Epaphroditus exemplifies selfless devotion and sacrificial giving in service to the Apostle Paul and the Gospel. The sermon highlights Epaphroditus's perilous journey to deliver a gift to Paul in Rome, his near-fatal illness contracted during this mission, and Paul's commendation of him as a brother, companion, fellow-soldier, messenger, and minister. The core lesson is that true service involves risking one's life for Christ's work and the needs of others, mirroring Christ's own humility and sacrifice. The message concludes by encouraging believers to embrace such a sacrificial spirit in supporting the Lord's work, trusting God's provision when acting within His will.
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And we'll read verse twenty-five. Yet I suppose it necessary to send to you Apoproditus, my brother, and companion and neighbour, and fellow-soldier. But your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death. but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when ye see him again, he may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
Receive him, therefore, in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation, because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life. The word is actually gambling, gambling with his life, hazarding his life to supply your lack of service toward me. Now chapter four, on verse ten, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now, at the last, pure care of me has flourished again. For he were also careful, but he liked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of one, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
I know both how to be a base, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with me in my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, No church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but he only. For even in Thessalonica he sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire to give, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
I have all, and abound, I am full, having received of apaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell. A sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Now that God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Salute every sin in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me greet you. All the sins salute you. Chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now this morning we want to speak about one of the most delightful characters in the New Testament associated with the Apostle Paul in his work.
His name is Apaphroditus. Only twice in the New Testament we get his name mentioned and I've just read the two passages together. I want to speak another difficult subject this morning and there be a delicate one too. And that is the material support of the Lord's work. Now I want to say this at the beginning that for any servant of God any full-time missionary or any preachable difficult thing to speak about giving. And I do want to say that as far as I'm concerned, I don't make any apology at all for speaking about it. And in case anybody gets any idea that there may be some ulterior motive behind it, let me say this.
That during the forty-seven years that we have done the work of the Lord, we have never liked a single thing. And as a matter of thanks, usually we have gotten more than we needed. and we've been able to give away money that we didn't need ourselves. So put that completely out of your mind. If you think that we have any ulterior motive in speaking about this very important subject today, what the Word of God has to say about giving and about the material support of the Word of the Lord. I think it surrounds this name of Apophroditus, this lovely character that was responsible for taking a gift, not only a gift, a financial gift, but things.
He mentions the word things. It's possible that there was a parcel along with it, and he brought this parcel to the apostle when he was in the prison at Rome. You know, as far as we are concerned this morning, we can say nothing but good about God and nothing but good about his beloved people. As far as we are concerned, our hearts are just full of thankfulness and gratitude to God when we think of the way that we have been taken care of. I left home forty-seven years ago with a letter of commendation in my pocket, on a little handbag in my hand, without any material resources, whatever.
Now the brethren weren't responsible for the condition under which I went out. The city from which I was commanded there were thirty-three assemblies in the city. The largest assembly in that city had six hundred in fellowship. and we were in fellowship with all these assemblies. I was born and brought up among them, and when I left home the first time to go out into the work of the Lord, they immediately started to talk about passage money and about outfit. It was necessary in those days anyone going to Central Africa to take a good deal of material supply. But I had been reading a book, I had been reading a couple of books just before this, that made a very great impression on my mind.
The first was the life of Hudson Taylor. It was written by Mrs. Gretton Guinness. It's called The Growth of a Soul. And I don't know of any missionary biography that has been more a blessing to me than the reading of that book. It has made an indelible impression upon my life. And I would advise everybody here this morning, if you don't have a copy of it, well, try and get one. It will be a tremendous blessing both to young and old. The Growth of a Soul. It's a biography. of Hudson Taylor. Now, the second book that made a tremendous impression upon my mind was the life of George Mueller of Bristol. You may remember at the beginning of the so-called Brethren movement, I don't like the expression at all.
But in any case, over a hundred and twenty years ago, when men in different parts of the world were exercised about the conditions of things in the ecclesiastical world, God raised up three men. The first man was John Nelson Darby. He was a minister of the Episcopal Church, twenty-six years of age. That young man God spoke to his heart. And the great truth of the second coming again of Christ, I believe he found in the study of the Word of God. Over Darby's head I write the word hope. You know, wherever we find evangelical believers today, The great blessed hope of the coming again of the Lord Jesus in two stages.
That is, first of all, his coming for his church, coming as a bridegroom, and then after a period of approximately seven years coming back again in visible glory, to establish his kingdom and to reign literally for one thousand years over the year in his millennial kingdom, the man that brought these great truths to life that was principally responsible for it was John Nelson Darby. and over his head I would write the words, hope. There was a second dear brother we mentioned his name last night. His name was Robert C. Chapman, the patriarch of Barnstable. And over his head I would write the words, love. Hope and love.
But there was another man who lived in Bristol, in England. He was a German brother. Came over to England when he was quite young. and he established orphan homes for young children in the city of Bristol in England. And for fifty years, George Mueller, he taught the Church of God the great lesson of sinful trust and faith in God for material needs. He had two thousand orphans at one time, and he never mentioned money, never mentioned finances to any human being. And for fifty years he taught the Church of God the great lesson of simple faith and trust in God for material supply. And over his head I would write the word faith.
Faith and hope and love. For these three dear men, as I think about them, and their lives, it has been a tremendous inspiration to me during my whole life. I read the life of George Mueller of Bristol when I was quite young, and I made up my mind that when I went out into the work of the Lord, I would try to put this principle into practice. And when the question came up, when we were leaving home in nineteen twenty-three, first of all to go to Portugal, and then later to go over to Angola, the brethren started to talk about passage money and our faith. Now I said, brethren, I appreciate from the very depths of my heart your thought and your care, but what I would like to do, it's not that I doubt God at all, but I doubt myself.
And what I would like to do is to put the thing to a practical pace and find out what will happen. And so forty-seven years ago I left home with a commendation of my brethren and the fellowship of my brethren and with a letter of commendation on my pocket and a little handbag in my hand to go to Central Africa. Now all I can say is this, that during these forty-seven years I have never mentioned money or finances or material supplies to any human being. I have never written a form letter in my life. Not that I'm critical of that. Don't misunderstand me here. Many of my dear brethren feel that they should let people know about the work that they're doing, and they do circulate form letters.
I'm not critical of that, but I made up my mind as far as I myself was concerned. I would like to put this thing to a practical test and see what will happen. I have never at any time ever written a form letter or mentioned money or material supplies to any human being. And yet at the end of forty-seven years, Let me say that we have never liked a single thing. Before we're through this morning, I want to tell just one or two simple little stories to show how this works out in the practical way. Not to try to let people see just the kind of life that we have been living or anything of the kind, but you know, the miraculous things have happened. And God has been good and God has been kind.
And so have this beloved people. And from the look at the Word of God and compare... What we find on apostolic days and the work of the Lord today in many parts of the world, I think we can see that these simple scripture principles, if they're put to the test, they work. Now, I think that the great prototype of this principle is apoproditis. Now, just a little, I want to speak about him just very shortly. It said about him in the Epistle of the Philippians, And then I want to speak about a few practical things connected with the support of the work of the Lord today. The Epistle of the Philippians, I think, is one of the most delightful passages of the New Testament.
It's one of the prison epistles. It's associated with the epistle of the Colossians and the epistle to the Colossians. Two great doctrinal epistles. But right in the center is this happy little epistle. Many, many times in this we get the word joy and rejoice. We get that again and again. But have you ever think of the simple circumstances that's called this letter for? First of all, there was a little problem in the church at Philippi. And it was connected with two ladies. We know their names. Paul mentions them. And on the last chapter, he said, I beseech you, it is, and sin-taking that they be of the same mind in the Lord. Of course, you've all heard this bold story about the Irishman.
I got up on trying to pronounce these words. And by the way, We Irish people have a little bit of difficulty in pronouncing these very difficult names. But the old brother anyway, he got up and he said, I beseech Odeas and soon touch him, not to be of the same mind in the Lord. I think he wasn't very far wrong in his pronunciation. You know, wherever you get an assembly, where there's love and affection and harmony among the people of God, among the brethren, there is the foundation of blessing. And the same among the sisters. We think today that the sisters live in important parts of play. I believe they do. And I could tell you of assemblies in different parts of the country.
And I'm quite sure that the spiritual ballast in the assembly are the sisters that are there. But if ever there's a little root of bitterness or friction or difficulty, among two sisters in the meeting it can spread. And it can cause an awful lot of trouble. Now the Apostle in writing his letter... He's putting this thing right. And one of the greatest doctrinal passages in the New Testament is in Philippians chapter two, connected with our Blessed Lord. Or we think of those seven statements of the mighty stoop that he took. And he said, Let this mind be in you. Now who is he talking about? I think he's talking about Yodias and Sintegi. He said, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who being in the form of God thought of that robbery to be equal with God? but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of man, and being found and fashioned as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Now this is a great pattern that's held up, and I believe that this tremendous doctrinal passage connected with the person and work of the Lord Jesus is directed at that little situation at Philippi. These two sisters where there was a friction among them and Paul says, let this mind be in you. And he holds up the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. And again and again in his epistle he refers to this situation.
He speaks about the lowly mind and all we only notice and took to heart the work of our Lord Jesus Christ and his mighty stoop. I think that these difficulties and problems would vanish like a morning cloud. But that is the first situation. in the epistle of the Philippians that called it forth. He wanted to put that little matter right. But then secondly, it is the acknowledgement of a gift. You know, sometimes a missionary doesn't think that writing an acknowledgement of a gift is an important thing. You know, I believe it is. And if God's people are good enough to sit down and send a gift to a servant of God overseas, the very least he can do, at the first possible opportunity to sit down and at least say, thank you.
I have known cases where sometimes a gift is sent to some servant of God in some part of the world and sometimes you wait a whole year or maybe two years before you get an acknowledgement. And I believe that this is directed to the servant and I want to direct it to myself. I don't think we need to sit down and write a whole full sketch page of all the details of the work and that kind of thing. But I think that just in a personal way, it's so nice to sit down and write a little personal letter and at least say, thank you. And we do it from the depths of our heart. Now the epistle to the Philippians, this lovely letter is an acknowledgement, an acknowledgement of a gift that had been sent by the church at Philippi to the Apostle when he's in prison in Rome.
So we get the two-fold background to the story. First of all, this little difficulty of friction between two sisters that's put right. or attempted to be put right in the Epistle, and then secondly, it is the acknowledgement of a gift that had been sent to the Apostle. Now the man who conveyed that gift, his name was Apophroditus. I understand at the beginning of these conference meetings, our dear brother Joe Bonson was here, and he spoke about epiphras. I don't know whether that is the proper pronunciation or not. Again, I have a problem there. I generally call him Apophis. I understand that some people, they pronounce his name Epiphras.
But in any case, Epiphras and Apophroditus is the same name. One is the length and form of the name. And that some people would associate the two men together and say that it was the same individual. Mr. S. B. Meyer, in his very lovely exposition of the epistle to the Philippians, he associates the two men, or at least the two names together and said it was the same person. Well now personally I have a little bit of difficulty with that. Apophorus came from Colossae, and if you look at your map you'll find that Colossae is in Asia Minor. And if you look at Philippi you'll see that that is in Europe. It was in Achaia, in Macedonia, and it was from there that Apophroditus came.
So I don't think we can associate the two names together and say it was the same individual. I don't think it was. But Epiphras from Colossae, he was the intercessor, the man of prayer. But Epiphras was the man who left Philippi with a gift from the assembly at Philippi and took it to Rome. Now again, if you look at your map, you'll see that in Philippi from which he left, and down to the coast, and then taking a long sea journey over to Rome, he had to cover a distance of, say, approximately seven hundred and fifty miles, possibly on foot at his overland. And then when he got to the coast, he had an overseas journey that was closed in winter.
And you can imagine the difficulty of conveying that gift to the Apostle there in Rome. You know, I think that today we have wonderful means of communication. I've often thought that a thirteen cent air mail letter is one of the best bargains in the United States Post Office. If you want to communicate with the servant of God in any part of the world, anywhere, you can buy a thirteen cent air mail letter and it will land there in a few days to any part of the world. We're living in a very privileged day, but in Paul's day, they had to get a person, a courier, a messenger, And I had to send him that long journey to convey that gift to him.
Now, speaking about the support of the work of the Lord and this work that Epaphraditis did, the amazing thing is that in reading the Acts of the Apostles, there are so very, very few references to money. This is something that's very, very much in people's minds today and to talk about security and all the rest of it. And I think that possibly one reason why many of our young people are not interested in the work of the Lord today and giving themselves to this work is this very question, the question of security, the question of material supplies. I'm quite convinced that this is one of the reasons why there's such a dirt of men and women that are willing to give their lives to the Word of the Lord is this very thing.
Now, things that today are very important in some people's minds in the Word of God is almost entirely passed by. You think of the Apostle Paul and his labors? Some years ago in the National Geographic magazine, there was an article about the labors of the Apostle Paul and his journeys, and it was reckoned in that article that he had covered twelve thousand miles in his missionary journeys, about six thousand miles over land, and about six thousand miles by sea. Now, where did the money come from to pay for these journeys? There were no motels in those days.
And possibly there was a good deal of very loving, courteous hospitality, just as there is today. But the apostle was a pioneer. He was going into virgin soil. And very often he would have to pay his way wherever he went. And where did the money come from? It's entirely passed by. There must be some reason for that. And I think it's just a point of that material supplies are less important than the spiritual principles behind it. My dear friends, I do believe this, and I think that our own personal experience in the Lord's work is this, if a man is in the center of the will of God. If he's in the center of the will of God, if he has been called and sent forth by God himself, God will take care.
There's absolutely no doubt about that at all. But if he's not on the will of God, he'll have to resort to all kinds of methods and do things to try to support himself and sometimes go short as well. Now, I think that that is the root, the crux of the trouble today. I don't know about you, but I think about fifty percent of our mail is what we call junk mail. And about fifty percent of the mail is appeals for funds and appeals for money. I always feel a kind of sorry when I see that. On this advertising the day, for funds, and they say, if you don't come over, if you don't come across, and if you don't do that, well, this has got to stop, and that has got to stop, and the other thing has got to stop.
My dear friends, the important thing is, if we're in the line of God's will, on carrying out the Lord's work along these simple scriptural principles, God will take care of it. And he'll abundantly take care of it. And I think we have proven that in our own lives in a very, very simple, simple way. So that in the Acts of the Apostles, the amazing thing is that there's so very little about material support of the Lord's work. It's practically passed over entirely. Now thinking of the Apostle Paul himself, we find that on some occasions, at least on three occasions, he worked with his hands. We mentioned this the other day, in connection with another entirely different connection.
He worked with his hands night and day so that he would not be accountable to anybody. Now that is not a backward step. The Apostle, he did it at Thessalonica. He did it again at Corinth for eighteen months. He did it again at Ephesus during the three years that he was there. He wrought with his hands night and day. And at the end of that public service for the Lord, when he was bidding the Ephesian elders goodbye, he lifted his hands, and I said, These hands have ministered unto my necessities and to those that were with me. Now, I think there's something delightful about that. There's absolutely nothing derogatory, or there's no backward step at all in a man who works with his hands to support himself.
The Apostle, not only did he do that on three different occasions, but the second thing he did, he accepted the devoted gifts of God's dear people. And this is the situation we get here at Philippi. At least on three occasions, the church at Philippi sent to minister to the personal needs of the Apostle Paul. So he did accept gifts from the Lord's dear people to maintain the work in which he was engaged. And a third thing he did, he taught the principles of giving to his converts. And I think that any missionary, any servant of God, right from the very beginning, I believe he should be very, very careful to teach the principle of giving and the necessity, the absolute necessity, the responsibility of the convert to give to God to maintain the work of God.
Now, these are simple principles we get in the Acts of the Apostles and distributed through the Epistles, in connection to the support of the Lord's work. The largest section of Second Corinthians, chapters eight and nine, is occupied with the principles of giving. For the sake of our time this morning, we can't go into this in any detail. Now back again to Apaphroditus. You think of the Apostle Paul in Rome. He's in prison. He had two imprisonments in Rome. It was in that first imprisonment, you remember when, after the shipwrecked, that's described in the Acts of the Apostle, he was conveyed to Rome and believed that for two years he lived in his own hired house.
Now that's what we would describe today as house arrest. He had a certain measure of liberty, but in the fact that he had his own hired house when he was in Rome, that was the first imprisonment. And it lasted for two years. He was chained to a Roman soldier. And every four hours there would be a different soldier coming on, and he was chained to that soldier. He was under house arrest, but really he lived in his own hard house. Now he had to pay for what he got. That house in which he was living, he had to pay rent for it. And it's very likely too that food that was brought to him, he had to pay for that too. Where did the money come from? Where did the support come from? Oh, I think we get the explanation in this lovely little letter.
And the two, the twice, where we get the name of Apophroditus mentioned, I think at least we get one little inkling, just a hint of how he was supported at that time. Oh, what joy it must have brought to his heart. Sitting in that hard house in Rome, chained to a Roman soldier when he saw a man come from the church at Philippi with the gifts and also with the things. The two terms that are used, though, the gifts and the things, possibly a financial gift, and secondly, a gift, possibly material things, possibly a parcel of clothing, or just whatever it was, and the man who conveyed it was Apoproditus. Now Paul, in speaking about him here, he gives a lovely commendation.
And I want to divide what we get here in three ways. First of all, we get the man, and five different things that are said about him. And then I want to speak just for a moment about his mission, the mission that he was engaged in, and finally his ministry. Now, you could occupy a long time. following up this little outline, but just a word or two about the man. I suppose it's necessary to send to you Apophroditus, my brother, companion in labor, fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that minister to my wants. Now there are five statements here, and three of them have to do with his relation to the Apostle Paul. He's my brother. Oh, I love that term.
My brother, my dear brother. You know, I love to See someone and I can use that term to, my dear brother in Christ. This is the way the Apostle felt about him. This is a fellowship of love. And then secondly, companion in Lever. This is a fellowship of service. And then fellow soldier. This is a fellowship of conflict. These are three terms that are used in connection with the Apostle Paul. And then two, in connection with the Church of Philippi. But your messenger, the word actually here is apostle, the same one, your messenger, and then he that ministered to my wants.
I have often thought that these five statements that we get in connection with Epaphroditus, there were just like five ribbons across the soldier's chest, and there were five medals connected with him. I think it's delightful here, the man and the way that he is described. And then, for he longed after you all, was full of heaviness, because that he had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick now unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. You know, he had been sick in conveying this gift to the Apostle Paul. There have been various suggestions what kind of sickness it was.
I think it was Bishop Mo. Speaking about it, he speaks about jail fever. Whether it was that or not, we don't know. The sickness that he had here is not described. Dr. Randall Sharp, he also has his suggestion. He thinks possibly it was pernicious or malignant malaria that he had. Whatever the disease was, in relation to the work that he was doing, he was sick, nigh on the dead. But he didn't talk about himself. He didn't make what we call a poor mouth about his condition. They had heard that he had been sick, but he was full of heaviness because they had even heard about it. Anybody who's going around, weeping on people's shoulders and telling about the awful trials that they have gone through and that kind of thing, something wrong.
He was full of heaviness because they had even heard that he had been sick, but Paul said he was sick. He said, I know about that. He was sick now unto dead, but God had mercy on him and not on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. And then the apostle said, I sent him there for the more carefully, that when you see him again you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. Now listen to these words. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation. Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto dead, gambling with his life to supply your lack of service toward me. He gambled with his life.
You know, every time I think of this, I think of some of God's dear servants in recent years that have lost their lives in the work of the Lord. Here was a man that, in conveying a gift, he had actually gambled with his life. One of my best friends over the past few years was Dr. Ken Dick, man who lost his life just a little while ago. In nineteen fifty-eight we were over in Vancouver and we met Ken for the first time. At that time he was doing postgraduate work in surgery. He first of all had been a school teacher. But then he wanted to give his life to the Lord for the proclamation of the gospel and decided he would like to be a doctor that he could help in the medical work.
After he had finished his medical training, he went back into the hospital and took post-graduate work in surgery. We were over there at that time. And my wife was in the hospital for five months and from Paul's hospital in Vancouver, and Ken was there. My wife had two major operations. And Ken was the assistant surgeon at the operation. And we really got to know him at that time. We had intimate contact with him there, and he wanted to come over to the work in Angola. But when the door was closed into Angola, instead of going there, he went to Nigeria. And, you know, I was terribly shocked the other day, a little while ago, when we heard that Ken had lost his life.
He gambled with his life. But thank God, we look forward to a coming day. when he will have that crown of glory that fated not away. We thank God for men that are willing to gamble with their lives, not only in servants of the Lord, but I could tell stories here this morning for a long time about Africans that have actually done the same thing. You know, this racial hatred that you find everywhere in the world today, we don't know anything about that. When we went back to Angola this time, Some things have happened that we could not possibly describe publicly. It wouldn't be right. We don't believe in telling sensational stories.
But I could tell some stories of some of our dear brethren there that have done exactly this, that have jeopardized their lives on the count of the Christians. And you know when we saw them, they came over to us and just threw their arms around our neck and they saw. And they said, we thought we would never see again in this sight of heaven. Mind you, it did our heart good. As a matter of fact, that brought tears to her eyes as we saw these dear brethren over there realizing the things that they had gone through and some of the things, some of the incidents that had happened on a bygone day in connection with the work of the Lord. It was a lifetime experience, something that I just simply can't describe. And I think that Paul, as he looks at Epaphroditus, on seeing him there in Rome, jeopardizing his life to convey this gift to God's dear servant, I think it must have filled his heart with joy.
And that is the reason why so many times in the epistle of the Philippians, he uses the word joy and rejoicing. Oh, this mutual joy and rejoicing in the work of the Lord. And it was caused by this dear man in the work that he did in jeopardizing his life. I understand the word here, the word hazard, or not regarding his life. The word is, it's a word that's used for a suicide squad. I suppose Mr. Willey could talk more about this than me, but I understand that in the last war, there was a group of Greek soldiers that were dedicated to the liberation of the country, and they called them Parabolani. This is the word that's used here.
The suicide squad. And in North Africa, in those campaigns in North Africa, and also in the liberation of Greece, these men were willing to gamble with their life. There were the suicide squad, the special service. the commandos, the Green Beret. These were men that were willing to gamble with their life for the liberation of their country. This is the type of man we badly need today, not these people that are looking for security, looking for this and looking for that with our hand dark. What we need today is men who would be willing to gamble with their life for the work of God and for the spread of the gospel. This is the type of a man that this man Apophroditus was. None of my time is gone. And I just want to say, in closing, I just want to give one or two very, very brief little incidents of what has happened in our own lives along this line.
Sometimes people say, now it's all right to talk about living by faith, but how does it work? Well, that is a great big subject. I just mentioned Kim Dick over there in Vancouver in the hospital, St. Paul's Hospital. We were there in nineteen fifty-eight and my wife had two major operations in the hospital. And Ken, who was assisting an outstanding specialist, a surgeon at that time, he came to me after it was over now, I said, you brace yourself. He said, for those two operations, he said, you can expect a bill for the first one for one thousand dollars. And I said, the second operation, the fee will be seven hundred and fifty.
That was the surgeon's fee. And I said, you can brace yourself. Well, after it was all over, I went up to the hospital and and asked for an interview with Dr. Word, that is the specialist, the surgeon. And of course I sat down in his office and I made my little speech and I thanked him for all that he had done. Now I said, Doctor, I would like my bill. I want my account. And the doctor looked me up and down for a minute or two and this is what he said. He said, my dear fellow, he said, if your wife is able to live a more or less normal life after all her years of service in Africa, He said, I will be well repaid. He said, it doesn't cost you anything. Now, he might as well have handed me a check for one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars.
That was the first thing. And after it was all over, I was going up to the hospital to collect my wife. And she was standing in the corridor with a little bag in her hand. They don't discharge you until you have paid your bill. But as I was going up to the hospital, there was a car drove up driving along the other side of the street. And it stopped. And there was a man in the car, and he rolled down the window, and he wagged me over. It was one of the dear brethren there in one of the assemblies in Vancouver. He says, where are you going? I said, I'm going up to the hospital. He said, you've been up to get your wife? I said, yes. He said, step in. And he opened the door of the car, and I sat down beside him. We went up to the hospital, and we went up to the floor where my wife had been in the room there.
And remember, this was after five months of hospital treatment. And you know just what that amounts to. And after I saw my wife there, I went over to the desk and I said, I've come for my account. And the girl behind the desk, she figured it all out. And she pushed the account out through the little grid, the window. And this brother that was standing by my side, he gently pushed me to the one side. And he pulled his checkbook out of his pocket. And he wrote a check for the amount. And he pushed it in. And then he took me with an arm. And he said, Brother, you're coming home with me. And he took both my wife and myself through his home.
You know my dear brother is with the Lord today. As a matter of confidence, I wouldn't want to mention his name. But you know, it just warrants our heart. When we think of the goodness of God. And the kindness of God's dear people. We don't need to go around with their kept in our hand to anybody. We don't need to make appeals for funds or that kind of thing if we're in the line of the will of God. If we're in the work that God has for us to do and we're in the line of His will, He'll take care of you. And He still is able to do it a day that He always has. May God bless you. Shall we pray? Our God and Father, we lift our hearts again to thee with thanksgiving.
for this quiet hour again spent together around thy word. Our Father, we do thank thee for thy dear servant, the Apostle Paul. And we thank thee for the dear man that ministered to him when he was in prison. And our Father, for these words of commendation that the Apostle could give to him, we do thank thee. What an example it is for us. And we pray that in our day, as we seek to do thy work, we pray that each one in our own measure may be able to follow in the path that these dear men have lived on in my word. I recommend us to thee again asking for thy presence and help for the remainder of this day. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.