Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 15. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful book. The name of the message is great
joy, great joy. Do you know that we can have
great joy in this world? And it's not by our doing. It's by looking to Christ and
by the Holy Spirit working in us, the hope that is within us,
which is Christ. I ask you, do you not have joy
as a believer when you're looking to Christ and thinking about
Christ and listening to the gospel or listening to the word or studying
the word? And does not joy flee when we
start looking at the events of the world and the things going on? And
we get focused on things going on in this world. As one preacher
I like to listen to said, he said, as we start to look horizontally
rather than vertically. We look horizontally, And our joy is going to flee
because of things in the world, things going on. But if we look
horizontally or vertically, look into Christ, oh, beloved, we'll
have joy. And Paul, we're going to see
here, and the saints of God had great joy, great joy by the preaching of
the gospel. And hearing about what God's
done. Hearing about what God's done. Last week in our study,
it took us down to verse 21 where we saw the end of the Council
of Jerusalem. It ended with unity, didn't it? Total unity among
the body. Paul and Barnabas, Peter and
James were, and the whole church. Look at verse 19. Wherefore my
sentence is that we trouble them not, this is speaking of the
Gentiles, from which among the Gentiles are turned to God. So
we don't yoke them with things they have to do. They're already
saved by God's grace. There's nothing we can do to
save ourselves. There's nothing we can do. Because
remember the Judaizers were saying, well, except they'd be circumcised,
they're not saved. And you can put anything else
in there. Baptism, anything else. Right? The Catholics believe
if you don't belong to their church, you're not saved. Now
the average Catholic, you talk to them about that, they say,
oh no, I don't believe that. But that's what their church
believes. Then you have another group that
says if you're not baptized, you're not saved. You have another group,
the extreme group of the Pentecostals that say if you're not speaking
with tongues, you're not saved. And this stuff comes in all different
forms. If you're not doing this, you're not saved. If you're not
doing that, there's people who believe you have to follow all
the laws of Moses. They can't even do it themselves. Oh my. But James is saying, don't
trouble them. They're turned to God. They've
turned from idols to serve the living God. Now let's stand up
and read. We're going to read a portion
here, verses 22 to 26 together. Let's stand up and read this. verses 22 to 26. Then pleased
at the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen
men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely
Judas, surname Barsabas, and Silas, chief man among the brethren. And they wrote letters by them
after this manner, the apostles and elders and brethren send
greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch,
Syria, and Caecilia. For as much as we have heard
that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words,
subverting your souls, saying, you must be circumcised and keep
the law, to whom we gave no commandment. And it seemed good unto us, being
assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you, with
our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their
lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Okay. And that verse 26 is actually
speaking of Paul and Barnabas and how they've hazarded their
lives in times past. And they knew that because they
had testified of those things before the council at Jerusalem.
Now, James is speaking here in verse 22, that it pleased James
and Peter and John and the whole church that they put no yoke
of bondage upon the Gentile believers. And did you notice how James
even said, we didn't send them out? They went out from among them,
but they were never of them, were they? That's what that verse
is speaking about in John. These false teachers who supposedly
went out from among the brethren and were preaching the false
gospel, they never sent them. They never sent them. They were
never among them. They were never believers. They
were false teachers saying you must do something to be saved. Peter and James and the apostles
and elders, along with the whole church, sent two chosen men to
go with Paul in Barnabas back to the Gentile churches.
Why would they do that? To confirm, to confirm that they
truly sent these letters. Brother Tom, they could stand
up and say, we saw Peter and James, they wrote these letters,
they gave them to us, and here they are. They're from them. Because couldn't, you know, you
got to remember how suspicious minds work, right? The false
Jews, the false preachers could have said, oh, they just wrote
those letters themselves. Do you see how God protects his
word, protects his gospel? He sends two men along with Paul
and Barnabas. To confirm this is what's being
said. Isn't that amazing? Little things, right? Just little
things that we don't always... I didn't see it until I started
studying this. I was like, wow, that's why. To confirm that these
letters came from James and Peter and from the church. And we see through these letters,
we're going to see what they wrote, that they're absolutely
united together in the fact that you cannot mix man's works with
grace. They don't go together. It's
like we talked about before, oil and water, you can't mix
them. Right? You can't mix them. The oil will
float to the top of the water. My oh my. And so the apostles,
the elders, along with every member of the church in Jerusalem,
were united together about the perfect, complete, finished work
of Christ and his shed blood being the only way a sinner can
be saved. And they said, we're not going to yoke them Gentiles
with something that's not needed, because Christ fulfilled the
law for us in our room and place. Oh, my. The law of God, they
still love the law of God, it's holy. Like we do. It's holy. We look at the law
of God and go, I can't be saved by anything I can do. The law
kills, right? It shows us our need. Right? Oh my. And God shows us our need,
and then he draws us. I remember one dear sister of
ours, she told me, she said, God showed her need, and not
long, seconds later, he saved her by his grace. Isn't that wonderful?
But we have to see our need, don't we? And Brother Tom, you
said it many times, it has to be revealed to us, or else we
don't ever know that, that we need Christ. It's exciting when
people start to get convicted about their sin. Because God,
the Holy Spirit, is the only one who reveals that we're sinners,
right, to us. Because in our natural state,
we don't think we're sinners. So they're saying here, we're
saved by the grace of God in Christ plus nothing. It's all
His work. The perfect, complete, sin-atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And how we say, we have faith
in Christ. There's no one who's not saved
There's no one saved who doesn't have faith in Christ. You know
that? No one. Someone says, well, I
believe that I'm saved. I always like to ask people,
are you born again? And you know what? I had a guy a couple weeks
ago. You born again? Well, I've always been a Christian.
I said, you're not a Christian. If you think you've always been
a Christian, you're not a Christian. No one's, is anyone born a Christian? We're born as God's elect, but
we don't even have a clue. Right? God knows us from the
womb. He knows us from eternity, but
we don't have any clue. That's why we still pray for
our kids, right? And pray for our family members and our friends
and our coworkers. Because we don't know who the
elect are. But I tell you, God knows them. And he's going to
get the gospel to them. We're living proof. You know
that? We're living proof. Were you
looking for God when he found you? I sure wasn't. No. Oh, isn't that amazing? It's
absolutely incredible. So, We see they're of one mind,
they have faith in Christ alone, and they sent Judas and Silas
along with Paul and Barnabas. Do you know why they went also?
You know the main reason why Judas and Silas was sent? Because
it was God's will. They chose, well, we chose these
men. Why did they choose those men? Because it was God's will. Nothing catches our king by surprise,
beloved. Absolutely nothing. He purposed
and planned that. He had saved Silas and Judas
in order to go with Paul and Barnabas. That was part of his
plan. And we're going to see Silas
stuck around, right? Because that was God's will too,
right? And the other fellow went back to Jerusalem, still a believer,
but went back to Jerusalem to serve in the Jerusalem church.
because it's God's will. And you ever think about the
dispute Paul and Barnabas had? I think I mentioned this last
week. People say, well, yeah, look at that dispute they had.
But now there's two missionary teams going at it. My, isn't God amazing? Isn't
he amazing? And Silas went, well, you will
see, went with Paul, and John Mark goes with Barnabas. It's incredible, beloved, all
by God's will and purpose. So first and foremost, Judas
and Silas were sent because it was God's will for them to go.
But from man's perspective, from man's perspective, they would
be sent with Paul and Barnabas to confirm that the letters were
sent by the apostles. Look at verse 23 again. And they wrote letters by them
after this manner. The apostles and elders and brethren
send greeting unto the brethren, which are of the Gentiles in
Antioch and Syria and Cecilia. So we see they sent letters to
the Gentile church to confirm the truthfulness that salvation
is by grace alone through Christ alone, plus no works of man. To confirm that, we're all in
unity. Do you know the same gospel we believe is the same gospel
they believed. It hasn't changed, beloved. It's the gospel of salvation
through Christ and Him alone. Plus, no works of man, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Right? For by grace you're saved
through faith and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. Right? So it's all by God's grace and
mercy that we're saved. And look at verse 24. These letters
denounce all preachers of the law. Anyone who adds works to
grace, these letters denounce them. And that's even included
today. You got folks on TV. It's awful, that whole word of
faith. Just claim it and name it. Name it and claim it, right?
Just do this. Send in your seed money to me. My, oh, my. You know who's getting
wealthy there? That fellow's got a jet now.
Well, I need the jet to spread God's word. No, you don't. You
don't have to leave where you live. Just have a building there. But they're not preaching the
gospel, are they? No, they're not. And notice how verse 24,
even today, denounces false teachers, denounces anyone who wants to
add works to grace. Look at this. It seemed good
unto us being assembled with one accord, or verse 24, I read
verse 25, for as much as we have heard that certain which went
out from us troubled you. See, it's troubling for the believer
when someone comes and starts saying, you have to do this to
be saved. So these are young believers, and they're being
shaken in what they believe. But Paul's preaching the gospel. Do you know what's good for us?
Do you know what grounds us in Christ? A steady diet of the
gospel. That's what grounds us. A steady
diet preaching, I'm a sinner saved by grace. And that's the
only way a sinner can be saved, is through Christ Jesus. That grounds us, beloved. You ever heard of anything deeper
than Christ dying for sinners? People say, well, I want to learn
the deep things. I'll tell you what, I haven't
graduated from the fact that Christ saved me from my sins.
Have you? I'm still in awe of that. Just keep telling me about Christ. He's an unfathomable mine of
riches, isn't he? He's an endless ocean grace. He's a endless universe of mercy. Christ Jesus our Lord. And look
at this, they said, we didn't send these folks who are troubling
you. Look at this, subverting your souls. They want followers, beloved.
A true gospel preacher, we're not desiring a following. We
desire Christ to be glorified and magnified through the preaching
of the gospel. He saved my soul. I'm going to
tell you about it. He's my King. He's my Lord. He's
my Savior. He's loved me with an everlasting
love. I still can't get over that. And every believer, we
say that, don't we? This grace is amazing grace,
like John Newton wrote. So these guys, they've been troubling
them and subverting their souls, saying, look, you must be circumcised
and keep the law. Well, again, you can change circumcised
there with anything that man has to do. Right? Anything. Even something that
would seem good. Right? God's grace, now think
of this, God's grace is totally unmerited. There's nothing in
us, Tom. This is amazing, too. There's
nothing in us deserving of God's grace. The only thing in us is deserving
a condemnation, but yet we receive grace. Like Paul said in Sunday
School, I've obtained mercy. I was a blasphemer, yet I've
obtained mercy. I wasted the church, yet I obtained
mercy. Can we not all say that? We can
list things off that we did, and we're still sinners. We still
sin, and I have attained mercy, though, by the grace and mercy
of God. And notice, too, we don't desire
to go out. People say, and I've mentioned
this, I'm gonna keep mentioning, people say, well, if I believe
how you guys believe, I could just go out and do whatever I
want. Isn't that foolish, Brother Tom? We don't feel that way.
We don't wanna dishonor our Savior. I am already weighed down by
my sin every day already. And someone says something foolish
like that. Do you know I've never heard a gospel preacher ever
say that? But yet we're accused of that all the time. No, we
realize we've obtained mercy, unmerited, we didn't deserve
it. Unsought after, did we seek Christ
or did he seek us? He saw us, didn't he, Sister
Barb? Yeah, he saw us. Right? Undeserving, unmerited. We don't deserve what we get.
If God should mark iniquity, who should stand? Scripture says.
No one. There's only being one perfect
man. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ who came into this world
to save his people from their sins, of which we are sinners
saved by grace. So do you see the reiteration
again of the fact that salvation is only in Christ and not by
anything we do? Not by the keeping of the law.
You know, there's still people that believe, that are trying
to live under the law today even, and they call themselves Christians. They really do. They claim to
be born again, they claim to be followers of Christ, and yet
they're yoking themselves under the law. Because they haven't submitted
themselves to Christ. Anytime someone tells you that
there's something you have to do or they have to do for salvation,
they're peddling a false gospel, beloved. Our joy and our hope
is in the fact That salvation is in Christ alone, right? And
through Christ. And as I said in Sunday School,
don't you rejoice that we can't mess it up? I can mess up a lot
of things, let me tell you that. And I have. But Brother Tom,
we can't mess up this salvation. Because it's not dependent on
what we do. It's all dependent upon Christ.
You know, even the most backslidden believer, will be in glory. Do we not feel in our hearts
us even backsliding from God? Wandering from God sometimes?
Oh yeah, let's be, let's be real. As I said in Sunday school, we're
not religious here. Let's be real. We get like that. But aren't
you thankful that it's the Lord who keeps us? and he keeps bringing us back
to himself. Isn't that wonderful? Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord. Take and
seal it, seal it for thy courts above. That writer knew something,
didn't he? That writer knew something, that
hymn writer of Come Thou Fount, he knew something. I'm prone to wander, Lord, I
feel it. But praise be to God, He keeps us. And we rest in this
truth right here, presented right here. Look at this. And look what they said. They
say, these false teachers say, you must be circumcised and keep
the law. They yoke the law in with it, too. to whom we gave
no such commandment." We did not condone, and we do not condone
what they're saying. They're not from us. They're peddling a false gospel. And now, again, They came from
Jerusalem, so somewhere they must have said, well, we were
sent out by the church. They must have said that. Because
we see here, they say, eh, we had nothing to do with those
fellows. Oh, my. And do you know what
Scripture says? That Satan's ministers appear
as angels of light. How do you identify a false preacher? Listen to their words. If they tell you that there's
anything you have to do to be saved, they're a false preacher. Period. I don't care if it's
a pinprick of something you have to do. A pinprick of works. They're
a false teacher. That's what's being brought forth
here. Remember Paul to the Galatians? Oh foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you? Who put a spell on you? In the Greek, that bewitches,
who put a spell on you? Are you so soon removed from
He who called you by His grace? And the thing I love, you know
what I love? Do you know what I absolutely
love about Paul's writings? You know, how quick people are
to say, well, they're not a believer. They're not a believer, right?
How quick, how quick people are to say that, right? But did you
notice when he wrote to the Corinthians, he didn't say, well, you're not
saved. When he wrote to the Galatians, he didn't say, well, you're not
saved. We're going through Philippians. There's contention a little bit
in the church. He's not saying, well, you lost it, you blew it.
No, he keeps pointing them to Christ. You know, we can do some. We are just as capable, even
after we're saved, of doing things that unsaved people do. But by
the grace and mercy of God, he keeps us and restrains us. And
when we do those things, are we not convicted as believers?
Do we not then flee to Christ and repent of our sin? No, and
even though it's forgiven, we still cry out to our King. We're
ashamed, aren't we? Oh, Lord, I did it again. Please keep me from this. Keep
me from this. My, oh, my. Praise God for His
grace and mercy. Now, these letters commended
Paul and Barnabas as faithful servants of God, chosen men.
Look at verse 25 and 26. It seemed good unto us, being
assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you, that's
Judas and Silas, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. And now, speaking
still of Paul and Barnabas, he says, men that have hazarded
their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul and Barnabas
had hazarded their lives for the cause of Christ. Remember
we saw Paul get stoned and left for dead? Remember they had to
flee the city? Paul had to flee the city in
a basket. That was, I think, Thessalonica. They dropped him
down in a rope, in a basket. These are men who had hazarded
their lives. We're gonna see Paul down the
road, he goes to Jerusalem, he's preaching in Jerusalem, and they
have to get the Roman centurion and a guard of Roman soldiers
just to take him back to Rome, because he may have been killed
on the way there. That's just God's protecting hand, isn't
it? Using unsaved men to protect our dear brother. It's amazing, it's absolutely
amazing. And again, that's Paul and Barnabas
who have hazarded their lives. My oh my. They risked their own
lives for the cause of Christ. They risked their own life for
the cause of Christ. Not counting even what they went through with
joy. Counting their sufferings with joy. My oh my. Look at verse 27. We have sent,
therefore, Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same
things by mouth. These letters assured God's saints,
that the Gentiles, that their liberty in Christ was approved
of God. Look at verses 28 and 29. For it seemed good to the
Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these
necessary things that you abstain from meats offered to idols,
from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from that
which, if you keep yourselves, you shall do well, fare ye well."
Brother Neil, Jim and I were talking to Brother Neil last
week, and it was awesome. He brought up that these are
just common sense things. Things that, you know, like Neil
said, if you were a believer and you had a bunch of kids from
different women, that wouldn't look very good, would it? No. Not at all. And then the thing
strangled, he was saying that the blood, the blood, what's
that word? Somebody help me. Collagregate.
Yeah, yeah, thank you. And it spoils the meat. And there's
gases, right? Brethren, there's gases that
come forth from the stomach and can spoil the meat. So if you
get offered an animal that's strangled and you don't know
how long it's been dead for, Meat could be rotten for all
you know. My oh my. So, but Neil was saying
if you can get to that before those gases start to affect the
meat, the meat's still good. My oh my. So these are just,
and then the blood is blood being offered up to idols, false gods. So these are just things that
are like, I love what Neil said, common sense things. Things to
help us in our everyday life. And then it says, from which
if you keep yourselves, you shall do well, fare you well. It has
nothing to do with our salvation, but it has to do with our everyday
life. My, oh, my. And each letter, think of this,
each letter sent would definitely have a greeting from the brethren
to the saints at whatever churches they were written to. They'd
have a greeting from the saints in Jerusalem. And there was no
contradictions either. There was no contradictions in
the letters to what Paul and Barnabas taught. That's what's
bringing forth. The contradiction is in the false
preachers and what they're teaching. It's not according to the scriptures. See, remember that Christ is
God himself. If we could save ourselves in
any way, then he never would have had to come to this earth. But because we cannot save ourselves
or anyone else, God himself became a man. to save us from our sins
by the shedding of his precious, precious blood and offering himself
up as a perfect substitute before God in our room and place. That's amazing. And he did it
willingly, with joy. And one day he will present us
faultless before the Father's throne with exceeding joy. You know why? Because we're bought
with a price, and that price is His blood. He gave His life
for us. Do you ever think of this, too?
He manifested His everlasting love to His people by dying on
the cross. His love for you and I as individual
believers was manifest 2,000 years ago when He shed His blood
on the cross and made an atonement for all our sins. How can we
not but love Him? How can we not but love this
One, this King, God in the flesh who gave His life for us, beloved? But in our natural state, we
are so alienated from God by wicked works in our minds that
the scripture says we're at enmity with God, which in the Greek
is hatred with God, even though we may never say, I hate him.
Our works, our actions, our lifestyle, all said that. And now we're
new creatures in Christ. Are we not still battling with
this flesh, right? But now we have Christ in us,
the hope of glory. Now we say with Paul, wretched
man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of death? And
we can say what Paul in Romans chapter eight, verse one, after
he said, it's only in Christ in the latter part of verse seven,
or chapter seven, it's only by Christ, only by, there's therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Isn't that
wonderful? All because of God's grace, His
unmerited favor shown to us in Christ. It's just amazing, beloved. It's just amazing. And in these
letters, they would have clearly stated that salvation was by
God's grace alone, and through Christ alone. And that it was
wrong for the Judaizers to put any believers under the law.
And they exposed, these letters would expose the false teachings
of the Judaizers. They would expose them as false
teachers. Again, they went out from us,
but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." 1 John
2, 19. Now, think, how would the Gentile
believers react over these letters? Oh, my. How would they react
that their salvation was all finished by Christ and that it
had nothing to do with their works. How would they have reacted? Well, how would they have reacted
that even Paul and Barnabas and Silas and all the church of Jerusalem
were united in this fact that salvation is in through in Christ
and through Christ? They would have reacted joyfully,
wouldn't they? Oh yeah? The born-again, blood-washed
saints of God in these churches would have rejoiced at this fact. They would have rejoiced that
they were being told to set their faith firmly upon Christ. Remember? Vertically, right? Not horizontally. Vertically! Set your mind on
Christ. Keep looking to Him. I'm preaching
to myself, too, here. I'll tell you. Keep my mind on Christ and be
fixed, beloved, and rejoice. Rejoice in the fact that salvation's
all of grace. Rejoice in the fact that it's
all by the work of Christ. You know why I rejoice? Because
I didn't mess it up. It was dependent upon me. Would you? It's all the grace, beloved.
Salvation for sinners is all in Christ and Him alone. And God-given faith fixes us
upon Christ, doesn't it? To look to Him and Him alone. My. And how do we know this is
true? Well, because the Old Testament
pictures and shows us that all those sacrifices that could never
take away sin, they were pointing to Christ though, weren't they?
And the New Testament says, here he is. That was the shadow, here's
the substance. Paul writes that in Colossians.
Christ is a substance. All those shadows pictured. You've
heard me say many times, if I walk up the side and you're on the
front there, and you see my shadow before me, that's not me, that's
my shadow, right? It's a shadow of me. But until
I come around that corner, you're like, oh, it's Wayne. It could
be anybody else, couldn't it, Tom? A shadow's a shadow, right? But if you were walking ahead
of me, and people thought I was coming up there, oh, there's
Wayne. Oh, no, it's Tom. And then I come behind you, oh, there's
Wayne. Because we see the substance.
You see? Those were shadows pointing to
Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Pointing to the Lamb of God in
whom salvation for sinners is only in Him. And that's why we
gospel preachers, we point our hearers, saved and lost, look
to Christ. He's the only hope. There's no
hope outside of Christ. Only in Christ. My, oh, my. Note these wonderful verses.
Look at these words here in verse 28. For it seemed good to the
Holy Ghost. We see that these men who wrote
these letters testified that their decision on this matter
of salvation by grace alone through Christ alone in his perfect work,
without the works of man, seemed good to the Holy Ghost." Isn't
that wonderful? We know this statement is true,
along with all the other scriptures of the Old and New Testament.
And all the writers, they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God.
These words were penned These men were secretaries, right?
Penning that which God the Holy Spirit wanted them to write.
And it pleased the Holy Spirit of God that they were proclaiming
that salvation was in Christ alone. Because that's the only
way for a sinner to be saved. You must be born again, right?
The Holy Spirit regenerates us. And who does he give us faith
to believe in? Christ, the only Savior of sinners. My, oh, my. Note this too. Note these words here at the
end of verse 29. Fare ye well. These words in
English, in our text, is one word in the Greek. It means be
strong, be strengthened, have health. I thought of the Romans. They used to go strengthen honor.
Fare you well. Be strong. Be strong. This is in Christ. Be strengthened.
Have health. And that's not the health-wealth-prosperity
kind of stuff. That's not that at all. Be strong
in Christ. Be strengthened by Christ. Have
health by Christ. My, oh my, isn't that wonderful?
Fare ye well. Be a good greeting for us, eh?
Fare ye well! Or not greet, a good goodbye
to each other. Fare you well this week. Oh my. We'd have to say it in
the Greek word though, and I don't know the Greek word, so. But
that's, isn't that wonderful? What that's, what that means?
It's wonderful. And these words, think of this,
these words came from loving hearts. These brethren love each
other. They've never met each other,
but they love each other. Isn't it amazing that you can
meet brethren from other churches and instantly have a connection
with them just like that? Like you've known them for years
and years and years? Zane was telling me that he met
Sandy and Eric outside the week that they were leaving. And he
said he got talking to them, and he said to me, he said, it
was like I knew them for 50 years, Wayne. And I said, oh, isn't
that amazing? That's just the Lord, isn't it? That's the Lord
working in us, right? They send their greetings too.
I talked to them yesterday. They said to say hi to you guys. But isn't that amazing though,
how that happens? It's amazing. And that's all
the Lord doing that. And we have the same loving concern
for believers in our hearts, too. Not just within the church
family here, but in other churches. We see that Paul and Barnabas
were dismissed, and they traveled back to Jerusalem, or back to
Antioch from Jerusalem with Judas and Silas. And when they made
it back to Antioch, look what they did, look at verse 30. So
when they were dismissed, They came to Antioch. Took them a
while to get there. Took them a while to get there.
And when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered
the epistle. They didn't waste any time, did
they? Because the saints were being troubled, weren't they?
So Brother Brian, they want to put them on their knees. Here you go.
Here's the letter. And could you imagine how excited
those saints at Antioch were to get a letter? from the church
at Jerusalem, from James and John and all the rest of them,
it got them pretty excited. They wanted to hear, they wanted
this issue solved, didn't they? Oh my. And look at, what was the result?
This is why I named the message Great Joy. What was the result?
What was the result? Look at verses 31, look at this. And when they had, read, that's
the letter, they rejoiced for the consolation. Look at that. Now think of this, the Lord had
given Paul and Barnabas and Silas and Judas safe passage all the
way back. That's why we pray for travel
mercies, right? We know it's God who gives the mercies to
get even to come to church and back. It's all the Lord. And so he'd given them travel
mercies, beloved. And as soon as they got home, they gathered
the people together and they started reading the letter. And
what was the result? Which when they had read, they
rejoiced for the consolation. This verse just confirms the
joy and rejoicing in the fact that salvation is in and through
Christ alone, without anything we do. Does it not bring you
great joy, beloved, as we hear about the finished work of Christ,
that is not dependent upon us? Does that not bring you joy in
your heart? That God gave me faith to believe, that I'm born
again by His power, and He gave me faith to believe. He didn't
leave me where I was. He sought us out, didn't He,
Sister? He sought us out. We didn't seek Him. We may have
came to church thinking, oh, I'm going to go to church. Yeah. What did Brother Richard told
me? This is funny. Brother Richard
was like, he said, I talked to Irene. She's going to church.
Well, I'm going to church with Irene. I'm going to church with
her. Little did he know that God was going to save him, and
he'd be a servant in the church for years, and then took him
home. My, Brother Wayne used to come
to church, right, with you? Lord saved him. Isn't that amazing? My, oh my. Luke, didn't you come
to Come to church, or you met Jill, right? Then yeah, came
to church afterwards, and yeah, the Lord saved you. Isn't that amazing? You see how
God works? It's amazing. And I ask you,
when you hear the gospel, do you not rejoice? Isn't it nice to be able to come
in here and to hear the word preached. And for the time we're
together, just let the world fade away. Just leave all our
cares at the door and come in. And you know what else I love
about Grace Churches? Is we leave our eagles outside,
don't we? I told Vicki, I got no one to
impress. I'm past the age now where I
feel like I gotta impress people. Do y'all have anybody to impress?
We got no one to impress, do we? We desire to serve Christ. I'm not looking for a following.
I'm going to point you to Christ every time. Look to Him, because
I'm going to look with you. Right? I love preaching. You all know that. I love proclaiming
Christ and talking about Him. He's my King, my Savior, my Lord,
my deliverer, my shield, my buckler, the horn of my salvation. He's
my all in all. Is He yours? Let us rejoice,
beloved, that salvation's in and through Him alone by the
shedding of His precious blood. And it's not dependent on anything
we do. My. Now that's freedom, isn't
it? That's liberty, right? You see
how Paul said, don't be again entangled. They were yoking those
believers. When Paul said in Galatians,
be not again entangled with the yoke of bondage, those Judaizers
were yoking people with things you had to do or not to do. Now,
tell me, as a believer, there's things we know we're not gonna
do, right? We shouldn't do. Right? There's things we avoid,
because we know it's not right. And then there's things we know
we should avoid, and we still do them. Right? Again, we're not religious here,
we're real. We're saved by the grace of God
in Christ. But aren't you glad that God
don't count iniquity against us? Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Why? Because all our sins were
imputed to Christ. Again, and I'll tell you, the
last thing a believer wants to do is go out that door and go
crazy. and live a righteous life. That's the last thing a believer
wants to do. Now we want to pour out our life. Now we want to
serve Christ. Now we want to live for Christ. Did you want
to do that before the Lord saved you? No. It was all about me. Right? You're probably just smiling
because you know it was all about, look out for number one, wasn't
it? Now it's look out, not look out, but now it's look to Him.
Look to Him alone. He's our provider. Everything
we have comes from Him, comes from His gracious hand. Oh my,
it's wonderful. So there was great, there was
great joy, beloved. You know the Greek word there,
consolation? It means an act of exhortation, which brings
encouragement. So it was an exhortation that
encouraged them. They found great encouragement,
comfort. They were rejoicing for joy in
the fact that what the Judaizers were teaching was false, that
their salvation's all wrapped up in Christ and Him alone. And they're rejoicing, beloved. They're encouraged, and it also
means strengthened. Do you know that all Scripture
is for exhortation, admonition, encouragement, for the purpose
of strengthening and establishing the believer in Christ? That's
what the Scripture does. It establishes us in Christ.
It teaches us and shows us our need to rest in Christ. And as
my dear brother Joe Terrell said, that's the hardest thing for
us to do. as believers. Oh, it is. It is. And so the believers, they read
these letters, they found great comfort. Their salvation didn't
depend on the works of the law. Not at all. They're so thankful,
and they're so happy. And they found great comfort.
in the fact that the work of salvation was in through Christ
alone, that he had accomplished their salvation. It wouldn't
be finished if they had to do something, would it? Isn't that wonderful? Our King
cried of our salvation. It's finished. It means it's finished. Praise
his mighty name. What an encouragement for believers.
So we can find great consolation, great comfort through the preaching
of the gospel. Every time we hear the gospel
of the finished work of Christ, it's so encouraging for us, beloved.
It's so encouraging for us. It makes our hearts leap. We
can leave here, beloved, rejoicing today, that our salvation is
in the hands of Christ and Him alone. We live in an uncertain world,
don't we? There are certain things that
are certain. Death and taxes, they say, right? Right? But death for the believer is
just a doorway into the presence of Christ. My oh my! And death is certain
for everyone on this planet. And we do not know the time when
we will leave this world. But God does. And so we preachers
say, today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to flee to Christ.
We might not have tomorrow. Somebody says, well, you've been
saying that for 20 years now, preaching. Well, yeah, I'm going
to keep saying it. Because it's the truth. It's the truth. It's the point on the man wants
to die, and after this, the judgment. That's truth. Every one of us
in this room, every one of us in this world is going to die. Oh, my. That's for certain. Are we gonna die in Christ, by
the grace and mercy of God, or are we gonna die in our sins?
Oh, I pray, I pray, I pray that God would show you your need
for Christ, if you don't know Him, that He'd draw you to Him,
that you'd be able to say, along with the publican and all believers,
God, have mercy upon me, the sinner. And God's had mercy on
us, hasn't He? We who believe, we who are born
again, oh, He's had mercy on us. So we testify of that. So we see here, look at verse
32, and Judas and Silas being prophets also themselves, that
just means they were preachers, exhorted the brethren with many
words and confirmed them. Again, here we see they're preaching
the gospel. They're preaching the gospel.
They're preaching the truths. And remember, okay, someone tell
me, what are they preaching out of? Amen. They don't even have the New
Testament yet. They're preaching Christ through the Old Testament.
New Testament ain't even been written yet. Well, yeah, it's
been recorded by the Holy Spirit. He knows everything. He knows
all. But isn't it amazing? So we're seeing what occurred
fleshed out in the Scriptures, and God, the Holy Spirit, had
them write these words for us. to comfort us, beloved, for God's
people, for all the elect of all the ages. You ever think there's one book
that's preserved all through the ages? It's called the Holy
Bible. Lots of books have been written
in this world, right? Lots, probably, I don't know, probably maybe
even billions, maybe, I don't know. Lots of books, though. timeless, crosses generations. Empires have risen and fallen,
and this word is still here. Ancients lived and died, and
this word's still here. All the people we read to, read
about, this book's written to, the saints that these books are
written to are all in glory and have been there for thousands
of years. And here's this book still here today. Tell us all about Christ, the
only Savior of sinners. It's God's book, isn't it? He
will preserve his word, beloved. My oh my. So these two, Judas
and Silas, they exhorted the brethren, they confirmed them,
which is strengthen them by preaching the gospel. And that's how the
saints were confirmed and comforted was by the preaching of the gospel.
Look at verse 33. And after they had tarried their
space, They were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles.
So Judas, along with the other brethren from the church of Jerusalem,
remained in Antioch for some time. And some believe they stayed
there for about a year. We don't know. It doesn't say
how long they were there, but some believe they stayed for
about a year. And the problem of law being
mixed with grace, they would go around and preach. to the
various places in Antioch where the believers were. Remember,
they didn't all just gather in one place. They were in their
homes, and so they would go and preach the gospel to the brethren
and tell them that salvation is by Christ alone plus nothing,
not by the works of the law and not by being circumcised. So
they had to completely get rid of that, didn't they? So they
would go around preaching the gospel, Paul and Barnabas and
Judas and Silas. And this shows us how important
it is for us to constantly preach the gospel, to constantly preach
Christ, to not get entangled in different things. You will
not hear me bring politics into the pulpit. The pulpit is for
preaching Christ. I have my own views on things,
just like you do, but there is no room in the pulpit for those
things. None at all. You can tell what I believe and
what I think by what I preach. Right? It's pretty clear, isn't
it? It's pretty clear. People say,
well, what about abortion? You can tell by what I preach
what I think about abortion. Right? Oh, my beloved. Life is precious, isn't it? Life
is precious. And we believe, as believers,
life begins at conception. Because that's what the scripture
says. Right? If the scripture didn't say,
think of this, if the scripture didn't say if you murder a woman
who's pregnant, you've killed two people. Right? That's what it says. Well, that solves that problem,
doesn't it? Yeah? Oh, see? The Bible has
the answers for everything, beloved. Everything. Everything. My, oh,
my. So they went around preaching
the gospel. Look at verse 34 now. Notwithstanding, it pleased
Silas to abide there still. So Judas goes back to Jerusalem,
but Silas decides, I want to stay here. Do you see how God's working
his will and purpose? Look in some of the epistles
with Paul. He mentioned Silas. Paul and Silas to the church
here. All by the will of God. He was
sent to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. The Lord kept them
there, then he sent them out with Paul. I'm amazed. Think of how we're
all brought here together, right? I've been here nine years now.
Twelve years ago, we didn't know each other. I didn't know who you were. You
didn't know who I was. And now the Lord's knit our hearts
together in love. And here we are. It's been a
great joy. And I'm looking forward to many
years here. Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful. My, oh my, look at this. Notwithstanding
the police saw us to abide there, he said, I want to stay here
with the saints. No doubt he had family back in Jerusalem
and friends. He says, no, I want to stay here.
He didn't go back to Jerusalem with Judas and the other brethren.
Again, this is all being providentially arranged by God, which we'll
see in our next study, Lord willing. And then look at verse 35. Paul
also and Barnabas continued in Enoch teaching and preaching
the word of the Lord with many others. So they're not the only
preachers. Now Silas is there, and there's many others too. Men who God has called to preach
the gospel. And now the word of the Lord
in our text there, in verse 35, that refers to the scriptures. That refers to the gospel of
Christ. Remember where to hold forth the word of life? We saw
in Philippians chapter 2 verse 15, I believe. It was. That's
Christ. To a lost and dying world. And
that's what we do. That's what we do. And at God's
appointed time, these men will go off into different directions,
preaching the gospel of salvation through Christ alone. That's
already... That issue has been resolved,
hasn't it? But unfortunately, it still pops up even today in
many churches. Oh, may God reveal the truth
to His sleeping elect, to His lost elect, and draw them to
Christ by His almighty power through the preaching of the
gospel.