Comfort One Another

In this part of the sermon: Martin argues that mutual exhortation is a duty because it is given as an imperative to all within the assembly, not just leaders, and involves verbal activity with a practical…

Paul Emmerich's anecdote about a computer's processing power compared to a physicist's work illustrates that mere impartation of knowledge (like a computer fact) is not exhortation, which requires intent to elicit an emotional or volitional response.

It's not just passing on information. Comfort, exhortation, admonition, instruction, all of these ways in which the word exhort or comfort is translated always involves a verbal communication from one person to another with a specific intent to gain a response emotionally or volitionally. But it never is mere impartation of knowledge. I was driving down to preach somewhere two Saturday nights, and Paul Emmerich went with me, and we got talking about computers.

7:45 - 8:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Be convinced that failing to engage in mutual consolation and exhortation is sin, to take this duty seriously.

The example of pushing oneself out of bed on Sunday morning, even without enthusiasm, to sanctify the Sabbath illustrates that duty often requires overcoming personal feelings, a principle applicable to mutual exhortation.

Now, most of you are convinced that if you laid around in bed this morning until twelve o'clock, you'd be sinning. You'd be breaking the command of God to sanctify the Sabbath. And so some of you, though you didn't bounce out of bed this morning, just feeling all bright and cheery as a little chirping canary, you have pushed the covers off and you threw that hunk of lead out on the floor and you struggled in and splashed some water on your face. Why?

11:03 - 11:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God is ordained that most of the graces of the Spirit that, as it were, enable us to press on in the Christian life do not come to us directly from the Lord. They are conveyed to us not immediately, but mediately through…

Paul's statement that God comforted him by the coming of Titus illustrates that even great apostles need human instruments for comfort, reinforcing the necessity of mutual ministry among believers.

He knew that when we're immersed in these problems, because this is the same Paul who later said, God who comforts us comforted us by the coming of Titus. I love that. Here's the great apostle who talks about the sufficiency of Christ, and he says, the God who comforts us, he sent me my brother Titus.

20:10 - 20:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God is ordained that most of the graces of the Spirit that, as it were, enable us to press on in the Christian life do not come to us directly from the Lord. They are conveyed to us not immediately, but mediately through…

The metaphor of the church as the body of Christ, where 'every joint supplieth,' illustrates that God ordains graces to be conveyed mediately through His people, not just directly from Him.

You mean he needed a human instrument to be the mediator of comfort? Yes, and if the apostle Paul needed it, so do you, and so do I. You see, God is ordained, and I'm convinced of this the more I work with people and study the Bible. God is ordained that most of the graces of the Spirit that, as it were, enable us to press on in the Christian life do not come to us directly from the Lord. They are conveyed to us not immediately, but mediately through His people. That's why the Bible pictures the church as the body of Christ, and talks in Ephesians of that which every joint supplieth, and the b...

20:35 - 21:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't be content to just sit and listen to sermons; appropriate the truth, hide it in your heart, and discuss it to burn it into memory.

The analogy of a man learning to cook if his wife is incapacitated and he would otherwise starve illustrates how necessity drives industry and skill acquisition, arguing that recognizing mutual exhortation as a duty should drive believers to learn God's word.

If your wife, some of you men, gets in a physical strait, she's not able to cook, and you can't afford to have somebody else to come in, and your kids aren't old enough, your daughter, your sons to do it, and it's either you learn to cook, or you starve. I don't care how awkward you are with pots and pans and measuring cups. You're going to learn to do a little something that's going to put food on the table. Right?

28:49 - 29:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Be motivated by love to extend comfort when your brother needs it, even when it demands self-denial.

The story of a snow day leading to unexpected transparency and sharing of joys and sorrows in the church illustrates the blessedness of genuine fellowship and the difficulty of maintaining it in large churches.

Beloved, that's what God put us in the body for. That's why he's forged us as a body. And yet we know so little of this. If some of you wonder why those of us in places of leadership and responsibility in this church have no ambitions to build up a big monument to the doctrines of grace. A big church numerically and all the rest. No, we'd rather be used to start many little churches. So that when we're drawn a dozen families from 10 or 15 miles out in that direction lop them off in love and start another church. Why?

33:00 - 33:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Be motivated by love to extend comfort when your brother needs it, even when it demands self-denial.

The example of weeping with those who weep when one feels like laughing illustrates that administering comfort often demands self-denial, as it goes against one's current emotional state.

Well, I see that attitude amongst believers. It just cuts to the core. You see, to minister God's comfort to people oft times demands self-denial. To weep with those that weep when you feel like laughing means you've got to deny yourself.

34:36 - 34:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Rejoice with those who rejoice, even when you are personally struggling, by forgetting your problem and sharing in their happiness.

The example of rejoicing with those who rejoice when one is personally down illustrates that this also requires self-denial, forgetting one's own problems to share in another's happiness.

Conversely, it says rejoice with those who rejoice. Well, there's nothing to get you more hurt when you're down eating dirt. And I'm really down. And somebody comes along clicking his heels.

35:12 - 35:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Rejoice with those who rejoice, even when you are personally struggling, by forgetting your problem and sharing in their happiness.

The analogy of risking friendship to deliver a needed rebuke illustrates that true love is willing to prioritize the brother's spiritual good over personal comfort or acceptance.

And Paul implies that the believers would have sufficient love one for another to want to administer the necessary comfort. Sufficient love to administer, if necessary, the rebuke. Are you willing to risk the friendship for the sake of helping your brother? That to me is the acid test of love.

35:48 - 36:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Welcome the help your brethren can give you, based on the words of God, with humility and a genuine desire for God.

The analogy of a desperate man seeking medical help, regardless of the doctor's appearance, illustrates that a true believer, desperate for holiness, should welcome help from any legitimate channel, including his brethren.

He's not picky where his help comes from. He doesn't say, well, that doctor over there says, he can help me, but I just don't like the way he cuts his mustache. Or that doctor over there says, he can help me, but frankly, I just don't like the way that he dresses. No, a man who's desperate for physical help will take that help from whatever legitimate channel it'll come.

37:44 - 38:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that your basic Christian duty is determined by the word of God, not your personality, and every Christian is to have a ministry of comfort and exhortation.

The analogy of learning to tie shoes, dress, or eat with utensils illustrates that duties, even if initially unfamiliar or difficult, can be learned and become second nature through practice and God's grace.

No, neither did you tie your shoes at one time. Neither did you dress yourself. Neither did you eat with a fork and spoon. But I don't think there's anybody here who's over the age of five or six, but what dresses himself eats with fork and spoon.

44:10 - 44:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Apply yourselves diligently in hearing sermons and personal Bible study, continually absorbing truth to be better furnished to help others.

The analogy of a diligent medical student who studies for years, knowing a future patient will need his knowledge, illustrates the sense of mission and responsibility believers should have in absorbing God's word to help others in their hour of crisis.

a man who has a sense of calling? To his task as a physician, he knows that somewhere out there, it may not be for fifteen years, somebody's going to come into that office with a need, and that he is careless. In this time of absorption of knowledge, he may fail in the hour of crisis to administer the proper medicine.

48:21 - 48:38 Read in full sermon