Collage of Perspectives in Light of Peter Leon's Illness

Introduction: The Church as the Body of Christ and Shared Suffering

0:04 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, August 13, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Our Father, we acknowledge that we have sung very solemn things in your ears. We have confessed in our corporate singing that it is not up to us to order our lives and that we would have it no other way. And therefore, as we, your people, have been brought in recent days to a fresh reminder of your absolute sovereignty over all things and all of the circumstances in the lives of your children, we now plead that by your Spirit directing us in our meditation upon the Word, that there may come to us in this very hour a further revelation, a further unfolding of your purposes of grace and mercy.

1:12 We call upon you in our felt need and weakness and pray that you will be glorified by bringing your Word to us, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much conviction. Hear us, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1:41 May I encourage you to follow as I read a portion of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, which sets the framework for our consideration of many portions of the Word of God this morning. In the section of Paul's letter to 1 Corinthians, where he is dealing with the subject of spiritual gifts, in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, beginning, in verse 12, the Apostle gives us one of the most complete treatments in all of the New Testament of the biblical doctrine of the Church in its identity as the body of Christ. And I read in your hearing 1 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning with verse 12, and conclude the reading with verse 27. For as the body is, as one and has many members, and all the members of the body, being members, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free,

3:02 and were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many, if the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body. Is it not therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body.

3:27 Is it not therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? And if the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now God said, the members, each one of them in the body, even as it pleased Him.

3:47 And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now they are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

4:08 Nay, much rather those members of the body which seem to be more, or feeble, are necessary. And those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor. And our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness, whereas our comely parts have no need. But God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members, should have the same care one for another.

4:47 And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the, or a, body of Christ, and severally members thereof.

5:11 Although God has been exceedingly gracious in causing the pulpit ministry of this place to make its way into many parts of the world over many years, yet we have been reminded again and again that this place is not a mere preaching station or a corporation for the production and distribution of taped sermons around the world. To state it more crassly, you as the people of God are not a mere prop for some wider ministry of anyone who happens to stand in this pulpit. Rather, we are a family of God's people. We are a segment of that larger household of faith. And we are not strangers to the affections, to the joys, and to the trials that always await us.

6:14 We are bound up in family ties and in family life and experience.

6:23 Also, we are, according to the passage read in your hearing, not only a family of God, we are a body of Christ. As the passage read in your hearing states it, the Corinthian church, verse 27, was in and of itself a body of Christ. Yes, it was part of the larger church universal, which is also called in other passages the body of Christ. But here in this passage, Paul wants the Corinthians to view themselves in their congregational identity as a body of Christ and each of the individuals as members of that body of Christ. That particular body. So that not only are they to think of themselves individually and collectively as members of the larger body of Christ, the church universal, but they are to think of themselves as individuals in the same way that your fingers are part of that larger total organism called your body. And your ears are part, of your individual total physical organism called your body.

7:52 Now because we, like the Corinthians, are, as a church, a body of Christ, that is a living, pulsing, breathing, feeling organism, verse 26 is true of us. When one member suffers, all the members, suffer with it. Or when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. I'm sure there are many of you who this morning with me wish that there were a certain member or part of your body that you could have left at home so that you could come to the worship of God without the distraction which that particular part of your body is either, even now, causing as you seek to concentrate upon the preaching of the word. I'm personally conscious of the arthritic right thumb, of a re-aggravated lumbar discondition, and a host of other lesser matters which I can generally ride over by sheer willpower, but there are times when the most adamant determination of will will not ride over this truth, when one member suffers, the whole body suffers with it,

9:20 and it demands the attention of the whole living organism. Now why do I underscore this obvious truth rooted in such a passage as has been read in your hearing? Well, for the simple reason that throughout the years of our shared life as a body of Christ, we have sought to be sensitive to those times when God, in his sovereign providence, has brought a shock of grief, of pain, or of loss to this particular body, a shock of such magnitude as to warrant a specific and focused effort in pastoral sensitivity to bring the stabilizing and healing influence, influence of the word of God to bear upon the body that has gone into a state of shock because of God's dealings with one of the members of that body. Such occasions have found us naturally highlighting certain truths which the circumstances of God's providence have dictated. Such occasions

10:42 have found us issuing specific admonitions and warnings and entreaties appropriate to that common shock which all of us have felt. And it is for this reason that I have turned aside from my own so-called vacation to be deeply involved in that shock which has come to our assembly, both at the personal pastoral level and here individually. In a more public way this morning, God has brought us as a congregation, conceived of as a body of Christ, to feel the shiver of shock through the eugenism in the light of his dealings with one of our members in recent days. Now for the benefit of our visitors and those who have been away from us, let me give you the facts very simply and succinctly and then turn to the specific words of scripture that I trust will be used of the Spirit of God to minister to this body in a unique way in the light of God's unique dealings with

The Facts of Peter Leon's Illness

11:59 us. The facts are that approximately 250 people gathered at the New England Family Conference at the Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. It will be two weeks ago tomorrow, July 31st. To sit under the ministry of the word for four days in that conference. Among those 250 was Mr. Peter Leon, his wife and three daughters. And Peter was there with his family

12:36 expecting that it would be a week of spiritual refreshment and blessing, a time of family fun and fellowship and interaction with believers of like minds. Peter Leon and his wife have been members in our assembly approximately 20 years. Peter is just a few years shy of having his 39th birthday. And if you wonder how someone aged 39 has a daughter as old as his oldest and has been a member here for 20 years. Peter and Haiti were 19 and 18 respectively when they were married. I went through all of the marriage certificates of those whom I have been privileged to marry last night just to make sure my dates and my facts were correct and they are. Well what began as a happy week of involvement with the people of God in the ministry of the word and in the other avenues of fellowship and wholesome fun suddenly was intruded upon by a dark cloud of God's providence in the life of our brother. On the first night of that conference he experienced some serious distress.

13:47 In his left leg it led to several other members of this particular body responding to the need of that member of the body taking him to an emergency room. An initial diagnosis was made that it had something to do with his diabetic condition. A condition which because of Pete's careful management with modern medical technology has kept him in a state of good health. But then on Tuesday the distress increased and then on Wednesday our brother sat in the dining hall and many of us witnessed a very traumatic series of events as his left leg went into very severe spasms and our brother experienced the kind of pain that causes men reluctantly to cry out in agony. And there before dozens of brothers and sisters from various parts of the country our brother was overcome with these acute seizures that resulted in calling the emergency medical services who saw that his vital signs were stable and who took him off to a nearby hospital. The initial tests revealed that there was a lesion, an abnormality of tissue on the surface of the brain and then after being brought back to New Jersey.

15:17 Many of the details we are passing over, various tests were scheduled to try to ascertain the nature of that lesion so that proper medical steps could be taken and while those various tests were being lined up and some of them being taken, our brother's condition very rapidly deteriorated on Wednesday so that he basically was paralyzed on the left side of his body. That resulted in his being taken to another hospital that had the equipment in readiness immediately to go in and invade that lesion to see what it was. And as they did, they discovered that it was not a tumor but rather it was an infection in the form of an abscess. We've heard of abscessed teeth and we've heard of people having an abscess in the ear or the sinus cavities. But our brother had an abscess there in the brain. The infectious material was suctioned out. A regimen of antibiotic treatment was begun intravenously. The swelling around that

16:31 infection that caused the paralysis began or continues to be treated with medication. Our brother is still paralyzed on the left side but thankfully has feeling in the muscle. The muscles of the leg and in the arm is undergoing physical therapy and hopefully in the providence of God and the blessing of the Lord will yet be amongst us fully restored in God's goodness. But that's the thing that God has brought upon us in very sketchy form. Those are the facts. What began as a cloudless day of anticipation of a week of ministry and fellowship and the interaction with family and friends, suddenly out of that blue sky of that which had nothing but wholesome, happy, positive anticipation, God brought this dark cloud upon our brother and the cloud that has extended over all of us because we are a body. And when one member suffers, we all suffer with him.

Pastoral Commendation for the Church's Love

17:46 Now in the light of that which God has brought upon us, what is there in the word of God that in a unique way ought to be by all of us as together we face this providence? And the things that I say to you grow out of personal involvement with Peter and his family right there at his side when the seizures first came upon him, but subsequent visits to the hospital there in Rhode Island. And here in New Jersey, and also the input of my fellow elders and other members of the church who have been deeply involved. These things that I'm privileged to say this morning do not grow out of my own personal involvement alone, but in a very real sense, they are a collage of the input of other brethren, fellow elders and believers, and also from Pete himself. And some of the things that I will say to you this morning, I am saying as Pete's alter ego, I am saying on his behalf as he and I have spoken very frankly of these matters. And the first thing that I want to do in the light of these concerns and events that have

19:09 unfolded before us is to bring to you a word of pastoral commendation, a word of pastoral commendation to you. The people of God, from the time Peter first showed the signs of distress on the Monday evening, July the 31st, until this very hour, many of you, more than I could list, and God alone knows all of you by name, have manifested an instinctive readiness of self-giving and self-sacrificial love, which have both validated the signs of distress on the Monday evening, July the 31st, until this very hour, many of you, more than I could list, and God alone knows all of you by name, have manifested your identity as God's people, and commended the gospel to the unconverted who have seen that spontaneous expression of your love. And I believe it is right and biblical that that should receive unashamed, unembarrassed, straightforward pastoral commendation. For example, in 1 Thessalonians 1. Therefore, Paul, writing to the Thessalonian believers, says, But concerning love of the brethren, verse 9, you have no need that one write unto you.

20:34 For you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For indeed, you do it to all that are in all Macedonia. The apostle became aware that the Thessalonian church was, in a given set of circumstances, excelling in the grace of love of the brethren, love of the brethren that was not merely felt and present in the heart as an accompaniment of the teaching which saving grace brings to every believer, but a love which was finding conduits, of manifest expression. He says, for indeed, you do it. The apostle did not have such a fear that they might get proud if he commended them, that he simply thanked God on his knees for their grace of brotherly love, and said, Now, Lord, I thank you that you're manifesting in these Thessalonians that you have taught them to love one another, and, Father, I thank you that they are doing it, but, Lord, I dare not tell them that I'm aware of it, and commend them for fear they'll get puffed up with pride.

22:00 Some people who have an utterly unbiblical notion of the biblical doctrine of legitimate commendation, they feel, if ever they are to commend something that is ultimately the work of God's grace, they will either detract from the glory of God, or they will ensnare someone with pride. Well, may I say that God has instituted His own institutions. And if God has instituted the principle of commendation, He can protect His own honor and the integrity of His people. And in the heart of a true child of God, things will cause him to desire more to ascribe glory to God, and to walk humbly with God, than when he is commended for something that he knows, that he knows in the first place. And so when the Apostle Paul writes, he says, concerning love of the brethren, you do not need that I write to you. You love one another. And surely the Thessalonians who received this commendation would say, yes, Paul, it is true.

23:18 By nature, we were taught to be full of hate, and selfishness, and self-centeredness, and self-seeking, and indifference to others. Paul, if there has gone out from us anything that looks like selfless, self-giving, sensitive love to others, it's because we have been savingly taught of our God. And to that God, and to that God alone, be the glory and be the praise. And I do believe as a people of God, you are to be commended pastorally for that love that you have manifested in ways that God alone knows to their full extent, but in ways which, as we have observed it and been privileged to be a part of it, warrants this unembarrassed, straightforward commendation. Notice in Hebrews chapter 6 how significant is this matter of love of the brethren. Having sought to commend you and demonstrate that such commendation is biblical, the question may be asked, well, what's the big deal if people manifest genuine love one to another?

24:45 Well, in Hebrews chapter 6, you remember the setting. There is an exhortation that professing Christians go on to maturity or full growth, that they not go back and relay foundational issues of Christian doctrine and Christian experience. Then there comes the solemn warning about apostasy concerning those who've tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and yet they fall away unto perdition. And having given that sober, sober warning about apostasy, notice verse 9 of chapter 6.

25:26 But beloved, we are persuaded better of you and things that accompany, for salvation though we thus speak. We are persuaded that in your case there will not be a drawing back, that you will not show yourselves to be apostates. We are persuaded that in you there will be manifested the things that accompany true saving grace. And having asserted that, notice the thing that he now focuses upon in verse 10.

26:05 For there is a connection. For he is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which you show toward his name, and of all things that he could have highlighted, that are the true accomplishments of a real work of grace in contrast to the apostate, who only tastes the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, who endures for a while, who turns away, when he is on, of all things he could have highlighted, that are the distinguishing marks of a true work of grace, notice the one that he highlights. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which you showed toward his name, in that you ministered unto the saints, and still do minister. He didn't talk about, their lengthy prayers. He didn't talk about their sacrificial giving.

27:17 He didn't talk about their zeal in evangelism. He didn't talk about many things which in other places are highlighted as distinguishing marks of a work of grace. But he focuses upon this thing that they ministered to the saints out of a motive of love to the name of their God. Jesus said, By this, shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one toward another.

27:54 And for those of you who have literally jettisoned your vacation plans to minister to Pete and to his family, for those of you who have been willing during the conference days to give up hours with family, with husband, with wife, while Peter was being taken to emergency rooms, taken to hospital, those of you who have opened your homes, prepared your meals, taken off from work, who have given yourselves to prayer, may I remind you that in the last day, according to Matthew chapter 25, one of the issues that will be highlighted then, is the same issue. For the Lord Jesus will say to the righteous on his right hand, Come ye blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation, the foundation of the world. And then what does he give as the specific indications that they are truly his own people? What is highlighted in the estimation of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 25? Look at verse 35.

29:02 I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.

29:21 And some of you so abounded in that grace, you had the hospital staff at Chilton upset that you were glutting the room with people. Well, it's a wonderful thing to have to reprove a people and tell them slow down the number of your visits to one of the members in a state of need. And so from the depths of my heart, on behalf of all of your fellow elders, we do extend this word of pastoral commendation to you. You have acted out what you profess to be and have manifested that which Scripture says is one of the distinguishing marks of the true disciples of Christ. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. But then in the second place, I want to set before you not only this word of pastoral commendation to you who are the people of God, but a word of pastoral exhortation to you, the Lord's people. From the time that the seizure came on Pete a week ago Wednesday,

Pastoral Exhortation 1: Be Real and Open-Hearted with Pastors

30:46 when I was there and others, until just this past Friday, when I was with Pete in the intensive care unit at Chilton, it's been my joy to enter in with the other elders to all of the aspects of this trial with an open-faced honesty. I feel free to say this now, though I wouldn't have said it until the tests came back as they did, and we now know what we know of the very solid, optimistic prospects that are before us, that when I went into discipline, when I was with Pete a week ago yesterday, when in early in the morning, desiring to have time alone with him, one of the other pastors was just finishing a visit, and knowing that in the coming days, if the worst scenario was reality, that if this were a tumor or had been a tumor, and if it had been of a particularly deadly type of tumor, that that may well have been the last time I would see Peter, without being doped up, having all his faculties, and I said, Pete, we're alone, we don't know what the days ahead will hold, and you and I have got to talk very openly and frankly, and we're going to start talking about worst-case scenarios.

32:10 Suppose the doctors tell us that all the evidence points to the fact that this is not a primary tumor, it is seeded from some other tumor, and that you have a lesion perhaps far larger in your lungs, some other vital organ, this has taken up residence in the brain, and the prospect of it taking up residence elsewhere is very real, and that you may have an arduous bout with an aggressive cancer that may take you to an early grave. I said, Pete, that's a worst-case scenario, but that's a very real possibility. Now let's talk about it. And we talked about death, and we talked about disposition of the business, and we talked about life insurance, and we talked about how we would cooperate with his dear wife in coping with widowhood. Yes, we did. We talked out all the implications of worst-case scenario while his mind was lucid. And from that moment until I stood at his bedside on Wednesday in the intensive care unit, certain principles have marked all of the interaction that I personally have had with Peter, and it has highlighted some issues that are burning in my breast this morning that I want to issue as a pastoral exhortation to the people of God in this place.

33:36 And the first one is this. I have three. And the first one is this. Be real and be open-hearted with your pastors.

33:50 Be real and be open-hearted with your pastors. What do I mean by real? Look at Romans 13 and verse 9. I do not know of any of you that manifest open hostility to any one of us, but I have reason to believe that the love that some of you seek to manifest doesn't pass muster with Romans 13 and verse 9.

34:23 And if it were not possible that this could be an experience among God's people, why did the Holy Ghost move the Apostle Paul to write, let love be without hypocrisy. Let love be without wearing any mask. When your eyes meet the eyes of a brother or sister, when they meet the eyes of one of your overseers, and you extend the hand of the greeting of love and the words that supposedly speak of love, my exhortation is be real. Ask yourself why. The Gentiles have the moral courage to come to us and say for some reason, I really can't love you. And you know what will happen in most cases?

35:28 You'll be met not with a shocked look of surprise, but with someone who'll say, well, I've known it all along. I wondered when you'd get real and drop the mask and stop playing games. Be real. Hypocrisy.

35:48 Walk into a man's hospital room and without a together where you have occulties, let's take first case scenario. Lay it on the table and talk it through. Why? Because I know my brother loves me with a love that is without hypocrisy.

36:17 And he knows I love him with a love that is without hypocrisy. And it was that mutual knowledge of the reality of each other's love that provided a climate that made it utterly natural to say let's talk about worst case scenario. Face it. That made it natural for me to walk in that room on Friday, my brother thinking I was on vacation, not expecting a visit from me, though I'd been on the phone with his wife and my son-in-law with me, saw me and wept.

36:57 And what made it natural for me to lean over and embrace him and kiss a man on the cheek, sippy and purr because I kiss because we love one another with a love that is without hypocrisy. I'd find it very difficult to kiss some of you men on the cheek. And if you're honest, you'd feel very uncomfortable to receive a kiss from me because you're not real. You're playing games with God and with those who represent him.

37:37 And my pastoral appeal this morning is in the name of God the day is coming. It may not come suddenly, unexpectedly as did Peter's, but it is appointed and the man wants to die. And one of our great privileges as pastors is to help our people through the valley of the shadow of death and to see them die well. But we can't help you to die well.

38:09 If you're loved to us. So to that is be open hearted to us. And what do I mean by that? Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6.

38:29 Paul was conscious in his relationship to the Corinthians that his heart and his mouth were open towards them. And notice the connection between those two. Verse 11 of 2 Corinthians 6. Our mouth is open unto you, O Corinthians.

38:49 And then he says our open mouth is a reflection of our heart. Our heart is enlarged. He goes from the outward to the inward. Why was Paul's mouth opened?

39:01 Why was it an unimpeded conduit of the thoughts and the concerns that were within? Because his heart was enlarged and his large open mouth. In other words he said I'm communicating freely without embarrassment with unfettered liberty of soul. O Corinthians.

39:25 Our mouth is open to you. Our heart is enlarged. You are not straitened, constricted or restricted in us. Restricted in your own affections.

39:40 He said the reason our communication is not two large open conduits. One with a root in your open large heart coming out of your open and the other he says. And the problem is this. Our heart has been narrowed in its affection to us.

40:09 Now for a recompense in like kind I speak as unto my children. And as mine is opened and is not restricted and restrained in its affection to you producing my open mouth so your open and enlarged heart to me will produce an open and an enlarged mouth. In his excellent commentary on second Corinthians comments on this passage. At the conclusion of this fervent outpouring of spirit the apostle pauses and addresses the Corinthians directly by name. As Chrysostom said the addition of their name is a mark of great love and warmth and affection. O Corinthians. It is as though the uninhibited nature of the passage he has just dictated has confirmed to Paul the fullness of his love for the Corinthians.

41:16 Freedom in speaking is evidence of an unconfined heart. Do you hear that? Freedom in speaking is evidence of an unconfined heart. Look at the text.

41:28 Arms. Why? Because we are blabbermouths? No.

41:35 Because we've got large hearts. Hughes has captured the principle very powerfully when he says freedom in speaking is evidence of an unconfined heart. Only to dearly loved friends does one express oneself freely and without restraint as he has just done. For openness of speech goes with indeed flows from warmth and enlargement of heart.

42:04 Here then is a further proof if they needed of the genuineness and wholeheartedness of his affection for them. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Now listen to this. The absence of inward barriers and reservations leads to outward spontaneity.

42:24 How can the Corinthians possibly doubt that Paul's heart is anything but enlarged with love towards them to such a degree that there is a special and permanent place for them within it? And then he says Paul's heart was not narrowed or pinched by suspicions and misconceptions of the Corinthians though he knew their failings and all the rest, he said. My heart is enlarged. The proof is my mouth is open.

42:51 No, it was their own affections that they were confined and restricted. And then he goes on to demonstrate what I have shown is the thrust of this passage. Dear people, some of you would feel very awkward were you to be put in Pete's situation this afternoon and some of us were to come to visit you. We wouldn't feel the liberty that I have known with Pete.

43:22 Now is it because Pete's of my nationality and my background and my temperament? You couldn't find two men of more diverse nationality, background and temperament. It has nothing to do with temperament. It has nothing to do with ality.

43:40 It has to do with the spiritual dynamics of being real and being open. And in the name of God I beg you, you who thought...

43:54 And it's evident by the little bit you ever let out of your mouth to those of us who do our dead level best to try to get close to you. The barriers are not in us. They're in you. Be real.

44:14 Let love be without hypocrisy. Be open. Oh, Trinity Baptist church members, open your hearts. That's my first word of pastoral exhortation.

Pastoral Exhortation 2: Gain and Maintain a Good Conscience

44:30 God spares me to be in the crisis with you. And I know I speak for my fellow elders. We want to be able to come into the room and not have to spend three visits getting a climate where we might possibly feel the liberty to begin to approach talking about worst case scenarios. My second word of exhortation is this.

45:06 Gain and maintain a good conscience before God and man at any cost. Gain and maintain a good conscience before God and man at any cost. Acts 24, 16, Paul said, Herein do I exercise myself to have always, to have always a conscience void of offense to God and to man. As I spoke to Peter in his hospital bed in Rhode Island, I had to ask the question, Pete, could it be that what has come is God saying something to you about anything in your life? He said, Pastor, I have a good conscience. Before I left for this week of conference, every job that I had contracted to have done by a certain date was done. It meant some extra hours, but every job was done.

46:09 My testimony will not be jeopardized because of this strange problem. All my bills are paid up to the first of the month. I have no bad debts. My conscience is clear.

46:27 He said, what a wonderful companion is a good conscience. When out of the blue sky God brings a dark undercoat of a providence light. Let me ask you something. Suppose your leg began to twitch at the new meal today.

46:52 You went into some seizure that indicated some serious neurological impairment. You immediately began to think of Pete and his experience. Perhaps I have a lesion on the brain. Let me ask you something.

47:04 What would your first thought be concerning an unresolved issue between you and God in your life? Would you think, uh-oh, this is God's chastisement for what's coming to your mind? As a diabetic, Pete has made conscious of taking very seriously all that medical science has revealed about how he ought to eat and care for himself as a diabetic. He said, how thankful I am that I've kept a good conscience about my physical condition as a diabetic so that whatever this is I won't live with the vain regrets that it might have come upon me as a judgment from God for being careless about keeping my body in the light of the reality of the condition God is in. We're talking pretty basic stuff, folks, and I didn't read this in a book. This came off a hospital bed in Rhode Island! What would your conscience trouble you about?

48:32 Would you immediately start thinking of all those patterns of TV watching concerning which God's been dealing with you time after time after time and you've done nothing about it? All your time that you've yet to put away, that consume hours that ought to be spent in the secret place serving others, reading good literature, nurturing your children, what is the thing which if God brought some strange providence of dark negative physical affliction upon you, what is the thing that would be the Nathan's finger under your nose saying, thou art the man? You better deal with it because for all you know that thing may come upon you. A good conscience is a marvelous commandment. To say in spite of all of my sins and failures and my need to go daily to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness, I know nothing against myself.

49:44 And to lie upon a bed of affliction saying, oh God, search me and know my heart, try me and see if there be any wicked way in me, lead me in the way everlasting. But at the same time to say with Paul, I know nothing against myself. Are you so living that were God to bring some unusual affliction into your life, you could face it with a good conscience? If not, why not?

50:16 All of the divine provisions for a good conscience are there. An interceding Savior at the right hand of the Father, blood that cleanses from all sin. God's given you sanity and space to make things right at the horizontal level with your wife, your husband, your children, to have a conscience void of offense to God and to man. No need to say, rush this one to my bedside, in whose presence I've spoken angry words.

50:49 But those ears that heard the angry words have never heard my words of confession and my entreaty for forgiveness. Bring this one to my bedside. Bring this one to my bedside with whom I indulged in borderline double innuendo talk that was dishonoring to God and I never made it right with them. Bring them to my bedside.

51:11 This bed may be but the preview to my basket. Bring them to my bedside. I must make it right with them. Bring my children.

51:20 I've never confessed to them the sin of neglecting their souls, being taken up too much with this and that, and not leading in family worship, not leading them in the things of God. Bring...

51:33 What kind of business will you have would you have to scurry about and take care of where you were Pete was a week ago, not knowing whether you were on the very verge of a better land and a better place? That's what it is to live with a conscience void of offense to God and man. It means that if you find out tonight you've got a tumor that'll take you by Wednesday, you've got no unfinished business with God or man. You say, Pastor, you're serious, aren't you?

52:03 Yes, I am serious. Paul was serious when he said, Herein do I exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense to God and man. Oh, Pastor, why do you go through the bother confessing before the whole that little thing of text? It's a text.

52:29 You've used the right of the careless use of one text pulpit to my grave to make it right. Am I saved by my confession? No. I'm saved by Christ.

52:49 But he saved me that I might walk before him with a conscience void of offense to God and to man. And I would not dishonor and denigrate his bloodletting by leaving his shoes unattended to if God expects me to attend. I exhort you, dear people, stop playing around with your conscience. Some of you are teeter-tottering with that soap that is triple Teflon coated that leads to apostasy because you keep dabbling in stuff that you know is displeasing to you.

53:30 Stop it. In the name of God, stop it. Give yourself no rest until this Lord's Day night. You can pillow your head with a good conscience.

53:41 And my third word of exhortation is this. Not only do I exhort you to be real and be open to us, gain and maintain a good conscience before God and man, but my third exhortation to you is this. Seek to really become a vital part of your life. And if you do, you're going to be a vital part of your life.

Pastoral Exhortation 3: Become a Vital Part of the Body

54:03 And if you do, you're going to be a vital part of your life. And if you do, you're going to be a vital part of your life. And if you do, you're going to be a vital part of your life. Seek to become a real vital part of this body.

54:20 Peter is not an elder. He's not a deacon. Why have so many parts of the body spontaneously leaped to his aid and the aid of his family? Because Pete and Hady have not been lifeless appendages.

54:34 They've been vital parts of this body. Been in prayer and in prayer and in prayer and in prayer and in prayer and in prayer before the throne of grace. Should it shock us that last Wednesday the whole body bore his burden before the throne of grace? There's a law of returns according to Jesus in Luke 6 in verse 38.

55:08 Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure pressed down shaken together running over shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again. You live out on the borders of any real costly involvement with this body.

55:32 You're an appendage just barely hanging on. One or two little capillaries of spiritual life going through you and one or two very secondary tertiary nerves going through but you're really not involved in the life of this body. It's too costly. Well, when your time comes don't be surprised and don't go blaming the body.

55:59 That's what sickens me. It's selfish self-centered people when they get into crunch time they cry like little babies because the whole church doesn't end up at their doorstep ministering to their needs. Well, you're just getting what you've invested. Nothing.

56:21 And you're getting your returns. There is a law of God's kingdom in this text that says you reap what you sow. He that sows sparingly sows bountifully shall reap bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9 6 I know in the context it is applied specifically there to benevolence and to generosity in giving but it's a much broader principle that Paul is applying to that specific the farmer that goes out and says he distributes four seeds over a whole acre of ground then he sits in the corner of his field and cries his eyeballs out in harvest time I'm getting four little stalks of corn. You kids say what a silly farmer wouldn't you? Well, that's exactly what some of you do. A little drop of an occasional attendance at prayer meeting a little drop of an occasional you just throw a few grains of corn over acres and then cry like crazy when your crunch time comes and there isn't a rich harvest of the body responding to your need.

57:47 You're just getting what you sowed folks. That's all. You're just getting what you've sown. And one of the things that has become so clear to me through this whole experience from the top down or the bottom up or from the outside in is that the body is saying let's all stop yay for Pete in Haiti yay for the Leons let's all nobody said a thing the body in terms of these biblical principles in a quiet unobtrusive way they've sowed much seed of love concern involvement with the lives that's been costly but oh the return. It's a convenient thing many of us know that disrupts everything for a week then you spend a week catching up but out of that came correspondence and an intimate friendship with the whole pastor's family to wear the family pictures on the pastor's bulletin board in his home I believe I saw it with my own eyes in Scotland should it surprise us then that a fax comes all the way from Scotland

59:17 one addressed to Pete in Haiti one addressed to me we were so thrilled to hear the latest news concerning Peter as we've been so concerned and have been praying for him in the family daily although we realize he's still very ill nevertheless it was an answer to prayer to hear that he has no tumor we sent a fax to the Leon's via Jeff Smith as we tried to phone them without success it was wonderful to see how everyone rallied around so wonderfully in response to Peter's condition and what a wonderful thing that was of the members of the body nourishing and nurturing one another that doesn't just happen folks if you want the help of God's people in crunch time then get out of your self-centered cocoon can I state it more bluntly now you can go out of here and get mad at me and some of you will but frankly I don't care I've looked death straight in the eye again these days and what a privilege to see someone whose life has been embedded in the life of this body and to see the grace that Christ the living head of that body in crunch time and for those of you

60:42 that choose like existence live it don't sit in the corner of the field and cry and throw stones at God's people and say they don't care and they don't love and all the rest we won't tolerate that kind of slander of God's precious people in this place and in the corner of your field and repent that you're reaping what you sow and pray God will forgive you and restore you that you might reap something else than in another crisis in another crisis you might sow something else that you might reap a different harvest now I've spoken bluntly I know that I'm sorry I don't know how to speak in beautiful little euphemisms but you look these realities in the eye and euphemisms appear blasphemous well I must very quickly give a personal exhortation and entreaty I asked Peter I said Peter if you could preach this Sunday morning what would you say to the people you know what his first word was these are his words particularly to you who are outside of Christ in one very brief word

Peter Leon's Personal Exhortation to Unbelievers: Don't Wait to Embrace Christ

62:11 to you who are the Lord's people you know what his first word was oh pastor pastor tell them don't wait don't wait to embrace Christ those are his words don't wait to embrace the person and work of Christ Proverbs 27 1 says do not boast yourself of tomorrow for you know not what a day may bring forth Proverbs 29 1 says he that being often reproved hardens his neck shall suddenly be cut off and that without remedy Proverbs 1 20 and following gives the picture of wisdom standing pleading that she be received and then she warns if you do not receive me the time is coming when you will cry and I will not hear and this to me frightening frightening words God says I will laugh at your calamity and I will mock when your fear comes you want God laughing and mocking when it comes crunch time in your life do you want the God of Heaven to be laughing and mocking then you go on and laugh when Christ appeals to you come leave your sins leave the world leave the ways of the world you see dear people we are not

63:40 talking about the stuff of special effects and a Bruce Willis and a Harrison Ford and a Sly Stallone and an Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie that's all with his latest paramour and slut on his arm you won't come through the fires of God's judgment with any smiles on your face Pete wept and he named the names of some of you sitting here this morning I won't embarrass you by telling you the names that he named but he said oh bastard and he started naming people with tears coming down his cheeks not crying for his own pain or crying for the anticipation of what they may discover in his brain but crying for some of you who didn't have a Christ to go to where you in his place that's Pete's words to you don't wait to embrace the person and work of Christ

Peter Leon's Personal Exhortation to Believers: Don't Face Trials Without Christ's Presence

65:05 this is a quote from Pete if you're living for this world these times will crush you these are Pete's words if you have Christ children these are for you especially tell the kids he says if they have Christ they don't need to be afraid of God for such times as these there is no hope for a future without Christ you know what he meant he said tell them don't wait for anything more Christ is before them in the Gospel plead with them to come and to lay hold of the offered saint that's Pete's words to you from his bed today don't wait to embrace the person and work of Christ his second word is don't face life trials without the presence Don't face life's trials without the presence of Christ. Pete said, to be chastened by God's hand is far better than to be delivered into the hands of men, alluding to David's experience in 2 Samuel 24, 14. Then he said these words I'll never forget. I quote him, Though this hammer has been harmed upon me, it has been padded with the padding of my God, my wife, my pastors, and the people of God.

66:34 But my Savior took the hammer without any padding and felt the unpadded fury of the wrath of His Father when He took my place upon the cross.

66:49 You see, it's a wonderful thing. To pass through life's trials with the presence of the Christ who took the greatest trial any human being can ever face. And that is to stand before Almighty God laden with your sin. What a frightening thing.

67:09 I can't look up steadfastly into these lights. Man-made creatures with a few hundred watts of incandescent light magnified by some pieces of glass. And I can't look straight in. What will it be to face Him who is burning holiness?

67:31 And you in the nakedness of all your sin, what are you going to do?

67:38 You who go in your room and lie.

67:48 When you face Him who is burning holiness, you'll not con Him.

67:55 You'll be exposed.

67:58 And when His hammer strikes you, there'll be no padding.

68:02 That's the way it struck the Lord Jesus. He spared Him not. He died to just flesh. To the unjust.

68:11 In Pete's words, don't face life's trials without the presence of Christ. And the greatest of those trials will be death, judgment, eternity, and hell. One nurse said to Pete, after the procedure that discovered what the problem was and aspirated the abscess, Peter, you've been through hell. He said, no, man.

68:37 I've not been through hell and never will.

68:41 Someone went through hell for me.

68:49 Do you have Christ with you? So that whatever life's trials may be yours.

Peter Leon's Personal Exhortation to All: Don't Despise or Delay Church Commitments

68:56 And Pete's last word to you was this. Dear people, don't despise or delay your commitments to the church of Christ.

69:07 Yes, that comes from Pete's bedside. Don't despise or delay your commitments to the church of Christ. He said, where would I have been coming into this trial were I not a part of Christ? Bobby, a part of this.

69:21 Dear people, my life wound up in there.

69:26 They are my family. They are my family's family. That's Pete's word to you. He wouldn't have the strength to thunder it as I have, but he's given me the words.

69:43 And you say, where in scripture is there anything that points in that direction? Dear people, there is so much that I don't even dare to begin to quote the passages. Suffice it to say that the Bible sets forth the church of Christ as that for which Christ was born. And I'm sure that the Bible says that the church of Christ is shed his precious blood, the place of his special presence, that which he nourishes and cherishes by his constant ministry from the right hand of the Father and by the presence of the indwelling spirit.

70:14 It is called his house. It is called his family. It is called the heavenly Zion. It is that which is the darling of his heart.

Conclusion: A Collage of Perspectives and a Call to Action

70:24 May God grant that these words of exhortation from the church of Christ, from the church of Christ, from his child and our brother, from his bed, may find their mark in our hearts. Well, this has been a collage I put at the top of my notes today, a collage of pastoral perspectives connected with Peter Leon's illness. You know what a collage is? You take a little bit of this kind of wallpaper and a few leaves and other things, and you paste them all together for their overall artistic effect.

70:59 And frankly, I don't care if someone judges what I do. I don't care. Given this morning as being a bit disjointed and illogical, I could care less. I'm too old to care what you might think about my sermon structure this morning.

71:13 But I hope I'm not so without grace that I don't care whether you've heard me. I hope you've heard the commendation, and you've taken it to heart and said, Oh, God, help us to abound more and more in anything that your grace has wrought in us. I trust you've heard the words of pastoral exhortation. Get real!

71:40 Drop the mask! Open your hearts. Open your hearts. Let us in.

71:51 In God's name, let us in. Don't hold us off. Let us in. We want to do you good.

71:59 We're around to help you die. We want to see you die well. And all the trials that you may face and the joys you may have, we want to rejoice with you. We want to grieve with you.

72:11 Our hearts are opened. Our mouths are opened. are open. You can't say the same here. Be real. Be open. Our exhortation is get a good conscience. Our exhortation is become a vital part of the body. I close with this simple incident. Pete lay upon his bed awake the first night after he was hospitalized. He said, Pastor, I spent the night building walls. And he said they were walls that even Jerry Greasy would have been proud of. I said, what are you talking about, Pete? You built walls. He said, as I lay awake all night, I'd think of a promise. I'd think of a principle

72:57 of the word. And I'd fit them together in my mind and say, now there's a solid wall when the enemy comes with his accusations, when he comes with his horrible, fiendish attempts to undermine my faith. There's a wall. And then I'd pause and I'd build another wall with more scripture, more promise.

73:17 More promises. More aspects of God's character and God's ways. And I'd construct another wall. Then I'd pause and construct another and another. He said, I spent the night building walls out of Bible verses. My friend, have you got enough bricks to even build the first course of a wall? Or is much of what you hear wash over your head in one ear and out the other ear when crunch time comes? Oh, how you'll wish you had a whole backyard full of bricks.

Pastoral Prayer

73:53 Lord, up the word in your heart that you might, by the grace of God, stand in the evil day. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we acknowledge that the events of these recent days have sobered many of us. At times they have frightened us. And yet when we have been afraid, we have said with David, what time I am afraid, I will trust in you. And you have quieted our fears and you fulfilled your promise to keep them perfect. The one whose mind was stayed upon you because he trusts in you. Thank you for the way you fulfilled that promise to our dear sister Hady and to the girls. Thank you, our Father,

74:47 for the way you've manifested your grace in this assembly of your people. We know that it does not grow upon Adamic soil and upon our natural stock of Adamic nature that we should love and care for one another. We magnify you for your grace that has put this concern in the body to care for a member in need. And Lord, we again commit your dear child and our beloved brother to you, begging you that you who have shown such mercy will continue to show mercy, that our brother may soon be amongst us, mingling his praises with ours.

75:32 And by your grace, be a man of spiritual stature beyond anything he has known before because of the purifying influence of this trial. O Lord, we ask that his words of exhortation that I have sought to give on his behalf may not fall to the ground. O God, there sit among us those who if they were to come to their deathbed would have no hope, no comfort, no hope for Christ. No knowledge of sins forgiven. Father, Father, don't let them go through another Lord's day carelessly tripping through life as though they were going to live forever. O God, have mercy, have mercy, and save people, Lord, not someday, but O God, today. Come in saving mercy. We pray for those who are part of this assembly.

76:34 Whose hearts are closed to some of us. Whose hearts are narrowed. Whose mouths are closed because their hearts are closed. Lord, break through, we pray. Give them to see their state and bring them to the repentance that we've read about this morning. And for those who do not have a good conscience, Lord, may this not be another day where conscience thunders only to be silenced amidst the busyness of the coming week.

77:05 May there be heart dealings with you today, O God. May there be repentance at every level where such is called for. May there be fresh application to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Hear our cry, we plead with you, our Heavenly Father, and bring good out of this providence that has come to this entire body, all that we may all have occasion to bless you for that which you have brought as a result of your dealings with our brother.

77:43 Hear us and answer us, we plead in Jesus' name. Amen.