2025.12.08 Hopewell @Home ▫ Proverbs 19:16–23

Read Proverbs 19:16–23

Questions from the Scripture text: What does the one in Proverbs 19:16a keep initially? And what does this cause him to keep? What is the opposite of doing this (verse 16b)? And what happens to that careless person? Upon whom does the man in Proverbs 19:17a have pity? To Whom, ultimately, is he lending? What will He do (verse 17b)? What should one do with his son (Proverbs 19:18a)? During what time? If he does not chasten his son, then upon what does he set his heart (verse 18b)? To what sort of man does Proverbs 19:19a refer? What will happen to him? What does not actually help him (verse 19b)? What must a son do (Proverbs 19:20a)? Unto what end (verse 20b)? What is he tempted to hope will be implemented (Proverbs 19:21a)? But what will actually win out (verse 21b)? What does the poor man desire for you to be (Proverbs 19:22a, cf. Proverbs 19:17a)? To whom is he superior (Proverbs 19:22b)? What leads to what end (Proverbs 19:23a)? In what condition (verse 23b)? Unmarred by what (verse 23c)?

What do godly parents hope for their children? Proverbs 19:16–23 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that parents hope in God to bless their discipline and instruction, unto their children’s fearing YHWH, unto their life and joy.  

This section continues to build on what a man can get from his father, which we have in the previous passage. And you remember that, especially when it came to the obtaining of a wife, What a man receives from his father is a subset of what he receives from God. This passage follows up on that, and it's bookended by two statements, presenting this as a matter of life (Proverbs 19:23) and death (Proverbs 19:16).

As a father gives the instruction of the Lord (cf. Ephesians 6:4), his children learn to obey God by obeying dad (Proverbs 19:16a). In this way, they come into the life-giving fear of YHWH (Proverbs 19:23a). And not just life, but fullness of joy (verse 23b) and absence of harm (verse 23c). There's nothing that a father should want for his children more than that they would have life, with abiding satisfaction, and not be harmed at all—i.e., that his children would fear YHWH.

The fear of YHWH is displayed when you do good in situations where no one but YHWH will repay you (Proverbs 19:17)—when someone is kind to the poor (verse 17a, Proverbs 19:22a) and tells the truth (verse 22b). For this fear, discipline is necessary (Proverbs 19:18a), because we are wrathful by nature (Proverbs 19:19, cf. Ephesians 6:4). Without discipline, a child will remain foolish (Proverbs 19:22) and be destroyed (Proverbs 19:18b). Discipline brings us into submission to YHWH’s will (Proverbs 19:21b), rather than trying to exert our own (Proverbs 19:21a). 

For the parent, this knowledge makes it a matter of the heart. Proverbs 19:18b is sobering; to fail to discipline isn’t just to be lazy or naïve; it is to set your heart on your child’s destruction. Parenting isn’t just a matter of habits, but of the heart. There is a window of hope (verse 18a) that threatens to slip away.

If they don't receive counsel and instruction, then they will continue to be fools, and they will continue to need discipline. And once they get out of the season of life in which discipline will help, they will bring themselves more and more under the punishment and wrath of God. The goal is that by the time the child comes into the next season of life, he will be wise (Proverbs 19:20). Thus, he will come to receive everything happily under the providence of God, in the fear of God; and, even those things that others experience as evil, he will know to be for his good in God’s mercy to him.

What is your attitude toward disciplining children? What is your attitude toward being disciplined by the Lord? How can you tell what value you are placing upon fearing Him? What sort of life are you hoping to obtain?

Sample prayer:  Father, thank You for not setting Your heart on our destruction, but giving Christ for us. And then giving us Your word by Your Spirit, Who uses it to bring us to Christ and to grow us in Christ. We pray that Your Spirit would do so, even with this passage that we have just heard. For we ask it in Jesus's Name, Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP184 “Adoration and Submission” or TPH131B “Not Haughty Is My Heart” 

2025.12.07 Lord's Day Livestreams (live at 10:10a, 11:10a, and 3p)

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The Execution of Passover [Family Worship lesson in Matthew 26:1–5]

Upon what would Jesus have His disciples focus? Matthew 26:1–5 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 Jesus would have His disciples focus upon His crucifixion for their sins. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) The devotional centers on Jesus’s prophetic declaration of His impending crucifixion, framed within the context of the Passover and the unfolding divine plan. It highlights the profound irony that while the chief priests, scribes, and elders conspire to kill Jesus, they are unwittingly fulfilling His own sovereign purpose. Jesus, the innocent Son of Man and true High Priest, is both the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb and the willing sacrifice Whose blood covers sinners, not because of their deserving, but by grace. The passage calls believers to live in continual awareness of Christ’s sacrifice. The devotional exposes the danger of fearing man more than God, and affirms that even the most wicked intentions are subverted by God’s redemptive design.

2025.12.06 Hopewell @Home ▫ Matthew 26:1–5

Read Matthew 26:1–5

Questions from the Scripture text: What had Jesus finished (v1)? To whom does He speak? What do they know (v2)? What will happen to Whom at that time? What three groups meet, to initiate the fulfillment of this prophecy (v3)? Where? What do they plot to do (v4)? In what manner? When (v5)? Why that timing? 

Upon what would Jesus have His disciples focus? Matthew 26:1–5 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 Jesus would have His disciples focus upon His crucifixion for their sins.

Our Lord Jesus has answered their question about the destruction of the temple (cf. 24:2–3), Now, He redirects their attention, and our attention, to His imminent crucifixion (v2). He has warned them about the judgment (cf. 25:31ff), and now He calls their attention to when He will die under judgment, for our sins. If we thought it a wonder that the second person of the Godhead would hunger and thirst, how much more that He would be crucified!

The One Who will come in His glory and sit on His throne (cf. 25:31) is also the Passover Lamb (v2; cf. Ex 12:1–11, Isa 53:6, 1Cor 5:7). The way you survive the judgment of Jesus is by the blood of Jesus. The marvelous final fulfillment of the Passover is that the One Who killed all the firstborn in His sovereign, righteous, holy justice is ultimately also the One Whose blood is spilled for, and covers, those whom He is saving. He saves us because we deserve His wrath, not because we deserve to be saved. It's exactly the opposite—however much our foolish hearts may flatter us.

Jesus directs their attention to Him, and Him crucified. This is something that all of his disciples, even to this day, even you, should have as our great focus (cf. 1Cor 2:2). Jesus came to be crucified, but first e prophesies it—both, throughout history by means of all of the scripture, by means of the Passover; and here, He prophesies it again. He prophesies the timing and the meaning: two days and Passover. He prophesies the way in which he comes to be condemned: He will be delivered up, prophesying his betrayal. He prophesies the method of execution—and therefore the culprits, because only Rome could crucify. So, the Jews and the Romans had to conspire for that to be accomplished.

No one takes His life from Him. He has authority to lay it down. He has authority to take it up again (cf. Jn 10:18). This is exactly according to His plan and His intent for good (cf. Gen 50:20; Ac 4:27–28). Jesus intended it for good (v1–2), but the Jews intended it for evil. He is laying down His life. He is in sovereign control of it. And yet, they are wicked. Their desire is wicked. Their conspiring is wicked. Their intentions are wicked. This is the most wicked act that there has ever been.

So you have here the chief priests who preside over the formal religious life of the nation, the scribes who are the nation’s teachers, and the elders who govern (v3). Here is the combined, wicked, failure of their prophets, priests, kings. And here is the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ, the great Prophet, Priest, and King. They assemble in the palace of the high priest called Caiaphas. He has the office of priest, but he's really just the leader of the conspiracy to murder. Jesus is the real Priest here.

They have to take him by trickery (v4), and that's a reminder that Jesus is innocent, that this is the righteous One, Who is going to be condemned. He's not dying for His sin. He's dying for ours. They don't have grounds upon which to execute Jesus. By their own admission, they have no grounds; He is innocent, since they must kill him by trickery.

Finally, they are exposed as fearing man rather than God. It is sobering that fear of God is not factor for them, but fear of man alters their murder plans. What they feared was an uproar among the people (v5). How dreadful is the wickedness of those who fear man and fear not God. By such wickedness, they can fall even into murdering the Lord Jesus Christ.

But, what they intended for evil, we praise God that Jesus intended for good. And that He offered Himself as our Passover Lamb. And then He teaches us, here, to direct our attention to the cross and live always in light of the fact that it was the Lord Himself Who shed His blood to cover us with it.

How are you prepared to face the judgment? Upon what do you focus your spiritual thinking? What evil acts of men do you experience, and how are you helped by the other intentions involved?

Sample prayer:  Lord, as You direct our attention to Your cross in this passage, we pray that Your Spirit would keep us mindful of You and Your crucifixion—so that everything we do, we would do as worship unto You, in response to the cross of Jesus Christ. On account of covering us by His shed blood, we pray that you would forgive us our sins, in His Name, AMEN!

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

Lovelies of the Lovely One [Family Worship lesson in Song of Songs 2:1–2]

How beautiful is the bride? Song of Songs 2:1–2 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 is beautiful with the King’s beauty. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) The passage reveals Christ as the ultimate source and definition of beauty, affirming His identity as the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys. He delights in His bride because He has transformed her from a state of thorn-like fallenness into a likeness of Himself. Her beauty is not self-derived but a participation in His, reflecting the divine purpose to conform believers to the image of His Son. Identity with Adam’s fallen lineage is replaced by union with the last Adam, urging believers to cultivate Christ-esteem rather than self-esteem, and to treat one another with the same delight and hope that Christ has in His bride.

2025.12.05 Hopewell @Home ▫ Song of Songs 2:1–2

Read Song of Songs 2:1–2

Questions from the Scripture text: What does the speaker call Himself in Song of Songs 2:1a? In verse 1b? Whom is He describing in Song of Songs 2:2b? Among whom is she? What does He say that she is like (verse 2a)? Among what?

How beautiful is the bride? Song of Songs 2:1–2 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 is beautiful with the King’s beauty. 

NKJ makes a formatting error that attributes Song of Songs 2:1 to the bride (which would be immodest of her). For verse 1 claims to be not merely “a” rose, or even “a” rose of sharon, but “the” Rose of Sharon—not merely “a” lily, or even “a” lily of the valleys, but “the” Lily of the Valleys.

This speaker can only be the King. Not a king, but the King of kings. 

He is affirming for her, and with her, her love for Him and her appreciation of His beauty and His glory. He is just as she has been discovering her to be.

Whenever we begin to know and love the beauty of the Lord Jesus, part of His kindness and goodness to us is to strengthen in us our appreciation of Him and delight in Him. So, here, He confirms that He is the great beauty, the great sweetness. He uses that which is specifically more glorious than Solomon (cf. Matthew 6:28–29). The reason that the greatest king, in all his splendor, isn't as beautiful as the lilies is because the lilies are given a created beauty to point to that perfection of beauty that is the Lord Himself. 

He is the very definition of beauty. He is the origin of beauty. When He makes beautiful things in His creation, and gives us the ability to recognize what's beautiful, and even to reproduce beauty, He is bestowing upon us the privilege of being made in His image.

So, the speaker is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Whose marriage is the marriage of marriages, Whose love is the love of loves—and the song about Whose love, and Whose marriage, is the Song of Songs. 

He affirms to her His own beauty, which he has begun to give His bride to delight in, and then also He affirms her own beauty. Her beauty is a participation in, and derivative of, His beauty. Notice He says about Himself, “I am the lily of the valleys.” And then He says about her, “like a lily.” She's beautiful with a likeness unto Him, with a conformity to Him. This is that for which the foreknowing love of God predestined us: those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (cf. Romans 8:29)—to be made like a lily (Song of Songs 2:2).

But she hasn’t always been a lily. In her original creation, she had been beautiful. But in the fall, she became as a thorn. The thorn, of course, alludes to the fall (cf. Genesis 3:18). Now, humanity, sadly, does not reflect the beauty of God. They are so corrupt, in their state of sin and misery, that they reflect the fallenness of the world. And yet, when the Lord gives spiritual life and faith and union with Him, and begins to work conformity to Him, the bride loses her “thorn-ness” association with the sinful fallen world, because her identity is much more now bound up in being united to Him. She exchanges her “thorn-ness” for “lily-ness.”

He Who says, “I am the Lily of the Valley,” says of her, “like a lily, among thorns, is my love.” She is among the daughters—those who have a natural descent from Adam. And yet, she has a spiritual descent, or origin, in the last Adam. She has been taken out of Adam the first, and put into Adam the last—the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valleys. What has done this to her? His love for her is making her to be like Him. And so the Christian should learn from Jesus to acknowledge and value this Christ-derived, Christ-shaped beauty that He is giving to you. And when we deal with one another, who have not yet put on our full “lily-ness,” and who still exhibit so much of our “thorn-ness,” we ought to view one another with love and a delight, aiming at that which Christ's love is giving His bride. 

How are you acknowledging and appreciating the beauty of Christ-likeness in yourself? In other Christians? How are you pursuing more of that Christ-likeness?

Sample prayer:  Father, help us to treat one another, to speak to one another, to speak of one another, as those who are participating already in the lily-ness, the beauty, of the Lord Jesus. Give us not a self-esteem, but a Christ-esteem, so that when we remember that we are united to Him, we will take pleasure in His pleasure in us. So do this for us, we ask in His name. Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP130 “Lord, From the Depths to You I Cried” or TPH425 “How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place”

Judge Not the Lord by Feeble Sense [Family Worship lesson in Ecclesiastes 9:1–6]

How should we live, since we are subject to the providence of God? Ecclesiastes 9:1–6 prepares us for the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that, under the providence of God, we should live as those who remember that we must be right with Him before we die. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: the devotional draws from Ecclesiastes 9:1–6 to emphasize that, in God’s sovereign providence, all people—righteous and wicked alike—face the same ultimate fate: death. It warns against judging others’ spiritual standing based on their circumstances, whether prosperity or suffering, as such judgments misread God’s purposes, and reflect human folly. The central truth is that, while the living know they will die, and thus must live with urgent purpose, the dead know nothing and have no further opportunity for repentance or reward. Therefore, believers are called to live with constant awareness of mortality, not in despair, but in faithful service to God through Christ, Who alone provides righteousness and hope beyond death. The living, even in their weakness, are to be esteemed above the dead, because they still have the chance to turn to God, making every moment an opportunity for grace and repentance.

2025.12.04 Hopewell @Home ▫ Ecclesiastes 9:1–6

Read Ecclesiastes 9:1–6

Questions from the Scripture text: In where did Solomon consider these things (v1)? Why? In Whose hands are who and what? What can’t people know, from what? What differences do not determine one’s providence (v2)? What seems evil (v3)? What is the spiritual condition of men? For whom is there still hope (v4)? By what illustration does he make this point? What do the living know (v5a)? Who does not know this (v5b)? What other interactions with this world do they no longer have (v5c–6)?

How should we live, since we are subject to the providence of God? Ecclesiastes 9:1–6 prepares us for the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that under the providence of God, we should live as those who remember that we must be right with Him before we die. 

In the previous portion (8:16–17), we noted the humility that we need since man is unable to tell the work of God. And now in v1–6, we see how to live in light of the fact that God rules over all things in sovereign providence: work while you're alive (cf. Jn 9:4). Serve the Lord.

In v1, he warns against trying to interpret things by providence: “People know neither love nor hatred by anything they see before them.” One of the great mistakes of Job's friends was that they concluded, from the trials that Job was going through, that God was against him. They couldn't have been more wrong. God was more pleased with Job than He was with anyone else on the earth. And although Job was going through much affliction, the Lord was doing Job great good through that affliction, even through Satan's most fierce enmity against Job.

Do not conclude from ease that one is favored by God, or from affliction that one is opposed by God. You know neither love nor hatred by what you see before you.

The biggest example of this is death; the wicked ultimately die; the righteous also ultimately die (v2). So, do not conclude, from someone's death, that he must have been worse than other people. The best example of this, perhaps, is Jesus’s answers in Luk 13:1–5.

So, on the one hand, man thinks that it is an “evil” thing, that one thing happens to all (v3a). It seems to him like it's not fair. How come these wicked people die, but these righteous people die just like the wicked people died? And part of the answer is there are no righteous people: “the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil (v3b). Madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that, they go to the dead (v3c). So every living person in this world has folly in his heart, and the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil. We all deserve death.

Is there a difference between the godly and the ungodly? There is, and Solomon has covered that on a number of occasions already in the book of Ecclesiastes. There's a difference in what comes of them, and there's a difference in how they live. The difference in how they live is that they remember their Creator. They receive everything as a gift from Him and an assignment from Him. They do everything as a service to Him. But they go through affliction just as much, often more, than the wicked go through affliction. And they may die. They may die early. They may die in a very painful and horrific way. And you should not conclude that they are somehow less favored by God or less godly or less clean or less properly religious or less moral because of the manner in which they die. That's a superstition that belongs to people who don't understand that we are sinners, and that the wages of sin is death, and that what differentiates is in the heart, and in the mind, in one's relationship with the Lord.

For him who is joined to all the living, there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion (v4). What does that mean? Well, that means that as long as someone has not yet died, he can still repent. While there's life, there's hope. 

So instead of thinking judgmentally about people because of what's happening to them, remember that it is a mercy that God has not yet killed them. God may yet bring them to repentance. So pray for their repentance, plead with them for their repentance. And do what you can to bring them under the means of grace, because the only hope of their repentance is the God of grace, and the grace of that God. And so, whatever condition they're actually in, the desire is that they would come to repentance before they die because it is appointed to man to die once and after that, the judgment. There's no more repenting, no more serving God, no more doing others good in this world once you die (v5).

Each one of us must grapple with the fact, must deal with the fact that we will die, we will leave this world. While you are alive, you have the opportunity to respond rightly to that. Become right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, Whose righteousness alone can be our righteousness with God, Whose sacrifice alone can take away our sin so that our death will not be a penalty for our sin, but the means by which God delivers him from all the evils, all the harms, all the pain, the affliction that is in this world.

The living know that they will die. Sadly, there are a lot of people who live as if they don't realize that they're going to die. They don't seek the Lord Jesus Christ, and His righteousness, and His sacrifice, that they may be right with God. For many, walking with God, doesn't matter to them. But that's not how the living should live. The living should live as those who know that they will die and live in light of the day of their death.

The dead know nothing. They have no more reward. Memory of them is forgotten (v5). Their love, hatred, envy have now perished; never more will they have a share in anything done under the sun (v6). The dead do not contemplate what they are going to do; they are done doing. But how dreadful that there are so many who are alive, but still do not contemplate what they are going to do.

And so we must live as those who do not presume to know from affliction, or the lack of it, what one's condition is with God. But we must live as those who deal with God directly—especially in and through our Lord Jesus Christ—not drawing conclusions about ourselves or about others based upon what happens to us.

How often do you meditate upon your upcoming death? How are you living in response to that? What changes do you think you should make?

Sample prayer:  Sample prayer:  Father, we pray that You would give us to live conscientiously aware of You, and of the shortness of our life, and the certainty of death. Give us, then, to live by faith in Christ, through Whom we ask it. Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP23B “The Lord’s My Shepherd” or TPH131B “Not Haughty Is My Heart”

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.