Let's read verse twenty-seven
again. When they were come and had gathered
the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them,
and now He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. That's what I want to do to you
tonight, rehearse all that God has done this past week. I wish Brother Cody were here
to tell his story. I know you enjoy hearing about
these trips, and I believe it's very profitable. And it's, according
to our text, it's very scriptural to rehearse these things. I've told you before that I like
to go places where I feel there's a need and a purpose for me going. And this was truly, I believe,
a purposeful and needful trip. Brother Cody and I were riding
in the back of a noisy, broken down, taxicab going into town
first day, first morning, full day that we were there. We had
to go into town to get some water and some coffee. Had to get some
coffee immediately. And we were riding in the back
of this old beat up taxicab going through this city. You just can't
believe. You just can't believe the chaos. I've told you before, taxi drivers
in Santa Dominguez are the best drivers in the world. They would
win the Daytona 500. These guys are good. But anyway, we were riding in
the back of this cab and I looked over at Brother Cody and I said,
you know, we're doing exactly what the apostles did 2,000 years
ago. Exactly. They went out by twos. They went out by twos into these
foreign countries, you know, and cities to preach the gospel. And most often it was just to
a little group of people. Every church had small beginnings
like this one. So what we did was exactly what
preachers have been doing. for years. Verse 21 here in our
text, it says that when they had preached the gospel to that
city, they taught many. And that was our primary purpose
for going. That's why we went, to preach the gospel wherever
we go. We preach the gospel. I say we
because you go with me. I am your representative. You're
there with me in thoughts and prayer, I know. And our Lord
said this, he said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And it says they taught many.
They taught many. And preaching and teaching go
hand in hand. Our Lord said concerning his
people in John 6, 45, he said, they shall all be taught. of
God. They'll all be taught. All of
God's people are taught the scriptures, are well grounded and settled
in the truth. God's people everywhere, all
over the world, are well taught. They grow in grace and in knowledge
of the Lord. They know the truth, they love
it, and they continue to learn of it. The scriptures. Scripture says,
The scriptures are able to make us wise from salvation. And this is something that distinguishes,
something that distinguishes true believers from the world,
because the world is steeped in ignorance. It's steeped in
ignorance, superstition, and tradition. Even among the very poor in Mexico,
where I've been many times, The poor villages in Mexico, where
most of the people are very uneducated, very, very poor, yet the pastors
and the people, all the church people, are well taught. They
know the scriptures, and they're able to define it. They're able to tell you the
truth. I asked Cody one time about the
preachers in Mexico. I can't say that I've ever really
heard one of them preach in person. I've always heard Cody or Walter
or someone when I was there. And I asked Cody, though, about
the preachers there. I said, are some of those men
really good preachers? He said, the best you'll ever
hear, bar none. And he said, I'm talking about
Henry Mahan or Scott Richardson or anybody. He said, there are
some great preachers among those men. So they're well-taught. God's people are well-taught. It says there that they preach
the gospel and taught many. They taught. That's important.
The preaching that Boudicodian and I did, I was so happy about
it. Well, happy about Boudicodian.
But it was all verse by verse, verse by verse. And so we went
to preach the gospel. That's what we went to do. That's
what we do whenever we go out and wherever the gospel is preached. And Paul said, and this is my consolation, he said, God always
causes us to triumph. Make him manifest the savor of
his knowledge by us in every place. So the gospel is is the
power of God. Brother Cody preached one night,
I think it was a Wednesday night, yeah, a Wednesday night from
Isaiah 50, 43. And I understood when Cody preached,
I heard him preach, let me see if I remember, And I understood everything he
said. He preached in Spanish, of course,
because it's so biblical. And I know the terms, you know.
I have a Spanish and English Bible, by the way, that I look
at the whole time, anyway. So the gospel is the same in
every language. Words like salvación. So many words are so similar,
but if you know the stories, if you know the scriptures, you
know what he's saying, and you're going to rejoice in it. But anyway,
Brother Cody preached from Isaiah 43, and we had a visitor that
night, a person came, never been there before, invited by one
of the people. And they could not have heard
a better message. No one could have heard a better message.
I've never heard a better message in English. It was wonderful. It says here in our text, verse
22, it says they can preach the gospel and talk many and confirm
the souls of the disciples. Verse 22, they confirmed the
souls of the disciples and exhorted them to continue in the faith. Because, read on, they told him
that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.
So, the disciples, as you know, back in this day, there was so
much persecution. Their lives were in danger. The
people and, not just the apostles, but the people who met together
were in danger. And so the apostles went everywhere
confirming the souls of disciples, that is, reaffirming the truth
to them. and exhorting them to continue in the faith and warning
them, or at least telling them that we must, through much tribulation,
enter the kingdom. Every church everywhere feels
isolated and alone. We do, even here. And that little church down there
in Santo Domingo feels so isolated and alone. They're surrounded
in the midst of a city of two and a half million people. The
actual size of the city itself is about
the size of Roanoke. But there's two and a half million
people in it. So you can imagine just how densely
populated it is. And they're all alone, just a little
handful of believers. They're surrounded by a world
that hates the gospel. They hate the gospel. It's the
same everywhere. They hate the gospel. And that
little group there certainly feels all alone. Brother Rinaldo
Pena is the man who's doing the preaching there. He's the one
we went to ordain. And he didn't—he's a working
man. He used to work for the airlines,
and now he works for an automobile dealership. And he has been thrust
into this position of preaching because they need somebody. I
believe God called him, Brother Cody does too, and Brother Greg
and others who have met him believe God has called him, but yet I
know how he feels. He's been thrust into this position,
not wanting it, not seeking it, feeling inadequate for it, feeling
unable to do it. It just sells hard. Like Moses
who watched sheep. Brother Rinaldo, that's how he
feels. You know, what am I doing? And then, one night, we went
out to dinner with his, he and his wife, Brother Cody and I,
took them to a nice restaurant, and we're eating dinner, and
I said to, to Lou, and Rinaldo, I said, My wife didn't marry
a preacher. I want you to know that she didn't
marry a preacher. She married a railroad worker. But God's grace is sufficient.
And we went on to talk about that, to allay their fears and
to confirm to them that God will indeed give the ability and so
forth and the grace. And they were happy to hear that. She needed to hear that. And
Ennaldo also. But anyway, they're surrounded
by a hostile world just like we are. And these visits by Brother
Cody and myself and Brother Greg are a real help. A real help. They just... Oh, they're just
so delighted to have us, and what we do is just what the apostles
did. They confirmed them, confirming
the souls of the disciples and exhorted them to continue in
the faith in spite of all the persecution. These little foreign
countries like this are a hotbed of religion. They're just a hodgepodge
of religion, because all of these major denominations just swoop
down on these poor little countries. Like our Lord said to those Pharisees,
He said, You come to see a land to establish one cross of life.
When you do, the twofold more of the child of hell than they
started. And that's what they do. The
Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, so-called, the Pentecostals,
and on and on it goes. They're just thick, just thick.
We stay in a motel there, which is nice by their standards, not
here. You walk across the floor barefoot
and your feet will be black. But anyway, can't drink water. I've got to tell this on Cody. One morning I was walking across
the floor and he had plastic bags on his feet. I said, what are you doing? He
said, look at your feet. Oh, so I put plastic bags on
my feet. You'd have to see that 250 pound
man walking around in his shorts with plastic bags on his feet.
You'd appreciate that. Anyway, where was I? Oh, our
hotel. It is a large metropolitan type
place that attracts people from all over the world when they
come there, although it's not really nice, by our standards.
But that place is full of these religious people. I mean, the
lobby was full of these people meeting together. Just full of
them meeting in this group, praying with their hands up and all that.
I told Cody, I wish I had a BB gun. Honestly, just full of these
people. And they swoop down, they just
pray on these poor people down there. People are looking for
money down there, looking for help from rich Americans, and
that's what they give them. And they go back and report souls
saved. That's what it's all about. But
anyway, these true believers, these true believers like you
and me, these true believers who believe the gospel, they
need these visits. I want to give you a rundown
of our trip, a chronological rundown of the trip. We arrived
Monday evening at 9.30 and got back, it's about an hour,
15, 20 minutes from the airport and that's four hours here because
the roads are rough. My back is bothering me right
now. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel
about 10.30, and of course we didn't go anywhere to do anything
that night. Too tired. Tuesday night we had
our first service. Let me tell you a little about
the building first. You know, they were meeting in a home for
the first three years that they met. Sister Teresa's home. I call her Mother Teresa. They met in her home for about
three years, and then they finally, from our urging, found this building. The Lord provided this building.
Very nice. I was so pleased. I didn't know
what to expect, because, well, they just don't have much to
choose from down there. I mean, if we needed an empty
place here, we could just go about anywhere and find about
anything. But not there. It's so limited.
There's so many people and it's so slim picking. But the Lord
provided this very nice building. It's an office building that
is very attractive on the outside and has much parking, which,
that's a rarity down there. You just don't, people park all
over the sidewalks and everywhere down there. But this has a parking
lot. And inside, it's in an upper
room, and inside they have a bathroom, which you don't realize what
a blessing that is. They have a room, a classroom
with kids and a nursery area also, and a meeting room where
they meet. We'll seat probably 40 or 50 people. And they had
fold-out chairs like we have downstairs and a nice podium.
And the church in Orlando provided them with a little music thing,
electronic music thing that has all the hymns in it. They sing
by that. They don't have a piano or anything. But anyway, it's just a wonderful
place to meet. Just wonderful. I could meet
there from now on, provided there was enough room. But I don't
know what they're paying. I forgot to ask him that, but
it's all they can do to meet the payment. Tuesday night, I
preach from 1 Timothy 3, 16. Great is the mystery of God.
God was manifest in the flesh. And the Lord seemed to bless
that. People just listen intently. They listen intently. And now
down there, They eat. They start eating at
about 10 o'clock at night. And I don't do that. I'm in bed
at 9. But that's when they want to
eat. And I'm not talking cheese and crackers. I'm talking about
beans and pork. So we did that every night. And
they just insist, you know, on taking you places to feed you,
their homes and restaurants and so forth. It's so very hospitable. And we did that. And Wednesday,
Cody preached from Isaiah 43, as I said. And it was just wonderful. We had a visitor that night.
Thursday, I preached. What's the word? He preached one night. We alternated
each night. He preached from Isaiah 43, and
then Thursday I preached from Colossians 1, an exposition of
that. Friday, Brother Cody preached
from Titus 1, which is talking about the nation of elders, and
he touched on the qualifications of an elder and things like that. preparing the people for the
ordination service. And we figured it'd be good if
both of us would deal with it. And so he did that. We were off
Saturday, took the whole day off. And Sunday, I preached the
ordination service, rather than all of them, from 1 Peter 5,
and then Cody preached after that. That's what we did. That's why we went there. We
went to preach and teach them the scriptures. And it was so
very profitable. As I said to you, they are so
hospitable. I want you to turn somewhere
with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Something
that they did while we were there was such
a blessing. They're so hospitable. They,
as I said, love to feed you. We ate in someone's home every
day, either lunch or dinner. And then they either took us
out after service. Good food, Dominican food. I
insisted that they fix me Dominican food. And it's so good, so very
good. But these people are relatively
poor. as I've told you before. They're relatively poor. The
middle income for these people is $18,000 to $20,000 a year. And the cost of living is as
high as it is here, if not higher. Automobiles are more expensive.
Gas is more expensive. Food is about the same. Rent
is higher. So a middle income, that's not
much money to live on anyway. So they're poor by our standard. Yet, they're generous. They did
what this church in Macedonia, what Paul commended the church
in Macedonia for doing. Look at verse 1, verses 1 through
5 here, 2 Corinthians 8. Paul writes, moreover brethren,
now he's talking to the church of Corinth, which is rich. He
says, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed
on the churches of Macedonia, or in this case, sons of Dominion.
how that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of
their joy or their love and joy for the gospel, and their deep
poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality. For to their
power I bear record, yea, beyond their power they were willing
of themselves, praying thus with much intrigue that we would receive
the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering
of the saint." Paul, wherever he went, he told the
people we need to help places that have need. He told them
that. He taught the people from the
scriptures, it's more blessed to give than to receive. That
if God is freely given to you, you freely give to others. To the merciful, he'll show himself
merciful. And so on. And there were many poor churches
all over the world. And he taught them to give to
these. Well, everywhere he went, he taught them that. And the
church at Macedonia was poor, but they And they heard what
he said, so they took up an offering. And Paul said they couldn't afford
it, but they took up an offering and sent it by him to wherever
it was he was going to give that. Now, I told you about the hurricane
going through the Yucatan, and it just destroyed 75% of people's
homes. Incidentally, by the way, I was
so happy to take a check down there from you all and check
some money for Brother Penalty. We gave him a sizable gift. Thank you for doing that. The church down there, this little
church, just a handful of people, gave Brother Cody a check for
the people in Yucatan, $600. Now, this is the equivalent of
us giving $20,000. Cody, we were just astounded. No one will give proportionately
like they did. No one did. It was just amazing. Now, there's a church down there. They proved it. They proved the
sincerity of their love by their generosity and hospitality. Well, you would love these people. Oh, my. I kept telling Mindy
about them, and she finally got to go there. It was love at first
sight. I think, didn't Nancy go to Orlando
to meet Ronaldo during the conference? Yeah, I think she did. The conference
last year. Somebody from this church was
there. I think it was Nancy. And it's love at first sight
with these people. They're lovely people. Lovely. They average about 12 to 15 adults. Twelve adults meeting in an upper
room. Now, the world would say, there's
not much to that. Twelve meeting in an upper room. No, it's not going to be. The
Lord's not in that. Anyway, we went down there with
another purpose, to ordain their models of knowledge. Look at
verse 23. And it says, after they confirmed
and preached the gospel and taught them confirming and exhorting,
verse 23, they ordained them elders in every church and prayed
with fasting and commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. elders in every church that's
what Paul told Titus to do in chapter Titus chapter one two
and that's what he did and that's what we did. This was a primary
reason for us making this trip to ordain Brother Rinaldo Pena
as an elder. Now this is needful, this is
necessary. Number one, because God's Word
tells us to do it. It's biblical and it's needful. group of people, no matter what
it is, needs a leader, right? Every ship needs a captain, every
home needs a head, and every church needs a leader, and every
church needs a spokesman, a decision maker, an elder. That's what
an elder is. An elder isn't always a pastor, but every pastor is
an elder. And we both dealt with this to
the people there. Some of these people came out
of reformed religion. Now, that's down there, too.
And it's bad. And some of these people came
out of strict, legalistic, reformed religion, which had this elder
rule, where the elders would go into their homes and examine
what kind of magazines they had, and they would open their refrigerator
and see what they had in it. I'm curious. That's what they
do. That's what they do. They do it here. It's reform
stuff. But the elders don't let the
people do that to them. I would insist, wouldn't you,
Brother Henry? Get a crowd of people and go
to their house. But that's what they do. These people are scared
of the mention of the word elder. See, they came out of that. And
we saw the need of an elder, someone in the leadership position
since we started going there. And yet took it slowly and didn't
push this or even recommend or even mention it, knowing that
they're scared to death of elders. And now after three or four years,
they've got our confidence. We have their confidence. And
they know we don't come there for their money or anything like
that. We love them. We're just trying
to preach the gospel to them. Anyway, the Lord, the way this
is done in every church, you ordain elders from the church.
Elders don't come. Elder is a teacher. and a leader
is what he is, a teacher of the Word, someone who's been obviously
gifted to teach the Word. And they always, from the Scripture,
always come out of the local church. They come, they're there,
young men, and they grow up, and the people recognize God's
hand on them, and they're recommended by the church. And other men,
the apostles, the disciples, saw this in various men, and
so they laid hands on them and made them elder. Well, that's
what we do. It's biblical, it's needful, and it's an affirmation to the Lord's church that it
is a church, that every church needs an elder and has an elder,
so they need one. And Brother Rinaldo is a worthy
man. He's a worthy man. He meets all
of the characteristics given. Look over there with me. You
look with me. Titus chapter 2, the book of Titus. Now it's chapter 1, I'm sorry,
chapter 1. Chapter 2 is to the women and the men of the church.
Chapter 2, Paul said in verse 5, for this
cause left thy being creeped, that thou shouldest set in order
the things that are wanting. as I had appointed thee. And
here are the qualifications. May it be blameless, that is,
he has a good reputation among the people. The husband of one
wife, not talking about divorce, it means not a polygamist. And
having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, well-behaved
children, because Paul said to Timothy, how can one rule the
church if he can't even rule his children? And Rinaldo has
four of them. You talk about love at first
sight. If you saw those four little raven-haired Hispanic
girls, you would just, my, my, want to eat them up. And they're
just, well, Sunday morning. Yes, Sunday morning, little Samantha,
she's three years old, Ronaldo's daughter, sat up on the front
row by herself, three years old. And I was over here at the side.
Now, I had already prayed. And now Cody was praying. She
was about two hours preaching. And that little girl did not
repeat. And she didn't take her eyes
off Cody the whole time. Absolutely enrapt. I was amazed. Well, he has his children in
subjection. And it says, not accused of right, a bishop must
be blameless, steward of, as a steward of God, not self-willed,
not soon angry, not a drunk, not a brawler, a striker, not
given, not in it for the money, a lover of hospitality. That's
Ronaldo, a lover of good men, sober, serious, just, holy, temperate,
holding fast the faithful word. That's him. That's him. As he
hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both
to exhort and to convince the gamesayer, I told the people
down there that Israel, I told them the story of Israel, was
without a king. And they were standing before
the armies of the Philistine, and out there stood Goliath.
Goliath was taunting and mocking them, and no one stepped forward. He was taunting and mocking the
army of Israel. And the people were afraid, and
no one wanted to take the lead. And one man did. Do you know
who that man was? David, young David, young man. Nobody else was going to speak,
so young David stood forward and said, is there not a cause?
And he faced that giant. I'm going to take your head off. And he did. But anyway, the Rinaldo,
reluctant to do it, yet is now put in that position and he's
going to do it faithfully. A real blessing, a real blessing
to say the least. Very special indeed. It was certainly
worth the whole trip. It blessed me, and no one else
was. But I believe they were. I know
they were. I preached from, well, turn there,
1 Peter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5. I wish you could have been there. I wish you could have been there.
I really do. Peter writes to the elders which
are among you, I Xhor, who am also an elder and a witness of
the sufferings of Christ. That's what our message is. All we're sent to do is bear
witness of Christ. Preach Christ and Him crucified.
That's why we preach a witness of Him, and also a partaker of
the glory that shall be revealed." God calls the light to shine
on darkness, to shine in our heart, to give the light and
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. And
if you've seen His glory, if you've really seen His glory,
that's who you'll preach. I told Ginaldo, you preach Christ
at every opportunity. Verse 2, Feed the flock of God
which is among you. What do you feed the flock with?
What do sheep eat? Green pastures. Green pastures. Feed the flock of God. Take in
the oversight thereof. Take it. I know you don't want
it, but take it. Take it. You've been put in this
position, not by constraint, not by force, but willingly.
Take it willingly. Not for filthy lucre. You won't
get much of that. But of a ready mind, neither
as lords," and that was a real opportunity right there, that
verse, neither as lords, to allay their fears. Now they know this
man. He's not going to lower it over
them now that he's got the title of elder. Oh no, he's one of
them. See, those fellows that lorded
over them before, they weren't true elders. They were that entitled
only. Read on. It says, not lords over
God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And Bernaldo is
that. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that faith is not away.
Same crown all of God's people get, salvation. Verse 5, and
now here's to the people. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Submit to him, his leadership.
May all of you be subject one to another, be clothed with humility.
God resisteth the proud, and give the grace to the humble.
Well, the Lord seemed to bless that and the people. And after that, we did what Scripture
tells us to do. We had Brother Ronaldo come up.
And we put our hands upon him. I just wish you could have been
there and prayed for him. And ask the people all who give
their hearty assent and agreement to
this amen. It's just resounding amen. Amen. And ask them to come up
and tell Brother Ronaldo what he
meant to them, and I wish you could have heard some of their
comments. So we were concerned, you know, that there might be
some dissent, but there wasn't any at all. And then Brother
Cody, we had a little break, and then Brother Cody preached
from 1 Corinthians 11, and we took the Lord's paper. And it was just wonderful. 12 in the
left room, eating the supper. It was wonderful. And each night,
not only the services were a blessing, but every night, every single
night, Brother Cody and Rinaldo and I would talk, would sit out
on the porch or somewhere and talk until 1 or 2 o'clock in
the morning. about the ministry and just church
just things and Brother Rinaldo is just such a ready hearer and
a willing learner and just I know the Lord's going to greatly bless
him. And so it was a worthwhile trip. And I hope you enjoyed
hearing about that. Verse 27 says, So they rehearsed
all the things all that God had done with them and how he had
opened the door of faith to the Dominicans. He doesn't say that,
but yes, it does. It's the same now as it was then.
The church is the same. The gospel is the same. The people
are the same down there as they are here. It's a little different. If you would love them, I hope
you get to meet them in this life. If not, you should have
well done in that. All right, stand with me. I am the father. Thank you for
providing for this endeavor. Thank you for sending us down
there, allowing us to be a part of this worthy venture. We pray your rich blessings upon
the church later. Let us not ever forget them,
but always bring them before you, before the throne. Meet
their needs, or advise them, call out sheep. Fill that building up, and let
it be filled up. In Christ's name we ask these
things. Give thanks. Amen. Thank you very much.