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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/norman-crawford/assembly-holy-spirit/
Now we're reading tonight in Acts chapter 20, verse 17 of Acts 20, And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. That is, Paul sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the Ephesian assembly.
And when they were come to him, he said unto them. And then of course you have Paul's discourse to them. But it is particularly verse 28 that I'd like to read. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock.
That's the word for the little flock. The large flock is the church which is his body. The little flock is an assembly. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the little flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Or with the blood of his own. I take it it means the blood of his own son. The Catholics have made from this verse that this means the blood of God, which I don't think any of you would be able to accept.
I believe the thought is it's the blood of his own son. Now 1 Timothy chapter 3, please. Verse 1, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop. And that of course is the very word we were just looking at in Acts 20 and 28.
That is an overseer, he desireth a good work. And then follows a description of the overseer. And I think we should read these 15 items. The first item is the desire the man has. That's in verse 1. A bishop then must be, he must be, you'll notice, blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity.
For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Now a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
And then you have a description of deacons. And if I don't get to say this in the meeting, let me say it just now. There are a body of elders, but there is no place in the New Testament that you could find a body of deacons, and that is significant.
Each assembly has a body of elders, but you do not have a body of deacons. And the simple reason for that is that deacon work is an assignment. It is a particular work given at a particular time, so that elders often function as deacons, and so do many others in the assembly.
All elders do deacon work, but certainly not all who do deacon work are elders. Now I want you to look at verse 14 of 1 Timothy 3. These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself.
Or it is not really Timothy's behavior that is in view here. The revised version reads like this. How men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
And while you're looking at that verse, just let me explain something simply to you. This is the local assembly being described. We know that from the context. This is an assembly. It is called, you'll notice, the house of God.
Actually, a house of God and a church of the living God. Now the difference between a house of God and a church of God is just this. A house of God is what we've been brought into, where there is divine rule and order.
The church of God is the thought of being brought out of the world. So while it is an assembly in both cases, it is two different aspects of an assembly gathering. Now the Titus passage is very similar.
Let us just look at it. Just a few verses in it. Titus chapter 1, verse 5. For this cause left by thee in treat that thou shouldest set in order. And that is a word that is usually used to set a broken limb, a broken leg or arm.
To set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife and so forth. Verse 9 says, holding fast the faithful word as ye have been taught that he may be able by some doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
In the two lists that are given for the requirements of elders, there are 15 particular points in each list, both in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and in Titus chapter 1. Now tonight, our subject is really the spiritual dependence of an assembly.
An assembly is dependent on God. And the assembly is dependent on God because the Holy Spirit of God dwells in the assembly and makes it his residence. He makes it his home. And he's the one whose activity is seen when an assembly is functioning properly in a godly, orderly way.
It is the operation of the Holy Spirit to bring that about. So that particular function of the Holy Spirit of God, we have called the spiritual dependence of an assembly. You'll notice that at the beginning of your outline, the Lord Jesus left legacies for us when he went away.
And I think it's most touching that he left us his name. And what a tragedy that men have taken other names when he left us his name to bear. And it's a great honor, what a privilege, to bear the name of our blessed Lord.
So we are Christians, and we bear the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He left us his name while he's been absent. But of course, he left us these other things as well. The promise of his presence, and his presence in the assembly is real, and his presence with us to the end of the age is assured.
Matthew 28 and 20, Lo, I am with you all the way, even unto the end of the age. And that verse gives me a great deal of comfort, and I'm certain it does to you as well. And then he sent his Holy Spirit down, and the scriptures that are given to you in the outline will help you to see these truths.
Because in John chapter 7, the Holy Spirit was not yet given because the Lord Jesus was not yet glorified. So it was necessary for the Lord Jesus to go up before the Holy Spirit came down, and he sent him, even though he requested the Father to send him.
You have the whole trinity occupied in that particular sending of the Holy Spirit, just as you have in the coming of the Lord Jesus. And then, of course, he gave us his word. And the reason I have that in that particular place is because he promised to his own that when he was gone, the Spirit of God would bring all things to remembrance.
And he actually put his stamp of approval on the New Testament before it was written. You see, we have his approval on the Old Testament. He said that the scripture cannot be broken. And he, the Son of God, gave his authority to the Old Testament scriptures, but he also gave his authority to the New Testament before it was ever written.
Then we have the activities of the Holy Spirit in an assembly. And as I've already said, his residence in this world is an assembly, which is a very humbling thing to us because we are a holy temple of God.
And the reason given in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16 is because the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. So the assembly is actually the residence of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't have a very elaborate residence.
It isn't honored very much by this world, but it is the residence that he has chosen in this world. He is God. He is a divine person. He is omnipresent. But in a special way, he takes up his residence in a local assembly.
And that to me is a tremendous truth. I'm not sure that I fully understand it. Perhaps it is one of those kinds of truths that we go on learning about. Now, the Holy Spirit has wondrous activities. And I have given you four pictures of his activities.
And the first one is Luke chapter 14, the parable of the king who made the supper for his son. And he sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, come for all things are now ready.
And if you were to go back to Matthew's gospel, chapter 22, is it, of Matthew, you would find the parallel portion dealing with that supper that was made in honor of the king's son. But in Matthew's gospel, it is servants, plural, that go out to bring in the guests.
Whereas in the gospel of Luke chapter 14, it is the servant, singular. And the main distinction is this, that when it was the servants, they invited them to come in. When it was the servant, he compelled them to come in.
And I don't think you have any problem with that. The servant of the parable of the great gospel supper in Luke 14 is the Holy Spirit of God. He is the only one who can truly compel sinners to come in.
So he is the gatherer of sinners out of the world. That's a wonderful gathering ministry, and that's what he's been doing all through these centuries now. He has been gathering out of the nations of men, of blood-bought people.
And one night last week, we pointed out to you the importance of Acts 15 and verse 14, which is a key text of the Bible and tells us God's purpose for this age. And it is the Holy Spirit that is doing that blessed work.
And then the next passage I have referred to is Genesis 24, where you have an unnamed servant again, and he goes out to find a bride for Isaac. And that is the wondrous activity of the Holy Spirit in this age.
And there's no question in my mind that the brides of the book of Genesis are our primary, typical teaching. And of course, Rebecca is a lovely picture of a Gentile bride brought into blessing with Isaac.
So the operation of the Holy Spirit is to take a bride for the son. He's been doing that, and he's doing that now, and the bride will soon be ready. And then, of course, we have referred to Mark 14, where the Lord told his disciples to go into the city, and there would meet them a man bearing a pitcher of water.
Follow him. And he was to take them to a house, and they were to say to the good man of the house, where is my guest chamber where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished, there make ready.
Now that large upper room furnished is a lovely picture of an assembly. And the man bearing the pitcher of water that they were to follow is a picture of the Holy Spirit. So very clearly, that is another gathering activity of the Holy Spirit.
He gathers guests for the supper. He seeks a bride for the son. He leads believers to the table to communion with the Lord. And that's what happened in that upper room. And then the fourth gathering ministry of the Holy Spirit is, it's given to us in picture in Ruth chapter 2, where you have the laborers in the field, and you have an unnamed servant who is over the laborers.
And we believe that the Holy Spirit of God is over the laborers. Who gather in the gospel harvest. So he has these gathering ministries. And the reason that is important to us is, as is mentioned in your outline, Matthew 18 and 20, where two or three are having been gathered.
Gathered is a perfect participle. That means an action that happened in the past. But the people who were gathered did not gather themselves. It's not an active verb. They didn't gather themselves together, but they were acted upon.
They were gathered by another. And the one who gathered them, I believe, to be the Holy Spirit. So I am in an assembly, and I have been in an assembly. I don't remember how many years I've been in an assembly.
Maybe I better not say. I've been in an assembly a long over 40 years anyway. But I didn't understand when I came into the assembly that I was gathered by the Holy Spirit into that assembly. There's lots of things I didn't understand.
But as I read the Word of God today, I believe that I didn't come to the assembly of my own volition. It wasn't a choice I made. It wasn't some act of mine at all. It was an operation of the Holy Spirit.
And by circumstances, he led and gathered me until I was gathered with the believers unto the name of the Lord Jesus. So that's a wondrous gathering ministry of the Holy Spirit. If I spend that much time on all the rest of these points, I'll just get about one quarter of this outline.
Now, the reason I've made that emphatic is because I wanted to show you the work of the Holy Spirit in this time. And if you look at your outline, you'll notice that there are five particular points. There's pictures of the Spirit's gathering ministry.
There's the priority of the Spirit's glorifying ministry. That is, he speaks of Christ. He glorifies Christ. He reveals Christ. He always does that. When the Holy Spirit is working, the Lord Jesus is honored.
He always brings glory to Christ. He always reveals the Lord Jesus. And then you have the principles of the Spirit's guiding ministry. And he is the great teacher. He guides us through the Word of God.
And don't get some fanciful idea about the guiding of the Spirit. I think sometimes when people get into this subject of the guiding of the Spirit, they really make themselves into the Quaker society, where there is some kind of an inner voice or an inner impulse to do something.
But I believe we should be very practical and down-to-earth about the guiding ministry of the Holy Spirit, because I believe that he speaks, not in the air, not in some inner voice within, but he speaks in here, in the Word of God.
And that's why I've mentioned 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and 13. Paul says, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
So I believe the guiding of the Holy Spirit of God to be a very down-to-earth, practical thing. It is when the Word of God is impressed upon me and I obey it, and I'm guided by it, then I am under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And then you have his governing ministry, which is really to occupy us tonight. The preservation of an assembly through the Spirit's governing ministry. And those are the verses that we read. And then, if we have time, we want to look at the provision of the Holy Spirit in gifting men and women to carry on assembly testimony.
Provision for the assembly through the Spirit's gifting ministry. Now, let me go back again, because I've lost you, I'm sure. The Holy Spirit of God has two activities which I'm interested in for the meeting tonight.
The first is the government. The second, the gifts. Both are the activity of the Holy Spirit. And he is holy. And his moving is holy moving in the assembly. And it produces holy results. That's the way it ought to be.
First of all, let us look at this whole principle of the Spirit of God in government. You know, God's house is a house of order. God will never have a disorderly house. And there are features of the divine rule in God's house which are very evident to us.
These are things that are precious to us who are in an assembly. And I've put down at least five items, I think I have, that really tell us at least a little of what the order of an assembly is. First of all, the Lord Jesus has his right place.
Oh, how important that is, that the Lord Jesus has his rightful place. And then that the Word of God has its right place. Absolute authority. And then that the Spirit of God has his right place. And then that the elders have their right place.
And then each brother or sister has their right place. You know, the lovely thing about being gathered unto the Lord Jesus is this, that God's principle of authority is a gathering center, not a pyramid.
You see, our government is a pyramid thing. There's a man up at President Reagan, and we should give him honor as the president of this land. But it is a pyramid structure. And down through the chain of command, the chain of authority, you come down and down and down until you come down to us.
And I suppose I won't include you, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm on the on the bottom layer of the pyramid. But that's not the way it is in an assembly. God's principle of authority is entirely different.
It is a circle with a gathering center. And every single person in the circle has the same relationship personally to the one who's in the midst. Each one acknowledges his lordship. Each one submits to his authority.
And that's a lovely order. And that's a lovely authority. That's God's authority. That's a wonderful principle. That's why, brethren and sisters, we should resist like the plague, and I mean the Black Death, any sign of official, any sign of human authority.
Because it's a denial of the true authority in the assembly. Now, the elderhood, and that, by the way, is the right name. I don't expect you just to take that because I say so. What I have to say here is what I believe.
And I believe that elderhood is the right name. Why isn't oversight the right name? Because oversight is not a body of men. Oversight is not a position. Oversight is a function. Oversight is what men do.
They oversee. So really, it is not the idea of an oversight, although I have used that expression all the time, so don't be thinking I'm criticizing you for using it and not, because I've used it all my life.
And I'm just telling you that I don't believe it's the right term. I think the right term is the elderhood. And the elderhood, of course, are described for us clearly. We had their calling there in Acts 20 and verse 28.
And that's wondrous truth that the spirit of God himself raised up these men in the assembly in Ephesus. They must have been saved out of its paganism. It was one of the most ungodly centers in Asia Minor, in the Roman province of Asia, a center of idolatry.
And the idolatry of those ancient peoples was a wickedness just about as bad as the lowest forms of wickedness in the world today. And men saved out of those kind of backgrounds and cleansed by the precious blood of Christ and gathered together in an assembly, and then to be raised up by the Holy Spirit of God, to be overseers in the assembly, to feed the little flock.
It's a wondrous operation, isn't it, of the Holy Spirit that he would do such a work. And he's still doing that kind of work. He is still raising up overseers, men who are true elders, and calling them and fitting them for that work.
And oftentimes brethren do oversight work. That is, they visit, because that's one of the main meanings of the word oversight. Overseer is one who visits, one who cares, one who sees over the needs, one who is aware of the problems and goes to meet them.
Like the man who went to care for the man in the ditch there in Lutang. And there are brethren who do that kind of work, though they are not recognized in the elderhood, but they do that work. They visit the poor and the sick, and they show tender compassion and an interest in people's needs, and they are doing the work of overseers, even though they are not recognized in the elderhood.
But of course, those who do that work and seek to do it for the Lord, sooner or later they do become recognized if there's anything of God in the place at all. So the names of these men who are elders, I put them in the outline for you.
Their maturity, of course, is the fact that they are elders, and it doesn't mean old in age necessarily. It means actually elders in spiritual experience. So they have matured in the things of God, and they are mature men of God.
Overseers is their responsibility, and I've explained what that means. Pastors is their shepherd care. And it has to do with their heart. Shepherds have shepherd hearts. A shepherd heart has an interest in the sheep, a care for the sheep, a love for the sheep, a longing for the sheep's blessing.
They tend them, they feed them, they guide them, they protect them. That's all shepherd care. In fact, those four aspects of shepherd care perhaps are the main functions of shepherds. To feed, to guide, to protect, and to care for their needs, to have a compassionate interest in them.
Those are the four functions of shepherds, and that's something God puts into men's hearts. A man has to have a shepherd heart to be a shepherd. And then deacons, of course, is their ministry. And deacon work is both a material ministry.
Our brother John Brokaw, every time I come to the hall here, I see him engaged in deacon ministry. Doing work that is necessary and must be done and is precious to God and important in his eyes. And I could not say that that is less important work than what I'm doing right now.
But what I'm doing right now is deacon ministry. This is deacon work, what I'm doing now. I am functioning as a deacon at this very moment. Preaching the gospel is actually, in a sense, it is a form of deacon work.
Although it is the work of an evangelist, nevertheless, it is a form of deacon activity. How do I know that? Because that's the way the Spirit of God uses the term in the New Testament. Whenever Paul speaks of Timothy being a minister of the gospel, he uses the word deacon.
Whenever he speaks of his own ministry of the mystery, he uses the word deacon. If it's Epaphroditus, if it's Epiphras, he uses the word deacon when he's referring to their gospel work. So much deacon work is spiritual, and much of it is the material, practical things.
And both are needed, and there's a balance in that. Now, I said you don't have a body of deacons. I didn't know I'd come back to this, but I think this is important. You do not have a body of deacons in an assembly.
I've had a number of people ask in recent years a question like this. They'll say, we know who our elders are, but we don't know who the deacons are. And of course, what they really meant was that they were looking for a body of recognized men who are the body of deacons.
Now, that is not found in the New Testament. Deacon work could be done by a sister, and lots of deacon work is done around here by sisters. I tell my wife that to be a deacon is to be an errand runner, and she knows all about that kind of a job because she's doing it all the time for me.
So that's deacon work. It's deacon activity, and she was at that today, going out and buying materials for the mailing of the truth and tidings. That's deacon work. It's a particular activity at a particular time.
So a person could be functioning as a deacon today, but not functioning as a deacon tomorrow. That's the thought of it. It's something that's a particular work to do at a particular time. That's deacon work.
And of course, elders do deacon work. And then, but they shouldn't be, they shouldn't be always only doing deacon work, because that sometimes can happen. They should be engaged primarily in a spiritual work of shepherding, of overseeing.
But then, finally, they are stewards. They are called by these names. A steward is one who has a trust given into his hands. He has been entrusted with a charge, with a responsibility. And as stewards of the mysteries of God, elders are going to have to answer to the Lord in a coming day.
Now, the requirements I'm not going to go into with you tonight, they are quite clear and plain in those 15 statements that are found in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus chapter 1. And to make 15, I was in a Bible reading a couple of years ago, and a much older man challenged me.
He had counted the particular characteristics in 1 Timothy chapter 3, and he said, Brother Crawford, you said there were 15, and I can only count 14. But I said to him, don't miss the first one. The first one is, if any man desire, so it's a good thing to desire the work of an overseer.
And it isn't an office. That's a very poor translation in our King James Version. And I don't fault with the King James Version. It's a wonderful translation. It's most reliable. But in that particular case, that's not a good translation.
It is not an office. It is a work. And really, it should be read like this. He that desireth the work of an overseer desireth a good work. There has to be a desire first before you do anything for God.
Now, let me look at the functions of the deacons, or at least of the elders. You notice their authority is the Word of God. Now, I know this is a very difficult point. I think we should be clear on it, that the authority of an elder is not a personal authority.
The elder has a responsibility to give an example to the little flock. He lives the Word of God before them, and he teaches the Word of God to them. And both Hebrews 13 and 1 Peter 5 seem to be quite clear on that subject.
So the authority of an elder is the authority of this book, that he lives and teaches. It is the authority of the Word of God. But don't ever get the idea that an elder does not have authority, because he has been given that by God.
And it is a great responsibility to take the Word of God in hand, and to live it, and to teach it, and apply it. But the function, of course, is to rule for God. And that word is used a number of times of elders.
They're to be spiritual guides. That is, they're to go before the flock and lead them. And that's the idea of their life, their example. They're to be shepherds. That's their care. They're to do nothing by partiality.
1 Timothy 5 and 21 absolutely forbids an elder to act in partiality. Their honor is that they are to be honored by the assembly. They are to be recognized. They are to be acknowledged. They are to be esteemed.
They are to be submitted to. They are to be obeyed. Those terms are all found, and the scriptures are given along with the outline. And I hope you will have an interest to further that study yourself.
Those particular statements are merely quotations from the scripture. So they are to be honored, acknowledged, recognized, esteemed, submitted to, obeyed, the elders in the assembly. Their protection is that a charge is not to be raised against them, except before two or three witnesses.
Their reward is that a crown will be given to them in a coming day by the Lord for their faithful service. The other activity of the Holy Spirit in the assembly has to do with how the meetings go on. The activity of the Holy Spirit in his gifts and in priesthood.
And there's nothing about priesthood on your outline. It already filled two pages, so I didn't put anything about priesthood on it. But the Holy Spirit of God functions in an assembly, in the giving of gifts, and in the functioning of those gifts, and in the operation of priesthood.
Just let me say at this point about priesthood and gifts. They are as separate as can be. Priesthood and gifts are not the same thing. In fact, I don't know really anything that is similar in those two functions, except that the Holy Spirit is the one who enables a priest to function and a gifted one to function.
But other than that, they are completely different. Now, the reason I'm emphasizing that is because so many times people say, well, I'm not one who is gifted, and therefore I cannot pray in a prayer meeting, or I cannot give thanks to the Lord's Day morning.
But no, really, that doesn't have anything to do with gifts. And I'm well aware now that there are those who are public men, and there are others who are not. And I'm certain the Lord understands that.
He's our Father, and He certainly understands us well. And I wouldn't want to be overly critical on a brother who doesn't feel that it is something he can do to arise in the public meeting and give God thanks for his son.
But I'm certain we all recognize that all have that privilege. It has nothing to do with gift. Every brother in the assembly has the privilege to do that. And if we were functioning according to the leading of the Spirit of God, it would likely be that every brother in the assembly would so function.
But when I say that now, I'm not being hypercritical. I hope you'll understand that. But it is a great privilege to be able to function in priesthood. But now, gift is quite a different thing. Gift, of course, is in many, many categories.
And that's why I listed them for you, because this is a difficult subject. And I have labored with this a great deal. What I have done is to give you the four lists of the gifts that are found in the New Testament, and I put them in parallel columns so you can see just exactly how they differ in these four lists.
They're in the four lists, two of them in 1 Corinthians, one of them in Romans 12, and one in Ephesians 4. They are all distinct and different. And I've tried to point out what the difference is in them by telling you that the gifts given to saints by the Holy Spirit is the first list of 1 Corinthians 12.
And then the second list of 1 Corinthians 12 is quite different. It is not gifts given to men, but it is gifted men given to an assembly. That's the difference in the two lists of 1 Corinthians 12. The first one is gifts given to men.
The second one is gifted men given to an assembly. And it is an assembly to which they are given if you read verse 28 to verse 31 of 1 Corinthians 12, you'll see that. And then you have the activities of gifted believers in Romans 12.
That's quite a different thing again. And then in Ephesians 4, you have gifted men given to the body by the Lord Jesus, and that's quite distinct as well. And that's probably the reason that in only one of these four lists, you have the gift of an evangelist.
Because an evangelist very clearly is a gift to the building up of the body. So it is quite different from the other gifts which function inside the assembly. Normally, the assembly is the sphere where the gifts function.
And I would say very simply that no man has a gift so great that there is not room in an assembly for the gift to function. The assembly is the place where gifts function. But the gift of an evangelist is always in relation to an assembly.
And yet his gift goes out to the world, to which he preaches, he heralds, he proclaims the gospel. Now, the gifts have three categories. I'm sure you know that there are gifts that are foundational. That is the gifts of the apostles and the prophets.
They were definitely involved in the laying of foundations at the beginning of testimony for God in this church age. And that work of the apostles and prophets was related to that early time. There's a lady on the Canadian prairies, and she's a good student of the Bible.
She's a person who studies and puts down what she is studying. And I often get a very thick letter from her. And normally what she says is quite good. She is a good student of the Bible. But one of the things that she insists on is that there are still prophets today.
Now, the mistake she has made is a very easy mistake to make. It is still necessary today to be able to rise up in an assembly and give a word from God. But when a man rises up in an assembly to give a word from God, that is a kind of prophetic ministry.
But he has a Bible from which to get it. Whereas the prophets of the New Testament rose up without a Bible in their hands, and they spoke the word of God by divine revelation, without a Bible, it was a miraculous gift.
So the work of the prophet was found foundational because there was not a Bible. But when the Bible was complete, the ministry of the prophets was a partial ministry. They couldn't give all the mind of God.
They could just give the mind of God that suited that occasion. And when there was time to give it in that particular gathering. But when the New Testament was completed, we had the full revelation. And that which was in part was done away.
That's what 1 Corinthians 13, verses 8, 9, and 10 is talking about. The gift of the prophet was only a part. Now, let me just explain that. If you were in one of those early assemblies and you had no Bible, and an issue came up in the assembly, what will we do?
A man with the gift of a prophet could rise up in the assembly and say, this is a word from the Lord. And he could actually tell them what the mind of the Lord was. Where did he get it? By direct revelation from God.
It was a direct miraculous operation of the Holy Spirit. And we don't have that today. What we have today is the word of God to guide us. And diligent study and work in the word of God produces the answers.
But we don't have a man with a prophetic gift. So it was foundational. And that man who rose up, he could tell them the mind of the Lord for that particular thing. But he couldn't give them all the mind of God for all the truth that is revealed in the New Testament.
So what he gave was a very small part of the great truth that is revealed in the New Testament. And that's what it means when it says, when that which is complete is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
And that's the meaning of 1 Corinthians 13. The foundational gifts were in part. The New Testament is complete. Now, the temporary gifts were sign gifts. And if you look at the four lists, I'll try to show you something.
In the first list, there are very obviously six of those gifts, which are supernatural sign gifts. Healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues, interpreting tongues. And more than that, actually, even the wisdom and the knowledge were miraculous.
They were given in the same way that I was describing the man giving the mind of God for the occasion by divine revelation. So all of those things were miraculous. Six or seven of them, at least, were clearly supernatural sign gifts.
But if you look in the second list, there are miracle workers, healers, tongues, speakers, and prophets. And those are distinctly either foundational gifts or temporary sign gifts. I'll look in the third list.
Romans chapter 12 has a list of seven gifts. They are really the activities of gifted believers under the control of the Holy Spirit. And only the prophecy is a supernatural sign gift. And then when you get to the final one, in Ephesians chapter 4, you have the apostles and the prophets.
And they are foundational. And then you have the evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Now, I believe that all the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, as they functioned in the Corinthian assembly, were supernatural.
They were all miraculous gifts. And whatever there is of those gifts that functions today, they don't function in the same form in which they did in Corinth. Let me explain what I mean. If you look back at the first list there, you'll notice you have the gift of wisdom.
Do we not have men of wisdom today? Yes. But they have wisdom because they have learned in the school of God. Because they have learned from the Word of God what divine wisdom is. Which is a different thing than they had in Corinth.
For these men were given this wisdom from the Lord supernaturally. And you would know that when you read the account of how they functioned there in chapter 12. The gift of knowledge was the same thing.
It was divine knowledge imparted to the man personally from God. We have men with knowledge today. But they have gained that knowledge by a lifetime in the Word of God. So it's different. Of course, we have those who have discernment today.
They can discern spirits. But they do it because of experience. And they have learned from God's Word. So you'll see that the signed gifts were temporary. They were for the time then present. In fact, 1 Corinthians 14 makes it clear that the gift of tongues was a sign to unbelievers that judgment was going to fall on the city of Jerusalem.
Now, I know that's not what you usually hear. But I think that's clearly the meaning of 1 Corinthians chapter 14. I think it's about verses 23 or 4 or 5 that it was a sign to unbelievers. It goes back to Isaiah 28.
When the Assyrian tongue was heard in the streets of Jerusalem, Isaiah said it's the sign of its doom. It's the sign of its downfall. And when the tongue's gift was heard in Jerusalem, in Judea, it was the sign of AD 70.
The destruction of the city and the dispersing of the nation. It was a sign of judgment. Now, if you compared the Isaiah passage with the 1 Corinthians 14 passage, you would see that. Isn't it strange that these people in the charismatic movement think they've got some sign of the Spirit's activity for blessing?
It's actually a sign of judgment. Not a sign for blessing at all. They have mistaken the whole thing, and they have it wrong. So the sign gifts of certain men who don't, but lots of times when they get up at a conference to minister, there's nothing that they teach you from the scriptures.
But you see, that is one of the functions of gifted men, to give exhortations. That's a work, too, that is necessary and very valuable. I appreciate the exhortations, but sometimes I have been a little critical on this point, that I have said, well, why don't they also give teaching?
But maybe their gift is just exhortation. Whereas there are those who are definitely gifted in teaching. And isn't it remarkable that you have gifts even about giving? And gifts for rule, and even gifts for showing mercy.
But in Ephesians chapter 4, you have gifts that function for the building up of the assembly. And it's particularly the body that is in mind, although that leads you, of course, to the building up of individual testimony.
And in Ephesians chapter 4, the gifts are apostles and prophets, foundational, and then evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the full measure of the stature of Christ.
And those gifts should function for that purpose. The test of the value of gifts is very important, because that's why you have those three chapters in Corinthians. Chapter 12 teaches that the value of a gift is to what degree God is glorified by it.
Chapter 13 teaches the value of a gift to what degree love is exercised in it. And chapter 14, to what degree the church is edified. And the great teaching of chapter 14 is that ministry must build up, not tear down, not break asunder, but build up.
And the sphere where the gifts are exercised is the church. And of course, I pointed out that the work of the evangelist is toward the world. But nevertheless, the work of the evangelist is always in relation to the local church.
No one goes off on their own and says, I'm a law to myself, and I'm engaged in a freelance gospel activity. I am here doing this work, and I'm not answerable to anybody. I think Acts 13 and 14 would show that's wrong.
Because in Acts 13, at the beginning of that chapter, you have the assembly in Antioch. You have Paul and Barnabas there, Saul he was known of at that time. And they were recognized to have been called by the Holy Spirit and fitted for the work of evangelists.
And they sent them forth with the full fellowship of the assembly in Antioch, in Syria, away to that land in the far north to preach the gospel. And Paul and Barnabas labored there for a long time. That's what we know as the first missionary journey.
And they came back. You have them coming back at the end of chapter 14. And they came back to the assembly in Antioch, and they rehearsed in the ears of the church all that God had done with them and by them, and how he had opened the door to the Gentiles, and told them how they had functioned as they preached the gospel among the Gentiles.
Well, you say, but they weren't demanded to do that. Oh, no. They did it in fellowship. That's all I'm saying, in fellowship. And what we do in whatever activity, it should be in fellowship with an assembly.
So that a man might go from an assembly away to some far corner of the earth, but that man is still answerable to the assembly that commended him. I don't believe that any man is a law to himself. Now, in chapter 15, it's even stronger, because they went to Jerusalem, and privately they gathered together the apostles and the elders of the assembly in Jerusalem, and they gave a full account of what they preached and what they practiced among Gentiles.
Now, there's a reason why they did that. The troublers who went to the Gentile assemblies in the province of Galatia came from Jerusalem. They came from the assembly there. So naturally, that's where the trouble came from, so that's where it came back to.
That's the explanation of the great council in Jerusalem. It's not really any authority for a number of elders from a number of different assemblies getting together and saying, let's have a big elders' meeting.
Sometimes that sounds like it might be a good idea, but I hardly think we could get Scripture to support it. The reason for going back to Jerusalem was because the troublers had come from that assembly, and so the thing was taken back there to Jerusalem.
The power by which gifts operate is by the power of the Holy Spirit. The passage in 1 Peter 4 says that the man who ministers God's Word, that he speaks as the oracle of God, and those who serve the Lord minister with the ability that God giveth.
And what a pathetic thing it is to try to stand up here and teach the Word of God if God is not in it, or to preach the gospel when the Holy Spirit is not moving and working. And so the operation is by his power, and it's God, of course, that gives the increase, that gives the fruit, and it's through the ability that God giveth.
I only have about four minutes left, and I need that four minutes very much, because I want to tell you about the other activity of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. We've been looking at the fact that he raises up government, because God's house is a house of rule.
It's not like a man said, and I actually heard the man say this, I've heard this kind of a story told from the platform many times, and likely this has happened a number of times, but I knew a man, knew him well, preached with him in the street corner many, many times in the city of Toronto when I was very young.
And he actually went to an assembly sometime after that, and he told the brethren of that assembly that he wanted to come into the assembly as a believer, but he did not want to come under the government of the elders of the assembly.
He said, I don't want anyone telling me what to do, and he said, I want to come into the assembly, but I do not want to recognize the government of the elders. Of course, the assembly told him that he would certainly not be welcome in an assembly with such an idea, because God's house is a house of rule.
It's not a place where you do as you like. There is government there. And then there are gifts to feed and build up. You see, you see what's wrong with Christendom. Let me, for the sake of young Christians, just let me say this simply.
Here's a denominational place. The preacher may be saved. He might be more than that. He might be spiritual. He might be a godly man. He might be devoted to the Lord Jesus. I don't feel, to tell you the truth, like calling such men hirelings.
If you knew what they were hired for, they could go out and get a job for three times that much without half trying. So it's not a very, very kindly Christian thing to say they're hirelings. A lot of them are devoted men who are trying to do what they think is right.
But you know, I've talked to those men at times. They know what they're doing is not right. Because they recognize what the New Testament teaches, that the Holy Spirit gives gifts. And those gifts function under his control, as 1 Corinthians 14 shows us.
And if those gifts are functioning under the control of the Holy Spirit, just try to make it work in the denomination where there's a man hired to be the preacher. They have one man ministering. And if someone in that company said, I have a word to give to the people of God today, and he arises in the gathering, why, they would soon have the man in a back room somewhere and say, look, what do you think you're doing upsetting this church?
Don't you know we have a preacher? You see, it doesn't work, and it couldn't work in such a place. There's something else that will not work, and that is the priesthood of all believers. I hope you appreciate the fact that in an assembly we have priesthood functioning scripturally.
I know there's a lot of failure in us, but nevertheless, it is the divine order. You see, Martin Luther, when he came out of Rome, he recognized the truth of the priesthood of all believers and proclaimed it.
I could read you his statement. He said, anyone who says that all believers are not priests, do not belong to the holy priesthood, is not speaking according to the word of God. He is a false teacher. So Martin Luther understood the priesthood of all believers.
But if you were to go to a Lutheran church today, they have one man ministering. They don't have the priesthood of all believers functioning there. But thank God, in an assembly, we have the priesthood of all believers.
It's a holy and a royal priesthood. You know, it wasn't God's intention that in Israel only one family should be priests. It was God's intention that all the nations should be a holy priesthood. But sin came in, and they failed, and the one family of Aaron was taken out from among the tribe of Levi, and they became priests.
The statements that are used in Exodus chapter 19 about God's original plan is almost parallel to 1 Peter chapter 2. In fact, three of the major statements of Exodus 19 are repeated in 1 Peter 2. And we have a great privilege.
You see, priesthood is a holy function. It's collective. We gather together in a prayer meeting, and the priests are functioning in intercession. We gather together to worship, and the priesthood is functioning in worship before the Lord.
It's the sacrifice of priesthood that we offer when we come to worship. And there isn't a place I know in Christendom where they carry it out. Thank God for that simple order. May it be preserved to us, and may we appreciate it, shall we pray.