The sermon 'Bringing Joy to the Church' by Trent Moody focuses on Acts chapter 15, discussing the resolution of a major doctrinal disagreement in the early church regarding the necessity of circumcision and adherence to the Mosaic Law for salvation. The apostles and elders, with input from the entire church, sent representatives to Antioch with a letter clarifying that salvation comes by faith alone, not by works of the law. The sermon emphasizes the importance of unity in doctrine for the joy and strength of the church. It highlights that false teachings can unsettle believers, and stresses the need for doctrinal clarity and defense of the gospel of grace. The speaker points out that the Holy Spirit confirmed the decision of the Jerusalem Council, indicating the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice. The sermon encourages believers to rejoice in the gospel, which brings unity and joy to the church.

Acts chapter 15. You know that last song was really our prayer to God. We're asking God to speak to us. Acts chapter 15 will be the answer to that prayer. Acts 15 and beginning with verse 22 and reading down through verses 35.

Then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Justus who was also named Bar-sabbas and Silas, leading men among the brethren. They wrote this letter by them, the apostles, the elders, and the brethren, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings. Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words unsettling your souls, saying, you must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we gave no such commandment. It seemed good to us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have therefore sent Judas and Silas who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourself from these, you will do well. Farewell. So when they were sent off, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter.

When they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement. Now Judas and Silas themselves being prophets also exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words, and after they had stayed there for a time they sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles. However, it seemed good to Silas to remain there. Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also. Let us pray.

Our Heavenly Father we want to thank you Lord even now you have heard and answered our prayer. Lord we desire this morning to hear the word of the Lord and Lord you have given it to us and I pray now Lord as you allow and as you strengthen me Lord to speak and interpret and help us to understand these words Lord these words of encouragement Lord I desire the same thing that we see here in this text. I desire, Lord, that your people would be strengthened. I desire that they would rejoice greatly and be encouraged with the words that are spoken to them. Lord, would you build up your church this morning?

And Lord, I ask this in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Last time we were in the book of Acts we considered the first part of this text so if you're visiting with us you're getting You're picking up right in the middle of a sermon in a sense, but I hope that you gathered the context of this. I'm sure that you've read this numerous times.

I did want to read two other verses though in the beginning of this just so that we can grab a little bit of that context and the feel of which these Gentile believers were thinking about and experiencing. And that would be the first verse in chapter 15. It says, And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And then also, I would like to read in verse 5, but some of the sect of the Pharisees who believe rose up saying, it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses." I read those two verses because I wanted you to get the feel for what it was that these Gentile believers here at Antioch were experiencing. They had had brothers come down from, if you would, the Mother Church, the church in Jerusalem where the gospel was preached and the church was established and it spread from Jerusalem into the surrounding regions.

And you have these believers, these Gentiles, who hear the Word of the Lord, and they believe on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What encouragement there was. And they had received in verse 8, so God who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit. And they are experiencing the wonderful glories that many of you here this morning have experienced and that is the filling of the Holy Spirit of God to help you to see the glories of the gospel and to rejoice in its encouragement. But then you have certain men professing to be also believers of the Judaizers, which they probably weren't termed that exactly yet, but they were Jews who came down and wanted to teach them that unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

Can you imagine the discouragement that that must have put into the heart of these Gentile believers? I mean these came from the church where the gospel started and here they're coming here telling us that we actually cannot be saved unless we are circumcised and as verse 5 says and and we keep the law of Moses kind of knocking the wind out of your sails in a sense if you you know you can imagine with me how these believers felt and we know from last time that that Peter stood up and spoke and Paul and Barnabas and they're they're debating with these Judaizers who are coming in these certain men from Judea teaching these things and then they thought it good. Let's send some let's send Paul and Barnabas and let's send them up to the church at Jerusalem and let's settle this matter. Now with us, we read this in one big swoop and we can understand the beginning and the end of it and we see what happened. But I want you to put yourself in their shoes just for a moment and they are sitting there with this great question, Was believing in Jesus Christ enough?

Was that enough for us? Or must we now become Jews in order to be saved? And do certain things like being circumcised and keeping the Law of Moses. And that included all the Law of Moses, including the ceremonial law. And there's this time lapse here of them traveling up to Jerusalem to settle this matter.

And those Gentile believers no doubt are at home wondering, what's the answer going to be? Was the gospel that I heard enough? What am I going to do? What are we going to have to do? Do we need to become proselytes?

Do we need to become Jews? Do we need to be circumcised? Do we need to start keeping all of the law of Moses and the sacrifices and all of the stuff that's going on? Or is Jesus Christ enough? And so you can see the danger that was attacking the church.

Not only did they experience that from without, That's what pushed the Gospel from Jerusalem into the other most parts here and into Antioch. But also the dangers from within. From the false teachers or false brethren. And so what I want to do this morning, I'm hoping to bring joy to the church. This is what happened here.

The apostles and through this council at Jerusalem, they brought joy to the church at Antioch and into these other churches in the region. But this morning, it's not just about the church at Antioch, it's about you. I want to bring joy to you this morning. I want to strengthen and encourage you this morning, and I want you to know, and I want you to leave here knowing that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone was enough. You do not have to be circumcised to keep the law of Moses in order to be justified in the sight of God.

And I want that truth just to permeate your thinking and all that you are this morning as we rejoice in God. We've sang rejoicing songs, now let's rejoice in God by His Word and by the encouragement of it. Not only dangers from within the church, but dangers from within the church. They were confronting the church, and these Judaizers came and taught that they had to do these extra things. Paul dealt with this in Galatians.

He said, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, then that which we have preached, let him be accursed." In case you didn't hear what he said, he repeats it. "...as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you, then that which you have received, let him be accursed. There's no other gospel but the gospel of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no gospel in a gospel that teaches that you must complete certain works in order to be justified with God. He says it's not another. What he meant was it's not another of the same kind. It's a different gospel. I'm not here to preach to you a different gospel.

I'm here to preach to you the gospel. The gospel of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul later in Galatians 3 says to them, Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? And listen to this question. This only I want to learn from you.

Paul says I need to learn something from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? This relates so clearly, and I want to skip down just for a moment in Galatians 3, 8, and he says, And the Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, in you all the nations shall be blessed so that those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. This passage in Galatians, really the book of Galatians, just it fits right into here into Acts chapter 15 because he's dealing with the exact issue of the day and of the moment here in Acts 15. And he wanted them to understand.

And we see that in verse eight. I'll go back and look at that in Acts chapter 15 verse eight says So God who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us. He's answering that question that was asked in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 2, Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?" And the answer to that question is the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit by believing. They received Him by faith in the preaching of the gospel. And so this big danger here that had attacked the church from within, from these Judaizers, had come and they were wreaking havoc among these Gentile believers and so I want to present my thesis for you in the form of a question.

How do you bring joy to a church? Specifically, a church that is in a doctrinal disagreement or a doctrinal argument. How do you bring joy to a church when a Judaizer comes in? And again, I know that we don't have many Judaizers coming into our churches. But when a person who brings another gospel comes into your church, how can a pastor, How can the elders and the church leadership bring joy to that church who have had their souls unsettled?

Because that's really what's happened here. You see, These doctrinal arguments, they range in importance and in difficulty and in danger. There's some things that are that are on the extreme end of just secondary tertiary issues that are not quite as important to argue over and to have a counsel over. Okay, we need to let love cover a multitude of sins. Okay, we need to love one another, we need to bear with one another scruples, we need to show long suffering and patience and kindness and all that.

However, there are some things that come into the church that require some serious consideration, some serious debate, and a very strong and clear answer. And that's what we're going to see. And so The first thing I want to answer for you is how to bring joy to a church. You see, when there is unity regarding the gospel of grace, there will be great joy in the church. And so if you wanted to write that down real quickly, church unity brings joy to the church.

Doctrinal church unity I'll add. So look at what he says here he says in verse 22, then it pleased the Apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. You see once the debate was over what we see is a great unity among the church at Jerusalem. That's really the picture here that he's giving to us. We see very clearly that it was not simply the apostles who made the decision, it was not only the elders there at the church at Jerusalem who were in agreement, but he says here that it was the whole church.

It pleased the apostles, the elders, with the whole church. This was a beautiful display of doctrinal unity among a church. Now did it just happen? No, it began with, and we looked at that last time, there was some difficulties there. When Paul and Barnabas got up to the church at Jerusalem there are some believing Pharisees it says who argued in verse 5 it says these Pharisees who believed rose up and that was in the church at Jerusalem saying it's necessary to be circumcised and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

You see false teachers and we'll look at this in a moment, but false teachers are inevitably in almost all churches. There's going to be some form of falsity in someone, but the danger is when that person gets a voice in the church or gathers some ears in the church that will listen. You know, I had a man years ago tell me if you don't like to be dumped upon, if you don't like people to be sharing their garbage with you then then just put up a little sign that says no dumping zone and you don't dump here I don't want to hear your arguments I don't want to hear your your another gospel this false gospel I just want to hear the truth of God's word and I desire unity of the body of Christ. And so it is this church unity that brought joy to the church. That's what led to what we get down to in verse 31.

And when they had read it they rejoiced over its encouragement. It really began with this unity of the body of Christ regarding the doctrine and as we talked about last time it's not just doctrine this was this was attacking the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone that's what was happening here so this wasn't a minor issue This was a big deal and the church came together and they discussed it and they argued over it. They debated over it and then they settled the matter. The Apostles, the elders and the whole church came to an agreement and that agreement included that they would send men, chosen men that we'll talk about. He says this advice, Benson writes, this advice was very acceptable to the apostles and elders who unanimously declared their approval of it.

But not only that, the whole church entered into that unity. I don't know, was there a church vote on this thing? You know, we think about church voting and we think about how much the congregation comes to decide but it seems as if there was some form or some way in which everyone's voice was made known, yes this is the truth and they were unified. There is nothing like the unity of a local church. You see this phrase here that he mentions, it pleased, it has the meaning to seem or to think.

The same phrase is used a couple other times in this passage. And When the church is unified in its doctrine and practice, there will be joy and there will be a pleasing atmosphere among its members. Psalm 133 says this very same thing, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. If you've ever been in a church with a difficulty going on, some doctrinal dispute or somebody trying to draw disciples unto themselves, you know how unjoyful that can be but brothers and sisters when there's unity there is joy it's actually the responsibility of your pastors to work for this unity of the body of Christ that's Scott and I work towards that We are we have this labor that we're doing and it's spelled out for us in Ephesians chapter four. You can read that I'm not going to read all of it but it speaks about how God himself gave some and I'm kind of paraphrasing here.

He gave some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man." You see, that's our job. That's what we are laboring for. We want to give ourselves to bring every one of you sitting here this morning until a perfect, complete, mature, unified body of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know we just came out of the marriage conference and that's actually one of the jobs of a husband is to bring his wife along into unity and wash her with the water of the word where you too. And because it's a picture of Christ in the church and that's what we're working towards as husbands and wives.

We're working towards that. And as pastors in church, we're working towards that. And it's what God has done. And it's beautiful to behold. You know, this is the this is the call of the apostle Paul to the church.

He says this in First Corinthians. Now, I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Can you imagine a setting like that where you all come together with the same mind and the same judgment? That's what was taking place here at this church at Jerusalem. It didn't begin that way.

It began with some arguing and some debating going on and Peter rises up and James comes up and Paul and Barnabas speak and these Pharisees, these false brethren, they come in and they're arguing back and forth but it ends with unity. And sometimes I just want to say there are things that must be argued over. You see, this bad doctrine of the Judaizers, no doubt, did not stay only in Antioch. You see, this poison that had been poured into the church was a poison that spread. This unity you see was not only intended for the church at Antioch.

Verse 23 makes it clear he says to the brethren who are the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. This was a letter that was written to numerous churches. It was to go forth this decree, if you will, or this council here, and their letter was written for them so that it would be something that would guard multiple churches, and it's guarding our church this morning. You see, bad doctrine, this bad doctrine of the Judaizers spread. Bad news always does that.

I mean how quickly does bad news spread around this world? It amazes me. Good news, a little slower. Bad news, light speed. It's just amazing.

It was like a wildfire. It went into the surrounding areas and this letter went forth to put that fire out and to settle the matter once for all. And I think it's important to note that the church did not simply send Paul and Barnabas back with the letter. But they also sent others with them. They had this understanding that they wanted to bring other brethren with them.

They wanted this to be something that was confessional, if you will. It gave more weight to the letter. But the next thing we see in verses 24 through 29 and this is really where I want to spend most of most of our time a little heavy in the middle like some of us you know a little heavy in the middle is where this sermon is going to be like. It is the middle point is going to be a little bigger than the rest of us. So the second thing in verses 24 through 29 is this.

How do you bring joy to a church? Well, I want you to understand that it's necessary to clearly defend the gospel of grace from bad doctrine. It's necessary. You want joy in the church? There's actually going to be a time when you have to take a stand.

It won't happen any other way. A church will be destroyed if you do not stand for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, especially regarding the doctrine of justification by faith. I could say it this way, doctrinal clarity brings joy to the church. You go to churches and it's just kind of a muddled doctrine and everything's kind of squishy. There's not really joy there.

You have a false sense of maybe peace. Yeah, we just kind of get along, go along to get along with it. But when something happens, that church is going to fall to fall apart. It's going to scatter. But you want to bring joy to a church.

Doctrinal clarity is the key. And in verse twenty four, we see that there are false teachers. And I've mentioned this already, these false teachers. It says in verse twenty four, since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words listen to what what happens here they they troubled the Gentile believers But not only did they trouble them, but it says unsettling your souls. Can you sympathize with them or can you put yourself in their position just for a moment?

A doctrine that could come into your church or come in to your wherever your churches are that would trouble you and cause you to be unsettled in your soul. That's what was happening here. In the life of any church there are times when some form of false teaching comes in to a congregation and it's at that time specifically that doctrinal clarity is needed the most. This often as the case is here requires a public defense of the true gospel. Clarity in what the gospel is and and noting and avoiding of the false doctrine and those who brought it.

Peter warns of this in 2nd Peter, he says, but there were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bringing on themselves swift destruction. And it says that these men in this next part of verse 24, He says, since we have heard that some who went out from us, it really resembles a lot what we read in 1 John 2, verse 19, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us. That's what was taking place here. They they went out.

We're not really told why they left the church at Jerusalem but it does say certain men went out from Judea. These certain men went out and they were going to wreak havoc. They wanted to root up. They wanted to trouble souls, specifically Gentile souls. And so the trouble in this case was that the Church of Antioch did not know that these certain men were coming to attack the gospel.

They just thought they were coming from another church. But what they came with was what would trouble their souls. Remembering that the church itself was very young, It had new Gentile converts in it. They did not have the New Testament to turn to and say, Hey, the Apostle Paul says this over in Galatians. He was getting ready to write Galatians, but they didn't have it yet.

And so you can imagine the trouble that this must have brought into their souls. This was why it was so important that the apostles were preaching the Word and writing the epistles and to establish and to defend the gospel of grace. These certain men came in with teachings and what they taught was troubling. It was something that unsettled them. This is what false teachers do.

But listen, the cause of this trouble, literally, they cause great distress with what they taught. The challenge is often that it's not in a boisterous way, but as Scott just told us in Romans 16, this is what Paul says, now I urge you brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. Listen to what he says in verse 18. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. And by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.

False teachers do not come announcing, hey I'm a false teacher. They do not come often arguing in a boisterous way or just like turning over chairs and tables to make their point. They come in like Satan comes in subtly with flattering words and smooth speech. And they want to deceive those who are simple. You know, The Word of God actually gives us as elders the responsibility to raise up, as I said in Ephesians chapter 4, we are to make you a mature and holy people so that you will not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

And I truly believe that if something like that came into this church, that the vast majority of the people in this church would instantly stand up and say, get out of here, you're a false teacher. We're not putting up with that. But there are many churches out there who would not. They're full of simpletons. And I don't mean that ugly, I just mean that in the sense that they are not growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and they could be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

But we need a church who is strong, we need a church that is established. These false teachers, they unsettle and they subvert the souls of those who are simple. Those who are deceived to believe their false doctrine. This idea of subverting or unsettling the soul, it literally means to turn it upside down. It implies throwing it into a state of excitement and agitation.

So these Gentiles had been unsettled by the teaching of the Judaizers. You can surely understand why. Here they are rejoicing in their newfound salvation. They've been filled with the Holy Spirit. They've seen demonstrations of God's Spirit working through miracles and signs and wonders of the apostles.

And they're rejoicing in this salvation. They're experiencing the freedom that they have in Christ, that they've been set free from their sins and that they have a life that is now removed from idolatry and then you have this group of certain men come in from the first church established from Jerusalem and they begin to tell them if you're not circumcised and if you don't keep the law and if you don't do this and do that and do this you cannot be saved. Think about this they said your salvation isn't real. They say you've not been cleansed from your sins, you've not been circumcised. You're not justified in the sight of God, you're not keeping the law of Moses.

They were teaching that justification was a joint effort between God and man. Heresy. Blasphemy. If you Heresy. Blasphemy.

If you Gentiles don't become Jews like us and get circumcised, you cannot be saved. You know, the danger and the attacks upon justification by faith alone, it may have begun right here but it sure didn't end right there. They did have doctrinal clarity which brought rejoicing to the church but brothers and sisters throughout the ages this doctrine is attacked over and over and it comes in all kinds of forms and fashions but I want you to hear something very clearly you are justified with God by faith alone in Christ alone not in any works that you do. Now we talked about this last time we hold the doctrine of justification by faith in this hand, but we don't stop there we do say sanctified by the Holy Spirit working in us, God and man cooperating here. Not here.

This is the work of God alone in justification. But if you are this, you will be this. It is the work of God. It is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And so there's that cooperation.

These two doctrines, as I said, they're distinct but never separate. They're distinct but never separate. They always go hand in hand. There was need, a great need, for men to defend this gospel. That's the need of the hour, brothers.

There's a need for men to stand and to defend the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only in the town square, but also in the church house. There is a need of the hour. Verse 25, it seemed good to us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. Look at the difference there.

You have earlier certain men came in, but now you've got chosen men coming in. You've got chosen men of God who are coming and bringing to this assembled body that God ordained that faithful men not only proclaim the gospel but also defend the gospel. This was Paul's warning to the elders in Acts chapter 20. He says therefore take heed to yourself and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. And he says this, for I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

Also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. This was the heart of the apostle Paul, and this was to be the heart of these elders that Paul was speaking to in Acts chapter 20. They were to be on guard for wolves and sheep's clothing. And that's what we're called to do.

You know it's interesting that in these next few verses they saw what was good, that it was good, excuse me, to begin to stack upon proof upon proof upon proof that what was being said in this letter sent to them was the very truth of God and I want to show you these proofs I've got goodness let's see there's five Let's see how many proofs I have. I have at least five proofs for you that we're going to look at that they established in this letter to show that what they said was the Word of God. And this was this was they were putting their stamp of approval on it. They were saying that this settles the issue. Doesn't mean you'll stop defending it, but this is what the truth is.

Proof number one, they reminded them of the unity of the church regarding this matter. Look at what it says, it seems good to us being assembled with one accord. They wanted to remind them that the first proof of this being the truth was that the entirety of the church at Jerusalem that established this letter and was sending it out, this clear doctrinal statement, this was the first proof that it was from God. Their first proof to validate their defense was the unity of the church. Apostles, elders, and the brethren.

The second proof was this, men chosen by the church. I touched on this just a moment ago. These chosen men, he says, we have therefore sent Judas and Silas who will also report the same thing by word of mouth. We're going to send a letter with Barnabas and Paul, we're going to send Judas and Silas with word of mouth, and they're all going to say the same thing. They're going to declare that clear doctrine that we have determined based upon the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

We'll see that in just a moment. Proof number three, their beloved men, our beloved Barnabas and Paul. That seems like just a little statement. Oh that was nice that they said beloved Barnabas and Paul. That was there to give validation of what Barnabas and Paul had been saying.

These are our beloved Barnabas and Paul. So that was another proof that not only what they were sending in letter, not only what they were going to say with their mouth Judas and Silas, but also what Paul and Barnabas had already said. This was the truth and this was the determination of the church. The fourth proof is this these were tried men or these were proven men. These weren't certain men these were chosen men.

So these were men who had the character that had been tested by fire. Look in verse 26. Men who have risked their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the men who are coming to tell you the truth. Men who have risked their life.

Not only had Paul and Barnabas risked their lives for the gospel, but also these men that were chosen to return with Barnabas and Paul had risked their lives for the sake of the gospel. The weight of their actions added weight to their words. Pastors who are willing to take some heat and take some fire and even be persecuted for the gospel of Jesus Christ, it adds weight to their words when they're willing to stand. Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians. He says, are they Hebrews?

So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.

Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more. And then listen, he says, in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more often, in deaths often from the Jews. Five times I received 40 stripes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night in the day I have been in the deep. In journeys often in perils of water and perils of robbers and perils of our of my own countrymen and perils of the Gentiles and perils in the city and perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea and perils among false brethren.

This brother went through it. I'm not done. In weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides the other things. That hits me. Besides the other things.

Most of us quit with those. Paul went through all of these things, and these other things aren't worth mentioning here, but there's other things besides all of this that I went through for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He says, Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily might listen. Here's part of what comes upon him. My deep concern for all the churches.

And he says, Who am who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation." It burns in your elders heart when we see someone stumble into falsity. When we see somebody weak we we feel weak because we want to make them strong And we don't want them to go the way of being tossed to and fro. But I tell you this, when someone who has lived through difficulty in trials and tribulations, when they speak the word of God, you listen. Proof number five was the Holy Spirit.

Now this I find fascinating. There's a couple things I want to try to pull out here and I hope it makes sense to you. We see right here in verse 28 he says this, For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. That's kind of funny to be and to us. Like you needed to add that if it's good to the Holy Spirit it should be good to all of us right but it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us by the way we'll put our name in there as well to lay upon you no greater burden so this proof of the Holy Spirit so two things that I that I believe will will go together to make a solid case regarding this.

It seems to me that what unified the church is saying that the Holy Spirit had confirmed in some way to them that what they were about to lay upon them in this letter was the will of God. Like they wanted that to be a weight. The Holy Spirit seems good to the Holy Spirit. I believe that being able to say this was in two facets. These are the two things I want to point to.

First, They did have the authority at specific times as apostles to speak, thus saith the Lord. Okay, they had the authority to say that. They had direct revelation from God about certain aspects. Not everything they ever spoke was that way, but when they spoke to the church and when they wrote these epistles, what we have in our Bible, this was thus saith the Lord. Now what I found was interesting is this, it's seen good to the Holy Spirit, it's seen in what Peter had testified earlier in verses 8 and 9.

Turn over to verses 8 and 9 of chapter 15. I've read this once already or twice. So God who knows the heart acknowledged them. He's speaking about the Gentile believers. He acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us.

Peter's saying this. And made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. So what he's saying, what is being determined here is that it seemed good to the Holy Spirit is that the testimony of the Holy Spirit was is that these Gentile believers, God knows their heart, right? Nobody knows your heart, but God knows your heart. God who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit.

Oh, and by the way, Jews, just like He did to you, That's what he's saying. The same way you believed, they believed and God testified to the fact of it. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit to do that. They acknowledged the testimony of the Holy Spirit's approval because that was the stamp that they needed. That was the validation.

Not only that, but God gave the witness of their faith, or the validity of their faith, by working miracles and wonders through Peter and the apostles for the Gentiles. It was not just like you have a person who says, yeah, I've received the Holy Spirit. I've been filled with the Spirit, really. Prove it. It's one of those things where you're like, how can I validate that?

Well, in this instance, it was validated because through the hands of the apostles among the Gentiles, there were signs and wonders and all kinds of things happening. And God was saying, my stamp of approval that the gospel is going to the Gentiles. It needed to happen that way. Okay? It doesn't have to happen that way now.

We have the Word of God. We don't need the same validation that they did in the early parts of the church and in the book of Acts. God wanted a stamp of approval on the Gentiles believing because he was working this great work, the mystery from the foundation of the world, Paul says in Ephesians chapter 3, that this great mystery he was going to make of the two, one new man, he was going to bring Jews and Gentiles together in Christ, and that new thing was called the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, his bride. And that's what God was doing, and he needed to validate that. And he validated that through signs and wonders and that was the testimony that they were true but It is also true that who was writing this letter was partly from the Apostles.

The Apostles had the right and the authority to know what the Holy Spirit was saying. And there was a testimony, it doesn't describe it for us, but I believe that through the outward validation of signs and wonders among the Gentiles that they were saved by faith and in some form they had another validation that the Holy Spirit was pleased with this determination. That's what it says It seemed good to the Holy Spirit. That was a clear statement. That we're good.

If it's good with the Holy Spirit, it's good with me. And so this was that validating point that they had. And so there needed there was this need for clear gospel instruction now. So they had this testimony of all of these proofs laying one upon another that we are saved by faith alone and Christ alone. Our justification is solely the work of Jesus Christ.

Have I said that many times? That you get it now. I want you to hold that thing. Because it's important enough that they had a counsel with and that they were... Paul says you're accursed if you don't believe it or if you preach anything else serious so there was now this need for clear gospel instruction and here's where I want to bring in this sanctification which is never separate from justification.

It's distinct, but it's never separate. And he says this in verses 28 and 29, for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit unto us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things." What's he talking about? Is he saying that in order to be justified you have to do these things? I do not believe so. I believe he is bringing in the doctrine of sanctification and that doctrine of sanctification as it works into the believers life and as you are progressively sanctified you are proving that you were justified.

That's what's happening here. However, this situation was extremely important, especially among idolatrous Gentiles who had just recently come to the faith. Very important. Like you go to Corinthians. What fellowship has light and darkness?

What fellowship has Christ and Belial? Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. That's kind of what he's saying here. Come out from among them and be separate. Don't go back to these former ways.

And he tells them, you abstain from these things offered to idols you abstain from blood from things strangled from sexual immorality and if you keep yourself from these you will do well he didn't say you will be saved but you will do well. I want to point out that they did not leave this issue to Christian liberty. You know there are things that we leave to Christian liberty, Not this. You know some churches want to claim that some Christians want to say that everything is Christian liberty. No it's not.

There are some things that are Christian liberty. But the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of sanctification, when it regards this relationship with sexual immorality and when it involves this situation here of blood and idols and idolatry and idolatrous practices, That's not Christian Liberty. There is a clear statement upon this. Scott preached through a few weeks back in Romans 14. He discussed for us and helped us through that situation of showing love and Christian liberty.

The weaker brother and the stronger brother and how we deal with that. However, this situation was not the time for Christian liberty. This was the time for declaring the clear doctrine of justification by faith alone. These Judaizers were telling these Gentiles that they needed to add works to their lives or they could not be saved. But here we have the apostles and elders and the church instructing the Gentiles that they needed to abstain from certain things, specifically their former practices related to idolatry.

That's what these things are. Abstain from idols, things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. That was just idolatry. That was what they practiced in order to worship their false gods. You can't have Christ in Belial.

You can't have light in darkness. Abstain from these things. Notice the Judaizers, They wanted to say you need to add to your salvation, but here the apostles and the elders come in and say no, we want you to abstain from something. It's not that you need to do something, but if you are justified by faith in Christ, you do need to abstain from things. There are things you can't do as a Christian, and this is some of them, this is not all of them.

Interestingly enough Jesus says the same thing in the book of Revelation to the church at Thyatira he writes nevertheless I have a few things against you Because you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols and then he says this in the next verse I will put and put on you no other burden it's almost the exact same phraseology is that like that's all no there's actually a lot of things that Christ is teaching us, but in this very specific and pointed time, they needed to abstain from these things. They needed because their souls were at stake. It's important to note that the apostles and elders, in agreement with the Holy Spirit, said that if you keep yourselves from these things you'll do well and these are the things that if a Christian participates in does damage to their souls. Don't play around with those things that damage your soul. Boy there's a lot I could say about that and I do not have time for that.

So I do want to go into this last section. I'm not doing all of this justice regarding the abstaining from these things. I think you get the point. It was idolatrous worship and that they needed to abstain from it. And so lastly we come down to verses 33-35 and we see that to bring joy, how do you bring joy to a church?

When the gospel is preached, you bring joy to a church. When the gospel of grace is preached, when the gospel of justification by faith alone and Christ alone is preached, it brings joy to a church. This is where we've been going. Proclaiming the gospel of grace. You see, what did they do?

They came back down, they brought the letter, they brought the brethren, and they're saying the same thing. And they gathered the entire church. So when they were sent off, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter. And listen, and when they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement they rejoiced I find this so encouraging it they came to Antioch they gathered the church And they wanted the church to be together and to rejoice together. You know, they didn't go to this house and tell him and this house to tell him and this house to tell them.

No, they gathered the body of Christ. I want you to understand something. There is something that happens when the body of Christ gathers together to hear the preaching of the gospel together that it brings joy together and encouragement together. God wants us together. That's the unity of the body of Christ and That's the beauty of the gathered church.

You cannot sit at home and only live stream and have this type of joy. This is the joy of the gathered church. They delivered the letter. They read it. Blessed are the feet of those who bring good tidings.

They brought these good tidings, these glad tidings to these Gentile brethren. And when they delivered that letter, they read it and they proclaimed the good news of it. And the church rejoiced over it. Oh, nothing rejoices the heart of a believer as much as hearing the gospel. You know, we are a strange lot.

Can I just say that? We gather together every week, and basically we say the same thing. Not much new here this morning. We say the same thing every week. And you know what we do every week?

We rejoice as if it's the first time we heard it. It's like, wow, this is amazing! We have been saved by the grace of God apart from works. Let's sing a song about it. Rejoice the Lord is King.

Let's sing some good song of rejoicing. It's just wonderful. I love the gospel of grace because it brings joy into the heart. It's the greatest message you could ever hear and it's the greatest message I could ever preach. I really don't have anything else to say to you except that we have been saved by the grace of God apart from works.

It is a glorious, glorious gospel. Notice what it did. They didn't only deliver this letter. You see there were others here that came in. It says, and when they read they rejoiced over its encouragement.

Now Judas and Silas, they wanted to part in this rejoicing. Look at what they did. Themselves being prophets also, after these things were read, after there was rejoicing, this was like multiple, this was like the night of preaching, Scott, where just one man after another just keeps getting up because the message is so glorious. And they say, and exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words. They exhorted, they comforted, they called on.

It's this encouragement of obedience and love and strengthen. The word strengthen is interesting. It means to lean upon something. You don't really think of strengthening that way. But here's how the church is strengthened.

When you lean with all that you are upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what they were doing. That's what these men were encouraging the church to do. Lean on the gospel. Guess what?

You know the world says all Christianity is a crutch. You better believe it is. I'm gonna lean on that crutch that's the crutch that that takes me all the way to glory that's the crutch that says you have been cleansed and forgiven for your sins. Yes I'm gonna lean on it because that strengthens me And you know that they didn't keep it to themselves in verse 33 just quickly jumping through these last ones they went back to Jerusalem you know what great encouragement it is that when you send encouragement and they're encouraged that they tell you they were encouraged doesn't that encourage you that encourages me They continued on in this encouragement and sent their greetings back to Jerusalem and then not only that but these you know these other brethren they continued on we see in verses in verse 35 They continued on teaching and preaching the word of God. It is the design of God to feed and encourage his children through the means of grace, which is the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You want to know how God feeds his sheep? This is it. He continually gives them the encouraging words of the Gospel that they might grow in grace and faith. John Gill says, Paul also in Barnabas continued in Antioch as well as Silas teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord, the Gospel of Christ, not the words of men but the word of the Lord of which he is both the author and the subject. This they preached in season and out of season with power, purity, plainness, and faithfulness.

Do not neglect the normal means of grace, brothers and sisters, the preaching of the Word. They are the source of great joy and great encouragement. Do not neglect them. Three things of application and I will pray. I want you to be careful, number one, to consider how the unity of the church brings joy to the congregation.

And the question is this, how are you working towards that unity, both in doctrine and practice? How are you aiding? Or are you working against the unity? How are you doing that? Number two, consider how doctrinal clarity brings joy to the church.

In what ways do you need to be established in the faith so that your joy may be full. Go back and read Ephesians 4 11 through 16 regarding what the job requirements kind of of elders and the leaders of the church They're doing they're working something in you and that brings clarity that you're not tossed to and fro The happiest people will not be tossed to and fro number three does hearing the gospel of grace Bring you joy there. There may be somebody here this morning as I have heard that before Hey if if you fall asleep in the middle of preaching especially my preaching wow if you fall asleep and I just mean for volume sake is what I'm talking about if you can fall asleep under the gospel of grace are you rejoicing in it if you're not rejoicing here's the question you should ask yourselves why not it's the greatest news ever proclaimed And so I would encourage you to read go back and read what our brother read this morning. I didn't know he was gonna read that it was perfect. John 15 read John 15 and meditate on how the Word of God is intended for your joy.

God said he spoke Jesus said I spoke these things that your joy may be full. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for the Word of God, our joy. Oh Lord, strengthen your church today, I pray, with joy and rejoicing. Make every one of your people Lord mature and walking in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, you've heard our prayers. We have sang prayers. We have preached prayers. We have prayed prayers and we desire Lord that you would answer these prayers. Strengthen your church and increase her joy.

Amen.