In his sermon titled 'Admonishing One Another,' Scott Brown explores Romans 15:14, emphasizing the role of church members in providing spiritual counsel. He discusses the historical context of the verse, highlighting how J. Adams utilized it to challenge modern psychological practices with biblical counseling principles. Brown underscores the sufficiency of Scripture in counseling, advocating for a reliance on biblical truths rather than secular methods. He explains that effective counseling within the church requires a foundation in 'goodness and knowledge,' facilitated by the Holy Spirit. Brown further elaborates on the necessity of like-mindedness and the importance of admonishing one another to foster spiritual growth and unity in the church. He contrasts this approach with secular counseling methods, emphasizing the unique role of Scripture in guiding believers. Throughout the sermon, Brown calls for a heart-check among believers, urging them to counsel with patience, comfort, and a scriptural basis.

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 15 and find verse 14, Romans 15 verse 14. The Apostle Paul says, The Apostle Paul says, Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, also able to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you because of the grace given to me by God. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we pray now that you would come and equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

I pray that all these words, Heavenly Father, would be fulfilled in us, that we would be filled with goodness and knowledge, and that our councils toward one another would be consistent with the glories of your kingdom. Lord, we all fall short in many ways in our councils toward one another, in proper preparation of our hearts, in proper knowledge, evil in the backdrop of our councils. We've all sinned against you and against one another in our council. And so we come to this passage, Father, asking that you would come and help us in new ways, that we would be a fulfillment of these beautiful words that are before us. Lord, I pray that you would help me not to misunderstand anything here, but that you would grow us all up this morning.

That you, Lord, would come and fill our hearts and our minds with wondrous counsels from heaven as we're together as a church. That this would be a place where the councils of the Lord Jesus Christ would be so sweet to us and that we would deliver them to one another freely from a pure heart. Oh help us Lord in all these things. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, this text of scripture is full of beautiful words.

But we need to acknowledge something, and that is that this is a controversial passage of scripture. This text caused a gigantic ruckus that broke relationships, severed institutions, and people related to them. And this morning, this text, this verse of scripture regarding counseling one another in the church, galvanized in a person by the name of J. Adams to defend the church against ungodly psychological philosophies and practices that had crept into the Church. J.

Adams in 1970 wrote a book called, Confident to Counsel. That was an atom bomb in the Christian community, and it was based on this verse of scripture right here. And he appealed to scripture for the abandonment of theories and practices of modern psychology that the church had adopted. And Jay Adams was a fearless man. I was speaking to a friend of mine who was in the counseling department at Southeastern Seminary yesterday.

And he said that when Jay Adams wrote his book, he wrote a letter of condemnation to him about that book, and then later was converted himself. But he said that he met Dr. Adams and found that he was the most humble, delightful man full of grace and deference. In the midst of all of his battles, he was not soured at all, but he was filled with the grace of God as a result of it. You know, examples of fearless men who embraced the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, we can find them all over history.

There have been times in history where the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture gained traction in the minds of leaders in the church and the people in the church. And whenever this occurs, Reformation happens, outmoded, unworkable, but popular practices are thrown out and they're replaced by biblical practices. We have, many of us have been studying one of those men, John Knox, in the history of the church. He became perhaps the supreme champion of the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture during the Scottish Reformation in the 16th century and the 17th century. Knox's view of church life went like this.

All worshiping, honoring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God without his expressed commandment is idolatry. What had happened in the days of the 20th century in the church is that human inventions had crept into the church regarding the way that we counsel one another, the way and also the content with which we counsel one another. We're living in a setting even today where church life is filled with dozens of modern inventions that have no basis in Scripture. These inventions have been used to build churches and attract people. These inventions are appreciated by those who subscribe to them.

But as Knox would say, I would say These are inventions, they are idolatries of the human brain, because Scripture alone is sufficient. The Scottish reformers died, they shed their blood, they were burned at the stake, they lost their heads, they were drowned for this one principle, that Scripture alone is the rule of faith for the Church and the individual who would serve the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scottish reformers believed that scripture alone had wisdom from God for the church. And they were disturbed by the inventions of the Catholic Church, which had diverted people's attention from the Gospel and toward all of these man-made inventions. One pope after another added one new office or practice or active spirituality, one accretion after another until the gospel was completely obliterated in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John Knox believed that worship comes by way of tradition and is not commanded by Scripture as the work of the Antichrist." That's how strong he was. Knox was speaking to Mary, Queen of Scots, on this matter, and He made it so clear that Christians have one rule of faith and one rule of faith alone, and that is the Word of God. He looked the queen in the eye and said this, nothing is lawful in the church unless it is found in Scripture. Whosoever approves by his eternal word, that shall be approved. And what he damneth, that shall be condemned, even though all men on the earth feel justified to do whatever they wish.

The battles that are waged when scripture is exalted above human opinion are legendary. And Knox was up to the task, for he had a fearlessness of man that exceeded most of us. And this was marked at his grave when he was finally being laid in the ground. One of the men who knew him and saw him in the midst of all of his conflict said this, here lies the body of him who in all his life never feared the face of man. And so in our day there's a renewed understanding of this doctrine, and there have been many men who have suffered because of their faithfulness to this understanding of Scripture.

These modern day reformers like J. Adams come in really a long train who began to emerge in the 20th century. J. Adams established the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture for counseling to reverse the trends in the culture. There was another one that God raised up right about the same time.

His name was Henry Morris. Henry Morris began to compare what the Bible said about creation and the timeline of history and said, this doesn't square with scripture. And so the modern creationism movement was born. Henry Morris in Southern California was belittled. He was seen to be a buffoon, just like Jay Adams was.

And yet he, again, another very kindly, grandfatherly, humble man, just continued to preach the Word of God, wrote one of, I think one of the most wonderful commentaries on the book of Genesis that we have today, which is just a faithful recounting of what God has said about creation and saying this, what God has said is true, let all men be proved a liar. And that was the principle that Jay Adams was operating by when he wrote his book, Competence to Counsel, which is based on this very text of scripture that is before us today. We have a verse here that was gigantically controversial yet refreshing that launched a movement that has caused the healing of many souls. Now that's the verse. Now let's broaden out and look at the context in which this verse appears because it wouldn't be right for us just to take this verse out of its context and look at it in isolation because it exists in a larger framework.

It exists in a wider logic that the Apostle Paul is spinning here. So how does this text fit in the context that we are in? Well, we are in the section, the second section of the Book of Romans. And that spans chapters 12 through 16, in which this is the practical application section of the book of Romans. Chapters 1 through 11 is doctrine, the doctrine of the gospel.

Chapter 12 through 16 is the application of the doctrine. It's the application of the Gospel. You might ask yourself, how do I apply the Gospel in my life? Well, Romans 12 through 16 shows us how you apply the word of the gospel in everyday life. And there are many areas that the gospel would affect our lives by.

And beginning in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, we read that to apply the gospel, first of all, means that you present your body as a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God which is your spiritual service so your mind your eyes every part of your body must be dedicated to God if you are to apply the gospel. And we see in our own world how people believe the gospel, but they do not, they say they believe the gospel, but they've not presented their eyes and their ears to God as a sacrifice. They're still sacrificing their eyes and their ears to Baal and all kinds of other gods that are out there in our day. So if one would apply the Gospel, he would present his body. And then in verses 3 through 8 in chapter 12, through our contribution of the exercise of our gifts.

We apply the gospel when we recognize that God has made us uniquely, He's invested within us gifts, and those are meant to be exercised. And so those, that section speaks of how one would be a contributor to the body of Christ. And then thirdly, in verse 9 through 21 in chapter 12, we see that we apply the gospel through expressing love toward one another. There are ways that we deal with our enemies. There are ways that we deal with those who curse us and persecute us.

God has given us very specific instructions for how we love one another with sincerity and without hypocrisy. And then we also apply the Gospel through our submission to the various authorities that are upon us. In Romans chapter 13, we pick up the idea that there are many authorities. There are fathers and mothers and there are employers and there are governments. All of us are under some authority.

No one is able to escape authority, but how do you live under authority? And we're given instruction about that. And then, and then the next, in the last half of Romans chapter 13, we learn that we apply the gospel by fulfilling the law. Now, the law has fallen on hard times today because people don't read their Bibles anymore. But this text says that the law of God is fulfilled in love.

Everything that was ever written in the law breathes love. So we must fulfill the law. We don't set aside, we fulfill it in the same way that the Lord Jesus fulfilled the law and he walked in love in so many particular ways. And then in chapter 14, we see that we also apply the gospel as we relate with our brothers with whom we disagree. Now there was a great disagreement in the Roman Church.

There were those who felt those Greeks and Gentiles felt comfortable eating meat sacrificed to idols. And there were those Hebrews who did not, and there was a great controversy. And one group looked down on the other and said, You're not very spiritual, you don't really know God. And so there was a looking down the nose in the Roman Church. And the Apostle Paul comes to them and he says, he says when it comes to debatable matters, not matters that are clear in Scripture, but when it comes to debatable matters, matters of conscience, we need to let the conscience of our brother reign.

That we are not the conscience of our brother. And so there are a number of things that we should do. We should receive one another. And then finally, we dealt with this last week, we need to have a like-mindedness toward one another. Paul prays that we would be like-minded toward one another.

And what's like-mindedness? Well, like-mindedness is not cloning minds. Like-mindedness is not having everybody be in the exact same place at the same time. Like-mindedness is having a disposition of Christ toward one another. Because we're all in different places.

God has revealed certain sins to this one person, but he has not to another. We all have different backgrounds, we all have different religious underpinnings that we're getting free of over time and God is releasing us from the idols and the practices slowly one at a time through life and we're all at a different place. One man might have a tremendous understanding of one area of discipleship, because God's revealed it to him. Another man might be highly advanced in another area of discipleship. Well, one man shouldn't look down on the other because he's not as advanced in the other.

So that's the context of this single verse on counseling that we are able to admonish one another. And so you might wonder, how does all this talk of admonishing one another fit in with what Paul has been saying here? You might say, I thought that we're not supposed to judge one another. I thought that we were supposed to receive one another. Does that, what does this mean?

Now he's telling us to admonish one another. I'm confused. What's the apostle saying? Well, the apostle is giving many distinctions and many different kinds of situations that occur in the church. And so we need to consider how this instruction fits in to the logic of Romans 14 and 15.

In 14.1 we see the initial proposition here, receive one another who is weak in the faith, but not to dispute over doubtful things. So he speaks of this division in the church and the tendency of believers to reject one another. They were rejecting one another because they didn't agree with one another. And he's attacking this rejectionism that was in the church. And he says, you must not despise your brother because he's in a different place in his Christian life.

Because there's diversity in the church that requires us to display the patience and the comfort of Christ. That phrase, as you know, comes out twice. It is attached to God, the patience and the comfort of God, and then the patience and the comfort of the Scriptures. You would think that the Scriptures would be consistent with the heart of God and they are. And so the Apostle is appealing to us that when we have members in different places in the church that we're patient we do not reject them, we do not push them away, We do not despise them.

It's a judgment that causes one to despise. The Bible says that we should judge one another. So when Paul says, do not judge one another, we need to look, we need to be wise about that. Because the scriptures do say that we must judge and admonish one another. So what must this mean?

It means that we do not despise one another in the midst of our conversations regarding discipleship. And so this is the tendency that was in the Roman Church. Paul is explaining that we must not have a heavy hand toward one another because, and he gives us a reason, because God is working with us as His servants. And so he says, who are you to judge another's servant? So he's saying it's legitimate to counsel one another.

But it's not legitimate to despise a servant of God, under whom God is working, in whom God is working. Because he's working out an individual sanctification process in each one of his children. He makes one man aware vividly of something and another man he seems to leave almost dead to the issue. Isn't that amazing? We are so dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that he would sanctify his church.

He said, I will build my church, and he builds his church through a number of things. Through his word, through the preaching of the word, through our conscience, through the trials and tribulations that come to us, and through the admonitions that we would give to one another and in Romans 14, in the disputes over debatable matters. The disputes should be a blessing to us, but they should not lead us to despise one another. That's the point that Paul is making. And so he brings up this question of like-mindedness.

It's not based on our thinking exactly the same thing, but having the disposition of Christ toward one another. So he says, therefore receive one another just as Christ has received us to the glory of God. You can receive your brother even though he might not be advanced in an area that you may be advanced in. And that's the point that Paul is making. So the big question that has been coming to us as we've studied Romans 14 and 15 is, well, when am I ever allowed to speak to my brother?

Do we just let everybody? Are we going to be many Paul McCartneys and just say, let it be, let it be? No, absolutely not. We are not following that philosophy at all. Are we ever authorized to debate matters?

Absolutely. If so, when can we do it? If so, how much patience should we grant? How much comfort should we grant to our brother in the midst of our exhortation of him? What qualifies us to admonish one another?

These questions are addressed in these two verses that were so controversial that were the atom bomb of the psychological world. OK, now that we've set the stage here, we've talked about the controversial nature of this text. We've talked about the nature of these men who were in the midst of the controversy and there are many historical examples of whom there's much to learn and we should be like them as much as we can as they're like Christ. And then thirdly we see this overall context in which this verse is placed. Now let's move into the text.

First of all, we notice Paul's confidence is declared. You see that in verse 1? Paul's confidence is declared. Paul is confident in something, and he's confident in this, that God's people are competent to admonish. Now I myself am confident concerning you my brethren.

So there's a there's a competency that exists in the church to provide counsel, good counsel toward one another. Now, this contradicts a number of thoughts that are in our minds. It contradicts the professional counselor principle. It contradicts the idea that you need to have a professional counselor with whom you pay $40 to $80 an hour to get help. There's this idea that if you really want to get competent help, then you need to fork out the dough and get help from a professional counselor.

He's been trained. He is the only one who can help you. There's no one in the church who's been able to help you. The elders, the deacons, the brothers and the sisters, your wife, your husband, no one has been able to help you. So you have only one, you have only one option, fork out the dough.

And you'll go to a counselor and they will tell you, oh this is a deep problem. Oh I believe that this is perhaps a long-term therapy that's necessary here. I think that, in fact, by the way, we could give you a special deal. We could give you our four-year rate, which would be discounted each session. Or you could sign up for the three-year rate.

Because you do have long-term problems that are so tangled and so needful of professional help that I will help you. Please jump on board and pay me $20, 000 over the next three years to get your problem fixed. Well, this principle in Romans chapter 15 contradicts the professional counselor principle that is existing in many of our minds. So often the counsel that we need is right right there. It's right in the wife that God has given you.

It's right in the husband God has given you. It's right in the husband God has given you. It's right in the brother who's sitting right next to you. And Paul's confidence in this principle is so clear. We also find that there are those who believe that only the minister is capable of counseling anyone in the church.

Well, this text makes that idea hogwash. And so Paul is expressing that he has confidence that, I'll use a nasty word here, laymen. And laymen are actually able to counsel and they're competent. And we do need spiritual counselors in our lives. Paul was a spiritual father.

He counseled, he encouraged, he reminded, he taught, he rebuked, and God used it for their sanctification. And we too can participate in that same blessing. We must understand that we are free to counsel one another. It's interesting that God would give imperfect people admonitions to be used of God in this way, but that is exactly what he has done. And so what makes the method work?

What makes it possible that counseling is legitimately given? And we find this in the next half of verse 14. And you see Paul's confidence explained. He explains why he has confidence in our competence to counsel, that you also are full of goodness filled with all knowledge. Notice those two words.

These are key to understanding what Paul is driving at. There is goodness and knowledge and Paul's confidence in our ability to counsel is based on the effective work of the Holy Spirit to bring about a goodness in our motivation and our knowledge of God in our counsel. For we wouldn't be, it wouldn't be right to just pull counsel out of our hats. We would only pull it out of the precious, eternal Word of God that we know is true. This was the heartbeat of the Biblical counseling movement as it was launched.

It was this, that the Bible is sufficient. That all you need to counsel one another is the Bible, because the Bible speaks of the nature of man and it speaks of every sin, and every counseling problem is a sin problem. And of course there may be chemical and medical issues that impinge on the way people feel about life. Absolutely, that's true. But at the bottom of it all is the sufficiency of scripture.

You would not want someone counseling a brother in the church if he's filled with badness. Here it says that we should be filled with goodness. Some counsel in the Church arises out of a bad heart, an angry heart. Some counsel is nothing more than just jabbing back or setting someone straight or getting your pound of flesh. That's not the kind of counsel that the Lord Jesus Christ would have operating in his church.

You would neither would you want someone to be ignorant. You would want them to be filled with knowledge. There are occasions in which our counsel should be held back because our knowledge is not adequate. We've not adequately understood what God has said on this matter. But we tend to want to shoot from the limb.

We tend to want to just say what we think because we've been told that we should share our feelings, that whatever we say must have some ground in truth. Well that's not accurate at all. So not every Christian at any given moment is competent to counsel. There may be days where I am not competent to counsel because I'm counseling out of anger. I'm counseling out of my frustration.

And my goodness has been lost. And I'm not qualified to speak to my brother because my heart is dark, because I'm vindictive, because there's been some offense that has been raised up in my heart. Many of the councils of the brothers and the sisters and the husbands and the wives and the parents to the children have come out of this well of badness or lack of knowledge. And so we must be very careful in all of our councils. We should be free to counsel one another, but as someone said in our Bible study on Tuesday, you got to check your heart at the door so that you know that your councils have some reference in goodness and knowledge.

So not every Christian is competent to counsel, but many who are filled with goodness and knowledge are competent to counsel. I read one individual, or I ran across one individual who said, any Christian is better than most trained professionals. Because at least the believer has a knowledge base. At least the believer has the filling of the Holy Spirit to operate on His goodness and His badness. So the first qualification for counseling is goodness.

This is just the fruit. This is the fruit of the Spirit. You know, for the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. That's right. Faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So our councils have to be modified by the filling of the Holy Spirit. God has filled His Church with His Spirit. He's equipped us to counsel one another. He has filled us with His presence through the Spirit. And He has given us a goodness, not of our own, But it is as a result of this filling that it takes place.

Now, what we know about this filling of the Holy Spirit is something that needs to continually be done. Yes, we have been filled with the Spirit, but there are continuous fillings that are necessary in our lives. Paul said to the Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness. And in Galatians, he said that there are qualifications for counselors that really help to define and qualify this goodness. He said, brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual restore him, can anyone finish the sentence, restore him gently.

Well there's a way, there's a way that we go about it. There's goodness, there's gentleness, gently, but watch yourself or you also may be tempted. There are temptations in our counseling one another. We may go off the deep end and say things we never should say because we also were tempted in the midst of our counsel. We went further than the Lord would have us go.

We went beyond Scripture Or we went back into the well of a polluted, angry, offended heart. There is so much confusion that comes when there's envy and strife, as James has said in James chapter 3. So he says, you who are spiritual, that's the kind of person that would be required. And then the method, the bedside manner, is characterized by gentleness. Restore it gently.

And then the counselor must be aware of himself. Watch yourself. So there are qualifications that are necessary for us to understand while we counsel. You know, there's the getting of the log out of our own eye when we're counseling. There is the establishment of love for that person and patience.

We've read about the patience and the comfort of God. This is the heartbeat of all of our councils that we bring the heart of God, that we are toward one another according to the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and sacrificed for us. Well, loving the person is probably one of the most important qualifications for any council that we might give. You may have been thinking that you need to counsel your brother or sister in this church, and I'm grateful for that. But check your heart at the door, and make sure that these councils truly are founded in the patience and the comfort of Christ, that they are gentle, that they are good in all of their character.

You know, it's very easy to counsel in anger. And if you are a friend or a parent or a co-worker is misbehaving, our tendency is to want to nail them. Is there anybody that you want to nail? Let's just stop for a moment. Is there anyone that you've been thinking you need to nail?

Just think about it for a minute. God is ministering to us here now to help us understand how we should approach the situation. Now, maybe there's a modification of the soul. Maybe there's an increase in knowledge that's necessary before this conversation happens so that the counsels of the Lord are brought out, so that the patience and the comfort of Christ are there in the midst of it. We have to realize that the Lord Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." It's so often that we want to lay heavy burdens on people. And we're not qualified to do that because our hearts and our knowledge is lacking. And then there is this qualification of knowledge. This is the idea that all knowledge is not created equal.

There's wisdom from heaven, and there's wisdom from the earth. James says, who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct and the works that are done in meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts. Do not boast or lie against the truth.

This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, then gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. That's the wisdom from heaven. You can always know whether there's wisdom from hell or wisdom from heaven.

And we're either drawing from one or the other in our councils toward one another. Some of our council has been counsel from hell because it's not been the wisdom from heaven. There's been no peaceableness in it at all. It's interesting, John Knox spoke toward the end of his life. He said, I did not hate those whom I rebuked.

I did hate the sin, but I never did hate a man." I think that statement should help us to know whether we're walking in truth and in knowledge or not. Is there hatred? Do we desire to punish that person? Is it our desire to personally set them right forever? Well, we don't really have that much weight in someone's change.

It is God who sanctifies. It is God who glorifies. And these things should be very carefully understood. So knowledge, wisdom from heaven is critical. This means that if we are to counsel, we must not only check our hearts at the door, we must check our Bibles while we're at the door, and make sure that we do have wisdom from heaven and that we're not just operating out of our own feelings and our own opinions.

Scripture is the ultimate counseling tool. Scripture is sufficient. 2 Timothy 3.16 says that everything we need for life and godliness is in scripture. And so the Bible is sufficient for all of our counseling that we might have need of. So Christians are competent to counsel when they have become aware of the issue of goodness and the issue of knowledge.

Now, Let's just stop here for one another for just a moment. Some of the most precious counsel I've ever received in my life has been from my own dear wife. She's my dearest, greatest counselor. She does have the comfort and patience of God toward me, but she doesn't always tell me what I want to hear. And I want us to just pause for a moment on the whole question of counsel from family members and counsel to family members.

I doubt if there's one single person in this room who doesn't have some tension with a family member somewhere in this world and has struggled with these issues regarding goodness and knowledge in your counsel toward one another. Here are a couple of things I would just like to encourage us to consider. One is, you husbands, as you counsel your wives, let it be according to the patience and the comfort of Christ. You wives who have so much dear and precious counsel for your husbands Let let it let it be the ground of all your counsel that you know that you are so aware That only God can sanctify your husband And he's given you to him to help him be sanctified. You are a partner in the grace of life.

You are his help me. God has appointed you to help him with many, many things. Some of those have to do with his sanctification. And I just would desire to exhort husbands and wives this morning to pay attention to all of the laws of love and the myths of your counsels toward one another. Many of you have given and received counsel that you never should have given in your marriage.

You've done damage to the relationship. You've said things that should have been withheld. They did not come from goodness. They came out of the fulmination of your frustration. They came out of your lack of trust in Christ.

They came out of, in some ways, your lack of understanding of the Word of God. Much counsel has gone between husband and wife in this way. And so I just would like to have a stop for a moment and have a time of just prayerful examination of all these things. And as we go forward to present counsel that is from the Lord toward one another, He does desire us to counsel one another, but there is a way in which that counsel should be mediated according to these things that are here in this text of scripture. One more thing.

If it's possible that there's any repentance that's necessary for any counsel or wrong attitudes that's been given between husband and wife, let it be repented of. And go to one another and help one another along the way and pick up where you left off. The same principle applies in our councils to our children. There are many times that our councils to our children come nothing out of but frustration. And our knowledge and our goodness are lacking.

There's a lot of heat, but there's not a lot of these other quantities in the Council of goodness and knowledge. All of our councils should be carefully prepared around these two things. And that includes the councils to our children. Often we just tell our children, do this, don't do that. And that's inadequate counsel.

Now that might be a good beginning and it is probably a necessary beginning, but it certainly it can't be the only part of our counsel to our children. There needs to be this context of the communication of the goodness of God out of our hearts in tenderness, in mercy toward them, without harshness, in railing, in condemnation, and a heaviness that would break their spirit. On the other hand, it would also provide knowledge. Why is this being said? Why do I require this?

What in scripture would lead me to say that this is a requirement of our family life today? So all of these councils here are implied. We have the council of a husband and a wife. We've just spoken of the council of a parent to a child. Now how about councils of brothers and sisters to one another?

God has made us a family. He has made us many brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers, spiritual fathers and mothers everywhere here in this room, spiritual brothers and sisters. I happen to be a brother and a father to many here today as we all are. And God has called us to certain responsibilities with one another He's, you know, what is God doing with us now? He's teaching us how to be a family He's teaching us how to be a church.

He's instructing us in the way which we should go. There is a way that you should conduct yourself in the house of God. So Paul's at a Timothy. And he's giving us another way for how to conduct ourselves in the household of God. And yes, the counsels of the brothers and sisters should flow.

Now you little children here, look at me for a moment. Please don't think for a moment that you're exempted from this at all. God has made you a member of the family of God. And he has given you, he is confident that you are competent to counsel. Because you are able to counsel your brothers and sisters with a spirit of goodness and knowledge.

But you should be very careful not to just run your mouth off in your councils toward one another. You brothers and sisters in a family have this same principle to guide all of your councils. Just to look out and to see the different families sitting here and the different individuals is striking to me to know that here we have a 12-year-old boy who would be counseling his 13-year-old sister, or a 16-year-old girl counseling her 6-year-old sister. And what should that counsel look like? It should look like this.

It should look like goodness and knowledge. It should look like the patience and the comfort of God. The heart of God is summed up that way. All of scripture is summed up that way. Therefore, all of our councils should be regulated by this principle.

We are ambassadors, we are representatives of Christ, And we bring news from a different land. We bring news from the King. And that is one of our roles that we have here in this church, toward one another. And God has laid this on us. And he has said that the Bible is sufficient for us.

The Bible should be the center of all of our counsel. If we cannot ground it somewhere there, we should be very careful whether that counsel should be given. So Paul moves to the next principle here in verse 14. He encourages us in our ability to admonish. He says, I am confident concerning you that you are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, able also to admonish one another.

Now, now we're going to talk about this word admonish. We're now down to some of the nitty-gritty of what the Apostle is driving at here. And the proposition of the biblical counseling movement is that the church, the members of the church are competent to counsel newthetically. You got that? Hey, there's a new word, newthetic counseling.

This term, Newthetic Counseling, which was coined by J. Adams, in fact he established an organization called the National Association for Newthetic Counselors. This word, Newthetic, is the word admonished in Romans 14. So how should we define good counsel? Well, the word, newthetic, is not the only word that should define counseling, but it's a very helpful word.

And it's composed of two words, noose, or mind, and tithemi, to place. And it's to make someone mindful of something, to place in the mind something they might not have been aware of. And that's newthetic counseling, to bring up behaviors and scriptures that help that person understand what is going on. Because we often get confused about what is going on. We may have been raised up in a Freudian worldview that says my problems are here because of repressed memories and I need to bring out my secret memories and I'm not really responsible.

Sin is imaginary. There are all these phantoms out there that are bothering me and I need to discuss them. Well, no. Biblical counseling, nephetic counseling would say, no, let's place the right thing in the mind. Let's think rightly about what's happening to me.

I just did this. How do I diagnose it? Do I say like B.S. Skinner that I just need to modify my behavior and to change man all you have to do is change his environment because he's a machine. He's just a collection of atoms.

So I just need to change this. If I just change this one thing, everything will be fine. No, the mind needs to be redrawn. Something needs to be placed in the mind that would help that person understand what is really wrong. But the modern psychologists have it all wrong.

Or the Rogerian method of counseling, Carl Rogers, who believe people are basically good. Evolution has given us everything we need. People are at a certain state. And counseling is designed to help people find their own solution. So the counseling of Carl Rogers would go like this.

I hate my mother. Tell me more. She's such a jerk. Could you help me understand how she is such a jerk? And so the Rosarian method really just wants to know how you feel.

And you just need to get it out there because how you feel is sovereign. But biblical counseling, Newthetic counseling would say no, you need to think rightly about your anger toward your mother. What does the Bible say about anger? Forget what you think about it. What does God say about it?

And so, the word nuthateo, the mind and to place, placing something in the mind to help them put their problems into context so that they know what is happening to them and they know what they do. The Apostle Paul was speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus, one of the passages that is so clear about how elders should be operating. And he is explaining his lifestyle to them. And then the apostle, he's actually encouraging them to copy his lifestyle. And then he says this.

He says, therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn you night and day with tears. That word warn is this word, nuthateo. I did not cease to place something in your mind regarding God's counsel on this matter night and day with tears. The Apostle is counseling, newthetically, in the Church of Ephesus. And that's what we should be doing here in our own Church.

Paul said to the Colossians, he sums up his whole ministry and he says, Him we preach, warning every man. That's that word, nuthat'o. Him we preach, nuthetically counseling every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I labor striving according to his working which works in me mightily." This is a ministry of the Church. When we're gathered together, we should be doing this work with one another.

I'll just have to tell you, the elders of our Church are available today to labor on any area that the Church would like to labor on. Any question, any sorrow, any problem, anything, it's appropriate for us to do that. But not just the elders. We should be doing that as brothers as well. Each brother has been given a measure of the Holy Spirit.

Each brother has the capacity for goodness and knowledge that's necessary for this counseling. So we should be engaging one another. I pray that today I myself will have opportunities to operate in this way in the church. I know that there are some of you, I know for sure that some of you have come here because you told me on the way in that you have specific needs and problems, things grinding at you, tormenting you. What will you do?

Come to your brothers, receive good counsel and test it though to see if it's of the Lord and if it's from the word of God. So this kind of admonition is so important, this newtateo that Paul is advocating. Paul also makes it clear that we should be doing this absolutely for each other. He says this, let the word of Christ dwell richly in you in all wisdom teaching and admonishing. Same word, Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

This ministry of Newthetic counseling is for all of us. We let the word of Christ dwell richly and it qualifies us to be involved in this tender, beautiful life of counseling one another. And you know what? We need to be, we're supposed to be dealing with each other in this way. And we must do it.

We have two mortal enemies about us. We have the world and the devil that are constantly aware to destroy our souls. He is a roaring lion sneaking around, seeing whom he might devour. And he wants to devour every person and every every child and every husband and wife in this church. We also are in grave danger because the flesh, our own flesh, is attracted to the world.

We are in mortal danger, and we need to be warned. This term, nuthat'eo, makes it plain that we need objective truth outside of ourselves. We need a category of thinking that's not in our brain right now. And counseling helps us to get there. We're blind and we cannot see.

Everyone suffers from some level of spiritual blindness. We are all blind in some way. And not only has God given the Word, not only has He given us the convicting ministry of the Spirit, He has given us our conscience, he's given us circumstances, he's given us weaker and stronger brothers, he's given us disagreements to sanctify us, and he also has given us the newthetic counseling of our brothers to help us to understand better how we might be sanctified. And so Paul says, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn you, Newtoteo, night and day with tears. You know, God has called us to this ministry.

We learned from the book of Proverbs that faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. And this is the proposition that's on the table for us today, that we would be involved in counseling one another. How any believer would trust in truth outside of the Word of God, I don't know. We have been transferred to a new kingdom, we have a new Lord, we have a new source of authority, and it's the Bible alone. We should trust it completely.

Then lastly, Paul makes a very fascinating statement that helps us even understand more about this issue of counseling one another. Number four, he indicates that sometimes more boldness is needed. Paul says, yes, you are competent to counsel. He says, but, but I have come to you more boldly than you've come to yourself. Now, this is an interesting thing to say.

When I read that, I thought, you know, I'm not as bold with myself as someone else might be. I certainly am not as bold with myself as God might be, because I'm not as aware of myself as God is. And this is also true of us. There are, there may be areas in which the counsel of the family of God might not quite be bold enough. It's not, the counsel of the family of God is not the end of the story.

We need counsel from the Apostle. We need counsel from Scripture. Scripture is often harder on us than we might be on ourselves and it might even be harder than our husband or our wife might be. So the Apostle brings up this idea that he is written more boldly on some points than they might have counseled one another on the same point. And so here God is showing us how we might live in the Church, that we would be, first of all, paying attention to goodness in our souls and knowledge, that we would be forever monitoring those and presenting these to one another.

We have been given as gifts to one another in the Church, gifts of goodness, gifts of knowledge, who would operate newtetically to place in the mind something of benefit, something of goodness, something that would be so helpful. In this way, the Church is the supreme place for the healing of the human soul, as God has given a half a dozen ways to sanctify his people. And here in this text, he's brought us to this one way in which he uses brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, children to children, to bring about the goodness and the knowledge of God for His own glory. What a blessing it is to be in the church. Imagine a life without these things.

Imagine to be cast out on your own without all these marvelous ways of sanctification and comfort that God has. And so I charge, I charge you and I charge myself to be aware of goodness and knowledge, and be free to pour it out on the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ for her blessing, so that she might know better, one day at a time, what is the patience and the comfort of Christ. Would you pray with me? And now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you