What a beautiful message and song. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Take now your Bible with me and turn to the book of Acts chapter 11. The book of Acts 11, I'm continuing with my series on the Apostle Peter. I love church. Do y'all love church? I love church. I love church. I started loving church. Back in the eighth grade, when I got saved, when I became a Christian, I saw something different about church. I love the fact when I was a young person that the message of the gospel and the message of the Bible gave me amazing hope in my life. My dad had just passed away when I was 12 years old. And that's really difficult for a young man to face that and to wonder about things. My mother, in order to support us financially, she had always been a stay-at-home mom up to that point, and she had to go to work. And through a series of events, my brother and I ended up in a Christian school, and then having heard the gospel with clarity, we came to know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. And from then on I loved church. I loved it so much that that's the only place I wanted to be was at the church. I already went to school there beginning in eighth grade. I went to school all day. But the glory of it was this. It was a Baptist church. And since it was a Baptist church, Baptist people just can't get enough of church. Just can't get enough of it. And so we had church all the time. Went to school there. And then we had Sunday school. I started working the bus ministry very early on. And Sunday school. And then we had Sunday morning worship. And then at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we had youth chapel, which was more preaching. Then at 6 o'clock, and I'm guessing, trying to remember the times of all this, but you understand, about 6 o'clock we had the evening service and then after the evening service we had a about a half hour break and then they had a sing-spiration that lasted an hour maybe an hour and a half of sing-spiration time and then after that everybody went out to eat. I love church. At one point I was employed by the Fourth Baptist Church. I was the the tape librarian for WCTS FM radio. It meant that when we would get orders for sermons, we'd get them, people write letters and say, can I have a copy of that sermon? I would make the cassette tapes for hundreds over the years. I made thousands of cassette tapes and sent them all over the country. That was my job. That was my job. At one point, my mother said to me, she said, why don't you move out of the house and just buy a cot and set it in a closet in that church? And you can just live there. She was a little irritated about the whole thing. Now she was a Christian, but it had pushed her a little far. She was a little irritated. But I love church. I love church. But you know what I learned about church? Here's something I learned. I learned that churches are not perfect. How many know that? Yeah, yeah, not perfect. And I know, and I learned this very early on as a Christian, that sometimes in a church, it's possible for conflict to arise. So you say, Pastor Money, wait a minute, it's a bunch of Christians and they all love Jesus, so they're all going to get along. No, that's not true. In fact, the New Testament, beginning of the Gospels, presents it as not true because the New Testament tells us that even the disciples squabbled among themselves as to who was to be the greatest. They always got into these squabbles. When the book of Acts, chapter 11, we find the third time recorded in the book of Acts that there was a little bit of a squabble, a little bit of a controversy, what I'm going to call today a little bit of a brush fire in the church, the early church, the church at Jerusalem. Now, the very first time that this happened, of course, was Acts chapter 5. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? That was a little bit of a scuffle that ended in two funerals. Then, Acts chapter 6, the Bible says that the Grecian women, the Gentile women, who were members of the church, were upset because it seemed like the Jewish women were getting more of the benevolence. They were being cared for better, and that is the birth of deacons in the church, is Acts chapter 6. And then in Acts chapter 11, we have an interesting controversy that arose because of a misunderstanding concerning evangelism. We used to pass money. How can there ever be a controversy in the church, and especially the early church, what we might regard as the purest form of the church? How could there be a controversy? Well, here's why. Every church is both a divine and human organization. And the human side, we're not immune to problems and troubles. We understand that. But the divine side is this. This church is bigger than any one person. Let me say that again. This church is bigger than any one person. This church is bigger than the pastor of this church. Okay, this is not my church, this is his church. This is the Lord's church. He has entrusted me to be the under-shepherd, but an under-shepherd means the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ, is in charge. It is a divine and human institution all at the same time. I think this, that the church also is the unique target of satanic attack. And I think that is especially true in our day and time as the culture is rushing headlong into the church and many of its ministers and denominations are beginning to embrace the things of the culture in total disregard to the scripture. Now let me make a statement. The woke movement is not just, well, you know, it's all these just dumb young people who got all swept up in this craziness. It's satanic. Period. It is satanic to the core. The devil's fingerprints are all over the confusing of the genders. I hope you understand that. The devil's fingerprints are all over the ideas that are becoming so prevalent today. That is satanic. And by the way, it's not Bible. It's not Bible. But Satan especially wants to stir up trouble within the church. Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. But the assumption is this, that the gates of hell will surely try, and we see that. So this is why churches have trouble. We're a divine and human institution. We're the unique target of Satan. I think that the mission of the church is often misunderstood or purposely altered. So Pastor Monty, what is the mission of the church? Two things, basically. Number one, the evangelization of the lost. Preaching the gospel to lost people so that they can be saved and go to heaven and not go to hell. That is the number one responsibility. Number two, the edification of the saints. Okay, if you can remember those two things. That is the purpose of the church. The purpose of the church is not my personal comfort. The purpose of the church is not my personal satisfaction. Listen carefully to what I'm about to say. The purpose of the church is not my personal entertainment. That is not, well, Pastor Monty, I just wish it went more along the lines of my taste. That's not the purpose of the church. The purpose of the church is evangelize the lost and edify the saints. If we can hit on those two things. Now, there's other things we do under those categories. But if we can hit on those two things, we've hit the purpose of the church. And I think sometimes controversy arises because we forget that sometimes. It is not a religious social club. It's not a place where we come, well, you know, I'm just going to come here because everybody thinks the way I think. The purpose is evangelizing the lost and edifying the saints. The church also, I think, comes under fire sometimes or gets into trouble because the church is an amazing place. It amalgamates, it puts together believers from different backgrounds. Now, in a Baptist church, if you want to be a member of Faith Baptist Church, number one, you have to be born again. You must be born again, okay? You have to have a credible testimony of faith in Christ. Then following that, you have been baptized by immersion. Those are two of the requirements of membership at Faith Baptist Church. Okay, two of the requirements. But you have to be saved. But do you know what the Bible does? The Bible takes a lot of saved people from different backgrounds and puts them all together. Where is that in Scripture? Ephesians chapter 2. In the book of Ephesians, Paul in general reveals what is called the mystery, that's the word used, the mystery of the church. But what specifically is the mystery? Not so much the existence of the church, though the church was unknown in the Old Testament. But Paul defines the mystery of the church in Ephesians chapter 2, listen to this, as Jewish people worshiping the same God with Gentile people doing so together and on exactly the same plane. In other words, the mystery was this. We have people, Jews, for the example of the New Testament, Jews and Gentiles, diametrically opposed to each other in culture, diametrically opposed to each other in belief, diametrically opposed to each other in personal standards. You couldn't get two more distinct groups of people in the world, and then God, by his grace, saves them, and they all show up at church And they're expected to get along. That, ladies and gentlemen, is not only a mystery. When that happens, it is a miracle. And that's exactly the design for the New Testament church. In Acts chapter 11, there arose an issue. Peter, who would become the apostle to the Jews. Peter has just returned or was returning on his way from Caesarea Philippi. What happened in Caesarea? Faithful listeners will recall that he entered the house of a Gentile, Cornelius. He brought with him six other Jewish believers. They preached the gospel. And as he preached the gospel, the Holy Spirit of God fell upon them because they believed. They spoke with tongues as a confirmation that this was a legitimate conversion. And then at the end of chapter 10, Peter said this in verse number 47. He said, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost, as well as we? Now, this is revolutionary. You'll recall that the whole vision of Acts chapter 10, the thrice-repeated vision, was given to prepare Peter for this exact moment. And Peter was very good at putting two and two together. And Peter said, look, they have manifested the exact same miracle, the gift of tongues, Acts chapter 2, the Samaritans, and then later in Acts chapter 10. They manifested the same miracle. The Holy Ghost has come upon them. They are true, full Gentiles, not converts to Judaism. They were uncircumcised Gentiles. And yet he says, can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? Verse 48, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and they prayed him to tarry certain days. So they got saved. They got baptized, they told Peter and his entourage to hang out with them, and the news of this Gentile conversion spread like wildfire. You say, Pastor Mati, why? Because it was utterly unheard of that Jews would join together with Gentiles in the worship of Jehovah on the same spiritual level. In fact, it was so unheard of that word of this entered the ears of the church at Jerusalem. Look at chapter 11 verse number 1. And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. Now that is a summary of what they heard because apparently they heard much more. But I want us to pause for a moment and A controversy's about to arise. The Bible in verse number one explains that they heard the Gentiles receive the word of God. But the controversy that would arise had very little to do with that and had everything to do with their personal tradition. Peter masterfully handled the issue in the Jerusalem church that could have split it wide open. Now, here's what I think we can learn from this. How do we, as a church family corporately and as individuals, how do we learn to address issues scripturally? Because it surprises me. Peter's approach here was very different from the Gospels. You know what I mean? In the Gospels, Peter would have heard that there was a whisper of criticism and probably pulled out a sword and cut someone's ear off. He was kind of known to do that. But not so here. It seems like the tempering of the Holy Spirit of God in his heart had given him a level of wisdom to deal with what could have been a major brush fire in that church in Jerusalem. And Peter does so in a masterful way. What I want to do this morning quickly is examine some components of overcoming controversy. Now listen, this will work on a corporate level in the church. This will work in your life as well. So you can apply it corporately, you can apply it personally, but these are some principles or some components of overcoming controversy. Number one, component number one, the first thing you do is determine the true nature of the issue. Ah, Pastor Monty, everybody knows what the problem is. Look at me, look at me. The older I live, the more I believe that nobody really knows what the problem is. I'm talking about this on a macro level, say a marriage, and a macro level, an institution. It is amazing to me how we think because of our own perspective that we can see the problem with absolute clarity and nobody else can see it. He said, Pastor, what are you talking about? Well, look, if you will, at verse number two. So in verse number one, the apostles and the brethren in Judea, the church there, Jerusalem, heard that the Gentiles had received the word of God. Verse two, and when Peter was come to Jerusalem, They that were of the circumcision, the Jewish folks, Jewish members of the church, not all the members of the church at Jerusalem were necessarily Jewish, okay? Some were Greek converts, Gentile converts, who had converted to Judaism and then had converted to Christ, but this was the majority of these were Jews. They that were of the circumcision contended with him. What does it mean they contended? They picked a fight with the Apostle Peter. Let me tell you something. I wouldn't want to pick a fight with the Apostle Peter for anything in the world. I remember that sword incident all too well. But they began an argument. The word contended means that they started an argument and here's what they said. Here was the content of their argument. Now remember, Gentiles have just been saved and the key to opening the gospel door to the Gentiles has just been turned by the apostle Peter. And here's the argument that they gave down at the church in Jerusalem saying, verse three, Thou wentest in unto men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. Now wait a minute, wait a minute. Verse number one, it says that the Gentiles had received the word of God. Peter comes back, and immediately the argument is, we heard that you were fraternizing with the Gentiles, and you ate with them. Do you notice something about that? the news of Gentile conversion should have been very positive. Instead, certain people in the church, not everybody in the church, but certain people in the church took that news and twisted it and somehow saw a negative. And the negative that they saw was really a threatening of the status quo that could potentially shatter Jewish assumptions. In other words, the issue they brought up was not really the issue, but a very minor and picky non-biblical issue and accusation. Now I want everyone to look this way. I do not want you to think that I'm being needlessly hard on the church at Jerusalem. Because you will remember in Acts chapter 10, it took three times of a vision to convince Peter that something was changing, did it not? And three times Peter resisted that change, and Peter only got a full view of everything the vision meant after he met Cornelius and after he saw what God was doing. So it took that long time to convince Peter, we don't want to jump too quickly down the throat of the Jews at the Church of Jerusalem because they're just not understanding it. However, they made some false assumptions and created an argument. Notice if you will. Verse number three. The crux of their issue was this. Peter, thou wentest in unto men uncircumcised and did eat with them. But what was an assumption? That Jews were superior to Gentiles. Well, what was an assumption? That the Jews held to law and tradition that made them special. Now, Peter had done the same in Acts chapter 10. Not so, Lord, for I have not touched anything common or unclean. He did it three times in Acts chapter 10. But here the Jewish believers were simply arguing that there is no way in the world that Peter should have gone into this house to fellowship. And frankly, they were addressing really what is in verse number three a side issue in attacking Peter personally. They raised a non-scriptural issue of association and eating. Look at verse number three. Peter, you went into the house of an uncircumcised man and you ate with him. Now, by the way, notice something. There is no accusation made that Peter ate non-kosher food. Did you notice that? In fact, if I had to guess, Cornelius did not serve pork chops that day. Cornelius, expecting this Jewish believer to come, the Apostle Peter, and understanding that he was a Jew, and knowing something about the Jewish religion, I'm sure that Cornelius was respectful, and likely they ate together a kosher meal. It wasn't the food that's brought up in the passage, it was Peter's going into a home and joining in fellowship and eating with the Gentiles. Well, Pastor Monty, according to the Old Testament law, Peter had no business doing that. Look at me right now. Where is that in the Bible? It's not. Well, but why were they making a big deal of it? Watch this. Because they were exalting a rabbinic tradition, a rule, that had been superimposed over Scripture. In order to keep them from breaking Scripture, they made rules around the Scripture, and they were citing this as authoritative as the Bible. That's a problem. And another problem is this, it was a side issue. Pastor Monty, why was it? By the way, have you ever thought about this? Was there somebody else famous in the New Testament who was criticized for eating with publicans and sinners? Does anybody remember his name? Jesus, exactly. The attack was very much the same. It was kind of an instant replay, although these are Christian believers. They're Jewish believers defending their Judaism. These men used a personal attack to mask, I think, a deeper motive. Pastor, what's the deeper motive? Gentile inclusion into the church. I want you to think with me for a moment, all the way back in your mind, Acts chapter 8. Jesus, before his ascension in Acts chapter 8, said this, but ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and Judea. Okay, Jerusalem being the capital, Judea being the region, the southern region of Israel. both in Jerusalem and all Judea, then he says in Samaria, and then the third thing he says, the uttermost part of the earth. Peter was given the keys to the kingdom. He would open the doors of the kingdom in his preaching. He did so in Acts chapter 2, he did so in the visit to those who were listening to Philip preach in Samaria, and then he does so with Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. What was taking place? Little by little, the gospel was expanding beyond a uniquely Jewish church with a uniquely Jewish Messiah to include another group, Samaritans. They were the despised people. Why were they despised? They were not pure-blood Jews. But they did have something going for them. They, generally speaking, worshipped Jehovah. And they, generally speaking, followed the Torah, the Old Testament law. Okay, well, I guess we'll let them in too. They're kind of not on our same level, but we're going to let them in too. But when Peter went into the household of Cornelius, a pure Gentile, that was taking it much too far. And what scared them was not Jerusalem and Judea. And what scared them was not even necessarily Samaria. What scared them was the uttermost part of the earth, the Gentiles. In their minds, the church was now expanding too far, too fast, it was getting too big, and now Peter has the audacity to join in fellowship with the Gentiles. That was their attitude. Now they didn't say all of that. They just said, we heard you had lunch at Cornelius's house and you know that's not kosher, pardon the pun. They had a very narrow view of God's grace at this point in time. And their argument was not biblical, it was simply based upon tradition. So what am I saying? When an issue arises, determine the true nature of the issue. The true nature of the issue had very little to do with Peter eating lunch at Cornelius' house. It had everything to do with the fact that evangelism had been taken too far, even though Jesus said it will be to the uttermost parts of the earth. And by the way, we in this audience, we are benefactors of the fact that the gospel was preached not just to the Jews, but to the uttermost parts of the earth. So component number one, of overcoming controversies to determine the nature of the true issue. Component number two is to focus our response on the true issue. Now I love this, I love this. Because Peter has now been accused, a little personal slight, a little jab has been thrown at Peter. But, the word but being in juxtaposition to what they accused him of, verse number four, but Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order unto them, and then he went through and told the whole story. Do you know what I love about this? Peter did not get sidetracked by their personal slight. He already saw through it. He never even addressed the issue of eating with Cornelius. But rather than defend himself over that, he said, fellas, listen, boy, do I have a story to tell. And then as we read in our scripture reading a moment ago, he went point by point through what has happened. By the way, if you read Acts 10 and Acts 11, you'll see a repetition of this story over and over again. Why do you see that so much? This is something the Holy Spirit is emphasizing to the church. It was absolutely revolutionary. So beginning in verse number four, Peter just lays out the facts. He rehearses them. The word rehearse means to expound the facts, to tell all of the story. And he did. And you can bet that they were listening intently. But then, not only did he tell the story, he presented proof for his conclusion. And so if I'm going to deal with a controversy, I have to focus my response on the true issue. And I want you to drop down, if you will, to verse number 12, chapter 11, verse number 12. Peter, in telling the story, said this, and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, made me go with them, the men that Cornelius had sent, nothing doubting. Peter tells the story, and then he says this, there was a definite leading from the Lord. And by the way, I believe the text of Acts chapter 10 and Acts 11 indicate that the Holy Spirit's telling him was actually audible. Many commentators say that, that that was audible. And perhaps others could hear. You say, Pastor Monty, why would God do something so spectacular? because God was asking Peter to jettison a whole set of cultural beliefs. That was the request by the Lord. Peter laid out the facts and then he presented proof. He said, number one, the Holy Spirit led us. Number two, he said this, look at verse number 12. He said, the Spirit made me go with him, nothing doubting. Moreover, he said, the six brethren accompanied me. Not only did the Holy Spirit lead in this, but Peter said, I had witnesses to it all. They already agreed that they had entered into the house. Peter was very upfront about that matter because Peter knew that wasn't the real issue. But he said, I had six other brethren from the church, Jewish brethren who were with me, who would confirm the story and came to feel the same way that I felt about it. So he's presenting all of his proof. I love this. He presented the proof how that the experience was confirmed by the word of God. Drop down to verse number 16. Then remembered I the word of the Lord." After the Holy Spirit had fallen on them, just as happened at Pentecost, just as happened with the Samaritans. Look at verse 16. Peter said this, "'Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.'" What was he doing? He was proving his point from the Bible. He's speaking now to this group of people that are kind of examining him at the church, back at the church at Jerusalem. As his fellows, he said, here's what happened. He said, the Holy Spirit led us. He said, and I have six witnesses to what happened, all of them members of this church, all of them faithful Jews. And he said, on top of that, don't you remember that Jesus said that a mark of genuine conversion would be the fullness or the baptism of the Holy Spirit? and that that was confirmed in the New Testament age by the speaking in tongues which happened in these various scenes where Peter exercised the keys to the kingdom. In other words, he was quoting Scripture. Folks, let me explain something. The New Testament is the final rule of faith and practice in a rightly constituted church. I'm going to repeat that statement. The New Testament is the final rule of faith and practice in a rightly constituted church. You say, but what does that mean? We do what we do because we can confirm those things from the New Testament. Well, Pastor Monty, you're Baptist and you do what you do because you're Baptist. That's not true. The Bible makes me Baptist. Now listen carefully. I do not think that denominational name is somehow sacred or special, okay? But the distinctives that make a person a Baptist are distinctives that are New Testament distinctives. For example, a person is born again and then they are baptized following their conversion, okay? We don't practice infant baptism here. By the way, you wanna make $10,000? I'll give you a free offer right now, $10,000. Show me one clear-cut example anywhere in that New Testament where a baby is ever baptized, just one. You can't because there are none. You can't. Well, Pastor Monty, no. You gotta understand that baptism replaces Old Testament circumcision. Oh, you would be so wrong. And there's not one Orthodox Jew who would see it that way. Because to convert to Judaism, if you wanted to become a Jew, you would have to do three things. Intensive Old Testament studies, number one, you'd have to pass a test. Number two, if you're a male, you'd have to be circumcised. Well, Pastor, I already am. No, you're not. Not Jewish circumcision. There's a little more to it than that and we're not going to talk about that. And then number three, number three, you would have to be immersed, listen carefully, immersed in a mikvah. Pastor, what's a mikvah? We call it a baptism tank. John the Baptist, do you think that he just started preaching and said, okay, all y'all, if you believe what I'm saying and you're willing to repent, jump in the water, and they never heard of that? No. Every Jew listening to John the Baptist understood that that ritual immersion was a ritual or picture of cleansing from uncleanness in preparation. And in the case of John the Baptist, specifically in preparation for the coming kingdom of God, the Jews never equated circumcision with immersion in the mikveh. The Reformed theologian does it all the time, and they do it to the destruction of the Scripture as well as to the destruction of all religious history. Now I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on as to why I'm a Baptist, but I'm not gonna do that. But simply stated, I just love the Bible. And the Bible frames what I believe. And in a Baptist church, we've, by the way, folks, the good thing about it is this, this book doesn't change. Paschimani, all the churches are changing. They're adopting crazy things out of the culture. You know what? If this is your standard, if you truly believe this, you're not going to change. Methods change sometimes, of course they do, and we might change the color of the walls, though I like it and I'm fine with it, but you might change the carpeting, okay? But the scripture doesn't change. I'm simply using all of this by way of illustration. Peter, very wisely focused on the issue at hand, the real issue at hand. The experience they had was confirmed by the word of the Lord, verse 16, and then look at verse number 17, chapter 11, verse 17. The Bible says this was Peter's conclusion. He used good logic here. For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us. Now he's talking to this group of Jews, who's kind of poking at him a little bit. For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God? What an excellent argument from logic. Why couldn't anyone see this? Of course. Well, who am I to stand against God? Peter was careful. I love this about, this is so different from the Peter of the New Testament Gospels. Peter was different because he was careful and non-emotional in his response. His demonstrated a lot of maturity in not dealing with their personal attack on him. He just stuck to the truth. And Peter even admitted that he had felt like they were now feeling. Pastor Monty, when did he do that? When he explained that three times he said, not so Lord, for nothing common or unclean has entered my mouth. Peter was saying, hey guys, I know how you feel about this. Understand, but watch what happened. I love how Peter felt about this because he focused his response on the true issue. So we determine the nature of the true issue, the true nature of the issue, and then we focus our response on the true issue. Quickly, number three component of overcoming controversy, we do this. We embrace what God is doing. We embrace what God is doing. Peter's proven this, that this is something of God. Now we should embrace this. Now, I want you to look at verse number 18, because here shows the genuine faith and the genuine love for Christ of the Jewish members of the church who first contended with Peter. Verse 18, when they, the Judaism, the Jewish members of the church, when they heard these things, they held their peace. They quit arguing. It's really hard to argue against what Peter had to say anyway. When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, then God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. Don't you love that? They showed Peter due respect. They didn't argue back. They held their peace. There was no interruption while he spoke. There was no additional argument. There was no emotional outburst of any kind. That's always a good thing. Whenever you have a controversy with someone on any level, cooler heads should prevail. They gave the facts, these Christians did at the Jerusalem church, they gave the facts a respectful hearing and they stretched their thinking a little bit, the facts did. They were willing at some point hearing the truth to submit to the Bible or truth over tradition. They were willing to embrace the surprising work of God. Because it was really a big surprise. And rather than push it, well, slow down here, Peter. We're not going to have these Gentiles come into the church fellowship now, are we? So narrow. People think that way so narrow. Don't Peter would say, yeah, they're coming because they're on equal footing with us. He was willing, the church was, they were willing to embrace the surprising work of God. They were willing to grow beyond their preconceived notions, tradition, and their legalism. Now you say, Pastor Monty, good, boom. Problem solved. Not exactly, though we don't know exactly the date. As many as perhaps 10 years later, the same issue in general came up in Acts chapter 15 at the Church Council of Jerusalem. Not the matter of so much eating with Gentiles or Gentile inclusion. The issue, well, don't Gentiles need to be Jews and then become Christians? That issue, by the way, was settled with clarity in Acts chapter 15. So this was a returning issue But I love this because at this juncture, the fledgling church at Jerusalem said, we can't deny what God is doing. We need to embrace it. And ultimately, in verse number 18, the Bible says, then hath God, pardon me, and they glorified God. They glorified God. Do you know why they glorified God? For just a moment, at least this group of Jewish believers lifted their eyes above their own preconceived prejudices and narrowness, and they saw the big picture of what God is doing. They set aside their preferences for the salvation of others. They may never jump in with Gentiles and have a hog roast, like they might have at the church at Antioch. They'd never do that. That would never happen, okay? They didn't have to. But they came to recognize that these Gentile believers worshipped and were saved on the identical basis as they had been, and they were genuinely a part of the church. They saw the big picture. They set aside preferences for the salvation of others. They came to see evangelism as a really big deal. And maybe, just maybe, text doesn't say so, but maybe they remembered that Jesus said, the gospel will be preached in Jerusalem. in Judea, in Samaria, and then to the uttermost part of the earth. And Peter's wise handling of this brush fire in the early church, I think prevented not only division, but perhaps a split in the Jerusalem church. Do you know what's a good thing? when we just love this book enough to submit to its truth. When we love this book enough to be stretched by its teaching. I ain't never heard nothing like that before. Well, check your Bible. Do you know the Berean Christians were praised in the book of Acts because when the apostles preached, they opened their Old Testament, they said, we're gonna check out and make sure what they're saying is scriptural. Everything from the, by the way, did you know that's your responsibility? That's your responsibility. Pastor Monty, if you say it, I believe it, and I'm just gonna go home and eat lunch. No, no, that's a really bad way to be. But you take your Bible and say, huh, that was interesting. Let me see what the word of God has to say. Well, Pastor Monty, what if I have a question or disagreement? You know my phone number, you know where I live, you know my office, okay? I love talking about the Bible with people. I absolutely love it. It's the only thing I really know about, so come talk to me about it. I love it. And the truth of the matter is, we remain fully unified as a people of God when this book is our source. Well, Pastor, back where I was from in Backwater, Alabama, this is how they did it. Well, wonderful for them. But Backwater, Alabama, I'm just joking. Don't get offended if you're from Alabama, please. I'm just saying stuff. That's not our authority. Our authority is the book I hold in my hand. And folks, as long as it stays that way, that keeps our church right. And it keeps us preaching the gospel. What is the gospel? That Christ died for my sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Jew? Call on the name of the Lord, you're saved. Samaritan, call on the name of the Lord, you shall be saved. And Gentiles too, thank God Gentiles too. Call on the name of the Lord and thou shalt be saved. Father, thank you for two solid chapters. that give us a very interesting insight into a controversy that arose. And Father, how we are instructed by the example of Peter as to how to handle things when they come our way. Give us an open heart like the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. Father, a lot was changing in their thinking. A dispensation from law to grace had been ushered in at the moment of the crucifixion of Christ. And now they're just starting to figure it out. Thank you, Lord, that these received a truth. And I pray, Father, we would always hold to our New Testament as the final rule of faith and practice. Bless these thoughts, we pray in Jesus' name. Stand with me, please.