Numbers 30:1-16  The Command to Honor our Vows

[Study Aired December 4, 2023]

Num 30:1  And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded. 
Num 30:2  If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. 
Num 30:3  If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father’s house in her youth;
Num 30:4  And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand.
Num 30:5  But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. 
Num 30:6  And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul; 
Num 30:7  And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. 
Num 30:8  But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the LORD shall forgive her. 
Num 30:9  But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her. 
Num 30:10  And if she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath; 
Num 30:11  And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her, and disallowed her not: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. 
Num 30:12  But if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard them; then whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband hath made them void; and the LORD shall forgive her. 
Num 30:13  Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void. 
Num 30:14  But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her: he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them.
Num 30:15  But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity.
Num 30:16  These are the statutes, which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, being yet in her youth in her father’s house.

Introduction

Today’s study is devoted entirely to vows. A vow is used in the Bible as a promise made to God to perform some deed as well as for a prohibition which a person imposes upon himself to abstain from something which is otherwise permitted. It was not part of the law of Moses, but the law came to regulate its practice. Vows were regarded as a voluntary act but once a vow is made, it becomes compulsory.

Ecc 5:4  When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.

The first time a vow appeared in the Bible was when Jacob had an encounter with the Lord in a dream, when he was running away from his brother, Esau.  

Gen 28:20  And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
Gen 28:21  So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:
Gen 28:22  And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

This first-time mention of a vow shows us its significance. Jacob had deceived his father and obtained the blessings that were due Esau instead. When Esau came to this realization, he wanted to kill Jacob. Jacob was therefore very apprehensive as he realized his helplessness in protecting himself and therefore ran away from his brother. It was at this point that the Lord appeared to him in a dream to assure him of His protection and to bring him to an expected end. 

Gen 28:15  And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 
Gen 28:16  And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
Gen 28:17  And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
Gen 28:18  And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 
Gen 28:19  And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. 

When Jacob realized the Lord was with him and that He would continue to be with him to bring him to an expected end, it was then that Jacob, out of his appreciation of what the Lord had said He would do, vowed a vow. The principle here is that it is the Lord who always takes the initiative to come to us, and when we realize this, we naturally want to offer something back to the Lord. However, we do not realize that we do not have what it takes to fulfill a vow. The law therefore has to come in to show us that we cannot fulfill a vow on our own.

1Jn 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us.

Rom 7:7  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Rom 7:8  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

There are two instances in the Bible where those who vowed were depending on the Lord’s mercies in order for them to give back to the Lord. The first one relates to the birth of Samuel. Hannah came to the realization, just like Jacob, that without the Lord’s intervention, there was no way what she expected could happen – that is, to conceive and give birth. Therefore, she vowed a vow that if the Lord would give her a man child, she would dedicate him back to the Lord.

1Sa 1:9  So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD. 
1Sa 1:10  And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. 
1Sa 1:11  And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

Through the Lord’s mercies, she gave birth to a son (Samuel), and she wholly gave him to the Lord’s service. 

Another example was that of Jephthah, who was the son of a harlot and therefore, an outcast. Jephthah knew there was no way he could ever become a king. Thus, when the elders of Gilead made him their head and expected him to overcome the Ammonites on their behalf, Jephthah knew that it was of the Lord and therefore he vowed a vow that if the Lord would grant him victory, then he shall sacrifice the first person to come out of his house when he comes home in victory. 

Jdg 11:1  Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah. 
Jdg 11:2  And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou art the son of a strange woman. 
Jdg 11:3  Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him. 
Jdg 11:4  And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
Jdg 11:5  And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob: 

Jdg 11:9  And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head? 
Jdg 11:10  And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words.
Jdg 11:11  Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.

Jdg 11:29  Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon. 
Jdg 11:30  And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, 
Jdg 11:31  Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. 

Jdg 11:33  And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 
Jdg 11:34  And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. 
Jdg 11:35  And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.

Jephthah means “he opens.” It is indeed God who, when He opens, no one can shut. As our Father, God has made a vow to redeem us from our enemies by offering as a sacrifice whatever comes out of His creation (house) first. 

Heb 6:16  For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 
Heb 6:17  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 
Heb 6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 
Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 

In this context, it is the daughter who came out of the house of Jephthah first, and she was the only offspring of Jephthah. What we need to understand is that in the scriptures, the spirit behind the words is more important than the details. We know from the scriptures that in Christ (in the word) there is neither male nor female. So, the daughter here first represents our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten of the Father and was sacrificed on our behalf so we can have the victory.

Gal 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

This daughter also represents the church of the first born or New Jerusalem. We are the first to come out of our Father’s house to appreciate the victory that our Lord Jesus (Jephthah) has wrought on our behalf.  Remember that Jesus Christ is also called our Father in the scriptures. Because Jesus won the victory over his flesh (the Ammonites) during His time on earth, we, too, can win the victory over our flesh. 

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 

Like the daughter of Jephthah, we, too, are the first to come out to celebrate the victory of Christ in our lives with timbrels and with dances. Coming out with timbrels and dancing is the same as being of good cheer because our Father Lord Jesus has overcome the world for us. It also means we must praise the Lord for His wonderful works of deliverance towards us.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. 

Psa 107:8  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Coming back to the principle behind a vow, we can see that it is when the Lord has shown mercy to us that we want to offer something back to the Lord. However, because of the frailty or weakness of our flesh, we do not realize that we do not have what it takes to give back anything to the Lord. That is when the law of Moses comes in. As we know, the law was to show us that we cannot on our own please the Lord. The fact that the law of Moses regulated the practice of a vow is therefore to show us that it was because of abuses of a vow that the law came in to set things straight and to make it obvious to us that of our own, we cannot fulfill a vow. When Jesus, the reformer, came on the scene, one of the first things he did was to come up with a new law of the spirit which negates this whole issue about vows.

Mat 5:33  Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
Mat 5:34  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: 
Mat 5:35  Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
Mat 5:36  Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 
Mat 5:37  But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Since we are therefore not under the law but are operating under the law of the spirit of life, which sets us free from the law of sin and death (the law of Moses), we are not required to make a vow. All we have to do is that our yes must be yes, and our no must be no. One may then ask why Paul undertook a vow and that of the zealous four men of the church in Jerusalem in the New Testament dispensation? 

Act 18:18  And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.

Act 21:23  Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them; 
Act 21:24  Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law. 

The recent studies in the Book of Acts have shown us that it took a long time for the church to see that the law of Moses was only our schoolmaster until faith came. Now when faith comes, we are no longer under the law. Thus, the church was erroneously practicing the law of Moses while they were under the law of the spirit of life. That explains why Paul and the four men took a vow. However, under the law of Christ, we are not to vow.

Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 
Gal 3:26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 

As indicated, the essence of a vow is to show our gratitude to the Lord in view of His mercies towards us. However, because of the weakness of our flesh, it is impossible for us to fulfill a vow. The coming of Christ therefore opened a new way where we can offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to the Lord as He enables us. 

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Men and Vows

Num 30:1  And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded.
Num 30:2  If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.

As indicated earlier, the need to regulate vows may have been the result of abuses of vows. The law came in to show us our inability to please the Lord on our own. When we come to see that, then the law has done its work.

Ecc 5:4  When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
Ecc 5:5  Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

Verse 2 enjoins us to be careful with what comes out of our mouth. Knowing that we do not have the capacity to fulfill a vow, our yes must be yes, and our no be no.

Women and Vows

Num 30:3  If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father’s house in her youth;
Num 30:4  And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand. 
Num 30:5  But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. 

As we are aware, a woman represents the church. The woman in her youth signifies the formative years of the church before the coming of Christ when the law was her schoolmaster. In other words, when we started our walk with Christ, we made a lot of promises to the Lord (vows) which our Lord Jesus Christ heard. However, since the Lord had not come into our lives with the Spirit of His mouth, that is, our father holding His peace, these promises were binding. In the fullness of time, when the Lord comes to us, that is, disallows us in the day he hears, then all our vows or promises are no longer binding. In other words, the written codes that were against us were all done away with in Christ.

2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:   

Col 2:13  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 
Col 2:14  Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 
Col 2:15  And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 

Num 30:6  And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul; 
Num 30:7  And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand.
Num 30:8  But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the LORD shall forgive her.

These verses are the same as the 3-5 verses except that in this case, Christ is our husband. As indicated, before Christ came to us with the Spirit of His mouth, the law was binding on us as a result of our promises to the Lord.  However, with the Lord’s coming with His brightness, we are set free from all that has held us in bondage. 

Verses 6 to 8 also show us the authority the Lord has given to a husband over his wife just as He has authority over us.

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Num 30:9  But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her. 
Num 30:10  And if she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath; 
Num 30:11  And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her, and disallowed her not: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. 
Num 30:12  But if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard them; then whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband hath made them void; and the LORD shall forgive her.

A widow or a divorcee has no husband, and therefore any vow made is binding. When we were in Babylon and played the harlot, we were technically widows or divorcees since we had thrown away the authority of Christ in our lives as we did whatever we like. Our vows were therefore binding since we had no husband. During this time of our walk in Babylon, we made a lot of promises to the Lord, such as, “I will serve you all my life”, “My whole life is dedicated to you”, etc. However, with the coming of Christ in our lives, He canceled everything that was against us.

Jer 3:6  The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 
Jer 3:7  And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 
Jer 3:8  She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 
Jer 3:9  Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. 
Jer 3:10  Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD.” 

The verses also tell us that during the beginning of our walk with the Lord before we went astray, if the Lord hears our vows and denounced them, then we are free. Indeed, the Lord canceled all that was negatively affecting us. 

Num 30:13  Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void. 
Num 30:14  But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her: he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them.
Num 30:15  But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity. 
Num 30:16  These are the statutes, which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, being yet in her youth in her father’s house. 

In these verses, we are given additional information in verse 15 that if the husband makes void his wife’s vow after he had heard it, then he shall bear her iniquity. It is the Lord who suffered on our behalf as He bore our iniquities.

Isa 53:4  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

Isa 53:11  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Isa 53:12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

At this point, we cannot help but give thanks to the Lord for His wonderful work of salvation. He is with us all along the way no matter our current situation. Just remembered this song from the Book of Psalms:

Psa 24:7  Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 
Psa 24:8  Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 
Psa 24:9  Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 
Psa 24:10  Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

No matter our situation, let’s lift up our heads in anticipation of what our Lord will do in the final analysis. In these verses of Psalms, we, His elect, symbolize gates or everlasting doors since we are the gates or doors for all humanity to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is as we lift up our heads that the King of Glory shall come into our situation. Lifting up our heads is looking up to Him with great expectation that the Lord shall carry away or sweep away all that trouble us when the King of Glory comes in to address our situation!! 

May His name be praised!!! Amen!!  

Worship – Part 2, The God-Given Act of  Listening Internally to His Spirit

[Study Aired September 30, 2023]

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life – Gen 3:17 

Today’s second part study on “Worship”, meaning devoted reverence, focuses on one of the most formidable acts of worship through which only the holy spirit can inspire. it results from being in the spirit today, the Lord’s day, for any biblical revelatory understanding. It is the act of diligently “listening.”

Here is Job, the Beast, who is you and I, sitting on the throne of God, spiritually stating that we are God! He’s telling God to diligently listen to him ~ our audacity is breathtaking!

Job 13:2  What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you. 

Job 13:17  Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears. 

The world’s spiritualism uses the modern term “mindfulness” to denote a genuinely outstanding tool that ingeniously works for spouses to deeply experience the ‘sound’ that each other’s bodies and minds speak for deeply intimate Shulamite-like espousals. Our Lord uses that modern term “mindfulness” by His terms of “harken/hearken; hear/heareth” condensed to “LISTEN.”

Eve didn’t honour and reverence (worship) Adam as she did not hearken to him or their Lord (Eph 5:22-33, 1Pe 3:1-7). Ironically, their subsequent guilt certainly caused them to suddenly “hear” the Lord walking in the Garden! It’s not so different from Saul, who became Paul, to abruptly “hear” the Lord in crystal clarity following his terror of blindness (Act 9:3-6).

By not listening to our Lord in spirit and truth, we automatically have an idol of the heart since our dogma is the only remaining ideological means to attain some semblance of an enjoyable life. It is the damning process of Eden’s curse on us in Babylon, ruling Christ whom we claim as our husband. In Babylon, we love lies, the opposite of worshiping Christ in spirit and truth.

Rev 22:12  And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 
Rev 22:13  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 
Rev 22:14  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 
Rev 22:15  For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Rev 22:16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Rev 22:17  And the spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Rev 22:18  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy [by making a lie], God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20  He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 
Rev 22:21  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

I would be the precise personage of a Babylonian wife if I avoided spiritual intimacy with my Husband; if I didn’t up front and unashamedly state that the Elect’s center of worship is around Christ. He is our husband, and from this point in this study, we are working backward from whence we have come to identifying worship.

The God entity in Genesis 1 undertook the first act of biblically “listening”, responding to the yet higher personage of the Godhead we came to know as the Father. That “God” in the creation sequence in Genesis 1 was Elohim, the Word, who was created as the Son of God and became Christ, the Bride’s Husband.

It wasn’t until Genesis 1:26 that we realised two individuals of the Godhead conspired creation. To collaborate on the creation plan, these two luminaries must communicate, and the subordinate to the authority of the supreme Godhead entity had to listen and enthusiastically respond to His authoritative superior, just as an earthly righteous wife without a lying heart like snares and nets and hands like bands brightly interacts with her husband. Such a husband is oh, so glad to die for his wife without a hint of bitterness (Ecc 7:26).

Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Christ, in responding to his disciples about the Pharisees’ narky opportunity to condemn him for working on the Sabbath, says:

Joh 5:19  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

‘Seeing’ inspires communication that involves attentive ‘listening.’

Joh 5:26  For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life within Himself, 
Joh 5:27  and has given Him [Elohim who became Christ] authority to execute judgment also, because [and in sequence…] He is [became] the Son of Man.
Joh 5:28  Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves shall hear His voice,
Joh 5:29  and shall come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have practiced evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

The Son of God communicated with his Father before He, the Son, brought into existence the heavens and Earth. Their interaction before that event involved speaking and attentive listening to detail, particularly by the Son.

Much later in the continuing process of the creation and recreation of man, the Son attentively listened to the exacting details for recreating His Bride, who, in order of creation, goes on to recreate through her husband the rest of mankind.

Our Lord sternly commanded Moses to create the Tabernacle, the Ark and all its utensils in the exact proportions God had told him on Mt Sinai. To do that, Moses had to pay particular attention to the details by listening, as shown in all of Exodus 25–30, which is interspersed with:

Exo 25:40  And see [be diligent] that you make them after their pattern, which was shown you in the mountain. (Heb 8:5)

Col 2:17  For these are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

The Lord gave Adam and Eve, Moses and the Israelites the ability to meticulously listen to all He said, yet, to their immense frustration, they were incapable of walking with equal diligence in what was commanded because of their flesh. Their spirit of the flesh, infused by Satan in the Garden, always caused them to question the Lord, as do all earthly wives (and husbands comprising worldly churches) sceptically question rulership over their very questionable husbands.

Adam and Eve’s God-given inability to meticulously listen to the Lord set the path of all humanity to fail miserably in worshiping him by having the missing ingredient, the holy spirit that quickens, enliven their understanding to diligently do the will of God! (Joh 6:63, Mar 3:35, Mat 12:50, 1Jn 2:17).

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not [because without the spirit good is impossible to sustain].

Gen 3:17  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying [in harmony with listening], Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 
Gen 3:18  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 
Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 

The most profound levels to mindfully “listen” are allegorical for ALL of our senses. It is attained by relaxing from the anxiety of the noisome, beastly world’s chaos and deeply “listening” to every nuance of our Lord, through our Husband’s very body, the church. In that case, His word comes alive within our body (hopefully the Bride) and spirit with euphoric trembling elation. Such a beautiful response on His Bride’s face amplifies His ravishing for her and, in unity, her for Him. It is the impetus for the Shulamite’s electrifying epiphany: [“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. (Son 1:2)] and is “Worship.”

It wasn’t possible for Adam, without spiritual foresight or hindsight, to see the incredible depth of meaning to all the Lord said, including the magnitude of the subsequently prophetic curses for mankind.

The Shulamite, who directly symbolises the Bride of Christ, vigorously retained her ‘blackness’ of being understood by her sisters in Babylon through her poetic song, the Song of Solomon. Every word of her song of songs is spiritual foreplay, denoting its hidden spiritual interaction. It all is about profound spiritual “LISTENING” to every detail of her Lord by her interplay ~ in fact, the entire Bible!We ‘listen’ to every arousing sense our Lord has imbued us. We ‘listen’ to Touch, Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste now experienced by His spirit, discerning the spirit of the matter in truth!

1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard [nor any of our physical senses], neither have entered into the heart of man [another act of hearing], the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 
1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit: for the spirit searcheth [1. to search, examine into. H2046 – 1. to utter, speak, say – Origin: probably a fuller form of G4483, an alternate for G2036 meaning, 1. to pour forth, to utter. 1. to speak, say]   all things, yea, the deep things of God. 

The act of the spirit speaking to us is in lockstep with us listening and profoundly understanding by hearing what the spirit says on all occasions, as stated to the “Seven Churches of Asia” (Rev 1:4-18). That understanding is why Adam, Eve and everyone up until the death of Christ couldn’t, with immense frustration, “do the will of God.” They were utterly incapable of worshiping in spirit and in truth.

Following is how we worshiped another Jesus while lounging around in Babylon. These verses epitomise physically the only way we knew how to ‘listen’ and thus understand His word.

To Your Name Give Glory:

Psa 115:1  Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory [worship!], for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. 
Psa 115:2  Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
Psa 115:3  But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased [For this study’s purpose, hidden his word from all but His Bride who alone can ‘hear’]. 
Psa 115:4  Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
Psa 115:5  They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 
Psa 115:6  They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 
Psa 115:7  They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 
Psa 115:8  They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

By our Lord’s hand, I hope with less stammering lips to show how the Bride worships the Father in Spirit and truth through our Lord’s detailed interaction with His Wife’s body and thus make the Bible, the Lord’s handbook of foreplay, come alive.

In last week’s Introduction to this study on Worship, we saw that “worship” must be accomplished in spirit and truth and is outwardly represented by giving reverence by outwardly bowing down. The spiritual act reflects the ‘natural’ and is potently (inclusive of the entire Bible!) seen in the following verse regarding the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

Luk 18:9  And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 
Luk 18:10  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 
Luk 18:11  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 
Luk 18:12  I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 
Luk 18:13  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
Luk 18:14  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 

One of the most animated acts of spiritual worship is seen by the publican, who unconsciously began spiritually to stand afar from Babylon while in Babylon. Upon looking back on his life, his horror from instant understanding shook him to the depths of his growing spiritual awareness. His stark realisation of his sins caused him to not give a thought to ‘bowing’; he was “standing”, transfixed in dread and, no doubt later, dichotic joy for his realisation of his condition. Appalled and humiliated, he unwittingly fiercely worshiped upward in spirit and truth! The horror of his endemically sinful flesh made him worship where he stood. Regardless of physically bowing, he profoundly and spiritually bowed before his Lord and Saviour. His prayers were heard and moved the Lord!

Those thrown alive into the Lake of Fire will involuntarily collapse in dread as dead men, a figurative forced bowing of fearfully induced worship before the terrible vision of their imminent future. Those very same people resurrected to spiritual life will dynamically bow and worship the Christ in and through His Christs (plural) with quivering fear. The Lord’s very own in this age right now, both physically and spiritually, fall on their faces in the worship of God as a precursory event to all mankind (Ecc 9:3).

Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; [effectively a forced bowing in worshipful fear] 
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Rev 7:11  And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 7:12  Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. 

The Bible is nominally 98% “unsearchable”, governed by our former Babylonian riches in believing that we were already saved while figuratively remaining stuck at Sinai ingloriously dancing nude with our brethren around a ‘different Jesus’ (2Co 11:4, Exo 32:19-25, Isa 20:2-4, Isa 47:3). 

How often in this age have we heard our former fellow dancers in Babylon say that nobody can understand the Bible! Of course, nobody can except the Elect, dragged from the ‘chosen’ and given to clothe their nakedness with the spirit of truth, an act of worship. 

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: G1670, Phonetic: hel-koo’-o; helkuō, ‘drag’. You, me or anyone else cannot come to the Father, except the Father which hath sent Christ draw (helkuō: ‘drag’ him against his will] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Of course, the Lord’s Elect are ‘dragged’ out of Babylon and thus raised up on this day, in this age representing the literal last day of their age before the holy First Resurrection. They are right now, being clothed in His righteousness.

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you [the ‘dragged’ ones] it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others [Our naked brothers and sisters delightedly enriched in Babylon] in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 

Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable^[G419] are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 

Notice that the KJV placed an exclamation mark at the end of that verse to amplify the impossibility for anyone other than His Elect to find out the unsearchable sum total of our Lord’s word.

We know that the Lord’s Elect, alone as his Bride, is given to know the ‘unfathomableness of his riches’ that defies their brothers in Babylon.

Unsearchable G419
Phonetic: an-ex-er-yoo’-nay-tos
– Definition: 

1. that cannot be searched out

Assumed derivative of G1830

ex-er-yoo-nah’-o

– Definition: 

1. to search out, search anxiously and diligently. To search after, thoroughly investigate (first used to tell of a dog sniffing out something with his nose). The prophets searched to find out the time of messiah’s appearance.

From G2045 – 1. to search, examine into.

Searching anxiously with diligence is the mindful act of listening to the inner heart and soul by our Lord’s spirit. Its startling revelation is grasping the “unsearchable” word of God.

What is Listening Mindfully?

Listening mindfully is intrinsically worshiping in spirit and in truth. It all is one and the same. Worshiping in the spirit is the God-given deciphering and understanding of our Lord’s word through His impregnating spirit that causes us to drop spiritually and often physically to our knees in awestruck ‘worship.’ That truthful spirit of understanding is for the Elect alone, having been given His mind to search out the ‘unsearchable’ with arousing excitement dramatically increasing on the individual’s “Lord’s day.”

Rev 1:10  I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 

We are fully conversant with John’s account of his particular “Lord’s day” and his suddenly electrified growing spiritual understanding of our Lord’s word. (Please see all of Revelation 1:9-20 to review that narration.)

The God-given spiritual ability to finally begin to understand scripture results in the pursuit of enthusiastically deep and diligent attention to detail condensed to the contemporary term “mindfulness” and, to his Wife, the act of mindful “listening”. Mindfully listening is the spiritual alpha and omega understanding of a thing, only achievable through the Lord’s Spirit. His spirit gives us a growing intensity of enlightenment for God’s hidden, unsearchable things. That state of being is the beginning of ‘receiving ‘the end of our faith in the salvation of our souls’ (1Pe 1:9).

“Unsearchable”, as seen in G419 above, has the same meaning as “searched diligently” G1830 below in 1 Peter 1:10.

1Pe 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 
1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 
1Pe 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 
1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently^[G1930], who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you [The Elect, today]: 
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels [the Elect and chosen rejected] desire^{[G1937] to look into.}

Desire G1937 – from G2372 meaning: 1. passion, angry, heat, anger forthwith boiling up and soon subsiding again 2. glow, ardour, the wine of passion, inflaming wine (which either drives the drinker [of His spirit!] mad or kills him by its strength).

As seen in the Song of Solomon study and “A Mystery Hidden from the Ages and Generations: How Not to Be Bitter against One’s Wife; How Not to Make a Husband Bitter”, a wife, meaning a church, can “desire” espousal intimacies all she likes, but her desire for inflaming reality will largely remain dull (weak – Gen 29:17) or at best, lukewarm until she is aroused in spirit and truth by her Lord’s kisses.

The hour has come since Christ, where God’s “unsearchable” things are revealed as highly searchable alone for the Bride.

Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 
Joh 4:24  God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 

Upon an Elect babe in Christ given the Lord’s spirit of understanding by listening to the heart of his mother (the Church), and her reverence of her husband, he eagerly drinks in the milk of the word as the Shulamite’s baby brother did (Son 8:1). Let’s continue studying how to listen mindfully in detail to Christ’s words and in unity worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, and be electrifyingly aroused as was the Shulamite. Spiritually listening, hearing and understanding her poetic speech is the consummative understanding of our re-creation; its grand finalé. 

Listening mindfully is a God-given spiritual devotion to the “still small voice” of detail of our Lord’s word, understood and worshipfully expressed from our heart in response to His words, which are  His “kisses.” 

Upon fleeing from Jezebel to Mt. Horeb, Elijah understood the Lord’s word, not through the frightening physical expressions that tend to overshadow the nuances of what is said, but rather by very attentive listening, an organised spiritual inspection of one’s thoughts by the Lord’s spirit connecting his spirit within. 

1Ki 19:11  And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: 
1Ki 19:12  And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
1Ki 19:13  And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? 
1Ki 19:14  And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. 

The fullness of those understandings is the major part of what makes the Bride’s burden seductively light.

Mat 11:28  Come to Me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Mat 11:29  Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. 
Mat 11:30  For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.

That kind of mindful detail inflamed the Shulamite to insatiably know more and famously expressed in her opening line in the Song of Solomon: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love [His word] is better than wine” (Son 1:2). Spiritual listening, as with sexually listening to the nuances of one’s spouse’s mind and body, shouldn’t be obsessed with rushing to a consummative goal. Most potently to experience every exquisite detail of each other’s body, it spiritually reflects luxuriating in every jot and title of the Lord’s word, learning and experiencing new nuggets of intimate delight. It is Shulamite-expressed spiritual foreplay. It’s a leisurely journey, stopping to see, breathe, feel the texture and mindfully sense each other’s every delight in harmony with His word. It all is reverential worship.

Mat 5:17  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 
Mat 5:18  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Mat 5:19  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:20  For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The Lord blesses his Bride to righteously decipher in detail every jot and tittle of His word by His spirit. She diligently searches her body for every imperfection that doesn’t mirror her study of her Lord’s body.

Son 6:11  I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.

Son 7:12  Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.
Son 7:13  The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, [the word…] new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

Why should the Shulamite fiercely protect every detail of her Lord’s body, His word? Because she is espoused to her Lord, whose word is for her alone. She uses that intricate, detailed understanding felt as a deep spiritual presence in the centre of her body with her breasts and heart beneath, every woman’s first port of call of heartfelt emotion directly connected to her mind. Her spiritually devoted listening, in perfect harmony with her Lord’s arousing word, is what ravishes Him to guard her most jealously. It is the mutual worship in unity of spirit and truth.

Pro 5:19  Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

The wording, The song of songs, which is Solomon’s (Son 1:1), with far-away eyes, can be read as a sentence: a matter of not seeing the forest for the trees. However, the Shulamite and the Bride’s eyes chew the cud while mindful of its individual flavours, textures, and pH neutrality, coming alive with alkalinity contrasting with the mini bursts of acidity of the ‘food.’ “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s” IS the Bride’s thunderstruck epiphany for the “unsearchable” detailed understanding of the Bible. Without meticulously looking into (1Pe 1:12) scriptures in spirit and truth, they remain “unsearchable” or, at best, lukewarmly searchable. Both forms of searching, regardless of understanding, are “worship.” The Shulamite richly sings the unsearchable wisdom of the Song of Solomon that Solomon and his 1,000 wives cannot understand. His wives, representing our former state while with our Christian Babylonian brothers and sisters, sing a discordant song of fools since they can’t equate chastisement with love.

Ecc 7:5  It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. 

Col 3:16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in  psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace [Tit 2:12. i.e. chastening – paideuō] in your hearts to the Lord. 
Col 3:17  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks [worshipping for his chastising grace] to God and the Father by him. 

God’s unsearchable riches and wisdom come alive through His spirit alone through deep and lingering Mary-like listening (Luke 10:38-42 – the account of Martha and Mary at Jesus’ feet). The depth of our understanding of scripture is dramatically amplified by lingering on the minute details of every word to obtain its flavour, texture, alkalinity, acidity, light and darkness, and positive and negative reflections! This is the act of being deeply spiritually aware of details; it is the act of glorifying, that is, “worshiping” by spiritually detailed inspection, the act of listening to our Lord’s body and He, the harmony of his Wife’s most delightedly arousing response! It is a profoundly spiritual foreplay of the Lord’s Spirit in us, unifying with His spirit, resulting in body-trembling worshipful understanding.

In keeping with the studies “The Song of Solomon” and “A Mystery Hidden from the Ages and Generations: How Not to Be Bitter against One’s Wife & How Not to Make a Husband Bitter”, in fact, all of the IWWB studies, that act of worship between a husband and wife is for Babylon, spiritually “unsearchable.” Gentile Christianity ‘touches’ Christ’s very Body and, in doing so, blasphemes His name by claiming His name while adulterously worshiping another Jesus. They and those associated with them outside the Camp of Israel are forbidden to look upon (Num 4:20), yet have “touched” the Jesus and must die at the end of the One-Thousand Year reign. Only the Bride of Christ, His Wife, can intimately “touch” her husband’s Body, mutually inducing righteous “drops of the night” in spiritually deeply connected understanding (Son 5:2). With the physical pointing to their spiritual counterparts, and with Shulamite poetic preparatory arousal, those “drops” result from His Bride’s listening to her Lord’s every arousing nuance of His body. From the misty night of trembling excitation, they form as dew upon our locks and dawn with daylight clarity and climactic spiritual understanding. Every millimeter of the Bride’s body is a sensory organ tuned by Christ to “listening” and understanding. Just as drops of water instantly merge upon them touching, so do the Shulamites and her Lord’s “drops of the night” instantly merge in ‘knowing’ each other in His unity of truth (Gen 4:1). 

By not worshiping in spirit and truth, our former Babylonian nature has no whit to understand the still many unexpressed sophistications of the Song of Solomon, indeed the complete Bible, without blunt expression.

Mar 4:11  And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: 
Mar 4:12  That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. 

2Sa 6:6  And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God [Christ], and took hold [touched] of it; for the oxen shook it.
2Sa 6:7  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.

Num 4:20  But they [the Levites] shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.

Many Eastern cultures assuredly know how to maximise the worship of physical marital intimacy, yet tragically it is mixed with their heathen esoteric mysticism. With wonderful potency, their marriages connect with physical erotic mindfulness, often to our Christian Babylonian brothers’ and sisters’ shame. Yet, at least they, our close kin, preach Jesus, even if they worship “another Jesus” (Php 1:12-17, Luk 9:49-50). Either way, they are forms of worship.

While reflecting upon the connections of songs, psalms and hymns, another beautiful example of finding the nuances of the spirit in our hearts is being in the zone of listening to a heavenly orchestra. It is not a place to chat, eat popcorn, or fidget with your phone. The audience must be deathly quiet to get the most out of the experience ~ to hear our Lord’s still, small voice (1Ki 19:11-13) behind us while worshiping in spirit and truth. One needs to be mindful of every sensory organ of his body with relaxed breathing, listening intently for every minute detail of instrumentation ~ it is Shulamite spiritual foreplay. Depending upon how mindful you are, it is, on many levels, deeply spiritually arousing ~ it is worship. 

The Bible is mostly about the Lord creating a breathtakingly beautiful spiritual wife for Himself from beginning to end. Just as the creation of the heavens ‘suddenly’ came into existence, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the Song of Solomon graphically portrays the Bride’s sudden enlightenment (1Th 5:3) and unrestrained (mindful – detailed) pursuit of her reason for existence. Her bright and elaborate enthusiasm for her Lord is overwhelmingly arousing for them both. Her Rachel-like devotion would make any husband howl with tears of joy, as did Jacob ~ and now, Christ. (Son 4:9  Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.)

Worship isn’t only a devotion to Christ and our Father; we even worship others ignominiously or reputably. The inevitable contention with our Lord is honouring others or an item “more than” our Husband without giving Him “all” our heart, soul and mind.

Mat 22:35  Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 
Mat 22:36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 
Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love [worship] the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind [mindfully!].
Mat 22:38  This is the [spiritually mindful] first and great commandment. 
Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love [worship] thy neighbour as thyself. 
Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Eph 5:28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 
Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

True worship in spirit and truth is profoundly loving, that is, worshiping our Lord more than a wife, husband, children, or anything more than God.

Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 

Gen 37:3  Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

Of course, Jacob represents our heavenly Father, who loves Christ “more than” carnal humanity. The Son implicitly agreed with the Father’s plan to create a carnal form of themselves in mankind for them to torturously learn to become as they are in spirit. That process begins with the Son’s creation of Himself in His Bride, the Elect of God being the first fruits (plural) of Him, the first fruit.

Est 2:17  And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 
Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Rom 1:23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man [The Beast upon the throne of God], and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Rom 1:24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the [corruptible, as opposed to righteous] lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Rom 1:25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 

I pray we have no residing rebellion of listless harlotry by fooling around delaying buying oil for our lamps at this apparent late hour before hearing the pounding hooves of our Saviour’s horse coming for His Bride. With an irritated sigh, one such ‘madam’ thought could be, “Here we go; Grant is off infusing sex again with his studies…” To that possible notion, and in keeping with salvation, my response is, “Isn’t marriage an underpinning cornerstone of the Bible?” Marriage without enthusiastic [mindful] boudoir intimacies is a lukewarm and bitter marriage; didn’t Christ already experience that lamentable condition with His first wife? Look what happened to her! God forbid it happens to us! Yet, we fill up behind the very same, mostly inward afflictions of Christ (Col 1:24).

As the Lord wills, I look forward to more detailed inspection of our Lord’s body next weekend as He, in the meantime, inspects ours.

1 Timothy 5:1, 17-21

[Study Aired July 26, 2020]

Across the bible, God has so much to say about elders, from the torah to Revelation. There is not a single verse one can find in the word of God where the elderly are being derided or rebuked (Save for 2Kings 2:23, and those rude young people met a sad end as a result of their blatant disrespect of Elisha). It is our modern cultures which have brought us here. In our modern cultures the younger generation have taken over, and they have no value for the parents and their elders. For Governments to appear politically correct, they have given in to these demands, and laws have been changed to place youth on a par with parents and their elders. “Human rights” is no longer human (Anthropos) but is now more about children’s rights and women rights. This so-called modernism is violently placing parents and elders under youth, in communities and churches. Little  wonder this is prophesied by the prophet Isaiah, so we should not be dismayed.

Isa 3:4  And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
Isa 3:5  And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

Isa 3:12  As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

God’s divine order is that correction, discipline and respect for the elders must be a strong foundation in any righteous community, even if modernism has thrown it out through the window. Families and church must heed this piece of instruction!

1Ti 5:1  Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; (KJV)

1 Tim 5:1 Don’t speak angrily to an elder. But talk to him as if he were your father. Treat the younger men like brothers. (Paraphrased)

The word Intreat is G3870. Παρακαλέω. parakaleo

“to call to one’s side, call for, summon, call upon, that which may be done in the way of exhortation, entreaty, comfort, instruction, etc.
To admonish, to beg, beseech, to strive to appease, to console, to encourage and strengthen by consolation,”

In summary it is instructive to respond to an elder with honour and respect.

Below are scriptures that further clarify how to entreat elders, and those who disobey God’s word should be admonished.

Lev 19:32  You shall rise up in the face of gray haired; and you shall honor the face of an old man; and be afraid of your God. I am Jehovah.

Heb 13:17 Be persuaded by your leaders, and be deferring to them, for they are vigilant for the sake of your souls, as having to render an account, that they may be doing this with joy, and not with groaning, for this is disadvantageous for you.”

Job 32:3  Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.
Job 32:4  Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he. 
Job 32:5  When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled.
Job 32:6  And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion.

God instituted elders both in the Old and New Testaments. These are not just titles to fill space but critical tools in God’s eternal purposes. The architecture of the twelve foundations, both in the house Jacob and in the heavens, is structured around elders. Therefore, we must take seriously all instructions and commands about elders (honour and respect, correction and discipline). The same instructions are not given about the rest of the family/the body of Christ.

1Ti 5:17  Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.
1Ti 5:18  For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
1Ti 5:19<  Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
1Ti 5:20  Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
1Ti 5:21  I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

How should we treat those whom God has called to be leaders in the body? Secondly, how do we correct them when they sin, teach heresy, or have personality conflict with any among the flock?

Then thirdly, what does the Bible say about disciplining an elder? Is there a difference between disciplining one of the flock and disciplining an elder?

in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15, we read:

“And we urge you brethren to recognize [it means to respect, to know well] those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you brethren, warn those who are unruly [Those who are acting in an unruly manner, insubordinate toward those in leadership, who we should be esteeming highly are examples of being unruly. Unfortunately, some at Thessalonica were acting toward their elders in an unruly worldly fashion.], comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, BE PATIENT WITH ALL. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.”

The key phrase is, of course, verse 13. “Esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.” As long as verse 13 is always at the back of our minds, every argument, attitude and behavior toward an elder must begin and rotate around that requirement for very high esteem. Not fear them, not simple respect, but VERY high esteem, whatever “very high” means to you. The bible does not just throw words out for no reason. Every word has been placed by the Holy Spirit for us, with exception to translators’ additions. Every word (in the original languages) makes the whole difference. Here, Paul is not talking about those in government because he is speaking about those who labour in the word (their work).

Are we to obey and submit to elders no matter what? No! When are those occasions when we would not be obligated to obey, in fact, we would be obligated not to obey?

In summary, if an elder or some elders, were to ask us to do/believe something, or they were to lead us to do something that is unbiblical (false doctrine), that is unethical, that is illegal or immoral, then we would be obligated to say, “No.” We would be obligated to disobey in such a case. We would be obligated actually to follow what we are going to see in 1 Timothy 5:20. Now, note again very carefully the four categories I just mentioned: If it is unbiblical doctrinally or otherwise, if it is unethical, if it is illegal, if it is immoral. Should God allow those four things to happen among us (and He will as He desires after the counsel of His will), the body or any of us in the body must confront the elder in love, and we shall shortly see how that confrontation is done scripturally.

Are you saying elders could be wrong at times? Ooh, yes! Here is a case study for consideration:

Exo 32:1  And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Exo 32:2  And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
Exo 32:3  And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Exo 32:4  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 32:5  And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.

However, I have been in so many historical situations in Babylon and have observed so many modern churches where they confronted their leader or leadership, and they disobeyed their shepherds, and they opposed those who were over them, and it was not done for those four parameters I have mentioned above.

I could hear statements like “Well, I just don’t like the way he is leading. I just don’t like the direction the fellowship or church is going. I don’t like the way they are prosecuting the word of God, or they spend money etc, etc”. Again, let me repeat for our better understanding; has the elder done (or said) something illegal? “No.” Immoral? “No.” Unethical? “No.” Unbiblical? “No.” By the way, if you examine carefully, these four areas of assessming when to confront an elder are a kind of summary of the qualifications of an elder. Statements like, “Why can’t he do things this or that way?”  “I just don’t like him or his presentation” etc, are advance indicators of serious problems within a carnal believer.

Such a believer has yielded his/her heart to the enemy to break up the body. A brother/sister with this attitude has a problem, and their problem is not with the elder(s). Their problem is with the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, and at that point one has now stepped into a serious world of rebellion and potential judgment.

We must be diligent to obey the word of God in matters of interpersonal relationships and discipline in the body. The New Testament provides 31 positive and 13 negative one-another commands, to emphasize interpersonal relationships in the church. So how we treat one another, including elders who may be in “error”, is extremely important. When we act in disobedience to 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 and are tempted to reprimand our elder(s) unduly, we are mistreating those whom God has divinely, sovereignly called to a leadership assignment in the body.

Here are other texts in the Bible that deal with issues of church discipline (including interpersonal private relationships with an elder). The first is found on the lips of Jesus. In Matthew 18:15-17, “Moreover, if your brother [an elder is a brother] sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother, but if he will not hear, take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. [And we’re going to see that same principle expounded about an elder in just a moment in 1 Timothy 5]. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.”

Matthew 18, Deuteronomy 17 and 19, are applicable universally to the whole body, including any issues touching interpersonal relationships with or among elders. In our relationships, the church cannot abandon scripture and embrace our various individual cultures whether Eastern, western or animist.

Therefore, you start with ‘one’. If he won’t hear one, go with two or three. If he will not hear the two or three, then you are to bring him before the church, and enact Matthew 18:17, “If he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.” This means you are to cast him out and treat him like an unbeliever. However, this is not a private individual affair, and the statement “tell it to the church” is weighty and carries its own protocols. Whoever we are, if we do not follow these laid-down procedures by our Lord whenever there is an infraction between us, then we are disobeying His commandments blatantly and willingly.

Then the question comes, what does it mean, “tell it to the church”? What is meant by that phrase? We must consult the sum of God’s word.

Psa 119:160 The sum of Your word is truth, And all of Your righteous ordinances are eonian. (CLV)

2Pe 1:20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture at all is becoming its own explanation.

When you put together Deuteronomy 19:17-18, Acts 15:6, 12, 22-23, Hebrews 13:17 and 1 Corinthians 6:4-5, the verses clearly define for us who or what the church is, in matters of discipline and correction in the body. See now how these scriptures flow together:

Deu 19:17  Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days;
Deu 19:18  And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;

Act 15:6  And the apostles and elders came together for to consider this matter.

Act 15:12  Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

Act 15:22  Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:
Act 15:23 And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:

The matter was first taken to “the apostles and elders”. The whole multitude ‘kept silence’ to hear what the apostles had to say, and “then it pleased the apostles and elders with the  whole church” to send a letter to the Gentiles…

This is consistent with Hebrews 13:17:

Heb 13:17 Be persuaded by your leaders, and be deferring to them, for they are vigilant for the sake of your souls, as having to render an account, that they may be doing this with joy, and not with groaning, for this is disadvantageous for you.

While Matthew 18 does not say “take with you one or two elders”, the sum of the Lord’s words here certainly indicate that we should “be deferring to our elders” in every situation.

The principle revealed in shaming the Corinthians for bringing matters of judgment to “the least esteemed in the church or outsiders” again indicates that the “one or two others” should preferably be one or two elders.

1Co 6:4  So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?
1Co 6:5  I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough [preferably a mature elder] to settle a dispute between the brothers, (NLT)

Put these verses together with:

Heb 13:17 Be persuaded by your leaders, and be deferring to them, for they are vigilant for the sake of your souls, as having to render an account, that they may be doing this with joy, and not with groaning, for this is disadvantageous for you.

We are commanded here to “be deferring to… your leaders” and it is “the sum of Thy Word” which is Truth. Considering the example of Acts 15, it is indeed “the apostles and elders” who are to consider any matter before “telling it to the church”. Now it does say, “If they do not hear the church let them be unto you as an heathen man and a publican.” So, “the whole multitude” does not vote on doctrine. We do not see the practice of voting on doctrinal matters. We see consensus and mutual agreement as the Spirit leads. The congregation however, has a function of confirming doctrine to those who are not “persuaded” of “their elders” and are not “deferring to them”. In other words, the congregation is encouraged to let the offenders know that they are not in agreement with the offending brother, but with the eldership/the church.

What about when an elder(s) are in error or sin. First, elders are human, and as much sinners as all of us. However, they deserve respect just like the rest of the flock, even when one feels the elder is errant. There is this one text where the Bible speaks about those who are divisive doctrinally which addresses the issue of elders who shepherd and teach the flock. That is found in Titus 3:8-11. Now, with that as a broad overview of what the Bible has to say about how we treat our elders and how to exercise church discipline on them, Paul applies or addresses both of those issues (correction and discipline) here in this text.

Tit 3:8  This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.
Tit 3:9  But AVOID foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
Tit 3:10  A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
Tit 3:11  Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

Before we can correct anyone in the body, in verse 9, we are instructed to avoid certain things. Every imaginable correction must AVOID these traits before we try to correct others, including elders. The word avoid: “peristemi“ literally means to turn oneself about so as to face the other way. Here is what we must prayerfully avoid in correctional experiences:

Tit 3:9  But avoid…

• foolish questions, (godless issues that do not add to our spiritual maturity)
• genealogies, (matters trivial and meaningless to basic doctrine, irrelevant issues)
• contentions, (carnal feel-good, revengeful emotional tantrums)
• strivings (fighting mode, combatant, quarrelsome)

…for they are unprofitable and vain.p

In Verses 10-11 we are instructed to reject a heretic and divisive man who will not heed the true and accurate counsel of many.

Heretic: The definition of heresy is a belief or action at odds with what is accepted, especially when the behavior is contrary to the doctrine of Christ. A heretic is a person believing in or practicing religious heresy. A person holding an opinion at odds with what has generally been accepted by a multitude of counselors.

Titus was to take measures against those who insisted on going their own way or fronting their own understanding of the word. Their “self-will” makes them self-condemned.

Even if demonstrably a heretic in any one sense of that word, and a disturber of the peace of the body of Christ, God gives no man/woman any other authority over him but to shun him. Reject! [G3868].

Παραιτέομαι, paraiteomai: to refuse, decline, to shun, avoid. For example, of one excusing himself for not accepting a wedding invitation or a feast.

Do a heretic or the sinning elder no harm in body, soul, character, or substance; just hold no communion with him; avoid fellowship, communication, sharing any type of “bread” with one who cannot be admonished, corrected and repent. Leave him alone, leave him to God!

The above instructions to Titus could also be universal to the whole body, but are specifically addressing Elders. Those instructions support Matthew 18. However, we have more tailored instructions that provide specifically how to handle errant elders or if any has a matter against him/them, in 1 Timothy 5:19-21.

1Ti 5:19  Don’t listen to any charge against a church elder, UNLESS AT LEAST TWO OR THREE PEOPLE BRING THE SAME CHARGES. [One individual cannot conclude that an elder is wrong or in error. Therefore, one must check with other saints as a witness, and see if others recognize the heresy.]
1Ti 5:20  But if any of the elders should keep on sinning, they must be corrected in front of the whole church, as a warning to everyone else.
1Ti 5:21  In the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, I order you to follow my instructions! Do nothing out of prejudice, and don’t be partial or have any favorites. (Living Bible)

1Ti 5:21  I testify fully, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the choice messengers, that these things thou mayest keep, without forejudging, doing nothing by partiality. (YLT)

We should thank God when a church has good elders. Praise God when a man spends a lifetime with integrity, with respect, with holiness, and with godliness and patience.  Tragically, sometimes elders fall by the wayside and sin or even start to teach error (remember the case study of Aaron and the golden calf, or the Nicolaitans). I’ve actually heard (usually it’s Babylonian ministers) people say, “Well, touch not God’s anointed. Touch not God’s anointed.”  This is an erroneous quote from the Old Testament. It was a reference to king Saul NOT to the pastor or the overseer or the elder who is in leadership in the church. Rather, the Bible has a very specific word and a very specific plan of how we would deal with an elder in the church who tragically has gotten involved in sin or is teaching heresy or using unacceptable doctrine or unbiblical phrases. Here are the four steps listed in verses 1 Timothy 5:19-21, above.

FIRST of all, Get All The Facts: 1 Timothy 5:19

Pro 18:13  He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.

Verse 19, “Do not receive an accusation against an elder except [same phrase you heard on the lips of Jesus back in Matthew 18] from two or three witnesses.” This is a principle found in Deuteronomy 17:6, again elaborated more thoroughly in Deuteronomy 19:15-20, reiterated by Jesus in Matthew 18:16, and confirmed by the Apostle Paul. Here is a biblical way of establishing that indeed the elder has a matter to answer:

Deu 17:6  At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is to die be put to death: he shall not be put to death at the mouth of one witness.

Deu 19:15  One witness shall not rise up against a man for ANY iniquity, and for ANY sin, in ANY sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.
Deu 19:16  If an unrighteous witness rise up against ANY MAN [including an elder] to testify against him of an offence;
Deu 19:17  then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges that shall be in those days; [issues must not be discussed before a public forum but the matter is brought before priests and judges]
Deu 19:18  and the judges shall make thorough inquiry; and if the witness be a false witness, and he have testified falsely against his brother,
Deu 19:19  then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother; and thou shalt put evil away from thy midst.
Deu 19:20  And those that remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in thy midst.

2Co 13:1  This third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall EVERY MATTER be established.

Mat 18:15  Moreover if thy brother [elders are also brothers] shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone [this is a biblical caveat against any public corrections, arguments or rebuke to a brother or sister]: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

In 1 Timothy 5:19, Paul is providing instruction for how to handle accusations of sin/heresy against the elders. He’s warning against accepting a charge against an elder unless supported by two or three witnesses.

As we read in the Law, it was of utmost importance to safeguard innocent people from false accusation, and as Jewish law required the agreement of two/three witnesses before a man might be called upon to answer a charge, so it must be in the church, especially when an elder is implicated. He must be protected against malicious intent; but if there are real grounds for accusation, then disciplinary action should be taken before the whole church. We saw what the whole church process involves. It is not crowd or public justice. God does not work that way, nor as the worldly justice system. It is very unfair, no, actually sinful. Following the established process in Deuteronomy, all those who do that should be put to death. Apostle James calls such haters, murderers!

In short, when elders are accused the apostle builds in an exhortation to remind the church “two or three witnesses are required not only before an accusation is sustained, but before it is entertained at all.”

Why would Paul provide this exhortation?

It seems most natural here to understand this warning because shepherding leaders are so vulnerable to slander, attacks and false charges. The enemies of the body of Christ often take vengeance on the ministers in the body. A smear campaign can completely ruin an elder’s ministry. So, Paul’s first word to Timothy is that he must never listen to gossip about leaders, or even to a serious accusation if it is made by only one person, unless the evidence has been examined by the eldership thoroughly. Every charge must be endorsed by several responsible people before it is even listened to.

It has been observed, . . . as soon as any charge is made against an elder, it is believed as surely and firmly as if it had been already proved. This happens not only because a higher standard of integrity is required from them, but because nearly everyone overzealously takes these accusations, so that without investigation, they eagerly move to condemn their elders whose good name they ought to be defending.

In other words, if you are going to bring an accusation against an elder there must be multiple witnesses. One is not enough. There must be two and preferably three who can validate and verify the truthfulness of the accusation that is being brought against an elder in the church, SO GET ALL THE FACTS and make sure two other people who are not your close friends/family member, have the same facts based on the word of God not conjectures and false emotional conclusions. The culture of democracy and speaking out what we wish when we want, has never been, will never be and is not biblical. You can talk what you want out there, but before the King and kings and priests, you guard what you say.

Ecc 5:2 Do not be rash with your mouth, And your heart must not hasten to bring forth speech before the One, Elohim; For the One, Elohim, is in the heavens, And you are on the earth; Therefore, let your words become few.”

Now, if the facts are clear and this elder is indeed guilty of heresy or sin, we must act. I believe the Bible is addressing the kind of sin or heresy that is public. It is sin that is serious. Doctrinal heresy is a serious matter because it confuses the flock. If such an error is unrepented publicly, it must be corrected publicly. If it is a sin/heresy that has not been repented of even after it has been highlighted to him privately, it is of the serious sort. So, at that point, move to point #2.

SECOND, Confront Him/Them to Their Face. 1 Timothy 5:20

1Ti 5:20 Those who are sinning be exposing in the sight of all, that the rest also may have fear. (CLV)

“Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all.” So…

1. They have or are sinning/teaching heresy. 
2. They are not repentant, about the error or the sin. 
3. People know about it or heard it. 
4. It is of a serious nature (not frivolous or trivial matters). 

Paul says, and Paul is assuming, that you have already gone one on one, and they refused your concerns. You cannot publicly confront an elder/brother/sister during an assembly however legitimate the issue is. This kind of confrontation in public is not scriptural at all. It is our carnal way of dressing people down and is sinful. It does not break any bones to be patient and correct the matter later on after the counselors, priests and judges have made THOROUGH inquiry. Moses taught it, Jesus taught it, Paul taught it = 3 witnesses.

Deu 19:17  then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges that shall be in those days;
Deu 19:18  and the judges shall make thorough inquiry;………

1. You’ve now gone back with two or three elders, and again, there is no success. 
2. So, after confronting him one on one, confronting him with multiple witnesses, if he does not hear you at that point, as painful and as unpalatable and as distasteful as it can possibly be, you have to bring it before other elders first (priests and judges). It is good decorum and biblically keeping in rank, if the matter is finally brought to the attention of the whole church by elders, instead of an individual or group of individuals. This is to avoid a possible rebellion where a clique of people wish to break rank and split the church.

The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 is a good example, and we do not see ordinary brothers discussing the matter and even if they did (because we are told they were present), the Holy Spirit recorded for us what the leaders said and concluded. In fact, James had the last word! There was disputing and disagreements at the beginning, but they all finally were “… persuaded by their leaders, and they deferred to them” [Heb 13:17]. This was in recognition of biblical ranking.

You say, “Have you ever seen that done anywhere on earth?” Not very often because most Christians don’t have the stomach for it, and they will excuse themselves by pointing at you for being judgmental or lacking love. You know, the “loving” thing… If you wish to know the biblical loving thing, it is DO NOT WINK AT SIN/HERESY. The loving thing is not to sweep heresy under the rug. That’s the cowardly way. That’s the ‘chicken’ stuff, which is able to destroy the church of Christ.

Only then can the elders protect the body of Christ against rumor mongering and false reports! If the elders don’t expose the heresy/sin, they will lose the trust and confidence of the fellowship. People will perhaps even leave the church. When an elder sins, even if he is repentant, he must be removed as an elder (temporarily if it is a minor infraction, or permanently if it is heresy or moral/legal etc. problem), and it must be explained to the fellowship. There needs to be censure, reproof and exposure. Situations like this must be handled wisely by the other elders. This is the best thing for the church and for the elder who sinned!

THIRD: Recognize the Value of Fear. 1 Timothy 5:20

In both Deuteronomy 19:15-20 and 1 Timothy 5:20 accurate correction and discipline brings about holy fear.

“Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all” [why?] “that the rest also may fear.” In other words, if the church has Christ’s courage to do that with one/some of their elders, what will they do with you if you get into the same lifestyle of sin or heresy? If they will deal with those on the highest level of leadership, they will also be willing to deal with anyone else in the body as well. So, there is a positive value to fear when it comes to church discipline. Then #4:

FOURTH: Do Everything without prejudice or partiality.

1Ti 5:21  I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing according to partiality.

I think Paul recognized that we have a tendency to be partial and to act with prejudice. And so, he says in verse 21, “I solemnly charge you…” [this is a solemn process].

1. i) before God, 
2. ii) the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
3. iii) the elect angels [that is, the saints]

…that you observe these things [how Paul?]

1. i) without prejudice,(prejudging) 
2. ii) doing nothing with partiality (favouritism)

The goal of church discipline, then, is not to throw people out of the church or to feed the self-righteous pride of those who administer the discipline. It is not to embarrass people or to exercise authority and power in some unbiblical manner. The purpose is to restore a sinning believer/elder to holiness and bring him back into a pure relationship within the body. The purpose is to gain our brother, if he is repentant.

Why this variation with elders? Because, the council of elders guard against one another and chances are very high, by the time anyone realizes the heresy, other elders could have taken it up. Where the matter is differences in relationship with another brother/sister, revert to the lay-person model in Matthew 18. If they don’t repent, then you appeal to witnesses, some of whom should be church elders (1 Tim 5:19), and then you publicly rebuke them (Deu 19:15-20), then tragically, there is possible excommunication, expulsion and disassociation with them/him.

Still, even if we have to turn them out of the fellowship, we must love them.  We still admonish them. We still pray that God would bring repentance into their heart and into their life.

Are there cases or those matters that cannot be restored?

Yes, scripture clearly instructs us that there are matters that can be repented and the sinner is accepted back to the body, while there are others that are not restorable, and that restoring such a one would violate the scriptures.

In 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 Paul deals with a situation of receiving one who had been living in sin, repented and has asked to be restored to the church. Juxtaposed against 1Corinthians 5:1-5 where a young man was having sex with his stepmother, and the church was just letting him sin and stay a part of the church, then Paul had to say, “Kick him out.” They kicked him out. In 2 Corinthians 2:5-11, he may have come back and said, “You’re right church. I’m wrong. I repent.” And they said, “We aren’t going to let you back in.” Paul, in essence, basically says, “What?! You swing from one extreme to the other. If he’s in habitual, unrepentant sinning folk, he needs to be removed. If, however, he repents and demonstrates that he has repented, then let him back in, forgive him, and restore him.” So Paul is responding in 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 to the same situation in 1 Corinthians 5:1-7, and we can learn immensely from these two opposite experiences, as a church, on matters of discipline and restoration.

1Co 5:1  Everywhere it is heard that fornication is among you, and such fornication which is not named among the heathen, so as for one to have his father’s wife.
1Co 5:2  And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that did this deed might be taken from your midst.
1Co 5:3  For as being absent in body, but being present in spirit, I have already judged the one who has worked out this thing, as if I were present:
1Co 5:4  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together with my spirit also, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5  to deliver such a one to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

2Co 2:5  But if anyone has grieved, he has not grieved me, but from in part, that I not overbear all of you.
2Co 2:6  This censure by the majority is enough for such a one.
2Co 2:7  So that on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort such a one, that he not be swallowed up by the overflowing grief.
2Co 2:8  So I beseech you to confirm your love to him.
2Co 2:9  For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, if you are obedient in all things.
2Co 2:10  But to whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For also if I have forgiven anything, of whom I have forgiven it, it is for you, in Christ’s person,
2Co 2:11  so that we should not be overreached by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his devices.

However, there is a point where there is no redemption in this life as per instructions from Hebrews 6:4-6. There is a difference between those who have put Christ to an open shame as opposed to the Corinthian fornicator, whose spirit can yet be saved “in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Here are stern instructions given to the church on the irredeemable cases.

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

The above verses have always been confused with a sinning or backsliding believer. Hebrews 6:4-8 does not describe the Corinthian fornicator type of sinner, who could repent and be forgiven and restored to the body. As we shall shortly see, this portion of scripture addresses those who have “fallen away” and not those who have fallen. There is a difference.

The main word is impossible. The writer to the Hebrews is not saying it is just difficult, but truly without possibility.

Here are other uses of impossible in Hebrews: It is impossible for God to lie (Heb 6:18). It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sin (Heb 10:4). Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). These impossible verses are biblically not reversible. Hebrews 6:4 is in the same family of irreversible declarations. There is no possibility to restore one who has fallen away.

Those being described cannot be an ordinary brother/sister struggling with sin. They fit the description of elders and matured brothers and sisters, “Who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” This is very impressive, and a novice does not fit. The last portion, “…. and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” is the confirmation that this has to do with the doctrine of Christ and not any other sin.

From all human observation, we must say these are mature believers spoken of in Hebrews 6:4-5, who have pressed on past elementary oracles of Christ towards perfection (maturity) – Heb 6:1-3.

The phrase “If they fall away”: There is a great difference between “falling” and “falling away”. Falling away isn’t just falling into some sin. It is actually departing from Jesus Himself, from His doctrine. It is straying from His doctrine and recanting that which will never pass away. Falling away is more than just sinning. For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity (Pro 24:16). The difference is between being a Peter and a Judas. If you depart from Jesus (the word of God, (Revelation 19) there is no hope!

Rev 19:11  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Rev 19:12  His eyes were< as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
Rev 19:13  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

In Hebrews 6:7-8 we are candidly told the serious consequences of “falling away” or what the epistle to Titus calls becoming a “heretic”. We covered that earlier. These are the tragic consequences;

Heb 6:7-8 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

If ground that is blessed by rain refuses to bear fruit, then who can blame the farmer for burning it? The picture presented reminds us that growth and bearing fruit is important to keep from falling away. We really bear fruit by abiding in Jesus (Joh 15:5) and cannot be in any danger of falling away. Once we fall away, there can be no restoration. Remember, abiding in Christ is being in accurate doctrine as we saw in Revelation 19 (His name is The Word of God). Note the three words are in capital letters.

Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 
Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without [outside of me] me ye can do nothing.
Joh 15:6  If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

That, my brothers and sisters, is how we are to entreat those God has placed as elders over us. We shall be continuing with this topic when the Lord provides more materials and opportunity.

[Study Aired June 4, 2020}

Heb 2:4  God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? 
Heb 2:5  For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 
Heb 2:6  But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 
Heb 2:7  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
Heb 2:8  Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 
Heb 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

God is bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles (1Co 12:4-27) and gifts of the Holy Ghost (1Pe 4:10-13, Rev 19:7), “according to his own will“, according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), giving those gifts to those who were predestined to overcome in this age.

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

That overcoming in the life of the elect needed to be preceded  by Jesus who “by the grace of God should taste death for every man”, and now we are tasting death as He did (1Jn 4:17). We are “fill[ing] up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” as we die daily together as the many-membered one body of Christ (Col 1:24). We are raised in earnest together today (Eph 2:6) and will be raised to the fullness of that glory as Christ was in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye (1Th 4:16-17).

It is because God is mindful of His elect today, the apple of His eye toward whom He is being rich in mercy today, for his great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, that we can be quickened together with Christ (Rom 5:5; by grace ye are saved – Eph 2:5, 8) as He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:4-6).

These divers “gifts…administrations” and “operations” from God spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12:4-10 are miraculous, and they detail for us how the manifold wisdom of God is made manifest and known through the church (Eph 3:10). These divers “gifts…administrations” and “operations” from God are given so we can learn to “give the more earnest heed” in this life as we ought!

1Co 12:4  Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
1Co 12:5  And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. [2Co 3:17, Jas 1:17]
1Co 12:6  And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
1Co 12:7  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
1Co 12:8  For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:9  To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:10  To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
1Co 12:11  But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will [Eph 1:11].

1Co 12:12  For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ [the Christ].
1Co 12:13  For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 12:14  For the body is not one member, but many.
1Co 12:15  If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:16  And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:17  If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
1Co 12:18  But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
1Co 12:19  And if they were all one member, where were the body?
1Co 12:20  But now are they many members, yet but one body.
1Co 12:21  And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
1Co 12:22  Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
1Co 12:23  And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
1Co 12:24  For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:
1Co 12:25  That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
1Co 12:26  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
1Co 12:27  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

1Pe 4:10  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God [Eph 3:10].
1Pe 4:11  If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen [“give honour to him“].
1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

The context of rejoicing spoken of in 1 Peter 4:13 is this: “inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings” because it takes that communion of the body and blood of Christ (1Co 10:16), that trying of our faith, that suffering, along with all the gifts given being of the selfsame spirit to make us a unified and healthy body of Christ “from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph 4:16).

1Co 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

We can overcome when God gives us the power to do so (Zec 4:6, 1Co 3:6), as we’re strengthened to continue to endure the suffering, the persecutions and the false accusations (Mat 5:11-13) we are experiencing with the people of God through a process more valuable than all the riches of this world (Heb 11:26-27, Php 3:8-9). With minds that are armed with the suffering of Christ (1Pe 4:1-2), and knowing there is nothing that can separate us from His love, and that there is nothing to be compared to what God has set before those who love him in this age (Rom 8:35-39, 1Co 2:9), we have every reason to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, trusting that God will finish what He has started in us through Christ as we look to the joy that has been set before us (Heb 12:1-2) so that we don’t grow weary in well doing. In due season, as God’s kind of first fruits who have their season, we will reap if we faint not (Php 1:6, Gal 6:9).Where no vision is, people perish, and so it is by looking to Christ in all things we will gain that vision so we don’t grow weary in well doing, and don’t forsake the assembling of ourselves together where God provides that vision through the body of Christ (Pro 29:18).

Mat 5:11  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Mat 5:12  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Mat 5:13  Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, [Mat 19:27  Christ’s answer to Peter (Mat 19:28-30) is predicated on being “found in him, not having mine own righteousness” of Phillipians 3:9].
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward [Mat 19:28-30].
Heb 11:27  By faith [1Jn 5:4] he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; [Col 1:24]
1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men [“which is of the law” (Php 3:9], but to the will of God [“which is through the faith of Christ” (Php 3:9)].

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [No, these things actually approve us in the Lord and make it possible for His power to rest upon us. (2Co 12:9, Jas 4:6)]
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. [These are the very things God uses to bring about the dying daily, killed all the day long process “tribulation,  distress, persecution, famine,  nakedness,  peril, and sword”]
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Gal 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Gal 6:10  As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Last week we looked at how, “We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” This week we will focus on how that will be made possible through Jesus Christ and His body which is a living sacrifice for the very purpose of taking care of one another as we bear each other’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Heb 2:4  God also bearing them witness^G4901, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? 

This word “bearing them witness G4901″ is accompanied with “both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will” that is being accomplished through the church, through the witness of Christ in his body which is the church.

Luk 24:48  And ye are witnesses of these things.

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The manifold knowledge which produces faith for the hearer (Eph 3:10, Rom 10:17) is then tried in the fire as God gives this increase that matures His children (1Pe 1:7), the bride of Christ, through a process that the many joints are experiencing together and contributing together (1Pe 4:12-13, 1Co 12:26, Eph 4:16), as we grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ (Eph 2:8-9, 2Pe 3:18). As we grow we are bearing one another’s burdens through this communion of the body and blood of Christ with the saints of God (1Co 10:16).

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you [happened unto you alone]:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

1Co 12:26  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

G4901 sunepimartureō soon-ep-ee-mar-too-reh’-o
From G4862 and G1957; to testify further jointly, that is, unite in adding evidence: – also bear witness.

G4862 sun soon
A primary preposition denoting union; with or together (but much closer than G3326 or G3844), that is, by association, companionship, process, resemblance, possession, instrumentality, addition, etc.: – beside, with. In compounds it has similar applications, including completeness.

G1957 epimartureō ep-ee-mar-too-reh’-o
From G1909 and G3140; to attest further, that is, corroborate: – testify.

Heb 2:5  For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 
Heb 2:6  But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 

The world to come is not put in subjection to the angels that minister (Heb 1:14) to those who are subject to one another as unto Christ (Eph 5:21). That blessing is first reserved for Christ and His Christ (1Co 15:23, 1Co 15:27-28). Christ was that first angel who was subject unto His Father in all things, and now we are learning through our high priest to be subject unto Christ and his body in all things, and that is being accomplished through the grace and faith that is ministered with the aforementioned, “signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost.”

Heb 1:14  Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

Eph 5:21  Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

We are as Christ (1Jn 4:17) and blessed and honoured and highly favored to receive these gifts today, the “signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost” that create the unity in the body of Christ and demonstrate who that manchild of God is (Mat 2:11). When God is mindful of man, He is mindful through the mind of Christ from whence comes every good and perfect gift from above “and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17). The gifts given to the child of Matthew 2:11 were under the care of Mary and Joseph and represent the spiritual life this child of God is going to one day be able to give to the body of Christ, the “signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost.” It is those three gifts of “gold, and frankincense, and myrrh” that represent the process of judgment upon our old man and remind us why Mary, who represents the church, was so highly favored to have borne this savior for our sakes and to have been pierced in her heart, as we all are being, so that “the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” through the church of which Mary is a type that must be judged in this age (Luk 2:35, 1Pe 4:17).

When we are visited of God (“that thou visitest him“), we are being judged of Him (Luk 19:42) and healed by His word that is likened unto living waters (Joh 7:37). Visited of God in this age means being first to be dragged to Christ by the Father (Joh 6:44) and given this thirst for the living waters that spiritually quench us in this age (Joh 6:55), to the end that we can be sent forth as Christ was to bring those same living waters to a world that has no stay of bread or water in it (Joh 20:21, Isa 3:1).

Heb 2:7  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 
Heb 2:8  Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
Heb 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

This section of Hebrews explains to us how God made His strength perfect through Christ in a weak body of carnal flesh that was subject to all the same pulls of the flesh that you and I are (Heb 4:15-16).

Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Heb 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Before Christ was crowned “with glory and honour“, before He “didst set him over the works of thy hands” in the fullness of that event, which is an unfolding event, Christ, by God’s decree, was made “a little lower than the angels” for our sakes so He could identify with our lowly position in this same corruptible ‘dying you shall die’ flesh (Gen 2:17 LITV).

Ultimately God tells us in these verses of Hebrews 2:7-9 that there is a process through which Christ and His body have to experience in order to see all things brought into subjection onto him, and unto us (1Jn 4:17). Christ is establishing that reality through the church, through the “gifts” “administrations” and “operations” spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12:4-27 so that “the works of thy hands” God the Father has given Christ to rule over as His workmanship can one day be brought into subjection to God who will be “all in all”:  “But now we see not yet all things put under him” (1Co 15:28).

Again in verse nine it is repeated — “we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” — to demonstrate this important point that witnesses to us all who Christ is for us today, and how Christ is doing this work within us both to will and to do of our Father’s good pleasure (Php 2:13), just as it was God’s good pleasure to do the works he did in Christ’s life when he was on the earth (Luk 12:32, Joh 5:30, Joh 15:5). The witness is simply this: that with Christ in us as our hope of glory, we can die daily and taste death for every man as Christ himself did (1Co 15:31).

We are God’s workmanship (Eph 2:10), and it is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom of God (Luk 12:32) both in the age to come as well as now in earnest, where we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2Co 4:7) even as we are saved by that hope of glory within us (Col 1:27, Rom 8:24) which bears witness within us (Rom 8:16) that God can and will finish what He has started in each and every one of us who was predestined to be His workmanship in this age (Php 1:6), all to the glory of our Great God as He accomplishes these things and gives the increase via the “gifts” “administrations” and “operations” of 1 Corinthians 12:4-27 through the church (Eph 3:10).

If we are granted to “taste death for every man” as Christ did by dying daily in this age, it will be by the gift of faith God gives us so we can believe. Through the strength of Christ, who is the author and finisher of that faith, we can endure until the end all the suffering that is also on behalf of this blessed and holy relationship we have with our Father, Jesus Christ and His body.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Next week we will look at these next few verses of this rich section of Hebrews which looks more closely at the captain of our salvation who was made perfect through suffering and how He overcame the devil who had the power of death and is doing the same thing for us today as the body of Christ.

Heb 2:10  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Heb 2:11  For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Heb 2:12  Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
Heb 2:13  And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.
Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 
Heb 2:15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Marriage, Part 4 - Wives, Submit Yourselves To Your Own Husbands, As Unto The Lord - Part C - Discussion

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Marriage Study - Part 4

Wives, Submit Yourselves To Your Own Husbands, As Unto The Lord - Part C

[In today's study, I will be emphasizing that we are all wives, in the sense that the church is the bride of Christ.]

We concluded our last study debunking the false doctrine that "the neck turns the head", which has deluded many wives. That doctrine is the exact same spirit which tells us husbands that we can ignore our wives and by virtue of being their head, we can ignore the Word of God and expect our wives to "submit to us in all things", as if the words "all things" were sufficient to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. That argument does not work for an ignorant or rebellious wife, neither does it work for an ignorant or rebellious, overbearing and disobedient husband.

The doctrine of "the neck turns the head" is nothing less than the man of sin sitting in the temple of God proclaiming himself as God. That perverse false doctrine tells us that our words of commitment to our Head can be reversed so our flesh can be gratified. Our failure to keep our words of commitment to Christ is a failure to keep our commitment to our spouse - male or female. The scriptures call such mental gymnastics "treachery". Let's make ourselves the recipient of this admonition and not our spouse, but ourselves. If we are given the humility to do that, then these verses will help us to see ourselves as the Lord sees each of us:

Mal 2:10  Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his [spouse], by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Mal 2:11  Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
Mal 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.

We cannot tell our spouse one thing, then do the exact opposite and just expect our spouse to cave in to our lies simply because he or she is our spouse. Our words have to mean something to our spouse. How we treat our spouse is a direct reflection of how we are treating Christ. When our words mean nothing, we are being "treacherous [with] the wife of our youth", and "the Lord will cut off the man that does this", and He will cut off the woman who does this. God leads us all to do this, but He also tells us all "return you children of men" (Psa 90:3).

Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

We all cry out to our heavenly Father when the burden of our chastening seems to be unbearable. Why would we not expect our spouse to do the same? Do not expect your wife or your husband to tow the mark simply because you are married to the wife of [your] youth. When we tell our mate one thing and then do the exact opposite, and then the Lord brings us into trials and we cry out to Him, He simply cannot receive that prayer with good will from us, and our "prayers are hindered".

1Pe 3:7  Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Notice the words "according to knowledge", because we know that our wives are to be the most important thing in our lives next to Christ. A Godly wife knows that her husband is to be the most important person on earth in her life. When I am asked whether people with children by a former marriage should get married, I have always said that ideally the answer is a resounding, NO! Not unless you are willing to place your new wife or your new husband above your children. If you do marry, then your new wife or your new husband is now your number one concern. That must be made clear to your children or your marriage is doomed before it begins. Children are to be secondary to your spouse or your home is simply not in a proper Godly order:

Exo 20:12  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

That Godly order does not change when you marry a spouse with children from another marriage, and the children of such a union should be made aware that the new parent in their life is of the same mind as their original parent, and that they must now honor their new parent and be subject to both of the parents, including the new parent. If that order is not made clear and maintained above all else, there will be no Godly-ordained order in that home. There will be no single mind between that husband and wife. If you are placing your children above your spouse, then ask God for the strength to repent of that ungodly action and apologize to your spouse and explain to your children that you love them dearly, but that they will have to honor and submit to their new parent, and tell your children up front that you will not permit them to come between you and your new spouse. If you cannot do that then do not get married. If you are already married and you find yourself struggling with this situation, then ask God to give you the ability to "dwell with [your spouse] according to knowledge, giving honor unto the [spouse]... as unto the Lord [of whom we are told] the head of Christ is God."

1Co 11:2  Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Marriage makes a couple "one flesh". That is not the same with children of whom we are told:

Gen 2:22  And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Gen 2:23  And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Gen 2:24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

If you have children from a previous marriage, then you can very well add children to that list in the sense that your children must come in a distant second to your new wife. If you cannot do that, then do not marry this poor spouse just to satisfy your own 'belly'. Do not ruin the life of your new spouse and your children if you are not willing to maintain the Lord's own Godly order in your home and in your household.

We continue taking in the Lord's mind as He continues to confirm that marriage is meant to "make one... that He might seek a Godly seed".

Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

The words "putting away" are a proper translation and are not the words for 'divorce', as so many translations read. "Putting away" is something we do treacherously by ignoring our mate while still being married to that person. When we permit our children to come between us and our spouse, we are dealing treacherously with our spouse. Who is more important to us than Jesus Christ? How we value our spouse is a direct reflection of how we "dwell with [Christ] according to knowledge" (1Pe 3:7). "The Lord, the God of Israel... hates putting away... therefore take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously [with your spouse]."

Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

How do we "weary [our Lord]"? We weary our spiritual husband when we tell our spouse one thing and then do the exact opposite. We weary our Lord and our prayers are hindered when we use the affirmation of our marriage commitment as an excuse to deal treacherously with our spouse. Why should our spouse believe a word we say when we demonstrate that our word is worthless? We say we know God is sovereign and that He is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and yet we demand that our spouse submit to our own timetable for their repentance and submission. Such a demand is a manifest demonstration that we do not really believe that God is sovereign at all, and we refuse to submit to our own spiritual leader who, we say we believe, is really the one who is working all things after the counsel of His own will.

What are couples to do when both are at fault and neither is capable of the humility required to repent of demanding immediate repentance from our spouse? Overcoming our pride and apologizing for dealing treacherously with our spiritual husband is what we all must do with our physical spouse if we really want to do so to our spiritual husband who is using our spouse to show us our own lack of humility and our own lack of patience with Him.

No part of the body of Christ "turns the head". Here is the only One who does all the 'turning' which is done:

Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

When we think we can turn our spouse in any direction, we are believing a demonic doctrine which is subscribed to by far too many wives in this modern Godless era. The flesh of all wives works to get its own way without even knowing it is doing so. The tendency to take the reins of leadership is as natural as breathing for every wife, both natural and spiritual wives. It is the curse of being a wife while yet in a vessel of clay:

Gen 3:16  To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you." (NET)

Regardless of what might be the best English translation, here is a Biblical demonstration of how the curse of Genesis 3:16 operates within a wife:

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

Anyone who believes these are seven altruistic women who just want to help out their poor struggling husband have missed the point completely. These "seven women" typify "the seven churches of Asia" of Revelation 2-3. These women typify us when we want to "eat [our] own bread, and wear [our] own apparel". Because we have left our first love, we dwell where Satan's seat is and want to lord it over the Lord's people, including our spiritual Husband. When we succumb to the desire to lord it over the Lord's flock we are thinking very little of lording ourselves over our spouse. When we become comfortable with the attitude of being the head while acting like our father the devil, we, as men and women, have become nothing more than a harlot who thinks she is rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, when in reality she is spiritually poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked.

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Solomon prophesied of this harlot wife of Christ many years earlier:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

An adulterous wife is the same as a treacherous husband, and our spiritual husband will have no part of either:

Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

The NET version is not a literal translation, but it is the only version I could find which catches even a hint of what is being said to Eve and to us all in Gen 3:16. A husband who deals treacherously with his wife is rising up against his spiritual husband, Christ, and Christ tells us how He feels when His wife refuses to be obedient to Him. In doing so He is telling us how the stubborn and rebellious ways of a wife make both Him and our own physical and spiritual husband feel. These are the words of the Lord to you wives who are struggling to overcome your inability to acknowledge that it is the Lord who is giving you your problems with your husband. It is not your husband himself, it is actually the Lord who is working with you and your own rebellion against your spiritual husband (Eph 1:11). But remember, husbands, these words also apply to us as part of the wife of Christ:

Pro 21:19  It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.

Pro 26:21  As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious [wo]man to kindle strife.

Pro 27:15  A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.

Pro 21:9  It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.

This verse is repeated word for word just four chapters later:

Pro 25:24  It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.

I would be negligent to fail to acknowledge that the Lord knows that He is asking more of you wives than you of yourselves are capable of giving. The same is true of us husbands as part of the church, the bride of Christ. So Genesis 45:4-8 and Romans 7:17-23 are just as applicable to you wives as they are to all of us husbands:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Paul tells us the same thing from a more personal perspective:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

But there is good news for both husbands and wives because:

Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Marriage is designed to teach both spiritual and physical wives the meaning of these verses of scripture:

Psa 15:1  A Psalm of David. LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
Psa 15:2  [S]he that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in h[er] heart.
Psa 15:3  [S]he that backbiteth not with h[er] tongue, nor doeth evil to h[er husband], nor taketh up a reproach against h[er husband].
Psa 15:4  In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but [s]he honoureth them that fear the LORD. [S]he that sweareth to h[er] own hurt, and changeth not.

Did verse 4 say "[S]he swares to [h]er own hurt...'? Yes, it does, and of course we know that Christ did tell us "swear not at all" (Mat 5:34).

But He also said:

Mat 5:37  But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

If in your wedding ceremony, you said nothing more than 'I will love you and you alone, till death do us part', then "except for fornication" (Mat 19:9), you are bound by your own words to live by those words "and change not". Yet a frustrated wife's flesh just naturally tells her, "If ever there was a vile person who should be condemned in my eyes, that would be my carnal husband." Indeed there are situations where men are so physically adulterous and physically abusive that physical divorce is in order.

Isa 50:1  Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

Christ Himself divorced Israel, and He gives us this admonition:

Mat 19:9  And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

But notice that this is the 'exception'. The whole point Christ is making is that God wants us to avoid separating. The Lord wants you wives to do all in your power to improve and nourish your marriage just as much as He expects a Godly husband to do so. You wives 'leave [your] first love' also, and you, too, must strive to return to your 'first love'. Do not say, "I will apologize when he apologizes." When it comes to humbling ourselves and repenting of our stubbornness and rebellion and being obedient to our heavenly Father, we are all permitted to be leaders in the implementation of the virtue of humility:

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5  Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

The words "do the first works" have both a physical and a spiritual application as they relate to our discussion of the function of a wife in the marriage relationship. Every married couple needs to think back to the time they were smitten with each other, back to the time when they were experiencing this "first love". "First love" is not referring to your first boyfriend. It is referring primarily to the love you had for Christ when you first covenanted with Him to be your Head, and for you to be His servant, His wife. Submitting to [your] husbands in "every thing" is a physical type of this spiritual reality. This is not me speaking. Those are the very words of the holy spirit. Remember that after giving the Ephesian church all the instructions concerning the marriage relationship and what is the proper place within that relationship of the husband and the wife, the holy spirit tells us how that order operates. I will adapt these verses to fit our focus in this discussion:

Eph 5:28  So ought [wo]men to love their [husband]s as their own bodies. [S]he that loveth h[er husband] loveth h[er]self.
Eph 5:29  For no [wo]man ever yet hated h[er] own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a [wo]man leave h[er] father and mother, and shall be joined unto h[er husband], and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

The entire marriage relationship "speak[s] concerning Christ and the church". If you as a wife will not "be [subject] to your husband in all things", then do not mention the name of Christ and claim that you are His, because you are simply saying "Lord, Lord", but you are not doing the things He says. Your ultimate 'husband' asks you this question:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

A rebellious or unfaithful wife is the same as a treacherous husband. Remember what we read in Malachi 2:

Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Do not "weary the Lord with your words" of disdain and derision against "the [husband] of your youth]". The Lord makes it clear that "He hates putting away". He is seeking a Godly seed which "He made one", and when that 'one seed' is not "one [in] mind and... one spirit and... the same judgment", your prayers will be hindered and will not be heard by the spiritual 'husband' you claim to be willing to obey.

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

There is no place where those words are more applicable than in marriage. For the sake of our focus today let's address these words to you wives:

1Pe 3:7  Likewise, ye [wive]s, dwell with [your husbands] according to knowledge, giving honour unto [your husband], as unto the [strong]er vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Having already left your first love you will just naturally say, "But if I let him lead me, he will lead us off a cliff, and we will end up in financial ruin and in bankruptcy." Every wife just naturally knows much better than her husband how the family and business ought to be run. That is the very meaning of "you will want to control your husband". This accusation against your own husband amounts to nothing less than you telling the Lord that He made a big mistake in placing your husband at the head of the family, and that if you submit to him you will manifestly come to financial ruin.

How similar are those thoughts to these words of Christ's wife to Him on the banks of the Red Sea after He had so powerfully brought them out of Egyptian captivity:

Exo 14:10  And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
Exo 14:11  And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12  Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

Num 21:5  And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.

How quickly we lose our first love! "Against God and against Moses" reveals to us that when you wives speak against your husbands you are speaking against God, who made him your head. This is a story of all of us, but our focus today is on wives, and Israel typifies Christ's wife. This story in Exodus 14 occurred in a matter of just a few days after God had given Moses to perform all those miraculous plagues upon Egypt. It is very shortly after witnessing the death of all the firstborn of Egypt, and yet here is Christ's wife, typifying all wives, accusing him of "taking them away to die in the wilderness". That is exactly what wives tell both the Lord and your husband, who only yesterday was the sweetest, most considerate, most loving and most handsome man in the world.

One moment you are blinded by 'love', and the next minute finances are far more important than submitting to your husband in all things, as unto the Lord.

Let's be clear and acknowledge that "all things" does not mean that wives must follow their husbands into a life of immorality, crime or into heresies and denying or ignoring the Word of God, but that is very seldom the issue when a couple is attempting to restore their marriage. Our marriages are most often destroyed for lack of Godly knowledge:

Hos 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

When a husband expects a wife to put him before Christ, then she is required to follow Christ's instructions to us all in Matthew 18.

Mat 18:15  Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

These words are the original instructions to seek counseling when needed. They are designed to "win your brother", but they are adapted to winning and saving our marriages.

In no time at all the honeymoon is over. You have "left your first love", and this guy you thought was such a Godly man, a man worthy of your unquestionable dedication just yesterday, is suddenly the most inept, most illogical, most self-centered beast you have every known. All he wants to do is to dominate you and he expects you to be submissive and obedient to him even as he ignores you and your needs. It simply is not right or fair. Now you find yourself wondering why you ever said you would love, honor and obey such a self-centered, narcissistic beast for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, until death do you part.

Look at how much things have turned around in such a short period of time. Just yesterday you loved and admired this same man. Now financial success and security are more important than your affirming words, "Yes, I do". Apparently what you really meant when you said, "Yes, I do", was "as long as I agree with him about how we spend our money." But if you cannot see how it is remotely possible to escape the Egyptians and the Red Sea, then how can your husband or God possibly expect you to blindly follow and submit yourself to this self-centered, narcissistic beast? You are now of the opinion that you are obviously better at business and finances than your husband and if you actually submit to and follow him, you just know that you will both be destroyed by financial disaster, as surely as Israel appears to be trapped between the Egyptians and the Red Sea.

I hope to help you wives to become better and more willing to follow your 'Moses' and let him return to being your head and your leader in spite of how things appear at this moment.  I hope to do this by simply demonstrating for you and reminding you that the Lord has deliberately set you up for failure in your own carnal efforts. You must acknowledge that just as He made your husband wicked for his day of evil, He has also made you wicked for your day of evil, and that it is not in you to direct your own steps. All of this is equally true for your husband, so that in the end the Lord will get the glory for all that is done. He alone can make good come out of evil, light to come out of darkness, and life to come out of death.

So permit me to remind every woman in this fellowship if you claim that you believe the Word of God, you must acknowledge that these verses which I quoted to the men last week, are written to you also:

Psa 90:3  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. 

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Pro 20:24  Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

The Lord made me a wicked man for my own "day of evil", and the Lord makes you wives wicked for your day of evil, because this is the simple truth which we all know to be the truth:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

We all acknowledge all of these verses to be true, but every time you wives refuse to submit to your husband or you lose your patience with your husband, you are showing your family and your friends how hypocritical you really are. You expect the respect, honor, love and consideration from your husband, but you are not showing the same respect, honor, love or consideration toward your own husband. When you lose faith in your husband's headship, you just lost faith in your Lord, who we all know is really the one who 'made [your husband] to err from His ways'. You know your husband is marred in His hand, you know that it is the Lord who has turned your husband to destruction, you know that it is the Lord who has given your husband the answer of his tongue, you know full well that it is the Lord who made your husband wicked for his own day of evil against you. You know that it was the Lord who made your husband incapable of understanding his own ways or directing his own steps, and yet you act as if none of this were true. I pray that every wife who hears or reads the words of this discussion of a woman's function in the marriage relationship will just stop and think how your hypocrisy is blaspheming the name of Christ before your own family and before your friends who are watching every move you make and are wondering why you get so upset with their father while you profess and tell your children and your friends that it is really the Lord Himself who is sending you the trials which He is giving you for your good via your husband.

I want to end this study by showing you just how deliberate the Lord is in sending us our trials, and again, I am doing this in hopes of reminding you wives, and we men, as the wife of Christ, that any trial your husband gives you is not actually your husband's work at all, rather it really is the Lord "work[ing] all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11), for your good (Rom 8:28).

We referred to this story above. Here is how the Lord deliberately set Israel up to question His own headship and His leadership:

Exo 13:20  And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.
Exo 13:21  And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
Exo 13:22  He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

Israel was not really following Moses at all. As we are told right here, Moses and Israel were following "the Lord [who] went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night."

Now notice how the Lord deliberately leads His wife into an obviously impossible situation:

Exo 14:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 14:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.
Exo 14:3  For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
Exo 14:4  And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.

The Lord set up His own wife to think she would be slaughtered by the Egyptians or else drown in the Red Sea. 'Egypt' is your own flesh. It is designed to destroy you, and that is how the Lord is still using 'Egypt' within us when He makes your husband to do things which try your faith and show you how little faith you have in the Lord Himself or in your physical husband to whom you once affirmed that you would love and honor and obey him until death do you part.

So take heart when your husband appears to be leading you into a boxed canyon of lies, treachery and financial disaster. Submit to your husband "as much as lies within you", and the Lord will honor your submission and your faith in Himself as your spiritual husband  as well as your physical husband.

Lord willing, with the help of your husband, you will begin to win back the love you just yesterday had for each other. The Lord has good thoughts of you and your husband "when you search for [Him] with all you heart" in His time:

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jer 29:14  And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

As the Lord's Christ, we are given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God. We cannot hope, on our own, to ever understand how our sins and the destruction of our sinful old man becomes the fertilizer which produces grapes so large that it takes two men to carry them. That is as impossible for the natural man to understand as light coming out of darkness, good coming out of evil, or life coming out of death. The success of our marriages and our salvation are both miracles of our Lord so "that no flesh can glory in His presence":

1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.
1Co 1:30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
1Co 1:31  That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

In Summary

Let's review what we have seen in our Manufacturer's handbook concerning what we must know and do if we are to nurture and restore our marriages:

1) Our own personal pride, for both husbands and wives, is our greatest obstacle to restoring and strengthening our marriage.

Psa 10:4  The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

2) Our marriages are being destroyed "for lack of knowledge".

Hos 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

3) Husbands tend to be treacherous, while wives tend to be 'against their husbands'. We husbands are treacherous because we give our wives our word that they are "even as Christ" Himself to us, but when circumstances including rebelliousness, slothfulness, and our children, including children from a previous marriage who bring pressure upon our present marriage, all of a sudden, we are far too proud to thank the Lord for the trials He is giving us or, in the case of placing our children above our wife, including children from a previous mate, we are shown that we fear our children, and what they might think of us, more than we fear God and more than we honor our own affirmation to our wife that we will love her "as Christ loves the church". Because of this pressure, and because we do not know the proper priority our wives are to have in our families, "the wife of our covenant" is not at all loved by us husbands "as Christ loved the church". God has used "the wife of our covenant" to demonstrate to us that we have little faith in His leadership, we have perverted priorities, and the wife of our covenant has been proven to be less important to us then are our own personal pride, and less important to us than our children. Our pride is our worst enemy in this whole world, and our children are to be a distant second in a Godly priority "to the wife of our covenant".

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

We are not told that we are "made one" with our children. We are told that we are "made one" with our wives.

Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

4) We husbands cannot change our wives whom the Lord is using to change us. We husbands know that it is God who is making our wives do what they do, and we know that it is He who is trying us with the antics He gives our wives for that very purpose. The same is true for you wives.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us [including wives and husbands] to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

5) We husbands know that the trials our wives give us are really given to us by God to show us that we, like Job, see ourselves as more righteous than our wives, and to demonstrate that we blame our wives for their problems when we know that they are nothing more than a tool of our Lord. When we do that, we are not reproving our wives. We are really "reproving... contending with... and condemning" God Himself (Job 40:1-8).

6) We husbands now know that when our actions demonstrate that we think we can make our wives submit to us, we are not 'dwelling with them according to knowledge', and we are blaspheming the name of God among the heathen by proclaiming God as sovereign and at the same time condemning Him for giving us a trial such as our wives are to us. Wives, the same is true for the trials God gives you through your husbands, who are also nothing more than a tool in the Lord's hand.

Rom 2:24  For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
Rom 2:25  For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law [of Christ]: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.

Tit 2:3  The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
Tit 2:4  That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tit 2:5  To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

7) We husbands of ourselves cannot change ourselves any more than we can change our spouse. The same is true for you wives. But there is a solution, and we must humble ourselves and cry out for help and for mercy to That, the only solution:

Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched [husband] that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Php 4:12  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

8) And finally, the best advice we can be given to end this series of admonitions is that we have learned in these studies that perfection comes to us "by little and little... [and only after] "a long time":

Exo 23:30  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

Deu 7:22  And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

Mat 25:19  After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.

Luk 20:9  Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.

We know that any trial takes time to endure, and every trial is only a 'trial' because it requires us to wait upon the Lord. It is through such patience that we must be perfected:

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Jas 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

[The next and final part of this series on marriage can be found here.

Marriage, Part 3 - Wives, Submit Yourselves To Your Own Husbands, As Unto The Lord - Part B - Discussion

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Marriage, Part 3 - Wives, Submit Yourselves To Your Own Husbands, As Unto The Lord - Part B

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

We are continuing our examination of what makes a wife whom the Lord calls "a good thing [whose] price is far above rubies". What we saw in our last study was that the words of Paul instructing us in what makes for a successful marriage in Ephesians 5 also apply here in Proverbs 31 concerning what makes "a good... wife". What we came to see in our last discussion was that anything in the scriptures which concerns marriage is really speaking concerning "Christ and the church", male and female, husband and wives. After giving us all the instructions to help guide us in our physical marriages, this is what the holy spirit had Paul to reveal to us:

Revelation 2-3 addresses "the seven churches of Asia", but after each individual address we find these words:

Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches...

So what the spirit said to each church was actually being addressed to all the churches, "He that hath an ear..."

In the same manner, after giving us all the instructions to help guide us in our physical marriages, this is what the holy spirit had the apostle Paul to reveal to us:

Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Therefore every instruction Paul gave to wives in Ephesians 5 was actually being addressed to both husbands and wives, and every word spoken to the husbands was actually being given to the wives in "the church". "But I speak concerning Christ and the church."

Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

If everything Paul says about marriage "concerns Christ and the church" in Ephesians 5, then that same principle applies to everything said concerning the man who finds a good wife here in Proverbs 31, where we read:

Pro 31:10  Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
Pro 31:11  The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
Pro 31:12  She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

This is a great mystery, but we are really speaking concerning Christ and the church while we are examining the qualities which make all of us, male and female, a good wife unto our Head, Christ, because if Christ really is the head of His church, then He is the husband of the entire church, male and female. And that is exactly what we are told is the case:

Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

So we are one and all, male and female, being "present[ed]... as a chaste virgin to Christ" by the spirit of His Word, and as such we will continue to see what makes for a good wife, whose price is far above rubies and in whom the heart of our Lord can safely trust to do Him good and not evil all the days of our lives.

Last week's study brought us to:

Pro 31:21  She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
Pro 31:22  She makes for herself carpets of tapestry. Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Pro 31:23  Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

"Her household... are clothed with scarlet", because the Lord's wife is not a gossip. She covers the sins of others "with scarlet", because 'scarlet', or 'red' in its positive application, means the covering for our sins: http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/why-three-different-hebrew-words-for-the-color-red/

Exo 36:19  And he made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above that.

Pro 11:13  A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

Pro 17:9  He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

There are three different words for the color red in this verse, but following "the dream is one" principle (Gen 41:25-26), they all mean the same thing.

Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Our sins are typified by the color red, and yet they are also covered and made white by the red blood of "the Lamb". That is one of the functions of a "good... wife":

Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

"Her clothing is fine linen" tells those with eyes that see, who it is who really is this Proverbs 31 wife:

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

And what is the context of Revelation 19:8?

Rev 19:6  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

The context is the "blessed... [who] are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb", unto His wife in whom His heart can safely trust to do Him good and not evil, all the days of her life.

The point being that we must learn to stop complaining about how our husband, Christ, is going about doing the work His Father has given Him, and to get behind him and speak well of Him, and not speak evil of Him at all times, even when it appears that he is leading us into physical, financial ruin. While all the daughters of Babylon are rebelling against "the voice of The Shepherd", His true wife is making linen garments to cover the nakedness of her husband and her children, and others also, knowing that even when we provide for our families, it is really Christ who is doing so:

Pro 31:24  She makes linen garments and sells them, and delivers girdles to the merchant.

"Her husband" is Christ, and this "virtuous woman is "His Christ", His wife, His church. Therefore her provisions are really Christ providing for His household:

Mat 6:28  And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6:29  And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

This sounds so physical, and you wives may think that you are being instructed to become physical entrepreneuers, but that is not the point being made here. This is what is really being taught to all of us as the "chaste virgin... bride" of Christ concerning how we are to serve our Lord, our Head, our husbands and our families:

Tit 2:3  The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
Tit 2:4  That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tit 2:5  To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

This same 31st chapter of Proverbs demonstrates very clearly that "keepers at home" does not mean that she never goes out of the house. However, she does provide for her family and her home, and she is not giving her time and efforts to others ahead of her own family.

Gal 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. [Your household comes first.]

Pro 31:16  She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

"Not false accusers" is addressed to wives in particular, but we are all the wife of Christ, and we all falsely accuse our Lord every time we forget the spiritual Truth that 'It is not I that do it but sin that dwells within me', and we forget that 'it was not you that sold me into Egypt, but God'. You as wives and we as husbands falsely accuse our own husband of adultery, fornication, neglect, oppression, or any other of the "works of the flesh", when we blame our husband (Christ) for what we think are the unjust things he is doing to us. You wives deny that your husbands' evil actions are a work of God for your good when you take it upon yourselves to withstand and attempt on your own strength to change your husband. Your attempts at assuming the headship, your attempts at manipulation, and your loud protestations against his leadership are all nothing less than a protest against the way Christ is ruling this world. All of us as the wife of Christ, are denying that it is God who is "work[ing] all things after the counsel of His own will" when we attempt to right the wrongs of this world, and we become guilty of rebelling against His work in our lives.

This is what the Lord tells us concerning the "basest of men", and how He uses us in this age:

Dan 4:17  This matter [The humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar] is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

I said 'us' because Daniel 4:17 is just the Old Testament way of saying what Romans 7 also teaches, which is that it is indeed 'us' who are being typified by Nebuchadnezzar as the rebellious old man within every man and woman who has ever lived. But that rebellion is really "not I", and when we act as if our sins are really our sins, then we are still that rebellious old man ourselves. Read it and believe it as it applies to your own husband, and as it applies to you:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

No one is advocating that this sad condition should be encouraged. I am certainly not telling any wife to encourage her husband to continue in sin. Absolutely not, but we are all told:

Rom 12:18  If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

If you truly believe that your husband is a weaker brother than you are, then act according to how we are instructed to treat a brother who is "weak in the faith". Bear with that weakness all the while refusing to become weak yourself.

Rom 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Rom 15:2  Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
Rom 15:3  For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
Rom 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Rom 15:5  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:

The subtlety and gentleness with which you deal with your husband and the godly example you set for him will win your husband much quicker than any attempt to manipulate, argue with or attempt to usurp the headship that God ordained to be your husband's headship. If your husband wants junk food and junk drinks, and he insists on eating an unhealthy diet, do not attempt to force him to live with a healthy diet. Shop for yourself and your children and shop for your husband, and give him what he insists upon eating. It is not your place to take it upon yourself to change your husband. If he is on meds, give him his meds. If he refuses to take his medicine, let him learn his own way because Christ is teaching you to wait on Him. We know that the Lord works even the evil in this world through "the law of sin which is in our members", and you wives know that the evil in your husband is also being worked in him by "the law of sin which is in [His] members.

Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

We know that God works all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), and now we are informed that we are all compelled to sin by "the law of sin... in [our] members". And who sustains that "law of sin"?

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest [your husband]?

Have we not all cried out to our heavenly Father the same prayer Paul cried out to God?

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

It is this knowledge that God is working all things, the good and the evil, and it is the strength to apply this knowledge which is the righteousness of Christ in you wives which clothes the wife who does her husband good all the days of her life. It is the sharing of this knowledge with the younger women and the example set by the older women which is the wisdom of her mouth and the kindness that is on her tongue.

Pro 31:23  Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

Christ is known in this world only by what the world sees of His wife, which 'wife' each of us is (Mat 5:14-16, and 2Co 11:2) of whom Christ, "the light of the world" in John tells us:

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

But then He turns right around and tells us:

Mat 5:14  Ye [Christ in us] are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

A wife who dishonors her husband is not the "light of the world". Instead she dishonors Christ and blasphemes His Word (Tit 2:5).

Pro 31:25  Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.
Pro 31:26  She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the law of kindness is on her tongue.
Pro 31:27  She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.

This woman, who fears God, wants to serve her husband and please him, and she wants to be a Godly, God-fearing example to her children. The wife of Christ has been given to want to serve her physical and her spiritual husband enough to go to bed early enough to get her needed rest and to be able to get out of bed and prepare breakfast for her husband.

A Godly wife looks well to the ways of her household by being an example to her children and to all who know her. She considers it a blessing to be given that opportunity to feed her family. She tells her husband how much she appreciates his tireless efforts to keep her and their children fed and clothed and sheltered. She makes sure she is home to meet her husband with a loving kiss of gratitude when he gets home from a hard day's work. She does all of this without regard for how her husband treats her because 'the wisdom of her mouth' teaches her that she is to return good for evil and that her husband can trust her to strive to obey the Lord, whether she can or cannot trust him to do the same. She does all of this out of both the love she has for her husband and because she fears God who tells her to submit herself to her husband as unto the Lord. How you, as a wife, serve your husband is a direct reflection of how you are serving your Lord. If you blame your husband for his faults, you are blaming Christ Himself, because you know that Christ is working all things after the counsel of His own will.

Look again at verses 26 and 27, and consider how closely associated are those two verses.

Pro 31:26  She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the law of kindness is on her tongue.
Pro 31:27  She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.

When a Godly wife "opens her mouth with wisdom" she is looking well to the ways of her household by never ever bringing up the past sins or faults of her husband, regardless of how her husband treats her. A Godly wife "opens her mouth with wisdom" which instructs her to return good for evil, and to "cover a multitude of sins", which instructions must especially be applied to her own husband, her "first love". In doing so she is acting in accordance with her knowledge that her husband's faults and sins are not his sins, but they are the Lord's work in her own life. It is only by applying all this knowledge that you as a wife will "look well to the ways of [your] household".

Pro 31:28  Her sons rise up, and call her blessed. Her husband [also], and he praises her.

Your children and your husband will call you blessed because you did not revile when you were reviled. You submitted yourself to your head, even under adverse circumstances.  Doing what Christ says to do is to be greatly admired, greatly valued and greatly praised by all.

Pro 31:29  Many daughters have done worthily, but thou excel them all.
Pro 31:30  Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, [but] a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
Pro 31:31  Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

No newly married couple starts out as a mature husband and a mature wife. Only Christ within you can be submissive while you are feeling abused by your husband. It takes "Christ in you" to endure the time of adjustment needed to adjust to putting your husband ahead of all else, and it takes Christ in your husband to begin to put you, his wife above all else in this world. Your husband and your children will praise you as a wife who is submissive to Christ even when being abused for a time, because you really do "fear the Lord" enough that you obey the Lord's commandments even when your husband does not. You are obedient under such trying circumstances because you "fear the Lord", and a wife and mother who fears the Lord "shall be praised". This "good... wife" loves her Lord even more than she loves her husband and her children, and because she is willing to lose her entire family, she will be given her family in the Lord's time:

Act 16:30  And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

1Co 7:16  For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

A Godly husband is not a domineering tyrant who gives no consideration or responsibilities to His wife. A Godly husband will leave the affairs of the home in the care of his God-fearing wife whom he knows He can trust and who will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. But that does not mean that the husband forfeits his proper place as the head of his wife and the head of his family to a domineering wife. That simply will not produce the fruits of the spirit of God.

Being subject to your husband as unto Christ is the goal of every Godly wife. A God-fearing wife wants to be subject to her own husband in everything, as unto the Lord, and as the church is subject unto Christ. This is what any Godly wife aspires to do if she has even just a cursory knowledge of her place within a Godly family. Without this subjection to her husband there is no Godly order, and there can be no peace of Christ because every properly functioning 'body' has a head which instructs that body and leads every member of that body to do that which is for the good and the health of that body, "even as Christ gives Himself for the church."

Now, since I am speaking to the wife in this study, let's read Ephesians 5 from that perspective, substituting the word 'women' for 'men' and the word 'husband' for the word 'wife':

Eph 5:28  So ought [wo]men to love their [husband]s as their own bodies. [S]he that loveth h[er] [husband] loveth h[er]self.

Remember, we are informed that the entire church is the bride of Christ:

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Rev 19:6  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

When we read "blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb", we are speaking of the same blessing pronounced upon those who are granted to be a part of the "blessed and holy... first resurrection":

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

"The marriage supper of the Lamb [is] the blessed and holy... first resurrection." There will not be one wife in the first resurrection who has continued to complain about her husband's faults and shortcomings. If you want to be in that blessed and holy first resurrection, which is the marriage supper of the Lamb and His bride, then stop deriding your husband and start right now "doing him good and not evil as long as [you] live." The only wife who will be part of that bride of Christ in the first resurrection will be that wife who has repented of being resentful of the trials the Lord has given her.

The wife of the first resurrection will, like Job, have overcome that great sin against herself and against her husband and against her friends and her children and her family of 'contending with, reproving and condemning her husband'. Every wife in the first resurrection will have repented of condemning God for giving her a husband whose shortcomings have only served to manifest her own self-righteousness in condemning God while thinking she is condemning her husband. All the wives who are given to be in this wedding supper of Christ and His bride will be those men and women who have learned to really mean it when they pray, "Not my will but thine be done."

Any wife will just naturally ask, "But shouldn't men seek to please their wives? Should not men be considerate of their wives?" Of course they should, but not at the expense of letting "the neck turn the head", as the wife of a world famous mega minister told the 60 Minutes TV news magazine some years ago.

When "the neck turns the head" becomes acceptable household philosophy, this is the fruit of that family, and in time it becomes the fruit of the entire nation:

Isa 3:12  As for my [apostate] people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

We will stop here for now and resume this discussion next week. In that third part of this discussion we will see that it is as natural for a wife to ignore the Words of Christ and to want to lead her husband, her head, as it is for our rebellious, sinful, old man, to ignore the clear instructions Christ gives to him, and to want to usurp the headship of Christ.

These words apply equally to both husbands and wives, because in the spirit both are the wife of Christ, and both just naturally want to be the head of Christ, and both deal treacherously with their Head:

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Mal 2:10  Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Mal 2:11  Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
Mal 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

We must, and in time we will, learn never to reprove, contend with or condemn the Lord who is working every trial in our lives for our good.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

So what are we to do when we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[The next part of this marriage series can be found here.]

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The Virtuous Body of Christ - Part 11 Discussion

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“The virtuous body of Christ” - Part 11

May 15, 2016

with Steven Crook

Properly watching or locking a gate is important to anyone who understands that security is important for the thing or things the wall, fence or hedge are guarding. The gate is the entrance or exit from the thing that is being protected.

In our study today, we are going to examine three verses from Proverbs 31 which show us another angle of who we are to Jesus Christ and who Jesus Christ is to us.

Our Husband is known

Jesus Christ is obviously important to the body of Christ also talked about as the virtuous body of Christ in this series, but Jesus Christ is much more than a man we can imagine in our minds. In fact, Jesus Christ is the way, truth and life to the plan God has for all of humanity.

That all is fairly straight forward and obvious to any Christian, but there are Jews who are in the flesh and Jews who are of the heart, and Jesus Christ to the latter group is much more than a mere man.

Pro 31:23  Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
Pro 31:24  She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Pro 31:25  Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

Jesus Christ is known in the gates. How is He known in the gates when He sits among the elders of the land?

Elders traditionally are those who are highly respected and esteemed in their communities. They would obviously be those who were trusted and approved of among those in that same community, so how would Jesus Christ be known in the gates when He sits among these elders?

First off, what is the gate being referred to, and secondly who are the elders?

There are many different gates we can refer to and many aspects we could expound upon, but I am going to focus on a very important gate, namely the gate to the tabernacle. This gate and the things that apply to it can corporately be applied to the gate of the “new city” as well, but I don’t want to get to far ahead of myself.

Exo 27:16  And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.

Exo 38:18  And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.

Exo 40:33  And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.

We’ve talked a lot of about the blue, purple and scarlet colors and the fine linen within this series, so just take those same principles and apply them to this study.

Hopefully, we will see how the gate and the elders are all connected together with Jesus Christ. Here are some of the verses covering what we should consider the gate as in the New Testament.

Mat 7:12  Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

The gate can either be wide or strait, but what is the “strait” gate. A few studies back in the awesome hands series, I covered what the “strait gate” is.

In fact, the awesome hands part 96 was named, “Straight Gate”. Instead of “reinventing the wheel” (pun intended if you re-read or listen to that study), I will just copy here what I wrote in that study because it fits directly here.

Remember, I am directly speaking on the tabernacle, the gate, and the fine linen objects currently in the awesome hands series, so it is very appropriate to include in this study and amazing timing of the Lord.

Jesus tells us that “strait is the gate and narrow is the way” that WE must us to ENTER into the kingdom of God.

So, it becomes very important that we understand what this “straight” gate is all about.

Mat 7:12  Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait G4728 gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

The “strait” gate is G4728 and also means narrow, but it is a STANDING NARROW GATE. Here is the root of G4728.

G4728

stenos
sten-os'
Probably from the base of G2476; narrow (from obstacles standing close about): - strait.
Total KJV occurrences: 3

G4728
stenos
Total KJV Occurrences: 3
strait, 3
Mat_7:13-14 (2), Luk_13:24

This is only used a handful of times, but is from the base of G2476.

G2476

histēmi
his'-tay-mee
A prolonged form of a primary word στάω staō (of the same meaning, and used for it in certain tenses); to stand (transitively or intransitively), used in various applications (literally or figuratively): - abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present, set (up), stanch, stand (by, forth, still, up). Compare G5087.
Total KJV occurrences: 156

G2576 means to STAND and is used 156 times in scripture with the majority being “stood”, “stand” or “standing”.

G2476
histēmi
Total KJV Occurrences: 161
stood, 60
Mat_2:9, Mat_12:46, Mat_13:2, Mat_20:32, Mat_26:73, Mat_27:11, Mat_27:47, Mar_10:49, Mar_11:5, Luk_5:1, Luk_6:8, Luk_6:17, Luk_7:14, Luk_7:38, Luk_17:12, Luk_18:11, Luk_18:40, Luk_19:8, Luk_23:10, Luk_23:35, Luk_23:49, Luk_24:36, Joh_1:35, Joh_6:22, Joh_7:37, Joh_11:56, Joh_12:29, Joh_18:5, Joh_18:16, Joh_18:18 (2), Joh_19:25 (2), Joh_20:11, Joh_20:19, Joh_20:26, Joh_21:4, Act_3:8, Act_9:7, Act_10:30, Act_12:13-14 (2), Act_16:9, Act_17:22, Act_21:40, Act_22:25, Act_24:20, Act_25:18, Act_27:21, Rev_5:6, Rev_7:9, Rev_7:11, Rev_8:2-3 (2), Rev_11:1, Rev_11:11, Rev_12:4, Rev_14:1 (2), Rev_18:17
stand, 36
Mat_12:25-26 (2), Mat_12:47, Mat_20:6, Mat_24:15, Mar_3:24-26 (3), Mar_9:1, Luk_6:8, Luk_8:20, Luk_11:18, Luk_13:25, Luk_21:36, Act_1:11, Act_5:20, Act_8:38, Act_25:10, Act_26:6, Act_26:16, Rom_5:2, Rom_14:4, 1Co_15:1, 2Co_1:24, Eph_6:11, Eph_6:13-14 (2), Col_4:12, Jam_2:3, 1Pe_5:12, Rev_3:20, Rev_6:17, Rev_10:5, Rev_15:2, Rev_18:15, Rev_20:12
standing, 23
Mat_6:5, Mat_16:28, Mat_20:3, Mat_20:6, Mar_3:31, Mar_13:14, Luk_1:11, Luk_5:2, Luk_9:27, Luk_18:13, Joh_8:9, Act_4:14 (3), Act_5:23, Act_5:25, Act_7:55-56 (2), Act_24:21, Rev_7:1, Rev_11:4, Rev_18:10, Rev_19:17
set, 11
Mat_18:2, Mat_25:33, Mar_9:36, Luk_4:9, Luk_9:47, Joh_8:3, Act_4:7, Act_5:27, Act_6:6, Act_6:13, Act_22:30
standeth, 8
Joh_1:26, Joh_3:29, 1Co_7:37, 1Co_10:12, 2Ti_2:19, Heb_10:11, Jam_5:9, Rev_10:8
still, 4
Mat_20:32, Mar_10:49, Luk_7:14, Act_8:38
establish, 3
Rom_3:31, Rom_10:3, Heb_10:9
appointed, 2
Act_1:23, Act_17:31
established, 2
Mat_18:16, 2Co_13:1
standest, 2
Act_7:33, Rom_11:20
abode, 1
Joh_8:44
brought, 1
Mar_13:9
continue, 1
Act_26:22
covenanted, 1
Mat_26:15
holden, 1
Rom_14:4
lay, 1
Act_7:60
make, 1
Rom_14:4
present, 1
Jud_1:24
setteth, 1
Mat_4:5
stanched, 1
Luk_8:44

Here are a few of those verses:

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Luk 21:36  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

The "strait" gate is one that is a narrow standing. We are called to STAND in the Truth of the Word of God and we are FREE because of it. However, that does not mean we are not slaves/prisoners to our Master Jesus

Eph 3:1  For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

Eph 4:1  I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

We are all called to be witnesses to the work the Lord has started in us all and will eventually work in all of mankind.

Look at what Jesus immediately says after telling us to enter in at the straight gate:

Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Mat 7:17  Even so every GOOD TREE bringeth forth good fruit; but a CORRUPT TREE bringeth forth evil fruit.
Mat 7:18  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Mat 7:19  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Eph 4:14  That we HENCEFORTH be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

False prophets have false doctrines. False doctrines are for and about another Jesus. Jesus tells us that these false prophets are trees which are known by their fruit. Therefore, prophets of the Lord, are also trees and will ALSO be known by their fruit.

As the body of Christ and those who have the testimony of Jesus, we are the acacia wood of the temple which is coupled together to form the frame of the tabernacle of God. However, we are used to carry the WORDS of the book WITHIN US as we carry the weight of the covering of the tabernacle on us, the frame of the tabernacle.

If you want to know more about the acacia wood, please read the last 5 or 6 awesome hands studies.

How the “narrow standing gate” connects to Proverbs 31 is very revealing to how we know how to deal with false idols and false doctrines and WHY the Husband of the virtuous body of Christ is known in the gate when He sits among the elders.

Pro 31:23  Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
Pro 31:24  She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Pro 31:25  Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

Notice in verses 24 that the virtuous woman MAKES fine linen and SELLS it and makes GIRDLES that are wearable by those who buy these goods.

If you were paying attention to the GATE that is MADE of FINE LINEN, then you would also recognize that this gate hangs off of STANDING PILLARS.

The tabernacle has an outer gate where all of Israel must come through to enter into the outer court of the tabernacle and then the inner tabernacle has another fine linen gate leading into the holies.

The outer gate is hung on four pillars and the inner curtain or gate is hanging on 5 pillars, but the thing to take away from this example, and for this study, is that the pillars and the gates are all collectively the “tabernacle”, the Head and body, or otherwise known as Jesus the Christ.

Within that body there are appointments made for elders who are to be overseers.  It is very appropriate that Paul speaks about following him AS he follows Jesus Christ.

1Co 4:15  For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
1Co 4:16  Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
1Co 4:17  For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.

1Co 11:1  Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
1Co 11:2  Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Eph 5:1  Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
Eph 5:2  And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Eph 5:3  But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Php 3:16  Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Php 3:17  Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
Php 3:18  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

Heb 6:11  And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
Heb 6:12  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

1Pe 3:12  For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
1Pe 3:13  And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
1Pe 3:14  But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;

The “watchers of the gate” will always be those who point you to Jesus Christ. Once we individually KNOW the Truth, once we individually KNOW Jesus Christ, then we become those lights in the world who point the way to the narrow gate and way.

That is what making and selling “fine linen” to the merchants is all about. Merchants are those that buy and sell themselves. So, who is BUYING your GOODS?

Who is looking at your CLOTHING and determining what it is you are wearing? After all, your CLOTHING is STRENGTH and HONOR and causes YOU to REJOICE in what is coming for all of mankind.

2Co 5:2  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
2Co 5:3  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
2Co 5:4  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
2Co 5:5  Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
2Co 5:6  Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

Rev 4:4  And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
Rev 4:5  And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

Rev 10:1  And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

Rev 19:14  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Rev 19:15  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

It should be clear that we are clothed with Jesus Christ, our Husband, but Jesus Christ came proclaiming doctrine. His words are His doctrine and we too, Lord willing, will always be “watchers in/of the gate” and proclaim “His doctrine” to those who are buying our goods.

As watchers, we need to always be listening and taking note of the doctrines that try to “enter into the city” of our hearts and minds, as well as the body of Christ’s heart and mind, so that we can be faithful watchmen.

Isa 52:8  Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.

Isa 62:6  I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,

Jer 6:17  Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

Jer 31:6  For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.

If you are wondering why I mention and watchmen and the gates together, please review my recent awesome hands series which talk about the “overlay” of gold found on various items in the tabernacle.

The crux of it is that the Hebrew word “overlay” is directly connected to “watchmen”.

Exo 25:13  And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay H6823 them with gold.

H6823

tsâphâh
tsaw-faw'
A primitive root (probably rather identical with H6822 through the idea of expansion in outlook transformed to act); to sheet over (especially with metal): - cover, overlay.
Total KJV occurrences: 46

H6822
tsâphâh
Total KJV Occurrences: 38
watchman, 14
2Sa_18:24-27 (5), 2Ki_9:17-18 (2), 2Ki_9:20, Isa_21:6, Eze_3:17, Eze_33:2, Hos_9:6-8 (3)
watch, 5
Gen_31:49, 2Sa_13:34, Isa_21:5, Hab_2:1 (2)
watchmen, 5
1Sa_14:16, Isa_52:8, Isa_56:10, Jer_6:17, Mic_7:4
look, 2
Psa_5:3, Mic_7:7
looketh, 2
Pro_31:27, Son_7:4
watching, 2
1Sa_4:13, Lam_4:17
behold, 1
Psa_66:7
beholding, 1
Pro_15:3
espy, 1
Jer_48:19
waited, 1
Job_15:22
watched, 1
Lam_4:17
watcheth, 1
Psa_37:32
watchman’s, 1
Eze_33:6
well, 1
Pro_31:27

A watchman “covers” the city with his watching eyes and attentive service to the safety of the city or thing he is watching over.

Our Husband Jesus Christ is known in the gates as the elders always points to Him and His doctrine.

Our job as the wife of Jesus Christ is to make fine linen coverings to sell to those who are buying so that they too can have strength and honor as their clothing.

Of course the making is always in the form of being DOERS of the WORD and not hearers only, and that can ONLY be accomplished by God working it out in us daily. Let us always pray for this to take place in our lives.

It is an honor for a kings to search our all matters of scripture, and this is especially true for the kings and priests we all are being raised up into. Let us all be diligent watchers at the gate for the voice of the True Shephard.

Pro 25:2  It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.