Encourage the Fainthearted, Support the Weak

Introduction: The Context of Mutual Christian Responsibilities

0:02 Let us turn again this morning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

0:08 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

0:22 In the section which we are presently studying in our course of working through, verse by verse, this entire letter,

0:33 we have a series of commandments and exhortations and directives given to this infant church toward the close of the Apostle's letter to them. It is as though he has covered all of the areas that he intended to touch and then thinking of various aspects of the life of the church and the witness and testimony and responsibility of individual Christians, he just gathers together these various and sundry exhortations and lumps them into this paragraph beginning with verse 12 and concluding with verse 22. I shall read the first three verses of that paragraph. But we beseech you, Brethren, to know them that labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, Brethren, admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, be long-suffering toward all. The Apostle has directed, these people as to what their attitude and action should be with respect to their spiritual leaders.

1:52 In verse 12, he has told them they are to know them. Verse 13, they are to esteem them. Then, lest any misunderstand that since there are those officially placed over us to admonish us and to instruct us, this means a negation of responsibility to average, ordinary Christians to admonish one another, he immediately follows with this exhortation that we began to study last week in verse 14, and we exhort you, Brethren, admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, be long-suffering toward all. So this 14th verse could well be what we might call the responsibilities of Christians one toward another. Last week we looked at the nature, the nature of this exhortation. Its author is the Apostle Paul indirectly, but directly its author is the Lord Jesus. He is instructing his people as to how they should act with reference one to another, particularly when there are these areas of need which come to light in the fellowship of the people of God.

3:10 The exhortation comes to all of the brethren. He is speaking to everyone, one of you who professes to be a child of God. We exhort you, Brethren, and the exhortation comes not only from Christ to the brethren, but it comes in the form of a commandment. We have four imperatives linked together, admonish, encourage, support, and be long-suffering.

The Nature of the Exhortation and Admonishing the Disorderly (Review)

3:37 Last week we just considered some introductory factors as we looked at the text. The text clearly indicates that the church will always have this diversity of experience within its ranks. Some will be disorderly, some will be weak, some will be fainthearted. There must be no wrong, unbiblical idealism thinking that somehow this side of glory, all the saints will be perfectly orderly, perfectly steadfast, perfectly mature.

4:09 That's the goal to which we are pressing and bless God, that is what we will know in that day when He comes again. But there is nothing in Scripture to warrant that we will know that perfection in experience here, this side of glory. But, though He indicates those conditions will be present, He doesn't say, well, since they're present, just give in to them. No, no.

4:34 We're not to accept that state. We are to press toward perfection so the disorderly, by admonition, are to become orderly. The fainthearted, by encouragement, are to become strong-hearted. The weak, by this supportive influence of the brethren, are to become strong.

4:52 And when you see a disorderly one made orderly, and you see a fainthearted one made strong, and a weak one made strong, by about that time, there'll be some other disorderly one coming up in the ranks, another weak one, another fainthearted one, that will also need encouragement and strengthening and admonition. And so the process of progressive sanctification, goes on in the Church of Jesus Christ. This also indicates that Christians are to cultivate some ability of discernment. How can you admonish a disorderly one unless you recognize one?

5:28 How can you encourage a fainthearted one unless you know what a fainthearted one is? And how can you help a weak man unless you know what a weak man is? God wants us to be mature and discerning in our judgments one of another. And then, we had time, last week, to only consider the first of these admonitions or exhortations, namely, to admonish the disorderly.

5:53 The word disorderly means one who breaks rank, one who's out of step with the precepts of God. And if there is, before your eyes, a brother who steps out of the boundary of the revealed will of God, whether it's in the realm of gossip, whether it's in the realm of indifference to one of the precepts of God, whether it's in the realm of rebellion, to constituted authority, whether it's in the realm, as Paul deals in 2 Thessalonians, of a man who won't work, and therefore he says he shouldn't eat, he's disorderly. In whatever area we see each other disorderly, we are to admonish one another. And the word admonish means to rebuke sharply.

6:35 It has the whole connotation of firmness. Love, the motivation, yes, but firmness, the form in which the admonition is. Admonition comes. And I want to repeat what I said last week.

6:47 You are not to come running to your pastors, to your overseers, to your elders, saying, are you aware that so-and-so is doing this and... No, no, no, no.

6:57 If they are aware of circumstances, they have a responsibility to admonish you with their authority as overseers. That's indicated in verse 12. Know them that are over you and admonish you. They admonish you from that position of consciousness and constituted authority.

7:16 But they cannot admonish where they do not know the disorder. And if you as brethren behold disorder in one another, you are responsible to admonish each other. I would venture to say hardly a week or two goes by, but what there's something that comes before my attention and someone says, are you aware of this? I say, no.

7:33 Are you? Yes. Did you see it firsthand? Yes.

7:36 Well, you admonish. Don't come tell me. You admonish. I'm not a catch-all for all the problems of the people of God.

7:44 I'm not a catch-all. I'm not a catch-all. I'm not a catch-all. I'm not a catch-all.

7:44 You have a responsibility to admonish one another. And I say now as we move from our review into our new material, your attitude in receiving admonition is one of the most acid tests of the genuineness of your experience of God's grace. If you resent admonition, it's because you love your sin.

8:05 Now, your reflex action may be resentment. I'm not talking about that. The remains of corruption may cause you...

8:11 The first action may be resentment. But if your settled disposition is not that of the psalmist who says, let a friend smite me, it shall be as oil upon my head. If you do not welcome admonition, it's because you don't have a hard hunger to be holy and to follow the Lord. And if that's not true of you, you have no grounds to claim you're a Christian.

8:31 So this should be the context of a people of God pressing on to holiness. They welcome admonition from their brethren because they welcome that which will help them to please their Lord. Do you know, it hadn't been many, but there are probably about a half a dozen of you who have said on one occasion or more, you've sat down with me in a counseling situation or in some other situation and you've looked me right in the eye and you've said, Pastor, I plead with you. If ever you see anything that is a deviation from the prescribed rule of Scripture, please don't let it go.

9:07 Tell me. Now, others of you may feel that way. But I wonder, do you? And if you say that to a pastor, you ought to be able to say that to any of your brethren.

9:18 For you're not fussy as to where it comes. In fact, maybe admonition from one of your common brethren may be a greater test. You may take it from a pastor because there's a sense in which you might respect the office. But when it's just your brother pointing out Scripture and there's no weight but the weight of truth, ah, that's a real indication if it's truth that is prevailing with you and not maybe the personality or your affection for the pastor.

9:44 See? That's the acid test. So God tells us, admonish the disorderly. Well, let's move to the second command.

Encourage the Fainthearted: Definition and Treatment

9:54 Comfort or encourage the faint-hearted. Now, the first question we've got to ask is, who are they? Who are the faint-hearted? It's unfortunate that the word feeble-minded is there because we think of someone who's feeble-minded as someone who's perhaps a bit limited in his mental capacities or someone who's perhaps getting a bit senile and we think, well, that means we're supposed to pay visits and take flowers to people in old folks' homes.

10:22 Well, there'd be nothing wrong with that. That would be an act of Christian kindness. But that's not what Paul is talking about here. The word should be translated faint-hearted.

10:32 Literally, it means those who are little-souled. S-O-U-L-E-D. Hard word to say. It's made up of two words.

10:42 One is the word for soul and the other is the word for heart. And it's the picture of the soul which is the principle of life but it's a little soul. There's just a little bit of life. There is a meager measure of life.

10:57 To use the words of Matthew Poole, Paul is speaking of men and women of little souls who dare not venture upon hazardous duties or they faint under the fears or feelings of affliction or they are dejected under a sense of sin in their own unworthiness or fears of God's wrath or they are assaulted by temptations which endanger them. You get the picture now of the person who is little-souled, faint-hearted. Now, in this class, you have two kinds. Those who are perpetually so and those who are temporally so.

11:36 You have some who by way of temperament and experience and background are through all their Christian experiences the faint-hearted. Those are the characters Bunyan talks about in his Pilgrim's Progress. You have in book one little faith. This was the characteristic of his life all the way through his journey and he got safely on the other side but he always just seemed to have enough faith to get him by.

12:07 He never had an overflow. And in book two, you come across Mr. Ready to Halt, Mr. Fearing, Mr. Faintheart, Mr. Despondency and his daughter Much Afraid. See? Now, those were characters who had as the abiding characteristic of their spiritual experience they were faint-hearted.

12:28 All the time fearing. All the time ready to halt. Now, bless God, they didn't fear to the extent that they turned back. And they didn't halt to the extent that they didn't press on.

12:39 But they were always dragging their feet just as it were escaping the place of danger by the skin of their teeth. And one of them, it mentions, he says, I couldn't make it uphill difficulty but one came and carried me up. See? He couldn't make it uphill difficulty on his own.

12:55 Now, Paul may have in mind being an astute observer of temperament and character, he may have noticed even in the church of the Thessalonians while he was there a short time and in the midst of his ministry persecution arose. He may have noticed some who immediately became great hearts who were willing as it were to face all the opposition of hell and in the name of Christ plant the flag of Christian truth and say, here I stand. Where others, they probably saw the battle raging and sort of teetered and tottered and they wouldn't repudiate Christ but they were little-souled. They weren't the ones that when the captain said we have a dangerous mission, volunteers, would step forth front and center. They'd be the ones that shrink behind their fellow soldier. They're hoping that they wouldn't be picked, you see. That's the picture.

13:47 Maybe Paul saw them. So, it could be that he's speaking of such people and a church doesn't get very large before usually one or two Mr. Fearings, Mr. Ready to Halt, Mr. Fainthearted, Mr. Despondency and his daughter and perhaps many daughters much afraid come to light. Or, on the other hand, it could be speaking only of a temporal condition. Just as disorderly is not a perpetual condition.

14:18 Anyone who is perpetually disorderly has no grounds to claim he's a Christian. A man who's continually at every point breaking rank has no grounds to believe he's ever been enrolled in the army of God. For hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. That's the basic bent and drift of the life.

14:36 So, he may be speaking of those who for the most part are full of faith and encouragement but maybe he's looking back to the 1 Thessalonians 4 problem. They saw their loved ones die and because their whole background was steeped with the hopelessness of pagan thought in the face of death when loved ones died they lost their joy they lost the vibrancy and virility of spiritual life and they became fainthearted. They became little-souled. They were passing through a particular trial and test of their faith.

15:12 They became instead of a bright burning lamp in the house of God they became a smoking flax and instead of being a healthy sturdy plant they became a bruised reed. Now, do you get the picture of who they are? Whether that's the general perpetual condition or whether it's a temporary state of mind that's what Paul has in mind when he says comfort the faint-hearted. Now, how are they to be treated?

15:44 He says they are to be comforted.

15:50 Now, see, he has an entirely different attitude and action with regard to these people than with the disordered. A man who breaks rank you're not to come over and put your arm on his shoulder and say, what's bothering you, my friend? I'd like to understand your problem and comfort you. No, he's to be admonished.

16:06 But now, when a man is fainthearted and becomes little-souled you don't admonish him that'll crush him well nigh to death. You've got to comfort him. And the word comfort here means to exercise a gentle consoling influence by your words and actions. It's the word used in the 11th chapter of John.

16:30 It's not often used in Scripture but here we have it used two times John 11 and verse 19 and then again in verse 31. John 11 and verse 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to, here it is, console them concerning their brother. Lazarus has died and friends come to console them. Now, if you've ever seen anyone consoling someone in the face of the grief of the death of a loved one you get an idea of what this word means.

17:12 You don't find them anyone who has a heart standing off three feet pointing the finger and saying, now this kind of sorrow is wrong and it's about time you got out of it and admonishing them. No, no. You see them there with the arm on the shoulder talking in soft warm tones seeking somehow to reach under and lift the drooping spirits and to comfort. That's the word used there and again in verse 31 the Jews then who were with her in the house and were consoling her.

17:45 There's the same thought again. How then are we to treat those who are faint hearted? We are to exercise a gentle consoling influence by our words and by our deeds. Now this tells us something very practical about God's people.

18:04 It tells us that no amount of general blessing in the church of Jesus Christ will make everybody a Mr. Great Heart. When you read the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians and we must never study any portion without some reference consciously to the whole you'd say how could a church like that so full of light you read chapter 1 where he says that you came behind I'm sorry not you came behind I'm quoting from 1 Corinthians now where he says of them that the gospel came to you in power and in the Holy Ghost you became in samples to all that believe for from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia but every place your faith to God were to spread abroad you read all those wonderful things. You go on into chapter 2 he said you received the word of God not as the word of men but as the word of God all of these things and you'd say certainly if ever there was a church so full of light so full of blessing that any child of God with his eyes half open would be brought to a place of great faith and spiritual strength it was that church. Paul says no in the midst of a church like that you're still going to have some faint hearted. You're still going to have so if you see as few faint hearts in the church where you attend in this assembly it does not necessarily mean that there's something terribly wrong with the life of that church doesn't mean that at all

19:33 any more than it indicated there was something terribly wrong in the life of this church. No. No amount of corporate blessing will make all men Mr. Great Hearts.

19:46 The church of chapter 1 still had some little souled people. Therefore it's incumbent upon us not to hope that the general life and ministry of the church will meet the need of those who are faint hearted but to say Lord equip me and make me the vessel that I can be your instrument to discern the presence of the faint hearted and then to be able to comfort that one. There is no substitute for that individual ministry of one brother to another brother. And remember he's talking to brethren he's not talking to pastors he's talking to brethren and says you are to have this ministry.

20:30 Now if you believe that you know what it will do? It will drive you to cry to God for a sensitivity to your brethren it will make you be awfully reluctant to ever get out of touch with your brethren and it will make you dig into the word of God to equip yourself with the right words to be able to minister comfort to your brethren. If you really believe this is part of your duty why you fear anything that puts you out of touch with your brethren for you'll then be insensitive to the presence of a faint heart. You'll fear anything that draws you away from scripture because then you'll have no proper words with which to comfort your brethren.

21:15 Will you turn to Isaiah chapter 50 for this must be the experience of anyone who like our Lord who is the subject of this particular prophetic utterance of the prophet would have this ministry of helping to strengthen the bruised reed and to restore to flame the smoking flax. Isaiah 50 and verse 4 The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that are taught that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary. Isn't that what Paul is talking about? How to sustain with words the man who's grown weary. Now how do you come to this notice? He wakeneth morning by morning he wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught.

22:16 If I would have words to sustain the weary my ear must be waken morning by morning to be taught and as I am taught the comforts of God then in turn as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1 I can impart that comfort to others.

22:41 Scripture says he that saith he abideth in him ought to walk even as he walked. Our Lord walked in the path of strengthening with words those that were faint hearted and he's called all of his followers to walk in that same path. Well let's hurry on to the next imperative. We are to support the weak.

Support the Weak: Definition and Practical Application

23:02 Well now we've got to ask the same question who are they?

23:06 And there are various possibilities. The word weak is used most often in the writing of the Apostle Paul to describe those who are weak in their knowledge of Christian liberty or in their understanding of the faith of Christ. Here's the picture of the man whose conscience is very easily offended. Who himself is not disorderly.

23:29 He's walking scrupulously before the law of God and even beyond that he's walking with scruples about many things that he need not have scruples about. He still can't eat certain forms of meat because they're somehow connected with idol worship. He still feels he's got to keep certain days because they were holy days in his old religion. And here's a man whom Paul calls the weaker brother.

23:51 He hasn't come to appreciate his liberty in Jesus Christ. Very easily offended. A great picture of him in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

24:03 When you come to any aspect of experimental Christianity you can't go far in Bunyan to what you'll find that aspect dealt with. Listen to his description of Mr. Feeble Mind. He calls him Feeble Mind.

24:14 I'd like to rename him Mr. Weak because his description fits weakness. I am as I said a man of a weak and a feeble mind and shall be offended and made weak at that which others can bear. You see others can participate in things I can't.

24:32 I shall like no laughing. I shall like no gay attire. I shall like no unprofitable questions. Nay, I am so weak a man as to be offended by that which others have a liberty to do.

24:43 I see my brethren eat certain forms of meat and it offends me. He acknowledges he's the weak one. He's not condemning them but he says he's the weak one. I do not yet know all the truth.

24:53 I'm a very ignorant Christian man. Sometimes if I hear any rejoice in the Lord it troubles me because I can't do it too. It is with me as with a weak man among the strong or with a sick man among the healthy or as a lamp despised. Great heart.

25:08 But brother said Mr. Great Heart I have it in commission to comfort the feeble minded and to support the weak. So he says you must go along with us. Though you feel uncomfortable in our company you need us and we want you.

25:23 It's a most beautiful picture of a man who then supports the weak. Who is the weak then? He's the person who's got all kinds of scruples of conscience. Who's weak in his understanding of the truth.

25:36 Or Paul could be referring to those who are weak in development. A baby is a weak thing. A baby that's a two months old baby and has all its faculties is a strong baby we say. He's a strong baby.

25:50 What we mean by that he has all the strength that a two month old is supposed to have. But when compared with a fully matured adult he's very weak. He can just barely hold his head up. You know when they get to that stage when they're on their tummies and they start to lift their head and it just sort of bobs back and forth.

26:05 Just enough strength to lift it up and then it drops again. See very weak. Now maybe Paul is speaking of those who just come to the faith and though they have true life they're born of the spirit. It's infant life.

26:19 It's relatively weak in terms of mature developed life. Or it may be that he's referring to those who are weak in their ability to overcome sin. The child of God who seems to wither under the least fire in the midst of battle. Who has a heart to go forth to battle against sin in the world in the flesh and the devil.

26:41 But he's not yet learned how to clothe himself with the armor. He's not learned how to handle his weapons. And he's weak in the conflict. Maybe it includes all of those.

26:52 I dare not dogmatize for as I've searched scripture and cross referenced I've not come up with any conclusion it could mean any one of these. But I rather think he's referring primarily to that person who's weak in his knowledge and in his faith who hasn't come to the full enjoyment of his liberty in Christ. Now what are you to do to him? He uses a very interesting word.

27:16 It's translated in the I think in the King James also by the word support. And it's the same word used in Matthew 6.24 No man can serve two masters either in the either he loves the one and hates the other or he here it is holds to the one and despises the other. It's the word used in Titus 1.9 where it says he who aspires to the office of an elder must be one who holds fast the faithful word as he hath been taught. It's the picture of taking hold of something with tenacity and refusing to let it go. Now he says what are you to do to your weak brother? He says you're to take hold of him and not let him go.

28:02 He's like the man that's standing at attention at a military inspection out in the hot sun and he begins to feel woozy and he starts to go down and the soldier next to him comes over a little bit tighter and the other fellow the other side a little bit tighter and they prop him up and there he stands held up by their weight until he's invigorated and gets his own strength back and then they move aside and he breathes again. That's the picture of the man who's so losing his strength that he's going down and God says take hold of him and hold him until he's able to stand upon his own two feet. It's the picture of a father walking with his child just learning to walk and the child is just holding on the finger and stumbling along but when he feels that child beginning to go the father reaches out and takes that little one by the wrist and holds on until once again he gets his little pins underneath him and gets his bearings and walks on again. There's the picture. Do you see it? God says that's what we're to do with that weak brother.

29:01 We are to support him. We are to so identify our life with him or with her that we hold him up until he's able to stand upon his own two feet. Now it's in the church of Christ alone that there's a welcome for the weak. You see no welcome for the weak in the animal world.

29:23 One of the laws of ecology the balance of nature is that the weak are culled out.

29:32 It's one of the laws. Some of us have seen some of these Walt Disney nature movies that we showed on our family supper nights and it's the weaklings in the herd that when the lioness comes are usually culled out and pray for the swiftness of the lions. You see this in our barnyard. There's a chicken that's not quite right and all the others pick on her.

30:01 In nature out in the natural world there's no realm for the weakling and generally speaking in human society there is none. The Spartans most of you have studied about Sparta. You kids in school do you study anything about Sparta? Or don't they study about Sparta anymore?

30:16 We live in a day that downgrades history so I don't know if I'm talking double dutch to you but the Spartans were known for their love of course of physical fitness and discipline and when the Spartans would give birth to a child that in its early months proved to be weak or sickly they would cast it into a cavern to its death for they felt that a weak child was no good to itself or to society. And basically this is what society does to the weak one. Cast him aside but not so the church of Jesus Christ. The apostle says as the mouthpiece of Christ when you find the man that's weak you're to support him attach yourself to him and brethren listen carefully if ever anything puts a demand upon him upon love it's that because it means self-denial.

31:14 It means what Paul said in those chapters dealing with the weak brother. Here's this man Paul says why he's offended by a thousand things. I go to eat a good pork chop and he's offended.

31:26 I go to drink a little wine as an appetizer and he's offended.

31:31 I go to a certain place he's offended. What am I going to do? Tell him look why don't you go out and start your own church and call it such and such church of the weak ones. Let us go on and enjoy our no no what does he do?

31:45 He says I will neither eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything whereby my brother is caused to offend or to stop. When I find a weak man he says to the weak I become as a weak man. I accept all his scruples about food and days and clothing and everything. To the weak I become as a weak.

32:09 That means self-denial.

32:13 It means self-denial. It means I've got to forego legitimate liberties things that are perfectly alright for me and things that might really defy me. If you love pork chops it's no easy thing to throw them back in the refrigerator and say we'll forget them until another day. As long as our friend A.B. is with us he's offended by the pork chops. No pork chops today.

32:38 Maybe you've had your glass of wine for age time immemorial and you just watch a meal without your glass of wine. Be like some of us watch breakfast without a cup of coffee.

32:49 He says well we just say goodbye to it for a while as long as A.B. is with us if this offends him. It means self-denial.

32:57 Where I forego my lawful liberties where I must as it were conform to his limited knowledge and it means a sympathetic identity with his person. I become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. To the weak I become as the weak to the strong I become strong. Brethren the whole matter of self-denial and interpersonal relationships is something that I fear precious few of us know precious little about.

33:30 If something's all right for me and if I can spend my money with a good conscience this way so what? I'll watch by your brethren.

33:39 That's so what? And there may be amongst them some weaker brethren to whom extravagance in an area that you have property may be offensive to them and cause them to stumble.

33:54 You may with good conscience be able to enjoy certain forms of entertainment indulge in certain forms of leisure with a good conscience before the Lord but your brethren may not be able to. Were you willing to forego those for the sake of those brethren? Are you willing to say no to them? Because God says in Romans 15 1 we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.

34:24 That's why I said it takes self-denial because the natural course to please ourselves if I can do it so what? They're God's people. I shall never forget Pastor Chan speaking on the subject of Christian liberty at the Carlisle Conference he was talking to some of his college kids we don't have the problem here at least I'm not aware of it but he said some of you college kids come home and he says you've adapted the hairstyles of everybody around you and you've got your hair hanging down on your neck and he says your attitude is well so what? I've got long hair so what?

34:56 And the people of God look and they kind of wonder so what? He said dear child of God doesn't it matter to you what the people of God think? If that offends the people of God here at home who pray for you the people of God who are sacrificing to put you through college what difference does it make? I tell you it makes a difference if it's offensive to them you ought to be willing to cut your hair to a natural length that's a bit more suitable to God's people.

Be Long-Suffering Toward All: Definition and Necessity

35:21 It ought to matter how God's people think about you. And this spirit of crass independence that says oh I care not how my conduct affects others as long as I can do it no no that's not the Christian spirit to support the weak means that we must enter the path of self-denial and sympathetic identity and then the last commandment he gives is be long suffering to all. Well who are the all in this passage? Well it could mean all those who've been classified in the first three categories the disorderly the faint-hearted and the weak it could mean all Christians or it could mean all men period and I rather think it's the last.

36:05 Be long suffering to all particularly to these but is there any reason why long suffering shouldn't be exercised to all men? And certainly there's no place this side of heaven where you don't need to have long suffering exercised to all. Now in seeking to take this command apart let me ask three lesser questions. What does it mean to be long suffering?

36:27 Why does it follow as it does in the text? And where does it come from? Well the word long suffering means a slowness to avenge a reticence to mete out punishment. It literally means the words that comprise this one word to put wrath afar off.

36:48 It's that aspect of the character of God by which he bears with sinful men. Romans 2.4 speaks of the long suffering of God. Romans 9.22 1 Peter 3.20 and 2 Peter 3.15 In each case in these four texts it's the concept of men's sins and their rebellion as it were ascending up to heaven crying out for vengeance to be meted out upon them. They're not crying out for vengeance but their sins do.

37:21 And the God who is a God of pure and holy wrath looks down upon this and he is slow to mete out the justly deserved vengeance. Slow to empty out the vials of his wrath. You remember the saints under the altar in Revelation they cry out Lord how long before thou dost avenge? They know that God will and God ought to but they apparently haven't quite fully understood yet his long suffering.

37:48 He suffers long in withholding the wrath that should be poured out. Now this is the characteristic so obvious in God's dealings with men that he says must mark our dealings with others. We must be slow to mete out punishment. We must put away wrath put it far off.

38:10 Now why does it follow where it does? Well I think the connection is very obvious. If you don't you just start attempting to obey those three commands. You start trying to admonish the disorderly supporting comforting the faint hearted and supporting the weak.

38:28 And if you've never felt I mean really felt your need of a disposition to put away wrath that you knew didn't come from you but that had to come from God you'll feel it then. You know what'll happen? You'll say Lord this is my duty and I've been negligent I've been sinning by not admonishing. I know where some of my brethren in this assembly have been disorderly in my presence they've spoken words that were clearly gossip.

38:53 In my presence they've spoken words that were clearly tinted and stained with a wrong kind of a critical attitude or they said things or they did things that I know should have been rebuked and I've been remiss and so you pray about it and then you ask the Lord to fill your heart with love and then you call upon him and you muster all the courage you've gotten very timidly and reluctantly and out of a heart full of love and with tenderness you just squeeze out your admonition and boom! You're turned upon like you were some mortal enemy. Be long-suffering toward all.

39:29 You don't feel the need of long-suffering? You start admonishing the disorderly.

39:35 And here where you give yourself to a task so unpleasant you'd never do it left to yourself but the Word of God and the Spirit of God says you to it and you do it in obedience to all for his children and it's met with what? It's met with sourness and rebuke and your anger is why here I did this for you? See? And the attitude will be to fight fire with fire.

39:58 Be long-suffering toward all. Then there's that fellow over there faint-hearted and you try to draw alongside and encourage him with words and you give him the promises of God and he'll take every promise and he'll find a loophole in it. I've talked with some people at times I just didn't realize the human mind could be so ingenious in finding exceptions and limitations and loopholes in the most what I thought airtight promises in all of the Bible. Here they were drooping spirits down Mr. Fearing ready to halt and you seek to pour in the arrangements of Scripture everything the Lord's taught you experimentally and all the problems and you share them and they say ah yes but and ah yes but until after a while you get so frustrated you feel like saying a plague on your house there you are take it I've got nothing more to say.

40:46 That's what will happen to you if you don't believe me you start trying to do it. If you don't feel you need to be long-suffering you start trying to encourage the faint-hearted or you start trying to support the weak. Laying hold of a weak man and trying to lead him along in his experience in his understanding to where he can appreciate his liberty in Christ then he'll turn around and accuse you of being unconcerned or indifferent to some other thing that just is a knife into your breast and you'll become bitter. Why does this command follow here?

41:23 For the simple reason that it's only the long-suffering of God shed abroad in our hearts by the power of the Spirit that will enable us to carry out these duties one toward another. What does it mean? It means to put off wrath to be slow to avenge. Why does it follow?

The Source of Long-Suffering: God's Grace and Practical Exercise

41:44 The answer is obvious now I trust. Now the last question where does this long-suffering come from? That's alright for you Paul to say be long-suffering as though you just pulled the switch and there it comes. Where does it come from?

41:55 Well, Scripture makes very clear that it comes from God Himself. Galatians 5.22 The fruit of the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering long-suffering If love joy and peace are what we would call primarily the fruit of the Spirit as manifested in the chambers of our own hearts the love of God love going out to others joy within and peace then long-suffering gentleness and meekness are the fruit of the Spirit coming to light in our action with other believers. See?

42:32 And long-suffering is placed at the beginning of that list of the ones dealing with our relationship to others. Paul indicates very clearly in Colossians 1.15 that only God can give this for He prays that the Lord will give this to the people. And in answer to the question where does it come from we better be certain in our own hearts that only the Lord can impart this.

42:56 He says I pray that you will be strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory unto all , patience and long-suffering. So it comes from the Lord. We must cry to God for it. But may I say God doesn't give it only an answer to prayer but He will give it as we cry to Him for it and couple with our prayers this very practical spiritual exercise.

43:24 Follow me closely. Meditate upon God's dealings with you.

43:30 Meditate upon God's dealings with you.

43:35 Has God been quick to give place to wrath when you've deserted or has He put it afar off? That's what our Lord has in mind in Matthew 6. He says we're to pray forgive us our debts even as we forgive those that are indebted to us. If I have problems forgiving others it's because there's something defective in my appreciation of God's forgiveness of me.

43:59 Matthew 18 makes this very clear. The man who had his own debt erased and turned around and grabbed his servant by the throat. He knew nothing of the principle of forgiveness in his heart. May I suggest that when you're tempted to become bitter to the person whom in who in love you have admonished and he's turned against you if you're tempted to quit with the person you're trying to encourage and you just can't seem to or support and you can't remember did God quit with you?

44:32 Has God washed his hands? He said you're just you're just impossible. Why you've had to come to me for that thing dozens of times. The next time is the last and you've had it.

44:42 Did God ever say that to you? Never. Meditate upon God's gracious dealings with you. Second practical thing as to where it comes seek to make the same allowances in others that you would like to have made for yourself.

44:59 And now I quote from Charles Spurgeon who said this so beautifully. Listen. It's a pity to carry on the trade of apology making entirely for home consumption.

45:11 Let us supply others. You get it? You just don't make up apologies and then consume them upon yourself. True, they are very provoking but if we suffered half as much as some of our irritable friends have to endure we should be even more aggravating.

45:26 Think of many cases of their ignorance their unfortunate bringing up their poverty their depression of spirit and their home surroundings and pity will come to the help of patience. We are tender to a man who has a gouty toe. Can we not extend the feeling to those who have an irritable soul? Our Lord will be angry with us if we are harsh with his little ones whom he loves nor will he be pleased if we are unkind to his poor afflicted children with whom he would have us to be doubly tender.

45:57 We ourselves need from him ten times more consideration than we show our brethren. For his sake we ought to be vastly more forbearing than we are. Think how patient he has been to us and let our hard-heartedness be confessed as no light sin. We do not make allowances enough for our fellows but sweepingly condemn those whom we ought to cheer with our sympathies.

46:22 If we are out of sorts we say well my headache has provoked it aggravating circumstances have carried me into this situation. We are never at a loss to excuse ourselves should not the same ingenuity be used by our love to invent apologies for our brethren. Now this is not to cancel out what we said earlier. Admonish the disorderly if a man is clearly stepping aside but then if he doesn't receive our admonition what are we to do?

Conclusion: Humility and Mutual Edification

46:54 Write him off? No, by the grace of God we are to exercise long suffering that comes from God himself so we must apply ourselves to him for it and plead by his spirit to grant it to us but then meditate upon his dealings with us and then seek to make the same allowances for others that we make for ourselves. The story is told of two goats who happened to meet on a very narrow bridge beneath which there was a raging torrential stream.

47:28 One goat wanted to cross this way and the other one wanted to get across this way. They could have butted heads and fought it out and they probably both would have ended up in the stream. But the goats agreed amongst themselves that the only thing to do was for the one goat to lie down and for the other to walk over him. One goat lay down one goat yes lay himself down right I want to get my lies and lays right here and the other goat walked over him.

47:54 Now notice the one that took the posture of humility was not just letting the other goat ride over him because the goat that walked over him walked over not with a sense of triumph and a pride I've got you under my foot or walked over with a sense of gratitude and both attained to their destiny. Simple little fable but you get the message and there are many issues in the church of Jesus Christ where we're determined that we're going to butt heads we'll both end up in the streams our spiritual lives consumed by the fruit of it but where there's that willingness to be long suffering and to in honor prefer one another what a beautiful relationship can be known in the midst of the people of God there's going to be a lot of things that demand long suffering if that were not so why does he say be long suffering or at all there will be things that will naturally provoke us and provoke us in our relationship to each other can you conceive of what it can be by the grace of God where there is demonstrated on a local level an embodiment to some measure of these four commands that we have studied last week and again this morning no soupy spineless sentimentality that just winks at sin no firm admonition of one another so that we know if we speak out of turn or act unscripturally in the presence of our brethren they're going

49:24 to call us up short in love but then as we see those who are fearing and fainting there is that compassion that drawing near seeking to lift seeking to encourage may God grant that we shall apply ourselves to him for grace that we might walk in the light of these his precepts so beautifully illustrated by our Lord himself and who by his grace calls us to follow in his steps let us pray