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Great news.
All thou gracious Savior.
Malachi Chapter 3.
Over the years, I've heard this verse read at reading meetings.
Standing in the middle.
Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. But how do we prove him?
James says you have not because you asked God or that you ask of him. But how can the Lord not answer this prayer of our heart today to simply ask Him to prove himself with expected hearts by faith?
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Believe in that he will do what he has promised and what we have asked him to do.
That we take up Hebrews chapter 13.
We know that this epistle was written approximately 7 years before Jerusalem was destroyed and God was going to.
Really.
Drug those that had crucified his well beloved Son in that nation was going to be set aside. And so the real believers, those that truly love the Lord Jesus were giving were being given instruction and the instruction given here in the 13th chapter. While Hebrews doesn't mention the assembly, it does give us the principles of how we might encourage one another in.
Days just before we're to leave the scene and so the first few verses perhaps give us instructions to strengthen the Christian testimony. Really from verse 7 down to the end you have how we might strengthen the things that remain and then these first few verses how the assembly how those that are gathered in the Lord's name.
Might go on for His glory and strengthen one another.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
Let brotherly love continue.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body.
Marriage is honorable in all and a 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 hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and forever.
Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, for the good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein We have an altar.
Whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle, where the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is 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.
Suffered without the gate, Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
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 that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief.
For that is unprofitable for you.
Pray for us where we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly.
But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now the God of peace that 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 His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, for I have written a letter unto you in few words.
Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you.
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Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the Saints they of Italy salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen.
Hebrews, really, you might say it doesn't teach Christian doctrine, as perhaps you might have in Romans and some of the other epistles. But it brings before us the glories of Christ and the glory of his finished work and the completeness of it, and gives us the proper teaching of all those Old Testament types. And perhaps the apostle Paul is the writer of it. And if so, then he's written 14 of the Epistles of the New Testament.
And in this epistle we have.
The juxtaposition between.
Christianity and Judaism, the contrast between Judaism and Christianity and how Christianity is far better than all of those types and shadows that they had in the Old Testament. And so we have a better hope, we have a better covenant, you might say, the better promises, a better sacrifice.
A better and abiding and enduring inheritance in having all those things we have better. And I think it's 13 times in the epistle that we have that term, that expression, those things that we have that are better. And so in this chapter that we've just read, there are some specific instructions given. The epistle generally has doctrine or teaching.
In the first part of the epistle.
But then the last part of the epistle generally gives us the practical instructions as to how the teaching that has been given in the beginning of the epistle should affect our practical walk before the Lord and before those that are outside. And so we have in this chapter some practical instructions. And so we didn't read it in chapter 12, but the last verse 28.
We could.
Just comment on there are seven things that perhaps the apostle refers to here that gives us practical instruction. And if we take verse 28, we could have those seven it says in the last part of verse 28. Well, let's read 28, Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace or be thankful, whereby we may serve God acceptably.
With reverence and godly fear. So that's the first one is to serve God with reverence and godly fear. The second one is to have brotherly lung verse one and then in verse 2, the third one. Not forgetful to entertain strangers or not forgetful of hospitality.
The fourth one would be to remember them which are in bonds or those that are prisoners.
And then we have marriage brought out in the distinct character of marriage, and the honorable estate that it is, but that Christianity it was to be.
Visible.
Manifestation of Christ in the church, and then in verse 5, covetousness. It's the sixth thing that we ought not to be characterized by covetousness in the Christian testimony, and the sixth thing is one.
Position in the seventh verse. The sixth verse speaks of the seventh thing, and that is that we ought to have courage in the day that we live in. The Christian testimony was not to be characterized by fearfulness, but by courage because of the fact that we have a sense of the presence of the Lord. So those are seven things that perhaps the apostle desired individually that they would be exercised about.
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And that would manifest the character of Christ in this scene, as they went on together, awaiting the coming of the Lord.
So brotherly love is something that is to be cultivated. Let it continue. That's the phileo love in the Greek. It's in contrast with the agape love that we have so often referred to in the New Testament, which is the love that God has towards this world. For God so loved the world.
And that he loved because of who he is. He did not love because of who we were, but who he is. And I think it's helpful to see the distinction so that brotherly love is something that it goes along with it, but it's distinct. It's the cultivation, the enjoyment of each other in a practical way.
I love you, brother Robert.
I know I have learned to appreciate things about you.
But.
Supposing in our relationships one day I get annoyed and I give you a slap in the face.
Now you're going to look at me with a little bit of reserve, aren't you?
Naturally speaking, perhaps. OK.
Can you still love me? Yes. But that's not the brotherly love, that's the agape love, isn't it? And I think it's good to see that in Scripture. And let's go back to First Thessalonians chapter 4, because in so many places it puts those two different kinds of love together.
First Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse nine. Look at this, it says.
But as touching brotherly love, that's the chileo love ye have. Not that I you need, not that I write unto you, For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. There's the Agape lab.
So it goes together and I think it's helpful to see that. Let's look at one other place because there's quite a few places.
Being first or second Peter chapter one.
We are told to add things to our faith.
And amongst them, well, let's read from verse 5, second Peter chapter one and verse five. Beside all this giving all diligence add to your faith, virtue, to virtue, knowledge and to knowledge, temperance and to temperance, patience, to patience, godliness, and to godliness. Here it is brotherly love, the filial love.
And then it says and to brotherly love add love or charity which is agape love.
So if there's something that you and a brother you have in your sphere of your acquaintance has done that kind of offended you, are you going to still love him?
That's where agape love comes into the picture, and that's what's so important to understand.
Yes, we can still love him, and that's agape love. Add that to brotherly love. I think it's so helpful to see the distinction. And like I say, brother and we need these times together where we can cultivate brotherly law.
Let brotherly love continue.
There's a wholeness for that that is often not available at all. When you think of a brother that you're close to naturally in your family, the depth of that thing, you know, brothers are created for adversity.
A real brother, blood brother, will come running no matter what time of day or night, no matter the problem. And if you slap him to the face, he'll come right back running through you.
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I was talking with a group of brothers, and one brother there had expressed to me that when he had gotten away from the Lord, one of the reasons he said was I did not have a close friend in the assembly, a real brother. Yes, he loved his brothers, They loved him, but he had never developed his real friendship closest with his brother. And as we talked around the room, different ones from different assemblies were saying, you know.
We get so busy with our lives and families and business, we don't spend time with our brethren away from the assembly. We calm, we smile, we shake hands, we love our brothers, We have meetings, we have brothers meetings, so forth. But we often don't spend time doing other things. Spending time going out for lunch, going and doing something, maybe fishing, enjoying one another's company and developing a real brotherly relationship with that person where you get to know them.
You get to and the opportunity to hear them talk about maybe their their fault, how you can fetch your faults to one another if you don't spend some time together. And maybe you learn to understand that and be able to help with that and that person can help with you and then when trouble comes.
Oh, there's one who comes running in the middle of the night. There's one even if you're offended, he forgives you and comes back again and again because you've developed that relationship. I think we missed that in some ways. We don't fully develop. And like you're saying, brother, these are wonderful times when we get together, when we start developing that and we catch up with people we haven't seen in a long time. And I treasure that like I think everyone does, but locally.
And even across distances, we need to work on developing a fullness of that kind of relationship as brothers with one another, as sisters with one another, that there's a depth to it and a strength to it that is more than just purpose.
This is, after all, a the Lord Jesus makes.
In John 1333, when he says by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. If you have love one to another. It's an identifying character and trait, the Lord Jesus himself says.
You should have this.
In Judaism, they were commanded to love one another. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
But there was only one man that ever did it, and that was the Lord Jesus.
He came into this world and He loved, He loved you and I. He loved his Jewish brethren. He came unto his own. His own received him not, but he loved them yet, and so He loved them through everything. I think that's the force of the thought in the verse that we sometimes quote. Having loved his own, which were in the world, He loved them to the end. He loved them through everything. And it didn't dim his love, but it's interesting here in this passage of Scripture.
The term let us, he says, let brotherly love continue.
And then a little further on, perhaps verse four, we could quote in the Darby translation, Let marriage be held every way in honor. And then a little further on, he says.
Verse five. Let your conversation be without covetousness little further on. Let us go forth therefore unto him in verse 15. Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually so.
In Christianity, that's lovely to see that the Spirit of God, if we allow the Spirit of God to do his work, let us, let us allow the Spirit of God to have an influence and a desire.
To give us the desire to submit to His will.
And to the operative in our lives, if we do not grieve the spirit, we walk in an ungrieved spirit. Let him have his way and he will lead in this way. And so if we would just he's not commanding us in the sense, but appealing to our.
To us that we might yield in this way.
Hardly think that there could be rather than rather than water. Divine law isn't its source and I realized there's a difference brotherly love is a is a very practical thing as as brother Sam was giving us illustrations. It's an actually working out of that which we should already find in our hearts because we have the very nature of God and.
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God is love. If we're if we're the children of God, then love is not something that we have to.
We have to try to generate it is if the Spirit of God is free, it's free flowing and if we're in the enjoyment of God's company, there's going to be a reflection of him through us. And this is.
The practical as we've been speaking about, it's very, very important. It touches hearts, it strengthens and encourages and, but it's a practical thing. If, if we're going to, if we're going to let it, then we're actually not putting anything in front of it to hinder it. We're letting it it's, it's flowing freely and.
The spirit, I think of times when we might be going from place to place or something and something comes into our heart. Maybe we're driving right past the road where our brother lives and, and there's this desire to just stop in and see how they're doing and, and.
Pretty soon there's an opportunity for brotherly love to be manifest. Just that care that I have.
For you, because I have God's love in my heart. I all I'm doing express is expressing the nature God has given me. And it's, it's a, it's something that flows and we're just supposed to let it, okay, It's it's not we're supposed to generate it. We're just not supposed to put anything in front of it to hinder it from going forward.
So interesting it failed to think that that love, that agape love.
Love which is of God is love that loves because of what God is, not because of what we are.
And so there should be nothing ever to hinder that outflow in our lives. And then there is a place, like you say, for the cultivation of mutual appreciation. There is, if there is real divine life. And my brother, I know there's going to be something that I can value and appreciate and to cultivate that.
We let God's love go through us. That's a copy love. And that goes further, even it goes in the face of things that in our natural way we wouldn't threaten, maybe respond to. On the 18th of this month, early in the morning hours, I heard the roar of a dying animal out of my window. I ran out and it was my brother. His wife and son were in a fire and he had the day before. He'd been upset with me.
Ran and grabbed me and embraced me. Let pray for me. My son and my wife were in a fire. They won't let me up.
I loved him with all my heart in that moment, not just with brotherly love, natural brotherly love, brotherly love in Christ, but my heart flowed from the Lord and I cried out with him in that moment. This is my brother twice over, and God's love flow through, and it wasn't mine, it was His.
And in those moments, he cried out, Please God, do not let my son die. Don't take him. Don't take him. He's not ready.
And when I walked up there to talk with the police.
He wouldn't let me near either.
But I wanted to find out for my brother if his son yet lived. And I asked him, are they dead or alive? And he said to me, one lives, one is dead. I said, which one lives? He said, Jeremy, God heard the crowd here. Linda went home to be with the Lord into the arms of her Savior, to leave lots of pain and suffering behind. But in that moment, in that time, even after the day before.
My brother upset with me, he knew that I loved him and he came to me and he was not disappointed because it wasn't just mine. It was the love of Christ flowing through that comes through in the darkest of moments to embrace one another. We need to love one another that way because we are facing difficult times. And in the near future, if God leaves us here, we're going to face difficult times, we're going to face persecution.
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And we're going to need that kind of love for one another.
Divine love and brotherly love.
The perfect example of it is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He exhibits to us divine love, which has been commented on.
He loves us because of what he is, not because of what we are. He loves us not because of relationship that's pre established, but because of who He is. He is God the Son, but we also. When we look at the life of the Lord Jesus we see the perfect.
Expression and activity of brotherly love.
The Lord Jesus was born into a Jewish family.
And he had brothers and he had sisters in his household that were part of his family. He also had fellows in the town where he was who were fellow Jews of the same heritage and the same family. The Lord Jesus in calling disciples to be with him.
Showed perfect brotherly love in his relationship with them.
He valued the companionship, he valued the daily relationship that they had as brothers and sisters of the same heritage. And as a result, on the very last night of his life, he was saying to some of them.
Ye are they which have continued with me.
He appreciated their brotherly love.
To himself, as he had that love in his own soul.
For them.
We sometimes, because of the truth of Christianity, may not always recognize that he still this morning has that same love toward that people.
He loves them as his brothers and his sisters in the natural way, and consequently the Lord Jesus feels the separation.
This morning from them that is still true between himself and his brothers of Israel and of the family into which he was born as a man here on earth.
And so it is. I make the comment without trying to elaborate on it. There are times when we're not always able to express the love of a brother because of circumstances.
Or because of the condition of that brother's soul. Or perhaps the condition of our own soul.
That is a hindrance to us, but to just give one more thought on it.
I used to think when I went to heaven I wouldn't cry again.
I don't believe that anymore. In fact, I'm confident that's not true. I'm going to cry after I get to heaven, and I'm going to cry because I'm going to see the Lord Jesus Christ cry at least seven times.
In the process in which he is restored to an unhindered brotherly love with his earthly family and the picture of it is found in Joseph, who loved his brothers as his brothers, who was estranged from them and lost the enjoyment of the relationship that they had as members of the same family. He loved them and in fact, he restrained himself when they came for food.
And didn't make himself known to them because of the state of their souls, but he loved them as brethren. And he goes through a process until they are restored to him that he's able to embrace them and know them as his brothers again in that relationship. And so it is that character that we have the perfect example of the Lord Jesus, of the fact that God has brought us into the same family.
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We are going to be forever part of a family we weren't born into.
Now we're children of God and it's the only family relationship we'll have in heaven. As children of God together, natural relationships will be passed, but in that family we can start now to enjoy with one another brothers and sisters of the same family.
In the character not only of divine relationship, but also the character of family relationship. And so let brotherly love, I'll say it this way, let it start, let it abide, and let it remain for eternity.
It says let because our own natural tendencies are to not let.
Remember, Joseph was betrayed.
But he still loved his brothers.
Because Joseph walked before God.
Our tendency is to hold grudges and to not let brotherly love continue. We we damn it up, we hinder it by our own wills.
And that's why we have this verse. Yes, our brethren on occasion will betray us.
Say things that hurt deeply, Do things that may hurt deeply. And sometimes that hurt is related to our own pride.
That's why it says let brotherly love continue.
It's interesting that Joseph expressed his love for his brethren by having them in his home even when they were estranged from him. And so, as it were, he was not an injustice collector. Sometimes you run into someone and he's as remembers that on July the 1St, 1969, you stepped on his foot or something and never forgot. He collects those injustices and he has a whole bags and bags of them. He's collecting them.
Won't let them go, but one of the things that is helpful is to forget those things that has have taken place if we can and if not to just seek grace to go on with our brethren. But the apostle here, perhaps the Apostle Paul, he wrote be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Why did he say be not forgetful while they were under persecution and some of our brethren in India and other places.
I'm sure could read these verses and they're so apartment to think of our own things and to be taken up with our own circumstances that we forget to take up the work of having our brethren in our homes and to serve them in that way and to. I was just thinking of Acts chapter 8 in this connection. Acts 8 and verse one. Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were scattered abroad throughout all the regions of Judea and Samaria except.
The apostles. So there is a time of stress that we're going through Indiana these days.
No doubt about it, there are hindrances, oftentimes, perhaps perceived hindrances, whatever they are to fellowship, to having the Saints in our homes. And I think it's the Darby translation says here, be not forgetful of hospitality in spite of the difficulties, in spite of the stresses of the day that we live in. We're just about to be removed from the scene and the Lord Jesus.
Who?
It says in John's gospel, I think it's Chapter 11, maybe 12, that says they made a supper for him in the home in Bethany, the one who is a homeless stranger in this world. And he appreciated that dinner. He appreciated the fellowship in that home. And so it's necessary for us to have the Saints in our homes and to warm their hearts and to have the word of God before us to sing to him.
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Just to have a word of prayer to do those things that we might strengthen our brethren and that we might be refreshed ourselves.
The stranger. And it's not just our home. The stranger you meet at the gas station, the one you meet at the restaurant, the one you see walking along the road, the one whose car is broken down, the one you meet someplace per chance and something nudges you within your soul. This person needs to have a conversation. Those are all entertaining strangers. And you never know when 1 might be an Angel that God has sent to draw you out, maybe to teach you something to bring you alongside. Maybe it's somebody at a bookstore when you're there and you get a nudge in your spirit.
That that person needs someone to talk to. You see a face with a frown of sadness and you walk over and you say something. All of those things are entertaining strangers. And that kind of thing ought to be what the love of our heart that Christ puts their producers to see that, to notice it, to even pray that God will help us to notice it so that we can do that. And from that we will see not only be able to bless others.
But receive great blessing ourselves.
When he had his brother and at the first into his home, they were estranged from him, weren't they? And yet he had them. This is one way to let brotherly love continue is to do this activity. And it's interesting. It says thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
And we don't naturally see angels every day, I don't suppose maybe we do. But it's interesting to be aware that there are angels. And it's does seem that in Genesis 18, where the Lord appears to Abraham with two angels, it says he lifted up his eyes and there were three men standing by him.
Just appeared as men. So angels don't appear with wings, they appear as men. And so be conscious of the fact that I don't seem to know that person out standing out front. Who in the world might that be? Be aware of the fact that there are angels around. I still remember in Bolivia a brother I used to visit, He wasn't gathered with us, but I had a real heart for the Lord and he said.
Because there's a lot of beggars that go around to the doors, They're asking for things. And he says, I always be careful how I treat those beggars that come to my door. It might be an Angel that has come sent by the Lord. And so, brethren, we never know. It was interesting to me to think that when those two angels came to visit Abraham, he prepared a meal for him. Do angels eat food?
That time they did they ate food and Abraham was the one that served it. I think that's so so nice. I mean he was a wealthy man. He had had lots of servants to serve and yet he served the Lord in those two angels. I think that's beautiful picture. So may that be one of the things that's characteristic of his friend. Why are questions Bob? I thought about this. So we're told that we might entertain.
You know, entertaining strangers, so they're people.
There are strange people, they're men. But why would God send an Angel to us to entertain? What would the purpose be, do you think?
What?
Have but what would be the purpose of that? I wondered. I have some thoughts but what would be the purpose?
Your one is 1 purpose brother.
And I don't pretend to know all the ways that he may use angels, but.
Verse 14 says, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them? Who shall be heirs of salvation? So they are sent to minister. In what way does it say here, but there must be some need that God sees and sends them along at the appropriate time for a specific need that we have.
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We could turn to Genesis chapter 19 as well and it says in verse one, Genesis 19 verse one, there came two angels to Sodom and even and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom seeing them, rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with a space toward the ground. But then a little bit further on it says that they delivered their message, it says.
Umm.
Little further on, hey, I'm trying to looking for the verse where verse 12 The man said unto law, Hast thou hear any besides son-in-law, thy sons, thy daughters, whosoever whatsoever thou hast in this city, bring them out of this place, for we will destroy this place.
And so they delivered a message. They had a message from God. And so they're used not only as servants of God to do his service, but they're used to send a message. And so oftentimes, the reason?
But perhaps you might have someone in your home and you didn't expect to have them in your home, but there they are, and there's time over the Word. Or there's just there. You're eating together, you're having fellowship. They may deliver a message to your heart, to your conscience, and they may deliver a message from God himself. You weren't expecting it. They may not even know that they're delivering a message, but they are delivering a message to you.
And so God is no man's debtor. It says that whosoever water it, he shall be watered also himself. And so God gives the increase. He delights to have his people together. And perhaps it is a stranger, perhaps one that is yet lost, and so there might be fruit for him even in that visitation.
It's also important to recognize we've been talking about.
Us showing something to somebody else. But very often in that process, God is working in the opposite direction as well. In other words, brotherly love, abiding. We've looked at it from us, letting us do this or that. Very often in God's side of it, He's letting the other person minister to us.
Something that we need as well, even though the responsibility and the exhortation given here is for us to let something happen. The same way with entertaining the stranger. God may use that stranger as He used angels to minister to the need of the individual that was showing the hospitality. And the next one is the prisoner. Some of us have had privileges of interacting with prisoners.
But very often after a while we find out that the prisoner is giving us more than we're getting, and we're receiving a greater blind effect from the prisoner than we ourselves have maybe thought we were doing for him or her. And so, brethren, God's working in both ways. He puts here the exhortation on us to do certain things, but he's thinking about us as well.
Not simply serving him and what we're doing, but also using.
The other half of that relationship for our own blessing and benefit.
The Apostle Paul.
Romans chapter one and verse 11.
So the Apostle Paul was the minister here.
For I long to see you, that I might impart unto you some spiritual gift of the end you may be established. But verse 12 Says, that is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. And so we think of the apostle Paul as as the, the chief instrument, you might say, of, of setting forth these truths to the Saints. But he didn't consider himself that.
In this case, he thought of the blessing and the benefit he was going to get from being in their company and how he was going to receive comfort by their mutual faith. And so we need to have that spirit, don't we? That we, the Lord may lay something on our heart, but we're not just there to give. We're there to receive because those that we are seeking to be an encouragement to.
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Are going to meet our need as well.
Well, in Acts chapter 18, And that is to have a home that's suitable, that we might be able to be used of God in that way. So Acts chapter 18 verse 24, a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, being firm and in spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord. Knowing only the baptism of John, he began to speak boldly in a synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them.
Expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to passenger, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive Him, who, when He was come help them much which had believed through grace. For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly showing from by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. And so this couple were never told that they had children, but they used their home, and it was suitable as a place where the Saints could come in.
And where one was not instructed in the way of God as materially, as perfectly as he could be, but he was, they invited him, I believe, into the home. And perhaps these things were gone over in a nice way, not in a public way, berating him. They didn't stand up in the synagogue and and contradict him or anything, but in a very quiet way. And for God's glory, they sought to minister the proper truth.
To him of the finished work of Christ and that the work of John the Baptist, the baptism of repentance in connection with the nation of Israel, that wasn't Christian baptism. And they perhaps explained Christian baptism to him. And so in a nice way they spoke. And in the home there was hospitality and the people of God were welcome. There wasn't that hindrance with the God that our homes were open, every one of us to the people of God and to those that are yet lost.
But I believe that the Spirit of God brings before us this example in Acts chapter 18.
That we might have suitable homes and have the word before us and know the truth that might be, that might be blessing. So we know that Apollos went forth and there was great blessing as a result.
I've been sending 2 interceptions with angels.
There they see a side to to God that they haven't seen before, don't they? And, and him reaching out to mankind and bringing us into such blessing as we had enough into that first chapter of Hebrews that were heirs of salvation. But I was thinking of what Peter says concerning the angels and verse 12 of chapter one of first Peter, unto whom it was revealed.
That not unto themselves, but unto us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. So I was just thinking of the angels here. They're learning, aren't they, through God's dealings and his work with, with the church, with us. I was thinking too even of, of the matter of wearing head coverings, which has largely been given up in Christendom.
It says in First Corinthians Chapter 11 That our sisters put on a head covering partly because it says here verse 10, for this cause of the woman to have power on her head, or really it's the thought of her being displaying a subjection to the authority that she's under because of the angels. I think that's interesting that Paul has that because of the Angel. So when the angels look down.
On a company today, perhaps they're seeing us here. Now, as I've mentioned, they're all around us ministering. We don't see them mostly, but they're ministering to us and they're observing us as well. And they see our sisters with a head covering and they're learning through that the purposes of God and in a way that they wouldn't absent that. So I was just thinking of that aspect too, to that we might.
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Be mindful of that that.
There are those that are observing us and they're learning, aren't they? The purposes of God? I think that's wonderful to think of.
Young sisters especially realize it's just not just a custom that we practice, but there is a meaning to it. And so when we pray or prophecy, and that's not just in the meetings, it's anytime we pray or prophecy might be in our homes.
Or out in public too, if I have a hat on, If I'm going to prophecy, I'm going to speak the gospel to somebody. I take my hat off. And that gives a testimony to the angelic hosts, and a woman puts something on her head, and that's the testimony. The angels, it says in Ephesians 3 and verse 10 to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places.
That's the angelic horse might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. The angels do not have the Holy Spirit to help them to understand the ways of God like we do. How do they learn?
By what they see in the church. And so it's very important point is we show that by that simple faith. Somebody said what? What's so important about putting something on your head or taking your hat off?
It's important when you see it in the light of God's Word. It is important.
Young brother and sister. And so may the Lord help us to understand that these are just not customs. These are.
Instructions of the Word of God. It might be helpful too to look at Ephesians chapter.
Five and just verse 24.
Without going into a lot of detail, it says therefore as the church is subject unto Christ.
So let the wise be unto their own husbands and everything. So the sister has a marvelous privilege of representing the church here in this world in submission to Christ. So Christ is the head of the church, and man represents Christ as he walks, as he is in this world. But the sister represents the church in perfect submission to Christ.
And so.
Will the Church be in submission to the Lord Jesus?
When she's in heaven, in glory, perfectly submissive.
Never once will you or not ever rebel against his authorities. Never. It won't be possible and but God has ordained that in the world that we live in that there might be a little picture of Christ in the church in this world. And so the Christian marriage is brought in in this chapter that we have but.
Sisters, you have a privilege that is beyond.
What we can express, to express publicly to the angels and to the men and women in this world, the order that God is intended that Christ would be the head, He would have a bride, and she would be in perfect submission to Him. And so the Church should be in subjection to him. But it's in rebellion against him in many ways in the world that we live in. So let's walk in subjection to Him.
Verse three is another way that brotherly love can be expressed and it's in connection with those that are in bonds. And we live in the Americas where we have so much liberty really. But we need brother. And I really believe. Sometimes I listen in the prayer meetings.
And sometimes just barely any mention of our dear brethren that are suffering severe persecution, some that are being slaughtered.
For the name of the Lord Jesus and we.
Don't have anything. We don't relate to that. I guess it's that we don't relate to it. But we need to be stirred up about these things. Remember them. That are in bonds as bound with them, and then which suffer adversity. It's not only in bonds, but it's in adversity. And it says as being yourselves also in the body.
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In other words, we're part of the body of Christ and when one member suffer, we all should suffer with them. So let's remember to pray for them. If there's nothing else that we can do, sometimes there are things that we can do to help out, and we should be watchful for that in any way we can to be a help to those that are suffering adversity.
This is the Spirit of God thing because he said how can we relate? It's hard to relate to those things. How do you suffer here in America with the brother in Afghanistan who's worried that his head is going to be chopped off any minute right now? How do we do that? Well, we can't do that. I can't work that up. It has to be a divine thing. It has to be something from the Spirit of God that will let me know. I mean, if I hit my thumb with a hammer, my whole body knows it hurts.
But the only way I can experience that in some way, shape or form is if the Spirit of God gives me that. We know in Scripture that the Lord Jesus says, it says of him, He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. That is something the Spirit of God can do, is touch us, give us that sense, a real sense maybe in a prayer meeting when we're on our knees, be touched with the feelings of those infirmities and those things that are going on. So we actually feel something in our spirit, in our soul, but it can only come from the Spirit of God.
Translation. It says, remember them. There are prisoners as bound with them. And so a prisoner couldn't come into my home even if he wanted to, and I couldn't have him in my home because he's bound. And so there are those that are prisoners and perhaps we might say that there are some that perhaps are in homes right now and they're perhaps locked down and so on, and they can't come into our homes. They're prisoner of circumstances.
That the Lord has allowed them to have and to be in and so we need to have as many into our homes as we can to enjoy fellowship and to build up the things that remain to give the Lord Lord a little portion for his own heart as we have the Saints and enjoy their company and so on. But then there are those that are prisoners and we're not to forget them. It says remember them. They're in bonds and so.
As you said, brother Bob, it's easy to forget those that are hidden away in a prison cell somewhere. There's a brother in India that was recently arrested, I believe it was this week, and he's arrested, He's in prison, charged with crime that he didn't commit. But the authorities are actively persecuting believers in that country. And so they're not only being.
Bound, but there are many that are suffering adversity.
Adverse circumstances and so we need to remember them in prayer and seek to do whatever is possible to relieve them that we not to forget them.
Brother Dave, you were mentioning Egypt, and of course we have our brother Ripe in our assembly who is from Egypt as well. And so I kind of checked out some of the things I've read about Egypt. And one of the ways they are oppressed in Egypt is sometimes there's a young sister or even a young mother.
And when they are alone on the street, they are kidnapped and taken away without the knowledge, any knowledge of the family and forcibly married to a Muslim, maybe the second or third wife of a Muslim.
And then when they are called before the authorities because of the kidnapping, why they find that sometimes they've been threatened so violently that they say I've converted to the Muslim religion, even though they parents or the maybe the parents or the husband knows that that's not the case. And so it's a very real form of oppression that takes place there and.
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So we need to be aware of these things and pray for our bread. We don't know much about it.
Paul and Silas, but if you turn to Act 16.
14.
This is when she first attended to the.
And a certain woman named Lydia, the seller purple, the city of Bayatar, which worshiped God heard us in whose heart the Lord opened that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul. But if you go to after their release from prison in verse 40.
It says and they went out of prison and entered into the House of Lydia. When they had seen the brother, they comforted the department.
Also for a benefit and what's brought to us in verse three in this way.
When we are in some kind of difficult situation in our personal life, our prayer is generally, Lord, Take Me Out of it.
But.
The better sometimes starting point is to say thank you Lord, for the problem, for the difficulty that you have allowed in my life or in the life of someone I love, because sometimes the Lord is allowing it.
In part, at least, to enable us to fulfill the spirit of this verse 3.
You often can't enter in to be a help and a comfort to someone else in something you've never experienced yourself. And so we see in the wonderful example of the Apostle Paul.
In Second Corinthians Chapter 11, when he gives the list of things that he had experienced in his own life.
There's not a single. I dare, without complete confidence, say there's not a single person in this room.
That's experienced 110th of the things that the apostle Paul experienced and recounts to us in that chapter, but he's given to us as an example. Because when we go through these things, we are then enabled of the Lord to enter in spirit at least, if not more than in spirit into what another person is going through. And in that way be able to be an encouragement and a help to them.
Very often we say, I wish I could help, but and then there's some reason I don't have the time, I don't have the energy, I have my own problems. We may not verbalize it that way, but the bottom line is very often we're taken up sufficiently with our own situations that we really don't find time to enter into others. But the apostle Paul did, and he's a pattern St.
To us, He's given to us to show us the pattern and.
In that way, when we have experienced these things, we're more able to enter in with others that are going through something. And the Lord Jesus is again a perfect example of it. He went, he became a man, and then he experienced all the difficulties of life that now he is using, if I can speak of it as a man, that personal experience that he went through.
To be a help and a comfort to us. So when we have a difficulty and we turn to the Lord in it. We have that instinctive sense in US. Lord, you know, you understand you went through something even greater than I'm going through. And in that way we received from him. And so in the spirit of this verse, we need to, if I could put it again, what the first comment we need to do in everything. Give thanks.
Including things that come into our own life that the Lord may use to enable us to be a help to others.
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I wonder if you saw these thoughts might have gone through some similar to look at the People's Teen.
Book of Hebrews 10 down towards the end and.
32 The call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, he endured a great flight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a gazing star, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while you became companions with them that were so used. And then he says that they could understand. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully.
The scrolling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance. So it makes you wonder that some of these went through some really difficult times.
I would watch through these 3 verses but I I would like to back up to the verse on hospitality.
Some of us maybe have grown up in in homes that are extremely hospitable and as kids we we always experience those beyond our family, our immediate families as being a part of the dinner table or whatever. And so hospitality is something that.
We really love and enjoy, but I think it's good for us to be reminded that the burden of hospitality.
Often most.
Falls on the the white.
And the workload of hospitality can be burdensome if it's not shared.
I don't know very much about this. I I know that there's been plenty of hospitality, but I didn't wake up to this.
I I, you know, with shame, I say, I just figured that's kind of what my wife was. I don't want to, she's a wonderful woman, but.
We need to realize that when we are hospitable, we are creating circumstances that we need to share. I just put it that way.
It may not be 5050.
It's amazing if it's 95.5.
How much that is a healthy And so I just want to share that that's a practical side of this, but it certainly is important.
When Genesis 18 that we mentioned.
That when it came to serving them, those that had come to be with him, he says, let a little water, I pray you be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the trees. I don't think that was Sarah that did that.
I will for fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts that ye.
After that ye shall pass on, for therefore ye come to your servants. And they said, So do as thou hast said. And Abraham hastened unto the tent, unto Sarah said, Make ready quickly 3 measures of fine meal needed, and make cakes on the heart. So Sarah did have a part. But Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched the calf tender and good, and gave it to a young man, and he hasted to dress it.
And he took butter and milk in the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. Who did that?
Abraham did. He served the meal. That's a little bit different, like when you say sometimes the way it is, and that's been kind of a challenge to me as well. We do need to be exercising that.
It is nice to see that they labored together. Perhaps Abraham it was his home and his responsibility, but his wife labored with him and so it is a work of love together. Might just mention too that perhaps a sister or perhaps the home is not suitable to have visitors in the home. But oftentimes isn't it precious to have a couple, perhaps even a young person that doesn't have a home invite you for a meal?
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To a restaurant, and then there's a time of fellowship and even the word can be opened and there's just a liberty of the Spirit to bring Christ before our souls. So it doesn't have to be in the home, but it does say remember or be not forgetful to entertain. Be not forgetful of hospitality. There are different ways of expressing it.
So the next one really is in connection with marriage, and one of the things that was to characterize Christianity is that the marriage, the institution of marriage, would be a display publicly of the truth of Christ in the church. It was not known in the Old Testament that Christ would have a bride. There's little pictures of it given in the Old Testament in connection with Joseph, that he had a Gentile bride.
Asana means beautiful.
And he had opportunity to have defiled himself and so on, but he would not sin against his God. And so I believe that he got the best wife that he could possibly get in Egypt and was given to him of Pharaoh himself. And so here the expression here of the Spirit of God, verse 4, I'm going to read it in the new translation. It says let marriage be held every way in honor, and the bed be undefiled.
For fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. And so in Christianity, the institution of marriage ought to be held in the highest respect because it is an institution that God himself has instituted for the happiness and the blessing of man. And So what we find in the day that we live in is that marriage is ridiculed and it's corrupted in every form, every possible way. And so the.
Institutions that God has instituted for our blessing have been.
Dishonored, but nice to let the Spirit of God. It speaks of moral purity.
Let the Spirit of God have his way, and that marriage, let marriage be held every way in honor.
Which says that that be undefiled. It means that there is a place for sexual intimacy in marriage.
It's to be undefiled, and I think that is beautiful to see because sometimes we give the.
Intimation that sexual desires are wrong.
God put those there.
But there is a place for them and it's within the marriage bonds.
I sometimes relate it to a river. A river can be a very beautiful, fruitful thing in a country. But if it gets.
Too much water and flows over its banks. It's not in the place where it's meant to flow. It will do tremendous damage. So be careful of your sexual impulses, dear young people.
They are to be used within the marriage bond. There's a place for them.
And it's a beautiful thing in that place. But before that, keep yourselves pure. Let me show you a verse that has impressed me that Paul wrote to Timothy in First Timothy chapter 5.
And it's in connection with his relationship with different.
Groups of people in the Christian testimony.
Here it says in.
Verse one rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father.
The younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, and that interesting respect as a mother, that near this part, the younger as sisters with all purity. Lord, help us in your relationships. They're your sisters and the Lord treat them with respect, but with all purity. And I think that's why.
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It says in First Corinthians Chapter 7 it says it is good for a man.
Not to touch a woman, I don't think that means you can't shake hands or something like that, but it's going into more liberty and touching as was would not be proper. It would not be the purity that is to be maintained in the marriage bond. How important those things are, ************ and adulterers. God will judge you. Go beyond those. You're going to get into trouble.
David was a man after God's own heart, but he got into problems there.
And the Lord, when he repented of his sin, the Lord said through the prophet Nathan, God has forgiven your sin, but because you have made the enemies of the Lord blasphemy, the sword will never depart from your house. So the government of God was on David for the rest of his life.
Because of going over the bounds and taking someone else's wife.
Oh, how serious these things are, how you need to be careful about this. I must say, in traveling around with Eric Smith and brother Ramon Alarcon, they were super careful as to the appearance of evil. And I must say I learned not only from what they said, but how they handle situations. Don't give the appearance of evil.
Be careful about your relationships with those of the opposite sex.
Proverbs, you don't need to turn to it. Proverbs 414 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, Pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. So there are circumstances where in order to maintain purity, respect, and honor, we take precautions that go beyond.
Our normal circumstances.
We see #22 of the appendix.
In the circle of libel his brother and we apply teach us that name to all, while waiting Lord, for the unholiness and sins to show from all of truth to flee #22 independence.
Yeah.
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Read it.