In the sermon titled 'Of the Church, 1689 SLBC, Chapter 26, Par. 11', Don Stubblefield discusses Acts 11 and the role of persecution in spreading the gospel. He highlights the importance of different roles within the church, citing Paul's and Apollos' contributions as examples. Emphasizing God's sovereignty, Stubblefield reflects on salvation being a divine act where God calls individuals to faith. The sermon further explores spiritual gifts, referencing 1 Peter 4 and Romans 12, illustrating the necessity for believers to use their God-given abilities for the edification of the church. The unity and diversity of spiritual gifts are stressed as vital for the church’s growth, with an encouragement for believers to find and utilize their gifts, emphasizing that all gifts, whether of speech or practical service, are of equal value when used to glorify God.

We will take time if two or three of the men have a word on the line of Baptist Confession or Scripture. We will hear those at this time. Let us turn to the passage that Asa read in Acts 11, 19 through 21. Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phenicia and Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only and some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene which when they were come to Antioch spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord." So there were a number of those who were preaching the word besides those who normally served in the role of pastor. There's a note on verse 21 from the New Geneva Study Bible.

It says, the man preached but people were saved as God called them to believe in him. Another verse of verse Corinthians 3, 6, I have planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. I'd like to quote from Matthew Henry on that verse. Quote, Paul had planted and Apollos had watered. Both were useful, one for one purpose, the other for another.

God makes use of variety of instruments and fits them to their several uses and intentions. Paul was fitted for planting work and Apollos for watering, but God gave the increase. The success of the ministry must be derived from the divine blessing. Neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth, but God who giveth the increase. In verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 6, even apostolic ministers or nothing of themselves can do nothing with efficacy and success unless God gives the increase.

The best qualified and most faithful ministers have a just sense of their own insufficiency and their very desires that God should have all the glory of their success. Paul and Apollos are nothing at all in their own account, but God is all in all. And to close the quote on Matthew Henry, this brings to mind a verse in Matthew 20 verse 16, for many be called which is the outward call but few chosen which is the inward call. So those God has elected from before the foundation of the world are going to hear the unward call. In Ephesians 1, 4, and 5, according as he hath chosen us and him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him and love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of His will, His will, not our will.

This reminds me of, I still recall the day when the lady next door asked my parents if she could take me with her son to church that day. The pastor was what they called, referred to as a fire and brimstone type preacher. And I still remember the verse that he's quoted, I think it's Revelation 21, verse 8, which is, all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire. And it absolutely terrified me when I heard that. And I looked around at all of the people in the church and it was just like, it just went as the saying is, it went in one ear and out the other.

It didn't even have any impact on them at all. And that reminds me of this verse in Matthew 2016. Many are called, but few are chosen. Those whom the God has elected before the foundation of the world will hear this endward call. Others it will go in one ear and out the other.

Although the hyper anti Calvinists have been quoted as saying we're drug kicking and screaming to God. They just mock Calvinism. But those whom God has regenerated, they're not drug kicking and screaming. They come most willingly when God changes our heart. And this is our regeneration and it occurs before saving faith.

Regeneration leads to the faith that saves. Unless God does this work of changing our hearts, we will proceed on the road to eternal death, the flames of an eternal hell. It is a monogistic, that is a work of God alone. In Psalm 14, 1 through 3, we're told that no one seeks after God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and So unless God changes our heart, there's none of us that are going to be saved.

So if we're a child of God, we're to praise Him and worship Him each and every day and thank Him for this work that he has done. And as I've mentioned before, we do not know why God chooses some and not others. He doesn't do it for anything that he foresees in us. He doesn't do it because he foresees that we're going to choose him because no one would have ever chosen him. So why does he choose some and not others?

I don't know and we may never know. Because we do not deserve that work that he has begun in us any more than anyone else deserves that work of God. And then let us turn to 1 Peter 4, 10, and 11. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.

If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And then let us turn to Romans 12 verses 3 through 8. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministry, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness." And to quote from the New Geneva Study Bible on verse 6, referring to gifts, as in 1st Corinthians 12, Paul makes use of the analogy of the body and its various parts to illustrate the nature of the church. He stresses its unity in verse 5, its diversity in verse 6, and the need to recognize one's gift and to use it appropriately. Verses 6 through 8 has to the word prophecy to prophesize to speak the word of God. But the nature of the New Testament prophecy is neither or is no word defined and is much debated.

Prophecy is distinguished here and elsewhere from teaching as mentioned in verse 7 also in Acts 13 1, 1st Corinthians 12, 29, and Ephesians 4, 11. All of those have a differentiate between teaching and prophecy. And let us turn to Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth and love may grow up into him and all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working and the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

So here we have a comparison of the human body with the church and Christ of course being the head and each one of us is to use that part that we have been blessed with by God to bring the church to the perfect image of Christ And that of course has to be accompanied by the work of his spirit and the work of his people as they exercise their gifts for the sake of the church. I'd like to read one other quote from the New Geneva Study Bible. Amid many debated questions regarding spiritual gifts in the New Testament, three certainties stand out. First, a spiritual gift is an ability to express, celebrate, display, and so communicate Christ in a way that builds up and strengthens the faith of other Christians and enlarges the church. Second, spiritual gifts may be broadly classified as either abilities of speech or of loving, practical helpfulness.

In Romans 12, 6-8, Paul's list of gifts alternates between the categories. Prophecy, teaching, and exhorting are gifts of speech. Serving, giving, leading, and showing mercy are gifts of helpfulness. However much they differ as forms of human activity, all are of equal dignity when one properly uses the gift one has. Third, no Christian is without some gift of ministry.

1st Corinthians 12 verse 7, Ephesians 4, 7. It is every believer's responsibility to find, develop, and fully use whatever capacities for service God has given. With that, we will wrap it up. Thanks for watching!