I hope so. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Our text will be found in Luke
24. We'll spend a greater portion of our time over there a little
later. But right now, I want you to
consider this one verse of Scripture here. In Hebrews chapter ten, let's
begin in verse twenty-three, read through verse twenty-five. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful, that promised.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love. and to good works. Now look at
this verse. Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching,
the day of Christ's coming. How important is it that believers
get together for worship and fellowship? How important is it? Now, I'm
not just talking about in this building. I'm not talking about
just getting together in this building, but I'm talking about
in your homes as well. You know, I exhort you, all of
us, all the time, constantly. And I believe, I hope, that God
will show us after tonight how necessary and vital it is. I'm
not just trying to make us a little clubhouse here, but
this is vital. How important is it, not just
to meet together here in this building, but to fellowship in
your homes, fellowship with the brethren? How important is it? Well, it's so important. The
Lord commanded it. Commanded it. Listen to this
verse. You've heard this often. Be careful
to entertain strangers, for some have entertained angels unaware. Well, you say, that's a stranger. Well, most of us are strangers
to one another, to one another's homes anyway. He says this in
1 Peter 4, above all things, he summed up his thoughts, he
says, above all things, have fervent love among yourself. Isn't that what Paul, same thing
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, he said, I'll show you a better
way, a more excellent way. Above all things, above all things,
have fervent, that word fervent is active. love among yourself,
for love covereth a multitude of sins." And we got a bunch
of them, and they sure need covering. And it goes on. Use hospitality
one to another without grudging. Now turn with me to Matthew 18.
How important is it that we fellowship not only in this place, but in
our homes together. How important is it? The Lord
commands it. The Lord commands it for our
good and as a blessing. Because look here in Matthew
18, verse 20. He promises this. This is the
most blessed promise, folks. This is the believer's greatest
desire. Verse twenty, Where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Now we quote that so much it
rolls off our backs like water on a duck's back, right? Let's
think about this a minute. Where two or three are gathered
together In my name, there am," who? The Lord Jesus Christ in the
middle of it. You got a man sitting right here.
You got a man sitting over here, Joe. You got a man sitting on
this end of the table. A man sitting over here on this
end of the table. There's an empty chair. If they're meeting,
talking about the things of Christ, Christ is in that chair. No, I'm not. That's what he said. Nothing Christ never said. A
thing is never said a word. It was merely some kind of picturesque
language or whatever. He said, my words are true spirit. You've heard the old saying,
no man's an island. Well, that is especially true
of a believer. No man is an island. You don't
if you seclude yourself and I've been I've proved I know that
this is true. I used to live by myself in a cabin on about
15 acres in the woods by myself as a young man. If you do that
and this is what happened to me if you seclude yourself for
very long and do not commingle or congregate, fellowship with those
of like faith, with believers. If you seclude yourself for very
long, you will become self-centered, eccentric. You might even sit
on your roof and gaze at your navel. Intolerant of others. You're in your own little world,
you know. You become intolerant of others. You think, why in the world aren't
they like I am? when everybody else is thinking,
boy, I wish he wasn't the way he was. You become unable to
cope with life. I reached a point where I was
so backward and timid and shy and afraid to be around people,
especially girls. I would literally tremble. Unable to cope with life, you
know, shared problem, mutual thing, suspicious. cynical, hard
to get along with, unlovely, you'll become estranged from
others. Our Lord knows this. This is
why He calls His people what? Sheep. The word even means, the same
word for singular means plural. Not sheeps. Many sheep are one,
and one is many. Isn't that the wisdom of the
Lord? He calls us sheep. He knows this, that sheep, like
cattle and other clean beasts, all clean beasts congregate. All clean beasts herd together,
flock together. They must. Sheep must congregate. They must live with one another.
They must. They must rub shoulders together.
Sheep must feed off the same green pastures. They must huddle
together for protection. They're weak, pitiful. They must
help one another. They feed off of one another.
They must walk together, eat together, live together, cry
together, laugh together, bleed together, live together, love
one another. It's the nature of sheep. They
must. And they must follow the shepherd together. Follow the
shepherd. You see, listen to this. There's
real danger for one sheep by himself. He says, all we like
sheep have gone astray. I was the black sheep of my family. One fellow made millions of dollars
off that song. I just about killed myself because
of it. I didn't make any money because
of it. That went to hell. But all we like sheep, when we
get by ourselves and go to ourselves, we are all prone to wander, and
there are more pitfalls for one than there are many. Why is that? Because other sheep might see
what you don't see, right? Sure they do. Other sheep may
see it, but you may not. You leave off following and assembling
with the flock, you'll wander into all sorts of mischief and
trouble. You sure will. You'll become easy prey for the
wolf. See what other sheep might spot, you won't. Easy pray for
the wolf, for the weather. You see, when you're congregated
together on the same roof together, you kind of shield one another
from the storm. We need each other. And it's
not a person in here who thinks they are needful. If I say to
Stan, Stan, I need you, buddy. I do. I mean it, buddy. I mean
that. I'm just trying to be religious here. I mean that. Stan will
say, you don't need me. I'm the least needful person
in here. Don't you think? That's what everybody says. Oh,
not me. You don't need me. Yeah, we do. We need each other. We need each other. Members of
the body. Isn't that what Paul said in Romans 12? Isn't that
what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12? Can I say to the foot, because
you're not the eye, I don't have any need of you? No, we need
you. If you're a little toe, we need you. We need one another. And listen to this. This is part
of the reason I wrote down several reasons why God in his wisdom
calls us sheep, why God in his wisdom would have us to congregate
together and meet together and not forsake the assembly of ourselves
together. This is why God is chosen by
the foolishness of preaching, getting a group of people under
the sound of some man. Yet God has chosen that to save
them which believe. Keep them saved. Not only save
them to begin with, but keep them that way. kept by the power
of God, restrained, constrained, all these good things, nurtured,
broke these things down. We need each other. We're members
of the body. We need to look out for one another.
Right? We need to look out for one another.
We see one another getting in a bad shape. You know, we don't
always see that in ourselves, do we? Like little children,
you know, they go for a while without eating properly and all.
They need their parents to tell them, hey, you're looking peaked. We need one another, we look
out for one another's welfare and so forth. I wrote this down,
the reason God would have us to congregate and the reason
he reveals himself to a people collectively. Now, God, I was
talking to the brethren earlier, Terry and John, you won't find
many examples in the scriptures, especially the New Testament,
of the Lord Now, the Lord saves men and women, people individually.
He sure does. He doesn't save them because
they all storm heaven, you know, and pray through and so forth.
He deals with men individually. But generally, most of the time,
when the Lord reveals himself in a powerful way, it's to where
two or three or more, not one man, not one man, maybe You know,
I pray that the Lord will reveal himself to me mightily in a mighty
way down there in the study, just so that I can impart it
to you. But most of the time, I get the greater blessing up
here. If the Lord's with us, I get as much or more blessing
now, here and then, now and then, together, for this reason, so that no man
will think he's more spiritual than anybody else. The Lord reveals
himself to people collectively, to a flock, so that no one man
will think he's more, he's got a, he's got a lock on God. Like
Jimmy Swigert, you know. Jimmy said, the Lord told me,
Jimmy, you're the only one I've got to carry out my work. Now
Elijah, Elijah had a good motive. Elijah said, Lord, they've torn
down your prophets, they've blasphemed you. I mean, they've killed your
prophets, they've torn down your altar, they've blasphemed your
temple, your holy name, and all this, and I'm the only one that's
out here preaching this gospel. The Lord said, no, no, no, no. Yeah, you're one of mine, Elijah,
but I got 7,000, buddy, and you ain't the only one. You're not
the only one I can use, either. I told the sovereign grace preacher,
Elijah, come on, buddy. No man's got a lock on God. No
man's got a personal line to heaven. God speaks to his people
collectively. So that no man will think he's
more spiritual than the rest of them. More accepted by God. This is
a family. Right? It's a family here. And I'm not the head. I'm not
the father here. We got one father. But you don't
call me Holy Father. Call no man. on earth, your father. You've got one father, right?
What am I? I'm a son just like you are.
Son or a daughter. We're all the same here. You
parents have had more than one children. Joe, do you prefer
Stephen over Sammy or Shannon? I don't think so. But you don't
really. There's no way about it, is there?
You love Shannon as much as you love Steve. You love Sammy as much as you Do Shannon,
don't you? You love them equally. They're
all your sons and daughters. You don't prefer. God's no respecter
of persons. He'll love a preacher more than
he does a people. That's what these foolish preachers think,
I believe. Oh, no. God says, I can cast you aside,
buddy. I can make a rock preach. It's
no big deal. We're family here. God has one
son, one well-beloved son. that he prefers. Oh yeah, God
can do that. Why? Because his sons are on
one worth living. The rest of us are adoptees.
We're adoptees. Sons of God. And we're not preferred
one over another. And there are many other reasons.
Now let's turn to Luke 24 and dwell here a little bit. There
are many other reasons why God reveals himself collectively.
But look here in our text, Luke 24. Remember Christ said where
two or three are gathered. Luke twenty four now it says
where two or three again. It doesn't say where it is about
it just say where or where where ever right wherever two or three
doesn't say where it is a particular place this is where two or three
gather together Paul said over there and the other in the church
I didn't say that in church house. He doesn't say that. And it says
don't forsake yourself, the assembly of yourselves together. Now there is a house. This is
the house where the church meets. Church house. It's where the
church collectively gets together. But you know the whole church
was over at Henry's house one day. That was the church house
for the time being, wasn't it? Yeah. And now there is a common
place, a meeting place of the church right here. Generally,
you'll find the church meeting right here at Route 5, Box 384,
Rocky Mount, Virginia. You'll find the church here at
Rocky Mount meeting together at this location where two or
three gather together in the Lord's presence, and I hope that's
why we're here every time. And if you truly desire to know
God, if you truly desire to have the fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ, where are you going to be come Sunday? Where are
you going to be come Wednesday night, if at all possible? Where
are you going to be? Oh, if you say with possible
power, oh, that I might know him and the fellowship of his
sufferings. Oh, I want Christ. He said, I
stand at the door and knock. To the church, that is. I stand
at the door and knock. If any man will open unto me,
I'll come in and sup with him. The Lord Jesus Christ come in,
sit down and have supper with you. Fellowship, communion, blessed
talking, fellowship and Feel his presence. Now, he says, where
two or three are gathered. Come Wednesday night, two or
three, two, twenty-three are gathered. That's where I'm
going to be, buddy. That's where I'm going to be.
Why? The Lord said he's going to be there. The Lord said he's going to be
there, and you will. You'll be here in this place whenever the doors
are open. Now look at Luke 24, verse thirty-three. Christ is
especially known in this way right here. Verse 33, And now
they rose up to Samire and returned to Jerusalem, and they found
the eleven gathered together. Now here were two men walking
on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and another fellow. They don't
mention his name. The Lord doesn't mention his name. Two or three
walking. You know the story. They're walking
on this road to Emmaus, and they were talking of all these things.
Well, later on, they came to Jerusalem and found the eleven
together they were assembled again they had not forsaken the
assembly of themselves together Joe they were met together in
an upper room and they were breaking bread and they were praying and
so forth that's in Acts chapter two and look at it verse thirty
three and they said they found the eleven together and then
them that were with them and I said the Lord is risen indeed
he's appeared to Simon and they told what things were done in
the way how that this The Lord had appeared to them and how
he was known of them in the breaking of bread. It says up there in verse 30,
the Lord sat at meat with them and took bread and blessed it
and gave it to them. He was known of them in the breaking
of bread. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
especially known to his people in the breaking of bread. We just read it, or we just sung
it. Break thou the bread of life. What is that? The Word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever. This Word. Man doesn't live by
bread alone, but by the incarnate bread. The Lord, who is that
bread come down from heaven. This Word of God. The Lord said
it pleased him by the foolishness of preaching to save them which
believe. What? Believe what? Believe the
gospel. The gospel. Well, the scripture
said, how are they going to believe in him whom they've not heard?
How are they going to hear without a what? Preacher. How is he going
to preach except he be sent? The preaching, the breaking of
the bread, primarily, is the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. The breaking of the bread. That's
how His people are known. The Lord is known of us in the
breaking of bread. The preaching of the person and
the work of Christ. The preaching of His righteous
life that we need to stand before this holy God. The preaching
of His shed blood. The very breaking of His body
for our sake. His shed blood, which we saw
Sunday morning. Christ is the bread. Isaiah 53
says, He shall grow up before the Lord as a tender plant, as
a root out of dry ground, and He'll bear fruit to the glory
of God. This is more than doctrine. This is a person of Christ, the
work of Christ. He'll grow up as a tender plant,
as a man, as a root out of dry ground, in a dry and thirsty
and dark place, and bear fruit to the glory of God, as man should
have. He'll become a full ear of corn.
You know how a stalk of corn becomes full and it begins to
be weighted down? He was made sin. The weight of
the world, the burden of this work. He said, I'm a man of sorrow,
acquainted with grief. And he was stoop-shouldered at
33 years old. Because he was full of corn,
full of fruits. And he fulfilled, he was fully
fulfilled all righteousness as a man. And like a stalk of corn
is cut down in its prime. The Lord Jesus Christ was cut
down. in his prime. And then he was
ground to powder upon that cross, under the hand of men, and then
hung on that cross. And then under the fiery sun,
or under the fiery wrath of God Almighty, he was, as it were,
Henry, cast in the oven, the fiery furnace for us, hell itself,
on the cross. And then they put him in a grave,
but he didn't stay there. He arose for our justification. He came forth, he said, I'm the
what? The bread of life. I'm the bread. And he nourishes us and satisfies
us when we believe him, trust him, depend upon him, commune
with him, and feed upon him. He becomes sweet bread. Not sourdough. Sweet bread. Sweet bread. And
all of this is in the context of people meeting together under
the preaching of the word. We see this. You don't see that
when you're sitting alone at home, do you? Have you ever been...
I can say the same thing. Well, yeah. Sitting down there in the study,
I've been blessed beyond belief sometimes. I feel like I'm not
sitting on my chair, you know. But up here, together, that's
where the Lord meets. That's where the Lord meets.
And that's where the bread is broken. And at this table, Sunday
night, I told Mendes, I don't know if anybody else got a blessing
in that study, but it just thrilled me. Sometimes I believe it may
be just for me and one other. Two? Three? But anyway, the Lord
meets together. Now turn to Acts chapter 2. Keep
your place there in Luke 24. Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter
2. And Christ truly comes. Where
two or three are gathered, He truly literally. He literally
comes, Vicki. You believe that? Do you? Well, you better believe it. You better believe it. Acts chapter
2. Look at verse 41. Acts 2. It says, Then they that gladly
received his word were baptized. baptized. They that gladly receive
his word, not reluctantly. Don't go to church because they're
supposed to. Go to church because they want to. Gladly receive
the word. Baptize. Who's going to receive
the word? Who's going to receive the table?
Those that confess Christ. Those that are really living
in communion with Christ. Those that really confess him,
really rejoice in the gospel of Christ. Those that walk with
him through the week. verse forty two and they continued
steadfastly continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine they
continued steadfastly they forsook not the assembly of themselves
together they forsook not the assembly of themselves together
they look forward to it they look forward to it and they were
always about their father's business There's one day when Mary and
Joseph, you know, when the Lord was just a twelve-year-old boy.
That's hard to even consider, isn't it? The Lord was a twelve-year-old
boy. At any rate, there's one day
they were coming back from Jerusalem, and they'd traveled, what, a
full day's journey? And they'd forgot him? Well,
that's typical, isn't it? And they turned around, and he's
gone! And they went looking for him. Where'd they find him? And what did he say when confronted
by his parents? What did he say? He said, well,
wouldn't you know it? Huh? Wouldn't you know it? Shouldn't
you know it? Where you'd find me? About my
father's business. What's our father's business,
Barbara? Huh? What's our father's business? Worship. Huh? And everything
that hath breath, what? Praise the Lord. Worship. This is family business here.
Only the family gets in on this business. You know? Oh, we're
partakers. We're partakers here. We're all
about the Father's business. We all have a stake in this.
You know? You've got a stake in this place. What if the Lord
shuts this building down? Huh? Is this a vital? You've
got a vital stake in this, what goes on here? The fact that the
gospel should remain here? Is that vital to you, Henry Sowell?
You got a stake here, buddy. This is our father's business.
We're all in the family business, Stan. We don't want to see her
fold, do we? No, sir. And we're all about
it. All about it. They continued
steadfastly. I heard some... I started to
call him what I think he is, but I won't now. He's more...
He'll be more polite than that. I heard some fellow... preached
from this text one time, and he was quite a learned fellow.
And his speech and his language said that, that he was quite
a learned fellow. But he never even got a spitting
distance of the gospel. He preached from this verse 42,
and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine And
you know he never once said what the apostles doctrine was. He
preached for forty five minutes on the faithfulness of the apostles
on their steadfastness on their diligence on their works on their
prayers on their in their attendance and all of it and never once
you know you heard it never once told what the apostles doctrine
was. Now that's a crime. Oh, Scott, say that's a mistake
in its execution, ought not to have been preached. The Apostle's Doctrine is what?
Tell me what the Apostle's Doctrine is. Don't just say you didn't
do it. Tell me what it is. Define the doctrine of the Apostle. Or you haven't preached it. You
haven't continued steadfast in it if you're not defining it.
Number one, it's the gospel of God's sovereign grace. Number
one, you've got to tell who God is. The sovereign God. Sovereign
Lord, Creator, Ruler, Controller over all things. The sovereign,
omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent One. God over all, forever blessed. You've got to tell the depravity
of man. You're not preaching the gospel. Unless you tell man
what he is, Christ ain't going to mean anything to him, is it?
Huh? Oh, he'll be a fire escape to
him, but he won't be a redeemer unless he sees his sins need
redeeming. Huh? Unless he sees himself bow before
this holy God, holy, sovereign God, then Christ is not going
to mean anything to him, is it? Huh? You've got to preach justification
by faith and faith alone in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
don't you? You didn't preach the gospel unless you've covered
it red with blood. Huh? All things are by the law
purged by what? Blood, blood. Without the shedding
of blood, without the preaching of blood, there's no remission
of sin. Justified by the blood of Christ,
not by my works, not by my morality, my religion, not by my steadfastness
in attending to the apostles' doctrine, but I'm justified by
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Sanctification
by the Spirit, regeneration. Regeneration, the work of the
Holy Spirit. If you preach that properly,
you'll not be begging men to do it. Regenerate them by that gospel.
Regeneration. There will be new creatures,
imputed righteousness. You've got to preach that, but
we don't have one, and we've got to have it. It's more than
a doctrine. It's a covering. It's our standing
before God. It's more than a doctrine. It's
the apostle doctrine, all right, but it's my hope of heaven. In fact, I've got a wedding garment
on. That's that wedding garment. Christ said there was a man that
stood before him one day who didn't have a wedding garment
on, and he said, cast him out. He was going to be weeping and
wailing. Another man is going to say, well, I did this, I did
that. You didn't have on a wedding garment. You didn't have on the
imputed righteousness of Christ. You had your own filthy rags
on. And if a man doesn't preach that, he's going to lead men
to think that there's something they can do for God, right? And it's
going to stick to God. Holiness and godliness. Preaching
what the end of all of this is. The doctrine, any man preach
not the gospel, the doctrine which is according to godliness.
For that is, the end of salvation is to conform us to the image
of Christ. And he says here, now that's the apostles' doctrine,
all right? That's the apostles' doctrine,
and that's what they continued steadfastly in. And fellowship
and breaking bread and prayers. Fellowship, breaking bread and
prayers. You know that this is truly a
full gospel fellowship? Huh? This is a full gospel fellowship. I know there's a lot of places
like to put that on their church names. This is full gospel fellowship,
because our gospel is full of the doctrine of Christ. Our gospel
is full of Christ. That's this full gospel here.
Our gospel is full with Christ. Our preaching is full of the
gospel. And you can't call it the full gospel fellowship unless
you're preaching and everything you do is full of Christ. All right. And in fear, it says,
fear came over them, ever so. And many wonders and signs were
done by the apostle, and all that believed were together,
and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods,
and parted them to all men. And as every man had need, and
they continuing daily with one accord," now this is what one
used to say here, one accord in the temple, in the church
house, breaking bread, and from house to house. You have a margin? It says at home. They went to
each other's home, did eat their meat, fellowship, rejoice together
with gladness, sing in singleness of heart, a purpose. All right. Christ meets with
his people in the fellowship of their homes. Yes, he does. I've proved this over and over
again. That song says, How I proved
him over and over. Now that doesn't mean that...
Do you understand that old Puritan term, prove him? That's what
Scripture said, prove. Prove how I proved him over and
over. It doesn't mean that he's on trial here and you say, well
now, if you hear who you say you are, you better do this now. No, no, no. What it means is
he's proved himself to you, or he's revealed himself to you,
and he's proved and persuaded you in your own mind and heart
that, yes, this is true. You weren't even out. He does
the proving. You don't prove him necessarily. But that's an old saying for
it. That means that you've experienced the blessings of the promises
that he has said. You've experienced, you've actually
felt and experienced the promises he's given you. You've proved
it. It's true. I know it's true. Christ meets
with his people in a fellowship of their own homes, a fellowship
of their own home. Go back to Luke 24 in our text.
And I said this at the outset, and I'll hurry. He said, where
two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them.
I'm going to say that twenty-five times before we leave here, that
we might know what he said. Where two or three are gathered
together, there am I in the midst of them. Now one time he appeared
and he said, Don't touch me. I have yet ascended to the Father.
What was that? What was that? What kind of bodily form was
that? We don't know. Could have been a spirit, some kind of,
she could see him, Mary, but she couldn't touch him. He came
and said, touch me, handle me. He was there literally both times.
Actually. I say literally, I mean actually.
Does Christ come actually? Yes, he does. Where? Where? Where two or three are gathered
together, there am I in the misty. There am I. And I said this at
the outset, if you get off by yourself and never fellowship
with God's people, you're going to miss a real blessing.
And you'll probably miss the Lord himself. So give me a scripture
for that. Thomas, I'll just give you the
name, Thomas. How did Thomas become human?
The Lord met with his disciples, came in there, and Thomas wasn't
around. Where was Thomas? What was he doing? What was Thomas
doing? Evidently, they all went fishing,
Joe. Evidently, Thomas hadn't got
back from fishing. It's trout season, you know. He's more interested
in trout season. The other fellas maybe got a
pang of consciousness. Let's go back and worship, fellas.
Let's pray. I don't want to stay out here
fishing. Let's go back out there and worship. Let's go back. And Thomas, I don't know where
Thomas was, but I know this, he missed the Lord. And Thomas
was riddled with doubt, wasn't he? That's what we call him,
isn't it? That's what we call somebody who doubted Thomas.
Somebody came and they said, the Lord's risen. Oh, you should
have been there. He's here indeed. He's risen
indeed. I won't believe it unless I see
the scars in his hand, touch the scar on his side. I don't
believe that. He didn't deserve to have the
Lord bring him back, did he? He didn't deserve to have the
Lord show to him. And I tell you what, when the Lord did that,
graciously proved himself to him. Thomas was so ashamed of
himself. The Lord came to him, Thomas was finally there, and
the Lord said, Before Thomas said a thing, he said to him,
reach in there. Touch him. My Lord, my God. How could I have doubted you?
What was that over here fooling around for? Well, you said you
were going to be there and you were. And he was riddled with
doubt, unbelief. He was suspicious of others.
He didn't believe the rest of the disciples. The rest of them
was out the same way, too. suspicious of others, filled
with envy and jealousy? Yeah, the Lord was with us. You
should have been there. Envy. It will fill you full of
envy and jealousy, wrath, anger, malice, bitterness. Yes, it will.
But you get together with others. You get together with others,
have them in your home and vice versa, and the Lord may bless
you Himself. Look at verse thirteen here.
Behold, two of them went that same day to a village called
Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three or four furlongs,
and they talked together of all these things which had happened.
And it came to pass that while they were talking together and
reasoning together, Jesus himself I had breakfast with a brother,
a dear brother, the other day. Sweet. I had a couple in our home, Sunday
night. We feasted on food. We feasted
on food, fellowship, talked of the scriptures. Shared one another's
songs and we shared our mutual woes. We sat there and confessed
our faults to one another. Helped one another. Donnie would
say we hoped one another. Hoped one another. Confessed
our faults to one another. Strengthened our relationship.
I think our relationship is a little bit stronger as a result of that
meeting together. Sure it is. See me as another brick in the
wall. Appreciate one another a little
bit more. And I hope our love grew. It won't unless you be
with one another. It just won't. I'm going down
to Brother Donnie Bell's. Oh, old buddy, I'm looking forward
to it. We're going to walk his hills, Stan. It never fails.
We get out there on the farm and we walk and we talk and it's
just like he's to a horse. The Lord draws near. I'm telling
you. Take a Bible along with us and
the Lord draws near. Walking the hills, sweet discourse. Old Pilgrim and his buddy Faithful
said they walked along together and they were talking. And Faithful said to Christian,
he said, Oh dear brother, let's have some sweet and edifying
and profitable discourse together. Okay, you start. Profitable conversation, and
you can anticipate The Lord Jesus Christ. I take this where two
or three are gathered together. These boys did, didn't they? And they said, look at verse
28, they walked along and boy, they got spiritual heartburn,
Joe. Kind of didn't want to get rid of either. Oh, he talked
with them. They didn't know he was yet.
You know, they didn't know he was, who he was. He was with
them. They didn't know it. They felt, they were having a
good time. They were enjoying this fellow's
fellowship. Be careful to entertain strangers, for some have entertained,
they entertain the angel of the Lord. Abraham didn't know who
those boys were that came to his tent that day. He just, he
just opened up his house. What if these fellows would have
said, As they walked along, as it says, verse 28, they drew
nigh unto the village where they went, and he made it as though
he was going to walk on. And they said, No, no, no, wait
a minute, come on in. Come on in. What if Cleophas'
wife said, Oh, the house is not straightened yet, don't go in.
I ain't clean the house, I ain't
got anything to eat. What? You got a can of beans? You going to miss out? Come on
in! Abide with us toward evening,
and the day is far spent." And he went in. Thank God, Dave,
thank God that he did. In verse 30, it came to pass
that he sat at meat with them, sitting there eating, just around
the regular table. He took bread, blessed it, and
gave it to them, and their eyes were open. Their eyes were open, and they
knew Him. They knew Him around the fellowship and the food and
with two or three. There was two or three together,
and Christ communed with them. And let me warn you once again,
in closing, if we remain reclusive and never open our homes, and
like I said, how important is this? I started this thing out,
but how important is it? Well, not only does the Lord
command it, but if you don't practice it, you may miss his
presence. And I know you won't miss a blessing. I know it. We remain reclusive,
never open our homes, begrudge hospitality at the express disobedience
to the Lord, who said, I read it in 1 Peter, grudging not.
Never entertain strangers. Not only will you miss a blessing
of the Lord's presence, but you will become. You'll become weak. and regularly yourself. And you'll
be like Thomas, doubting full of fears, nobody to help you. You'll be like a lone sheep.
You'll wander out there and all sorts of things. And you better
pray. We better pray that Christ does
not rebuke us finally someday and say unto us, I was hungry and you fed me not. I was homeless. I was lonely. I needed somebody,
and you didn't take me in. Isn't that the context of what
he's saying now? He said, inasmuch as you've done
it to the least of these my brethren, you've done it to me. Now, I've
mentioned that before. Whatever I do to Henry Soares,
same as doing it to Jesus Christ, right? Christ in you, literally. We being many, Paul said, are
one bread, one bread and one body, for we are all partakers
of that one bread. And Christ was known of them
in the breaking of bread. And that's not just right here.
Oh, He's known in a special way right here, a special way. But I fear that most of the time
we even partake of that. We're not. He doesn't mean to
us. Like what it ought to. And there's
been times when I've been around the fellowship of a believer,
another believer, around his table, her table, just talking,
and experienced this greater blessing in the public worship. And it wouldn't take anything
for it. And plan to do a lot more of it. Where two or three are gathered,
I'll be there. And that's what we want, isn't
it? Yes, sir. That's what we want. And I want
to love the brethren. I want to love you. Christ said
this is discipleship. Didn't he say this is how all
the men are going to know you're my disciple? All kind of people
put great stock in these various religions where they go out and
help one another and seem to be comrades and buddies and do
this and that and the other. We got the gospel here. This
is no religious clubhouse. We're not doing this to be seen
of men. But he did say, This is how men are going to know
you're my disciples. And he said, this is how you're going to help
one another. This is how you're going to grow. You're sheep.
You're sheep. Sheep have to flock. They just
have to flock together. Or they'll get into all sorts
of trouble. And I'll just go on record right here in saying
that I need you people. And I want to do without one
of you. And enjoy your company. I do. watch over come on me take
your shoes off sit down a second let's fellowship all right let's
sing that song again see if it has any more special meaning
to you this time 187 let's be the tide let's be the tide stand with
me and we'll sing it Let's be the tie that binds our
hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred might
is light to that of us. It's called a foretaste of glory
divine. What's heaven all about? You
know, heaven, Joe, we're not going to be by ourselves with
the Lord in heaven. Somehow or another, he's going to talk to
you. But everybody else is going to be there, you know. Heaven's
a congregation. That's another reason I forgot
to write down. Heaven is not individual. Heaven is a family. Congregation
of people meeting together and the Lord in their midst. OK,
let's sing verse two as our last. Before our father's throne, we
pour our ardent breath. Our fears, our hopes, our aims
are one. Our comforts and our cares. You're dismissed.