Open—H. Brinkmann, B. Conrad
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In the back.
I was a wall.
I I.
Was nothing.
I was my way.
To him, suggests John chapter 10.
Verse one.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheep pole pulled, but climbed up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he did enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep, to him the Porter openness, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he put us forth his own sheep.
He goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice, and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.
00:05:06
This parable speak Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were, which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am calm that they might have life, and that they might have it.
Abundantly.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, but he that is in harling, and not the shepherd whose bone the sheep are not, see it the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flee it, and the wolf catches them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth because he is in hireling and careth not for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep.
And am known of mine, as the Father knoweth me, Even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep, and other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one pluck. Notice the difference. Fault is wrong here. 1 flock and one shepherd.
Therefore both does my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father. There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings, and many of them said, He has a devil and is mad.
Why hear you him? Others said. These are not the words of him that has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch, then came to Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ? Tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you. And you believe not the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep, as I have said, as I said unto you, my sheep.
My voice and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my father are one.
This beautiful passage.
And the way the Lord Jesus presents himself here is the result of what happened in Chapter 9.
In Chapter 9, the man that was born blind.
Testified of the Lord Jesus. They asked his parents but they were afraid and they said he's of age as Kim.
And so we find that he speaks up for the Lord Jesus.
And what happens?
They throw them out of the synagogue.
What kind of shepherds were these leaders of the Jews?
They were supposedly to be in the position of shepherds.
But they were not true shepherds.
They were feeding themselves already. In the Old Testament, shepherds like that are described and but then the Lord Jesus, he meets this man and he does not only give him physical size, he gives him to see who the Lord Jesus is.
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And what do we find?
He ends up as a worshipper at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
You know how wonderful that he got more than his eyesight, that he got to see who that wonderful person was that performed that miracle on him. But then, in contrast with these hypocrites, these leaders of the Jews, the Lord Jesus presents himself as the shepherd.
And he is the one that came according to all the prophecies in the Old Testament that predicted his coming.
And.
He didn't climb over the fence.
The doorkeeper opened the door to him.
You know, John the Baptist introduced him at the baptism of who he was, and so how wonderful that the Lord Jesus entered the Jewish fold.
For what purpose?
To lead the sheep out of the fold.
You know to him that we were singing Unfortunately uses the term as if we Christians are in a poll that's unscriptural.
Christianity is not a fault. A fault is a legal enclosure, and the Lord Jesus has come to lead his own out of that pole, never to return.
Christianity is not a legal enclosure.
That was Judaism.
But how are we kept as Christians? How are we preserved?
By staying close to the shepherd, you know, having an open ear for the shepherd's voice, you know, we cannot be far away from somebody. If we want to hear the voice of somebody, we have to be near the person that talks to us.
So that suggests that safety for us, who are part of the sheep of the Lord Jesus, is by staying close to Him.
And we don't have to be 15 or 20 years old before we can learn to be close to the Lord Jesus.
Every day, hopefully you will read the Bible for yourself and pray.
Hopefully you come to know him early in life and never learn to love this wicked evil world. What a privilege it is to grow up in a Christian home.
But it's not enough to learn to know about the Bible. The Bible is all about the Lord Jesus.
And it is to bring us closer to Him, and then we stick to Him.
And ask for grace that we be preserved in the path of faith, leading us as the Good Shepherd. But how wonderful he leads his own out of the fold, never to return.
You know common was made as to Ephesians chapter 2.
This morning.
You know that out of true and Gentile the Church is formed here. We too have two kinds of sheep, those who were part of the fold, the Jewish people. And then the Lord Jesus said I have sheep which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall be one plaque and 1:00.
Shepherd.
Christianity is not a cold. Christianity is a flock.
And how wonderful.
The Lord Jesus is near everyone of us, and we can enjoy His nearness individually in our life.
It's also wonderful that He has promised His presence in the midst of those that are gathered to His name.
But even to Christian home.
What makes the Christian home such a special home? Because the Lord Jesus is there, you know.
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He's not the head of the Christian home. The father and husband is the head of the Christian home, but the Lord Jesus is there. And what a difference it makes when we have a sense of him being near us.
Not only when we are at home.
When we're going to school.
When we're going to work, if we would really always keep that before our souls that the Lord Jesus is near me. He sees everything that I say, He hears it. Everything that I do, He sees the company I keep. He is there with me.
He might be grieved. The Spirit might be grieved.
By doing something that we shouldn't do or associate with people that we shouldn't associate with. That doesn't mean that we cannot have any contact with unbelievers. But for what purpose do we have contact with them? To tell them about the Lord Jesus? You know that they too might come to know the Good Shepherd.
Well, how wonderful that we can know the Shepherd's voice.
And you don't have to be a Christian for many years before you can discern and recognize the Shepherd's voice.
Whenever.
This scripture comes before me. I'm reminded of a dear old Christian lady.
Some people knocked on her door.
I believe they were Jehovah Witnesses.
And they were trying to peddle the era.
She listened to them for a little while and she said, would you please leave? I don't hear the shepherd's voice in what you're saying.
She could not prove them at all. She.
She didn't know the scriptures that well, that she could argue with them and show them from scripture that they were wrong, but she discerned that was not the Shepherd's voice. She asked them to leave.
We can perceive the Shepherd's voice.
And.
How wonderful. You know you and I can only be in one place at one time.
You know, people say, Heinz, why don't you come and visit us? Well, I said, only the Lord can be more than one place at one time.
But the Lord is with every individual believer, whether they are in America, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, wherever they are. Behold, I'm with you always, because He's not a mere man only He's God the Son. He is with every individual.
And that's why every individual believer, no matter where he lives.
Can hear the shepherd's voice and follow the Good Shepherd, but certainly by reading the Bible.
We can take it this way, that the Lord Jesus is speaking to me whenever I read this book. It's His word.
And he's presented in it.
And we might not understand much when we first start reading the Bible.
But read it anyway and as time goes on you will come to understand more and more. And when you have questions, go to Dad or Ma or to somebody else, some brother, and ask them about the questions that you have.
You know, that isn't enough to just read the Bible because we might have a sense of obligation that I should read the Bible, therefore I read it today. No, we ought to have the desire to read it because we feel in our souls that we need the light of the Word of God. You see, the Word of God is a light.
For their path and a lamb for my feet. That's what we find in the Bible. You know, it's so important that we use this book in that way.
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Because there is no question that ever would come up in the mind of anybody that does not have an answer in the Bible. We might not always know the answer right away, but it is in the Bible every question that comes up, any legitimate question.
Is answered in the Bible.
But then the Lord Jesus enters the fold of Israel and tests let his own sheep from Israel out of that fold.
But then he also is the door into Christian blessing. I am the door.
By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.
You know you need to Lord Jesus in order to enter into what we would call Christian blessing.
How wonderful that he opens things up for us.
And but there are a lot of people that he wants us about in this chapter.
There are those that came before him. There were thieves and robbers.
You know these people exist today.
And we face people like that.
Thieves and robbers, they don't come to bring blessings. They come to steal and to kill and to destroy.
Satan has his agents.
And that's what the Lord Jesus is referring to here.
And we have to be careful not to be misled.
Not to listen to just anybody.
I'm so thankful when I look back on my childhood because I grew up in a Christian family.
Where the Bible was read, my grandparents were already devout Christians. Grandfathers were teaching capable brothers amongst the so-called brethren. And to have that kind of a background, what a responsibility, but what a privilege to grow up.
Under Christian influence.
And from a child like Timothy.
To know the Holy Scriptures.
Tremendous.
I hope we come all to appreciate that.
I asked the children here and the young people, have you ever thanked the Lord for bringing you into a Christian family?
I think you ought to thank him.
And then not only thank him, make use of this influence and.
And I hope for the parents here in the audience that.
You read the Bible to the children every day.
At home.
You know when I grew up.
The war was going on.
Was a lot of turmoil. I was living in the area where the heavy industry was, you know, and there was a lot of turmoil. And the more the war went on and the closer it came to the end, the worse it got.
But in our home, the Bible was read.
And what a privilege to grow up under the sound of the Word of God.
Hitler forbade the brethren to meet.
So they couldn't publicly meet anymore. They met privately in homes.
But the parents brought the scriptures before us.
And.
How old you have to be before you read the Bible for yourself?
I've related that story before, and if you have heard it, bear with me.
By 10 or 8 year old granddaughter was visiting.
For a few days.
And she came to me and nobody told her to go to OPA. She said Oppa, let's read the Bible.
Can you imagine how happy that made me? Nobody had told her. Go to Opine, Tell him let's read the Bible. Well, I said, where are you reading?
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Or, she said, I'm reading in the book of Exodus.
So every day while she was there, she read me a chapter in the book of Exodus.
They were in Jordan.
For three years and I talked her on the phone once.
And I said, are you still reading the Bible for yourself? Yes, she said. Where are you reading? She said. I'm reading in the Book of Revelation.
I said that's not an easy book to read. I know, she said. But the first chapters are not that bad.
She realized the first chapters weren't as difficult to understand as the rest of the book, but I certainly didn't discourage her from reading the rest of Revelation.
You know the time will come when that girl will understand more of what she just read and didn't understand at that time.
But what a wonderful thing it is to have the Word of God.
But be careful of the thieves and the robbers.
You know, those who want to do harm to you spiritually. And then he says, I am calm that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly.
You know Mr. Darby's translated keeps it that way. Why is it more correct to read it that way? The Old Testament Saints did not have abundant life, that is eternal life. They had life, but they didn't have eternal life. This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ who end our sin. John 17. I believe it's the third verse.
It clearly shows what eternal life is.
Knowing God as Father and the Lord Jesus, the Old Testament Saints did not know God as Father.
The Lord Jesus came to make the Father known. He's still making him known.
To know God as Father, that's a Christian truth.
How wonderful to live at this time in the world's history.
In the Old Testament we have revelations of God, partial revelations of God.
You know, and in Exodus, when God revealed himself to Moses, he says.
I was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not know. In other words, he made himself known more fully to Moses than the way he was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So we have partial revelations of God in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, when the Lord Jesus comes, we have the full revelation of God, and he has made God known as Father.
Isn't it wonderful to have such a father?
Wonderful father, I told this story too before my wife and I walked walked every day 3540 minutes to get some exercise and.
There we always walk in the same area. There was a young lady that we saw and.
She always had such a happy smile and I said to my wife, I wouldn't be surprised if this girl, this young lady is a Christian. And one day I stopped her.
I said excuse me. He couldn't help but seeing you. Of course, after you see person 345 times, you say hello, you know, and we did that. But that time I stopped her. I said excuse me, but my wife and I have noticed your happy smile. Can you tell me what's the reason for your happy smile? Well she said if you have such a wonderful Heavenly Father, why shouldn't you? Well I've said happy to meet another family member.
Give us another family member that we met, another Christian.
Well, how wonderful to have.
Abundant life.
Eternal life.
00:30:00
And that is knowing God as Father.
But then we also find.
That the hireling is one.
That does what he does for what he gets out of it.
Base game financial gain.
You know, I hope.
This is not characteristic of any who wants to serve the Lord among us.
To do what we do for what we get out of it economically.
Christianity is known for what it gives, not for what it gets.
Anyway.
How wonderful.
That there are under shepherds.
You know, and they don't run away when there are problems.
They don't abandoned.
Debates in Christ.
You know how thankful we can be for those who have stood.
For the truth and resisted efforts of the enemy to do harm, spiritual harm to God's people.
Because they're not hireling the hireling fleet. He's only concerned about his own welfare.
And not to get into trouble himself.
But the under shepherds.
Had practiced, in measure at least, what was perfectly done by the Lord Jesus.
And then how wonderful that he knows.
His sheep and his sheep know him.
And.
He laid down his life for his sheep.
Could he give any more proof of his love for his sheep in laying down his life for them? That's the only way how we could become one of these sheep.
And the Lord Jesus died for us.
In order that we might be part of his flock.
And one of his sheep.
And then he speaks that the Father loves him because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. The Lord Jesus did not die as a result of the physical sufferings inflicted upon Him.
What happened just before he died? He cried with a loud voice and yielded up the ghost. He couldn't have done that had he died from the physical sufferings. Because if somebody dies from physical sufferings, he gets weaker and weaker and weaker. I've related this story before.
My dad passed away and we were on a trip visiting the assemblies in the West.
And we were afraid any day we're going to get the news. Dad is gone. But he honed, you might say. And we came to see him. He was still alive. He recognized me, but he was so weak he couldn't even say my name.
He would have liked to say my name. He was trying to, but he couldn't get it out. But the Lord Jesus cried with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. No one could take his life from him. He laid it down by himself when he knew.
That atonement had been accomplished in the sufferings in the three hours of darkness.
Then he laid down his life.
He shed his blood. These three things have made full atonement, de atoning sufferings in the three hours, the laying down of his life and shedding his blood. A full work of atonement accomplished by the Lord Jesus and now.
He loves us and he's given to us eternal life and we shall never perish. Isn't that sad that there are Christians that.
Believe that.
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A believer can be saved today and lost tomorrow. What do they make out of this verse? I talked to somebody one time and pointed that verse out. He believed that you can be saved today and be lost tomorrow. I said, what does it say there? I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, and then nobody can pluck them out of the Father's hand. It's double security.
Well, he said nobody can pluck us out of the hand of the Lord Jesus, but we can pull ourselves out. I said. He's not going to let anybody go that he has.
Saved and we are in his hand.
You know, and not only in his hands. He puts that lost sheep on his shoulders.
Floral when he finds it, you know, when it comes to the government of this world, it says it's upon his shoulder, singular, but the lost sheep that is found is put on his shoulders.
We found a little bigger.
That presented a shepherd and he had a sheep on his shoulders. I said to my wife, we have to have that and we have it in our family room. And when I look at that, it reminds me that I'm on the shoulders of my shepherd to Lord Jesus as place of safety and strength, and he will take us safely home.
And no one plucks us out of the hands of the Lord Jesus. No one plucks us out of the hand of the Father. Eternal security. Do you know the Lord Jesus?
Does everyone in this audience know the Lord Jesus as a personal savior?
What are you missing?
You're missing the greatest blessing available for mayor. That is to know the Lord Jesus as Savior, knowing God as Father, and to know to have a home in heaven where we'll spend eternity with the Lord Jesus and with all the redeemed.
Well, I hope.
We're enjoying the truth of the Lord Jesus being our shepherd. Not only is he our head.
He is our Lord.
Individually, I believe he's not the Lord of the assembly, He's the Lord of the individual believer, but he's also our shepherd.
And He wants to lead us and guide us day by day until we are home with Him in the glory.
First Chronicles chapter 4. Thank you.
He came in a little late to the meeting this morning, listening.
Reading back and forth.
In this 23rd verse.
Came before me and I'm sure many have heard a similar application to what I think of when I read it verse 23.
These were the Potters and those that dwell among plants and hedges.
There they dwelt with the King for his work.
This is one of a number of interesting verses that just seems to be sort of inserted into these genealogies, in this case the genealogy of the sons of Judah.
And while I was listening during the reading towards the end of the reading.
A brother over this way was pointing us to Hebrews 13.
And he seemed to be very emphatic. I know he was emphatic.
About the importance of.
Us taking heed, knowing and submitting to those who are our guides, who take the lead amongst us, there are three places.
In Hebrews chapter 13, I think he read all three of them.
And he was pressing that and you know, that's the Hedges side.
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And then some brothers over here, I'm not exactly sure who some of the brothers were turning us to another scripture in first Peter 5 and almost saying yeah, but.
How about this side of it? And that's the plants side, hedges and plants.
And I am indebted to Brother Heinz for telling the story at least several times that I've heard and I repeat now myself.
And if I can do justice to it, I'll try to. But the story goes like this. There was a young man, a young brother in the assembly, and he hadn't been saved or gathered very long.
And he goes to an older brother and he says, you know, I'm kind of troubled, he says.
You know, the brother over here, he's always pressing order and he's always talking about what's right and, you know, pressing us and exhorting us about all these things.
And he says, this brother over here, I don't hear him talking about that stuff. And he's always talking about love and graciousness and tenderness and kindness.
And he says, I don't get it. Why don't they, you know, speak the same thing?
And the older brother apparently gave a very wise answer.
And he said, well, that first brother, that's talking about order. He said if he didn't talk about those things and press those things, there wouldn't be any order in the assembly. And it's important to have order.
But he said if there wasn't the second brother and he wasn't speaking about those things, he said there wouldn't be any assembly at all.
I think I did justice to that to give the point of it.
And if I as I have gotten older and had the privilege to live.
In maybe five or six different assemblies and get to know the brethren in different places and.
And watch and experience the kind of local dynamic that goes on. Each assembly is different. I come to appreciate more and more.
The value of both of those aspects.
Of that spirit in a brother or sister that is just downright for you.
There's a text in the back I was noticing in between the meetings.
That I also have at home. It says God is for me.
And it's one of the few verses of Scripture I, strangely enough, had in my possession even before I was saved. I don't know what possessed me to. I guess I do really to have that verse, but I had a little placard.
Said God is for me and God is for us. He's for us and all that he is. And some people say that's a definition of grace.
But we also know there are brethren and there are assemblies where we know that the default attitude that the brethren have towards each other and towards me is it there for me.
That's a comforting protecting.
Enjoyable. It's a good thing, I'm happy to say, in this day when there is so much failure and disappointment that I even live in an assembly like that. I live in a place like that.
That if a report comes to mind or somebody says, oh, this brother, he did, you know, there without knowing the facts, their automatic response would be for me.
That's a beautiful thing.
But how important it is to that there be hedges because?
In the world we see all around us the fruit of there not being.
A black and a white of there not being good and evil, not being up and down. It almost becomes laughable for those of us in the work world, the extent to which people will go, whether it's an education or wherever there are people assembled to work. How people just have everything all twisted apart so that there are there's no right or no left, no good or bad. And the extent to which they go, the gymnastics they go through.
To sustain this type of thing is amazing to me at times.
But in the Word of God there is light and there is darkness.
And a hedge.
Is a principle. It may be a person or a group of persons.
In our lives that separate for us that which is on one side and that which is on the other. It says in the book of Proverbs, that he that breaketh the hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
00:45:02
Not a good thing to mess with hedges.
Hedges divide. In many countries, they're used almost like a fence or a wall to divide between what is this person's field or that that person's field, or between a piece of property that's meant to be plowed and cultivated in a piece of land that's used for a roadway.
And hedges keep out animals. The neighborhood I grew up in, and everybody seemed to plant hedges to separate their little tiny little plot of backyard. And as a little boy I'd hear these dogs barking. I'd be glad that my father had hedges up and some of the neighbors had fences. So these dogs, as big as I was, would not come pouncing in upon me. These were the Potters and those that dwelt among plants and hedges.
And so it's a needful thing, and we're happy a soul in his right mind. We're happy for order.
We are happy that brothers speak up and say, you know this is right and that's not right and this is the way walkie in it and we have the Holy Scriptures that are able to make us wise unto salvation and able to guide us.
I called his sister yesterday.
Who I knew was recently widowed.
And I knew she had lost her son and I knew she was probably alone. So I called her and it sounded like she had a whole lot of people in the house. I know she has a very small house.
I said I won't bother you if you have a lot of company. She says no, I'm at a conference. I said, really, what conference are you at? She says I don't know. She says. I think it was quite a while ago.
She was listening to a tape.
I said, well, how is the ministry? Is it out of date? She says no, I don't think so. She says it's the same thing I hear at the meeting. I said, well that's good, I don't think it's out of date.
Well, these are good things for us. What a happy thing that our parents or our grandparents, if they were believers, have the same scriptures opened and can get fed from that same same resource that we have in God's Son and in the Word of God and hedges to help us so that when we're perhaps in our formative years, we don't wander off into fields that we don't belong and get into things that we shouldn't get into.
A sister at Maybe it's what got me thinking of it too.
A sister at lunch was speaking about hedges.
And there is there is a time in our lives, and maybe these times revisit us as we get older.
Maybe it's not just the the young boys here that are young teenagers.
Maybe we go through these different times in our adult life when we're at particular times of stress, as we call it in a modern language or vulnerability.
And sometimes we get discouraged and we're maybe at the path where two ways meet all over again.
We notice in the Gospels how there was the young *** tide at the place where two ways meet, and it's often been likened to the restraint to the family and the assembly effect in our lives to keep us from wandering astray before the Lord comes along and does the work and says, hey, you're going with me.
But maybe there are times when we're older, when we're in our 70s or 60s, when we're through discouragement or some other weakness that comes upon us, where we need this kind of restraint and help.
And so we're happy for Hedges. We're happy for the brother that looks after us or the sister in that way and says, you know.
To remind you this is the right way.
But really the burden of my heart is to speak about the other side of it, that the brothers over here, I think were trying to get to, and that's the plant side. But what does a plant do?
Do I really need a plant?
We moved recently.
And neither my wife nor I. Thankfully, she's not here to hear this, our great decorators, and so our houses always look kind of sparse.
And it takes us a while to get things up on the walls and all that. So my oldest daughter came and she, I think you need a plant over here. It would look nice. So she went out to the store to try to buy us a big, big green plant. Well, what is it about plants that make people feel?
Good or what is it? It's attractive about plants. I really don't know. I never really thought about it, but I know in the sense of this scripture.
00:50:03
That there are brothers and sisters and we all know them, thankfully, that the Lord raises up and maybe they don't travel much and maybe they're not real active in oversight in the assembly.
But their presence there is a refreshment to everyone in that place and the people who come visit. I'm thankful. I know lots of plants.
And the effect upon your soul is maybe more than you realize lately.
Some of the ones I've known the Lord has been taking home.
Took one home here in Pennsylvania in the past year. Our beloved brother Hey was like that. He was a plant.
You know, you just like to be in the presence of a big green Fern and a sunny window.
And you could call Bob Hay without any agenda on a Saturday morning, no matter where you are living or how long it had been since you have seen him.
And you'd always kind of talk about the same things or the same person. And it was a lovely and refreshing thing just to kind of imbibe the spirit of Christ that whether he knew it or not, he he exuded.
He was a plant.
Well.
It was another brother maybe 10 years ago if you turn with me to Colossians chapter.
4 Colossians 4.
The Apostle Paul.
Writing to this assembly in verse nine of chapter 4.
Onissimus.
A faithful and beloved brother.
Who is one of you?
Some of us are specialists. We shouldn't be specialists. Maybe.
We stress one thing or another and we need our brethren to balance us out.
Maybe we're very preoccupied with what's with the hedge side of things and with order.
And maybe we press.
Faithfulness, which is good.
But in isthmus, here was faithful and beloved.
There may be beloved brethren that you try to you follow them and it's a crooked path. Or maybe they're get discouraged one week and the next week they're all encouraged and they're up and they're down and they're in and they're out. But they're beloved. They're sweet.
We love them and they love us.
Well, what a wonderful thing that the Spirit of God produces in a man like Onissimos.
The fruit of the Spirit of God, and of being near the Lord, so it can be said of Him.
He was faithful and beloved.
There was a brother maybe 10 years ago up up in the north US and we buried him and I believe the Lord let us to put this on his stone, faithful and beloved, what a valuable thing.
Now inisma one time if you turn to Philemon for I sit back down.
The little book just before Hebrews.
Miss Philemon wasn't always a faithful and beloved brother.
The way I piece it together, Philemon, I mean, excuse me, Onissimus.
Was apparently a runaway slave.
I've read that his name literally means profitable or profit bringing.
And in the verse 11 of Philemon.
Paul makes, as I understand it, a play on words he says, referring to an isthmus that in time passed he was to the unprofitable but profitable now to the and to me.
As I piece it together, he had run away and somehow he ended up in prison and somehow he came in contact with Paul and Paul led him to the Lord and he became a brother.
Because in verse 10 of Philemon it says, I beseech thee for my son on Isimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds.
And so Paul considered this man a son in the faith.
But the reason I turn here, other than the connection with Onissimos, is there's this beautiful spirit that the apostle Paul is able to display with Philemon.
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And this is a spirit that it would be nice if there was a liberty for us to display amongst ourselves if we had this pattern with each other and if we had this confidence in each other to be able to say such things like Paul writes in verse eight and nine. Now Paul was an apostle and we read in other places that he had power to do some fairly what you and I would call heavy-handed things.
To deliver such a one unto Satan and so on.
And we see what happened to some imposters and some enemies of the faith that cross paths with the apostle when he was doing the work of the Lord.
People are going off blind and other things like that. He was, he was a man that they apparently didn't think much of to look at.
But he had the power of God behind him in his work with the Lord, and so he had an authority.
That was given him from the Lord, the head of the Church.
But notice in verse eight he says, Wherefore though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoying thee, that which is convenient. In other words, I have this authority, Philemon, to just write and tell you what I want you to do.
Yet for Love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such a oneness, Paul the agent, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I beseech thee for Onissimus, my sons, my son.
Well, this is beautiful.
For Love's sake, I rather beseech thee, being such a oneness by the aged. And he's able to say further that.
Down in verse 14.
I'm sorry, verse 21 Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say.
Paul had this official power.
And yet he was pressed to not have to use that or resort to that.
He basically used that which he had earned through love, and he's able to write to his brother Philemon.
And say, you know, it would be really nice if you did this and he doesn't press it officially.
And he says, I just beseech thee, I love you. You love me. Trust me in this. This would be a good thing to do. I'm using my words. And at the end, he says, you know, I have confidence that you're going to even do more than I say. What a what a do you have a friend like that?
I bet many of us do.
People that we could call in a pinch, or people that we need something, whether spiritual or natural.
And we know that they are for us and that they would do what they could to help us out or to help somebody. We felt it was important that they helped.
And so in Paul, you had a faithful and beloved brother. You had one with the.
Hebrews 13 Authority and yet the sweetness of one in first Peter 5.
Who bound humility on himself?
And displayed that amongst the Saints of God.
One time I was visiting in a place that I had lived, so I knew the brethren there very well.
But I was a visitor.
And there was a brother who was coming out with his family for quite some time, and he always seemed to be a little cranky and have his nose off to one side about this and that. And he was coming, but he was not really hadn't taken his place at the Lord's Table.
And after the meeting, I was out in the parking lot visiting around, you know, and he came over to me and we exchanged greetings and he started to list out some of his complaints.
And the one was this one this time was, you know.
I know you guys profess that you do everything by scriptural order, but he says, you know, I read about elders and I read about oversight in the word of God and he says.
I've been coming here for a while, he says. I don't know anybody in here that's an overseer or that would answer to that.
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Because like, like Heinz was saying about Brazil, in that place there were a lot of young men were the oldest ones who by this time were only in their late 30s maybe.
And for some reason, my answer to him, he got a little bit surprised to myself. I said, well, I said, that's good that you've been coming here that long and you don't know who they are. That's I'm really happy about that.
Said if you were to come and to identify yourself with this place and go in and out amongst the Saints and be at the Lord's table here.
And if you acted in a disorderly way, I guarantee you, you would find out who they were.
But I said the fact that you don't know, I said, I think that's a good thing. And I know for a fact that the brothers who took the lead in that assembly had a real care for that man's soul.
Eventually, he did take his place at the Lord's Table.
But again, why? Why did I get up here? What do I have on my heart?
To summarize, it's this.
Is that we wouldn't be here today.
If it weren't for the grace of God keeping our feet in some manner in this path.
And we wouldn't be here happily if we didn't have an exercise about things that are right and orderly.
As the brother laid out in the reading meeting very emphatically, those things to me are just Givens. That's what I was taught when I was first saved, and I've never heard anything that would contradict that or seen anything in the Word of God.
But it can't just be that, can it?
Years ago when when a lot of us were single, we went to Otter Lake and Brother Gordon impressed upon us.
He says, you know, when you get married and you're the head of the home, it's not just, you know, running, I'm using my words, not his. It's not just running a tight ship and all of that and having everything, you know, the kids all ready to go at the right time and everybody with socks that match and all the rest. But he says as the as the as the father and the husband, you're responsible for the tone in your in your home and in your family.
And I remembered that sometimes I remember it.
You know, with shame, but as the Father and as the head of the home, we're responsible for the tone or in scriptural language, I I suppose the word we would use is the spirit in our home.
We set the tone in the home. Is it a tone like we all like to enjoy in the assembly of of being for me?
Is that my wife's impression of Maine towards her? I'm just flat out for her. Is that my children's impression?
Is there order and faithfulness, but also that tone, that atmosphere that we all crave to be loved and to be understood?
And so when our assemblies, we're thankful for order, we're thankful.
That we have guidance from the Word of God to find a right path.
But how careful we need to be that the tone of things is right.
That when we come together, when fresh converts are brought in, or those that are discouraged or.
In pain or wounded or any of the things that happened in the course of a life.
That there is that sweet tone of not just the faithful brother, but the beloved brother.
And so would to God, we're all, not just the fathers and mothers, but all of us in the assembly.
Desiring to have a right spirit.
The last if Second Timothy was the last epistle in the Scriptures that the apostle Paul penned, and maybe there's something of significance in the very last verse of that epistle where it says the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy Spirit, grace be with you.
How important it is in these last days when the enemy seeks to just wear out the Saints with trouble after trouble and trial after trial.
Now we don't just seek to do the right thing, but to have the right spirit in what we do.
And in our relations with all our brethren.
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Cortana.
Your hands.
Do you hear me? I'm sorry, I'm just getting to our clouds.