Address—Steve Stewart
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Well, I think we're pretty well all here, so they don't have to agonize for a couple more minutes. We'll go ahead and get started.
Let's sing 174.
174.
My voice drops and you can't hear me. Just please shout. It's my tendency. Like to start with First Corinthians Chapter 9 for verse.
Hoping to.
Look back at Old Testament scriptures this afternoon would like to start.
With this verse one Corinthians 9.
And verse 9.
For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen, or saith he it altogether? For our sakes, for our sakes, no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow and hope, and he that thresheth and hope should be partaker.
Of his hope, that little word altogether, saith he it altogether.
For our sakes.
The Old Testament Scriptures are full of principles, God's principles.
And what a benefit we get from them. When God wrote that in Deuteronomy 25, was it just that he cared for oxen? No doubt He does. But it was written all together entirely for our sakes.
Entirely for our sakes. So I'd like to look back at some principles from that same book in Deuteronomy that were written altogether for our sakes before we turn back one other scripture in Second Corinthians.
Two Corinthians in chapter 3.
Couple of verses there.
Speaking of those who were under that Old Testament economy of the law.
It says.
In the middle of verse thirteen of two Corinthians 3, the children of Israel could not steadfastly look.
To the end of that which is abolished, the law is in that order of things is that which is abolished. But they could not look to the end of that which is abolished, for their minds were blinded, for until this day remain at the same veil, and taken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away of Christ. Verse 17. Now the Lord is that Spirit.
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And where the Spirit of the Lord is.
There is liberty, but we all, as we all with open face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord Israel under the law. And those injunctions couldn't see anything more than the bare letter, But now we who are dwelt by the Spirit.
Under a whole new economy, that of the grace of God.
We have the liberty to look back into those same scriptures and see Christ.
And every page they didn't have that. And you know, the deeper believers are involved in the systems of men that really bring them back under an Old Testimony economy. The Old Testament is a closed book to them.
Let's turn back to Deuteronomy 22.
The Lord quoted.
More times from the Psalms and any other.
Portion of the.
Old Testament, but Deuteronomy was number 2.
And how he drew from this beautiful book.
A book that was given after the failure of Israel.
And presented to them as that the principles by which they would enter into the inheritance of God and enjoy it.
And so we're going to read some of those principles and seek to draw from them for ourselves, because God's principles don't change.
His principle was you weren't to muzzle the ox that treads out the corn. It's still true.
The same principle applied spiritually in the New Testament to those who labor and the service of Christ were to be cared for.
Verse One. Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide thyself from them. Thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it.
To him again, in like manner shalt thou do with his *** and so shalt thou do with his raiment, and with all lost thing of thy brothers which he hath lost and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise, that thou mayest, thou mayest not hide thyself. Thou shalt not see thy brother's *** or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them thou shalt.
Help him to lift them up.
Again.
In Exodus we read a similar.
Portion in Exodus 23. But there was an enemy. If they found an enemy's ox or *** they were.
Restore it to them and there it really is, the presents to us, the exercise of grace toward this world. That is certainly the enemies of Christ and the Christian were not to for bear the exercise of grace to them, but here it's a brother, here it's a brother, and it's love that would seek the care.
Of a brother and in the inheritance you know they were going to go into the inheritance and this is giving the principles.
Upon which they would enjoy that inheritance together. And if one had lost his property, his ox or sheep, and it was found, it was to be restored to that one who had lost it.
We have been given so much. We have been taught so well in the Scriptures over the years. So much has been recovered to us that we had lost.
Through the work of the Spirit of God, wonderful truths have been unfolded to us from this book.
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They weren't just recovered for the Saints who are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were recovered for the whole Church of God.
What was lost over the centuries, the Spirit of God has recovered it in a wonderful way, but it was for the whole Church of God.
And here you and I are in possession of these things just to keep them for ourselves.
No, they belong to our brother, to our sister. Some years ago, brother came into the office.
And he said, oh, I'm going down to Washington, DC. There's going to be a million man March Promise keepers are going to be down there. This goes back some years.
And it's going to be a wonderful time, and we're going to March on Washington and demand that the country be governed by Christian principles and whatever.
What do you say? You know, I said, Gary.
You know, I was just reading about Samson.
And how there, at the end of his life, he was. His hands were stretched out between those pillars and the House of the Philistine.
And he brought those pillars down.
And there was a greater victory in his death than there ever had been in his life. And I said, just reminds me of Christ.
How his hands are stretched out on that cross.
And the greatest victory he won was in his death.
Gary just looked at me, said never heard that.
The Old Testament's closed book to him.
I don't want anything to do with Promise Keepers, but I wanted to give him something back. He lost.
You're going to encounter your brothers and sisters in Christ. You have.
You have what they've lost and you have an opportunity.
To give it back to them.
You're not to withhold it.
You're to give it back as the Lord opens the opportunity.
And Christ is in every bit of these Old Testament scriptures. And what a privilege we've had to enjoy it.
But it's not just for us.
No, not all are going to be gathered to the Lord's name.
But you have the privilege to restore it to a brother. Well, maybe he's far away. You don't know him. How many believers there are, we don't know. Most of them we don't know.
But if one comes seeking, if the Spirit of God begins to work, and that brother, that sister's heart.
And they come seeking, do we have it by us? Is it with thee in verse two? Have we kept it? Have we kept that which he's committed to our trust to be able to restore it to our brother and our sister when the Spirit of God works in their hearts and they come seeking what they lost.
Needs to be with us. We need to keep it up.
You know, we need, you need to house that animal, you need to feed it, you'd need to take care of it if it was going to be able to be restored when that one came along.
And so we don't know hardly any of our dear brethren, just a few.
But the Spirit of God works at times, and one comes seeking. You know, years ago someone gave me a subscription to a magazine not recommending. I don't even know if it exists. It's called the Reincall. I don't know if it's any publication any longer.
And the burden of the brothers who put that out as a defensive dispensational truth and really speaking against ecumenical movement. But in the back. And what impressed me was readers wrote in and how often there would, and he put snippets of the letters in the back, how often they would say, oh.
I thought I was the only one.
In my church that saw that I felt so alone.
I thought I was the only one. I thought I was the odd person out, you know, like that. And it just struck me how many thirsty souls there are. We don't know who they are.
We don't know where they are, but we got thirsty brethren out there, and we've got that which should be with us to meet that need when they come. And they felt all alone in their desires, and what the exercise of their heart is by the Spirit of God.
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There's another way I'd like to take this up.
The ox, the sheep, the ***.
They present to us aspects of the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was like that ox, so steady, you know, He could say, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. That patient study.
Labor for gone as he went through this world, the sheep.
As a sheep before it shears is dumb, so he opened it, not his mouth. That patient character that endures affliction and persecution and suffering.
You know the *** it says of the Lord when he came into Jerusalem. Behold, thy King cometh meek, lowly.
Riding on the hole of an *** that meek and lowly character that he displayed through this world.
Can my brother lose?
Those characters in his life.
Yeah, yeah. And I think we've run into those who have once perhaps had those characters and have lost them.
But in Galatians we read, Ye who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Who is spiritual is someone that never had a fall, no.
It's someone who habitually is judging self.
And detecting when they see departure in their own heart from the Lord.
And as a consequence, they have discernment to detect that in their brethren. They've removed the Moat in their eye.
And they can see clearly.
To help their brother or remove the beam in their eye. See clearly to help the brother. Brother remove the Moat.
And realizing how their their nature of their own flesh and how easily they can be tempted.
They deal with things.
And their brother in a much more patient.
And gentle way.
And yet they didn't spare the flesh in themselves. They're unsparing when it comes to the flesh. That's a spiritual person that's able to restore one that's out of the way to restore to them that lost character. You know, the oxen speaks of the highest of the offerings, the ability of the Israelite to worship in its highest character.
Where no oxen are, the crib is clean.
But through the labor of the ox, there is much that's brought in. Proverbs 14. I'm not quoting it exactly.
It represents a brothers sisters ability to be a help and feed the Saints. I guess I'm thinking especially brothers.
I want to turn back to an incident.
That took place. I'm going to connect it with that in Genesis, you know the account.
Where Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land.
It was a bad move.
And she was defiled.
And her brothers contrived a plan for revenge.
Genesis 34, verse 25.
And it came to pass on the third day that they were sore. And the two sons of Jacob, Simeon, and Levi, Dinas, brethren, Dinah's brethren.
They were Jacob's sons, but they're called here at Dinah's brethren. These were the sons of Leah, and Dinah was the daughter of Leah. There was a family within a family.
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They had an identification between themselves as the sons and children of Leah, distinct from the rest of Jacob's children, and they were offended.
It was their family honor. Jacob's family, no, Leah's family.
That they were out to set straight.
That took each of them, each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.
And so on.
Jacob brings that before them. Ye have troubled me. Verse 30 made me to stink among the inhabitants of the land.
And so on verse 31 and they said should he deal with our sister as within harlot?
Our sister, the sons of Leah.
Family Honor.
Jacob didn't say anything.
But years later, he did Genesis 49.
Genesis 49.
Verse five. Simeon and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitation, or if you read the margin, their swords are weapons of violence.
O my soul, come not into their secret unto their assembly mine honor be not thou united. For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self will they dig down a wall. Marginal reference for dig down a wall they hold oxen.
They hold oxen. Do you know what it means to hold an ox?
It means to come in with a knife and cut the back of the leg just above the hoof where a tendon is, that controls the movement of the hoof, and to render that animal incapable of any kind of Labor, maybe even of walking it it without going through the hard work of trying to kill such a big animal, you destroy it.
You render it useless for what it is intended for.
They hold oxen.
Their swords were swords of violence, and we have in our hands the sword of the spirit.
We don't ever want to take it up and make it a sort of violence.
And in that way use it on a brother that renders him useless.
In his life of service, ability to feed the Saints.
It's so hard to restore that character to one that has it. It has been taken from him in that way.
What a wonderful thing to restore to a brother or a sister that which they've lost, whether it be the truth of God or whether it be the lovely characters of Christ that God would have displayed in the life of his own.
Raymond is mentioned in verse 3.
That which is outside that which is seen before the world. Again, I think it's the thought of Christian character.
That which the world has seen, oh, maybe someone has slipped away from the Lord and they've spoiled their testimony in this world.
Desire to bring them back into a way where that is.
What it should be again?
You know when.
Thing of the raiment when?
Native and Abayu sinned.
And they're trying to do something, you might say, in a in a religious way.
But it was, it was obnoxious to God. It wasn't according to his will, really, just following.
Perhaps what they might have seen in heathen world in Egypt, I don't know. Alcohol was involved.
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Fire went out from the Lord and slew those two young men. What was the word of the Lord through Moses to Aaron and his sons?
Uncover not your head and rend not your garment.
You know when difficulty comes in.
We can come into a place where it's in the home or in the assembly where we uncover our heads.
What is the covered head speak of? It speaks of dependence and subjection to the Lord.
We can uncover our heads and forget that we need to be subject to what this book has, to the directions the Lord has for us. And we can in the difficulty.
Could you think of a more difficult day for Aaron?
Lost both sons in one day.
We can, in the difficulty and heat of the moment, uncover our heads and get out of the place of subjection to the Lord.
And think we can handle it out of our own thoughts, fix things in the assembly out of our own thoughts, and it never works. And what's the next thing that happens? Frustration.
Anger and the garment is rent.
And what's under the garment? Just the flesh. The flesh is exposed, and it's ugly.
And our brother never forget the sight.
And you might sew the garment back up, with the scars always there. Any brethren might forgive you.
But they can't forget, because that's how we are. We can't.
Will to forget we can desire, and ask the Lord to help us leave it behind.
But you know you don't forget the site.
Oh, to restore a Christian character to one.
What a tremendous work when it's been lost, but I just bring that in from Leviticus as to just a caution to keep ourselves in times of difficulty and dependence upon the Lord and subjection to His word, not to uncover our heads.
That the flesh doesn't get exposed and the Christian character not rent in front of our brother and destroyed.
Verse 5.
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment. For all that do our abomination unto the Lord.
Thy God.
God has put the man and the woman each in their place according to His perfect will and His creation.
And each of them has a testimony to fulfill for him in this world.
And you cannot honor God more in your life than to fill the station in which he has put you, whether it is in creation, or whether it is in the body of Christ, or whether it's in individual service. You cannot honor Him more than to fill the station that He's put you in.
You know.
Hard to tell this one.
Years ago.
In Vestal, some of you knew Charles and row at little Lord took row it.
To be with himself.
As a young man and at the.
Funeral.
I think it was actually at the viewing and Charles went up to that casket at the end when folks are leaving.
And he put his hands on the edge of that casket.
And he said you were.
A helpmeet.
For me.
Thought about that a lot.
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He couldn't have given her higher honor.
She filled the place that God had given her.
He couldn't give her a hierarchy.
You can't honor God more than to fill the place that He has given you.
And yours?
As a woman, yours is a man, not the same. They are distinct in the purpose of God.
And so there is a place for sisters.
A place for brothers.
And the brothers to take the lead in the assembly. I'm not going to turn to all the scriptures that we might take up. The woman is to keep silence.
And the brethren are the ones responsible to take up difficulties when they come into the assembly.
It's not the place for the sisters.
And the sisters in their spiritual life, as we read in First Corinthians 11, and the brothers, if they are going to speak to God or speak on behalf of God, they need to acknowledge the place that God has given them in that creation by how they cover or uncover their heads.
You know those things, their spiritual characters, aren't they? Woman is to be adorned with a meek and a quiet spirit, but yet they're connected with physical things as to how we dress, even to the putting on of a hat or taking it off.
As is appropriate to each one in the place that God has assigned them.
And when each is in its place, then things in the home and in the assembly.
Function as the way they should.
Turn over, just for a moment.
Chapter 25.
Verse 11 When men strive together, one with another.
And the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smideth him.
And putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets. Then thou shalt cut off her hand. Then I shall not pity her.
I'd like to turn over and add a few more scriptures from Proverbs.
And 31St chapter.
Proverbs 31.
Verse 10 Who can find a virtuous woman? Her price is far above rubies.
Verse 13.
She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
Verse 16. She considereth a field and buyeth it. With the fruit of her hands she planted the vineyard.
Verse 19. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hands, her hand to the poor.
Yeah, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
What a beautiful place.
And service that a sister has.
You know it's in the home as well as in the assembly. Grandkids come running across the room after meeting.
And they push right by me and they know who feeds them. They know who comforts them and takes care of them. And if they line up for a hug with grandma and they happen to be standing in front of me waiting, then they'll say, oh, oh, and they give me a hug too. You know, They know. They know where that comfort and care comes from. The service of sisters.
In the assemblies just like that in the home and how needed it is.
But if his sister reaches in, even in defense of her husband, into assembly difficulties where she does not belong.
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She may lose that hand of service.
You know the of the Lord, they say to him in the coming day, what are these wounds in thy hand? Those who which I have wounded in the House of my friends, those were hands wounded in the service of love. And it's the service of love that a sister has, and she might get wounds in that service of love.
But all it's a whole different thing to reach in into a sphere that God has given to the brothers and try and set things right. Oh sister, you might lose those hands of service and I've seen it happen and the service that they might want to bring later is rejected.
And yet there might be a sister whose husband is a difficulty in the assembly.
And troublesome. And she stays clear of the assembly having to deal with that. She's still free even though her husband.
Has proven himself to be kind of an obnoxious person, if I could put it that way.
She's still free in the assembly.
Comfort to care, to encourage to, to have that service of life.
But she involves herself deeply in it.
Loser.
Well, why is it that we see so many women in the.
In the professing Christianity, stepping into places in the forefront, public places, public ministry, administration and so on. It's because the men haven't been men went to a young brother's house one time years ago. They weren't in the meeting. We were friends. Went to his house. I don't know how it came up. His mother was there and she started complaining loudly.
About how her husband wasn't filling the place that he should in the home, wasn't the spiritual leader and on and on. And I could see him in the living room. I thought, he can hear you.
And she is going on and on about how she had to step in and do this and do that and do the other thing.
Because he wasn't filling the place that he should. She was right, he wasn't.
What should she have done?
She shouldn't have filled his place.
The best way she could have encouraged him to fill the place that God had given him was for her not to do it.
And leave him with the Lord.
It was a disordered home.
Well, what does he say?
All that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God He characterizes.
Will men and women getting out of the place that God has given them.
And creation. And I really think the principle carries right through into the assembly as well.
If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the damn sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young, but thou shalt in any wise let the dam go and take the young to thee.
That it may be well with thee.
That thou mayest prolong thy days.
You know, I think.
Especially thinking of the sisters place and the service or love. It just flows right into this next portion.
When the returning remnant came back.
To God centered Jerusalem, we read that there was a governor.
And we read that there was a high priest.
And justice, Like any family, you need the father and the mother. And so the governor, you might say, represented the father.
And the priest, the Mother, the governor responsible for order when they return to Jerusalem, and the Father's responsible for order in his home.
For making sure things run the way they should.
But what about the priest's side of things? Let's look at.
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Scriptures in Hebrews.
Find the chapter.
Well, just looking at chapter 4.
Verse 15.
High Priest is touched with the feeling.
Of our infirmities.
Chapter 5. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men and things pertaining to God, that He may offer both gifts.
And sacrifices for sins. And here's the verse I'm thinking of. Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way? That's the priestly side of things. That's that mother side of things.
Both are needed in the assembly. Without the governor's side of things, there'd be just disorder and things would fall apart without that priestly side of things.
That side of things that speaks of intercession, of compassion, caring for those that are drifting out of the way.
There'd be no assembly.
Well, we need both. Both are and in their right place and they work together just like a mother and father in the home. They work together for the blessing of the home. And both of those characters need to be present in the assembly and they work for blessing in the assembly. But when we come to this.
Principle that we have brought before, starting in verse six of our chapter. It's really that priestly side of things, that Mother's side of things.
That aspect.
Of things that's brought before us.
I don't know if any of the children here have chickens. Anybody have chickens? Oh, some chickens, right?
You have eggs for breakfast.
Yeah, what if he had one chicken? Did you have egg for breakfast tomorrow?
Hopefully fit lays an egg right? You can have egg for breakfast tomorrow. What if you had chicken dinner that night?
Would you have an egg the next day? No.
No.
You have to let the chicken go if you're going to have egg the next day.
And that's really what he's saying here if you come across the bird's Nest and it's got little babies.
Or there's eggs there. You can't take the mother and the eggs.
What will you have left? If you take the mother and the eggs, you'll have an empty nest. That's all you'll have.
Anybody ever heard of empty nesters?
There's some here.
That means all their children are gone. They've moved up, grown up, moved away. You know, empty nesters. We don't want the assembly to be an empty nester.
And so we need that mother side of things in the assembly.
And so an Israelite, if he came across a mother bird and its little ones of the eggs, he could take the little ones.
He could take the eggs, but he had to leave the mother there.
Otherwise, there wouldn't soon wouldn't be any more birds in the land of Israel.
That mother bird speaks of fruitfulness.
And the potential?
For more broods.
And so they were to be careful not to take both the damn the mother bird and the young. Let's turn to 1St Thessalonians.
The Apostle Paul.
In his time with the Thessalonian believers was like a mother bird.
He had a love and a care for them and in that way he's an example for us.
He says in First Thessalonians chapter 2.
And verse 7 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. That's that mother Spirit. He was there just like a mother amongst them. He could say, you have not many fathers. He was.
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Father too, but he was a mother amongst those young believers there in Thessalonica. Oh, what a valuable character that is among the Saints of God.
What a valuable character you know in.
See, it would be in a little earlier in Philippians.
Paul speaks of another who had that character.
In Philippians chapter 2.
He talks about Timothy verse 19 but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send to both Thea shortly unto you. But I also may be of good comfort when I know your state, for I have no man like minded like minded like the apostle Paul who will naturally care for your state. I want to look at one more verse. I think it's beautiful to connect these.
In the End of Hebrews Hebrews 13.
Make you see this verse in a new light. It did.
Did for me.
Hand of Hebrews chapter.
13.
Verse 23 Know ye.
That our brother Timothy.
Is set at liberty.
Isn't it nice when that spirit.
Is free in the assembly. Our brother Timothy is set at liberty. No man like minded naturally care for your state.
Spoken of one who cared for them as a mother cherisheth her own children. There's a famous anthropologist and her name goes from my mind.
She was a godless woman.
Had no interest in men.
But in their anthropological studies, she kept running across one remarkable trait, and she said she just did not understand the lengths that parents would go through to protect their children.
So she said even though I don't care for men, I'm going to get married and have a child because I want to understand.
What it is?
That makes these parents be willing to even lay down their lives for their children.
That remarkable.
The care of a mother bird, what lengths that mother bird will go to to protect its young is remarkable.
You know, the count is given of, I think in a gospel tract of that might have been a pheasant. I can't remember what kind of bird it was. And I think there was a fire in the field and they found her.
All charred but under her wings.
For all those little chicks and the fire had swept through that field, and she had spread her wings and protected them. You know, Ruth Boaz said. You come under the shadow of the wings of the God of Israel.
And the Lord said to all Jerusalem, Jerusalem now that killeth the prophets, and stone us them that are sent unto thee. How often I would have gathered thy children, as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings.
This is the character of Christ.
We've seen them in the ox, the sheep, the *** and now the bird. We have the liberty to look back into these scriptures and see Christ in every place and pick up the principles of God that are unchanging.
And extend right to the day in which we live.
Well.
They were too, as it says in verse seven, Let.
The damn goal, Let the mother go and take the young to the.
When that spirit is free in the assembly, there's fruit, there's results, and they could take the eggs to themselves. The young, they got the benefit of that maternal care, of that mother bird's care. They got the benefit of it. And you know, the whole assembly gets the benefit of that motherly care when it's free in the assembly, the whole assembly.
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Gets the benefit, says.
Take the young to thee, that thou mayest prolong thy days.
Do we want to see the assembly days, if we can put it that way, prolonged?
That character needs to be free. All we need both the man and the woman. We need both each in their place. We need both the father character and the mother character. But these verses really take up that mother side of things, and the importance of the principle is expressed in that Thou mayest prolong thy days.
When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thy house, if any man fall from thence.
We're all building a house, you might say.
Maybe in two ways. You know, as we're growing and understanding the truth, we're building a House of doctrine, putting everything in its place. And we're building a structure, you might say a doctrine of understanding the Scripture.
And we may interact with others in connection with what we're learning and growing in and as we're building that house and so on.
But we need to be careful in how we express the truth to others, that we don't present it in a way that stumbles them at all.
You know, let me just give an example.
In.
Romans.
And chapter 6 I believe it is.
Romans, chapter 6.
Verse 22 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. I'm going to connect that with another verse. Let's look over it. Second Timothy, chapter one.
Second Timothy. Chapter One.
Verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.
According to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus.
Now let's turn a little over to Titus.
Titus.
And chapter 3, verse 7.
That being justified by His grace, which should be made heirs according to the hope.
Of eternal life.
In all of these scriptures we see that the Apostle Paul looks at eternal life at the end of the path.
Not as a present possession.
We've had eternal life this morning.
And taking it up as a present possession.
Both are true.
Old brother AC Brown illustrated it this way. He said out here in the East Coast, we put a geranium in a pot, put it in the window and it cheers us up through the winter time. We enjoy it very much, he said. I went out to the West Coast and I found geraniums out there, grew up the side of the house up to the second story window. What's the difference out there? It's in its native soil and climate.
The life that we have, eternal life, is a present possession, is the same life will have at the end of the pathway, but then it's going to be in its native climate and soil.
That beautiful eternal life is a present possession, but it's also something looked at the end of the path. Now I go to a young brother and I say Paul taught that we don't have eternal life, won't have it until we're in heaven.
I stopped there.
That's an edgy way of presenting the truth of God, and it's liable to stumble a soul.
But there are those who have presented the truth in kind of a challenging, edgy way, clever way that stumbles souls.
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It's not presenting all the truth.
And so we need to be careful as we're building this House of doctrine that we present the truths of God in a way that they establish souls.
And we built around the edge of that house up on the roof, a battlement that which protects somebody from going over the edge.
The same thing is true in our lives.
In those days the homes were built and the roofs were flat and in the evening and sometimes the steps were up the outside of the house and the family would be up on the roof in the evening and that's where they would enjoy their evening, that cool evening air. And that was, you might say, the living room of the house. The sleeping quarters were downstairs.
We need to live our lives in a way that doesn't stumble our brethren.
If they come in and see us living in our homes in a different way than what we talk in the assembly, they're going to go over the edge. We're going to stumble, our brethren. There's no battlement around the edge of the roof. It speaks of the living room, how we live in our homes.
Let's not stumble a brother or sister in the way that we live in our homes. May our homes be a place where it's a protective.
Atmosphere for the Saints of God and that in no way they go over the edge. Who goes over the edge?
You know, my son-in-law and daughters house, there's a set of stairs and what's across the top of that set of stairs is a little gate. Why? Because it's the little ones that go over the edge.
It is the little ones that get stumble here. It speaks of a man, but I just think especially how there needs to be that.
Life lived in the home that won't stumble, won't stumble a little one.
I've just got a few minutes left.
Verse 9 Thou shalt not so thy vineyard would diverse seize thus the fruit of thy seed, which thou hast sown in the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an *** together. Leviticus 19. We read that they weren't to sow their field with diverse seed.
The field might speak of a sphere service. The vineyard here, I think, speaks of personal joy, One's own vineyard.
The source of one's own joy.
If it's in service, we can't sow diverse seeds. You can't go out and preach the gospel and then turn around and and preach free will and the loss of eternal security and think that you're the the work, the labor in that field is not going to be forfeited. It will.
You can't preach contradicting principles. Preach one thing and then another thing that's destructive of the truth.
But there's something else in the field of service. She can't plow with an ox and an *** together.
You might find someone, brother, that has an interest in the gospel and, and let's go out and let's go to this this particular place and we'll, we'll preach the gospel or whatever. And you go together and someone gets saved and they say.
I think he'll come to my church.
Oh, wait a minute.
Doesn't the Scripture say that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? They're not going to get the truth there at that church. Oh no, I want them to come to my church.
All of a sudden, this one you're laboring with, you find you're working with different principles, you've got a different object in view.
You've got the desire to see that that newly saved one comes into the knowledge of the truth and the other wants to swell the ranks of the church that they attend.
It's going to be forfeited work. You're going to lose your work. You're going to lose your labor.
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You need what Paul called in Philippians, a true yoke fellow. We don't know who that was.
It's called in Philippians four True yoke fellow.
I don't know what kind of a brother he was, but to be in a yoke with Paul?
You you would have to be an ox, you know, but.
Beautiful, beautiful, true yoke fellow. Same object, same desire pulling together.
As to the vineyard.
You can't sow to the Spirit and so to the flesh and have any joy in your life.
You can't sew to the Spirit and then turn around and take up with fleshly things and think that you're really going to have joy in your life. It won't work.
You won't have a little joy and a little naughty. You'll have no joy.
The fruit of that vineyard would be not just defiled. Forfeited. Is the is the literal translation forfeited?