Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Not bad enough.
I don't know.
What the hell I'm sorry about.
Oh, I didn't know.
25300.
South.
Oh yeah.
Uh.
5.
Oh, 3-1.
Nsnoise.
Thank you for the reading meeting that we've had this morning without his give up.
I think before the food that's out and supply for our, for our hearts and for our souls, spiritual food and the physical food.
Thank you for the open meeting that we've had last meeting.
We pray Lord Jesus, for grace and guidance for this coming, this, uh, reading meeting that we're about to partake of. We pray that thousands of leads and guide the brethren by thy Holy Spirit that Thou would give us more food for our souls.
From that person's work. So we count on Thy grace, and we count on Thy strength and Thy guidance to teach us more of Thy left ways.
So we prayed an almost precious and worthy name, Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen.
00:05:08
The broken minded to continue with first.
Thessalonians, chapter 5.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 12.
We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that our unruly comfort the feeble minded, support the weak. Be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit.
Despise, not prophesying.
Prove all things.
Hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body, preserve blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read.
Unto all the holy brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
I suppose there would be no need for an admonition as we have in verse 12, if we had a separate clergy from the laity, but.
Nothing is said in the Word of God here in the New Testament concerning any official position.
We are to recognize those who have the moral qualifications.
For leading the Saints.
Notice that we are to esteem them very highly, not for their gift, but for their works sake, says.
This takes an entirely disrupts what you have in denominationalism today, where you have a separate clergy from a laity be no need to know them, but we have a scripture. It says a man's gift maketh room for him, and the Lord is the one who qualifies different ones amongst us with their ability. A gift from above. It's not the ordination of man, is it? Although we can show fellowship with those whom the Lord has raised us.
Before the apostle had only been for a short time in Thessalonica and, uh, there had not yet been time in that brief period for fully, uh, to have the characters, the moral characters of the various.
Brothers in that assembly to manifest themselves.
The Apostle Paul couldn't really, in that time, appoint elders to, uh, oversee the work of the Lord in that assembly.
And so he has to write back to them, because now those characters would have become more manifest than he has to exhort them, than to recognize those who had taken up that work and were fitted and suited by the Spirit of God for that work that they took up.
We're in the same position today. There's no apostle to appoint elders.
In the assembly.
And there are no delegates of the apostles to appoint elders. Titus was a delegate from the Apostle Paul to go appoint elders and Greeks. And in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, the last chapter.
00:10:09
17th verse He writes the salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is the token in every epistle. So I write, so Titus might go to Crete and, uh, he would, uh, evaluate me before the Lord is to the character of different brothers there and appoint elders. And they say, well, where did you get the authority for that? And he pull out this epistle to Titus and he said, here it is. And see, it's signed with Paul's own hand, his token in every epistle.
It was the proof that he had authority from the apostles to do that. Well, we have no such thing today. Who can pull out an epistle from the apostle Paul signed by his own hand, saying I have authority here from the apostles to appoint elders or bishops or anything else?
In the assembly.
So we're in the same place as it were that these Thessalonians believers were and were to recognize those that the Spirit of God is fitted. You know, because the apostles not here or an appointed delegate does not mean that the Lord has left us. Uh, the rest of, of the value of oversight, The Spirit of God has still fitted those and morally fitted those who have the oversight in the assembly to carry on that work.
Were to recognize them.
Oversight, as we read about it in the New Testament, is always local.
And God's view was that it would be plural. And so when you read the word for elders, it's plural.
And so the Lord raises up those even today, whether official or unofficial, as you say, that know the Saints. It's a kind of a nice thing. And you're in an assembly and you see older brothers and they.
UH, can look and visit and interact with Christians that they've known their grandparents and their parents and they know them very, very well. And they can interpret behavior or issues or problems in the light of that person's context and experience. And that's a local thing.
But you never see in Scripture that this sort of, uh, rule is over more than one assembly. There's no such thing in the body of Christ as an organizational chart like you'd have in a company with, you know, those that would be over the assembly and those over two or three and those over 10 or 12, that does not exist. It goes from that local assembly right to the Lord who's in the midst. And that's an important thing to remember. And that's why often times and times the difficulty though we would be tempted to get.
A bunch of leading men or chief men together to resolve things. It's a dangerous thing to do because it's not God's way. The Lord is by God in the midst of thee is mighty and he's the one who has wisdom himself itself. And so there is local leadership in in the assembly at times of the week. And the Lord himself is in the midst and we look to him and he guides through those and who who whom he has raised up.
On the other hand, from that.
There are those that the Lord gives his gifts to the church still even in our day, such as we read about in Ephesians 4 says there he gave some apostles and some prophets and some pastors and teachers and gifts like those individuals are. And there are other types of gifts are given to the church as a whole and not just the property of one local assembly. And so if a brother is been fitted that way and raised up as a as one who can expound the Scriptures as a teacher can.
Well, he's has that when he's here and he has that when he's there and he has it when he visits across the country and same with pastoring. Well, and so I suspect here in this young assembly in Thessalonica that when he says there to know them, which labor among you and are over you or take the lead in the Lord, that there were certainly believers that were more experienced in the past like Paul was, who who visited amongst them just like it is today. And when I was young in the faith and lived in a small assembly, there were older brothers from other assemblies that came periodically through.
And, uh, they kind of kept an eye on our progress and kept an eye on our growth and our behavior and our attitude and we felt that sense of responsibility and we're glad for it. They were like parents that the Lord gave us for those of us who weren't raised in Christian homes. And so we knew who they were. We didn't thankfully esteem them very highly in love with the effort they made to come through. And, and even though it was sometimes with trepidation as to what they would say to us.
00:15:22
Umm, we, we value them highly and, and miss them a great deal to this day. And so it wasn't official. It's not official today, but by faith, we have a sense of those that the Lord raises up to take the lead amongst us or as it says, here are over you and the Lord. We accept their admonishments because we know they love us and we know they have experience in the past and what they say for us is going to be for our good. And, uh, it's our appropriate response to esteem them very highly in love.
To their work sake.
This is apparently the thing that didn't understand very well.
Because he really got upset when brothers came from other places and wanted to exercise and, and had a burden to exercise their, their care, their gift where he was, uh, he apparently wanted that, umm, that place himself and cast some out of the church and so on. So that's really the, the exception. That's not normal Christianity. And the apostle John points that out for our instructions.
How would you define the word admonish? How would you put that into it?
Ease your words.
Or maybe an example?
As a father, sometimes I admonish my sons. I see something in their behavior and I go to them and I talk to them. Maybe it's not something very bad. Maybe it's just a trend that they're starting on and I speak to them about it to challenge them, to encourage them to go on a better path, to perform better.
And so just to, I think an admonition is when somebody comes and talks to you to try and point out something in your life that could be better than what it is today.
And sometimes it might be about something that's particularly bad that you really need to straighten out in a hurry. Sometimes they just leave something with you for your conscience to think about. And that, you know, in a lot of words. That's what I think admonishing is. Maybe somebody wants to add to that or have some simpler words.
Just a little quiet talk to explain an idea or to point something out in your life that could be better.
Exhortation seems to be just a purely positive set of words like Barnabas came in the early days and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart that they would cleave under the Lord. It's not that they weren't, but he's exhorting them to do that. But as you say, admonishment seems to have a slightly corrective element to it, which we need. If you were to make a mark, if I know a lot have read through the book of Proverbs chapter, a chapter a day throughout the month, and if you were to put a little mark in your Bible on every verse in the book of Proverbs, that has to do with correction.
Or admonishment that the Spirit of God would use that verse to you. You'd have a lot of marks in the book of Proverbs because it's what we need and God graciously is gives to us what we need.
We need correction and we need admonishment.
And it's a, a great benefit to have brothers and sisters that are close enough to us that in love will, uh, provide that for us.
There is a verse in Romans 15 that interesting uses the same word admonish.
Romans chapter 15 and verse 14. And it says, I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren.
They also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. And I think it's a sign of maturity that when somebody comes and speaks to you that you have the ability to listen into, pay attention to what they say. And it is something that has to be learned. Sometimes it's not easy, but it's a sign that you've grown in maturity, that you can hear a criticism, listen to it, take it to heart and profit.
00:20:28
I don't know if we could look maybe an example of that in the book of the Act in Acts chapter 18.
Next chapter 18 in the 24th verse.
In a certain the Alexandria, an eloquent man.
This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being proven in the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom, when Akula and Priscilla had heard, they took unto him. They took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
Which I believe through grace so mightily convince the Jews not publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. When I really appreciated with this is here we have a couple that had umm a real desire to see umm to see a policy go on and to be able to use the gift that he had and what's what's beautiful in the assembly is when you have someone that has a particular gift.
And there are those that come along and as long as you meant perhaps have much less care for none at all. I think probably Apollo's had much more gifts than, uh, than Aquila did. And yet this couple, they took them under them and they expounded the scriptures unto him in a way more perfectly so that the work of God could, uh, could really benefit from it.
No, we all love it in a small assembly when someone comes to visit.
The verse, uh, we ended the last meeting with I guess verse 11.
A good thing to remember as well. Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another. In the Darby translation I think it says edify each one the other.
And so we're not just to wait for some noted or gifted brother from another place or sister, but to, uh, realize that that responsibility falls to us to seek to encourage one another along in the pathway. And we're very grateful for when someone comes through and uh, and has a word in season or just sometimes their mere presence. Just visiting in on a weeknight is a real lift in a place where you don't see many visitors.
And you can tell that it just has an effect on the assembly for days or weeks when someone comes through like that. And then once they go and go away, uh, you're back with just a few of the local ones. And then it says at the end of verse 13, be at peace among yourselves. You know, if someone's being used to the Lord for edification, it's not going to lead to strife or divisiveness or comparing one against another. It's going to.
Gonna produce good fruit. The feasible fruit.
Uh.
To see that brethren will, uh, be encouraged and be more inspired, if I could put it that way, to bear with one another and to, uh, esteem each one better than themselves and value our brethren for what we see in them. That's really of Christ.
That's why it's further works safe. Paul said to the Corinthians about Timothy that he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do. And so there might be that and one that admonishes us or is over us in the Lord and is used as the Spirit of God to correct us that we don't like your particular personality traits. Or maybe even the flesh comes out in some way. And we, we uh, might find that our own flesh and Satan urging us on to find a way to despise that admonition.
And so it's for their work's sake to realize that. Don't look at the vessel. Realize it's the work of the Lord that they're working and that they're seeking to do, Failing though it may be, it's the work of the Lord.
00:25:05
And says, esteemed them very highly in love for their works and sake, and that should be the motive. Uh, not only are they doing the work of the Lord, but we're to uh.
Consider them with affection in our hearts and seek to help them on their way forward, as the Saints often did in the New Testament to the Apostle Paul, because Satan would rather.
Stir up trouble amongst the Lord's people. That's why it says it adds to the same verse. And be at peace among yourselves. You know Satan would like to bring in quarrels and disagreements and feuds amongst the Saints.
Uh, even amongst new believers here at Thessalonica, there is constantly the exhortation to be at peace among yourselves. And uh, even the Lord said, did he not? Blessed are the peacemakers.
It's easy to stir up trouble, but often it's difficult to be a peacemaker. I've often enjoyed Brother **** Orgas admonition to me, he said. Rube.
I have to be a peacemaker, You know, it's easy, especially as younger brothers, to stir up trouble. That is what we hear. It says be a beast among yourselves.
Brother Neil Wampo is often reminded us that, uh.
As children, and we're not a child now, we were one once we.
Either made it easy for our parents to correct us or we made it really hard for them to correct us. And it's the same in the assembly. My will gets active and my back gets stiff. And so the expectation, be at peace among yourselves is we have to resign our will in these things. We heard that in the open meeting to be willing to give in.
To make it easy.
For the Spirit of God to correct this.
When my will gets active, then there's gonna be no peace because the lust is stirred up and I want this or I want that, and even if I get it, I've got it in a bad conscience and I have no power to satisfy that self will of mine. And it's less, and the result is just.
A tumultuous condition in my heart, and no peace. Peace is a nature satisfying while we have a new nature and it's satisfied with its objects.
Christ, and with its will, with my will renounced and laid down.
That's the only way for heat.
Now verse 14 is a very helpful and practical verse.
Many, many air meetings that I've sat in and places I've lived where someone's behavior was, uh, a concern.
The brother didn't quite know how to respond. His verse is always such a good guide to start with.
We exhort you, brethren, to warn them that are unruly or.
Maybe it says in the other translation, The unruly disorderly.
Comfort the feeble minded or faint hearted is another translation. Support the weak. Be patient toward all.
So is it a question of a person's will being active and going along in a self willed or unruly course? Well, that's where the brother was saying where admonishment is the right approach. Is it just someone who's gets faint hearted And you know, uh, we go along with brothers that we get to know year after year and it gets to be decade after decade that some just get discouraged more easily than others.
And yet, fortunately, sometimes those brothers are easy to encourage, too.
And they need to be comforted to be built up. Comfort the faint hearted.
Some measure all of us are weak.
And we need to be buoyed up in some aspect of our life. You may be strong in one thing and weak in another. We all have our tendencies, and we look out for one another and support one another in that way. And the overarching exhortation which always applies, to be patient toward all.
So often you see that someone just keeps recurring into the same bad pattern. It's not rare that the brother would speak in exasperation and count the times where this has happened or or try to draw some conclusion from the recurrence of this thing.
00:30:19
I have to remember that we're not the ones who died for that person. The Scripture uses the expression the brother for whom Christ died, and the Lord valued that brother that we may find so nettlesome or troublesome or irritating enough to die for him. And he's not done with. Emory wouldn't still be here with us. And if we looked in the mirror, we find that we probably have similar things that are of a.
'Cause our brethren to desire patience for us. And so such a good thing to remember. Be patient toward all.
The Lord when the certain Samaritan picked up that man and fell among thieves, and took him to the inn, after having set him on his own ***. And he said to the He gave him 2 Pence, and he said, Whatsoever thou spendest more.
When I come again, I will. Some of us require more than two tents, more than more than 20 pence. Doesn't matter. The Lord has given us an open checkbook.
Basically says whatever it takes, spend it.
That should be our attitude towards our brethren. We're not trying to build up some sort of All Star team. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not trying to take the local assembly and make it into the best and brightest Christians in the town we live.
That's not the basis of being gathered together to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Our commonality is that we are washing the blood of Christ and by receiving God's Holy Spirit, we've been joined to one another as members of one body.
We receive whom the Lord saves, and.
Seek to go on together.
So it does require patience. I know I require patience from others.
Umm. And uh.
We all benefit from that wonderful exhortation. Be patient toward all.
Apostle Paul could see the need of that admonition in verse 14 to warn them that are disorderly as you have in the margin.
New Translation.
Because in Second Thessalonians we find that there were some there who didn't pay any attention to that admonition. Second Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse six, they were told to withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly, not after the instruction which he received of us. And then in verse 11 we hear that there are some which walk among you.
Disorderly working not at all. And our busy bodies.
Well, it's all good. Maybe foresaw that when you wrote in this 5th chapter. It's a dangerous thing if you don't have occupy your time. The Lord says occupy till I come. And if we don't fill our time and service for the Lord, Satan will surely fill up the vacuum with other things that won't be profitable. The Proverbs tells us about those who have nothing to do and go about as busy bodies. They usually get in trouble.
Is it possible that a believer would be tempted to render evil for evil?
I guess it is, or we wouldn't have the admonition here.
So we need to take heed that we're still subject to these kinds of petty feelings that.
Evil has been shown to us, whether by a brother or somebody in the world.
Just leave it with the Lord, take it from the Lord and leave it there.
And as it says, the exhortation is such a good one be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. What a helpful practical verse that is whether his parents or in the workplace, you know, the negative aspects which may rise up can can tend to if occupied with in their correction even can end up developing the whole family or the whole assembly or the whole workplace.
00:35:28
Sometimes it's good to look to the Lord for what to do and then just to simply do it.
And pray about it, and leave it with the Lord, and go on.
Ever follow that which is good.
Wisdom is plain, isn't it? In some respects and.
Teenagers or young children tend to make things real complicated or things get real complicated in the workplace. You know, ask yourself, you know, why is this so difficult? It shouldn't have to be that difficult.
God puts before us a plain path, and when our hearts are right, the path becomes a lot cleaner. So we have these kinds of plain expertations. Follow that which is good. Do good exhortations like be courteous.
Well, there's not a big explanation of what that means.
Assumes that the willing heart will know what's appropriate in a situation, in a culture and a time in which we live to be courteous or to follow that which is good.
Apostle Paul says that Alexander the Coppersmith did him much evil.
What was Bob's response? This is Second Timothy 4.
Verse 14.
The important word missing there in our King James should be the Lord will reward him according to his works. The Lord will reward him. Paul wasn't seeking to you.
He did vengeance against Alexander the Coppersmith, who did him a lot of evil.
Doesn't it tell us in the 6th chapter of Galatians whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap?
It may not be in this life, but it certainly will be an eternity.
And then there's a proverb, chapter 24, it says in verse the end of verse 12. And shall not he render to every man according to his works. So sometimes it takes patience doesn't just to leave it with the Lord.
And the Lord will.
Take care of things in his own time.
The vengeance is mindset. The Lord I will rebate. We don't have to get revenge at all.
Well, it wouldn't seem like it would be that hard of an exhortation to accept, to rejoice.
Suppose in modern American language it would be be happy.
Rejoice evermore and be happy.
There's something in it. So I think at times that feels like we're not worthy of being happy.
Manhattan is some sort of a special privilege only for a few.
And it is true that.
Sweet ponder what we are all about now is new creatures in Christ that.
Holy Spirit is the source and the energy of our joy inside us, and then if we're going along carelessly, then the Spirit is going to be grieved in.
Her joy is going to go away.
But under normal.
Christian.
Uh, situation is.
To be happy.
I don't know how the rest of you feel about it, but.
I know when I'm not happy, it's because I've been slothful or careless in my life.
And I know that God is faithful whenever I realize it. And. And umm.
In remedy that uh, destruction or carelessness.
Lord brings that joy back.
00:40:01
So I I think it's an important thing to realize that.
It's not just up to you. It's not just that you have a right to say, well, I, I can be happy if I want to be. And if I want to be kind of mopey, I can be mopey. No, you can't because you don't belong to yourself anymore. You've been purchased by another. And his desire for you and me is that we'd be happy. Christ died to make us happy. And for a believer to be happy in the midst of all the circumstances we have is quite a testimony.
And the Lord desires that testimony.
Faith, I think we sang in the opening hymn, can sing through times of sorrow.
And we know that's true. We've experienced it.
So it's not that we go around slapping people in the back in some sort of silly giddiness. That's not the point. But to be at peace in our soul, to rejoice.
But when the apostle wrote this to the Philippians, he repeats it because I think we're slow to take it in. So then again, I say rejoice. Well, what about this problem or what about this? What about this failure that I have or no?
What about that situation? Well, the Lord knows all about those situations.
N.
He expects us to do what's appropriate in those situations, but meanwhile, having cast our care upon the Lord, we have the privilege to rise up and to walk in peace, to know the peace of God and to be happy.
It says he rejoiced ever more. My brother Clyde Roberts often reminds us that in the original, that is a shorter verse than Jesus wept in John 11.
Rejoice evermore. It doesn't say rejoice intermittently.
But rejoice all the time. Now the classic example of one who suffered much in the Old Testament was poor Job. And notice how he passed through that trial in the first chapter in verse 21. He said, naked came out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away notice. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In verse 10 of the next chapter, he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaking.
All right, so we received good at the hand of God. And shall we not receive evil in all this? Did not Job sin with his lips?
Our present before our meals, we, we thank the Lord for the food and then we start complaining about the food. Oh, that shouldn't be that way. You know, we should thank the Lord and uh, the joy of the Lord should be evident in our behavior that we're happy in the Lord. Sometimes, you know, you can't rejoice in your brethren. Maybe perhaps you can't rejoice in your circumstances.
But we can always rejoice in the Lord. That's a great encouragement. The believer can always rejoice in the Lord and rejoice evermore.
313 to me.
It sounds very nice that they rejoice every morning. Yeah, we should be happy and let's put a smile on our face and let's be joyful.
But we can't mechanically crank it out. In fact, it was a time in David's life where he really desired the joy of his salvation. He wanted to have it he he had it in the past. He he desired to have it in his life, and he wanted it back.
And it wasn't coming. So an exhortation like that just would not make them joyful. It wouldn't put a smile on his face. Now we know what he said, what David, that he said, rejoice unto me, uh, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, the joy of my salvation. It was something he realized was gone. And umm, sometimes we, we can treat joy like a, like the kitchen faucet. We can turn it off pretty quick, but we just can't put it back on.
00:45:08
And, uh, when we get into a bad space.
In order in order for us to be joyful.
I suppose that is a question of communion, isn't it? When we're in communion, we're happy. And of course that is severed. We become unhappy and and so we look around for something to bring us pleasure.
And of course the state says when we return to the.
Jeremiah 15 and verse 16 is a was a favorite verse of Charles Hayhouse. He quoted it often. It says, Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.
For I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.
So spending time in the Word of God is a good way to find joy, to start rejoicing.
These three things think of a state of soul that he desires that we would continue on in.
Rejoicing.
Brand and thanks Thanksgiving, thankful heart of rejoicing heart and the heart that's dependent upon himself, as you say, it's, it's a desire for us isn't an on and off thing, But then it would be a continual state of soul just as repentance as well. And our life needs to be a continual state of soul, self judgment, a continual state of soul. And uh, it reminds me of the 12Th of Luke where we have that.
Well known exhortation, but rather seeking the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Sometimes we think all these things being more the physical things that, uh, raised concerns in our hearts, but I think it's more than that. The Lord speaks to them of being doubtful mind. And why take eats off And uh, the occupation was earthly tanked. He said, speak ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things, not only God meeting our needs in a temporal way, but a state of soul that's not restless.
That's not anxious, that's not doubting, but rather a state of soul like we find in these 3 verses. Rejoicing, thankful, dependent, prayerful.
He stated, brother, that we can't crank up joy.
And yet you know the Lord.
Prayed in John 15 that his joy would be filled in the disciples.
What joy is he referring to?
For in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, he's designated as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and yet with all known as a man of joy. His joy was to do the Father's will, wasn't it? He did that perfectly. And he wanted, he says, that joy can likewise be in you, as we do the Lord's will. Now joy is, I would think, more than more than peace. I think joy is.
Peace bubbling over. You know, you see in the Lord's people who walk with the Lord, they're just full of joy. Uh, my brother Hale used to say that faith and salvation go together.
And obedience and happiness go together. Not true that is, isn't it? Brethren, we can't lose our salvation. We can certainly lose our joy if we. And that's very easily done. We're out of communion. Allow things that are not pleasing to the Lord. The Lord was always in the enjoyment of the Father's love, and that brought that joy in His heart, even though the cross was before him. And he wished that that joy would be in His disciples as well.
00:50:25
For an Ephesians, it speaks about grieving, not the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed into the day of redemption.
The Spirit is holy and afar. Practical ways are inconsistent with that. The Spirit is grieved.
And He will occupy us with the inconsistency or the digression, the sin, in order for us to judge it and to be restored.
His desire that he would be LED in paths of righteousness for his namesake.
But here in our chapter it's Quench not the spirit, so this would be an include a wider sphere of things.
I would be grieving the spirit of my own conduct, but quenching the spirit might be anything which would come in to limit the Spirit of God wanting to use me in the way that He would like to.
Or it could be.
In some manner or other limiting the liberty of the Holy Spirit when we are together.
So that the Spirit might not be free to.
To edify and to exhort and to comfort the Saints or.
Whether by word or worship or anything else that the Holy Spirit would desire to manifest amongst His people.
And that could be a number of things. It could be our traditions that we so subtly, uh, uh.
Uh, slip into or.
Things of that nature. Or it could be.
Uh, pride, which would make me feel embarrassed or timid to speak a word that the Lord would have me speak.
There could be.
Anything like that. But whatever it would be, the expectation is plain simple. It comes right in through the front door. Quench not the spirit. Spirit is a wonderful, wonderful influence.
He is a divine person that has taken up his residence in our bodies. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. It's an amazing thing to to sit and realize as you sit here today that that's the reality for every believer.
And the Holy Spirit has taken up his habitation in the Church.
Consequent upon the Lord Jesus glorifying God here on Calvary's cross and ascending up to the Father's right hand. And the Holy Spirit brings the benefit and a blessing to all men by being here. That will not be the case forever. So none of us in our right mind want to in any way limit or quench the action of the Holy Spirit in this present day.
When God is desirous to insult Christ and to do his work to gather out of Jew and Gentile of people for his name.
That more people may be united in in exalting Christ.
Picture is very graphic, isn't it the word choice quench.
When I think of the word quench, I remember near where I live they have Upper Canada Village and it's in my 1850s town that's been restored and operates during the summer time as a tourist attraction. One of the places that I like in that town is the blacksmith shop. And I remember him making it a horseshoe and one of the things he did was he heated it until it was red hot in the coals and then he quenched it in a bucket of water and it's a very memorable thing. But when that horseshoe and red hot, when it came out, it was black.
It was cold. And so you think about that, that the Spirit that gives energy into our Christian lives. And if we quench the Spirit, think about taking all that heat that the Spirit would have generated and cooling it off. That's the picture that I have in mind, whether it's our participation in the assembly or.
00:55:01
Not expressing something that the Spirit wants, or speaking out of turn and preventing somebody else from expressing something that the Spirit wanted expressed, or even in our life.
What the Spirit would urge us to do if we would pour water on it, that would cool it off.
Despise my prophesying.
You are to receive a message.
As from God one is presented.
Into it says prove all things, brethren. It doesn't mean you mean to see if it's true or not, but it means to walk in the good of it for our own blessing.
Like in Malachi 3 where the Lord says prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts.
Bring all to stores into and ties into the storehouse, and see if I will not open to you the windows of heaven to pour you out a blessing, that you shall not be able to receive it. The Lord says, prove me, see if it's not true. And so here it says, Prove all things which you walk in the good of God's word, for our own blessing and for God's glory.
True, it is when the word of God is brought before us, we should.
Testify the scriptures.
That's what the, uh, Bereans did remember, even though the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 17 came to Berea was a message from the apostle. But they searched the scriptures to see if these things were true, that they wanted to see if it conformed with the word of God. And I believe we, we can do that too if we hear some doctrine. Is this what the word of God teaches or not?
You can see it, brother Reuben, that, that what you're saying in connection with Sabri and was in contrast to the festival. And I can those of it says there that the Bereans were more noble than those of Tesla like us. And so here we find the, the, uh, exhortation to prove all things. It was perhaps a weakness to him. And so they needed to be reminded of these things.
The Holy Spirit not only is the one who can truly and with liberty give out the truth, and that's what He desires to do.
Lord Jesus before he went up on high said, he shall take the things of mine and show them unto you. But in you and me the Holy Spirit is, is the one who enables us to properly take in the truth in the right way and and to embrace it with affection in our hearts. So the apostle John writes to the believers and says you have an unction from the Holy One and know all things. And so the Holy Spirit is you might say on both sides of the equation so.
There's to be not the quenching and allow the Holy Spirit to give out the truth. And then on my part, each of our parts, really, it's on the other side to be sure, it's the Spirit of God will indeed receive the word of God, uh, absent our will and take it in. And then the Spirit of God is the energy and the new life and the new man to try and, uh, desire and to try and walk in it, in the, in the proving of it.
It's especially in the character of prophecy here, not prophecy in the sort of future events.
The prophecy really is in the highest character of, of communication from God to man through a man, and that is that which brings my soul right into God's presence and into the light of his presence. And, you know, it reaches my conscience and there's a tendency to despise it.
And the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John, the woman at the well, she's listening to the Lord's words. And there were wonderful words of grace and they just were like water right off a duck's back. Finally the Lord stopped, completely changed his direction. And he says, don't call thy husband.
Oh, I have no husband. All that is well said. Thou hast no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he who thou now hast is nothing.
Oh Sir, I perceive the art of profit.
One, her soul was brought right into the presence of God.
01:00:03
And you know, like Adam in the garden, that things aren't right in our hearts. The word of the Lord comes. We're not too comfortable. As long as the word of the Lord didn't come, there he was with Eve. And they have those aprons of fig leaves and.
He could look at her and say, you know, you look pretty good. And she could look at him and say, you know, as long as you're willing to say I was pretty good, I'll say you look pretty good. And we can keep each other very happy and our conscience is fully covered. But the word of the Lord came and he says, I was naked and I did myself. He was brought into the presence of God. And you know, the 1St, the 1St.
Reaction of our soul is to if there's something there that the word of the Lord is searching out on us is to be uncomfortable.
But the psalmist said, search me.
Search me.
And you know, if we don't despise those prophesying, we'll come to find out they're the greatest source of blessing to us.
100 and 69169.
Lord, we can see.
Migraine.
So what I just wanted to do is I don't remember and when I have a little bit later for that.
Oh, one or two days and I don't know the last one, so I.
Uh-huh.
OK.
105.
Nearly in the morning.
Uh-huh.
01:05:13
Our God and Father, we just give thanks again for thus giving us this afternoon.
Let me know our minds.
Tend to not hold on to things.
We just asked if I was uh.
Help us to, uh, not only.
Hold on to this in our minds, but in our hearts and in our walk, we pray that, uh.
We would.
Use what thou has given us for the glory of the Lord Jesus.
We just ask this in the worthy name, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.