ANCHORED IN GOSPEL GRACE - Acts 15:12-21

All right, we got a lot more. Let's go

ahead and open up here. Act in Acts 15.

Acts 15. We're going to be reading

verses 12- 21. That will take us about

halfway through the chapter. If you

remember last week, we enter into this

part of the story of the New Testament

church where really, for lack of a

better phrase, the gospel is online.

Pharisees from Judea have traveled up to

places where the church is vibrant, is

spreading, people are coming to know

Christ as Lord and Savior. And rather

than celebrate what God has been doing,

they begin to contest against what was

doing. And if you remember, they said it

wasn't just Jesus who was enough. It was

Jesus plus obedience to the law. And

what that meant for first century

Christians is it meant that you not only

had to place faith in Christ as your

Lord and Savior, it meant you had to add

to this. And in the context of Acts

Acts 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15, it was Pharisees saying,

"Well, you Gentiles

want to become Christians, then they

need to follow through with that

decision with circumcision."

In other words, they were saying, "If

you want to be a Christian, you need to

become Jewish first."

And of course, we learn that as Paul and

Barnabas hear this, there is public and

serious debate.

They lay it all online. They made it

absolutely clear. It is not Jesus plus

something else. It is Jesus and Jesus

alone. And I want to reiterate that

today. That's the rule of the church as

we proclaim the gospel in his entire

unadulterated unpolluted as Paul later

writes the church in Galatia that it

would be a true gospel not a false

gospel. that we wouldn't point people to

a false sense of conversion to a false

sense of security toward the gospel in

Jesus that is really not gospel Jesus of

God's word and if we ever do that Paul

uses some very strong words he says let

that person be a cursed

Greek is let that person be an let them

be condemned

because when we begin to add to

salvation when we begin to say it's not

just grace alone and Christ alone

through the faith that you're placing in

him. When you begin to add to it, it no

longer becomes salvation. It no longer

becomes the mercy and grace of God

through the son dwelling in us by the

power of the Holy Spirit. It becomes the

salvation of our own. And if we can save

ourselves,

then the gospel is unnecessary. And any

good is fulf.

I will say you are under the delusion of

there is no one who is righteous not

one. What God requires is absolute

perfection.

For you have followed every law. You

have made sure to cross every tease.

And God will accept you. No one no one

apart from the son can fulfill the

righteous requirements of God. We knew a

quick

going through the

terrible.

How many of us have ever dishonored the

name of the Lord?

How many of us have ever bowed down to

an idol?

It it could be anything that gives us

greater influence and a greater sense of

satisfaction over Christ. We are all

guilty of that. How many of us have ever

envyed

coveted something someone else had?

That's all of us. How many of us have

ever committed adultery? And the

scripture said it's not just a physical

act. It's looking at someone and lusting

after them. We are guilty of God's

righteous requirements. So we cannot

save ourselves. This is the point of

scripture. This is Paul's entire

argument as I remind us when he wrote

his letter to the church of Rome.

that we cannot save ourselves that God's

righteous requirements

are not there so that we will strive

after them with the hope that we will

save ourselves but that in our striving

towards obedience in Jesus Christ and

obedience in Bible

is needed in the church today it's

needed in our homes it's needed in our

marriage but Christ is the one who

fulfills all on our behalf to those

brethren because of the church and they

began to say salvation is in your hands.

This is one of those moments where the

early church is really facing this

question that will determine the future

of Christianity.

What must a person do to be saved? Is

faith in Christ enough? Is something

more required? And what we'll notice in

our passage, you know, the moment the

debate rises,

there's tension. Voices go through the

room. There's strong convictions.

But something powerful happens here. I

want us to recognize this.

The room is going to go quiet

as the apostles get up to speak.

And the reason it goes high is because

when God is at work, when God is moving

and navigating, every season and

circumstance of your life, the loudest

voice in the room should never be our

opinion.

It should always be the truth of God's

word.

When you're navigating life, when you're

navigating marriage, your health, your

finances, your relationships, your work,

when you are navigating your life, the

loudest voice should never be what you

say.

It should always be what Christ has

said.

What God has declared in his written

word and in his living word, the son

Jesus Christ. Acts 15.

Let's begin in verse 12. We'll read

verse 21.

Here's what Luke writes.

The whole assembly

became silent

and listen. I love that I have that

highlighted in my Bible.

Often times

>> we can miss what God is doing because

there's a lot of noise in our life.

And often times the noise is the noise

of our own creation.

Our routines we get busy our own

opinions.

But here the scripture says that the

whole assembly became

and it wasn't just what they knew they

listened.

So many of us might have a great

practice of being silent,

but do we have a great practice of

actually listening?

The silence creates space for us to

hear. And then you've heard it phrased

this way. Prayer is not a monologue

between you and the Lord. It's not just

you ushering up your needs, your wants,

your desires, your gains. That's part of

it. But prayer is a dialogue. And what

happens in a dialogue? Two people are

speaking.

One speaks, one listens. You can

guarantee that when you speak, God

listens. But when God speaks, are we

listening?

This is what's taking place here.

So the whole assembly became silent and

they listened to Barnabas and Paul

describe all the signs and wonders God

had done through them among the

Gentiles. Remember what's on the line

here. Can anyone who is not Jewish be

saved?

Well, the apostles are saying yes and

amen.

This is not a new thing. This is going

to be the argument here the in the rest

of the passage. Salvation for the

Gentiles is not a new thing. I need I

need you to hear me. Salvation for the

Gentiles is not a New Testament thing.

It took place in the New Testament, but

this has been taking place since the Old

Testament. This is going to be what is

shown here as a quote from the prophet

Amos.

After they stopped speaking, James

responded. Now, I imagine

what the room would have been like that

they are they are already silent.

They're listening and I imagine James

gets up. Who's James? He's the brother

of Jesus.

And James has a powerful testimony.

You'll read through the gospel stories

instances where the siblings of Jesus

did not believe him. They thought he was

crazy.

There's actually one moment in the

gospel story where Jesus is preaching in

his hometown

and the crowd is not very receptive of

the message and his siblings go out and

they say, "Hey, mom's calling you.

Let's get inside." And and do you

remember Christ's response? Hey, these

this is my family here.

those who do the will of my father, the

people who receive the message, who who

listen to the gospel, who are

transformed by it. Uh historians and

theologians

look at that passage and they look at

elsewhere in the gospel story and they

conclude that the siblings probably had

a hard time believing and understanding

who Jesus was and what he was about. And

then you get to James writing his

letter. And if you've read James's

letter, how does he begin his letter? He

says, "James, a servant of Jesus."

He doesn't say a brother of Jesus. He

very much could have flexed that title,

but he called himself a servant. And and

I can imagine the room here as James

gets up, the crowd begins to lean in.

And what does James say? He says,

"Brothers,

listen to me."

Simeon, who is also Peter. Anytime in

this particular context you read Simeon,

Simon or Peter, it's talking about the

individual Peter.

Simeon has reported how God first

intervene to take from the Gentiles a

people for his name. And the words of

the prophets agree with this. As it is

written, after these things, I will

return and rebuild David's fallen tent.

I will rebuild its ruins and set it up

again. Let me hit the pause button. Kind

of give us some insight as to what's

taking place here. James is quoting the

prophet Amos. In the time of Amos, Amos

prophesied that there was going to come

judgment. There was going to come a

moment when the tent of David, the

people of Israel would be scattered and

it would look like they were on the

brink of extinction and annihilation.

>> And Amos begins to prophesy by saying,

"No, God will rebuild them. God will

bring them back." And we know this

thematically throughout the scripture.

God always preserves for himself a

remnant of people so that the gospel can

continue and the kingdom will thrive. No

matter the scenario, no matter the

circumstance, this is God at work. And I

love how James is pointing back to Old

Testament miracle, signs, and wonders,

Old Testament prophecy, and pointing to

its fulfillment in New Testament church

life. And I've said it so often this way

before. This is what makes being active

and engaged in the church today in 2026

in this cultural climate and the way the

world is going. Now, mind you, the world

is evil, chaotic, and sinful. Headlines

show us this. The news shows us this.

Our social media feeds show us this.

We're no strangers to the evil and the

chaos and the danger and violence that

exists in the world today. Praise God

that we live where we live. And

oftentimes we take that for granted. But

really, if we're truthfully, if we're

being truthful about this, we are

insulated from a lot of the chaos that

happens around the world by virtue of

where we live. Not just in America, but

in Texas and not just in Texas, in South

Texas.

We are insulated

and we're in a bubble that often times

protects us from a lot of chaos that's

happening around the world. I digress.

But what is so fascinating about this is

that we are living in the fulfillment of

prophecy. Prophecy is not a word that is

often used in the Baptist world, but it

is a biblical word. So, we have to deal

with it. We are living in the

fulfillment, the active fulfillment of

prophecy. As we are seeing things

unfold, as we are reaching the end, the

destination to which Christ will return.

We don't know the time. We don't know

when it will happen. It could be today.

It could be tomorrow. It could be 20

years from now. It could be a 100 years

from now. The culture has always been

set up in such a way that the time is

imminent. And that's God's point that we

would look at the world around us and we

would realize, wow, Christ can come at

any moment. And if we live with the

mindset Christ can come at any moment,

then it stirs. The goal is that it would

stir within you and I an urgency.

So at work, at home,

at the marketplace,

there would be such an urgency to draw

people to the gospel, to invite people

into God's kingdom, to share with them

the grace and the mercy and the life

transforming story that we have endured

because of Jesus Christ, that we would

be urgent in how we've shared the

gospel. And this is incredible that

James is pointing back to Old Testament

prophecy and saying we're living in that

New Testament reality.

These things I will return and rebuild

David's fallen tent. I will rebuild its

ruins and set it up again. Yes and amen,

James. I can imagine the Pharisees

saying yes and amen.

So that watch this in verse 17.

So that the rest of humanity

may seek the Lord. Even all the Gentiles

who are called by my name, declares the

Lord who makes them known from when?

From long ago.

God has always had a plan to save the

nations.

He's chosen to bring salvation to the

world through the nation of Israel. And

when I say nation of Israel, I'm not

talking about a country with geographic

borders. We're talking about a people

who have been called by God. This is how

God has moved since eternity past. He

chose a people to bring about the savior

of the world so that anyone who calls

upon his name in faith

can have their lives transformed, can

have your sins forgiven. And let me just

hit the pause button here for just a

moment so that I I would share this with

you.

That means right now where you are, if

you call upon the name of the Lord in

faith, and if you recognize that apart

from his saving grace, you will be

eternally lost in your sin, that apart

from his fatherhood over your life, you

remain a child of Satan. And if you turn

from wickedness and you turn to his

mercy in grace because the spirit has

awakened you out of death and sin and is

bringing you to life eternal when you

call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

Paul writes this in Romans 10. You will

be saved. You can leave here knowing

that you are a child of God. That you

are his son and you are his daughter.

And no evil in your life, no past

mistake, no background, no familiar

history, no heritage that has been dark

can keep you from the love of God that

is in Christ Jesus. That's the lamb of

God who's come to take away the sins of

the world. And he's taken the payment on

your behalf. He's paid for it on

Calvar's cross so that the rest of

humanity, as James quotes Amos here in

verse 17, may seek the Lord. Are you

seeking the Lord today?

Are you seeking his direction? Are you

seeking his rescue? Are you seeking his

guidance in your life? And I don't just

mean for this hour and a half that we

meet.

Are you seeking the Lord during business

deals with a client? Are you seeking the

Lord as you take your kids to practice?

Are you seeking the Lord as you shop for

groceries? Are you seeking the Lord in

every area of your life? Because God

should never be compartmentalized.

And this is the mistake that we fall

into. We compartmentalize Jesus. He's

Lord and Savior over this. He's Lord and

Savior over that. But we want to hold on

to a piece of our life where we're in

control. And often times that might work

for a minute because the devil might

grant you success for a minute to stir

your focus away from the Lord.

But at the end, as the scripture

declares, pride becomes the folly of

man. That means it becomes our downfall.

And there's a way that seems right to

us, but it ends in death. That's what we

read in Proverbs.

And the reason it seems right is because

the devil grants us temporary success.

But at the end of days,

when it's all said and done,

where is our hope, faith, and trust?

Let's go to verse 19. Therefore,

in my judgment, this is James speaking,

we should not cause difficulties for

those among the Gentiles who turn to

God.

James is telling the Pharisees, "Why are

you making it difficult for people to

place faith in Jesus?" We talked about

this a little bit last week. Do you

remember? We do the same thing today.

You don't look like me. You don't dress

like me. You don't worship like me. You

don't live your life the same way I live

my life. You cannot be a Christian. You

don't vote the way I vote. You don't

like the same type of people that I

like. You cannot be a Christian. And

that makes this judging jury over

people's eternity.

But James is making it absolutely clear

that it's God and God alone. Verse 20,

it might get confusing here, but we're

going to unpack verses 20 and 21.

But instead, we should write to them to

abstain from things polluted by idols.

from sexual immorality, from eating

anything that has been strangled, and

from blood. For since ancient times,

Moses has had those who proclaim him in

every city and every Sabbath day he is

read aloud in the synagogues. We're

going to break that down here in just a

moment. And all God's people said,

>> "Lord, bless your word. Holy Spirit,

would you stir our hearts?"

There's a lot happening here

and perhaps you can sense the passion

and the tension

that is taking place in this council.

Now, as we mentioned last week, I want I

want to make one thing absolutely clear.

It was not the council

determining

what would save an individual. It was

the council affirming

how God had already been saving people.

We need to understand that it wasn't men

saying, "We make the determination on

how people are saved." No, it was godly

men gathering together, looking over the

course of history, using God's word and

precedents in scripture as their guide

to say, "We're not determining this.

We're affirming and stepping into

agreement with how God has already been

working." And what we see from scripture

in this debate, God has been working on

anyone who comes to him in faith. And so

it is God who saves and God who saves

alone through the son.

Paul and Barnabas, we see strongly

oppose

this Jesus plus anything else argument.

We learned last week Peter stood up and

Peter testified how God makes no

distinction. Peter recounts the story of

the Holy Spirit falling upon Cornelius

and by extension symbolizing the Holy

Spirit indwelling the gentile people.

And here we're moving towards

resolution. And what we see

is the church must think the way that

you and I must think, the way you and I

must approach life. We must follow the

pattern of scripture.

How we formulate beliefs, how we are

shaped and molded by ideals must never

be about our opinion or what we think.

It must always be rooted and founded on

God's word. This is part of the point

of why men are not determining how

salvation happens. It's men

acknowledging the way God has always

been at work. And so here's what I want

to do. We're going to go back. We're

going to reference some verses through

our passage.

And and here's what I want to draw out

of us. How we are to think clearly when

things become complicated. Anybody ever

dealt with complications in life?

Anybody ever dealt with complications in

God's word? Well, how do we deal with

it? We learn to think clearly. How do we

think clearly? We dwell on God's word.

Randy read from Romans 12 this morning

in our worship meeting. We talked about

Paul's letter to the Philippians.

Whatever is true, whatever is

trustworthy, whatever is noble,

think on such things. Whatever is worthy

of praise, think on such things. That

not that's not just for the sake of

feeling good.

It's for the sake of forming

our thoughts and the patterns of our

hearts, our devotion

because your life will follow what you

hold as a treasure. Which is why Jesus,

you'll remember this in the sermon on

the mount in the Gospel of Matthew,

he'll say, "Where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also."

It's not where your heart is, that's

where your treasure will be. No, it's

it's where your treasure is, there your

heart will be also. So, what does that

tell us? That means I need to lead my

heart. I need to tell my heart this this

is what we're going to treasure.

Not the things of this world, at least

not above this. This is what I'm going

to treasure. And if I constantly remind

myself and I'm forming within myself

through spiritual disciplines and

spiritual practices,

then I begin to reshape my thoughts and

my heart and my devotion is aimed. You

have to aim. We have to aim our devotion

because if we are not intentional in

aiming our devotion towards the gospel

of Jesus Christ by default we aim our

devotion towards rebellion against the

gospel of Jesus Christ. That's our

default setting.

So what do we need? We need to be

intentional in aiming at We'll talk

about that as we get to verses 20 and

21.

But how do we think clearly when things

get complicated? How do we stay faithful

when the voices of the world get loud?

And how do we protect the gospel?

This is not an overstatement. Did you

know the gospel is under attack?

It has always been under attack. The

enemy shot the arrow in the book of

Genesis in chapter 3. You remember the

encounter? The devil takes on the form

of a serpent. He tempts Eve. She takes

the forbidden fruit. She eats, she gives

it to Adam. He eats of the forbidden

fruit. And what happens? Sin enters the

cosmos. The universe is shattered

because of sin. And now we are in the

process of what? Of God making things

new. He's making things new.

And so, how do we protect the gospel?

Here's what I want to do. I want to give

us three anchoring points that we learn

from the text. If you are taking notes,

here's the first one. Pay attention to

what God is doing. We have phrased this

in so many different ways here at the

Grove. Things like remember the works of

God. Acknowledge how God is moving. We

need to pay attention to what God is

doing. Look back with me in verse 12.

The whole assembly became silent.

And what? Listen.

That silence is not accidental.

It's intentional

because wisdom, spiritual wisdom, to be

able to determine what is truth versus

what is a lie. Who is the real Jesus?

What is the real gospel? To be able to

understand that and to point to it and

to defend it takes wisdom.

And wisdom begins when you and I stop

talking long enough to listen.

You know, there's the old elementary

saying, all right, you learn this in

school. Says, "God gave you two ears and

one mouth so that we would listen more

than we speak."

The New Testament picks up on this and

says, "Be quick to listen

and slow to speak and slow to become

angry." Are we listening? And I love

this. I I want to point this out at at

the latter part of verse 12. Paul and

Barnabas

describe all the signs and wonders God

had done through them. What phrase do

you notice in there?

God had done.

Who did the work? God. What's the entire

argument here about salvation? God does

the work. Not their strategy, not their

message, not their brilliance, not their

opinion, but God's work. And and here's

the point that I want to draw out of

this. When you are trying to discern

truth, when you're trying to understand

the voice of God in your life and how

God is moving and how God is working,

what do we take from the text? We don't

start with our preference. We don't

start with our opinion. We start with

what God is doing.

This is how we formulate right worship.

This is how we formulate right thinking.

Not what I want.

Not what I prefer. But but what is God

doing? And notice that when James gets

up, how does he point to what God's

doing? He says, "Well, let's look at the

prophets. LET'S LOOK AT THE OLD

TESTAMENT. Let's see how God has been

working then. Because God who is the

same yesterday, today, and forever more.

The Lord who does not change. How he

worked then is the same way he's working

now. He is drawing people to his

kingdom. Church, are you paying

attention to what God is doing?

Are you acknowledging his hand in your

life? Or are we so blinded by personal

preference and desire

that we are blinding our own spirits?

that we're blinding ourselves to the

work of God in our lives.

Because this is precisely what happened

with the Pharisees.

If you were a Pharisee

in the synagogue among the Jewish

people, the assumption was you had a

clear understanding of God's word.

So it would be safe to assume that the

Pharisees would have known the writings

of Amos, would have known the exact

prophecy, the exact truth that James was

pointing back to that they would have

known that. But they don't

because what do we know primarily about

the uh the Pharisees in the life and

ministry of Jesus? They made it about

themselves.

They made it all about their

preferences, what they wanted to do as

opposed to what God is doing. They

didn't pay attention, which is why they

missed the Messiah.

And when you miss the Messiah, what

happens?

You rebel against him. You become

disobedient to his rule and to his law.

Let me look at some application for us.

There there are times in your life

when God will move in ways that

challenge your categories. What do I

mean by that? Maybe people you didn't

expect, maybe places you didn't

anticipate, maybe things that don't fit

into your particular system of doing

things. And the question then becomes,

will you resist God

because everything is different or will

you recognize him moving? The Pharisees

resisted. They didn't they didn't they

did not want to step into what God was

doing. So, we need to be careful

that we do not reject God

because things don't look like what we

expect.

But experience alone is not enough. I

would never stand up here and say your

experience needs to shape your truth

because experience can oftenimes be

misinterpreted. Right? Have you ever

looked at something in your life and

used your experience to be the lens by

which you determine truth? That that's

not the way this goes. The truth of God

needs to be the lens by which you

interpret your experience.

And so often it's vice versa. So here's

the second thing that we see. Not only

should we pay attention to what God is

doing, we need to submit to what God has

said. Well, Roland, how can I submit to

what God has said? You need to know what

God has said.

And let me just challenge us with this.

Sitting in here for an hour and a half,

hearing songs sung, engaging with the

lyrics of the song, sitting in Bible

study for 45 minutes to an hour, that's

not enough time.

This God's word needs to be a daily part

of your life. Well, Roland, I don't have

the time. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. You

got time to scroll social media. You got

time to read the latest headline. You

have time. And here's the reality of it.

We make time for the things that we

value. And so, I would challenge us with

this. It's not that we don't have time

because we have time. It's it's that we

don't place a high priority on God's

word.

We don't place enough devotion on God's

word. If I love my wife, and I love my

wife, if you are close to me, if you're

in my circle, you know I love my wife,

man. I love her like no other.

She She angers me like no other. But

that's true for all marriages

because I love her like no other. You

know, this is a whole other sermon. This

is why this is why God's a this is why

God's a jealous God.

He has he has a a righteous jealousy for

our devotion in worship. I'm not talking

about a jealousy that leads to anger,

but a jealousy that is rooted in

devotion. Why? Because he loves us like

no other.

I am his and he is mine. I love my wife

like no other. And because I love her

like no other, I want to serve her. I

want to honor her.

I want her to know that she's first. My

kids know that my wife comes before

them.

I want to do those things because I love

her. Because I've made a covenant before

the Lord to devote myself to her. The

problem is we don't love Jesus like

that.

Which is why this thing gets opened up

on a Sunday and it stays closed the rest

of the week. Which is why we'll say yes

and amen to something we heard during a

Bible study. But this is ineffectual in

our lives the rest of the week. It's a

devotion problem. It's a commitment

problem. It's not a time problem.

And what the apostles are doing here,

they're saying we must submit to what

God has said. Well, how do we know what

God HAS SAID? YOU GOT TO have yourself

in God's word. This is how God speaks to

us. And so, so notice what happens here.

Let's go back to the passage. Let's go

back to verse 13.

James stands up and what does he do?

This is the equivalent of James standing

up and saying,

"We've paid attention. Paul and Barnabas

have told us to pay attention to what

God is doing." And this is the

equivalent of James saying, "Now open up

your Bibles to the book of Amos

and let's look at what God has said."

And when you match up what God has said

to what God is doing, it further

strengthens the reality of the

situation.

And therefore, they affirm, they affirm

the truth of salvation through grace. So

James opens up the scriptures. He quotes

from the prophet Amos. Why? And I want

us to hear this. Because in moments of

confusion, church,

we must be anchored in God's word.

The world's going to confuse us. The

world's going to throw a curveball our

way. The world's going to try and trick

us to make us think that, well, the

Bible really doesn't have anything to

say about marriage. The Bible really

doesn't have anything to say about life.

The Bible really doesn't have anything

to say about identity and sexuality and

everything else that we see the world

turning and perverting that is founded

and rooted in God's word. The world will

tell us, you can create your own

definitions. You can make it serve you.

But no, James gets up and says, "Well,

let's see what God's word says. Let's

let let's

understand that God has the final say."

Now, you may walk out of here and you

might disagree with that, and you're

free to do that,

but your opinions will only get you so

far in life.

family struggle, marriages struggle,

life gives us struggles because we

follow our own preferences more than we

follow what God has said. Now what does

James say? It says after they stop

speaking, James responded, "Brothers,

listen to me." And it's not because

James thought very highly of himself.

James writes his own letter and calls

himself a servant of the Lord.

But it's because James knew the truth of

God's word. And when you know the truth

of God's word, please hear this. You can

be confident

on God's word. Which is why James says,

"Listen to me." Simeon, who's Peter, has

reported how God first interveneed to

take the Gentiles a people for his name.

And the words of the prophets agree with

this. As it is written, after these

things, I will return and rebuild

David's fallen tent. I will rebuild its

ruins and set it up again so that the

rest of humanity may seek the Lord. Even

all the Gentiles who are called by my

name, declare, declares the Lord who

makes these things known from long ago.

I think this is where people often get

it wrong is we elevate our experiences

over God's truth.

And the result is we ignore what God is

doing because it doesn't fit our

preference or our interpretation.

You ever heard of the phrase

cherry-picking God's word? That means

you open up God's word and you say, "Hm,

love your enemies. Forgive those who

hurt you." Depending on how you're bent,

you may say, "I receive that. Of course,

I want to forgive people who hurt me."

Or you might say, "Ain't no way I'm

forgiving people. I I'm a grudgeholder,

and there's nothing they can do to make

me forgive them." We we we cherrypick.

intimacies reserved for those men and a

man and a woman in the covenant of

marriage. And we say, "No, I want to do

what feels good to me. I want to live

out my own desires." And we cherrypick.

But when our eyes are open to God's work

and our hearts are anchored in God's

word,

if it contradicts scripture, it's not

from God.

But if they match, then that's a truth

that we can lean on. So, one more thing.

They've listened to God's work. They've

submitted to God's word. Now, what do

they do? They decide, what do we do with

this? Remember, they're not the decision

makers of how salvation happens. They're

acknowledging of of how salvation has

worked throughout the history of God's

people. And so, what do we conclude?

Here's the last and final thing. We're

called to protect the gospel and to

pursue unity. That's what we're called

to do. And this is what James

articulates here in verse 19 uh on

through verse 21. He says, "Don't make

salvation harder than it is. Don't add

requirements. Don't make it about your

preferences. Don't build barriers. Don't

burden people

with things that they must do that have

already been fulfilled in Jesus." Now,

notice how James unpacks this point.

Verse 19. Therefore, in my judgment, we

should not cause difficulties for those

among the Gentiles who turn to God. But

instead, we should write to them to

abstain from things polluted by idols,

from sexual immorality, from eating

anything that has been strangled, and

from blood. For since ancient times,

Moses has had those who proclaim him in

every city. And every Sabbath day, he is

read aloud in the synagogues. Now, if

you're like me, you read that and YOU'RE

LIKE, "WHOA, WHOA, WHOA.

Weren't they just saying you don't add

anything to the gospel?

And now James is saying we should be not

doing these things. What's happening

here? And so this is where a very clear

distinction needs to be made because

this is a massive statement that James

is making. And one thing that is helpful

for us, I know this is helpful for me.

One thing that is helpful for us is when

we read God's word, we need to

understand it was written in a

particular time for a particular people

in a particular culture.

We live in western society

millennia removed from when this took

place. So there will be things that if

we're not careful, we'll interpret from

a western lens. The Bible doesn't speak

to Western culture. The Bible speaks

from eastern culture and the majority of

us unless we've studied it, unless we've

traveled abroad in the eastern part of

the world, we're very unfamiliar with

eastern culture. And because we're

unfamiliar with eastern culture, we get

to things like this and it doesn't make

sense to to how we approach English, how

we approach history, how we approach

geography through western eyes. So this

is a massive statement. Let's unpack it

real quick so that we get some clarity.

Salvation is through grace alone. That

is it. There's nothing that we do or

don't do that merits salvation. It is

the work of Jesus Christ that has

already been settled when James says,

"Let's look at what God has done." When

Paul and uh let's look at what God has

said and Paul and Barnabas say, "Let's

look at what God has done." And they

match up. So, what is taking place here?

James is now bringing to the surface

things that offended Jewish people, that

offended their sense of identity, that

offended their consciousness, that

offended them.

So James is saying, "Hey, you're free in

terms of salvation. You're saved only by

the grace of God. You're walking in

liberty." Now, Paul will say it this way

elsewhere in the New Testament. All

things are permissible, but not

everything is beneficial.

So therefore, I won't be mastered by

anything. Le let's put some orange

grove, Texas uh uh contextualization.

Maybe you guys may maybe we'll have a

conversation after this.

Alcohol

Christians,

I'm trying to phrase this correctly. You

know where I'm going with this. It is

okay for Christians to drink alcohol.

Some of y'all are saying, "Amen,

preacher.

It is not okay to get drunk."

This is a big argument in the New

Testament because the New Testament

says, "If you're going to get drunk, be

drunk in the spirit. If you're going to

be influenced by something, be

influenced by the spirit." Now, listen,

that needs to challenge some of us.

Some of us, we're getting drunk every

weekend.

And maybe you have to put the bottle

away. Maybe maybe that's just the thing.

You have to put it away so that you

won't get drunk. So that you won't lose

your senses. So that you'll still be in

your right frame of mind. This is this

is this is a great example of what James

means here. Like yeah, you're free.

You're free to drink alcohol,

but would you go and drink alcohol if

your brother struggles with alcoholism?

Like would you say, "Hey, come over to

the house. I'm going to crack open some

Weller and you can just sit there and

watch." You say, "Oh, I know what the

preacher likes now." Some of y'all got

that. Don't think too much into that.

No, we wouldn't. Why? Because we don't

want to offend the sensibilities. Now,

you and I should never be mastered by

the weakest person in the room. And

there are some people weak in faith that

it leaks over into legalism to say,

"Well, then don't do this. Don't do

this. Don't do this. Don't do that."

James is not saying that that we should

be mastered by the weakest person in the

room. What James is bringing to light

here is, hey, we want to pursue unity.

And so, for the sake of unity in the

church and among God's people, I might

have to limit my freedoms.

I might have to say, I prefer one style

of worship, but for the sake of reaching

young people in our community,

I'm going to say, I love what we do. I'm

glad that young people are coming to

this church. I'm glad that there are

things that are drawing them in. I'm

glad they're being pointed to the

gospel. You are free, but use your

freedom wisely.

Don't use your freedom to compromise the

gospel. And don't be careless with your

brothers and sisters. And so, let let me

just land the plane now. There are

things that we must never compromise. We

must never compromise the gospel. We

must never compromise the sufficiency of

Christ. We must never compromise

salvation by grace alone. We must stand

firm and we will never, let me tell you,

we will never budge on those issues.

But there are other areas of life where

you may need to limit your Christian

freedoms and your Christian liberties.

And the question that birthed out of

that is, am I more am I more committed

to my rights or am I more committed to

the body of Christ?

You are free in Christ, but your freedom

was never meant to be selfish.

It must be surrendered.

The gospel frees

you.

And James calls us to unity. That's why

he says, "Hey, with our Jewish brothers,

abstain from things polluted by idols,

from sexual immorality." Now, that's a

given. From eating anything that has

been strangled and from blood. For

unity's sake, James is urging his

Gentile brothers to honor his Jewish

brothers and sisters.

Now, I don't know what that looks like

for you. That's all contextual. You have

different relationships that you walk

in. That's going to look different for

everyone. The point is we understand

what salvation is and then we understand

how it then transforms us as we minister

to the world around us. Would you pray

with me? Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you for the moments to gather

today. And I pray, Father, that you

would just continue to move and stir

hearts and lives in this place.

And God, I pray that

that you would just remind us constantly

that salvation is available

that anyone who calls upon your name in

faith that is drawn to you in faith by

the work of the spirits can leave here

transformed. All this we ask in Christ's

name. All those people said, "Amen."

Hey, would you stand to your feet? Let's

close our service. Let's sing together.

Our altar will be open. This is a time

of response for you. If God is stirring

you and you want to have some one-on-one

time with the Lord in prayer, Pastor

Eric and myself will be available if you

would like one of us to pray with you.

We are available to come before the Lord

together and to thank him for our

blessings and to pray for whatever need

you may have. I love you, church.