In his sermon 'Defending Our Name,' Peter Allison explores Acts 28, focusing on Paul's journey to Rome and the significance of hospitality and maintaining a good reputation. The sermon discusses the idolatrous figurehead of the ship carrying Paul, emphasizing awareness of cultural idolatry. Hospitality among Christians is highlighted as a vital practice, especially in the context of Paul's interactions with believers in Pudioli. The sermon underscores the importance of a good name, citing Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and stresses that for Christians, this includes bearing Christ's name. It discusses the Ninth Commandment's role in preserving truth and reputation and distinguishes between gossip and necessary discussions about character. Paul’s defense of his name among the Jews in Rome serves as a key example of these principles, emphasizing the need to speak truth and uphold integrity in all matters.

Our scripture reading this morning is Acts chapter 28, beginning at verse 11. Verse 11, as they begin the final leg of their journey to Rome, leaving the island of Amalta where they have been wintering over. Hear God's word. After three months we sailed in an Alexandria ship whose figurehead was the twin brothers, which had wintered at the island and landing at Syracuse we stayed three days. From there we circled around and reached Regium and after one day the south wind blew and the next day we came to Pudioli where we found brethren and were invited to stay with them seven days.

And so we went toward Rome. And from there when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Three Inns. And when Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. When we came to Rome the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him. It came to pass after three days that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together.

So when they had come together he said to them, Men and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who when they had examined me wanted to let me go, because there was no cause for putting me to death. But when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. For this reason therefore I have called for you, to see you and to speak with you, because for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." Then they said to him, We neither receive letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren who came reported or spoken any evil of you. But we desire to hear from you what you think, for concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere." May our lips utter praise as He teaches us His statutes. Heavenly Father, illumine our hearts and nourish us with Your Word.

Sanctify our thinking and renew our minds after your image. Open our hearts Lord to receive your word and sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim it. In Jesus' name, Amen. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, after three months of waiting on the island of Malta for the winter to pass by, the sailing season on the Mediterranean opens again And their voyage continues on a different ship.

I'm sure they were glad to be moving again. Certainly the centurion was glad to be moving again to finish this journey. It's been six months in underway, Six months of responsibility for a number of prisoners and responsibility for getting them to Rome. Luke says that it was another ship from Alexandria, So most likely this was a late season grain ship that had wintered over in Malta just like the ship that they took to Malta that was wrecked in the storm, shipwrecked. Luke doesn't tell us the cargo, but he does give us the name of this second boat, saying that the figurehead was the twin brothers.

Now this could be referring to a wooden carving on the prow, but more likely I think it refers to the insignia marked on both sides of the ship at the prow. But in either case, it's equivalent to the name of the ship. These twin brothers, known as Castor and Pollux, were two of the more well-known gods in pagan Roman and Greek idolatry. And these idols were considered patrons of almost all of the industries and applications of life. They were the benefactors of every kind of needy person.

They were the guardians presiding over horsemen, soldiers, and sailors. They were the guardians presiding over farmers who tilled the soil and physicians and even the guardians thought of human fertility. The two leading stars in the constellation commonly known as Gemini are named after these idols, Castor and Pollux. And they show up even in our English usage by the late 1600s as the minced oath by Jiminy. Maybe you've heard it.

It's an older one that I don't hear much anymore, but it's kind of faded today, being replaced by even worse ones. But it was a common expression I can remember hearing years ago, never realizing at the time that these people were appealing by oath to the idolatrous guardians of public prosperity. Thankfully, it's not heard today much, but I mention it because it's an example of just how easily we can adopt common expressions and ways of doing things and ways of thinking without fully realizing what we have adopted. But Paul had no choice here of using another ship and although Paul and Aristarchus and Luke weren't polluted by these idols any more than Paul was polluted by walking among the idols in Athens, they probably were vexed and troubled at seeing the honor of being the guardian of our safety, at seeing that honor That is due to God alone being given to idols. Just like Paul's spirit was provoked, he was vexed at seeing the rampant idolatry of Athens.

I suspect that the sorrow this provoked may be the reason this seemingly little detail that isn't given for any of the other boats that they were on. I think that might be one reason why it's included in Luke's account in giving us the name of this boat and not just the origin like he typically has been doing. Because you see, being oblivious or unaffected by the idolatry around us, whether it's in expressions or in practices, it's not a virtue to be unaware that it's happening. Cultures change when people stop accepting the status quo as acceptable. And they are changed for the worse when sins are no longer objectionable, but are simply accepted as the common practice of the culture.

Cultures can be changed for the better when a minority, even a small minority, refuse to go along with the majority when they are wrong in these ways. And so Luke makes mention of this little fact that this boat was named after idols. While they leave Malta after three months there, it would, given where we think this is, If they got there at the end of October, maybe early November seems a little bit pushing a little bit far, but possibly. Then three months later, you know, puts them into the end of January, maybe the middle of February, somewhere in that range. Still a little bit early for the sailing season to begin.

But favorable winds coupled with the expectation that this is the end of the winter and things should be only getting better from here on out, not worse. They probably enticed them to leave as soon as these winds became favorable. And maybe it was an extra hard season and the spring came a little early that year. We don't know, but they set out. And on reaching Syracuse, that's on Sicily.

Sicily is that big island that's right at the tip of the toe of the boot of the Italian peninsula. They stay there three days. If this is a grain ship from Alexandria, there would have been no need to offload grain there. Syracuse didn't need or Sicily didn't need grain from Alexandria. They had plenty of their own.

So any grain that were to be going to Rome. And since there are no brethren mentioned in Syracuse, it could mean that there was no church there. But I think it's more likely that they spent three days waiting for favorable winds to continue. And when a ship is waiting for favorable conditions to sail, then all hands wait on the ship. Nobody goes ashore.

Everybody's, you stay on the ship and you make like you're at sea so that you are ready at the moment's notice to get underway. And I think that's what the situation here is, that they are waiting on this ship for the first favorable opportunity to get underway. So they have to wait three days before a ship arrives. They've this first leg here to Syracuse is about 100 miles and they get underway from Syracuse. And, but it's not an ideal southern wind because Luke says they have to sail around or sail circuitously and I think that means they had to tack back and forth in order to sail upwind And this is to be understood in the context of sailing downwind, which Luke calls running a straight course in Acts 16 11.

When they're sailing from Troas, he says, we ran a straight course to Samothrace. Meaning they had a following wind and were able to run without having to attack. Here it seems like they had to attack. So it's about 70 miles or so to Regum where they stop again. Now Regum is a port on the southern tip of Italy, So they've gone from this island over to the peninsula.

It's really on the tip of the toe of that famous boot-shaped coastline that forms southern Italy at the very end of the peninsula. And the reason they have to stop at Regim is they don't have a southerly wind. And if you don't have a southerly wind then they would have to transit these straits going, tacking back and forth And probably also dealing with current. And this is a very narrow channel of water. At one place, if my measurements are right, it got down to less than two miles in width, which maybe sounds like a long width.

But if you're a sailing vessel tacking back and forth, that's not, that's not a lot. And on the boats I was on, that's definitely not a lot. That's very, that's considered very tight navigation. And so They're probably waiting for a favorable wind and also or favorable currents that can carry them through the Straits of Masiya, which are the straits between Sicily and the Italian Peninsula. But this time they only have to wait for one day.

And with it they are then rapidly able to cover the 212 miles or so to Pudioli. And this is the port of Naples. Pudioli is out on the coast. Naples is farther back into the bay. So this is the port where the grain ship would have come.

Pudioli is the main port for wheat going to Rome. It's the end of the line. The ship would turn around here and head back to Alexandria for more grain. Pudioli was the main port in Italy up until Ostia, the port for Rome, took over. And that was a gradual process that was probably beginning at this time.

But even now, it wouldn't be around 60 AD or so it wouldn't be unusual for a wheat ship to be offloading here and so we come in invert to verse 14 where Luke says that we found some brethren. So they were searching for some brethren. Once they got to Pudioli, Paul is seeking out fellow believers as his typical practice when visiting a city. And I think It's interesting that the centurion Julius allows him this liberty to do this. We aren't told in Acts how this church was started, but there are any number of very plausible means.

And the most simple explanation for the church starting here is that Jews from Rome heard the gospel from Peter at Pentecost and returned to Italy to set up this church. Acts 2 says that there were Jews and proselytes from Rome there in Jerusalem at Pentecost. And so these Saints invite Paul to stay with them for seven days and Since Julius is a party is no longer dependent on the ship schedule because the rest of this trip is going to be over land, the decision to stay seven days in Pudioli is entirely up to him. And given his track record here of granting Paul's request to receive care from believers. Given his not only initial respect from Paul, which would have only increased based on Paul's many contributions to the success of the voyage and to the preservation of life, it's not hard to see Julius granting a request from Paul to stay seven days in Pudioli.

He may have been very interested in seeing what Paul's people were like. Paul's been a leading figure on the boat, bringing this encouragement and hope, giving them directions, even practical directions about not letting sailors depart and so forth. And they wanted to let the skiff down. So he may be very interested in seeing what a church is like. But I would note that invite here is probably a little too weak of a word.

These saints urged Paul to stay. They entreated him. They called him alongside. This word is used quite frequently in the New Testament. And most of the time, it's translated beg or beseech, implore, plead, or urge.

It's also the word for comfort. And so these people are not just extending a timid invitation. These people are urging Paul. They're entreating him to stay with them. They would have read Paul's letter to Rome.

It had been written a couple years earlier. And Paul, we know, wanted his letters to be circulated to other churches in the area and so that letter that went to Rome would have been copied and certainly sent to all the churches in the region and eventually all the churches had all the letters. But one of those exhortations in the letter that Paul sent to Rome was to be those who supplied the needs of the saints and were given to hospitality. That was one of Paul's exhortations. To be those who supplied, distributed to the needs of the saints and were given to hospitality.

To be given to something means that it's a frequent thing. It means it's something that you are comfortable and familiar with doing. Of course as you probably already know, that word hospitality is literally a fondness or love of strangers. But that hospitality that Paul is urging is specifically related to meeting the needs of the saints. It's not necessarily taking into our home every homeless and random stranger that we run across.

It's distributing to the needs of the saints. And the Apostle Peter exhorts us in his first letter to, in 1 Peter 4, 8, to have a fervent love for one another, be hospitable to one another without rumbling. So this hospitality is first and foremost a hospitality to the covenant community. It's a willingness to share for their needs, to open our home for their needs. And this is really a very important part of our Christian life.

In our day today with the ubiquity of hotels and restaurants, I think this importance of hospitality to the saints has taken somewhat of a back seat in our thinking. Maybe a less important, maybe even optional kind of thing for our Christian witness. But this is really important. Hospitality is so important that it's a requirement for elders. It's one of the qualifications that Paul lists in both 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus, that an overseer must, must be hospitable.

And it is a blessing to all our brothers and sisters who are helped by this kind of kindness. But really, It's an even bigger blessing to those who show this kind of kindness. Because remember, it's more blessed to give than to receive. I can remember as a little, very, very little boy, coming home from church one evening when a blizzard overtook our vehicle. My brother and I were in the back seat.

And the blizzard became so intense that you couldn't see the road at all. And my dad was driving and my mother was in the front seat And she was able to open the car door and look down at the white line and say, a little left, a little right. And that's how they drove until they saw. And I was trying to comfort my little brother in the back seat until they saw lights coming the other way and a car turned in to a driveway and and I think someone one of them said well let's just follow that car so they followed that car in and we stayed the night with those people I don't know who they are I've never met them since and they didn't know us. But they extended hospitality to people in need, to strangers.

And that's what Paul is talking about. Hospitability. It's a bigger blessing to give than to receive. I can remember also as a young boy eating supper in our home, sitting next to Greg Bonson at our dining room table or picking up John Frame at the airport and sharing a meal or having Frances Nigel Lee over for dinner after supper Dr. Francis Nigel Lee turned to me.

I was sitting next to him by the table there. And he asked me, what is my only comfort in life and in death? That's the first question in the Hottelberg Catechism, if you're not familiar with it. And I came out with some sort of answer, but it wasn't the eloquent words penned by your sinus. And he sort of looked at me like I had a fever-addled brain.

And thankfully, my father stepped in and explained which catechism we were learning. But afterwards, he sent a very nice letter, thank you letter, particularly noting the absence of the one-eyed monster in our home. And so, see, these are things, these are experiences that come through the hospitality. Opening our home to the needs. And that's what these saints do here when Paul is in town.

Yes, hospitality does have a cost on our time and on getting our projects done. We have to not do a few things on our project list. But there's a very interesting reminder attached to the exhortation in Hebrews 13 to show hospitality. Do not forget to entertain strangers hospitality, For by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Rahab took in strangers whom she had never met before, members of the covenant community.

And as a result she and her entire house were spared from the destruction of Jericho. She and her entire house. And she went on to marry Salmon and become the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth from whom King David descended, and Christ. She entered the line from whom Christ was born in the flesh because she showed hospitality to strangers. Jesus also tells us that there's a reward attached to hospitality.

In Matthew 10, 40, Jesus said to His disciples, He who receives you, In other words, he who shows hospitality to you when you come into town, receives Me. And he who receives Me, receives him who sent Me, which is the Father. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall have a prophet's reward. Did you think about that? He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet, in other words, because he is that, will receive the prophet's reward.

In other words, this is not an insignificant or trivial gift. It's not a trivial and insignificant part of our Christian testimony and of the way that we edify and bless the Church of Jesus Christ. When we show hospitality to His saints, we're showing it to Him. Even to the reward of a prophet. He who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.

And it's not just talking about hearing their message and receiving it. It's talking about receiving them and helping them like Elisha was helped by the woman who set up a room in her home. Because Jesus goes on to say in the very next verse, and whoever gives one of these little ones, just a child, somebody that's not a prophet, and not a well-known righteous man, Someone who gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward." So this is an opportunity for these saints in Pudioli to meet someone known by name and reputation but who they probably never have seen in person before. And so it's easy for us to see that they are eager to have Paul stay with them and those traveling with him. And I think it's also easy to see why Julius would allow Paul himself and their group to accept this invitation to hospitality.

I think the point of seven days, Luke makes a point of saying they stayed seven days, is probably to enable Paul to preach to them on the Sabbath. You know, Just like at Troas, where Luke records in Acts 20 that they stayed seven days, and Paul preached for them. Remember in the meeting that went to midnight, and that's where Eutychus fell asleep, fell out the window, died, and was raised to life again. And if this centurion is saved or is under the influence of the Holy Spirit, it makes it even easier to see him holding the whole company for a week to witness the public assembly of God's people and to hear Paul preaching. I think it should also be noted that these saints do not despise Paul's chains.

He's in chains this whole time. Yes, he has been granted some special privileges, but he's a Roman prisoner. Nero is the king. They are associating themselves in a very outward, invisible way with a Roman prisoner on his way to see Nero. The saints at Judea abandoned him, remember, when he first became a prisoner in Caesarea.

So I think it's to their great credit that they welcome him as a prisoner, a prisoner of the Lord, into their midst. While they stay there seven days and from Pudioli the group sets out for Rome. They would likely have gone up a road to Capua about 20 miles away and from there picked up the Apian Way. It's the oldest road in Rome. It's about It would have been about 350 years old, at least the oldest parts of it, at the time Paul was walking on it.

And you can still walk this road today. It still exists. The Roman construction was incredible. Well done. Most of it I think still exists.

From Capua it would have been about another 130 miles to Rome. But along the way there are saints from Rome that hear that Paul is on his way to Rome and they travel down to API to see him. They travel down to this API forum. It's about 40 miles from Rome. And other saints either getting off a little later or traveling a little slower, meet Paul at three inns, which is about 30 miles from Rome.

So that's a nine to ten hour walk from Rome. And I think this is remarkable. It really shows the high esteem that the saints in Rome had for Paul. It's a two-day commitment of time. I think that's the best way to quantify what they did.

They took two days out of their schedules just to see Paul a little bit earlier than if they'd waited for him to get to Rome. See, these Roman saints honor Paul. And their sacrifice, here's the significant part, their sacrifice causes Paul to give thanks to God and to be encouraged. They blessed Paul just doing this. And this reception is especially remarkable when you compare it with the reception that he received when he went to Jerusalem in what turned out to be the start of this entire two and a half year journey to Rome.

We read back there that the Jerusalem elders listened to his reports, But they really showed him no honor at all. In fact, it's just the opposite. They felt he needed to brush up his image. And they presented him with a corrective plan of action that, you remember, ended up with Paul becoming a Roman prisoner for the next four and a half years. So never underestimate the power of your presence to simply encourage people, to be a blessing to them.

Paul has endured years here of being a prisoner. He endured everybody deserting him at his first trial in Caesarea. And here these people now are pouring out to honor Him, even giving up a couple days of their time to come and be with Him. Never underestimate the power of your presence just to encourage people. It can be very significant.

Remember Job's friends showed up and visited him and stayed with him for seven days, and they didn't even speak a word. How much more encouraging to Paul to see these saints taking off work and spending a full day walking just to be able to greet him. And then when they got to Rome, the centurions' favorable treatment of Paul continues. He's able to continue his ministry almost unabated. Because I imagine if the saints were willing to spend two days traveling to see him, that Paul would have had no shortage of visitors coming through his rented home.

And so after two years of Paul preaching and teaching, it's no surprise that some of the guards become Christians. But I want to look here in these last couple of verses at why he contacted the Jews there so quickly. What was the urgency in getting all the Jews together? Because once he settled his first order of business, He is to call these Jews together, and I believe it is for the purpose of defending his name He calls them together to clear his name and to correct any lies that these leaders May have heard about what has happened with him the past couple of years. You know, that's when you read this, that's the sense you get as to what's going on.

He calls them together and he says, men and brethren, I haven't done anything wrong. That's what he opens with. I haven't done anything wrong against our people, the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, and they examined me and wanted to let me go because they couldn't find anything, any cause for putting me to death." And I think this is very important, because our name is our reputation. Our name is our reputation. And a good name is obtained by being useful to God's people wherever He has placed us in His providence.

Being useful to God's people promotes trust among people. And it not only strengthens the church, but it strengthens our civic culture, society. Our good name is our most valuable asset. It really is. Proverbs 22 says, A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.

Loving favor rather than silver and gold. And Ecclesiastes 7 adds, a good name is better than precious ointment. It's better than the most expensive and powerful medicines for healing. It's a good name. And so to wrongly impugn someone's name is to steal their most valuable asset.

But Also, as a Christ follower, defending our name is doubly important because we bear Christ's name. God gives us His name when we are adopted into His family. We become Christians and we are called by the name of Christ. And 2 Chronicles 7 says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face in turn and so forth, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. But it's not just Jews that bear God's name.

In Acts 15, quoting Amos, speaks of the Gentiles who are called by My name. And So as Christians, we bear God's name. And what we do as those who bear God's name either glorifies God or blasphemes His name. And so Paul also wants to defend his name Because while having a good name among the godly is important, it's doubly important for anyone who would serve as a minister of the Gospel. It's doubly important.

David says in Psalm 101, My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me. Blamelessness. See, A good reputation is another must-have qualification for an elder. Not just having a good reputation among the brethren, but even outside the church.

An elder must be blameless, and according to 1 Timothy 3, he must have good testimony among those who are outside." And so to impugn The good name, the reputation of an elder is to attack their qualification for office. You see, the heart of the Ninth Commandment is defending the sanctity of a person's name. In the words of the larger catechism, the Ninth Commandment requires us to preserve and promote truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbor as well as our own. The ninth commandment requires us to promote the good name of our neighbor as well as our own. And it requires us to appear and to stand for the truth.

And so this is Paul's twofold purpose. First, to defend his name and that of the others, and to appear and stand for the truth, which is the hope of Israel for which he is in chains. Now we usually think about speaking the truth about a person's character in the positive sense of not speaking negatively about someone. But the Ninth Commandment requires that we speak the truth about a person's character. A person's character for good or for evil must be respected according to the Ninth Commandment.

And if they are a fool in the biblical sense, then that needs to be said too. You see, it's a sign of an evil culture when fools in the biblical sense are spoken well of. Isaiah says that when the righteous kings rule, the foolish person will no longer be called generous, nor the miser said to be bountiful." You see, and so Paul does this. Paul doesn't call the miser generous. In our vernacular, Paul throwed the Jerusalem Jews under the bus.

Did you catch that? He said, they wanted to let me go, there was nothing worthy of death, but when the Jews spoke against it. The Jews spoke against it. That's why I'm here in chains. I was compelled to appeal to Caesar.

He threw them under the bus, as we say. Paul spoke truthfully about people's character. He didn't whitewash evil characters when the situation required it. Now, Certainly gossip is a grievous sin that destroys trust. It steals people's most valuable asset, and it's totally destructive to the unity of the church or even the unity of society at large.

And I think we're witnessing that play out before our eyes in our culture where characters and reputations of people are routinely impugned without the regard for truth and where we see the social media platforms pour gasoline on the fires of gossip. But there is another error though. It doesn't have the visibility and the shock and awe factor of gossip, but it can be just as deadly. And that's an unwillingness to speak the truth about an evil character when the situation demands it. Sometimes people have been taught that all discussion of sin is gossip.

And they may have a hard time confronting or investigating sinful behavior. They may feel dirty about having a discussion regarding people who are overtaken in various sins. But while the potential for gossip and slander is very real, It's not to be forgotten or cast aside. But the scriptures also clearly teach there is a place for the proper discussion of sinful character, as Paul does here, in blaming the Jews for why he's in chains. Consider these following examples in Scripture, where very specific sins of specific people are publicly mentioned and condemned.

First Timothy 1, 19, holding faith in a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning the faith, have made shipwreck, of whom Hymenaeus and Alexander, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. 2 Timothy 1, 15 You know that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. 2 Timothy 2, 16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness, and their message will spread like cancer, hymenaeus, and philetus, or of this sort. You have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is past and they overthrow the faith of some. Or 2 Timothy 3, 8, Now as Janus and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth.

Men of corrupt minds disapprove concerning the faith, but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all. Or 2 Timothy 14, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm, may the Lord repay him according to his work. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. Or 2 Timothy 4, 9, Do your diligence to come unto me shortly, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. I remember the time in Galatians, We looked at earlier when Cephas came to Antioch and Paul says, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

And he issued a republic rebuke and he said to Cephas before them all, if you though a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force a Gentile to live like Jews? Or The men of Jeremiah's own hometown of anathoth plotted against him and Jeremiah writes in Jeremiah 11 now The Lord gave me knowledge of it and I know it for you showed me their doings but I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter. And I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more. But O Lord of hosts, you who judge righteously, testing the mind and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have revealed My cause.' And God answers him and says, Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, Don't prophesy in the name of the Lord, or lest you die by our hand, lest we kill you. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will punish them.

The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and daughters shall die by famine, and there shall be no remnant for them, for I will bring catastrophe on these men of Anathoth, even the year of their punishment. Now, notice that most of these examples are in the so-called pastoral epistles, which were written to give instructions to elders as how to conduct themselves in the house of God. And so, elders, we all, but especially elders, have a duty to warn people of false shepherds. People who feed on the sheep, they are supposed to be caring for. And Ezekiel 34 goes into great length about how the Lord views such shepherds.

And so by being silent about that we continue to we continue to condone conduct that's reprehensible and brings this grace on the Gospel of Christ and brings division to the church. Now, the context of these kinds of conversations is important. We're not talking about opening a website and airing dirty laundry. The context of these statements are discussions among elders, or discussions with people that are specifically affected by these sins. And so the general rule of thumb to distinguish between what is Gossip and unedifying and what is necessary is to ask the purpose for the discussion Are you part of the solution?

And is the discussion related to the solution if not, it's gossip may be true but unnecessary And so false Paul's first purpose then in defending his name is satisfied when he learns that the Jerusalem Jews have not communicated anything about Paul to these Roman Jews. And so Paul says nothing more about the matter, but he moves to his second purpose, calling them together to appear and stand for the truth, the hope of Israel. This truth for which he is now in chains. And so we'll look more at that second purpose in our next week. But I'll just leave you with these two exhortations.

One is to emulate the good examples that are found in the Scriptures, particularly these examples of hospitality. And secondly, is to speak the truth about people and their name, and to speak only what is necessary. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we desire to speak the truth, to use our tongues for edification, for blessing. Do not speak anything out of vain glory or empty conceits.

Do not unnecessarily expose what ought to be covered, but also not to cover what needs to be exposed. Lord, give us this wisdom to walk uprightly, righteously, to handle the truth with justly. In Jesus' name we ask, Amen.