Communication Among the People of God

Introduction and Preamble Prayer

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, February 26, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us again address our God in prayer.

0:28 Our Father, we do confess that we can think of no more appropriate prayer to utter in your presence as we stand on the threshold of this hour in which our minds will be brought into direct contact with your Holy Word than the prayer of young Samuel, Speak, Lord, for your servants here. Our Father, we would bring you our hearts and acknowledge that we desire that you will search them even to the darkest corners and that with the psalmist we cry, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

1:11 Try me and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. We pray that you will not only expose the dark, shadowy corners of our hearts, but, O Lord, shed fresh light upon the path of duty and then so work in our hearts that with the psalmist we may also exclaim, I will run in the way of your commandments when you shall enlarge my heart. We believe, O God, that many bowed in your presence in this moment have come not to play games, but to have dealings with you. People who desire to have their hearts

1:56 feel the impress of the word by the power of the Spirit and who sit with a disposition of determination to do whatever you will say. Speak, then, we pray, to such that they may leave encouraged and strengthened and instructed. And, our Father, for those in whose hearts there is no hope, there is resistance to your will, areas blocked off, areas walled off, areas where there is no desire for the light of the word to penetrate and for the will and the affections to be changed, O Lord, invade those walled-off areas by mighty power. Storm the walls this night.

2:39 Break down every barrier to your truth and carry every heart before your word. Hear us, O Lord, the mighty God of grace and power for the sake of your beloved Son. Amen. Now, we come this evening to the fourth and final message in this brief series of studies on the general theme of verbal communication.

Series Review and Sermon Scope

3:13 We do have not a few tonight who have not been with us for the previous studies and particularly for their sakes. Let me take just several minutes to give a brief synopsis of what we've covered. In our initial study, I set before you what I called a broad overview of the biblical doctrine of verbal communication and focusing our attention particularly in the opening chapters of Genesis, we saw that God himself is the model of what true godly communication is. God is the great verbal communicator.

3:52 And then in the last two studies, we have taken a look at the Bible and we have taken a look at the Bible and we have taken a look at the Bible and we have taken a look at the Bible and we have taken our Lord's words in Matthew 7, 12, commonly called the Golden Rule. As you would that others do unto you, even so do ye also unto them, for this is the law and the prophets. And having briefly expounded the text, we have applied it to this matter of verbal communication, particularly as communication is made up essentially of a speaking mouth and of a hearing ear. And so we applied the Golden Rule to the mouth that speaks two Lord's Day evenings ago and then last Lord's Day evening we applied the Golden Rule to the ear that hears.

4:34 Now in this, our closing study, we're going to concentrate our attention on what I have entitled some cardinal texts pertaining to verbal communication among the people of God. Now there are many aspects of the use of the tongue that I'm not touching upon in this present and present time. In brief series, some of you perhaps heard some years ago a series entitled The Bridal Tongue that's available in the Trinity pulpit tape library. God seems to have used that series of sermons in many places through the years and if you want some more extended general instruction on the whole subject of the use of the tongue,

5:18 I commend that series to you. But tonight, our field of concentration is narrow. We're going to look at the use of the tongue to look at some of the cardinal texts of Scripture which address themselves to verbal communication among the people of God. Texts in which the people of God as the people of God in general are addressed concerning how they use their tongues in their interaction one with another.

Three Foundational Realities Before the Precepts

5:49 Now almost all of these texts that we will consider tonight are couched in the text of the Bible. They are not just books. They are not just books. They are not just books.

5:55 They are not just books. in the imperative, that is, they are commands. Several of them are negative, in which we are commanded not to do certain things, and others are positive, in which we are commanded to do certain things. And so the bulk of the exposition will be an opening up of some divine precepts, some commandments of God.

6:20 And as we stand on the threshold of a message in which the bulk of the exposition will be taken up with precepts, with commands, we need to remind ourselves of three fundamental realities whenever we engage in such an exercise. First of all, we need to remind ourselves of the fact of the authority of Christ who gives the commands and demands that His Son, servants, teach and preach those commands. As we meet, we need to recognize afresh and bring into the level of, or up to the level of present consciousness,

7:03 that the authority of Christ stands behind these commands, and it is His authority which not only gives the commands themselves, but demands that His servants teach and preach the commands. And of course the text that brings all of that truth, the sharp focus, is Matthew 28, 18. All authority has been given unto me in heaven and upon earth, going therefore make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. And it's interesting that the teaching mandate, according to Matthew 28,

7:47 focuses upon the element that we're engaged in. Teaching them to observe what I have commanded. That is, engage in a teaching ministry that will be top-heavy in its ethical content. And behind that stands the one who said, all authority has been given unto me.

8:12 These are my commands, and I command my servants to teach them to my people. And then the second thing we need to remember, whenever we come to a message that deals primarily in precepts, we need to remind ourselves of this fact, namely, the believer's reflexive love to Christ, which motivates him to obey such commands. There is such a reality as the reflexive love to Christ, which motivates every true believer to obey the commands of his Lord. We love Him because, He first loved us.

8:54 Our love to Christ is the fruit of the believing, appreciative reception of His love to us. But, whenever there has been a believing reception of His redemptive love to us, there will inevitably follow this reflexive love to Christ. And how does that love express itself? Jesus tells us, John 14, 21, Jesus tells us, John 14, 21, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.

9:29 You measure your love to Christ supremely by this test. Do I receive unto practical obedience His precepts? You don't measure your love to Christ by whether or not you get goose bumps when you're in a congregation like this one tonight, and you hear this glorious singing and get all tingles and thrills and goose flesh, and you say, oh, I must love Christ. No, no, here's the test.

9:54 He that hath my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. The real test of your love to Christ is not what you felt in the singing, but it's what you do with the preaching tonight. That's the real test. He that loveth me not may have goose bumps when he hears my praises sung, but he does not keep my word, Jesus said.

10:16 So we need to remind ourselves of this great reality, the believer's reflexive love to Christ, which motivates him to obey these commandments. And then thirdly, we need to remind ourselves of this great reality, the divine provisions of God in Christ by which believers are enabled to obey His commands. The divine provisions of God in Christ by which believers are enabled to obey. I can do all things through Him who strengthens even me.

10:52 Philippians 4, 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Yes, Philippians 2, 12, 4. It is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

11:07 Now let's seek to come to these cardinal texts pertaining to verbal communication, almost all of them imperatives, commands, not to do this and to do that in the spirit of those three great realities. The authority of Christ that stands behind the precepts, the reflexive love to Christ which causes our hearts to reach out towards the precepts, and the mighty power of God in Christ by which we are enabled to keep His precepts. All right, what I've done is basically to categorize the text

Overview of the Sermon's Structure

11:47 under the two basic categories of the cardinal negative injunctions, and then secondly the cardinal positive injunctions, and then thirdly some concluding perspectives on these verses. First of all then, the cardinal negative injunctions. What does God say to us, His people, with regard to our verbal communication one with another that is cast in a negative form? Turn please to James chapter 4 for the first of these cardinal texts.

First Cardinal Negative: Do Not Slander One Another (James 4:11-12)

12:24 James chapter 4. As you know, James has much to say about the use of the tongue, particularly in the third chapter. He says something in the first chapter as well. But now here in the fourth chapter the word is very clear.

12:40 James 4, 11 and 12. Speak not one against another, brethren. Here is an exhortation, a command couched in the negative form. Do not speak against one another, brethren.

12:58 He that speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. One only is the lawgiver and judge, even he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that judges your neighbor?

13:22 Here we are commanded in the plainest words, do not speak one against another. And as Lenski has suggested, probably the best idiom by which to reflect this in current Americanese is, don't run one another down. To speak against one another is to run down one brother or sister in the ears of another brother or sister. And the great motivation that James sets before us in buttressing this command is, when you engage in running down a brother or a sister by speaking evil of them,

14:06 you have left your place as a creature and you've usurped the prerogatives of God. You've ceased to be a lawkeeper and you now have become a judge of the law. You have, as it were, in principle pushed God off his throne, and set yourself up as that person's judge. That's the terrible arrogance of running down a fellow believer, usurping the rights of the God, the God who is the master before whom each servant stands or falls.

14:41 Now how easy it is to speak against one another. What is there in our remaining sin that acts in such a perverse way that we hardly need to think, and before we know it, we are magnifying the faults of our brothers and sisters in the ears of another brother or sister. No good comes from it, there is nothing constructive that comes from it, and many times we are not even put in a better light because of it. It's understandable, albeit perverse, when we speak evil of another in order to make what we say or do about the other the very platform upon which we raise ourselves.

15:25 At least there's something rational, wickedly rational, but rational nonetheless. But so often, when we speak against a brother or sister, there's no explanation except the perversity of the human heart that finds a channel in our tongues. And what would happen in any congregation where every person united to Jesus Christ made conscience of this text? Do not speak one against another.

15:56 Every time I speak against my brother or sister in the ears of another brother or sister, I am usurping the place that belongs only to God. And we need to load our consciences with that command. Now, the second cardinal negative injunction is found in Colossians 3.9, Colossians chapter 3, and verse 9.

Second Cardinal Negative: Do Not Lie One to Another (Colossians 3:9 / Ephesians 4:25)

16:24 The Lord Jesus, speaking through his inspired apostle Paul, in the plenitude of his authority, says to us, his people, Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings. And then the parallel passage, which is stated in a more positive vein, is Ephesians 4.24, Ephesians 4.25, Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor.

17:00 Put away falsehood. Speak truth. Both are couched in the positive, though one is a putting away and the other is to speak truth. But here in Colossians, we are commanded in the simplest language, Do not lie one to another.

17:16 Here's an injunction concerning verbal communication amongst the people of God. Don't lie one to another. Don't deliberately, knowingly, falsely represent reality. That's what lying is.

17:31 Under no circumstances are we to lie to one another. Now the text does not say that under all circumstances I am always under obligation to tell everything I know simply because someone asks me. It is perfectly proper in certain situations to say it is neither right nor judicious for me to answer your question. It is not at this time appropriate for me to make you privy to a certain body of knowledge.

18:01 But falsely to represent reality, to know that a certain set of facts represents reality, and deliberately to twist that, either by not speaking forth that reality or speaking forth certain parts of it while saying that I am conveying the whole and thereby conveying an entirely erroneous conception of what that issue is, I am violating this injunction to lie not one to another. And what reason does Paul give? He says, seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds. One of the outstanding characteristics

18:46 of unregenerate man is his lying. His mouth is full of deceit, the scripture says. They go astray from the wounds people lie. And surely you can relate to this living in our generation.

19:03 When truth falls from a society, the glue that holds communication together as a meaningful exchange is gone. Each man who is a liar doesn't trust what the other man says because he assumes he is like himself. And he will lie for advantage so he assumes this man will lie. He will look a man straight in the eye and say this is a fair price when he knows it isn't, but he knows the other guy will do it to him.

19:30 So there is suspicion. And the mark of the old man and the old humanity is the suspicion, the lack of trust that grows out of the lack of speaking truth. But Paul says in the new humanity, amongst those who have put off the old man with his doings, truth ought to mark all of their verbal exchanges with each other. As the new humanity, we can only walk in trust as we walk in the realm of truth.

20:02 This is what Jesus meant when he said you shouldn't have to take an oath and swear that what you say is true by the temple and by heaven and by the angels. Let your yes be a no. Let your no be a no. Would you like to come over to my house for supper?

20:19 No. Not oh yes, but, and then you lie and think up some reason, quotation marks, because you're afraid you'll hurt the person if you say no, I really wouldn't like to spend an evening in your home. You've got a bunch of little unruly brats and I think I'd leave the home after three hours pulling my hair out. Now when you say no, you may not have to tell them all the reasons.

20:41 But if they say, would you like to come to my house? You've got to be honest. And say no, really I don't think I'd like to. I appreciate the invitation.

20:54 Now if they say, why not? Now at that point you'll be tempted to lie. And think up something, oh well I have a previous apartment. No, that's not the truth.

21:08 LIE NOW! Even on a little thing like a social engagement and why you can't accept it. And you say, well my brother, my sister, do you really want me to tell you why? Well yes.

21:19 Some of the things may not be very pleasant to hear. Do you still want me to tell you? Yes. Well do you have a half hour at least so we can sit down and talk?

21:28 I mean make sure they're telling you to aim the gun and pull the trigger before you do it.

21:35 Then when the bullets come in, say you asked for it. You see the point? Lie not one to another. Because once you've discovered that even in such a thing as what people call little white lies, those distinctions men make, God doesn't.

21:48 Once you discover that someone has lied to you, it shatters all trust and communication utterly breaks. And what an oasis the new humanity should be in a society full of distrust. Because of lying as a way of life. What a reality.

22:08 What a refreshing thing it should be to step amongst our brothers and sisters and know that their yes is yes and their no is no. And they are refusing to speak anything but truth. Oh may God grant that that will increasingly mark us as the people of God. Don't speak against one another.

Third Cardinal Negative: No Abusive or Corrupt Speech (Colossians 3:8 / Ephesians 4:29 / 5:4)

22:30 Don't run one another down. Don't lie one to another. But then there's a third cardinal injunction cast in the negative form. Colossians 3.8.

22:40 Just look up a verse. Colossians 3.8. But now, do you also put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth?

22:53 Put away. Don't indulge in this kind of speech. And anger, wrath and malice are probably pointing in the direction of dispositions of the heart, though they often find expression in the activity of communication. But railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth.

23:16 Railing is abusive speech. Shameful speaking. It's a difficult Greek word to translate. Some suggest it should be translated as obscene or unclean speaking out of your mouth.

23:30 It probably points in that direction of speech that is tinged with double innuendo, that does not reflect the highest standards of purity. He says you are to put these things away. Now combine Colossians 3.8 with two verses in Ephesians.

23:49 Ephesians 4.29. Let no corrupt speech, no putrid speech, proceed out of your mouth. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth.

24:08 And then Ephesians 5.4. Nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting which are not befitting. And in the context, he goes on to say, for know this of a surety, no fornicator, nor unclean person.

24:28 And it would appear that the kind of speech again that he's talking about enters into that realm that is common fare in our generation. One cannot even turn on a so-called educational talk show without hearing filth poured out. Nor filthiness, nor foolish talking or jesting which are not befitting. Now when we put Ephesians 4.29.5.4

24:55 with Colossians 3.8, what do we have? Here we have a mandate to put away in our interaction with one another all abusive, obscene, corrupting, and unbecoming speech. Now you see, Paul was a great realist, wasn't he?

25:12 He was writing to the saints. He was writing to those there at Ephesus whom he describes as chosen in Christ, redeemed and accepted in the Beloved, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. In Colossians, he's writing in that very chapter to those who have been crucified with Christ, who have been raised with Him, are seated with Him, and yet to such people he needs to say, put away all abusive, obscene, corrupting, and unbecoming speech. Thank God for the realism of the Word of God.

25:47 May I suggest that it's been my pastoral observation, though you can't make hard, fast categories, that when men get together, perhaps their greatest temptation, even Christian men, is to drift into speech that at least borders on the obscene and often is unbecoming speech. It is not speech that is convenient, speech that reflects a conscious awareness that every word I speak is spoken in the ears of God. So that even when I'm with a group of my friends, and they are all men, and when it might be proper in that context to use speech

26:31 a little less than elegant, when in a wholesome, masculine way it may be proper to use a bit more earthiness in our speech, we must never get even near that which could be called obscene or unbecoming speech. Though men can be guilty as well as women of abusive and corrupting speech, I would say probably it's more their temptation. I'm talking about Christian women now. I know in the world the foulest mouths, it seems now, are found amongst women.

27:05 The past couple of years have utterly shocked me to hear the language coming out of women. But amongst Christian women, the temptation perhaps is more in the direction of abusive and corrupting speech, speech that has no wholesome influence. When people imbibe it, it does not feed them and edify, but has a corrupting and negative effect upon them. Well, the Word of God is clear.

27:36 We are not to indulge in this kind of speech. Why? Because we are members to one of another. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

27:44 We have put off the old man. In other words, such speech is a contradiction of all that God in grace has made us. The great pressure of these passages upon our consciences should be this. Our speech either affirms the reality of what God in Christ has made us or denies it.

28:05 Has He made us new men? Well, what's a new man without a new tongue? And a tongue that was once dishonest and spoke corrupt things and obscene things, a tongue that once was marked by railing and abusive speech, if that's the tongue of a new man, it ought to be a new tongue. It puts away all such speech.

28:29 So we bring the three negatives together and what does God say to us, His people, in our verbal communication one to another? Don't speak one against another. Don't run one another down. Do not lie one to another.

28:46 Don't ever knowingly, deliberately deceive one another. And then that last grouping, don't ever make each other's ears the receptacles of that which will corrupt after we have spoken it. Happy is the people of God who take these simple injunctions seriously. Lay them to heart.

29:12 Happy the elders who have the privilege of shepherding a flock of God's people who take those cardinal negative injunctions seriously. Take them seriously and lay them to heart. Well, we must hasten on now and look at three of the cardinal positive injunctions. Nothing profound, just reading the text, making a few comments, trying to bring their cumulative weight upon the conscience of this congregation.

Transition to the Positive Injunctions

29:43 Here are the positive injunctions. And God talks about our verbal communication with one another in both ways. He gives us negatives. He gives us positives.

First Cardinal Positive: Edify One Another With Words (Colossians 3:16 / Ephesians 4:29)

29:52 The first positive is we are to edify or build one another up with words. Look at Colossians 3 and verse 16. Now remember, this is not written to pastors, to elders, to public teachers. This is written to all of the people of God.

30:11 Colossians 3, notice verse 15. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to the which also you were called in one body. He's thinking of the church as one body. And be thankful.

30:25 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. In all wisdom, teaching one another. In other words, though Christ has, according to Ephesians 4, set in the church pastors and teachers with a distinct function, having endowed them with distinct and special gifts, it is not only by the words of pastor teachers in their public and private ministry that the church is edified, but according to Colossians 3, it's as that word which they teach formally and publicly

31:09 in a more structured way, so richly suffuses our hearts that we teach one another. And the word of God so lives in us that it leaks out in our interaction with one another. And as that word in its public, formal, more authoritative administration comes to us unto edification, so it comes in this more informal interaction of the people of God. What a wonderful thing when Christians think, think when they get together, how can I judiciously, without seeming to put on airs of being super pious, how can I judiciously and naturally share with my brother, share with my sister

31:52 what God's been teaching me out of His own word, as that word has come to me in the crucible of my own struggles as a father, as a wife, as a husband, as a single woman, as someone seeing my youth slip away from me and entering old age and facing the certainty of the grave and the world to come. What has God been saying to me from His own word in my own devotions, in my own reading, in the public preaching? Let that word dwell in you richly, teaching one another. We are to edify one another.

32:28 The same emphasis in Ephesians 4 and verse 29. Ephesians 4 and verse 29. The negative, let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but, here's the positive, such as is good for the building up of the need, such as is good for edifying as the need may be. Now think of this, that it may give grace to them that hear.

32:56 Isn't that an amazing thing? There's a means of grace between your two cheeks. It's your tongue. And your tongue can be the conveyor of grace to another.

33:09 Well, you say, I thought all grace was in Christ. He is the one great deposit of grace. But he mediates that grace not only through the public preaching of the word and all the other means, but through the spirit-directed use of that tongue of yours in your ordinary interaction with your brothers and sisters. Oh, may we lay to heart this positive injunction that we are to edify one another with our words.

33:44 Though the circumstances differ, it's interesting that the same emphasis that comes through with respect to the exercise of special gifts in public ministry comes through in the informal exercise of verbal communication amongst the people of God. What's the cardinal rule in 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 26? Let all things be done unto edification. Paul is regulating disorders at Corinth in the exercise of special gifts in the public gathering.

34:14 And he's regulating all of it with this great end in view that everything said shall be unto edification. He says in the same way, in all of our interaction, what we say to one another should be unto edification. Now, that does not mean, as I once thought as a young Christian, that unless I can explicitly talk about the Bible and God and Christ and Christian experience, I was to say nothing. I took this seriously.

34:40 I really did. And I became like a monk. I would sit at the table. I can remember it.

34:47 It's as vivid in my mind as though it were yesterday and that was way back, kids, in the dark ages. It was the fall of 1952. I'll never forget it. And I sat at the table in a dining hall with a couple of thousand students and there were eight or ten of us at the table and the only thing I would say is please pass this or please pass that unless the conversation was about God, Christ, the Bible, Christian experience.

35:08 I took this seriously. That everything had to be positively edifying and minister grace and by that I thought it had to be directly, explicitly, patently about God, Christ, the Bible, or Christian experience. You say, you're crazy. No.

35:24 I was just dead in earnest to please my Savior and I was a bit ignorant. And then God taught me a little more of His ways and I realized that I can build up a brother who's weighed down with a host of burdens by injecting into him to the perspective of his present heaviness a little innocent humor. But you see, I inject the humor with a view to building it up. It's not idle humor.

35:51 It's not pointless humor. It's not humor that has any cast of the unclean or the underfitting. It's humor calculated to cheer up my brother because the Scripture speaks of a merry heart being good medicine. And it may be something that is not directly related to God, Christ, the Bible, or Christian experience.

36:06 But it's humor calculated to cheer up my brother because the Scripture speaks of a merry heart being good medicine. And it may be just the Bible and Christian experience, but its impact upon my brother, my sister, is not to tear him down but to build him up. This is our responsibility one to another. We're to edify one another with our words.

Second Cardinal Positive: Exhort, Comfort, and Encourage One Another (1 Thessalonians 4:18; 5:11, 14)

36:30 Colossians 3 points more in the direction of the more focused, concentrated use of sharing what we have learned of God in His Word, speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual services. But then the second positive injunction that I want to set before you is this. We are to exhort, comfort, and encourage one another. We are to exhort, comfort, and encourage one another.

36:57 And in a sense this may be a subdivision of building up one another, but I'm not too concerned about technical divisions. I want to get the main text before you. Some of you will remember when I had the occasion to expound Hebrews 3 that I pointed out that when I read Hebrews 3 I pointed out that when we are told in verse 13 to exhort one another daily, that most of us have a misconception of exhortation. We think of it in terms of admonition or rebuke.

37:27 But the fundamental meaning of exhortation is not negative but positive. To exhort is to draw alongside and to seek to motivate to action in a positive way. In some places it's actually translated in courage or to comfort one another. Let's look at some of the key texts.

37:49 First Thessalonians chapter 4 after Paul corrects the misconceptions about the resurrection of the living dead of the living I'm sorry and of the dead at the coming of Christ he concludes that passage First Thessalonians 4 13 and following verse 18 wherefore comfort it's the word generally translated exhort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort

38:34 comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort the family of God. They are to comfort one another with the words of God. Chapter 5 and verse 11, Wherefore, exhort one another. Same word.

38:56 Marginal reading. Wherefore, comfort one another and build each other up. And here it may not be so much the thought of comfort seeking to still the troubled waters of a disrupted soul, but to encourage and prod to positive action in this context the action would be wakefulness in the light of the return of Christ. Saying to a brother or sister, How long has it been since you've consciously thought Jesus is coming back again?

39:26 How long has it been since you prayed even so come Lord Jesus? Are you wakeful and watching and anticipating His return? Exhort. Prod to action.

39:39 Comfort. Encourage. Chapter 5, verse 14b of the same chapter in Thessalonians. We exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint-hearted.

39:53 Brethren, encourage the faint-hearted.

39:58 And find those who are like bunions, Mr. Ready to Halt. And don't come and clobber them and say, why in the world are you always dragging behind? They are faint-hearted.

40:10 Encourage them. Draw alongside and encourage them. Someone took my wife and me into the first indoor track meet I've ever seen. Took us into the Mobile U.S. Indoor Championships

40:22 the other night. And it was interesting to me to notice the people that were the coaches and maybe close friends and often fellow team members on the side of the track when someone was coming around for that last lap and nearing a record or they were neck and neck with another runner. They're there intensely shouting to them, prodding them on, waving with their hands. What are they doing?

40:44 Encouraging them along the way. They didn't reach and stick their foot out the trip. But oh, how often we do that with an injudicious word. We stick our foot out and we trip a brother, a sister who needs encouragement.

40:59 We're to do this one to another. You see, it's not enough that you don't speak evil of your brethren. It's not enough that you avoid the negatives. Are you doing the positives?

41:10 What brother or sister have you encouraged verbally in the last week? What discouraged, disheartened brother have you drawn near to what sister and encouraged? We are to exhort, to comfort and to encourage one another. And there's that beautiful statement in Isaiah.

41:32 Most likely a reference to our Lord.

41:37 Verse 4 of Isaiah 15. The Lord Jehovah has given me the tongue of them that are taught that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary.

41:52 That I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary. People say talk is cheap. Well, in a sense it is. But who can measure the worth in sterling silver or in pure gold of a word fitly spoken in a time when your spirit was battered and in the language of the writer to the Hebrews your hands were hanging down and your knees were feeble.

42:26 Who can measure the worth of a word spoken in that state of weariness that caused you to throw your shoulders back, suck in some fresh air of confidence in the grace of God, got your eyes off off the dust and the mud of your own sin and fixed upon Jesus and before long you were once again back in the track running with patience the race that was set before you.

42:55 We ought to cover that. We ought to cover that. We ought to cover that skill and cry to God to make us like our Savior who knew how to sustain with words Him that was weary. We are positively to exhort comfort and encourage one another but then there's a third positive injunction and it's this.

Third Cardinal Positive: Reprove, Rebuke, and Admonish One Another

43:17 We are to reprove rebuke and admonish one another. We are to reprove rebuke and admonish one another. You say, well I thought the Bible says that's what preachers are supposed to do. Well they are.

43:31 Preach the word Paul says to Timothy. Reprove rebuke exhort that is a biblical doctrine. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching and he who expounds it must open up its teaching but he must not stop there. It's profitable for teaching.

43:51 For what? Reprove.

43:54 Not only for teaching but for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness but all of that task is not upon preachers and elders. The word of God says we believers as the family of God are to be active in reproving rebuking and admonishing one another and I'm inclined to say that there is perhaps no more difficult responsibility which we have to one another than this.

44:26 Let's look at some of the texts. First Thessalonians 5.14 The words are very simple and straightforward written again to all of the brethren not to a special class but to all of the brethren and we exhort you brethren admonish the disorderly and the word admonition means to point out the wrong and to give a word of correction to those who are in the wrong and it says the brethren are to admonish the disorderly when someone begins to walk in a disorderly fashion when someone begins to absent himself from the stated meetings when someone perhaps begins to be disorderly in speech

45:11 and other patterns of life known to you in the more intimate interaction you may have due to geographical proximity or proximity forced upon you by working in the same place don't wait until the matter becomes so critical that it filters upward to the knowledge of the elders you believers love your brothers and sisters enough to fulfill this responsibility of verbal communication admonish the disorderly look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 6a we beseech you brethren 2 Thessalonians 3 6 we command you brethren this is to all

45:55 of the brethren now what are the brethren to do verse 15 and yet count him not as an enemy one who has been brought under public censure as disorderly don't count him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother this is our responsibility to engage in admonition then turn to Luke 17 in verse 3 the words of our Lord Jesus take heed to yourselves if your brother sin go sulk and let your heart be full of all kinds of resentment and then tell every one of your close friends about it no if your brother sin

46:39 rebuke him if he repent forgive him and if he sin against you seven times in the day and seven times turn again to you saying I repent you shall forgive him but our Lord says if he sin rebuke him straight forward simple if he sin rebuke him now it doesn't say if he offends your aesthetic taste about the color of the tie he ought to wear or if he doesn't happen to have your same views on matters of indifference it doesn't say make yourself a pope over men's consciences where the word of God is silent sin is transgression of the law of God fail if you live up to God's law God's given us his ten commandments don't you make seventy-five

47:23 if he sin if he sin if he violates the norms of God rebuke him if he repent forgive him the indication points in the direction of a sin that is done against me a violation of the law of God which is terminated upon me now I'm not to sulk I'm not to draw back let walls go up between me and my brother if I believe my brother sinned I'm to go and in the language of Matthew 18 15 and following if thy brother sin or as some of the text have it if thy brother sin against thee go tell him his fault between thee and him alone and always with a view to gaining your brother

48:06 and then again in Romans 15 14 we are persuaded of you brethren Paul could say of the Roman Christians that they were spiritually mature and how would that maturity manifest itself verse 14 of Romans 15 I myself am persuaded of you my brethren you yourselves are full of goodness filled with all knowledge able also to admonish one another their spiritual maturity and stature and grace he says would find expression in this ability to engage in wholesome admonition now dear people if God

48:50 blesses us with instruction that is calculated to make us mature in Christ then surely this is one of the concrete expressions that ought increasingly to be manifested in our life together and then those critical texts in Proverbs I couldn't pass over this point without reading them in your hearing Proverbs 27 in verse 5 better is open rebuke than love that is hidden better is open rebuke than love that is hidden verse 6 faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are profuse oh let's not

49:35 kiss one another with Judas like kisses of betrayal betraying one another into paths of fear fixed behavior contrary to the word of God let's love one another enough to wound each other with gracious but clear and biblically flavored recruit better is open rebuke than secret love faithful are the wounds of a friend but you say pastor I've done it sometimes and I've been cut off and I've been turned off yeah I know what that is I know what it is to see people's faces and hearts turn away from me because I love them enough to be faithful to their souls any parent

50:19 will experience it at one time or another with his own children rare is the parent who brings the child from the wound to maturity without at one point having the child turn against him in the very pursuit of that child's well-being that's where love is put to the test where you're willing for personal rejection for the benefit of the one you love and Solomon understood this so he said to him he said in 28 in verse 23 he that rebukes a man shall afterward doesn't say immediately shall afterward find more favor than he that flatters with the tongue you see a person

51:04 who is enmeshed in sin and in a backslidden state the last thing in the world that David wants in that condition is a Nathan to nail him with his sin and if he can he'll suck to himself and gather around him flatterers who tell him in his ears what he's trying to tell the ears of his own conscience you're alright you're alright you're alright you're alright you're alright you're alright you're alright you're alright and when all the false prophets of false friends are chattering that in his ears and someone comes along and puts a hand on his shoulder and says now my brother my sister you know in the depths of your heart that you're wrong and here's the scripture that addresses itself to that issue it may well be

51:49 that that person will turn against you like that king turned against the faithful prophet and said why don't you stick to the party line as this is the way to go you're always cutting across the grave you remember that and we may have to bear that but do you love your brothers and sisters enough to bear it God has given us a word that generally speaking afterwards afterwards you will find more favor now I remind you brothers and sisters that these are duties now when you fail to do a duty what does God call it to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is what sin now here are duties

Concluding Application: Three Steps in Response to These Commands

52:33 three cardinal negatives three very fundamental positive injunctions to edify one another with words exhort comfort and encourage one another and to reprove rebuke and admonish one another now what are we to do in the face of these things well let me conclude by telling you what I hope many of us will do number one pray these texts into your conscience pray them into your conscience now do you know what I mean when I say pray them into your conscience that means you've got some more work to do when the amen is sounded tonight it's not enough that you've sat and given careful attention

53:18 to the preaching and exposition and application of the word somewhere before too much time passes get alone with God and go over these ten or twelve passages and pray them into your conscience say Lord you've said in the new covenant that you'd write your law upon the heart I heard your law Sunday night I heard you telling me what I'm not to do with my tongue in my verbal communication with my brethren I'm not to speak evil of them to tear them down I am not to do that I am never to lie to them Lord I am not to indulge in anything that is abusive that is corrupting that is obscene and unbefitting now Lord

54:03 write those words upon my heart God make them a matter of conscience so that as I live before your eye if I'm tempted to do those things those words will thunder at me do you know what it is to pray the word into your conscience as I'm describing do you if not you won't grow as a Christian there'll be a little temporary disturbance and then you go right back to the same patterns and I can't do that for you I can try to preach the word explain it illustrate it apply it urge you but my friend you must exercise yourself unto godliness it would be lovely if I could have my exercise done by proxy

54:47 push a button and have somebody else go out and run the 20 miles a week for me so I can keep in half decent shape it would be lovely but I can't do it if I'm going to keep my cardiovascular system in shape I've got to put my running shoes on and I've got to put my running togs on and I've got to go out and pound the pavement you can't do it by proxy you can't condition your conscience by proxy you must pray the word into your own conscience I urge you to do it secondly immediately take some practical steps to start obeying these injunctions in ways you hitherto have never done David said I made haste and I delayed

55:32 not to keep thy commandments Psalm 119 verses 59 and 60 I fought on my ways I made haste and delayed not to turn my feet unto thy commandments take immediate practical steps to obey the injunctions face the negatives and say now Lord are there certain people with whom I'm more tempted to indulge in this terrible activity of tearing down my brothers tearing down my sisters indulging and speaking evil of my brothers Lord not next week not three weeks first chance I get on the phone speak to them in a manly godly womanly way and say my brother my sister

56:17 the word of God has gotten to my conscience and I don't know about your conscience but I believe I've been guilty of abusive speech I believe I've been guilty of obscene speech and there's something in the chemistry of our relationship that leaves me vulnerable let's go to the next let's go to the next let's pray that that'll change and if it doesn't we're going to back off and just be casual friends now that's what obedience to the word of God means dear people that's what sanctification's all about and I urge you to take immediate steps in terms of the negatives cutting off relationships getting rid of the excess baggage that leaves you vulnerable but then you've got to take some positive steps

57:01 and here again the teaching of the word of God is so rich you've got to these same epistles that give us these injunctions tell us show hospitality one to another greet one another with a holy kiss in other words get close enough to your brethren that you have to have some communication with them and then again forsake not the assembling of yourselves together all of those injunctions you see are setting a framework within which communication is possible and if we're not opening our homes to one another in an unstructured way and this is what has struck me afresh there's nothing in the Bible that says elders must arrange

57:44 for all of the interaction of the people of God and have it all structured I can't see that in my Bible God says to the saints show hospitality one to another it doesn't say wait for your elders to punch into a computer the membership list and come up with a cell group plan for the whole church it says you do it full grown sons and daughters in the new covenant you're not in the old covenant where God has to stipulate all the little details show hospitality one to another God commands us to greet one another greet one another

58:28 with a holy kiss whatever else it means it means greet one another if you've got to get close enough to kiss somebody you can't do that thirty yards away you've really got a pair of smackers if you can do it thirty yards away and I've been fascinated with that that injunction there's an awful lot bound up and you get close enough to kiss a brother or sister you're close enough to communicate I wonder if that is what lies behind all of that greet one another make sure that you keep within communicating distance and oh what a tragedy it would be as the church grows if we lose that sense we're the family of God privileged to come together

59:12 on stated occasions and oh how we should treasure every moment of those occasions and be able to be reluctant to leave one another's presence so pray these precepts into your conscience secondly take practical steps to implement them immediately and then thirdly look constantly to Christ for grace to obey and for pardon in the face of your failures look constantly to Christ for grace to obey he said without me you can do nothing left to yourself left to myself this tongue will be exactly what it is what James says it will be an unruly member it will constantly play

Psalm 15: Your Tongue and Your Communion With God

59:56 the part of a match in a dry forest behold how great a forest fire is kindled by a little match and then dear people of God let this final word sink into your hearts if you expect to really enter in to realize communion with Christ when you gather with his people in the special presence of his church I direct your attention to Psalm 15 for here in this church this psalm the whole question of what kind of person will enjoy the privilege of realized communion with God in the place that he is appointed to meet with his people notice how that person is described Lord

60:39 who shall sojourn in your tabernacles who shall dwell in your holy hill he that walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart he that slanders not with his tongue nor does evil to his friend nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor in whose eyes a reprobate is despised but who honors them that fears the Lord he swears to his own hurt and changes not he does not put out his money to interest nor take reward against the innocent he that does

61:24 these things shall never be removed and amidst all of these many characteristics of the righteous man the righteousness of that godly life is not the ground of his approach to God that is always the righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer but it's the context of moral and ethical conformity to God's word and law which makes it possible for God to hold realized communion with such a person and so on here he's described as one who slanders not with his tongue who does not take up a reproach against his neighbor there is a direct relationship

62:08 between what you do with your tongue throughout the week and what you will know of the presence of God when you gather here with his people so may the Lord help us in this whole area of communication with one another that we shall more and more reflect a submission to God to the word of God let us pray together our father we find ourselves again and again crying out with Isaiah woe is me for I am undone I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips

Closing Prayer

62:51 but our father we also thank you that many of us are not what we once were these mouths that were once full of cursing and bitterness and lies and in the elective and filth are mouths that we now delightfully regard as the purchased property of Jesus Christ and we would afresh surrender this member our tongues to him as those who are alive from the dead and pray that by the dynamics of his own grace we may in our verbal communications with one another as a people reflect a constant sensitivity to these precepts that have been expounded in our hearing Lord write them

63:36 upon our hearts embed them in our consciences that when we violate those commands we shall feel genuine prickings of conscience and when we fail to obey those injunctions to encourage and admonish and rebuke and edify one another that we will sense our sin and cry for forgiveness and look to you for grace and by the power of the spirit seek to abound in these good works unto your glory we pray our Father that you will work in us both to will and to work for your good pleasure hear us cleanse us and help us by your grace

64:20 we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen