Christian life is really interesting.
I wouldn't miss it for anything.
When I was preparing for these meetings, I
had no idea that there was going to
be a workshop before the evening service.
And I had even less idea that the
subject of the workshop would be interpersonal relations.
You know the rest of the story.
I really believe the Lord laid on my
heart tonight to speak on the fine art
of getting along.
That's why I had such a squirmingly good
time down there in the polished seat that
last hour.
But I choose rather to think that it
was the Lord's leading and that it will
be complimentary and not repetitious to what we've
been over.
People are like pickles.
Some are sweet and some are dill.
Most of you are sweet.
And if we were all like that, there
would be no problem.
But some of us are dill.
Just call me Dill Bill.
I think that's what Will Rogers was thinking
of when he said, the trouble with the
world is people.
Well, you can think about that one for
a while.
More truth than poetry.
The trouble with the world is people.
And I think that's why we're so devoted
to the Brethren National Anthem.
To dwell above with saints we love, that
will be glory.
To dwell below with saints we know, what's
that last line?
Yeah, that's another story.
Absolutely.
At any rate, one of the most common
problems in life is the difficulty of getting
along with other people, isn't it?
And if we could just master the fine
art of getting along, life would be much
more pleasant for others and for ourselves.
And in this, as in everything else, I
really believe the word of God is absolutely
sufficient.
And I'd like to turn, first of all,
to Philippians chapter two, because that's the subject
of Philippians chapter two, getting along with others.
And Clint has already made reference to it.
I'll begin with verse one, Philippians.
Did I say Philippians chapter two?
Philippians chapter two, verse one, If there be
therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort
of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any tender mercies and compassions, fulfill ye
my joy, that ye be like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of
one mind.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain
glory, but in lowliness of mind let each
esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things,
but every man also on the things of
others.
Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but made himself of
no reputation, and took upon him the form
of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men.
And being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and
given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven and
things in earth and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God
the Father.
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed,
not as in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling, for it
is God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of his good pleasure.
There were tensions in the assembly in Philippi.
There were conflicts among the saints.
Specifically, there were conflicts between two of the
sisters, but I'm not sure it stopped there.
I think it was even more widespread.
The Apostle Paul in this chapter says, friends,
you have a problem.
You have a problem getting along with one
another.
I would like to give you the solution
of that problem.
The solution is to have the mind of
Christ.
What was the mind of Christ?
Think of how he allowed people to treat
him.
He went down, down, down.
He took the low, the sacrificial place, and
God has highly exalted him and given him
a name about every name.
Have the mind of Jesus.
Now, I've told you your problem.
I've told you the solution to your problem.
Now, work out the solution of your problem
with fear and trembling.
I believe when we come to that verse,
work out your own salvation, that has nothing
to do with the salvation of the soul.
That's not the context at all.
We say, well, God put salvation in and
we work it out.
Well, I suppose there's a sense in which
that's true, but it seems to me that
salvation in this verse refers to the solution
of the problem that we were having, to
deliverance from the problem that was driving them
up the wall in Philippi.
The answer, the mind of Christ.
Over the past months, I've asked a lot
of folks, missionaries and to home workers and
others as well, to share with me.
I say to them, you know, if you
were to give me some practical advice as
to how to get along with others, what
would you say?
And I've compiled some of that.
And so what we're going to go over
tonight is sort of a potpourri of advice
that people have given along the way.
And one of the most significant, I think
of the one with which I should start
is found back in Matthew chapter 18, the
18th chapter of Matthew's gospel.
And I'll just read a verse or two
to you.
Moreover, if a verse 15, moreover, if thy
brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell
him his fault between thee and him alone.
If he hears thee, thou has gained thy
brother.
As I was contemplating this verse today, I
was thinking how easy it is to believe
in the verbal inspiration of the scriptures.
We would fight.
We would absolutely fight and contend for the
fact that that is the very word of
God.
And yet when the problem comes up in
life, we don't obey it.
Isn't that true?
We can believe in the inspiration of the
scriptures and yet not obey them.
And one of the great problems in life
is that when my brother offends me, when
my brother does something against me, everything in
my being rebels against going and facing him
with it.
I would rather go and tell you about
it.
Is that right?
And that's the way the infection spreads because
I'm not obedient to the word of God.
I go and tell others about it and
it's like a forest fire.
Takes the grace of God, doesn't it?
And yet God's way is the best way.
I don't mind telling you that in our
work out there in California, we've had to
come back and back and back to this
verse where you have men, strong men, men
of strong temperaments seeking to work together.
There are conflicts.
The only way we've been able to handle
it at all is to be willing to
go and speak to the other brother about
it.
What has been the result of that?
The result of it has been a cementing
of relationships.
The result of it has been a strengthening
of relationships.
The result of it has been that things
were better than they ever were before.
God knows what he's doing.
And I'll tell you, this verse is the
inspired word of God and the advice that
it gives is the very best advice that
could possibly be given.
So I asked myself the question tonight, Bill,
somebody you don't want to shake hands with?
Somebody that you have something in your heart
against, he's offended you?
Are you willing to go to him, talk
to him and get the thing made right?
I really do believe that that would be
one of the great...
I've seen it work on the mission field
overseas.
I've seen it work at home and there's
nothing like it.
If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go
and tell him his fault between thee and
him alone.
And interesting the way that's written.
Between thee and him alone.
Keep it as insulated as possible at first.
If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained
thy brother.
In a recent study, male adults were asked
to rate themselves on their ability to get
along with others.
100% put themselves in the top half
of the population.
Isn't that wonderful?
60% thought that they were in the
top 10%.
And 25% thought they were in the
top 1%.
If that were true, we might as well
dismiss the meeting and go home.
Hmm?
But of course it isn't true.
And so that's why we want to take
this up.
I say to somebody, give me some advice
as how I can get along with others.
Trouble is it came 65 years too late.
Somebody says this, in dealing with others, try
to think about their positive qualities rather than
their negative qualities.
That's good.
I have to discipline myself to do that.
Because of a sinful fallen nature, it's easier
for me to exercise the gift of criticism.
I think some of us feel we have
a talent for criticism.
I think that's one talent the Lord wouldn't
mind us burying.
But it's a good thing in dealing with
others, trying to think of their positive qualities
instead of their faults and quirks and idiosyncrasies.
And if they are believers, try to see
Christ in them.
Bishop Whipple of Minnesota said, for 30 years,
I have tried to see the face of
Christ in those who have differed from me.
For 30 years, I have tried to see
the face of Christ in those who have
differed from me.
Instead of thinking about people's quirks and their
idiosyncrasies, try to think of their potential.
What a person can be is always greater
than what he is.
And I think it's a wonderful thing when
you see the Lord Jesus taking those disciples,
and they were unlearned and homespun men.
He did not demand spiritual maturity before he
took them on.
The Lord Jesus took those 20-year-olds,
I mean in their 20s, he took them
as they were and he started building on
that basis.
And if you don't mind me saying, from
the human standpoint, many of them were very
unpromising material.
As I've often said, the only wonderful thing
about them or us is their connection with
Calvary.
And Jesus was willing to take them on
that basis and work with them.
He did not demand that they be spiritual
giants before he would work with them.
And we can, and this has been hard
for me, we can really accept people unconditionally
without approving of their actions or attitudes.
Can't we?
I think some of us have had difficulty
with that.
I have had.
Dale Galloway said, many of us never learned
to distinguish between approval of behavior and acceptance
of the person.
When I talk about accepting a person unconditionally,
I'm not meaning that you have to approve
of the other person's attitudes or actions.
What you do is love the person as
he is, despite his flaws.
It isn't human.
It's supernatural.
Somebody else says to me, Bill, in dealing
with other people, try to make allowance for
their backgrounds.
Everybody has different abilities.
Everyone has different temperaments.
Everyone has different emotions, different experiences, differing levels
of spiritual maturity.
But you never know what people are facing.
Try to make allowance for that.
I often think of that when you go
into a restaurant and the waitress is short
with you, discourteous and all the rest.
It's so easy to be irritated with her.
Maybe we wouldn't be if we knew what
she was going through at home.
That's why I'm so glad God is the
judge.
Do you know there's no one else in
the world who's qualified to be judge but
God?
Only he knows the full story.
Only he knows the intents and thoughts of
the heart.
Only he knows what a person might be
going through at any particular time.
So it pays really to be patient and
sympathetic.
I say to another person, what's the fine
art of getting along with others?
They say don't judge people by outward appearance.
Well, Jesus said it before they said it.
Judge not according to appearance but judge righteous
judgment.
That's probably one of the great faults that
all of us make in life, isn't it?
By judging according to outward appearance.
Dobson in one of his books says that
beauty is the golden coin of human worth.
Not that it should be but that it
is.
That the good looking kid in the sixth
grade gets better grades.
The teacher's mind is influenced by that and
it really is true.
It's not the way it should be but
it's the way it often is.
Somebody else says to me, don't judge people
by the opinions of others.
Someone says, yes, Joe is a good guy
but.
The rest of my life I can't forget
the but.
Isn't it true?
You forget the good guy and you remember
the but.
The but sticks in our minds and we
can't think of Joe without remembering it.
Somebody else says, don't judge people by their
estimate of themselves.
Simon the sorcerer claimed that he was someone
great.
I always get a chuckle out of that
in Acts 8, 9, and 10.
And the people readily accepted his claim.
They said this is the great power of
God.
And so the advice is don't go by
appearances.
Don't go by somebody else's opinion.
Don't go by people's opinions of themselves.
Get to know people slowly with measured pace
and form your own judgment.
And it might be quite different.
You might have quite a greater appreciation of
them than anybody else might have.
I say to somebody, what's the fine art
of getting along?
Somebody says to me, don't try to use
people.
Don't try to manipulate people.
In your contacts with people, have their good
in view, not your own.
But that strikes home as being reasonable and
true to me.
We must not exploit people or use them
to further our own in.
Somebody says to me, ask God for special
grace in dealing with people who are hard
to get along with.
That is the dill pickle variety.
And in that connection, recognize realistically that there
are probably some people with whom you cannot
work.
Now that might sound very unspiritual, but after
all, Paul and Barnabas had their differences.
And why should we feel that we have
to work with someone under tremendous constant strain
of difficulty when we live in such a
big, wide world?
And there are so many places we can
serve the Lord without stepping on other people's
toes.
Isn't it true?
So many places.
Part of the problem is, I guess, that
we congregate.
And that's exactly what we're doing, getting on
people's nerves as well as on their toes.
Paul says in Philippians chapter two that we
should esteem others better than ourselves.
That verse used to bother me.
I think of the members of the mafia.
And I thought, well, am I to believe
that they have better characters than I?
And I wasn't quite willing to admit that.
But it doesn't mean that, does it?
To esteem others better than yourselves doesn't mean
that they necessarily have a better character than
you have.
But it means that you're to live for
others rather than for self.
Of course, that's the key word in the
entire second chapter of Philippians, isn't it?
Others.
That key fits right through.
Others, Lord, yes, others.
Let this my motto be, help me to
live for others that I might live for
thee.
Jesus lived for others.
Exhibit A.
The Apostle Paul lived for others.
You have all this in chapter two.
The He said, what you Philippians are doing
is really the great sacrifice to God.
And I would just be willing to be
poured out as a drink offering on the
service and sacrifice of your faith.
That's pretty good.
And he meant it, too.
He was sincere when he said that.
He's giving them credit for making the great
offering to God.
And he's saying, I'm nothing but a little
drink offering poured out on top of yours.
And incidentally, drink offering there means martyrdom.
That's really what it means.
To be poured out as a drink offering
means to give my life in sacrificial surrender
to the Lord.
Paul lived for others with self-effacement.
And it was all genuine, too.
Timothy lived for others.
Paul says in chapter two, I have no
man like mine who will naturally care for
your state.
Timothy.
And then Epaphroditus lived for others, didn't he?
Epaphroditus was sick, nigh unto death, for the
work of the ministry.
And he was grieving.
Why was he grieving?
Because he was sick.
He was grieving because they had heard he
was sick.
That's not very self-centered, is it?
He was sorry that they had heard that
he was sick.
Because he knew that they would be concerned
and fretful over his condition.
And so we should esteem others better than
ourselves.
Somebody else says to me, Bill, when you
meet others, you should make it a meaningful
experience in their lives.
Well, I never thought of that before.
I thought it was just a matter of
shaking their hands.
But it came to life for me.
I have a friend, and every time you
ever meet him, he gives you the impression
that that's the greatest thing that's happened to
him all day.
And he's sincere, too.
It's just become a way of life to
him.
And what an uplift it gives you.
You'll like to be in his company.
No dead fish handshake with Paul, because that's
his name.
But just a meaningful experience.
He exudes warmth and enthusiasm that practically makes
your day when you meet him.
The fine art of getting along.
One sure way in which we can prove
our interest in others is by remembering their
names.
Elizabeth Elliott said that the sweetest sound in
any language is the sound of one's own
name.
Isn't that interesting?
The sweetest sound in any language is the
sound of one's own name.
She said, people who engage in public relations
know the importance of using a person's name.
Whether we call people by name at all
and what name we use are deeply significant
and are often a dead giveaway of our
attitude toward a person.
Now, what were you saying?
Did I hear you say it?
I can remember faces, but I can't remember
names.
Is that what you were saying?
I have to chuckle, because, you know, I
meet people who can remember the scores of
the World Series in 1975, and they can't
remember people's names.
What it really means is we remember what
we want to remember.
Isn't that true?
It is true.
We remember what we want to remember, and
there are ways that will help us remember
people's names, and one of those ways is
to write the name down.
I don't do it when I'm just introduced.
That would be kind of awkward.
And you can ask the person to spell
the name, hoping it isn't Smith.
But there are mnemonic devices that we can
use, and if we really are interested in
people, after all, it's people that count, isn't
it?
It's really people that count in life.
When I tabulate my wealth, I think of
my Christian brothers and sisters, the excellence of
the earth, and I really mean it from
my heart.
I consider myself extremely wealthy.
One of the greatest offenders in interpersonal relationships
is the tongue, isn't it?
Wow.
And James has so much to say to
us about that.
Our speech should be gracious, and our speech
should be tactful.
Oh, the harm that has been done through
words that lacked grace and lacked tact.
Poor Casey was killed in a very tragic
accident down at the machine shop, and Murphy
was assigned to go and tell his wife.
And Murphy's knees were turning to India rubber,
but he went up to the door, glad
that he was, and the door opened, and
Mrs. Casey was there with a wondering look
on her face, and Murphy said, Are you
the widow, Casey?
And she said, No, I'm not.
Well, he said, You are now.
And so the news was broken.
We need tact, and we need grace in
our speech.
I say to somebody else, How can I
have good relations with other people?
And he says to me, Don't be slow
to express appreciation to people.
There's a difference between praise and flattery, isn't
there?
Most of us are scared to death of
flattery.
Praise is commendation that is sincere and deserved.
Flattery is insincere or excessive.
I know a brother out on the West
Coast, and just as sure as you talk
to him, he's expressing some word of appreciation,
and it's sincere.
It's just a way of life to him.
Everybody loves him.
Everybody loves to have him around.
If we are sensitive to the feelings of
others, we will avoid saying blunt, sharp, cutting
things.
This is the world.
I recently read a book about Henry Kissinger.
In a way, I feel it was a
waste of time, but the reason I say
that is it just showed what it's like
climbing up the ladder in the world, you
know, at the sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp,
sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp,
sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp The bitter innuendos and
the cutting remarks, cutting people down.
I said, thank God for the family of
God, you know.
You've heard the story of Lady Astor and
Winston Churchill.
They didn't get along too well.
One day Lady Astor said to him, Sir
Winston, if I were your wife, I'd put
poison in your coffee.
He said, Lady Astor, if I were your
husband, I'd drink it.
That's the world.
Sharp, cutting thing.
But it's not the way of Christ.
If we're going to follow the way of
Christ, we'll never speak in a disparaging way
about people's appearance, about their clothing, about their
mannerisms.
We'll make jokes about ourselves, but not about
others.
That's one of the things I love about
Chuck Swindoll.
Do you hear him on the radio here?
Chuck Swindoll is a great man for making
jokes about himself.
He can do it, and he can have
the audience rollicking with laughter.
If we have to rebuke or correct, we'll
do it humbly, lovingly, and privately.
Husbands and wives won't criticize or contradict one
another in the presence of others.
That's bad news, isn't it?
Really bad news.
But it really is nice when a husband
expresses appreciation before others of his wife.
Perhaps of the meal she's just put on
the table, or of the way she does
things.
How can I learn the fine art of
getting along with others?
Well, here's another way.
When people are quiet or retiring, try to
involve them in the conversation.
In every group of people, there are those
who will try to hide in the woodwork,
and yet they're interesting people.
Try to draw them out with questions.
Bring them out from the sideline.
Show a kindly interest in them by inviting
their involvement.
And I think this is a great thing
to do with children, too.
I often try to picture the Lord Jesus
with the children.
He always had time for them.
Always had an interest in them.
I think of dear old H.A.I.
and how he used to come to our
home so many years ago.
He'd get us there in the living room.
My mother would be out getting the meal
ready, and he'd get us in the living
room and say, Do you know that chorus,
Romans 10 and 9?
And we'd say, Yeah, we know that.
And so he'd say, Well, sing it to
me, you know.
So here would be two gangly McDonalds singing
Romans 10 and 9 to Dr. Eisen.
And then he'd say, Do you know Romans
12 and 1?
And we'd say, No, we don't know that
one.
Well, he said, Let me sing that for
you.
And so he would sing Romans 12 and
1 as a verse I will not shun.
But yield to him alone who is there
upon the throne.
If he's not Lord of all, then he's
not Lord at all.
Romans 12 and 1.
He showed an interest in kids.
And I'm here in 1985 telling you about
it.
Why?
Because I could never forget it.
It made such a deep impression on me.
Wasn't that great?
I think the Lord was like that.
Show an interest in the children and be
ministering to them.
How can I learn the fine art of
getting along with it?
Somebody says to me, Bill, don't be a
compulsive talker.
And I know just what I mean.
Come up for air once in a while.
Be a good listener and you'll be surprised
how much you can learn.
And it's true.
It really is true.
If I could just share with you one
of my pet peeves.
Oftentimes, let's say in a gospel meeting, let's
just picture a gospel meeting.
You're there at the gospel meeting and perhaps
you feel the Spirit of God is really
working in the soul.
And you step down the platform and people
start coming towards you to talk.
And some dear sister comes and she just
wears your ear off talking about trivia.
And there are people waiting around.
I can't understand that mentality.
Can you?
You'd think she'd be sensitive.
You'd think she'd know that there are people
there that need spiritual help.
Doesn't seem to mean a thing to her.
The scripture says, where there are many words,
transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his
lips is wise.
Compulsive talkers do not make good company.
Next, we should avoid gossip, complaining and whining.
Gossip.
Oh, the harm that's done by that at
home and abroad.
Complaining.
I often think of dear Jim Humphrey in
Chicago.
Many of you knew him, I'm sure.
And you'd say that you'd beat him and
just say offhand, how are you, Jim?
And he'd say, it'd be a sin to
complain.
When I think of Jim Humphrey, I always
think of that statement.
It'd be a sin to complain.
Well, most of us do a lot of
sinning, I'm afraid.
I say to somebody else, give me some
advice of the fine art of getting along
with others.
And he says to me, never be too
proud to admit that you're wrong.
It's true.
Never be too proud to admit that you're
wrong.
The hardest words in any language, I was
wrong.
I am sorry.
Please forgive me.
But I'll tell you, it's the foundation of
good personal relationships.
And we may be saying more about that
tomorrow night.
The other side of that picture is if
somebody comes to you and apologizes to you,
what are you going to say?
Well, I learned this from Kari Ten Boom.
I learned a lot from that dear woman
of God.
And she says this, when somebody comes and
apologizes to you, don't shrug it off.
Don't say, oh, well, forget it, there was
nothing.
That's exactly what they don't want to hear.
They want to hear you say, I appreciate
your coming to me and I forgive you.
They want forgiveness to be administered in no
uncertain terms.
Really sounds reasonable, doesn't it?
Isn't that what you would want?
If you had gone through this tremendous exercise
of soul, if God had been barbecuing you
to go and make confession to somebody, and
then you go and they just wave it
off as if it was nothing, and you
know it was, you know it was something.
You wouldn't have agonized over it were it
something.
And then they just act as if there's
nothing to it.
No.
Say, I'm glad you came to me.
I appreciate it.
I forgive you.
Give them a big hug.
Good personal relationships.
People shun the wiseacre or the know-it
-all.
They feel more comfortable when people admit that
their knowledge is limited and that they may
be wrong.
Somebody else says to me, Bill, go out
of your way to meet strangers.
And I think this is very important in
our chapels, isn't it, in our local assemblies.
Go out of your way to meet strangers.
Most of us have to discipline ourselves to
do this.
Brother Haggerty was saying, he comes from a
Scottish and Irish background.
There's only one thing worse than that, Brother
Haggerty.
That's when you're Scottish in New England.
And you know, in New England, the land
of the Boston, the land of the fish
and the cod, where the Lowells speak only
to cabbots and the cabbots speak only to
God.
I don't think the cabbots speak to God
anymore.
And it's hard.
It's been hard to go up.
I remember when I left New England, the
hardest thing for me to do was go
up to a stranger and say, my name
is Bill McDonald, what's yours?
Because what was going through my mind is,
he's thinking, who cares what your name is?
That's what I was thinking.
And I tell you, it took tons of
self-discipline to get to the place where
I could do that.
But I tell you, it's nice when you
go into a place and you're a stranger
and people come up and befriend you.
I'll never forget years ago going to the
Guelph Bible Conference grounds.
I wasn't going as a speaker, just going
as a visitor one day.
And there was a couple there assigned to
be the host and the hostess for that
day.
And they came up and they greeted me.
They gave me the most royal welcome.
I never forgot it.
It was so good.
So good.
Go out of your way to meet strangers.
Be ready to introduce ourselves.
Then ask questions that evidence a genuine interest.
Wasn't that lovely how Jesus went and talked
to the woman at the well?
Give me to drink.
Ah, that was so gracious.
Could have acted differently if he were like
ourselves.
Somebody else says to me, Bill, in your
encounter with others, don't be hypersensitive.
In the work of the Lord, you've got
to have the skin of a rhinoceros.
And I think that's really true.
Some people register hurt and resentment at the
slightest provocation, don't they?
Don't do it.
A Christian should learn to be tough-minded.
Not tough.
You don't want to be tough.
Tough-minded.
A mind that can cope.
A mind that's resilient.
The poet said, I've asked the Lord to
take from me the super sensitivity that robs
the soul of joy and peace and causes
fellowship to cease.
Ask the Lord to take that from you.
You're super sensitive.
If you're ever asked to serve on a
board, whether directors, trustees, elders, deacons, or anything
else, you should determine to abide by certain
guidelines in advance.
On matters of fundamental importance, there has to
be absolute unanimity.
This could be on doctrinal matters, or it
could be in matters of righteousness, matters of
principle.
You will not compromise on those things.
But most of the issues today are not
fundamental issues.
Most of the issues today are peripheral.
And if I were going to serve on
a board like that, I must have the
attitude, I will stand by the fundamentals, but
on secondary matters, I will abide by the
consensus of the group.
That will bring a lot of peace to
a situation.
I am willing to compromise on non-essentials.
I am not going to be like the
Scottish Presbyterian elder who said, there'll be nay
unanimous decisions as long as I'm an elder.
That's what he said, and he lived it.
The word compromise has a bad connotation for
most of us, but it's only bad when
it's used in subjects of major importance.
Anyone who has to have his own way
in everything, who thinks that his judgment is
infallible, should never agree to serve on a
board or a committee.
That man can wreck a work of God,
and he can wreck a local assembly.
That's what we don't want to do.
I often think of 1 Corinthians 3, 16
and 17, where Paul, speaking of the local
assembly as the temple of God, says, if
any man wrecks the temple of God, God
will wreck him.
That verse should be more widely quoted than
it is.
Why do you say, what about when it
comes to matters of the interpretation of Scripture?
Well, I go back to what I said
before.
On fundamental matters, I won't budge an inch.
I hope I'd be willing to shed my
blood for the great fundamental doctrines of the
Christian faith.
But there are a lot of passages of
Scripture on which great and godly men differ.
There's a verse in Galatians that has 250
different interpretations.
And I can think of a few other
verses where we would have 50 different interpretations
in a room like this.
What are we going to do?
We're not going to be dogmatic.
We're not going to insist that only our
view is the right view.
I speak so much of H.A.I.
because he had such an influence in my
life.
But when a quibbler would take exception to
his teaching on some secondary issue, when somebody
would try to involve him in a fight
over some secondary issue, Dr. Ironside would say,
well, brother, when we get to heaven, one
of us is going to be wrong, and
perhaps it will be me.
That was the end of it.
The man had nothing more to say.
He admitted the possibility that he might be
right.
He wouldn't have said that about a fundamental
issue, would he?
No, no.
About one of the major doctrines, he wouldn't
say that.
But he would on a secondary matter.
He would not defend a field of vegetables.
When somebody wants to contend with us, it's
good to remember Proverbs 2620.
For lack of wood, the fire goes out.
Oftentimes, it's when we keep putting fuel on
the fire that the blaze starts up.
If we don't add fuel to the fire,
it will soon die out.
In their zeal for God, young people oftentimes
do great harm in the way they confront
others.
They try to change others who don't want
to be changed.
They give advice to others who don't want
advice.
And I think many of us have learned
that no advice is so unwelcome as unasked
-for advice.
You can't help people who don't want to
be helped except by prayer.
Oftentimes, they form judgments.
And not just young people, but we form
judgments without hearing both sides of a case.
I don't think as a month goes by,
but when I have an illustration of this,
people forming judgments without hearing both sides of
a case, you can't do it.
You cannot form a righteous judgment in that
day.
And then we mind other people's business.
I tell you, a key verse to me
that the Lord has pressed home on me
so many times in Christian life and service
is John 21, 22.
What is that to thee?
Follow thou me.
When I get my eyes off the Lord
and get them on some other Christian worker,
and maybe I don't like the way he
does things, these words come to me.
What is that to thee?
Follow thou me.
And in those words, follow thou me, I
have a job that will take 24 hours
out of every day.
One final word, we should never betray a
confidence.
People will be justified in avoiding us severely
if we blab information that was told to
us in confidence.
These are some practical suggestions that have come
to me from people when I face them.
I'm sorry to say that...