Our first reading for this morning is Deuteronomy chapter 24. Deuteronomy chapter 24. What we are reading about here is part of the law, Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law by Moses, but what he's doing here is he's giving some of the civil law, the national law that belonged to Israel as the Old Testament church. And particularly this section that we read of here, it's bringing home to us God's care for his people. God's care for, notice the poor, the stranger, the widow, the orphan, those who were very much materially, physically needy, that God provided for them in his Old Testament church. And that principle flows through to the New Testament as well, as we'll take up and look at as we consider the offers that God has provided in the church of Deacon. With that in mind, let's read this part of God's word. Deuteronomy 24, reading from verse six. No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge, for he taketh a man's life to pledge. If a man be found stealing any of his brethren, or the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him, then that thief shall die, and thou shalt put away evil from among you. Take heed in the plague of leprosy that thou observed diligently and do according to all that the priests, the Levites shall teach you as I commanded them. So ye shall observe to do. Remember what the Lord thy God did unto Miriam, by the way, after that you would come forth out of Egypt. When thou dost lend thy brother anything, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge. Thou shalt stand abroad. and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee. And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge. In any case, thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment and bless thee, and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, for he is poor and set his heart upon it, lest he cry against thee unto the Lord and it be sin unto thee. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless, nor take a widow's raiment to pledge. Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence. Therefore I command thee to do this thing. When thou have cuttest down thine harvest in a field, and hast forgotten a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, for the widow. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I command thee to do this thing. Amen. May God bless to us the spiritual understanding of his word. Let's sing in praise to God again. We take up Psalm number 12. Psalm number 12, singing all of it. You'll remember we're making our way in order through the psalm book, and we come this morning to Psalm 12. And relevant to what we've in fact just been reading, we have here in verse five, for the poor oppressed and for the size of the needy, rise, will I, saith God, and him in safety set from such as him defy. Let's sing these words to God's praise and remain seated to sing. Help, Lord, because the godly man doth daily fade away, and from among the sons of men the faithful do ♪ Unto his neighbor every one ♪ ♪ The hearts of vanity ♪ ♪ They with a double heart do speak ♪ ♪ And lips are flattering ♪ ♪ God shall not a poor flattering lip speak ♪ ♪ Tongues last, we proudly blast ♪ ♪ We'll, without doubt, prevail ♪ ♪ How is our house, whose lord o'er us? ♪ O'er the grassland, o'er the sighs of needy tribes, will I stand on an Indian safety stand. ♪ From such as Him define ♪ ♪ The words of God are words most pure ♪ ♪ They be like silver tried ♪ ♪ He heard them various seven times that day ♪ I think you'll reply. Lord God, shall them preserve and keep forever from this race. Let's stand now and worship our God in congregational prayer. almighty and infinite and righteous and just God, the God of all creation, the God of all providence. You are the one who holds all things in your hands perfectly wisely. You bring to pass all that happens. There is not anything that happens that does not involve your perfect will. your perfect determination to bring all things to your glory and to use all things also for the good of your people. Lord, we thank you especially that we may know of that truth, that the purpose of you creating this world we have seen unfolded down through history and we we know your purposes for you have also revealed exactly what you are going to do with this world. with all that has happened in your perfect creation, which was then marred and horribly perverted by Satan and his fall, and then his temptation of mankind as the covenant head that then resulted in the curse coming down and causing such destruction to your perfect creation. That this whole creation now groans and travails in pain, that it is full of death and disease and wars and hatred because of what we did in Adam, because of our rebellion against you. And yet, Lord, we know your perfect purpose is to redeem. Your perfect purpose is to send your own son in a most awesome and incredible and delightful display of mercy and grace. shown to mankind that we deserve exactly the opposite. We deserve to be destroyed, to be annihilated, to be cast out forever for us to all be in that hell forever. And yet you have determined to send your own son to suffer hell on our behalf, that we might be saved, that we might be restored. We might be taken from being hateful enemies of yours to know you. to be adopted into being the very sons and daughters of God, to have Jesus Christ as our elder brother, to have our names written in heaven, to have eternal life laid out before us so that in the new heavens and the new earth that you will create, there will be perfect righteousness and every tear wiped away. Every sorrow gone, death and sin banished into hell, never to be seen again in all of your glorious kingdom. And that righteousness will be from sea to sea. Lord, this is the amazing nature of salvation. The amazing truth that you are redeeming us. You have redeemed us already. The already and yet, not yet, we, stand before you as those who have a belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, our trust and our confidence set upon him for life now and for eternity. And therefore we are made righteous. We are called the just. We are called saints, holy ones. But only for the work of Christ, not for anything that we have done. And yet, Lord, we still struggle. We still know that sin has a hold on us, yet that dominion, that kingship of sin over us has been broken so that it does not have dominion and we are not to let it have dominion over us. Yet we know, Lord, we we sin every day in our thoughts, let alone in our words and our actions that we do toward you and toward others. We pray for forgiveness yet again. We pray, Lord, forgive us for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we never forget the horrible malignancy of sin, that which still lies within us. May we never forget its power, that it has power to lay a hold upon us, to take over on us. We pray that we may never play with sin. pretend that we can dabble in it a little bit and there will be no harm. That would be Satan's lie. That's his temptation. Lord, cause us to flee from sin, to flee from that horrible corruption, which leads us into all sorts of wretchedness in this life. And may we see instead the power of your grace. We may know the power of sin, that horrible nature of it, but that we may know that grace where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. And that your grace is able to continue to meet us in our needs and to correct us and to strengthen us. Your grace comes to us again and again, reassures us that as we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive them. to put them, as far as the east is from the west, away from us. Encourage our hearts this day. May we be strengthened. We know how much we need to be strengthened. We are poor and needy, as we've been reading about the poor and the needy in the scriptures and in the Psalms. We are reminded that spiritually, we are poor and needy. We pray, meet us today. Feed us spiritually, encourage our souls, build us up in our faith, teach us, instruct us, correct us, Lord, even as we need that also. We pray be with us, be with us, Lord, in that material and physical way that you have promised in your word. Also, we particularly commend unto your care our sister Betty Cochran and in the investigation she is currently undergoing, we pray guide and lead the hands of those who care for her that there may be a good treatment found for the pain she has been experiencing and that you may relieve her of those things. We pray Lord for your provision to us, our daily provision, the daily bread we need upon our tables and we pray that you may provide our daily bread, but we pray, Lord, also for the means of obtaining that. We particularly remember those that are looking for work for Steve, that you may be with him and guide his way and provide for him. We pray for Denby also, who is currently looking for employment, and we pray, Lord, that you would guide his way and lead him into suitable employment for him. Pray for each of us. We give you thanks, Lord, for us who have jobs and employment and an income. We know this is also from your hand and we give you praise and thanks for that. We pray that you may continue to put into our hands that which you would have for us to do and help each of us to be faithful servants. That as you have given those things that we have right now before us in our life, we know that we are to be faithful with them. We do not have what others have. And yet, Lord, that is your perfect providence. We pray that we may be glad in that which you have given into our life, the hard things as well as the things we count as joys. that we may serve you in each and every one of them. We pray that you may be with us now as we take up your word and particularly looking at the matter of the office of deacon that you may enlighten and encourage our souls once more from your word that we may bless your holy name. We pray it in Christ Jesus our Lord, amen. We turn to Acts chapter six. Acts chapter six, we'll read just the first seven verses of this chapter, which is the account of the institution of deacons, and that will be our text also for this morning's sermon. Acts chapter six, reading from verse one. And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Procurus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. The word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. Amen. That's why we read in God's holy and inspired word. Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as you know, the session is about to call for nominations for deacons. We have in our congregation at the moment in the Laws of Providence only one deacon, and I'm sure that he would love to have some assistance and possibly even hand over the reins of some of the work after many years of faithful service to our congregation. But at this point in time, we should ask ourselves some questions. We both should say to ourselves, do we congregation, as we're looking at nominations and then voting on elders, Lord willing, do we really understand why we have deacons in the church? Is it just tradition? Is it just something we've always done and therefore we keep on always doing? And if it's just tradition, maybe it's a bit outmoded, you know, maybe it's a bit passe, maybe it's not really suitable for our day and age. After all, there are many churches around us in the broader church world that don't have deacons at all, they just have a board of management and that kind of looks after, you know, church building and all sorts of things like that. As always, a true Christian church is governed and guided and blessed, not by the ideas of men, but it's by the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? He's the king. He's the only head of the church. And he has given into our hands his word. Here is the word of God to guide us and to lead us. about this matter also, the matter of deacons. So this morning, I want to bring our attention to bear on the Bible as it instructs us with regards to this very important office in the church. Sadly, it's quite often a neglected or even a distorted office in the church world. We take up today our text here as we've read it this morning out of Acts chapter six. And I'd like us to remember what Acts is about. What is this book, the Acts of the Apostles? We could almost call it really, rather than the Acts of the Apostles, we could call it the Acts of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason why I say that is what Luke says right at the beginning of the book of Acts. He actually says, when he addresses himself to Theophilus, the lover of God, he's saying, I'm really continuing to tell you what Jesus does and teaches. In other words, when he previously wrote the Gospel of Luke, he was writing what Jesus began to do and teach. But after Jesus Christ rose again from the dead and went to heaven, Jesus continued to do and teach in his church. And that's what the Acts is all about. Through the apostles, the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching and acting in his church, including in this instance, in Acts chapter six, with the institution of the office of deacon. Jesus, through the apostles, was guiding his fledgling New Testament church, and the administration of his covenant, and showing how the church would not only exist, but how it would flourish until he comes again on the clouds of glory. Part of this is this brand new, and I say that on purpose, a brand new office and institution of the work of deacons. The work itself wasn't new, we'll come to see why, but the office is. So we take up our text under that theme. Institution of deacons. Under that we'll consider three things. First of all, the spiritual necessity of this office. Secondly, the godly qualifications. And thirdly, the blessed result. Institution of deacons. The basic truth underlying the office and the function of deacons is this. Our covenant God cares for us both body and soul. That God cares for us, body and soul. God is not just interested in your soul. Sometimes it is possible we could get the wrong impression that somehow God, because he is spiritual and he is spirit, he's just interested in the spiritual, as it were. He's just interested in saving your soul and the body is something that, well, comes along with us anyway, kind of thing. But that's not true. It's not true. Think about this. God created a physical universe, a massive physical universe, one that we cannot even wrap our minds around the size of the physical universe that he's created. It's even hard for us to even fully comprehend this planet Earth and all of its complexity, the amazing nature of the billions and billions of different, complex and beautiful things that God has created on the planet Earth. And the Earth that we're looking at the moment is not the one that God originally created. That world perished, Peter tells us, and the one we have now is so marred and scarred. God's interested in physical, material things. He loves them. He delights in them. Even our own bodies that you're walking around in every day, what does the scripture tell us? They are fearfully and wonderfully made. God has made them in that way. And finally, consider this. When Jesus Christ came to die upon that cross and died for you as a believer in him and rose again, he didn't come just to die for your soul. He came to die for your body, physically, materially. He died for your body and soul. And so, as we know, and summarised in our catechism as well, that when we die, and that very unnatural process happens when our soul and our body are torn apart, our soul goes to heaven immediately and is made perfect in righteousness and holiness. But how does our catechism put it, our bodies, being still united to Christ, are laid in the grave till the resurrection. Notice that? Our bodies, though they're separated from our souls, are still, Jesus himself is still united to our bodies. Do you get the importance of this? Here's a beautiful, important, heartening, comforting truth. Our God very much cares for us in our bodies. physically, materially. And you'll find that demonstrated all the way through Scripture. One of the particular ways in which you'll see that demonstrated in both the Old Testament and the New Testament is God's provision for His people through the institution of the Church. So it's through the institution of the Church that God actually cares for His people also physically and materially as well as spiritually. In the Old Testament, which we were reading out of Deuteronomy, remember, God made his provision through national Israel. So Israel, remember, in the Old Testament, wasn't just a nation. It was also the visible church. And there was no salvation outside in any other nations. God didn't reveal his word to other nations. He revealed it to Israel. And if he would save people, then he brought them in to Israel from outside and he saved them there. And therefore, to that church, to Old Testament Israel, God also gave his civil laws. And we were reading out of them in Deuteronomy 24. What did you notice about that? those laws that God gave to his church concerned built into those things which he gave to Moses was a full or physical care of his people and so there were laws concerning how the fields were to be rigged as they gathered in their crops to leave food for the poor to leave food for the widows and the orphans But not only that, but even for the strangers, those who were outside of Israel that were remaining in Israel was to provide for even them as well. God indicated that this was a seriously important part of loving and serving him, part of the whole way of the salvation of his people while they lived on this earth. But now, come across and from the Old Testament and through into the new, the Lord Jesus Christ comes as the fulfilment of all of those types and shadows of the Old Testament. And now, his church has changed. And God changes from having his church as being national Israel, but now the gospel will go out to all the Gentiles, into every tribe and nation and tongue, and the church changes, doesn't it? From being just a nation, to being many churches in many different nations, scattered everywhere and because of that all of those national laws the civil laws of Israel are done away with they no longer apply directly to the church apart from all of the principles all of the principles of those laws still apply But how can you now do all of that? You know, you live in a big city congregation, well, how is the congregation like us? I mean, which one of us are farmers that are going to leave our olives on our olive tree for the poor to gather? That's not going to happen. So how do all of these principles come into place? God will still have his ongoing physical care of his saints carried out in his church, but how? God has offices in place in his church. So God himself, Jesus himself, had instituted the office of the Apostle. There were 12 of them there, but soon they would go because there are only 12 apostles for that short period of time when the church was being established. He has the office of evangelist, likewise will disappear. He's instituted already pastors and teachers, which are the ones that the apostles will be training up and putting into place like Timothy and Titus. They were the pastors and there were many others then that were involved in that leading of the church. And elders were also present. Elders were in the Old Testament. in the church and they just follow straight on through and into the New Testament church as well. Those ruling elders in governing the church and caring for the church. But what about physical care? That's why we end up with the situation that we read of here in Acts chapter 6. Because there's widows in the church. The widows are, some of them of the Jews, Hebrew widows, and some of them belong to what's called the Greeks, which means of other nationalities. But the Greek widows are not being cared for so well. The Greek widows are not being cared for. Who's seeking to look after them? The apostles and the elders and the pastors are seeking to do this work. They're seeking to give provision and money and food and that's the idea of tables, that gifts would be brought in from other people and that would all be brought to tables and then to take that and to distribute it and to give it to people that were poor and needy. But the Greek widows weren't receiving what they should. It's probably not on purpose. It's not like the apostles and elves were purposely not giving it to them. Maybe it was that the Hebrew women knew such provision would be available and they knew where to get it, but the Greek women didn't. Who knows? But for whatever reason, it's not working very well. So here is a problem in the church. And wherever there's something like this, what do we know immediately? This is God's providence. God works all things for his glory. God has all things perfectly in his plan and he uses this now to arise in order to bring about something new in his church and to provide for his church a new way. He's orchestrated this in order to bring about the institution of a new office through the Apostles and the Holy Spirit moves the Apostles to now bring this into place. We're to take note of the inspired reasoning of the apostles. They say, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Now, in saying that we might get the idea and they're saying you know this is unreasonable this is you know this is silly work poopoo work and we shouldn't be doing this that's not what they're saying at all they're saying this is really important work and they recognize it was important work it's been important work all the way through the old testament scriptures but what they're saying here is that it's not good that here is the full-time work of ministering the word that we are called to but that's suffering because we're trying to do this important work and that's not reasonable and therefore God is calling them to institute another way for the church to carry out this calling in this work so that God's church will be provided for, loving care supplied for the sheep and the lambs Now, in what they say, there is, though, a really important principle for us to learn and to take to heart, and that's this, that the work of the Church as a whole, the primary focus of the Church as a whole, is on the preaching and the teaching ministry, the preaching and teaching of the Word. and so a church as a whole is not to get distracted a church as a whole is not to start saying well there's so many other things we can be doing in this world you know we can go off and get involved in soup kitchens and we can institute hospitals and we can start making schools and educational institutions and the church gets involved no and that we're to see here it's not reason that we should leave the ministry of the Word, and be serving tables. It's not that that's not important, good, good, but that's not the primary focus of the Church. But here's the truth. This important work of actually caring for those who are there in the Church, the poor, the widow, the stranger, is important work. That care will now fall to deacons. Verse four is particularly relevant as the apostles, and with them therefore the pastors and the elders, they say this, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. That's the full-time calling of pastors and teachers, and we're to understand that in the church as well. A pastor, a teacher, is to give themselves continually to prayer and the Word. They're not to be getting themselves involved in secular callings and other employment or all sorts of other things. They are, first of all, to be in prayer. And that reminds us that this labour, the labour of the ministry of the Word, is always and must be in complete dependence upon God. It must be. A pastor and a teacher must completely rely upon the Lord. He cannot do that work of himself. He has no power or strength to do that. It must be that the Lord continues to give him grace and strength to do that, and then, as he brings forth that word and applies it, it must be God's grace that applies it, the Spirit that applies it. He has no power or ability to do that work, that's God's work, and therefore he must be much in dread, both in the receiving of the word and the giving of that word. But not only that, but receiving from God the ministers of the word can then be about delivering and applying that truth to God's people for their healing and nourishment. So, they now know through God's moving, this is the new office that needs to be brought into place. Here is all the necessity and the foundation for moving ahead with this new spiritual office in the church. So let's consider next what is said here about the godly qualifications. As we look at the qualifications that the apostles said here which should strike us is that God is giving characteristics of what? Godly, spiritual men. And therefore it's striking what's not here. What is striking about what's not here? The apostles don't call for people who have good organizational skills. The apostles do not call for men that have got a great financial head on them. Businesses. all of which tends to be looked for today for people like men and women who get on to boards of management in the churches. The scripture says nothing of that. It would seem for us, when we look at this from God's word, that those things are not considered necessary or even desirable. That's not what it's about. The apostles say, look you out, or more literally what they're saying there is, we want you to carefully inspect your congregation. You need to look around and carefully look at each of the men that are found in your congregation and you need to carefully look for men who are of honest report. This refers to men who are witnessed by others to be sound. This is not the witness of the man himself. It's not the man himself standing up and saying, hey, I'm a great guy, pick me. No, it's the witness of others. What do other people see of this man? What do other people experience of this man? So this refers, for example, to the man's wife. What does she think of him? And that's important for other offices too. And even a pastor, as you're looking for a new pastor, you should speak to the pastor's wife and ask her what she thinks about it. That's really important. What's he like at home, behind closed doors? But you need to ask family, you need to ask close friends, those in the church. And not only that, but from places such as 1st Sympathy 3, verse 7, we can imply this, even what people in the world think about this man. Does he have a good rapport even from those that are without, outside the church, that they look at him and say, yeah, that guy is a man of his word. That guy is sound. In other words, this is a man who has a sound and a generous disposition. This is a man who is willing to give of himself. This is a man who is not all about him and what he wants and what he can get, but this is a man who's seeking to give of himself generously and self-sacrificially. Brethren, we must know, whenever we're considering the calling of further deacons, this is the first requirement. A man who is of honest report, A man who, in fact, is sound in all of his doing and giving himself into the midst of the church. We're not looking for men who are a bit on the side of the church. You know, you see them sometimes, you don't see them other times. Sometimes they're doing okay in their personal life and other times they're sort of not doing so well at the present time and, you know, up and down and all over the place. We're looking for men who give of themselves. in whatever work or activity the Lord puts before them. If they're tasked with something, then you know they're going to do it. If they give their word about doing something, you've got an absolute confidence it's going to be done. These are men that people can and do depend upon, and they don't let others down. They are men of dependable and trustworthy character in the home, in the church, and in the community. So, they're a good report, but next the Apostles tell us this, they need to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Full of the Holy Spirit, what does that mean? Well, it doesn't mean you're looking for men that are kind of mystical, you know, sort of wandering around, they've got a holy aura that rules around them or something like that. No, that's not the idea at all. The idea is that they're full of the Spirit's work in them. We've just recently done looking at the fruit of the Spirit, haven't we? Well, that's what you're looking for. Men that have that fruit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. That's what we're looking for in men. They outwardly and obviously have the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in them. More particularly, The man will exhibit those major three works that are often spoken of by Paul at the beginning of epistles, faith, hope, and love. This man will have a sound faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, resting and trusting in him for the forgiveness of his own sins and for the grace and strength that he needs day by day to serve him. A true hope in the perfect work of the Savior so that his hope and his confidence doesn't rest in himself or his own abilities, but in Jesus Christ and that hope of where he's going in eternity. And finally, that undoubted love for God. and for his fellow saints. Full of the Holy Spirit but also full of wisdom. Wisdom doesn't mean the wisdom of this world. It doesn't mean this huge academic knowledge or even a huge theological knowledge. That's not what it's talking about. Wisdom here is biblical, godly wisdom. This is a man who knows the Christian faith. He knows all of the basic truths of the Christian faith. But more than that, wisdom is the application of that truth to practical life. It means this man will know, this isn't truth of God's word out here, but it's truth of God's word right here in the family home, as I live my life, as I work, as I live in the community, this is what the truths of Jesus Christ mean for what I'll think and how I will live. That's wisdom. And as we hear all those things, Let us never ever think that what we're after is a perfect man. Sounds a bit like it, doesn't it? To sort of list all those things, you sort of go, wow, you know, this is some kind of guy. Let's never think that. If we are looking for a man that is perfect, then we will never find anyone. We will never have anybody to put into office. And what's more, if that's the requirement, then all your current office bearers would likewise have to retire. Okay, we'd have to resign. We're not. We fail every day. Your office bearers do that, the sinners. And they need the forgiveness of Christ every day. They don't carry out these things perfectly. They're not perfectly full of the Holy Spirit. We're not perfectly full of godly wisdom. At times, There are those around us who will witness we are not what we ought to be. Yeah, that's true. But what we are looking for is the essence of all of these things to be present in the man that we consider to put forward. That's what the saints did. I want you to take notice of that. How many men were put forward? Seven. How big was the congregation? Although there were probably several congregations in Jerusalem, but how big was the congregation? Thousands of people. Out of thousands of people, there were seven men put forward. Not all are called to the office. Not all will have these characteristics. But we're to seek men who aren't such as what God sets forward in his word here. Finally, let's see what happened in God's providence for our instruction. I want us to see, take notice of, the blessed result. These seven men, they were chosen by the congregation, they carefully inspected and they said, yep, these men. And these men, therefore, were set forward. They placed before the apostles and notice then they were solemnly and spiritually set apart for this office. in humble reliance upon God. Notice that they took these men and didn't just go, great, you start next week, guys, we'll see. No, what did they do? They said them before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. Don't just skip over that, all right? What's being said there is humble reliance upon God. Lord, here are these men. And you have prepared them and you have equipped them. But now what we need more than anything else, Lord, we pray be with these men, strengthen them, give them grace, encourage them. And the idea of laying the hands on them is to say we are reliant on God's power to be with these men, to sustain them and nourish them and keep them. And they will need that every day as they go about to serve the Lord in this office. Without the Holy Spirit, without God enabling and strengthening these men, there would be no blessing on them or their work. It's a very far cry, isn't it, from the idea of a bunch of volunteers who come together and you select good business heads to make up a board of management for the church. It has absolutely nothing to do with that. This is the vital nature of deacons. Because we are to notice more than simply the establishment of this new office in Jesus' church and that these men were ordained, but as I've already said, verse 7 is highly significant. Highly significant. It's placed there by the Holy Spirit so that we can see the result that God had always planned for us. And it is the direct result. That's why it has there after verse 6, they laid their hands on them and This is not the beginning, this is a continuing through. And this is what happened because of the institution of the office of deacons. First of all, obviously, the direct result is that the apostles and the elders and the ministers were able now to leave the serving of tables and return to a wholehearted preaching and teaching of the word. But it tells us here, and the word of God increased. The Word of God increased. The deacons having been put in place and now doing this work, the Word of God increased. That doesn't mean there were more words. The Scripture is still being written at this point in time, that's true. But the idea here is that the Word is now taken much more to the people. It means the word of God could be preached and taught and applied so much, the more especially those who were laboring in the word and doctrine could give more time to prayer. They could give more time to studying the scriptures and then applying it in public, teaching it from house to house. So the people who were already in the church benefited greatly from hearing more of the word of God and hearing the word of God in greater depth and with better insights and more application in all those ways, the word of God went more powerfully to them. But the apostles, pastors were also able to reach many more that would not have heard that word had they still been caught up in this other ministering to the tables. Then even more we read, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. God is making clear to us here that this work of the deacons is a spiritual work in his church. It's so important because it's a spiritual work in his kingdom. And it's certainly a part of the overall salvation as God cares for his church both spiritually and physically. here through the ministrations of the deacons. But even further, the very work that they undertake is so that the other aspects of the work of the kingdom may flourish even further. And that's why God is saying here in His Word that the institution of deacons is directly related to the expansion of the work of the gospel. The work of the deacons is part of that ongoing gospel work of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. So that many more of his elect may be brought into salvation, into his church, and nourished and strengthened. So this morning we observe here this wonderful work of what God did there in the beginning of the New Testament church. And we praise God for his work in Jesus Christ, in the offices of his New Testament church. We see it is that both elders and deacons are necessary. Elders, both ruling and teaching elders, but also deacons are necessary for the life, for the well-being of the Church of Jesus Christ. God gives different gifts to different men. And so God raises up and he equips men who will be elders teaching elders, ruling elders, men who will be deacons. As I mentioned before, not all are called to those things. At times, God will raise up and equip men to be husbands, to be fathers, and equip them to that high and holy calling. But God also raises up men to be single in His church. And that also is a very specialized and high and holy calling also in His church. And we get to see that God equips and gives different men to different places and every person has a place, a perfect place of serving him in his kingdom. God uses these offices and especially this office of deacon as part of his saving, healing, growing and nourishing work in the kingdom. Let's give thanks. for the offices that God institutes, pray for the men that God calls into those offices, and understand the use and importance of them, especially, mainly today, have grown in our understanding of the necessity and the importance of the work of the deacon in the midst of Christ's church. And let's be in prayer that God would provide, furthermore, for us in our congregation, that we may know of his blessing in this way also. Amen. Let's stand to pray. Our dear heavenly Father, most wondrous, your works in all of history, in all of the church, and we thank you for this work also, that you have instituted this office of deacon And we pray for your blessing of it, that you may bless our office bearers that we have now and particularly our deacon. But we pray, Lord, that you may also provide for us further men that you would equip and furnish and call men that would serve the Lord in this wondrous way that is part of the work of your kingdom, of the gospel going forth to establish and strengthen and prepare your church for glory. We pray, hear our prayers in and through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.