Let's read verse 23 again. And like I said, you've heard
probably that Paul had three missionary journeys. And the
third one is summarized in one verse. This was his third missionary
journey before he was arrested. You can read about that in Acts
chapter 21. But in verse 23, and after he'd
spent some time there, he departed. and went over all the country
of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. I've entitled the message Strengthening
the Disciples. Now, in this thing of preaching,
what we're doing right now, when you go out and you're around
people that the Lord opens up a door for you to preach the
gospel to. In our preaching, we have a threefold
goal. Number one, I bet you know what
it is. God's glory. God's glory. He said, my glory. I will not share with another. And we don't want him sharing
with anybody, do we? He's altogether glorious. And whatever happens
in our preaching, in our experience, if he's glorified, we're fine,
aren't we? Whether seemingly successful
or seemingly failure, if he's glorified, that's number one. Number two, in this thing of
preaching, Paul said, I endure all things for the elect's sake. In this thing of preaching, we're
looking for God's sheep. Christ has a people that he calls
his sheep. And we're on the trail of God's
sheep to seek them to hear the gospel. Now, we preach the gospel
to everybody. And, well, we should. And we preach the gospel indiscriminately. Nobody has an E on their forehead. Well, there's one God's elect.
I can preach to them. It doesn't work that way. We preach the
gospel to all men that we know who will believe. We're looking
for God's sheep. We're not trying to save the
world. We're not trying to change the culture. We're not trying
to change our society. We're really not. I'm not interested
in those things. We're on the trail of God's sheep. I endure all things for the elect's
sake. And number one, God's glory.
Number two, we're on the trail of God's sheep. And number three,
the preaching of the gospel is for the strengthening of believers. I want to be strengthened, don't
you? I want to learn to rest in Christ more completely, to
look to him. I want to be strengthened in
grace. And that's what the preaching of the gospel is about. It's
about the strengthening of believers. That's why he went on this third
missionary journey, going to all these different places to
strengthen. Wouldn't it be a blessing of
grace if you and I are strengthened by God himself? Now, in verse
18, let's look what led up to this statement. In Paul, verse
18, after this, after this time in Corinth, we considered that
last week, he tarried there yet a good while and then took his
leave of the brethren. and sailed thence into Syria
with him, Priscilla and Aquila. You remember them, they were
the ones he was making tents with in Corinth. Well, now they
go with him on this journey towards Ephesus. And having shorn his
head in Sincrea, for he had a vow. Now let's stop there for a moment.
This is the vow of a Nazirite. That's what the shaving of the
hair is all about. You remember Samson was a Nazirite
and when his head was shaved, his locks gone, he lost his strength. A Nazirite vowed to not cut his
hair, not let a razor touch his body in any way. And he was also
not to drink any kind of alcohol at all during the time of this
vow. It was called the vow of the
Nazarite. You can read about it in Numbers chapter six. Now
included in this vow was a blood sacrifice. At the end, when you
shaved your head, you were to offer up a blood sacrifice. And here we have Paul taking
the vow of a Nazirite. And if he would have carried
this out, what would have happened? He would have offered up a blood
sacrifice. An animal would be slain. Now let me ask you a question.
I want you to answer this. Was that right? Was that right? To offer up a
blood sacrifice after the Lord had already been slain? You know
that's not right. You see, Christ is the end of
the law. He's the end of all the sacrifices. He's the end of all the feast
days and the Sabbath days. He's the end of all these shadows
and times. And Paul preached that. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. As a matter of fact, this is
gonna pop back up in Acts 21, just a few days later, because
this happened just a few days before Paul was arrested. And the scripture points out
in Acts 21, when the days were almost ended, that seven-day
period when he would have had to offer up a sacrifice, you
know what took place? He got arrested. The Lord prevented
that from happening in his mercy. Aren't you thankful for restraining
grace? Aren't you thankful for grace that prevents you from
doing what you no doubt would have done had not his grace prevented
it? Here we have his restraining
grace. Now somebody thinks, why did
Paul do this? I don't know. Why do I do a lot
of things I do? Why do you do a lot of things
you do? It wasn't right, there wasn't anything right about it,
and we can't defend Paul in that, but let me remind you this. The
book of Acts is called the Acts of the Apostles. What was the
first act of an apostle? It was a wrong act. You'll remember
that after Judas hung himself, Peter knew there needed to be
another apostle. Turn with me to Acts chapter
one for just a moment. Look at the language. Acts chapter one, verse 15. And in those days,
Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number
of names together were about 120. Men and brethren, this scripture
must needs have been fulfilled. which the Holy Ghost by the mouth
of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them
that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us and
had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased the field
with the reward of his iniquity and falling headlong, he burst
asunder in the midst and his bowels gushed out. And it was
known unto all the dwellers of Jerusalem in so much as that
field was called in the proper tongue, akeldama, that is to
say the field of blood for it's written in the book of Psalms,
let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein
and his bishop Rick, let another take. Now, obviously, somebody
has to take his place. And understand this about apostles.
There could only be 12. In the great heavenly choir,
we read of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. There couldn't be 13.
There could only be 12. An apostle was someone who had
learned the gospel directly from Christ himself and had been taught
the gospel directly from Christ himself and commissioned by Christ.
When you hear men calling themselves apostles, write this down, they're
phonies. That's all they are. There are
only 12 apostles. Now, Peter knew that. And Peter
had to do something about it. Let's go on reading. Wherefore
of these men which have accompanied with us, verse 21, all the time
that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from
the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up
from us, must, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his
resurrection. And they appointed to Joseph
called Barsabbas who was named Justice and Matthias, and they
prayed and said, Lord, which knows the hearts of all men,
show us which one of these two you've chosen. Neither, neither. But Peter was forcing his hand
on this. Look in verse 25, that he may
take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas
by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And
they gave forth their lots. They threw lots, whoever got
the shortest lot, that was the one. Where do you get any instruction
in the scripture to do that to find out? So the very first act
of an apostle was a wrong act. Paul, like you and I, was a sinful
man. Now Paul was a special man. Ha, I know that and you know
that. He was used by God to preach the gospel and expound the gospel,
perhaps more than any other man. And as a matter of fact, when
he wrote scriptures, it was given the same authority as the Old
Testament scriptures. I'm going to read a passage,
you don't have to turn there, but I want to read this to you. 15 of 2 Peter
3, an account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even
as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given
unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles,
speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard
to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable
rest, as they do also the other scriptures. You see, he is calling
the writings of the Apostle Paul scriptures. And he says people
try to twist what he says just like they do the other scriptures.
Now, the early church recognized that what Paul said was scripture,
divinely inspired. Now, Paul was just like me and
you. He was a sinful man. I read what
he says about himself. He believed himself to be a sinful
man, a weak man, in and of himself. Now, when the Lord inspired him
to write scripture, it was without error. But in and of himself,
he did some fleshly things. Maybe he was just tired of the
conflict. Maybe he wanted to Maybe he thought, maybe if they
see me with a shaved head, they'll listen to me better because they
know I have some kind of respect for you. So I'm using really
some kind of fleshly way of trying to make himself more appealing.
But he did this. He shaved his head and went to
this place with Priscilla and Aquila. Now back to our text
in Acts chapter 18. And he came to Ephesus and left
them there, Priscilla and Aquila, but he himself entered into the
synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. That's the way he always
did when he went into a new place. He'd go into a synagogue and
he'd reason from the scriptures concerning the Christ. But here
he was reasoning with the Jews. And when they desired him to
tarry longer time with them, he consented not. He said, no.
But he bade them farewell, saying, I must, by all means, keep this
feast that cometh in Jerusalem. Now, it could have been Pentecost.
It could have been the Feast of the Tabernacles. It could
have been the Passover. But he wanted to be back in Jerusalem
to keep this feast. Now, did he actually want to
participate in the feast? I don't know. He may have. I
don't know. I mean, he did the vow, so maybe.
Didn't make it right, but he did know this. During this feast,
there'd be a whole lot of people in Jerusalem and there'd be a
whole lot of people he preaching the gospel to. So he said, I
want to go to Jerusalem so I can keep this feast. People from
all over the world would be going to Jerusalem at this time. And
he wanted to be there to preach the gospel to them. But I will
return again to you if God will. Don't you love that? Don't you
know that that is to be in our thinking with regard to everything? Turn with me for a moment to
the book of James. Now this comes from, Rich, when
you were praying, you thanked the Lord that He's sovereign.
Don't you think the Lord that he's sovereign and that his will
is the first cause of everything and that he's in control of everything?
I love his sovereignty because it's who he is and we love him
for who he is. Aren't you glad that his sovereign
hand is controlling everything, that there's nothing independent
of the will of God? In James chapter four, James
says, Verse 13, go to now, you that
say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue
their year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you don't know
what's gonna happen tomorrow. I love what the wise man said,
boast thyself not of tomorrow, for you don't know what today's
gonna bring forth. You don't have any idea what's gonna take
place tomorrow. I'm thankful that you and I don't
have, we can't say, well, I'm gonna do this. No, James says,
You no know what shall be on the morrow, for what is your
life? It's even a vapor that appeareth for a little while
and vanishes away. For that you ought to say, if
the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. Now, that
is to be in our thinking. James says we ought to say it.
We don't say it, we sure ought to be thinking it. Maybe we ought
to say it every time too. I know some people use it in
such a way as they're trying to impress you with the religiosity,
and I don't like that. But if somebody is sincere, Lord
willing, this will take place. And that's what Paul says. He
says, Lord willing, I'll be back. And he sailed from Ephesus, and
when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up, he saluted the church
and he went down to Antioch, And after he'd spent some time
there, here we have this third missionary journey. He departed
and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order,
strengthening all the disciples. Now, what is a disciple? You
know, that word is found over 280 times in the New Testament.
What is a disciple? Well, the word means a learner,
a follower, and adherent. Now, every believer is a disciple,
a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, if you're taught,
he taught you. They shall all be taught of God. And you have no greater desire
than to be like Mary and sit at his feet and hear his word. That is the heart desire of every
disciple of Christ. We're his followers. We learn
of him. I think of what the Lord said,
take my yoke upon you and what? Learn of me. And I love the way he says that.
He didn't say learn about me. He says, learn of me. For I am
meek and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls.
They shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." Now that's
a disciple. We long to hear his voice. The Lord said, if you continue
in my words, Then, are you my disciples? Indeed. Who is his true disciple? That
one who continues in his word. Now, know this, if you continue
in his word, you will continue to look to Christ only. You won't ever get past that.
I tell you, when you get past that is when you fail to continue
in his word. That's what happens when people
continue in his word. You know, the, the most difficult
thing you and I are called upon to do is nothing. Rest in him. That's what it is to continue
in his word. I love that passage of scripture
in Revelation chapter 14, where they're singing the new song
and the scriptures and it says, no man could learn. And that's
what disciples do, they learn. They learn of him. That's where
the word comes from, they learn of him. No man could learn the
psalm, but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth.
That's speaking of the elect. The elect are those who learn
from him. And there's a passage after he
brought a parable, it says, and when they were done, he expounded
all things to his disciples in private. Don't you want him to
do that with you? To expound his word to you so
that you understand it. Now you may hear the word through
a preacher, but it's not the preacher doing the teaching.
If you're taught, it's the Lord doing the teaching. And that's
what a disciple is. He's a learner. He's a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I also love the way the scripture
gives marks of disciples. John 20 says, then were the disciples
glad when they saw him. Aren't you glad when the Lord
gives you the grace to see him? You see him by faith, you see
him in the scriptures. You're glad then, oh, you're
glad. You want to see him, you want
to have fellowship with him, you want him to say to you, behold,
I am thy salvation. The disciples are glad when they
see him. And John 15.8 says, here is my father glorified that
you bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples. And John 13.35, by this shall
all men know you're my disciples, by your love one to another. Disciples. Disciples. I'm a disciple of Christ. I know
they call that some kind of denomination, you know, the denomination of
disciples of Christ. No, nothing to that. Nothing
to any denomination as far as that goes. They're not in the
Bible. But every believer is a disciple, a follower, a learner
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, speaking of disciples, disciples
are men. A lot of problems associated
with that, isn't there? Disciples are men. They are weak men. They are sinful
men. They are all men who can easily
be led astray. Just like we heard in Isaiah
53, all we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone
to his own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity
of us all. The disciples are men. They have the old man. The Lord acknowledged this when
he said, when he came back and he told them to watch and pray,
And he comes back and what are they doing? They're asleep. They're
asleep. I don't see anybody asleep right
now, I'm glad, but generally somebody falls asleep when I'm
preaching. Somebody says, well, I don't know what, you know.
I'd rather you not, but I understand the flesh is weak. The flesh
is weak. And the Lord comes back and he
sees them all asleep. And he said, couldn't you watch one
hour? The flesh, No, the spirit is
willing. The new man, the spirit is willing,
but the flesh, he acknowledged the flesh, is weak. And look at the way the Lord
spake to his disciples. He said, O ye of little faith. Would the Lord say that to you?
O ye of little faith. And you know, the disciples said,
increase our faith. Our faith is little and small
and weak, and we need it increased. The Lord said, O fools, and slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Now,
the Lord said that to his disciples. In one place, he said, if you
then being evil, you know, I'm thankful for that scripture.
If you then being evil. Does anybody say that? He's not
talking to me. Well, no, you know better than that. Know how
to give good gifts to your children. Right after his resurrection,
he upbraided the disciples because of their hardness of heart and
unbelief. Now, these are the disciples.
And he upbraided them because of their hardness of heart and
unbelief. Now, you look at the epistles.
I mean, they were dealing with one effect of immaturity after
another. He said to the Corinthians, I
couldn't speak as you. to you as spiritual, but as a,
to carnal, fleshly, as in the babes in Christ, you're carnal. He said that to them. And I,
and you go on. He said to the Galatians, he
said, I prevail in birth to Christ be formed in you. Tell me you
the desire to be under the law. Don't you hear what it's saying?
I mean, there's so much immaturity in every disciple and they know
it. I know that about myself. You know that about yourself.
and every disciple needs strengthened. Let me let you look at this passage
with me. Hebrews chapter five, let's look
at this together. Hebrews five. The writer says to the people
he's writing to, speaking of Melchizedek, he says, of whom
we have many things to say, They're hard to be uttered, seeing you
are dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought
to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which
be the first principles of the oracles of God or become such
as have need of milk and not strong meat. For everyone that
uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he
is a bait. He goes on to say in verse one
of chapter six, leaving the principles, the ABCs of the doctrine of Christ,
let's go on to perfection, not laying again this foundation.
And what he's talking about is the foundational truths of the
gospel. And he said, you guys don't even have your ABCs down
pat. And if you don't have your ABCs as automatic, you're not
gonna be able to read well. And that's exactly what he's
saying to these people. So we see that disciples thank the
Lord for disciples. Thank the Lord I'm a disciple.
Disciples need to be strengthened, don't they? As long as we're
in these sinful natures, there will be a need to be strengthened. Now where does strengthening
come from? The Word. The Word. Let me repeat that. The Word. Now would you turn
with me to 2 Timothy chapter three. Now remember, the first reason
in our preaching is the glory of God. The second reason is
the in-gathering of God's elect. And the third reason is the strengthening
of the disciples. And every one of his disciples
need to be strengthened. Now let's look here in 2 Timothy
3, verse 14. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned. Now that is the word that disciple
comes from, a learner. Continue thou in the things which
thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou
hast learned them. Now, one could say, well, he
learned them from Paul and that would be right, but I think he's
going further than that. If Paul is your only teacher,
you've not really been taught. Of whom have you learned them?
Christ himself. God the Holy Spirit taking the
things of Christ and showing them to you. Paul wasn't saying,
look, you were taught because I was your teacher. No, he said,
remember who really taught you, who it was. Now look what he
says in verse 15, and that from a child, Thou hast known the
holy scriptures. And here's what the scriptures
are able to do, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Now that's a wisdom I want. I
want to be wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. What a blessing. Paul says to
Timothy from a child, You've known the Holy Scriptures which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Now look what he says
in verse 16. All Scripture. Old Testament,
New Testament. The passages in Leviticus that
your eyes glaze over when you're trying to read them. The Gospels,
whatever passage it is, all Scripture. Old Testament, New Testament,
from Genesis to Revelation. All scripture is literally God
breathed. Everything in this book is said
exactly as God said it. He used these men, he used these
men's personalities. I mean, you can read the Bible
and you can see a big difference between Peter and Paul as far
as their personalities go. But every scripture is literally
God-breathed. Isn't that wonderful to have
a book like this? Prophecy came not in old time
by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost. All scripture. Now this is where
strengthening comes from. This is where growth comes from.
Remember how Peter said, desire, crave the sincere, the pure milk
of the word that you may grow thereby. Now, all scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and then he gives four things
that come from the scripture. This is where strengthening comes
from. I want to be strengthened. I want the Lord to strengthen
me. I don't want to be left to myself. I don't want to be trying
to strengthen myself because I know where that'll get me.
I want the Lord himself to strengthen me. And he gives four ways in
which the holy scriptures strengthen us. All scripture is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, mature, throughly
furnished unto all good works. Now the first thing that he speaks
of is doctrine. Doctrine. The doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of God. The doctrine concerning who he
is. You would not know and I would
not know who God is apart from this book. This is where he reveals
his character. This is how he reveals who you
are. You would not know who you are
apart from this book. You would not have any understanding
of your own sinfulness or your need of him. You'd have no understanding
of his character, his holiness. You'd have no understanding that
God is one God and three distinct persons, that he's independent,
that he's immutable. Oh, you can guess things, but
God makes himself known in this book. It's possible for doctrine.
Don't speak of doctrine as dry doctrine. Now, if the doctrine's
dry, there's a reason. The heart is dry. That's the
only reason. It's not the doctrine. Well,
that's dry. Well, your heart is dry. God's
doctrine is not dry. It's the doctrine of God, the
doctrine of Jesus Christ and how he saves. How would you ever
know about how And I hope this is becoming more and more thrilling
to us. The more we understand of who we are and who God is,
how would you know how God could actually be just, be absolutely
just, and yet justify somebody like you through the gospel without
the word of God? We'd never know. We'd never know. Oh, the Bible is profitable for
doctrine, the doctrine of Christ. And then the next thing he says,
it's profitable for reproof. Now here the word reproof, it
doesn't mean bawling out. That's the way a lot of people
like to use it. But that's not what it's talking about at all.
How can I know something is true? When you hear me say something,
how can I know it's true? What is the proof of it? What
sayeth the scripture? That's all that's needed. What
sayeth the scripture? The Bible is profitable for reproof. And the third thing he mentions
is it's profitable for correction. Correction. Now, the best way
that I know how to illustrate this, and I got this from Cody
Gruber, and I thought it was such a good illustration, he said
that every time a plane departs, it has an arc that's gonna take
it all the way over to the destination. There's an arc, and as soon as
it gets up in the air, the wind hits it and tries to knock it
off that arc, always off the arc, and it has to be corrected
constantly by the tower, what do you call them, the towers,
The stuff they use to do that. They're corrected and brought
back into that line, that arc. Now that's what the word of God
does. I am constantly going to be driven off looking somewhere
other than Christ. That's what's going on. Now see,
perseverance. Perseverance isn't perseverance and staying religious.
Perseverance is perseverance looking to Christ only and never
graduating past that. never wanting past that. That's
spiritual maturity. That's the infant salvation,
that's the strong man in Christ Jesus salvation, looking to Christ
only. And you're always, through your
own wicked heart, through satanic temptations, through wrong influences,
you and I are gonna be tempted to look somewhere other than
Christ. And thank God for the Bible taken by the Holy Spirit
to correct us. The scriptures are profitable
for correction. And the fourth thing he mentions,
for instruction in righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. That's good instruction, isn't
it? To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. You know,
your average religious person will say, well, see, it instructs
you on righteous living. You don't even know what righteous
living is if you say something like that. You're clueless. The instruction of righteousness
is looking to the righteousness of Christ as my only righteousness
before God. that the man of God is used in
these four things, that the man of God may be perfect, mature,
throughly furnished, and do all good works. I charge thee, therefore,
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, as your judge, the quick
and the dead, the living and the dead, at his appearing in
his kingdom. Preach the word. Preach the word. And that will take care of the
glory of God, that will take care of the salvation of God's
elect, and that will end in the strengthening of believers. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would strengthen
us, increase our faith, increase
our love to you, Increase our zeal for your glory. Increase our passion to preach
your gospel so that the elect will hear. And Lord, strengthen
us. Cause us to increase in the fruit
of the Spirit. Cause us to increase in love
and joy, and peace, and long-suffering, and gentleness, and goodness,
and faith, and meekness, and temperance. Lord, cause us to
be strengthened in being poor, in mourning over our sin, in
being meek, in hungering and thirsting after thy righteousness,
in being merciful. in being pure in heart, in being
a peacemaker. Lord, grant us the grace to be
persecuted for the righteousness of thy son's sake. We would count
it an honor of grace we know we don't deserve. But Lord, strengthen
us by your grace, through your word, by your spirit, for Christ's
sake. In his name we pray, amen.