(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The part of the chapter that I would like to focus on is beginning in verse 17 where we have this story about Paul coming to Jerusalem and getting together with some of the apostles and elders there, mainly James, who basically talk him into doing this thing where he shaves his head and basically pretends to be coming off of a Nazarite vow in order to prove unto all these Jews that have gotten saved that he's not teaching people to forsake those type of customs and forsake those type of laws. Now let's go through this story verse by verse. There's a lot of great things we can learn from this and we're going to turn to some other passages and what I want to preach about tonight is the subject of trying to please man instead of trying to please God in our lives. Now it says in verse 17, and when we were come to Jerusalem the brethren received us gladly and the day following Paul went in with us unto James and all the elders were present and when he had saluted them he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry and when they heard it they glorified the Lord. So first of all Paul gets there, you've got to understand, Paul's been out on all his missionary journey and he's been preaching the Gospel in all kinds of foreign nations and foreign lands, mainly reaching the Gentiles but he's also reaching a lot of the Jews that are scattered and living in those regions and he basically comes back to report to the church at Jerusalem. Now the church at Jerusalem is, you know, obviously that was the original church, but then of course there's been all kinds of other churches started everywhere else. So he kind of comes back to the home base, you know, in Jerusalem where James himself, and this is the James that is the half brother of Jesus, is there and he's the main leader of that church. He's the main pastor of that church from what it appears as you read this and he tells them all the great things he's done amongst the Gentiles. He talks about all the churches that he started, he talks about all the people that have been saved and all the miracles and all the great things that have happened and look what James says. It says, they said unto him, thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe and they are all zealous of the law and they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? The multitude must needs come together for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to thee. We have four men which have a vow on them. Take them and purify thyself with them and be at charges with them that they may shave their heads and all may know that those things were of, they were informed concerning they are nothing, but that thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the law. As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols and from blood and from strangled and from fornication. So let me explain something, we're going to get into a little more of the story here, but let me first of all explain this. Whenever we're reading the Bible, we always need to be very careful to differentiate between a statement that God is making and a statement that man is making in the Bible. If we read a story about what someone did or what someone said, we cannot just walk away automatically assuming that what they said and what they did is right. For example, people will condone a polygamy and say, well, you know, so and so in the Bible had two wives, but where does the Bible state that we should have two wives? Nowhere. The Bible states that we should have one wife. So we should always base what we believe on statements from the Bible, clear statements from God, not from man, and then we use those statements to interpret the stories of the Bible. You know, for example, we read a story about a man, you know, committing adultery with another man's wife, right? We can use the clear statement thou shalt not commit adultery to tell us, hey, what this guy did was wrong, you know? Or we look at the statement that tells us to have one wife and that we too shall be one flesh, and we can use that to look at the story of a man and say, hey, this guy is not following God's plan. And so when we look at this story, we have to understand that just because James or these other elders said something, that doesn't mean that what they said was right. And just because the apostle Paul did something, just because the apostle Paul's a great man does not mean that everything he did was right. And so we have to look at this story and weigh it against the clear statements of Scripture to see what was right in this situation and what was wrong. Now the other thing we need to understand is the background of this story. This isn't the first time that Paul has met with James and these leaders at Jerusalem. Go back, if you would, to chapter 15. Look at chapter 15, and let's get a little bit of the background of the situation here with James and the church at Jerusalem, what they believed and what it has to do with the apostle Paul. Look what it says in Acts 15.1, it says, and certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. Now look, these people are teaching that in order to be saved, believing in Jesus Christ is not enough. They are saying that you must also be circumcised or you cannot be saved. Now look, are these people saved or not? These people are unsaved. Keep your finger in Acts 15 and go to Galatians 2. Galatians 2, keep your finger right there in Acts 15. It says certain men came down from Judea and they're teaching, hey, if you don't get circumcised, you can't be saved. Now let's see what Paul's reaction to that was, because Paul says in verse 2 there, look at verse 2, it says, you know, when therefore Paul and Barnabas had had no small dissension and disputation with them. So does Paul agree with these guys? And does Paul consider this a small disagreement? No this is huge. So he has a huge argument with these guys where he is saying no way, you guys are wrong, salvation is by faith, you don't have to be circumcised, and so on and so forth. And it says that they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. Now here's where people misunderstand. This is not a question to Paul. This is not a question to Barnabas. This is a question to the people at Antioch who are saying we're not sure who's right. Are Paul and Barnabas right or are these guys coming down from Judea right that are saying that we have to be circumcised in order to be saved? Now if you look at Galatians 2, Paul refers to this event and we can get it from Scripture because here's the thing, when we're reading it in Acts, it's a story. Sometimes in the story people do right, sometimes they do wrong. But when we're reading Galatians, Galatians is Scripture that's straight out of the mouth of God here, God-inspired Scripture telling us what is right. Look what it says in verse 1 of chapter 2 of Galatians. Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me. And I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation lest by any means I should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus who was with me being a Greek was compelled to be circumcised and that because of false brethren. So look, he's referring to these people from Acts 15, 1 as false brethren. He's saying look, these guys weren't really brethren. They weren't saved. And that's why the Bible doesn't call them brethren. It says certain men came from Judea and taught the brethren. Okay, oh you have to be certain, trying to confuse them on the gospel and what salvation is. So here in Galatians 2, it says that they were false brethren who unawares brought in who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. So we see that right away Paul is disputing with these guys, he's dissenting with these guys, he has no agreement with these guys, and he says these guys weren't even saved, they're false brethren. They're trying to bring us into bondage, okay, and what that refers to is what he talks about later in chapter 5, flip to chapter 5 of Galatians, you're in chapter 2. It says, stand fast therefore, verse 1, in the liberty where with Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage, behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, so what's the bondage here? He's referring to the bondage of basically adherence unto the law for salvation, okay? And he says here, behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he's a debtor to do the whole law. So he's basically turning it around on them. These false teachers, these false brethren, false prophets are coming in saying, if you're not circumcised, you can't be saved. Paul says if you are circumcised, you're going to hell, because if you're getting circumcised, because you think that's going to get you to heaven, you're not trusting Christ, you're trusting the works of the flesh. You're trusting the works of the law, and by the works of the flesh there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, and the Bible says that the works of the law are not part of salvation. And Paul is saying, if you go out and get circumcised, you're a debtor to do the whole law. If you want to be saved or justified by part of the law, you're going to be justified by the whole law, and you're going to be judged by the whole law, and look, I don't know about you, but if I were judged by the law, I'd be going to hell. Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is what the whole book of Galatians is about. Chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, they're all directed at people who are bringing in a false gospel, and that false gospel is a works-based salvation. All six chapters cover this. It's a doctrine that teaches that the Jews must keep the law, and that we must follow these rules in order to be saved, and so forth. Go back to Acts 15, now that we've gotten the perspective from Galatians, that these guys aren't even saved, it's heresy, it's a false doctrine, look what it says in chapter 15. They go up unto the elders at Jerusalem about this question. Look at verse 4, when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, now let me ask you this, are these people saved or unsaved? These people believed, so don't confuse these with the certain men from Judea, the false brethren brought in unawares, this is a different group. There rose up some of them of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Now look, the people in verse 5 are not saying that you have to be circumcised to be saved. Are you listening? They're not saying you have to be circumcised to be saved, they're just saying, well we just need to command them to be circumcised. Like you don't have to do it to be saved, but it is a command of God to follow all the law of Moses and to be circumcised. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider this matter. Well look, the apostles aren't coming together to figure out if you have to get circumcised to get saved. They're just getting together to figure out whether we even need to command the Gentiles to be circumcised in the first place. That's what they're discussing here. It says, when they had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as He did unto us. And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Watch verse 11, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. Then all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. And after they had held their peace, James answered. So now we're hearing from James, right? This is the same guy from chapter 21. James says here in verse 14, Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name, and to this degree the words of the prophets as it is written. And you know, he quotes some scripture about that. It says in verse 18, known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Therefore my sentence is, so this is James' sentence or James' opinion, that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God, but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day. Now this is kind of a weird answer in my opinion. Here's my sentence, James, okay? You're wrong, James, okay? James here is wrong, and you can say, oh but you know, that's James. So he's automatically right. No, James is not right, and look at chapter 21 if you would. So James basically gives a weird answer. He says yeah, let's not trouble him to be circumcised, let's just tell him just to do these couple of necessary things, and he has these lists of four things, I don't even know where he's getting this list. Like where is he getting this list? Who was it? Was it you, Brother Don, that was looking up, couldn't even find anything in the Bible about things that are strangled. You know, that's just the main thing on the list, you know? Just that they don't eat things that are strangled, you know? And that they don't eat blood, and that they abstain from fornication, and that they abstain from idols. That's it. Okay, that's not a very conclusive list of anything. And then he gives this other answer where he says, well, you know, Moses, there's people who read Moses in the synagogue every day, so they're going to hear that. We don't need to command them to keep Moses, because they'll hear that when they go to the synagogue. What? What are you talking about, James? You say, well Pastor Anderson, I think you're off base here questioning James. Okay. But look at Acts 21, look what James is telling him to do in Acts 21. Same guy. Same guy who's basically trying to take a middle of the road in chapter 15 in order to please man. Because look, he's got all his Pharisee buddies over here, and then he's basically got, you know, the Paul and Barnabas, that faction that's going out and winning a bunch of souls and getting all the Gentiles saved. So he gives this answer that says, well, let's just tell them to keep part of the law. Let's just take a part of it. Let's tell them to do this part that we think is most important, and then let's just kind of assume that they're going to get the rest of the law from the synagogue. You know, and we're not really going to tell them whether to do it or whether or not. I mean, look, it's not a biblical answer. That list is not a biblical list. It just isn't biblical, okay? There's nothing in the Bible that singles out those four things, and the one about things strangled isn't even, I mean I'm not saying you should strangle things, you know, and eat them. Because I don't think that's the best way to butcher things. Whenever I've seen things butchered, you know, they usually slit their throat, right? To kill it really fast. Who's ever butchered animals before, right? Don't you usually want to kill them as fast as you can and basically slit their throat and bleed them out and everything? I'm not an expert on it, I'm a city boy, but look at Acts 21. What's he telling them to do here? First of all, James is again in chapter 21 seeking to please man, okay? Look at the first thing he brings up. "'Thou seeest, brother,' in verse 20, and when they heard it they glorified God and said unto them, "'Thou seeest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe, and they're all zealous of the law.'" Look, it doesn't matter how many Jews there are that believe, James. Right is right and wrong is wrong. I don't care how many Jews are saved and want us to follow the laws of Moses and follow the Old Testament rituals of animal sacrifice and, you know, circumcising the children and so forth. That doesn't make it biblical, James, but he says, "'They're informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? The multitude must needs come together, for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore this we say to thee.'" And again he's going to tell them what to do, but first of all let me point out that right away James is accusing Paul of having taught not to circumcise the children. Well look, you can read all the epistles that Paul wrote that were penned under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and every single one of them, whenever it brings up circumcision, always talks about you don't need to be circumcised. Circumcision avails nothing. In Christ there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. He never one time says, hey, by the way, get circumcised. You know what? He was teaching that they didn't need to circumcise the children. Because guess what? We don't need to circumcise the children. And let's keep reading. I'll explain it more as we go here. But this is what they want him to do. They want Paul to prove to all these Jews that he's basically still following the customs, still circumcising, and so on. It says in verse 24, at the end of verse 23 it says, we have four men which have a vow on them, verse 24, them take and purify thyself with them and be it charges with them that they may shave their heads and all may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning thee are nothing, but that thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the law. As touching the Gentiles which believe, we've written and concluded that they observe no such thing. Believe only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols and from blood and from strangled and from fornication. Okay, now look at verse 26. It says, then Paul took the men and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification until that a what? A what? An offering be offered for every one of them. Now look, is that right? Is that biblical? That in the New Testament an animal sacrifice be offered for somebody coming off a Nazarite vow? Look, this is so wrong what Paul is participating in and what James has basically talked him into doing here because what he's doing is first of all is lying, just blatantly lying because the Nazarite vow was something where for an extended period a person would not eat any grapes or drink any grape juice. They would not touch any dead body, they would remain clean, they would stay away from anything unclean, they would not let a razor come upon their head, they would let the locks of their hair grow. Then at the end of that time they would shave their heads and go through a purification period which involved animal sacrifices and be purified at the temple. Paul had not done that Nazarite vow. He had not gone through the days of purification. He is being told to lie, to shave his head and go in the temple pretending that he has gone through this process that he didn't even go through, just to make it look like he's following these customs that he wasn't really following in order to please man. Does everybody understand the story? Look offering and offering, I seem to recall that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, the veil in the temple was rent and twain, exposing the most holy place for all to see. And you know what, God was done with that system, the book of Hebrews makes it clear, read chapter 10, Jesus Christ is the sacrifice once for all, the bodies of those beasts which are offered, he said they can never take away sins, that's what they do, we have an altar where of they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle, did you hear that? We have an altar where of they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. God is saying look, they're offering those animals, they think that's going to give them salvation, they need to believe on the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. So what is Paul doing participating in something that involves an animal sacrifice, something that involves a Nazarite vow, something that involves him lying and pretending to be taking part of a custom that he does not believe in? And doing these days of purification. It says, when seven days were almost into the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw them in the temple, verse 27, stirred up all the people and laid hands on them, crying out, men of Israel, help! This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place, and further brought Greeks also into the temple and have polluted this holy place. Now you see, the Bible clearly teaches that in the New Testament, there is not a double standard for Jews and Gentiles in the New Testament. Now James here, what he is clearly teaching in chapter 21 verse 25, he says, as touching the Gentiles which believe, we've written and concluded that they observe no such thing. So what's he saying? He's saying if you're a Jew, you must circumcise your children. If you're a Jew, you must follow all these customs, Sabbaths, holidays, you have to go through all of these rituals, but the Gentiles, no such thing. Look, nothing could be more unbiblical and contrary to what is taught in all the epistles. 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I mean these all cover this subject. Even Jesus Christ said, other sheep have I which are not of this fold, them also must I bring and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. And it says in Colossians that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. He said in Philippians that we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. He said in Galatians, he said in Ephesians that God broke down the middle wall of partition between us, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither bond nor free. We as Gentiles, according to Ephesians 2, are citizens of the commonwealth of Israel, we're not strangers, we're not foreigners, we are part of the nation of Israel, there is no distinction in the New Testament between Jew and Gentile. He says there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. And then, just to make sure you understand, he said avoid genealogies. And let me tell you this, 2,000 years later there's no way you can tell who's really a Jew without a genealogy. Because there are all kinds of people throughout history who have been proselytes to Judaism, who have converted to Judaism and taken on that culture and that religion that were not really blood descendants. The only way to really prove that you're one of them is that you'd have to have a genealogy to really prove that. And God said avoid it. Well let me ask you this, if the Bible taught that Jews must circumcise their children, must follow all these ordinances, must go through all these Sabbaths and holidays, but that the Gentiles are commanded to do no such thing, wouldn't it be pretty important to figure out, okay, which one am I? But it's not important at all because there's never, and look, you can't find one place in the New Testament that teaches this except these people in the book of Acts who are goofed up on their doctrine, who are confused and who are trying to please man. All these Pharisees believe and they're trying to let them hang on to some of their Pharisee doctrine is what it is. You know, they're just so used to being a Pharisee they wanted to keep a lot of that practice and doctrine alive. And you know what? You're not going to find anything in the New Testament that teaches that what these people are doing is right. And in fact the whole New Testament over and over again teaches that there's just one church for the Jew and the Gentile alike to meet together. We shouldn't have a separate messianic Jew church. Any Jew who gets saved should be welcome at our church and be a part of our church and join a Baptist church. That's what ought to happen. You know, these Jews that get saved need to join a Baptist church. Well why a Baptist? Because the non-denominational church is so stinkin' liberal because they teach out of the NIV and have a rock band nine times out of ten? That's why I say a Baptist church. You know and I know that Baptist churches are the ones, you know, 99% of the time that are preaching the Gospel, that have a King James Bible, that do the soul winning. That's why they need to get in a Baptist church. Okay? So what I'm saying is that we can't just read Acts and just assume, oh well if James said it, it's right. In fact what James said can be proven to be false. He's teaching a different set of laws and a different set of rules for Jews and Gentiles. God says, God says over and over again in the New Testament that it's one fold, one shepherd, one set of rules, you know one law, you know, it's just there is no Jew or Gentile. We're all Christian. We're all one in Christ, Jesus, okay? It's that simple. But we see that James is basically wanting him to violate these principles because James is interested in pleasing man, he's not interested in pleasing God. Now here's the main moral that we can draw from the story here, okay? First of all we see everything that both James and Paul did wrong. They're pleasing man instead of pleasing God. They're teaching circumcision. When Paul flat out said, I don't teach circumcision, and if he said in Galatians 5, I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet also suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased. In Galatians 5 he's saying, if I preached that people needed to be circumcised, I wouldn't get persecuted. But I make a point to preach that circumcision is not necessary and I'm willing to suffer the persecution to preach that. So we see that first of all, they're trying to please man. They're teaching circumcision, which is an unbiblical doctrine in the New Testament. They're teaching animal sacrifice, you know, with this offering that's being brought for them. Not only that, but they're lying, they're deceiving, just in order to please man. But here's what I find interesting about the story. Is man pleased in this story? Paul decides, you know what, I'm going to please man. I'm going to do what makes people happy. Let me ask you this, did it work? Did he make the Jews happy? By shaving his head and compromising and doing everything they wanted him to do, did that make them happy? Did that make the persecution stop? No. And so what we see here is that there's never a reason to compromise, because you know what, when God's people compromise to try to please the world, or when God's people compromise to try to please a false religion, they're not going to be satisfied with it. You're not going to make them happy anyway. Stand your ground and preach through. Look, you can be a fundamental Baptist and you can give in on this point or that point. The world's never going to accept you, because you're never going to go all the way. Now look at this story, this is another interesting story that illustrates that. Go to 1 Kings chapter 20. You see, the world is constantly trying to get us to compromise. The thing that comes to mind, and the reason I bring this up is because it's always such a big issue in the media and in the news, every once in a while you'll have somebody say something against the homos, right? And then all of a sudden they're getting fired, and Tim Hardaway comes to mind, the basketball player. Tim Hardaway is doing a radio interview, they're like, oh, what do you think about so-and-so player coming out of the closet? He's like, well, I hate gay people. You know, he's just like, he's like, I don't want them on my team. It's, you know, I'd rather they were, it ought to be in the closet, I don't want anything to do with it, I hate gay people. That's what Tim Hardaway said, right? Now look, in the end, Tim Hardaway made all these apologies, he said he's so sorry, and he was getting fired from this, and fired from that, and this speaking engagement canceled, and he's removed from this hall of fame, and that, you know, he's just losing everything. And he's apologizing, and he's so sorry, and he didn't mean it, and then he actually went and took all these classes to like learn how to love gays and lesbians, and there's even pictures of him online with like 20 homos, just showing like, see everybody, I love homos, you know. But here's the thing, that didn't get him his job back. They'll never forgive you. This world doesn't forgive you, my friend. Christianity teaches forgiveness, okay. This world, you know, you said the N-word 50 years ago, and it's like, you're fired. You know what I mean? They don't forgive you for stuff that you did in the past. You know what I mean? Did everybody hear about that? The cooking lady or whatever, I don't really know who it is, but it's like some cooking show lady used the N-word, you know, I don't know, like 30 years ago, 25 years ago, and she's like, yeah, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said it, but it was 25 years ago, and they fired her, and what? I mean, is that Christian? Is that what the Bible teaches about forgiveness? No. You know, I mean, good night, I'm not even going to go there, I've got a lot to say about that, but it's just so stupid, you know what I mean? But the bottom line is that, you know, you sit there and you try to make the world happy, you know, and you tell them, oh, I'm sorry, I actually love homos. You know, they're not going to accept that. You know, they're not going to accept, and look, so many churches compromise the Bible's stance on homos. And here's the thing, do you think that it pleases the liberals and the homos and the left wing? Look, they won't be pleased if you, I mean, if you water it down and say, well, it's a sin, but everything's a sin, and you know, we're all sinners, and it's not even, you know, all sins equal, right, you know? You think that's going to please them? Because you know when they'll be pleased? They'll be pleased when you say, like, homosexuality's good. It's better than being straight. That's when they'll be happy. Like, if you say, like, God made you that way because you're special, you're better than me, that's when they'll be happy. And then even then they'll want something else. They'll be like, well, what about the transgender, you know, what about, you know, they'll find something else. They're never going to be, they're like hell, they're never satisfied. So what I'm saying is, look, the devil is not going to be satisfied. You give him an inch, he's going to take a mile. You give him a finger, he's going to take the whole hand. You know, you're constantly wanting to throw a bone to these liberals and throw a bone to false religion and let's throw a bone to the Jews and let's throw a bone unto Catholicism and let's throw a bone unto Islam and let's try to get along with Islam and let's, you know, Chrislam or whatever, right? That's the new thing. Rick Warren, Chrislam, he wants to have this, you know, hybrid of Christianity and Islam. And then, you know, you say, well, you know, let's reach out to the whole, look, you're never going to satisfy them, you're never going to make them happy until you've just completely sold out to Satan. So why don't you just stand your ground and just decide, you know what, I'm not going to please man, I'm going to please God. And that's why the Bible says, for do I now persuade men or God in Galatians 1.10? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Did you hear that? If I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. And Paul, in the great book of Galatians, and Galatians is one of my favorite books, and Galatians just nails, everything I'm preaching in this sermon, Galatians just nails it in those six chapters and just hammers it and says, I'm not trying to please man. I am not preaching circumcision. I am not preaching to keep the Mosaic law. I am not preaching to observe days and years and months and times, all that stuff is Old Testament, it's not in the New Testament, it's not what I teach, it's not what I preach, I'm ready to be persecuted, I'm ready to be beaten, I'm ready to be killed, I'm not trying to please men, I'm trying to please God, and I will not compromise. That's what Galatians teaches. Do I now persuade men or God? Do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But what we see Paul doing in Acts 21 is trying to please man, trying to please people that have false doctrine, because there's so many of them. I mean you've seen how many of these Jews that believe, you've seen how many of them think that we're supposed to follow these customs. You need to show these people that you're like them. Do what we say Paul, do what we say to do. Go shave your head and pretend like you're a Nazarite when you're not. Go follow a custom that you never usually follow. Take part in something that you never participate in. And he's going to do it to please man, and as soon as he does it, what do the Jews do? They start yelling, help, like the building's on fire. Help, help, get this guy! They get him arrested and they're literally trying to tear him in pieces and beat him to death and kill him. And it's the Roman soldiers that literally save his life by dragging him out of there before they can kill him and tear him limb from limb. Here's an interesting story in 1 Kings 20, just to show you how the devil is never satisfied, the world's never going to be satisfied with you. You might as well just forget pleasing man, just please God and nudge to everybody else. But look at 1 Kings 20 verse 1, it says, And Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, gathered all his hosts together, and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses and chariots, and he went up and besieged Samaria and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-Hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine, thy wives also and thy children even the goodliest are mine. Here's a foreign invader coming in and telling king Ahab, All your gold and silver is mine, and your wife is mine, and your children are mine. Now look, Ahab should have had the faith in the Lord to tell this guy no, you know, because God would protect him, you know, if he would trust in the Lord, if he would put his trust in the Lord as the king of Israel, the Lord would protect him. But the king of Israel answered and said in verse 4, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine in all that I have. So here this weakling, this coward, you know, wants to placate the enemy of the Lord, placate this wicked king Ben-Hadad by telling him, Okay, here, take my wife. I mean, would you just relinquish your wife to somebody? You know, if somebody comes to your house to break in, he's going to say, Oh, you want my wife? Oh, here she is. Here are my kids. Here's all the gold and silver. You know, maybe we'll give them the gold and silver. I'm not going to give them my wife and kids, right? I would give them some precious metals like lead, you know, but anyway. So it says, you know, that he basically just gives in here. He's just going to just placate the enemy by giving him everything that he wants and compromise. And then look what he says in verse 5, And the messengers came again and said, Thus speaketh Ben-Hadad, saying, Although I have sinned unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me the silver and thy gold and thy wives and thy children, yet I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants, and it shall be that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand and take it away. So basically, because Ahab is so quick to agree to this, silver and gold and wives and children thing, they said, Oh, whoops, I know that's what we asked for, but actually we changed our mind. We want the gold, silver, wives and children, and then we also want to come in and just search your house and just take whatever we want, just whatever we like. We're just going to take it. And it says in verse 7, Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief, for he sent unto me for my wives and for my children and for my silver and for my gold, and I denied him not. And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken not unto him, nor consent. And of course, if you finish reading the chapter, God sends a prophet unto him that says, Look, Ahab, you can win, you can defeat these people. I'm going to give you the victory. Through the power of the Lord, you're going to defeat this huge enemy, and God does give him the victory, and he uses the 7,000 men that have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal, he uses those 7,000 men to defeat this giant army of the Syrians. He uses warriors that were true unto the Lord and had not bowed unto the image of Baal. And that's a whole other sermon. But what we take from this is that when you try to please man, and when you try to please the world, and when you try to please the devil and his crowd, you know what? They never end up getting pleased. You know? They don't accept your apology. They don't accept your little halfway, half Christian, half... and I'll tell you this. I remember when I was a young person, when I was a teenager, I used to get made fun of and persecuted at school for being a Christian. You know, that you'd be mocked for being a Christian. And I remember on the job, but you know what? When they mocked me was when I was this half in, half out worldly Christian. I got all kinds of mockery. But I remember when I actually got serious about the things of God and started really living a more clean and separated life and really being a very different Christian than the people around me. You know what? They didn't make fun of you anymore. They took it seriously. You know, they looked at you and said, wow, this is something I can respect. Because it's this half in, half out that gets you into trouble. You see, Paul should have just said, I don't care what anybody thinks. I don't care what the world thinks. I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to preach the Gospel. And you know what? He shouldn't have even been at Jerusalem in the first place. What's he even doing there? That's not where God sent him. God said, I'm saying you far hence to the Gentiles. On his way back to Jerusalem, God sent a prophet to warn him, don't go to Jerusalem. And he goes anyway, okay? Because he's trying to just go back to the old friends, you know? He just really wanted to get them saved. The old crowd. And he wanted to do it by compromising and being like them. And he thinks, you know, I'm going to go back to my old crowd, you know, the Pharisees, right? I mean, look, Paul was a Pharisee. He was the son of a Pharisee. So he just had this desire to go back to Jerusalem, go back to the old town, back to the old friends, back to the old crowd, because he's going to get them saved, he's going to reach them with the Gospel, and he's going to do it by compromising. He's going to do it by being like them, and by sinning against his own conscience. Look, read Galatians. Did Paul know that what he was doing was wrong in Acts 21? But he did it anyway, because he wanted to please them. He wanted to please man, he wanted to fit in with them, he wanted to be like them. And then he just, even when he gets arrested, he says, oh give me a chance to speak to the people. And he gets up and speaks to the people, and he speaks to them in their language. He talks in their language, and he talks about things that they understand, and he's trying to be like them, and he gets up and preaches, and when he's done preaching, they all get saved. No, you know what they said? They said, and it's so amazing what happens when he actually preaches. Just look at this, just understand the mentality of these people. Look at Acts chapter 21, where Paul gets up to preach. At the end of the chapter, it talks about how he gets up to preach, and it says in verse 40, when he had been given license, Paul stood on the stairs and beckoned with the hand unto the people, and when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue saying, men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now unto you, and he continues to preach. But when he's done preaching, when he gets down to the end, he preaches this whole sermon, and they're all listening. Look at the last thing he says in verse 21, and he said unto me, depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. Now look at verse 22, and they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live. Now why did they have no problem with his whole sermon? His whole sermon's fine. They're sitting and listening to his entire sermon, and it's all fine, and the Bible says they gave him audience up to that word, and as soon as he said that God sent him to the Gentiles, this guy needs to be killed! I mean are these people hateful of the Gentiles or what? They're like Jonah, remember Jonah? He was mad because God didn't just wipe out Nineveh. He was mad when Nineveh got saved. He wanted them all dead. I mean these people are vindictive, hateful people that think that they're better than everybody else, and they're the Jews, and the Gentiles, oh you're going to the Gentiles, you should die. You should die for even bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles. Look it says in 1 Thessalonians 2 that they were forbidding them to preach to the Gentiles that they might be saved. I mean that's pretty bad. These are the people that Paul's trying to please. You know he's trying to reach these people. And look, you say okay well this sermon, I don't see how it applies to me, it's just a bunch of heavy doctrine about Jews and Gentiles and circumcision, but you know where this applies to you is when you think that you're going to win people by pleasing them, by doing what they want. I mean it's like when you go to the old friends, right, and you're going to have a beer with them to give them the Gospel. You say well no one would ever do that. I think what Paul did was a lot worse than drinking a beer. I mean just totally deceiving, I mean look, what Paul did deceives people to this day. There are people to this day who read Acts 21 and think, oh yeah, we're supposed to be Nazarites today. There are people today shaving their head and doing all this and saying, you know, Paul did it? I mean he set such a bad example, totally contradicting whatever he preached in Galatians. I mean just completely lying and deceiving. And look, you might think, you know what, I'm going to go hang out with the old friends, drink a beer with the old friends. You know, I'm going to basically fit in with them, I'm going to dress like them. But you know what, honestly, the only way to reach the old friends is just to be the new you and just go to them and say, hey look guys, I don't drink, I'm not going to go watch that movie with you, I'm not going to the rock concert with you, I'm saved. Read the Bible, let me show you from the Scriptures how to be saved, let me take you down the Romans road. You say, well they're not going to listen to the Romans road, then they're not going to listen, then they're not going to get saved. You know what I mean, they're either going to listen to the word of God or they're not going to listen to it. And it's funny because they liked a lot of what Paul said, but then Paul starts quoting Jesus and then that's when they tell him he needs to be killed. Because the part about going to the Gentiles wasn't Paul talking, that was Jesus talking. So it's not you they're offended by, it's Jesus that offends them. And you know what, you've got to go to the old friends with the Holy Bible in your hand and tell them, I don't do that stuff anymore man. You know, I'm a Christian, I'm following the Bible, let me show you how to be saved, let me give you the Gospel. And if they don't accept, and in many cases you just need to stay away from the old friends. You know, and Paul didn't even need to be in Jerusalem. And it was Paul's idea, he said I'm going to Jerusalem, and God told him don't do it. I mean study the Scripture leading up to this. Prophets are telling him, don't do it. You know, don't go there. And yet he went there anyway. Why? He wanted to carry out this misguided campaign of trying to placate people that are enemies of the Gospel. You know, they're beloved. The Bible says of the Jews that they're beloved for the Father's sakes. You know, we should love the Jewish people, right? And give them the Gospel and love them and want them saved. He said they're beloved for the Father's sake, but he says they're enemies for the Gospel sake. They're not promoting the Gospel. I mean they're trying to stop the Gospel from going out to the world and the Gentiles all throughout Acts and all throughout these Scriptures. So we need to be careful that we're not trying to please man and compromise our beliefs. You know, we need to just decide that our beliefs are set in stone. What's right is right, what's wrong is wrong. And you say, well, but yeah, but if I'm too straight-laced to my family, you know, that's going to turn them off. That's going to turn them away. But you know what? It's more important to please God than to please relatives, than to please friends. Because most of the time your relatives and friends aren't going to be pleased anyway. You know what? We've all probably been guilty of compromising around our family. Like I'm talking about extended family or compromising around friends. But this is what will happen. Let's say you're going to be around your relatives for like three or four days, right? You'll like compromise with them on day one. You'll compromise with them on day two. You'll compromise with them on day three, right? And you know, you're kind of compromising and kind of maybe putting up with stuff and you know, doing things that aren't quite right. But then it's like day four, they'll just keep taking it further. They'll just keep putting a worse movie in the VCR. You know what I mean? They'll just keep putting worse music on. You know, they'll just keep drinking more beers and just drinking more liquor and just doing more. And, you know, they'll mix it with drugs, you know, and they'll just keep pushing it and putting it. And then finally you're going to finally have to take a stand at something, aren't you? You know, they put, you know, when they finally just, and then there's going to be a blow up anyway. You know what I mean? You're going to have to, eventually you're going to have to take a stand. So why don't you just take a stand on day one and just say, hey, let's not turn on the TV. We don't watch TV. You know, we don't watch these movies. We don't, we don't drink. You know, don't put, don't drink around us. I don't want to, I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at it. I don't drink. I don't want to be around it. You know, it's like you try to get along by compromising. But you know what, the world's never satisfied with it. You know, you try to get along with the world and they just are never, it's never enough for them. Just like Paul here. It wouldn't, I mean it wasn't enough. I mean what did Paul have to do to prove it to these people? So what I'm saying is that we need to just get in our heads that pleasing God is the only thing that matters. You know, and it's never right to compromise our beliefs in order to reach people. Because Paul's heart's in the right place. He longed to get the Jews saved. He longed to get the Pharisees saved. He really wanted to go back to Jerusalem and get these people saved. That's not a bad goal, is it? Not at all. I mean that his heart's desire and prayer to God was for Israel that they might be saved. That's great, Paul. But don't compromise and do wrong to do it, okay? And you know, you're not going to fit in with the world. If you're a Bible-believing Christian, you will not be the most popular kid at school. You're not going to be the popular guy where hopefully you're the best worker on the job. But you're not going to be the coolest guy on the job. You're not going to be the coolest pastor in town. You're not going to be the coolest church. You're not going to be, you know, the one that your family thinks is the cool guy because you know they're going to think that you're a stick in the mud in a square because you don't want to run with them to the same excess of rioting that they want to run to. And you say, well I'm just going to riot just a little bit. I'm just going to drink just a little bit. I'm just going to watch, I'll watch something, you know, you compromise and watch a movie that you're not comfortable with, but you just do it because you're, and look, I remember one time when I was a teenager, somebody that I was with, they wanted to put on a movie that I knew was a bad movie. And I remember just that I knew that this person was going to say that I was holier than thou if I told them that I don't want to watch this movie because it's a sinful movie. So I compromised and allowed the movie to be put on and I just purposely just went to sleep, you know, because I didn't want to offend. So I literally, I just sat down with the movie and I was real tired, I just closed my eyes and went to sleep and then I was like, oh sorry, I fell asleep. But you know what, that same person was just mad at me the next time. Because eventually, you know, you just take a stand and eventually, if they don't like it today, they won't like it tomorrow. You know, so don't compromise your beliefs. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you that all we have isn't just the book of Acts because some of the things in there would be pretty confusing. Thank you for giving us the rest of the Bible that actually clarifies what's going on in these stories where we can understand chapter 15 by going to Galatians 2, we can understand chapter 21 by reading the whole rest of the book of Galatians and understanding that, you know, what Paul did here was wrong. What James is teaching is not biblical. He was a compromiser. He was trying to have it both ways. He's trying to please man, he's trying to please the Jews, he's trying to please unbelievers, he's trying to please people that are into false doctrine. And Father, help us not to make the same mistake. Help us not to try to compromise what we believe in order to make people happy and to make people like us and maybe, well, maybe people will accept our church more if we just kind of, you know, compromise a little bit and just, you know, allow a little bit of sin in and so help us to take a hard line in our own personal lives and help us to do it in a gentle way, in a meek way, in a friendly way, but help us to draw the line in the sand and not compromise. In Jesus' name we pray.