The Wolves Close In
Series: Acts
Chuck Sligh
August 28, 2016
TEXT: Acts 15:1-2 – “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. 2 When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.”
INTRODUCTION
Wolves are getting a good name lately. I went on the Internet to research wolves for this sermon, and I want to tell you, the animal rights people have taken over when it comes to wolves. To hear them tell it, wolves are the sweetest, most lovable darling little critters on earth! And if we’d all just connect with our inner wolves, we’d all be so much better off.
But folks, let me tell you something: In reality, a wolf is a VICIOUS KILLER! If you were a shepherd, you’d know this is true. Wolves travel in packs—and they are cunning and brutal and bloodthirsty. And if you’re not careful, they’ll annihilate a flock of sheep in no time at all.
In our text, we see that just as Christianity is starting to take root, wolves show up for dinner! So as we look at Acts 15:1-2, I want us to think about wolves:
I. NOTE FIRST OF ALL THAT WOLVES ARE ALWAYS ON THE PROWL. – Acts 15:1 – “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren,…”
I read an article once about sheep farmers out in the Rocky Mountains. The sheep farmers are always on the lookout for wolves. You know why?—Because wolves are always on the lookout for sheep! If the sheep farmers and shepherds don’t protect the sheep, they’re helpless against the wolves because wolves are always on the prowl—ever alert to new opportunities to catch their unsuspecting prey off guard.
Jesus warned us against SPIRITUAL wolves who would devour God’s people with false doctrines – He said in Matthew 7:15 – “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
When Paul ordained elders at Ephesus, he warned of wolves who would devour the flock at Ephesus. – He told them, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:28-30)
Jesus and Paul weren’t the only New Testament writers to warn about spiritual wolves. EVERY SINGLE New Testament writer gave warnings of some kind against false teachers who could lead them away from truth into the bondage of false teachings
Paul warned that this would be especially marked in the last days before Antichrist’s rise.In the last 150 years, we’ve seen this happen before our very eyes with a proliferation of false teachings and false teachers and false religions—Mormonism; the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science cult, the Black Muslims, Spiritualism and in more recent years, the floodgates of deception opened up when a profusion of new religions based on Eastern mysticism, New Age concepts and occultism invaded the West.
Believers should be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 where it says the Bereans, “…received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
If there ever was a day we should be discerning like the Bereans—it’s today!
II. MY SECOND POINT IS THIS: ALL WOLVES HAVE THE SAME NATURE.
Illus. – Real wolves in the wild have the same basic instincts. They have a very complicated and structured system of stalking their prey. One wolf sneaks up on the prey while the rest of the pack stealthily surrounds it on the opposite side. Suddenly the lone wolf lunges at the prey, driving it unknowingly into the clutches of the pack, where they attack en masse.
Now I’m not saying spiritual wolves use this tactic exactly as their animal counterparts. What I’m saying is that A WOLF WILL ALWAYS ACT LIKE A WOLF. So examine what the CORE MESSAGE of a spiritual wolf is, and you’ll see that it’s the same core message that every other spiritual wolf has, because all wolves are just a variation of the same type of animal that thinks like all the others of its species.
These wolves who came into the churches in Acts 15 taught a doctrine that is taught by every false religion, false denomination, cult and most false teachers throughout history—which is that one is saved by works, or by adding works to grace.
They said in the second part of verse 1: “…except ye circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.”
These Jews were Judaizers, a Jewish sect that taught that to be saved, Gentiles who had come into the church had to be circumcised in addition to simple faith in Christ. Now what that really meant was that the Gentiles had to follow the Old Testament law or they could not be saved, or maintain their salvation received by faith.
So they were ADDING WORKS TO GRACE—something that Paul said was impossible because the two are mutually exclusive.
In Romans 11:6 Paul said, “And if [salvation is brought about, procured] by grace, then is it no more of works:…But if it be [brought about, procured] of works, then is it no more grace…”
By definition, the one cancels out the other.
To the Galatians who had fallen for the doctrine of the Judaizers, Paul said, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” (Galatians 5:4)
Christ was no effect for them because if they could be acceptable to God by their obedience to God’s Law, why did Jesus have to die for our sins? What good was His death and resurrection if we are saved by the Law? Christ’s death and resurrection would have no effect upon those trusting in the Law to save them, which means Christ’s they were pointless.
Then he said they had “fallen from grace.” That doesn’t mean that they had lost their salvation because, the whole book of Galatians was written to CHRISTIANS. What he meant was that they had fallen from the PRINCIPLE of grace—the principle by which they had been saved.
What these Judaizers taught was what EVERY false religion teaches—namely that there is some work you must do, some list of rules you must obey to be acceptable by God
Every religion teaches salvation by works in some form or another:
• The Buddhists say you must keep “The Eightfold Path.”
• The Hindus say you must follow “The Way of Knowledge,” “The Way of Devotion,” and “The Way of Works.”
• The Muslims say you must accept the “Five Articles of Faith” and obey the Quran to please Allah and go to Paradise.
• The mainline denominations pay lip service to faith for salvation, but in practice, all too many rely on baptism and confirmation for salvation.
• And all the cults—the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Unification Church, the Christian Science Church, the Mormons—all believe some variation of the same theme—that there is SOME KIND OF WORKS SYSTEM that must be followed or obeyed or performed as a means of gaining acceptance by God.
But the Bible is clear that NO human work, NO amount of piety, NO degree of goodness, and NO number of religious observances can EVER make a person acceptable before God or earn him entrance into heaven.
The problem is that these Judaizers in Acts 15 misunderstood God’s purpose of the Old Testament Law of Moses. These men thought that the purpose of the Law was to keep it so that they could be accepted by God on the basis of their works of obedience and righteousness. But that was not the purpose of the Law at all.
The Apostle Paul teaches four reasons God gave us the Law of God (EXPAND AS LED):
• First, the Law shows us our guilt before God and stops us from justifying ourselves – Romans 3:19 – “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
God’s Law is a mirror that shows us that we’re not so good as we think we are and shuts us up about our goodness before a holy God.
Illus. – I remember when our son Chris was about two or three years old. He was invited to a birthday party and he was all excited about it. Susan had gotten him washed up and dressed in the cutest little solid-white sailor outfit you ever saw, and then went to get herself dressed.
In the meantime, Chris wanted to go outside, so without thinking (typical man), I let him go in the back yard for a few minutes to play. The problem was, Chris headed straight for a mud puddle, and when I checked on him, he and white sailor outfit was covered with mud.
I said, “Chris, I can’t take you like that! You’re covered with mud.”
Thinking he was going to miss the party, he said, “No, I clean.”
“No, you’re not. You’re dirty. You’ve got to get cleaned up.”
“No Daddy, I clean.”
“No, you’re dirty as you can be.”
He started to cry and kept saying, “I not dirty! I not dirty! I clean!”
So I took him to the bathroom and put him up before the mirror, and when he saw himself—that stopped his mouth!—just like God’s Law stops our mouth from saying how good and clean we are.
Chris stopped saying he was clean when he saw himself in the mirror.
But you must not miss this next point: I did not use the MIRROR to wash him with; I took him to the WATER for that.
You see, the Law does not cleanse us; it just shows us how dirty we are.
• Second, God’s Law makes us realize our sinful state – Romans 3:20 – “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
It is because of the Law that we become conscious of sin in our lives. In other words, the Law does not serve to justify us, but to condemn us.
• Third, God’s Law defines sin – Romans 7:7 – “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”
We know what sin is because the Commandments tell us what is sin.
Illus. – South African lady in our church in Bicester who said, “No, I have never transgressed any of God’s Laws” when I told her that sin was the transgression of God’s laws – Weeping, she cried out after I went through had gone through 8 of the Ten Commandments, “Oh, what am I going to do?”—to which I could lead her now to Christ.
• Which leads me to the last purpose of the God’s Law: It was designed to lead us to Christ –
Galatians 3:24-26 – “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
You see, the Law of God cannot ever HELP you spiritually. Quite the opposite, it leaves you HELPLESS, showing that you are a sinner, guilty before God, in need of a Savior. It shows you that you cannot save yourself, because no matter how you might strive to obey God’s Law the rest of your life, there must still be justice for the violations of God’s Law you have already committed.
Illus. – Suppose a criminal comes before a judge. The criminal is proven to be guilty of rape, murder, burglary and assault.
If the judge is just, he can’t simply let the criminal go free, can he?
Now suppose the criminal says, “Your honor, I know I committed all these crimes, but for the past two years, I have not raped anyone, or murdered a single soul, or broken into anyone’s house or assaulted anybody. Your honor, I have reformed. I now obey the law. So I ask you to let me off for my crimes.”
What would be the judge’s response? Were he a just judge, he’d say, “Your change of behavior is commendable, but it doesn’t absolve your guilt for past offenses. There must be justice for those offenses. Though your change is good, you have a debt to pay for what you have done and I would be unjust to not give you the penalty demanded by the Law.”
You see, that’s our problem as sinners. We can reform all we want to, but we have broken God’s laws and God says that we must pay the penalty for those sins.
What is the penalty of sin?
Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.…”
Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death…”
Hebrews 9:27 – “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
And no amount of good works can cover over the sin and deliver us from the demands of God’s law for death and judgment for our sins. The penalty must be payed!
This’s why the Law is our schoolmaster. It teaches us the uselessness and futility of works. NO person can keep all God’s laws perfectly—but perfection is EXACTLY what God demands for forgiveness of sin and to be accepted by God.
God’s Law points its finger in every one of our faces and pronounces its just sentence: GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!
It says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.”
Have you ever used God’s name in a vain way, putting His name on the level of vain and common things?
Of course you have, so you stand GUILTY before God as a blasphemer.
God’s law declares, “Thou shalt not steal.” – None of us in this room today has never stolen anything in their lives… meaning we are GUILTY as thieves.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness” (which means “to lie”). – We have all lied; and thus we are guilty before God as liars!
God’s Law proclaims, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” – None of us can say that every single Sunday of our lives were set apart to worship God with all our hearts; so we stand guilty as Sabbath breakers.
What about, “Thou shalt not kill”?
You say, “Well, there’s a commandment I have not disobeyed!” Oh yes you have, for Jesus said that if a anyone hates his brother, he has committed murder in his heart and is as guilty as a murderer. That makes us all murderers in our hearts at some time in our lives.
Dear friend, that is the condition of EVERY ONE OF US—GUILTY before God, deserving His justice and just penalty of death and hell! That’s the purpose of the Law…to shut our mouths about our goodness…to show us our guilt before a holy God.…to reveal to us the magnitude of our sin.…and to drive us to JESUS—our ONLY hope.
Jesus is your ONLY hope! God’s Law CONDEMNS you, but Jesus came to SAVE you!
He paid your penalty in your place – 1 Peter 2:24 – “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
Jesus, who did not sin, died for your sins in your place.
III. LASTLY, NOTE THIS: WOLVES ARE DANGEROUS AND MUST BE DEALT WITH.
Any shepherd knows that wolves must be neutralized.
Note verse 2 –“When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.”
Paul didn’t say, “Well, let’s just all get along and unite and hold hands and forget our differences.”
Do you see that in this verse? Paul didn’t say, “Well, all roads lead to heaven anyway. The Buddhist will get there if he’s sincere. The Muslim will get there if he does his best. The Hindu will be saved as long as he’s true to his religion. The Judaizer will make it to heaven as long as he keeps the Law as best as he can. Let’s not quibble over details. Let’s just get along.”
Is that what he did?—No, verse 2 says “Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them.”
You might be thinking, I thought believers weren’t supposed to be divisive! The Bible says it was PAUL AND BARNABAS who started the dissension!
Do you know what Paul and Barnabas were doing?—They were being good shepherds. A good shepherd watches over his sheep, guards them, and fights off the wolves. And folks, in the spiritual realm, what could possibly be more dangerous than people who teach a false gospel of works salvation?
NOTHING is more dangerous, because you can be right on every other teaching in the Bible, but if you’re trusting in your works for salvation, you will not be saved. So the reason a good shepherd watches carefully for clear teaching that salvation is by grace alone is because eternal souls are in the balance.
CONCLUSION
Now, let’s bring this down to where you and I live.
If I have one application to make to your life today—one single appeal to you—it’s this: If you’ve never trusted in Christ as your Savior, let me reiterate what I said before.… You cannot ever be accepted by God on the basis of anything you do to earn it. You can follow ANY system of works, but they ALL fall short of God’s standard. They can’t take care of sins you’ve already done, nor your future sins. Your only answer is Jesus who died to pay the penalty for your sins in your place.
What do you need to do? You need to realize that your works or your religion will not save you. You need to realize that on the cross, Christ has already done everything that needs to be done to save you from your guilt before a holy God. Your only answer—your only hope—is to trust in Jesus Christ. – John 3:36 says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
Why don’t you confess faith in Christ today and ask Jesus Christ to save you and forgive you and make you His child. God promises this, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
Why don’t you call on the Lord and ask him to save you from your sins today?
