Well, folks, we'll just have a wee word of prayer and then we'll ask and we welcome the Reverend Ian Smith this evening. We'll ask him to come and speak to us on the focus of the Christian ministry in Presbyterianism. So let's just bow for prayer. Father, we thank you for your goodness and mercy, for grace in our lives. We thank you, Lord, for your hand keeping us And we thank you, Lord, for all the way that you've led us. And we just humbly ask this evening, O God, that we might again learn of thee, that our minds might be open to the truth. And Lord and Father, that we might each have a teachable spirit. Bless our brother as he comes to speak. Be unto him all that he needs. Be mouth, matter, and wisdom. And Lord, bless this time and grant that it will be profitable as we sit around thy feet. We pray these things for Jesus' sake. Amen. Thank you. Can I shift this electronic gadget out of the way for just a little bit? Thank you for your kind words Mark. It is good to be back with you again brother on this important series of lectures which your pastor has organized. Perhaps we can turn to the Word of God, Gospel of Mark, final chapter. This of course relates to the final part of the 16th chapter, relates to the commission of the church to go out into the world with the gospel. Mark 16, and we can read at verse 9, Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, after whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with them, as they moaned and wept, and they, when they had heard that he was alive, had been seen offered, believe not, After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked and went into the country. And they went out and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven, as they sat at meat, and abraded them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils, and they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat in the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. And we do pray that the Lord would bless his word to us. Just an interesting Just a little note on these verses, as you know they are controversial in the eyes of many, to us they are the word of God, but those who prefer modern versions of scripture will have to tolerate the suggestion that the last few verses in that chapter are not in the most reliable manuscripts. So, I presume the conclusion is that they shouldn't be included in the Bible. In Scotland, a few of the men who would claim to be the most robust in defence of evangelism and in preaching the gospel one of the favourite verses or an excerpt from a verse is go ye into all nations and preach the gospel to every creature and interestingly that's not from Matthew 28 for the other commission though the commission is also recorded it's from Inception the very part of God's word that shouldn't be there at all so as I guess shows the gross inconsistency of man when he moves away from the authority of the word of God. Well brethren, this is my second paper and the title that was suggested to me was the focus of the Christian ministry. I think you've all got a copy of the paper so perhaps I can run through it with you. In the introduction that there is such an office as that of a ministry presupposes the existence of a Christian church in the world wherein this office can be fulfilled. Now this is distinct from the office of the eldership in that it's not so much the call to the ministry both elders and pastors, ministers are called but the focus here is on the particular and peculiar gifts God bestows upon those who are to labour in the world, those who are to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ to the constituency of the church. Now the brethren in whose hands God has placed the keys of the kingdom as the Lord Jesus puts it in one place, should by pastoral oversight be as persuaded of the individual's call to the ministry as he himself claims to be. It is not something that happens in a vacuum. When somebody is called to the ministry, there is a process in the Presbyterian system which has been observed for many generations. and it involves not just the individual who claims to be called but those who are the pastoral oversight of him and ultimately the church itself and what I'm saying in that first introductory paragraph is that the call to the ministry for any individual is not confirmed until the wider body of the church calls that person under divine constraint and in prayerful guidance and it is only when the person is inducted into a pastoral charge that we can see the call being then complete as much as we can measure these things. Now the background to the Christian ministry like everything else must be traced back into the Old Testament and although the office of the Old Testament prophet was distinct from the New Testament Christian ministry there are, as I'm suggesting nevertheless, some helpful overlaps. The prophet's role was twofold and is reflected in the biblical usage of his term prophet. It was always understood to be foretelling, that is predicting future events with the authority of God, and foretelling, that is declaring the mind of God in a more immediate sense. This latter corresponds, the fourth telling corresponds to typical New Testament preaching which in time would take various forms as we now understand it. Men like Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah, they declared God's will to the immediate circumstance of the people that lived in their generation. One of the clearest examples of this foretelling or immediate ministry is found in the book of Nehemiah where Ezra stood on that pulpit, that primitive pulpit to read the scriptures and then proceeded to preach to the gathering. They read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. In Nehemiah verse 8. Now one of the most common descriptive words for the work of the ministry is of course the word gospel and this is usually interpreted as the good news and I think as a fairly accurate interpretation of what the word gospel means. Undoubtedly this gospel is the primary focus of the Christian ministry as is demonstrated by repeated references to it throughout the New Testament scriptures particularly. Now what is not so easy to establish is what exactly this good news is and how it should be declared. Now this is where we have to go back to the beginning and this is one of the encouragements I find in our own generation with the development of ministries like Answers in Genesis where they are pointing the Christian Church in a manner which hasn't been there previously to the importance of the opening words of Genesis to the Christian world view and to the proper understanding of God's purpose in the world including of course the gospel itself. Now this promise that I'm referring to in chapter 3 of Genesis verse 15 has been referred to as the first declaration of the gospel on earth which of course points to and is focused upon the victory at Calvary. It says, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his him." God, of course, speaking to the devil of Satan in the form of the serpent and making that cross-based promise to Satan regarding what was going to take place in the fullness of time. That is the first if you like, the declaration of the gospel on earth. Now there is also a specific and unusual reference to gospel preaching a little further on in Genesis. The preacher here is God and as I'm pointing out here, it's not the kind of sermon we would expect. It hasn't got an introduction, two or three points and a conclusion. Indeed, if it wasn't for Galatians 3.8 we wouldn't have called this a gospel message at all. But, when Paul looks back to those words that were spoken by God to Abraham, he does see gospel in this. So that we read in Galatians 3.8, So, I bring these two things together. the promise of God in Genesis 3 and this message, this Gospel message from God to Abraham and I look at that as the basic elements of the Gospel which we are commissioned to declare to the world and the twofold promises are in short redemption and spiritual blessing but broken down a little further, it is in effect a promise of salvation by a Redeemer accompanied by global blessing applied by the Holy Spirit upon Jews and Gentiles. Now, God has not ordered these things in the vacuum of mere providential circumstance. He has ordered these things within the parameters of a covenant and I think in Hebrews 13 verse 20 there is a very important phrase at the end of that verse where it speaks of the blood of the everlasting covenant and it is that covenant that sets the parameters within which God has given this dual promise of salvation and blessing. And that continues to be borne out throughout the scriptures, it's reflected in various ways, and also in history, in providence and in history, where the church of Christ has, when at least it's on the way of obedience, this is how the church demonstrates the gospel. preaching salvation by a Redeemer and the blessings of God through the application of that redemption by the Holy Spirit. Now, I'll bring it forward to the New Testament Scriptures and look at the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Then, I shall look at the ministry of Paul. In the ministry of our Lord, there is a myriad of issues that can be seen as contributing to his wider ministry. He healed the sick, he cleansed the defiled, he raised the dead, he exercised the possessed. He did all of these things, yet when you examine the Lord's ministry you will discover that throughout it all there was this focus in his mind on gospel, on declaring a message of salvation to the people and that cannot be overstated. I'm quoting to you here his message to John the Baptist when John was languishing in his prison cell just prior to being beheaded and I remember the first time I began to think about this particular incident and thinking about John and the dire circumstances he found himself in, and Satan buffeting him, and the doubts crowding in upon his mind, and the man who had such a short time before had made that wonderful declaration seeing Jesus coming from the wilderness, Behold the Lamb of God. But change the circumstance, undermine his confidence, and you find him sending Jesus this message. Are you he that should come? Or should we expect another? And it's the response of Jesus to that query that I found intriguing and I still find it intriguing. It's not the kind of encouraging message I would have sent somebody lying in a prison cell. I think I would have taken another tact to it. this is wisdom, this is grace, this is love. He told them, tell him that the work is forging ahead and you know he gives a list of things but he was sure to add this note, tell him that the poor have the gospel preached to them. As if he was saying, tell John that's all that really matters from the end of the day. the poor have a gospel preached to them. The poor being, of course, not those who are in domestic or social poverty, but those that needed to hear God's dual promise of salvation and spiritual blessing. Now, you're probably familiar with the story in the Gospel of Luke, and perhaps it's recorded somewhere else, of the Lord's visit to his hometown of Nazareth. He was careful on that occasion to convey to his fellow citizens the primary purpose of his presence in the world. Now, if we can imagine him going into the synagogue on that occasion and the scroll being handed to him. Now, I find it unlikely that he came in and that somehow or other scroll was accidentally handed to him that seemed to be so appropriate to the occasion I think it was handed to him under God's overruling providence and into his hand was put the scroll containing Isaiah 61 and he read the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. And he sat down and then they questioned him and he spoke. I would have loved to have heard that sermon. I would have loved to have heard that gospel sermon brethren. But this is what intrigues me about that incident or what followed it. Further on in the same chapter recorded by Luke there is a telling tale regarding man's attitude to a focused gospel ministry. After Jesus preached in the local synagogue on that occasion, there was such an uproar to his preaching that they were determined to kill him. They rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him onto the brim of the hill whereon the city was built that they might cast him down headlong. Shortly after that, and just down the road, not very far away from Nazareth, he undertook a different type or style of ministry. He performed miracles, curing a lot of folk from a variety of ailments. For this type of healing ministry he received not rejection, but accolade. They begged him, don't leave us, don't go away. The people sought him and came unto him and stated that he should not depart from them. What a contrast! Preaching the Gospel we don't want to hear. Heal our sick or stay with us and be a doctor. Be a doctor to us but don't be a preacher to us. In other words, they rejoiced in this healing ministry but there was no ear for the teaching, preaching ministry for the Word of God. And I feel there is a huge lesson here. for the contemporary Christian church, particularly the church of a charismatic nature which lays such emphasis on healing ministries at the expense of preaching the word of God to the people. So I rather think that it was with infinite wisdom that the Lord chose his words carefully in the great commission he gave to the church in the resurrection. preach the gospel to every creature. That's what we have to do. That's the focus of our ministry. And this man over here and I have been called for this purpose first and foremost to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ to the constituency that is our congregation. Let me move on to Paul then. and see that the same focus is present with the Apostle. He leaves us in no doubt as to the role appointed by God for those called to the Christian ministry. It is far more than a mere commission to Paul that he should preach first and foremost. Listen to these words, 1 Corinthians 9, 16 Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is me, if I preach not the gospel. And that all-consuming burden was one he was eager to convey to others. And we see it of course with his young disciple Timothy. These well-known words in 2 Timothy 4.2. Preach the word, Timothy. Oh, this is what you must do. Preach the word. the instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Now look at that verse again and notice all that he is saying to you, all that he has to do. I bring your own pastor in here. Mark is to reprove you, he is to rebuke you, he is to exhort you with all longsuffering and doctrine. but only as that grows out of his preaching the word to you. First and foremost comes, preach the word. In other words, I have no authority, I have no cures before God to rebuke you, to exhort you, to instruct you in any way. unless I am faithful to my commission to preach the gospel to you first. It is only on that basis that I can then exercise various other elements of the ministry. Now, preaching is one thing, the focus of that preaching is something altogether different. It's been a common view in the Christian church, that is broadly speaking, that the source of evangelistic materials for preaching is in the four Gospels while the teaching ministry, the theologically based sermons are to be found in Paul. We can all fall into this trap. I remember realizing in my own ministry back in Glasgow that whenever I thought about preaching an evangelistic service I went through the Gospels looking for my text foolishly thinking that if I preached from Paul, that it wouldn't be an evangelistic service. And if I was going to conduct a Bible study meeting, feeding the Lord's people, I would go through the epistles. I wouldn't be found so often in the Gospels. I remember the period when this was brought home to me, and the shame I felt, and my own foolishness, and it triggered off a train of thought in my mind and I thought, I remembered way back over the years since I became a Christian and listening to people, men and women, young and old giving their testimonies and telling how they were awakened spiritually and the sermon perhaps that they heard And I began to realise I could hardly remember anybody that was converted under the favourite text such as Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, you know, the favourite gospel text. But I could remember lots and lots of people that were converted under sermons. I remember one woman and she told me, you know what text the minister was using that I was converted? I'll throw my shoe over Edom from Psalm 60 I think. But then I remembered the first sermon that left a mark on me wasn't from the Gospels, it was from Psalm 1. So sometimes we have a very foolish attitude towards the suitability of the Word of God in this respect and what constitutes evangelism and gospel preaching. Paul didn't have any of that baggage. He was so focused and he considered the whole Word of God for whatever his duty or burden or challenge was at the time. And this conviction comes through in Romans 1.16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why? Because it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, when that kind of devotion to the gospel is considered in the light of this article's enquiry, we appreciate how divinely focused Paul's ministry was. And you know how Peter urges, feed the flock of God. Well, Paul could do that. Paul could match that easily. It's obvious from his writings that that was part of his style. Read through the epistle to the Colossians, full of theology, full of the deep mysteries of godliness. Look at the epistle to the Romans. the key to Jewish salvation is set out in such lucid terms, there is nothing to match it anywhere on the face of the earth. But then you have the other side to Paul's writings and ministry, the war of heartedness, the pastoral epistles, the epistle to Philemon, somebody once described it as the greatest love letter that was ever written. are war and pouring out of it. Whatever the subject, Paul always looked at it in the light of the Gospel. When you read through 1 Corinthians particularly, and the plethora of social and domestic difficulties, and also theological of course, found in our church, he always referred to the Word of God, always gave the guidance in the light of the Bible's teaching. But there is something I would like to bring your attention to and it's in connection with this focus. How in Paul's mind theology and evangelism aren't separate. They go together. I'm referring you to Philippians 2, if you can turn to that portion of scripture in the Bible for a moment. In Philippians chapter 2 We have in a few short verses, 6 to 11, the most profound discourse that was ever given on the humiliation of Christ, on the sufferings of Christ, on the obedience of Christ, on the death of Christ, and on the resurrection of Christ. Perhaps I should read verse 6. Talking about Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore also God has highly exalted him, giving him a name that is above every name. Now these few verses brethren have kept the Christian Church busy for 2000 years. Volumes, libraries of books have been written on these few verses and they are still as full as ever they were. But notice what he goes on to speak of, verse 12, Wherefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as much in my presence, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which works in you both to will and to do through his good pleasure. Work out your own salvation. Here he is giving an evangelistic slant on this matter, and he is saying to us, there is the theology, Now you can work this out. Now you can take this apart. Now you can apply this to yourselves. Work it out. See how beautifully and synchronized this theology is with your needs. And thereby live out the Christian experience. Now again the epistle to the Romans, his burning desire for the salvation of Jews is legendary as demonstrated in these words in Romans 9.3, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Now that was far more than a patriotic cry in a gospel context. It's borne out by many other evangelistic expressions from the apostles. For example, he is determined to go to every legitimate length to secure the salvation of any and every race. I've given you two examples there. 1 Corinthians 9.19, For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant of all. Why? That I might gain them more. So in verse 22, To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have made all things to all men. that I might by all means save some. It's this burning desire for the salvation of men and women and boys and girls. And that is the focus of Paul's Christian ministry. It is the declaration of the twofold promise, salvation by a Redeemer and spiritual blessings through the application of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's work. So, this is the mindset of the Apostle. We preach Christ crucified. That's the only thing we have to say, we have to tell, we have to share. I remember on one occasion, again back in Glasgow, I had a visiting minister, a man from actually Columbia in South America. He was in Scotland on some occasion and I just can't remember how he happened to be in my church, but I asked him to preach. And he preached a wonderful sermon on the text in Isaiah, the highway of holiness. And as he preached what was a gospel sermon, I was sitting behind him. And you know when you live in a parochial place like Scotland, you kind of develop a telephone box mentality, you see. you begin to think, oh well, all you have is what your culture has imposed upon you and your love for these things are purely cultural. Things are different in other parts of the world and things are done differently in other parts of the world. Well I listened to this man preaching the gospel in my pulpit and I suddenly realised that he's not telling my people anything but what I've been telling them. exactly the same message Jesus in His glory the crucified Savior and here I am on the other side of the world and I've still got the same message I've got nothing else to say we preach Christ and Him crucified that's the focus of the gospel ministry I want now to refer to some opposition By definition, there is, and always will be, opposition to a focused Gospel ministry. While the forces of evil have failed to silence the voice of the Evangel, it has frequently succeeded in creating confusion by diverting the focus away from crucial aspects undermining the Good News. Now, you'll notice this pattern, friends, that the devil is not so much interested in shutting my mouth he knows he can't do that all he wants to do is divert me just a little away from what I'm supposed to do and if he achieves that he achieves everything Paul could insist that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices and neither should we be He can come as an angel of light, but then we should realize that. The sad truth is that the Christian Church frequently seems oblivious to such warnings. Furthermore, the Bible doesn't leave us with mere warning. It gives us examples of the danger posed by this determined enemy. Now the first example I refer to is in Acts 6 And this is an insight for us in how the wicked one uses legitimate things to derail the gospel and to divert the focus away from the things that we are supposed to do. He tried to silence these apostles in Acts chapter 5 through persecution. they spent a spell of time in prison but they were released and he had failed in that quest. Then he takes a different tack and he plants this seed of dissent in the minds of the people so that they were complaining that the apostles were in dereliction of duty that they were neglecting the widows of their number, that they weren't attending to social concerns. They are so taken up with preaching the gospel that people are suffering, and particularly these widows. The response as we know from verses 2 and 4 in Acts 6 is unequivocal. 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, whom we may appoint over this business." Now, these apostles took the thing seriously. This was something that should be done. And not just with any Tom, Dick and Harry, but with men full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. But not us. Meanwhile, we will give ourselves continually to prayer unto the ministry of the Word. Nothing must derail the Gospel ministry in its focus. That's one example. There is another one, perhaps more worrying for us in our day and generation. This one comes from the church at Galatia. This was the church, or one of the churches of Paul, built up with the help of his colleague missionaries. And I would guess that this must have been a congregation we would all have liked to have been part of. Can you imagine how well taught we would be? Can you imagine what it would have been like sitting under the ministry of Paul? Wouldn't we be wise in our day? Wouldn't we be equipped for all the challenges of a Christian life? Perhaps not. At least not in the light of what happened in Galatia. When Paul wrote to them he complained in the opening words of his letter in terms that are extremely worrying and very telling for those that care for a focused gospel ministry. Galatians 1, 6 and 7. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Let me make a couple of informal comments on that, which are not in the paper. I want to take your attention to that phrase, I marvel. This occurred perhaps as little as a year, maybe less, after Paul established this church. He left the church, continued on his missionary journey, and he left it, he felt, in good hands. He had instructed men in the gospel. Now word has come to him that things have gone wrong. And even wisdom he had as an apostle, he said, I'm astonished. I can't believe this. I marvel. that you are so soon removed. They have been lured away, they have been almost constrained away from the gospel and from a cross-focused ministry. And look at what it says, to another gospel which is not another, another gospel which is not another, I remember when I was in the Free Church College in the early 90s and we had, the Free Church College had private students as well as free church students. But this question wasn't put by a private student, it was put by a free church student and was put to the professor of historical theology who was a very conservative, reformed, quiet And the question put to him was, we were dealing with the appearance of Arminius in the church history scene and Arminian theology. And the question put to him from the student, I can still see him sitting in the front seat, was surely an Arminian gospel would be better than no gospel at all. And the professor who had a habit of holding his hands like this, you see, over his dark clothing, he looked at the student and he said, Arminian, he said. Arminianism is not a gospel. It's a teaching. There's only one gospel. And that's what Paul is saying here. Another gospel which is not another. There is only one gospel, my friends, and everything else is a lie. Everything else is a device of Satan to derail the glorious gospel we should be declaring. Our third example concerns the impetuous Peter, the man that we like to relate to. And it involves one of the most subtle devices of the wicked one, whereby the culprit seems to be Peter, but only in the sense that he fell into a snare set form. The early part of his ministry amongst the Gentiles, he reflected the influence of the heavenly vision he received at Joppa, convincing him of the passing of the Old Testament food laws. You know, when the rogue or carpenter or whatever it was came down with all the animus on and God persuaded him. that there was nothing unclean that God had provided. And that, I think, enabled Peter to overcome his Jewish prejudicedness as far as food laws were concerned. And he prospered in that vein. It was therefore all the more sad for Paul to learn that he had capitulated under the pressure of Jewish servants. Jews who put pressure on him to come back to the fold, as it were, and to observe these things that were so important to the Fathers. And thereby Peter caused many to stumble, even upon us, Paul tells us. And we can get a taste of this in Galatians 2.11 where Paul records it. When Peter was come to Antioch, I would stood him to the face because he was to be blamed. This is to me a profound picture of these two giants, soldiers of the Lord, one as devoted in his own mind to Christ as the other, but at stake was a focused gospel ministry, and Paul was not going to let it go. I withstood him to the face. A face-to-face confrontation around this prize, the Gospel. And I think it's very telling how subtle Satan can come in and derail our ministries in the Christian Church. This is extremely important to us as we are called to preach this great and glorious message of Christ and Him crucified. Now, there is one other verse there at the end of that section, Acts 4, 18, which gives us something of the mindset of those who are opposed to the gospel. When they said to the apostles, they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, not teach in the name of Jesus. In other words, you can speak on anything else, you can preach anything else, you can teach anything else, but not Jesus Christ, not Jesus. That opposition my friends is still a reality. It is here, amongst you who work in Kingston, there will be subtle attempts, perhaps blatant attempts, to derail our man's ministry. And it's not just him that has to be alert to this. You have to be alert to it as well, because you may see it before he can see it. It's a huge danger for the Gospel ministry. Now friends, There is an aspect of wider ministry which I should and have to refer to because Mark and I would be quite happy if all we had to do was enter the study on the study to the footwood and go home. But God has called us to do more than that. The primary focus is preaching secondly. But there are other aspects that we are called to do. And I put them here under two main headings, ecclesiastical and pastoral. In the ecclesiastical sense we are called on to leadership. On a number of occasions we discover Paul urging his fellow preachers to regulate the gatherings of the church by means of appointing office bearers. In the ancient cities of Lystra, Iconium and Antio, the apostles brought the church to a more formal mode, as seen from Acts 14.23. And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. And again Paul instructing Titus, For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that I wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee. These examples demonstrate something of the leadership qualities that God gifts the ministry with and that we should expect from our ministers. And although we lack, of course and naturally, the power that was endowed on our forbearers, the apostles, Nevertheless, there remains with the ministry an authority given to us by God which should be expressed in not only the declaration of the truth, but also in church leadership. And pastoral, the second general heading, the shepherding of the flock begins in the pulpit, but I must go beyond that boundary if we are to follow the examples in the Bible. The very idea associated with shepherds lends itself to a hands-on involvement and we can see much of that in Paul's writing to Timothy and Titus. Time is given over to exhortation that could be carried out at the pastoral level, but it is also evident that many of the problems Paul had to deal with, particularly in Corinth, were purely pastoral and had to be dealt with in a hands-on sense. I've given you three texts there in some days after Paul said to Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they do. The intention wasn't to preach to them, but to see how they're getting on, to lend some pastoral oversight, to give guidance and encouragement. Hebrews 1.27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. to give himself and sport it from the world. Galatians 2.10 Only that we should remember the poor the same thing which I also was forward to do. So there is a very important aspect to the pastoral ministry but this is a paper in itself and I apologise for being so brief with it but I knew that time wouldn't allow me to go into it but it is an extremely important side of the ministry. Well in conclusion friends, the focus of the Christian ministry is not to be decided by individuals like me, nor even to church committees. It is set out for us in the scriptures by God in his word and the principles and modes of the Holy Ministry. This paper that I've been delivering to you this evening should in no way impede, and it doesn't I hope, on other activities in the Christian church such as various types of missionary endeavour and evangelism. Now I've just put an addendum at the end that it may be relevant to itemise to some degree the subject matter relative to gospel preaching. God is a God of order and is frequently the case that he demonstrates order and priority in the manner by which we are to implement what he has taught in the Bible. We see a bit of this in the way the Ten Commandments are set out for example. They are very deliberately set in the order which God would have it and as somebody once said, we have set God's order at our peril. If God has set something in order, you leave it there and go with it. And I've just made a list there of things that should be part and parcel of a focused gospel ministry. Covenant, Incarnation, Redemption, Reconciliation, Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. They don't have to be in that order, but there must be a flavour of these things. in our gospel ministry if we are to be true to the word. And there's a list of helpful authors which you could refer to if you wanted to follow this. Thank you very much.