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#13 in the back of the book.
We sing also #13 in the back of the book.
Child of God.
By Christ.
Joy.
Chapter 15.
We then, that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification, or even Christ please not himself, but as it is written. The reproaches of them, that reproach thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope.
Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus that she made with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us for the glory of God. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made under the Fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
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As it is written for this, 'cause I will confess thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. And again he saith, Rejoice ye Gentiles with his people, and again praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and loud him all you people. And again Isaiah saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, and him shall the Gentiles trust. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing.
That she may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
Nevertheless, brethren, I have written them more boldly unto you of some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in these things and those things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through many signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, So that from Jerusalem around about the Illuricium, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ.
Yeah, so have I strive to preach the gospel.
Not where Christ was named lesbian, lest I should build upon another man's foundation, but as it is written. To whom he was not spoken of. They shall see, and they that have not heard shall understand.
For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you, But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire that many years to come unto you, whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you, for I trust to see you in my journey.
And to be brought on my way thither word by you. At first I may be somewhat filled with your company, but now I go on to Jerusalem to minister unto the Saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and IKEA to make a certain contribution for the poor Saints which are at Jerusalem.
It has pleased them verily, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister onto them in carnal things.
When, therefore, I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.
And I am sure that when I come on to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ, say for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea.
That my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the Saints, that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and maybe and may with you be refreshed. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
An interesting observation to begin with is that Illyricum.
Which we have here.
In which verse is?
19 verse 19.
Is.
Probably the present Albanian.
To think that Paul got as far as their preaching the gospel. He hadn't been to Rome yet.
He writes to the brethren there.
It's all being wrong, brethren. I'm not an assembly, but individual. And so we have truth for the individual in this book. And of course, it begins with the Gospel of God. He talks about the gospel of God in this chapter and the gospel of Christ.
You puddle through in the early chapters of this wonderful book.
We get the love of God, the Son of God, the wisdom of God.
The judgment of God. The wrath of God.
And many, many things that are of God.
Searching the soul.
And then in this chapter we have the God.
On the God of patience.
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And the God of consolation in verse 5.
And in verse 13, the God of hope.
And the last verse that God of peace so that here.
The subject is God himself.
And these things that characterize him.
Also in chapter 5, let's turn to that.
We probably get as high.
In the truth as it's possible to get.
In Romans 5.
The verse he left.
And not only so, but we also.
Joy in North.
There's nothing beyond that to think that a man, a woman.
Saved by grace through faith so suited to God's presence that we find our joy in dawn.
Well, we've had a nice time on the 12Th. I hesitate to change and accept that.
The practical truth.
Doesn't take a lot of explanation and we come to practice and we've enjoyed that.
In the 12Th chapter.
We did remark that in the 11Th chapter we were brought to the place of praising and giving thanks to God.
In the highest place we can get as to join in God.
Is perhaps the carried out in what was referred to in Romans 11?
Then the reasonable service, it's easy to understand that and it's very practical and very necessary. But here in this 15th chapter.
We come.
The praise and.
Giving thanks.
Again in verse.
Five Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded.
One toward another, according to Christ Jesus, that now here it is, that we may with one mind.
And one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was remarked to that in this book of Romans. We don't.
Find the church mentioned until we get to the last chapter and there it's individual local churches. But we had and we enjoyed it in the 12Th chapter. Just look back at that in the 12Th chapter.
Versus.
4:00 and 5:00.
The truth brought before us the first time in the Bible. I know of that. For one, we read verses four and five again. For as we have many members in one body, there it is one body.
That wonderful truth that's developed under Paul's doctrine.
One body.
And all the members have not the same office. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one of us members one another. And what's God's purpose in this? It's what we're reading in our 15th chapter.
Verse 6.
That ye may with one.
Mind. God has given us a mind, an intellect, a wonderful thing to take in, to listen, to read the word of God, to know God.
And you have it, and I have it, and God wants us to be gather in our minds.
And if they are directed by the word, as we have been exhorted yesterday, it's the only way to work.
That we may with one mind and one mouth.
No musical instruments here.
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God touches the heart and the soul and gets the music that He wants.
Out of a united company who are saved by the gospel of the grace of God and learn that they are one company and walk together meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and their glorifying.
God, that he may move one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, that's an introduction to this chapter. Perhaps a good thing to get into.
God himself.
The God of patience.
And consolation, two things that everyone of us need.
And we always have it in God. I'm so glad you said that. And I just like to tie this together with the 12Th chapter because.
And 1St in second, Peter the last verse, I the next first. We would have started in the 12Th chapter goes on in a practical way, and I just like to read it in verse nine. I think that's where we would have started.
Let love be without dissimulation, or that which is evil. Plead for that which is good. But we have here, as you pointed out in the sixth verse, a glorifying God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one mouth. But how is that possible? Just like to read a verse in second Peter chapter one in connection with love. It really brings God before us.
Second Peter, chapter one.
And verse 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness, these are things that are to be added to faith and to brotherly kindness, charity or divine love. Brotherly love has my brother as its object, and it's a very sweet and a wonderful thing. But charity has God as its object. And so if we have the same object, there's going to be no dissension among brethren. If we have our brother as our object, there may be dissension among brethren and parties formed.
But how can we glorify God with one mind and with one mouth as if we have God? God is holy, and so we abhor that which is evil. And I think we're going to see this in the beginning verses of our chapter. If we have God as our object, we're going to be united. We cannot be divided if we're have God as our object, as our brother's been bringing before us. It's very interesting in connection with this.
In the first verses of our chapter it talks about.
Bearing the infirmities of the weak.
And we see the weakness of our brethren. You see weaknesses in me, and we're to bear those. And we have a verse quoted from the Psalms, and I'd like to go back and look at that. But there is a difference between weakness and wickedness.
And I love a story that was told of our dear brother Pierre Paddle that some of us remember. Beloved servant in the Gospel. He'd sometimes take part in meetings like this, and you couldn't always understand what he was saying.
Because of his heavy accent and he says its wickedness, its wickedness.
And, you know, love covers a multitude of sins. And a brother asked him, He said, was that weakness brother wickedness? There's a big difference. The question was edifying. And there's a big difference between wickedness and weakness. Weakness were to bear, and wickedness we are to abhor.
And so we see this in our chapters, we go on in this chapter that we're not to please ourselves for to please God. And if we're pleasing God, we're not going to get into confusion, but if we please ourselves.
It's going to result in every evil work we get that that's the working of the flesh. That's what causes dissension among brethren.
Is that we're pleasing ourselves, we're pleasing man, We have man as our objects. Brotherly love is a wonderful thing, but divine lover, charity has God as its object. And so in this quotation of the Psalm, it's very interesting if we see this in connection with bearing the infirmities of one to another, because it's used two times in the New Testament. And if we turn back to the 69th Psalm in connection with this third verse.
It's the 69th Psalm and the ninth verse, and I'd like to point out the other instance in which it is used in the New Testament, Psalm 69.
And verse 9 that's quoted here in our chapter.
For the zeal of thine house has eaten me up. The reproaches of them that reproached me are fallen upon thee.
Now here's the same word and the word of God, and we know where that verse was used. He went into the temple and he saw the money changers. He had a zeal for his God and he overthrew those money changers tables and he chased them out. He had a zeal, first of all for his God. And the Word of God said, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. And so we find at the beginning of the Lord's public ministry, he overthrew the money changers tables. And at the end of his ministry he overthrew the money changers tables. His wrath, the sun did not go upon it. Down upon his wrath. His opinion of evil had not changed.
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He had God as his object, and so with that, coupled with that, there was an abhorrence of evil. We had that in the 12Th chapter in that verse. There. Let love be without dissimulation or deceit. There's a lot of deceitful love in the world today. The world is full of deceitful love, unsatisfied affections, pretense.
Supposed caring for people, you've got to love people that are in perversion and sin and so on. And it's not real love, it's the allowance of evil.
But Divine Love is to warn the Sinner and to deliver him from his sin.
And so we see that in connection with the Lord, but then if there is that energy, then there's reproach in connecting with bearing the infirmities of the weak. But the two of them have to go together. And so I think it's most blessed how this one verse in the Psalms is used in two seemingly very opposite ways. And want to move the Lord to chase the wickedness out of the house, House of God. And another, it was just to bear the infirmities of our brethren. And we need to have those things before us. But we can only do that if if we have God as our object.
The real foundation for dealing with the weaknesses of our brethren, that is.
Rather Neola love.
13 chapter First Corinthians brings out.
How love there and all things but in our first verse here.
It speaks of the weak and the strong.
And we need to understand what the Lord is Speaking of when He speaks of brothers and sisters that are weak and brothers and sisters who are strong. And in the beginning of the 14th chapter we have.
The God's own explanation of what he means when he speaks of someone who is weak.
Him that is weak in the faith. So he in our first verse, he's Speaking of those who are weak in the faith and those who are strong in the faith.
And we have an example, for instance one who is weak in the faith, heated herbs.
And he really might observe one day over another.
And that's because his faith is weak. That is, he has developed in his faith.
When you've developed in your face, you are strong in faith. When you first begin in the path of faith, there's a lot of things that you don't know and you have questions in your mind. But as you get into the Word and as you grow and think, you get strong. So what it's talking about in the first verses?
We that are format to her, we that are stronger in the faith, we are to bear in love with the weaknesses of our brethren. That one brother thinks he can only eat herbs. We're to love him and bear with him. And later on in this 14th chapter it says if, if.
We think that it's all right for us to eat meat.
Or any kind of meat or things in our lives.
That maybe a weak brothers as well. I don't think that brother ought to do that well in love. We ought to be willing to even give up what we know before the Lord is really all right. Eating meat is all right if it's going to cause some weak brother in the face to stumble in love to him. I ought to be willing to for bear and so the apostle Paul said it is good needed to eat flesh in verse 21.
In order to treat why nor anything whereby they'd rather stumble and oftentimes we hear how.
Wine Branson can be something that's almost a weaker brother.
They find out that we think it's all right on occasion to have a glass of wine.
Truly, if that's all that you have by finding out health wise and I heard it recently on the news.
That really is good for your health, to have a glass of wine every day. But the weak brother may think, well, it's all right to have a glass, so I'll have two or three and he gets inebriated.
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So delivered it that you allowed for yourself. My weak brother comes along and instead of being a health stone spiritually, you weaken him. You're causing him to have a fall that that really is going to bother his conscience and and might interfere for a long time with him getting on with the Lord and and behaving in such a way that he really the help and encouragement to us so.
In our verse reason that are strong thought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
In talking about those who are weak in the things and those who are strong in the faith, those who are strong in the faith in love ought to have a care for our brethren that are weaker and try to help them along in the path of the Lord, and not to be an entrance in any way.
That comes out very clearly in the previous chapter that.
There were those who came from the Jews, amongst the Christians, and you know, they couldn't eat a lot of things and they were given specific directions, what was clean, what was unclean. And there were those who had not come into full Christian liberty. Weakness here is not worldliness.
I emphasize that weakness here is not worldliness. It is somebody who hasn't come into.
Full Christian liberty. And you know, when we, for instance, meet people that come from what you might call a legal group of Christians, you know, the women always have to have their head covered. They have to wear a certain kind of dress. Well, don't try to force them to give that up until they see themselves for themselves.
What the scriptures teach us. So bear with them and don't allow it to interfere in our fellowship. Allow for growth. That's the point then. But we at the other hand, like our brother has very ifly brought out, we better be careful that we don't stumble them.
And I for one, have been very careful, even when professionally I was joining with other colleagues.
And he was forced to be at a cocktail party. I never drank any alcoholic beverages. I wanted them to know that I did not take liberty in that area. And I think we better be careful in this country. Many Christians are stumbled when we make use of our Christian liberty.
In these first 7 verses of a chapter that our brother has suggested the 15th chapter.
Has to do with the 14th chapter, doesn't it? And I think the key in the 14th chapter, the key to what we've been saying is verse 17.
The Kingdom of God.
Is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. So it's not an outward thing. We're not to be occupied with the outward thing. But where do we find?
Righteousness. Peace.
And joy in the Holy Ghost, we find it in the person of Christ. Occupation with Christ will change all that. So it's beautiful that God has given us these instructions very practical in this 14th chapter, 12Th chapter, and also this 14th chapter and the 1St 7 verses of this 15th chapter. So it's good for us to bow to the word of God. And I, I believe what I see in this is our brother has already pointed out the, the, the patience of God and the, the mercy of God and the goodness of God.
Brought in there.
Why? Because the thought of God brings in holiness.
And character in our walk before him.
Interesting and helpful to look at our brother London used to teach us on this 17th verse. You can't see the Kingdom of God, but you can see the results now they're they're moral and we as someone comes to want to be in our meeting to break bread.
We can see their moral conduct.
Is there some righteousness?
Some peace, some joy in the Holy Ghost in that person.
The one added requirement is the 14th chapter in the first verse in the faith.
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Someone is in the faith, they have as much right at the Lord's Table as I do if they're going on morally.
In the righteousness and peace, and the whole joy of the Holy Ghost, and.
The purpose in our chapter.
Is that we made with one mind.
And one mouth glorify God.
Praising him in his presence.
It's very simple, very lovely, and there is time for growth to get the strength that strong meat brings so that reception at the Lord's Table is not a matter of intelligence and knowing a lot about the Word of God.
It's the state of soul is their reality. Are they in the Kingdom?
Are they saved? Are they in the faith?
The way it was in the beginning, yes.
Lord, when the Lord added to the Church daily such it should be saved.
But then that was in the days before Ruin and come in.
Many things that had to be separated from but but if you were to wait until.
Someone was perfect or spiritually mature before you received him in to bring bread at the Lord's Table.
Who? Who am I to repeat it? But we do have to be careful about what?
They're associated with and if they're associated with something is defiling or something that is wrong doctrinally.
In these days and those things that they have to be taught and those things have to be separated from before they can be received. But at a reading meeting in Bolivia.
Many years ago.
Indian brethren, who has come out of hedonism and the.
The Walking ways that are there gathered to the Lord's name were reading First Corinthians chapter 6.
And they were getting instruction by the Spirit of God from the Word of God. And so turned to 1St Corinthians 6.
It's an illustration of what has been brought up.
Well, we have to read in First Corinthians 6 what was going on in the heathen world.
Verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornication, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.
Nor thieves.
Nor kevinches, nor drunkards, nor revilers.
Nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God. Now look at the change and such for some of you in the Corinthian assembly. We're it's a past thing. They come out of it such for some of you, but we are washed.
You're sanctified.
We are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Those dear brothers sat there and enjoyed that for half an hour.
That they were in this condition, after having been in that horrible condition of heathen idolatry.
So the gospel, the salvation, takes care of our past, and we're saved. Then we come, and there ought to be soon the.
Results seeing that our brother Littlest brought us to in chapter 14 and verse 17.
The Kingdom of God, what is it?
It's not meat and drink. We've had good excitation on that. What is it?
Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The fruits of the Spirit are there, such we can receive and be together.
In unity with one mind and one mouth to glorify God and even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So there therefore again he says, wherefore receive you one another, as Christ also has received us to the glory of God, those oblivion brothers that come out of heathen Indian.
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Were received to the glory of God.
If anybody has received.
To the Lord's table as walking amongst brethren, it is to be to the glory of God because of the work of Christ that's brought us into a position for it, and He wants us there to go on morally that way and have a witness and having happiness.
I think it's an interesting thought in verse two and three of our chapter.
The question of pleasing our neighbor for his good. And then in verse 3, even Christ pleased not himself in our relations together. Because this is what these two chapters deal with in a large way.
The differences of feeling and conviction that a person may have, perhaps, like it's been said, they haven't gotten into full Christian liberty.
Yet it's a matter of growth, and growth takes time. We can't expect a child to become an adult in a few days. That doesn't happen. And in spiritual things, growth takes time as well. So you see a brother that is not up to full growth and you and you don't try to please your own self, you seek to please your neighbor for his own good. I think this is really important because we live in a country.
Where self pleasing is glorified.
And I think we have to recognize it that many times we are affected by that spirit of things.
Of pleasing ourselves for good.
But it's completely turned around here. It's not pleasing ourselves. It's giving up. It's sacrificing of ourselves, like we had in Chapter 12, to present our bodies a living sacrifice. Sacrifice is something that costs something.
But for the good of the other, I lay my own desires, my own wishes.
To one side and I seek to please my brother for his good and even Christ. Please not himself. Think of the treatment he got when he came here, brother. He wasn't thinking of his own good while he walked through this world.
He got terrible treatment. He was thinking of someone else, he was thinking of us and oh, if we could just be delivered from ourselves. I see so many young people.
Older people too.
But they're thinking of themselves. And I tell you, there is not a more miserable occupation than to be thinking about yourself. God help us to deliver us from self occupation. You're thinking about yourself or what other people think about you. It's miserable. You're thinking about yourself, what you are, it's miserable. We need deliverance, brethren.
Think about others, to think about the Lord Jesus, to think about others and their needs, and that is deliverance and it is joy.
It is, it is a real thing. Dear young people, the Lord help us to turn around. Love thinks of others, doesn't think of himself.
And it's always in scripture when love is spoken about. It's love that is costly.
For God so loved the world that he gave. How much did he give?
His only begotten Son, Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
It's always a costly thing. We like to protect ourselves. That's the society we live in. The Lord help us to be willing to open our hearts in our pocketbooks too, so that it will be real sacrifice that we love others with. To please not ourselves. To please our neighbor for his good.
Isn't it lovely that just Bob quoting this, I was thinking of the early this this first statement of this first of his third verse. How beautiful this is. God doesn't he gives us the highest standard that it is possible for a man to have and it says even Christ.
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Pleased not himself I could stop right there.
And it would if we were exercised by what we're told there and we put it into practice.
What a happy time we would have together, wouldn't we? We wouldn't be have a legal spirit. We wouldn't have a a vindictive spirit. We would have a time of fellowship together. It's just that beautiful little part of that verse for even Christ. Who was he?
The most glorious person, the man from the glory. But did he ever seek to please himself? No, as her brother has already said, all he ever did was to please us and to give us.
Eternal life and a desire to praise Him.
That we agree in detail.
On everything as to what we can eat and things like that, but we have one mind that we want to please the Lord and bear with one another where we differ, you know, and Paul in Philippians says if you are in anything otherwise minded, the Lord will reveal this. We can still have one mind.
And that one mind is not agreement in every detail, but we want to please the Lord. Let me also try to.
Say, why does he make the statement in the fourth verse that all scriptures?
Or that whatsoever things were written a fourth time was written for our learning. Why does he bring that in?
I believe that we can even benefit from what we read in the Old Testament, what the Jew could eat and could not eat, because they're more or lessons connected with it. I remember how brother ervin Clawson would take up Leviticus 11. You know, the clean and unclean animals. I heard that in Germany of a brother when I was a 1920 year old man.
Young men bringing out spiritual essence from that. And so we benefit from whatever was written.
Of course, we better be careful that we don't let our imagination go vile.
You know, and they are principal uses of the Scriptures, which is not according to God, but we can benefit from it. You know, and don't ever accept the idea that we can never look into an Old Testament book. You know, we had a situation where somebody wouldn't come to Sunday school because we were studying an Old Testament book. Well, read this verse. We can benefit from it.
And.
Also, Timothy was told that he had known the Holy Scriptures from a child that would make him wise unto salvation. But what scriptures did he have? The Old Testament read 1St Corinthians 10. Whatever happened to them were examples to us. You know these typical teachings in the Old Testament we can benefit from even from the law, the 10 commandments.
We can benefit from love thy neighbor as thyself, God first, the Lord that God and thy neighbor as thyself can't. We still benefit from it? But we're not under the law. And where we have to guard ourselves is that we don't become fanciful and go too far in using these scriptures instead of allowing them to give us spiritual lesson that we can still benefit from today, you see?
So that's why this is brought in here I believe.
You know that we can even benefit.
From these clean and unclean animals.
That the Jew was restricted and was told what he could could not eat.
The last part of that verse, right that we through what?
Patient.
And comfort of the Scriptures might have hope present before us the qualities that God has that we have already looked at the God of patience and consolation. Verse five he takes that.
Through patients that we through patients uncomfortable scriptures might have what hope then down in verse 13 He is the God of hope brings us into the same qualities that God always has. The scriptures will bring us to that.
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Old Testament or New Testament, patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. The God of patience and consolation grant you. The God of hope filled you with all joy and peace and believing.
A likeness to the one who has made us God in all perfection. I say a practical like the scriptures do that.
And hope there is a beautiful thing to think about too, isn't it? As one brother put it. And I'm sure we're all aware of the of the expression.
Hope is delayed certainty. That's all in the world. If you hope to get something, you may never get it. You can live off. You can live your whole life with hoping certain things and you never get them. But hope in Scripture is is only a delayed certainty. It's sure to come.
So, but we're given the assurance of it. I was just thinking of this fourth verse again.
For whatsoever things were written before time were written for what?
To show off knowledge, know to learn. If we learn these things, what we do, we put them in the practice. You know when you learn something, you have to practice that that whatever you learn, don't you? And that's probably true. It is true. So I just thought of this for whatsoever things were written, the four time were written for our learning. God is teaching us and what is it that we do? Patience.
And comfort.
And of the scriptures might have hope that assurance in our hearts that it's real.
We're only waiting to get there. God hasn't changed in different dispensations. He deals differently, but God has never changed. God is the same, and so it's the same God in the Old Testament as in the new, and his moral character never changes. Doesn't matter in what age you're talking about. And that's why it's so profitable to go back.
To the Old Testament and to read it and to learn from it, because we learn in those stories of the Old Testament of who our God is and the way he dealt with people at that time, but we now.
Often, like Hen says, meet up with people that have fanciful interpretations and it's because people are not taught to rightly divide the word of truth and I think that's what's important.
When we go back to the Old Testament, we recognize that he was dealing with an earthly people. At that time. God was the same God, but it was a God that was dealing with His people, Israel, who had earthly blessing. We know that blessing today is not earthly.
It's heavenly blessing that we have been blessed with. There's a difference and we are called to rightly divide the word of truth.
Like it says in First Corinthians chapter 10, be not not to offend.
Jew, nor Gentile, nor the Church of God. There are three different peoples that God recognizes in this world. Jewish, those his chosen people, Gentiles were the rest of the nations, and the Church of God are those he has called from both groups to form another entity. So we read the Old Testament and we recognize he wasn't writing to the church.
At that time.
And when we come to the New Testament, there we have the question of the church directly addressed. And so it's important to rightly divide the word of truth. Still God is the same. And we go back and we learn those moral characteristics that God dealt with in the Old Testament. I think it's very helpful to read it, but it needs to be done in the context of rightly dividing the word of truth.
To me, and I trust I'm quoting it correctly, the Old Testament was not written to know the eternal destiny of souls, but to know the end of the pathway of.
Life in the flesh. I don't doubt that I'm going to see David in heaven, and I'm not going to see Saul and Absalom there. But that's not really the purpose. It is written is that I, as a believer, may pursue the same court as course as Saul and wind up the same way as Saul wound up.
With a ruined life, taking my own life, it's possible that a Christian could end their life and disaster. And so these Old Testament illustrations, we can take them and profit from them and apply them to ourselves and learn from them. I'd like to turn to one because Corinthians, about four or five or six brothers have referred to Corinthians and there's an Old Testament.
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Story I believe that is helpful and illustrative of this and ties these different thoughts in Corinthians in connection with love.
What was the state of things in Corinth? It talks about one mind in our chapter. And in Corinth he had to write to them because they were divided.
But they were having love feasts and there was great profession of love there. And yet it wasn't really the love that the apostle was looking for. And that's why he brings that in in the 13th chapter.
But here was a man going on in, in sin and immorality rate in the church, in the assembly there, and they were allowing this in the name of law. They were having love feet. And yet at the same time there were poor people coming to the assembly. They thought they were being very loving by allowing this sin in the assembly. And at the very same time there were love, there were poor people coming to the assembly going hungry. The rich were eating in one place and the poor were eating in another place. And so this profession of love wasn't real.
Our chapter 12 Said let our love be without dissimulation or deceit. It wasn't real love. And so Paul lovingly to the Corinth is trying to draw this out. But we see a similar situation in connection with Eli that speaks to every one of us at every age in connection with his sons. Here Eli spoke to his sons, but he didn't restrain them and they were taking the very things of God to satisfy the flesh. And we see the tragic end of Eli and his son.
Now here Hannah comes. His sons were drunken and he didn't restrain them. And here Hannah came, a true soul, broken before God about the condition of things, and he treats her like a drum.
And wasn't that true state of things in Corinth? They didn't recognize and deal with evil when they saw it. And then when they saw true repentance, I don't mean fake repentance, but true repentance, they didn't see that either. And this needs to exercise our hearts. And so This is why we can see these illustrated things about repentance because it spoke here in the 14th chapter about the Kingdom of God. We try to, in love, try to bring this wickedness into the Kingdom of God.
And think if, you know, if we bring the the wicked near the holy, it's going to make it holy and it doesn't. We see in the word of God that that.
The unholy flesh touching the holy garment doesn't make it holy.
We have, there has to be a place to come to. There's no place for the prodigal to come back to if the father had let all the corruption that the prodigal wanted to get into into his home. And the best thing in love is to preserve the assembly as a safe haven from the and our homes from the corruption of the world so that there's a place for our children to come back to. There's a place for the Saints to come to in a place of safety. Love would do that. But I just use that illustration with Eli to see the current of things in Corinth that Paul was trying to correct, because we do get some false notions of love and it takes real patience because sometimes.
As it says here, real reproach connected with love. They say he's an unloving brother, or he doesn't understand, and there may be more understanding there than you think.
I was thinking perhaps we were going to.
Reading.
6th verse. Now these things were our example.
To the intent we should not lust after evil things.
As they also lust, in other words.
Referring to Old Testament scriptures and how that they speak to us.
All of these things were written for our learning.
It says in verse 11 Now all these things happen unto them.
Or in samples.
And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world stop. And so that's what the Old Testament is for us today.
Examples.
And someone I think Saturday was touching on.
A matter of eating pork, fish. Fish had to have tins, scales.
And we couldn't eat the pork.
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The pig has a fallen hook, but it didn't do it. Cut.
And today we're allowed to eat pork, but there was a lesser men that the lesson was simply, and they didn't understand it. The brother was bringing out why they were not to eat pork. I like that they brought that out, that God told them, just like he told Adam and Eve in the garden that they could eat of all the fruit of the garden except the tree in the midst of the garden. He didn't tell us why they couldn't eat of it. He just said you can't eat up.
And when the tears were taught they could be for he didn't tell them why.
He just told them that they couldn't speak, and he said that they didn't. They had to cloven up, but they didn't chew the cut and they didn't understand it. But the truth there for us, is that simply what we feed on.
Is extremely important spiritually. We aren't to feed on.
That which in the world?
Which might have a separator walk and there are some, you know, who sort of separate from evil things.
But they don't chew the gut. They don't get into the Word of God and meditate upon. God wants us to feed upon that which.
The animal that chews the cut, and has the clothes, and put the feet up, we are to feed upon that which is in the Word of God, and meditates upon it, and that which tends to separate us in our walk down here from evil.
And so that's what that features.
Was wrong in itself.
But when it's what we're feeding on, it's important. Let's have a few minutes on.
Before the time is out, get to this God of peace we have had, the God of patience and consolation, and little of the God of hope.
But the God of peace, what a wonderful thing, brethren, it is to have peace, to have the peace of God.
And Christ is our peace.
Opposed.
Wanting to get to Jerusalem.
And he asked the Saints over there, I mean, to Rome, he asked the Saints at Rome to pray for him.
Little North.
That probably as a result of the prayer of the Saints, he got a free ticket to Rome. He didn't have to pay for it. He got the support of the army of Caesar to get him through.
He went through.
The sea and a shipwreck.
And he got there, and he found a few of the Saints there.
It's the power of prayer and the need of prayer and the work of God to listen to prayer and to make progress.
God had in his heart the Gentiles, and he gradually moved the gospel N out of Judea and Samaria into Turkey and Greece.
And over further there and Paul had been as far as Illyricum.
Paul himself working northward and westward. Now he wants to go to Rome and he had it on his heart to go to Spain. Now this is the direction that God was going to move the wonderful gospel that he had given us in this chapter. Well, I just want to suggest.
How wonderful it is that we can address a God who can move armies.
And.
Control shipwrecks and get the result that God wanted through his servant Paul to get the gospel brought into Rome, out of which in another prison, the prison epistles are written of the Church of God. So it's wonderful to think of the God of peace and the power of prayer and the love of God that would move us that way. May we enjoy.
The God of peace, He is with us all.
So lovely to consider that because resist not evil, but overcome evil with good. And Paul could have resisted this, but as you said, that that his imprisonment was a free ticket to Rome. It was an answer to prayer. And often the thing that we very much resist is the very instrument of God for blessing. And it's a fearful thing. It is wrong to form a heresy or a party and to go to war and battle. And a good thing as it is in a, it is as it is in a wrong thing, perhaps worse.
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You know, I believe that the.
The generals of the South and the Civil War were Christians, and because they were well organized, disciplined men that this war was carried on. And they, and had they not been there, I don't think perhaps the war would have gone in as long as it was. And it was to the very Romans that Paul said that we were to submit to the higher authorities. And I walked through the Roman Coliseum with my boy, and I think the Spirit of God knew what Nero was going to do to Christians and he told them to submit.
It was the very instrument of blessing. And so something comes then we're to seek not to resist evil.
But were to seek the pathway of God in this situation, how to overcome evil with good, and so that even in the circumstances they didn't listen to Paul.
The ship was broken up and what beautiful ministry we've come out of even that seemingly tragic incident in Paul's life that is a help and encouragement to us even today and so.
Scriptures, Paul said to Timothy, The servant of the Lord must not strive. There's a tendency to want to fight with evil, to overcome it. We think something's wrong, but we're to overcome evil with good, and it's in the pathway of submission and obedience. And that's how we're going to be of one mind.
Submitting to the Lord's authority. And that's why there's going to be peace. The world, the principle we had of being transferred from the world is the principle of the world is lawlessness. You don't like something, you fight against it, you disobey it. We're faced with this everywhere. And finally a man's going to come that's going to let, that's going to seem to keep the world under glued together. And he's going to be the man of sin. He's going to be the lawless one. And it's civil disobedience and lawlessness is what characterizes this age in which we're living and we need our minds transformed.
And the assembly is the place we're not gathered simply to the person of Christ. We're gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ where his authority his own. And praise God, it's the one place on this earth where God's authority is owned and there's going to be peace. And it's just a safe haven for the Saints of God to come because here the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of the two or three gathered to his name, his authority, his own. And if we bow to that.
We're going to have peace among the Saints.
Don't. We're just going to bring the world into the assembly of lawlessness, disobedience, rebellion, and the things that weary us. We face it at work, we face it at school, the kids face it in the playground. And what a wonderful thing to bring them into the meeting and sit down. And your son knows you've got a difficulty with your brother sitting across the seat. And he knows the assembly is a place where we can just come and submit to the Lord's authority. And there's going to be peace. And it is an end in this plate, in this world of corruption and sorrow.
And that's the peace. And God wants us to know himself. God's not frustrated by what's going on in the world. His piece isn't unsettled. And and if we get ahold of that who God is, we're going to have peace in this confused world.
Neil in Corinth.
They were really indifferent as to the evil that was there. They were not rebuked.
That they had not dealt with it, but that they were unhumbled over it. I'm afraid sometimes what we find in Christians today.
They're almost glorying in putting up with evil and allowing it in, as if this is Christian virtue. But that doesn't make for peace, you know?
And what we saw will reap. But I thought too in connection with Peace and Philippians Chapter 4.
You mentioned, Neil, that, you know, as to acknowledging the authority of the law, but there are more than one way in which the peace can be enjoyed, and we have that here in Philippians.
In our difficult circumstances to which we pass prayer.
Is so important that we bring everything before him.
Even when we face difficulties among God's people, which many times are very distressing, let's face it, even amongst the gathered things, but we can in prayer bring these things before God. And then what does he say in the 4th chapter?
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And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. But then there is also the God of peace.
Being with us, you know when we are not occupied with each other's shortcomings, but when we are occupied with that which we see of Christ in our fellow believer, you know there is in everyone that belongs to the Lord that which we can rejoice over.
And that is necessary.
We shouldn't be blind to evil that occurs among God's people, but we should.
Also especially be thankful whatever we see of God in any of God's people. And then it says.
The God of peace.
He's going to be among us and it will be realized.
By those who come in.
And So what a wonderful thing it is that we can have.
The peace of God in our hearts and that we can have the God of peace with us.
And he will sustain his own, no matter how difficult the times are going to be. You know, we can count on him.
We can be thankful for whatever our veterans can supply, but what are they compared to? The God of peace?
This word is written.
The assembly of believers in Rome.
Rome, and now the God of peace be with you all.
If we look at the Romans and they're going at each other.
And there's contention and strife. Is that peace?
Well, God is a God of peace, and if they're conditioned right as existence in the assembly, would it be of God?
God is a God of order. When there's disorder in the assembly is that of God no God, God of order. And if God is a God of peace, there shouldn't be this strife in the assemblies. We should be in our assemblies getting on together, love and peace.
Then if we look down upon such an assembly and our brethren are going on peaceably together.
Then that's of God. But if there's strife and every evil work, that's not a God.
But I read a verse in Hebrews chapter 13 or a few verses.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
Beginning at verse 20.
Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.
That great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant.
Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ.
To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.