Wife Lead Church

Face to face. Well, as Micaiah read this morning and as I thought of all the people who saw Jesus or had an encounter with the Lord face to face, all those had a dramatic change in their life. And it's interesting what kind of change occurred in all of them.

When you see the Lord face to face, and with Isaiah, he heard the Lord say, Who shall I send? And Isaiah became, in a sense, a missionary. And he was sent. And when the Apostle Paul met Jesus face to face and saw Him, it transformed his life.

And Paul became a great missionary. He saw the purposes of God. And I believe if you see Him face to face also, it will change you, change your life.

And you'll become a missionary. And the only way we can see the Lord, by the way, the Bible says to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. How can we see the Lord and meet Him face to face? Well, He is revealed here in this book right here.

It's called the Bible. And if you want to see the glory of the Lord and see Him face to face, you're going to see Him on these pages right here. And so as you come here and you immerse yourself in the Word of God and the Lord manifests Himself, His will, His purposes, His heart to you, then you also will desire to go forth.

Amen. Just like Isaiah did and just like Paul. Well, I'd like to share a message with you this morning that is not out of the book of John, but it's something that I've been meditating on recently.

And so I'd like to divert from John here, John chapter 8 that we're in. And I'd like to talk to you about something that the Lord brought to my heart and mind when we were having our marriage counseling time here. And I was sitting back there, probably where Brother David is, Brother Ruben, and we were listening to the individuals, some of you were there, share on marriage.

And this will not be a quote marriage, although there will be some principles there, a marriage message. But my mind thinks oftentimes this way. Marriage is simply a picture of something bigger.

And as the marriage counseling was going on, I was not only thinking about my marriage, but also thinking about the picture of Christ and the church. And some of the things that were shared kind of opened up thoughts in my mind about Christ and the church and the place for the church and our vision and all the things that the Lord has for us. So I'd like to take some time to just share what God has been teaching me.

And I believe that it's good for us as a congregation to remember some of these things. And so I'd like you to go back with me to the very beginning. We're going to start back in the book of Genesis today.

And I'm going to share something with you that's at the heart of Christ and the church. It's pictured by a marriage between a man and a woman. Adam and Eve and this couple were brought together at the very beginning of the Bible.

And I'd like to begin reading in Genesis chapter number 2. This here is a message for us as a congregation to try to keep our focus in the right place. We are a bride. We are the bride of Christ.

We are in a courtship heading for a marriage. And marriage is a picture of Christ and the church. So here in Genesis chapter 2, starting in verse number 7, I'm not going to read down through all of this, but just jumping around here, you all know this story pretty well.

Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 says, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed, and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life, also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

Jump down to verse 15. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. That was His responsibility.

Verse 16 says, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmeet for him.

Now the Lord is laying out this foundation of marriage, and when God makes Adam and Eve, He has in the back of His mind something bigger. Adam and Eve are representatives of Christ and the church. And so I'd like to just bring that to you here this morning.

When God makes Adam and sets him in the garden, and He makes Eve and sets her as a helpmeet for Adam, He is in the back of His mind, I believe, preparing our hearts to understand about what Christ and the church really is. And so Adam is given a place in the garden to tend the garden, and Eve is given to be a helpmeet for Adam. This is at the very beginning of the Bible.

Look over to verse 21. And the Lord God caused, and there's a beautiful picture here, we don't have time to go into all this, but the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. Jesus Christ was dead.

He was buried in the grave. And He slept, and He took one of His ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And that's a beautiful picture of how the Lord Jesus was pierced in His side, and out of His side flowed blood and water.

And verse 22, And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made He a woman. The bride of Christ comes out of the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can only be a bride to Christ because we've been washed in the blood of Jesus.

And so you have this picture, symbolic, of the woman being taken out of the man, out of His side. Verse 22, And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made He a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

And so you have this picture of creation and Adam and Eve, and yet there's something much bigger. And you go to the New Testament and we see this in the New Testament that the man, the husband, is a picture of Christ and this woman. Eve here is a picture of the bride of Christ, which is the church.

I'd like to call attention to Adam and Eve here and just look at them for a minute. Because God gave Adam responsibility. God gave Adam a vision for his work.

And that is over here in verse 15, The Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. God gave Adam a responsibility. And that responsibility was the Garden.

Adam was to be a worker in the field. Adam was to be out in the field laboring. That was his responsibility.

God gave that to him to be a laborer in the field. And I shared this a while back, a few months ago, but when God cursed the ground for Adam's sake, Adam was cursed where his responsibility was. God had blessed Adam, gave him responsibility to take care of the ground, take care of the field.

And when Adam sinned, his field was cursed. So when they went out of the field, there were thorns and fires and thistles. And he had to work by the sweat of his brow.

And so that was Adam's responsibility. He was to be out in the field. Well, Eve's responsibility was much different.

She was to be a mother and a keeper of the home. She was to be a helpmate for Adam. She was to be a support for Adam.

And where was Eve cursed when the fall happened? Eve was cursed in her womb. She would bring forth children in pain and in sorrow. And so you see God's responsibilities here.

Adam is the one who's to be in the field, and Eve is the one to be a joyful mother of children. She is the one to be a keeper at home. And so you see in the very beginning that God gives responsibilities to each one.

And this principle, and I know we all agree with this, I believe this principle throughout the Bible that the man is to be the provider. The man is to be the one out in the field. Yes, they didn't have computers back then to sit at the desk and all the work that we do nowadays.

But back then, men were in the field. They were laborers. They were the ones that were out in the field providing, in the garden, in the field.

And the wife, she is to be the keeper at home. She is to be the homebody, the one who is to bear children and to nurture the children. And so you read in 1 Timothy 5, verse 8, it talks about the man, if any, provide not for his own, and especially they of his own house.

He has denied the faith. These are interesting words. He has denied the faith and he is worse than an infidel.

Boy, that's serious stuff there, isn't it? He has denied the faith if he is not one who is providing, if he is not one out there taking his responsibility in the field and laboring, providing for his family. He has denied the faith and he is worse than an infidel. That's serious.

That's no small thing. When God thinks of a man in a marriage, He thinks of one who is a provider, one who is a laborer in the field. Well, on the woman's side, Titus chapter 2, it says this, that the older women are to teach the younger women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers of home, good, obedient to their own husbands.

Now here's something else that's pretty serious. That the Word of God be not blasphemed. Wow, that's another serious thing.

That the Word of God be not blasphemed. You know, a woman, if she fulfills her responsibility, the Word of God is not blasphemed or not brought under reproach. So you have the importance of a man taking his responsibility out in the field and a woman fulfilling her responsibility by remaining in the home and being a joyful mother of children and specifically being a keeper of the home.

And of course, you go out into the world and the system that we're surrounded by and all these things are collapsing. Isn't that true? These things are collapsing. I mean, I go to college campuses and the girls nowadays are seeking careers.

They're seeking to be providers. Even men are sometimes coming back and being keepers of home. It's all getting all messed up.

And I just want to again remind us all that God has intended for the man to be the worker in the field, to be the provider, and the woman to be the keeper at home and to be the joyful mother of children. That's why I believe, and this is not the message this morning, but that's why I believe we have all the daycare centers. That's why we have the abortion problem that we have today.

It's because men and women's roles are being confused. Women are losing the natural affection for being a homebody, for training and raising up children, and they're going out into the workplace which is causing a lot of problems with regards to children. Men are not taking their responsibility.

And so I want to encourage that. I know you all know that, but I want to encourage that young men, that when you have a place in a marriage, in a home, to be a provider and a laborer in the field. And the ladies, they're responsible to the wives are to be a joyful mother of children and to be nurturing the children and to raising up the children.

I've told some of you this story, but about 15 years ago, we used to write articles in the Shopper's Mart. Some of you probably get the Shopper's Mart here. It's a paper that comes out, a free paper that they put on your mailbox.

But I noticed a church was writing articles many years ago, probably 15, 20 years ago, and I told the congregation, you know, we should write some articles. So we started writing articles in the Shopper's Mart, I don't know, a little three inch by four inch, and I'd discuss all kinds of issues. And I would write some, Joe Thompson, the other elder would write, and boy, we'd start stirring things up.

People would start calling, and we'd get people stirred up because we just faced some of the issues. And one day I was coming from Belleville up north here down to Mount Vernon, and I was driving along, and I looked at a billboard, and it was just a new sign on this billboard, and the billboard caught my attention because it said on the billboard, it was a picture of a nice car, it was a Dodge advertised, a nice car or a nice truck, and the top of the billboard said this, what idiot, I mean this is serious, what idiot coined the phrase stay home mom? And he had this woman in this sporty car, you know, and she's out and about, and I read that and I said, what idiot? They used the word idiot. What idiot coined the phrase stay home mom? Kind of get me stirred up a little bit.

Basically saying that God is the one who established the idea of a stay home mom. I have the article at home, I think Brother David's read it. But I went home and I wrote an article, and I just basically laid it out, you know, okay Dodge, and I just spoke to Dodge basically, here's who the idiot is as far as I'm concerned, the Bible says that God has commanded that of a woman, that she be a stay home mom.

I didn't tell you this, but I went into town in the Mount Vernon, in downtown Mount Vernon on the side of one of the buildings downtown, they had put this same billboard. What idiot coined the phrase stay home mom? This is a true story. I put that article in the paper, my wife can tell you this, within a week those billboards were off those signs.

And I don't know if it was nationwide, it probably was a nationwide thing with Dodge, but they didn't put that sign up anymore. But you know our society, our society does not embrace anymore this idea of a mother, being a stay home mother, and being a joyful mother of children. So I want to encourage some of you ladies, to embrace the role of being a stay home mom, being a joyful mother of children, and encourage us as men, to be willing to embrace the role that God has given, and that is to be a laborer in the field.

Now in marriage, these two, man and a woman, they become one. These two visions become one. They are no longer twain, the Bible says in marriage, but the man and the woman become one.

That's what Jesus said. They are no longer twain, but they are one. I want to read to you Ephesians chapter number 5, here about marriage.

Ephesians 5 verse 31. It says, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. This Adam and this Eve, joined together, shall become one.

And then Paul says this, This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. In other words, this Adam and Eve thing, this man and woman thing, this marriage thing, has a deeper meaning, has a deeper mystery to it, and that mystery is that Adam and Eve represent Christ and the church. So as you look at Adam and Eve and their relationship, and even today, what I'd like to do is look at Adam and Eve as their responsibility, Adam's responsibility in the field, and Eve's responsibility in the home, and see some church doctrine, see some understanding that God has with regards to His church and His bride.

Let's start off with this. Christ's vision as a husband is for the field. Christ's vision is for the field.

I'd like to read, let's turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 9. You know, one thing in teaching through the Bible that I've come across when I teach through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, I feel like, Lord, your vision seems to be out in the field. I mean, not only are you training these disciples to go out into the field, you end your Gospels with, go into all the world and preach the Gospel. It seems like you're training these men to be fishers of men.

Your heart is in the field. And I believe that's where the Lord's heart is as a husband here. His heart is to labor in the field as He told Adam to do.

Let's just read in Matthew chapter 9 starting in verse 35. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.

Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers into His harvest. So the Lord here, His burden is for laborers in the harvest.

Some of you might remember in John chapter 4, we were going through the book of John, Jesus talks to His disciples about lifting up your eyes and beholding the harvest. The harvest is white. The harvest is ready for laborers.

The harvest is ready for those to reap the fruits of the harvest. So as you go through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you see this husband's vision. I want to just compare Christ as the husband to the church, His bride.

You see this vision and this responsibility that the Lord has. The Lord comes and He trains 12 disciples and those disciples were to labor in the field. He says to them, follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.

Again, it's interesting the word church. I looked it up. The word church is mentioned three times in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

It's mentioned nearly 80 times in the rest of the New Testament. It's interesting that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are a testimony of the husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, His life. The book of Acts is a transition book and then you have all the church letters talking about body life.

So you see this pattern. The Lord, the husband, and the wife. So when you think of the Lord as the head of the church, His vision ought to be the same vision that Adam had to labor in the field, to be one who is out in the field.

The church, however, is said to be the bride of Christ and the church is to be the helpmeet for that vision. The church is to be being a home. Praise God for that.

We here are a home. The Bible calls the church the household of God. We're the place where the converts are to come and to be nurtured and to be fed and to be raised up and to mature, just like your homes are.

That's what the church is to be. It is a place to bring the converts to maturity. In Ephesians 2.19, it's called the household of God.

It's a refuge for the converts to come and to grow and to be matured. Look, if you would, to Ephesians 4. I want to read from Ephesians 4. In verse number 11, start there. This is talking about the church.

Ephesians 4.11. The Bible says that He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. God gave the church certain gifts and those gifts are used for the perfecting of the saints. In other words, we as the bride of Christ, we are like the house of God and our burden is for the maturing of God's children.

And so when the Lord brings people in, He gives gifts to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, so we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of stature and the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things. So you see this church mindset here is to nurture and to bring people, children to grow and to mature in the faith. And so if you look at Christ in the church, look at Adam and Eve.

Adam was given a responsibility. Eve was given a responsibility. Adam's responsibility was the field.

Eve's responsibility was to nurture the home and to bring up the children. And so spiritually, I'm trying to move from Adam and Eve to us. The Lord is our head and we as a church, some of our responsibilities.

Well, you see these two visions or these two responsibilities in the Great Commission. When Jesus said, go into all the world, the world is that field, and preach the Gospel. Then He said to baptize them and to bring them into the church and to teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

So you have the Lord's vision in the field and then you have the Lord's vision in the church. The field and the church. The husband and the wife.

The Lord Jesus and His church. These two visions become one vision. The Bible says that husband and wife are to become what? One.

The two are to become one. It's not, let me say it this way, it's not the Lord and His vision and the church and its vision and these two are separate, but actually these two, the husband and the wife, you know when you ever go to a wedding, these two become what? One flesh. There's a purpose in that.

And so Adam and Eve became one. And so the Lord and the church are to become one. In marriage they are no longer twain, but one.

So the Lord's vision was for the field. That's where Adam was to work. The church's vision is for the home.

That's where the children are to be brought and to be raised up and to be trained. And now this vision is one vision together. Husband and wife.

And you see this, and I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but you see this in the body of Christ and the Lord Jesus being the head. For example, my head here represents Jesus. Jesus is the head of the church.

My body represents the church. Now is the head separated from the body? No, it's not. If you look at me, you look at me, you see one person.

I have a head, I have a body. And so it's not my head over there on this side of the room and my body over on this side of the room. No, the head and the body have come together and formed one person.

And so Jesus says that the husband is the head of the wife. That Jesus Christ is the head of the church. And so the head is always connected from the body.

Can you separate the head from the body? Yes, you can, but you're going to kill it, right? And so you don't separate the head from the body. These two are one. But, and here's something important, even though they're one, the body is to be a subservient to the head, not the other way around.

For example, my body here obeys my head. My head does not obey my body. Can you imagine having a body like that, that your head obeys your body? No, it doesn't work that way.

Even though I am one, my body is to be in submission to my head. In marriage, same thing. Even though a husband and a wife are made one, still the wife is to be what? Submissive to her husband, who is the head of the home.

So the husband and wife are one, but the wife is to submit to the husband as her head. And Christ and the church are one, but the church is to submit to Christ as her head. Now we're going to go somewhere here in just a minute, but I'm trying to lay a foundation in your heart to see how Adam and Eve represent Christ and the church so we can learn some things from it.

And we can look in the Bible at different things, but the Bible says this, that we are in Christ. This is Christ and this is us. We are in Christ.

It also says that Christ is in us. And so we're in Him, and He is in us. The Bible says that Christ is in you, the hope of glory.

It also says that if any man be in Christ, and so this oneness, I'm in Him, He's in me. And I'll even go so far as to say this, that the Lord needs us as willing bodies, willing participants in His work, but we need Him too, amen? And we need His power, His strength, His grace. And so these two work together to fulfill the Lord's purposes.

And this was given to us way back in the garden when God made Adam, Adam, I'm going to give you responsibility out in the field. Eve, I'm going to give you responsibility in the home to bring up the children, Adam and Eve. You too are a picture of something bigger.

And that is Christ and the church. Now, I want to share with you how this works in a practical way. I'd like you to turn back to the book of Acts.

Acts chapter number 1. Well, let's do this before we go to Acts. Go back to John chapter 14. Jesus is going to foretell what's going to happen in the book of Acts.

This union of Christ in the church and the church in Christ began in earnest on the day of Pentecost. This oneness began on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and indwelt His people, His bride, the church. And Jesus talks about it here in John chapter 14.

I'm going to start reading in verse 15. He says this, If you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever. He's talking about the Holy Spirit here.

Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but you know Him, for He dwelleth with you, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and shall be in you. That's in the future, the day of Pentecost, He's going to live in you. Verse 18, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.

Think about that. The Lord is talking to His disciples. He's in His physical body.

He's telling them He's going to leave. He's saying to them, I'm not going to leave you comfortless when I go. I'm going to come back to you.

I'll come back to you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Verse 19, yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more, but you see Me because I live, you shall live also.

At that day, and that is the day of Pentecost, you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. You'll know. You're in Me, and I'm in you.

When I come to dwell in you by the power of the Spirit of God. So let's look now to Acts and what happened on that day. I'd like to see how these two visions come together in a wonderful way here in Acts chapter 2. The Lord has ascended.

He is seated at the right hand of God. He's the head of the church. His bride is down there on the earth.

And in Acts chapter 2, starting in verse number 1, it says this, And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Here is the church, I think 120 of them were in the upper room.

And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Now this is what's happening here.

The Lord by His Spirit is coming to His bride, and He's going to live in them. They in Him, Him in them. This beautiful picture of oneness, Adam and Eve, marriage.

And verse 4 says, And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now when the Lord Jesus came into His bride, into His church, He began to compel them to speak. It says here, The Spirit gave them utterance.

Or the Spirit gave the bride the ability to have utterance. If you go back to Acts chapter 1, these very familiar verses, they are very important verses though. In verse 8, But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

And so the Lord says, I'm leaving, but I'm going to come back to my bride, and I'm going to live in you. We're going to be one, husband and wife, and I'm going to compel you to speak or give you utterance or give you power to bear witness. Jump over to Acts chapter 2 here, verse 12.

I'm not going to read the whole story, but people hear them speaking in tongues. And this is a very important day by the way. This is very important to understand the church theology and what God is intending.

The day of Pentecost. Acts chapter 2, starting in verse number 12, And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them, When ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words.

For these are not drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And so here in three different places, we see how that when the Lord by the Holy Spirit comes to His bride and dwells in His bride, His bride is compelled to prophesy. His bride is compelled to preach the Gospel.

His bride, may I say it this way, His bride is compelled to see the field and to have a vision for preaching the Gospel to the field. Now here's something interesting. I never saw this before.

If you jump over to Acts 2, in verse number 41, so the Holy Spirit comes, if you picture this, the Lord Jesus by His Spirit comes down to His bride. He fills them with His presence. Immediately they become preoccupied with the field.

They're preaching the Gospel to the unconverted. And then look what happens here in verse number 41. After the preaching of the Gospel by Peter, it says in verse 41, Then they that gladly received His Word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Now notice what happens here. That the church is added to. The bride.

The bride of Christ. Children are now brought in to the congregation. Three thousand of them.

That's an amazing thing. But three thousand children are added to the congregation. And body life, as we know it, by the way, if you want to talk about church body life, go back here and look at what happens in verse 42.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. This is body life. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

And all that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. By the way, this is good body life right here. There's a good sermon right here about church life.

And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. Now, here's what's happening. The Lord is uniting with His people, His bride.

And His vision for the field is coming to His bride. And when He fills their hearts and fills them with the Holy Ghost, they go forth and they preach the gospel. Immediately upon preaching the gospel, 3,000 people are added to the bride, to the congregation.

And these people begin to enjoy church life or fellowship, body life. Now notice verse 47. Here's a verse I never really thought about in this way.

Verse 47 says this. They were praising God and having favor with all the people. And then the last statement, which I've quoted many times, it says, And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Notice it doesn't say the church added to the church. It says, And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. The Lord is the husband.

The church is the bride. The Lord is Adam. The church is Christ.

The Lord is the one that added to the church. How did the Lord add to the church here? Did the Lord come down in a visible body and did He stand upon a mountaintop and preach to these people? And the Lord added to the church such as should be saved? How did the Lord add to the church here? By His Spirit. He came to His people and He who has the vision for the field, the husband, He filled their hearts and filled them with His Spirit and they went forth and they preached to the field.

They preached the gospel to the lost. And in doing so, the lost heard and they came to Christ and then they were placed in the church in the bride, in the wife. So the Lord here is adding to the church.

The husband is adding to his bride such as should be saved. If you go back here to Acts 2, it says here in verse 4, I'm sorry to make you turn to so many verses, it says, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So that's the Lord.

The Lord came to them in the person of the Holy Spirit and He gave them speech. He gave them power. He gave them what they needed to speak and they spoke and people were converted and souls were added to the church and the church was built.

And so you have these two visions. The Lord's vision for the field and the church's vision for the home. And I'm talking about body life right here.

And I think a balanced congregation ought to have both these visions. A vision for the field and also a vision for the home. And that's the great commission.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's the husband's vision. The field.

And bring them in and teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you. That is the vision of the bride. And you see this throughout the book of Acts.

The Lord's vision for the field. Compelling preaching. And the wife's vision for the home.

Bringing in of the converts to train them and to nurture them. This is what the great commission is. Now here's something I want to caution us all with.

Because as you read the book of Acts, you see these two. Husband and wife. Adam and Eve.

The field and the home. The field and the home. You see the Lord working in God's people.

These two aspects. But oftentimes what happens in the church and we face this, there's always a challenge that church life begins to be predominant or to take over the vision for God's people and we forget the field altogether. And in many ways, we don't have a vision for the field.

And the church is no longer being led about by the husband, but it's being led about by the wife. Now I know we don't like those kinds of things in our homes, but oftentimes the vision for church life is not the field. Well, the vision for church life is the body.

So what happens is the church becomes very inward focused and not field focused. And we begin to lose the vision of our head and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And a lot of problems come because of that.

We fail to see the field as our great vision. Now here's what's the problem. If you don't have the field as your vision, you don't make converts.

If you don't make converts, you don't have a church. First of all, if you don't make converts, you don't have a church that has even people to nurture and to train and to bring them up in the fear of the Lord. And so these two visions have to be together and let me say this, the husband's vision has to be that of the head.

The wife's vision has to be subservient to the husband's vision, just like it is in marriage. The wife is the help meat for the husband's vision. And I know we all believe in this order that the marriage is to be led about by the husband and the wife supports the husband's vision, not a wife-led home.

But oftentimes in church life, we allow the body life to be our leader and not the head's vision, which is the field. When Christ is truly leading a congregation, then the field is the supreme vision and the nurturing of converts is subservient to that vision. The wife is the help meat.

The church or the wife supports the husband's vision. And so converts are made. And here's something I think is a beautiful picture.

The church sees the vision, goes out into the world, brings in converts. Those converts, this is their family, this is their home, and they're trained and they're brought up and they're nurtured. And you see how these two visions work beautifully together.

Actually, you cannot nurture converts unless you first make them. Amen? You can't be a father and a mother to children unless you first have children. And so Christ and the church, husband and wife, the wife was to be subservient to the husband's vision.

What has happened in many church situations is today that the wife is actually on top. And that evangelism is an afterthought. It's what one or two evangelists do every once in a while.

When in reality, the husband's vision should be the supreme vision and the wife is the supporter of that vision. If there is no vision for the field, then there is no convert. The Lord does not add to the church daily such as should be said.

If there are no converts, you know what happens in churches, then we just start fighting with other churches over converts. We start picking each other apart and the church deteriorates. And so if we want to be a husband-led congregation, we need to allow the field to be our vision.

And then what will happen is when we bring in new converts, then the church will be the nurturing place and the supporting place for those new believers. And of course, that's the way the book of Acts teaches and how all through the book of Acts, the head was compelling, the preaching, and the churches were planted to support the converts and to be a household and a family for those converts. And so I see in much of church life, because churches aren't making converts, they begin to fight over converts.

You know how it is. We Methodists are better than the Presbyterians. You need to come to our church.

We Pentecostals are better than those Baptists. Instead of making converts, we're trying to fight over converts. And let me say this.

Here's a thought I had. When you make converts, those converts know where they belong. When my wife and I had our first child, Ezra back there, it was a hard labor.

But when Ezra was born, I had him in my hand there. I didn't walk back to... Amos Swartz was our neighbor at the time. I didn't walk back to Amos and say, Hey, Amos.

We just had this baby. Whose baby does it belong to? Do you want it? Maybe should I take it down to another neighbor and give the baby to them? No. The fact that we birthed Ezra made Ezra our child.

Amen? And the fact that we birth as a church children makes those children a part of this household. Paul talked about being a father to Timothy. A father.

A father and a mother. And so I know it doesn't always work perfectly that way, but I think we ought to have the vision that we ought to build the church with new converts. Amen? And not with those who are all over the place.

But God's heart is that we would add to the church such as should be saved. And the Lord is working to add to the church such as should be saved. And here's another problem.

I was planning on someone to be here today, Nathan and Candace. They called me yesterday and they said they were going to be here, but I don't see them today. Maybe they'll come a little bit later.

But let me challenge us all with this. I mean, I've seen this, and I know you all probably agree with me on this, but one of the problems that we face is churches that we're building on top of each other. There are so many churches and so many people preaching the Gospel and trying to build in America, there's churches on every corner they say.

You know, there's so many churches. But listen to what the head, the Lord Jesus Christ said to the Apostle Paul. He said this, I strive to preach the Gospel where Christ is not named.

I strive, Paul says, to preach the Gospel where Christ is not named. Isn't that something that we ought to strive to do too? If that's the heart of God. To strive to preach the Gospel where Christ is not named.

Not to build, the Bible says, on another man's foundation. And so we want to be a church led by the husband and not by the wife, which has a vision for the field. Adam, your place is in the field.

Eve, your place is in the home. Now I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about Christ in the church. God made Adam and Eve as a picture of Christ in the church.

Jesus, the head of the church, has a vision for the field. And when He came to the church and He became one with His people, that's where that church went to. They went to the field.

And when they made converts, those converts came into the fellowship of the saints, into the church. And they were nurtured in the church. So we want to be a church led by the husband and not by the wife, which has a vision for the field.

And when the converts are made, the church is there to support that vision by providing a home and a nurturing place for those converts. And I'm going to make this statement here and I believe this, that a church that does not have its supreme focus on evangelism is a church that has disregarded its head. Now you may not think that's a very important thing, but if the head is looking into the field and we want to be a church underneath our head, submitted to our head, being a helpmeet to our head, and our vision is not in the field, our vision is in the home, I think we're making a big mistake.

Now I think the home, church life here is very, very important. But you and I know this, if we just enjoy church life and we make no converts, this church is going to die. It's going to die.

It's not going to live more than a generation or two. Yes, maybe our converts can be our own children and they'll carry this church on a little bit longer, but the church is going to die if we don't have the head's vision of going into the field and winning souls. We're going to die.

So we want to be led of the head. And we as a church, the bride, want to support our head's vision and say, Lord, we're going to support Your vision and we're going to bring those converts into the church and we're going to nurture them and train them and bring them up in the fear of the Lord. Now, I shared last Friday on praying that we might be filled with the Holy Ghost.

And I think this goes back to some of the things that we even prayed some of you were here on Thursday night. But if you think about this, if the Lord filled the early church with the Holy Ghost because they had the right vision, and He filled them to go out into the field and to speak and to win converts, and if we pray and say, Lord, would You fill us with the Holy Ghost, we need to also acknowledge that He does that. He comes to us.

He fills us so that we can support His vision. Amen? So many times churches want to be filled with the Holy Ghost so they can have joy or they can have peace or they can use their gifts within the body. And those things are fine, but ultimately in the book of Acts, He filled them with the Holy Ghost so that He could work out His vision of reaching the field.

That was why He filled them. To be witnesses unto all nations. And so sometimes I think our emphasis gets to be so local.

It's just us. And then we say, Lord, we want the Holy Spirit. And the Lord says, well, wait a minute.

If I come and dwell You and fill You, I want to send You out into the field. That's my vision. So I think, first of all, we have to accept the fact that if God fills us with the Holy Spirit, we need to be willing to go into the field and to share and to preach the Gospel.

And so can we truly today acknowledge the Lord is the head of the church? I mean, we know that biblically. We can say these words. I know the Lord is the head of the church.

Is He truly the head of the church? And if He is the head of the church, then He has the same vision Adam had. Same vision or responsibility Adam had. And that is the field.

And if we're His bride, we ought to be a place where the converts can come and as a mother, Brother David even read the verses. I thought about them today. As Paul said, we nurtured them.

We treated you as a mother does her own children. In the church, I don't want to be a wife-led congregation. I know most of you in your marriages, you want to be a husband-led home, right? And you ought not to be a wife-led congregation either.

And a wife-led congregation is a congregation that emphasizes this and not that. The Lord's vision is in the field. And I think if we get behind His vision and pray for the Lord to give us the power to get it done, then when the converts come in, we can be a support and a helpmate as a bride and start to train and to nourish these converts.

And I think the whole church situation would work out just fine. And you look at the book of Acts, and that's how God worked in His people. The Lord, by the power of His Spirit, added to His bride the church and that church embraced those converts and loved them to death and nourished them and taught them the apostles' doctrines step by step and brought them to maturity.

And I know that most of us, and we struggle with this, most of us like the church life. We like to have that home life and the body life and the nurturing and those kind of things. But unless we have a vision for the field, we're not going to have converts.

And then we're going to go for a whole year, 2020, and there's going to be very few people converted. And we're going to wonder what we're supposed to be doing. And then we start looking at each other and what am I supposed to do? Well, I'm just going to start picking at you and picking at you and picking at you.

And pretty soon we start picking at each other. Because we don't have vision. So the Lord says to lift up your eyes.

That's His vision. And I believe that if we'll accept and receive His vision for the field, that God will empower us and help us to bring in converts, and then we as a congregation can nurture them and raise them up to see the same vision. So as I'm sitting there listening to this man teach on husband and wife, my mind is going to Christ and the church.

And he starts to talk about how the husband is to be out in the field and how the wife is to be at home. I'm thinking, okay, the Lord has His vision in the field. The bride, her responsibility at home.

Let's bring these two, make them one, husband and wife. And let's let that wife's vision be subservient to the husband and see how this thing works being led by God's Spirit. So I want to recommend that to you all.

I want to recommend you lift up the vision of our husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I as a church are only His helpmeet. Amen? Helpmeet.

He has a vision for the field. And yes, He looks back and He says when we win souls, we can bring those converts and you can train them and bring them up in the nurture and admission of the Lord. So let's ponder those things and we can talk about them here over lunch and in the days and weeks to come.

But I really have a heart to win souls. We all get a heart to win souls. You say, but there's nobody out there to win.

Then maybe we need to go someplace else and preach the Gospel, you know? Maybe we need to strive, like the Scripture says, to preach the Gospel where Christ is not known. That would take some suffering and sacrifice, wouldn't it? Brother Nathan just called me last night. It kind of stirred me up here with regards to the message.

Nathan and Candice, some of you know them. And Nathan's already bought his plane ticket. He and another brother, and they're heading down to northern Brazil.

He says we're just going to go and we're going to search out, I guess there's areas in Brazil where there are people who have not heard the Gospel yet. And I just talked to him last night. He's really stirred.

And he and this brother that he's met recently are going to go there and just preach the Gospel. And I blessed him, you know. And we need more people out in the field laboring.

And I was hoping he'd be here this morning to share with us a little bit, but maybe some other time. So I'll conclude by saying this. Adam and Eve were God's way of showing you Christ in the church.

Adam had a responsibility. Eve had a responsibility. Those two were brought together and made one.

Let's make sure that we keep the field as the greatest vision. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel. It's called the Great Commission for a reason.

The Great Commission. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word again this morning.