TRANSCRIPT

Doing God’s Will Is Feeding The Lord Jesus (Matthew 25) Part 3
A Sermon By Elise Beatrice - Saturday, 24 May 2025

Loving our enemy or neighbour as ourselves is not to promote their sins, not to associate with their evil, and not to do the same evil they do to us back to them, and not inflict on them the pain they inflict on us. 
Sin hurts us, not holiness. 
Love is good and does not harm a neighbour. But every wrong thing we do harms our neighbour. Loving our enemy or neighbour as ourselves, in a way pleasing to God, is not to make them think their unrighteous ways are good when it is indeed their unrighteous ways that lead them to hell.

Yes, we must understand the teachings of the Lord well because in every situation, given that we are listening to the Lord Jesus, He is the One guiding us. I have a proper relationship with the Lord Jesus. The truth is if the Lord calls you to serve in His Kingdom, you are not alone. If you are listening to Him, He will be with you, and His Holy Spirit will be with you.  
But if you are not listening to Him, it is not His Holy Spirit who is with you. 
It is the evil spirit who will teach you a different thing and take you down a different path. But when you are truly in the Lord, in every situation, God will be the One helping you to understand and to know what to do.

I’m going to tell you two stories. In the course of these two months, two members of my family passed away. The first one is an older man in his seventies. And just ten months before he died, the Lord sent me to speak to him and his wife and adult children. And I went there, spoke to them; the conversation took about five hours, and I was always exhorting them to turn from their ways, telling them everything the Lord had instructed me to say to them all so that they would repent and the Lord would save them. The reason why there was so much mess in their home and the devil taking over their home was because of their own sins. And I helped them to see their sins, but they did not listen except for the wife. 
Even in my last conversation with them, I pleaded for three hours with the words of the Bible that the Lord in that situation gave me that applied to them, and at the end of my conversation, I said, “Have you understood?” And they were all silent. Only the wife said, “Yes,” and she praised the Lord and thanked the Lord even for me. But the man and his adult daughters kept silent. They did not want to change their wrong ways.  
From that day, the Lord told me to not associate with the others who did not listen. So, though they are family members, and because she believed in what the Lord said, the Lord allowed me to speak to that person but won’t allow me to speak to the father of the house and his children, who did not listen. 

Ten months later, he died. Did he know he was going to die ten months later? No. 
God is gracious; God is love.
So whenever you are rejecting the Gospel, that could be the last time you’ll ever hear of it. That could be the last time the Lord will ever come to speak to you, to save you. You don’t want to miss that.  

So, in March 2025, the father began to be ill, and he is in the hospital. Since the Lord told me not to associate with them, He was rejecting them because of the sins they were committing and did not want to turn from them. So, now he is in the hospital, what do I do?  First, I must ask the Lord who is against Him for his sins before I go and promote something that might be against the Lord. And I asked if I should send money to help with his hospital fees. The Lord said, “Yes.” So, I sent them my contribution for his hospital fees. 
Then I asked the Lord, “Lord, since he did not listen to the Gospel last time, and now that he is unwell, I don’t know if it could be his last time or... I don’t know... Only You know the truth, Lord. Only You know the truth, if this will be the last time for this person who is sick now or if he still has more time to live. So, Lord, since You know the truth, since You know everything, what do you want me to do in this situation? Do you want me now that he is in the hospital, to call him and remind him of your words?” And the Lord said, “No.”
Then, just two weeks later, the person died. He died. So why did the Lord tell me not to remind him of His words? Because God, who knows everything, saw that he would not believe it just as he did not believe it when I took the Gospel, following the instructions of the Lord, who told me to go speak to them and pointed to me all the passages of the Bible to explain to them. 

So, that person died, and I know he was not saved, and that is sad. 
The Lord, who knows everything, knew that person would die just a few months later, and in His immense grace and mercy, He sent me beforehand to speak to him.  
However, there’s also another person, a cousin of mine, who has also just passed away. And he is a believer; even the other person was a believer. But what good is a believer if you don’t follow the ways of the Lord and the words of God? 
This cousin of mine has been unwell for years; in fact, I’ve been taking care of him financially for years and also helping him spiritually. Of course, he had also committed so many sins and was not listening to the point that God also told me to cut contact with him because he was continually inventing sicknesses. Though he was someone who was indeed sick for real, he was also making up other sicknesses to crook me. Because I care about people, I love them, and even when they’re well, they’d come and tell me they’re still unwell to get some money. And God knew that and told me not to speak to that person anymore. They were always lying, and I was being grieved, and the Holy Spirit was continuously grieved even by me just talking with them. So, I had to stay away from those people because they caused me to be sick and because the Holy Spirit in me was rejecting their sins and was grieved by their sins. So, for this reason, I stayed away. And I told my cousin, “The Lord told me you are sinning and you are lying, and you’re inventing illnesses to take money from me.” But he denied it. He denied it completely. But I chose to believe in God, and I stayed away. 

So, in February 2025, they sent me his picture to show he was in the hospital. He had become so thin, and I was in tears. And I said, “Here’s another one who does not listen.” And I took the matter to the Lord, and He told me to send him money. The Lord even told me the amount I should send him. I also asked the Lord, “Lord, would You want me to call him and to also speak to him about You because You know whether this is just one of those illnesses he will recover, or if this might be his time. What do you say, my Lord, in this situation? Shall I call him and speak to him about You? And the Lord said, “Yes.” 
I called my cousin, and he cried, “I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.” And I begin to say to him, “Since you’re saying you’re going to die, there must be something making you think you’re going to die? So, since you say you’re going to die, would you at least make sure that you know where you’re going if you were to die? Because I know you’re living in sins against the Lord, and you have not lived your life as you were supposed to live. You’re saying now that you’re going to die. Suppose it is indeed that time that you’re going to die; make sure that if you die, it will not be the beginning of your worst nightmare you won’t wake up from. Make sure at least that if you die now, you will go to Christ.” The best thing he would do would be to truly repent. He was more eager to listen now. And right there, he began to confess to me, saying, “I’ve done things I shouldn’t have done. I’ve crooked you...”
So now, finally, he was admitting that he crooked me. He started to list all the things he did wrong against me, but because he was feeling weak, I cut him short, saying, “I know already; the Lord told me, and you were the one denying it, but I’m glad now that you’re accepting it.” 
He said sorry to me right there on the phone, and I said, “Yes, I have already forgiven you, even though you’ve never asked. Now you need to go and say sorry to everyone you have crooked and to the Lord Jesus,” and he said he would. 
Then, he died just a month later. And I was crying, crying to the Lord, just hoping that his case would not be like the case of the one who was in his seventies. But the Lord reassured me by saying that my cousin is fine. 
So that means he had indeed said sorry to the Lord and even to some people he had crooked, and the Lord had indeed forgiven him and taken his sins away. And why did the Lord tell me to go and speak to my cousin who was in his hospital bed while instead, He told me not to speak to the other person? Because the Lord knew that at least my cousin was now ready to confess and admit his guilt, and God saved that one soul. 

So when we are with the Lord and listening to the Lord, we are not walking on that journey on our own without the One who called us to serve. He is always with us. Suppose I didn’t have this special communication with the Lord, I would have followed my emotion and preached the Gospel to the man in his hospital bed, and nothing good would have come out of that, for he would not have listened. 
So, in these two cases, we see that they were all believers, yet they were not listening to God by committing sins from left to right. When one was about to die, the Lord said, “Don’t even speak to him, for He won’t listen.” Instead, the one whom the Lord saw would listen; He allowed me to speak to him, and he was ready at that moment to listen. He listened and repented and died. So he at least was saved. I was comforted; I had more joy knowing he was saved spiritually but was very sad for the other person, for though he died, that would be the beginning of his worst life. 

God is telling us to love our neighbour as ourselves. These neighbours of mine believed in the Lord, but doing like the Good Samaritan, I can still assist them when they are in need, but it does not stop the fact that I’m going to be grieved by their sins. I say I grieve, the Lord is grieved, the Holy Spirit is grieved by their sins, and I myself am so grieved because it is my body the Holy Spirit is in, and when I’m feeling sick, it is my body that is getting sick and me getting sick, because of their sins grieving the Holy Spirit who is in me. So, for this, what do I do? Of course, you’re going to act like a Good Samaritan; you assist them when they’re in need, but if I feel sick after calling them, I should avoid calling them. If they need help because they’re ill, I should give them that help. 
Until they repent of their sins, those sins will always grieve the Holy Spirit. 

So when, in Matthew 25:35-40, the Lord is saying,
“I was hungry, you fed Me. I was thirsty, you gave Me water. I was a stranger, you invited Me. I was naked, you clothed Me. I was sick, you cared for Me. I was in prison, and you visited Me.”
We must understand that if someone is not listening to God, they’re not really being the child of God here. But that one who is not His Child, even if I have been a good Samaritan to them, I am not feeding the Lord indeed because they are not really His children; some will die and go to hell if they don’t listen to God. But when the Lord says, “When we are feeding those ones the least of His brothers and sisters,” He is not referring to those whom we may help who are not His children, but to those who do the will of His Father.
So, the Lord has told us who His brothers and sisters and mother are: those who do the will of His Father. So, a believer who believes in the Lord but doesn’t do the will of His Father is excluded from His brothers, His mother and His sisters. But having said that, it does not mean that if they are in need, we should not be the Good Samaritans and love our neighbour as ourselves. 

“In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? (James 2:15-16).
“If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth” (1 John 3:17-18.)
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” “The one who showed him mercy,” replied the expert in the law. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise” (1 John 3:17-18). 
“For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land” (Deuteronomy 15:11). 
“Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31). 
“Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and He will repay the lender” (Proverbs 19:17). 

These Bible verses say it. I pray this will help you. 

We have to listen to God in every situation. When we are truly serving the Lord, and He is with us, He is the One, prompting us in every situation to know what to do. It is not by our own authority or by taking the matter in our own hands to go out there, decide who to feed and who to visit, and who to... you know, it is that if we’re listening to God, we’re doing what He tells us to do.

So, these three-part sermons have taught me a few things. I pray they will help you, too.

When somebody brings the truth of the Scriptures to you, listen. That is the truth that will never change. The Gospel can never be wrong. However, your wrong understanding is what prevents you from listening to the truth. 

“I am the Good Shepherd; I know my own sheep, and my sheep know Me. Just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:14-16).

HHere’salso another Verse, 
John 10:26-28,
“But because you are not My sheep, you refuse to believe,” says the Lord Jesus. “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.”

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for this teaching, Lord. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit. Thank You for helping me understand all this, Lord. 
Thank You for Your correction and discipline. 
We love You, Lord Jesus, and thank You for loving us forever. 
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for being the way You are, and being so good to us, for being so forgiving, and merciful and gracious, and generous.
Please hear my prayer, and thank You for everyone You help, in Your Holy Name, Lord Jesus, I pray. Amen.