The Jewish Final Solution to the World's Problem - Peter's Gospel vs. Paul's Gospel - Two different Gospels - LISTEN TO THIS MESSAGE!

[0:00] The material that we plan to bring this morning is, of course, very critically and strategically connected with what we have been dealing with for the past three sessions. So if you have missed any of the last three Sundays, you will find copies of that content on the CDs that are available in the back, and I would hope you would avail yourself of them.

[0:24] They are all free, and they are indicated according to their date. So if you will simply look at the particular Sundays in August that you may have missed and pick up any that correspond to that, I can promise you you would be very well advantaged, and all of this would make a whole lot more sense to you if you have that content.

[0:48] At the outset of this message, I want to make a couple of statements that I think will give at least some indication of where we're headed. And the first has to do with this.

[0:59] What was the gospel that John the Baptist preached and that Jesus the Messiah preached when he ministered to the throngs throughout the nation of Israel?

[1:12] I can assure you it was not predicated upon the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, although a great many Christians assume that it was.

[1:25] Before the fact, no one in Israel understood or even begun to appreciate the fact that Jesus Christ was going to the cross and there he would die for the sins of the world.

[1:37] That was not part of what was preached. Although, I must admit, John the Baptist had at least some glimmer of that when he said, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

[1:50] But later, John makes it clear while he is in prison that he's not even sure any longer that Jesus was really the Messiah.

[2:03] And he said, Are you the one that should come or ought we to look for someone else? And John actually sent his disciples to find Jesus to confirm that indeed he was the Messiah.

[2:20] And Jesus, of course, gave him that confirmation. But the thing that we need to understand is that before the cross occurred, No one but Jesus himself knew and understood that that was actually what was upcoming.

[2:39] And when he announced that in plain language to the apostles, that the Son of Man must needs go up to Jerusalem, and there suffer many things at the hands of the scribes and Pharisees, and be killed, and the third day be raised again.

[2:54] They could not believe that he actually meant that. And Peter even took him aside and rebuked him for talking that way. To which Jesus responded, Get thee behind me, Satan, for you savor the things of men, not the things of God.

[3:12] He wasn't calling Peter Satan. He was saying, Satan has influenced your thinking so that you think just like all other men. And you're not thinking the way my father was thinking when he sent me to earth to accomplish this mission.

[3:27] So please understand that before the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, the good news that they preached and proclaimed as the kingdom of heaven is at hand was just that.

[3:39] It wasn't death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That didn't enter into their thinking at all. What he preached was the kingdom of heaven, the long-awaited restitution and restoration of the earth, because we live in a broken, damaged world, is at hand.

[3:56] And it was at hand because Jesus was the Messiah. And if Israel were to embrace Jesus as the Messiah, that would be their part. God would do his part by providing the substitutionary death of the Savior that would take away the sin of the world and remove Adam's curse.

[4:16] But we all know what happened. That didn't occur. Israel did not embrace Jesus as the Messiah. Instead, the establishment cried out, Crucify him.

[4:31] Crucify him. We have no king but Caesar. And let me tell you, in that death of the Son of God on the cross, everything changed.

[4:49] Everything changed. Nothing would ever be the same. That was the point, that was the fixed point for the very center of all human history.

[5:03] Nothing would ever be the same after that cross. Now a new dimension is added to the good news. But here is the catch.

[5:15] The new dimension that is added is simply this. Jesus, Jesus, whom you crucified, has been raised from the dead, and he is alive.

[5:30] But, the message that had been delivered to Israel had not changed. It was that of the kingdom, and if you will embrace now, this risen Christ from the dead, if you will embrace him, he will establish that kingdom.

[5:50] And, the offer continued to be extended to Israel. And Israel continued to reject it. Folks, this is so important.

[6:02] If you understand this, you will know that Peter was not preaching the gospel of the grace of God on the day of Pentecost. He wasn't saying, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who died for your sins and you will be saved.

[6:16] No, no. What he was saying was, God sent him, he was our Messiah, you crucified him. With wicked hands, you have slain the Lord of glory.

[6:27] But God raised him from the dead. And what Peter was doing was extending the offer of the kingdom that had been made on the other side of the cross. He was continuing to extend that same offer to Israel on this side of the cross.

[6:44] And they continued to reject it. He did that in chapter 2. He did it again in chapter 3. And rather than respond in a positive way with the nation embracing Jesus as their Messiah, they began a campaign of persecution.

[7:03] And it starts to surface as early as Acts chapter 4. And one of the head persecutors was a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus.

[7:15] He is going to be a ruthless individual. A man filled with venom and hatred for Jesus Christ and all who subscribe to him.

[7:25] Saul of Tarsus, as you well know, is going to become Paul the Apostle. Now, what I want to inform you about is this.

[7:40] The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ had been God's provision for the judicial removal of Adam's sin and for the placement or the coming of the kingdom of heaven to earth where everything that was broken, which was everything, would be fixed.

[8:00] These are the times of restitution and restoration of which Peter spoke in Acts chapter 3. And all that was necessary was for Israel as a nation to get on board.

[8:11] They did not. But this kingdom, and this is important, so please hear me well, this kingdom that Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost is going to continue to be preached in chapter 3.

[8:24] Peter is going to continue preaching it on through the book of Acts up through chapter 12 where he disappears from the scene. And guess who else is going to preach this kingdom?

[8:37] Paul, the Apostle. Many grace believers are of the opinion that Paul never did preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. All he preached was the gospel of the grace of God.

[8:49] I disagree. He preached both of them. He had to. Because every preacher knows that you always have to adapt your message to accommodate your audience.

[9:06] There is no point in bringing material to an audience that will have absolutely no appreciation for the content. They've got to be able to connect with what you're saying or the whole thing is futile.

[9:18] The Apostle Paul is going to preach the kingdom of heaven to the Jew and he's going to preach the gospel of the grace of God to the Gentile.

[9:31] And you're going to see it this morning in black and white. It is unmistakable. And here is where the rub comes in. with the gospel of the grace of God now on hand predicated upon the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and the final rejection of the nation of Israel as Jesus being their Messiah.

[9:54] And I honestly must tell you I do not know exactly when that occurred. I used to think it was the stoning of Stephen but I cannot buy that any longer because the scriptures make it clear that this gospel of the kingdom continued continued to be offered to Israel later.

[10:14] And we will see that as well. Now what we have both of these gospels side by side at the same time directed to different audiences that has never occurred in the history of the world.

[10:29] No generation has ever faced this kind of an issue. Today we don't. I do not preach repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[10:39] That's not my gospel. My gospel is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's the gospel today. But one of the tragic misconceptions that exists among Christians today is that many are preaching a gospel that belongs on the other side of the cross not this side of the cross.

[11:09] And you can't have it both ways. The line of demarcation is the crucifixion. And everything on the other side which contains the gospel content Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John everything on the other side of the gospel pertains to then.

[11:28] Not now. But so many want to make it apply to now. And granted you can preach from the four gospels as we did here. We spent five years in John's gospel verse by verse and it was a wonderful exercise.

[11:43] And there are all kinds of illustrations and applications to be made from John's gospel. But we are not to go and do likewise. We are not to claim for instance prayer promises anything that you ask in my name that I will do.

[11:58] That's not a promise for you. You don't have any right to claim that. That was a promise that Jesus gave to the apostles on the other side. And he meant it for them exclusively privately.

[12:11] Don't try to adopt that and make it work in your life. By the way I already did. And it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Whatsoever you ask in my name that I will do. That's not for me.

[12:23] That was for them. And when you try to make it for you and it doesn't work for you then you say well what's wrong with me? I guess I don't have enough faith. And then you start beating up on yourself spiritually because you don't believe enough or have enough faith.

[12:37] And so all kinds of problems are created by not having the proper gospel. Let me as briefly as I can give you a little bit of a rundown because we're going to be moving very very rapidly and you must understand something about the chronology that is involved in Acts because this too is very critical.

[12:57] As we have told you a number of times when we began this series, the Acts of the Apostles consisting of 28 chapters took place over a period of three decades.

[13:08] There's 30 years involved here. You don't get that impression from just reading the 28 chapters because you can read all 28 chapters in about well maybe 28 minutes if you're a fast reader.

[13:23] Doesn't take long. But these events took 30 years to develop and there were all kinds of things happening and changes being made some of which are not all that obvious.

[13:35] For instance, as far as we can determine, now the chronology I'm going to give you is very brief and I must add also that it has a degree of accuracy only within one or two years.

[13:52] Probably not much greater than that. But it is very difficult to be precise or pinpoint some of these things. So the dates I'm going to give you may actually vary a year or two years from what the date actually was.

[14:07] But scholars have labored long and hard over this and consensus have been reached that this is pretty much the way it was. And we're talking about Pentecost. which was no more than 50 days, about seven weeks after the crucifixion of Christ, occurred, as best as we can tell, very close to 30 A.D.

[14:32] The stoning of Stephen was approximately two years later. That's recorded in Acts chapter 7.

[14:43] So what we are saying is from Pentecost in Acts chapter 1, where the ascension of Christ is recorded and he goes back to heaven, until the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7, consisting of seven chapters, encompasses about two years.

[15:06] And of course, we do not have most of the content that happened during those two years. What the scriptures record is very scanty compared to all that actually took place.

[15:19] But what we have is all the Spirit of God wanted us to have, and this was all Dr. Luke was inspired to give us. The Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus, was converted on the Damascus Road approximately 35 A.D., about five years after the crucifixion.

[15:41] then we read in Acts chapter 1 and verse 18 that Saul had spent 15 days with Peter in Jerusalem.

[15:58] That must have been some kind of a get together. Wouldn't you love to have been a fly on the wall for that? Galatians 1.18 tells us about that. Cornelius is converted in Acts chapter 10 through the efforts of Peter, and we have spent enough time on that, the sheet let down from heaven, the all manner of clean, unclean animals, etc., which was God's way of informing Peter that he was opening the door to the Gentiles, and Peter just didn't get it because he could not conceive of God wanting to do anything through the Gentiles.

[16:40] They are the dogs, the scum of the earth. But, the voice from heaven said, that which God hath cleansed, that call thou not common or unclean.

[16:52] And Peter finally got the message that this sheet let down from heaven with all manner of four-footed beasts, creeping things, unclean animals, clean animals, animals acceptable for sacrifice, animals unacceptable for sacrifice, animals subject to the dietary restrictions of Judaism and animals that could be consumed by the dietary so as to constitute kosher food.

[17:14] All of those animals weren't talking about animals at all. It was talking about people. Clean and unclean people. And the Jew was looked upon as the clean.

[17:25] And the Gentile was the unclean. And God says, the cross of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. And God was in Christ reconciling the world, including Gentiles, unto himself.

[17:40] So he has broken down the barrier that existed before between Jew and Gentile. And Peter had real difficulty grasping that message. And when the Spirit of God came down on Cornelius and his household after Peter preached this message to them, and they began speaking with tongues, Peter was flabbergasted.

[18:01] And he says, I can't believe it. He says, these people are Gentiles. He had already prefaced his arrival there by saying, you understand how that it is against the law for a man who is a Jew to be fellowshipping and associating and eating with Gentiles.

[18:15] This is not a lawful thing to do. Frankly, I don't understand why I'm here and I'm very uncomfortable about this whole thing. But I had this sheet led down and the voice from heaven, and what was I going to do? I had to obey. Something cataclysmic was happening, and Peter did not understand.

[18:33] Now, hear me well. This, this thing, this event that admitted Gentiles to be people of God did not occur until a full ten years after the crucifixion.

[18:59] What are we saying, then, about all of the activity that occurred between the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 and the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10?

[19:12] 10 years later? What was happening during those 10 years?

[19:25] A whole lot, but it was all happening among the Jews, not the Gentiles. We've got nothing but Jewish, Jewish, Jewish, Jewish.

[19:39] And what is their interest? It is only the kingdom of heaven coming to earth that began and ended their interests.

[19:56] Barnabas and Saul will not take, Barnabas, he's called Saul, later to become Paul, will not take their first missionary journey until about A.D.

[20:09] 47. or 48. Could have been as late as 49. What are we saying? We are saying that Saul of Tarsus never began his missionary journey to the Gentiles until 13 to 15 years after he was converted on the road to Damascus.

[20:30] Much of that time he spent back home in his hometown of Tarsus in Cilicia. And eventually Barnabas went and saw him and found him and we have in Acts chapter 13, if you will turn to that please, we've got several references to run by you.

[20:52] Acts chapter 13. Well, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that.

[21:05] Let me just stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. And let's go back to Acts chapter 9. Let's do that. When he is converted on the Damascus road, God makes it very clear when he tells Ananias to go and lay hands on Saul of Tarsus that he may receive his sight.

[21:25] He tells Ananias that I have raised him up, this is Saul of Tarsus, to be a minister to the Gentiles, to kings, and to the sons of Israel.

[21:39] Now what does that tell you? There's three different classes here. He said, Ananias, I've raised up Saul of Tarsus, least likely guy in the world that you would pick for a job like this.

[21:53] I mean, this is one who hated Jesus Christ with a passion and everyone who followed him. And when he finds out how radically wrong he is, God says, I've chosen him and I'm going to use him to minister to three categories.

[22:12] And the categories are, first of all, Gentiles. This man is going to be called the apostle to the Gentiles.

[22:23] And he's the only one who's going to be given that title. God gave it to him. The apostle to the Gentiles. And Paul is later going to say, I magnify my office.

[22:35] What that means is, I make a really big deal out of my office to which I have been called. And well he should. And well he better.

[22:47] He was the only one who occupied that office. He said, I'm going to send him to the Gentiles and to kings. He's going to speak to royalty.

[23:02] Gentiles, the scum of the earth, royalty, and the sons of Israel. Who are they? They're Jews of course.

[23:12] Now wait a minute. Wait a minute. Paul isn't going to be the apostle to the Jews. They already had 12 apostles.

[23:25] He's going to be the apostle to the Gentiles. They didn't have any. Isn't that right? No, that isn't right. I guess you could say, while Paul's chief calling was the apostle to the Gentiles, he's going to be called to be the apostle to everybody.

[23:44] And that's exactly what he's going to do. So, here in Acts chapter 9 and verse 20.

[24:00] Fascinating. Earlier part of chapter 9 relates the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. And in Acts chapter 9 and verse 19, it says, he took food and was strengthened.

[24:16] This is after his conversion experience. And now, for several days, he was with the disciples who were at Damascus. And who were these disciples?

[24:27] They were Jews. These are the same people that he went there to round up and bring back to Jerusalem in chains. And now he's fellowshipping with them. Because now he's one of them.

[24:41] And immediately, verse 20, look at this. Immediately, he began to proclaim Jesus. Where? In the synagogues.

[24:54] Well, who are you going to find there? Well, it won't be Gentiles. The only Gentiles you would find in the synagogue would be those who are designated as God-fearers. They are not full-fledged Jews because they've never been circumcised.

[25:08] And if you've never been circumcised, there's no way you can be a Jew. But, they were like Cornelius. Cornelius was called a God-fearer. And he gave money to the Jews.

[25:20] He supported their programs. He supported their synagogues. He financially helped them. And he was referred to as a God-fearer. So when Paul stands to preach to a congregation that is in the synagogue, he will say something like, Men of Israel!

[25:37] And you who fear God! Which is another way of saying, and you Gentiles who are here because you are in sympathy with Israel and the God of Israel, and you believe that there is but one God, and that's the God of Israel.

[25:52] But, you are not a proselyte, yet, you have an interest in things Jewish, and you are here to hear the Jewish law and the Jewish scriptures. But they were not full-fledged Jews.

[26:05] They were like Cornelius. He began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God.

[26:16] Now that was the only issue that divided the Jews regarding the person of Jesus. And it was a big one. His identity.

[26:27] Who is He? Is He really? Is He really? Is He really the Son of God? Is He really the Messiah? Is this Jesus of Nazareth, the same one that Moses was talking about, and that Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel was talking about, is He the one?

[26:48] And of course, some believed He was. Most believed He was not. So this is what He is going to begin preaching. And we do not know how long after His conversion He started preaching, but we got this word immediately that keeps being injected here.

[27:07] Immediately He began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying He is the Son of God. And do you know that He had to have included in that His own personal confession? I know what I'm preaching to you about the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.

[27:22] I know it's completely opposite of everything I believed. And I want you to know, I was wrong. I was completely wrong.

[27:33] And now, I am preaching the faith I once sought to destroy. And some of these people were saying, Whoa! Is this guy for real?

[27:45] Is this true what he's saying? Did he really have an encounter with Jesus of Nazareth? And many were convinced on the basis of that. And those hearing him continued to be amazed and were saying, Is not this he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name?

[28:04] And who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests? Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews.

[28:14] What does that mean? Confounding the Jews. It means that Saul presented scripture passages, arguments, and challenges to the Jewish audience that they could not refute.

[28:30] They could not answer them. They were perplexed. And no doubt, somewhat embarrassed. But they had no comeback. And he was proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

[28:52] Wow! And to whom was he proving it? Jews. That was the only issue. Who is he? Who is he? And when one day at Caesarea Philippi he turned to his own apostles and asked him, Who do men say that I the son of man am?

[29:10] And it was Peter who said, Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Indeed he was. So, in Acts chapter 10, next chapter, that's 8 to 10 years later from the time of the day of Pentecost.

[29:30] And in Acts chapter 13, if you'll turn to that, please, very quickly now. Acts chapter 13, and this is the first missionary journey.

[29:44] There were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers, I'm not going to name all of them, verse 2, and while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

[30:01] And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. And being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Solution. From there, they sailed to Cyprus and they reached Salamis, which is the seaport of Cyprus.

[30:17] And it says, and they began to proclaim the word of God, where? In the synagogues of the Jews. And they also had John as their helper.

[30:29] This is, of course, John Mark. And, if we may, let's come to verse 15.

[30:40] Now, Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia.

[30:51] And John left them and returned to Jerusalem. But, going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down.

[31:07] And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.

[31:21] Wow, what an opportunity. Here are a couple of strangers in town. Paul and Barnabas. They go to the synagogue. And it was customary of the ruler of the synagogue to take notice if there were any strangers in town.

[31:35] If they were strangers and they're in the synagogue, you could almost rightly assume that they were Jews or they wouldn't be there. And it was considered a courtesy to go to this stranger whom you supposed to be a Jew and give him the courtesy of addressing the congregation should he choose to do so.

[31:57] And this was common, ordinary fare. So it wasn't out of the ordinary at all. And they went to him and said, if you've got something you would like to say, say it. And Paul stood up and motioned with his hand.

[32:11] He said, Men of Israel! And look at the other part. And you who fear God, there are your God-fearers. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

[32:27] And with an uplifted hand he led them out. What is he doing here? Paul is going all the way back to Egypt. That's the same thing? I wonder. You suppose he got that idea from Stephen?

[32:41] That's exactly what Stephen did. And Saul of Tarsus was there to hear Stephen's history lesson. He held the coats of those who stoned Stephen.

[32:54] He recounted that story. And now he is telling the same story. He is recounting God's faithfulness to the nation of Israel going all the way back to the land of Egypt bringing them up to where they were this time.

[33:07] And he is going to recount the history about the kingship. And verse 24 talks about John. John had proclaimed before a baptism of repentance to all the people the people of whom?

[33:21] The people of Israel. This wasn't an international message. This was a Jewish message. It was confined to Israel. And while John was completing his course and so on.

[33:33] And come down if you may to verse let's condense this if we can. And we read in verse 32 Paul's conclusion to his history lesson and he says and we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers that God has fulfilled this promise to our children that's our Jewish children in that he raised up Jesus as it is also written in the second psalm thou art my son today have I begotten thee and as for the fact that he raised him up from the dead no more to return to decay is spoken in this way I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David therefore he also says in another psalm thou wilt not allow thy holy one to undergo decay for David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay but he whom God raised did not undergo decay that is he rose the third day be it therefore known to you hey listen you brethren of mine this is the bottom line of the message this is what I'm getting at this is the punch line listen up now let it be known to you brethren that through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and through him everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses wow this is a thunderbolt dropped on this synagogue these people are in an emotional psychological theological tizzy trying to figure out what all this means and here he is spelling it out to them it is amazing and come over if you would please to chapter 14 well

[35:34] I must I must get back to 13 look at 1344 the next sabbath and the significance of the sabbath is Jewish it's all Jewish the next sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God word had spread like wildfire throughout the whole town these two guys in town Paul and Barnabas there's something I'm telling you nobody's ever heard what they're talking you've got to come and hear these guys the whole city assembled to hear the word of God but when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and were blaspheming hey you can't believe what these guys say that's a bunch of hooey Jesus of Nazareth can you imagine the Messiah coming from Nazareth and dying on a cross being God's Messiah that's crazy these guys are nuts they don't know what they're talking about and they're ridiculing and blaspheming and trying to tear down everything that they've been building up and Paul and Barnabas spoke and said it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first why is that?

[36:41] because the gospel was to go to the Jew first and then to the Gentile and that's exactly what's happening but since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life what are you saying?

[36:58] you're not even worthy of saving? is that what you're saying about yourself? and behold we are turning to the Gentiles and that must have struck them like a thunderclap turning to the Gentiles did you hear that?

[37:18] for thus the Lord has commanded us I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles that you should bring salvation to the end of the earth now let's look at chapter 14 and verse 1 it came about that in Iconium they entered well what else?

[37:41] what else? synagogue! synagogue! and they spoke in such a manner that is with great conviction and great power that a great multitude believed both of Jews and Greeks and these Greeks are not Gentiles these Greeks are Jews who are speaking the Greek language and accustomed to Greek culture a great number believed but the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren and they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord who was bearing witness to the word of his grace granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands now I'm going to skip ahead fast forward and present a problem when Paul meets with the apostles in Galatians chapter 2 he says that he met with them privately to explain to them that gospel which he preached among the

[38:50] Gentiles and we pointed out to you that there was absolutely no reason for him to do that if he was preaching the same thing that the twelve apostles were preaching to the Jews but he wasn't in all of these visits to the Jewish synagogues where Paul and Barnabas come into every new town first thing they always do is head for the synagogue and they began preaching there that Jesus is the Messiah but let me ask you a question what do you think they preached regarding the law of Moses as opposed to what they would preach to the Gentiles now let me ask you another question when they preached to a Gentile audience do you think Paul told the Gentiles now folks you have to conform to the law of

[39:50] Moses you have to begin eating a kosher diet you have to start keeping the Sabbath and oh yes one more thing you have to be circumcised do you think he preached that to the Gentiles not for one moment why didn't he he didn't because the Gentiles had never ever been under the law of Moses it was never given to them they were not expected to keep it was never imposed upon them and he's not imposing it on them now in fact the big rub in Acts chapter 15 with the council at Jerusalem was held because of that issue do Gentiles have to be circumcised and the conclusion was no they don't but for a Jew that's unthinkable eighth day baby boy you've got to be circumcised you're not a child of the covenant what is happening now listen on this side of the cross what has happened to the law of

[41:10] Moses it's gone it's defunct it's no longer in the picture it is the old covenant done away with the new covenant the new covenant is now in force the old covenant no longer has anything binding upon the people that means if you were a Jew you did not have to continue keeping the Sabbath although the likelihood is you probably would because you were so accustomed to keeping the Sabbath you would do it out of tradition if not out of obligation and the same way with the kosher food you could actually as a Jew you could eat a ham sandwich do you think that when Paul and Barnabas or Silas went into the Jewish congregation do you think that they told these Jews folks good news you can cut up a pig you can eat bacon you can eat ham you can eat all of that good stuff that you weren't allowed to eat before do you think he preached that to the synagogues absolutely not they would have tarred and feathered him right then and said to the

[42:29] Jew I became as a Jew that I might win the Jew to the Gentiles I became as a Gentile that I might win the Gentiles I become all things to all people that if by any means I might save some what he was saying is I accommodated myself in every way I could to the audience that I was speaking and I'm not going to go in and tell Gentiles that they have to keep the Sabbath that they have to offer sacrifice that they have to be circumcised I'm not going to tell Gentiles that this is what Paul meant in Galatians 2 when he said I wanted to bring the 12 apostles up to speed and inform them about what I was preaching to the Gentiles because listen listen because it was different it was different from what was preached to the Jew and

[43:30] I dare anybody to dispute that it was different because the Jew was still having an opportunity to receive the kingdom of heaven and they were still continuing to refuse our time is gone but I got to take you to the very last chapter of the book of Acts very last chapter Paul is a prisoner living in his hired condo he's paying rent for it he's a Roman citizen he's able to receive visitors he is chained at the wrist 24-7 by a Roman guard they change every six hours he's saddled by this wrist bracelet tied to a Roman soldier every six hours the guard would change and now he has invited local Jews who lived there in Rome these are Jews living in Rome he's invited them to his hard quarters for a Bible conference and he preaches to them from morning until evening and the end result in verse 24 of chapter 28 is some were being persuaded by the things spoken but others would not believe and when they did not agree with one another they began leaving after

[44:54] Paul had spoken one parting word and here was his parting word he said to those who were leaving the Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers and he was talking to you he's talking about you this is what he said to your ancestors and you know what you you who constitute this audience Paul says you are just like your ancestors you are rejecting and unbelieving the same way they did Isaiah had them nailed and he has you nailed saying go to this people and say you will keep on hearing but will not understand you will keep on seeing but will not perceive for the heart of this people has become dull and with their ears they scarcely hear and they have closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes hear with their ears understand with their heart and turn again and I should heal them God was willing how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings Jesus said but you would not and here he is referencing

[45:58] Isaiah who is saying the same thing it is because of the stubbornness the implacability the resistance that these people had put up against Jesus being the Messiah and in conclusion in verse 28 he says let it be known to you therefore that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen you here today are some of those of whom Paul was speaking we are Gentiles who have listened and to us this message has come but the text says in verse 30 and he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him and what was he preaching to those who came to him look at the text preaching the kingdom of

[47:09] God now to me that can only mean one thing the realization of that kingdom of God remained at this point a possibility for Israel if they would but repent we know what would happen they will not repent they still have not repented and this message has gone to the Gentiles and what we've got here is an unmistakable realization of two different messages for two different people now understand this Jesus Christ was at the center of both of them whether he was preaching to the Jew or to Gentiles and the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the central item in the Savior and he made that clear I think whether he was talking to Jews or Gentiles but this concept about different messages to preach and

[48:11] I've heard preachers of considerable stature say there's only one gospel only one gospel in the Bible and that's the gospel of the grace of God it is not true if black and white print means anything there was the existence and the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven which was different from the gospel of the grace of God we don't preach the former we preach the latter we preach the gospel of the grace of God which says if you will repent of your sin and believe on Jesus Christ as your Savior God will forgive you and save you from your sin that's the gospel of the grace of God and by the way that's the only gospel that is valid to be preached today whether you're preaching to Jews or Gentiles but there was a time when both of these gospels existed and were proclaimed side by side why do you think why do you think

[49:17] Paul found it necessary to go to the disciples to the apostles the twelve apostles and bring them up to speed as to what he was preaching and when he told them the message that he was giving to the Gentiles and he surely must have told them it did not include Judaizing them I never told these Gentiles now you have to become Jews no no no no and the reason he did that was because he said he didn't want to have run in vain and all he means by that is look I can't afford to be out here preaching the gospel of the grace of God to the uncircumcised to these Gentiles and then have the twelve apostles and by the way they are the original twelve apostles chosen by Christ when he was here on earth at the beginning of his ministry Paul said I can't have the twelve saying hey Paul the apostle he's all wet he's not even including the law of

[50:22] Moses he's not even telling them that they have to be circumcised he's not telling them they have to keep the sab these twelve with their history and their clout and their position and the influence that they have they they could ambush my ministry if they wanted to they could begin bad mouthing them and he told them what he was preaching very upfront about it and do you know what they said you can read it for yourself in Galatians 2 they said well it is apparent it is apparent that God has raised up Paul the apostle to go to the uncircumcised in the same way he raised us up to go to the circumcised and Paul said and they gave me the right hand of fellowship the twelve were saying attaboy

[51:25] Paul go get them we're with you we support you we know your calling is different from our calling and both gospels existed side by side and folks this is what contributed to so much of the confusion that is in the book of Acts and we have people today we have people today in our pulpits who are preaching the gospel of the kingdom and they don't even understand the implications they don't see the difference the gospel of the kingdom is passe it's gone do you know when that's going to be preached again we'll see that when we come to it in our prophetic series that is upcoming the gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached throughout the world during the tribulation period and it and they will not be preaching the gospel of the grace of

[52:25] God they will be preaching the gospel of the kingdom it will be repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand because the king is coming and that's when Jesus will come would you pray with me father we recognize there's so much here that has not been explained and therefore by some is not understood but we do pray that you might be pleased to take what has been offered and use it as a stimulus and use it as an element upon which they can build further information and understanding we are so grateful for the clarity that is set forth in scripture although sometimes we just overlook it and we don't really pay attention to what the text is saying but we believe that you have inspired this word and given it to us for our blessing our examination our enlightenment our assurance and our confidence and we are so grateful we recognize that we all have flaws in our theology that none of us has all the truth certainly

[53:37] I don't or even close to it but what we do have excites us and it makes us want to know more thank you for both of these gospels and for those who proclaim them as they should have when they should have and thank you most of all for that outstanding gospel of the grace of God which is available to us today our prayer is that every individual here has already taken full advantage of that by receiving the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior thank you for the time shared and spent together and thank you for the patience and understanding of these dear people in Christ's name Amen