Reduction of Elders: What Might God be Saying? Part 3

Review of the Biblical Framework for Understanding God's Providence

0:01 The following message was delivered on January 24, 1993, in the adult Sunday school class of the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. We come this morning in our adult class to the third study on the very practical and relevant issue of what God may be saying to Trinity Baptist Church through his providential dealings, which have resulted in the reduction of the number of our elders in the relatively recent past. And I shall briefly review what we've considered thus far in our initial two studies. First of all, I attempted to set before you the biblical framework for evaluating God's providential dealings with us, and I hope you will follow. I've designed this concept of the triangle of biblical principles relative to seeking to understand the lessons of God's providence, helpful not just with respect to the issue in hand, but with other issues that will come into your life and into our corporate life as we still make our way to the celestial city. At the top of the triangle is the principle learned from Scripture that all that comes to us is the principle of God.

1:28 All that comes to pass in our individual and corporate history is the outworking of God's sovereign will and purpose, Ephesians 1.11 being an epitomizing text. Number two, that God alone completely and infallibly understands his purposes in his providential dealings with us. Proverbs 20 and verse 24 is, again, a text which crystallizes these principles or this principle that if a man's goings are of established, established of Jehovah, how then can man understand his way?

2:10 And as I was reflecting on that principle, I thought again of how vividly it is illustrated in the history of Joseph. Joseph could say in Genesis 50 and verse 20 to his brethren, Ye meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Now, I'm sure Joseph did not have a clue of that when he was thrown into a pit, when he was sold as a slave, when he was down in a prison falsely accused of seeking to rape his master's wife, yet he looks back and says something of that which God knew and purposed all along is now being understood. But God alone completely and infallibly understands his purposes in his providential dealings with us. And then thirdly, we are responsible, humbly and prayerfully, to assess God's acts of providence in the light of his word. James 1.5, Matthew 16.3.

The Call to Mutual Ministry: Ephesians 4 and the Equipping of Saints

3:18 Now, having established this triangle of biblical truth, you then highlight, in response to my question, what do you think God may be saying to us through these providences in the light of his word, you as a class brought forward seven things, and I encourage you to couch them in the words of a call to, and all the way from the first, that this may be a call to recognize anew the sovereign activity in giving and removing leadership, to the seventh, a call to the existing eldership to focus more on their explicit duty to this local church, Acts 20.28. Someone then brought forward an eighth possible call from God, and on that eighth we have decided to park for several Lord's Days. And the eighth was this. Could it be that God is issuing a call to this assembly through these providences, to be more actively engaged in ministering one to another, and in reaching out to our own Jerusalem? This then led to a homework assignment to study Ephesians 4.1-16,

4:40 especially verses 11 and 12, and I would ask you to turn now to that passage as I try in the next three to four minutes to give you in capsule form, what together we gleaned out of this passage in our last study two Lord's Days ago. And forgive my lack of eye contact with you in trying to get these reviews comprehensive enough to help newcomers, and not so extensive as to rob too much time and to insult those who are here. I have deliberately written out the review almost verbatim, and I have not committed it to memory, so I must stick closely to my notes. We first of all considered the context of our key passage in Ephesians 4.11 and 12, and you, by looking at the passage, brought forward from the class that the context was a call to unity and to the graces essential to the maintenance of that unity, verses 1 to 3. Then you said the grounds or the basis of that unity are set forth in verses 4 to 6, and then in verse 7, that within that unity there is a great diversity determined by the disposition of differing gifts

6:07 and graces among God's people. Then we address three very crucial questions more directly. Question one, who is the sovereign dispenser of spiritual gifts to his church? And you rightly answered, it is the exalted Lord Jesus Christ, verses 8 through 11a.

6:29 Question two was, what gifts are particularly highlighted in this passage? And you rightly answered, gifts of ministering the word in an official capacity. He gave some, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, with the agreement being that the only abiding, gifts of Christ concerning which there is unquestioned agreement as far as his continually giving them to the church in living teachers is the latter pastors and teachers. And though apostles and prophets, insofar as their inspired words are embodied in the scriptures, they are Christ's standing gifts to us as we have them recorded in the scriptures. But in terms of, living gifts of Christ, he continues to give pastors and teachers. Then question number three was, what is the prominent and first mentioned purpose for which these gifts are given? And we did a little exercise in the Greek grammar and stated that any translation that accurately reflects the grammar of the original should not have a comma after this first phrase.

7:52 He gave pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, rub out the comma, it should be for the perfecting or equipping of the saints unto work of service. And then you may have a comma unto the building up of the body of Christ. Some exegetes suggest the second comma ought to be taken out as well. But whether the second should be taken out or not, it is clear that the first should be, in the older translations, such as the authorized version in the 1901.

8:27 And what we read is this, that the prominent and first mentioned purpose for which Christ gives these special gifts of his ministering servants is for the equipping of the saints unto work of service.

8:46 So that they are given not to do all the works of service, not to have a bunch of people who sit and become spiritually fat and then cheer on the pastors and teachers while they continue to do more works of service. No, he gives them with special reference to the church. This is not an exhaustive statement of why he gives them. It is a statement with reference to their internal function within the body.

9:16 They do have a function in preaching the gospel to the lost, and in that sense being evangelists, at least with a lowercase e, if not with a uppercase e, but with reference to the church as the body of Christ and its internal life, pastors and teachers are given for the equipping of the saints unto the work of service. Then I left you with a homework assignment, and I kept that within four minutes, that last segment, and the homework assignment was to go to your Bibles and to discover in your Bibles those works of service which are not distinctively or exclusively the work of any specialists within the church, but rather works of service that either, according to the scriptures, are to be performed by all of the members of the body to all of the other members of the body, or those works of service that are to be performed by some of the members of the body to all the members of the body, or those which are to be performed by some of the members to some of the members of the body, but believing, as Peter says in 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11,

10:41 that there is no one who is put into the church who is not gifted and graceful, but with some endowment of service, we do believe that everyone is placed into the body to be perfected and equipped by the specialists within the body that they might perform their God-given work of service. 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11, according as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And in verse 7 of Ephesians 4, the construction there in the original again is very emphatic, to each one is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Now then, it is in your hands as a class to tell us what you have discovered from the word of God with reference to those works of service, for which the people of God are to be increasingly equipped and which in the grace of Christ and in the power of the Spirit they are to perform one for another. I have about a dozen, maybe eleven to be exact, that I have listed some.

The Duty to Admonish the Disorderly: Requirements and Challenges

12:11 I have given two texts and that there may be a little difference in them. I am sure there are much more, but now I want to see if you have done your homework. 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11, according as each hath received a gift, who has discovered a work of service that is the privilege of the ordinary rank and file of the people of God, if not all of them, at least some of them. All right, Jerry?

12:38 All right, 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 14. And Jerry, what I'll do, since this is going on the tape, rather than have you read it, it might not be picked up when you give the text, I'll read it and then I'll ask you to tell us, what that work of service is, all right? 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 14. And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, be longsuffering towards all.

13:14 What is this particular work of service, Jerry, and why have you brought forward this text to support the... the allegation or the affirmation, the statement that it is a work of service not exclusive to the specialists within the Church?

13:33 Well, Paul is writing a letter to the leaders at Bethlehem, and I just returned there, and he says, the importance of the brethren is not mainly the importance of the leaders, it's the importance of the Catholics, the importance of the brethren. All right. The importance of the Church, and that's why it's a text for everybody. And we'll leave our time to the disorderly, brother or sister, and to admonish them, to show them from the Church that they've done wrong, not correct, to be a person, to take part in it, to encourage the person, to say, look out for others again, asserting that the Lord is coming, asserting it one way or another.

14:11 All right. Be longsuffering towards all. Remember, the longsuffering of the Lord is Lord of the text. There it is up.

14:21 All right. Now, what in the context, to go back through those several points, Jerry, what in the context even makes it more clear that the brethren here is the people of God in general? Is there anything in the context that makes it even more clear? Jerry?

14:56 All right, so he has very clearly made a distinction that whatever we discover from the Word of God about a biblical concept of body-life ministry, it never obliterates the distinction between those who are given by Christ to lead and teach in an officially recognized office and function and the rank and file of God's people. That, we know, cannot be the teaching of the Word, because Ephesians 4, the great body-life passage, makes the distinction. He gives pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints. And as you've indicated, Jerry, in this passage, he's made that distinction.

15:40 He's addressed the people of God in general to know those who labored among them and were over them in the Lord, clearly indicating that they would not have scratched their head and said, what in the world is Paul talking about? We've got super-duper, hyper-charged body-life. We don't need anybody over us. We are so spiritual.

16:01 We have the Word of God and the Holy Ghost, and we love one another so much, and we all have an anointing from the Holy One. We've got nobody over us. We've got nobody who's our official teachers and guides. What's Paul talking about?

16:15 No, no, he fully assumed that they would understand there was a clergy and a laity distinction. There were those over them in the Lord, there were those who were under those who were over them in the Lord. So when Jerry asserts that this must be an exhortation to the people of God in general, he not only has as a solid basis the general use of the word brethren, which, unless there is a compelling contextual consideration, means the people of God in general, but we have that context in which that distinction was very clear in the Apostle's mind. In fact, notice that they do the very thing he's calling the people of God to do. As he underscores their labor with reference to a specific aspect of it, notice what he does in verse 12. Know them that labor among you and are over you in the Lord and do what? Admonish you.

17:20 One of their major tasks is to admonish you. And that Greek word, nuthoteo, means to point out a fault and then to bring reproof for that fault and then to seek to point out the way to correct that fault. That is their responsibility before God in a unique way connected with their office and identity as overseers. However, all of the admonition is not to be left to them.

17:52 The brethren are to admonish, one another. Now, what does that mean, Jerry? If we are to fulfill that function to admonish one another, what will that require of us? .

18:19 All right, if I believe it is my duty as a child of God in the proper circumstances to admonish any brother or sister, or sister whom I see walking in a disorderly way, does it say scandalous, immoral? No. It's disorderly. Someone who is not walking in step with a consistent life of Biblical holiness.

18:46 That means that if I am going to do that with any clout, I myself must not be disordered. Now, let's put it in the concrete. But see, you're really backing yourselves into a corner. Is it disorderly for a member who has committed himself to attend all of the stated meetings of the church regularly unless providentially hindered?

19:10 Is it disorderly for such a member chronically to absent himself from any stated meeting for no good reason? Is that disorderly or not? How many believe that's disorderly? All right, put your hands down.

19:23 Are you going to then have any clout to admonish a brother or sister, a family that is not making conscience about being represented at prayer meeting, consistent Sunday night attendance? Are you going to have any clout to admonish them if you yourself are disorderly?

19:45 None whatsoever. So you see, God gives pastors and teachers to equip the saints unto the work of service. That by their admonishing of you to be faithful to the stated means of grace, to be faithful to your voluntary membership commitments,

20:10 it is those who are walking in the light of those things that have a context of credibility to admonish their disorderly brothers and sisters. And you don't need to go tell an elder.

20:26 I've noticed that so-and-so. I've not been present at four or five prayer meetings. Do you think maybe I ought to ask them? If they have not done us the courtesy of telling us that they're taking a special class as they pursue a graduate course in conjunction with their business, or if they have a conflict of work schedule, if they have not had the courtesy to tell us and inform us, even as I had a couple call me this morning and say, don't want you to worry when we're not there today.

20:54 We have sickness that will keep us out the entire day. I, the head of the household, may possibly be out in the evening. If people don't have the courtesy, then you have grounds to think they may be disorderly and to go to them. But it will mean you must go out of the context of an orderly walk yourself.

21:13 So you see, if we begin to take seriously this matter of our ministry one to another, it puts tremendous pressure upon us to get our own act together before God. So it reads, It requires, then, greater levels of personal consistency in overall orderly walk before God. What else does it require? Jerry has implied this, and now I'll take him out of the hot seat, and someone else may wish to speak of it.

21:45 If you're to admonish the disorderly, Paul not only assumes that you yourself are not disorderly, but that you will possess what quality? All right. So he's assuming that there is sufficient, sufficient interaction and exposure to know one another. All right.

22:06 But then what grace must be needed there? Yes, Rich?

22:10 All right. Excuse me. Humility. It ought to be in the spirit of humility and meekness.

22:15 Galatians chapter 6. If a brother be overtaken and appalled, you that are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. But that's not what I'm fishing for. That's good fish, but that's not what I'm trying to land.

22:27 All right. Bill? I have a knowledge of the Scriptures.

22:33 A knowledge of the Scriptures, which produces the grace of discernment. Right? How am I to know what disorderliness is if I don't have discernment? Some would regard me as coming here disorderly.

22:50 I've been in places where people had such a view of God being against all color and anything that was interesting to the eye that for a reverend to appear with a tie and with a... chromium or silver-plated tie-tack and a silk handkerchief in his pocket was terribly disorderly.

23:15 It was against the dignity of the ministry. Oh, yes. I've been told in certain places people were greatly offended and they couldn't listen to my preaching with profit unless they turned their eyes away from the silk tie in my pocket. Well, obviously, they did not have biblical, spiritual discernment.

23:36 Their concept of... of disorderliness was rooted in a religious tradition that had a defective view of God and of color at its roots.

23:46 All right? So it's going to demand discernment. And where does discernment come from? Bill has already hinted.

23:52 It comes as we ourselves are not merely listening to preaching, but as we are converting what we hear and what we read into practice. I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 5 for a text that clearly...

24:07 clearly teaches this fact. Hebrews chapter 5.

24:15 The writer to the Hebrews says,

24:19 in the course of expounding the nature of Christ's work as a high priest, that there are many things he'd like to say about that work, as it is a fulfillment of the promise thou art a priest forever up to the order of Melchizedek, verse 11 of Hebrews 5, of whom we have many things to say and hard of interpretation, seeing you... you are become dull of hearing.

24:43 For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, enough time is passed when you have sat under pastors and teachers to be sufficiently equipped for the work of service, particularly teaching your brethren, you have need that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of solid food, for every one that partakes of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for full-grown men, even those who by reason of their swollen brains... No.

25:34 Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised and exercised to discern good and evil. Where does moral discernment come from? Not from a high IQ. Not necessarily from sitting under a ministry that is a solid biblical ministry for 5, 10, 15, or 20 years.

26:00 People can be under a ministry that long and still be little goo-goo, ca-ca-goo-goo, drooling babies, crying for the bottle. And what's the problem? It's not the problem of their teachers. It's the fact that they have not been exercised with the truth to which they've been exposed.

26:20 They have not been putting into moral choices in the home, in the shop, in the office, in the kitchen, on the telephone, in human relationships. They've not been exercising themselves in godliness, and therefore, they are without discernment.

26:42 So you see, Jerry, you really dove into a big assignment.

26:48 If God is calling us at this time as a church to take more seriously our responsibilities one to another, and one of them very clearly identified in the text you've brought forward is that we are as brethren to be aggressively concerned to see if any of our other brethren are walking this path. to see if any of our other brethren are walking this path. And to admonish them, we must first of all be far more careful that our lives are, in the biblical terminology, orderly lives. We must have reasonable confidence that we have discernment to understand the difference between disorderliness and someone who simply isn't meeting our own personal preferences and expectations or conforming to our prejudices. All right, what else you got to have? If you're going to do that one thing, admonish the disorderly. A consistent life, growing moral discernment.

27:48 What else you got to have?

27:51 Without which, we won't do this one to another.

27:58 I want more people to see it. So hold your hands, brethren, and then I'll throw out some hints until I see about a half a dozen hands. How many of you believe that at least 50 people before they came to church today said, oh God, along with blessing the teaching, along with blessing the preaching, Lord, bless me, with at least a half a dozen people coming to me to admonish me where they see me in any way disorderly. How many believe that there have been 50 people anxious for this day, hopeful that someone would admonish them in an area of disorderliness?

28:36 I think it might be shocking if I asked if there were one who prayed that way. Why? Because all of us has a disinclination to be reproved for our sins.

28:48 Don't we? That's part of the activity of remaining sin. That though it no longer reigns in us, John chapter 3 says, this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil and they will not come to the light lest their deeds should be reproved, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light. As new men and women in Christ, that which dominates is our affinity for the light.

29:16 But remaining sin is still mole-like and loves the dark subterranean channels of our soul where there's darkness.

29:27 That's right. And there is that dichotomy. The good that we would, that is, welcome without any flack any brother or sister who will admonish us about our disorderliness. Even if they do it a little bit raggedly, a little less tactfully, we're not fastidious about how it was done.

29:48 That's always a sign someone doesn't want to deal with their sin when they start picking fault with how it was dealt with. My friend, if you've got a sliver that's causing puss sacks in your flesh and could cause you to end up having gangrene, you're not fussy if the guy didn't quite hold the tweezers right when he pulled it out. You're thankful that the sliver's out and the puss sack is cleansed. And I'd have no confidence whatsoever when people piously say, well, I didn't mind what you said to me, pastor or brother.

30:22 It was how you said it. Nonsense. You're right. You really did mind what was said.

30:26 And the question about how is just the attempt to try to con your own conscience and con the person that tried to help you. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't try to be as tactful as possible, Galatians 6. A wise reprover, Proverbs says, upon an obedient ear is like an earring of gold. Yes, we need to be wise reprovers.

30:46 I'm not negating that. But the great principle is people, in terms of their remaining sin, let's make it personal. I, in my remaining sin, do not want to be admonished in an area of disorderliness. Admonition means an element of authoritative exposure of my wrong and a calling me to stop it and a calling of me to correct it.

31:13 And therefore, if we are to admonish one another, we need not only a consistent life as the context, discernment to know if we are truly admonishing that which is disorderly, but what's the third quality we need? What's all this palaver been about? We need the quality of what?

31:33 Mike?

31:36 Love? Love producing what, though?

31:43 Ron? Moral courage. Moral courage. The thing that God speaks of to Joshua when he says in Joshua chapter 1, moral courage.

32:03 He says in Joshua chapter 1, and verse 9, verse 7, verse 6, notice, be strong and of good courage. Verse 6, verse 7, only be strong and very courageous to observe, to do according to all the law. Verse 9, have not I commanded thee, be strong and of good courage. And you have a parallel in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 16, where Paul's speaking to all believers, even to women, says that they are to have that quality of moral courage in the natural realm more heightened in men.

32:47 Therefore, he says in verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 16, watch ye, stand fast in the faith, acquit or act like men, be strong,

33:01 be strong, have moral courage. Let all that you do be done in love. So, this one simple duty, one simple duty, admonish one another, if to be fulfilled in new dimensions within this body of God's people, demands of every single one of us assuring up of our own act more intensified determination that what we hear from those who do, do, teach, and preach with a view to equipping us to works of service, that we put it into personal practice and have our moral senses exercised by use and by practice. And that thirdly, we cry to God for the grace of moral courage.

The Duty to Encourage the Faint-Hearted: The Role of Scripture

34:03 Now, that's just one of them. Look at the next one in that one text.

34:09 Now, Jerry, did I pay you to introduce this text or prime the pump at all? No. No, okay. I want you to know he was not a plant.

34:17 This was totally spontaneous but not spontaneous. I have fervently pleaded with God both in my preparation formally and in the earlier hours of this Lord's Day that God would direct our brethren in that which they brought forward. So, in that sense, the pump has been primed by prayer and God is answering our prayer. But now, look at just the second thing in that one text.

34:45 Admonish the disorderly and we've seen the three things that that will require of every one of us if we are to fulfill a duty laid upon every one of us.

34:58 Brethren, are you a brother? Are you part of the family of God? This is a duty laid upon you. But then he says, encourage the faint-hearted.

35:11 Now then, what will this require? What will this require of us?

35:16 Encourage the faint-hearted. What will that require of us?

35:23 Anyone want to venture?

35:27 What will that require of us? Jolene?

35:31 Compassion. All right. To encourage someone who's faint-hearted, there must be a spirit of compassion. What else will it require of us?

35:42 Norman?

35:46 All right. A knowledge of the scriptures with which to encourage them. I mean, our words are pretty empty to a faint-hearted soul, aren't they? And what we need to do is to remind them of the words of God which will encourage them.

36:01 And can you think of a specific example in the New Testament where Paul actually gives a block of words containing some precious truth and then tells the believer, use these to encourage one another.

36:15 Can you think of the passage?

36:18 Has to do with believers who've lost their loved ones. And they're not clear as to what will happen at the second coming. Whether living saints will have an advantage, over dead saints. All right.

36:31 Now we're getting there, Mike.

36:35 All right. The same book, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Notice how the passage begins in verse 13. We would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fell asleep because he says this kind of ignorance, notice what it will result in.

36:52 That you sorrow not as the rest who have no hope. In other words, ignorance in the area of this concern will produce a non-Christian quality of sorrow. It will produce a worldly sorrow. And we are called to be unlike the world.

37:16 Not to be conformed to the spirit of this age. Even our grief and our sorrow is to be non-worldly.

37:26 That's what the passage says. He doesn't say we wouldn't, have you ignorant concerning those that fall asleep that you sorrow not, period. That would be inhuman. Grace never fights against what is human, only what is sinful.

37:41 And what is sinful finds expression in the patterns of the world. Therefore, because they are ignorant of certain things and have no consolation in the realities that God has revealed in the gospel, their sorrow is a hopeless sorrow. He said, I don't want your sorrow in anything, any way to be like the world's sorrow. And then he gives this wonderful block of solid biblical doctrine with reference to the very specifics of what will happen when the Lord Jesus returns.

38:14 And he says, in essence, don't worry about your dead loved ones. They will be the first order of concern when the Lord Jesus returns. Notice verse 16, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. God will give them priority of attention.

38:39 Then, adverb of time, then, we that are alive and are left shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Well, if when they heard them read, they just forgot them, and then the next time they had a grieving relative or friend in the assembly who seemed to be swallowed up with a sorrow that was too much like the hopeless sorrow of the world, they said, oh, I want to comfort this. Come here, something there was said in the last, what in the world was it?

39:23 You see, if they didn't take the time to reflect, to meditate, to lay up in store, for they didn't have, Bibles like we have, if they didn't take time to go to the elder or the brother who read the epistle and say, look, I want to get those things straight. Give it to me again. What was it now that the apostle said? What will happen first?

39:42 Voice the ark into him. And so he sets up a little mental acrostic in the Greek language. He said, now I've got it. Voice, dead in Christ first.

39:50 Now, I think I've got it now. And he stored it up in his own heart. He has prayed over it. He has prayed it in.

39:58 Now he sees, he sees a brother who seems to be weighed down, despairing, faint-hearted in the face of the death of a loved one, comfort one another with these words. And he's able to say, my brother, my sister, don't you remember that letter that was read three months ago by one of the elders, by one of the brethren in the assembly? Don't you remember? This is what the apostle said by the word of the Lord.

40:25 And he gives him back, maybe paraphrased, not verbatim, but he gives the substance of the consolation to the word of God. And as the word of God dwells in him richly, what text then is being fulfilled? You see how all this is tied together. What text then is fulfilled?

40:44 It's in another epistle. And it talks about the word of Christ dwelling in all of God's people richly. To the end that that word may minister one to another.

41:02 Colossians 3.16 Colossians 3.16. Let's look at it.

41:06 Colossians 3 and verse 16.

41:10 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

41:18 Don't let it just glance over the surface of your mind when it is preached. Don't let it simply cause the outer vestibule of the ear to vibrate a little bit under preaching. Let it dwell in you. Make up its own richly to what end?

41:41 That in all wisdom you may teach here we are and admonish one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts unto God. The word of Christ must dwell in us richly if we are not only to admonish one another with moral discernment but if we are to encourage the faint-hearted. We've concentrated on those who are faint-hearted because of the death of loved ones but it could be faint-hearted when someone's just been laid off from a job. What would you tell one of your brothers who seems to be faint-hearted and discouraged because he just got his pink slip? Could you present him with just three or four passages of scripture that would encourage him? If not, why not?

42:43 I ask you, if not, why not?

42:48 For the time to be teaching others you have need that someone teach you the first principles. You see, dear people of God, if we take this seriously, if God is issuing a call to us as a church to an intensified commitment to our responsibilities one to another, they are not the kind of responsibilities that you just plug in a half an hour, an hour a week. No. You see, to fulfill them means that there is this equipage, this being equipped unto works of service and it means that the preaching and teaching you hear and receive both privately in your own devotions and publicly in the ministries of the word, you've got to start taking them more seriously. You've got to spend more time memorizing scriptures, getting the address, chapter and verse, so that you can turn to them readily in order to encourage, to exhort the faint-hearted. Now, if you really believe that this is your duty and that those of us who stand before you as pastors and teachers have been given to equip you for that duty, do you see what a difference it will make in how seriously you get concerned about retaining what you hear, memorizing

44:17 the word of God, and memorizing specific references?

44:22 You see, nobody can do this by proxy. It can only be done in the disciplines of personal communion with God and in the personal assimilation of the word of God. So, if we are to encourage the faint-hearted, we must have a disposition of love. As one has suggested that reaches out to them, we must have the equipment, which is a working knowledge of the specific portions of the word of God that apply to the occasion of this brother or sister being faint-hearted.

45:00 And those can be manifold. We've just thought of a couple of them in the face of the death of loved ones, in the face of the disappointment of someone who is desirous of providing for his own household in a noble and legitimate means of employment, but the reasons for being faint-hearted could be many. One of the other major ones is when someone seems to be making so little progress with a besetting sin, few things will make a true Christian faint-hearted more quickly. I pray.

45:34 I ask God to help me. I try to use the various means at my disposal, but this stubborn pocket of remaining sin doesn't seem to go. And that can make a true believer faint-hearted. How do you encourage someone like me like that?

45:50 How does God encourage you? Well, then you take the things with which God has encouraged you and you pass it on to others. In the language of Psalm 50, Messiah says that God has given to me the tongue of one that is taught. He wakeneth mine ear morning by morning.

46:12 Messiah says, I speak with grace and wisdom because I am first of all taught grace and wisdom in my personal life. I speak in personal dealings with my Heavenly Father. He hath given me the tongue of one that is first of all taught. He wakes my ear morning by morning.

46:32 And if we are not then being consistent in real, vigorous, devotional exercises, assimilating the Word of God to our own faint-hearted fits, we'll have nothing with which to encourage our faint-hearted brethren. Then we are to admonish the disorderly. Then we are to encourage the faint-hearted. And then we are to support the weak.

The Duty to Support the Weak: Understanding Chronic Weakness

47:06 Now here we'd have to do a little study on who are the weak. Are the weak in this passage, the weak in terms of Romans 14 and in 1 Corinthians 8, the weaker brother, those whose conscience is still not received, the full light of the gospel. The men of the academy had a go-around for several days on trying to identify the weak. And they came to the end of the week and still hadn't fully identified the weak.

47:34 At least that's my understanding from one of the students, Dr. Bob. Is that accurate? All right.

47:38 So this could open up a whole matter. But in the context, at least there does not seem to be any specific reference to the weaker brother in the area of what's called the adiaphora or things indifferent or Christian liberty. But most likely it refers to those that Bunyan captured in his pilgrim's progress. He saw certain people as a pastor who all along their pilgrim journey never really advanced to a new level of spiritual vigor.

48:11 One of them never lost his crutches till he got to the river. And when he went into the river he lost his crutches. He was weak and ready to halt. It was Mr. Ready to Halt who had his crutches.

48:25 All the way till he got to the river. You see, Bunyan was a very realistic pastor. You'd love to see people as Jeff and our other physical therapists. It's a wonderful day when in physical therapy you can throw away the crutches, take off the sling, take away the support, get the cast cut and start the other therapy.

48:46 But there are some of God's people that go to heaven with their crutches. And what do they need? They need to be supported until they get there. You don't go and kick their crutches.

48:56 It's about time you walk in on your own. Then they go down the heap and they make no progress. At least Mr. Ready to Halt didn't halt.

49:05 He got to the river. Crutches and all.

49:09 And I think of some of you that I've known for decades.

49:14 And in my mind I minister to you as a mister or a miss or a missus ready to halt. And my prayer is Lord just help us to get them to the river with their crutches. But the joy is you're still heading to the celestial city. You haven't said I'm so tired of walking on crutches.

49:39 Nothing's real. Nothing works. Fooey on it all. You've not been a mister facing both ways.

49:46 It was turned back and going back away from the celestial city. Paul seems to indicate in this passage that he knew there would be certain people he didn't say make the weak into the strong. He said simply help hold them up. Be their crutches.

50:03 They're going to need crutches all the way until they get to the river. Be a holy crutch. Now do you want that ministry? It can get wearisome.

50:13 These kind of people you see the crutch doesn't change in its shape or anything. May have to shorten it a little bit as they get old. I think it's it's a crutch. A crutch is a crutch's crutch.

50:23 And you've got to keep telling them the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Why? Because a crutch is a crutch is a crutch. So be a crutch.

50:41 Support the weak until they cross over. Now what's that? Oh boy. Time's gone.

50:49 Better stop. What's that going to demand? Obviously it's going to demand love. It's going to demand the love that bears all things.

50:59 The love that is patient. The love that is kind. The love that suffers long. It ain't no fun being a crutch.

51:08 Because a crutch is a crutch is a crutch. You'd like to go on to something else more exotic than a crutch. But you've got to support the weak. So it demands love.

51:17 It demands discernment. To know if indeed this is a chronic weakness that ought to be supported or whether it's a chronic weakness that has become a form of self-indulgence and is disorderliness and needs to be recovered. Truth. Which is which?

51:32 You need discernment.

Conclusion: A Call to Action and Prayer for Mutual Ministry

51:35 You need a knowledge of the word of God. Well you see what you got yourself into? I didn't preach the sermon this morning. I just asked you to do a homework assignment and come up with passages that lay upon you, God's people, your ministry one to another.

51:52 And if you sit here and say that's not my task, after the light of this passage this morning you are being willfully blind and stubborn stubbornly rebellious to the will of God.

52:06 We exhort you brethren admonish the disorderly encourage the faint-hearted support the weak. Well let's pray and ask God to help us even today not wait till tomorrow but even today in our interactions one with another God will help us to implement this directive of his word. Let us pray.

52:38 Father how thankful we are for your presence with us this morning as we have earnestly prayed that you would superintend whatever text would be brought forward by your people pointing us to those ministries we are to have one to another. We thank you that you have led us to this text. We thank you for the light you have given us from your word but oh Lord our consciences have felt the pressure of that light and we now pray that we will not grieve the spirit by rationalizing but that whatever we must do to get our own act together so that we can with clout and with a good conscience admonish the disorderly help us to deal with our own patterns of disorderliness give us renewed moral discernment and moral courage then grant us grace grace grace oh father to be so filled with the word that we will encourage those who are faint hearted and then teach us how to be holy crutches to the weak that we may support one another in our weaknesses seal your word and receive our thanks in Jesus name Amen