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Day 6.
Oh, here on earth, we Rome.
The fighting level of favour.
Our spirits present on peace.
Boy, wherever now? Why is there anything?
Bye. Thank you, Lord God.
Verse 12.
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Rejoicing in hope.
Patient in tribulation.
Continuing instant in prayer.
Distributing to the necessity of Saints.
Given to hospitality.
Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not.
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Be of the same mind, one toward another.
Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.
Be not wise in your own conceits.
Recompense to no man, evil for evil.
Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
If it be possible, as much as last in you live peaceably with all men.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore, if thine enemy hunger feed him.
If he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
In that 12Th verse there seems to be a moral progression, doesn't it?
If we had patient and tribulation first.
But to think of how it's placed, rejoicing and hope. God always gives us a prospect. He gives us a prospect of glory, the prospect of of his person, of his Son. Rejoicing in hope, then patient in tribulation, but in connection with the patience of tribulation.
We need the continuance in prayer, don't we? So we see that those 3 go together.
So beautifully rejoicing in hope, because He's given us a hope, and then we're led in our souls to patience and tribulation. And then we recognize that to continue, we need the continuance in prayer.
We know it from experience, don't we?
The highest note I believe in Romans 5.
Is not only soul we joy in our God? That's a very high note and it's not a question of circumstances. Paul proved that in fact in Philippians where he's in prison, a prison epistle, you have joy in rejoicing more than other epistles 16 times I believe, joy and rejoicing and he says.
That returned to it up. So you're wrong in Philippians 4/4.
Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice.
Well, that really covers a dozen that now we know it's not a question of circumstances because he was in prison.
And but he was rejoicing, and he wanted them to rejoice. And what did he rejoice in? Just what we have here. Rejoicing in whole.
His hope was so sure, and he could say, I know whom I have believed that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day, so that therefore Paul could always rejoice. And we need that, Didn't he say in Nehemiah? Didn't Nehemiah say, or Ezra?
Let's see, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and take the. But the thought was.
The joy of the Lord.
Is your strength thanks the joy of the Lord? Is your strength? Well, I believe it's also the finest testimony ever.
You know, we just had a brother go home and be with the Lord not long ago, but he had no legs when he left.
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He had a lot of other problems. But you never heard that brother complain. I didn't anyway, Some may have. I didn't. I'm talking about Francisco. Jim Francisco.
And I think he had the greatest testimony in those circumstances the last four years of his life to the doctors and nurses and neighbors, his friends and everybody.
Why? It didn't depend on circumstances. He had a reason to join.
He the sense of this verse.
Is better given to us in the new translation. Let me read it.
As regards hope.
Rejoicing.
As regards tribulation.
Enduring thought is to endure, continue on. And then as regards prayer, persevering. I don't get that thought when I read instant in prayer. I don't get the thought of as regards prayer persevering.
We are.
To to.
Rejoice, be rejoicing in in our hope. He said that earlier in the Epistle to rejoicing, rejoicing.
Hope of the glory of God.
And tribulation when it comes to us.
To to endure, to continue on.
And prayer persevering, being instant in prayer or in as regards prayer persevering.
Continuing in it, persevering in it.
That's one of the promises we have from the Lord. He shall have tribulation.
That's a lovely promise, isn't it? If we didn't have tribulations, if we didn't have troubles and problems in assembly or in our lives, we wouldn't be looking to the Lord. We wouldn't be praying.
Persevering in prayer. But that's so important and I I believe that's the thought.
Tribulation where they're patient or enduring. In tribulation, when you have a problem and it could be tribulation or trouble, don't ask the Lord to take you out of that problem.
Ask the Lord to give you grace to go through it and then you can have the blessing.
The peaceable fruit of righteousness too at the end of it. And so you don't want to get out of the problem. You want to go through it. And the the Shadrach Reshack and the Bendigo didn't ask the Lord to save him from the furnace. He said if if we have to go in, I've got table, we're not going to bow to any false God. But what happened? Well, he went with them through the problem. So that's what's blessing.
They were having a picnic in that furnace and they didn't want to come out, but they had to obey all the ordinance of man because the king said Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego May 8th and come out of there. But I don't think they wanted to, but they did.
Well, the Apostle Paul prayed three times.
Take away this this thorn.
He asked the Lord three times to deliver him from the affliction that he had. That's not wrong.
But then the Lord said no three times.
He said no. He asked him again, He said no. He asked him again, He said no. I had a brother say to me, should have asked him a fourth time. I said that would have been sin. When God says no three times, you accept it. And Paul accepted it, and then he says, most gladly, therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He had learned a lesson, but it took three prayers, earnest prayers of his Lord. I can be so much more effective to thee if you've just removed that.
That born, that affliction, that impediment, whatever it was in his speech, whatever it was that made him hard to look at, His eyes were not normal and maybe they were oozing. We don't know exactly what it was. The thorn that he had was a messenger of Satan. God even uses Satan to afflict us to keep us humble. But Paul had been in the 3rd heaven and seen and heard things that he couldn't even relate.
We wouldn't understand it. There are no words in the human languages of Earth that could relate what he saw in that glory.
Sometimes we hear what's heaven going to be like? Well, all about all we're told about heaven is there's no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering, no more death. But what's it really going to be like? I always say, wait and see. You'll not be disappointed.
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You know, we hear so many, there's so many scriptures about the Millennium. The lion and the lamb will dwell together. The sucking child will play upon the whole of the ***. They shall not hurt or destroy. In all my holy mountains. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. As the waters cover the sea, they'll be corn on the tops of the mountains. The ploughman will overtake the Reaper. All of these expression we have an abundance of scriptures telling. The desert will blossom as the Rose, telling of the wonderful day of the Millennium.
And I always say, if the Millennium is going to be so wonderful, what will the eternal state be like?
I had a sister wanted me to visit her and her husband but her problem was.
I'm so under my burden as I have, and it's got me bitter in my soul and so on. I mean, you know the long story. And I said, what's this burden? It's my mother.
A burden, I said. Well, she's a real trial.
And she got into all the problems of her mother. She old all these problems. Well, I took her to a Solomon.
55 right Go there, Psalm 55 because she was looking at everything the wrong way, that's all.
And Psalm 55, verse 22.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. And she was beside herself, she said, So I said, now that's the verse, but I said that that isn't the way you really look at it. This verse is nice, whatever problem you got casted on the Lord, but that isn't really what it means. Marginal reading is gift.
I said your mother in her problems are a gift from God to you. They're not a burden in the sense now J&D says you're assigned portion. I said that's even better. Lord has given you that. That's your assigned portion for now. That's not a burden. But if you want to call it a burden, cast it on the Lord. He'll sustain you and and you know, we look at things wrong, don't we? We we think this is a real problem. I get down under the problem now.
That's that's your portion right now, your assigned portion. So that's really what Paul's getting at.
He says.
A patient and tribulation well.
The Lord allowed it or brought it on. He'll take care of it. We'll get the blessing if we endure.
There's four ways you can take even chastisement in Hebrews chapter 12, but there's the 1St is you can despise it. I believe she was almost there. She was despising it and that merely means her mother she was despising or or you can endure it.
That's lovely too. So let's see. Despise it. What's the next word? They fade under it. Oh, that's sad though. But endorse. But the only way is to.
Be exercised.
By it, and then the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And that's all this sister needed. I visited her later. She was rejoicing in her mother.
She remembered all the things her mother endured for her, a little different.
Make a few remarks about that 12 first.
You know, sometimes you get a picture and it stays with you. But this reminds me this suburbs about hope.
Rejoicing, tribulation, and then enduring. Mr. Darby's translation makes a very good point here. It speaks about enduring and I'd like to tell you a story about a sailboat. You say, what's the sailboat got to do with this verse? I was going to try to explain the picture. You and I are in the sea of life, beloved. We're going through the storms of life. We get the 107th Psalm Day that go down to.
They do business, they, they could download the CN ships to do business in great waters. I'm going to make an application, please. So here we have the hope, the man in the sailboat, he has a hope for where he's going to go. The Apostle Paul travelled in the sailboat and I don't know, I think the Lord traveled in a sailboat too. But we hear about them rolling against the wind and so forth. But you and I are on the sea of life and young people, you and I are like in a boat and it's our own little boat.
And you have to know where you're going to steer it to.
You've got a rudder in the back and you're holding your hand on the rudder. I had a sailboat that had the handle in the back which would call the tiller. You steer the sailboat with the tiller, but you have hope to get somewhere else with the boat.
Where are you going to sail your boat? You and I are sailing toward the heavenly shore. And so we sail in the hope of the Lord's coming for us. And then it's going to be like our our brother was telling us. Heaven is such a wonderful place that the apostle Paul says, I couldn't find language that was lawful to describe it. Ephesians one says that on the ages to come he's going to show us the exceeding riches of his grace. That's the hope and the hope to meet you in the air. We sing in the song, but let's go on with the story.
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This 12 verse first is hope. Where are you going to sell your boat? And then what happens? Rejoicing in the hope. Then it says about trouble, the waves of difficulty in your life. You and I have trouble in our life. That's the tribulation part here. The waves come and sometimes you're sailing before the wind with a sailboat and I'll tell you how it feels.
The the back end of the boat picks up and the rudder comes out of the water almost and you lose what we call steerage.
You and I need spirits in our life that as we go along into trouble, how am I going to make it? Because I have to be alert. I have to watch every movement of the water. I have to watch every movement of the wind. I have to trim the sail with one hand and guide the boat with the rudder with the other hand. And then what does it say? Enduring, You know, enduring. That's where the, what was it? The last word of the King James.
What's the libation Patience. And so you get out sometimes in a boat and there's this patience and doing. It's a combination. And I love to think of the way the word of God puts it here that you and I can apply it in a picture story of sailing a boat because you get a wave come up behind you sometimes and and you're liable to lose direction and go sideways. Spill the the wind out of your sail or bring it around that the the boat skews it makes a sharp turn without you being aware and alert. And this is the endurance.
You need endurance for every moment of your life.
That the wind of adversity doesn't tip you over and maybe sink the boat. And I can remember one time we were coming along and this time was a different boat. It was an outboard motor boat and we had the motor was a short shaft as we used the word. My brother and I were out in the ocean and we came by a very dangerous place where lots of waves. And all of a sudden the big wave came behind us, tipped the motor out, tipped the boat up so high that the motor got out of the water and I couldn't steer it. I lost steerage and all of a sudden in a wink, the boat went sideways and the wave cresting covered us up.
And filled the boat. What are we going to do?
Endurance, I said to my brother, Bale for your life. And so he gets the bucket going and I get the bucket going and I said, get down in the water so that we don't push the boat under the surface of the sea and maybe it wouldn't have enough wood in it that would stay afloat. Well, that way it passed. We get down in the water. It was quick endurance and that's like what I like to think about this last verse that we were quick to bail the boat and get on the oars and and swing the boat. So the next wave came and it was cresting like the previous wave, but we had several.
I don't know, maybe 1520 seconds to get that boat turned around. We got, I got on the Auris and I swung it so that the nose of the boat aimed right into the wave. We were ready to continue our voyage, our journey in hope. And the boat didn't sink. Sometimes it's like that in your life. You say, what am I going to do? And it takes instant action. And I love to think of those words, the little prayer. And I think we've all traded the Lord help me, Lord help me in my difficulty because his difficulties come sometimes in your life and mine.
We say I don't know how I'm going to get through it.
Cried to the Lord and this is such a wonderful verse. I just can't help but see we have a hope beyond this world rejoicing and then what tribulation comes and why does it come. My brother just told us thank God for the tribulation that the Lord gave you a gift. Don't look it as a burden. Look at it as a gift from the Lord because God is preparing you and me for a glory that is so wonderful that if we didn't have the tribulation we wouldn't enter into that glory with the same appreciation. That's one side of it. I think of what the Samus. I think it's a 43rd Psalm. David says God my exceeding joy.
The Lord wants you and me to rejoice.
In what He's done for us on the cross, and then He's going to bring us through this world to the praise of His glory in the end. Is that right?
Well, it's when they came to their wits end in Psalm one O 7, they cried unto the Lord in their distress, and the Lord heard their cry. Let's don't forget that job. We can't do anything. I mean, that isn't the thought I've been doing there, is it? We know how can we do anything? I think that's the thought. You know, there's two men that were.
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Leaving after midnight in a fog on a Big Lake and one get the other side. They rode hard and hard and they rode all that time about four hours. You know what happened? You never got to the other side. They still were tied to the dock. And that's it. Without Christ, you know, we can do anything we want and it means nothing. So I think in Psalm one O 7 we got to remember when they came to their within. Yeah, when the when the prodigal.
From the political.
But it came to himself. That's an awful place to come to. But he had to. He came to. Is that what it said? It became to himself, Well, it's blessing to find it out, but I perish. So then, then he was all right. Let me ask you a question on that. I feel, pardon that some of these questions that get down to the nitty gritty rather than let's pardon me, go ahead. Not be too much into the storytelling. Let's get back into the word.
All right, I'm, I'm sorry if I got too many stories.
My brother Jim had a comment and maybe he could give it. Well, I would just respectfully like to address the Apostle Paul and say Paul thus. Wonderful teaching.
What do you know about it in a practical way?
We turn to Acts 16.
And at midnight fallen silence prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisons heard them. Now we know that they had been beaten severely and thrown into the center of the prison.
And so here he is doing what he mentions there in Romans. Fallen Silas.
They prayed and sang praises unto God. Was there to be any result? They didn't care. I don't say they didn't care, but they weren't promised anything.
But there was a result. There's a tremendous result, and I suppose that that is the beginning of the little assembly of Philip I.
Because the Paul and Silas there rejoiced and endured the tribulation. It's nice if we can, I like illustrations like our brother gave there, but it's nice if we can refer these things to the Word of God, comparing spiritual things with spiritual so that we look in the Old Testament and say, well, do we find anybody that was under tribulation and and rejoiced and prayed? Well, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, I don't know who says that they did that.
But they were willing to endure if we can get our illustrations from the word of God. But but brother, I do like to hear stories that that do help to encourage us.
You would have chosen that means and pleasantness and comfort.
My God, that windows are finally in the day, while of our faith is much more precious than a goal that perishes in. So we should take our German stance from the war.
And our difficulties through the wall circumstances don't make this stable manifest. You know in the wilderness journey that we are bursting.
We learn lessons that we cannot learn. The floral You can never learn that the God is the God of faith.
Comfort.
In the glory because you won't need it that you learn it down here.
For patient and corporation and endurance is a lesson that we learn and maybe profit is why let's go more allows them to pass through whether the individual.
Nobody and the assembly and I was thinking then in the last log here continuing instant in prayer, we can't emphasize too much running of prayer both collectively and individually.
The prayer meeting in the assembly is a an assembly meeting in which the Lord is intermittent. We should never forget that.
By Matthew 1820, primarily in reference to a prayer meeting. We should not neglect the prayer meeting.
There the greatest online which on you.
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Which is really an expression of the independence and confidence every moment of our lives. We can continue in that spirit as we walk down the street, as we go about our daily communities. So we have those privileges of prayer, as Mr. Darby said, with a privilege of having common thoughts with God.
Southern Diamond, you're absolutely getting closer to a mic. Would like to really hear everything you're saying.
I say Amen to that.
We're speaking about casting our burdens upon the Lord.
And we perhaps are slow to realize how gifted He is to bear our burdens. I was thinking of the expression in the 102nd Psalm where it says, Thou hast lifted me up.
Like to think of the last day of the Lord's life as he came into Jerusalem and there was that little exhibition of the coming, coming Kingdom glory.
Before him and he was looking forward and is looking forward to the Kingdom glory. But it was just for a moment and then thou hast cast me down.
Oh, what a disappointment if we can say it, but he was there to take everything from the hand of the Lord.
Last night my heart was touched as her brother read in the 10th of Luke about a certain Samaritan as he journeyed.
That's a term of reproach. And how did the Lord come bearing this reproach? Well, I think at the very outset of his journey, how that he and the disciples had come into the approximate locale that John the Baptist was baptizing. And there were those that came to John and tried to provoke jealousy with them, saying that the Lord and his disciples were baptizing more than he was.
And when the Lord heard it, what did he do?
His heart was rejoicing in the buddies of Christianity. It was going to dawn, but he was not going to interfere with John the Baptist. He would let him go on with his work, and he removes himself to go back to Galilee. But he must need to go through Samaria to meet that woman at the well, and he knew what that was going to cost him.
There was going to be a stigma that was going to be put on him for his whole pathway of service to meet with a Samaritan. But he would bear it, he would endure it. And so they they could say to him, if he were a prophet, he wouldn't cast his lot with those kind of people.
But all he must needs pass through some area, and it cost him that stigma, the rest of his pathway, so that Luke could say, as he was going to Jerusalem, to be delivered up to the cross, a certain Samaritan as he journeyed.
And so we emphasize the fact that he is well qualified.
Us cast our burdens upon him, for we have tasted very little in comparison to what he passed through as a man here in this world. Perfect man, blessed man.
Verse 13 given to hospitality.
Hospitality becomes the Saints of God and I believe Paul brings that out many times. But if you look at Hebrews 13.
Verse two and I will read that from the other translation.
Be not forgetful of hospitality.
For thereby some have entertained angels unaware.
Hospitality is throughout the Old Testament and the New. It's just one of the things that becomes a Saint of God.
So I would mention that that that's a very important aspect is hospitality.
I'd like to to give just a minute or two in connection with some personal observations in connection with hospitality.
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Often when a company has left our home, they've turned to me and said thank you. My brother and I said, well, the person in the house that spent most of the time and getting ready for the meal was not me. Now let's stop to think about hospitality. We often think of it in case there's a meal time and it's lovely. And now, now let's back up how how long does that meal last when we're actually eating? About 20 minutes.
Well, the wife has probably gone to the store and and she has something in mind and so she's prepared a menu.
In her mind and she's gone to the store, she's come home, she's prepared the food, she hopes that each dish is is coordinates with the other and she sets it on and in about 20 minutes the food is gone and the dishes are usually left. If some rather discerning visitor is a sister, she'll say I'll help with the dishes. If not, they're left until tomorrow. And if they don't have?
A dishwasher. It's by hand. It reminds me of a story that's told of us, their brother.
Highland uncle to Jim Highland that he came back to Ottawa after having been to a conference in in the Maritime and he was asked what laborers were there and with and he would not answer the question except that sister so and so was in the kitchen. And they said, brother what we've asked, we're asking you what laborers were there. He never did answer the questions, but because he mentioned sister so and so was in the kitchen. Well in kitchen hospitality.
It's so important. Elizabeth Wilson in the assembly that I'm in in Denver, mentions that her husband would have had the, the whole meeting over every Lords day. And he was very solicitous, made sure the meat was there, but it was her that did the cooking. And so I take it I, I'm thankful for the for the blessing of hospitality, but I think we need to bring into focus that the dear sister is probably the one that did all the work.
And how important in connection with the role that dear sisters here have. They're the laborers. They're the ones. And usually after the meal is over, the men, if the dishes are to be done, the men go into the living room and they have these deep talks about Scripture, which are very nice. And I'm not being deprecating, but the sister is the one that has to take care of putting the leftovers out of the way and do the dishes. Practical aspects of hospitality.
But, and it takes money. It takes money. You stop to think about of having a family over you. You've grown if they have more than three children and you you realize that it's going to cost that much more. But and my folks, when I was a child, they would not accept an invitation in the little assembly that we lived in in Illinois unless the children were invited to. And I think that splendid in catch with hospitality. We're not inviting a father and a mother.
And have some babysitter take care of the children.
But we're inviting families and we want the hospitality to be that which binds us together. And you have an attitude towards someone that has invited you. I see a brother right now that invited some of us after a meeting in Washington, DC, to a restaurant. And I went to the restaurant and I looked at the menu and I thought, I can't afford this. And he relieved my mind tremendously. He said it's on me.
It's on me.
So that's hospitality. And if we can show it in the way that we're, we're doing it on purpose. We want the people that we have in our home to be a part of our heart. And it may be an opportunity to say some little thing and to be encouraged. How important for us, isn't it? You know, in assembly, I'm from just another 30 seconds. A brother has made a listing of the individuals and their address.
Their telephone number To think of being able to call up a person and say we want you to come over.
Can you make it? Well, you know, maybe I can't. Well then this comes Saturday. Whatever. Given to hospitality, but with the emphasis for the brothers is that the hard work is usually the sisters.
You may have entertained an Angel unawares, said Paul. Well, you know an Angel can never be a St. I like to think about entertaining Saints too, but if you look for an example of Genesis chapter 18.
And it's nice to see this this hospitality is brought out so clear in the Old Testament.
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One the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of mammary, and he sent said at the 10th door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and loathed three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground. And he said, My Lord, if now I have found favor thy sight, pass out away, I pray thee, from thy service. Let a little water I pray thee.
Pray you be fetched.
And wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, and I will fetch your morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts. After that she shall pass on, for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do as thou has said. And Abraham hastened into the tent under Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly. 3 Measures of fine meal. Well, that speaks volumes. 3 Major, so fine meal needed.
And make cakes upon the heart. And Abraham ran under the third vets to calf.
Tender and good gave it unto a young man, and he hastened to dress it, and he took butter and milk in the cap which he had dressed, and said it before them. And he stood by them under the tree. That's a tree of hospitality, by the way. And they did eat well, you know the rest of the story. He entertained the Lord, He entertained the Lord. And it is beautiful, and the Lord says.
For as much as you do it under the least of these, you do it under me.
You know, sometimes that's the thought. You're entertaining the Lord, hospitality to the Lord. So I think it's a very wonderful thing.
What does it say?
Forget not hospital in our portion.
After the law was given, one of the tenants of the law was Do not forget the stranger that is in thy midst.
Now when we come to Acts 10, the story of Cornelius, we find that Cornelius was to send for Peter, and so the men arrived at Peter's house.
And he took them in and lodged them that night.
And then he went to Cornelius's place. He stayed a few days, but we find in the 11Th chapter.
When Peter was come to Jerusalem, they they were at the circumcision, contended with him. Thou wentest to men uncircumcised, and did each with them.
Why did they not speak about his receiving them into his home?
I think it's because the law said you're to take care of the stranger, for you were a stranger in Egypt.
And so the law was there, allowed them to entertain the stranger, but they were to think twice before they went into a stranger's house. And Peter would have done it if he hadn't had that vision.
I was thinking also the first portion of that, distributing to the necessity of things.
When the church started off in its pristine glory.
Areas, they all had everything in common, but we find that it was very soon.
That that disappeared because ananias and sapphiras will have everything in common, but they held something back. But this is to us today, distributing to the necessity of Saints. And to think we need to keep our eyes open. Is there a need? And we need to supply that need if it is at all possible.
We have to be very careful and here's where I think not a necessity, but would take them out of the difficulty that the Lord has allowed them to to be. And I I think we can only find that out by being before the Lord in prayer.
In Chapter 7 of Luke.
You know the Lord gave us the example exactly what we read in with Abraham.
And he said to the religious leaders.
In verse.
44.
He turned to the woman and said unto Simon as he saw this woman. I entered into Vine house and gave us me no water for my feet. But she has washed my feet with the tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gave us me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet, my head with oil. Thou didst not anoint, but this woman anointed my feet.
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With ointment.
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which were many are forgiven, for she loved much, and that's hospitality. It's really always with Christ in mind.
There's no hospitality if it isn't with Christ in mind.
It means nothing. It's just expecting something in return. Some give a dinner and invite guests, but they expect to be invited back. That's not out of the talent.
Nice portion there, brings up just what Abraham did for those strangers.
Kind of interesting to see the difference between the feet or the the meal a little more so that Abraham brought and defeat that lot prepared.
Abraham called it a little morsel.
And Lot he called it a feast. But Abraham he.
Made a feast and Lot only gave him the unleavened bread.
Thought the attitude that they had, doesn't it?
Of the the example we have in here and Bethany the Lord, the heavenly stranger here.
Was not appreciated.
Will he have recorded it? And undoubtedly he will report it that day.
Action with that, that when we were in in that land that we went to the Olives where it was supposed that the Lord had gone back to glory. And when we came back home and talked about it, we couldn't figure out the connection with he led them out as far as Bethany. So when we went back the next time we learned that standing on the Mount of Olives as he ascended into glory.
That he would have had his back to Jerusalem, that he had to leave desolate and his eye could look down the slope. That in a little home where he had been off refreshed. There's a little picture, I believe to us of the assembly and his delight in the assembly of the Saints, where we desire His presence and His blessing. And so he got that put together. And it was something very special in our second visit to stand there and look down the slope to that little place.
Called Bethany.
14th verse.
I immediately think of the Lord Jesus.
When he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself into the hands of him that judges righteously.
Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not. The tendency of our natural hearts is to respond in kind to those that persecute us. Not so with the blessed Lord, Father. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.
He did not pronounce judgment upon his persecutors and his enemies, but rather blessing. And He's our pattern, isn't He? All these moral traits that we have outlined here are really the reproductions of the life of Christ Himself. This is the way He He walked when He was here, and how blessed to see Him in these verses as He cared for others.
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And ministered to them.
And never retaliated with. And he had the power to do it. Many times we don't retaliate because we don't have the power to do it. If we had, we might. But He had and he didn't because He was here as the lowly sufferer to manifest His Father, to reveal his Father in the love of God to man.
I was reading in Second Timothy the other day and I came across this verse and I thought, well.
Paul is reverting to Judaism in this and it has to do with the verse that we have before us.
14 Chapter four of Second Timothy.
Alexander the Coppersmith did us much evil.
The Lord reward him according to his works.
There seems to be a contradiction there against the verse that we have blessed them with, persecuted you and cursed not. I don't think there is a contradiction, but I would be happy to hear somebody with a remark on that. Yes, the the verse reads in the new translation. The Lord will reward him.
According to his works, he's not asking the Lord to do it, but stating the fact that he will reward according to his works. And that's an inflexible principle of God that we reap what we sow and that's all he's saying. He's not getting out of character at all in that verse, but it it looks that way in the King James. I would just like to say here, I don't have a JND with me or another translation. I must confess I like that word better. Another translation.
But.
To those who are younger, I don't think you can do anything better than to invest in the copies of J&D's translation.
You can there compare them. It has just been brought out here. Clears it right up immediately.
But it says bless them.
That persecute you, that goes a little further, doesn't it, than just burying it. Bless them and the Lord is young on that cross.
You know, not only hearing what they were saying as they sat down to watch him suffer, but knowing the thoughts in their hearts before they came into their mind and reached their mouth. He said, Father, forgive them now. That's the criteria. Father forgive them, I believe.
Steven is probably the best example of that one. You know the National Party with their teeth, they stoned him to death and he looked up and said father lay not this to their charge.
That's wonderful, isn't it? Now that's asking for blessing because that's the only way that he could bless them. But I was thinking, if you look at Matthew, I think it's chapter.
I'll find it here. Chapter 5 of Matthew. It brings it in for the Jews. And Matthew is transitionary just as Axe is transitionary. I believe it's the book of transition for the Jews. Now notice I just read from verse.
43.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. This is the Lord telling the Jews. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, that she may be the children of your Father, which is in heaven, for he maketh his Son to rise on the evil.
Good and he sendeth rain and on the just and on the unjust. If you love them, which love you, what reward have you do not even the publicans the same or sinners, and if you salute God. The thought here is it's an entirely new thing. It's not just improving what they had. It's it's setting aside what they had and bringing in Christ.
And the only way you can love those that are persecuting you is with Christ in mind. There's no other way. You can't just say this is what the word says. I want to do it. It doesn't work. You have to think of Christ always and these example always. And so it's a hard thing, isn't it? Many times, but we've all faced it. Especially if you're giving out the gospel to the lost 101, you're going to get it many times.
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But you could always love them because they're on their way to hell.
And you love them because you don't want them to be in hell no matter how they treat you. That's the thought.
If you're passing out gospel tracts and someone mistreats you, you will respond this way. If you're driving on the highway and someone cuts you off, you may not respond this way.
But this applies at all times, doesn't it? Not just when we're passing out tracks.
Or witnessing to someone to say that I should love my neighbor in the car as well as what I'm talking to him on the street.
I didn't say it, he said it.
Cut you off, brother. That'll help test it. When I get cut off, our flesh is always there. That's all we're saying, isn't it?
The Lord endured in his pathway only brought out the beautiful grace and love of his heart toward his enemies. But with us, sometimes it brings out resentment. If we're persecuted, we have that that tendency to resent it. There was never resentment in the Lord. And so as we've been often reminded in the past that someone does you an injury, look for the first opportunity to do them a kindness.
That is not being overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Pray for them, seek to do them good and the Lord can come in in a marvelous way and change their hearts and and bring them back. So may we have this spirit of forgiveness that is shown to us in this chapter.
15 is a little difficult at times.
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, that's not so hard. Sometimes it is. But weep with them that we both are important. Both are so important. And I like it in First Corinthians 12 where it brings it out nicely.
It says in verse 25.
That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. I believe the thought is concerned. I don't know what J&D has the same concern. One for another, That's the thought. And whether one member suffer, we all suffer with that member. One member be honored, All members should rejoice. It says rejoice.
We should rejoice. We don't always. That's the sad part. And so.
That's Peter.
You've given me this hard assignment, he says Luke 24 to the Lord, you know, three times. Follow me and feed my lambs and feed my sheep and all this. And he looks now, it says he looked at John who was following Jesus. That's the key. John didn't have to be told. But Peter didn't rejoice with John there, did he?
What's this man going to do?
Put him to work, you know.
That's how we are off and then this verse is very important. Port 15 here.
Weep within the weep. I believe. In another one of Pauls epistles he said bear 1 anothers burdens.
Sometimes there's nothing we can do about a person who is in a difficulty in trial except to be with them. Then you may just fall on each others shoulders and just weep. There's not a thing you can do. There's no advice you can give. There's no way to help.
But you bear the burden with them by weeping.
Wasn't that blessed example of the Lord when he came there to the House of Mary and Martha when Lazarus was had been in the tomb? It says he wept. What a lovely picture of His heart for you and me to enter into his feelings.
Well, just that there's sorrow and weeping at a saint's funeral. It's not for the one that's gone. It's for the ones that are sorrowing. And that's why he wept. He wasn't weeping for Lazarus.
Because he knew very shortly he'd be something with Lazarus at the same hospitable table. He was weeping for the Jews who loved Lazarus and for Mary and Martha too. You know, we got to remember that. I rejoice and have a happy time at a saint's funeral. I love saint's funeral. But there is a time to weep with those that are weeping and sorrowing. But it's not like they of this world weep. You know, there's a difference. They weep and wail, but we just weep with them like Lord did.
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He entered into them. That's really the thought we had of compassion.
That weeping was compassion.
Corinthians 12.
Where the apostle speaks.
Whether one member suffered Verse 26. All the members suffer with it.
Or one member be honored. All the members rejoice with it.
It's more difficult to rejoice with those that rejoice than it is to weep with those that weep. Are we?
Joyful and happy to see another brother honored.
And used of the Lord in the body of Christ in the gospel for the blessing of the Lord's people. Do we rejoice with him? Well, that's what it says here. One member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. But naturally we're so selfish and self-centered, we're thinking of our own reputation first of all. But that was never manifest in the life of the Lord. He never thought of himself, He always thought of others.
And rejoiced in their blessing.
People in the epistles is how lavishly the apostle Paul brings into focus other people Luke the bluff physician and so many epiphyse who is one of you to think of how he delighted to mention specifically what some had done. You know it must have been a joy to have walked with the apostle Paul and and to think of the sharing there must have been and certainly by divine inspiration.
He mentions these individuals.
And he rejoiced in them, didn't they? He was thankful for beloved brother, faithful minister. You know, you just say I'd love to meet that dear brother, you know, Pastor Paul, surely. But the one he was Speaking of, how nice to speak well of someone else.
Someone saying that if you want a real blessing, go to where the Saints have wept together.
Sure, Brother Doug won't mind me.
Speaking of their sorrow there in Des Moines.
An awful blow to them and they wept together.
And so we looked for opportunity to visit there and what did we find? We found them engaged in purchasing a new meeting room.
And they were all working together in that meeting room to renovate it, and it was a wonderful sight to see shoulder to shoulder, young and old.
And very often sorrow and joy come together. But the thing that touched my heart was this, that as we were happily working together.
One of the senior brothers came in and he clapped his hands to get our attention. He had an announcement to make and when he got our attention, he announced that our sister Reeves had just gone home to be with the Lord.
I thought, isn't that something how the Lord temporizes our joys with sorrow because we're creatures that are very lopsided. We can get very excited and joyful and but he has to keep us, does he not on a on a level where he can speak to us and reach us, but I'd like to impress the young.
Hearts to lay hold of this, that when the Lord brings sorrow to a family or an individual.
To an assembly.
Go and get a blessing for your soul and you'll find that joy is probably there when you arrive.
In the 16th chapter of Romans, that the brother mentioned of his upholding brethren. I love this thought.
He says Greek in verse 3. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus.
Who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles. Now he mentioned they're never mentioned, separate. I don't believe in the word of God. It's always the two together. And here it's Priscilla and Aquila. Now when it comes to teaching.
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It's Aquila and Priscilla when it comes to helping.
Is Priscilla.
And the perfection there is beautiful. I believe she was the the mainspring of movement in that couple myself. It's always that way, you know. But whenever it comes to teaching, you watch it. Six times are mentioned, three times Priscilla and Quilla, three times Aquila and Priscilla.
She wasn't teaching.
That that when Willa was there at least.
Connection with the 16 First, my father-in-law, when he was working, told us a story of being at a banquet and after the banquet some of them were standing around talking and there was a junior member that was there and and his father came over and he was a banker.
The father and he said to his son, come here. I want you to be associated with more, more important people.
And so it says here be of the same mind one to another mind not high things, but condescend to men are things of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. You know the world gravitates. You know if there is important people, you you and you're not very important, you either don't get invited or or that you're shunned. But you know there is no one here that any one of us should think is a lower level of Christianity and Christian.
Where we're all the same, be of the same mind, one toward another. There's no difference of gift or capacity.
Or of experience, or of old age. That should make a difference as far as condescending.
Of condescension. That's a horrible thing, isn't it? To be condescending, but to think of the love that you know, it's like a Pearl, you know, where each pearl's here today. And to think of the huge necklace that's involved in cash with God's estimation of each one of us, we, we get high thoughts.
You know, and we want to exalt someone else, maybe because we think we'll be exalted along with them. But be of the same mind, one toward another. Mind. Not high things, but condescend to men are things of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
The new translation translates that, but going along with the lolly.
Beautiful.
In James chapter one.
In verse 7, For let not that man think that well, rather verse nine, let the brother of low degree rejoice.
In that he is exalted, but the rich.
In that he is made low, because as the flower of grass he shall pass away, and you go to Roman rather. Proverbs, chapter 13.
And there's verse seven. There is that maketh himself rich.
Yet hath nothing there is that maketh himself poor.
Yet hath great riches. Now the author of our Epistle, the Apostle Paul.
Was rich in a heritage of being a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, the training and the education he had as a Jew in all the claims that he had naturally as a Jew. But he set that all aside, didn't he?
Get a similar thought with Moses.
Which in Hebrews 11.
It tells us that he forsook Egypt.
And it says, steaming the reproach of Christ.
Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, where he had respect, and to the recompense of the reward by faith he forsook Egypt.
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And so this world has its measure of success.
Measure of greatness but we're exhorted to realize that before God there is that place that we can take and Paul took that place of being nothing and then he was used of God. Moses took that place of being nothing and learned at the backside of the desert how to be used of God. And so today we have that privilege ourselves of being realizing before God that.
By nature.
We're nothing, but the Spirit of God has indwelt each one of us and delights to empower us to go on in a way that can make us rich in Christ.
In the book of Esther we have a very great king has your heiress.
Although it isn't actually said, I believe that whom we wanted he killed and whom he wanted he led alive. That was a general tone of that day. But there were two men connected with the Hazel Harris.
One of them was Haman, and he formed and did everything he could to get into the good graces and ride upon a hazard. Harris's coattails, and become great in the Kingdom.
The other one was Mordecai.
And he was quiet aside.
Maybe the Lord even had to put Esther in there because he wouldn't go forward. I don't know about that, but suffice to say he was a quiet man. But in the end, Haman is hanged and Mordecai is exalted.
Team that we're looking at be of the same mind. 1/4 another, we turn to 1St Corinthians chapter one and see the same thought the apostle mentions there in verse 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that should be perfectly joined together in the same mind.
And in the same judgment.
This whole idea that we can have different interpretations, we can have different opinions about gathering.
Both the divine center and so on. This is not according to God's word at all. If we are subject to the word of God and the will is kept in the place of death, we're going to have the same mind one toward another when the will is active. And that's really what a heretic is. You know, it's a self willed man and our own thoughts are brought into the picture and we want to press a certain.
Line of.
Of opinion, then we bring discord in and dissension and contention into the assembly, Exactly what Satan wants. But if we're subject to the Word of God, we will have the same mind one toward another. There'll be edification in the assembly.
And will acknowledge there is the one divine center of gathering.
I think that's important to see because when the will is active, as it often times is in our in our goals, we learn, we lose spiritual discernment.
Yeah, the Apostle Paul.
He he he dealt with the Saints as a father would his children.
And those of us who are parents, fathers, mothers, we don't, we don't have favorites.
Jacob. Jacob had a favorite. He had Joseph, but.
We we try to raise them all for the Lord.
And and yet in the family of God, I noticed Mr. Darby reads verse 16. Have the same respect one for another.
Have the same respect.
We don't usually do that.
I mean, it's a very, it's a practical failing. We tend to congregate in our own little groups, those that agree with us, those that are of the same opinion.
That we have.
And you can see it, you can see it at a conference groups and they're always together.
I don't think that's necessarily necessarily bad, but I think it might be the indication of something that might be bad.
And that is?
This tendency to just just visit with and congregate with those that that agree with me.
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And I think that.
This might be a word for young people and for all of us that you're going to learn more if you rub shoulders with some that don't agree with you.
Don't always.
Go to those that agree with you and are the same mind, but those that have a different view and maybe a different way of looking at things and rub shoulders with them. But the important thing is to love all the Saints and not play favorites. You couldn't think of the Lord Jesus having favorites. He loved them all and yet they were also different.
And we're also different.
And some of us are more stubborn than others and and not as well taught and, and all of these things that that distinguish us and you find us in families and that but it's beautiful to see how that with all these differences, when love prevails, we can go on together in in harmony.
And not just tolerating one another, I don't mean that, but really loving one another.
And there's a difference between tolerating a brother or sister and loving them.
I'd like to have some more development of this line of truth because I think it's so important. We tend to to do to get into divisions. And that's what Corinth had. They had their divisions among themselves and they had their favorites. They had their favorite teachers, the one that liked.
A powerful speaker they would they would like a policy. He was a very eloquent man.
The one that liked it was high in intellect. He would like the Apostle Paul and the one that likes someone that was forceful and forward be like Peter.
But we need all of them and we need all one another. We need each other and try to curb ourselves from just seeking out a certain group all the time. That's something we all fall into, I think, and it's good that we.
If they're going to invite someone to our house, maybe invite the one that is the least compatible with us and see how that works. And that will be practicing practical Christianity, won't it?
Well, I would say there could be a one mind only one way by the Spirit of God and without the Spirit of God will never be of one mind. We're all different, we think differently, but we, the Spirit of God is the only way. And the gathered Saints ought to be at at anything.
Typical of being of one mind, one with another.
I think it's the most important thing there is. We're not talking about little things. And one likes to walk the other drive to this place. We're not talking about that. But we can be of one mind, brethren. And I think it's so important. I don't want to just talk to those that don't have the same mind as the mind of Christ. I mean, that isn't the most pleasant thing. Well, Psalm 133, I'll just read one verse. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together.
In Unity.
That can only be by the Spirit of God. No other way. And I'll give you one more because this is very important in John John Chapter 7 and I and I really believe this is that's why we had so many problems four years ago and This is why we had so many problems. John seven verse.
17 If any man will do his will, that's God the Father. By the Spirit he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Now this is the key.
He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory.
There's the difference. If he speaks from himself, he speaks seeking his own glory. We can't be of one mind. We don't even have the Lord's mind there. The Spirit of God breath. I really think it's the key. Individually, corporately, family.
Philippians 3 I read it verse 3. Paul says let us therefore as many as be perfect, mature and and fully understanding and entering into the Christian position and what Christianity really is, be thus minded.
Would be lovely if we were all of that mind, but if in anything ye be otherwise minded, and you haven't entered into the full truth of the Christian doctrine and so on.
01:20:05
God shall reveal even this unto you. And there are those that do not see as clearly as others do. Those that know the truth far better understand it better than others in the family of God.
And then he says, nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, in whatever degree we are of one mind, and we have attained to the same knowledge of truth as our brother.
Let us walk by the same rule. That is, we can walk together in fellowship in whatever measure we've understood the truth commonly.
Lettuce and then he says.
Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing.
Rather than be followers together of Maine, Paul had the the the largeness in his soul to walk with all the Saints, even some that didn't fully understand the truth. He walked with them in the measure in which they did understand it, looking to the Lord to to lift them to a fuller understanding at some time. But if grace is what is characterizing us in our relationship with one another, we'll be able to go on together, even though we.
All haven't attained to the same measure of understanding.
But we can go on together, in whatever measure we have attained, looking to God to lift the one that hasn't understood the truth as firmly as as another has to bring him into it. But the way we grow into those things is not by a legal a legality which insists that you must understand the truth as I do, or I'll have nothing to do with you. That is legality, and that is not of God. But grace enables us to bear with others.
That haven't understood as much as we have and to go on with them and seek to lead them in to a fuller, richer understanding of Christ and His precious truth. But grace alone can do that.
Talking about growth, I agree there are babes, there are some that have grown and here a little there little line up one line I agree but.
That isn't the thought is that. I think that is the thought. Well, I was just thinking of this remark was made to to invite somebody over that had a different viewpoint than you did well.
The spirits leading and seeking the mind of the Lord on these things. With that I think is a given thing.
But there's one other thing.
Those of Berea received the word laughing, they received it. They heard Paul's message. And then again, with all due respect to Paul, they said, I wonder if what he said is true. They searched the word to see if these things were sold. So my brother, with whom I do not share the same view, I listen to him.
And I listened intently and get his point of view.
Then I open the word of God.
Maybe I changed my way.
Maybe the next time I see him and say, brother, have you ever considered such and such a scripture?
But it's the word of God.
Mixed with the power of the Spirit of God and love for one another, that is going to bring us along in the truth.
#17 May the grace of Christ our Savior and the Father's boundless love with the Holy Spirit's favor rest upon us from above.
Thus may we abide in union with each other in the Lord, And possessed in sweet communion joys which earth can never afford #17.
You can compare.
Today.