Address—Walt Porter
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Welcome to the first night back in an old meeting room.
We rejoice with you in the Lord's goodness.
Let's open the meeting tonight with #140.
Lord, our hearts are waiting. The archangels haven't sent cry, which wakes the Saints now sleeping, and to Thee brings them nigh, When we with them ascending shall meet thee in the air to gaze upon thy glory and all thy likeness Bear. 140 If someone will please start that.
Oh Lord, oh hard so raining.
Rain.
Over the same snow and swinging and till the rings and nights. Where did you live with your mindset and everything shall be shallow to me.
That was a very good man who were all on my hands and together development maybe and then and then we're going to cherish. Go on. Please give you that God's name, the Lord. Can you learn?
Oh Lord, when shall I shall try? And we can have a dream to do whatever the day.
We can share my world moving on and come on everything and there was a lot of money to stand all that way across when we were making them. Let me know the 1St place we were all born.
They were falling by my riding behind everything agent in the House of grass and Stone crawling on it.
Forever with.
The.
Forever one with me.
Just look to the Lord for His blessing.
God and our Father, we thank Thee for an opportunity to be together over Thy precious word. We thank Thee for this hymn that we could sing. Reminds us of a coming day. Lord Jesus, when thou wilt claim for thyself Thy bride, Thy blood bought bride. For it was very costly for thee, Lord Jesus, to come to this scene. Set thy face as a Flint to go to Jerusalem.
And they're accomplished that redemption.
That has brought us into that blessed place of being part of Thy Church. We pray tonight if there be anyone here who has not yet know the joy of sins forgiven, peace with God, and a membership, if we could say it that way, in that blessed body, the Church, Thy Bride, Lord Jesus, we pray that they might soon know that joy and be part of that church along with the rest of us.
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So we look to Thee and give thanks. We count upon Thee for Thy help as we open Thy word together and ask a blessing for thine honor and glory, Lord Jesus, and for the blessing of Thy people. We ask this and give thanks in Thy precious name. Amen.
Let's turn to Proverbs chapter 31.
Many of us here in the room had the privilege of being at a wedding not too many days ago.
And it was interesting to me that one of the things that Clayton told us towards the end of his little talk.
As they were about to leave in the police car.
Was that he had had a list of things that he had made-up.
As to what he would like to see in a bride?
Well, I wondered how many of those things would, uh, correspond with what we have here in Proverbs 31.
But I I didn't notice that there were that many that were, uh, very close to word for word here, but the idea was the same.
That there were things that he was looking for in a bride.
And he felt that he had found them in Melissa.
And I've been thinking lately about this chapter and how often it is that young men perhaps use this as a checklist for.
A prospective bride. And you know that's not altogether wrong because these are very desirable things to find in a mate.
But I'm not here tonight to do marriage counseling and to, uh, exhort the sisters about their position.
But I am going to speak of it from the standpoint that every one of us in this room, if we know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we are part of that bride that we sung about. And therefore all these characteristics of this virtuous woman ought to be something that is an exercise to us.
So that's the way I want to look at this chapter tonight, and we'll start with verse 10.
Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above Ruby's.
To be a virtuous woman, to be a woman of worth, as Mr. Darby says, is something that only the Lord can work in our hearts and make it worth anything. We can't drum up these things in ourselves. We can't say, well, here's this list and I need to be carrying on in accordance with this list and then the Lord is going to appreciate me and, uh.
I don't know, I guess you could use these things as a kind of a legal thing to gain some kind of favor with the Lord or something.
But that's not what we're talking about here. The Lord is looking for an affectionate response from each of His own.
Because it says in the New Testament we can read that the love of Christ constraineth us.
And it should make us interested in what the Lord is interested in.
And what the Lord would like to see in his bride.
I think sometimes of, uh, those on the way to Emmaus when the Lord Jesus drew alongside and went with them, it says when they got to the place where they were going to go for the night.
They went in and he made as though he was going to go further.
Because, you know, the Lord Jesus doesn't force us to do anything.
He offers us salvation, and of course our hearts have been changed by the time we accept that offer.
But when it comes to living here for the Lord.
We need to not think of the Lord as a someone standing there with a whip wanting certain things from us. This is not what the Lord is like. He wants a response from our hearts. You know, the Lord could have made a whole creation full of robots that would have done exactly what he wanted, but he didn't do that. Because if it isn't love, if it's not something that comes out of the heart.
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Willingly. We're gonna see that in in verse 13. She works willingly with her hands.
But just thinking of an affectionate response to the Lord tonight is the way that I want to take this up.
Not from the standpoint of having any rules or, or, uh, expectations, but these are things that the Lord delights to see in His own and that are a blessing to those around them.
So who can find a virtuous woman?
I don't know if anybody in this room is interested in raising their hand and saying I've been what the Lord wants me to be.
I don't think anybody would. But these are characteristics that we ought to covet, brethren, the way that the Lord would like us to be. It's nice if there's an exercise with us that it be so.
And verse 11, it says the heart of her husband does safely trust in her, so that he shall have no new translation says lack of spoil.
Can the Lord trust us?
We know a little bit about our own hearts, and the older we get, maybe the Lord allows us to see more and more of what's really in there. And it isn't very pretty.
But is there an overall characteristic and a demeanor in our lives?
That demonstrates that we want to be here for the Lord. We want to have a response in our hearts towards Him for all that He's done for us.
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. Verse 12. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
Verse 13. She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
When I think of wool, I think of something that's warm and comforting.
And when I think of flax, I think of something that has strength and durability. And so there ought to be that love and light both.
In our lives we need to have that desire to be a help and comfort to one another, but also there needs to be light because truth is very important. We know that God is light and God is love.
She works willingly with her hands and I think of those when they were building the Tabernacle.
There were many that contributed a lot of things, gold, precious stones and silver and cloth and all kinds of different things. And then there were those that wrought willingly with those things.
They took them up as they were provided and worked with them according to the ability God had given them. And then they produced something that was useful for the Tabernacle, for the testimony of God here in this world. And how nice if that can be our exercise as we go through this world.
To work willingly with our hands under the direction of our head in heaven.
Verse 14 She is like the merchant's ships. She bringeth her food from afar.
And maybe, uh, we've watched our wives or watched the sister go to different stores and pick up different things and go over here and get that because she wants to provide.
For those in our household.
She's like the merchant ships, she brings her food from afar. So if we apply that in a spiritual way, there are a lot of places where we can glean for our souls. We need to spend our time some time every day in this precious book to seek to learn from it what we can, what's honoring to our Lord Jesus, our Bridegroom.
And then there are helps too that we can go to, there are conferences that we can attend.
There are camps that are run this time of year where there can be a lot of good fellowship and good ministry, so it's nice to avail ourselves of those things. And let's turn to a verse in Matthew 13 in that regard.
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I've heard from different older brothers that it was their exercise.
Maybe from when they were very young, Matthew 13 and verse 52, when they were very young to have something because they didn't know when they were going to be called upon. Maybe even in a personal conversation to have something to share with someone that could be a help and encouragement to them.
So Matthew 1352 Says, therefore every scribe which is instructed under the Kingdom of heaven is likened to a man, that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
I like to think of this.
Like Abraham, when the three men came to him and he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day and these three men came, what did he have to offer? Was there anything in his cupboard?
So this householder had something he was able to bring forth out of his treasure, things new and things old. We might think of that as something we've enjoyed in the Old Testament, some things we've gathered from the epistles in the new. We might think of it as something we enjoyed years ago, but it's still precious to us now.
Or something we enjoyed last week. You know, I was just reading the other day. You ever heard anybody say that? And this verse, it was very interesting to me. So there are those things that we should be gathering up and putting in our cupboard because we don't know when company might come by, if you will. I can remember being in a going, being in a certain place and going with a brother to a hardware store to pick up a few things. And he got in a conversation with the with the young man that was helping us.
And, uh, he found out he was a Christian, so he started chatting with him a little bit and he was sharing something and he'd enjoyed from, uh, first Samuel or something. I don't recall exactly where it was, but the young man was just, he just was listening and is like his mouth fell open. And when he was, uh, the brother was done speaking to him, he said, I don't hear things like that in my church.
That, you know, the brother had something in his cupboard that he could share. And that's a nice exercise for everyone of us. We meet somebody at the grocery store, we go to a conference, and we just bump into somebody we don't know. We introduce ourselves and the conversation goes on from there. Is there anything profitable in the conversation? It's a nice exercise to have.
So in uh.
1St 14 She's storing up those things from various different sources against the time to come.
And she doesn't just go in the daytime, in verse 15 it says she rises also while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household.
And a portion or the other translation says the day's work to her maidens.
So she rises while it's yet night.
And giveth meat to her household.
Any here that our parents have an idea what it's like to have a crying baby in the middle of the night?
And maybe when you have teenagers, there come times in their lives when they need somebody to sit up with them.
And they need to discuss things.
Do we have anything to offer them?
I, uh, got.
Some ministry from a young, uh, older brother down in Florida one time.
And it came on us on a disk and I put it in a computer and started looking at it. And there was an awful lot of very interesting things. I was gathering food from afar. He was in Florida and I was in Walla Walla WA. But I, I got so impressed I called the brother up and I said brother, how did where did you come up with all this? This very good these thoughts from he told me 3 words he said while men slept.
This virtuous woman, she's rising while it's yet night, she's up early in the morning. This brother, I don't know what his lifestyle was. That's all he said to me while men slept.
Where are you before the sun comes up?
Where are you after the sun goes down? Is there any concern with us to be being before the Lord so that there might be something in our life that'd be a help and encouragement to somebody else?
When I was a young man, we used to go to the Wheaton Conference sometimes, and I can remember Clarence Lundin standing up in the center of the room and there were a bunch of young men standing around and.
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He told us, you know you're not going to make very much out of your Christian life if you don't get up at 4:30 in the morning and be in the Word for an hour before you go to work. Get on started with your day.
And we all kind of gulped and, uh.
And of course, we're not here to make any rules, and neither was Brother Lundin. But the point of it was, if we're not giving ourselves to these things, we're not going to have to give to him that needeth.
And the Lord Jesus himself was the one who said, the poor you have always with you. There's always people around us that are needy. We're all needy in different respects and at different times in our lives. And we need our brethren to come alongside and be a help and encouragement to us. We don't know when a certain word or just a verse read in the morning meeting or something will meet a need in a soul. We don't know. The Lord is able to do that and it's nice to be ready.
To do that if.
As it were, the Spirit taps us on the shoulder and we feel we have something from Him to say. How nice, if we can be prepared for that.
And the, uh, day's work for her maidens at the end of verse 15 suggests to me that there's orderliness in her pathway and not just being haphazard about the Lord's things. I remember Albert Hayhoe used to say we need to read the Scriptures regularly.
Daily and on a consistent basis or, or, uh, regularly, daily and orderly, I think go right through the scriptures and read clear through this book. And then there's time to study certain portions later on. But it's so important.
In verse 16 it says she considers the field.
And buys it, acquires it.
So it's nice, you know, there are those times in our lives when we have decisions to make.
Here she's considering this field. Should I buy it or should I not?
Peter is one. Uh, we were just reading about him at Dwight's cottage.
Peter was one that was impetuous and he jumped into things maybe and made snap decisions and got himself in a lot of trouble as a consequence.
I like that word consider she consider it a field and you know there especially as young people, but not only as young people, decisions come into our lives. We reach a point that we need to decide about something. Are we going to take this job? Are we going to move to this place? Am I going to marry this person, whatever it might be. Some of them are very major decisions. We need to consider those things carefully before the Lord I remember when I.
Got out of the military.
There was an opportunity to use the GI Bill to go to college.
And I don't know if I could put my finger on the verse right away earlier in the Proverbs, but I didn't know what I was going to do.
I mean, the GI Bill was there. I could have used it.
It was all for free. Why not? But as I considered the matter, that verse came to me earlier on, where it says, Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof.
And I didn't know what I was going to do with it if I did go to college. I had no purpose exactly. And so the Lord used that verse to, uh, keep me from going there. And so I never used the GI Bill and I have never been sorry. That is everybody's course to not go to college. But I was considering the matter and that's what the Lord seemed to show me. So it's important as we go on through life because we're here as the bride of Christ. We belong to him.
And we don't order our own life. We need to let the Lord order our life for us. He has a plan, He's given us a gift or or more. He has concern as to how we get on and He would like us to be interested in what interests Him.
You know, a lot of times you look at the children and you smile because they do something that's very selfish.
Very centered around themselves and we start out our lives often saying that's mine, that's my toy, you can't have it, Daddy. He took my doll, whatever it might be.
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But you know, it's nice if we are exercised about those things and realize that it isn't all about us.
Jim Highland is fond of saying it's a me first society out there. It's all about me. And we're seeing the effects of that kind of teaching in the world all around us today with the road rage and all these kind of things. If you, hey, you got no right to do that to me. Well, you know, I think of the child being there crawling around on the floor saying those blocks are mine. It's all about me. But you know, when we get to heaven and we hear that shout and we're gone from this world forever.
It's gonna be all about him.
So here's all about me. It's all about him. Someplace in between here, there's transition going on.
Mr. Darby said one time souls often make astonishing progress on their death bed.
And what he meant by that was you get down to the end of your life and you realize, look, I'm pretty seldom going to be in the Lord's presence. I'm going to be gone from this world. And now what's worth while? I look at things a little differently. But, you know, the further we can push that back and get rid of me, the better it's going to go with us in this life. The more honor there's going to be to the Lord, the more blessing there's going to be to His people. And we're going to be happier for it as well.
So this woman of worth she considered a field, and then she bought it, and with the fruit of her hands she planted the vineyard. So is there any desire on our part to try to encourage those things that bring for joy among the Lord's people?
Some of us, by nature, are just a little sour.
And we kind of look on the dark side of things, but it's nice we see somebody with a smiling face that we can kind of try to take that up with them. Because it is a happy thing to be able to bring joy to others. You start out on the floor with your blocks and your only concern. You don't care if your sister is happy or not. Because I want to be happy. But it's nice when that ships around to the point of realizing I want to honor the Lord Jesus. I want to please him in my life. And I know part of that is bringing joy into the lives of others.
Or a better understanding of the Scriptures, that sort of thing. So here this woman, she plants a vineyard with the fruit of her hands.
Verse 17 it says she girdeth her loins with strength, and strength ineth her arms, and you can see your wife.
Sister out in the garden tending the vegetables and things.
But there is UH-2 parts to this. One is her loins and one is her arms. So I've just enjoyed the thought that the her whole being was absorbed in this and strengthening herself to be a help to others and to have that which she could share that would be of benefit to them. She girds her loins and strengthens her arms.
You know, as we go on in that kind of an exercise.
We come to verse 18 when she's perceiving that her merchandise is good.
I just want to encourage the young people, you don't have to be a young brother to be exercised, to be a help in the Lord's.
Field of harvest.
I remember a little girl that used to take Sunday school papers to school and on the way out when they were standing in line waiting for the bus, she would give the Sunday school papers to some of the other children there. And she had the joy of seeing one little girl be real encouraged by that.
So, you know, you don't have to be very old before you can perceive that your merchandise is good and that there's blessing in it. And we want that encourages us to continue on in those things.
And how many of us have had a little word to the children or had a gospel meeting or said a few things in a reading meeting maybe, and somebody came up to us later and said, you know, I just really enjoyed that thought you had. Well, that's along the lines of perceiving that your merchandise is good. And the Lord uses those things to be a help and encouragement to us because the pathway is often difficult.
There are a lot of things to discourage.
But it's nice when, uh, we can compliment a brother without puffing him up. I remember, uh, a brother that used to make it a habit to come up to the front and speak to the brother that just had the Sunday school or the, uh, open meeting or the, the hospital. And he'd always have his Bible open and say, you know, I enjoyed that thought you had, and have you considered this? And he'd share something else with them to, uh, continue on that thought and encourage the brother and say he'd been thankful for what he said.
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And to take it a little step further, and I just so appreciate that and we can do that to one another to encourage one another on the right way.
Gossip would be something the other way. We can discourage one another with those things and even talking about the difficulties that go on among the Lord's people, even just for information. Or maybe we think we need to know. Well, sometimes we do, and that's OK, but we need to be careful that it doesn't get too far the other way. So she's perceiving that her merchandise is good, and when we get encouragement that way, it encourages us, like the last part of the verse says.
Her candle goeth not out by night.
So there's a desire when we get encouragement, there's a desire to follow on in that course some more.
Because there are those that are appreciating what we're doing.
And here we have again the night season.
So in the one verse she was.
Rising up while it's yet night. And this verse for candle goeth not out by night. Sometimes we speak of burning the candle at both ends. And this, uh, virtuous woman seemed to be one who is willing to do without some sleep for the benefit of others. And how nice if that can be our exercise and maybe the night time too. It speaks of a time of testing and pressure, and it's difficult to see our way.
But do we continue on asking the Lord for wisdom and guidance for our pathway in those times?
We trust the enemy doesn't get an advantage and discourage us so much that we just want to throw in the towel.
You know, there's a lot of that today. We feel it in our own hearts. We see it all around us. There's a verse in Matthew 24 that says when iniquity abounds, the love of many wax is cold.
It's a cold world out there.
You know, the men have to go to jobs, children have to go to school, we have to live in the community and the society. And we read the headlines and the news. And, you know, it's easy to get so overcome that you just say it's not worth it. You know, it's too difficult. I, I can't do it anymore. And we just want to give up and give in. So we're here tonight to encourage one another in these spiritual things to be a little hedge against all that discouragement that's just waiting to come in on us.
So her candle goeth not out by night. Verse 19 it says she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff. And I understand those are instruments that have to do with spinning.
And creating garments, maybe. And here she was willing to.
Well, we read it in the next verse. She stretches out her hand to the poor. Yeah, she reaches forth her hands to the needy. So here she was busy. Her candle wasn't going out by night. Her hands were busy. She was making things.
And she was clothing others with these things. So as we read the scriptures and as we use the other helps that we have, it's nice if we can be doing those things not just for ourselves, although there is personal benefit in a lot of that.
But what the Lord gives to us is meant to be shared with others.
So we have another verse in Proverbs that says he that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.
Because there may be others that would like some of that corn. Do you have something you can share with them?
It's a wonderful thing to be operating in the Lord's economy because if I have $100 bill, especially if it's US and I give it to you, I don't have it anymore. But in the Lord's economy, when I have something and I give it to you, not only do you have it, but it's more sure in my own soul. Now how, how wonderful is that? Who wouldn't want to live under an economy like that? And we do live under that. So may we be encouraged to not be afraid to say something, to share a little something.
Even though we might be timid about it or think, well, I don't have much to say. Brother told me that the other day.
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But we do have something that we can share. We all have a little something. So even if it's, uh, talking to another young child and saying, you know, I read that Sunday school paper last week and wasn't that a really good story? You know, because it occupies us with the Lord's things and there's always benefit in that.
So here she was, being busy with her spinning wheel, perhaps making that which would be of benefit to others. So she stretches out her hand to the poor.
She reaches forth her hands to the needy and I don't have a thought on what the difference is between poor and needy. Maybe somebody could share something with me to encourage me about that after the meeting.
But here she was busy to those who were, as the world says, less fortunate than themselves.
You know in uh, Romans 15 it says we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
So now we're back to this It's all about me or it's all about him. Where is this transition happening?
We're all poor in some respect and at some time in our lives, and if we have something that would be considered that which would make us strong from that scriptural standpoint, let's share those things with others. That's why the Lord has put us here. He's made us all in one body. We all have a different place in the body, but we function together. All the nourishment by joints and bands. The nourishment's ministered and it brings increase in the body.
We all have a little something and when I've spoken to the children sometimes in Sunday school, I say I bet you have something you can share.
And I smile at them and they smile back, and I say, see there, why don't you go give that to an older person and see what it does to them?
You don't have to be very old to be a little bit of a help if there's a little exercise in our little hearts to be here for the Lord Jesus, because after all, he's bought us with His precious blood, He's reserved inheritance in heaven for us. That's why we're speaking about these things, because there ought to be a response in our hearts to all that that He's done for us and that love of Christ constraining us.
So she was willing to give of ourselves. And let me just mention this too.
Uh, maybe we should just read and Luke, uh, 19.
The Terrible of the Pounds, Luke 19.
And verse 13, just the first, just that one verse of the parable, Luke 1913. And he called his 10 servants.
And delivered them 10 lbs and said unto them, Occupy till I come. Now I like Mr. Darby's rendering there, because Occupy sounds like, well, you can just sit down and hold this pound until he comes back and everything will be fine. Mr. Darby says trade while I am coming.
He's on the way, and our responsibility is to trade with what we've been given. That's what we're talking about here in the Proverbs. We've been given certain things we have a certain amount of.
Intelligence, ability, maybe good looks, maybe strength, whatever it might be, maybe possessions, we have those things and as if we're strong, we ought to bear the infirmities of the weave and try to help other people, and especially in a spiritual way. So that was the exercise of this virtuous woman. She stretched out her hand to the poor and reached forth their hands to the needy. Now in verse 21 it says she's not afraid of the snow for her household.
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
You all appear know a little bit about snow more than I do.
But if you're not afraid of the snow, that means you're pretty well dressed and you've been fortified against what's outside.
And you might remember about Naomi.
And her husband and sons, they said it's too hard here. There's no food. Maybe it's cold like we read here. He's not afraid of the snow.
Cold time sometimes come. Maybe it's in our family, maybe it's just in our personal life, maybe it's in the assembly.
Cold times might come. Have you reinforced those you love, those close by you?
With this scarlet.
So that she's not afraid of the snow.
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And we can carry through some of those difficult times when there's coldness.
And maybe a lack of food in the assembly, she was exercised about that and did what she could to clothe her household. And I think when it speaks of her household, we read that several times in here. It's nice to think of it as more than just her children. Because our household, I'm looking at my household currently right at this moment here. We're all in this together.
And as such, it's nice that we can look after each other and not be a little individual families. And you're over there and, well, maybe we'll see you next Sunday. But to realize that we're all in this together, that we need one another. We're all members of the body, and we all have our part to play in the health of the body.
All her households are clothed with scarlet. Verse 22.
We're going to speak about her personally now. She maketh herself coverings of Tapestry.
Her clothing is silk and purple.
If your, uh, husband here in this room or maybe a, a Big Brother to a sister, maybe you've seen the female come to you and say, well, how do you like my dress? Does it? Does it look good on me? I mean, you know, does it, how do you, how do you like it, you know?
Because there is that in a, in a woman, perhaps more than a man, to want to be attractive.
To the others that are important in her life and you know there are ways that we can make ourselves attractive to the Lord Jesus, if I can say it that way, those things that are pleasing to him.
We can be exercised about in our lives.
I think there's a way in a Nat, in a natural sense, for for a wife to make herself indispensable to her husband.
I think that's a nice desire to wanna be here for him and to do what things he needs.
To get along happily in this world because there's nothing they say behind every successful man.
Is a woman. I forget what the adjective is, bef before her.
But she's supporting him.
And part of that is what we read here. She makes herself attractive to her husband. And right here it's tapestry. Maybe the more the outward things, but we're gonna get to in verse 30, a woman that feareth the Lord.
And that's the inward side of that too, and it can be such an encouragement to your mate.
To know that you're there for the Lord and you want to do what's best for them in a spiritual way too.
So she's making herself attractive to her husband. Coverings of tapestry and clothing of silk and purple.
Because in verse 23.
She knows who her husband is.
He's known in the gates when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
And maybe some of you sisters have had that experience that somebody will come by and say, oh, I'm so and so. Who are you? And you say, well, I'm so and so and say, oh, and so and so. Your husband. Oh, you're his husband. Oh, how nice, you know.
We are known because of belonging to the Lord Jesus, being betrothed to Him.
In a natural way, sometimes the wives might want to roll their eyebrows when they think about their husband. And all us husbands have to admit that we have not been what we should have been.
But this husband?
Makes no mistakes.
He's never wrong. He never does a dumb thing, no.
So there's no reason these things shouldn't characterize us because we have a perfect husband. We're not married yet, if you will. It has not been consummated yet, but he has betrothed us to himself. And I, I feel like the Jewish order of things was that as soon as a betrothal was made, basically the contract was signed. It was the husband's duty after that to prepare to take care of his wife until.
The wedding was actually consummated the marriage.
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The Lord Jesus is that way with us. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He's taken care of everything that was against us. He's provided such a future for us. Is is there? Do we just shrug our shoulders and say, oh, thanks for the ticket to heaven and I'm going to go ahead and do what I like in this world and we'll see you on the other side.
Is that all Christianity is?
I hope it doesn't only mean that to you. All of that's true, of course, that we have such a position that our husband is known in the gates when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
And of course, many in this world now are not.
Willing to acknowledge who he is.
But we get from that standpoint to be here.
Representing him in a world that doesn't want him.
And that's a blessed thing, too.
So to have a sense that our husband is in that place and that very soon he's gonna come back to this scene and he's gonna have a vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
We're going to be associated with them that we're gonna come back with them as the bride adorned for her husband.
And it should encourage our hearts to take up now, as we're trading while he's coming, those things that would honor him in view of that day. How nice. One day soon, we're gonna give an account, too.
As to how we did when our trading?
But just to know that our husband makes no mistakes.
He's in that place, there at the Father's right hand even now. Soon he's going to be sitting on a throne in Jerusalem, ruling over the nations of this world.
And we're associated with this one who is known in the gates.
How nice.
Verse 24.
She make a fine linen, and selleth it, and deliver it girdles unto the merchant. I like to think of this as now she's being.
Shall I say she's gone on with the Lord long enough that now she's beginning to be able to share her wares in a larger sphere, so she's making fine linen and selling it.
And we don't want to say that we're we're doing anything for filthy lucre's sake, if you will. But there are those beyond just our household, those in our local assembly, that we may then be able to be an encouragement to as well and be a help to them. So she's selling things. Then there's a step beyond that where she's delivering girdles into the merchant and the wholesalers, taking them and distributing them even further. And in this regard, I like to think of someone like Don Rule and Bill Frost, the right articles for the Christian magazine.
So they print them up and they go to how many places, how many Christians receive that magazine. And so the thoughts that Dawn has had before the Lord or Bill Prost or others, some of the old writers, they're put in this book and here it goes in. The distribution is very wide, and there can be a lot of blessing from that.
And so this one, she ended up in that kind of a situation.
We might say, well, that's not my gift and maybe I'm more concerned about the gospel or maybe I have another line of things and that's okay. But it's nice if we begin to branch out into other areas as the Lord leads us to be a help and a blessing in other places in in a larger sphere. So that's what I take from this verse 24. Then in verse 25, it says strength and honor are her clothing.
And she shall rejoice in time to come.
And the, the new translation says strength and dignity. And you know, if, if our husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land, we have the Lord Jesus, we say we represent the king of kings. Shouldn't there be a nobility and a dignity in our walk? You know, if you, uh, you up here are interested in what goes on with the queen over in England and.
You know a little bit about Prince Harry. You hear about him from time to time and how the Queen is not happy with some of the things that he goes on with because it's not properly representing the royalty.
Because he's carrying on in a way that is not becoming.
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Uh, we can do that too, you know, we are here as ambassadors for Christ and we can represent them in a not a very good way sometimes. So it's nice to be, when you see a believer, to see some dignity and nobility there and a carefulness in their walk that bespeaks, that they understand their position, that they belong. They're betrothed to this bridegroom that's in heaven, waiting for that day as we sung in our hymn, when he can take us to be with himself.
Verse 26 says she openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue as the law of kindness.
So when others come to us and have a question, maybe a younger person, maybe one of our children or grandchildren.
Maybe a brother that's going through some difficulties.
Can we open our mouth with wisdom?
And speak with kindness.
Again, I think of that brother that used to come up and share something.
With whoever it was that was speaking up front.
And when it says the law of kindness?
I don't think we're Speaking of a legal thing here. I'm thinking that that is a something that's so characterized her, but that it was always there. That's just the way she was. She was kind. She looked after others, she had a concern for them, and it showed in her demeanor and the way that she went about things. You could count on it. In her tongue was the law of kindness. And that's such a blessed thing to see that in another believer.
So in verse 27 she looks well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. So as we have considered the candle.
Early in the morning and late at night.
It's a little bit like to me, preventative maintenance on your car, you know, when the odometer rolls around to where it's 5000 kilometers or whatever it is, it's time to change the oil because you don't want the oil to go bad in your car. There's other preventative maintenance things you can do, and some of us neglect a lot of those things to detriment of our experience. But she was looking well to the ways of her household.
Considering things.
I understand when the when the shepherds in the old days would have the sheep come through into the fold at night that they were the door, as it says in John 10. They were there and the sheep had to pass right in front of them and they knew their names and they were looking after them because those that have had sheep tell me the way they act.
How they're doing. And then also there's certain things you look for, for like lice on their head or different things that where they, maybe they got cut or something. But if they pass right in front of you, you can be aware of those things. And so she's looking well to the ways of her household. And again, that may not just be your children, maybe other people's children, maybe others that have, uh, that you've come into a relationship with. It's nice if we can prevent difficulties from happening.
Instead of having to take up issues.
Later on.
And she's not eating the bread of idleness. So her children at verse 28, they rise up and they call her blessed. So there are those that we maybe have been some little help to as we've gone along in our Christian pathway. And it's nice to to get a reinforcement of that when somebody says, you know, brother, I you remember that comment you made in this meeting or whatever it was, that was just a real help to me. So the children rise up sometimes.
And they call her blessed. And that's nice when our brethren, uh, say some encouraging word to us that's very helpful and helps us to go on want to please the Lord even more, be a help among his people. But that's only one side of it. Here's our brethren doing that. And then the last half of the verse says her husband also, and he praises her.
So maybe we've heard the term the approbation of the Lord.
And it's a very real thing. And sometimes we go through life and, and their circumstances that show up and maybe the Lord allows a certain thing to happen. And just between the Lord and us, he gives us a sense that we're on the right track, if you will. And it's the approbation of the Lord. The Lord, uh, letting us know that the way that we're carrying on is pleasing to him. That's a very nice thing to feel.
00:55:00
Her husband also he prays with her.
We'll go to verse 30. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. So there's three things in this verse. Brother Darby says, uh, gracefulness is deceitful and you know, uh, you can carry yourself in such a way as people think that you're really something.
You can put on errors if you will, and people say, boy, they're, they're really something, aren't they?
And if we're looking for that kind of, uh.
Acceptance. We're barking up the wrong tree.
It may be that a person is a very has some gracefulness to them that's not deceitful, but we have to watch out because it's easy to be deceitful about those things and act like something we're not.
Transparency is a wonderful thing.
So gracefulness can just be an act and beauty, it says it's vain because, you know, especially in this day, there's all kinds of surgery that you can do to augment things that you think are not quite up to what you'd like them to be in your body. And you can put on makeup, you can fix your hair just a certain way. And all those things can just be outward things. There's no problem with wanting to to look nice so that we're not.
A.
Distraction to others, if you could put it that way. But beauty, beauty can be just empty or enhanced to where it's not really representing the person. But the third thing is a woman that feareth the Lord, These other two things, they're going to go away. You know, you get a little up in years and you look in the mirror and you say, you know, things are changing around here and it's really not a whole lot you can do about it.
But a woman that feareth the Lord?
That only gets better with time. You're not ever going to lose that. You keep on going on with the Lord, and a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. What a thing it is to see, one that we maybe would call a mother in the assembly who has gone on for years and years with the Lord, has been a help to the younger sisters, maybe as we have in Titus.
How wonderful to see a woman that feareth the Lord. And of course, we're all putting ourselves in this position now because we're all part of the bride of Christ. So how nice to see an older brother, an older sister that's still carrying on with the Lord after the effects of maybe disease or an accident or just old age, but they're continuing on. And what an encouragement that is. Saint Louis. There was a brother that he, he was gathered when he was very young and he was there.
He's still there to this day and every time I see him he's well up in his 80s now.
I thank him for the encouragement that he's been.
He doesn't say a whole lot in meeting.
He's not a real gifted person, but he's always there. He values the Lord's center and being gathered to his precious name. And that means something to us. A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
On verse 31, says giver of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates. So the day's coming when we're going to receive a reward for what we've done here.
We're going to get our wages, if you will.
Some of our wages are going to be lost.
Because we haven't gone on for the Lord the way we could have. And it isn't like we're gonna walk around heaven with a long face and say, woe is me and I blew it and all those kind of things. But we're not going to have all of those precious things that we've gone through with the Lord. They're with us because they aren't there. We used our time for something else. Hey, I like my model trains, you know, or my Rose Garden is very special to me.
Whatever it might be, we can take up a whole lot of things and maybe, maybe it's, uh, gonna be lost when we get home.
So it's nice to consider those things. One day we're gonna be at the judgment seat of Christ. And it says let her own works praise her in the gates. You know, the world has a saying. What comes around goes around, or what goes around comes around.
01:00:03
And even when we're living in this life, there's a sense in which this is true, that we get paid back to us what we give to others.
You know, if you wanna be grumpy and, uh, requiring things to people and, uh, that was a bad tire you sold me and I'm gonna go back there and if you don't fix it for me, I'm gonna sue you. Well, that kind of attitude comes back around and people don't want to be around us, but somebody that has a happy attitude and wants to be here for others, You do good to others and others will do good to you. Didn't somebody say that, that we know about?
As you would that men should do unto you, do ye likewise to them also?
And we generally find that that comes back to us. So it works in this world. And when we get home to glory, we're going to receive like it says. And they said there in Luke.
He wanted to know what every man had gained by trading and says every man shall have praise of God. So there's going to be some loss in our lives, but how nice if we can be exercised to be here for the Lord, use our lives for the Lord, all the resources he's given us. Because as we're here in this world trading now, the things we're working with are not ours. They were given to us. I have two good eyes. I have a mind, I have some.
Capability with my hands all and whatever we've got was given to us. We didn't make up a list of things when we were going to be created and say I want to be born with this and this and that, no.
God gave us all of those things and we're responsible now to trade with them. And it isn't a hard thing, but the more we are faithful with those things, the more it's going to please our bridegroom because we really are here. Like it says in the Revelation four, for his pleasure we are and we're created. That's why we're here. And so if we can get away from It's All about me more and more to it's all about him, the more the further we can get along that process, the happier we're going to be.
So let's just, uh, ask the Lord for His help with these few thoughts from His Word.
Lord Jesus, we thank Thee tonight that we could read these things from the pages of scripture and be.
Encouraged to take up that which would honor and glorify Thee and our pathway here.
We thank thee, Lord Jesus, that thou does go all the way to the cross for us. And as we look back and as years go on and we gain a little more appreciation of all that that was done for us, we pray that the fruit of that might be a renewed and increased desire to want to be here just for the and to ask with the Apostle Paul, Lord, what would thou have me to do with our lives? So we thank thee for all that was given to us.
Thank Thee for our brethren and her encouragement to us. Help us along the right way. And we just pray that as we consider these thoughts together, there might be renewed affection for Thee and maybe a better understanding of things that would honor Thee and please Thee. And we pray that might be our desire to make ourselves a little more attractive to Thee. We give thanks now and ask these things, and ask Thy blessing on Thy word and our time together and our fellowship now to follow too. We ask this Lord Jesus and Thy precious and worthy name, Amen.
Mm-hmm.