Now as I look out tonight, I
see that most of you who are here this evening were with us
this morning, but there are probably a dozen of you or so who were
not with us this morning. And because tonight is really
the fourth point in one message, and I was not able to bring myself
to preach around till 1 or 1.15 this morning, why it will be
necessary to review for a moment and then pick up the thread of
thought where we left off. I introduced our study in the
scriptures this morning with the title, a rare thing for me,
The Lost Art of Christian Hospitality for the Forgotten Duty and Lost
Art of Christian Hospitality. And I first of all sought to
define the biblical word for hospitality in terms of a symbol,
that it's symbolized by the open door, not primarily the full
table. And the whole concept of hospitality
in the scripture is that of the heart of the Christian going
out in love to his brethren and to strangers, and that love leading
him to open his door to those who come by. And if the open
door must be amened by the spread table and by the prepared place
of rest, why then they become, as it were, just the amen to
the meaning of the open door, but the biblical concept of hospitality
is not a fancy spread of food for overly stuffed people anyway. But it's the concept of love
that yearns for face-to-face communion and therefore opens
the door. Then we look to the scriptures
to see that the command to hospitality is given to all the saints of
God in Romans 12, in 1 Peter 4, and in Hebrews 13. And in
a peculiar way to the elders, the ruling, teaching elders within
the assembly, they are to exemplify the grace of hospitality in a
peculiar way. And therefore, we drew the conclusion,
and it even got through to my son. He said to me at the table
tonight, he says, Daddy, when you said this morning, it is
sin, he says, you sounded like you were angry. And I said, well,
son, we're supposed to be angry at sin. I said, I wasn't angry
the whole message was. And he said, no. But he said,
at that point you sounded angry. Well, I hope I was angry, in
the right sense, not with a fleshly anger, but with that anger that
looks upon the failure to comply with the will of God in my own
life and in others, that is indeed a righteous anger. And so if
we are not engaging in the art and duty of hospitality, then
we are living in sin. I know of no blunter yet more
scriptural way to state it. Then we consider the objects
of hospitality. The scripture says we are to
show hospitality one to another as saints. Then Hebrews 13, 2,
we are to show hospitality to the stranger. Then we close this
morning by considering from the scriptures the ministry of hospitality. And if you'll remember, we saw
three ministries in hospitality. One, a tangible expression of
Christian love. Let us not love in word, but
in deed and in truth. Secondly, a natural opportunity
for exhortation to the saints and witness to the stranger,
to the unsaved. And thirdly, it's a means of
personal blessing to the one extending it. Now tonight, I
want us to consider from human experience and from the word
of God as well, The fourth point under this general theme of the
lost art of Christian hospitality, namely the hindrances to the
performance of this duty. What would hinder the people
of God from engaging in a duty that is so clearly stated in
the scriptures, the blessing of which is so obviously declared
in the scriptures, the need for which is so glaringly obvious
to anyone who has his eyes half open? What would keep the people
of God from engaging in this duty? Well, the reasons, I believe,
can be divided under two main headings. natural or what I would
call non-moral hindrances. In other words, hindrances that
are not sin in themselves, but are natural things. And then
secondly, hindrances that are definitely spiritual, moral issues. Issues of rebellion to the will
of God or of spiritual defect. Now let's start with the natural.
The scripture says the order of things is first that which
is natural, then that which is spiritual. And so starting in
that direction, let us consider some of the natural reasons why
we, and I use the we not editorially, but I hope some of these things
have been true in my own experience and I'm speaking sympathetically,
why we do not engage in the discharge of the duty of hospitality. Now,
the first reason I hope was sufficiently dealt with this morning, but
I want to emphasize it by stating it tonight. Number one is a misunderstanding
as to the nature of Christian hospitality. I'm sure many of
you realized when I talked this morning about the primacy of
the door and not the table that this rang a bell with you. Because
if I read God's people are right, we have generally thought of
hospitality in terms of we've got to give people something
to eat. And the table has been central. And so because we misunderstood
what Christian hospitality was, there have been factors that
have kept us from engaging in it. Number one, the economic
factor. thinking that hospitality was primarily spreading the table.
Some of us just can't afford to be spreading the table very
often, at least spreading it very sumptuously. We might spread
it with some mozzas in water or some crackers in orange juice,
but we thought, my, if hospitality focuses on the table, this is
a pretty poor expression of hospitality. Now, we've misunderstood the
nature of hospitality. The emphasis from the Greek word,
it's love to the stranger, love that opens the door. And as we
said this morning, if the fellow comes through the door staggering
through weakness, then you spread the table. And if he's so groggy
for sleep, you give him a place to sleep, but most of us don't
come through the door in that shape. Once in a while, I've
seen some of you that obviously needed either the bed for rest
or the table for nourishment, but for the most part, we come
through each other's door looking hale and hearty, and as I said
this morning, some of us a little bit too hale and hearty. It looks
like we could use some encouragement to stay away from the table.
You know the famous saying about what exercise you do to keep
thin, and someone said push-aways. Well, I think some of us could
engage in a number of push-aways, and it would not be to our heart.
Now, if you've had this concept, I hope our study this morning
and this evening has brought your thinking around to a biblical
order. In fact, I've got a sneaking
suspicion that our food almost becomes to us what the cigarette
becomes and the glass of wine or the cocktail amongst the world.
There are actual studies that reveal that the reason a lot
of people smoke and engage in social drinking is not that they
particularly like the cigarette or the liquor. You know what
the reason is? They feel all hands if they can't have something
in their hands. They feel awkward. And then these things sort of
divert the focus of attention from face-to-face communion so
that now the cigarette and the cocktail or the glass of liquor
or whatever we have sort of becomes a common conversation point or
diversion, a diverter from face-to-face communion. And I think this is
what has happened to many of us. If we can come to the table
and be commenting about the nice food and this wonderful thing
and that wonderful thing, and if we as hosts and hostesses
can be engaged, oh, you folk, excuse me, I've got to prepare
the goodies, we can somehow get away from sitting down with no
food in front of us and looking each other in the face and beginning
to share our hearts with each other. And the table has become
a substitute for the communion of the heart. Now, this is a
gross misunderstanding of the biblical teaching on Christian
hospitality, and I venture to say that this is one of the natural
reasons why some of us have not engaged in it. But now, what
excuse will you have after today? Hmm? Well, I can't entertain,
I can't afford it. Well, who says that the table
is necessary for entertainment? Who said? Not the Scriptures.
And if society says so, who cares what society says when it violates
the Scripture? I don't particularly care, do
you? I hope we don't. Don't let the world squeeze you
into its mold. You see how the world is intruded
even in a simple duty like Christian hospitality and the world has
perverted the biblical concept so we can't even think straight
on what hospitality is unless the Lord instructs us from his
holy word. Well, so much then for that first
natural reason. Now a second very natural reason
that is evident and prevalent in some of your lives is what
I would call domestic hindrances. If hospitality is basically the
open door, the door will not be open unless those who own
that door are agreed that it ought to be open. And I speak
sympathetically. I know some of you have come
and unburdened your heart to me and said, Pastor, I would
just long to have the people of God in my home, but I have
an unsaved wife, an unsaved husband, and there are domestic hindrances.
Now, as I mentioned this morning, as in every other duty where
God has put us in situations where we are providentially hindered
from the performance of that duty, He accepts the willingness
for the deed. And I hope some of you take comfort
from this. Who with all your heart would long for your home
to be a haven for the people of God. God sees that longing
and He accepts the willingness for the deed. But there are domestic
problems. The domestic problem of a divided
household. Perhaps the problem is that some
of you don't even have a home of your own. All you've got is
a nurse's room, of all places, and you can't do much entertaining
there. Or maybe all you've got is a bedroom in your folks' home,
and you can't tell them who comes through that door. God understands
this, and I want all of you to be assured that as a pastor,
I certainly, I trust and not blind and censorious and unthinking
in my assessment of your response to this duty without taking into
regard these factors. There are domestic hindrances
as well as this misunderstanding. And then the third natural, non-moral,
non-sinful reason why we've not engaged in this is what I would
call the fear of the unknown. Say, well, boy, I just don't
know what I'd do. I just if I had the people there, they look at
me and I look at them. And what do I do? You see, and
there's that fear, because perhaps maybe temperamentally and personality-wise,
you're not what we call the gregarious kind of outgoing person, and
there's a fear of the unknown. What will I do? Sure, it's all
right and well for you to stand up there and thunder at us that
we ought to open the door, but you're not going to be there
to take over once the door is open. I'm there. What am I to
do? I'm not much of a conversationalist. I just don't know what I do.
It's the fear of the unknown. And this is true in every area
of life. Any path you're going down for the first time, you're
fearful of it. And so this is a very natural
thing, and I would not in any way despise this. May I just
quickly throw out a few suggestions? The scriptures make clear that
love is an enterprising thing. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9,
to the Jews I become as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. To
the Greeks I become as a Greek to gain the Greeks. I am become
all things to all men that I might by all means save some. If your
heart is set upon love of the Brethren, and set upon performing
the duty of Christian hospitality, then you're going to strike out
believing that God will give you wisdom in order to perform
the duty to the profit of His people. But I would give you
several practical suggestions. So often we preachers are accused
of telling you what to do, but not how. Some of you ought to
make an investment in a tape recorder. Some of you have already
done this. This can be a wonderful source of ministry. Tape that,
other than your own preacher, you get tired of hearing this
voice all the time, and I don't blame you. I get tired of hearing
my own voice. That's why I listen to tapes, and I get blessed.
Well, you ought to make an investment in a tape recorder. A number
of you have. This would be a very natural way to open that door
into a ministry, and as the tape is being played, Why, you may
want to stop it, and before long you've entered off on a disk.
You may never get to finish that tape, you see, and it just may
take you off in a wonderful time of mutual sharing in the things
of God. I think it would be a wonderful
thing if Sunday nights, when we invited each other into one
another's homes, we discussed the sermons of the day. What
did the Lord say to you today? What particular thing was most
helpful to you? I seek to drive the nails of
truth into the board of your head? And you come along and
bend the nail over, see? Now, I don't have time to bend
the nail over. I spend all my time trying to drive the nail
in. Well, you can come along and bend the nail over by getting
together and sharing. Doesn't the scripture say, they
that loved him, how's it go there in Malachi, spake often of his
name, and a book of remembrance was written. I've forgotten the,
I haven't quoted it accurately. They that feared his name spake
often one to another. They that feared his name spake
often one to another. This is a very practical suggestion.
Another thing we could do is just to gather together, and
after sharing a bit, say, well, before our time passes, and I
find that I must do this even when I get together with my preacher
friends, we can talk away all our time about good things, but
then we never pray. We don't talk to the one with
whom it's most important to talk. Maybe after a few minutes you
ought to just say, well, we've met together in the Lord's house
today, or maybe this past week, but really we didn't have a chance
to bear one another's burdens. Do you have any particular things
you'd like me to share in prayer? We open our hearts to one another.
The scripture says in James chapter 5, confess your sins one to another.
Pray one for another. What better place to do this
than in your own home? Galatians chapter 6 says, bear
one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. I
can't bear your burden unless you get it out where I can see
it. You can't bear mine unless I get it out where you can see
it. We've got to get it out. And one of the hindrances to
Christian hospitality is this fear of the unknown. What will
I do? All right, I'm telling you and giving you some scriptural
principles to guide you that you might be able to. We might
share our testimony with each other. There are some of you
that would be thrilled to hear how the Lord brought someone
else to a knowledge of Himself. Some of you, I haven't even heard
your testimony as far as how God dealt with you. To me, it's
a wonderful thing to see how the ways of the Spirit are like
the wind. How'd the Lord deal with you? How'd the Lord bring
you to Himself? Well, let me share with you how He brought
me to Himself and the blessing that can come. Here are some
suggestions that I've just jotted down, four or five of them, almost
at random. I hope that will forever rip
away the excuse that any of you might have I wouldn't know what
to do. Can't say that now unless you fall asleep in the last five
minutes. Well, a fourth natural reason,
not only misunderstanding of the nature of Christian hospitality,
domestic hindrances, fear of the unknown, but what I would
call a sense of inadequacy, and this follows close on the heels
of this. Well, I just don't feel adequate for this. I just haven't
had the social graces. I never did this growing up,
and my home is nothing fancy. I feel inadequate. Wonderful.
That's good. That's a wonderful place to be
because the Lord's got a lot of promises for people who feel
themselves inadequate, doesn't he? He has some wonderful promises
for the weak, for the helpless, for the needy. But he's got some
terrible words for those who have no sense of need. Because
thou sayest, Thou art rich and increased with goods and have
need of nothing, I am about to spew thee out of my mouth. But
he's promised to lead the blind in a way that they know not.
He's promised to guide the simple. That gives me great encouragement.
He promises to take care of the simple. He promises to support
the weak. He promises to strengthen those
that are fainting. And so if you have a sense of
inadequacy, which is a very natural thing, then let it drive you
to the Lord. So what's the cure then for these
natural non-moral hindrances? Well, the cure is face the facts
as they are, and then look to the Lord for grace to perform
the duty that he's laid before you, like any other duty. Or
do I tell people who come to me and say, you know, the Lord's
really been dealing with me about this matter, giving him his portion.
I've been robbing the Lord, but I don't see how I can begin to
tithe. I say, wonderful, wonderful, good. What virtue is it? If you can see your way clear
to any Christian duty, what test of faith is there? But when you've
got to stick your neck out, and run the risk of maybe doing some
forced push-aways, simply because there's nothing there to push
away from, to give the Lord his portion. Now you're in the situation
where faith is exercised. Prove me now herewith, saith
the Lord. Well, the same is true here.
Well, I have no experience in showing Christian hospitality.
Wonderful, if you did, you might think you know how to do it,
and the Lord would just leave you at the mercy of your own
resources. But because you feel inexperienced and you don't know
how to go about it, you just might begin to pray that the
Lord would bless it and come and undertake it. Wouldn't that
be a wonderful thing, to be able to sense that He began to use
you in this ministry? That's the cure, just the simple
trust that He asks of us, His people. Now, I move to the secondary,
and of course I want to spend the bulk of my time here, because
this is really the root of the matter. Though these four things
that I've mentioned apply to some of you, For the greater
measure of us, the greater part of us tonight, the hindrances
are not natural, though they may enter in to a greater or
lesser degree, but the real hindrances are spiritual. And I wish I could
dispense of the spiritual problems as easily as I've been able in
15 minutes to dispense of the natural problems. But with these
natural problems, I've just had to clarify a few issues and give
you a few suggestions, and that was pretty simple. Because, see,
these natural, non-moral, non-spiritual problems are problems basically
of the head. You just need to get your head
straight and think straight about this duty. But now, when I touch
the spiritual problems, I'm touching the realm of the heart, and I
can't straighten your heart out. Only God can do that. And I trust,
as I mention these factors, that as the Spirit of God wounds you
and says, that's the reason you and you and you have not been
given to this ministry or not given to it to the extent that
you are, I trust you'll accept the wounds of God and then ask
Him to pour in the oil and the balm of His forgiveness. And
the first spiritual hindrance to performance of the duty of
Christian hospitality is what I am calling willful ignorance. Willful ignorance. Well, you
see, that's a strange way to state something, Pastor. Willful
ignorance. What is willful ignorance? It's
an ignorance that is inexcusable. The Scriptures are given to us
as God's people to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto
our path. And the Scriptures themselves command us to search
the Scriptures. And as a child of God, I have
professed by virtue of my confession of being a Christian that the
Word of Christ is the governing principle in my life. Jesus said,
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth me. If I love him, I'm going to have
his commandments. I'm going to go out after them.
I'm going to seek them out. Now certainly the command to
hospitality is not found in some little obtuse section of the
book of Obadiah way down in the corner of the Bible. I've quoted
it this morning from passages like Romans 12. We all know Romans
12, 1 and 2. Why didn't we read down to verse
13? Given to hospitality, we've been
willfully ignorant. We all know Hebrews 11, now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen,
for by... Why don't we read on to Hebrews
13, 1 and 2, let love of the brethren continue, be not forgetful
to entertain strangers. And so, the reason why some of
us have not been given to this ministry is what I'm calling
the reason of willful ignorance. We have not discovered this duty
in the Word of God due to the indifference of our own hearts
to the precepts of God. And beloved, that's sin. That's
sin. That's sin. Our Lord said in
Matthew 12, John 12 in verse 48, the word that I have spoken
unto you shall judge you in the last day. When you stand before
the Lord to give an account of the deeds done in the body, when
I stand before him, it will not do for the Lord to say now, my
child, how did you do? with the command to be given
to hospitality. Well, Lord, I didn't know it was in your word. I plead
ignorance. The Lord will say, I gave you
my word to direct you. You had two good eyes and you
had plenty of time to search the scriptures. When you're spending
that 15 minutes every night watching the 11 o'clock news, why weren't
you spending an equal amount of time reading my word and searching
out my commands? You were spending a half an hour
a day reading the Newark Evening News for the Newark Star-Ledger
Why weren't you spending an equal amount of time searching out
my precepts? What will you say then? What would I say? That's willful ignorance. And this is one of the root causes
for our failure to engage in this Christian duty of hospitality. Then the second spiritual reason
is what I'm calling a sinful conformity to the world. Romans 12 in verse 2, a very
familiar portion. where the Apostle says, Be not
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. I like Philip's paraphrase here,
Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. Oh, you say, but wait a minute,
Pastor, I thought the world in this was going to shows and...
No, no, that's not worldliness. That's just one little expression
of worldliness. What is worldliness? It's the
thought patterns, the attitudes, the habits, the dispositions
of society without God and allowing those dispositions to mold us
instead of the Word of God. Now, what's one of the forms
of worldliness very present in our day? It's what I would call
an impersonal isolationism. where we're all, as it were,
encased and entombed in a little casket of our own interest in
our own world. Let me read from the statements
of a man who's done a tremendous job in setting forth the biblical
philosophy of marriage. I would advise any of you even
married 50 years to get this and read it. Designed for Christian
Marriage. Wonderful book. And Mr. Small says regarding the problems
that people face, even Christians, in coming to a God-honoring relationship
in their marriage, he says some things that apply at this point
and I want to read them. Industrialization, that is the
tendency of course to move to the cities and to everything
be mechanized, is a social force operating against personal intimacy. An industrial society has brought
with it the mass man. More often than not today a man
finds himself an impersonal cog in a giant machine. His competitive
relation to other individuals drives him along with but a single
remaining motive to be a success at any price. He lives in a culture
that places more importance upon being a success in business than
upon being a success as a man. Now notice carefully. In business
and industry, men must try to get along with as little personal
conflict as possible, for they're not regarded as persons, but
as performers. A man must reveal as little as
possible his individual differences of opinion, habit, and taste.
He is accepted so long as he proves himself acceptable, but
he's not accepted for himself. Hence, he learns to hide his
true feelings, to disguise his fears and inadequacies behind
a facade of superiority and to affect a cold efficiency in all
things. Any personal intimacy with others
in his workaday world might disclose his weaknesses, create distrust
on the part of his associates, and possibly result in a loss
of prestige. Personal intimacy has become
a dangerous thing inasmuch as it might threaten his very security
in life. You see what he's driving at?
I mentioned this morning how obvious this is if you just look
into bus number 33 driving into New York with the commuters in
the morning where people are forced to sit by the very design
of those seats with hardly room for a newspaper to get between
them but somehow either one takes the nap and the other one encases
himself in the newspaper forced by geographical circumstances
into a situation that would be a wonderful opportunity for true
communication of person-to-person. But what does man do? In our
day, man encases himself behind his newspaper. He doesn't want
to. Why? Because what may happen
before long is that this fellow may reveal that, well, everything's
not going as well as it seems to be. Sure, I've gotten a $15
hat on and my Hart, Shafter, and Mark suit on. And I take
home $17,000 a year from Madison Avenue, but my life's a wreck! But I'm ashamed to tell anybody.
And beloved, we're encased in this spirit of the world. You
see, what happens when you begin to open your door to people,
it isn't long before you're going to be opening your hearts. And
people all look pretty nice from a distance, but when we get up
close, we begin to see each other's warts and moles. And we don't
like to expose our warts. doing, hmm? We're afraid of the
exposure that comes through intimate contacts. You see, if some of
us begin to cultivate this kind of open-door relationship, we're
going to find ourselves instinctively beginning to confess our sins
one to another. And maybe that person who's been
sitting six seats away from you for six years will really begin
to discover who you are, and you say, Oh, I've kept up this wonderful
image all these years and suddenly it begins to crumble before me!
I can't let that happen! I dare not! So I'll pull the
newspaper around me. See, coming to this church can
be pulling a newspaper around you. And I'm deeply convinced that
this is one of the reasons that lies at the heart of our failure
to exercise true Christian hospitality, not the table but the open door
leading to the open heart, It's because we've conformed to this
world with its facade, this wall, this barrier, this sham, this
pretense, that we must not expose ourselves one to another. Whereas the Scripture sets forth
the concept of the Church as a body of believers, My pinky
doesn't go off on its own business and my thumb on its own and my
eye on its own. Just try to picture tonight the
grotesque picture if there wasn't an infinite relationship between
all the members of my body. So that when my brain said, look
here, this eye started over here and this one started up there.
And when I said up there, this finger decided to point down
here, and if they were all just isolated, disjointed, uncoordinated
members of my body, what a grotesque picture it would be. Beloved,
I fear that's the grotesque picture so often in churches that profess
to be churches of Jesus Christ. And from such, may God deliver
us. And one of the ways He will, the way the body can function
as a body and share the needs of the other members of the body,
is by this matter of true Christian hospitality. Then there is a
third and very basic spiritual reason as to why we don't practice
hospitality, and it's this cursed spirit of pride. And it's interesting
that I got some of my sermon points from my wife and from
some of the folks to whom we were extending a little hospitality
today. And it's interesting that when I asked them, what do you
think are some of the hindrances, both of the women said as the
first reason, pride. Speaking from a woman's standpoint,
they said one of the reasons, this was sort of getting the
newspaper down, you see? We were experiencing some looking
at each other's works. From a woman's standpoint, you
want to have, and rightly so to some degree, you want to have
the reputation of being an immaculate housekeeper. and being a very
clever cook. Sure you do. Now, there's nothing
wrong with wanting to excel in the area where God puts you.
That's all right. Woe be unto the poor husband
who's got to live with the wife who's only cooking now what she
knew how to cook when they got married. For the most part, that's
immiscible. I don't know what it'd be like
to live with a wife who didn't know what it was to cut out recipes
and be trying new things and being creative and seeking to
excel in culinary arts, to give it the technical name, and the
wife who's just content to let What will be, will be. So if
the kids drop their toys in the living room, what will be, will
be. And if somebody comes through with muddy feet, what will be,
will be. That's a terrible situation. You ought to seek to aspire to
having a home that is ordered and regulated and in its very
appearance speaks of those characteristics of a good housewife. Now that's
all legitimate, but now listen carefully, ladies. I want to
direct a word of exhortation to you. when pride in your reputation
for being a good cook and a good housekeeper is such, that you
will shut your door simply because you can't prepare a fancy meal,
and maybe you didn't get to that extra cleaning that you wanted,
and people will see the house the way it is most of the time.
Not messy, but neither does it look like you could do a white
glove inspection most of the time either, really. There's
a bit of hypocrisy here, isn't there? when we're not going to
let anybody through the door until the place looks like a
military white glove inspection is about to take place. That's
really a bit of hypocrisy because it doesn't look like that most
of the time, does it? Does it? And what you're trying to do
is give the impression that really it does. Pride, isn't it? Isn't it pride? Just plain, stinking,
rotten pride. That's all it is. And when you
would be more concerned about your reputation as a cook than
the need of that person who desperately needs the love of an open door. What a terrible curse. Terrible
curse. And I thank God for the wonderful
way in which he's helped my own dear wife in this area. When
we first got married, I used to have to give her about a three
month's notice before we'd have anybody come to the house. And
this was partly due to the fact that she didn't grow up in a
normal home life. As many of you know, she was the product
of several broken homes brought up by her father and then hired
girls who came in as sort of daytime nurses. And so she never
knew what it was to be in a home that was given to hospitality.
But I was in a home where we would have been surely put on
Johnson's poverty list. Really, my folks, you didn't
go around asking for a nickel or a quarter for something. There
was no nickel or quarter to ask for. And we somehow survived. And I don't hate my parents and
all this other business. I thank God that we were brought
up, as someone said today, brought up lean. It was good for us.
It was good for us. But my wife, not having this
privilege, felt very insecure as a housewife and as an entertainer. I can remember the almost traumatic
experience when I happened to bring someone home unannounced
one time. I didn't think she'd recover without some psychiatric
help, perhaps. And she could sit here tonight
if she were here and laugh about it now because the Lord has graciously
undertaken by making clear to her this principle, this principle.
My reputation as a cook is not the paramount issue. It's the
need of that one who's coming through the door. That's the
important issue. If they go away thinking I'm
just a short-order chef, fine, who cares? But if they go away
with their heart's needs, no. I know what it's like to go into
homes that were elegant in their appointments, physical appointments,
exquisite in the meal, and oh, the dishes upon which it was
served, and the silver, and all the rest, but I went away empty
and barren because there was no love that made it easy to
communicate and to bear the heart. on beautiful china and with nice,
lovely, uh, cutlery in a beautiful setting. It left one empty. Conversely, you and I know what
it's like to go into a home where pretty slim pickings on the table,
the tablecloth maybe threadbare, clean but threadbare, and the
plates, while you knew the way they were cracked and scarred
and marred, they'd been around many a year and had lots of seniority,
and yet somehow you went away filled. filled, not just physically,
but filled because of the communication of love and warmth amongst the
people of God. So, you ladies, you're going
to have to die to your pride so that your husbands will feel
free to come home at night with someone
on an ounce. You wives are going to have to
die to your pride. Now you husbands, you know where you're going to
have to die? You're going to have to die to the pride of wanting to give the appearance
of being a very able provider. I can't bring people home. I've
been wanting to buy that new living room set for three years,
and we just can't afford it, and we're stuck in sticking through
it a few places. What will people think about
me? Who cares what they think? That's pride. If the stuffing
sticking through is not due to your negligence or indolence
and you're doing the best you can to be an adequate provider,
that's all God requires and that's all any saint would ever ask. Die to your pride. Bring them
home to your threadbare couch in the context of warmth of Christian
love. They won't think about that.
They won't think about it at all. So we've got to die to our
pride as husbands, as providers. I don't want to labor the point,
but I do want to show how this is a real hindrance, and I trust
God has shown you where it applies in your own life. But now I come
to perhaps the two most basic matters that hinder the people
of God from engaging in this duty, and this fourth thing I
would call, for lack of a better terminology, a spirit of selfish
indifference. A spirit of selfish indifference. That spirit characterized by
lack of vision, lack of interest in others. The best example I
know, as I was meditating on this trying to find a scriptural
example, is in the parable of the Good Samaritan. For you remember
it's recorded that this poor man was left half dead and the
Levite came by and he looked at him, saw him in his need,
and he passed on. That was it. He saw the need. He knew there was need, but in
the indifference of his heart, he could pass right on and go
on in his religious activity. A religious man, but indifferent
to the needs of others. And so we can come and expose
ourselves to the singing of the praises of God and to the preaching
of the Word of God, and yet people all around us in this very assembly
with needs, and we pass on and never expose ourselves to that
need. Let me be very specific. Those
of us who have families, every Sunday we can go home to the
warmth of our family tables with our wives and our children. But
there sit among us week by week, beloved, people who once sat
about a table and knew the warmth of a husband's or a wife's love,
but they're widows now, or widowers, and they go home to the screaming
emptiness of those four walls that once rang with the happy
laughter of the communication of a husband and wife, and maybe
children, and the children are grown and gone, and every time
they step through that door they can still hear in memory's ear
the words of the wife, hello dear, and they can hear the happy
giggle of the children, and then they realize and wake up, it's
just in memory's ear that the wife's gone, the children are
gone, and the sense of empty, aching loneliness, beloved, is
a very real thing. We can go home to the happy laughter
and warmth of our tables and couldn't care less that the widow
and the widower have been uncared for. And yet, what does the scripture
say? Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is
this, to visit the fatherless and the widows, and to keep oneself
unspotted from the world, James chapter 1. It's at this point
that my heart has been deeply grieved, for I have failed to
see on the part of this assembly that outgoing desire to the widow,
to the widower, to the some of the students whom we take for
granted. I know what it's like to be a student, to be hundreds
of miles away from home, and to get so tired of not the institutional
food as such, but of the institutional climate and longing to get into
the real climate with real people. Not that students aren't real
people, but it's awfully hard for them to be. It's an artificial
world. what it means just to be invited
out into Rome to share some warmed-over spaghetti. Some of the single folk among
us who in the providence of God have not as yet or may never
be given a life's partner, men or women. They're in the business
world all week seeking to keep their minds and their motives
and their hearts pure from the defilement and unbent by the
pressures of a godless society And to come and assemble with
God's people in the Lord's Day morning is such an oasis. But
then many of them have to go back into ungodly homes and face
more of that pressure. What it would mean to them to
be able to spend an afternoon with the people of God about
your table? Nothing special, just being with Christ. But you
see, we can be indifferent. We can get our vision so narrowed
down to me and to mine that we don't care. We're not looking.
We're not sensitive, looking out for the one among us who
may have a need. Oh, may God smite us and deliver
us from this cursed spirit of selfish indifference. And under this same heading,
This is the thing that leads to what I would call a cliquishness
in our hospitality, and even this morning some mentioned that
God spoke to them about this matter. Where we extend hospitality
to those whom we know can extend it to us in return, who already
are the objects of enough concern, and this is what I would pray
you would ask God to give you. I could right now name three
or four people who've been among us for over a year, who've never
once that asked into the home of anyone who's a member of the
Trinity Church in that whole year. And they've been with us
faithfully. And it's grieved them and hurt
them. Not that they go around expecting
it, but they want some tangible expression of love. Oh yes, you
shake their hand at the door, or in the assembly, and you say
by that shake of the hand, I love you brother. But that could be
just social kindness. But when you say, say, won't
you come on over tonight after the service for a little fellowship?
Ah, that open door speaks worlds and speaks it eloquently. But
we can be indifferent, indifferent. The spirit of indifference. And then last of all, what I
would call a very defective relationship to the Lord could be the root
of our failure to comply with this duty. Will you turn for
a moment to the sixth chapter of Hebrews? Had someone check
me at the door this morning and say, Pastor, how could you overlook
this passage? And I said, well, that's coming
tonight. Coming tonight. Because this speaks so clearly
to the issue at hand. Why is it that many professing
Christians don't engage in the duty of hospitality? It's because
there's something very defective in their basic relationship to
Christ. The sixth chapter of Hebrews is one of those difficult
passages, speaking about people who came so near and yet missed
it. It says in verse four that they
were enlightened, they tasted the heavenly gift, they were
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, they tasted the good word of
God and the powers of the world to come, but then they fall away. It's impossible, he says, to
renew them to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame. Then he uses
an illustration in verse 7. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it bringeth forth herbs, meet
for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God,
but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, nigh
unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. Now, whoever he's
talking about in those verses, he assures them in verse 9 that
whatever they had, they fell short of real salvation. For
notice what he says in verse 9. But beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak." Now look up in your Bibles for a moment. He
says, here are these people who've had an awful lot of life, and
they've had some kind of experience, but they have fallen short of
the real thing, and they ultimately fall away, and you cannot renew
them to repentance, but in contrast, he says, beloved, we're persuaded,
better things of you, things that accompany salvation. Now
my question is this. If you were trying to think of
what characteristic would separate these two, what is one of the
primary characteristics between the person who almost makes it
and the one who truly is the child of God? Would you put their
knowledge of doctrine? Would you put their zeal and
soul winning? Would you put their prayer life?
What would you put? Well, it's interesting what the
writer to Hebrews puts. Notice verse 10. Having said, we're
persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation,
he goes right on, for God is not unrighteous to forget your
work and labor of love which you've showed toward his name,
in that ye have ministered to the saints and to minister. He says the characteristic of
your Christian experience is that it has been evidenced in
this outgoing love and ministering to the saints of God. And our
Lord said essentially the same thing when he spoke in John 13.35
By this shall all men know the year my disciples, if ye have
love one to another. What kind of love? Not a love
that is merely a wispy thought or some kind of ethereal emotion,
but a love that is demonstrated in deed and in truth, even in
performing the duty of Christian hospitality. And so could it
be, beloved, that the problem with some of us is that maybe
we're just almost Christian. We're content to hear and to
receive and to stick our nickel in the plate, as I said this
morning. But if that relationship to Christ that moves us out with
love and desire to his people, we know perhaps precious little. Well, you say to me, Pastor,
if the Lord were to come into the church, I think even though
we were planning on the short side for dinner on Sunday, Even
though maybe there wasn't much left, I do my shopping on Monday,
and so there wasn't much left in the cupboard after Sunday
night service. I think if the Lord showed up at a service,
I don't think I'd wait for another time. I think I'd invite him
home, even though I didn't have too much. I think I'd invite
the Lord into my house, even though the kids had messed it
up, and it didn't look the best, and might be a little embarrassing.
And maybe even though we're planning to buy that new living room set
next June, I don't think I'd wait till next June. I think
I'd capitalize on the opportunity. The Lord showed up tonight. Surely
I'd show my love by the open door to Him. Is that what you're
saying? Well, I want you to turn in closing
to Matthew 25 to see if that's a valid kind of reason. We're in the parable of the sheep
and the goats. And this is my last word of exhortation tonight. We find our Lord dealing with
the sheep and the goats, and he says to the sheep, verse 33,
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats
on his left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,
that is the sheep, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And now he's going
to describe the sheep. They're not getting into the
kingdom because they did this. They did this because they were
in the kingdom by God's eternal purpose, prepared from the foundation
of the world, wonderfully, effectually called by the Spirit. And now
he's giving a description of how they acted because they were
his sheep. For I was in hunger, and you
gave me meat. You see, the table was spread
because it needed to be spread. Not simply because that was part
of what was to do. I was thirsty, and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger, and you took
me in. Naked, and you clothed me, and
I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came
to me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when
did we ever see you hungry? We never saw you stagger into
our church famished. Why, if we saw somebody, saw
you come in famished, Lord, we'd done something. We didn't see
you come famished. When did we see you thirsty and
give you drink? And when did we ever see you
a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? Or when
did we ever see you sick and in prison and come to you? The
king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, that quiet person, that unobtrusive one who comes
and takes his or her place, maybe over toward the side and over
toward the back, sort of bashful and backward, and comes and takes
that place every week, morning, evening, week in, week out, one
of the least unobtrusive of my brethren, ye have done it unto
me. The fact that you were motivated
by a love that made you seek out the least of the brethren,
and show kindness. You were doing it unto me, but
now notice the contrast. And shall he say to them on the
left hand, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was in hunger,
and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me
no drink. I was a stranger. You took me
not in. Oh, will you get that phrase?
I was a stranger and there was no open door. Oh, there may have
been a handshake. There may have been a, how do
you do? Nice to have you. You added one more to our statistics. Maybe you put a dollar in our
plate and helped our financial status. Nice to have you. Goodbye. But no open door. I was a stranger. You took me
not in. Naked you clothed me not. Sick
and in prison you visited me not. Then shall they answer and
say, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered, or thirst, or estranged,
or naked, or sick, and did not minister unto thee? Lord, if
we ever saw you, O surely, Lord, if you to come, we'd have invited
you home, even though we had nothing special. Lord, we'd have
had you over for a cup of tea and some Ritz crackers, if we
knew you were around. And the Lord says, Inasmuch as
ye did it not unto one of these the least of these, ye did it
not unto me, and these shall go away into everlasting punishment."
Here are people consigned to hell because they refuse the
duty of Christian hospitality. That to me is a pretty powerful,
convincing argument. To leave us with the impression,
beloved, we better not take lightly what we've heard today. This
has tremendous implications in terms of our own standing before
God. Now I hope we won't get into
a battle royal, everybody so clamoring to get everybody else
over to each other's home that we end up having the church bust. But I hope by the grace of God
we shall prayerfully seek to incorporate these concepts into
the life stream of this For I try to keep before me constantly
one of the exhortations of dear brother Tozer who's gone home
to be with the Lord when he said every preacher ought to have
two churches that he's ministering to, the church that he's ministering
to out there and the one that he sees out here that under God
he hopes his own ministry and life and preaching will produce.
And you know the church that I see right here now? I see a
church where a few people have caught the vision of this. and
are giving themselves, they're persecuting, they're tracking
down, pursuing hospitality, Romans 12, 13. But out there, I see a church
which by and large is characterized in its totality by people who
are not only given to holiness of life and zeal and witness,
but who are given to hospitality, to the ministry of the open door. And you know what will be the
fruit of it? There'll be people popping up all the time here
to hear the gospel that I have had no direct contact with, but
they will have seen such a living demonstration of it in the love
of your open door. They will have seen it at work,
where there's a house where everybody's not fighting and hollering at
each other and veins sticking out. fist clenched in, where
everybody doesn't sit around in one room, but isolated to
the television. These people know how to enjoy
life. The kids and the mommy and the daddy, they will have
seen and felt the impact of the gospel. And then when they come,
it's your invitation to church. And I stand up and tell them
what the gospel is. Your life and hospitality extended have
acted like an arrow to pierce that hard heart. And then I'm
privileged to follow that arrowhead with the shaft of the gospel
message. That's what I envision under God. Envision under God
the tremendous evangelistic outreach of the ministry of hospitality,
people who come out of churches that, though they may be impressive
in their size and numbers and even in their evangelical reputation,
is simply a collection of a hundred or two or three hundred little
individuals who come and sit in one building but go back into
their isolated world But oh, that they might sense that this
is a body of believers, each one mutually concerned for the
other, so that they'll understand something of what the scripture
means when it speaks of the body of Christ and the body being
built up by that which every joint supply. That's the church
that I see out there. Now, am I an idealist? I must
be, for the scriptures must shape and mold my own concern for my
life and our lives together as people. And I trust that by the
grace of God, I'll not have to die feeling I was just an idealist,
but that we shall see this realized by his own mighty power. To that
end, let us confess the sin of our failure. Let us cry to God
for grace to perform the duty, and then let's encourage one
another. Why have you not been given to
hospitality? Were there some of these natural
reasons? I hope they're cleared away, and if there are any of
these spiritual reasons, I trust you'll settle these issues with
the Lord and appropriate His grace. Let us pray.