Amen. Acts chapter 15. So here we are in Acts chapter 15. Paul and Barnabas are back from the first missionary journey and they are in Antioch and the story continues. So the Bible ended in Acts chapter 14 saying that they got back to Antioch and they were telling the disciples, they were telling everybody about the Gentiles and they were telling everybody about the mission trip that they went on and just kind of explaining to everybody, the story which we'll see a little bit more of this evening in Acts chapter 15. But Acts chapter 15 really is kind of a chapter of disagreements. I mean there's a lot of contentions and people that are having disagreements. So it's a really important chapter to see how we deal with disagreements. The first one that we're going to look at is the disagreement amongst several different churches here. So we're going to look at the first disagreement in Acts chapter 15. Look at how they dealt with it and then because look they dealt with it in a very good way. They dealt with it in a very biblical fashion and we'll see what we can learn from that, how they dealt with it, why they dealt with it in the specific way that they did because there's been a lot of confusion that I've heard about why it was dealt with in this certain way. But let's just get into it and see what we can learn this evening. You're there in Acts chapter 15. Look at verse number one. We start out right away with controversy in verse number one. The Bible says, and certain men came down from Judea, taught the brethren. So they're in Antioch, so they really came up but they're talking about, they kind of came from the major church here. They came from the church in Jerusalem. They came down from Judea and taught the brethren and said, so these are men that came from Jerusalem to the church in Antioch and they are teaching the people in the church in Antioch. So this would be like a much bigger church comes to our church and they start teaching something here and look what they say. They said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, he cannot be saved. So, whoa. So there's a big problem here. We just had somebody teach a false gospel in this church. So we had somebody come into the church and preach workspace salvation in the first verse of Acts chapter 15. And you have to say, you know, that was fast. I mean, the gospel has only been being preached, only being spread for just a few years at this point. And already false gospels are popping up. Already people are adding works to the gospel. So there's a controversy of all these Gentiles getting saved. I'm going to kind of get into that and kind of, I'm going to kind of maybe explain to you that this wasn't quite as sinister as, you know, it seems, but it needs to be taken very seriously whenever somebody tries to add works to the gospel. So what did they say here? Let's just kind of pick this thing apart. They said, basically, you need to be these people. It says, it doesn't say who they were or whatever. It says they're from the church. They're from Judea. We find out later. They're from the church in Jerusalem. Same thing is going on there. But they're teaching that you must be circumcised to be saved. All right. Go to Genesis chapter 17. Let's talk a little bit about the practice of circumcision. I'm not going to explain what it is. If you need to know what it is, you know, talk to, you know, your parents or something. I don't know. But anyway, you know, that's not really the important thing here is to talk about what it actually is. But let's look at it when it was implemented and what the reason for it was. Go to Genesis chapter 17. This actually, they said in the manner of Moses, but it actually didn't start with Moses. It started with Abraham, okay? Or Abraham, you know, as it was right before this in Genesis. But look at Genesis chapter 17. Look at verse number nine. The Bible says, And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore, Thou and thy seed after thee in generation. So this is God is kind of telling him, you know, where he's going to get the land and, you know, the land is going to give them. Look at verse number 10. He says, This is my covenant, which ye between me and you and thy seed after thee. And then God implements this thing that he must do. So God has told him already that he's going to have these children and that he's going to have, you know, many descendants and that he's going to get all this land and this land that is promised to him. But look at verse number 10. He says, This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every manchild among you shall be circumcised. So this is where this practice is implemented in the Bible. Look at verse 11. He shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you. So that's really important right there, that verse. That tells you what the whole point of this circumcision was. What was it? Was it salvation? Was it, you know, it was just a token, which is what? It's just a symbol, a visible picture that you are with me.  Alright, so it's a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. God is saying, I want you to do this so you will have a visceral sign that you and I have made a covenant together. That we have a deal, so to speak. Look at verse number 12. And then he gives more detail. He says, And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you. Every manchild, every boy, of course, in your generations, he that is born in your house or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. Anybody that becomes part of your nation is what he's trying to say. He that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised. And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.  He hath broken my covenant. So that verse right there where it says, That soul shall be cut off from his people. It's talking about that person. It's talking about that person. It's not talking about that person loses their salvation or that person is not saved or whatever, which probably was the case, but it had nothing to do with them not being circumcised. Circumcision, the point is this. Circumcision was never for salvation. It was never for salvation. It's not that now that Jesus has come, salvation is by grace through faith and by belief only, but it used to be through circumcision. It was never through circumcision. It was never that. As a matter of fact, we'll get a couple verses on that anyway, but just kind of a mini sermon here. So God tells Abraham, he's like, you're going to get this land, I'm making all these promises to you. He's like, you have to do this.  Now, how does Abraham respond? Look at verse 23. This is kind of just a side note. Just a side note to notice this. God basically tells Abraham to do something and right away he does it like immediately. Look at verse 23.  Every male among the men of Abraham's house and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin the self same day as God had said unto him. So the point of trying to make here is just kind of a side note is that God told, I mean, this shows the faithfulness of Abraham right here. This is an outward sign for us that when God told Abraham something, he did it right away. He didn't wait for a while. He didn't, you know, wonder about it. He didn't discuss it with his wife. God told him to do it. He did it. That's it. You know, if only we would all do that. Whenever we read something in the Bible, and we saw something in the Bible, we just did it right away. Because look, that's what the Bible is. The Bible is just God telling us what to do is what the Bible is.   Like I think things would be a lot different for a lot of Christians. But he didn't say I'll do it next week. He just did it right away. All right, back to circumcision. Let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 10. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 10. Circumcision, the physical act of it was never for salvation. Turn to Deuteronomy. Actually, you turned to Romans chapter 2. I tricked you. Turn to Romans chapter 2. You go to Romans chapter 2. And I'll just read for you Deuteronomy chapter 10. Where Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 16 says, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked. Here, Moses is trying to, you know, convince the people to turn back to God, to get right with God. And he's saying, circumcise your heart. Again, in Deuteronomy chapter 30 in verse number 6, the Bible uses that same term. It says, circumcise your heart. So, I mean, that wouldn't make any sense if we were just thinking about this, the physical act of circumcision. What it's instead talking about, look at Romans chapter 2. Paul really makes this clear in Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2, look at verse number 28. So, remember, as the children of Israel under Moses, they were still doing this practice of circumcision. But Paul is explaining, in Romans chapter 2, he's explaining that it's not the physical act of circumcision that's so important. Look at verse number 28. He says, for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. This is somebody that is doing all the customs. Somebody that is circumcised. Somebody that is following all the different customs, the Levitical law of the Old Testament.  It says, but Paul is saying in Romans chapter 2, he's like, that's not a Jew. And you're like, what? But look at verse number 28. It says, for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh, saying, Paul is just reiterating what I just told you. He's just saying that all circumcision was, was an outward sign that you were of this nation, that you were of this covenant that God made with Abraham. But look at verse 29. So you say, okay, well, that doesn't mean you're a Jew. What are we talking about? But he says, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly. And circumcision, just like I showed you in Deuteronomy, I just read for you, circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter. The letter meaning the law, the Bible, all right? Whose praise is not of men, but of God. All right, so look, all these outward signs, this is a, you know, a lot of people, like even Christians have a hard time getting passed. All these outward signs, all these outward signs, that's what got people praise of men. Wow, that guys, look at these Pharisees, look at the garments they wear, the fancy hats and all this kind of stuff and the borders on their garments. Look at all these, these, you know, these guys are really spiritual because they looked outwardly very spiritual. But Jesus saw right through it. You know, God was not pleased, right? The Bible says what's important is the circumcision of the heart. So we just see this again, the circumcision of the heart, the circumcision of the heart, the circumcision of the heart. Turn to Romans chapter 10, just a few chapters over. Romans is such a great, great book in the Bible. That's why, why in the, I think the first book I ever studied through and preached through was the book of Romans. But look at Romans chapter 10, look at Romans chapter 10. So we see this come up over and over again. It's not the circumcision of the flesh that matters, that's just an outward sign. It's the circumcision of the heart that matters. Well, what do you do with the heart? One is done with the heart that is so important. Look at Romans chapter 10 and verse number 10. Romans chapter 10 and verse number 10. The Bible says, for with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. It's with your heart by having your heart circumcised and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that you're saved. So this, it's the circumcision of the heart and that belief with your heart that saves you. That's what Paul is saying. He's a Jew that has been circumcised in his heart. What does that mean? He is a Jew that has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul is saying. This is replacement theology. This is what, you know, we've been studying in Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 14, and we see it again in Romans chapter 2 and Romans chapter 10. So you believe with the heart.  What he's saying is exactly what Paul said in Romans chapter 2 where Jesus is saying of these, of anybody that believes on Jesus will be a child of Abraham. That's a Jew. That's what Paul is getting at. That's what Jesus is getting at. Who taught Paul? Jesus. Alright, so it's the same gospel. So here we're having, go back to Acts 15, we're having these people come in and try to add this outward sign of, you know, add this outward sign to salvation. Look, this is the problem with the Catholic Church in 300 AD when they started adding baptism to salvation. Look, baptism is an outward sign of obedience. It's us, like, when people watch someone get baptized, they're watching somebody be obedient to what Christ has told them to do. That's what they're watching. Yes, it pictures being buried and risen again and that, that new birth, it pictures that. It pictures identifying with Christ, identifying with believers. But what people are seeing is a token of obedience. That's what people are seeing. It's an outward sign. Nothing to do with salvation. Alright, nothing to do with salvation. So it's just, there's nothing new under the sun. There's people trying to add works, add things to salvation and we see it begin just a few years after Jesus left this earth. Look at verse number two. Verse number two. And wherefore, so look, did they take it seriously? Therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them. Look, these guys are like, whoa, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem onto the apostles and elders about this question. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phines and Samaria declaring the conversion of the Gentiles that they cause great joy unto all the brethren. So they decide, so Paul and Barnabas throw up a red flag and they decide, well, these guys came from Jerusalem, you guys better go there and figure this out. You better go to Jerusalem where this whole thing started and get this thing worked out. So they go and along the way, they're telling people about their first missionary journey about the Gentiles, about the replacement, you know, theology, about the Gentiles getting saved just like the Jews. They're telling everybody this wonderful story and people are excited, they're happy, they have great joy. Look at verse four. And when they come to Jerusalem, they were received to the church, you know, the apostles and elders. So this is the second time Paul's been here, okay? He's been there before and they declared all things that God had done with him. You know, I'm sure the reception was a little better this time with Paul. I mean, Paul has kind of, he's kind of proved himself, he's gone on this great missionary journey, he's gotten like, I don't know, yeah, thousands of people saved. You know, they pretty much believe that Paul has really converted. You know, the first time Paul goes there, everyone's like, ah, you know, this guy was killing and enslaved, or not enslaving, but imprisoning, throwing in prison Christians. But they come to Jerusalem, they're received to the church and the apostles and elders and they declared all the things that God had done with them. So the first thing that they do is they don't start just arguing right away. They go there and they tell everyone about the Gentiles, the missionary journey, all the wonderful things that have been happening in the church at Antioch. But look at verse number five. This is very interesting. But there rose up a certain sect of the Pharisees which believed saying that it were needful, that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Alright, so now this is very interesting because now we see the root of the problem. We see where these people, now we get more detail on where these people that arrived in Antioch from Jerusalem got this doctrine. So there was this sect, this certain group of Pharisees that they got saved, but then they started wanting to push this idea that, you know, because it doesn't say necessarily in verse number five that for salvation.  And look, it makes sense that people would want to do that if they were trying to change a certain people. If they're trying to change a culture, look, it's not right to change the gospel. But look, we see the same thing happening today.  Like, you have to salvation lies through the doors of the church. It's a means of control. That's all it is.   Why? That's what the Bible says. That's all we care about here.  But look, it's good for business.  It's all about control and that's exactly what was starting to happen here. As people were starting to add works to salvation to get a cultural change from these Greeks, from the Gentiles. Alright, and look, we're gonna see, they were just, they were disgusted with some of the things. They didn't like the fact that here, you know, it was arrogance, it was pride, but it was a major cultural clash. That's what you need to understand. It was a major cultural clash. Look at verse number six. So look, but the point I'm trying to make is in verse number five, it wasn't just circumcision. So the message keeps getting changed as it goes. It said, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Now they're adding like the whole law. Alright, but they're trying to add works to salvation. Look at verse six. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there have been much disputing, again, you know, there's a lot of people, you know, having a problem with this. But now we start to see the leaders step up and speak. Okay, and what do they do? Do they step up and I want you to really notice how these leaders handle this problem. They stand up and they don't say, here's what I think. They stand up and they use the word of God to lead to truth. And first Peter goes first. He says, Peter rose up, verse seven, and said to them, men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. Look at verse eight. And God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us. He's basically just saying like, look at the testimony of what's been happening. You know, not only have we received the Holy Ghost, but the Gentiles received the Holy Ghost. We saw this earlier on in the book of Acts that the Gentiles received the Holy Ghost just like the Jews. Look at verse nine. It says, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. This is so interesting, verse number 10 and verse number 11. So here's what you have to do. You have to put a bracket, if you write in your Bible, you have to put a bracket around verse 10 and verse 11. If anybody ever asked you the question or anybody, because there's a lot of false doctrine out there, like, there's like saved people today that believe these are the dispensationalists, right? And there's different levels of, I don't want to say crazy, but there's different levels of extreme when it comes to dispensationalists. But the heart of the dispensationalists, even the base dispensationalists, believes that people in the Old Testament got saved in a different way than people in the New Testament. Okay, so that's the basis of dispensationalists, and then they go into all kinds of other things. But look, verse number 10 and verse number 11 is proof against this. So what I need you to do is just kind of notice verse number 10 and verse number 11, how these two go together, because I mean it's pretty easy to miss. It says, now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, but then look at the last part of the verse. It says, which neither, so now he's talking about two groups of people. Okay, he's talking about two groups of people here in the last verse, part of verse 10, he says neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. So who are the two groups? He's saying our fathers, those are the Old Testament people. Those are the Abraham and the patriarchs, as we would call them. He's saying our fathers and us. He's like why would you put a yoke on these people that neither Abraham, the patriarchs, or us were able to bear. Could anyone bear the law? Could anyone bear the law? I don't care what time in history you lived before Jesus, after Jesus, before the flood, after the flood, could anyone, I mean the law wasn't even around them, but could anyone be perfect is what I'm trying to get you to understand. Could anyone be sinless? Now look at verse number 11. It says, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. Oh, look at the next part, even as they. You know what that's saying? Those two verses right there prove that people in the Old Testament are saved by belief just like people in the New Testament. Now turn to James chapter 2. You would think the Bible says this somewhere. Turn to James chapter 2 and look at verse number 23. Look at James chapter 2 and verse number 23. We could do a whole sermon on just this topic in itself. I just want to give you one simple verse. Look folks, people in the Old Testament were saved by belief. Abraham was saved, well let's just read it in the Bible. Don't take my word for it. Look at James chapter 2 and look at verse number 23. James chapter 2 and verse 23. And the scripture was fulfilled with Seath. Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Why was Abraham righteous? Why when Abraham stands before God is he looked at as righteous because he had faith in God. That's why. He was saved by faith just like everybody else. Go back to Acts chapter 15. Go back to Acts chapter 15. So people in the Old Testament saved the same way as people in the New. You say but Jesus wasn't there yet. Well they're saved on, think of it this way. They're saved on credit. They're saved on the faith in the coming Messiah. Whereas we can look back on the Messiah that's come. They were saved by God's promise of the Messiah which by the way God promised Abraham would come from him. Would come from you know his bloodline. Look at verse number 13 of Acts chapter 15. So we see Peter get up and Peter's like look at the testimony of what's been happening. The Gentiles have been saved. He's like the Gentiles have been saved. You know the Old Testament saints were saved just like us. You know everybody saved the same. Why would we why would we change this and all of a sudden try to tell people that you're saved by the law. Look at verse 13. And after they had held their peace James answered saying men and brethren harken unto me. Simeon had declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets as it is written. After this I will return. Now he starts quoting the Bible. All right. He's quoting Amos chapter 9 here. We won't go there for sake of time. But he's quoting he's quoting Old Testament prophecy. After this I will return and I will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down. I will build again the ruins thereof. I will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the Lord. He's kind of paraphrasing now. Amos chapter 9 verse number 11 and verse number 12 if you want to write that reference down. That the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called saith the Lord who doeth all these things. James is saying like look why why wouldn't we believe that this is happening when the Bible tells us it was going to happen. He's quoting Amos here and then look at verse number 18. No one to God are all his works from the beginning of the world. That verse again proving that everyone has saved the same. From the beginning of the world God had the plan to save mankind. The plan was always the same. God may have have changed his mind on whether he was going to judge a certain people and according to whether or not they they turned and got right or not but the plan for salvation for mankind was always the same. It was always the plan. When? From the beginning of the world. Now look at verse number 19. So this is James. Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble them not from which among the Gentiles are turned to God. So there's a lot here but first of all who is this James? I thought James was dead. Turn to Matthew chapter 13. Turn to Matthew chapter 13. This is not James the son of Zebedee. This is James the brother of Jesus. Who by the way in verse number he's silent throughout this whole debate and then he stands up and says my sentence is meaning he's like the chief priest or the pastor of this church in Jerusalem. He's the head guy here. He's sitting there and he's listening to this and then he passes judgment on the situation. But who is James? Go to Matthew chapter 13. Let's just look at who he is. This is the brother of Jesus or the half brother of Jesus if you want to get technical. Look at verse 54 of Matthew 13. And it's interesting because in the Gospels when Jesus was here his brethren they didn't believe in Jesus. You know they didn't believe he was who he said he was. Look at verse 54. This is when Jesus was coming into his own country. It says when he came into his own he was coming to his own country. He taught them in their synagogue it's so much that they were astonished and said whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? Do you know that by the way many parts of the Catholic Church teach that Mary remained a virgin and she never had children? Let's read the Bible. Is his mother called Mary and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Look Jesus had brothers and sisters and his sisters are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him but Jesus said unto him a prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in his own house. So you're going to find this to be true all of you as well. You're going to find this to be true as well. Everyone kind of has the same story. You know this is just a rabbit trail but everyone kind of has the same story. Everyone kind of gets saved. You know they get saved and they're just like they want all their friends and all their family to get saved and like their friends and family just a lot of times a lot of times they do get saved so definitely try but the point is is a lot of times like your family and your friends and the people closest to you they don't seem to want to listen and this is exactly what happened to Jesus. So a lot of times many times people need to hear from somebody else or it's why it's a good reason to just bring people to church and make somebody else can talk to them about the gospel because a prophet a prophet is not without honors save in his own country and in his own house talking about his closest relatives meaning Jesus' own brothers and sisters didn't believe him they didn't believe that he was the Messiah look at verse 58 and he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief in John 7 5 the bible says for neither did his brethren believe in him so James obviously has gotten saved all right James is now a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ and it's you know he later converts go to Acts chapter 12 and he later converts to be a believer in Jesus his half-brother and he becomes a leader in the church in Jerusalem look at Acts chapter 12 in verse 16 we've seen his name come up a couple times before but look at verse 16 of Acts chapter 12 this is when Peter you know gets broken out of prison by the angel and look at what happened in verse 16 of Acts chapter 12 but Peter continuing knocking and when they opened the door and saw him they were astonished remember this house was praying for Peter and praying for Peter and all of a sudden Peter knocks on the door but he beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison and he said go show these things unto who he's again showing that James is the leader of this church all right go show these things unto James and to the brethren and he departed and went into another place he's like basically saying go tell the pastor go tell the pastor what happened you know James is the leader and we see it again in Acts 15 when he finally says everybody's done talking and he's like here's my sentence all right so look this is not James the son of Zebedee who was killed by Herod this is James the half brother of Jesus Christ I want to show you one more thing this is also James turn to James the book of James this is the James that wrote the book of James but it's super interesting because here you have the half brother of the Messiah all right so you're like yeah wonder how he got the job wonder how he got to be the the main pastor in the church in Jerusalem right but look it's interesting if you look at how James describes himself just opening the book of James you know I don't think that's how he got the job because you know he seems like a very humble and intelligent and you know just very level-headed person first of all look at verse number one and I'm going to show you how level-headed he is by how he solves this problem too because he solves this problem in a very biblical yet very clever way but look at how he describes himself we kind of get we'll see a little bit of his character here this is James the brother of Jesus Christ okay this is like it's like yeah that was my brother you're gonna do what I say you know you can been throwing some weight around in this church but look how he describes himself he says James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad greeting he just says look you know what I am I'm a servant to Jesus Christ you know what you are you're a servant to Jesus Christ he puts himself on the same servitude level as everybody else it shows his humility there all right go back to go back to actually go to Proverbs chapter 18 so what does he do James is quiet James is quiet well everyone kind of everyone kind of gives their you know their their disputations and Peter gets up and explains things and James gets up and he says my sentence is this but here's what James was doing all right look at Proverbs 18 and verse 13 the Bible says in Proverbs 18 13 it says he that answereth a matter before he heareth it is folly and shame unto him so what James was doing is he was just taking in all the information and then once he heard both sides he heard the whole thing then he passed his sentence not using his own opinion by the way using the Bible go back to Acts chapter 15 go back to Acts chapter 15 so what does he tell them to do all right he says look the Gentiles he says the Gentiles they we knew that they were going to get saved the Old Testament told us that the Gentiles are going to be brought in that these people that were scattered you know we're going to be God was going to bring them in and we see all this coming to pass and you know Peter and James are just like why is everyone surprised the Bible told us this was going to happen it's like why are we just going to all sudden try to change these people and add works to the gospel so look what James says and a lot of people are confused by James sentence here but look in verse number 20 what James tells him to do he says you know let's not trouble them let me turn back to Acts 15 look at verse number 19 so what does he say in verse 19 he says wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God he's saying we shouldn't put this yoke on them he's like we shouldn't put this yoke on them from you know from them that are turned to God meaning the ones that are saved let's not put this yoke on them but then he gives something that people are confused on but look what he says but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols from fornication and from things strangled and from blood now go back to verse number one real quick what did he leave out of that statement in verse number one of acts chapter 15 what was the main problem was the problem that they were saying that they should be circumcised the problem was that they said that they should be circumcised after the matter of Moses ye cannot be saved that was the problem so James says he agrees with Peter don't put this yoke on them trouble them not he's like instead he's like tell him to just quit worshiping idols he's like tell him to quit eating blood and tell him to quit strangling eating things that they strangle he's like he's trying to get he's trying to get the cultural divide of the church broken down is what he's trying to do he did not say do these things for salvation turn to leviticus chapter 17 I'll tell you where this list came from you say why those things because he's trying to just get the Gentiles that are now in the same church building with the the ex-Jews or whatever you want to call them he's trying to get them to be able to sit down at a potluck together and be able to fellowship I've used this example before I'll use it again he's trying to what if we had somebody come from a country here and they were just as saved as you and just as saved as me because they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ but they loved it was a delicacy in their country to eat raccoons that had been hit by cars and we're like you know so they bring they bring all these every potluck we have they bring in roadkill and we're like man you know you know what you know there's no there's nothing unclean anymore Peter already learned that lesson James is trying to just fix this problem because the Jews are so in depth and so ingrained with the Levitical carnal laws you know that they just they're they're finding these things repulsive all right they're finding the Gentiles themselves as culturally unacceptable look at Leviticus chapter 17 Leviticus chapter 17 look at verse Alex just explained to you real quickly why he chose these things you say why these items I mean why but look at Leviticus chapter 17 look at verse number 13 it says and whatsoever man there be of the children of you of Israel or of the strangers that so join among you which hunteth and catcheth any beast or foul that may be eaten he even shall pour out the blood thereof and cover it with dust for it is the life of all flesh what is the life of all flesh the blood okay and this I mean this is a whole sermon in itself why are we you know Jesus gave his life you know he gave that's why the blood was shed for you okay for it is the life of all flesh the blood of it is for the life thereof therefore I said unto the children of Israel he shall not eat the blood of no manner of flesh for the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof whosoever eateth it shall be cut off so to the Jews to these traditional Jews eating blood was disgusting eating blood was this unclean unholy thing all right because it just it wasn't something they culturally did so he said don't eat blood don't eat blood by the way all these levitical rules they all have spiritual applications for you know looking ahead to Jesus but they also have very practical reasons too you probably just shouldn't go and like start drinking a bunch of animal blood or you're gonna get some kind of bacteria or get sick or something you know so God is kind of has a dual you know his laws kind of make sense for us like that's why that's why a lot of these you know like dietary laws and things people still follow today just because they make like sense as far as being healthy and as far as not getting sick and things like this this is why by the way so you say why things strangled well this is why if you you know ever go hunting and you know maybe if you've ever been deer hunting and if an animal was wounded you were supposed to cut the animal's throat why because it it's a it's a it's a quick way to kill the animal because the life is in the blood if you kill you drain a blood the blood from you know an animal it will quickly die it will be a quick death right and look my father in law I hope he wouldn't mind me telling the story but my the meat actually tastes different too if you actually shoot a deer in the right place like through the lungs in the heart you don't have to do that because they'll bleed out inside their cavity this is maybe too much information for a sermon but the point is if you don't drain the blood out of an animal when it's killed the meat actually tastes different the meat will taste worse my father in law is such a picky hunter that he will only shoot a deer that he finds through his spotting scope that is sleeping he will not shoot a deer that is running because he you know it tastes different when all that blood is pumping through the animal and in the muscles you know that the meat does not taste as good it's not as tender and it has a different taste to it so look there's reasons for this but the point is maybe that's a little bit too much information for everybody in the room but the point is this James is trying to make cultural peace in the church while protecting the gospel so he does a very practical things here he's just trying to lead the church together turn to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 he's trying to get the church to come together and let that takes proper leadership look at 1 Corinthians chapter 9 in verse number 20 Paul himself talks about this same philosophy hey maybe he learned it from James you know maybe he learned it from James James seems very wise to me when I read some of the things that he has said here but look at verse number 20 of 1 Corinthians chapter 9 in verse number 20 so you have to understand I mean that that everyone is saved and these churches are filled with Saint look churches for the saved it doesn't mean that unsaved people aren't going to come here but was the first thing that we do when an unsaved person comes in here we try to get them saved we try to preach them the gospel so they will get saved church is for the saved that's why you know I don't preach the gospel every single sermon because it would make no sense because you're all saved so church is for the saved yet everybody comes from all different cultures it's true with this room I'm sure we all come from different cultures but guess what we are to just you know we are to try to you know conform to the bible you know and have peace in the church because look our culture should just be thrown off first of all and the bible should become our culture but they were having major problems here all right look at 1 Corinthians chapter 9 in verse number 20 and Paul himself when he would go preach to people look what he says he says unto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law so Paul when he went to a Jewish town to preach the gospel he wasn't taking a raccoon that was hit by a car and eating it and bringing it to the potluck you know he was he was eating what they eat he was fitting in with their culture why so he could gain the Jews so they would they would trust him they would want to hear what he has to say now look at verse 21 he says to them that are without the law this is this is the Gentiles this is the Gentiles as without the law then he clarifies because you're like oh he's just acting like a hoodlum you know when he's out there with the Gentiles no he says being not without law to God but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without the law so what he's saying is I just I go along with their culture he's like I'm not getting into sin I'm not worshiping idols and going into fornication and all these things he's like but I'm just fitting in with their culture so I can preach the gospel then look at verse 22 he says to the weak I became as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some and this I do and this is why he says he doesn't this I do for the gospel's sake that I might be partaker thereof with you he's saying you know what he's saying he's saying the reason I do this look he's telling you how to be a good soul winner too this is like great soul winning tips like just to be able to he's saying I'm just trying to relate to the people that I'm talking to he's like I'm trying to relate to the people that I'm talking to I'm trying to get with them on their level why for the gospel's sake because in the last part of the verse 23 it's perfect because he's like I want you to be in heaven with me it's what he says that's what he's saying so this is what James is trying to do James is trying to break down these cultural walls try to you know make these these gentiles that seem you know repulsive with some of the things that they do and eat he's trying to just get them to you know be I mean they shouldn't be worshiping idols this is true but the point is salvation comes first and then growth after that all right so he's saying look keep the gospel we must defend the gospel and let's send letters let's tell them to do these things which is I mean it's a good start as far as their christian growth goes all right it's great advice go back to axe axe chapter 15 oh by the way Paul does this in the very next chapter go to axe 16 actually just go to one one chapter over Paul does this with Timothy in axe chapter 16 I don't want to give it away but I mean he just he I guess it applies look at axe chapter 16 in verse number one he says then came he to Durban Leistra this is Paul and a certain disciple was there named Timotheus this is Timothy who was the son of a certain woman look at this guy's problem he was the son of a certain woman which was a Jewish and believed but his father was Greek this guy's like he's all messed up he's got a dad he's a Gentile and a mom who's a Jew says which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Leistra and Iconium him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters for they knew all that his father was a Greek so he just he just had Timothy circumcised so it just wouldn't cause any trouble so he would be you know to the Jews he'd be as a Jew and this is what he's doing he's just trying to be culturally pleasing I guess is what you could say for the Gospel's sake all right go back to verse number 21 we've got to hurry up we're running long here all right Acts chapter 15 verse 21 so James passes sentence he tells them you know just abstain from these things strangled things blood you know because that's the culture of the time look it's the same kind of culture today I mean we you know you shouldn't most people when they butcher things they drain the blood it's very similar it's Leviticus 17 and it's not because it's to be saved or anything even religious today it just makes sense like what God does makes sense look at verse 21 for Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas namely so now they're sending them back namely Judas and surname Bar Sabbath and Silas chief man among the brethren so they they send Paul and Barnabas back the matter's over they send Paul and Barnabas back and they decide to send two elders of the church with them why? look at verse 23 and they wrote letters by them after this manner the apostles and elders and brethren sending greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles and Antioch and Syria and Silasia for as much as we have heard that certain which went out from among us so you know what this church is doing is they're taking responsibility for this this heresy that came out from their church they're sending Paul and Barnabas back they're sending two elders out they're like we got to get the word out that this is wrong this is false and then they send letters in every direction for as much as we have heard that certain went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your souls saying he must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment right so subverting your souls meaning they're saying how serious it is they're showing that it was an attack on the gospel saying that it was really just like a bad thing it seemed good unto us being assembled one accord to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we have therefore sent Judas and Silas who shall also tell you the same things by mouth you know what they did here you know why they did that think about this you had this argument where did this all start it all started with the church in Antioch this is starting to sound like a court case but it started with the church in Antioch where these men showed up from Jerusalem they were really from Jerusalem they were really from the church and they started preaching a false gospel Paul and Barnabas you had these men Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them at the church in Antioch then Paul and Barnabas say we're going to go find out what the truth is they go off what if Paul and Barnabas would have come back and said yep we figured it out we were right I mean it's kind of like they had a dog in the hunt right so the reason this is Deuteronomy 1915 right here this is Deuteronomy 19 where the bible says let every matter be established by two or three witnesses so what they the reason they sent these notable men they weren't just any men they were elders of the church they were honorable men men that were respected they sent them as witnesses to what happened they sent them so when Paul and Barnabas came back and said yeah hey you know what you know what guys we were right they actually have witnesses to say yeah they are right they are correct these things did happen instead of it's like two men getting in an argument and you know one man saying okay I will talk to somebody about it because back he says I was right you were wrong well instead you come back with two witnesses this is why the bible just says by two or three witnesses two or three witnesses two or three witnesses right and they were actually witnesses they saw it happen they were there they came back and they told them all right so that's why that happened super important verse 27 verse 28 first seem good to the Holy Ghost and unto us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things the abstain from meats offered to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication from which if you keep yourselves you'll be saved no it says if you keep yourselves from these things ye shall do well very well so all they said is like look this is the this is the direction from the church these Gentiles they don't they didn't have the law he's like just do these things and you'll do well nothing to do with salvation look at verse 30 and when they were dismissed they came to Antioch when they had gathered the multitude together they delivered the the epistle they delivered the message the letter and look at verse 31 and when they had read they rejoiced for the consolation everybody was happy that this was solved all right everybody was happy that the church was in unity again all right so look I mean this is such a great story we'll stop here this is such a great story for this idea of the unity of the church because even today in any church in our church in any church there's just going to be people that come in from all different cultures all different areas but here's the thing look I mean even with standards I mean we're really talking about standards last Sunday we're really going to be talking about standards this Sunday even with standards they look folks there will be different decisions in different families there will be places that maybe I don't go with my family that maybe somebody in this church does go with their family there will be those types of standards that differ but here's the point and here's the point and here's the reason here's the reason that I really like how James solved this with just using the Bible how Peter did the same thing and this is why we use so much Bible in this church I mean if you're sitting here and you have a Bible I mean you're constantly just flipping to Bible versus constantly in the sermons here why? why? the reason that I do it that way and the reason that pastors like me do it that way is because we will be more unified if we go off the Bible we will be more unified if you can just make a decision in your mind that you know what no matter how I was raised no matter what I was taught no matter what I was told no matter how I spent the first 20, 30, 40 years of my life if it's in the Bible I'm just going to do it that way if you can make that decision and if everybody in a church could make that decision the church would be super unified everybody would be on the same page even standards would be the same if everyone just made that decision just threw off those old cultures and just said you know what the Bible is going to be in my culture that's why I'm just like look at it yourself turn there yourself don't just listen to me I mean that's why the Catholic Church has killed thousands of people maybe millions of people throughout history for having a Bible I'm like go read the Bible I'm like go read your Bible why aren't you reading your Bible more you should read more go read read, read, read, read study to show yourself approved it doesn't say listen to pastor constantly it says study to show yourself approved read the Bible yourself and guess what as you and the Holy Spirit read the Bible as me and the Holy Spirit read the Bible as you hear the Bible preach I mean we're just going to get more and more unified on the Bible I mean imagine that this is this is another reason by the way that it's just it's pointless to debate like people that aren't saved it's pointless like we don't go out soul winning to argue with people but even that like even when you see like a debate between a Christian and an atheist it's just a huge waste of time it's a waste of time why because what is the atheist basing anything on you can sit there and read them all the Bible you want he's like whatever big deal I don't believe that it's literally a pointless exercise if you have somebody that you're trying to debate that's not even saved it's a pointless exercise because what you have there you don't have a problem of differing of opinion you don't have a problem of logic you have a problem of a heart you have a heart problem and you know they have to allow the word of God be seeking the truth in their own heart in order for that to be fixed you're not going to fix that by arguing with them all right so look that's the point I'm trying to make is the reason we use so much Bible here is because of exactly how this problem was solved all right this problem was solved in a biblical way and the more Bible that we all look at the more Bible that we all you know just know the more unified we will be it's very simple it was such a great example of the leadership role too how they just they used the Bible they listened to everybody they figured out what was wrong they didn't just nobody was going off half cocked and it was just a very logical way and then not only does James defend the gospel but he just gives this practical advice to try to bring the church closer together by just this practical advice just like hey you know it's by grace through faith for you too but just could you not bring dead raccoons to the next potluck that's it that's all right and he's just trying to spark that Christian growth in them and you know that's another thing that everybody needs to keep in mind as well you know somebody that's been saved for 20 years and been soul winning for decades you know you gotta understand that people are going to come into a church all the time brand new Christians and they're not going to be in the same place you know as far as growth it's going to be very much like the Gentiles you know where we have to understand that people need time to learn the Bible and to grow get a mosquito up here speaking of blood all right last point last point the gospel was under attack this is the last point I want to make the gospel was under attack right away the gospel was right away under attack just a few years after Christ there is nothing new under the sun and what this is all I need you to understand it was attacked in what way it's always going to be attacked in the same way works were being added to it so it's just don't be surprised don't be surprised when works are being added to the gospel but guess what thank God that there was people back then that stood up to it thank God that Paul and Barnabas right away in verse number two jumped up and said this isn't right and then they went and they solved it the right way and then they got the truth corrected with everybody that was confused right away so it's a very serious thing it takes people to stand up for it the gospel is not going to stand up for itself and satan is constantly putting pressure I mean that's how satan wins it's just a constant pressure and as soon as christians led up he makes advances you know so christians need to be constantly standing up for the gospel and that's what we're doing when we go out soul winning we're out there we're getting the truth back out there you know so many people have distorted it and added works to it and we're outnumbered but we're putting pressure back is what we're doing all right and they judged everything using scripture which we always want to do let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer um great chapter axe chapter 15 um let's bow our heads


We'll do member statements. The member for Windsor to come see. Thank you, Speaker. We lost a community champion in Windsor yesterday. Pat Noonan was a social activist, a true warrior right to the end. She was a former nun who left the convent after 20 years because her progressive views conflicted with the teachings of the Catholic Church and women weren't treated as equals. She starred at Windsor's Feminist Movement in 1970, protesting against the statue of a bikini-clad woman being used to sell tires at a gas station. She opened a drop-in center. It became a sanctuary for battered wives. She co-founded the Windsor Feminist Theater, now the longest-running feminist theater in Canada. She was a teacher and a principal. Pat Noonan was married, divorced, and worked in a factory putting chrome on bumpers because she felt she was too insulated from ordinary life. Pat certainly was no ordinary person. An environmentalist, peace activist, and her local voice of social conscience. Three years ago, she was honored by the Council of Canadians as activist of the year. Speaker Powell, the child of the Depression, before she knew the word, she was a feminist because she couldn't accept the fact that her brothers never had to wash the dishes. She had an intense understanding of right and wrong and social responsibility. She was bold, outspoken, always had a shoulder to cry on, and at times was hilariously cheeky. They made a movie about her life a few years ago. It's titled, This Is What a Feminist Sounds Like. Speaker Wee and Windsor and Essex County mourn the loss of Pat Noonan, a role model for us all. For Markham, Florence Hill. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Each summer, Markham welcomed the annual Markham Millican Children's Festival. This is a festival that has become the Ontario largest festival. And it is an event that children and young families wait for all summer long. This festival started because of the vision and the need to bring the affordable local fund to the families in Markham and throughout the York region. As a past chair of the Markham Millican Children's Festival for over 10 years, I am proud to have let the largest children's festival in Ontario. Together with my committee, we crowned up this festival from 500 participants to over 20,000 participants with the help of 300 young volunteers. This event is an opportunity to bring together the residents and family of one of the most ethnically diverse riding in Canada. This year is an important year for the festival because it is the festival comb coming. Finally, it's coming back to the heart of the southeast part of the Markham this August 25th. At the newly opened Anin Community Central Library in the riding of Markham Tonya. Mr. Speaker, this is a true community celebration and I welcome and encourage all members of the legislative assembly to attend this wonderful festival. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for London North Centre. Thank you, Speaker. I think I can speak for the official opposition when I say over here, we're not opposed to a good beer, excepting those who abstain for cultural and or other reasons. While there are many problems with providing subsidies for wealthy multinational beer makers, including substance abuse, addiction, mental health, violence against women and more, today I'm going to solely focus on the manufacture of beer. A fantastic business in my riding, London Brew and Co-op, sourced their ingredients from nearby Ontario farms, have created good jobs, and money flows back into the local Ontario economy. Craft brewers deserve support and recognition from our government, instead of a challenge to lower standards and sell it a loss. If this government stood on the side of Ontario businesses, they would create subsidies for brewers, buying, and farm selling local produce. Instead, we see this government subsidizing multinational corporations, sending money overseas, by offering prime shelf, advertising and promotional space, all of which have an associated value, regardless of claims to the contrary. Craft beer makers across Ontario have responded to this rich get richer insider driven challenge in a more Canadian way, by investing in local communities. Stormstay Brewery in London is donating $1 from certain sales to Innova, the merger of women's community house and sexual assault centre of London. This government challenges brewers to lose money so they can make good on a promise. Why is this Conservative government making life harder for businesses, just so they can save face? Thank you. Member statements? The member for Berry Springwater, Oral Medante. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to talk about Burles Creek event grounds. They've used this property, the property's been used for over 30 years for cultural entertainment, sports and community events. It's a pride of Simcoe County and people from all over North America come to celebrate and come to enjoy the property and its use. Most recently this past weekend, Mr. Speaker, we had boots and hearts and some 45,000 people attended from all over Canada, every province and territory, over 20 U.S. states and people beyond North America. It's just unbelievable how many people show up and enjoy the grounds. It's a pop-up city of sorts and people bring their trailers, they bring their tents, but it's a very responsible type of event. Most people that drive in are not allowed to drive out. You're there for the weekend, it's very controlled, they check rigorously as people come in and they check rigorously as you leave. But boy, there's a lot of fun to be had. And this year they had Ferris wheels and they had all sorts of things. They had tents to help with the sun and the rain and whatnot and the acts are just second to none. Alan Jackson was a headliner on Saturday night and I can tell you as you looked out over those fields, Mr. Speaker, you couldn't see the end of them. It was like looking out into the ocean and people had fun, good, clean fun and it's such a great, great, that Chattahoochee. There you go. Country and Western, Mr. Speaker. We, it was the seventh edition this past weekend and thank you. Thank you very much. The member for Kitchener Center. Hello, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to speak about one issue that has been troubling people in Kitchener Center. Though it's not the fault of the Ford government that a promise was made to people on ODSP and OW to increase their payments to 3% and double the amount of money that they're allowed to take home before those payments are taken back, it's the responsibility of a government to run with moral integrity and empathy for those that they are governing. I'm also completely astonished that we're now finding more tropes around people that are poor that are problematic. So for instance, implying that they are manipulating the system, that they're dishonest, that they're uneducated. And so what I'd like to do is introduce a few of the people on ODSP and OW from my riding and Kitchener Center. For Kate, this cut means that she will get $18 more each month while her rent has gone up to $27 and food has increased by 2.5% in Kitchener. Kate works diligently in the community, she supports those that are less fortunate, but I guess this form of compassion means that she will have to do that on an empty stomach. Thank you. Thank you, member statements. The member for Ottawa South. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I'd like to say a few words about safe injection sites. And I want to start off by saying I was really pleased last week when the Ministry of Health talked about extending the funding for the London safe injection site. It's the right thing to do. I was disappointed when I heard this morning that there's a pause on the other sites in Ontario that are ready to go and that the government wanted to look at evidence on either side. So the evidence is there, safe injection sites save lives. They save sons and daughters' lives. They save mums and dads. They save lives of people who are loved. And our obligation is to try and save lives. Safe injection sites do that by ensuring that if someone has an overdose, they get naloxone right away and treatment right away. You can't cure someone's addiction if they're not alive. So I would urge the Minister to look at the expert evidence from people like Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull in Ottawa who's actually heading up our efforts in Ottawa at the Shepherds of Good Hope. He's the former Chief of Staff at the Ottawa Hospital, former President of the Canadian Medical Association. The evidence is very clear. And I asked the Minister not to delay any longer in opening up those other safe injection sites. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements. The Member for Mississauga Center. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the privilege of attending the Cindy Association of North America's Annual Gala. Santa Canada is a nonprofit organization that works to unite Cindy's throughout North America and around the world. The goal of this organization is to preserve the tradition and historic national rights of Cindy people while maintaining strong relationships with other ethnic communities. I was thrilled to see such vibrant and enthusiastic youth participation at Santa Canada. These young people understand the importance of celebrating and preserving their cultural heritage, essential to our great Canadian mosaic. Mr. Speaker, I commend the important work of this organization in supporting new Canadians. My writing of Mississauga Center is home to many members of the Cindy community and I am proud of their many contributions to our city and our province. Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to Jim Munir, President of Santa Canada, for his gracious hospitality this past weekend. Thank you. The Member for Kiwetanom. Mr. Speaker, I just want to quickly want to speak about the bringing of the Sir John A. McDonald statue from Victoria to Ontario. I just want to let the House know that I went to residential school and that it's very important to me to express my voice and many survivors like me about this matter. When in 1987, I was quite aware of the strapping that happened and this is 1987 and it's sometimes very difficult to listen to some of the approaches and even especially today when I heard about this, this was happening. What First Nations people didn't hear previously when this House came in was reconciliation and the thrown speech or anything from the Minister of Engineers Affairs. And you know, question I have for me was how was the decision made without any First Nations leadership in Ontario on this decision to bring this statue? Further, the governments also pressed pause on the TRC curriculum writing and how much will it cost for the statue to be brought here? And so, and one of the things I want to say is I want to applaud the City of Victoria for making such a strong statement in favour of reconciliation for our people. When will this government make theirs and when's the humanity in that? Thank you. Member Statements, the Member for Berry and the School. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm honoured to be able to welcome someone that I look up to as a role model and mentor in the legislature today. Peter Van Loon, who's sitting up in the gallery of us today, was elected as Member of Parliament for York, Simcoe in 2004 and has been delivering change for the better ever since. He has dedicated, he's been a dedicated and loyal servant to not only his constituents but for all of Canada. He has always treated his position with respect and with dignity and I applaud him for the work that he has done over the years. He has the best voting record of any MPP in the entire House of Commons having attended 637 out of 639 votes. His dedication to protecting and restoring Lake Simcoe has led to our beautiful Lake being the jewel of our community once again. Peter Van Loon, or PVL as he is commonly known, is a true patriot. He looks up to Sir John A. MacDonald and even has named his son after the leader of our confederation. When he announced his retirement, I know a lot of us in the area were really humbled and saddened to see him go but no, he will always make our country and Ontario a better place. As a minister, he improved our correction system. He enhanced our national security and he played a critical role in expanding Canada's free trade with many countries worldwide. Thank you, honourable Peter Van Loon. Member Statements, the Member for Whitby. Thank you, Speaker. Baseball should be a field of dreams for all who want to be involved in the game and that's why, Speaker, it's so important that a dream comes to fruition to construct a fully accessible diamond in Whitby for all special needs children in Durham to showcase their abilities. What started out, Speaker, as the Whitby Challengers Baseball League with about a dozen players four years ago, has grown into a Durham-wide league and now has more than 70 players from the ages of five to 20 with some exceptions, turning out and playing the game they love. Speaker Challenger Baseball allows children with cognitive or physical disabilities to enjoy the benefits of participation in baseball at a level that is structured to their abilities. Speaker, the town of Whitby has been most accommodating to the needs of Challenger Baseball and best to the credit of Mayor Mitchell and his council, offering the league a parcel of land at Willow Park in a northeast side of the town for its diamond. The diamond project is expected to cost about $350,000 and with the support of town council speaker, a target date for the opening of the baseball diamond is late 2019. Speaker, this diamond will provide the type of opportunity and to help these young men and young women fulfill their aspirations and it's to the credit of all those involved with Whitby Challenger Baseball that this is happening. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you, that concludes our time for our member statements this afternoon. Reports by committees.


Dexter Newblood series review. Hey, what's up guys, it's Josh here. Today I want to do a little review on Dexter Newblood, the one and done last season of Dexter. Now, Dexter is an absolutely amazing show. It might even be, if we're counting just the seasons that I enjoy, it might even be in the top five shows of all time. For me, when I find a movie that I like or a TV show that I like and it's completed good and they ruin it in the other sequels, I like to forget about those other sequels. Like for me, it's like season one, two and four of Dexter is pretty much all I need to see and the only reason I don't really like four is that there's a big death at the end that kind of throws things off for future seasons although it doesn't really affect that season as much. So I will be doing spoilers of this season of Dexter, Dexter Newblood, but I will not be doing spoilers of season one, two or four. So if you want to check those out, I highly, highly recommend it. It's some of the most entertaining, well put together TV show material that I've ever seen in my life. It is so good. Season one, two of Dexter, please check it out. So anyways, there's gonna be full spoilers for this new season. Let's jump right into it. So basically the whole story is Dexter escaped like 10 years ago. He hasn't killed anybody, which is kind of crazy for Dexter, but the very first episode of the show, there's like this really annoying kid who's just really asking for it. Dexter ends up killing him at the end of the episode. And then on top of that, his son, Harrison, is now, I think he's like 15 or 16. He finds out where Dexter lives. He breaks into his house. He knows that he's not Jim Lindsay, which is his fake new identity. He knows that he's Dexter Morgan, so it's that initial crack in the armor. And then on top of that, he is dating the police chief. And so you have that whole angle and it kind of brings him closer to that Miami Metro kind of virus because he is a little bit in the police station. So it brings a little bit of that back. And then on top of that, you have the killer this season, which is Kurt Caldwell. It's the guy from Shawshank Redemption, the evil guard guy, Clancy Brown. But yeah, he's pretty good. I think he's a really good actor. I really wish they did a little bit more with him as a serial killer, but he's like essentially finds these girls who are gonna run away, locks them in a room for like a couple of days and then lets them go. And when they go, he like shoots them and then like goes and preserves them because his whole thought process is that they're gonna run away and they're just gonna get hurt.  Weird whole thing. But you have that, you know, a pretty decent killer of the season. And that's basically the main synopsis. Let's jump into the pros of Dexter Newblood. The pros is they really recreated a new kind of world for Dexter that I was actually interested to see unfold and to find out a lot more of. By episode two and three, there was almost a little bit of this classic Dexter family vibe. Dexter has his girlfriend and at the beginning of the season, they're really good. There's a little bit of that family vibe. And then he has his son and his girlfriend's daughter. Like they're all getting along. It's a, it almost feels like this quirky kind of family style atmosphere that was in the earlier seasons of Dexter, how he was like doing all these bad things behind people's back. But then he would come around his family and he would seem like the most perfect guy. And it would be such a nice blend of he's really dark. He's doing all this stuff. And he comes in, this is perfect family vibe. So the family vibe went away really quick, but I really liked that they recreated a good cast around Dexter that I really wanted to see slowly unfold. But unfortunately we only had one season and I'll get to more in that in the cons. But I really wanted a good amount of time to get to know all these characters, to slowly have each one find out a little bit more about Dexter and slowly appeal away the onion. I actually really wanted to see that. And I thought that there was some pretty interesting family vibe similar to the original Dexter. Like I was saying how like everybody loved him.  And I really liked that in the beginning of this season. And then it had very slight remnants of the original Dexter or things that I liked about the original Dexter. Again, it was very, very slight, it would pump into times where like, man, things would just go into full gear. You know, like when you uncover Kurt Caldwell, all the bodies, that was really good. Or just there was a few times where it just felt like we were flying again. It felt like, you know, oh man, it's just all the good stuff about Dexter. There was little bits of it that would come back into the show, but it was very, very slight. Gives you a whole new world to explore. And I actually really wanted to see two, maybe three seasons to like let these characters breathe and to slowly let each one find out more and more secrets instead of having to have them all uncovered really fast. And then the last pro that I had was it had pretty good acting. Like I don't really find anybody as really a bad actor. There was a couple of characters that I wasn't really a fan of, but the actual actors and actresses themselves, I thought did a great job. I just think some of the direction of some of the characters should have been tuned up just a little bit. But overall, you know, the acting was good. The mixed aspects I had was Deb. Now, we all love Deb. It's hard for me to watch a Dexter without Deb. I feel like she's an integral part of the puzzle. For me, I like all the members of Miami Metro. I like Deb. I like Rita. I like all of the original feeling of Dexter because in my opinion, once they kill somebody off, they're not able to recreate them as good. And I thought the idea of Deb was good, but as everybody knows in this show, she's just so annoying. She's so hard to watch, you know? Or like when finally Dexter and Harrison are having a moment, she's just telling them to lie. She's screaming at them. She's just almost nothing but frustration. And I feel like it's such a missed opportunity because as soon as you see her, you're like, this is a perfect way to have her injected into Dexter and have it feel like Dexter because Harry used to be in Dexter's head the same way. I thought it was a great idea and just so poorly executed. And again, I like Deb. I wanted to see more of Deb, but I mean, there was almost no scenes that I enjoyed with her to be honest. And then the last mixed aspect I have is the snow location. I feel like there's just not that much that they could do. Like it'd be more interesting if he was, you know, maybe by like a ski resort or he had some kind of way so he could get around some hustle and bustle. Also, like I feel like Michael C Hall, yeah, he's getting a little bit older, but I feel like the cold makes him look older than he actually is and he's in the cold all the time. So it was just like, you know, he almost looks better when you see him on like a talk show or something. When it's not all cold, he looks like younger, you know what I mean? So I'm kind of just torn on the cold. I liked the idea that it was a complete mix up and I feel like that's kind of what the show needed. But I just feel like they didn't do enough with it. The town is just too small and simple and you feel like you're going in the same spots just over and over again. Okay, and now onto the long list of cons. So let's jump into them. I recommend seeing season one, two and four of Dexter. They are magnificent, perfect. Probably my top five TV shows ever. This one, not so much, but let's jump into the cons, shall we? So the cons was that it had a very, very slow beginning. Now I gotta say, I probably, I enjoyed episode one enough.  Episodes two through five, I don't know what it was. I was not interested in almost anything that happened in any of these episodes.  Nobody knows who Dexter is. So you could have slow, it would have been great to just slowly have each character find a little bit of something, find a little bit of something, you know? So basically they slow down the plot and like nothing happens for like five episodes and then they cram like all 10 episodes worth of stuff into a few episodes and it just seems really fake. Everybody's chilling and then all of a sudden like, it's time for me to uncover everything in 15 minutes. Like that's just kind of what it feels like and as soon as I saw the whole family aspect of Dexter, I was like, there's so much to do with this whole situation. Like every episode needs to be action packed. There was so much you could have done.  It just chills for like five episodes, you know? Ridiculously slow in the beginning. Lots of the original magic of this show is gone. I mean, maybe even up to 80% of the time I was just kind of out of it. Dexter's little quirky things he says to himself, they seem kind of dumb. It just seems like, oh, like Dexter used to do this. So write some lines for him to tell himself. Like, I mean, one out of 10 lines he said seemed a little bit smart. And it just seemed like, oh, just writing him something to whisper to himself. When the original Dexter, every time it felt very smart. The things that he was saying or how clever or like, aha, a little jab, you know, this one was just very, there was like no magic to it. Then the lack of kills. I think there's maybe three kills by Dexter in this show.  Like you're just the serial killer who just basically just needs to die. But then he like barely kills anybody. I don't know. It's just kind of weird to see a Dexter where he's not like not killing anybody. He's killing people, but he's like barely killing people. It's like this, can we have full on Dexter or can we have him trying to quit? Like I don't know, this whole three kills for or three or four kills for 10 episodes was just very unlike Dexter. It also seemed like this show is more about Harrison. Like it almost feels like it should be called like the Morgans or like Dexter and Harrison because the way that they frame everything, they frame it like Harrison is way more important than Dexter. I don't really have a problem with that except that the show is called Dexter. And no matter who you were to Dexter, Dexter always came first, whether it was Deb, whether it was Rita, whether it was anything. Dexter was always the most important. He was always the character that just was in the most knowledge and that you was kind of created to be likable.  The high school party scenes in here were so cringy. You could just tell it was just a train wreck waiting to happen. And on top of that, the storyline of all the partying teens really goes nowhere. It's just completely almost wasted. And again, it almost seems like it's made for Harrison. Like this is about Harrison.  And I just found that by the end, I didn't like watching any of the high school scenes and they didn't matter at all at the end. So I think you just remove them 100%.  I know that has nothing to do with it. But I have all the reasons to like this person. But the way that she was written, she was written just a little bit above too many characters. I do think the finale with her was, it was a really good way to end it. And I actually liked her character a little bit more. You know, you weren't expecting her ending to come so quick, but for the most of this, she was just really hard to listen to. And a lot of it was cause she was just like so like ahead of everybody. Dexter is behind everybody, but Angela is way ahead.  She knew just a little bit too much more than Dexter. I wish she was kind of pulled back a little bit in her knowledge, the insane plot conveniences. Now again, they really should have set up maybe two or three seasons with this because you gave us so much to bite off. You pretty much couldn't fix it all in one season. And that kind of shows. I mean, there's multiple, multiple plot conveniences.  And then he goes and finds out like, oh, he finds his son's like titanium pin from his knee in the ash. Like it's just a little bit too much. Or when Angela, you know, is able to uncover the body in the cave. And it just so happens to be like the most important case to her. And she literally snaps her fingers. It's like, oh, he faked this call when we were going to search this area, which means we need to search this area. She goes and maybe seems like almost no time at all. She uncovers a body and it just happens to be the most integral like body that she could have possibly found. It was just like, there's a way to maximize that story, but it was just like, wow, I just feel nothing because it just felt so fake, you know? And on top of that, all this stuff Angela uncovers at the end, it's just like flip a switch and she's able to just figure out almost everything right away. There's no difficulty. There's no anything. It's just plot conveniences are just crazy in this one.  I felt like how she knew like, yeah, you can remember Dexter coming over there, but just how she just thinks, oh, Dexter charged his phone so he must have been recording. Like I felt like there needs to be more steps. It's just like they just wonder something and it's kind of in left field and it's the perfect thing, you know? And it just happens over and over and over. And it's like, I don't mind them figuring out but give them like a little bit more breadcrumbs. Like going from A to Z is just, it seems a little too fake. This show, I gotta be honest, it just did not feel smart. The original Dexter, I don't know why it just felt like a smarter kind of show. It just seemed like you kind of had to be witty or kind of be focused to really get everything that's going on. And almost everything they did just, it just felt really dull and not smart to me. So the hand holding with explaining like past events of Dexter in here was just so cringy. Now I get that you wanna have something to let the new viewers know, kind of catch them up a little bit, but they really just absolutely hold your hand in this one. Like I could have sworn there's probably at least 10 times which is like, here, here's what happened in season four. Here, here's what happened in season four again. Hey, you're born in blood. Hey, I'm born in blood. Oh, I'm born in blood. Oh, I'm born in blood.  And then what's the point of going like, season four of Dexter was so much better and you just ruined it.  And then there was no replacement for Miami Metro. Now I gotta be honest, Miami Metro, they were a unique bunch. Like they are probably some of my favorite side characters that I've ever seen on any show. They are entertaining, they're serious. There's like emotional sides to them. I just loved Miami Metro from Masuka, Dokes, Laguerta, Angel, a perfect blend. And it's too much to ask them to recreate it here. But again, I liked the actors but I think the direction there wasn't enough tier. And I think we needed more time with these characters to just chill with them, to have fun experiences with them. But it's like, no, we have to rush everything. We don't even get to enjoy anybody. And then I, to be honest, I liked Angela and Dexter but there was not enough time with them together. I just felt like literally after episode, maybe three, they're almost never together and their relationship really goes sour quick and never comes back. And I just really wish we got more good times with Angela so I can envision it more in my head. It seems like they maybe had one to two good episodes and that was it. So many storylines just go nowhere.   So angels just on its way, they end it, don't do anything with that. And then the ending of this was just so weak and unsatisfying. And to be honest, it's like the show was somewhat mediocre. If the ending was out of the park, it really could have just, you know, really brought this show up until like a slightly recommend.   You know? And even if you want to end with Harrison shooting Dexter, it's like, there's so much better ways to do it. There's so much more ways to have me invested. Like to me, I was just almost like, they're not gonna do it right. Do it like this, you just couldn't, but they do. So anyways, guys, this season of Dexter was actually pretty hard to watch. It was kind of nice to see something new. It wasn't like a retread of the old seasons. I'm not really sure how I would rate this one against all the seasons of Dexter, because like I said, there's a few of seasons of Dexter that are perfect and the rest are really not the best to average. So I would probably put this near the bottom to be honest with you guys. I actually liked the original ending that we had of Dexter, the one that everybody hated where he escapes and becomes a lumberjack. Like to me, that just was a much better ending. But if I were to say buy, rent or pass, I'm gonna have to say pass unless you really wanna check into this as like a Dexter fan. But really to be honest guys, there really wasn't too much here. And again, if you take away anything from this video, if you have not seen Dexter's, if you've not seen season one, two or four of Dexter, go check that out right now. Those seasons were absolutely perfect. And yeah, just go check those out. But anyways guys, let me know what you thought of Dexter New Blood where you as disappointed in it as I was. Do you think it was just mediocre? I actually had just a lot of difficulty watching this especially cause Dexter is just so behind. Like Dexter's behind the entire season. Like he's never in front of anything. And it's just hard to watch because it's like, man, everyone else knows more about Dexter than Dexter and he never picks it up. He never figures it out. He just keeps making mistakes. So anyways guys, let me know what you thought of Dexter New Blood, who won the road to 50,000 subscribers and I couldn't do without any of you guys. I hope you guys are the best. Having a great day out here. Hopefully having a great day at home. See you all in the next video. Peace.