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Britain, August 22nd, 1964, Reading site, 1:00 AM.
Well, shall we go on with our 4th of Ephesians this morning?
But first let me start with.
Well, I believe the.
Not as far as age verse.
Season 4.
Verse 8.
Wherefore he sat.
When He has set it up on high, He led captivity captive, then gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also sent it first into the lower parts of the earth?
The descendant of the same also that I sent it up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
And he gave Trump 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, until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
Man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more Children taught to and fro, and carried upon with every wind of Duncan by the slightest man, and cunning crappiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
Speaking the truth in love, make her up into him in all things which is ahead, even right from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplier.
According to the effectual working in a measure of every part mega the increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify on the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darken the alienator from the light of God to the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over until lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greedy nuts. But he had not so learned fright, if so be that she heard him.
And have been taught by him as a truth is in Jesus.
But you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful love, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
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Wherever putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and sin not, but not the sun Go down upon your round, neither give place to the devil.
But in this dull deal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hand the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needle.
That no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that are made minister great under the hearers, and read not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption, but all bitterness and wrath and anger, clamor and evil speaking, they put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another.
Even as God for fright, Satan hath forgiven you.
I.
The teaching of the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians.
The theme, shall we say, is heavenly places.
And five times those words appear in the epistle. I don't know why 5:00 but they do appear five times.
Well, here we have when he ascended up on high, brethren, that's where he is.
Having purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens finished work and the proof that.
He the fact of him being there.
Is the proof that we shall be there.
And it's nice to remember that, isn't it?
As the member shall be where he is, he won't be there ahead alone there his body.
Where he is, his members shall be, and not one, not one missing.
The marginal rating in that eighth verse that a mother to the captives.
That is wrong, and it's led to a false stock that when the Lord died, he went into the bowels of the earth.
And were God's people were in captivity there their souls were in captivity, and that he freed them, led them all out of that captivity.
How there's a group of believers.
That teach that doctrine and is widely taught among fundamental groups, but we want to get that matter straightened out because it's misleading, it's harmful. The way it's worded here by the King James translators is correct.
It's a quotation from the Book of Judges.
Where it says arise.
There can lead captivity captive that is, you know Cicero and his army of Canaanites at.
Kill God's people Israel in captivity there were slaves to his king and.
Vera.
With his army and account for Deborah.
Why he defeated?
Bearer and those that.
Held Israel captive, were made captives themselves. Well, that's an illustration of what the apostle is talking about in this verse. We were held captive by Satan and all his hope, the blessed Lord.
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Went down.
Into the very stronghold of state.
Or death. No was the power that Satan got the Satan out from the fall of man. But the Lord descended into the very stronghold, and he has led captive Satan and all his hopes. So now the one who has led captivity, captivity captive.
Our faith.
Is now ascended on I He's gone up beyond the power of Satan because Satan is spoken out as the Prince and God of this world, and he's called the Prince of the air.
So the atmosphere above us has permeated, as it were. Well, Satan and his agents, the Lord went clear beyond them all.
Took his place on high so that we need no longer fear the of the Satan that is getting possession of our souls. We know he can do us a lot of harm and he's always about begin to make trouble and do a divide the people of God.
Arabs get us out of communion and introduce false doctrines.
All right, do all kinds of harm in this very meeting that as far as our soul salvation is concerned, Satan has lost his power and his lost his power forever.
That's nice, there you quoted from.
Judges 5 Didn't you, brother? Yes, that's right. Might we read that verse? That's the 12Th verse.
Awake, awake, Deborah, Awake, awake, utter assault. Arise, barrack, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoa. Well, that's just what our brother has been saying. And it's a blessed fact that Christ's victory over Satan, beloved.
Means this, that he's led him captive.
Ah, that's the truth we need to remember.
Now I have lived for many years.
Among people who are plagued with witchcraft, the power of Satan.
And God has been very gracious to us.
Sustaining us there, mentally and physically.
The powers of darkness.
There is power in the name beloved.
And there is power in the precious blood of Christ.
I remember on one occasion when we were in deep affliction through these witch doctors.
And some of his dupes were making a lot of trouble. The Lord arranged it so that I happened on them in the midst of their seats.
And.
I didn't say a word to them. They were oblivious to make my presence, and I didn't say a word. But suddenly they ceased from their sciences and glared at me with their eyeballs like fire.
Full of demons, Demon possession.
And you'd be so happy to know.
That just the pronouncing of that blessed name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Has given deliverance to Satans, captives, and a number of those dissolved today. Rejoice in the knowledge of sins forgiven through just mentioning the name is Powell the name? I just mentioned that because this verse came up in our readings and the Saints want to know about it.
You'd hardly believe that a great percentage of those Indians have been medium, medium and.
God has delivered them.
Homing at the mouth on the on the ground.
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It's astounding to see it the.
Power invested in the in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and His precious blood. Some of those are bright souls today and they never go back there. It was a comfort to their hearts to know that Satan was a defeated foe. And oh how hard it was to convince them that Satan was a defeated foe. Yes he is. May we rejoice in it.
Heather Smith, what you were telling us?
About your presence and the way the Lord used you in connection with that witchcraft. Just an illustration. Isn't it of the power of ministry that the Lord when he defended up on high?
He led captivity captive and he gave gifts on the men, and he dispensed those gifts into the very stronghold of Satan to deliver his captains. Isn't that the connection with ministry here? And I thought there was another thought. Brother married too.
Than something we sometimes forget, beloved, the power of the Spirit of God in our midst, the power of the Spirit of God. There was no power in me, just the poor Sinner saved by his grace. But there was a person dwelling in this heart of mine, and the Spirit of God was there and and they fled out of the house. Nobody said the word to them, they fled.
James 47 might be good to read in this connection. James 4/7.
Submit yourselves, therefore, to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
That God's daughter, isn't it? Submission first?
Do we not get something of the Lord's triumph in nowhere, Satan?
Host in Colossians 2.
License 2.
14 and 15.
Blotting out the handwriting, the ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them, openly triumphing over them in US.
Once Satan and his host.
Had crucified the Lord and put him in the tomb and sealed it guard.
Why then was when the Lord made a show of them openly, He burst through bonds with death, came out of that tomb, and now he's ascended on high?
We find perhaps a little picture of it in the case of Saxon. That's the city of Gaza there. He was a prisoner there, but he rolled up in the night and took the gates of Gaza Bar of all away with him, carried them to the top of the hill. I've wondered if that's a picture perhaps leading captivity captive. I think it is. Then I noticed too, that the language here is so very, very triumphant.
In Acts One, Speaking of the Lord's ascension, he is said to have been taken up from them into heaven. In the fourth of Hebrews, as our high priest, he has spoken of as having passed through the heavens. But here the triumph is so wonderful, and the blessings so glorious, that he's said to have gone far above all heaven. It's a wonderful trial.
In the.
2nd chapter of Hebrews.
And verse 14.
Hebrews 214.
For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood.
He also himself likewise took part of the same that through death.
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He might destroy.
Him that have the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them.
Through fear of death where all their lifetimes subject to *******.
Now in the first chapter of the Thieves.
And verse 19.
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power?
To us we're who believe according to the working. That's the energy of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from among the dead, and sent Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.
Above all, principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
And that put all things under his feet and then.
We get our benefiting by it in the next chapter, quickening us with Him. Now I admit that these verses show God's side and what He's done in raising Christ, and our thoughts are in the victory in Christ as we're raising Himself.
But there's another verse, one more Revelation 118.
I am he that liveth.
And was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen and have the keys of hell and of death.
Somewhat in keeping with what our brothers read in the Judges chapter 16 as the Samson taking the two gates and the posts up to the top of the mountain, it's translated also.
And it was a great distance away, according to what we're told.
What a victory.
Do we see something of a climax of that in Ephesians 3?
10.
The season 310 to the intent, but now on to the principalities and powers of heavenly places, might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. That will be the day when you have us on display.
Yes, we have translated the words manifold wisdom. We've translated into the Inca tongue many colors. Now, beloved, these are not angels that you find in in Ephesians 6, where we find there that warfare is against principalities and powers.
Rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness. High places, those are demons.
And that warfare is not against human beings. And it's wonderful to remember that in assembly life and testimony that our warfare is not against our brethren or anyone else, pleasure, blood, but it's against principalities and powers behind it all, the sinister work of Satan. And we need to remember, beloved, that God is never the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the Saints. But we believe that verse 10 of chapter 3.
These are good angels, and they actually read in US, read in the church, the many colored wisdom of God.
I was remarking on this to some of our native brethren. They want to know the meaning of it. Well, I said, I don't know much about it, Rib, but.
They do actually. These good angels read in the church the many colored wisdom of God. And one brother says, Do the Angel sing, and I will, He said no, But they do say, they say. And the brother says, and what do they say?
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When a St. is walking carelessly? And what do they say when we walk in division?
And what do they say to when we get restored in soul? I believe they see in that, beloved, the many, the shining wisdom of God, the shining wisdom of God.
In connection with that 10th horse in the third of the Ephesians.
To the intent, but now at this present time, the.
Principalities and powers and heavenly places.
Learned by the Church, looking down here on the Church, something of the manifold wisdom of God. There is a time when he's gone to this place exceeding riches of his grace and kindness, sort of true Christ Jesus. But it's a comfort to know, and I don't doubt it was a comfort to the Saints in the day when they were persecuted, meeting in the obscure places and hiding in the catacombs of Rome and so on.
That there they were kept from any outside testimony of.
Practically and nothing we might say, but still there were those who in heaven were looking down and seeing the manifold wisdom of God, and how He had taken up such creatures as way and made them the object of His affection, and the purposes, you might say, of His glory.
Another verse of encouragement to our hearts. Revelation 12/11.
This has been a great encouragement to many.
Revelation 12/11 and they overcame him.
By the blood of the lamb.
And by the word of their testimony and the love, not their lies unto the death, Well, we we can praise God this morning for the protecting power of the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Shelter under the blood many times in my dark land of South America when sleep leaves one.
We learn by His grace to just pronounce that blessing precious blood of Christ, and one goes to sleep, goes to sleep.
Oh, I remember starting out in the work of the Lord Beloved 50 years ago and an old brother, said Brother Eric.
When you go to that distant land of South America, remember to make much of the blood of Christ.
That's just what the professing Christendom Christendom is making little of, beloved.
Little of it, but that's another thing. However, make much of the precious blood of Christ. For we are not redeemed with such corruptible things as silver and gold, but for the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and without them.
You have the order here. The 68th or the 69th?
And the 68th Psalm, you have the Lord ascending up on high 69 song. We have the Lord going down into the depths of humiliation and suffering that took him to the cross. Calgary, the one that the 69th sound. If you'd like to look at it, I believe this was a quotation, isn't it?
From 68 Bob.
The 18th, 1St. I'll have to send it on high. Thou hast met captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts. I'll read that in as it is in the margin which in this place is correct. Thou hast received gifts in the man with that man that glorified Christ on height in the man.
Yeah, for the rebellious also is another thought. That's for the rebellious of Israel, but before.
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Here.
Received gifts in connection with the blessings of Israel.
Why you receive gifts in the man and that takes us into the present dispensation when these gifts that we're going to consider I trust as we go on.
Are now sent forth by the glorified head into the very realm where Satan has his power.
But now if you and the reason is that the Lord God might dwell among them, then in the 69th Psalm it begins, Blessed save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I think in deep mire, where there is no standing, I've come into deep water.
Where the floods overthrow me, well, we can say the words of the apostle, that the one who asked then, when the 68th farm is the same one who G spins in the 69th song, the same Blessed One. And the Spirit of prophecy has so beautifully set before us, that Blessed One both in his exhortation and then taking.
To the depth of his humiliation before he offended and took his place on high.
Would you say in the 40th Psalm where he.
That he's taken up are the horrible pit set his feet on the rock, that that was in resurrection, that he was brought up on this horrible fit, that he's in the 69th South.
And isn't that horrible pit in the second and third verses of the second chapter Ephesians?
Where he speaks. But you had the Quicken who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Where in times past you walk according to course of this world, according to Prince, the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past. Lust for our flesh, fulfilling the desires, the flesh and the mind and the nature of the children of wrath, even as others. And that's the depth to which the Lord had to descend.
Well, we can't measure the depth of the Lord's humiliation, how low in grace He stooped in order to set us free from sin and the power of Satan. And when we consider the depths to which he descended, there is a corresponding.
Thought of a height through which he has offended far above all heavens.
That he might fill all things. And we need to remember, beloved, that it's as man that he has ascended far above all heaven.
He was from all eternity the eternal Son, but in wondrous grace he became a real man in order to suffer and die, to put away our many sins. And that one who went into death a real man, mailed to the accursed tree, sovered the the the wrath and judgment of a sin hating God.
Was forsaken because our sins were laid upon.
And now, as man, he has ascended into the highest glory in order that he might feel all things and God's purposes will never be complete.
Until Christ has filled that place of glory and connection, what is spoken of here is filling all things. The very heavens have to depart. There must be a new heaven and a new earth in order that there might be.
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A wider, a greater display of redemption glory.
Than there is now of creation's glory.
For if we compare.
Creation's glory, Well, redemption's glory. Redemption glory must have the 1St place.
Is that what we get in the end of the fifth of the Revelation?
The phrase that goes up to him.
Well, in the 5th of Revelation we get first the phrase of the redeemed, and they sing that new song.
Then we find there's a.
There encompassed the Bob with a.
Thousands of angels and they pray, but their praise is not on the same.
We might say height of key that the redeemed saying.
And it's been mentioned, it doesn't say same there. Then we go on farther and we find the creatures praising him.
Well, it seemed then that that song the redeemed.
Is some after the Lord has taken us to glory?
Blowing there joined in with the angels, but the creature, though, really cannot praise him until after the Lord comes forth out of heaven and he delivers the creature from the ******* of corruption, so that we might say goes on down through the Millennium.
And into the eternal state, yes.
The whole adamant creation rule. Be blessed with us.
Yes, yes, and they ate the Romans. Why there is the anxious looking out of the creature, waiting for the manifestation. The manifestation there it says the sons of God, well, they're coming forth from heaven. When the Lord comes, do that work.
Then the creature will come into his blessing, yes.
Speaking of the.
Lord's victory. We often see his be the victor's name who fought the fight alone.
Triumphant says no honor. No honor claimed his conquest was their own with all his victims.
Putting chairs at results.
We have nothing to do with.
The children of Israel on the shores of the Red Sea were told to stand still.
See The Salvation of the Lord.
Well, the Lord had not gone down into death.
He had not overcome Satan, that all the powers of darkness we would have still been in *******.
But he went down into the into that which displayed the power of death.
He rose triumphant.
Well, we can rejoice in his victory. That's a wonderful victory. I was thinking of Psalm 88. Two, beloved.
We get that. That's a messianic sound. My life draws near to the grave. I am counted with them to go down into the pit. I am as a man without strength.
Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave. Who the whom thou remembers no more their cut off my hand. And that wonderful version shall thy wonders be known in the dark. That's Calvary wonders in the dark, beloved, When he finished the work given him to do. And righteousness in the land of forgetfulness.
As far as the east is from the West, so far have you removed our transgressions from?
I have blotted out thy sins as a thick cloud. I put thy sins behind my back. Well, it takes it back to Leviticus 16, doesn't it?
Where you get the first goat? The audible voice of the priest wasn't heard over that goat. It was slain before Jehovah. But on the head of the second goat, the sins of the children of Israel were confessed and born into an inhabited land in an uninhabited land.
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Never to return woe, beloved, what a wonderful work is done. Who is all self. Bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead and to sin, might live unto righteousness, by whose strife we've been healed. For you were indeed a sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and Bishop of our souls. What a wonderful world. I'd like to think to John 13 verse one.
He loved his own to the end. Well, we've translated that word end uttermost. Can you measure it? Never. We can never measure that. The atoms, they love the sun to the utterance.
How good it is to develop that?
Redemption by power.
Which follows the redemption by bus.
Exodus 1429, Thirty and 31.
But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were all under them, on the on the right hand and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead about the seashore.
And Israel saw that great work which the Lord said about the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and the servant Moses really had something to sing about in that first song is enough. Exodus 15.
And you read about the.
Eight goals.
Only sins of the people were confessed.
To find that he was led by a fit man never returned, but the man who leaves the gold is believed into the wilderness returns. So we can say that both the dope a man leads him into the wilderness.
Our type of Christ, right? Right.
Omar Sims for one and all eight. And here's the one who returns. After having taken all that guilt for himself, he returned.
To.
To be with his people, you find him coming back to the camp or associate himself now with those.
That whose sins were carried away by the substitute.
That's something like the two birds.
Well.
Concerning gifts beloved girls 11.
That he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
Well, what has said?
The difficulty is in the duration of these gifts. The duration and when we read here gives the love. We don't get the same in First Corinthians 14 as some might teach. Not the same.
The duration of these gifts, that's a problem with lots of people.
In other words, you will not find the sign gifts in the 4th chapter receives. You will finally find gifts in the 12Th chapter of First Corinthians and there's nothing stated in the first the 12Th chapter First Corinthians.
Those hips are to continue till we all come under the major of the natural force of Christ. But the gifts mentioned here are definitely stated to continue till we come into that perfect state not of the major, the statue of fullness of Christ, showing that the gifts mentioned here will continue.
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Will will be the restored by the glorified hits.
Until our journey here is over and all the Saints are with our blessed Lord and glory seated up there in heaven with Him and like it.
Would you say that the gifts here are not the gifts that a man gets, but the man possessing it is the gift of the church?
Speak louder please. Would you say that the gifts here are the individuals that are given?
These are the gifts, brother. They are the gifts, yes. Not the gift that he possessed, but the individual given to the church by the exalted head is the gift, yes. It's nice to keep that clear.
And the first two are causes and profits without at the end of the second chapter and the 20th verse.
The reading from verse 19.
Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with their Saints and the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ themselves being the chief cornerstone and room. All the building fitly framed together, grow without unholy temple in the Lord, and whom ye also are builded together for an obitation of God through the Spirit.
The apostles and prophets are the foundation.
And the foundation has been laid, and so apostles and prophets passed away.
And evangelists, pastors and teachers.
Still remain so there are those that are still amongst and still given as it helps to the church to help along the Lord's people and to bring in the unsaved.
So that you don't find apostles now, you don't find prophets now, and they and that particular sense, although we're told in Roma and 1St Corinthians 14.
That the gifts of prophecy is for the education, exhortation and comfort of the Lord's people. And we have that still with us. We have that character of the of prophesying.
There are those and a measure we all ought to be able at times, and no doubt are able at times, to speak words that to be for the help of our dear brethren and for comfort to those in sword were on trial. And words that may be stirred each other up, because those 3 words, education, excitation and comfort have been described in this way to build up.
To stir up and to bind up.
Comforters like binding, binding a wound to and pouring in the oil and wine, let's say to to give comfort to the wounded member.
Well, so we're enabled from time to time to speak words of comfort to the to the sick and afflicted ones. We tell them, well now the Lord's coming very soon. It'll soon be all over. Your pains and your sufferings and trials are simply all over the Lord's coming some of these days.
And we bring the word before them and they're comforted. They say, Oh, that's, that's nice to keep thinking of that, nice of that. But before us it'll soon be all over. And then the exhort, and we have to be all have to be exhorted. We're told in Hebrews 11. Isn't it Hebrews 10 other that forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.
And so much the more as you see the day approaching so that the sense can speak words of exhortation to each other. That is, you have to exhort me and I have to exhort you because we all need it. We never get to the point where we say I never need any odds exhortation. I am the exhorter, but I don't need any exhortation. We never get there because we all need it.
Even Peter had to get a word from Paul. In the second chapter of Relations, we're told about it.
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Whole heart to talk pretty plainly to Peter, and I suppose that Paul himself had to have some exhortation because Paul blundered. There was one time, we're told, that that Paul spoke rather sharply to the high priest, and he was reproved for it, and the words were spoken. Speakers thou lost to God thy priest. I want not that he was the high priest.
We're sitting there shalt not speak evil of the rulers of thy people for to go back as it were, and so everyone of us have to at times be exalted well the the prophetic.
Word that is to say, those that prophecy and the 14th chapter First Corinthians speak unto men to edification, exhortation and conquer, and we all need that, and from time to time we receive them.
But in this world, necessary a proper innocence, one report tells the future.
Those prophets are not among us anymore, and those who profess to be prophets and repair got them and they're foretelling is usually always wrong.
But.
We have the evangelists, pastors and features. Those do the work of any languages, giving out the gospel, reaching unsaved ones. There are those that are doing that work.
There wasn't anything mentioned present about apostles.
I remember talking to a minister just not so long ago, and he was talking to me about Apostolic succession. And he says, what do you think about He was saved, man. What do you think about it, Brother Smith? And I told him quietly that the only Apostolic succession that I know in the book is Matthew 18 and 20.
Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. And he just didn't say any more. He didn't say anything.
That's the only Apostolic succession that I know.
But you get something of Apostolic frustration and the 20s of Acts where Paul says after my departure, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, and men arising, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them after my departure, that's the men that would come in.
Disturb a turn to God, but Paul doesn't say after I part why there will be other possible raised up that will continue on and carry on the work that that I've started. Nothing of that at all, isn't it? No. Well, the comfort that X20X20 is a great comfort because he the ruin was so great that he couldn't commend those few disciples gathered with him.
He couldn't even commend them to any anyone else, but he could commend them to God and to the word of His grace. I'd like to tell you a little story, brethren, when we left Bolivia.
It was hard to leave them, of course.
But we were confident in the statement made by our dear brother Talies. I would ask prayer for Talies. Since 1934 he has gone on Hepburn.
And he's going into the work of the Lord, as the Lord leads him.
And he said, Brother Smith, we may never see in the flesh again, which is very, very probable.
But he said we I want to comfort everybody. And so he takes out his Bible.
And he said, Brethren, we have this blessed book open in our hands. That's one thing.
And we have the Spirit of God indwelling our hearts. That's another thing. And the Lord Jesus Christ in our midst. And then he looked at the at the group of Saints. He said, what more do you want, brother? And that was accomplished a real cop.
Heather McMillan While we couldn't say that we no longer have a fossil problem, yet we have their writings, we have their ministry preserve for us in the word of God.
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The only way that we have.
The apostles and prophets that are mentioned in this 4th chapter, that would be. That would be Second Timothy 22, would it not?
And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commits thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
I was thinking.
What said about the apostles and prophets? They laid the foundation, and we're never told we're going to get a new foundation and Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone. So the work of the Spirit of God is taking that. But it's been laid down and our education and come to the Saints. I was thinking of what our brother Michelle was saying about punishment. You know, the loss of Paul. He commends Saints at Rome because they were able.
Admonish one another, that is, they could take it as well as gift, and that's harder to do than to give it.
We find the foundation and the truth of the word yes.
And the wisdom of God.
The original apostles were kept on the scene until practically.
Every error that has ever been brought into the church had appeared.
So that we have divine wisdom granted to us by their writings for the problems that come along in the whole history of the Church.
Within the order given here in these guests that mentions apostles and prophets first always said they laid the foundation. Well then we have mentioned the evangelist. Well, the evangelist is the one that goes out. I'd say it brings in the new material.
Well, then you have the teachers and pastors.
They take care, so to speak, of what's brought in.
We're connected, aren't they Pastors and teachers?
It's always in the plural, isn't it brother? Always in the plural.
A missionary came to one of our meetings and he said, who is the pastor here? And an Indian brother said we're nine.
Oh, he said, there must be a rich assembly to support Night.
And the poor old Indian says there's, there's one there, that old brother there, there's another there and another over there. He went round the nine of them. Well, they were, they were fast as the kid for the sheep, you know, in their simple way. And that is the teaching, isn't it, of the pastor. There's never such a thing as a pastor of a of a church, brethren.
Not just singing Scripture, but here we have shepherds who have a heart for the sheep, who just love those sheep, whether they're good sheep or unruly sheep, and they love them and care for them and wind up their wounds. As you said, brother, the whole knock of God isn't it? And they care for not just one and one little field somewhere with a fence around it, but the whole flock of God, the pastor's care for. I was thinking in this connection of a verse in First Thessalonians 5. It says comfort the feeble minded.
Now that's misunderstood, brethren. That doesn't mean that a person is bereft.
Of his mind or her mind. It just means this.
That there is a troubled soul there.
And if God's dear people who shepherd the sheep could sit down and let these troubled Saints pour their woes into his ears, into their ears until they get better, well, that would be a wonderful thing. And that is really the thought there. We found out in our translation work.
To just have enough spirituality and patience, beloved, to sit down and let this troubled brother or this trouble sister for his or her woes into ones ear until he or she gets better. Gets better, yes.
The faint hearted, isn't it? Yes.
Yes.
01:00:02
You get a pattern of the evangelist capacity in the future, perhaps in the 11Th chapter of the Act.
The 11Th chapter of the Act, beginning of the 19th.
Earth, while they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Penny and Cyprus and Adiox, preaching the word to none, but under the Jews only, and some of them were man of Cypress and cyrenium, which, when they were under Antioch, Spade, under the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.
The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned up to the Lord.
The faithful labors of an evangelist, and the 22nd verse. Then tidings of these things came out of the years of the church which was in Jerusalem. They sent forth Barnabas. He would go as far as Antioch, who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad and ignored them all, and with purpose of heart they would flee under the Lord. Service of a pastor, or he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost in the faith and must people was added under the Lord.
Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for a seat. Saul when he had found him, he brought him under Antioch, and it came to last for the whole year. They assembled themselves with the church and pop must people. Service of a teacher. That's being a spiritual example of the order of the three pastor perceives the teachers.
Well, it's nice to see there that when Barnabas came to Antioch and saw that work and rejoiced.
In the grace of the Lord there that.
He went from tarsus to seek salt. He realized that it needed someone of, so to speak, of greater capacity himself, and he was willing to face himself and get that one to come forward. Would we be justified?
And perhaps commenting.
And at the end of the days which we are, we do not always find the gift separate and distinct as at the beginning.
In the scripture in the New Testament, there's only one man called an evangelist, Phillip, I believe.
He had a distinct gift as an evangelist. Many may do the work, Many may preach the gospel.
But he's an evangelist as a special man who has a heart for soul.
And.
I doubt the wisdom of people handing out cards so and so an evangelist.
The the distinctions are not as clear. Clearly marked the answer. Would you agree with that?
One might have 4 kids and just one gift.
For instance, Second Timothy 1:00 and 11:00.
Where do I'm appointed a preacher? Well, that's that's the work of the Landers, an apostle. There's one with depth of authority, fired men and the teacher of the Gentiles. Well pull exercise and leave all again for whoever cared for the Saints of the apostle Paul, even when he had to write a letter.
Wrote it. He wrote it with many tears. Well, there was a shepherd's care over the flock. But, as you say, even in days.
The time in which we're living there, you don't see the gifts filling or functioning so distinctly in the definite capacity that belongs to their particular gifts as you did maybe 50 years ago.
I know when I was young my we had men that went around and L 10th meetings and meetings in school houses and had crowds coming out to care of the gospel. Well, in these days it's very difficult to get.
Strangers to come in.
They seem to succeed better off in the maritime where people are simply or poor. But looking over the whole springs of the country, we don't see the opportunities for evangelistic work that we didn't come 50 years ago. Would you agree with that, Brother McMullen?
01:05:13
Yes, I wouldn't be because we've seen it publicly. Remember, nearly 50 years ago, the 10 down in Kentucky would be packed to the to the walls. And then they had to raise the walls and put a lot of seats outside, outside the walls of tent to accommodate the people night after night. And that was a Saturday night as well. And twice on Lord's Day. The specific place, you know, And it's the same in a way, in many parts of the country all over.
But today?
Today it's hard to get an outsider to come anymore. Well, I think that the times have changed in this way that the Prosperity House might receive struck the country and people have They have their cars now and they have.
More luxury in their home and life is easier and they have machinery in their houses that they can they can spend their evenings.
With their overall, don't have to change clothes, you know, just push the button and there the whole world comes into the house and you can see things going on all over the world and you can see them even as they're happening. Well, all that kind of thing has had its effect.
And I'm told, I remember when I was over and facing over England 40 years ago, we used to have in one place where I was for quite a while, we had as many as 700 people come out to hear the gospel and there'd be 500 at the Sunday school.
700 go to the gospel night after night and so getting saved people crying out in distress at the at the end of the meeting and the close of the meetings and the nose very places today. They have a tremendous job getting 1/4 as many or 1/5 as many hope to hear the gospel as they depend. And I think that what we have is what believe Mr. Darby is supposed to have said about.
Prosperity, that enemy of the Christian prosperity, and it's the enemy of the Sinner too, because he can, he can go off and they can spend these money and spend his time and the things of the world that he enjoys. Well, as formerly they couldn't afford to do that.
And unevenly spending a gospel tense at the gisma diversion. And they come there and and they measure, enjoy the singing. And then the Lord will speak to their souls. Well, we've seen that great change taking place in our little lifetime. And that's very, very sad.
To keep us humble, realize it. I believe there's a parallelism between the.
History of Israel and the judges.
Days of the Church and that is that the Lord had to take up seemingly weaker vessels. Weaker and weaker approach the end. So it's not anything for us to be proud of.
Maybe a man left-handed or something of that kind and think of use the man like Samson. Well, he never rose above what my enemies. He never considered him the Lord's enemy. I believe there's another factor, brethren.
In these favored lands, truth is largely rejected.
And the Spirit of God is grieved, but that's further down that chapter.
The two very.
You spoke about the pastor preceding the teachers. It'd be nice if you would enlarge on that old effect.
Well, it seems to me that the portion.
In 11Th of Acts and Brother Hill read.
Gives us that something too clearly as we can find it anywhere. That is, these young Congress have been so many have been voted for less salvation. And then Barnabas comes along and he exhorts them all at the purpose of heart based in cleave unto the Lord. Well, that's the work of of a pastor. He wasn't.
18 On the truth of the church then. But he was telling them plea for that blessed one that they had so recently accepted as their Savior that delivered them from them. And darkness always doesn't that they deserve.
01:10:08
Well, and following that we get.
Barnabas finding Saul and bringing him. And then you have a teacher and for a whole year, well, you don't read it by Barnabas and Soil. I mean, it's all at that time going out in an evangelistic campaign. They've spent a whole year just teaching those who had already been saved through the dark preaching of others.
So I chose that.
Time spent over the Word and the instruction that we get through teaching is just as important as evangelistic work.
There are those, you know, they say, well, we should be out preaching the gospel. We shouldn't be sitting around here.
On these seats and talking to all of the scriptures together, we'll be out preaching the gospel, finding a new field.
Proclaiming the word well, the scripture doesn't teach things that way. The scripture makes a dust is important to.
To have teaching as having a golf or preach, would you say these are days that there's the effort put forth, strengthen, strengthen those things which remain.
And if that's true, brother, I've got to know it's true, brother. It's a Whitaker.
But you get in next. Do we not wear Barnabas or Paul speaks to Barnabas about going, visiting the places again where they have been and they went and farming the soul.
The lack of interest in the Gospel might be linked with the failure of the Saints to walk in the truth.
All the families that heard the word in 19 and 14 in Kentucky had walked in the truth. There would be little need for government in the government.
A very true statement.
Peter puts it into the puzzle. Let it not grow in grapes and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's a glory and grace first. Knowledge by itself will pop up.
But there needs to be the stirring up of the heart and the affections first.
Walking in that path.
No other, no proverbs and as a boy world ethically proverb that speaking about the rich fathers whose sons went through the money and went into poverty. The property was the father gathered in the gold with a rake and the sun threw it out of the shovel. Well, that could be applied in a in a spiritual way.
Many of our of the older folks, it cost them something.
To get the truth by the truth and sell it not it cost them reproach and separation from their families and the persecution. And it was it was hard for them to turn away from the traditions of their fathers and grandfathers and stand alone for the truth. And then don't refine that often times the children and grandchildren, where are they?
In many cases.
You get some lovely thoughts on.
The work of the past year in First Peter chapter 5.
The elders which are among you are exhausted, and also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory. And, it shall be revealed, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, taught by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind either, as being Lord over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.
Well, that speaks about the exhaust and the different assemblies.
Were to whom Peter was writing, there may be a distinctive depth of a plaster, but if one has that gift, and this call of God as a pastor, he pleases to be.
01:15:14
He should not or he could not expect.
Gift to be done Exercise and one assembly is a gift to the whole body of Christ. Well, take the example of.
Of Phillips, you know, he started out as a Deacon in Jerusalem, but he did the office of a Deacon well, and he purchased to himself a good degree in great folders.
And the word so that after the persecution over Steven rules we never find.
Back in Jerusalem.
Functioning as beacon, but we find in going from place to place as an evangelist, from the time that he was definitely called out, he became a gift to the whole church. But I believe that in this place we fossil Peter is encouraging all the dearer Saints to feed the flock.
That rifle there, yes, I think so. Yeah. We all have responsibility. You can't say I have no gift. We have responsibility for the law.
I remember the last time I ever heard whether age rule she was she made this remark completing his Ben Lewis. He said that no one could say that I have such a gift. He says all we can do is to do a little work of those who have the gifts that are mentioned here in the word. That is, we can preach the gospel and whatever little.
Humility or capacity of the Lord gives us.
We are all privileged to feed the flock, shepherd the flock, and to instruct our president and try to help strengthen the things that remain. No one is sufficient for it but the Lord Himself.
No one man is sufficient for it.
We need our brethren.
#4 in the appendix.
Differently.