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The Lord we have redemption, full remission and influence from the cursed. Entire exemption from the curse pronounced by God. What a savior Jesus is.
Oh, what grace, what love is Hate 62?
In the Lord.
Shall be waiting for.
From the curve and tired of them.
Very far in this chapter, but be nice to go on with it.
Would you say, Brother Bill, about verse 3? Is that about where we got to? I know we're getting very far. Thank you.
Very good, but I can start I guess. You know we didn't comment any further than about the 1St 2 verses.
Romans, chapter 12, verse 3.
For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body.
And all members have not the same office. So we being many are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.
Having then gift differ differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministry. Let us wait on our ministry, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that extorteth on exhortation.
You that give it let him do it with simplicity.
He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
Lo, let long speak without descendants. Dissimulation of core. That which is evil cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affection 1 to another with brotherly love in honor, preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope.
Patient in tribulation, continue to in prayer.
Distributing to the necessity of the Saints given to hospitality.
Rest them which persecute you, bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Be of the same mind one toward another mind. Don't hide things, but condescend. And men are below estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
Recompense to no man, evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
If it be possible, as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.
Where it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him, If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt see the coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil.
00:05:08
But overcome evil with good.
It is important to notice as we read this third verse that it occurs.
Right at the beginning of the chapter before.
Many of the.
Particular exhortations are brought before us.
It's most necessary because.
And I speak to my own heart. It is a sin that has pervaded the church all down through the ages and continues to.
Where members of the body of Christ have.
Sad to say, not recognize what the Lord had given them. And as it says here.
Thinking of themselves.
Or thinking that you notice that of himself is in italics.
Thinking more highly.
Than he ought to think.
We get that and we don't have time to go into it, but we get that brought out in First Corinthians 12, where.
It talks about.
Parts of the body, on the one hand complaining because they're not as they would think. The more important parts of the body are, on the other hand, the more important parts, despising those that don't seem to be so important.
But how necessary, when it comes to our interactions with one another, particularly to recognize what the Lord has given us. And so here.
Paul says through the grace given to me.
And it's especially to every man. It's not only men, sisters too, but particularly to brothers to.
The measure that God hath given to us. And so there's that which God is committed to each one of us, and we all have that which God has given us to do. But our needful, uh, to recognize that and not to go beyond it caused a lot of trouble in the Church of God.
The expression there the end of the chapter The Measure of Faith might seem to be a bit confusing, but.
Turn to Ephesians chapter 4.
And.
There we see.
Another expression that's similar, only this time it's talking about grace.
Ephesians 4 and verse 7.
But unto everyone of us is given grace.
According to the measure and it should read the gifts of the Christ.
And when it's the Christ, it not only means Christ himself, but in most cases it includes his body as well.
And there as in this verse.
I believe it refers to the measure of gift that we have been given here. It says the measure of faith because we apprehend by faith what God has given us and act according to the good of what God has has given to each one of us.
Uh, sometimes, of course God has given us or God has given a man a gift and he doesn't have the faith to use it and to act on it. And we need to do that, but at the same time, we need to recognize the measure that God has given to us.
And to use that for him. And when that happens, we will find that.
Every one of us has that special place in the body of Christ.
That no one else can fill.
Somebody can fill that role if I fail, but they can't do it as well as I can. Someone will fill that role if you don't do it, but no one can do it as well as you can. And so there is something for each one of us to do that no one else can do as well.
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Speaks in the second Peter chapter one.
Uh.
Convert 5.
Besides this, this is giving all diligence and so on. Add to your date. There's a list of things there. It's not necessarily.
Uh, adding to our faith and increasing our faith is that it's, it's those things that we need to go along with the faith that God has already given to us. These things need to be added to it.
Yes. Is that the ****? Yes, I believe so. And there. It's not so much the faith that brings us to Christ and saves us.
Uh, sometimes when we're saved we have only a little faith, but it's not so critical, is it?
Christian pathway we add to our faith, as you say.
And there is such a thing as we know from other scriptures, that there is such a thing as a gift of faith. Now I hope that none of us would turn around and say, well, I don't have the gift of faith and therefore I can't do that because our faith increases as we use it and as we add other things to it. But at the same time, God has given a measure of faith to.
Certain ones to lay hold of what he has given for them to do and to go ahead and to go forward in it. And we're not to go beyond our faith. If we go beyond our faith, then we'll find ourselves acting in human energy.
Instead of spiritual energy, and that's, sad to say, will be rather evident, won't it? So we can't really go beyond our faith, but I believe as we go on in our Christian lives that God would increase our faith as we exercise it and as we use what the Lord has given us for him.
We will find our faith increasing.
So that we won't go into it in detail, but in Scripture there's not only the giving of the gift, but there's the development of it through use. And I believe that's true of every one of us. So if we let a gift lie dormant the way the man who had the 1 LB did in loop 19, then he ends up with the 1 LB at the end and nothing to show for.
But the one who used it gained 10 lbs or 5 lbs. And I believe in that sense the Lord would increase our faith as we use what He's given to us.
I think one of the first things about gift of faith is an Ephesians chapter 2.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that none of yourself is the gift of God.
Very faithful believers, a gift to me and then he gives us credit for it when we use it.
Mm-hmm.
There's another aspect too about not thinking more highly or than we also think in first print is chapter 4.
And verse 7, if we believe or we are aware that the Lord has given us a certain gift, we need to be reminded as well, umm, of what Paul is saying to the Corinthians, First Corinthians four and seven. For who maketh thee to differ from another?
And what has thou didst not see?
And then we need to be exercised as to he's given us a gift. We need to be exercised as to how to use it. Now thou didst receive it. Why does talk over is if thou had not received it so?
And that's why, as we were saying, on the one hand, it's wrong for us to desire a gift that God hasn't given us.
He's sovereign. He knows what we can use.
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He prepares us for it and gives us that which we could use. Excuse me, Equally true. It's wrong if the Lord might have given.
An outstanding gift to someone for him or her to down on someone else who perhaps doesn't have that much of A gift because God hath says in another place, God hath put the members in the body as it hath pleased him. And as we read in Ephesians 4, everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And so I say again, and this is true of young people.
Middle-aged and older people, we all have that which the Lord has given us and in that sense we have something we can do for the Lord.
No one else can do as well.
I like umm Second Corinthians chapter 10, umm.
Correct me if I'm wrong here.
And verse 12.
For we did not make ourselves, uh, of the number, or compare ourselves with some of that commend themselves, but they measure themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise.
Or understand it's not the same thought there.
Yes, and I believe the problem in Corinth was exactly what we have here, that if I can put it this way, they wanted to be somebody, they wanted to display their gifts and that's what they were doing. They were misusing the sign gifts by making a public display of them because of pride and and.
As you say, comparing themselves with themselves.
And, and, uh, Paul says that's not wise. Uh, we don't, we don't thank the gift if someone gives it to us. We thank the givers. Uh, Bruce was pointing out.
And comparing ourselves with one another is not the way to do it. We're just to use what we have for the Lord and count on Him.
But the striving for physician and influence in the church is always wrong. Uh, a brother whom I never knew, but I understood him to say whether George W Heaney, he apparently said as a young man.
I wanted to be great in the world and when I got saved, I wanted to be great in the Church of God, and I had to learn that both were wrong.
OK.
We have a negative example of that as well in just reading it quickly in 3rd John where it refers to diotropy. I'll just read that verse third John verse nine I wrote under the church. But diospheres who love who love it to have the preeminence among them. That was not said as a recommendation of him wasn't he was a it was a negative comment.
Well, that leads us into the next two verses, doesn't it? Which brings before us the truth of the one body. And I think it's fair to say that in almost all of Paul's epistles that precious truth is brought in. We know that the church became one body on the day of Pentecost.
But, as has often been remarked, they didn't know it yet.
They didn't know about the truth of the one body, even though they were one body, but that was left for the apostle Paul to bring out that precious truth. And uh, so here, if we recognize that we are all one body and many, many members in it, every one of us here has a body and we can understand how that is.
And every member of the body is necessary. And of course.
As uh, uh, was it you that emphasized that?
To Brother Dave this morning, that we're not only members of his body, but members one of another.
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And it's very, very true, isn't it, If I am connected with the head in heaven.
Then in that sense, I am connected with every other believer in this whole world at any given time. And what a precious truth that is.
Sad to say, we don't see the practical exhibition of the unity of the body, and the Church suffers sadly in consequence of it.
Nothing can change the fact that there is one body, the Lord says.
In clear tones there is one body, and all of the ruin that man is brought in can't change that precious truth. But the practical exhibition of the unity of the body and the practical working together of it is certainly not seen in the world today, and the Church suffers greatly in consequence.
But that doesn't alter the fact that there is one body and we ought to seek to act.
According to that unity that God has set up, shouldn't we?
There's a verse in Exodus 33 I always think brings out quite safe, uh, fact that all believers are one.
Exodus 33.
In verse 7.
And Moses took the Tabernacle and fixed it without the camp, far off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation.
They didn't call it Moses.
10th or errors tent or reform tent with the whole congregation, the Senate says.
OK, but uh, everyone at soccer was when I went to the Tabernacle, the congregation and was out the camp came to pass when roses when I was in Tabernacle that all the people rose up and stood every man in his own tent door.
For the whole congregation, and you took down all of it.
But it was the same. It was only a few. It doesn't tell us whether it really sought the Lord. And they owned it and they were out there and the others were in their own tent door. We know there are many of them in the world. Yeah.
So sad to say.
There are not that many today that really want to give expression to the truth of the one body. We are very thankful for many who enjoy that precious truth in their hearts. But it's meant to be practically shown out. And here, of course, it's not particularly the gathering together in that way, but the functioning together.
Uh.
Uh, appreciation of the fact that every member of the body has a particular gift and something to do.
And how important that is.
It's God's grace, isn't it, that has really preserved A testimony to the truth in the one body. It's a remnant testimony today, Hum. But it's it's, it's all God's grace and his faithfulness that has done this. We can, I think any credit for it, but it is a wonderful privilege to to be gathered in the Lord's name and give me this rightful place.
I once read a story. Perhaps many here have read the same story, I'm not sure, but umm.
Uh, old, an older brother, umm, he was really old and uh, he was really feeling umm.
The wilderness and, uh, he always would say, I don't know why the Lord is keeping me here so long. And, uh.
He, he just, he felt that way and he just wanted to go to be with the Lord. But, umm.
When he passed away, went to me with the Lord.
Umm, they found the largest, uh, prayer list that they ever saw and I think it was under his mattress or something, or under his pillow where they never ever saw it before, you know, so.
Even in that feeble state that he was.
Umm, uh, those prayers, uh, only, well, no one, uh, on that day.
Umm what? What has been done by prayer, you know and so.
00:25:01
Using that prayer, it's a, it's a real uh.
Umm, largest, uh, per list. That what you ever saw, you know.
And we all have the tendency to pray for somebody for a little while and then give it up and.
But the illustration of that, uh.
An older brother. I think it's encouraged many, many people to.
Even if they can't, couldn't do anything outwardly. Uh, but prayer is very important.
The thought of UMM of the church really generally in Christendom today is really not even understood at all I would say.
Umm.
Seeing uh uh, thought that I've heard expressed been helpful to me. Is is just this?
The church is not an organization, but an Organism.
Umm, man has been, can I say, successful in in in developing systems.
Umm, that are really organizations of men?
But, uh, uh, here, although perhaps this side of the truth is not brought out so much, nevertheless, the inferences there, it seems to me because of speaking about the Organism side of things, because we're members one of another and the effect that we have on one another. And I, I, I, uh, you know, umm, I, I find in, in speaking to other Christians that you know, you, uh, you, you, you say something about.
The very statement that I've just made.
And they, they, uh, they accept that.
But, uh, then they go on and their thoughts and, and talk about, uh, their church and your church or whatever, you know, So the whole concept is this foreign to the mind, the thinking of Christians in general today. But it's nice that it's wonderful to me that the Lord has brought us into the, the goodness of this truth and because we've been brought into the goodness of it.
Why then we're given instructions to how to act in that position. And it's not only for those who we can, I say, break bread with, but it is any member of the body of Christ, wherever we find them. Don't you find it wonderful to take and meet a Christian somewhere and right away you're drawn to them even though you've never met them before because their life responds to your life, you know, And we can be a help.
And an encouragement.
In one way or another, just by meeting other believers.
Hmm. And they to us.
And some verses in Matthew chapter 20 that did not supply that come across with discussion, uh, verse 25 and just read it quickly. So, umm, but she was called the unto him and said, he noted the Christmas of the Gentiles exercised dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you.
Let him be your minister and this one biography is perhaps thought that he was great and.
Some of the people that maybe he despised were much, much greater than.
Umm, adulation is chapter 6. There's, uh, two verses there, umm, about burden and umm.
It seems to conjure. It seems a contradiction, but umm.
Anyhow, I'll just read the first uh, verse 2 and relation 6.
Bury one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. And verse five it says.
For every man shall bear his own burden and umm.
Possibly have some thoughts from that?
Well, I believe brother Bill this brings out.
Uh, in connection with what we've been saying, the way that the body is meant to work.
Uh, that is.
Uh, let's let's take an example.
Suppose that I break my ankle.
00:30:03
And I have to have a cast on it, and the doctor says you've got to stay off that for six weeks until the bone heals. What do I do?
I get a pair of crutches and I walk with crutches and my arms do the work that.
Whatever leg is broken up to do, I can still put weight on the one leg or the one foot, but essentially I have to have something to carry me over.
To take the place of the other foot.
That can for the moment function that way.
Well, I believe that's where you want another's burden.
But it's not expected that that would be a permanent state. Now of course it could be if the injury were severe enough and that leg were incapacitated for good, but it wouldn't be a normal body, would it, if that happened and so.
Not to get technical about it, but for what it's worth, uh, in Galatians 6 there the 2 words that are used for burden.
Are not the same in the original. They're totally different words in the Greek language, and I'm not a Greek scholar, but anyone can look this up.
And the one for every man shall bear his own burden is a word that implies the normal everyday responsibilities of life.
Brother Bill over there wouldn't come to me under normal circumstances and expect me to buy his groceries. No, he's got a responsibility to look after his wife and his family and his home.
But on the other hand, if I lost my job and I was temporarily in need and some of your brethren came to my health, that would be bear you on another's burden. And so the bigger you want another's burden, the the word there for burden is that which implies a very heavy and tolerable burden that's very, very difficult to bear. And yes, then we are to help one another.
Does that, does that make sense? Yeah, it does. And I was just thinking of, uh, Matthew in Chapter 11, long verse and uh, take my hair upon you. But the last verse 30 says.
Uh, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light and so I think we all have a burden and umm.
You know, that's just like you say, everyday living. And, uh, I, I was thinking of, uh, the second one as being umm, you know, in, umm, where they're in the vineyard and they were all paid a penny a day and, uh, given the day's wages.
The ones that come in last, they complain because, umm, well, the ones that come in the last, they get the same pay as as the ones that were uh, uh.
Working all day in the hot sun and uh, they were tired and so.
To get an allergy I I just think of it as this umm they were to help help help these ones that were tired maybe to show the ones that were fresh what to do how to do it. You know where to go and do this and that and they rested and they they.
For their, uh, burden.
The same lines that you were saying I I get it now.
Maybe we could make one more remark for our own hearts and consciences, uh, to add to what Brother Dave Hayl was saying.
It is very true.
That in much of Christendom today, and we are part of Christendom, the truth of the one body is not understood.
Uh, and it's not practiced. It's not recognized because.
Many believers have had their thinking so predicated along different lines that it's very difficult to see the practical side of what Scripture says.
I say to my own heart and to the hearts of my brethren here.
If we do profess to gather on the ground of the one body, and I'm thankful we do, I believe it with all my heart. And if we have this precious proof?
Are we living it out in a way that when the world looks on, and I mean the Christian world, Christendom looks on?
00:35:08
Do they see it working in practice?
A brother back in the 1800s rode in his ministry and it's very good, he said.
As the power of the Spirit declines among believers, the clerical principle tends to take over.
And that's how it happened in the early church. That's why things developed the way they did, because individuals who ought to have been paying attention to the measure of the gift, the measure of faith that God had given them didn't do it.
And then eventually it got to the point, well, look, you've got a lot of gifts, so let's just pay you to do it full time.
And then we don't have to.
And I've told this story before, but it bears repeating. And this took place many years ago. But there was a brother who used to be gathered to the Lord's name, and he left. And sometime later, a year or two later, I met up with them and we were good friends. There was no difficulty. And I said, how are you doing? Well, I'm fine. Good. And I said, where are you going now? What do you do on Lord's Day?
And he kinda looked a little embarrassed and he said, well, I, I, I, I go to a little church.
And you said, you know, Bill, I really missed the breaking of bread. I miss the way that the Spirit of God is there to use different ones to give Thanksgiving and praise and worship.
But then, as we would say in common language, he tipped his hand a little bit. He said. But you know, Bill, it's just so comfortable to get up on Lord's Day morning, have my breakfast, get in my car, go down to the church, slide into my seat.
And someone else does all the rest.
That's how it started. And I say to each one of us.
We need to take this to heart, don't we? If the Lord by grace and Edith was bringing it out, it's only grace has given us the privilege.
In these last days to gather on that precious truth that there is one body.
To be in the place where the Spirit of God is free to act. To be where the Lord's name is honored and he has given his proper place.
Do we act this way? Does each one of us have the exercise and feel the responsibility before the Lord to say, Lord, what have you given me and am I doing it?
Or am I in danger of being like the man with the 1 LB that just wraps it up in a napkin because, well, I can't do much, I'm not up for much, and so on? Would you agree with that, Dave? There's a danger of that.
I was thinking of the example we did with Moses where he didn't want to do the work the Lord gave him to do. And the Lord said, what is that in my hand?
That are raw.
Well, like a stick wasn't very big, cast it down, go on. But that was the, that was the rod, I take it that was used to divide the Red Sea yes And uh, even though we might not feel like we have very much of A gift.
If we take it up when we use it for the Lord, He can bring blessing out of it. It's not Moses had the strength to do it. It said the Lord used the little bit that he had.
Seems as though.
Some of these gifts.
Have to do with.
Public expressions both gifts, and I'm not prepared to distinguish between these particular gifts, but I see here where it speaks to proper sign.
And then it speaks of.
Ministry and then he speaks of teaching.
And then it speaks, uh, exhorted. Well, are these not all public?
Gifts that are referred to here.
But then it says, He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth his diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
Don't involve.
Try whatever I believe the motivation.
00:40:08
To express.
Or display one's gift. It should be love.
For the Lord, our love for his body too, for the Saints. And he speaks of that here in verse nine. Let love be without.
Dissimulation.
Mr. Davis is unfeigned love.
You know.
Comics. The reality.
Verse 10 it says be kindly affection.
One to another with further results and honest experience when another. Hmm.
So, uh, I know Paul speaks of it over there in there First Corinthians 13 and all these so I speak with the tongues of men and of angels you have not shared to your love. I am become a sounding brass or tinkling symbol.
Tell us in Ephesians chapter 4 what the gifts are for.
Visa Chapter 4.
Mentions uh some there verse 11, but it says to give us for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Do we all come in the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man?
Unto the measure of the stature, the fullness of Christ.
I guess that that the Lord gives to us. They're not really for one that hasn't. This is a for the Church.
To build up the Saints, encourage the Saints, hmm, that, uh, we might, uh, display that unity that we have in him And, uh.
This is the reason that we have as a guess. It's not not something that's obviously used for her own benefit, but they're to be used for the identifying of the church, building up the church.
I have wondered if, uh, uh, and I've read something on this about to take some other rating as an authority, but it seems to me that the that the.
The verses that are given in Ephesians 4 are more in connection with the nourishment of the body of Christ itself.
It seems, don't you think, that in this chapter here is having to do more with the practical side of the body of Christ?
The practical side of dealing with one another. How much time a week do we spend together at meeting?
234 hours maybe or something like that. How many hours are there in the week? And, uh, it's the, it's the interaction with others to encourage one another to go on together in the past that we feel the Lord has marked out in his word, that it hits me in any way that this chapter would bring forth in that way.
Yeah, right, Bill. Yes, I, I agree with that here. It's the practical interaction of Saints.
With, uh, youth, you're acting as members of the body of Christ and it includes the meetings but is not limited to it. Yeah, if you really get 3 chapters that bring verses or, I'm sorry, bring gifts for us, there's this chapter, which is just as you've been saying. And then there's First Corinthians 12 where the emphasis is on the diversity that the Spirit of God is able to produce within the body.
And the emphasis there is on the gift.
And then in Ephesians 4 the emphasis there is more on what God has retained in the church for the edifying of His body and so many of the sign gifts that are named in First Corinthians 12.
Are not there in Ephesians 4, but it's more the individual, uh, himself, the man himself that's in view there. And so it doesn't mention, for example, certain things like the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues and the gift of healing and so on. So they're all kind of giving us a little different view, but, uh, but here it's, it's very, very practical, isn't it?
And as you say, Wally, I believe these, these gifts that are public here, they can be distinguished.
00:45:02
Prophesying or prophecy is really giving out the mind of God.
For that particular occasion, and it's a wonderful thing and God can use any brother to do that, Paul said to the Corinthians. He may all prophecy 1 by 1.
But I believe there are those who still have perhaps a special gift in that way.
Ministry is really service of various kinds.
Teaching well is teaching, making the Scriptures clear to our schools. Exhorting is the practical side of the Scripture, and some brethren have a particular gift in that way.
For those who remember him, I think our brother Harry Hayhoe perhaps has a gift of being an exhortant. He could take the scriptures and make them extremely practical.
Right down to earth for everyday life. And sometimes He repeated things over and over and over, but most of us that heard Him remember them today because He repeated them. And so there are these different ways that God gives each one of presenting the truth.
And we need it all, don't we?
I was thinking too, Brother Bill, and it says here in this seventh verse verse or ministry, let us wait on our ministry and someone has translated this way or ministry, let us occupy ourselves with ministry.
And, uh, I think that's important that the Lord has given us a, umm, a gift in service. That's what he wants us to be occupied with. I think there's a tendency sometimes for Saints to expect someone who is a teacher to be.
Someone who is good at service and someone who is an exorgerate and someone who is a, a prophet. But it's good for those things to recognize what a person's gift is and seek to encourage them in that particular line. Not try to be everything, uh, rolled up into one. Put it that way.
And of course, we have to recognize today, and I know you'd agree with this stand, that in the outwardly broken and divided state of the Church.
Uh, sad to say, we don't always have all the gifts that perhaps would be desirable, do we? And sometimes some of the best gifts are not, you might say, practically available to us the way they should be because the body is not functioning the way it should.
Well, we have to bow our heads in shame. We're part of the ruin. But that's why and we won't turn to it, but that's why it says at the end of First Corinthians 12.
Covet earnestly the best gifts.
That doesn't mean I don't believe that I should want to have the best gifts so that I can outshine somebody else, but we should want to have what will be a benefit to the Saints.
Let me use an illustration, and it's been used before, but, uh, there was a time in our married life when our two children were young and my wife was in the hospital quite I'll. And although my mother came up and helped us out, she couldn't be there 24 hours a day. And there were times when I covered it earnestly, the gift of being able to cook a little better for my children.
Now I didn't get it, but uh, the point is.
Uh, I wished I could cook a little better because I wanted to take my wife's place, not at all, but because here were two children who needed something to eat and I wished I had more ability for them. Well, it's a wonderful thing to desire to be a help to our brother. And I believe that's why. And I, I know others have had a different thought on it, but personally, I believe that when Paul says to Timothy do the work of an evangelist.
It's in Second Timothy, which is for the last days and perhaps Timothy.
He didn't perhaps, in my judgment, have exactly that gift, But Paul says do the work of an evangelist, Timothy, And sometimes maybe we have to take up that which is not exactly our gift just because, well, there's a need and we see the need to to do it.
00:50:06
But I think your, your point's well taken, Stan, to, uh, look at certain ones and expect to have them, to have every gift all rolled into one. That's a that's a big mistake.
I think what you said earlier is very important to emphasize and that is that I don't think the, the difficulty today is with those who might be diography, but umm, today there's a tendency for us to be lazy Christians, if you want to put it that way, and uh, not be reading the word of God like we should.
And not spending our time in a way that would be profitable so that when we come together we have nothing to offer. So it ends up one brother doing most of the, umm, the uh.
Teaching or whatever happens to be. So I think it's important for all of us here to be exercised as to how we spend our time.
During the day, every day, Mondays through Saturday, so that we can be more valuable. Can I say when we meet together as believers on Lord's Day, or whenever it might be, it's interesting to consider the statement that the gift that keeps on giving.
You've all probably heard that in many contexts, but when you think about that's what God has given, having gifts, He's given us gifts. What for? He keeps ourselves. I mean, I like to study the Word of God and I enjoy the names and titles of Christ.
As many other brothers study this and study that do I do it for my own encouragement? I trust not. He's given us gifts to give. That's what the gifts are for, as we say, because the weakness of our state perhaps is, is Stan said that's an instance where we tend to make one perhaps and, and over gift them on our behalf, perhaps with the gift he does not have. Umm, but I was thinking of that in the context of, if you read further on, umm, uh, where it says, uh.
Where members of one another in verse 5.
And verse 10, it says be kindly affectionate 1 to another, preferring one another. And then we go down to 16 be the same line one toward another condo sentiment of low estate. I think the Lord is like I say, given us gifts to to give. That's what we're giving the gifts for. He's given us everything once again for salvation. He's given us everything to grow. He's given us everything that we can take all the things that he's given us so we can spread it around one with another to encourage and exhort one another to grow.
I mean, the bottom line of love is love never has itself as an object. So why should gifts have the same object? Gifts they're given to be given. That's why the Lord has given it to us. And we can be thankful for those who use those gifts as as Stan brought. Also, sometimes we're lazy Christians, but sometimes we're given a gift and we don't give them.
Well, and that's being lazy.
And I say that again, I think that's a very good point. And allow me to make one more practical point, and that is this we sometimes hear today among some dear believers, and let me be very pointed about it. Some gather to the Lord's name who say, well, I'm not getting anything, or I'm not being fed or something like that. I want to go somewhere where there's more for me.
Well.
Some of us who are older, we hang our heads when we hear that because perhaps we haven't been putting food on the table the way we should be.
But at the same time.
Again quoting a brother from way back, he said Christianity is characterized not by what it finds, but by what it brings.
And the Lord himself was the supreme example, wasn't he? When he came into this world, if we could say it reverently, what encouragement did he get? None at all. He got nothing from anyone. Now, I don't mean that there weren't those who appreciated him and that there weren't those eventually who honored him, but relatively speaking.
The Lord Jesus was rejected right from the very beginning and his entire pathway down here was a pathway of giving until he gave the supreme sacrifice on Calvary's cross. And I appreciated that verse that our brother read, uh, back in Matthew's gospel where it talks about the one who was going to be the greatest is to be the servant of all. And the, the Lord Jesus pointed out that out in the world.
People looked to others and honored them because of what they did for them.
00:55:00
But he says, don't you be like that. You don't want to be the big man and, uh, take the place. You take the humble place and be a giver. And so we should all feel that.
Desire in our hearts, yes, the Lord has given to me, and now I come, not primarily to receive.
But I come primarily to say, what would the Lord have me to give? And you know what we'll find if we do that.
We'll find we get far more than we ever get, won't we? The Lord is no man's debtor, and if I come because the Lord is there and I want to honor Him, I will find that He is more than sufficient for everything that I need.
Well, I heard of her brother said someone came to him. And what you were mentioning, I don't get anything from the reading. You know what he said. Did you pray about it before you went?
I think that was a good answer. I think there are two sides too. We need to remember in connection with that and that is that, uh, the Lord said to Peter, feed my sheep, feed my lamb.
And, uh, you're going to be a good farmer. You've got to find out what your, what your cattle need, what your, what the sheep need. And we need to keep close. You need to be close to them. I think that apply, apply there should be applied in a spiritual sense as well that there are needs. And, uh, that needs to be an exercise when, uh, when, uh, even in a reading meeting like this, if we seek to minister to the.
To the Saints of God in a way that, uh, meets the need.
You know, I agree with that, Dave. That's why I said some of us that are older hang our heads when we hear those comments because.
There may not be food that is convenient. I think we have a good example of that in Hebrew because, uh, Paul was saying for at least the writer of Hebrews was saying that, umm.
Strong meat belongs to them that are full age. But uh, he recognized that they really weren't up to that.
They needed the milk, the milk said the word. And I think sometimes we come together, we don't recognize that perhaps what's needed is milk, even though the, the strong meat is good. Uh, there's a real need for the simple truth of Scripture.
Good for a balance, isn't it? Especially if we're young ones attending, you know they not, not everyone is at the same spiritual level.
Another.
Something else that too. It's not good to uh, perhaps put one up, Put a brother that maybe has a gift.
We thought it was too high up on the pedestal.
Some years ago I remember her brother sentence that, uh, he had, he had a gift, maybe more than one, but.
It seemed that every time.
Your brother would come to a conference or something that you went to a conference. He was.
You either give it an address to the young, given the gospel, and I think that brother's no longer with us. But I think you can put too much pressure on a younger brother by having them do too much.
All at once.
We should have an exercise to recognize perhaps, as I mentioned earlier, the the specific gift that the person has and you use them perhaps in that category rather than, like you had said, having all the gifts rolled into one.
So I think it's it's a good thing to remember too, not to put somewhat of a higher position and, and perhaps he he's able to bear himself.
They back in Genesis and, uh, Genesis chapter 33. There's a a little term there that I've enjoyed.
Having to do with uh, instead of speaking to the younger ones in that sense.
Genesis 33.
1St 13 It's uh, Jacob Hack and Esau. And he says, And he said unto them, My Lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me, and if men should OverDrive them one day all the flock will die.
And we can see in this, I believe, uh, that that situation where sometimes we, we speak to the young people, we speak over their heads or we speak things that are really difficult for them to understand without explaining it for them. And yes, we just leave it there and let them find out on their own without taking the time to make it a little bit more palatable for them or help them in, in their spiritual growth and understanding that. And sometimes I think it boils down to the fact that we forget that we were once young too.
01:00:12
And I know that so easily happens probably to all of us. We forget what it was like to be young and yet something happens to us as we get older and we forget that. So we carry on with the way that that perhaps we were taught. And it becomes carrying out rather than taking that time to realize that if we OverDrive them.
It's, it's uh, really puts a barrier up and you can only be over driven so long before you finally say it is the only statement. I get nothing out of it because I'm tired of listening because you're not giving me anything to to learn. You just you're just yelling at me or if you're talking at me, not talking to me.
And it's important to remember that. One more thought on that, Brian. I was just thinking of, uh, Luke chapter 17 and verse 10.
And, umm.
You know, instead of, uh, complaining, well, I'm doing it all and, uh, the other brethren or you're not doing anything, you know, and uh, so forth and so on. Umm, I think we can relative, it would do as well to remember this, uh.
To remember this principle and uh, verse 10 so likewise he when he shall have done all those things which are commanded on you say we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do so that's what the Lord says the whole thing. And if we're complaining about, umm, brethren, not very move old or whatever.
I think Thor wants the the computerized off that brother or those brothers and to look up and see no man save Jesus.
And when we hear lovely things about the Lord.
That wants to that, that, uh, encourages us to exercise the gift that we do have.
And, uh, it exercises us to stir up, to give gifts that has been given to us. And umm, Timothy had we admonished to, umm, to encourage, to stir up the gift that was in him. And, uh, are we not all like that?
We have to be encouraged to stir up that gift.
That that is given by God. I'd like to ask a question. We've talked a lot about guests and practical guests.
And quite often the answers are rather this or rather that, but.
I don't know if this is a gift or not, but if you go through Proverbs wisdom.
Feminine. She has this, She does that. Thinking of bringing up children. Dad's away at work all day. Mom's home.
And she has more of the bringing up of the little ones and bringing the word before the women are small.
Thank you.
I believe both the most definitely sisters do have gifts and uh, as we said earlier, God I believe is clear in his word that he has committed public testimony to men. But uh, sisters certainly do have gifts. We know that Philip, for example, had four daughters that prophesied. I don't believe they did that in the public realm, but they had that gift and I believe God.
Recorded in His word to show us clearly that she did, we find the apostle Paul.
Right in this same book of Romans in the last chapter.
Uh, referring to, uh, Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church, which is at Sangria.
And the word used there for servant is the same word that is used for Deacon later on in scripture. Now I don't believe once again that she did things in a public way, but.
She certainly was a servant of the church and in that sense I believe had a gift for doing it.
Here later on in the chapter, our very chapter, it says in verse 13.
Distributing to the necessity of Saints given the hospitality.
I would suggest in most cases UH that the hospitality is 90%.
01:05:00
The sisters responsibility, the brother may be there, he may do the, he may invite the guests or something like that, but it's the sister that ends up doing the brunt of the work toward, uh, making that hospitality work. And so very definitely sisters have gifts I appreciate back home.
Sorry, I appreciate back home we have a Sunday school where we have all the kids in our, in the school are quote off the street. And I appreciate some of the sisters there that can, uh, take, uh, uh, a class full of rowdy kids and manage to, uh, manage them and so on. And they have a gift in teaching them and getting the gospel through to them and so on. So that, uh.
It is very, very definite that sisters have gifts. Sorry, Stan, go ahead. I was going to say another example would be Aquila and Priscilla. Oh, good. It's very interesting that they're mentioned six times in Scripture. Three times.
Aquila is mentioned first and three times, Priscilla is mentioned 1St. And so there's the balance there between the husband and the wife. And I think often you find that behind every brother who was useful in among the Lord's people, there's a praying wife and one who is a real encouragement. And it's interesting when you study equivalent Priscilla to see there that, uh, they invited Apollo's to their own home.
And umm, and both were used for the blessing of that brother, uh, in the assemblies. Another good example, I think too is Martha. You know, we're often very critical of Martha and say that she was cumbered about with much serving, but in John chapter 12.
You'll find there the Lord is invited into their home and Lazarus is there at the table and Martha is serving and, uh, Mary is annoying the feet of the Lord Jesus with her appointment, but each one is in their proper place, I believe. And, uh, I think it's nice to see Martha, they're serving And uh, it was for the Lord, but she was doing it. So there are many examples, I think of a sister serving and uh, yes, that sisters have.
Is that the word ministry in verse 7 is translated in Darby's translation as service.
Yes, I have a question as well. Umm, is it the individuals exercise to recognize their own gift, cultivate it and use it? Or is there any precedent for recognizing a gift in someone else and calling it?
A.
Yes, there is. Turn to One Timothy, chapter 4.
First Timothy 4 and verse 14.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, that is, by the Lord prophesying it, and with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, now the presbytery. The word Presbyterians in Greek simply means older ones, not the same word as an elder, but similar.
And so they are obviously called, exhorts Timothy to to not to neglect that gift.
And.
He said it's in thee with the laying on of the hands of the older ones. Well, it doesn't mean that they imparted the gift, but it means that they recognize, I believe the gift Timothy has and the laying on of hands was simply the expression of fellowship with it. And we find the same thing in Acts. I believe it's chapter 13, where in fact it wouldn't hurt to turn to it.
Pax 13.
And it says there in verse two as they that is certain prophets and teachers ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul for the work runaway have called them. And when they had fasted and trade and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
01:10:02
And then in another place, Paul says to Timothy that thou stir up the gift that is in thee.
So I believe that there is, uh, every reason to, uh.
Be an encouragement to someone whom we may see who has a gift and, uh, very often I believe older ones can be a big help in that and encouraging perhaps a younger person to use that gift.
Scripture is perfectly balanced, isn't it?
Time zone.
282.
Last year we would no longer be at home in bed 282.
Uh.
We would no longer.
Be alone with my way.
But I think it can be.
A rise by a joy to know.
We're getting one of the controls come over.
It's our heart gets down, but I ain't compared. And why we're having one.
Oh Lord, it's all right. And that's everything's if I'm.
Uh.
The lunar also survived, or about half of the showers of the rainbow.
Blood pressure stolen down and the day's grilled and alone.