and the first Corinthians chapter sixty. First Corinthians chapter sixty. Let's begin at verse nine. For a great door and effectual is open unto me, and there are many adversaries. Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him portent peace, that he may come unto me, but I look for him with the brethren. As touching our brother Apollos, excuse me, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brother, but his will was not at all to come at this time. But he will come when he shall have convenient time. Watch he. Stand past in the feet. Quit you like men. Be strong. Let all your things be done with charity or love. I beseech you, brethren, ye know the house of Stephanus that it is the first roots of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the same, that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth. I am glad of the coming of Stephanus, and Fortunatus, and Chiochus. for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge ye them that are such. The churches of Asia salute you, Aquila, and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their heart. Paul, the brethren, greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss. The salutation in me, Paul, with mine own hand. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, not anathema. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. One would think that we might have ended on that mountain peak at the end of chapter fifteen with the coming of Christ, where we're seen taken up the glory and victory, that marvelous climax, the coming of Christ and the church triumphant taking to the sky. Seemed to come down off that mountain peak to the last chapter. Down to mundane things. little things that happened in the journeys of Paul and the mention of various categories. But I think that this chapter is one of the loveliest in your Bible. Some of Paul's closing chapters are, after that wonderful treatise on Romans, he comes to chapter sixteen, after delving into deep things, chapter sixteen of Romans He mentions thirty-four names of people he labored with and stayed with and got to know. A galaxy of saints. And now he comes to the end of Corinthians, and this I think is our eighty-eighth message. And it's wonderful to see how he mentions certain ones and how lovingly he speaks of these individuals. I think we concluded our last message on this chapter. Two weeks ago, we were speaking on first when he came down out of the heights of chapter fifteen. He took up the subject of collection now concerning this collection. What a come down and left down. From heaven to earth to the pocketbook. My people don't like that. Well, we just pointed out how God expects his people to give. And then the letters of commendation. That seems a simple thing, yet an essential thing. When it comes to church letters, we spoke on that. And I was thinking of a couple of instances that might be possible in seeing how the Word of God gives grounds for letters of commendation. For instance, you have the case of Apollos in Acts. and twenty-six and seven, and when he was disposed to pass into Akkaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him, who when he was come helped them much that had believed too great. For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ, Then Romans sixteen, and Paul starts off that wonderful chapter. He said, I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church, which is at Sancrea, that ye receive her in the Lord, as become a saint, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you, for she hath been a succor of many, and of myself also. there's another letter of commendation one person going to another place another church of like-mindedness we pointed out also in the opening verses of chapter sixteen of first corinthians how paul's referring to those letters of commendation then in chapter three of the second epistle of the corinthians he takes up the subject again must we commend ourselves again And I ran across something a week or two ago, the loveliest thing I ever ran across, and I got it in a graph. It's an old man. I read a lot of his writings. Mr. Wilbur Chapman, it goes down in church history as one of the most godly men who has lived, a very godly man. And he was born in eighteen o one, and he wrote this letter of commendation in nineteen oh one on his hundred years and some friends of his were going from England Barnstable England coming out to Canada and he wrote them a letter and I'm going to read it to you and there it is right there in his handwriting dated and I'll read what it says Publishers note, we reprint herewith the copy of a letter of commendation written in nineteen o one. The letter was signed by the late brother R.C. Chapman when he was in his hundredth year. One cannot but be impressed by the simplicity of this paper, and we feel it to be worthy of preservation. Such a letter would never be confused with a certificate or a membership, and this is it. He says, let me commend to the fellowship of the children of God, our brother Kitcher, his wife and sister-in-law, now leaving England for Canada, Toronto in bracket. Robert C. Chapman, signed in his grace. And there's his handwriting of a man a hundred years old. And he's commending. At that time, of course, there were a lot of assemblies around the country, not like there are today, but there were far less then, but there were scattered. And he knew that these people, these Christians, were coming out to the New World, to Canada. And he gives them this letter of introduction, this letter of commendation. And see, he was so well known by his writings. and his character as a godly man, on the strength of that they gladly welcomed them and received them. That's all we say on church letters. Now you'll find the next verse we spoke on, I think two weeks ago tonight, and that was verse verse nine of our chapter. We were talking about that great God and effectual which was opened unto him. What a door it was. There he is in Ephesus, and you know how it ended up? Here is a great mob, and they scream, they howl, they holler for two of them, all because the Spirit of God was working in Ephesus. There was a little assembly in Ephesus, and so because God is working, the devil is working. I idolatry, here's a great mob of idolatry. Shouting out at the top of their voice, great is Diana of the Ephesians. Idolatry has no message, but can shout for hours at the top of its voice, and make itself believe that that is true, which is not true. Unbelief still can scream and shout and rant, but can say nothing. were saved, or contribute anything of value, anything informative. It is interesting to see God's little assembly here in Corinth. Just a little assembly, pitted against this great assembly of idolaters, shouting great is Diana of the Ephesians. You see that in verse of Nineteenth of Acts. And this man, the town clerk, because of this howling mob, howling at the top of their voice for two hours, because of the gospel and the little testimony there, it says he dismissed the assembly. He finally quieted down the mob and got them to go home. And all because of that testimony in Ephraim. and the triumph of the gospel. Well, the church won. The Diana of the Ephesians has long since passed off the scene and perished from the earth, and so great organizations, great systems of idolatry and religion have come and gone, with all that excitement and emotionalism, as in that day. But the church rose on. the church is still here in spite of all the opposition then and the opposition today the church rose up kingdoms come and kingdoms go systems come and systems go but the church rose up until the hour when Christ shall call it on the sky how wonderful to be saved and know you belong to Christ and you're in the church. Now we get to our chapter here. It's a lovely chapter, and he speaks in verse ten of those who are addicted to the ministry. In fact, he speaks of seven other characters than himself. You have Paul Journeys in verses five to nine, and now he starts off with giving us seven other individuals beside himself. And he starts off with Timothy. You'll notice that in verse ten, Timothy. Ten eleven, then Apollos in verse twelve, then Stephanus, and then Portutus, a Cuyacus, and then Aquila, and then Priscilla. Here are the seven names that Paul mentions relative to himself. And then, of course, he concludes in verses twenty, twenty-four. But I love this about Timothy. There's something tender about Paul's remarks about Timothy in verse ten. Now if Timothy comes, see that ye may be with you without fear. Why did Paul write that? Why should he mention that he be there feeling comfortable without fear? Well, I think this passage does make it plain. that there are those who can work together old age and youth in the work of the Lord. Moses had his Joshua. Elijah had his Elisha. Paul had his Timothy. And how endearingly he speaks of this young man Timothy. And he says now, he said, I want you to see that he's there without fear. In other words, Timothy, although he's not a very strong man, and he won, he was a sickly boy. Paul says, take a little wine for your stomach's sake, Timothy. He had stomach trouble. Furthermore, he was young. Let no man despise thy youth. He was timid. He was fearful. Furthermore, he was tender. Paul says, I remember your tears. You get a picture of Timothy by these scriptures. Here is this young man, young, sickly, frail, and fearful and timid, tender-hearted. Yet the apostle later on could say this. I have no man. like-minded who will naturally care for your estate. My mantle is going to fall on Timothy, the frail shoulders of young Timothy. Paul is sending this young man to that critical assembly corner, where there was a lot of gifts they came behind in no gifts to the apostles. Very critical. They were divided. Now I want you to consider this young man that I'm sending to you. And I want you to remember this. Don't take it for granted. In other words, don't take too much for granted. He's just young. At the same time, don't take advantage of him. Don't take advantage of him. Why? What's that next phrase? Verse one, Now if Timothy comes, see that ye may, he may be with you without fear. For he worked at the same work of the Lord as I do. That's why I don't want you to take advantage of this young man. He's doing the same work I'm doing. He's preaching the same message. He's using the same methods. He has the same purpose, establishing churches, and because of that, don't take advantage of it. Quite impressive, isn't it? And so Paul is warning them concerning this young man who is coming into their midst. He does the same work. He works at the same thing. He's serving the same master. As I'm said, you treat him like you'll treat me because he's at the same work, honoring the same law, with the same purpose in view. In other words, he was a reflection of the Apostle. There must have been a lot of Paul about young Timothy. And I want you to notice some lovely things that Paul says about young Timothy. In First Thessalonians chapter three and two, Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and sent to Motheus, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the Gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith. Wasn't that nice? And then another one in First Corinthians, Wherefore I beseech you be followers of me also, for this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you in remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. And in Second Timothy, one, I hear you get to the heart of the whole matter of this close bond between Paul and Timothy. Second Timothy, one and two. Two Timothy, my dearly beloved Son, grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee, Timothy, in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. Here is the age of the Apostles, speaking so lovingly and tenderly of this young man. He said, When I call to the members the unpainted face that is in me, Witwell first, and I'm Maraloa tonight, grandmother Leonece, and I am persuaded in the altar. Paul looks at the background of this young man, and don't forget, background has a lot to do with a young man and a young woman. Paul says, Timothy, I know your grandmother, a great woman of faith. I know your mother. She followed her mother. another great woman of faith. And Timothy, the very same faith that was in your grandmother and your mother is in you. You were nursed on the very same breast of that great woman, mother and grandmother. Oh, yes, Timothy, and from a child who were thou dost know the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, Timothy was rocked to sleep with lullabies of the Gospels. Talk the word of God as a little child. Is there any wonder a young man with that background, that kind of upbringing, that kind of care? Any wonder he was a giant, selected by the Apostle, to be his successes. When you think of the crushing weight of the care of all the churches, Paul speaks of that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Then Paul, if your knees buckle under the responsibility of all the churches, how do you think young Timothy is going to carry that load? And because of this awesome responsibility, Paul writes first and second Timothy, to this young man to encourage him. Timothy, you've been leaning on me for quite a while. I've talked to you about everything I know. For Timothy, I'm soon to lay off this tabernacle, and the time of my departure is at hand. Timothy, I'm going to die. But I want to direct your attention to one who will not die. And as you've been leading on me, you lean on him. And thus he writes the first and second epistles of Timothy, to try and build up, voice them up, and encourage this young man, Timothy. What a wonderful young man, Timothy walk. And so we have this story. Of the young man, and notice he says in verse eleven, Let no man therefore despise him, Timothy, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me. For I look for him with the brethren. Now you come to the next character, Apollos. You'd have thought that Paul would have started off with Apollos, that gifted young Macedonian. He was gifted. likely older than Timothy considerably Paul didn't start off this list with Apollos he starts off with young Timothy his favorite tender young Timothy now he says as touching our brother Apollos I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren but his will was not at all to come at this time but he will come when he hath shall have a convenient time. Here's Paul talking about Apollos. Evidently, Paul wanted Apollos to go to Corinth and to help that situation, that divided situation, because the assembly was divided into four groups. One says, I'm of Paul. The other says, I'm of Apollos. The other said, I'm of Cephas, Peter. The other said, I'm of Christ. They had four camps in the church of Corinth. four sects, four denominations. And Paul rebuked them. He said, was I crucified for you? Was the Cephas crucified for you? Was Paulus crucified for you? No. Is Christ divided? You've cut them up. Christ is not divided. And so Paul says, now Paul is seeing you're a leader of one of those groups. How about you going there? I believe you could help that situation out. Paul's decline. He said, Paul said, he claims it's not convenient right now. Paul thinks, no, I don't think I should go. Maybe it'll irritate the situation and not improve it. Anyway, you see these two men, the apostle and the apostle. Paul wanted them to go to try and help out this situation. Apollos says, no, I don't feel so led. I'll likely muddy the wall. I'll go at another time and not know through eternity who was right. But anyway, you find how Paul brings in this man, Apollos, and there's not a great deal he says about him in this matter. Now you come to the exhortation. in verses thirteen and forty. Watch ye therefore stand past in the faith. Put you like men be strong, let all your things be done with love. Now that's nice, isn't it, that all things be done with love. But the first thing he says, watch. Watch. Time and time again in your Bible you'll find that word watch. You find it over in Matthew twenty four and forty two. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord has come. What does he mean by using this word watch? In other words, take special care to avoid certain weaknesses in your character and in your life. Watch, he said. You know not what hour the Lord is going to come. Why, isn't that a weakness in our lives? We seem to forget that in any moment the Lord may come. And he says the same thing in Matthew twenty-five thirteen. This is a weakness among Christians. The Lord can come at any minute. Are we prepared to meet him? Are we ready? Why don't we... This thing of postponing Lord's coming. My Lord, delay it is coming. The Lord says, I'll come in an hour that ye think not, and when I do, I'll deal with that spirit of procrastination. You know, the coming of Christ should have a solitary effect upon our lives. Am I ready for Christ to come this minute? the coming of Christ and we lived in the light that he may come this moment? How would I live? I think we said one time in a sermon about the man when he became a Christian he told this experience about himself when he was a boy talking about the coming of Christ and not being afraid before him it is coming not being ashamed before him it is coming He said, when I was a boy, now he said, no boy loved his mother more than I loved my mother. He said, I love my mother dearly more than any other person in the world. But one day he said, I wanted a court. And he said, the temptation was strong. I wanted a court. It was something I wanted to get. And he said, never before in my life had such a thought entered my mind. But he said, I saw on the kitchen table my mother's purse. And he said, never before had such a thought come into my mind to steal a quarter or anything out of my mother's purse. But he said, the house was quiet. Mother must be visiting one of the neighbors. So he said, I tiptoed over. And he said, I went to open that purse. And you know, they had one of those locks. two big brass knobs. He said, and when I opened it, it sounded like a bomb all over, almost, in the midst of such quietness. But nothing seemed to happen. He said, I got my hand in there, and I got hold of her quarter. Just as mother came in the door, Johnny, what are you doing? Now he said, I love my mother. But he said, I didn't love her appearing just in. Yes. And this brother spoke about loving his appearing, not being ashamed before him and his coming. I wonder if we as Christian will be ashamed when the Lord comes. Would we be into some mischief when the Lord comes? And he's going to come. I don't know any better place that sooner be. when the Lord comes first at the worship meeting, because we're going to worship them forever and they just be going from one atmosphere of worship to a better one, or when I'm preaching. And should I drop at this platform, should that be my honor, to drop when I'm preaching, before you get the doctor, just sing, hallelujah, he's arrived. That's it. It's a nice thing to go doing something for Christ. Not being ashamed before him at his time. He says, watch. He know not what hour your Lord shall come. Also other things to be watchful about. He said in Mark fourteen, thirty-eight, in the garden they were sleeping. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. watch and pray. Can you imagine the disciples asleep while the Lord was pouring out his anguish beneath the shade of those olive trees? Here he is, sweating as it were, great dots of blood falling down to the ground. Pouring out his heart to God as a depository, left his cup passed from me. Nevertheless, not my will, Let thine be done, and over a few steps, three sleeping disciples, Peter, James, and John. He came over and awoke, What could ye not watch with me one hour? And he went away again, saying the same words, and they must have fallen asleep again. Watch. Can I sleep? when Christ is so wide awake, when he's weeping over a lost world, when he's weeping over sinners going to hell, and I can be drowsy, sleeping away my opportunity. He says, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. For if you're not doing something for me, you're likely getting into something for the devil. You are better watch, lest you enter into temptation. Then he speaks of another time about watching, over in Acts, twenty and thirty. Also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch. Therefore watch. How necessary is he? For a church to watch, be wide awake. Less from your own cell shall men arrive, speaking perverse things to lead away disciples after themselves. Paul says, after my departure, this is going to happen. Previous wolves shall enter in, not sparing a flock. Watch. Watch. Be awake. Be awake. In another occasion, over in Revelation chapter three in verse two, watch and strengthen the things that remain. Things, fundamentals that are beginning to slip. Now he says, watch. Be on your guard. Have your eyes open. Be wide away. Things are going to be slipping in. And the things you've prized for so long will be slipping away. strengthen those things that remain. Then he says, stand. Did you notice that? He says, watch ye and stand fast. Stand fast in the faith. Eight times in the New Testament, you read that word stand. It means firm, not wobbling about, but stand. In Galatians five, one, he says, stand fast. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ that made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of the bond. Oh, stand fast in this liberty. He tells us also to stand fast in faith. Stand fast in the faith. Much nice to stand fast in that, too, and not be slipping into the air of unbelief, but solid, sound faith. Don't let your stand waver. Stand past in him, in Christ. He says, stand. Oh, you Corinthians, you've been a pretty wobbly bunch. You've been like a bunch of drunks. You can't seem to walk straight. You even became intoxicated at the Lord's Supper and drank too much of the wine. And you turn the Lord's Supper into a social get-together. And he says, God will deal with some of you for that. And for this cause, many of you are weak, and you're sickly, and many are asleep. You're going to heaven before your time abusing the Lord's Supper. He says, you better stand fast and stop becoming intoxicated with this and that and the other thing, losing your balance. You better stand fast in him. in Christ. And here is solid God. Now I'm only half due, and my time is fifty-three minutes long. So I'm going to stop, and Lord willing, two weeks from tonight we'll continue this message for the best part of it, I think, is before us. Next week, Mr. Kosan will be here. To anyone here tonight's not a Christian. God wants you to be, and he wants you to be so now. Christ is the one that died to save you. He'll save you this minute. How wonderful to stand past in him. I don't know any better place to stand than in Christ. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All of the ground is the sinking sand. Christian, watch. Stay awake. and stand firm. Don't bother. The next thing is fall. Shall we pray? Our Father, we ask thy blessing upon thy word. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, may it sanctify its self in our hearts and come out in our lives how we thank thee for divine truth. We pray that thou bless each one of us we all need it. We pray for any unsaved that might be in the audience. How that has loved souls and want to see them saved. Especially when the coming of our Lord is so near. Oh God, let any unsaved present, hasten, ere the door is shut. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.