275: Wilfred Allyene - Cain and Abel

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:13

   Welcome to Good Chris Selfie and talks. I’m Levi. And I’m Chris. And I’m Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week with the short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you’re about to listen to. And now, let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Hey everyone, this is Jason Hensley and this week we are going to be listening to a talk by brother Wilfred Aileen. Further, Wilfred, I think, was a school teacher, if I got that right.

2. 1:01

   And at least if he wasn’t, he very much presents information like a teacher. So I think you’re going to enjoy it. I want to just give you a little bit of background here on what it is you’re going to listen to. This is Cain and Abel and one of the things that I really love about it is he often does what he referred to as reading between the lines. What I mean by that is he will often say, now I want to suggest this to you, brothers and sisters, and he’ll present evidence for why he thinks we should understand the story in that way.

3. 1:35

   I don’t always agree with him and I think that’s fine. We don’t have to agree on everything. But what’s really good about it is this. Reading between the lines I think helps us remember these stories are real. So as we listen to him on Cain and Abel, I hope that that’s something that we can really take from this. This happened.

4. 1:53

   And when we read these stories, we do want to read between the lines. We want to spend time thinking about how did this play out? How did this actually happen? So this is Brother Wilfred, Eileen on Cain and Abel. It’s originally given yet Idlewild Bible School 1982. I hope you enjoy it. I understand, relative sisters, that there have been a large number of inquiries as to just where I come from, who I am and what I do.

5. 2:26

   So, so perhaps to save you asking too many more questions, perhaps I can just tell you briefly who I am. My name’s Wilfred Ali. I was born in the West Indies in a country called British Guyana. As was it’s now called Guyana. It’s on the North Coast of South America. I lived for about 8 years in Trinidad, two more years or thereabouts in Barbados, and for the last 10 or so years I’ve been living in Birmingham in England with my wife Sue, who’s sitting over there looking very red.

6. 3:03

   So I hope that settles any questions in your mind. Remember that South America is just below North America. Over on that, on that side, this morning we are going to deal with Cain and Abel. But first of all, I’d just like to recover or recapitulate a few of the things we said yesterday.

7. 3:32

   We saw that the Garden of Eden I suggested to you, was a temple to the living God. We suggested that Adam was God’s high priest, that Eve and the children that they would later have would have been the people of God. We suggested that the fault or the main sin in the in this unhappy incident in Genesis chapter three was really Adam’s fault and God himself puts the blame on Adam 10 times in Romans chapter 5. And All in all, you have probably gathered that I don’t have a particularly high opinion of Adam himself. I have a far higher opinion of Eve in this particular instance here, because notice that to her is the promise of the Messiah between thy seed and her seed.

8. 4:28

   And if that’s not a blessing, I’m not quite sure what is. And my impression of Adam is rather confirmed. When we come into the 4th chapter of the Book of Genesis. We find in the first verse this simple statement, perhaps to which you’ve not given due weight. And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and she said I have gotten a man from the Lord.

9. 5:05

   Now there’s a problem in the translation of that verse. Many of the versions have have it in different ways, and the problem arises from one peculiar fact about Hebrew. In Hebrew there’s a particle, a small word, which cannot be translated into English, and it’s the word is and it always, or very, very, very, very often, marks out the object of a sentence. So when we read that, she said I have gotten a man from the Lord. The problem in translation is that it really says I have gotten a man is the Lord.

10. 5:50

    In other words, the word the Lord is the object of that sentence. Which means, I suppose, that what she is really saying, that I have gotten a man, and that man is the Lord. That Eve is really saying. That this man Cain, who I have now begotten, is probably the one who God promised me back in Genesis chapter 3, Thy seed and her seed, who is going to bruise thy head.

11. 6:22

    And if you accept that concept, then you see that Eve is exercising the greatest faith in the promise of God in Genesis chapter 3. And it’s it’s another little mark, another little pointer in the direction that this woman really was a woman of faith. And you notice it’s not her husband that names a child. He doesn’t seem to be interested. He doesn’t seem to care.

12. 6:46

    Maybe that’s pitching it too strongly, but certainly it is Eve who does the naming of Cain. But now, brothers and sisters, let’s leave that point there for a moment and we’ll return to it later on. And now let’s have a look at the other concepts that there was a very great amount of knowledge of God and of his laws in the book of Genesis.

13. 7:13

    Remember I suggested to you yesterday that the Garden of Eden was a temple. A temple is not without its rights. A temple is not without its laws, its regulations, and the instructions which govern the behavior of those who go into it. Now we also notice in chapter three that there is the institution of sacrifice because the Lord God makes coats of skins and clothes them to cover their nakedness, to cover their skin. And in that one verse, we also have the institution of animal sacrifices, as distinct from plant sacrifices, that the sacrifice of an animal, the shedding of blood, would put away sin.

14. 7:58

    I think sometimes we do, the people in the book of Genesis particularly, a great injustice in thinking that they were, well, they didn’t have quite as much understanding as we have. I think that’s completely wrong. These men in the book of Genesis described from the very beginning here and coming down to our time. These men were our fathers, and the children are very nearly greater than their fathers.

15. 8:22

    And since we, with our brains and modern technology, our inventions and so forth, have produced all of these wonderful things we see in our cities, then the potential at least, must have been present in the brains of these men. They weren’t fools. They were intelligent, logical, reasonable people. Wicked, yes, but none. Not thick, not stupid. And now let’s have a look when it says through the book of Genesis.

16. 8:50

    Just a quick scamper through the book of Genesis, let’s look at some of the indications of how much was known about the sacrifices and the demands of God. Have a look with me for instance at verse 16 of chapter 4. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Now how can you go out from the presence of the Lord?

17. 9:14

    The presence of the Lord is everywhere. God is everywhere by his Spirit. Therefore this expression, the presence of the Lord, must mean something else. And what I take it to mean is that it means the place where God had put his name, where God was worshipped, where God met with men, the place where the Lord was present.

18. 9:35

    King goes out from the presence of the Lord. Let’s go down a bit into chapter 14 of Genesis and notice there the description of Melchizedek, Genesis chapter 14 and verse 18. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. And he was priest of the Most High God, and he blessed him.

19. 10:07

    And he blessed and said, blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. So there were priests. Melchizedek was a priest. Abraham, you recall the Psalm says was also a prophet. Look down a bit further and we see there in the Where are we in the 14th verse? I’m sorry, the 24th verse.

20. 10:36

    I’m sorry, I’ve lost my reference. Verse 21 and the king of Sodom says to Abraham give me the persons and take the goods to thyself.

21. 10:48

    I’m sorry. I’ve really lost this verse where it says that Abraham gave him tithes. He paid him tithes of all that’s he had taken from these men. Verse 20 That’s right. I’m sorry. Thank you very much. And blessed be the most high God, which has delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave him tithes a 10s of all.

22. 11:11

    So they had the practice of tithing as well. Let’s think also of Noah offering up the sacrifices after he came out of the ark. Let’s think also of Abraham offering sacrifices unto God. Let’s think into the book of Exodus, where Jethro is described as a priest of Midian. Let’s think also of Tamar, who was threatened with being burnt because she was an adulteress, and you begin to see that there are a great deal. There’s a great deal more to suggest that these people worship God in the way that is appointed in the Law of Moses than perhaps you would first thought. And at this point I’d like to suggest to you that you have a good look at Blunt’s undesigned scriptural coincidences. He goes into great detail there and collects a lot of this information into a very short space and I couldn’t do a better job than he has done.

23. 12:13

    Blunts on Design Scriptural Coincidences is a book which is highly recommended reading for every Christadelphian who believes that this is the word of God. It is a most wonderful compilation, but let’s go back to the story of Cain and Abel, back to Genesis Chapter 4.

24. 12:34

    Now let’s put ourselves into the picture correctly here. It says in verse one that she bare Cain and said I have gotten a man, even the Lord who is the Lord. She thought that Cain was the seed who would deliver them from the sins. Verse two, she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

25. 13:11

    So Abel was a shepherd. Cain was an agriculturalist, a farmer. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being an agriculturist, a farmer. There’s nothing wrong with being a shepherd. There’s nothing, no great virtue in being a shepherd over being someone who deals with produce from the ground. There is no great virtue in it, but what there is expressed very clearly, I think, in this story, is the principle of obedience to the will of God. Let’s read the next verse.

26. 13:46

    It came to pass in the process of time that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. Now when it says in the process of time, if you have a look in your margin there, it helps us. Where it says at the end of days, it means at the end of the year, the days of the year.

27. 14:17

    A year had gone round and it had come to its end. What’s so special about the end of a year? Well, brother, sisters, think back with me into the love of Moses. Now, you recall that the first month was the month that the Passover took place, the month of Nissan. So in the seventh month was the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast of in gathering the Feast of Trumpets in the seventh month.

28. 14:50

    And the 7th month was also the first month of the Jewish civil year. So it was the beginning of a new year and the end of an old one. And I suggest to you, this is what’s happening here. It is at that time of the year round there in that part of the calendar that the feast of Ingathering or a feast of Ingathering is taking place.

29. 15:14

    And they’re all coming to the Lord with these fruits of the ground on Cain’s part. And Abel bringing the flocks that he had, he had brought, that he had reared. But there’s trouble, trouble in the family. Cain is the older brother. Abel is the younger, now the older brother. In all of the families of Scripture, going down up to the time of the time that God chose Levi, the eldest brother was always the one who was the priest of the family. Remember, God took Levi instead of the first born. The eldest, the eldest brother, was the priest of the family. So in this case here, Cain is the priest of the family, Abel is less than him.

30. 16:05

    Abel is inferior. But since Cain is the priest of the family, and the priest S lips should keep knowledge and he should know about the regulations that God has commanded, Cain knew. Cain should have known that God did not want vegetable sacrifices instead of animal sacrifices for the putting away of sin. He knew. There’s no doubt about it.

31. 16:28

    In my mind. He knew full well that that was the case. And he brings of the fruit of the ground and offering to the Lord here God, this is what I’ve got. You take it or you leave it. Abel, on the other hand, is different. Notice that fourth verse. And Abel he also brought, and I think you should read that as meaning that Abel brought.

32. 16:58

    In addition to the firstlings of the flock, he also brought the fruit of the ground. It’s two sets of things that are being described here. He also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fact thereof. Notice, brothers and sisters, the firstlings of his flock, that which was demanded for that which was demanded by God in sacrifice. Notice the fat thereof.

33. 17:26

    Remember, in the law of Moses the fat was specially holy to the Lord, and you they were it was not to be eaten. Abel brings animal sacrifices and the fat thereof, clear evidence that they knew what God wanted and that God had told them what he wanted to. Abel is careful. Abel brings exactly what God demands, and a bit more.

34. 17:48

    Cain. Who cares, says Cain. I don’t. And it says in the fifth verse, I’m sorry, the end of the fourth verse. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. And one of the versions, one of the ancient versions, translates that as he sets it on fire, he sets it on fire, as it were.

35. 18:13

    The opposite, on the altar and down from heaven comes fire consumes the offering of Abel, and there’s the offering of Cain sitting there in his baskets. And God doesn’t really want to know. And so to Cain verse 5, and to his offering, he had not respect. He didn’t want to know. And so Cain is angry.

36. 18:36

    And Cain was very Ross, and his countenance fell. I think, brothers and sisters, that this is what we might describe as a public humiliation of Cain. Don’t think for one moment that these are little boys. They are not little boys. They are in their 30s. I’m fairly sure they are grown men. And by this time Adam and Eve must have had other children as well. And those children must have had children. And I would not be surprised in the slightest to find out that Cain had got children and that Abel had had children. I don’t know.

37. 19:14

    But I would not be surprised at all to find that out. And everybody’s gathered, as we are today, perhaps, to worship the Lord. There’s Cain bringing his offering there, and Abel bringing his offering there. And down from heaven comes the fire, burns up the sacrifices and leaves Cain untouched. And everybody says to themselves, well, God doesn’t want Cain’s offering, And Cain is very wroth, and his countenance fell.

38. 19:42

    And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest? Well, if you do the right thing, That which I have commanded you, shalt thou not be accepted. And that doesn’t make sense. But if we look at the marginal rendering of that, you’ll see it says, If thou doest well shalt thou not have the Excellency.

39. 20:17

    And that doesn’t make much sense either, does it? But if you turn with me now to the 49th chapter of the book of Genesis, to Genesis, chapter 49, and the third verse, you’ll see another instance of the Law of Moses, or the Law which was codified in the Law of Moses, in operation here, Genesis 49 and verse 3. Reuben, Thou art my first born, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the Excellency of dignity, and the Excellency of power unstable as water.

40. 21:03

    Thou shalt not revised version, have the Excellency, because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed, then defileth thou it. He went up to my couch. In other words, Reuben had defiled his father’s bed, and had been thrown out from being the first born. He had been thrown out from the privileges of being the eldest son.

41. 21:26

    He had lost it, and they had been transferred to Joseph and to Judah. Now, in Genesis Chapter 4, it’s the same thing. If thou doest well, shalt thou not have the Excellency be the first born, be the priest, be the one that I accept the one that has all the rights and the privileges. So of course you would.

42. 21:48

    Of course he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to know. Next bit of the sentence makes even less sense. And if thou doest well, If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. That’s the most difficult piece of Scripture to understand. But let’s see what it means. First of all, if he doesn’t do well, sin is lying at the door.

43. 22:19

    What door? Answer the door of the Tabernacle. The door of the place where they were meeting, the door described Of the place, the door of the place described as the presence of the Lord. There’s a door. What about sin lieth at the door? Well, I understand that in Hebrew, the word for sin can just as easily be understood to mean a sin offering. And what this could mean is that if thou doest not well, a sin offering is lying at the door.

44. 22:58

    In other words, Abel, his brother, had brought sheep to and put them, and left them outside the door of the sabonacle, out there as a sin offering, as a possible sin offering for his brother, if only his brother would accept it. If thou doest not, well, there’s a wave to cleanse your sin. It’s outside there, lying at the door. You’ve got to take it.

45. 23:25

    And unto thee shall be his desire. Abel’s desire. Abel will look up to you, because once more you are the high priest instead of him, and thou shalt rule over him. Abel, because of your iniquity, Kane, you are in this miserable position. I have rejected you. But there’s a way back. Take it and you will have the Excellency once more.

46. 23:56

    Well, there are some people you can talk to like that, and there are some people you can’t. And Cain is obviously one of those that you can’t. And Cain, verse 8 talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

47. 24:20

    Brothers and sisters. If ever you needed proof that these were not little boys, here it is. Little children don’t get up and smash stoned into the skulls of their brothers. But this is a grown man, full of hatred, full of anger, full of wrath, picking up a stone or a knife or something and smashing his brother into the ground with it, breaking his skull in. There’s Abel, lying on the ground, quite dead. But Kenny isn’t a fool.

48. 24:48

    He buries him. He must bury him. Can’t leave him to lie out in the field like that. And we know this because of the 10th verse. Thy the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground brackets where you have buried him, and dug a hole, and stuck him, stuck him in Cain. Where is Abel, thy brother?

49. 25:14

    As if God didn’t know. Brothers and sisters, this is a consistent feature of Scripture. All the way through that God gives them a chance to turn round and to repent. Cain, where is Abel thy brother? Where is he? God knew Adam. Where art thou? He knew where he was. Saul. Saul, why persecutest thou me? He knew, but he’s not asking him to improve his knowledge. He’s asking him to give him an opportunity to repent. Where is Abel thy brother?

50. 25:55

    Had Cain said I have slain him, then you can see that the relationships would have been different. But not Cain? I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? He’s still asking. I know what you’ve done. What hast thou done? Confess. The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. I can hear him crying, says God.

51. 26:32

    I can hear him. He’s dead, and I know that you’ve killed him. And now cursed art thou from the ground, which has opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

52. 27:02

    And now then, sister, we come to the strangest, I think, quite the strangest part of the story, This 13th and 14th verse, I think. And I may be pitching it too strongly, and I hope you’ll forgive me if you think I am. I think that in this verse Cain confesses, and Cain is forgiven.

53. 27:29

    Look at the proof of this, Cain said unto the Lord margin. My iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. My iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. He admits to God the enormity of the crime that he has committed. I have killed him, and it’s too much to expect forgiveness for this. Behold verse 14.

54. 28:07

    Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth. And from thy face shall I be hid because I’ve sinned. You will not turn your face towards me. You will turn away from me, your God, and I shall be a fugitive and a Vagabond in the earth. And here now in the next verse, and the next part of the verse, is another illustration of the law of Moses, that it shall come to pass, that everyone or revised version, whosoever findeth me, shall slay me. It’s an element of the law of Moses. When someone was slain, the avenger of blood went after him to kill him.

55. 28:53

    And he says, this is the avenger of blood that Cain’s worried about here. Maybe Abel’s children, I don’t know. And God says this is not going to be so. Now, my sisters, we have this question mark of this sign or this mark that is put upon Cain. What exactly was it? Well, just before we try to answer that question, can I just review briefly the elements of the Law of Moses that we found in this chapter so far?

56. 29:27

    There’s blood sacrifice, there’s fat, there’s a priesthood. There’s the law of the first born. There’s the law of the avenger of blood. There’s the law of displacing the first born if he didn’t behave himself. We see sin offerings, we see a Tabernacle. We see the law against murder. We see punishment of crime. All these things are elements of the Law of Moses. And now can it be a surprise that this last fifteenth verse here that we’ve come to contains another one? When a man was going to flee from the avenger of blood, where did he go?

57. 30:08

    Answer. He went to a city of refuge. And I think this is what is happening here, that God appoints a place of refuge for Cain where he would be safe from the avenger of blood, so that he would not be slain by that man who had come after him. And where is that place likely to be? There weren’t any cities, or not that we’re told of. There weren’t any cities, but there is. Where was a place verse 16.

58. 30:39

    And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. You remember when Solomon sent his captain to slay Joab? Do you remember what Joab did? Joab fled. Joab ran where to the Tabernacle and took hold of the horns of the altar. And Solomon said, go and get him out of there and kill him. Because the horns of the altar, the Tabernacle, was one of the places of refuge, one of the cities of refuge. And therefore I suggest that what’s happening here is that God has God says to Cain, right?

59. 31:20

    Cain, I will appoint a place of refuge for you, but it is in my Tabernacle. You have got to stay there. If you go out, you will be slain, and your blood will be on your own head. Well, the Tabernacle is the Tabernacle. It’s the place of worship of God. It is the place where those whose hearts are right before God we will find some rest and some ease, and be glad and rejoice.

60. 31:50

    But Cain, the atmosphere of holiness is far too much for people like him. He can’t stand it, and he stays there for a while, and then he can’t stand and he goes out. Verse 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch. And he builded a city.

61. 32:20

    Why does he build a city? It’s his own city of refuge where he thought he was going to be safe. And he calls the name of the city after his son Enoch. And so, brothers and sisters, another sorry story, a man forsaking willfully, deliberately, with malice aforethought, the privileges which God has given to him.

62. 32:49

    Let us, as I said yesterday, take time out once a week, or twice a week or more, if possible, to sit down and reckon up our privileges before God and say to ourselves, just how much do we value these privileges, and let us act as if we do. And what about Abel, the blood of the Lord Jesus?

63. 33:15

    It says, speaketh better things than that of Abel. I just to this point that I’d like to diverge a bit for the rest of this session, for the next 10 minutes or so.

64. 33:31

    Abel was a shepherd. So was the Lord Jesus. Out of thee shall come forth he that shall be ruler or shepherd of my people. Israel and those in the New Testament are also called shepherds. Can we turn to the first of Peter and look briefly at some of the functions of shepherds? Look briefly at that which the shepherds had to do first of Peter, Chapter 5 and verses one to four has a profound exhortation that come from this,

65. 34:22

    and some which need to be drawn out at length The elders verse one, which are among you. I exhort who I’m also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Now notice carefully that this is to the elders, the senior members of the meeting. The arranging brethren feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof.

66. 35:05

    Not by constraint, because somebody’s twisting your arm to do it, but willingly, not for filthy Luca, because you’re getting paid for it, but of a ready mind because you want to do the job. Neither as being Lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

67. 35:41

    Those words need serious thought. The elders are being called the shepherds. What’s a shepherd? A shepherd is somebody who looks after his sheep. Another instances, a shepherd must be a man or a woman who knows the state of the flock. Who cares about the state of the flock? Who cares about his or her brethren and sisters.

68. 36:08

    We are all, when it boils down to it, somebody’s shepherd or the other. Look around your meeting. There are those there who are strong in the faith. They’ve been there for years. They are firm. They can resist all manner of temptations and problems. They are the pillars of the meeting. Those need to turn in their turn now and help others, Those who are young in the faith, those who have marital problems, those who have difficult children, those who have teenage children that are pre presenting problems.

69. 36:47

    All of these and many more situations arise which need the compassionate eye of a shepherd. Which shepherd do you think would say to himself? Right? This sheep of mine is sick. Kick him out of the flock. I have done well. I’m. My flock is now safe. Which shepherd would do that? It would be a grievous loss to him if he did such a thing, brothers and sisters. And so it should be when one of our brethren is sick. He wants to leave the meeting because he has believed something that is not we think is not true. What’s the first step that we should take? The last step that we should take is to kick him out of the door.

70. 37:37

    The first step should never ever be that. It should be to go to him with the attitude that we are a shepherd, we are shepherds. We care about this man or this woman. We are interested in your problems. Let’s talk about it, discuss it sympathetically rather than with a rod. I very rarely read in scripture anywhere else about a shepherd taking a rod and beating his sheep.

71. 38:03

    Very, very rarely and yet so often. This is our attitude. That’s the very first sign of trouble. We cut off, we chop, we shove to one side, we act, we we do everything that a shepherd would never do. Yes, there comes a time when the infection is too great, when it does need cutting off.

72. 38:27

    But it should then be done, if at all, with love, with great sorrow, with regret, rather than saying to ourselves, ah well, he’s gone. Now problems are finished. We can get on with the business of being in the truth too often. Is it like that brother and sisters tend the flock of God, which is among you. Feed them, heal them, give them water to drink, look after him. Because sheep are basically stupid. And if it’s doesn’t please you to be liking to a sheep, then please rest assured it’s not me that’s doing it. It’s the word of God.

73. 39:07

    Sheep are basically stupid and those who have intelligence need to be the ones that take great care of these sheep. I’m very much minded brothers and sisters of the 40th chapter of the book of Isaiah. Perhaps I can just draw your attention briefly to them to that passage. Isaiah chapter 40 needs a bit of serious meditation concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with wonderful passage dealing with Jesus verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him.

74. 39:49

    Ah, there we have it. We’re going to beat them. Black and blue is it. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his arm, because they’re too little. Their legs just won’t hold them up for the journey that they’re going.

75. 40:16

    He shall carry them in his bosom, and he shall gently lead those that are with young. Is that a description of the way? You shepherd your particular flock, your you husbands, your wife and your children, you mothers, your children and your neighbours and acquaintances, you preachers. Is this how you preach to the outside? Or do you take the stick and beat them over the head with it until they see the truth?

76. 40:49

    Or at least see stars, brothers and sisters? Is is this is so totally removed from that sort of spirit, isn’t it? He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. When they need food, he’ll take them to the right place where they can get some grass that they might enjoy and eat. He shall gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom. There’s a picture of a of a shepherd with one lamb there, perhaps another lamb there, walking along, going to back to the fold or wheresoever but taking care of them, so that the big, the Rams and the others won’t trample on them won’t but them won’t shove them to one side. He shall gently lead those that are with young the pregnant use the ones who are bearing children, the ones who are preaching in our midst, the ones who are about to give birth to children.

77. 41:51

    You can’t treat the mother who’s just about to have a baby seven months along and you can’t treat her like a long distance runner.

78. 42:02

    He shall gently lead those that are with young, push them if they need help, but certainly help you see the spirit of it. It’s not at all one of beating, pushing, pounding, kicking, biting, gouging, scratching. It’s loving. That’s the word, I think, that describes this. He loves his sheep. He laid down his life for his sheep, Our brothers and sisters, before you cut one of those sheep off, before you amputate them, before you throw them to the wolves outside there, think once, twice, 10 times, because that is a person for whom Christ died.

79. 42:48

    You didn’t die for them. Maybe if you died for them, you could throw them out. But think. Feed the flock of God which is among you. Let us each look round in our own circles and see those for whom we are shepherds. Let us see whether we are giving them the appropriate and correct instruction, whether we are building them up rather than tearing them down.

80. 43:16

    Brothers and sisters, the theme of a shepherd is a wonderful one. It demands much more meditation than, unfortunately, we can give. This morning, Cain killed his brother because his brother was good. Let us follow the example of that man and the Lord Jesus, and do good to our brethren, however ungrateful and ungracious they might be as a result of it.

81. 43:44

    That’s what God would have us do. We’ll conclude with a word of prayer. Oh Lord, the Almighty, our shepherd, our keeper, our guard, our guide, and our friends, We raise our hearts to Thee this morning in thanks, and in love, and in adoration for the wonders of thy word, and for the beauty that is in his pages.

82. 44:10

    And thanking thee for the love that thou hast shown to us, the sinful sons of men to call us thy children. Help us, O Lord, to value or write our privileges, that we should take them up with strong hands and walk with faith and with love and with hope before thee in the paths of righteousness all the days of our life.

83. 44:36

    Hear our prayer, O Lord our God and our shepherd, and accept our Thanksgiving through Christ Jesus who died for us. Amen. Thank you for listening to the good Crystal Adelphian Talks Podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes.

84. 45:10

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85. 45:53

    God bless and talk to you next week.