I would have liked to have heard
the way Paul said, you should have listened to me. That's what
Lynn always says to me. If the Lord gives us a spiritual
understanding of these words that I'm going to attempt to
preach on from the Word of God, it will strengthen, confirm,
and establish us. This is a very important message,
and I hope every message that's ever preached from this pulpit
is a very important message. But this is a message that I
pray that the Lord will use to strengthen us and to confirm
us and to establish us in the faith. I've entitled this message,
The Decrees to Keep. the decrees to keep. You'll notice
in verse four, and as they went through the cities, they delivered
them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles
and elders, which were at Jerusalem. Now, three or four weeks ago,
I brought a message entitled Necessary Things. It came from
Acts chapter 15, verse 28, For it seemed good to the Holy
Ghost. Now here's where the authority
of these things come from. And us too, we agree with what
the Holy Spirit says, but the Holy Spirit is the author of
this. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost
and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary
things. necessary things. These things
are necessary. They were necessary then in the
early church, and they're just as necessary now. They're just
as important now. And here's what they are. Verse
29, 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." Now, this is the letter composed by the apostles and
elders at Jerusalem and sent to the saints in Antioch. Now, here's what had been taking
place, chapter 15, verse 1, And certain men, which came down
from Judea, taught the brethren. These men were men who came from
the church in Jerusalem. They weren't from somewhere no
one had ever heard of. They were actually from the church
in Jerusalem where the gospel was preached. But they came down
from Judah and taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Now there's something you need
to do before you can be saved. Now you can fill that in the
blank with anything, except you fill in the blank. You cannot
be saved. You need to do this before you
can be saved. You need to do that. You need to stop doing
this, start doing that. Look in verse five. Now, Paul
and Barnabas had an argument with them about this, and we
read in verse five, he's telling what had taken place, but there
rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which believed,
saying that it was needful, it was necessary to circumcise them
and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Now, This created this, what
I hope I reverently call the first Bible conference we read
of, when all the people got together to discuss this matter, and that's
when Peter made that glorious statement, we believe that through
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. Now, James, the pastor, says
in verse 19, wherefore my sentence is, here's what I think, that
we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned
to God, but that we write unto them, and here are those four
things, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from
fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. And they sent this letter to
the church at Antioch and some other churches in that region
that these are the four decrees to keep. And then look in our
text once again, verse four. Now look in verse 41 of chapter
15. He went through Syria and Cilicia
confirming the churches. That's what was going on. These
people were being confirmed in the faith. by divine truth, by
these four necessary things. Look in verse four. And as they
went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for
to keep those four things that were ordained of the apostles
and elders, which are Jerusalem. And so were the churches established
in the faith and increased in number daily. Now, they were established in
the faith through what took place, them delivering them these four
decrees to keep. Now, the faith that's being spoken
of is the faith once delivered to the saints. I love the finality
of that. You know, this Bible is a closed
book. It's closed in the sense that you can't understand it
unless God opens it up to you. And it's closed in this sense,
no new revelation. This is it. This is it. This is God's final word. Revelation has been closed. Here
it is. And it's summarized in this thing
of being confirmed in the faith and established in the faith.
And I want that for myself and I want that for you. It's summarized
by these four decrees for to keep. They were strengthened and increased
through these four decrees that were to be kept. Now notice how
he says in verse four, as they went through the cities, they
delivered them. And that's what preaching is.
It's delivery. It's like a mailman delivering
a letter. He has absolutely nothing to
do with the content of that letter. Nothing. He simply delivers it. Now, this is authoritative. You know, the only thing that
a believer needs is to see this is what the word of God teaches
and nothing else is needed. That's authoritative with every
believer. And when they see this as the scriptural teaching, they're
zeroed in on that. They get hold of that. And this
is authoritative. It was authored by the Holy Spirit,
as we've already said. And it's called the decrees. the decrees. Now, this is where
we get the word dogma from. You've heard of dogmatic. You've
heard of dogma. It's a scriptural word. And it
is that which is authoritative and incontrovertibly true, authored
by God, the Holy Spirit. And this is what is going to
cause a believer to be confirmed and established and strengthened
in the faith. Four things. Look in verse 28
again. For it seemed good to the Holy
Ghost and to us. He's the author of this. It seemed
good to the Holy Ghost and anything that seems good to the Holy Ghost
seems good to us, doesn't it? We're at complete agreement with
everything he says. We really are. to lay upon you no greater burden
than these necessary things. These are things that are absolutely
necessary. Every time we preach, these things
are going to be brought out to one degree or another. Once again,
you abstain from meats offered to idols, from blood, that's
talking about the consumption of blood, from things strangled,
and from fornication, from which if you keep yourselves, you shall
do well." Abstinence, abstain, stay away
from these four things. Now, let me say right off the
bat, this is not talking about some Levitical laws we do need
to keep and the rest we don't. It's not saying that at all.
It's not talking about Levitical laws, because these are laws
in the book of Leviticus. Don't drink blood. Don't consume
blood. Don't eat anything sacrificed
to an idol. The injunction against sexual
sin, fornication. You're not to eat things strangled.
These are all in the book of Leviticus. But this is not saying,
here's the only four laws in the book of Leviticus you need
to keep, and the rest you're not under. That's not saying
that at all. This is the gospel. As we're going to see, this is
the gospel, and this has to be brought into every message. A message that doesn't have this
underneath it all is not a good message. A message without the
gospel is not a good message. Amen. Here we have the gospel, and
if you and I can enter into this, it will strengthen us in the
faith. Now, the first thing he mentions
in verse 29, these are the four decrees that he kept that strengthened
the church. The first thing he mentions is
to abstain from meats offered to idols. Now, an animal is sacrificed
to a pagan god. You know what they did after
that? They took the meat, cut it up, and put it in the marketplace.
It wasn't altogether consumed. And here the scripture says,
don't you eat that meat if it's sacrificed to an idol. Now look
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 8. I mean 1 Corinthians 8. This
subject is dealt with by the Apostle Paul. Verse 1, now as touching things
offered unto idols, meat sold in the shambles that had been
sacrificed to an idol, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge
puffs up, but charity edifies. Verse 4, as concerning therefore
the eating of those things that are offered unto sacrifices unto
idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world. That idol
is a non-existent entity. There's none other God but one. That idol's not a God. For though
there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth,
and there be many, God's many and Lord's many, but to us there's
but one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we in Him,
and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by
Him. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge, for
some with conscience of the idol, unto this hour eat it as a thing
sacrificed unto an idol, and their conscience, being weak,
is defiled." They feel like they're doing wrong. Look what he says.
But meat commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are
we the better. Neither if we eat not are we
the worse. Now what he's saying is there
is nothing wrong with eating meat sacrificed to idols. Filet
mignon, New York strip, whatever comes out of that cow that's
been sacrificed to an idol, it's fine to eat it. Now if somebody
is troubled by you eating it, you ought not eat it. You ought
to forego your liberty, and don't give them a reason to be upset.
Eat it when they're not around. Somebody says, that's hypocritical.
No, it's not. It's wisdom. It's seeking to be a blessing
to that other person rather than a discouragement. But there's
absolutely nothing wrong with eating a meat sacrificed to any
kind of idol. I don't care how bad of an idol
it is. There's nothing wrong with it. So why does the first decree made, don't
eat meat sacrificed to idols. Look in Revelation chapter three,
or chapter two. He says to the church at Pergamos, I have a few things against thee.
Because thou, that's verse 14, chapter two, verse 14, I have
a few things against thee because thou hast them that hold the
doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balaam to cast a stumbling block
between the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto
idols and to commit fornication. Look in verse 20, he says this
to the church of Thyatira. I have a few things against thee,
because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself
a prophetess, to teach, and to seduce my servants, to commit
fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. Now, is that opposed to what
Paul said? Because there the Lord says to
these churches, don't eat anything sacrificed to an idol. Eating. We all know something about eating,
and you are what you eat, physically and spiritually. You are what you eat. Now, what is an idol? An idol
is a graven image, a man-made god. A supposed likeness of God
that is not God. Turn with me to Exodus 20 and
let's look at this commandment against idolatry. Exodus chapter
20. Verse four. Second Commandment, Thou shalt
not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything
that's in heaven above, or that's in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them or serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous
God. He's jealous of His glory. He's
jealous of his honor. He's intolerant of any kind of
competition. That is God. He said, I'm a jealous
God. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and to the third and fourth generation
of them that, what? Hate me. Now there is the motive
behind a false God, a false concept of God, a graven image. There is the motive, they hate
me. That's why they make a God that
they can understand. That's why they make a God that
they can accept. That's why they make a God that
they can love because they hate me. Now there are many passages
of scripture that show the ridiculousness of idolatry. They're almost humorous.
If you read some of the passages of scripture in Isaiah, particularly
chapter 40 and chapter 44, talks about taking a log and carving
an idol out of it and making you a god. and then taking the
rest of it to burn a fire and bake your bread. You have a God
out of one part of the log and you cook with the rest of it.
And he's showing how ridiculous this thing is. But I'd like you
to look at this passage of scripture with me. Isaiah chapter 45. There's
one verse. Verse 20. Assemble yourselves
and come, draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations. Isaiah 45, 20. Now look at this. They have no knowledge. That set up the wood of their
graven image and pray unto a God that cannot save. Now here's the point. A false God. cannot save. A God that is not the God of
the Bible with all of his attributes, I don't care what you're talking
about, his holiness, his justice, his sovereignty, his omnipotence,
his omniscience, his independence, his immutability, all of his
glorious attributes. Any God that is not that God
is a false God. and a God that cannot save. And if you believe that God,
you cannot be saved. Now that's what we're talking
about. That's what this thing of eating meat offered to idols
is talking about. It's giving some kind of credence
to a God that's not the God of the Bible. If you know God, You
know when God's preached is not him, if you know him. If you
know Christ, you know when there's a Christ being preached that's
not him. If you know the gospel, you know
it when you're hearing the gospel preached that's not the gospel.
Now this is talking about an understanding of who God is. You know that passage of scripture
where Paul says, abstain from every appearance of evil in first
Thessalonians chapter five. Now it's a good idea to stay
out of places that appear evil. I would agree with that. Just
stay away from those places. There's places I will not go.
But that's not what that's talking about. What that's talking about
is if you hear something that doesn't feel right, abstain from
it. Something that somehow is not
giving God all the glory, abstain from it. Do not eat meat sacrificed
to idols. Don't draw your nourishment from
idolatry because there's no nourishment, there's no life in it. So the
first thing is to do with knowing the character of the living God.
Don't have anything to do with something that's not Him, that's
not the God of the Bible. You know, I've seen people say,
well, we're going to stay in churches where the gospel is
not preached. You better not. Well, I'm trying
to be a good example to them and a good influence. You better
not come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. The next thing he says to do,
and we considered this some last week, turn back to Acts chapter
15, He says, first of all, abstain
from meats offered to idols and from blood. And that's talking
about the consumption of blood. And that is commanded right after
Noah got out of the ark in Genesis chapter nine, that's commanded
in the book of Leviticus several times and Deuteronomy and here. He says, do not partake in the
consumption of blood. Now here's the point, and this
is, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is not offered to you,
given for your acceptance or rejection. He doesn't offer you his blood.
The blood is not for you. The blood is for God. Oh, may
the Lord enable me to remember that. I love that passage of
Scripture in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 when it says, When
He BY HIMSELF, no help from you, no contribution from you, when
He BY HIMSELF purged our sins. He sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high, and Hebrews 9, 12 says, neither by the blood
of bulls and goats, but by his own blood. He entered once into
the holy place. He didn't offer that blood to
you, did he? He brought that blood into the very presence
of God. My hope, the only hope I have is that God is completely
satisfied with the blood. The blood isn't offered to me.
This is offered for everybody. It's up to you to accept it or
reject it. There's not a drop of gospel in that kind of message,
none. The blood is for God. And the only way that I'm really
going to be strengthened is understanding that it's the blood that maketh
atonement for the soul. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Now let me ask you a question. Are you satisfied with what God
is satisfied with? There's only one thing he's satisfied
with. the blood of his dear son. Are you satisfied with that?
I am. I'm satisfied with what God is
satisfied with. The blood's not for my consumption,
the blood's for God. And that's what we rest in. And
then thirdly, he says, abstain from things strangled. Now, what's
strangled? That means there's no blood shedding.
That's all that means. If it's strangled, there's no
blood shedding. Now let me tell you exactly what
that means, to abstain from things strangled. Here's what it means. God forbid that I see glory save
in the cross, the blood shedding, the atonement, the satisfying
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't get assurance from anything
else. Only what Christ did in my behalf, his powerful, precious
shed blood, nothing else. What assurance there is in who
is He that condemneth? I love Paul's answer. It's Christ
that died. Talking about His shed blood.
That's the only thing that gives me assurance of God's being pleased
with me, not because of this message I'm preaching, not because
of my praying or my victory over sin or how much I fight sin or
how well I treat you, nothing like or how ill I treat you.
It has nothing to do with anything that I've done. It's only the
shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. And I realize that the only reason
that I'm saved is because of the shed blood of Christ. Beware
of the religion of Cain, a bloodless religion. Beware. The only thing that gives the
believer any hope, and this strengthens me when I, it's the blood that
makes atonement for the soul, not what I do. I get nothing
out of man's religion, false religion, nothing in that. I understand that the blood is
for God. It's not offered to me. It's
Christ bringing it to his father and saving me. And I don't have
any confidence in anything that has, where the blood is absent,
the religion of Cain, without the shedding of blood, there
is no remission of sins. And look how that affected Paul's
preaching. He said, I determined not to
know anything among you. Save Jesus Christ. and Him crucified."
That's talking about the shedding of His blood. He said nothing
else is worth even speaking of but the shedding of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whose blood was shed? Who He
shed it for? What He accomplished by it? And
the ground of a believer's assurance is that only. Well, does this
affect your life? The love of Christ constraineth
us, for we thus judge that if one died for all, then are all
dead, and that he that died for all that they which live should
not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them,
shed his precious blood for them. and rose again. Paul said, I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life that I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself. That's speaking of the shedding
of his blood for me. Don't have anything to do with
anything that's strangled. don't have anything to do with
the religion of Cain. I love that passage of scripture
in Revelation chapter 12 when we read of the accuser of the
brethren. And oh, he's accusing the brethren before God night
and day, the scripture says. What if he had what you thought
in the last 24 hours to accuse you? What could he come up with? Quite
a bit. Would any of it be false? No,
it would all be true. But what does the scripture say?
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. That answers every
accusation without exception. Now that is strengthening. I
can't get any religion out of it. I mean, get any sustenance. I can't get any good out of a
false God or a false gospel. Just forget it. Somebody says,
well, they said some good things. Everything they said ought to
be good. Everything, everything's gospel. There is no saving benefit in
anything but the gospel. Don't try to eat false idols,
meat offered to idols. Don't even think that the blood
is for you. It was for God, so He could do
something for you. Don't get any assurance in any
way out of something strangled, where there is not the shedding
of blood. And what he says last, abstain
from meats offered to idols, abstain from blood, abstain from
things strangled, and abstain from fornication. Now, this is talking about intimate
relations outside of the marriage covenant. Now, I don't have to
go into much detail to say that sexual sin, and I'm talking about
physical sexual sin, in every case is wrong, is evil. The Lord made the intimate act
between a man and a woman. And it's beautiful in the covenant
of marriage. The Lord made it. The two becoming
one flesh, it's a beautiful thing. But you think of what man has
done to sex. You think of the crimes and the
sin and the ruined lives and the destroyed lives that have
come from sexual sin. The perversions. Let man in on it, and boy, that
which is holy and glorious becomes a defiled, wicked thing. And you think of what men have
done. And that being said, he's not really talking about staying
away from sexual sin, although certainly that's included. We
ought not commit sexual sin. Everybody knows that. Everybody
knows that. The man and the woman. are in the covenant. Therefore,
each other, anything outside of the covenant is sin, is evil,
is wrong. Now, what this is talking about
is the only comfort, the only joy, the only good there is,
is that which was within the covenant. We talked about that
this morning. Although my house be not so with
God, yet have he made with me an everlasting covenant. Now here's the covenant I'm talking
about, the covenant the Bible's talking about. It's the covenant
where Christ himself became a surety for me and took complete responsibility
of my salvation. so much so that God doesn't look
for ANYTHING out of me, but He looks for EVERYTHING from His
Son. In other words, Christ IS ALL. Now, that's the covenant. Christ
IS ALL. I was talking to a dear brother
last week on the phone, and he said to me, I don't know if I
want to have anything on a tombstone, but if I do, If I do, it's not
gonna be my name, it's gonna be failure. And underneath that,
Christ is all. And I thought, that's a good
epitaph, epith, whatever you call them, that's a good one,
I like that. Failure, that's my name. Christ is all. And what this is saying is don't
look for anything outside of that great covenant. Don't look
for it. Be just like David. This is all
my salvation and all my desire. Now, if I would be established
in the faith, if I would be confirmed in the faith, if I would be strengthened
in the faith, I'm to see that there is nothing in false religion. Nothing. No one's saved by it.
No one benefits by it. I'm to see, secondly, that the
blood, understand the blood's for God. I think of the Lord
Jesus Christ entering into heaven with that blood and presenting
it to God. How glorious. And I'm to understand
that the only ground of any kind of assurance for me is the shed
blood of Christ, not something I do, not Cain's religion, that
bloodless religion. Like Scott Richardson said, Cain
was a turnip farmer. Can't squeeze blood out of a
turnip. You've heard that, and it does you no good. And oh,
may I find all my comfort and all my salvation in the marriage
covenant of Christ and his church, where he took complete responsibility
for my salvation. Like Judah said to Jacob, Reuben said,
I'll take care of him. He said, no, you won't. I know
you. Reuben, unstable as water, thou
shalt not excel. Jacob had some rough things to
say about his boys. But when Judah, the great type
of Christ comes and he says, I'll be surety for him. Of my
hand will you require him. Everything you require of him,
you look to me for. If I bring him not back before
thee and set him before thee, let me bear the blame forever. And that's what Jesus Christ
said with regard to all of his elect. I take full responsibility
for their salvation. Now, if the Lord gives me and
you the grace to abstain from those four things, it's going
to strengthen us and establish us in the faith. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would take
these things and apply them to our hearts. Lord, give us the
grace to see idolatrous religion for what it is. Give us the grace to see the
preciousness of the blood of your son for what it is. Lord, give us the grace to have nothing to do with anything
that is not founded in His shed blood. Give us the grace to look
only to the covenant of Thy blessed Son. Bless this message for Christ's
sake. In His name we pray. Amen.