Address—Jim Hyland
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I'd like to start the meeting this evening with hymn #22 in the appendix.
Thou holy one and true our hearts, in thee confide and in the circle of thy love as brethren we abide hymn #22 in the appendix, if someone could please start it.
Uh.
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father. We are indeed thankful this evening for Thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank thee that that blessed One came into this world, went to Calvary's cross, and there offered himself without spot to the We rejoice, too, to realize that he's risen, ascended, exalted, and glorified at Thy right hand our resources. We go through this world in the path of faith and service.
And now we're thankful too, for thy living word. We thank thee that thou hast not left us without light and instruction.
Even for these dark, difficult days, we thank thee that thou hast given us refreshment and encouragement for our pathway.
And so, as we have thy word before us, we pray that it might be that which would encourage that which would build us up. Comfort, exhort, admonish, correct, whatever the need might be our God. We pray that there might be that in the power of the Spirit that would speak to the heart and conscience of each one of us. So we ask Thy help and blessing. We only have no might of ourselves, but we look to the beseechingly for much blessing this evening, asking it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory.
Amen. By way of introduction to what I have on my heart this evening, like to read 2 portions of scripture to begin with. The first one is in Hebrews chapter 10.
Hebrews, chapter 10.
And verse 24.
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And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. And then a very familiar verse in Acts chapter 2.
Acts chapter 2 and verse 42.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine and fellowship.
And in breaking of bread and in prayers, so often when we take up the truth of God.
We take it up in connection with our individual responsibility before God.
And that which has to do with the path of faith and service individually.
And it's certainly a wonderful line of truth, and I suppose, as though I haven't been here, that you've no doubt had some ministry in that regard. There's often two ministry in connection with the family and our responsibility and privileges in connection with the family circle. And again, that's a wonderful line of truth as well. But this evening I have it on my heart to take up that which ought to, I trust, encourage us collectively.
As the Lord's people, because this has often been pointed out whenever you have a truth.
Concerning the individual aspect of things, there's always a comparable truth concerning the collective side of things.
I'll just give you a couple of quick examples completely out of context. But for instance, individually we can echo with the Apostle Paul, the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. What is the comparable truth as to the collective side of things? Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. And so you see, there's the individual position we have before the Lord, but there's the collective side of things as well.
And as I say, that's what's on my heart. And I read this verse, these verses in Hebrews to introduce my subject.
Because if we were to read the context of the chapter, I believe we have days very parallel to the days in which we live now.
And he is encouraging the Christians in his day.
To go on together, to provoke unto love and good works.
To go on in harmony together and fellowship together, and to not forsake the assembling of themselves together.
As he says here, as the manner of some is, but it's interesting he adds this little comment and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Now the day he's talking about here, in the context of what follows, is not the Lord's coming, although what we have that follows points to the fact that we are getting close to the Lord's coming. But the day he's Speaking of here is the day of apostasy, the day of turning away from the truth. It's also a day of discouragement for the believer, a day when the enemy is subverting the souls of the Saints and many are giving up and fainting.
And not trusting the Lord like they ought to. Later on in the chapter he says cast not away, therefore your confidence.
For of such as great recompense of reward, and I believe everyone of us here can see very quickly.
The These are the days in which you and I find ourselves. We're the day of utter weakness.
We're in a day of spiritual and moral ruin, but the encouragement of the apostle here was.
That the Saints of God would go on together, not just individually. That's true, Paul, when he wrote to Timothy in the second Epistle, he wrote two of days, very parallel to the days in which we find ourselves referred to there as the last days and perilous times. And he encourages Timothy, on the one hand to continue thou that's individual. But he also encourages them to go on with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
In other words, he says Timothy, there's still a path of faith collectively as well.
And I want to encourage our hearts in that regard. There's so much today to discourage. The enemy comes in to seek to divide, to scatter, to weary the people of God. But I believe all the resources are there for us to go on, even in together, even in days of utter weakness and ruin. And so we find in the early chapters of the Acts that what characterized the believers back in the day of at the day of Pentecost.
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We find that they continued steadfastly, or if you notice another translation, they persevered.
Because it does take perseverance to go on together. In the days in which we live, the enemy doesn't want to see us encourage one another. He doesn't want to see us go on in happy fellowship with the Lord and with one another.
Nor eat, seek to smash that if he could. And so they continued steadfastly. They persevered not just individually, but what we have listed here, or what we might say are the assembly meetings. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine. Now I want to notice the order here, because as I've often said, when God lists two or more things in His word, that they're never listed randomly.
You know, sometimes we make lists of things we need to do or things we need to buy at the store. And someone might say, well, why did you list those things in that order? Well, it was just as they came to mind. It was rather random. But God doesn't list things in that way. Just give you a little hint that will help you in your study of the word of God. When you come to a list of two or more things, stop and consider why they are listed in that order. And the order that these things here are listed in is very important. In fact, it's vital.
They continued steadfastly, first of all in the apostles doctrine, because that was the basis for everything else.
It was the basis for fellowship. It was the basis for breaking bread. It was the basis for prayer.
And so, if we're going to go on together, collectively, in a scriptural way for the Lord's glory.
It must be on the basis of that which has been laid out as to the foundation principles.
In God's Word, because those principles don't change. The foundation of God standeth, sure.
And to go back to the word of God to, as we say, first principles.
It's important. And so this was the basis. Now I realize when it says the apostles doctrine here, it wasn't Paul's doctrine. I realize that because Paul had neither been saved nor written by inspiration at this point. But there was that which was given to the early apostles and they taught here and it was the basis for them meeting in this way. And so the apostles doctrine and fellowship, this is what we might say if we can apply it this way. Meetings for ministry of the word of God, you know we need that.
Because God has given ministry in the assembly in a way that we get a balance.
Not that the Bible needs a balance. The Bible is the only balanced book there is in the world.
But it's we who need the balance. And when we avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly on an ongoing basis, as weak as it may be in your home assembly, you're going to get a balance. You know, I have found that those who do not avail themselves of ministry in the assembly, they become like what it says about Ephraim. Ephraim is a cake not turned. You know, if you put a cake on the griddle and you don't turn it, it gets too well done on one side and not enough on the other.
And if we don't avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly, I believe we can often go off on tangents. We get on one side of the truth or the other. We sometimes press certain points at the expense of others. But when the spirit of God is given liberty in the assembly and different ones are led to minister, then I believe we can get that balance and that correction. That's not to say that every meeting for ministry is balanced, but in the overall scheme of things.
You're going to find that there will be balance and correction and so they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship. And then there was breaking of bread. This is the meeting where we come to remember the Lord Jesus as he has asked us to do. Do we really value that meeting? I'm just going to pause here a moment because it's fresh on my in my soul I have just come from a country where it is illegal to meet like we are here this evening.
I have come from Egypt where we had a week of meetings, first of all in Cairo, and every night we had a meeting in a different brothers, in a brothers, a different brothers apartment in a different part of the city. You've got to realize now that Cairo, if you Google it, you'll find it is Greater Cairo, not Cairo proper, but Greater Cairo is now a city of 27,000,500 people, and so we would have a meeting in different parts of the city.
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For different for a couple of reasons. One is it would allow different brethren from different parts of the city to come each evening. But there wasn't even more important reason those meetings were held illegally. I would be invited to a brother's home in the late afternoon. They have lunch between 5:00 and 6:00 there, and so I would be invited to a brother's home for lunch. And then between that and about 9930, rather than who were going to be able to come for a meeting that night, would kind of trickle in. They wouldn't all come at once.
When they decided that everybody that was able to come that evening had arrived, we shut the doors and windows. We didn't sing because we didn't want to raise any attention. We had a meeting for a couple of hours and when the meeting was over then they opened the doors and windows and immediately served some refreshment. So it looks to the neighbors like a social gathering. And then about 11:00 they serve dinner tomorrow night. The meeting was in another part of the city, in another brother's home. They never have it two nights in a row.
In one place we had a week of conference, which I've just returned from by the grace of God. They had it out on the Sinai Peninsula in a very, very isolated place and in a compound up the Red Sea, where it's one of the few places that is licensed for something other than Islamic gathering. And those brethren value those times perhaps more than I do, because they realize those times are far and few between.
And those times are times when they often put their life on the line to have the word of God before them and to have fellowship one with another. And brethren, we come to night and we have this camp, but we don't have to bar the doors. We don't have to pretend we're here for some other reason than the Bible meeting.
How much do we value the privilege we have in a country like the United States and Canada Where I come come from, When you go home from this camp to your little assembly meeting, they're going to value the privilege of being gathered to the Lord's name and meeting with a few believers of like precious faith without any hinder other some reproach connected with it. But what is a little reproach compared to soldiers breaking down the door and coming in and arresting?
Or shooting some of us. Oh, I say those brethren in those countries, they value those times. Not only that, but on a typical night in Cairo, only about 1/3 of the assembly can meet. For several reasons, one geography, the other expense. Most of those brethren couldn't afford transit fare to come every week. Some of them only once, once or twice a month can come afford the transit fare. And when they can, they really value the time. Well, that's just in passing. And then we have prayers.
And so it's not so much individual or family prayer here. It's a collective prayer like they had in Acts 12 where the apostle Peter was in prison and it seemed like things were really against him. And it says prayer was made for him by the church without ceasing. And they came together on those nights for prayer. And one night God answered their prayer and Peter showed up at the door. So what I'd like to do now is I'd like to go to a little incident later on in the book of Acts.
Because it's often been said, and rightly so, that in the Epistles we have the principles of Christianity.
But in the book of the Acts, God has given us a pattern, a pattern of things at the beginning.
And brother and I realize we're not in the day of Pentecost. We're not in the Pauline days of the church. I realize we're right at the end. But the pattern and principle of things laid down for us still stands. And I believe we can act on those things that God has established for us, even though we find ourselves on the other end of the church's history from these early brethren. And so I want to go to a little glimpse.
Into an assembly way back in the early days of Christianity.
And to see what took place there on a particular Lord's Day, let's go to the 20th chapter.
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Chapter 20 and we'll begin reading at verse 6.
When we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came to them to throw unto them, to throw, as in five days.
Where we abode 7 days and upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread.
Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the Morrow, and continued his speech until midnight.
And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eudicus.
Being fallen into a deep sleep, and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep.
And fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead, and Paul went down and fell on him and embracing him, said.
Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him when he therefore was come up again in a broken bread.
And eaten and talked a long while even till break of day, so he departed.
And they brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted. Well, as I say, we get a little glimpse here of a particular Lord's Day in the early days of the church in this city of Croaz. And I don't pay particular attention to names and their meanings as they appear in Scripture, but some of them seem to jump off the page. And I have been interested to realize that the name Troas means penetrated or bored through. I don't want to go too far with the application of a meaning of a name.
But I have thought of it in this way because history tells us that Troaz in those days was a dark, heathen city. They were worshippers, particularly of the God Jupiter. But the light of the glorious gospel had penetrated that dark city. And not only had it penetrated that dark city, but it had penetrated many dark hearts. Aren't we thankful for the light of the glorious gospel that has penetrated into our heart?
In fact, if there's someone tonight who's not saved or what to God, that the beams of the gospel would beam into your heart by the Spirit of God, and that you would be turned from darkness to light. But here were these ones who had been saved from heathendom, and now they rejoice to be able to meet on the first day of the week, to remember the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread, and to enjoy happy fellowship, one with one with another.
We find here that as this scene opens, Paul and his fellow travelers have arrived on introads. Now I believe if you notice closely, they arrived on a Monday. I say that because we realize they have owed 7 days and they left on the day after the first day of the week. So they must have arrived on a Monday and I want to make a simple suggestion as to why they remained a whole week in Troas.
I suggest that so much that they value the privilege of remembering the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread with others in fellowship of the Lord's table, that they remained there that week. So they would have that blessed privilege before they traveled on. Does that privilege mean that much to you and to me? You know I have had the opportunity and the privilege. My wife and I are visiting our brethren in other parts of the world.
Some who are very isolated, who only can break bread when someone visits them, maybe two or three times a year at the most. Other little assemblies where they're so spread out that they can't on every Lord's day get together to remember the Lord. We've broken bread sometimes with a sister who's isolated on a Thursday afternoon or a Friday evening because we were able to be there that particular day.
There was an elderly sister. She's with the Lord now, but she used to always keep a little role and a little flask of wine in her cupboard. And whenever a brother came through, she was always ready to sit down in fellowship with her brethren. And remember the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread? That sister really valued that privilege. You know, for most of my life, I've lived 10 minutes or less from the meeting room in Smith Falls. I can't say I value it like I ought to.
But here we find that they came together on the first day of the week and noticed. The Spirit of God is very quick to tell us their primary purpose for coming together.
It wasn't to enjoy happy fellowship together, although they did have that privilege. It wasn't to sit under the ministry of the Apostle Paul, although they had the that privilege on that particular Lord's Day. It wasn't just a visit with those who were traveling through the city at that time. They had that privilege too. It wasn't just to partake of a meal, although I believe they partook of a meal on this particular Lord's Day together. No, the Spirit of God tells us that the primary exercise and purpose.
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As they assembled in the third law, they came together to break bread.
Now I suggest that they came together in at night, like many of our brethren in other parts of the world still do. I don't think Paul preached as long as we think he did. Most of us are used to having breaking of bread in the morning. But again, I've come from a country where Lord's Day is not a holiday. Our brethren there have to get up and go to work and school on Lord's Day, and so they meet at 8:30 at night when their responsibilities are done.
And real you have to realize that these brethren were employees or servants, maybe even slaves to ungodly masters.
Lord's, They wouldn't be recognized in the same way that we've been thankful it's been recognized in Christian countries over the years.
They probably had to work on this particular day, but when their obligations were over.
Oh, I can just picture those brethren winding them their way through the dark streets of Troas with one thing in view, a third loft where they were going to meet around the Lord Jesus to remember him in the breaking of bread that day. And so they came together to break bread. Now, I'll just mention this. It's not my primary thought in taking up this little incident. There is, I believe, a bit of a dispensational character to what we have here. That is the joy and exercise of the brethren in the early days of the Church's history.
When they came together to remember the Lord, we find them here appreciating Paul's ministry.
Then we find that Utica sits in the window. He wearies of that he falls down to the street, perhaps referring to that time in the Church's history as the Dark Ages, when much of the truth that we have, I trust, appreciate and enjoy collectively was lost. Then there was restoration, and they broke bread till break of day and so on. I just mentioned that in passing, and we may make a comment or two in that regard as we go along.
But we find here that Paul preaches to them and I want to apply this.
In connection with the the collective side of things and to the heavenly calling of the believer, you know this is a day, sad to say, when Paul's epistles to a great degree are being given up by many Christians today. A brother said to me one time, he said, you know, I don't read Paul's epistles anymore. I believe the Gospels are the most important. Well, we certainly need the Gospels. They give us the life of Christ, the example to follow in his steps, and so on.
But I don't believe we'll ever understand what how we can meet collectively and go on together as gathered to the Lord's name. Without Paul's ministry will never understand the real calling of the church as a heavenly entity. If we don't read Paul's ministry, we'll never understand about the Lord's coming and the difference of the Lord's coming for his Saints and with his Saints and so on. Those things, the meat of those things, are really brought out in Paul's ministry.
And why is there so much confusion today in many Christian circles as to some of these precious things?
It's because they've neglected Paul's ministry. But we find here that these early brethren they listen to and appreciated.
The ministry of the Apostle Paul. We read two of the Berean Brethren.
They were more noble than those of Thessalonica because they searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
What things? The things that the Apostle Paul brought before them. Now the Thessalonians were noble. They listened to Paul's ministry. But the Bereans were more noble because they searched it out from the word of God and confirmed it from Scripture. And that's what we need to do with Paul's ministry. We need to listen to, administered on occasions like this, and then we need to search it out for ourselves. And we need to seek to walk in the good of it and tenaciously hold on to those foundation principles.
Because Paul spoke of himself as a wise master builder, The other apostles and New Testament writers too, as we get in Ephesians.
But Paul is the one that lays down the real meat of Christianity.
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And we're going to miss it if we don't go to Paul's ministry. And so we find Paul preaches unto them, ready to depart on the Morrow. Now I know this was literally he was considering leaving Troas the next day, and that's certainly what happened. But again, I believe we can make a little application because Paul's ministry always brings that character of things before us. The Lord's coming. Are we ready to depart, not just tomorrow, but this evening? Do we have that hope before us?
Again, it's something that perhaps has been confused and misconstrued and many Christians aren't looking for the Lord Jesus to come at any moment. More lot many Christians are looking for better things down here. And the king establishment of the Kingdom and so on. Well, there will be better days down here. There will be the establishment of the Kingdom. But there's something before that ready to depart. Let's keep that truth before our souls. Brethren, what's going to encourage us to go on individually?
As families and collectively as gathered to the Lord's name. If the truth of the Lord's coming, it's the realization that he has promised I will come again and that he's going to fulfill that promise at any moment. And then we find He continues his speech until midnight. As I say dispensationally, I believe it speaks of that time when the truth of Paul's ministry and the Lord's coming, and so on and meeting.
In the Lord's name was lost, thank God, through the dark ages that were individuals in the enjoyment of those precious truths. In fact, we have some hymns written by individuals during that time, who from what they wrote we see were individually in the enjoyment of these precious things, but generally it was lost. But now I want to make a little application from the eighth verse where it says there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together.
Now, no doubt they were candles or oil lamps or something of that nature because remember, it was the middle of the night by this time, and so they needed that light. But again, I want to make a little application. You know, there's many lights in this room and I'm not talking about the ones on the ceiling either, because every one of us here are to be lights for Christ. But you notice these lights were in the upper chamber and you noticed earlier it was a third. Law three speaks of separation, death and resurrection. It's a very.
Marked degree of separation here is the upper chamber, because if you and I are going to be true lights for Christ in this world, we must walk in separation from it.
We must walk in the truth. We never shine for Christ. We never reach souls by compromising. It's always by walking in separation. We see it with the perfect example of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was the most accessible man that ever walked on planet earth, but he was He as as a man. He walked in complete separation from this world and he told his own at the end, ye are not of this world.
Even as I am not at this world, and there is a way that we can walk so that we can shine for the Lord.
You know, when the Lord Jesus was here, he spoke of himself as the light of the world.
But before he left this world, he said to his disciples, Ye are the light of the world. The Lord Jesus is not the light of the world. Tonight we're left here as lights in this world. And it says that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as light in this world. We're here in a in a in a wicked world, the moral and spiritual darkness is deepening every day.
But we ought to be light, bright lights in a Dark World to shine for Christ. So there were many lights in the upper chamber. But now I want to speak for a few moments about this young man named Utica. Now it's interesting again that Eureka's name means well off. And you know, I look into the faces of those of us tonight who are well off. Here was a young man that was well off. He was a young man who I have no doubt the light of the glorious gospel had penetrated his dark heart. He belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was associated with the believers gathered to the Lord's name in Troas. He had the privilege, no doubt, of remembering the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread, and he had the wonderful privilege of sitting under the ministry of the Apostle Paul. He was a man, a young man who was well off. I wonder if you young people know how well off you are. Now I realize some of you here were not brought up in Christian homes. There's perhaps some here, and your parents aren't even happy that you're at this camp, but I realize I look into the faces of many.
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Who have been brought up in Christian homes and are being brought up in Christian homes.
How much do you value that? There was a man who was well off, but you know he wearied of it all, and not only did he weary of it all, but he decided to sit in a dangerous place. He sat in a window. Now I have no doubt this third loft had become stuffy after a time, probably hot and stuffy, and he decided that he could have a breath of fresh air. But I believe there's a far deeper lesson that we can learn from this.
Because I suggest that Eudicus decided he wanted to keep one eye on what was going on in the world outside, and one eye on what was going on in the room where the Brethren were meeting. One year tuned to the Ministry of the Apostle Paul, and one year tuned to the world outside. And you say, wasn't there a 5050 chance that he would fall either in or out of the window rather than? It doesn't work that way. If we leave our hearts open for the world, it's going to pull us down.
We're not going to fall in the window, so to speak. We're going to fall out of the window. But I want to say this too, because.
You know yourself. If you're sleepy and meeting, you're never wide awake one minute and sound asleep the next. It's a process of things. You're weary and your eyes closed. Your head goes down, then it comes back up. Then you repeat the process. And if you allow the process to be repeated enough, ultimately you're going to find yourself sound asleep in meeting. And I have often wondered as Utica sat down in the window and as he began to nod off to sleep.
Why wasn't there someone who saw the plight of Eudicus? Someone who saw him nodding off? Someone who saw him leaning toward the street? Someone who could have gone over in love and put their arm around you to kiss and said, Utica, you know you're in a dangerous position and you're falling asleep. There's a chair over by me. Why don't you come and sit by me? I'm not excusing Utica, but I'm saying, why is it brethren, so often we wait?
Till someone has drifted away from the Lord's table.
Maybe even sin has come in and there has to be some action on the part of the assembly. Why is it we wait until then to try to encourage someone as to a course that they're on? Again, I don't want to read more into this than there really is, but perhaps if someone could have gone over and encouraged you to **** before he was found asleep, before he fell down, it might have saved him this bitter experience. He might not have appreciated it. And maybe if you try to encourage someone in a course, you won't be appreciated.
But it could might spare someone the course that they're on the end of the course that they're on. And so we find that Utica see drifts off to sleep. He wearies of the ministry of the Apostle Paul. He wearies of what's going on in the the room where the assemblies meeting and he falls down to the level of the street and when they go down he he, for all intents and purposes outwardly he looks dead. You know, I have grown up. I grew up with many young people.
That I have to look at their life now and say, you know, there once seemed to be real faith, there, real desire for the Lord. But I have to bow in the language of Timothy and say the Lord knoweth them that are his. What a sad thing it really is. And a lot of times I it's to my shame as well because I haven't carried out what I've just said. Well, Utica falls down, but I want to notice what happens here. We find in verse 10 that Paul went down and fell on him and embraced him.
You'll notice here that Eudicus didn't embrace Paul. Paul embraced Uticus. Because I believe when there's Restoration, and I want to speak of Restoration for a moment. When there's restoration, it's really the truth of God and the power of the Spirit. Getting a hold of a soul. We sometimes say, and I know what we mean by the expression, well, they really got a hold of the truth. I have no problem with that expression. But perhaps it would be better to say the truth got a hold of them.
Because, you know, if there's the onus is never put on our part, put on us in Christianity, it's always whether it was our salvation, whether it's any desire to go on for the Lord. It's God that works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure, whether it's restoration. David had to say he restoreth my soul. Whatever aspect of the Lord's dealings, it is with us. When we get to heaven, we're gonna realize that it was all his working.
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In US and and for us. And so we find that Paul goes down and embraces him, and he confirms to the brethren that his life is in him. Now brethren, what I want to say next, I want to say very circumspectly, and I trust I can balance my remarks as I go along, because I realize that if there is going to be restoration on for a soul to the Lord and to their brethren, it has to initially.
Be a work of the Spirit of God in the soul. I understand that fully. I also understand.
That we can get in the way. In our zeal to see someone restored to the Lord's table, we can sometimes get in the way. We can bring someone back before it's the Lord's time. And if we do that, it only adds to the problem, It doesn't help it. We don't help the person and we cause confusion for the assembly. But brother. And there's a balance in this because you notice when Eudicus was restored to his brethren.
It wasn't the apostle Paul who was visiting on that occasion, or any of the other visitors that restored him to the third loft. The Spirit of God is very careful to record, and they, the local brethren, brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted. Paul went down and had the initial contact. Paul was the one who embraced him. Paul was the one who confirmed to the brethren that there was life.
But it was the responsibility of the Brethren to restore him to the third loft. Again, I want to balance this. We don't want to get ahead of the Lord. But if I can just say this with ever such caution, when a sheep wanders away from the fold, it doesn't come back on its own. It does not come back on its own. And brethren, it's not a happy thing that one go out and another come in and we wash our hands of a situation and say, well, it was only a problem.
Anyway, that's not what God wants. When we go to 1St and 2nd Corinthians, we get again the balance.
In One Corinthians they erred on the side of holiness, but in Two Corinthians they erred on the side of grace.
Yes, they had to excommunicate the individual for the clearing of sin from the assembly, for the Lord's glory, and for the exercise of the individual as to what he had done.
But when Paul wrote to them the second time, he said, what's the problem? There's been true godly repentance evidenced in this man's life. And if you don't restore him now to his brethren into the Lord's table, he's going to be swallowed up completely. And brother and I believe we need to be watchful and careful so that when there is a work of the Spirit of God in a soul, we are there, ready to be used of the Lord in connection with restoration. Now I know we can't draw rules.
I know that the Bible is a book of principles rather than rules. The Bible is not a self help book. We don't get from point A to point B in 12 easy steps. I realize that circumstances alter cases and so on but I believe it was a happy thing here in Troas when there was this restoration and so we we find they come up and it says in verse 11 when he therefore was come up again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while now.
I don't believe they repeated the Lord's Supper here, because to break bread is an Old English expression to partake of a meal.
And so they come up and now there's happy fellowship together. And then it says even till break of day. And so he departed. However, I want to make this application because in the dispensational character of things I believe God has inserted this little expression to show that even at the end, till break of day, till the Lord comes, there will be the privilege of remembering the Lord. And notice where they where where it was. It was back up in the third loft. It was the very place that they had been in the beginning.
You know when it says in One Corinthians 11 ye do show the Lord's death till he come. He wouldn't say there till he till he come, if he wasn't going to provide a scriptural basis on which to do it. The Lord never asked us to do anything without providing A scriptural basis on which to do it. And so this little as I say, I believe they really particular meal, but they broke bread till break of day, showing us that there will be that privilege in the very place where it began.
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That is, as to the principles that were laid out in the beginning.
Until the Lord comes. And then it says, And so he departed. You know, we talk about the Lord's coming. Paul anticipated departing, and the moment came when he did. You know, that moment, I believe, is closer than we realized. I can't tell you tonight when the Lord is coming, but I know one thing. We're closer to the Lord's coming at this moment than we've ever been before. Now, before we close, I'd like to turn over to another little portion in the book of Acts, this time in the.
28th chapter.
I'm sorry, Chapter 27.
Chapter 27 and verse 41 And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground.
And the four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable. But the hinder part of the was broken with the violence of the waves. Now we don't have time, but if we were to read this little account in this chapter of Paul's shipwreck, we find that in their travels they came upon this storm. God allowed a storm that was so violent that the ship broke up. And we find that everyone was saved. Everyone made it to shore.
Albeit on broken pieces of the ship. That part speaks of the individual responsibility.
And resources that are given to us even for the days in which we live, because, as we said earlier, the last days are characterized by individual faithfulness. But I believe too, that God has inserted something very precious here in the verse we read to encourage us as to the collective side of things, even though the ship which would perhaps speak to us of testimony and fellowship, even though the ship had been broken up here.
I want to bring this out because I have been saddened to find that this incident is used, has been often used to justify a certain line of things that I believe is not according to the word of God. And that line of things, in short, is that, well, it doesn't matter at the end, everything's broken up and in ruin, and as long as we're individually faithful, it doesn't matter. There's no collective testimony anymore, and it's all just individual.
But I believe there is something inserted here that guards against that, because we find that as they fell into this place and the ship falls apart.
We find that first of all, at the end of the verse. It's true that the hinder part of the ship was broken with the violence of the waves. Now that's where we are now, outwardly, and I stress outwardly, things are fragmented and broken up. And so, sad to say, and to our shame, we find Christians today in various pockets and fellowships of Christendom. Behind her part has been broken with the violence of the wave. I'll just say this is a safeguard. The church is not in ruin.
You know, sometimes we say the church is in ruin, and I understand what we mean when we say that. But if we say the church is in ruin, what we're really saying is the Lord has failed in His promise in Matthew chapter 16, where he said on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What is in ruin is the testimony as to the truth of the one body. That's what's really in ruined. But the church is not in ruin, thank God.
There is one body. Thank God he hasn't committed the keeping of the church or the one body to us or it would be in ruin. I just say that in passing and so outwardly, yes, things are broken with the violence of the waves. The enemy has been ultra successful in seeking to smash things in that way. But before he speaks of it, the.
Hinder part of the ship being broken by the violence of the waves. The Spirit of God has inserted this little expression here.
That the four part of the ship stuck fast and remained unmovable. If the hinder part of the ship speaks to us of where we are now, then I suggest that the four part of the ship speaks of what was laid out at the beginning, both the pattern of things and the principles that were laid out at the beginning of the Christian era and that has stuck fast and remained unmovable.
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Nothing can change that, thank God. And if that is true, and I believe with all my heart, it is true.
Then, brethren, can we not go back and act on that which was established at the beginning? I believe that we can. We can go back, so to speak, to the third loft. We can go back to those foundation principles because those principles haven't changed. And I believe that God has given us all the resources that we need to act even today on those principles.
Now I realize that it's not a popular path. I have no doubt there's some sitting here and saying, well, Jim, it's all right for you to talk about these things from the word of God, and we understand it. But what about when we go home for to our little assembly? You know, the people at work, my Christian friends, those of my Christian neighbors in the community, they just don't understand when they asked me where I go on Sunday. And I kind of hem and Haw and tell them I go to that little hall down the street or I meet in someone's home to break bread and remember the Lord.
Just don't understand, you know. There's going to be a reproach connected with being gathered to the Lord's name. It says in Hebrews, Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, and we might there reproach. That is not what it says, bearing his reproach, But I enjoyed what an older sister in my hometown of Smith Falls said many years ago. Someone asked her, where do you go on on Lord's Day? And she told them, and she said, you know, they said to her.
You know, up at that place, they don't even take a name. Oh, she said, we do take a name. And she said, what more wonderful name could we have than to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? I thought that was very precious. Isn't that enough, brethren? Isn't that what we really want to be associated with him? Because I want to stress at the end of this meeting that God has made a way, the Lord Jesus has made a way, so that we can enjoy.
His company collectively this side of heaven, he wants to enjoy our company individually. And lo, I am with you always, even under the end of the age. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. But you know when Israel was redeemed and brought into the wilderness.
Jehovah looked down and he said, let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell amongst them. You know, he knew that in the coming day when they got into the land, that Jerusalem would be chosen as the spot where they could come and meet with the Lord collectively and.
The temple would be built and he would dwell there amongst his people and so on. But to me it's just as if he looked down.
On a redeemed people and said, I don't wanna have to wait that day. I don't wanna have to wait 40 years or more to dwell with my people collectively. I want to be in their midst every step of the way. And so, brethren, he wants our company, not just individually, but he wants our company collectively. But you know, it really is a matter of the heart. We can speak of these principles, we can talk about it. But you know, it really is a matter of the heart. And it's more than just principles. It's the truth as it is in Jesus.
You know when we see the Lord Jesus there on prayer meeting night on occasions for ministry of the word, when we come to remember the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread, if we really see by faith who is there in the midst, don't we want to be there? Don't we really want to be there where he is and to enjoy his Co company collectively? There's a place called the Father's house where all the redeemed are going to be together, but he wants us to go on in the meantime in that place.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I. In the midst of them there is a place.
Where the Lord Jesus delights by the Spirit of God to gather his own around himself, and if you and I are truly exercised, He not only brings us to that place, but he preserves us at that place for our blessing. Yes, but first of all for his glory, for his glory, and for his delight. Brethren, if it brings joy to your heart and mind to find ourselves by the grace of God, and it's only by the grace of God.
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But to find ourselves by the grace of God, to be gathered to the Lord's name where he is in the midst, if that brings the light to our hearts.
His delight, his joy far outweighs any joy and delight that by the grace of God is in your heart and mind. Well, brethren, may the Lord preserve us, and may we seek to go on for the Lord's glory individually as families, and collectively as gathered to the Lord's name, until we look into his wonderful face. And by the grace of God he can say, well done. Thou, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Let's pray our God and Father.
How thankful we are tonight for thy word and for those wonderful patterns that thou hast laid out for us in the book of the acts and those principles that have been laid down for us in the epistles and our God we pray that we might seek grace to meditate on these things give ourselves holy to them and then we might seek grace and energy of faith to walk and that which thou hast laid out for us until the Lord Jesus comes so we ask thy blessing and blessing on the rest of our evening together?
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.