Open—B. Prost, D. Mearns
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98298 I faced away my brothers here we come to Canaan show and meet. There's 298.
So he's going in, my brother's here and come to King and stronger. We'll make anything forever there when our soul is over.
Hello.
The Headlands bring up a little bit of the Saints and hunt before.
One eternal day was getting and one, two steps in presentation with half of the Illuminati. As soon as soon as the beginning, we had the word and everything. And in the South side, I know it's going to run back and let's see. Go on and go, go, go, go, go.
Hallelujah.
Could we look for a few minutes once again at the 20th chapter of Acts?
20th chapter of Practice.
We referred to it last night in the Gospel.
At least the one verse.
But I'd like to look at two other entities that the Apostle Paul mentions.
In connection with his ministry.
Just to get the setting here with which most of us I'm sure are familiar, but here was the Apostle Paul going up to Jerusalem.
And many along the way, we're telling Paul, no, Paul, it's not the mind of the Lord that you do, that you will encounter only trouble and eventual imprisonment. Don't go.
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Well, Paul did go.
Probably it wasn't the mind of the Lord. He had been told to go to the Gentiles and he's going to Jerusalem did not result ultimately in any blessing to the Jews as he was hoping. But of course the Lord did use it for blessing in a number of different ways.
We're not going to speak about that this afternoon, but as Paul was going up there, he calls for the elders of the assembly and Ephesus.
An assembly where there had been a remarkable amount of blessing.
As far as we know, the Apostle Paul spent more time there than in any other single city during his ministry.
And there have been a good number of people saved and he had been able, it seems, to minister the truth there in a way.
That he had not been able to anywhere else.
Now I am not suggesting that Paul did not minister the same truth everywhere, but there seemed to be an appetite for it and a a grasp of that understanding of the precious truth of God in Ephesus more than perhaps in other places.
As a result, Paul has a special burden for them because, as we find out in reading what he says.
He fully expected that he would not see them again, nor is there any record that he ever did. Whether he did or not, we don't know, but there is no record of it. But in rehearsing his ministry, Paul mentions three things which I suggest have a voice for you and me today. The first one is what we talked about last night in verse 24.
Paul says there that none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
That's one thing.
So then we go to the next verse, and we find he says, And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
The gospel of the grace of God. The Kingdom of God.
And then verse 26 Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I.
That I suggest to you and to me have an order to them and a balance.
First of all, as to the order.
The Gospel of the Great God.
Oh, that's a lovely phrase. I don't know anywhere else in the New Testament where we get it quite expressed in the same way. The Gospel of the Christ of God. And that is the gospel that God is preaching today. We spoke a wee bit this afternoon and also in a previous reading meeting about the so-called Gospel of the Kingdom. That is what was preached by John the Baptist. That is what the Lord Jesus preached in his early ministry.
But then that was, if we could use the term, superseded by what we have here, the gospel of the grace of God.
Later on, when you and I are called home, once again, God will use His servants to preach the gospel of the Kingdom. But the gospel of the Kingdom is connected with this earth. It has earthly hopes, earthly blessings.
You and I, receiving the gospel of the grace of God, have heavenly hopes, heavenly blessings. This time in which God is dealing with man in grace is unique in man's dear and God's dealings with man. And the gospel of the grace of God means that God is reaching out to whosoever will and extending command in grace the undeserved favor of God.
A full and a free salvation through the finished work of Christ.
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Oh, I say to your heart and mind, that has to come first. That makes sense, doesn't it? How could anything else be directed to us from God until we first settled a sin question? And so that must come first. And let's remember that when we came to Christ, and I know that most, and I hope all here know the Lord as their Savior. We can't assume that when we came to Christ.
Isn't it true that we had to come right to the end of ourselves? We had to realize that we were nothing but lost, guilty sinners, and more than that, that we could do nothing to save ourselves, but that everything was dependent on Christ and His work on the cross?
We had to be brought right to the end of ourselves and realized that it was only that God's grace and mercy reaching out to us that could save us. Well, we have to remember that all through our Christian pathway because as we've said before, true Christianity makes everything of Christ and nothing of man, nothing of man. We tend to forget that even as Christians, don't we? And so here we have the gospel of the grace of God.
That's the order. That is what has to come first.
So then what do we have? Paul says. I have gone among you, preaching the Kingdom of God. What is the Kingdom of God?
It is not, in the sense in which Paul uses it, having to do with a Kingdom that is clearly visible in this world. As we said earlier, when the Lord Jesus began his ministry, he preached the gospel of the Kingdom, and had he been accepted as the rightful king, he no doubt would have gone ahead and set up that Kingdom. But God, knowing full well that man in the flesh could never accept his beloved Son.
Had already in the purposes in a pack, his purposes in a past eternity.
That precious truth that he was going to bring out when the Lord Jesus was rejected. The precious truth of the assembly. God had chosen you and me in Christ long before the foundation of the world.
I still love an illustration that Eric Smith and some here are old enough to remember him.
Brother who was a missionary in South America for many years and he loved to tell stories about how the believers down there accepted and enjoyed the truth of God. And he told how of once in a reading meeting, the question was thrown about, thrown out, What is election? What does the word mean? And this and that explanation was offered. And finally one man who was a chief among the Inca Indians apparently said.
He said, brethren, it means simply that before God ever dropped one stone into place in this world.
He was loving this poor Indian.
Beautiful. Isn't that beautiful?
God had in his purposes you and me to be brought to Christ.
So it's not talking about a visible Kingdom here. So what is the Kingdom of God?
The Kingdom of God is an expression in Scripture which brings before us a moral state that is in keeping with an ought to characterize those who recognize the rightful King.
We're in Canada right now. We can speak of Canada, and sometimes we mean the geographical part of the world that is normally thought of as Canada, but we can speak of Canadian things in Canada in terms of what characterizes the people here, the way they act, the kind of culture and so on.
Man by the name of Pierre Burton. Sad to say, he wasn't a believer, but he wrote a book once entitled Why We Act Like Canadians, and he pointed out certain things that characterize Canadians and he drew certain parallels, but also some differences between how Canadians act and how people in the United States act. Well, we won't go into that afternoon, but the point is.
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The Kingdom of God is not so much talking about a visible Kingdom.
But it is, it is the moral character of God's Kingdom, and you and I are in that Kingdom of God. If we are truly saved, the Lord Jesus could say when he was on this earth, the Kingdom of God is among you.
Meaning that he in his moral character that he exhibited, showed up with the Kingdom of God was.
That is very, very important, and the apostle Paul minister that very, very strenuously. You read it in the epistles. Romans 14 says the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. In First Corinthians, I think it's chapter 6.
It gives a long list of serious sins, and it says that those who practice such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. We get similar thoughts in the book of Ephesians, similar thoughts in Colossians and in other places too. Why was the apostle so careful to present that?
Because Christianity is not simply How shall we say it?
A fire escape from hell. It is that, but it's much more than that. God did not save you. And merely that we might enjoy the fact that no longer are we bound for a lost eternity, but that when we get through this life, we are going to spend eternity with Christ. He wants to see in you and me the character of Christ exemplified. Isn't that beautiful?
And that's why it talks about the Kingdom of God here. And Paul preached that, preached it very strenuously.
And finally.
He says, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
As we said a moment ago, you and I live in a very, very wonderful time because during this time of God's grace, all the purposes of God, from a past eternity to a coming eternity have been fully revealed. That's the way it tells us in the first chapter of Colossians. Paul says that he was given. Well, we might turn to it just to read the verse.
Colossians, Chapter One.
And he says in verse 25.
Whereof referring to the church.
Whereof I have made a minister.
According to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you.
To fulfill.
Or complete the word of God.
To fulfill or complete the word of God, You'll pardon me, but I need loud water.
To fulfill or complete the Word of God, there is no new revelation since the apostle Paul.
Now it's true that the details have been filled in.
John's revelation that we have been reading from wasn't written by Paul, and it was written after Paul had long since been with the Lord. But it doesn't give us any new truth in that sense. It merely fills in details of what Paul had already given. All the purposes of God are given to us in Paul's ministry. Isn't that wonderful? Could you and I have chosen a better time in the world's history in which to be born, in which to have this gospel of the grace of God presented to us?
In which to have.
The Kingdom of God preached to us, but on top of that, to have all the counsel of God, oh, I can't think of anything that is, shall I say, more wonderful than that, to know that God has not only taken us into favor in Christ, but he says, I want to tell you everything that I am going to do all my purposes in my beloved Son.
You're associated with him in it, and so I want to tell you everything that is going to happen.
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And we're all part of it so that he wants us to know and understand that. That's why it says in Ephesians chapter one that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Rather, Harry Hayhoe used to say, that's the jewel box of the whole Bible. And it's true that you and I are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heaven placed in Christ.
And then we begin to get them enumerated in that first and 2nd chapter of Ephesians.
There's an order here, as we said.
You cannot talk about the things of the Kingdom of God until you have a new life that is able to do it.
The Lord Jesus, when he was here in this world, preached what is often called the Sermon on the Mount, and that's perhaps most explicit in Matthew 5-6 and seven. But if any were to listen to that preaching.
And really, take it to heart, he or she would have had to say.
Oh, I can't carry that out. I can't live that out. I couldn't even keep the law, and this goes much further than the law. If I'm going to carry this out, I need a new light. I need someone to change me from the inside out.
Because.
I can't do it.
We first of all need a new life in Christ before we can have the things concerning the Kingdom of God preached to us.
But then we have all the counsel of God.
And if we are properly going to understand all the counsel of God, is it right that our lives must be in proper order? I don't say that you and I couldn't learn in an intellectual way all the counsel of God. I don't say that we couldn't have a certain amount of head knowledge about things that God is purposing in Christ. And we could, as it were, read those things and keep them in our heads.
But we won't have them in a way that give us the real enjoyment in our souls.
I can well remember and some will recognize from where this is coming, but many many years ago there was a young man who wrote to a much older brother than himself some hard questions he had from the word of God. The older brother was well equipped to answer them, but after about the 3rd letter the older brother in replying said allow me to make an observation. He said I suggest.
That you.
Have been studying your Bible a little too much and not reading it enough?
Strange way of expressing things, isn't it? What did he mean?
Uh, we know what he meant. He meant that that dear young brother was approaching the word of God with a view to getting head knowledge and, uh, uh, going at the scriptures as one would go at a textbook in high school or university or something.
And of course, he was finding that, as we do find in the Word of God, that very quickly the truth of God is beyond our understanding.
We can enjoy it, but only so much as we walk in communion with the Lord.
Many, many years ago, long before my time, there was a brother who talked about studying the Bible and I believe he had the right idea. But an older brother said the Scripture doesn't use the term to study the Bible.
No, we're not going to make a man an offender for a word. And if somebody talks about a Bible study, we're not gonna catch them up and say, hey, don't use that word. But the point is we need to look at the word of God as that which is morally speaking to our souls, seeking not merely to give us head knowledge, but to.
Give us the enjoyment in our hearts of all that God is communicating to us and to have it form our thoughts.
Our words, our actions, our everything in our lives down here.
So there is that order, and if I am not diligent in the things of the Kingdom of God, if I am allowing in my life those things which are not in keeping with one who professes the name of Christ, I am not going to be able to enjoy and understand all the counsel of God.
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So that brings us to the next comment. There is a proper balance in all of these things, which I would like to talk about a bit.
Sometimes we see a dear believer.
And he has. And maybe she has.
To a real heart for the gospel of the grace of God.
Oh, how wonderful, how wonderful that is.
But.
If we get so occupied with the gospel that we can't see anything to do with the Kingdom of God or all the counsel of God, is that the right way to be? I can remember a dear brother in Christ, not gather to the Lord's name, but I knew him well, and in conversation with him one time he was older than I, probably old enough to have been my father.
He said, And these are exactly his words. I don't concern myself with all these things about doctrine, he said. There are souls on their way to hell and I want to get the gospel out to them, and that's what's important to me.
Is that a good way to look at things?
I don't think so.
Turn to First Timothy.
For a verse, very important verse.
Chapter 2.
And we'll start at the end of verse three, First Timothy 2 and the end of verse 3.
God our Savior, or perhaps it could read our Savior God, which is God's character in this day of His grace, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. God doesn't say that one is more important than the other, although again we say there's an order. You can't come to a knowledge of the truth before you're saved. But God doesn't say that being saved is more important than coming to a knowledge of the truth.
Now back to Acts 20.
It's wonderful to emphasize the gospel, the grace of God.
But let's not neglect the things of the Kingdom of God.
There have been some dear believers.
We'll emphasize the gospel of the grace of God.
And yet who said to say, neglected the things of the Kingdom of God? And as a result they allowed that in their lives, which spoiled their testimony and eventually closed their mouths in preaching the gospel. Very, very sad.
There have been those, on the other hand, who have been so taken up with all the counsel of God that they have relegated the gospel of the grace of God, as it were, to the back burner and said that, well, it's not that important today. Our real mission today is to hold the truth and to walk in that. And let's really get emphasizing that because, well, if we don't do that, who will?
Is that the right attitude? 1000 times no.
If you and I, as we had in our address to Philadelphia, don't walk in that character, God will have those who will. And if I may be allowed to say this?
You and I know that over the last few years there has tended to be a giving up of the precious truth that God has revealed to us in His Word in these favored lands. But what has God done? He has begun to raise up those in other countries where, at least as far as we know previously, there was not that same knowledge of the truth. But God has exercised souls who have a hunger for it and who want to get hold of it, and who are willing to go to whatever lengths it takes in order to happen.
Yes, God does hold us responsible, but never, never 1000 times, never does He call upon you and me to neglect the gospel of the grace of God. And if we see the story of the beloved Apostle Paul who spoke these words, I suppose we could say none was more strenuous and more faithful in preaching the gospel than he. But equally, none was more faithful.
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In holding and preaching and insisting on the precious truth of God in every possible way.
God calls on you and me to do the same.
Now again, we don't wanna be misunderstood. There is such a thing as we know as gift. And if God gives someone the gift of an evangelist, then they may not in that same way have the same gift of giving out the truth.
Brother Al Larson, who has been with the Lord many years, came from Des Moines, IA. Someone pitched a question at him in a reading meeting at a conference, and his reaction was, don't ask me, I'm a gospel preacher.
Did you have a care and a love for all accounts of God? Yes. But he recognized that there were others there whose gift was more in ministry and teaching, and he deferred to their ability in their knowledge in that realm. But did he have a love for all the counsel of God? I know full well he did. And so now we have the Kingdom of God. And there are those today who would lay great emphasis on the Kingdom of God. Praise God for that.
Oh, we can be so thankful for that. Who are very careful in their personal lives not to do one thing. Well, who can say we don't do one thing, but not to do anything that would in any way bring a reproach on their testimony for the name of Christ. How careful we need to be about that.
And you and dear brother, many years ago, he's now with the Lord and.
He was a professional, he was running his own business and as sometimes happens, he had suppliers of equipment and things that he was using in his business and it still happens today. The people who supplied those things wanted to give him what is conventionally called a kickback. I think everyone knows what that means, where they would give him something as a reward for their business.
And as you talked to one of those representatives one time, the man said, well, we're gonna give you this. He said it's very, very good and we're thankful for your business. He said it'll be a nice thing. Well, this believer whom I knew well said yes. He said, what's left, He said after the Canadian Revenue Service gets its share.
All the representatives said, well, you don't, you don't have to declare this as income. It's not, it's not going on our books in any way that.
The government would ever catch up with it. You don't have to put this down as income.
Pretty tempting, isn't it? Sometimes.
Government wastes a lot of money, why should we hand over our hard earned money for them to waste some more? Hope No one from the civil service is sitting here to hear that. But anyway.
The point is, there's waste. We know it.
Anyway, the point is this brother, without cracking a smile, he said, well Sir, he said, I like to do my books as if the Lord were looking over my shoulder, and he declared that his income, he's a good testimony.
Later on, when that same representative representing that company who had suggested that he not declare was very ill on his deathbed, he sent a message to that brother in Christ. I want you to come and see. I want you to come and see me. And he was able to lead him to Christ on his deathbed. Why? Because he knew that here was a man.
Who was faithful to the Lord in the little things of life, where He would, on the human side never have gotten cut?
Things concerning the Kingdom of God, how careful we need to be bred in the world today is throwing these things out the window. Cheat wherever you can, do all kinds of unrighteousness. And if we're not careful, I speak to my own heart. We can get caught up in it. Well, I want to leave time for someone else.
All the counsel of God.
So important to have that.
God has revealed it to us, and as we had in the address of Philadelphia back about 180 years ago, give or take, God raised up those who were led of God to bring back the precious truth of the assembly that had been lost for centuries. I don't say that none enjoyed it. I'm sure God had those who in an individual way enjoyed that precious truth. I can tell you a couple of stories relative to that, but.
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We won't for the sake of the time, but they're beautiful stories about those who appreciated in a wonderful way some of the things that we enjoy.
But they were few and far between, and only as individuals.
But collectively, God brought out that precious truth of the assembly.
All the counsel of God.
But I say again, we need to keep all this in balance. Let's not get so occupied with all the counsel of God that we forget about the things concerning the Kingdom of God. Oh, what good is our testimony if I know everything about God's purposes and yet don't walk out of it?
This is a true story that took place probably 35 or 40 years ago now, but I heard him say it. Our brother, our late brother Eric Smith, again referring to him, was at a Bible conference, fairly large, hundreds of people there in a large US city, and I can't even remember where it was, but he was outside walking around just during the lunch hour or during the supper hour, getting a bit of exercise.
And he was an older man at the time, and he overheard two people speaking who were not attending the conference but who were there looking around. And he caught what they were saying, although he wasn't eavesdropping, he just happened to be walking by. But one of them said to the other, what is going on here? And who are these people anyway?
And it might not have been a very fair comment, but it was made just the same, the other man said. He said they're Christians. No one is, brethren.
And they have the truth, but they don't walk in it I.
Was it a fair comment? Perhaps not. Was it an excuse? It might have been because sometimes those who do not want this, the truth of God will use the bad walk of those who have it as an excuse for not walking in at themselves. God's not going to accept that excuse from them in a coming day.
Every one of us should give an account of himself to God, and I won't be able to point the finger at someone else and say, because he was unfaithful and he didn't walk to please the Lord, and because there was dissension and difficulty and coldness and unfaithfulness among those that profess to know the truth. That's why I didn't walk in it myself. Oh, the Lord's not going to allow me, as it were, to get off the hook that way. No, I'm responsible for what He has revealed to me. But at the same time, what a reproach if that is the case.
All the council of the government, well, I say this.
Because I believe we need more than ever today to keep these things in proper balance in our lives. On the one hand, not to neglect any one of them. On the other hand, not to emphasize one that the expense of the other. All you say, but I don't have the gift of preaching the gospel. I don't have the same gift of approaching people. Some of us don't, and I'm one of them. I find it very awkward to approach people with the gospel. Some have a much greater gift than that.
But.
Timothy was told to do the work of an evangelist.
That means you do the best you can with the circumstances in which God has placed you and the same with other things. We're to keep them in proper balance. But remember the order, the gospel of the grace of God, the things concerning the Kingdom of God, and then all the council of God.
Bill, they think that in a very orderly way.
I didn't bring a comb.
Just like to make a few practical remarks.
A little part of the Council of God.
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There's umm, there's a few younger couples here with younger children.
And I would like to.
I'm not qualified to take out what I'm going to, but I would like to have taken this up in my local assembly. So Marcus heard this.
So I'd like to make a few practical remarks.
With regards to our in laws.
So some of us here are umm, mother in laws.
Some are sister in laws.
Summer daughter in laws.
Some are all three.
So our father in laws.
Some or something love?
Our book.
From her brother in laws too.
It affects most of us here because.
Most of us here have a brother-in-law or sister-in-law, or if we're younger, we may soon have on the horizon.
Now it's been my observation.
That there have been marriage difficulties.
Amongst believers.
And some of the time.
Some of the difficulty.
Can be traced to a bad relationship with in laws.
So. So what's my responsibility to my sister-in-law?
What's my responsibility towards my brother-in-law?
What's my responsibility towards my mother-in-law?
Whom I love and have a good relationship with by the grace of God, not because of me.
Uh, this is a different flavor of things that we don't normally take up in the word, but what does the word say about these things?
I think they're important. Umm.
Because they're not talked about.
Uh, I was at, umm, one of my customers a short while ago, umm, my own in-laws, they were passing through and I just made the comment that, uh, my in laws were, uh, coming to stay with me for a short while. And he was quiet for a minute and he says, oh, I suppose there won't be any mother-in-law jokes for a couple of weeks.
And I knew what he meant. And that's a sad thing that there's a stigma matched sometimes to, uh, relationship with a mother-in-law.
So, So what? What do we find in the word?
Let's turn to Genesis.
Genesis chapter 27.
I'm sorry, Genesis chapter 26.
Sometimes, you know, we're content.
To have a relationship with any one of our in laws.
And it might be less than good.
And we, umm, say, well, it's the way it is and we'll just carry on. We'll make the best of it. And it's a bad thing, but we just won't go there and not try to do anything about it. So here in in Genesis chapter 26, we read this verse 34.
Esau was 40 years old when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Biri the Hittite, and Vashemath, the daughter of Elon Hittite, which were a grief of mind.
Unto Isaac and to Rebecca, you know, it's in my observation to view, umm, some older couples and as they, uh, have a relationship with their children, some of whom are married and they have a relationship with their daughters in laws and uh, sons in laws. And it's this.
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There's a grease of mind.
Uh, uh, you know, it's a subject.
It's a sad thing to have to umm, you know, and you go through your life and uh, as I say, I'm not qualified. I don't have, I don't have uh, sons and laws. I don't have daughter in laws. I expect that the Lord be with us here. There's some on the horizon. Umm, but it just seems a sad thing when you have a couple like this.
Who have spent all those years bringing up these boys and one of them gets married and you have a grief of mind.
Day after day after day with the daughter in laws.
Now let's go over each other.
Chapter 27.
And we have here, umm, a scenario where.
We're umm.
So time has gone since the end of the 26th chapter.
And there's this time when.
When Jacob has sought to steal the blessing from his brother.
And we read in the.
In verse 46.
And I expect some 35, almost 40 years has transpired between the first statements and this statement. And Rebecca said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Hess. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these which are the daughters of Lamb, what good shall my life do unto me? You know I have. It's been my observation to see, dear sisters.
Who have a relationship with their daughter-in-law.
That is such that they could say, just like Rebecca, I'm just weary of life because of this relationship.
Isn't that a sad thing?
Is that what the Lord would have for us?
In our relationships with each other.
Whether it's spine, you know, I've I've spoken unadvisedly with with my lips to my sister-in-law.
And, umm.
You know there's a manner into which.
I'm to conduct myself with my sister in laws.
And it's, it's with respect and I haven't always done so. And it's been cause of, of sorrow to me just because of the things I've said. Maybe just in teasing or maybe just flippantly I said something and I heard them and it's less than good.
How, how and and you know, with an in law relationship, umm, it's a family relationship. It's a close relationship and sometimes the hurt can go deeper than other relationships and here.
That's sad. Here's here's the lady that she's brought up her children. Now she's got a boy that's married, He's been married for some years and and and it's just her whole life is she's just weary of life, a part of it. She says she's weary of life because of her relationship with her daughter-in-law.
You know some of the difficulty.
I believe in umm.
In a relationship between a daughter-in-law and a mother-in-law, a daughter-in-law father-in-law, or vice versa.
A son-in-law and a mother-in-law or son-in-law and a father-in-law?
It's perhaps not having.
Good understanding.
Between the difference.
Of a daughter and a son.
They're different.
I'm sure, Stan, you can tell me that there's a difference between your voice and your girls.
They're different.
Our responsibility within this different.
Thankfully, mine are not here. Not even the sun came with me. I hugged my voice.
00:50:04
Uh, differently than I do my girls.
I do it on a continual basis with my growth.
Because.
I could speak to any of the women here in this in this room and they'll tell you they're affected by touch as opposed.
Uh, the male gender in this room is not as affected by touch as those who are female. And so I embraced my girls, umm, when they were young, umm, you know, I, I called them just like I called the boys, but it was, as they got older, I did it more. Why? Because the time will come where if they don't have that physical relationship with their dad, they're going to look for it somewhere else.
And sometimes there isn't that, that, uh, that concept.
Uh, in an in law relationship.
And when it's lacking?
There can be, there can be difficulties. Let me just substantiate that by looking at an incident in David's life.
We turn to umm.
We're not gonna do well here with client, but that's alright. We'll just make a few more comments.
Because there's a number of I would, I would, I would encourage you to look in the word at the various different in law relationships that there are because they're so instructive. But let's look at David Slice in Second Samuel.
Second Samuel, chapter 12.
This has to do with Nathan's parable to David, after David's sin with Bathsheba. Now David, he embarked on this, this parable that he gives to David and he's going somewhere with it. He's got a direction that he's going and he's trying to bring something out of David. He's trying to prove a point. So he says this second Samuel 12 The Lord sent Nathan unto David and came unto him and said unto him.
There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks in herds, but the poor man had nothing saved one little Ulam which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children. It did eat of his own meat and drink of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as the Spirit of God now does not take a random word.
It says wasn't they him as a daughter?
So here he perhaps wouldn't have used the same warning if he was speaking about a son.
But Nathan is trying to push a button here with David.
That will get a reaction and what's the result? Let me just get you this little and it's, it's cobbled, uh, and it's oozing as not a sun, it's as a daughter.
And David is just livid. He's just livid. You know, if you go over Chapter 2 when Amnon.
Goes into files David's daughter.
He is just enraged.
It's very similar wording to what we have here.
Sometimes, uh, umm.
We, we could develop this difference between sons and daughters in umm further, but we won't. I would encourage you to look at it. Umm, let let's turn, let's turn to Umm Mark's gospel.
I'll, I'll just look at that. Two other examples before we close here. One is in Mark's Gospel.
Umm.
Mark's Gospel chapter one.
We have here umm.
A situation with umm, uh.
Simon Peter and he has a wife and he also has.
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A mother-in-law and we read here in Mark's Gospel chapter one, verse 30.
But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever.
And then on they tell him of her.
You know, that's often what presides in.
Relationships, you have a fever that presides between a daughter-in-law and a, and a mother-in-law or a son-in-law and a mother-in-law and it's just a, it's just like, uh, some people say it's, uh, it's just a bad mix.
It's like a fever.
The temperature rises whenever these two are together.
And in this situation, the only thing that fixes it is the hand of the Lord.
And often that's the case, often people go for years and there's this bad relationship with their in laws and it just never seems to be fixed. It's only the Lord that can come in in a special way, as he does here in the 31St. And he came and he took her by the hand and lifted her up and immediately the fever left her. And that's often the only way a bad situation leaves is by the hand of the Lord coming in a special way, a recognition perhaps on the on the part.
Of whoever that there's a bad situation here and just crying before that he come in with his hand and remove the situation. Well, our, our time is gone. So let's let's go to the book of Ruth for a moment and we'll just look at this in contrast to what we had in Genesis.
The Book of Ruth.
Umm. Just to read umm.
A first year in connection with Coed.
In verse eight we read, then set borons onto the roof here stone on my daughter going out to glean in another field rather go from hints. But if I hear fast by my maiden, and let thine eyes be on the field that they do reef and go thou after them. Have not I charged the young men that they shall not touch thee?
And we're now at our thirst. Go to the vessels and drink of that which the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I'm a stranger? I just noticed this next verse.
And Boaz answered and said unto her.
It has fully been showed me all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thy husband, how thou hast left thy father and thy mother the land of thy nativity, and are come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust. You know it's it's it's interesting.
That the foremost feature.
That was in mind as he looked at Ruth.
Was the way she had conducted herself.
With regards to her mother now.
Isn't that beautiful?
Isn't that beautiful?
The relationship that Ruth had with her mother-in-law.
Was such that it's so impressive.
It, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. We don't often see it. There's often a friction there. And it's not just the mother-in-law and daughter, daughter-in-law relationship. It's it's often brother-in-law and they're just, they're just miles apart. Some of these relationships, they, they take, they take some work. Let's turn to.
To.
Peters, Epistle assisting closing just for a verse.
First Peter, chapter 4.
Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm. My brother Ted's not here. He's hearing this with me a number of years ago. And I pondered it. It wasn't in relation to this subject, but I, I, I looked at this in relation to this subject first. Peter, chapter 4 and verse 8.
And above all things.
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Have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins above all things.
No, we we had before us yesterday, walking circumspectly.
Just use a little example. We have a brother in our assembly.
And umm, it's still beer, coffee. He is a garden, and he really appreciates his garden.
I mean, get squirrels that are running in and out of the garden. He doesn't like them. So he takes boards and he hammers nails right close to each other through the forks and he places these boards in his garden.
And they're all through the garden. And I was there working one day and I was, uh, we were having our lunch on the, uh, on the deck and I was watching a cat walked through the garden. So there's all these spikes sticking up through and the cat is placing it, It's very carefully in between these, these nails that are, they're sticking up that is walking circumspectly. That's what that means.
And you know, just in connection with the relationships that the Lord has put us into, it's so easy for us.
Take a good relationship and just by a flippant word, turn it into a bad relationship.
And, you know, we just can't turn it back on.
It just doesn't happen that way. Sometimes it's a long haul to get the confidence back, but here we find.
Peter, he writes above all things.
Have fervent love.
Among yourselves. Well, may the Lord bless these few thoughts and I would encourage each of our hearts to, umm, consider this subject and look at the various ones that we find in the Word that are in laws. It's so instructive in my own heart and would be such a help in my own relationships with those that I find myself.
#17.
May the grace of Brighton fall down over your first.
Her eyebrows.