The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 15, verses 13 through 21.

Tony Clark: For as believers, it doesn't matter how we feel, how we were brought up, or what your opinion is. What matters is what God has to say on the matter. All opinions, feelings, experiences, upbringing must bow before the Word of God.

I say this because these Pharisees who were trying to bring these Gentile believers under the law of Moses had some strong feelings about the law of Moses. But their strong feelings had to bow before the Word of God James was quoting.

And he tells them that it has always been in the heart of God not only to see the Jews saved but to use them to reach the rest of mankind. Verse 17 confirms this when James says, "So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord who does all these things."

Did you know that those of us who are saved today are included in this verse? We are Gentiles that God made it possible for us to seek him and to be called by his name. And according to verse 18, this has been the heart of God from all eternity.

I just want us to be aware of something here. Did you know that God isn't in heaven waiting on something to happen? Did you know God isn't waiting on five minutes from now? Oh, he isn't waiting on tomorrow to come like we are. Known to God from all eternity are his works.

He knew the circumstances it would take for you to be saved. He knew the things he had to allow in your life in order to bring you to him. He knew these things. He allowed those things. He knew what it was going to take to save you. Somebody's experience may be different, but known to God from all eternity are his works.

This is why Jesus is described as a lamb slain from the foundations of the world because Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world. God knew that Adam was going to bomb out in the garden. He knew he was going to mess up.

And it wasn't like when Adam sinned, God was like, "I can't believe Adam did that. Can you believe Adam did that? Look at him down there." No, he knew it. And this is why God made provisions for us to be saved from our sin. This is why Jesus is called a lamb slain from the foundations of the world.

No, Jesus was slain 2,000 years ago. No, he was slain before the foundations of the world because everything is right now to God. God isn't waiting on two minutes from now. No, everything is now to him.

And he knew what it was going to take to get you saved. He knew he had to allow so often hurtful situations to come in our lives in order to break us down where we can cry out to him. "Save us from our muck and mire and our sin." He knew what he had to do to get you to come to him.

Now, look with verses 19 to 21. It says, "Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality and from things strangled and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath."

Now, the word "therefore" that starts verse 19 means because of what was just said, James says, "I judge." This is a huge statement because it shows that James held a high position in the church in Jerusalem. We see this according to Acts 12:17.

Now, according to church tradition, Clement of Alexandria said that James received this position from James and John. He was what we would call the senior pastor of the church in Jerusalem. Paul would later write in Galatians 2:9 that James was one of the pillars in the early church.

See, everyone else gave their opinions and even argued, but James says, "I judge." That Greek word for judge is *krino*, and it means to judge judiciously, conclude or to resolve. James is giving a definitive statement here. He's not giving his opinion or what he thinks or how he feels. He's giving a definitive statement: "I judge."

He is saying, "Don't you trouble these Gentiles." Oh, I have to draw your attention to the word "trouble." *Parenochleó* is that Greek word, and it means to harass further, annoy or trouble. In other words, James is saying stop harassing and annoying and troubling these Gentiles about keeping the law of Moses.

He said, "We couldn't keep it, our fathers couldn't keep it. Why are we going to put a yoke on Gentiles that neither we nor our fathers were able to keep?" And James says stop annoying them and troubling them about keeping the law of Moses.

Oh, I love that because so often we can do the same thing with our children and our teenagers. We can trouble them and annoy them by trying to make them keep a bunch of religious rules and regulations that are not rooted in scripture. It's just a bunch of legalistic things that you're trying to do to try to keep them from straying and it's not biblical.

These very people that have been brought under this sort of heavy-handedness, as soon as they're 18 and go to school, they go buck wild, go crazy. Because you have troubled them, you have annoyed them to keep these religious things that you set them up in your home for the very purpose of trying to keep them from straying and they became a yoke around the neck of your children.

Oh, I'm not saying that our home should be lawless and we should have just a bunch of fooling around going on in our home. No, our homes must be governed by a biblical order, but make sure it's biblical. Make sure it's rooted in scripture.

I remember when my kids were home, before they went to school, I got up before them. And I would always, first thing I would do, I would always go through the Proverbs. There are 31 chapters corresponding with the 31 days of the month, and I would read a Proverb every day.

And whatever day that was, the scripture that stands out, I'd put it on a little post-it sticky thing and I'd write the scripture out and I would plaster it on their mirror. So when the kids wake up, go to school in the morning, boom, there's that word right there.

Because when you establish your home on the Word of God, you can't be around them all the time to annoy them with your heavy-handed religious rules. But what can be with them is the Word of God. The Word of God can be with them so when they think about doing crazy, that word that was sticking on their mirror the first thing in the morning will come back.

God's Word does not return void. It's going to accomplish that which it was sent out to do. Now that my kids are grown, we hear some of the stories that they did while they were in school, and I just can't believe some of the tomfoolery they've done.

The thing is, I couldn't be with them eight hours in school. I couldn't be with them there, but that word could. And we made sure that it was the word that kept them. It was the word that convicted them. It was the word.

Oh, we had rules in my house and sometimes they were dumb and silly. I look back at them now, I'm just like, "Oh, come on." Of course, I'm grandparent age now, that's why I look at them as dumb and silly. But my kids, they laugh at them today.

But the thing is, make sure that you're not annoying them and troubling them trying to keep some of your religious rules and regulations that have no root in scripture at all, but in some religious tradition you came up with or you've been raised yourself.

Those kids go buck wild when they get out of the house. Allow the Word of God to govern them because that is the only thing that will not return void is the Word of God. And James goes on to say that they should not trouble those believers turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled and from blood.

Now, these commands refer to the eating habits of the Gentiles which were very offensive to their Jewish brothers and sisters that they are now in the church with. So no, they were not bound by the law of Moses, but don't miss this—but they were bound by the law of love.

This is critical here. The law of love says don't unnecessarily offend your Jewish brothers and sisters in and out of the church. See, these things were important for the Gentiles to stay away from because if they didn't, there would be major discord, arguments and strife inside of the church.

See, the Gentiles would offer up meat to their idols and then they would sell that meat in the marketplace for cheap prices. It was some good meat, some good filet mignon kind of good meat.

The Jews were told to stay away from idols and idol worship, so they would be offended to see Gentiles eating meat that was once offered or once used to worship their idols. So they were offended by that, so they were told to stay away from that.

The next thing they were told to stay away from was sexual immorality. The Greek word is *porneia*, and it means all forms of illicit sexual practices. And this is where we get our English word pornography from.

So James is instructing these Gentiles to stay away from all forms of deviant sexual behaviors that are laid out in Leviticus 18, which includes sex with close relatives, siblings, aunts, uncles, sex with animals and homosexuality.

Stay away from these sexual practices, something the Gentiles were involved in and didn't see a problem with, but would totally offend the Jewish believers. These sexual practices were a normal part of Gentile pagan worship.

They worshipped one of the gods who was Aphrodite, the goddess of love. And every temple to Aphrodite, they had male and female temple prostitutes. Every form of Gentile worship had some sort of deviant sexual practice associated with worshipping their gods.

In the city of Corinth, they would have 1,000 prostitutes come out at the end of the day to seduce the men of the city of Corinth to be involved in these sexual practices all in worship of Aphrodite and these other gods that were there.

And the way that you knew these temple prostitutes at this particular day in Corinth, they would shave their heads. And that's why in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul talks about how a woman's hair is her glory. You don't want to shave your head and you get mixed up as one of these temple prostitutes.

That's why he was saying these things. This was why he was saying that because they would have these temple prostitutes come out at the end of the day. So this was normal in the Greco-Roman Empire during this particular time to have these temple prostitutes.

And these Gentiles were like, "What's the big deal?" But now that they are saved and coming in the church with other Jews, oh, this was a huge deal. They were to stay away from these things.

They were to stay away from blood according to Leviticus 3:17, meaning the meat had to be properly bled. Why? Because Leviticus 17:11 says the life of the flesh is in the blood. But they also—it says from things strangled. What does that mean?

The strangulation of animals will keep the blood in the circulatory system and thus cause the person to eat the meat with the blood still in it. Jews would find that very offensive, so do not do it.

So for the sake of fellowship and getting along with one another, the Gentiles were told to stay away from these things. So for the sake of love, the Gentiles laid down their rights to do a certain thing in order to not offend his brother and sister in Christ.

This is key here. This is what Paul had to tell the believers in Rome in Romans chapters 14 and 15 and the believers in Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapters 8 through 10.

Yes, you may feel like an idol is nothing but a piece of stone or wood and the eating that meat that was offered up to that idol is nothing, but for the sake of your Jewish brothers and sisters who knew where that meat came from, lay your right to eat this meat, lay it down for their sake.

Oh, this goes for drinking alcoholic beverages or anything that will stumble or offend someone. Lay it down not for the sake of law, but for the sake of love. See, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8:13, listen to what he says: "Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat again lest I make my brother stumble."

Now, somebody may say, "Well, why do I have to live this way?" Because of the law of love. You don't want to stumble your brother. "Well, hey, that's their problem, not mine."

Well, listen to these two verses that are right above the verse I just read, 1 Corinthians 8:11 and 12. It says, "And because of your knowledge"—meaning the knowledge of your Jewish brothers and sisters, the way they feel about these things—because of your knowledge of this, he says, "shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died?"

He said, "For when you thus sin against your brethren, you wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." This is huge here. Now, let me just break it down a little further. There were those just like people today saying, "Well, I'm at liberty to eat and drink what I want. If someone has a problem with it, that's their problem."

Whoa, wait a minute. For example, if someone came out of alcoholism, sees you drinking and you respond by saying, "I'm at liberty to drink." This person sees you and starts back drinking again and falls back into alcoholism. Watch this: you wounded their weak conscience and thus sinned against Christ.

You cause your brother, your sister, your children or neighbor to sin because of your liberty. Oh, Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 8:9: "But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak."

And so James told these Gentiles to stay away from these things as to not cause their Jewish brothers and sisters to stumble or fall. This is huge here. The law of love is greater than any law. Paul would later say, "Let everything be done, be done in love."

And we have to understand because of the law of love, what you think you may have liberty to do, you won't exercise that liberty because it may make someone stumble.

I've told many people several times because they have said, "Well, what I do, I do it at home in the privacy of my home." And I always respond by saying, "Do you have a spouse? How about children?" Woe be it unto little Johnny or Sally have to push past the six-pack and the wine bottles to get to the juice or the milk for their cereal.

And you know and I know little kids are curious and they see you drink it and they imitate. That's how they learn, through imitation. And they say, "Oh, they're going to have a sip of that."

Many of you are drinkers today and you don't realize it that your parents stumbled you because back in my day—for those who are my age and older—back in my day, you remember those house parties they used to have in the Midwest? This is how it was in the Midwest. Every home had a basement with a bar downstairs in the basement.

And what do little kids do? They go down there and have a sip and they think they're sleek by filling it up with water to try to bring it back to the line. And many of you drink today because of that tomfoolery and you didn't realize your parent stumbled you.

And now you're doing the same thing to your kids. You wound their weak conscience and thus sin against Christ. That is just mind-boggling to me.

And so he wraps up his speech in verse 21 by saying, "Since that Moses and the law is preached in every city, be sensitive to them and understand that this has been their religious tradition in every generation."

And for the sake of getting along, Gentile believers, abstain from these things because we're in the church together and we got to get along. And if you do these sort of things, your Jewish Christians—and what it would end up being if they didn't lay this out—it would have ended up being a situation where the Jewish believers would be on one side and the Gentile believers would be on the other and say the two shall not cross.

Because I can't even stand to be around them and those practices. And then they would have been like, "You all so uptight. I can't even believe you all got a problem with that. That's some good meat you all missing out on." And see, but he had to do this for the sake of love, the law of love and to get along with each other.

Let me conclude with this. Jesus Plus Nothing part 3. Now, in this message, we saw how James confirms what Peter, Paul and Barnabas were saying. He backed it up with the Bible. And keep in mind, our opinions don't mean a thing.

Be sure that you can back up what you're saying with scripture. The second thing we saw is how God has known from all eternity the Gentiles would be saved, showing us that God knew that you would be here today.

And maybe this is the message that you surrender your life to Jesus Christ and come, repent of your sin, ask him to come and be the Lord of your life. Maybe today is the day for that because known to God from all eternity are his works.

And finally, is there a liberty that you call yourself having, causing someone to stumble? You have to ask yourself, then you know what happens? It ceases from being a liberty and now is a stumbling block.

Whenever you feel you have a liberty to do something and it stumbles someone, it's no longer a liberty. Now it's a stumbling block. And the way that you know that you stumbled someone, especially on the job, they would say, "I thought you were a Christian."

That's their way of saying what you're doing or saying has stumbled me because I thought Christians didn't do X, Y and Z. They don't understand your liberty. They just know what you're doing is foreign to what they know being a Christian is. It's foreign.

Even non-Christians know. They got an idea of what it is to be like Christ. And what you're saying, how you're behaving and what you're doing is not like Christ, so something isn't right. "I thought you were a Christian." That's their way of saying you stumbled me.

So if you've heard that, don't get in your feelings. Just go and apologize and try to live right and say, "I cannot exercise that liberty anymore because it is a stumbling block at this time."

May God help us to walk in the law of love. May God help us to live for him and make sure that we're not doing things that's going to stumble our brothers and our sisters. I'm telling you.

See, everyone swears they have a liberty. But watch this. If you saw me coming out of the ABC store, you'd be stumbled. You'd be like, "Pastor Tony, what's he doing coming out of that?" Oh, I was just getting me some gum.

I can get gum from 7-Eleven. I don't have to get gum from the ABC store. Are you kidding me? See, you'd be stumbled. The same way I see you doing tomfoolery, I'm going to be stumbled.

So it is no longer a liberty now. Now it's a stumbling block. And we just got to be mindful of it. So the same thing with what Cain said to God. God said, "Where's your brother?" He said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Yes, we are. We got to make sure we stay squared away. Make sure we're not stumbling each other so we can reach the world that we're called to reach.

And Father, thank you so much for your word. We are so grateful you share these things with us because you love us. Lord, help us to walk in the law of love. Help us, Lord, not to stumble our brother or sister or children, spouses. Forgive us, Lord, when we do. Lord, forgive us when we fall short in this area.

And Lord, I pray for those who are here who have never repented of their sin and ask you to come into their hearts. May today be the day of salvation for them. Save souls today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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