 00:15:39.700 Satan mixes truth and error to deceive Christians. 194 00:15:40.700 --> 00:15:47.500 He gets us to compromise and unite over doctrine where we should not 195 00:15:47.500 --> 00:15:49.800 budge an inch. 196 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:57.600 And now may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of 197 00:15:57.600 --> 00:15:57.700 us. 198 00:15:57.700 --> 00:15:58.400 Amen.