38 "When Gospel Liberty Collides with Gospel Ministry" Acts 16:1-5 | Sunday, January 25, 2026

You can remain standing. Take your

Bibles. We'll turn to the book of Acts,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16.

Acts, chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Paul and Silas have departed at the end

of chapter 15 on the second missionary

journey.

They went through Syria and Cissia. They

were confirming or strengthening the

churches. And as we come to chapter 16,

he's now made his way back to Galatia

where they planted churches in Antioch

of Pacidia as well as Iconium,

Lististra, and Derby, a region called

Lyonia.

And so if you look with me in Acts 16

verse number one, it says, "Then came he

to Derby and Lististra. And behold, a

certain disciple was there named

Timoththeus,

the son of a certain woman, which was a

Jewish, and believed. But his father was

a Greek, which was well reported of by

the brethren that were at Lististra and

Iconium. him would Paul have to go forth

with him and took and circumcised him

because of the Jews which were in those

quarters. For they knew all that his

father was a Greek. And as they went

through the cities, they delivered them

that the decrees to keep that were

ordained of the apostles and elders

which were at Jerusalem.

And so were the churches established in

the faith and increased in number daily.

We'll stop our reading there for this

week. A rather interesting text

considering what we've studied in Acts

15. As a council was held in Jerusalem,

they determined that the Gentiles who

are in Christ should not be compelled to

be circumcised nor to keep the law of

Moses.

One of the major contenders for that

truth was the Apostle Paul. And yet we

find him in this text

compelling a man that is half Jew, half

Greek to be circumcised.

And so I thought about titling the

message, what happened to Liberty?

But I feel like this will better

encapsulate it as we speak on this

subject. when gospel ministry collides

with gospel liberty. So let's pray and

ask God to help us understand his word

and we'll get into our text. Heavenly

Father, you are the God who holds all

truth in your hands. You have preserved

it for us this day to understand, to

apply to our Christian lives that we

might walk in holiness and in godliness

and in a way that reflects the gospel in

which we have believed. We thank you for

the cross. We thank you for the new

covenant in Jesus Christ by which we are

made your children. And so I ask that

you'd please give us understanding by

the power of your Holy Spirit to

understand the truth of your word this

morning. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for standing. You can be

seated.

How frustrating is it when people do the

opposite of what they say,

when they speak out of both sides of

their mouth, as we might call it, or

when they don't practice what they

preach.

It's frustrating when your boss says

that you're up for a pay raise, but that

pay raise never comes. Can wear you out.

It's frustrating when a superstar player

says he is committed to your team only

to then transfer to another school

because they offered him a bigger

contract. It's frustrating for a sports

fan. It was frustrating for you when you

grew up hearing your parents telling you

not to smoke while a cigarette was

hanging out of their mouths, not to

drink while a beer was in their hands.

It's hypocritical.

It's inconsistent.

And it's frustrating.

It's especially frustrating when this

kind of hypocrisy

is found in spiritual leaders.

When you hear about a youth pastor who

preaches to his teenagers about sexual

purity and yet he gets arrested for

having an immoral relationship with a

girl in his youth group. That's

incredibly frustrating.

or even when a pastor stands in a pulpit

preaching week after week calling God's

people to holiness and yet he leaves his

wife for a woman in the church or when

he steals money from the church. It's

incredibly frustrating.

I bring this up because it's possible

when we read Acts 16 to feel a little

frustrated with the Apostle Paul

because in Acts 15, he contended that

Gentiles should not be compelled to be

circumcised or to keep the law of Moses.

Paul stated his case in Jerusalem

alongside Peter before the apostles and

elders in Jerusalem. And it was

determined at that council that Paul was

right that based on the scripture and

based on the evidence of the outpouring

of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles

that God has accepted them through faith

in Christ alone. And therefore, we

should not add anything else onto the

gospel except for a few things for the

sake of the Jews.

Paul takes this message and those very

letters that were sent from the apostles

to the gentile churches. He takes them

in his hand to Cissia and Syria and now

to Galatia to deliver this truth.

Gentiles do not need to be circumcised

and they do not need to keep the law of

Moses. Those are the very letters that

Paul is carrying in his hands. And yet

we find in this text that Paul calls

Timothy to be circumcised.

If you're not sure what that's about, it

was a procedure done for all Jews at the

age of 8 days old and for all adults who

sought to enter the covenant people of

God. It was the the the doorway into

God's people was this mark of

circumcision.

And so we're asked what gives here? It

goes against everything that Paul has

been saying and everything that he has

contended for and everything spelled out

in those very letters that are contained

in his hand. Is Paul being hypocritical?

Is Paul being inconsistent here or is

something else at work? The reason this

matters today is because the vast

majority of us would also be Gentiles.

And as gentile Christians, we ask, are

we compelled to keep the law of Moses or

not? Are we compelled to circumcise our

children, to keep Sabbath days and

years, Jewish festivals, and dietary

laws? Are we to abstain from certain

meats, certain animals, or certain

drinks? According to the gospel and

according to what the apostles have

said, we are not uh bound by all of

that. We are free. We have liberty from

the Old Testament law, but here

according to Paul, it's necessary.

You struggle with the inconsistency

here. What are we supposed to

understand? Are we free? Do we have

liberty or do we not?

Well, [snorts] I want to assure you this

morning that Paul is not being

inconsistent.

Paul is not being hypocritical.

Rather, this text gives us a window into

Paul's perspective on the gospel

ministry when it collides with his

gospel liberty.

>> [snorts]

>> While Timothy had the liberty not to be

circumcised, we find that Paul believed

it was necessary for Timothy to defer

that liberty for the sake of the Jews

for the sake of the fact that they all

knew that his father was a Greek.

[snorts] And what it shows us is that

while we have great liberty in the

gospel,

there are some instances in our lives

when we need to set aside our gospel

liberty as well. Why is that? That's

what we want to see from our our text

today and why Paul called Timothy to set

aside his gospel liberty. The first

thing we need to understand from this

text is that his mixed heritage gave him

liberty not to be circumcised.

It tells us in verse number one that he

was half Jewish and half Greek. It says

then came he Paul to Derby and Lististra

and behold a certain disciple was there

named Timoththeus. Timoththeus means one

who honors God. His name is shortened to

Timothy in most other places in the

Bible. It tells us though that he was a

son of a certain woman which was a

Jewish and believed. And so Timothy's

mother was a Jew. And in Paul's second

letter to Timothy, we learn that Timothy

had been taught the scriptures from the

time that he was a child by his mother

Ununice and his grandmother Lois. It

means he was brought up with an

understanding of the covenants and the

law and the prophets. He was taught uh

what food he could and couldn't eat,

what holidays he had to keep, and

everything about the sacrificial system

and observing the Sabbaths. He was

taught all of those things. And when

Paul and and Barnabas came to uh

Lististra preaching the gospel of Jesus

Christ, his mother, his grandmother, and

Timothy himself believed that Jesus was

the Davidic king. They believed that

Jesus died on the cross for their sin

and that he rose again the third day.

They accepted him as their savior and

they became a part of God's people.

That's how it happened. They were saved.

But it tells us at the end of verse one,

but his father was a Greek. Notice it

doesn't say anything in here about his

father believing. This adverse

conjunction but indicates to us that

while his mother was a believing Jew,

his father was an unbelieving Greek. He

was still pagan. And so this means

Timothy grew up in this life where he

was torn between two worlds, torn

between two cultures, where he had all

the Jewish upbringing, but he was also

brought up in the pagan Greek culture as

well. Evidently, circumcision was a

point of contention between his mother

and father because Timothy was never

circumcised is what it tells us.

And so according to the apostles though,

his half-Greek heritage meant that he

did not need to be compelled to be

circumcised. Everything that we saw in

Acts 15 tells us that he was free from

the old covenant. And and so he didn't

need to be. So because Christ fulfilled

the old covenant and established the new

covenant, the way that you demonstrated

acceptance into God's people was no

longer by the right of circumcision, but

through the right of baptism. We've

talked about that. and seen that play

out in Acts as well that when when the

Holy Ghost fell on Cornelius and his

family that that there was nothing that

kept them from being included except

baptism, they received the Holy Spirit,

they were baptized, and a church was

planted there. And so what this tells us

is that Timothy as a half Jew, half

Greek, had great liberty in the gospel.

He was liberated from all of the rules

and regulations and laws of the old

covenant. I want to tell you today that

the gospel still today gives us great

liberty from the rules and regulations

of the law. That we are no longer called

to offer sacrifices because Jesus is the

one true and final sacrifice for sins

forever is what Hebrews says. We're not

compelled to keep the Jewish festivals

because they all just pointed to Christ

who is the fulfillment of them all. We

are not compelled to keep the Sabbath

day because the the works for life does

not cease on Saturday in the new

covenant. The works for life ceases in

Jesus Christ. The book of Hebrews tells

us that Christ is our Sabbath rest.

And so he is the one who finished the

work.

We do not have to abstain from eating

pork and certain types of fish or other

animals because it is not is not eating

certain meats or drinks or abstaining

from them that keeps us clean before

God. It is the atoning blood of Jesus

Christ that cleanses us from all

unrighteousness and all uncleanness. It

is his blood that purifies us in the

sight of God and makes us acceptable

before him. It's Jesus. And so because

we are redeemed, reconciled, cleansed,

and restored to God by the single

sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, we have

a lot of freedom in the gospel, just

like Timothy had.

Well, then why does Paul have Timothy

circumcised?

Why wasn't he afforded the liberty that

he had the right to? Well, if you look

at verse number two, it tells us that

Timothy was well reported of by the

brethren that were at Lististra and

Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth

with him. And so among the churches in

Lististra and Iconium, Timothy had

developed a a reputation that was worthy

of his name. He was a man who honored

God. He's a man who loved God, a man who

served God. They saw that he was of a

good reputation. And so Paul desires for

Timothy to go forward with him in the

ministry. But before he can go forward

with him, it says there in verse three

that he took and circumcised him. Why?

Because of the Jews which were in those

quarters. For they knew all that his

father

was a Greek.

And so what's going on here is that the

Jews all knew of Timothy's upbringing in

both the Jewish and the pagan

background. They knew probably by h his

whether his entrance into the synagogue

or whatever it might be that he had

never been circumcised according to the

law of Moses. And so because of that,

Timothy would not be able to gain a

voice among the Jews. He's not even one

of us. How can he speak to us about the

fulfillment of the old covenant? How can

we know that he even understands it when

he hasn't even been circumcised? He

hasn't even followed the law of Moses in

that way before Christ ever came. And

so, if you gather what's going on here,

there's great potential for there to be

a split even among the Jewish believers

who still believe that he should be

circumcised because of his Jewish

heritage. Paul sees the writing is on

the wall for Timothy here that that his

uncircumcised condition will hinder his

ministry both among the unbelieving Jews

and among the believing Jews that it

will it will only serve to distract from

the gospel mission. It would be like the

feedback of a microphone in the middle

of a sermon. You ever had that happen

before? the preacher is preaching the

gospel and then steps in front of a

speaker which feeds into that microphone

and you hear that loud

and everybody's covering their ears and

and it's like ah now instead of being

distracted on the instead of being

focused on the gospel message

everybody's focused on where where did

the sound guy mess up there right and

our minds are going everywhere wow that

hurt you're looking at each other and

it's just a distraction

well Paul recognizes that Timothy's

uncircumcised condition will be like

spiritual ual feedback that drowns out

the clarity of the gospel as they go in

the ministry.

And so the truth of the matter is this

that Paul had Timothy defer his gospel

liberty so he could have a more

effective ministry.

To have an effective gospel ministry,

he had to defer his gospel liberty.

[snorts] Paul is not being hypocritical.

He is not being inconsistent. He is

prioritizing. This is what he's doing.

He's prioritizing gospel ministry over

gospel liberty.

And here we are given a window into

Paul's philosophy of ministry that he

later describes in 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

9 19-23. Listen as I read it. For though

I, this is Paul speaking, for though I

be free from all men, yet have I made

myself servant unto all, that I might

gain the more. He says, "And unto the

Jew, 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,

that I might gain them that are without

law." He says, "To the weak became I as

weak that I might gain the weak." And

then he says this, "I am made all things

to all men that I might by all means

save some, and this I do for the

gospel's sake, that I may be partaker

thereof with you."

See, often times we say that you

shouldn't be a chameleon, [snorts]

that you shouldn't just shift who you

are when you are around people. And yet

Paul says that's exactly what I do.

That when I'm with Gentiles who do not

live under the law, I do not live under

the law. And when I'm with Jews that do

live under the law, I do live under the

law. I do I do keep the Sabbath among

them. I do not eat pork among them. I

follow the festivals when I'm among

them. When I'm back in Jerusalem, I'm

there for Pentecost and I'm there for

Passover. Why am I doing that? He says

that I might gain them. Whether I'm

among the rich or the poor, whether I'm

among the strong or the weak, no matter

who I am around, I I serve them and not

myself. Why? That they might partake

with me in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

See, Paul recognized that he had liberty

from the old covenant as well as from

every cultural man-made rule. And yet

wherever he went, he deferred his gospel

liberty so he could be more effective in

gospel ministry. That's what Paul did.

And in this text, that is what he's

calling Timothy to do. He doesn't want

his liberty to become a distraction

within the church, nor does he want it

to hinder the gospel work among both

Gentiles and the Jews. And so what this

text is intended to show us today is

that at times in your Christian life,

effective gospel ministry

may require you to defer your gospel

liberty.

That Galatians 5 13-14 later on the

Apostle Paul says to ves

who witnessed this. Don't you think that

we we see here that Paul leads uh reads

the letters to them [snorts] and yet

they have this knowledge that he took uh

Timothy and had him circumcised. Don't

you think they would be like well what

is the consistency here and Paul writes

the letter to the Galatian churches to

really flesh this out and elaborate on

it. In chapter 5 13 and 14, Paul said

this to them. For brethren, ye have been

called unto liberty.

That's what you've been called to.

You've been called away from the old

covenant law to liberty in the gospel of

Jesus Christ through the power of the

Holy Spirit. And yet, here's what he

says. Listen, church. only use not

liberty for an occasion to the flesh,

but by love serve one another. For all

the law is fulfilled in one word, even

this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as

thyself.

See, Paul acknowledged that you and I

have a lot of liberty in the gospel,

folks. You have liberty from all of

those laws, but you also have a great

amount of liberty in your Christian

life. How so? The Bible does not draw

clearly defined lines on every decision

you make as a believer. We simply don't

have that

because God wants his word to be

relevant across all times and cultures.

And every generation and every culture

might have different things in their

lives. And so he calls us to these

general words to be holy, to be

sanctified, to be distinct from the

world. But he doesn't define the

specific lines thereof. It doesn't speak

clearly about the style of Christian

music that you listen to or the movies

that you watch or the financial

decisions you make or how much time you

should spend on social media or how much

time your kid should have with screens

in front of them or even the particular

type of clothes that you wear. It just

doesn't speak clearly and definitively

to it. It tells us to be modest. It

tells us to be holy. It tells us to be

distinct, but it doesn't clearly draw

out those lines. But you know what? God

did give us a sanctified conscience.

And he gave us the Holy Spirit who

indwells us. And as believers, the Holy

Spirit is going to direct our hearts and

our consciences into ways that are

slightly different from one another. He

knows us. He knows what we can and

cannot handle. He knows what will lead

us in a certain direction away from him.

And so the Holy Spirit is going to work

in your life to bring solid convictions

in your heart. And your responsibility

is simply to respond to him. That when

he says don't live that way, don't do

that or do this or limit this that we

are simply to follow him.

He leads us to slightly different

conclusions.

And so what that means is we ought to

give each other a little bit of grace.

That sometimes what we believe may not

be the standard that God has set for

somebody else's life.

Because it's interesting when you go to

the book of Galatians, the time that

Paul went to Jerusalem uh to to have

this debate, he actually took a Greek

man by the name of Titus with him. And

in Galatians, this very church where

they saw Timothy circumcised, he writes

to them that he did not have Titus

circumcised and neither did the the the

apostles make him get circumcised. Why?

Because they recognize that this is the

truth. But what this is showing them is

that there are times when although you

may have the liberty to do what you

want, that you at times need to limit

what you do. That you need to restrain

yourself. Why? For the sake of others.

to love and serve one another, to meet

each other's needs. And so we have this

freedom from the laws, rules, and

regulations of the law according to the

gospel. But Paul's guiding principle is

what, church? Only use not liberty for

an occasion to the flesh.

What that means first of all is don't

use your gospel liberty

as a license to sin.

A license to do what's wrong.

The Bible does lay out clearly for us

things that are sinful. That you should

not get drunk or get high. That you

should not commit adultery or have sex

outside of marriage and then use your

gospel liberty to justify blatant and

opened sin. Those [snorts]

among many other things are clearly

defined as sin. And so we must not use

our gospel liberty to justify living in

open sin against God's word.

But then number two, don't use gospel

liberty for selfish reasons.

Don't use it for selfish reasons. See,

as as believers who have embraced the

liberty of the gospel, who also live in

a country that embraces individual

freedom. Tell me, is our tendency not to

demand our rights, to demand our

freedom? I have the freedom to listen to

this music and you can't tell me not to.

I have the freedom to watch this and you

can't tell me not to. I have freedom in

the gospel, so don't impose your rules

and your regulations on me. Isn't that

just how we tend to be as American

believers?

And yet, when you study Paul's life in

ministry,

you never one time see him demanding his

gospel liberty.

But what you see him doing over and over

again is deferring his gospel liberty.

>> [snorts]

>> And so we are called to use that liberty

to love and to serve one another. We are

not called to be demanding of our

liberty, but deferring of our liberty

just as Paul was and just as Timothy was

here in this text. And you know, you

know what? I don't I don't mean to be

crude. I don't mean to be inappropriate,

but the reality is that circumcision

hurts. That was a painful procedure for

an adult man especially, which is one of

the reasons why it's typically done for

children, for infants.

And so, uh, but what what my my point is

is that sometimes deferring your liberal

liberty

can bring some pain in your life.

That sacrificing something that you may

believe with all your heart that you

have the right to do in the gospel that

it may it may keep you from being able

to do that. But what I want to tell you

is that if it enables you to unify with

other believers in Christ and if it

helps others believe and come to

salvation, every moment of difference is

worth it. My friend, souls are at stake.

The souls of your brother and sister in

Christ to not violate their own

consciences before God and to go against

what they believe the Holy Spirit is

leading them to do, but also eternal

souls are at stake. And like Paul, we

need to come to this conclusion that I'm

going to become all things to all men

that I might by all means save some.

What does that look like in my life,

pastor? Well, rather than compelling a a

vegan or a vegetarian against their

conscience to eat meek for the sake of

your liberty, it means that you make a

meal that for what suits their needs and

what suits their convictions. Even if

you believe that both you and they have

the right to eat whatever you want, you

may run into here in Boulder, we have

over 12,000 Jews in our city, and you

may run into people that still uh that

may even be believers, and yet they

still hold to those dietary laws that

that it's not our responsibility to say,

"Hey, you cut all that out. We're free.

I'm having pulled pork. Come and eat it

with me." you know, no, it means that

that you're going to be sure that you do

whatever is necessary for them to

continue in a good walk with God where

they're they're fully persuaded in their

conscience, fully persuaded by the Holy

Spirit. You are encouraging them to

embrace the liberty that they have in

the gospel by following the Holy

Spirit's conviction.

Instead of demanding your liberty to

listen to a particular genre of music,

you listen to something that's going to

facilitate gospel conversations. Music

that you know will not be an offense to

a brother or sister in Christ. Music

that's going to honor Jesus as well. Or

perhaps when you have someone else's

kids over to your house and your kids

are going to watch a movie or play a

game and their kids say, "Our parents

won't let us watch that. Our parents

won't listen to that." that you don't

just say, "Oh, your parents are just

legalists."

Or that you just say, "Oh, your your

parents are it'll be okay. Trust me, you

don't have to worry about I won't tell

them. You won't tell them. We'll be

okay." And there's something in that

moment. I know this because I'm a

pastor's son and my parents put a lot of

rules and regulations on our lives that

when I went to somebody else's house and

I told them that and they said it would

be okay, there was something unsettling

in my soul about doing what I knew my

parents said I could not do.

As a Christian, your responsibility is

not to persuade that child of a greater

liberty outside their parents authority.

Your responsibility is to defer your

liberty to them and to respect what they

have put in place for their children

because you're not accountable for their

children. Their parents are and you need

to give place for the Holy Spirit to

convict them. And so as a believer at

times it will be necessary to set aside

your gospel liberty for the sake of

others. But I want you to notice what

happened when Timothy did. It says in

verse four, "And as they went through

the cities, they delivered them the

decrees for to keep that were ordained

of the apostles and elders which were at

Jerusalem.

And so were the churches established in

the faith and increased in number

daily."

Because Timothy made this decision,

they could go to all of these churches

in good conscience and deliver these

letters and help strengthen them in

their faith and evangelize

without the screeching microphone of

Timothy's uncircumcised condition.

There was no distraction.

They just went on preaching the gospel.

And what we're going to see in Acts

Acts 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16 and Acts chapter 17 is that

Acts 17 · chapter mention

this missionary team of Paul and Silas

and Timothy and Luke who will join them

next week that they went on to have a

very successful spiritled mission among

Jews and Gentiles as they go to Troy and

they go or Trrowaz and they end up in

Macedonia and establishing churches in

Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea and

Corinth and Athens and and people were

getting saved. saved in predominantly

Greek regions. And God went on to use

Timothy greatly because he deferred his

liberty for the sake of his ministry.

And so when you we choose to put our

ministry above our liberty,

God can use us greatly in a multitude of

contexts.

And so as a church,

these should be our top three

priorities. Number one,

honor Christ in all things.

When it comes to your gospel liberty,

honor Christ in all things. That means

that you're not going to use your

liberty as a license to sin. You're not

going to use your liberty as a license

to selfishness. You're not going to use

your liberty that blatantly disregards

God's word. you're going to use it to do

whatever brings the honor to Christ

among others. Number two,

your priority should be to maintain

unity among the brethren.

That when it comes to the gospel liberty

that you have been given, you're not

going to demand your liberty, but you're

going to defer your liberty. Why? So

that we can worship God together in

unity. So that we can serve God together

in love and grace. Because the reality

is you may feel that you have the right

to this, but somebody else may not. And

you doing something that they view as

wrong can hurt their conscience and it

can stunt their growth and it can lead

them to question the Holy Spirit's

conviction in their lives personally.

And so because you don't want your

brother or sister in Christ to to

violate their conscience or violate the

work of the Holy Spirit in in their

life, nor do you want there to be

infighting within the church over what's

right and what's wrong. That you're

going to set your liberty aside and

you're going to limit yourself to what

the rest of your church family does for

the sake of Christian unity. Why? You

don't want your life to be a screeching

microphone that drowns out the clarity

of the gospel. The clarity of the gospel

is seen in believers coming together in

perfect unity under King Jesus.

And so, first, we honor Christ in all

things. Second, we maintain unity among

the brethren. And third, to effectively

bring others to Christ.

You don't want to use your gospel

liberty in a way that a lost person

would say, "Well, why do I need Jesus?

There's no difference between me and

them. [snorts]

They're still angry.

They're still bitter. They still watch

this. They still listen to this. They

look just like me. And so why should why

should I go to Jesus Christ?" No, we we

want to use our gospel liberty in a way

that makes us holy. In a way that sets

us apart distinctly from this sinful

world. Why? So that the attractiveness

of the gospel of Jesus Christ might

shine through to their hearts that they

might come to Jesus. And so our gospel

liberty must be subject to those three

things. To say, I will defer this

liberty to honor Christ among all. I

will defer my liberty so I can maintain

unity in the church and not be a

distraction there. I will defer my

liberty so that I can gain a more

effective voice among the lost. I'll

become all things to all men that I

might by all means save some. And we're

not the Savior,

but we're the ones who bring them to the

Savior.

And if we use our liberty in a way that

distracts from the gospel,

in a way that does not show any form of

holiness, in a way that does not show

Jesus, how can we really bring others to

him?

Liberty

is not a license to sin. It is a license

to win. It's not a license to live

however you want and do whatever you

want. No, rather liberty is a license to

use opportunities to win people to

Christ.

That just because I am free doesn't mean

I should exercise that freedom in all

contexts. rather

I should limit my life to where I can

reach all. And when we live that way,

God can use your life to reach a

multitude of people in a multitude of

ways and a multitude of contexts.

And so we learn from this passage that

at times we must set aside gospel

liberty to have an effective gospel

ministry.

Some might ask, why would you live that

way?

Why as a Christian are we called to

defer our liberty at times? Well, it's

because living that way

embodies the truth of the gospel in

which we have believed.

Think about Jesus for a moment.

He's the king of all glory,

the God of all creation, one with the

father, one with the son, present at

creation, worshiped by angels in heaven.

He is eternal. He is sinless. He is

boundless by time, space, matter, and

nature. He was free to do whatever he

wanted whenever he wanted. He was free

to go wherever he wanted. He had a

perfectly free knowledge of all things

past, present, and future. Jesus was

free from sin, suffering, pain, and

death.

But when he was incarnated in human

flesh,

he limited himself to the body of a man.

[snorts]

That means that at times he limited his

strength. At times he limited his

knowledge. He limited where he could go.

He subjected, think about it, he

subjected himself to death on a cross so

you could have life.

He took on a temporal corruptible body

so that you could have an eternal

incorruptible body.

Though he never sinned, he became sin

for us. He bore our sin in his body on

the cross that we might be made

righteous through him.

Jesus limited himself, gave up his

liberty, his freedom, and even his life.

Jesus became all things to all men that

by all means he might save anyone and

everyone who would simply believe.

See, Jesus has already done what he's

calling us to do.

He set aside his life and his liberty so

you could be saved.

And all you must do to be saved is

believe. Jesus died for your sin and

rose again. Jesus is Lord and Savior.

And when you place your faith in him, he

accepts you and he gives you the freedom

of the gospel. Church, let's not live to

demand our liberty for selfish reasons.

Rather, let's live to defer our liberty.

Number one, to honor Christ. Number two,

to maintain unity among our church. And

number three, for the sake of the lost.

When gospel liberty meets gospel

ministry, we must defer

for the sake of others. Our father,

we come to you seeking your grace

because we know that we are prone

to demand our rights, to demand our

freedom.

And yet we are called to walk the road

less traveled that our savior walked.

Living selflessly

for the spiritual benefit of others.

Deferring our liberty that the lost

might be saved. That believers might be

strengthened and the church might be

increased.

It's beyond us to do so. But I believe

that the power of your Holy Spirit

within us

can call and compel us to this life of

liberty. I'm thankful that you have

freed us not only from the condemnation

of the law, but from all the rules and

regulations of the law. That you have

given us freedom according to the new

covenant. You enable us to obey your

your word by the power of your Holy

Spirit. So we thank you for that. But I

do pray that you would help us to use

the liberty we have in the gospel,

not for an occasion to the flesh,

but in love to serve one another. So we

ask for your help to do just that. In

Jesus name I pray. Amen.