This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
Jesus said I am the way, I am the truth.
I'm the life. No man cometh to the Father but
through me. It's not through any church
system, it's not through any Sacramento rights, it's not
through any kind of works of righteousness, which we have
done, but it's according to His mercy.
He has saved us and these are serious issues.
We might take it for granted because we are in a Bible church
and there's many churches still like this out there.
Thank God for that. We usually find ourselves
crafting our own set of rules. Some might believe that just
showing up at church or racking up good deeds is the ticket to
heaven. But spiritual maturity is all
about realizing that the key to eternal life begins with
receiving Jesus into your heart. Today, Pastor Clark shares
insights on how Jesus is the only way to heaven.
He hung on that cross bearing the weight of your sins.
Without him, there's no chance for your sins to be wiped clean
and heaven will be out of reach. Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts
chapter 15 as he continues his message, the gospel of grace.
So there's this problem in the church.
Some people are saying, well, what do we do?
What's the truth? There's a problem here.
So Peter and Barnabas are getting them calmed down,
reinforcing the truth of the gospel, and they're going to go
up to Jerusalem and present this issue, this problem that's
arisen in the New Testament church at the time of this idea
of circumcision being part of what saves someone from their
sin. Now at this time, there was this
growth of the New Testament church.
Church is being planted everywhere.
Headquarters was sort of Jerusalem, but there really was
never any headquarters in the church on earth.
The headquarters of the church is in heaven, and that's God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
They are the ones that lead and run the church.
We don't need a hierarchy to keep things under control.
We don't need a a place in Rome to tell us what's right or
what's wrong. We don't need a place in Costa
Mesa where Calvary Chapel started that tells us what's
right or wrong. We know this word tells us
what's right and wrong right. And so we are accountable to
what the Bible teaches. And soon as something is being
taught contrary to the Bible, then it all goes S very, very
quickly. James was the half brother of
Jesus and he was sort of the main guy in the church in
Jerusalem, the first among equals if you may.
And so he would sort of preside over this council that they were
going to have regarding this issue of circumcision.
This is a big deal because it's going to wreck the church if it
isn't straightened out. Just like if a heresy came in
here and someone started teaching something that wasn't
biblical, it would wreck the church and scatter the sheep.
So being sent on their way by the church, they were sent up by
this church in Antioch. They passed through Phoenicia
and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles and
how they caused great joy to all the brethren.
So it was so wonderful how all these people were getting saved
miraculously in these church plants that the Paul and
Barnabas were establishing. It was like a revival.
It was just amazing how this, the preaching of the simple
gospel, was convicting people and bringing them to faith in
Jesus Christ. There was no rituals, there was
no ceremonies. There was no hierarchy of people
telling them, yeah, you put your faith in Christ, but then you
got to do these three things or four things in order to make
sure you're really saved. That wasn't happening.
Verse 4. And when they had come to
Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and
the elders, and they reported all the things that God had done
with them. But some of the sect of the
Pharisees, and this is the false cult of the Pharisees, the
Judaizers who believe rose up saying it is necessary to
circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
Paul tells us in Galatians and in this book of Galatians was
written to communicate these issues and problems that we're
continuing in the early stages of the church.
And he's very emphatic and what he says here in Galatians
chapter one, verse 6 through 9, this ties right into this.
Paul says, I marvel that you were turning away so soon from
him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel,
which is not another. But there are some who trouble
you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we are an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel
to you than what we have preached you.
Let him be accursed, as we have said before.
So now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you
than what you have received, let him be accursed.
That's pretty deep and pretty powerful, what he said there.
And so I run into people, you run into people.
Unfortunately, the body of Christ on the earth is so
fragmented between so many different denominations and so
many different opinions and so many different liturgies and
rituals and ways of doing things and way of not doing things.
But anytime a ritual supersedes the gospel, it's a heresy.
Nothing wrong with the ritual. Some people use candles and
incense. Some people use drums and
guitars to worship God. There's nothing inherently wrong
in any of that. But if we lift any of the ritual
above the truth of the Word of God, we've become false
teachers. So you have different groups
that say you cannot be saved unless you confess your sins to
a priest maybe? Or you can't be saved unless you
speak in tongues. Or you can't be saved unless
you've received the second blessing and called the holiness
doctrine. And these people teach that you
have this experience, you'll never sin again.
I mean, it's craziness, you know.
And so you have all these people with these different agendas
and, and different ways of adding things to what the
Scriptures say. And so as a result, the
simplicity of the gospel is corrupted by the gospel being
Jesus plus something else. And the gospel is that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was
buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures. Jesus said I am the way, I am
the truth, I'm the life. No man cometh to the Father but
through me. It's not through any church
system, it's not through any Sacramento rights, it's not
through any kind of works of righteousness, which we have
done, but it's according to His mercy.
He has saved us. And these are serious issues.
We might take it for granted because we are in a Bible church
and there's many churches still like this out there.
Thank God for that. Bible churches that teach the
Bible, not man's ideas of what the Bible says, are teaching
things that aren't in the Bible. I'm amazed at how many people
look at tradition, and I don't care what the tradition could
be. It could be the tradition of
Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy or Reformation theology.
As soon as you make something more superior, a system to the
truth of the simplicity of the gospel, which Paul was worried
about, the thing that bothered in the most is that our minds
would be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ
Jesus. It is enough that Jesus died and
that he died for me. That's enough.
But all these other things, they make people religious, they make
them proud, they make them self-righteous.
So this brother said to me, you know, how could they tell me,
you know, what's the basis of me losing my salvation?
What sin is it that I could lose my salvation?
David committed the worst of sins, adultery and murder, and
yet because he was a man after God's own heart, the Spirit
convicted him, and he repented of his sin, and God still
declared him even after his sin, that he was a man after God's
own heart. Aren't you glad?
Psalm 50 ones in the Bible, restore unto me the joy of my
salvation. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.
There's no sin once you've become a believer in Jesus
Christ that would prevent you from entering into the Kingdom
of heaven. Now I don't recommend you sin
because you have this security in Christ.
If you love Christ, you don't want a sin.
If you love Christ, you'll send less.
If someone says they're a believer and they decide they no
longer want to follow Christ, you pray for them and pray that
the Holy Spirit will convict them.
God inscribes us in the palm of our hands.
He promises He will never leave us or forsake us.
He doesn't make us a son or a daughter and then disown us.
So these teachings are really very, very dangerous out there.
You cannot lose your salvation. If you could lose it, you never
had it. And so this is a big issue at
this time. And this sect is evil and
they're trying to cause problems.
In verse 6 now the apostles and elders came together to consider
this matter and when they had had been much dispute, Peter
rose up and said to them, and it must have been a chaotic
environment. The Judaizers yelling, the true
believers arguing it wasn't probably a real calm room and
meeting. I mean people really pretty
uptight about this because they were both passionate on both
sides. Peter rose up and said to them,
of course we know Peter was a Jew.
He had that vision of on the rooftop of don't call something,
it's clean, unclean. I mean, he had this revelation
all the sudden that there is no difference between Jew and
Gentile. There is no preference from God
between those who are kosher and those who aren't.
Thank the Lord for that vision. Men and brethren, you know that
a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentile
should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them
the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction
between us and them. In other words, again, there is
no distinction between the Jew and the Gentile purifying their
hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test
God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which
neither our fathers nor we were able to bear, but we believe
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be
saved in the same manner as they.
Then all the multitude kept silent, and listened to Barnabas
and Paul, declaring how many miracles and wonders God had
worked through them among the Gentiles, and after they had
become silent, James. And of course this is the half
brother of Jesus, the one who wrote the book of James as well
answered, saying, Men and brethren, listen to me.
Simon had declared how God at first visited the Gentiles to
take out of them a people for his name.
And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is
written. And this is from the book of
Amos. After this I will return and
will rebuild the Tabernacle of David, which has fallen down.
I will rebuild its ruins. I will set it up so that the
rest of mankind may seek the Lord.
Even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the
Lord, who does all these things known to God from eternity are
all his works. Therefore, I judge that we
should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are
turning to God, but that we write to them, they're going to
give them direction. Now, these are the things that
are important to to understand once you're born again and
you're saved and you got this group of Jews and Gentiles
learning how to worship together, realizing that to
Jewish people growing up in Judaism, being kosher was
important. Being gentile.
We'd eat pigs, we'd eat whatever, you know, we didn't
care about that didn't make us any better or less holy or
didn't make them any more holy. But it was a tradition of their
upbringing. And so the wisdom of the
apostles and James and all those who got together was they gave
them some direction here. Abstain from things polluted by
idols. In other words, don't
necessarily intentionally eat in the presence of your Jewish
brothers and sisters who are in Christ things of food that would
have been offered the idols. And Paul gets into that later in
the book of Corinthians. We'll get to that again.
It's a sensitivity of conscience that you don't want to stumble
people unnecessarily about what you do or what you like Or
they're called mores. What is right and wrong for the
child of God according to the word of God?
Some of you in here probably don't go to movies anymore.
You probably haven't stepped your feet into a theater in
probably years. And that's a big issue for you
because of how you perceive, you know, Hollywood and graphic
violence or immorality that's depicted in most movies.
But everybody has a conscience. Some people can watch a movie,
and it's not that they condone those kind of things, but
they're looking at the storyline and, you know, they're focusing
on, you know, the good parts of the movie, whatever.
So but someone maybe would see you going to a movie theater and
say, well, you can't be a Christian if you're going to
movies. Some people act that way or
playing cards. What are you doing tonight?
I'm I'm going to play 5 stud poker, 5 card poker with my my
neighbor. What don't you know that's
gambling or you know you you shouldn't be playing.
We were in Bible cards. They taught us we could play
cards, but we only could play Rook or Melbourne.
We couldn't play face cards because face cards were sinful
crazy. We were told that we couldn't
listen to any music other than Christian hymn music.
You couldn't listen to country, you couldn't listen to rock, you
couldn't listen to jazz, you couldn't listen to classical.
I mean, it's crazy Legalism, and legalism is a horrible thing to
be under bondage to now. When I was in Bible college, I
liked rock. I still like some of it now, but
in order to listen to it without stumbling someone, I hadn't
remember those old stereo headphones you put on.
You put this big plug in, you know you.
So I was listening to bread, you know, that was far from rock.
It don't matter to me. Remember that this calm music,
but the Bible call you just thought that was evil music.
I could see Metallica or maybe some of that stuff would be out
there. But, you know, there's nothing
wrong with bread, you know, or America or some of these
different calm bands. But anyway, if you were caught
listening to that kind of music, people would question your
salvation. Or you're in a restaurant and
you're looking around. Well, I don't see anybody here
that knows me. I guess I could have a, a Miller
Lite or I could have a Cabernet or I could have a Merlot.
And, you know, I'm just going to have one And, and that should be
OK. But someone comes in all of a
sudden. Did you see such and such?
They had a beer on their table. I mean, come on.
You know, the Bible teaches moderation, but it doesn't teach
abstinence. So all these things are all part
of this thing of adding something to what it is that
makes us acceptable to God. At the end of the day, I don't
care how perfect a life you live and how holy you think you are,
if God still shows you what's in you, you would scream.
We are depraved people, as soon as we don't understand it, we
still have a sinful nature and we are totally unholy compared
to the holiness of God. No matter how good we work and
how hard we try, at the end of the day, we are still falling
creatures. Amen.
And I mean defend you if you think you're perfect in here
today. And I have to tell you, you're
seriously disillusioned, you know?
So what makes you acceptable to God is Jesus Christ.
He's your holiness. He's your righteousness.
He's your redemption. It's because we are in Christ
that we've been made acceptable to God.
But we forget, well, I'm going to really try to be a good
Christian and we should want to be faithful to God and not
dishonor him. But if at the end of the day,
you think of all the stuff you've done and you lay your
head down the pillow, well, God, I did a pretty good job today.
I didn't swear, I didn't lust, I didn't think this, I didn't
judge, you know, and, and, and the Lord's just up there
smiling. Well, let's see how tomorrow
goes, because eventually you're going to break.
You're just human. You're going to break.
So churches that teach these kind of things, and in this
instance we got this issue of circumcision, but it's anything
that tries to make you feel righteous by something you've
done versus what he's done. Ephesians 289 says for by grace
you've been saved through faith. And this is not yourselves.
It's a gift of God, not a works. So no one compose, no one
compose, and then he says, for we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which got us before ordained
that we should walk in it. So the Holy Spirit's job is to
transform us and to make us more into the likeness of Jesus
Christ. And he does that through the
teaching of the Word. Our minds are renewed.
We begin to think more like God thinks.
You got a new believer that doesn't know much about the word
yet. They're going to make a lot of
mistakes and do a lot of stupid things, just like we did in our
early stages of our development in Christ.
You got to be patient. They're going judging them and
condemning them and giving them a list of do's and don'ts.
The Holy Spirit will be faithful to convict them.
And they might come up and say, you know, I'm really having a
problem with this area in my life.
And you can say, yeah, I used to too.
And this is what I discovered is the Lord worked in my life and
set me free from this besetting sin and gave me grace to become.
A little bit more like Jesus every day.
And, you know, I don't even think about that.
I don't even want that anymore. I don't like it anymore.
And so, you know, the apostles here are telling the people,
this is the ruling here. Don't eat foods offered to
idols. Abstain from sexual immorality
and from things strangled and from blood.
So the Jewish people would not eat anything that had any kind
of trace of blood in because it would be seen as unclean.
And so they had agape lunches. I like medium rare steak.
You guys, every meter. You don't want to sit down with
a kosher Jew and have a dinner and they're eating, I don't
know, whatever they're eating a kosher and your steaks bleeding
all over the plate. There's nothing wrong with them
or medium rare meat, but that stumbles.
So they would have these meals and they would try to like, OK,
how can we have some degree of compromise on mores?
What's right and wrong for the child of God according to the
word of God? So the Jews, you know, they were
brought up kosher. Like, I have this one account in
Pittsburgh. He's a great guy.
And I said, hey, you know, we want to try to get more business
and we'll take you to the Capital Grill.
He says, Clark, I can't go there.
I'm not kosher. I said, OK, well, then you tell
us where you want to go, and then we'll go where you want to
go. So you want to be sensitive, You
don't want to be judging, OK, that kind of stuff.
So anyway, it says for Moses has throughout many generations,
those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogue
every Sabbath. So the the wisdom of these
leaders at the time came down to the path that there needed to be
this understanding that there was no need for circumcision to
be saved. That's clarified.
Then it please the apostles and elders with the whole church to
send chosen men of their own company, Verse 22, to Antioch
with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who also named Barsabbas
and Silas, leading men among the brethren.
They wrote letter by them, the apostles, the elders and the
brethren. This letter went out to the
brethren who are the Gentiles and Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.
Greetings. Since we have heard that some
who went out from us have troubled you with words
unsettling your souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep
the law, to whom we gave no such commandment.
It seemed good to us, being assembled with 1 accord, to send
chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men
who have risked their lives through the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and
Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth.
For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you
no greater burden than these necessary things, that you
abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things
strangled, and from sexual immorality.
If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
Farewell. Nothing added, nothing
subtracted from the simplicity of the centrality of Christ and
the gospel. So when they were sent off, they
came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude
together, they delivered the letter, and when they had read
it, they rejoiced over its encouragement.
What a relief it had to be for these people now to not be
worried about needing to get circumcised now.
Judas and Silas themselves being prophets also exhorted and
strengthened the brethren with many words, and after they had
stayed there for a time, they were sent back with greetings
from the brethren to the apostles.
However, it seemed good to Silas to remain there.
Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch teaching and
preaching the word of the Lord with many others also.
Thanks for joining us on today's edition of Living Waters of
Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
Today, Pastor Clark is teaching about the book of Acts.
And as we learn more about Acts, it becomes clear that the early
church didn't miss a single opportunity to share the gospel.
In nearly every chapter, you see apostles like Peter and Paul
stepping into conversations, crowds, and crises with
boldness, ready to proclaim the name of Jesus.
Their example challenges us to consider how we might step into
gospel moments in our own lives. What doors might God open this
week for you to speak truth, offer hope, or live out your
faith in a way that points others to Him?
The story of Acts reminds us we are part of the same mission.
Today, let's live with eyes open and hearts ready to respond.
We hope you are challenged by today's message.
If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to see you in
person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
Unit 6B. For more information, visit
calvarychapelonline.com. You could also join our e-mail
list, give online, or submit a prayer request right from the
site. If you can't make it in person,
be sure to tune in on the Calvary Chapel Westmoreland
YouTube channel. Subscribe so you never miss new
teachings. If you're in the Greensburg
area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.
Pray about helping financially support the new station that
will reach thousands more listeners.
Send financial gifts to Grace FMPO Box 716, Greensburg, PA
15601. Once again, we're so grateful
you joined us today to be inspired by God's Word.
Please tune in again for more Living Waters of Grace.