The Lord’s Work – Part 43

 

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The Lord’s Work – Part 43

The Lord’s Work – Part 43

#5

The next 4 good works appear in the same verse, and constitute a list of good works that should be present in a “widow indeed”. The widow indeed is worthy of being supported by the church financially.

1 Timothy 5:9-10  Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,  10  Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.

Sandwiched between the “good works” and “every good work”, Paul lists 4 specific “good works”.

These are the figures of the true good works. Notice, if a window has done these good works carnally, she is not “saved”, or rewarded eternally. Rather she is taken care of carnally.

1 Timothy 5:10  Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, …

Work # 1 of the 4: bringing up children.

Should we bring up children on the earth? Should we feed them and clothe them and … generally keep them alive so they can grow? Yeah, sure. But the lost do that. Plenty of OT saints did that. Is that a “good work”? Apparently so.

But, to do it after the flesh, is to do the figure of the true.

We ought to bear and raise spiritual children: the Lord’s children.

Galatians 3:26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 4:19  My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

How did Paul beget children? With the word of God.

How was he laboring to bring forth? In the Gospel.

How did he bring up children? With doctrine, with knowledge and understanding.

1 Peter 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

We grow children by the word of God, by the knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ.

Train up a child in the way he should go. How do you train up a child? You teach him understanding.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:  5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. [that is the first and greatest commandment]  6  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:  7  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Obeying the first commandment, hiding His word in your heart, enables you to do the good work: teach His words, train up children. The Lord doesn’t care if you “raise up children” like the heathen do. He requires that you teach them His words. That is loving the Lord, that is loving your neighbor, that is bringing up children, that is a good work.

Luke 4:4  And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Paul constantly laboured to purge out the leaven (the works!) from the children’s bread, as in the church of Galatia. We need to keep that bread pure, because that is what both creates, and feeds the children of God.

Paul fed the house of God with understanding, with doctrine. With spiritual bread. We need to bring up children with pure unleavened bread.

1 Corinthians 14:20  Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

To raise spiritual children into spiritual men, they must grow, being trained, in understanding. They grow by words.

Ephesians 4:14-15  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;  15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

To bring up children spiritually, with doctrine, with truth and understanding, is the true good work.

And it aligns with all the others: the true good work is to build and feed the house of God.

#6

1 Timothy 5:10  Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, …

To lodge strangers is a good work. Bring strangers into your house. Give them a safe place to lodge. Bring them in out of the darkness, into the house, so they can see the light of the house.

But if you bring strangers into your house on earth, is this a true “good work”? How long do you have to lodge them in your earthly house? One night? One year? What if I just build them their own house? At what point, have I done a good work and am due an eternal reward? Never. Any house I build them or give them will break down. Its all a temporary shadow of the true.

If you didn’t do an eternal good work, why would you get an eternal reward?

The true good work is not to bring them into your house on earth; the figure of the true, but rather to bring them into the house of God, in heaven. Give them a house in heaven.

John 14:2  In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Jesus left this world, to prepare a place in his house, for strangers to dwell with Him.

John 14:3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

That is a good work: to receive strangers to dwell in an eternal house.

To “lodge strangers” spiritually is to bring them in to be fellowcitizens with the house of God.

Ephesians 2:11-12,19  Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;  12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:  …  19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

Take the strangers and make them no more strangers. Bring them into the household of God. This is a good work.

If we divide the word “strangers”, we see both a heavenly and an earthly meaning.

Strangers to God’s house are the lost. But in the world, Christians are strangers. Truthfully, Christians in this world are strangers and pilgrims.

1 Peter 1:1-2  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,  2  Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

1 Peter 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

We and our brethren are strangers in this world. We are the Lord’s children from a heavenly country, currently dwelling among the children of Satan, in man’s country.

John 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

A good work for a saved man is to receive the lost stranger, and make him no more a stranger.

A good work for a lost man is to receive a child of God.

For an unsaved man (a stranger to God) to receive a gospel preacher (a stranger to him), he has received a child of God (a stranger).

Luke 9:48  And said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: …

Matthew 10:40-41  He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 41  … and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.

To receive a child of God, is to entertain strangers. How can you do this?

You already did this when you yourself received a preacher of the gospel, and got saved. And now, you do it every time you preach the gospel to another stranger, and welcome home another stranger – the elect, though a lost sheep.

That is the true good work.

Hebrews 13:2  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Should we lodge strangers (the brethren) on the earth? Yes. Specifically, the brethren.

I wouldn’t go and find homeless strangers and bring them into your house.

2 John 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:

Should we lodge other Christians in our houses on the earth? Yes. But that is the figure of the true.

We ought to lodge the strangers of this world, that is, the brethren of Christ into our house in Heaven by preaching the gospel and strengthening their faith.

We ought to lodge the strangers to Christ in heaven, that is, to bring them into the house of God and make them no more strangers.

All 9 agree. There are many good works after the flesh, but the true good work, after the Spirit, is always the same: to save souls and raise children. To build and grow the body of Christ.

#7

1 Timothy 5:10  Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, …

If she did these carnal things, she was worthy of support with the church’s money. Carnal things.

But if we do them in truth, we are worthy of an eternal reward.

Number 3 of these 4 good works: Washing the saints’ feet.

John 13:12-15  So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?  13  Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.  14  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.  15  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

Should we wash each other’s feet? Absolutely. But carnally, what Jesus did, and what the zealous workers do today, is just an example. The carnal/natural work was the pattern. Should we do the pattern. Yeah, sure! We “ought to”. But that is not where the eternal reward is. That is just the figure, that is not the true!

John 13:8-10  Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.  9  Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.  10  Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

John 13:14-15  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.  15  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

If your feet aren’t washed, you aren’t clean, you have no part with Christ. That is an important work! We need to do this work. But…

1 Timothy 5:10 is the only time that washing the saints’ feet appears outside of the 4 gospels. If it was so important, why didn’t the apostles go around doing it? If it was so important, why didn’t Paul command us to do it? If it was an eternally rewardable, soul-saving work, if it was such an important thing to do in the flesh, it should be elsewhere in the NT, and not just when talking about who is, and who is not, worthy of financial support with church money (the widows indeed). And for the widow indeed who washed the saints feet, there is no mention of an eternal reward, but a carnal one.

Psalms 51:2  Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Acts 22:16  And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

This is how you wash someone’s feet. You wash away their sins with pure living water. But not in the flesh!

1 Peter 3:21  The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Physical water baptism is the figure of the true. The true is being baptized into Jesus Christ.

Romans 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Galatians 3:27  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

We are not required to be submerged into physical water, but into Jesus Christ Himself. That is TRUE baptism. That is the true washing away of sins.

Jesus’ example good work was not about the cleanliness of the flesh, but the cleanliness of the Spirit. That is why, while He washed them all in the flesh, He said they were not all clean; Judas Iscariot was not clean.

This was not about cleaning physical human feet. This is about cleaning souls!

Romans 10:13-15  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  14  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?  15  And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

To truly wash the saints’ feet is a spiritual work which has to do with possessing and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ so that men can believe and be saved. If you wash the saints feet in this world, you’ve only done the example, the figure of the true.

A preacher of the gospel has beautifully clean feet, washed by pure water – the word of God.

To preach the gospel to a man is to give him water to cleanse his feet. To cleanse the feet of a man is to cleanse him from his sin. To wash him with the water of the word.

Ephesians 5:25-26  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;  26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

That is what we are supposed to do. Wash each other’s feet with the word of God. But not the head and the hands. Just the feet. All they have to do is have their feet cleansed. Just step in the pure water.

John 5:4  For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

It wasn’t the first person to be fully submerged in the water. It was the first one to step in.

When a soul winner preaches the gospel, he offers a man the pure water of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

1st instance of “wash” and “feet” in the Bible:

Genesis 18:4  Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:

All that man has to do is allow himself to be cleansed. Just step in. Just wash your feet in Jesus Christ!

When was the Jordan river dried up?

Joshua 3:15  And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,)

A widow may be well reported of for good works in her flesh, and thus be worthy of care and reward in the flesh. But unless she does those good works spiritually, in the true, she has no eternal reward.

All 9 good works agree: the true good work is always the same; to save souls and raise children. To build and grow the body of Christ.