Reduction of Elders: What Might God be Saying? Part 7

The point: Prayerfully and humbly assess what God may be highlighting by His providence, while continuing in the path of present duty and obedience.

God's providential acts are likened to a divine highlighter, drawing attention to scriptural principles we may have overlooked or taken for granted, making them stand out.

Some of you, when you are reading, you use highlighters, often a yellow or an orange highlighter. And often in God's dealings with us, His providential acts are the divine highlighter with respect to things that God is attempting to say to us, not beyond or outside of His word, but things perhaps we've overlooked, maybe read many times, even hold as part of our standing confession of faith that God is getting our attention and divine presence, and that providence becomes the heavenly highlighter, and we are responsible, humbly and prayerfully, to seek to know what God is highlighting by His pr...

3:27 - 4:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider aggressive hospitality as a service work for which pastors and teachers equip the saints.

The Greek word 'dioko' (pursue/persecute) is used to describe the aggressive nature of pursuing hospitality, similar to how one 'follows after' holiness, implying serious, holy aggressiveness.

is really a weak translation. It's the Greek word dioko, translated in all the places where it's describing the act of persecuting. Paul was persecuting the church. It is the verb used in Hebrews 12, 14.

13:27 - 13:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider aggressive hospitality as a service work for which pastors and teachers equip the saints.

The story of Abraham in Genesis 18 is cited as an example of showing love to strangers, who turned out to be angels, illustrating the potential divine encounters through hospitality.

those whom we know and love as members of our own assembly, but in Hebrews 13, 2, it is translated, forget not to show love unto strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. And most of the commentators agree that this is a reference to Genesis 18 when Abraham entertained these men whom he subsequently found out were indeed angels of God. And in 1 Peter 4 and verse 9, using hospitality, here's our word again, one to another. Now notice the realism of Peter without murmuring. Now why would he ever add the words without murmuring? Because Peter knew that hospitality makes demand...

15:15 - 16:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider aggressive hospitality as a service work for which pastors and teachers equip the saints.

Peter's instruction to show hospitality 'without murmuring' is explained by the realist Peter knowing that hospitality disrupts schedules and makes demands on unmortified selfhood, leading to grudging service.

those whom we know and love as members of our own assembly, but in Hebrews 13, 2, it is translated, forget not to show love unto strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. And most of the commentators agree that this is a reference to Genesis 18 when Abraham entertained these men whom he subsequently found out were indeed angels of God. And in 1 Peter 4 and verse 9, using hospitality, here's our word again, one to another. Now notice the realism of Peter without murmuring. Now why would he ever add the words without murmuring? Because Peter knew that hospitality makes demand...

15:15 - 16:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Hospitality must be reasonable, considering one's family duties and resources (2 Corinthians 8:12-15), and structured, requiring intentional planning and commitment to ensure it…

An example of a husband inviting many people over without consulting his wife is used to illustrate unreasonable hospitality, violating the principle of dwelling with one's wife according to knowledge.

I've chosen that word to underscore that there are no unnatural collisions in the will of God. For example, God calls upon a husband primarily to love his wife as Christ loves the church. And one of the practical expressions of that according to Ephesians 5 is this, Christ nourishes and cherishes his church. A man is to nourish and to cherish his wife.

17:21 - 17:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Hospitality must be reasonable, considering one's family duties and resources (2 Corinthians 8:12-15), and structured, requiring intentional planning and commitment to ensure it…

God is described as a reasonable Father who knows what He has providentially put in our hands, not squeezing blood out of turnips or burdening a child with a hundred-pound bag of cement, in the context of giving for the poor.

that your abundance, being a supply at this present time for their want, that their abundance, in the providence of God in a future state, their abundance may also become a supply for your want, that there may be equality. In other words, Paul is saying, dear saints of God, though I'm seeking to lay upon you manifold motives to be generous in this benevolent gift for your poor brethren in Judea, remember, God sees your heart and he knows what he's put in your hand. And he's a reasonable God. He doesn't squeeze blood out of turnips. He doesn't lay on the back of a seven-year-old boy a hundred-p...

19:22 - 20:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Hospitality must be reasonable, considering one's family duties and resources (2 Corinthians 8:12-15), and structured, requiring intentional planning and commitment to ensure it…

The common struggle to read the Bible and pray daily is used to illustrate that generic duties often go unimplemented without specific, structured commitments on a calendar, applying this to hospitality.

And therefore, within the body of Christ, within this body, if the word of God is equipping us with increasing measures of the mortification of self-centeredness and selfishness that would murmur at this beautiful expression of Christian love in terms of hospitality, it must not only be aggressive but reasonable. But then I said, and even structured. And why did I use those words? For the simple reason that for many of us, generic, that is, general biblical duties never get implemented unless we actually make specific commitments to do them and put them on the calendar. There's not a Christian...

20:27 - 21:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Prayerfully consider committing to having at least one family you don't know well into your home one Lord's Day per month for hospitality.

The idea of 'finding time' for spiritual duties or hospitality is dismissed, stating that time doesn't float around with labels; rather, one must allocate time, convinced of duty.

Commitment that shows up on the calendar, whether written or unwritten, that shows up in the 24 hours of the day. People say, well, I couldn't find time. My friend, you're never going to find a block of time floating around you with the word stamped on it, please use me to pray, please use me to read your Bible, please use me to show hospitality. No such time is floating around out there waiting for you to find it.

21:53 - 22:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Prayerfully consider committing to having at least one family you don't know well into your home one Lord's Day per month for hospitality.

The maturation of children, from needing reminders to performing duties independently (like tying shoes or cleaning their room), is used to illustrate spiritual maturity in believers regarding service works like hospitality.

That what mom and dad had to constantly either help the child to do and remind him to do, he now does on his own, all the way from going to the bathroom at the proper place, at the proper times, to tying his shoes, to picking up his room. It's one of the marks of maturation. And if our ministry as pastors and teachers is owned of the Spirit of God and you are being equipped unto service, this will be one of the marks. There will not have to be constant reminders, but knowing your duty from the Word of God and your privilege, there will be a commitment to aggressive, reasonable, and even struct...

22:58 - 24:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Prayerfully consider committing to having at least one family you don't know well into your home one Lord's Day per month for hospitality.

The idea of thinning down soup for unexpected guests is used to illustrate that the quality of hospitality is not in the abundance of food but in a heart thick with Christian love and outgoing concern.

But even if you had to thin down the soup, I don't know anyone that would be offended by thinned out soup if behind it was a heart thick with Christian love and outgoing concern. All right, then we come to the seventh of these works of service that we are to perform one to another. And if indeed you are rightly receiving the ministry of your pastors and teachers, you ought increasingly to be equipped for this work of service. And I keep emphasizing it because I don't want you to look at these things as isolated.

27:14 - 27:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Put away falsehood and speak truth with your neighbor, recognizing that silence can be a form of falsehood.

The example of remaining silent while one's wife is insulted or defamed is used to illustrate how silence can be a blatant violation of the ninth commandment and marital vows, extending to silence among believers.

Silence can be a form of blatant violation of the ninth commandment. If someone is insulting my wife in my hearing and I'm silent, I'm blatantly violating my covenant obligations to love her, to honor her. If I'm silent while her name and virtue are defamed, my silence is betrayal of my marital vows. If I'm in the presence of brothers and sisters in Christ and for fear of being hurt, the vulnerability of transparency, for fear that what I say may be misunderstood, I am mute, I am silent, I am not obeying the word of God. Putting away falsehood, each one with his neighbor. Speak the truth, yes,...

31:45 - 33:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Put away falsehood and speak truth with your neighbor, recognizing that silence can be a form of falsehood.

Speaking truth within the body of Christ is compared to the nerve system in the human body, which sends messages and keeps the organism interconnected and in touch with itself.

Silence can be a form of blatant violation of the ninth commandment. If someone is insulting my wife in my hearing and I'm silent, I'm blatantly violating my covenant obligations to love her, to honor her. If I'm silent while her name and virtue are defamed, my silence is betrayal of my marital vows. If I'm in the presence of brothers and sisters in Christ and for fear of being hurt, the vulnerability of transparency, for fear that what I say may be misunderstood, I am mute, I am silent, I am not obeying the word of God. Putting away falsehood, each one with his neighbor. Speak the truth, yes,...

31:45 - 33:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Confess your sins one to another and pray for one another, trusting in the confidentiality and empathy of fellow strugglers.

The 'horrible Romish doctrine of auricular confession' is mentioned as a historical context for the Authorized Version's translation of James 5:16, highlighting the importance of proper confession among believers.

He cannot be among the saints and he is to call for the elders of the church and whatever this may mean notice they pray over him and the prayer that is of faith is such that the Lord shall raise him up. Here is a distinctive explicit directive that involves what we would say is an unusually sick man and his spiritual overseers but now there is no indication that at verse 16 this is limited to that context. Confess therefore your sins. The authorized version probably in a reaction against the Romish doctrine of auricular confession. The horrible Romish doctrine. That we must confess our sins i...

35:30 - 36:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Confess your sins one to another and pray for one another, trusting in the confidentiality and empathy of fellow strugglers.

Confessing sins to another is assumed not to result in that confession being used as a 'lead pipe' to beat the confessor or a 'megaphone' to trumpet their sins to the community.

Not fault. And the proper rendering is as the 1901 renders it confess your sins one to another now notice what follows and pray one for another. What's the assumption? If I confess my sins to you you will not make a lead pipe out of that confession with which to beat me on the head.

36:40 - 37:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Confess your sins one to another and pray for one another, trusting in the confidentiality and empathy of fellow strugglers.

Elijah's prayer is cited from James 5:17-18 to counter the idea that only special individuals can effect great things through prayer, emphasizing that he was 'a man of like passions with us.'

Nor will you construct a megaphone through which to trumpet my sins to the entire Christian community every time you get on the telephone or in the coffee class. The assumption is it is one who himself struggles to be more like Christ and longs to be more like Christ. I'm in fellowship with another fellow struggler and as I pray lead me oh Lord not into temptation and deliver me from evil. So I will now include my brother or sister who has in vulnerable transparency confessed his or her sin to me and solicited my prayers and I will pray for them and with them particularly if it is a sin in the...

37:08 - 38:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Exercise spiritual discernment to implement biblical directives without needing exhaustive 'how-to' manuals, trusting the Holy Spirit and growing acquaintance with the Bible.

The abuse of food through gluttony is used as an example of how any privilege or duty can be abused by the flesh, arguing that the potential for abuse should not negate the proper use of a biblical duty like confession.

There's no privilege or duty that the flesh will not abuse. A lot of people abuse food today and will be gluttonous but I wouldn't be preaching if I didn't have a moderate adequate breakfast. I properly used my food. I ate to the glory of God this morning.

38:55 - 39:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, cultivating a mind that is of the same mind one toward another.

The personal story of his daughter Heidi and son-in-law Gord rejoicing over a child and a new home is used to illustrate the difficulty of 'rejoicing with those who rejoice' when others harbor covetousness, resentment, or bitterness.

in my own immediate family in recent days God has blessed my daughter son-in-law Gord and Heidi not only with a little one after almost eight years of marriage they'll be married eight years this May God's blessed them little Landon but God willing they'll be entering their own home or a home that they will be in the process of purchasing the titles of which will be held by some bank out there in Michigan sometime in the end of March early April and they are rejoicing at the goodness of God in the gift of a son a child in giving them a home of their own something they never expected to have th...

41:30 - 42:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Be delivered from self-preoccupation to truly hear and empathize with the struggles and burdens of others.

The pain of years of barrenness is used as an example of a sorrow that, if not resigned to God's will, can lead to cynicism and bitterness, making it hard for others to share their joy in childbearing.

and they are rejoicing and they are rejoicing and they are rejoicing and they are rejoicing and they are rejoicing now suppose you're a couple and you've been covetous to have a home and resentful might un- God give me a home and Heidi and Gord know that will they feel free to share their joy about their home in your presence hmm will they if you've known as some of you do and I look into your faces the pain of years of barrenness and in the midst of that pain you've not yet come to the resignation of saying God's will is true and through your tears continually acquiesce in the rightness and t...

42:58 - 44:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Be delivered from self-preoccupation to truly hear and empathize with the struggles and burdens of others.

Some people are described as viewing others as 'a set of ears into which to pour what's going on with them,' rather than seeing themselves as 'a big set of ears and antenna to hear' the real struggles and burdens of others.

selfhood that will enable them to be of the same mind one toward another that enables us to rejoice with those who rejoice as well as to weep with those who weep I could go on giving many other examples but let me just take one or two from the weeping of those that weep you see the assumption there is that you are delivered enough from self preoccupation that someone has enough time to convey to you into an uncluttered heart the thing that's breaking their heart and if you're a person who in every one to one relationship is so full of your sorrows or your struggles or your disappointments imme...

44:25 - 45:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Be delivered from self-preoccupation to truly hear and empathize with the struggles and burdens of others.

The 'new religion of self-actualization' is contrasted with the biblical call to weep with those who weep, arguing that the former views creation as hands to stroke oneself, while the latter calls for empathy and service.

and antenna to hear not gossip but the real struggles and the burdens going on in their presence now do you see why it says he gives pastors and teachers to perfect the saints unto service work and what is that perfecting but an increased measure of death to self preoccupation that's why some of us hate with holy hatred this new religion of self actualization and self fulfillment and self realization and self esteem because with it you look upon the whole creation as one massive set of hands to stroke you rather than looking upon the whole creation as that which in God's name and for Christ's ...

45:54 - 47:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Be delivered from self-preoccupation to truly hear and empathize with the struggles and burdens of others.

A humorous anecdote about a 'log jam' at the church doors due to everyone trying to prefer one another is used to illustrate the spirit of deference and self-sacrifice commanded in Scripture.

I can't remember the connection but I said With the measure of deference to one another which scripture commands, every Lord's Day, we'd come and find a log jam all across the patio by the front doors.

47:23 - 47:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not merely be a polite hearer and financial supporter; become a member of the body equipped for service work, including vulnerable transparency.

The relationship between Paul and the Corinthian church, where 'super-apostles' undermined confidence in Paul, is used as a historical example of a spiritual father being wounded by his children, setting the stage for Paul's vulnerable transparency.

You remember what happened. Paul was the spiritual father of the Corinthian church. These super-apostles came along, undermined the people's confidence in Paul, questioned the validity of his apostleship, were even flirting with some false teaching, creating havoc in the church, seeking to turn the people away from Paul. And in this second letter, the scholars speak about a lost letter.

50:18 - 50:44 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin asserts that a lack of vulnerable transparency spells death for the assembly, contrasting it with Paul's enlarged heart towards the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6:11-13)…

The litigious climate in society, where doctors and patients, or spouses entering marriage, view each other as threats, is used to illustrate how this fear has entered the church, hindering vulnerable transparency.

I'm going to go on loving you with all the vulnerability of true love. And dear people, we live in an age where in the litigious climate, where once the doctor and the patient had a bond of goodwill, they now look at each other as threats to one another. It's tragic. It's tragic.

53:15 - 53:37 Read in full sermon