Soundware State Ministry, Queensland.
We continue this study in the Book of
Acts with Mr. Macdonald, and this cassette, being
cassette number three, commences with Acts chapter 14,
verse 21.
Mr. Macdonald.
In Acts chapter 14, verse 21.
When they had preached the gospel to that
city and had taught many, they returned again
to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch, confirming
the souls of the disciples and exhorting them
to continue in the faith, and that we
must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom
of God.
And when they had ordained them elders in
every church and had prayed with fasting, they
commended them to the Lord on whom they
believed.
And after they had passed through Pisidia, they
came to Pamphylia, and when they had preached
the word in Perga, they went down into
Italia, and thence sailed to Antioch, from whence
they had been recommended to the grace of
God for the work which they fulfilled.
When they were come and had gathered the
church together, they rehearsed all that God had
done with them, and how he had opened
the door of faith unto the Gentiles, and
there they abode long time with the disciples.
Now yesterday, at the close of the message,
we were talking about some of the unusual
pulpits that are found in the Book of
Acts.
We thumbed through the book and found the
Christians preaching many times in the open air.
We found them preaching in the vicinity of
the temple, oftentimes through no choice of their
own.
They were before the Jewish Sanhedrin, and they
used it as an opportunity to preach for
the Lord, down by the river, in the
marketplace, on Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul gave
that wonderful message in Athens, and from the
stairs of the fortress of Antonio.
They preached in the synagogues, especially in the
early part of the book.
As the book goes on, the doors of
the synagogues were closed more and more to
them.
They preached in private homes, and
you remember Philip preached in a chariot.
Here they come again, Mr. Walden, they thought
you were talking.
In the schoolroom of Tyrannus, it says the
Christians went everywhere gossiping the gospel, and they
preached in civil courts, and we pointed out,
we drew from this, that most of the
preaching in the book of Acts was what
you might call extemporaneous.
It wasn't rehearsed.
It was kind of off-the-cuff preaching,
and you know, that's a thrilling thing to
me as I think of that book, and
I just wonder if that isn't God's principle
plan for us today.
It's a wonderful thing when you meet Christians
who have a special gift for this, of
turning any occasion into an opportunity for witnessing
for Christ, and that's what these people obviously
did.
It makes me think of that Christian man,
and he's in his home, and the telephone
rings, and he goes to the phone, and
you can't help hearing what's going on.
He lifts up the phone, it's a pause,
he says, I'm sorry, you have the wrong
number, but don't hang up.
You didn't call by chance.
I have a message from the Lord for
you.
And he went on and witnessed to them
about the Lord Jesus.
In other words, there are no wrong numbers.
We had a student at school one day,
and he was driving down a one-way
street in Chicago, and had the misfortune of
being caught.
A policeman tried to extract a bribe from
him quite a long while, and when he
found out he wasn't going to be successful,
he said to the student, well, I'm going
to have to take you in.
And so he took the student down to
the police station, gave him another opportunity to
pay the bribe before he took him in,
and bluffed him all the way into the
lobby of the police station.
And then he said to him, do you
know what I'm going to do with you?
And the student said, I don't know.
Well, he said, I'm going to let you
go.
The student said to him, you know, officer,
that's grace.
He said, I don't deserve to be let
go.
He said, I've broken the law.
And he said, I deserve to pay the
penalty of the law.
But he said, you're showing grace to me.
He said, that's exactly what God has done
to you and to me.
He said, we've broken the law of God,
and we deserve to pay the penalty.
The Lord Jesus came down and suffered for
us and paid the debt that we deserve,
and now God shows his unmerited favor to
us and saves us for Christ's sake.
When he left, there were tears in the
officer's eyes, and he said, well, I'm glad
I brought you in anyway.
Well, that's typical of what was going on
in the book of Acts.
The emphasis was not on prepared sermons, but
on crises arising in life, experiences, daily experiences
arising in life, and people utilizing these as
opportunities to witness for the Lord Jesus.
I wish my mind worked faster that way.
And I believe that with prayer and cultivation
that we can all develop this.
Now, I'd just like to say a few
words this morning about the autonomy of the
local church.
Autonomy means self-government.
And we believe that the scripture teaches that
every local assembly is an autonomous unit.
That is, that it is self-governing.
As I read the book of Acts, I
don't find any federation or what you might
call denomination.
What denomination did these early believers belong to?
They didn't belong to any denomination.
They didn't belong to any sect.
There was no federation of the churches.
It's kind of an argument from silence here
in the book of Acts, but if you
turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 1,
you find the Lord Jesus standing in the
midst of the seven golden lampstands.
You might picture it like this on the
chart.
Here's the Lord.
We've got seven churches here.
The Lord stands in the midst of the
seven churches.
Each one is responsible directly to Him.
Notice that there's no denominational headquarters in there.
Notice that there's no hierarchy in there.
Every local church looking directly to the head
of the church, the Lord Jesus.
And so we say here, not only no
federation, no centralized authority.
No headquarters that these churches are looking to.
Everyone looks to the headquarters in heaven, not
any on earth.
Now, what is the advantage of this system?
In setting forth this wonderful plan for the
New Testament church, why did the Lord design
it this way?
Well, first of all, we can see that
this hinders the spread of error.
When every local church, local assembly is independent,
the Christians in it are studying the word
by themselves, for themselves, testing everything according to
the scripture, it is more difficult for error
to spread.
When you get a vast denominational system with
denominational headquarters and seminary, a seminary in which
the ministers of this denomination are trained, it's
a very easy thing for error to spread.
And this has been the history of the
decline of evangelical denominations in the United States,
that liberalism and modernism makes a frontal attack
on the seminaries and on the headquarters.
They don't try to come and pick off
every individual church.
Their lives wouldn't be long enough to do
that.
And so they attack the headquarters and they
attack the fountain, that is the seminaries from
which the teachers and preachers come.
And in not too long a time, they
have the entire sect, the entire denomination, the
entire federation of churches.
And so really it's the wisdom of God
that's seen in making every local church self
-governing.
And not only so, but it hinders governmental
control.
This is an interesting thing that all over
the world governments say, we don't want to
deal with many individual churches, we want you
to come together and form a central body
and have that central body representing you to
the government.
When I was in Europe, I was in
a certain country, and this is exactly what
happened.
The government impatiently said to some of the
Christians and some of the local independent New
Testament churches there, we don't like this arrangement,
you appoint a committee and we want that
committee to represent all of the churches to
the government.
And so they fell for the trap.
And yet it was an interesting thing.
At first it was understood that the only
purpose of this committee was just representation before
the government.
But when I was there in 1966 by
some queer quirk, that committee held the title
deeds to all the gospel chapel property in
that country.
They held all the ownership to all the
chapels, and that wasn't the worst of it,
they were going around, the committee was going
around telling the Christians in the local assemblies
whom they could and could not invite as
speakers.
That's the way it worked.
And it's a very subtle thing.
Because if it isn't a question of government
oppression, it's a question of government favors.
The government will say to you, look, we'll
give you certain favors if you'll do this.
For instance, if you will register with us,
then you can appoint so many chaplains in
the military service.
And so they register with the government, and
of course in times of oppression, in times
of difficulty, all the government does is have
to take over the headquarters, and then they
have all the churches.
Well, you can see that if every church
is independent, every church is autonomous, you can
see it's a very difficult thing for the
government to seize control.
The country was Italy, and they formed a
committee called Ente Morali.
I'm glad to say that this situation has
been changed.
Since then, some of the Christians saw the
great error of moving toward any centralization.
But it's true in Germany.
If you go to Germany today under Hitler's
regime in Germany, that's exactly what happened.
And it's true in Poland today.
You go to Poland and you'll find that
many independent New Testament churches have lost their
distinctive character because they yielded to the pressure
of the government in this.
And yet there are other assemblies, other New
Testament churches that refuse to bow to this.
They call themselves free churches, free assemblies.
And as far as I'm concerned, they're the
ones that have the power.
Now, you say, is this a problem in
our own country?
It can be a problem in any country.
And it's something that we all have to
be careful about.
Now, somebody might say to me, well, just
a minute, what about the Jerusalem Council?
In Acts chapter 15, isn't there a situation
there where a body in Jerusalem exercised legislative
control over the other churches?
And the answer to that question is an
emphatic no.
A question had come up in the assembly
in Antioch and it was taken down to
Jerusalem for discussion.
But just let's look at how it's worded
in the scripture.
It says in verse 1 of chapter 15
of Acts, and certain men which came down
from Judea taught the brethren and said, except
ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses,
ye cannot be saved.
When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small
dissension and disputation with them, they determined that,
that is, they, the brethren in Antioch, determined
that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of
them should go up to Jerusalem unto the
apostles and elders about this question.
Now, the thing you want to notice in
that verse is the brethren, the Christians in
Jerusalem did not send for these people.
It was a voluntary thing on the part
of the Christians in Antioch.
They said, well, let's go and get some
advice down in Jerusalem about this matter.
It was a crucial matter.
The whole question of the gospel was involved
in it.
And so they went down and the apostles
and elders came together to consider the matter.
Now, they did not legislate.
They did not legislate.
Notice what it says in verse 28, where
they're giving kind of an informal decision.
They said, it seemed good to the Holy
Ghost and to us to lay upon you,
no greater burden than these necessary things that
ye abstain from meats offered to idols, from
blood, from things strangled and from fornication, from
which if you keep yourselves, you shall do
well, fare you well.
Well, all they did was tell them to
go back to the word of God and
obey the word of God.
So there was no sense of a legislative
body controlling churches in any sense in the
book of Acts.
And this is a very important principle.
Why?
Well, because according to the word of God,
we're going to have more government oppression in
the days ahead.
And the type of churches that survive under
oppressive governments are churches that can go underground
readily.
This was true in China, of course, and
it's been true in many other countries.
There is an underground church in Russia today.
You know that many of the Iron Curtain
countries behind the Bamboo Curtain, an underground church,
people meeting secretly in homes.
I believe, frankly, it's God's ideal.
So let's remember that the autonomy of the
local church.
I'd just like to say a word about
organizations in the book of Acts.
It's a notable thing that the emphasis of
the disciples and of the early Christians was
to preach the gospel and establish New Testament
churches and nothing else.
And I think this is worth our spending
a few moments on this morning.
Someone has well said, we found missions.
They established nothing but local assembly.
And that's an interesting thing, because, you know,
the local assembly, the church, is the only
group on Earth to which the Lord has
promised perpetuity.
And interestingly, he said, upon this rock, I
will build my church and the gates of
Hades shall not prevail against it.
And he didn't say that of any other
group.
Now, in the day in which we live
in Christian circles, and I'm not criticizing this,
I'm just pointing it out because I believe
these are principles in the word of God.
In the day in which we live, if
a Christian gets a good idea, the first
thing he does is form an organization.
And we have kind of an organizational explosion
today.
Well, you didn't have that in the book
of Acts.
You just had Christians preaching the gospel and
local churches being formed.
What are some of the advantages of that?
Well, first of all, a tremendous conservation of
manpower.
What do I mean by that?
Well, just let me illustrate it.
Last December, I was at a great evangelical
conference in Urbana, Illinois.
My heart was blessed.
It's wonderful.
But you know, at that conference, I would
say that practically all of the evangelical mission
boards were represented.
They had booths all around that vast auditorium.
And they had some of the leading missionaries
of the world there, really.
It was fantastic.
And what were they doing?
They were appealing for young people to go
out with their mission boards.
And it struck me as I was there.
Well, now look, probably some of the finest
missionaries in the world are here, held down
in administrative jobs.
Because that's what most of them were.
The men were there were the administrators of
the missions.
And I couldn't help feeling if all of
those men and women who were there were
really out on the mission field, it would
solve the very problem, or at least it
would go a long way towards solving the
problem that they were there trying to solve
by recruiting new workers.
And this has been so often the case
where here's a mission board, and they have
missionaries all over the world.
They need administrative help.
They go out and pick off the very
best that they have out in the foreign
field and bring them back home to sit
behind desks.
Well, I think these are things that we
should think of.
It seems to me in the book of
Acts, they had a centrality of purpose.
They were all working toward this purpose.
And I have to say that they got
results.
And then, of course, tremendous conservation of finances.
I don't think I have to labor this
point with you.
You've read the magazines.
You've heard the stories about every dollar given
to evangelical work and what percentage of it
goes to overhead.
And what a small percentage of it ever
reaches the orphans.
I'm just using that as an illustration.
But that's the idea.
In other words, we set up these tremendous
organizations, and it takes an awful lot of
money to support the organization.
And a percentage of that really goes into
the direct propagation of the gospel.
And then thirdly, the New Testament pattern, it
seems to me, has resulted in a tremendous
concentration of effort.
And this is really important, isn't it?
We need this in our local fellowships, a
tremendous concentration of purpose, a vision of what
we're trying to do, and a working together
toward that vision.
It's when we dissipate our energies in a
million and one other things that the wheels
grind heavily.
So I just feel it's good for us
to think about that.
Remember, in the book of Acts, they founded
nothing but New Testament churches.
And you know what happened, how the word
spread so that Paul could say in his
day that the then known world, I suppose
he meant the Mediterranean world, had heard the
gospel, not bad.
Then another interesting thing is that this method
results in a reduction of factional strife.
I'm sure you must be aware of this,
that once again in the evangelical world, with
all of these organizations and all the advertisement,
develops an awful lot of jealousy and division
among the people of God and an awful
lot of strife.
I was impressed recently to be with some
Christian young people and they were getting indoctrinated
to go overseas.
And a girl said to one of the
leaders, she said, supposing I could get an
article in the local newspaper about going overseas.
She said, is it all right?
He said, generally speaking, we are opposed to
publicity.
He said, we find the more publicity the
Christian work gets, the more jealousy it generates.
And really, I was quite pleased to hear
a 27 year old say something like that.
He said, whatever you do, don't use our
names in it.
He said, if you can get your personal
testimony of faith in Christ in the paper,
that's all right.
But a few additional facts, but wasn't that
an interesting thing?
He said, the more publicity, the more jealousy
in Christian work.
Shouldn't be so.
Well, there was a tremendous reduction of factional
strife.
And then there's a prevention of perpetuating organizations
after the glory has departed.
It's so easy to build up organizations in
a human way.
And perhaps the founders of that organization had
a tremendous vision for God.
And they were really on fire for God
and had a zeal for God.
And then the years go by and, you
know, there's a loss of power, a leakage
of power.
And pretty soon the shell is there, but
the life is gone.
It's the old story of man, movement, machine
and monument.
Starts off with a man of God, filled
with the Holy Spirit, develops into a movement.
Other people seem to catch the vision and
they follow this leader.
And then after a while it just becomes
a machine and they go mechanically through the
motions.
And then finally a monument.
Well, the New Testament pattern, it seems to
me, prevents the perpetuating of organizations after the
glory has departed.
I don't know whether you've all copied this
or not.
I'd just like to say a word about
missionary strategy in the book of Acts.
There were two general methods used, personal evangelism
and mass evangelism.
Personal evangelism and mass evangelism.
And yet I want to go back to
what I said before, and I think it's
worth repeating.
And that is this, that both the personal
evangelism and the mass evangelism were unrehearsed.
Like they didn't say, and I'm not saying
it's wrong to do this either, but they
didn't say, well, we're going to have a
mass rally at 8 o'clock in the
Civic Auditorium.
The mass evangelism they did was probably more
through riots that they had incited through their
testimony.
That's really the way it worked.
Or on the day of Pentecost, with the
giving of the Holy Spirit and the speaking
in tongues, the crowd gathered, an opportunity to
preach to a crowd.
And so in that sense, it was rather
unrehearsed and extemporaneous.
Now, what was their geographical strategy in the
book of Acts?
You hear a lot about this.
And generally speaking, it is taught, and I'd
like to talk with some of you brethren
about this too.
Generally speaking, it's taught that in the book
of Acts, the apostles went into big cities,
preached the gospel in those big cities, and
then when the churches were formed in those
big cities, they radiated out into the surrounding
district.
But generally speaking, it's taught that they went
into strategic areas, planted churches there, and left
those churches to evangelize the surrounding area.
Well, I'd just like to raise a question
mark in your mind about that.
It's so easy to read Roland Allen and
his book, Missionary Methods, St. Paul's and Ours.
But I'd just like to raise a question,
is that true?
I've tried to go to the book of
Acts with an open mind and figure out
if that's what they did, and I've come
to the conclusion it isn't always true.
Sometimes that's what they did.
Sometimes they did go to major cities, but
not always.
Philip was preaching in Samaria and was getting
the crowds.
The Lord said, Philip, come here, I've got
a man I want you to speak to.
And Philip left the crowds in Samaria, went
down and preached to the Ethiopian eunuch.
You'd hardly think that was strategic, would you?
Going and speaking to one man.
But it was strategic because that one man
went back to Ethiopia with the gospel.
And Ethiopia is one of the few countries
in the world that has had a consistent
Christian testimony since those days.
And I wonder if it doesn't go back
to the evangelizing of the Ethiopian eunuch.
So what I'd like to suggest to you
is that the strategy in the book of
Acts was moment by moment dependence upon the
Holy Spirit of God.
The guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And the more I read the book of
Acts, the more this seems to me to
be the way they operate.
They didn't say now a million more in
64.
One of the big denominations in this country
adopted that slogan.
A million more in 64.
And Vance Havner, when he heard about it,
said, God forbid.
He said, if we get a million more
like we've got now, we're sunk.
They didn't set those standards.
They said, Lord, what do you want us
to do?
And even they themselves, as they went along,
they weren't sure exactly how the Lord was
going to lead them.
But they kept themselves available.
And in that way, the pattern was worked
out.
Now, I do see in the book of
Acts that the apostles operated from a home
base.
They had a home assembly.
They went out from this home assembly.
They evangelized.
They planted assemblies.
I'm not going to labor that point because
we've already mentioned it.
Later, they went back and revisited the assemblies.
And they appointed elders there.
Verse 23, and that's why we read this
at the beginning.
Verse 23 of chapter 14 says, And when
they had ordained them elders in every church
and had prayed with fasting, they commended them
to the Lord on whom they believed.
Now, I think it's quite clear in the
book of Acts that elders formed a well
-recognized group within the assemblies.
They couldn't appoint elders, of course, on their
first visit because there hadn't been opportunity then
for elders to manifest themselves.
But they went back a year or so
later.
And in the meantime, the Holy Spirit had
raised up men with pastoral hearts and the
apostles and their delegates singled out these men.
Now, these were a well-recognized group within
the assemblies.
There was no vagueness about it.
People knew who the elders were in any
assembly.
Do they know in our assembly?
Is there any indefiniteness in the minds of
the people?
When Paul was at Miletum, he sent to
the elders at Ephesus.
He told them, he asked them to come
down to Miletum.
They came down, they knew who they were
and they knew how to respond to an
invitation like that.
James in his epistle says, is any among
you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the
church.
Well, I think a lot of times today
we'd be hard put to it to know
who to call.
I think those people, if they had had
phones, would have had some phone numbers for
elders right by their phones.
They were a well-recognized group within the
churches.
And it did not show a lack of
modesty on the elders' part to say they
were elders.
I think that's a false modesty that has
developed in the years since then.
Men who are reticent to say, if they
really are elders, men who are reticent to
say it.
Peter in chapter 5 verse 1 of his
first epistle.
I'm sure you've noticed that.
First Peter chapter 5 verse 1 says, the
elders which are among you I exhort.
Who am also an elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, but also a
partaker of the glory that shall be revealed,
feed the flock of God which is among
you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint,
but willingly, not of filthy lucre, but of
a ready mind, neither as being lords over
God's heritage, but being in samples to the
flock.
But the important thing I want to bring
out was he said, I am also an
elder.
He didn't think that was pride to say
it.
He recognized a simple fact.
Now they were ordained or appointed by the
apostles in those days.
They didn't have the word of God the
way we have today.
But they certainly must be recognized by us
today.
Christians in a local assembly must know their
elders and obey their elders and honor their
elders in all things.
Then as far as the support of workers
and the work of the Lord.
Of course, I think it's very, very obvious
that sometimes the workers supported themselves.
Even the apostle Paul working as a tent
maker.
And I think that's a lovely touch.
He not only provided for himself, but for
those who were working with him.
And then at other times, you know, they
were ministered to by local assemblies and by
individuals.
And then I think another thing in the
missionary strategy that we do want to think
about is this.
They worked in teams.
They went out as groups.
Paul and his company.
This rather intrigues me and condemns me.
This seems to have been the pattern of
the Holy Spirit and the book of Acts.
And it seems to be entirely missing today.
And I'm condemning myself.
I stand before you and condemn myself today
for this.
I'm tremendously exercised and praying about the matter
right now.
After all, Paul went out.
He took Timothy with him.
He took younger men with them.
Traveled with them.
Preached with them.
Visited with them.
Established local churches with them.
And we're not doing it today.
Do you know anybody who's doing it today?
Come and tell me afterwards, please.
And I think it's rather a tragedy, and
this is not a criticism.
I think it's a tragedy.
We're sending young people out to the mission
fields today.
And expecting them to go out and preach
the gospel and establish New Testament churches on
the mission field.
And they've never been able to do it
at home.
And they've never seen it done at home.
And it doesn't seem to be right, does
it?
And so maybe this is something that we
should be much in prayer about.
As far as the work of God that
he has entrusted to us is concerned.
Well, I think we'll just stop there.
It comes to a break.
Our time is gone.
But I would just commend to you the
book of Acts once again.
Go to it with an unprejudiced mind.
And just see what's there.
And even if it condemns us, which it's
going to do, we should still go to
the book and see God's pattern there.
Because if we don't see that, the Lord
will never be able to bring us around
to that pattern in the day in which
we live.
Thank you.
Would you turn in your Bibles, please, to
1 Corinthians 12.
We'll just read a verse or two.
Verse 12.
For as the body is one and hath
many members, that all the members of that
one body, being many, are one body, so
also is Christ.
For by one spirit are we all baptized
into one body, whether we be Jews or
Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and
have been all made to drink into one
spirit.
The subject I'd like to speak to you
on this morning is to whom or to
what should we be loyal?
And the first point here is to a
particular group of Christians?
Now, this is a very common attitude today.
You hear people say, well, I was born
in such a church, I was raised in
such a church, lived all my life in
this church, and I'm going to die in
this church.
What do you think of that attitude?
Well, it's a very easy attitude for all
of us to slip in.
We become related in a certain way to
a fellowship of Christians, and actually in some
cases we teach our children to be loyal
to that particular fellowship.
And I'd like to remind you that that's
a very weak position to take, and a
very unscriptural position to take.
There are various problems connected with it.
All the problems aren't listed here.
I'd like to go over them with you.
Now, supposing you teach your children to be
loyal to a certain group of Christians.
First of all, there's always the danger of
liberal or modernistic tendencies coming in.
This has happened so much.
It's happening all the time about us today.
If you teach people to be loyal to
a system, loyal to a denomination, loyal to
a cult, well, after all of these tendencies
come in and develop, they'll still be loyal
to it.
This is one of the tragedies today.
Born-again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ
breaking their hearts in systems to which they
are loyal long after the system has become
disloyal to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Supposing your fellowship, your teaching people to be
loyal to that fellowship, suppose that over the
course of years a one-man ministry develops.
Supposing a clerical system develops.
Will you still be loyal to that system?
At what point do you come when you're
willing to step out?
This is a question that we must face,
and face boldly.
Problem number three.
Supposing denominationalism develops.
Supposing centralization of authority develops contrary to the
word of God.
You're loyal to a system.
You'll probably go on being loyal to the
system no matter what takes place in it.
Then there's another problem.
If you teach people to be loyal to
a particular fellowship, a particular group, in any
particular group of Christians, there are wide variations.
There are some, for instance, who are extremely
conservative, and there are some who are extremely
open and liberal, and in between there are
the middle of the road ones.
You say, I'm loyal to the group.
Which part of the group are you loyal
to?
It raises problems.
And what about other Christians who might really
be meeting in New Testament manner, meeting according
to the teachings of the New Testament, but
they're not in, quote, your particular fellowship.
What is going to be your attitude toward
them?
Or supposing other Christian workers in other parts
of the world, and I've met them out
in other parts of the world, men out
there really preaching the gospel, really planting New
Testament churches, and yet they might not be
listed on any particular list of names of
missionaries, what attitude are you going to take
to them?
So, just remember that there are real problems
in connection with being loyal to a group
of Christians.
The other alternative is to be loyal to
the principles of the Word of God, and
that's the attitude that we really should take,
and that's what we should teach our young
people.
I remember Mr. Mace saying to me in
Bethany Chapel in Oakland, some years ago, he
said, when you get divine principles, stick with
them.
And it was a good piece of advice,
too.
When you get divine principles, stick with them.
And what we want to see is a
generation of young people raised up who have
convictions with regard to the principles of the
Word of God, and who are really willing
to stand for those principles, to defend those
principles, to teach those principles.
It's so easy for a generation raised in
some fellowship to accept that because their parents
have accepted it.
But you know, that'll never do in connection
with the teachings of the New Testament.
The New Testament pattern requires constant exercise of
soul and constant testing everything by the Word
of God.
It really does.
I remember I had been brought up in
a certain fellowship, and I thank God today
for that fellowship.
But when I reached the age of 20,
I had to go to the Word of
God and see what the Bible taught.
I would have been just as happy in
some other fellowship, frankly.
And so out in Honolulu, I remember going
to the Word of God and asking the
Lord to really reveal to me what the
truth of the Word of God was concerning
the church.
And I believe this has to happen in
every life, that a person has to make
the truth his own, and what mother believed
or what father believed is no longer adequate
for you.
You must see it for yourself in the
Word of God.
And any New Testament fellowship will be stronger
if the people know what they believe and
know why they believe it, and if they're
able to go to the Word of God
and defend it.
If you adopt that first position of being
loyal to a group, being loyal to a
fellowship, it supplants the Word of God as
your final authority.
It puts something else in place of the
Word of God, and it creates all kinds
of embarrassment and confusion and inconsistency.
There's no question about that.
This is the system that's right, and it
requires constant diligence and constant waiting upon the
Lord.
Some years ago, I was at a camp
in Michigan, and I asked the young people
why they fellowshiped where they did fellowship, wherever
it was, and 95% of them answered
honestly, and I appreciated it, too.
They answered honestly that the reason they fellowshiped
there was because their parents did, and these
were teenage, high school, college-age young people.
They were just telling the truth, and they're
not to be criticized for it.
But what we want to emphasize today is
that our loyalty must be to the Word
of God, the principles of God's Word.
Now, to what church principles should we be
loyal?
To what principles concerning the New Testament church
should we be loyal?
Well, I like to make a little list.
This isn't complete, but first of all, we
should be loyal to the truth of the
unity of the body of Christ.
To me, this is one of the most
precious truths in connection with this whole subject,
the fact that there is one body, the
unity of the body of Christ.
And I'm going to speak about that just
a little in a minute, so I'm going
to skip over it right now.
I'm going to come back to it.
The second great truth that I think that
we want to teach our young people and
we want to practice to is the membership
of all true believers, that all born-again
people are members of the body of Christ.
A third magnificent truth that we find in
the word of God is the headship of
Christ.
Christ is the head of the church.
We recognize no other head, no earthly ruler,
no earthly potentate, only the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then a fourth great principle is the priesthood
of all believers, that God in this age
doesn't have a special cast of people who
are assigned religious duties.
For instance, a dear young friend of mine
was down in Louisiana in the service, and
he was witnessing for the Lord Jesus, and
he saw some others saved, and when they
got saved, he immediately took them down to
the river and baptized them.
And the chaplain in his particular post heard,
he got wind of the fact, that Jim
was baptizing
servicemen down in the river.
And of course you know what he did.
He called him in, and he rebuked him
for doing that.
Just imagine, just imagine any group of men
thinking that they have exclusive right to baptize
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We want to have convictions on this subject
and believe that all believers are priests of
God, holy priests and royal priests.
Then another that we want to think of,
number five, is the proper role of gifts,
the function of gifts in the church.
And we mentioned this during the week, and
we saw it in operation in the book
of Acts, that God has given gifts, evangelists,
pastors, teachers, to the church for building up
the saints unto the work of the ministry,
unto the edifying of the body of Christ.
To me this is one of the key
cardinal principles of the truth of God that
I want to stand for, the proper role
of gifts in the church.
That they were not given so that the
saints would become perpetually dependent upon them.
They were given so that the saints might
be built up to carry on the work
of the ministry for the building up of
the body of Christ.
The next great principle that we should stand
for is the autonomy or independence of every
assembly, that every assembly stands before the Lord
with no hierarchy or no denominational headquarters in
between.
We went over that too during the week.
The independence, or a better word, is really
autonomy, and it means self-government.
Why don't we just put that down?
The self-government of every assembly.
Another great principle is the presidency of the
Holy Spirit.
We believe that the head of the church
is in heaven, that he sent the Holy
Spirit down to earth, and that the Holy
Spirit should guide us in the affairs of
the church.
We don't do things the way we want
to do them.
We wait upon the Lord to seek his
guidance by the Holy Spirit and allow liberty
for the Holy Spirit to work in our
midst.
We don't want to quench the Holy Spirit
by man-made rules and traditions.
We don't want to make any believer ashamed
because it is testimony for the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Another great principle is the plurality of elders.
Plurality, that is, that there's more than one
elder in a local New Testament church.
There's a body of elders who are there
as spiritual guides and under-shepherds of the
people of God.
This is very important.
Not one elder over a church, or not
one bishop over many churches, but many bishops
in one church.
This is what we find in the New
Testament.
Well, those are some of the principles that
we should be willing to be able to
go to the Word of God and see
in the Word of God, defend in the
Word of God, and teach in the Word
of God.
Now, I'd like to go back to number
one.
We won't be able to go over all
of these.
We have gone over some of them, so
we don't want to go over all of
them.
But I'd like to go back to number
one, the unity of the body of Christ.
There is only one body.
And I'd like to ask you this question,
what do you say when people ask you,
what church do you belong to?
You get all embarrassed, your lips start to
quiver, and you just don't know exactly what
to say, and finally you succumb and give
the wrong answer.
What do you say when people ask you
what church you belong to?
Well, we want to be very careful in
this because anything in the way of sectarianism
or denominationalism denies the truth of the unity
of the body of Christ.
We have to be very careful what names
we take upon ourselves.
The truth of the matter is we are
nothing and nobody but Christians, disciples, saints, believers,
followers of the way.
And the minute you take any other name
upon yourself, you've denied the truth of the
word of God and have formed a sect.
In the unity of the body of Christ
we must practice it day by day and
we must do nothing by word or act
to deny the truth of the unity of
the body.
Now, people don't like this and when people
ask you what church do you belong to,
if you give them nothing but scriptural answers
they become very uneasy and very uncomfortable.
And they'll try to work you into a
corner by asking you questions and if you're
at once willing to adopt a distinctive label
then they'll start to breathe easily again.
They're comfortable then.
For instance, if you say, well, I belong
to the Plymouth brothers, well, that's fine, then
you're no longer a speckled sheep.
They've got you identified, they've got you in
a pigeon hole and they begin to breathe
easily again.
Personally, I hate, loathe, despise and abominate the
word Plymouth brethren.
And to me it's about the most unscriptural
thing you can possibly use.
And you've divided yourself from the body of
Christ and taken a name upon yourself that
God never intended you to take.
Avoid it as you would avoid the plague.
The words themselves as well as the initials
that stand for the words.
I want to stand here today and tell
you I am not a P.V. Maybe
that'll make you uncomfortable.
Well, there's a movement afoot today that Christians
who meet in a certain way should call
themselves Christian brethren and register with the government
as this.
There's no difference.
It's just as bad.
I mean, it's a nice expression, Christian brethren,
but so what?
You just can't adopt that stand.
It's a false stand and it isn't the
way God sees it.
All kinds of brethren in the world today,
aren't there?
Open brethren, exclusive brethren, explosive brethren, united brethren,
river brethren, you name them.
The list is long as your elbow.
But it's a practical denial of the truth
of the unity of the body of Christ.
You say, well, when people ask me what
I am, I say I fellowship with Christians
gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ alone.
Well, Christians should gather to the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
But the minute we take that stand and
say we are Christians who gather to the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone and
others don't, we form the sect.
It's perfectly right that we should gather to
Christ's name alone.
We don't want to gather to a man.
We don't want to gather to a system.
We don't want to separate ourselves either from
the body of Christ.
We don't want to set up fences where
God doesn't set up fences.
And yet it comes into our language all
the time in the most subtle way.
We open a magazine and it says there
are so many states in the United States
without an assembly.
Well, God helped those states.
Are there no believers in those states?
What does that mean?
So many states in the United States without
an assembly.
And then we use the expression the Lord's
people in a very strange way sometimes.
We say, well, I went away on my
vacation and when I was on my vacation
I attended the services at this independent Bible
church but it's so nice to be back
with the Lord's people.
You know?
Well, what does that mean?
The Lord's people is a wonderful expression and
it encompasses the household of faith.
It really does.
And it should never be used in any
more restricted sense than that.
People say to me, what are you?
Well, I'm a Christian.
Well, they start to get uneasy.
They say, oh, of course, we're all Christians.
You have to be something else.
Well, I am.
I hope I'm a disciple of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
They say, well, of course, that just means
you're a learner.
We're all trying to learn.
And I say, well, I'm a saint.
Yes, they say.
You can separate it to God from the
world but you've got to be something else.
Well, I am.
I'm a believer in the Lord Jesus.
I'm a Christian.
I'm a follower of the way.
They say, yeah, but what church do you
belong to?
You see?
They're trying to get you down there.
And you can see that they're very restless.
And they know that you're standing on scriptural
ground but they don't want you to stand
on scriptural ground because they're not on scriptural
ground and they want company in their sectarianism.
That's really what it amounts to.
Well, I refuse to take any other name
than the names that the Bible gives me.
A man said to me recently back in
New England.
He said, you're with the brethren.
Well, I said, I'm with the brethren and
so are you if you're saved.
And that's true.
He's just as much with the brethren as
I am spelled with a capital, with a
small B not with a capital B if
he belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, to me, I think this is important.
It's not just a matter of semantics.
It's not just a matter of words but
it's a matter of the attitude of our
hearts.
The unity of the body of Christ.
And not only the unity of the body
of Christ but the fact that all believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ are members of
the body of Christ.
In a very cruel way, fences have been
erected in the household of faith today.
And there's a desire to be distinctive, you
know.
People want to set themselves apart as being
superior to other Christians and they largely lose
sight of the fact that everyone who has
the mark the brand mark of redemption upon
him belongs to Christ and is precious to
Christ.
Now, this doesn't mean that we don't have
principles that we don't stand for principles but
it means that in our hearts and in
our love we take in all true believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, how can we give practical expression to
number two, the fact that all true believers
are members of the body of Christ?
How can I practically give expression to this?
Incidentally, it's a very precious truth.
Those fellows who are here who have been
in the service who are Christians, who have
a testimony for Christ they know something about
this.
You go off into the service, sometimes you're
lonely you're lonely for Christian fellowship you meet
a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you
don't go into the tags, you don't go
into the names you don't go into the
things that divide you're so glad to find
a brother in Christ a member of the
same body and you don't major on minors
at a time like that indeed, you're so
glad to have united witness for the Savior.
Well, there are various ways in which we
can give practical expression to the truth that
all believers are members of the body of
Christ.
Number one, we should love all genuine believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have fervent love for one another by this
shall all men know that you're my disciples
if ye love one another.
Paul writing to the Ephesians said since I
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus
and your love to all the saints that's
a beautiful thing and it's the only consistent
attitude that we can take in our hearts'
affections we should go out to everyone who
has been cleansed by the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ they're dear to Him,
every one of them.
You know, Mr. Walden was speaking the other
day about the social register in evangelical Christendom
today and especially about those who are down
at the bottom as far as economics are
concerned.
You know, it's all too easy for people
to look down their theological noses at those
people on the lower scale but I want
to tell you, many of those dear people
they all are precious, precious Christians and we
should go out to them in love.
Then secondly, another way we can do is
to pray for all Christians not just those
in our own local fellowship our prayers should
go out for all Christians.
There's a magazine in the East Coast and
it's called Help and Food for the Household
of Faith and I really like that expression
for the household of faith there's nothing sectarian
about it it's wide in its outreach we
should pray for all Christians God forbid that
I should sit against the Lord in ceasing
to pray for you then we should seek
to share with them the precious truths of
the Word of God.
Now let me just pause here and say
I don't think we should engage in sheep
stealing I have never seen in the Word
of God where I've been called to go
and steal sheep but I do believe that
as I'm ministering as I'm fellowshiping with other
Christians it is my privilege to open the
Word of God and say, have you ever
seen this from Ephesians chapter 4 have you
ever seen God's wonderful program for the expansion
of the church and seek to be of
help to them with what truth the Lord
has revealed to me.
The Lord said we should be washing one
another's feet how do we wash one another's
feet by going over the Scriptures with people
and that's a wonderful thing wonderful ministry that
every one of us can engage in you
know I have some very dear brethren and
every time you're in their presence they're always
ministering to you from the Word something they
got from the Lord that morning in their
devotions something that's been very special and precious
to them recently and they're always feeding your
soul there's a difference between ministering the Word
and sharing truths with other Christians and purposely
going into a fellowship to divide it and
to take from it I don't feel called
to that at all myself but then another
thing we can do number four is we
can learn from all other Christians and I
think this is something we lose sight of
pride comes in here and we might think
concerning some group of Christians well we can
learn nothing from them well I'd like to
say standing here this morning that I have
never met another Christian that I couldn't learn
something from Christians whom I might not think
are quite doctrinally accurate in some things can
oftentimes teach me an awful lot about zeal
for the Lord Jesus Christ and fervency in
prayer and I really mean that sincerely with
my heart after all it teaches that in
1 Corinthians 12 the chapter we were just
reading it says for the body is not
one member but many if the foot shall
say because I'm not the hand I'm not
of the body is it therefore not of
the body if the ear shall say because
I'm not the eye I'm not of the
body is it therefore not of the body
if the whole body were an eye where
were the healing where were the hearing if
the whole were hearing where were the smelling
but now hath God set the members every
one of them in the body as it
hath pleased him and so when I think
of the possibilities of my helping some other
Christian I have to think of the possibility
too and the likelihood that that other Christian
has an awful lot to teach me as
well and I want to be open to
instruction and to help from every member of
the body of Christ well there's something else
we can do to signify the fact that
all true believers are members of the body
of Christ we can refrain from criticism gossiping
backbiting or judging these are things that are
wrecking the Christian testimony today gossiping criticism jealousy
backbiting and judging one another I must say
I like the Apostle Paul's attitude in Philippians
chapter 1 you're all acquainted with it but
let's just turn to it once again verse
15 of chapter 1 of Philippians he says
some indeed preach Christ even of envy and
strife and some also of good will the
one preached Christ of contention not sincerely supposing
to add affliction to my bonds but the
other of love knowing that I am set
for the defense of the gospel what then,
notwithstanding every way whether in pretense or in
truth Christ is preached and I therein do
rejoice yea, and will rejoice isn't that something
here there were professing Christians who were really
working against the Apostle Paul and he's writing
from prison and he says I just rejoice
that the lovely name of the Lord Jesus
Christ is going out whatever the motive may
be some preaching Christ of contention and strife
I don't care just that the name above
every names is being sounded forth that's what
counts to me so easy for us to
look at other Christians and to judge them
for what they're doing and every time I'm
tempted to do that I hear the words
of the Lord Jesus saying to me what
is that to thee follow thou me gossip
judging criticizing jealousy our enemies seeking to divide
the body of Christ today and so we
should refrain from these things and rejoice when
the Lord Jesus Christ is preached but I
just like to say this that doesn't mean
that I can go with other Christians and
do the things that they do I don't
want you to get the impression from anything
I said this morning that anything goes that's
not the point the point is I can
love all other Christians but I myself have
to be obedient to the truth that God
shows me in the word of God and
as far as other Christians are concerned we
draw a wide circle of love to bring
all the body of Christ in but as
far as our own lives are concerned we
have to be obedient and loyal to what
we see in the word of God now
you show me a local New Testament church
of Christians who understand the principles of the
word of God and who want to follow
the Lord in obedience and I'll show you
a stable New Testament assembly that will go
on brightly for the Lord Jesus Christ you
show me a group who are followers of
a system and I'll show you a group
that's going to be wracked and unstable and
divided and all the rest and so may
the Lord keep these principles before us and
may we seek to teach them to the
young people and to teach them to be
loyal first and foremost and exclusively to the
word of God I'll just go over the
list once again and then I'm through the
unity of the body of Christ the precious
truth and remember this you're nothing but Christians
and the minute you take any other stand
you become a sect the second group all
believers members of the body of Christ the
third group one head to this church the
head in heaven the Lord Jesus fourthly the
priesthood of all true believers every believer in
Christ is a holy priest and every believer
is a royal priest he's a holy priest
offering up sacrifices of praise his person his
pocketbook to God royal priest going forth to
show forth the excellencies of him who has
called us out of darkness into his marvelous
light the proper role of gifts in the
church that is the gifts were given to
build up the saints for the work of
the ministry for the edifying of the body
of Christ and I'd just like to mention
this in connection with gifts in the book
of Acts the gifts in the book of
Acts were gifts of the Holy Spirit the
men it was a what we call a
charismatic gift not professional the men in the
book of Acts who had gifts from God
were not pros we speak of them as
being charismatic gifts that means it was a
sovereign work of the spirit of God he'd
take a carpenter a plumber an electrician and
he'd endow that man with the ability to
preach the gospel or teach the word of
God it's something the man didn't learn it
had nothing to do with his natural talents
it was completely a work of God's Holy
Spirit next the autonomy or self-government of
every local assembly next the presidency of the
Holy Spirit and in our meetings we should
allow liberty for the Holy Spirit to work
and to speak through the various gifts so
that we'll get a well-rounded grasp of
the truth and finally the plurality of elders
the fact you don't have one elder over
an assembly but you have many elders in
an assembly may the Lord drive us back
to the word of God in these days
teach us afresh the great principles of the
word of God give us courage to stand
for them and to propagate them for his
glory thank you Luke
chapter 9 and verse 18 and it came
to pass as he was alone praying his
disciples were with him and he asked them
saying whom say the people that I am
they answering said John the Baptist but some
said Elias and others say that one of
the old prophets is risen again he said
unto them but whom say ye that I
am Peter answering said the Christ of God
and he straightly charged them and commanded them
to tell no man that thing saying the
son of man must suffer many things and
be rejected of the elders and chief priests
and scribes and be slain and be raised
the third day and he said to them
all if any man will come after me
let him deny himself and take up his
cross daily and follow me for whosoever will
save his life shall lose it but whosoever
will lose his life for my sake the
same shall save it for what is a
man advantaged if he gain the whole world
and lose himself or be cast away for
whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of
my words of him shall the son of
man be ashamed when he shall come in
his own glory and in his father's and
of the holy angels but I tell you
of a truth that there be some standing
here which shall not taste of death till
they see the kingdom of God I was
especially thinking of verses 22 and 23 and
the connection between them the son of man
must suffer many things and be rejected of
the elders and chief priests and scribes and
be slain and be raised the third day
if any man will come after me let
him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me in this part of
the meeting this afternoon I'd just like to
have a quiet meditation with you about the
Lord's Supper we've just been remembering the Lord
the thoughts of it are fresh in our
mind there are two aspects to the Lord's
Supper in the first we speak to him
in the second he speaks to us we
emphasize the first we come and speak to
the Lord we remember the Lord we show
forth his death until he comes again we
ponder the mighty stoop that he took from
the glory on high he the creator and
sustainer of the universe coming and dying for
us on a cross of shame and we
pour out our hearts affection to him for
loving us so wonderful, wonderful Jesus but there's
another side to the Lord's Supper and that's
the side in which he speaks to us
and there's a deep meaning in the Lord's
Supper that I think it's all too possible
for us to forget for years of our
lives we can come and we can remember
the Lord and think about his passion for
us and yet forget that there's a message
in it for us too what is the
Lord saying to us in the bread and
in the wine well it strikes me this
way he came down to earth and lived
the only perfect life that's ever been lived
on earth the sinless, spotless son of God
he lived his life here among men and
these are the emblems of that life this
is what it cost him and he says
to us tonight do you want a life
of fulfillment?
do you want to find reality in life?
do you want your life to really count?
you'll have to be broken bread and out
poured wine doesn't it say that?
he says to us do you want the
crown?
you have to go by the road of
the cross do you want to sit on
the throne of glory?
first you have to ascend the altar of
sacrifice and in that sense these emblems are
tremendously expressive aren't they?
just let me put it this way we
look upon the bread and we look upon
the cup and we know the bread speaks
of his body broken for us and the
cup of his blood poured out for us
and we can see Christ in those emblems
now the question as we move away from
the Lord's supper is can I see myself
in those emblems?
am I willing to think of myself as
broken bread?
and my life poured out for the redemption
of men?
rather solemn isn't it?
and I think it's especially solemn when we
realize that this is a pathway that we
choose it's not something that comes to us
naturally after all it's a pathway the Lord
Jesus deliberately chose he didn't have to do
it and now we come and remember him
and as we go away he says yes
this is the way that I had to
walk and I'm calling you to follow me
let us think this afternoon of some of
the elements that went into that perfect life
how did the Lord Jesus find a life
of fulfillment?
how did he find a life of reality
down here?
well first of all it meant leaving a
home of elegance for a stable it meant
leaving the ivory palaces for Bethlehem has it
ever occurred to us as Christians that the
Lord might ever want us to do anything
like that?
for instance that he might want us to
leave a land of luxury and affluence to
go out to a land of poverty and
smells he left the glory for a jungle
a jungle of sin and somehow or other
we have become accustomed to that has it
ever occurred to us that he might want
us to leave suburbia for the inner city?
he says I found fulfillment in a stoop
like that and yet I want to stand
here this afternoon and confess to you that
many many times in my life when the
cross has reared its head I ran and
hid have you?
I remember the Lord and the bread and
the wine speak expressively to me and yet
when it comes right down close to home
how the voice of the spirit of God
is speaking to you and prodding you and
calling you to a life like that well
it's something quite different isn't it?
if any man will come after me let
him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me secondly it meant for
the Lord Jesus a life of poverty this
really amazes me every time I think of
it we've already had that scripture quoted in
our hearing tonight do you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ though he was
rich yet for your sakes he became poor
that ye through his poverty might be rich
wonderful isn't it to think of him wandering
as a homeless stranger in the world his
hands had made wonderful to hear him saying
foxes have holes and birds of the air
have nests but the son of man hath
not where to lay his head wonderful to
see him coming to the end of his
life hanging on the cross that he left
no estate and yet wonderful to think of
the power that was in that life somehow
or other today we equate power with money
power with possessions the Lord Jesus became poor
that we might be rich and he calls
us to deliberately choose a life like that
in order that others might be rich once
again the temptation is to run and hide
isn't it thirdly for the Lord Jesus it
meant it meant a life in which he
had no settled place to live this is
marvelous isn't it to think of the Savior
living down here on this planet and he
never slept yet in what we would think
of as a comfortable bed I mean we
have our inner spring mattresses Jesus never had
an inner spring mattress and we don't realize
how much our plumbing facilities mean to us
either he never knew anything about them and
it's hard for us ever to think that
the Lord might want us to give up
something like that to deliberately choose to give
up something like that in order to go
forth in service for him we don't really
realize how much these things have a grip
on us till sometime when the spirit of
God is brooding when he is very near
we hear the call and have to make
a decision again it meant for the Lord
Jesus being misunderstood by his own family and
to me this must have been one of
the bitterest sorrows of his life is it
possible that walking a pathway of devotedness to
God that your own family is going to
misunderstand you well it was so in his
case you might turn to Mark chapter 3
and verse 21 Mark chapter 3 and verse
21 says and when his friends heard of
it they went out to lay hold on
him for they said he's beside himself and
the word their friends really means kinsman really
means his relative some of you it will
show in the margin of your bible you
know several times in the gospel you find
that the Lord Jesus was perhaps in a
house and then the disciples would come to
him and say look your mother and your
brothers and your sisters await without they want
to see you why do they want to
see him well the implication is very strong
in those passages of scripture that they wanted
to take him away quietly they were embarrassed
by him this was part of what the
cross meant for him you know and it's
just too possible that even in Christian life
today that a life lived in devotedness to
God and in the power of the Holy
Spirit of God is misunderstood by even those
who are closest to us it meant in
addition to that being rejected by his own
people those are some poignant words in the
first chapter of the gospel of John where
it says he was in the world and
the world was made by him and the
world knew him not he came unto his
own and his own received him not and
that's tremendous when you think that he came
doing nothing but good and exhibiting nothing but
love and received nothing but hatred in return
rejected by the creatures whom his hands had
made the way of the cross meant for
the Lord Jesus taking a fearless stand for
the truth I often think of him going
into the house of the Pharisee the Pharisee
was the host in a way and yet
the Lord Jesus never held back on the
truth he said I came in here Simon
you didn't have any water for my feet
you didn't have any kiss for me this
woman from the time I came in hasn't
ceased to kiss me to wash my feet
with her tears to wipe them with the
hairs of her head he was fearless in
speaking the truth to his host and he
spoke the truth wherever he went and it
strikes me that there was a sorrow in
the life of the Lord Jesus because often
times speaking the truth really hurt his friends
I think these are aspects of his life
that sometimes we don't enter into but they're
just the same speaking the truth of God
often times hurt his friends but he hurt
them to their healing and then for the
cross his pathway of fulfillment for the Lord
Jesus meant a head on collision with the
establishment it was inevitable that the Lord Jesus
should come into a collision course with the
Pharisees and the Sadducees and you know what
makes you wonder too in the 20th century
in which we live can you picture the
truth of God in all its fullness being
preached in the average congregation in Christendom today
very prosperous you know as well as I
know that throughout Christendom today that the truth
is being shaded and the truth is being
toned down because the cost is too great
for the Lord Jesus this life meant walking
alone one of the sorrows that he knew
was the sorrow of loneliness he was alone
in the garden he was alone at the
cross but more than that there was a
loneliness throughout his life and I'm sure you've
noticed it that when they were going to
Jerusalem Jesus was walking ahead of the disciples
how that speaks to my heart he knew
what Jerusalem meant for him he knew what
lay ahead of him there in Jerusalem and
yet he's striding out ahead of the disciples
of the way Peter says to him be
it far from thee Lord and we reproach
Peter I don't find myself saying that I
find myself saying be it far from me
Lord a lonely life a life
of a man of sorrows lived here on
earth it meant for him false accusation raising
the false charges that were brought against the
son of God they couldn't find anything true
that would constitute a valid charge so they
trumped up the charges and the most wonderful
thing about it to me is that he
answered not a word only when he was
put under oath by the high priest and
was required by the law of Moses to
answer did he answer this life meant for
the Lord Jesus a life of shame and
that's hard to think of isn't it the
one who held the highest place above adored
by all the sons of flame it's hard
to think of him coming down to this
world and having to endure shame yet he
did and it is written of him they
covered his face with shame and with spitting
it meant for him suffering in Gethsemane the
approaching contact of sin meant for him suffering
of Calvary all the way to Calvary he
went for me because he loved me so
it meant for him death that's marvelous to
think of how how the love of the
Lord Jesus overcame all his instincts of self
preservation and he was willing to offer his
life for me how greatly Jesus must have
loved us to bear our sins in his
body on the tree and then what well
he said and be raised again the third
day and then a few verses down he
said and just remember there are some standing
here who will not taste death till they
see the son of man coming in his
glory we conclude this cassette now with the
studies with Mr. MacDonald and the Book of
Acts and they continue on cassette number four