We're in Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15. We've got some people out this morning because, as usual, something is going around. And as my grandma used to say, if you keep shooting rockets into outer space, people are gonna be getting sick. How did she know? Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15. We all there? All right, let's pray. Father, we come to this morning, and again, we are grateful to be in church this morning. We're thankful that we can gather together freely, that we can speak and teach and preach your Word of God freely. Lord, thank you for what you have bestowed upon this country. Thank you for your blessing. Pray this morning, Father, as your children, we sit before your feet and we Desire, Spirit of God, that you would minister to us. And Lord, all you've got to work with up here is a piece of dirt. Pray that you'd fill it with your spirit, your power, your passion, your words, your wisdom. Put a watch by its mouth and a guard by its lips. Give it grace according to the measure of the grace of Christ. And we pray, Lord, that you would speak to us this morning. Your word is our sustenance. Your word is our food. Your word is our drink. Pray, Lord, that you would minister to us this morning in a very special way. Well, thank you in Christ's name. Amen. We have been in Acts chapter 15, and Acts chapter 15 is the... is another pivotal chapter in the book of Acts. We talk about how Acts chapter 2 is pivotal, Acts chapter 7 is pivotal, Acts chapter 9 and 10. Acts chapter 15 is a chapter, and again this is review, where a decision had been made because there had come up a question among many as far as the Gentiles being converted and the receiving of the gospel and how to go to heaven. And it was being preached by the apostles that salvation is by grace through faith plus nothing. You trust Christ as your savior and God saves sinners and takes them to heaven and that was the extent of it. You couldn't do anything, there's nothing required of you to do anything to get to heaven. And then there was a group of people called Judaizers. They had a Jewish background, Hansen and Judaizer, who thought there's got to be more to it than that. I mean, we've got to do something. And so they said, well, maybe circumcision is what's necessary. So they came up with the idea that, you know, you have to be circumcised. To be saved and then to stay saved, you have to keep the law. That's what this whole conference is about. It's about what is the truth? What is the way? It had caused a stir. It had caused a stir at the great church up at Antioch. And so they sent Paul and Barnabas down to Jerusalem, another great church. where the apostles were and they had a conference or they had a council, whatever you want to call it, and they got together and began to debate and began to argue over it and try to figure it out. And finally, Peter would be the first one to rise and speak. And Peter used the conversion of Cornelius as the model. And we went through that. Peter had went and preached to Cornelius under God's leadership. And before Cornelius could do anything but believe, he was converted. He received the Holy Spirit and there was evidence that he received the Holy Spirit. Which led Peter to the conclusion that God is trying to show us that the Gentiles were gonna be converted simply by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that the Jews also during this particular church age that we're in would be saved by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. So Peter used Cornelius as the model. Then Paul and Barnabas get up, and they talk about how, well, they had gone preaching, they'd just come back from their first missionary trip, and they were preaching the same message, and they said God verified it with signs and wonders. And remember, to the Jewish people, the Bible says the Jews require a sign. And Paul and Barnabas said, God gave us sign after sign after sign, miraculous things were taking place, and the Gentiles were being converted like Cornelius was. And now James is gonna get up. And James, we talked about this last week, James got up and he gave his presentation and he added to it some prophecy verifying the fact that God had never given up on the Gentiles. There was always a place for the Gentiles in his plan. And now in the church age, after the resurrection of Christ and his ascension, now the Gentiles will have a prominent role with the Jew in this thing called the church. And we talked about the church a little bit. The church is made up of Jews that are converted, Gentiles are converted, and in fact that once you become a, once you get saved, you're no longer a Jew or a Gentile, you're church. And a very unique thing, very new thing, to which the Apostle Paul would be given most of the doctrinal aspects of the issues concerning the church. And then in Acts chapter 15, verse 19, starting at verse 19, James is going to give his sentence, okay? Verse 19, he says, wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God, but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollution of idols, from fornication, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day. So James is going to offer a sentence. A sentence is, in one of Webster's definitions, an opinion, a judgment concerning a controversial point. So James is going to give a judgment concerning this controversial or controverted point. Another definition, it says, in language not technical, not judicial, a determination to decision given, particularly a decision that condemns or an unfavorable determination. So James' sentence will be very unfavorable to the Judaizers because they're losing the debate. And so he's giving this sentence. And I want you to notice that James' sentence is an opinion, not a command. Okay, verse 29, if you drop down to verse 29, He said that you abstain from meats offered to idols, from blood, things strangled, from fornication, from which if you keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Not that you'll be saved, but ye shall do well, fare ye well. And so keeping the following four things will protect their testimony. Remember what James said. James said there are those that are in Moses, that hear Moses' law every week, there are synagogues all over the world, And the word to the Gentiles was understand that. Understand that you have freedom in Christ to do basically, I'm not gonna say do basically anything you want to do, but you're not under the law. You're not under the law. And you are saved by the grace of God and you can eat bacon and catfish and spare ribs all you want, help yourself. That's why I'm glad I'm a Gentile. But he said, remember this. The Jews, and there are Jews, there's a synagogue almost in every city where you Gentiles are from. Remember this, they're watching you. They're watching you. And eating bacon and catfish and ribs and stuff like that may be an enjoyment to you, but it's an offense to them. So be careful, be careful. If there are Jewish people around, don't do that kind of stuff because you're trying to win them to Jesus Christ. You're trying to at least have an open door to present the gospel to them and show them that Jesus is the Messiah and this is how you get to heaven. So he said, don't do, and these four things specifically that he laid out, don't do these things that are so offensive to the Jewish people. You're just going to shut them off, you're gonna turn them off, be careful, and if you'll be careful in these four things, you shall do well. You'll have a great opportunity to minister to the Jewish people. Boy, that's some great advice. That's some great advice. Because everywhere we go as Christians, There are people around us that are not believers, that we can do things, I'm not saying we can sin, I'm just saying that we have freedom in Christ, and we behave a particular way. We need to be sensitive of the people around us as far as what they believe. We're trying to win these people to Christ. You may work with somebody that is a Muslim, you may work with somebody that is, Mormon, Jehovah Witness, and what have you, you need to be sensitive to that. Not to do things that will purposely drive them away. Somebody said one time, you can throw the grain so hard at the chickens it drives them away. And there's some truth to that. We need to learn to be a little more tactful in how we deal with people and how to reach people for Jesus Christ. Trying to think here. Well, let me just leave it at that. So anyway, he gives four things here to the Gentiles. They're going to be writing a letter. And this letter will be sent out, copied, recopied, what have you, and sent to the various churches that have been started all around Asia Minor, where Paul and Barnabas were, and other places, to the Gentile churches, to the Gentile leaders of those churches, the pastors, and have them read this letter to them. They're gonna rejoice when they hear the reading of it. But then they're going to be reminded that watch out how you act around the Jewish people. So he lists four things. One is abstain from pollution of idols. So turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Abstain from pollutions of idols. Don't mess around with idols. Stay away from idolatry. Stay away from all that nonsense. And many of the Gentiles came out of an idolatrous religious system. And of course the second commandment is, thou shalt not make into thee any graven image of the likeness and anything in heaven above on earth or underneath the earth, or that's in the sea. There should be no likeness of, try to make any likeness of anything. And we have no idea what God looks like. It would be very difficult to make an image of him. And the only image acceptable in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. He's the image. He was a living physical image of the invisible God. Other than that, Statues and things like that are forbidden. So he says abstain from pollution of idols the Gentiles came out of an idolatrous form of religion and First Corinthians 10 and verse 14. He says this wherefore my dearly beloved flee from idolatry Don't go back to that stuff. Don't mess with that stuff and for the Gentile Idolatry had been ingrained in them ever since they were little. Talk about the Jews having the law ingrained in them. The Gentiles, many in Greece and Rome and these pagan areas, had idolatry ingrained within them. It was so much a part of their life. And Paul says you need to get away from that stuff. Flee from idolatry. 1 John 5, 21 says, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourselves from idols. So that's one thing. What's a Jew gonna think if he sees the Christians going into a temple where there's an idol or messing around with things of idolatry or still practicing some idolatrous practices? What's the Jew gonna think? The Jew's gonna think that's not a true religion. A true religion doesn't worship idols, doesn't embolden themselves with idols. So he says, stay away from idolatry, abstain from pollutions of idols. The second thing ought to be obvious, he says, abstain from fornication. So go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. It ought to be obvious to flee fornication. That ought to be obvious. And even in the oldest of the old time, people who didn't even, before the law, before the law said anything about that, there was within the conscience of man the idea to flee fornication. You remember when Abraham went down into Egypt or in that area, and he was afraid they were gonna kill him because his wife was beautiful. So he said, you know, he thought, they're gonna kill me because they want my wife, so just we'll tell them you're my sister, okay? And on one occasion, Potiphar, I believe it was Potiphar, took Sarah, his sister, and intended to marry her, and God spoke to him in a dream and said, don't you dare touch that woman, that's another man's wife. And Potiphar got very upset with Abraham and said, why didn't you tell me she was your wife? I don't wanna do this if she's your wife. So here's a heathen Potiphar, and again, there's no law had been given up to this point, yet he knew that doing that would be wrong. So this is one of those things of the conscience where you know, you know, you don't mess with another man's wife and you don't mess around before you're married and all. Well, people used to know that, I guess to say. People used to know that kind of stuff. Nowadays, I don't, I'm not sure what they know. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18, Paul specifically says, flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. He that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. He said, flee fornication. Stay away from it. 1 Thessalonians 4. And this is a verse, if you're interested, if you want to know what the will of God is for your life, well, I want to know what's the will of God for my life. Well, 4 and verse 3, for this is the will of God. Even your sanctification that you abstain from fornication. I mean, you're talking about basics. There's a basic aspect of the will of God. Sanctify yourself, set yourself apart for the Lord, and stay away from fornication. Revelation chapter 2 verse 14, you don't have to turn there, but he's addressing one of the seven churches, and I think this is Smyrna, and he says, for I have a few things against thee, because thou hast them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balaam to cast the stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. And so this church right here did not heed what was written by James and those in Acts chapter 15, and they did involved themselves with self-sacrifice to idols, and they were committing fornication. And the Lord says, I got that against you. I'm holding that against you. Thirdly, and this is kind of a weird statement, but he said, abstain from eating strangled animals. So what is that all about? Well, if you've ever done any hunting, You know that if you take a deer, you take a buck, or whatever it is you're hunting for, that when you field dress it, you've got to get the blood out of it. And a lot of times you just hang it somewhere. Hang it from a tree, hang it from, and just let the blood drain out. Butchers, when they are butchering cattle. And they do it various ways. Many times they'll electrocute the thing to kill it and sometimes they shoot it in the head or what have you. But then they'll string it up and cut it open and let all that blood drain out on the floor and then they wash that blood in the drainage system and all that. But you have to get the blood out of there. Eating meat with blood is not a good thing. And if you just strangle an animal to kill it, and you don't drain the blood out, you have a problem. One statement is that strangled meat has not been properly drained of its blood. God forbids eating of blood. When a person slaughters an animal, they are to drain the blood. If an animal dies of itself, it is not to be eaten. Deuteronomy 14, 21 states, you shall not eat anything which dies of itself. I remember talking to, oh, I forget his name. He was a missionary. Harris is the last name. I forget what his first name is. He was a missionary in Papua New Guinea for years. He's traveling around the country. Last I saw him traveling around the country. And he told me a story one time. He said they were gonna have a big, in Hawaii they'd call it a luau, that they had got a boar, a wild boar, and they're cooking it. And he said, well, how did you, Cliff here, Cliff Taylor, Cliff Taylor, that's the guy. How did, he said, how did you prepare that? Oh, we just killed it and put it in there. He said, did you drain the blood? Oh no, we didn't drain the blood. Well, you have to drain the blood. He got in a big uproar with the Papua New Guineans, you know, about you can't eat that, you didn't drain the blood. And so he's trying to teach them that this is not the way that you eat meat. And so. You don't eat something strangled or that died of itself because it's got the blood in it. Thirdly, and the direct statement, abstain from eating blood. Go to Genesis chapter 9 and Leviticus chapter 7. Genesis 9, Leviticus chapter 7. I've told you before about, especially this time of year, duck hunting season in Ohio. And I mean, duck hunting was big in the Toledo area because you've got Lake Erie, the western tip of Lake Erie there, which you've got marshes and stuff like that around the lake. And guys would just go nuts about hunting ducks. They had their boats that they turned into duck blinds. I mean, they had these... cool camouflage boats and they had netting like in the military you know when you're camouflage netting over them and they would you know be sitting out there and they'd have their duck calls and their call of these ducks eventually they would come and as the flock flew over all the shotguns raised up a boom boom boom boom boom boom boom and they had dogs the dogs had enough sense to jump out of the boat and swim over and get the duck and bring it back it was really a really it was an art I guess you could say but one of the things that came from that And this was, I think, more Polish than anything else, but they would take the blood and they would cook the blood and drink it. And duck blood soup, my dad would get. We would go to a restaurant in the Polish area of Toledo on Friday nights. He would order duck blood soup, and they put a few noodles in it to make it look acceptable, but he would sit there and eat that, and, you know, he enjoyed it. And my mom and I would look at each other and think, no, there's no way we're going to eat anything like that. But the idea is we're not supposed to be drinking blood. We're not supposed to be eating blood. Genesis 9, all the way back to Genesis chapter 9, starting at verse 3, it says, every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb that I have given you all things. So after the flood, God said you can eat meat. Now if you're a vegan, bless your heart. I wish more people were vegans because then there would be a glut of meat and price would go down and we'd be able to eat a lot of it. Then he says in verse four, but the flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, you shall not eat. So you drain the blood out of the meat before you eat it. Leviticus chapter seven, verse 26, moreover, you shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be fowl or beast, in any of your dwellings. Now, here's something to think of from popular science. They say this, humans carry a gene that prevents absorption of the mineral barios, says humans cannot, I'm sorry, absorption of the mineral. Barios says humans cannot properly digest blood and its rich iron content along with all the nutrients you get from our usual diet. We can't handle it. So if you drink a lot of blood, you're gonna kill yourself. So abstain from blood. Again, none of these were intended, and this is where I have to be careful, none of these were intended for dietary reasons. So while I'm on a strict diet, I stay away from meat that has blood in it and this and that, what have you. The statement made by James In the letter to the churches, the statement he made was, stay away from these four things, and it has nothing to do with, it's not a new diet, it's not James's new diet, okay? He's saying this in light of verse 21, where he said, So again, it's not to offend the Jews, either believers or unbelievers. However, there's good dietary wisdom here. I mean, I'm not saying it's not, you don't find good dietary wisdom. Don't drink blood, don't eat meat that hasn't been properly prepared or what have you, but the purpose of these four things was in light of the fact you don't want to offend the Jewish people. The unbelievers obviously, and even believing Jews, you don't want to offend them either. Remember, they're coming out of a life where they have heard this all their lives from as soon as they began to learn, they began to hear this stuff. It's gonna be difficult for them to suddenly cut that off and say, okay, we're gonna do it this way. I mean, they have a habit of that. Generation after generation after generation. So they're slowly gonna have to be weaned away from that. And we don't wanna be the ones that offend them to the point where they won't want anything to do with us, okay? Now let's go to Acts chapter 15 and look at verse 22. So James is given the sentence and in verse 22 it says, 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, chief men among the brethren, and they wrote letters by them after this manner. Here's what it was in the letter. The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. And that's where Paul and Barnabas had made their missionary trip, Syria and Cilician, that area. For as much as ye have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words. subverting your souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we gave no such commandment. It seemed good on us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth, For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, which you abstained from meats offered unto idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which, if you keep yourselves, ye shall do well, fare ye well. So when they 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. And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them. And after they had tarried there a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren under the apostles. Notwithstanding, it pleased Silas to abide there still. Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also. So there was great joy, there was pleasure in biblically resolving an issue and then sending the good news to the brethren. And it's always a joy when two different groups can sit down together, open a Bible up, look at some verses, and one side says, you know what, you're right. You're right. And I don't know how many of the Judaizers would have made that statement, how many of the Judaizers were convinced, I know this among people, that whether you see yourself as right or wrong, you're not gonna change. You know, that's the sad thing about the human being. I love tenacity. I love tenacity, I love firmness and what have you, but listen, when you're wrong, you're wrong. I heard someone on the radio yesterday say something, they were quoting somebody, I don't know if it was Jordan Peterson or whatever the guy's name is, or somebody else. But it was a very smart guy, he said, you know, when more evidence shows up, it's okay to admit you were wrong. That's a great statement. When new evidence or additional evidence shows up, disproving your position, it's okay to say, well, based on this new evidence, I guess I'm wrong. And these Judaizers had just sat down and they were given evidence, evidence they didn't think about, evidence of Cornelius' conversion, evidence of God confirming with signs and wonders Paul and Barnabas' ministry, evidences from the statement of James, and it's hopeful that they would have said, you know what, based on what you guys just said, you're right. You don't have to admit you're wrong, just admit the other guy's right, you're right. And I would hope that some of them felt that way. But I know that there are some people that's like, you know, don't confuse me with the facts, you know, I'm right and nothing's gonna change my mind and that's not the position to be in, that's not a wise position to be in. A wise position to be in is if you show me more evidence, not opinion, but evidence, or new evidence that I see where I'm wrong, I'll admit I'm wrong. It's okay to admit you're wrong if there is additional evidence brought forth. So not sure how these Judaizers handled this, but the problem was solved doctrinally. And there's pleasure in that, there's pleasure in that. There's rejoicing. Salvation by grace through faith plus nothing is a great joy. I think Peter, I think it was Peter who said, why do we want to put the Gentiles under the Old Testament law which we couldn't even live by? Why would you want to do that? And so it's a wonderful thing to be living in the church age, where to get to heaven all you have to do is admit that you're a sinner, understand you cannot save yourself, and you turn to Jesus Christ. And you trust Jesus Christ with all of your heart and not in anything you can do or want to do or anything like that. You trust him with all your heart and he saves you and he is your ticket then to heaven. And you don't have to do anything to keep that. The Bible says that God gives the gift of eternal life. Gift of eternal life. Here's the gift. And God is not, no offense Josiah, God is not an Indian giver. He doesn't give you the gift of eternal life and say, well, you messed up, I'm taking the gift back. We gave a fairly decent check to Larry Kraft when he left here for remodeling the bathroom over there and all that. His statement was, oh, it's way too much. I said, well, give it back then. That's always a shock to somebody. Well, give it back then. Just kidding. But God gives you the gift of eternal life. There it is. Okay, I received the gift of eternal life, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even though they don't believe on his name. And the Bible says when you do that, the Holy Spirit enters into your being, enters into your body, and you are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. You are sealed until the Lord calls you home. Boy, what a deal that is, amen? And you saw a preacher, what if I mess up? We're all going to mess up. God knows we're going to mess up. That's why he gave it as a gift of eternal life. He wants people in heaven. It's not something where the Lord says, well, I might want you in heaven. I'm going to give you this. But as soon as you mess up, I'm going to take it back. That's not God. God says, man, I want you in heaven. As sinful, as dumb, as stupid as you are, I want you in heaven. I want you to be my child. So I'm giving you this gift of eternal life. You got it. I'm not taking it back. You can't lose it. You got it. Now, until I call you home, try to live for me. Try to do what's right. But 100 years from now, you and I are going to walk on a street of gold, up in a crystal city. And there'll be no sickness, sorrow, pain, suffering, anything like that. We're gonna have a great time. And that's the wonderful thing about salvation by grace through faith. People say, well, if you believe that, you can do anything you wanna do. And my wanter was changed a long time ago. I trusted Christ as my Savior, my wanter was changed. There's things I used to do I don't wanna do. And there's things I'm doing today that I want to do. I want to do. So, Anyway, how did I get off on that? It was a pleasure. It was a pleasure to hear that news and hear that word all among the churches. And note that this decision, the apostles, elders, and the whole church, the whole, everybody was in on this. The whole church was in on this because God doesn't set apart a certain group of people to be the elite. The whole church is in on this thing. And they were in the discussion. Judas, surname Barsabbas, is one of the people that they're gonna send back with Paul and Barnabas, and he doesn't appear anywhere in Scripture after this, so we don't know anything about Barsabbas. We'll get to meet him in heaven, but we don't know anything in Scripture. Silvanus or Silas, we do. So take your Bible and turn to 2 Corinthians 1. They're gonna send this letter back with Paul and Barnabas. They're sending Barsabbas, and they're sending Silas, also known as Silvanus. And they're going to help with the trip and they're gonna help with the spreading of the good news and going to the churches and all that. What do we know about Silvanus? Well, 2 Corinthians chapter one, in verse 19, you get 2 Corinthians one, 1 Thessalonians chapter one with your other hand. 1 Thessalonians chapter one. And 2 Corinthians chapter one, And verse 19, he says, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus. So Silvanus is traveling with Paul and Timothy, he's working with them. First Thessalonians chapter one, look at verse one. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus under the Church of the Thessalonians. So again, he is working with Paul and working with Timothy. Boy, wouldn't that have been a fun trip? Can you imagine traveling with Paul and Timothy, being a part of that? And what a blessing that would have been. 1 Peter 5, verse 12, don't turn there, I'll read it. It says, but Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the grace of God wherein you stand. So Silvanus was described as a faithful brother and helped to minister to those that Peter was ministering to. Acts 16, 25 is probably the most famous time we learn about Silvanus or Silas. Verse 25, it says, and at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed, sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. This is when Paul and Silas are put into jail in the city of Philippi, and God does a miracle at midnight, and the Philippian jailer is converted, and Paul and Silas are released. So Silas was quite an interesting guy. Now, let's go back to Acts chapter 15. So the letters that have been written with what they determined to write in Jerusalem will go first to the church at Antioch. So we have two very important churches at this point in the New Testament. You've got the church at Antioch, which has become the headquarters. Many Gentiles are partaking in the church at Antioch, along with Jews. Then you have the church of Jerusalem, which seems to be the headquarters for the apostles, elders of the church, and others. So two very important churches in the book of Acts. Antioch will be ascending, Jerusalem will be descending, because God eventually is going to destroy Jerusalem through the Roman General Titus. He is going to give them 40 years to try to figure this thing out. And so from A.D. 30 to A.D. 70, 40-year period of testing and trial, hoping that Jews will figure out what they did. They blew it in Acts chapter 7, and they will blow it throughout. Jewish leadership will blow it all the way along there. And so God said, all right, you're gonna face judgment. So in AD 70, Titus and the Roman legions came in, destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and it was pretty much over then in Jerusalem. Verse 22. to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch, verse 23, the brethren which are the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. So it's not just Antioch, but it's the churches that have been started in Syria, Cilicia. Paul and Barnabas, when they made their trek through Asia Minor, established churches in different areas. And the church is growing. The church is growing. And it's always a blessing. And again, we have to understand some things here that the New Testament church is not the mega church, okay? The New Testament church, maybe Antioch was close to that. They had a lot of great people there. They had a lot of great church leaders there. But the idea of growth of the New Testament church is not growing in numbers as far as how many come in. Although that would be good, and don't let that discourage you, but the idea is to establish churches. Missionaries, when they go on the field, they'll go to a particular area and want to establish a church there, and then they'll go another area and want to establish another church here. And they grow by the number of churches that have been established, that's the idea. And personally, I think that a smaller church, can minister a lot better to its people than a bigger church. Although bigger churches can do things, smaller churches can't. But I think the, as I see the New Testament church here, I'm not seeing one big mega church. I see small churches here, churches there, churches there, reaching their community. Reaching their community. And that's, I think, a good way to do it. So you've got churches now that have been started, of course, Antioch, and then you've got churches that were started in Syria and Cilicia. And the letters that they're sent out are addressed to the apostles, the elders, and the brethren. Again, showing that the whole church was involved in this. We talked about the contents of the letter. And then verse 24, Acts 15, 24. or as much as we have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words. And so that was one of the things that bothered Paul and Barnabas the most, that bothered Peter and the other apostles, was that these Judaizers were troubling people with their words. And words can be very troubling. And you can take the position, sticks and stones. You know, sticks and stones may break my bones, but they'll break yours too, so be careful. But anyway, sticks and stones may break my bones, words will never hurt me. Words will hurt you. Words will hurt you if you let it, if you let it. And the media knows how to use words. The different outlets know how to use words to, I mean, we just went through an election thing. No matter what side you're on, both sides are trying to instill fear within you. What would happen if that politician is elected, or if that one is elected, or what have you, and they're trying to, and that's all, that's the political ads. You know how to watch political ads? You mute the sound. That's one of the best ways to watch political ads. Just mute the sounds. And then after a while, just turn it off. I mean, it's just, it's crazy stuff. But there is power in the words and the words of communication. Proverbs 18, verse 21 says, death and life are in the power of the tongue. So those who are troubling, in verse 24, and here's the sad thing, in our day and age, those that seem to trouble us the most, are those who profess to be Christians. That seems to be the ones who trouble Bible believers the most, but I'm not going to get into that. He says, to the subverting your souls. They are subverting your souls. Well, what does subvert mean? Well, according again to Mr. Webster, to overthrow from the foundation, to overturn, to ruin utterly. So the Judaizers, when they came in with their false teaching, were trying to overthrow what the apostles and the New Testament believers had experienced. They would have tried to overthrow Cornelius' conversion if they could. This is what they're trying to do. The northern nations of Europe subverted the Roman Empire. We've heard the story about Attila the Hun and the Visigoths and what have you. They subverted the Roman Empire. Webster says this, he is the worst enemy of man that endeavors to subvert the Christian religion. Webster also says the elevation of corrupt men to office will slowly but surely subvert a Republican government. I think we've seen that. Second definition is to corrupt, to confound, to pervert the mind, to turn it from the truth. And so subversion's not a good thing. They were trying to turn the believers from the truth. They were trying to overthrow the beginning of the church, the foundational period of the church. They're trying to overthrow all that stuff. And that's why Peter was upset with them and challenged them. That's why Paul and Barnabas and the rest were upset with these guys. when they, you know, trying to help them realize this is what you're doing. You may think you're right. You may be expressing your opinion. You may be expressing your idea. But in reality, what you're doing is you're trying to overthrow the faith of the believers. And we can't have that. And again, that's why they had the whole conference in Acts chapter 15. We've got to settle this thing because there are believers that are being caught up in this, there are believers that are being overthrown in this. And we need to settle this thing. So that was the point. again he said they over there subverting because they're saying you must be circumcised keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment I notice that phrase we gave no such commandment the Apostle said we gave no such commandment who would know better who would know better on how to get to heaven then the people that walk with Jesus Christ and listen to a minister for three and a half years who sat under his ministry for 40 days after he rose from the dead before he ascended who would know better about how to get to heaven Especially after the conversion of Cornelius, who would know better than the apostles and the elders with all this stuff going on? And they said, we gave no such command. We never said anybody had to be circumcised. We never said anybody had to stay, you stayed saved by keeping the law. We never said any of that stuff. You guys are saying that stuff. We're not saying that stuff. help the people understand the apostles officially go on record here stating they never gave any commandment to be circumcised or any other work to get saved nor did they ever make any statements about what to do to stay saved so That's the issue. And I think we'll stop there for today. I think they've pretty much solved that problem. They've got the letter sent out. The Judaizers case has been defeated. And there's joy among the believers because yeah, we got this thing right. God saves us by grace through faith plus nothing. And they continued on in their relationship with Jesus Christ knowing that everything was okay. All right, any questions or any comments? All right, let's have a word of prayer, and we'll get back in about 10 minutes. Father, we thank you again for your word this morning. We thank you, Lord, for the solving of this problem in Acts chapter 15. And Lord, we thank you that living in the church age, that salvation is by grace through faith plus nothing. And Lord, we thank you for the relationship we have with you. We're looking forward to the day when You come for your children, looking forward to being in heaven for eternity. Lord, thank you so much for all you've done. Bless our service this morning, we pray. We love you, Lord. Father, we thank you again for being such a good God. In Christ's name, amen. All right, you are dismissed. We'll get back in about 10 minutes.