And that's another good morning,
isn't it? Anytime we can meet around
God's word, it's a good morning. I was telling Johnny, while I was sitting in my study, I was thinking of a job I had
some years ago. And every morning, every morning,
we would have a safety meeting. before we would go out and work. This is our safety meeting. This
is our safety meeting. It would be good if we could
do this every morning before we go out into the world. It
really would, before we go out into that ungodly world that
we could meet around God's word, then go out. But that image came
to my mind when I was reading this this morning. I thought
of that safety meeting. Then we'd all go out different.
You know what we worked out in the plant. And this is our safety
meeting. Acts chapter 15. Let's ask the Lord to bless his
word. To our spiritual nourishment
this morning. Our father. Bless your word this
morning to our hearts. Open, open your word. Give us
understanding. Enable me to rightly divide the
word and send it forth in power. Thank you for your mercies. Thank
you for the messages we heard this weekend. Father, thank you.
Thank you for your mercy to us. Help us this morning to worship
you in spirit and in truth. and bless your holy name. In
the name of Jesus Christ, we pray and amen. I tell you, I
was so, I was just so encouraged and blessed this weekend. I needed
it. I needed it. Someone said to
me, it was, they said it was good for you to be able to sit
there and listen. And it was, you know, it was
very good for me to get my cup filled up. You know, sometimes
when you're always studying, or I'm always studying, and those
who preach are studying to preach and to give it out to the people.
But sometimes it's good to just sit down and just receive it.
And it was just like a cold drink on a hot day is what this weekend
was to me. And I thank God that Paul was
able to come. You know, Paul was one of those
preachers, one of those few preachers, that when he speaks there's power. There's power in the message. He doesn't speak as one of the
scribes. You remember after our Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount,
they said, he doesn't speak like the scribes. He speaks with authority.
He speaks with authority. And Paul's one of those men whom
God has blessed to speak truthfully, to rightly divide the scriptures,
and to speak with power. And I thank God that he was able
to be here. Now in Acts 15, we pick back
up on the council there in Jerusalem concerning this matter that had
come up about circumcision and keeping the law of Moses along
with the gospel. And so, this is what is still
going on here in this chapter. And we pick back up on verse
12, and it says, the multitude kept silence while Paul and Barnabas
spoke of the miracles and the wonders that God did by them
throughout the places that they preached among the Gentiles.
Speaking of the places they preached among Gentiles, and it was evident
that God had chosen people out of the Gentiles to save, as well
as the Jews. And I believe one of the points
being made here is this, God has accepted the Gentiles. Shouldn't
we? Shouldn't we accept them? Shouldn't
we call them brethren? If God has made them children
of God, should we not accept them also? And remember, he's
speaking here to a Jewish, pretty much a Jewish gathering is what
he's speaking to. And what we see here in these
next verses is the agreement of the apostles and their message
and their agreement with the Word of God. What is going on
here was prophesied years, years, years before that time. It was nothing new. It was nothing
new. So James stands up there in verse
13 to speak, and he shows his agreement with Peter and with
the Word of God. And he said, after they had held
their peace, James answered. James is said to be the pastor
of the church there at that time. And then it's only fitting, if
that being so, and he's the pastor, it's only fitting that he should
give the last word there, being the pastor. And he says, men
and brethren, listen to me. I got something to say. Now if
a man stands up, whom God sends, listen to Him. Listen to Him. God's giving Him a message. You
know, I pray every time I, before I come out here, the Lord, give
me the message. Give me the message that you
would have the people to have this morning or Thursday night.
Give me the message. And that's what John says. He
says, listen to me. And in verse 14, he makes it
evident that God had chosen a people out of the Gentiles, just as
He did the Jews. He says, Simon hath declared
how God at the first did visit the Gentiles. He's speaking here
when Peter went to Cornelius, remember? And he went to the
house of Cornelius, the priest of the gospel, and God saved
Cornelius in that house. But he says here that God at
first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for
His name, not to offer them salvation. He didn't say go into the Gentiles
and offer them salvation. He says here that God had purposed
to take out of the Gentiles, out of them, a people for His
name. This is still going on today. It pleased God to visit
Spring Lake and take a people out of this community for His
name. God has saved all whom God has
saved here. He has saved you for Christ's
sake. He has saved you for His name's
sake. You and I are here for His sake. We are here for His
glory. We are here as His witnesses.
Understand this. We truly are Jehovah's witnesses. Now we're not the Jehovah witnesses
that this organization, we're not that kind of Jehovah witness,
but now we are the witnesses of Jehovah, right? Who is the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are his witnesses. That's
why he said to Paul, you're to be a witness of me to the Gentiles. And we, in that sense, we are,
we are. And he visited the Gentiles to
take out of them a people for his name, and James appeals to
the Scripture as proof that what he's saying is nothing new and
what Peter is saying is true. This is how we back up our message. It's with the Scriptures. We
back it up with the Word of God. It's so important that you and
I saturate ourselves with the Word of God. And when we hear
someone preach, I mean, you know, you know that that person is
preaching the gospel or that person is not preaching the gospel. So he's saying here that this
agrees with the Scripture in verse 15. And to this agree the
words of the prophets, As it is written, and he's quoting
from, I believe it's Amos 9, verse 11 and 12. After this,
I will return and 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. After this, I will return and
will build again the tabernacle of David. What's he talking about
here? Well, if you'll remember, they rejected Christ when He
came. They rejected Him. And 70 years later, after the
Lord had risen, 70 AD, what happened? Romans came in and just tore
that place down, didn't they? They tore that place down. Now
he says here that I'm going to build again the tabernacle of
David. What's he saying here? He's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ and he's speaking here of the spiritual kingdom of God. He's not speaking about going
back over there to Jerusalem and rebuilding that temple or
rebuilding that place. He's not talking about it. He's
talking here about the kingdom of the Messiah. It's a spiritual
kingdom and that's what's going on right now. Right now, the
tabernacle of David, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. David
was a type of Christ, and he's speaking of Christ here. And
he's building his kingdom, his spiritual kingdom being built,
being put together. That's what's going on. He's setting up the spiritual
kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that the residue or the rest
of men, Jew and Gentile, might seek after the Lord. And all
the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, And His name is called
here, isn't it? His name's upon us here. Saith
the Lord, who doeth all these things. The Lord's the one doing
these things. And this is nothing new. The
salvation of the Gentiles is nothing new. It's been prophesied
throughout the Old Testament. They just didn't hear. They didn't
hear. They would read the Scriptures
daily and they did not know what the Scriptures were saying. That's dangerous. When you open
the Word of God, when you open the Word of God at home, when
you open it here, when you open the Word of God, ask God, as
I did in prayer this morning, Ask God to open the Scriptures
to your understanding. Give me understanding of what
you're saying. Ask sincerely that God would
reveal what He's saying here. Because if He doesn't, this book
is a closed book. It's a closed book unless the
Lord reveals what He's saying. And He says here in verse 18,
And God has made known It's what he's saying. God's made known
from old. God purposed this union of Jew
and Gentile in Christ. When Christ died on the cross,
he brought down that middle wall of partition that was between
us. There was a separation of the Jews and the Gentiles. But
now, those who believe, whether they're Jew or Gentiles, are
brothers and sisters in Christ. We are one in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, Known unto God are all
his works from the beginning of the world. This is the work
of God. This is purposed of God. You know, Solomon said this in
Ecclesiastes 1.9. There's nothing new under the
sun. The gospel is not a new message. It's from the beginning. When He speaks of the seed of
the woman, who is He speaking of? He's speaking of Jesus Christ. That's who He's speaking of.
The gospel is nothing. It's not a new message. It's more clearly
revealed. It's more newly revealed to us.
We have a clearer understanding now because we're not looking
at types and pictures. We're looking at the real person.
That seed of the woman, we know His name now. We can say it like
this, Jehovah Jesus. We know that that seed is the
Lord God Almighty whose name is Jesus Christ. We know his
name and it's nothing new. And now he says here in verse
19, Wherefore my sentence, my judgment, my judgment is this,
and James being the pastor, it's very important. It's very important
to the church there in Jerusalem that the pastor stands up and
gives his judgment on it. That we trouble not them which
from among the Gentiles are turned to God. Let's not trouble them
with unnecessary burdens. Let's not trouble them with a
yoke that we could not even ourselves bear. We couldn't bear the yoke
of keeping the law. We couldn't do that. Now why
would we put it on them? But here's what we will write
to them. That we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions
of idols, that is things sacrificed to idols. Now we know, I believe
it's in Romans, or I think it's in Corinthians, where Paul speaks
of those things that sacrifice to idols are nothing. If you
go to the market, don't ask if it's been sacrificed to an idol.
If you do and they say yes, then don't buy it, but don't ask questions. If you go into the market, if
there's something that meat there to buy and take home and eat,
buy it, take home and eat it. But he's saying here, Don't be
identified with those idols. If these things are sacrifice
to idols, don't be identified with them because whatever you
identify yourself with, that's what people identify you with.
That's what they identify you with. And from fornication, sexual
immorality. Sexual relationships apart from
marriage, homosexuality. All of this, listen, all of this
was perfectly, you know what I'm saying, legal among the Gentiles. They considered it legal, nothing
wrong with it. They had no problem with homosexuality.
They had no problem with multiple sexual partners. They had no
problems with those things. Well, let me tell you something,
morality has never changed with God. That's never changed with
God. It is what it is. And he says
here that you abstain from those things. Those sins of the flesh,
those passions of the flesh, you abstain from those things.
You've been washed. Remember, I was trying to think
of that scripture where Paul mentions the sins of the flesh,
and he says, but you're washed. You were this at some time, but
now you're washed, you're clean. You're not the same anymore.
You're not the same. And that was, now that was really
new to them. That was new to them because
the gods, the gods many, the idols they worship, they worship
them because they allowed all this sins of the flesh. There
was no problem with that. But the one God of, the one God
of heaven and earth, that is a problem. That is a problem. What is wrong is wrong, and it'll
always be wrong. What's right is right, and it'll
always be right. You know, the thing about right and, I mean,
with God, with right and wrong, there's no gray area with God. There is no gray area with God.
It's either right or it's either wrong. And this He's saying to
them is wrong. The sins of the flesh, God has
saved you from them. God doesn't save us in sin, he
saves us from sin. He saves us from these things.
And then he says, and from things strangled and from blood. You
know, with the Jews, they were not to eat the blood with the
flesh. They were to drain the blood
out. They were never to do that. And
so he says here that you don't eat things strangled. In other
words, and here's an example. Romans would drown birds and
eat their flesh with their blood. They wouldn't drain it, they'd
just eat it with it. You say, what's wrong with that? Because
I asked that question to myself. I ask questions when I read the
scriptures because That was something that was given in the law that
they were not to do. So why does this apply to the
Gentiles? And here's the thought that came to my mind when he
said, and from things strangled him from blood. Paul said in one place, if it
offends my brother that I ate meat, I won't eat it. It would
be offensive. It would be harmful to the fellowship
of a Jew and a Gentile with a Gentile doing it. It would be harmful
to the fellowship. And he says here, don't do that.
Don't do that. If it offends my brother that
I eat meat, then I'll not eat meat. And he says here, and I
think he says it's with the spirit of knowing that it would be harmful
to the fellowship, their fellowship with one another together in
the same service, because there was Jews mixed in with the Gentiles
in these services. He says, just don't do it, don't
do it. And James says this in verse
21, he gives a reason for the sending of this letter. For Moses
of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read
in the synagogues every Sabbath day." And here's one of the reasons
for sending this letter here, is that every Sabbath, in all
these cities that have a synagogue, and they would read the law.
They would read the law. And the Gentiles living in those
cities would be persuaded to believe those law preachers.
So now they've got this letter. They've got this letter from
the church in Jerusalem. This didn't come from a Gentile
church out here in Antioch. This came from a church in Jerusalem. And this letter tells these Gentiles,
no, you don't keep the law. You don't keep circumcision to
be saved. You don't keep the law to be
saved. Even though you have these men reading the law in the cities
every week, don't listen to them. They're wrong. They are wrong. And without this letter, they'd
be all confused, wouldn't they? They'd be totally confused without
the letter. And I think that's what James
is saying. Here's the importance of this letter, is to confront
those law preachers. You got them in every city. And then the council's letter
now is put together and it goes out to these Gentile believers. And there's one thing I want
you to notice. I've covered already most of
it, but one thing I want you to notice is how simple and how
short the letter is. That is so important, how simple
and how short this letter is to that Gentile church. They're
in Antioch. And to us today, this letter
is still in effect, you know? It's still in effect. We have
it to this day. I'm reading it to you. We have
it now. Now, this letter shows several
things here. First of all, it shows how unanimous
the agreement With the church there in Jerusalem, they are
unanimous on how God saves sinners. They are unanimous on how God
saves sinners. Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem
over this matter of circumcision, keeping the law, and believing
the gospel. They said, those all don't go together. The law
has been kept. The law has been kept by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's not put that yoke on
those Gentiles. God has removed that yoke. Let's
not put it on somebody else. He's removed it. And the church
was in full agreement on how God saves sinners. The church
here, we are in full agreement on how God saves sinners. grace
alone, Christ alone, His blood alone, His righteousness alone.
That's how God saves sinners, by His power. God did not save us and did give
us these commandments, a group of commandments, to keep in order
to perfect Our salvation, we don't perfect our salvation in
any way, shape, or form. Our salvation is perfect in Christ,
with no additive. It's perfect in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So it shows here how they are
in full agreement on how God saves sinners. It pleased, then
pleased it the apostles and elders with the whole church to send
chosen men, respected men, faithful men of their own company, well-known
men. These men were sent by the church.
That group of Judaizers that came were not sent by the church
in Jerusalem. They acted like they were, but
they weren't. These are well-known men. They
sent them to Antioch with Paul Barnabas. They sent them there
with a man named Judas, whose surname was Barsabbas and Silas.
These were chief men among the brethren. They sent to back up
this letter. They sent this delegation to
deliver this letter from the church in Jerusalem and say,
this is how God saves sinners. This is how God saves sinners.
And these are the men we sent. We didn't send the other ones.
So the letter is sent. And they wrote the letter there
in verse 23. They wrote letters by them after
this matter. The apostles and elders and brethren
send greetings unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles. I'm glad they just, they pointed
that out, didn't they? They made it a point to point
that out. They didn't just say, send greetings
unto the brethren, to the brethren in the church of Antioch. but
to the brethren which are of the Gentiles." That shows the
reception of the Gentiles. They've opened their arms and
just embraced them. They've embraced them. "...which
are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia." And here's
the letter, "...for as much as we have heard that certain which
went out from us, not sent by us, but acting like they were,
They were not sent by us. They've troubled you with words,
lying words, subverting. You know, this word
subverting means dismantle. They came, you know what Satan's
one aim would be to be here? Dismantle this group. And the
way he does it, first of all, is dismantle your heart. Dismantle
your affections to Christ. Dismantle your faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. To dismantle that or unpackage.
It has the meaning of unpackage, to just take it out and scatter
it. It has the meaning of disfurnish or this, confuse. Where there
is confusion, there is the spirit of Satan. He is the God of confusion. And so he says here, so we've
heard that certain men went out from us. They've troubled you
with subverting words. They've troubled you with another
gospel, what Paul says to the Galatians. They've come preaching
another gospel, which is not another. There's not another
gospel, but there are some who would make you believe there
is. He said to the Corinthians, there'll be some come preaching
another Jesus. Make sure the one you believe
is the one, and I believe, is the one of this Bible. Make dead
sure of that. And here's their message. Here's
their message. And you'll notice their message
has nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. It has nothing
to do with Christ. It has nothing to do with Christ
crucified. Here's what it has to do with. You must be circumcised
and keep the law. To whom we gave no commandment.
That didn't come from us. That didn't come from us. They
are pretenders. Now here's the importance of
this letter. This church And these other churches,
like in Syria, in Cilicia, and up to this day, right now, up
to this day. We are enlightened. This has enlightened, this letter
enlightened them. And this letter, even today,
enlightens us concerning how God saves sinners. And we do
not mix works with grace. They are enlightened for future
Judaizers. Well, they were enlightened for
future Judaizers, because they're going to come. They're going
to come. And they're going to tell you
that salvation is by keeping the law. And now, in our day,
it's a little more subtle. It's a little more subtle. They
will come and say salvation is all of grace, but you must. Well,
you just put poison in the pottage. You must do this, you must do
that. You must accept Jesus as your personal Savior. It's all
of grace, but you must accept Him. If I must do anything, it's
not the gospel. It's not the gospel. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved is absolutely
true. That's absolutely true. But faith,
as we know, is the gift of God. It's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. It's the work of God. You and
I cannot muster up, work up faith. For a sinner to believe God,
God has to save that sinner. Or you'll never believe God.
You'll never believe God. It seemed good, in verse 25,
it seemed good unto us being assembled with one accord, he
lets them know here that they are in agreement, to send these
chosen men, Paul, Barnabas, and these other men, men who've hazarded
their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This statement
shows how important the gospel was to them. And I put this in
bold black letters. in my notes, how important is
it to keep the gospel here? Brethren, if it costs us everything,
if it costs us our life, it's that important. It's that important. Now, he said, we've sent you
these men, we sent Judas and Silas to back this up and preach the gospel
to you." And they stayed there and they preached to them for
a while. And it seemed good to the Holy Ghost. We had His leadership.
This is not the opinion of a group of men in Jerusalem. We have
the leadership of the Holy Spirit who is God. We have His leadership
on this. And this is why we've sent these
men and we've sent this letter. We have the Holy Spirit's leadership
on this. And this is our judgment, that
we lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.
These necessary things. He calls them necessary to abstain
from fornication and these things like things strangled. Why does
he call them necessary things? I think he's necessary for fellowship
between the Jew and the Gentile. That's obvious. It's necessary
for growth in grace. The grace of God teaches us to
deny ungodliness. And he says fornication and those
things are ungodly. The grace, the gospel does not
lower the standards. The gospel doesn't lower standards
so you and I can make it in. No, not at all, not at all. But you abstain from meats offered
to idols, from blood and things strangled, and from fornication,
which you keep yourselves, you do well, you do well. Fare you
well, or be strong, or it shall be well with you. It'll be well
with you. So when they were dismissed,
they came to Antioch, and when Antioch received this letter,
they rejoiced. They rejoiced. The first letter
written to the church was on salvation by grace alone. The
first letter sent out to the church was how God saves sinners. And the result in verse 31, they
were happy, happy, happy, glad that salvation's all of grace.
Aren't you glad salvation's all of grace? Are you? Boy, I'm glad I didn't have to.
I'm so glad of that because I wouldn't last a second. I wouldn't last
a second. And some of them tarried there
for a while, stayed longer, preached the gospel to them. But this
comes, and I'm going to close this, this comes with a real
note of sadness. There's a real note of sadness
here. They send this letter of how
God saves sinners, they don't put a yoke of bondage on the
neck of those Gentiles, and they rejoice, you know, and Paul and
Barnabas and Silas and Barsabbas, they preach the gospel and they
fellowship with the church there. And some days, verse 36, some
days after Paul said unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our
brethren in every city where we've preached the word of the
Lord and see how they're doing. That's good, let's do that. And
Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was
John Mark, one who wrote the Gospel of Mark. But Paul thought
it not good to take him with him, who departed from them from
Pamphylia. He didn't go to the work. He
went not with him to the work. And the contention was so sharp
between them, they departed asunder from one from the other. And so Barnabas took Mark and
sailed to Cyprus, and Paul Paul and Barnabas. We've been reading
Paul and Barnabas. Preaching the gospel. I mean,
two pillars. Just backing one another up.
Backing one another up. And then this contention. Over
Mark. Here's what jumped out at me.
This contention over a relative. Barnabas. What's the old saying? Blood's thicker than water. It
came down to this thing of Mark. He said, let's take Mark. And
Paul says, no, we're not taking Mark, because Mark didn't. You
know, he left us. He didn't go to the world. He
left us. And we're not going to take Mark at all. And you know,
Barnabas is never heard of again. He's never heard of again after
this. And I don't know, maybe Paul was too hard, maybe he was,
maybe Barnabas was too soft. But I do know this, Barnabas
had a falling out over his relative. And it separated Paul and Barnabas,
and that church saw it. They had such strong contention
that they split with one another. Now I see God's providence in
this, in this. The missionary work spread. Barnabas went one way, Paul went
another. Now God turned that into good, no doubt. But let's
not hold our relatives over the gospel. Let's not ever make that
a point of contention. The only point of contention
we'll ever have is this, how God saves sinners. And that's
it. All right.