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There is, but I'm waiting on the brethren. Is there? What's the brethren thing?
The Lord put something on your heart that carry it through though.
What do you think, Robert? We go on from verse 10 or?
It'll be fine. I I think we did comment on that verse, but that's a good place to get the thought connection.
Acts Chapter 9 and verse 10.
And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him the Lord said, The Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street which is called straight, and inquire in the House of Judas for one called Saul Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth. And that seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him.
That he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done. Should I think that Jerusalem? And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on my name? But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is the chosen vessel unto him to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
And Ananias went his way and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hast sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scaled, And he received sight forthwith, and rose, and were baptized. And when he had received meat he was strengthened. Then saw then was Saul certain days.
With the disciples which were at Damascus, and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogue that he is the Son of God.
But all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this He that destroyed them, which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hit her for that intent, that He might bring them bound unto the chief priests. But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill Him. But they're laying in wait.
It was known of Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he is saved to join himself to the disciples.
But they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And he was with them coming and going out at Jerusalem any state, boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians. But they went above to slay him.
Which when the brother knew, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judeans, Galilee and Samaria, and ratified. And walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, he multiplied.
I think it's very significant here that the Apostle Paul was forced to go to the assembly, the brethren of the assembly there in, in, uh, the Damascus to get his instructions. The Lord appeared to him and, and smote him down on the way. And he, he learned to say, uh, yes to the Lord, that is to own the Lord's authority in his life.
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But the Lord doesn't tell him directly what he was to do. He was told that he would be told when he went into the city. And and so in that way, the Lord connected the work that he began with Paul Saul of Tarsus and, and identified him with the work that was already ongoing. Because this instrument, though he was a chosen one of God for special work, must work together.
With the assembly that was there.
It's interesting too.
Very instructive as we see here in this chapter that the, uh, man that's just saved here, Saul, needed to be trained in the school of God. He had been trained in the school of Camelio, but now he was going to spend some time in Damascus and in Arabia, and you have this little phrase that the Spirit of God uses.
In umm verse 19 he says, and when he had received meat, he was strengthened, then was solved certain days with the disciples which are were at Damascus, and then in verse 23.
And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. And then we find in verse 30 that umm that he was sent forth to Tarsus. It might be good to just turn to Galatians chapter one and see what he says there.
Of Umm chapter one of Galatians, verse 17, he says neither when I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned against Damascus.
After three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days. And so we know that he was there for three years in Arabia and Damascus. How long he was in each place were not certain, but he says there by the Spirit of God that he was there three years. And then we know that he was in Tarsus for approximately 2 years. And so he was in the school of God and it was there in, uh, Tarsus that, uh, Barnabas went to get him.
When that work in, uh, Antioch had taken place and by the Spirit of God, he went to Acts Chapter 11, verse 25, then departed Barnabas to Tarsus to seek Saul. Well, the whole point here is that, umm, he was in the school of God and umm, how we must appreciate that. We ought to appreciate it when we're younger in the faith that the Lord deals with us as individuals and trains us as individuals.
In a very loving and careful way, Paul now, or Saul was going to learn something of the Lord in private, and so he didn't begin his work immediately among the Gentiles. It does say that he preached the gospel there in Damascus and he was faithful in, umm, presenting that the Lord Jesus was very Christ, but he was in the school of God. And so we need to recognize that the Lord deals with us in this way.
In the, as individuals and be thankful for it. And so if you're young, perhaps a young brother, uh, a young sister in this, uh, little company, this AF this morning. Umm, and you wonder why, you know, maybe the Lord hasn't just given you something to do right away and you're saved and you just want to get active in the things of God. And it's a nice desire and, umm, do the little work that the Lord does give you a little bit of gospel work. And that's how Paul started. He began to preach Christ.
But then a little bit later on, when he was trained of God himself, why the Lord sends Barnabas just at the right time?
And he begins to do his work among the Gentiles. Wonderful thing.
So there are two things that are necessary, I suppose, in all of our lives, not just at the beginning of our our lives as Christians, but as you and Doug have brought out, we need to be alone with the Lord in the school of God. We need to learn lessons quietly in his presence. We cannot effectively serve the Lord in whatever sphere and ministry he's given each one of us.
Unless we spend those times in His presence learning from Himself, and then we need our brethren as well.
And not only to work in fellowship with our brethren and that which God has established, but our brethren teaches, God uses our brethren to teach us many things too. And they're a check on us as as well. And you find, and I was thinking of what Doug said at the beginning, you find with the Apostle Paul or Saul as he goes on, and later the apostle Paul and so on, that even as an older man in many years of service in the position.
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And ministry that God gave him and it was a wonderful he had a wonderful ministry, but he always appreciated the fellowship of his brother and he delighted to associate with fellow laborer laborers and he delighted to make sure later on he was on intro as on a Lord's day. Why? So he could break bread in fellowship with his brethren at the Lord's table and in the presence of the of the Lord Jesus.
Gathered to his name and in answer to his request, and I believe it's, it's vital God gives us all a little service. And I'd like to just say something very practical and I, I don't want to pick on those who are younger because we all need to be reminded of these things. But again, we're thankful for and I'm thankful for the energy of and zeal of you. I'm not as young as I once was and I'm thankful for those who are coming on behind who have a lot of energy and.
Desire to please the Lord and serve the Lord. But remember this, there's a pattern in the act that shows that whatever ministry or service the Lord gives us, and He gives us each something to do for Him.
We need to be exercised to do it in fellowship with the Lord, yes, but also in fellowship with our brethren, in fellowship with that which God has established as His testimony and where the Lord Jesus is in the midst. And we do not have to step out of that, that of the fellowship of the brother of the of our brethren gathered to the Lord's name, defined opportunities to serve the Lord.
There are plenty of opportunities and ways that we can serve the Lord, be it in our home sphere or perhaps in a little wider sphere if the Lord calls us to that. But there are plenty of opportunities. And we don't have to pray for opportunities as much as we need to pray that our eyes will be opened and our hearts ready to avail ourselves of the opportunities that present themselves. But I used to hear an expression when I was a young person.
In our service for Christ we need to keep one foot in the assembly and I believe that's good advice for us all. We need to keep one foot in the assembly and just give you, we won't take time to turn to me, just allow me to give you 2 scriptures that have been a help to me over the years in balancing this subject. One is Paul said to the Corinthians, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
And in our service for Christ, that is our first responsibility. And Paul was misunderstood by the Corinthians. They questioned everything about his service and his ministry and his apostleship and his ability to deliver his ministry. He said that's OK, we're laboring for his acceptance. But there's a little, there's a, there's something that needs to go with that. It says of Asher in Deuteronomy. Believe it is, it says and of Asher, let him be acceptable to his brethren.
You'll never effectively serve the Lord and your brethren if you don't do it in a way that is acceptable. And if the Lord has a little service for you to do and the time is right, not only will He not allow your brethren to stand in the way, but He will work in their hearts so they recognize it as a service for Christ. And you will have the fellowship of your brethren. You can't please all the people all of the time.
But the Lord will work in their hearts. And you see that with the apostle Paul, don't you? Yes, he had many misunderstandings. Yes, he had many things said that could have discouraged him. But as Paul, Saul is led on in his service and ministry, we find that slowly. Yes, but the brethren recognize that this was a servant of God, raised up of God, and that he worked in their hearts.
So that generally speaking, his ministry was accepted and the brethren realized that this was a work of God.
It's the truth of the one body, isn't it?
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Happen to say every member of my body, and there's a lot of different members of my body is directed directly from the head.
So it is in the body of Christ. Directions must come from the head. But this finger of mine, if it gets directions that are to be severed from the rest of the members and to activate in another area, it's not going to happen. It's not going to work. It has to operate in conjunction with the other members. And that's the check that you mentioned. And I think that is really important. Remember, the Lord directs His people.
And we need to have a sensitivity before him as to what he wants us to do, but then to do it in conjunction with our brethren around. It's important.
Another thing that characterized the apostle Paul from the beginning is what we had in the end of verse 11. And I know we made a comment about this in connection with prayer being the breath of the divine life and the confirmation to Ananias that there'd been a real work in solidarity, soul and real conversion. But we find when we trace the ministry of Paul, that prayer was what characterized his life. It was the secret of the of the power.
Of Paul's ministry you wanna have power in your service for Christ you know we sometimes read the stories of.
Individuals in the scripture or the missionary story, early missionaries and we, we shake our heads and we say, wow, they sure had a lot of power and fruit in their in their ministry and their service for Christ. But you read carefully their lives and you find that they were men and women who were characterized by prayer. We cannot have power and ministry, our power in our ministry and fruit in our testimony.
Unless we're characterized by prayer, and so often we find Paul in writing to the Saints later on, not only praying for himself, but praying for his brethren. What gave him a heart for the people of God? It was prayer. What gave him power in ministering to them? It was a love and a prayer. And so we need to be characterized as servants of God by by prayer. There's no other way to have real power.
You mentioned Robert, about that each one of God's services put through school, uh.
Can you say a little bit more about that? Are you still in school, brother?
We never get out of school.
But, uh, it's interesting how the Spirit of God works with each one of us differently. And we find that, uh, Joseph was in prison and, uh, treated in, uh, an awful way unjustly and, uh, thirteen years. And then he comes into public service. He comes before Pharaoh. And it says in the Psalms, I think it's 105th that the word of the Lord tried him. And he must have wondered having those dreams.
And here he was that the Lord had said to him in a vision, a dream, two dreams, that his family would come to bow down before him. And he wondered about that. Then you have Moses. And he was framed in the wilderness 40 years. He learned what it was to be humble before his God. And so I just mentioned this in connection with the apostle Paul at the beginning of his Christian walk with the Lord.
He was going to have to learn what it was to be humble. He came to Damascus in great pomp and, uh, public ceremony and, uh, so on and, uh, pride. But he left Damascus in a basket going over the wall. And the Lord knows how to deal with each one of us to recognize that we might recognize his power, his authority, our own nothingness. And it was sweet in Paul's life as he learned these things that.
It was going to have to be in the power of the new light and not one being the power of the flesh that anything was going to be done for God that would be of any fruit. And so the energy of his youth. He was a young man and then it says it's still Steven stoning and then one year later God answers Stevens prayer approximately 1 year later and Saul is saved. Lay not this sin to their charge and God heard his prayers save them. And so this first lesson is humility and we mentioned it yesterday.
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It's an important lesson in every servant of God must learn it.
Robert, I'd like to just back up and ask a moment in connection with what you've just said about Moses to the 7th chapter. I think there's a very significant comment that Steven makes in his final presentation to the leaders in Israel concerning Moses might just say that when you read the Old Testament, you don't find Moses life delineated as far as it spelled out that it was three sets of 40 years. But when you come to the 7th of Acts, Steven takes it up in those three segments.
Of 40 years, but I just want to notice versus 23 and four, No versus 22 and three. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was fully 40 years old it came to his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. We find that for the 1St 40 years of Moses life, as you say, he spent it in the court of Pharaoh, in the schools of man.
And the schools of man teach us that man is everything that we can do it. There's a spark of divinity within each one of us. And if it's placed in the proper environment and flamed and it'll flame up into something beautiful and wonderful, and you've got natural abilities and used those abilities to their full and so on. And so the schools of man teach us that we're something. But you know, when he came out of school of, of man, he was a man mighty in words and deeds, but that wasn't the kind of material God could use. Now it's interesting that he had a heart for his people at 40 years of age.
But he wasn't ready to really serve the people of God in the capacity that God had for him. In fact, if we read on, we find that his spirit really wasn't right. His heart was right, but he hadn't learned the lessons that God had for him. He'd learned the lessons in the school of man. And so we find then that he spends the next 40 years of his life in what Robert and Bob have been talking about, the school of God. And it's interesting if you go back to the Old Testament when the Lord appeared to him.
Uh, after that and SE was gonna send them to Pharaoh, he said, oh Lord, I can't go in and stand before Pharaoh. Why I can't even talk properly. He as much as said, well, I just stutter and stammer. That's not the man we just read about coming out of the school of man. He was a man mighty in words and deeds. But in 40 years he learned that man is nothing in himself, that you have to depend upon God. But when he came out of the school of God, that was the kind of material God could use, a man who had learned.
His the faithfulness of God and his own nothingness. And so he was to go forward depending on God. And we know that God then sent him to Pharaoh and used him in a mighty way, and to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and across the wilderness, and so on. You say, but God won't have a great work for me to do like that. No, but for every little service and ministry we must come from learning that man in himself is nothing.
That God is everything, and that we can go forth with that in that little ministry depending on God, and be used for the blessing of the people of God and in testimony to others. So we need not the schools of men, and Paul had been in the school of men, as you say, but in Philippians. After he got out of the school of God, he counted the things, even the things that he had learned in the religious schools of men and all those natural things.
And religion after the flesh, he said. I count them, but nothing. I leave them behind. They're nothing.
I've got Christ now and that was his whole goal and object before him in the 7th of Acts there, Jim, where you're talking like they call attention to verse 35 in connection with Moses says this Moses, whom they refused saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge, the same did God send to be a ruler.
And to deliver by the hand of the Angel which appeared to him in the Bush.
Interesting those two comments, a ruler and a judge.
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It's relatively easy, brethren, to be a judge of matters, to see things that are not right and say that's not right.
But what did it cost Moses to become a ruler and a deliverer? It was those 40 years in the desert when he learned.
Or shall we say he unlearned all the wisdom of Egypt, and he learned in the school of God that God was sufficient. Then God could use him not as a ruler and a judge, but as a ruler and a deliverer.
Brethren, I must say it's been a challenge in my own soul. So often we see difficulties amongst God's people. It's relatively easy to be a judge of those matters.
Are we deliverers or are we judges? And that's why we need the school of God and we're all in it. And like you say, Robert, we really never get out of the school of God. But there is a time when God prepares his servants. In the case of Saul, it was Arabia. There were three years there. We don't read what happened in Arabia. We don't know. He was alone with God. And it's important to get our bearings with the Lord.
I see sometimes young people really want to serve the Lord. It's nice you appreciate that, but you've got to get your bearings with God. That's so vital, so important. And then we have to work in conjunction with those that are fellow members of that same body. But it's important to get our our direction from God. But I think it takes the the school of God.
To bring us down to where we can be not rulers and judges, but deliverers of God's people. What a tremendous man of God Moses turned out to be.
You might say 40 years most is what are you doing out there in the desert? 40 years? You're wasting your time out there taking care of a few sheep. Come on, Moses, you were learning all the wisdom of Egypt.
It wasn't wasted time for God.
And what a man of God Moses turned out to be. The other case you mentioned, Robert of Joseph, often thought of those 13 years.
Because he was 17 when he went out of his father's house. He was 30 years when he came to the throne. 13 years. Everything seemed to go wrong. Just everything. Nothing seemed to go for poor just. But he kept on. And one day.
Just one day you woke up in prison. At the end of that day, he was Prime Minister of Egypt. What a story. What a story. Oh, young people, be faithful to the Lord. Don't question the circumstances in your life that you can't seem to understand. God is in it, and if you can take it from the hand of God, it's going to be a blessing for you now.
Just like to call attention to Moses as well. Just to add to what you said, brother Bob, in Exodus chapter 32 and verse 30. And here you see the effect of being in the school of God in those forty years. Instead of being a ruler and a judge. Now he's an interceder for his people. Exodus chapter 32, verse 30. It came to pass on the Morrow that Moses said unto the people, he has sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord, her adventure. I shall make an atonement for your sin.
Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, O this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold, yet now with thou wilt forgive their sin. And if not, block me, I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written.
Well, you know, he interceded for the people of God and, uh, a true shepherd he had become. He put himself in the harm's way, if you will, and uh, would desire the blessing of God's people. And so instead of just ruling, it says, umm, in connection with Ruth. Uh, I'm not going to quote it, right. So maybe it will just turn to the book of Ruth.
The first verse I think it is.
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It came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, Not when the judges shepherded, not when the judges interceded for the people of God, but when they ruled and perhaps they their heart was not right with the Lord. Oh, what a lovely to see how Moses had a care and love, a genuine care and a love for the people of God. You find it with Paul too, and the Lord values that.
That Paul the Apostle could pray for the Saints and those two prayers are recorded in Ephesians and, uh, many other prayers to the apostles. So we find in Acts Chapter 9 here the first prayer that he prays.
And he's got to get right with the Lord, but the Lord works with them for five years, that he might intercede for the people of God.
There are three things here in verse 15 that Ananias tells, uh Saul that the Lord told him.
Says that the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me.
To bear my name before Genti, the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel.
We've been speaking about the school of God and, umm, it would seem that Paul.
Here Saul, umm, the first thing given to him is Gentiles, but really in his life it seems like in the reverse order he applied them.
And the school of God finally, in the end, gave him to, uh, express, uh, extend his ministry principally to the Gentiles. I don't say that that was all wrong about Paul, but it's, uh, those three things that he was commissioned to do. And he had a real love for his brethren. And it probably took precedence in his ministry in the earlier years. And it got him into trouble, as it were, when he went up to Jerusalem.
With the thought that he could still do something towards them. But it does prove the heart of God towards Israel in the way that he did it. His motive was right.
In it. And so it is, uh, it's nice to see that how the Lord uses, uh, a servant like this who was so faithful and he did fulfill these three things.
It's also important to see that.
The large, the one that gets the work.
And in fact, he chooses the work.
That a vessel does.
We say.
I need to do something for the Lord and God puts that desire in our hearts to do something for the Lord. But the actual it's God's work. It's not man's work, it's God's work. And and God in doing his work has chosen to use people to do it for him. And he decides who's going to do what. And he tells each one what he wants them to do.
And sometimes it's just well to set before the Lord and.
Weighed upon him to make a choice as to work to be done and then communicate that and as it's done here. In truth, Ananias knew because the Lord told him, but he isn't the one that tells Paul what his work is. Ananias didn't say Paul, the Lord wants you to do this, that or the other. And so when Ananias goes his way and he's been told this.
But.
The Lord says to Ananias in verse 16, I will show him, not you will show him, but I will show him. And the Lord isn't going to tell you to tell me I'm going to suffer this or that for his namesake. But the Lord directly with Paul is going to have to say to Paul, you are going to suffer this for my name's sake. When it comes to that side of it, uh, we would like to tell somebody maybe a great thing or a nice thing that they can do for the Lord.
Well, what about the other side? Would we wanna say, you're gonna really run into trouble when you do this or that? No, the Lord himself as Lord enters directly into the matter. And in verse 17 he says, 16 I will show him how great things he must suffer. And then when Ananias actually sees him in verse 17, what he says to him is the Lord even Jesus hath appeared unto thee in the way that thou camest.
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And has sent me what? That thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately that takes place. And we have the fellowship, uh, that Paul needed. And the use of Ananias is in service to him and so on. Just to further show the same point, go back to Moses.
Umm calling if you will to service in Exodus.
Chapter 3. I Yes. Chapter 3.
Here's how Moses is told what he's gonna do for service for the Lord.
Verse 7, Moses is out in the desert. He's feeding his father in law's flock. He's not thinking about what am I going to do for the Lord. He's just doing what he does. What had been given to him He had no, he had a heart for the people of God, but that wasn't the reason to be doing anything really in itself. He's just living out his daily life at this point.
And, uh, the Lord had prepared him, unknown to himself. He didn't know he was 40 years being prepared for something, although he was. And he's living his daily life. And so he says, the Lord appears.
Uh, and not to get too much detail, he says, verse 7, the Lord says to him, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. Now who's going to do what?
Per SE, I, Jehovah the Lord, and come down to deliver them. That's the first words out of his mouth of the Lord with respect to something that's going to happen. I, the Lord have come down to deliver. We already talked about Moses being a great deliverer, but in truth, the beginning of it wasn't Moses.
And the emphasis that's kept in Moses heart for the whole of his life and his service from this point forward is.
Always, from the very beginning, the Lord having said to him, I, the Lord, am come down to deliver.
Out of the hand of the Egyptians to bring them out of the land and so on. And uh, verse 10, he now says to Moses, Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh. And uh, Moses objects. I think there's 10 objections he gives to doing what he was being told to do and to do the service that he was being called to. I think he objects over 10 things until finally, as it were, the Lord says Moses, stop objecting and just obeying and get on with it. And Moses does that.
And, uh, the work begins and goes forward. But again, I say, brethren, it's, it's important to start with. God has a work to do and he chooses servants to do it. He then communicates to his, the one that he has chosen to do that work. And then you get the fellowship of others seen in it. You can see it in Acts 13 where the, the, there's several servants sitting there waiting.
Well, let's turn to it. Only take a moment more to finish the thought. Acts 13 and verse one. Now there were in the church that was in Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas sent me in, that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Mayon, which had been brought up with Herod the teacher, Arkansas. Now here you have a, you might say, uh, A room.
And there's these capable men of God sitting there and seemingly idle.
But what's the work of God? Well, verse two, they ministered to the Lord and fasted and the Holy Spirit said, separate me, Saul and Barnabas. Now of the collection that was there, the Spirit of God made a choice. The Spirit said I want this one and I want that one and the Spirit chose them. And for the work wherein I have called them, as he only could do the calling, they couldn't choose among themselves.
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We see at work over here, we see a need over here, which one of us should go do it. Umm, and, and off they went. But it says verse 3. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, here's the fellowship side of it. They recognized together in fasting and prayer that yes, this was really a word from the Spirit. And then they go and show the fellowship with them and send them away.
It's true we see later instances where for example, Paul was called come over into Macedonia and help us and so on. And there is that expression of need, but.
And request for help and so on. But in the principle of it, it's always God's work. He chooses the servants. The servants are sitting there as that were available and waiting. He communicates the word to them and then they go do it.
Going on to the next verse, UH-16, we have the suffering.
For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
Now, I don't believe that was just a punishment upon Saul for the way he had lived.
Uh, he had persecuted the church and God works all things together.
Yes, Paul would have to accept and say, yes, I deserve to be persecuted myself because I, I did it to others. But the wonderful thing about it, this, this really is, I believe, a path of blessing. This is learning something of our risen Christ in glory, uh, the suffering man who was delivered and taken up into heaven.
And I believe in a certain sense it characterizes us in Christianity. We're following a savior that was rejected. And in as much as we associate with him in heaven, we have to accept a part of suffering here on earth rejected. The testimony of Christianity is not an accepted religion openly well received in the world.
It is the opposite. And so it is a good thing for us to learn this, that we're not following a hero that's well accepted. It's good to learn that we are following a rejected savior, though He's been delivered from this world and there's much this could lead us down along, uh, meditation, I'm sure the, the subject of suffering, but I just like to turn to.
Philippians chapter 3 to see how that I believe Paul learned the blessing of this following the Lord Jesus, uh, and being suffering for it in Philippians chapter 3.
Uh and uh, verse, uh, I'll begin with verse 8.
Paul is speaking here. Yeah, doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him. That's Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable.
Unto his death. It's so beautiful to see and Paul hear one who realized experimentally in his life the blessing of accepting this course of being persecuted.
And suffering and what a what a testimony it wrought in his life as a servant of Jesus Christ, he became so occupied with the wonder of his person. There isn't man in glory that he had seen that all of these things here on earth became.
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Unimportant as far as the the suffering part of it. And he really counted it a privilege to follow this kind of a path. I think this is a real secret for us as Christians to learn a little in some measure the reality of this. I know we aren't outwardly persecuted in this country like in early Christianity, but still there's a stigma and you have to go against the current.
As it were to be faithful to Christ and be rejected. Uh, it may not be nails and whips and lashes, but there are insults and other kinds of persecutions that we must bear. And in, in as much as we do that, I believe we will learn to know more of this man in the glory Christ Jesus that Paul, uh, got acquainted with through the experiences of life.
Philippians 1/29, right?
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for his safety.
So there are really two kinds of ways we can suffer. As Doug has pointed out, many of our brethren today are suffering physical persecution, imprisonment, and facing martyrdom. But as Doug has said, we may never face that kind of thing. And I used to read a verse and ponder it and wonder how it really applied to us in North America and other countries. And that is the verse that says all they that will live godly in Christ Jesus.
Shall suffer persecution. It doesn't say they might, but they shall suffer persecution. How do we suffer persecution in our circumstances here? Well, there's another kind of persecution that Doug alluded to, and that's reproach. We may not suffer physically, but there will be a reproach connected with the measure in which we live godly reflects something of Christ in our lives.
And seek to follow him and serve him, but particularly brethren, in connection with what Paul presents to us.
Part the ministry that Paul was going to be given was not going to be a popular ministry. And Paul suffered much not simply because he became a follower of Christ, but because of the ministry he was given as to the truth of the one body and the heavenly calling of the believer. And I believe that in the measure in which you and I seek to walk in the good of Paul's ministry.
And we seek to practically express what is brought before us in Paul's epistles in our lives. We're going to find that it's not going to be popular and I'm going to dare to say it not simply in the world as far as the ungodly, but amongst the Christian testimony. You know, Paul at the end of his life had to say all they in Asia have turned from me.
They hadn't turned from following the Lord necessarily, but they had turned from Paul. Now I know that was true physically in Paul's day, but we can take the application. I believe the moral application there is that in the measure in which we seek to follow what Paul sets before us by inspiration, we can't expect to be popular even in amongst other believers.
And but, and yet Paul could say to the Ephesian elders in the 20th chapter.
While he had had in every city bonds and afflictions, and he served the Lord with many tears and so on, he spoke of finishing his course with joy. There was a joy in the heart and soul of Paul at the end of his ministry, and you and I can finish our course with joy if we seek by grace to walk in the practical good of what Paul presents to us. I think that's what it means.
Uh, Jim and Colossians, chapter one.
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Where Paul is speaking about, uh, being made a minister and he says in verse 424, now rejoice in my sufferings for you fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church where I am made a minister. Suffering is not something pleasant.
But it is something necessary since we live in a world we're passing through, a world where Satan is its God and Prince. We're going to have to suffer. And it is in suffering there is the proper testimony to our heavenly calling.
Judaism was a religion given for people in this world.
It was something recognized in the Earth.
And the constant effort of the enemy is to make Christianity something great in this world too. But it isn't that, brethren. We are called to heaven in heavenly glory. And I think that's why Paul suffered and why he was such a tremendous instrument of suffering, because he brought in the heavenly calling of the church, and that was bitterly opposed.
By those who wanted to make it something great in this world, then even today if you say you don't get into politics, that's not our sphere.
You're looked down upon by Christians, they said. That's your duty to get involved in the political world and do what's right. And they refer back to those in the Old Testament, like Daniel, like Joseph, who were high in the political world.
But that was in a time when it was, uh, the calling of the people of God was in this world, but we are called to heavenly glory. So there is a particular reproach connected with it. It's not easy, but it is real, brethren.
We should make it clear too that we don't court suffering or persecution. We don't go out and look for opportunities to suffer. I know there are some that feel some Christians that feel we need to go out and look for opportunities to suffer and create those opportunities and so on. That's not the thought, is it? And you find in this very chapter, Solitarsis wasn't courting persecution. He didn't live on the edge, so to speak, on purpose.
And when there was a difficulty, they let him down out of the basket and he escaped. He God gives us wisdom as as well. But the thought the the point is, while we don't court persecution or go out and look for opportunities to suffer in the measure in which we are faithful to Christ and the truth of God, there will be those opportunities not because we looked for them, but because we were faithful to Christ.
My mother-in-law had a little text on the wall.
And she asked me to repair it about 30 two years ago, needed a little bit of work on it and it was just very simply.
No cross, no crown, and it made a deep impression on me at the time. No cross, no crowns. But I think here in connection with the Apostle Paul at the beginning of his testimony for the Lord, it was for his namesake.
It was the name of the Lord Jesus that he had hated, but now there was no more name that was more precious to him. And it's the name of Christ that we ought to adorn and to mention upon our lips as we love and have affection for that blessed one. And as you think of it, it cost Paul his life to give you this, these epistles that we have, the 14 epistles that he wrote. It cost him his life. He suffered even unto death, and it cost the Lord Jesus.
But as you say, not to court umm, a persecution, but ineffection to mention the name of the Lord Jesus in a faithful way.
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It's interesting that the Lord Jesus, the end of his pathway, seemed to, as far as life down here in this world is concerned, seemed to be a total failure.
Same is the case with the Apostle Paul when he is encouraging Timothy at the end that all those in Asia have turned away from me. Seemed like it was a total failure in his life.
Brethren, it's not to make something great down here that we are here. We are called to heaven, heavenly glory. And so if it seems like things are not.
That nice down here is because God is preparing us for something greater up there.
John the Baptist was another, wasn't it? You know, he might have thought his ministry was a failure. In fact, he says he was a voice of one crying in the wilderness. And I often think you get out in the wilderness place and start talking. You say, well, nobody's listening to me. Nobody. Nobody's here to hear me. But the Lord placed the value on his ministry. And that's what we need to do, is serve the Lord in whatever he gives us and leave it for his commendation.
And the Lord said of John the Baptist, there had not risen a greater than John the Baptist. John might have felt his ministry was a failure, but the Lord placed the proper value on it. I just want to say too, that Paul, Saul of Tarsus here, when he goes to up to Jerusalem, they're afraid of him. Well, he can well imagine why they don't take him in right away. Did he let that discourage him know he had Christ before him now? And I just want to say in a practical way, maybe sometimes you try to do something for the Lord.
And you say, well, nobody appreciates it. They just don't accept me for what I what I am and just you get discouraged. This didn't discourage Paul. He had some lessons to learn and he seemed to realize that it was going to take time to gain the confidence of his brother. And you know, it does take time to gain the confidence of your brethren. Sometimes you do something from for the Lord and maybe your brethren are a little skeptical. Maybe there's been something in your past and they just find it hard to say. Has there really been that kind of a change? And is that per.
Really directed for the Lord now, but give it time. Let the Lord, let the Lord work. The Lord worked in the hearts of these brethren eventually, so they recognize that there was a real work work of God. But don't be discouraged by what seems to be the negative attitude and reaction of your brethren so often. Leave that again for the commendation of the Lord.
Just like.
Comment to that thought too oftentimes as especially as we're young, we we would like to understand the Lord's ways and the circumstances that arise in our past. And many times it's not for us to understand what God is doing. And it may be that at some future time will understand a few things, but it's best for us to pray for the peace that passes understanding.
And.
If, if we can follow your Lord. And, and if we're talking about going through the school of God, and there's often times as we're going through the school of God, especially when we're young, that we just don't understand the Lord's way. We would like to be able to understand, but it's better if we learn.
The peace that passes under. There's something better than understanding the Lord's ways. That's the peace that the Lord gives that passes understanding.
I'd like to just read, uh, second Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15. And this is a part of the thing, part of, uh, what will help us to understand God's ways with us and appreciate them. Second Timothy 2 and verse 15. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the worst of word of truth. Well, you notice here that.
Saul spent three years in Arabia and Damascus, but then he spent two years in Tarsus. Now why does God tell us this?
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Tarsus was a city of learning. It was also the place that he was from. And so there needed to be a testimony before his own brethren in his own home, as he was there before as, uh, Saul of Tarsus in a different way. But now he was going to render a different testimony. And I believe the Lord allowed him to be there in Tarsus, that city of learning, that he might study the word in a different way, and he needed to be in the word.
I'll just say this is an encouragement. Perhaps there's a young brother as a young person just wants to do a little bit for the Lord, spend time in the Word and, uh, study to show thyself approved unto God. So Paul learned, read the word of God in a different way, and he was there in parses for two years.
I've been impressed in this 18th and 19th verse where, uh, Paul gets his initial introduction to the Saints and to the things of God according to the revelation of God, much further than what he had as a Jew.
And, uh, immediately.
In verse 18.
He was to receive a sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost and immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scaled. So now he is receptive to take in the things of God and he received sight was the first thing in verse 18 he received sight.
He received it. There it was. He was exposed to it, just as we all are.
In Western civilization, which is called Christendom, even as we are, as we grow up in the home, especially receiving these things from our parents and hearing them in the assembly, they were before the Apostle Paul. What did he do with it? Well, there are two options you can.
You can, uh, put your finger in your ear or you can receive it. And he received it. It was there and he received it forthwith, not with hesitation. He was ready now to receive these things. And so he did. Then he arose. That takes energy. And he was baptized. Well, this is something that he didn't put off until he felt like it.
There was the opportunity and he was baptized. That's the putting in the place of death the old man. There's no profit for him in that in the old man anymore. And so he is baptized. Then there's the third thing he was he received me in verse 19. It was there was provided for him at the place where he was taken.
He had the opportunity for it.
And again, he didn't sleep through it. He diligence himself, opened his ears to listen to these things. There was meat there, and he received it.
And in doing that and what he had already previously done.
Receiving sight, baptism received me. He was strengthened.
And so are we as we take in the Scriptures. These are vital. These things are vital. That's why we're having these reading meetings and that's why.
That opens the Bible in the evening and the family and reads and explains these things. It's a tremendous Bible school, the home when you have Christian parents that bring these things before you.
So he was strengthened.
Then was Paul, Saul, certain days with the disciples. That's the collective side. He he chose his friends. This is important. He chose his friend. He was with them.
He picked who he was going to be with. There was the opportunity, of course they were there. And so it is with each of us here and this is, this is such a vital thing.
He trafficked now with the disciples.
Who are we going to spend our time with when we have the opportunity to spend time, you know, when we're not at work or at school and even there, there are opportunities.
When I was in the Navy, in a squadron, there were 30 people there.
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I think there was only one other believer that I knew of.
But the fellow that I flew with, I was in the back seat, he was in the front. Spent two cruises flying with that man. He got saved.
And one of the persons that I was in the same stateroom with the department on the ship.
He got saved and they're still going on for the Lord.
And they're picking those, uh, with whom they will associate with the disciples.
And then there is finally, as just a flowing forth from this in verse 20, straightway he preached Jesus in the synagogues. Well, he knew that was going to be hard work. He knew what goes on in the synagogues and how that would be received. But with the boldness of faith and character, he did it anyway.
He preached Christ in Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
His person.
Well, there are six or seven things in these just short two or three verses, I think that we can lay hold up with both hands and make them our own. And it's the life that's profitable that now is.
Like to say a word in the end of verse 17.
One of the things that.
Ananias said to Saul is that he would be filled with the Holy Ghost, and it's interesting in the book of the Acts to see how often it mentions those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.
In the book of Ephesians chapter 5, we find an exhortation in that connection that I think is helpful for us.
Says in verse 18.
518 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.
Every believer has the Spirit of God dwelling in him, but.
Question of filling of the Spirit of God. There's a responsibility on our part and I think that's why it's given an Ephesians as an exhortation be filled with the Spirit. Sometimes we are filled with other things that impede the Spirit of God. Filliness says in John chapter three. I think it is God giveth not the Spirit by measure.
And we are the ones that determine, Are we going to let the Spirit of God fill us?
Oh, it's a beautiful thing when you see a person that is so occupied with Christ. There seems to be the filling of the Holy Spirit. Don't say that we should be occupied with ourselves, but that's God's desire is to fill these vessels of ours with His Spirit.
Steven was one who was filled with the Spirit of God and it's interesting in Acts chapter 6 to see some of the characteristics that are mentioned about those filled with the Spirit of God noticed in chapter six of the Acts verse 3.
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out seven men of honest report. These are the deacons that we're going to do serve the tables.
Full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.
Wisdom is characteristic of them.
Verse five, the same place, the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. There's another characteristic full of faith and the Spirit of God and then verse.
Eight and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles amongst the people.
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But in Chapter 7 you find him at the end of his life there and his testimony. Verse 55 of Chapter 7, He being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Person that is filled with the Spirit of God is not occupied with himself.
Nor even with the Spirit of God. He's occupied with the Lord Jesus. And so Stephen looks up and he's filled with the Holy Spirit.
So God wants us to be filled with the Spirit of God. That's His desire. What are we allowing in our lives that impedes Him filling us completely with His Spirit? Sometimes give the illustration in that verse and that and Ephesians 5 says be not filled with wine. Wherein is excess person that's filled with wine?
You can tell it.
By the way they walk and by the way they talk.
Person that's filled with the Spirit in the same way, brethren, by the way they walk and by the way they talk.
May the Lord help us that we would be filled with the Spirit.
I think that's very important because there's a lot of emphasis on spirit field as a self occupying or being occupied with the Spirit of God. There's a verse, a couple of verses in John 16 that give us the ministry of what the Spirit of God is. That might help us to to see that it's not being occupied with the Holy Spirit itself that makes us full of the Holy Spirit.
It's, uh, really, umm, the Spirit of God is, well, let's read the verse here, uh, John 16, John's Gospel chapter 16 and verse 13.
Albeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of himself or from Himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall He speak. Then He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, that's Christ, or He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you, and so on.
This this Lord Jesus gave in his dissertation to the apostles before he left in connection with the Holy Spirit coming down. And it tells us the mission, what the purpose of the Spirit of God is. And so that when we're filled with the Spirit, totally guided by it, we're not talking about the Spirit itself nor ourselves. We're.
Occupied with Christ and the things that concern him, this is the mission of the Spirit of God. And so it's good. It's it's Christ in glory, that sense, the Spirit that is before us.
Just in that, sorry, but go ahead. Just like to add, Brother Bob, there's three other things in the portion that you read in Ephesians chapter 5. You have verse 1920 and 21. I'll just read them. It says speaking to yourselves in psalms and Psalms and hymns.
And spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God. So you have those three things that are really evidence of being filled with the Spirit. You have a joyful spirit, you're joyful in the Lord, and then you're thankful to the Lord. It says spirit of Thanksgiving and thankfulness for what he's done. And then their submission. It's not the will at work, but a spirit of submission because we love one another.
Those two things.
Just say also, too, in connection with these comments, that what Doug brought before us is perhaps summed up again in the Upper Room ministry. But in the end of the 15th chapter, when he speaks of the Spirit of God, he says He shall testify of me.
And then I was thinking of what Bob pointed out in the in the 7th of Acts in connection with Stephen. You know, it's interesting that Steven, when he looks up, he's occupied with the man in the glory as a man full of the Spirit. And then Bob, you're talking about what we say in the very next verse. He opens his mouth in his last testimony on earth and he says, behold, I see heaven open. Doesn't say I'm full of the Spirit. You ever hear somebody tell you they're full of the Spirit?
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I doubt whether they're full of the Spirit if they're telling you so, but Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost last testimony, and what a testimony it was. He says, behold, I see heaven open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. Now if someone comes to you and brings you something of Christ and occupies you with Christ and the man in the glory, then maybe you can say, well, there's a man full of the Spirit, not because he told you he was full of the Spirit, but because he was so occupied with Christ in glory.
That he couldn't help but share it with you and that is a great mark of someone who is filled with the Spirit.
That they are sharing something of Christ with others, whether it's in testimony, in the gospel, or in sharing with one another as believers.
We can thankfully say that in a large way that characterized it also fall throughout his life. And he was faithful in many ways. Uh, and he threw him. We received the teaching, the revelation of these things, not just in a teaching format, but in an exemplified way in his life that went along with what he taught. That's consistent in, in a great measure. We can be thankful for it. And so that's why the apostle Paul's ministry is, is so important to us.
In this day, the closing days of the church that its occupation with Christ and glory, uh, that will preserve us on. And the Lord has gathered the people, uh, to his name that are aware of these truths and in feebleness seek to carry it on in this day. And this is a great heritage of truth that we have.
As gathered to the Lord and seeking in much failure we know, but yet in a certain appreciation of our relationship with Christ and bearing witness of it in our lives, and may the Lord keep us and that these things not be given up. It's so easy to in a practical way, give up the reality of our relationship with Christ.
Not that we ever lose our relationship, but that we can lose the enjoyment of our relationship to him by becoming earthly minded here on earth. And that's the great effort of Satan. We have a, a glamorous world out there. Uh, there's a lot of things to do.
Your your days can be so full of occupation with things that aren't necessarily bad in themselves, but they are just earthly things.
And they don't bring us into the good and blessing of our relationship with the Lord Jesus in heaven. And so they are a hindrance to us. And so we are. We ought to appreciate Paul's ministry as it's initiated here in these early chapters of the Acts.
Might be nice just to comment on the last verse that we read here. In verse 31 it says then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified walking in the fear of the Lord and in comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied. I'd just like to point out in Isaiah chapter 32 a verse that we know well in verse 17 it says the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.
Now we know that they have a little bit of rest. There was a time of peace that the Lord allowed for the assembly, and we ought to be thankful for those times of rest and peace. But there was going to be further conflict later on. But the Lord allowed that there was a restful time. How thankful we can be for it, and we yearn for it and seek to present those opportunities in the assembly not to trouble the Saints and to desire that there would be a peace among our brethren.