Building Up My Brother's House — Carter Conlon

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws.

This recording cannot be posted on any website. However, written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timessquarechurch .org. Other recordings are available by calling 1 -800 -488 -0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New York, 10019.

This message is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, PO Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771 or calling 903 -963 -8626.

You are welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends. However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply.

The Responsibility of Every Christian to Build Up the Body

God bless you this afternoon, Times Square Church, trusting the Lord to continue to speak to us throughout this day. And I have no doubt that he is speaking. For those who were here Friday night, you heard a message preached by Pastor Neal and again repeated this morning by Brother Dave.

And nobody's conferring in this church one with another. But the theme basically is essentially the same. And I have a message which is exactly along those same lines today. I have been under conviction all week.

I'm going to be so happy to preach this message. It started with a devotion on Monday morning. I just got up, began to read my Bible and didn't really anticipate receiving a message from the Lord. By the time I was done in the morning, he had shown me something in the Scriptures that greatly convicted my own heart.

As the Holy Spirit began to remind me of something and began to remind me of the incredible responsibility that is given to every Christian who knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in spirit and in truth.

I want to share that with you. And I'm trusting you will share the conviction that I've shared this week and the joy and the release also of knowing that our lives are when our lives are in right relationship with God.

There is a joy. There's a release. We are people who want truth here in Times Square Church. I'm assuming that you want truth. That's why you're attending this church. Some truths are easy to be heard.

They go down easy. They're easy to preach. They're easy to hear. There's a spontaneous joy of times that come with these truths and others are more difficult. They're more bitter water as it is harder to hear.

I think of the disciples as they followed Christ and we're all excited about the miracles and all the wonderful things that we're seeing. And until he came to the point of saying, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.

And rather than then dig deeper and find out exactly what it was that he was speaking to them. There were many that just said, this is too hard, not understanding that he was speaking about life, even though it seemed like an impossibility.

It was absolute life and freedom. But rather than then dig into the depths of those statements, they chose to walk away. And I think of the tragedy of the many. I believe some say there are over 50 that walked away from him, that were given a close invitation to walk in intimate association and came and were faced with the truth.

It was too difficult to hear and began to turn away. And I think that as we get begin to walk through this, I'm going to have to go through some of this slowly. And sometimes you'll have time to get to the passage in the Bible and sometimes you won't.

But just have a listening ear today. And I know that God is going to take us deeper into what he wants us to be as the body of Christ. Father, I stand before you absolutely dependent on you. I simply cast myself on you, Jesus.

Lord, I don't have any wisdom to speak this. God, I don't have. Lord, it's so far beyond me to even understand the depths of it. I'm asking, oh, God, that you just simply give it to me. Let it be an animation of your heart.

Let it be grace and season with salt. I'm asking that it would be spoken in a way that can be heard by everyone here and that we will be the better for hearing it, that your kingdom will really, truly advance in us.

I ask you, Holy Spirit, to quicken me, quicken my mind and understanding, quicken my physical body. And, God, let your name, Jesus, be exalted, lifted up, loved and desired. Let your truth advance. And, Father, I thank you for this in Jesus' mighty name.

Cain, Abel, and the Command to Build Up a Brother's House

Now, if you go to Deuteronomy chapter 25 and just leave your Bible open once you get there, Deuteronomy chapter 5. I'm going to speak today about building up my brother's house. Building up my brother's house.

Now, this is not a truth. This is not something that comes to any of us naturally. We are more naturally prone to criticize. We're more naturally prone to indifference, to jealousy, to hatred. These are things that became part of our human nature.

When Adam and Eve, our first parents, sinned in the Garden of Eden, that sin nature was passed on to us through them. And it didn't take long. If we were to look in the book of Genesis, for example, Adam and Eve had a son.

His name was Cain. And here we first clearly begin to understand that there is an interrelational or that is a man-to-man effect of indwelling sin. The Lord came to Cain one day in Genesis 4 .9. And he said to him, where is Abel, your brother?

And he said, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? You see, indifference is in his heart. Jealousy was now in the human makeup as it is. And, of course, this had turned to murder. And it had become part of the fallen nature of every man.

Now, thanks be to God that the Bible says today that we who believe in Christ are no longer under the indwelling power of sin. Now, many here can bear witness to the fact that you had, before Christ, you had no power over the jealousy in your life.

You had no power over the envy. You had no power over the indifference as it is to walking by misery all day. Walking by and in your heart it was, well, I've got enough problems of my own. You look after yours.

I'll look after mine. I'm not interested in your troubles. I remember we used to have an expression on the police force. Here's a dime. Go call somebody who cares. Now, that was with one another. That wasn't even with the people that were out on the street.

It was just indifference. Listen, I've got my trouble. You've got yours. And please don't bother me with it. And, really, that's part of the human nature. That's part of the fallen human nature. That's not the way it ought to be in Christ, especially as the body of Christ.

Freedom from Sin and the New Nature in Christ

Now, the Bible tells us in Romans 6, 14 that sin no longer has dominion over us. We're not under the law now but under grace. And God says, to put that in simple terms, God says, I've come into your life now by the power of the Holy Ghost and I've given you a new mind.

I've given you a new heart. I've given you a new nature. I have given you a compassion that you never had before. I've changed you. I've made you a partaker of the work that I am doing. I've made you, in a sense, a sign and a wonder to a society that is indifferent, jealous, and full of hatred all around you.

But yet I have made you into another person. I've made you into someone who can listen, who cares. And when everyone is speaking death, you're speaking life. When everyone is casting down, you're building up.

When everyone is in hopeless despair, you're standing in the middle of the storm with words of encouragement, strength, and hope for all around you. I've made you something that the world can't be without the power of God.

Oh, yes, people can go into positive thinking classes and come out and be positive, I suppose, for a short period of time. But there is nothing that comes to the flesh that has any duration, has no ability to endure.

You come out with these wonderful new resolves. And I know how many of us here, before coming to Christ, at 12 o 'clock midnight, every December 31st, made all these wonderful resolutions. I made them.

I know that you must have, too. And they last until what, 1210, 1212? You're going to be such a friend and you're going to be so good to your wife or to your husband and you're going to change and be this wonderful parent.

You're going to be positive in the work environment. And about 1212, you're now sitting around the table and discussing some failing in somebody's life that you work with. And the whole thing has gone up in smoke for another year.

The Old Testament Picture of Raising Up a Brother's Name

The whole resolution has died because there's no power in the natural man to fulfill any of this. Now, Deuteronomy chapter 25 tells us, now this is the law of God that was given to Moses. And there was a law that if two brothers were dwelling together, or let's say in the same village or proximity, and one of them died and had no child, this is verse 4, the wife of the dead shall not marry a stranger, but her husband's brother shall go into her and take her to him to wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.

And it shall be that the firstborn which she bears shall succeed in the name of the brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. And if a man likes not to take his brother's wife, now let me stop just for a moment.

This was a law. Let's say my brother, if I was alive at this time, my brother's wife, my brother died and had no child, that I was to take his wife into my house and the firstborn son would be after his name.

In other words, I would be raising up seed to my brother. And I would be building my brother's house. In my heart I would say to my brother, I'm not going to let your house be destitute because of the death that has found a foothold there.

But I'm going to now be a vessel as it is of the infusion of the life that God wants to give to your seed. And your seed is going to be raised up. And even though I might be the father of that son, that son will not be called after my name, but be called after your name as my brother.

And it was a commitment that the families of Israel were to make one to another. And how much more in a sense, in a spiritual sense, are we to be committed to one another in the body of Christ? And if the man, verse 7, likes not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate to the elders and say, my husband's brother refuses to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel.

He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Then the elders of the city shall call him and speak to him. And if he stand to it and say, I like not to take her, then shall his brother's wife come to him in the presence of the elders and loose his shoe from off his foot and spit in his face.

And shall answer and say, so shall it be done to the man that will not build up his brother's house. That's an incredible thing. I want you to really see that. This is God's law. He said if a brother refuses, if he sees death, and he refuses to come and build up his brother's house, then God says, I give permission to that man's wife to come and loose his shoe from off his foot.

I'll explain that to you in a moment. And spit in his face and say, so shall it be done to the man that will not build up his brother's house. And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of him that has his shoe loosed.

Cain’s Curse and the Danger of Refusing Fruitfulness

Now, we see this principle in Genesis chapter 4. If you have a moment to turn there with me. In Genesis chapter 4, after Cain killed Abel, the Bible says it this way. Genesis chapter 4, verse 11. God said to Cain, and now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.

When you till the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shall thou be in the earth. That's an incredible thing. In a sense, you could say, in a spiritual sense, that God loosed Cain's shoe from off his foot.

And said, from this day forward, you will bear no fruit. And you will be a vagabond or you will have no direction. Beloved, I have seen, I've been a pastor now for quite a few years. And I have seen over and over again, not only as a pastor, but as a Christian.

I've seen people who refuse to enter into the work of God, of building up God's kingdom in each one of the saints of Jesus Christ, called the church. And I've seen those who fail to discern what it means to be part of the body of Jesus Christ.

Paul said it the best. He said, because they failed to discern the body, there are many that sleep and some are even dead because of it. They failed to understand what it means to be part of this church.

And because of it, they bring no fruit. Yes, they come to church and they're there, but there is no fruit. There's this ever studying, but never changing. Ever worshipping, but never having faith. Ever being, but never being transformed into the image of Christ.

You meet this person in 1980 and you go on a long journey and come back in 1990 and they're the same as when you left. Conversation is the same. Questions are the same. Nothing changes. There seems to be no fruit and there seems to be no direction.

It's as if they had their shoe loosed and God Almighty himself had spit in their face. Because they refused to raise up seed to their brother. They refused to begin to minister the life that Christ has purchased on Calvary for everyone who is called by his name.

The Righteous Image of the Believer Before God

As Pastor David shared this morning, they look upon those that God has cleansed and make a willful choice to call them unclean. I would hope it would be an ignorance because if this thing is done with knowledge, it's a very, very dangerous thing to do and we'll see that in a few moments.

God said to Cain, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground. John the Beloved said, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. I asked myself the question this week, how many wounded?

And the Holy Spirit caused me to look within and to go back over the years and to think about areas and people and times that I may have wounded those that were purchased by the shed blood of my Savior.

How many wounded cry to God from the dust where they lay because of unkind words or indifference or inaction when we saw the death and could have made a difference but refused to raise up seed to our brother?

We could have done something. I wonder how many have drifted away from the church and are wandering now in the wilderness, half dead out in the wilderness and it was within our power to just speak a word that could have changed the very course of their life.

It was within our power to be a partaker as it is or a co-laborer with God in building that which God is building through His Son Jesus Christ on this side of eternity. We could have made a difference.

Psalm 26, 22 says, the words of a tail-bearer are his wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. And he that hates dissembles with his lips. He that hates dissembles. Now, I want to tell you something.

A lot of people would say, okay, pastor, help me understand this. I don't, to the knowledge that I have today, I don't hate anybody in this church. I don't hate one member of the body of Christ. Now, if we're going by our own definition, our own definition would be almost like frothing at the mouth and running after them down the aisle with a dagger in your hand.

Now, I don't feel that way. Many people said about anybody in the church. So, therefore, I'm clean of this inference in Scripture. But Psalm 26, 23 says, he that hates dissembles with his lips. Now, I want to dissect that word dissembles.

It's nekhar in the Hebrew. And here are some included definitions of dissembling. This is the hate that comes from the mouth of a person. Included definition would be to scrutinize or to be looking at somebody with an eye, but it's not the eye of God.

It's looking from another perspective. Not to find life and health or not to see where we can help, but to see where we can hurt. With an eye to what is wrong. I think it's tragic that oftentimes in the church, we are recipients of such incredible grace.

And remember the accusation that Christ had against the scribes. He said, you take in a camel and you strain it in that. In other words, you swallow whole this wonderful bounty of God. And it's as if you have a treasure in heaven poured out on you every day and you open your little purse and it's an effort to give a penny to somebody.

A little tidbit of the goodness God says that I pour into your life. It's an effort to have it flow through your vessel to the brothers and sisters that might be in need of just a word of encouragement around you.

And he who hates dissembles with his lips. It means to scrutinize, to find strange. But I think this is the definition that says it the best. To change the appearance of something. He who hates changes someone's appearance.

Incredible. Now, I want to show you first in Psalm 103, if you'll turn there with me. I want to show you the image of the true believer. This is how God sees you today. If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, if you have come to him and asked him to forgive your sins, I want to show you exactly what you look like to God right now.

Amazing. It's incredible when you think of it. Psalm 103. David, the king, says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Who forgives all thine iniquities. If you are in Christ, all of your sins are forgiven. Isn't it amazing? There is no list. There is no wrong. There is no trailer of past sins behind you. It is completely blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Who heals all thy diseases. In other words, the sicknesses that are within you that cause that sin in the first place. Not only are we forgiven, but the power of the Holy Ghost comes upon us to begin to change us into the very image of our Lord and Savior.

The very root of the sin is taken out as it is, line by line, bit by bit, piece by piece. Remember, God doesn't call things as they are. When the Holy Ghost speaks to us, he speaks to us as we will be, as we begin to follow him.

He begins to speak into our lives things that are not, because he calls things that are not as if they are. Who redeems thy life from destruction. And who crowns thee with loving kindness and tender mercies.

Incredible. I am forgiven all my sin. I am healed of the very rot within me that caused me to live a life of sin. I have now a new power source within me. The very God who created the universe now lives in my life.

And all things become new and all things are passing away. That's who I am in Christ. That is the heavenly picture. Whether or not I'm rough around the edges as a new Christian or whatever I happen to be, this is how God sees me.

This is what God has done. He has redeemed my life from destruction, the scripture says. I'm not headed for destruction. I'm not going to hell and the devil is not going to overpower me and he's not going to ruin my home.

He's not going to steal my testimony. I will not be ashamed before my enemies. This is not how God sees the Christian. He sees you and I as living in victory, walking in victory, a standing testimony to the grace of God.

Not perfect, but being perfected by the grace of God. And He has crowned me. I have a crown on my head in the sight of God. Oh, you may not see it, but God sees it. Those that have come to Christ and are redeemed, He has placed a crown on you.

You are crowned with loving kindness and tender mercy. Hallelujah! The tender mercy of God is on me every day. If God wanted to, He could destroy me a thousand times over. But His tender mercy has crowned me.

And His loving kindness changes me. Hallelujah! That's the testimony of the Christian. That's the picture that God sees of you when He looks at you. In spite of your struggle. In spite of your failings.

In spite of all the weaknesses and struggles and trials that you and I go through. In spite of what anyone else may say, there's only one voice that counts in eternity and time. He says, I see you as mine.

You are my beloved. And your righteousness is of me. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! This is the true image of the believer before God. But the man who doesn't want to build up his brother's house in this image.

The man who chooses to focus on the death. And beloved, there's no shortage of people like that in the church of Jesus Christ. Claiming to be co-laborers with God. But focus on the death. And when they see the death, they say, I want nothing to do with raising life in this person.

I want nothing to do because there's nothing in it for me. There's nothing in it when this first son is born as it is and it doesn't even carry my name. There's nothing in it for me, so why should I even bother beginning to speak into this person's life.

The Tongue That Tears Down Versus the Tongue That Gives Life

As it is infusing that seed. Nurturing that seed that God has infused in their life through Christ. Psalm 64. Just go back in your Bible with me a little bit. I'll talk about the man who refuses to build his brother's house.

He has something else in mind. Psalm 64. Verse 4. Verse 3. Well, let's go back to verse 1. David says, Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer and preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked and from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity.

Who wet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows. Even bitter words. That they may shoot in secret at the perfect. Suddenly they do shoot at him and fear not. Goes on to say they search out iniquities.

They accomplish a diligent search and both the inward thought of every one of them in the heart is deep. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow and suddenly shall they be wounded. And so they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves and all they that see them shall flee away.

And all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God. For they shall wisely consider of his doing. And David is saying, God, please, Lord, you are leading me. You are guiding me. And I believe this is the prayer of every sincere Christian who's not yet what they should be.

But they are moving towards that which God has called them to be. And along that route, we all make mistakes, don't we? We do things that we shouldn't do. We say what we shouldn't say. Everyone blows a gasket once in a while.

They just have had enough at home, the office, wherever it is. And they say and do things they shouldn't say. And David says, but in David's heart he's saying, God, you've got a call on my life. There's a destiny over me.

And, Lord, you're taking me there. And, yes, I'm aware of my failings. But, oh, God, please spare me. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked. Hide me because they form words. They search out. They accomplish a search and they look for flaws.

They search out iniquities, David said. You can always tell workers of hell, even in the church, they spend all their time looking for wrong things in other people. Spend all their time talking about wrong things in other people.

It's a tragedy. Only to come before the judgment seat of Christ someday and find out that the whole time they've been praising, they've been outside the kingdom of God. The whole time they've been lifting their hands and saying, I love you, Lord.

They've been cursing the very work of His hands. Incredible blindness. They search out iniquity. They accomplish a diligent search. And they shoot in secret at the perfect. Now, the word perfect in the Hebrew means complete, whole, upright, innocent, sincere, undefiled, beloved.

It is an endearing term for a beloved female. And I think of the bride of Christ when I'm looking at this. They shoot in secret at those that God says I have perfected. I have given them righteousness.

I have cleansed them. But they make a choice to call them still unclean and common. Incredible. And they accomplish a search to justify this evil that's proceeding from their lips towards the bride of Christ.

And it goes on. And the Lord says through David, the judgment, verse 8, that they hope to pronounce on another falls on themselves. So shall they make their own tongue to fall upon themselves. And all that see them shall flee away.

And men shall wisely shall fear and declare the work of God. They shall wisely consider of his doing. Oh, beloved, I caution you with everything in me. I have seen the effect of the uncontrolled tongue in my years as a Christian.

I have watched people go into darkness. I've watched their children taken captive. I've watched them swallowed literally whole by darkness because of an uncontrolled tongue. Especially a tongue that is used to tear down the body of Jesus Christ.

A tongue that in secret shoots at the righteous and thinks somehow that God doesn't see this or God doesn't hear this. Very, very dangerous. I'm going to show this to you in greater measure in just a moment.

Sowing and Reaping Life in the Household of Faith

Paul said to the Galatians in Galatians chapter six, don't be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, he's going to reap. Whoever sows to the spirit is going to reap life. And he who sows to his flesh is going to reap destruction.

He said, therefore, let us let us not be weary in doing good. For in due season, we shall reap if we faint not. In other words, the good which we choose to perform in obedience to God, Paul says God will reward it back to us.

If you were going to reap what you sow, if you and I choose to sow life into people around us that are struggling and hurting, then God says I will sow life into you when you are struggling and hurting.

When you are in a difficult position, I will send you a word that will bring you out of captivity. I will give back to you an even greater measure than you give to others. I will be if there's nobody around.

I myself, God says, will be your consolation. I will be there for you. You will have that peace. You will have that sure word in the midst of your darkest time and your deepest trial. There's no greater calling on the Christian's life than to build our brother's house.

I'm called to build your house. That's what I'm attempting to do today with all of my heart. I'm called to. There's a seed of life in you. If you belong to Christ, you might be the roughest looking Christian in this place.

But if Christ is in you, there's a seed of life in you. And I'm called to be a co-laborer with God. I'm called to water that seed. And I'm called to speak into that area of life that you have. I'm called to raise up that seed, a testimony of God's grace to you.

I'm called to be a co-laborer, to speak words of life and encouragement that will help you and give you hope in the midst of your own adversity and trial. I'm called to raise up the seed of new life in you by speaking to you and speaking of you in a manner that encourages and builds you in the faith.

The Bible says in Proverbs 15, 4 that a wholesome tongue is a tree of life. It's a tree of life. The word life in the Hebrews means to revive from sickness, discouragement, and death. A wholesome tongue, in other words, is a tree that revives from sickness, discouragement, and death.

Remember that it was because of sin that man lost access to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. But that life, that access, was given back through Jesus Christ. He said, I'm come that they might have life.

Christ is himself the tree of life. And that they might have it more abundantly. In other words, exceedingly abundantly or super-aboundingly. The Holy Spirit is constantly breathing this life of Christ in us, raising up seed in areas where we have been powerless because of the death which once reigned in us.

This is what the Holy Spirit is doing. He is constantly speaking that life. In some areas of your life, beloved, there's only just a seed. There's not a whole lot of victory, but there is a seed. God has spoken this life into this.

The life of Christ is now in you. And because the life of Christ is now in you, he is going to overthrow. He's going to overpower. He's going to tear down. When he came into your life, he didn't come in as a meek little lamb.

He came in as a lion. He came into this temple of the Holy Ghost with a scourge in his hand and says, Just call out to me and I'll overthrow the tables and drive out the money changers. I'll throw out all of the religious things that have nothing to do with life.

I will absolutely transform. I didn't come in here to cohabitate. I came in to take over. Hallelujah. And yes, we're rough, but the Holy Spirit is constantly raising up the seed of Christ. He's constantly breathing the life of Christ into us.

The Holy Spirit’s Work of Guiding Believers Into Truth

Constantly changing us into the image of our Savior. John chapter 16. If you go there very quickly with me. John chapter 16. He speaks about this ministry of the Holy Spirit. Verse 13. Listen to what Jesus says.

He says, How be it? When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come.

To come in the original language means that are moving from one place to another. The Holy Spirit will show you. The Holy Spirit will be speaking into your life. The Holy Spirit will be changing you. The Holy Spirit will show you things to come.

Have you ever gotten up in the morning, opened your Bible, and all of a sudden there's a verse. You never saw it before or you read it. It never meant much. And all of a sudden it jumps off the page. You know what that is?

The Holy Spirit is showing you things to come. The Holy Spirit is quickening that to you because he intends to perform it in your life. He's showing you what you're going to be. He's showing you who God already sees you as being.

He shall glorify me. Verse 14. For he shall receive of mine. Remember when Christ rose from the dead, he received the very blessings. Everything of heaven became his. And because we are in him, it also became ours.

And he will show it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and he shall show it to you. Verse 10. Chapter 17. All are mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them.

Hallelujah. He will show you things to come. He is speaking to you right now. When you open this book and begin to read, the Holy Spirit is speaking life. He is infusing life into you. And raising up seed to glorify Christ in areas where you and I have been dead to sin.

Co-Laboring With God to Edify the Church

And he that plants and waters are one. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God. And I guess this is my point today.

The Holy Spirit is raising a church to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is in you. If you are a believer, the Holy Spirit is in me. And the Bible says that we are laborers together with God. In other words, if I am in the labor of God.

If the Holy Spirit is in me. If I truly have God's mind. Then I am doing the same work that the Holy Spirit is doing. I am speaking into your life. You are speaking into mine. I am encouraging you. You are encouraging me.