No. 36 - ACTS OF SERVICE, PART II By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, December 06, 2003 This sermon is “Acts of Service, Part II”. In Part I we learned that we as the body of Christ have been given one another for a very important purpose. That purpose, of course, is to develop holy righteous character. We are to become like God Himself in the way that He loves and has compassion for His creation, most specifically, for humanity created in His image and likeness. We learned that it is by trading amongst one another (among the body of Christ) but also among the world itself. By buying, selling, trading and acts of love and service toward one another we develop this character. We do this first among the household of faith but then we extend that same love, mercy and compassion to everyone we meet. In order to refresh our memories we are going to read a few scriptures that we read in the first sermon and then jump right into today’s sermon. I would like to start by turning to John chapter 13 because it is by our love for one another and then toward the world that we can be identified as the body of Christ. Read John 13:31-35 where Christ is speaking. So undeniably if we are to help the world by example, we must love and care for one another and, of course, extend that love to them. If we do not have love within the body of Christ, we actually hide the identity of Christ! We hide the knowledge of the scriptures from the world, which of course is doing Christ a disservice. We learned that this love is what will give us boldness when Christ returns. The only thing we can offer God is the love that we have developed and the character that we have like His. That character allows us to be like Him. When we face Christ at His return, if we have many acts of love and service and we have developed tremendous love for our fellow man and for one another, we will be rewarded as such. We will be given a bold feeling when we face Christ. If our love reservoir is empty, we are going to be very worried indeed when we face Christ. That is the concept. Now let us turn to I John 4. We will read a little bit about love. I John 4:17 says: “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” In other words, when we are like Christ we can have a certain boldness because we are like Him. We do this by developing love. That is how we are perfected in Him. Continuing in I John 4:18. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.” If we develop love amongst one another and for the body of Christ and love for our fellow man, we have nothing to fear from God or our fellow man. Perfect love casts out all fear. But if we have filled our character with hatred, animosity, or greed, or harsh judgment toward the world, then we have lots to fear when Jesus Christ returns because we are in opposition to Him. We are hiding His love. We are doing the opposite of what Jesus Christ Himself came to do and what the Father wants to see done on earth. It is very important that we develop holy righteous character through acts of service. Our faith is known by our deeds. Faith without works is dead. Now, if you would, turn to Hebrews 10 and we will see this boldness spoken of once again. Read Hebrews 10, verses 19-25. Obviously if these words were critical for the brethren to hear 2,000 years ago, how much more critical is it for us today upon whom the true end of the ages is right at the door! Christ’s second coming is a very short distance off in time. If we want to have boldness as we enter the holiest place before God the Father, we need to develop love like Jesus Christ had. We need to do that quickly while we still have time to do so. Because our boldness, our assurance or lack of fear you can say, will be based upon what we have done with our life to grow in holy righteous character. That is based upon our love, our mercy, our compassion and our outgoing concern for our fellow man, most specifically the body of Christ. A TRANSITION BETWEEN HARVESTS I want to make a transitional concept from what we learned in Acts of Service, Part I; because we understand that we, as first fruits, now have a limited amount of time to work or develop these traits. Christ is soon going to the big harvest, which is just around the corner! When the knowledge of the truth and the methods of how to become like Christ spread throughout the world, this huge harvest that is just ahead of us must have a transitional period between the first fruit harvest and that harvest. Obviously, there must be a space of time to grow another harvest. Then what God does before He goes to that second harvest is He locks aside the first harvest. He sets it aside and says I will deal with you later because We have more work to do for the rest of the world, the rest of the harvest. We are in this transitional period so we need to understand some transitional concepts. We read the last time the parable of the ten virgins. I want to go back to Matthew, look at that a little bit and talk about this last era and some of the instructions to the last era of God’s Church (the Laodicean Era), which we find ourselves alive in now. Go to Matthew 25. We are all familiar with the parable of the ten virgins. Let us read it again just to familiarize ourselves and refresh our memories. BUY AND SELL SPIRITUALLY Read Matthew 25:1-13. This is a warning we have read and heard many times in the past. There is a limited amount of time to get ready, and God says to the ten virgins you have all been sleeping. Some of you have oil and some of you do not. To those who do not have it, the five wise say now you go buy some. So this concept enters the equation of buying and selling. We connected this to the parable of the talents, which is also in Matthew 25 which is a parable about buying, selling and trading. We realize God is not telling us with the time we have to go out and get rich physically. We are not told to go out and buy and sell stocks, bonds, real estate or to make wise investments to become wealthy. We are told with the time that we have left in our lives, buy and sell with that time with our energy and resources, and use it to develop spiritual resources. If you were to follow the parable of the talents still in Matthew 25, you come to the separation that Christ does at His judgment time when He returns, between the sheep and the goats. Let us read this again in Matthew 25:31-46. This is a sobering concept to wrap our minds around. God Himself is going to return and show us how we failed by not responding to the needs of the least of our brethren. Or He will show us how we succeeded by responding to the needs of the least of our brethren, even in cases when we did not know we did it! The concept was not buying and selling physically. The concept was buying and selling spiritually. Many people do not understand this concept, but they may have the love to trade. We have the concept. We understand this so it is even more incumbent upon us to do so. But we need to help those who do not understand while there is still time. Buy and sell what? Love and acts of service is what we need to do. I want to connect a few scriptures, and we are going into the new part of the sermon now. Let us turn to Revelation 13. There are many people in the world and in the churches afraid of some physical power on earth that is going to make it impossible to buy and sell the goods of this life. They are very afraid of a chip in their forehead, a credit card, a number or whatever that would prevent them from buying and selling. We just saw what God considers buying and selling so let’s take that knowledge now back into the Book of Revelation. Read Revelation 13:11-18. People have tried to figure out who this is for thousands of years now, not realizing God is not talking about physical buying and selling. God is talking about spiritual buying and selling. The whole world is in the pocket of Satan the devil because of deception. He is the god of this world. Revelation 12:9 says the whole world is deceived. God is saying at a point in time those who have understanding (we saw that in Matthew 25) are no longer going to have time to buy and sell. Remember the five foolish virgins were told to go buy and sell and they said we can’t. The market place is closed and we cannot get anymore. But the world still can! The only ones who can buy and sell in the big harvest are those who are part of the big harvest. That is what we are being told here. You can see it by continuing in Revelation 14. Read Revelation 14:1-5. We just read the parable of the ten virgins as is mentioned in verse 4. You have the 144,000, the first fruits dealt with. Now the only ones who can go buy and sell is the rest of the world. That is the point we are getting to in time. The rest of the world is going to learn how to do this. We should have been doing it for the last 2,000 years and specifically since our baptism. We should have been doing this. The Christian church has been doing this for 2,000 years. They learned it from Christ. It should have been passed down, passed down and passed down to our generation. We found we dropped the ball when it got to our time. This is why it is scary because Christ shows us in the parable of the ten virgins that some first fruits did not do it right. They did not develop love, mercy and compassion. They did not treat their brethren in the body of Christ well, and they did not treat the world well. They were very harsh in their judgments so they end up getting separated as described by the sheep and goats. We do not want to make that error. We do not have a whole lot of time to correct this. The Churches of God need to correct this now. As we can see, these are the first fruits, and we are going to prove it again in Revelation. Back up to Revelation 11. There are two groups that are mentioned here: the first fruits and then the big harvest. Revelation 11, starting in verse 1. “Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.’” We see the temple of God, which we know from our studies is the first fruits, is measured first. Then God in a very orderly and systematic way goes to the next harvest because now we are ready to start working with the rest of the world. They can buy and sell from Me right now, but I am done with the first fruits. We are in that transition period. Exactly how long this will last we do not know. But while we still have time, we best buy from God and buy from one another. We buy from God by doing for each other. We are all representative of the body of Christ. It is very important to understand that we buy from Christ by working with the body of Christ. What we produce for God is our spiritual crop. It is very, very valuable to God, because our spiritual crop is what becomes His raw material to work with on our behalf, and of course eventually for the whole world’s behalf. This happens in a number of ways that we develop this crop for God. Our mercy, our love and our compassion bear a crop for God. It does it in a number of ways. How harshly we judge people and treat them is one way. 1. DO NOT JUDGE HARSHLY Turn to Matthew 7. Read Matthew 7:1-5. God clearly says do not judge harshly because the way the system is devised I have to use your measuring stick against you! We have developed in our character our own measuring stick. What did we see in Revelation 11? We are measured by a measuring stick and it is to see where we fit. Have we become a first fruit or not? Have we developed compassion, love and mercy? We need to be constantly vigilant in our minds that how we judge becomes the measuring stick for how God will measure us. That is the first concept. 2. OUR MERCY WILL BE RETURNED TO US The second concept is how much mercy and compassion will also be returned to us. So how we judge is one way, but how much mercy and compassion we show, which is somewhat different than judgment will determine how much love and mercy we receive back. Turn to Matthew 5:7, The Beatitudes. “‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.’” It is very clear. Without mercy we cannot be shown mercy! So Matthew 5:7 says we must have mercy if we want to receive mercy. Drop down to verse 10. “‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’” This ties our character to our reward. Our character needs to be full of mercy and an easy way of judging others and not a harsh judgment. Then we can receive a commensurate reward measured in the same way we measured toward other people. Turn now to Luke 6:35 where we are told: “‘But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.’” If you were to read this whole section of scripture about loving our enemies, it is talking about giving even when our enemies are in need. He calls it lending. It is tying it in once again to buying and selling. But what are we lending? We lend mercy. If we lend mercy, we will get extended mercy from God. Turn now, if you would, to Proverbs 12:17. “He who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness, deceit. There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health The truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but counselors of peace have joy.” How we treat people will come back to us. If we are harsh and deceitful toward them, that will come back. Let us read in Proverbs 11:17. “The merciful man does good for his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.” If we are merciful to other people, it is actually good for us. If we are deceitful toward other people, it is bad for us and bad for our flesh. It is a concept that goes all the way through the scriptures. But we need to tie it to buying and selling and producing a crop for God. Turn to Proverbs 14:21. “He who despises his neighbor sins; but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.” So if we despise our neighbor and call him a sinner or whatever, we are harming our own character. But if we extend mercy and an easy judgment to those around us, we are building up our own character to be like God. So that is the second way: how merciful, compassionate and kind we are to others is how God will respond to us. We are building our own reward. 3. LOVE COVERS OUR SINS The third way is that our love and compassion for others form our covering garment. Turn, if you would, to Proverbs 10:12. “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.” You could go to the love chapter and read chapter 13 of I Corinthians. We are told directly in Proverbs, “love covers all sins.” This word “covers” here comes from the number 3680 in your Strong’s Concordance which means covers as a garment, veiling or clothing of secrecy. In other words it hides our sins! Love will hide our sins! When God looks at us if we have developed lots of love, He will not look at our sins! They are covered. He will see the good part of us. We will be measured according to that. A secondary meaning of covers means the fullness of the full moon. We have proven over and over again that the Church is to reflect the light of Jesus Christ as the moon reflects the sun’s light. When the moon is bright and there is a full moon, we are extending lots of love, mercy and compassion. We are covered with Christ’s brightness. When we are harsh on other people and being cruel, telling lies and deceitful as we saw earlier in Proverbs, we are hiding God’s light. The moon is going dark. The world cannot find the body of Christ! We have done Christ a huge disservice if that is the type of character we are developing. So our love gives us boldness by covering our sins. When Christ returns we can say I did try to feed my brothers and sisters when they were naked and I did try to help the least of the brethren when they were poor and destitute spiritually and physically. Faith without works is dead. We have to actually do something. When we do those things, our light is shining and we are helping the world find the body of Christ. It is by God’s mercy and forgiveness that He will give that back to us as a covering. It will cover us. DON’T BE UNPROFITABLE Let us not confuse our reward with salvation. Salvation is a free gift that cannot be earned, but it can be lost. If we are totally unprofitable, we do not reflect Christ’s light and we do not grow in His character, we can lose the free gift of salvation. But once we have received the free gift of salvation, we must reflect Christ’s light and grow in character in order to start building a reward and in order to start building a crop for God. We will see this as we continue on. The idea I want to leave you with on that point is that it is very dangerous to be unprofitable. Once we have been given the Holy Spirit and the gift of salvation, we need to do something with it or we become unprofitable. We can go through many examples of what God does with unprofitable servants. You probably know them as well as I do, and we do not need to go there. Just remember we need to use this free gift and start growing as soon as we can. When we receive God’s gift, use it! Here we are at the end of the ages ready to start the Millennium, and we are told in Revelation that the Church era we are a part of has huge problems. The Laodicean Era of God’s Church has huge problems. Let us turn to Revelation chapter 3. We have to face our problems in order to know what to do. God does not leave us without information. Read Revelation 3:14-17. Since we are talking about covering here (garments), if we have no love, we are naked in God’s eyes. We can think we are rich, wealthy and need nothing and be miserable, wretched, poor, blind and naked and not even know it! We are all fully clothed in this room. But in God’s eyes, are we fully clothed? Only if we are reflecting His light and are covered with His truth, knowledge, mercy, love and compassion. Then we are like Him. That is why Christ is shown as being the sun and clothed with the light of the sun we are told. Because He is full of mercy, compassion, truth and love. We want to have that kind of clothing. What does Christ say here to the people of Laodicea? Read Revelation 3:18-22. The Spirit is telling the Church here to go buy while there is still time. He says buy it from Me. Christ is not here in this room for me to buy anything from Him except in you! You are the body of Christ. That is why in Part I we said we have one another to buy, sell and trade from. When I buy and sell acts of kindness, love, mercy and service with the congregation here, I am buying from Christ. Then I am fully clothed, and I am storing up a reward for myself. You are doing the same and anyone else who hears this tape and is part of the first fruits. When you look at the congregation or the brethren you are near and you help and serve them physically and spiritually, you are buying the garments you need from Jesus Christ. You are bearing fruit and a crop for God so when He comes we will not be found unprofitable, naked, poor, blind, wretched and miserable. It is for our own benefit as well as the body of Christ to help one another. Then we will have boldness when Christ returns. Remember in Matthew 25 that buying and selling from one another by taking care of the least of God’s brethren is very, very important in the eyes of Jesus Christ. That is what we will be judged by. I would like to go into the concept of a covering because there are tons of scriptures on this. We just have to find them. We are sheep in God’s pasture and Jesus Christ is the chief shepherd. What do we do with sheep on earth as physical shepherds? We raise them for wool. Once a year we take that fleece off. We shear the sheep, and we have wool. What do we use wool for? We use it for clothes. The wool is the hair of the sheep, and we are called sheep. We also just read that we need to bear a crop for God. We will go look at this concept a little bit more. We buy, sell and trade. If you were to look up the term fleece in the Old Testament Strong’s definitions, you would find that number 1492 means fleece, the wool, but the other word for fleece number 1488 is mowed grass. Our fleece is also likened to mowed grass. I raise longhorn cattle and once a year I cut my grass, I mow my fields and put hay up so I can feed the cattle in the winter. I have raised sheep too. Once a year you shear your sheep and you can sell the wool or process it yourself to make garments. So in the course of a year a good steward of the land and a good farmer is raising crops that become food and crops that become a covering. This is very important. Let us turn to the parable of the sower and you will see Christ compares a fruitful, profitable servant to seed bearing good fruit. Go back to Matthew 13, starting in verse 1 and read to verse 9, which is the parable of the sower. We will not read the explanation of the sower (verses 18-23) but we know that how we live our life is what happens to the seed. We let the worldly concerns choke them off and the seed dies. If we have no depth of soil and we do not prepare our minds to receive the seed and develop compassion, mercy and love the seed dies. There is a variety of ways the seed does not prosper, but to that person who lets the seed come into their life and bear fruit, God measures the crop. He is the spiritual farmer who comes along and harvests our field. He says this seed bore a hundred-fold, sixty-fold or thirty-fold. We can be a profitable field for God. This is compared to buying and selling as well. We saw that earlier. We are producing food or we are producing wool. As we do so we do it by buying, selling and trading. While we are in Matthew let us read the parable of the wheat and the tares. This explains it even further. Read Matthew 13:24-30. God knows there are unprofitable servants among the lot. There are some very harmful servants. He also knows there are some good ones. He lets us grow together, but we can choose what we want to be. We can bear a crop for God or not. We can develop love, mercy and compassion for our fellow man and our brethren or not. It is really entirely up to the person, but when we bear a crop for God, God says I will put this into My barn. What do we do with our crops that we put in a barn? We save it for a later day. When I put my hay into the barn or store it, I wait until I need to feed the animals in the winter. The same with grain. You put your grain in a silo or in your barn and you wait until it is needed for food. It is stored for a future time. SPIRITUAL FOOD AND CLOTHING Let us now go to Matthew 6. We are going to put this together a little bit more. Read Matthew 6:25-34. You can look at this scripture and be strictly physical and say I am not going to worry about clothes. God will provide clothes for me or some food tomorrow. With what we just learned about wool, wheat and the crop we bear for God, we can see God has a secondary meaning that is much more important and much deeper than not to worry about tomorrow when Christ comes. You will have food and clothes, but you sought the kingdom first. Seek the kingdom and you are part of the first fruits. You did bear a good crop for Me and developed mercy, love and compassion. You will have clothing and food. Do not worry about tomorrow. It will be okay. So you can learn from this parable for your physical life, or we can learn from this parable for our spiritual life and the future as well. There is a much deeper meaning. We are going to continue to delve into this a little bit more but you see that your clothes in the kingdom will abound. When the kingdom comes, if we have sought it and have taken care of things, we will have the clothes that we need there. Continuing in Matthew 6 you are going to see this concept broadened by Christ. Read Matthew 6:19-21. This is speaking of God’s barn. He spiritually has a barn in heaven where your crops are stored. He says do not store up wealth on earth. Do not buy, sell and trade to get rich here. Use your physical wealth and your physical time (the length you have been given) to make for yourselves treasures in heaven. It goes into your account in heaven (your section of the barn or your wool where it is being stored). On earth if I was to take this wool suit and hang it in a closet with moths, it will be ruined. But if I am storing wool for God as I get sheared each year when I bear a crop for Him, no moths can get at my storehouse of wool or your storehouse of wool in heaven where God holds it for us. Our account there will be full. This will give us the raw material for Christ to give us our clothes when He returns. If you were to look down here in the same chapter and go to verse 22 it says, “‘The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!’” If we are blind, we are judging harshly, our light has gone out, and we are seeking evil all of the time we are making it go dark. It can be by movies, television constantly or whatever way that we are letting evil thoughts into our mind. We are harming our mind and making it go dark. If we are keeping our mind bright with the truth of God and with mercy, love and compassion, we have lots of lamp oil. Our lamp is bright. If we are doing these things correctly, we have treasure in heaven and we have oil in our vessel. If we are doing the things correctly, we do not have to worry we are told. God says I clothe the grass out there and I am making grass for you! We just read that in Matthew 6. He says I am storing it for you in My barn. I will give it to you at the right time. I am going to hold this crop for you until My Son returns. MANY WAYS TO SAY DEVELOP CHARACTER We all want food, clothes and money in this life but it is much better to seek spiritual food, spiritual clothes and spiritual money. Every year we have the chance to bear a crop for God and get that grass sowed and cut so we have hay and wheat. Get the wool cut so we have wool stored. Get the oil pressed out of the crop so that we have oil to burn in our lamp. These are all spiritual concepts, but because we understand physical agriculture in the way the earth works, we can do this spiritually for God. Now I want to turn back to Job because Job explains the intended end, as we saw in James 5. Job 38 now becomes much clearer. We will read a small section, verses 22-24. We know that Christ comes from the east and He is light. He has reserved for Himself some crops for that day. He says I am holding them in the treasury of snow and the treasury of hail. As we have studied in the past, the hail and the snow are the first fruits. If we were to look up the term snow here you would see a secondary meaning is the snow white garments of the slain, which are the garments for the people who have died in Christ. That does not necessarily mean martyred, although they would certainly be counted. But people who have died in Christ are those who have given their life to Him in a covenant. They were baptized and received the Holy Spirit. We are, in effect, crucified with him. Galatians 2:20 tells us this. When we bear fruit for God, our crops are stored in a treasury, which is God’s barn. That snow (those garments that will eventually be given to billions of people) will make the earth look white in a spiritual way. It will not be sin or evil but a beautiful way where the earth will be white with righteous people! This will take place when Christ comes as King of Kings and Lord of Lords in a day of war and battle with Satan. He will get rid of his darkness. To those who have built up a storehouse in heaven (treasure in heaven in these treasuries) it will be returned to us in a reward according to how we measured out in judgment to others and how we meted out love, mercy and compassion. We will have bore fruit and developed character like Jesus Christ. Turn now, if you would, to Psalm 147. Read verses 15-18 where it is speaking of God. When God starts sending this snow, He is sending a garment to those who have lived lives for Him and it is made of wool! It is His wool, spiritual wool. This is our acts of love and service that have been measured by God and held for us until the appropriate time when Jesus Christ returns. This is how Christ looks. He has beautiful white garments and hair of white. As a matter of fact we can turn to Revelation chapter 1 and read a little bit about how Christ looks right now. Read Revelation 1:12-14 where it is speaking of Christ. It is describing Jesus Christ. We know when He returns, if we have lived a life like His, we will be allowed to look like Him with snow white garments, snow white hair, eyes of light, pure bright eyes and not clouded and in darkness like we read back in Matthew. His hair is as white as wool. Isaiah chapter 1 describes what we can look like. Read Isaiah1:16-20. We can see putting all of these concepts together. If we wash ourselves, do justly, take care of the less fortunate especially among us but also in the world, we will be given clothes like wool. But we must develop a very kind, merciful and compassionate attitude toward others. Then we will be given clothes like wool, white as snow and washed clean. But how can God give us salvation and let us go on to become tyrants, judging harshly and not doing for the least of our brethren? How can He allow us to have garments of snow, hair of white and beautiful rewards if we go on oppressing widows and orphans? He cannot. He is forced to judge us by the measure we judge and to give to us by how we lived our lives. That is how He has to give us a reward. Salvation is free but what we do with it after we receive it is very important. Our acts of love and service form our white hair and our white garments. Our wool is the hair that we produce. Just like a sheep produces hair, our love and acts of service become our fleece or our mowed grass. It is the same to God. These are crops that we bear. He wants us to produce a hundred, sixty or thirty-fold. God does not want to see a naked sheep. A naked sheep is no good to a shepherd. He cannot get any wool from it. God does not want to see a field bereft of grass, bereft of wheat or a field full of wheat and tares. It is up to us what we do with what God has given us. He will keep track of these things. Turn to Matthew 10. There is not a thing that goes unnoticed by God! Read Matthew 10:27-31. The wool we are producing and the good acts of service, love and compassion, God counts every one of them! They form our fleece. They form our crop in the field. They form the food we can give other people. They form our covering. It is up to us. Do we want to bear a crop that God can use to feed the world and a crop that He can make a garment out of for us when He returns so that we will not be naked? It is up to us. You can go to Numbers 6 and read about the Nazirite vow. The first fruits are supposed to be priests like Jesus Christ. You will find that in I Peter 2:9. A royal priesthood is the nation of God, which are His called-out servants. Those priests when they were consecrated back in the Nazirite vow had to save their hair as a sacrifice for God. We are now a spiritual priesthood having to save our wool and bear a crop for God that He can then use to cover us with. It is our acts of service. It is a wonderful comparison study for you. THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN IS THE CHURCH I want to conclude now by going to Proverbs 31 and read about the virtuous woman, which is speaking of the Church. Keep in mind ourselves, the Church of God, as we read these verses. Proverbs 31, starting in verse 10: “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies.” We are to be the bride of Christ. Verse 11: “The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax…” (this is wool and grain) “…and willingly works with her hands.” We do something with what we know. Verse 14: “She is like the merchant ships, she brings her food from afar. She also rises while it is yet night, and provides food for her household…” We are working in the night, brethren. “…and a portion for her maidservants.” Verse 16: “She considers a field and buys it; from her profits she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength, and strengthens her arms. She perceives that her merchandise is good, and her lamp does not go out by night. She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hand holds the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor, yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household is clothed with scarlet. She makes tapestry for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.” Verse 23: “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies sashes for the merchants. Strength and honor are her clothing; she shall rejoice in time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.” Verse 28: “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.’ Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.”