Address—B. Prost
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Could we sing together number one 78178?
Blessed Father, infinite in grace, source of eternal joy.
Thou leads our hearts to that blessed place where rests without a loy. And then, reading verse five, Thy counsels too. In all Thy know, fulfilled by power divines, spread wide the glory of Thy throne, where all in glory shine.
178.
Force for the river.
Where all hearts found.
His friends.
Were.
Crying straight.
Away.
This.
Their Christmas.
All the Rome.
Joy.
It's all his joy but I want.
My house fulfilled.
All my soul.
Oh yeah, of my.
Divine.
Spread.
We're All in all, the Lord's Lord.
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All rise.
Nor is it sweet not.
No.
Love is done.
Our Father's no place joy.
Grace.
And bright the sun.
Breathe right?
The Sun.
I'd like you to turn with me, please, to the 20th chapter of Acts, the 20th chapter of the book of Acts.
So.
If I make the odd little mistake in reading, you'll have to pardon that because I have just discovered that I left my glasses back at Paul Reynolds. Not a major problem with the good lighting you have here, but if I make a little mistake or something, that is the reason. Acts chapter 20 and we're going to consider the last part of the chapter.
But picture the situation here. Here is the beloved Apostle Paul and he has been going throughout various parts of the then known world, particularly in Asia Minor and also in what we would now call Europe, preaching the gospel and bringing the truth of God before.
People there and he's on his way back to Jerusalem now and as we'll find out, he doesn't know just what's going to happen, except that.
Through his brethren, the Holy Ghost had shown them that.
There was trouble back at Jerusalem.
And we'll leave for the moment the considerations of whether Paul should have been going to Jerusalem under the circumstances.
It appears that quite likely he missed the mind of the Lord in doing that, but his heart was right and the Lord, of course, eventually brought blessing out of it. But we find here that he is on his way back to Jerusalem and.
He's going from one place to another with his company, sometimes by ship, sometimes by other means. In fact, it's rather interesting. In verse 13, it says.
And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Asos. They are intending to take in Paul, for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.
This is always an encouragement, you know, because if you like a little bit of exercise, you've got a good example in the apostle Paul, because Paul sent them by ship from Troas to ASOS. And Paul said, I'm going to walk. And one time I mapped it out just to see how far it was. And it's 40 miles. So it was a bit of a hike, But he felt evidently that he needed to take that walk. It doesn't say that he had any special purpose in meeting up with anybody between those places.
Possibly he did. We don't know. But at any rate, the Apostle Paul was working his way back to Jerusalem.
But he is going to go right by Ephesus.
The place, I suppose, where there had been more blessing than any other place where he had preached.
It was a very important city, a very wealthy city, and there he had spent, it tells us in the book of the Acts, 2 full years preaching and teaching, and there had been a lot of blessings. So that from Ephesus blessing went out all over that part of Asia.
But now he has a warning for them. He has something to say to them, He has encouragement for them, but he has a warning for them. Because having heard all that precious truth, and having understood it, and having been able to receive probably the highest truth that God ever gave to man in the book of Ephesians, although at this particular point in time that epistle had not been written.
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What I mean to say is they were ready for that truth. They were the kind of people that really entered into what the apostle was saying.
But he has something special to say to them. And so let's read here together Acts chapter 20 and verse 17. He's in a place called Malitas, which is a little bit South of Ephesus on the seacoast there in what is now part of Turkey. And it's right on the Mediterranean Sea. And so here it says in verse 17.
And by the way, don't confuse this with the Millennium or Mellitus on which Paul was shipwrecked on his way to Rome. They're not the same place. That second one that he was shipwrecked on was probably the island of Malta, out in the middle of the Mediterranean. This is on the mainland. They're not the same place. And from Melitas he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came.
Into Asia after what manner? I have been with you at all seasons.
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And now behold, I go, bound in the spirit. The sense of that really is not so much the Spirit of God, but it could read bound in my spirit.
That is, Paul of his own self had a burning desire to go to Jerusalem.
I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions of Biden.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and to the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
We'll speak a little bit about the last part of the chapter later on, but let's stop there for a moment.
Here we have the Apostle Paul.
Speaking to these Ephesian elders, people that had been, you might say, some of the most highly privileged in the world.
And I think we can apply that to you and to me, can't we? I suppose you and I are among those who have been some of the most highly privileged in this world. Because on the one hand, we live in a country where there is freedom to come together, to read the Word of God, to travel from place to place, to hear the Word of God if necessary, to meet together, to open the Word of God and enjoy it together.
And on the other hand, we have, if we could put it this way, the material wealth and ability.
In a large measure, to be able to do that and things that you and I take for granted in North America.
I suppose the greater part of the world would only dream about that is in terms of what we take for granted in material things.
And more than that, those who are sitting in this room have, I think, pretty much for the most part.
Been on the receiving end of that same precious truth that the apostle is speaking about here. God in his wondrous goodness has allowed a recovery of it back in the 1800s. And you and I have been on the receiving end of that precious recovery of all those things, things that were lost to the vast majority of believers for centuries on end. I don't say that there weren't a few who appreciated them and enjoyed them.
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I don't say that there weren't a few that entered into things in a very real way.
As a little example of that.
We had the privilege some years of gold being in Scotland.
And we were in a place called Saint Andrews on the seacoast on the east side of Scotland, on the North Sea, a very, very Old Town, very famous place. It's a university town. But I guess my interest in it went deeper than that because it was a Reformation town and it was the home of people like George Wishart and John Knox and other people who were on the, you might say, the, the forefront of the Reformation in Scotland.
And I remember particularly appreciating going to see the prison where George Wishart is still there, the very same prison where he was imprisoned for a month.
Back in the year 1546, and there's still a mark on the roadway there, about 3 feet in diameter, a big circle drawn, painted over in white and with the big initials GW painted in it as marking the spot where George Wishart was burned at the stake in that same year.
But you know, when you think of the light that that dear man had, we won't take too big of a digression, but it's a wonderful thing to see what he enjoyed because when he was going to be brought forth to be burned at the stake for his faith in Christ.
The captain of the soldiers, who was obliged to carry out the sentence was a Christian.
And he had no choice but to obey what orders he was given, but he was a believer in the Lord Jesus. And so he asked George Wishart. He said, have you got any last request that you would like before you're taken out this afternoon and burned at the stake? He said, is there anything that we could possibly do? He said, if it's within my power to do it, if there's any last request you have, I'll do it for you.
And it's recorded that George Wishart thought for a moment.
And then he said if it's possible, he said, get a few.
Believers together if you can, in this city, people that we know, people that we have enjoyed their love and their fellowship with, he said. Get them together, he said. I'd like to break bread one last time.
Well, the captain had the authority to do that, and so he went around the city. He sent messengers and they called different ones who were George Wishart's Christian friends. And the captain brought George Wishart under armed guard to his house.
And an eyewitness who was there tells what an experience it was to break bread with a man who was just about to go to be with Christ. And he said of all the people, George Wishart was the calm one. He was the one that calmed everybody else because they were upset and a little bit excited and a little bit concerned. And one man who was there said it was the most wonderful experience to see George Wishart quietly go and.
Gives thanks for that loaf and break it and give it to them and then give thanks for the cup.
1546, right at the beginning of the Reformation. Well, God had his witnesses way back then, and no doubt he had them even prior to that, during the dark ages when men like John Huss in Bohemia and George.
John Wickliffe in England stood firm for the name of Christ.
And stood firm for his claims probably 100 years before the Reformation started.
And so it was, but they didn't know what you and I know. They didn't enter into the preciousness of the heavenly calling of the Church the way you and I can today.
And so here the apostle Paul has something to say to these Ephesian elders.
There are three things that we've read here that we want to lay some emphasis on.
One is in verse 24 the gospel of the grace of God, and then in verse 25 the Kingdom of God, and then in verse 27 the counsel of God.
And the Apostle Paul's preaching was characterized by all three of those things.
He brings them before those Ephesian elders as being of very real importance.
We'll talk about them in a minute, but first of all, notice the spirit in which the apostle approached all this.
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There is a right spirit in approaching all these things.
And the apostle in verse 19 recounts what kind of a man he had been.
You and I might think at first glance that there was an element of pride in drawing attention to himself and in the way that he had walked and lived among them, but I don't believe that was the case. Paul had a special place, and he was what we would call the standard bearer of Christianity. He was the one who kind of went before and pointed the way. It wasn't that he never made a mistake. And we've talked already about one of them right here, that he was heading to Jerusalem when he shouldn't have been.
And there were other things that Paul did that he had to apologize for later on. But nevertheless, Paul's life was an example so that he could say more than once in his epistles, Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ, because he pointed the way for the walk of a believer who walked in the heavenly calling of the church down here.
And he says in verse 19, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations.
And then he says in verse 20, I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you. Let's remember, if we can, those things in our lives.
First of all, what should characterize the believer is humility.
And the pride that sometimes seems to be part and parcel of believers in this world is not of God. There are those who go out.
With a real pride in who they are and what they can do and what they know and so on.
And I say with all conviction and the scripture says so.
It tells us in Galatians, if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yet is he ought to know. Here was the greatest servant perhaps that the Lord ever had, and yet he has to say with all humility, Why was that? Oh, because when he really got into the depths of understanding of everything that God had given him, and ultimately given you and me too, it made him realize how little he was and how little he understood.
And how much more that humility is important to you and to me at the end of the dispensation, when so much failure has come in. As someone else has said, how utterly inappropriate it is for you and for me to be boasting that we have done great things, just at a time when the light has revealed how little we really have done and if God has granted a precious recovery of the truth.
In these last maybe 175 years.
Oh, it only sets in relief what a serious failure the church has been. And if God and His grace is granted a recovery of these things. Oh, humility is what belongs to us. And many tears, many tears. Why were there tears? Oh, because Paul had a care on the one hand for lost sinners, and he had a care on the one hand.
For the Saints of God. And he felt the difficulties and problems that were there. He says in Second Corinthians, who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not.
What did he mean by that? Did Paul get offended? I don't think he did, but he felt for those who did get offended, and he felt for those who were weak. Was Paul weak as a believer? No, he wasn't.
But he felt for those who were weak and were having difficulty in the Christian pathway. As a result, he felt for the conditions among the Saints of God.
And temptations O if you and I are going to live for Christ, we are going to.
Find that the devil brings temptations or testings into our lives and he is going to take every opportunity he can to trip you up. And I may say that the more you try to live for the Lord, the more that's going to happen.
I don't mean to imply that we are perhaps in this category, but I can remember my late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe making the remark. He said Satan will pass by 1000 privates if only he can get a good shot at a general.
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You know what he meant. A private is a fairly low rank in the army.
And Satan will pass by 1000 of them if he knows that perhaps he can get a good shot.
That's some key person. And so the devil knows who is out and out for the Lord, and the more you live for the Lord.
The more the temptations and testings are going to come. In Paul's case, it was largely the Jews, because they were dead set against Paul. They thought he was the biggest traitor they'd ever seen. Here he was their champion who was going about persecuting Christians with all his energy and zeal. And then all of a sudden when the Lord meets him on the road to Damascus, he turns right around and he's the biggest champion of Christianity. Well.
That's a wonderful story of the grace of God, isn't it?
But then he says I kept back nothing that was profitable under you. Oh, let us remember that. If God has given us more truth than other believers, and I believe He has, then we can do one of two things with it. I think we were talking about this some of us already this weekend. We can do one of two things with it. We can use it to distinguish and accredit ourselves.
Either individually or collectively, there's a danger of that, isn't it?
We could use it to accredit and distinguish ourselves, or we can use it.
For the benefit and blessing of the whole body of Christ.
Now, that doesn't mean that everyone is going to want to receive what you have to say. It doesn't mean that everyone is going to be willing to walk in the good of it.
But nevertheless it can be used for the benefit and the blessing of the whole body of Christ.
And so here the apostle says, I've showed you how I've taught you publicly and from house to house. That is, there was public preaching and then there was going from house to house.
We don't see as much of that today, do we?
But in foreign lands, if I can speak from experience, we do a lot of it because people want to have you come to their home. It's very, very important, for example, in the land Lake India, that you come to someone's home and that you take some refreshment there. Well, that can be a bit of a problem at times. And I can remember one dear brother who just about. Well, it was, what was it? He had coconut water, I think, and he just about.
Held my head and poured it down my throat. He was so anxious to have me drink that coconut water in his house. Not that I was turning it down, but he was going to make sure that I had it so that he could say that I visited his home and that I'd enjoyed some refreshment there. It's very important to them. But, you know, under those conditions, sometimes things come out that can't come out in a public gathering. And sometimes questions are raised and there are opportunities for discussions.
That you couldn't have in a large group. Same thing in Romania. All kinds of people want you to come to their home, come on over for coffee and dessert this evening. We'll have a reading together. And it's a real privilege to be able to do that. And so the apostle did all that kind of thing. And in a general way, his message is given in verse 21.
Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, on the one hand, the sin question had to be faced in God's presence.
But on the other hand, there was the recognition that God had provided the remedy in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that there was not just the forgiveness of sins, but all that God has for us in Christ.
But then there are these three things mentioned here.
And we want to speak about them for a few moments.
Because all three characterize the apostles ministry and all three are very, very important. And there is a danger, at least in my estimation. Maybe others will differ, but there is a danger, it seems to me, among believers in being unbalanced in the way both that we receive and understand these things and in the way perhaps that we give them out.
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The first one, as we already mentioned, is at the end of verse 24, he says.
None of these things move me, that is the difficulties and problems that might lie ahead. Neither count 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 to testify the gospel.
Excuse me?
Of the grace of God.
All how important that is the gospel of the grace of God.
And the apostle Paul was, I suppose, more energetic than many, maybe anyone else in his time in preaching the gospel of the grace of God. And may I say to my own heart and to each one of us here, let us never lose sight of the preciousness of the gospel of the grace of God.
I believe I'm right in saying this and it's not that we would do it for that reason, but if there is no gospel outreach.
There is no blessing or little blessing in the assembly because we get like the Dead Sea over there in the land of Palestine, where all kinds of nice water flows into it from the Jordan River, but nothing ever goes out. And the Dead Sea is just as dead as the name. Nothing grows around it. Fish don't live in it. You can try swimming in it. You couldn't drown in it if you tried because it's got so many minerals in it. I've never been there, but those that have been there tell me that the water just tastes awful.
That's what happens if there's inflow but no outflow, and God wants there to be an outflow. And you know, the gospel of the grace of God here, I believe, was more than simply the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ, although I know it included that. No, Paul's gospel was what we might call a full gospel that preached not only the forgiveness of sins, but as we get in Scriptures like Romans 6 and Galatians 2 and 20 and others.
Deliverance not only from the penalty of sin, but from the power of sin. Deliverance not only from.
Well, let me rephrase that. Not only the forgiveness of the sins that we commit or have committed, but deliverance from the power of that old sinful self that we each have. Paul's gospel included all that. And you know, there are many who don't understand those things. There are many who don't know what it is to have deliverance from sin. There are many who don't know what it is to have the assurance of salvation.
And you can never really walk properly as a Christian unless you realize the fullness of the work of Christ and the magnitude of the grace of God. You cannot enjoy all the precious truths that come after this unless you have a clear understanding of the gospel of the grace of God. Many years ago, back in the 1800s, there was a Bible conference in a place, and I can't remember whether it was in North America or not, but.
Anyway, it was a small meeting and the well taught brother there raised the question at the beginning of the meetings. He said what shall we take up and someone suggested Ephesians.
Well, the old brother made a comment after the meetings. He said, you know, I wasn't so sure that we should have taken up Ephesians. He said, I thought perhaps we weren't quite up to that. He said, and I would have preferred to get back into Romans, but he said it doesn't really matter anyway because no matter where you read, you always end up back in Romans anyway. He had a good point because when you read that wonderful book of Ephesians, that tells us that we're risen and seated in heavenly places in Christ, and.
Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And yet you go to the 4th chapter and here he has to tell those believers.
Not to steal, not to tell lies, not to get angry with one another, and so on. You say what you have to tell somebody that's risen and seated in heavenly places not to tell lies? Yes, you do. You have to tell them not to steal things. Yes, you do. Why? Because that old sinful self isn't any better just because we're in that position before God and we need to remember the full gospel.
And so let's not forget the gospel of the grace of God. And may we have, if I might suggest that evangelical spirit, we're not going to spend a lot of time talking about it, but I just say a few things. First of all.
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Many years ago there was a man by the name of JB Dunlop. I never knew him. He died long before I was born. But I've read some things that he said and things that he wrote. And one thing he said in an address to young people at a Saint Louis conference back in about 1925, The last thing he said was referring to the last verse in second Peter 3, growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
He said young people don't get into Iraq.
And it wasn't too long ago that I was talking to a brother who spends his full time in the work of the Lord, and he made a remark. He said we get into a rut here in North America sometimes. What did he mean by that? Oh, I believe he meant that sometimes we do things the way they were done 50 or 75 years ago because that's the way we've always done it. And don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that innovations are always good. I don't like innovations naturally. But nevertheless, God has his ways. And you know, there were times when 100 and 150 years ago when you could open a hall like this and.
Announce a gospel meeting and have every seat filled.
Or you could rent the local school room if it were in the winter time and have no problem filling it up with people. And the problems they were concerned about in those days was not whether people would come, but whether they'd have a preacher there, because there wasn't always someone that could adequately preach the gospel. So they would be worried about a preacher, not whether they'd have people to come. Now we have the opposite problem. But, you know, we have to be sensitive to the day in which we live and to the way in which the Lord would have us preach the gospel.
And whether it's right to focus our efforts in one way or another, we have to be exercised before the Lord about it. All I'm saying is that I believe God gives the wisdom for the day in which we live as to the right way of reaching out to souls with the gospel. Sometimes it has to be done on an individual basis, on a one to one basis. And you know, far more people are saved by that means than by preaching from a platform.
And so we need to have that before us.
You know that I'm not here to try and get recruits for the work of the Lord in foreign lands. But I do say that with communication what it is today, and travel what it is today, there are wonderful opportunities in foreign countries. And of course, sometimes those dear brethren in those countries and believers there do a better job evangelizing than we do. But sometimes they need some help to get started. Sometimes they need someone to point the way and encourage them.
And I can still remember hearing the words of a man from, I think it was South Korea who came over to the United States and.
He couldn't believe the wealth and the prosperity here. And his comment was he was a Christian. He said, you know, this country has the potential to evangelize this world if they would do it. Well, they are doing it. They are doing it to a large extent. But I just say that I believe God would give us opportunities in the gospel if we would ask him to show us the way.
Well then we go on to verse 25, and here we find another dimension, he says.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
The Kingdom of God, what does that mean? That's a different word. It's a different dimension of things. And the order here is significant. The Kingdom of God. What is the Kingdom of God? Well, let's turn to a verse or two. And we can't turn to all of them. There are so many. But turn to a couple of verses that mention the Kingdom of God. Luke's gospel, perhaps chapter 17 would mention the Kingdom of God.
This is from the lips of the Lord Jesus.
Luke 17.
Verse. Well, let's read from verse 20.
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said.
The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there. For behold, the Kingdom of God is not within you, but among you. Is more accurate among you.
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The Kingdom of God is among you.
Now turn over to 1St Corinthians chapter 6.
And we'll find some references to the Kingdom of God in Paul's epistles to show how he preached it.
1St Corinthians 6 and verse 9.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God?
Be not deceived neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abuses of themselves with mankind, nor thieves nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God.
Now turn to Galatians Chapter 5. We'll see another reference along similar lines.
Galatians, chapter 5.
Verse 19.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, which craft hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, face, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law.
One more verse, Ephesians 5.
Ephesians chapter 5.
Give me a moment here.
Thank you, I was just going to say if someone sees it call it out. Ephesians 5 verse 5 For this she know that no *********** nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
So what is the thought in the Kingdom of God? O the Lord Jesus came into this world to set up a Kingdom, and had he been accepted, he would have set up that Kingdom.
And there were moral characteristics that God commanded, that God demanded in that Kingdom.
And if you read, for example, in Matthew 5-6 and seven, which is conventionally called the Sermon on the Mount, you find those characteristics of God's Kingdom went far beyond the law, showing that man needed a new life to be part of that Kingdom. And when the apostle Paul preached, he pointed out to people the things that were not compatible with that Kingdom, such as what we've been reading in Corinthians and Galatians and Ephesians.
The Lord Jesus could say the Kingdom of God is among you, meaning himself.
Every characteristic of God's Kingdom was exemplified in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why is this so important? Oh beloved brethren, and I speak to my own heart. You and I are part of a Kingdom that isn't manifested yet. The king, the rightful king, has been disowned. He's been rejected. And so he hasn't taken his rightful place and ruled over this world yet. He's coming. He will do that in the coming day. And there is a day when those things that characterize his Kingdom.
Will be enforced all over the world, but that time hasn't come yet. But is there a Kingdom? Yes, thank God. There are those who recognize the rightful king. There are those who recognize that one whom God has set on his right hand of power as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And in that sense, we're part of the Kingdom of God.
Oh, if we acknowledge the rightful King, then how important that our walk and our testimony be in keeping with that. And, you know, sometimes we can neglect that. There is a kind of spirit abroad among some Christians today that says, oh, it doesn't matter because if you know Christ as your Savior, all your sins are forgiven anyway. And so it doesn't matter how you live or what you do because after all, it's all been settled.
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A terrible attitude which the Word of God speaks of as turning the grace of God into lasciviousness that means.
Using the grace of God as an excuse to sin. There are others who go to another extreme and say, well, boy, people won't behave unless you put them back under law again. And I had a man in a foreign country tell me, he said when I tried to tell him that we could be saved and never lost again, he said, well, that teaching might work in North America, but it sure won't work over here. He was a true believer, too. He said, you don't have any idea how these people would misbehave if we told them that.
You don't have any idea what kind of lives they lead if we somehow, if they somehow understood that once they were saved, they could never be lost, he said. We have to keep them a little bit scared so that they'll behave and the fear of their being lost is enough of a deterrent so that they leave godly lives.
I thought what a way to live Christianity out. What a misunderstanding of the grace of God.
We'll get to that in a moment or two. The Kingdom of God, very, very important. And we can neglect that aspect of things if we're not careful. And if we do, then people aren't going to want to hear the gospel of the grace of God from someone whose life and whose walk is not in keeping with the Kingdom of God. Because the world is watching and they know what a Christian should be like, even though they're not doing it and they're watching.
Well now finally, in verse 27, I have not shunned to declare unto you all but counsel of God.
The counsel of God.
Again, I suggest an order here if you are really going to appreciate and enjoy the counsel of God. You have first to have understood and believed the gospel and then to have taken heed to the Kingdom of God and to those things that are important for us as being part of God's Kingdom.
But the Council of God, Oh dear brethren, that's something that is so vast, so wonderful, that it's going to take us an eternity to take it in.
Turn just to one scripture that brings it before us.
Ephesians, chapter one.
Ephesians 1.
Verse 9.
Having made known unto us the mystery or the secret of His will.
According to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. Even in Him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated, according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. Oh, these most majestic words.
Are something that the Lord Jesus could say to his disciples. Many kings and prophets have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them now they hadn't learned these things yet, but they would in a future time when the Lord would give them to the apostle Paul by revelation. And the precious truth of the church is a secret that was hid in God way back from a past eternity. And if you'd asked someone like Moses or Noah or David.
Or Isaiah or any of those Old Testament Saints about what it meant to be part of the church, about what God was going to do, about heading up everything in Christ. They would have had to say, I don't know what you're talking about. I've never heard anything like that. And so they didn't, they didn't know that secret.
But God has revealed it to us. You know, sometimes children like to tell secrets to one another, and when I went to public school, there was often a certain perverse delight in knowing something and having some little secret and not telling anybody else.
And you relate, relate to that. And sometimes it's not just children that do it too. Children know how to do it out in the open. But even grown-ups, it's kind of fun, if we're not careful, to know something that someone else doesn't know and take a perverse pleasure in not telling them and letting someone else know. But keeping someone else in the dark. Yeah, we know all about that. Well, God doesn't do that. But there is such a thing in Scripture as being privileged to be.
00:50:15
In On God's Secret.
Just because we were born during this time when God is calling out of people for the church.
And so God is in dealing with nations today, He's dealing with individuals whom he's calling out to form part of his church. And he doesn't just want you to know that you're saved and that you're going to heaven when you're finished. No, no, He wants far more than that. God wants you to enjoy everything that is yours in Christ.
All the counsel of God, Paul said, we don't have time to go into that tonight, but it reminds me of a good story, and maybe we'll just tell it. One time there was a young man and he was living, I think, on the East Coast of the United States. And maybe if you've heard this story before, you won't mind if I tell it again, But he just had a very average job. He was a single young fellow, and for some reason he badly wanted to go on a cruise.
He thought that that would just be it, to be able to be on one of those big cruise ships and go down somewhere to the Caribbean and, you know, you just enjoy every day you get up and there would be the beautiful blue ocean around you and maybe you'd dock in Hamilton, Bermuda for a day and then you'd go down to the Bahamas, to Nassau and one thing to another. Anyway, he saved his money, saved it up, saved it up, saved it up until one day he was able to afford a ticket.
And go on, I think it was a two week cruise. Well, he had a wonderful time. He really enjoyed this great big ship. And of course it had all the amenities on it. It had gym rooms where you could work out. It had.
Swimming pools and all kinds of things, everything that you could want, it was there. I don't know, I've never been on a cruise ship, but they tell me this anyway. And so he was there.
Having a good time. Well, they were on the return trip because they had to come back to New York and it was about day 10 or day 11. And he was up on the deck enjoying the nice sunshine. And he got into conversation with another young man there. And they found that they were both from New York and they were both single. And they both did a little bit the same kind of work. They had a lot of things that were in common. And so they chatted away. It was late afternoon and after a while the other young man looked at his watch and he said save almost time for dinner.
He said, I'll tell you what he said there are a couple of other people on the ship that I know. He said have you got any, any plans for dinner tonight? Any friends you're supposed to be eating with? And the young man quite truthfully said no. Well the other young man said join us at our table tonight. He said, I'd like you to meet some others of my friends and be nice to have you as company with us. So you join us at our table tonight.
Well, the first young man kind of got embarrassed and he stammered and stuttered a little bit and finally he said, well, it's OK. He said no, no thank you. He said, I'll, I'll, I'll be all right. But the other young man wasn't going to be put off. He said, come on. And he said, I enjoy your company. You already said you had no plans. And so come on. I would really like you to have fellowship at our table.
So then the other young man, he finally had to fess up and tell the whole truth. He said, well, he said, I'll tell you I don't have very much money. And I had to save for a long, long time to get this ticket on this ship. And it took every cent I had. And he said I could not afford to go to the dining room and pay the kind of prices that I know they would charge in those menus. And I know I've kind of glanced in from time to time and I've seen the kind of food that's served there.
I couldn't afford that, so he said I just bought myself a few good bricks of cheese before I left home and some boxes of crackers and stuff like that, He said. And he said I'm just so happy to be on the ship and enjoying all this. But he said I just, if you don't mind, he said that's the situation, so I'll just go to my room and have some crackers and cheese.
Well, I think some of you have probably guessed what was going on. Then it was the other young man's turn to look astonished. And he said, I don't believe this.
I don't believe this, he said. Don't you realize that your ticket entitles you to go to the dining room and order anything you want? He said All the meals are included. You don't have to pay extra. We don't pay. We just go and sit down at the table and there's a menu and the waitress and servers there bring everything and we just enjoy it, he said. I can't believe it. How did you get so misinformed?
00:55:24
Well, as you may well imagine, the first young man did his best in the last three or four days to make up for lost time. I don't suppose he quite could do so, but he very happily joined the other young man at the table, and they had a wonderful time.
But he'd gone about 10 or 11 days eating crackers and cheese, and you and I get a smile out of that story. It's a true story.
But are we crackers and cheese Christians sometimes. Do we live on crackers and cheese and just happy that we're on the ship and we're going to heaven instead of enjoying everything God has for us? Oh, that's what it means here, the Council of God.
The counsel of God.
But our time is nearly gone. Just a couple of quick comments about the last part of the chapter. Because when the apostle brings before the Ephesian elders all these things.
He brings before them some important things, because these should be kept in balance. I have seen dear believers who got so taken up with the counsel of God.
Maybe you can relate to this. I can. Who got so taken up with the counsel of God that they didn't think it was worthwhile to bother preaching the gospel of the grace of God anymore?
Or they got so taken up with the counsel of God that they didn't worry about the Kingdom of God and didn't worry whether their lives were a good testimony or not. Because the counsel of God, that's what counts.
And then I've known others who got so taken up with the gospel of the grace of God that they didn't think they had time.
To learn about the counsel of God, I had a dear brother in Christ not gathered to the Lord's name, but he told me, he said.
I'm concerned about all the sinners that are going to hell in this world. I haven't got time to.
Waste on these points of teaching and doctrine that you find so interesting, he said. I'm out here to get lost. Sinners to be saved.
That what Scripture teaches God our Savior, it says in first Timothy, two, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. God doesn't put importance more on one than on the other, does he? I have no dear believers who have got so taken up.
But the Council of with the Kingdom of God, that they didn't think the Council of God was worth worrying about because they thought it's just more important to live a godly life. But as to what's happening down the road, well, we'll find that out when it comes. And they miss a great deal.
Well it says here in verse 28.
Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves. Excuse me.
And to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost have made you Overseers, now notice this to feed the.
Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
That could read the church, which he has purchased with the blood of his own, meaning his own son.
We need to recognize the price that was paid for our redemption. We need to recognize the preciousness of the church to Christ. And then these things, I believe, will be kept in proper balance.
And then the apostle issues a warning in verses 29 and 30. He says in verse 29 that grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock. And in verse 30.
Just a moment.
Something even more serious.
Of your own self shall men arise also, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
What was the remedy?
Verse 32 I commend you to God.
And to the word of his grace.
You know this is collective, but it's also individual.
And if you were going to walk before the Lord, more especially in these last days.
There has to be an individual.
Relationship with the Lord. And I say that even for the younger ones here, if you're old enough to read, you're old enough to read the Bible for yourself. If you're old enough to pray, you're old enough to pray yourself. I don't say that it isn't nice to pray collectively as a family and as an assembly. That's very important. But nothing, nothing substitutes for personal reading of the Word of God and personal prayer because these two things never change. God in the word of His grace.
01:00:25
Paul knew that down the road trouble was going to come in, the church was going to give up all of those good things he had taught them, and by Second Timothy it was already starting to happen. But Paul says, remember, I warned you.
And the seeds of the problem were already there, because notice what happens at the end of the chapter in verse 37. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more.
They accompanied him into the ship. Do you think Paul was pleased with that? I suppose in one sense we might be flattered by that attention and by the love that was displayed there. And I am sure Paul did appreciate the love that was displayed and the sorrow, no doubt, that he felt imparting from those believers whom he didn't feel he would see again. But notice the way the Scripture puts it, they sorrowed most of all.
For the fact that they wouldn't see Paul anymore.
Oh, there was already the seeds of a problem there. They should have sorrowed more for what Paul had told them about the grievous wolves that would enter in, and about how the men from among their own selves would arise and speak perverse things.
But they had their eyes on a man already, instead of on the Lord. They had their eyes on the beloved Apostle Paul.
And as a result, there wasn't the watching and the care. And 30 years after this or thereabouts, when the apostle John is writing the Book of Revelation.
What does he ask to have to say to this very same assembly through the Spirit of God? Oh, they were doing everything right. They were going on in a very, very good way outwardly. But he says I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. And it was the beginning of the end, because their eye instead of being on the Lord, and instead of on that Blessed One, and instead of on God's word.
Was somehow beginning to drift and as a result there were problems that came in.
Well, we'll stop there because these things are important. They're real to us. And I believe if if the apostle Paul could issue these warnings in his day, you and I need them in our date.