Acts 20

Acts 20:1-38

A JOURNEY Acts 20:1-38. “AND after the uproar was ceased”. The reference is to the effect of the town-clerk’s speech. He had silenced the mob and sent them about their business. In nature, storms are commonly succeeded by calms. It is so in life! There are preachers who prefer a storm and create as many as possible that they may feel the thrill of the excitement.

They prefer an “uproar” to a calm. Paul did not belong to that company. He appreciated peace if it could be had without paying too great a price for it, and was apparently glad when this storm subsided.He “called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia”. It seems clear that for a period his ministry was quietly received, for the text reads, “When he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. And there abode three months”.But permanent peace was not for this Apostle. His Gospel was too revolutionary; his spirit was too courageous; his convictions were too uncompromising, and shortly there was brewing about him a far more dangerous rebellion than had voiced itself at Ephesus. The storm that is to be most feared is not the one that is attended with loudest thunder, but the one that is preceded by an awful silence. The Jews were not talking now; they were “lying in wait” for him. The hidden foe is more dangerous than the furious one. Doubtless Sopater of Berea, and Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonia, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus, his faithful disciple, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia, were the outstanding young men who had been attracted to this mighty Apostle of a new faith. But they were more than his pupils and followers. They were doubtless playing the part of a body-guard as well. Every great teacher does two things: He attracts students to him and he creates self-defenders. This chapter falls naturally under three heads: The Work at Troas, The Witness at Ephesus, and The Final Warning. THE WORK AT TROAS Paul’s pupils and fellow laborers preceded him to Troas and awaited him at that city. “These going before tarried for us at Troas” etc. (Acts 20:5-16).He drew men most magnetically. Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timotheus, Tychicus and Trophimus—these are choice spirits; these are men whose influence will be felt; these are pupils who will catch the spirit of their great teacher and of whom the church will hear. The great difference between teachers is not always mental; it is often magnetic. There are men in the teaching office who are filled with information, but they can’t so impart it as to excite any enthusiasm, and there are other men who can take the same information, or even less, and make it to live and glow in other lives. Paul belonged to the latter company. He was more than a load-stone attracting to himself; he was a magnetizer imparting power to others.

That’s the superb element in the ministry. It was that quality that made Peter, Paul, John and James.

They live in history, not alone because they wrote Epistles, but because they so imparted themselves to their fellows that those fellows became living epistles, known and read of many men. They were not necessarily the best of the Apostles so far as moral character was concerned, though each of them justly enjoys an enviable reputation. But they did not make it by belonging to the goody-goody crowd. Peter slipped once and went back to his old custom of profanity, and the faithful record indicates that he did a hot job of it. He slipped another time and smote off the ear of a high priest’s servant—a very unchristian deed. Paul seemed at times disrespectful of the very dignitaries of whom he wrote to others that they should be subservient.

John, considering his conscious weaknesses, wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”, and James has no personal record of which to particularly boast above his brothers, but they were men who moved their fellows mightily, whose lives were not negative merely. How often have you seen two brothers and noted the marked difference between them?

One of them was quiet, dignified, peace-loving, smooth-speaking; the other vociferous on occasions, capable of righteous indignation, of eloquent condemnation of wrong; in fact, of “a row” when he felt that it was justified. And how often have you heard men say of the latter, “Well, he is more successful, but he is nothing like as good a man as his brother.” That all depends upon what you mean by goodness. If you mean polity, smooth speaking, lacking in conviction, careful in speech, he is a better man than his brother. But if you speak of the robust virtues, everything is in his brother’s favor; and you will find it a well-nigh universal law that his brother is the effective man. He will call many of his fellows about him; he will shape their thinking; he will inspire their actions; he will provide them a motive for conduct; he will multiply himself in them. This was Paul! He combined ceremony and speech. “Upon the first day of the meek, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them”. Paul, then, was not one of the men who will have nothing to do with ceremony. The breaking of bread was to him a sermon. It meant the broken Body of his Lord. The taking of the cup was to him the repetition of truth. It spoke of the shed blood.

There are ceremonies that may seem to be administered in silence, and the Lord’s Supper is one of them; but silence is sometimes more eloquent than speech. Who could preach as the Lord’s Supper preaches? What man could ever tell the story of the broken Body as the broken bread tells it? What man could ever give significance to the shed blood as the cup passed “in remembrance of Him” and attended by the thought of Scripture? “As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come”.And yet, the ceremony should be followed by speech, and “Paul preached unto them”. The bread requires expression that it may bear its best testimony. The cup must get its Scripture setting if men are to see in it the shed blood and be reminded of the price with which they were purchased.

Ceremonies are significant, but the significance must be pointed out in speech, and sometimes it requires extensive speech that all may understand. Paul was not a brief preacher. He was not given to sermonettes. They did not put a clock before his face and tell him he had to quit in twenty minutes. If they did he forgot the clock and the people forgot the request, for at midnight he was still speaking. Eutychus had doubtless been out with his girl the night before, or else had attended the theatre and stayed for the second show, or possibly had come in from a day’s hard work on the farm, and fell asleep and dropped from the third gallery and was taken up dead. There are preachers who commonly put their audiences to sleep, but Paul was not among them. His sermons were usually lengthy, and this is the only instance of sleep recorded against him, and even in this instance the preacher that put the man to sleep wakened him up again; in fact, he brought him back to life. After all, that is the preacher’s business—to make men live. Apparently this incident did not even end the service, but did give occasion for rest and refreshment, for when he “had broken bread and eaten”, he “talked a long while, even till break of day”.The age to which we belong is too superficial to make such sermonizing possible. Once in a while its representative will remain for the second show, but not often. We are people of change and we prefer it of the lightning sort—short sermons, snappy music, service soon over—these are our slogans.

That is why it is possible for people to change from an orthodox pastor to a heterodox one and not know it. Their studies are not consecutive; their interests are not deep; their information is not adequate. He controlled the movements of the company. The company “sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot”.He determined the place of meeting; he fixed the time. Others attended upon his wishes. When on board he said, “To Mitylene”, “to Chios”, and the next day “to Samos”. Doubtless their stop at Trogyllium for a short stay was Paul’s wish, and his word was sufficient for the trip to Miletus. How significant the phrase, “For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus”.

Paul determined everything! Even the skipper of the ship took orders from him. He was a master among men. Society has always known such masters. Their fellows circulate around them as the earth and the moon circulate around the sun. But it is the drawing power of the central one that holds them and determines their circuit.

You will find such a man in the center of every great business, at the head of every great bank, the ruler in every railroad corporation, the chief of every school and church. THE WITNESS AT EPHESUS He reviewed his former ministry and its meaning.“And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. “And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, “Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: “And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, “Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:17-21). If you go back to his Ephesian ministry as recorded in Acts and turn over to the Epistle written to this company, you will find confirmations of this claim. Old men are given to reminiscence, and often it is a meaningless prattle about what they did in earlier days. But Paul is not in his dotage and this is no vain boast. It is a just review and is intended to bring the elders of the church into an adequate conception of their office and obligation. The plain meaning was: “I expect you to continue that which I began, both to do and to teach and I expect you to resist as I resisted; to teach both privately and publicly as I did in the streets and from house to house, to testify likewise to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, for these are the fundamentals!” He anticipated approaching trials and interpreted them.“And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:“Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.“And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.“Wherefore I take you to record tins day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.“For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:22-27).Paul was not a man free from fear, neither was he one controlled by it and cowed in consequence of it. He did not go to Jerusalem ignorant of his fate and he did not turn back in order to escape it. The voice of the Spirit in him was to go, but the same Holy Ghost witnessed that bonds and afflictions awaited him. However, he could truthfully say, “None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).It is little wonder that Paul is so famed an Apostle. Such courage is not with weak men, and such convictions are not with the shallow. They suggest alike greatness and depth of character, and if Christianity is anything it is character, and when Christianity does not control conduct and determine character it is a mere profession, it is a counterfeit. He defended both his course and counsel.“And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.“Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.“For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:25-27).It is a great testimony! It was born under the circumstances of sadness! He knew he should see them no more, but he could say, “I am pure from the blood of all men”. Doubtless, he was thinking in Old Testament terms. “If the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.“So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the House of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.”“Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezekiel 33:6-7; Ezekiel 33:9).There is more or less of a feeling that the day of this strenuous responsibility is past, but who shall say it? May there not be a frightful reckoning for those ministers who have preached “another gospel” which is “no gospel”; who have stripped the Gospel of its every word of warning; who have adopted the smooth speech of hypocrisy; who have themselves drunk from the stupifying potion of modernism, and as drowsiness creeps upon them, pass the bottle down the line that their audiences may drink from the same, and know the sensuous pleasure of pleasant dreams, of no conviction of sin, no judgment to come, no hell in the hereafter? The twentieth century sleeps, but it is the minister who must answer for that fact before God. “O thou son of man, speak unto the House of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins he upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live”? (Ezekiel 33:10).But, the chapter continues in THE FINAL WARNING“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” (Acts 20:28).This verse is so important that we shall not attempt its full treatment at this time. We shall return and give to it a chapter. Mark, however, that in the remaining Scripture he warns against the greed of gold, and his warning moves them to weep. He warned them against grievous wolves.“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 every one night and day with tears” (Acts 20:28-31).A careful study of these verses will reveal three thoughts. First, that ministers are intended to oversee and “feed the Church of God which He has purchased with His own Blood”. Second, that sometimes the overseer becomes a consumer, and instead of feeding the Church of God, he feeds upon the Church, consuming the flock; and, forgetting the price with which they have been purchased— the Blood of Christ—he considers but himself. It is a pathetic picture! It leads logically to the second suggestion, that the man, animated by only a selfish interest, will seldom or never stand by the sacred truths of revelation. Sooner or later he will deny the Blood with which he was bought, and “speaking perverse things”, will “draw away disciples” after himself. How significant the Apostles’ warning to the people, to “watch” and “remember” his former word to them, how he uttered it with strong crying and tears, commending his loved ones to God and the Word of His grace, which is alone able to build up and to give an inheritance to all them that are sanctified. He warned against the greed of gold.“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 skewed you all things, how that so labouring 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” (Acts 20:33-35).The greatest single menace of the successful minister of the twentieth century is suggested here. “I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel”. The Church of God suffers from penuriousness on the part of the small minister and the average layman, and from “greed of gold” on the part of the most successful minister. The moment a man reaches the point as a preacher where his services are in demand above and beyond the time that he can well spare from his pulpit, he is tempted to capitalize his preaching. It is a profound pity that ministers and churches will call for busy men, asking them across the continent, requesting them to leave far more important fields and far bigger and better tasks to come and help them with their little problems, and then when, out of the generosity of his heart the preacher of power responds, proffer him a check for his services that will sometimes scarcely pay his traveling expense, and that commonly represents no sort of sacrifice on the part of the laity, no planning or anxiety on the part of the inviting preacher. There are literally thousands of men conducting small churches because they have such small ideas, and such men uniformly imagine that if they pay your travel expense they have proven themselves extremely just, and from their company come the most cruel critics of their more successful brethren in the ministry. The average American church has little more sense of justice—not to speak of generosity—than does the average English church. What more could be said? But, let us look at the converse of this picture. Paul was in universal demand. Churches everywhere wanted him. The cities everywhere crowded to hear him. The fact that a member of the Sanhedrin had cast in his lot with the humble church, was enough to pack the biggest place when he appeared. Yet, Paul never reached the point where he said, “I have to have an income of $50,000 per annum in order to live as I would like to live.” It is a pity that any preacher ever made such a remark. Or, “I will come to you if you will pay me $100 a night and expenses.” That phrase taken from a letter would not look well set down beside Acts 20:33; nor would it sound well in the light of Act 20:34 or Acts 20:35. Finally, His warnings were met by their weeping.“And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.“And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him.“Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship” (Acts 20:36-38).It is doubtful if there is any affection exceeding that which exists between spiritual fathers and spiritual children. The same Apostle writing in Hebrews 12:9 says, “We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence”, but the man who begat us through the Gospel and in the Spirit has a claim upon life which we not only recognize, but the meaning of which we deeply feel. It is a sad day when the family doctor dies. Oftentimes we say he is the one who brought us into the world. But it is even sadder when we part company forever from the one who brought us into light and into life. To look on his face for the last time is to feel the sting of sorrow indeed. There is no relation that exceeds in sanctity and in sweetness the relation of the spiritual father to spiritual children.

Acts 20:28

THE CHURCH OF GODAct_20:28. “THE CHURCH OF GOD” is so important a theme as to deserve separate and extensive treatment. In recent years I have been associated with the construction of important buildings, and I have found it money well expended to employ a good architect in each instance, and in insisting that the contractor do every bit of his work in accordance with the plans provided for him. In our effort to build up the Church of Jesus Christ, there is but one right way of going about it, and that is to follow implicitly the Divine plan which has been perfected for us, and, in the Word, is placed before us. The minutes of this morning, then, let us give to a study of the architect’s work that we may go on intelligently in our work upon “The Church of God”. Four fundamental truths seem to be foundation-stones for the Church of God. IT SHOULD HAVE A The denomination to which I belong has never, until modernism came, called this statement into question, or lost sight of it in its teaching. When one looks into the Scripture it is easy to see that our position in this matter was in keeping with the demands of the Word. Regeneration is essential to salvation. The Master both clearly and fully taught this to Nicodemus when to that splendid moralist He said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God; that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:3; John 3:5-6).To the Corinthians Paul writes, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God”, and thereby put his teaching in perfect keeping with that of His Master. Dr. Wilbur Chapman tells us that he once had a blind neighbor whose custom it was to go all about the town alone. One day, just at the hour at which this neighbor was wont to go to dinner, Dr. Chapman saw him going in an opposite direction from his home, and asked him if he were going to dinner. He replied, “I am.” The Doctor said, “You are going in the opposite direction.” and, laying hold upon him, turned him about, and shortly saw him enter his own house. That is the necessity that Christ voiced. Men by nature are going in the wrong direction, and are only turned about when regenerated by the Spirit of God. No man is fit for the Church of God until he is a saved man. Such only as are regenerated can receive this truth. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul writes, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”. And, one of the greater duties of the Church of God is to teach men the truth. Without truth there is no freedom, and without truth there is no growth. As Mr. Martineau says, “Truth only subsists for him who has discovered it freshly for himself and it is realized only so far as it is apprehended.” And the man who has not been regenerated cannot apprehend the truth as the Apostle tells us, and therefore is unfitted for the Church of Christ, the great feature of whose work is instruction in the things of the Scripture. John McNeill tells the story of a man who said to his minister, “I am amazed that a man like you should go to these conventions. What new thing cam these convention speakers tell you? It is all in the New Testament.” “Yes”, replied the pastor, “that is the trouble; too many people leave these things in the New Testament. What we are attempting in our assemblies is to get them out of the New Testament and into the lives of those who hear”; but “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God”.Again, only the regenerate have the required character. Church membership with some means simply a name in the church manual, but church membership ought to mean a name to live, a character that will honor Christ. Paul, in the Epistle to the Galatians (Galatians 5:19-21), tells us what are the works of the flesh, and in Galatians 5:22-23 what are the works of the Spirit. It is these latter—“love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance” that are needful to the Church of Christ, and they are the fruits of a regenerate life. One of the books read in the early times was “The Shepherd of Hermas”, in which a temple is described as a building which stands in the midst of twelve mountains—some of them black, one of them very white. They had a saying that the stones from the white mountain of childhood are ready to be put into the temple, and the stones from the black mountain must be made like the white stones of childhood before they can be put into its walls. These early Christians had a proper conception of the Temple of God built of the lively stones of regenerate men and women, for only such as have been made white through the cleansing power of the blood are fit to enter into it, adding their names and characters to the completion of this holy structure. IT SHOULD BE NO OF PERSONS Possibly no feature of the Church of God is better emphasized in the Scriptures than this: The Church had its beginning with the common people. The first disciples and Apostles were plain fishermen for the most part, neither rich nor educated. Of Christ it is said, “The common people heard Him gladly”. And when John the Baptist in prison grew despondent, and sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another”? Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and show John those things which ye do hear and see; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them”. You notice the climax of thought. Perhaps the best evidence of the divinity of the Lord, and certainly the one point at which He was positively differentiated from the Scribes and Pharisees—the reputed teachers of the time— was this, that He preached the Gospel to the poor, and out of their number organized and began His Church. It seems strange how little we learn from history. The great denominations of this day are in danger of forgetting their origin. There is not one of them but was born in poverty and bred in hardship, and yet those who having begun with nothing, under the Hand of God are enriched and increased with goods, often show the least sympathy toward those starting where they did. I have noticed that the hardest taskmaster for men is not one who was born a lord, but one who has risen from the bottom of the office to overseer. And it is a good deal so in churches. I should not be in the least surprised if the time comes when the Salvation Army will lose their interest in the slums.

The Baptist denomination and the Methodist—the great peoples of this country numerically (and I doubt not financially as well)—were once as poor as the Salvation Army and made their appeal to much the same people, and they were wise, for who knoweth which shall prosper, this or that”?Dr. A. C. Dixon says the great question in commerce is as to the refuse. A large silk manufacturer in Liverpool made little progress in business until he invented a machine that has utilized the refuse of his factory. The Standard Oil Company has now an enormous income as a result of their using the refuse of their refineries. As with commerce, the great questions of the day—social, political, and religious—are concerning the social nobodies, the great unchurched masses of our cities. The church that makes an appeal to them and succeeds in so giving them the Gospel that they will receive it, will see them not only becoming Christians, but prospering under the Lord, and will receive from their open hand an income which no man can calculate. John D. Rockefeller had but fifteen dollars a month, we are told, when he was received to church-membership; and the senior Colgate, the noblest man of that noble house, was at one time a poverty-stricken boy in the city of New York, hunting for a job. The churches that received those two not only evinced their Christian spirit, but introduced into the denomination men whose millions have enriched the treasuries of the whole Baptist cause. The Church of God should give cordial reception to the rich. He who is “no respecter of persons” may have more of sympathy for the poor, but not more of love. There is on the part of some people a positive aversion to the well-to-do. Anarchy and socialism sometimes creep into the church and voice themselves against every man who has been prospered of the Lord in material things. I read some years ago that book which created such a stir—Dr. Strong’s “New Era”. I gave somewhat careful study to his severe arraignment of the churches in their patronage of aristocrats and their neglect of the poor and the unlearned. He says, you remember, “Now, it is the well-to-do who have the Gospel preached to them and who hear it gladly; and the humbler classes, with whose life Christ’s lot was cast, and who for eighteen centuries were more easily attracted to Him, are now estranged from His church. Once ‘not many wise men’, ‘not many mighty’, ‘not many noble’ men were called. Now, not many ignorant, not many poor, not many humble,” and then he proceeds to show that this has come about by the class spirit which characterizes the Church, all of which I question.

There are always some cheap aristocrats, usually people of no means or people who have means for which they have not labored, who would feign shut out the poor; but I do not believe such is the spirit of the great body of present-day believers. I think the explanation of the intellectual and financial superiority of church people exists in the circumstance that Christianity makes for mind and money, and in my observation many of our well-to-do people stand more ready to stretch out a hand to help than some of their critics are to receive it. It is a popular misconception that the Christ who began His Church with the common people never received any other. Before His death the noble name of Nicodemus was probably enrolled among His followers, while the wealthy Joseph of Arimathaea was His friend, faithful to His death, and even afterwards. The ample house on the hill of Bethany where the fortunate Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus lived, was the most hospitable in all the land, and the Christ, “who had not where to lay His head”, found always the prophet’s chamber open there and the softest pillow awaiting His weary brow. Matthew was able to spread a sumptuous feast, and Zacchaeus was rich. For one, I do not believe that all the well-to-do followers of Christ are dead. Modern church-membership has given worthy successors of these noble New Testament names. A. T. Stewart amassed his forty millions, and yet Swett Marsden says, with some justice at least, “There was not a smirched dollar in all those millions.” Charles N. Crittenton, New York’s successful business man, used his silver and gold to save hundreds of girls out of the slums, and set up in our own city a monument to his Christianity that Minneapolis will more and more appreciate as the days go by. I have no doubt whatever that money, when rightly made and spiritually administered, is one of the mightiest powers for God and good known to this world, and I hope to see the day when the churches of Jesus Christ shall count their millions as they have never done, and contribute “as He has prospered them”. Henry Ward Beecher was the most versatile minister of his time, and in my judgment a wonderfully broadminded, big-hearted man, and among the many sayings that having passed his lips are made immortal by their own worth, is this, “A select church is a dead church. A church’s power consists in cutting the loaf from the top to the bottom, and I doubt if any church is worthy to wear God’s Name in which the rich and the poor cannot meet together and recognize that The Lord is the maker of them all’.” THE CHURCH OF GOD SHOULD BE RULED BY THE HOLY GHOSTHere my appeal is also to the Scriptures, and they are replete with teaching upon this point. No matter what the business in hand, there is but one appointed ruler, and in this age that is the Holy Ghost Himself. It is a part of His office to make choice of a pastor. Notice our text and its teaching upon this point. “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers” (Acts 20:28).Truly, as Dr. Gordon says, “The office of pastor and its incumbent were alike by direct and Divine appointment. In Ephesians 4:8-12 (R. V.) we read, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men; and He gave some to be Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors, and Teachers, for the profiting of the saints; unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the body of Christ”, In proportion as we depart from that teaching, interminable troubles are our lot. Look about you today and what do you see?

In all the history of the church the relation between pastor and people was never so loose as now. The long pastorate has al most become obsolete. People speak of settling a pastor. They ought to say “squatting” one instead, keeping up the Western phraseology. Dr. A. J. Gordon accomplished his decease nearly twenty-six years ago, just after the celebration of his twenty-fifth anniversary as pastor of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church. So long and noble a service would not have been possible, but for the fact that the people of that church waited upon their knees for much more than a year for God’s guidance in their choice of a man, in which time they extended a call to Dr. Gordon, which he refused; but so convinced were they of the mind of the Lord in the matter, that after waiting twelve months they called him again. When more churches become Scriptural and surrender this matter of selecting a minister back into the hands of the Holy Ghost, there will be a man for these positions of whose appointment it may be said, as it was of Paul’s, “not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father” (Galatians 1:1).The same truth obtains touching the election of officers. The Holy Spirit should be consulted as to those best suited for each position. Look into the sixth chapter of Acts and see how the first election of deacons was conducted. While the Apostles pray, the people are acting upon their suggestion of looking out seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and when they present Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas, they prayed again and laid hands on them. And note the result, “And the Word of God increased and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great miracles among the people”.

What a contrast to that election was the one which Peter impatiently forced upon the disciples before the Holy Ghost had come upon them, and in which by lot they chose Matthias, whose election God never recorded and whose memory is forgotten, save his name. Paul was the twelfth Apostle and in due season the Spirit selected him, as he himself tells us. Every caucus held for the purpose of putting some favorite into church office is a rebellion against the Holy Spirit. Every argument that looks to the distribution of church offices by way of patronage to certain important people, or to the currying of favor with some dissenter, is a subversion of the whole spirit and teaching of the New Testament, and a grief to the Spirit, who in the ancient time chose the elders of the Church at Ephesus, selected Paul and Barnabas as officials, and administered the offices of His own creation. “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”.Of course the only way to discover the mind of people touching whom they would have fill these positions, is by some sort of vote; but let us remember that it should mean more than a mere show of hands. No man is fitted to vote until he has first asked for and heard the voice of God, and the only majority that God regards is the company of those who represent the will of His Spirit. In the administration of the business of the church the Holy Spirit should govern. All that I have said pertaining to voting for officers applies to the vote upon any question that can come before the body of believers. In my humble judgment, when the Church of God comes together to transact business for the Lord, no man having any other will than to do that of the Divine Spirit, the business meeting of the church will be as attractive as the noblest song service, and when the vote is cast there will be no minority. The Holy Ghost has but one mind; why should not His people wait before Him until they find that out? Be sure the worship and service of the church are the subjects of this same administration. A text taken without any reference to the mind of the Spirit cannot result in a good sermon. A discourse prepared without prayer to Him is still-born. Hymns and anthems, prayers and offerings, all should be made to conserve and express the mind of the Spirit, and in proportion as we approach the Church of God, we will commit her whole ministry to the Holy Ghost, and find as the fruit of such a method a church that will be the righteous pride of men and the joy of the Lord. ITS OBJECT SHOULD BE SOUL SAVING This was certainly the Master’s idea. Of His own ministry He said, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost”. Of the mission of His followers He said, “As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you” (John 20:21).I often wish for myself and my brethren that we might be possessed every one of the Master’s Spirit as was Paul. Dr. Meyer says, “It was Paul’s passion to save men. Send him to Philippi and he will not be there a day before he has turned the devil out of the poor demoniac girl. Put him in jail, and before midnight he will be baptizing his jailor. Send him to Athens, and he will gather a congregation upon Mars Hill. Put him at a bench beside Aquilla and Priscilla, and while he makes tents he will so talk to them that they will accept his Christ. Stand him before a judge, and when he has finished his defense the judge will say, ‘Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian’. The whole passion of the man was to see men saved.” Oh, Church of God, what need of such men in your membership! If I know anything of the spirit of the Scriptures, or the mind of the Master, this is at once the privilege and duty of the present church. Nay, more! It is our first duty, our highest privilege. Before it all other things fade. Educational work the church will do, but that is subsidiary; social service is a virtue of Christianity, but that is secondary. The humanity that helps men’s bodies has the example of Christ Himself for its impetus, but the church whose members are most active and intelligent in winning men from wickedness to the path of the just, and showing them how to escape their sins and enter into the joy of salvation, is the Church of God. The brightest days in the history of the New Testament Church are recorded in the second and fourth chapters of the Book of Acts. In the first of these (Acts 2:41) three thousand souls were saved, and in the second the number of the men was about five thousand (Acts 4:4), and it will be a great day for the Church of God when her Spirit-filled members, forgetting the frivolities that have engaged us too often, and remembering the commission of our Master, turn our talents to this work which engaged the very God Himself while He was upon the earth. Dr. Talmage once said, “The tendency in churches of this day is to spend their time in giving fine touches to Christians already polished. * * It is high time that we throw off the Sunday clothes of sickly sentimentality, and put on the work-a-day dress of active earnest Christianity. It is ours to go out into the highways and hedges and invite the world to come in; ours to issue the invitation long since ordered, and His words are ‘Come, for all things are now ready’.” Some years ago two hundred men were buried in the Hartley Colliery of England. The Queen of England from her throne telegraphed, “Is there any hope for the men?” Afterwards the answer came over the wires, “No hope; they are dead.” Here is a whole race buried in sin and darkness and woe. The question that thrills up to the Throne of God today is, “Is there any hope for the men?” Answering intelligence comes back from the Throne of God, verily through the world’s darkness, verily through the world’s woe, “Yes, hope for one; hope for all.” But, beloved, if the Church of God is to be His agent of redemption to these that are in darkness and are threatened with death, it must have a regenerated membership. It must be no respecter of persons. It must be ruled by His Holy Spirit, and it must set out after the lost—seeking to save!