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It saved him 180.
Arkansas Grammar.
Here's our home.
And I swallowed grill and trip life.
And tell me overnight.
We shall pray to my God.
Without any color in mind.
And his powerful.
Home.
10-4.
Please. Oh yeah, stronger made yourself.
1St Thessalonians 5, verse 9.
Suggest is for us to read First Thessalonians chapter 5 beginning at verse 9.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do. And 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 sake.
00:05:11
And be at peace among yourself.
Now we exalt you, brethren. Warn them that 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 in everything. Give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesizing. 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 be preserved, blameless unto 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 all. Amen.
It's a wonderful thing that.
God, the Creator of all things, sustainer of all things that he's created.
As satisfied his own or is satisfying his own heart of love?
By having creatures to love that He can bless and bring into an eternal relationship with Himself. And so we sit in this room. I speak to us as believers, as those who are part of the family of God.
God purposed us for blessing before He ever created anything in His own heart. He didn't bring us into existence with the purpose of wrath.
But rather, His purpose for us was one of eternal blessing and joy with Himself in His own presence and having so.
Purpose.
He never does anything halfway, and so He will finish that which is purposes began where necessary. He had to send His Son to take our place and endure the wrath that we justly deserved, so that He wouldn't have to bring us under that wrath of His righteous holiness. But having done so, as He says, and it's an encouragement should be to our hearts.
We tend to worry about tomorrow and the next day, but if we can get a little bigger view of tomorrow and the next day, we would say, well, I have nothing to worry about. It's all ultimately in the hands of a God who has loved me from a past eternity and will, as it were, we've had before with not rest until He has accomplished that which His own heart has said about to do with respect to us.
And so, as he says in the verse, we started with not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by through our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:10:09
Let's say mighty power of his purposes is evident in verse 10 as well, because it says who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, referring to the condition of the body, whether we're watching and waiting with our body alive or asleep in Jesus, we shall live together with him. So the physical death of the body.
Is absolutely no obstacle whatever to that, uh, living together with him. It's a wonderful thing, his power in carrying out his purposes.
Is completely unhindered by the most powerful force known to man, death that's completely conquered at the cross and through his death.
Sometimes when we look at a book or a chapter, even though we're short, there are different thoughts in the chapter and it's nice to look at the division in the chapter to help us understand. So here the 1St 11 verses of this chapter that we have just sort of taken up between last meeting and this meeting because 11 Cha, 11 verses speaks of the day of the Lord. And then we'll find the subject we start to change.
From the, uh, twelve verse on for the following 10 verses, we'll see that he's speaking now of exaltation to encourage us and how we ought to walk, how we ought to walk, uh, talk, uh, with each other. And then toward the end of the chapter, the last five verses are So from verse 23 on, we see the character change again. There is as if it was he put in a little conclusion that his farewell as if it were. So we, we began our meeting with.
The Lord's coming and as a reminder there were two portions and many have pointed out and then he he talked about how we are to be taken out of the scene rapture out caught up is the word they used in the King James there and then he speaks about the day of the Lord. Now not to confuse that with the Lord's day yesterday we referred to that day is the Lord's day. The day of the Lord is very different. That's when he come.
And he's gonna execute judgment. He actually will come back into this world, physically come back. Uh, perhaps, uh, if you don't mind, I just wanna go back very briefly to the book of Zechariah.
I believe it's important to understand that the Lord come the rapture of the when we are caught up. He didn't come. He said it was in the air, it was in the clouds were caught up in the clouds. He did not touch.
Is Fee in the 14th chapter of Zechariah again reading the book of Joel two that they talked about that day, but he was quite specific in Zachariah chapter 14, it reminds us it says behold the day of the Lord. It tells us clearly that the day of the Lord cometh and I'm just so for time's sake, I'm going to go down to verse 4 is that and his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives.
So it tells us He will physically come into this world. He stands on that mount called Mount of Olives, that we lead up often in Scripture, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst of towards the east and toward the West, and there shall be a great valley in half. The mountain shall be moved removed towards the north.
And half of it toward the South. And they see this many dramatic changes in there.
This is the Lord, the day of the Lord that he come, and we will read more of it if you were to go into it and see how judgment will be executed, how the date would turn dark and so on. So we are warned, not warned, but we are comforted that we will not be part of that scene. And as a reminder, because Christians don't get it all mixed up. So we have to be clear in our own mind and as you read through these chapters on your own.
Just be very careful and noticing those words we so we read we which are alive and remain That's us as we deem one and then when they talk about came as a thief, it says they they that are not it will see him as a thief in the night as a judge that face that the Lord the day of the Lord, we will be caught up. We will be looking down from above with him because after we're caught up, we can truly say forever with the Lord.
00:15:16
Of olives when we read of our Lord leading this world.
In Acts chapter one, according to verse 12 of that chapter, they had been at the Mount of Olives. And so it's very logical that, uh, uh, in verse six, when they therefore were come together, they were at, they asked of him saying, Lord will file at this time, restore again the Kingdom to Israel. Uh, I hope this is not conjecture, speculation, but possibly they're saying, Lord, here we're at the Mount of Olives, you have.
Dyed, risen again, you're the Messiah. Hey, isn't it time for the Kingdom? But then what a surprise he left them. Just a total surprise. He left them because there is now an interruption. Not an interruption, but a parenthesis in God's program with Israel that that is for the MO for the moment being, umm, laid aside. Not broken, not canceled, but laid aside to bring in the church, the body of Christ. And so it's so important to realize this is the program we're part of.
Not Israel's program, we're not a replacement of Israel. We're not Israel made over reformed redone. We're something totally new as we read in Paul's writing, a new body where there's neither Jew nor Gentile. We're a heavenly people too, not an earthly. And, uh, we read of the apostles that, uh, one was gone. They had to replace him and they were looking for somebody who knew this Lord on the earth. But then there was a need for an apostle for this dispensation. And with Paul, who as far as we know did not know him in this world, who knew him from heaven.
And that's where we are a heavenly people. Our gaze has to be on heaven. That's where our life, our righteousness, our hope is we're here in this world as strangers, pilgrims and ambassadors. If we don't realize that, we'll get into this thing of, of thinking we're Israelites and we've got a, uh, reform the world, civilized the world, Christianize the world. They tried that before and it was called the dark ages. So we don't want to be doing that all over again. We've got, we've got to stay on God's program.
So as we come to the end of this opening section with, uh, chapter 5 in verse umm 11 with the division or just given of the chapter, it says wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also you do at the end of the prior chapter ended with Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Wanna make this application of the way those two sections, the section that dealt with the rapture ended and the section that ends with the.
Uh, about the appearing end and that is the truth that they were going to be caught up together with those that were had already fallen asleep in Jesus was something new to them. It was a word from the of the Lord in verse 15 of chapter 4 that had been given to them. So it was fresh understanding and so there to take it and apply it. Comfort one another with these words here in the section we've just completed in verse 11, it says comfort yourself together and that if I want another.
Even as also you do. So the apostle is encouraging them and really he's saying keep on, continue on and what you already knew, and I'm giving you some practical application of it, but continue on with it and what you've taken up that's new, take it and apply it in your life. And so for each one of us here, perhaps there are things at this conference and after things in our regular daily life that the Lord brings before us as we're reading his word.
And it's something we already know. The exhortation is to edify one another, even as also you do. Continue, keep on. And then there are things that are fresh to our souls. Perhaps there's something that we newly come into and understand, and the encouragement there is to take it and practically apply it as well. So continue on with what's known and take and apply what's new.
And before he gets into the.
Exhortations that are given in the last verses.
He says in verse 11.
Edify one another even as also you do like to make this general comment about all of them. Almost every single one of these exhortations have to do with you caring for someone else outside of you.
00:20:13
Why is that? We tend to think and we read so often or man would say what's in it for me?
Oh, what? What comfort, what help, what encouragement is there that I I am going to receive?
But these exhortations are based on this basis.
God has given me the life of Christ. Did he spend his day saying what's in it for me? What am I going to get out of today?
Uh, who's going to encourage me today?
Did he appreciate encouragement from others? The last day of his life, The last night of his life, he said, Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations to his disciples. Yes, he was sensitive and yes, he appreciated.
The fact that they had been with him, but it did not characterize his life, his daily life, rather the divine life, which is love, was always occupied with the good and well-being of others.
And this, these exhortations are based on living out the life given and the encouragement to live it out rather than to go on as had previously been the character of life.
Man essentially is selfishly occupied. That is man Adam and his race.
Which as we had yesterday, we've left living that life and that being part of that race to being part of the family of God. And the very nature of the family that we've been brought into is the life of Christ, which is a giving, loving for others life rather than oh, I need some help, I need some comfort. Nobody cares about me type of life that is characteristic of.
This world, and so he says, as he does here in the very first comment, edify one another.
That is, think about your brother 1St and be occupied with his need. In turn, the Lord will use it to your own encouragement and help. But the basis of these things are thinking about your brethren. And so John, who brings it out in a little different way, he says we know that we have passed from death.
Unto life, because we love the brethren.
Because we love the brethren. That is a direct statement of evidence of the nature that's been given to us. You can't have new life without loving your brethren.
You have the life you love, your brethren, because it's the very nature of your life. And so live it out in a practical way as being encouraged upon these Saints and Thessalonica, even though perhaps doctrinally they didn't even know it yet. But Paul knew they had the life, and so he encourages to live it, perhaps even before they had learned the doctrinal side of it.
It's interesting now to see he's going to exalt us on how we ought to walk and to behave. He begins by using the word. We beseech you, brethren, the new translation. Use a stronger word, He says. I beg you, brethren. But what does he want us to be? See, John? Well, the first thing here is to notice those who labor among us. What a contrast if you go to the end of the book of Romans.
You'll find that it was very different. It says mark them who caused divisions among you or the new translation that says consider. Well, we have to think about these things, don't we you in in the enrollments tell us to consider those who caused problems and divisions. But here now in a different note, we have to consider our those who labor among you now in in the.
00:25:24
King James there.
He says NRNR over you in the Lord I, I have difficulty with that until I was able to look in the new translation, which I believe express it in a much better way than you said. Those that take the lead among you. I like that. So we find sometimes, perhaps even in a small conference like this, you'll find that perhaps we all have different personalities. Some would rather sit back and enjoy.
Some would participate, some would participate more, and of course some would take the lead. And then of course in our lives too, some would take the lead in many ways to labor among the things or labor for God. So we find here that God noticed those who labor for himself, and further down that it tells us and reminded us to give them that higher portion of honors.
Versus 1213 and 14 go together in a beautifully balanced way that begins as we've just heard about the ones that were to recognize that take a lead among not ruling over and it says and admonish you.
The flesh doesn't like to be admonished and the flesh gets excited when it receives an admonishment. And so in the next verse it says and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. It may be that when we're admonished, it's not done in a fully Christ like way. Maybe that the message is an important message for our soul, but there's something of the written sandpaper of the flash mixed in with it and.
So it might be a little abrasive. And so what's encouragement in the next verse is and esteem them very highly in love for their work sake. Recognize that the work that's being carried out is a necessary one. It's a job that the Lord has given them to do and recognize it even if it's not carried out perfectly. And then the additional, if you will guard against saying, well, they said that to me and they were yelling and filling their arms and.
I don't need to listen to that.
It says at the end of the verse and be at peace among yourselves. We're encouraged in that we read a little.
Volume with our morning family reading and uh, happened to re read a section this morning at at breakfast because it was extra good. I thought it was a brother and the Lord who was teaching and uh, he received a very nasty letter apparently and it was delivered anonymously to his door and umm, he read it. He waited before the Lord and the next time he got up to.
Praise, She said. I received this letter and this brother who obviously knows me very well, recognizes and he went on in very careful language to basically state everything that they said in their letter is what I'm completely capable of and so on in my flesh. And I would love to talk to the brother and, and went on with it, but it was very clear from what they said that they hadn't been guilty of any of the individual things that they've been accused of.
The point was that they received this letter as coming in this case, not directly an application of this verse. They didn't even know who it had come from and the contents of it were untrue, but they received it in a proper fumble spirit and it really more fruit in their life. Well, here there's something that may be said more closely to the Spirit of Christ, but with a little of the flesh and so it's recognized and then just quickly on verse 14. It says now we exhort you brethren, warn them that are unruly.
Now it's addressing not those that take the lead that are doing admonishing, but all of us. And so it may be that we would rather leave that work of admonishing to somebody else. We take verse 12 and say, ah, yeah, not a not a very enjoyable work. That person can do it. They take the lead. That's that's not my role. No, verse 14 doesn't let us escape out the back door on that one. It says exhort, warn, and then at the end of the verse, be patient toward all.
00:30:22
There's the implication that it may not go that well, and then in fact it may not take effect immediately.
And so for all of us, there's the privileges guided by the Lord to carry out this task and not just wash our hands of it, because those that take the lead have that role only.
Say this there are practical lessons for us either way so if we were the one who received that that letter, how do we how would we react or respond to it It's much easier to say well that brother did the right thing or did the wrong thing What if it's you? What if it's you? What if it's me? Because we have to know that nothing happened by chance, even if.
Let's assume the letter was written in anger or our malice or whatever the case may be. When we receive that, we still have to receive that as it is from the Lord, don't we? There are lessons in there for us that the Lord is speaking to us on, whether it's by a good hand that deliver it or a bad end. But then on the other hand, as we have been reminded that, uh, we have to speak to those that are unruly. Well.
Would I be the one just as sharp as the other brother who wrote that letter or is there a better way to approach that? Because often I find that we among ourselves that we are all very well learned in many ways from scripture and we are very quick at pointing out another person's mistake. But is now it is right because especially in location like this, we're told that two or three speak especially in open meeting and.
What are the rest to do the other to judge? And that's according to the word of God. But then how do we approach a brother if something is sort of slightly out of line? Let me exaggerate. Maybe he mispronounced a word. Maybe he misused a word. Or often we find someone say the wrong chapter and the wrong book, even though we know what they meant. Well, OK, perhaps that's an exaggeration. Do we jump and say you said the wrong thing?
So we have to look at it from both sides of it and say we are responsible both ways before the Lord, aren't we? Like can we say and the way that the Lord would have us to do.
Umm, whether the Lord some time ago to do a little word study on that word unruly to kind of fine tune what it means. And according to vines, umm, lexicon, it is really a military term for soldiers walking out of step or being insubordinate to orders. And, uh, it reminded me of a saying that I had previously appreciated by Mr. Kelly. He had once said something to the effect that the Church of God is compared in scriptures to a family.
Not to an army marching in lockstep. Well, then I realized Mr. Kelly wasn't totally, 100% correct. Because there is a place for submitting to one another and walking in unison and in harmony. So yes, love is the important thing. Being brethren, being in harmony is all important. But it's also important to submit to one another, not to create unnecessary dissension. There are brothers here and there who sometimes, uh, like to get a little unruly and they say, oh, we don't want to put the leaders on a pedestal.
That's wrong to put leading men on a pedestal. But if I'm the kind of person that argues over every little thing and finds fault with everything the Assembly does, aren't I putting myself in my own opinion on the pedestal? And isn't that every bit is wrong and it's fleshly? So there is that point, yes, that we're brethren, we love one another, we're a family, we're not an army. But there's also a point here where we have to submit and to walk together, even at times when we don't totally agree 100% with what the Assembly might be doing.
Let me bring out the thought here regarding, umm, those that labor among you and are over you and the Lord. And I just, umm, think of the, the need for there to be admonishment, umm, and the need to be able to receive admonishment. And I've just, uh, I, I, I, I just think of how, umm.
00:35:09
Admi admonishment is received. Umm.
Uh uh, so uh umm, so much easier when it comes from 1:00 to.
Uh, deals with uh, the responsibility of oversight and leadership in the spirit of a father, uh, rather than umm, one who just feels the responsibility for the Lord to do the work. Umm, I the, the, the tone of a father is always going to be umm, with, with love, umm, and care and concern for.
The one that is meeting the instruction is meeting the guidance.
UMM is needing the support and the health and umm there is a a a UMM.
With the Father, umm, there is, there is a sense of, of, of great concern for the blessing of that individual and umm, so I, I just.
Bring out that thought that, uh, we need to know, as it were, our children in state. Uh, I, I've been in circumstances where I've, I've seen a need in one of the Lord's, uh, children and I felt the need to go and address it, but I really didn't understand where the individual was and what they were going through. I was, I was, I was just really kind of dealing with the.
The the, the outward.
Things that were wrong and I didn't really understand the cause, underlying cause and what that individual is going through. And as a father, I had to listen.
To why this child of God was going through the difficulty they were and maybe why they weren't attending the meetings that I felt like they they were, they were missing and it would be for their blessing. And and so they're, they're there needed to be a, a listening and a a coming to understand them. And I think that that's that's helpful too. That that that, that we deal with.
Umm these children umm in the in the spirit of the product.
When the Lord Jesus was here.
He did these things for His disciples. He manifested His own heart of love toward them.
And when the end of his life was coming to its close and he recognized he would no longer be here to fulfill the needs of those who companion with him, his disciples.
He made provision.
For their that need which they each one had when he would be absent from them. And so we have the teaching of John's Gospel chapter 13, in which he washes the disciples fate and then in turn teaches them to wash one another's feet. And that's the character of what we have here, that every one of us.
In contacts, the defilement of a dirty world and uh, our feet need washing as in the picture in John 13. And so he's, he begs them to build each other up.
And it's very easy, it's already been before us to be rather selective about it. Umm, and yet I'd just like to notice, for us to notice, it's not all the admonish or the disorderly side that's given in verse 14. The needs extend, it says comfort the faint hearted, sustain the weak, be patient towards all. And so whatever that need might be, there is a need for in each one of us.
And the Lord has so chosen that our brother.
Help us.
We need help and sometimes we're the last ones to see our own need and, uh, recognize the need and yet another may see it. And may the Lord help us to. I'm going to put it this way.
00:40:04
Love our brother enough.
To admonish if needed.
To comfort, not just take one side of it or the other, but to, as it says here, sustain the weak.
May we love our brothers and sisters enough to fulfill these things. We need it too, and our brother and sister would give it to us. It's not, uh, I'll just make a little, I hope, helpful remark with respect to the what's shown here, you might say is among those who are alike.
Particularly except he says no those which.
Uh, the Lord has given to besides yourselves, if you will, uh, among you, the Lord is given, the Lord has raised up some to particular service and but the important thing in that is always recognize the source from which something comes.
If I only see my brother, I may very often stop short of seeing the source. In this case it's the Lord that is the true source that has given that brother that responsibility. They may carry it out well or poorly but were helped if we can recognize it's the Lord that is behind it. And further one other comment as well about the father.
A little difference, particularly in connection with the father, is in the father's child relationship.
There's an express and known authority and so the child has to submit as under authority to someone.
The disciples, when they washed one another's feet, were not being put into the position of authority, and so to carry it out properly they had to get down on their knees.
And they had to do it in a very humble really.
The job of washing feet was, naturally speaking in that day, given to servants, not given the Lord's, not given the masters, and in a certain way not given the fathers either. But it was given to the servant, and to help one another. The heart has to get into the servant character of the relationship to carry it out in the right way.
There's another aspect that's not here either, but it sometimes gets connected with it in our thoughts, and that is the work of the what Scripture calls the pastor.
The gift, it's a gift, it's a specific gift. And, uh, it is one that has characteristics like these. And sometimes the Lord raises up a pastor who is able to, if you will, in one way go beyond what's given here because, uh, as I've mentioned many times, but it's helped me immensely to understand it. Brother Darby, I'll use modern words, but this thought was.
The gift of the pastor is rare. The pastor is like a doctor. He has to be able to diagnose. But that's only half of it. Sometimes we can see difficulties in another. We can diagnose, if you will. We have no idea.
What to do to help? But he said the pastor not only can diagnose, but the pastor is like the doctor, he knows the correct medicine that is needed.
For what is diagnosed, and may the Lord raise up those who can do that. But even if we don't have that gift, what's given to us here is for all of us, and it's in the character of John 13. If you love one another, and that's the character of the life that's expressed here, then you will work to help one another.
If you see somebody physically fall down as they're walking to the.
Meal table This today I would say without a second thought you would go and help them get back up. Well, we need that same character toward one another.
00:45:14
The, uh, loving each other enough.
To admonish. Not sure what you're exactly right, but that was the idea I remember very very clearly as.
A young person, umm, feeling like.
There wasn't, Uh.
At least some of my.
My group of peers there wasn't that, at least amongst ourselves and I remember very specifically.
At times.
Doing things that I knew I should be admonished for with the thought. Let's see if anyone has the nerve or cares enough to say something about it. I acknowledge that I was in Brock, but I was also conscious that I was testing to see if anyone cared enough.
Spiritual fortitude, whatever to say something about it, and I remember very clearly.
3 instances.
Where someone did One was an older brother that I respected. Another one was one of my closest friends. Another one was a a younger young person that I knew hooked up but cared enough. All three of them.
When we were alone.
I refer to a specific circumstance where I had belittled someone or taken part in something that shouldn't have said. You need to go back. You need to apologize. You need to.
Do such and such and it's meant so much.
That they cared enough to do that.
Almost at the end of the chapter, with a few minutes left, we can probably sum it up quickly. There's a number of things to encourage us. We need not to look at all the problems and difficulties. All the time as we walk, we're reminded here, uh, to rejoice. Well, rejoicing is not only when there's happy situation. We can rejoice even under circumstances, can we? And how often do we rejoice? Evermore so.
In summary, that tells us rejoice evermore. Oh, here's another thing that we ought to do and we often forget is to pray. We only pray when there is major situation happen to our lives. Well, what about to give thanks? What about there are many part of prayers that perhaps someone could get into, uh, to talk to us about, but we're told to pray without ceasing not just one prayer, not just two, but a continual.
Prayers, will they be Thanksgiving, supplication or asking for help before God and then it reminds us in everything. Give thanks that means good or bad or otherwise, and talk to quench the Spirit despise not prophesizing. I know this is going too quickly. I'm looking at our clock here with approve all things all fast, all things well. How do you approve all things well? You have to know it first to prove it. How do you hold fast to something that you don't know?
We're told to hold that fast. What that thou hast? Well, what do you have that you have to hold fast? There are many truths from the Word of God and many assembly truth. And the Word of God tells us that we have to buy the truth, then we will sell it not. And then the last but not least is to abstain not just from evil, but even from the appearance of evil.
One little thought. I don't think I'm too far off here, if I am at all. I think that verse 21 is almost a counterbalance to verse 20, despite not prophesying. But does that mean that in open meetings and Bible readings, a brother has the right to just say what he wants? And, well, it's an open meeting to say no. In other words, uh, now it is the assembly's place to prove all things and hold fast that which is good. As we read in First Corinthians 14, let the prophet speak one by one, but let the assembly judge. And so there's a point to tell a brother that, hey, it's not correct. It's not.
00:50:27
A, a, uh, open forum to say whatever it's, it's, it's the, the body itself that each of us is a part of, to be edified and not for any one brother to be going against the whole body. And so, uh, subjection to the Lord and to one another.
I think the new translation helps to understand that verse. I'm going to read the 19th and 20th in the new translation. Quench not the spirit that is. Do not hinder.
My failure to follow the leading of the Spirit.
Umm, we can do that not.
I remember comment about a brother in the Chicago at now Addison Assembly. He said there was a long, long, long, long pause when it was time to break the bread and one wise older brother turned around and looked straight at another brother.
Uh, the other brother was convicted. He had quenched the Spirit. The Lord really wanted him to get up and break the bread, and he hadn't. That's quenching the Spirit. The Spirit's leading and not doing it. And it should be of the Spirit. Let the prophet speak two or three and let the rest judge the next one. It helps, I think, to see the new translation. It says do not lightly esteem prophecies. That is, there can be a tendency with us to not take seriously.
What God has used a servant to give to us. And if the Lord is given something to a brother, even a prophecy, there's a potential in us not to recognize the importance of it, but to lightly esteem it and give it less than it it really means.
I'd I'd like to make is our time is almost up. Umm comment particularly as A to me, a wonderful ending in some ways.
And that's on verse 23. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly. To give what that I believe verse means to us, go to Philippians chapter 4.
Philippians, Chapter 4.
Get the same we have rejoice always in verse 4 Philippians 4 where he's talking to another set of believers, but he's giving some of the same exhortation. He says in verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice so on, but the verse I want to comment on.
Is first starting in verse six. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We have trial, we have temptation, we have trouble, we have need. We have an encouragement here.
If we take it to the Lord in prayer.
With Thanksgiving that He has allowed it and brought it into our lives.
Then we can receive from the Lord as a result of doing that, a piece from God that passes our own understanding as to how God worked in us to bring that peace in the circumstances in which we were. And so it's given to us as an exhortation and encouragement to do it.
That our hearts and minds, because as we had yesterday, our hearts are attacked and so are our minds, can be kept through Christ Jesus. But then notice the next two verses and we'll get to the our chapter of the God of peace.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, and so on verse 9, those things which you have both heard, learned and received and heard and seen in May, and the keyword is due.
00:55:10
It's not taking a request to the Lord in prayer here. It's not asking for something with Thanksgiving to so that the peace of God can come into our souls and those that need, but it's something that if we do it.
Then it says the God of peace shall be with you. And that's the same sense in which our chapter is giving it. In every place in the New Testament where you have the God of peace mentioned, it's in that same character.
And that is, if we carry out the things that we've just been considering to gather this morning that are given to us, if they are actively a part of our everyday life, then we will enjoy our God, a God of peace.
Walking with us in those things, if we don't, we won't have that enjoyment.
But if we do, if we, as in Philippians, the things that are pure and just and honest and so on, we do, then the God of peace will, as it were, give the sense and of our own hearts and souls. We're walking through this together. And it's a God of peace that is the one that presently in as we walk through to the end of the journey.
Walks with us in these things.
209 Just the 1St 3 verses of 209.
Verses 1-2 and three offer 200 and 9th. Our times are in the end.
Order everywhere.
Somewhere.
All right, our souls are all living.
Our eyes are in my hands.
OK, right. I love.
You doing?
Our eyes are in my hands.
Why the language of our hands?
And thou, honey.
Last year.