Acts Chapter 20 (2009)

It's uh it's good to actually know that the Lord is still working on a project.

And uh that's something that's actually been uh hidden from the wise and the prudent, but has been revealed unto babes.

So that's those with a teachable, a uh a submissive spirit.

And of course, the Lord uh he is working.

Uh the Bible said he ruleth in the kingdom of men, and that's a fact.

Uh I think uh that was Daniel who made that great declaration.

It's God that removed removed kings instead of kings.

Uh the Bible says he gave wisdom to the wise and uh knowledge to those that have understanding.

Uh the Bible makes us understand, though, that he doesn't rule in the body of Christ, he is the Lord of the body.

That's a big difference.

Uh you can rule, uh, that can be for good or for evil.

But when you're the Lord, you're the one that's accountable, you're the one that's responsible.

And so the Lord is actually working on something, uh, not just in here, but even out there.

Uh when I say out there, I'm making reference to the government of man.

Uh he's working also in the organizations of men.

I think he says in one place that my hand, of course he doesn't declare it, but it's his left hand.

But he said, My hand has formed the crooked serpent, the serpent.

And the crooked serpent is making reference to a system uh that's been concocted by the help.

It's been actually concocted by the uh made of good intentions, maybe noble intentions of good men, of righteous men, uh, but because they put a tool of iron, because they made things cut and dry and neat, because they organized it, it actually lost a life-giving source, which is the Spirit of God.

And if that wasn't enough, uh you know what man is?

Just by nature.

Look at a man, uh, we're fixers.

Uh man just feels like he can fix a problem.

Even naturally, something that breaks around the house, it's usually the male who want to put his hand on that to it at his tour.

I remember Brother Elson gave me a testimony of how he was actually trying to fix something.

I don't know if it was a uh refrigerator or something.

He ended up making it worse.

Uh I forgot exactly what appliance it was, but he wanted to fix it, maybe not have a water heater.

Uh, but he wanted to fix it.

And he's not qualified to fix it, but he thought he was.

Well, when he finished, not only had he wasted his time, uh, and not only has he wasted his resources, but he still had to get someone else.

I remember Brother Michael was trying to fix his car.

Remember that brother Michael, you're trying to, was it a signal light or something?

He wanted to fix it.

Yeah, signal light, but when he finished, they had to call a record that told it from his house to the dealership because he wanted to fix it.

Well, that's what's in man.

Uh that's just a nature uh that a man would have.

We're in and uh inherited fixers.

And so uh you can see a wonderful picture.

I don't want to go too long, let's put time get away from us, but we can begin to see how that in the 11th chapter of the book of uh Genesis, I think it is, after the sons of Noah, that is Ham, Sham, Japheth, and their wife departed from that ark, uh, the Bible begins to make us to know that there was something in man that was a fear of the judgment of God.

And so what did he do?

He began to fix it.

He began to fix it because God had destroyed uh that age or that world with the flood.

And so man instantly began to try to fix the problem.

What did they do, Brother Brown?

Well, they began to get them some bricks.

Uh that's something that's cut and dry, it comes out of an oven.

And the Bible said slime they had.

Slime is what you get out of a pit.

That's what they had for mortar, and they began to build a place of protection.

They began to build that great tower, babel, that's man fixing it.

They never considered to look within, never considered to repent, never considered they began to find the man of the Lord.

Instantly they began to put a tool of iron on things and fix that problem.

Well, of course, they didn't fix it, it did not fix it, and neither will it fix it here.

Uh, because we can see that there's something that actually happened in the earth when we look out here in the religious world and the civil world.

Do you know the Bible make us understand?

Woe unto them that set light for darkness and darkness for light, that call evil good and good evil.

Brother, they'll tell you it's natural, it's okay.

There's nothing wrong with homosexuality.

Uh, there's nothing wrong with uh lesbianism.

As a matter of fact, they pervert a biblical term and they call that they're gay.

Well, they're not gay, gay means happy.

They're not gay, they're perverted.

Uh the Bible has a term for it.

It's called Solomites, and that's a biblical term.

They're sodomites.

And I'm not bashing, absolutely not.

And they say, Well, you're a bigot.

Well, I guess I am.

They say, Well, you're an intolerance, well, I guess I am.

I am whatever the Lord is, that's what I'm trying to be.

And so he's the creator of heaven and earth.

He has a he has the authority, he has the justifiable right to declare what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong.

We just say amen to it.

We just say amen.

And so uh Paul makes that statement, let God be true, let God be true, and every man a lie.

And so uh you can begin to see man with his own intellect and his own uh intenity and his own self-righteousness and his own uh that is uh resourcefulness uh begin to try to legislate righteousness.

Righteousness cannot be legislated.

It absolutely cannot be legislated, it doesn't come that way.

Uh the highest, let me make this declaration, it sounds boastful, but it has to be made.

It has to pound our ears here to get in our get in our heart.

The greatest institution on this globe, and I'm gonna say this loudly, the greatest institution on this globe is not the United States uh of American government.

Uh, the greatest institution is not the RAS, uh, it's not the United States military.

The greatest institution on this globe is the Church of Jesus Christ.

There is no greater institution.

It's not an organization, but it's something that God has instituted whereby a man or a woman can actually come in and thank God and find salvation for their soul.

That is the greatest institution on this earth.

And the highest authority that God recognizes is not uh Terribone Parish Consolidated Government, it's not uh Lafouche Parish government, it's not Louisiana State government, it's not Mississippi government, it's not the United States, but the highest authority the Lord recognizes in the earth is the New Testament ministry, working in order.

For the head of that man or the head of that government is Christ, and the head of Christ is God.

And so that's the order of God, uh, that's the greatest authority that God recognizes.

Man can't see it.

Why?

Because the Bible put it this way, uh, talking about Jesus Christ making reference to himself, he said the world love his own.

If they love me, he said they will love you.

But look what they did.

Brother, they took him and they crucified him.

And Jesus began as he was on his way, uh, that is to God that's healed, he made this declaration.

He said, if they'd done these things in a green tree, talking about himself, he had life in him.

He said, What are they gonna do in a gray tree?

What they're gonna do, brother, when that New Testament church, uh, when they began to lose those apostles, when they began to lose that great covering, what's gonna happen to it?

Well, we can see what happened.

For over 1,100 years, immediately after that, uh, Christians was actually burnt uh at the stake.

Uh, they was put in the Coliseum, fed to lions and bears and wild animals, and they did everything they could to stomp our Christianity.

Do you know you can't resist?

You can't resist the plan of God, you can't resist the will of God, and when they couldn't destroy it from without, they began to try to dilute it from within.

And that is by actually mixing uh the carnality of man uh with the things of God.

He began to dilute it.

The Bible says uh that is, brother, how that dragon has stood before the woman, uh that dragon is talking about Rome and civil government to devour his child as soon as she was born, as soon as he was born.

But thank God the Bible said he brought forth a man child that was the overcomers in that first century church.

It was caught up to God and to his throne.

But that woman, uh, brother, she after that, after she delivered those overcomers, the Bible said she fled into the wilderness.

She fled into the wilderness where God had prepared a place for her where he may actually feed her there for 1,000 three score, and that is in sixty days, 1,260 years.

That was a hiding place the Lord had for the New Testament church, so the dragon could not destroy her, civil powers could not destroy her.

But you know what he did?

She was angry, brother.

She went to make war with the remnant of her seed.

She was angry, and as she began to bring on great persecution, the Bible said, here's what really hurt Christianity, here's what hurt the New Testament church more than anything else.

The Bible says how when that dragon, when that dragon began to persecute that woman, he said the earth opened up her mouth and it helped the woman.

Well, that's talking about Constantine.

And that is when he actually made Christianity become the state religion.

It helped the woman.

It helped the woman.

Well, it did.

It helped her, but my God, at what price?

The persecution ceased.

Uh the uh being ostracized ceased, but brother, at what cost?

Things began to creep into the hearts of men.

Uh things began to get into the New Testament church until everything was set up just like it was and the dragon out there, the same form of government.

You began to see men vote people in and vote them out.

Uh, you began to see them set up bishops over churches and bishops over territory.

That's what man does.

He slices up and he gives territory.

They began to have high bishops and archbishops and most reveren and left reverend and right reverend.

And over there they began to have the archbishops.

Well, that's man's government.

That's not how the Lord rules.

That's the way man rules.

But the Bible said when he, Jesus Christ, uh, when he led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men.

He didn't give left reverends and right reverends and most reverends and assistant bishops, but the Bible said he gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

That was his government.

But you didn't see that any longer in the church because that dragon, brother, as she began to open up her mouth, the Bible said how, brother, she cast out a flood.

It was a flood of words, just a lot of mouths, saying, talking and talking and saying nothing.

But thank God, in spite of all of that, the Lord always had a remlin.

He's always had a remlin.

Just like you can see when uh Ahab uh that is allowed his wife Jezebel, which was that great whore that seduced God's people, that's what he pictured was that system for 1,260 years.

The Bible said, look what look what Ahab did.

Brother Ahab went out, and as he began to try to kill all the prophets of God, and he allowed Jezebel to kill all the prophets of God, and he and uh Elijah thought that he was the only one.

He said, Lord, they done tore down your altar, they done killed your prophets.

He said, and I and I only am left, but God began to ask and say, I have 7,000.

I have 7,000 and have not bowed their knees to Baal nor kissed his image.

Thank God he had a hiding place, didn't he?

He had the people of God that was hid in the cliff of the rock.

Aren't you glad the Lord always had a remnant somewhere?

And I'm excited, I'm thankful, I'm grateful, but I'm glad the Lord has allowed me to come into contact with those people who was down in the cave of a Duda, come into contact with people who would not defile themselves or have a heart not to defile themselves with the king's meat.

And so as we're working with the Lord on his project of restoration, thank God he left us up in the measurement, didn't he?

He left us the wonderful word of God till we can see the order that God had instituted.

We can see the government that God has instituted, we can see how a church should actually uh have services.

It's all in the in the in the good word of God.

Thank God we have examples of how we should conduct ourselves, how we should govern ourselves.

We have examples, brother, what should what we should be striving for.

I know what a New Testament church looked like.

I know what a restored church looked like.

What does it look like, Brother Baum?

Just like we read in the book of Acts.

We began to see men, thank God, that didn't have these uh flattering titles.

Uh we see men that didn't have apparitions, appetites, we see men uh that wasn't thrusting one another through or trying to climb up on their brother's back or trying to lift themselves up by putting somebody else down, but thank God, brother, they look toward God to help them, to help the people.

Do you know it's all about God's people?

It's not about having an audience, it's not about having your names in life, it's not about having fame, it's not about having prestige, but thank God God is concerned about his people.

And everybody who worked in that New Testament church, the number one criteria was did they have a true care for the people of God?

Thank God every shepherd, every shepherd, he loves the sheep.

If you don't have a love for the sheep, you need to be a cattle rustler.

You need to be a cowboy.

But if you have a love for the sheep, then you qualify.

Maybe God, maybe God can actually use me, use you, or use whoever to help his people, to help uh shepherd the people of God.

And so we see this attribute.

As we get into the wonderful book of Acts and try to continue here, we can see this wonderful attribute.

And uh, Paul, everything he did, he was driven by the love that he had for the people of God.

I think he says one time, he said it's the love of God that constrains me.

And so you can see that man went way beyond what was necessary, way beyond what was uh required of him, because there was something in his heart that was propelling him to keep moving forward.

Even though he knew that God had actually cut off the nation of Israel, his heart, his heart was so deep toward Israel, toward his people, he didn't want to see any saved.

I mean lost.

He wanted to see every man saved.

He knew the dispensation had been given to the Gentiles, and he was going to fulfill that.

But brother, every time he went into the city, he tried to go to the Jewish people.

He said, by all means I might save some.

And he knew they were going to reject him.

He knew they were going to scorn him, ridicule him, even at the perils of his life.

But brother, that was something in his heart.

He had a love for God's people, even though they had rejected the Messiah, even though they had crucified him, even though they was persecuting the church, his love was still for the people of God.

That's an example to you and I.

Brother, that's the qualifications of that is that every person who's going to attain to the first resurrection, we would have that type of heart.

And that's why Paul makes that statement.

He lived that life.

He said, A servant of the Lord must not strive.

A servant means a minister, anyone who's serving God's people, he must not strive, but he must be gentle, and he must be patient to all men.

Uh brother, even instructing those that oppose themselves, that pre-adventure God, uh brother, will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth, that they may recover themselves, is how you put it, out of the snare of the devil.

That is the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will.

Do you realize if I think, if I'm left to myself and I reason by myself, do you know the devil is gonna take me captive?

Do you know my mind will captivate me?

Do you know it'll put me in a prison and I can't get out?

And brother, this body of people have a saying, the biggest nation on this earth is not China, and I know China has over a billion people.

And brother, the biggest nation on this earth, brother, it's not Russia, it's not the United States.

The biggest nation you will ever see is what?

Your imagination.

Brother, it can put you in a prison.

It'll have you thinking nobody loves me, nobody cares about me, nobody's going through what I'm going through, nobody's feeling what I'm feeling.

Well, what is that?

That's that imagination, that's that great nation that's on the earth that actually brings men and women to captivity.

But thank God we have instructions, brother, what to do with that.

And so you can begin to see, oh my God, I'm running.

Let me slow it out.

Uh let's do a quick review and let's get into the book of Acts.

But I began to think about Paul, it stirs my soul.

Every time I reflect on that New Testament church, the operation of the uh the Holy Ghost, uh, the serving of the uh the ministry, the degree to which those men went to serve God's people, their consecration, the dedication.

The Bible said they had all things common, and not any man say the things he had was his own.

You didn't see in that New Testament church Paul saying, This is my church, these are my people, or absolutely not.

But brother, everything belongs to the Lord.

Everything belongs to me.

You didn't see him use that term uh uh that is my ministry.

He did say I finished the ministry the Lord was given me, but he didn't use the term my ministry, though he did have a ministry.

His ministry was to the people of God.

And uh that's a that's a word I know it's used quite frequently on the earth, but see, I I don't see that in the Bible.

My ministry, my saints, my people.

Brother, everything belongs to the Lord.

You know what David did?

He showed us a wonderful picture, brother.

He kept his father's sheep.

This is his father's sheep.

All the people of God belongs to God.

We're just under shepherd, who under whom Peter called the great shepherd.

He calls them the chief shepherd.

And all of us were just under shepherds.

We're trying to work, uh that is to keep the wolf and the bear off of the uh uh the people of God or the sheep that belong to the Lord.

And so Paul even tells, uh, let's go on down a little bit.

Uh but we I think we're in the book of Its, which chapter we stopped in?

We finished the 19th.

And then we get into the 20th chapter.

Um Sister Nazareth, by the way, she's at war.

She didn't give an account of herself.

Uh just angela.

And uh as they would say over in Kentucky to youngin'.

Other beloved.

What did we stop at?

We finished the 19th.

And uh this is good.

I'm glad because now let me say this uh as we began to move toward the close of Paul's life uh and the order of this New Testament church.

Let me establish something.

You enter into another dimension.

When you begin to read uh from the 13th chapter, 16, 17, 18, and 19th, that's Paul going out into Asia, Asia Mind, what we call Europe.

Uh you see Paul working uh, brother, in the Middle East, and he's beginning to spread the gospel.

Now you're gonna see the end of that.

No longer he's out establishing churches, but now Paul is coming to the close of his days.

He's coming to the close, he's coming to the close of his freedom.

Let me put it like that.

Now, brother, he's gonna actually preach the rest of his life and chunk and bang, I'm sorry, in chains and in bonds and in prison, but brother, that didn't stop him.

I appreciate a man who has convictions.

I appreciate a man who's willing to suffer for what he believed.

I've said it, I've said, and I'll say it again.

If I'm not willing to suffer what I believe, then I just don't believe it.

What I am I be persuaded, I may think it, but if I'm not willing to suffer for it, then I don't believe it.

Do you know a man when you get up and you go to work day after day after day, he believes that it's going to yield some reward.

When a parent works with a child and they go with them and they work with them and they work with them, they believe it's gonna actually yield some reward.

But if you actually begin to say, What I believe, if I work with this child, if I chastise this child, if I spend time with this child and I love this child, I believe the child will become an upstanding citizen.

Well, you say it, but if you don't do it, then you really don't believe it.

That's just mental consent.

If I believe, brother, if I believe it, the Bible says, show me your faith without your works, then I'll show you my faith what?

By my works.

And so Paul, brother, he believed, thank God, he believed whether he was in bonds or whether he was free.

He believed that his charge on this earth, he said, I'm a debtor, I'm a debtor, he said to listen to the Jew first and to the Greek.

He was a debtor, and you couldn't, you couldn't uh uh I'm how should I put this?

Uh you couldn't nullify, let me use that term.

You couldn't nullify what was in him by putting him in chains.

You couldn't nullify what was in him by putting him in bonds and putting him in prison.

That was something God had invested in him, and he said, as much as in me is, he said, but I want to preach the gospel to you.

As much as in me is, as much as God has deposited on my job is to give it out.

As Jesus Christ said, he told those 12, freely you receive, freely you what, freely you give.

And you say, well, that's good for the ministry.

No, that's good for everybody, that's good for everybody who has the breath of life of the Holy Ghost.

If God has given you health and strength, if he's giving you a sound mind, you owe that to somebody.

You owe that to somebody.

Uh I'm persuaded, I'm persuaded.

Oh, I'm sorry, I want to be disrespectful, it's good to have uh Brother Gomez.

And it's good to have Brother Don after a long period of time making vows, he's here to pay his vow tonight.

I want to acknowledge these wonderful brothers for being here.

I appreciate that.

I was about to make a statement.

Uh and I like to let the Lord give me time to put some things out, but tonight is not the time of the Bible study.

So let me share this with you.

And you put this down, you write this down.

You owe you owe your brother, you owe your sister, you owe the young people to be the best that you can be.

And God.

You owe your brothers and sisters to be the best that you can be.

I owe you to be the best that I can be, all that I can be.

And for me to deal with my own life with a slight hand is not gonna bring forth fruits meet for repentance.

I'm not sorry that God I said I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry, brother, for the life that I lived previously.

I lived a life, I gave it all my time, Brother Michael.

On Fridays and Saturday, well, actually started Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, we parted.

I gave it everything I had.

Uh, when I was a servant of sin, but I was free from righteousness.

Now that we're made servants of righteousness, we owe it to our brothers and sisters to be free from sin.

That's bringing forth fruits, meet for repentance.

And to be the best I can be, to be all that I can be, all the Lord will allow me to be by uh by some grace.

Maybe you might exhort your uh brother, maybe you might be an example, or you may provoke your brother.

I think Paul makes that statement.

He said that we should provoke one another to love in what?

Good works.

We should be Bible students.

Be Bible students.

You owe it to yourself, but more than that, I owe it to my brothers and my sisters to learn the things of God.

Paul says study.

And see, this is not a play game.

This is not a play.

This is one of the things that separate, this is one of the things that separate religious thinking from a righteous heart.

A religious person does enough to ease their conscience.

I can read a psalm, a part a few uh verses, a part of a psalm, feel good about what I've done, and go get into bed and call it a night.

I can read the Bible one day, skip a couple days, and hit it another day and feel pretty good.

That's just a religious mind.

I can go to church and ease my conscience, that's a religious mind.

But brother, that's not.

That's not someone striving for maturity.

Uh that's not someone trying to please God.

We have the Bible for what pleases God.

Paul tells Timothy, he admonishes Timothy.

Timothy, he said, study.

Are we Bible students?

To do what?

Show yourself approved.

Unto who?

Unto God.

Study.

To show yourself approved unto God.

A workman.

Show me this is not a game.

This is not pastime.

This is not when it's convenient.

Well, I'm too tired tonight.

I didn't have time today.

I really don't feel like it.

Well, see, that's not the spirit.

That's not the spirit of someone who's really striving for masteries.

If I have that spirit, Lord, let me get that out of me.

Let me show myself and prove unto you that work where it needed not be ashamed.

Rightly or what?

Divide in the word of God.

I owe it to it to myself.

And I owe it to my brothers and to my sisters to have oil in this vessels, not as a minister, but as a saint, all of us, that we may provoke one another to love and to good works.

With that being said, what are the books of history Old Testament?

I can't hear you.

Let me say this.

Don't not come because you don't know your books.

But it's a shame for you to come here.

It's a shame for you to be here and don't even know the books of the Bible.

That's just the basics.

That's not even the basics.

That's just the beginning.

That's just where it starts.

If I can't take the time to learn the books of the Bible, I'm surely not going to take my time to learn the teachings of Jesus Christ, to learn his doctrine.

If I don't take the time to learn these books, then I'm really not serious about learning of God or learning of Jesus Christ, taking his yokes upon me.

Brother Brown, are you rebuking me?

Brother, I'm rebuking every spirit in here that refused to take this yoke upon me, upon us, and learn of him.

That is not the spirit of Christ.

That's the spirit of the Antichrist.

What do you mean Antichrist?

The word Antichrist is not a man.

That's every spirit that's against Christ.

Every spirit is against Christ is an Antichrist.

If I refuse to learn, the Lord has given me electric.

He's given me eyes.

He's giving me this holy writ on the pages.

I can read.

I'm without excuse.

I'm not living in the 15th century, 16th century where the word of God was bound.

I'm not living in a time, brother, where I wasn't privileged to have an education to even be able to read and write.

I'm not living in a time where I need a lamp, but I can hit a script and license on.

I can learn this Bible.

I can read this Bible.

If I don't, it's because my heart is somewhere else.

My heart is somewhere else.

How do you know your heart is somewhere else bound?

Because my attention and my time is somewhere else.

That's how the Bible says, Well, a man treasures, and everybody treasure their time, but with a what?

Heart be also.

We have to learn of the Lord.

Let me say this.

Brother, I'm serious about salvation.

If I'm not, let's go shoot.

Let's do as Peter said.

Let's go, let's go fishing.

But brother, we're here to be saved.

We're not here to be religious.

We're not here to ease our conscience.

We're not here to pass time.

Brother, we're here to be saved.

And you can't, I can't be saved, you can't be saved, we can't be saved walking in darkness.

He said, The path of the wicked is the darkness.

He knoweth not in what and what he stumble.

But thank God the path of the just man is as a what?

Shine of light.

Shine of light.

Give me some light.

Give me some understanding.

He said, in that light shall be what?

You'll see light.

You'll get more understanding.

Jesus Christ said, to him that hath shall more be given.

But to him that have not, have not, shall be taken away even.

You ever seen someone drop on the inner seat?

You ever seen the fruit live on the mind?

But it wasn't always that way.

But brother, when you begin to lose the zeal for God, when you begin to lose your hunger and lose your thirst after righteousness, when the word of God doesn't throw your soul, when the love of the Lord, brother, doesn't rejuvenate your inner land any longer.

Let me tell you what you're doing.

You're backsliding in your seat.

Absolutely so.

And so what does the Lord do?

Well, brother, he won't give you leprosy.

I don't believe God smacked you with illness and smack you with sins because he's displeased with you.

Absolutely not.

But I do believe this, though, Brother Michael.

But I believe he'll just pull the shades down on you.

He'll just pull the shade.

How do you pull the shades down on you?

He just lets you run the further and further away.

He leaves you alone.

Leaving you to yourself.

It's the worst judgment that any man, woman, boy, girl can get from God.

Brother, when your heart don't smite you.

When we read this Bible as we ought to, brother, every day I don't read, I get on my face and say, God, have mercy on me.

I have sinned.

You say, Brother Brown, reading the Bible, dude.

No, read is not a sin.

Not reading this Bible is a S-I-N.

How do you know that, Brother Brown?

Because the Bible says to him the know to do good and do it not, it is what?

The Lord has given you everything that qualifies me to pick this Bible up and read it.

And not to read it, not to learn of him.

That's not an invitation, what you ought to do.

He said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

That's a commandment.

Just as much as being baptized in water, just as much as repenting.

Brother, learning of the Lord is a requirement.

And I hope I pray the Lord will give us the heart, brother.

We never, Brother Michael, we never let down on this.

That we don't lower our standards.

It takes something, brother, if you're going to have a garden, to actually get in here and put this uh uh put this plow in and break up this old fall of ground.

The Bible said, I went by the vineyard.

That's the garden.

The vineyard is where he planted the grapes of a slugger.

That's a ministry that was slowful and warning the people.

He said, Listen, and Brother Michael, he said it was all grown over with thistles and nettles, thorns and thistles.

And that what is thorns?

That's the people.

There's no zeal for God.

And I hope God forbid God forbid that that will be found here in the body of Jesus Christ.

Not in this assembly, but even among any of the people of God.

But brother, when we just love singing, when we just love talking, when we love philosophying, but brother, we don't love bringing forth the fruits of righteousness.

We don't love the word of God.

We don't love getting picking these wonderful grapes.

What do you mean, grapes?

That's what comes out on the vine, isn't it?

And brother, you got a bunch of foxes, brother Michael, you got to keep chasing the foxes that you can't pick grapes.

Why?

Because the foxes spoil the vine.

What's foxes?

That's little clicks and little stronghold and little resistance and little gossiping and foul living.

And brother, you've got to spend all your time trying to clean that out to clean that out the out of the video, trying to chase the foxes out, brother Elton.

But thank God the Lord has given us peace and we have a wall, a star wall.

We said the star wall was taken out, that's the ministry.

Let's pick some great.

Let's get into the word of God.

Thank God, brother.

We can keep doing the laws.

And so the least we can do, the least we can do is make our calling and election sure.

And so let's go over these books in the Bible with some resolve, with some meaning, and if I don't love, then shame on me.

Because this is, if you can't, if I can't do this which is least, if you can't do this which is least, then brother Holly's going to do that, which is great.

If we can't do this, look what Jesus said.

He said, if you're not faithful in that which is another man, I thought I just used a scripture not long ago.

If you're not faithful in that which is another man's, you didn't take the time to organize these books of the Bible.

You didn't even write it.

I didn't write it.

God used other men's and he gave me this.

The truth that I got, the Lord didn't thunder this in my heart.

I got this from being taught.

And so if I'm not faithful in that which is another man, this Bible, I didn't write it.

Other men's wrote this.

Other men's taught me.

Other men put this in a form that I can actually learn the books.

The man, other men did that.

If I'm not faithful, which is another man, who's going to give me my own treasures or my own riches?

That is, who's going to touch my mind and give me a revelation of what I'm reading?

Who's going to actually open up my understanding and let me see the things the Lord is talking about?

Let's be faithful.

And that which is another, the things that other men has given us, and then the Lord will give us our own riches.

He'll touch our mind and give us revelations.

Without a revelation, much greater than a vision, without a vision, people perish.

But without a revelation, without a revelation, we, Brother Michael, don't have anything revealed to us.

All we're doing is echoing.

All we're doing is paul parent.

All we're doing is repeating what was said.

But when you have a revelation, brother, you can't take that away from a person.

That's been revealed to them by God.

And so that is that's your true riches.

That's your own.

That's something God has given you.

And so let's make sure, let's make sure we're making our calling and election sure.

Now, with that being said, if you don't know the books of the Bible, ask the Lord to forgive you.

And go home and learn.

Now, history.

Old Testament.

What about Job Psalm, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon?

What is that?

What's your one of those books?

New Testament history?

Pauline Epistles.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Now, I'm not the greatest, but my name is James Brown.

I do have some rhythms.

You gotta put some rhythm to that.

Romans.

First Corinthians, come on, get some rhythm to that.

Uh-uh, so I don't know because you didn't start in the wrong key.

You start from Romans.

Come on.

Romans, come on.

Hebrew.

Why are they called Pauline epistles?

Paul wrote them.

And what's the other group of of the epistles in the Bible?

Why are they called John?

Several writers, several writers.

And they are all right, great.

History, I'm sorry.

Law.

That's good.

Here's one that's interesting.

Minor.

What's the other word to that?

Why they call minor prophets?

Smaller writings.

God never had such a thing as a minor prophet or a major prophet.

God was put into categories by man.

And uh you know everything is man does, it doesn't have to be evil.

You just don't have to pollute something.

Uh there's prophets.

And man put them into categories of major, just because the volume of the writing is larger, and then he put minor.

And the Old Testament, everything is broke up into groups of what?

Five and what?

Five and twelve.

And so minor major prophets, how many are there?

Major prophets?

Minor prophets?

Law, history, poetry.

You have it.

And so minor prophets.

Major prophets.

And they don't change, they're the same every week.

So there's no reason we should know them.

New Testament poetry.

New Testament prophecy.

You know what I was saying.

You know, you gotta be careful when you laugh at ministers.

There was some, there was 42 children of Israel who laughed at Elijah.

You remember that?

What happened to them?

Two shebars came in and written in peace.

I'd be laughing at Brother Brown.

You know what I was saying.

What I do there?

I wasn't.

New Testament prophecy.

Revelation.

Uh gospel.

Okay, did I leave anything out?

How many books are there?

How many old?

New?

What's the difference between old and new?

One's the moon, one's the sun.

But if I if I didn't understand pity and types, what would you tell me?

I say, man, that Tonsor, I don't know about her, but she got problems.

What's the difference between old and the new?

Before Christ and after Christ, is that true?

Is it before Christ and after Christ?

Matthews, Mark, Luke, and John, where is that?

That's the Old Testament.

Look at Sister Betty.

Look at Sister Battery.

She said, now I know Brother Brown teaching that false doctrine now.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Is that an Old Testament new?

That's as written in the New Testament, but is part of the Old Testament.

Everything that happened prior to the day of Pentecost was the Old Covenant.

The word testament means covenant.

That's what it means.

It's a covenant.

And everything that Jesus Christ did, he did it under the law of Moses.

He was under the law of Moses.

The day of grace did not begin to the day of Pentecost.

That was the implementation of the New Testament order and the New Testament teachings.

The thing Jesus Christ taught those disciples in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, not one of those men could live it at that time.

They didn't have the ability to live it.

He taught them first, then he gave them the power.

He gave us the power, and now he's teaching us.

We come in through the back door.

Brother Justin used to make that statement all over all the time.

We're coming in through the back door.

So he gave them the laws and then and then he gave them citizenship.

That's not so strange.

If a person came from another country and they wanted to become a citizen of America, you know what they learn first?

You learn the laws.

And then they make you a citizen.

And so the Matthews 5, 6, and 7 is the laws of the New Testament.

That's our Leviticus.

And then the day of Pentecost was the New Testament church.

But the writings are separated.

The writings are separated before the birth of Christ and after Jesus Christ.

That's the way it's put into categories.

And this book of Acts is the thing that bridges the difference between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which is the teaching of Jesus Christ.

And the book of Acts bridges between that and the writings of those apostles.

It's the bridge between the two.

How does it bridge it?

Because Acts is the what?

It's the activities or the actions of those apostles.

It shows us how they implement it.

And with that being said, do we finish the 19th chapter?

Here we come to a different dispensation of Paul's life.

You won't see him traveling any longer, establishing New Testament churches in Asia, Asia Minor, the Middle East.

But brother, here he's coming to the close of something, and it's the beginning of something altogether different.

Brother Michael, help us think if we can go through this kind of uh speedily.

Give us a calless.

Give us a carless.

Where's Mr.

In the meantime?

I'll read.

He said, after the uproar, and this was a great insurrection that actually happened in Ephesus, uh, because Paul was teaching and had been preaching that Diana was no god or no goddess that was made by hand.

And Alexander and different ones, uh, because it was copper uh silversmith, they actually began to cause a great persecution.

The Lord delivered them out of that.

And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto his disciples.

And listen to this term.

Do you notice this word?

Paul called unto him who?

Their disciples.

I say his, but their disciples.

What disciples?

These men was disciplined followers, and but he's gonna call their names.

Do you realize to follow Paul was the same thing as to follow Christ?

Paul said, Be ye followers of me, even as also I am of what?

Christ.

And you can say, but I'm not gonna follow no man.

You don't have to follow man, but that's the order God has.

And if you don't follow a ministry, you cannot follow Christ, because that is his ambassadors on the earth.

It's his ministry.

And so he began to say, look, he embraced them, and so he's leaving Ephesus, and he uh for the departed and to depart and departed to go for it to go into Macedonia.

Now, verse 2.

And he gone over those parts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece.

Okay, Brother Mike, help me out now.

And there are old three months.

He said, When the Jews laid wait for him, he was about to sail into Syria and purposed to return from Macedonia.

They're accompanied him into Asia.

And we and we sailed away from the room.

We use terms like we who's writing this.

Luke.

Luke.

Do you notice that he never brings attention to himself?

Do you know he was part of that great company?

He never mentions his name.

This is the type of spirit these men had.

They weren't trying to bring glory or fame or recognition to themselves.

But uh he's actually writing, he's recording, if I can use his terminology, he's recording, uh, brother.

Do you know uh that's another subject, we'll get into that a little bit later.

Do you know his name is called Luke as what is uh Lucas?

His real name is Lucas, and he's actually was Paul's kinsman, he's kin to Paul.

And uh it's amazing how people, these great intellects, the fundamentalists, they do all this studying and they're so blind to the things of God.

They say, Well, Luke was a physician, so evidently he must have been a Gentile.

Well, that's impossible.

Paul was a Jew, so guess what his cousin would have been?

The Bible has 44 writers, all of them are Jews.

Why would he get to Luke and make a difference?

Then Jesus said himself, salvation is what?

But that's just a Gentile.

Well, he we gotta be in there somewhere.

No, I'm afraid we're not.

This is a Jewish book.

This is God's gift to man.

It's a plan of salvation, a way of salvation, and it came through the Jews.

When Jesus said salvation is of the Jews, everything that you read, all of the prophets, all of these things came down to the nation of Israel.

But thank God now I'm glad he's torn down a middle wall of petition, brother, and there's no difference between Jew and Gentile, bond free, male or free male, you are all one in what?

In Christ.

And your Bible students.

Here's the problem with that.

They use that to justify women preachers.

Well, the Bible said there's no difference between male and female.

Well, if that's the case, if you want to take that scripture literally, I don't see a man having children.

I don't see you wearing a dress, I better not say that no more.

Wearing a dress.

Men ought to be wearing a dress.

There's no difference where salvation is concerned, but there is a difference where order is concerned.

There's a difference where government is concerned.

My God, that's not pervert the word of God.

Come on, brother Michael, I'm sorry.

I got on to that.

He said, We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came unto them in Troas in five days where we abode seven days.

Okay, here's, and I would talk about verse 4, but time is far spent.

Brother, this is a roll call of great, great men.

Uh for instance, Gladys.

You see Paul writing to him.

You see, uh, I'm sorry, you see uh John writing to him.

When you read, uh, what is that, 2 John beloved, he's writing to Gladys.

Gaddis.

He said, uh beloved, will above all that you prosper and be in health as your soul prosper.

Religion uses that verse all the time.

But what they don't tell you, this man had a church in his home.

And he was somewhat uh well to do financially, but brother, he gave that to the people of God.

Uh Paul stayed in his house.

Uh Paul had uh established a church there in his house, and this man used all of his resources for the people of God.

And so when John writes that, uh beloved, I will that you prosper and be in health.

That's the same thing he wishes for the people of God, because everything that uh God has had, he gave it to the people.

He was just a conduit.

He was just a conduit for the people of God, but I'm not gonna get into that.

Time won't suffer us to.

Let's pick up in verse 7 because this is a wonderful chapter.

Listen to this.

And upon the first day of the week.

Why did he put that in there?

What's the first day of the week?

What's the Sabbath?

What day are you supposed to worship on on the law of Moses?

So why were they gathered on the first day of the week?

There's a group called the Seven Day Adventists out there, and they'll tell you you're supposed to worship on a Sabbath, and the Sabbath is on a Saturday.

They're right, the Sabbath is on a Saturday.

So why were these people gathering together on the first day of the week?

They can't why?

Why on a Saturday?

On a Sunday.

Well, here's why.

Well, they had a reason.

The Sabbath, which was a Saturday, is when the Jews gathered.

The Jews gathered, they were still in the law of Moses.

Paul, as his custom was, that's when he went on a Sabbath.

He went to the Jews, to the Jewish synagogue.

And then on a Sunday, he met with the Gentiles.

There's no difference between a Sunday and a Saturday in the eyes of God, but here's what God's people was gathering on a Saturday.

The Jews gathered on a Saturday, so Paul would go to them.

As his custom was in every city, he went to the synagogue.

That's on a Saturday.

And then he preached to the Gentiles, which was the next thing.

It's not the Sunday was not sanctified, neither was the Saturday sanctified under the New Testament.

All days should be sanctified.

And so here, brother, the Sunday, the first day of the week is not because that's a Christian day.

It was just from conveniences.

That's all it was.

And they gathered on a Saturday.

When Paul went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, he wasn't trying to keep the law of Moses.

That's just when the Jews would gather.

And they began to put those people together, brother, they went when they worship then.

Brother, they continue to worship mostly, Brother Michael, on a Friday, on a Saturday, on a Sunday, on a Monday, on a Tuesday.

But here is Paul, his time is limited.

And so look what he does upon the first day of the week.

When the disciples came together to do what?

Break bread.

Paul preached unto them.

Paul preached unto them.

They come together to get into the good things of God, but Paul preaches it.

So he does it on the first day of the week.

Now listen, this was a custom in that early dispensation where Paul was concerned because that's when he could get the Gentiles together.

What is that?

1 Corinthians chapter 16.

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

Brother Elder was the deacon in the B church.

You know that scripture.

He said, On the first day of the week, let every man lay aside as the Lord has.

Come on, brother, I'm quote that.

Look at brother.

Don't you know that?

Uh what's that, 16 and 2?

This is the Gentile.

The book of Corinthians, written to a Gentile church.

16 and 2.

Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him and stored as God has what?

Prospered him.

And so that was just a custom where the Gentile people was concerned, not because the Sunday was when Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

That's not the truth.

Not because the Sunday is a Christian church day.

That's not the truth.

It was just for conveniences.

Does that make sense?

Are you with me?

Okay.

The disciples came together to break bread.

Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until what?

Now here is somebody, brother.

This is an interesting chapter.

Because somebody was tired, couldn't keep their eyes open.

Somebody, brother, just could bored with Paul's preaching.

They'd rather sleep.

And there was many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together.

And there set in a window a certain young man.

Boy, I wouldn't want my name in the Bible under these conditions.

Help me pronounce this.

Who?

That's close enough.

Look what he did.

Then fall into a deep sleep.

And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the what?

And was taken up dead.

Brother, that's what you call sleep and a perpetual sleep.

And so he was born.

He went to sleep.

And Paul went down, fell upon him, and embraced him, saying, Trouble not yourself, for his life is in him.

And when he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread and eaten, and listen, and talked a what?

Long while.

Brother, in other words, this man felt dead.

Paul goes down, resurrecting, brother.

You would think it's time to turn out the meeting.

Absolutely not.

You say the brother Bob wants people to go to work the next day.

Well, sure, but brother, here's a chance to get the bread of life.

And Paul was more concerned, he was more concerned about maximizing that opportunity to feed God's people than he were about their jobs the next day.

I know that's a sacrifice, but brother, here's the commitment that church had.

And look, and watch this.

And when he brought the young man alive, there was not a what?

A little comfort.

And so Paul preached all night long.

Help me out, Brother Michael.

He said that he went before to a ship and sailed into Aesos.

They're intending to take in Paul, but so he had appointed binding himself to go over.

Okay, I won't read this all of it for the sake of time.

Skip down to verse 16.

Here's Paul.

Paul is actually, he's purging his heart to get back to Jerusalem to be there for the Feast of Pentecost because the Jews was going to be there.

And he's trying to testify to his people.

He's still trying to win the Jews.

Verse 16.

He said, for Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus.

Sail by it.

What do you mean by it?

He's trying not to stop there.

Because he had a church there.

If he went there, Brother Mike, I said he had a church, as a church he established, he would be tail tied up there for days and would have missed his Pentecost uh celebration.

And so he's trying to bypass, he's trying to get there.

He said, because he would not spend time in what?

For he hasted that it would mean heard if it was possible for him to be in what?

The day of Pentecost.

The day of Pentecost is not the day we receive the Holy Ghost.

The day of Pentecost is the feast of Pentecost.

It's just that that's the day the Lord birthed the New Testament church.

But here's these next verses are very critical to you and I foundation and the New Testament order.

I want us to read this very cautiously.

Verse 17.

These next few verses are critical.

Watch this order.

And from Teletus, he sent to Ephesus.

He didn't call for the church.

He called for the what?

Who's the others?

That's the ordained ministers.

When he talks to that ministry, he's talking to the people.

The people would have delayed him.

They would have loved him.

They would have spent time with him.

He didn't have it.

But when he talks to the ministry, he's talking to the people.

How does Jesus Christ talk?

He talks to the ministry, and that's how he talks to the people.

Watch these things.

Watch these things carefully.

Verse 18.

And when they was come to him, he said unto them, first thing he does, he established this.

Listen to this real cautiously.

Read these words as if you're there.

He said, Know ye.

In other words, I want you to remember this.

That from the first day that I came into Asia, that's the whole continents.

After what manner I have been with you at what?

Remember how I lived.

Remember my sacrifice, my tears, my temptations.

But brother, I never wavered.

I didn't back up.

I didn't faint.

I kept pressing.

I stayed faithful.

Listen to this.

Look at, I want you to remember my life.

It's what he's telling them.

He said, verse 19, serving the Lord, talking about himself, serving the Lord with what?

All you what?

Brother, how many ministers can say that this today?

He didn't have an arrogant spirit.

That wasn't a collar turned around backwards.

That was not some flattering titles he used.

He could make this decoration.

He wasn't their Lord.

He wasn't their king.

He wasn't a Jesus.

Nobody called him pastor.

With that old slave mentality.

Master, master.

Well, that's this pastor.

Where do you get that from?

You get that off the plantation.

You got it off the plantation.

That's where it comes from.

That's where it comes from.

There's something in a man.

There's something in a man.

We got to uh deitize something or somebody.

But Paul wouldn't have that.

He said, servant, and that's why, brother, you saw me had such an uproar about calling this man somebody pastor.

I'm not, I'm Jesus Christ's servant.

I'm no man's slave.

I'll honor you as a pastor, but that's an office.

I'm not going to call you Lord.

I'm not going to call you master.

I'll respect you.

I'll honor you.

But I'm going to worship God.

I don't care who you are.

Absolutely.

No.

And so in the Bible, we refer to people as a pastor, but brother to to to uh to stole a man office to the point that I'm lifting that man up above what he ought to be.

Go ahead, brother Elton.

Well, Brother Elton, Paul said I became all things to all men.

By all means I might save some.

I wouldn't offend him.

If he want to call you Reverend because of his eating herbs and not meat, I would ask him not to, but if he insists on it, I wouldn't fight him about it.

I really wouldn't.

I really wouldn't, I wouldn't fight him about it.

As long as you don't expect me to do the same thing to you.

Yeah.

And and see, let me tell you, let me inject this in, and Paul makes a great statement here.

Do you know where that actually came from initially?

It's because people would dishonor, and it's in us to do that.

You would dishonor, we would we will.

Let me use this example.

I know it's natural, but God bear with me here.

The office, I didn't vote for Obama, President Obama.

But regardless whether I voted for him or not, guess what he is?

He's my president.

I didn't vote for anybody.

Not that I voted against him, I didn't vote for anybody.

I couldn't vote for McCain because I can't vote for anybody who's as callous that you don't want to give people a uh a minimum wage increase when you're making millions of dollars a year.

Something wrong with you.

And I couldn't vote for this man, but because he's too liberal.

You think that we all men and women, uh, we can all marry and don't make any difference, and uh I got a problem with you.

So I didn't vote for anybody.

But the point is, he's our president.

Do you know how they belittle him?

You ever watch the news media?

That's hard for them to say President Obama.

Watch him.

They can't say it.

It chokes them, it hurts them.

Well, something's in your heart, something's wrong with you, and it's bringing it out of you.

This is what's in you.

Something is wrong.

He's President Obama, whether I like it or not.

As long as he's in that office, that is who he is.

And how did how did it how did it come about being?

Brother, they're trying to get people to honor an office.

So they call the office in the man's name.

And putting that in front of the people, it reminds you that this man is in the office.

Governor Jindu, Mayor Smith, President Carter.

And so they put the title of the man with the name so that you are honored the office even if you don't like the man.

In the body of Christ, we learn to honor the ministry.

You shouldn't have to call me Pastor Brown.

You shouldn't have to, I shouldn't have to be called uh your teacher Brown.

Brother should be sufficient.

If your eyes is open, you honor the ministry.

I don't have to use the title in front of my name so that that is what I am.

I am, if I'm teaching, I guess I'm teacher Brown, and I'm Pastor Brown.

But Paul never said Apostle Paul.

He said Paul the Apostle.

And he always said that because the Gentiles or the Corinthians kept trying to put him down and saying he's not eloquent in speech like Apollo's.

He wouldn't walk, he didn't walk with the Lord like Peter.

And so he kept saying, Paul the Apostle.

Peter didn't have to say that.

Everybody knew he was apostle.

Rest didn't have to do that.

But Paul did that for the benefit of the people.

He didn't use the title in front of his name.

You didn't have to call him Apostle Paul.

He was Brother Paul.

But he had to keep telling you his office was so you would honor that office.

If you're taught, you just have to say Elder Turner, Elder Fletcher.

That shouldn't be necessary.

You know these brothers are elders.

You know to honor those men.

You know not to be so common with them, not to disrespect them.

Well, you're taught that.

Now we can use the stone in Babylon, or we can use a two of man and use the title in front of my name so that you'll call me Pastor Brown and then I get special honor.

Or call you Elder Fletcher and get special honor.

But why not let people honor you because their eyes are open?

Are you f- that's that's the root of it?

Are you following me?

And then because we some people have this old real depressed mentality, whether you come off the plantation or not, you just slur it.

You won't even say Pastor Smith, you just say Pastor.

Now aren't you sad?

It's sad enough you have to use the title to give honor, but now you're making the title become something that is not.

You making that become your master.

God help us, Lord.

Have mercy on us.

Oh yes.

I know.

Well, if you're trying to win 'em would I call him pastor such and such?

I don't know.

I would I would do this.

I would under no condition call you Reverend.

Psalms, what is it, 111, verse 9?

Reverend holiness is God's name.

Pastor is a legitimate office.

Uh I would like not to.

But would I do it?

I probably would under like conditions.

I would call a king a king, a president a president.

I I would probably call a pastor if he's gonna be offended.

But we don't do such things in the body of Christ.

But I would uh if that's a custom to keep him offending a brother and I want to win him, yes, I would probably call him pastor.

I wouldn't call you Reverend, but I I would do that.

That's a biblical office.

But I prefer not to.

But uh here's let me make this statement and uh for all of us.

Remember, this is all about winning people.

You want to see people say, I don't want to love anything more than I love people, I don't want to love being right more than I love people.

I don't.

I don't want to be wrong for you.

But if I can find a biblical way not to offend my conscience and and not and and not offend you, then that's what I'm gonna do.

And so I have to reason things out out of the word of God.

If I can call you something that won't offend my conscience out of the word of God to keep from offending you, I'll I'll take time and think about it and try to see how can I get around this without offending my conscience, violating the scriptures and not offend you.

A person can be drunk and just want to argue or don't care about people, and you would say, Well, I'm not calling you nothing.

Well, that ain't the right spirit.

That's not the right spirit.

That's not the right spirit.

I don't want to just be different, I don't want to uh just be offensive, God forbid.

And there was a time I probably wouldn't care.

But as you get older, as you get older, you want to be wiser.

And so, yeah, brother Elton, I would try to find a way to not offend, but I'm not gonna offend my conscience for you.

So I would I would I would consider I haven't done it, but I probably would call you pastor.

I always find a way not to call them at anything.

I try not to call their name to keep from offending them and keep them offending my conscience.

But if I can't find a way to not call your name, I guess I would I would have to try to see that I'd do that.

But this is well, I'm showing you the origin of it, Brother Elton.

This is not the spirit that Brother Paul had.

This is not the spirit he had.

He served the Lord with all humility of mind.

He didn't try to exalt himself, he didn't require special honor.

Now, it was wrong for the people not to honor him, and uh, we'll deal with that as we go on.

We'll see that a little bit later.

Serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many what?

Are you there with me?

With many what?

Tears and what that's just talking about the things, brother, he was tried.

He's gonna tell you by who?

By the be which befelled me by the line and weight of the what?

Brother, that man always was tempted to run for his life.

He was always tempted not to uh preach the gospel or to keep his holdest peace.

He couldn't do it.

He couldn't do it.

Now in verse 20.

And how?

Look at this testimony he's given of his life.

He's not gonna see these people anymore.

He already was, he already knew by the Spirit this was the last time he's gonna see these people.

He had spent three years with them in Ephesus.

He established this church, he pastored these men, he ordained these men, and now, brother, he was not gonna see them again.

He's come to the close of his life.

And so now look what he's saying.

He's saying here's the example he wanted those men to hold on to.

And how I kept back nothing that was what?

But I have shown you and have taught you publicly and from what?

In other words, what is he making reference to here?

Brother, first of all, brother Michael, he gave them everything God gave them.

Everything God invested in him, he gave to the people.

He gave them his time, his energy, he gave them the truth, he gave them knowledge, he gave them understanding.

And he said, I've taught, I've shown you and I've taught you publicly and from house to house.

And let me say this about a New Testament minister.

Brother, if my time is so important to me that I can't stop what I'm doing to help God's people, I shouldn't be in the ministry.

How many ministers do you know, if you really had a crisis, will come to your house?

If a minister won't come to your house and won't stop what he's doing to assist you in a time of crisis, even if it's that you're struggling in the word of God.

They didn't have a telephone.

Paul would go to their house to help them understand something.

He went, he didn't just work publicly, but brother, he got down in the trenches.

He got down in the trenches with people.

This is the life that man lived.

Here is the New Testament ministry in operation.

Not if he didn't waste his time with derelicts, but somebody who wanted to know.

There's no price too great to pay to help somebody understand the things of God.

And look what Paul's.

Look at his record here.

He's talking to the ministry because they are to follow his example.

This is why he called the elders.

He reminded them of how he lived in front of them.

Here's the life they had to live.

Let's keep reading.

Now listen.

He said, testifying.

Look how he put this.

Testifying both to the what?

That's the religious people.

That was his enemy.

And see, when we talk about Babylon, you can't hate preachers.

You can't despise people in Babylon.

You got to love those people.

If God has invested, I know many gifted men in Babylon.

Those men is gifted from God.

Sure.

And so if I get an opportunity to testify to him, I want to do that.

It's not the people, it's the system.

That's the cave.

That's the den.

That's the dungeon.

That's the prison house.

It's not the people.

God loves people.

And these people, in myself, I did all I knew to do when I was in it.

I was deceived.

Now Becky says in Psalm, I labored in the house of a stranger.

But I labored.

But the Lord remembered me for good for that.

And he brought me to the body of Christ.

Well, God has other people out there.

So Paul knew that.

In spite of the opposition, he didn't hate the Jews.

It was people who was blind in the Jewish religion.

But he testified both to the Jews and also to the what?

To the Greeks.

Look what he preached.

Tell it with me, what?

Repentance toward God and faith toward who?

That's two.

He didn't say nothing about the Holy Ghost, did he?

No, that's two.

And now and behold, watch this.

Man's eyes was open.

And now and behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem.

So Sherry's saying, I'm a slave.

I cannot go to Jerusalem.

I know what's going to happen to me.

He said, but I'm bound in the spirit.

But I can't help this because God has people there.

And I know it's going to cost me my life ultimately, but I'm going.

Look what he says.

I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.

But I know one thing.

I don't know what's going to happen.

Verse 23, he said, Save.

That word save means but that the Holy Ghost witnessed in every city, saying that what?

Bars and affliction do what?

Brother, here's my throne in the flesh.

I'm not going to get around this.

He said, but look at verse 24.

You will get sad.

Read this sounds sad, doesn't it?

But Paul's not sad.

Read the 24 verse.

He said, but none of these things do what?

That don't make me back up.

I'm not going to stop for that.

I'm not going to faint.

None of these things move me.

Neither count I my life bigger unto what?

To myself.

Brother, here is the order of a New Testament ministry.

If my life, if my life is so important that my wife and my kids, and my job, and my mama and my daddy doesn't leave time and room for the people of God, I'm unqualified.

I am unqualified to be a servant of Jesus Christ.

Who disqualified you, Brother Brown?

I did.

I disqualified myself.

As many are called, but as fewer chosen.

Here's the Christ.

Look at this man, Brother Michael.

Look, and this is the life he lived.

And now he's bringing that ministry into remembrance.

He's bringing them into remembrance, brother, of who he was.

He wasn't somebody who lord over them.

He was a king, but he served with this life.

It was an example.

Let's keep reading.

He said, listen now.

Verse 24.

There are these things moving either count of my life dear to myself, so that I might finish what?

My what?

My course with what?

You remember how we talked about last week how the ministry ministered in what?

And courses?

Well, here's Paul's course.

He had a dispensation that was committed to him that he could run.

That is, the Lord gave him a chance with his health and his strength, Brother Michael, and his soundness of mind.

He had a chance to preach.

He had a chance to bring the people of God into light.

Or bring people God dealt with.

This is the course he ran his course.

Now watch this.

Now watch this.

He didn't say just finish my course, but with what?

With joy.

And he didn't say my ministry, but the what?

The ministry, which I received of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Now verse 25.

Read this with me.

And now, behold, I know that what?

That ye all, all of you, among whom I have gone doing what?

Read the rest of this.

My God, what a statement.

What a statement.

He's come to the end.

You'll never see Paul go to another city and preach the gospel.

They can come to him, but he'll never go to them.

From this day forth, he'll be in chains and bonds and in prison.

But that didn't stop him.

I'm so glad it's that way.

Because they let me know, brother, whatever state I'm in, Brother Mike, if God give me health and strength, I'm going to keep blowing the trumpet.

It's this testimony that we find in this book of Acts to show us how resolved a minister must be.

We have to count the cost.

And Lord, I still want to go.

I've counted it.

But I still want to go.

Why?

Because in saving others, I'm going to save myself.

It's not, he said, you save yourself and them that hear you.

But in saving you, I'm saving me.

Let's keep reading.

Verse 26.

Wherefore I take you to, read it with me.

Wherefore I take you to what?

In other words, I want you to remember that I am what?

Pure from the what?

Does he mean he didn't kill nobody?

No, he means anybody who would listen, he gave them a chance to be saved.

If the man died, the blood was on their own hand.

If you came into contact with Paul, he lived a life that was dedicated.

If you had a conversation with it, he's going to bring you into testimony of Jesus Christ.

Brother, and if you went out and died, that was on you.

He said, brother, I'm free from the blood of all men.

Why, Paul?

Why?

Keep reading.

For I have what?

I have not shone that it is shone meaning to be ashamed of or to back up.

I have not shone to declare unto you what?

All the what?

All the counsel of God.

I told you.

Brother, about the first phase of salvation, the second phase, and being eternally saved.

I told you about your damn nature, the nature of Christ.

I told you about the attributes that we should be having.

I told you how the church is going to fall away, but it's going to be restored.

I told you how to govern your house, how uh women should honor their husband.

Brother, he said, I've shone unto you, I have not shunned to you.

Uh, brother, declare to the test, I'm misquoting.

Give it to help me out.

All the counsel of God.

Brother, things some things cross those people.

Some things, I'm sure, made them angry with Paul because oftentimes it ran them out of cities.

People will love you till you cross them.

You will love me, and I'm sure I've made everybody.

Who in here hasn't been angry with me?

Who have been hanging with me?

Tell the truth as well.

How you been angry with Brother Brown?

Come on, put my I get angry with me.

That's why I'll do it.

Yeah.

You know why you brother Brown?

Bad knees, kill the messenger.

Get the messenger.

You know that's why.

Do you know that life says the deserte?

They bring you a$700 uh electric bill in the mailbox and you get a sticky hit the mail, man.

They don't kill the bastard, but it's not his fault.

Well, sure, but I'm gonna cross you.

I'm gonna cross you.

And and uh, Sister Ellen, I'm no good to you if I don't disturb you.

I'm no good to you if I never cross you.

All I'm doing is patting your flesh and letting you die.

I have to tell you all the counsel.

Brother, Paul could have been a politician.

Or he could have been a servant of Jesus Christ.

He couldn't be both.

He said, if I'm gonna be a pleased man, then I cannot be a servant of the Lord.

He can't do both.

This gospel crosses my nature and it crosses your nature.

And if the man behind this pulpit never crosses you, he's giving you something, but he's not declaring to you all the counsel of God.

Because it's gonna search you out, it's gonna try you, it's gonna provoke you.

Well, who is it provoking?

The natural part of me, the flush the part of me.

Let's keep reading.

Now, verse 20, he's talking to this minister here.

He said, now this is one of the most profound verses.

These next two verses, brother, matter of fact, the next three verses underline them.

Put an astrobiom, put a parenthesis around them.

Here are some profound verses.

Look at this man looking down through the telescope of time, and he's prophesying to these elders.

Verse 28.

Take heed.

That word means pay close attention, therefore, unto who?

Underline that.

Your problem is not gonna be with someone on the outside, it's not gonna be some devil coming from heaven from hell uh from hell.

He said you take heed to yourselves.

Your problem is gonna come from you.

Take heed to yourselves, and listen, you pay attention to you, pay attention to yourself, and not only you, but unto what?

And see, a minister has a dual burden.

He's got to watch himself, then he doesn't watch the people.

He's got to save himself, and he has to save the people.

Watch this.

He said, Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to who?

Do you know why he listened he used the word all redundantly, repetitively.

Look at verse 27.

Uh, declaring to you all the counsel.

Verse 28, take heed to yourselves and to what?

You know why he used all the flocks, Sister uh uh Amanda?

Because some people you just feel close to, others you're not so close to.

But you gotta watch for that person's soul just as well.

If I feel close to Sister Amanda, I'll just use her, and I don't feel so close to Sister Betty.

When I see danger coming and see Sister Betty taking on the wrong spirit, I'm sorry, Sister Amanda, I'm gonna run to your aid.

Sister Betty, I don't feel so close to.

I see death coming, I see her heading the wrong way.

But I'm not so close to her.

So I don't say anything to her.

Then I watch her lose her spirituality, I watch her lose her sight.

That blood's on me.

That's having diver weights in the bag.

You you're weighing one soul more precious than the other one.

And that is respect of persons.

He said to all the flocks.

That's the young, that's the old, uh, that's the one who's faithful, that's the one that oppose themselves.

He said to all the flocks, over which the what?

Holy Ghost has made you.

And to do what?

Feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood, for I know this, that after my departing, after I leave, he's not talking about just from this setting.

He means taking off the scene, shall grievous wools, and that's not four-legged wools, that's two-legged wolves, but with suits on and shoes and socks, uh, grievous wools shall enter in among you, not what?

And the reason I told you to take heed to yourself, verse 30, also of your what?

Own selves shall men do what?

Underlock, we say that word arise, that has to do with insurrection.

The Bible says how they uh uh according data of Bible, Brother Michael, they arose.

Uh that word arose means insurrection.

These are ministers, even of your own self-ship, uh of your own self-shop, men arise.

That's insurrection.

Speaking what?

Perverse things.

Paul won't know what he's talking about.

Paul is not God, he just knew everything.

You don't have to listen to everything Paul says.

What is that, brother?

That's speaking perverse things.

You're twisting things, you're putting a slant on things.

Why are you doing that?

This is why to draw away disciples.

What?

Brother, that still works right now.

That's still happening even now.

I watch men, brother.

We're talking about this Sunday with apparitcious appetites, even this body of people.

I'm watching you.

I'm looking right at you.

Why are you thrusting your brother?

Why are you tearing somebody else down?

Brother, even if a brother makes a mistake when you do the wrong thing to point out his mistake and your spirit is wrong, here's what you're doing.

Brother, you're speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after yourself.

That's a dangerous thing.

That's happening right now, brother.

You know that, don't you?

It's a brother on the on a bog, on the block, bashing another brother.

That's not Christ, like that's not godly.

I talked to one of the leading brothers today, uh, brother Afrodis, I called his name, and he said, Brother Brown, you're right.

I said, But we're hopping all on this brother, or you brothers, I'm not hopping on him, about a mistake that he may be making in judgment, you know, with his order.

And the brother who's attacking him is doing more harm than that.

He's putting it out before everybody.

See, he's killing his brother.

That's an apparicious appetite.

He's saying, Mark that brother.

No, he's the one that's causing offenses, contrary to the doctrine that we receive, he's the one who should be marked.

Brother Alphabet said, Brother Brown, you're right.

He said, You're right.

Absolutely.

A person can make a mistake, but what you do towards that mistake may be worse than the first mistake.

If my spirit is not right, I don't qualify to judge anybody.

That's perversion, brother.

That's perversion of the truth.

We can hold, we have the truth of God and hold it in unrighteousness.

This gospel is to save men.

It's not to damn people, it's not to cut anybody off or to feel better than somebody else or to lift yourself up.

That's a nasty spirit.

That's a proud and arrogant.

We don't see that in this New Testament church.

Amen.

No.

I'll call brother.

Uh, since I went and said, Well, I don't have a speech, I'll call Brother Billy Brown tomorrow and give him the same one, though.

Because it's wrong.

And if nobody's gonna say anything about it, then he that is least should speak up.

I'll be Eh uh uh uh Ehud in this situation.

Somebody got to speak up.

That needs to stop.

Don't tear down your brother, don't tear down your sister.

If I'm saying something to you, sister Missy, about brother Jeff or Sister Janita, brother, that's gossiping.

If I have something to say, I should say to the wars, to who can do something about it.

You can't do anything about what Janita does.

So why I talk to you about Janita?

That's gossiping.

I'm tearing her down.

I despise that.

That's worse than selling drugs.

Amen.

I got on that.

Well, let me stop.

I'm gonna finish this last verse up.

Listen.

Um, I'm gonna stop at verse 31.

Also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.

Verse 31.

Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of what?

I cease not to listen to this word.

I cease not to what?

Warn every one night and day with what?

I gotta stop at this last verse.

Verse 32, I will.

I'll stop.

He said, and now, brethren, when you see him talking the term, brethren, something to the brothers to minister.

He says, now, brethren, I commend you to the board.

Brother, you won't see that today.

They got a board over ministers.

I'm gonna commend you to this man.

He's your overseer.

Brother, I don't see that in the Bible.

I don't see that in the Bible.

An overseer is good, but you can't take someone who hadn't worked with people and then put him over some people.

I don't see that.

That's not in here.

I'll commend you, let me do this ministry, Brother Michael.

I'll commend you to who?

And to the what?

Word of his grace.

Let's read this out, which is able to what?

Build you up and to do what?

Give you an inheritance among them which are what?

Set apart.

Amen.