Now, tonight, as we look here
in Acts chapter 16, our subject this time is learning liberty. Learning liberty. Liberty is deliverance from captivity
into freedom. It could be said that liberty
is salvation. Liberty is freedom. But we don't
know anything about freedom unless we first know something about
captivity. Our flesh is the captivity. We can't blame anybody else. If we were the only ones in the
world, just us, just me, or just you, you wouldn't have anybody
else to blame, but you'd still be in the captivity. You'd still
have that captivity of the flesh present with you. Sin is all
we are in this flesh. It's all we are. When Scriptures
speak of the flesh, it means something more than this stuff
that covers our skeleton. It's talking about the spirit. It's talking about the will.
It's talking about the desire. It's talking about the heart
of the flesh, of that natural self that we're born with in
Adam. That's the flesh. The will of
the natural man is contrary. It's opposite. It's in rebellion
against God. It's not subject to God's command. It never can be. It's the product
of Adam. It's got to be destroyed and
put down and returned to the dust. It's dying. But we've been
taught that. And we have to be taught that.
And we have to be continually taught that. That liberty means
I'm free from this natural self that I'm born with. I'm free
from it. I'm saved from it. I'm being
delivered from it. And I will be finally, fully,
freely delivered from it. Christ is the believer's deliverer.
He is my liberator. He's the one who set me free
from it. When the Holy Spirit creates
a new spirit within the believer, when He creates a new spirit
within the sinner, He doesn't modify, He doesn't change, He
doesn't improve that old, fleshly, sinful nature. It is what it
is. But there's something new created
within, and that's where we worship Christ. It's created by the Spirit
of Christ indwelling in us. So that we can't say we had anything
to do with it. We can't say that it's by us
or of us or that we made it happen. Christ alone enters in. And when
He does, Christ makes it known unto us. He makes it known in
the heart He has created anew that He has delivered us because
of what He did for us. The law of God, God's commandments,
the Ten Commandments agree with God. They are in complete agreement
with God that no charge can be leveled against me at all because
Christ put away completely all my guilt when He died to the
lost justice. And He is the righteousness of
God's law established for me. He is that. So therefore, nobody
can bring the law up. Nobody can charge me with guilt
before God's law or you who believe because God's law agrees with
God, agrees with Christ. Christ Himself says no charge
can be laid against you who are born of Him because of what He's
done for you. And then death agrees with God. The wages of sin is death. And
death agrees with God that I can't die. And you who know Him can't
die. It's appointed unto men once
to die. It's already happened. I died.
I died when Adam died. when Christ died. And you who
know Him, trust Him, born of Him, died when Christ died. So therefore, now, just as my
flesh might sin, just as my fleshly body in old carnal nature, you
may see it sin. You may behold that all it is
is sinful because that's all it is. But my inner man, my sinful
nature, my new man born of God and in Christ, I don't sin. Because
I'm born of God. I'm born of incorruptible seed.
It can't be corrupted. There's no corruption in it.
Well, just by that same nature, you're going to see this fleshly
body go to the grave. You're going to see it die and
perish and go to the grave. But I'm not going to die. I've
been delivered from death. I've been liberated from death.
I have eternal life. You who know Him, born of God,
have eternal life. Your flesh is going to die. But
you're not dying. You're not going to die. And
the new spirit created within me by the Spirit of Christ agrees
with God that right now I'm free to enter into His presence. I'm
free to enter into His presence now and I'm free to enter into
His presence for all eternity. in spirit, in this new man created
in righteousness and true holiness, for it has to be holy to be accepted
of God. And my holiness and my righteousness
is not something of my flesh. It is not something by me or
done before me. It is Christ my righteousness,
my holiness, my acceptance with God. When this old corrupt natural
spirit of Adam dies, my flesh will die. But because Christ
took upon him flesh, and because he entered into glory in flesh,
in glorified flesh, though after my skin, worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh, glorified, renewed, made, created anew, just like
the spirit that's created anew, I'll see God in the flesh. That's
what liberty is. And so you see, when you see
that and you understand that, though I may sin in my flesh,
I'm not sinning. Though I may die in my flesh,
I'll never die. Though worms will destroy this
body, I'll be raised anew in glory in Christ. Therefore, you're
made to behold that the flesh has absolutely nothing to do
good or bad with what the believer is in Christ Jesus. Do you see
that? Do you see that? That's what
liberty is. It's being delivered from the
captivity that I am in my old flesh into newness of life. I'm delivered. I'm set free.
Now, it pleased God to leave us in this old, dying, corrupt
flesh that He might continually teach us that this flesh doesn't
have one iota to do with our salvation. Nothing. Absolutely
nothing. It had nothing to do with God
setting His affection on you. It has nothing to do with God
creating you anew in Christ Jesus, regenerating you in the heart.
It has nothing to do with how you will enter into God's presence
in body, soul, and spirit, wholly sanctified. It has nothing whatsoever
to do with it. Nothing. And if you don't understand
that, you haven't yet been delivered. You're yet in captivity. That's
freedom, is to be delivered from that thinking the flesh has something
to do with it. He's left us in this body to
teach us that. Now, I want to see this tonight
in our text, Acts 16 verse 1. It says, then came he, that's
Apostle Paul, to Derbe in Lystra. Paul has set out now with Silas
on his second missionary journey. He goes to the southernmost parts
of Galatia. And it says, and behold, a certain
disciple was there named Timotheus. I mentioned to you last week
that that first proper name given in a passage usually tells us
the person to focus on in that passage. Hear that person's Timothy. Timothy is the one the Lord Jesus
Christ is teaching. Timothy is learning liberty. He's learning liberty. That's
what we got. That's why God's left us in his
flesh is that we might learn liberty. Well, first of all,
first point I want you to see tonight is Timothy had been taught
liberty. He'd been taught it. Timothy
had been taught the scriptures. Look there in verse 1. The son
of a certain woman, this Timothy was, which was a Jew and believed. He'd been taught the scriptures
by his mother Eunice and by his grandmother Lois. Paul tells
us that in 2 Timothy 1.5. He said this. when I call to
remembrance the unfeigned, non-hypocritical, true, God-wrought spiritual faith
that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois,
and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that is in thee also."
And then he says in chapter 3, verse 15, that from a child thou
hast known the Holy Scriptures. which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." He'd
been taught the scriptures. He'd been taught what liberty
is. And to be taught this, we have
to first be taught about the captivity that we've got to be
delivered from. And he'd been taught that. He
had the Scriptures. He had Psalm 51-5 that said,
when King David said, Behold, he had sinned. King David had
sinned in his flesh. He had sinned outwardly, externally,
in adultery with Bathsheba, and he had had her husband killed
in the heat of battle. But when he went before God,
He said He spoke of spiritual sin. He spoke of what He was
in His flesh. And He said, Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity. That means when I was formed
in my mother's womb, it was sin. It was sin. And in sin did my
mother conceive me. In conception, I was conceived
in sin. That's that first birth. He had
the Scriptures that said, the voice said, cry. And he said,
what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. All the goodness
thereof is as the flower of the field. It withers. It fades like
a flower. It's of no use whatsoever because
the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. And it's no account
for anything. And the Scripture says, but behold
your God. His Word shall abide forever. His Word shall endure forever.
Timothy had this Scripture. He had Deuteronomy 7, verse 7,
which says, The Lord didn't set His love upon you, nor choose
you because you were more in number than any people. The Lord
doesn't choose somebody because of them. It doesn't have to do
with our strength, our ability, no more than it did with Israel
who he said this about. But, because the Lord loved you. There's where grace originates
with the love of God. Because He loved you. And because
He would keep the oath, because He's a covenant God. Because
His covenants with Himself and His covenants with our fathers,
everybody that's ever been saved has been saved by the covenant
mercies of God. And He'd keep that oath. And
therefore, He brought you out with a mighty hand, that Scripture
says. The might Timothy had learned is God's and not ours. He redeemed
you from the house of bondmen. There's liberty. That's what
liberty is, to be redeemed, purchased, bought out from under all our
debts and be freed from the house of bondage, from the house of
being a slave under the debt of sin. He bought us out of that.
and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." All this world's
kings, all of this world, we've been delivered from it. We've
overcome it because greater is He that's in you than he that's
in the world, the Lord, the Scripture teaches. Timothy had this Scripture. He'd been taught this from his
youth by his mother, Eunice. And then prior to this time,
Timothy had been taught the doctrine of liberty by Christ himself. He'd been taught this through
the Holy Spirit. We know that because we can read
here that it says he was a certain disciple. You know that one is
only a disciple of Christ if they have been taught by Christ,
the prophet, by the master. That's the only way we are a
disciple of Christ is if you've been truly taught by Christ in
the heart. And that's what it says about
him. This doctrine is the doctrine of Christ. That means this doctrine
is about him and it's taught by him. Everything about this
doctrine is glorifying to him. He had that. Christ taught this
when he walked this earth. He said there's none good but
one and that's God. That's what He teaches us when
He teaches us in the heart. There's none good but God. Christ
said, if any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother
and wife and children and brethren and sisters, his own life also,
he cannot be My disciple. That's strange. Not really. If I don't hate my can, my nearest
of kin, if I don't realize that they can do nothing whatsoever
to save me and I can do nothing whatsoever to save them, if I
do not realize that my own flesh can do nothing to save me and
I can do nothing whatsoever to bring myself to God and make
myself accepted with God, then I love my My natural relations
more than I love Christ and I love myself more than I love Christ.
And God won't have me. He won't have me. He won't have
anything to do with us if we think that our natural blood
relations and the will of man and the will of the flesh can
bring us to God. It just can't. We've got to hate that very thought
and hate everything about it and love Christ and put none
before Him. And Timothy had been taught this.
Timothy knew that he had been taught this. He was a certain
disciple. And not only this, but Timothy had been taught that
God's grace is unchangeable and it's unalterable by the deeds
of sinful flesh. And he had learned this by experience. Look there in verse 1. He's the
son of a certain woman which was a Jewish and believed, but
his father was a Greek. Timothy was born to parents who
were unlawfully married. It was a mixed marriage. She was a Jew and he was a Greek,
and it was forbidden by God. And it was unlawful before God.
It was sin and rebellion against God Almighty for these two to
be married. Did it stop God from saving Eunice, calling her out
and revealing Christ in her? She believed. Timothy was uncircumcised. This is why he was uncircumcised.
It's because his father apparently never believed God. And therefore,
he was never circumcised. Did it stop God from coming to
Timothy and revealing Christ in him? He was a certain disciple. There's two lessons taught here.
One is, the spiritual application is, in Adam, Adam married the
strange harlot, just like Eunice married a stranger. And when
he did that, all his children came forth uncircumcised in heart
and spirit, strangers to God, rebellious against God, haters
of God. That's the picture here. And
the second thing is, That don't stop God's grace. It don't affect
God's grace whatsoever. If it did, when Adam sinned in
the garden, there'd have been no hope. But it's through the
captivity of that sin, It's through the captivity and the rebellion
and lawlessness of our flesh that Christ continually reveals
in us that our liberty, our salvation, our freedom has nothing whatsoever
to do with the will of our old man, the desires of our old man,
the walk of our old man. Whether it be good or bad, it
has nothing whatsoever to do with it. It's all by God's grace. Timothy believed God in spite
of the fact of an unlawful marriage and in spite of the fact that
he was uncircumcised. He believed God. The sin of his
parents and the sin of Timothy didn't stop God from saving him.
That's the message that we're being taught here. Well, Timothy
had that. He had all that and he knew all
that. And he believed God. We know
that because verse 2 says that he was well reported of by the
brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. What do we learn
in Hebrews 11? Hebrews 11, 1. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by faith
the elders obtained what? A good report. And he had a good
report. He's called a certain disciple.
He's one who was taught the Scriptures. He was taught by his mother who
believed. And in spite of the rebellion of his parents who
were unlawfully married, one being a Jew, one being a Greek,
in spite of the fact he was uncircumcised according to the law, God saved
him. And God had brought him to obtain a good report. So Timothy
knew. Timothy had been taught that
the doctrine of liberty, the law of liberty, has nothing whatsoever
to do with the flesh. It has nothing whatsoever to
do with my old corrupt nature that I'm born with. Nothing.
He'd been taught that. Well, but he's a certain disciple. Not only was he chosen by God,
before the world began, in Christ the Lord. But he is a certain
disciple whom the Lord would use to serve the Lord and to
serve His brethren as a minister, a messenger of His Gospel. So, the Lord is going to teach
Timothy something about what it is to serve the Lord. He's
learning liberty. He'd been learning it from the
first hour and now he's coming up to the point where he's going
to learn something more and vital to know about liberty. When you serve the Lord, everybody
wants to serve the Lord. People talk about serving the
Lord. What is that? Can you tell me what that is?
I'll tell you one thing it is. I'll tell you one thing it is.
It's to publish to all that Christ is the deliverer and my deliverance. He is my liberty. He is my salvation. He is my life. It's to publish
that. That in Him the believers free
from the captivity of sin of our natural flesh. Freed from
it. So if we're going to serve the
Lord, we have to publicly confess that the flesh profits nothing
while instructing all to behold God by beholding Christ Jesus
the Lord, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And if I make
a show in my flesh in any way whatsoever, good or evil, in righteous deeds or sinful
deeds. I'm putting confidence in my
flesh. I'm drawing attention to it. And I'm proving, I'm proving
that I'm yet looking to my flesh. And before God's going to use
me, or before God's going to use you, Listen to me. You want to serve God? Before
He's going to use me or He's going to use you, He's going
to make us to understand what He means when He says, the flesh
profits nothing. And He's going to make us to
understand what it means that if the Son shall make you free,
you are free indeed. We've got to learn Liberty we
got to learn Liberty now Let's come to that Timothy learns Liberty. That's the second thing. I want
you to see he'd been taught it But now he's gonna learn it now. He's gonna learn it Acts 16 verse
3 him Timothy Would Paul have to go forth with him now? Where was Paul going? Paul was
delivering the decrees ordained at Jerusalem to the churches
that were scattered throughout Galatia. That's what verse 4
tells us. 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. What were
those decrees? Namely, two decrees. And here
they are. It's not needful for Gentiles who had never been under
the law of Moses to be circumcised in the flesh. And the second
decree was this, it's necessary for Gentiles to abstain from
pollutions of idols, from fornication, from things strangled and from
blood, which is forbidden in the law of Moses. Now turn to
1 Corinthians 7, verse 17, and I want you to see that this is
what Paul tells us he ordained as he delivered these decrees
to all the churches. Now look, he tells us plainly.
1 Corinthians 7, verse 17. He says, But as God hath distributed
to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him
walk. And so ordain I in all churches. What does he mean? Here's what
he means. Is any man called being circumcised? Let him not be uncircumcised.
Is any called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Why? Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision
is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God. That's
something. That is something. Let's see
what that is. Read on now. He says, Let every
man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou
called being a servant? Care not for it, but if thou
mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the
Lord being a servant is the Lord's free man. He's at liberty. Likewise, also he that is called
being free, he's Christ's servant. You're bought with a price. Be
not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man wherein
he is called therein abide with God. Paul had just delivered
these very decrees to the churches at Galatia where he was, where
Timothy was. He had just delivered these there.
He had just said this very thing there. He probably mentioned
how that whenever these fellows came forth and were saying that
except you be circumcised, you can't enter into the kingdom
of God, that when they wanted Titus to be circumcised, he said,
no, you can't be circumcised. Because here's the decree. The
Gentiles do not have to be circumcised. And now, Paul says to Timothy,
now we need to circumcise you before we take you to these churches
and deliver these decrees. Well, he did it so that men would
not be led away from Christ to the flesh. He's going to some
folk, the believer is going to be established in faith through
this, and the unbeliever who's there is going to, if they behold
this, they behold an uncircumcised man come in their midst, they're
going to be thrown off. They're going to be, they look
into their flesh, they look into the law, they look into obedience
as their righteousness. what they've done as being their
liberty. And when they see a man come into their midst like that,
they're going to be confused, and they're going to be distracted
right away, and they won't hear. That's what we read here, verse
3. He took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were
in those quarters. For they knew all that his father
was a Greek. The places that they were going
were populated with Jews. And they knew Timothy was uncircumcised. They knew his father was an unbelieving
Greek. And those Jews in the places
where Paul and Timothy would go had no idea that circumcision
wasn't required. That it wouldn't profit them
whatsoever. That the law would not profit them no matter how
they tried to obey it, it wouldn't profit them. They didn't have
any idea of this. But in order to get into the churches and
teach them Christ is our liberty and our freedom and our salvation,
it was necessary that Timothy be circumcised so it wouldn't
be a distraction for them so they could go in there and preach
this message. So, the very decree that Paul
is delivering sets forth the spirit of God's commandments
to the believer. The very spirit of this decree
he's delivering sets forth God's commandments to his children
in the law, in the law of liberty, in the doctrine of liberty. God's
commandments teach the believer in the new spirit the law of
faith and love. That's what we're taught. Now,
turn with me to Galatians 5, 6. Galatians 5, 6. Paul, we just saw him state,
circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of
the commandments of God. That's what we're called on.
You remember what Samuel told Saul, hath the Lord as great
a pleasure in sacrifice and offering as he does in obeying the voice
of God? This is what we're being taught
here. The voice of God. Hear what God's teaching us.
He says, the keeping of the commandments of God, the voice of God, keeping
His Word. Now that's something. Now here
in Galatians 5, 6, He says the same exact thing. For in Jesus
Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but the keeping of the commandments of God. That's what avails. You
read it there? But faith which worketh by love. See that? Same thing. It's what
John said when he said, This is His commandment, that we should
believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another
as He gave us commandment. And he that keepeth His commandments
dwelleth in Him, and He in Him." Christ in Him. John said, "...and
hereby know He abideth in us by the Spirit which He hath given
us." So what's the Spirit He's given us? What is the Spirit
He's given us? Keeping of the commandments of
God, is something. Be sure you understand what it
is. Faith in Christ, which works by love, not by the letter of
the law. That's something. It's called
liberty in Christ Jesus. Oh, it's something. It is something. It really is something. Paul
didn't teach the letter of this decree. He didn't teach that. If he had taught the letter of
this decree, he would have said, He would have said, now this
law says we don't, this decree says that the Gentiles don't
have to be circumcised, so Timothy, you don't have to be circumcised.
We're going in here and we're going to preach the gospel. If
they don't like it, they can just get glad in the same breeches
they got mad in. That's not the law of liberty. That's not the
spirit of trusting Christ or of walking in love towards the
brethren. That's the spirit of the flesh.
The same as the Spirit of the flesh that came and said, except
you be circumcised and keep the law, you can't enter into the
Kingdom of God. Those two are the same spirit
of legalism. That's the spirit of the old
fleshly nature that says, you've got to do what I tell you to
do and do it like I tell you to do it. Now, this is the Spirit
that He's given us. Look there, Galatians 6, verse
13. This is it. Brethren, ye have
been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh. to draw attention to it, to put
emphasis on it, to make it the all deciding factor in a man's
salvation, to make it something that will turn men from Christ.
Do not give an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one
another. Look down at verse 26 there in
Galatians 6. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory. provoking one another, envying
one another. Do you see that? Galatians 5.13, 5.26. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Alright,
let me lay this out here. Trusting Christ and loving our
brethren means we believe Christ has delivered us and that our
flesh profits nothing. That's what Paul said, we are
the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. If we have no confidence
in the flesh, we have none in it. Good or bad. Good or bad. And love for our brethren means
we don't want to do anything that will draw the eye or the
ear or the desires of the flesh to the flesh. Puff up the flesh,
exalt the flesh. We don't want to do that if we
love our brethren. We want them to see Christ. And
when I put emphasis on this flesh, whether it's something that you
did that's good, or whether I put emphasis on the flesh when I
bring the law of God before you and I begin to say, now, you've
not committed adultery. So you better, or if I say, you've
committed adultery, God's going to get you. You can't enter into
His presence now. The sin of Adam didn't stop God's
grace from coming to us in the first place, and our sin don't
stop His grace from coming to us from the first hour He saved
us to the last. It don't affect whatsoever our
standing with God. But it will have an effect on
you, on those around us. Whether it's, if it's a good
thing and I'm commending myself because of something I do so
well in my flesh, it'll make others look to the flesh. And
if I talk about, and I talk about your sin and rebellion, it'll
make you look to your flesh and try to reform it and think that
you're more righteous because you've done that. That is glorying
in the flesh. That's making others envious
of the flesh. That's not love. That's not love at all. That's
not believing Christ. That's the opposite of the spirit
of liberty, of the law of liberty. Paul clearly told us he's a Jew
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and the
spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God.
That's what we're being taught here. Now, I want to give you
three things that Timothy learned here, and that we've got to learn
about liberty. If the Lord uses you and I for
the least thing in His service, amidst this assembly or any other
assembly, like he did young Timothy, he will give a submissive and
teachable heart. Timothy knew, he'd been taught
from his youth up, that he was at liberty in Christ Jesus. But now he comes to a place where
Paul teaches him, Timothy, you need to be circumcised. You need
to be circumcised. It would be the same as if I
came to you and I said, Scott, you need to stop this because
it's drawing attention to the flesh. Same thing. Same thing. Same exact thing. He's telling Timothy, Timothy,
we're going to have to circumcise you because we can't have attention
drawn to the flesh. It can't be a hindrance to worshiping
Christ and serving Christ. It just can't be. And Timothy
was given a submissive heart. He was proven to have a heart
that was made to be in subjection to Christ and to those Christ
had sent. And if God is going to use you
and me to serve Him, He's going to make us followers of Christ. And He's going to prove us that
we're in subjection to those that He's given to have the rule
over us. What have we been learning in
Hebrews 13? Remember them that have the rule over you, who have
taught you the word of God, whose faith follow. Why? Considering the end of their
conversation. You know what that word considering
means? Being stirred up by what the
end of their doctrine is and their conversation is, their
deportment is. Be stirred up because of the
end of what it is they're teaching you and why they're teaching
it to you. What is that end? Jesus Christ the same yesterday
and today and forever. If I'm going to know Christ and
I'm going to worship Christ, and if I'm going to be of service
to teach other men about Christ, I've got to learn, first of all,
I've got to be submissive to the man that teaches me you can't
serve this flesh and serve Christ. One time I was... in a place where I thought I was serving Christ. It was my heart's intent to serve
Christ. And a pastor called me up and
he asked me very gently what I thought about how it was going. And I began to talk about what
I had been taught. What I knew according to doctrine. I said, well, I know God's grace
is sufficient, and I know that He's sovereign, and I know that
in spite of me, He can use me, and everything I said was correct.
And this faithful man said, Clay, you can't do it. You can't do it. And I found that everything that
rebelled against that statement was my flesh. Everything that
rebelled against it was the flesh. And that's why I couldn't do
it. But that voice was the voice
of Christ that busted up my heart and said, Clay, you can't do
it. You can't serve God in the flesh.
You can't do it. If He's given us a submissive
heart, we'll say, I can't do it. You're right. I can't do
it. That's what Timothy heard when
Paul came to him and said, Timothy, we're going to have to circumcise
you before you go in here to these unbelieving Jews because
you can't serve Him if tension's drawn to the flesh. You just
can't do it. Timothy said, that's right. That's right. And then
the Lord proves us to be servants instead of self-serving. Timothy was at liberty. He didn't
have to be circumcised. He didn't have to be circumcised.
If he rejected this one that God gave to him, if he would
have insisted and said, no, I'm free in Christ, I'm not going
to be circumcised, he would have It wouldn't have altered his
standing with God whatsoever. It wouldn't have altered his
standing before God whatsoever. But this is what it would have
proven. It would have proven that he was not strong in spirit,
but weak in the flesh. Strong in the flesh. It would
have proven that he was yet carnal. that he was yet in the flesh. And if he would have went forth
in that spirit, it would have served to greatly hinder the
Lord's people from beholding Christ rather than edify them. Paul said to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 10.23, All things are lawful for me. But all things
are not expedient. All things are lawful farming,
but all things edify not. Who knows the next verse? Let
no man seek his own. You know what the lust of the
flesh is? That's a good definition for
the lust of the flesh. Seeking our own. That's what
the flesh desires. I'm going to have my way. I'm
going to have my will. I'm going to have my desire.
I'm going to show out. I'm going to do what I want to
do. And nobody's going to stop me from doing it. Let no man
seek his own, but every man another's wealth. Another's edification. My brethren's edification. You
know what that's a good definition of? Love for the brethren. Love
for the brethren. Faith in Christ and love for
the brethren. We use our dispositions as excuses
for our rebellion a lot of times. I come from a long line of drunks.
A long line of drunks. Honest drunks. They'll tell you
they're drunk. They get drunk, stay drunk for a month at a time.
That don't give me an excuse to say, well, I come from a long
line of drunks, so I just can't help myself from getting drunk.
I come from a long line of womanizers. I'm a proud woman. I come from some scoundrels.
I'm telling you, some scoundrels. That don't give me an excuse
to say, well, that's where I come from. Peter's a good example. Peter had a temperament about
him that was somewhat overindulgent. And we do too. We came from the same background
he came from. We all came from our Father Adam.
But that don't give us an excuse. That don't give us an excuse.
Remember when Peter came to the to the tomb. One brother ran
up and he stopped and kind of looked in sort of timid like,
and Peter just ran in all brazen, you know. He had a totally different
spirit about him. The Lord said, I'm going to wash
you. And Peter said, wash me all over.
And the Lord said, it's good if I wash your feet, Peter. He
said, somebody's going to deny me. Peter said, I'm not going
to deny you. But you know what? The Lord has a way of breaking
that in us. And you know how He breaks that
in us? He breaks it in us through this thing called liberty. called
liberty in Christ. He makes us to see Christ. He
makes us to see that our liberty came about because the Son of
God, Christ Jesus, equal with God, made Himself of no reputation,
took upon Him the form of a servant, and came to where we are, and
became obedient to the One that had the rule over Him in that
office capacity, even unto death. And just His example won't do
it for us. But when He enters in, in the
heart, in Spirit, and reveals that He is the power and the
wisdom, that our liberty is Christ in the Spirit, that the flesh
really does profit nothing, then, then He makes us to see. I can't serve you in my flesh.
I'm ignorant and foolish to even try." And he makes you then say,
Lord, whatever will be of edification, use me that way. But if it's
going to be a hindrance, I don't want to be a hindrance, I want
to be a help. And Paul came to Timothy and
when he told him this, was brought to a place where
he realized, I'm at liberty. I'm really at liberty. So therefore,
if I don't insist in this thing not being done to my flesh, that's
showing forth I truly do believe I'm at liberty. You see that? The man who doesn't understand
is going to use every sinful, fleshly reason to justify having
his own way. And the man that understands
he's at liberty in Christ and the flesh really profits nothing,
don't want his flesh to be exalted. He don't want his flesh to be
seen. He don't want his flesh to be a distraction. He wants
Christ to be exalted. And he wants his brethren to
be edified in Christ. So Timothy first was made teachable. And he had a heart teachable.
He submitted to Paul who was teaching him and said, Timothy,
we can't go in this way. His flesh is going to be a distraction.
And secondly, he was made to see that my flesh really does
profit nothing. He understood the doctrine that
Paul came teaching. The flesh, do you really believe
it doesn't profit? Then thirdly, the most painful
trials are usually the most profitable. You just about bank on it. If
it costs me the most pain, it's probably gonna be the most profitable. Timothy, quite literally, Timothy's
20 something years old and he's being told he's got to be circumcised.
Now that's a good practical application for us to understand something
spiritual. That which is going to offend me most and cause me
the most pain because of my flesh, my flesh pushes against it and
don't want it and don't desire it, that's probably going to
be the most profitable for me. It's going to be the most profitable
for me. And it proved that in this case because if you'll look
here, It proved, first of all, that
Timothy, he did it. He went with Paul. He had this
done and proved that he truly believed that he was saved from
his flesh. He was set free. And secondly,
it was edifying for his brethren. Look at verse 4. And as they
went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for
the keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders which
were at Jerusalem. Now I hope you understand what
he means here when he says for it to keep. Keep the spirit of
them. If it's going to cause a hindrance,
stop it. That's what these decrees said. That's what Paul proved here.
But they went through and they gave these decrees and look at
verse 5. And so were the churches established in the faith and
increased in number daily. I don't want to give away the
message for our Bible class on Sunday morning, but you know,
why the Lord said, follow them, they have the rule over you,
and be stirred up when you consider the end of why they teach you
what they teach you. Be stirred up when you consider
that the end of what they teach you is the glory of Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, and today, and forever. And He said, for
it's good that the heart be established by grace, and not with meats,
not by the flesh, which is not profited them that have been
occupied therein." Those that have been occupied in those things,
they haven't profited. Disprofited. Disprofited. You see that? Are you a God's
servant? then you'll hear His servants
who have spoken to you the Word of God, and you'll follow what
they teach, stirred up by Christ, who is the end of everything
they teach and do. Are you Christ's servant? Are
you? Then you'll walk in the spirit
of liberty, serving the brethren, rather than in the dead-letter,
insistent, proud, stiff, hard, rebellious flesh. That's what
you'll do. Are you Christ? Are you truly
Christ? Then you'll look back on whatever rebuke, whatever
painful trial, whatever you've endured, like Timothy would look
back on this and what he'd been taught through this. And he'd
say, God did it. And he did it for Christ's glory.
And he did it for the edification of my brethren. And it's good.
It's been good. It's been good that I suffered. It's been very good. This is
how Paul put it. If you want to read this with
me, 1 Corinthians 9.19. 1 Corinthians 9.19. This is how
Paul summed it up. This is the spirit of liberty.
This is it. For though I be free, 1 Corinthians
9.19, for though I be free from all, yet have I made myself servant
unto all, that I might gain the more. And 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. To them that are without law, as without law, Being not
without law of God, but under the law of Christ. This is God's
commandment to me. To let the flesh not be a hindrance. I'm not outside of the law of
God. This is what He's taught me. I'm under the law of Christ.
That I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became
I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I made all things to
all men, that I might by all means save some. Now get this
next verse right here. And this I do for the gospel's
sake, that I might be partaker thereof
with you. The music from a heart of grace
is concerned for the sake of Christ, our strength, our deliverance,
our deliverer. That's the gospel. That's the
sake of the gospel. It's for his sake. And the lyric
of that music is, if the sun shall make you free, ye shall
be free indeed.