Dorothy Conference: 2022
Table of Contents
Galatians 6:1-6
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Thing #212.
All from above heavenly men by birth, once we're both the citizens of Earth as pilgrims here seek a heavenly home.
Our portion and the ages.
And it's all.
Over the sun.
Shall be.
You're always involved.
I've had cherry all everything.
Snapshot.
Gambling.
Morris Way.
There is no law.
There are sovereign grace.
Now what the Lord breathed by the unveiled, unveiled, unveiled.
You are a stranger.
Where we do not pray.
Oh my God.
Which gave everybody.
00:05:05
The process.
Every twice when it spelled us here.
So far, Treasurer. Writer's spirit.
Let's pray.
I'd like to suggest for our consideration Galatians chapter 6.
It's a book, so that.
Wakes up some dark subjects. The Book of Galatians.
But the six chapter is very practical, and it takes off in particular some good practical instruction as to how we can.
Can walk, as we've considered, together.
Pilgrims here in this world, heading towards home with the particular enemies that we have of the flesh in the world.
Those two in particular are there.
And I just suggested is something that may be helpful especially.
For all those of us who are older, but there's many younger ones here as well.
Galatians chapter 6, verse one.
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.
Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
You see how large a letter I have written unto you with my known hand?
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh they can. They constrain you to be circumcised only, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised to keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they make glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is circumcised.
Is by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, and as many as walk according to this rule. Peace be unto them, and mercy and upon the the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, Amen.
I could also suggest something. You take up the Book of Galatians there.
Can easily be a tendency to take up the negative side of it, and there's much here that is very negative in particular.
The law and the gaudy and the world.
But against that dark backdrop, we have some very, very bright things in this book of Galatians, and I think it could be very encouraging and uplifting if we maybe consider more of that side of it.
And that which would be a real help for each one of us in our Christian life.
And just to say by way of introduction of that regard.
There are two things presented to us in particular in this book of Galatians that help us as Christians, those things that we absolutely need. One is a life and an object, and we get that in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. That verse we know so well, but if we can look at that for a moment.
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It says there I am crucified with Christ and nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You have those two things there. The 1St is the life that I now live in the flesh, and that is Christ living in me when you and I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
We got a whole new life and it was his life. It's eternal life. It's a life of Christ. And that we need. That is the life that can please God, but we need an object too. And he says I live by the faith of the Son of God. That doesn't mean by his faith. It means that faith which has him as an object. That is our faith looks to Christ and according to the life that we now have, which is his.
We are enabled with him as the object to follow him.
And so we have a life and an object in the Lord. And then we also have the spirit. Now we get primarily in a number of places. Let's say chapter 3, verse three, it says you've begun in the spirit, which is true. Every one of us when we got saved, we began in the Spirit. But then in chapter five, he says in verse one, stand fast. Therefore in the liberty we're with Christ that's made us free and be not entangled again with the oak of *******. And he goes on to speak about how we do that is to our walk.
And that we have.
In later on in that chapter.
Verse 13 You've been called unto liberty.
Don't use liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but if I love serve one another and how? Verse 16 this I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Verse 18 if you be LED of the spirit and not under the law. And so now we've got a power, not just a life in an object, but there's the power to walk accordingly.
To that light that we have in Christ and these things are presented by the time we get to chapter 6 so that when we come to the.
Practical exhortations of this chapter We already find the resources that we as believers need to be able to take up with the instructions that we find here.
Our first verse begins with the word.
After it says brethren, it says if.
And we'd like to talk about that a little bit in the context of what Tim just brought before us.
There's a very powerful concept, and those of you who've been in my Sunday school class in Rio Ferry will recognize what I'm going to talk about.
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, that Brother Tim was just looking at you. Look at the word I as you go through this, the first one, I am crucified. You're crucified. You're quite dead.
And then the next expression is I live and Tim is bringing that out that we have a new life in Christ.
And then it says not I.
Does Christ liveth in me? And then it says I now live and and it's in the flesh, in your body. You live by faith. And that's what Tim was bringing forward in connection with.
The object that we have and the faith and the Spirit of God working inside us, but.
What I want to emphasize and bring out is that this eye in Galatians 2 and 20 has decisions to make.
One is to recognize I is crucified, another is to recognize I has a new life, and the third is to recognize that you're going to live by faith in Christ. Decision is to make crucify what you were I is to recognize my new life is in Christ, and then the third is to recognize you live it by faith.
And then if we turn over to the fifth chapter of Galatians.
We understand.
I has a decision to make and if you look in Galatians 5.
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And verse 17.
Says the flesh lost us against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary 1 to the other. So you cannot do the things that you would. So there's a conflict that is going on and I has a decision to make.
All day long, all kinds of circumstances.
That are presented before you that you I are in. Are you going to walk and let the crucified what you were come down off that cross and come back to life If it were or you're going to choose to walk in the spirit.
There's choices that get made all day long.
And the point that in verse 18 of chapter 5 is if you be led by the Spirit.
You're not under the law. What is it that enables us to live a successful Christian life? Is it a set of rules? Is it constraints No. What is it that enables us to live a successful Christian life is walking in the spirit I saying yes to the Spirit of God and letting him guide in our lives and so.
We're not always successful.
And that's what is being addressed first in chapter 6. If a man be overtaken in a fault. I'd like to say this right up front, that Christianity is about when you get knocked down, the flesh gets in control and I makes the wrong decision.
The devil gets advantage through a certain set of circumstances that the real life that you have from Christ, the power of the Spirit means you get back up, you say you're sorry to the Lord, you repent, and in the power of that new life and the power of the Spirit, you get back up and start following the Lord again.
So Christianity is not a one time decision leading to a failure. If it leads to a failure, and it doesn't have to, you have the power of the Spirit of God dwelling inside you. You have the new life of Christ inside you in conflict with what you were before you were saved. You have the ability to get up.
Get cleaned up and carry on following the Lord Jesus. And that's what Christianity is about, if I can put it that way. Verse six, it's about restoration.
And the recognition that we need to have is that each one of us is capable.
Of fallings, of yielding to the flesh and not walking in the spirits. And so part of being Christian and being is being part of a Christian fellowship. And that is part of helping each other get back up and carry on following the Lord Jesus. And that's part of what we have in the in this first verse starts out with a thing that's a little bit negative, but there's a real positive light in it.
Yes, there can be failure in my Christian life.
Thank the Lord He's given me brothers and sisters in Christ who can help me get back up and carry on.
And thank the Lord that He's given the Holy Spirit inside me to help me give back up and carry on. I think this first verse also.
Makes a lot more sense when you consider what the back the dark backdrop was. And that was the law which only condemned So if somebody.
With fall, the overtaking in a fall, well, you would be like the priests and the Levite passing by on the other side saying I'm not going to get dirty by that one and not like the Good Samaritan who is our example, the Lord Jesus.
And so we're told to be like the Lord here, the man the And it's even clearer in the new translation, says, Brethren, even if a man be taken in a fault, you which are spiritual restore such a one.
We're to be like the Lord in that regard. Now, what is a spiritual person say? Who's going to say that they're spiritual?
Oh, we can't be like the Lord entirely in that regard because we have the flesh and the Lord didn't have the flesh, but the spiritual one is a Christian who judges himself and recognizes that he has the flesh and judges that before God. And so it goes on to say that the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest I'll also be tempted. This part the Lord could not do, but we must. And if we will do that, then we're going to act in the spirit of grace, which is what we have in in the first part of this verse, that we're going to be like that Good Samaritan to get right down there.
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With that one who fell and get dirty with him in the ditch and lift him out of that place, that's what we're called to do. That's grace, and that's what we're called to do in the Christian life, in our path.
Rob just mentioned that we have those two opposing forces within us, the flesh and the spirit.
And sometimes we don't recognize when the flesh is active in our own life. It's.
We're oblivious to it.
And our brethren do see it.
And So what do we do when we see somebody who is walking in the energy of the flesh? Maybe it is in the context of this epistle. They're walking in law or any other fault or trespass. Fault here isn't like some little white lie, some little incidental thing. It's translated elsewhere. Trespass, trespasses, it's sin.
And So what, what do we do? Oftentimes what we say is, well, so and so is so and so, and they'll always be so and so. But that isn't true.
And, and what we really are trying to do is to absolve ourselves of responsibility.
To take this verse and to say Lord you don't understand this person is just always going to be the way this person is.
But this verse doesn't say to absolve ourselves of responsibility. It says to not only to administer self judgment as Tim just said, but then to go to that person in an attempt to have them recognize that sin is sin and to judge it. And then they too will be spiritual and be able to go to the next person and say this is the flesh, this is sent, this is all it is. So we need to be able to not only recognize the flesh, but recognize that that isn't normal to Christianity.
And not go and many were here on Tuesday or Wednesday night when they'll mention something in relation to this in regards to.
Seeing something or a brother coming to us and confessing something, and not not for the point of hitting the person over the head, but for the point of winning them, as this first goes on to say that that is the goal. But we have to be willing to take God up at His word.
A difficult thing to do.
And we also need to be willing to recognize when somebody comes to us and says, hey, the word of God says this and you're doing this. That's not right.
So we do have a law.
And there is that in the next verse. Bury one anothers burdens, and so fulfilled the law of Christ. So what is that law then, if we're not under the law?
Well, there's the law of Moses, and this speaks about the law of Christ, and it's a very different thing. And we have that presented perhaps first and foremost. And John 15 just turned there for a moment.
It's actually the 1St I was thinking. I believe is in town 13 find it sorry.
Verse 34.
A new commandment I give unto you.
That you love one another as I have loved you. That you also love.
Love one another.
Another by this shall all men know that you're my disciples. If you have love one for another.
So this is really what the Lord gave. It was love, and He showed this by His own example. He came down from heaven to earth.
And took our burden on the cross. You couldn't have a greater example than that of what we have in this second verse and so he says we need to go and do that same thing. That's the commandment that the Lord gave us. It's the new commandment. It's not the law of Moses. Love your neighbors yourself would be this summary of the second table of the law. The first would be love God. So love is even the summary of that, but it has all these commandments that were to do this goes infinitely beyond.
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And it's something that can be done in the power of the spirit with that life that we have from the Lord himself is something that's far beyond the law of Moses. And he says having that, having that motive of love that came from the Lord himself, he says that's what you use to bear one another's burdens. And what's the burden that he mentioned already we had once, one overtaken in a fault, one who needs help, one who's struggling with some sin or another.
And like her brethren have presented, you know, to go to them and bring before them what the consequence of that sin is, and the way to get back up, the way to get restored to the Lord and help that one that's wrong beside them. And so that's how we bear these burdens, first and foremost. But it's not limited to that. You see somebody struggling with anything in their Christian life. You can go to them and be a help to them.
Perhaps I could tell a story that might be a little help.
An example of this some of us are playing hockey when we're a little younger and.
One of the brothers in this room that I was playing with did something that I considered to be unacceptable, so I went over and I spoke to him about it and he didn't listen to me.
So it says here to consider thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
My response was then to do something wrong because he didn't listen to me.
It's something to consider when we speak to somebody. We have to consider ourselves too, that we do it in the spirit of meekness, that we don't take offense because sometimes people don't receive what we say. And to to recognize that even when we reach out to help somebody, we're vulnerable as well. So we need to do it in the spirit of meekness, recognizing that's the Lord's strength and it's going to be him that restores.
Hopefully we all have that heart 1 towards another to reach out to, one that we see that's hurting or struggling.
Speaking of illustrations, Kevin.
I've been on job sites with some of the carpenters in this room and.
The difference between chapter 6 and verse two and chapter 6 and verse five is interesting. I've seen you all walk on with your own burden in the morning. You're all carrying your own lunch bucket. Some are bigger than others, but all of them are fairly big. It's my observation that you guys.
Work for a living. I've been in a situation with you guys and I've seen somebody, two guys carrying something, other people working around them and somebody will realize that somebody struggling with the end of a load. And I've seen you all drop tools and run to help grab that heavy item.
Grab a hold on it and start lifting it up. One of my biggest recollections was working on your garage roof and there was a forklift lifting trusses on to the onto the under the roof. And then the Truss started to slip and there was somebody going to go over the edge. And a couple of you guys grabbed a hole that crossed and stabilized that and saved the person from being killed. And that to me, that's an example of what we have in verse 2. Bear you one another's burden. The fact that you all jumped in and grabbed the whole of that trust and kept stabilized.
Save the person's life potentially and but none of you help each other carry your lunch box boxes.
You all carry your own lunch box.
So the same thing works in our Christianity. There are times when you see somebody that's on the verge of failing, and if you can get in there and help them, that's a great thing. And do it safely in the context of what you're just saying, considering yourself.
That word is different, isn't it Robin? I understand in the Greek the first one is exactly what you said, a heavy bird, and the second ones a light burden. It really helps to see that otherwise it looks like you have a conflict between.
One of the problems that we have, why we don't consider ourselves that we also as we also be tempted is that.
We tend to think a lot of ourselves, and that's of course the subject of verse three. If any man thinked himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceived himself. So, so helpful to think about what we are as a Christian.
A Christian is one who has an old nature.
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That old nature's file, it's condemned. It's a flash, we call it.
And we're not taking it to heaven.
Christian is one who has a new nature. It's the life of Christ and that life is perfect. And then there's a responsible eye that Rob was talking about whereby we can choose which one we're going to walk in, but it's terms of our natures, we only have those two.
And when we really understand that and recognize it, and that's where self judgment comes in, as it recognizes that I have that vile, corrupt old nature, then we don't look at ourselves as better than a brother. He's got the same flesh that I do and he's got the same.
Life of Christ that I do, and so does my sister.
And when we see that, when we truly recognize that and understand that I myself, I'm nothing as to myself, anything that I have is Christ and that's the recognition of what I am as a Christian, then it's going to be easy to consider ourselves and recognize that we are weak.
As far as that responsible eye, we can so easily go straight. We have to stay in that position, close to the Lord, asking for help all the time to act the same way. But we're going to fall just like that other brother, and we really understand that. Then we're in a position to be useful and helpful. If we don't, we're going to have a hard legalistic attitude, which was what the problem was in Galatia. What was being addressed here?
Mr. Darby's translation actually is helpful in the.
First verse it speaks of, it says there's a little reference where it says restore to it says as mending Matthew 421, which is when James and John were called by the Lord to follow him. And so bending is something that takes effort and skill, but also time and it's a process. You don't amend a ripped pair of pants or shirt or something in a minute.
Sometimes it's a long ordeal and just have enjoyed the thought of when we can somebody draws alongside of us and is gentle and meek and mends us with the Lord's Holy Spirit doing the work, then there's real, real benefit to that experience that I think that's why inverse at the beginning of the verse it says brethren.
Really a loving expression to encourage us to recognize that we need to be a help to our brethren, our brethren, and we need to really be exercised about being a healthy people.
Second and third verse really help us with this definition of spiritual.
Sometimes we really have a mystical idea of what spiritual is.
And it has to do with a lot of times what is external. And so we try to mimic what we feel looks spiritual.
And.
For ourselves, we might think I'm quite spiritual. Look, look at me and we might look at somebody else and say that person is quite spiritual. Look at them and it isn't on the internal, it's all on the external.
And so when somebody is put into a situation like what we have here on these.
1St 3 verses, it is the supposed spiritual brother going as if they are the Pope having no fault or failure, impossible to fail, impossible to send because they are godly and spiritual, going to give instruction to somebody who is just a lonely Sinner. That isn't what spiritual is and it's not what these verses are presenting. These verses are presenting that we all fail. We we do fail, we do sin, and the person who goes, goes in the recognition of I do fail and I do sin.
But there was a recognition that that was sin. And he takes the stuff of touching it and he's seeing somebody else is failing to do that. And so he goes and he doesn't consider himself to be something because he recognizes that he that he fails.
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If he goes in that attitude, he deceives himself.
Thinks that he is something when he really is not.
And I think verse four goes along with this. It's a hard verse for me, but my understanding is this is let every man test, has proved or test his own work. That is, examine it. What's my motive? What am I doing it for? Is it's for the Lord or is it for having some appearance of spirituality over others?
It says, Then shall we have rejoicing in Himself alone? If I do something truly for the Lord, there's going to be in the end.
A a delight that it was truly of the Lord and for Him. And then it only came from Himself. It wasn't from me anyway.
But not.
In I think Mr. Darby has here what belongs to another, and that's what we so often do.
We often start rejoicing in a way in those things that belong to another. In other words, the other one fell down and I didn't fall. And so I'm rejoicing about that. I did better than them. It's and they that compare themselves, Paul says in Second Corinthians among themselves are not wise. I think that's the gist of what we have here and that's what the hard spirit in us as Christians does it exhaust ourself and put down our brother and we take rejoicing.
About how we did better, where they felt.
He says no, no, no. If we actually come and test our own work, examine what our own motives are, is this truly for the Lord or not, Then he says in the end they'll be rejoicing. Not if we go and take this other attitude.
Just like to point out another thing about verses 2:00 and 5:00.
The one case it says they're each other's burdens. The other says it says bear your own burdens. One thing it doesn't say is have others bear your burden. That's not neither verse and sometimes we have a tendency to want that. I want everyone to help me and I'm looking and calling out for help. Whereas the Scripture says the Lord says in Matthew 1128, this is coming to me. All you that labor and a heavy lead now will give you rest Scripture we always have.
Where the Lord wants us to go to Him with our burden. That's your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you. I think every case, if you look it up, that's what it is. It never tells us to take our burdens to our brethren.
It always tells us to go and help our brethren with their burdens, but there's an order to that, and it's so important to see it. And for you and I, when we get into trouble and difficulty, the point is we need to go to the Lord.
That should always be the first place, and if the Lord directs it, others should come in and help us. And He often does. That's His general way. Then leave that to Him.
He can put it on the hearts of our brethren. Her brethren aren't blind either, but to just run out and look for help all over the place. We don't have that in Scripture and the other hand for each one of us. Let's be looking for those needs. We can't miss that. That's here in both verses that we need to first of all.
Own burden so that we're not a burden to others and we can be a help to others and then look around for those needs that are around us and try to help with them as well.
There's a there's a part of every burden, whether it is this life or whether it isn't the flesh that we have to bear. So even if the Lord does send someone, there's a need to be on our part that we have to address. Our brethren can come and they can be a help to us. They can show us the word of God. They can present to us Christ, but we that I that that Rob was talking about still has to act and the good of that we have to bear that burden.
We also say that the flash inside of us doesn't like to be confronted or contradicted. So I've been in that position where someones come to me and maybe the brother came to me with a different, maybe not the best attitude, but I think he had a heart to help me and maybe I wasn't ready to receive it and it wasn't maybe in the state. But I think sometimes you have to realize that even if.
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Person coming to help us there, they have the flesh too, right? And they might come out, they might not do it in a perfect way. They might not wash her feet with might be hot water or cold water. But at the same time to have to just try to take it from the Lord and see if there's anything there that the Lord might be trying to show us.
That might be for for our health and for the benefit of the body of Christ at large, or for a local assembly.
Next section I take it to be a connected thoughts from verses 16 down to verse six down to 10. I should say the subject is sewing and reaping which is a spiritual thought in the middle, but it begins with.
Giving to the one who teaches and ends with doing good to all men.
So it really has to do with sewing, giving, and this too is connected with the subject of this epistle, where the law really just required.
But it didn't have any that overflow to others. And in Christianity we have grace that overflows. It goes beyond the Lord himself who was a great giver who didn't just require, but came here to give all that was needed to give everything. And so that is to characterize this as well, that we're to be ones who are sellers or givers. And of course then it brings out a spiritual principle in connection with it.
That the things of God, when there is a sowing or a giving, there's a reaping that goes as well and that has both a positive side and a negative side is is brought out in verse.
8.
So verse six would be one of the verses that.
Is used for.
Scripturally giving to those who labor in the Word.
Speaks about let him that is taught in the word that would be most of us communicate or give of your substance is the idea of that word. Communicate doesn't mean to talk. It means to give of your substance, whatever it may be. Material goods come out this day mostly money.
Unto him that teaches and all good things. And so there were those like the apostles who went around and they didn't have other means of support. Paul did. He was an exception. He worked making tents and he supported himself for the gospel sake. But others didn't. And today we have those who don't have secular means of support, and they go around and they teach the word and they seek to be a help to the Saints in other lands in this country in many different ways.
Some of them are involved in literature work and distribution, and it's right that we who have benefited from that should send money to support them in their work, and this person would teach that.
I agree with what you said, Tim, but they just wanted to highlight the first part of what you said.
That it says of all good things, by far the I shouldn't say by far the easiest, but often the easiest to do is to write a check or give some cash or Western Union or whatever it might be.
For moving money, but I think the other aspect is of all good things if you don't have money to give.
The Lord's given you some other things. It's possible for you to pass on the.
A good meal or accommodation or fixing somebody's car, Oregon, whatever it is that you're capable of doing, helping them with their house if they happen to live near you. Any of those things that the Lord would put in your heart based on what he's given you that you could pass on and share is included under the all good things sometimes harder to to give to share from things that are not monetary.
But it is possible, and I've seen some good examples of people doing that with their I've seen it for everything from their boats to their carpentry skills to their electrical skills, whatever it might be that they're able to share to be a blessing to those who serve in teaching or otherwise.
Sometimes it's just time.
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That brother might need 10 year.
Encouragement.
123.
Jesus Spotless.
Blood plus all the same by God.
We are by the Lord.
There is a sweet landing for living, Lord.
Let's wait.
We are thine.
Evangelism
Address—Robert House
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With Christ, our thing begins.
The Lord of the world when the earth starts.
He told me.
Our hearts are glad we raise the voice of Lord as man. We are to rejoice the Lord.
Our hearts are glad we raise the voice the Lord has made us to rejoice the Lord.
Hath made us still great.
Sweet that, I said. Oh Jesus.
Lord Shallow and take his friend.
Into his father's alone.
Our hearts are glad we raised the voice of the voice, the voicemail.
Rejoins, The Lord has made us to bring yours.
Well, let's pray.
Our God and our loving Father, thank you so much for this opportunity to be together. And Dorothy, have your word open to study Galatians now we pray as we take a little time to meditate and think about.
A subject that is close to your heart that you would bless me and each person in the audience and those who might hear this message in the future.
We ask for your help that your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, will be honored and glorified.
And that we'll each be able to live lives that are of better use and service for our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask this in His alone, precious and worthy name. Amen.
What I have on my heart as the subject for this afternoon is the subject of evangelism, and I'd like to start by turning to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4.
And we'll start with verse 7.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore he saith, when He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Verse 11 And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying.
Of the body of Christ.
This chapter, chapter 4 of Ephesians touches on that subject, that there is one body. There's the ones of the first part of this chapter, but particularly what I was thinking about is the gift that God has given to each one of us and says that that on to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. So each one of us has been given something.
To do for the Lord Jesus and so later on in verse.
11 He says he gave some apostles, some prophets.
Some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And all those different functions and gifts are necessary for the body of Christ to grow. But the one that I wanted to focus on particularly today is the one that is the gift of.
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The evangelist and the reason why I want to talk about that gift of the evangelist specifically.
Is in Timothy, Second Timothy chapter 4.
Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse five, it says watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. And I find this an interesting verse because I don't believe that Timothy particularly had been given the gift of an evangelist if you look at how Paul describes him.
Paul describes him as a more of a timid person.
And he particularly gave him tasks related to looking after assemblies, helping them to grow, helping them to mature. For example, Timothy was a brother that when the assembly in Corinth was having trouble, Timothy was a brother that the apostle Paul sent the court to help deal with and help correct the issues that were in Corinth. And in when he's writing to Philippi, he's also sending committee there and he's saying that he has no man.
Minded who will naturally care for your state, which is typical of a pastor and very often going along with the gift of a pastor's and ability to teach. But I think when you consider Timothy particularly, it was that of caring for the people in the assembly, caring for the body of Christ and trying to see them grow and develop. And like we were talking about in Galatians chapter one, if there was somebody that was having trouble carrying their burden or somebody that had an issue.
He would be the kind of person that would be able to step up, come along beside that person and help lift the corner of their load, help them get back up and get going. But I find it interesting here in Second Timothy, which is one of the second epistles, obviously, and is characteristic of what Paul would typically say to those who are in last days and last days is the days that I believe we're living in. And so I take it as a message for us.
So Paul speaks to somebody who has a gift specifically given by the laying on of hands. And I believe that gift had to do with pastoring and caring for people. But what does he tell him to do? He says do the work of an evangelist. And that's distinct from what he says right after in this verse. In verse five, make full proof of thy ministry. Whatever service it was that he had been gifted with, he was to make full proof of it. But there's this other thing that he's told to do.
And it's through the work of an evangelist. And that's a challenge to me because to a certain degree I feel like I fall into the same sort of a character as Timothy, that evangelism isn't necessarily what I do first or what comes first in terms of what the Lord has given me particularly to do. But I think that in this verse, there's a call to me and a call to each of you.
To do the work of an evangelist. So I have a number of things that I want to talk about in that connection.
And if you think of your life, if you know Jesus Christ as your own personal Lord of Lord and Savior, evangelism is part of something that you do naturally because you have faith in Jesus Christ. But I'm hoping to spend a little bit of time and discuss some aspects of evangelism that might help me, first of all, and also you.
In this aspect of your Christian life.
So the first thing to consider is what actually is an evangelist? And an evangelist is somebody who comes bringing good news. And that's the reality of what we have as people with faith in Jesus Christ is that we have good news and that we have a message that's of benefit to anybody who will hear and believe. And that's.
Something that I think is.
Worth keeping in your mind and keeping in your heart that you have.
A message, a good news message that can be a blessing to anybody on this on this earth. So if we turn to first Peter chapter 3.
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I want to talk a little bit about the preparation for sharing the gospel.
And being an evangelist, doing the work of an evangelist first Peter 3, verse 15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you, as of evil doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse you.
Accuse your good conversation.
In Christ.
So this is an important first step.
If you're going to be able to effectively share the gospel.
You need to. The very first thing that's on the list here is sanctify the Lord. Guard what Lord, Lord, God in your heart. And what does that mean? That means that you're setting him apart as Lord and giving him that that first place in your life that I'm giving him the first place in my life. It's one thing to come to Jesus.
And say I know I need my sins forgiven, I want to go to heaven.
So please wash my sins away. I'm going to let you into my heart.
It's a different thing to say to the Lord Jesus. OK, now I'm going to let you be Lord of my life, which means I'm going to let you make the decisions about what I'm going to do in my life.
And.
It says in the beginning of verse 16 having a good conscience.
That's that's important if there's been a conflict going on between me and the Holy Spirit, between me and Jesus, about who's the boss.
Whether he's Lord or whether I'm Lord, then there's going to be difficulty with me trying to communicate the gospel message.
The other thing that is important, I think that we understand is that you don't have to know everything in order to be able to talk about the Lord Jesus in the gospel. What's important is that you do understand your own personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
And that you speak from what you know and what you have experienced personally, that makes it your own personal story that you're sharing. And there's absolutely nobody that can contradict your personal story. And then the other thing that goes along with that is the essential fact that it's not just your opinions. And you shouldn't just use your opinions when you're talking to other people. Yes, your exper.
Important.
But what is powerful is the word of God. Hebrews 412 tells us that the word of God is quick, is powerful, is sharper than A2 edged sword, and it's the word of God which is the sword of the Spirit that God uses to convict people.
Whether it's from actually picking up their own Bible and reading it, whether it's from you reading it to them, whether it's from them reading a verse that's in a track that you would hand out to them or a calendar that you might give to them, or something that you just quote as part of your conversation, as part of what you're expressing. You don't even necessarily give the verse reference to communicate that God. So.
World that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You all know what I just quoted because you all learned that when you were children. And probably even the children know that verse, am I right? Yeah, I'm getting some head nods that you have. The children know that first. And so it just came out as part of my conversation. And what I'm saying is, in addition to a good conscience, you need to have some verses.
And you need to know some verses and don't be afraid to use them because people can argue with what you know. People can argue with what you think, but they can never, ever argue with what's written in this book because they can't ever get the author to change one single word. And the author and the Spirit of God uses that effectively on their conscience.
And it can make a big difference in their life when the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to cause a seed to grow.
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And I'd like to.
Look at that First Corinthians chapter 5.
Might be Second Corinthians. Sorry, Second Corinthians.
Two Corinthians, chapter 5.
And we're going to start at verse 6.
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
Wherefore we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
That everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
So we're people that bring good news, the good news of the gospel, to other people when we're doing the work of an evangelist.
And part of what we do is, and part of what we're saying is our motivation for taking this message. And this is one of the motivations that we have. And that is verse 1111. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
And one of the questions that I have to ask myself, and I sometimes come up with the answer that I don't believe quite enough, is do I believe in hell?
Obviously the answer is yes, I believe in hell.
But the concept of what the rich man experienced in the Lake of Fire, where he wanted a drop of water for his tongue.
The fact that he was separated from his loved ones forever and couldn't get any satisfaction for his soul and that there was a great gulf fixed and there was no remedy for him.
Do I really know the terror of the Lord and do I believe that? So that is a question.
That is an answer to the question of why do I preach? And it's part of the reason for communicating to other people, because if we really love them and we really cared for them, then we don't want them to go to the place of punishment and we want them to be able to escape. And that's a that's an important thing. Now the other thing that I want to say in connection with this is in.
Acts Chapter 17.
We have a verse at the.
End of the chapter verse 32. The apostle Paul was preaching.
And what I wanted to look at was people's reaction.
To his good news message.
Says in verse 32 of Acts 17 when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked and others said we will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave on to them and believed. There are three reactions recorded here that I believe are fairly common when you talk to people around you about the Lord Jesus.
Some people when they hear what you believe.
Whether it's the resurrection, or that God created heaven and earth, or that you even believe in God, they mock and they laugh, and that's a fairly normal reaction.
The second reason, the second reaction is that some people will say, OK, we can talk about this again some other time. And then the third reaction is that some people actually believe. And that's extremely rewarding and a good experience to to have, but.
There's a fourth type of reaction that people have and it's very real, but in our country don't get it a lot and that is the Lord Jesus said in the world you shall have tribulation and sometimes you get the response of persecution. So I think in my own personal life I have left from the time I was a little child.
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From the time that I knew for sure that I was saved, which was about grade two, that.
That I would let fear what other people think of me and what other people might do to me because of what I believe affect my willingness to open up. I also tend to be a fairly introverted, introverted person and not open up. Very willing to open up myself and expose myself. And it feels very much when I do that when I'm starting to share about something that I care about passionately that.
Which is the Lord Jesus and who He is and what He means to me.
That I feel like I'm getting exposed and that gives me the the kind of the fear response and I just like to encourage you with a little story of my own experience. I was in university going to school and there was AI was reading my Bible in the hallway one day and one of the guys in my classes came by French Canadian guy sat down beside me and he said, can you tell me what?
You find interesting about that book. So I had an opportunity and I probably spent 15 minutes explaining to him.
About the Lord Jesus and the gospel and these things. It was interesting he said when it was done, he said that thank you very much for talking to me and thank you very much for what you explained. But if you're ever talking to anybody else in the future, maybe you could be a little bit less tense when you're talking about it and and that that was very much me and I think it still is very much me when I go to talk about something like that that I think is important and that is actually.
Exposing me to other people that I get, I get afraid and that shows up. Now, God has not given us a spirit of fear. He's given us a spirit of power. That's the same message that he gave to Timothy, and it's the same spirit that he's given us. So that communion, that fellowship that we need is what enables us to be able to communicate effectively. But what I'm trying to say in talking about these four reactions is you don't get the persecution reaction.
Very often you get the laughing one. Maybe sometimes, but.
Most often you'll get the one that's, well, that's interesting and maybe we can talk about it later, But it's occasionally really lovely to have when somebody actually believes or you meet another believer when you're sharing in in that way. And it's very encouraging. So I'm just putting that forward as those are the reactions that you could have in terms of what the gospel is. I'm saying that because for myself.
The fear thing.
Shows up and it's a reaction. That's not necessarily a godly reaction, but it's natural. And what I'm saying is to you is don't be afraid.
Just try and be yourself. Talk about it like it's something natural to you when you're talking to somebody that you know that's your age from the community or somebody older or younger or whatever.
Don't be.
Afraid.
You can talk about what you know, you don't have to know everything. It's a completely acceptable to say. You can go and try and find out an answer, but if you speak from your heart to their heart, they'll feel that. And if you use the word of God, it'll be effective. So I put these things in front of you in terms of how and I wanted to look at 4 examples from the word of God.
Of people who had a gospel message and delivered it, and the first one.
Is the Lord Jesus himself?
So turn to John 4. The Lord Jesus communicated to lots of people the good news message. He came from heaven to deliver it and.
There's a sense in which even today, when we share the gospel, we're doing what he he's gone back to heaven, and it's our job to fill in for him and share the good news that God wants people to have.
So in John chapter 4.
It says.
In verse four and he that's Jesus must needs go through Samaria.
And verse 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore being wearied with his journey, Saath thus on the well. And it was about the 6th hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus Seth unto her, Give me to drink.
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For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then set the woman of Samaria onto him. How is it that thou?
Being a Jew asks, drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knowest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink. Thou was to ask of him, and he would have given thee living water.
I'm going to stop there.
But there's a couple of things already that I want to point out that the Lord Jesus needed to go through Samaria. He went to Sychar and he went there on purpose. He went to the well and he stopped there on purpose because he had one woman that he wanted to meet.
And the same thing happens in my life and your life.
God has people that He brings into our path for different reasons at different times. You don't know what's going on in their life. The Lord Jesus is unique because He knew exactly what was happening in that woman's life.
You know, you meet somebody on the street of Dorothy.
If you if you know them, you might know how many times they've been married.
In this case, the Lord Jesus knew exactly how many times this lady had been married and what her current status was in her in her relationship.
In the case today, when you meet somebody, typically you don't know, sometimes you might know a little bit about them, sometimes you don't. But if you look at what the Lord Jesus did with this lady, he started the conversation about needing a drink of water. And what I find interesting about what he did was you watch how the conversation shifted.
So.
He asked her a question.
Men didn't talk to women and she shouldn't have been there or wouldn't normally have been there at that time of the day. And he met her and he asked her for a drink of water. And that was a little bit unique. And that's what got her to ask him the question about why are you asking me for a drink of water? And then when she asked that question, he answers and makes an answer that says.
If you knew who was talking to you, you'd ask him for living water. And I find it interesting and I think God can direct in any conversation that we're having. And sometimes you can see it happening as a conversation going on. You can see this conversation is going in a direction that God's going to open the door so that I can talk about the Lord Jesus.
Now I can talk about the gospel and I know when I start sensing that happen that I got a lot of internal conflict going on about.
First of all, am I going to be ready to open up and express something about the Lord Jesus and start praying that the Lord will help me to walk through this door, this opportunity that he's providing? And so the Lord Jesus asked her questions and he talked to her. And I think that that's important for us to understand about the relationship when we're going to have with somebody when we're talking to them.
How to shift the conversation just slightly?
To bring in something about the Lord Jesus and those of you who like to fish.
Some of you are probably pretty good at it. I don't particularly like to fish, but when I was a boy I used to use different kinds of lures. And I know that in my mind that if you pick the right artificial mineral for what kind of fish you're trying to fish for and what you hope is down in the water, you throw it in and you, you, you reel it in and you see if anything starts biting, see if anything's interested. And that's the Lord Jesus said to his disciples when he called them, he said, follow me. I'll make you fishers of men.
And one of the ways the fishermen work is they try one kind of bait and see what happens. And so you might put something in your conversation if you see the door kind of opening in the Spirit of God making an opportunity to just mention something about the Lord Jesus or mention something about a meeting that you went to or whatever it is the Lord puts on your heart and see if there's any reaction. And then, and if that doesn't work, maybe you try something slightly different.
And I put that forward as and learning from when the Lord Jesus.
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Was reaching out to this woman. But the other thing that's important?
Is that the Lord Jesus loved this woman? I quoted John 316. He loved the whole world. But it's not just generally. The Lord Jesus has a love individually for me and for you and for every other person, and he wants to see a blessing go to each and every one of them.
And that's part of what?
I think helps us to be able to spread the gospel is if to whatever degree I've caught the Lord's desire to bless the people around me with the good news of who he was, where he came from, what he did, and where he's going to.
So that's the part that I wanted to get. The Lord Jesus came, He had that love for individuals. He had the time for him and he can guide and direct in our conversations with individuals when we're trying to reach out to somebody. Now I'd like to look at the second person and that's in the.
That's Phillip. He's called the Evangelist in Acts chapter 21.
And verse 8, but we'll look in chapter 6, Acts chapter 6.
Where we see his beginning.
There was a problem in the church in Jerusalem.
There was some unfairness going on.
People who were full Jews and Hebrew speaking Jews, their widows were getting lots of money and the widows that spoke Greek, they didn't get quite as much. That's not really fair, is it? And the people, the Christians were complaining about that. And so in chapter 6 and verse five, the solution was it says.
The saying please, the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Ghost, and Philip.
Prochorus in the Canor, and Timmin and Perminus and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased in the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. So you notice the name Philip in there. He was given the job of what we would call a Deacon. He had a responsibility with the money that they collected in Jerusalem, and it was a significant amount of money, and it had.
Be redistributed to the widows. And that was part of his job. And if you look in the later in the epistles, you'll find that those who desire the office of a overseer of a Bishop desire good work. And there's another office in the church that goes along with it, and that's the office of a Deacon, which is exactly what Philip had.
Phillip had Philip had the office of a Deacon and it tells us.
There that those who do the work of the Deacon faithfully they've earned a good degree in the Lord Jesus and boldness in the faith and that's what you see in the in the life of Philip. So if we turn over to the 8th chapter.
There was persecution, the Christians were scattered, but Philip had this responsibility in the assembly of looking after the money and he did it well and helped solve a problem in the assembly. But then what we see him now, there's something that he's been blessed with spiritually. So if you're given a responsibility, no matter how small it is, do it well, do it for the glory of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus said he that is faithful not which is least.
Is faithful also and much.
And if you do well, the little things he gives you, he'll give you more to do for him. That'll be a blessing to others and a blessing for yourself and for credit for eternity. So turn over to Acts chapter 8.
And verse 5.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake.
Hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits, crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many.
Taken with palsies and that were lain or healed, and there was great joy.
In that city. So Philip went down to Samaria and he was preaching there, announcing in A to the the whole city the good news of Jesus Christ. Now when I was talking about the Lord Jesus, I was talking about one person, the Lord Jesus going to see one individual, the lady at the well, the woman at the well.
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And he met her need, and he used her to bring blessing to the whole city.
Saikon here. We have Philip coming as an evangelist to the city, and he's announcing the good tidings and the good news. And sometimes you're given opportunity to speak to a lot of people. And that's the approach that the Spirit of God created in Samaria. First that.
Philip was able to speak to speak to large quantities of people.
So, for example, tonight there will be a gospel message and the brother who's responsible for speaking will speak the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to all of us. And that's a wonderful opportunity. Sometimes you get that.
In different circumstances, and the Lord can use that to present the gospel message. And again, I would say, you know, if you speak as the person who has the opportunity to speak from your heart.
Part of your audience you will go through you speak spiritual things by spiritual means and use the word of God when you're delivering your message. And we'll come back to that in one of our other examples in terms of how the apostle Paul did that. The second thing that I wanted to bring out specifically about Philip is later on in the chapter.
In verse 26.
It says The Angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Rise, go toward the South, under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem on to Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went.
This is an important part of being an evangelist, and that is listening to what the Spirit of God wants us to do. And Philip is a great example in this because the Spirit of God said, get up and leave this tremendous field where you're doing all this great work and hundreds, if not thousands of people are coming to the Lord. And I want you to leave the city of Samaria and I want you to go out.
Into the desert where there's nobody.
That's a real strange thing to say to a gospel preacher. I want you to go where there's nobody. But God had a plan, and I think you know it. It's the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, and it will just keep reading here in verse 27, he arose and went and behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of its Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem to for the worship.
It was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. Philip ran thither to him, and heard him. Read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
And he said, how can I accept some man should guide me? He desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
So there's an important lesson here, I think if you're doing gospel work, and that is to be willing to ask questions. I know personally, I have been very ready to assume things about people based on what they look like or where they are. And that's not always a good thing because I assume things and I make mistakes. I don't know exactly what's going on, their thoughts or heart, where they're at, what their.
Experiences the Holy Spirit does, but the way we find out where people are is by getting into a bit of a conversation and asking a few questions. In this case, the Holy Spirit directed Phillip down there and as Philip got close, he saw that this man was reading and he understood it was from the scriptures. And Philip said, do you understand what you're reading?
And that got the conversation going, so.
You need wisdom as to what the Spirit of God would have you to say what question it is, and that's why that closeness to the Lord is important to not have something in between so the Spirit of God can communicate to you what question that you maybe you should ask to help. If the door is open a little bit, go through it and find out what the person is, what they're thinking about is very easy to make an assumption.
And I'll just tell one story to illustrate that point. I once had a conversation with somebody.
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About the Lord for about 10 minutes and after 10 minutes I realized there was something wrong with the conversation and.
Asking them which Lord they believed in, they said it was Allah. And because I was talking about the Lord and not using the name of Jesus, it was very easy to confuse with this Muslim man who was talking about the Lord and he was meaning the Muslim God. So if I had asked questions earlier, I might have understood that this person was actually not speaking the same language I was speaking.
So that's an illustration of the importance of being able to ask questions and understand where people are coming from. Now the next person that I want to talk about is the Apostle Paul.
We'll just turn over to Acts 17 again.
And we'll just watch.
He again starts with individuals, so Acts chapter 17, verse 16.
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he and the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the marketplace and the market daily with them that met with him.
So what Paul was doing was he was alone in this city. Paul, by his nature and by his heart and by his gift, was an evangelist as well as an apostle. And what was he doing? He was finding people, individuals to talk to, and he would get into conversation with them. But what I wanted to look at here is that the conversations grew with more and more people. And what happened next? Verse 18.
Certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him.
Some say, What will this babbler say? Others say some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection, and they took him, and brought him on to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine where of thou speakest is? For they'll bring us certain strange things to our ears. We would know therefore what these things mean.
So.
This conversation that he was having with individuals progressed where there's enough of them that they wanted to know and they wanted to get him having a formal talk with them to show them all at the same time and have a debate and in the Areopagus, which was their sort of religious court, about what Paul was teaching them. And that's what happens in verse 22.
Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things.
Ye are too superstitious, for as I pass by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription through the unknown God Him, therefore ye ignorantly worship. Him I declare unto you.
So Paul moved from talking to individuals to talking to a large group. But the point that I want to make here is that he understood the culture that he was speaking to. And it's a follow on with the discussion that I had are the the point that I was making. But you need to understand the individual that you're talking to. In this case, you need to understand the group of people. And Paul had been in the city long enough to know that they were full.
Of superstition, full of worshipping all kinds of demons and idols.
And he'd found this one in particular that said to the unknown God, in case they've missed one, they had a, they had a idol, a statue, an altar for the God that they didn't know. And Paul used that as a way to introduce the whole gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the point that I'm saying in this is that it's an example of a place where.
Based on what the current culture is the current conversation.
It's a possibility to use what people are talking about to introduce the subject of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel. He did it in front of a great crowd of people and he goes through and he talks from a point of view of what a Gentile person would know. He isn't referring to the Old Testament Scriptures. In fact, he talks to some of some of their own writers and what some of those people actually wrote in their poetry and he used that.
To help bring the gospel message to them in a way that they understand. So when you're talking about the gospel, when you're bringing your message, you try and deliver it in the power of the Holy Spirit in a way that people can understand it by using illustrations that they relate to, maybe from their work.
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Maybe from a joint work, if you're talking to somebody in your work location or in school based on something that you share in common, or maybe it's from sports or whatever it is that the Lord puts on your heart as a way to communicate to those people. So Paul is interesting. There's another aspect of the apostle Paul that is worth looking about looking at, and it touches on one of the things I said in my introduction, and that is our heart. So turn to.
Chapter 9.
Romans Chapter 9 and this is the apostle Paul speaking.
Imagine you're the Apostle Paul and these words are coming out of your heart.
It says here, I say the truth in Christ.
I lie not, my conscience also bear me witness in the Holy Ghost. I have great heaviness and continual sorrel in my heart.
I could wish that myself were cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.
Who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and those and the promises? Whose are the fathers of whom is concerning the flesh? Christ came, who is over all. God bless forever. Amen.
OK, I want to put this into our language.
The apostle Paul is saying.
I wish.
That I could go to hell if the people of my nation could be saved instead.
How strongly do I want my neighbor to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as His own personal Savior?
Would I be willing to go to hell so that my neighbor could go to heaven?
That's an incredible amount of love that Paul had in his heart.
That's an incredible care that Paul had in his heart and I think that it's something that I can personally work on because.
God commends his love toward us, and that while we're yet sinners, Christ died.
And if I'm going to have the heart of Christ in me, I'm going to have some of that desire for the people around me. And that's the kind of thing that will help me who's not naturally an evangelist.
To maybe step up to the plate and do a little bit of the work of an evangelist.
If I have the love of God in my heart, we had this morning in the meeting about the law, the hoss had to love your neighbor as yourself.
In connection with the gospel, am I willing to expose myself so that my neighbor or my friend, my colleague can know about the Lord Jesus? And that's a that's a real challenge. Paul had an incredible burning desire to be a blessing to other people.
Now at the same time as I say that the Lord Jesus was very wise in what he approached things, so is Paul, so is Philip. They understood the people they were talking to and they did not go out of their way to be obnoxious to people. I had an experience with one of my professors once and he was paralyzed from the waist down. He went to a 1967. He went to man and his world in Montreal and there were some Christians there that were handing.
Out gospel tracts and things like that, which I commend them for.
This man was by himself in his wheelchair and they cornered him and he couldn't get away and they forced him to listen.
And he, 20 years later, still resented what had happened to him such that it became a problem for him to hear the Gospel message. And So what I would say in that connection is to be sensitive to what the Spirit of God wants. Peter, when he was in the garden, took his sword and he cut off the servant of the high priest's ear. And I think that there's an illustration in that, that.
We need to be careful when we're talking to people that we don't offend them and we don't cut off their ear. And I think that that's what happened to my French professor. He got his ear cut off by people who had good motives and good desire, but they weren't being considerate the way the Lord Jesus was considerate of the people that he was talking to.
00:50:22
With true love in their hearts. So there's another example that I want to use and I think this is a it's one verse.
It's in First Timothy. Sorry, Second Timothy, chapter one.
And verse 5.
It's not very obvious that this is evangelism, but I think it's a very powerful part of evangelism.
Paul's writing to Timothy, he says in verse 5, second Timothy, chapter one, verse five, when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother loss and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in the also.
This is evangelism. Do the work of an evangelist.
That looks like Sunday school work.
That looks like.
Mom's telling Bible stories to their kids, it looks like. Dad's having family readings, it looks like.
Brothers and sisters telling their younger brothers and sisters about the Lord Jesus. And this is where I want to come back to one of the things that I started with having a good conscience.
That's.
And moms.
What's your relationship like between each other?
What are you teaching your children about the relationship between Christ and his bride, the Church?
What are you teaching them day by day in your reaction to the events that come into your life?
Do they see a vengeful spirit? Do they see a loving spirit? Do they see the Spirit of Christ? What are they seeing?
And so it's a challenge to me, and I hope a challenge to you, that you have a conscience.
Without a fence nor nothing in there interfering between you and God and communicating in the picture that you're communicating to your children because I had a friend that used to say that, you know, preach Christ.
Preach Christ. And if you have to use words now, I think it's essential that you do use words because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
You need to quote the scriptures to your children. You need to encourage them to learn the scriptures. You never know which ones the Spirit of God is going to use to work in their hearts to bring them to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
It's important that our life is consistent before them, that they're not getting a mixed message that Jesus is important to him only on Sunday morning. The rest of the time, something else is far more important.
So.
This is, I think, an essential part of evangelism, the faith that was in the mother and the faith that was in the grandmother and that came down.
Through 2 generations.
The grandmother, the mother and the son. The encouraging part about that is that the father wasn't in the picture.
If the father was anything, he was probably an ungodly Greek. I don't know, but probably.
And God worked through a faithful grandmother and through a faithful mother to bring blessing to Timothy. And you know the blessing that Timothy was to the Christian community.
He's part of the example we're talking about today.
A pastor told to do the gift of the evangelist. It's a beautiful thing to think about. It's something that we really hold out as not to belittle the role of a mother, not to belittle the role of a grandmother. You have the work of an evangelist to do with your own children.
So in wrapping this up, this subject of evangelism.
00:55:02
I'd like to turn to Revelation chapter 3.
The Church of Philadelphia One of the characteristics of this church that continues up until the time Christ comes, this part of the church is in.
Verse 6.
To the Angel of the church in Philadelphia, right these things, saith you that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David.
He that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. It's the idea of an open door. There's an opportunity and.
It's one of the things that you can ask for in evangelism.
Ask the Lord to give you opportunity.
He wants to see people come to blessing, come to know Him as their own personal Lord and Savior. He wants to be the one that takes away their burden. And that's what you can really communicate with them. Is that what Jesus has done for you?
There's a him that I think all of us know.
I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus since I found in Him a friend so strong and true. I would tell you how He changed my life completely. He did something that no other friend could do. No one ever cared for me like Jesus. There's no other friend so kind as He. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me.
Oh, how much he cared.
For me.
That's our message that we have is my personal message. How well do I know him? Not nearly well enough, but I know him well enough to know that he loves you, he loves me, loves my neighbor.
And I know that he is this kind of a friend. He allows me more than Tongue can tell.
He loved me enough to die for me.
He has a desire to bring blessing and if you ask him to open the door.
They'll do that.
I know a lady.
In her 80s.
Home alone most of the time, not much people contact.
She asked the Lord for an opportunity.
To witness to somebody and that day she had to go and take a car and get the snow tires changed. Those of us who live in Canada often put snow tires on in the winter time and she asked the Lord for an opportunity to witness to somebody.
Took her car in, drops it off. They called Uber. Give her a drive home, they said we'll call Uber. On the way back. She gets into the car. The Uber driver is a Muslim and.
Asked her how long she lived in Ottawa and she said I've been living here since 1961. He was impressed that she'd lived there that long, he said, Can you give me some advice?
For life.
He got some advice for life about Jesus Christ. She asked for an opportunity in her life.
She got given it later that day.
That's the kind of God we work for. That's the kind of God that's our friend. Excuse me?
We're here on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To be appealing to people, to see them reconciled to God. Christ has done the work. The doors open wide.
Ask, it'll be given to you and then the other thing that I'd say.
One waters.
One plants, God gives the increase. Just do what God wants you to do.
On that day, it's not your job to save anybody. The only exception potentially is if you have an unsaved husband or wife. The scripture says you might be able to be used to save your wife. Save your husband. Beautiful thing to think and meditate on. But finally, Hebrews 10.
Hebrews, chapter 10.
01:00:01
Verse 35.
Cast not away, therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little while he that shall come will come, and will not parry.
Now the just shall live by faith. The Lord is coming. Scripture tells us He is faithful, that He will not forget about our labor, what we have done for him, that there will be a reward. And so I put that forward to you, as well as encouragement for each one of us. We've not been given a spirit of fear. We have the Holy Spirit inside to give us courage.
We have a resource in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can pray at any time.
Ask the questions, be willing to open up. Speak about what you know, the person that you know, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Take the opportunity to tell them about the Lord Jesus and God will give the increase.
Let's pray. Our God and Father, we just come to you now and thank you for the message that Jesus came to heaven from heaven to share. Pray that thou help us to have our hearts filled with love for Him and as a result, to love our neighbors, people in the community, our brothers and sisters in Christ. That we would encourage one another to be followers of the Lord Jesus and obedient to Your Holy Spirit, to know what you would have us to do to walk through open doors.
When appropriate to have the discernment and wisdom to walk and act for the Lord Jesus Christ here to do the work of evangelists. And we ask for your blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Galatians 6:7-18
Reading
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283.
283.
Our richest king without.
The love.
I forgotten.
All our.
Crime.
All right.
Things that join us, the souls.
Sacrifice.
To your face.
From his side is nothing to say.
Sorry.
I love God.
Make Love.
And there's such a smile and sorrow.
Is hard horns come all the time.
Where the whole ground?
Of nature.
I'm afraid to swallow what that transcends.
Our violence.
Our deep hands are so hard.
We just pray.
Should we go on with Galatians chapter 6?
I think we're down to maybe verse 7.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 7.
Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth that shall, he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary and well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
You see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised to keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the word, the world was crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, and as many as walk according to this rule. Peace be unto, peace be on them, and mercy and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, Amen.
00:05:00
So right in the center of this section about.
Giving.
Which began with verse 6.
Communicating to the one who teaches and ends.
In verse 10 with doing good.
To all really sewing, it's it's it's not just giving money, but sewing whatever it might be that is good.
The apostle brings out then this principle, sowing and reaping has, as we saw, both a positive and a negative side, and he takes this opportunity to.
Point out again about the flesh and so we have the flesh and that was taken up and some length in chapter five with the flesh and the spirit there and the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit and now he's making the point that.
It's not just a matter of giving in these other things, but we can also be giving or sewing in our own lives, and we can sew in a good way.
We can sew towards that which is of the Spirit, or we can sew towards that which is of the flesh, and these things then have.
A reaping. There's it's a principle, spiritual principle and the things of God that there is a reaping for what we do.
Very important that we realize that because.
Sometimes we're apartment to think that we can just go on and do things and they're hidden away in our lives and it's not going to have a consequence. But the teaching of Scripture is that there is a reaping in our lives here on earth and so is Christians. We have to be very aware of that and take care to live our lives for the Lord. And so to the Spirit says in Romans 8 that if you.
Live according to the flesh, he shall die. That's the idea of spiritual death that goes on. And here it's reaping corruption. But then if we so do the spirit or live according to the Spirit, he says you shall live. And so there's a life and and a reaping that goes on that increases for the Christian and we can go one way or the other.
I would take it too in the context that the sewing to the flash is more the thought of selfishness and living for myself than the sowing to the Spirit is more to what we had in verse six and again in verse 10. Because verse nine goes on says let us not be weary and well doing.
And so this is the idea of giving, which is what the gospel is and what we have in Christianity. It's grace. It's what the law didn't do, The law demanded, but it didn't get. And as Christians by grace were given all things, and we are to according to that. And there is this idea of sewing out Brother Rob whispering before us very vividly the need to sow the good seeds.
The gospel, and this goes along well with what He's saying. Let us not be weary and well doing for due season. We shall reap if we faint not, or maybe we won't see it here in this world, but something that we sowed for the Lord is going to be reaped and we'll find out about that in eternity. That's the Lord's work, His business. And how many times has that been done? And maybe we haven't seen anything, but eventually there's going to be that realization of the reward.
We have the same expression, not deceived.
In Corinthians in a couple of places and I won't, we won't spend time looking at that, but just for meditation, particularly for parents and the point I want to make about.
Being deceived, it says be not deceived.
But the whole concept of planting and harvesting it takes time.
So you put the seed in in the spring, you get a crop in the harvest at the end of the summer. There's a period of months that go, go along. And we can all relate to that. We have all of us who have a garden, we understand that if we put squash seeds in and and may then in September we might see some squash that we can harvest. So there's a result that happens, but it takes time. And so we all make decisions, particularly as parents.
00:10:10
How we raise our children, what we allow and the things that the exercises that we have today will result in a fruit down the road. We can't see the end of the story now. That's why it says be not deceived because it can look like it's not important or look like a little thing, but what's the end result going to be?
And so.
Those of us that are a little bit older, we've seen the consequences that people have made that have affected their families years. And so we can benefit from the word of God by being exercised before the Lord as to what we sow.
In our lives because there's going to be a reaping.
And so, yes, there is a positive side. We've talked about that. But this is, I think, a negative thing because none of us likes to be deceived. And if you look in Timothy, you'll see that it says the woman was deceived, doesn't mention her name. We talked about that he was the responsible, but it says the woman was deceived. And so none of us want to be deceived. We want to sow good things. We want good results.
We want blessing, we all want those things, but we need to be careful. And that's why verses like this are very important, because they get to our hearts because that's what the Lord wants. He wants our affections. He wants us to make investments now for Him.
Result in an increase later.
The world has a standard.
And.
In the the country that we live in, there's this thing called the American Dream. And you come here, you work hard and you can become very prosperous and get a lot of money and then you can live life to the fullest. And that is the American Dream. And what is in this world oftentimes, if we're honest, permeates into our hearts, becomes us. It takes up a very similar subject to what we find here.
About amassing treasure. And there is a danger of looking at the culture that we live in and saying that is truly life and following after that trying to amass treasure, treasure, trying to amass the enjoyments of this world presently.
And in regards to spiritual things, spiritual giving, like we have in context right here, we're stinging and what what will that result in? Well, that will result in having treasures where a thief can come in and laws can destroy is only for this present life and what is truly life is found in.
Being diligent and divine things, not being stingy with our money. There's a difference between being.
Frugal.
And being stingy, it's good to be frugal. It's good not to just live to, to excess, but it's good not to be stingy with our brethren and, and, and living and not being stingy and, and giving money to those who minister, giving money to the Saints, being hospitable, you're going to have less money in your bank account to do the things that you might want to do.
But there's going to be a future reward, and that's his point here. You can either enjoy present difficulty, present corruption, or you can enjoy future gain. And that game deals with eternal life. So it's something that we enjoy presently, but in a future day, it's going to be realized in its fullest. And then he goes on in verse nine. And let us not grow weary.
Doing good for in due season. If we're looking for a reward now, we're going to grow weary and that reward is going to fail us because we're not going to. We're not going to give joyfully. We love the tearful giver.
So if we do it and don't grow weary in it, then there's something in the future that the Lord is going to reward us and He will be no man's debtor. But we have to have our eyes there. Our eyes are here. Then we're going to just read the corruption.
But Joe, it takes faith to believe that.
It takes faith to to act on that proverb that tells us a little more about that. There is that scattering and yet increasing.
00:15:11
Wow.
You wouldn't think so, right? Say you're throwing your money away, you're throwing your time away. There is that scattereth and yet increases, and there is that withholdeth more than his meat, but it tendeth to poverty. This is how God looks at it.
Because the Lord said. And so it is with those that are not rich towards God, not the way other people see things, but the way God sees things.
And it takes faith to understand that and to act God.
Would I be right to conclude that we don't have the option of stalling nothing We're going to be doing one or the other.
I think there's a basic principle here too that.
Along with what brother Paul was saying that when you.
So it involves death. The seed dies and there may be things that we have to die to. We are primarily sewing ourselves and that's what the Lord did, Set the corn of wheat fall onto the ground and diet and fight it alone. Either diet bring it forth much fruit. And so there was a tremendous reaping, but only as a result of what He did and sometimes what we have here.
Perhaps all the time, maybe require that entire giving up of that which we want in the flesh so that we can.
Read that which is spiritual.
I, I think there's mutually exclusive things that way as well, Rob that.
It's not just doing one or the other, but the one actually.
Ends up being death to the other and.
It says we'll, we'll reap if we faint not in the Lord Jesus went all the way through with it at the cross, didn't he, till he gave his life. And as a result of that we all have life. And for us it could be many things in our lives, things that are dear to us that we cherish, that we have to give up.
Maybe for our family, our wife, maybe for the Lord, it's the assembly and then there's blessing that comes. So if we selfishly hold on to that, it's going to.
Result in a loss.
I think the comment that you made, Henry, about the requirement for faith is important to this discussion.
I think of the words of Jim Elliott, who gave his life in Ecuador for the sake of the Gospel, who said he is no fool who gives that what she cannot keep for that which cannot lose.
And.
You think of Abraham, who left everything he had in her of the calise, to wander in the deserts.
In the land of.
Canaan for a promise that he didn't really receive.
He was searching for a city whose foundation and maker was gone.
Dwelt in tents his whole life.
Will he be rewarded for what he did? He's already counted the father of the faithful. He's counted as a wise man and as a good example.
And after leaving an eternity, that it will show that his decision to obey God and give up what he could see, what he could lay his hands on for a promise.
Of millions when he only had one.
With an act of faith. And I think that that's very relevant for this discussion because I know in my own heart the appeal of things around us and what I possess is huge.
And the reality of eternity doesn't always seem that real to me.
Even though in my head I know that the eternity is much greater and yet when making a present decision.
Very often the things that are.
In the here and now way much bigger than that which is far off and I can't see very well.
00:20:08
So we have time, we have opportunity in verse 10 says, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are the household of faith.
So that is the end conclusion of this, that we should take our time to do this good. And the question is what is the good and should we go around trying to make the world a better place and try to help everybody we can with with money, with food, with clothes and make the assembly into it, you know, a good outreach organization to help everybody.
And the answer is no, it's not saying that.
We want to know how to take everything in this chapter and balance we do, like we do with the rest of Scripture. We look at the Lord and see what He did.
The Lord had the ability to go and fix all the rights in the world, to take all the poverty and eliminate it. He had the ability to do that, and he went around doing good. But what was his mission and his objective? It was to tell man about their need. It was to present them with the gospel. It was to actually bring them into the light of God's presence so that they would know.
What was important for eternity and all that he did had that goal as the end point. And so there's a balance here, isn't it? Paul went around, he did the same, He helped people, but he spent his time preaching the gospel, teaching the Saints, and really ministering to the greatest need of all. And that was spiritual, but not neglecting the others. So we have to take this in order and we do have opportunity. There are those with.
Real physical needs around us, and we've got the ability to help them, and we need to do that, but not to neglect to do the other, and not to get so wrapped up with good works that we're forgetting by far the more important thing, the need of a soul for eternity.
Just want to make a quick point about that beginning of verse 10.
Opportunity or or occasion? Just thinking as someone who has lost a lot of occasions or opportunities in my life. The Spirit of God speaks to every believer.
Many times.
In very particular ways and gives us occasions where he presses on our heart.
A need and disturbance, spiritual need and physical needs. But I think more importantly, the Lord puts you in contact with with souls.
Maybe even on a daily basis. And each one of them is an opportunity.
For you to point someone to the Lord Jesus and you're never going to have that that opportunity again. So to be sensitive to the pull of the Holy Spirit from your heart.
When the Lord speaks to you and not just to say I'll take care of that tomorrow because there are many opportunities that are lost because we don't listen to the Lord.
Well, the next section we have here goes on to a matter of urgency, which really was at the heart of this epistle, and that was that there were those who were preaching against the cross of Christ, and they were taking up with the law, and they were doing it so that they might glory in others.
And this all denied the gospel, and it was to the ruin of the Saints. And so the apostle starts.
In verse 11, by saying, you see how large a letter I've written unto you with my known hand. He normally used others to write the letters, but it seemed like there was a matter of urgency that caused him to just go ahead.
Forced by the spirit of God and write to them in a large letter, perhaps also emphasizing the points, but.
In his own hand and not wait until it could be written out by another and then he goes on to.
Bring out these ones who were troubling them, and speak about that again, which he already had earlier in the epistle.
00:25:08
As in chapter 5 verse 12 it says I would that they were even cut off which trouble you?
So we see a little bit more of what these ones we're trying to do and going about corrupting the gospel and corrupting the Saints, corrupting Christianity itself. And the apostle urges the Galatians to listen to what this teaching is, what this truth is, that liberty that we have in Christ, that life that we have, the Object, the spirit that we're called to walk in and not to go on with that error.
I think this verse gives us this. 11Th verse. 12Th verse.
Gives us one of the keys to why we struggle personally.
In my life, you and your life, and collectively with recognizing the awful sinfulness of legality.
And it says as many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh.
Oftentimes when we when we take up with we.
Reality it's for.
A shortcut to appear godly or spiritual or holy. The two great difficulties that are taken up in Galatians are justification by law, keeping by meriting, or the second thing is trying to gain or merit holiness.
Separation from sin through legality. Can the law or can can I do something to make myself holier, more spiritual? And when we look at licentiousness, when we look at the world, when we look at things that are taken up in in First Corinthians chapter 5, we all can see that we all see it for what it is. It's it's a horrible scent.
But when it comes to legality, we so often give it a pass because it plays the part. It looks good, it doesn't look so bad, and yet in reality it's far worse than what we have in First Corinthians 5.
It's far worse than licentiousness because that never claims to be from God. That never claims to be godly, and yet legality does. And just like licentiousness sets aside the cross of Christ.
Legality, as Rob read to us from the 2nd chapter 20 first verse, legality sets aside the cross of Christ. It makes Christ death, vanity and vain. So for us individually and collectively, when we see legality in our lives and we all have a legal flesh and when we see legality collectively.
We need to recognize it for what it is not. Don't give it a pass. Help the individual to see the whole point of this entire epistle and why it is written for the benefit of the individual, for the benefit of the Church, the body of Christ, for the benefit of Christ himself.
Joe, how do I recognize legality? Sorry, maybe I missed it. What? What is legality?
Legality at its core is, is just meriting. It's it's seeking to earn through the flesh a place before God. Either through justification, I can, I can stand before God on my own righteousness. That's that's the Old Testament legality, or I can become closer to God because I'm doing something.
And legality has many strengths to it. There can be personal legality. We take those two core principles and apply them to your life as legality. You take those two core principles and try to apply them to somebody else's life.
Absent faith, that's legality. You take something that is extra biblical, not in the Word of God, and try to make somebody do that under the assumption that that is going to make them more godly or holy or more loved by God. That's legality. There's there's many facets to legality, but almost all of them come back. I believe all of them come back to those two strains. Justification by faith or seeking to get a little closer to God on my own merit.
00:30:15
Thank you.
How about the second part of this question? How do we recognize?
Oftentimes we cannot recognize it in somebody else. You could have two people doing something that's the same thing.
And one of them is doing it in faith, and one of them is doing it with a legal mind.
Sometimes you can recognize it in somebody else, like if somebody is is trying to present extra biblical doctrine as a manner of life, that is obviously very easy to say. Does the Bible say it? If it doesn't, that's obviously legality. So in regards to that first way, what we can do is we can see it for ourselves. What is our spirit? What is our heart? Why am I doing it? Am I doing it because.
Brother so and so said I should be doing it. That's not big.
Am I doing it because I think that I could be a little more godly if I do this? That's not me. Am I doing it because I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ would have to do that? That's the then.
Don't do that. But if it's these other reasons that we're doing something, it rises only to the level of a fair show in the flesh.
So legality too is that which gives the 1St man a place is.
Says that I as a person have a place before God or before man, according to Meredith, because of what I have done.
That's basically what it is and whatever form it takes. And the cross says the first name is no place because we we. Thus judge Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 5 that if one died for all, then we're all dead. That means there was nobody who could take the place of having merit in any sense.
We all needed the cross.
The Lord Jesus had to die for everyone of us.
And so the cross entirely sets aside the 1St man.
And wherever the principle of legality is taken up one sense or another, there's a persecution against those who only recognize the cross. That was primarily the primarily the Jews in that day. And that's what he's talking about, the end of verse 12.
Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. And so when they were preaching the cross of Christ, the Jews persecuted them no end, because that meant there was nothing that the law could do for them, and the Jew assisted that it could. And that principals spend there ever since. And that was really, I think, the main teaching, the end of chapter 4, the the bond woman persecuting the child of the free woman, and that.
The principle of law and those who take up with it, there's always an opposition to the Pure sovereign grace of God based on the cross of Christ. And so these ones didn't want to suffer persecution. And so they weren't taking up with just the cross of Christ. Whatever part they recognized, they were taking up with the principle of law. And lo and behold, they found the Jews had no problem with that, and neither than anybody else who was taking up with this principle. But if we're going to be faithful to the Scripture, we go down.
And verse 14 but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has crucified them to me and I into the world. And so first of all, the cross of Christ is put me away. It showed that I was dead, but it also completely separates me from the world and all of its principle. And there's no compromise there. The law has to do with the world and Christians taking up with the law. It's a worldly principle.
But he says no, we take up with the cross. That shows that I have no standing before God and myself. Neither does anyone else. All that I have is in Christ. All of my hopes are based on what he did on the cross, and that's an offense to the first man. But we have to take up our identification with that.
Cortana takes up the the underlying reason why men take up with legality, and it's because there is a satisfaction to the flesh when you can get somebody to conform to your standard.
00:35:07
So these ones would say that you need to get circumcised. And the apostle Paul points out that they're requiring stringently that you do XY and Z and yet they don't keep the law. And the reason that they were requiring that you do XY and Z is so they could sit back and they could be.
Your the ones who had dominion over your faith.
And it was for the satisfaction of flesh, which is what this polar pistol takes out the flesh and the world to save us from this present evil world. The 1St chapter verse four presents.
So when we take up with law and we get to the bottom of our motive, this is the this is what the Spirit of God presents to us as the bottom of our motor is a desire to have dominion over flesh.
To enjoy or have satisfaction in the flesh over once conforming to my standard.
Henry, part of the question, part of the answer to the question that I asked is how do you tell? It might be in verse 13, and if there's an inconsistency in Application for the Pharisees, it came out as hypocrisy that they would apply to other people and not do it themselves.
And I suspect that is a consistent characteristic because the flesh doesn't like doing hard things unless it's getting glory from it, so it'll excuse itself where it's unpleasant and thinks it can get away with it. Very happy to apply to other people.
So the whole principle of the world's religion.
Is do started with pain?
That which he did with his own hands, and it's been so ever since. And of course the principle of Christianity is done. The Lord Jesus said it is finished. Nothing more could be done.
And that separates everything. So he takes that up as well. It's helpful to see that in verse 14. It's not just the flesh there, but he's speaking about the world.
The the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is crucified unto me.
It was that world that hated what the Lord said that put him on the cross. They did away with him. I said we won't have that.
They wouldn't have the remedy of the cross either.
But he says I'm crucified, that the world is well, he said. And so far as I identify with the world, they would want to put me there with him.
And then as far as I'm concerned, the world is crucified to me. He said, they're the ones who put my Savior there. I want nothing to do with that. And so the cross completely separates us from the world. Now, we may not live that way. This verse may be very condemning, but we need to look at it. And this is a reality.
We're identified with Christ, and that's where, as far as this world is concerned that the career of the Lord Jesus Christ ended was at the cross. They never saw him again, and we're connected with him.
Our life is bound up with His. His life is now in heaven. We're hid with Christ in God. And if we're truly going to identify with the Lord Jesus Christ, what part do we have with this world? It's exactly as His first says. It's something every one of us needs to consider as to how.
Far we actually take our place with the one who died for us.
Define the world. It's not the world as the earth or the the.
People that live at the gospel or the message that evangelist preaching the gospel to the world. So what? What is it? The world here that is?
It's a world system, isn't it, Brother Phil?
That which came, went out and did is He made himself happy away from the presence of the Lord, and set up things that would be for the pleasure of man away from God, and that has existed ever since. He meant again after the flood, because that's where the heart of man is.
00:40:02
But.
Yeah, I think that's an important distinction. Thank you.
What you have in First Giant chapter 2.
Right there for a second.
Speaks there first, John two of.
Verse 15 Love not the things. Love not the world.
This isn't John B16. I also love the world, is it? That's the point you're making. And God loved all the people in the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son. But this is the world system that is talking about love, not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
And they love the world. The love of the Father is not in Him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abided forever. And so it really is that system of things that exist here apart from God and his Christ, to make man in the flesh happy.
The cross is the great common denominator, the answer to this entire epistle.
It's what puts every believer on a single plane, and there's not one believer who God loves anymore or any less than any other one, and there's not one believer who can do anything more to earn favor before God. Everyone can come back to this cross and this cross alone and say Jesus did it, Christ did it, it's Christ in the cross, and anything that I attained is not me that attained.
It is Christ and his work, his life that attained it. And so the believer doesn't glory, doesn't boast, doesn't say look what I've done, look at them. Look how spiritual I am. Look how, look how depraved these, these poor believers are that that's the flesh. The believer says the cross in Christ, that's where he always comes back to. That's his boast. But when we take up with the principle that this epistle is dealing with, it will always segregate.
And almost always we are going to be at the pinnacle of that segregation.
Now we said that the cross is that what separates us from the world?
He also said that it was that would separate or that which shows that the flesh has no standing, no place before God that is condemned and that you get in verse 15. It says for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but and it should be a new creation. You're saying the only thing that avails in Christ Jesus is that new life, the new creation, that which is his own life, that which which we have in Galatians 2 verse 20.
That's the only thing that God will accept.
The flesh is entirely put away before God and he goes on and says in verse 16 and as many peace be on them in mercy and upon the Israel of God. Now what is this rule? We had a law in verse two and now we've got a rule in verse 16. You might wonder like laws and rules. I thought we're saying we're not under law. Well, in in verse two, as we saw law was the law of Christ and that is that you love one another.
And here it's this rule that is the rule of the new creation. It's connected with the end of verse 15. In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation, and as many as walk according to this rule, peace beyond them, and mercy on the Israel of God. And so there is an order of that life.
That rule of that life, and that is.
That it has the Lord Jesus Christ himself as its object. He's not only the life, but he's the object of that life. And if we walk according to that rule of the new creation life that we have in him, he says, he said there's going to be peace that the law didn't bring. There was no peace under the law. But walking with that life that we have according to the Lord Jesus as our object, there'll be peace on them. And he's speaking mainly to Gentiles, so he says.
And mercy and upon the Israel of God, that is the Jews who had believed, that's the Israel of God referred to here.
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And so there is peace and there is everything that we seek and and mercy and found in Christ with that new life that we have.
We are called off to be of one mind. Flippians 2/5.
I think guys in with what you're saying.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Form of God thought not robbery be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation took upon him. The form of a servant was made in the likeness of man. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. If that's the mind that we have, there will be peace.
Not too many of us that can say like Paul said in verse 17, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. When you read about the number of times he was beaten, the number of times he was shipwrecked.
The stoning that he went through.
All those different sufferings and the marks that they would have left in his body.
There was a goalie once in NHL hockey player.
And he invented the first face mask and every time he got hit in his face mask, he would take a marker and he would put a black line and put stitches, stitch marks across them. And his his face got blacker and blacker and blacker because there are more and more places where his face was saved. But he would have had scars and the Apostle Paul would have had a face that looked like that, would have had a back that was scarred and a body that was scarred for the sake of the Lord Jesus.
And for the sake of the cross of Christ.
And the apostle points this out because.
These false teachers were trying to put marks in the bodies of the Christians.
And it was so they would escape persecution. Paul says, don't trouble me. I've identified with Christ. And that's why I actually bear marks in my body. And if you're going to be faithful to the Lord, you're not going to have the cutting off of circumcision. You're going to have some actual scars for him. And Paul just points that out because they could make no such claim. There's a reality to Christianity. The other is completely false. And so he brings this in at the end. And then he says in verse 18.
Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit. And this is what we need as well, because.
These subjects that we've been talking about, there can be a lot of contention and we could take up these things in the wrong spirit.
And really do a lot of damage to the truth. But we need the grace of the Lord Jesus to be with our Spirit so that we can take it up in a right way. First of all for ourselves and then for the benefit of others.
We sing #47.
May grace, free grace, inspire our souls with strength. Divine every thought to God. Inspire and grace can serve design.
Praise.
Wandering things to tread the heavenly world.
And do surprise each Caribbean walk around.
Turn off towards grace. I gave my still alive.
New all by burning stuff.
For our souls with straight divine.
Every thought you thought.
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That God will marry his grace for God till we have one a day.
May pray, grace and start our souls and strengthen God. May every thought you've gone aside.
And service shine.
We pray God and our Father, we thank you for that free grace that found us and all of our deed and lifted us up to thee. We thank thee for the Lord Jesus Christ who came here into this world of sin and woe and and this place died.
At the cross gave up everything so that we might live. We thank you for that grace. It has come because of His work. We pray our God and our Father. That is, we have considered it again here, that it would have more of an effect in our hearts and lives, and that our eyes would be more characterized by it, that we would become more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we thank you for this time that we had together. We further commit our time to Thee.
Just give thee thanks to.
Or the the meal that were to take off shortly, thanking thee for the food, for the fellowship and all thy mercies to us, our God, we give thee thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
Three Captains and Their Fifties
Offence
Open—Tim Ruga
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Just a verse here.
Verse 21.
It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
First Corinthians, chapter 8.
And verse 13.
Wherefore.
If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend now.
We actually considered these two passages here locally about, I don't know, one or two years ago and.
What we are considering about this was what the word offence means, and that is.
Basically, what's on my heart now, but to just speak about one part of that and what we were talking about then was that this word offense has really got this. The idea of making one to stumble and in particular making a brother to stumble over something where they have the word of God for what they are doing.
And maybe they don't see clear to Christian liberty the way I do.
And and so I ignore their conscience in the matter and I make them to Istanbul. This word offence I understand means really it's more along the lines of scandal to scandalize someone. I think it's actually that's the word in in Greek scandalous or something like that. And.
It isn't the idea of just saying something that gets somebody upset. That's the way we use the word offense today. And that isn't the scriptural meaning of this word offense. It really is speaking about where in the case of Romans is taking up more the case of a Jew who got saved and there they had the word of God that said they weren't to eat certain meats.
And they knew that. And of course they came into Christianity by trusting in Christ.
And having done that, they didn't yet know the scripture and what the scripture said as far as that we're free to eat all meats. And what we just had in our local reading here in Timothy, that all, all these things are made by God to be received with Thanksgiving and so not being delivered into that Christian liberty. This one, if I'm going to go eat in front of them like Paul says.
Then I could really stumble them and.
And Paul wasn't going to do that. He's going to wait until they could see the liberty that they've been brought into in Christianity, and then he's going to maybe do it, but he's certainly not going to do anything that would stumble this weak brother or sister. And then in Corinthians here, it's maybe more the case of one who was saved from the Gentiles, a heathen who had worshipped idols or eaten things offered to idols, and now this one got.
And they have a conscience about that. They're not yet delivered into this fact that the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, and it all belongs to Him. And therefore, even if it was offered to an idol, then it's still the Lord's. I can't change that. It doesn't belong to the idol. And so you might have liberty to do that as a Christian, but to do that in front of people have weak consciences. He said that legitimately.
Would hurt them and Paul wouldn't do it. And that, I believe, is really the meaning. And I think it's a really important distinction.
That was helpful for me to see when we came to that and to understand it doesn't mean that anything that gets me upset that I might hold over you or anything that gets you upset that you might hold over me so that we can just get our way any matter. Although we should certainly in love consider one another. There's no question about that.
So I just wanted to look a little bit more at this word offense and if we could go over to first Peter chapter two, I think.
We really have the thought there.
This here is in first Peter Two. It speaks about the Lord.
And it says about him in verse 7. Unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious.
But unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence. So we say the fence has the thought of of maybe causing someone to trap or fall. And that really is the thought. Here we have a stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence. They both are talking about roughly the same thing, maybe different.
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Breeze of it stone of stumbling is the one that would cause someone to trap and the Jews, of course, they didn't recognize who the Lord Jesus was and so he was that one who made many of them trip and not only trip, but this rock of offence, they actually fell on that rock. And you get the idea that they both have a similar thought in what follows because it says.
Even to them would stumble at the word being disobedient.
And so both of these stone assembling the rock of offence caused stumbling.
May be different degrees of it and they as Jews wanted to have a Messiah that would lead them to victory, give them whatever they wanted take care of all their needs. Those things that were prophesied in the Old Testament. But what they didn't want was a Messiah who would tell them about sin and their guilt before God and the remedy for that sin and so they were offended at the Lord Jesus Christ and it's important to see that because.
That's not the way we think of offended other than we say, well, they just got upset with him.
But we think there's never to be any offence. Well, the Lord Jesus gave offence to the Jews. And if we just go, we can look at number verses that show this if we go to Mark chapter 6.
Chapter 6 and verse three we find what the people were saying about the Lord Jesus said, is not this the Carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judah and Simon and are not his sisters here with us and they were offended at him.
And so this shows that.
It's the same word they were stumbled about that it wasn't just that they were.
Upset at what he was saying that isn't the thought here, but they they were stumbled at his words and it can include the idea of being upset certainly can. And we are going to see that in just another. In fact, let's go over to Luke Chapter 7.
I think we have it there.
Well, we'll go on and find it, but the Lord in Luke 723 says blessed is he, whoever, whosoever, shall not be offended in me. And so they were upset at what he said. They were upset at who he was. They were upset that he came as a lowly carpenter's son into Galilee. These were things that of course caused them to stumble, is that this can't be the Messiah, can't be the one who claims to be. They were offended that he.
To be God, even all of these things cause offended offense to them because they wouldn't accept who he actually was.
And it's an important thing to say about the Lord Jesus, because when you consider the Jews and how they were offended.
It's important to understand that their offense came as a result of their wrong thought, not because of the Word of God. The Lord Jesus came with every proof of scripture.
And everything he did and everything he said was perfectly in accordance with God and His Word. And so all the offence came when people could not see or refuse to see that what he said was right.
And that he was who he claimed to be, and that it was according to the Word of God. Let's go over now to Matthew chapter 13.
We have a similar verse there at the end of.
Verse at the end of the chapter. Verse 56 his sisters, are they not all with us?
Well, verse 55, is not this the carpenter's son?
The sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him?
Again you see that they were upset with the Lord Jesus and you find this word offence. If you look it up and I did, maybe you can tell that.
Over and over and again in connection with the Lord Jesus.
He really offended people and the question is, is offense wrong or is it something that is right in its place? And when you see it in connection with the Lord Jesus, I hope we all understand.
That in every case with him, there was nothing on his side that was wrong when there was a fence Scover. Just a chapter 15 here.
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In verse 12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying, Now the Lord is speaking to them, and he's talking about things that go into a man, and and that which comes out is what defiles. And the Pharisees heard all of that and they got really offended.
And we could look at this a little bit more here as to what the Lord is speaking about, but if you go to the beginning of chapter 15, you'll see.
That is talking about the washing of hands and the tradition of the elders. And this is what it was that the Lord wasn't doing. He was not going along with the traditions of the elders, but instead He was speaking that which was true from God, and that's what they got offended at.
And that is the right kind of offense. If there has to be an offense or theirs was the absolute wrong thing to be offended about, it's because they refused what the Lord said.
And I just want to look at a couple of examples that we had just briefly in our Sunday school class not long ago. It was in Luke Chapter 11. Some distinctions there that I found personally helpful. I just want to pass them along.
Go to Luke Chapter 11.
And we have possibly the same story.
And.
There we have in verse 37.
Says as he that's the Lord Jesus speak. A certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him, and he went in and sat down to me. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.
And the Lord said unto him, Now thee Pharisees, may clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without?
Make that which is within also.
But rather give alms of such things as you have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye tithe, mint, and rue, in all manner of herbs, and Passover judgment, and the love of God.
These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
And now if we can just go down to verse 45, then answered one of the lawyers and sat on to him, master, thus saying thou reproach us also. And I just read that last verse because that shows that they were offended. They they said you're approaching us as well and they don't like it. They didn't like it at all. And of course you see the words that the Lord Jesus is using.
Fools.
Words like that, I'm sure the Lord said that in the perfect way. He didn't have any flesh to be involved in that. If I were to say words like that, probably my flesh would be involved somehow, but never with Him.
But just to look and see, I think we have two different things in in the offense that the Lord was giving to the Pharisees here and.
These things are to me, they were very helpful. The 1St is about not washing the hands when he sat down to eat and they were making a deal of it. They were, they were marveling. They hadn't done it. He should have done it. We saw on the other passage it was the tradition of the elders.
This was something that you did. It was really important. He didn't do it. And so they were making a big deal about it. And the Lord, he had no time for that. It wasn't the word of God. They were pressing it.
And he calls them what they were and he calls out what they were doing. They were all concerned with that which was external. And he said, no, no, no. That's the thing. It's what's inside that's important here, not this external thing. That's your tradition that is not found in the Word of God. And He brings it very definitely before him and offended them.
And I just say that because we need to be very careful. What it is that offends you and me. Is it something that is tradition?
Or is it something that we're being confronted with that is in the Word of God?
If it's not in the Word of God, it's just tradition and it offends me that I need to examine myself. That's the position these Pharisees were in. This isn't at all the case of First Corinthians chapter 8.
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Or Romans chapter 14.
This is a very different case. This is those who did not have the word of God and they were pushing, they were pushing tradition instead. And so the Lord Jesus speaks to them very strongly. But now just one more thing, the second example that we read in verse 42.
He says, Woe unto you Pharisees, for ye tithe mint and rue in all manner of herbs, and Passover judgment in the love of God. These ought ye two have done, and not to leave the other undone. There's two things here that I just want to make a point about first of all.
The Lord Jesus.
Didn't call them out for it. He didn't say they were wrong about the tithing of Mint and Row. And when you look at that.
They could have had scripture for doing that.
And if that was their personal exercise and that's what they were doing because they felt that that was right according to what was in the word of God, the Lord wasn't going to say they were wrong. You don't find that they were forcing others to tie mint and rue. It doesn't say that that's what they were doing, and the Lord doesn't call them out in the same way for that.
You could take, I don't know, it's Genesis chapter 18 maybe.
Where Abraham meets the king of Salem and his name is Melchizedek, right? And he gave ties of all it says there. And so it you could take that and say, well, he gave ties of everything. So even if it's little things like mint and Roux, I should give ties of that. And, and this seems to have been what their practice was. Of course, you find out in Hebrews, it gave ties of the spoil. Spirit of God tells us it wasn't everything, it was just the spoil.
You know Abraham had recovered.
But a Jew could just go to Genesis and say what doesn't say that it only says, you know, gave them tithes of all. And so I should do that as well. And in fact, it looks like the man in Luke 18, the the the Pharisee who's there with the Republican, remember, and and the publican wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, but he said, God be merciful to me, a Sinner. But the Pharisee was proud and he stood there and he says he fast twice in the week and he gives ties of all that he possesses, he says.
So it looked like that might have been their thought and the Lord doesn't condemn them. So if that's what you got from the Word of God and you're just doing that yourself, that's fine. He's not going to condemn him. But what he does condemn him for here is that there was something that was definitely in the Word of God and they weren't doing it and was very big. The other was a little thing, and the Lord doesn't set aside the little thing. He says this ought you to have done.
And so good. That was your exercise. That was there in the word of God. You, you believe you saw it there, then you should have done it.
But not leave the other undone. And what was the other was those big things, And he calls it judgment and love of God.
These were the weighty matters of the law that you couldn't miss. You could not miss that That's what God wanted done. And they were passing over that and focusing in on these little things and making that the big deal. And the Lord doesn't take away the little things. Yeah, do that. You should do that. But this big thing that God is looking for, that's clear and unmistakable in the Word of God.
How come you're not doing that? That's what you should be doing.
That's what offended them because they didn't accept it.
What about us today? Are we offended about just what is in the Word of God?
Or do we have other things that we add to it that we demand that they be done too, and if not, we're offended?
It's a real challenge. It's a challenge for me. I'm not just speaking to other people because they've been a lot of these things in my own heart. And I have to tell you that if anybody in this room likes tradition, you probably don't like it more than me. And it's been something maybe in Africa more than anywhere that I've really, really had to examine my heart on. But I think always it's really important that we do it. What does the word of God say? What does the Lord look?
From me and from you. And those are the things we need to do. And if there's other things that we think we see, that's good. Let's go ahead and do that. Not leave aside those things that are crystal clear and weighty things before God. Let's do all those little things too. But certainly let's not go press them on our brethren or somebody else who doesn't say it. And then if there is something genuinely in the word of God, my brother's not delivered from it. Well, that is indeed what.
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14 and one Corinthians 8 are talking about, and we should consider that as well, but let's be careful that that's what it is and not the other.
Stumbling - Hiding Inside and Outside
Open—James House
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
It's interesting sometimes you.
Read a verse and you aren't sure how to take it.
Sometimes you have to chew on it for a while before you get an answer, and sometimes Lord gives you an answer very quick, fairly quickly. And a little while ago I was reading through Psalm 119, and there was a verse there that I didn't quite know what to do with, so I'd like to.
Share a thought in connection with what we've just heard about what it means to be offended, to stumble.
And then we're going to look at some things I've enjoyed in Proverbs, one of which also relates to stumbling. So Psalm 119.
And don't worry, I'm not going to take up the whole chapter.
Psalm 119 and it's verse 165 that.
I was particularly thinking about.
Great peace have they, which love thy law. And you know, that's, that's an awesome promise. Just this morning somebody was telling me about how they craved to have the peace of God for the circumstances of their life. And here we have a promise if we love God's law, His word, what's written in it, what he's told us, what he's revealed of himself.
Peace comes with that.
But that wasn't the part I was thinking about. It's this last expression. Nothing shall offend them. Read it in Derby's translation. Nothing doth stumble them.
And I thought, huh.
We've got exhortations and clear scripture that we've read in.
Romans 14.
About how Paul wasn't going to end 1St Corinthians 8. About how Paul wasn't going to do anything that stumbled his brother.
But here's a verse. It's from the other side.
And.
I really, really appreciate it because like I said, I'd been chewing on this and I didn't have an answer, and then about 25 minutes ago I got an answer.
Understanding the difference between when I am clinging to something that's not in the word of God, between that kind of offense, me getting my nose out of joint because I don't like what you're doing versus a true stumbling.
It it was mentioned that stumbling in the New Testament, the word has the idea related to the English word scandal. It's also related to that little piece on a mouse trap where you put your finger to make it go off.
It's the hair trigger that sets it off that causes the problem. But here, this isn't from the perspective of the apostle Paul was writing from. This is from the other side. And so from that perspective, this is real for all of us. It's real for me.
Nothing shall offend them. Now. What's that talking about? It's them which love thy law. If I love this book, what's written in it, what it says?
Not what I think it says, not what might have been added to it, not what I've heard all my life, but what this book says that gives peace, and it will keep me from stumbling and being offended. Now a little bit more on a fence, let's go over to Proverbs 24.
So we've talked about somebody who.
Would be stumbled, would be offended.
And in his Word, God has given us a preventative something that will keep us from that.
It's interesting, in Jude, our Lord is praised as the one who is able to keep us from stumbling.
But now we're going to flip back over to the other side, and this maybe isn't the person causing offense. This maybe isn't the person being offended. This is the people watching, which, again, could include all of us.
Proverbs 24 and down in verse.
17.
Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, let not thy heart be glad when he stumbled.
The first half of that verse, I'm going to call that your outside reaction.
That's what you would choose to communicate with people you talk to. Your family might even be so far as to say that's the initial reaction that twitches across your face. It's the part you can't hide. It's the part everybody knows about. The second-half of the verse is what you feel and think inside. And it is interesting the precision of the wording that the Spirit of God uses. Rejoice not.
00:05:14
You know, rejoicing is something that's very.
Just doesn't have to be. To my mind, rejoicing is something that is exuberant, is something that is obvious. When somebody is happy, you don't need to hide them. You don't need to. They don't try to hide it.
Not every day, but there's some days I come home from work and I get a hero's welcome and I hear the feet pounding from upstairs and I hear Daddy, daddy, daddy, Daddy, Daddy, daddy, daddy. And I feel like the number one dad. As my kids come flying down the stairs, you know there's joy there and they don't hide it. Nobody's trying to hide it. It's obvious. So it says rejoice not when that enemy falleth. And maybe that's not so much of a problem.
It is a temptation.
And specifically, the problem is if I allow my thoughts, my perspectives, my life to be such that I begin to view my brothers and sisters in Christ as enemies, and then I rejoice. I'm glad when things, bad things happen to them.
This verse is saying no, that can't be the case. You cannot.
Consider them to be an enemy and there's to be no joy in anything bad happening to them. You say, well, yeah, I don't really struggle with that. But the second-half, the second-half hits me hard. The second-half says, let not thine heart be glad when he stumbled. This isn't even joy. This is like, if this is the meter of your heart, this is like, is there a little twitch up in your happiness that oh, yeah, it's not my enemy, but I don't love them that much.
And something a little bit bad happened to him. It wasn't terrible, so.
Does it warm the corners of my heart just a little bit? You know that judges. That cuts to the very center of every thought that I have of my innermost feelings and emotions, what I allow my heart to dwell on, what I choose to nurture in my own mind.
And there's not room for either.
Now.
So that's following up on what we had in the first part of the open meeting. And I've been wondering if the Lord wanted me to share something in the open meeting. And then Dad spoke up yesterday and talked in the address about sharing the gospel. And before I talk about sharing the gospel, it's back up one step further. Sometimes I find it very helpful if I can create a mental image of what a Bible verse is saying.
And to illustrate that.
In Romans when it talks about reckoning yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, I have a mental image that I use when I'm being tempted of a pine box and inside is the old nature.
And I know how to use a hammer. I know how to use nails. I know how to nail. Put a nail through pine. And there are days when, as part of my struggle with temptation, I have to imagine pinning down somebody who's alive and well and holding that wood in place as I # the nails in with a hammer.
That's one example of having a mental image.
Because if you can keep the flesh in the place of death, that's like that coffin, it represents death and keeping it there in the place because my flesh, they're the old nature is still within me. It hasn't gone anywhere. It's still there. And there's times when I allow bad patterns of thought, habit and practice. And he gets awfully healthy.
So that's one mental image now.
Yesterday we heard about sharing the gospel and.
Hopefully this isn't too personal a reference, but when I was young my mom bought us lots of books and there was a few that were picture history books and particularly one image stands out in my mind and it was an article about the Assyrian Empire. So we're talking the group of people that carried the 10 tribes of Israel into captivity, guys like Sennacherib that came and.
Besieged Jerusalem when Isaiah and Hezekiah were there.
And there were men in a line. Their hands were tied together, Their feet were tied.
Just enough so they can shuffle along.
And every 20 feet there was a soldier either with a sword or a whip driving those men on. In the background was a burning city. And as a boy, I imagined it was a city of Samaria. And these people were the people of God being driven along. And that image is burned into my head. And it came back to me the other day reading verse 11 of Proverbs 24.
And I'm just going to read it, and I'm just going to skip and read it directly in Darby. Deliver them that are taken forth unto death. It's a direct command. It's something the Lord is telling us. Deliver them that are taken forth unto death. Withdraw not from them that stagger to slaughter.
00:10:12
I'm going to make an application and the application is this.
I am often very scared to share the gospel.
With those who are lost.
They might be very nice people.
But if they do not know our great Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ, they are captives, slaves to sin, destined to death.
And if I look on the outside and I allow fear to rule my heart.
Then I'm.
It decreases the chance of me speaking up and sharing the gospel when the Holy Spirit wants me to.
But reading this verse recently, a mental image.
Of a line of prisoners destined to death.
With their new masters, their new slave owners driving them on their home, burning in the background, destruction and ruin. No hope, no joy. And that's what we were without hope, without God in this world. That's what the people around us are.
If I can take that mental image into a conversation.
It will help me.
To have compassion, to be motivated by the love of Jesus Christ, to share the gospel. It'll help me to put my fear in the rearview mirror, to set it aside and to share it with somebody who is going out to death, who every day is taking one step closer to the lake of fire.
And then I just want to share. Unrelated, but I've really enjoyed this in Proverbs chapter 8.
Proverbs, chapter 8.
It's in the.
What Wisdom says is she tries desperately to bring people into her house that she's built to the feast that she's prepared.
And down in verse.
26.
In case you're wondering, I think is basically what number four in the little flock is talking about is the verses before this, but verse 26 says well as yet he that is God had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. Now that last expression, the highest part of the dust of the world.
The mental image I had for that one for the longest time was Mount Everest, but I want to read it in Darby's translation.
Says.
Well, as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world.
And there's a note that goes along with that. The beginning of the dust of the world really has the idea of the molecules.
The tiny little building blocks that make up you and me and everything around us. The part things that you need microscopes and fancy tests to see and to detect.
And what that gives you in this verse is a beautiful progression from.
The Earth, you have the planet. It's huge. Absolutely huge.
And it's filled with more people than I can even understand exist. And it's made-up of.
A wonderful creation that God has made. His wisdom made it. He designed it, and He not only designed it. It's one thing to design something, it's another thing to keep it going.
You know, I build people kitchens and somebody's got to keep them going because eventually the screws need to be tightened. Eventually the paint wears off, eventually the handles break.
They don't keep themselves going, and the world around us doesn't keep itself going.
That's a trap the devil wants us to believe is that the world just keeps going. It's part of the.
Apostasy of the end times, where all things continue as they were. No, they don't, God.
Puts in full and complete control. He's keeping everything going. He's the one keeping our planet spinning, the galaxies in their place, and the tiniest, most invisible parts of you and me working.
But it's the same God that designed this world, that pitched it at justice, the right angle, that makes it so that the rain falls, so that the water system works, that gives us the right amount of sunshine.
You know that God, our God, he can grasp the big things. And because He can grasp the big things, I can trust Him for the big things in my life. I can trust Him for the future of my soul, for things that I can't explain to you. Because there are a lot of things in this book that I can't explain. I accept them on the basis of faith because God has said it.
00:15:15
Now, what's the next thing if the Earth is the big things, the fields, that's the medium sized stuff. You know, you can mark out a field, put a fence post up, build a fence. If you're scientifically minded, like some people here, you can break it down and start to study it and learn about it. If you're construction minded, you can build something in it. But my point is that a field is something that you can sort of begin to wrap your head around. You might not get to the bottom of every detail of it, but you can understand it. You know, we like boundaries. We like.
Parameters that we can work within.
And our God, our Savior, our Lord can be trusted even for the things that we think we understand, for the things that we think are within the control of us but aren't.
And then we've got this progression from the Earth down to a field, down to the molecules, from the big right down to the small, the details.
Things that I don't know need to be looked after. God is looking after them. Things that I can't see, Things that I physically.
Can't.
Detect.
Processes that are happening, God is looking after them.
And because he can look after from the big things, the medium sized things, the small things, everything, I can put my trust in him and I can rest knowing that he is in full control.
Appealing to Authority
Open—Joe Countouris
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I'd like to talk to you about.
A danger that I see, that I feel.
And.
Where Tim took up with people being offended.
And that is the danger of appealing to authority.
Appealing to authority in the world today.
We have governments and those governments are set up and as we all know.
Over the last 2-3 years we have seen over and over again.
Laws and restrictions that have come about that are upheld, and they're upheld with an appeal to authority.
And so you'll have.
Experts in an area.
Medical experts, doctors, scientists.
And a government will say you need to do X. And somebody will say, well, why do I have to do X? And the government says because.
These people say you have to do X.
And and the government appeals to authority of those who know best.
Government says that we need to reduce emissions.
We need to drive electric vehicles. We need to use less fossil fuels. Why? Because the scientists tell us that we are going to go past the brink of no return and we're going to burn up the planet.
And so the appeal to authority is to these scientists, and the result is that you must do X.
So in spiritual things.
What is our authority and is there a danger?
In appealing to authorities. So let's just look at some verses. First, let's look at Ephesians chapter 4.
Patience, Chapter 4.
It says.
In verse nine. Now this he ascended, what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And He He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Till we all come to the unity of the faith.
And of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.
But speaking the truth and love may grow up in all things, and to him who is the head of Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by that, by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself and love.
Let's look also at Hebrews chapter 13.
Verse 7.
Remember those who rule over you and have spoken the word of God.
To you whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct, just two more second Timothy one.
13 Hold fast the pattern or outline of sound words which you have heard from me. It's Paul and faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. And then just two chapters over.
Second Timothy 3 verse 14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from a childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus all Scripture.
00:05:00
Is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So God, in his infinite wisdom, creates the Church on the day of Pentecost.
By his Spirit we could read in Acts chapter two He, through the baptism of the Spirit, joins roughly 120 believers, creating one body.
Every believer who puts their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ thereafter is joined to that body.
In that body, the way in which God, through His infinite wisdom, chose to have that body be edified, built up, grow, is that the members would have gifts.
And that through those gifts, it would function just like a human body. And the blood pumping from the organs to the arteries, the vessels all working together.
All growing that body.
Those individuals are men that he put into those positions.
Men who have the flesh. Men like you and I.
Men who?
Can fail, can speak bad things, can use cunning, can use trickery.
Can cause ones to be tossed to and fro.
Or.
They can.
Minister from the word of God alone.
To the edification of the body.
The danger we have is that.
When we look at a joint of supply or an actual gift to the church, which is probably the most dangerous of all, someone who actually is a true gift to the, to the the body at large. Not just somebody who is a help in a local assembly, whatever gift they might have, private or public, maybe somebody's a help and just a couple of assemblies even.
But these are ones who affect the body at large.
He gave to the body some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. These ones have an effect on the body at large, and we can look at these ones.
And we can set them on a pedestal, and they can minister to us the word of God, and they can minister to us their thoughts, their opinions.
And the danger is that we appeal to that individual instead of how that individual illuminated the word of God.
Those gifts that God gave to the church.
Or to point us to the Word of God. That's it.
An evangelist doesn't go out and tell somebody just some random story.
He tells them about Christ and what this Bible says. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Bob, no, the word of God, God's Word.
That evangelist appeals to the singular authority of the Word of God.
Same thing for an apostle, Same thing for a prophet. Same thing for a pastor, same thing for a teacher.
If we appeal to anything beyond that.
It rises only so far as human wisdom. It's just my thoughts.
So what happens is you have a man who has, let's say, tremendous gift. He speaks the word of God. He speaks from the word of God.
But he also has different ideas, different thoughts, different opinions, things that he can't necessarily prove, but he holds himself.
Nothing wrong with that. It's good that all of us are exercised in regards to what the Word of God says to me, even if it goes beyond what I can say that you must do.
00:10:03
We all have to be exercised to see what is the Lord saying to me. I'll give you an example. Tim and Joy, they went to Malawi. They don't have a verse that told them to enjoy go to Malawi.
And it would be wrong for them to say, Joe, the Lord told me to go to Malawi, you must go to Malawi.
That would be beyond what the Word of God said.
They were.
Sensitive to what the Spirit of God was saying to them as all of us needs to be, and their personal exercise was to take a take a step of faith and to do something. All of us need to do that on our day-to-day basis.
The difficulty is that sometimes what we do when we're confronted with something or we're holding something that's being challenged.
Instead of appealing to the word of God and saying this is what the word of God says.
And I know I got that because there was a brother who was a gift to the church and he helped illuminate what the word of God says.
And when he wrote what he wrote, and I read what he wrote, I saw what the word of God says, and I see what the word of God says. And I can say this is what the word of God says, not because he said it, but that he was a help by the Spirit of God to show me what the word of God said.
But sometimes.
When I'm confronted with something that I hold.
That I think as a doctor and a teaching a commandment, I don't see it from the word of God. And So what I do is I say, well, Brother J&D or Brother Kelly or brother whoever, I want to fill in the blank, set it.
And since this brother was such a gift to the church, I appealed to authority.
Even though I can't find it in the Word of God. You can't find it in the Word of God. But since he said it, it must be true.
But that isn't the Word of God. Now, it's possible that he is right, and it's possible that it is in the Word of God, and I simply can't see it at the moment. And it's possible somebody else will be able to show that, yes, the Word of God definitely says this is what we should be doing.
But absent that, for me to hold up any man, no matter how gifted that man is, or how used of the Lord he is.
As an appeal to authority absent what the Word of God plainly says.
Is going beyond the word of God and it's setting up a man over God's Word. We can't do that. Where that ends is somebody being offended that somebody didn't wash their hands.
Even though the Bible never said it, at some point some guy said we should wash our hands before eating. And then not only should we wash our hands, but that's a spiritual thing to do. Not only is that a spiritual thing to do, but everybody needs to do it to be spiritual. And pretty soon everybody had to do it to the point that men were actually getting offended that God and the person of the Son didn't do it.
And they appealed to.
Their own authority.
Their own law. But we have said this. This is what we have said this. These are our traditions.
But it was just the traditions of men. It was just man usurping God and His Word.
So what do we do? What is the? What is the? What is the antidote?
Every single one of us needs to look at gift in the church as being just that, gift, gift given by the Spirit of God to help us understand this book. Not to just read the collected writings as a cool thing to do to then be able to tell other people what Darby said. If you want to read the collected writings, go ahead. I'm not saying you can't. But don't read it as if this is the pinnacle of Christianity. The pinnacle of Christianity is knowing Christ.
From this book.
Find your answers to the questions that you have.
From this book use helps only so far as they can illuminate the word of God.
If they can't instruct you and what the word of God is, leave it at that. Was that brother's?
00:15:03
Thoughts or that brother's exercises? There's nothing wrong with the brother having a thought or an exercise, but don't take it beyond that. If you take it beyond that, the place where you'll where you will get is going to be offended that somebody didn't wash their hands before they sat down to a meal.
Sing #211.
Oh Jesus Christ.
The Savior.
We only love to be.
Our souls are never burdened when Satan six to seven our timeship right with my fear.
It is a sorrow will be tossed that the work ever near.
Danger spares blind and dark force of doing.
And trying hard tears our hearts. With Russia burning the family, shall we dress when our souls are learning?