Comfort One Another

The General Theme of Abounding in a Walk Pleasing to God

0:04 Let us turn again to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, as I trust we shall complete our studies in this chapter this morning. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

0:29 The general theme of the Apostle in these last two chapters of this letter to the infant church of the Thessalonians is clearly stated in the first verse of chapter 4 when he declares Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. His theme, then, is how to abound in a walk that will be pleasing unto God. It may not always please men. Oft times it may not please yourself.

1:07 But if it's a walk that pleases God, then that motivation is the one that grips the heart. It's the heart of the true child of God and enables him to do things at times that are displeasing to himself or unpleasant to himself and displeasing to others. Then he deals with some specific areas in which we ought to walk so as to please God. The matter of sexual purity is the first paragraph in which he focuses on an individual area.

1:36 Then the next area is brotherly love and then sanctified industriousness. And presently we are studying the paragraph beginning with, verse 13, But I would not have you ignorant concerning those that are asleep, that ye sorrow not as others who have no hope. To please God means that even in my emotional reaction to the common experience of death, I will be utterly different from the world. The world's emotional responses are a reflection of their whole philosophy of life.

2:09 And so in the face of death, because they have no hope, there is despair. But he said, You children of God, you should be utterly different. If you are to please God, the grace of God must even permeate your emotional structure and cause it to reflect the substrata of true biblical theology. And so his purpose then is clearly stated in verse 13, to dispel the ignorance that brings despair.

Dispelling Despair with Doctrine: The Hope of Resurrection

2:37 Well, how does he do it? He does it by giving them a dose of doctrine. And in verses 14 through 17, we have, Doctrine which Paul gives to dispel despair in the face of the death of loved ones who die in Christ. That doctrine is, in verse 14, generally stated, Wherever the Lord is, his people are with him.

3:01 That's the basic doctrine. Then he gives the details in verses 15 to 17, For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain shall not go before those that are fallen asleep. You people are despairing, because your loved ones died, and you think you're going to be first class citizens when the Lord comes back? I've got news for you.

3:21 You have no advantage over them. We will not prevent them. Go before them. But, here are the facts of the case.

3:28 The Lord himself will come from heaven. His attendance will be threefold. Shout, voice, trump. Then the events will be, the dead in Christ first, you second, and then together caught up to be with the Lord to meet him, in the air, and so shall we ever be with him.

The Application of Doctrine: Comfort One Another

3:49 Now, Paul says, you've got all the doctrine you need to dispel your despair as you see your loved ones die. But not content to state his purpose and then state his doctrine, he comes in verse 18 to what we might call the application of his doctrine. Wherefore, in the light of these facts, comfort one another with these words. Now, notice he does not say, comfort yourselves with these things.

4:21 That's what we might expect. Rather, he says, comfort one another with these words. In other words, he says, you are to so absorb my doctrine that when you see your brother beginning to reflect a pagan despair in the face of the death of his loved ones, you, furnished with my doctrine, will be able to go and have a ministry to your brother and comfort him just as in turn when he sees you beginning to sink beneath despair, he, armed with the same doctrine, will be able to console you. Now, what Paul is doing in verse 18 is applying to a specific case a duty that is a general duty, namely, the duty of mutual exhortation amongst the children of God. Now, why do I say this is a specific application of a general duty? Well, for the simple reason that the duty is taught elsewhere in Scripture, elsewhere even in this very letter. For you'll notice at the close of the next main unit of thought in chapter 5, he says in verse 11, wherefore, there's the next wherefore, after another big glob of doctrine, he says, wherefore, comfort yourselves, yourselves together,

5:47 and edify one another, even as also ye do. So then, the specific reference of verse 18 has to do with believers who see other believers whose loved ones die. What are they to do? They are to comfort them with these words that were given in verses 14 to 17.

6:09 But since that exhortation is simply an application in a specific area, of a general duty, I want us to back off, as it were, and lay hold of that general duty of which this verse is but a specific application. And this text, though brief, forms a very easy framework within which to consider the duty in general. So, what are we going to study this morning? We're going to study the duty and benefit of mutual exhortation in the Church of Christ.

The Duty Enforced: Mutual Exhortation as a Command to All

6:41 Now, I'm sorry I couldn't come up with a jazzy or streamlined title in that, but as you know, my gifted title-making is almost nil, so you'll have to stick with that rather puritanic-sounding title, the duty and benefit of mutual exhortation in the Church of Christ. Now, with verse 18 before us, will you notice in the first place the duty enforced.

7:07 Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. The word comfort is the general word for exhortation, which is like an accordion-type word. It has a wide range and latitude of meaning. Sometimes it means simply to comfort, sometimes to rebuke, sometimes to entreat or plead, sometimes to instruct, to admonish.

7:33 But in each case, it involves a verbal activity directed to another person with a practical intent.

7:45 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.

8:21 And he said, well, do you know, Pastor, that a modern computer can do in one hour what it would take a qualified physicist working on one equation a second,

8:36 seven days a week, 24 hours a day, a century to accomplish.

8:44 And I said, wow, tremendous. That's a wonderful piece of knowledge. But he wasn't exhorting me when he gave me that. He was passing on some knowledge.

8:53 He was verbally communicating with me, and he gave me a piece of knowledge that I've been fascinated with. I talk about it at the table. Everybody that comes to the house, I find some reason to get around it. I said, do you know?

9:04 And they say, wow, that's a piece of knowledge. But that's not exhortation. Because, you see, when I convey that piece of knowledge, and I'm sure I have to the doxies this weekend, and I'm sure I did to Paul when he went down with me last Saturday somewhere, I convey that piece of knowledge there. But there is no intent of getting any kind of response.

9:22 There is no response from them, either in the will or in the realm of the affections. It's just a wonderful piece of knowledge, and I like to pass it around and show how much I know.

9:32 Now, I give due credit that I didn't discover that myself. But now, exhortation, comfort, the word translated here as comfort, has the idea of eliciting some response, either of the will, I entreat you, I want you to do something, or in giving comfort, I want what I say to soothe the troubled waters of your emotional life. Now, that word comes in the imperative.

10:01 Wherefore, comfort, and that comfort comes as a command.

10:09 Now, when you fail to keep a commandment of God, what is it?

10:14 Sin is any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. The only way you and I are going to take this text seriously is if we're convinced that if we do not engage in mutual consolation and exhortation, we are sinning, as much as if we go out and shoot up streetlights or chase around with somebody else's wife, we're not going to get serious about this. And I'm convinced that one of the reasons though Scripture is permeated with this concept of the duty and privilege and benefit of the mutual exhortation of the saints, the reason we don't take it seriously is we really aren't convinced that we're sinning if we fail to do so.

11:03 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?

11:30 Because even though you couldn't rise to the thrill of the thought of gathering with the people of God in His temple today, you knew it was your duty and so you pushed yourself to do what you know you ought to have done. Right? Or wrong? Isn't that right?

11:49 Now, in the same way, until you're convinced that it is your duty as an individual believer to be engaged in consolation of your brothers and sisters, in exhortation, you're not going to overcome the difficulties that must be overcome to walk in obedience. And so I submit to you, first of all, that our text teaches that this is a duty. Why? Because it comes as an imperative. And secondly, because it comes to all within the assembly. To whom is this delivered? Well, verse 13 says, I would not have you to be ignorant brethren. Now, how many does Paul want to be ignorant of the facts surrounding the death of loved ones who die in Christ?

12:41 Well, he doesn't want anybody to be ignorant. He wants all of the brethren to know when they lay a loved one to rest, it's simply laying them to rest till the voice, the shout, and the trump, and then they should be caught up to be with them. Now he says to all those people to whom the information has come, and that's all the saints, wherefore, same extent, comfort one another with these words. Not comfort yourself, not get on the phone and call up one of your elders to come and read these words to someone who's in sorrow or in need.

13:20 No, he says, you comfort one another with these words. And it's interesting that when he sets out this duty again in verse 11 of chapter 5, he immediately follows with the recognition that there are those who have a peculiar teaching ruling ministry. Notice verses 12 and 13. We beseech you, brethren, know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and esteem them very highly in loves for their works sake. There are those who have a peculiar task of admonishing. That's your teaching ruling elders. But he says in verse 11, wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another. Their official task does not negate your individual responsibility.

14:09 And one of the curses that has been the legacy of Rome that has hung on to us is this idea that the exhortation and consolation must be mediated through the sacred man in the sacred building. And it simply will not stand the test of Scripture. And so I submit that this duty is clearly enjoined upon all of us because it comes as a command, secondly, it comes as a command to all within the assembly, and thirdly it comes as a command or duty enforced elsewhere in Holy Scripture. We've already looked at verse 11.

Scriptural Reinforcement of the Duty

14:46 Comfort, again in the imperative, comfort yourselves together, edify one another. Several other verses, Romans chapter 15,

14:58 and verse 14.

15:03 Writing to the brethren, he says, and I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.

15:21 The task and privilege of admonition, he says, is dispensed and distributed amongst the entire assembly of the brethren. And then in Hebrews chapter 3, that verse that many of us, I'm sure, are familiar with, verse 13, take heed, verse 12, I'm sorry, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Addressing to the brethren in general, he says, exhort one another. Who?

16:00 All of the brethren. Chapter 10, verse 29, we have a similar reference. Chapter 10 and verse, I'm sorry, verse 24, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Here's the responsibility that we have of considering one another to provoke unto love and good works.

16:24 Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

16:36 And then there's that verse in Ephesians 4, 29 that is most interesting because it's set in terms, of the negative and the positive duty. Now all of us are agreed that the first part of verse 29 is our duty. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. And we say, that's right.

17:00 It's sin if I let corrupting communication come out of my mouth. Whether it be impure talk, whether it be anger, whether it be biting sarcasm, whether it be bitter, nasty reaction, certainly that's sin. But that's only half of it. But he says, in contrast to that, and this is just as much the command of God, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers. In other words, every Christian is to be marked by two things. No corrupt communication coming out, but words that minister grace coming out. And he doesn't look upon the man who simply has his lips sealed to corrupt communication as fulfilling his duty, if they're also sealed to the communication of that which will minister grace to the hearers. Well, I don't want to labor the point.

Why We Need Mutual Comfort: Human Weakness and God's Design

17:54 I trust that our text, the structure of it, the supporting verses from other parts of scripture have convinced you that this is your duty. But someone says, why does Paul say we must comfort and exhort one another? Wasn't this epistle read to the entire church? And if everybody heard it, why isn't it sufficient that everyone storing up the facts of verses 14 to 17, if we believe that Christ died and rose from the dead, then also that sleep will God bring with him, for this we say unto you by the way. Isn't it sufficient that everyone store it up in his own mind, and in the time of his need, just bring it off, as it were, the shelf of his memory, set it before his mind and comfort himself?

18:39 Well, if you're all alone and cut off from your brethren, you better do that. There's such a thing as strengthening yourself in the Lord. I believe I preached on that text from Samuel one time many, many moons ago. The day that strengthened himself in the Lord.

18:53 But the text says, comfort one another with these words. Why? Well, I believe the reasons are two, basically. Number one, we're so made that when we're immersed in our own problem, we generally either forget the doctrine that was given for that problem, or because our spirits are so pressed down by the problem, we can't seem to reach up to the shelf and pull down those facts of doctrine and set them before our minds. We know they're there, but we seem unable to do it. So we need our brother to come along and say, hey, do you remember that letter that they read from the apostle back there three months ago? He says, oh yeah, it said something about when the Lord comes back, it'll be alright, but I had to lay my love for him now. He says, oh, listen, do you remember what the words of those, oh, I remember something. Well, listen, here they are.

19:42 Listen to them now. Listen. This we say unto you by the word of the Lord. And the brother comes along and reaches up on the shelf and pulls the facts, down, and sets them before his brother's eyes. And though his eyes are so cast down by the problem, they can't look up to the shelf and pull it down. When his brother, as it were, gets down underneath and sticks it right there, he begins to read and take hope and take encouragement. That's why Paul says, comfort one another. Paul was a realist.

20:10 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.

20:35 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 body maketh edification of itself. You see, we're not all little individuals twigs in the garden of God, or plants in the garden of God. God could have used that illustration, and it's used in a lesser sense here or there.

21:36 But God uses the concept of the body, because there is an organic, vital union between every part of the body. And this is why He says, comfort one another. Well, so much then for the duty, as it's stated. Now the second thing to which we want to address ourselves is this. How is this duty to be performed?

How the Duty is Performed: With the Very Words of God

22:00 It's all right and well for Paul to say, all right, comfort, exhort one another. Well, how do you do it? Well, he tells us right in the text. Look.

22:09 Wherefore, comfort one another, and this is very emphatic in the original, with these very words.

22:19 He said, I'm not telling you to do a duty and not arming you for it. I'm not telling you to go out and fight and not put a gun on your shoulder. I'm not only giving you the duty, but I'm telling you how it's to be performed, and I'm furnishing you with the necessary tools to perform it. Now, why did Paul say, comfort one another with these words? Did he have a high opinion of his own words? No. For he knew that his words were the very words of the Lord. For this whole passage began, the doctrinal part, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord. And whenever you find that phrase, that's a claim to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle is speaking, as a commissioned representative, speaking as the very mouthpiece of the living God and of his dear Son. And so he is saying, the way in which you are to perform this duty of mutual exhortation and consolation is by use of the very words of God. He does not say, comfort one another with these thoughts.

23:25 No. These very words. Now, we face a problem here. When we see someone swallowed up with sorrow, the sorrow and grief of death, how often I have felt, and I've even said it, words seem so empty. Don't they?

23:44 You see someone really pressed down with grief, as the immediate context is talking. Don't words seem just like a lot of gibberish? What can you say? Or taking the broader sphere when you see someone pressed down with a sense of sin and they can't seem to lay hold of God's forgiving grace. You say, what the word?

24:07 It's me. Well, if they're just your words, they don't mean anything. You might as well keep them to yourself. But the Scripture says, no word from God shall be void of power. And when you give them the very words of God, in faith, trusting the Holy Spirit to send them home, what marvelous things the words of God have done. And so Paul is telling these people, when you see your brother beginning to be immersed beneath a sea of grief at the lost, of his loved one, you go and you tell him these very words that I've given to you by the word of the Lord. We who are alive and remain shall not go before those that are fallen asleep. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Give them the very words

24:56 of the living God.

24:59 And in all of our duty of exhortation, whether it's specifically comfort in the face of death, as here, or whether as in chapter five, it's stirring up the brethren to watchfulness in the light of the return of Christ, or whether it's chapter three of Hebrews, seeking to encourage our brethren lest they be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. How is this duty to be performed? By ministering the words of God to our brethren. Not our own frothy thoughts, but the words of the living God. Now, that has some very, very searching implications. Perhaps you've already caught some of them. What does this imply when Paul not only sets out the duty, but says the duties to be formed by one Christian communicating the words of God to another? Well, it implies at least four things. Number one, that

Implications for the Average Christian

25:50 the average Christian will have a sufficient grasp on the truth to be able to perform this task. Now, remember, they had no Bible. The elder would stand up to read one morning and say, I have a letter from the beloved apostle Paul. The people sat there and listened. Think of it now. Here's some of them. Their minds have been affected by their pagan background, which has written over death, despair, darkness, no hope. Maybe there were some teachers in the church propagating some of this wrong thinking about death. And he says, I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning those that fall asleep.

26:29 The ears go out. What's he going to say? This we say unto you by the word of the Lord. They latch onto every word, and that's all they had was the verbal conveyance.

26:40 And if this church was the one who took care of that letter, and perhaps periodically the elders would take it out and read it, but the whole implication is that these people were so thirsty for the knowledge of the truth that when it came once, they grasped it and hid it away in their hearts.

26:59 And here you and I have got a Bible that collects dust, and some of us are ignorant on the most basic things of the truth of God. You see, the implication of this is that the average Christian will retain enough of the truth that is preached and expounded that he can comfort and exhort his brethren with the words of the living God. That's why Paul could say, and I'm going back to that verse in Romans because it's a key text on this whole duty. He says in Romans 15, 14, I am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish. What makes us able to admonish? We must be filled with knowledge. How do we get filled with knowledge? Not just by

27:55 exposure to the truth, but by exposure, assimilation, and then experimental appropriation of that truth to our hearts. Now, for many of us, I fear the apostle would have to say, or would say, whoever wrote the book of Hebrews, as he did in chapter 5, verses 12 to 14, well, there's the time he said that you ought to be teachers. You ought to be able to admonish. You have need that one teach you the things that are the ABCs of the truth of God. That's a sad thing.

28:40 But one of the reasons is we really don't believe, you see, that we need to arm ourselves with the word. Let me illustrate.

28:49 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?

29:16 Am I right? You see, necessity is the mother of what? Invention, and also of industry. You may not invent anything new, but you'll sure get industrious to use some skills that somebody else has left some instruction about.

29:31 You see, when we get convinced that this is our duty, I, as one placed in the body of Christ, am responsible, not only to the Lord, to absorb His words sufficiently to have direction for myself, but I am to have a ministry to my brethren as time and the direction of the Spirit will dictate an opportunity, all of these variables. Then you see, you're not content to just sit and listen to sermons. There will be that longing, oh God, help me to appropriate it, hide it away in my heart, go home from a service on the Sunday, go over the outline of the sermon, discuss it at the table, go over the things in the Sunday school, ask the children what they learned this morning, seek to enforce the truth until that truth begins to burn its way into the channels of the memory and into the tablets of the heart. Paul assumes that the average Christian would have a sufficient retention of truth to be able to perform the task. So he says, wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Second implication, is this, that the average believer is in close enough relationship to his brethren to be sensitive to his needs.

30:44 Isn't that the whole implication? That the brethren were dwelling in such proximity to each other that the brother would come to the assembly that Sunday morning and see that Brother Jones had a long wearied look upon his countenance. Oh, that Sister Smith over there had some unusually dark circles under her eyes and her eyes were kind of red and you know it's not the time for allergy. And that the brother would draw near, the sister would draw near and say, Brother, Sister, you look like you've got a burden. What is it?

31:18 And they say, well, you're right, I got a letter. And so and so, one of my dearest loved ones says, it died. And I just wish I could know what lies beyond. Ah, don't you remember?

31:35 Was that one a believer? Oh yes, no doubt. Don't you remember the words of the apostle? Oh yes, I remember something, but oh, the grief, the grief.

31:43 You see, then this brother says, ah, here were the words the apostle gave us. And he comforts with those words. But the implication being that the brethren were close enough and there was enough transparency that their burdens and their grief and sorrows were out in the open enough for the brother to come and mediate the words of God. See, that means that we are not a true church as long as we encase ourselves in that.

32:17 That opaque facade of our respectable testimony and the artificial pumping up of an image.

32:30 The few times God's let us taste something of the blessedness of transparency have made me so hungry to see this on a larger basis. We had an unusual taste of it here two Sundays ago when the Lord sent that snow and we just had the privilege of sitting here in each other's presence and in the presence of the Lord and telling each other the truth about ourselves. Our joys, our sorrows.

33:00 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?

33:37 Because it's humanly impossible when you get multiplied numerically. Almost impossible to keep that proximity to each other so that we know each other's burdens and joys and sorrows and can fulfill an exhortation like that. So some of you wonder why we don't have big-itis. This is one of the reasons.

34:00 This is one of the very vital reasons. I think it's contrary to the whole concept of the church. Because the implication is that believers are close enough to be sensitive to each other's needs. Well, there's a third implication and that is this. That the average believer will be motivated sufficiently by love to want to give the needed words. Wherefore comfort one another. The implication being that when your brother needs comfort, love will move you to extend it. You don't say, I can't be bothered. He got his problem, so what? I got mine.

34:36 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.

34:54 Because it's contrary to your whole present emotional state. You may be in a heel-clicking fit and just feel wonderful. And yet God says when you see your brother bow down with sorrow, sympathetically identify with him. That means denial of yourself.

35:12 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.

35:23 And he's got real reason to click his heels. The Lord's been good to him and he's in fellowship with the Lord and everything's going well. Boy, he can grind your socks, can't he? And what in the world can I be so happy about?

35:34 And the Lord says you're to rejoice with those that rejoice. That means self-denial. Doesn't it? You've got to forget your problem and ask what's making him happy and rejoice with it.

35:48 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.

36:12 Temperamentally, I don't find it too hard. To get down underneath somebody's problem and try to share it. But then when I think I know what his problem is and I think I have the words of God that speak to it and I know if I tell him, he might turn around and kick me in the shins. Not literally.

36:28 That's the greatest test of love. Will I tell him the words of God that he needs even though it means he'll alienate me from him? Well, if I love him more than I love myself, I will. Right?

36:44 And Paul seems to indicate in this passage and in other verses, and in others, that it's that love that motivates the people of God. That's why he says in Ephesians 4, 17, speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things. And then the fourth implication is this, that the average believer is in such a state that he'll welcome the words of his brother. Wherefore, comfort one another, exhort one another, build one another up.

The Believer's Welcome Reception of Exhortation

37:11 The implication being that true brethren will welcome the exhortation and comfort of his brethren when they're based upon the words of God. Now, if he just comes to spill out his own thinking, then you might get irritated with that. But when he comes with the words of God, the true believer should be graced with sufficient humility and genuine desire for God, that he's not picky about where the help comes from. Here's a man desperate to be delivered from a certain disease.

37:44 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.

38:09 And isn't the picture of a Christian in the Bible in his normal state, one who is desperate to be holy, to please God, to have his emotional reactions to death, to have his emotional reactions to death, pleasing to God, to have his attitude to the world and sin and life and the world to come conformed to the revealed will of God? Well, if so, then he welcomes the help his brethren can give him. He doesn't turn and say, who are you to exhort me? Who are you to comfort me?

38:39 Paul implies that the brethren have this attitude. And so I see these implications in the duty and how it's to be performed. The average Christian's sufficient grasp of truth to be able to do this. The average believer to be in close enough relationship to his brethren to know their needs.

Refuting Common Objections to Mutual Exhortation

38:57 Thirdly, the average believer motivated by love, so he'll want to extend the comfort from the average believer willing, through the grace of humility, to receive it. Now, you've got a whole bunch of objections, haven't you? And I want to round out our study this morning by very quickly dealing with common objections to this duty and their refutation. We've looked at the duty, how it's to be performed, and how it's to be done.

39:22 Now, in the last place, some common objections to this duty, and I trust a thorough refutation of those objections. Objection number one is, well, can't this be abused? Do you get everybody go around minding everybody other's business? Well, granted, it can be abused, but you show me one duty or one truth in the Bible that can't be abused.

39:47 Do you know of any truth that can't be abused? The truth of justification by faith has been abused. We read about it in the book of Jude. They say, since we're justified by faith, let's live like we please.

39:57 Let's abound in sin that grace may abound. No, this truth of this duty has been abused. Ah, but that's the place of perceptive, sensitive elders in an assembly. When they see a brother walking disorderly, taking this admonition to exhort one another or comfort one another as a cloak behind which to hide his own hypercritical spirit or his own spirit of self-importance, it's at that point that they should move on.

40:24 They should move in and say, now, brother, you're causing disruption in the assembly, and from now on you just keep quiet until your own life is shaped up, you see. Granted, this truth can be abused. In times past, we've had that experience in our own assembly. Some of you will remember the situation where we had among us an abuse of this particular principle.

40:47 Second objection, well, pastor, that's all right if you're really spiritual. But, I mean, I'm just not a spiritual giant. I'm a little pygmy.

40:58 Does Paul say, wherefore ye who are greatly advanced in spiritual experience comfort one another? Is that what he says? Does he say in chapter 3 of Hebrews, wherefore ye that are greatly advanced in the life of God, in the knowledge of truth? No.

41:19 No, this was addressed to the church. And this was an infant church, a church that was ignorant of things that to us are kindergarten.

41:27 None of you looked at this truth of chapter 4, as some new, wonderful revelation, when I told you that the dead, in Christ, when they die, that isn't the end of them. You say, well, anybody knows that. Apparently, some of these did. They were infants in the knowledge of God.

41:40 And yet he says, comfort one another. This is not a duty just for the advanced. Oh, yes, they'll be more skilled. They know more of the words of God.

41:49 So they'll be able, in more situations, to comfort and exhort and rebuke with the words of God. But like any duty, it's incumbent upon us to begin, at our present level, with spiritual development. And as we grow in knowledge, we will grow in our ability to perform this duty. On the other hand, if you're a babe, because of spiritual sluggishness, then get on with it.

42:14 Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, so that Paul will be able to say of you, as he did of the Romans, ye are able to admonish. Why? Because you're filled with goodness, the right attitude of heart, and knowledge, the right furnishment of the mind. Third objection.

42:32 Well, Pastor, it's just not my personality. I'm just not like that. I'm just not built that way, to admonish other people. I mean, that's all right for people like you that got the gift of gab and other people.

42:45 But that's not my personality. You listen carefully. Your duty is not determined by your personality. It's determined by the word of God.

43:00 The extent and measure in which you will exercise your duty may be in great need of the Lord. Great measure be determined by your gifts and your personality, granted. But your basic Christian duty is not determined by your personality but by the word of God. And every Christian, in some measure, is to have a ministry of comfort and exhortation to his brethren.

43:27 Now, granted, some have such a gift that Paul says in Romans 12, He that exhorted, give himself to his exhortation. The old Methodist church used to have licensed exhorters. Men who had an unusual gift of exhortation. So they licensed them to be exhorters.

43:43 They couldn't be preachers and teachers in that sense, but they could be exhorters. They could do as the old preacher said, put in the rousements. Somebody else could give out the doctrine and they'd then put in the rousements and stir people up to action. Now there's some in this assembly that I would trust would have a peculiar gift in ministry.

44:01 Granted. But that does not negate the responsibility of every one of us. Ah, but somebody says, and here's the fourth objection. I've just never done that before.

44:10 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.

44:31 I don't think any of you here got up this morning who's over six years old and cried out, mama, will you dress me? Mama, will you feed me? Pardon me. We'll take care of this.

44:43 We'll take care of this. He's a child. We'll take care of this. I don't think he had a child.

44:47 He got up at six. He's just a little waitress in his home. I don't think so. He was a child.

44:53 He just felt there was some sense of need. He wanted to be a child. I was the child of God. And I wanted to be a child of God.

44:57 He was the son of a beast. He wanted to be a child of God. So the Bible said, well, have you realized that your tool is that you have a tool to save your life? Where is the tool to save your life from that?

45:02 For it is the tool to save your life. And so the Bible says, for it is the том of which he hath given him the power. duty set before you. Here you're told how to be furnished for that duty.

45:09 How to perform it. And so once you're convinced you must do it, you know what you'll do? Then you'll start getting desperate and calling upon the Lord for grace. And wonder if wonders, then God will give you the grace.

45:21 As long as you think it's not your duty and because you aren't naturally inclined to it you can just let it rest. But when you're convinced I must, but you say, Lord, I've never done it. I don't know how.

45:32 When the time comes for us to teach our children how to tie their shoes, they say, but I can't do it. We say, well, you're going to learn. And then we teach. Right?

45:40 At times they get lazy and want us to do it. We say, no, you know how. Now do it. Until it becomes second nature.

45:46 Well, in the same way God graciously deals with us, we say, well, Lord, I don't know how. He says, that's right, but I'll teach and I'll give you the grace if you'll seek me for it. Ask and it shall be given. Another objection is, well, my own life is such a mess. How in the world can I comfort and exhort others? Well, don't you think it's about time you got that mess straightened out? Why is your life a mess? Is it because there's a lack of grace in God?

46:12 Is it because there's a lack of ability in His dear Son and in the power of the Spirit?

46:19 Don't add sin to sin, but ask God to make your life sufficiently blameless that you might be able to perform this duty. Then the last objection, and this is a strong one. There may be others, but these are ones that came to me as I thought through this, but I don't know how it'll be received by my brother or sister. Sure, I may go and comfort them, or I may go and exhort them, but how will it be received?

46:44 May I say it sweetly but firmly, that's none of your business. You do your duty as unto the Lord, and in the power and grace of the Spirit, and then you leave the consequences of your obedience with the Lord.

47:01 The consequences of your obedience are none of your business or mine. They're the Lord's. And if there's one lesson that God just tries to burn through my thick head and my hard heart, it's that lesson. The consequences of my obedience to the revealed will of God are none of my business. They're God's business.

47:19 Now, does God say, wherefore, comfort one another? Does God say, exhort one another? Then you do what God said, and you leave the result with Him. Now, there may be other objections that have come to your mind, but I believe every objection can be cast down before the simple truth of Scripture. Now, do you see what a difference this is going to make in the way you listen to sermons, in the way you read your Bible? If you're convinced that you're not only looking for something that's going to help you, but also continually absorbing that you might be better furnished to help others? What makes a young man a diligent medical student? I really do respect anyone who takes on the medical profession, in this day especially, with the mushrooming of knowledge and the rest, and who applies himself ten or twelve years to memorizing every bone and sinew and everything else in anatomy and physiology and all the rest. What is it that drives

The Transformative Impact of Embracing This Duty

48:21 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.

48:40 That'll give a man a sense of mission and a sense of responsibility. Dear child of God, when you and I are convinced that we are all to be instruments of mediating the comforting, consoling, exhorting words of God, we'll apply ourselves diligently in the hearing of sermons, in our personal Bible study,

49:01 and then we will call upon God for the grace to give us wisdom,

49:11 sufficient humility, patience, that we might comfort and exhort one another. What a privilege to be our brother's keeper. It's an awesome responsibility, but what a privilege to think that God has ordained to mediate comfort, rebuke, exhortation, through you and through me.

49:36 Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. God who comforts us, comforted us. Why? Not by sending an angel or sending the Holy Spirit to remind me of a promise, but by the coming of Titus. What a privilege to be a Titus to comfort a Paul. Don't you long to have that privilege? To see your brethren edified and built up because you have absorbed the words of God sufficiently close to them to know the need and motivated by love, you've extended the comfort and exhortation and instruction. May the Lord help us as a church as we seek to grow in knowledge, to grow in the grace of performing the duty of mutual exhortation and consolation that we might be built up. You say, well, there wasn't

50:23 much of Christ in the sermon this morning. I trust that isn't your attitude.

50:29 For you see, what Christ would mediate to us of himself, he's ordained to do, by this means. And as we apply ourselves to him for grace and for the furnishment with wisdom, then we shall see the increase of his own body here to the praise of his own dear name. Let us pray.