Latest / Desoto Hills Baptist Church / SUNDAY - NOVEMBER 16, 2025 "God's Grace Brings Salvation" Acts 15:1-19

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SUNDAY - NOVEMBER 16, 2025 "God's Grace Brings Salvation" Acts 15:1-19 · Desoto Hills Baptist Church

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 a.m.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: God bless.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Favorite Bibles this morning will be in Acts chapter 15.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look at the first 19 verses of Acts chapter 15.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: As you're turning there, you know, not too long ago, uh we um I hate to use celebrated because it's one of my least favorite nights of the year.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: So let me say recognized, maybe.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Halloween.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: And uh many of you, including my family, we went trick-or-treating.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: My kids love getting the candy and all of that.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: But but that's also another big day in the history of the church.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you recognize that, but but many, many celebrate October the 31st as Reformation Day.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was it it was the day that that Martin Luther went to the church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nailed his 95 theses on the doors of the church in Wittenberg.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: So let me tell you a little bit about the Reformation and what that is, because you hear people talk about it all the time.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: You you may not know what's going on.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: The Reformation was a time where many people within the church began to rise up against uh the Roman Catholic Church.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: And their reasons for doing that was it seems, it would it seemed to them and at the time in the life of the Catholic Church, they it seemed that the church was more interested in attaining power and raising up empires than it was, than it was about doing ministry within their local communities.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: It would even seem that many of the leaders of the church at that time, at least, were more interested in keeping people in darkness than they were bringing them to the light.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And there were people who recognized this and and and really wanted to change that, Martin Luther being one of those.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: So on October the 31st of 1517, he went, as I've already said, to the church there in Wittenberg and nailed his 95 theses on the door there.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you a little bit about who Martin Luther was.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther was a monk, and he was a monk who hated the God of the Bible.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you say, what?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: How?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let me explain a little bit.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: At that time, Martin Luther was not a monk who really studied the Bible, he was just one who heard people talk about it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: So what Martin Luther began to do was to study the Bible for himself.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Interestingly enough, as he studied, he found Jesus.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it changed everything.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Changed everything for him.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Changed the way he approached the Bible, it changed the way that he approached God.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And he learned something significant about himself and about the world.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: He learned that there was nothing he could do to change the evil in the world.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: There was nothing he could do to even change the evil within himself.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Only Jesus could do that.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: So what he began to do was to depend more and more and more upon Jesus.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: There are really two distinctives reading and studying.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: R.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: C.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sproul recognized there's really two distinctives of the Reformation.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: The first one is really dealt with authority.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther asked the question of who, and not just Luther, but people like Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin and other reformers, they would ask the question of who has who can who has the authority to say what is true?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Is it the Pope?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Is it the priests?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Or is it the Word of God?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Who carries that authority to say what is true?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: They also dealt with how to reconcile who we are with who God is, who we are as people, because we are, as Luther, we've already said about Luther, we are evil, and in and of ourselves we are we are not good.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: So how do we reconcile that with a good and holy God?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: How do we bring those two things together?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And what the reformers really found is this Scripture carries authority.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Since the time of Jesus, since the time of the apostles, all authority has been found in Scripture.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, that's why, in just a little bit, when we stand up and I read Scripture, I'm gonna ask you to stand and read Scripture.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's some significance in that.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Part of that significance is this authority is not found in my words that I proclaim from here.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Authority is found in God's word that we're gonna read from here.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we stand to recognize that.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: So the reformers found that who can say what is true?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Scripture says that.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Also, when we're trying to reconcile God with man and who we are, only Jesus can bring that reconciliation.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: He is the only one.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: There's no other things.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you say, Grant, why are we spending so much time talking about the Reformation?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's very interesting.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Reformation was 1517, and about 1,500 years earlier, the early church was going through some of the same things.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the same things.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: What we find in our passage today is Paul and Barnabas had proclaimed Jesus Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And Gentiles were accepting this gospel, but people were coming up and following behind them, saying, Oh, no, no, no, no, hold on, hold on.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Before you can become a Christian, you've got to be circumcised and adhere to the law of Moses.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: They were adding to the gospel.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: So this dissension arose within the church.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul and Barnabas, it tells us they're they're discussing, having discussions and debates over what is true.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so the church is going to send them to Jerusalem, to the Jerusalem, to the church at Jerusalem to figure this out.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Say, why send them to Jerusalem?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the apostles are still there.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: By and large, the apostles are still at the church.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: There are elders at the church of Jerusalem who knew who Jesus was, one being his half-brother James.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so they send them to the church.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: But after this council, really the apostles are going to leave.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: There's not going to be another council like this in Jerusalem again.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: So they're going to answer this great question of the dissension that is going on in between them.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Are people saved by becoming adhering to the law and then to Jesus or just by adhering to the gospel?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Are we saved by grace alone, through faith alone?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: So what's going to happen today is the apostles and the elders, Paul and Barnabas, they are going to testify to the salvation that it is a gift of God's grace.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, and we need to stop and we need to be careful to recognize that as well.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, while our words may contend that yes, we are saved by grace alone, and seeing this room, you would probably proclaim that and say that, but sometimes not just through our words, but through our actions, through things that we do, we don't necessarily believe it.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: By the things that we do, by the way that we read scripture, by the way that we sing, by the reasons that we have for coming church, would testify more that we believe there's something more to it.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: But what we need to recognize, what we must recognize, is that we must live under the grace of God for salvation, for sanctification.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And not only must we live under that grace, but we must proclaim that same grace to the world around us.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: So the challenge for us today is this just live under the grace of God.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Live under that grace that we just sang about.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: That Jesus is mine.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: I was a slave, but I've been set free.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Today we're gonna seek to do that by answering this question: how did these men witness and testify to salvation by the grace of God?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna ask you this morning if you are able to stand with me as we read God's word together.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 15, we're gonna start in verse 1 and read down through verse 19.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you're circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: The apostles and elders were gathered together to consider this matter, and after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our focus nor we have been able to bear?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: After they finished speaking, James replied, Brothers, listen to me.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And with these words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, After this I will return and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: God, we do thank you for your word and the truth that it brings to us.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: God, we thank you that you have revealed yourself to us through your word.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that you have sent your Holy Spirit among the apostles, among the Gentiles, and among us as well.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Father God, we pray that you work in our lives, that you illumine our hearts, that you enlighten our hearts to know you through your word.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: God help us.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus, it's in your name we pray.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: So again, we come to the question of how did these men witness, how did these witnesses testify?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: How did they testify to the grace of God for salvation?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as they arrived in Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas and these others, we we saw that they came to the church and the church befriended them, accepted them, came in, and they they began this discussion we see in chapter, and not chapter in verse 6, that they were gathered to consider the matter.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 7, after they had been, there had been much debate.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Much debate.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Peter stood up and he addressed the crowd.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now Peter recognized that Peter is representing a group here.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: He's representing the apostles, those 12 who had walked along beside Jesus and who had been with him during his ministry.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Peter stands up and he is speaking for them.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Peter has become the spokesperson for them.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: We saw that pretty early on.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Peter became that spokesperson for the apostles, so he he stands up and he begins to speak.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter immediately, immediately goes back to Cornelius.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about Cornelius in the book of Acts.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, it was Cornelius who was the Gentile who God said, Send for Peter, and he's going to tell you how you can be saved.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he sent for Peter, and Peter came, Peter preached to them, and the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles there in Cornelius' house and saved them.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Peter is immediately going to be drawn back and speak of that event.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: He does it in verse, in verses 7 through 9.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And he has made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: So Peter addresses going to Cornelius' house, but there's three things that we I want you to see about this address that Peter says when he comes and he talks to them about going to Cornelius' house.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: The first thing that I want us to see that it this was God's choice for Peter to go to the Gentiles.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: God chose that.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Peter didn't pick it.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: The apostles didn't pick it.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: God chose it.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: He says right there, he says, brothers, you know in the early days, God made a choice among you.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: God made this choice to send Peter to Cornelius' house so that Gentiles could be saved.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: God made the choice for the Gentiles to hear the gospel.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: God made the choice for the Gentiles to believe in the gospel.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: God chose them.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: We see that all throughout Scripture.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: We see him choosing Israel.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: We see all of that.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: So now here we see Him doing that as well among the Gentiles.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was God's choice to send Peter.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Second, not only was it God's choice, but it's God's witness that caused them to believe.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 8.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Who bore witness?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know it's Peter speaking.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: I know he sent Peter and Peter spoke, but who bore witness?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: God bore witness to them.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: God revealed himself to them.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: God spoke to them through Peter.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was God's choice here in this matter.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was God's witness in this matter.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then we see God's gift to the Gentiles in this because he bore witness and sent the Holy Spirit to them.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Just as he had sent to the Jews, just as he had sent to the Samaritans, now he sends to the Gentiles this great gift of the Holy Spirit.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: So Peter, as he stands up and addresses this crowd, he immediately speaks of his experience and how God had moved, how God had moved among the Gentiles at Cornelius' house.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: But after he goes to Cornelius, something interesting happens in verses 10 and 11.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because he talked, begins to talk about the yoke of the law.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 10 and 11.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now understand, listen what Peter is saying here.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: He says, what we're doing, as he addresses his craft, what we're doing is we have been given this yoke of the law.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: It is the law that is that was given to Israel so that we could be in relationship with God.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: But here's the problem nobody's kept it.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody has been unable to keep it.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: No one outside of Jesus has kept the law.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so it has not just become, it is not, it has become more than a way into relationship with God.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: It has become a yoke.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: It has become a burden that the patriarchs of old, Moses, Joshua, go through the list.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: David.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: None of them have ever been able to keep the law.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, not only were they unable to keep the law, guess what?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: We have failed at it as well.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: So why?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Why are we putting this yoke that we are unable to keep upon them?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then he comes to verse 10.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: But we believe that we have been saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Peter says, listen, we're not saved because we kept the law.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because we haven't kept the law.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Salvation didn't come by the law for them because nobody kept it.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: We weren't saved by the law.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: We weren't saved by keeping the law.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: So why would we put that on them?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: We have been saved.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Peter said, as Jews, we have been saved by the grace of God that Jesus came and that he kept the law perfectly, that he died in our place, that he arose for us and gave us victory over sin.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: He gave us victory over death.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: He gave us victory over those things.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: He kept it perfectly.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now we are saved by the grace of him.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Just as the Gentiles will be saved by the grace of God.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Just as you and I are saved by the grace of God.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then I love what happens in verse 12.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: It says, and all of the assembly fell silent.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: You understand that.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: We have enough sports fans to understand this.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when your team's playing really good and you're all excited, and then momentum shifts and it changes and it goes from, yeah.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Reminds me, my senior year at MC was the fall of 1999.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: I was dating a girl from that went to school at Ole Miss.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I was at Mississippi College, but I was a Mississippi State fan, and we decided to do something really romantic and go to the egg bowl that year.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Went to the egg bowl that fall and sat by each other, and it was the year Ole Miss that they really dominated the game throughout the whole game.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Winning throughout most of the game.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And this this girl that I was dating at the time, it wasn't Amber.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was not Amber.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: This girl that I was dating at the time, she didn't talk trash, but she was very excited.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: The whole game.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: But then within the fourth quarter, really within the last few minutes, Mississippi State came back and won that game.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't talk trash.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: No, I didn't.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: But can I say that car ride back to Pontiat was quiet?
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: A hush.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: A hush fell over them.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then Paul and Barnabas began to speak.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Paul and Barnabas spoke of the signs and the wonders that God had done through them.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: We won't have to spend a lot of time here.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about the signs and wonders that they had done through Paul and Barnabas and through the apostles.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: See, this the signs and wonders, what the purpose, their purpose served to point to the authority that the apostles had, and just a few others, Barnabas and one other, really are the only ones outside of the apostles that we see performing signs and wonders.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't see that.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: So what they did, what the signs and wonders did, appointed to the to the fact that they were working under the authority of Jesus.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: That they, the authority that Jesus had, the authority that Jesus that had given them was there.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so they were continuing that work of Jesus.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was pointing to that.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: But listen, after the apostles died and we are given the complete word of God, the purpose of signs and wonders changes.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: We don't need them because we have the authority of the word of God.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: We don't need authority of signs and wonders.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: We have authority of the word of God.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we look, as we talk about authority and where it comes from, listen, we need to we need to look to God's word.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: I've said it before, I will say it again.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: God's word is sufficient.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Everything that we need to know for salvation is given to us here.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Not only everything that we need to know for salvation, but everything that we need to know to live a life that honors God is found here.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: This is the authority.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's not me, it's not you, it wasn't the Pope during the Reformation, it is God's word.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: We need to look to his authority.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Then Paul and Barnabas, after they shared, they didn't share a super long time.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: James stands.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now James will meet him further in the New Testament.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: James is the half-brother of Jesus that wrote the book of James.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: He had become the really leading elder at the church at Jerusalem and will remain in that position really until his death.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: So James, he stands up and he speaks as well.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: And what he does is he begins by commending the words of Peter.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Look, what Peter says is right.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: We saw this.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: We saw this happen.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Remember it?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, Peter is correct.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Salvation was sent to the Gentiles.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that is true.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: That is right.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: You see that.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: But James, not working on the authority of being an apostle with Jesus.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: He is working on the authority of being an elder of Jesus.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: See what he does.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: He points them to the word of God.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: And what he does is he quotes from Amos chapter 9, verses 11 and 12.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: We see that in verse 16 and 17.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: He says, This after this I will return and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: What he's quoting from Amos, what Amos is saying back in Amos chapter 9, is it is a look forward to the Messiah's return.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: When the Messiah would come and he would restore the throne of David.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: And listen, Israel is looking forward to this.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: Israel is looking for the day for someone from the lineage of David to restore the throne in Jerusalem.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: They're looking for that day.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a prophecy saying that's going to happen, that God is going to restore that throne.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not just for Israel.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: See what he says, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hear this phrase.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: And all the Gentiles who are called by my name.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what had happened for Israel.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: What the law had done for Israel, even though they were unable to keep it, the law had separated them from the rest of the world.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was a distinctive.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: The law is what made Israel distinct from everyone else in the world.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: There was no other nation, there was no other people that had anything like that where they were in a relationship with God, and that happened because of the law.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: But what is happening here, what he is saying, is when Messiah comes, the Gentiles should be known as my people as well.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: So what happened with Jesus is the law was not the distinctive anymore that set God's people apart from the world.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: The distinction is Jesus.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: It is Jesus who separates God's people from the world.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: He calls us as believers.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: All believers are called by his name.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that's Jesus.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: So James stands and he says, Listen.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Scripture has pointed out to this.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just Peter.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Scripture has pointed to this.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: So he says in verse 19, therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because salvation is not a work of man.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: It is a work of God.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it comes by faith alone, through gracefully in Christ.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: What does this mean for us?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Is this the battle that was fought during the Reformation within the church that was being fought within the first century church?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's a battle that is still being fought in churches today.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: There is a a battle in churches over authority.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, and here's what we need to understand.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because there are so many things that say, well, so many people that say, well, I mean, the Bible is an old book.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Shouldn't have authority over me.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or there are people that say, I can make my own rules, I can do what I want to.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody can tell me what to do.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's me.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: And there's this grasp for authority when really the truth, just like it was in the Reformation, just like it was way back in the first century, authority lies here in the Word of God.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: We need to believe what this says.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: And what the authority of Scripture tells us is this.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: It helps us answer that second question of the Reformation, which I think we're still dealing with in the church today.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: The second question was this: how do we reconcile who we are with who God is?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: How do we reconcile a sinful mankind with a holy God?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: And what scripture tells us is this we reconcile it with Jesus and Jesus alone.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: That He came, that He lived a perfect life, kept the law perfectly, died on the cross as a sacrifice for me, as a sacrifice for you.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then he arose from the grave, and now he is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Father, interceding for us.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: The way that we bring ourselves to holy God.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let me rephrase that.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: We cannot bring ourselves to a holy God.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: The way God has prepared to bring us to himself is by pouring grace about on us.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we place our faith in him.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: Fifteen hundred years, two thousand years later.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you, where are you?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, He died for you.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I hear questions all the time about Grant, God could never love me.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't know what I've done.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, he does, and he's made a way to bring you to salvation the same way he brought me to salvation, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: You need to trust him.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then when we have, here's where we really get caught up on making the gospel a work of man.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because we think we can control God if we read our Bibles.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: If I read my Bible every day, if I pray every day, if I go to church every Sunday, if I sit through that boring message every Sunday, if I go and if I do all of these things, if I become a church member, what's going to happen is God is going to love me more and he's going to take care of me more when all of that is the wrong reasons to do any of that.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: God cannot love you any more than he already does.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: He can't love you any less than he already does because he loves you perfectly.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: What we do when we study God's word and we read God's word and we pray and we do those things, we're not doing them to make God love us more.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're doing them because he loves us already.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: And because I want to love him more.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: The way I love God more is by knowing him more and better.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I do that through this.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: By knowing him more and better, and I do that by surrounding myself with his people.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: So listen today, so we come to our time of invitation.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, may today be the day of salvation.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: Place your faith in him because you can only be saved through him.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: If you have.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: But you're trying to work your way into a better relationship with God.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, that's not how it works.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: What we do is we we study and know because he loves us perfectly, and I just want to love him back.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're trying to work to earn his approval, listen, you need to repent this morning.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: You need to live under the grace of God.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: He loves you perfectly.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: This morning, if you're looking for, so we invite you to come.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you need to repent, come and kneel at this altar and repent.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you're looking for a church home, we invite you to come.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray for us.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna stand and sing.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever decision you have to make, we invite you to come.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: God, we love you.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you for today, and we thank you for how you love us.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: God, I thank you for making a way for us.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Making a way for us for salvation.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: By your grace.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: By making a way for us for sanctification, the way for us to grow in our relationship with you.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's by just trusting you and living under that grace.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: God, I ask you now to move and work in our service as only you can.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: Give faith to those who need to make a decision today.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is in your name.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: Stand with us as we sing this hymn of invitation.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a decision to make, now is the time.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSotoHills.com.