No. 46 - OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, May 15, 2004 Today we are going to start with the story of the first two brothers mentioned in the Bible: Cain and Abel. If you would, turn with me to Genesis 4, and we are going to read the story of Cain and Abel. Read Genesis 4:1-10. This is not only the story of the first two brothers after Adam and Eve, but it is also the story of the first murder. We need to examine what happened here because there are a couple of very important lessons that we can learn. WE ARE TO RULE OVER SIN We were told in verse 7 that we were to rule over sin. In the King James Version it says to rule over “him,” using “sin” and “him” here as being the same. It has desire to rule over us. Here again as it desired to rule over Cain, “it” in the King James is referred to as “him”. So who is this “him” and what is the sin? Of course, it is Satan. Satan desires to rule over us through sin. We are to rule over him and conquer sin. Let’s get some definitions from the Strong’s Concordance so we can see what is meant here in the Hebrew. To rule is number 4910 mashal which means to rule, dominion, governor, reign or to have power. It is basically the same word as 4915. As a matter of fact, they define the two together: 4915 and 4910, moshel which means empire, a parallel, dominion. Desire: this parallel dominion that has desire to rule over us comes from the word 8669 which is the sense of stretching out after, longing or desire, and it comes from the related word 7783 to run after, overflow, to overflow with water. In other words, there is a flood that wants to overflow us. It has desire to conquer us, and it comes from a parallel empire or an empire dominion as we have studied in the past. This earth is surrounded by Satan’s powers, the principalities of the air. And they want to rule over us! They have a parallel earth, you might say, below it consisting of human beings. They want to have dominion over that earth, as they do right now. He is the god of this word, god being with a little “g”. Satan wants to continue his reign over mankind. Way back at the beginning when God saw Cain’s countenance fall he warned Cain: you are giving occasion for the parallel empire that wants to have dominion over you. You are giving it an occasion to cause you to sin! Do not do it! Rule over it! It is your destiny to rule over sin. Cain did not understand or did not comprehend the evil he was facing. Or he understood, and disobeyed anyway. He went on to allow Satan to move him to hate his brother, and he killed his brother. That is the power of Satan. Even after being warned by God practically face to face in a personal conversation, we can still go down. It is very important for us to realize this parallel dominion is very real, and it wants to overcome us with a flood of emotions and temptations to cause us to sin. Then we would end up being cut off like Cain was. God had to punish Cain and said you are cut off! That’s it! You are cut off from Me now! Cain said it was too terrible to bear. God said He would help him. In any sense, we do not want to be cut off, so it is our job to overcome Satan. It is our job to conquer him in our lives and temptation and sin, so that eventually we can rule with Jesus Christ over the dominion that is the earth and over the angels. Human kind will eventually rule over the angels! It is important to realize that this parallel empire is over the earth. It is out there and very real. This first lesson that we are to rule over sin and conquer it leads directly to the second lesson we can learn here. TO CONQUER SIN WE MUST BE OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER In order to conquer, we must be our brother’s keeper. We cannot conquer Satan and sin unless we become our brother’s keeper. Christ said this over and over again as He walked the face of the earth. Let us look at a few times. Turn to Matthew chapter 22 and read verses 34-40. So Christ was very clear. Love your God and love your neighbor, your brother in the family of man. He is made in the image and likeness of God. Turn now, if you would, to Luke chapter 10. We will read verses 25-37. Christ was making a very poignant point here that the family of man is all of our neighbors. They are our brothers. They are the family of man. The example He chose here of making the Good Samaritan a supposed Gentile pagan being the good neighbor made a big impression upon the Pharisees and Sadducees and the people present, because they looked down on these people. Yet, they could see by Christ’s example that the love and compassion that this Gentile showed was far superior to their own. It is easy to love our immediate family and to love ourselves, but loving your neighbor as yourself is hard. But this is something we should be able to do, especially those of us in the body of Christ. By putting together the story of Cain and Abel and the Good Samaritan, we find that unconquered sin leads us to harm our neighbor. That was Cain’s lesson. He did not conquer sin so his countenance fell. Bitterness took root within him, and hatred evidenced itself in the first murder. Whereas conquered sin leads us to love our neighbor. If we conquer sin and grow in compassion, love, mercy and kindness towards other people, we will then love our neighbor. This love, we are told elsewhere, covers a multitude of sins. SIN FROM WEAKNESSES IN US Let us turn to James chapter 4 and see what we are battling with in order to overcome sin. What do we battle to be able to love our neighbor as ourselves? James 4, starting in verse 1: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James is talking to the brethren here. They are people who should know better. Continuing in verse 5: “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?’” Christ’s mind dwells in us because His Holy Spirit is present within us, and they yearn jealously for us to do the right thing. Continuing in James 4, verse 6: “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” That is the same as getting our countenance lifted. It is the opposite of our countenance falling. Our desires within ourselves form the weaknesses that Satan goes after to cause us to sin. Cain had a weakness, and Satan exploited it. God warned him it was going to happen. Get rid of that bitterness. Do not let your countenance fall. You can master this, but you are going to have to work at it. Cain did not take God’s advice and ended up committing the first murder. The lessons we can learn from this is that sin comes from weaknesses within us. They are weaknesses that Satan then exploits, and allowing Satan to do this in our lives is like adultery. We have forsaken God’s way and God’s Spirit which is jealous within us, and let another spirit work within us causing us to sin. This to God is adultery. We have turned away from the true God. We should not allow sin to take root in our lives. Allowing sin, we are told here, to reign in our lives, makes us at enmity with God. It is loving the world and making ourselves an enemy of God. We are told resist the devil and he will flee. Cleanse our hands, our hearts and our minds, and this cleansing will help us to become our brother’s keeper. Why? Because it will get rid of the desires within our members that lead to wars, fighting, lusts and all manner of sin. That is what we are told right here. All of those things are within us and Satan exploits them. Therefore, if we cleanse our minds, our hearts, our actions for God, we become our brother’s keeper automatically. We are then loving God first and then we love our fellow man. We are obeying God. We are learning how to do these things, and this past spring holy day season has been a very fruitful time for us to learn to put sin out of our lives. We are only a couple weeks away from Pentecost, which means we only have a couple of weeks to continue in that effort to put the leaven out, grow, bear fruit and have a crop for God. FAST FOR THE SPIRITUALLY HUNGRY So let’s think about these things in the last couple of weeks. During the course of the year we perform fasts for God, and He taught us in these fasts what we are to fast for. It will help us to accomplish loving our neighbor as ourselves. If you will turn to Isaiah 58, we will read about proper fasting and what God wants to see it done for. We do not fast to gain things for ourselves. We fast to be able to be our brother’s keeper. That is a proper fast. Isaiah 58, starting in verse 6: “‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, “Here I am.” If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.’” We are told here that we are to fast for our fellow man. It is a fast for the physically hungry of the earth and oppressed, but there is a spiritual hunger and a spiritual overcoming of the brethren in the Church, indeed of the entire world. But right now we need to fast for our brethren who are hungry. They need the bread that we can give them to sustain them and strengthen them. We will see this as we proceed through the sermon. We have to be willing to give the truth to those who are seeking it. We must not turn away the hungry or turn away the naked and poor who have been cast out. There are brethren getting cast out from other Church groups. There are brethren who are literally famished, lacking spiritual food, the famine of the word. There are brethren who are naked. In other words, their righteousness is gone. They have been overcome and overwhelmed. Their countenance has more than fallen. They do not know which way to turn anymore. We must never turn people like that away from our congregation but instead share with them the knowledge that God has so freely given to us. We have a fine set of booklets that we can give to people. We can show them that we are their servants and humbly help them. With humility seek to heal their wounds. Help cover their shame. Help give them the food that they need to get strong in the truth. This is our job. This is what we are here for. This is what we fast for. If we do these things, God will richly bless us. If we hold these things to ourselves or in some way lord it over others or be proud of the fact that we have knowledge and truth that they do not have, we will be held accountable for not feeding the hungry, not clothing the naked and not helping the oppressed. If we do this correctly, God will richly bless us, and we will have become our brother’s keeper. Let us continue in Isaiah 58, stating in verse 11. We will see some of the blessings that God says He will give us. “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought…” Yes, there is a drought (there is a famine of the word), but our soul will be satisfied if we freely share and freely give. He will guide us. “…and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” We will be like a glass of cool water to someone dying of thirst in the desert, so to speak. We need to be a spring of water, and that is a blessing from God which we receive if we freely give. Continuing in verse 12: “Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.” These are wonderful things to be called. God’s temple is a shambles. The Church is a shambles. The world is in despair. Anyone who helps free the world and the Church from oppression and gives food (truth) to those who need it and desire it will be called a “Repairer of the Breach” and a “Restorer of the Streets to Dwell In.” Continuing in verse 13: “‘If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.’” We understand that the high hills of the earth are God’s government. This is an awesome blessing that we are being offered. We are sacrificing ourselves and giving to the family of man and our brethren in the Church. We are learning to become their keeper. It is a wonderful blessing when we become our brother’s keeper. BE A LIGHT Turn, if you would now, to Matthew 5. Chapter 5 of Matthew, of course, starts with The Beatitudes, which we have read many times. So I want to conclude with what Christ concluded after He taught them The Beatitudes. Matthew 5, starting in verse 13: “‘You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.’” We do not want to cover our lamps, brethren, with a bushel. We want to share the truth. We want to be an example for the people around us by the way we live, by our works, by the way we conduct ourselves. We want our lamps to be brightly visible on the high hill that is spiritual Zion where the spiritual city, Jerusalem, dwells. It is where the spiritual temple should be. It should be burning brightly within us, so we need to speak and share the truth. Give God’s truth to all who ask and all who desire, even those who do not know to ask but are seeking. They do not have the answer. They do not know what they are doing. They are lost and confused, perhaps kicked out from somewhere else. Share with them and see if God will open up their minds to the truth. We need to be an example of the way. Share with one another both physically and spiritually. We should be doing things to make all of this possible. In other words, our tithes and offerings are a way of loving our brethren and loving the family of man. Tithes belong to God anyway. The offerings are what we freely give Him to help us to produce booklets and to help us mail out the things that people need. This helps us be our brother’s keeper. Resources are very important to do that. It is a way we can individually show that we love our brother and we are willing to be His keeper. There are other things that we can do to help us keep our lamp burning brightly, so we can be an example like that light on a hill to the rest of the Church and to the entire world. We need to do simple things like keeping the filth of the world (Satan’s world, the way he has it arranged) out of our minds. In other words, bad television programs, movies, music and the Internet need to be kept out of our minds. Otherwise our lamp can go out. By what we watch, people will judge us. It is a good thing to be ignorant of the latest movies and programs out there. It is a good thing to be able to say I have never seen that movie. I would never go to a violent program. It is recorded in the word of God what it was like back in Christ’s day when He walked the earth. We can turn to a certain chapter in Matthew and specific verses and see how it was. We can see that Christ was exhausted and He went on a hill to pray. But what if it was recorded in the word of God, Christ was exhausted so He told His disciples let us go relax in the coliseum and watch the gladiators fight this afternoon! How would we feel about those scriptures? Wouldn’t we think something was wrong? Yet we, as part of the body of Christ, will go see movies of gladiators fighting or people killing one another and will see all manner of acts of violence and sexual perversion. Are we not saying that as the body of Christ we relax by watching others suffer? It does not make sense. If we want to keep our lamp burning brightly so that others can see Christ within us, we better act like He would act if He were alive today on the face of the earth. He is alive today, through us! If we want to be a lamp, we have to remember that. Do not reflect the ways of the world. Keep our language, our humor and our jokes pure. Men and women wear modest attire. Immodest attire can make us not burn brightly for other people, for what they see is how they will judge us. Do not be overly materialistic. We do need certain things to get by in this modern world, but are we working hard every day just to have more stuff? That becomes our idol then. Do all of these things as examples of Jesus Christ’s body. We should be doing them correctly. If we are following these things, we become occasions of temptation and stumbling blocks to other people whether in or out of the Church. When people look to us as the body of Christ as an example of the way, we must be an example of the way. We should not confuse them because our lamps are covered with a bushel. It is no good to have that lamp on and throw a bushel basket over it so no one can tell there is a lamp inside. Christ would not lead others astray by His example. I am sure He was not telling dirty jokes. I am sure He was not leading people to places where sinful conduct was. I am sure He was not overly materialistic. I am sure He was dressed modestly and not attracting undue attention to Himself. As a matter of fact, the scriptures say He was so ordinary looking that people could not tell who He was. We need to work hard and provide for our families. We need to work hard and provide for our neighbors and the brethren, the Church. Be honest, be gentle and compassionate of spirit. Most of all, love one another. Turn, if you would, to John chapter 13. Read verses 31-35. Christ said here that you should love one another and by that your lamp will burn so brightly that others can see Me in you. They will be able to tell. He said I have been glorified by My Father dwelling in Me. We will dwell in you. And when you love one another, you are going to show this to people. That is how My disciples will be known. But if you are arguing, fighting, bickering, or unfortunately hating in some cases, you will hide your lamp, the Church and the truth from the world. Turn, if you would, to John chapter 15. Read verses 9-17. So if we want to bear fruit, we better learn to love one another so that others can tell where God’s disciples are. We do this by becoming our brother’s keeper, first in the Church and then to the world. Everyone is our neighbor. Everyone is our brother. We have to learn to do it here if we are ever going to be able to teach people on the outside how this is properly done. Love God the Father and Jesus Christ first, and then love our neighbor. By this way we become our brother’s keeper. HATING CHRIST Continuing in John chapter 15. Read verses 18-25. At that time Christ was talking about the people amongst His own brethren who had rejected Him and hated Him. Since He had done works among them, they should have known better. Let us take that down to our time today. We learned that the body of Christ, the temple of God, this Church is where Christ dwells. We were to learn to love one another and let our lights burn. Anything that divides the body and destroys the body of Christ is hating Christ. Anything that causes us to turn on one another is hating Christ. We should have known better. Yet it happened. We can reverse this in our lives and in our congregation by learning to love the body of Christ and extending that out to our brethren wherever they may be. Loving them is in essence helping to heal the wounds that the Church has today. They are deep wounds. God wants to heal His Church. He wants the body to get about the business it must be doing to get ready as Christ’s bride. OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD We have overcome the world and Satan with great effort, and that is why there is a reward. If it was not involving work and effort, why would there be a need for a reward? It is obviously hard. Turn now, if you would, to John chapter 16:31. “Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’” Christ overcame the world, and He was telling His disciples you will soon be scattered. Then He said I am going to bring My body back together. I will send you the comforter. I will strengthen you. Things repeated themselves. Here at the end time, the Church is once again scattered. We are scattered everywhere. Instead of us overcoming the world with Jesus Christ dwelling in us, we are being overcome by the world! Throughout the Church there is rampant watching of inappropriate television and movies, listening to wrong music, viewing wrong things on the Internet, horrible language, immodest attire and gross rank materialism. Many people are going back to false worship. We are scattered because of these things. The body has been divided. We need to work here and let our lamps shine. Then we can teach others how to let their lamps, once again, shine. If there is any light underneath that bushel, take the bushel off. We need to teach others how to take the bushel basket off, so that people can see the love for one another that will point them to the body of Christ. Turn to John chapter 17, starting in verse 6. “‘I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.’” This is Christ praying to the Father. “‘They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.’” Christ is praying to the Father for His disciples, asking the Father to preserve His disciples. He is praying for them right in front of them. Read John 17:10-19. We are sent into the world to let our lamps burn just as those disciples were. We are to let that truth burn brightly in us. By our works and our love for one another, it will be the evidence of Christ being right here among us. We should show we love God and show we love our brethren by showing that we are our brother’s keeper. That was not good enough. Christ just did not want to pray for the disciples. He went to pray for us in this generation today and for all the generations between the disciples and us. Continue reading verses 20-23. If we are going to be a witness to the entire world, we have to love each other as the Father loved Christ and Christ loved the disciples He walked with and indeed us who have followed them. He is praying for us right here and for our success so that the whole world can be converted to Him. That is how important it is to let our lamps burn brightly. Read John 17:24-26. Christ prayed that we will have His love in us as the Father loved Him. When the Church puts a bushel basket over the lamp and by our acts and our conduct hide the truth of God, we are doing a huge disservice to the body of Christ and to the entire world who is looking for a better way. It is incredibly important here at the end of the age to start getting this right, because God is moving forward with His plan. We know we are of the Pentecost era, the firstfruits. Christ is closing that. The Father is saying close this era now. We are going to move on to the world! We need to have our light burning brightly in order to help love our fellow man and become our brother’s keeper. Turn, if you would, to Romans chapter 12. Read verses 9-21. Sear that verse into your conscience. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Reread this from time to time, because this is how we overcome. We overcome by becoming our brother’s keeper and by keeping our countenance lifted up. We overcome by obeying God and loving our fellow man. Also loving our brothers and sisters in Christ will help us overcome evil and be a lamp to the entire world. Revelation 3 continues talking to the Laodicean era. Revelation 3, starting in verse 21: “‘To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” Remember Christ said I have overcome the world. He says if you want to sit with Me on My throne, you overcome the world, but I am with you. I am helping you. I am dwelling in you. I am a lamp. You have My Holy Spirit. You have My mind power. Use it! Fight evil and resist the devil. Overcome and master sin, and our countenance will be lifted up. We will be denying our enemy, Satan, the weaknesses that he exploits. We will deny him the opportunity to bring us down. We will bear much fruit and be bright lamps to the world. This will make us truly our brother’s keeper now and forever. If we prove we are our brother’s keeper now, God will allow us to be our brother’s keeper forever as we reign with Him and rule with Him!