2025.12.03 Midweek Meeting Livestream (live at 6:30p)

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A Pure and Holy People [Family Worship lesson in Deuteronomy 22:13–23:14]

How is marriage to be honored? Deuteronomy 22:13–23:14 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty-two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that marriage is to be honored by guarding the purity of the marriages of men, and also by safeguarding the purity of the church as betrothed unto God. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: This passage applies the seventh commandment, 'You shall not commit adultery,' to both individual marriages and the collective holiness of Israel as God’s betrothed people. It establishes a legal framework that protects the sanctity of marriage by safeguarding a woman’s virginity, punishing false accusations with severe penalties, and ensuring justice. The laws distinguish between cases of guilt and innocence, emphasizing the importance of public accountability, and the protection of vulnerable women, especially in contexts where help was unavailable. Beyond individual morality, the passage extends this principle to the spiritual life of the nation, requiring ritual purity in the camp—such as the exclusion of eunuchs, illegitimate births, etc.—because God dwells among His people. Ultimately, the law calls the people to reflect the purity of their covenant God, mirroring the sacred union between Christ and His church, and to live in a way that honors both marital fidelity and divine consecration.

2025.12.03 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 22:13–23:14

Read Deuteronomy 22:13–23:14

Questions from the Scripture text: What is the situation in v13–21? What procedure are they to follow, and what penalties are to be inflicted in what cases? What situations do v22–29 address, and what is to be done in what cases? What sorts of things could defile Israel in the presence of God (22:30–23:13)? Why is this so serious (v14)?

How is marriage to be honored? Deuteronomy 22:13–23:14 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty-two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that marriage is to be honored by guarding the purity of the marriages of men, and also by safeguarding the purity of the church as betrothed unto God.  

This section is the application of the seventh commandment (“thou shalt not commit adultery”) to the life of the nation of Israel. And while the other nine commandments in the book of Deuteronomy are quite obvious in the exposition and application of that particular commandment, the second half of our portion, particularly on the holiness and cleanliness of the campsite, doesn't seem to fit in the eyes of many. But those many are missing the theme, throughout the Bible, of God's visible church being a people who are betrothed to him, and the necessity of their purity in order to be appropriately betrothed to the Lord.

So, 22:13–23:14 covers the application of the seventh commandment in two different ways: one, in the particular marriages of the nation of Israel, when they are in the land (22:13–29); and the other, in the purity and cleanliness of Israel as a bride to the Lord, her Husband, Who loves her and Who is holy, and makes a dwelling for them together (22:30–23:14).

So in the first part, the purity of the marriage is to be protected in various ways. One is that virginity is to be highly prized. A woman is not to know a man the way a wife knows a husband, except for when they are married. And it was part of the tradition of Israel, as mandated by this passage, that evidence of the virginity be kept by the parents of the bride. Sinful men would accuse their new wife, to get out of the marriage. If it turns out to be false (v13–19), then the man who ought to have forfeited his life by accusing her of a capital crime, would not be permitted to leave her a widow of damaged goods. Instead, he receives three penalties.  First, he is to be beaten (v18, where the word means corporal, physical, bodily punishment). Second, he has to give 100 shekels of silver to the father of the young woman, twice the bride price, making it triple altogether. And third, he has to be her husband, and is not permitted to divorce her all of his days (Ex 22:16–17 clarifies that the extra bride price may be paid, and the father of the bride may refuse the arrangement, if he believes it's better for his daughter to be a daughter in his own house than a wife in the man's house).

So, a husband would be highly incentivized to seek God's grace to condition his heart, to delight himself in his wife, so that he would not even entertain thoughts of devious ways of trying to get out of his marriage. The way that the procedure and the penalties and everything was ordered, in Israel, taught them to respect the marriage and honor the marriage bed (cf. Heb 13:4).

Now it was possible that a man actually finds that his new wife was not pure. In that case, she has forfeited her life by committing a capital crime (v21), which was also the penalty for adultery, in which case both who commit it would be executed (v22). 

Then, we have another cycle of three cases (v23–29). The first one The case of a woman who is guilty and a man who is guilty. The second one, the case of a woman who is innocent, and a man who is guilty. And then the third, a woman who is innocent and a man who is guilty. So we have six total cases being presented here. The fourth and fifth case are both with the respect to a woman who is betrothed to one man, and the other man tries to seize her for himself. It's related to the sixth case, because the sixth case is a woman who is not betrothed at all, and a man who seizes her does have the possibility of obtaining her as a wife, depending upon whether or not the father is willing (v28–29).

For the betrothed woman (v23–24), if it happened in the city, she is expected to cry out. Again, this is an expectation, a principle in their culture. For the guarding of their marriage, the women are to be trained that if a man attempts to seduce them, that they cry out. So if she doesn't cry out (v23–24), then the two of them both are stoned to death with stones. If it happens out in the field, where there's no one to hear her, she is presumed to be innocent. This statute would also hinder those who attempted to sneak away together. The man, in that case, would know that his life is on the line. If they are found out, it's going to be assumed that the woman was innocent, because no one could hear her cry out. And he will be executed, but she will not. And so that would be a disincentive to a guy to try and sneak away with a girl where no one could hear them. This would help prevent sexual immorality in both cases.

So what may seem just to be lists of various cases and penalties, is actually a system that conveys the importance of marriage, the importance of faithfulness of the husband to the wife, and guards the interests of the betrothed woman and the married woman—in a way that other cultures at the time did not guard the interests of the wife or of the woman. Israel had righteous laws that distinguished them from other peoples (cf. 4:7–8).

In 22:30–23:14, the issue is not “putting away the evil from among you,” as it was in the first half of the passage (v21, 24), The issue here is keeping the camp holy because the Lord has made the camp holy (v14). So there are some samples or examples from the ceremonial law given here for the maintaining of the holiness of the camp and the holiness of the assembly. And these particular examples all have to do also with the purity of the marriage bed and purity in matters of sexuality. So, if a man has been made a eunuch (v1), he cannot enter the assembly. And then those of illegitimate birth (v2). And then on of severe illegitimacy (Ammonite or Moabite), not even to the 10th generation, because of how they had treated the people of God when they came out of Egypt (v3–6). Or an Edomite or an Egyptian to the third generation (v7–8), although there was special consideration for them both because of the nearness of relation between Jacob and Esau, who were brothers, twin brothers, and because Egypt was used by God to preserve Israel in the case of famine. and to provide for Israel.

But then even a man who had something happen during the night while he was sleeping that made him unclean—he would be unclean for a day (v9–11). Or even the question of how they would deal with when they went potty, and covering that up with dirt and keeping it clean (v12–13). All of these things were for the keeping of the camp pure, because Israel was betrothed as holy unto YHWH and he had brought them to himself to dwell with him and he with them (v14).

And so in some very detailed, specific, physical ways, they were to guard both the marriages of men and also the union of God with his people—prizing and pursuing purity in both of those circumstances. So we too are to guard our marriages, each of us. And then also, members of His church are to remember that they are consecrated as the betrothed of the Lord.

There's an overlap in applying the seventh commandment corporately as the bride of Christ with the third commandment (bearing the Name of God weightily and reverently upon our lips, and upon our lives). First, because He has put His Name upon us and therefore we are not to bear His Name lightly. And second, because we are betrothed to Him as the visible church. And so we are consecrated, and we are to be a holy people for that reason as well.

So may the Lord give us to live lives of purity within our marriage, and lives of consecration unto Him in our life as those who are members of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

What are you doing to guard your, and others’, marriages? How are you specifically resisting the view of marriage in the culture (and church culture) around you? How are you helping to keep your church pure, and consecrated unto the Lord?

Sample prayer:  Father, we thank You for speaking to us plainly, for teaching us to prize and value our own marriage, each of us, and to prize and value the betrothal of the church unto Your Son, our Lord Jesus. And we pray that You would give us to live pure, chaste lives. Help us, we pray, in an age of sexual immorality—in which people think it's no big deal to sin violently against these commandments that you had required to be punished by death. Give us to have our hearts and minds to be in line with Yours in Your Word, and not to be in line with the heart and mind of the culture. For we ask it in Jesus's Name, Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP15 “Within Your Tent, Who Will Reside” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”

The Beloved Who Beautifies [Family Worship lesson in Song of Songs 1:16–17]

How does the Bride respond to the Bridegroom's praise? Song of Songs 1:16–17 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord's Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Bride responds to the Bridegroom's praise by praising both Him and her fellowship with Him.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2025.12.02 Hopewell @Home ▫ Song of Songs 1:16–17

Read Song of Songs 1:16–17

Questions from the Scripture text: How does she introduce her exclamation (Song of Songs 1:16a)? What does she exclaim about Him? What does she call Him? What else does she exclaim about Him (verse 16b)? What else does she describe (verse 16c)? As what color? What else does she describe (Song of Songs 1:17a)? As of what wood? And what else (verse 17b)? As of what wood (verse 17c)?

How does the Bride respond to the Bridegroom’s praise? Song of Songs 1:16–17 prepares us for the opening portion of the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Bride responds to the Bridegroom’s praise by praising both Him and her fellowship with Him. 

In Song of Songs 1:16, the word that's being translated ‘handsome’ is the masculine form of the word ‘fair’ in Song of Songs 1:15. And what we have is the response of the church to Christ. Whenever He praises the beauty that he has attributed to us, the beauty that He has worked in us, the beauty that He sees in us (verse 15), we immediately want to throw it back onto Him—because any beauty that is in us is from Him. The beauty is natively, rightly, properly His. The beauty is only ours derivatively. It's ours as a gift, but it's His by virtue of Who He is and what He is like in Himself. He is inherently beautiful.

It's this way and should be this way with believers: that, in any good thing, as soon as we receive any commendation, or possess any good thing, or any praise whatsoever, we would always want to turn it, immediately, to the praise of the Lord Jesus. 

He never finds us more lovely (Song of Songs 1:15), or make us more lovely, than when we are expressing our love to Him (Song of Songs 1:12-14). Never do we perceive the loveliness of Christ (Song of Songs 1:16-17) so much as when He is displaying His love to us (Song of Songs 1:15).

The riches of the glories of Jesus (Song of Songs 1:16) are known especially when He is saying, “Behold, you are fair, my love, behold, you are fair” (Song of Songs 1:15). And the church ought to respond, recognizing that whatever good is in us is rightly and properly from Him, and rightly and properly to His praise.

He had commanded, “behold.” She responds, “behold,” not as a command, but as a form of obedience—as if to say, “yes, behold; I'm looking, and this is what I see; I see your beauty. Any beauty that might be in me has come from you.”

The beloved is the origin of His bride’s beauty. And His beauty is of a different quality, a different character. So she hurries to add the word, “pleasant” (Song of Songs 1:16b)—a second word that means a similar thing, with more emphasis on the experience of beauty, rather than the content of beauty. He is beautiful in Himself, and beautiful to enjoy.

By calling her “My love” (Song of Songs 1:15), He gave to her to find her identity in Him, and to know Him especially in his union with her. So now, she responds, “my Beloved” (Song of Songs 1:16). Again, she's recognizing that it is in union with Him, and in shared life (communion) with Him, that she has whatever beauty she has. He is the One Whose beauty is ultimate (verse 16a–b). He is the One Who is ultimately pleasant. And she has come to be beautiful (“fair,” Song of Songs 1:15), only because she has been united to Him, Whom she knows now as her Beloved.

But it isn’t just He Whom she experiences as beautiful. Her shared life with Him beautifies everything else that she is experiences (Song of Songs 1:16-17). Notice the shared life: not “Your bed,” but “our bed”; not “Your houses,” but “our houses.” She is experiencing her life as something in which she has a joint interest and experience with the Lord Jesus (cf. Romans 8:17).

And so, the church’s experience of the most comfort and intimacy with Christ (“our bed,” Song of Songs 1:16c) is given a color of refreshment and life and fruitfulness (“green”). And the structure and order which He has erected for their life together (“the beams of our houses,” Song of Songs 1:17a; and, “our rafters,” verse 17b) are given a substance of strength and beauty and endurance (“cedar” and “fir”). And there is certainly some allusion to the cedar of the temple that Solomon himself had built, where the Lord made a life for His people with Himself, by provision of priesthood, sacrifices, etc.

But the house of God is not ultimately the structure that Solomon built out of cedar. That house itself—by use of cedar, by use of gold, by use of the great stones that were used in it—looked forward to the life of God with His people, in His ordinances, as they would ultimately be experienced in Christ: Christ leading our worship, Christ drawing us near to God, Christ addressing us with God's word, Christ consecrating us as our high priest. And He has furnished for us those ordained servants by whom He Himself leads us before God. The structure that He has provided should be strong, enduring, beautiful and sweet to us, as cedar and fir are. 

And so as the bride responds with her praise of His beauty, she is also responding with praise of intimacy with Him, and of the provision that he has made for the house.

Finally, this word rafters, refers to a covered walk, a third concentric circle, out from the bedroom and the household. The first is very intimate. Then there's the household, which is the life with Him which He provides. But then there's also these rafters, some sort of structure in which to walk. And so, even in her going out to do business, or daily life, or whatever she's going out to do, she still has that fellowship with Him that goes wherever she goes. 

As you do, in your, life all the things that you go to do, you go accompanied by, bordered by, the fellowship that you have with Him. His beauty, His pleasantness, fills the whole of the life of the church, the whole of the life of the Christian. May God give you to have this experience of Christ.

How are you enjoying Christ? How are you enjoying times of intimacy with Him? How are you enjoying the structure that He has provided for drawing near to Him? How are you enjoying fellowship with Him, even as you go out into the rest of your life?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we thank You for this song. We thank You for the poetry of it. We thank You most of all for the reality that this poetry is being employed to describe. Give us, we pray, to have a life, not only of intimate moments with You, but then, in your church, and in our engagement even in the world, that it would always flow from, and be accompanied by, the fellowship that we have with our Lord Jesus. For we ask it in His Name, Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly, I Am with You” or TPH425 “How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place”

Wise vs Foolish Households [Family Worship lesson in Proverbs 19:13–15]

What can destroy a household? Proverbs 19:13–15 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that a household may be destroyed by any one of its members being a fool. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: The devotional meditates upon the sacred architecture of the household, emphasizing that godly wisdom and character are essential to its stability and flourishing. Central to this vision is the contrast between the ruin caused by a foolish son, a contentious wife, or a lazy individual, as opposed to the divine blessing of a prudent wife, whose wisdom is not merely human achievement but a gift from YHWH. The text underscores that while material inheritance comes from fathers, true spiritual and relational wealth—especially in marriage and parenting—are special displays of God’s sovereign grace in the cultivation of godly character. It calls for diligent, joyful labor as an act of worship, rejecting laziness not only as personal failure but as a corrosive force that undermines the entire household. Ultimately, the devotional affirms that the health of the family rests not on human effort alone, but on divine provision: grace, and the faithful application of biblical wisdom in every relationship and responsibility.

2025.11.24 Hopewell @Home ▫ Proverbs 19:13–15

Read Proverbs 19:13–15

Questions from the Scripture text: What sort of son does Proverbs 19:13a reference? What effect does he have? What sort of wife does verse 13b reference? To what does it compare her behavior? What does a good father provide (Proverbs 19:14a)? What is an area in which God especially highlights His sovereign providence (verse 14b)? What fault does what harm (Proverbs 19:15)?

What can destroy a household? Proverbs 19:13–15 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that a household may be destroyed by any one of its members being a fool.  

Proverbs 18:1–19:12 dealt with the harm done to others by fools, and the benefits to others of the wise. Now, Proverbs 19:13–15 compares and contrasts the household in which the father and the son and the wife are all godly and wise, against the harm that comes when the son or the wife or the father are foolish. A foolish father does not need his son to ruin him; he has ruined himself. 

So the foolish son is a ruin of his father in a couple of different ways. First, houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers (Proverbs 19:14a). So, even if the father does well early in life, he needs his son to take care of him as he declines. If the son is a fool, his latter years will be a ruin. Even if he did well in his youth and adulthood, if his son is a fool, then his life on earth ends in ruin. Furthermore, what he leaves behind also gets ruined by the foolish son. So, not only does he not have the one to take care of him in comfort and peace and joy in the final years of his life, but he also dies knowing that what he has built is about to be destroyed by the son that he has left behind. It is a dreadful thing to have a foolish son.

Another way that a good man can be ruined is by having a wife who does not follow the first two-thirds of chapter 18. Her mouth is always arguing and criticizing and nagging and gossiping and grumbling. the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping. Now that doesn't sound like much to us because we do not have a roof that was constructed with wooden boards covered by a mesh of sticks, into which clay was put, and then a layer of chalk, and then a layer of mud above that. If we did have such a roof, and it started to rain, and it continued to rain, and it continued to rain, eventually the mud would dissipate, and rivulets would form through the chalk, and cracks would appear in the clay, and the sticks and the wood boards would get saturated, and then the whole house would cave in.

This is what a continually exercised, ungoverned tongue of a wife does. It slowly but surely erodes the strength of the household until one day the whole thing collapses. She is exactly opposite the woman in chapter 31 (who is such an asset that everything that the man builds is multiplied, enhanced, beautified, strengthened—made more of a blessing to him and to others by his wise wife, his godly and kind wife, on whose tongue is the law of kindness (cf. Proverbs 31:26).

The son can be the ruin of the father. The wife can be the ruin of the father. And the father can be the ruin of everyone. A good father provides an inheritance (Proverbs 19:14a) and seeks from God for his son that which multiplies the blessedness of everything else—the way we saw Abraham seeking a wife for Isaac from the right family (cf. Genesis 24:4); and Isaac, once he realized his dreadful mistake in trying to give Esau the blessing, sent Jacob with a blessing to get a wife from the right family (cf. Genesis 28:2).

It is good and proper that the planning and the work, the discretion, to obtain a good wife for your son be done by a godly father. But, like that of the opening and closing of the womb, the provision of a good wife is an area in which God especially highlights His sovereign providence. You can try to do everything right in obtaining a wife, but if she is going to end up actually being a godly wife, who actually strengthens and multiplies and beautifies and improves the moral quality of the household, that has to come from God. A prudent wife is from YHWH. A wife who embodies everything that Proverbs has taught us to seek, so far up until this point, is from YHWH: both in the providence that places her nearby; and, in God's blessing on any planning/wisdom/efforts to obtain her; and, most of all, in the grace that made her what she is. A prudent wife can only be produced by grace. 

Proverbs 19:13a, Proverbs 19:14a aren't saying that the prudent wife comes from YHWH, but the godly husband is obtainable through following the right procedure, and the godly son is produced by the right sort of training. Properly biblical parenting employs especially the means of grace, precisely because we know that it is only God's grace that ultimately produces the godly son. Or obtains the godly husband. 

If any of these (husband, wife, son) are ungodly, it can destroy the house through laziness. A lazy person (Proverbs 19:15a) is, in some ways, more harmful than a dead person. Because if the person was dead, at least you knew in advance that you couldn't count on them to pull their weight in the household. But the lazy person appears to be part of the household, but is actually exerting a cost upon everyone else, in the way even a dead person wouldn't. Because God has put us into families together, an idle person very easily causes the rest of his household to suffer hunger (verse 15b) with him. He harms even generations to come. Laziness is a great folly. 

God revealed Himself to us as a God Who works, and He created us to be image bearers who work. Fearing the Lord means taking eating and drinking and enjoyments as gifts from God. And fearing the Lord means doing all of our labor, all the days of our life, with joy and diligence, also as a gift from God.

So, may God, by His grace, give each of us to fear the Lord in our own part in our current household. And, for the sake of our future households, may He mercifully bring to us those good wives and husbands, and may He bless our efforts and planning for the putting together of these future households.

How are you using your mouth to bless your household? How is your diligence blessing your household? Whom are you trusting to do this in you? How are you employing the means by which you trust Him to do that?

Sample prayer:  Father, please help us to use our mouths well. Make us diligent, and grant to us every part of biblical wisdom properly applied. We thank You for the family that You've given us. Work in, and help, each one of us, that we might be a blessing to everyone else in this household—and in our future households. We pray for the future husbands and wives of our daughters and sons, that you would be graciously working in them already. Glorify Yourself by blessing us this household, and the households that come from it, in every way. For we ask it through Christ. Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP184 “Adoration and Submission” or TPH95A “O Come before the LORD, Our King”

Identifying Kingdom Heirs [Family Worship lesson in Matthew 25:31–46]

How do you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory? Matthew 25:31–46 looks forward to the morning sermon in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory by grace-sustained adoration, affection, and action. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: This passage reveals that readiness for Christ’s return is rooted in divine election and sustained by a life of adoration, affection, and action toward fellow believers. The final judgment centers not on abstract moral performance but on how individuals have responded to Christ’s suffering through His mystical union with His people, making acts of mercy toward the vulnerable a reflection of worship and love for Him. True faith is marked by adoration of Christ as YHWH, which produces genuine affection for His redeemed, expressed in tangible acts of service. These actions are not a means of earning salvation, but a fruit of being predestined for the kingdom, and living by God’s grace.

2025.11.29 Hopewell @Home ▫ Matthew 25:31–46

 Read Matthew 25:31–46

Questions from the Scripture text: Who is coming (v31)? In what condition? With whom? To do what? Who will be gathered before Him (v32)? What will He do to them (v32–33)? What will He say to those on the right hand (v34–36)? By Whom are they blessed (v34)? What is prepared for them? Since when? What are they now to do with it? What have they done? How will they respond to His saying this (v37–39)? What is His explanation (v40)? What will He say to those on the left hand (v41–43)? Where will they be sent (v41)? What haven’t they done (v42–43)? How will they answer (v44)? What is His explanation (v45)? How does v46 summarize the outcome?

How do you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory? Matthew 25:31–46 looks forward to the morning sermon in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory by grace-sustained adoration, affection, and action.

How do you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory (v31)? What makes you ready is being predestined from the foundation of the world (v34). Who will receive, and what they receive, is prepared from all eternity. All depends upon Him, so even as we think about how to live, we realize that this will only be by His grace. We are dependent upon Him for our living that way. The rest of humanity are cursed. They are volitional, they make their choices, their real choices, they are wicked, but ultimately it is because they are reprobate. There is a double predestination, and God is righteous and just in doing so.

So election is one answer. But those who are elected have these three attributes: adoration, affection, and action.

The first is adoration. It is all done as worship unto Him. He receives what is done, particularly to Christians, as being done unto Him. And therefore, they are not just actions made in affection for particular people. they are actions made in adoration of the Glorious One.

Do you adore the Lord Jesus? Do you worship him? In all of the love that you have for those who are Christians, is it especially because they are His? Is it especially because they are His, and because He receives it as done unto Him? We can't skip adoration. We can't go straight to feeling really warm and fuzzy towards those who are called Christians. Adoration first.

Second, affection. If we adore Him, we will love Him and all those who are united to Him (v40). So He'll say, for I was hungry, you gave Me food. I was thirsty, you gave Me drink. I was a stranger, you took Me in. I was naked, you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited Me. I was in prison, you came to Me (v35–36). How could the Lord Himself have ben in such situations (v37)? He has so united Himself to those whom He is saving that they inherit with Him, but He suffers with them (cf. Rom 8:16–18). Thus, adoration of Christ must necessarily be joined to affection toward Christians. If you do not adore Jesus, then whatever affection you have for others who are called Christian is not truly Christian affection, because true Christian affection is rooted in adoration of the Christ to Whom they are united. But if you don't have affection towards Christians, it is also true then that you don't adore Jesus.

Finally, affection towards Christians isn't just a warm feeling. Affection is expressed in actions. Those who are His have real earthly needs, like food and hunger and clothing and illness, like having no home and needing a place to stay, or being imprisoned and needing to be remembered or advocated for. If we take no action, then there was no affection. That doesn't mean that love is only an action. That means that love includes both. There are those who take lots of actions, but they do it out of pride or a desire to justify themselves or feel good about themselves. These actions are a litmus test, not because they make the difference between the sheep and the goats, but because the difference between the sheep and the goats makes their actions.

So that's one of the ways that we can diagnose whether we need to be brought to a repentance that begins with renewed adoration of the Lord Jesus, and is felt in affection for Christians, which is expressed in those actions. And that's how you live as someone who is ready for his return.

How are you adoring Jesus? What is your affection to Christians? How are you putting this into action?

Sample prayer:  Father, we thank You for this portion of Your Word. We thank You for Your Son and His clear teaching about His return and what makes the difference in us. We thank You for Your electing love and for Your free decree and predestining out of Your good pleasure. And we ask that by Your Spirit, You would produce in us that adoration of Christ, and affection towards Christians, that produces Christian action. For we ask it in Christ's name, AMEN!

 Suggested Songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH98A “O Sing a New Song to the Lord”

2025.11.28 Hopewell @Home ▫ Song of Songs 1:16–17

Read Song of Songs 1:16–17

Questions from the Scripture text: How does she introduce her exclamation (v16a)? What does she exclaim about Him? What does she call Him? What else does she exclaim about Him (v16b)? What else does she describe (v16c)? As what color? What else does she describe (v17a)? As of what wood? And what else (v17b)? As of what wood (v17c)?

How does the Bride respond to the Bridegroom’s praise? Song of Songs 1:16–17 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Bride responds to the Bridegroom’s praise by praising both Him and her fellowship with Him.

In v16, the word that's being translated ‘handsome’ is the masculine form of the word ‘fair’ in v15. And what we have is the response of the church to Christ. Whenever He praises the beauty that he has attributed to us, the beauty that He has worked in us, the beauty that He sees in us (v15), we immediately want to throw it back onto Him—because any beauty that is in us is from Him. The beauty is natively, rightly, properly His. The beauty is only ours derivatively. It's ours as a gift, but it's His by virtue of Who He is and what He is like in Himself. He is inherently beautiful.

It's this way and should be this way with believers: that, in any good thing, as soon as we receive any commendation, or possess any good thing, or any praise whatsoever, we would always want to turn it, immediately, to the praise of the Lord Jesus.

He never finds us more lovely (v15), or make us more lovely, than when we are expressing our love to Him (v12–14). Never do we perceive the loveliness of Christ (v16–17) so much as when He is displaying His love to us (v15).

The riches of the glories of Jesus (v16) are known especially when He is saying, “Behold, you are fair, my love, behold, you are fair” (v15). And the church ought to respond, recognizing that whatever good is in us is rightly and properly from Him, and rightly and properly to His praise.

He had commanded, “behold.” She responds, “behold,” not as a command, but as a form of obedience—as if to say, “yes, behold; I'm looking, and this is what I see; I see your beauty. Any beauty that might be in me has come from you.”

The beloved is the origin of His bride’s beauty. And His beauty is of a different quality, a different character. So she hurries to add the word, “pleasant” (v16b)—a second word that means a similar thing, with more emphasis on the experience of beauty, rather than the content of beauty. He is beautiful in Himself, and beautiful to enjoy.

By calling her, “My love” (v15) He gave to her to find her own identity in Him, and to know Him especially in his union with her. So now, she responds, “my Beloved” (v16). Again, she's recognizing that it is in union with Him, and in shared life (communion) with Him, that she has whatever beauty she has. He is the One Whose beauty is ultimate (v16a–b). He is the One Who is ultimately pleasant. And she has come to be beautiful (“fair,” v15), only because she has been united to Him, Whom she knows now as her Beloved.

But it isn’t just He Whom she experiences as beautiful. Her shared life with Him beautifies everything else that she is experiences (v16c–17). Notice the shared life: not “Your bed,” but “our bed”; not “Your houses,” but “our houses.” She is experiencing her life as something in which she has a joint interest and experience with the Lord Jesus (cf. Rom 8:17).

And so, the church’s experience of the most comfort and intimacy with Christ (“our bed,” v16c) is given a color of refreshment and life and fruitfulness (“green”). And the structure and order which He has erected for their life together (“the beams of our houses,” v17a; and, “our rafters,” v17b) are given a substance of strength and beauty and endurance (“cedar” and “fir”). And there is certainly some allusion to the cedar of the temple that Solomon himself had built, where the Lord made a life for His people with Himself, by provision of priesthood, sacrifices, etc.

But the house of God is not ultimately the structure that Solomon built out of cedar. That house itself—by use of cedar, by use of gold, by use of the great stones that were used in it—looked forward to the life of God with His people, in His ordinances, as they would ultimately be experienced in Christ: Christ leading our worship, Christ drawing us near to God, Christ addressing us with God's word, Christ consecrating us as our high priest. And He has furnished for us those ordained servants by whom He Himself leads us before God. The structure that He has provided should be strong, enduring, beautiful and sweet to us, as cedar and fir are.

And so as the bride responds with her praise of His beauty, she is also responding with praise of intimacy with Him, and of the provision that he has made for the house.

Finally, this word rafters, refers to a covered walk, a third concentric circle, out from the bedroom and the household. The first is very intimate. Then there's the household, which is the life with Him which He provides. But then there's also these rafters, some sort of structure in which to walk. And so, even in her going out to do business, or daily life, or whatever she's going out to do, she still has that fellowship with Him that goes wherever she goes.

As you do, in your, life all the things that you go to do, you go accompanied by, bordered by, the fellowship that you have with Him. His beauty, His pleasantness, fills the whole of the life of the church, the whole of the life of the Christian. May God give you to have this experience of Christ.

How are you enjoying the Lord Jesus? How are you enjoying times of intimacy with Him? How are you enjoying the structure that He has provided for drawing near to Him? How are you enjoying fellowship with Him, even as you go out into the rest of your life?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we thank You for this song. We thank You for the poetry of it. We thank You most of all for the reality that this poetry is being employed to describe. Give us, we pray, to have a life, not only of intimate moments with You, but then, in your church, and in our engagement even in the world, that it would always flow from, and be accompanied by, the fellowship that we have with our Lord Jesus. For we ask it in His Name, Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly, I Am with You” or TPH425 “How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place”