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General Meetings Wheaton, August 1976. First reading Meeting.
Of our hearts where?
Allah.
Let's pray.
Life will bring us all.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
That brotherly love continue.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.
Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them, and then with several adversity.
As being yourselves also in the body.
Marriage is honorable and all, and to bed undefiled, but ************ and adulterers God will judge.
Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he has said.
I will never leave thee, nor for safety.
We may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Remember them which have a rule over you, who has spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ the same, yesterday and today and forever.
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that their heart be established with grace, not with me which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
We have an order where, if they have no right to eat, we serve the Tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts with it, brought into the sanctuary by the High Priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, and suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach.
For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.
But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Obey them and have the rule over you, and submit yourselves for their watch, for your souls, as they that must give account.
But they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.
Favor us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly.
But I beseech you there rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Now the God of peace had brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do as well, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
And I beseech your brethren suffer the word of excitation, For I have written a letter unto you, and few words.
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Know ye that our brother Timothy have said at liberty, with whom have become shortly I will see you.
Salute all them that have the rule over you and all the Saints they have Italy. Salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen.
Known as we were commenting about Grace.
And also the comment was made by a brother in connection with the fact that God is holy.
And the thought came before 1 brethren that we have both brought before us in this chapter. We.
That there is a moral order that becomes the Saints of God.
We find that the hardest established with grace.
And we also find, as our brother mentioned in his prayer at the beginning of this meeting, that the Lord Jesus is set before us in a very special way. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever, and the one who becomes the object that attracts our hearts outside the camps.
That a chapter that.
That's before us almost every phase of light for Christians.
Both as to temporal things and also as to his.
Place in the body of Christ so so that isn't the subject, but yet he has.
Ways and connection with the Assembly of God and then the Lord. Care is a great shepherd.
But that chapter was so much instruction, so needful, so important to begin with, let brotherly love continue as though there was a danger in seeking to go on and to walk in the truth to forget.
This important word from the Spirit of God.
Let brotherly love continue, and as you were saying, brother.
About holiness, that it's never at the cost of holiness, but it's never to be disregarded even in our in the effort to maintain what is holy and right in the sight of God.
Only this is especially connected to the grace of God.
The legal aspect of things.
Always turns 1 inward as he judges others.
But where grace is at work, then holiness is free to act.
I was thinking of a passage in the Old Testament.
In the second Kings 5.
We're so apartment to put a.
The commandment upon someone.
Whereas if Grace were active, it would bring holiness. Now in this passage we find Naaman. The Syrian was healed and, he asked makes a request.
In the 17th verse of the 5th chapter, second Kings and Naaman said, Shall there not? Then I pray thee, be given to thy servant 2 Mules, burden of earth. For thy servant will henceforth offer neither offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.
In this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant, that when my master goes into the House of Raymond to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the House of Raymond. When I bow down myself in the House of Bremen, the Lord pardon my servant in this thing. And he said unto him, go in peace.
There was number commandment here for him to not go into the House of Raymond. He didn't say, Oh no, you can't do into the House of Rimmen the false God. But he says go in peace.
But we never hear of name and again.
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We suppose that Naaman.
Acted on this expression, this word given him for his conscience to go in peace, Because when the armies come forth in a later chapter, a name, and being captain of the host, he's missing, and it could be very well that the word went home to his conscience and produced that holiness.
Which led him away from the House of Remnant. And of course that brought persecution, if it were so.
So it's a good thing for the heart to be established in grace, it says in our chapter. I was thinking too in this chapter how we have the exhortations based upon the Spirit of God removing.
All ordinances.
All outward manifestations of approach to God that were set up in Israel, and rightly so at one time.
And the heart is directed, and the eye is directed to Christ alone.
And so these expectations are based on this, that the believer now is following a path that only grace can lead him in. He has nothing visible to rest upon. He has only a person before him, and that's Christ.
Christ is the one now that is the object in Hebrews.
And the only means of approach to God. And so these expectations.
Are based on this now brotherly love is there because we have a new nature.
But we can.
Hinder it by our actions.
And so the expectation is let brotherly love continue.
Do we get the same thought with perhaps the same control? In first Peter chapter one see that he loved one another with a pure heart, fervently.
That is, it should be natural to us to love the people of God, and if there is any hindrance to the display of that love, we should feel it very, very much. We should long to be able to show fervent love toward all the Lord's people.
And if with a pure heart, at times it has to be restrained, we should really feel.
This very much and long to be able to show love to all our brethren. See that he loved one another with a pure heart fervently.
John, we get four things there that are very important concerning this matter.
We have.
First of all, the keeping of his word. Verse 5. The keeping of his word.
And then in verse 6 to walk even as he walked.
And then in verse nine we get the question of love to.
Our brother love he that loveth his brother.
It says abideth in the life.
And there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
These then of course we have in verse 15.
Another aspect which would prove whether we are walking in communion or not. Present love, not the world.
Not this created world, but this diabolical spirit that perverts, perverts everything in it.
But here is the question of loving our brethren.
Surely we can love everyone who belongs to Christ.
But brethren, we have still to learn one little thing and that we can't walk with them all.
We are failing in this.
We just cannot work with all of God's dear people if they walk not according to the truth.
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This is important.
And this is where holiness comes in. Not holier than thou, ideally at all, but holiness really is the exclusion of everything from our life and testimony that would be contrary to God's mind and to God's nature, contrary to the book.
Don't you think, President, that herein we are liable to fail?
To exclude everything country to the world.
Contrary to this blessed truth.
This is what we are called in what is called in the Scriptures, perfectly holiness in the fear of God.
Excluding everything.
From my life and testimony, that would be country to God's mind and to God's nature. For God is life.
Very important, isn't it, Brother Smith? There is none occasion of stumbling, That is one walking in the light, in the fear of the Lord and with the true desire for his brother, and seeking only.
What is right and what would restore or what would be for his goods and blessings?
In that.
Walk of the believer. There's none occasion of stumbling him, and that's something we have to guard against that even in our desire to help our brother, that there might be a spirit, perhaps carefully realized, that might be a stumbling.
To one of God's dear children.
Previous chapter the end of the 12Th chapter in the 28th verse, where it says, whereby we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. One has construction meditating on this to think that perhaps could we say it, perhaps we have been writing it. We might very well have said let us have zeal.
Let us have zeal whereby we may serve God acceptably with reference and godly fear. But the word of God says grace. Grace is needed. Grace is the only way in which any service can be acceptable before God if it isn't in the spirit of grace. Realizing, brethren, that we ourselves are the recipients of grace, that we've already been given forgiven, been forgiven, the 10,000 talents, the great debt that was owed. And so it says.
Grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. And then it has struck one, and noticing how that it's under those very circumstances when perhaps we might feel that we are seeking to act for God, and seeking to be faithful, and perhaps acknowledging God's grace in it.
That we may feel well, love has to stop. We have to act for God. So love has to stop. But it's not so in the word of God. It's at the very time when he speaks of serving God with reverence and godly fear, and God being a consuming fire, that he makes mention of the need for brotherly love to abide. And so even in circumstances where faithfulness is needed, where there is the the requirement, the need to act for God.
With reverence and with godly fear, grace must be connected with it, and brotherly love must still abide, no matter what is required.
Love still must be active and seen there if it's going to be acceptable before God. I I wonder sometimes if perhaps if there isn't the the warning here about Peter. You know how Peter drew his sword and perhaps there was the zeal.
But there wasn't the grace, and perhaps there was the activity, but there wasn't the brotherly love, continuing as it were, and the reminder. And it has struck ones own soul to notice that the very ear that Peter cut off, whose ear was it? Why, it was the servant of the high priest And brethren, whenever we act or do anything for evening, acting for God's glory, we want to be ever conscious that those that we are having to do with.
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Are the servants of the High Priest.
Fire. What's up for a believer is that it consumes everything that pertains to the flesh or the old nature. And though he may be very zealous for the Lord, and yet if it's self will is in any way involved in it and our desire to have our own way and do not acknowledge the feelings of our brother.
There is something there that God isn't pleased with, and our God is a consuming fire. It hasn't to do here, I don't think, especially with the unbeliever where all that is.
A fallen man is going to come under the eternal judgment of a righteous God, but here for the believer.
The holiness of God consumes everything of the old nature, so we're to be on our guard and not allow anything that would.
Give way to the desires of the flesh, or so easy even then, seeking to help another, Maybe even to get a little.
Raise our voice and say things in their way that only offend. Remember Brother Gill warning us about that? But the same thing might be said in a different tone of voice.
That would produce an entirely different result, so the old nature can appear even in connection with doing what is right.
You're so subtle, so easy to present itself. So let's remember, brethren, that word, our God is a consuming fire.
He is a God of infinite love, but he is also a God of of.
Of righteousness and holiness, and nothing that contrary to His nature, will endure in His presence.
Is that I? Is there a stretch?
The Seraphim that say they're burners, I do not. It's God's holiness in the seraphim and what happens through Isaiah when he started, he says I am a man of unclean lips and I live among the people of unclean lips woes unto me.
But God's holiness shown out.
And it hatches it first upon the servant of God, didn't it? It was in connection with the dealings to Israel. But still it had a depressed when I was there too, didn't it?
Say, did he not hear, am I send me, And the result of the grace working in his heart with a sense of God's holiness could use him for blessing to his people, and he was used mightily.
In connection with Israel.
I was thinking too in In the day, like we're living, how much wisdom and grace is needed both individually and in each assembly, because of the multitude of problems that arise now, those two things and many others we do not have, we absolutely have no grace or wisdom in ourselves.
It all must come as a result of asking being in the presence of God.
Peter says you mentioned Peter, but in his epistle he said he giveth more grace. In other words, if there's grace needed, he'll give as much as needed because there's no other supply. But that's also true of wisdom.
We do not have any wisdom. We can't rely on the flesh for any wisdom.
If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and afraid of not, and it shall be given him. But I'm afraid too often we we feel that we have perhaps gained something and we're relying on something we've gained, rather than simply going back and casting ourselves on the Lord and saying, like Solomon, we have no wisdom.
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Or grace?
I was thinking of that in the Book of Titus in connection with Grace.
In Titus chapter 2.
Verse 11 It tells us for the grace of God that bringeth salvation.
Hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world? Well, it's grace that teaches us this, isn't it? Not judgment. The time will come when when God's judgments roll over this scene and man will learn righteousness then because of judgment. But now it's great, isn't it?
And I was thinking, as our brother mentioned, that verse at the end of Hebrews 12 let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably and with reverence and godly fear. And in the connection with that in Titus, it's soberly.
That's righteously and godly first itself, isn't it? It has. It has that which concerns myself soberly, righteously toward others.
And godly in this present world. Well, grace has taught us this, hasn't it?
And we should exercise that grace toward those that we feel perhaps have.
Heard somewhere in the pathway.
First, it brings salvation. And if anyone is in this company that's not saved, the first work of grace for your soul is a work that brings to your feel the need of a savior. And when you've accepted Christ as your savior and Lord, why then grace begins to teach you?
But first of all needs is to know Christ as your Savior. And if you don't know that Christ is your savior, that he suffered on the cross for your sins, and if you've never taken your place before God as the lost guilty Sinner, it's the time to act.
And to take that place, and then God in his wondrous love brings to your soul.
The certainty of a full and perfect and completed salvation which was accomplished forced by our blessing Savior on the cross, and now having accepted Him. Then grace begins to teach the One who has accepted the Savior, just as our brother Little has been sitting before us, the three things there soberly, righteously, and godly. And it's not in the world when Paul was living. It's in this present world of the world in which.
Living today.
And then the blessed hope, of course comes in chill looking for that blessed hope, and then the glorious appearing when the Lord will take his Kingdom and reign over the sea.
Big Brother.
This chapter is intensely practical because it enters into the daily life of the believers.
And one subject that introduced in the second verse is hospitality. Well, I'm sure the your Saints here are given to hospitality and it shows in the Christian life that it has a great bearing on the various.
Subjects that are brought before us because.
A lack of hospitality in mirrors the affection of the heart towards Leathers. Of course the Lord knows the circumstances, He knows the weakness of the sisters who have the duties and provide for hospitality. But there surely is a real reward in viewers, as it told us here.
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I for receiving angels unawares, is when three men came to Abraham's door.
Tells us three men. And one of those men I'm sure was the Lord Jesus, because Abraham addresses him as Lord shall not the judge of all the earth to write, but who is the judge of all the earth but the Lord Jesus Christ? Just think of Abraham there that day in the heat of the day, and the extreme men who are also spoken of as angels come and visit him.
12 years walking in the path of separation.
And that's where we can maintain all that have brought before us in connection with the practical phase of life.
Some dimensions that difference between Abraham and village and Abraham.
Gas, that was. He was not only involved himself.
What it was his wife and the servants had pardoned with lost. There was no dimension. What Lord, only was it and there and entertaining.
So it shows the readiness of the home. There was everything in harmony.
The home was ready for entertainment.
Then we have a tenderness towards any that are.
In Bombs, there should be real sympathy towards any of the suffering among God's children.
Shepherd the Great Shepherd.
I remember.
A brother rebuking another concerning shepherding the flock, which always takes a great deal of grace, of course.
This brother.
Said that he had a lot of sheep.
And he had six stars that were trained to care for those sheep.
But one of the dogs bit the sheep.
And so he was destroyed. So he said, Brother, this is a lesson for us all. We are to be shepherd of the sheep, but we are not to bite the sheep.
So let us be very careful in shepherding the flowers.
We can be good shepherds, but not shepherd dogs that bite the sheep. So it was a lesson in those early days of my life.
When he brought our attention to that.
The great shepherd of the sheep. All How much grace is needed today, beloved?
To shepherd the sheep, to shepherd them to really and truly be a faithful shepherd.
We are liable to smooth over.
Little faults and problems because of parental affection. It is then we need grace and wisdom to be granted to deal with the problem. Now there are many problems not only in this land, but there are problems everywhere, and there are problems among the Latin believers too.
How much grace is needed there to shepherd the floor?
Will he give us more grace?
Someone asked what is Grace?
Well, we often hear is explained as on marriage in favor. And I suppose the first one of the first verses we put into the ink of tongue was in Ephesians 254. By grace are ye saved through faith?
And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
I wondered what the Lord would have me put on the tombstone of my beloved late wife, which would arrest the attention of the Roman Catholic folk who really and truly loved her. So I put that verse there.
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On the bit of stone at the head of the grave. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and let not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
You know, many souls have been one to Christ reading that little verse, many songs, and I was so happy that Norman when he was home there. I know my dear wife won't mind me mentioning this.
That her grave is still cared for.
And she went to be with the Lord in 1933.
They still someone still keeps the grave clean and keeps that little verse.
Please. It's on a piece of of plate, plate glass.
For my grace, are you saved? Oh, we are just poor souls, Malone. How much he loves us, And how wonderful is the grace of God toward us.
The older we get, the more we thank him for such wondrous grace in picking up poor lost things such as we are saving us by sovereign grace Here my brother Jackson used to always say, Brother Smith, it's pure sovereign grace.
We are what we are by Jewish sovereign base. Well, I mentioned that, by the way, our late brother Brown.
Statement along that line. And he said, the older I get, the more I retreat into the sovereign grace of God.
Well, what do we have in ourselves? Nothing. What are we in ourselves? Nothing. What have we done? Worse than nothing. We've offended God.
God shows us his.
Unfounded favor.
He shows us his unbounded favor, and we haven't merited it at all. We have worse than not marriage. It is where sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. That's gone, and you can't find it anywhere else but in God.
Important the instruction has brought before us things that maybe are not very often spoken of. But preserving the sanctity of marriage is very important because in the world today morals are are being lowered, so that the morals of our of our parents grandparents is is being undermined.
Don't look at things in the same way. And it's almost being in some places, given up has all. It had no importance whatever. Isn't it wonderful, important, beloved, that the word of God doesn't have to be revised, It stands in all its purity and holiness and what was said 2000 years ago, or three or 4000 years ago.
Maybe not. That far is just as true and serious and important.
And so we surely need a word like this in a day when there's so much looseness in connection with morals that we see in this world that those who confess the Lord need the warning that we get here and get God's solemn.
Statement about anything outside of the marriage relationship.
And so we need to remember this. And young men can consider this too, that I think it's in Timothy that there's a verse that should be we should be reminded of.
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It says the in the second verse.
1St we might read the first verse, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity. How many?
Sad Four would have been spared a brother who was truly the Lord had he treated the those that he was acquainted with, until he saw that the Lord had definitely set aside someone for him to be his wife.
As a sister with all purity, now these things, you know, I have our ancient but they're the word of God to be remembered and to be respected and to preserve us in this day when there is such a terrible departure and getting away from the solemnity of the relationship that God set up when.
Before man and woman, and put them in the garden of Eden. Therefore shall a man forsake his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be 1 flesh. Al solemn, that is, and how it starts out at the very beginning of man's history.
So I've been struck by the 16th chapter of Luke where we have.
As I see of seven important things in order and right in the midst we have.
The Law in the 16th verse of the 16th of Luke, the law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the Kingdom of God is preached.
And every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one title of the law to fail.
Whosoever puteth away his wife and Marieth another committeth adultery, and whosoever married her that has put away from her husband, committeth adultery.
Now it's remarkable that the subject is changed. It seems so abruptly here.
But we find the Spirit of God is calling attention to the fact that even though there has been a change when the Lord Jesus came introducing the Kingdom in its present and future aspects, the original institutions must still be maintained.
They are not to be changed.
And so that just because Christianity has been introduced, that's no sign for letting down the bars, in fact.
Under Christianity, we find holiness is brought out in a very special way now.
It's been said that in Ephesians and Colossians we're given the Councils of God.
And our own blessings. But it's been said that the book of Proverbs teaches us how to walk in them down here, and we find in the book of Proverbs detailed instruction.
Which should be read in every family continually as to relationships in the home and among brethren.
And among the people of God, detailed instructions and the warnings for those who would disregard these instructions. And so there's no excuse, brethren, for our trifling.
With so serious a matter as we have in this verse in our chapter.
Marriage is honorable and all and the bed undefiled, but for mongers and adulterers, God will judge.
We have this brought out, especially in the Book of Revelation, as a special judgment upon those who violate the sanctity of marriage.
Apostle Paul in in First Corinthians chapter seven. Since this subject has come up, perhaps we could just look at that verse.
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In the First Corinthians Chapter 7.
And verse one now concerning the things were off, he wrote unto me, It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
But notice the second verse Nevertheless. To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. God.
This has been ordained of God according to nature, and when man goes contrary to it, or if he avoids it, then it leads him into sin. And so the result is that there's much going on that is very displeasing to the Lord.
Connection by just going aside or avoiding that which God established in nature. Don't you think this is so, brother?
So I think it's a very important verse.
My father little there is such a thing as a as a brother being called to a higher calling, where he may be called upon to walk alone in the service of God, are those the word of God speaks of, who are units for the Kingdom of God's sake. And perhaps someone like the Apostle Paul was such a man who was called to a special path, and their special grace is given for it.
Would you say to them not only?
Was this original institution continued even though, as our brother pointed out, that the Law and the prophets were until John? But would you not say that there was something very, very special and precious and beautiful about this relationship that was really unknown in the Old Testament that now is developed in the New? When we see Adam and Eve there in the Old Testament, it's a very, very beautiful picture.
But when we turn to the closing of the Word of God and see our Lord Jesus Christ and his blood bought pride to see what that picture was really all about. And so in Christianity not only were these things maintained, but it seems to me they become that much more precious and beautiful when we see what we find in Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives.
Because this was the original pattern. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for us.
And then that important to as you refer there to the fifth chapter of Ephesians, where he says in the 31St verse. For this call shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one place. But he immediately says, This is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
Beautiful, as you said. Show that now in Christianity we have the marriage relationship as a type of Christ and his bride, the church. But nevertheless he says in the next verse, let every one of you in particular. So love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Enduring the how they are tight and getting these wonderful views of the type. We mustn't get away from the fact.
It has this instruction has its practical bearing on our daily life.
That is, we don't want to become so occupied with heavenly truth that we neglect our duties and responsibilities down here. Something like the case of of a man that made shoes and he was so spiritual that when the time came this I believe in the old country and they were quartering soldiers in the town and the wife was very anxious.
To have one of the soldiers quartered at their house because it brings a little money into their home. And they asked her, what about your husband? What does he think about it? Well, she says he lives in heaven. She says he makes a pair of shoes and then he goes up to him. He wouldn't be interested in it. Well, some people might think that that was a high state of spirituality, but I think this verse here settles that nevertheless.
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Let's be very practical about these things and bring things right down to earth. So a man's love for his wife and her reverence for her husband hasn't changed, their altered in any way by our getting high into the enjoyment of the higher truth in connection with the spiritual life.
Two records for a happy married life.
And one is subjection on the part of the way.
And affection on the part of the husband.
And I believe, beloved, that the onus is on the man.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Yes, the onus is on the man there.
Where we get a beautiful picture of submission from the part of Rebecca. That's Genesis 24.
Here we find.
Rebecca lifting up her eyes in verse 64 of chapter 24 of Genesis.
And she she says to the servant who's a type of the spirit of God.
Who notice in verse 64, Rebecca lifted up her eyes and when she saw Isaac, the type of Christ, she lighted off the camel. Which we may may do today. Beloved, may we be ready. The Lord is coming. We're going to light off the camel very soon.
For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master.
Therefore, she took a vision and covered herself. That's the most beautiful picture of submission of the part of the woman.
And Isaac brought well, I said. The servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
Isaac brought her into the mouth, her mouth, his mother, Sarah's tent and took Rebecca and she became his wife and he loved her. Isn't that lovely? And he loved her. Beloved, the onus is on the man.
And I've yet these long years that I've tried to serve the Lord among different classes of people.
I've still to find a woman.
A wife who wouldn't run to do the bidding of her husband if he would fulfill what we have here, if he would really love her. I've still to find one among the hundreds of Latins among whom I've lived so long as you know.
Still, to find one who wouldn't run the do his bidding if he loved her.
As it is here in this book.
Loved the church and gave himself for what a wonderful picture.
Of that relationship between the man and his wife.
And the better transportation for the fifth verse.
If it was read something like this, let your manner of life be without love of money and be content with your present circumstances. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Conversation in scriptures, I'm sure we know means more than our talk. It's our whole manner of life and.
The word here is let it be without covetousness or love of money.
So many dear Saints have fallen into.
The idea that every effort should be made to accumulate money, get a job where they can make more money, or whether they where they can be more successful in getting ahead in this world.
01:00:02
Well, that's a very subtle danger.
And they're warned against it here.
And then it's be content with such things as you have or your present circumstances.
Sometimes many a dear child of God, really loving the Lord, but has had ambitions to have more than the Lord has provided. They like to have as nice a home as well furnished a home as someone else. Perhaps the Lord has given another family another brother.
A better job and he's been able to provide a better home.
And provide better furniture for his form? Well, that's not the pattern for all the large people. The Lord may be pleased to see another family go on with little in this world and yet contented with what He has provided.
How simple these things are. And even if we take it in the way it's translated here.
Such things as he have, the Lord may not give us a lucrative position, He may allow crop failures for farmers, and he may allow losses in many ways to come in to one's life but be satisfied.
Another passage. I think it's First Timothy 6 where it says godliness with contentment.
Is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and is certain we can take nothing out. And having food in Raymond, let us therewith be content.
How important these verses are in a day when there's so much ambition and efforts to get on in this life.
And if the Lord gives a better job, he gives a better crop on the farm.
What's 1 in better circumstances? Nowhere to thank, import and receive it with Thanksgiving.
But if the Lord is pleased to send a drought there, to send canker worms or some other cause of loss, where to accept that from? The Lords hand and profit in whatever way it is. And thus, after all, the real happy life of condensement in among God's children is to accept their circumstances from the Lord.
As oh Brother Hale used to say, except your circumstances from the Lord and take your difficulties to the Lord.
This would be very, very difficult to carry out, would it not, if it were only the first half of the verse? Sometimes we quote the first half and ask who can finish the verse. It's quite surprising how seldom does anyone remember the latter part of the verse.
It says let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as he have. Well, now that's all that the verse said. It would really be very, very difficult. We'd say, well, the Bible says I ought to, so I'll try, But it surely is difficult. Because when I look around and see these things that are so attractive, and as my father used to say, all the advertising in the world is directed toward making you discontent with what you already possess. And that surely is true.
And then the Bible comes along and tells me, well, I should be content. It's really difficult. In fact, I think it's impossible but for the last half of the verse. And isn't it beautiful? Be content with your present circumstances, for he has said.
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Oh, how different it all becomes now.
We have the presence of the Lord Jesus and the promise that that presence is ours continually. Contentment comes easily when we have that sense in our souls. I remember one time or even I were in the village of El Fruitillo in Oaxaca.
And when we arrived at that village, a dear brother, Juan Sanchez, he offered us the use of his home while we were there, said we could have the whole home to ourselves. He moved out, so we went to his little home. I suppose it was about 8 by 12.
01:05:15
4 rows of crooked sticks with a cornstalk roof and nothing in it. No table, no chair, no bed, no furniture of any kind. No windows and no door. Just an opening.
Well, brethren, I can truly say I thank God for it. We were more than content because the company of our dear brothers and sisters in that place so filled our souls with the joy of the Lord that there was real happiness there. And I took a little picture of that home, and in February of this year I showed it to that brother, and I suppose he had not looked at his little home with other eyes and his own. He looked at that picture for a long time.
And he looked up with a big, bright smile, and he said pobre, Carol, we contento poor, but very content. I wish I could have taken a picture of that man as he uttered those words, because it just shone in his face. Poor but very content, brethren. I don't say that I know anything about it, but I've seen it. I've really seen it. Godliness with contentment is great game, and I know that it's true.
That it's quite possible to be content with present circumstances when the latter part of the verse is enjoyed in the soul. For he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Well, I looked at it in the new translation, and I thought it was so delightful, so that taking courage, we may say the Lord is my helper and I will not be afraid.
What will man do unto me?
Isn't that lovely? There again, it's the presence of the Lord Jesus, his continual care and power to protect us, that gives us this confidence in this joy. And we look around at all the scheming of man, and we say, what can man do unto me?
I brought back to this country an income brother.
Well, he never did get over that visit to this country.
It says here in verse nine of chapter six of First Timothy, but they that will be rich.
Fall into temptation? Well, he had one thought.
To own a home such as he had seen in this country.
He's an Indian, of course, and he longed for a home like he had been in and he longed for a piece of land that he had seen in this country.
Well, he never got over it. He went back to Bolivia.
And for one year and a bit more, he was very faithful. But then it ended into his heart.
This love of money.
Francisco persisted in that and even had a passport, ready to come back to this country with his three sons to finish to go to college.
Will I stop that through the minister of government, whom I knew and stopped his return? I don't think he ever forgave me for that. But he became a lost dynamic from that time on and God had to put him on his back three years.
To learn his lesson.
Well, there was one who would have something extra, and he fell into the temptation of the snare many foolish and hurtful lots that drown men in destruction and tradition. How very solemn. He's he. He did repent of it, but he's a lost dynamic today, beloved. He has no power for God at all.
How very sad.
Better translation to the 7th verse also.
Remember your leaders.
Which have the rule over you who have spoken at you, the word of God.
Whose faith follow? Considering the end of their conversation. Remember your leaders. There are those who have been leaders among God's people.
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Our Bishop or elder as we get in Timothy might not necessarily be a leader, because a Bishop must be a married man and have a family so he can be wise and assembly first. But Paul was surely a leader and yet he wasn't a married man. God has raised up men, both married men and unmarried men.
To have.
Have definitely sought to guide God's people, and I feel this I'm willing for a correction. It seemed to me that when the truth was recovered that God definitely raised up leaders to bring out the present truth. The truth of the church was restored.
The truth of the present embassy of the Lord's coming was restored, and so much valuable truth was restored at that time, and I feel that we need to be careful that we do not adopt.
Some more popular leaders today that may be put things in a little more attractive way.
I I doubt if this was a subject before us here, but I'm just making a reference to that because when the apostle was writing, there had been leaders there in Jerusalem. Perhaps this this was written to the Hebrew Saints at Jerusalem that had been godly leaders among them, and they were to remember them, not their faults.
It says, Remember your leaders who have spoken unto you the word of God.
Whose faith far? And what was the character of their walk and their faith?
Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. That was the end. The object of their manner of life was Christ himself. So as we think of our dear brethren, many of that have gone on.
Before, let's remember that about them. Where in simplicity and humility they sought to keep us occupied with Christ, that blessed One who is the same yesterday and today and forever. There's none of God's dear servants that haven't failed and made mistakes, and we could get occupied with those mistakes. That would be a loss and a hindrance to our going on.
But if we are occupied with that faith that made Christ everything to them, why? It would surely be a blessing to our souls.
I briefed God raised up these guides or leaders that we're Speaking of.
And it was God by his Spirit, working through them, speaking through them, teaching through them. And that's why it's so important to pay attention to the word of God that they spoke.
We must remember that it's not mere men speaking, but it's God using them and speaking through them. So it's the truth of God that is spoken through these guides or leaders, and we're not to get occupied with the vessel.
But remember that is God using the vessel. And this is important, I believe, for us to remember, because we're so prone to get occupied with the vessels that God uses. But let us bow to the word that God uses them to give.
Do we not find brethren that there's as time goes on and as the years go by, that it's very possible for the problems that face the Saints of God to change? That is we we sometimes hear, it's spoken of or mentioned that we should imitate the the faith of our brethren of a past generation and and they face problems and we have problems today. But then the suggestion will be made that the problems that we face today are different.
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That we see problems arising today that haven't arisen amongst the Lord's people before. They may be personal. They may be in the assembly, they may be in the family, whatever they may be. But the fact remains that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. And when we imitate their faith, that is it's that faith that looked to Jesus, that occupied the heart with him, that directed the eye to him. And when they spoke, they spoke the word of God.
It wasn't a matter simply of saying, well, I think, but it was a matter of bringing the word of God before the conscience. And so it is today. We still have the Word of God, and we still have those that we could look back upon and recognize that what they did in their ministry from the word of God was to point us to the one who doesn't change. He's the same yesterday and today and forever. I I could also make one other comment in connection with what we've already had before us.
And I say this to our young people particularly. It seems to me that there's a very lovely encouragement given to young people, and particularly to young married couples, to use your home to entertain the Saints of God. The reason I say this to me is I have been struck in meditating on this chapter to notice how it says let brotherly love continue. And then it says be given to hospitality or neglect, not hospitality.
And I fear sometimes young people perhaps hesitate to have Saints in their home because they fear that perhaps they can't lay out for them the same as others can. Or perhaps their homes aren't just quite as attractive as brothers, so and souls is. But I can tell you from experience in my own soul and visiting amongst the Lord's people, what a real blessing it has been to my soul to visit dear beloved Saints of God, where love and contentment was what was served up in the hole.
What a lovely, lovely blessing it has been. And I would also say we we. Not that I would point to myself as any example of it, but to me there's a very special encouragement in that little word. Entertaining Angels unawares, Dear young people, You invite the Lorde people into your home and you will find that the time will arise, that it won't be what you give, but what you get. You'll find that there's a real blessing to your own soul and having them there in your home.
Even so much that you'll find yourself saying sometimes, as we have felt when we've had some brethren like I'll mention one name our dear brother, Stanley Baylor, this man known to some of us here. We have felt when we've had him in our home, when he's gone back again, we felt that we've entertained an Angel.