Dennis Tuuri

Turn again to the book of First Timothy for our sermon text. And we will look at chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Next week we’ll go on to speak of the rest of the chapter. And even in this song we’ve just sung we read of the beautiful blessings to be found in the temple and the palace of the king. And we are the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for the next couple of weeks we’ll talk about widows. And that’s what we were when Adam forsook us, so to speak, in his fall.

And there is a sense in which we are the widows that Jesus Christ comes to minister to and to wed to himself. And that produces a family. And we’re going to consider today again the family of God in the context of 1 Timothy 5, verses 1 and 2. Please stand for the command reading of our king, which is always a law word to us, and it is always a grace word to us as well.

1 Timothy 5:1-2. Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters, with all purity.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this word, and we do pray that you would illumine it to our hearts and understanding that we might obey it. Help us, Father, to be anxious to do the things that you record for us in scripture. We know they’re for our well-being. And yet, Lord God, we so often turn away from these things. So, help us now to be empowered by your spirit with an understanding of the text to walk in brotherly love in the context of your family.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Maybe about the dress of women at church and how we’re really to be adorned with good words, etc. And today we’re going to talk kind of continuing that metaphor about what you do to get ready for church? And you do two things. You do other things, I suppose. But what I’m thinking of particularly, you got washed this morning. You brushed your teeth at least. Hopefully, hopefully all your kids did.

You washed and you got dressed. You put off dirt. You put off things that were not profitable to come to church in. And you put on clothes. And for most of us, we put on a little more fine clothes than we do during the week sometimes. And that’s not a bad thing. That can be a good thing to remind us of the righteousness of Christ. We come before God with. It’s a bad thing if you think that somehow those neat clothes are your goodness.

Can’t be. And yet, there are things we’re supposed to put on as well as things we’re supposed to put off. I couldn’t put on my coat this morning. I forgot it at home. So, I’m a little cooler today than I normally am. So, that’s good, I guess. In Ephesians 4, turn there, please. Verses 20-24 should be very common words to us. We should know this text of scripture pretty well, but it is so important. Remember that this is much of what we do in the Christian life.

Ephesians 4:20-24. You have not learned Christ. If so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. And what is this truth? He goes on to tell us that you put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Now that last little phrase there is very important as those of us who went through the Canons of Dort study understood that without getting into a big deal but just to remind you that’s a very important text. What I want the text to be used for is putting off and putting on—putting off the conversation, the corrupt habits of the old man. The old man is that fallen nature that we had before we were regenerated by God.

It creates habits and vices which become habits. And it creates these bad things that we got to work to put off. And we want to put on other things. And in the middle of that, of course, in the middle of that putting off and putting on, in verse 23 is be renewed in the spirit of your mind. This is a spiritual act. It can’t be done in the flesh. It must be done by the spirit as he takes the word and writes it upon our heart.

But then it talks about this putting on and putting on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. The original creation man was created in righteousness and holiness, knowledge and dominion. And his will was created in righteousness, holiness, knowledge, and dominion. Okay? And the will was fallen then and became perverted. And we became perverted. And this tells us that in our new creation, we’re created in righteousness and holiness.

We can go to other texts for knowledge and dominion. That’s important because our antinomianism teaches that the creation of man’s will, he was neutral in his will, that he was not created. The will was not created. Man was not essentially righteous and holy in his creation. That was added. We’re wrong in that. But it’s an important text to remember for that purpose. That’s not our purpose today though. Today the purpose is to talk about what you put off and what you put on.

And I want us to think about these things. This is talk my talk basically is about brotherly love in the family of God. 1 Timothy is written that we might know how to behave ourselves in the house of God. And in that house there are people. It’s the family of God. And in 1 Timothy 5:1-2 in a very practical section now with direct application that is obvious and obedient on most of our parts. It should be at least.

We’re told how to discipline or admonish or encourage people in their walk of faith. And we’re to do it in a particular way. We’re to treat older men as our fathers. So it doesn’t mean they are our fathers. It is not a doing away with the natural family. In fact, there’s an assertion of the family. If you don’t have the family respect for father and mother and brother and sister, then to try to apply this verse in the context of the church family is impossible because you haven’t learned how to deal with your own family yet.

So it asserts the importance of the Christian family and we know that in our day and age that’s a tremendous thing that is being re-energized and reinvigorated primarily through the homeschool movement. The understanding of the Christian family and how very important that is. So there’s an assertion of the family here. But there is also an assertion that family kind of flows out into an extended family.

And we saw last week about how Jesus says that it’s those who do the will of the father in heaven that are his mother and his brothers. And that he’s going to come to bring division amongst families because the family in its old Adamic state is that old man that we’re to put off and we’re to put on the new family which involves our immediate family but it also has application to our church family. You see, it’s an extension.

Yes, the family is important and what you learn there and is easier for you there should then be applied in the context of the church family, the family of God found in the house of God. Okay? And particularly all of this involves a reverence for God the Father. You know, in the Old Testament, in the book of Daniel, God is said to be the Ancient of Days. And the image that Daniel receives of the Father is his hair is white as snow.

And then we see Jesus in the book of Revelation, white as well, white hair. Ancient of Days, the Father is the ultimate and supreme elder, the ultimate father or old man, so to speak. You know, in our day and age, back in the hippie generation 20 years ago, 15 years ago, the counter-culture old man was, you know, a derogatory term. An old man is a positive term. You’re to bow down and actually raise up for the hoary head.

The book of Leviticus tells us in the case law of God, respect for elders. Ultimately, a respect for God the Father who has created fathers and rulers and elders and kings and princes and presidents and all that stuff—it’s all pictures of the authority of God. And we want to build in a reverence for God by building in a reverence for the institutions that God has created and a reverence for age. And so all that’s taught in this text, but I want to go on today to talk about brotherly love in the context of this family of God that is asserted here.

Okay? I want to talk about brotherly love. Your outline obviously shows you I want you to think about putting off certain things and putting on certain things. And I want you to think about this in specific terms. I want you to particularly ask God for a particular people immediate application that you can make today and on into this week relative to these texts if you believe that this outline represents the word of God that all I’m doing is reiterating back to you the scriptures of God and each of these points is legitimate.

Those ones that are legitimate according to the word of God according to your understanding I want you to really work hard at applying and I want you to think of specific ways you can apply it and specific people you can apply it to.

Now obviously one place to start is your family. I mean, it’s sad, but the Adamic family and its fallen state, you know, brothers hate each other. Cain killed Abel. So, think about this in terms of your family. Certainly, these things we’re going to talk about doing. But beyond that, I want you to also think of your church family here at Reformation Covenant, particularly the household of faith here at this local body. I want you to put off things regarding people here, and I want you to put on things and be self-conscious about it and ask for God to bring people to your mind as I’m preaching, that you can apply this to.

And then there are those who are in close relationship with Reformation Covenant Church. I’ve got, you know, I went to the homeschool curriculum fair for a very short time yesterday and, you know, I talked for a while with Brian Ray and good to see Dick C. and a short conversation with Sue Welch and other people and there’s like a little family there, you know, of folks that you know, some of you I know the Foresters are the same.

Well, you see people and you’re at Richard the same thing. You’re at these conferences and you see people the curriculum fair, the winter workshop, And then there are people who’ve been involved in the homeschooling movement for extended period of time. They’re kind of like extensions of us, the extended family of who we are as individuals outside of the local church. I also want you to think of people that you might have difficulties with relationships right now.

Whether it’s in your family or friends or whatever it is, I want you to think about those people as well. And I want you to think about Christians in this region, people going to other churches and Christians in this region that you come in contact with. And I want you to ask maybe God to show you specifically He’d have you relate some of these things too. And ultimately, of course, these are obligations to our brothers in the faith, no matter what part of the world they live in.

And so, we have application from the very tiny little family unit in our home to the church, to the culture, to our friends, to the greater Christian culture around the world. And there’s one other group I want you to particularly think about in terms of this application. People who are struggling in the context of the faith. People who believe that right now for them while they love you dearly, they believe that they should be someplace else worshiping today.

And we all know various people in that sense. We’ve known people over the years here at Reformation Covenant who have decided for whatever reason it’s best for them to be someplace else than Reformation Covenant. And you know that’s not a bad thing. That’s a good thing. It can be a very good thing for people to go someplace else. For a period of time, maybe for a long time. It doesn’t mean they’re your enemies.

It means they need nurture and some other from some other quarter, at least they determine they do, and you should believe them that. We’re going to talk about judging your own master and let other people report to their master, so to speak. We’ll talk about that in a little bit. I want you to particularly think of ways to extend the sort of putting off and putting on I’m going to talk about today, to those people that maybe you’ve had a difficulty with of them going to another church.

Going into another body of Christ, whether it’s been in the last 2 weeks or the last 5 years or the last 10 years. I want you to think about those people particularly to pray for those people and to extend Christian brotherly love to them. It’s difficult to separate when you have as close a community as we have at Reformation Covenant. It’s difficult. It’s hard. It’s emotionally rending. Can feel like a death, but it’s not a death.

It’s going to a different room. Maybe for a long time, maybe for a short time. It’s going to another room in the house. The house of God in First Timothy is the entire church of Jesus Christ. It does not restrict itself to the local church. This is not the only house of God. This is not the only room in God’s house. This is not the only portion of God’s family. These things are all obvious, right? This is obvious.

We need to hear it. We need to hear it because we need to extend Christian compassion and love for people that for whatever reason aren’t sitting next to you today. Maybe you know people in your own life over the years, friends who’ve gone in a different direction. You don’t understand the direction. Maybe they’re going to really nominal churches, some of your friends from the past and your past friendships when you were younger, but you still have a relationship with them.

This stuff I’m talking about today is what you should be doing if you believe they’re in the faith. This brotherly love is brotherly love. It’s not love for people outside of the faith. The scriptures stress love for the brothers that is different than love for the world. So if you know people that are Christians that for some reason for years you’ve gone the other way from and whatever and you have occasional contact what do I do?

What do I say to these people I only see once a year relatives who are in the faith. These are the sort of things you say these putting on things and the sort of things you put off relative to them. Okay. Enough of that. Let’s go on to talk about the specifics then. And please pray that God help you make specific application. Today, write down names as if they come to you of people you should talk to and encourage in the context of what we’re going to be talking about today.

Okay. First of all, I want to talk about the importance of brotherly love. I guess I don’t need to spend much time here, but it is a very important thing. This is not just one little aspect of the faith. Over and over again in the scriptures, we read scriptures such as 1 Peter 2:17, honor all men, love the brotherhood, specific command. John 13:34, our savior says, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you and that you also love one another.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one for another.” Very important. Romans 12:10, be kind affection to one another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another. 1 Thessalonians 4:9, that is touching brotherly love. You need not that I write unto you. For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. So basic to the faith. He said I don’t need to tell you about it cuz it’s something even God teaches you directly.

1 John 5:2. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. 1 John 2:9-11. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even unto now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whether he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes.

First John says on the one hand that how do you know if you love God? You know if you love God if you love the brothers. And so what I’m talking about here today if you have trouble with any of these things if you if you agree to the word of God instruction to you and you can’t do them pray ask me for help. Ask me to hold you accountable to do these things. It is of the essence of your Christian faith that you love your brothers in the Lord in the way that God says love is to be ministered.

And first John says that you can’t love God whom you haven’t seen. And if you hate your brother whom you have seen, your brother is an indicator. But notice what I also read verse two of chapter 5. By this we know we love the children of God. When we love God and keep his commandments, it goes both ways. How do you know if you’re loving God or if you’re loving the children loving if you’re engaging in brotherly love?

If you have love for God and keep God’s commandments. John is the apostle of love and he’s the apostle of commandment. Those things are not separate. John wraps them right together. So you have to be to use our parlance, a theonomist. And if you’re a theonomist, you’re going to love your brother. And if you’re a if you love your brother according to the word of God, you’re loving God. And you demonstrate that as well.

Okay. What do you do? What are the laws? What are the laws that God gives us? And all these are New Testament truths that are found throughout the scriptures.

Number one, put off anger in mind and tongue. Matthew 5:22, I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, he shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother Raqqa shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Strong words. And it starts in the mind. Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause in danger of judgment. Are you angry at a brother today? And I will bet you nine times out of 10 if you’re angry with a brother, it is not for cause.

Now the text says there is a cause. I mean If you have a cause, a legitimate godly cause. If your brother sleeps with your neighbor’s wife, you’re not supposed to be happy with him. You’re supposed to be angry and wrathful toward him as a picture of God toward him as well. Even that is to be redemptive if he’s a brother. You’re to hope to recover him if he’s engaged in some wicked sin. But the point is that most times that’s not what’s about, is it? If you’re angry at somebody today, a brother in the faith, you’re at this church, connected with this church, someplace else, put it away.

Put it off by a volitional act of your will. Stop being angry. Your emotions are controllable. And your emotions are important, but your emotions when used improperly are sin against your brother and sin against God whom you have seen. If you’re unrighteously angry with your brother, confess it right now before God and put it away. And that anger, if it takes its form into a tongue statement, that’s even worse because now you’ve let that root in you and come out.

Confess that sin. If you’ve been angry with your brother today, today, last week, whatever it was. Go back and confess it to him if you’ve sinned in terms of anger. So, you put off anger in your mind, you put off anger in your tongue.

Secondly, you put off lust. Mark 6:18, John has said unto Herod, “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.” That’s an odd text to use, Dennis. Well, but see, you’re not supposed to have your brother’s wife. You’re not supposed to engage in illicit lust for things that you cannot have. And that is repeated in the context of the ten commandments relative to your neighbor’s wife. You shall not covet. But it also refers and I’ve used it here specifically because of verse two here. You’re to treat the younger women as sisters, single men, older men, do not allow yourself to entertain lustful thoughts about women in this church.

Put off lust. Brotherly love refers to sisterly love, too. You know, obvious in this congregation, we should know it. The man stands as the covenantal headship of the family or of the woman. And so we talk about brotherly love, we’re talking about love towards sisters as well. And it this is just as obvious as can be, but I’m telling you, some of you struggle with it. And you must put it off by a volitional act of your will.

Confess whatever lustful thoughts you have. Desire for somebody else’s mate, desire for a single girl. Put it off until you get involved in a courtship relationship. Young men, single men, do not let your thoughts go that way. Put it off. It’s the old man. It’s the dead Adamic nature in you that wants to do that. Put it off. Confess your sin. And if you can’t handle it, talk to your dad. If you’re too embarrassed to talk to him, talk to Richard or myself.

We’re elders. That’s what we’re called by God to do is to help you with these things. Okay? Put it off. Put it off right now. Confess it before God.

Put off agitation. Not quite so obvious here. Moving some obvious things, something less obvious. Acts 14:2. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles. and made their minds evil affected against their brothers. They stirred up the Gentiles. They talked to them. They whispered. They were slanderers. They were tail bearers. And they made the minds of the Gentiles evil affected toward brothers. You know people don’t just say the right word that isn’t obvious. They’re doing something real wrong. They write the thing in there and they slip in a piece of data about your brother in the Lord that causes you to become suspicious about them. Your mind evil affected toward your brothers.

In the context of some breaks in relationships, you don’t need anybody whisper in your head to have your mind be evil affected toward your brother. Am I right? You begin to get suspicious. What was that guy all about? Why isn’t he here? Why is he not treating me as a friend anymore? What’s going on? And your mind can get evil affected toward your brother. Put it off. Do not allow yourself to engage in those sort of suspicious thoughts about your brother.

And very importantly, put off agitation amongst brothers. Don’t engage in the sort of things that’s going to work brother up against brother. The proverbs tells us in Proverbs 16:28, “A froward man soweth strife, and a whisperer separateth chief friends.” Proverbs 17:9, “He that coverth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.” Ooh, the power we have with our tongues to separate the closest of friends.

Those relationships can be broken apart by the tail bearer, by the one who covers who repeats stories or who tells sins that a person is engaged in. Now, I don’t think it’s necessary. I mean, I think that I think that you can hear things about a close friend of yours and you can put off that mind that’s evil affected toward your brother. I’m not giving you an excuse if you’ve heard something about somebody else to fall into sin relative to separating from a brother.

In fact, I’m telling you the very opposite. You can’t count on your brother not to agitate. Sometimes they’re going to do it. People sin. We have the old nature. And so, you have to be positively committed to not letting your mind be evil affected toward your brother and not letting yourself be separated from friends, whether they’re friends in this church or another church. Okay? The last thing we want to do is to agitate by means of gossip and slander and tail bearing and other things and drive Christians apart from each other to cause their minds to be evil affected toward one another.

And it is such a great tendency to do when you’ve got a friend who isn’t here now and is someplace else. It’s so easy or if you’ve got somebody you don’t know that well, so easy to start talking about that person negatively and begin to drive brothers apart and to begin to cause people’s minds to be evil affected toward them. I believe that I need to do more I think that in years gone by, I have not done anywhere near enough to guard this flock from those sorts of agitations and stirring ups and to guard you from your minds becoming evil affected toward people that for whatever reason in the providence of God has said we need to be somewhere else at least for a while to grow.

You see, don’t don’t don’t let your mind be evil affected. This is so important. Don’t actually put off agitation. Put off suspicions about your brothers in the Lord.

Number four, put off ripping off. 1 Thessalonians 4:6, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter because that the Lord is the avenger of all such as we also have forewarned you and testify. Now, specifically there the context is in the context of sexual sin. There’s a parallel passage to this in Hebrews 13:1-8. It might be good to read. Hebrews 13 in verses 1-8. You could turn there perhaps. and the section of Hebrews begins in verse one of Hebrews 13.

Let brotherly love continue. Everything we’re talking about, be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby have some entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body, empathy for your brother. Marriage is honorable in all, the marriage bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Then let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what men shall do unto me.” He moves there in verse four from the marriage bed and unlawful lust, putting those things away and being possessing your own vessel as it said in 1 Thessalonians 4 with honor.

Even in the context of the marriage, there can be sinful lust. And it says to put that off, but he moves from that into verse 5 to say, “Let your whole walk be without covetousness.” So he expands out from the sexual reference into a, you know, a reference that includes in your business affairs and everything else as well. Covetousness relative to money, whatever it is, possessions, etc. And why? What’s the basis for this?

Be content with such things as you have. For he said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” As God told Abram, “I am your exceeding great reward. Whatever it is you think you must lust after in terms of gold, you’ve got in me. and I’ll give you gold as a reminder of who I am, but I’m it. And so when we lust after, we try to defraud our brother, we try to sell him a car and inflate the value, a puffed up view, you know, you try to make the thing look better than it is, that’s a sin to defraud your brother.

And even those little tiny commercial transactions, I hadn’t thought of this till now. Hope I don’t embarrass you, but we got to check the forces in the mail on Saturday because he discovered a bookkeeping error in terms of his pay of, you know, some from members of our family who worked for him. See, he’s going out of his way to not defraud his brother. It’d be easy just to put that off. I’ll take care of that later.

A year later, you’ve forgotten about it. You know, in the haste of the day, that it isn’t important. It’s not that important. But God says that just weights and measures are absolutely vital to the faith. That’s who God is. He’s a God of equity and justice. As we read in Psalm 99 earlier, he delights in equity and justice. He delights in balancing of accounts. And he wants us to have that kind of delight. And wants us to put off, whether it’s sloth or greed on our part, a defrauding of one another.

Okay? So, put it off. Put off ripping each other off. Well, I’m not really ripping them off. I’m just selling a car and tell them everything about it. It’s bad. Well, that’s ripping them off. God says that when you come into the transaction, you shouldn’t seek a benefit to yourself. You should seek an equal transaction with your brothers in the Lord. So that both parties are benefited. You do get a benefit. I’m not saying you don’t have a benefit, but the benefit is such that everything is out there.

It’s understood in the arrangement, the financial arrangement, so that everybody knows what the benefits and downsides are. So you have equity in the transaction. I could preach a sermon about that, but you get the point. Put off ripping off.

Put off evil speech. James 4:11. Speak not evil one of another, brother. He that speaketh evil of his brother and judges his brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, thou art not the doer of the law, but a judge. Put off evil speak. Speaking evil of his brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, thou art not the doer of the law, but a judge. Put off evil speech, speaking evil there means to slander or to be a tail bearer. That’s what it’s talking about there. So put off against slandering and tail bearing relative to your brothers in the faith. And then it relates all of that to the importance of that to saying that you know your brother is a picture as it were of the law as well.

And so don’t think that in if you’re you can be a good theonomist if you engage in tail bearing or slander against God’s law. By theonomic it just means God’s law adherence to God’s law. Theos God nomos law. God’s law. Well, you cannot be a theonomist if you’re engaging in tail bearing and slander against your brother or at least not a self-consistent theonomist. You know, it’s just incredible how much this putting off has not occurred in the context of the circles in which we have received tremendous influence and blessing from God for the last 15 years that there’s been so much rife tail bearing and slander to this day.

It makes me sick to my stomach for us to claim these truths that God’s law is important for us and then to engage in tail bearing and slander. You know, God forbid that we should be allowed to do that in this church. He will not allow us to do that in this church. He’s not allowed other churches to do it. He’s not allowed other ministries to do it without great harm and damage coming to those ministries.

And if that’s what you want in your life, if you want to live a life of reduced communication, you engage in that sort of stuff. And you’ll find out that eventually people will find out and you’ll have no one left to talk to. In our revelation class, next week or the week after Mr. Jordan’s going to talk about God being the alpha and the omega and how God is the A and the Z, so to speak, not first and last only, but he’s the alphabet.

And if you look at Psalm 119, you got all letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section of Psalm 119 begins with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. He’s the alphabet, folks. He communicates to us with an alphabet, with a literary structure. And Psalm 1 begins with the first in the Hebrew alphabet and ends with the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet and it begins with blessing and it ends with perishing and those are the two poles.

And what I’m saying is that when we allow our speech to not be governed by the word of God that God removes speech. This culture is now involved in the deconstruction of language tearing it completely apart. Whether you understand the formal meaning of what that is, you know, you’ve seen the devolution of language in your day. You know that people say yeah like sort of yeah you know what I mean it’s like this it’s like that our speech yeah hello hi it’s become sloppy it’s become less we have less and less of ability to communicate clearly in the context of a world that rejects Christ because Christ is the word and when Christianity flourishes language flourishes and when Christianity declines language devolves and that’s not just true on a grand cultural scale.

If you allow your speech to be evil speech relative to your brother, God will end up isolating you from your brother. He’ll end up isolating you from the community of Christ. You may be sitting here, but you’ll still be isolated if your speech is improper. He closes you down. And hell is a place of no communication. We must put off evil speech.

We must put off improper judgment. This is so important. Romans 14. Romans 14. Turn to Romans 14, please. Look at verse four. Well, we begin at verse one. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things, and that who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not. And let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth.

For God hath received him. Who art thou that judgeth another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Yay, he shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand. Now this goes along with a passage in Corinthians. It’s a big set of scriptures. I can’t talk about it all. But what it says is that you got a strong brother and you got a weak brother. And the strong brother knows that he can eat meat.

And the weak brother thinks he shouldn’t eat meat. And so the weak brother, what’s he going to do? This text tells us in our experiences as well that he’s going to judge his brother, his stronger brother. He’s going to think the stronger brother is breaking God’s law or some commandment of God or some principle that we should be able to extract from God’s word. The weaker brother is the legalist. It doesn’t might not seem that way to you, but that’s the way it works.

When men are weak in the faith, they want a lot of laws to rule them. them in the faith and they’re going to end up with a lot more laws than God gives in his law. And so when you read, you know, you come across somebody who’s a teetotaler who thinks duty is wrong to drink alcohol, you’re dealing with the weaker brother. But understand that he’s not going to understand he’s weaker. He’s going to think he’s stronger.

He’s going to think that he knows more about the Bible than you do. And he’s going to judge you. Well, what’s your tendency going to be? Your tendency, according to this text, is to despise him, to count him as nothing. To not have regard for him. That’s what the stronger brother does toward the weaker brother. What goofball? He doesn’t even know he can have a beer occasionally. What’s wrong with that guy?

You know, doesn’t he know in Deuteronomy 14, we know that it says there, use part of your tithe to buy strong drink, which meant beer at the time. The guy’s just an idiot. Didn’t know anything about the scriptures. And we despise him. Those are the tendencies. And God says, don’t do that. Tells the weak brother, don’t judge your older your stronger brother. It tells the stronger brother, don’t despise your weak brother.

And then he sums it up in verse four by saying, who are you to judge another man’s servant? What he’s saying there is that okay the weak guy doesn’t think he should drink alcohol. What are you going to do? Pour it down his throat. You leave him alone in that. You try to strengthen him. We have other verses later on about you to put on to strengthen the brother. You’re supposed to work with him to cause him to grow and mature in the faith and these things will fall into place for him.

But you don’t crank at him about that thing. You let another man’s servant be the one to whom he stands to. And it says that God is able to make him stand. He’s growing. He may be weak, but he’s a member of the body of Christ. And it’s not your place, only your place to cause him to mature. That’s a great big body out there. Without the body, you got God himself personally working with each one of us through his spirit.

So he says, “Hey, let him alone. Don’t despise him.” And he tells the weak brother, “Don’t judge him.” Now, by way of application, I think this is so important, and it’s what I talked about during the courtship talks unity and diversity. This text teaches diversity in the body of Christ. Now, it’s specific application interpretation is people that are weak and don’t know, you know, this stuff is okay for them to do, but the general principle is that there’s diversity of growth stages and gifts in terms of the body of Christ.

Somebody here at church wants to do something. And you may think it’s not that great a thing to do, but so what? You’re not the one being called to do it. And unless what he’s doing violates the word of God. Now, that’s different. You don’t have diversity in terms of obedience to God’s commandments, but that’s not what’s being talked about here. It’s not against God’s law not to drink beer. No requirement to drink it.

See, and if somebody wants to do something or engage a particular practice, they think it’s real important, you know, to address a particular way, for instance, to engage in a particular kind of homeschooling, to have a particular type of courtship pattern, as we talked about at camp. Don’t put them down for it. You may not agree. You may have a different way of doing it, but that’s okay. It’s diversity in the context of unity of God’s law.

Everything that is outside of the specific commandments of God is freedom and liberty for Christians. And give your brother the liberty to engage in an activity that you may not understand or agree with. But if it’s not prohibited by God’s word, don’t discourage him. Put off discouraging judgment through an improper judging. And we’ve got people here who want to do particular things in the context of the body of Christ.

And it may not be the sort of thing you want to do, but that’s okay. You’re not being called to do it. Let them do it. Don’t restrict. Don’t think we’ve all got to get on board or none of us can be on board. It’s not the way it works. Great deal of diversity. Now, you see people engaging particular courtship patterns or particular ways they govern relationships. between their daughters and sons, you know, don’t go jabber jabber.

Look what those guys are doing. Don’t do that. No, unless it breaks God’s word. If you want to go to the person himself and suggest a better way, that’s one thing. But do it with a sense of humility. You know, I think this is so important in the context of Reformation Covenant Church. There are things that people want to do here, ministries to be involved with, and the last thing we want to do is somehow put a damper on enthusiasm because we don’t share the enthusiasm that someone else has for a particular manner of doing what they’re doing with their family or a particular ministry at here, Reformation Covenant Church.

We’ve got some children right now in Sabbath schools in this church. Why? Because Nehemiah says, “Well, it seems to be legitimate that the younger ones are not in the context of the preaching of the word.” Other people think it’s very important for kids to be in the preaching of the word. My own preference is to try to get kids in here as quick as possible. And I would have no problem with anybody who doesn’t want any kind of Sabbath school at all, but we are not about imposing upon people a regimen unless we can clearly demonstrate from scripture that’s what the word of God says.

Now, maybe I’m wrong here and I’m perfectly open to considering that, too. You know, that we shouldn’t have Sabbath school because that text in Nehemiah is being misunderstood. But that’s what it’s got to be. You see, that’s what it’s got to be before we dampen enthusiasm for someone who wants their children to go out and wants to have those children taught at a level for their understanding. Unless we know from the word of God, not from the traditions of the church, unless we know from this word that it’s wrong.

Don’t talk about them negatively. Put it off. Improper judgment.

Put off grudges. That’s the next point here. Let me just read let me read actually before we go to that, I’ll read a couple of commentaries on this Romans passage. I do believe it’s so important and u you know, again, I could be wrong, but One of the principles that one commentator said is going on here is that he says as Christians should not allow anything to alienate them from their brethren who afford credible evidence that they are the servants of God owing to ignorance, early prejudice, weakness of faith and other causes.

There may and must exist a diversity of opinion and practice on minor points of duty. But this diversity is no sufficient reason for rejecting from Christian fellowship any member of the family of Christ. Secondly, a denunciatory or censorious spirit is hostile to the spirit of the gospel. It is an encroachment on the prerogatives of the only judge of the heart and conscience. It blinds the mind to moral distinctions and prevents the discernment between matters unessential and those vitally important.

And it leads us to forget our own accountability and to overlook our own faults in our own zeal to denounce those of others. A denunciatory or censorious spirit is hostile to the spirit of the gospel. That’s true. I mean, unless of course we’re talking about violation of God’s word. But in terms of these points of application in which there is no fixity from God’s word, we do not want we want to put off that old Adamic nature of Cain with the censorious spirit of the brother’s offering to what the brother is doing.

Put it off.

We want to Put off grudges. Put off grudges is the next reference here. A grudge. Let’s see. I’ll read the text first in James 5:9. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. You want to put off grudges. A grudge means to be placed in a strait place, as it were. It’s interesting that in Hebrews 13:17, where you’re supposed to help those who are over you in the Lord, who will have to give an account for your soul that they do this ministry without grief.

That word grief is the same word for grudge here. So, it’s going to be a temptation to rulers to hold grudges or to get griefful or to be put in a strait by people who will not allow themselves to be sensitive and moldable according to the word of God as it’s administered by the officers of the church. So, if you get real stiff necked, then it presents a tendency on the part of Richard and myself to have a grudge much about you and to get put in a strait place by you.

Now, it’s not we shouldn’t do that, but we’re not the point is here. This is what the grudge means to be. And you can develop you can develop a grudgeful spirit against a member of the body of Christ and praise God’s holy name that in this fellowship for 15 years, he has not allowed those things to go on very long. I know that they have gone on for a period of time at various times. The Reformation Covenant people have come to the table of the Lord which we serve every week with a grudge against someone else.

But praise God’s holy name that he does not allow that to continue. And you know what does it say? Don’t hold a grudge against one another. Don’t grudge. Why? Behold the judge stands before the door. Well, that’s what we’ve experienced here. When grudges have been held, the judge comes and the judge says, “Enough of that. This is going to stop. This is going to stop right now. And if I got to send you kids to different rooms.

That’s what I’m going to do. It’s stop him. You know, I just urge you if you have grudges against people, if you’re in a strait because of your attitude towards somebody else at this church, know the surety that God is faithful at this church. He will not abandon us. He’s here. He’s present. And he comes in strengthened forms to deal with these kind of problems. Grudges will come. So will King Jesus. Judge yourself so that you don’t have to be judged by his coming to us in that kind of judgment.

Put off grudges.

Put off divisions. Romans 16:17 and 1 Corinthians 1:10. Put off divisions. I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions, offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. And I beseech you in 1 Corinthians 1:10, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing to be no divisions among you that should be perfectly joined together.

Put off divisions. And you know, you put off divisions by putting off all this other stuff. Grudges, censorious spirits, lust, covetousness. Those are the things that cause divisions. Pride. Those are the things that cause divisions. Those are the things that we’re to put off.

Okay. What do we put on? No, I won’t go through the whole list. Don’t get worried. Your dinner won’t get cold. I will conclude this I want to go briefly through them and maybe we return next week to one or two of them.

Put on what humility. Luke 22:26. But you shall not be so that he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that doth serve. See, isn’t that nice? Isn’t that great? God tells you that if you’re stronger in the faith, you’re stronger to the end, that you can be weaker, that you can serve the younger, that you can serve the weaker guy. See, it’s the very opposite of this Romans 14 where our tendency is to despise him.

He says, “If you’re going to love your brother, put off all that stuff.” And here’s what you put on. You put on humility. You put on a condescending spirit. You put on a desire to help the brother even if he has difficulties. You put on a spirit of service to people. All this other stuff, God will work through you and all this stuff will just come flowing out somewhat naturally. I mean, as God takes the word and ministers it to you, if you get this first thing, right?

But if you have pride and you haven’t put that off and you haven’t positively put on humility, all the rest of this is going to be completely untenable for you, completely impossible to still God says, you know, lay down your life that your brother might live.

Put on the doing of God’s will. Number two, Matthew 12:50 in Mark 3, I talked about those last week. Jesus said, “Who’s our brother and sisters? Who’s my mother?” The one who does God’s will.

Three, put on service. Serve one another. Who is greater? He that sinnth me or he that serviceth not is not he that siteth in meat, but I am among you as he that serves. Our great model for humiliation is the Lord Jesus Christ who came to serve us. And so we’re to put on service. We’re to put on salutations, greetings, salute. Matthew 5:47, if you salute your brothers only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans do this? He says to greet, to salute throughout the New Testament epistle, salute each other. It actually means to wrap your arms around somebody more literally. You don’t have to do that. You don’t got to kiss them on each side of the cheek cuz…