While Lynn and I were driving
over here, I said to her, this message is gonna require some
thinking on our part. And Lynn said, I don't like messages
like that. I've entitled this message, These
Necessary Things. And that is what James said in
this letter about these four issues. Look once again in verse
28. For it seemed good to the Holy
Ghost and to us to lay upon you, speaking to this Gentile church,
no greater burden than these necessary things. And I've already
quoted Acts chapter 16, verse four, where they're called decrees. The apostles went through these
Gentile churches, delivering them the decrees for to keep. And that word decrees is where
we get the word dogma from. Dogma is that which is incontrovertibly
true, not up for debate, not up for Now, in chapter 15, verse 1,
some men had come down from the church at Jerusalem. These were
Jewish believers. And they had come down from Judea
and taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised. After the manner of Moses, You
cannot be saved. And they went on to say in verse
five that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep
the law of Moses. Now, the issue was that of law
and grace. That's clear, isn't it? That's
what the issue is. The issue is an issue of law
and grace. Well, James comes up with this. He says in verse 19, my sentence
is that we trouble not them, that we harass not them. That's
what the word is. That we harass not them, that
we spoil not them. This is a different word than
the word that's usually translated trouble. It's treat them wrong,
really. That we trouble them not. from among the Gentiles which
are turned to God, but that we write unto them that they," and
these are Levitical laws. These are found in the law of
Moses. They're all found in the book of Leviticus. Now, I've
read where there are 636 laws in the Old Testament, maybe more,
maybe less. I've read that at any rate. I've
never counted them myself, but I've read that. And laws, you
know the Ten Commandments, but there's laws concerning not mixing
seeds, mingling seeds, not having linen and wool for your clothing. There's a law not to trim your
beard or have corners of it. The laws concerning so many different
things. 636 laws. Now as he's saying, You all don't need to worry about
those laws. There's only four laws you need to keep. Is that
what he's saying? Now you see the ridiculousness
of that, don't you? That isn't any different if that's
what he is saying. Here's four laws you need to
keep. Don't commit fornication. Don't eat things, follow the
Levitical dietary laws. Don't eat things that have been
strangled. The blood has to be shed. Don't drink blood. and don't eat anything sacrificed
to idols. As long as you keep those four
commandments, you're in good shape. You do well. Now, on the
surface, that's what it sounds like. But is that, here's the
question I want to ask you, is that any different than what
the Judaizers were saying when they said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved? That's a simpler
form of salvation by works, I guess. Instead of keeping 636 Levitical
laws, you only have to keep four. But it's still making salvation
dependent upon human works, if that is what he means. And let me say strongly, that
is not what he means. Now, he says there were necessary
things. And if they were necessary then,
they're necessary December 27th, 2020. And they're always necessary
in the church, these four necessary things. Now, what do they mean? Now, this is the letter sent
from the church at Jerusalem, which was made primarily of Jews. And it was sent to the church
at Antioch, which was the main Gentile church. And the issue
was what the issue always is, law and grace. That was the issue
at hand. People had come from the church
of Jerusalem who professed to be believers and tried to bring
law into the gospel and press it upon the Gentiles. So James wants to send a letter
from the church of Jerusalem to the church at Antioch about
this issue. And he calls these four things
necessary things. Some people have looked at this
letter as kind of a transitional period in the early church when
you were trying to go from being a Jew to a Christian, and they've
been taught all these Jewish customs, and you're just trying
to make it easy on them. And this is a transitional period
where things are not clear. Now, I can't object to that enough. That's not what this is about.
This is not about some kind of transition. And some people even
said this was in order to keep the Gentile believers from offending
the Jewish believers. You need to have your dietary
laws right. You need to not drink blood.
You need to not eat anything sacrificed to idols. eat anything that had been strangled,
and you need to not commit fornication, because you won't be accepted
with your Jewish brethren if you don't keep these four laws. Now, as I said, this was all
Levitical law. You can read about every one
of these laws in the book of Leviticus. Now look in verse
19. This is James' letter. Wherefore my sentence is, my
judgment is, that we trouble not these Gentiles that have
turned to God. Now they had turned to God. I
love what Paul says to the Thessalonians, and it was a Gentile church.
You turn to God from idols. to serve the living and true
God and to wait for his son from heaven, Jesus Christ, who delivered
us from the wrath to come. Now, I love the way that said
he didn't say you saw the vanity of idols and you turned to God.
It never works that way. Everything begins with a revelation
of who God is. It's not you figuring something
out and then turning to God. You find out who God is. And
that's what makes you turn from idols. You'll hold on to those
idols until you have him revealed to you. And when he's revealed
to you, you will let go of those idols. He says, you've turned
to God. And my sentence is, my judgment
is that we trouble them not, that we annoy them not, that
we harass them not, that we don't bring them under bondage. And
that's exactly what they were doing. They were bringing them
under Bondage. Look in verse 7 of Acts chapter
15. This is when this dispute had been going on in the church
about this issue of law and grace. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by by mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. He's talking about what took
place in Acts 10 and 11. And God which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us, and he put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear? Why would you put this
yoke upon somebody when you refuse it yourself? You can't bear it
yourself, it's pure hypocrisy. But we believe. that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they.
I repeat, I've said this many times in the last few weeks,
the Gentiles were not saved like the Jews. The Jews were saved
like the Gentiles, by grace, apart from law. Those Jews were
saved exactly the way the Gentile dogs were saved. Now he says in verse 20, but
we write unto them that they abstain from pollution of idols
and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood. Now abstain from these things.
Just stay away from them. abstain from eating anything
sacrificed to an idol. Now, turn with me, hold your
finger there, and turn to 1 Corinthians 8. What is the subject? Verse 1,
now as touching things offered unto idols. Now, what he was
talking about was when the Gentiles would offer up a sacrifice to
a pagan idol. The Jews would say, after the
sacrifice was over, they would take the meat and sell it. It's
good meat. I mean, if a filet mignon or
a T-bone steak or a porterhouse steak is offered up to a Gentile
god and the sacrifice is over and they take it to the shambles
to sell it, a lot of people would say, well, you ought not eat
that because it was offered up to idols. That's wrong. You shouldn't
eat that meat. And I can understand people's
scruples like that. You can too. But look what Paul says in verse
8. But meat commendeth us not to God. For neither if we eat
it are we the better, neither if we eat it not are we the worse. It's no benefit to you to not
eat that. Somebody says, I don't eat that.
Eat the meat that's sacrificed to idols. That's no benefit to
you. There's no spiritual understanding that. Somebody says, I see that
I can't eat it. Well, there's no spiritual benefit
in that either. Meat doesn't come in you one way or the other.
It is a thing indifferent. It makes no difference. Now,
was Paul speaking contrary to what this decree is when it says,
don't eat things offered to idols. Beware of the pollution of idols. And then he says next, abstain
from fornication. All sexual activity outside the
marriage covenant. Now we know that in these Gentile
religions, sex was involved in Gentile worship with temple prostitutes.
That's the facts. That was part of their public
worship. And sexual sin was acceptable
in Gentile life. Is he telling them, no, it's
not, and you must abstain from that. According to Romans 2.16, God's
law is written in the heart of every man. And no, the Gentiles
didn't really believe that sexual sin was okay. Romans 2.16 says
the law is written on the heart. Everybody knows it's wrong to
lie, don't they? Everybody knows it's wrong to steal. Everybody
knows it's wrong to murder. And everybody knows sex outside
of the marriage covenant is wrong. Of course, all sexual sin is
sin and should be abstained from. You agree with that? Doesn't
matter whether you agree with it or not, it's so. All sexual sin should be
abstained from and everybody knows that. I remember when I
was a young man growing up at 13th Street, somebody was caught
in some kind of sexual scandal and they said, well, It's Henry
Mahan's fault. If he would have preached against
that and taught us against that, it wouldn't have happened. Baloney,
baloney, you know better than that. You're just looking for
an excuse. But is that what Paul's talking
about or what these decrees are talking about when they're talking
about all sexual sin is wrong and abstain from it? Well, it
is wrong physically, but that's not the point. That's not the
point. And then he speaks of abstaining
from things strangled. That means it was not bloodshed.
You don't eat something where blood was not actually shed. To eat something where blood
was not shed, to derive nourishment from something where blood was
not shed, is sin, is wrong. There's no good that can come
from that. And then he talks about not drinking
blood. According to Jewish law, the
blood had to be drained from the meat. You could not drink
that blood. If you did, it was sin. Now these are laws that you find
in the book of Leviticus. As a matter of fact, I tried
to listen to one fellow preaching on it and he said the fornication
has to do with all the laws about not being with your mother, your
brother, your sister, your aunt or uncle and so on. And he's
trying to make sure the Gentiles know that's wrong because they
don't seem to think that's wrong. And there's just, like I said,
all kinds of laws in the book of Leviticus. Now, these things
are called decrees to keep. They're called necessary things. And they are just as necessary
now as they were then. Now, while the gospel is majestic,
is glorious, is transcendent, A message that is not so much
understood but believed. It's not complicated. Christ is all. Everything I hear has to come
through that gate. And if it's in any way contrary
to Christ being all, it's wrong and it's destructive to my soul. I'm to look to the scriptures
alone, not the scriptures and some human document, the scriptures
alone. In my assurance, the only ground
of assurance is Christ alone, not Christ and anything. Christ
alone, anything that's contrary to Christ alone is wrong. Grace alone, anything that's
contrary in any way to any degree to grace alone is wrong and destructive. Faith alone, not faith and. Faith alone, looking to Christ
only. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing
else. Faith alone. You see, this thing's
not complicated. It's called the simplicity that's in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 11, verse three.
I love, simple. This is not multiple choice.
This is not giving two different things. You can believe this,
no. Christ is all. You know what that makes everything
else? Nothing. It's simple. Do the math. Christ is ALL. ANYTHING, in any way, to any
degree, contrary to that, is destructive to the souls of men. Now turn with me to Revelation
chapter 2, verse 14. He's speaking to the church of
Pergamos and he commends them for some things, but he says
in verse 14, but this is Christ speaking to this church, but
I have a few things against thee because thou hast them there
that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling
block before the children of Israel. And here's what he taught
them, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. Look in verse 20, he says to
the church at Thyatira, notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee
because thou sufferest, you allow 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." Was this woman Jezebel, was this
man Balaam actually telling the churches, look, here's what you
need to do. You need to go ahead and commit
fornication. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not sin.
Go ahead and commit any kind of sexual sin you want, and go
ahead and make your main meal, meats, sacrificed to idols. Is that what he was saying? Now,
you know better than that. If I came in here and started
saying things like that to you and made these requirements,
you'd know I was wrong. You'd know that this is not the
message of the gospel. You'd know it. You wouldn't have
to have anybody tell you that. You'd know that what I'm saying
is not so. Fornication is anything outside
the covenant of marriage. Spiritual fornication is anything
outside the covenant of grace. The covenant of which David said,
although my heart, my house be not so with God, Yet hath he
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure,
and this is all my salvation. And this is all my desire. All my salvation is in this covenant,
and it's all I want. I don't want, I'm not looking
for anything outside of the complete salvation that's in Christ. Salvation by works in any form,
salvation outside of this eternal covenant made to the lamb and
his bride, the complete salvation that's in Christ, is what Jeremiah
calls committing adultery with stalks and stones. The false worship of a God that's
not the God of the Bible is what Ezekiel says, they committed
adultery with their idols. Now this is the point when it's
talking about fornication. The own all my salvation And
all my desire is found in that eternal covenant that God made
with Christ when he became surety for me. And everything God requires
of me, he looks to his son for. Anything else is spiritual adultery. Eating things strangled. Well, when something strangled,
you know what? No blood was shed. The only thing that I am allowed
to glory in is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The shedding
of his blood is everything in my salvation. I can't get any
comfort. I can't get any hope. I don't feel any joy or peace
in anything But what Paul said when he said, God forbid that
I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't
glory in the fact that I'm an apostle or a preacher. I can't
glory in anything God does through me or in me. You know, Paul was
a man God used, I reckon, more than any other man alive. He
said, God forbid that I glory in any of that. All I find confidence
in, all I glory in, all I rejoice in is who Christ is and what
he accomplished on Calvary Street. Don't try to derive any kind
of spiritual nourishment from something that's separate from
the blood. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. And any hope that you have that
is divorced from the complete saving atonement of Jesus Christ
on Calvary's tree, where he finished salvation without your help,
Hebrews 1.3 says he by himself purged our sins. That means you didn't have any,
your fingerprints aren't on that. You didn't have anything to do
with it. And any hope I have that is not that is destructive
to my soul. And if I go on in it, I'll find
it to be soul damning. the only thing that we're allowed
to find assurance from. Not something that's strangled,
where there's no shedding of blood, but the shed blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, secondly, or thirdly, he
said, don't you drink that blood. Now, when we go to Mexico, that
one restaurant, I always order blood sausage. That's what it's
called, and I always feel a little bit queasy doing it, but I do
it anyway because it tastes so good. I don't know how they make
it. I don't even know where blood
comes from in that, but I've heard there's, well, whatever.
It's good. But I've always thought, why
am I doing that? The Bible says don't drink anything
with blood. As a matter of fact, when you
slew the animal, the blood was to be drained in the Levitical
manner, in a kosher manner, what they call it, and you're not
to drink that blood. Now, here's why. The blood's not for you. The blood's for God. The blood
wasn't shed for you. The blood was shed for God. For
God to do something for me or you. That blood had to be shed,
and don't think, don't be so, oh, the blood was shed for me.
Well, I understand that, but it wasn't shed for you. It was
shed for God, for God to love you, for God to accept you, for
God to embrace you. The blood of his son had to be
shed. He didn't say, when you see the blood. He said, when
I see the blood. I will pass over you. And don't ever look at the blood
in any other way than that which God demanded and that God is
completely satisfied with. Oh, I love to think of the satisfaction
of the Father with the blood. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. And
I realize that the blood is for God. It's not for me, it's not
for my consumption. The blood is for God. The blood was put before the
Lord, wasn't it? Not before me, not before you,
not before any man. The blood was put before the
Lord. And that, oh, I want to have
some understanding, some spiritual understanding, God-given understanding,
if I do understand it, that the blood's for God and God is completely
satisfied with the blood. And remember where Jezebel taught
the people, go ahead and eat things, offered idols? And what
that's telling me, it's okay to eat, as far as physical consumption,
If it was offered to an idol, eat it. If it would offend somebody,
don't do it. Paul says that. I mean, you don't
want to unnecessarily offend somebody. But the point is, I
cannot draw any spiritual nourishment from a false gospel, from a gospel
that doesn't, I can't be saved by a false gospel. You know,
God doesn't use error. And so why should he? You know,
people almost act like, well, God can use this, you know, he's
God, he can use free will preaching, if you will. No. Why would he? He's God, it's not like he, well,
I can't find a preacher to preach the truth, so I'll use this one
to preach his error. That's ridiculous. You can't be saved by believing
a false gospel, you can have no spiritual benefit at all by
a false gospel. It ain't going to happen. You
can't derive any nourishment, any life from that food that
is a false gospel, sacrifice to a false god, an idolatrous
gospel. Now let's go back to Acts 15. Verse 20. Write unto them that they abstain
from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things
strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time hath in
every city then that preach him, being read in the synagogues
every Sabbath day. Now that lets you know he's not
talking about the letter of the law here. He said Moses, they read
him every day. They read these laws every day,
and they think there are things that they can try to keep. They
don't understand them. Verse 22, Then pleased it the
apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men
of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely
Judas, surname Barsabbas, and Silas, the chief men among the
brethren, These men were handpicked, Paul and Silas, the beloved apostles
that the Lord had raised up for Paul and Barnabas's sidekick. And these other men were coming
with the exact same message to bring to the church at Antioch. Verse 23, and they wrote letters
by them after this manner, the apostles and the elders and brethren
and send greeting unto the brethren, which are of the Gentiles in
Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. For as much as we've heard that
certain which went out from us have troubled you with words
subverting your soul saying you must be circumcised and keep
the law to whom we gave no such commandment. It didn't come from
us. It came from them. They came
on their own and we didn't send them. And they came with a message
that would subvert your souls if believed. Verse 25, it seemed
good unto us being assembled with one accord, we're all in
agreement here, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved
Barnabas and Paul. And here's their resume, men
that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, I want that to be my resume.
I want that to be your resume. I love what Paul said with regard
to the bonds and afflictions. He said, none of these things
move me, neither count I my life dear to myself, that I might
finish my course with joy. and the ministry which I've received
of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God." I want to be happy. Quit thinking
that way. Paul said, I don't count my life dear to myself,
that I might finish my course with joy. Verse 27, We have sent, therefore, Judas
and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth."
You're going to read this letter, and you're going to hear the
same things. And you know, that's the way
you listen to preaching. You listen to it in light of what
the scripture has to say. That's what they were doing.
For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost And to us, I've never really
understood that line. The Holy Spirit inspired it.
I guess whatever seems good to the Holy Ghost seems good to
us. That's what it means. He wasn't saying we were in agreement.
No, the Holy Ghost said this and we agree with what he says. That's what he's saying. To lay
upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. Now, don't miss that word. These
are necessary things. These four things are necessary
things. That you abstain from meats offered
to idols. Don't you try to get anything
out of that which is false. It won't save you. It won't cause
you to grow. All it will be is destructive. All it will do is subvert your
soul. Abstain from meats offered to
idols and from blood. Remember, the blood's for God.
Don't you try drinking it. It's not for you. It's for God. Now, that's so important to understand
that. The blood is for God. You know,
people think, well, the blood of Christ was shed for everybody.
No, it wasn't. The blood was shed for God in
order for him to be just and justify the elect. That's his
purpose in doing it. And we're to understand the blood.
Don't look at this silly, sentimental, well, the blood was shed for
everybody to make everybody's salvation available. No, no.
The blood was shed for God. And the blood of Christ demands
the salvation of everybody he shed his blood for. And from things strangled, don't
try to get any good out of something apart from the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is everything
in salvation. If it's strangled, if there's
not been the shedding of blood. I remember I got a letter from
somebody once. It's one of the most amazing
letters I've ever got. The fellow was rebuking me about what I
was saying. He didn't understand sanctification anyway, but he
was saying something about sanctification. He said, what does the blood
of Christ have to do with sanctification? Everything? By one offering? He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And from fornication, looking
for anything outside of the covenant. If you keep yourselves, from
which if you keep yourselves, you shall do well. everything
would be fine. You know, somebody that keeps
these four dogmas or decrees, I ain't a bit worried about them.
They're gonna follow Christ all the way to the end. I don't have
to give them a bunch of rules and regulations. They've got
God the Holy Spirit keeping them and preserving them. This is
everything in salvation. These are necessary things. I love the way they're called
dogmas. Just as important today, the gospel's all it is. Very well, so when they, verse
30, were dismissed, they came to Antioch, and when they had
gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle, which
when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation, for the
comfort that is in that message. And what comfort there is in
that message And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves,
exhorted the brethren with many words. I'm sure they were explaining
these four things. This is not about trying to keep
four Jewish laws, and the rest you can just disregard. This
is gospel, these four things. This is the very heart and soul
of the gospel. And confirmed them, and after
they'd tarried their space, they were let go in peace from the
brethren of the apostles, Notwithstanding a plea Silas to abide there still,
Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching
the word of the Lord with many others also. May the Lord impress
these four things on us. These are necessary things. This
is dogma. This is the dogma of the church,
inspired by God, the Holy Spirit. There's no benefit at all in
idolatrous, false religion. Don't look for anything outside
of the covenant. Be right there with David. This
is all my salvation and all my desire, though he make it not
to grow. It's the shed blood of Christ. It was for God. And that's where
we get our comfort from. We see God's satisfaction with
it. I'm satisfied with what God's
satisfied with. And we're not to get anything,
any assurance apart from the blood, the shed blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you get assurance from anything
else, It's a false assurance. And if you continue in it, it'll
lead you to hell. The only assurance there is,
is it is finished. And look at verse four of chapter
16. Here's what they did with these
four necessary things. to observe, to lay hold upon
something that ought to always be in the forefront of our heart
that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that we might be
enabled by your spirit, by your grace to keep these decrees To
look nowhere but the covenant that I made with your son is
all of our salvation and all of our desire. Lord, deliver
us from looking to anything that is apart from the shedding of
his blood. Cause us to know that the shedding of his blood was
for you, that you might be just and justify the ungodly. And
Lord, deliver us from seeking to find nourishment from that
which is idolatrous. Bless this message for Christ's
sake. In his name we pray. Amen.