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I might just say before we comment on this third verse that what we really have in the first few verses of this chapter is not so much, uh, availability, but availability we're going to take up. He goes on to talk about ability and God does place members in the body and gives ability and he gives gift. But really when we talk about devotion and consecration and so on, which is really what we have in these, particularly these first three verses of this chapter, it's a question of us being available. Are you and I available in the service of God to be used in blessing by him?
I say that because sometimes perhaps we see something that needs to be done or some little encouragement for the people of God, and we say, well, that's not my gift or ability, or I'm not gonna be able to do that. And so we tend to use that as an excuse to leave it to somebody else. But it's not, as I say, so much a question in the first part of the chapter of Ability. But are you and I laying ourselves on the altar of sacrifice and service so that we are available for God to use us?
Because if God has some little function for us to do, some little ministry or service, he's going to supply everything that's needed to carry that out. Maybe it isn't particularly our gift. Maybe it isn't particularly what we feel Our Calling is, but maybe God has us to step in at that moment. Maybe someone else hasn't taken up the way they should and fulfilled their little function. You know, I often think of the words to our tipus in the book of Colossians and say to our kippus, take heed to the ministry that thou has received of the Lord, that thou fulfill it.
There was some little function that our kippus wasn't carrying out that he'd been given to do.
In the assembly at Colossae, and Paul felt that the Saints at Colossi were suffering a lot because of it. So, brethren, are we available today? It doesn't mean we're always active in service, as Robert brought before us in the last meeting. Maybe it is sometimes just waiting on the Lord, but it's being available, ready to be used at the right moment when He has something for us. Now, in our verse where we started, we've talked a lot about being a living sacrifice. We've talked about proving the good and acceptable will of God, and so on.
But now he's gonna take up the spirit and attitude in which it is to be done. It is with the spirit and attitude of humility that we must take up the service of God and present ourselves as a living sacrifice. Everything but may be right. We may do everything right, but the motive and the attitude ought to, uh, needs to be right. And so often in Scripture you have individuals who did the right thing with the wrong motive.
Sometimes you have conversely those who did the wrong thing with the right motive, but.
God wants us to do the right thing with the right motive. He wants us to prove what his will is. And then he wants to carry it out, not thinking that we're better than somebody else because we've been given this little service to do. Not thinking we're above our brethren, but to carry it out in all humility. And as it says in Philippians, each esteeming other better than themselves.
It's about umm, the Lord Jesus as the example of ministry and service. Notice in scripture it never says that he did all that he wanted to do upon earth.
Even though he healed many, and it says that the books if, if we were, if, if it was to be written about all that he had done, but the earth itself could not contain them. Still, it never says that he did all that he could or all that he wanted. I'm sure there was many I'll that he, uh, knew of being God himself, uh, that he wished he could have gotten to in his heart of love. But it says that he did what the Father had set for him to do. And it's wonderful to realize that though hard it is to practice that there will always be time enough to do God's will and the Lord Jesus.
Is that perfect example of that I finished the work that thou gave us me to do.
There will always be time and enough for that.
When we think soberly, we really, umm, exalt the, the man that God desires to exalt Christ Jesus. We don't exalt ourselves. Remember in your home assembly, Albert Hale used to have the little expression that, uh, we're all just a bunch of zeros. Every one of us is about is a zero and that we all remain valueless except for the one out in front. And so it's Christ. And so, uh, the world has a, an unwise and uh, a non sobered, umm, way of looking at things and, uh.
To be conformed to Christ and to be transformed by the renewing of our mind allows us to think.
In the power of the Spirit soberly, because we exalt Christ, we want to exalt him in what we do. And uh, so it's not the name of the brother or the name of the sister that's doing some little work for him that is to be exalted. It's the name of Christ and that lovely.
00:05:08
That's the first, uh, spots here in this chapter is that it seems like some general comments in verse one through 3, but really, it's really what's done in the presence of the Lord and, uh, for example, being a living sacrifice, It's for whose benefits for the Lord, uh, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think is, I mean, who's really watching that? Well, it's the Lord. And so these things are, are seen and appreciated by.
The Lord. And that's really the first thing of service we then get into versus, uh, maybe 4 through 8. And this is like general service among God's people.
Uh, maybe a lot of that is is.
Often men, often those that labor and so forth, but not necessarily it's just really service that is, that is being of value, uh, collectively among Deloitte's people after that first, uh, nine and on is really more, uh, specific, smaller things that we might do.
That are often more personal. Uh, you show hospitality to a person or to a few people, for example.
Uh, you know, you can't minister to the whole whole body price. That's hospitality. It's just not physically possible. So we do have these little categories, the Lord first, just, uh, being of use among God's people 2nd and doing those individual and perhaps more private things as well.
And we all have something to do, don't we? There's nobody here that can get out of this because he's going to go on in these verses now to tell us that everyone has a function. And so in verse four, he says, for us, we have many members in one body and all the members have not the same office or the thrust of this word is really function. And we understand this in a natural body, don't we? You know, if we lose a hand or a foot, the other one can take over and we can get through life, but not as well as with two. You have a, a sore thumb at a cut my thumb when I was in France a few weeks ago and, uh, I realized how useful that thumb is.
And you try to do things without that thumb. You, you can get along. The other four fingers can take over, but not as well as with all five, uh, with the four fingers and the thumb. And so in a body, every member has a function. And boys and girls here this afternoon who know the Lord Jesus as their savior, they have a function. They have something if you're available to the, uh, to the Lord, he's got some little ministry for you to do. You know, it says of Samuel.
He ministered to the Lord not when he was an old man. It's true he did when he was an old man, but that was as a boy brought by his mother up to the temple. Now what did he do in ministering to the Lord? Well, we know one thing he did was he helped open the doors of the temple at the right time. Eli was an old man. The priest was an old man, found it may be hard to get those doors open at the right time so the people could come up and bring their sacrifices during the day. He perhaps helped keep the lamp lit and so on and maybe help bring the wood in for the office. We don't know, but.
Whatever those little tasks were that he carried out.
In the perhaps a very mundane, uh, fashion, they were ministry to the Lord. We've spoken of availability, and I've often thought about the lad in the Gospels who had the loaves and the fishes. You know, if he had been out on the fringes of the crowd somewhere, the disciples would have never noticed this young lad with his lunch. But here was a lad who was up at the front of the crowd, close to the Lord, if I can put it that way, and being close to the Lord and available.
Why the Lord takes his lunch and feeds all those thousands of people. There's a lad that carried out a little function that day, a little ministry that the Lord had for the blessing of thousands of people. And if you're available, who knows what a blessing you can be in some way. And so, as I say, it's gonna go on now and talk about the function of each one of us, the ministry that we've been given. And He does give gift and ability, and He's given everyone of us a gift and ability to use in His service that no one else can use quite as well as you.
Whatever he's given you to do, I can't do quite as well as you. Maybe another can step in and take over if you're not doing it, but not as well as with you. And I suggest that there are many little assemblies today who are suffering.
A lock in one way or another because there are those who are younger and sad to say, maybe those who are of us who are not so young, who are carrying out the little function and ministry that God has given us in the assembly. Uh, that where he has placed us or amongst the Christians in our community or whatever it might be. And we're not exercised to carry it out. And not only does he feel it, but the body suffers a lot as well.
00:10:14
Versus four and five. It makes me think of, uh, unity in diversity. And as Jim was pointing out, there are different gifts.
Because of different abilities and.
Uh, someone once said we're we all have one thing in common, we're all different.
And so in the body.
We don't have a bunch of members doing the same thing where the body wouldn't function well. And as Jim said, one part may suffer and the other have to pick up the slack, but it's not as efficient when everything is working as we want to. So the diversity or the unity and diversity.
As we have many members, that's diversity.
One body that's unity and all members have not the same office, that's diversity. So we being many diversity are one body unity and everyone members one of another.
Perfections chapter 12 in verse umm 18 says, umm, that now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him. Mr. Darby has a little note in that, uh, verse umm, and it could be read this way. But now has God set for himself the members? Every one of them in the body has, has pleased him. And uh, so the purpose is not to glorify ourselves, but to glorify him and it's for himself. It's very, very humbling to think that the Lord has placed you and I.
As members of the body of Christ and wherever we are, whatever function that he's given us to.
Undertake for his glory, for the blessing of his people and, umm, he's done it for himself, for his glory. And uh, so his, his desire is that that function should be, uh, umm, as you mentioned, Archipus, that it should be undertaken and, uh, with a sense of responsibility and a sense of humility.
In first Peter I I think it was already mentioned this morning in chapter 4, it says every man has to receive a gift, Even so minutes to the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the articles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified. And it just reminds me of a person Matthew 5 that says.
Let your light so shine before men that ye may, that they may see your good works, and glorify who, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. The word for good works could be translated beautiful works, but I just wanna comment briefly on the difference between a difference between ability and gift. And I know there's probably many young people wondering if I have received a gift, what is my gift?
And I think it's a mistake to to dwell on that. And I think certainly that God can show you what that gift is if you prayerfully desire that he will. But I think it's in a book by Pollock that he says that, umm, gift is an expression of impression. I think you're hot will tell you what your gift is if it's guided by the Spirit of God, because it's going to feel a need. It's going to see a need and you're going to want to fulfill it. You're not going to be asked to fulfill it. You're not going to fill a burden to fulfill. It is just going to be this need laid upon your heart.
The impression that God placed us there by the Spirit of God, and it will be expressed through you as a gift to, to, to help in whatever measure you can. But as to ability, you may have an excellent ability in your right arm to throw a football, but that does not mean that you have a gift from God to use that as has so often been used in in this world to glorify God. Now, if God should choose to use a quarterback for his glory, umm, and he has no doubt, then I leave that with him. But that's not what God desires. That's not what he's talking about here when it speaks in Speaking of ability, but he does fit ability to give.
And so.
Umm, I I can't necessarily come up with an example, but a very shy person, for example, God may not suit for the work of the evangelist who has to go out and be forward. That doesn't mean to say that he's not ready to give an account of the hope that he has that lies within him. But God may not use a very shy person as an evangelist. But perhaps a shy person is better suited as a pastor, as a shepherd, or even as a teacher. And so God does fit the ability to give. But don't confuse.
Your natural abilities with the gifts that God might have given you. Because what happens in the case with the footballers? He ends up glorifying himself, He really does.
We may have ability and today and note and lose that ability tomorrow, but when it comes to spiritual gifts, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. If God gives us a gift, that gift is to be used as long as we are here in this world functioning as members of the body of Christ. But I just want to echo what uh, brother Nick has said because God does link gift and ability. God isn't going to call you to the mission field if you have a weak stomach if you can't sit with your with.
00:15:23
Uh, those in some, uh, place where the food isn't what, uh, we're normally used to or whatever. And I'm not saying you won't have a little problem now and then, but God is going to give a person a good stamina if he calls them to, to the mission field again, with an evangelist. God isn't going to link stuttering and evangel an evangelist with an evangelist.
No, he's probably gonna give him a good voice and a voice that's sharp and that carries well and so on. And so God links the two. However, God may give a gift and he may withhold some ability to because he sees that there's a need to keep the person independent in exercising that gift. Paul had tremendous gift. Perhaps he's the most, was the most gifted servant of God ever raised up in the Church of God, but God saw a need to give him a thorn in the flesh.
We don't know exactly what it is. He also said on another occasion, or the Corinthians said of him, that his bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible. It seems from his writing to the book of Galatians that he had some eye trouble as well. God allowed certain things and withheld perhaps certain ability from Paul to keep him from glorying in the flesh or natural ability. So I think it's good, as Brother Nick said, to keep all these things in perspective.
But I want to just say this, and again, we don't want to always zero in on our young people, but we desire the best for our young people and we desire you to be exercised while you're younger. And uh, I do believe that. Well, we don't dwell on it. We do need to be exercised as to what our gift is. Timothy was to stir up the gift that was in him. If he didn't know what was that gift was, how could he stir it up? He had to be exercised as to what that gift was and then he had to be exercised to use that gift.
And I believe too, for the Church of God, it is important to recognize in others that gift and let that gift function. Don't put a man on the podium to preach the gospel. If there's an evangelist in the audience, the man might be do very well in certain situations. But if there's an evangelist and we don't let the gift function, don't put a man up to present some line of truth when there's a teacher sitting there. That brother might be very good in his home assembly. And as I say, he might be able to present nice things, but we always want to recognize.
Gift and brethren, it's not that we have a hierarchy or an unofficial clergy or things we've often been accused of, but what we want to be exercised to do.
Is to let a gift function in the absence of gift? Yes, we can. Others can take over and thank God. The local assembly, its function and administration doesn't depend on gift. It depends on the presence of the Lord and the Spirit of God. But when there is gift, we need to recognize that a man's gift maketh room for him.
Being aware of our desire to stay with our chapter umm, I was wondering if you could have a word on the last verse of First Corinthians 12. Umm, where we reading for 31 but covered earnestly the best gifts?
Well, it's not so much coveting them for ourselves, is it? But it's coveting them for the Church of God so that they will be built up and edified. Because what we find in this portion in Corinthians is that all ministry in the assembly is to be for the first of all, for the edification, the building up of the Saints, the exhortation of the St. and the comfort and or encouragement of the Saints and brethren, we ought to covet those gifts for the Church of God.
Not so much that we covet something for ourselves. We all have something to contribute in some little way, as we've been saying. But do you and I ever get into our closet and really pray to the Lord that He'll raise up evangelists, pastors and teachers to minister to us? He's promised to do it till he comes. We get that in Ephesians. But we need to pray and earnestly covet that there would be those raised up of God and those who would be given the courage and faith to exercise their gift because.
It's public gift there, I believe that he's referring to. It's not so much little smaller gift.
After those hidden ministries, but it's the public gifts for the edification of the church.
And are you do you, and I really covet that for the blessing of the people of God. I really believe that's the sense, don't you rather whim of what he's saying there.
How do we covet the the best gifts in that chapter 12 of First Corinthians and at the same time do what it also says there, which is.
00:20:08
Uh, verse 23 and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these we bestow more abundant honor. Verse 24 for our calmly parts of no need, but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which left that there should be no schism in the body. How do we, umm, hold those two things and.
Intention. Well, I believe we have to recognize that there are not just those public gifts for the edification of the people of God and the building up of the Saints, but behind the scenes there has to be the function of those other things. You know, my mouth is speaking this afternoon, but there's a lot of members of my body that are functioning at the same time that you don't see or hear and that I'm not even aware in my own body are functioning. But suppose those members broke down this afternoon. I wouldn't last here in that this chair very long.
There are members that seem less honorable, but they're helping to keep my body together so that I can function in the proper way. And so it is in a natural body. There are ligaments, there are joints, there are internal organs, all those little things that. And as I say, when all the body functions together, then there's a healthy, happy body. And Paul's desire for the Corinthian Saints was that each one of them would be exercised as to what their gift and ministry was because there was a problem at Corinth.
Everyone had a Psalm, everyone had a doctrine. They all wanted a public place, but all the members of the body can't have a public place. If all the members of the body have the same gift, then the body wouldn't function very well. If you're if every member of your body tried to do what your hand did, your body wouldn't function very well. No, he says to the brethren, remember, every member of the body, every believer has a certain gift, a certain function. You may not even be aware of it, But he says be thankful for those little functions that are going on.
Maybe I can tell a little story that will help to illustrate what I'm trying to say in answer to Jonathan's question. Those who knew my father best knew that he was a man who never took a public part. In fact, I think probably he took the gospel in his home assembly twice in his whole lifetime, and he lived to be 79. But my father, when he passed away, has to this very day been well missed in the Smith Falls assembly because nobody realized the little things that he did behind the scenes.
I've sometimes told this story. My father's funeral, I think was on a Monday at or on a Wednesday, and Thursday night is our regular meeting night. And I remember rounding the corner in our vehicle on Thursday night about 10 minutes before meeting and finding several brethren standing outside on the street, unable to get into the hall. And it really struck me be and it was commented that this had never happened in 40 years.
Because my father always made sure he got to the meeting room half an hour before meeting, made sure the door was open, that the heat was on if need be. If there was a speaker, he made sure there was a glass of water for the speaker. He made sure that if it was Sunday night, the Echoes of Grace hymn books were out for the gospel meeting, that the two chairs were turned in the proper way. He did that, I'm guessing, for 40 years. And when he passed away, though, nobody realized all the little things he was doing behind the scenes.
His function as a member of the body of Christ was done here on earth, and he's been missed ever since. Thank God others have stepped in and taken his place. But there was a brother who didn't take the public part, but he was a very honorable member of the body of Christ, very useful and necessary behind the scenes. Now what about sisters?
What did Paul say and help those women which labored with me in the gospel? You know, the gospel work couldn't go on without sisters. If we didn't have sisters laboring behind the scenes, we couldn't do what we do in the Caribbean. There are sisters who spend hours and hours in various ways behind the scenes helping to prepare material and other things. They're sisters who have traveled with me and I've been able to eat and have some creature comforts along the way because of those sisters.
Those are honorable members, and that's why I said earlier, we need to esteem each other better than ourselves. We need to realize how honorable and useful those members are. And one member can't say to the other, I have no need of thee. But in the end, we need also to covet those best gifts for the public edification and the collective building up of the Saints. Could you perhaps, Jim, further extend that thought with a word or two on Ephesians 4 and beginning of verse 12?
00:25:08
Well, let me just read it. We've alluded to this, but let me go back to verse 10. He that descended is the same also that ascended up, far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
And gave some apostles, some prophets, 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. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of the fullness of Christ. Now again, we don't want to wander from our chapter, brethren, because this is not the subject in our chapter. In the chapter chapter, the subject is that we all have a function, we all have a gift, and we all have a ministry.
What he's saying here in Ephesians is that there are specific public gifts given, as Wim has pointed out, for the edification of the body of Christ as a whole at large. And those public gifts are listed here. You'd say, but we don't have apostles and prophets. We don't have them living, but we have the writings. The foundation is the apostles and prophets. We get that earlier in Ephesians, the foundation truth that they laid, and we never want to digress from it, but we still have.
Evangelists.
Those who can preach the gospel present the truth to the lost. We have the pastors or shepherds who shepherd the sheep, and we have the teachers who present the truth clearly and lay out the doctrinal principles for us. And all of these five gifts, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, we are going to have preserved to us until we come in the full unity of the Body. And when will that be? When the Body is completed and raptured home to glory, and not till then.
And until then, for the building up of the Saints, we have these gifts, the writings of the apostles and prophets, and the evangelists, pastors and teachers.
And that work will go on until the the Lord comes. But rather than to get back to our chapter here, that's not really what he's talking about here. We're thankful for those public gifts preserved to us, but we want to be exercised, each one of us. Because you say I'm not an evangelist, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a teacher. That may be true, but you have a function as a member of the body of Christ.
It's beautiful to see in these epistles, in the New Testament, the subject of each, and I'm not saying this to correct anything, but I think it's helpful.
Particularly for the young here.
To to have an outline of soundworlds to to see what each book is about. As we mentioned this morning, Romans is about justification fact justification before God begins with Paul 7 of Jesus Christ according to called to be an apostle separated under the gospel of God. In fact, you don't have a mention of the church in the book of Romans until the last chapter. That's where the word church occurs. And then you say that we have it here. We have the body and that's true, we have the body here, but it's really the exercise of individual gifts.
There's not so much in the in the thought, as we had Jim just said, as we have an Ephesians of of in the context of edifying of the church, though it is for the church, as we've, as we've already mentioned. But you get to the book of Corinthians, you young people, you wanna find church truth and go on to the next book, the book of Corinthians, and there we have the church and its practice and so on.
Thank you. That's very helpful.
Verse 7 here speaks of ministry. I don't mean to jump over verse 6, and perhaps some could speak on prophecy, but ministry.
I don't know for sure, but usually the word ministry.
And, uh, the New Testament is a translation of a Greek word that is connected with a paid servant and is connected with the thought of a Deacon, which is what we have in, in, uh, Paul's epistle to Timothy. And the churches have made a Deacon into a office that exalts man. You can wear a little lapel pin that says you're the Deacon of the month, but.
The Deacon was actually someone, uh, was really just, it's just an untranslated Greek word. And you were a paid servant. We, uh, my wife and I have never been to this part of the country before. And we got to go to the Biltmore yesterday and they had lots of paid servants and we got to see the rooms at the paid servants slept in and they didn't look anything like the room that Mister Vanderbilt slept in. And so when we think of ministry, don't think of some exalted position that's beyond you. Ministry can be sweeping the floor of the meeting room. That can be the service. I know that ministry in the New Testament can be used in a little different way as well.
But don't think of it as some exhaustive position. Make yourself useful.
This word in Mr. Darby's translation is is, uh, translated service or service? Let us wait on our service.
00:30:05
So it's, uh, not, as you say, an over glorified thing. And so it's in connection with the proportion of faith that we have. We're not to go beyond that faith. So the Lord may give you the faith to have a little Sunday school and to be a useful, uh, servant of the Lord, as it were in that Sunday school and to, uh, be a help to the children and so on. But don't go beyond that, uh, proportion of faith and get big ideas. And I think this is really, uh, in a practical way, what he's saying here in these, first, uh, 8 verses. Remember, it's to the glory of God where our attitudes and our motives, God word, need to be right if our attitudes and motives are going to be right towards our fellow brethren. And that's between versus 9 and UH-14, I think it is, or 9 and 13. And then from verse 14 down to verse 21 is our attitudes and motives towards those that are in the world, but the attitudes and the motives towards the Lord first.
And so our service needs to be in the proportion of faith that he gives us. And it's going to be right. And I'll just add in connection with the, uh, an example is, uh, I think some of you have heard me say this in connection with my wife. She worked in the hospital, uh, before we were married and, umm, she worked in a small hospital and had something like 9 doctors. And there were three or four doctors that were really good doctors. They had a good diagnosis. Uh, they love to come to work. Their charts were filled out. Uh, they had, uh, uh, just a, a lovely, uh, testimony in that hospital. But then there were the other.
Doctors, the other, uh, five or six, and they were in it for the money and they didn't have much of A gift and it was a drudgery all day long. It was hard for them and they're misdiagnosis and they had charts that weren't filled out. They just struggled. And so God doesn't give us gift and place us in the members as members of the body with the function to provide for our brethren to his glory.
That we don't enjoy using. I believe he gives us a joy and as we, uh, fulfill the purposes that he has for us, then we're going to be suited to do that work.
So let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. And I believe there's a great deal of difficulty sometimes amongst Christians in coveting another's work, in desiring to do somebody else's work.
Looking at another and saying I wish I was doing that. And the illustration has often been used, but I'll repeat it because I heard it growing up of the Levites in the Old Testament. Everyone had a service and everyone had a burden. And when those Levites went around and carried out the little service that God had for them, then the Tabernacle was erected properly, it functioned properly. It was taken down and carried through the wilderness to the next location properly. And so one Levite wasn't to look at another. Maybe some of the Levites had to go around and roll up the cords and keep them from tangling.
Pick up the pins, make sure all the pots and pans were gathered together. While he might have looked at the one who was handling the boards and said, oh, he's doing a great work, I wish I'd been given that work. No, it was doing what he had been given to do and doing it before the Lord and unto the Lord. So we want to have rejoicing in our own work to be exercised what the Lord has called us to do, not what another has been called to do.
They think too, there's a balance on the other side of it and it goes back to what's been mentioned from First Corinthians 12, and that is to, umm, esteeming those members that are less honorable that we need to.
You know, it's we, we take for granted, don't we? Those people that set the chairs we take for granted, those people that clean up the kitchen, we take for granted, You know, they, they're deserving of respect. They're deserving of thanks and appreciation. They're not to be belittled or looked down upon. That's, that's, that's just so important.
You have that in connection with Timothy in, uh, Acts chapter 16. It says there that, uh, he was well reported out by the brethren that we're at Lystra and Iconium now. What was he doing in Lystra and Iconium? We're not told. It was very quiet work, but uh, here was a young person that had a knowledge of the truth of God and, uh, was desiring to please the Lord and in some small way. And, uh, we don't know what he was doing, but he was well reported by the brethren and at the right time.
The Lord introduces Paul to this young man. And so we need to just, uh, remember that there is a quiet work and as you say, perhaps to encourage those that are doing that quiet work in some way. But often times there are those like our brother Highland and brother in Hammer Bay, you perhaps know who it is. And the light bulbs get changed when no one's around, the light bulb gets changed. The, uh, door is unlocked, the, uh, heat is on. But the Lord values that kind of service. And don't ever think that those that are doing a public work are going to get a bigger reward than those that are doing that quiet work. I believe brother Highland that did that private work that no man saw.
00:35:19
Irreducible complexity.
And the idea is that, you know, we all hang together now in biology. It's not we, but it's little parts and pieces of what makes things run in, uh, this world around us in the biological world.
And you know, we need to appreciate that, that the whole thing has to be together and it works together and it does function.
And whether we're looking at Romans or Corinthians or Ephesians, we need to have two views of that. One is we have a broadview of the whole thing that works.
And it works under the guidance of the Spirit of God, of course, but we also need to have a finer view as well, kind of a small level or a lower level view. And that's more what we're talking about here. And that is also of the Spirit of God. The whole thing is an irreducible complexity, and it all hangs together. And we're very thankful for this body, Christ, in this world.
On the way up here, we were listening to the radio and there was an interesting interview somebody was making with the famous basketball player LeBron James. And the interviewer was interested in him as a youth. You know, he was one of the youngest NBA players ever to be drafted in the NBA, but in high school and junior high. And there was talent and gift in this young man to play basketball. But what she was interested in is that he had three friends, and these three friends played with him as well. They're not famous in playing in the NBA today.
But they were very, very close friends. And she asked this man about how that worked. And they went to school together and they hung out together. But.
He said their ability on the court working together was almost without thought. They knew where each one was going to be. And they said that their ability to function in the game had a lot to do with how they functioned as friends away from the game. And I was thinking about that in connection with what we've been talking about, how the the relationships that are developed between brethren outside of the assembly.
And, and, you know, we think of maybe gift being mostly demonstrated, uh, when God's people are together, but a lot of those quiet things that you've been talking about and the stories that have been related are done often away from that. And there may be things that no one knows about except the individual that has been helped. So you can have a very young person that's like sweeping the floor or, or setting the chairs up for a meeting room. But what happens if someone, maybe a sister?
Maybe one of the mothers in the assembly comes alongside a young person who's found doing something like that and says, I appreciate what you do, watch what you do, you do a good job. Well, that's an encouragement. You know, if you're doing something that's kind of dreary and someone comes alongside and says, you know, I appreciate what you've been doing there. Well, what if a young person or, or somebody finds out that there's a, an older one in the assembly or somebody whose house needs painting or needs, uh.
Their yard needs help and they're getting too old to do things like that, and they show up.
And they began to do something like that. Well, those kinds of things may not be known by anybody else except the person that benefited from them. And, uh, those kind of things will be noticed by the Lord though, and they'll be noticed by the person. And we can say to someone, I notice what you did.
And I appreciate what you do and we can encourage one another in that way.
On the other hand, don't set out to do something to be rewarded for it, because you'll only be disappointed.
These seven things the Lord did himself and uh, he is always the, uh, example for us, isn't he prophecy? There was a message from God himself, from his Son. And then in connection with service, there is none that served like he did in perfection. And then there was a teacher. He was a teacher. He could teach perfectly. Who teacheth like him. Then he exhorted, encouraged his people, those that were downcast, downhearted. Then, uh, he gave, Who gave like He gives?
He gave everything that he had and then he ruled he that rules why he those that lean he took the lead, he led those that uh, were his disciples. He delights to lead his people and then he showed mercy with cheerfulness and those of the Lord Jesus is perfect example through the the gospels as we read these things, we can find little examples of his work in this way were to imitate that work.
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But then there's the great motivator, isn't there? And that's love. And so he takes that up. Then in the in verse nine, let love be without the simulation or really its deceit. That is, we're to love one another, genuinely love one another.
Not, not just to pretend, because we might function in the little ministry that the Lord has given us. We might on the outside, look like we're doing it for the Lord and for his people. But really, the motive may not be right. And as someone has said, if the motive is not right, nothing's right. I know that maybe it's a little bit of a stretch when it comes to the context in which we're speaking, because God does honor the act too. Sometimes the motive isn't right, but what God really desires is that there would be service to Himself and for one another.
Out of out of love, we're to love from a pure heart. And so if we really love our brethren, then we're going to want to serve them. You know, the flesh likes to be served. That's what the flesh desires. The natural man likes to be served, but the new man, when it's motivated by love, it delights to serve and not as someone has just said, for a reward or a pat on the back, but for the glory of God. And we find examples of many who serve the Lord in the Scripture and they either.
Weren't recognized for it or they were criticized for it, but they left it with the Lord the other night in Asheville we mentioned.
Mary of Bethany, you know, when she poured out her ointment at the feet of the Lord, not only did Judah speak out against her, but in one gospel it says all the disciples spoke against her. They all criticized what Mary did, but what did she do? She left it with the Lord. And so are you and I willing to just serve, serve in that way. The apostle Paul tried to serve here. He served the Corinthian brethren. What did he have to say? The more I love you, the less I be loved. He said you've made me the off scouring of the earth. But he said that's OK.
We labor that, whether president or absent, we may be accepted of him. We're doing this for the Lord's approval.
We're doing it for the Lord's glory, for and for your blessing. And, uh, if you don't appreciate it, that's OK. I'm gonna continue on because I love you. Well, he goes off then he, as I say, says let love be without deceit. And then of course, support that which is evil and so on. But love is always to be the great motivator for our service, for Christ and for one another.
If there's truly love, none of us would ever have a an attitude of uh, uh, wanting to look good.
Because that, that doesn't really fill the bill, does it? Umm, and we, we do have the problem of wanting to look good and it probably comes in two forms of probably more than that. But anyway, the one is to try to be competitive to, uh, you know, kind of step ahead and that that makes us look good, feel good. The other is to put down someone else and that's kinda makes us look good and feel good too.
But neither of those are any show of love. It really is of God. It's to the advantage of the whole thing. And God wants us to have the large picture and, uh, and to see that, uh, blessing is for, you know, the people of God and that's that.
It can be love, but hypocrisy can be mixed in there.
And that's because we have.
An old nature that kind of squirms itself into even the love of the Lord that we have for others and for Him. So let love be without hypocrisy. Same in first Peter, it says that brotherly lovely without hypocrisy.
So they can be brotherly love. Yes, it can be some hypocrisy in there that creeps in. And the one thing as to what our brother was saying about making us feel good. If there is hypocrisy and either our service of love or brotherly love, the Spirit of God is not gonna make you feel good.
It's perhaps out in First Corinthians, which we've alluded to, but in First Corinthians 12 you have the function of the members of the body of Christ. We have the body, or I should say we have the body brought before us in the 14th chapter. We have the members functioning together in the assembly collectively for the edification and building up of the Saints of God. But it's interesting that you have the 13th chapter in between. So if I can put it this way, in the 12Th chapter we have the machinery.
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In the 14th chapter we have the machinery in operation, but in the 13th chapter we have the oil that keeps the machinery from grating. We have the love, we call it the love chapter, and it is, but it's the practical carrying out of expression of that love one to another that's going to keep the machinery from grading up. Why is it so? Often, brethren, we come to problems in the assembly, We come to brothers meetings where we take up these matters. So we come to the assembly meetings and the machinery seizes up. We grate on one another. We end up the perhaps divisions take place and individuals leave and so, so on. Why is that?
Well, one reason at least is because we haven't exercised the 13th chapter between the 12Th and the 14th. I say again, you have the machinery in the 12Th chapter, you have the machinery functioning in the 14th chapter, but in between, in the 13th chapter, you have the oil that keeps it from seizing.
That same line of thought in connection with service and teaching if you look at Acts chapter one.
The perfect model of the Lord Jesus.
You know we are hearers of the Word and we can be teachers of the Word, but the Lord wants us to be hearers of the Word, to be doers of the Word, and the better doers we are, the better teachers will be. In Acts chapter one it speaks of the Lord Jesus, of the things which he votes started to do and to teach.
So the Lord Jesus, he was absolutely what he thought. He taught the truth, but he was the truth and the expression of it and all that he did. But the Spirit of God said all that he did and taught.
And then, then you go to Second Timothy, you have the apostle Paul.
And we'd be more like him.
In second Timothy chapter 3 when he speaks to Timothy chapter 3 verse 10 but that was fully.
Understood my doctrine or teaching and my manner of life or my conduct. So there was teaching there and behavior in the case of the apostle. But it's what he taught 1St and his behavior. And I'm sure we have to confess each one that we know more than we do. But it's nice that there's this relationship between what we hear and then what we teach, that there's a lot of it that we, with God's help, carry out and do and behave in such a way.
The last part is, uh, verse nine really is a definition perhaps of holiness, isn't it? Because, uh, holiness is, uh, being, uh, walking in separation from evil and having a delight in that which is good. So we're to abhor that which is evil. And this world doesn't abhor what is evil, but the believer knows what is righteous. And, uh, if we read the word of God and we appreciate the person of Christ, why we, uh, umm, those things that we see as you've been mentioning, as mentioned earlier, like posters and the billboards along the road, all those things that are so we evil.
Recognize them for what they are and we'll abhor them. And so we're told to be actively, umm, engaged in the spiritual warfare, as it were, in abhorrent that which is evil and to cleave to that which is good. In First Thessalonians chapter five, I think it is, it says, uh, prove that which is good. Hold fast the good. And so we need to be active in holding fast the good and testing what we see and, umm, those things that are brought before us, the principles that this world acts upon and so on.
We need to test them by the word of God and then test them to see what is good and hold fast to good.
It's not good enough. The word of God tells us to say that it's, it's, that's not good. That's not, we don't, that's, that doesn't look good, doesn't sound good. Whatever. We're to abhor that which is evil. If it's evil, we're to abhor it, not go near it because that's what makes us fit for service. How can we carry out our ministry if we aren't, uh, if we aren't walking in moral purity? And what fit the vessel in Second Timothy for service was not so much what it was made out of or what its capacity was.
But whether it was clean or not, was it a sanctified vessel? And so earlier in the chapter he told us not to be conformed to the world. We, we need to walk in separation from the world. We need to abhor that which is evil. We need to put evil out of our lives, put leaven out of our homes and so on. All those illustrations and scriptures that we so often quote because we are not going to be able to carry out our ministry, be it a public ministry or a hidden service.
With real power and fruit and blessing, unless we are clean, be it clean that they're the vessels of the Lord. So practical holiness, cleanliness in our Christian life is very, very important to our service. And I believe that's why He brings it in here.
I'm gonna clean up my room, or in particular my desk, which could be a real problem.
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There really needs to be a trash can nearby.
You're just not going to accomplish your task unless there's a trash can.
But I wanna stress too, before we pass on from this verse, that we'll never know what is evil and we'll never know what is good. If we look to the world's standards, that is not what Go is going to tell us. Don't go to school and expect them to teach you the difference between good and evil or right and wrong. The last days are characterized by those who who call evil good and good evil. But if you want to know God's standard and what is evil in the sight of God and what is good in the sight of God?
You must go to the standard book, to the guide book, you must go to the word of God. It's the only standard that is left in this world. And David said, take not the spirit of holiness from me. That's really the way that verse I just quoted should read.
Take not the spirit of holiness from me. In other words, he said, Lord, don't let me get used to sin.
And I believe the great work of the enemy today through, and I'm going to be very frank, through television, through Internet, through advertising, through magazines and all those things. The great work of the enemy is to to desensitize us as to evil, to he it. Those things have been introduced so slowly and insidiously over time that we don't realize how bad it really is if you were to pick up something that was published.
50 years ago and something that's published today that's in the same vein of things, secularly speaking, you'd be appalled at the difference, but if you were to read through those things that had been published as they had been published.
It's like the frog being boiled slowly. You don't even realize how bad it is. That's the work of the enemy. How are we going to keep a sense of holiness? How are we going to keep from from getting used to sin? We've got to go to this book. Keep in the presence of the Lord. Keep in the in in this book. That's what's going to give you your standard. Otherwise you're not going to discern between right and wrong.
Maybe I'll just not to prolong it, but just to say in that regard, in fact, turn to it because I think it goes right along with what we have in this verse in Titus.
Because maybe I hear someone say, well, that's alright for you to say, Brother Jim, but it's a lot different day at school and university or in the workplace than when you were there. Well, maybe it is. I have no doubt it is a darker and more difficult day to live for God's glory and abhor evil and cling to the good than the day in which I operated at school or in the work in the workplace. But just notice something that's very exercising in Titus chapter 2.
Verse 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, when, brethren, in this present world.
Or this present age, or we could say at this present time. I say that because the tendency of our hearts is to look back and say, well, things were easier back in our Father's Day, or our grandfather's day, or the days of the early brethren, or the days of the apostle Paul, or the days of Titus. No, brethren were not to do that. We can live soberly, righteously, godly, having a poor evil put away evil from our lives. We can live in this way when right here where we are.
There'll never be such a thing as saying the day is so dark and so difficult that we can't carry this out in a practical way in our lives. If the day ever gets that dark, the Lord will take us out. But until that time, we have all the resources we need. Let me read it again.
To deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and then to live soberly, righteously and godly right here in 2010.
The day in which the apostle wrote was a very moral day too. You might think that you have a, we have it hard today. I think the big difference is not the nature of the immorality because everything that man does today he did back then. It's the accessibility to the immorality and young people, It's piped right into each of our homes through the Internet. And it's, uh, any of you that go to school will realize that you have to have such a connection, but you don't have to, uh, go places you should not go.
I mean, it doesn't matter whether you're.
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The day in which the apostle was writing was a very, very evil day. They didn't even have Sundays off.
We often don't think about it. It was a Pagan world in which they lived and well we live in today still claim that. This country still claims in some respects to be Christian fast heading to be a Pagan country too.
You have little pictures of this in the Old Testament as well, and one of them that's very graphic is in Exodus chapter 2 in connection with Moses. And he was placed in the river of, uh, Egypt. But uh, it was not in the same way as, uh, those that were before him, as it were. So it's the first three, Chapter 2 of Exodus. When she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child there in, and she laid it in the plants by river's bank.
And so this river of Egypt really speaks of the pleasure system of this world. And umm, our children are being, uh, fast immersed into this river of Egypt, uh, the pleasure system of this world. The king of this world, the, uh, God and the Prince of it, Satan would desire to immerse our children into the pleasure system of this world. Well, we need to have the arc of safety. It's really, umm, Christ himself. And it wasn't very attractive, uh, from the outward side, pitched within and without, with, uh, slime.
But, umm, for the believer, it's a safety. And so we need to have Christ before, put Christ before our children as the source of blessing, the one who we want to live for and to, umm, preserve them from the river of Egypt. We have these little illustrations and, umm, it's, uh, really a warning perhaps to us in connection with the practicality of this chapter, that it's possible for us to allow something to come into the home that would be a harm to our children. And May God give us the grace to judge those things.
And to remove them from our homes.
Living the Christian life has always been impossible.
It's a supernatural act. It was.
In the 1St century it is now. If you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Whatever temptations, whatever distractions there are, if the enemy can bring something in and turn us aside, the ability to resist that is no different than it was.
In the 1St century, the same power, the same Spirit of God that is able to enable us to walk, enable the 1St century Christians. And yes, we have all these things that have changed and these different things. I mean, those of us who, I'm in my 50s, I've seen such a dramatic change in what schools were like when I was going to school. Uh, and what the schools are like now. You know, someone did a poll here recently amongst evangelicals, people who claim to be born again and ask them if they believed.
That there was such a thing, uh, as, uh, absolute truth.
Uh, this young people, I'm saying, uh, young people from teenage to college age. And there was something like, uh, uh, I'm not sure the exact number, but around 80% who said no.
Well, these are people that are supposed to have been raised in Christian homes.
What? What happened? What happened to the their way of thinking, their process of thinking, and their understanding of what truth is? Now they claim to be born again. They claim to know something about the word of God and claim to be Christians. But if that's true.
You know what? What about amongst the gathered chains? What about a amongst the more fundamental groups? Are the schools and the education and the system around us having an effect Where? Because if you don't believe there's such a thing as objective truth, what effect does this have on you?
So there, there is an important side of this that we need to understand that this book is the most important thing. We have to give us understanding because when we believe what it says, then by faith we can act on it and it can be carried out. The Spirit of God uses it to bring before us truth if we believe there's such a thing, but what if we don't believe there's such a thing?
We need to see that the same ability to walk and live the Christian life is the same. Now, I've often said to people the same ability that Peter had to walk on the water. It's the same ability we have to live the Christian life and live the victorious Christian life. Eyes on the Lord, Peter walked on the water, eyes off the Lord, Peter sank into the water. It's the same for us.
Well, then there's the practical manifestation of this, isn't there? And so I might say I love you. Person might say he loves you. But we want to see it practically manifest. And so in verse nine, our love is to be unfeigned or without deceit. It's to be unpretent, pretentious. But then he says in verse 10, be kindly affectionate 1 to another with brotherly love. This is a practical expression of it, isn't it?
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It's carrying it out. A person comes to meeting and uh, maybe they can say a lot of nice things about loving your brethren and they can minister the word. But if there isn't the practical carrying of it out in the our relationships together, then what we say isn't going to have any effect. Again, a person says they love you, You say I don't see it manifested. They don't act like they love me. And if a person says they love you and they don't show it, then that person is no help to you. How can that person be a help to you? Say what they say has no moral weight.
They, what they do really doesn't mean anything to me. And so that's why I said in suggesting this chapter that this chapter is intensely practical.
Brethren, we talk about loving one another, but do we really show that love in a practical way? And if you get up in the morning with an exercise to show brotherly kindness to your brothers and sisters that you come in contact with during the day, you'll find no shortage of opportunities. There's no shortage of opportunities to minister and show love in little ways, maybe big ways too, but little ways to your brothers and sisters. There might be a shortage of diligence and energy and exercise on my part.
But there's no shortage of opportunities if we're looking for them. And the Lord Jesus said to the disciples before he left them. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. How? By your good teaching, By the fact that you carry out certain things.
No, if you love one another, he, they, he said the world is gonna look on in my absence. And they're gonna know that you're followers of me when they see practically manifested amongst yourselves that look, not when they hear it, because they wouldn't hear it. The world doesn't always hear what we say. The world doesn't listen in. Today we're having a reading meeting. We're taking up this chapter. The world's not listening, but they're gonna see When we leave this building, when we go out of here on the weekend, the world's gonna look on. How are they gonna know? We're Christians. We're followers of the Lord.
If they see love manifested 1 towards another.
In a practical, outward way.
The word kindness.
It's a manifestation of love. You know. If children are afraid of you, you might wanna take a look in the mirror and see how kind you are manifesting yourself. One of the reasons children weren't afraid of the Lord Jesus is because He was coming.
And if you think of that when you were growing up or even now of somebody in your assembly that is known for being kind.
There's something there and when children aren't afraid of that person and when you think of them, you know, that's a kind woman, that's a kind man, you know, kindness, there's a shortage of it in this world. And sad to say, maybe there's a shortage, you know, amongst us too. But boy, that's one way you can manifest is so have an opportunity to show kindness towards one another and that's a practical some act of kindness is a practical manifestation of.
Really loving somebody.
Just wanted to remind you whether we're going to 5:15 just in case someone thought it was fine.
This is one of the instances in Scripture that has one to another in it. And uh, so it brings before us the individual responsibility, as you said a little earlier, that none of us are exempt when it comes to these things. And so there's individual responsibility, a kindly affection. 1 to another with brother, brotherly love. I think in the French translation in, uh, Hebrews, uh, chapter 13 verse one, I think it says live in love of the brother, not a nice expression, live in love with the brother.
They should just characterize my life to characterize your life that we live in love of our brethren. The world, uh, looks on and sees that kind of affection.
Love is a choice, you know, we have the world's expressions about love that all it just happens to you when they talk about romantic love, it's just something that comes out of the air and drops down and it disappears as fast. Love is an action word and when it speaks of it in this book, uh, my brother mentioned the love chapter and it uses the word charity in the King James. I did a word study once on that and it has the same route that the word cherish does and the idea that the King James translators had when they chose that word.
Was the kind of love expressed? There is a love that prizes the object, cherishes it, that has a little different thought to it. So we think of the kind of love that that cherishes. Well, do I cherish you?
Do I prize you?
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Do we prize one another, cherish one another? Do we see value there?
Well, it may be harder to love some people than others, but we have these instructions and we're told to love one another and we can choose to do it. We can say, Lord, this brother or this sister is hard to love, but you've shed your love abroad. In my heart, the source of love is there because you put it in me. I want to love that person. And it may be that it's a chore or a job to do, but we can literally choose to do it. Get with the Lord and find a way to show kindness or love towards somebody who.
To us may be very difficult.
To do, maybe there's been some conflict between us or our personalities aren't quite in mesh or whatever, but we can choose to do something about it. We don't have to allow.
Circumstances are the enemy's thoughts that may arise in our hearts towards our brethren.
To, uh, dictate to us. We can choose to love that person and do something about it.
In honor of preferring one another.
Doesn't mean to have favorites.
But uh, I believe it suggests a thought that we should be the first to give honor to someone else. So something that's reciprocal, you're the first one to act in there and give you be the first to give honor to the others. Don't wait for the on the others to give you honor or be respectful. You start that process. You're the first one to be given honor to others.
First, Peter 38 mentioned a few things that might be helpful. Finally, be all of one mind having compassion one of another.
Love as brethren, pitiful.
It says be courteous.
This can take a discipline, but it's important.
These are the things that, uh, whereby we just don't respond in passion to what might stimulus stimulate us to, uh, to harsh words or harsh actions. And with some of this, this is more of a challenge than others. Uh, and I have to speak to myself on that. But we can always be courteous and not render evil for evil or railing for railing.
But this doesn't say to be uh.
Uh, double minded.
It doesn't say to excuse evil, but it's the behavior that is involved here that is fitting to a believer.
And, uh, expresses character. It's a high order. I certainly don't say that I'm there, but it's a challenge.
And, uh, the Lord gives us tools for the accomplishment of these things to catch ourselves to, to, uh, put on the brakes to halt.
Passionate responses that really don't belong.
Courteousness courtesy.
Compassion.
Pitiful, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing.
And now most of us older brethren have been in the care meeting. This is a good set of rules for a care meeting.
In Romans chapter 14 and verse 17, you have a definition really of what we're going over here. It says, uh, in Romans 14 and 17, the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved man. And so we're talking about practical Christianity here. It's not an outward show, not with dissimulation or deceit, but it's practical Christianity.
That's being brought before us. And so he goes on and says here.
That we're not to be slothful in business, that the believer when he goes into his workplace or he, uh, does work for another person, he's not to be slothful. He's not to be, uh, uh, running out the clock as it were. And uh, just umm, umm, doing his work in a lack of nasal way. I was on in business for many years and umm, it was always, uh, a very, umm, challenging thing to find workers that would not be slothful. You always had the 30 day wonder after the, uh, 30 day review, why he, uh.
He just got into his old ways and cruising and basically had a job and we, you'd have a difficult time getting him out. But, uh, when we did the interview process, uh, uh, we had a set of, uh, interview questions and, uh, that's a very end of the interview questions about 20 questions that we would ask. And then there was one for the, umm, the interviewers. And that is how fast did this person walk? And we would walk, we would, uh, watch the person walk to the vehicle to see whether it was with purpose and whether he was doing it, uh, umm, with, uh, a real stride to get to his vehicle and to drive off and he had some purpose and what he was doing.
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Or did he just kind of saunter out into the parking lot and pick a few pebbles on the pavement and then just kind of get into his car and, and, uh, wander away? While we would oftentimes look for those that walk to their vehicle, they didn't, They had a purpose in their stride. And so I believe that this is partly what's being brought before us is to have purpose and not to be slothful or lazy in what we do, but to do our work is unto the Lord, not as unto men. And it ought to characterize our lives. There ought to be a difference between a Christian working in the office and an unbeliever walk working in the in the office.
And it's true of every aspect of our life. I just want to read it in Mr. Darby's translation because it gives a very broad thought here. It says as to diligent zealousness, not slothful, because I don't believe God encourages laziness in any aspect of our lives. It starts first of all, in our personal lives.
A person who's diligent in their personal lives, be it their hygiene or keeping the room clean or their apartment need or whatever it might be that's going to spill into their business life. A man or a woman who's slothful at the office. If you visit their home, you'll probably see their careless in their personal life as well.
And a brother or sister who's slothful in their home life for their personal life and their business life, that's going to carry over into the assembly. And so I say again, God doesn't encourage laziness in any aspect of life, whether it's our secular life or whether it's our spiritual life. And I believe that's why those who take office in the assembly as bishops or deacons, they were to be diligent and orderly in their personal life. If they didn't know how to be diligent and orderly in their personal and family life, how could they rule in the House of God?
There wasn't going to be that diligence and order in taking lead, whether it was for the spiritual well-being or the temporal matters in the assembly. And I want to just say in that connection, I wanted to say it earlier, but it's come up again.
That with ministry for Christ.
It starts with the little things. If you keep your desk neat, then that's going to, as I say, carry over in your life into many other things. If you're willing to stay behind after the fellowship lunch and help wash up the knives, knives and forks when nobody, everybody's gone home and nobody knows you're doing it, that's the young person that God is going to use in a greater way later on. You were in business, Robert, and I was too, and we never hired anybody at the top. We proved somebody. And sometimes you hire somebody and you put them on probation for six months because you want to prove them in the little things. And when you prove somebody in the little things.
Henry Ford never hired a person without taking them out for dinner and giving them a test. They didn't know it was a test, but he gave them a test. If they salt and pepper their food without tasting it, he never hired them. He said there was a person who was careless in their eating habits, didn't taste their food before they spiced it. They were going to be careless in their business habits or putting a car together or whatever it was. They weren't. They didn't prove it before they they took out.
Well, we smile at that, but men in secular business understand the need for testing and proving and starting people at the top. A corporation starts people at the bottom and they work them up as they prove themselves. And I often say, does God run something more careless than humans? No, he proves us in the little things. If we're diligent in our personal life, if we're diligent in the little things of service, uh, when we're younger, the, those are the kind of people that God can entrust more to. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.
I've got a question for you.
I've worked in sales and for companies in the past in sales, and I discovered that the best salesman always had messy desks.
There, there. It wasn't that there was total chaos, but it almost always worked out that way because there was a focus in their life that was different than other people. And it happened to be that the focus that they had, uh, their ability is to do the job of interpersonal and sales maybe left. They didn't put as much time in the other and they had messy desks, but it almost always was that way. I could go, I could walk into a sales office anywhere and let me see everybody's office here and I'll show you the top salesman.
That's why they called it organized confusion.
Engineers should have organized desks.
Well, there, it may have something then to do. We're chuckling about it, but the kind of gift and the ability that one has. I just remember this story that struck me. Uh, this, this man went to Bible school with some fellows and they, I think it was booty and, and then they were all headed into the Lord's work of some kind from their background. And this brother was talking about this man who was unkempt. He.
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Picked his nose, he just didn't take baths like he should his hair and he just, he just, he says, I just fired this guy and I didn't like sitting next to him in class because there might be an odor or whatever. But years later, uh, he had the opportunity to go to South America or some place where this brother was laboring and he was laboring with savages and people who were very uncontent that, and they loved him and he wanted them to Christ and LED them on. And he said, I changed my thoughts about him when I saw him in the environment he was in.
And what you said about having a stomach that was prepared for it, this man was there and lived a little bit like the natives and it was exactly the kind of person that was needed for that environment in those circumstances. And uh, you know, we are, we are not all formed perfectly and maybe because of some of our backgrounds are where we come from.
There are, there are some things that could use some attention maybe, but even those folks, we might say, if we're not one of those folks, or even me, maybe I can say God can use and has a place, even if I am flawed. And, uh, you know, you, you mentioned how brother, uh, Gordon used to talk about we're a bunch of zeros in the assembly where I grew up. There was a brother there that used to say we're all a bunch of crooked sticks that, uh, when we were traveling in the Southwest a few years ago.
They, they make these fences down there out of crooked sticks. And I was noticing this one fence where there was a lot of Labor put in so that the, the bend that went this way fit in the bend that went that way. And the next stick and whoever put them together, it was a marvelous way that they actually made this fence work. And I thought about that and I said, boy, that old brother used to talk about that, but God knows how to put crooked sticks together and make them make something that works. And don't we, we are none of us think that we are crooked sticks because we are but that oil.
That oil?
That God provides by His Spirit the love of God that shed abroad in our hearts can certainly make some crooked sticks work together or put a one in front of a zero and give it some value. Well, that's the diversity that Brother Steve was talking about, I think in the previous meeting. But I do believe that as it says, whatever thy hand findeth to do, do with all thy might. And God, as I say again, I believe this is really the overriding principle that we have in this verse. The principle is God never encourages laziness in our Christian life, whether it's in practical things or whether it's in spiritual things.
Diligence and energy of faith is what is to be exhibited at all times. We're not here, brethren, just to drift along through life. That is not what we are here for. You know the Lord said to the disciples, come yourselves apart and rest awhile. And sometimes we quote that verse without taking it up in its context. Do you realize that in the next couple of verses He lifted up his eyes and the multitude came, and the next thing you read, 12 men are distributing food to several thousand people. Wasn't much of A rest, was it?
You know the Lord said or the Lord gave many reasons why He healed on the Sabbath day, but the most outstanding reason was my father worketh hitherto and I work. The Lord was not here for a rest. The only time you read of him sleeping was for a few moments of rest on a boiled pillow in a boral boat. And it wasn't much of A rest because there was more work to do. He was not here for a rest. He was here to carry out the work that his Father had given him to do. And brethren, that remaineth the rest to the people of God. And in the meantime, we need to exercise energy and diligence in whatever God has said before. Yes, we're all unique. Yes, we're all called to different things.
But I believe the overriding principle of this verse is there needs to be diligence in our lives.
Need to identify priorities also, don't we? We had that before as to discerning what is the will of God. And so it's it's good to have orderly lives with we have priorities from the word of God as to what is important to the Lord. And perhaps you've been visiting someone or answered the phone to someone in distress, spending time with the soul and maybe your desk is upset and your your room hasn't been cleaned. So and that might happen before the Lord comes. So we need to have a discernment in our souls AS2 priorities and be diligent in those things that the Lord sets before us.