Now you may have to bear with me a little bit this morning. This thing hit me. Last night the statement was made that if you preach short, you get invited back. And I put that to the test and it works. I gave a short little message at the close of the meeting last night and I got invited back. Here I am. Now I'm not going to... guarantee any shortness this morning. I just won't guarantee it. But I will guarantee simplicity. Because I would like to labor for something extremely simple today and something that probably most of us have heard many, many times before. Maybe something that isn't new to anybody. But I'm not striving for something new and profound today. I'd like to just sort of jog our memories a little bit. Give us something that I trust the Spirit of God could use to refresh in our minds and help us and encourage us. And if the Spirit of God still leads, then it might even come home as a rebuke to our own hearts. But that will be entirely up to the Spirit of God making the applications in each one of our lives. My question this morning could be something like this. How much do we really appreciate God's perfect pattern for a New Testament church? How much do we really appreciate God's perfect pattern for a New Testament church? Years ago, there was a man who was coming into the assembly gatherings when the people were about to have the Lord suffer and well enough there was a man who was standing at the door reading the people as they came in and I think this is good I think it's necessary and as he did so he said to this person who had appeared for the first time are you acquainted with assembly lines and he says oh yes sir I've worked for the Ford Motor Company for fifteen years now of course obviously He wasn't talking about the same assembly lines. I suppose there could be a danger of me being reputed as one who is hooked on assembly lines. I hope that that won't be the case, but I do want to tell you in no uncertain terms that the more I study God's Word and the more I look at God's New Testament Church and the perfect pattern of it, the more excited I become. the more thrilled I become, the more anxious I become to share it with other people. And I haven't found anything in my life that I have gotten greater reward from as far as my ministry is concerned than sharing New Testament church truth with people who want to know. I grow sick trying to preach to people about anything when they don't want to know. because you don't really accomplish anything, and your ministry usually comes bouncing right back at you as if it had hit a brick wall, when people don't really want to know. Now, there may be a lot of reasons why people don't really want to know. It may be because they already know it all, or else it's because they couldn't care less. And I should like to assume today that there is nobody here like that. I hope that not one of us, preachers included, is a no at all. And I hope that there are none of us here in an indifferent state of mind and an attitude of a careless kind. I hope that we'll just be able to appreciate together, again, a little of what we have from the Word of God concerning the New Testament church. The pattern is perfect. Absolutely perfect. After all, it's God's pattern. God's pattern can't be anything less than perfect. Now, just at this point, probably somebody is saying, well, there he goes. He started off already. He's telling us that the assembly of God's people, as we call it, is the perfect place. Everybody ought to come to us because we're the perfect people. We're the people and everybody else is anathema. And I want to tell you I didn't say any such thing. And I didn't say anything that even sounds like that. And I don't want to say anything that even sounds like that. Because I don't know if I've got your ear or not at this point. So I'm going to have to say it with real emphasis. The assembly as we know them and as we carry out the practices are short. We're anything but perfect. Anything but perfect. And if you're looking for the perfect assembly, you're going to have to wait for a while. That's going to take place in heaven. Someone told me, I think it might have been at this conference even, Milo, if you ever find the perfect assembly, you stay away from it. And I said, why? He said, you'll spoil it. That was good advice. Well, I long ago decided that I wasn't going to be looking for the perfect assembly in this world. I'm going to wait until we're all gathered home to glory. And then we're going to be in the perfect assemblage of God's people. And I'll tell you, it will be perfect. And everything will be in its right place. Everybody will be in the right place. And the right person will still be in the center. The Lord Jesus Christ of that heavenly gathering. Now I want to repeat a little statement I made then just a moment ago, that the New Testament pattern, the New Testament church pattern is absolutely perfect. The way we carry it out has a lot to be desired oftentimes. Not always, but oftentimes. Our efforts to carry out the New Testament church principles can be way short, can be way below the mark, but that doesn't change the pattern. So we'll take a little look at the pattern today and maybe it will help us to adjust our sights and to bring our practices in line with it. Last night we began the conference with some very excellent ministry concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. And especially as we were looking in the Old Testament scriptures to see that God has a desire for the gathering of His people. Do you ever stop to think that the things that God scatters, the devil gathers, and the things that the Lord gathers, the devil scatters? You say, what are you talking about? Well, for at least one thing I'm talking about, the Tower of Abel in the Old Testament. What God scattered and told the people to spread out over the earth and populate the earth, the devil gathered. He gathered them into a union, into a union where the people began to consolidate their efforts and they built themselves a city and they made themselves a power that would reach into heaven and they began their first exploration into space. That was not according to God's will. Then when we get to the New Testament, what God unites, the devil has gone all out to divide. And he's done an excellent job. I hate to give him the credit for it, but he has done an excellent job of dividing God's people. Let's just get down to the point, in case I never get to this point. This is a statement that I have been making repeatedly, everywhere I have gone, preaching conferences, preaching meetings, teaching Bible classes to all kinds of people. And I have yet to be challenged, so maybe you'd like to take up the challenge. God unites His people. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ unites His people. Men's names and denominations and sectarianism divides God's people. Does it every time. absolutely every time this is why I don't mind telling you in no uncertain terms if you care to know exactly where I stand in relation to denominationalism as it exists today if it makes any difference with you at all I'm one hundred percent dead set against it and I don't care what brand it is doesn't make any difference what you call it denominations divide God's people the Lord unites God's people So I cannot have an appreciation for anything that divides God's people. And mind if I tell you, I don't even want to have any part of it. I don't want to have any part as much as I can avoid it of anything that's going to do damage and it's going to divide the Lord's people. God's people, as we saw last night, are to be gathered together. This was the excellent ministry that our brother gave to us last night when he told us from the scriptures about God's desire to gather his people. And then we added the little expression from Psalm fifty one, that God's desire is to gather his people unto himself. As our brother was speaking about that, I just could hardly refrain from getting up following him and giving a little message about the four gatherings of the scripture. And I didn't do it, so maybe I got that in reserve. But there is the gathering out. I'll give it to you and then you can put the meat on it. There's the gathering out. There's the gathering in. There's the gathering together. And then there's the gathering up. And that takes us through pretty much of all that the Scripture has to say about God's desires for His people. He desires that His people be gathered out. Gathered out from what? Gathered out from the world. And all of its world systems, and that takes in an awful lot. God's desire for his people is that they be gathered in. Gathered into what? Gathered into fellowship with each other as Christians and around the center in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's always God's gathering center. gather together as Christians to enjoy New Testament church teaching and church privileges. I might get a chance to speak on them a little bit later. And then finally we're going to have that perfect assemblage when we're all gathered up. And the Lord Jesus Christ is coming and beloved, I just can't help but think he must be coming very, very soon. And because he's coming so soon, it just seems to indicate all the more how anxious we ought to be to serve the Lord and to serve His interest and to re-evaluate our lives once again in the light of the fact that Jesus is coming and He's coming soon. I like that little fact that I see on people's walls sometimes. Jesus is coming perhaps today. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that? You really do not. Well, you know, if we really believe it, it's just got to have a practical effect in our life. It's just got to change us. It will change us. It does change us. It changes our whole attitude, and if our attitudes are changed, then our deportments are going to be changed along to coincide with that. So we have this lovely expression. I'm sort of reviewing now what we had last night. concerning our gathering together, the Lord gathering His people together unto the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This of course would take us in our Bibles if we needed to turn to it, and you may as you wish, but it's Matthew chapter eighteen and verse twenty where the Lord Jesus Christ once again has said to our hearts today, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. I want you to notice that it is always in the scripture gathered unto a person, never gathered unto a it, unto and it. Let's get our English language right. I fear that there are lots of people today who are perhaps gathered to and it. You know what I mean? There are some folks that in conversation with them in a way, it sort of indicates that maybe they're gathered to the assembly. and we use that assembly quite freely. It may be that they are gathered to the assembly or to these people. And I want to tell you, it's no wonder people get discouraged and hightail it out when that's what they're gathered to. Because if you're gathered to an it, if you are gathered to the local New Testament church, that itself is not the center. That's the circumference. If you're gathered to these people, you're bound to get discouraged, and you're bound to get upset, and you're bound to get angry. You'll know how angry I get sometimes. You wouldn't believe it. Standing there, me standing here before you, how disgusted I can get with you sometimes. And then I remember how disgusted you must get with me sometimes. It's kind of a two-way street, isn't it? but oh i would never i would hope that i would never leave a new testament church an assembly of god's people because i have gotten disgusted with it or with you i i hope that i'm prepared to stand here in the face of a number of people and probably going down on record yeah i am going down on record And that is to say that when I leave a New Testament company of God's people who are scripturally gathered, now I'm qualifying my statements very carefully here. I'm qualifying my statements very, very carefully. Whenever I am tempted or forced to leave a New Testament church that is scripturally gathered, it's going to have to be when I find fault. with the one who is the center and the object of our gathering. When I have found that fault with my blessed Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to be a goner with the wind and you'll never see me back again. Now let me explain something very carefully here. I didn't say that there are not some so-called assemblies. I didn't say that there are not some so-called gospel halls and gospel chapels at which I will probably never be seen again. That's very possible. You put the meat on that if you wish. What I'm really trying to say is that just because we are gathered in a gospel hall or a gospel chapel or call ourselves an assembly, does not mean that we are functioning according to New Testament church lines. It doesn't mean it. That's no guarantee because your name is in an address book that you might find laying back there on that table. That doesn't guarantee that you're a New Testament church. And it doesn't go to say that because some group of Christians somewhere doesn't have their name in that book, And I'm not throwing anything at John Williams because he and I have talked about this before, and I know he's in agreement with this. Amen. Thank you, brother, and helps everybody. just because a group doesn't have their name in there or just because they do that is no guarantee and that is no identification mark for a New Testament church I'll agree one hundred percent and this will help your sales John it's a help it can be a help as long as the book is rightly used it can be a help but it can also be a danger what is the New Testament church then what are we talking about Well, let's just take a little look at some of the simple scriptures hoping that it will help the younger folks if it doesn't help you older people. Maybe it will help some who have gotten discouraged. Maybe it will help somebody who has been really wondering about this. What is this all about? I don't get it. Some people are very tempted to just go out and seek for their pastures elsewhere. Let's take a little look at John chapter ten. This is a good place this time. While we're looking at John chapter ten, if you have that already, hold it. I want to look at another one in Acts chapter five. Maybe this verse will fit in better with what I've already said and then go to John chapter ten. So hold your place in John ten and look at Acts five. I want you to see here that we've got an illustration of the very thing that I've been talking about. Verse thirty-six. For before these days rose up Judas, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men about four hundred joined themselves, who was slain, and all as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to naught. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing and drew away much people after him, He also perished and all, even as many as obeyed Him, were dispersed. Now how do you like that? You see what happened in two of these illustrations here? We've got a man who arose up and he boasted that he was somebody. And there were a number of people, four hundred in all, who joined themselves unto Him. What an illustration you've got of what's going on in the world today. You've got somebody who rises up. Maybe he doesn't say it in that many English words, but he boasts himself to be a somebody. And he sort of becomes a focal point. He becomes sort of a leader among the people. Now, of course, people are looking for leadership. And I'm not critical about leadership in any sense. In fact, I'm all for it. I'm one hundred percent for leadership in God's assembly. But here's a man. who is boasting himself to be somebody. And I tell you, there's a verse in the book of Corinthians that will puncture this man's balloon if we could have just got it to him back in those days. The Bible tells us, and this knocks me out every time I read it, maybe you think I ought to be knocked out right now, so I'll read it at this moment. In First Corinthians, he tells us that if we think we are somebody when we are nothing, we're just deceiving ourselves. Now, I didn't quote it exactly as it's written, but that's the idea. When you think you're somebody or you think you know something, just let us remember that you don't know anything yet as you ought to know. So if anybody thinks they're very smart or anybody thinks they've really got it or that they have arrived, just take that little verse to heart and it'll punch your balloon and it'll let you down every time. Because God says, if you think you know anything, when you don't know anything, then you're just deceiving yourself and you're not at all wise. Well, here was Judas. boasting himself that he was somebody, and what does he do? He gets a number of people to join themselves unto him. He becomes a focal point. He becomes a center. Here's a somebody. And the people join themselves unto him, and what happens to them? All who obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught. May I hasten to tell you that this is exactly what's going to happen to every life situation in the world today? There's going to be a time when every life situation where people are gathered to a person other than the person of Christ, they're gathered to a name other than the name of Christ, they are gathered to an it instead of a he, or they are gathered with a preacher of their center and their focal point, there's coming a day when they're all going to come to naught. Some of them have already come to not. And the ones that haven't are going to. Now I'll tell you what I mean by that. One of these days the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come. And when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, all our banners under which people have divided themselves are going to come down. All the denominational titles under which people gather today. Now I want to be honest and I want to be fair and I assure you I'm speaking out of the love of my heart. I believe that there are people in this group today who are at this present time finding your fellowship, possibly as Christians, in groups of other people who may be, for the most part, Christians if not all, but you're rallying under a denominational banner. Now, I don't want to be hard on you. I'm not trying to be sarcastic. I don't want to drive anybody away from this place mad because of what I said. I want to help you. I want to show you the difference between what you're doing and what God wants you to do. Again, I want you to notice how carefully I phrased that. I want you to see the difference between what you're doing, not what we're doing and what you're doing, but what you're doing and what God wants you to do. For the last thing that I want to do is to set up ourselves and say, hey, folks, here we are. See us come and do as we do. You'll be all right if you just come and do as we do. I've gotten long beyond that. Because I have to apologize too many times for our failures. And apologize too many times for our stumbling. But I tell you I have found one thing and I have never had a challenge. I can always point people to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the perfect pattern of God's Word and it's never contested. Never even questioned. I tell you, people who have never heard these things before just sit there sometimes awestruck. They say, man, I never saw that in the Word of God before. We need to share these folks, beloved, these things, beloved. We need to share these things. We profess to have the truth. Let us be careful about that profession, but whatever truth we've got is truth that has to get beyond this point and down to this point, right into our fingertips and right into our feet. And the only truth that we really, really possess is the truth that we're able to walk in. You don't possess any truth except what you're able to put into practice in everyday life. And if you've got any truth that you can't practice or any truth that you're not able to walk in, it's nothing but facts and theories and knowledge in your head. And the Bible says knowledge stuff is up. You let those precious truths of God's Word get down into your heart and you began to live in them and began to enjoy them. And you know what you're going to do? You're going to have to share them with other people. And you're going to find that it's the greatest joy and thrill of your life to share these wonderful things with other people. Most of us today are pretty disturbed. We're pretty downcast as to why the local New Testament churches of God's people are not growing as they ought to. They're not prospering as they ought to. We're sitting around and numbers are depleting. And some people say we're on the skids and on the way out. I don't believe it. And I don't believe it has to be that way. And I don't believe it will be that way. If you and I as Christians will just get a fresh appreciation of these wonderful truths and let these truths get a hold of us rather than us have a hold of the truth. Oh, there's a lot of difference, you know, me having the truth or the truth having me. And when the truth gets a hold of me and I get so absorbed with these wonderful things, I'm just going to have to share them with other people. Other people have got to know these things. And if we would share them with other people, you'd be surprised how many hungry people there are in the world who are desirous of these things. All right. What's the result of this? They were scattered abroad and brought to naught. This reminds me of a little story I heard my brother tell when he was in the Second World War. He wasn't in the war, but in the army. And he was stationed in India. And they were off a place where there just weren't any Christians to be found hardly. I think he began to appreciate what the missionaries one time said when they said they were so far out away from civilization and away from Christians out in the bush that they were glad to see a Christian's dog. Well, I tell you, you and I probably... have never really been that lonesome for Christian fellowship, have we? If you ever got into a situation like that, you'd begin to appreciate what Christian fellowship really is. It's so easy. It's so at our fingertips today that we don't really appreciate Christian fellowship like we ought to. Beloved, you ought to appreciate, fully appreciate the privilege of coming together with Christians like this. even if you don't get anything from from me this morning just the fact that you're here to enjoy fellowship and at least we're trying to look into the word of God well anyway the men were lonely my brother found a little group of people of about five or six men in the service one of them was from one denomination one of them was from another denomination I think there were probably five denominations represented by these five or six six different men There was no place for my brother to fellowship at that particular time. So what happens? These six men who are Christians and who are all longing for fellowship gets together. And they start having Bible readings. And they start having fellowship. And they start having beautifully sweet times together. I wasn't very old when my brother came back and told I was only a teenager, but I still remember the conversation and something I asked him. And then after I got older, I realized how wise I was at that time. I was wiser than I am now. I said, when I called him by his name, I said, when these men got together with all these different denominational titles, what did they do? How did you get along in your fellowship? Well, he made it very clear that this is what happened. Each one of them set aside their denominational names and said, we're not going to talk about our church. We're going to talk about the scriptures. We're going to talk about the Lord. We're going to have fellowship together. And we're going to leave our denominational preferences out of this thing. And I said, did that work? Sure it worked. Now you can imagine that if each one of them came together to contest with the other and each one of them... had their little word to say about their denominations you're going to have everything short of a fifth class because they're just not going to get along at all and it's going to be bitter and the thing is going to be scattered abroad that bible class will never last if each one of these people come in to talk about their denominational preferences so he told me that each one of them dropped their names and got together simply as christians i asked my brother Oh, I'm thrilled when I think about this. I said, and what name did you drop? He says, I didn't have to drop my name because he didn't have one except the one name that they all claimed, Christ, Christian, believer. He didn't have to drop any denominational titles, names, or anything else. Because he didn't have that. And his name that he rallied around was the name that all the other men rallied around. So he didn't have a thing to lose. Now, beloved, one of these days the Lord Jesus is going to come, isn't he? You all believe that, don't you? If you don't believe that, you stand up. I want to talk to you after meeting for a while. We all as Christians are one hundred percent sold out on the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming and coming soon. You know what's going to happen when you come? A lot of Christians are going to drop their names. What name are you going to drop? Are you going to drop your name? Are you going to drop the name around which you rally, the name in which you meet, or are you going to be able to take that one with you? There's only one name that's going to accompany God's people home to heaven, and that's the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. All other names are going to be left behind. May I just throw out a little challenge, if all the names are going to be left behind, why don't we just get rid of them now? Why don't we just start meeting together as Christians? Christ wants. Adherence of Christ. And you'll be on the safe course. And you won't have a thing to regret when the Lord comes. You won't have a thing that you'll have to leave behind. You can take that name with you right into heaven. Because that's going to be the name that's going to resound through the corridors of heaven for all eternity unto him who loved us and the loosest from our sins in his own precious blood. Well, we've read about two cases of people gathered to men. This man, verse thirty-seven of Acts five, this man rose up, after this man rose up, Judas of Galilee, in the days of taxing, and he drew away much people after him. See, you've got the same old thing being repeated, and beloved, it's been repeated ever since, and it's still being repeated today. Men rising up and drawing people away after him, he also perished, and all even as many as obeyed him were dispersed. So there you've got two illustrations of people who were gathered to people. I suppose I told you before about the time I was up in Minneapolis having some meetings and there was a lady got saved. And after she, I think the night or the next night after she got saved, I was invited over to her apartment to meet her husband. And she had been involved in a denominational setup, a very strict time, up to this time of her salvation. Well, when I went over that evening to visit with her husband and spend a little time in the home, when we got there, a neighbor lady was there. And so she was in on the little conversation that we had. The lady was also a denominational-minded person, but of a different brand. That doesn't sound nice, but I don't know how to talk about it any other way. Brands, that's the best I know how to do for the one of better English. one brand and another brand okay well anyway she was of another brand do you see what i mean and these two got in a little conversation together and of course i was sitting kind of just outside on the fringes and i listened and i thought i'm gonna i'm gonna let this new convert here fight her own way through this for a while and see how she gets along so the the one lady asked the other lady um about her you know going to these meetings and she tells her she's going over to the gospel chapel there and we're having the meetings and tells her all about that and then she tells her she got saved and and then this and went from one thing to another and pretty soon to make a long story short the one lady said to the new convert well who's the who's the pastor over there she was really getting concerned about this you know who's the pastor over there she was getting interested And the new convert, not really knowing how to answer the questions too technically from Scripture, she says, oh, they don't have any. Now, of course, that wasn't really right. They've got several. In a small congregation like that, they've got more pastors than most places in a big congregation. But they didn't have the hired pastor. And that's what the question was really centered around anyway. And the first lady who was questioning threw up her hands and laughed a big g-ha laughed. And she said, what? If we didn't have a pastor in our church, our church would fly to pieces. It would fall apart. And I was sitting off on the background, but I couldn't stay there. I said, lady, you never said anything more true. I said, that's exactly what would happen. If you lost your pastor, the thing would probably fly to pieces and fall apart. And the reason is because it's built. around the pastor. Well, this lady is trying to tell you about a company of people whose center is not the pastor, the center is the Christ. If we ever lose him, we're going to fly to Ephesians two. We're going to fall apart in a hurry, and we better. But as long as we've got the Lord Jesus Christ in his right place, beloved, we won't have to worry about falling apart. Now, I'll show you why. Yeah, I will. John ten. John Chapter Ten. Boy, I've got a big outline here and I haven't even got started on it yet. But I'll try and finish up very shortly. John's Gospel Chapter Ten. Wonderful chapter, isn't it? Don't you love John's Gospel Chapter Ten? A lot of you people have been saved as a result of verses out of this chapter, right? You know what I like about this chapter? This chapter tells me how to be saved. tells me that my shepherd died for me. It tells me that there's a door through which I must enter. I tell you the simplicity of the gospel from this chapter is phenomenal. It's beautiful. It's tremendous. And then another thing I like about this chapter is that this chapter tells me about the kind of life I get. It tells me that I've got abundant life. It tells me that I've got eternal life. That's worth having. I feel sorry for people who don't know they've got eternal life. They say they've got life, but they don't think they know that it's eternal. because they say they're going to lose it. And if it's something you're going to lose, then it isn't eternal. And if you think that sounds rather outage, I took the time a few days ago to sit down and do something I've never done before. I took the word life and I looked up every reference. No, I didn't. I looked up several references to the word life, all the choice gospel references. Then I took the word eternal and I looked up, I think, every word in the New Testament. And I could only come up with one conclusion. If I get to preach the gospel while I'm here, I may want to preach on that, so I don't want to spoil my sermon. But I'll tell you, beloved, I've got to share it with you. The life that the Lord Jesus Christ gives is the life of God in the person of Jesus Christ. And if he dies, then I'm going to lose my eternal life. But he is eternal life. And Christ is our life. And this word eternal just simply means what you've always thought it meant. It just means that it's something without him. And it can't be that you lose it if it's going to be something without him. So enjoy this life that God gives us. It's eternal and it's something to enjoy. It's abundant. That's John chapter ten. You know, I get something else out of John chapter ten that I really love. Oh, I just love it. You know what? I find out a little bit about the shepherd. Someone says if you can't count, if you can't sleep at night, don't count sheep. Talk to the shepherd. And here's the shepherd. Let's take a little look at this shepherd. We find this shepherd coming to the sheepfold. We don't have time to discuss it very much, but you'll notice that the shepherd comes to the sheepfold. Anybody that comes in any other way is a thief and a robber. The porter opens to the shepherd, and we read in verse three that he calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. Now, what is this, in a way? Without me going into a lot of explanation, the sheepfold here is a very, very fine illustration of the nation of Israel. A sheepfold is a lot. Most of you are farmers. You appreciate my little old farmer lingo here. A lot with a fence around it. That's a sheepfold. It's an enclosed place. And you don't need a center when you've got an outside circumference to hold them in. So the Lord comes to the sheepfold Israel. Israel was held in by laws and observances and ceremonies and rituals. That's Israel. The Lord comes to Israel and what does he do? He calls his own true sheep by name and he leads them out. That's his own disciples and he leads them out of Judaism. Now where did he lead them? He leads them into the free ranges of grace. The shepherd takes his sheep out into the pasture land. Now what do you have? Not a fold, a flock. Oh, there's a difference between a fold and a flock. Look at verse sixteen. And other sheep I have, said the Lord Jesus, which are not of this fold. Oh, thank you, Lord. You've got other sheep now who do not belong to the fold of Israel. Yes, and he says, and I'm going to bring them too. Them also I must bring. Who are they? They're the Gentiles. The Lord says, I've got sheep who were of this fold, but I led them out of Judaism. Now I've got some sheep who are not of this fold, and they're the Gentiles, and I'm going to bring them. And then when I get to Ephesians chapter two, my soul thrills with the fact that he's broken down the middle wall of partition between them. And there's no longer any national distinctions in the church of God. So he brings the Gentiles, and he says, verse sixteen, look carefully, and there shall be one And please pick your pen if you've never done so before, or if your margin corrects it, okay. Cross out reverently, but easily the word fold. It just does belong there. It's one of those unfortunate, very unfortunate translations of the Scripture. And I check every reference that I could check. Greek and other means translations and versions. And everyone agrees that the word is flocked. Now makes sense. He says that I'm going to lead you out of the fold and when I do I'm going to take you out into the free range of grace. It's going to be Jews and Gentiles who are saved and there's going to be one flock. Get the picture now? Here you've got a flock of sheep out on the eastern country hillside. What is it that holds the sheep together out in the pasture land? Of him? No. And outside circumference? No. The center. You see the sheep gathered around the shepherd. Now what has shepherd has become the center there wasn't any center in the fold didn't need one but now you've got the sheep out on the free range of pasture land and we've got to have a center and you know the sheep are all gathered around they're grazing they're lying they're drinking they're all gathered around the shepherd and the shepherd becomes the center and you've got a flock and you know what holds the sheep together their attraction for the center now what holds the sheep together to each other The sheep don't hang on each other's tails. The sheep don't connect ears with a pin or a ribbon. The sheep are gathered to the shepherd. And the closer the sheep get into the shepherd, the closer the sheep are together. And I'll tell you, beloved, anytime you feel yourself estranged from God's people, it must be because you're away from the shepherd. Now that's not allowing for sin. That's on another page. I know that there are times when there has to be separation because of sin and because of false doctrine. But I'm talking about the norm here. The closer we are to the shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ, the closer we are going to be to one another as sheep and the Lord Jesus becomes the shepherd of his sheep. I don't know if you've picked this up yet, but really what we've been saying up to this point is that the Lord Jesus Christ is seen in at least two characteristics. The Lord Jesus Christ is seen in the Bible as the shepherd, and he is seen as the shepherd center. Isn't that wonderful to know that our Lord Jesus Christ occupies that place, and that's the only place that the Lord will have in the New Testament? He's always in the center. Now, that isn't even strange to the New Testament, beloved. It's even Old Testament, if you wish. Not in the same sense, of course. You don't have the New Testament church in the Old Testament, and I know you know that. But you do have a beautiful illustration of this. God's people Israel. God's people of Israel were rallying around their center back in those days, which was the tabernacle and God's dwelling in the midst of his people. No matter whether the tabernacle was pitched or whether it was in transit, it was always in the middle. The Ark of the Covenant always occupied a place in the middle, right in the center of God's people. Now we have in Ephesians chapter one and verse twenty two a third characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ in his relationship to the church. Let me turn to this if you wish. Then we'll try and thumb this up and finish even though I'm not done. Ephesians one and verse twenty two. And he asked, Put all things under his feet and gave him to be head, the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Now we've got the third characteristic of the Lord Jesus. He's the shepherd. He's the center. And he's the head. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ is a shepherd and if the Lord Jesus Christ is a center and if the Lord Jesus Christ is a head, we're pretty well equipped, beloved, and I want to tell you we don't need any other. Except, except, I think it's only fair for us to recognize this. The center is never replaced or never displaced or never substituted for. But, turn to Acts chapter twenty. Acts chapter twenty and again pressing for time in the seventeenth verse we find the Apostle Paul making haste back to Jerusalem to be there at Pentecost the feast day and he doesn't have time it seems to go up to Ephesus so he lands at Miletus and there he he called these and who did he call he called the elders of the church from Ephesus to meet him at Miletus okay He didn't call the pastor. Oh, I tell you, I've just been sharing this with some folks back home lately. I was to visit a lady the other day, and she is going to a church. If you understand what I'm saying, I can't call it a denominational church. It's what's normally called a Bible church. And she's going to this, and the thing is flying to pieces in every direction, and they're having a terrible time. I'm not saying this to wash clothes in front of you. I'm not happy about this. I think when God's people suffer in a place like that, all Christians suffer with it. The testimony of the Lord is heard. Even though I'm not involved in this particular program, I feel the effects of it. And it hurts us. Anytime that God's people are suffering, This dear lady was suffering. And I came by and I read with her and I prayed with her and I listened to some of her problems. I have to tell you this in order to get you just to appreciate this. Maybe when I left, she says, thanks a lot, Michael, for coming out. She says, my own pastor comes out and they never prayed since me. And she actually appreciated the fact that I had come out and listened to her problems, read the scriptures with her and prayed. But this is one of the scriptures I shared with her. You know, I didn't say it quite this bluntly because I didn't feel like she was quite in position for this. You know, you've got to use good sense. At least I try to. Whatever sense I've got, I try to use. And I wanted to point out to her that the real core of the whole problem is the problem. The whole problem of this congregation is the preacher. The preacher has gone off. They think he's gone off on false doctrine. They think he's gone off. They think he's got a demon. They think this is Matthew's. And it's just a big wholesale mess. But, oh, what I wanted to really say to her was, well, you know, if you didn't have the hired pastor in the first place, then you wouldn't have the hired pastor's problems. But that's what they've got. They've got the hired pastor, so they've got the hired pastor's problems. Okay. Be that as it may. They still need help, don't they? They need somebody to listen with a sympathetic ear and try to understand if their own pastor doesn't do it, somebody's got to do it for them. Okay. But all the thrill of trying to point out to her this. He called for the elders, not the pastor. And I pointed out to her from Galatians chapter one that the hired pastor becomes the servant of men. And Paul says, if I'm a servant of men, I'm not the servant of Christ. If you can figure it out any other way, help me please. If you're a servant of men, you are not the servant of Christ in the truest sense. Did you know the word hiring means simply one who is hired? Now please listen carefully. I didn't say that every hired pastor of every denominational church is a hiring. I wouldn't be prepared to say that. Because a hiring is one who doesn't care for the flock. And I know some of those men do care for God's people. They care very much for God's people. And I'm not going to call them a hiring. I'm just saying this. It's a little bit too close to it. More close than I care to be. Because the very meaning of the word, hiring. So when you hire, you become a hiring. Okay? Well anyway, that was the whole core of the problem. So explaining to her that in New Testament churchianity or Christianity, you don't have the hired pastor. You don't have the one man, the big wheel in the middle with all the little cogs running, you know, in conjunction with it. And then she asked me the question, oh, what a question it was. It wasn't loaded. It was an honest question. She says, who takes care of the local church then? If the local pastor doesn't do it, who takes care of the local church? Do you think I didn't jump at the opportunity? I said, well, just look down a little bit further at verse twenty-eight and find out who does. You know, there's a lot of things in between here, but verse twenty-eight and let's get off close. Paul, talking to these elders that he has called from Miletus to meet him at, from Ephesus to meet him at Miletus, He calls them, and He says to these elders, Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves first, and to all these flocks. Isn't it interesting that this word flock here has a little different meaning to it than the word flock in John chapter ten now listen carefully I'm trying to explain this without trying to tell you that I don't know anything about Greek but I know know that time I get done but I don't I don't know anything about Greek but I've got Greek dictionaries and I've got interlinears and so forth and I use them so here's what thrilled my soul when I found it out that the word for flock in John chapter ten is just a shade different than the word here. And vine says that the way the word is used here is that it means a group of sheep in a local setting. You get the idea? It's the local assembly that he's talking about here. When Paul says to the elders from Ephesus to feed the flock, he's not telling them to feed the flock in Rome. And the flock in Jerusalem, he says, you feed the flock at Ephesus, the local Christians, geographically bound together. It has the connotation of a local assembly. And it's the same word that is used again in First Peter chapter five, where he says, he's talking about feeding the flock. Anytime that God tells us to feed the flock, he's not telling us to take care of all the Christians in the world, I can't do it. Sometimes I think some of us preachers try, but we don't really get around all that fast after all. We can't take care of all the Christians in Africa and Asia and everywhere else. Who are... This thing is biting. Who are we to take care of? Who are we to shepherd? Who are the elders to tend the local Christians of a local given community, which is the local offender? Especially back in those days. Now then, He says, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. That's how these men got into their position. The Holy Spirit made these elders overseers. So an elder is an overseer, right? Not the pastor. Pastors. Shepherds. Elders are shepherds, beloved. And shepherds are the ones who take care of the local assembly, beloved. And you can have as many pastors as you wish, as long as you don't have one hired pastor to do the job. We need the pastors. And God help us today. We need more of them. And we need better qualified men who will rise up to the shepherd care and the pastoral work of God's assembly. That's what the Lord is saying. He says, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed. And the word feed is shepherd. to shepherd the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. Who does the church belong to? Belongs to God. Why? He purchased it with his blood. Now he puts that local church into the care of the local shepherds. And Peter, in writing First Peter chapter five, exhorts the elders to shepherd, to feed the church. Let me say this. I'll get my last little punch in here if I can. If there's anything that I observe, if there's anything, and take this kindly because I give it kindly, this is not a slap in the face, because I thank God for every person I see in the local New Testament churches who are functioning as good, scriptural, qualified elders. And I tell you, when I see them, I have to thank God for them. But I don't see enough of them. I just don't see enough of them. There isn't enough to go around. Many local churches today don't even know what an elder is. They don't even know what an overseer is. They don't even know if they've got one. Consequently, we just run on a little time program. We meet together at a certain time and we're probably ten minutes late or fifteen minutes late doing that. And this gets to be ridiculous. And pretty soon we're just carrying on a little program of our Sunday morning meetings, our Wednesday night meeting, or our Tuesday night meeting when we go through our little ritual of the week. And God's people, pardon me, beloved, that I know for sure that some of God's people today are starving to death. In God's assemblies. And this is one of the reasons why some of them are going somewhere else to find out what it's like on the other side of the fence. Whose fault is it? It's my fault. That's right. It's my fault. It's every one of us who God has set in a position to teach and to feed and to shepherd. And you say, well, I'm not a shepherd. How do you know you're not a shepherd? Maybe God wants you to be a shepherd, but you're not willing to be a shepherd. And I'll hasten to tell you that you'll never be a shepherd if you don't get into the Word of God. And if you don't become a shepherd, who's going to replace the few that we've got if the Lord doesn't come for another few years? Beloved, we need We need pastors. We need shepherds. How are we going to get them? The Spirit of God has to put them there. But the Spirit of God doesn't violate your own will. You've got a will. You've got a choice in this. Get into the Word of God, young men. You say, oh, I'm a girl. That leaves me out. How about you being an elder's wife someday? You ever think about that? How about the older women teaching the younger women? Let's follow the Scriptures. Let's get down into the Scriptures and see what they say. And I'll guarantee us that if we'll get into the Scriptures and find out what the Scriptures really say, we'll be sort of surprised sometimes how far short we really fall of New Testament local church principles. We really fall short. We better not wear any high hats and say we're it until we get into the book and find out what it's all about. And when you get into this book and find out what it's all about, we say, man, that's beautiful. We're going to improve this situation. And then we're on the way in. Otherwise, we're going to be on the way out. Oh, that we might have men today who will rise up. You don't need to put a play card in front of you and say, I'm an elder. How are elders known? They're known by their work. You don't have any trouble finding an elder. You don't have any trouble finding a pastor. You don't have any trouble finding a shepherd in a local assembly. Some of them are nothing but shepherds because they go to overseers meetings and that's not the qualification of an elder at all. An elder is not one who just simply goes to a meeting and wears a play card and somebody says there's an elder. An elder is a man who is known by his work and I wish I had another half hour to label on that word work. It's a work and it's a hard work and it's a laborious work and it's a full time work. Full time for all the extra time you've got. You won't even have too much time for golf. None of you are going to do the elders work. If you've got a job and you have to keep up maybe eight hours a day, five days a week, all the rest of your time is going to be taken up in the local pastoring of the chief. And I tell you, beloved, we need it. Oh, that God will exercise our hearts today to take up the work, the work of the Lord Jesus. He's a chief shepherd, worthy under shepherds. And... O for the crime, for those today who will take up the work and do it with a shepherd's heart, a heart of love for God's people.