Open—R. Boulard, S. Stewart
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#5 in the appendix.
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Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for Him that we've been seeing together.
And we thank Thee for that time in our lives, our gods.
As a sheep that was lost now to bring us back to thyself and yet our God, we think of how we've been saying that now that we've grown to be there are those things that we're prone to.
And we own it before the and we just would think now, our God, of the little time that's before us, and we just would pray that we might indeed hear thy voice.
We think of the very needs that there are here, our God, and we just would pray that our affections would be touched this afternoon, we think.
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I'd like to just turn to Acts chapter 20.
And read from verse 17, this, uh, chapter different ones this morning in our prayer meeting and, and, uh, during our reading meeting, as we took up, uh, some portion in Revelation chapter 2, this, uh, passage of scripture was referred to several times. And, umm, I just like to give just a try to give, uh, a little orderly outline of what the apostle Paul was trying to say here to the brethren in Ephesus.
It was an address to the Ephesian elders, those that were really, uh, experienced and mature in the things of God and, uh, those that were responsible that the assembly might go on for the glory of God and for the blessing of his people. That there might be something, uh, of a portion of Christ and a suitable state among the brethren there at that time that his people might be fed and nourished, encouraged. And so let's just read from Acts chapter 20, verse 17, it says.
And from my elitist he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church, and when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the.
First day that I came into Asia, after what manner of time I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying and weight of the Jews. And how I hell kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God.
And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I go, bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem.
Not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move I move me neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received at the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God.
Shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the witch, or wherein the Holy Ghost have made you overseers to feed the Church of God, which He had purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock Also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things.
To draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend unto you, commend you to God, and.
To the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them.
Which are sanctified I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yeah, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto My necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when He had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, soaring most of all for the words which he spake.
That they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him under the ship. While in this little passage of Scripture, the Apostle Paul presents himself to the Ephesian elders as an example of one that would be, umm, a model of suitable for oversight, One that would be, uh, genuinely caring for the Saints of God, genuinely feeding the Saints of God. And umm, I'll just bring out a few points here.
And it says in verse 18, the very first thing he points out is his consistency of his path. It says when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, what after what manner I have been with you at all seasons. And so there was a time when they met the apostle Paul. And perhaps there's been a time, you know, when you have begun to read Paul's doctrine, you've begun to read some of the epistles.
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And I trust that you pray and ask the Lord to help to open up the word to you, open up those epistles, the heavenly truth or the heavenly calling of the church and the privileges that are ours in the Christian era that are so blessed. And perhaps you pray, ask the Lord for help as you read those epistles. And the Apostle Paul, you know, he was introduced to these men in Ephesus and they hadn't heard about the Holy Ghost. Let's just turn to that and, and Acts, I think it's chapter 19.
It says in verse two, Well let's read verse one, Acts 19, and verse one it says, It came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus. And finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard, whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul had laid his hands on upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied, and all the men were about 12.
Well, they heard from Paul's own lips later on in this chapter. It goes goes on. And he was there for two years and three months.
It was a small start, small little start to that little assembly. There were 12. All the men were about 12. And I used to think when I was younger, you know, that that assembly must have been huge for the apostle Paul, the mighty apostle, to write to this, this letter to the Ephesians, assembly must have been a big assembly. But no one was a small start, a small beginning, perhaps a small assembly, and nevertheless precious insight of the Lord. And Paul had met these dear ones. And when they met Paul, there was a consistency in his Christian life, a consistency.
Of his character that was evident when they first laid their eyes on him and when they first spoke with him and as they knew Paul as he moved among them for those two years and three months, he didn't change. He wasn't an up and down Christian. You know there was a steadiness to Paul's testimony and that's what you and I need as we if we desire to be any blessing to our brethren or any blessing to ourselves or in our families, we need a steadiness and a predictability is that we're.
An evenness really speaks, perhaps of the meat offering in connection with the Lord Jesus. Perfect, evenness, perfect.
In every way the Lord Jesus, every grace was manifested in perfection in that blessed One.
But you and I, you know, we get a little off sometimes and we don't have that evenness and that predict predictability. Well, the Apostle Paul was a model in that way. The Ephesians Saints could always go to Paul. They know how he'd react. He wasn't one day in the dumps and then one day up on cloud 9 as we speak. No, he was consistent in his, umm, Christian character in his walk with the Lord. And that's something that you and I can do.
As well, you and I need to walk with consistency with the Lord one day at a time. Not just one little spot here, 1 little spot there, but the very first thing that needs to characterize your Christian life and mind is consistency in the walk with the Lord. And if you walk and see me one day and you say I met you five years ago, and then you meet me five years from now, am I still walking with the Lord? Am I still teaching the same thing? Am I still walking?
In predictable, in a predictable course, a path of obedience and faithfulness to the Lord. Well, this is what characterized Paul first.
And he said, you know that the first day that I came into Asia. So there was that predictability. Then it says in verse 19. The second thing is that characterized him in his oversight among the people of God as an apostle and as he presents himself as a model of, umm, oversight perhaps here in verse 19, serving the Lord with all humility of mind.
You know, Paul could have said, I've seen the Lord.
I've seen the Lord, perhaps someone made the comment. I've been searching it out lately, but uh, maybe you can search it out as well that the Lord appeared to the apostle Paul seven times and very instructive. Every time that he appeared to the Apostle Paul, there was a lesson to learn. And the first time that he appeared to the Lord, he saw that great light from heaven and then gets towards the latter part of the book of Acts and he says it was a light that was greater than the light of the sun.
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It's shone brighter than the the sun itself.
I saw a light, I saw in the way a light from heaven above, the brightness of the sun shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. Paul, you know, could have said, I've seen the Lord, you haven't.
He could have in some way suggested that, uh, his course as a Christian was superior to theirs, but he didn't.
You know, you and I are nothing. We're zeros. I like the little statement that Brother Albert Hale used to make years ago when we were young people. He said, you know, brethren, we're just all just a bunch of zeros. Every one of us is a zero. And except for the one out in front, we'd all be zeros. We'd be nothing. But, oh, thank God for that one. And God had worked in Paul's life and, umm, he had worked in that man's life that he wanted to exalt Christ. And the Lord is working in your life and mine. He's trying to work in your life.
And he wants the Spirit of God to have his way. He's trying to work with you and me. That we might be humble, that we might realize that we're sufficient. Our sufficiency is of Christ. We're nothing. And umm, if we have anything at all, it's in Christ. If we have redemption, it's in Christ. It's because of his blood. If we have any value at all to God, it's because of the work of Christ, because of the blood of Christ. We're purchased with the precious blood of Christ.
Well, Paul was humble in his way of dealing with these dear ones. He had a lowliness of mind and he was serving in humility.
He was serving in humility. Well, we know that the problem perhaps at the beginning in in Ephesus was that they did want to have a little bit of a better A1 man one upmanship. They wanted to have a place of prominence and so on. And Paul addresses that a little bit later. But umm, you know, wonderful thing to take a little place and to serve our brother.
Have you ever served someone?
And he has served. Know the Lord Jesus came. He came to serve. He came to serve. That blessed man came and he knelt down before his apostles. He washed their feet.
What a work of service. Was there ever any man as humble as the Lord Jesus?
Never let this mind be in you. It also was in Christ Jesus all the apostle Paul sought to imitate Christ in his humility. Well, that's the second thing that needs to characterize us if we're going to be a blessing to the people of God. And then in the latter part of verse 19, or perhaps.
The middle of it, it says, and with many tears.
Many tears. Here you have the Apostle Paul.
Saved on the road to Damascus, the one who had seen the Lord time and again.
And at the end of his life, perhaps seven times, he'd seen the Lord. And the Lord stood with him, as it were, in the prison in, uh, Second Timothy chapter 4, just before he was to be martyred. We have a faithful God. The Lord stood with Paul.
But it meant something to him whether the Saints went on or not, It meant something to him as to whether the brethren went on in faithfulness to the Lord, whether the young people had an affection for the Lord, whether the young people were interested in the things of God. It meant something to him.
It meant something to him.
And he wept.
Paul the apostle wept.
And the Saints in Ephesus had seen him weep.
He'd seen perhaps some of the failure, and he'd been weeping.
They've seen it and it's not a bad thing if our brethren see that the things of God means something to us and they move us to tears at times because we value the things of God. We value the work of Christ. And when we see the name of the Lord Jesus dishonored or we see His work made light of that, it brings tears to our eyes. We hear His name used the way it shouldn't be used and brings tears to our eyes.
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Well, he had a genuine love and a concern for his brethren. Do you have a genuine love and a concern for your brethren?
Everyone of us should genuinely care for one another.
Thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself. The Lord was telling that story in connection with the story of the Good Samaritan and umm, that lawyer that tempted him said, well, who is my neighbor? He sought to deflect the question. We know who our neighbors are, we know who our brethren are, and there needs to be a genuine love and concern for our beloved brother.
Well, then, it says there were temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews or the plots.
And, you know, the Apostle Paul, this is the fourth thing that I want to present. There were temptations which befell him, and there were trials that befell the Apostle Paul all through his life, you know, as soon as he was saved.
The enemy was trying to destroy his life. Here was a man who was mad against the Christians who was very, very, uh, brutal and umm, various, umm, efficient perhaps in his work of persecution.
If there was someone that could have boasted as being one of the best persecutors of the church, it would be Paul. He had letters from the high priest to go and to drag ones to prison and so on. And no doubt he speaks of it later on in Philippians. And all those things that he boasted about, he his sorrow that he ever had done. He counted them but done.
But he endured. There were trials that were endured day after day after day. I'm just going to read in Chapter 9 of Acts, just present this aspect of things in connection with Paul.
It says uh.
Chapter 9 and verse 23. This was perhaps after about three years that the apostle Paul was in Damascus. It says after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him, but they're laying in wait. A wait was known of Paul, and they watched the gates that day and night to kill him.
And then umm.
In verse 29, well, let's read verse 28 and he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem and he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians and they went about to slay him. When you got saved, I'm sure that no one was looking to to put you down. No one was looking to slay you but the apostle Paul, Paul the convert saw of Tarsus. He opened his mouth and he spoke about the Lord Jesus and it he spoke with power, he spoke the power of the Spirit and he had.
Knowledge about that one that he'd seen in the glory, or seen the glory of.
And they sought to kill him. He endured trials. Is that something that you and I desire to endure? None of us have it easy. And you know this world is not going to get any easier to live in.
God is speaking to this world.
There was a flash flood in Nashville, TN. There was a flash flood in Arkansas. There was a flash. There's been flooding in France. There's been volcanoes. There's been all kinds of things. There's an oil well that can't be plugged.
Believers are out of work.
Believers are suffering as the Lord begins to turn up the heat a little bit. Things are not going to get back the way they were once before. And so you and I are going to need to suffer a little bit, perhaps as this world begins to feel the heat of what the Lord is bringing upon it. I'm not saying that we're entering the tribulation. That's not the truth. But I believe the Lord is starting to heat things up and we're going to need to endure trials, not only in the assembly. And perhaps this was partly of what Paul was Speaking of.
But in the world, Paul was enduring temptations, he was enduring trials. He was submitting himself to the trials that the Lord had allowed in his life. And you and I, if we're going to be a help to our brethren, need to submit to the trials that the Lord has allowed in our lives.
You've heard me perhaps say it before, but I think of this often times in connection with myself. And I can't say that I've been perfect in what I'm just about to tell you, but our brother Gordon Hale, when, uh, we were at Otter Lake, oftentimes would, uh, tell us as young people that, uh, we're going to have to face trials and difficulties. Things weren't going to be easy all the time. And as life progressed, things were going to get difficult. And he said that, you know.
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When the Lord allows a trial in your life.
Get down on your knees in the presence of God in your own room and thank the Lord for the trial that He's allowing in your life. It may be difficult to thank Him for. It may be an illness, it may be something else. But get down in the presence of the Lord and thank Him for the trial and try to learn. Young people, he'd say. Try to learn what the Lord is teaching you in that trial and desiring to draw you to Himself and umm.
For the very few times that I've tried it, it seems to be a real blessing to submit to the trials and to endure the trial, to take it from the hand of the Lord Jesus. Because He loves us, He loves us. He loved us unto death.
And so this is the fourth thing that Paul speaks of as far as one who is an oversight and among the people of God and one who would be a help to his brethren, is that his brethren could see that things weren't always easy for the apostle Paul, but that he was enduring those trials. He wasn't seeking to escape them. We know that there was failure that came in a little bit later, but the Lord is presenting here and by the Spirit those things that were characteristic of Paul.
And then it says in verse 20 it says, how I kept back, or I held back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you.
Or announced to you and have taught you publicly and from house to house.
And so here was another thing, perhaps the fifth thing that characterized Paul and his, uh, ministry among these Saints was faithfulness to God. He didn't keep back anything that was profitable for them. And you know, the sharp edge of the sword of the word of God is necessary with each one of us because it cuts both ways. And sometimes we're a little shy to quote a verse of Scripture one-on-one because it might be a little too sharp, we think.
And, uh, we need to be kind to one another. I'm not suggesting that we need to be unkind, but the word of God needs to be presented to. We need to present the word of God in its truth and its simplicity and not hide the truth of God from one another in any way. And isn't it, well, wonderful that the, the Ephesians Saints could say, yeah, Paul told us the truth. Paul didn't hide anything that was going to be profitable to us. He, he told us exactly what we needed to hear. And God is like that. He doesn't tell us what we want to hear.
He tells us what we need to hear, and by His grace and His kindness in His love for us, He desires to minister to our souls at the time that we need certain truth brought before us, encouragement, correction, perhaps reproof, whatever it might be that we know that the Lord is able to bring that before us while Paul was faithful.
And he wasn't after a place of popularity among his brethren. He sought to be faithful to the one who loved him and gave himself for him. Is that something that characterizes you? Are you seeking to be faithful to the Lord, loyal to the Lord? You know that's one of the fruits of the Spirit says that the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. You know where it says that in Galatians 5/22 it means loyalty.
Means loyalty.
Loyalty to Christ is a fruit of the Spirit. Isn't that nice?
Paul was loyal to Christ in every way that he could. And when he went to someone's house, he was diligent. You know, he went and visited folks from one house to another and he said the same thing. He said the same thing. He said he went ministered the truth in the assembly and umm, he warmed their hearts perhaps. And perhaps he he corrected different things, but he taught that the heavenly truth of the, the church.
That were part members of the body of Christ. All those things that, uh.
Would have been part of his heavenly, the heavenly character of his doctrine. But he didn't change his story. When he went to Brother so and So's house, he spoke the truth and he held the truth. And whatever the Spirit of God had taught him in connection with the truth of the Word of God, the doctrine, the teaching of Christianity, he held that truth in faithfulness and loyalty to Christ. Not nice.
Went to God, all of us were more loyal to that man.
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He was loyal unto death, faithful unto death.
The Lord died for you, faithful.
Faithful to death, faithful unto death, and he was faithful to His Father in perfection. Well, then, in verse 24 he brings before them the fact.
That he says, None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with Li with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God well.
He didn't count his life dear unto himself.
It wasn't selfish. He wasn't using his life for himself.
He wasn't using it just to please himself.
He didn't count it dear to himself. He was had personal faithfulness and devotion to the Lord.
And he was willing to offer his life to the Lord.
That's what it means to be a living sacrifice.
Is to offer your life, you know, a living sacrifice. A sacrifice is offering to someone else something that is very, very valuable to yourself. Every one of us has a life. Every day is precious. It'll never happen again. This day, one day is being lived at a time. And I'm I'm going to use it for myself today.
And deny the Lord the pleasure of my company today, or I'm going to give him that day. I'm going to live it with him. And for him. I'm going to sacrifice that day. It's a precious day. I'm going to give it to him that one day. Well, it's not that way. One day at a time. The Lord desires the preciousness of each day that He's given us, that it might be used for himself. Well, Paul was like this. He used his life. I count neither count I my life dear unto myself, you know.
It's like Paul said, the truth was worth dying for.
Christ is worth dying for. He died for me, and the truth of Christianity and the teaching of the truth of the word of God is worth dying for.
And I'm willing to die for.
Well, you know, we've just begun to read in Revelation Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 and what we find in latency in the Age.
Of the church history that we live in just before the Lord comes.
Is we find that Christianity is a religion of convenience. If it's convenient, I'll go to the prayer meeting.
If it's convenient, I'll go to the reading meeting. If it's convenient, I'll do. I'll read my Bible today if it's convenient. But if it's not convenient, we won't do that. We'll do something else. Oh, how the Lord yearns to have us make Himself a priority, and that we wouldn't count our lives a deer unto ourselves. That that we sacrificed our lives, our days, our hours to Himself. There's not many of them left.
Behold, I come quickly.
He also therefore patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
The Lord's coming draweth nigh. We're not here for very long.
And, uh, when we get home to the glory, we'll look back on the days that we've wasted and we'll just wish that we had given him a few more days, just more time, but it'll be too late. So today is the day of personal sacrifice. Well, it says a little later on, it says, umm, in verse 24, the latter part of it, the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God and how, and now I behold, I know that.
Ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. So there are three things Paul is energetic. This is the seventh thing is that he was energetic in the gospel, energetic in the things of God going out to others. And so the gospel of the grace of God really is in the last part of verse 24 is really to all men, it's to everyone.
You'll forgive me for telling a personal story.
But I was working with a car mechanic in Ohio when we lived in Ohio, had some vehicles, needed oil changes, all that kind of stuff, and spoke with a man and gave him the gospel.
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And, uh, he told me how many good works he was doing and he was fixing cars for people that were broken down on holiday weekends and so on. And he was really doing good works and, uh.
He had been a church going man, but he was relying upon his good works to get him to heaven. And so we gave him the gospel and there was really not a whole lot of response. Anyway, to make a, a, a Long story short, a couple of years later he got cancer, pancreatic cancer, and the doctor gave him a couple of months to live. He lived eight months. His name is Tom Hearn and the next time we met after he got that diagnosis.
Gave them the little track Gospel track, the matchless Pearl.
And he listened to the gospel intently.
And that man read that track and got saved.
And umm, after a little while, he got a little insecure, maybe several months. And umm, I discerned that I sent him a handwritten letter and put another track in the in the letter and umm.
He got assurance of salvation.
Can we be sure that little gospel tract written about Queen Victoria?
And.
Umm, he went home to be with the Lord.
On August, I think it was August the tenth, maybe it was August the 6th and the funeral was August the 10th, 2006. And uh, he told his wife that she asked him whether he was afraid to die. This really, this is what he said. He said, no, Debbie, I'm not afraid to die. I've taken Christ as my savior.
And I'm going home to be with the Lord.
And I hope he takes me home soon because I can hardly stand this pain.
That man never darkened the room of the meeting room, never came to a gospel meeting.
Never went to a reading meeting.
When he was weak, he would stand leaning on the car and we'd quote scripture and we'd talk about the Lord's things.
For half an hour or so, that's all he got.
And I asked him before he went home to be with the Lord. I said, Tom, you've been running this garage for 25 years. How many people have given you a gospel tract?
He said. You're the only one that's ever given me a gospel tract.
I said, Tom, you're in the middle of the heartland of Bible Belt, Ohio, and I'm the only one that give you a gospel track. No, no, he says. There's another one. You mailed me one as well, he says. The two gospel tracts, those are the ones that you gave me. I no one else ever gave me a gospel track.
Brethren, we need to be more diligent in giving little gospel tract a little paper to those that are yet lost.
They read them, they get saved.
Paul was diligent. He spoke the gospel of the grace of God, and then in verse 25 he went around preaching the Kingdom of God, and that's practical Christianity.
And it speaks of the moral side of the truth. That's what he was diligent in it and he spoke that way. And then in verse 27, he spoke all the counsel of God. And so that really brings in perhaps dispensational truth and prophecy, all those things that Paul brought out in connection with the truth of God. He brought out all the counsel of God. So if the epistle to the Ephesians, there's nothing that was hid from them at all.
Isn't it wonderful? God doesn't want anything to be hidden from you.
But there's something that the Spirit of God can't do that you have to do. The Spirit of God can't do this. Can't.
Implant the word of God into your head. You need to read it. You need to take it up yourself and read it individually in the presence of God in it. Marvelous that we have the CD's Bible on CD. We have the printed page, the Bible on our in our pages on the word of God. We have audio. We have all kinds of things to help us in connection with getting the word of God and reading the word of God and knowing the word of God well. This is one of the things that characterized the apostle Paul, his diligence.
In bringing the word of God before the Saints, and then it says in verse 29 or verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood. First thing is that they needed to take heed.
This is the instruction that he gives them. We've looked at the seven characteristics of the apostle in connection with oversight and how he was used of God to be a blessing to the people of God.
But now he gives them instruction based on his model. How are they to act? The first thing is to take heed to ourselves.
00:40:07
And that is that we're in danger all the time. The enemy isn't going to give up.
In Ephesus they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans.
But then a little bit later on, why they the deeds are the little Nic Nicolaitans turned into the ways of the Nicolaitans. They had accepted that clergy system. And so the enemy isn't gonna give up with you and I.
He's a subtle enemy, and just at the end of the Church age, he's going to seek to destroy the testimony of those that are gathered to the Lord's name, and he's going to seek to turn away the Saints from the Lord himself, but one St. at a time.
Sometimes he's efficient in a sense by causing division or being used in division. He's energized.
And he seeks to turn us away, the Saints. But we need to be take heed to ourselves. Are you taking heed to yourself? Are you careful every day?
Sin, you can't take a little sin, just just taste a little sin and try to get away with it. No, the apostle Paul was saying, you need to take heed to yourselves. Every one of us need to be on guard because the flesh is at war with the Spirit and the fleshiness wants to gratify itself. And what appeals to the man of the world appeals to the Christian if he's going to live in the flesh. And then their responsibility was to feed the Church of God.
You know, it's interesting in verse 28, it's the Spirit of God that raised up those that were an oversight in the assembly.
Those that took an administrative lead in the assembly.
God, thank God.
He raises up some.
That want to take a little bit of a lead among his people for their good, for the blessing of the Saints, Not out of selfishness, not out of a place, not because they want a place among God's people, but thank God that God Himself by the Spirit, raises up some of the brethren.
The desire to see the Saints go on well and weep over them privately.
We think we need to thank God for raising up those that will take a lead among His people in a godly way, in the same character of the Lord Jesus did.
Unselfishly.
Made it says here.
There were two things, perhaps three things that would characterize. We read this this morning, Brother Robert, I believe. Read it also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. There's three things that characterize a defective elder. Those that could have been a help to the Saints, those that should have been a help to the Saints. Perhaps we're a help at one time, but they became defective.
And the first thing is this, that they arise in prominence. They arise, they just kind of arise, they get a little more prominent among the people of God. And then it says here that.
They speak perverse things speaking perverse things, they speak things that are not characteristic of godly order, and they seek to, umm, twist things just a little bit or make perhaps be theatrical and how they take up the things of God.
To bring themselves to prominence.
And then it says the last thing is they want to draw away disciples after themselves. We want to have disciples that follow the Lord, don't we?
A disciple is one that follows the Lord. He learns about the Lord Jesus, Matthew Chapter 11, He's a follower, he's a learner. And in the end of Luke chapter 14, I think it is, uh, he, uh, values one relationship above all others. There's one relationship that means more than him than anything else.
The relationship with the Lord Jesus, he follows him. We need to have those that are disciples to follow the Lord. So he says watch and remember that by the space of three years. I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. Isn't that something with tears. There you go. He he meant something to him and then in verse 32, he gives them two things, two resources that you and I as Christians have, every one of us has but those that are.
Particularly responsible in the assembly at home have when things aren't going quite right and when things are going right, the first thing is I commend you to God. That's prayer. Do we pray for the Saints?
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I have a habit I I sometimes tell it, but when I pray for my brethren in Hammer Bay.
I go through the names and I see them where they sit in the little rows in the assembly. Maybe you, you pray for your brethren that way. I don't miss them if I do that. I just pray for them starting at the back row and coming up and going up and then across the way and I pray for them going that way. We need to pray for one another.
Pray for one another. Paul prayed for them.
He prayed. You know what's interesting? In the Epistle to the Ephesians, he mentioned all kinds of names. I went through recently and I numbered all the names. There were 30 names. He names in those six chapters, 30 names. Every name, every person meant something to him. He mentions the name of the Lord, that's one of them. He mentions his own name, that's the one of them. But he mentions 28 other names of different ones. Everyone precious to the heart of God.
You're precious to the heart of God as an individual. He died for you. He lives for you on high in the glory.
And so he commanded them to God, prayers necessary. And then to be preserved, we need the word of his grace. We need the word of God. And so it's the will of God and the word of God that ought to be used in the assembly as we seek to maintain a place that's clean and a place that's honoring to God, and where there's a place where we can in grace, by his sovereign love and grace, meet with the Lord.
And enjoy his presence. Most two things can be used those two resources to that the Saints might be preserved. And then here there's another thing. Verse 33 I have coveted no man's silver. Gold. Yeah. Yourselves. No. That these hands have ministered under my necessities and to them that were with me. And so you know the apostle Paul wasn't a burden to his brother.
And he took of the goods that he had, and he used them for the Lord.
You know, last winter, uh, last fall, I shut off the water. I thought I shut off the water in the upper cottage at the, at the house and umm.
I didn't shut it off as much as I should have. I left a couple of valves closed in my I went to turn. I turned the water on a couple of days ago.
Someone's gonna come and stay in the cottage and, uh, there's burst pipes and there's water spraying all over the place. Well, I wasn't very diligent. I didn't close off all the valves.
I just tell you this because, umm.
When we were buying the place for my father-in-law, I had a little private conversation with him.
I bought the house that Jan and I have been in on and off for the last 30 years.
And I asked him, I said, dad, we're just buying this piece of property from you. Is there any special requests that you have at all?
He said yes, there's just only one special request that I have.
He says to use this property for the Lord. Not good advice.
He said won't you use this property for the Lord? Use it for him. Don't use it for yourself, use it for the Lord.
Isn't that nice? Paul took of what he had. He not only ministered the truth among the people of God, preached the gospel, preached the Kingdom of God, practical Christianity, the moral side of the truth, and all those things, but he took of what he had.
He worked with his own hands that he wouldn't be chargeable unto any of the Saints. And, uh, he sacrificed his own good. And so you and I can build up the little testimony where we live by using our resources, our physical resources to enrich our, our brother.
Use them. Use what we have that the Lord has given to us as a blessing for our brethren and use it for the Lord. Well then it says a little bit later on in verse 36.
Let's read verse 35. I have showed you all things how that support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all, and they all wept sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, soaring most of all for the words which he spake, that they which should see his face no more may accompany him under the ship. While we spoke this morning of how the apostle Apostolic age was going to end.
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And it was ending at that time. Paul was going to pass off the scene in another generation, was going to rise up or be given the responsibility to take over in the assembly and to help out in the assembly and that the people of God might be nourished.
And I saw a young man walking from the Bible, from the little tables there, and he had a whole wad of books and booklets. I just made my heart rejoice.
How are you going to know the truth? How are you know how to defend the truth? How do you know, how do you know how to feed the Saints of God if you don't read the word of God and read some good solid ministry? And the time to do it is when you're young.
And I wish somebody had said this to me at a conference when I was younger and I might have taken the advice. Maybe not.
But umm, I wish somebody had said, Robert, you're a young man, Why don't you take, you're not married, you don't have any responsibility. And I know you're going to college, but I think you can do this. Take $100 every time you go to a conference and buy some books, buy some tapes, buy some audio books, do something, but buy some ministry and read that ministry. And instead of wasting your time on all kinds of things today, perhaps it's electronic toys and so on.
When I was younger, perhaps on hockey and all the other things that occupy a young person, sport, the enemy is going to use sport and anything he can to distract you and to waste your time.
Turn off the electronics and read some of that ministry, but take some of that $100 that you're going to spend on electronic toys or whatever it is, and spend it on ministry and get yourself a little bit of a collection of written ministry and spend some time in diligence learning the Word of God. While Paul left the scene, he never saw those Ephesian brethren again.
I just say this, there's a lot of young people here, a lot of younger men, younger sisters. Thank God for the older brethren in your assembly.
They're passing off the scene 1 by 1. It's a wonderful thing to have the sound of young people in the assembly and children in the assembly. But, uh, thank God for every older brother, every older sister that has sought to go on in some measure of the truth.
Sooner or later, they're gonna pass off the scene, and you'll wish that you were able to still talk with them.
I had brother.
Gordon Hale's sister Earth, his.
Daughter.
In my home recently and I had to say to, to her and to her husband, I said, I still wish that I could just call Gordon, just talk to him about one or two things. I just wish that I could talk, talk, talk to him. So dear young people, you have older brother in here. They're not going to be here forever. And if the Lord carries just a little while, they're going to pass off the scene. So get to know them, speak with them, read with them, enjoy their company and, uh, seek to share something of things of God with them. And I'm sure that they'll.
Seek to enjoy your fellowship as well. It's a time to learn, it's when you're young.
00:55:01
J.
Saint Joseph 1200123.
Oh.
Before we close in prayer, could we?
Just read.
Gospel of John 21St chapter and then a Scripture in Second Timothy ¤ John 21, verse 22. Jesus saith unto him, If I will, that he that is John, Harry, till I come, What is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then what this sang abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die, but if he.
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that?
To thee Second Timothy, chapter one, verse one.
All an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.
Just this brief thought and connection with what's been brought before us.
We just read.
The the parting address, the farewell address of the most devoted servants that ever labored in the vineyard of Christ to those Ephesian elders. And he passed off the scene. And where we read in John 21, there was another apostle who was told by the Lord that there would come a time when he too would be taken from this scene.
And there was another one, John, If he tarried till I come, what is that to thee? And Peter's ministry to the dispersed Jews had its place. Paul. He built that structure of the house, as it were, a wise master builder. He laid the foundation, and his time came, and he has passed off this scene. And John was left to oversee.
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That which Paul had built.
And we come to Revelation where we've been reading and the readings, and we find him in the Isle of Patmos, a prisoner, and he's looking out off that aisle and he's looking off over that scene where Paul's ministry had been in those seven assemblies in Asia.
Compose laborers had been there and he had built that house. And one has said, I don't know who it was, but Paul, as it were built to, gives us the house, but John's ministry gives us the light and the love that fills that house.
Just in consideration of what we've had before us in the life of the apostle in Acts 20.
And what has been before us in the letter to Ephesus, and what, Lord willing, will be before us in the rest of the letters, in a day of breakdown of the public testimony and the breakdown of all that the apostle labored in, there is nothing so precious in the sight of God. Is that eternal life?
That John gives us in his ministry that was manifest in this world and now is manifested in the Saints of God down here below.
And so beautifully picture to us and the apostles ways it was the life of Christ. Why is he an example to us?
Because he followed him, and it was Christ's life that was manifested in the apostle and in this day of ruin and weakness, God looks down in this scene and the manifestation of eternal life in the.
Lives of his own as they go through this scene is precious. It will never lose its brilliance, its preciousness to him, until he comes posing prayer.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee now for this little time to have Thy precious Word open. Help us to take these things in in a real way. They speak to our hearts. Thy precious Word would search us out. Oh, help us to have tender consciences.
That thy precious word might make us impress in our souls, and that the life of Christ might be manifest in each one of us here below. And no matter how dark the day, how great the ruin, our God, our Father, that's the very life of Christ.
Might shine out in our own lives here below. And so we do commit the rest of the day to the as Thy continued blessing. Now the precious name of the Lord Jesus our Savior, Amen.