Acts 20:22-28

Acts 20:22‑28
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Thanks chapter 20 and verse 22. And I'll behold, I go bound in the spirit under Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. Say that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me, but none of these things move me, neither can I my life dear unto myself.
So that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus.
Testify the gospel of the grace of God, and I behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more, wherever 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 the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers.
To feed the Church of God, which you have purchased with his own blood.
For 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.
But now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
I am coveted no man's children or gold, nor peril.
Ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered under my necessities, and to them that were with me.
I have showed you all things, how they're so laboring. He ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give them to receive.
When he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with the mall, and they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him.
Sorrowing most of all for the words which he speak, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him under the ship passed over where he says, I have taught you publicly and from house to house.
It shows that House to House ministry is just as important as public ministry.
I remember years ago there was a very gifted brother.
That was a very good speaker, good, gave wonderful addresses and yet he wasn't a man to visit in homes, seemed to be very quiet when he was visiting or the place where he could speak in homes.
An elderly brother spoke to him about it. He said will you get me to get me an audience? And he says I'll preach to them. Yes, he's poor brother says anybody, any of us can do that. But it takes a lot more grace and a lot more energy and to go around from house to house than to just get up and preach to a a fair sized audience.
I'm sure that there are times that those who go out with the gospel will find that visitation.
Well, 'cause people to come to the meetings where they never would come otherwise.
And would give people a different view of the things of the Lord when you show a personal interest with them. The Wright brother Pilkington, you approved it, haven't you? And that's not just, it's not only for those who are in the work of the Lord full time. This is for those that we were speaking about this morning.
Who take responsibility in the assembly?
I suppose the Lord expects shots to to do the same thing, not leave all the visiting to one brother.
But.
There are others that can do visiting as well. I knew a brother. Brother Anderson. I won't name him. You know him well.
That before he was saved, he and his wife would go out every night to some social activity, dances or otherwise. But once he was saved?
He went out not to these things, but just to visit the Saints, and he had such a way about him that he would cheer them as he went about and he enjoyed doing it. I'm using the past tense, but he's doing it today.
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And he's, he's a real help in the assembly because of it. Now that's a real gift, I believe. But you know, gifts are developed too. And we don't need to be discouraged because we feel at first we, we can't visit the home because I think most everyone can at times visit in the home if they want it.
Is there a difference between preaching the gospel of the grace of God and.
Preaching the Kingdom of God that he speaks of here seems there are two things that especially mentioned as to his preaching when he was there at Ephesus. Would you say, brother Barry, that this is the perfect picture of the grace of God?
Here Grace, fullness, the fullness, divine grace.
Laid hold of the heart of the apostle.
And it would be in bringing the Lord Jesus as the object of faith to them. I've often thought of this verse in that light. There is the other side of you, as you mentioned. Perhaps you would give us a little message on that.
The preaching of the Kingdom of God. Well, I take it as pleased to these moral principles of the Kingdom. The Lord, when he was transfigured, according to Mark, He was disciples were told that they would in so many days see the Kingdom of God come with power.
That's in the 4th of March. Well, that's future.
When the Lord returns and sets up his Kingdom here on earth, He will set up that Kingdom in power.
Subdue his enemies. There will be a righteous reign, but at the present time.
There is still the Kingdom, but according to Matthew 13.
After the sword goes forth the soul, then you get the mystery of the Kingdom of heaven, that is, the Kingdom is down here and the king is rejected, and yet there are those that own his authority, or he is absent.
So that the principles that belong to the righteous Kingdom, which will be set up in a future day, are important for the Lord's people today, and we might just see.
A bit of those moral principles in the 14th chapter of Romans. 14th chapter of Romans.
The 22nd verse is that it? Verse 17. Thank you. For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness. Now notice that righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Now, as we go on as believers, all who are saved have accepted the gospel of the grace of God.
That introduces certain moral principles.
In connection with our walk and with our Assembly Light, and it's spoken of here as.
Not meat and drinks, that is. It isn't just an awkward.
Formal thing, Some ritualism.
But it's a very practical walk and and.
Carrying out what the world respects righteousness.
And.
Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Well, we're called upon to carry out those principles as soon as we're saved. And here is something rather remarkable in the next verse. For he that in these things serve Christ.
Is acceptable to God and approved of men. Now you might not think that walking in righteousness, joy and peace of the Holy Ghost was a work of of the Lord, but it does definitely say they who serve Christ, that is, those who are walking consistently in a righteous way before God and man.
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And in the joy of the Holy Ghost, and seeking to go on in peace.
Brethren, how needful that is.
To not allow anything in our assembly life that disturbs them unnecessarily brings strife and sorrow among God's people.
That's important too. Well, one that follows those principles serveth Christ. So we see that Paul in his laborers there in Ephesus, he carried the gospel, but he also carried the.
The ministry of the Kingdom of God among them, he continued in his own fired house, preaching the Kingdom of God.
It seems to me that this verse that we're considering.
As to the gospel.
In Acts 24 testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Would you not think possibly the Apostle was looking back to the Damascus Rd.
And then in the book of Corinthians, Two Corinthians, where he.
He speaks of the God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that shine in our hearts to give the light the knowledge of the glory of Christ. Is it?
It was the person of Christ, particularly before him, in connection with the gospel of the grace of God, was it not?
And.
No doubt this he was reminded of this and at this time and this is no doubt what was needed in this assembly, which was already beginning, possibly to need some exercise, because we know what happened to Ephesus in the Book of Revelation, and the seeds of discord perhaps had already begun in the assembly, so that there was a need for this.
Of the preciousness of the gospel of the grace of God. To refresh the heart and mind, keep them in the enjoyment of their portion. The Lord in speaking the Nicodemus, told him how to enter the Kingdom of God.
Well, the one who enters the Kingdom of God, of course, is born again, has a new life and a new nature. Well, as soon as he's in the Kingdom of God.
He can be thankful that he has a life of nature that wants to do the will of God, that wants to please God, that submits to God.
So you find that there is that moral aspect of the Kingdom of God, but God has made provisions so that we can.
Follow these wonderful things that God expects, and that by which we can serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We have in James two, that God has chosen the poor of this world, heirs of the Kingdom which He hath prepared for them that love him. Well, that's more of the inner sphere of the Kingdom.
And it's what you speak of, brother.
Brother Anderson.
Birth you have to look at the Kingdom in view of the place in which you consider it, where it's like a mustard field where or a mustard seed that grows into a large tree in the birds log. Well there it's the widest aspect of the Kingdom, but where the Lord was talking to Nicodemus, he's limiting it down to.
To new birth and there Speaking of the poor of this world there.
Looked at in a special way as ears of that Kingdom. So there's certainly in the inner circle of that Kingdom and the left in special way. So I think that is wise and considering any subject and the Kingdom is one of those subjects that we look at it in connection with the passage in which the subject is brought before us.
And that's the principle and understanding many parts of the Word of God, what proceeds and what follows. Because if you just take a verse out of its connection, you can teach a lot that isn't the truth at all you mentioned.
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That verse from the 13th chapter of Matthew.
There in the six similitudes.
As to the Kingdom of heaven.
In mystery.
You have 6 similacudes in the 13th chapter of Matthew. You have four more 18th, 19th and 22nd and 25th, making 10 similacues to the Kingdom of heaven.
In Matthew's Gospel you do not get the term Kingdom of heaven anywhere else.
But there in the Gospel of Matthew.
Now the character of the Kingdom of Heaven in his mystery form has to do with the present opportunity of embracing.
Christ as Lord, though He be absent, and in not not here in the world now, yet it is owning His Lordship in this world, and whether that owning His Lordship is reality or mere profession is allowed in some of those.
Parables, for instance, you have the foolish virgins and you have the wise virgins.
The real ones and those are not real. In other words, the foolish virgins are counterfeits. You also have the wheat and the tears. The wheat is the real, The tears are the imitation, mere profession.
You also have good fish and bad fish, and of course the good are real. You also get a man.
Not having on the wedding garment, poor empty profession will be exposed, so that the Kingdom of heaven in the mystery form in the Matthew's Gospel is looked at as ever and always the sphere of opportunity now.
In this age on the earth, always on the earth, though what's called the Kingdom of heaven.
But it's in, it's a mystery form now when you come to John chapter 3.
You get an entirely different line of truth in the first 12 verse, the 36 verses in that chapter. In the first 12 verses, we get that subject of new birth.
Now Nicodemus was one of these tallest, proud Cedars that humanity can produce. He was the teacher of Israel.
No doubt had a prominent place in the Sanhedrin. He had more metals and plumes almost than any other person you think of, unless it be the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Now the Lord meets this man who had had so many high privileges to see the miracles and to be.
Of the tribe of Judah and of that privileged nation of Israel.
And.
Here he comes in the dark at night because of his position as there were of importance and yet wishing to imbibe or get a little more knowledge as a teacher, in that he recognized the Lord Jesus was an unusual person as a teacher, so he came not knowing that he had nothing.
And so the Lord lays that sharp axe at the root of his brown tree.
And he says.
You must be born again.
He also says except you be born again, you cannot enter and you cannot see the Kingdom of God. Now that has to do with vitality, reality, the Kingdom of God. They're used in that way. Another thought is this of importance and might should be instructive.
New birth.
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Was ever and always a nature that the household of faith had in every age.
There was number such thing as a household of faith, no such thing as divine faith without there being a new nature.
And the new nature is in contrast to the natural, the old nature. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's its character and nature. That which is born of the spirit is spirit.
He contrasts that in those first 12 verses and the Lord Jesus, as it were, rebukes.
Nicodemus for his dullness.
The teacher of Israel should read in the in the best translation.
For his not realizing the truth found in Ezekiel 36 and 37. As for God giving them a new heart and a new spirit and things like that, He should have known better. So that the Lord says, now if I have spoken to you of earthly things.
Truth that should be known in all dispensations on earth in the Millennium. Those that are really real in the Millennium are those that are born again. So it's a new nature that is reality that suits God, for it's the very nature of God imparted.
Well, I said maybe, if plenty.
You would agree with this, I'm sure, Brother Brown.
That there are places in Luke where the same subjects of the 13th of Matthew were found, like the.
The woman that took 11 and put it in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. But there it's bits of the Kingdom of God in Luke, and also the mustard seed going into a great tree, and the birds lodging in the branches.
But in a general way in Matthew, you might say it's more territorial, that is certain speeder in this world where the authority of rejected Christ is owned, where generally speaking and the other Gospels.
It's more moral, as brought out there in the third chapter of John, and even then there is still a thought of that sphere.
Do that James brings it before us.
Amen. Who we would say, brethren, and the Kingdom of God is reality, and the Kingdom of heaven is this sphere of profession. Would you say, will you get the real? And those that are not, as has already been mentioned, there are those who profess and possess nothing.
But they're in the Kingdom of heaven. But you get this fear of profession. But the Kingdom of God is always realities, that's all.
Well, I wondered about that. The expression that we have in the Kingdom in the Gospel of Matthews to the Kingdom we have in Luke's Gospel is the Kingdom of God.
It's really supposed that even in the Kingdom of Heaven there would be reality, but there isn't. In some cases it's furious. And so we have the examples there of what is wrong, and I believe this is carried out in the other gospels too, in connection with the Kingdom of God on times that it grows as a great mustard tree.
But the intent of God in showing us the Kingdom of God in this moral character as we have here.
Is the real character, it's righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. But there there is in Mark's Gospel that which is very similar to Matthew, and it shows that which is also spurious, does it not?
Correct, brother, to say that even in Matthew 13, in the 6th similitudes of the Kingdom of Heaven, we have both the failure under the responsibility of man in the first three.
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And then we have the three parables uttered to the disciples only in the house, presenting that which is real even in the Kingdom of heaven. We have the treasure hid in the field, and we have the Pearl. In contrast to the tree and the treasure, they are contrast, and the Pearl and the leather. The Pearl is pure. The pure she is, the priceless, the more priceless she is.
And then we have in the net and the the fish and the seed, the two kinds of seeds again the opposite. So we have the Kingdom of heaven looked at under the responsibility. All this of man all is failure. But from God's point of view, we have it presented differently in the last three. And isn't that also correct to say?
That.
The Kingdom of God is a general term, and it develops into the Kingdom of heaven and will be succeeded by the Kingdom of the Son of Man on earth, as we have it in the explanation as to the second parable, the first of the three of the first group, where the Son of Man will send his angels and get out of his Kingdom all empty pilots. That's the Kingdom of the Son of Man and the heavenly.
At the same time, the Kingdom of the Father, where the righteous shall shine as the sun in the Kingdom of the Father, so that the Kingdom of Heaven bill also be succeeded, and will still be the Kingdom of God, but it will be the Kingdom of the Son of Man on earth, and are redeemed in the Kingdom of the Father in heaven.
You know, whatever way, pardon me, whatever way we look at this.
Subject but poor preach where at Ephesus we have this to.
Exercises and it's this.
It says I take you to record this day.
For I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. All didn't trim the truth to suit a certain class that wanted looseness or wanted to cover up evil.
He he gave out the full counsel of God so that when he left Ephesus, they couldn't kill him.
Of any neglect or any hypocrisy in his laborers trying to just please man, he gave out the truth right from from the Lord and let the results with the Lord and that is very important, isn't it then even in our day and time that we should not just.
Try to please man or Paul says, if I please man, I'm not the servant of Christ.
Sometimes it hurts, but.
It's the right to give out what is the truth, even if it does cause.
Maybe sorrow to some.
We're not. I don't mean that we should just go around trying to offend or cause any any distress among God's people, but we should not just trim the truth up to suit a certain class.
Yeah, there's a danger of that.
Be a loose element that gets in among the Saints, and they like what just pleases them. They don't want anything administered that would hurt their conscience. So that there are needs that faithfulness, I said, Amen.
In verse twenty of our chapter, the apostle says I have held back. I've kept back nothing.
I kept back nothing that was profitable, so in our verse I have not shunned.
He has not lacked the courage to declare unto you all the council of God. Now there is an interpretation that I cannot allow myself to believe yet, that this council of God has only to do with His eternal counsels. I think the apostle has in mind the whole mind of God.
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When he's the two speaks this way.
We need it as all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is.
Profitable. It's profitable for even reproof, even rebuke and instruction and correction. Whether we like it or not, the Holy Word is everything. Now I'll give you some verses that you suggested, brother, but what you said, I enjoyed what you said. Colossians, chapter 3.
Verse 22 The middle of the verse.
This is in keeping with what you said dear brother, not with I service as.
Men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God, And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men.
Knowing that as the Lord, ye shall receive the reward.
Of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ. And he says also chapter 4 verse four, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. If any man speak, let him speak as the mouthpiece of God, and not just simply ear tickling and smooth things.
And try to build things just to make everybody happy. By the way, I heard one who had been a a preacher.
I hope no one will guess who I'm talking about, but on one occasion he was given the platform and to me and my wife it looked like this was one of his old time favorite sermon when he was in the platform in, you know, in the camp.
Everything he had he had studied no doubt for years. He drew out this the sweetest, happiest things that exist in the word of God. It was nothing in the world but just simply make everybody happy, no matter how world it is they may live.
It nothing but to make a hit, a popular sermon as it were. Poor stuff that exercises our souls. We shouldn't evade it, should we? When we have a chapter, we should face the the word as it's given to us and act upon it.
Is that right? Yes. I believe the burden of the the epistles of God gives that truth in love and loving truth.
Great need of that in these days of the clinch and truth in love and loving truth.
Well, someone asked the question, is the assembly the truth? Well, we'd say no, it's the pillar and ground of the truth. But the Word of God is the truth, beloved. The Word of God is the truth. So that in giving, teaching or teaching.
Let us be careful humbly to give the truth in love and loving truth.
That if we're gathered on divine ground by the Spirit, that we're in a place where we can carry out every instruction in the Word of God. If we were not in a place like that, if we were in a system of man, there are certain truths that you couldn't carry out.
Take one man ministry and so on. But here that's not in gather to the Lord's name alone. Why that is something that isn't permitted doesn't belong to that. Well, that's a wonderful thing. We don't have to be dodging this scripture and that scripture because it doesn't fit in with the testimony that we're connected with.
There's some things that characterize the place where the Lord has placed His name.
And one of them is that the Lord has given his place and he's not pushed out by man. Man does not usurp that place. He may try to, but if we're truly gathered to the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ will not allow that.
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Let the Lord be displaced by man.
And another thing is will not allow that the Holy Spirit should be displaced. We wouldn't allow that the Spirit should be quenched, but he must be allowed to have his place in the assembly too. And then another thing.
Allow the Word of God to have its place, the whole Word of God, in the assembly too. And if these three things do not characterize the place where we are, well, how could we claim to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Merely being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is no insurance of our.
Answering to the behavior that is becoming to the House of God.
There is an article that was sent to me or many years ago by your brother Oscar Myers. There on is written by a man in system.
And his name was William.
Reed.
And that man, that preacher was writing an article to rebuke the his fellow men in the pulpit who were running down the brethren gathered the Lord's name and.
Misrepresenting them all together.
They were doing it right and left. Now this was in 1874 that he wrote the article and 75 that's over a century ago.
That article.
Shows the character.
Of the lives of those gathered to the Lord's Ninth over a century ago.
And the ministry, ministry of power of the Holy Spirit, ministry that made everything of Christ. The gospel had its fragrance and and in their stewardship their lives were spending their time and their means to make Christ known. Now this article is so fine that my wife and I have wanted to see it.
Reprinted, but on the front cover I write upon it.
And print it on it.
This article.
Is the strongest condemnation of our slipping, I think, or sliding and or departing?
Brethren, if we compare the lives of the power of their lives of that day with ours, it oughta do us good to make us hang our heads in shame, to make us like we talk about we ought to be in the dust, but to help us to be in the dust. In that article that Oscar Mayers sent me.
Now I'm just touching on a thing for this idea of telling people that all you need to do is to be gathered to name the Lord Jesus Christ and everything else would be all right.
True at all. There's a sister here that told me that she thought after she was saved through Harry Hayle that when she finally was gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ now everything was settled. But she soon found out that she had an old nature and that the state was not what she thought it would be.
No guarantee, brethren, just because we're gathered it might be our condemnation.
If we lack heart, I wish I could live up to my words.
And you and I, I think mostly, if you know what I'm saying, if we are have all the highest privileges, the finest library, the finest hymn book, the finest translation, the finest magazine or magazine, the first opportunities like we're having in our in our conferences. And wherever you go, there seems to be a home open and a bed if you're gathered.
These are high, unusual privileges and unequaled anywhere else.
But brethren, these are only spell our responsibility because there's no privilege that God has ever given us without a corresponding responsibility as to our living and walking in it. The speaker doesn't do it.
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I remember my father quite often saying that occupation with Christ will keep us both humble and happy. Humble because we are so little like Him, and happy because he loves us so much. I feel perhaps there is a little danger in our becoming occupied with that which will evaluate.
How we're getting along and so on.
I believe that the nearer we are to the Lord Jesus Christ, the more aware we will become.
Of the wonderful perfections that are found in him and how little like him we are. And yet at the same time we will indeed be happy because we remember how much He loves us. I was interested recently in looking up the various ingredients of the incense compounded in the book of Exodus.
How carefully they were measured. How carefully they were blended.
And I looked up the various ingredients and I found that one of those ingredients was what might be termed.
Well, it was said to be used as a sort of repellent for dangerous creatures such as snakes. It was certainly not an attractive ingredient by itself, but blended together with the other ingredients, it made this beautiful confection this delightful perfume.
And I believe that in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ there was that perfect blending of all those ingredients. There was no over exaggeration of any one of them. And so I believe, brethren, that occupation with that wondrous person.
In His love and in His faithfulness, in His discernment and correction of that which was in need of correction, we see that pattern that we well might covet. For I just dread the fact that if we get taken up with faithfulness as a goal, we will. We will.
Unconsciously want the reputation of being a faithful servant.
If we get taken up with humility as an object, we will fail because we will never want to do anything that will mar our reputation for humility or gentleness or whatever it may be. Any of these things, if we seek after them, would become a very great danger to us, but all beloved in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see that perfect and always displayed.
Blend of everything that we trust by the grace of God may be seen in us. If we compare ourselves with others, we will become again either puffed up or discouraged, but all to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus to realize.
That the sweet and incense of Himself contained all those elements that we have been Speaking of, including those which if taken by themselves, would be, shall I dare to use the word, offensive? Forgive me if I'm wrong in choosing that word, but all blended to form an incense that was delightful to the heart of God.
And brethren, if we keep close to the Lord Jesus, if we're occupied with him.
There will be that faithfulness in walk and ways and ministry. There will be that love, that gentleness, that kindness in walk and ways and ministry, blended together in a way that will bring no reputation to ourselves, that will bring a reflection of the sweet odor of the Lord Jesus before our brethren into the heart of God in revelation. Thou hast left thy first love.
Now in first love.
There are two things, and we get it exemplified in the book of the Song of Solomon.
The first is all his loveliness, his precious name, as we've had before us in these meetings.
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But the other is his thoughts toward us and of us.
Thou art all fair, my love.
Now those are his thoughts.
Of His bride, and if we are occupied with Christ.
He will make known to us his thoughts of us.
As he sees us now.
We were like the tents of Keeter Black.
But now.
Like the curtains of Solomon, that is. It's Christ's scene now.
In his character in the believer, I believe is the curtains of Solomon. Now when the is that right, brother Brown?
I enjoy what you're saying because.
In first love, we first have the person of Christ.
And his glories and his beauties.
And the moment there is a response.
Then he tells us his thoughts of us, what he thinks of us.
Not what we were, but what we are in His sight now.
Now this is what keeps us, brethren. It isn't what we think of ourselves because we have No title to think of ourselves. But if we want to be happy, we're going to find out what he thinks of us. And when you find the bride?
When you find that verse in the second chapter where?
We find him at that mountain of myrrh.
I suppose that's the phrase. I suppose that's the spike in art. I suppose that's what the bride has brought, and he's come to receive it. Then he says, thou art all fair, my love, there's no spot in thee.
That's first love.
And the assembly got away from it. They left it.
If grace would only cause us individually to return to it, to enjoy it, and then we would have not only thoughts of himself which would boy us up and keep our spirits high, but we'd also see what he thinks of us in that new light that's associated with him. Because of the work at Calvary that when the apostle Paul called for the elders of Ephesus, they responded.
There doesn't seem to have been any holding back in any way.
But they responded to his call. Well, we find that there had been no holding back on the part of the apostle Paul, as has already been brought before us. He had faithfully ministered all the counsel of God, and yet the truth learned in communion with God had produced in the Ephesians that.
Love for the ministry of the Apostle Paul that would enable them to seek to walk in it.
Well we find that in Second Timothy chapter one it tells us that approximately 8 years after this chapter was written in Acts that the apostle Paul has to write and say all they that be in Asia are turned away from me. They had turned away not so much from Christ but from the Apostle Paul.
We find that in between those two events.
The 20th of Acts, and the first chapter of second Timothy. The apostle wrote from a prison in Rome that most beautiful epistle to the Ephesians. It seems to my own soul, in meditating on that, that we see how that the apostle Paul ministered the truth. They received the truth, and the result of it was the ministry of more truth.
The growing in grace, the entering in more and more to the sweet and precious councils of God.
Has brought out in such a beautiful way in the Epistle to the Ephesians. But then when we go looking as our brother has just brought before us, and one has enjoyed his comments so very much. When we go looking for the reason what happened that brought about Second Timothy chapter one, that all they that be in Asia turned away from me. What was the course that led to that?
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Failure, that departure from the enjoyment of the ministry of the Apostles.
Well, it seems that the answer is in the second chapter of Revelation. Thou hast left thy first love. Our dear brother Albert is brought before us. That sweet and precious enjoyment and occupation with Christ. That is vital, because once that departure begins, it leads eventually to Pergamos in Revelation, where the Church.
Settle down into the world and the enjoyment of the ministry of the Apostle Paul is lost. Am I right, brethren, in saying that Pergamos is really in essence the departure from the ministry of the Apostle Paul? Not the abandonment of Christianity, but the loss of the enjoyment, the realization of the heavenly calling that we belong to heaven and not to this world at all?
We find here in our chapter that the most beautiful appreciation seems to be extended.
Without reserve to the Apostle Paul and his ministry. But it does change. But the change comes about from the loss of the enjoyment in the soul of the Person of Christ. Even in Revelation 2 They did not depart from all the outward observances of that which had been set up, but the inner life was gone.
And so there was no power.
The inner life was gone. Now may that be a lesson to us, dear brethren, that there may be all the outward as our brother Brown has been bringing before us in our local assemblies and these happy gatherings. But the question is, is the inner life there? That is, I mean the practice of it, the enjoyment of it?
A sense of His love towards us. Because if we're going around unhappy, we certainly aren't in the good of a sense of his love toward us. And I often wonder.
And I wonder in my own soul too, why, as one goes about.
Why there's such long silences as we gather together to remember the Lord?
Sometimes and.
When there should be a free spirit, there should be an exercise soul as to why we're there, and there should be that during the week which would.
Prepare us for the for the time when we gather together. There must be something working underneath that brings these conditions.
Among us, where there is no response to the precious saviors, we come to remember him in his death.
Don't you think, Brother Undine? Sometimes it's timidity among young brothers that haven't been accustomed to taking part, and they're almost afraid of their own voices. I'd rather see a meeting where there's long pauses than a meeting where.
There's scarcely any pause at all between hymns and prayers and the parts that are taken in the meeting.
So yeah, all those things remind us how.
We are gathered to the Lord's name and dependence upon the head in glory, and I do think this is important to remember that gathered together.
Surrounds the blessed Lord that we should remember that we are waiting on him, rather than waiting on the Spirit, the Lord by.
The Lord directs by the Spirit, but holding the head is really being occupied with the glorified One, or the one who says, There am I in the midst of the He's the head of the body.
And all nourishment comes from him, but he directs by the Spirit, and it has the remembrance of the Lord. There is an occupation with Christ.
Our hearts are engaged with him, while then by the Spirit he directs to a certain hymn, or he gives a certain brother to feel that he should offer praise, or another that he should give thanks for the emblems.
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Is that right?
The Old Testament rather buried that I think it'd be profitable to read. It's just two or three verses. It's in second kings.
Four and verse 42. Now this is in the ministry of Elijah and I believe we have various pictures in the ministry of Elijah that represent New Testament truths. Here we have worship. Now I stand to be corrected, but I believe that's something we can enjoy.
Connection with worship.
And there came a man. Chapter 42 Kings 4 and 42. And there came a man from Bail Silicia, Lord of the high places, or heavenly places, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof.
And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
And his servator said, What should I set this before in 100 men? He said, again, Give the people that they may eat. For thus, saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he said it before them, And they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord. Now you mentioned timidity on the part of some.
And I'm sure that's true. Here we have a picture.
Of two kinds of sacrifices.
That which would suggest.
We might say a young person in the presence of the Lord at the time when we're gathered to remember him in his death.
We have the 20 loaves of barley. It speaks of the poor man's bread. It speaks of Christ though.
That we also have the corn in the husks thereof, the full ears.
This speaks of maturity.
Now they're both equally set before the people.
They're first given to the man of God because the people eat of the very food that he eats up.
And so they're set before him. First. He's Christ really in type, but at the very same food as the food is set before the people of God. And so we have the servator saying, what should I set this before 100 men?
Should I do that?
100 Man, what little I have. Well, see, if the word of God says do so. You'd better do it. If the word, if there's a word of God on your heart, something to give to your brethren on such an occasion. I mean, after the breaking of bread. Well, the Lord has laid it on your heart. Give it it might, you might be giving it intimidating, but.
Give it and notice what it says.
Give the people that they may eat, for thus, saith the Lord, they shall eat, and shall leave thereof.
Christ can never be ministered in the spirit that what it fills the hearts of those who hear. So he said it before them, and they did eat and left there of according to the word of the Lord. And so whether it be an offering of praise to the Lord or whether it be a little word of of.
Encouragement to the Saints after the breaking of bread. If the Lord has laid it on the heart, why? Don't be afraid?
If the Lord has laid it on the heart, give it, and you'll find that when they eat, they'll leave thereof. There'll be plenty, and it'll be leftover. We do not varnish our weakness with activity. We're waiting quietly in the presence of God, So what better could we do if we're weak than weak quietly in God's presence? So let's not.
Varnish our weakness with activity. That's what we came out of.
Sometimes the Lord does allow a long pause to remind us of our state of soul. A member of Brother Ruskin Gill killing about.
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Meeting where he lived one time when there seemed no power to break the bread that Sunday morning, and he admonished the brethren at the close that there was something that they grieved the Spirit of God.
And it came out during the week that there was a brother who's going on with evil, and they had to look into this matter and judge this matter. So there may be special reasons why.
The Lord allows these pauses and we shouldn't get upset too much if they are long pauses and we don't want to form a clergy to always go ahead and break the bread or.
Offer the praise sometimes it requires a long time of waiting to exercise younger brother that they have a responsibility as long as their older brother if certain ones always take part why it just limits the.
I the work, I mean the the the work of the Holy Spirit. Well, we have here the only Apostolic succession that is found in Scripture.
In Christendom there is a.
Idea that the apostles ordained elders and they are ordained other elders and that succession has gone right down through Christendom so that we still have Apostolic succession. But the only Apostolic succession mentioned is as you read here.
It says, if I know this 29th verse, that after my departure shall grievous rules enter in among you, not sparing the flock false of your own self, shall then arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Now that's the Apostolic succession, and that's what exactly, and that's exactly what happened, and that's the work of the enemy is still today then speaking perverse things.
And they may be real Christians, gifted men, because Satan can make far more use of a gifted man than the man that hasn't any gift if a gifted brother.
Presents something that is contrary to the word of God. Because of his gift he will soon get a following, whereas he was just a simple brother that took little part or wasn't known very far and wide why he wouldn't be listened to.
That the more gift a brother possesses in connection with the things of God, the more responsibility he has. And sad to say, we've seen the history even of those gathered to the Lords names. That it wasn't some obscure individual who knew had little gift, but the most gifted men.
Have scattered the flock men who had the real.
Ministry And yet when they became leaders in a party and misused the Scripture to carry out their know what they had before them, what havoc could be wrought among God's people?
We have today began in the early times, did they not?
At the after the apostles had left the scene and they may be covered up in different names today, but basically.
The denial of the person of Christ is the Son of God, and the denial of the virgin birth and all of these things began no doubt quite early in the history of the church in the 28th verse.
That administering the truth to others.
There needs to be, first of all, an application of it to ourselves.
It says, take heed, therefore unto yourselves. I think of how the apostle Paul could write to Timothy and say the same thing to him. Take heed to thyself. The Word of God is A2 edged sword, and the first application must be the self before there really can be any, any real power in ministry to others. It seems to me that there's a very, very real need.
To search our own consciences and to have it applied to our own hearts.
And to be before God, to have it applied to ourselves in verse 27.
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About declaring to them the whole council of God.
And that's why he says what he does in verse 28.
Take heed therefore. I've given you all the counsel of God, and I'll take heed therefore.
To yourselves. That means that you have to practice it yourself.
Be in the good of it and to all the flock, take heed to the flock. Well, if you've been given the truth, you have a responsibility to pass it on.
Over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers.
Well, that's quite instructive, isn't it? It doesn't say which the apostle Paul made you overseer. She doesn't say that I made you overseers. No, this was the work of God. And so it's important for those who take responsibility in the assembly to be before the Lord. Did the does the Lord want me to do this? Is this what he what he wants me to do? Is this the place he wants me to take in the?
Is there this responsibility? Now each one may not have the same gift or the same ability, but, and it may not mean that he's fulfilling the same responsibility as someone else, but it seems that each one should be before the Lord to find out from the Lord himself, what is the responsibility that the Lord wants me to take?
So it's the Holy Ghost that was active here to make them overseers.
And it wasn't just a matter of being overseers to dominate them or to Lord it over them, but to feed the assembly, to feed the assembly, to have a care for the assembly, not just to cut and dried seed, but it's like 1 member of the body having a care for the other member of the body. It's like our our two hands if a person has only one hand.
One arm, he doesn't have the other one when it comes to washing that hand.
It's very difficult for a person with one hand to wash his own hand. He needs the other hand so that both of them can wash each other. They have a care one for another. And so in the assembly, this is perhaps what is brought out here. The oversteers are responsible to have a care for the assembly and we need to have a care one for another.
Last part of that 28th verse, the Church of God which he has purchased.
It's with the blood of his own is that that is, it's the blood of Christ. And that is a precious thought. We should never lose sight of that. What it cost God the Father, what it cost his beloved Son to redeem a people and to form them into one body.
It cost the blood of the blessed Son of God that He had purchased us. Christ that He has paid for that which is spoken of here.
So in caring for it, it's what how dare that those that they're made overseers are to the heart of God the Father. He gave his Son, He shed his precious blood. That was the price that was paid. So the Spirit of God never allows us to get very far away from the cross.
And the work of Calvary.
That precious blood that was built there by the Romans, beer, you would bring us back to that and remind us that we are bought with a price. That's looked at individually. And I believe in the 6th chapter, first Corinthians, you're not your own. You're both with a price. It's true of each individual that we've been brought, but we have to think of the whole Church of God here and the whole church has been purchased.
At the light blood of the Son of God.
Now when I say life blood, I don't mean that it was taken from his body while he was alive, but it was the blood that flowed through his veins.
When he was here and when the Roman soldier pierced his side, there was a miracle performed, Because the heart, when it stops, you know, the blood ceases to circulate.
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And there would be no bloodshed by piercing a dead body. But it was a divine miracle that caused that blood to flow from the side of a Christ in death. I never saw before the connection between the charge to feed the flock, which he had purchased with his own blood. Doesn't it make that precious?
It it would become perhaps.
Wearisome if it were not for the continual remembrance that this challenge, this privilege, this opportunity.
Is concerning that which was so dear to him that he purchased it with his own blood. Oh, what a what a wonderful privilege to be able in any little way to feed or to minister to or in any way to be a help to anyone of a flock so dear to him as that. How could we ever, ever.
Neglect this. How could we ever shrink from it because of?
Some little criticism or something like that. My brother Charles will forgive me for this comment, I know. But after what I said this morning in connection with my mother's illness and my father's efforts in the kitchen, I thought I'd better check with Charles to see that I got it right. I said, Charles, did I tell that right? And he said, yes, you did, but you missed out one part of it.
What did I miss? He said. You missed the part that we found fault with Father's cooking.
But he went on anyway. He said, don't you remember? We told him he burnt the gravy, but he didn't give up. He kept on because he loved her. I was kind of glad for that little addition because, brethren, we do see those who try to help, who try to feed, and their efforts perhaps are not appreciated. But oh, beloved, I, I, I'm glad to have got this to my soul today.
That the challenge and privilege of it anyway.
Helping, encouraging, nourishing any of the flock of God is associated with that which was so dear to Him that He purchased it with the blood of His own. What a privilege.
Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it.
Well, that was written to the same ones to whom the apostle Paul was speaking here. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
So I suppose what we have then verse 28 is a similar to it. Now he says you're thinking about Christ loving the church and giving himself for it. Now you give yourself for the church too. Of course, not in the same way to sacrificially that the Lord gave himself for the church, but still I believe we can also extend it beyond the sacrifice. The Lord is still caring for the church. He's still loving the church.
And it goes on in that same chapter, Speaking of the washing of the water by the word.
That's the present care of the Lord for the church too. And then there's the future is going to present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Well, this is the care of the Lord for the church all the way through. And evidently this is the picture that's being put before these elders at Ephesus to care for the church. Have a love for the church.
Do we really love the assembly? Do we love the church that Christ died for? Well.
It's brought out to us here in the fact that it speaks of that precious blood that was shed to to buy, to redeem us, how it touches our hearts.
I received a letter from my dear father.
Just before he went home, which greatly inspired me to keep going.
I will only take a moment to explain, he said. Son, hold fast.
He commented this portion we're on this afternoon.
He said feed the flock son, hold fast, stand fast.
He said I'm ready to depart. I want to write a little letters of my son, Eric.
So he told his daughter, who's a nurse, to prop him up.
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And he propped him up and he wrote a beautiful note to me, perfectly written. And these are the words he said, Son, hold fast, stand fast, the professing church.
Is in ruins, but remember, the church in the mind of God is ever perfect, ever perfect.
Now he says I'm ready to depart and my sister said he just drew 3 breaths and quoted I will never leave thee nor forsake thee and was gone, was gone. Well these are days. I was just thinking that with the time is gone. Faithfulness to God is a great need today and you'll find it in second crime in First Chronicles.
Where you have the those who were the the enemies of David.
Knowing that David was to be supreme in Israel, they came over to him and they said, now thine are we David?
That's first Chronicles 12 And on thy side, thou son of Jesse, peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be unto thine helpers, and thy God, for thy God help of thee. Then David received them, and made them captains of the band. Now of these we speak of.
Men who could keep rank.
In that scene, verse 38, in that same verse, we have the words one heart, and we have also.
In verse 33.
Those who were not of a double heart. These are days when we need understanding of the times, beloved.
To keep low down and our eyes fixed on that precious one.
Well, hold fast below, stand fast. The Lord is coming.