Cargill, Bert: The Cost Of Our Redemption

All things are lawful for me, that I will not be brought under the power of any. Meat for the belly, and the belly for meat, God shall destroy both this and them. Now the body is not for form of him, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body, and God has both raised up the Lord and will also raise us by his own power. Let's go down to verse eighteen, flee fornication. For every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. For know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which is God. Now concerning the things whereof he wrote unto me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband, and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again, that Satan tempt you not. Now let's go finally to Acts and chapter twenty. The book of Acts, chapter twenty, reading at verse twenty eight. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Now, may the Lord add his own blessing to the reading of his own sacred word this evening, and we look to him too for his blessing and for his guidance as we consider the significance of these verses that we've read publicly. I do want to speak this evening about the great cost of our redemption. In the light of what our dear brother has been speaking about in the first part of this meeting, how we each need to have a true deep appreciation of the things into which we've been brought. And I suggest to you that that deep appreciation would begin with a proper evaluation of the cost of our redemption. If you get something cheaply, you don't really value it, but if the price that you pay for it is great, then truly it's a, a great cost that adds up to a great value that you place upon it. And so tonight, I want us to remind ourselves, because this is not new, is it? I want us to remind ourselves that we have been bought with a price, and that that price, as we read in First Peter chapter one, is the redemption through the precious blood of Christ. Or as the Apostle Paul put it in Acts chapter twenty. redeemed with the blood of his own, his own blood purchased us and brought us nigh. And each of these expressions, as we've read them, are really taken in three separate contexts. In the First Peter chapter one, the context is, as verse nine showed us, the salvation of our souls. That's what First Peter one is really about, the salvation of our souls. And our souls have been saved because they've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Nothing else and no one else could do it. And you and I tonight here in God's presence are saved, and we know we're saved, and we know we're saved because the precious blood of Christ has been shed. First Peter one then, is about the salvation of our souls. First Corinthians six and through into chapter seven is about another matter. It's about the sanctification of our bodies. Body and soul and spirit are the three parts of us, and they're not separated from each other in one sense. They go together to make up the whole of us. And First Corinthians chapter six and seven tells us that we, especially in the context as far as our bodies are concerned, we've been bought with a price, and that great price of our redemption has its implication in what we do with our bodies as well as what we have in our souls. And so tonight I want to say a little bit about this matter, the great precious truth of the sanctification of the believer's body because it's been bought with a price. When we come to Acts twenty, it's yet another context, isn't it? The context there is that of the local church, the local assembly, and Paul says, as he writes there, take heed to the church which he has purchased with his own blood. And the local assembly of God's people, and notice it is the local assembly in that context, not the whole church from Pentecost to the rapture, not the church which is his body, as we often call about it, as as we often talk about it, although it certainly is true about that as well, but particularly in the context of the local church, Paul says it was purchased with his own blood. And I want to say a little bit about that this evening, about the preciousness of the local assembly because of the price that has been paid for it, the price of the very blood of Christ. Now, each of these three things, our souls, our bodies, our assemblies, each of these three things is obviously very precious to God. Very precious to God because of the price that he paid for it. Who can ever estimate, who can ever give a proper total assessment of what the precious blood of Christ means to God as the price that was paid for our souls and for our bodies and for our assemblies? It's very, very precious to God. And it's also, of course, very, very important to God. What we are in our souls, what we are in our bodies, what we are in our assemblies, that too is very, very important to God because each of these belongs to him. He's paid the price for it, and so they're his. Our souls are his, our bodies are his, our assemblies are his. They belong to him. They're very, very important to him. But then you know the corollary of that, don't you? Because each of these three things is precious to God and important to God, each of these three things is specifically and frequently the object of the attack of the devil. What is precious to God is always the target of the devil's attack. And so the devil would attack our soul, and he often attacks our soul by doubts and fears and despair. And the devil, as we read in First Corinthians six, would often too try to attack us in our bodies and our body relationships and bring in defilements. And in Acts chapter twenty, Paul even warned about the very thing that the devil would do in the assemblies. He would seek to attack them and divide them, bring in that dreadful thing called division that dishonors God and brings great sorrow to the Lord's people. And so, even as it's very precious to God and very important to God, so it's always the object of the devil's attack. It was true in the first century that we actually read about tonight. It was true in Peter's day and Paul's day in the first century. It was true in the days of our forefathers, our fathers and grandfathers, I think, had to think about these things and speak about these things as well. And even as we've entered the last decade of this twentieth century, they're still with us. The devil is still trying to attach everything that's precious to God. And so tonight, I want us to spend the next half hour or so thinking about how you and I caught up in a situation where, on the one hand, we belong to the Lord and we're very precious to him, and yet on the other hand, we've a foul fiend of an enemy who's always trying to attack and bring us down. What can we do about it? How can we be fortified? How can we be strengthened? What I'm really suggesting to you tonight is one of the great things that will strengthen us. One of the great things that will lead us to have right thoughts about ourselves and right thoughts about our brethren and right thoughts about our assemblage and right thoughts about God is to value, to evaluate properly the great price that has been paid for us. The purchase price of our redemption, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, bought with a price purchased with his own blood. Each of these phrases tells me tonight how much, how much the Lord loves me, and how much the Lord has given to bring me into the great privileged position into which I now stand, and it's exactly the same about you. Let's begin then, shall we, in First Peter chapter one, and perhaps you'll all find it helpful if you turn your Bible back to that page and just look at some of the things that we have in that chapter, and just be encouraged as you think again about the great redemption as it has achieved the salvation of your soul. I do trust that everybody here tonight is saved. If perchance there is anybody who's not saved, you could be saved tonight, and you could be saved in the same way of all the rest of us have been saved. You could be saved by putting your trust in the Lord Jesus and accepting that great redemption price as the price paid for your sins as well. But it says here in First Peter chapter one that we have received the salvation of our souls. That's verse nine. We have received. We've got it already. We don't need to wait till we end to see God has granted to us the salvation of our souls. But I want you to think about that salvation under three little headings tonight. First of all, its costs to Christ. Secondly, its consequences to us. And thirdly, its consequences in us. All of these are in the message that we read. Think first of all, then, about its costs to Christ. And in a word, or in three words rather, it was the shedding of his precious blood. That was the cost to Christ, the precious blood. That was the cost, the precious blood. But let's trace it back, as these verses do, to where it really began, because this cost to Christ, ultimately paid upon the cross at Calvary, was not something that was done upon the spur of the moment. And if you look now at verse twenty, we'll see that, first of all, this matter of the salvation of our souls, this matter was according to God's eternal divine purpose. He was foreordained before the foundation of the world. This matter of the Lord Jesus Christ dying upon a cross, God wasn't overtaken by circumstances. It didn't happen by accident. This was foreordained before the foundation of the world. And there in God's great eternal purpose, it was ordained that the Lord Jesus Christ would leave heavenly glory and come into this world and die the death of a felon upon the cross at Calvary. That was in God's mind. That was in God's heart. And I want you to think tonight about how much that cost Christ, a way back before it happened. What it cost him in terms of devotion to do his Father's will. What it cost him in knowing in his own heart what would befall him when he came into the world. He was forebaying before the foundation of the world. Not only does verse twenty though tell us about the divine eternal purpose, but verse twenty verse says says he was manifest in these last times for you. It tells us that this matter of the salvation of our souls involves another thing. It involves Christ's direct personal intervention. He did not send an angel. He did not send an archangel. He came himself. He was manifested in these last times for you. He came into the world to save sinners. He who belongs in the very center of God's throne, adored by the angels and the principalities of heaven. He was manifest in this world. He was manifest in these last times for you, put across to him to be incarnate in a body of human flesh. This had never happened before. It has never happened since, that God would be veiled in flesh. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, lo, the incarnate deity. You think of the cost to Christ, the cost of his incarnation. But then going back to verse nineteen, it tells us one other thing that was involved in this. We read towards the end of verse uh nineteen, that he was like a lamb without blemish and without spot. It involves his spotless and sinless life. The salvation of our souls involves his spotless and sinless life. He had to be sinless before he could become our savior, and so his sinlessness was demonstrated. His sinlessness was clear for all to see, and for the li- the years of the life that he lived, he lived a sinless, spotless life in order to be our savior. And you think of the cost of that to Christ, the cost of him living a man among sinful men and yet being himself totally sinless. What a cost to Christ as he lived that sinless life. But ultimately, as we said, all of that would have been in vain had it not been for his precious sin-uponing blood. God's great purpose, Christ's incarnation, his sinless holy life, great truths to meditate upon, great things to motivate our hearts and appreciation, but without the shedding of his precious blood, there could have been no remission of our sin. And so we come to verse nineteen that says we were redeemed, and we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Think of the cost to him. Think of the cost at Calvary. Think of the cost of him laying down his life for us. Add worlds to worlds on endless hosts, all these that cost his breath, that I cost tears, yea, blood divine, and lived through Jesus' death. What a cost to Christ, with the cost of our redemption, the salvation of our souls. These verses in first Peter one though, tell us what the consequences of this are to us. What are the consequences of the shedding of his precious blood? Well, briefly, back in some of the verses we didn't read, verse two, for example, says, we were elect according to the foreknowledge of God. So even as Christ's death and the shedding of his blood was foreordained before the foundation of the world, so are we reminded in verse two of our chapter that we too were elect, we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And long before we had a being, the consequences of the death of Christ for us, they meant something because we were chosen. We were chosen long before we had a being. Verse three then tells us that we were begotten again or born again, and that phrase occurs later in the chapter. We were born again. There came a moment in time when, by the working of God's Holy Spirit, the salvation of our souls was accomplished, and we entered into God's family, as every child does, by the door of new birth, and we were born again. What a tremendous consequence to us that we could be born again, born anew, born from above, because of what Christ has done. And then we come to verse five and it says we're kept, not only elect and born again, but kept, kept by the power of God through faith unto this salvation. Tremendous consequences in your life and mine here and now. To look back into eternity and realize that we've been chosen. To think of the day in our lives when we were born again, and to know that for all the rest of the days of our lives we're going to be kept, kept by the power of God, and it all depends upon the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tremendous consequences in your life and mine here and now. But then, not only are there these consequences, but there's another set of consequences that we come to further down the chapter. Verse twenty two speaks about not the salvation of our souls, but the purifying of our souls. You see, in a sense, the salvation of our souls is something that we had nothing to do with. It was the work was all done for us. We accepted Christ, and he did his great work within us. But that doesn't mean to say that after we're saved, there's nothing to do. In fact, the contrary. And verse twenty two and the verses round about that verse tell us about what the, what some of the consequences in us are of having been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. What does it do in your soul? What does, what difference does it make? Now, Stephen was already telling us something about that in the first part of the meeting, and let's just see what this verse in First Peter says. The difference that it makes in a person when they're born again, when the precious blood of Christ has redeemed them. Well, verse twenty two puts it and describes it as the purifying of our soul. What does that mean? I suggest the verse tells us what it means. The purifying of our souls involves two things. Number one, the verse says it involves us in obeying the truth. Obeying the truth. So the purification of our souls is first of all manifested in the obedience of our wills to the truth of God. You see, we've been brought into God's family, and in God's family, like in all other families that God would approve of, there are rules upon us. And God in his book has given us the truth, not for us to argue about, not for us to research, but for us to obey. And our souls are purified. The evidence of a pure soul is in its obedience to the truth of God. And so that's one of the first consequences that we would look for in a believer in Christ. They say that you say you've been saved, you might say, well, you can demonstrate that you're saved, and you can demonstrate it in this very precious way, by obeying the truth of God. The truth of God is revealed in Holy Scripture, won't be revealed anywhere else, won't be revealed in any other way, but in the Holy Book of God, you learn the truth of God, and the consequence of you being redeemed by the precious blood of Christ is that your soul, your mind is willing to obey the truth that God has revealed to you. But then there's a second thing in verse twenty two that also is a measure of the purification of your soul. It's the second half of the verse. It's your untainted love for the people of God. First of all, then, your obedience to the truth of God, and secondly, your unchained love for the people of God. There again is that precious word that Stephen drew attention to. Love of the brethren. And you and I, as we think of our situation, have here a second measure of the purification of our souls. Not only how much do we obey the truth, not how much do we know of the truth, but how much do we obey the truth? And secondly, how much is our love for our brothers and sisters truly an unfeigned love, one without pretension, one that's sincere? And in fact, the verse goes on to say, see that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently. We need to be servants in the things of God. Now, you know what servant, servant means, don't you? It's the opposite of being stone cold. It's not being lukewarm, it's being, getting heated up about things. Though we need to get heated up about certain things, and some of the things here, one of the things here that we need to get heated up about is loving one another with a pure heart. So I suggest to you from First Peter chapter one that if we value our redemption properly, if we value our redemption as God values it, then it will have a tremendous motivating power upon the purifying of our soul. It has accomplished the salvation of our soul. Oh, how we need it to motivate, to motivate the purity of our soul as well. Let's read first Peter one, which talks about the salvation of our souls, and go back now, if you please, to First Corinthians six, which talks about the sanctification of our bodies. We begin with that verse that filies the text that in this section ye are bought with a price. And ye in that verse is not just your soul, it includes your body. And in fact, in the context of this circuit, it has very specific reference to the believer's body. Now, I know that in these verses that we've read tonight, there are a number of things that are difficult to speak about publicly, and I certainly don't want to. I wouldn't want to embarrass anyone. But at the same time, I think we need to take careful heed as to the content of these verses that we've read, because what the believer's body is and what the believer does with his or her body is very, very important, and it is important because of the price that has been paid for it. We are bought with a price. Let's take the verses then as we've read them, and look first of all at verse, uh, verse twenty. ye are bought with a price. What does that mean, that we have been bought with a price? Well, because we have been bought with a price, it means that not only are our souls precious to God, but our bodies are also precious to God. What we do with our bodies matters. And if we go back to the end of verse thirteen, uh we'll read that the body is for the Lord, and that the Lord is for the body. Back at the beginning of that verse, it says that meats are for the stomach, and the stomachs are for meats. There are two things that match each other. At the end of the verse, it's the Lord is for the body, and the body is for the Lord. What does that mean? That, I suggest to you, means that our bodies need the Lord, and the Lord needs our bodies. I know I haven't put that very well, but I think you get what I mean. Let me take that second point. How does the Lord need your body and mine? We come to verse nineteen and we see, first of all, that the Lord needs our bodies to dwell in. Verse nineteen says, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, and which you have of God, and ye are not your own. The Lord needs our bodies to dwell in. We were reminded from chapter three of this epistle that our assemblies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple of God, and Stephen commented on that as well. And here we have in chapter six the same kind of phrase used, but used this time about you and me individually, not all of us together, as it is in chapter three and is very true and very important in chapter three. but here in chapter six it's a word for each of us individually. And our bodies are important to God, and God has shown how important they are because to each of us, when we have trusted the Lord for salvation, to each of us he has given his indwelling Holy Spirit. And so the Lord needs our bodies to dwell in. And secondly, when we come to verse twenty, the Lord needs our bodies to work through. And verse twenty says, you should glorify God in your body. So God needs our bodies not only to dwell in, but also to work through. Stephen already mentioned this evening things like preaching the gospel, things like distributing tax. There are a whole host of other things that the Lord wants to do in this world in which we live, and the way that the Lord is going to do them is to do them through your body and mind. We are the instruments, we are the channels that God has deigned to use for his eternal purposes in this world, and because of that, God needs your body. God needs your mind. God need- needs your time and your talents, and that's what First Corinthians six is coming to at the end of the chapter. The body is for the Lord, and indeed the Lord is for the body. Not only does the Lord need your body to dwell in and to express his will through and to work through in this world, but also, you know, your body needs the Lord, and my body needs the Lord to control it and to motivate it and to keep it as he wants it to be. You see, we come to the point where we began reading in First Corinthians six verse eleven, uh and it says, such were some of you, all these nasty things that are mentioned in verse nine and ten, such were some of you, but you're washed and you're sanctified because the Lord needs the body and because the body needs the Lord, the first thing he has done to it is cleanse it. Wouldn't be suitable for him. All these things that you read about in verse nine and verse ten. you couldn't imagine God's Holy Spirit dwelling there. You couldn't imagine God working through situations like these. And so the first thing God does is that he cleanses us. And then he sanctifies us. And that word sanctified really has quite a simple meaning. I know some people think it's got a mystical kind of meaning, but really that word sanctified just means it's set apart. Set apart for his special purpose and for his special use. So to make the Lord, sorry, to make our bodies suitable for the Lord to use, he has washed them, he's cleansed them, and he's set them apart. And now these verses that we've read in the second half of First Corinthians six bring before us the practical consequences of God doing that for us. What do we do about it? Well, the first thing we must realize is what we have at the end of verse nineteen. We're now not our own. I say that with some feeling because you've probably heard as much as I have bandied about these days people saying, my body is my own, I can do what I like with it. Well, maybe unbelievers can say that, but believers certainly can't, because this verse clearly says that we are not our own, and particularly in these verses, it refers to our bodies. We're not our own, we've been bought with a price. And because we've been bought with a price, because that price is so great, we should glorify God in our body, which belongs to him. Now, if we want that body of ours, if you want that body of yours, if I want this body of mine to be suitable for the Lord to dwell in and to work through, there are some things in this chapter that are very important. Verse twelve, for example, we need to control the appetite. Verse twelve speaks about, and verse thirteen speaks about eating and drinking. And verse twelve and thirteen reminds us that, yes, you can indulge in food and drink if you want. But you've got to watch that because there's just a possibility, if you indulge too much in food and drink, you can be brought under the influence of it. You can be brought under the power of it. And you know that that happens, don't you? There are certain people who cannot control their appetites, both for food and for drink. And you know that there are certain situations, particularly in the case of strong drinks, where people's bodies are totally brought under the power of that soul substance. I just want to say in passing, or there's a conviction with me, that certainly believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should not touch strong drink, just because of the danger of being brought under the power of it. We come further down the chapter, and it's not only that we should control our appetites, but down in verse eighteen, we should control its desires, because our bodies have feelings, our bodies have desires. And verse eighteen tells us that there are certain kind of relationships that we should avoid. I'll call them casual relationships. And verse eighteen says, flee from them. I think we need to say that in these particular days in which we live, because free, uninhibited desires tend to be the norm in our society. But with the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not to be like that. Casual relationships are to be avoided. And then we come into chapter seven. and this, the end of chapter six says that casual relationships are to be avoided. Chapter seven— and we only read a little bit of it, tell us that marriage relationships are to be maintained, and indeed are to be fostered and strengthened. And I want just to say a few words just now about marriage as we have it described in the early verses of this chapter. That, I think, is another important subject. Now, what I'm going to say about marriage, I expect you all know anyway, both know from experience and from the scriptures, but because of the kind of society we live in, I think these things need said sometimes. And by the help of God, let me just say to you what these early verses of First Corinthians seven say about marriage. Marriage from God's point of view, marriage as it affects the believer's body, marriage as it affects us because we're not our own, because we're bought with a price. Look at chapter seven verse two first of all, and that verse tells us that marriage is an exclusive relationship. I'll say that again because it's a very important word. Marriage is an exclusive relationship. Verse 2 says, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Scripture is very clear and explicit, isn't it? According to God's word, marriage is an exclusive relationship. It includes no one else at any other time than the one husband with the one wife. It's an exclusive relationship. Verse three tells us that marriage is a considerate duty. It speaks in verse three about giving, about rendering the husband to the wife and the wife to the husband. Marriage is a considerate duty. Give what is due. And this verse reminds me of what somebody once said, that marriage is as much about being the right partner as finding the right partner. Marriage often needs work, sir, to be what God wants it to be. It's not all receiving, verse 2, verse three says, it's giving, rendering to each other in a considerate pattern. Verse four reminds us that marriage is an unselfish sharing. The wife doesn't have power of her own body, but the husband has a share in that. And likewise, the husband hasn't power or authority on his own body, the wife has a share in that. And it's an unselfish sharing that's involved in marriage. It speaks there in verse four about her own body and his own body, and it reminds us that what we had in verse uh two, his own wife and her own husband. There are things that we have that are absolutely our own, and within the bond of marriage, there are those things that we can only share with one person and one person only, and it's to be shared in a totally unselfish way. And then we come to verse five, and verse five says that marriage has to be a matter of mutual consent. Mutual consent, not doing things high-handedly, individually, or individualistically, but by mutual consent. It's interesting too that verse five really says that the only thing that should come between a husband and wife, what is described here as prayer and fasting. Spiritual exercises, in other words, is the only thing that should come between a husband and wife, and, says the verse, only for a certain short period of time, only temporarily. Now, I'm saying that again because I'm only too conscious of the kind of society we live in, and it seems the norm that men do their own thing and women do their own thing. What I'm suggesting to you, and it's just a suggestion, it is that Christian couples should try to do as much as possible together, should try and share as much as they can with each other, so that, as it says here, Satan doesn't tempt you. Christian marriage is very important, and what I'm just saying in this part of the meeting is that valuing our redemption, not only in chapter six, purifies men and women when they're single, but in chapter seven, valuing re- valuing our redemption binds men and women together when they're Christian in marriage. And so you see the great redemption price that was paid for us not only affects the salvation of our souls, but it affects too what we do with our bodies. And here in this chapter, there's clear, strong reference to the purity of our bodies, even as First Peter one spoke about the purifying of our souls. Now, I think it's time we moved on to Acts twenty. and let's do that now and just say a few words about this other very important matter. Something else that's very precious to God is his assembly. And so as we come to Acts chapter twenty, we read there the words of the apostle as he spoke to these elders in Ephesus. He says, take heed to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. The assembly of God's people, the local church, as it's called clearly in the Holy Scriptures, and as it's referred to in Acts chapter twenty, the local church is very important to God, and each individual local church is equally important to God. Whether the numbers are large or small isn't the primary consideration as far as God is concerned. Each individual testimony belongs to the Lord. Doesn't belong to the people who go there, doesn't belong to the elder brethren, it doesn't belong to man, it belongs to God. And we know it belongs to God, and we also know it's very precious to God because of the price that he paid for it. He purchased it for his own blood. And so your local assembly matters to God. I just wonder tonight, as Stephen was saying, how much does it matter to you and me? What kind of value do we place upon it? Because there's no doubt in these verses about the value that God places upon it. It costs the blood of his own son. It costs the blood of his own son. Well, in the ministry that Paul gave to these Ephesian elders, he brought that point to them first. Take heed to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. And in these verses that we read at the end of Acts twenty, there are at least four things that he encourages these elders to do because of the importance of the local church to God. Four things that I suggest elders today need to pay attention to. And then, just in case you're sitting back and say, that doesn't apply to me, I'm going to say four things that I suggest should be true of every member in a local assembly. If they really value the assembly as it belongs to God and as God has placed his great estimate upon it. What are these four things? Now, verse twenty eight, to feed the church of God. Verse thirty one, to watch over the church of God. Verse thirty five, to support it. And verse thirty uh five again, to give to it. Now, yes, I would be the first to say that primarily and in the context, these four things do describe the work of overseers in a local church. And to those who do take this high and important office by the grace and goodness of God, what a challenge there is that they would sincerely and diligently feed the local church, and that they would watch over it, and that they would support it, and that they would give to it. But as I said to you, I don't think we should sit back and say, well, that's just for the elders, that's not for us. Because, you know, if you're a part of a local church, if God has shown to you that your place is there gathered to his precious name, of that he has. And if you value the church, the assembly where you meet, in the same way that God values it, purchased with the blood of his own son, then do you not think that there's something there for you and for all of us as well, that we should all be exercised about heeding it, about watching over it, about supporting it, about giving to it. Let me put it the other way. I think each of us should face up to it that we shouldn't starve the assembly, and that we shouldn't weaken it. We shouldn't starve it, and we shouldn't weaken it. And you know, there are several ways of doing that. You could starve it, and you could weaken it, for example, by, by non-attendance, by just not coming. You could starve it, you could weaken it by non-participation, just coming and keeping the seats warm, as it were. You could starve it by shirking or even abandoning the responsibilities that God knows, and you know, you should be taking up. Not doing the work that God has fitted you for. All these things would starve and weaken the assembly, wouldn't it? And I'm just wondering how it's going to be tomorrow morning when we gather around the Lord to remember him. Will you be coming with something to give? Will you be coming willing to participate? Will you be coming to bring to the Lord and bring to the atmosphere of the assembly that which is precious and edifying? Will you be trying to feed and support and give to the local church? I say that because I'm sorry to see sometimes the carelessness and the indifference and the coldness that marks so many of God's people in local assemblies. How the work that has to be done is so frequently left to the few who seem willing to do it. Yet God wants us all to be involved. Shouldn't we just hear in m First Corinthians three that God's going to try everyone's work? That's what soccer does. God wants us all to be involved, wants us all to be involved in the activities of our local assembly. Obviously, we can't all do the same thing. Wouldn't do if we tried. But the point is, the Lord has given us all something to do. The Lord has given us gifts of some kind. And remember, as Stephen said, it's not always the things that appear in men's eyes to be important that are really important. It's not those obvious and public things that are always the things that matter most. What a contribution the sisters can make to the assembly gatherings, although their voice is never heard. What a contribution brethren can make to assembly gatherings, even though their gift is not for preaching. The Lord has given us all something to do. And that's chapter twenty would remind us that if we really appreciate that the assembly that we're associated with was purchased with the blood of God's own son, boy, surely we'll want to to feed it and support it and strengthen it, and not starve it or weaken it by carelessness or indifference or, or any such thing. Well, remember that in all the things that we do in the assembly, and all the things that we say about the assembly, it's not their meeting. It's God's. It's his church. There's another thing in these verses, just before we leave it, and I'm sorry to close on a kind of a negative note, but just look at what it says in verse twenty nine in verse thirty of our chapter. There's another way of starving or weakening the assembly, and that is by self-assassiveness and by seeking followers of your own. That's what Paul was. There's another thing in these verses, just before we leave it, and I'm sorry to close on a kind of a negative note, but just look at what it says in verse twenty in verse thirty of our chapter. There's another way of starving or weakening the assembly, and that is by self-assertiveness and by seeking followers of your own. That's what Paul warned these elders about. He said, not very long after now, there's going to be leavis wolves coming in, and yet even of your own selves, people are going to arise and speak perverse things to draw away disciples after them. And that's happened, isn't it? You know, and I know, and it's sad because it's divided up the saints, and it's disgraced the testimony, and it's hurt so many people. It's the work of the very devil to create divisions in the local assembly. And it's precious to God. It's important to God. My word to you as I close this little bit of the meeting in all humility, and yet in all sincerity, my word to you is just this. I wonder if you and I will see to it in these days that we live in, that we'll be feeding the local church, and we'll be supporting it, and we'll be watching over it, and we'll be giving to it, remembering the verse that we read last, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus when he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Don't go to the meetings just to see what you can get from the meetings. Oh yes, by God's grace, we always get. But go to the meetings exercised about giving, giving in a positive way, giving for the glory of God, giving perhaps in an unseen way, but giving just the same. And you know, when you give, the more you get. May the Lord bless his word, and may the Lord give to all of us a deeper appreciation of the great price that was paid for our redemption, and that it would affect our souls and our bodies and our assemblies for his glory and honor to whom they all belong to. Before we ask our brother Stephen to close in prayer, it's my privilege to thank our two brethren tonight on behalf of the assembly for the help they've been. I'm sure you've profited by being here, and again, we give you an invitation if you're free to come, and if the Lord will, among hands to join with us at our next Saturday night meeting. And we started just that minute early. We'll finish just that minute early and keep faith with the time. Mr. Arbuthnot will commend us to the Lord in prayer, after which we'll ask our two brethren to go to the door and shake your hand as you retire. Thank you. Shall we pray? Our Father, it has been our joy to be gathered together with fellow saints tonight around thy precious word, and how we thank thee that we have been reminded from its pages of the precious blood of our Lord Jesus. Our Father, truly this must take us to the very basis of why we are here tonight. We are here because there was one who came from heaven and died for us. He suffered for us. He shed his own blood. O our God, we do pray that this would change us, and change us, O God, in every department of our life, that we might be strict in the morality that should govern us in all our ways, that we would endeavor the more to serve thee in every opportunity, and that we would give ourselves wholeheartedly to the building up of the local assembly. Oh our God, what great things thou has done for us, what great things thou has brought us into. Help us, O God, to truly make these things good in a real practical way, that by thy grace and that by thy spirit we might live lives that are of value for the glory of thy name. So we thank thee, O God, for the privilege of hearing from thy precious word again, and we pray that indeed, if it be thy will, as we gather together tomorrow morning, we might be able to give thee something back and tell thee something of the great glories of thine only son. Our Father, how we thank thee for the Lord Jesus. He saved us because he took our place, and he bore the wrath that was our due. Our Father, we thank thee for what he's done for us tonight, and we pray that thou would help us to serve him till he comes. In his worthy and precious name we give thanks. Amen.