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They go to me.
Ephesians 4 and verse 11.
He gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, the edifying of the body of Christ.
Can we all come in the unity of the faith?
Of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slate of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things which is ahead even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplier, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, being past feeling, have given themselves over under lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that he put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful US, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore putting away lines speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that need it.
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That no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace under the hearers and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed under the day of redemption.
That all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake.
Hath forgiven you.
Remember my father when time explaining that the 11Th verse.
Too many commas in it.
It's not as though he gave some apostles over here and some prophets over there. But if you leave out the commas and you read it, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, some pastors and teachers there for the whole church. And we understand that. But it's a little better, easier to understand it maybe, if you leave out those hesitations.
I'd like to make a comment in connection with what was said yesterday in connection with the.
The servant of the Lord, and speaking, and then, and then.
Perhaps flattery being used after someone has spoke and how wrong that is and I.
I personally feel that the Scripture speaks about the script, that there's no place for flattery in the things of God that is used in the Christian circle quite often. But I do feel that there is a place where God has given, where he encourages and.
The comment was made.
In connection with when people speak that sometimes we go too far in the comments that we make to them afterwards.
And I do feel I felt this very much in connection with young people and I remember when.
Can I say going back years when I first started to preach the gospel. I remember the exercise going through you know, you you search before the Lord of I have I got a message from the Lord for this and get down after the off the platform afterwards and nobody says anything to you about the word that you just said. And you wonder did I blow it tonight? Did I say the wrong thing or what. And I do feel, brethren, that in our in our assemblies.
That when a particularly young person, when they're asked to take the gospel, that we need to encourage them and afterwards to tell them just something about maybe the chapter that they have spoken about, that something you've enjoyed about that particular chapter, you know, and I, I, I just want to pass that along to balance off a little bit what was said yesterday.
Thank you, Dave.
We have five years in the 11Th verse gifts men giving us gifts for the church. You know when we.
Called in the Tabernacle when he entered the holy place, there were five pillars to hold up the curtain to go into the into the holy place, and there were four to go into the holy of holies. And I've enjoyed them this way. And those five aspects, you might say of the Lords providing to introduce us into the holy thing. And there is a apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastor teachers. We also have 5 authors in the New Testament that are given for the epistles. There's Paul and there's Peter and there's John and James and Jude.
And this is how God introduces us into the holy thing. As to the Holy of Holies, there were four pillars and the holy of Holies that speaks of the presence of God. And there was only one piece of furniture. That was the art which speaks of the Lord Jesus. And those four pillars remind us of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who bring before us the blessed person of the Lord Jesus. I just enjoyed these parallels, you might say, from the Tabernacle in the Old Testament and what we have in the New Testament.
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I think it's been.
Spoken of before, but perhaps it's good to repeat it that there is a difference in.
Participation in assembly life between what are the gifts and what is the priesthood and.
In ministry meetings like this one, or perhaps what we call an open meeting where there is liberty for the Spirit of God to use a certain gift, either in teaching.
Or perhaps in exhortation or comfort.
That is one thing. That's what we are dealing with more here in this chapter in connection with the gifts. But when we are talking about the breaking of bread meeting where we come to remember the Lord or the prayer meeting.
I get the feeling sometimes, brethren, that we feel that there are certain ones that are more qualified to take part than others, and that is a lack of understanding that every single believer is a priest, and I think we need to be exercised about that.
I used to appreciate Brother Lundeen when it came to the breaking of bread meeting and sometimes the prayer meetings too. He would remove his seat up front and go back and sit somewhere in the back. I think. Don't look at certain brethren like they're more qualified than others when it comes to prayer and praise. There is no such thing in scripture. Every member, every.
Member of the family of God is a priest.
And we need to be exercised.
Sometimes we sit here and prayer means, brethren, we have so much to pray about.
Sometimes I feel like getting up and going saying brother, what is wrong? You're sitting back there in the back seat, so.
He exercised. Don't just wait for any people up here to take part. That is not right. That is not a right understanding of what priesthood is and we need to be exercised to pray. It may be some brother has one thing on his mind.
No problem with a short prayer.
Pray we've got lots of needs.
And you, younger brothers, applies to you too. Be exercised in the Lord's presence when it's the prayer meeting or the meeting, the breaking of bread. It's not a matter of gift that is being exercised, it's a matter of priesthood. In the Old Testament, all those born into Aaron's family, it was the great high priest, were priests.
And in the New Testament, all those born into the family of God are priests.
So we need to be exercised. The sisters are free just as well as the brothers.
The fact that they don't participate in leading in prayer doesn't mean that they don't pray. Whether Tom was saying yesterday that sometimes when we say man, hardly anybody says Amen. But when you everybody says Amen, that means it's assembly prayer. And there's a real power to assembly prayer. We need to be exercised. Follow the brethren. There's prayer. If you're in agreement, you can say Amen.
Sometimes there's things that I'm not exactly in agreement with that are prayed, but there's a lot that I am in agreement with, so I say Amen.
But let's be exercised. We need to distinguish between what is gift and what is priesthood. What we're dealing with here is gift. And yes, there is room for the exercise of gift. There ought to be room for the exercise of gift in assembly meetings for ministry of the Word.
We extend that thought, brothers, the Levites, because that.
We're all priests, like descendants of Aaron, but there was a whole family of, of Levi who were servants. They didn't enter into the holy place, but they had, they had something to do with the service of God. So every St. of God in the family of God is not only a priest, but he's also a Levi. But there's a field of service for every member of the family of God, isn't there?
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So, his older brethren, we do well.
To remember that.
And.
Leave room for the younger ones to pray.
And encourage them to do so.
And that they are priests as well.
And of course, we have to remember too, there is a difference between assembly prayer and private prayer. You know, we have to discern and use judgment as to what.
We pray in the assembly, or what we express in prayer in the assembly, and the one who prays in the assembly is really the mouthpiece of the assembly. In other words, as much as possible, he should express what he knows.
Is the exercise of others in the assembly. You know, unfortunately sometimes we have experienced not so much amongst the gathered things, but where we used to be that people would preach to each other in prayer.
You know, and that is not of God. We have to remember that we are addressing Him and that those who publicly pray are the mouthpiece of the assembly and as much as possible should express what they know is the exercise of others as well.
Want to give a verse that has been a help to me to understand what assembly prayer is in Acts chapter 4.
Because there is the idea in certain circles, I think we are not in doubt about this, but it's good to have the scriptural principles. There are some places where everybody prays at once and they feel that that's assembly prayer. That is not assembly prayer. That is individual prayer. And it's confusing. But here in Acts chapter 4, when they are let free from the council.
Notice in verse 23.
Being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
Notice verse 24 and when they heard that it's all plural, they lift it up. Their voice to God. One voice to God.
With one accord and said Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth, etcetera. But I think it shows there there is one voice heard, but they were all represented in that one voice.
That is assembly prayer, and that's where.
The use of the word Amen at the end. Sometimes I think we get the idea that Amen is just for the older brothers to say. If you look carefully at First Corinthians 14, it is the unlearned that say Amen.
It's not the older knowledgeable brothers per se, so it's something that we need to be exercised about. Ready.
1St Corinthians 14.
And verse.
Get the connection. Let's read 15 and 16.
What is it then? I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupy at the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?
So it's the one who occupies the place of the unlearned. If he can understand, he can say Amen.
Want to be clear there that in the assembly prayer meeting, just like in the remembrance of the Lord and that we're looking for the leading of the Spirit there. And so as has been said, it's not just a lot of individual prayers. There's a waiting on the Lord to be led to pray for the assembly. And this might be something that, you know, we, we find too hard to wait on and we're not sure you know, sometimes you go to a larger meeting and you have.
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Sometimes two brothers and give him at the same time and you might say, well, that can't be the sort of God. But you know, when they're giving out the same hymn, you would think that's from the Spirit of God. So God, he takes our cause in his own hands and he helps us in our weakness. And perhaps as we carry it out, we carry it out in weakness. So you might be led to pray. You feel this in your heart. You have a burden and you want to pray. Perhaps you're shy because you say, well, I'm not going to pray properly. I'm not going to use the right words. I might forget somebody that's been mentioned.
Well, you just pray what the Lord lays on your heart. You know, we have this habit among the Saints. If we go to a prayer meeting and before the prayer meeting, we're going to pray for brother so and so who's 6 and sister so and so, who's 6, and this brother over here and that brother over there, and this situation here, maybe there's seven or eight or nine things mentioned.
And I found myself doing it. I'll get up in prayer and try to remember everybody has to pray for it. I don't think I have to remember. The Spirit of God knows who needs to be prayed for. And maybe I just pray for one or two and sit down and somebody else get up and pray for one or two or three. You know, we find ourselves as St. gathered to the Lord's name. We repeat the same prayers, different brothers with different words, and we pray about the same persons. And it's good for us to pray about the same person. But I believe there's nothing wrong with us if there have been 5 or 10.
Requests for prayer to pray for one or two that the Lord has laid especially on your heart.
And then sit down and the Lord will take that and lead someone else to pray for somebody else. And we'll all say Amen to all these prayers.
It's not very long.
Mentioned at the beginning of a prayer meeting. I think an assembly prayer meeting should be a continuum of prayer, not just repetition or limited.
And what I was saying is don't get into the habit of making long prayers. You know, that sometimes is not a good habit and I enjoy it very much.
There was a brother that was led to the Lord by some Christians in Munich, Germany. They were not gathered, but they were so-called brethren.
And we didn't know who they were, so we contacted them and they had a prayer meeting. And I was very favorably impressed the way they conducted their prayer meeting.
They spoke short prayers and maybe the same brother at different times, prayed twice or maybe even three times, but each time a short prayer. I was impressed, favorably impressed by that order. And we do not impress the Lord with lengthy prayers, you know, and then hopefully.
Others will be exercised to pray and the sisters can pray, although not audibly, but I hope.
Quietly they are in prayer before the Lord when a brother is ministering the word, you know it would be a nice thing for sisters while he is ministering to pray for him. Lord help the brother. You know, not just the sisters, all of us, but sisters can be a tremendous health in the meeting and you know I was told once.
When all the sisters passed away.
Somebody commented, you know, we will feel it in the assembly because these sisters were praying. Continued all the time, you know, for the brethren and for the testimony, sisters have a very important part.
Getting back to our chapter, we've spoken about the gifts in verse 11. Now verse 12 Through 16 tells us the purpose of the function of those gifts for the perfecting of the Saints.
For the work of the ministry. For the edifying of the body of Christ.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man.
Take it that is what we are growing unto a perfect man, Christ the head, we the body. And of course that will be the case that the coming of the Lord. But it's working towards that, isn't it that way. You understand that? Yeah, I would like to add to lead to full growth.
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Spiritual maturity. These gifts are to be exercised to lead the Saints to mature spiritually. You know we have that in Hebrews, the word perfection in chapter 6. Go unto perfection or full growth. You know these gifts are to be exercised to help the Saints to grow. So are we willing to benefit?
From the exercise of gift, you know you can sit all your life.
Under the best of ministry, if you don't have a personal exercise to lay hold of these things by faith, you make very little progress, you know. But hopefully we will not just listen, we also take it in and the conscience will be affected. All truth, Brother Landin said, enters by way of the conscience, you know. So the conscience has to be affected.
And hopefully there is the manifestation of having benefited from the ministry by us growing spiritually. Perfection is spiritual growth.
I like to read the verses just previous to what you read there in Hebrews to their hindsight in chapter the end of chapter 5.
Because it helps to see what maturity or when the Scripture uses that word perfection. It's not thinking of perfection. Perhaps the way we use it, it's maturity or full growth. That's the purpose that we do not be like children here. It says in Hebrews 5 and verse 12 when for the time he ought to be teachers. You have need that one teach you again.
Which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is obeyed. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age. That's maturity, even those who by reason of use have their senses.
Exercise.
To discern both good and evil.
You know, we need food. We need good solid food to grow, but we need more than that. We need exercise. And a child that just eats and sits around is not going to grow properly, needs to get out and run, needs to exercise. And God knows that in our lives, brethren, He gives good food. The Christianity is not just sitting in conferences. We're going to go back to our home areas. We're going to meet the world head on again.
And we're going to be exercised if these things are just something we kind of store up in our memory or if we're going to put them into practice.
Be exercised about the principles of the Word of God and that exercise will make you to grow. In fact, I really believe of times, brethren, the Lord gives us difficulties so that we know how to be exercised. We don't like it, but we have to exercise and so.
These things are not something we just sit here and listen to.
The real proof of them, if we've gotten a hold of them, is when we go back home, do we put them into practice? Are we exercised? There's an interesting group of verses in Isaiah 28 as to learning.
And.
We'll never reach that full maturity, I don't think until we get to the glory. We never graduate from God's school. We don't know Isaiah 28.
Starting at verse 9.
To whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little. So it doesn't come all in at once, does it? We pick up something here that we've been wondering about, maybe, and we come to a conference, and maybe we get that one thing.
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One little precept added to what we already have and one more line somewhere else and maybe a little comment in between times as a help. And so we we can't expect to have a crash course in Christianity, can we? It's a little by little. And as you were saying, it's it's putting it in practice. Then we learn something else on top of that.
This 12Th verse in our chapter, I like to think of what I use the word education. You think of a building, you know, an edifice and three things that we have in this verse. We have the building to build and then you have to maintain. There's maintenance and then you have to improve. And these are things that we find in our Christian life. We need to have a firm foundation and we're built up in the truth and then we need to maintain that which we have. If we don't do any maintenance, decay comes in and we lose. We lose things, we lose abilities and we lose.
We lose freshness and we get failed, and if we don't improve, we get stagnant and there's no progress in our lives. So we have the supply from the Lord in view of these three things to be built up, maintained and improved.
When Zachariah and Haggai prophesied, we might say the Saints were perfected.
They grew up, and the result was each went to his own work, and the ministry went on, and the result of that was the testimony was maintained at Jerusalem. And so his unceasing object is the perfecting of the Saints. Whether the ministry fails or whether the testimony fails, His unceasing object is the perfecting of the St. And as Mr. Darby translates this with a view to.
The ministry with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ that really I take that to be in the sense of corporate testimony, the result of the perfecting of the Saints, will be that those two things go forward.
And I think we need to, Brother Steve, keep in mind that the gifts are given for the whole body of Christ, not just merely for those.
As we are gathered here today to the name of the Lord Jesus, but it is for the whole body of Christ I cannot with a good conscience go into.
Denominational buildings that are built for a specific sector of God's people.
I can't do that. But in the measure that I meet up with believers perhaps.
In my home to have them in, perhaps at my work, I meet up with them.
To meet up with them and to enjoy something of the truth of God. To seek to be a blessing to them. That should be the spear before us, brethren, and what God gives.
He's given something to you, remember? Remember Albert Hayhoe used to say the truth of God is for the whole Church of God. We should not narrow that in our thinking just to a specific group, but for all Gods redeemed people. And though we may not be able to move into other circles, still we need to be exercised how we can without compromising.
Reach out to everyone of God's people.
What has been done?
My brethren is to have what they call cottage meetings.
With Christians in their home, we had that for 6 1/2 years in Wisconsin Rapids and.
Through work we came in contact with Christians and that led to a Bible study.
And.
Of course, we had to look into whatever scripture we were taking up. Maybe we benefited more from that than those that we ministered to because we had to, first of all, get to know the passage, understand it so that we could expound it. And what we did we.
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Came to realize through contact with them that they knew very little of the Old Testament.
And so it led to a study of the Old Testament.
And young people, familiarize yourself with the Old Testament. You know, it's like a picture book, Mr. McIntosh says, that illustrates a lot of New Testament truth. And it's wonderful to get ahold of these types and shadows. And we only because we have the light of the New Testament, the revelation in the New Testament that we can understand.
The types, you know, Adam and Eve didn't realize that they would be a type of Christ and a church Oregon, any of these.
Marriages that took place, Joseph and his wife and so on. They are all types of Christ and the church. Isaac and Rebecca, one of the most beautiful types you know and so familiarize yourself.
With the Old Testament and what you will come to realize is that in one way or another, it always has to do with Christ.
You know, he's the theme of Scripture.
We have a brother back home that when he's asked the question, what church do you go to? He says, well, is there more than one?
It takes this, it takes it away and introduces it in a different setting completely. It's one body. Christ loved the church.
So it opens up an opportunity that way.
There's a point perhaps to be made and and does just qualify in this way.
It's quite true that.
As Brother Stan Jacobson put it, I liked it so much, the first look and our Savior space, when we're caught up to be with Him, is going to complete the work of God and our souls and that we're never going to be out of the school of God. We're never going to reach the end of learning down here. We're never going to.
Come to the point where we can say I've arrived. There's no more to learn until we're with the Lord. It's not until then we read in First Corinthians 13 that knowledge is going to cease. We're not going to need that anymore. We're going to continually need to grow. But this passage does not take that aspect up. It's in contrast with being children, and children are vulnerable. They need to be protected. They need to be guarded because they're an easy prey to the enemy.
And the desire of the Spirit of God, and this is to put before us that his object is that we be grown up so that we're not afraid, so that we're not vulnerable to grow up in the knowledge of Christ and to be established and settled. And so it's not so much that we won't be grown up in this passage until resurrection, but it's to be grown up here and now. And we live in a society that says, you know, I want to be a Toys-R-Us kid. I never want to grow up.
I always want to be a youth, but Scripture says youth is vanity. And the apostle says grow up, be mature. In countries where lifespan is much shorter than what we have here, maybe 40 years, 50 years old, there's an anxiousness to grow up and to enter into the mature relationships of life because it's short.
We don't live in a society like that. And the pressure is the opposite. Stay a child. Put all that maturity stuff off. Be a child as long as you can. Now the scripture says grow up, grow up, because if you don't, you're going to become a prey to the enemy. And when those winds of bad doctrine come, and when trials and difficulties come, you're going to be tripped up if you're not grown up in the truth.
It's in view of the what we have at the end of verse 13, and it's interesting in the new translation.
It puts it at the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ.
It's working towards that.
Christ, the head in heaven.
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We his body here on earth, it's going towards the perfection of that. That's the purpose. That's the work that the God or the Lord Jesus has given these gifts for towards that brethren.
And we need to preach the truth and familiarize ourselves with the truth, not with all the doctrines and errors that are circulating in Christian profession.
Familiarize yourself with the truth. That will help you discern the error when it approaches you. You know when it is presented to you. So familiarize yourself with the truth. Don't study Mormonism and Jehovah Witnesses and go into details of what they teach. No, you don't. You shouldn't do that.
Occupy yourself with the truth, look into it, take it in by faith, and that will prepare you to discern error when it comes your way.
The unity of faith is spoken here is that referring to being brought into what is that we had before 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism. This is what is and the ministry would be to bring us to that that one faith. We set it on one person, the Lord Jesus, who is true, but there are many details that I say connected with that that we learned from the Scriptures and were brought to the knowledge and assurance of somebody can believe in the Lord Jesus.
As a savior really in his heart, but be unsure that he's saved forever. Well, he needs to be brought to the unity of faith that the person of the Lord Jesus, the object of faith and what you have in him as the fullest.
I have wondered, Brother Michelle, if the thought there of the unity of the faith till we all come in, the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and the perfect man, if the ultimate end of that is really the coming of the Lord.
It's the end of it, that's certain, but we're going towards that now, yeah.
It says the knowledge of the Son of God there. That's remarkable, isn't it, Because it's not to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
It's the knowledge of who that person is. Who's the Lord Jesus. He was the perfect man, of course he was, but he's the eternal Son of God. And we've brought to that knowledge, aren't we?
And what Brother Steve was talking about in verse 14 is he says children are vulnerable. That's true. And says part of the purpose of these, the exercise of these gifts, is that we henceforth be no more children.
Toss to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. There's a lot of winds of doctrines around.
And I sometimes use the illustration of a paper out there doesn't have a lot of weight.
Wind comes from the north. Woo, she goes South.
Wind comes from the South and whoo she goes N where is that paper going to end up? In the garbage pile?
It's not good to be carried about with winds of doctrine. That's why God has given in the body, why the Lord Jesus has given gifts so that we are not that way. We're living in days of ruin. Many of the gifts that have been given are not gathered to the Lord's name. They're in different circles and organizations in the Christian profession. Their gifts too.
God cares for his people, and so sometimes we we feel it, we feel our weakness, but if we look to the Lord Jesus in our weakness, I really believe he can keep us from these things. Don't be carried away by winds of doctrine. You hear things, young people sometimes that seem to be kind of interesting. Be careful with winds of doctrine. They're made to carry you One Direction and another.
And it is not good to be carried one way and another. He is given gifts in his church.
So that we will not be that way.
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Even amongst the gathered Saints is the danger that doctrines and practices are introduced which are contrary to Scripture. But about the local church, the local responsibility, that's a problem because some think that they have the right to interfere in the local assembly elsewhere. That's local. Oversight is local.
We mentioned that before. It's worth repeating it again.
Problems since we are amongst the gathered Saints, you know repeatedly this very thing. Well, if we recognize the Lord has vested His authority in the local assembly and we bow to an action as Mr. Darby says, right or wrong, and if it is wrong, trust that the Lord will correct it. Rebellion is not the answer. But what about the so-called Raven brethren?
That at one time were gathered, look how awful some of the doctrines are that they have introduced. And they're always looking for new light, you know. And well, I believe the truth has been recovered.
And I'm not saying that it is impossible that a brother has a thought that he has never heard expressed in the Assembly, or has not found in the writings of the early brethren, but generally speaking, the truth has been recovered. Our responsibility is, hold fast that which thou hast. You know we find that in revelation as to Philadelphia port past that which thou has, and that no man take thy crown.
So that is our responsibility. But the problem might well be, have we laid hold of these things? Have we made these things are owned by faith? It is not too bad to repeat this point. Lay hold of it and make it your own by faith, and then ask the Lord for grace to help you to practice and even in passing on.
The truth speaking the truth in law.
You know how important that is. I trust when we speak that the motive for that is love, not just for the Saints.
Love for the Lord Jesus and the Scripture speaks of the love of the truth, right So.
Speaking the truth in love, and that is not always talking sweetly.
You know, sometimes faithful words have to be spoken. Hopefully the motive is love. You know, just like a father and parents cannot always speak sweetly to their children. They have to exercise discipline at times. But I'm sure that in most cases, when parents discipline their children, it's because they love them.
And when I look back upon raising.
The children.
Have sometimes said what I could have done better than what I did is after I disciplined them, expressed that while I didn't enjoy what I was doing, that I was doing it because I loved it. You know, because I didn't want them to grow up.
To develop bad habits and practices. Well, here it speaks of speaking the truth.
In love just want to say brother Heinz, I think it's important to.
Holding what you say in connection with local oversight.
That it is a local matter, and that is in connection with the truth of the Church as the House of God.
What we have here is more the body of Christ and the gifts, and if we profess to take the truth, the ground that we are gathered is the truth of the one body, then we should at the same time be willing to listen to those that are gifts.
When they had come in, perhaps in the capacity of teaching or perhaps in the capacity of exhortation, we should be willing to receive that. It's not a matter of intervening authoritatively. I'm not speaking about that, but we should be willing to listen to those who the Lord may send to say something about it too. That's also in this truth of the one body that we're speaking about.
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But like you say, it's all to be spoken in love speaking.
The truth in love. Notice in verse 21 a little further down, it's speaking.
Says as the truth is in Jesus, and I like to say for young people and for all of us really, that when we use the word the truth, I think we need to clarify that when we say the truth objectively, we are speaking about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this book that we hold in our hands, he said, the Lord Jesus said.
Sanctify them by thy truth. Thy Word is truth. Objectively. You have it in the person of Christ and in the Book we hold in our hands. It is the truth, absolutely.
Sometimes I fear that. Sometimes we speak about the truth and we make ourselves a reference point.
And people start looking at us and they see some things that are not in accord with the truth and they start shaking their heads. And I think we need to distinguish that if you go to 3rd John, I believe it is. I think you have it.
Perhaps we can say in a subjective way, because the truth should not be.
Only objective. It should be something that we're subject to as well.
Verse four of second John.
Well, let's read from verse one, the elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I, but also all they that have known the truth. For the truth sake dwelleth in US. There's the truth in US.
Yes, that should be the case, but we have to admit that sometimes, brethren, we fail in acting in the truth of God. And so there is a subject part of this.
Verse 4I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth. So the truth is in us, and we should walk in the truth. But when we speak of the truth objectively, keep before your souls.
The person of the Lord Jesus.
And the word of God. You will not find any inconsistencies there.
You will if you look at my person. You will if you look at any human instrument. You're going to find inconsistencies.
If you can remember that the truth objectively is in the person of the Lord Jesus.
And it is in his precious word.
This is a 14 verse referring to the children there would remind us of the officials of the Galatians where the apostle Paul writes to them as brother Heinz was suggesting love can speak boldly. He says foolish Galatians and but he refers to them. He says my children in Ephesians are Galatians chapter four. He refers to them in verse 19. He says my little children of whom I travailed and birth again until Christ be formed in you.
You know, you hear the gospel, you're subject to ministry.
Well, you have got that in your head, but you need to have it in your heart. You need to receive the Lord Jesus in your heart to become a child of God. And if you become a child of God and that's and then you're safe forever. You might be affected by evil doctrine, bad teaching, you'll never use your salvation. You might lose your way though and waste your life. You know, in our area there a little while ago, they had some little children. They lost their way. They were playing in cornfields.
And I guess it just rows and rows and they change rows and play hide and seek or something. And then they just lost their way. And these are huge cornfields. And they never got back home. They slept there in the cornfield and in the morning had the helicopters. And I volunteered and they looked for the children in the cornfield and it took a while before they found it. And when they found them, boy, you should have seen them. I saw them when they brought them in the helicopter. They looked tired. They're all dirty. They look like a mess. You know, that's what's going to happen to us if we're not listening to the word of God and we listen to every word of darkness.
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Going to make a mess of our lives and a mess of us. And so we just need to be concerned about that. That when we hear the gospel, dear young people, children, that it's something that you believe in your heart and older ones. Now that we hear the truth from the word of God, it's something that we believe in our hearts of truth that is in US. And as brother Bob was saying, if it's in us, we're going to walk in it. It's going to be seen in the measure in us. When the apostle Paul, when he speaks to the Galatians, he speaks of my children. He's not speaking to them as children of God because he didn't know.
And they really believed in their hearts of Christ be formed in you when you receive the Lord Jesus that's done once forever in your heart and you're safe forever. But you've got to be careful to all these winds of doctrine and be thankful that we can sit together here and have the word of God open before us and the spirit freedom minister to our souls. How do you get?
The Word of God from your head to your heart, brother.
That's faith, isn't it?
I sometimes give the illustration that has been a help to me that.
The Old Testament the clean animals were animals that chewed the cud and divided the hook.
And we need to know what it means to chew the cud. You listen to things that are said here.
Shouldn't takes a while. I don't put.
A mouthful or a piece of steak in my mouth and swallow it straight down. I detain it in the mouth for quite a while, chewing away, enjoying the flavor, and after a good while I swallow it down.
That's the way it's going to do me good.
By just.
Swallow my food straight down. It doesn't do me that much good. So we need to know how what it means to chew the cat. And something I can't do for you, brother, you can't do for me. It's a very individual thing. You listen to what said at these meetings. You say Christianity is not just merely sitting in conferences.
Going home, thinking about what those brothers said.
Chewing on it.
Making it your very own. And something Heinz said that was so important, I think too, is that the truth of God to get into the soul has to go through the conscience.
Talking about these things.
Get to recognize that off times my life isn't there.
Something that it speaks to me about, I've got to do some correcting. That's the way to grow, brothers. So these are important points. We want to really know what it means to grow.
Has through the clean animals and unclean. What helps me too very much is what was a clean and unclean fish.
You know a pitch that was clean, had to have fence and scales.
And if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Kelly, I learned from him, but he's to be understood by that the scales are like a protective armor that prevents the element through which the fish is passing from penetrating.
That's the divine nature by which we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And the Finns speak of the energy of the divine nature, the Spirit of God.
You know, that helps us to go against the strain that is not normal for Christians, even young people, to go along with all that is practiced in the world.
You notice peer pressure.
As they call it is a danger for young people when they go to school. But remember what a clean fish is, you know, and these characteristics should be demonstrated in our life as Christians Go against the stream. Don't let the element to which you're passing penetrating, you know, and we have what it takes to live.
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Successful Christian life if we make use of what the grace of God has given us.
Verse 15.
Continues to what Brother Steve was saying about growing up. That's what it says. Speaking the truth in love may grow up. Yes, we need to know what it means to grow up.
Into Him in all things. And I think this is beautiful, brethren, True spiritual growth means that we learn to look to Him in all things. You know, God may use a human instrument to bring blessing in our lives perhaps.
We've been saved through some individual and necessarily you're going to understand why.
The person that brought you to the Lord perhaps will have an effect on your early spiritual growth, but if you grow properly, get the right kind of spiritual food.
The growth is going to lead you not to be looking to any human instruments so much as to the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that what ministry causes you to do to look to Him? That's proper ministry.
Sometimes.
It happens that some human instrument that God has gifted.
Wants to make himself the point of reference, and that is a danger signal. True spiritual growth once is to has the purpose of making us grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplier according to the effectual working in the measure of every part.
So we need to grow up, but true spiritual growth is to make us to look to Him. Oh Lord, oh, oh brethren, the Lord is so faithful, so gracious, so living.
Still remember brother Eric Smith?
Is one of his statements. I remember so much. The Lord lives.
He's a living Lord.
And we need to be reminded of that. You know, it impresses me when, brethren in South America, some of those little meetings are so small. And you go there and you say, how in the world can they go on in this way? If they're looking to the head, they have everything they need in him. Doesn't matter about how weak, how insufficient we may think we are.
Sometimes we come into a meeting room and we look around and say who's here tonight? Oh, we have that brother and this brother. I guess we're going to have a nice meeting.
Is that looking to the head, brethren? I'm going to come in and say, oh, there's no special brother here tonight. I don't know what kind of mean. We're going to have, you know what I found? It's their simplicity in looking up through the Lord Jesus head. For as much as there may not be anybody that we normally learn from, the Lord gives real solid blessing. He lives, brethren, and he lives in his people here. We are members of his body.
Let's prove it. The Lord lives.
Anyone have a thought on what every joint supplier?
Like we wouldn't have any joints in our extremities. They wouldn't be of much use to us, right? You know, In other words, if our hand wouldn't move or we wouldn't have an elbow.
You know, and we would have just a straight stick.
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Of an arm, so I think it speaks of helps.
Are provided by the Lord.
To assist the exercise of gift.
And the friends here that are using the French words the joints, they adjust and bind together.
So links to one another we're links to one another we're.
We're bound together and so the Lord has made us to be joint and you know, you know a brother who knows a brother and then so you have a connection with that other brother. And we know how we they do it in business all the time. You know, they have connections where we're connected to one another. We're connection points to one another.
But we might also say, brother, you would agree. I'm sure if somebody comes to me with a question and I don't have the answer, I perhaps can direct him to a brother that can give an answer. In that way, I am a joint, you know, and in that way we can help. But we don't always have the answers. But hopefully there are some or there is somebody that can answer.
If there is nobody, maybe we can pray about it together, that the Lord will open up something to us that we haven't understood before. He is there when we come together. He's in the midst. And have we not experienced that? That we're at a reading meeting and thoughts come to us that we have not heard or read? You know, the Lord gives it to us at that time.
So it's wonderful, but we're not just individuals, you know, we are members of the body. And you know, look how many members our physical body has. And it's unfortunate that many who are members of the body of Christ, we don't benefit from them because they're not willing to just meet as members.
Of the body of Christ but as Bob said thankfully there are those that have the ability and gift to minister to the Saints even if they're in the wrong position you know and there's food for them and there are even some of these programs that are a help to people under radio you know and so.
Whenever like back to the Bible, that program, is it still on? I don't know, but it was very helpful.
For many years, you know.
Speaks in Mr. Darby's translation Joints of Supply, and I like to apply it in another way too. Brethren, that I think we need to be exercised about it is something that is on my heart as the Lord is working in different areas of the world.
With their hindsight to go over to India and Bhutan and.
There are brethren in South America.
That's the exercised in seeking to strengthen the bonds. We are one body in Christ with them. We should be interested in how they're getting on and communicate with them if we can in some measure and to be joints. A joint is an area where there's a lot of stress at times, but it's very important so that we work.
Together not work against each other. The proper working of the body is not against one member against another, it is working together.
That is the proper thing, and so there are those joints of supply.
Our time is up. Just be commented with the 15th verse because in the French version he doesn't talk about speaking the truth in love. It says I'm being true in love.
That we might grow in all things unto him, which is the head Christ in all things. And I was thinking of that, and that in the measure that we've received the Lord in our hearts, that he's transforming us, we're being transformed into the same image. And this is the purpose of God for all things. For the big things, we can look at the body of Christ. And your brother was talking about Yetan or India or the work of the Lord in other places. But it comes right down to the little things too, and your family life, your school life, your work life, that you're growing into all things.
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Unto Him to be like Him. You're like Him in your personal life, and you're going to be like Him in the assembly life, being true in love.