The controversy in the early church regarding whether Gentile converts needed to adhere to the Law of Moses, specifically circumcision. It highlights the Council of Jerusalem where Peter, Barnabas, and Paul presented evidence of God's work among the Gentiles through the Holy Spirit, leading James to propose a resolution. The decision was made not to burden Gentiles with the Law but to require abstinence from idolatry, fornication, and blood, affirming salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 1.47 → restored 4.36
on the fifteen chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Now a certain man which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small distension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and the elders about this question. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Benici and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.
This kind of gives me encouragement. They were so slow leaving Jerusalem. It seems they were slow anyhow. The first eight chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, they stayed at Jerusalem. And then in the chapter eight it says, Then the great persecution after the death of Stephen, after that they were scattered abroad and they went everywhere preaching the gospel except the Apostles. They stayed in Jerusalem. But the Lord said, beginning Jerusalem, then goes to Gideon Samaria. And these verses tell you, how they did go through to Jerusalem, how they went to Samaria, and how many local churches were started between Jerusalem and Antioch way up in Syria.
It says, And being brought on the way by the church, they passed through Benici and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they called great joy unto all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church. and of the apostles and the elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. But there arose certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed. And these Pharisees had been saved. Jewish Pharisees had been saved, they believed. But they were trying to stick to their old Jewish custom, the law of Moses. There arose verse five, 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 the apostles and elders came together for the consider this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the words of the gospel and believe. And God, which knows the heart, bear the witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
What we believe is that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they are. I like the way you put it. that he was trying to say they should be saved as well as me, but he was so gracious to this. He said we should be saved as well as saved. He gave the Gentiles a preference. He said we get saved the same way as they get saved. Now you really what they were trying to say is that the Gentiles have to be saved the same way as the Jews, but you put it the other way, he said. We choose get saved the same way as the Gentiles, which is true. We get saved by believing by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse twelve, then all the Moses who kept silent and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought them on the Gentiles by them.
And after that they had held their peace, James answered them, saying, Men and brethren, hearken underneath. Simeon has prepared how God at the first he visited the Gentiles to take out of them of people for his name. and to this degree the words of the prophet, as it is written. After this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up. That the residue of men might seek out from the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, said the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
Therefore, now James is... making the decision. Therefore, my sentence is that we trouble not them which are from among the Gentiles, and are turned to God, but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols, from fornication, and from being strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach preached me. being read in the synagogues every several. Then seized it the apostles and elders with the whole church to send children, men of their own company, to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judith, her name Barnabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren, and they wrote letters by them after this matter.
the apostles and elders and brethren send greetings unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Sinai. For as much as we have heard, certain which sent out from us had troubled you, with words subverting your soul, saying, You must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we gave no such commandment. You see, these brothers went down. to, or rather went up, to Antioch in Syria, and told them that they must keep the law of Moses and be circumcised. They went on their own account, because this verse makes it clear, clear.
We have heard that certain witch went out from us have trouble. You will be with words to burden your souls, saying, you must be circumcised and keep the law. to whom we gain no such commandment. It went on their own account. The apostles didn't send. It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you, to the beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have had with their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent them to ascend, therefore, Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good for the Holy Ghost. shelves closely they worked in contact with the Holy Ghost.
They did nothing of their own. They waited for the leaving of the Spirit. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. That he abstained from meat, self-equivalent, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication. From Brooke, you can teach yourselves he should do well, share you well. For when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch, and when they gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistles, which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consummation. In Judas and Silas, being prophets, prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them.
And after they carried their faith, they were let go of peace from the brethren unto the apostles. of Paul and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord as many others. May God bless you. Be free to use such as this word. Blessed God, we thank you for this Bible of ours. We thank you we have thy word in our mother tongue, and we have it in our own hands, and we can read it. And, oh Lord, we regret we don't read it more, and we don't study it more. But we pray that it may become increasingly precious to us day by day. We thank you for the accuracy and the wonderful details of the Word of God, a book in which there is no mistake, a book in which we see the hand of God working, and we see the plans and encounters of God from eternity to eternity.
And we thank you that has taught us to know what thou art doing in the world today by reading this book. Help us then tonight. Blessed and may the Holy Spirit speak to you. We ask you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now we have traced the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles in this book, the Acts of the Apostles, from the first chapter, right down through to the fourteenth chapter. And we, this morning, finished. the first great missionary journey of Paul the Apostle. He made three great missionary journeys, and then after that he just took to Rome as a prisoner.
But we finished the first chapter, and God greatly said the word. As we said this morning, it was only the Holy Ghost that could do the work. They could do the work. What could Paul or Barnabas or any of them do if the Holy Spirit didn't work? Salvation is a miracle, a miracle of the Holy Spirit of God. He works in the hearts of men and saves us. He reveals the Word of God and shows them the interpretation of the Scripture. And we have the Holy Spirit. And all we have to do is read the book. We pray over it and God will teach us what it means.
This is our guidance. Now, a problem arose and they will arise. As long as I can remember, there have been problems amongst the people of God that always will be. And right down through the nearly two thousand years of church history, every now and again, something crops up. And they had various councils to try and set it. And this was the first council. They called it the first council of Jerusalem. These Judaizing teachers came down from Jerusalem to... this wonderful church in Antioch in Syria. This was a basic church, the base of missionary effort.
A wonderful church. The Holy Spirit led them there. Several times it says, the Holy Spirit said, do this. The Holy Spirit said, do this. And these men came down and they heard of what Paul and Barnabas had been doing and how the Gentiles had been saved. and the report that came back about the great work God had done, and they came down with their ideas. They were converted Jews, but they never fully gave up Judaism. Now it's a hard thing for a man to give up the religion he's been brought up in. Even today, if he's been brought up in a certain church, it's hard to give that up.
It's got to be a revelation of the Spirit of God to make you leave that church. And these people brought with them certain traditions. And they weren't only traditions. God had laid down certain laws in the Old Testament. God had said that every male person in Israel must be circumcised. That was the law that God gave to Abraham. Way back in Abraham's days when Israel rose again. And they insisted, this is before the gospel came in. that all these proselytes, I was speaking of this morning, the people called in the fourth chapter Jews and Greeks.
The Greeks there were called Hellenists. They were, as I said this morning, convergent Gentiles who had, well, they weren't convergent yet. They were Gentiles who had embraced the Jewish religion for proselytes. But one of the rules is that all the males had to be circumcised. They had to conform with the law of Moses. Now, we have a text in the world today in the United States called the Seventh-day Adventist. When I worked in Birmingham, Alabama, I had one man on my staff there, and he said, an ardent Seventh-day Adventist. He seemed convergent to it. We couldn't get him to come work on a Saturday for anything.
We work on a Sunday, but not on a Saturday, because the Adventists have put themselves back under the law of Moses. And all their men have to be circumcised, and all their, and they won't eat certain meats and so on, just like the oil-grace people. That's their rule. They put themselves under law. And thank God we are free from the law. I like the way Peter says it. He says, why should we put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we should bear? Neither our fathers nor we were able to bear it. And why should we put that upon these Gentile converts? But they came to Antioch and insisted that this must be so.
Except they said, except you be circumcised of the manner of Moses, we cannot be saved. Now there are things in the world today. Some people say, except you're baptized, you're not saved. There are a lot of people say, unless you're baptized, you're not saved. Another man I worked with in the... in the church of Christ. And he was a scene, young man, seen on the scene of the Lord, but he insisted that unless a person was baptized, that person was not saved. They had a dream he ruled in. Now, thank God it says, he that believeth on the son half of the last night, that's what I do.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I really believe and we all believe that we should be baptized. That's right. If there's someone not baptized you tonight, we would be very glad to make arrangements for you to be baptized. Because right through the Acts of the Apostles, we find that those that believe were baptized. And then they were received into the fellowship of the local church and they started to break bread together with the Christians. That's what we seek to practice. and we try to practice in this twenty century what the disciples practiced in the first century and we try to go by this book they said you can't be saved unless you keep the law of Moses and of course nobody should keep the law of Moses the law of Moses Paul tells us in Galatians and in order to understand the fifteen chapter of the Acts You must read the book of Galatians.
You'll refer to the presages. You must read that to understand this chapter. But Paul says that the law was a schoolmaster. And that these Jewish people who had been saved, they were under the law like a child is under a schoolmaster. And so they grow up. And then they're free. And he said the law was like our schoolmaster. But now in Christ they've grown up, they're free. Thank God we do not come under the moon. Now, don't think that I am in any way decrying the law of God, but the law of God is a wonderful law. If we could keep those things to man, then what a world we've been.
What a wonderful world if we could keep them. And that's God's standard. That's God's measuring stick. And that is God's shed. That's God's plumb line. I've been able to say it a few times while it goes here that when you... My day when I was a boy, I used to see them building in England. They were building bricks over there a lot. And some parts were built with all stones and bricks. And they have a plumb line in them. And you build up a little bit and you put the plumb line in shape, they're going straight. That's what the law is. It's God's plumb line, see if they're going the right way. And it only reveals to us we're not building straight and we're not going the right.
And I heard a preacher say once, through building a wall, you find you're not going the right way, there's only one thing to do with it, knock it down and build it again. You can't put it right through the plumb line. The plumb line only says it's wrong. And that's what God's law says. The law says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. And it means he said, I've done that. So that's the plumb line telling me I'm not going the right way. shows me I'm wrong. And the law reveals that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So you cannot keep the law to be saved. You don't get saved that much. Or then you check it. Now there are things in the law.
In fact, the whole law is certain. And there are things in the law which I wish it could be practiced again. But I will shalt not permit adultery. What a different world we be in if that was practiced in. I was amazed this week, as I saw on television, that some of you saw the meeting, a teenage, special teenage get-together in Atlanta. And I could tell them that fornication and this freedom they're talking about today is really wrong. But just to tell these young people how they can get used, he is sexual and immoral as they care, but I'll be doing it and not have sinned.
For the girls not to become pregnant. And there were hundreds of girls and hundreds of girls, and they were telling me what to do, and they had all the different things there, what to do, so just be free. Do whatever you like, because you don't get pregnant. But God says, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. So this is breaking God's law. and God's law is good. He has a sin. And we'll see in a moment, and this is one of the things that the Apostles desperately emphasize in turning the lower. So, when Paul and Barnabas had no distinction in disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, grew up with Jerusalem under the Apostles and the elders of the Baptist Church.
And being brought on their way by the Church, they passed the Phoenicia, Samaria, the conversion of the Gentiles. And when they were coming to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and of the apostles and the elders, and they declared all things that God had done. Now let's go a moment to Galatians chapter one. And I think it's verse ten. Galatians chapter one. Just in chapter two.
Galatians chapter two and verse one. Then, fourteen years later, fourteen years after, I went up again to Galatians with Barnabas and Fitzpatrickson. Now, this is what he's talking about. This is the Galatians in fifteen chapter eight. And I went up by revelation. As you say, it wasn't only that the church down there asked him to go out, but God revealed to them. You see, they were all led by the Holy Spirit. They didn't make a movement as the Holy Spirit spoke. And the Holy Spirit revealed to Paul that he struck to the root. And he also revealed it to the church, because the church sent them. That's the church of Daniel. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them, that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles.
but privately to them was for a reputation. That's the day he got their fault, with James and the others, privately, with Peter and James together, and told them first. Privately to them was for a reputation that by any means I should run or had run in vain. He's just in their opinion about it. But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, agreed with some Belgian circumcised. and that because of false dread and unawares brought in, who came in, privileged, and spied out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that it might bring us into bondage, to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might be continued with me.
But of these who seem to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it make us no matter than me. God accepted no man's person. For those who seem to be somewhat, in confidence, added nothing to me. That contrary wise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed to me, and the gospel of circumcision was committed to the Spirit. That's to say, Peter. That's to say, he, Paul, was the apostle to the Gentiles, and Peter was the apostle to the Jews. For he that brought effectively and Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles. And when James came to John, he said to his pillars, received the grace that was given unto thee, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of the Pharisees that we should go unto them, and they should go to the circumcised in order to do.
He's referring here, I say, to Hechristus, to Jerusalem. Verse four. when they were come to the... You go there and start about this controversy right away. He went and declared all things that God had done. That's the day they had a missionary meeting. And Paul and Barnabas, just like we have our missionaries, went back from the field and tell, and they tell us how God has blessed them and how he's risen and winning the Gentiles for whom he has. And they had a great missionary meeting there. at Jerusalem. So there rose up certain of the text of the Pharisees, which believed in the Pharisees, as I said just now, who had now accepted Christ.
And they said, it was needful to certain things, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for the children. And I like this. Here's the front of them. Here's the problem. And the apostles and elders met together. in the name of the Lord, under the power of the Holy Spirit, to discuss the questions and come to some concrete. This is what they did. Now, all these things that I did keep on saying, and we've not done yet, all these were a pattern. We actually were possibly the pattern to tell us how to do it today.
So they came together to consider them as. And when there's been much disjury, you know, there might be more meat in this history. There's been that argument going on, much disjury. And then Peter rose up and said, and then Mary. Now he says, you know how God chose me to go to the house of Paul and eat. And now he showed me that season of the sheep come down from heaven with all men of uncooked beasts. And he said, rise Peter, chill and eat, to prove that the Gentiles were not uncooked, as he'd always thought. and that he can go and preach the gospel to them. Peter told all this over again how God chose him to take the gospel to the Gentiles. And God which knows the hearts of them bear witness, God who knows the hearts bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did to us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon them there? Peter didn't go to Cornelius, the house of Cornelius. He said, you've got to keep the law. He said, you've got to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. There are many people in our lands today who try to keep the law. They never do it, but they're not. And they try and try, and hopefully God will have mercy, and at last they get to heaven. So that's not the way to be saved, and you never will get saved that way, but only by simple faith. And let all Jesus Christ. We cannot do it. It's all been done long, long ago. The first throne.
And all the Mughals. There are a lot of people here now. The church is producing the throne. At the end of the fourth chapter, the church of a five-thousand man, besides the women and children in fellowship there, it's producing. And the fourth chapter, now we're in the fifteenth chapter. Then all the mothers who kept silent and gave all these to Barnabas and Paul, kicked there in what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles. First of all, they went to the people of reputation, as we read, the elders and the apostles, and had a kind of private meeting with them, as we read in Galatians one, Galatians two. But now they will almost give us this wonderful missionary conference They told what God had done, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by then.
What a wonderful listening meeting that must have been. And after they had held their peace, James said, and like James was the brother of the Lord, converted after the resurrection of the Lord. And James was the leader, if you will, And he got up and said, Men and brethren, listen to me. And now he makes a statement here which is amazing, a statement which covers the history and covers the prophecy. I love these verses here. Just look at them. Simeon has prepared how God at first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.
Now Simon told how God sent him to take out of the Gentiles a people for his name. and to disagree the words of the prophet. Now he goes back to Amos. Let's go back to Amos in the middle. Amos, chapter nine and verse eleven. In that day when I raised up the tabernacle of David, now he's looking ahead now right on into the peace. He's talking about millennium now. In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up his room, and I will build it as in the old days, that they may possess the end of the Eden, and of all Eden, for they are called by my name, said the Lord.
Now you refer to that raising up the tabernacle, as a future event. Let's read back in the fifth verse. It's God's time when it was shared how God his first visit for Gentiles to take out of them of people for his name. This is the truth. God is today taking out of the Gentiles and out of the Jews, if you believe, they were Jews at the talking of this time. God is saving people that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and he's taking them out. How many times did I take here? There are three classes of people in the world today that rule the Gentile in the church of Christ. And when a man, whether he's true or Gentile, accepts the Lord Jesus Christ, he's no longer true or Gentile, but he's in Christ and he's in the church.
This new movement, God is building, the church. And the church, the church history runs as far as you can see, for about two thousand years. It's run nearly two thousand years now. and we believe it's coming to an end very quickly. When the Lord Jesus comes back and calls his church to be with himself. So then what we believe? Let's read it. So this would be the words of the prophets as it is written. After this, that's after the calling of people out of the temple. That's after this. I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is falling down. And I will build again the room there. I will set it up. No, the temple suddenly will build again.
But God says, James says, this is going to take place after this. After this, I'll keep calling these people out of the temple. Then I'm going to set up the center of the building where a cave is going to fall. And I will build again the ruins there. But let me do a name. Now this, let me just let this in, the remnant. And of course, we talked about the dearest remnant. In the tribulation days there will be a minute surrender. Today the Jews are going back freely when you think of all the millions of the Jews in the world. There are not many gone back there. But there are two got back there. And them started to go to the temple.
Half of them don't even believe in the Old Testament. They're not a half of them. And there's a majority of them. There's a few religious people amongst them. They're generally speaking. They're almost atheists. And God has to reveal himself to them, and all Jesus has to reveal himself. So just as he revealed himself to me, and he revealed himself to the Jews in the early centuries, so he could have revealed himself again. And there's a remnant. In the tribulation days, they would accept two people that would accept that Jesus has been the Messiah. And believe in the eternal work that you've all been taught. and the reason he's coming to set up his kingdom.
The residue of men might be to teach out to the Lord. And besides that, all the Gentiles, all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, says the Lord, who gives mercy. What he's saying is this, and we know this is for us. We know what's going to happen. The church is going to be covered. And then the great tribulation comes. And during that tribulation day, He, the remnant, the converted Jews, will go out into all the world preaching the gospel of the kingdom, saying the king is coming. It's just like John the Baptist did, until he found out the king had to suffer. And then he said, behold, and I'm gone, but he found that out. But they'll go out, and thousands will be converted to the Messiah, to wait for the Messiah in that day.
And then the Lord's going to come back, as you know, the temple's going to be set up, and the Lord is going to reign in Jerusalem. Then they're going out and bring the Gentiles in. That's what the Gentiles are. The great Gentile nation in the tribulation. So this is a prophetic outline that he breaks in here and gives us. Knowing unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. I like that. But the Lord knows the end from the beginning. That's how we like to put it. The Lord knows the end from the beginning. He knows what's going to take place. And the more we read this book, the more we'll know what's going to take for you. Wherefore it says, James, this is my sentence.
That we trouble not them, which are from the Gentiles, which from the Gentiles are turned to them. Don't let trouble. Don't let try and make Jews out of the Gentiles, you can't do. Out of the Gentiles, you can make saints, the Church of God. How do the Jews you can make sense? That's a new thing the church has got. But don't let the Zion make a Jew or a Gentile or a Gentile entity. So let's trouble them. We write unto them, let's write to them, and show them that they have changed the beliefs of the Bible. Now, this is more or less to do with the conscience of other Christians. You see, there was meat which was offered in the heathen temples to Ireland.
And then it was sold. And people bought this meat and ate it. But many Christians, especially those who kept kind of under law, they said, no, no, you can't eat that. You pile of meat. You must be touched. You must be touched. And that offended those Christians. If some Christians were very liberal or bought this meat, We defended those who were not with us. We told them we decided, this is what we told them, abstain from that need, ain't we? Don't upset your brethren by eating that need. It's something else. Abstain from pollution of idols and from fornication. Now, this was ruling.
You see, they were living in a, they were living in an immoral world. The Gentiles lived in an immoral world. sexual immorality is the order of the day in Paul's death, coming in the day, class, all over. Now we have to do something. We have to do something. Know how our young people need to get this message. In this day of the permissive age, God done the love, it's not God's name. And he says, write to these Christians and tell them, don't realize the world in this immorality that's going on.
Deceptive. It lives clean lives. And that's the rule that goes right down. It's right to us today. To our young people today. It must have been in that day. But change in fornication. And from two strangles. Well, that was the Lord that God gave to Noah. Way, way back. He went to each strangling. and some blood. They must not eat blood. Krishna does not eat blood. Now, we would want to eat blood. And yet there's a lot of people eat. That's kind of a blood city we know. I've seen it in Europe. City made mostly of blood, but each person must eat them.
He wouldn't get most of our birds from stores, I suppose, but he would eat some, and then it's oriental and it's... He ate some stores, it's refining. But we must do that. It's abstained from blood. For Moses of old time has, I like this verse, Moses of old time has in every city, then they're preaching, being read in the synagogue every Sabbath day. What he's saying is, that in the synagogue, every Sabbath day they're reading the law, they're reading. And I suppose we could say that in certain churches, certain churches today, they'll still read the law.
I have joined my night abroad and so on, leading many times to the Anglican Church, which is the prevailing Church. And it's got all sorts of rituals formed on them more. And there's a commandment with that. There's a read every day in the table. The commandment. But you don't have to teach a commandment to be saved. They teach them to be saved. They try and live a good life and hope they'll get to heaven. They get hope, and it's a poor hope. We have a true hope, but they have a hope that's not a hope. The hope is deep.
But we know our hope is a known thing, not a hope. And we cannot get saved by teaching the Lord. So children, although Moses is great every day, every week in the day, every Sabbath... And it seems the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, and they wrote letters by them after the family. The apostles and elders and brethren send readings unto the brethren which are the Gentiles in Antioch, in Chirioch, and in Cilicia. That's great. Antioch, Cirioch, and way out into Cilicia and Acre Minor. These are the game-chings. For as much as we have heard, this certain restraint outsponsed us, have troubled you with words, subverting your soul, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom you gave no such commandment.
They didn't send me, they went on their own. It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one of all, to send chosen men unto you, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men with a hazard of their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we send therefore Judas and Cyrus, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. for it seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than we necessary do. They did not make this decision alone. There must have been much prayer, much waiting upon God, and it was the Holy Ghost that helped them make the decision. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.
that you abstain from meat, adultery, from blood, from things strangled, or from fornication, from which, if ye keep yourselves, ye should do well. There you will. That's the simple little letter they sent to them. And they went back to Antioch and delivered it to them, which when they read, they rejoiced for the consolation. And Judas and Silas were prophets. And they exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them. And after that they carried their escape and were let go in peace from the present unto the apostles. Paul and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others.
How long they stayed there, I don't know. But they came up and this will be our next lesson. Whenever we speak here again on the Acts, we should start the second missionary journey. But this was the interval between the first and second missionary journey. This person came up above the law, and the teacher of the law, and they went to Jerusalem, and there, for the help of the Holy Spirit, they made this decision. Now, I think it's wonderful that we can sing such hymns as free from the law or have the conditions. The Lord Jesus has gone to the cross and borne all the demands of the law.
All the God's law demands from us. The Lord Jesus' name. There are many things in the law. Commandments which if men broke, they had to be stoned to death. That was the punishment for fornication. Stoned to death. That was God's law. God's law for murder was. He that shed his man's blood by man's and his blood is shed. That's God's law. Death. And the Lord Jesus, unless... Calvary Cross died before the whole punishment and penalty of the law on our behalf. And we are free.
Brother, let's believe this. We are free. We don't have to keep a law. Now there is a new law in our house. The Lord Jesus dwells in our house. And if we go by his law, we live this new law. Thank God then we're saved. Not by any work that we can do, but by simple faith in the Lord. We pray with you. Thank you, God. Our Father, we thank you for this wonderful chapter, telling us of the problems that came up in the days of the early church. We still have them with us today, Lord.
Thousands of people still trying to keep thy law in order to be saved, and it cannot be done. We thank thee, thou hast revealed to us from thy words. that he that believes on the Son has everlasting life. Apart from baptism, apart from law-keeping, apart from communions or anything else, his simple faith in the Lord Jesus is saved. The question of baptism and communion and breaking the bread and all that comes after, as we learn about thy precious word, for we thank thee for the simple way of salvation. Now, Lord, if we are older in life, some of us can't do through all we used to do that we ask, that we might still go out of the gospel.
Bless our brother Ernst Woodhouse, our little cowardly day as he preaches the gospel. And others of our number, Lord, we pray thou fleshly in the youth. Help us, Lord, as he testified day by day to men and women, that we might do something to win them to the Lord Jesus Christ. We seek thy pardon, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to give you one little subject to pray about. On probably Wednesday night, about quarter to ten, there came a loud knocking on our door, loud knocking, and a voice outside shouting, help, help.
So I quietly looked out, opened the door, and every young man was properly looking, fellow, long and he'd be kind of a face and a lot of hair like a, you know, like an apple kind of thing, you got like a bollywag, you know, and he was in very bad shape to say he was in bad pain. He said, I'm injured. I was right in my bicycle and I got knocked down by a car and I broke my arm and was screaming and, but I didn't know whether he was dope or what he was. And I didn't ask him in. I said, wait, let me go and call the police. So I got in touch over here with the people at the