We'll start reading the fifth
chapter here in 1 Thessalonians. We're going to start reading
at verse 11. This will kind of be our backdrop
verse, but we'll be looking at several verses this morning.
In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 11, it says, Wherefore,
comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. Wherefore comfort
yourselves together, that means when we're gathered together,
right? Comfort yourselves together and
edify one another even as also ye do. I thought I would speak
this morning a little bit about edification. I don't really speak
a lot or preach a lot as far as from admonition viewpoint
or vantage point. I do think that the scripture
teaches admonitions in the Bible. I think a lot of times whenever
we preach on the admonitions of scripture that we always need
to keep in view that these are not duties that we got to keep
up to keep up, you know, standing with God or anything
like that, and I'm not here telling you that there's a list of rules
that you need to get out there and do, otherwise we're gonna,
you know, call you a heathen or something like that. The admonitions
of Scripture are there for us to remind each other of the statements
of facts of Scripture. A lot of times admonitions, even
though they're admonitions, they're a statement of fact or a commentary
on what we see as the works of God in us and to remind us what
these works are and that this is the things that are evident
and these are things that we should endeavor to do. But at
the end of the day, we always remember that it's God who works
in us to will and to do His good pleasure. You know, for me to
be, you know, the Bible says, you know, to rejoice in the Lord
always and again I say rejoice Well, where does rejoicing come
from? Where does joy come from? It has to be a work of the Spirit.
You know, you can command me all the day long to rejoice,
but unless the Spirit gives me to rejoice, I'm not going to
rejoice. So, as we talk about admonitions, we're not denying
the fact that God is the one who works in us to will and to
do His good pleasure, that He's the one that gives us the thought,
He's the one who gives us the desire, He's the one that gives
us the gumption, and the activity of it. So all this, again, is
under God's sovereign control. So what I want to share with
you this morning is just something that we should keep in our mind.
And I say this, I know it's hard to separate all these things,
but I say this from man's perspective. We endeavor to do these things
as man's perspective. the things that God has given
to us that if we follow these things, they do make things better
for us, right? If we follow God's precepts,
God gives us these precepts for our good, okay? There's good
that comes out of that. As I think I mentioned last week
or something else, like the deal about adultery, you know, God
says not to commit adultery. Well, if you follow that precept,
it's gonna make your marriage a whole lot better, right? So,
we look at the scriptures here and it says here, Comfort yourselves
together and edify one another, even as you do also. For those
that are watching and joining in, I know we're way late in
how we normally come in. We had some pretty good discussion
this morning before we got started and everything, and was sharing
stories about stuff in the past. Anyway, here we are now. But exactly what we were doing,
we were comforting one another with experiences that we have
been through, that the Lord has brought us through. things that
we have learned from our experiences as God's people that he has taught
us. In the case of some of the conversation that we had this
morning, we've experienced separation from other people because of
what we believe. That is by the sovereign act
of God. Even the Bible says, you know,
heresies must come that those who are approved of God are the
people of God, that they might, that it might prove those who
are his people. You know, so there are going
to be issues, there are going to be conflicts, there are going to be things
like that. Well, here we see the scripture is talking about
comforting each other whenever we come together. Now, most people
know and have heard me preach for a long time and I hold the
position that whenever we talk about the term ecclesy or church,
we're talking about the gathered assembly. That is the people
of God, the elect of God, the family of God that comes together
and has been gathered together in a a place and has been called
out from wherever they're at to come together. And whenever
they come together, they form a body together here. And so
as we have come together this morning, we come together as
the people of God, the assembly of God. And therefore, the Bible,
whenever it speaks of edifying or whenever you come together,
whenever you gather together, one of the things we do, and
we've mentioned this in times past, we come for the preaching
of the word. We also come for the exaltation
of Christ through song, through singing, we do that. We come
and we share our burdens with one another, we've done that.
We come together and the Bible says that we are to comfort one
another here. That whenever you come together, we come together
for several things, right? For the worship of God. Well
it says here, wherefore comfort yourselves together, but it says
after that, and edify one another even also as ye do. So Paul is
encouraging the Thessalonians here to edify one another. That's kind of what I thought
we had talked about this morning is this thing of edification,
of edifying one another. What does that term mean? What does edify? Whenever someone
says to edify somebody, the word edification, what does that actually
mean? Well, the term is actually used
in the Bible about 38, 39 times, give or take, depending on the
word itself. But it's in the Scriptures a
few times. But if you look and you see everywhere
that this word, this Greek word for edification or edify is found
in Scripture, how the King James translators translated that and
how we look at that word and find it everywhere in Scripture,
the word means to build. It means to be a builder. to build up, to be in building,
or to embolden. That's how the words are used
throughout scripture. That's how God has defined the
word edification. And so we know that the word
means to build up or to build or to embolden. So it says whenever
we come together to comfort ourselves together and to build one another,
to build each other up, to strengthen, to encourage, to embolden one
another. We were talking this morning,
Larry shared something with me that helps me embolden whenever
I come across something. Larry even made comment that
something that I've said in the past, it helped embolden him
to answer to another guy that had a question about something
and everything. That's what we do whenever we're
together. One of the passages of Scripture that comes to mind
as far as this is, and I can't remember exactly where it's at,
brother, you might be able to tell me, but it talks about iron
sharpening iron. Whenever we come together, we,
whenever iron sharpens iron, we got those steels in there
that we take our knives and we do, whenever we run that steel
against that other steel, what does it do? It hones it down,
it sharpens it up, it builds the edge of that knife. And so that's what Paul is saying
here. Whenever you Thessalonians, whenever you come together, in
your assembly, and whenever you're with each other, and whenever
you speak with each other, whether it's in the corporate assembly,
or whenever you're meeting in your houses together for fellowship,
or whatever you're doing, when you come together, comfort each
other, and build each other up. Now, if you would turn with me
over to Ephesians, we see another passage here that Paul used. Ephesians chapter four and verse
29, Another admonishment or an encouragement
to edify, Ephesians 4, verse 29, it says, let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth. Now, I'm just going to stop right
there. That's hard for us, isn't it? Let no corrupt communication
come out of your mouth. We're very quick to want to run
people down. You know, we want to always make
ourself look good and someone else look bad. We always want
to talk about things that appeal to the nature of man, the natural
man. And it's saying here that whenever
you come together, let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying,
that it may minister grace unto the hearers. So that's something
that we should keep in mind whenever we come together and whenever
we meet with each other. is to encourage each other and
build each other up, and if there's anything that is of not good
communication, we should just let that lie, okay? I may have
an issue, I may have a problem, I may not like something or something
like that. That's not gonna help my hearers, okay? It's not gonna
help my hearers. Matter of fact, that's why I
apologized about saying something about a guy earlier, you know?
I said something that was in my heart, that I felt, about
this fella because of a experience that I had with him in the past.
I shouldn't have said that because now this guy that you guys may
not even have a clue of, now that puts something in your mind
that, you know, shouldn't be there, you know. So, you know,
I was at fault there. I shouldn't have done that. And
I believe that's what this is talking about. Don't let the
corrupt communication proceed out of our mouth. but that which
is good, but here's the term again, to the use of edifying,
to the use of building up. So when we come together, we
harbor and we think about and we dwell upon the things that
are for the building of each other up. And again, I know that's
hard to do. I know it's something that we
strive to do. We would want to do that and
everything, but again, we sometimes appeal to our nature that lifestyle
always talk about negative things. And I'll be honest, and everybody
that knows me has known me for a long time, you know, I tend
to be negative about certain things a lot. You know, I always
find the negative things. We go to eat somewhere, we may
have had a bunch of good stuff to eat, but what am I going to
talk about? Man, that thing, that was nasty, or that was cold,
or that was blah, blah, blah. We always find So, you know, we kind of tend
to have that nature to always want to dwell on the negative.
And, you know, I'm not talking about hippy-dippy fake stuff
where we're all just tying just everything as roses and butterflies
and all that kind of stuff. I don't think that you have to
be fake about stuff, but I think there comes time that we ask
the Lord to give us discernment to know when to speak and know
when to not speak, to withhold saying certain things and to
not. And again, that's the Lord. The tongue is something that
we cannot bridle. The only time this tongue is
going to get bridled is if God bridles it. And so we pray that
the Lord would give us these things. But we see here Paul
is saying that it's very, very important in the assembly that
we let not corrupt communication proceed out of our mouth, but
that which is edifying, because the reason that we've come together,
not only is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ as far as the vertical
worship, but it is also in the edifying of one another in the
horizontal relationship. We come together to lift each
other up and to minister grace unto the hearers. Who are these
admonitions to? That's kind of what I wanted
to focus on first. Who are the admonitions of Scripture to?
Well, you've heard me say it a lot that this Bible and all
that's contained in there is written to the people of God.
It's not written to the reprobate. Okay, now the reprobate's free
to read all these things and they're going to read all these
things and they're going to apply human knowledge and human reasoning
to these things, interpretation to these. But the spiritual nature
of this Bible and everything that it's talking about in here
and the reason that it was written and the people to who it was
written is the people of God. But first the edification, to
edify one another, to build each other up. This admonition is
to the church. Turn with me if you would to
1 Corinthians chapter 14. Paul talks a whole lot about
edifying in the church. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, look
if you would with me at verse 5. Now I'm going to read some
stuff and there's a lot to be said about other stuff that's
found in here as far as it pertains to spiritual gifts and things
like that that I'm not going to get into. I just wanted to
draw out and emphasize the edification part. Paul writes, I would that
ye all speak with tongues but rather that ye prophesy. For greater is he that prophesieth
than he that speaketh with tongues except he interpret that the
church may receive edifying." So one thing we see here that
any spiritual gift, but particularly prophesying or preaching, the
word prophesying there is talking about preaching, the foretelling,
not foretelling, but the foretelling of the Word of God. We are putting
forth the Word of God. That's what prophesying is. In
that aspect, this morning, I would be a prophet, not a foreseer
of the future or a teller of things to come. but that I am
a fourth teller of the things of God. I'm taking the things
of the Word of God and I'm telling them to you. That's prophecy. And why do we come together?
And why do we prophesy? Why is any gift that the Lord
has given to those within the church for the edification of
the church? That the church may receive edifying. So there is an importance in
the preaching during the worship of God and the gathering of the
assembly. Now, it's not the primary thing. Well, I say primary. Anytime
we even sit around and visit, we're still prophesying and forth-telling
the things of the Word of God, okay? But I'm saying that some
people make it so paramount. I've told you in the past that
my uncle was telling me that there was a guy at the church
that he was pastoring at. I think they said that there
was a man who had whenever they were looking for a pastor, I
came and they told the church, he said, you know, whenever I
stand up to preach, all the lights in the congregation has to go
out and the only lights that's going to be on is the ones just
right over the pulpit. You know, I mean, we're going
to draw as much attention, you know, you look in the past like,
you know, Spurgeon and the other preachers in the past that you
look at their churches and they have these big, giant, you know,
uplifted things, you know, that they stand in, you know, where
they preach from. Now, some of that could be to
get up above where they could hear. They didn't have, you know, probably
didn't have speaker systems and things like that. They were preaching
to large groups of people and get up there where you can be
heard. Some of that I can understand. But what I'm saying here is,
you know, I don't know where I was going
with that, to be honest with you. Mine just went that way.
But anyway, we cease for the edifying of the church. We're
here to edify one another through the preaching of God's word. Look, if you would, over verse
12. It said, even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous of
spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of
the church. So he's exhorting us to, if we're
wanting to seek to do anything, you know, and a little backdrop
on this, the Corinthian church was seeking after these showy
gifts, okay? These extra biblical, not extra biblical,
extraordinary or extra spiritual gifts that was given to the church
at that time that was establishing the gospel, establishing the
churches at that time, that they were wanting those. They was
wanting those gifts that those apostles had to be able to heal
people and to speak in tongues and to do all these kind of things,
you know. And so they were seeking after
those gifts But the things of love and charity, you know, all the different gifts that
the Spirit has given, they weren't seeking after those gifts because
they're not as showy, they're not as, you know, putting you
at the center of things. And that's why Paul actually
was writing Corinthians to them is to kind of put them in their
place about this whole thing. And matter of fact, we see here
that in both of these verses, he says here that one of the
things that's important is that we excel in edifying the church. That's our desire, is that anything
that we do is for the building up of everybody, is the edification
and the building up of the people of God. Look, if you would, at
verse 26. He says, How is it then, brethren,
when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath
a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation,
Let all things be done unto edifying. So everything that we do, why
do we sing the songs that we sing? We do it to edify. Why
do we pray? We do it to edify. Why do we
visit with each other and share our experiences with each other?
We do it to edify. Why do we preach? We do it to
edify. Why do we do anything? We should
do it to edify, to build up, to strengthen, to encourage,
to embolden each other. And so these are some of the
thoughts that we should have. Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Corinthians chapter 12. Once again, Paul writes in the
second letter to the Corinthians, verse 19. Paul writes, again, thank ye
that we excuse ourselves unto in Christ, but we do all things,
dearly beloved, for your edifying." See, the mentality of the ministry
of Paul, and I think it should be of every preacher, for every
member of the church, whether they have any office or not,
whether they're a deacon, whether they're a preacher, you know,
whatever. We're all the part of the body
when we come together, and we all are to edify one another.
We all have that important work of edifying. As the Lord enables
us, we edify. Our desires and prayers should
be that, Lord, help me. How should I be edifying to my
brothers and sisters in Christ? How can I do that? Again, thinking,
how should I speak? Should I say that? Should I bring
that up? Should this be an issue? What
do I do to edify and build up each other? The reason that we think about
these things is because surely we hope that the Lord has given
us this desire, but the desire is that we all live and enjoy
the work and the salvation of Christ Jesus. We all want to
see our brothers and sisters exalting the Lord. You know,
if I see, over the years I've been discouraged whenever I see
a brother that's usually that the Lord has built up very strong
in the faith and has been a great encouragement to me, then all
of a sudden, he's not. Or she's not. And you think,
man, how... What's the old phrase? How the
mighty have fallen, so to speak. I could never see this person
being like this. They've always been such a faithful
person, said like that. Again, it's God who gives the
measure of faith. But we can be discouraged by
those things, right? And so our desire is, what can
we do to encourage and to build up if we see a brother or sister
who is falling into depression over things? Come to their aid,
you know, things like that. The Spirit's going to lead us
in those things. But know that that is what we should desire
and ask of the Lord, is to give us these things. But it says
here, Now, we do all things dearly beloved for our edifying. I think one of the things that
we could probably sit and do, other than praying that the Lord
would lead us in these things, is to always think on all the
things that we do. What's the reason that you do
the things that you do? Look at what is in Ephesians
chapter 4, verses 11 through 12. Now again, we see this is specifically
for the church. He's saying when you come together,
when you're together for the church to edify one another,
right? Here he says in verse 11, and he gave some apostles
and some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, that's the maturing of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ. So here again, God has given
specific calls upon men and given them gifts to be able to share
and to preach and to teach and to convey the gospel and the
word of God for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry. Now, who's to do the work of
the ministry? Is it the preacher that's doing the work of the
ministry? No, it's for the whole congregation. The work of the
ministry is the whole congregation. but He has raised up men and
given them gifts and a calling to edify or to, what does it
say there, mature, to perfect the saints for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Why are you
being matured in the things of God, in the understanding of
Scripture, in the things like that? Why is God growing you
in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
for the work of the ministry. The work of the ministry of what?
Well, primarily, the work of the ministry of edifying people
of God. Secondly, the ministry of the
gospel. Whether it's in here or whether
it's anywhere that you're at, God is working to teach us and
to grow us in the grace and knowledge of God for the work of the ministry
of the gospel. And the ministry of the gospel
isn't just out there as a lot of the Armenians think, Oh, we
come in, we gather to worship, and we scatter to evangelize,
you know? Hey, listen, the gospel is just
as much for in here as it is out there. Matter of fact, the
gospel is here because that's what we feed on. That's what
our spirit desires and longs for, is those things. And so
we edify one another, we build each other up, and one of the
ways that we do that is whenever we come together, we do that
as a church, whether it be by those that God has given with
the gifts and the offices of the church, or whether it's just
each and every one here doing those things which will build
each other up. Which leads me to the other thing
is that not only do we do that corporately, but we do that as
individuals, one with another. We find that in Romans chapter
14, when Paul writes to the Roman church, Romans chapter 14 and
verse 19. He says, let us therefore follow
after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one
may edify another. So here we see a more personal,
not just a corporate way of doing things, but we see an individual
way that we do things for the edify that may edify another. Okay, so he says, let us make
for peace and things that wherewith one may edify another." What's going to be the peaceful
way of handling these things? We was talking this morning,
a lot of times we can be brash. I can be brash. I did it this week, matter of
fact, with my boss. Instead of trying to find a peaceful
way to talk about things that we had a disagreement about,
I just immediately became offended, I immediately became pridefully
irritated and mad, and immediately lashed out. Okay? Where I could
have probably let a kind word turn away wrath. I could have
just not said something and just suffer myself to be defrauded
and go along with whatever. Not that I'm saying that I was
right and he was wrong because we both had, both of us was wrong
and both of us was right. We both had issues going on this
week. But anyway, and at the end of
the day, we did reconcile and everything was good and we're
still buddies. But I could have probably handled
that a lot better than I did instead of lashing out. I think
this is kind of one of the things that we see here. Let us make
for peace and things wherewith one may edify another. I really
am encouraged by certain men who, it just always seems that
no matter what turmoil or what disagreement or what thing comes
up, they always find a way to not let that knock them off as
far as being positive about things, about being encouraging about
things. I remember a story my grandpa
told me, whenever he passed through the church over here in Pitcher,
that there was a man in their town, and this man was horrible. I mean, he was a mean guy. Nobody had anything good to say
about this guy, whatsoever good to say about this guy. Well,
there was a man in their church who they said that he never had
anything bad to say about anybody. I mean, he said, I've never heard
this guy ever say anything bad about anybody. Well, the mean
guy passed away and they were having a funeral and the guy
that always talks nice about people was asked to speak at
this funeral. And they were talking amongst
themselves saying, we're kind of interested to see what he
has to say because There ain't nobody has anything good to say.
I mean, there really isn't nothing. The guy was, I mean, just mean
as gouge. And we're kind of interested
to see what this guy got up to say. And this guy got up and
they said that whenever he got to talking about some of the
things in the life of this man, he said, well, I know one thing
more than anything is this old fellow right here could sure
whistle a good tune. And that's always stuck with
me, is that this guy would not ever say anything bad about anybody,
and always tried to find the good. And this is kind of what
I think about whenever I read this scripture, and I know I
fall way short of this, but it says, let us therefore follow
after things which make for peace. This guy was not gonna dive into
the muck and the mire of running this man down. I don't think
this man's in heaven today, or I don't think that this guy here
What can I say about this guy? We all know how he was. He tried
to find whatever he could to make for peace in this situation. And as I said, I often fail about
this and I wish I was better about it. Look back if you would
at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Let's
look at some things that can, from our perspective again, again
we know that God's in control of all these things and He gives
us our desires and He gives us the ability and the will and
the things. But from our perspective, let's
look at some of the things that we can at least know about ourselves,
at least know about the situation. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, let's
look at some things that can maybe hinder this edification.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, look at verse 1, it says, And I, brethren,
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, But as unto carnal,
even as unto babes in Christ, I have fed you with milk and
not with meat. For hitherto you were not able
to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal,
for whereas there is among you envy and strife and divisions,
are ye not carnal and walk as men? So one of the things that
can definitely hinder the edifying of each other is walking in this
carnal way. as Paul talks about. Whenever
we have envying and strife and divisions, these are things that
tend to lend itself to not edifying or to tearing down. We tear each
other down when we enter into envying. I tell you what, I've
seen it in the past in churches and everything like that, especially
among singers in the church. You know, someone gets up and
has a really good voice or has a really good ability to play
music or something like that and they get up and one of the
other singers is jealous and envious because this person can
do this or can sing that or can sing this and they want to be
able to do that or is asked to sing and someone else didn't
ask, well I'm a singer in church, you didn't ask me to sing or
something like that. The church that I grew up in
A lot of the Armenian churches, they have things like, they call
them katadas, around Easter time, Christmas time, the choir sing
and have specials and all these dramas and things like that.
A lot of times you get to see people bickering back and forth
because one person wants it this way, one person wants it that
way, one person wants the set to look like this, one person
wants this to be like... There's envyings and strifes.
Someone desiring after that. Preachers can be like that. How
come you didn't call me to come and preach at your You're mean,
you always call this guy, why don't you ever call me to preach? How can you ask that guy to preach
on that? Not me, I wrote a book about that. Or something like
that, you know? I had a guy who wrote a book
on justification and he thought, I ought to be the one that speaks
on that, I wrote a book about that. Well, he asked this guy
to do it. This guy said, well, I'm interested
to see what he thinks, he may have a different look at that
on that. edifying one another. Instead of getting up and saying,
well, I should be the authority on that, I wrote a book about
it. This guy said, hey, you know, I wrote a book about it, but
this guy may have a different perspective on it or have some
further information on that than I had, and I'd like to hear it. On a side note on that stuff,
because I've heard and heard preaching, well, we don't want
to hear the same, we don't want preachers preaching on the same
passages because you've already heard. Listen, I don't mind that. I don't mind, I would have a
conference, and I wouldn't mind everybody preaching on the exact
same verse, and I'd like to hear it from four different guys,
or three different guys, five, however many, you know? Why,
because it's all still the word of God, and everybody's gonna
have their perspective, and the Lord's gonna lead them in something
different than the other, and we're getting way off track.
One of the things that can be a hindrance to that, though,
is envying, when we envy one another. That was one of the
things that the Corinthian church was having a problem with, is
they were envying each other's gifts, Oh, I don't want to be,
I don't want to be the toe. I want to be the eyes, you know,
and I don't want to be the big toe. I mean, I don't want to
be the little toe. I want to be the big toe if I am a toe.
Okay. It's this envying attitude. Well,
a lot of times we have envy within the people of God. We shouldn't,
we should all want to promote each other. You know, it can
be, I can very easily be envious of brother because how many certain
This guy has a lot of sermons on sermon audio, and he's been
on there for a long time. I can be envious of that. I better
get on my thing and preach some more sermons on it, you know,
to catch up with him, you know. I don't. Why? Because the Lord
has Larry doing his thing. The Lord has Larry sharing his
stuff and doing his thing, and listen, there's a lot of times
Larry speaks on stuff that I've spoke on, and you know what?
I've learned some things from Larry. And I think Larry's mentioned
he's learned some things from me. I hope he has, but you know.
That is not envying one another, but building each other up. We
can easily become envious of each other's ministries, but
brethren, even though Sovereign Grace Baptist Church has a ministry
that the Lord has put us into, it's still His ministry. Larry
may have a ministry of preaching and teaching on all his platforms,
but the Lord has given him that ministry. That's the Lord's ministry. And so it's all the Lord's ministry,
He can't do anything, I can't do anything, no other preacher
can do anything without the Spirit anyway. So it's all the Spirit
stuff. So why would we be envious of
one another? Why would we look to each other?
You remember that, I'm always thinking about that part of Scripture
when the Lord and the disciples was walking down the way and
there was a guy that didn't follow with them, but he was over there
ministering The guy said, well, what about that guy over there?
And the Lord said, what's it to you what that guy does? That's
none of your business. If the fours, they're not against
us, so just don't worry about that guy. That guy's all bad. And then there was another one
where, talking about one of the disciples, or maybe it was the
same instance, I may have it all mixed up, where he said,
what difference is it if, you know, that guy, I have that guy
doing that, he stays alive until the resurrection, you know? And
then, And you're not. It's not your business. What
I have you doing is what I have you doing. And what I have them
doing is what I have them doing. But it's one and the same God. And that was what Paul was saying
in Corinthians, is that each one God is doing these works
and has these gifts. And all the gifts are God's working
in all of us for the edifying of all of us. The Spirit to give
to this one this gift and this one to you is none of your business.
But that we should be thankful that the Lord is giving that
to us and building us up in that. And Paul was very clear about
that. The gifts of the Spirit is to be given for all of us
and how he delivers those gifts, that's by the sovereign hand
of God. And so we should be not envious of one another and allow
strife and divisions to tear down instead of to edify. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, we see,
1 Timothy chapter 1, look with
me at verses 3 and 4, it says, As I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some
that they teach no other doctrine. Neither give heed to fables and
endless genealogies which minister questions, rather than godly
edifying which is in faith, so do. So here again we see that
we need to not worry about endless genealogies and minister questions
rather than godly edifying. Again, we can have all these
disputes, but whenever we come together as the church, whenever
we are speaking with one another, We should speak those things
which are for the edifying of one another, which is in faith,
trusting. What does it mean that rather
than godly edifying, which is in faith? Well, in faith that,
hey, it's not up to me to teach Larry something. It's not up
to me to teach Mark something or you or anybody else. It's
not up to me. That's up to the Lord. It's not
up to me to change anybody's mind in here. It's not up to
me to convert a soul to believe on the gospel. That's the work
of the Holy Spirit. So we in faith are trusting that
the Lord is building each other up in His own way, in His own
time. We're trusting that by speaking
the truth in love, by edifying one another, that the Lord is
doing His work. Again, we look to do You know,
what's the old adage? Stay in your own lane. Stay in
your own lane. Follow after the Lord. It comes down to that song we
talked about. Love God, love your brothers. Loving God, loving
each other. Okay? Do those things. Now that doesn't mean that we
compromise the gospel. That doesn't mean that we don't
compromise things. But it means that the way we
approach it and we think about how we do this, how do we go
into this in an edifying way and not a degrading or de-edifying
way. I don't know the term I'm trying
to find here. It's eluding me. But you see
on Facebook all the time, instead of men who have disagreements
edifying one another, they immediately want to slam you down and call
you a heretic or they immediately want to call you a this or that.
And they, the scripture says that it's foolish for a man to
make a, I can't think of the exact way it's said in the scripture,
but it's foolish to make a judgment about something without hearing
it or without looking into it and everything. And a lot of
times, guys, Hey, there's guys that's made statements about
certain things in the scripture that are this far above my head.
I remember listening to Brother Chet Dirks, who used to be the
pastor of Wells Track. I remember listening to him,
and listen, he would say things that to me was way over my head.
I didn't think I said, and maybe sometimes things I would disagree
with it. But whenever I went back and listened to it and actually
kind of thought about it and looked into what he was saying,
he was actually saying something more than I was. The Lord hadn't
brought me up to that understanding of things yet. And so I immediately
thought that guy's wrong. Then all of a sudden, wait a
minute, now I understand what he was saying and why he was
saying it that way. And now I understand what his
meaning is. I was wrong. I didn't search
it out. I didn't think about it. So there
again, we see some of these things that can degrade and we immediately
want to come in full force And that's because a lot of times
we're very prideful people and we think that we know it all
and we can straighten everybody else out or whatever, you know.
But I think that these hindrances to edification can be because
we walk in a carnal way and we come in with the hindrances of
disputes and things like that. James tells us, if you wanna
turn over there, it's in, James chapter 4. Verse 1 it says, From whence
come wars and fighting among you? Come they not, hence, even
of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not,
and ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain? Ye fight and
war, yet ye have not, because ye hast not. Ye ask and receive
not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lust.
So, well, let me keep reading. Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is an enemy
of God? Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain that
the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth
more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but
giveth grace unto the humble. So see, a lot of our issues comes
from pride. Comes from one's self-exaltation. And there's where a lot of the
envying and strife comes from. And so, we should be mindful
of those things and pray that the Lord would restrain that
flesh from rising up whenever we're dealing with our brothers
and sisters in Christ. Well, let's look a little bit
about how we can minister these things
among each other. Back in 2 Corinthians we find,
back there, 2 Corinthians chapter
12, if you want to be heading that direction, 2 Corinthians
12, verse 19, It says again, thank you that
we excuse ourselves unto you. We speak before God in Christ,
but we do all things dearly beloved for your edifying. We do all things dearly beloved
for your edifying. Not just our preaching, but everything
that we do. We do for your edifying. We seek
out your building up. One of my favorite verses in
all of scripture, Jerry Maurer is the one who put me on to this
verse many years ago. Some of y'all may know, I know
Brother Larry knows Jerry. Some of y'all listening and watching
may know Jerry. He's passed away several years
ago. In Isaiah chapter 40, verse one,
one of my favorite verses. It says, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Say, if your God is speaking
comfortably to Jerusalem and crying to her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received
in the Lord's hand double for all her sins. So one of the ways
that we can edify and build up each other, comfort each other
with the gospel, telling them and reminding them of what the
Lord has done for them. Back in Corinthians, in the first
letter to the Corinthians in chapter 12, we find this, verse
1. 1 Corinthians chapter Now concerning
spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know
that you were Gentiles carried away under these dumb idols even
as you were led. Wherefore, I give you to understand
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God called Jesus a curse,
and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the
Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of
gifts but the same Spirit, and there are differences of administrations
but the same Lord. That means that there There are
different kinds of gifts, and everybody has different gifts.
The Lord has given it, but it's the Spirit that gives it. And
there's different ways that that gift is administered. We don't
all administer it the same way, maybe. God may have us administer
those gifts in different ways, but again, it's the same Lord
who is governing how those gifts that are given by Himself are
to be worked out. And there are diversities of
operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."
So if we get, if we, if the Lord teaches us that, and I've got
to keep remembering that, if the Lord teaches us that, and we recognize
that, keep that in mind, that it is the Lord that is working
these gifts in us. It's not you pulling yourself
up by your bootstraps, digging in deep, trying to find it within
ourselves to do this. All these admonitions that I've
just been talking to us about, on things that we should be mindful
of, what can cause it, what can not cause it. All these things
that I'm talking about, again, it comes down to God working
us in it all. So what is this there for? It's for our growing
in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. How
is the Lord doing that? And how do we recognize it? How do we
know? What do we understand to be the work of God in us? And
how does He work these things? Well, one of the things is, He's
the one that's working all these gifts and all these ways of edifying
one another, which the gifts are given for. He's the one that's
working these in us. So if He's the one working in
us, here's another admonition for you. If you understand that
the Bible preaches and is very clear in its revelation that
the spirit gifts that are given to men are worked by God Himself
in us, then we should be patient with each other because it's
not that person that is working it up in them or, you know, practicing
and doing whatever. It's God that's working in them.
That's why that verse we talked about a while ago that we do
it in faith, trusting in the Lord's work. We're trusting in
the Lord's work. Today, I may be a little snippy
at you. Be patient with me in all suffering.
You know that old song about the hen peels, he's still working
on me. Well, I don't quite agree with that. The theology is kind
of, you know, a little skewed in that, but there is some truth
in that. Hey, you see me today, I may
be a little prideful and snippy. Yep, that's my flesh. But again,
the Lord is the one who is going to work patience in me. He's
going to work a humility in me. I can't work it up on my own.
I'm having to trust in him. I know people are going to say,
well, that's just kind of, you're just kind of copping out. You're going
to say, well, every time you're seeing that you're just saying,
well, it's just God who's not working in me then and everything.
I'm not encouraging that either, brethren, although that is true. If I, if God restrains grace
from me, my flesh is going to go wild. If God gives grace to
me, guess what? He's going to restrain my sinfulness
in his time for his purposes. It is God who Is God who withheld
Abimelech from sinning with Sarah? But is God who also hardened
Pharaoh's heart to sin against God? He says, Now there are diversities
of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of
administration, but the same Lord. There are diversities of
operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man. Why? To profit with all. That means to profit everyone. The reason that God has given
you a gift, and He has given, if you're a child of grace, and
been gathered together in an assembly together, He's given
you a gift for the edification of everyone. Not the edification
of yourself. That's where these charismatic
Pentecostals and people that believe in these tongues, oh,
I have this prayer language that's to God, you know, and everything
like that. No, the gifts are given to the
church. There is no gift given to edify
yourself, the individual. Any gift that is ever given to
anybody is given to profit with all. Look what he said in Ephesians
chapter 4. Again. Ephesians chapter 4, look
down at verse 11. We just read this a while ago.
And He gives some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some
pastors, teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. He has
given them and it's for all. One of the other ways that we
can do this, brethren, is by loving each other. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 8, In verse one, it says, now as
touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have
knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, and I can
attest to that. I am an example of that. There's
a lot of times I've learned something, and guess what? It puffs me up.
I'm maybe going to go out and straighten everybody out, because
I've learned something. But it says, knowledge puffeth
up, but charity, or the word there, charity, it means love,
but love edifies. The love of God working in the
heart, and again, loving God and loving the brethren, that's
a work of God in us. I can't muster up that love.
I can't exhibit and display that love. God has to do that in me. He's the one that shows forth
that love through me. But it says here that this love,
edify it. How do we love, or how do we
edify one another? We do it by loving each other.
I pray that the Lord give us a love for each other. You know,
I love my children. And I do things for my children
that I probably wouldn't do for other people. Why? Because I
love them. There is a relationship that
is bonded there because of, for one, just the time around each
other, but we grow into a relationship with each other. But brethren,
we have a relationship that goes deeper than even blood. It's
a spiritual relationship that we have. All of us are sinners
that are deserving hell, but yet God has saved us from that.
God has given His Son to die for us for that. And each one
of us are blood-bought by Christ. And so, therefore, that love
will definitely be towards God, but we should love each other
because we know, hey, that brother was in the same boat that I was
in. He was deserving of hell as much as I'm deserving of hell.
But yet God has saved him, and so God has given us a love that
is more than a brother or sister in the flesh. It's a brother
and a sister in the Spirit, in Christ. And so that love is something
that the Lord sheds abroad in our heart, and it's through love
that we edify. It's not out of duty. I'm telling
you, if you try to edify each other out of duty, it's going
to fail, because what happens whenever you follow duties? You
get tired. You get one out. This was a grueling
week for me at work. A lot of hours, a lot of work. I was spent, whenever I came
home Friday, I told the kids, I'm glad this week is over. It
has been a hard, long week and everything. And listen, duty,
where's you at? You get tired. You want to give
up. There was, about Wednesday afternoon, I came home and said,
tell them, boy, this is it. Man, I hope this thing's over
quick. I'm done. I'm tired. Not just because of
the labor and the activity, but the thought process of having
to put this thing together and all the issues we ran into. And
then there was some of this tension that me and my boss had, again,
which ended up, everything's fine now and everything, and
I'm not playing blame on anybody. But again, it's all consuming.
Duty brings you to a point where you're exasperated and you want
to give up and you just stop. So anytime we try to edify out
of duty, guess what? I'm eventually going to cross
the, you're going to cross the line with me. Okay, I'm done. But if we're being exercised
by God to serve in love, what's going to happen? Love covers
the multitudes of sin. Love suffereth long. It does
not envy. It does not boast. All these
things that we've been talking about that were hindrances to
edifying, guess what? Love destroys that. Love destroys
every bit of that. So again, we pray that the Lord
would increase our love for one another. How often do we pray,
Lord, would you help me love Daniel more? Help me love Daniel
more. You know, help me love The Brethren,
more. There's a quote by Henry Floyd
in Romans 14. I want to read you a quote that
I had. I was telling you about this
earlier before we came on. But I want to read you a verse
of Scripture in Romans 14. And it's verse 19. It says, let us therefore follow
after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one
may edify another, that we read earlier. There was a quote that
I read, again, I don't like to use a lot of quotes by men, but
I seen this quote by a commentator, and he said this, he said, far
from contending about meats and drinks, did I read the right
verse? 1490, okay. from contending about meats,
drinks, and festival times. And I tell you what, brother,
we have a lot of de-edifying over meats and drinks and festival
times. Okay? I know we all have our
convictions about Easter and about Christmas and holidays
and things like that and everything. And sometimes we can let those
contentions de-edify. But he says, far from contending
about meats, drinks, and festival times, in which it is not likely
that the Jews and Gentiles will soon agree, let us endeavor to
the utmost of our power to promote peace and unanimity, that we
may be instrumental in edifying each other in promoting religious
knowledge and piety. And as I mentioned before we
came on, that word piety there doesn't mean necessarily holy
living or becoming more holy, that word piety as it's used
in scripture, whenever you seek it out, you'll see that the word
piety there means reverence to God. So may we encourage each
other or promote each other in knowledge and reverence towards
God instead of being stumbling blocks in each other's way. And
I thought that was a good encouragement to us, is that whenever we come
together, We come together, the centrality is the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the person and the work of Jesus Christ, and then our
love for each other and building each other up in that and our
reverence towards our God. And I thought that was a good
thing. I think that is what verse 19 is really drawing out, that
we might make peace, wherewith that we may edify one another. And if we do that, and if you
look at chapter 15 there in verse 2 it's just the same page for
me maybe the next page for you it says let everyone of us please
his neighbor for his good to edification now that please doesn't
mean just do everything that they want you to do but but it
says to try to live in such a way that you are are not an offense
to your brother or your sister in christ these are some of the
ways that we can minister edification towards each other So, what is the purpose of all
of it? Why do we do all this stuff? Well, in Jude we find,
Jude chapter 1. Is there a Jude chapter 2? There's only one chapter in Jude, by
the way, if you don't know that. Jude chapter 1, but look if you
will at verse 20. It said, But ye, beloved, building
up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Building up yourselves. Whenever
we are doing this, whenever this ministry is at work in us, when
God is working out this love edification in us, what is it
doing? It's building us up in the most
holy faith. We're being built up in the faith.
As I mentioned, we learn from each other. We see different
angles of the gospel that we might not have seen. It encourages
us in the faith. Like I said, Larry preached a
message on his thing. I listened to that. That encourages
me. I think the same way now. It somewhat emboldens me to make
a stand. Why? Well, a lot of times it's
easier to stand when you know others are standing for that
same thing as well, right? There's a lot of doctrine that
I believed before I found out anybody else was actually believing
it. Whenever I began to believe about eternal Bible union, whenever
I began to believe about Adam being created natural, the thing
that we were talking about this morning, whenever I began to
believe about the pre-existence of Christ, all these things Now
I'm going to say the pre-existence of Christ and everything. That was something that was kind
of pointed towards on that by somebody, so I probably couldn't
lay that in there. But the way the earth was created and the
shape of the earth, the cosmology, the biblical cosmology and other
things like that, those things, man, I was like, hearing these
things, the Trinity, These things were some things that the Lord
had really been impressing upon me from the scripture. And I
was finding a hard time of things that I had believed in the past,
but I wasn't finding anybody else that was believing that
around me. I wasn't seeing that in what books were available
to me at the time and everything like that. And then all of a
sudden, boom, I see some guys that believe that. Oh, wait a
minute, you mean there was old Baptists of the past that actually
held to these things? As a matter of fact, I've mentioned
some folks before, I've got a series of books of Golden Age of the
Baptist from a certain period of time, Brother Stanley Phillips
edited and put together. And you go down through the contents
of that, listen, they're probably half of the messages in there
is about eternal vital union. I've never heard that term in
my life. But yet I believed in an eternal vital union. I didn't
have the vocabulary for it. I didn't have a word for it.
But I believed that there was an eternal seed
in Christ Jesus, that eternal life was in Him, and that life
was before the foundation of the world, that there was this
actual union, that the union didn't take place when I believed,
that the union took place before the foundation. I was believing
these things, but I wasn't hearing this from reformers. I wasn't
hearing this, because they were talking about union, either at
the cross, or they were talking about union at faith. And so,
whenever I stopped, man, I was encouraged by seeing other people
and then beginning to meet other people that believe these things.
And guess what? I become a little bolder in my
preaching. Now, I say that to my shame. I should be bold no matter who
preaches it. Preach what the Lord has given
you. But this is what I'm talking about. As a people of God, we
build each other up in the most holy faith by the preaching of
the gospel, the attending of the gospel with each other. And I believe this is kind of
what this is talking about here, that we find in this passage,
is that building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Ghost. Look, if you would, at Colossians
chapter two, and I'm just about done. Colossians chapter two. Look at verse 6. "...as ye have therefore received
Jesus Christ the Lord, so walking in Him, rooted and built up in
Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving." That we are built up or established
in the faith. That's what that word established. To be rooted in, to be grounded
in and built up in. the faith. Rooted and built up
and established in the faith. The reason that we seek edifying
one another is that we might build each other up in the faith.
And lastly, 1 Peter chapter 2. Someone has some other ones that
they would like to add to this. I'll end with this one. chapter
2 and verse 5. It says, Ye also as lively stones
are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus. Ye as lively stones are built
up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual to God, but notice how that work
is done. By how much learning we do, by
how much self-help we have, by, you know, puffing ourselves up.
No, how is it done is by Jesus Christ. But ye, his life and sons, are
built up a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, The reason
that we are built up as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices. Acceptable to God. Now the only
way things can be acceptable to God is if it's done by Christ,
right? Because see, the works of the
flesh profit nothing. The works of the flesh is nothing
but sin. The only thing that the flesh can produce is sin. We're all sinners by nature.
and everything that we produce in the flesh is sin. It is only
that inward man, that inner man that is in us, that is born from
above that cannot sin, and the activity of that man that is
without sin. How do we build each other up
in the holy faith? How do we edify one another?
How do we love God and love the brethren? How do we have love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance,
Faith. How do we have all those things? It is by Christ Jesus,
whose Spirit is in us, who does the work in us, who enables us,
who prompts us, who encourages us, who gives us the desire,
who helps us. He's the one who does it. And
so I pray, Lord, taking this in the and the direction
I hope it came out is that this is who we are in Christ Jesus
and how edifying works. It works by the work of God in
us and it's something that is in his people as they meet together. This is something that is evident.
It's gonna be evident in different and varying degrees and everything,
but at least we can identify and as much as in me is, as Paul
said, you know, Paul knew the predestination of God, didn't
he? Paul knew that God directed every step that he takes and
every place that he would preach, but he said, as much as in me
is, I am ready to preach to God. What does that mean? As much
as I know and can do, as God has enabled me to do, this is
my desire and this is my direction and intent. And so in that aspect,
I say, let us edify one another. Let us not let corrupt communication
come out of our mouths but those things which is to the use of
edifying and come for ourselves together and edify one another
and may we be encouraged in doing such and everything. Anybody
have anything you'd like to add to that or again any corrections? One verse I forgot, how beautiful
and how pleasant it is for those to dwell together in unity. Is
that how it goes, brother? That we dwell together in unity.
Whenever we're not being edified, there's definitely not going
to be any unity in everything. But it's a wonderful thing whenever
you see a church. And I love the times that we
have visited other churches, that whenever you go there, you
see God working love among the people together. You see that
they truly love each other. I know that whenever we, you
know, go to Choctaw or we go to Coedah and some of the other
churches that we've fellowshiped with in the past and everything,
it was always a blessing for me to see these brethren who
just, they truly love each other. and they look out for each other,
they're thinking about each other, and they're doing whatever they
can to edify one another, and they try to keep from back-talking
and back-biting and all this kind of stuff. And whenever you
see that, it's a beautiful thing, because we truly are people of
God. And out there, people hate us. So, man, whenever we come
together, I hope that we... This is a safety place, you know?
I get enough hatred out there. Please don't come and attack
me here, you know? type of thing. Be patient with
me. They're not patient with me out
there. So may we find the Lord doing that among us. And I would
encourage all of us to pray for that here, that the Lord would
help us here even more. And I don't feel that we don't,
but I feel that there, as with any center, there's always room
that we can go south, you know. But may we love each other and
love more. And as the Lord enables me, love
y'all in the Lord. If anybody has anything or wants
to share anything, brothers have anything you'd like to share? All right, well, let's bow and
have our prayer. Lord Jesus, we do come and we
humbly ask that you would put it within our hearts, allow
us, enable us, prepare us, keep us in this work of edification,
one towards another. Lord, may we not be boastful
and proudful with each other, knowing that all of us are sinners,
knowing that all of us are undeserving, knowing that all of us are flesh. But Lord, that we
might love one another, that we might serve one another, that
we might always be looking out for the good of the other brothers,
seeking, not thinking more highly of ourselves, but that we might
look to our brothers more than ourselves. Father, I know that
whenever we have that attitude and we work and live in that
way, that we'll build each other up in the faith. But again, Lord,
we know that none of this can be done without your Spirit in
us, without your Spirit guiding us, enabling us, and so we pray
for that. We pray that you would keep us,
Lord, this church as a place where Christ is preached and
exalted and worshiped. Lord, we pray that you would
not allow us to drift off into apostasy. We pray, Lord, that
you would keep us by your grace And Lord, we pray for those that
are out here in Joplin. We ask, Lord, that you would,
if they are truly children of God and believe these precious
truths of the gospel, Lord, that if they don't have a place where
you've already taken them, Lord, that you might bring them our
way and that you might add them to us, not for numeric purposes
or for boastful purposes, but Lord, we know the importance
of being together as a people of God and the encouragement
and the love and the nurture and the admonition that can be
with each other and just the time of worship together with
each other and how that lifts the soul and lifts the heart
and is encouragement to one another. Lord, we just pray for them.
We pray for the brothers and sisters that are out there that
are in places that don't have gospel churches. Lord, we truly,
our hearts Go out to them and we know that you have a purpose
for that and a reason for that. We pray that you would keep those
dear brethren. And we're thankful for the way
that you have given them access to gospel preaching through the
internet, the ability to hear and to watch gospel messages
from all over the world. So Father, we're just thankful
for that. We know that a lot of people are down on technology
and we know that there is evil that can come from some of that.
But we also know, Lord, that you've used that for good, for
your people. And so Father, we just pray that
you just might continue to edify your people wherever they may
be. Lord, again, we thank you so much for Christ Jesus. We
thank you for salvation. I thank you for these brethren
that are here today and such the encouragement that they are
to me. And Lord, I pray that you would continue to work within
us and among us to help us love one another and to serve one
another. Lord, I thank you for the experiences
that are shared between all of us that you have given us, Lord,
and just how much you have done on our behalf. But Lord, more
than anything, we thank you for your substitutionary work for
us in Christ Jesus as he has taken on our obedience, he has
taken on our sin, all the penalty and payment that was due for
our sin. He has taken us with Him in that
death and that we have come out in His resurrection justified
by God and thankful to be saved by grace and grace alone. And
so we ask you to bless this day, bless these brethren as they
leave and keep them this week, Lord. For it's in Christ's name
that we pray. Amen.