Let's read from Matt. 16 please, beginning at verse 13:

(Mat 16:13 KJV) When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

(Mat 16:14 KJV) And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

(Mat 16:15 KJV) He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

(Mat 16:16 KJV) And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

(Mat 16:17 KJV) And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

(Mat 16:18 KJV) And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

(Mat 16:19 KJV) And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

(Mat 16:20 KJV) Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

(Mat 16:21 KJV) From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Now may we just look to the Lord briefly.

Father we thank Thee for the reading of Thy Word. We thank Thee for the privilege that we have to be part of the great work which Thou art doing today. We thank Thee for the Holy Spirit who has come to guide us into all truth. And now we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee and upon Him, that He may find hearts that are ready and pliable and attentive to His voice through the Word. We ask for Thy help in our study now this morning. And we give thanks in the worthy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In this coming series, we have many themes to consider. We'll try to take some introductory matters this morning and get off to a rather slow start. But I think we'll pick up speed as we go. I want to just say a few words of introduction.

I think again it is important to remind ourselves why we would take up a study like this. There are many among us who have questions and we hear these questions from time to time. Certainly the young people are growing up. We're glad for the young people and they're getting to the age where they're asking very penetrating questions that deserve good answers from the Bible. We have college students, new families, visitors, and others, and many have questions as to why we meet as we do; and these questions need good answers.

Now I want to say right at the beginning that we're not here to defend the position of West Woods Bible Chapel, or any other chapel or church. We're here to open the Word of God and see what God has to say. And all of us, including the work here, need to stand corrected, where necessary, by the Word of God.

Nor are we undertaking a series like this to tell you what to believe. Our sincere desire is to see conviction - a personal heartfelt conviction; and we know that PERSONAL conviction arises from a PERSONAL study of God's Word.

So, if possible then, we desire just to lay out the various scriptures and suggest the interpretation and explanation of them. But we certainly do pray that each one of you would be in the Word of God and satisfying your OWN selves as to whether these things are so, like the Christians of Berea as we read about in Acts who did that.

Now I also want to say that during the series, any question would be appreciated. You can write them down or talk to me afterwards or call me up or write me a letter or put them in the box at the back, however you want to do it. I'm always glad for questions or comments or suggestions - always appreciated.

I also want to take a moment at the beginning of this series and acknowledge my great debt not only to the Lord for His goodness that I could be here, but also to the many books and writers and tapes and other things that God has used to teach me in this matter. I also want to say that a real delight in my life has been working with the young assemblies. You know there were things I used to believe and teach that I don't anymore, because I found that they were okay in theory but they're not okay in practice. In other words, when you go to apply them, they're faulty, and then you go back to the Word of God and find that you didn't understand what was written. So, it's been a real joy to be involved in planting our younger assemblies and that really brings the minds and the wisdom of many, many other Christians to bear on what the Scriptures say, and causes us to change and shows us what God meant when He said things in the Scripture that seem hard to understand.

Now one more thing before we look at our passage this morning. I'd like to share with you something that needs to be said at the outset of a series like this and that is - I'd like to share with you 3 reasons why I believe the whole matter of New Testament church principles are binding upon us. In other words, why this is such an important theme - why it is important to God and should be important to us. It's a doctrine that has a great deal of misunderstanding today and I think that it is one of the most important things we could ever study in God's Word. And so I'd liked to give at least 3 reasons. There are more but I've selected just 3.

First of all, we need to remind ourselves of the eternal character of the church. Now I've always been impressed by the care that God took when He gave the instructions for the building of the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. God took care and gave details that sometimes, as you read through them in Exodus, are almost to the point of burdensome. God was very, very concerned with the construction of that place of meeting between Himself and His people. Moses was an educated man. He was educated in the best university, we might say, in Egypt, because he was the son of the Pharaoh. And God could have said : 'Now Moses you're an intelligent man, you build something that you think is worthy of Me, and I'll come down and look it over, and if I like it, we'll keep it.' But God told Moses : 'Take care Moses that you build it EXACTLY as I instruct you.' And indeed in the New Testament Moses' commendation is never given because of his creativity. Moses is commended because of His ability to be faithful to the exact details that God has given.

I want to ask you this morning - if God would be that concerned about a building made of skins and wood and so forth, that has long ago molded away and perished away in dust, would He not have some concern for the eternal Bride of His Son - the Church? I think He would; and therefore I think we need to realize that the New Testament has some very important and vital things to say on such a great theme as this.

And then secondly, of course, not only the eternal character of the church but also the clear and abundant record that God has given. Have you ever considered, in your reading, what a large part of the New Testament is devoted to matters that pertain to the church? You think of the many hours in the Apostle Paul's life that he must have spent making tents. He was a tent-maker by trade, and that trade must have been very important to him. It must have taken a large part of some period of his life. Yet how much have you read in the New Testament about how to make a tent? Not a thing! So, God has then given us details about a building that is very important to Him - His church!

I remember years ago hearing Dr. Lewis Johnson from Dallas make a statement, and I want to repeat it here this morning. He said "There is no doctrine in the New Testament that is clearer than the doctrine of the church." Now some students challenged that, but Dr. Johnson has a way of putting all those objections to rest, because he just calls forth the difficulties in those so-called clear doctrines, e.g. the doctrine of salvation. Now, we know that we're saved, and we know how we're saved but there are some verses that are really difficult to understand. And so, his point I think is well-taken that there is no doctrine in the New Testament that is clearer than the doctrine of the church.

And of course that brings us to another thought which is sad to say, often or sometimes it seems as if the real problem is not a lack of information that people have but a lack of commitment to the authority of God's Word. I suggest that's something we need to deal with this morning. Perhaps there are some here who need to resolve that question personally for themselves, before we can go on to a study such as this, and really any study of a doctrine in Scripture. We need to settle the question : "What shall be our authority?" And I think we know that the authority must be the Word of God.

We think of the Apostle Paul again and again appealing ... e.g. in his letter to the Corinthians, he says: "What I'm teaching to you I teach to all the churches. As I appoint you, so I appoint in all churches." And as someone has said, here we see a universal practice being started or based upon universal principles. Paul is not going to one place teaching one thing, and then to another place teaching another thing. He says "What I teach to you. I teach everywhere I go." I Cor 14:37, at the close of a long section on the New Testament church, Paul says :"If any man thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ." Here we have all the authority of Moses at Mount Sinai - "Thus saith the Lord!" And as A.P. Gibbs used to say, we have no more right to alter the pattern of the New Testament fellowship than we have to alter God's plan of salvation. Now there are those who would be aghast at the very thought that we would tamper with God's appointed way of salvation, who think nothing of switching and swapping the teachings of God's church around.

So then we have a very important theme to consider. We have a clear and abundant record - the Word of God and then finally, the proof of history. And I just don't have the time here this morning or the resources to tell you all the ways that history has authenticated God's plan and proved it to be the only workable option. Missionaries have told us again and again: 'We know some who have labored to set up various systems, human systems, and churches and things and in the end these things are always a source of disappointment because what is made by man does not endure; and God's church does endure.'

Today is being remembered by many Christians as a Sunday to celebrate the sanctity of life - a very important thing and one that we would certainly be in full sympathy with and thankful to God for. Yet as I was thinking about that this week, I thought "My! How is it that a nation such as ours [i.e. America], founded on Christian principles by godly men, would ever come to such a turn that we must set aside a day to remember the sanctity of life if there are so many who don't apparently believe in it? How is it that we ever came to this condition?" Well, I think we've come to this position simply by disregarding the Word that our Creator has given. And you know, when the Lord Jesus was about ready to return to heaven, He said, "Now you go into the world and you make disciples of all nations, baptize them and teach them all of my commandments."

And here in the portion we read together this morning, He gave a promise and He said: "I'm going to build my church and the gates of hell will NOT prevail." Yet, again and again, as we look down through history, we see countries and societies in which the gates of hell have very DEFINITELY prevailed against what is called 'the church'. We can only conclude that what was built is not the church that Jesus has built at all. It is a human institution filled with frailties and other problems and the gates of hell have made great in-roads. And society loses its foundation, and people's morals and standards and other things erode and corrode, and eventually we get into a very difficult and desperate national condition.

So, what we are studying then this morning is vital because it calls us back to an awareness that the One who has created us and given us life has also said something very definite about the fellowship that we have together in the way His Word is to be promoted in the world.

Let's turn to Matt. 18, and just read a verse there. Twice in Matthew the Lord spoke about the church. In fact these are the first two mentions in the Bible. Matt. 18:15-17 tells about the man who has an offence with a brother and he goes first alone, and then he goes with a witness or two? He's not able to satisfy or gain the other, and so we read in v.17 - "If he shall neglect to hear them (that is the witnesses that you take) tell it unto the church. But if he neglects to hear the church, let him be unto thee a heathen man and tax-collector". (Matt. 18:17)

Now, here we find the first mention of what we might call the church in its local capacity - the local church. "Tell it to the church". In other words, a company of believers where you fellowship.

But over in Matt. l6, the passage that we read earlier, the Lord Jesus is speaking about the whole body of believers throughout the world and in v.18 He says : "I WILL build my church." And here we have the church in its universal aspect that which embraces and includes all born-again Christians.

Incidentally, the word 'church' or 'assembly' comes from only one word in Greek ... "ekklesia". The 'ekklesia' is a 'called-out company'. In other words, it is a group of people that God has called out of the world and according to I Cor l:9, God has not just called us out and then left us to drift;. God has called us OUT of the world and INTO the fellowship of His Son. So then the whole definition of the church might be: we're a called-out company, called into fellowship with Christ. And that's an exciting thing. And that's what we're going to be studying about in the weeks ahead, Lord willing.

Now I'd like to say first of all that the church is NOT a building of bricks and stone. The church is NOT a denomination. It has no denomination. The church is NOT an organization. It's NOT a society for the promoting of the social change or other kinds of change. The church IS an organism - it's not an organization, it's an organism - a living organism composed of all born-again Christians who have by the special action of the Holy Spirit been placed together into one body.

Let's begin at Matt. 16:13. The Lord Jesus, in the place called Caesarea Philippi, has a question for His disciples and one that I think we as followers of the Lord Jesus need to deal with, each one of us personally. He says to them:

"Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?"

And each one of us, as we rub shoulders with people in the world during the week, we hear all kinds of views of who Jesus is. I've a chance to talk to a man across the street from us a couple of weeks ago. I had to hear his views about whom he thought the Lord is. And you all hear people where you work, and where you go to school, and their views and if the Lord Jesus came and said, "Whom do men say that I am?", you'll probably have some answers for Him. And so the disciples then gave the answers that they were hearing. "Well, some say John the Baptist has risen; some say Elijah (in other words, the prophet come back from the Old Testament days). Others guessed Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets. All kinds of guesses, Lord ... all kinds of guesses."

I just want to suggest that in this passage (verses 13-21) that there are at least 5 different titles of our Lord Jesus Christ that help us to know the answer to this question - "Who is He?" We see Him as the Son of God. We see Him as the Builder and the Foundation of the church. We see Him as the Christ (the Messiah) and the Savior. And this is something that each one of us has to reckon with. For how can we be excited about fellowship WITH Him in His church if we don't really understand who He is?!

So, the Lord said,

"Whom say ye that I am?"

And Simon, perhaps as the spokesman of the group, answers : "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." What a statement of faith! Peter had grasped the great truth - the Son of God, and God the Son. God manifest in the flesh. And he tells the Lord Jesus this is what we think. This is our view. This is our conviction - Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!

And the Lord goes on, and He pronounces a blessing here upon him in v. 17:

I'd like to suggest again that in the things we are going to be dealing with, we can only really know the mind of God about these matters by revelation.

In my studies through the years I've noticed that there are some who practise various things with regard to the church meeting. And if you question them or read their writings (where they feel called upon to give answers as to why they practise what they do), they feel it necessary to give an explanation as to how come, how is it come, and why is it that we do this and this and this that there's nothing about in Scripture. And the classic answer has always been : "Well, the Lord gave us the church in a seed form. It was only in an embryo stage. But after the Scripture was finished writing, in other words, after the Canon was closed and so forth, God made provision for certain developments." (And, that's the word you hear most of all - DEVELOPMENTS.) "And the point is what we have today may not be mentioned in Scripture, but it's inevitable. Society and change and history demands it, and these developments are no less authoritative and blessed of God and that's how we got to where we are."

Now, I want to say that that's a very dangerous view-point - the whole idea of evolution in our theology, the evolving theories of man. Ever stopped to think why that's so dangerous? Once you cut loose from the Word of God as the final standard, in other words, the final court of appeals, then you have a problem ... because who's to be the judge then of the way a thing develops? Who's going to be the one to say "This is a good development and "This is a bad development"?

This man, I talked to the other day about the Lord (we're talking about creation and evolution, he's very much against the whole idea of creation), said, "Well, you know, I suppose if it ever came to be that the majority of scientists did believe in creation, then I'd be happy with it." And I said, "Are you really content with that view that the reason why yau believe what you believe is because the majority hold it?"

Well, you see, if you don't have a final court of appeal, and you don't have a revealed standard, then it really comes down to something like that - what do the majority think? or what's most popular? or even what seems to work?

So I suggest then that in the matter of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ - both the Head AND the Body, because it's all Christ, ie. the church - we have to go right back to this statement in v.17:

"Flesh and blood hah not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven."

And I think that that's the bed-rock in which we want to build our studies. The Word of God MUST be our final authority.

And then in v18, the Lord goes on and He says,

"I say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church."

Now there has been a lot of misunderstanding about this verse as you know and we've talked about it in the past. Maybe I could just briefly mention what I think to be the true interpretation and leave it for your own study. In the Greek, the Lord Jesus used two different words here, He said,

"Thou art Peter (Greek word, 'petros' meaning 'a little stone') ..."

"Upon this rock (Greek word, 'petra' meaning 'a great cliff or mountain')..."

And if we understand this, let's go back and read that with this in mind -

"and I say also unto thee that thou art 'a little stone' and upon this 'mountain' I will build my church."

I think the mountain, the cliff, that He's referring to is Himself. And Peter certainly thought so because in 1 Peter 2, Peter tells us that that's Who the rock is. The Apostle Paul writing in 1 Cor 3 says, "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is the Lord Christ." So, there is no doubt in my mind that the Lord Jesus never promised that He would build His church on Peter or on any human being. What He was saying ere is,

"Peter, I want you to know that you share in the nature, the very nature of the rock of which I am the Foundation,"

In other words, "you're only a pebble," Some of us use the term "you're only a pebble on the beach." He said to Peter, "Peter, you're only a pebble but you are genuinely rock. You are genuinely stone. And I'm going to build my church on this great rock and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it."

By the way, do you notice here that the Lord Jesus is the Builder? He says, "I will build". Note that He's not only the Foundation but He's also the Builder. "I WILL build", and then He says, "MY church." How much is contained in these few words! There's only one person who has the right to use that term and that's the Lord Jesus Himself - "MY church". Now it always makes me feel a little bit uneasy when I hear men talk about 'my church'. It's the Lord's Church and not ours. And we need to get that firmly in our mind right at the start. He is responsible for the construction of it, and He is responsible for the final triumph of it. It is His church.

And then He gives a promise and He says,

".. the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.' "

In the Old Testament 'the gates of the city' were the place where the elders and leaders sat. You remember in Genesis that poor Lot got to such a terrible situation that he actually sat at the gates of Sodom, i.e. to say that he became one of the leaders of Sodom. And the husband of the virtuous woman in Prov. 31 is known in the gates among the elders of the land. In other words, the gates of the city were the place or the seat of authority. I think the Lord here is saying that the leadership or the very central and focal point of the authority of hell, Satan himself, shall not prevail against His church that He will build.

The elders here in this assembly have a big responsibility in prayer for the saints, the flock who fellowship here, because if there's spiritual harm or danger that's attacking either the assembly as a whole or any family, the elders have the responsibility of dealing with it. Sometimes it takes a lot of late nights, a lot of prayers, a lot of discussions, a lot of searching of the Scripture, and we thank God for that authority that He gives.

In v.20, He charged His disciples that they should tell no man that He was Jesus the Christ. Now here again we have a very difficult verse. But I just want to say that if nothing else, this verse should remind us of the sovereignty of the Lord that what is going to happen in the years ahead, the building of His church is going to proceed along a time-table that is according to His sovereign plan and will. And here there's a particular point in saying to His disciples, "At this point in the ministry, don't go out and tell people that I am Jesus the Messiah." He had been rejected by the leaders of the nation, and the Lord realized that to just get a great big crowd raised up to try to physically force Him into the throne would be very much against the purposes of God. He wanted to continue working and go to the cross as we read in the next verse, doing the will of His Father. ONLY in that way could a true work of God be done in the world.

Finally, v.21 should remind us that all that we're about to study in this great theme is based upon, and flows from, that work at the cross. The Lord told them how He would go to Jerusalem, suffer, die, and rise again the third day. And I think it is very fitting that we spend the first hour each Lord's day morning before we study from the Scripture to go back to the cross and remember the Foundation that made this all possible. It is very precious and very fitting, and I know it's pleasing to God.

Now in the few minutes that we have remaining I'd like to share with you a little chart that I've made up ... a little chart of figures that have to do with the church. Now we're going to consider them very carefully one by one next Lord's day. We'll just look at one or two this morning.

In this little chart I've tried to understand various terms by which the church is described in Scripture; and in searching through, I find ten different titles or terms given to the church i.e. to say the whole universal church. We're not anywhere near yet considering the local church. We're still talking about the church universal - over the whole world. But I find these ten different expressions used in the New Testament, and I find, as I study them, two interesting things:

• First of all, that the Lord Jesus is being presented in a certain aspect of His work with us, and
• secondly that there are lessons that we are to learn about the church from the various names that are given to it.

Let me read the various names and see how many of them sound familiar to you, as you've read your Bible. These are titles or terms that are used in Scripture in one way or another to describe the church. It's called

• a flock,
• a field,
• a building,
• a temple,
• a body,
• a family,
• a bride,
• a house (i.e. the house or God),
• a pillar; and
• a lamp-stand.

Now these are very carefully chosen terms, chosen by the Lord who wrote the Bible. And under each one of these, there are some lessons that we are to learn. Now what I want to do is try to understand the lessons attached to each one of these words so that we can get a good firm foundation about God's thoughts about the whole church world-wide.

Now let's remember one thing - the local church is to be the visible expression of the universal church. No one can see the universal church. We could never do that now. Most of the members of the church are in heaven with the Lord. They've died and gone on ahead. Others are scattered all over the world in every country. No human being could ever view the whole church.

The Lord Jesus alone can see the whole church; we can't; much less the unbelievers of the world. So, how are they ever to come then to understand what we call 'the church'? It's a very very concept to God and He wants them to understand it. How are they going to understand it? God intends that people understand the whole church by looking at the local church.

So, we can say then that the local church is a little microcosm, a little small picture of the whole church. And another thing we can say is that the local church stands in the same relationship to the Head as the whole church does. In other words, we RELATE as a local assembly DIRECTLY to the Head. There's no intervening forms, or boards, or federations, or other governments. We, as a local assembly, relate directly to the Head in heaven, the Lord Jesus.

So we need to keep these things before us then, and I believe as we come into a better understanding of the whole church, then we'll be able to look at our local assembly and we'll be able to say: does the world, does the Christian moving into the area, does the young person growing up here at West Woods, looking at the work here ... do they get an accurate idea of what the church really is? Or is that idea marred by things that we do, and things that we believe and practices that we have that are not supportable by Scripture? And if so, they need to be changed.

Let's begin then ... maybe today we could just take one term. Turn, if you would, to John 10 ... the passage on the Shepherd. And here we read such well-known verses as v.14:

"I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine."

Earlier, the Lord Jesus had said:

"I am the good Shepherd and the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."

But then in speaking about His work to do, He says in v16:

"and other sheep I have that are not of this fold. Them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."

Now, in this verse in the King James, we have the word 'fold' used twice. But in the original and in some of your newer translations, you might notice the word 'flock' is in there, and that's correct.

"and other sheep I have that are not of this flock ..."

The Lord looks ahead, standing at this point in John, before He goes to the cross, and He says, 'You can't understand this now. It's a truth that's way over your heads. But I want you to know that there are other sheep that I have and I must bring them too.'

And I think He was looking out toward us, the Gentiles. And He says prophetically,

"They shall hear my voice."

And the eventual goal or result is 'there will be ONE fold'. "I want to put them all together and bring them all together and be in their midst".

I think there are 3 lessons that this expression 'the flock' teaches us:

• First of all, the lesson of loyalty, because sheep are very loyal to their shepherd. We know His Name and we follow Him. We're loyal to His person.
• , the thought of protection, as the Shepherd He gives His life for the sheep, and then He lives to defend and protect us. And that's a very precious thing.
• And thirdly, the thought of unity. There shall be one fold, and oh, how God yearns to see the people of God brought together into oneness - not just a theoretical oneness, but a oneness that really lives it and practices it. And that's what we seek to do in the New Testament church.

If you're here this morning, if you're a born-again Christian, we're not interested in what your religious affiliations or connections are. The fact is that because you belong to the Lord Jesus, you are one with Him, and one with us. And we're all celebrating and remembering that oneness. We're not really interested in what society or denomination or group you may, or, in the past, may have belonged to. We are all one in the Lord. It's a unity.

Under the little heading ' the presentation of Christ', ... just a reminder that He was presented as a Shepherd in various ways in the New Testament. Here in John, we see Him as, the GOOD SHEPHERD. In Hebrews, we have Him as the GREAT SHEPHERD. And in 1 Peter, we find Him as the CHIEF SHEPHERD. Now, in presenting the Lord Jesus in those various ways, we see different aspects of His work. Here the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep and He says: "No one will pluck them out of my hand." So we see in connection with His ministry as a Good Shepherd, we see our salvation and our security. But then in Heb 13, He speaks about our sanctification and He speaks about the blood of the everlasting covenant ''making you perfect, working in you that which is well-pleasing" - that's a sanctification of the flock. Now in 1 Pet 5, He speaks about the Chief Shepherd and He speaks there that He'll come some day and He'll give rewards to those who have faithfully served Him.

So, then in a Shepherd capacity, we see the Lord saving the sheep (making sure they're secure and defended), sanctifying them (leading them on, as David says, in the green pastures), and providing for them right until the day He comes back again to receive them and to reward them.

And a good question to close on this morning might be just a simple one that each one of us could ask ourselves : Have I really learnt to relate to the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd?

You may not realize what a difficult question that might be for some here to struggle with. As human beings we all tend to have difficulty with our faith. And having faith to really see the Lord Jesus and relate directly to Him is a big step for many people.

Many people must have some other human being to intervene between them and God as we're reminded this morning that peopIe said: 'Moses, it scares us to come before this holy God. Why don't you go and hear what He says, and come and tell us what and we'll relate to you. We can relate to you Moses, but no more this fire and lightning and smoke and trumpet. It frightens us. We don't want to relate directly to God.'

And that idea, sad to say, persisted down to the present day, in the minds and lives of many people. So we need to ask ourselves then, Have I really learnt to relate to the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd? Maybe as the Good Shepherd, and come to know Him for the first time. Maybe as the Great Shepherd who brings forth holiness in my day-to-day walk. And maybe as the Chief Shepherd because I don't really have the confidence that my life can be used of Him and that He'll reward me some day with His 'well done'.

Father, we turn to Thee with thanksgiving for Thy gracious provision for us. How, truly, we can say 'Lord, Amen' to the writer of old, Isaiah - "all we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned everyone to his own way". How easily as human beings we would turn to our own way. Yet this morning we thank Thee for the revelation which Thou hast given, that we are not left to wander in our own way, but we have the living Word of God. We pray that our hearts may be humbled and submissive to Thy Word so that as these things that we study are brought forward, each one of us may search it out and come to a place of real personal commitment to Thee and to Thy Work in this age. Now we thank Thee and ask Thy blessing upon all Thy people here in the week ahead. In Jesus' Name. Amen.