Missionary Discipleship — Westlake Bible Fellowship

0:00 Opening and personal update

I was just told that it could go until 01:30. Is that okay? Yeah. I'm lying. He said a little bit after twelve, so that clock's a little off.

That's not too bad. It was... Did somebody adjust it? Because it was off more. Okay.

It's just probably it's probably pretty close right now. Anyway, good morning, everyone. It's good to be here. But I think when the last time... I think it was 2009, we're on furlough.

My name is Bruce Simpson for those who may be new here or or forgotten, and I forget names. And my wife, Priscilla, and we've served the Lord for forty three years in Colombia. And we came home last year, never to return to Colombia again. Is this not on? It's fine, but I wanna Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Well, you don't have to see me. I'm not that pretty. So as long as you can hear, it's okay. We are in close contact with Colombia three or four times a week.

We're talking by phone, by Skype, emails, chats, and so forth. I got two two things this week from from Colombia, one in Spanish and one in English. One of our, believers, probably one of our... Probably our best speaker at the Prado Church, has taught himself English by listening to CNN, listening to missionaries, and maybe Gaither videos or something like that. And he does quite well, so he writes sometimes in in English.

And it's exciting to read the report. You may recall that almost nine years ago now, Priscilla and I headed up a team that left the main assembly to start another work. So on the December 14, it'll be nine years old. We started that first Sunday morning with 16 people, 11 from the the assembly that came with us and five others. And it grew, and they're now seeing 80 or more, each Sunday morning.

We praise the Lord for his goodness. It's not Bruce and Priscilla. It's not Edouard. It's not any individual. It's all of us working together as a team under God because it's God that brings the increase.

But we do praise him for what has been done. Shortly after we left, due to some complicated things, the church group had to leave the house that was being rented. And so for four straight Sundays, they met. I think one was in the muffler shop right beside it. They met in a backyard.

They met in a hotel conference room, and they met in a home. And then the fifth Sunday and for over a year afterwards, until just recently, they've been meeting in the conference room of a Christian bookstore. And during that time, even though we only could rent it Sunday mornings and the young people had to meet somewhere else and the ladies had to meet somewhere else, And the prayer meeting met somewhere else in homes and different places, and some things some things didn't get done, the group did grow. Some left because Bruce and Priscilla aren't there. And we tried to warn them about that, that it's not Bruce and Priscilla.

The work is the Lord's work, and we have capable men. Before we left, we were able to recognize three elders, godly men, mature men. And another man came in just before we left from another assembly, also Prado Church in Medellin, who was highly recommended by one of the missionaries there, Mike Duberle, and by one of our Colombian workers, probably our best Colombian worker and speaker I've known for thirty five years, Gilberto Venegas in Bogota. And he says, oh, he says, Jorge is a godly man deep in the scriptures and an excellent preacher. And he was moved to Columbia to be the CEO of a large, office supplies, company for the whole coast of Columbia.

Very capable man. And he and his wife and children have been a real asset to the assembly. So we met him on two occasions shortly before we left. And so we have four really good elders. The assembly is in good hands.

We thank the Lord for that. It's always in good hands when it's in the Lord's hands, but the Lord will raise up good people on earth to do the work as well. So we're just delighted that, it is going on. I think there are four, if not five, weekly bible studies in different homes. The jail ministry continues usually twice a week.

Ministry in the in the hotel... The hospital, which was only a half a block from the original site. What else? Several... Oh, the Iwana.

That's a new thing. It just started about two months ago. They started Iwana in the school where one of our ladies teaches. One of the sisters teaches in that school and was able to get permission to start the Awana there and they've got 50 kids coming to Awana. And three couples, parents of children, want to have bible studies and the elders are visiting them and, seeking how they can they can have a bible study with with these.

I don't if individually or all three together. We praise the lord for different things that are happening. We're excited about that and praise the lord for it. The choir is doing well. You may recall, we're involved in the church as well as the choir.

Priscilla founded a choir some sixteen, seventeen years ago and was able to train one of the choir members, Mitzi Machado. And her story is quite long and quite interesting. Priscilla's father was mentor to her grandfather many, many, many, many, many, many years ago. And Priscilla gave trumpet lessons to her father when Priscilla was, what, nine or so years old and he was 10 or you were eight and he was whatever. And so there's a there's a connection there, which is kind of interesting.

And Mitzi's a lawyer now, very knowledgeable in music, and she's caught the vision, and she's doing a fantastic job. Today, yesterday and today, they were invited to a reunion. What is it? The sixtieth or 70? Seventieth reunion of a group of churches, probably some 30 churches with whom we worked when we first went to Columbia.

We didn't go to Columbia initially with the assemblies. They were a good group then. Good and sound and conservative and fundamental and biblical and so forth, but many of them have gone off charismatic or contemporary and and everything else. The amazing thing is that they've asked the choir to sing. They gave them a list of some 35 or 40 hymns.

They want to hear some of the old hymns. I guess the older folks in the group, solicited this and asked for this. So we've been working on hymns. Of course, this is what the choir does. The choir is dedicated to four part harmony and singing hymns and maintaining what has been basically the method of singing and worshiping for almost two thousand years until recently.

6:39 Choir ministry and its impact

I know somebody... Yeah. Ray will be able to handle that quite well, but if... Barranquilla. Yeah.

I don't have the pie, though, so you'll... Offering what I can't produce. Right? But, anyway, we... We're just thankful for the minister of the choir, goes to shopping malls at Christmas time and presents the Christmas cantata, and there's usually four or five from which they choose.

And they're invited now. They call early in the year. Can you come? How many times can you come? And in these modern malls like you have here, a 150, 200 stores, all under one roof, air conditioned, and so forth, and the choir can sing the message of Christmas and read scripture and give a little gospel message.

Our young people went one time to pass out tracts and they were prohibited from doing so. But in the context of the cantata, a message can be given, tracts can be passed out. Priscilla always prepared every word that was sung, every word that was read from scripture, and every other thing that was said in a sheet of paper and put a little tract in it. We passed these out to the people that were around. And sometimes there were 50 to a 100 people who would stop and listen.

So in the context of the the cantata, a lot could be done, and so we praise the Lord for that. And they also minister in a jail and the hospital. I think last year was 18 times they ministered to some churches, some schools, open air, whatever during the Christmas season, presenting the true message of Christmas. Why did Jesus Christ come? He came to die on the cross and shed his blood to pay the penalty for our sins.

And that's the message that a lot of people don't know. They just... Well, it's Christmas time. We give gifts. We drink and get drunk and and have parties and so forth.

They don't understand the true meaning of Christmas. So it's tremendous ministry. Not only at Christmas but Easter and during the year. They had pretty much an open invitation to them when they didn't because there was an uprising in the jail and some people were killed and there were hostages taken so they couldn't get into jail for a few months. But now they're back going to the jail and they could go there as as often as they can get, you know, time off to go.

The choir members are are amateurs, very much amateurs. They're not tremendously gifted singers. They work. They study. Some do both.

So getting time off is not easy. But the Lord has blessed the minister of the choir greatly. We thank him for that. So it's good to be here and give you a brief report on what's happened. We came on, like I said, last year.

We're in close contact with Columbia, and we... Opportunity... Plans I had kinda fell through. We've been to a report on Columbia, and as we keep getting information from Columbia, I will... We'll be able to update you and so forth.

Two two couples from the assembly, the Prado Church Assembly, are leading the young people's group. A lot of times people will bring in, you know, a professional prepared youth director, and I'm not totally in agreement with that. And we have these, you know, these two couples, and we've worked, extensively with the one couple. Actually, both. They had some major problems before they were married and even some...

To some extent afterwards. But now they're plugged in and helping the young people and working with the young people in the assembly. So a lot of good things are happening. Two other little assemblies, sort of satellite assemblies, started as a result of Prado. We helped them get going.

One of them no longer is. It... Due to legalism, due to the misuse of the tongue, there's good uses and bad uses of computers and and butcher knives and tongues and many other things. And due to some issues of the tongue and a lot of legalism, the one assembly just did not grow. It started off with 15 or so, maybe as much as 20, and wound up with about eight.

And it was very sad. And we know the people in there. We've worked with them, and so it it terminated last September. But the other one, the Giro Solis, that's a sunflower assembly, is now up from about 20 to a little over 40. And they've got a couple of baptisms.

People come to know the Lord. And I know the the elder leading that assembly very, very well. He's a godly man, a very mature man, a very humble man. You don't very often find people that come and ask you a question, and they'll listen to your answer. They ask you the question because they wanna give you their answer.

Right? Well, he came to me. He's a man of 40 years old, military training. Not not a, you know, not a stupid person by any means, and he had a lot of good questions which he asked me and he would listen. Listen intently to the answers and we had bible studies together.

And so his name was Orlando. You may remember him in prayer. Orlando at the heat of Solis Church. It's doing well. We thank the Lord for that.

11:43 Concerns about spiritual decline

They're things that concern me, things that maybe worry me. I know worry is a sin, but I guess maybe there's a legitimate worry as we look around and see what's happening in churches, in Christianity, in Colombia, in Canada, United States, and everywhere. The assemblies are not immune by any means. Are changes that are coming about which cause concern to say the least. I wanna read a verse in Ezekiel.

It says, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, the word from my mouth and give them warning from me. Watchmen. They use... In Ezekiel, they use the term...

The the the holy spirit used the term, I think, three times in three different passages. But it's also synonymous with pastor or priest or spiritual leader. And to a great degree, those who are spiritual leaders and and in fact, today in the church age, any mature born again believer has, at least as a certain aspect of his life and ministry, that aspect of being a watchman, to watch and to warn. And I'm I'm gonna prepare a message sometimes. I haven't started yet, but some of the things maybe here will be the basis.

Watching and mourning. Watching and mourning. It's something we need to do. We're warned in scripture that in the last days would be what? Deception.

Right? Christ warned about that in Matthew seven, Matthew 24. The apostles warned about it, in numerous places in second Thessalonians, in second Peter, in Jude. Many warnings about false teachers, false prophets in the last days, the apostasy of the last days, and the deception which would take place. And so we need to watch and we need to warn.

There's another verse that I wanna read if I can find it. Think I've lost... I don't know. Okay. It's in...

I know where it is. It's in Acts, and Acts is between John and Romans. There we are. Has the same idea. It says, and this was Paul writing to...

Or or what he what he communicated with the elders of the church in Ephesus, probably the largest and strongest church that we know about in the New Testament. Ephesus was founded by Priscilla Aquila, and we know that John, Apollos, Paul himself for three years, Polycarp, and other men ministered there. It was a strong church. And we know from this passage they had elders because he met with them. He's on his way back to Jerusalem, and he he couldn't get up to Ephesus.

So from Miletus in 2017, he sent for the elders to come and meet with them, and he gave them these these words. Verse 28, therefore, take heed. Take heed. What would be a synonym for take heed? A word we just mentioned.

Starts with w warning. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the holy spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock. Savage wolves, pretty graphic description of some of the false teachers that would be coming in from outside, coming in. Now we've had this in Colombia.

People come in. We had some that would come in and more or less fellowship with us for a period of time and try and convince us of their fa... False ideas. We had one fellow come into our new Prado church when we got started and he had all kinds of messages. And I said, well, we got preachers here.

You you come in and fellowship with us for six months or a year, keep your mouth shut and behave yourself, and then we'll see how you fit in, and maybe you'll have an opportunity to preach. But you're not preaching this morning. And he left and never came back again, and that's good. We don't want problems. Enough problems will happen of their own accord.

Anyway, so these people will come in from outside. Also, oh, dear, also, from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Perverse things that do not coincide with established practices and doctrines that harmonize with God's word. It's a warning, and we're not immune. We're not immune.

Therefore, watch. So we have warning and watching in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and we need to pay attention to those words and do it. I think there's four vital activities that are needed in the church this morning, and I've got an introduction. If I give you all the introduction, we won't get done. So I'm not sure how much to do with that.

17:07 Observations on declining assemblies

And so we see how things are going, and it's not something that we can rejoice greatly about. There are a few assemblies which seem to be growing a little bit. There are some assemblies which are barely holding their own. And some people say if you're not growing, you're falling behind. So maybe holding your own to something that isn't truly the case.

Sadly, a lot of assemblies are in decline, and we have seen this as we go from furlough to furlough. Every three or four years, we visit, and there's fewer people, and there's fewer people. And people have talked to us, leaders and elders and other missionaries and itinerant speakers. They see the same things and people are concerned about it. I'm glad to see a good group of people here this morning.

This would be one assembly. And maybe I shouldn't say this because you'll ever get a swelled head and then pride will come in and you'll fall. Pride goes before a fall. But it's good to see a good group here. And it seems to me that from the last time we're here, there are more here than the last time.

And that's unusual. That's unusual in the number of assemblies that we go to. So I was concerned. We we were in Florida for about eight weeks, and I spoke 16 times in nine different assemblies. And I saw the same thing there, and people talk to me.

It's such and such assembly. And I know. I I... The one assembly, I spoke to probably a 120 people on a Sunday morning, not that many years ago. And on a Sunday morning now, there's maybe 35.

And for a prayer meeting, there's about six. Sad. And there's two or three others like that and other places as well. So I came back from Florida very burdened, concerned. What's happening?

I love the assemblies. We're not perfect by any means. And I hope you realize that. I realize that. Nobody's perfect.

No church is perfect. No movement. No group is perfect. We've got our our flaws and our feet of clay, as a good missionary friend of mine used to say. Came back in April.

In May, we had a a leaders, workers, and elders conference in Guelph. In Guelph, there's a real large assembly camp. Maybe some of you have been there, Roger. It's it's very big, very nicely done, beautifully done compared to what we have in Columbia for our camp. It's it's really something.

And there are about 200 leaders and workers there. And I was quite interested in one of the topics in the open forum was, why are the assemblies in decline and what can be done about it? It wasn't if, are they, it was why are they in decline and what can be done about it. And I was very interested. Boy, you know, here we go.

We can find out, you know, some good reasons what people are thinking. Sadly, they pussyfooted around it and didn't wanna know. Don't go and tell the leaders up there that I said this because I'm getting into hot water. But to some, I did express that, hey, I wish they'd have dealt with it a little more. You know, it's it's not easy to face your your own mistakes.

How many people here find it easy to say, I'm sorry. I was wrong. That's a hard thing to say, isn't it? Even when we know it's true. Probably the hardest person to say it to is our spouse, our husband, our wife, or other people in the assembly.

Hey. You know, we we... We're not on the right track. We did wrong. But there was no disagreement of the premise.

And many who were there, some of the ones even on the platform, mentioned from the platform, yeah, my daughter left and she married a fellow from a Baptist church and they're active in this and that and are happy and blessed. And others at the table would be sitting to, yeah, my son went to a Bible church or a community church or a Baptist church, and he's active in this and that. He's doing this and that, and he's happy and blessed. They admit it, and they know it. But why?

And I'm still waiting for the answers. I'm still waiting for the answers. I'm not gonna give you answers this morning. If you're interested in the answers, don't look at me. I've got some ideas.

But we do have this situation, and that's something I'm concerned about. And, of course, we all should be concerned about the contemporary movement, the seeker friendly, the seeker sensitive movement, which was started by Bill Hybels and carried on by Rick Warren and others like that. That has failed, and they admit it. Bill Hybels admit it. I've just read it recently.

21:59 Contemporary movements and their impact

Have you heard of that? How many have heard of the ancient future faith? Yeah. It's just something I hadn't heard of either. You've heard of the emerging emergent church.

Right? That's that's fairly common. And so some are coming out of this hoop de doo, give up the people what they want, seeker friendly movement, and they want something more substantive and more more deep. And so they went into the emergent... Emerging church thing.

When that's not satisfying either, it won't satisfy. But it's joining with this ancient future faith, ancient going back to some of the things which the Reformation delivered them from in the Catholic church, the mysticism, occultism, and such things. Some of those practices, which in the reformation was considered wrong and heretical, and we were delivered from those things. So it's it's a mess what's happening in many churches, are good, solid Christian churches, fundamental and evangelical and sending missionaries out. I read something recently that now in 2012, about 40% of missionaries sent to the rest of the world come from The Americas.

North America, North America, 40%. It used to be about what, 95%. When I was back in Bible school, was something like 95%. So Africa, Korea, Latin America, India are sending missionaries. And whether we're sending less or whether the others are sending more could be a combination.

But we're in a spiritual decline, and that's of great concern. It's of great concern. Revival is a word often used, and many are praying for revival. Has many different synonyms, spiritual awakening, renewal, renaissance, reformation. We desperately need revival.

And I'll skip a few of the notes here. Basically, ever since the Garden of Eden, Christianity has been on a spiritual roller coaster. Mankind has been on a spiritual roller coaster. Is that not true? God created Adam and Eve, perfect, at the pinnacle, in the likeness of God, holy, no sin, and said, don't eat, and they ate.

Because they ate, they fell. They died spiritually that moment, and they died physically later on. It occurs to me that had they not eaten, Adam and Eve would still be here. Right? Death came because they ate.

And because of that, God enacted his plan of redemption, his plan of salvation right there in the garden, promising in in Genesis three fifteen, the coming of the seed, the redeemer. And in 22, I believe, 22, two innocent animals that had not done anything wrong, I assume two, maybe more, Shed their blood to provide skins to cover the two guilty humans. And that's been the case ever since, up and down. You've read the book of Judges? I'm assuming you've read the book of Judges.

Is that not a roller coaster of up and down? There's about 12 different cycles, seven or so we know very well. Gideon and Samson. Israel starts off walking with the Lord as you come out of Joshua, and Joshua challenges them. You know, my...

Me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Serve in the sense of worship, which is about 99% of its use in the Old Testament, if not a 100. We will worship the Lord. So they start off, then that generation passes away and they fall into sin. And they're into sin and idolatry and serving pagan gods for many years.

God sends judgment sometimes in the form of another nation to attack them and defeat them, sometimes in the form of a famine, sometimes in the form of of sicknesses, a pandemic, sometimes all of that. And they cry out to the Lord. The Lord sends a deliverer. The deliverer comes and gets them back on track again, defeats the enemies, and gets them back on track spiritually, and they go well for a while, and then back down again. And that's that's the cycle through all of Christian history.

That's the the cycle. And and you continue reading on through the prophets, the same thing. The prophets were raised up. Very little of prophecy is foretelling the future. It's calling people back.

Return to me. Why will you perish, o house of Israel? Return to me. Repent. Time and time again in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we have these things.

27:09 God raising up leaders through history

And they they brought things back to the... It's truly justification by faith alone in Jesus alone. And then since then, we've had men like Robert Reiki. You know what he did? He started the Sunday school movement.

And it's interesting, almost all these men were raised up in a dark period of time, in a black period when the spiritual life was was ebbing and was a dark and gloomy moment, and this came along. George Williams, you know what he started? Started the YMCA. That was a good Christian organization at one time. William Booth, you know who he started, what he started?

Salvation Army. And again, none of these... You know, they got their their weird ideas, but they all made their contributions. The Wesley brothers, they had their holy club in the University of Oxford back in seventeen twenty six, twenty seven. They weren't believers then.

They weren't believers. They went to... On a mission trip to Georgia, Georgia, United States, not Georgia, Russia, and tried to get... Win a bunch of Indians to the Lord and and failed miserably. And on the way back, they were into a storm, and they were petrified and worried.

Saw this group of people that were calm and trusting the Lord, the Moravians. And they asked them about, well, we we have a personal faith in Jesus Christ. When they got back to England, they went to one of their meetings, and that's when the Wesleys got saved. They had a wonderful ministry after that, come to know the Lord through the Moravians even though they founded the holy club. And they were zealous for for many things, studying the word and living a righteous life and so forth, but they were not saved.

But God brought them. God will honor, even though sometimes we're misguided, he will honor our sincere desires. Will he not? So he honored that. Then, of course, along with Whitfield, they were responsible for great revival in the late seventeen hundreds.

So, anyway, how many more? Well... Oh, yeah. There's one. No time for him.

Jeremiah Lamprey. I I love his story. I read about him. Businessman who back in eighteen fifty six or seven when it was a black time economically and a and a big ship had just sunk off the coast of Maine or somewhere and there were fights over the gold in California And there were all kinds of problems, and he went around to New York passing out an invitation to come to a prayer meeting. And six people came.

And the next week, there were 20. And the next week, there were 40. Businessmen, financial people, and the thing grew and exploded and started a revival which spread to Canada, centered in Hamilton, and then across to England out of which a bible's training institute was formed. And from that bible training institute, many famous missionaries went off to China, Aryanjaya, India, Africa, and so forth and started a tremendous movement of missions worldwide because one man called people to prayer, revival, spiritual renewal. And there have been dozens of of movements through the years.

Great preachers for you, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, Billy Sunday, Dwight Moody, Donald Barnhouse, and Adaobia Tozer, and of course, more recently, Billy Graham in evangelism, John MacArthur, many others. None of them perfect, all with their flaws, can be criticized, and there are people who criticize them. And I've read some of the criticism. Yeah. Maybe it's legitimate, but God has used these people to bring about an awakening.

So historically, here's some in alphabetical order. Just run through them quickly. The Anabaptists. Ana means to be rebaptized. You come out of what the church had become, the Roman Catholic church, you know, baptism when they're a baby for...

And that doesn't mean anything, so they had to be rebaptized. They're called Anabaptists. Armenianism, Baptist is about 200 different different segments or groups of Baptist nowadays. Oh, yes. And the brethren.

There's a brethren. Lots of brethren. There's the river brethren. There's the foot washing brethren. There's the common life brethren.

There's a brethren in Christ. There's a Mennonite brethren. There's the united brethren. And then there's the brethren of the assemblies that don't wanna be called Plymouth brethren. That's us.

And from what I could find out, we're one of one of the smallest, if not the smallest. But we've made our contribution. We have made our contribution. Are we perfect? No.

We've made our contribution. Is our time up? I hope not. But I did read something written by a brother and author about ten years ago, and his contention was that the brother movement has been used of God and will fade off. And it was in...

I think it was in the Journey Journal magazine, Brethren magazine. I hope that's not true. And I have in my my briefcase something that they sent me from Colombia. It's in English. And an an assembly's elder, I'm not sure where, Kansas or somewhere, has done a questionnaire he sent out to a number of assemblies.

And the question is, why are people leaving assemblies? And he got 10 answers. At least there's a consciousness of something happening. So maybe something can be done. So that's the brethren.

Then there's Calvinism, the Mennonites, the Methodists, and the Methodist Methodist Methodist... Anyway, you know what I mean. The Moravians, they had a tremendous impact on the Westleys. Pentecostals and Pentecostalism, which came in just a little over a hundred years ago. The Pietists and the Quietists.

Persilianism. And it's it's not my wife. It was a it was a man by the name of Persilian, and I'm not sure what he believed. I did read it once. I can't remember.

Puritanism, the Puritans made a tremendous contribution, but they got some things which which I disagree with and we would disagree with. And, basically, the Presbyterians are founded on their documents, the Puritan documents, and they still believe in in the sprinkling of children as do the Lutherans. And some of them believe in a millennium and... And what's the other thing called? The seven years of tribulation.

And some of them don't, and some believe it'll be after, and some... You know, it's all... But they made their contribution. And there's the Salvation Army, and there was the holy club that I mentioned, and the reformers, and the quietists, and and so on. Today, we have the Bible Society.

We have Campus Crusade. We have the Gideons, and the persona had just been accepted as Gideons in Canada. Rules were changed so that, you know, I would be classified as clergy. And, of course, I think in The States, clergy cannot be a member of the Gideons nor women. That has been changed in Canada, so we're anticipating the tremendous privilege of placing God's word, which is alive and powerful and can transform lives in places such as jails and hospitals and schools where we can still do that.

Pretty hard these days. It used to be quite easy. I remember when I was in, I think it was fourth grade, and couldn't wait to get our our Gideon Bible, New Testament. New Testament and I think it said Psalms and Proverbs. That was a big moment.

Now you can't do that. You have to go to the school, and some schools say, no. We're not interested. And others that may be interested will say, well, we'll leave them there, and we'll get permission from the parents, and we'll go through all of this and jump through hoops and so on. And if the kids want them, they can pick one up voluntarily.

We'll eat a little little pile. It's it's it's it's difficult. What was the book? Book of Mormon, wasn't it, in the hotel where where we're staying right now? Open the drawer.

There's the bible, but there's also the Book of Mormon. Well, I think the Mormons own a chain of hotels, don't they? So maybe we're staying... We have to find out and make sure we don't stay in that hotel again if it's owned by the Mormons. But, anyway, we're we're happy to be part of the Gideons.

InterVarsity, the Samaritan's Purse, numerous other organizations, radio stations, HCJB and Transworld Radio that's getting into Muslim countries and areas where it's difficult, Cuba even. But there's also many heretical movements, and time is running out. And, you know, the seeker sensitive movement, postmodernism, and and all of these things, the ancient future faith, the latter rain movement, the kingdom, dominion theology, kingdom now. Some believe there's no millennium. We will just take over government.

We'll form the kingdom here. And then, okay, Lord, come back. Here's your kingdom. We did it. That's not the way it's gonna work.

The apostolic reformation, which is probably the big the big overall group in which these are. The g twelve in Columbia, which is very similar. Signs and wonders movement, which Peter Wagner and and and John Wimber... Peter Peter Peter Wagner and and John Wimber, I think it was. So anyway, and I haven't even got to the message yet, but that's the introduction.

36:59 Four crucial ingredients for local church

We must love as a verb. And we must be described as a loving people. That's number one. And I have no fear of contradiction. You know why?

Because Christ said so in Matthew chapter 22. You can read it between verses, I think it's thirty four and forty. And he was asked, what's the greatest commandment? The greatest commandment is love. Love God.

Love your fellow men. Love your believers in your assembly. Love the Pentecostals. That's tough. That's tough.

I got reprimanded one time because I I have a very dim view of people that roll around on the floor and do crazy things and speak in tongues and all of that. And yet we can learn some things from the Pentecostals, their zeal for evangelizing and their love for the Lord. And a and a godly believer older than myself said, you know, Bruce, there's a lot of people in that movement that love the Lord, and Christ gave his life for them as well. And to the best of their ability, they're serving the Lord. Yeah.

They got some wrong things and doctrine. It kind of jolted me. We need to love all of those people, the Baptists, Presbyterians, and all of the... Anybody... We're all we're all gonna be in heaven in heaven together.

And we need to love what other group of people that I haven't mentioned yet? Our enemies. Our enemies. So love takes care of everything. Tied with number one has to be evangelizing because that's the whole purpose of God's word.

That's the whole purpose of having the bible. Had Adam and Eve not sinned, would we have the bible? We wouldn't. We wouldn't have the bible because they were having fellowship with God, so they were learning about God in the Garden of Eden. And had they not sinned and we've been born, we'd be having fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden, learning about him.

And the purpose of the bible is to present the way of redemption for a fallen race. And if the race isn't fallen, there's no need. So the reason we have the bible and Christ's last words given in Matthew 28, Mark 16, also in Luke and John, more brief, and in acts one eight is go tell. Somebody mentioned this morning, go tell. And that's the summary of it all.

And it's actually not go over there and tell. It's as you are going in Matthew 28. In other words, it's it's a continuing thing. You start here in Cleveland. As you go about your daily activities, be telling other people, be making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them all things which I commanded you.

And that command is for men and for women. We have our restrictions in the assemblies which we believe are biblical, but the women are included. And sometimes we go too far and we cut our workforce in half. Priscilla trained the women to preach and to teach in Columbia so they could work among themselves and also so they could give a gospel message. And one of our...

Well, the fellow from Australia that founded the Bible Institute founded it for the men, but very few men applied and a lot of women were applying. So he... What what will I do? Well, I guess we'll let some of the women in. Well, the women did better in the theology classes, in the doctrine classes, in the bible classes.

And when it come to to evangelizing in the park, they skinned the men, gave better messages. And so he learned a lesson here. Oh, boy. The women are part of the great commission. Read acts chapter eight.

They went out, and they were thrown into prison just like the men. As far as ministerial activities and administrative activities, yes, the women are restricted. But they can witness, and they should witness. So ladies, learn to witness and lead your lead your friends to the Lord. And if a man happens to be there, no problem whatsoever.

41:27 Ingredient two: Be holy

Starting in Leviticus... Well, actually, starting before Leviticus, God is holy. He proved that in Exodus 19. Remember the mountain shaking and smoking and earthquake and the trumpet? God is holy.

He's to be feared. He's to be reverenced. And he repeated it several times after Leviticus 11, Leviticus 18, 19, all of chapter 23 has to do with the holy convocation and the holy feasts and solemn feasts. And it's repeated in first Peter chapter one, be holy in all of your way of living. Every aspect of your life were to be holy, separated from the world.

Were imitate God, not the world. We're be not conformed to the world, but be conformed to his image. We're not to love the world. Probably three quarters of my messages in Columbia are related to this topic. Dealing with sin, living in a way that is pleasing to God so that our life radiates Christ and is a testimony.

The last one is worship and worshiping. We need to worship God in spirit and in truth. Spirit is not the Holy Spirit. I heard a message once, and a fellow took the premise that it was the Holy Spirit. It's not the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit's involved. We are born spiritually according to Christ in John three, and with that spiritual life, we have the ability to worship God. The unbeliever does not have that. He lost that in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve died what?

Spiritually and immediately. Did they not? Yes. And then they died physically. And when we receive Christ, we are born spiritually.

We have spiritual life. And with that spiritual life, a human spirit, if you like, we can worship God in spirit and in truth, the truth of God's word. We worship him based on the truth of his word, not based on what some guy in California wrote in a book. We had a guy... He's sort of an American.

He was... His parents were missionaries in Mexico. He was born in Mexico. His name was Marcos Witt. Maybe you heard of him.

And he's written a book telling that all worship for the last one thousand nine hundred and fifty years has been wrong and and misguided and so forth. And he now has a special revelation from God, and it seems to me that he falls under the curses of of Revelation chapter 22, for all of Latin America of now how you have to worship. And it's not like we would worship, let me tell you. It's wild, noisy, whirly, and he jumps around like a kangaroo. I've I've saw it on on TV, a live performance.

So we're to worship God in spirit and in truth, the truth of God's word. Having knowledge of him, we can praise his holiness, his sovereignty, his eternity, the second coming of Jesus Christ, and things which are solidly in scripture. A lot more I could say. Maybe we need to reemphasize things. We've emphasized some things which are kinda distinct to the assemblies, and we kinda are a little bit proud of those things.

Are we not? Maybe, maybe that's holding us back a little bit. We need to emphasize what God... These things are near and dear to God's heart. I like to have lots of verses to prove something, and we need that in Colombia because we're surrounded with Pentecostals, we're surrounded with Jehovah's Witness and Mormons and whatnot, and some of our people work in places where these people are.

So we need to have several verses to prove something. So we're dealing with the doctrine of God and all of the different 10 or 11 attributes of God. Nice to have two or three different, and especially Christ, the deity of Jesus Christ. I think I've got 12 now. I found one the other day.

In fact, in that verse I I read, let me just... Take another couple minutes. Naturally, you're gonna say yes when I ask you like that. In Acts chapter 19, very clear. Chapter 20.

No. No. I can't find it. Shepherd the church of God. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God.

Okay. To shepherd the church of God. Okay? Which he purchased with his blood. Is Jesus Christ God?

Who died on the cross and shed his blood? Jesus Christ. Is Jesus Christ God? Yes. Another verse.

Another verse. I hadn't hadn't run across that one before. It's wonderful when you get into studying God's word, you find another verse, you get saying... Excited about it. So we need to give, in my opinion, more heed and more watchfulness to the things which are near and dear to God's heart.

Loving, evangelizing, worshiping, living the holy life. Those things from cover to cover of scripture are repeated over and over and over again. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it's powerful. We ask that you give us the courage to always live according to what it says, and help us, father, as we look around us and we see many churches following false teaching, false movements, and even among ourselves, there's great concern of a decline.

47:10 Concluding prayer

Amen.

Missionary Discipleship — Acts 20

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Missionary Discipleship — Acts 20

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