Reduction of Elders: What Might God be Saying? Part 6

Review: Interpreting God's Providence and the Call to Ministry

0:01 The following message was delivered on February 21st, 1993, in the adult Sunday school class of the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now, I do welcome among us those who may be visiting. My eyes have not yet caught the face of one that I could designate as a visitor, but almost invariably we have such, whether few or more. And when I'm visiting somewhere, I like it when the teacher at least lets me know what's been going on, so that I catch on to the flow of the class before halfway or two-thirds of the way through that class. So let me take just a few minutes to review what we are doing, why we are doing, and basically for how long we will be doing it.

0:50 When Pastor Lamar Martin had started a series of studies in the book of 1 John, he was temporarily laid aside with triple bypass surgery, and as we rested, he wrestled with what to do during this interim period in the adult class. It was judged that it would be good to take this time to wrestle together as a congregation with the very practical question, what may God be saying to Trinity Baptist Church through the providential attrition in our eldership? And you, as the Lord's people, came forward with eight specific things, with respect to what we are doing,

1:32 with respect to this matter of what God may be saying to us, all of which fit within what I have called the triangle of seeking to interpret God's providence according to the scriptures. When we turn to the scriptures, ask the question, do we have any right to seek to understand what God may be saying to us in his providence? The scriptures do give us an answer to that question by setting before us, what I have called this triangle of interpreting or seeking to interpret God's providence. Truth number one, everything that comes to pass in our individual or corporate history

2:16 is but the outworking of God's decree or purpose. He, according to Ephesians 1.11, works all things after the counsel of his own will. But then secondly, the scriptures teach us that God alone, both comprehensively and infallibly, understands purposes in any specific act of providence.

2:42 For known unto God are all his works from the beginning to the end, and the secret things belong unto the Lord, but only the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children. And then thirdly, the scripture teaches us that as the people of God, we are responsible prayerfully and humbly, to seek to understand what God may be saying to us in his providence. And as I've reflected on that, there are many portions that indicate that even the unconverted are also to seek humbly and prayerfully to discern the voice of God in providence. For again and again, God pronounces intensified judgments upon men

3:25 because they are hardened through providences that should have softened them. When God sends natural calamities, to get men's attention and they will not listen in spite of blasting and famine and earthquakes. God holds men accountable for their refusal to listen to his voice in this providence. And then as I was prayerfully preparing for today, I said you know that a triangle lacks something, a big granite base.

3:59 And that's the 4th great principle. Whenever we come to deal with the subject of providence, And I do now see the basis of some visitors, and we do welcome you. And that is that while we are prayerfully and humbly seeking to assess from the scriptures the providence of God, we are always to hold tenaciously to our present path of revealed duty.

4:29 And that's a vital principle. And I don't know how I missed it, but that's one of the benefits of taking your stuff seriously enough to go back even over your reviews and ponder and pray and reflect. We are never, never to suspend our presently revealed duty in order to go off into some kind of a contemplation mode and suspend present obedience while we seek light on God's providence. If any light is to be given with respect to God's past dealings, it will come in the pathway of present.

5:07 Obedience. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, Jesus said, I will manifest myself to him. And so please, those of you who have taken notes, add that granite block underneath the triangle. Now, before I'm done in another two weeks, it may be that we'll find there's another piece in the puzzle as well.

5:28 Well, as we've approached that question, what may God be saying to us in the light of these biblical principles? Say, you came up with eight things, and that list was not exhausted. There were others that some of you mentioned to me privately and others that I had listed, but we've parked on the eighth, and we've considered all of them in terms of a call from God to this, that, and the other, and the eighth was this. Could it be that this attrition in our eldership is a call to Trinity Church to be more actively involved in ministry, one to another, and more aggressive in reaching our own Jerusalem

Equipping Saints for Works of Service: Categories of Mutual Ministry

6:13 in terms of evangelistic endeavor? And in addressing this particular aspect of truth, we have focused our attention upon Ephesians 4 and verse 7, and then more particularly upon verses 11 and 12. And we have seen in our study of that passage that the purpose for which we are addressing this passage is to focus our attention on what God gives those with special ministering gifts, particularly pastors and teachers, is for the equipping of the saints unto service work, the equipping of the saints unto ministry.

6:54 And could it be that as God has thinned the ranks of our elders, He's seeking to get our attention as a church, saying to us, what have you been doing with the eldership? What have you had? Has the purpose for which I have given them to you been as fully realized as it ought been to equip you unto works of service, not to negate your responsibility to perform works of service? So then you were given another assignment, and that was to go to the Scriptures and to come up with clear directives from the Scriptures,

7:39 with reference to those works of service, those ministries which the body is to perform to itself, not necessarily every member to all the body, all the time, in some cases some of the members to all the body, in some cases all of the members to all of the body, in some cases all to some, some to a few. But we have considered four, such categories of works of service for which a solid, responsible, past-teacher ministry ought,

8:25 Thessalonians 5.14, the four imperatives pointing to verbal, practical, and attitudinal help one to another. The brethren are to admonish the disorderly, they are to encourage the faint-hearted to support the weak, and to be long-suffering, to all. The second, Hebrews 3, 12 to 14, and the parallel passages in chapter 10, 24 and 25, and 1 Thessalonians 4, 18, and we described it as focused of exhortation and encouragement

9:04 of each other. And in my Old Testament reading in the book of Job this past week, with how Job brings this forward, one of the marks of his integrity as a true child of God, and one who was not a hypocrite, as his so-called friends were accusing him of being. He says, friends were reversed. Job 16, 5, strengthen you with my mouth, of my lips

9:42 would assuage your grief. Isn't that a beautiful picture? He said, you were in my condition, drawn near as your brother and friend, and this of my lips assuage.

10:10 Pastors and teachers are given to the end that we, God may be equipped, material, diaconal, assist one to another. Romans 12, 13a, distributing to the necessity of the saints, 1 John 3, 16 to 18, Matthew 25, 31 to 46, and Hebrews 6, 10. And then we concluded the class, by seeing a form of ministry, which we, the people of God, the ministry of pastors and teachers,

10:52 is blessed ministry, to be performed among us. Practical, instructional input, one time that you ought. Hebrews says, it is two, four, and five older women, teaching, instructing, bringing to sobriety of thought, would be a better rendering of the verb, the younger, back to their God-given responsibilities, and then possibly, someone brought forward Colossians 3, 17, there is both

11:35 a textual and translational problem. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, and as I said last week, I would love to be able to draw out of you, further things that you've discovered in the word of God, but I have only two more sessions before Pastor Lamar starts up again, with our studies in 1 John, and so of necessity, I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to,

12:05 press on and complete, at least three more, that evangelism, and our responsibility to our own Jerusalem. So in addition to these ministries, which the word of God says, we as a body of the

The Ministry of Reproving and Forgiving: Matthew 18

12:29 people of God, one, to carefully, be chosen, every one of the other ministers and teachers, the

13:19 ministry of, I'm sure, leap to the minds of many of you, will not give a detailed exegesis of them,

13:44 them briefly. First of all, Matthew 18. In one of the two passages in which the doctrine of the church is explicit, say, one of the two places where the church is referred to, the church,

14:23 Matthew 18, the church he is purchasing with his own blood, and that he will found and establish his own almighty power through the ministry of the apostles. He views it very realistically,

14:46 for he says in Matthew 18, 15, sin again, forgive me, and others, you're digging your heels in and

15:23 say, here we go again, more emphasis on sin. Now, which was your response? Seriously, sin against and graciousness to go him his fault between thee and knowledge of his personal offense against you

16:04 is to go no further than is absolutely necessary to deal right. There's a clear between thee, thee. You're going with a gracious disposition because if he hears thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Your view was not to go and beat up on him and unload on him and walk away and leave him bleeding.

16:44 It was to gain him. This sin has caused a breached and open-faced true fellowship. Assumes that in his church, true fellowship is not a sham thing. It's real. It's a fellowship

16:57 of walking in the light. It's a fellowship of walking in a cleansed relationship before God. And true spirit wrought amicableness one to another. And so you go and seek to show him his fault to gain him. But if he hear thee not, he will not acknowledge his sin. The Lord says there

17:20 will be some in his church who will go through perhaps a temporary period of pride or stubbornness or dullness or hardness of conscience. Take with you one or two more. Why take to one or two more? Because of the sin. Because of the sin. Because of the sin. Because of the sin. Because of the sin. Because of the sin.

17:34 The principle that at the mouth of two witnesses or three, every word may be established. The education is whatever the matter is. Fair-minded people could listen and be persuaded that indeed you have been wronged. Your call to repentance is a valid one. It has been given

17:52 in the spirit of graciousness. Everything is established. Hopefully then, as they chime in and say, look, our brother is not being a nitpicker. It's clear that if these are the facts, you have wronged him.

18:04 Brother, we call you to repent. Go to Christ and seek his forgiveness. Make this thing right with your brother. Let's not allow this thing to go any further for your sake, for his sake, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of his church. Let's deal with it. But our Lord envisions that some will be

18:22 hard-hearted. Either again, a temporary hard-heartedness or the emerging manifestation of an apostate heart. If he refused to hear them,

18:34 the church, now the whole congregation must be gathered. The sin must be laid out and the witnesses must say, yes, we went with brother so-and-so and it was clear that these are the facts. And the church is called upon to appeal to the man, to call upon him. There may be a period of temporary suspension and public censure, but if he does not hear the church, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. What is this but a gracious

19:02 principled reproach? Proving of another's sin or offense. And you see, the problem with this passage is not that it's obscure. It's so plain. It's so clear. The problem is our moral cowardice, our native tendency to

19:24 want to get even by telling others rather than by going to the one who has offended us. And we thereby sin against Christ. We grieve. And we are not manifesting the purpose for which God gives us pastors and teachers. It is to

19:44 perfect us, to equip us, to bring us to maturity where native fear and native timidity and the desire to harm are more and more put to death. And in its place, there is a principled commitment to the ongoing holiness of our brothers and sisters and the ongoing purity of our faith. To the honor of Christ. That's why God gives us pastors and teachers. So that we come to the maturity

20:13 where this is being carried on without the elders even knowing about it. And for everything they become aware of, there ought to be a dozen that they never know a thing about. Isn't the passage clear? And if we're not coming to maturity so that we're doing this more and more, then either we who are your pastors and teachers are failing or you're failing. Believe me, we're failing. We're failing.

The Seriousness of Stumbling Blocks and the Command to Rebuke (Luke 17)

20:38 believingly to appropriate the truth that we're teaching one or the other for he gives pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto this work of ministry and service several other passages that i'll simply read with very little comment this is the pivotal one look mark i'm sorry luke chapter 17 luke chapter 17 and here again we see our lord the realist and he said unto his disciples it is impossible but that occasions of stumbling should come

21:15 the world being what it is the devil being who he is human nature being what it is it is impossible but that occasions of stumbling and in the context that means falling into sin should come so the lord is not all upset and shocked and and unstrung when he sees sin he's grieved he's morally enraged but he's not shocked but he says woe unto him through whom they come there is moral accountability for everyone who is the occasion of the sin of another it were well for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he was thrown into the sea rather than that he should

21:57 cause one of these little ones to stumble this is the meek mild jesus using grotesque we'd say almost sadistic imagery he said it be better than the great large millstone that had the large pole attached to it and the ox with the blinders turns to grind the meal not the little millstone that mama had at home where she ground up a meal enough of the meal for today's supper but the kind the commercial man would use he said it were better that the great millstone were on his neck jesus talking about a mafia style

22:37 rub out folks sink the feet in concrete and throw them in lake michigan i didn't write it folks jesus said it is that your jesus that's my jesus it's a jesus of the bible it is so serious then he says take heed to yourself here's the generic warning now he gets specific take heed to yourselves if your brother sinned pray about it no it says rebuke him rebuke him if he sinned

23:16 rebuke him if he does that which is clear before the court of any mind and judgment influenced by the word of god if he's sinned not if he simply doesn't look at you quite the right way and you read into his look that he's mad at you that's not sin that's your own moral sickness in your head where you're ready to attribute sin to everyone that doesn't look at you quite right and everyone that doesn't frame his hello with the right melody if it's a flat hello dissenting if it's a hello dissing it has to have the right melody

23:58 some of you are ready to attribute sin to people if their hello doesn't have the right melodic line if it goes this way or this way sinning against me now get over that self-centered nonsense you know baxter had that way back in the sixteen hundreds my little baxter's directory i was reading baxter on the art and ministry of sin reproving one another listen to what baxter said way back in the sixteen hundreds be sure you reprove not that as a sin which is no sin either by mistaking the law or the fact to make duties and sins of our own opinions and inventions and then to lay out our zeal on these

24:41 and censure or reprove all that think not as hardly of such things as we do this is to make ourselves the object of the hearer's pity and not to exercise just pity toward others. Such reproofs deserve reproof, for they discover great ignorance and pride and self-conceitedness and very much harden sinners in their way and make them think that all reproof is but the vanity of fantastical hypocrites. In some cases, with a child or servant or private friend or for prevention, we may speak of faults upon hearsay or suspicion, but it must be a thing

25:22 certain and as a warning rather than a reproof. In ordinary reproof, you must understand the case before you speak. It is a shame to say after, oh, I thought it had been otherwise. Such an erroneous reproof is worse than none at all. Then he says, choose not the smallest sins to reprove nor the

25:44 smallest duties to exhort them to, for that will make them think that all your zeal is taken up with little matters and there's no great necessity. of regarding you and conscience will be but little moved by your speech when greater things will greatly and more easily affect man. You know, it's an interesting thing. Many a time, I've poured my spiritual guts out in this pulpit and in the midst of the obsession of mind with what you're doing, I might mispronounce a word, make a grammatical slip, and do you know that on many occasions, I've had notes,

26:26 phone calls, with not one word to encourage me, that I've poured my heart out and fed people the word of God. All I got was an account of my verbal slip. Now, I've been man enough never to respond in anger because people know I welcome correction, but dear people, in many things, we offend all. If I slip into a verbal pattern and a constant mispronunciation of a word, a constant grammatical mistake, please come and tell me, because you know I am committed to trying to speak proper grammar.

27:10 But you want a knife in your gut? Labor for hours in the study. Labor over the word out in preaching and have somebody nitpick about a slip of the tongue without one word of encouragement.

27:28 It makes you want to totally disregard anything they ever have to say to you. So I'll tell on myself and say, Baxter, he knew what he's talking about. Hmm? See, one of the luxuries of this class, we can speak very frankly, this is a family climate.

Gracious, Principled Restoration and the Value of Wise Reproof (Galatians 6 & Proverbs)

27:50 Dear people, we need to cultivate gracious, principled, reproving, forgiving, and restoring one another in the light of evidence, sin, or offense. Galatians 6.1, Galatians 6.1, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fall, if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ah, it's a trespass, not a trespass of your own sovereign standards of what is right and wrong, but a trespass of God's word and God's law and God's

28:34 precepts. If a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, and that doesn't mean a special class of people. As I understand the text, it means you who are indwelt by the spirit, and that is all the people of God. And who, at any given point, are not knowingly grieving or quenching the spirit. You who are spiritual,

28:55 restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted. That's why I use the term a gracious, principled, restoring of one another in the light of evidence, sin, or offense. And then I read three texts out of Proverbs before I leave this heading. 25 and verse 12, as an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, that is, an earring

29:39 of gold is an ornament upon a woman's face, and there it could even be a nose ring in that culture, and an ornament of fine gold that causes a person's outfit to be all the more attractive. So is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. If a woman's going to be adorned with an attractive nose ring or earring, she's got to have a pierced nose or a pierced ear to receive it, and then she's got to have a worthy ornament to go into the pierced nose or the pierced ear.

30:17 There's the picture Solomon gives. If we have an obedient ear, that's an ear that's pierced through from native property. If we have an obedient ear, that's an ear that's pierced through from native property. Who are you to point out my sin? You've got sins too. Who are you to get into my life? Who are you

30:32 to get into my face? Well, you're my brother who wants me to get to heaven safely. That's who you are. And a wise reprover and an obedient ear are a beautiful combination. The obedient ear is joined

30:48 to the man who says, I want to get to heaven, and I want anything that's going to impede me in my journey if I'm blind to it and my brother sees it. I want him to believe me. I want him to believe me. I want him to point out that pothole in the road on which I'm traveling. I want him to point out that I'm very near a precipice that I'm not seeing because I've got a crick in my neck and I'm only looking to the left and the precipice is on the right. Something's happened in my spiritual inner ear and my sense of balance is off and I think I'm standing upright and lo and behold, I'm toppling to the right and about to fall. I want a wise reprover who will graciously come and say, my brother, you may have a problem of spiritual

31:27 otitis media and your inner ear is not functioning right and I think your balance is out of whack. Do you perceive yourself to be standing upright perpendicular to the ground? He says, sure I am. He says, hey, let me put a level on you. And you bring the level of God's word and lo and behold, he's got a tilt worse than the

31:45 leaning tower of Pisa. And he says, brother, thank you for bringing the level of God's word and helping me to get straightened up. That's a wise reprover. I want a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. I wonder if it wouldn't hurt. We don't have pack a pew Sunday. We don't have bring a neighbor Sunday. But I wonder if we wouldn't have a Sunday. But we should ask people if they could with judgment day honesty, all to take a piece of stiff paper stiff enough to take a piece of yarn three inches by 12 inches long and to write on it an obedient ear and hang it around our neck and come to church.

32:30 Then we'd know who we could speak to and that the ear would not reject the gold earring of wise reproof. Isn't that a beautiful text? If we're doing our job, folks, and if God's going to give us any more elders, what's he going to give them for? To stand up here and do all the exhorting and all the reproving? No! To equip you to be both wise reprovers and people with obedient ear.

33:04 And if our job is being done, you will become more and more the society of wise reprovers and obedient ears. Second text in Proverbs chapter 27, verses 5 and 6. Better, better is open rebuke than love that is hidden. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are profuse. Better is open rebuke than love that is hidden. You see what this does?

33:43 This cuts at the heart of the saying, well, I just love my brother so much I can't run the risk of hurting him. If I point out his fault, it may hurt him. No, no, no, no. What you mean is you love yourself too much to run the risk of rejection. Call the thing what it really is. You really don't love your brother too much that you're afraid you're going to hurt him. You love yourself too much to bear the possibility of rejection. Come on, get honest. Isn't that a problem?

34:14 The husband that sees a pattern in his wife. That he knows he's got to sit down and say, sweetheart, as the one responsible to nurture you and cherish you and dwell with you according to knowledge, I see a pattern in you that I believe is contrary to the word of God. But you won't do it. Why? Because you know in the past when you've done that, she's pouted. She's made life difficult. Her kisses have been very quick, very cold. And her glances, like steel. And she knows how to get you to shut your mouth.

34:47 She knows the right button. She knows how to push. And you're not man enough to take that for a day or two until God breaks her down. And she throws her arms around your neck and says, honey, I was a terrible witch. The Lord's dealt with me. He's forgiven. Thank you for loving me enough to reprove me. Thank you for loving me enough to put up with my stinky, rotten, nasty, icy looks for a day or two. I didn't read that out of books, folks. My wife's not here, so I'm not saying anything to embarrass her.

35:23 Better is open rebuke than love that is hidden. If we're doing our job and you're receiving the word as you ought, you will be equipped unto this ministry of open rebuke rather than self-love that keeps our mouths shut. When we ought wisely and graciously to rebuke one another, faithful are the wounds of a friend. And when a friend wounds me, he never wounds me to hurt me.

35:52 He wounds me to help me. He lances my boil to cut out the puss-axe that it might not spread infection through the whole of my spiritual system. But the kisses of an enemy are profuse. God help us if we're kissing one another with smiles and warm greetings when we ought to put a hand on the shoulder and say, brother, sister, can we slip off in the back room down into one of the Sunday school rooms?

36:21 There's a matter on my heart that concerns me. I'd like to speak to you about it. You sit down and you say, can we pray together? You ask God's help. And you say, now, brother, I may be all wet. And if so, I'd be delighted to have you tell me I'm dead wrong.

36:37 But this is what I perceive with my limited understanding. This is what concerns me. Is there any validity to my concern? Now, if that brother's so perverse as to deliberately deceive you, and we've had that happen.

36:51 There are times as elders we've been concerned. And we've seen. There have been patterns. And we've tried to track them down. And people have looked us straight in the eye and said, oh, no, that's just not true at all.

The Pastor's Commitment to Rebuking for Long-Term Favor

37:00 And we've taken the face value. And later on, God blew their cover and showed they were lying. They'll answer to God for that. But we'll not answer for having hidden love or for self-terminating love.

37:14 If we have gone with open rebuke, we have done our God-given task. Proverbs 28, 23 is the third text in Proverbs. He that rebukes a man shall afterward. Doesn't say what will happen immediately.

37:31 He that rebukes a man shall afterward find more favor than he that flattereth with the tongue. You see, one of the great problems in any generation, but particularly in the now generation, in the immediate gratification generation, is that we find it difficult to put things into the long-term perspective. This text says that if we are to be faithful. In the duty of gracious, principled, reproving, forgiving, and restoring one another in the light of evidence, sin, and offense, we've got to have the long-term perspective.

38:10 The long-term perspective tells us in Proverbs 28 and verse 23 that afterward more favor will come. And that's why any true pastor has got to live with that continually. I'm not so naive as to think that I'm everybody's fair-haired guy. And this is why I'm so naive as to think that I'm everybody's fair-haired guy.

38:29 In this place every Lord's Day, there's some Lord's Days when some of you are angry enough at me to kick me in the shins. If you could do it and be socially acceptable, you would. I know that. I'm not stupid. I wasn't born yesterday.

38:43 But I love you enough to get you mad enough to kick me in the shins if that'll help you get to heaven. Because afterwards I know you're going to come to me. You're going to fill up the files that I've kept over the years. I don't read them. I figure someday in an old folks' home I'll pull out the files.

38:57 But to fill them up with the notes. Of thanks. But not only notes of thanks. Saying, Pastor, I must confess to you I was mad as a devil at you.

39:07 Because you pinched my raw nerve of a sin. And I didn't like it.

39:14 And God showed me it was my own stinking pride. And you loved me enough to deal with my sin. Thank you. And afterwards, I'm back in their good graces.

39:22 I know. I'd be very surprised if there's some of you sitting right here now. Nothing make you happier than to hear I need a triple bypass. And while I was under surgery, I went.

39:32 No, really. I'm not. I'm not going around paranoid. I'm not. I don't feel rejected.

39:37 But I know the human heart well enough that as long as pressure comes on your conscience about your sin in this place, there'll always be some that wish, when will that old guy retire and get a more comforting ministry? Get a more comfortable ministry. A more positive. Every Sunday, no matter what the theme or subject is, yes, you get Christ and you get the blood and you get forgiveness.

40:04 And you get the Holy Ghost. But you always got to have your sin dealt with. That's right, my friend. Because if you're going to heaven, you're going to have your sin dealt with all along the way.

40:14 And if you don't want that, then put yourself on the high road to hell and get out of this place and go to where people will stroke you into hell without disturbing you in the least. But as long as any of us have light and sense and biblical sanity, you're not going to be comfortable in your sins. I'm serving your notice. You say, my, you're pugnacious this morning.

40:37 No, just trying to be honest. I don't feel pugnacious. Not at all. But I believe what this says.

40:47 He that rebukes a man shall afterward. I'm willing to wait till the final day to have you come as you stand with me in the presence of my blessed Savior. And have you hug me then and say, Pastor, thank you for all the times when you got under my hide and got on my case and I didn't like it. And you were willing to wait for the afterward.

The Church's Responsibility for Mutual Reproving and Forgiving

41:09 That's what your elders are committed to. But you see, we're committed under God to see you equipped to perform that ministry one to another because we're not ubiquitous. Despite of what some of you think, we don't have eyes in every place. And we don't have spies either, as it has been reported of us.

41:28 Paul said, and as certain things were reported of him, well, it is reported we elders have a network of spies.

41:37 Want to see the list?

41:41 What a stupid thing. We don't have a network of spies and we don't have eyes in every place. But you're the, the body of Christ. And one of the unusual things, every member of the body, though not an eye, has eyes.

41:53 And we are our brother's keeper. And better is open rebuke as we are more and more brought to maturity through the official ministry of pastors and teachers. We are to be equipped unto this work of service, gracious, principled, reproving, forgiving, restoring one another in the light of evidence, sin or offense. You say, Pastor, you used the word forgiving, but you didn't give us the text.

The Command to Forgive One Another (Ephesians 4 & Matthew 6)

42:20 Yes, I know that. That's my last text under this heading, Ephesians 4. And you say, you're not going to get to the other two. I know it, but that's all right.

42:31 We can get just one of these things worked into our spiritual, the fibers of our hearts, God helping us. What a difference it will make. Ephesians chapter four. You see, Paul assumes that when the elders are doing what they ought to do and they are teaching the whole counsel of God, seeking to shepherd the people of God, equipping the saints unto service work, that literal rendering of Ephesians 4.12,

42:59 he assumes there will be a climate in which the people of God will be owning their sins and seeking forgiveness from one another. So he reads, or we read in verse 31 of Ephesians 4, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and railing, that's sharp, abusive speech, be put away from you with all malice. Now notice, and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.

43:44 You see, Paul is assuming exactly what our Lord assumed when he gave us his model prayer. After this manner, therefore, pray ye, when ye pray, say, that's Luke's account and then Matthew's account, our Father who art in the heavens, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, amen. Then our Lord only amplifies on one of the petitions.

44:27 Remember which one it was? Verses 14 and 15 of Matthew 6. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you your trespasses. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.

44:47 Isn't it interesting? The one petition Jesus went back and commented upon, why do you think he did it? Because it is the one least native to our hearts.

44:58 And what a horrible commentary on the power of remaining sin that we, the creatures who are forgiven by the great exalted God of heaven, should find it difficult to forgive our fellow sinners.

45:14 That's why Paul says, forgive one another even as God in Christ forgave you. And I believe I can testify as a Christian that the two easiest things to do as a Christian are to own my sin and to forgive the sin of another.

45:36 The hard thing is not to repeat the sin.

45:41 People at times struggle coming saying, oh, then they finally get it out. Pastor, will you forgive me? I say, what? I don't even know what you're talking about.

45:49 I didn't even know that they'd done what they said they did. I said, well, if you said you did it and you did it with that motive, that was sin, but I wasn't aware of it. I wasn't conscious of it. I stand under the cross of Christ.

46:00 Of course I forgive. You mean that's all? Well, what more? What do you want me to do?

46:05 You want me to take my belt off and hit you a few times? You want me to give you some penance? What do you want? You mean you're just going to forgive?

46:11 I say, yes. You ask forgiveness? Yes. Well, how many times you got to ask God?

46:16 Well, if I confess my sins, he says I'm to forgive the same way. And it makes me wonder if they're shocked when I do that, what are they doing?

46:31 Are you shocked when someone freely, fully, unqualifiedly forgives you when you ask forgiveness? Why should you be? Why should you be shocked if that's what you're doing to your husband, to your wife, to your kids, to your parents?

46:47 And that's what we're to do one to another. We're to be a climate not only of gracious, principled, reproving, restoring members of the same body, but forgiving one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. And that's why any ministry that is biblical by your pastors and teachers that will continue to continually point us to the cross of Christ is the only refuge for sinners. The blood of Christ is the only hiding place for hell-deserving, guilty rebels, sons and daughters of Adam.

47:25 You see, if the preaching of the cross is meat and drink in the language of John 6, if we are living as Christians eating His flesh and drinking His blood, that is, we are living upon Christ crucified. Crucified. How can it be otherwise but that we will freely forgive one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us?

The Clarity of Scripture and the Necessity of Forgiveness

47:55 I say, hope to get to these sixth and seventh, but again, dear people, this is too crucial. Pass over it quickly. I've not just been running down rapid trails. We've been looking at pivotal text of Scripture and I want to take these remaining four minutes that I have, three minutes, and I want to ask you a couple of simple questions.

48:19 Are these texts that we've looked at as clear in their teaching as the Ten Commandments?

48:27 Are they?

48:30 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Is that clear?

48:35 Thou shalt not worship God in any other way than that which He has revealed. That's a summary of the second. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

48:48 Honor thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not kill, do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.

49:02 Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not cut it. Pretty clear, isn't it?

49:10 The implications are tremendous, expansive. Books can be filled with opening up the significance, but the pith, the nub of each of the commandments is clear. No one could go out of here and violate his master's marriage covenant and have sexual relations with another man or woman other than his legitimate husband or wife and say, well, God's commandment was not clear. What do you mean not clear?

49:36 Thou shalt not commit adultery. My friend, is it clear if thy brother sinned against thee, go tell him his fault between thee and him alone? That's just as clear. If a man be overtaken in a trespass, he that are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.

49:54 Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, giving one another, not hard-hearted, remembering past offenses, bringing up past offenses, nursing grudges. When I hear about a professing Christian talking about, well, I struggle with nursing grudges, I am shocked. How can you nurse a grudge?

50:20 You stand under the canopy of the cross of Christ, forgiven daily. How can you nurse a grudge and go to God?

50:29 You may be playing games, my friend. That's why Jesus said, he who does not forgive is not forgiven. That's the whole teaching of Matthew 18. Those passages do not teach that we are forgiven on legal grounds or we can lose our salvation.

50:43 They teach that the forgiven sinner who is truly forgiven is a forgiving man.

50:50 And if you're not a forgiving man or a forgiving woman, you are not a forgiven sinner.

50:56 You're kidding yourself. You're self-deluded. And if we really believe, dear people, that any sin indulges us, indulged in, willfully, perpetually, can damn us, then we can't afford the luxury of silence if we see one another sin. And if we really believe that as the body of Christ we are to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and when a brother sins against another, he severs that bond of peace by the offense, then as distasteful as it is, if our brother sins against us, we will rebuke him.

51:31 If he repents, we will forgive him. If our brother sins against us, we will go and tell him his fault between him and ourselves alone. And if he will not deal with it, we'll take two or three to establish the issue and we'll be prepared if necessary to press it to the highest court of the church. Why?

51:50 Not because we're nitpickers. It's because we're convinced we'll only get to heaven in the way of holiness. We're convinced the church must be glorious in holiness and must be glorious in its true, not its faked unity. For by this shall all men know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another, that love that rebukes rather than is hidden.

Call to Obedience and Prayer for More Elders

52:21 Open rebuke is better than secret love. Well, God willing, in the next session, we'll try to take up the other two things, the aggressive, reasonable, structured commitment to show hospitality one to another and to visitors, and then the maintenance of openness, honesty, and vulnerable transparency toward one another. But may the Lord lay upon our hearts a commitment to be obedient to what we have seen this morning. And dear people, if you're asking God, Lord, strengthen our eldership.

52:58 Oh, God, give us more elders. You see what you're asking God to do? Give us more men whose ministry, publicly and privately, will be calculated to equip us to this work of service of gracious, principled, reproving, forgiving, restoring one another in love. Now, if you don't want that, don't you dare pray for any more elders because he gives pastors and teachers to equip the saints unto this work of service.

53:32 If you're saying, I don't want that service. I want to come, sit, listen, go home, and be left alone. Then, my friend, you don't belong. You don't belong here because this place is not in business just to have people pour their guts out in the pulpit so you can go home and be left alone.

53:55 We're committed by the grace of God to seeing a biblical church in which pastors and teachers are used of God to perfect the saints unto service work.

54:09 That's what we're giving our lives for. Is that what you're committed to? Then let's pray on and labor on and bear with one another's faults and sins and seek by the grace of God to become more and more that which Christ died to make us. Let us pray.

Prayer of Confession and Commitment

54:30 Our Father, we thank you for your holy word. We bless you that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And, oh God, as we've considered this morning, this work of service so utterly absent in the majority of evangelical churches today and we confess oh Lord sinfully limited in our own assembly have mercy upon us. We've loved ourselves too much to run the risk of rejection by wise and gracious reproof.

55:09 Forgive us, Lord. We've been too quick to pick up the phone and speak to a third party about the sins of another. Forgive our sins committed with the phone at our ear and at our mouth. Lord, we have been too quick to forgive and to assume that another has sinned when in reality they simply have used an inflection that we did not like.

55:35 Deal with our judgmentalism. Deal, Lord, with our crass way of pointing out the faults of our brethren. Make us wise reproofers and give us all that pierced and obedient ear. Seal then your word to our hearts, we pray.

55:55 In Jesus' name. Amen.