And perhaps we should read the whole passage, so we only want to focus on the passage really there. It's five and six. That is Acts chapter nine, reading from verse one. Remembering that the study for tonight is a study in the life of Paul, in which we want to look at the consecration of faith. We're still following that same theme of the lessons in the life of faith. And Saul, yet breathing out, threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went on to the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, that is the Christian persuasion, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecute us thou me? And he said, Who art our Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecute us. It is hard for thee to kick against the brick. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what? will thou have me to do. The Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do, a verse which we sometimes forget about in the passage. Now a little farther down, and at verse ten, there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him, said the Lord, in a vision, Ananias, he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. The Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street which is called Strait, and inquire in the house of Judas, for one called Saul, Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth that seen in the vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he has done to thy saint of Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. The Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles. He came to the children of Israel. For I will show him our great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Now, First of all, I understood that we're not looking at this word or this theme of consecration. We're not going to go into it in any very profound theological kind of way. So let's not get bogged down haggling about the word consecration and where it occurs in Scripture and its relation to a lot of other things. We're trying to get some practical lessons from these chapters that we have these individuals, these biographies that we have been studying. And I think we get most profit out of them if we stick to the kind of subject we have in mind. And then at some other time we can possibly go into some of the other things in case we get completely derailed. Now we have said in the notes that the word is used, that is the word consecration, in the pure sense of setting apart for God's special use as a holy thing. And since next to the man Christ Jesus, Paul seems to give us the clearest picture on record of a life set apart for God's use It is the biblical prototype of all such lives and merits studies. Of course, that could be expanded a very great deal. We know all about the consecration of the priests in the Old Testament, where we have, I believe, an almost perfect example of men taken out from the mass, brought near to God, for these words are all right in the story. They were to separate Aaron and his sons from all the rest of the people. And then having taken unto thee from among the people these men, they were then brought near to the Lord. There was a stripping, there was a washing, there was a preparation, then a re-closing, an anointing. And then their hands were filled with the material of the sacrifices, principally of the offerings of consecration. And with their hands full, this was the very act, this was the very almost the pinnacle of the whole business of consecration. Now from that moment on those men had left one way of life and they had taken up another. However legitimate their work, whatever legitimate, however legitimate their way of life might have been up to that point, now they had something totally and completely new. They were set aside for God's use. Now we have this thought throughout the New Testament, and I think that even in many, many places where the word itself is not used, we don't need to worry so much about the word as about the whole concept, the whole concept. And that concept is that when God saves, he saves for a purpose. That we, alas, in our preaching, I don't know about them centuries past, Irana think that if this matter has deteriorated in recent times, that is in recent historical times, we tend to make the gospel center on the sinner. And we tend to preach the gospel in terms of what the sinner gets out of it. And so often, though these people are actually saved by a very simple trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, The first steps of their Christian lives, and indeed many of the steps of their Christian lives, for quite a while until they're brought up abruptly and some of these truths are further taught to them, those first steps, those first periods of their life are lived and taken with very, very little idea of the Godward side of salvation. That God, in fact, in his sovereign choice was looking down the ages and that even predestination, as we have it in the New Testament, is predestination to something, predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son. Not to go to heaven, though that's included, of course. Not to save us from hell, though that, we're very thankful is included also. But this is the pivot of the whole thing. And the Apostle Paul, looking back over his life in years to come, was going again and again to connect that day of conversion, and we shall see much of this as we run down these scriptures quickly, he was going to connect his conversion not at all with his deliverance nearly so much as with the purpose of God. This man is going to say, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. That heavenly vision was a vision. when he found himself face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ and was part of the whole business of it being brought to the Lord and being saved again he says when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb to reveal his son in me immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood neither went I up to Jerusalem for them that were apostles before me but and then he starts in what's he talking about a life of utter complete total dedication and consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Father of God so it would seem that while Paul always poured out his heart in a theme song of praise and gratitude for the grace that took him from his place of sinnership and put him in Christ in the place of infinite blessing, he could see the thin red line of the purpose of God in the whole business from start to finish. Now I think that it's only when we grasp this that salvation begins to take on some kind of reasonable purpose. How often we hear people saying, and I'm not getting after this, I'm not saying that it's wrong, and there is a sense indeed in which it's very right and valid, but people take up long periods saying, we can't understand why you ever saved us. We don't know why you should have sent your son. Well, if we read in the Word of God, we find out well, very quickly, very clearly. If, of course, we are talking about salvation as it pivots on me or on you, then we can very well keep on asking that question for the ages of the age. Because it was not just a question that God loves me more than anybody else. He loved the words. And He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Well, then why was I led to make the choice? Immediately I get into the Word of God, and I find out that God chose me not just for blessings to come to me, but as part of His great purposes in Christ. Then I begin getting hold of this thing. Why? There's a reason for it. There's a purpose behind it. And I start entering into God's thoughts about it rather than mine. And when I think of why did He save me, I am not simply... exclaiming in wonder in wonderment at the greatness that is great I am asking myself why he saved me that I might in dedication consecration to him go about satisfying those purposes in my life now this I think we're going to see connection with Paul look at number one the basis of consecration In answer to the question, who art thou? He has given a revelation of the crucified Christ, exalted Lord of all. In answer to the question, what will thou have me to do? He is sent into the city, where he is told first to be baptized, symbol of bringing the old self-life to an abrupt end. That is, it's a figure of death, no matter how you look at it. And then thou art a chosen battle unto me. The basis of consecration is acknowledgement of the total domination of the life by the sovereign Lord for his, the Lord's purposes. In other words, much was sorted out in Saul's, and the life of Saul of Tarsus that day that it takes us years and years sometimes to get sorted out, and sometimes you never see him so, because of lack of knowledge of his word and his way. There were two questions on that day of conversion, which Saul of Tarsus asked, one was who, the other was what. Now those two questions are in their proper places there. And question number two follows on question number one as logically as night follows day and day follows night. The first is a question in which he wants to have resolved in his own mind the relationship between him and the voices speaking. Once that relationship is solved, then the only answer that can come from a redeemed heart is, well, all right, since you are Jesus who died to take possession of me, since you are Lord, exalted in heaven, and since I accept you as Lord, what other question can I ask? then, Lord, what will thou have me to do? Not why, what? The why is not his to us. It is not for him to quibble and to reason and to argue. If Jesus Christ is Lord, and this was solved for him in a flash of a moment, if Jesus Christ is Lord, then the only question of the redeemed one is, all right now, Lord, what is all about? What do you want me to do? And there never was a question in his mind from that day to the day he died about the totality of God's sovereignty and of Christ's lordship in his life. Never for a moment. Other things might be questioned. He may doubt in his own mind whether this or that would be the better course about this. There was never a question in this man's mind. Never one that we can see from the word of God. Who art thy Lord? I am Jesus. What a thunderstruck man that must have been. He was persecuting the Christians because he thought Jesus of Nazareth was an imposter. A man who had deceived the people, who had died lynched by the mob, hanged in disgrace and dishonor outside the city. And if they'd had their way, he would have been dumped in the city, dumped. That's what they did with it. Crucified malefactors of this type were never given ordinary burial. This is why the Scripture is very careful to say that the world, he died among the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death. God saw to it that he was not taken with broken arms and legs and a pierced side and thrown out into that valley of Hinnom to be burned with the other garbage and rubbish which they did with these men. but that he was put in a new tomb and sealed there, so that his resurrection would be for all time a proven fact. Now Saul would not acknowledge that. He was stolen away. That's the message that came to the Sanhedrin. His disciples came and stole it. And he was determined to push this. Now he hears a voice from heaven, and he knows, as an educated Hebrew and a devoted devout man, he knows that in heaven there can only be one voice coming from heaven, and that's the voice of God. So he calls this voice, Lord. But he does not believe for a moment that Jesus is up there. This is a whole point. So why persecutest that in me? This is a mystery. I'm not persecuting Jehovah. I'm not against God. I'm for God. I'm the most devoted of my people, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Never a moment's deviation so far as he knew. Who are you, Lord? I don't understand. Now listen. I am. That's Jehovah. And any Hebrew like Saul knew that. Jesus. That's the man of Galilee. And Jehovah Jesus. Jehovah Savior. The God of eternity. The God of the ages. The eternal God. The man of Galilee. Are one. And Paul falls to the ground. An absolutely shattered man. For he knows now that he's been fighting against God in fighting against God's Christ. Now from that moment his life is switched. The whole polarity of his life is turned right around. Negative is positive, positive, negative. What used to be south is now north. The compass card has done a complete path circle. Everything is totally changed. Christ's Lordship is supreme. Now we've already referred to it, but I think we ought to look at these verses. Galatians chapter one, verse fifteen, for the purpose of consecration. The basis of it was that submission to the Lordship of Christ. In Galatians one fifteen, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me. Now there's the purpose of it. On his birthday, his spiritual birthday, he had been told by God through Ananias, he is a chosen vessel unto me. God did not say to Saul, go into the city, and I'll send a preacher along, who will tell thee words, for by thou mightest be saved, as he did to Cornelius. He said, he is going to tell thee what you should do. He is going to reveal to you what my purpose is. And when he tells you the whole story, then the rest is up to you. It's a question of obedience. Now he says here, Saul says, here Paul, now he is. He says that it was that Christ the Son, God the Son, might be revealed in his life. How wonderfully this. This was the whole thing. To reveal his Son in me. To use me as a mirror, as a glass, to show forth the glories and excellencies of Christ. He uses that expression elsewhere. That I might, with unbeared faith, beholding that glorious one who changed into the same image from glory to glory. And as I am changed, that I might reveal that one to those who can't see it in any other way, to reveal his Son in me. Now I believe that this is the general purpose of God in saving everything. God has specific jobs for each one of us, and God can and will reveal that will and purpose to us in his own good time, if we are submissive through his will and obedience. You may be called to do one thing, I to do another. But there is one thing sure, whatever we are called to do, the basic reason and purpose of it all is that Christ might be revealed. No matter in the kindergarten school, with a fellow beside me, the girl beside me in the desk at school, in the office, in the workshop, in the home, on the street, no matter where. Now we have this here from Paul, and it's rather interesting that it is in this particular letter that he says, My little children, of whom I travail again in birth, until Christ be formed in you. God chose me, Paul, to reveal his son in me. He also chose you, wild Galatians. These are the Gauls. These are the Gaelic of the Bible. And as these people, these Galatians, these Gauls, these Gauls, these Gauls, these emotional people who had started so well and had been bewitched into the mire, the absolute wall of Judaism, and were not being fruitful at all, now he says, God chose me and separated me from my mother's womb to reveal his son in me, and that very same God wants to do the same thing with you, and I agonize in birth all over again until Christ be formed in you, and each one of you might be a little reproduction of the personality of Christ. You know, any one of these sentences is such a staggering concept that One feels like just stopping and talking about that one little sentence. There's nothing in the world, anything like this. No man of himself has ever conceived of such a thing, that every Christian is supposed to be, in the will and purpose of God, transformed by a remolding, through communion with Christ, into a little reproduction of the character of Christ. The reason he says it, whom I travail again in verse, is because he had travailed. And this, by the way, is a proper translation. The word travail is a translation of the Greek word which means birth pangs. Now he said, I once travailed for you. He doesn't say it. He implies it. I once travailed for you in birth pangs to bring you to Christ in the first place. Now I am in travail all over again. Again, another time. Not now to bring you to Christ. but now to bring Christ out in you so that you with me might be fulfilling God's purpose in revealing his Son to men and women around the body. And that's a very good question to ask ourselves if in connection with our conversion, first of all, we have discovered what the basis and what the consecration is all about in number one. And then in number two, if we have discovered the purpose of this consecration, that it is that Christ might be seen in me. Be like Jesus, this my son, in the home and in the throne. Be like Jesus all day long, just to be like Jesus. Now, number three is the obedience of consecration. You see, there can be no consecration without obedience. The high priest was separated, then the high priest was bought but he could never be dragged in against his will into this thing. Now look at Acts chapter twenty-six. Acts chapter twenty-six. One of those accounts by Paul of his conversion, of which we have three in the book of the Acts. Acts twenty-six verse... Verse fifteen, he's describing what took place. Verse thirteen says, At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me, and so on. Then I said, Who art thy Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecuted. Rise, stand upon my feet, for I have appeared unto thee. Now listen carefully. I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. To make thee a minister, not meaning a clergyman, of course, the word minister in the New Testament has no equal theatrical overtone ever. The word is just a servant. Always. I have appeared to you for this purpose to make thee a servant and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, which I take to be the exalted, glorified Christ, Now the other apostles were witnesses to his death, his burial, his resurrection, and his ascension. But all they saw was the Lord Jesus Christ going up as far as the cloud. And then a cloud of glory received him out of their sight. We do not read that they saw his actual positioning up in the glory. But Paul did. Paul did. So the things which thou hast seen. and of those things in which I will appear unto thee, that is those further revelations, delivering thee from the people, that is the Jews, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes, and so on. Verse nineteen. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus, and that Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, and so on. I was not disobedient, to the heavenly vision. Now, of all things about a vision, you would hardly expect obedience to come into question. Visions that are seen by visionaries are usually things for their enjoyment. You know, the terrific things that I saw. You wouldn't believe it. Well, that's not the purpose of this kind of vision. This kind of vision... brings a revelation of divine truth into a man or a woman's life, and that revelation of divine truth, if received by faith, demands a response. It isn't just something out of it, I assure you. Isn't that lovely? Isn't that wonderful? None at all. Here are certain facts. Those facts, if accepted by you, will change the whole pattern of your thinking. They absolutely demand a reaction from you. You can't just sit and say, well, that's wonderful, that's great. Well, thank you very much. Not like that. And so he says, this vision had this impact on me, and immediately, whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed. And then he goes on, showed how he had been obedient. Now, We have mentioned, we have put down there a side references, Acts thirteen, two and three. You know that story. That's the going out of these first workers who found the Spirit of God said, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul. And right away Barnabas and Saul might have said, well, goodness, there are only five teaching elders in this assembly. And it's a very large assembly. And if we take away two out of the five, what's going to happen? Furthermore, you know, I might be the most important of the whole five. be very hard for him to get along without me. Or if he didn't say it out loud, he might at least have thought it or even mumbled it to himself sometime or other when there was nobody else listening. But not a word. As soon as the voice of God is heard, the same obedience which marked him out in Acts nine at the time of the vision now marks him out again in Acts thirteen at the time of his first commissioning for a specific work for God. Then in Acts sixteen, that's the place where they wanted to go through and preach the gospel one place and another. God said, no, that is not my purpose. Now, it's going to take us quite a little while in heaven getting that one started out by the business of they're going through parts of Asia Minor and not being allowed while they went through to preach the gospel. You see, we've got it in our minds today that we feed X number of millions of souls through a computer. and we come out with a ratio of workers among them, therefore that's where you ought to be or somebody else. Now here are men passing through a part of Asia Minor where there was no gospel at that time. And they were redeemed men and they were qualified, commended servants of Christ. And they essayed to go one way and the Spirit of God said no. And then the Spirit of God forbade them to preach, even in the territory through which they were passing at that time. Now there's a mystery there. The only reason, the only thing we can say about it is that it would appear that not only has God places where he wants the gospel preached, but God has his own times for doing it. And how often we have seen it of a gospel worker, an evangelist, going into a place and preaching his heart out for weeks. Not seeing a thing. Somebody said, well, there must be something wrong. Well, maybe so. Maybe not. Maybe it just wasn't God's time. We don't know. And then later on, someone will come along. Very short time afterwards. There will be a tremendous time of in-gathering. You see, God has his time for doing his work. Try to learn that. But that isn't what I wanted to speak about in Acts. It is that these men were so calmly, so serenely obedient. to the will of God. This consecration of theirs meant that they were consecrated to God's timing as well as to the fact of God's call and God's commission. The timing was just as important as the other parts of it. So even when the apostle was speaking to Timothy, saying preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, the word of course be instant simply means to be ready. We are always to be ready and available to preach the gospel. Some people say, well, you know, the Bible says in season and out of season. So I got up at three o'clock in the morning, and I just felt suddenly burdened about my neighbor next door, and I went and rattled on his door until he got up and told him I wanted to preach the gospel to him. I would advise you to try it that way, unless you had a very special communication from God about it. That is not what the verse means. I should always see to it that I present Christ at God's time to any individual soul, certainly at a time which is convenient to him. The point of those verses is that so far as I am concerned, no matter what hour of the night or day, I am to be right on the trigger. I am to be ready. Whether it's convenient to me or whether it's not, whether I feel very well or whether I don't, whether I'm in a hurry or whether I'm not. If it's God's time, it should be mine, but I should always be ready to give an answer. to any man for the hope which is within me. In other words, if my neighbor comes rapping at my door at three o'clock in the morning and he's disturbed and burdened and he wants to hear, I shouldn't say, well, go and sleep on it, Philip, and I'll talk to you in the morning. He might be gone in the morning and you might be in heaven the rapture might have come before morning. Never do that, whatever you do. If a person asks you to talk to them about Christ, you talk to them about Christ, that's what it is. You are always to be ready, whether it's convenient to you or not, but do try to make it convenient for the other man honor darling was in danger paul was ready to put his life and reputation and popularity on the line in refusing to bow even for convenience to vested power in any form now if you read some of these passages we've mentioned acts fifteen is only one of them uh... there's another one but the faithfulness of consecration number seven down a little bit, which I was going to quote, but it's going to come up anyway. What I'm trying to get at here, this courage of consecration, to live a life of total devotion to God for his purposes and in his plans most certainly calls for uncommon courage. And I think most of us are lacking in courage. Now I admit and I recognize that some people are born with a more aggressive personality. I'm not too sure that that is always the same thing as courage. There are some of us who, without at all casting any reflection or aspersion on salesmen, are almost born salesmen. We just love to do that kind of thing. If I were living by being a salesman, I'm afraid I would have That sounds too strange. If I were living by being a salesman, I would already be dead. That sounds bad, doesn't it? Had I tried to earn my living, I'm afraid unless God had done something very special for me, I wouldn't have made a good one. I know that there are people that shrink from decisions that call for any kind of confrontation. Probably we all do in measure. and we try to excuse it on the grounds of that very valid thing that I've already mentioned, that we are different and we have different jobs to do for God. But you know, even the very humblest of us and even the quietest of us and even the most shrinking, we can still be courageous when it comes to standing up for God, if we realize that courage is really what's called for. It's a well-known fact that during the persecutions in Britain and I'm sure in Rome and in other places, that young women, girls, older women, who would have screamed their head off if they had seen a march, were taken into the estuaries of the Scottish rivers and others in Britain, and tied to stakes and left there, their hands lashed to this post in the river, while the tide came up on them and up and up, and they were offered release if they would only renounce but they believed and trusted in the Son of God. And they wouldn't. And yet those were people, normally, in the ordinary affairs of life, perhaps sensitive, high, strong, nervous, and frightened. But here is a spiritual courage, which is something of a totally different character. It's not brat. It's not gall. It's not aggressiveness. It's not combativeness. It flows from a deep, solemn conviction that Christ is all. And not only that Christ is all, but that Christ can enable us to do all things through himself. And wasn't it Polycarp who, when he was asked to deny Jesus, said, I can't recall the number of years, but it's quoted often something like fifty and something years. These fifty and some odd years have I known and trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord. He has never done anything that would merit my denying him now. Take my unworthy life. I will not deny. Look folk, among Christians there are times when we have to be courageous. Now I don't mean running around looking for a fight. I don't mean this kind of witch hunting. and trying to find out things that are wrong that we can stand up against. But I do mean that if the person of Christ is ever touched or attacked, there should be a jealous love in our hearts and a devotion to him so profane that no personal or human consideration would make us for a moment to shrink from our duty of saying, that is dishonoring to Christ. No matter where. And if we fall short of that, then we're falling short. of the ordinary kind of courage that we would demonstrate on behalf of somebody that we loved in the flesh. Or we would step over and say, look, you've got no right to say that. I know that person. And it's wrong. And he or she is a friend of mine. And for me to stand with my mouth closed would be an absolute denial and repudiation of our lifelong friendship. Now, you would do that. I'm sure, maybe not in those words, but I'm sure you would do it. You would affirm your friendship and your loyalty to the person who is being run down or trampled upon? Or have we become so degraded that maybe we would hesitate to do that? Honor seems to be a thing that's taken quite a beating these days. Loyalty, I should say. Here is this courage of consecration. Acts fifteen, there were men, very powerful men, who were trying to force a system of theology on the people of God that would have brought them into bondage. Now Saul, in his very heart, and by his breeding and education, belonged to that class. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was a Pharisee of the strictest sect of the Pharisees. And yet, when it came to a question of standing up against all the power of the Judaizers, Paul wouldn't have it for a moment. Not only that, but he said in another place, when they tried to make us circumcised Titus, we gave way. Not by so much as a little bit to them. We wouldn't do it. Why? Why? Let you should be robbed of your liberty in Christ. Here is a man who again and again and again proved himself tremendously courageous. What he believed was right, he opted for. What he believed was wrong, he spoke against it. With all the courage of a man totally consecrated to God. I think that's worth considering. Number five, the sharing of consecration. He never posed as a great, unique example of consecration, but chose rather young, obscure man and shared everything he had with them that he might be one among many. There is a kind of pseudo-consecration which goes around, which almost makes a point of continuing consecration. continually declaring, oh, I have got a consecration that you haven't had. I have got some kind of super experience that most of the Christians don't have. And immediately I get myself all decked out in a sparkling white robe riding a magnificent white steed and probably with a halo around my head. That is in my own estimation. Here is a man who, though consecrated to the last degree, is nonetheless utterly unself-conscious of others, completely humble. He never writes the letter and says, Paul, apostle, and my young assistant Timothy, wouldn't that sound atrocious from the pen of Paul? And yet people do this all the time. This is the kind of thing, you know. Please meet my assistant, Paul himself. Please meet my next in command, the one who's below me. But never for a moment read the marvelous letter to Philemon. Read even the way he talks about that good for nothing on Nicimus, just recently saved, a runaway slave, a good for nothing, who had smashed or destroyed or violated something of his bosses and ran away and got saved. We don't know what happened to him. Now he's coming back. Why Paul writes a letter about this? No, no, if you were a prince of the royal blood. He says, I have forgotten them in my bonds. And I want you, Philemon, back home there near Colossi, I want you to receive this young man as though he were a part of myself, for I am, in effect, taking out my heart and sending it to you in this young man. Never for a moment any feeling that he was part of an upper ten percent, the cream of Christian society. Something extra special. He considered himself to be the norm. Yes, less than the least. Because of something he never forgave himself for, he persecuted the church. He can say, I labored more abundantly than they all. He could look at himself realistically, say, I have poured out in my life. But when it comes to comparing myself with other people, fasting is not worthy to be called an apostle. And so, via Timothy, Titus, no matter what, even in that very blameworthy action of demons. He has no stones to throw. He has nothing harsh to say. He said he just departed. He abandoned me because he loved the presentation. Drop it there, that's all. That's all that needs to be said. So he shared in an amazing way with this other group of young men and what a team they were. Of course, he never thought of them as a team, but they were actually. There was nothing official. There was nothing, no list made out. But as we read in the closing days when the apostasy was beginning to raise its head, the false teaching, the names that he wrapped up on, and how worthy they were. You remember when he talked even as early as the letter to the Philippines about Epaphroditus, some fellow we never even heard of, some unknown character from up the country somewhere. But he had gone from Philippi and taken the money, and Paul says, we ought to hold such in regard. Not the big man, not the leaders of Jerusalem, not the great teachers. Now this man might have been a big man, but we don't read of him anywhere else. And he simply gave up everything to take a gift of money in a letter to the apostle Paul, and he helped him preach in the prison, got deathly sick over it, and then was coming back home again. And Paul said, Now there is the kind of man that we should pile regard and consideration and work on. absolutely ready to share in this life of consecration the endurance of consecration Acts chapter sixteen seventeen eighteen that's those chapters of terrible suffering linked with second Corinthians chapter six and we might also have said chapter chapter one where he talks about being pressed beyond measure what I'm drawing attention to and this is simply the way this man plotted on second Corinthians chapter six is one of those very remarkable portions where he just makes words sing. I love the chapter. Not just for that, of course, but because it is so wonderful. Look at chapter six, verse four. In all things approving ourselves, showing ourselves approved as the servants of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fasting, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love and fame, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness, and so on. Now look at verse eight, by honor and dishonor, even when we're dragged in the dirt, by evil report and good report. It doesn't shake us as deceivers and yet true as unknown, insignificant, in the shade, as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed as sorrowful, always rejoicing as poor, yet making many riches, having nothing yet possessing all things. Here is a man who has a secret of perseverance, of endurance, of going on through endless troubles. The selflessness of consecration. Now we have referred to some of the examples of this, but it's worth a separate study when you go home. You will easily find the reason for these references. Philippians one, twenty and twenty-one. You remember he says, now, I want you to know that the things that have fallen out to me have fallen out rather for the things that have happened to me have fallen out rather for the furtherance of the gospel. But Paul, you're in jail. Don't you want the Christians to pray to get you out? I'm not interested in whether I get out or not. What I am interested in is now as always, Christ might be magnified in my body. Whether by life or by death is a matter of indifference. A man totally selfless in this consecration. Galatians two twenty. Of course, the passage we've already referred to. If the supreme purpose of God in his life is gained, then there can be no room for his own will or purposes or ambitions. Total and utter selflessness. The completeness. of consecration Philippians three seven to eleven summed up in the words all things lost that is the whole life in every department is involved Romans twelve and one it's the handing over of the body on top of the spirit and so of course for God's purposes and then that's the completeness of it all things the whole life the totality every department at every level The humility of consecration. Philippine three twelve. There's never a hint of self-satisfaction or smugness. It says, I have not as though I had already attained. Either were already perfect. Something that's never an end to. No completion. Always prepping on. The joy of consecration. Some people are very consecrated. And very doleful. And drab about it. Can you imagine. Aaron being taken with his sons and clothed, touched by the blood, by the oil, by the anointing ointments, clothed in that, those garments of beauty, glory, honor. Hearing the words of his hands are filled with the sacrifice that spoke of Christ, you are now inducted into this service directly to God. the God of the ages, the God of the creator of the ages. And you say, well, you know, I'll go through with it. I want to be totally consecrated to God. It's going to mean a lot that I'll have to give up, of course. And I think that the farmer might have been running instead of this. You see, immediately we start doing that. We show a complete lack of appreciation of the exceeding greatness of the things of which God has come. Paul says, I am completely convinced and assured that all the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared. I am convinced that everything God has offered us is so superior that comparison is out of the question. So he was a supremely happy man. Philippians four, four, ten, twelve, thirteen other verses. With other scriptures we have a picture of complete joy. I joy and rejoice with you all, even if I should be poured out like a drink after me. Joy and satisfaction in the life of devotion to the plans of God. No matter what, his own immediate condition or circumstances may seem. Joy is a word which robs through every letter of Paul's. Rejoice in the Lord. And again I say, I repeat, rejoice. I rejoice. do rejoice and will rejoice I do rejoice is a statement of fact I will rejoice is a statement of purpose because the word will means I am determined to rejoice I will always be happy in this consecration and then the consummation of consecration second Timothy four six to eighteen looking back from the earthly ends There is nothing but peace and joy that the race is run. That's the passage of the line. Now I'm now in the process of being offered. The time of my departure is ten. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth it was laid up for me to cry. Now there is a consummation of this whole consecration. Nothing but peace and joy that the race is run and the prize certain. The circumstances are the grimest possible. and he is abandoned by all but Luke and Timothy but the finishing of his course with joy as he mentioned in Acts twenty twenty four has been fulfilled and nothing else matters I find a study like this completely enthralled and overwhelming something that just makes our hearts grow nothing like it in any kind of literature anywhere in the world nothing like it in any kind of experience to be like Christ, to be called to be like Christ, to be called to be an ambassador for Christ, to accept that joyfully and to step out and then be accepted by God in this role is surely the highest of all honors in the universe. It gives us lots of material to study and think about too.