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We can join in the through our Lord Jesus Christ.
He thanked me for.
That great love that was extended to us.
So that we know now a joy that is not the world is getting.
Mirth but.
Is the reality of a relationship with thyself on a racial statement?
We give these names to our thoughts for.
That joy which can be ours even in adverse circumstances.
Now our God and Father we're here to.
Read thy word together.
And we have an enemy that would.
Seek to cause the flesh to manifest itself, that there's plenty of it in our hearts, our God, that would manifest itself. So we ask thee then for grace, that as we open thy word, that there may be a waiting upon one another, and.
Especially upon the leading of the Holy Spirit.
We ask your God that that will work blessing upon us this morning, blessing which we certainly don't deserve, but which thy heart desires to give us.
We pray that our directors through the right portion of scripture.
We pray that the thoughts expressed might be that is, which will encourage those, and perhaps their feeble and discouraged and.
Might animate to our.
More vigorous, younger brethren.
To do thy will, and to hold fast to that which thou has given us.
And that the children might receive something, a little something, to Oh God, we pray, Thou art the one that knows how to meet every need, and we look to thee in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ with Thanksgiving. Amen.
Agreeable to looking at the second chapter of Titus.
That's a question, brother.
I'll say the answer is yes.
I certainly.
Chapter 2.
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But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. That's the age men be sober, grave Empress, sound, and faith, and charity and patience. The age women likewise, that they be in behavior has become a holiness, not false accusers, not giving them much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober.
Who love their husbands.
To love their children, to be discreet, chase keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, That the word of God be not blasphemy.
Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
And all things showing thyself. A pattern of good works in doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity.
Sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.
Exhort servants to be obedient under their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not irlining, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, and all things.
For the grace of God and bring of salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly loss, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself.
A peculiar people, zealous of good work, These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authorities. Let no man despise thee.
Over the last few years, I have been increasingly impressed.
That there are things that accompany sound doctrine.
Things that.
Go with it.
We like to have sound doctrine, and I certainly believe in sound doctrine.
I don't think. I think if we fail to teach what sound doctrine is.
We've done a disservice to the generation coming after it.
But there are things that accompany sound doctrine or become sound doctrine.
And Titus in this chapter is exhorted to speak those things.
And what we have in the verses that have been read are the things that become more accompanied sound doctrine. They go along with it. God never intended that we be.
Solely doctrinal experts in our heads.
Charles Kohler used to tell me, and I was a young man under his ministry in Brooklyn. No truth is yours until it gets into your boots.
Or your shoes till you walk in it.
And God never intended then that we just be academics and the things of God he wants us to to.
Walk in it and to live a life consistent with what he teaches us. I believe that's the.
Wonderful character of what we have in this second chapter of Titus.
It's sometimes helpful just to get an overview before we take up a portion of the word of God. And just in connection with what our brother has said, I might say that a little contrast between Titus and Timothy is that in Timothy you have the need for sound doctrine, and I've never counted, but you can count over and over and over again. The apostle Paul exhorts Timothy.
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As to the need for holding sound doctrine, especially in the second epistle, where there was an attack on the very fundamental principles of Scripture, we need to have that basis, as our brother has said. But if we have the need for sound doctrine in Timothy, then in Titus we have the need for sound behavior, That which goes with it, as you say. And I might just say I've enjoyed and I know there's an overlap in these chapters, but just in a general way, we might say that in the first chapter we have sound behavior if godliness in the church, in the assembly. In the second chapter you have.
Godliness in the home and in the third chapter. Godliness in the world, in those three spheres, brethren. And if the truth doesn't affect us in that way, if it doesn't have a practical effect, then there. If we come here and we take up these things, and we're doctrinally accurate, and we go home, and it doesn't have a practical effect on our lives. Rather than I say this carefully, then, but we might as well have not have come. If it's not going to affect our hearts and our consciences that it might affect our walk, then sound doctrine we can be.
Clear as ice and just as cold. And so, brethren, let's let these things that we have before us by the spirit of God this weekend, let's let them sink down into our souls that they might indeed have a practical effect on our life.
The last day that my father was alive, he called us to his bedside.
Died at 91 years old, or almost 91.
And he had requested that he could go home to be with the Lord from a bed that wasn't all hooked up with the tubes and things. And so he he lay there in his apartment, and we were called to his side, and he read to his Ezra, Chapter 7 and verse 10.
That Ezra prepared his heart.
To seek the law of the Lord.
And then he emphasized and to do it.
And to teach. And he said it's no good to just learn the doctrine.
And he spoke to a couple of us who were his sons, and to my sons, and he said.
Learn to do it. Learn to do it. What an impression that makes when someone is perhaps speaking their last words to you. Learn to put it into practice.
Brother, young brother who had been recently brought into blessing.
Would come from the Dominican Republic when they asked me said if somebody asked what church were from.
Could we say it's the Iglesia de la Santa Doctrina, the Church of the Sound Doctrine?
I said if you use it that way, it could be a denomination.
But all that might be true, that we were the Church of the sound doctrine, that we walked in the sound doctrine. That would be good, wouldn't it? Well, the dear brother has grown a lot in his soul now and I'm sure would not ever suggest that answer to give somebody when we were in Venezuela. Brother, you will remember this.
We met a nice group of Christians there that refer to themselves as La Santa Latrina. The Sound Doctrine Assemblies, perhaps 200 of them orderly.
Is that what the Lord intends, that we call ourselves or the sound doctor? Or to walk in the sound doctrine so that people look at us and say there's the sound doctrine carried out in practice?
Sound doctrine is to be desired. Isn't * **** and you're not speaking against that in any way, but and it's the basis of sound.
Practical Christianity. And if you don't have sound doctrine, then you're undermining the very basis of practical Christianity. That it doesn't stop at this mere doctrine. And that's what you're getting at, isn't it? It is something to be practiced. Notice in chapter one and verse 9.
In connection with the elders.
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That he may be able by sound dot both to exhort and convince the gainsayers, so it's the basis upon which exhortation is given.
Chapter 2 and verse one. We've already spoken of sound doctrine. Notice verse two. Agent women, aged men, be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith.
Notice.
A little further down, verse 8. Sound speech that cannot be condemned, I'd like to ask what do we mean when we say sound doctrine? What does that term mean?
Isn't it that which began at the beginning in Acts Two? They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine the Lord had said upon this rock, I will build my church. In Acts Two He begins to build it by the Spirit of God, and the doctrine that came from the apostles began it.
Then there was fellowship, then there was breaking of bread, and then there was prayer.
That's the beginning of it.
And this goes back into the past eternity, does it not? In the first of Titus we have.
Searched verse two in hope of eternal life.
Which God that cannot lie and promise. Before the world began eternal life, it was always there, Christ was always there, and but it was in the mind of God that it should be manifested here in this world.
In this world and so but it was what happened these times manifested these words.
Through preaching the Word.
As to the church goes back there, chosen him before the foundation of the work that we should be holy. That's practice, isn't it, ****? And without blame before him in love, God's thoughts from way back before time began, as in the world.
We see it in the Old Testament illustrated because when there was blessing in Israel at times of weakness and ruin, and when there was a revival at various intervals in their history, it was the result of going back with to that which had been established at the beginning. A copy of the law was found in the crash of the temple. Someone read it in the ears of of someone else. It was not going to. It was not looking for something new or starting something new.
But I say, it was going back to that which God had established at the beginning. And when we come to the book of Jude, and we have appalling days of apostasy brought before us, days, perhaps, brethren, very parallel to the days in which we find ourselves. Jude begins his exhortation by saying, It was needful for me that I write unto you, and exhort you now Notice this, that you should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints? Jude wasn't telling them to look for some new foundation or basis now.
No, the foundation has been laid, Brethren. The apostles and prophets laid the foundation. They were given the fundamental doctrines of Christianity to lay down. At the beginning Paul spoke of himself as a wise master builder, and he warned about building on another foundation.
That's what sound doctrine is. It's going back to that which was laid down at the beginning. And I can't overemphasize for our young people enough for the need for reading the word of God. Go over these things. What's going to preserve you when you hear something presented that's not according to the word of God? What?
It's going to preserve you. I believe it's to be well rooted and grounded in the fundamental doctrines of the word of God. Saturate your minds with them. But if I could just say this is a little warning too, because I've been saddened sometimes to hear a statement made that goes something like this.
We are gathered to a person, not a doctrine. Now, Brandon, that is true. We are gathered to a person, the person of Christ. And if we ever lose sight of that brethren, we're going to be discouraged and we're going to go astray. We need to have the person before us. But, brethren, if I make that statement to excuse the need for sound doctrine, I believe we're on very shaky ground. We're on very, very shaky ground. We need the the principles. We need the foundation.
And don't make a statement that may sound pious in itself, but is only part of the truth. We're gathered to a person, brethren, but we need to stress the need for maintaining tenaciously, holding on to the sound doctrine that was laid down at the beginning. That person to whom we're gathered is the truth. The truth. You can't divorce them. And really, when we think of them.
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The sound doctrine for the cruiser is connected with the glory of this person.
The Lord Jesus Christ, which is so important for us to realize that the truth will give the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And being in a place where we have the privilege of having the truth is to be in a place where the glory of the person who comes exceedingly important to us because it is to God.
Now all glory should be to the sun.
Some teaching as its origin in God.
God always teaches according to his own knowledge and it's never needs to be changed.
It's said in contrast to man's teaching, because man is always ignorant to some degree or another. Consequently, anything that he teaches, he has to revise it as he learns more and it constantly changes. But we come to a book that has its origin in God and God knowing all things, who teaches like him. And so he teaches us, and it's always consistent with his own nature and character, whatever he has to say to us.
And consequently, if we accept it as from himself, we have something that will last for eternity. It's sound, it's going to last, and it's from himself.
It says of the Bereans in Act 17 that they were more noble in the Thessalonians, in that they searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things are sold. And the thought is not that they questioned the doctrine of the Apostles. But the thought is that their faith should be founded upon the word of God. So whatever you hear in these meetings, if you have not gone back and searched out the things that are said to see, whether or not it or they are in accordance with the word of God.
There's been that much remiss in our thinking. So we need the word of God.
As the basis of sound teaching has has been just pointed out, there's no one that teaches like you.
That's why we have our Bibles open in front of us. And I encourage the young people as we listen in these meetings, look at these verses that we're talking about. Is that what it says? And never fear the truth. It will stand. It's the thing that's most solid in a changing world that we live in. Never fear to be challenged in your soul by the light of scripture.
It is a danger signal if I get uncomfortable when I am challenged by the light of Scripture. But I should be willing to bow to the full light of Scripture. Sound doctrine is not something that is lopsided, it is something that is balanced, and we need the whole of Scripture. What impresses me, brethren, is that none of us are sufficient in ourselves. We tend to be.
Slanted One Direction or another. Therefore we need constantly be challenged by the light of Scripture to read it, to examine ourselves in that light always.
That's why too, we need to avail ourselves of the ministry of the word in the assembly. Now, if I want what I want to say, I want to say carefully because it's not the word of God, as Bob said, that needs balance. This is perhaps the only balance truly balanced book there is in this world. But it's we that need the balance. And I found that sometimes those who do not avail themselves of ministry in the assembly, they're like Ephraim. It says Ephraim, is a cake not turned. And you know yourself, if you put a cake on the griddle and you don't turn it, it becomes too well done on one side.
Not enough. On the other, that's what we are. We're creatures of extreme. But I believe that God has instituted ministry in the assembly in a way where we get that balance, perhaps. Where in no other way. There's many who will put a man up at the front. They'll take what he says at face value, never question it. They might get part of the truth. They might get one side of it. Nobody balances it. Nobody corrects it if there's an error. But rather than when the spirit of God is given liberty in the assembly to minister the word, we're thankful for those who can set out clearly and concisely.
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The doctrinal principles of Scripture. Others can take the same portion and make a practical application. Others too can bring out the gospel from that same portion and you get that balance. If someone says something that's wrong, the spirit of God through another can correct that. And it's the importance I say, of availing ourselves of ministry in the assembly. In fact, I would just suggest this too, that when you pick up good Christ exalting ministry and read it because God has raised up, I believe those who have written to written Good Christ exalting ministry, and it's a help to us.
In our study of the scriptures, it's good even there to read a balance. You take Mr. Wolston. He can bring the gospel just about out of any portion. Mr. Darby can bring the principles before us. Mr. Kelly can refute error. Mr. Ballot brings out a nice little gem here and there and makes some beautiful applications. I encourage you to read, have a balance when you read written ministry because just as in oral ministry, different ones have different abilities given of God. And that's why we need to be careful too, to give the Spirit its rightful place.
It's true that the assembly doesn't teach, but it's in the assembly we learn as taught by the Spirit of God.
In reference to what Brother Jim was saying earlier about the importance of doctrine and not despising it.
And Brother Bob expressed some thoughts along the same line. I want to say a word of warning that there is a movement of men.
In the in the world of Christian men who publicly say that doctrine is not important.
That's dangerous.
And it leads to all sorts of error. Remember, doctrine is the basis on which we know how to live.
So a little later in this chapter I I just want to not to get ahead of ourselves, but look at verse 11.
The grace of God, which brings salvation, has appeared teaching us, teaching us.
The Word of God teaches us and be suspicious of any.
Any movement or any group which deprecates teaching, teaching is important.
And I'm thankful that I have had the privilege of sitting under men who have taught the word of God. This means that, and it's a helpful thing. But that becomes the basis then for a way of living.
In this room, probably this weekend, the next two days, if anyone class is singled out to be addressed directly, the most likely class that will hear their words.
Most frequently as young people, that's just the way it is on gatherings like this. But the word of God doesn't do it that way. And this is an opportunity to recognize that fact in this chapter, that when God is going to exhort us, he begins with those who are the most responsible in this room. Amen. He doesn't begin with young people. He begins with the age men.
Those who take the place among the people of God is being by God, held the most responsible for the behavior of those who walk in this room today, those who are going to be held the most accountable for the walk. The practice of the doctor in this room today are the aged men and one of the most important aspects of the exhortation to them.
Is the practice of that which they're teaching today. And so he begins in verse two, And he says the aged men. And oftentimes because the men take the public part, they may be more referred to. But in this room, the class addressed second. Can I say as the second most responsible class in this room for the way the Saints of God represented here walk.
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Is the aged women.
It's such an important point, Brother Don, that I believe we need to sit and think about it a little bit. Because if there's problems, if there are problems among the young people, it's not the young people that we need to get after. We need to get after the ones who are responsible for setting a bad tone or or not being faithful.
And I look at.
I remember riding on the train with Alan Hadley to New York one morning and I was talking about the older brethren and maybe was in my late 40s at the time, and he says, **** you are one of the older brethren now, be careful how you walk. And I've been grateful for that because we tend to look at another class and and find fault with them, whereas we need to look at ourselves.
How am I setting an example?
If those of us who were older are we sober?
Grave discrete.
Are we sound in faith?
In love and impatience.
Have we gotten impatient with some of the young people perhaps?
And do we help them by that? Does that go along with sound doctrine to be impatient?
You mentioned this chapter as the home in view, didn't *** ****? The first chapter of the assembly? Somebody did, Brother Jim. He probably did. Did you mention that, Brother Jim? Yeah. OK, OK, Brother. Well, the women have the top place in the home as far as I'm concerned.
It starts with a little.
So we old men can't take all these responsibilities.
There were mothers in Israel.
So we got words to both the aged men and the aged women, James writes to us and says be doers of the work and not hearers only.
Receiving your own self if we don't practice what we preach.
Our testimony is not worth much.
Teaching us to observe whatever, I commanded you that last verse in Matthew.
This teaching is so necessary to start at the beginning, the doctrine that came.
That was filled up by Paul.
As we've heard the Old Testament doctrine, it's wonderful all the way through. But God had one more thing to reveal through one apostle from heaven.
That's Paul. So when truth, church truth comes before us, it comes from Christ in heaven through Paul.
To teach us behavior while we're left here to represent our Savior who is put out of this world. But God keeps a testimony going down here.
And if the body doesn't keep in connection with the head, we're not going to know the truth. The truth shall make you free.
And if the Lord makes us free, we will be free indeed. But free for what? To serve? To serve our master.
So the practical side is so good for us, Jake.
In First Timothy chapter 4, verse 16.
Taking unto myself, and under the doctrine.
Continue inland.
We're doing this.
Thou shalt save thyself, and then that give me now what celebration is that, brother Clint?
Was that what salvation is there?
Now save thyself and them that hear thee.
Oh, I see what you mean.
Well, I think that our every day going on and every day going on.
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Salvation testimony, if you might put it. What's your testimony going to be if we don't do what the doctor has given us?
You save yourself from a lot of problems in life in a practical way, don't you?
The word there at the beginning of verse 2 silver I think is a a good one. I noticed the margin my Bible says.
Vigilant sobriety in Scripture is often contrasted with drunkenness.
Person that is drunk is under the influence of something he's taken in.
And it's possible to be drunk not merely with alcohol, alcohol or alcoholic beverages, but through person present circumstances in life. There's a lot of pressures in life. Sometimes we get totally under the influence of those pressures that we cannot operate as we ought to, as believers. And in a certain sense that is not sobriety. But sobriety is vigilant.
How important it is for those who are younger to appreciate those who are older and vigilant.
They have more experience and OFT times a word to the wise at the right time is extremely helpful. I'm thankful for brethren that were vigilant with me and sought tendencies that were not good and gave me a word to the wise in time. I thank the Lord for that, but that's something that is necessary in our day.
Not just allowing those who are younger to go on their way to learn their lessons the hard way by experience, but to be vigilant how important that is.
One of the dangers that we can get into is an academic approach to the things of God.
Sometimes young people say to his wife, don't you have Why don't we have Bible schools and seminaries?
What's the danger in that? The danger in that is I'm not going to tell you that they don't learn some wonderful things there and some very good.
Correct teaching as to God's truth, but they're thrust out into the world to teach it, sometimes before it's been put into practice. And God wants us to learn something, put it into practice. I was noticing in the Psalms in Psalm 25, it says leave me in my path.
But in JMD's translation it says make me to walk in thy truth, to walk in it.
And that's the hard part sometimes is that we don't walk in what we learn and what we.
God never intended we go to a seminary or a Bible school and learn all these things and then go out and teach it without having put it into practice.
Please don't think that I'm despising those faithful places where they have held the word of God and have taught it to men. What I'm saying is the danger in that and why.
It is not. What we need to institute is that you need to walk in what you learn and then it becomes good to you. That's not true of any other discipline that I can think of. A man can can get up and teach something and not practice it at all in most disciplines, but in the word of God.
It can't be that way, and God will not allow it to be that way.
And so we have to get into the word and walk in it, and the sobriety is an important thing. Or as as we we we talk about it, sometimes there's a sense that we're dealing with the truth of God. We're not dealing with human opinions here, We're dealing with God's communication to it, and it can't be treated lightly.
Men get up today and they make us a speech in the world and they have to start with a joke that's almost routine. If you go to a a class on public speaking, they'll probably tell you that's a good way to start a thing off. And it's it's spilled over into divine things. People think they have to start off with a message, with a joke. You don't need to. We're dealing with sober things with with God's word.
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Solemn.
I was one time in.
In Alan Hadley's living room with brother London and he said to us, do you really believe that the world is under judgment?
And Alan and I both responded, yes, No, he said. You know.
I nearly I didn't know what to say, he said.
What are your life would be totally different if you did.
We're dealing with solemn, serious things.
We can't play around about it now. That's a word to me because I like a good funny story or or I I enjoy telling. Some of you know me well, know that I. That's a weakness. I have to tell funny stories and and and.
Sometimes that can lessen the solemnity of what we're trying to communicate. We are communicating God's truth.
I I work for 15 years for RCA.
The credit department there and they had a.
Motto. In those days, they talked about their colored television as being living color, living color.
And I often thought, really, that's what God wants us to display his truth in living color, vividly seeing the truth of what we're bringing out and we take away from.
With a lack of sobriety sometimes. One time I was.
Visiting in Palmyra, me and I had given some ministry on the book of Book of Romans.
The next time I came.
Whether Jonathan Sachs and brother Bruce Conrad called me as lovingly aside and said and read me the verse Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary distinct.
And there's a Brother **** when you were here the last time, there were some dead flies in what was otherwise very, very good ministry. We don't want to discourage you, but we just want to bring that out so that you can, you know, I felt my feet washed. It was a blessing thing.
Rather, we have to be careful.
This sobriety is right. What was the other word that is in the margin, Bob Vigilant.
It's not a joke. What we're into and so vigilant is important too. We have to be watchful. We can't be slovenly and careless. And in the activity, as older brothers, we have to be sober in our way and discreet.
Somebody want to tell us what discreet means?
Mr. Darby has a footnote on that word, and he's a sober mind, sound mind.
Going back to what we were saying earlier.
Older than ones that.
Living and speaking.
Be careful and what we teach the younger ones. Remember Tom McMillan saying to us, telling us one time, he said.
President has got what younger brothers don't have.
There's only one way to get His older brother had God.
Older brother.
What's that good here?
God, experience, experience. Thank you.
Well, it ought to exercise any of us who take part in the assembly and ministry, not just the older ones, but all of us. Perhaps there are those here, and you take part in the ministry and the local assembly reading meeting on Thursday night. You take part in the ministry on Lord's Day evening. And there's a nice comment made about the Lord Jesus, who of course is the perfect example in all these things. It says of all that Jesus began. Notice this both to do.
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And to teach Now the Lord Jesus, as we know, was the fine flower. There was evenness and consistency not only in what he did, but what he said, so that everything he said, everything he did, corresponded with what he said. And so we need to be exercised. And why did the Lord Jesus have moral weight in his ministry? Well, it's true he spoke the very words of God. But what gave moral weight to his ministry was that everything he did corresponded with what he said. I can't always say I'm the fine flower, that everything I say and everything I do corresponds.
But, brethren, it ought to exercise us. And no matter where we come, in the age categories that we might slot one another in, there's always someone watching us. Young people watch us. They know. Our children watch us. They know what if we're consistent in what we say and what and what we and what we do. I tell those incidents that brought it home to my.
Next morning the sister with whom my wife and I and my oldest daughter who was four at the time sister we were staying with, she said to me at the breakfast table. She said, Jim, would you like some milk? And I said no, I don't really care for milk, thank you. And my 4 year old, in all seriousness looked at me from the other side of the table and said, Dad, why do you tell us in meeting that malk is so important and you don't drink it yourself. Now if you there's a difference between spiritual milk and cows milk I realize but what it drove home to my soul brethren is.
That what we say is going to be weighed by our children, by our young people, though they're looking for that consistency in our life, and it ought to exercise any of us that take any responsibility for the Ministry of the Word in the Assembly.
There's a verse in John chapter 8 that bears out exactly what has been said as to the Lord Jesus Christ. And chapter 8 of John and verse 25 they saying to him who art thou? And he says altogether that which I have said.
On you there is that divine consistency of being Exactly perfectly representation of the words that he communicated has been said, certainly invade the word of God, but they were substantiated by that perfect moral display.
In his life.
And he talked about not aware as to whether or not a particular exhortation of Scripture is necessary to be applied to us at that moment.
Whether we need it, if you will.
But I'd like to suggest this for consideration.
How do I behave when I?
Think nobody is watching?
Do I need the exhortation then? We're all here and we have on our meeting manners, our meeting behavior. When we may be with our brethren and at home or at some other time, we tend to act with some consideration to the company that we are in, at that moment in time, and in fact, sometimes when we get in, can I say bad company?
We tend to act in keeping with that company and it causes grief in our lives many times, but I would like to suggest that the Lord Jesus.
Acted the same. Whether he was in the synagogue, whether he was in the home, whether he was on the mountaintop alone. There was a consistency to his life that was never changing, and oftentimes.
Find that if we recognize how we're acting when there's nobody else to see it, that we do need the exhortations that are given to us to apply to our own soul and life. And it's a humbling thing.
One of those verses that's been a check.
Very much with what you say is what it says in Philippians 4, and I'll just read it.
The 4th and 5th verses rejoice in the Lord Always and again I say rejoice.
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It meant that Mister modern moderation or healing Ness be known as the old man, and this is the state the Lord is attacked. Well, there's my hand. That's how close the Lord is always to me.
So we're never alone. Somebody's always watching.
When you say John, he was always acted the same, you don't mean that literally. You mean he acted consistently with the situation and with the state of soul of each one he was dealing with. Obviously he dealt with the Sadducees quite differently than the Pharisees.
They were the fundamentalists of the day, and he called them hypocrites, a generation of Vipers. But the Sadducees, they didn't believe the fundamentals of the faith at all. And he dealt with them quite differently, didn't he? His perfection was as you read that verse, John 825 Who art thou? I am altogether, absolutely what I say. And he was the truth, and he spoken in perfection and as far as consistency.
Are you consistent? The answer is no. Am I consistent? The answer is no. There's only one man that's ever walked this earth that was perfectly consistent with everything that he said and did. He was the truth, and that was our Blessed Lord. You're not consistent. I'm not consistent. And we don't know everything either. I think of First Corinthians 82. If any man thinketh that he knows anything, he knoweth nothing yet.
As he ought to know it, we only know in part. He knows everything at every moment of every circumstance and every situation and every nation and every people and every language. He knows it at once. He knew it in the past. He knows it in the present. He'll know it in the future. He never learns anything. He is God. He is the absolute foundation of all truth. We just know partly. We just partly are consistent. And so on.
And that's so important to get ahold of because when we set ourselves up to be something, to be an authority or whatever it might be, we're on very dangerous ground. This is the authority right here. And young people, the world's opinions constantly change with every fresh generation, science changes. It's not a stable science that what they believe that 20 years ago they've discarded, now they got a new theory and then they're going to have another one.
But the word of God does not change, and so we've got something which is absolutely stable.
It wasn't very long ago in the in Christendom the women went to church with hats on, with heads covered. Now that's all changed. Has the word of God changed? No, it hasn't. But man's attitude has changed. So to get caught up with and carried along with the the thinking of the present, the now generation. No, no, we must always have our thoughts formed.
By the Word of God.
That's why Peter, in his first epistle in chapter 2, tells us that the only.
Guide we have is the Lord Jesus in whose steps follow, leaving us an example. He's the example. He's our prime example. The Apostle Paul could say we followers of me even as I am of Christ and the Lord Jesus is our example. And as you say, Chuck, he's the perfect example.
Well, it's not just the older men, is it? That Titus was to exhort. There was a word for the older women too.
And I don't know, dear sister, if you appreciate how very important you are in the assembly.
How very important you are as a Christian, you think? Well, I don't minister the word, but.
Godly women. Older women.
Are what produces the tone of the assembly very often, and I have enjoyed thinking of these dear older women.
That.
Are in behavior has become a holiness.
Not false accusers or slanderers, Not given too much wine. Teachers of good things.
00:55:03
No, that's the Gather the sisters together and have a little meeting on prophecy, right?
No, it's not what they're the teachers defined in the following verses.
They are to teach.
The younger women.
Not prophecy or church truth, but they're to teach them that realm of things that can only be set by the divine.
By the.
The good example of older women.
I just remember a dear sister in Woodbridge. Some of you might remember her, Bill Bothwell's mother.
Dear Sister Agnes Bothwell, who came around to our house on occasion.
And pitch in with helping my wife with the burdens of the.
The children and all the while speaking things that were edifying. We need that sort of thing. And dear sister, if you are older and God has put you in a position where you may change the life and power and and health of a household by.
Doing what is here and by your good example.
God granted there be more of these that would step into that role, not be looking for a place to have a series of meetings on.
Bible studies on this subject or that subject, but to go around and teach the younger sisters in their homes what will be that which will make us sound in good home, and that's so important that I believe it's almost.
I was going to say foundational in the assembly, but I think that would take away from those who teach the doctrine, and I don't want to do that in any way. But certainly it would make a big difference in our assemblies if we would have older women who were heeding this and taking up the responsibility of teaching the younger women. Now, Titus was not told to teach the younger women, was he?
That wasn't his job. And God is wise in that because there's a grave danger in that. God knew what men were like, and there could be a very grave danger in the man going around and teaching the younger women things. But he has appointed A vessel to do it, and that's the older women. And I thank God for those who do it. And any of you don't be discouraged and think that if you're doing that, don't think that you're you don't count.
I believe it sets the tone of the Christian home and the Christian assembly.
Those older women who are teaching first by example and then by by by precept are teaching what is the proper character of the woman in the home. And it's it's foundational. The home is the foundation of the assembly, isn't it?
I remember back in earlier years of the century there were 5 maiden sisters, all sisters.
I can still see them sitting there in a Toronto meeting 12345 and it was so impressed me that on a Wednesday morning when someone came on to him.
How you see them, I believe that that they just as you were saying who can tell what a what a blessing.
Those sisters words are the Toronto meeting through the years that they were there. One of them became my old Sunday school teacher and she left an impression on me that was never, never been loved.
5 million ladies. They went on to the Lord, and what a blessing they were for the strong meaning over those many years.
And I asked a question in connection with women teaching.
And Acts 21.
01:00:04
First of all, I believe that.
Prophesying we don't understand sometimes. Basically, it means to speak for God. To speak for God means to speak for someone else, but particularly in the Bible, is to speak for God.
I think we have one incident where Aaron was said to be the prophet of Moses, that is, he spoke for God.
And women have the privilege of speaking for God.
And it's a wonderful thing when it was. History can communicate God's mind, but it doesn't refer to public ministry. Nothing in that Scripture is given to suggest anything that would go against other instructions in the word of God. And so the women's prophecy.
Those daughters that prophesied, I believe they spoke for God in a particular way and God honored that and there was blessing from it. I think that verse should be read in its entirety. Acts 21, verse 8.
And the next day we that were a whole company departed and came into Caesarea, and we entered into a look the House of Philip the Evangelist, which was one of the seven, and a gold with him. It doesn't take us beyond the home of their prophecy.
In our expression, teachers of that which is right is in the setting of the home, and it gives liberty to the sister who may very well prophecy, in the sense of speaking, to education, exhortation, and comfort. To those dear young people or younger sisters with whom they are concerned, there is a liberty of grace in teaching that which is right, that would extend.
Beyond household duties.
And so I think what our brethren has pointed up is that they both there and Phillips House. And this is the sphere in which our dear sisters have the liberty of priests who speak to whatever need might arise. And in First Corinthians 11.
I'll just read the fifth verse, Every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her head uncovered.
Dishonoured her head, but that is even all one, as if she were shaved. In verse 17, after he's discussed the headship of the man and the relative order. God, Christ, man, woman, and he's finished that subject. In verse 17 he says now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together, not for the better, but for the worse, so the instruction in the first.
16 verses of First Corinthians 11 doesn't directly apply to the assembly.
It applies to other spheres like the House of Phillip and.
Other places where I remember I used to go to the County Hospital in Chicago and we would meet together in the in the basement when I say we the Christians that had come to minister to pass out tracks and seeing him patients and we stand in a circle and we would pray.
The sisters would pray. There was not a church meeting. It's just prayer before we would go to the to the place. And I was young and learning and I was disturbed that many of the sisters that prayed didn't have their heads covered. Well, First Corinthians 11 Says that when she does that, when she prays or prophecies in a public way, which is normally the function of the man, her function is normally in the home. We learn that in Titus.
Praise and prophesize in a public way. She should have the sign on her head that she's subject to the man, and if she doesn't wear that sign, she's taking his place without acknowledging it. And that's not God's order. So it's a serious thing when they don't follow that. And I ended up by not going down to that circle because I wasn't happy with the goings on there. I had learned the ropes of the hospital. I just went up to the wards and.
01:05:02
Passed out the literature and told to talk to the patients. But I just cite that as an illustration. I was just young in the faith, but I knew the Scriptures enough to know that when the women were praying there, they were violating Scripture without having their heads covered. And we often apply that passage to the assembly. Well, I think that in the assembly where the woman is taught that she ought to have the sign of subjection on her head because she's being taught.
And.
It says in Titan, Timothy. Let's just look at that for a minute first, Timothy 2.
On the subject.
First, Timothy 2 verse 11 Says, let the woman learn in all in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you serve authority over the man, but to be in silence. He goes back to Adam and he goes back to the very first.
Part of the word of God as the basis for his teaching.
Let a woman learn in silence with all subjection. Is she showing subjection if she's learning and sitting under the sound of the word of God without her head being covered, That's the sign of subjection, isn't it? And so when she's learning, even in the assembly, she ought to be covered. I think you have to. You have to get the the whole picture of the difference between the woman's place and the man's place. The man is the head, and she ought to acknowledge that in every way.
And he ought to assume the responsibility in every way of being head and many problems that come up in our families and so on is because they they had has failed in his headship. And he ought to be teaching his wife what is the proper thing and that she ought he ought to be ministering to her caring for her.
Helpful to notice that in the exhortations are to the aged men, almost all of them, in fact all of them have to do with the man's behavior.
He as a man will tend to do speaking rather in the assembly or out of it. That's the tendency of the man in the public place to be one who's going to talk and said the exhortations given to him have to do with the behavior that is becoming to what he has to say and the upkeep of the doctors. But all the exhortations to the aged women, it's reversed really.
Because she tends to be the one who does not speak in public, and we've talked in the last few minutes about the different spheres and places and subjects of where she may speak. But almost all the exhortations to her has to do with her speaking when she does in the prideful place. And so she is exhorted concerning that age sister to have a department in keeping with when she is going to speak to another younger sister.
About being attached to her children, about speaking to that sister as to being attached that mother, to be attached to her husband, to be a home keeper, and so on. Those things which are right. And I mention it because I believe it's often a difficult thing for an older sister to fulfill these exhortations of responsibility. It's much easier to say, well, the brothers talk about that in the meeting.
And so on. It's not easy sometimes to fulfill.
Or a sister to fulfill these responsibilities to the Lord in which she should be. She may not. It's not. Let me add, It's not being a busy body. That's not what the Lord's talking about here. But the Lord is saying to her sister, Eight sister, you have a responsibility and to your younger sisters.
In the appropriate time and occasion and circumstance to speak to them, to love their husbands, to be attached to their children, to be discreet, that is, careful. In speech there are times to say things, and there are times to refrain, to be chased in your personal life, and so on. These are important expectations, and often times by God's order, they come more from the older sister than the brother.
01:10:04
It's interesting that this in verse 4 to love their husband seems to be the only place in scripture that women are to be taught to love their husbands, and it is helpful to see that it is not.
The agape word that's used, It's the fileo word. It's the word of appreciation. And no one like an older sister who has had the experience.
Can be a help to a younger sister. Older men or younger men even can't understand this. It's the older women that understand this and can be a help to the younger sisters. Often times in the first years of marriage there's a lot of stress and adaptation that takes place in a marriage and if there were the help the proper health in that timely fashion, I think it would be extremely helpful in our day.
When marriage is so under attack that the older sisters, help the younger sisters, especially in those first years of marriage, to know how.
That they would know how to love their husbands. That mutual appreciation, how to give him the place of headship, How to cook the meals in a way that would be.
Attractive.
And how to submit in a proper way as well. I think there are a lot of practical things that older sisters can say to you that those who are brothers don't have too much clue about him 2:30.
Oh Lord, when we.
Pray.
Great.
Our loving God we thank you for.
This portion of thyroid and we would have to acknowledge and honesty and.
Don't do that. Well you know the learning that often but we stand before the exercises that this meeting meetings have cost in our hearts and.
And found the end of repentance and acknowledgement of our failures and Ukraine that these things made.
To his fruitfulness in our lives for the glory of our Lord Jesus.
Food for the blessing of our home and encouragement of those who.
Who we have, older ones are responsible for.
Directing to create father to help us each one now to be submissive.
We pray Father our Lord Jesus precious name and.
The next thing on the agenda is the noon meal.
Umm, as in previous years, we have a room out this door to the left for those who are older.
And I think Phil told me there's 40 some meals going to be served in there. So you won't have to go through the cafeteria line. And we want to encourage all that, want to to go in there because previous years sometimes we've had to recruit people to go in there to use up the meals. So please go fill up that room.
The rest will go out this door.
And down the hallway.
In the side and through the cafeteria line and.
As soon as you've eaten, please don't stick around.
In the dining hall there to eat because we don't have enough for everybody to sit at one time and so move along and do your conversations. Other places also like to say that we need more young people to sign up out there. I think there was still 4 slots unfilled for this meal, but we'd like to encourage the young people again to serve up on a voluntary basis.
Sign up for serving on a voluntary basis.
Also, there's a nursery down this hall at room 105 and also a playroom for younger children in room 107 and down this hall over.
My left is a men's rest area in room 114 and a ladies rest area in room 113. If you need a little nap, those are older, that's a good place to go.
01:20:08
BTP is going to be here on display only today, so please make a visit there. They make quite an effort to bring down a lot of good literature and it's a good time to pick up things you need. Also, the tapes of the meetings will be available for suggested donation of $1.00.
I'm going to ask Lemoyne Smith to give thanks for the new meal.
Blessed Father and our God, we look up to Thee with praise for our Lord Jesus.
For one who is a perfect example.
Perfect object.
Lord Jesus, we thank thee, Thou wilt have thy.
Bride glorious church without spot or wrinkle.
And we just ask for grace to take home thy word we've had before us.
We thank you for this meal before us too, and we ask thy blessing on it.
My blessing on our fellowship together to in the name of our Lord Jesus.
Amen, Amen.
Keep it in mind.
I'm fine.
We were glad to have Robust on that year too, but last year he couldn't come either.
But anyway.