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TV and all our rest and pleasure find in learning Lord of the 230.
Oh Lord, when we.
On my brain.
Dusty start there because that gives the context for the following verses.
Verse 12 and verse 11.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down on the feeble knees, and make straight pause for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. But let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you.
And thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau.
Who for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright for? You know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing?
He was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
Where you're not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto the blackness and darkness, and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which, which voice they that heard entreated, that the word should not be spoken to them.
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Anymore, for they could not endure that which was commanded, and if so much as a beast touched the mountain.
It shall be stoned or thrust through with the dark. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.
But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
And to the an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born.
Which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of justice, men made perfect.
And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not, who refused him that spake on earth much more Shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven? Whose voice then shook the earth? But now he hath promised, saying Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore we receiving it, 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.
To build on the preceding verses in connection with the chastening that we receive in God's family, and we're all subject to it, brother, in this sense, we are all under discipline.
Not talking about assembly discipline, it's talking about the discipline of the family of God.
He loves us and we need his correction, but sometimes it falls rather heavily.
And when we see that happen in our brethren, what is our place? Brethren, are we going to do what?
Job's friend did come, and you have to hand it to those three friends of Job, they sat there for seven days.
In silence.
I think that is says a lot for them. But then they started and they.
Had different opinions as to why God had allowed it.
And they were mistaken.
And So what we need to realize, brethren, is that God knows what He's doing, and sometimes we don't understand what He's doing.
What should we do?
Lift up the hands which hang down.
Evident the picture of discouragement here, and the feeble knees.
I just can't take it any longer. I can't go on. What are we gonna do? Lift them up? Brother. Sister. It's the Lord. He only means good for you. I don't understand what he's doing. But don't be discouraged.
And encourage him with the scriptures. I think this is what.
This verse means.
Am I right?
Is that lifting up your own hands or their hands?
Said that we have a responsibility to lift up one another's hands the Lord or the father is the one who chastens his children but when we see that in the lives of others or any discouragement for that matter, or failure, we do, as Bob said, have a responsibility. Do we seek to be in a help and encouragement sometimes I believe we can hinder the work of God in a soul by trying to do what we think is.
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Our part in it in perhaps further chastening or correction or scolding, whatever admonishment.
But often we do more damage than. And with Job's friends, many of the things they said were true. When you read what they said, many of the things they said were true, but they really didn't have the proper spirit in dealing with Job. And we need to seek grace, brethren, that we would have the proper spirit in dealing with one another. It's the Father of spirits, as we notice, that deals with us. Now, do we seek grace to have the proper spirit in dealing with one another?
We need to be faithful. It's true there are times when admonishment is needed, but are sometimes said that we can admonish one another without scolding one another. I believe there's a difference and sometimes we there needs to be admonishment and sometimes God uses our brethren in our lives to in correction and admonishment. But if it's done in the proper spirit, faithfulness in the proper spirit is not going to cast down.
But it is going to lift up the feeble hands, it's going to strengthen the feeble knees.
Just say 2:00 on the other hand that if a brother comes to me and what are a sister and what they say seems harsh.
Maybe isn't done in the proper spirit, then I'm responsible to get before the Lord and take it.
In the proper spirit, my reaction is as important. I can't look at that brother or sister and blame my discouragement on that. Brother and sister say, well, they didn't deal with me in the right spirit and just throw things over and and get discouraged. So we all have responsibility, don't we? Whether we're the ones that the Lord is dealing with and is chastening or correction or trial training, whatever it is, whether I'm that one or whether it's my dealings with one who perhaps.
I see going through those circumstances, we are both responsible to take it in the proper spirit and to be exercised and to learn from it. And chastening or discipline in our lives, brethren, has two purposes at least, maybe more, but two purposes in this portion we're taking up. That is that there might be practical holiness and the fruit of righteousness. Practical righteousness. And brethren, if if those things that are allowed by our loving Father have that effect in our lives.
They'll be true blessing following because it is possible.
In even in the days in which we live, where there's so much, as we've been saying in these meetings, to discourage and cast us down.
So much failure and weakness. It is possible to exhibit practical holiness and righteousness. You know, David came under the discipline of God in his life and in the 23rd Psalm he was thankful to say restoreth my soul. But he didn't stop there. He said he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness. Interesting that that's the very next statement, isn't it? And in connection with the advocacy of Christ, if we confess our sins, he is faithful.
And justice, to forgive us our sins and what else, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, to lead us in right paths.
So there will be, as we have in the 11Th verse, the fruit of righteousness in our lives. That's practical righteousness.
Steve was talking about driving the car. What are those rumble strips for? What are those bumps in the middle of the road for? It's to keep us on the right track. It's to keep us in the right lane. If we get into the wrong lane or over on the shoulder, it's going to make a rat. We're going to have a rat. And so it's the the correction of the steering wheel and those guides on the rope, they're to keep us in the right path. And I believe that's really what is disciplined for us in our lives is it's not discourage us.
But to keep us in the right path, and if we can see that in one another, then we're going to, I believe, have the proper spirit, as I say, in holding up the feeble hands and strengthening the feeble knees. In connection with Job. There was another friend that was there who spoke later who did come in the right spirit. And really it is interesting and reading the last part of the book of Job to see that.
Eli Hugh, What he says kind of fades into the Lord speaking, and so he.
Was direct, He directed him to the Lord and I think that's what we need to do. Brethren, when somebody is going under trial is is to real help them to realize and to accept the situation from the Lord's hand. I remember a particularly difficult trial the Lord sent into my life.
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And a statement that was made that was a particular help to me that every situation in the life of a believer comes directly from the hand of God. And that was a big help to me because you know where you look at second causes, We look at this brother and this person over here, They were the ones that really caused me to get into this situation. As long as we're looking at others.
We're not gonna get peace in our souls. It's when we look to the hand above.
There's somebody that saw a needs be and it was the Lord and sent this trial in my life. If there wouldn't have been a need to be on my part, it wouldn't have come this way. And so we need to lift up the hands, say take courage, don't be discouraged. That's what it is in verse.
Five, it says, don't faint.
When you're rebuked of him, there's a tendency to faint. And we don't get the blessing if we faint. We don't get the blessing if we despise it either. And so it's to be a help to one another, to encourage that God only means good for his people.
They mentioned yesterday particularly about in the previous seating verses. The one who chastises and disciplines is from the Father.
But there's another very important relationship mentioned and I'd like to go back and mention it in connection with where we're at this morning. And that is in verse five it says despise not the chastening of the Lord.
And in verse six, whom the Lord loveth, he chasten it. Uh, the word Lord involves authority.
And yesterday when Tim was speaking and challenging the question, do we accept?
Fully 100% the authority of the Lord Jesus in our lives.
And one of the things that we can despise or ignore sometimes when the Lord puts his hand on us is that it's the Lord.
That is, it's the one who has the authority to do so. And if we don't acknowledge in our souls his authority when he puts his hand on our lives for our good, it creates conflict. Conflict between ourselves and the one who has the authority. And yet it's very easy to do that.
I say that in recognition of these verses where we started this morning, because.
What's been before us has been the Father.
Who has a responsibility and a love to exercise His place as Father and authority for correction. We also have the Lord, the same person, but that aspect of the authority that He has over our lives to correct and discipline us.
Then we come to verses that have to do with us, and it's well for us to recognize we're not the Father.
And we're not the Lord. That is when it comes to helping one another, we are not the Father. And we should not in these this way it's presented here. There are other situations where we're literally fathers and so on, and there's father aspects in the assembly, but that's not what's the force that God is giving us in this particular passage. But it's what comes to us who are not the Father and not the Lord.
How do we help? How do we participate in the process in this way? Well, if you have two people and their hands hold each other, we're like that. We're brethren, and in a very important way in our lives, we ought to walk with our hands, held with each other. If my hand is falling down, but I'm holding my brother's hands and his is going up.
Is going to be beneficial to my soul. If my hand is up, but I start to faint and my hand goes down, it's going to have the tendency to pull my brother's hand down. So he goes on to say, make a straight path for your feet. You and your brother are walking side by side down the road, and if you start to swerve off the road, you're going to tend to pull your brother off the road with you. If you walk with a straight path and your brother's going down the road with you, it's going to tend to keep him on the road.
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Because of the nature of our relationship to each other. So it's it goes both ways, the lifting up or the letting down of the hands when we recognize our mutual relationship with each other. And also it goes on to say in the things that follow watch in certain matters that we'll get to because if I'm walking with my brother down the path of life.
I'm to be watchful for my own sake and for my brother's sake. And so there is this aspect here in which we don't take the Lordship role, we don't take the Father's role, but we do have a place to be a help to one another that we go on together in the discipline and admonition of the Lord on both of us and on us individually.
Brother said to me once years ago, he said if you want to be a help to your brethren, then you walk with the Lord. And I think that's the thought there. And that was my thought too. And asking that question, do we hold up his hands or our hands? And I, I feel that our responsibility first is to make sure that we make straight paths for our feet and that we are in a position where we can hold up the hands and encourage our brother.
And.
So I know it like he says, it works both ways, but I I think first of all we have to be in the right state ourselves to be able to be a help to our brother.
The other way is would be a harm to him.
And that's solemn to think about because at this moment, our lives are having an impact on others.
As we go home to our home assemblies, our lives are going to impact our brethren and those we know. It's either going to be a help to them in the path of faith and service, or we're either going to be a discouragement and a detriment to them. No man liveth to himself and no man dies to himself. And there are two things in these verses we're considering, the hands and the feet. The hands would speak of our service for Christ and the feet would speak of our walk for Christ.
Are we a help to our brethren in their service for Christ and their walk for Christ?
As Brother Ken said, if we're not in a proper state of soul ourselves, if we're not learning from the correction and the discipline that our Father and that the Lord is enacting in our lives, we're going. We're not going to be able to be a help to others if we're not, as Dawn said, holding up our hands. We're not going to be able to hold up the hands of others. And the enemy's desire when there's discipline in our lives is to have us.
Faint, despise or faint or fall.
Get weary under it so that not only are we affected, but we affect others. Again, no man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. And everyone of us here have a path of service. Everyone of us here have been have a path of faith put before us. It's an individual service and it's an individual path, but there is a collective side of it too. And let's be exercised, brethren, as we leave these meetings. Wonderful to be together and encourage one another.
Easy to encourage one another, perhaps in a setting like this.
But it's going to be quite different when we go home, we go back to the daily grind of life. We go back to the Lord's dealings with us in our individual lives and in the assembly. Are we going to be walking in such a way that we will be able to hold up those feeble hands? There are a lot of feeble hands today. And there are those that, as it says here, are lame. Not interesting how the Spirit of God puts it. You know a Christian who's lame. I'm not talking about physically lame.
But a Christian who perhaps has fallen down spiritually broken a leg.
You know, the Lord Jesus as the shepherd carries his sheep. Do we know how to carry one another as well? You know, there may be some who just aren't up to walking right now, spiritually speaking. Do you and I know how to come alongside of them. Do you know you and I know how to lend a crutch, so to speak, to help that person out over that difficult spot and through whatever, whatever they're going through. If we, if we seek to do this, brethren, I believe it will not only make a difference.
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Individually, but collectively, and there is a very collective side to what we have in these verses that we're considering.
Yeah, and I was thinking too, that the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians that the, that the the purpose of their afflictions, his and the other apostles was, was for the comfort of the Saints. And I was thinking of Second Corinthians chapter one in that, in that respect. And when he says blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them.
Which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. So forth.
Sure, any way I am the the the councils of God he he lists us above. Sometimes to see a big picture. I was thinking of Israel in the valley fighting Amalek and Joshua with them and on the mount was Moses. They set him on a rock and his hands were held up by two different people.
Because when he got tired and his hands started to go down, Israel started to lose the conflict.
There was a big conflict going on today. The enemy of souls is seeking to hinder those who are hinder most and and weak.
And to.
Make them ineffective for the Lord's glory. And it's that intercession, that holding up one another's hands that is going to bring the Lord's strength into the battle. And we're a little slow to get a hold of the big picture. It's going on, isn't it? I was thinking a little bit today and yesterday of the tornado in Oklahoma. Well, now we get a lot of.
People trying to help clean up.
But among them there are those who are brethren in Christ that have gone there for the Lord's sake, and they're wanting to.
Reflect something of the goodness of God in the midst of the chaos.
And you and I may not be able to go. In fact, they probably have too many volunteers. But isn't it something we can come before the throne of grace and strengthen our brethren in prayer that they might?
Shine for the Lord in the midst of it all.
Here in verse 15 of the lame, you spoke about that Jim.
And a person that's lame just can't walk very good. And there are those that are that way, brethren, and it is the purpose is that they be healed. And as we think somebody is lame, that's going to be their condition all the time, no.
If we make straight paths for our feet, if we are engaged properly for the Lord, the purpose is that they be healed. I think it's beautiful.
I was thinking, Bob, of the man that was in the ditch in Loop 10 in that regard, because when the Samaritan came to him, and I know it's a picture of the Lord Jesus and so on, but I think there's something for us to consider too in our responsibility. When the Samaritan came to him, he poured in oil and wine, put him on his own beast. He brought him to the end. His desire was that not only would he be picked out of the ditch, but that he would be healed, that there would be healing and strengthening for him.
And when he brought him to the end, he said to the innkeeper as he was about to depart, gave him some money and he said, and whatsoever they'll spend this more when I come again, I will repay the. And again, just on a practical note, you know, if we're going to be used in healing and help to those who are lame and have been turned aside, it's going to cost us a little bit, little time, a little energy, maybe something in a monetary way. But is the Lord going to be our debtor?
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He said if you have to spend a little extra, he might have brought him to that inn and the innkeeper might have said, well, I provide bed and breakfast and meals, but now you brought me a sick man and you expect me to take care of him. I've got enough to do. Oh, he said, if it takes a little extra, you have to spend a little more. Said when I come again I'll repay you and the Lord will repay you. If we seek, it takes energy, spiritual energy. But if we seek to help others, to lend a shoulder, lend a hand, so to speak, to those who are discouraged or turned out of the way.
The Lord won't be any man's debtor. He'll make it up to you in the coming day.
The young brothers and sisters.
There's nobody that can encourage, uh, another young person like you to be exercise. I must say in my own life when I was young. And I remember times when perhaps it was easy for me to go in the wrong direction and the Lord used a young brother to steer me in the right direction. And let me tell you, if it would have been an older brother, I don't know if I would have taken the same way. But this is something for us all to be.
Exercised about brethren.
There's sentiment arises in our hearts or in our mouths. I'd like to help.
But I can't. I've got my own problems.
And that's a very common phenomena in the lives of perhaps many of us in this room. I'd like to help, but I can't. I have my own problems. Like to comment on that a little.
What's presented to us here in these verses is.
A commonness of walk and life. We're not. God has chosen to bring us together in a way that he wants us to walk the path together with mutual dependencies connected with it. And sometimes that path involves the willingness to accept the weakness.
That's in ourselves or in our brethren, even sometimes to have to be in our measure identified with the failure.
That's not only in ourselves, but in our brethren.
And if we try to have a path of life that avoids.
Having to walk with weakness or avoids the willingness in its right place, there's wrong place for it too, and we get out of balance very easily as to the matter of failure.
But a good example of what I'm saying is found in Caleb and Joshua in the Old Testament. The children of Israel came to the edge of the land after leaving Egypt, and they went up and the spies went into the land and they gave the report. It was a fantastic land and everything was great about it except the people that lived there, the giants. And so ten of them said we're not, we're not going to go up.
Caleb and Joshua said the Lord gave us the land. Let's go.
But what happened? For the next 40 years, Caleb and Joshua identified themselves, submitted to walking with their brethren for 40 years in weakness and failure.
And the Lord blessed it, and it's the path of faith. The Lord Jesus is another example when he came into this world.
There came among a people who were not walking as they should before the Lord.
And so the forerunner, John the Baptist, went ahead, and there was the baptism of repentance.
What did the Lord Jesus perfectly godly man do? He said he was to be baptized. John the Baptist didn't want to do it. He recognized the perfection of his person and least in measure and he no, you don't need this. He said suffer it to be so. And he identified himself with the repentant remnant at that time and went on with them. Brethren, it's the same with us and these verses bring that some of that out for us.
It doesn't mean giving up the truth of God. The verses which follow say pursue peace.
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And that's an active activity to pursue it, to seek to find peace with one another. And it says and holiness, it doesn't. What's being said in no means is intended to say truth is put aside or holiness is put aside. That's not the point. But we get out of balance and we we try to avoid. And so in many cases what happens to us is we're not a help at all.
And nor are we in the path of faith or in the path of our own choosing, to avoid those very things that are unpleasant at times and very difficult.
I have two questions. The first one is.
Is what we're speaking about here the.
And collect in the Southeast and the way in which Tim asked the question, which was assembly discipline. But as we were saying before, we're all under discipline, aren't we, in in the sense that we have here and in that sense, yes.
And this chapter bothers this not about the assembly and I would suggest him that if a person is under assembly discipline that we should encourage.
Such a person to bow to it and to recognize that yes, it's assembly discipline, it's not what referred to specifically here, but we need to encourage them to recognize it and about it. Even if it would be unjust still in that God is working and if we can take it in the right way, it will be for blessing.
Lameness in this.
It's not sin either.
That's why it says, lest it be turned out of the way or turned aside.
I noticed that in the margin there for make straight paths for your feet, it says even and I believe that would that would bring the force consistency, would it not? And how important it is for to be consistent in a walk as well. Remember chapter Brown used to say that we don't want to be like like some that they go up like a fire like a like a firecracker on the 4th of July.
And they go up in all sorts of colors and come down to dead stick. So that isn't what that that isn't what really encourages anybody. But if I see a brother who has been consistent in his pathway and then he speaks to me about about something in my pathway, I believe I'll, I'll listen to that brother.
I I don't want to since it's not necessarily part of the chapter. Umm if.
I'd be happy to talk about it more afterwards, but I'm curious then umm.
How would we this doesn't work. This is talking about reaching out, lifting up the hands and hang down for someone that they not be turned out of the way. So I I guess if someone is disciplined, I think it was said that they have been turned out of the way and this is now assembly discipline.
Allowed by God, but not part of God's chastening, per Southeast, is it's put it's put forward here.
I think that's what I've I've gotten, but still.
Then how would we?
What what practically can we do? Are those that are spiritual among you do to restore such a one? I realize that's not then the the subject here, but let's just go to a portion in 2nd Thessalonians 3 for a moment.
Which goes right along with what we've been saying and I think with what Tim is is bringing out Second Thessalonians 3 and verse 14.
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And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
Now notice this. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
And I believe if we would carry this out in a practical way and our interactions with one another.
It would spare us from many things, because the person that the Apostle Paul is referring to here in Second Thessalonians.
Is not a person that is under assembly discipline at this point. The reason I say that is because he still referred to as a brother when one is put away from the Lord's table, like in First Corinthians. He wasn't put away as a brother, he was put away as a wicked person and he was never referred to as a brother again until there was restoration in the second epistle. The fact that there was true repentance and restoration confirmed that he was a brother and they were to restore him as such.
But here we find there's one who perhaps has been.
Not going on according to the Word of God and whatever it may be. I know it's a little different than our chapter, but what is the apostle Paul say to do freedom as an enemy, just to scold him? No, there needs to be admonishment so that he'll realize that perhaps he's not following on in the way he ought to be. But if there's that admonishment done in love as a brother.
That's what's really going to lead back and keep him from eventually falling in the ditch. That's what's going to be keep him between the yellow lines like Brother Steve used the illustration the other day. And so if we would have that watchfulness for one another, we see a brother stumbling, a sister who's stumbling in their Christian pathway. Maybe they've become lame in some way or another. Do we seek grace to go to that person, admonish them as a brother, admonish them as a sister?
Encourage them speak the truth, but to speak it in love so that they won't be turned out of the way, so that the assembly wouldn't have to come in eventually.
Down the road and that there wouldn't have to be discipline or excommunication from the Lord's table.
I believe, brethren, it would spare us from many things. I would like to go to the 28th chapter of Acts for a little illustration 2.
In connection with some of the things that have been said and what Don mentioned earlier.
Because again, I think the dawn is right. The tendency of our hearts is, well, I've got my own problems.
I'm discouraged myself. If you just knew the burden I was bearing and so on. I wanna notice something in connection with the Apostle Paul here. It's a physical illustration, but I believe it illustrates a spiritual point. The 28th chapter of Acts I'm gonna start reading at verse one. And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled a fire and received us everyone, because of the present rain and because of the cold. Now this is what I want to notice.
And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a Viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand. I want to notice what Paul does here. You know, Paul had been through a lot, hadn't he? He'd just been shipwrecked. He was. He'd been a prisoner on this ship. They'd been through a horrific storm. He'd been shipwrecked. He'd been in the cold waters of the sea. Now he was washed up, and there's a fire burning. And these people, they show them kindness and invite them around this fire.
Paul might have said, well, it's time for me just to sit at this fire and relax and I've been through a lot and it's somebody else's turn to gather some sticks and keep this fire going for our warmth.
Is that what Paul did?
Paul got up from this fire and he moved away and he gathered some sticks to help keep this fire going for the warmth of his of his fellow travelers. They were cold too. Those who were with him could be, would probably be tired and weary and discouraged. And Paul didn't just sit back and say, somebody needs to take care of me now. He went and got those sticks and helped keep that fire going. And brother and I believe this is what we need, not to just be sit down and wallow and self pity and say it's time somebody else served me a little bit. I've been through a lot.
No, these are days of spiritual cold and rain, aren't they?
With physical cold and rain here on this island, but there are spiritual cold and rain everywhere.
What are we going to do, say it's time somebody warmed me up? No, the Apostle Paul wanted to keep his fellow travelers and his those who were with him warm as well.
00:45:04
And if everyone of us would be exercised to do this, brethren, it would spare us again from many things. It would keep, it would help the lame to be healed, and it would help those who are going on a wrong path to come back and not be turned out of the way. So that further discipline and action on the part of the assembly, if we would all recognize his discipline and correction in our lives, it would spare us from that which you refer to.
I think.
It, uh, is a challenge for shepherding in amongst the PPE people of God and there's no easy answer in those situations. But I look at the Lord Jesus and how he dealt with dear Peter.
When Peter was so adamant that he was not going to deny the Lord, and the Lord told him again and again.
Careful, Peter. The Lord could see that there was self-confidence with Peter and that that was going to lead him to failure. But then he let Peter go ahead because Peter didn't really listen. And so Peter failed and his failure was public failure. And it was serious, denying the Lord three times with oaths and curses. But what touches me is.
That after his resurrection, we know the first one he appeared to as Mary Magdalene.
But in the in Luke's gospel, when the two that had gone to Emmaus and had seen the Lord there come back, they are greeted with the news the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared unto Simon. That's all we know about an individual encounter with the Lord Jesus and that that disciple that had gone astray and that was necessary. We don't know anything about what was said.
But I think if there was exercise in pastoral care, shepherding, going after, it's not showing fellowship with someone that has gotten away, but it is going after them to seek to turn them in the right direction and be a help to them in their need. That there could be a making straight paths for their feet that they could be healed again. And so it's a matter of those.
Who the Lord gives this shepherding ministry to be exercised to go and to be a help in the right direction. Sometimes you just let them go, and sometimes they just go further astray. I think there's real need of shepherding in such cases.
Like to make a couple of comments relative to what doesn't at first seem to be connected, but I think it is in Psalm 19.
In some 19 and verse 13.
Verse 12 There's a progression here of of a person concerned about getting away from the Lord in their life.
And uh, so it says in verse 12, who can understand his errors? That is, God alone really can see the true nature of our state. And there may be things in us that we're not conscious of that are not in conformity to His Holiness. But then it says, cleanse thou me from secret faults.
There are things that do become we become aware of, but nobody else sees them. They're totally within us and they're they're hidden. They they don't manifest themselves to anyone else by behavior, but their secret. They're known in our own souls with God. And so the desire here is cleanse me from secret faults. And then it gets more progressive in verse 13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.
There, if allowed, if not dealt with in the soul, then things start to manifest themselves in our spirit, in our behavior, and there sometimes only a another spiritual eye will be able to detect what's going on. But it's there and it can be seen. If it's not judged, it starts to take dominion, that is.
00:50:05
Actions become habits and people become under the control of sin because it's gotten a habit over them. They tried it once in a secret way, and then they go back to it and back to it. They can't get free of it, if you will. It takes dominion over the soul. And then that if that's continues on in that direction, it says I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
And so sin can lead to disastrous consequences once it takes dominion over the life.
What we have in our chapter is particularly connected with keeping it from going down that road to that end. And the pattern of Scripture is that when we walk together and in the assembly, God had so constructed the assembly that it was to be, you might say, a safe house. It was to be a place that had its holy separation from the spirit and character of the world.
And as such, it was a good place to be. The children of Israel had light in their dwellings, where the Egyptians had darkness. We live in a world that is full of darkness. And so the character of the Christian home is to be one of light and love. The character of the assembly is to be one of light and love. So when these things start to come out, if there is the proper activity, then there's going to be the help of one another.
So that.
A soul doesn't progress to the point where there's the great transgression that would require separation from that place of light and love.
The apostle Paul said to Timothy in the first chapter of his first letter. He said of Hymenius and Folitus, I've delivered them unto Satan, that they might learn not to blasphemy.
What he was saying was with his Apostolic authority, and it's similar in its character to the assembly's authority, He said. I've had to put these two outside the sphere of light and love in the assembly, into that sphere of Satan.
The scourging in our chapter in spirit, the scourging that was necessary because the lesson wasn't learned in the gentle speaking in the assembly. It has to be learned in the more harsh character of having that person be under the influence of Satan's world. And so it is the pattern of Scripture. But I say the pattern of Scripture, brethren, because very, very sadly, if you trace the history of the seven churches.
It is the history of the world taking over the church, and we now live in a time and in a period when in its general way, I'm not Speaking of any specific gathering of believers, but in the general picture of it. And it has its effect on us as well as anybody else. In the picture of the seven churches, it's a picture of the world taking over the church. It comes in gradually, and then it starts to teach, and then it starts to form the spirit of things.
Until finally the Lord on the last instances on the outside knocking, can I come back in, if you will, into that place? Why is that? It connected with what we're saying. It's very connected in the sense that very often today, for a soul to be separated, they can't see the difference. They don't recognize what they that they've lost something, if you will, that they once had. But if the assembly has its true character.
Of light and love within and the shepherding care and so on isn't effectual in the life of a soul than to be separated from. It is a mechanism that God uses to many times wake a soul up to say I've lost everything that's really worthwhile. I want to find my way back. And then they become one that will repent and be restored. But whoa when the person doesn't have any sense of being restored to anything.
It doesn't produce any thirst or desire to be back in that. So again, it's important for us to feel the responsibility to help one another lest it get to the point that Tim is referring to, which in itself, if it's working properly, would indicate that the help of helping one another was not accepted and so on. Then the Lord says, well, I'm going to have to deal more.
00:55:14
Forcefully, and more harshly if you will, to bring about the desired result.
In verse 14.
Follow peace with all men.
And Holiness?
Without which no man shall see the Lord. And the Scripture came to mind in Ephesians 4, which I believe bears this up. Ephesians 4.
Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy.
Of the vocation wherewith your call.
With all loneliness.
And meekness.
With long-suffering.
Forbearing one another in love. This was the main verse I had on my heart endeavoring.
To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Next line says there is one body.
So this would be to the assembly, but we had an old brother many years ago when I first came to Minneapolis.
He would be our leading brother.
And he used to say this often, brethren, the word endeavoring means.
You're trying to get it, but you don't have it yet.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace is something we have to work at.
We have to be conscious of the fact that it's not an automatic.
If we get careless.
And lackadaisical thinking that God is just gonna bless us and and keep us. Umm.
In the unity of the Spirit, without us even making an effort toward that.
Umm.
It it probably won't happen endeavoring.
Trying to.
Praying for our brethren, lifting them up, encouraging them.
The emphasis is to and the exhortation I believe is to keep that unity because it is a unity of the Spirit, but to keep it in the bond of peace. And so our relationships with our brethren in general should be of peace. When the Lord Jesus presented Himself the 1St 2 Lords days, first of His resurrection and then the next one as well.
His first words were peace be unto you, and so the Lord speaks peace. What brings conflict is our fleshliness, and that's why we need exhortations like those first verses of Ephesians. One, there's a verse in Romans 12 That says.
Verse 18 if it be possible, as much as life in you live peaceably with all men.
Follow peace with all men, it says here. And holiness. You can't divorce true peace from holiness.
Without which no man shall see the Lord.
Forgive me brother, I'm going to go ahead a little bit because we're getting close to the end of our time here. But look at verse 15. There's something so important there, looking diligently watching lest any man fail of the grace of God. New translation says lack the grace of God and whole brethren, how important it is to have a sense of grace.
In our souls, how can I stand before God only on the ground of His sovereign grace, without any merit of my own, He took me into favor.
In the beloved oh what grace it is in the sense that that's what God has done for me that will now in my relations with others color the way I deal with others. If there is not that grace it gives place to what it says here in verse 15. Roots of bitterness that spring up and trouble you.
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Oh brother, And how we need grace.
To go on together.
There's things that are fleshliness that crop up. The Lord give us grace, brethren, so that there will not be roots of bitterness. Roots of bitterness spring up in the soil where there is not grace.
And bitterness is a terrible thing. I mean, it's God's people just holding way down in the soul. They did me wrong, and I can't forget that.
If there is any of that in my heart, remember Mr. Hey Hossein, if there is any hard feeling against any brother or sister in the realm of your, uh, acquaintance, let it loose. Leave it alone because it will bring trouble amongst God's people. So how we need.
To, uh, look diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. And sometimes you can detect that a brother has lacked of the grace of God. May the Lord help us in this, brethren. It's not looking around suspiciously, but it is detecting we can only go on together in grace.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
These thoughts are I believe that pursuing peace and the holiness and the lacking grace of God are are really connected.
Man is the creature.
Wants his own way.
And the animosity that man has against God is God says this is the way and then says I don't want it, I want my way.
And the very fact that God insists that His way is the way makes man have a determinant ill will toward God.
And man is that enmity. The whole human race, naturally speaking, has enmity against God. For that reason, I want my way. I don't want somebody else telling me what's right and what's wrong. I will decide that for myself. And the consequences and enmity between man and God that actually could not be reconciled, could not be resolved.
Except by death.
He made peace.
That is, He dealt with the matter of the enmity and made peace through the blood of his cross. And the Lord Jesus Christ in dying and being raised from the dead, has settled the matter for God with respect to the enmity. Because anyone who accepts the Lord Jesus Christ is brought into a new creation, relationship with God, having a new life, and that life is not at enmity with God, but has peace with God.
But the weed of self righteousness is still part of the human heart.
And to lack the grace of God is the result of my feeling like I stand righteously on my own terms with God.
I don't accept.
In the bottom of my heart that I am what I am by the grace of God.
But I am what I am because I'm, well, I'm not like you. I don't do what you do. I do it right. That's the weed of the human heart. And it as such, why does it get bitter?
It gets bitter because when I stand before God on those terms, when I lack the grace of God in my own soul on those terms, then God doesn't do things right.
01:05:02
And I get bitter with God. Why did God allow this to happen to me? I've lived right. He didn't live right. And look what God's doing in his life.
And so it's a tremendous tendency of the human heart. The whole of the book of Galatians was to help the brethren get delivered from that spirit that, if not delivered, produces that sense of a lack of the grace of God. And the inevitable result that follows from that lack is bitterness of soul toward others and toward God because.
I'm not getting treated right, I'm not being given the right amount of attention for my needs. And that person is getting something that they shouldn't get because they're not living the way they should live. But I'm I'm him, and when I get into that pattern of thought and feeling, it leads to bitterness and it leads to defilement of others.
I will defile my brethren, I will defile my fellow man as I spew out that which is in my own soul, in my own bitterness of soul, and in.
Job. The problem that job had was that.
God made Job something. He made him a righteous man. It was a work of God in Job and he was what he claimed to be really as as among men. He was a righteous man, but his problem was.
He took the credit for it. He didn't treat it as the grace of God working in his life, but he took the credit for it. And once he took the credit for it, then he became a bitter man. And it was his life was up to a point. His language became sinful and defiling it before his trial was over, until he got into the presence of the Lord and recognized in truth that what he was, was according to the grace of God.
And then his life was greatly blessed and we all have to deal with it. And we need to recognize what's working against us, in US, and that is that sense of self rightness or self righteousness. And whenever it gets a hold in us, it's going to result in a lack of grace and bitterness. May the Lord help us to recognize, as Paul had learned, by the grace of God, I am what I am.
You know, Donnelly, you were.
We could be entertaining thoughts that we shouldn't be entertaining, uh, which if those thoughts, they're not judged, we all know will result in and it will manifest itself. And I suppose if we're thinking thoughts, uh, about our brother, oh, I shouldn't be treated this way and we're entertaining that kind of a thought. I suppose that in itself could be a secret fault until it manifests itself.
I was thinking of the verse and proverbs, Umm, as a man thinketh, so is he. So if we keep entertaining that thing, then we're going to end up manifesting, manifesting it. Now that's an that that of course, that's a negative thing when you're you, when you think about that as a man thinketh, so is he. What we should be doing is.
Umm looking to the Lord and and to him and to meditate on him.
And and just bask in his love that he's had for us and what's going to be resolved when we do that as a man think it so is he, you know, that's that's the positive. That's the positive aspect of that verse that we read in Proverbs. My brother used to say read the word of God.
Until your very thoughts are formed by it. And that's why when it says reduce, as Bob used the the Spanish, reduce your thoughts to him. We need the source of that which is our thoughts is going to come from God outside of ourselves. If we simply try to generate them within ourselves, it won't work. And so it says, looking sad fastly unto Jesus.
That's what changes us, transforms us, is to have our eye fixed outside of ourselves on a pure.
01:10:03
Thought a fewer person and uh, we all be holding the glory of the Lord in 2nd Corinthians 3 are changed. And so I need to be occupied with that which is pure, the one who is pure. And if I am truly occupied with himself and not myself, then that will form in me right thoughts and right.
Uh, pattern that God will use for my own purification. So he says in first John three, he that hath this hope in him, that is to be like him.
Uh, purifieth himself even as pure. If you want to be like the Lord Jesus, well, you better know what he's like.
If you want to be like him, get your eye on him, and then you'll know what he's like. And as you get to know what he's like, God says I'll take care of changing you to be like him. You won't have to do that part, but you need to have your eye on him and you need to learn what he's like, and I'll take care of you.
See the Lord. I was thinking of Isaiah 33.
Verse 14.
This coming day in Israel, it'll be an awful day, but there will be a remnant, it says. They're the sinners in Zion are afraid.
Fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites.
Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? In Hebrews 12 we learn our God is a consuming fire. There's going to be some there at home.
Their spirit with one was a God. That is a consuming fire then, it says.
He that walketh righteously speaketh uprightly. He that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, shutteth his eyes from seeing evil. I wanna read 1St Corinthians 13.
Love thinketh no evil. You know our God is the God of love, but he's also consuming fire. Then it says he shall dwell on high. His place of defence shall be the munition of the rocks. Bread shall be given him. His water shall be sure. Thine eye shall see the King in his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. You know the the if. Just think of a remnant in a day when Israel's going through such horrible tribulation.
But there's going to be some Behold the King in his beauty. And when you think without which no man shall see the Lord, we think of Stephen in Acts 7 as he's there in the midst of all these highly religious men. Who's he occupied with?
You know, and his his face shines.
He sees the Lord as the stones are flying.
He leaves a testimony in the heart of Saul of Tarsus.
It's amazing, isn't it?