Wonderful. The name of the message
today is Beloved Brothers. Beloved Brothers. Now, there's
a kinship within the body of Christ, which is the love of
God shed abroad in our hearts. That love is not like the love
that we have for our family members and our friends. This is the
love of God shed abroad in our hearts. It's a foreign love to
us. In our natural state, we don't
have that love. But when we're born again of
the Holy Spirit of God, the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts, beloved. And now we have a love for the
Bible. I didn't have a love for the Bible before the Lord saved
me. No. Not at all. The Lord didn't save
me till my late 20s. And I had no desire for God before
that. None. Now I desire him. He's my all in all. How do you
explain that? That's God's work, isn't it? And think of this, we have a
love for the brethren that we never had before. And you ever
notice you can meet folks who are born again believers and
you have an instant kinship with them? Like I mean instant. It's amazing. Zane was telling
me before Eric and Sandy left, he stopped them in the parking
lot because he hadn't got to talk to them. And he says, I
can't wait till they get back because when I was talking to
them, it was like I knew them for 50 years. How does that happen? That's the love of God, shed
abroad in our hearts, beloved. It's not natural for us. And
you know, we can, well, we know we can go down to Donny Bell's,
right? Down to Kentucky. And you got
that same kinship, don't you? And all over, wherever God's
people are, and when you meet them, you have an instant kinship
with them. Because you're born again. We have the same Father.
We have the same Spirit. We have the same Savior. The
Lord Jesus Christ. The only Savior of sinners. The
only one. Oh my. Today we're gonna start
a new chapter. Chapter 16. Let's stand up and
we're gonna read together Acts 16, verses one to five. Acts
chapter 16, verses one to five. This will be our text today,
but let's read this together. This is speaking of Paul and
Silas. Then came he to Derbe, in Lystra,
and behold, a certain disciple was there named Demetrius, the
son of a certain woman, which was a Jewish. and believed, but
his father was a Greek, which was well reported of the brethren
that were at Listeria in Icaronium. 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. And as they went through the
cities, they delivered them the decrees to keep, that were ordained
to the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so they
were the churches established in the faith and increased in
the number daily. Now note there in verse four,
I didn't see this until I was studying for the text. This is
amazing. This is amazing. Note that it says they went through
the cities and delivered them to decrees for the keep. Paul
still has the letters. that were written to, remember
the letters that were sent to Antioch? He still got those. And he's going around now to
the churches, telling them that salvation's by faith alone, in
Christ alone, plus nothing. Do you know that? Do you know
that salvation's not in anything we do? Now that goes contrary
to man, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, but, oh, but you're
telling me that salvation's just in Christ alone, plus nothing?
Exactly. Exactly. And by faith, we look
to Christ, don't we? By God-given faith. There's nothing
we have to check off to do to be saved. Salvation's only in
Christ. Now, do we now desire to go to
church? Yeah. Do we now desire to be with God's
people? Yes. Do we now desire to study the
scriptures? Yes. Do we now desire to hear
the gospel preached? Yes. We didn't before, did we? Now we love it. That's all we
want to hear now. Tell me more about Christ. Tell
me about my Savior. Tell me about the one who died
for me. Tell me about the one who extinguished the eternal
wrath of God in my room and place that was against me, that totally
extinguished it. Tell me about Christ Jesus, the
only Savior of sinners. the one in whom all my sins are
forgiven. All. So they went around preaching
that. Because remember in Acts 15,
they had had a council, because at the very first, there was
Judaizers who had come in, and they said, well, you have to
be circumcised according to the law of Moses to be saved. That's
another gospel. Anytime someone says you have
to do this along with faith in Christ, that's another gospel.
I don't care what they put in there, or how good it may be.
Salvation is in Christ alone, plus nothing. By His work. See, remember, it's His work.
And then what happens? The Holy Spirit works in us,
doesn't it? Right? I'll never forget, I told you
guys this many times, I'm gonna keep repeating it. A friend of
mine one day came up to me and we were talking about the fruit
of the Spirit. And in religion, I always felt like I had to do
something to gain merit and favor with God. I always felt that.
I always did. Because I came out of Catholicism, then I got
into religion, right? And then the Lord saved me. But
I always felt like there was something I had to do. I had
to do something to gain God's favor even. If I did this, God
would be happy with me. If I did this, oh, he'd be angry
with me. Do you know that God is not angry
with his people? Ever. You know why? Because that righteous anger
and that wrath that was due us has been satisfied in Christ.
Isn't that wonderful? And we just look to Him, don't
we, Brother Tom? We just look to Him by faith, by God-given
faith. So they're going around This is starting the second missionary
journey. There was a sharp contention,
unfortunately, between Paul and Barnabas, and we know that was
sinful. It shows us even the best men are sinners, right? And that's why we call ourselves
sinner saints. That's what we are. We're sinner
saints, aren't we? We're sinners saved by the grace
of God. We're saints of God, but we're still sinners, unfortunately.
But we confess our sin, don't we now? We never did before.
But now we do. It's amazing. It's just amazing.
So they're going around preaching Christ. In our last lesson, we
finished off at chapter 15, where we saw the importance of true
followers of Christ uniting together. Remember, they were united together
against false religion, against works-based religion. Anything
that adds something, again, somebody might say, well, you have to
be baptized, and have faith in Christ. That's another gospel.
I'm sorry, but it is. That's another gospel. That's
not the gospel of salvation through Christ alone, by faith alone,
according to the glory of God alone. It's just not. It's just not. And people say,
well, that's harsh. Well, let's go back to Acts 15 and see how
there was sharp contention between Paul and the false teachers and
how the apostles agreed, remember, with them that salvation was
in and through grace alone and through Christ alone. And so now they're united. So
much so that the apostles and elders at the Jerusalem church
have given letters to Paul and Barnabas to take to the church
in Antioch, and he's still carrying them. And to say, we're united. We're united against works-based
religion. Let's look at verses 36 to 41
of Acts chapter 15, just to get, before we get into Acts 16, because
this is attached to that latter part. The latter part here is
attached to verse 16, chapter 16. Starting verse 36. And some days after Paul said
unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every
city, where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see
how they do.' And Barnabas was determined to take with them
John, whose serm name was Mark. But Paul thought not good to
take him with them, who departed from them, from Pamphylia, and
went not with them to the work. And this contention was so sharp
between them. This means they had a major disagreement. It's just sinfulness. Just shows
us our sinfulness. Whether Paul was too hard on
John Mark or whether Barnabas was too lenient, we don't know.
But it was sin. It was their sin. Look, are they
getting angry about somebody preaching a false gospel? Well,
they were earlier, weren't they? See, the enemy will get anything
he can to divide us. Why do you think there's so many
denominations? Remember when we started reading
the book of Acts, there wasn't a bunch of denominations, was
there? They were preaching Christ. He says, well, I don't agree
with this. I think this is how it should be. Well, boom, there
goes another. That's what happened with the Campbellites, with the
Church of Christ. They were Baptists at one point. He says, well,
we think that salvation is attached to baptism. Well, there's another
gospel. See, Christ alone is who we preach.
If salvation's not in Christ, then there's no salvation. Our
hope is in Christ and Him alone. And that's what they had, they
had a unified front now, that salvation was in Christ alone,
by his grace and by his mercy and by his perfect sin-atoning
work. And now here, Paul and Barnabas, two dear brethren,
are showing us that they're just like us. They're arguing over
a young man. And Barnabas, John Mark was Barnabas'
nephew. Okay, so he's gonna have an affinity
to him, right? He's gonna say, hey, this is
my nephew, man. This is my sister's son. Yeah,
he may have took off on us, but I think that he won't do it again.
Now, look at this. As I said last week, God overrules
the sinfulness of man so that not just one missionary team's
going out, now two are. Right? You've got Paul and Silas
going one, and you've got Barnabas and John Mark going on. So God
overrules the sinfulness of man, just as he did, as we looked
at last week in Genesis, when Joseph's brethren threw him in
the pit, sold him to slavery, ends up in Potiphar's house,
ends up in jail, and then ends up the second in command over
all of Egypt. all according to God's promise.
And remember Joseph said, you meant it for evil, but God used
it for good. Think of that with the cross. Think of that with
the cross. Man took, sinful man took and
hammered Christ to that cross. But what God, it says God foreordained
it, right? It was all planned and purposed
by God. And wicked men took him and crucified him. And as I said
last week, we would have been saying, crucify Him, crucify
Him in our natural state too, wouldn't we? The only thing that's made us
to differ, the only one who's made us to differ one from another
is God and God alone. Isn't that amazing? The grace of God in and through
Christ. And so here they are, they're
having a sharp contention. And Paul thought not good to take
Him with him, who departed from them, from Pamphylia, and went
not with the work. And the contention was so sharp
between them that they departed asunder, one from another. And
Barnabas took Mark and sailed on to Cyprus, and we never hear
about Barnabas again. We do hear about John Mark, though
Paul says, send him to me, he's profitable. So it appears like
the contention As I said, if they didn't reconcile on earth,
they're dearly beloved in heaven, aren't they? They're not arguing
anymore. There's no contention now. Isn't
that wonderful? Oh, it's so good. It's so good. And Paul chose Silas and departed,
being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he
went through Syria and Caecilia, confirming the churches. So we
see the love in the hearts of Paul and Barnabas for the saints
who were called out of the darkness. They wanted to go and see how
they were doing. When I go out west to visit Norm,
the first thing he asks is, how are you all doing? How's the
saints back home? We have a love and a concern
for one another. Isn't that amazing? Did we have
a concern for God's people before we were saved? The last people we even wanted
to be around, right? Oh my, isn't God good? Isn't
He so merciful, beloved? Oh my, and this love again is
the same love that we have for our born-again blood-washed brothers
and sisters in Christ. It's a love of God shed abroad
in our hearts, beloved. In verse 36, notice the term
brethren. This identifies God's people
as family. We're family. You know, I always
say that all the time, but we are family. Not just here, but
with all the born-again blood-washed believers in the world. We're
the family of God. Isn't that wonderful? We all
have the same Father, right? We're all born again by the same
Spirit, and we all have the same Savior. Isn't that wonderful? We're sinners saved by the grace
of God in Christ and through Christ alone. And again, we can
have instant kinship with folks. It's amazing. So Paul and Barnabas,
they were blessed with extraordinary gifts to preach the gospel and
to go out, but we see they're just sinners. Even the best men in the church,
what we would consider the best men, are about sinners. You know what Norm told me one
time? He was, him and Henry Mahan, Henry was his mentor. And you
know what he said? He said, the hardest thing for
me was when I learned that my pastor is just a sinner. I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I've received the same mercy
you have brother Tom. I'm born again by the same Spirit, Sister
Ann. We have the same faith in Christ
and Him alone. No different than anyone else.
Remember, the ground at the foot of the cross is what? Level. There's no preacher mound. Baseball, they got a little pitcher's
mound, right? He's a little above everybody else. But at the foot
of the cross, we're all just sinners saved by grace. Let us
never, never graduate from that, brethren. Let us never graduate
from that. Our hope is Christ. Our rest
is Christ. So Barnabas wanted to take his
nephew. Paul didn't want him to go. Sharp contention arose. And then we see in verse 40 and
41, Paul chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren
unto the grace of God. And they went through Syria and
Sicilia confirming the churches. They were recommended by the
brethren unto the grace of God, and then they just went out.
Out they went. And what did they do? Well, Paul,
he says, I preach Christ and Him crucified. Am I gonna get
tied up on how to live this way and that? Because God's people,
we learn that, don't we? Through the preaching of the
gospel, through the preaching of the word of God. You ever
notice how we have, okay, when God saves
us, he shows us we're just rotten sinners, right? And we need Christ. And the law is set forth, and
the law, we look at the law and go, I can't do nothing. So the
law is used, isn't it? It's used to show us our sinfulness. It's used to show us our desperate
need for Christ. Right? And we love the law of
God as God's people. We're not against it. We're not
antinomian. It's there. But praise God, we're
not under it. But does it show us? Do any of
you want to murder? No. We don't desire to lie to
one another, even though we all do. We don't desire to go out
and commit adultery. We don't desire these things,
do we? Because we're showing the holiness of God through the
law of God. But we're also showing our sinfulness
and our desperate need for Christ, right? And then comes the balm of Gilead.
Christ died for sinners. And he, sister, we rejoice in
this. He is the end of the law for righteousness. He fulfilled
it in our room and place. What does that mean? That means
he fulfilled it. He said it's finished. What does that mean? In the Greek, it means it's perfect.
The work is perfect, beloved. And then in Isaiah, it says,
look unto me and live. Well, someone says, how do I
do that? Well, by faith. If you're looking to Christ,
the only reason you're looking to Christ is because God gave
you faith to look to Christ. People say, well, I can put the
date down when I, the day I was born again. I can't. Spurgeon
couldn't. But I know I'm born again. My
hope, my trust, my rest is in Christ alone. It wasn't before. And I preach Christ. I preach
the only Savior of sinners because He saved my soul. And that's
all we need, isn't it? Do you know that all things that
pertain to life and godliness are in Christ? Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely amazing. My,
oh my. So we see, off they went, preaching
the gospel, confirming the churches, which is they, confirming is
they strengthen them by preaching the gospel. And we know that
strengthening doesn't come by them, it comes by the power of
God, the Holy Spirit. Right? But they preached the
truth, didn't they, Brother Tom? They didn't compromise. They
preached Christ and Him crucified. Oh my. And as we hear the... Do you know how we grow in grace?
When we hear the gospel. When we hear about what Christ
did. We grow in grace and the knowledge of the truth. And we
never see it in ourselves, of course. But others see it in
us. We grow in the knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it doesn't puff us up, does
it? It humbles us. It humbles us, beloved. We realize, God, you chose me. You chose me. That's amazing grace. That's amazing grace. You saved
me. You regenerated me. Praise your mighty
name. Hallelujah, right? Oh, I love
that word. It means praise you to the Lord.
That's what it means. Hallelujah, praise his mighty
name for saving my soul. I couldn't save myself and he
saved me. And what old Scott Richardson
say, since I heard the good news, I ain't heard no bad news anymore. Isn't that true? It's good news
for sinners, isn't it? Christ died for sinners. And
we just flee to Him, don't we? We just look to Him. He's the
only hope we have. That's why we tell our friends
and family members who don't know Him, look to Christ. He's
the only Savior of sinners. How do I look? Well, by faith.
And if you're looking to Christ, that means God gave you faith.
Right? Because we didn't look to Him
before we were saved. Oh, but now, now, right? He's the fairest of 10,000 to
my soul. Isn't that amazing? He goes from
one you don't even want to hear about to one who's the most beautiful. My, oh my. God takes rebels like
us and turns us into sinner saints. It's amazing. It's just amazing. And He strengthens us. God the
Holy Spirit strengthens His enlightened saints with the same gospel truths
that Paul and Barnabas were preaching. Same gospel truths. Now something
interesting here. Let's go back to, let's read
from verses 40 of Acts 15 to Acts 16 2. Because Acts 15, 40,
and 41 are tied right in, tied right in with And remember, the chapter breaks
were put in by man. And we see the continuation here.
We see the continuation here. Acts chapter 15, verse 40. And
Paul and Silas. And Paul chose Silas and departed,
being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he
went through Syria and Caecilia, confirming the churches. And
then he came to Derbe and Listeria. And behold, a certain disciple
was there named Timotheus, which is Timothy, the son of a certain
woman. Notice, I love how the scripture brings forth a certain,
a certain, remember a certain man, right? Isn't that wonderful? Oh, there's purpose there. There's purpose there. God's
purpose. A certain man, a certain disciple
was there named Timothy. I'll just gonna say Timothy,
the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed, but
his father was a Greek. So his mom's a born again believer.
And as far as we know, his dad's not. Which was well reported
of by the brethren that were at Listeria and Icronim. Now
notice that word Listeria and Icronim. Do you remember those
cities? This is interesting. When I was
putting this together, I was reading John Gill and he blew
this up for me. Those are familiar cities, beloved.
They went back to the cities they had visited. Even Listeria,
you know what happened at Listeria? Paul was stoned. Remember, in
Icranium, and he was stoned. And he's going back to that city.
Do you remember when we read about that portion, and they
stoned him, and here's Paul, they stoned him, they think he's
dead, he's not dead, but they think he's dead, we'll see that
in the scripture, they think he's dead, And so they leave
him there and they take off. What does Paul do? Remember,
Tom, when we talked about this? You think he'd get up and take
off, right? He'd go right back in the city and preach the gospel
some more. Oh my, what zeal, what strength
God gives to his saints, beloved. Oh, it's incredible. It's so
encouraging. Go back to Acts chapter 14. We'll
read that little section. And let us marvel, beloved of
God, at how God the Holy Spirit gives his people courage and
zeal. You'd think that'd be the last place he'd want to go to,
right? But God gives his preachers courage and zeal to preach the
gospel. Why? For the care of his people.
For the care of his people. Paul says, my life's not my own.
He's sold out for Christ, isn't he? Remember in our Philippians
study, in that part where him being poured out, he says it's
like a servant offering a drink to a guest. He offers the gospel. He wants to pour himself out
for Christ. And we see that, we see that
in this. Look at Acts 14, verses 19 to 23. This is where it happened. And there came together certain
Jews from Antioch and Icranium, who persuaded the people, and
having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he
had been dead. My, oh my. So this has happened
in Listeria. All right, how obeyed? Look at
this, as the disciple stood round about him, he rose up, and where'd
he go? Did he go the other way? No,
he went right back in the city, and came into the city, and the
next day departed with Barnabas to Derby. Isn't that amazing?
God gives his people courage and zeal, beloved. And all of
us have went through things that are just heartbreaking, and God
gives us courage and zeal. He picks us up. Remember that
story about footprints in the sand? Right? Ever seen that? And they say,
well, there's two sets of footprints. And then there's one. There's
only one. God carries his people all through
this life. There were no double footprints.
He saves us. And remember the lamb that was
lost, and he went out and found it? And you know, when I was
in religion, it said, oh, they broke his legs. They broke the
lamb's leg. Well, then he'd be lame. That's
not true. He puts that lamb on his shoulder.
And what does that lamb do? He gets to gaze into the face
of the Savior now. And that's what we do for the
rest of our lives, beloved. We're lost, he finds us, he puts
us on his shoulders, and we lovingly gaze into the Savior's face.
Isn't that amazing? He's so good. He's so merciful,
and he loves his people. Now, I know, I know some of us
had rough times with our dads, and some of us didn't, but some
of us did. I had one preacher tell me, he
said, you're gonna have a hard time understanding the love of
God because of how you and your dad, what you went through with
your dad. And I said, no, I'm not. And he said, why? I said, because God's not my
dad, like my dad was my dad. God loves me with an everlasting
love. Now let that sink in. God loves us with an everlasting
love. And he's, you know, he loved us even before he saved
us. He loved us with an everlasting
love from eternity. Now let this just sink into us.
From eternity, his love has been set upon us, his everlasting
love. Is God the same yesterday, today, and forever? That means
his love never changes, right? So because of his everlasting
love, he sent a preacher to us to preach the gospel. And because
we were his children, even though we didn't know it, Galatians
chapter 3, we were heirs and had no idea, sent the spirit
of his son into our hearts whereby we now cry, Abba, Father. So
think of this. These men are going out and they're
preaching the gospel and God, God has drawn in his lost sheep
as he pleases. God's still moving today, beloved.
Don't think God's not moving today. He's still saving. And
when that last sheep is saved of the everlasting covenant,
the eternal covenant of grace, it's all over. It's all over. Marvel, if you're a believer,
that you're part of that covenant of grace. And it's all because
of the mercy and grace of God. And look at the courage that
Paul has. He goes back into the city. They returned again to Listeria.
My, oh my. And when they had preached the
gospel to that city, to Derbe, and had taught many, they returned
again to Listeria, and to Acheronim, and Antioch. So on the way back
from going to Derby, he goes right back into that city again
that he got stoned in. And now in chapter 16, he's going
right back again. My oh my. Turn if you would to
Matthew chapter 10. This reminds me. This portion
where we see Paul now in chapter 16, then came he to Derbe and
Listeria, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy. So he's going back into the city
where he was stoned. And as I was putting the message
together, this cross-reference, Gil bought this out, and I thought
this was fantastic. Look at this in Matthew chapter
10. The master, the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnated in the
flesh, tells his apostles and us, right? This is recorded for
our learning, isn't it? Right? It says, and ye shall
be hated of all men for my name's sake. But he that endureth to
the end shall be saved. Well, we know the only way we
endure is that he keeps us. Matthew chapter 10, verse 22.
Matthew chapter 10, verse 22. Right? The only way we endure
to the end is by God's grace. We can't keep ourselves. But
look at this. Look at verse 23. And think of this in light of
what we're reading with Paul going back to that city again.
But when they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For
verily I say unto you, he shall not have gone over the cities
of Israel till the Son of Man has come. Then he says in verse
24, the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above
his Lord. But notice there in verse 23.
And think of this in light of what we're seeing with Paul and
Silas in chapter 16, right? Going back to the very city where
they were stoned. where Paul was stoned. Look at
this. And when they persecute you in
this city, flee you to another. My oh my. So our Lord proclaimed
to the apostles that they were to go from city to city. Why?
For the furtherance of the gospel. They were to expect persecution
because he said in verse 22, and ye shall be hated of all
men for my name's sake. But he that endureth to the end
shall be saved. My oh my. So when they're persecuted for
preaching the gospel, they're to go to another city. Not to,
and I like how Gil bought this out. Gil said not, not for even
for their safety, but for the furtherance of the gospel. And
we've seen that with Paul, right? He gets stoned and he goes right
back in the city. Next day he leaves and goes to
Derby. But now we see in Acts 16, they're going back again.
This time he's got Silas with him. Now Silas hasn't experienced
that yet, has he? Paul probably told him, well,
I went here last time I got stoned. My, oh my. And they left me for
dead. My, oh my, beloved. So in verse
23, they're told, in Matthew chapter 10, verse 23, they're
told to flee to another city. Again, this is not so much for
their safety, but these are circumstances for the furtherance of the gospel,
beloved. And the exhortation of our Lord Jesus Christ is not
for us to take methods to avoid persecution. It'll come. You
can try to avoid it, but it'll come. If you're a believer in
Christ, it'll come. And it comes sometimes in the
places you least expect it. Sometimes it comes from family.
Sometimes it comes from brothers and sisters in Christ who say
they are, and it hurts. It cuts deep. But God's mercy
and grace is incredible, isn't it? It's incredible. So they were told to go to another
city. If they were persecuted, go. Go to another city and keep
preaching. Don't be discouraged. Don't be
discouraged. Keep preaching the gospel. That's
what's most important. Keep preaching Christ. Keep preaching
him. Oh my. So when we see it in light
of God's sovereignty, right, it changes the whole perspective
of it, doesn't it? They are to go forth for the
furtherance of the gospel. Don't be discouraged. Just keep
persisting by God's grace, of course. Carry the gospel to another
city. Fulfill the office of preaching
the gospel in the land of Judah. This is
in the land of Judah. So what encouragement for we
who are the born-again, blood-washed people of God. What an encouragement
for us. When persecution comes in our lives, and it will, for
the cause of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're just
resting Him and trusting Him. And by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit, we see here that Paul and Silas are right back
in the city where Paul was stoned. And how did this come about?
Now think of this. How did this come about? All by the sovereign
purpose and power of God. How am I here when I was in Oregon? And Jim went down south, and
Bill went to Georgia, and then I'm here. all by the sovereign grace of
God. God took me from Canada to Oregon,
to Michigan, and I hope I die here. But it's all by the grace of
God. It's all by the mercy of God. Let's read verses one and
two again of Acts 16. Then came he to Derbe and Listeria,
and behold, a certain disciple was there, again, I just love
that, a certain disciple, it's particular, was there named Timothy,
the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewish, and believed, but
his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren
which were at Listeria and Iconium. Now Paul loved all of God's saints,
Paul loved all of God's saints. He loved them all. But I'll tell
you what, him and Timothy, they had a bond like Jonathan and
David had. And listen to what Paul writes. We looked at this
in Sunday school this morning. Look at what Paul writes about
Timothy. He says this. He says, but I trust in the Lord
to send Timothy shortly unto you, so Paul's in house arrest
in Rome, and he's telling the Philippians in this letter that
I hope to send Timothy to you, shortly unto you that I also
may be of good comfort when I know your state, for I have no man
like-minded who will naturally care for your state, for all
seek their own. not the things which are of Jesus
Christ. But ye know the proof of him,"
he's speaking of Timothy, that as a son with the father, he
has served with me in the gospel. I feel like a Timothy with Norm.
I know how they felt. He felt like Timothy was like
a son to him. They had such a close bond. It's amazing how God knits people's
hearts together. And out they went. We're gonna see. Timothy went
with them. Timothy went with them. And our Lord Jesus had
taught Timothy the truths of the gospel, that salvation was
by grace alone through Christ alone. And he'd given him special gifts
and called him into the ministry. And Paul was inspired by God
the Holy Spirit to write two epistles to him. 1st Timothy
and 2nd Timothy. And these two epistles were placed
into the canon of Scripture, weren't they? We see in verse
1 that Timothy's mother was a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
She was born again a blood-washed saint. She was Jewish by birth,
and we know her name was Eunice, but she married an uncircumcised
Gentile man. She married a Greek. And Timothy had proven himself
in a special way before the brethren that were at Listeria and Iconium. And we see in verse 2 that the
brethren spoke highly of him, which tells us Timothy gave evidence
that he was a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just
by actions, but by personal testimony. Testimonies of others around
him. Oh my. And our Savior, remember, our
Savior is Lord over this body. And Lord over His other churches
that He has. He's the King. We get the privilege
of meeting together. I get the privilege of preaching
the gospel, but we're all sinners saved by grace, aren't we? That's
all we are. Oh my. But both these churches spoke
very highly of Timothy because he preached the gospel. He embraced
the truth of salvation through Christ alone. Let's read verse
3 now of Acts chapter 16. Him would Paul have to go forth
with him and took him and circumcised him because of the Jews which
were in those quarters for they knew all that his father was
a Greek. Now some folks say that's strange. Why would he circumcise Timothy? When in Acts 15, the Jews had
said, except you be circumcised and follow the law of Moses,
you can't be saved. This isn't for salvation, obviously,
right? It's for Timothy to have a door
to preach to the Jews. Because in that text right there,
it says they all knew that Timothy's dad was a Greek. Brother Travis, would he be allowed
in the synagogues then? Not at all. And it says Paul desired him
to go with him. And Paul knew, where's the, tell me where the
first place Paul went to when he went into a city? The synagogues. That's the first, he beelined
it to the synagogues. To preach the gospel. And he
knew, he knew that if he took Timothy with him, that when they
went into these places and they found out that his father was
a Greek, they wouldn't let him say a word. So this has nothing to do with
salvation. This is so he can go preach the gospel to Jews
and Gentiles. Isn't that wonderful? It's amazing. Yeah, when I first looked at
this, I was like, wow, that's, you know, especially, and Gil
bought that out. I was looking at Gil a lot this
week. And he bought that out, that it appears strange, but
this is the reason why. And I'm like, well, that makes
total sense, doesn't it? That makes total sense. And the
answer, again, is right in the text, look. Look at verse three. Him, Paul, would have to go forth
with him, So he wants him to go with him, preaching the gospel.
And took him and circumcised him because of the Jews, which
were in those quarters, for they all knew that his father was
a Greek. So he's going to take him with him. They're going to
go into the synagogues and they're going to preach Christ alone.
And remember, what did they preach from? They preached from the
scriptures, right? Was the New Testament around?
They were preaching Christ from the Old Testament. Isn't that
beautiful? Oh, it's wonderful, beloved.
They preach Christ. Isaiah 53, He was wounded for
our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And God shall see
the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. I'll tell you what, if you get
two things out of any message I preach, I hope you get substitution. Christ died as the sinner's substitute.
And satisfaction. God is totally satisfied with
the sacrifice of Christ. Isn't that wonderful? It's all
in him. It's all what he's done. Oh my. So again, circumcising Timothy
had nothing to do with salvation. Paul's desire was to take him
with him and Silas as they continued their missionary journey, which
he did. We're going to see that as we
go on through the book of Acts. Our Lord Jesus Christ opened
the doors for them to preach. And they would again be going
into the synagogues, the Jews. And verse three tells us in that
text, well, we obviously see here, he was able to preach then
in his own town and where he was living, in the city. It was a city, not a town. It
was a city. Oh my. 1 Corinthians 9.20, Paul
was inspired by the Holy Ghost to write these words. Under the
Jews, I became a Jew. that I might gain the Jews. To
them that are under the law is under the law that I might gain
them that are under the law. My oh my. So that's the reason
Paul had Timothy circumcised. He saw in this young man an obvious
manifestation of spiritual gifts in preaching the gospel. And
Paul had a sincere desire for the salvation of his kinship.
We know that because he writes that. His desire is that all
Israel would be saved. And we know that not all Israel
is Israel. But all of Israel will be saved,
right? Spiritual Israel. Ain't that wonderful? Oh my. Now let's read verses 4 and 5
of Acts chapter 16. And as they went through the
cities, they delivered them the decrees. For to keep that were
ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.
And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in
the number daily. Oh my, we see in these two verses
confirmation that the circumcision of Timothy had absolutely nothing
to do with salvation. As Paul was carrying the letters
containing the decrees that were ordained of the apostles and
elders which were at Jerusalem, clearly stating that true followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ are not under the law of Moses, that
God has fulfilled that law, that we're saved by grace through
Christ. Again, we don't say, well, look,
there's no, we know we're not under the law, but it's still
there, isn't it? And it's holy, it reflects the holiness of God,
you know that? But praise God, Christ fulfilled
that which we could never fulfill. Oh, that's good news. That's
good news. Can you love the Lord thy God
with all your heart, mind, and soul? I had one fellow one time,
oh, I couldn't believe it. He was a dear friend too, dear
friend. And I love the guy still. I just think he was wrong. And he told me, he says, well,
you know, we're to love the Lord by God with all our heart, mind
and soul. I got the first one down and I went, oh my goodness. Can you love the Lord with all
your heart? I want to. Do you want to? I want to. I
want to do that. But I'm a sinner saved by grace.
But you know what? Christ did it in our room and
place. He loved the Lord thy God with all his heart, mind,
and soul. He is the perfect substitute
sent by God the Father to redeem his people by the shedding of
his precious, precious blood. So we see as they delivered these
decrees, coupled with the preaching of the gospel, the churches were
established, which in the Greek means reinforced and strengthened.
They were reinforced, they were strengthened in what they believed.
just as we are when we hear the gospel preached. We're strengthened. We see without him, we can do
nothing, as he told us. Without me, you can do nothing.
We see that, don't we? When the gospel is preached,
we see that. But praise God. Praise God. He works in us. Remember, it's the fruit of the
Spirit. It's not the fruit of our doings. When I was in religion, I would
say, I need to be more joyful. I need to be more joyful. You
ever went through that? I need to love people more. It's the
fruit of the spirit. We desire to love people more.
We desire to be more joyful. But you know where true joy comes
from? Hearing the gospel preached, and hearing about Christ our
Savior. Not hearing about what we have to do, because we can't
do it. Oh, isn't God good? Now we desire
to live for Christ, don't we? Every one of us, I ain't saying
not. We all desire to live for Christ, but it's by His strength
and for His glory. Oh, it's wonderful. So as these men had the honor
of preaching the gospel, we see that God blessed the preacher
of the gospel, right? As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. You know, when someone comes
to Christ, that's one of the, as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. If you're a believer in Christ,
you were ordained by God to believe the gospel. Isn't that amazing?
That's incredible. Well, someone says, well, that's
not fair, though. I don't believe, but that's not fair. You know
what the believer says? I don't want fair. Fair would
be me going to hell. But by the grace and mercy of
God, he says this. Here comes the call to all the
world. Anyone here who does not know
Christ, here comes the call. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden. Christ says, and I will give
you rest. Isn't that wonderful? Flee to
Christ. He's the only hope for sinners.
Tomorrow may never come. God's grace and mercy. Oh, isn't
he merciful to us, beloved? He's so merciful to us. Praise
his mighty name. Brother Brian, can you close
us in prayer?