my class. We are in the book of Acts and we're looking at Acts 15 and verse 3 so turn to Acts 15 and verse 3 Acts chapter 15 verse 3 alright are we all there? Acts 15 verse 3 All right, let's pray. Father, we again are appreciative of being able to come to church this morning, the freedom to do so, the health to do so. Thank You, Lord, for Your Word. Thank You for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses all of our sins. Thank You for the Spirit of God that indwells us but dwells with us. Thank You so much for Your Word. Pray this morning, Lord, You'd speak to us, minister to us. All you've got to work with up here is this piece of dirt. Without you can do nothing, Lord. We know that. And pray, Father, that you would take this piece of dirt and fill it with your spirit and your power, your passion, your words, your wisdom. Give it grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Pray, Father, that you'd put a watch by its mouth and a guard by its lips. But, Lord, we pray you'd speak to us. Spirit of God, stand behind this pulpit, sit next to us, but please minister to us this morning. We'll thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Acts chapter 15, I have dust all over my suit coat. Did you notice the wonderful ceiling Johnny did in my office? Yes, it's gorgeous. He is open for bids. If you'd like it done, he'll give you a fair price. Anyway, Acts chapter 15, and we left off at verse 3 last week, I believe. We got into verse three. So being brought back. Now remember, here's the situation. This is, I mentioned before, this is probably one of the most important chapters in the New Testament because this is the chapter where they are challenged as far as salvation is concerned. You have the message being preached, especially to the Gentiles, let's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. There are no works involved. Salvation is by grace through faith, faith plus nothing, which is exactly true. And yet there were a group of people that came around, they were of Jewish, of the Jewish culture, Jewish religion, that had gotten converted, but were having such a hard time comprehending salvation by grace, like many Americans do. Many Americans, you know, you've got to do something to get to heaven. And the fact of the matter is there's nothing you can do to get to heaven other than believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and they were coming in and they were saying well we've got to do something let's add circumcision to that and let's add keeping the law to it while we're while we're at it so they brought about two of the biggest heresies that we have dealt with ever since dealing with it today number one is you have to do something to get saved that's a heresy and then you have to do something to keep saved that is also a heresy and so in Acts chapter 15 they are going to deal with this situation and Get closure on it, if you will. They're gonna come to a decision and say, this is it, we're done with this, this is the way it happens. Now here's the problem. These Judaizers, that's the term it's used, a Judaizer, if someone's trying to get you back into Judaism, They're gonna continue. They're gonna continue advocating what they believe. Paul is gonna deal with this issue again in the book of Galatians. And I think even Revelation on the churches talks about a similar situation. So, but again, this is a very important chapter because here's where they bring the final decision. Are you saved by grace through faith plus nothing? Or do we add something to it? So they're gonna make the official decision. And remember, this came up at the church at Antioch And they thought it'd be a good idea to go to Jerusalem. And they sent Paul and Barnabas down to Jerusalem. And we discussed some of the reasons why that might be. There are some that question the apostleship of Paul because he didn't spend three and a half years with Jesus. He was saved after and he saw Christ and Christ revealed himself to him after his resurrection. So there's some debate, there's some question. And so the people are thinking, let's just, let's go to the source of it. Because of the church of Jerusalem, there are still the apostles, there are elders there. Many of them had walked with Christ also. Undoubtedly. And let's send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem and let's have this meeting in Jerusalem and let's make the decision there that will make it more official, if you will. So Paul and Barnabas are on their way to Jerusalem. And we ran across some interesting things that they made on their trip is that we looked at numerous verses that talked about their journey down there, talked about being brought on their way by the local churches. And I'm mentioned last week that that We have people that pass through here. They're on their journey. They're on their way. We have missionaries that pass through here. We have evangelists that pass through here, on their way to one location or another. And what we want to do is we want to be a help, just like the churches were in the New Testament. We want to be a help to the missionaries and to the evangelists that are passing through. We've been a great help to Brother Ward. Giving him an open door that when he's in this area, he's free to park here and stay as long as he wants I've given that talk to Larry craft a couple weeks ago or three weeks ago and and Said look if you need a place to park, you know, you've got an open door here. We've got one two three There are three or four places where an RV can hook up and get water and they can dump here. And when you're on the road, if you've never lived a life, you really don't understand it. I've lived the life and I know this. Three of the most important things you need when you're on the road is electricity, and water, and a place to empty your tanks. And we have all that here. So I give open invitation. We may not have the perfectly most level spot to park on, but we have all the facilities that you need. And we want to be, the term I use is an oasis to anybody passing through. And in our journeying across the country for 17 years, we had places that I referred to as oases. One was right over here in Peoria, Maranatha Baptist Church. We would take our bus in there. And the only difficulty was, the way their parking lot was set up, that I had to take the bus and I had to angle it in between two sets of curbs here. I had to angle that thing in so the front end was not in the way of traffic going through. And so that was just a little bit of a driving test. But we always did it. We always got it. And they had a beautiful place to hook up. They had water, and they didn't have a dedicated sewer outlet, they just had a sewer. So we just popped that thing open and dumped in there. And it was a great place to stay. And from there, we could minister to other places. They didn't mind if we parked there and took our car and headed out to San Diego or who knows where for the weekend to minister and stuff like that. So it was an oasis. Rockford, Illinois was an oasis. Just a great place to be. Corpus Christi, Texas. just a good spot to be. The only issue we had in Corpus Christi was we had to park far away from the building because their parking lot got packed every morning, every Sunday morning, and so we kind of had to park. But we had a place. We had a place to stay, and it was a great place to stay. And these churches all take care of you. They do everything they can for you. They help you as much as they can. Not that we went in there begging. We didn't go in there begging. My position always was we want to be as least of a burden as possible on the churches. And one of the reasons we got an RV to start out with Well, it was a bus. One of the reasons we got a bus motor coach to start out with was I happened to see one time, we were traveling, doing vacation Bible school before we had that. We were using a van and a trailer and the church would have to put us up. And I saw the bill one time that a church paid for the hotel rooms that we used. They accidentally gave me the receipt to give to the pastor and I looked at it and I said, oh my goodness, this is what, because we had to have two rooms. You know, unless you want to do it illegally, you could only have five in a room and we had seven or eight or what have you. And so we had to have two rooms and we were there for a week. That was quite a bit of money. And a number of churches did that and so realized, you know, we could really help churches out by having a motor coach. And all we would need was their electricity and water. And that's not going to come even close to what they were spending in a hotel room. And hopefully that extra would then go into the love offering. Wouldn't that be great? But that's one of the main reasons we started out doing that. There were times driving down the road, I'm thinking, this is the dumbest way to live you can ever think of. And there were times driving down the road thinking this is the greatest life you could ever live. We would park over at Glendale, Brother Ware's, we'd park there probably for three weeks, and he had a great place to spot, to park between his garage and between the fence, there were bushes there, you didn't even see that we were back in there. and had water and electric, and I usually changed my oil there because I could pull the bus headway to the end of his parking lot, had a gravel parking lot, kind of like what we have, and I would change my oil there. If I spilled anything, it was just going in the gravel and, you know, things like that that I could do. So there are places along the highway that can be oasises, especially for missionaries and evangelists. And we want to do that. We want to be that. And we're not going to be a place for anybody that has an old RV that needs to park. We're not an RV park. We're not a parking lot. If you are a missionary or an evangelist and you're traveling from church to church and you need a place to stay, you are more than welcome to stay here with us. I don't know if I told you, but a couple weeks ago we got an email from somebody that said, well, you know, we just got kicked out of an RV lot and I'm 36 months pregnant, which is, you know, I'm there. We would like to use your parking lot to have a baby. No, we're not going to use our parking lot to have a baby. I'm sorry. Find an RV park to do that. what we're here for, but we are here to be a blessing to missionaries and evangelists and so on and so forth. So Paul encountered many of these people. Many of these churches along the way and it was a blessing to them. We want to be a blessing also to missionaries and evangelists as they pass through. Sometimes they have prophets chambers, motel rooms that you can say some churches actually have a part of their building set up like a little mini apartment and people can stay there. And again, the idea is to be a blessing and a help to those that are traveling along. all right so picking up again on fifteen chapter fifteen verse three i believe it's for streets as they pass through phoenician samaria And they're declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. And so this is not a let's get there as fast as we can kind of trip. It's an enjoyable kind of trip. They're fellowshipping with the other churches that are taking care of them. And as they are encountering with other Christians, they're telling them, hey, the Gentiles are getting saved. The Gentiles are getting in on this. Notice he says Phoenicia and Samaria. So Samaria is basically half and half. And yet they're rejoicing in the fact that Gentiles are getting saved. In Acts chapter 11, if you want to go back there, Phoenices mentioned Acts chapter 11. In verse 19, and this is the early days of the church. And it talks about now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that rose about Stephen, that would be Acts chapter eight talks about that also. But here they are, they're scattered abroad. And some of them, you know, when Paul started doing what he was doing to Christians, some stayed in Jerusalem, the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. And I assume they figured they were protected by the Lord, is about the only thing I can think of. And some of the other early converts stayed in Jerusalem. Some of them said, we gotta get out of here. And which is what the Lord wanted them to do to begin with anyway. They were supposed to be in Jerusalem, not for the rest of their lives. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. They were supposed to be going out. They were congregating in Jerusalem. And so the Lord had to create a little spark to get them moving. And Paul or Saul seemed to be that spark. So many of them are scattered abroad. And Acts 8 tells us that those were scattered abroad whenever we're preaching the word. And so here's again a reference to those same people in Acts 11 verse 19. Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only so up to that point they had just been preaching to the Jews they thought this is just something for the Jews now here comes Paul and Barnabas heading back say hey guess what guys the Gentiles are getting saved this is incredible Gentiles are getting saved in Antioch and and all over the place in fact Gentiles are getting saved in your own city and so they're rejoicing in that fact so they continue to declare the good news that the Gentiles were being converted and it says they caused great joy and all the brethren it was exciting for the Jewish believers to know that the Gentiles were getting in on this too and I don't know I don't I I don't know why, other than because of salvation, because of a change of heart that takes place when you're converted, why the Jews would be excited about the Gentiles, because the Jews considered the Gentiles low lives, scum sucking pigs, whatever you want to call them. Goyim is the Hebrew word, they just didn't have a real affinity to Gentiles, but now that they're Christians, and they have a fellowship with Jesus Christ, and they have a fellowship with anybody that trusts Christ, so they're rejoicing that the Gentiles are in on this, and so they're slowly getting away from their Judaism, and the Gentiles are getting in on a relationship with Jesus Christ out of paganism and idolatry and things like that, forming this thing called the body. And it brings joy. And I don't know if you realize this or not, but salvation is one of the joyous things that can happen. Go to Luke chapter 15. A lot of people rejoice when somebody gets saved. Luke chapter 15, one of them is God. God rejoices when people get saved. Luke chapter 15. Luke 15, look at verse 7. And Luke chapter 15 is the lost chapter, the lost coin. Yeah, the lost sheep, the lost coin. No, sheep's the last one. What's the first one? No, no, that's right. Lost sheep, lost coin, lost son. Okay, it's a lost chapter. Luke 15, seven, in that context of regating whatever was lost, he said, I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than 99 just persons which need no repentance. So when somebody gets saved, saved there is rejoicing going on in heaven and God is right in the middle of that thing. God is so thrilled when somebody trusts Christ as their Savior. And no matter who it is, no matter who it is, He rejoices that he has, it's the same joy, I guess, when a parent has another child. The joy of, because this is another child being brought into God's family in a spiritual sense. And so there's great joy in heaven when a sinner gets saved. Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter two. I'll tell you else who gets excited, and that's the preacher. The preachers are the ones that get excited. The missionaries are the ones that get excited, or the evangelists, whoever's proclaiming the word, or the soul winner. It's excited and rejoicing when somebody trusts Christ as their Savior. 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul is talking to the church at Thessaloniki. He's led a lot of them to Christ on one of his mission trips. And going back and writing to them, 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 19, he says, for what is our hope? or joy, or crown of rejoicing. Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and our joy. In other words, Paul says when the rapture takes place, one of the greatest joys we'll have is be able to see all these folks have been converted in the presence of Jesus Christ, knowing that you were the one that kind of led them to Christ. Now we know there's a process, there's a planting of the seed, there's a watering of the seed and what have you. But you had a part in that. And so there's that rejoicing that the soul winner has, the evangelist, the missionary, whatever. There's that joy. And so for some, there'll be great joy in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ when he returns for his church. There'll be great joy because you'll know that you had a hand and a lot of people coming to Christ. And there'll be joy that What would be the term? Unexpressed? No, that's not the term. Unknown joy. Because how many times have we passed a track out and you have no idea what just happened? We passed a lot of tracks out Friday night at the fair and who knows? Who knows what they did? Who knows what's going on? But when you get up there, we'll find out. We'll find out. And I guarantee you, there'll be people in heaven that'll come up to you and they're gonna be so excited to see you and so excited to shake your hand. And you're gonna look at them like, who in the world are you? And they're gonna remind you, you were the guy that handed me a guy. I was going to the fair the other night in Phoenix, Arizona. And you gave me a guy, you were standing with those other people and you gave me a gospel track. And I stuck it in my pocket. I went and had a good time at the fair, ate a lot, rode the rides, all that stuff, got home. When I changed my clothes, I took that thing out of my pocket. And I was curious what it had to say. And I only read comic books anyway, so this was perfect. And I opened it up and I began to read it. And something began to happen in my heart. And by the time I got to that end of the track, I was on my knees trusting Christ as my Savior. And you don't know that, and I don't know that. But I guarantee you, when you get to heaven, you're gonna find stuff like that out. If you're active in evangelism, at some point, you're reaching people that you don't even know about. And I've told you the story in the past about Frank Jenner, the guy that was in Australia, who spent the last, I don't know how many years of his life, 10, 15, 20 years of his life passing tracks. His thing was, I'm going to pass 10 tracks a day. And he did it on one of the most populous streets in Australia. It was George Street. And he would pass a track out and simply say, you know where you're going to go when you die? Have you thought about where you're going to go when you die? And it would offend some people and what have you. But every day, just 10 tracks a day. A little old gray-haired man standing there passing tracks out. And nobody knew. Nobody knew what was going on until some preacher from England started making his rounds in Australia. He was part of some preacher's thing in England. Started making his rounds in Australia. and heard about this guy and heard about somebody getting saved from his ministry and so he talked about that when he went from church to church and every church he went to two or three would come up to him and say you know what I got saved because of that guy and you're talking about he would be ministering at preacher's conferences and two or three missionaries would come up and say that little old man gave me a track and asked me that question and I got saved and now I'm ministering here and I'm a missionary over here. And thousands and thousands and thousands of people, even to this day, still to this day, coming to know Christ. Because Frank Jenner stood on George Street and passed out 10 tracks a day and said, you ever think about where you're going to go when you die? That preacher found Frank Jenner. There's another preacher that knew where he lived. They found him. They went over to visit him. And by then he was too old to do anything, and he had the shakes and all that stuff, which is coming to all of us, folks. But they sat down and talked to him. He had no idea. He had no idea what was being accomplished by his 10 tracks a day. No idea. He sat there in tears when he heard the testimonies of all that was going on. And you and I have no idea. We have no idea what God is doing with what we're passing out, what we're preaching. All we know is this, the Word of God never goes out void. It accomplishes what God wants accomplished, and He'll do something with it. All we need to do is be faithful and do it. But part of getting to heaven is gonna have people coming up to you. I'd like to quote that song that Ray Bolts wrote called Thank You, which is about, I don't like to quote him because he's an LBGTQ. But there's a song, Thank You, and it's just about a guy getting to heaven. And as you're walking around on the street of gold, people are coming up saying thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And it's like, what are you talking about? And one part of the song says, you know, you were my Sunday school teacher, and I sat there in class, and one day you prayed that prayer, and I followed along with you, and I trusted Christ as my Savior, and here I am in heaven because of you, because of your ministry. The only regret we'll have in heaven is why didn't I do more? Why didn't I pass out more? Why didn't I speak more? Anyway, great joy in heaven for the preacher. Also for the church, in verse 3 of the text that we're looking at in Acts, he says, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And go to Acts chapter 8. Great joy in the city in Acts chapter 8, which I believe is Sumerian. Great joy in the city. What a day. What a day. You go back in the late 1800s, Walter was just a child at that time, but you go back to the late 1800s and you had revivals happening across the world, England, the United States, and such revivals, and this is why I kind of laugh when I hear about revivals going on today, compared to what a real revival was back in the 1800s, Because in those days, the bars closed down, the houses of ill repute closed down, and people were gathered together in church. And testimonies are that at night you could walk down the street and you'd hear somebody singing a hymn in this family and somebody teaching a Bible study, and the whole city got that way. So, if that's the kind of revival that's going on somewhere today, that's the real deal. But think about it. A whole city. A whole city. Look at Acts chapter 8 and verse 8. It says, and there was great joy in that city. In that city. This wasn't limited just to the church. This was something that was affecting the whole city. And man, you can have great joy in a city if people come to know Christ as their Savior. And go to Acts chapter 8. You're there. Look at verse 39. Obviously to the individual. to the individual. I think the greatest joy I ever experienced is the day I trusted Christ as my Savior because I was in the position of or the mindset of contemplating how I could commit suicide. I was that bad. I was that depressed. I was that discouraged. And being a coward, it's kind of hard to figure out how am I going to kill myself? Because I want to do it the most painless way you can find, right? And it was at that time, the words of the man that had been witnessing to me at the bowling alley and all that stuff hit me at one time. And I realized my only hope was to trust Christ as my Savior. That was the only way out, and I trusted Christ as my Savior. And I went from here to there. Great joy, great joy. Acts chapter eight, verse 39. This is the Ethiopian eunuch. And when he came out of the water, remember, I'm sorry, Philip had gotten into the chariot with him, and they were discussing Isaiah 53, and so Philip's preaching the gospel to him, and he's getting it, and they, as they're getting near some water, he said, hey, what does hinder me from being baptized? I'm in on this, man, let me get baptized, and Philip said, well, you need to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, believe with all your heart. He said, I do, and so down in the water they went, and he baptized them, and it says in verse 39, and when he was come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. We're not talking about Philip. We're talking about the Ethiopian eunuch. Went on his way rejoicing. And what do you think he did when he got home? And so there's a history of a very strong church throughout the ages. It wanes, but there's a history of a strong church in Ethiopia, and it kind of goes back to this guy right here. He is rejoicing, and when He's rejoicing, He's telling people what He's so happy about. His sins are forgiven. He's got a home in heaven. He's got a relationship with the God of the universe. What more could you want? All right, Acts chapter 15. So they're on their way, and they're having a great time as they go down the road. They didn't have to stop at Flying J or Petra or anything like that. On their way. Acts chapter 15, look at verse 4. when they were coming to Jerusalem they were received of the church and of the Apostles and elders and they declared all things that God had done with them so now they've made it to the church at Jerusalem now we've got it's interesting there's a expansion we can see of the church go to go back to Acts chapter 2 this thing is expanding it starts in Jerusalem obviously It started when Peter and John went to the temple to pray, and the guy got healed, and walking, leaping, praising the Lord in the temple, and they began to have a service there right under Solomon's porch, which we've talked about that before, a colonnaded porch area where they could assemble, and great crowds assembled there. Acts chapter two, verse 42, and they continued steadfast in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and breaking of bread and prayers, and fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and departed them unto all men, as every man had need, and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple. See, they're still in the temple. They don't have a church building yet. They don't have a place designated to worship. They're in the temple. Breaking bread from house to house, and so there's stuff going on from house to house. did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. So here you have the church at Jerusalem starting in the temple. They're also having ministries from house to house, because you only get so many people in houses, so you got a house going on here, a house going there, a house there, which is why I believe Peter said that his ministry was, you know, House-to-house because they would go here to this house and they would preach it would go to this house and preach That's what's going on. So you get to Acts chapter 5 Acts chapter 5 and verse 11 says and great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things which was what an and I and Sapphira lost their lives for lying about the money that they were donating and so the church is Growing things are happening. You go to Acts chapter 8 and verse 1 Acts chapter 8 and verse 1 It says, and Saul was consenting unto his death, that was Stephen, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which is at Jerusalem. So now this church at Jerusalem is being persecuted, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles, and so the church is fleeing out of Jerusalem now except the apostles, and again, there were some others there. Go to chapter 11. Chapter 11, verse 22. Acts chapter 11, verse 22. It says, then tidings of these things came into the ears of the church, which is at Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. So word gets back that the Gentiles, Cornelius, had gotten saved, and so they are sending Barnabas now, and they're going as far as Antioch. So suddenly Antioch is showing up on the scene as a location where things are happening. And we're gonna see that the church at Jerusalem, it'll stay there. But God says, I'm making my headquarters now at Antioch. And if you go to Acts chapter 12, Acts chapter 13, go to Acts chapter 13. And if you look at verse one, says now there were in the church which was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers Barnabas Simeon it was called Niger Lucius of Cyrene Manan which had been brought up with Herod the tea truck and Saul so the big names are going to Antioch and the heavy hitters I guess you could say are going to Antioch And so God will make Antioch the headquarters. The church still exists in Jerusalem, but God is working now out of Antioch. And then from there, Acts chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas are sent out on a missionary journey. Acts chapter 14, verse 23, it says, and when they had ordained them elders in every church. So when Paul goes out, they're starting churches. Paul and Barnabas are on the mission field, starting churches. They're ordaining preachers to preach in the church. It said, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. And so Jerusalem, Antioch, from Antioch, churches are starting all over. And here we are today with churches still starting all over the place. I think about my son-in-law in Africa and the church that's going on there and the work that's being done there, churches in our community. God is into churches. God is in the churches. God loves the local church. And I've told you before, the greatest asset you have as a Christian is your local church. because he adds to that church the pieces, he adds the parts, the machine, and in time, it becomes a great, powerful tool that he can use and a very enjoyable place to be a part of. If the people are walking in the spirit and if the word of God is being preached and people are listening and submitting to it and all, a wonderful, wonderful way to live as part of the church. It is a culture down South more than it is out here or up North. Because at one time the South was the Bible Belt. And I mean you talk about North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee. It was the Bible Belt. It's not the Bible Belt anymore. If the South is the Bible Belt, our pants are falling down. I just, very simplicity of it. But because it was the Bible Belt, the church is a for the believers, the church is a number one important thing in their lives. They schedule around the church. They schedule around church activities. That, to them, how important the church is. And that's a result of God doing great things at one time, and God working through the churches, and people getting saved in the churches, and the joy that's in the churches, and the singing that's in the churches, and all that. They made that number one. They made that number one. And that's my goal for you, is that at some point in your life, unless you're not there right now, at some point in your life, you will realize that the church should be the most important thing in your life. For many of you, it's your job. For many of you, it's your business. Maturity as a believer get you to the place where you realize you know what the church is the most important event in my life It's the most important thing in my life and your friendships are in here and your ministry is to the body. I mean, you minister outside, but there's a ministry, and you realize that the church, your local church, your local church, is the most important thing in your life. And when you get to that point, you've gotten where God wants you to be. And, you know, it should be, it should be somewhat difficult. If God calls you to a mission field, there should be, it should be somewhat, difficult's not the right word, There should be a heart thing going on if God calls you to the mission field and you have to leave your local church. There ought to be something that strains the heart thing, I have to leave my local church. That's the relationship you ought to have with your local church. And that's what our goal is here, that's what our desire, my desire is for all of you here to have a strong local church. And I'm not here to try to make a name for myself because I want to go to some other church that's bigger and stay there for a few years and make another name for myself. And that's not why I'm here. I'm here because God says, here's where you are. And you know what? I don't care what the other churches are doing. Some of these preachers are so concerned. What's going on in that church? What's going on in that church? And how many are they running? Are they growing? I'm not growing. What are we going to do? I don't care really what's going on in the other churches. You are my concern. You're my concern. And my ministry is to you. So that's where my heart is in all of that. Anyway, Acts chapter 15. Now let's look at verse 5. Here's where it starts to get hot and heavy. Acts chapter 15 verse five, Paul and Barnabas have arrived at Jerusalem, they've told what's going on, they've had a conference. Verse five, there arose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And so here's the contention. Paul and Barnabas show up, they begin to speak, they talk about what's going on, and immediately these guys pop up and they're from wherever they are and say, wait a minute, we don't believe that. And notice it's certain of the sect of the Pharisees. A sect are those following a particular leader or authority or attached to a certain opinion, a company or a set of common belief or allegiance distinct from others, and religion, the believers of a particular creed or of holders of a particular practice. That's what these guys are. This is the Judaism coming through. Especially in modern times a party descending from an established church a denomination and philosophy the disciples of a particular master a school in society in the state and order rank class or party so For this definition here, again, it's the idea that the believers in a particular creed are holders of a particular practice. People coming out of Judaism that are having such a hard time comprehending this idea of saved by the grace of God through faith alone and are struggling with that. Which would tell me, and there's such a debate, you know, how did people get saved in the Old Testament? How did people get saved under the law? It's a major debate and to me I'm looking at this thing here and thinking the Jews certainly did not believe in salvation by grace through faith or they wouldn't be causing the problem they're causing. Obviously they believed that you had to be circumcised which they did on the eighth day and they had to keep the law. So that tells me right there that that's what they were believing. So how were the Jews saved in the Old Testament? Not by grace through faith. Not by salvation, by grace through faith. And we've gone through this thing before. The fundamentalists are so good at coming up with these little cliches. Well, in the Old Testament, they look forward to the cross. New Testament, we look back on the cross. And that's the biggest bunch of nonsense you'll ever hear. They absolutely were not looking toward the cross. And we've gone through that before. I'm not going to rehash it. But it's simply it seems to show here that these people believed you had to do something that circumcised and keep the law. And if you're going to get to heaven, that's what you've got to do. You've got to walk the walk and talk the talk. And, you know, Johnny Cash, you know, I told the line and all that stuff. Of course, he wasn't talking about salvation. But anyway, this is all going to be clarified as Paul, Peter, Barnabas, James all chip in to give their opinion and come to a conclusion which we will discuss next week. All right? Any questions or any comments? All right, let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll get back together in about 10 minutes. Father, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you, Lord, for the joy of salvation. Thank you for the local church. Thank you, Father, for churches that can help those on their journey. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to be a church like that that can be very pleasing to you. Lord, we pray you'd bless our service this morning. Thank you again for being such a wonderful savior in Christ's name. Amen. You are dismissed. We'll get back in about 10 minutes.