Acts 19 verse 21, After these
things were ended, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed
through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After
I have been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia
two of them that ministered unto him. Timotheus and Erastus, but
he himself stayed in Asia for a season. Now our subject tonight
is the glory of God in Paul's purpose. The glory of God in
Paul's purpose. Now Paul had been at Ephesus
for over two years. And now he purposed to go to
these places, these various places. The first thing I want us to
see here is I want us to get an idea of why Paul purposed
to go to these places. And as we look at this, I want
you to keep a few thoughts in mind as we go through the message
tonight. As we look at these things, remember
the Lord has promised that He will give pastors after His own
heart. And in these things that were
on Paul's heart, that we're going to see was on his mind, on his
heart at this time, and his desire in all this being the edification
of the brethren and the glory of God, we see the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ in giving ministers to those that He's
everlastingly loved. And then the second thing I want
you to notice is as we see these great burdens that were on Paul's
heart, his care for the churches, the opposition that he had received,
the warring between his flesh and his spirit personally, I
hope that the Lord will give us grace, that we make it our
purpose to be a help to our brethren, to God's messengers, to guard
against any aptness for critical tongue, that we'd be not a hindrance
to anybody. And we'll see these things as
we go, but the first thing Paul said here, well, the end of what
his whole purpose was, is I must also see wrong. That was where
he purposed to end up. Now, Paul was a Jew. And you
remember from Acts 18.2 that Aquila and Priscilla had come
to Ephesus, to Corinth and then on to Ephesus because Claudius
Caesar had commanded that all the Jews depart from Rome. Well, in the years since he was
at Corinth and now these two years since he's been at Ephesus,
Claudius Caesar died. And so there's a door open for
Paul as a Jew to go to Rome now. And we found out why he wanted
to go to Rome in his letter to the Romans. He said this in Romans
1.11, For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some
spiritual gift, to the end you may be established. That is,
that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith
both of you and me. So that's where he wanted to
end up was wrong, for that reason, to preach the gospel of Christ
to the brethren there. But first he purposed to go to
Macedonia and Achaia. Now you know Macedonia is where
Philippi was, that's the chief city of that province, that was
the church of Philippi where Paul had witnessed God's sovereign
grace in giving spiritual life and faith and repentance to the
Philippian jailer and to those in his household. who followed
the Lord in baptism. And then the church at Thessalonica
was in Macedonia. That's where Paul witnessed the
work of the Lord so effectually, working in the hearts of the
brethren there as we saw. And then Berea was in Macedonia,
where the saints were eager to search the Scriptures. And then
Achaia includes the chief city of Corinth. That's where he had
been, where the Lord spoke to him and said, I have much people
in this city. So these were some places he
wanted to go. Now there are several reasons
why he wanted to go to these places. And what I'm wanting
you to see here is we read here Luke's record of this in Acts. It just says, Paul purposed in
spirit to go here. And I want you to get a good
idea of what was on Paul's heart, what he was thinking about, what
was in his mind, what was his concern at this time. First of
all, the saints in those places, at those churches, they had let
Paul know that they wanted to take up a collection for the
poor saints that were in Jerusalem, their Jewish brethren in Jerusalem. And so for those poor saints,
Paul wanted to go and take up that collection, that offering
that they were giving, and move on from there to Jerusalem to
deliver it to those saints at Jerusalem. Let me read Romans
15, 25. He says, but now I go unto Jerusalem
to minister unto the saints, for it hath pleased them of Macedonia
and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints
which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily. And Paul says, and those Gentile
brethren are debtors to those Jewish brethren. For if the Gentiles
have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty
is also to minister unto those Jews in carnal things. When therefore
I have performed this and sealed to them this fruit," he told
the Romans, and I'll come to you and then Lord willing from
there go to Spain. He wrote about this in 2 Corinthians
chapter 8 verse 1. of the generosity of those in
Macedonia. 2 Corinthians 8. Moreover, brethren, we do you
to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.
The grace of God caused those brethren at Macedonia to have
this heart, how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance
of their joy and their deep poverty. Oh, two things right there that
work marvelously together in God's saints. The joy that we
have in Christ and the deep poverty that we have in ourselves and
in this world. But it abounded unto the riches
of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record,
yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves.
praying us with much entreaty that we should receive the gift,
the offering, the collection, and take upon us the fellowship
of the ministering of this gift to the saints. Now, I'll give
you a little spiritual application here. When we compare these temporal
gifts, to Christ-giving pastors, like Paul, who cared enough to
go get this collection and take it to Jerusalem. We have to be
mindful. We can't help but think of God's
unspeakable gift to His elect, and that's His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. How
rich? We're enriched of Christ's fullness. I've come on that scripture recently
again. Of His fullness, we've all received
grace for grace. And I just keep coming back to
it. Coming back to it. We've received of His fullness
grace, more grace, more grace, all grace, and not even slightly
diminished His fullness. Rich in His righteousness. Rich
in free justification. Rich in sanctification by His
blood and through the washing of regeneration. Rich in complete
acceptance with God. rich in access to God, rich in
gifts of His grace inwardly, repentance and faith, love, meekness,
long-suffering, patience, and even in His pastors and teachers
such as the Apostle Paul. You know, Christ Jesus is the
good and righteous man that's spoken of in Psalm 112. It says,
He hath dispersed. He hath given to the poor. His
righteousness endureth forever. His horn shall be exalted with
honor. And so when Paul quoted that
when he was writing to the Corinthians, he said, God's able to make all
grace abound towards you. that ye, having always all sufficiency
in all things, may abound to every good work." And it's because
of this rich, righteous, good man, the Son of God, our Lord
Jesus Christ. And he said, "...being enriched
in everything, to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving
to God." Do you see what God's given us in His Son? the riches, and in Christ's faithfulness
He's given us ministers to minister the gospel to us. So you see
this great burden on Paul's heart for these brethren to get this
collection and get this to those poor saints. This was on his
mind. This was part of what it was
that he purposed in spirit to do. And then secondly, Concerning
Achaia, Paul had been notified by brethren at Corinth that there
was trouble in the church at Corinth. 1 Corinthians chapter
1. Hold your place in Acts 19. We'll
be there back at the end of the message, but I want to switch
back and forth now between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. Here was the way Paul found out
about this and what he found out. Verse 10. He says, Now I
beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions
among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. For it has been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you." Somebody wrote a letter
to Paul and asking him for help. Now this I say that every one
of you saith, I'm of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas
and I of Christ. They were divided. They were
putting one man above another man. Now, that's the first thing
I wanted you to see in this thing of Paul's purpose. This is what's
on his mind. This is what's on his heart at
this time. He knows he has some access to
Rome. because Claudius Caesar has died. He knows there's poor
saints at Jerusalem. He knows those brethren in Achaia
and Macedonia want to give an offering to him. He wants to
get it to them. And he knows there's trouble at Corinth. This
is what's on his heart when it says he purposed in spirit to
go to these places. Now, the second thing I want
you to see is Paul purposed to go to them in spite of the treatment
he received from many at Corinth. Now, one of the biggest problems
that they faced at Corinth and that gendered to this carnality
and this leaning to the flesh and looking to the flesh, one
of the biggest problems they had was criticism of Paul by
some in the church. Paul addresses this more in his
second letter when he wrote to them. First of all, in 2 Corinthians
10.10, we find that they criticize Paul's bodily presence. Listen
to this. For his letters, say they, are
weighty and powerful. He's bold in his letters. But
his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is contemptible. And this was already going on
when Paul purposed to go there. This was some criticism that
they had of Paul, some different ones in the church. And he wrote
in that first letter, in 1 Corinthians 4.19, he said, I'll come to you
shortly, if the Lord will, and will know not the speech of them
which are puffed up, not the language of them that are glorying
in the flesh, and pointing you to your flesh, and promoting
a gospel of the flesh. I'm not coming to hear them.
I'm not wanting to know their words, the speech of them, but
the power. That's what I want to know. I
want to know the power. For the kingdom of God is not
in word, but it's in power. What does he mean by that? He
wasn't concerned about this fleshly wisdom. And that's what it was.
They were glorying in the flesh and not in the heart. And he
said, I'm not concerned about that. I'm not concerned about
these men who are coming in. And there were a lot of teachers
in Corinth, besides those that were the true messengers of God. There were some coming in that
were beginning to turn the church at Corinth to another gospel
and to the flesh. And they were causing some strife
and division in the church. And he said, these men might
be intellectual. They might have a grand oratory
when they speak to you and the way they speak and their manners
and things like that. He said, I don't care about that.
I want to know the power. I want to know the gospel that
they're preaching. When you read here that the kingdom
of God is not in word but in power. The kingdom of God is
often used, meaning the gospel. The gospel of God, it's not in
word. It's in power. It has an effect. It always does one of two things.
Well, it always does these two things. It always separates the
wheat from the chaff. Always. Folks just can't listen
to the truth unaffected. They have some effect. It has
some effect on them. Christ is the power of God and
He's the wisdom of God. If we're not preaching Christ,
we're not preaching the power and the wisdom of God. And there'll
be no power experienced in the hearts of His people if we're
not preaching Christ either. The gospel of Christ is the power
of God unto salvation. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, the gospel is not meat and drink, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's the gospel. not
the righteousness of men. It's not what you eat or what
you don't eat, what you drink or what you don't drink, what
you observe or what you don't observe. It's not in carnal things. That's not what the Gospel is
about. The Gospel is not in the righteousness of men. The Gospel
is in the righteousness of God which came by the Lord Jesus
Christ who made his people the righteousness of God in him and
this righteousness that's imputed to his people freely by God's
grace. That's the righteousness. It's
the peace and joy that's given in the heart of sinners when
the mediator, that we looked at this last, when the mediator
who entered into the holiest of holies, into the presence
of God with his own blood, when he with that blood, reconciles
us to God in His person. And then He ministers unto us
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and enters into the inward man,
into the heart of a sinner. And with that same blood, through
the Spirit, sprinkles our conscience, purges our conscience from dead
works, and washes our body in the pure water of the Holy Spirit,
and brings us into union with God in Him. That's what a mediator
does. And that's what he does. And
this is where this joy and this peace comes from. Our gospel
came not unto you in word only, Paul told the Thessalonians,
but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. And he said, so when I get there,
I don't want to know the speech of these fellas. I don't care
how well they can talk to me about dry doctrine. I want to
witness some power. I want to hear of Christ alone. I want to witness some folks
who have been brought to submission to Christ. And they criticized
secondly, Paul, for taking advantage. They said that he took advantage
of the saints in temporal things. 2 Corinthians 11. Paul said this,
when I was present with you, we saw this in Acts 18, remember? He says, when I was present with
you and wanted, I didn't have a way to pay my bill, to pay
my way, to eat. He said, I was chargeable to
no man, for that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came
from Macedonia supplied. And in all things I've kept myself
from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. Remember
how he was there at Corinth, and as Silas and Timothy came
from Macedonia, he was working as a tent maker with Aquila.
And Timothy and Silas came from Macedonia, and it says he was
pressed in the Spirit. We saw how between their news
and that gift that they brought from Macedonia, how he was able
to go in and begin to preach with more fervency. And then thirdly, they accused
Paul of taking advantage of the churches through the pastors
that he sent. This is in 2 Corinthians 12,
6. But be it so, I did not burden
you. Nevertheless, now this is what
the accusers who were criticizing Paul, this is what they were
saying about him. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with
Giles. That's what they were saying.
He called them with guile, but here's what they meant in what
Paul says next. He says, Did I make a gain of
you by any of them whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus, and
with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you?
Walked we not in the same spirit? Walked we not in the same steps?
Again, thank ye that we excuse ourselves unto you. We speak
before God in Christ, and we do all things dearly, beloved,
for your edifying." And once these carnal men who were in
Corinth cast some doubt on Paul by criticizing him, falsely accusing
him, making him out to be a self-promoter, somebody that was taking advantage
of the brethren, then they could move on to cast doubt on his
gospel. That's where they started was
with His person. Then they could move on casting
doubt on what He had said. You remember how Satan beguiled
Eve in the garden? Simply by raising a doubt in
her mind about the faithfulness of God. Hath God said, you won't
die? He knows in the day you eat of
that fruit, you'll be wise. You'll know good and evil. He
cast a doubt on the person of our God so that he could cast
a doubt on what God had said. So the first steps in causing
these brethren to turn from Paul, from his gospel, was cast doubt
upon Paul's person and his faithfulness. Now listen to 2 Corinthians 11.
This is who he compared it to. He compared this carnal criticizing
and this critical tongue. He said, I fear, 2 Corinthians
11.3, but I fear lest by any means, and he'll use any means,
as the serpent begot Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. That word is
the singleness. That's in Christ. Our fullness
is in Christ. We don't turn from Christ. We
don't preach another gospel but Christ. We don't look anywhere
but to Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth
another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another
spirit which you've not received, or another gospel which you've
not accepted, you might well bear with him. Verse 13, he says,
for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore
it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
But the false tongue fed this carnal nature of those young
believers there. Brethren at Corinth and they
became puffed up they became they began to glory in their
flesh Now back over there at 1st Corinthians 4 look back over
there with me 1st Corinthians 4. I want you to see this 1st
Corinthians 4 Verse 8 he says now ye are full
And Paul is, they're not, they're not full in spiritual things.
But he's saying, this is what you are in your flesh. This is
what you are in that carnal spirit. You're full. You're rich. You've reigned as kings without
us. And I would to God you did reign
that we also might reign with you. You know what all of this
criticizing and this pointing to Paul's flesh and pointing
them away from Christ, you know what it had done? It had made
them full of themselves. That's what it always does. It
made their fleshly minds have a high opinion of their own abilities,
of their learning, of their oratory, of their ministers, of their
own knowledge. As the Scripture says, a full
stomach loathes a honeycomb. Because they were full of themselves,
they got to the point where they began to think that they didn't
need Paul anymore. That they knew more than Paul
knew, that Paul was ignorant. All Paul wanted to talk about
was the Lord Jesus Christ. And they'd moved on to other
things. They'd moved on to fleshly things. They'd moved on to ways
that they ought to be serving God. And the result was they
turned from the Gospel of Christ. Their peace was gone. Their joy
was gone. Their power was gone. One of
the preachers who was preaching to them took up with his father's
wife and married her, committing fornication. They fell into idolatry. They were taking each other to
law, brethren against brethren in civil courts. They were having
all kinds of trouble in the church. They were coming and everybody
bringing them a big picnic basket and a bottle of wine and getting
drunk and some was eating over here and others over here didn't
have anything. And they called that observing the Lord's table.
had all these things going on because they decided that righteousness
and service to God was in these hands, and in this flesh, and
looking somewhere else but to Christ, and that was the result
of all of it. They got full in themselves.
They got rich and started reigning as kings. Now read on here in
verse 9. Look how Paul compares his description
of them to what was true. He says, verse 9, For I think
that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were, appointed
to death. For we're made a spectacle unto
the world, and to angels, and to men. We're fools for Christ's
sake. But you, you think yourselves
wise in Christ, he said. We're fools for Christ. All we
want to talk about is the righteousness of Christ, the sanctification
that's accomplished by Christ, the justification that's accomplished
by Christ, how Christ is reigning in the hearts of His people,
how Christ is working effectually in the church. That's all we
want to talk about. We're fools for Christ. But you're
wise in Christ, he says. What he's saying is, you call
this wisdom? You call this wisdom what's going
on in the church? He says here, we're weak. We don't put any confidence in
our flesh. We don't put any confidence in ourselves. We don't have any
strength and sufficiency in ourselves. But you folks are acting as if
you're strong in your flesh. He says, you're honorable. Folks accept you. Folks will
receive you. Folks getting along with y'all.
Receiving you fine. And he said, and we're despised
by religion. Well, why? What's the difference
between the two? One's standing for the glory
of Christ and one is compromising the gospel. Even unto this present hour where
Paul says, we hunger and we thirst and are naked and are buffeted
and we don't even have a certain dwelling place. We labor working
with our own hands, being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we
suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat it.
We're made as the filth of the world and as the offscarring
of all things unto this day. And that's exactly what they
were doing to Paul. They might not have thought they
were, but that's how they were treating Paul. And he said, we
ain't treated. Being treated that way, we blessed.
Paul's intention was to get there, to preach the gospel to them.
That's the only cure that was going to help them, was the gospel.
And he says, verse 14, I write not these things to shame you,
but as my beloved sons, I warn you. I warn you. For though you
have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers.
For in Christ Jesus I have forgotten you through the gospel, wherefore
I beseech you, be ye followers of me." So you see, this was on Paul's
heart. And they were treating him shamefully. They were treating him with no
love whatsoever. And yet Paul's desire was to
go to them with the gospel that he went to them with in the first
place and preach this gospel to them. When you think of it,
think Paul went to Philippi with the gospel. What happened to
him? He was beaten, thrown into prison. All the places we've
seen him go, he's been beaten, left for dead. He mentioned all
those things, beaten with stripes and put in prison. reviled and
persecuted. He went to Thessalonica and they
raised a ruckus in Thessalonica and ran him out from there and
persecuted him to Berea and then to Athens. Religious people did
this. Then he got to Athens and the
Greeks and the wise men in the world, they didn't care anything
about what he had to say. And then he got down to Corinth
and he preached the gospel to them and the same thing happened.
They brought him before the judge in Corinth and wanted to try
to get the Roman judge to side with them who were Jews so they
could cast Paul out. Why? Why would Jews go against
one of their own kinsmen after the flesh, one of their own countrymen
with a Roman judge? Why would they join forces with
him instead of one who's their own countryman after the flesh?
The enemies of Christ will rally together. They'll make alliances
together to extinguish the gospel of Christ and His messengers
all the time. It's always been this way. But
now I want you to see thirdly, the glory of God's free grace
in Paul's purpose. Watch this. This is the grace
and love of God manifest right here. And we just saw these brethren
weren't showing any love toward Paul at all. Not at all. And yet for his love for them,
you know what Paul did? Look back in Acts 19. What did Paul do for them? Acts 19. So he sent into Macedonia
two of them that ministered unto him. That is, they were in the
trenches with him, preaching the gospel, helping him in the
church at Ephesus. Look who this first one was he
sent. Timotheus. Timothy. But he himself stayed
in Asia for a season. He had some more work to do there
at Ephesus, but he sent Timothy. Now, listen to 1 Corinthians
chapter 4. Turn back there with me. We're
done with Acts, but turn back to 1 Corinthians 4, verse 15. Listen to what Paul says and
catch the wording of this. Now let me make a statement to
you before we look at this. I'm convinced that Paul wrote
this letter to Corinth probably at this time when he was, that
Luke mentions here, when he sent Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia. And if you'll read the salute
he gives at the end of the first letter to the Corinthians, And
some say he wrote it from Philippi. But at the end he says, the brethren
in Asia salute you, and Aquila and Priscilla salute you. They
weren't in Philippi, that was in Ephesus. That's where Aquila
and Priscilla were. So I think he wrote this letter
from there, and I think he sent it with Timothy to them. And
Timothy came with this letter. Now listen to what he writes
here. And be very careful to pay attention to this word. These
words. For though you have 10,000 instructors
in Christ, everybody wants to come and tell you about Christ.
Everybody wants to come and give you their two cents and their
doctrine and everything about Him. Here's the power. Here's what sets them apart.
Yet you have not many fathers. Now, Paul is calling himself
a father here. Watch this. For in Christ Jesus,
It's by Christ, all to the glory of Christ. Paul says, I have
begotten you through the Gospel. You were
born of the Spirit of God's grace. You were born of the Spirit of
Christ through the Gospel I preached unto you. And he says, so I'm
a father unto you. You were begotten through my
Gospel. Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me. Be
followers of your father as children. For this cause, because I begotten
you through this Gospel as a Father that cares for you and loves
you, for this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my
beloved son in this Gospel. He's my son. And he's faithful
in the Lord. And he'll bring you into remembrance
of my ways, which be in Christ. as I teach everywhere in every
church. Now, 1 John chapter 4, I want you to
place there in 1 Corinthians 4.15 so you can look this over
when you get back home tonight. But compare what he just said
to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 9. In this was manifested the love
of God the Father for us who are begotten of Him. Because
God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him. Herein is love, not that we love
God. You know what we were doing?
We were speaking about God the Father just like those carnal
brethren in Corinth were speaking about Paul. With no love for
him, no desire to see him, no desire to hear the gospel from
him, no desire for his son being sent to us. But he sent him Not
that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be satisfaction for our sins. His Son is the satisfaction for
our sins. Do you see? God the Father gave
His children, gave His Son for children who didn't love Him,
didn't have anything, any love for Him. But He loved them freely,
without a cause in them. And His Son laid down His life
to redeem them. those children of God, that God
the Father gave to Him and trusted to Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is our everlasting Father, the second Adam, of whose incorruptible
seed we're born, just like we were born of corruptible seed
by the first Adam, we're born of the incorruptible seed of
Christ, and He'll be our Father for everlasting, the second Adam. And he begat his son Paul, the
Everlasting Father did. And he gave him to be a father
to those in Corinth in the Gospel. And because he was born of that
Spirit of that Everlasting Father, of God Almighty, of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you know what Paul did? Because those were children
that he loved at Corinth. He sent Timothy, who was a son
to Him in the Gospel, to them to lay down his life for them
in preaching to them this Gospel that they might behold Christ. They were walking in disobedience,
they were showing Paul no love, and yet Paul gave Timothy to
them to preach this Gospel to them. Later, in that second letter,
he describes what he was feeling when he wrote that first letter
to him. And he says, out of much affliction
and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears. Not that you should be grieved.
I'm not trying to grieve you in this thing now, Paul said,
but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly
towards you. After giving that long list of
things that he endured, those outward stripes and beaten with
rods and stoned and shipwrecked and robbed of his own countrymen,
Paul said, besides those things that are without, those things
that happen out here to my flesh, beyond all those things, that
which cometh upon me, the care of all the churches. He said, we do all things, dearly
beloved, for your edifying. He said, I seek not yours, but
you. That wasn't what I can get from
you. I want you, he said. He said,
the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents
for the children. He said, you're the children.
I'm not expecting you to lay up something for me. I'm wanting
to give everything for you, Paul said. Do you see where Paul got
such a spirit? being born of the Spirit of God.
Listen to this. Hereby know we that we dwell
in Him, and He in us, because He's given us of His Spirit. Now what does that mean? If we have the Spirit of God,
what's it mean? What's going to happen? In 1
John 3.14, John said, we know, listen to this now, we know we
have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Now in chapter 5 and verse 2,
listen to this, by this we know that we love the children of
God. Now the first time He said, we
know we've passed from death into life because we love the
brethren. We love the children of God. That's how we know we're born
of God. And by this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep His commandment. And this commandment have we
from Him that he who loveth God loveth his brother also." Do
you see how the glory of God in loving His children and sending
His Son who laid down His life for His children, that He might
present them to God without spot and without blemish? This Paul,
born of that Spirit, he knew he had passed from death to life
because he loved those brethren. And he knew he loved those brethren
one way, because he loved God. God's word to him to the believer
to you and me who are born of this spirit his word to us is
If you love God love your brother also how so lay down your life
on Lay down your life on He only had one Timothy and I
only had one Timothy You realize when you sent somebody
off like this in this day and time that we're talking about
with Paul, they might die preaching this gospel. They might not come
back. And he didn't have but one Timothy.
But because he loved God, he loved those brethren, he sent
him without a second thought. Because
God sent his son for him. And this is something else I
want you to see. One last thing in 1 Corinthians 1-4. And through
all of that, you might have somebody who claims that they're a servant
of God, and they've come to preach the Gospel, and everything's
about the issue of Christ, everything's about the glory of Christ, and
they begin to deal in harshness and severity with the brethren. Paul dealt harshly. He dealt
severely with those who were trying to turn them away from
Christ. He said, you've got to get rid of them. You've got to
separate yourself from them. But those brethren, he came to
turn them back to Christ. And I want you to watch how he
addressed them from the very beginning. 1 Corinthians 1. They said those who treated him
like they did. I thank my God always on your behalf for the
grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything
you are enriched by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge. Even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you, is He telling them that they had all utterance
and all knowledge? He's telling them it all comes
from Christ. That's why He didn't come to
them and say, you bunch of rebel heathen, get out of here. And
dealt with them in grace and mercy and love. It's because
He knew where all their fullness was coming from. Same place His
was coming from. He says, so that you come behind
in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
that they had, from the first hour they believed, was full
and complete. They weren't lacking in anything.
They weren't lacking in justification. They weren't lacking in sanctification.
They were washed. They were accepted. They were
complete. He said in another place in the
letter, You are Christ, and Christ is God's. He wasn't saying anything about
them not being brethren, even though they weren't acting like
brethren at all. He said, You waiting for the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also, He confirmed
the testimony in you. He gave you every full acceptance
with God in Him, in His person. When He washed you and made you
complete in Him. And He said, and He'll also confirm
you unto the end that you may be blameless in the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were
called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Do you see the faithfulness of God? I pray that when I'm not
faithful, I pray that when I'm looking to my flesh, when I'm
dividing my brethren, when I'm dealing in a carnal way with
my brethren, I pray, I pray that God in His faithfulness, will
send me a Paul who doesn't look on the outward
appearance, but glory is in the heart. He gloried in what Christ
had done for him. And therefore, he dealt with
them as sanctified, justified, complete, accepted brethren,
just like Christ deals with them. Do you see the faithfulness of
our God? Do you see the faithfulness of our Redeemer? I pray He would
make us to be helps to His ministers, to His brethren, to the saints,
to those that are in need, to those that are struggling with
their flesh, that we deal with them in the love and the grace
that He's dealt with us. What self-righteousness to be
puffed up in our flesh and think we're full and we're a strength
to where we can force others to comply. That's not what Christ
did. That's not what Paul did. He
wrote two letters to them and still hadn't gone to them. And
in one of the letters he said, the reason I've done this is
to give you time. To give you time. Give the grace
of God time to work in you so that I don't have to come to
you. with a rod, but I come to you in love and the spirit of
meekness. Do you want to uncover the sin of brethren or cover
it up? You want to be a ham that runs out of the tent and says,
y'all come in here and look at daddy. He's drunk and he's naked. That's not God's people. That's
what this modern day religion is all about. Uncover the sin
so we can do something to make it look like we've atoned for
it and made people repent for it. Let's uncover all we can.
What did the brethren do? They wouldn't even look on their
father's nakedness. They took a blanket and walked
in backwards and covered up Noah. You know why they did that? Because
they knew God. and they love their father, just
like their father had loved them. That's what grace does. That's
what grace does. I pray God will do that for us.