Acts 20:25-33

Acts 20:25‑33
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Please go to me last day.
Or upstairs, turn off the standard.
Come on.
Give me a minute to talk to me afterwards and then I'm on the phone tomorrow. I've been using it.
Nsnoise.
Uh.
Blessed God, our Father.
We thank Thee for the lines of this little hymn we've been singing.
We go to meet the Savior, His glorious face, to see what manner of behavior in all our ways with Thee. Lord Jesus, we thank Thee for that glorious truth, that one day soon we will look into Thy blessed face and see Thee and praise Thee in a manner that is be pleasing to Thee.
For now, Lord, Thou knowest our prayers are checkered with self. Many times things brought in that are not according to Thy mind. We know these things, Lord, but we just look forward to that day when we see Thee. We see Thy blessed face and we hear Thy voice. We've heard it now in the Word, but what a day that will be when we hear Thy voice there in the glory and look into Thy blessed face.
To see that one. And we know then that voice will be a voice of love and kindness and grace and mercy.
We thank Thee, precious Savior, for that glorious thought that soon, soon we will be with Thee in glory. So we are to Thee now, while we're here, we think of these many, uh, things that we have in Thy word, some thoughts perhaps brought out even today. We just asked thy blessing, Lord, now upon a little time together, for we know it's a limited time. Time is short, but we know, Lord, that that day is soon, far near, soon near to come.
The day when we will hear the shout, and be caught up to meet thee in the air.
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So we thank you now as we look to Thee for the portion of Thy word that is before us, that we may be encouraged and built up and edified as we wait for thy return. Lord Jesus, all in thy precious and in thy worthy name, Amen. Amen.
Acts Chapter 20.
Verse 25.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God.
Shall see my face no more.
Therefore 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 he 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 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 all 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 the mall, and they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him.
Souring most of all for the words which you speak.
That they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.
Can you imagine the chill that must have gone through their hearts as they heard these words?
Paul was loved by them.
And he loved them and they loved him.
And to hear that this one who had gone about.
I believe faithfully proclaiming the Kingdom.
Now they were not going to see his face again.
We were on the way up yesterday. We were driving up in my.
My wife remarked to me about some dear and beloved faces that.
We were used to seeing at these meetings.
And.
It brought tears to our eyes to think about it.
Men who faithfully brought the word of God before us.
I don't want to unduly praise anyone, but we were thinking of Gordon and Norman Berry.
John Curry and there's probably others we didn't think of, but those we thought of.
And.
Yes. What is it that should concern us?
I don't want to jump ahead too much, but down at the end of the chapter it says they were specially pained by those words.
What Paul brought before them in the verses in between was.
That some very tragic things were going to happen with regard to the testimony.
Both from outside and from within.
That's what should have consumed their art.
I don't think it's wrong that they should feel the the pain of not seeing Paul again.
But the more serious thing?
Because God raises up others as we go along, and each one.
In his generation serves the Lord.
And they fall on sleep.
Thank God fills in the ranks, so to speak.
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I don't mean to say that there will ever be.
Another exact.
Gordon Hayhoe.
There'll never be another.
JND.
They'll never be another Norman Berry, exactly like our brother, but the Lord raises each one up for his generation, doesn't he?
But what is most painful in the verses that intervene?
And that we need to pay attention to is that there's a flock.
That needs caring for, that is precious to the Lord.
Precious to the Lord.
And.
Paul, first of all says I'm clean of the of the blood.
Makes one think of the verses in Ezekiel.
In connection with the.
Raising up of a watchman to.
Announced that there was judgment coming.
And it talks about the responsibility of sounding the trumpet and if it was not sounded.
That of blood would be upon the person's.
Hands that.
That had that responsibility and didn't do it.
Paul could say.
I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
I think that's wonderful.
And uh.
We tend to be specialists sometimes.
I know the Lord has given different gifts and different emphasis to different ministries.
But each one who has a responsibility among the people of God has a responsibility to declare all the council of God.
Not to hold anything back that is profitable.
That's why Paul could say.
A minister of your blood.
It's a tremendous responsibility to take a place of leadership among God's people, and This is why it was such a important thing that Paul could declare himself innocent of their blood because he didn't lead the people of God astray. Was thinking that when you mentioned Brother **** that man who wrote those books left behind, that he feels badly that some drew the inference that you could be saved after the rapture, that you're glad that there's personal repentance there. But he bears a terrible responsibility for all of the people that believe those books.
And he did not declare the counsel of God and misled the people of God into error.
And so I believe that it's a very important thing that Paul here is one who took the lead among God's people.
Could say that he had been faithful in communicating the truth of God. A teacher shouldn't be judged by what they meant to say, but by what they said. I think that's one of the blessings of the reading meeting in a day of weakness as one may say something and not be exactly right in what they say or balance and it's if the desire is to communicate the truth of God will be glad to be corrected.
Because we don't want to leave a wrong impression as to the truth of God. But when books are published and things are broadcast and the people of God are brought into real error.
It's not just the servant that is brought in to reproach, but is the Lord when people say the word of God says this.
Then, and the people of God follow them, after a while they start to scratch their heads and say, well, the Bible, you can't make any sense of it. Because this person told me the Lord was going to come in 1984. And this person told me that that at the year 2000 there was going to be disaster. And this person told me this. And people are carried about by every wind of doctrine and the slate of men. And after a while they just get burned out. It's not to excuse the sheep.
Because the sheep know the shepherd's voice. But there is a tremendous responsibility.
That the apostle Paul felt in connection with taking a place of leadership among God's people.
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And I believe that This is why he was charging the elders at Ephesus, that the elders too were responsible because we often take very great care and we ought to rebuke non elder sharply but entreat him as a father. But I think there needs to be great. Paul was greatly concerned not just about the these ones, but he was concerned about the sheep that were going to be affected by their actions. And we need, there needs to be care in the House of God and this is what he's bringing before them.
Care in the House of God is to the effect upon the sheep of these things.
Heresy is to choose.
And that's what the word means. And so when I was young, somebody gave me a book. Decide what you believe. And so you're to work through it and see what your position was on a variety of subjects. But that's really training a person to be a heretic. The truth of God stands together. The whole council of God stands together. And I may not understand it all, I may not know it all. I may not walk in all of it. I shouldn't say may I don't.
But I am in a place, the Assembly of God, where the truth of God is maintained, and if I am faithful to the Lord, I'm going to learn the truth of God in that place.
When a man specializes in a truth, he rarely gets the truth he specializes in, right? It's interesting.
Have you ever met anybody that claimed to be meat on the ground of, uh, what happened at Pentecost? They don't understand what the baptism of the Spirit is.
Ever claimed to meet somebody who meets on a particular mode of baptism? They don't understand what baptism is and what it does.
You have to meet on somebody who meets on the ground of what church government is. They don't understand church government in the Scripture. God has seen to it that man rarely specialized, gets clear the doctrine that I met many believers and they're clear on a lot of things, but they're rarely clear on the doctrine they specialize in.
So that's why Paul made it so clear that he would not shun to declare the whole counsel of God.
And thus receipt re keep himself guiltless from their blood. Because if I mislead somebody.
I'm really responsible for where I lead them.
There's a little expression at the beginning of verse 28 that we don't want to overlook. I very much appreciate what you had to say, uh, Neil, about the, the responsibility of leadership, but there is something introduced before leadership. Take heed to what?
Yourselves.
Take heed to yourself.
Pay attention to yourselves.
One, uh.
Might aspire to leadership, and I think it's important to notice here that it's the Holy Spirit that sent them as leaders, as overseers.
In the to shepherd the Assembly of God. It isn't that I decided to do it. I know there's a sense in which, uh, and Timothy, it's talks about a man aspiring to exercise ownership, uh, over, uh, seership or oversight. I guess our normal translation says their desire is the office of a Bishop.
Maintaining the ecclesiastical umm terms of the the time, but.
It's the Holy Spirit that sets one in that position of responsibility.
And what is it that is so important in doing in in considering one's responsibility in that?
That would be sure and shepherd the flock of God that said right away after what I called attention to, but it first says take heed therefore to yourself, to yourself.
How I walk, what I do, what I say, how I knit. There's no sense in talking about shepherding the people of God.
If I don't pay attention to my own walk, my own responsibility.
00:20:00
Told Timothy the same thing, didn't he? First Timothy 4 and verse 16. Take heed unto thyself, and secondly unto the doctrine, continuing them. For in doing this thou shalt both saved thyself.
And then that here they.
Even Paul admitted, didn't he, the possibility that he himself should be a castaway. And so that's the thought of save yourself. Paul even admitted himself that having been the vessel to deliver this truth, that he might make disaster of his life. There's a little pamphlet there, Wrecks on the Burma Road, and there have been many.
That's still in print now do you know I think it Mark had some copies of it here on the table. I don't know. I'm glad to hear that because I would like to recommend when I before.
Where I was gathered, in fact, I remember coming across that little pamphlet and reading it and re reading it.
And rereading it.
Because it is a tremendous help and I wanna suggest if there's any young people here that have not read an older ones too, get a hold of that pamphlet. It's written by Brother Willis as a result of it.
Trippy made over the the famous Burma Road and the wreck that he saw along the Burma Rd. in the spiritual lessons from those wrecks.
I'm glad to hear it's available. Mark, how many do you have?
Three or four, you get up there fast and get them before somebody else gets it. But I'm sure there's more available somewhere. And it's not like maybe it's something we can reprint, but what a lesson to my own soul.
I hope I've paid attention to it.
But when some of those things we need to remind ourselves again and again about.
We have so much.
A fact the one man ministry that I'd just like to draw attention to something in this first.
To feed the floor, to feed the Church of God, which he had purchased with his own blood.
That in Ephesians where it talks about the gifts given to the church.
Pastors and teachers are joined together.
There's some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors teachers. It's almost hyphenated because a lot of people want a pastor and now they call it counseling. But you can't pastor without teaching.
How you can teach, perhaps without pastoring, but you can't pastor without sound teaching. And so if there's not clear teaching set before the Saint of God, we're going to lead a person. A person is gonna be LED, but they're gonna be LED in the wrong direction.
The Lord values his flock and.
Oh careful, we should be. It doesn't say here to rule over the flock, it says to feed them.
And uh, that's the important thing, isn't it? Then they grow, then they get strong, and then they fall along the Lord with the with the Lord. We got the same thought in Peter, don't we? These are ******* gross.
Watch the Commission to be there before He, before he went to the glory to feed the Lamb.
I noticed that J&D translation says shepherd the flock, and I've thought about that a little bit, that it's a lot more than just feeding too, isn't it?
There's a lot of care and we have a brother in our assembly who worked on his grandfather's farm with sheep and he can tell you some of the things that they had to do. We often enjoy remarks that Paul Thomas makes about, uh, different aspects of shepherding sheep. But, uh, it's a lot more than just here's something to eat.
It's a really a care for all the needs, isn't it?
Now, uh.
Shepherd and pastor is the same word, isn't it?
Alright, alright, say the same word, shepherding and pestering.
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Well, doesn't this in itself, besides any other scriptures, show us that God did not have a pastor in the church in Ephesus?
Sometimes some of the footnotes in Bibles will say Timothy was the pastor of the church in Ephesus.
It aggravates me to read that footnote because first of all, it's not a scriptural footnote, and secondly, it goes against the teaching of right here. Here we're the pastors of the assembly in Ephesus, those who shepherded the assembly.
In Ephesians, Paul didn't say, Come on over here, Timothy, I have a special thing to say to you.
He called all the elders together, didn't he?
And he pointed out that the Holy Spirit had made them, not the denomination or the board or the OR the elders or whatever. Man has set up systems that are so contrary to the Word of God. And if they'd only read, if we'd only read carefully. God has protection against those wrong ideas right here in his Word.
Like to add this thought with regard to that.
I believe, and it's a personal exercise that I'll state and be corrected by my brethren.
For a long time now I felt that in reacting against.
The.
Notion of appointed formal elders.
Which we have no authority for.
Only an apostle or a delegate of an apostle had that authority.
We have gone too far.
And not recognizing that the Holy Spirit does raise up people as overseers, and in First Thessalonians 5 it tells us to recognize them, that is.
To realize that the Lord has put someone in that position and is to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.
It's not an easy thing.
And, uh, the work the we've gotten so, umm.
So enamored with the idea of.
Of democracy in this country and in Canada probably too, that we have forgotten that the Church of God is not a democracy.
There is leadership.
There is responsible leadership and there is the the responsibility for us to submit not ruling, not who was it? Was it you ruled that said didn't say ruling over them.
Somebody did it here anyway, it doesn't matter, but it was an important point. Doesn't talk about ruling.
Ruling is not the thought. The thought is example and and admonition.
But there is leadership.
And let's be careful we do not re reject the idea of that.
And have this idea of a democracy among the people of God that is totally foreign to Scripture.
Yes, I've heard it said even in general meetings, where are you going to find men that are fit to do the work of overseers? And I thought I know all kinds of them. There are those that are fit to do the work. And Paul told to Titus, he gave Titus to ordained elders and it was increased. And we know what the natural characteristics of the tree creeks were. They were slow bellies, evil beasts and lazy gluttons. The word of God says.
And yet there were those there that could be found that were fit the qualifications to do that work and its great mischief when those take up the work of God on themselves. It's the Holy Ghost. And so that that puts a person fits a person and qualifies a person to do that work to take oversight in the House of God. And we see the seriousness of it in connection with Paul that he counted himself not guilty of their blood because he had been faithful and when those.
Take up that work and they're not. It causes mischief. Now, it's true that there's no authority to ordain elders or pastors or anything else. I remember when Brother Dan Anderson used to say before he was gathered to the Lord's name, he was an ordained minister. He said they laid their empty hands on my empty head. And what he meant was that they had no authority to order. I have no authority to ordain anybody to anything, nor does anybody else in this room.
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And one who may submit to such a thing really doesn't know the mind of God.
But there are qualifications that would fit a man for this work. And just because there may be an, a, an assembly, none that are apparently qualified to do that work, then there can be a humble looking to the Lord as to what to do. We still have the word of God. But there were those that were fit for that work and a recognition of the foes against the assembly because there were two types of foes that were to come. Wolves that serve their own bellies.
And then there were those that wanted to steal a sheep and they were really serving their, so to speak, their wallets. They wanted a following. And there are those that come in and they don't really care what happens to the sheep.
And, uh, they, they pick on the weak and they devour them. And we've seen that. And there are those that really do care what happened to the sheep because they want the sheep intact.
A sheep thief doesn't want the sheep alive and well so that he can keep them. And so there were the two. And so Romans said they served their own bellies.
That there are ones that really are just like wolves. It's the character of a wolf. They're hungry and they want to feed themselves.
And they really don't care about the sheep of God at all. There are those that do care about the sheep, but they want the sheep following them. But a true pastor will have the sheep follow the Lord.
Peter had to say in his first epistle of Peter in the 5th chapter the elders verse one, the elders which are among you. I exhort Paul was exhorting the elders of Ephesus, wasn't he? And Peter here says who am also an elder?
And a witness of the sufferings of Christ.
And also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God. Feed them.
Feed the flock of God.
Which is among you taking the oversight thereof? Not by constraint, not because it's you have to something you have to do. I've got to do this, so I've got to do it, but not by constraint.
But willingly.
And for not for filthy lucre, not for pay, not because I'm going to get some a check out of it.
But of a ready mind.
And I'll tell you that that's good advice that Peter gives here.
And though we Paul did the same similar thing to those at at Ephesus, when he could say, take heed, therefore in verse 28, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers.
To feed the Church of God, which he had purchased with the blood of his own beautiful. So those things are good, whether it be Peter, whether it be Paul.
Paul, of course, was the one to the Church of God.
I was thinking when Neil was talking about.
Lack of qualification, that.
I remember a time and I it's to my shame. Perhaps I should repeat this, but it might encourage someone.
There was a time when some of us in our assembly in Chatham, in the days when Brother Alan Hadley was still alive and her brother's care meeting, suddenly realized that none of us.
We're totally qualified for oversight. None.
None of us. We got down on our knees and cried to the Lord about it. I'll never forget that.
He said Lord, the work needs to be done.
And we're not qualified.
And I believe in that case where there's a humbling before the Lord that He gives grace.
And.
There was a a sense in all of our souls that the Lord would give grace and help in doing it. He isn't going to leave the flock without.
00:35:05
Care.
After a wolf has been among the flock, you see the ravages of it.
You see what a wolf does after he's been in among a flock of sheep, and I think 1 great thing that happens is that people often become hard on the shepherd in dealing with wolves.
But it's too late after the damage is done.
And it takes a certain courage to face a wolf. I mean, these are very vivid pictures that the Spirit of God brings before us. And we look afterwards and we say, wow, look what happened. Well, where was I with respect to the one who stood up to the wolf? Was I encouraging him, helping him, submitting him to him? Or was I nattering about how he was handling the wolf?
And the the IT spoke, Brother Charles, when you read that verse about a ready mind, it speaks about men speaking perverse things. The children learn verses in Sunday school and to be perverse as to go against truth that I know.
And you'll find that not everybody who is in error is going against known truth. But her brother once asked a minister who taught that she could be saved and lost. He said, Do you really believe that yourself? He said no, but it's the only way I can keep my flock in line.
It's the only way I can keep my flock in line. He knew that people couldn't be saved and lost, but he taught that to keep his flock in line. And very often you'll find there's perversity connected with the truth. And again, I repeat what I said this morning in connection with geographies. Geographies was not somebody in the assembly who was careful in reception. He said he received a thought. Let's read it. And because this Scripture is often abused.
To insinuate that somebody who is careful at a time of reception is being a geographies. But let's, uh, look at what it exactly says.
The character of this man in John's third epistle in verse 9.
I wrote on to the Church but geographies who loveth to have the preeminence among them.
Receiveth them not. No, he says. He receiveth us not. That was the apostle.
And that's perversity. A man will take up a doctrine and you see why is it some of the foolish doctrines people have caused divisions over?
Among the people of God.
On atonement or?
For the blood of Christ, where the blood of Christ came.
Came in or foolish things which people get attached to and stubbornly attached to, and they form a following around a particular little doctrine, not sparing the flock of God, but just coming in. They oppose themselves to the apostles doctrine. And what is the motive? It tells us because He loves the preeminence.
Romans says they love, they serve their own bellies. And so naturally, uh, we shouldn't be suspicious of people's motives, but the word of God reveals what those motives are. And so that's why there had to be that ready mind. And if we stand for the truth of God, then we're going to protect the people of God. I was struck with Abishai wanted to take off shimmy eye's head when he railed against David, but David had told him how to deal with Saul. He, he said take away his spear and his crews of water.
That was to take away Saul's means of fighting and his source of refreshment.
David really fell into error and he had to apologize for it because he ripped a piece of Saul's garment off. And we want to do that. Sometimes you want to attack a person's testimony. But uh, he really gave good advice to him was to take away his fears, means of fighting and his means of refreshment. But this is what a perverse man does, is he opposes the apostles doctrine and he uses that to form a party around himself. And really almost any doctrine will do.
For the perverse man. And you'll you'll meet people like that. They'll raise an argument, and then they'll discard that argument and pick up another one.
And pick up another one, and another one and another one. And then you realize that the point is not that they are taking a moral stand or a stand as the principle, but they're just picking up truths and throwing them away to accomplish an end, a perverse end. That's what perversity is.
Actually, Neil, I noticed it says in J&D's translation Perverted thing.
Perverted things I don't mean to take away at all from the idea of perverseness about it, but it's just to give a little twist or something to turn it around, to serve the end of drawing the disciples away.
00:40:15
After themselves. That's key here, isn't it? After themselves, they want a following.
It's happened so often.
A man rises up.
And he puts a little twist on something.
Perverts it in order to draw away.
The disciples.
The disciple, not just the little following, but he wants all the disciples after himself, after himself.
So.
That ends up sometimes in some tragic.
Visions.
And afterwards the brethren who follow him.
End up being known by his name. They've been drawn away after.
Him not after the Lord, the real servant of Christ.
Draws the sheep after Christ.
And that's something that we need to be alert to as we listen to ministry and hear our brother speak. Who is he drawing away the disciples to Christ?
Or himself.
And I was thinking of Absalom.
It says He stole the hearts of the people of his, of of the children of Israel. He stole their hearts.
When that news came to David.
It must have been an awful thing for him to realize that his son had done that.
That absolute spirit is so quick to arise where one sees a need among the people of God.
Absalom said. See, there's no one appointed by the king to hear your matters.
Oh, I wish I was there. I'd take care of it.
And in that manner he stole the hearts of the children of Israel.
What wonder did David then went up weeping as he went, and all the people weeping? I believe the heart of the Lord weeps over that. It's true to say that the, uh, grievous wolves some or the coming from inside of the Lord's people.
Certainly God never caused one of his own a wolf.
That I know of. They're entering in. Remember, they're not there, they enter in.
CHM made a.
Quite a statement, he said. That idolatry, he said, is not. He doesn't see idolatry as something flooding in among the Saints of God. He said it's just one little thing at a time that comes in and robs him of this point. At that point, it's just one little thing at a time. It's a little foxes that spoil the tender vines, and I believe that was so in those early days.
And in our past 10 years too, some little things come in and they've taken hold of it and made a doctrine of it.
And deceive the Saints of God.
The question as to whether, and I appreciate what you would say, I never call one that I knew to be a brother a wolf. But the answer to that question in a certain sense is irrelevant because the effect he's really talking is really presenting a picture to us here. And it's like in Second Timothy, we're speaking about vessels to dishonor.
The the quality of the vessel, whether it's a crystal vase or a rusty tin can is irrelevant. It is what is in that vessel.
And he's really speaking about the effect of one that may come into the assembly and ravage. And some very obviously are just plain trouble makers.
And they bear the character of a wolf, and brethren shouldn't be shy about dealing with that.
There are others that are more subtle, and it's not apparent that they're trying to draw away disciples after themselves, but they manifest themselves by being perverse, and that is.
00:45:01
That they're going against known truth and you quickly reveal, say, how do you tell a pure heart?
A pure heart isn't somebody who knows everything.
What a pure heart is when you show them a scripture that their heart is inclined about of that scripture.
What a perverts man is one who picks up and uses principles of scripture and discards them as tools for a particular cause. You may not be completely apparent as to what the cause is, but they pick them up and and discard them Willy nilly, if you may put it that way. And so I think it's really the picture here. And I think we sometimes trouble ourselves by trying to wonder whether these ones are real believers or not. And we say, well, no, he's not a wolf, he's a real believer.
In a certain sense it's irrelevant because there are those that come in and cause untold damage to the people of God, just like the way a wolf does in a pack of sheep.
And you have to leave that question with the Lord as to whether they're really the Lords or not.
I'm sure there's, there's, uh, important aspect of that, uh, brother Neil, but I think basically what brother John said is true of that passing these people enter in and don't spare the flock, whoever they are.
And I think in general the we understand that people who do that are not the Lord. The wolf cometh not but to kill and the steal.
And to destroy, was that what kind of the thought you had, brother John? I was thinking of John 10 and also Jude verse 4 where it says certain men crept in unawares and ungodly men turning the grace of God of the service. We have to be watching out to those kind of things, don't we?
In, uh, Jeremiah 15.
I was reading a couple of verses there.
Very important thing to see and I think Paul infers that here when he says to take heed to thyself and sober in Jeremiah 15. I'll just read verses 15 and 16.
Oh, Lord, thou knowest.
Remember Me and visit me.
And revenge me of my persecutors, take me not away in thy long-suffering.
Know that for thy sake.
I have suffered rebuke, Jeremiah. Then notice 16 Thy words were found.
And I didn't eat them.
And they were unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.
For I am called by thy name, O Lord, God of hosts, and so on. And we find if we followed this out, we would find there's an answer here. He gets an answer for this too, but I just thought of it in connection with.
This chapter that we have here, taking heed to thyself, how do we do that?
Ingest the word of God, make it good to our souls first, then it can go out to others. If I don't know what God is telling me, how can I tell you?
So it's interesting thing, isn't it, to see.
Jeremiah could say, thy words were found, and I did eat them. Have you or I ate eaten of the word of God? Do we make it our own? Do we assimilate this? Do we we make it as we read it? Is it? Is it meant for me? Do I use it as that which is given to me? I should, and in that way I can be a help to others.
In connection with this, umm.
Next first, uh, 31 Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone of you night and day with tears. My brother was commenting on the difference between Paul's tears and the elders tears. They were crying because they wouldn't see Paul anymore. But Paul was crying because of these things that he saw coming in and he was warning them. And we often don't like to be warned about things. Look at the the book of Zechariah in the first chapter.
And we don't like and I told you so attitude either. But just speaking from, well, we'll read it in Zechariah chapter one.
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And from verse three, therefore say thou unto them. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Turn ye unto me.
Saith the Lord of Hosts, And I will turn on to you, saith the Lord of Hosts. Be not as your Father's, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, turning now from your evil ways and from your evil doings. But they did not hear or hearken unto me, saith the Lord your Father's. Where are they? And the prophets? Do they live forever but my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants, the prophets?
Did they not take hold of your Father's? And they returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us.
So there is a sense in which Paul warned them beforehand, but then the Spirit of God would turn them back and say, you know, it's just just exactly what Paul warned them happened. And so we need to heed and we need to think back when there's been a difficulty. Was I listening to the warnings?
Were we listening in the assembly to the warnings that came of difficulties that were going to come? We have to look back and say, well, just as we were warned, it happened, and so we can take heed to those warnings. But that's really what Brother Little was reading in Jeremiah was that he commanded them to the word of.
God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified. So if we really feed on the word of God.
There were going to be strengthened and our thoughts are going to be formed by the word of God and we're going to be protected from this sort of thing but.
We often have to say I was told and I didn't listen.
The person tells us something, they may be mistaken, but when the apostle Paul said this, that grievous wolves would enter in among you, not sparing the flock, he said that by inspiration, uh.
He didn't conjure this out of his own mind any more than did Moses in the Old Testament. Remember that?
Where he spoke of what would befall the people of God thereafter his departure in Deuteronomy.
Chapter 31.
And verse 29, Moses says these words for I know that after my death, very similar words to the apostle Paul uses. I know that after my death he will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because evil to evil in the sight of the Lord, to be broken to anger and so forth. How did Moses know that by any special insight that he had known God revealed to Moses.
Exactly what would be the latter end of the people of Israel, just like the Apostle Paul?
Have revealed to him the, the future of the assembly. I mean, they would tell you today that there's such a thing as Apostolic succession. Well, the only thing that the apostle Paul tells us here is going to succeed the apostles as grievous wolves. That's what he said would come in amongst the people of God. It's not a very good prospectus, is it, President? I mean, suppose you want to invest in the stock of a corporation. You would first, uh, obtain a prospectus of that corporation and see if it looks good.
If this company has good prospects and if it does, why maybe you'd invest in it. Uh, but here's the prospects for the assembly. It doesn't look very good, does it? It would rather deteriorate instead of getting better after the apostles.
Verse 31 Says that remember that by a space of three years have ceased, not blown into everyone's knife, and they were tears.
If you can turn the Hebrew after 13.
277 Remember him, which has the rule over you.
Wilson City, the Word of God.
They followed subsidiaries against the third on September 16th.
Notice that there's there's no commending of them to the councils or to the.
Uh, Magisterium of the Church.
To the.
Synods.
To even to decrease.
But to God.
And the word of His grace.
Well, I think that's so important and.
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We are not commended. As much as I appreciate and and value the ministry of our brethren of the 19th century, we're not commended to that. We're commended to the Word of God.
Any ministry that we receive must be tested. Our brother Dave Imbo set out at the Des Moines meetings that the touchstone is this book, the Word of God.
It's so important to keep that before us.
I, uh, mentioned that there is a tendency.
Sometimes to have a syndrome called.
The CW 21 Syndrome.
That everything is decided on what's in the collected writing. That isn't how we decide things.
No, don't, don't go back and say Brother **** doesn't appreciate the this the collected writings. I do. I have them referred to them and I enjoy them. But that's not the touchstone. The touchstone is the word of his grace, isn't it?
It's God's precious word and the moment we descend from that.
To use the words of.
One of the old writers who said were satisfied with the bucket instead of with a fountain.
It is implied with the bucket instead of the fountain. I do believe, though, that the verse that Brother Davignon pointed out to us in Hebrews 13 and seven is very important and I'd like to call attention to it. I do want to say this about The CW 21 syndrome. I think we are more afflicted with The CW Volume 00 lethargy, and I want to encourage you young people to read the ministry. I do realize that ministry has been used in an abused way.
But it's more of the volume 00, page 00 lethargy that we have then overuse made of ministry. But I I believe the verse that you read here is very important, brother, because in connection with this whole subject, because we were talking about oversight.
And in Hebrews 13 and verse seven it says, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God.
It is the Word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation or their way of life.
So there are two things here. So there's the Word of God ministered, and there's the end of the pathway of the one who ministered that word.
And we're to consider that we consider that an engineer builds a bridge and you look back over and you see what's his track record and you read ministry And the word of God instructs us to consider what was the end of those that wrote that ministry. We have divine instruction. This is the word of God. And it's not to make us critical, but if a man may minister the truth and make disaster himself at the end of his pathway doesn't say reject everything that he wrote.
But you're to consider that fact.
We're to get the truth from those that walked in it and not only walked in it when they were living in it, but as Paul who finished his course, as we were saying later, in a faithful way.
There's too much taking up and natural things. Our brother was talking.
Umm, about investing. I don't invest, but talking. People are very careful about their money and they're very careful about their health and so on, but they're not very careful about who they read and what the end of their conversation was. And it's a very important thing. We're to remember that and consider it. I think it's especially telling that this comes up in Hebrews, because in Hebrews we don't have.
The Apostle Paul is the writer, but we have Jesus as the apostle in Hebrews.
He's the author and finisher of faith. He's the captain of salvation. And so how does he resume at the end of the epistle? He says consider them that have the rule over you and were to consider the end of their conversation or their way of life. And if a man may have taught everything right, then you're you're you're perfectly right and entitled and instructed to consider how he ended his pathway with respect to how he worked out that doctrine in his own life.
This portion of the 20th chapter that we're discussing right now is very similar to Haggai chapter 2, isn't it?
Well known verses, but in Haggai chapter 2 you see how the remnant era is encouraged.
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And, uh, and what are they to take urge Notice three things there in verse, the end of verse 4, Peggy I chapter 2, the end of verse four, I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord's friends would be with them. We have that today, Brevin, just as the remnant did then. And then in the next verse five, according to the word that I covenanted with you, we have the word of God in our laps. Don't we breath in today? Same as the remnant then had the word of God that they could consult.
And then lastly, the end of verse 5.
So my spirit that should be capital S incidentally, so my spirit remains among you, a little different today and better than then the Spirit was made among them. But today the Spirit of God indwells us. We have these three things to encourage us through one faithfully.
Who are the sanctified that are mentioned at the end of verse 32?
Is this a special class as the UMM as the Wesleyan taught and teach? Or is it?
A. Something else?
The sanctified to give us an inheritance among the sanctified.
Every believer, every blood bought child of God.
The word sanctified means set apart, set apart.
And in a very special way, every believer has been set apart.
For God, when one becomes one of the sanctified by believing in the gospel, receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as one Savior, he then is one of the sanctified. It's not a class among the people of God is.
In the next verse, the next verse there.
Verse 33 shows how the grace of God wrought in the apostles heart, because if there was one thing in which he he failed before, it was that he he was covetous. You see that in Romans 7, seven. I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. He felt that that that slew him. You know it was just almost as natural as breathing to covet. What does Paul say here? By the grace of God?
'Cause now I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Uh, brethren, if we're not covetous, I don't think it's something that you've attained to it. It's the grace of God operative in your heart. And uh, Samuel said that too at the end of his life. Remember, he, he lays before the people, He says, who of you can accuse me of taking any man's ox or sheep or cattle? He, he was not a covetous man. He said a good example. Too bad his sons didn't follow in the examples that their father said.
And isn't it true rube that the umm.
Coveting of things has led to disaster in the ministry of so many good people.
They they begin to.
Want what the people of God have? There's a wonderful verse where Paul says I don't want yours, I want you.
I don't want what you have, I want you. And that's the main motive of a true minister, isn't it? Who wants the not what the people have, but he wants them themselves to go on for Christ.
And I.
They've been distressed to see how easily covetousness arises in our hearts.
But do we want the Saints? Is that what we want? We want them. We want to see them go on for God.
166 or.
Lord Alhamdulillah.
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Our blessed God and our Father, we thank Thee that we have been.
They will do gather together again this afternoon.
To have thy word before us.
And you have a nice spirit. Remind us of the dangers that are ahead of that which has indeed happened to thy people.
The the the Church of God that has so loved.
And given myself, Lord Jesus, for we thank thee, our God and Father, that I loved it and does not change. And that's already ever the same, Lord Jesus, as we've been reminded yesterday, today, and forever. So we just looked at thee, that we may indeed take heed to that which we have had before us this afternoon, that we may indeed walk before thee, Lord Jesus.
In the truth of thy word, and seek to honor thee and to serve thee here.
We thank Thee for the promise soon, Lord Jesus, as I return, when we will be with in the Father's house to go no more out than to be there for Thy praise and Thy glory forever.
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So we thank you for this and the care and give these thanks for this privilege you've had of being together in this way. And may we, each one of us, take heed in our own hearts what we have heard, what we ask in thy name, our Godfather, thy name, O Jesus, Amen. Amen.