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Loving Godfather behind me this morning.
For the gas and thy beloved Son, our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, and we thank Thee this morning, that He is the keeper of the sheep, and He will not allow any.
We thank you this morning at this time together, we thank you to have the peace and quietness of the plan and that allows us to do so in this manner.
And we thank you again for bringing some money together after these two days of meetings.
We pray now which we have ever and everything before us that give us something for myself.
We need know the needs of my people are great and each one here this morning when we were youngest, the very oldest.
Have names as we walk through this pathway.
Until this morning, I just had my word before us. We press.
There might be something for myself, so get directions. I'm sure it's guiding something that might help each one. If you pray our God your Father, don't you? Each one here might mean something by word this morning.
Just pray for Heather Knights listing ears and that we won't receive and myself what thou hast for each one of us. So just in that time.
Thank you and the worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus name ma'am.
The person are often remembered.
Especially.
They make a profound impression on one.
I think you can think of different ones that you can remember their last word.
Brother uh, Reuben's father, the last I ever heard from him was Ministry of the Word, that Brother Alan Hadley's home the night before the Lord took him. I'll never forget what he spoke on.
And I was wondering if.
We could think of and meditate on.
Paul's last words to the elders in Ephesus, as we have been in Acts chapter 20. Would that be agreeable to the brethren?
Very good.
Read the whole chapter Brother ****.
Acts Chapter 20.
And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them.
And departed to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. There abode 3 months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. And they accompanied him into Asia. And of the Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derby and Timotheus of Asia, and Tikakas.
And Trophimus.
He's going before Terry for us at Troez, and while we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened bread, and came unto them to throw, as in five days, where we abode 7 days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the Morrow, and continued his speech until midnight.
And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together.
And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus being fallen into a deep sleep.
And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even until break of day, so he departed, and they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.
And we went before to ship and sailed into ASOS. They're intending to take in Paul for. So he had he appointed mindful himself to go afoot.
And when he met with us at Asos, we took him in and came to methylene, and we sailed fence, and came the next day over against chaos. And the next day we arrived at Samos and tarried at Trojillium. And the next day we came to myelitis. And Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia, for he hasted, if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.
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And from my latest he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church, And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you.
But have showed you, and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold I go, bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem.
Not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I myself, I my life dear unto me, to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God.
Shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.
To feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
For I know that I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you.
Not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn.
Everyone night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yeah, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things how that's so laboring. You ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of our Lord Jesus.
How, he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all, and they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, souring most of all for the words which he spake.
That they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.
I had particularly verses 17 onward on my heart, but I feel when the brother asks you to read the whole chapter, I think you get the the flavor of what the background for this that Paul is about to say. And so I would suggest we start with verse 17 unless the brother has an exercise to say something about the verses before that.
I enjoyed what a brother said yesterday.
When Ervin Claussen made a comment when he said only Luke is with me, that he said, imagine Luke having Paul all to himself.
But Luke in writing the gospel of error, the acts, he had an understanding of Paul's life and it's written in a moral order so that we don't just get histories, but they're put in an order. So that and the development of things. And so we see, uh, how things are going to end up acts as written in that way and how things develop. I just wanted to read a verse in connection with Paul in first Timothy.
Umm couple of verses in first Timothy chapter one in connection with Paul.
Uh, giving his testimony, as you might say to Timothy, first Timothy chapter one. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. And this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation.
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The Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
How be it for this, 'cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them, which should hereafter believe on Him to Everlast to life everlasting?
But particularly arrested me in connection with Luke's gospel on the pattern that we get there is that Paul wanted Timothy to have an outline, or I believe it's the same word pattern of sound words, but his life was a pattern as well.
And so we, uh, the chapter begins and not to go back as her brother suggested, but to start the 17th 1St but just to comment is that, uh, Paul's ministry has caused an uproar.
And the reason is that, and particularly among the Jews, because the Jews were.
On legal ground, and legal ground says what's right with this and what's wrong with that? And you do this and you get that.
And man acting towards God based on what man is. But Paul's doctrine and Paul's gospel really brings the grace of God before us, which acts according to man, according to what is in the heart of God. And this is not understood by the natural man. And it's an offense to man. Man is constantly trying to improve the 1St man.
And Paul's gospel sets the 1St man entirely aside and sees man in Christ.
And so it is true today that Paul's doctrine causes an uproar. I asked a dear Christian. I said, would Paul be free to preach in your church? And he thought for a moment and answered, I think thoughtfully. He said, no, if Paul preached in my church, it would bust it up. And so we find the charge of this brother to the elders as to what was really to be their care for the Church of God.
As our brother was praying, I thought that to us belonged confusion of faces.
And that is certainly the case in Christ. And I mean a certain sense he has put out a pathway, a clear pathway for us and revealed his will to us. And so he would desire that we walk in it. And he's made every provision that we should continue in that pathway with clarity and not to be confused.
It's.
Lovely to think.
That the Apostle Paul had a certain manner.
Some of us were reminded of that the other day as we were looking at Thessalonians. First Thessalonians.
I'll just reverse.
But from you sounded out the word of the Lord in Macedonia.
And so on.
Verse 9 For they themselves show us what manner of entering in we had unto you. And I noticed in our these verses that our brother has called us a tank called attention to it says in verse 19 serving the Lord with all humility of mind with and many tears which befell me lying in wait of the law.
And so after he said he could say.
Uh, in verse 18. And when they were come to him, he said to them, You know from the first day that I came unto you, what manner I have been with you at all seasons. Brethren, it's one thing to preach the gospel, another to talk to Saints, but what is our manner?
What is our manner? What is our attitude?
I believe that has a lot to do with the truth of God because someone could say to you or to me, I don't like your manner, I don't like the way you say that. And that's very important to see that you should have that attitude. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, not truth and grace, but grace and truth. And I think that's very important.
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We also get the same thoughts, don't we, In, umm, Second Timothy 3?
Verse 10.
I was fully known my doctrine and manner of life.
The two have to go together to say, and the doctrine has to square with a man of life, otherwise we do not have weight for what we say.
I think it's true, isn't it, John, that in umm, in a practical sense?
Speaking of ourselves.
That the message always goes much further than the messenger.
Shouldn't be that way, but that's the way it is. I don't think there's anyone who totally comes up to the message but umm, in the Lord, when they asked him who aren't I, He said altogether that which I said unto thee, that is, there was no difference, no conflict between what the Lord said.
And what he was perfectly setting out what he said, is there anyone of us that can say that about our own ministry?
Anyone that could say well, but I say that's what I am.
It ought to be, and I think that's the point that's being made here. I have a friend who sometimes says we ought to be very busy giving out the word and if necessary, use word.
What is his point? There are life workers set it out.
Brother Jim Robertson says that about every two weeks to it.
You have to set out in a practical way what you're saying.
In Doctor Now Paul had a manner of life that went along with what he said, didn't he? Not perfectly. There was only one who did that perfectly and that was the Lord. But there was a consistency and notice in verse 19 it says it was all loneliness and with what?
Tears, dears. We don't know enough about that, do we?
Humility of mind How often do you.
Get into a subject and somebody says, well, I think this and I think that and man is not afraid to express his opinions on all kinds of things, even in natural things. I, you know, I saw this bold headline that they completely mapped the human genome and then they said that we found 2000 chromosomes that didn't do anything. I think even in a natural sense, man is not very humble that he looks at something and doesn't understand what it is and he says it doesn't do anything.
But when we take up the things of God, this is what He had to take up with the Corinthians. There was not humility of mind there.
Is just to go by the wisdom and revelation of God, because what we find in this book is contrary.
To the wisdom of man, and we begin to think ourselves wiser than God.
There are two things in connection with this. I was thinking what Mr. Darby said. We can see farther than we can walk. And the doctrine came first, and it was his manner of life, as you pointed out, Brother John.
But sometimes with the younger people, there's a manner of life and they don't understand the doctrine that is behind that. And we need to understand the basis on which we enjoy the peace and the love and the freedom that we enjoy in the assembly. There's a basis of teaching in it. And sometimes you see a tendency to want to hang on to things and discard the doctrine that's behind it. And as has been pointed out too, that there may be a tendency to have doctrine and not the manner of life that is associated with it. And we need both.
You know, maybe many of the young people have grown up in the assembly and they've never questioned that they should be anywhere else.
And they are in the right place. But you need to understand Paul's doctrines and understand what the foundation of it is.
And we've seen many that really wanted to hang on to the thing, the manner of life, and discard the doctrine that was the foundation of it.
And so there was the both with Paul. And that's why there were tears. He wrote to Timothy and he said, I know thy tears. He valued these things.
It struck me in Des Moines when we were taking up geographies who loved the preeminence. He said he receiveth, not us. It wasn't he didn't say he didn't receive them. That is people coming to the assembly. It was the apostles. And why is that? Because man will take up with wrong doctrine and and and attack the US. That's the apostles, the apostles, John, the apostle Paul. Because as they say in marketing, you need something to differentiate yourself, your product from everybody else. So somebody will take up a doctrine.
00:20:27
And use it to differentiate themselves from everybody else. And they really don't have a, a value or a care for the doctor. And it's just something unique to themselves. And like a football player, they pick it up and they run with it. But there is no love. But Paul valued the truth. And he realized the departure from the truth was going to bring sorrow. And so there were tears associated with Paul. There was tears associated with Timothy. I know thy tears. And so he really cared about these Saints.
And he desired that they would go on in the truth of God, because he knew there were going to be drastic consequences if they didn't.
And we actually get a record of that in the book of Acts and a typical way in the busting up of the ship.
But Paul desired that they would go on, and the truth of God as he had delivered, in all the purity of which he had delivered it to them.
No, this assembly at Ephesus was certainly highly favored to having heard the last words of the Apostle Paul as a freeman.
And also having received.
The highest truth concerning the heavenly calling of the church and its character on earth. I suppose we have the the highest in the Epistle to the Ephesians. So therefore, it's little wonder that when you get to the second chapter of the Revelation and you read about this exemplary assembly there at Ephesus, that the Spirit of God has to say, I have against thee, because thou swift when I first loved.
And God really felt that, didn't He? If you love someone very much, you feel it if they do the slightest.
Infractions in the spirit of God self and John takes it up where Paul left off.
And addresses that favorite assembly saying I have against you because you've left my first love, even though they're going on with everything else so very nicely.
They weren't doing as the Lord did. The very first verse of this acts is concerning Jesus and all that He began to do and to teach. They perfectly coincided, didn't they? What the Lord did and what He said was always in perfect harmony.
But here are these who had received such high truth, were not subsequently found walking in a way the Lord knew their hearts. Maybe externally it looked like they were going on wholeheartedly for the Lord, but the Lord knew that inwardly they had left the first love. And that's always the point of departure when you lose your first love for the Lord.
But he turned together to Colossians chapter one and verse 10.
Blossoms after a gun were scanned.
Nakima walk Dorothy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good word, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
The Jews lay, wait and wait for Paul because the Jewish religion is one that puts man in an ideal set of external circumstances.
God gave to man. This was not a man made religion, although it had.
Certainly departed from the Lord, but it took man and put him in an actual, absolutely ideal set of circumstances. Now you could go to any religion and open up the word of God and immediately find faults with it, but you could not do that with Judaism.
Because it was all established. It was a scripture for everything that they did.
But one could go and make all the right sacrifices and do all the right things and yet not have one speck of divine life.
Now there were those in the midst of that that were real men of faith.
But that was set aside as a system because it was a test of man, because the test of man was really over at the cross, because there was a perfect display, as her brother was pointing out, in the life of Christ of the perfect servant. And they said away with this man. We will not have this man to reign over us. And so God says, I'm going to take if any man is in Christ, it is a new creation. And so it entirely sets aside man's wisdom and putting man under good circumstances. I fear that.
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Your president has discovered we often heard from Harry Hagel, a man is basically good, and if you put him under good circumstances.
Is you're gonna bring out the good in him and he's gonna discover to his sorrow that that's not true. Putting man under good circumstances. Well, that was the whole thing of Judaism. Man was put under the most favoured circumstances that man could be put under.
And what did he do? He said away with this man. We will not have this man to reign over us. And they crucified him. So God, Paul's gospel brought in something entirely new. The setting and the entire setting aside of the first man instead of any man is in Christ. It is a new creation. And he brings us into a place where if you sat down and wrote the rules of how the assembly operated, you brought a newspaper reporter in here, he could jot down half a paragraph of how the assembly works and it wouldn't be too difficult to.
Say what we do and we don't do, but it is a path. It is a pathway in which it is impossible for the flesh to walk. It has to be walked by faith and dependence upon the Lord, or else you have to find some substitute for the Lord to run things.
And so we have a pathway which makes everything of Christ. We don't always, but we have a pathway which makes everything of Christ and is impossible for us to walk and if we don't stay close to the Lord. And so the Jews there was great antagonism because in Judaism I had something to boast in. Paul had certainly a great deal to boast in because he said concerning the law he was blameless. And nobody ever in an outward way saw Paul violating the law. And yet he had to call himself the chief of sinners.
And now in Christianity.
We have man who's brought a rebellious Sinner, brought into the presence of God and fit for heaven.
And it entirely makes much of Christ and nothing of man. And the Jews hated that, and man will hate that.
Simple pathway of submission and obedience to the word of God, setting aside man's wisdom. And so there's ever in a constant being lying in wait of Paul by the Jews in a typical sense.
Sometimes there's a tendency in our hearts.
To hold back on a line of ministry because we don't think the Saints will appreciate that line.
And I think it's very instructive that Paul says I didn't hold back anything of what would be profitable for you.
He enlarges that a little further than he says, He is not shunned to declare unto them the whole council of God.
How thankful we can be that for brothers who are willing to declare all the counsel of God, not just the line that they like and or think the Saints will like everything profitable for them. And that's instructive here.
Where did he do it? What for him did he do it in? Well, he did it publicly.
But equally important, he did it from house to house.
And I believe that's an important aspect of ministry that is sometimes overlooked is the ministry in the home.
I can think of preferences made to brother Harry Hagel earlier by our brother Neil, and I recall times, the precious times when he had a dinner at our home for breakfast.
And you never get up from the table. And lo, the sisters had to get up and make lunch.
What was it? Small talk?
No, it was the word.
Word of God.
We have such an abundance of truth that has been ministered to us and we can thank the Lord for it, and I particularly think emphasis should be put on.
The fact that Paul not only gave this publicly in addresses, in informal meetings you might say, but in house to House ministers.
It's such an important thing. We put a premium on brothers who have a gift for for public speaking, but I can recall brothers who are much more helpful in the home than they were on the platform.
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And it's an important work involved in it both ways.
That's very interesting because we think of this, again, going back to what you have said, there is the platform ministry, which is very important, but there's also the pastoral care of visiting in the home and going over the scriptures together. And I think, brother.
Years ago in one of the writings.
His brother said the greatest need among the gathered Saints at that time, this was back in the 1800s, was pastoral care.
Well, if it was needed, then what is it today?
It is a much needed thing today too, to be able to go into a home and with one desire just to visit a little bit and talk about the Lord and go over the scriptures together. Very, very important that is, and it's very helpful.
For us, and that was the Apostle Paul, because he had said earlier here, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, whether it was on the platform, whether it was in the home, wherever it was, whether it was on the street corner, perhaps it was all the personal Christ that was before him. And I think that's very important thing to say.
This kept back nothing. A brother said to me that his daughter said, well, I can't really enjoy much fellowship with you anymore. She left the Lord's Table.
I said you should tell her there's a whole list of subjects that she doesn't want to discuss now.
But I said there's no subject that I know of that I couldn't sit down and discuss with you and open up the Word of God with you. And there's no subject. I believe in the assembly that we can't sit down and open up the Word of God. Maybe not everyone publicly, but there's no subject which we should be afraid to open up God's Word and see what it has to say. But if you get into a pathway where you leave the Lord's Table, there's a whole host of subjects you can't discuss. They're off limits.
And it's very we're we've really been brought into a place of liberty. And if there's a subject that I really wouldn't like a laboring brother to or a brother or a sister to come and raise with me, then perhaps I ought to get before the Lord about it and see why. Because we've been brought into a place of liberty where we can pick up the word of God and expose everything to the truth of God's word. And Paul didn't shun to do that. And when we find when we get into a situation as well, we better not let that.
We hope that brother doesn't talk about this or that or the other thing. I mean, I'm not talking about grinding axes and attacking people's persons, but talking about the way that we dress and where we work and and the kind of things that we go on with. If we find that there's certain subjects we would rather not be raised than we need to get into the liberty of the Spirit so that we can feel absolutely free in the Lord's presence about those things and be going on in a way that is consistent with the Word of God.
And you find that when that happens, when we get careless, that we're not really too happy when Paul comes with our house to house or to the assembly and would start to minister on a certain line of things.
Very lovely to see here following that verse.
Where it says.
Verse 20, where he taught publicly and from house to house. The very next verse says testify in verse 21, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks.
They repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the testimony. Repentance toward God. Why? Because we've sinned against God.
And the testimony further goes.
And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who accomplished it all for us. That's a testimony that is needed as we go from house to house. Or whether the platform ministry, it's both. It's both things are needed there, aren't they? Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody asked me that question one time. I said, why does it say repentance toward God? I said because it's against God that you have sinned.
00:35:04
So it's repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who came.
And accomplished redemption's work for you on the cross.
Confession is an act and repentance is a process.
Confession is an act I say of sin that I open up the word of God and I said I didn't make a mistake. I confessed something. I confess what I am, but repentance is a process whereby we had we've often heard we had wrong thoughts about God and we had wrong thoughts about ourselves. And so as we open up the word of God, repentance, it is towards God. It's not well so often we hear well, don't do that. It's going to offend the brother. Well, I'm glad, if I may put it this way that I'm in a place where my children and I myself.
Would be ashamed to do certain things were help to one another and I don't want to cast that aside.
I'm glad I'm in a place where it's not easy to do the things that they do in the world. But repentance is not towards brethren. And if that's the only thing we put up before our children and keep to ourselves is the fear of the brethren, we get into a snare. Repentance is towards God. Don't worry. I do worry what the brethren think about a thing because God's maintain a testimony. But if that's the only thing that's before you, there's been no repentance towards God.
And it's repentance, as we know, is to rethink.
And so we have wrong thoughts, we have wrong thoughts, but have we absolutely everything? And those of us who are older remember growing up in a world when things were more or less in many ways or some ways Christian in an outward way. But now every pretense of being Christian is being abandoned. And so it in a way it's easier because we realize that nothing, the world's view about nothing, marriage, dress, nothing is, is right. And so we come to the Lord. A brother said to me when he got saved, everything in my life had to change.
Everything, the way I did business, my relationship to my wife, everything had to change. I believe it did too.
That's repentance. It's a process.
I was thinking when Brother Charles was speaking before about verse 21 That there are really 3 aspects of Paul's ministry.
And they're clearly brought out in this chapter.
The first one is summarized at the end of verse 24, but perhaps we get the details of it in verse 21 is.
To testify the gospel of the grace of God. Is that all there is to ministry? The gospel of the grace of God?
Well, I rejoice particularly in hearing brethren speak of that glad tidings of the grace of God and to see an activity in that ministry.
But that's not all.
Universe that I don't want to anticipate.
But in verse 25.
He went and preached.
What? The Kingdom of God? That's God's moral rule.
That's important, important part of ministry.
And then?
I believe we get the third aspect of it is in.
In the umm 28th verse, it's transferred. That responsible is transferred to others, but it's really to feed the flock of God which is among you.
So that all that has to do with the church is brought out in connection with that all the counsel of God.
There was a three fold and complete ministry there. I remember years ago I gave I had a friend who eventually became a doctor. We were friends in high school and college.
In fact, we took a course in Group instruction and piano so that we could have time to sit and talk together about the Scriptures. I don't know how good that was to do that, but we did that and we.
Uh spent hours over the word and he seemed to be taking hold of things.
And one day he said to me, you know, I've got a, a conviction that really we should.
Stress the gospel and we're not stressing the gospel. All these other things seem to divide the Saints.
00:40:06
For the gospel unites the Saints. And he said, I really think that's enough. That should be our main track. And I picked up and took from him his Bible, which I had given him a copy of Mr. Darby's translation. He appreciated it very much.
And I took it and I said, now the Gospel, right? I said Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What do you think about the Acts?
Well, that that's that's an extension of that. I said, well, what about Romans then? You know, Romans of yes, very much so. I took his Bible and I made as if I were going to tear off the rest of it. What are you doing? You said, what are you doing? You don't need that.
Yes, I do, he said. I need it.
I'm sorry to say that this brother never was gathered.
And spend a career in ophthalmology.
However, he was the means of Sterling hope being gathered. Sterling Howling and uh.
Just about a year or so, maybe two years ago, he got back into reading the Ministry of the Brethren and the Old Time Brethren, and he's been rejoicing him. Whether he'll ever be gathered, I don't know, but.
I've often thought about how many people have that attitude that the gospel is what we ought to concentrate on, and so some the professed to be gathered to the name of the Lord.
Have deteriorated into what a brother used to call bread breaking missions. Bread breaking gospel mission.
Is that what testimony we're called to?
It was all the council of fraud.
Every bit of the Council of God.
The church was purchased with the blood of his own.
Believe that's how that should be, The blood of his own, not God's own blood. That's a very touching expression in itself, but I believe more correctly, it's the blood of his own, his own beloved Son.
He purchased the church with that. Is that going to mean nothing to us then? And we'll say, well, it's only the gospel.
I trust not. I trust that each one of us would be exercised.
And.
I would emphasize again, there are those 3 aspects of ministry that for all.
Was occupied in the gospel of the grace of God, praising the Kingdom, that is, the application of God's word to our daily lives and ordering our daily lives and the flock of God. The truth concerning the church.
You know, we probably should make a correction. Uh, verse 22.
Says, Behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem. Now look at the next chapter in verse 4.
In finding disciples, we tarried there seven days, who said to Paul through the Spirit that he should not not go up to Jerusalem.
Seems like a contradiction here. One place the Spirit of God says go up, next place it says do not go up to Jerusalem. We perhaps should correct our Bibles here as it is in the new translation verse 22. Behold, I go bound in my spirit.
Unto Jerusalem. He wasn't LED of the Spirit of God to go there, but Paul purposed in his own spirit to go. It was a wrong step, but nonetheless God stood with him, you know, encouraged him when he was there, and let him further to take the gospel to Rome.
Yes, when he got there, he had to preach, and he said, God hath not sent me to you, but to the Gentiles.
And so that would be quite a message for somebody to come. I've come to Vestal and it would be quite a thing for me to have to stand up and say, well, God's told me that he didn't send me here.
And that's really what Paul had to do because he was bound in his own spirit. You find an axe that the spirit forbath him to go into Asia.
And there are times in which we would have to go against the Word of God in order to do something. In this Spirit of God forbids us to do something. We'd have to be disobedient. The Spirit of God will never lead us contrary to the Word of God.
00:45:06
And then it says also the Spirit, and it's not clear in the King James, but it's really the thought is the Spirit of Jesus suffered him not to go into Bathinia. And there were certain places where the Lord didn't go as a man. Jesus was his name as a man because he wasn't welcome.
The Spirit suffered him not to go into Bathinia, but here his own spirit was desirous to do something. And really, as you pointed out in the next chapter, he was prophesied into the Spirit that he should not go. And he went, and he didn't know what was going to happen to him before him there. But he wound up in Rome, and I think really he was there in prison for two years on his way to Rome because the Jews were waiting for a bride.
The king had forgotten the Jews wanted him there. The king was waiting for a bribe, and then he forgot about him for two years.
And then you find a man who's at true liberty. He's standing before the king, and he says, I wish that thou art altogether as I am, yet without these chains. That was a man who was free. And if we're in the current of God's will, we may have chains in our hands, but we're going to be free. But Paul was not free here because he was not really on the current of God's will.
What Reuben and Neil have just brought before us is very important from the standpoint of what often occurs today in our lives. We.
We confuse being bound in our own spirit to do something with the leading of the Holy Spirit. I'm sure that Paul.
Had an idea, or at least he thought he ought to be doing what he did.
Of course, you got him into all sorts of trouble.
We're not here to expose the apostles failures, are we? But we learn from those things.
You and I can be so determined on something.
That we missed the real direction of the Holy Spirit in regard to something.
I use an illustration. Perhaps I'm bent on going to a certain place and living.
And I'm so bent on it that I missed the Lord's direction in so doing. Now I'm glad it was pointed out that the Lord is forgiving in those things.
He gives grace even in those circumstances, but we ought to recognize and not confuse the two things, being bound in my own spirit to do something with the leading of the Holy Spirit.
It seems to me that Paul was so determined on it that when the brethren pleaded with him not to do it.
He was going to do it anyway.
And their answer to him is a gracious 1 The will of the Lord be done. They didn't say, well, go ahead, you know, and get into trouble. They say the will of the Lord be done. So I think that what has been brought out, we need to keep very carefully before us that.
A determination in our part to do something, even to do something that is good in itself, is not the leading of the Holy Spirit to do it, or the direction of the Holy Spirit.
David had good intentions, but it was not the mind of the Lord for him to go ahead with the construction of the temple. Nevertheless, it was good that it was in his heart.
The 23rd and the 24th 1St we can say is the work of the Spirit of God though.
And that's often why the Spirit, the Word of God is essential, because it divides what is between the soul and the spirit. And I may form a natural desire. He naturally loved his people, and a natural love may get hold of my spirit. And that's why He said He was bound in His spirit. But here we really find in this 23rd and the 24th verse that that really was a work of the Spirit. Say that the Holy Ghost witnessed it in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. That was really.
Uh, and Paul really was a tremendous, suffered tremendous suffering, uh, in his ministry for the Lord. And if you read in Corinthians, there is second Corinthians, you see all of the things that befell Paul.
00:50:00
And you come to the end of the chapter and he says, and he was let down in a basket over the wall. And I think that that's what the world would say was a straw that broke the camel's back. He was a proud man. And it was a very humbling thing for him to be let out of the city that the stripes and all of the rest of it he endured. But it was a very hard thing for Paul to to, uh, to experience this, to be whisked out of the city by been being let down over the wall in a basket.
There, but you see what Paul suffered and their suffering. Connection with and connected.
With the truth. And if you take a stand for the truth, or if I take a stand for the truth, there's gonna be suffering connected with it because it's worthwhile.
The devil wants to steal it from us because it's worthwhile. A thief wants to break into your house because there's something there that's worthwhile. And so there's gonna be difficulty in the assembly and there's gonna be attacks because there's something very much worthwhile to the Lord there.
Very interesting to see too, and a little encouragement for us as we read the apostle about the apostle Paul, his own spirit in which he went there. But at the same time, it's lovely to look. I was looking at Second Timothy chapter 4. Just read a few verses there.
Where it speaks about those that turned away from the apostle.
Dynasty.
Second Timothy chapter 4 verse beginning verse 15.
Of whom be thou?
Where also for yet greatly withstood our words. That was Alexandra Alexander.
My first answer.
No man stood with me.
But all men forsook me.
I pray God that it may not be had held to their charge, but notice this last verse 17 verse notwithstanding.
The Lord stood with me. Oh, how precious that is to see we make many mistakes. We do things in our own spirit. We make, uh, many, many blobs, if you will put it. But it says here, notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.
Why? He was the Lord's servant. He made mistakes. It shows again 2 doesn't it, that he was only human. He made mistakes. Someone has said to her as human, but to forgive is divine.
Precious, so he says it says here in verse 17.
Strengthen me that by me the preaching.
Might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. What a comforting verse that is to know God is always with his own. He said I will never leave thee, nor for safety. He did not forsake the apostle Paul either.
No, Paul had made a mistake, and many times we make mistakes too, but God is always there for us. That's a very encouraging thought to me.
I just pointed out too that.
Another little.
Perhaps correction?
Sometimes I'm a little hesitant to say correction, as if we're casting doubt on on Scripture in any way, but in verse 24.
In our common translation, it says that I may finish my course with joy. That's wonderful to finish your course with joy. Actually, the text says that I may finish my course one way or another. To finish our course. It's nice that it can be with joy, but.
The.
There is a course that the Lord has laid out for us.
Administrative.
And the important thing is to finish that ministry, whatever it is that the Lord has laid out.
It isn't. The emphasis is not on with joy here. The emphasis is on finishing the court.
00:55:06
Often, umm.
Amazes me to.
Read about someone who starts out on a.
Course and might say almost with flood lights and and all sorts of publicity.
And then they don't finish the course. I suppose, Brother Paul, when you were running, you saw some of that, didn't you? The people would start out like a flash and didn't finish their course.
And then somebody else who just ran along finished it, and that is what was before the apostle Paul here is finishing the course, and some of us are coming to that point.
We're finishing our course.
Let's not step out of the path.
In the last little bit.
The glories before us.
Guan keep on the path.
Isn't it true that it's the end of the path that proves?
What we've been occupied with.
We could be occupied with a lot of things and end our course.
In failure, which some have done, but how lovely to know that God's desire is.
That we might continue on, and perhaps sometimes not, with joy. Maybe we're sorrowful, maybe we're sick, maybe we're in a bad condition. But God is always there and of course will be completed with Him.
Just point this out in the first chapter Philippians in connection with this.
Converse that's often quoted.
I'm gonna just read from the fifth verse for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
Seem confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work, and you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, even as meet for me to think this of you all.
And this should be more properly translated because you have me in your hearts.
And that's borne out by the latter part of the verse. In as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of my grace.
Paul was convinced that these Philippians were going to end well, that God was going to finish that which he'd begun in them because they had Paul in their hearts. They had Paul's doctrine and they in it, in the, in his defense and confirmation of the gospel, they stood with him. And I believe that that's important because we need Paul's doctrine. People say that we don't need it. We do need it. And if we're going to finish our courses that was being brought out that, uh, we're going to need Paul's doctrine. People are throwing things over.
But it's making disaster of people's lives.
And we see that in society, in Christian society all around us, is that the forsaking of the And again, he's speaking here not just of the gospel, but the last thing that the Lord spoke to the disciples about was the Kingdom of God. And the last thing that Paul spoke to them about it. And that in the book of Acts, the Lord speaking to them, the things concerning the Kingdom of God. And then again, the last thing that Paul is speaking to them is things concerning the Kingdom of God.
And it was that teaching concerning what is morally suited to the character of God.
We have an everlasting Kingdom and we're part of it, and there is that which is suitable to him in that. And so Paul ministered those things.
Practically speaking, that's our manner of life.
I was thinking also in regards to finishing the course, I like to relate it to a, uh, a marathon or uh, a race to where you run a certain car course.
And then you give the torch or whatever it is you may be carrying to the next runner, uh.
There should be the thought of finishing the course, the cards that we're calling about to do, but I'd like to also think of the fact that do we pass this charge, this life in Christ, Can we pass that on to someone else who is ready to take that torch and to continue on? I like to think of it in that way, that we finish the course, the portion that we're assigned to.
01:00:09
By the warranty is Christ, but also to carry the torch or give the word the crowd to someone else so they can continue the race.
276.
Guide us all.
Right.
Thank you. Oh God bless her right now.
Nsnoise.
$120.00.
If you want to try.
To break down the end, it makes you know where you're going to make me follow up with him and the difference in the life of my life.
Uh-huh.
All the time for the New Year's Visa card, so I don't know I'm talking about.
Our God, our Father, we thank Thee for this little time and Thy precious word. We think of these things that have been brought before us that our souls need to be established in, and we pray, and by the Spirit of God we might be established in the present truth, that we might have our hearts continually occupied with that Lamb burnt wholly to ashes for us.
A fresh look at Christ and Calvary's cross and all that he did for us in the gospel, and that we might press into the Kingdom to his uh, with energy of the Spirit of God.
01:05:08
The determination to, to judge ourselves and all things we we desire that our spiritual feet, Lord Jesus would be in thy hands for the washing of the water of the world. For we know that we picked up the fileman in this scene, in our thoughts and our words and our associations of life in, uh, our habits and perhaps even our companions, May we, uh, lay hold of those truths that concern the Kingdom as to our manner of life.
And to walk in it, and to that we might be established in those eternal councils to know that our beginning was from before the foundation of this world, and my purposes chosen in Christ, and that thou art called us in time. And justify us when we think of that coming day, when we'll be with our Lord Jesus Christ in the display of glory before this world that cast Him out and on into that eternal day when the Lord will.
Himself administered to our souls all the fullness of my heart. Maybe we be established in those eternal councils that were sealed with His words. Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. And so we look to Thee that thou give us, Lord Jesus, as we continue through these two days. Should thou leave us here, that which is suited for us, for myself, that we might be washed from, uh, the defilement that we picked up in this scene to have.
Fellowship with the Lord Jesus and that our souls might be refreshed. We do as I continued blessing and we thank Thee for what we've had already from the Spirit of God, Thy name, Lord Jesus.
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