Acts chapter 14, beginning in verse 19. And there came thither certain
Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people. And
having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he
had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood
round about him, he rose up and came into the city. And the next
day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached
the gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned again
to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls
of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and
that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained them
elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended
them to the Lord, on whom they believed. And after
they had passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when
they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Italia,
and then sailed to Antioch from whence they had been recommended
to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when
they were come and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed
all that God had done with them. and how he had opened the door
of faith unto the Gentiles. And there they abode a long time
with the disciples. The title tonight is The Door
the Lord Opens. The Door the Lord Opens. Verse 22 says that Paul Now verse 21 says, Paul,
when he had preached the gospel at Derbe and taught many, had
many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and Antioch,
confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue
in the faith. That word confirm means strengthening. It means to render more firm
in the truth. It's another way of saying Paul
preached the gospel to these people. He came back there on
his way back through and preached that Christ indeed had redeemed
his people. That this one who came was indeed
the Christ, Jesus, who shall save his people from their sins. And he preached this gospel to
them, and they were confirmed, established in this truth more
by the grace of God, established in Christ, by Christ, and in
the truth that they would be kept by His power. This is the
gospel Paul preached everywhere he went. Right here and everywhere
else that he went. Now, it's clear. that we have
but one message. The message is be strong and
fear not. Believe the Lord. Believe Him. Trust the Lord. Your God will
come with vengeance and will recompense. And He'll come and
save you. That's what our message is. Paul
and Barnabas did whatever faithful witness and messenger of God
does. They preached the gospel, strengthening
the souls of them who heard them by God's grace, exhorting them
to continue in the faith. Now be sure you catch this important,
important truth right here. Where we begin is where we continue. It says, they confirm the souls
of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith. Continuing in the faith goes
right along with this word here where he says, we must through
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Sin is the cause
of tribulation. And sin The sin in our own flesh
is the cause of tribulation for us. And then the sin in sinners
all around us in the world is the sin of tribulation all in
the world, the cause of all tribulation. The world, the flesh, all natural
men, and the flesh in every believer is still sin. It's still sin. But this sin is what the Lord
Jesus overcame for His people by His one offering. He perfected forever them that
are separated unto the belief of the truth by the Holy Spirit,
by His blood, by the electing sovereign grace of God. They're
separated in Christ Jesus and their sin is put away. The only
way, the only way that we can continue in the faith and overcome
this tribulation is continuing by faith in Christ Jesus that's
what continuing in the faith means continue trusting Christ
alone because he is himself peace When he said in John 16, 33,
he said, these things have I spoken unto you, that in me you shall
have peace. In the world, in this earthly
carnal flesh of ours, in this world of sin and flesh, we're
going to have tribulation. You shall have tribulation, but
be of good cheer. I have overcome the world, he
said. Faith in Christ doesn't remove the tribulation. It doesn't
remove it or remove the pain of trials. Not at all. The believer shall suffer. That's
the message. You shall suffer. Yet faith is
the conduit through which God continually strengthens us in
the realization that in Christ, because our sin is purged and
put away and we've been made the righteousness of God in Him,
We've overcome this world and shall overcome it by Him, in
Him. And so we're exhorted to trust
Him alone. Now, the tribulation that Paul
had just endured he just endured is much of where the believer's
tribulation will come from in this world. A warfare begins
between the flesh and the spirit when God creates life in a sinner
and grants him repentance and gives him faith to believe on
Christ. A warfare begins. in our own bodies, between the
flesh and the spirit, and between the believer and unregenerate
sinners who are in the flesh. The contrast here will illustrate
it for us. Let's look. Remember how Paul
and Barnabas conducted themselves in Antioch? Look back at chapter
13, verse 14. It says, When they departed from Perga,
they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and sat down. Just peaceful. Just went in there
and sat down. Then in Acts 14.1, it says it
came to pass in Iconium that they went both together into
the synagogue of the Jews and so spake. They just had a word. That's all they had is a word.
Then in Acts 14, verse 6, it says, they came unto Lystra and
Derbe, cities of Laconia, unto the region that lieth round about.
In there they preached the gospel. Now notice how those in the flesh
conducted themselves. Now look back at Acts 13, verse
45. When the Jews saw the multitudes
They were filled with envy. Mark that word, envy. And spake
against those things which were spoken by Paul. Contradicting
and blaspheming. Look at verse 50. But the Jews
stirred up the devout. and honorable women and the chief
men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and
expelled them out of their coasts. Look over at Acts 14.2 in Iconium. It says in 14.2 that unbelieving
Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected
against the brethren. Look at verse 5. And there was
an assault made, both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews
with their rulers, to use them despitefully and to stone them.
And now in Lystra, in verse 14, it says, In verse 19, I'm sorry, there
came thither certain Jews from Antioch, all the way back there
from Pisidia, and from Iconium, who persuaded the people, and
having stoned Paul, drug him out of the city, and left him
there, supposing he'd been dead. Those who are in the Spirit,
who are born of the Spirit of Christ, they understand and they
rejoice and they submit, believing on Him, this very thing right
here. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. That's
all Paul came preaching. He came preaching to these Jews
who had been under the bondage of the law all their lives and
said, Christ has fulfilled the law for his people. He has saved
his people from their sins. Justified his people from all
things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now, I want you to get this if
you're taking notes. Michelle, get this. Write this
down. Number one, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
That's because in Him, in Him, His elect, those He represented,
the one who trusts Him is fully, completely, totally accepted
in the Beloved by God forever. End of story. End of story. So
we can do nothing to justify ourselves. Secondly, Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to the believer and that he is
the finisher of faith. We saw that, remember, in Hebrews
12. He's the author and finisher of our faith. That word finisher
means captain, pioneer. It means he is the perfection.
He is that holy, just, and good thing that is spoken about in
the law of God. And so when He, through the Spirit,
enters into the heart of the believer, He takes dominion and
is, in fact, the rule of life of the believer. He is. He is. Everything we see about
Him is that good and just and holy thing spoken of throughout
the whole law of God. Manifest, personified, exhibited,
set forth in His person, in His thoughts, His words, His deeds
as He walked this earth. He is the end of the law for
righteousness in every regard. He's both our righteous standing
with God and He is also our rule of life. He is the one we follow. He's much more than an example.
Having been made a new creation by His indwelling Spirit, the
believer has spiritual life by Him. He is the life within the
believer. We know God in spirit by His
wisdom. Christ is wisdom unto us. He is truth. He is the truth
that we understand, by which we understand and the truth we
actually understand. We worship God by His strength. We're led of the spirit. And Paul says there in Romans
8, by the spirit of Christ. And in our daily lives, we follow,
we walk after Him. We walk after the Spirit. We run the race set before us,
which He set, looking unto the author and finisher of our faith. Christ Jesus the Lord is our
righteousness and our rule of life. And we do so looking to
Him, not to the flesh, not to beggarly elements, not to touch
not, taste not, handle not. We don't look to those things.
We just don't look to those things. We walk by faith, not by sight. Now let me show you some things
in 1 Thessalonians 2.13. This is what Paul said, For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing. They had a lot to thank God for.
A lot to continually thank Him for. Because when ye received
the word of God which ye heard of us, heard us preach, You received
it not as the word of men. Now you hear that? You received
it not as just being our opinion and something we're saying to
you, or being something that we had the power to persuade
you. You heard this not as of men, but as it is in truth, It's
the Word of God which effectually worketh. That little ETH on the
end means it begins and don't ever stop as long as we're in
this body. It effectually worketh also in
you that believe. In 1 John, if you'll look over
there, 1 John 2 verse 27. What I want you to understand
brethren, this is the power. which those that have a mere
form of godliness, this is the power that they deny. This is
the power. God is alive. God is real. God
is true. He's living. And when He takes
up residence in the heart of a dead sinner, He is the life
and the righteousness and the rule and the dominion is His. He takes over. Now look here,
1 John 2, verse 27. The anointing which you have
received of him abideth in you. You see that? There's that ETH
again. It abideth in you. And you need
not that any man teach you. Not that you can just leave the
gospel now. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. But it's not a man that is teaching
you. Not in the heart. But as the
same anointing teacheth you, there's that ETH again, continues
to teach you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie. And even as it hath taught you,
ye shall abide in him. That's what it teaches you. That's
what he teaches you, and that's what you do. You abide in him. He abides in you, and you abide
in Him. Because when He abides in someone,
He teaches them to abide in Him. And you know what His Word effectually
accomplishes? They believe in Him. They abide
in Him. 1 John 5, verse 20. Grace is sovereign, brethren.
The power of God working in sinners is sovereign. It's as sovereign
as when He spoke this world into existence and it came into existence. It's that powerful and that effectual.
Look in 1 John 5 and verse 20. We know that the Son of God is
come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true. And we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. That's why Paul said, they that
are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but they
that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Now the
first are the fruit produced by these Jews that we just looked
at. Contrasting these unbelieving
Jews and these unbelieving Gentiles from Paul and Barnabas, the fruit
that was in them, that was produced in them, was the produce of the
flesh. That's all it was. And the fruit
produced by the Apostle Paul, who was under grace, was radically
opposite to it. Galatians 5, I want you to see
this now. I told you to underscore that
word envy, and that hatred, and that wrath, and strife, and all
of those things. Rebellion and stubbornness. Remember
what Samuel told Saul? Rebellion and stubbornness is
as idolatry and witchcraft. Now look with me here. Galatians
5.19. Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these. adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, and murders. because
the heart of their worship was nothing but the flesh. It was
idolatry and it was witchcraft. Stubbornness and rebellion against
God is the same as idolatry and witchcraft. And it brought forth
all these fruits, hatred, variance, emulation, and finally they came
all the way from Antioch, Pisidia, and Iconium to Lystra, and tried
to murder Paul, and tried to murder. These were fellas who
were actually looking to their own strength in their own hands
and claiming to obey the law. But when they were told, they
didn't have to obey it. And they couldn't obey it, but
Christ has obeyed it for them. Trust Him. What they manifest
was what their heart was, and it was murder. It was murder. But look, Verse 22, but the fruit of the
Spirit Now here's what was governing Paul and Barnabas is love They
just went in that synagogue and sat down They had a desire for
Christ to be glorified and for his people to be saved And they
just went in sit down love joy peace long-suffering gentleness
goodness faith meekness temperance Now look here against such there
is no law You mean he that's born of the Spirit? And it said
here will bring forth these fruit right here and Against those
fruit that the spirit produces there is no law. You know what
the scripture what to Paul told Timothy He said the law wasn't
made for a righteous man North these fruits are the description
of a man has been made righteous in Christ and against such there
is no law. I And they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts. You
know what the affections and lusts of the flesh are? They're
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, along with idolatry
and witchcraft, stubbornness and rebellion against God. The
flesh lusts to have the seat that belongs to God alone. Now,
I always told the Romans, what fruit had you then in those things
were of your now shame? But being yet in the flesh, Paul
says, therefore, you've seen what he just endured. He comes
back to them, and this had to be fresh on his mind to teach
these new converts, these new believers. He strengthens them
in the faith, and he tells them to continue in the faith, and
he says, we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom
of God. Now, when one of us stumbles
during a trial, because we have that old flesh in us, we have
that old nature in us, the Lord keeps us through the truth using
our fellow brethren who are filled with the Spirit of Christ, led
by Him to restore us to Christ. That's how Paul was used. He was led of the Spirit to preach
the Gospel of Christ, and through the Gospel of Christ, the Lord
brought a multitude of Jews and Gentiles into the faith of Christ,
and they trusted Christ. And now, whenever the Lord sent
them back there to confirm them, and to teach them to continue,
they preach the same word, and the Lord, through that same word,
through His power and grace, does the same thing, and continues
to do it. and thereby the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. Now, it's because
the believer, brethren, is not without law to God, but is under
law to Christ. That's from 1 Corinthians 9.21. And you know what a better translation
might be? Instead of under the law to Christ,
under the dominion of Christ, under the law of Christ. What did Paul say in Romans 8,
Romans 8-2? The law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. That means Christ Jesus the Lord
is the rule of life in the hearts of his people. Now, I want to
give you another contrast. You'll be turning to first corinthians
first corinthians Now you see the fruit of the
spirit Or the fruit of the flesh Is these jews? They try to make
people conform to the law by Their power and their strength
And their power and their strength couldn't make people conform
to the law. It couldn't make Paul and Barnabas
turn from Christ. It couldn't make them stop preaching
the gospel they were going to preach. That's power. The power
under which Paul and Barnabas were. But these Jews, the most
power they had was, you know, if you If you discipline, say
you're training a dog, and you discipline that dog, you know
you can discipline him. And if he doesn't obey you, and
you keep disciplining him, and keep resorting to harsher and
harsher discipline, The most you can ever do, eventually you'll
just kill him. You'll just kill him. And that's
all these Jews could do, was they just eventually took up
stones and said, well, if you won't conform to us, we'll just
kill you. We'll just kill you. Well, but
the spirit that Paul and Barnabas is under is different. And when
I say, when I tell you that and that we're not under law. Like Paul said, we're not without
law to God, but we're under the law to Christ. That spirit that
we're the dominion of Christ that we're under has effectually
works in us in our dealings with one another. Let me show you
what I'm talking about. Paul came to the Corinthian church
and the brethren there were carnal. They were brethren, but they
were carnal. Babes, Paul called them. How
were we first turned from the flesh to Christ? The gospel. Being told what Christ has done,
what he is doing, and what he shall do for us. And by the gospel
which declared Christ has established us by his blood and his righteousness. That's how we begin in the spirit.
And through that gospel, that's how we're kept from our flesh.
So listen to how Paul begins. Now you know, I'm going to go
through a little bit of this in Corinthians here, but what
I want to point out to you is the difference between a legalistic,
harsh Spirit that rules the flesh and the spirit that when a man's
brought under the dominion of the Spirit of Christ Let me show
you 1st Corinthians 1 1 now. These are carnal. They had a
laundry list of things They were feuding with one another about
that's what this whole book is about Corinthians letter Paul
is answering these problems, but look let me show you Look
I start Paul called to be an apostle and of Jesus Christ through
the will of God and Sothenes, our brother, unto the church
of God. That's how he dresses them. As
the church of God. Which is at Corinth to them that
are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Not going to be Not might be
if you turn around and start obeying the law, but are sanctified
in Christ Jesus. Called saints. You know what it is to be a saint.
Perfected. Perfected to be accepted of God. That's what He calls them. With
all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord. He's their Lord and He's our
Lord. Paul says, grace unto you, grace unto you, and peace from
God our Father, God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I
thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is
given you, which is given you by Jesus Christ. That in everything, does it look like everything?
When you read through the book of Corinthians, does it look
like they've been blessed in everything? Yeah. In the Spirit, in their flesh.
What Paul's dealing with here is turning them from the flesh.
That's what's caused all their problems. But he said, but in
the Spirit, you've been enriched by Him. in all utterance, in
all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
How was the testimony of Christ established in them? In the Spirit,
through the Spirit. That's what he's talking about.
So that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you, establish
you, strengthen you unto the end. blameless in the day of
our Lord Jesus Christ God's faithful by whom you were called unto
the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord Paul begins this
thing not by saying you bunch of rebellious stiff-necked. I
don't even know if you believers or not. He begins by saying greeting
Saints enriched with all spiritual blessings kept by the power of
Christ who loved you and gave himself for you, who will confirm
you into the end, by whom you are established, blameless. He's faithful. He'll do it. The fleshly spirit that was going
on here manifested itself in the way they were divided because
they set various preachers up on a pedestal. And Paul says this, he starts
out by saying, teach them there's nothing good in a man, but don't
boast in the flesh. He says here verse 7, so then
neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but
God that giveth the increase. And then look at verse 21, he
says therefore let no man glory in men. But these are brethren. These are brethren. So listen
to how Paul strengthens them, confirms them, points them from
their flesh to Christ. He says, For all things are yours,
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death
or things present or things to come, all are yours. And ye are Christ's and Christ
is God's. Now that doesn't sound like the
Methodist Jews took, get it, who were under the power of the
flesh. They wanted to yoke people and use the law to make them
do it. Paul comes into a church that
is against, they're going against the law, but he's teaching them. You're not under the law, you're
under grace. Quit looking at your flesh and quit looking at
your brother's flesh. This is what got you in this
mess. Now, in the flesh, we're two things. We're two things
in the flesh. We're legalists and we're lawless. We're outlaws. That's the two
things we are in the flesh. Legalists and outlaws. We don't
use Christ to teeter between the two. If you're in Christ,
in the Spirit, you're none of those. But in the flesh, right
now, even you that believe, you are a legalist and lawless in
your flesh. That's what we'll always be till
this flesh goes back in the ground. So Paul dealt with a matter of
lawlessness first. There was a preacher in the church
who was guilty of fornication. And this was greatly interfering
with the worship of Christ. But rather than be saddened and
mourn over this thing, Paul said, You're using liberty as a excuse,
as a cloak to excuse this man. Paul said this is a thing to
mourn over. But in order for the brethren
to be restored back to Christ, this interference had to be removed. This man had to be removed. This
is not the rule. This is an exception. We don't
see this in every church where they're constantly kicking folks
out of the church. And this man, what kicked out
of the church, this man had to be removed because he was an
interference to the rest of the sheep. This is something that
had to happen because it was going to interfere with them
seeing Christ and worshiping Christ. But notice what Paul
did and how he instructs them. Look here in chapter 4. In verse
14, he says, I write not these things to shame
you, but as my beloved sons, I warn
you. And look down at verse 17. He says in verse 16, I beseech
you, be ye followers of me. He's saying, follow the example
I'm setting before you. And then now listen to what he
kind of tells what he means here in verse seven. He says, for
this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus. He's a faithful preacher
of the gospel. He's going to preach Christ and
set Christ before you. He said, who is my beloved son
and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance
of my ways, which be in Christ. Walked by the Spirit. I'm led
of the Spirit. I walk in him. I point me into
him He says as I teach everywhere in every church Paul is being He didn't desire
to do battle with those who were puffed up. But he desired to
come to the saints in love and in the spirit of meekness, teaching
them Christ. He's trying to get rid of that
fleshly spirit. He's trying to get rid of that
fleshly rebellion that they were in and point them to Christ.
Now, listen to these complaints and questions and problems the
Corinthians had against one another. We'll look at a couple of them
here. right after dealing with the problem of this lawlessness,
of this totally ignoring what is becoming to the believer and
to the church, to Christ. They were lawless, they just
totally ignored as if they didn't have any ruler at all. As if God wasn't, they didn't
even look to God or Christ. Then he turns around and deals
with the fact that they were being totally legal in everything,
how they were dealing with one another. See, that's what it
is to be carnal, is to be lawless and legal. Now look here, 1 Corinthians
6, verse 7. What they were doing is their
problem of legalism was so bad they were taking their brethren
to law in public to legal magistrates. Can you imagine what they were
doing in the church with one another? If it was so bad and
they were railing on one another with the law so bad that they
went outside of the church and went to the courts, what do you
think they were doing in the church to one another? Now look
what Paul says, verse 7. Now therefore, there is utterly
a fault among you, because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Listen, why do you not rather
take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer
yourselves to be defrauded? He says, nay, by insisting that
their brethren were wrong rather than suffering and being defrauded,
that they might restore them to Christ. Paul says, they were
being unrighteous. He says, no, you do wrong by
telling your brethren that they're wrong rather than suffering the
tribulation, suffering the trial, bearing with it in the spirit
of meekness that you might point them to Christ. He says, you
do wrong. By doing that, by taking them
to law. And defraud, and that your brethren. And he says, know ye not that
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? He's saying,
that's unrighteousness. Your legalism is unrighteous.
And now look, be not deceived. He's lumping them in the same
camp with these. Listen. Be not deceived. Neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. He's lumping this This legal
nature and spirit about them, they wouldn't take the wrong
and suffer and try to restore their brethren back to Christ.
He said that's the same as all these other things. We just saw
that when Paul told the Galatians. That's the fruit of the flesh
and it's all the same. But did he do the same thing
they were doing and go to the law and just beat their backs
with it? No, not at all. Look what he
said. And such were some of you. They're doing this in the flesh
now. They're being unrighteous toward
one another in the flesh right now. But He's talking about what's
done in the Spirit. Listen. And such were some of
you. But ye are washed. But ye are sanctify, but ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit
of our God." Do you see that brethren? How that he's faithfully,
lovingly instructing them on these things that are wrong.
But at the same time, he is not yoking them with his legalistic
spirit of the law or with lawlessness. He's telling them, look to Christ. Look what Christ has done for
you. You're washed in him. You're
justified in him. Let me show you another place.
They had another problem, and I'm just kind of glancing over
this, but I wanted to show you this, try to contrast the spirit
of these Jews with this spirit. Now, let me show you one more.
They had a problem one another over eating and not eating things
offered in sacrifice to idols. Paul said, in idols, nothing.
Look at 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6. He says, But to us there is but
one God, the Father, of whom all are all things, and we in
Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we
by Him. Howbeit there is not in every
man that knowledge. For some with conscience of the
idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol,
and their conscience being weak is defiled. But meat commendeth
us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither
if we eat not are we the worst. But take heed, lest by any means
the liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak.
Now, let me show you what I think is the best example in the whole
lot of what we're being taught here in the book of Corinthians
and what it is that I'm wanting to get across to you as we bear
this much tribulation. In 1 Corinthians 9, 9. They were quick to condemn their
brethren in the church because they were walking in the flesh. They were quick to judge them
as lawless and blame them. All of them doing it to one another
within the church. But every one of them ignored
the fact that they didn't support their ministers at all. at all. Now listen to what Paul said.
1 Corinthians 9 verse 9. Paul says, It is written in the
law of Moses. Now he uses the law. He's going
to use the law. It's written in the law of Moses,
Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the
corn. Doth God take care for oxen? He's saying, is God talking about
oxen here? or saith he it altogether for
our sakes. Is this applied to us or is it
applied to oxen? That's what he's saying. He says,
for our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he that ploweth
should plow in hope, that he that thresheth in hope should
be partaker of his hope. The man that works ought to get
paid for his labor, he's saying. And he says, if we have sown
unto you spiritual things, things of inestimable riches, he said,
is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? Is it
too great for you to show kindness, to support your pastors, is what
Paul's saying. But look at this. He says in
verse 12, if others be partakers of this power over you, if they
get this from you, shouldn't we rather? Now, if Paul had been
telling them they were under the law instead of under grace,
he would have demanded they provide for him. He would have said,
now this is what the law says and you need to be paying me.
That's not what he's telling. but being under grace, under
the law of Christ, which is the law of love, who desires for
sinners to be brought to Christ, not to the law. He says, end
of verse 12, nevertheless, we have not used this power, but
suffer all things. We take this, it's wrong, it's
wrong, but we suffer it. We suffer this tribulation and
go hungry, work with our own hands, he said. Why? lest we
should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you see what he said? He said,
I could very well pull out the law and instruct you that you're
obligated to pay me. But if I did that, I would be
turning you from Christ to the work of your hand. And as carnal
as these brethren were, they would turn right around and say,
they'd give Paul some support and say, well, we're righteous
now. That's what we did. He said, I won't do that because
I want you to see Christ. Everything that he was teaching
them was teaching them, suffer whatever you have to suffer.
Suffer whatever tribulation you have to suffer so that you can
point your brethren to Christ. That's it. That's it. And he
did it pointing them to Christ. Now let's run back to our text
and I'll finish up here. So Paul exhorts his brethren
to continue in the faith. He exhorts them to persevere
in faith. And he says you're going to go
through much tribulation to do it. Paul Shows them by himself
and you know where he said there to the Corinthians Follow me
biggie followers of me. Look what Paul did here. He not
only told them this he'd been stoned He'd been drug out of
the city He'd been expelled from Iconium and from Pisidia Antioch
and from Lystra and these places but look verse 21 when they had
preached the gospel in Derby and had taught many and They
returned again to Lystra, to the brethren there, because there
were some brethren there, and to Iconium and Antium. preached
the gospel, confirming the souls of the disciples, and he exhorted
them to continue in the faith and told them about this tribulation.
And because he knew that this strengthening and this continuance
would be through the gospel, they didn't leave until verse
23, they had ordained elders in every church and prayed with
fasting and commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.
So you see, he not only told them to do it, he did it. He
was doing it while he was telling them to do it. He was continuing
in the faith. Going back, suffering, knew he
might face tribulation going back to those same cities, but
he went there anyway. Why? He suffered all things for
the sake of the brethren, that he might preach the gospel of
Christ and strengthen them in the gospel of Christ, that they
might continue in the gospel of Christ. That's the issue,
brethren. That is the one issue. So we're
going to face tribulation, and it's our tendency. Let me say
a few words here about this, and we'll stop. But it's our
tendency. When we face tribulation, like Paul did, it's our tendency
to have a big pity party and begin to look at ourself and
think, well, everybody's not treating me like they ought to
be treating me. And we'll start hearing messages preached, and
we'll start saying, well, they're not treating me like I ought
to be treated, you know? Pastor Todd Nyberg made a good
observation. The Bible never teaches me how
other people ought to be treating me. It only teaches me how to
be treating other people. That's it. That's all that this
word is teaching us and that one word though about Paul getting
up after he was being stoned and going back and preaching
the gospel to them. There's a wealth of instruction
in that because God has provided the means whereby through what
he's given to us. He narrows the way down so that
we have something to do. Paul didn't have time to pity
himself after he'd been stoned. He picked himself up, got up,
because he had brethren to preach to. He had saints to confirm. He didn't have time to lay around
and wallow in pity. He had work to do. And he went
to the work. He went to the task at hand.
And in the process, God lightened his own afflictions. Not that
he didn't continue to face tribulation, but preaching Christ and walking
in Christ and helping brethren to seek Christ, Christ strengthened
him and made his own afflictions lighter. In spirit, he still
had pain, he suffered bonds, he suffered afflictions, but
they were easier to bear because he was strengthened by Christ.
That's what Christ has done for us. And then, in the end, I've
got to show you this one thing. When they got back to Antioch,
verse 27, look who Paul gave all the glory to in this work. He says, verse 27, when they
were come, they came back to Antioch, when they got there
and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had
done. Yet with them he used them, but
he said let's take it. Let me let us tell you all God
has done with us and Had how he had opened the door of faith
unto the Gentiles They rehearsed all that God had done with them. You know, in Romans 6, when Paul
is talking about, he says that sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. That's
not a recommendation. That's not a possibility. That
is an irresistible, irrefutable, sure and certain fact in all
those whom Christ has taken dominion. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. You're not under the law, you're
under grace. And he says there, so don't yield
your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but
yield yourselves unto God. That's what Paul was saying here.
We're just instruments. We're just vessels he used, but
let's tell you what God has done in these places. And he says,
and he opened the door. He opened the door. You know,
at your workplace, where you work, and ladies, if you're at
home, where you work, you are the instrument of the one who
is your head, to be used by that head to accomplish the work your
head is pleased to perform. And a good worker is one who
is resolved and submits to that very truth. I'm his, and I'm for his use,
however he wants to use me. And somebody who is a terrible
worker is somebody who's stirring up others and trying to cause
revolt among them and rebellion among them. And it's always because,
well, I don't feel like I'm being treated right. I have my right. The law says, we don't want the
law. We don't want what the law says.
The law says we deserve to be in hell now. We don't want that. We want to be His servants and
to be submitted to Him and trust in Him and He'll use His people. Therefore, do away with anything
and everything that will hinder us from being instruments that
he'd use for his honor and his glory and the good of his saints.
And he'll lighten our afflictions in the process. You remember,
Melinda, we were in the... We've told you all about the...
So far in our life, we probably will go through another season
like this, but we had a season that was a trial after trial
after trial. It's the toughest thing we've
been through in our time we've been married. It was just a couple
of deaths in the family and some problems in the church and just
some terrible things. Vehicles and finances and just
everything. But in the midst of it, we hadn't
even come out of it yet, but in the midst of it, towards the
end of it, we began to see and be resolved to the fact We belong
to Christ. We're Christ's. We're His. And
so I remember thinking, I want to go to work. I want to get
a job that I can just, I don't care what it is. I don't care
what I'm doing. If everybody looks down their
noses at what I'm doing, I don't care. I just want to make some
money so I can support the church, so I can be a help to my pastor,
however he wants me to help him. And because I want to see sinners
saved by God's grace. I want to see Christ do what... And the reason we came to this
place was because we saw what Christ had done for us through
these trials and these afflictions. But the trial wasn't even over
yet. It was far from over. But we began... We didn't even
have the money. But we had the money. What we
had, we had. We began using it. I'm not just
talking about money. I'm talking about giving ourselves
to go help and to look for a way to help brethren. Not just fellowship
with them, but looking for a way to really, what can I do to help
them? Not being a busybody, not jumping
in ahead of things. Being resolved, whatever I'm
doing right now, if Lord's put this here in my hand, I'll do
it. And then if He uses me for something else, so be it, I'll
do that. I'm content in Him. And the afflictions
that we were under, they didn't leave. I mean, they were there
physically, but the burden got light. It began to be where it
just wasn't. This is nothing. We're Christ. He's bought us with His own blood.
Nothing can separate us from Him. He's redeemed us. And so it became just a light
affliction. A light affliction. That's what
He does. And He opened the door. He opened the door. And it says
here He opened the door unto the Gentiles. But all along the
way that Paul went, every step of the way, every trial he faced
was leading him to those Gentiles. It was God opening the door to
the Gentiles the whole way. During that time, we was going
to a place We were in a car that we should have never bought in
the first place and we learned that the hard way. But we were
on our way to a place and the car broke down. I blew an engine
completely. And I'm frustrated and out there
on the side of the interstate because I'm going to preach the
gospel somewhere and I want to get to where I'm going so I can
preach the gospel. You know, when Paul was, he appealed to
Caesar because he wanted to preach the gospel to Caesar. He wanted
to have an opportunity to preach the gospel to Caesar. But when
he got shipwrecked on the island of Melita, you know what he did
there? He preached the gospel right there where he was. The
doors opened all along the way, isn't it? Wherever we're at. If it's just when you put those
babies to bed tonight, the doors open, isn't it? If it's when
you get up in the morning and you're on your way to work, and
you stop at the gas station, and you're hung up in the line,
and you end up talking to somebody. Well, you can't do that here
because you have to sit in your car. You know what I'm saying? Wherever you're at, wherever
you are, there's the opportunity. There's the door. Paul and Barbara
saw that synagogue. And there was people who were
gathering there because they were gathering there with some
interest in the Word. And they said, there's a door,
let's go right there. And they went in there, but they
didn't try to demand a hearing. They went in there and sat down.
We'll find our hearers will be a lot more open to us speaking
to them if our audience really asks to be our audience. If we
try to force it on them, they're not going to listen. But when
God gives you the opportunity, tell somebody. And somebody told
me this week, I think this is excellent, excellent. You're
not going to agree with everything somebody says. But just remember this, let somebody
else shut the door. Let somebody else shut the door.
If God's opened the door, do everything you can to keep the
door open with them. Let them shut the door if they
want to shut it. And do it remembering these two
things. Remember when you first heard the Gospel preached. Remember,
did you throw up any opposition at all? When you heard the sovereign
grace of God preached, that He elects a people, that He in particular
redemption, that He died for just His people and purged their
sin and effectually redeemed them. and that it takes Him coming
in the power of grace and giving us life and to keep us. There's nothing about us that
we can do of ourselves. It's all of Him. Did you throw
up any opposition? Remember that. Remember that. Because the Lord said this, not
by might nor by power, but by My strength, but by My Spirit,
He said. And so the servant of the Lord
must not strive, but be gentle unto all, patient, instructing
those that oppose themselves. They're not opposing you. They're
opposing themselves and opposing Christ. And the second thing
to remember is this. There's only one word, only one
word. What Christ has done, what he
is doing and what he shall do. That is the only gospel we have.
Paul went to the church at Corinth. He went to these brethren here,
and he didn't go to them telling them what they could do. That's
why he got stoned, and that's why you will. It's because he
didn't go telling them what they could do. But he went encouraging
to the brethren. He said, you've been bought with
a price. You belong to him. He didn't try to constrain them
by his power and by the law. He tried his best to preach Christ
to them, and thereby Christ constrains us with his love for us. Now that's the power that this
world denies, is that Christ enters in and actually accomplishes
that work effectually. In truth, through his messenger
of truth, through the gospel of truth, For some reason, religion
is the only thing that people can feel like you can be told
a lie and yet somehow still believe the truth. The only thing. My God, my God is powerful enough
to send forth the truth and redeem and convert a sinner and regenerate
a sinner and bring a sinner to faith in Christ through the truth. It's not through a lie, through
the truth. He may use a liar to do it, but
the message he sends forth is going to be the truth. If I've
used that illustration before, if I told you how he operated
on my eye and gave me vision, and I started describing it to
you saying, well, he cut a big incision in my big toe, you'd
say, well, that's not how you operate on a lie. Well, then
how then can a sinner come to repentance in the Christ, hearing
about a Christ who wants to save everybody and can't save anybody
but by man's will and power? That's another Jesus, Paul said.
But this one right here, this one right here, effectually saves,
he effectually comforts his people, he effectually uses his brethren.
He's in control. He's sovereign. His grace is
not superior, something we come to after a while. It's sovereign. It's sovereign. That's right.