Weekly Sermons

Faith Alone                 Acts 15:1-11

The Bible says not to welcome (2 John) such pests who are carried along by the winds (Jude 12), come in by stealth (Jude 4), worm their way into households (2 Tim. 3:6), don’t spare the church (Acts 20:29), secretly bring destruction (2 Peter 2:1), spy on our freedom (Gal. 2:4), nurture only themselves without fear (Jude 12), and are unreasoning animals (Jude 11).

What’s cool is that in Acts 15 we see Paul and Peter and James in complete ________________________ that the works we do don’t save us, but a truly saved person will be characterized by the good works they do. And it will all be “by faith alone!”

 

Troubled Teaching _____________________ hearts          V. 1, 5, 24

Judaizers insisted that the Gentile believers really weren’t saved because they hadn’t been circumcised.

The 3 parts of the Old Testament Law: Moral, Priestly, Civil.

Here it’s made clear that the false teachers had gone out without the ________________________ of the Jerusalem church and its leaders!

 

Paul’s teaching – All people are saved by faith alone!        V. 2-4

These Judaizers had come like ______________________ to suck the lifeblood out of churches they had not planted and disciples they had not evangelized. It still happens today!

Galatians 1:8; 2:4-5; 3:2-3, 11, 14, 19, 24-25, 28; 5:1-6; 6:15

Peter’s teaching – All People are saved by faith alone!      V. 7-11 

The only way for my heart to be _______________ is by faith in Jesus.

 

They had forgotten that the law wasn’t a means of salvation, but was the template for holy living given to a people who had ____________ been delivered by faith.

Abraham had believed God, and it had been counted to Him for righteousness.

Joel had said, “the just shall live by faith.”

To the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.                 -Romans 4:5

 

Just as Peter had been there when the Samaritans believed, and when the Gentiles believed, he now proclaims the fatal error of the Judaizers – in calling for a work to be added to faith, they revealed that they were the ones who were not ______________________ saved yet! They were not trusting in Christ alone for salvation!

 

Let’s repeat it one more time –

The only way for my heart to be cleansed is by faith in Jesus.