Anyway, lovely to see you all
here. Colin, Merrin are on their way. Sharon and the children
are in Sydney. And Taslow's busy, so we have
people away. So it's good to be mindful of
them on a day like today. I was going to read some verses
out of Isaiah chapter 26. It says, in that day, at the
beginning of Isaiah 26, in that day shall this song be sung in
the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. And one of the great things about
the King James translation is that you can leave out the italicised
words, and if you think that salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ,
which which it is, we have a strong city, believers, we have a strong
city. Salvation will appoint walls
and bulwarks. Our Lord Jesus Christ has a city,
that city that John saw coming down out of heaven as a bride
beautifully adorned for her husband. Open ye the gates that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. And then this glorious
verse. Thou will keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth. in thee. Trust ye in the Lord
forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. And if you go down to verse 12
is how this functions in the lives of God's people. Lord,
thou wilt ordain peace for us. For thou also hast wrought all
our works in us. If you're a child of God, all
of your works are wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ, and all
of the works of the Lord Jesus Christ are in his people. To be the Christ of God means
to be in union with His people. It is to be joined with them
as one. That is what the Christ of God
does. He builds a city. He keeps His
people in perfect peace. He ordains peace for us. because he works all of our works
in us. What a glorious Saviour. Let's
pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do pray again that you would
cause us to have our eyes taken from the things of this world,
taken from the things of our flesh, the things good and the
things bad, and that you would cause us to have all of our hope
and all of our rest. in your dear and precious son,
our Lord Jesus Christ. We do praise you, Heavenly Father,
that as we are gathered here, he is seated on the throne of
this universe and rules and ordains all things for your glory and
for the good of his people. And remarkably, Heavenly Father,
we know from your word that all of your believing children are
seated together with him. But even more wondrous, Heavenly
Father, you promise Your dear and precious son promises that
where he gathers his people together, he is there in their midst. Heavenly Father, help us to rest
on the promises that you have made for us in your dear and
precious son. Help us to ponder yet again,
Heavenly Father, these promises and these blessings that flow
to us freely by your grace. were blood-bought promises, Heavenly
Father. Cause us to be mindful of Your
Son on Calvary's tree, but also, Heavenly Father, especially cause
us to be mindful of the glorious victory that He has won. Bless
us, Heavenly Father, with Your presence. Open the eyes and our
hearts so that we might attend to the things of your word, that
you might speak to us yet again, Heavenly Father, through your
word and through your gospel proclaimed. We do commit ourselves
into your hands. We do pray for those who are
absent, Heavenly Father, for those who are suffering in trials
that we may not be aware of, Heavenly Father. We thank you
that we can come and lay our burdens at your feet, knowing
that you care for us. Reveal that to us again this
morning, our Father, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going
to sing number one. to the Lord, the Almighty, the
King of creation. Praise Him in reverberation. Praise to the Lord, all things
so wondrously radiant. Sheltered beyond His wings, His
love can't be sustained. Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti It is lovingly friendly. Praise to the Lord, all that
is meekly adoring. All that hath mireth come now
with praises before. Well, seeing this is our last
day in Acts chapter 15, it's like we're leaving a familiar
friend, and I don't want you to be saying goodbye to a familiar
friend without being reacquainted with some of the glorious things
that are said in it. Of course, Acts 15 is the story
of the Jerusalem Council. It's the only time that the apostles
gathered together as one to debate an issue regarding how God saves
sinners. So this is a big deal, how God
saves sinners. And of course there are just
two religions in the world. There is a religion of works,
there's a religion of what you do, and there's a religion of
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And these people came and
they troubled the church. They came as liars. They said
that they were sent out from Jerusalem and they weren't. They
came as people who were tempting God. You'll see the problem begins,
doesn't it? They said in verse 1, except
ye be. So there's the word of works,
isn't it? Except you do something. except you do something, and
you can substitute anything that you do whatsoever for circumcision,
except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses. Well, circumcision
was given by Abraham, so these guys were being deceitful at
the very beginning. Except you do something, you
cannot be saved. It's a very simple pointed attack
on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the wonder of his
finished work. Verse 2, there was dissension,
and Paul and Barnabas are sent from the church in Antioch down
to Jerusalem. And on the way down, they caused
great joy, verse 3, to all the brethren. They were declaring
the conversion of the Gentiles. And verse 4, they declared all
the things that God had done with them. If you are saved,
you will see that God has done something with you, and Paul
had seen what God had done with him, and Paul had seen what God
had done with these Gentile believers. They simply trusted the Lord
Jesus Christ, and according to God, they were saved. Verse 5
is the problem, isn't it? There's a certain sect of the
Pharisees which believe saying that it was needful to circumcise
them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. If you think you can keep one
tiny part of Moses' law, you have absolutely no idea about
two things. You have no idea about the character
of God. You have no idea about the holiness
of God. And secondly, you have absolutely
no idea about yourself. God's law is holy, and therefore
God requires holiness. So the elders, the apostles,
verse 6, the apostles and elders came together for to consider
this matter. And they, Peter and the other
apostles and James, they actually gave them time, these men, to
say their peace. And then he says, Peter rose
up and said, men and brethren, you know 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 knows
the hearts, bears them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even
as he did unto us. and put no difference between
us, no difference between a religious, righteous Jew and a pagan, idolatrous
Gentile, no difference between us and them, purifying their
hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye
God? Why do you test God? Why do you
put God on trial as Satan did to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why
do you test him to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples
which neither our fathers nor we are able to bear? But we believe, and this is the
apostolic confession, We believe that through the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. Then all
the multitude kept silence. Paul and Barnabas got to talk
about what God had done among the Gentiles. James gets up to
speak and Simeon, he speaks of what Peter has declared, how
God at first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people
for his name. To this agree the words of the
prophet, as it is written. After this I will return, says
the Lord Jesus Christ, and I will build again the tabernacle of
David which is fallen down, and I will build again the ruins
thereof, and I will set it up. This is that. The Lord Jesus
Christ, this is a declaration that Amos gave, but it's a similar,
exactly same declaration that Isaiah gave in Isaiah 26. Verse 17, this is the purpose
of it. That the residue of men, that the remnant of men might
seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is
called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. And I love
that verse 18, isn't it? No one unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is that
we trouble them not, which are from among the Gentiles turned
to God, but that we write to them that they abstain from the
pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from sin strangled,
and from blood, because Moses of old time has in every city
them that preach him." So they wrote these letters, and this
is the letter, isn't it? Verse 24, for as much as we have
heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you
with words subverting your souls, to subvert your souls is to turn
you in the opposite direction to which you had come under the
sound and the sweet message of the gospel, saying you must be
circumcised and keep the law of Moses to whom we gave no such
commandment. 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. We have sent, therefore,
Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth."
So there was going to be a letter, there was going to be the testimony
of Saul and Barnabas, there was going to be the testimony of
Judas and Silas. These people had plenty of opportunity
to find out whether this was true. 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,
and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication,
from which if you keep yourselves, you shall do well, fare thee
well, fare you well. Be made strong is what that word
means. Be made strong in the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And how did the Gentiles receive
this letter? So when they were dismissed,
they came to Antioch, verse 30, and when they had gathered the
multitude together, they delivered the epistle, which when they
had read, they rejoiced for the consolation. They rejoiced for
the comfort. That is the same word that's
used as the title for the Holy Spirit. There's one that comes
alongside and supports. And Judas and Silas being prophets
also themselves exhorted, it's the same word. That's the exhortation,
isn't it? To comfort the people of God.
Exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them. And Silas stayed there. And we're
going to look later on at the contention that comes after verse
36. And some days after Paul said
unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every
city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how
they do. The purpose of the apostles was
to go back and continually see how the brethren are doing. We're
going to sing a song. Normie, thank you. His name is wonderful, His name
is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He is the mighty King, Master
of everything. O mighty God, we see thee. Thou art now before him, Thou
art ever following. His name is Barnabas,
Jesus my Lord. Lord. He is the mighty master
of everything. His name is wonderful. Jesus my Lord. He's the great shepherd throughout
the ages. All my Very good. I just want to spend a little
brief time having some time together looking at these necessary things.
I feel like I need to tidy up the loose ends, and no doubt
as you go back and read Acts 15 you'll think, well, he missed
this and he missed that, and there are lots of loose ends
to tidy up. The word of God, I am so thankful, is living and
active, which means that we never get it nailed down and we never
get it under control. but also it's living and active
in pointing us in living ways and in active ways to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what this
letter's about, isn't it? These men in this Jerusalem council
were being highly critical of the false teachers that had gone
from Jerusalem lying about the fact. that they had been sent
from the church in Jerusalem. They're lying about the fact
that circumcision was from Moses, not that Moses doesn't mention
it. But they are lying most of all, and the big lie, of course,
is the lie about the Lord Jesus Christ, that his work is not
perfect, his work is not complete, that his work somehow needs for
you to do something to add to it, to polish it, to make it
in some way more effective. Extraordinary Extraordinary events
that we have read in Acts are the events of the Lord Jesus
Christ. These are His works. It is the glory of the Holy Spirit,
as He says in John 16, as the Lord said of Him, when He comes,
when He comes, He will take the things of the Lord Jesus Christ
and He will make them known. He will reveal them to His people.
And He reveals them to His people in the preaching of the gospel.
He reveals them to His people in the gathering of His people
together. He reveals them in the way that he gathers this
church and protects and guides this church. And such is the
case in Acts chapter 15. No doubt. As you might have heard me say
on many occasions, if the religious denominations of this world would
go back and look at the first 15 chapters of Acts and read
this letter that was sent out, you would find that they would
have to change their statements of faith and change a whole bunch
of their practices. The reality is that despite the
unequivocal nature of this letter, despite the fact that the witnesses
are clear and abundant, and despite the fact that the witnesses were
going to be there for another 20 or 30 years at least and longer
in the church, The reality is that the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ has been under attack all the time from these people
that want to say, you must do something. You must do something. The Lord Jesus Christ and him
joined together with his people is not sufficient. There's got
to be something that you can do. Almost every time I meet
with someone who is involved in works righteousness, They
want to tell me what they're doing. They're wanting to tell
me what they're doing all the time. Why are they wanting to
tell me what they're doing? There's just one simple reason. That's because the Lord Jesus
Christ hasn't done enough. That's because they have swallowed
this bait. They have worn this yoke. that these false teachers have
put upon the believers. I love how Ephesians describes
the building of God, the building of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
building of that church. We've looked at those verses
in chapter 2. It's a building fitly framed
together, which means that it's a carpentry term, isn't it, that
the joints are perfectly fitted together and knitted together.
It's like Colossians 1.12 says, isn't it, that we are qualified,
we are made meat, we are qualified to enter into the inheritance
of the saints in the kingdom of light. It's a carpentry term,
that there has been this extraordinary fitting of the Lord's people
together. The building is fitly framed
together. It's fitly framed together by
the Word of the Gospel. Inherent in that Word is the
joining together by the Word. God's people are fitly framed
together because they're joined together because of the preaching
of the Word, who is the Word made flesh. So this building
is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and here he is, our great
saviour, guiding and directing and leading his people to see
him yet again. See this building that James
spoke of is a building that has all of the elements of a proper
building that we see in this world, isn't it? It has an architecture.
It's a building whose architecture, whose architect, designer is
God. And Zechariah speaks of the plumbob
being in the hands of Zerubbabel. All of the stones in the building
are perfectly fitted to fit one on top of the other. The foundation
of that building, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no other foundation to be laid. But that foundation of the Lord
Jesus Christ is built on a rock. the eternal covenant and purposes
of our great God. So he has the plumb bob in his
hand and he has righteousness for the line. So you have a line
and a plumb bob, you can make a building. You can design a
building. and they're in his hands. He
appoints walls and bulwarks. He gathers his people together
and he protects them. And they're held together and
they grow together. And when it's grown and when
this building is seen as it really should be seen and will be seen
by the Lord's people in this world, there is just one cry
in Zechariah 4. What's the cry? Grace. grace
unto it, not the works of men. It's held together by grace.
So it's not a haphazard structure. The Holy Spirit shows us that
it's built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
And then all of the stones in this building are perfectly fitted
together cut out of that rock by the Lord Jesus Christ. So
the foundation is him, the building is his, and then the capstone
that holds it all together and raises it to be a glorious building
is him yet again. So he's the foundation, he's
the capstone, he's the beginning, he's the end. And it's not a
haphazard structure. You might recall in Nehemiah,
after Nehemiah had quite miraculously built the temple, it was evident
to everyone, the people inside the Jerusalem and the people
on the outside, that this is a work that God had done. It
couldn't possibly have been done in any way. So it's not It's
not a disorganised, haphazard structure. And in this building,
the lowest supports the highest. The Lord Jesus Christ. lowered
himself, became obedient, took on the form of a servant, and
became obedient unto death. No one, no one in all this creation
has been reduced to as lowly as our dear and precious Saviour. Obedient to death. Death on Calvary's
tree, and out of his side flowed blood and water. redeeming and sanctifying. And in Acts, we have just watched
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hands of
the blessed Holy Spirit going throughout that world at that
time and gathering these stones together and then fitting them
all together. This creation hangs together
with perfect balance. When Adam saw that creation,
he thought it was amazing. And it was done, brothers and
sisters. It was finished. And the new
creation that Christ makes when he puts his spirit in his people,
when he comes and he takes up residence in his people, it's
perfect. So that word is another translation
of that glorious word that the Lord Jesus Christ cried out on
Calvary Street when he said, it is finished. Another simple
translation of that is perfect, perfect. But this is a building
This is a church that's not without structure, and it's not without
order, and it's not without all of those things purposed by God. And so the ascension gifts of
the Lord Jesus Christ to his people he gave some to be apostles
and prophets and some prophets and some evangelists and some
pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. What's
the perfecting of the saints? Is it just the Lord Jesus Christ
is looking to him for the work of the ministry, the work of
the ministry is to comfort my people, comfort my people, and
for the edifying of the body of Christ, Ephesians 2, 11 and
12, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God under the perfect man, perfect man. You see, if you're going to enter
into heaven, my friends, you will have to be perfect. If you're
going to enter into heaven, you're going to have to be as good as
God, the perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ. So when it comes to the operation
within the church, the apostles lay these necessary things upon
them. And you've got to remember that
these necessary things that we haven't looked at very closely.
These necessary things in that letter are things, these things
in verse 29, that you abstain from meat offered to idols, and
from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which
if you keep yourselves, you shall do well, fairly well. Be made
strong, he's saying. Verse 30, when they had, verse 31, sorry, which when they
read, When they read, they rejoiced for the consolation, they rejoiced
for the comfort, they rejoiced for the refreshment. These necessary things, people
might think it's putting people back under the law and very evidently
from the context of Acts chapter 15, it's not putting people back
under the law whatsoever. And this is a work of the Holy
Spirit, it says both we and the Holy Spirit This is according
to the Word of God. We lay upon you no greater burden. It seemed good, it seemed good
to us, being assembled with one accord. Verse 25. The Church is now of one accord. As they were in all of those
earlier passages we read in Acts. They were all of one accord.
They spoke of one mind. They had one focus, one gospel,
one baptism. To lay no greater burden than
these necessary things. As I said, when they read these
necessary things, they rejoiced for the consolation. I want to
again reiterate that the Church of God is not without structure
and order. There is the most glorious freedom
in the Lord Jesus Christ, a freedom which the Judaizers, a freedom
which all of those who put any of God's people under a bondage
want to take from us. That was what these people did.
These same people, when they went into Galatia years later,
they crept in subtly to spy on the liberty that we had in Christ,
so that they could put you under bondage. So why are these necessary
things? What's the necessity of these
things? Firstly, these things are all involved in idolatry,
and therefore in the idolatrous practices of their religion,
the Gentile religion, and therefore they are a hindrance from the
Gentiles worshipping Christ. There is just one issue, isn't
there? If you're going to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity,
you're gonna worship him here. It's a nonsense to think that
you'll worship him in eternity and not worship him here. And
so the one issue is what do we do as believers with this glorious
freedom we have in Christ? What do we do as believers in
regard to the way we live our lives in this world before our
brothers and sisters in Christ? And there's just one issue always,
isn't there? Will they be encouraged to look to him to trust Him,
to rely upon Him, to look no other place than Him. So these
were things that were involved in pagan idolatry, and they are
just worshipping demons, the pagans are doing. But see, the
other thing is, of course, when the weaker Jewish brethren saw
the Gentiles exercising this freedom in these things, in these
activities which were forbidden by the law, it would be an occasion
for the Jews to use their law obedience. as a means of them going about
to establish their own righteousness. We forget how zealous the Jews
were in those days for the law of Moses. We forget that Peter,
when years after Pentecost, He could be down there in that
house of Simon the Tanner on the Mediterranean coast, and
that sheet be let down before him by God, and he could say,
quite truthfully, nothing undefiled has entered my mouth. Paul said that he was blameless
before the law. And so what happens when someone
who keeps the law looks at someone who's disobeying the law? they
start comparing themselves. They can't start comparing themselves. They start looking back and saying,
well, I'm not involved in that. I'm better. So by looking at
the flesh of the Gentiles, by looking at the Gentiles' activities,
they were then the righteous ones, the weaker ones, would
be caused to look back at what they were doing. Now, under Paul,
in writing to the Galatians, speaks of these things as weak
and beggarly elements. He says in Galatians 4.8, how
then when you knew not God, you did service unto them which by
nature are no gods, but now after you have known God, or rather
are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly
elements wherein, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of you. If you're
going back to law works and law righteousness, you will be immediately
looking at your flesh and your activities, and you'll be immediately
looking at the activities of other people. Brothers and sisters,
we need to stop looking at the activities of other people and
our own activities, whether they be good or bad. If you could
take all of the best activities you've ever done and all the
most horrible things you've ever done, put them in one big bag
and write sin over the top of it and chuck it away and look
at the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no righteousness for
anyone in this world except the righteousness of God. There is
no one righteous except Him. And God's people are made perfectly
righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking at other people's flesh
and their fleshly activities is profoundly dishonouring to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He put your flesh, believing
brethren, he put it to death on Calvary's tree. He put it
to death. It died the death that it deserved
to die. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree and that body died on that tree. So the third reason for these
necessary things is so that none of the believers, Jew or Gentile,
will distract each other from the things they do from looking
to Christ alone." So the issue is that you worship God in spirit
and truth. And I love what the Holy Spirit
records of the Lord Jesus saying at that well in John 4, the Father
seeks such of those that they worship Him in spirit and truth.
The Father seeks them and He finds them all the time. He hasn't
missed one. They're all his. The question,
of course, is always, does this activity of mine help my brother
and sister look to Christ? Does this activity of mine help
me to look away from my flesh and look to him? So James' sentence
is that we don't trouble them, we don't harass, we don't annoy
these Gentile believers anymore. God has purified their hearts
by faith. God sees their hearts. Forget
looking at their flesh. So James is constrained by the
love of Christ and he seeks for his brethren to be constrained
by the same. See, they're not constrained
and they're not directed by threats of punishment. They're not constrained
and directed by promises of reward. Christ is your exceeding great
reward, says God to Abraham. And James and the apostles leave
it in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ to bring these people
into obedience to the truth. And when they heard it, they
were rejoicing. When they heard it, they were rejoicing. It seemed
good to the Holy Ghost and us. False teachers always give you
something to do. I am deeply troubled. As I said earlier, I'm deeply
troubled by the number of people I meet that in my first meeting,
or very soon thereafter, they'll want to tell me what they've
done. I met my preacher acquaintance down the street yesterday, and
I started counting the seconds. And I think I might have got
to 40 this time because he was delayed. But always he wants
to tell me something and he's done. And he can't help himself. Why? There's only one simple
answer, brothers and sisters, because he doesn't believe that
the Lord Jesus Christ has done it all for him. He doesn't. He doesn't. False teachers always
give you something to do to perfect the work of Christ. But Christ
was their peace. Christ was their acceptance before
God. Christ is their rejoicing, and
they get this letter and they rejoice again. I'd like you to
turn to Mark chapter 7. I want you to see from the lips
of the Lord Jesus Christ the terrible burden and the terrible
danger that people bring themselves in when they go back to law works
of any sort whatsoever. When they go back to looking
at other people, And I want you to chart with me, and I'll just
look at it briefly, I'm not going to touch, I just want to touch
on a few words. But I wanted you to chart the descent of these
people. And I want us most of all to
avoid going where they have gone. You see, there was the Pharisees,
and this group that we're dealing with and the church has been
battling with for the rest of its days and will until the Lord
Jesus returns are a group of people that come out of the Pharisees.
They have nothing more and nothing less than the religion of the
Pharisees. All they've done is put a veneer of the Lord Jesus
Christ at the top. At its heart, it's still Pharisaical
religion. And so what do they do? These
Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem
Well, the first thing they do, they saw. The first thing they
do is they're looking to find fault with the disciples of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They saw that some of the disciples
eat bread with defiled, that is to say, unwashed hands. So
if you look at someone else, and I promise you, you look at
anyone, you'll find fault. That's exactly what they did.
They looked, and they saw, and they found fault. Then he goes
on. And then they challenged the
Lord Jesus Christ. They challenged the Lord Jesus
Christ about his people. And I want to take you to remembrance
again, brothers and sisters. Whenever the disciples of the
Lord Jesus Christ were ever attacked by this mob throughout his ministry,
he never, ever once expected them to defend themselves. Every
single time he stands up. in their place, as he does right
now, brothers and sisters. The Pharisees, verse 5, and the
scribes asked him, Why? Why walk not thy disciples according
to the tradition of the elders, and eat bread with unwashed hands? And he answered and said unto
them, Well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites? As it is written,
This people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far
from me. The Lord Jesus Christ saw much
beyond what human eyes see. What a shocking thing. May the Lord cause us to be fearful
of ever honouring him. honouring him with our lips,
and their heart be far from him. Verse 7, howbeit in vain do they
worship me. God the Son is saying that their
worship is empty. It doesn't reach beyond the little
room that they are in. It never reaches to heaven. It's
empty. Teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. And verse 8, They lay aside the
commandment of God. It is possible to honour him
with your lips and to lay aside the commandment of God. The reason? You hold on to the tradition
of men. So it's empty worship. They teach
the doctrines and commandments of men. They lay aside the commandment
of God. They hold to the tradition of
men. Verse 9, full well, you reject the commandment of God. You reject the commandment of
God that you keep your own tradition. Verse 13, You make the word of God of none
effect through your tradition which you have delivered. So
it starts with empty worship. It starts with the lips that
honour him. It's empty. You're laying aside
the commandments, you're holding on to tradition, you're rejecting
verse 9, you make the Word of God numb in effect, verse 13,
and yeast grows. If you start here, it grows. At the end of verse 13, and many
such like things you do. Once you've started, there is
just a Pandora's box of all little things you can do. Let's read on down in verse 14.
He says, hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand. There
is nothing from without a man that entereth into him can defile
him, but things which come out of him, those are they that defile
the man. If any man have ears to hear,
let him hear. Lord, please give us ears to
hear that we might hear what you're saying. And the disciples
asked him concerning this parable. He says, Are you so without understanding? Do you not perceive that whatsoever
thing from without entereth into a man, it cannot defile him?
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly,
and goes out into the draught, purging all meat. That which
comes out of a man that defiles him. For from within, out of
the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. The very first of
that list, the top of that list is evil thoughts. Evil thoughts. How are you going? All these things, all these evil
things, verse 23, come within and defile a man. What a remarkable
statement God the Holy Spirit made at the Jerusalem Council. God knows your hearts, brothers
and sisters. Don't play games with God. He
knows your hearts. He knows your thoughts. And then he says, purifying your
hearts by faith. Simply trust, simply rely on
the Lord Jesus Christ and your hearts purified in the sight
of him who knows everything else and turn away We turn away from
the activities of the flesh. We are the circumcision, says
Paul, and we worship God in spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. A lot of confidence in him. May
the Lord bless his words to us. Why don't we sing normally and
then we'll have a break and have a cup of tea. Which one? 48?
Is it 48? No words to tell you Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave and strong. How great thy grace, how sweet
the sound, that reveled worlds to believe. One we can count in guilty, one
in Namo Amida Butsu I'd just like us to read and spend
a little bit of time looking at these last verses in Acts
chapter 15. So there was obviously some considerable
time that they stayed in Antioch, and we're not sure how long these
people stayed in Antioch. And my feeling is, and I may
well be wrong, and don't hold me to it at all, but my feeling
is that the issue that was discussed in Galatians chapter two of Peter
being led astray and breaking table fellowship and in so doing
denying the gospel, probably happened at this time. There
was some juncture, it says in verse 33, and after they had
tarried there a space. So Judas went back to Jerusalem
and Silas decided to stay there. Paul also and Barnabas continue
in Antioch teaching and preaching the word of God, the word of
the law, with many others also. And some days after Paul said
unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every
city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how
they do. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose
surname was Mark. But Paul thought it not good
to take him with them, who departed from them in Pamphylia and went
not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp
between them that they departed asunder one from the other. So
Barnabas took Mark and sailed on to Cyprus. Paul chose Silas
and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace
of God. And he went through Syria and
Cilicia, confirming the churches. Now, one of the things that's
so comforting for us as we look at this particular incident with
these three particular men is that we have absolutely no doubt
from the Word of God that all of them were saved. We have no
doubt, we've just read from Mark's Gospel and this is the Mark that
wrote this letter. We have no question that Barnabas
was a man, a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and faith
and obviously we have no question about Paul's Christian credentials. And so it's good to have that
in the back of our mind and ponder what happened here because wherever
there is contention between brethren, brethren who love one another
in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is extraordinarily painful, and
the Holy Spirit has chosen to record this for us, that we might
be instructed and that the comfort of the scriptures would give
us hope and give us peace, and we might see and learn some fundamental
lessons about all of this. So as I said, Barnabas, whose
name means son of Paraplesis, which is another word for the
Holy Spirit, the comforter, the one that comes alongside, he's
the one that brought encouragement. Barnabas, of course, Paul owed
more to Barnabas than any other living human being. It was Barnabas
who introduced Paul, persecuting Paul, to the Jerusalem Apostles
in Acts 9.27, when they were fearful that this guy was a spy.
And Barnabas represented the Apostles in Antioch for the first
time. He was sent from Jerusalem. And it was Barnabas, having come
to Antioch and seen what was going on there, he went to Tarsus
where Paul was from up in Cilicia and he brought Paul back to Antioch
where he was joined to that church and both The Holy Spirit set aside both
Barnabas and Paul for that work of the ministry, and he journeyed,
as we've seen, through Acts. He journeyed with Paul on that
first missionary journey to these Gentile lands. And then, of course,
he was chosen to go with Paul to the Jerusalem Council, and
he's mentioned in that letter that we have read. And then he
and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas, go back to Antioch, and they
spend some considerable time ministering in the church there.
And they have a good idea. Paul has a good idea. He says
in verse 36, let's go back. Let's go back. They had a word
from the Lord, didn't they? That they were to encourage the
disciples in Matthew 28. It says, you go into all the
world. You go into all the world. You disciples are mine, you ambassadors
are mine. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always
to the end of the world. Paul knew, of course, as we have
read, that these people had suffered a lot. with the persecution that
we read about in Acts 13 and 14, and then into 15, we find
that that persecution would have continued. The Jews didn't stop.
They haven't stopped for the last 2,000 years. I'm not talking
about that nation over there in the Middle East that call
themselves Jews. I'm talking about the law, righteousness
people. And so these people Paul is anxious
about the churches and God's people are anxious about how
others of the family of God are going. And when they find that
they're going well, it's a remarkable encouragement. When I was back
in America last, it was last year, I went to a church which
had probably suffered as tough an episode as you could wish
to have suffered with their pastor leaving in appalling disgrace. And I was wondering what was
going on there. And then I go back and I still
rejoice to this day thinking of the remarkable meeting we
had there. That church has flourished and
grown. And it's the work of God the
Holy Spirit, and it excites God's people. It's such an encouragement,
such an encouragement to go back and see how the Lord's people
are doing. The other simple thing is that
both these men were full of the Holy Spirit, both of these men
had been used mightily of the Lord, and the believer desires,
all believers desire to walk obediently to the Lord Jesus
Christ. All believers desire that they seek counsel from the
Scriptures, and all believers desire that the Scriptures would
be their rule of life, that they would look in the Scriptures
and see how they are to live in this world, how they are to
trust their Saviour. We only have the Scriptures.
It's the only record we have of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that record has been given us by the hand of these apostles
and the prophets. So they go back, verse 36, they
want to go back, Paul wants to go back to where we have preached
the word of the Lord and to see how they do. They want to go
back. It's a good thing they wanted
to go back. They had friends there. They had brothers and
sisters that they will share eternity with there. They had
people that the Lord Jesus Christ had called out of darkness into
his marvelous light. There were churches formed there.
You might remember in Paul's first journey, he goes all the
way around to Derby. Then he retraces his steps through
places where he was rejected, through places where he was stoned
to death, as they thought. Now he wants to go back to the
third time and see how they're doing. Verse 37, and Barnabas
determined, Barnabas willed and he wished and he stuck to it. He wished to take with him John,
whose surname was Mark. And Paul 38, Paul thought it
not good to take him with them. Now this wasn't just a heat of
the moment debate, this was something that went on. The Greek indicates
that Paul wished and willed and he stuck at it, and Paul kept
on deeming it wise not to take along with them this man. And the reason is simple, it's
given there, who departed from them in Pamphylia and went not
with them in the work. In Acts chapter 13 you might
recall the story and it's only very briefly mentioned and you
might also recall that not another word is said by Paul about this
again. But in Acts chapter 13, verse
13, it just simply says, now Paul and his company loosed from
Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John departed from them and
returned to Jerusalem. So thus far, they had gone from
Antioch, which is at that northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea.
In this journey, they'd gone to Cyprus, which is the home
of Barnabas. And Mark, John Mark, is Barnabas'
nephew, Colossians 4.10. He is the son of Barnabas' sister. And so when they come to that,
when John gets there and he sees those Taurus mountains above
him, an unknown country, and he's leaving the land where his
relations live and he's leaving Cyprus where the Roman governor
of that particular colony has become a believer. So there's
a lot of protection and safety, a lot of creature comforts in
Cyprus. as well as Ilimas the sorcerer, John departing from
them. John departing from them. See the word, and we might seem
to think that Paul is being harsh and unnecessarily brutal and
unnecessarily forgiving and unnecessarily accepting of John Mark. But you
read what that word means. That word, to depart from them,
is to be a deserter, to be a quitter. It is, in fact, our word apostatise. That is the Greek word for them.
He withdrew from them. In the heat of the battle, John
Mark had left them. So Paul is not being insensitive
and he's not lacking understanding and care to Barnabas. Paul, as
you read in the scriptures, had a deep, deep love for the brethren.
And he treated, if you read in 2 Thessalonians 2, that he loved
the Thessalonians like a father and like a nursing mother. He
has, you know, this idea that Paul was a misogynist and disliked
women is just an absolute lie, according to the scriptures.
This idea that Paul was a harsh, uncaring man is a lie. God's people care. This dispute. This dispute was between two
men who loved each other deeply and cared about each other deeply. And don't for one minute think
that it didn't hurt enormously. But Paul, Paul was the apostle
appointed by God to lead the ministry of the gospel to the
Gentile nations. And Paul was walking, Paul was
walking in the light that the scriptures had given him. The
Lord Jesus Christ said in Luke chapter 9, don't put your hand
to the plough effectively and then turn back. Proverbs 25 19 says confidence
in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth
or a foot out of joint. And no doubt you can recall so
many other places in scripture where people had taken the seeming
easy way out, the Jews always were wanting to go back to Egypt.
They just couldn't wait to go back to the garlic and the onions
in Egypt. Continually they wanted to go
back to Egypt. Lot's wife looked back to Sodom. Elimelech, Naomi's husband, looked
longingly over the border into Moab and took He took his wife
and his two sons over there. None of them returned except
Naomi and Ruth. And Paul, no doubt, before he
set off on that journey with Mark, had recounted to them the
Lord's words to him. You might recall that Ananias
being told, you must go and see him. And Anna and I says, well,
you know what he's like. And the Lord says, well, I do
know him very well, thank you very much. He's my chosen instrument. He's my chosen instrument. And he needs to know how much
he must suffer for my name. Now, the wonder of the gospel
is that if the gospel has brought people together, then these people
are reconciled, which is what I wanted you to have in your
mind. You know, John Mark in 2 Timothy
4, verse 11, Paul is actually calling at the end of his life,
and it's hard to read 2 Timothy 4 without tears in your eyes,
as this man, who is this remarkable man, who's given us two-thirds
of the New Testament scriptures, is left there deserted. by all
except Luzcan, he says, send Mark. Send Mark to me because
he's profitable to me in the ministry. And Peter calls him
in 1 Peter 5, verse 1, he says, he's my son. He's my son. So Mark, like the prodigal son,
has gone on a journey. He went home to mummy. He went
home to mummy in Jerusalem instead of standing and being counted.
He knew before he went that this wasn't going to be a picnic in
all of those places. But like the prodigal son, the
one thing that mattered about the prodigal son, that he was
a son. He was a son. If you're a son, then you're
an heir. So Paul had been called by God
to testify, to bear witness in extremely difficult situations. He'd been called to take the
Gospel into these Gentile lands where he was told by God that
there is going to be opposition wherever he goes. That's the
promise that the Lord Jesus made to his disciples in John chapter
15. Don't worry, the world's going
to hate you, and it's going to hate you because it hated me.
and they're going to persecute you as they persecuted me. And
they will think when they're putting you to death that they're
doing God's favour. They'll be able to get their
Bible out. No doubt they had prayer meetings after the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ and they could prove that he wasn't
the Christ according to their understanding of the scriptures.
So little did they know. So little did they know of him,
that what they thought was a curse really was a curse. He really
was cursed, but he was cursed for us, that that curse of the
law might fall upon him. and not upon us. See, Paul, in
preaching this gospel, was going to have no distractions and he
was going to have no hindrances whatsoever. You can read of the
trials that he had in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23 and following. He
had trial after trial after trial, beaten with rods, stoned to death. A night and a day in the open
sea, persecuted wherever he wants, as I said earlier. For I will
show him, the Lord Jesus said, I will show him how great things
he must suffer for my name's sake. No doubt on that journey
he had recounted this with Mark on a number of occasions. And
Paul knew. Paul knew that Mark had deserted
them in the heat of the battle, forsaken them, and turned back
to Jerusalem. See, Paul, in all of this, was
being guided by two things, wasn't he? He was being guided by the
love for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was being guided by the Word
of God. Ultimately, he's being guided
by care for the people that he's going to visit. He's going to
be guided by the care, ultimately, that he has for Mark and for
Barnabas. It is a reminder, it is a reminder
that even amongst faithful men, we will be reminded again and
again that faithful men are frail men. Faithful men are frail men. Verse 39, this contention, this
ongoing contention was so sharp between them that they departed
asunder one from the other. They departed asunder. It's a
shocking thing to read, isn't it? That Paul had reminded the
people that he called he and Barnabas, Mercurius and Jupiter. He says, Acts 14, 15 said, we
are men. We are men of like passions with
you. We are men. Our flesh is frail
and our flesh is weak. And that's why frail men want
to keep pointing people to the One who is only and ever steadfast. The One who never changes. Only the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no shadow of turning with Him. Once again also, I think we need
to see that in this, the Lord Jesus Christ rules his church.
He rules his church with care and with wisdom and with precision.
All of a sudden, in this dispute, we have extra missionaries. We've got Mark going with Barnabas,
and no doubt his time with Barnabas was a fruitful and profitable
time, because Peter will call him my son, and Mark will say
he's useful for me in the ministry, and he gets to write. a big chunk
of this book, brothers and sisters, and so this was just for a season. And also, the Lord had determined
that Timothy would pastor churches in Ephesus, that Silas would
be in a jail with him in Philippi in the next chapter. So all of
a sudden, in the midst of all of this, the Lord still is building
his church and the walls and the bulwarks are still stable
and the stones are being put together in perfect order all
the time. God does work all things for
the good. He works. He's not idle. He's
not sitting by. He works all things. So this
separation caused the gospel to spread more widely. Silas
and Timothy were raised up. But this would have hurt them
very deeply. We mustn't think that this was
a light thing. When Paul made his decision,
based on the word of God and based on what was laid out before
him, Paul was a man who couldn't deviate. was acting in care and in love
for the glory of the gospel. So he couldn't risk another incident
as before for the gospel's sake. Because this desertion of Mark
would have spread around and no doubt those people who were
critical of what Paul and Barnabas were doing would have said, well,
what had happened to that fellow that you had with you? He landed
here and then he scurried home. Paul couldn't risk another incident
like that for the gospel's sake, and he couldn't risk another
incident like that for Mark's sake. We've got to remember that
there is a sense in which Mark needed to be cared for, and Barnabas,
the son of encouragement, was the one to care for him, taking
him to Cyprus and then we don't know where, but nevertheless
not taking him back into those lands where he might find himself
in another difficult situation. But Paul was also caring for
the brethren in those churches. There's persecution that's promised.
If you want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, you're going
to suffer persecution, and it'll come from unusual circumstances. It'll come from unexpected places.
See, what Paul had suffered is promised by the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it was going to continue to suffer, and those churches
were going to continue to suffer. But also, what they had seen
Paul do in the midst of all that suffering, he got himself up,
dusted himself off, and he went back and he preached the gospel,
and he went back and he preached the gospel, and he went back
and he encouraged the brethren wherever he did, He didn't quit. He didn't quit. These Gentile
believers were going to have to stand in the battle. We will,
brothers and sisters, follow in our master's footsteps. But
see, if the gospel testimony is compromised by the apostles,
where do you go? Where do you go? We've got nowhere
else to go. The Lord blessed this dispute. He says, I'll build my church,
and he says to his people, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.
Both these men were frail and fickle. Both of these men had
their faults, and that doesn't excuse their action. Paul loved Barnabas and Barnabas
loved Paul and Paul when he does speak of Barnabas in Acts chapter
9 verse 6 and even in rebuke of him in Galatians chapter 2
the language is one of sympathy and respect. They had been through
an awful lot together. Quite simply God's people rely,
God's people in their frailties that are seen by their brothers
and sisters, God's people in a sense are saying yet again,
you rely and you trust in Him alone, in Him alone. But also, as I said earlier,
the Church is an organised structure. It's not a haphazard, random
activity of man. It is being fitly framed together
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reality is that Paul
was the Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul had been especially commissioned
personally by the Lord Jesus Christ. And Barnabas went along,
and Barnabas had an esteemed position, and he ought to have
a very esteemed position in our sight. But in this situation, in this
situation, because of what the Word of God says, and because
of the commissioning of Paul by the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul
was right, and Barnabas was wrong. It's as simple as that. Verse
40, Paul chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren
unto the grace of God. Do you know what that means? The church acknowledged that
Paul was right and Barnabas was wrong. They knew that Paul had
made this decision according to the scriptures and they took
his side. They were recommended unto the
grace of God. They could see the grace of God
at work in the life of Paul and in that gospel that they proclaimed.
That he and Barnabas had stood shoulder to shoulder proclaiming.
This was a separation that was just for a time. But see Barnabas
stood against the man God had raised up. as the apostles to
the Gentile. Paul was the man in authority
and when Paul made his decision, and that decision was based on
the Scriptures and based on the Spirit of God, he was led and
the Spirit will bear witness to what he has written in his
Scriptures. It is just one test of everything, brothers and sisters.
We are commanded by God to test the spirits. You are commanded
by God to test what's said from this pulpit. And if it's not
according to this word, then you are to do something serious
about it. Paul was a man in authority,
but the authority that Paul had was an authority that came from
the scriptures. I met a fellow the other day who has been associated
in some way with our church in various ways for a number of
years, and he was telling me what a wonderful thing it was
that he was part of a church here that was raised up four
or five or six years ago, and they had a number of people go
from our fellowship and join that church, and it shone like
a meteor. It sparkled. It sparkled for
a while. and had famous international
speakers to come and entice the children, had the band on the
stage, and in no time at all had gathered all sorts of people.
And I was told, I need to go and seek the advice of that pastor
to find out what ought to be done in our fellowship. I said,
well, we'll wait. We'll wait. But this man, I said
to him, well, what did the scripture say? Because that man left that
church and left all of those people and the band and all the
other things, and he went back to New Zealand because he wasn't
getting enough money. And my simple question to this
fellow who's been in Christian leadership positions for 50 odd
years, what does the word of God say to you about what had
happened? What does the word of God say?
I don't want the opinion of men. My opinion's irrelevant. What
does the word of God say? And he said to me, it was really
good while it lasted. And I said to him, what does
the word of God say about that situation and about that man? You see, he's too fearful to
answer because he does know what the Word of God says about that
man, that he was never called of God ever. He was a quitter
and he's never come back. And this man was basing, as so
many people do, people base things on feelings in their hearts,
that it seems good at the time, We have one authority, brothers
and sisters, and that authority is the scriptures. And that authority
is exercised in the church that God puts together. He gave them
apostles. The apostles are God's gift to
his people. And Barnabas was standing opposed
to that. Barnabas was simply wrong. Paul based what he did upon love
for his brethren, love for his Lord. And there's one thing in
closing we need to note is that we have seen, we have been around
long enough and we have the testimony of Scripture, we have seen many
people And the scriptures have so, so many incidents of this,
of people who have been in places, in churches, have been in a place
where they've had access to the Word of God and had the Word
of God preached faithfully to them. They've been in a place
where God is gathering his people out of darkness, where God is
nourishing and nurturing his people by the Gospel, and they
have turned away. And in every single incidence, I have never seen anything good
come out of it ever, nor do I ever expect to, because of what God
says. They went out from us because
they were not of us. If they were of us, they would
have stayed with us. They went out from the Gospel, just like
the man that I saw the other day. He's been in religion and
he's still in religion. And he has nothing from the word
of God about what he's doing that gives him any cause to have
any comfort for his soul. See, as I said at the beginning,
these men started with the gospel. And if the men start with the
gospel and the gospel will draw them back together again, they'll
have their time of trouble, they'll have their unsettling time, but
they'll be drawn back again. But there's a cost, and there
was a cost for Barnabas in disobeying the Lord's word. There was a cost. The only two mentions of Barnabas
after this are mentions of Barnabas in relation to his ministry with
Paul and his time in Antioch. I'm not saying for one moment
that Paul speaks ill of him. But the simple thing is that
the Church of God is a structured, organised thing and He says again
and again, you touch not my anointed and you do my prophets no harm. This was humbling for Paul, and
it would have hurt. And it was humbling for Paul
that Barnabas stood opposed to him. But when it comes to issues
of the gospel, God's servants just have to stand. And we stand
with him by our side, and we stand with him being both Our
guide and our comforter and our reward. See Paul said at the
end of his life, didn't he, they've all deserted me. He said bring
Mark because he's a comfort to me. They've all deserted me.
And then he says one of those wonderful buts in scripture.
at the end of his life, but the Lord stood by my side. There's only one thing that matters,
brothers and sisters. It's not our circumstances in
this world, it's not our success in this world. The one thing
that matters is he stands by your side. If he stands by your
side, the rest of it doesn't matter at all. Hebrews 13 says, obey them. The word obey means to believe.
Believe them that have the rule over you, that govern you, and
submit yourselves. For they watch for your souls. Paul was concerned about the
souls. He was concerned about Barnabas' soul and Mark's soul.
He was concerned about the souls of the people he was going with.
He was concerned about the souls of Silas and Timothy. He didn't want them to experience
what he had experienced with Mark. And as I said, Mark was
brought back to him. They watch for your souls as
they that must give account, so that they may do so with joy,
not grief, for that is unprofitable for you. That's not talking about
giving an account on the Day of Judgment. That's talking about
taking our brothers and sisters to the Lord in prayer right now. And there are some that you do
and you have a smile on your face. And there are some that
cause anguish. Some that cause anguish. So there's
a duty and a dignity attached, associated with the proclamation
of the gospel. He gives pastors after his own
heart. And what's best for my heart,
and what's best for your heart, is for us to be looking to Him,
to hear Him proclaimed again and again and again. That He
reigns, He reigns over all things, and He reigns for the glory of
His name in this world, and He'll reign in His church, and this
is where He displays His glory in this world, in the church. God calls people like Paul, God
calls pastors, and He gifts them, and He makes them, and He teaches
them, and He leads them, and He makes them His servants. They
are just servants. I love what it says in 2 Corinthians
3, we are table waiters. And what's on the platter is
the eternal covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ in his blood. And
we hand Rad around and say he's done it all. He did it before
the foundation of the world. He did it on Calvary's tree.
He doesn't change. He doesn't waver. We're frail
men. We are fickle men. But at the
end of the day, we just have one word to say again and again.
Thus saith the Lord. The other cost for Barnabas,
of course, is that Barnabas didn't get to hear Paul preach probably
ever again. Mark did, I'm sure. And these men have been through
that pain, and that pain's recorded for us by God the Holy Spirit,
for us to be reminded, as Isaiah 14 says about our great God,
of all of his own, Mark, Barnabas, Paul, and the countless multitudes
that have trod those paths, he says, I will heal their backslidings,
and I will love them freely. I love that word freely. It means
the cause of His love is not in you. The cause of His love
is in Himself. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that You would bless Your Word to our eternal souls
and cause Your dear and precious Son who is building his church,
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Heavenly
Father, we praise you that you've called us out of darkness. We
praise you, Heavenly Father, for your care and your protection
of not just this flock that we bear witness to in so many remarkable
ways, but all of your flocks throughout this world and throughout
time. that you watch over them, that
you appoint for them walls and bulwarks, you cause them, Heavenly
Father, to rest in the peace that you have ordained for them
as they look to the Lord Jesus Christ. alone, for everything,
always. Please, our Father, teach us
the lessons that you would have your Spirit to teach us through
these words and bless them to our hearts and souls for the
glory of your dear and precious Son and for the good of your
people. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. God in you is able to keep, able
to keep you from falling, and presents you for mercy, for the
presence of His glory, His healing joy. To Thee, O Holy One, O Thou
Savior, Thee in glory and majesty, Dominion now, love now, and forever
Thou alone. Yeah, I know what you did there.