Dennis Tuuri

That with the imposition of hands, we’re identifying with that man and we’re consecrating ourselves for that work in this church. Now, we’ve just spent two days up in Seattle talking about doing conflict with anti-Christian forces, the forces of spiritual darkness in our country. There were some very what could be potentially very discouraging things talked about at that conference. I don’t think we have to go to Seattle to read discouraging things.

We know that God’s judgment is coming upon this land. We said last week that we have the judgment hand of God coming upon this land in terms of the AIDS problem and other things as well we’ve been talking about for the last several weeks. I bring this up because we’re entering into some dark times here from one perspective in terms of God’s judgment upon the land. And it’s going to be a time, as I said last week, that will test the mettle of this church.

It’ll test the mettle of the heads of the households of this church and of their wives and of our children as well. And if we think somehow through ordaining men to special office we somehow relieved ourselves of some responsibilities of applying God’s word and of being elders in our own households, then we’re going to face those dark times not prepared and we’re going to fail in those times of judgment upon this land.

They’ll become times of judgment for us if we turn away from the responsibilities that God has given us in terms of being elders in each of our households as well. We have an obligation. I talked at the workshop about Marshall Foster’s speech at the first conference seven years ago, talking about this village green story that the patriots lined up against the British at the village green when the British came to take their ammunition away from them.

And my talk reinforced the idea that we will always have village greens as Christians and we have some very big village greens staring us in the face in this country today. And it’s not good enough to send a pastor out there to send a board of elders out with ammunition. We all have to be on that line. And so I just wanted to reinforce that to you this morning that we all will face spiritual conflicts and we have to engage ourselves.

I hope that as you heard those questions asked of myself, you saw application in many of those questions to yourselves as men of God and the women also to study the word of God and apply it in their calling and if you’re married to encourage your husband in his office of eldership in your home that we all might be prepared to stand in that village green to act in obedience to God’s law in confronting anti-Christian forces spiritual forces of darkness with the power of God’s word.

The power of God’s word doesn’t come simply from reading God’s word. It comes from reading God’s word and then applying it in our lives. As I concluded my workshop talk, I talked about the fact that we teach our children to sing about the wise man and the foolish man. And probably most of the kids in this church have sung that song at one time or another about the house on the rock that stands firm and the house in the sand that’s washed away.

Who is the wise man? The wise man is the one who hears the word of God and then walks in obedience to it. The wise man is the one who joins with the congregation of the old covenant in imposing hands upon special officers, identifying with them and recognizing that he is being consecrated as well to his task of following God’s word and going on into Nehemiah 9 in understanding the applications of deliverance and the Passover to himself and to his family and pledging himself to walk in obedience to the commandments of God portrayed then through the cloud and the fire and portrayed now through understanding of God’s word as it follows us into the week and leads us into that week.

But the wise man is the one who understands those things, identifies with it, and pledges himself to do the will of God that he hears from up here every week and in your own personal studies as well. If you don’t do that, if you think somehow that through the ordination of special officers, you’ve been relieved of responsibilities for Bible study and for studying the word of God and applying it, then you’re the foolish man.

And the dark days that come upon us as a nation now and the judgment of God will come upon you. Psalm 78, which we’ll be reading responsively for the next month or so, teaches the inevitability of village greens as we proceed in the faith. We’re to teach our children the conflicts that God’s people have faced in the past and to teach them by our example that they’re either part of the enemies of God or part of God’s friends.

And depending on how we line ourselves up ethically in terms of God’s word and applying it in our lives, we’ll suffer either the judgments of God or rejoice in those judgments upon the ungodly around us and we’ll praise God for the victory that he gives us, the protection and covering he provides for us as his judgment comes upon ungodly land. So I just encourage you all this morning to recognize what we’re doing is consecrating all of us to study the scriptures and to apply them.

Pray for me. Pray for me as I go to things like town hall tonight. And I’m saying that with some humor, but there’s some truth to that. I’m having a difficult time fighting back some anger that comes up and some of it not necessarily righteous in some of these aspects. And I need your prayers when I go to things like that. Pray for whatever men of the church that will go down to Salem tomorrow night that they understand what the speakers speak about and be prepared a little more for their individual battles.

I’ll pray for you, you pray for me as we all engage ourselves as we meet together in the village green throughout the week to fight the anti-spiritual forces that are coming upon this land and through God and his judgment will bring to naught. I just encourage you in all that. Now, let’s pray.

Almighty God, we thank you for yourself. We thank you Father, for the government of Jesus Christ. We thank you for reminding us through his resurrection that we celebrated last week and through his ascension that we spoke of this morning that government has been established in a full sense with his coming as our great covenant keeper.

We pray, Lord God, that we would line ourselves up with the government of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord God, for this group of men who understand the importance of walking in obedience to your scriptures, who would come up on this podium and do things that some people would think are very foolish because they’re convinced that your word teaches us to do these things and gives us understanding as we walk in obedience to your scriptures.

We thank you for the women of this church as well applying the word to whatever callings they’re called to do and they’re married to support their husbands in other areas as well and the single ladies as well who struggle to understand the application of the word of God to their vocational callings. Help us all, Father God, to be diligent to study your scriptures, to be diligent in applying those things and so rejoice in your judgment upon the ungodly in this land to be covered from the judgment to come as individuals and as families and to go forth triumphing preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Help us all, Father, to do that task faithfully today. We recognize that you have prepared a table for us in the midst of the enemies that seem to surround us that we have rest and peace in Jesus Christ as long as we pledge ourselves to be that wise man who hears his word on Sunday and then applies it throughout the week.

Lord God, give us grace as a congregation to do these things. We thank you, Father. We rejoice before you for this church and the blessing that it’s been to all of us and we pray that your work would continue here in a more diligent sense as we continue to understand your scriptures and then walk in obedience to what you’ve commanded us to do in them. Father, we thank you for yourself and we thank you for the finished victory of Jesus Christ that we celebrate this day.

In his name we pray. Amen.