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This is not something to be done
by the throw of the dice, not something to be done because
it's a popularity contest. It is something that's absolutely
vital to the health of a congregation. So we're going to be spending
some weeks considering the important matter of leadership, at least
as far as the elders go, in the churches of Christ. And I'm going
to be encouraging, of course, the entire congregation either
to be here or to tune in for this because we believe in a
form of church government in which there is a limited participation
of the congregation. And the choice of elders is one
of those crucial and important participations. So that's going
to take our time for the next few weeks as we look at this. Tonight we're going to be reading
from our confession. If you don't have your confession
with you, you can turn to your Trinity Hymnal, page 683. Page 683. And we'll be reading a passage
this evening from the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 3. Jeremiah chapter 3. We'll be reading verses 14 and
15 this evening. Jeremiah 3, verses 14 and 15. Now most of these will be a little
more teaching than preaching. We're going to be working through
both the role and the way that the church ultimately installs
men, how we find the kind of men, and how we install them. We're going to be looking at
all of that. So there will be more teaching than specific preaching,
though we're going to be doing expositions of vital passages
to draw out all of the important matters regarding this. With
that in mind, if you would please stand with me,
we're going to read Jeremiah 3, verses 14 and 15. Let's give
our hearts attention to the Word of God. Turn, O backsliding children,
saith the Lord, for I am married unto you, and I will take you,
one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding. Amen. May the Lord add His blessing
to the reading of His word. Holy Father, we pray that Thou
wouldst come by Thy great Spirit this evening. Come, Holy Spirit,
warm our hearts, fill us with light, fill us with understanding.
And we pray that Thou wouldst bless Thy people, exalt Christ,
and may all that we do here bring glory to our God. In the name
of Christ, we ask it. Amen. Please be seated. Now the passage we have just
read speaks to us of the prophet's passionate plea for Israel's
repentance with the promise of mercy and forgiveness at the
hand of God. And one of the great features
of the Day of Restoration that is set forth before us here is
God's promise of pastors or shepherds. The Hebrew there can be translated
shepherds, as easily as pastors. And of course, these are ideas
that go right together. And they are not just any pastors,
but pastors after His own heart. Israel's problem was its leaders
at every level. And that is certainly the condition
of our nation today. The problem is our leaders, whether
they be men sitting in the White House or whether they are men
that stand in the more exalted position behind the pulpit. The problem is our leaders. We desperately need biblically-minded
leaders. And of course, the churches of
Jesus Christ are suffering because we've got more entertainers and
jokesters than we have men who would die for the Word of God.
We are not going to see any lasting change. We're not even going
to phase the next generation. let alone see generations of
glory for God, unless there are men that are willing to preach
the Word of God and discipline according to the Word of God,
whatever the cost. It would be better to have five
people in a congregation that are utterly given to Christ and
will walk with Him no matter what, than to have a room full
of people, megachurches, that live like the world. Or that
have enough religion to believe that they're okay with God when
in fact they're on their way to hell. We need pastors after
God's own heart. And they're not self-made men.
It's not anything that any man ever born of woman can accomplish.
Apart from Christ Jesus. Pastors after God's own heart
means that these are men, men, not women, men that will faithfully
deliver God's Word and govern Christ's church according to
God's will. And that is found in the Word
of God, not their own brains. So with this in mind, we want
to learn what pastors after God's own heart look like and the scriptures
tell us. So that we might have wisdom
and light in appointing elders in this congregation. A great
deal of the problem within our churches lies in the fact that
choosing pastors often means going and taking someone else's
after hearing a couple of sermons. This has filled our pulpits with
men who have 10 sermons that they just repeat all the time.
Brethren, this is a serious matter. We live in a day in which Bible
programs come replete with internet connections where you can just
go and download somebody else's sermons. This is astonishing
to me. Not opposed to reading other
men's sermons. I love to hear them. But we're talking about
men who don't labor in the Word for a Word for God's people. Then we wonder why there isn't
any power in the churches. So with that in mind, we take
up a new series, which is entitled Pastors After God's Own Heart,
and we're going to be spending time considering what the Word
of God says about these matters. If you'll open your confessions
to chapter 26, Chapter 26, I'm going to read
the first ten paragraphs just to give us a little background. We will be consulting the Word
of God, which is inspired and infallible, and our confession,
which is neither of those things, but it's helpful. Chapter 26, beginning in paragraph
1 says, The Catholic, this does not mean Roman Catholic. The
Catholic, or universal church, which, with respect to the internal
work of the Spirit and truth of grace, may be called invisible,
consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been,
are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof. and is the spouse, the body,
the fullness of Him that fills all in all. This is what we often refer to
as a universal church among Baptists. There have been debates about
this for centuries. You know, let me simply say that
regardless of where someone comes down here, what we're talking
about bottom line is all of God's people. And we're not going to
see that in this world. We are only going to experience
that church when we are all gathered together before the Lord Jesus
Christ. But, nonetheless, we are all part, ultimately, of
that body of Christ. Paragraph 2, all persons throughout
the world professing the faith of the gospel and obedience unto
God by Christ unto it. Now listen to these qualifications.
Don't drift here. All persons throughout the world
professing the faith of the gospel. Now most places stop right there. But our brethren went on to say,
and obedience unto God by Christ, according unto it, not destroying
their own profession by any errors, averting the foundation, that
means doctrinal error, or unholiness of conversation, that means worldly
or ungodly living, are and may be called visible saints, and
of such ought all particular congregations to be constituted."
This is the content, what makes up a biblical congregation. Those who have a profession of
faith in Christ and a life of obedience to him. Who are not
embracing heresy and who are not living wicked lives. Now
what would that do to the church population right now if we just
really walked in that? It's quite amazing. Paragraph
three, the purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture
and error. As our brother so wonderfully
said on Sunday evening, if you did not hear the last message
of the conference, I urge you to get it and listen to it very
carefully. But one of the things that we heard is that every one
of us, all through our lives, is going to be subject to imperfect
authority. There are no perfect churches.
There are no, no perfect elders anywhere, beginning with Mount
Zion Bible Church. But that doesn't change God-appointed
authority. The purest errors under heaven
are subject to mixture. There will be people in the congregation
that profess to be Christians and they're not. And error. We don't all understand, in fact,
none of us understands the word of God perfectly. And there's no doubt error in
all of us at some point of scripture. And some have so degenerated
as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless,
Christ always hath had and ever shall have a kingdom in this
world, to the end thereof, of such as believe in him and make
profession of his name. Paragraph four, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the head of the church in whom by the appointment of
the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order,
or government of the church is invested in a supreme and sovereign
manner. Neither can the Pope of Rome
in any sense, in any sense be head thereof. But is that antichrist? that man of sin and son of perdition
that exalts himself in the church against Christ and all that is
called God, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of
His coming. Paragraph 5, In the execution
of this power wherewith he, that is Christ, is so entrusted The
Lord Jesus calls out of the world unto Himself through the ministry
of His Word by His Spirit those that are given unto Him by His
Father, that they may walk before Him in all the ways of obedience
which He prescribeth to them in His Word. Those thus called,
He commandeth to walk together in particular societies. That's an interesting phrase.
Particular societies or churches for their mutual edification
and the due performance of that public worship which he requireth
of them in the world. The churches are the visible
expression of God's eternal purpose made alive through the redemptive
power of Jesus Christ. We should be a colony from heaven,
a particular society, a group of people, not perfect, but a
group of people who not only profess Christ, but who obey
Christ. And that's what a church should
be made of. That's what a true biblical church
ultimately is. There's a mixture, there's error. But it should be no less than
those who profess faith in Him, repentance of their sin, and
live lives consonant with that. Paragraph 7. To each of these
churches, thus gathered, according to his mind, declared in his
word he hath given all that power and authority which is in any
way needful for their carrying on that order in worship and
discipline which he hath instituted for them to observe. with commands
and rules for the do and right, exerting and executing of that
power. In other words, every local congregation,
every biblical local congregation has everything it needs to obey
and walk with Christ and to fulfill what the scriptures call the
churches of Christ to be. The Holy Spirit empowers every
single member We were talking with someone who is a candidate
for membership, and this person brought up the issue of not knowing
what their gift was. and their spiritual gift. And I assured this individual,
as I would assure everyone here, if you're born of God, you have
his spirit. If you have his spirit, he's
working within you. He is giving you gifts by which
you will function in this body as a vital part of what makes
this church healthy. You have been given gifts by
God to encourage, to bless, to walk with the Lord. The church
is never to be just a preaching station. And that very often
is what happens. It is to be a particular society, people
walking together, living together. I'm going to tell you, that's
hard to do because many of us choose to live way out there. It's hard for us to be a local
church when almost none of us are local. But one of the things
that is vital for us to understand is that a church is not a place
we visit once in a while. It is the vital body of Christ
in which we as a society carry out His purposes. And we're equipped
by the power of the Holy Spirit to do that. That's wonderful.
He doesn't leave it up to us. He doesn't leave it to our ingenuity. He gives us what we need by the
power of the Spirit and His Holy Word to govern and do what He's
called these particular societies to be and to do. And that brings
us to number eight. The next three paragraphs are
very, very important regarding the subject we will take up for
the next few weeks. But now we're in context. A particular church gathered
and completely organized according to the mind of Christ consists
of officers and members. And the officers appointed by
Christ And those are very important words. The officers appointed
by Christ to be chosen and set apart by the church, so called
and gathered for the peculiar administration of ordinances
and execution of power or duty, which he entrusts them with or
calls them to, to be continued to the end of the world are bishops
or elders and deacons. Paragraph 9, the way appointed
by Christ for the calling of any person fitted and gifted
by the Holy Spirit unto the office of bishop or elder in a church
is that he be chosen thereunto by the common suffrage of the
church itself. Suffrage there means a decision
making progress, usually considered to be voting. and solemnly set apart by fasting
and prayer, with imposition of hands of the eldership of the
church, if there be any before constituted
therein. It could be that there isn't
an eldership when an elder is being appointed. There may have
only been one and he may have passed away. And so you would
have to do a slightly different thing. We would generally call
upon another church, a like-minded church to come and to work with
us on such an occasion. and of a deacon, that he be chosen
by the like suffrage and set apart by prayer and the like
in position of hands." Or placing of hands upon the individual
and praying for them. Paragraph 10. The work of pastors being
constantly, not in between golf games, constantly
the service of Christ in His churches, in the ministry of
the Word and prayer. with watching for their souls,
as they that must give an account to Him." It is incumbent on the
churches to whom they minister, not only to give them all due
respect, but also to communicate to them of all their good things
according to their ability so as they may have a comfortable
supply without being themselves entangled in secular affairs,
and may also be capable of exercising hospitality toward others. And
this is required by the law of nature and by the express order
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has ordained that they that preach
the gospel should live of the gospel. Now we'll stop there. This whole
chapter is wonderful. I encourage you to read it often.
In fact, I would say read it once a week for a while until
we come to that moment in which we are appointing another elder
in this place. We need to saturate this period
of time in prayer and fasting and crying out to God for wisdom. and for the right man in our
congregation and or men. That being the case then, we
want to take this up and talk about them for the next few weeks. This chapter 26 of our confession
is divided into two major parts. The first four paragraphs deal
primarily with the universal aspect of Christ's church and
the remaining paragraphs deal with the various aspects of the
local church. We can't attend a meeting of
the universal church. That's not going to happen until
the Lord calls all of His own. What we have to do with all of
our days is a local particular society. The church that we must
serve is made up of visible saints, a gathering, and that's the idea
of the word church, ecclesia. It is a gathered body, a called
out assembly. We are the church by being gathered,
not apart. We're part of the universal church
anywhere we are. But when we gather, we see Christ's
body. The confession refers to local
churches, as I said, as particular societies. And it tells us that
the head of each particular congregation is the Lord Jesus Christ. Elders
are not the heads of the church. Ever. Christ alone is the Head
of the Church. As the Sovereign Head of each
of His congregations, the Lord Jesus calls unto Himself, as
we read, through the ministry of His Word and Spirit all those
given to Him by His Father. The Lord Jesus Christ through
the Spirit in word and word bring together the glorious predestinating
and electing purpose of God. That is something that took place
in the covenant of redemption in eternity before he ever said
let there be light. But as God calls people to himself
that is his glorious election becoming reality in history. and the Lord gathers us out by
the Word, by the Spirit, brings us out of darkness into the glorious
light of Christ, and He commands us to walk together for our mutual
edification and for His glorious worship. The members of each
congregation are to be visible saints, as we read, that is,
those who profess faith in Christ and obedience. They obey Christ. That's what you're coming to
church to do. You're coming to obey him and
to worship him and to hear from him so that you can grow in your
obedience to him. They are to visibly manifest
and evidence all of this through their profession and their living,
their lives. It isn't just saying we're Christians.
It is living as Christians. And we are not to destroy our
profession of faith with false doctrine or unholy lives. That's
one of the reasons we have a confession. We believe that the Bible is
the Word of God. But what does it teach? Well,
we believe that here is a good, solid, anthology of biblical
doctrine. Here is systematic theology in
brief set before us so that we can know the primary doctrine
of the Word of God and have unity in that and not to stray according
simply to the darkened minds of men or the doctrines of devils. Christ the head calls us to walk
together by giving up ourselves to him and to one another in
professed subjection to the ordinances of the gospel. And each particular
society gathered in this fashion, according to Christ's mind, revealed
in the word, has been granted all power and authority. All
power and authority. by Christ the head to carry on
His order in worship and in discipline. That's good. Now lying at the
heart of that is ultimately its leadership. So we're going to talk about
the organization of a local church. Its composition set there in
paragraph 8 is a particular church gathered and completely organized
according to the mind of Christ, consists of officers and members. Each word here is very important.
There is the first emphasis on the local church, each particular
church, and as I have repeatedly pointed out over the years, Baptists,
Independents, and Congregationalists have always held firm to the
principle of the local assembly. And everything necessary for
God's people to be filled and to walk with Him is found in
a congregation. This is perfectly fine for us
to be connected to, associated with other like-minded congregations. But what we are saying is that
Jesus Christ is the head of each congregation, and there is no
higher authority in that congregation than His Word as administered
by the elders. The elders do not have authority
in themselves. It is a delegated authority from
Christ. He gifts them and appoints them. And they are to be recognized
by the church through the Word of God. And the authority that they have
is real. It is Christ's authority. but it is a delegated authority. They are His representatives
administering His Word to His people. Though we agree that there is
an aspect of the church that we may recognize as universal,
the only church with which any of us will ever have to do or
work out our in which we will work out our salvation and fear
and trembling is a gathered congregation. You cannot do this as a maverick.
You become ingrown. I've met plenty of mavericks
over the over the years that think they can live without a
church and they are wrong and their lives prove it. Often by
their own selfish self-righteousness. You need the brothers to knock
your corners off. And we all have a bunch of them.
I don't see any smooth and polished ones here tonight. Beginning
with the one behind the mic. But I've had a lot of corners
knocked off. I thank the Lord. It's all His chiseling. You need God's people and you
can't do without them. And you were deceived if you
think you can because God did not, did not design a maverick. He designed a glorious body.
There aren't any perfect ones. They're all a mixture of error. But they can be real and powerful. So they need to be gathered according
to his mind and governed according to his mind, which means his
word and his spirit. The words completely organized,
our forefathers were pointing out here that this and this alone
was a composition of a biblical church, officers and members. And therefore, we need the right
officers and we need the right understanding of members. Now,
the first one to admit there may be very different ways of
being a member of a church. What I mean by that is there
may be different processes by which one is acknowledged or
recognized to be a member. But just the very fact of what
we're talking about proves how vital it is to understand what
that means. Because the congregation recognizes
and appoints the elder. You don't want somebody who's
been coming for two weeks to be involved in the vote on that. How would you like for someone
to come in and help appoint and then leave two weeks later? That's
the way things happen. No, the idea is the church is
to be a recognized group of people who have a profession and however
they calculate, understand their membership, there has to be an
agreed upon and recognizable group of people that are committed
to that local body. Because they will be making decisions. That's a very important part
of loving the Lord with all your mind. And therefore, A church completely
organized is made up of those who govern according to the Word
of God and those who are members of that body functioning according
to the power of the Spirit as defined by the Word of God. So, the officers appointed by Christ
to be chosen and set apart by the church. Notice these words. I can tell you that the Westminster
Confession, the Savoy Declaration, and the London Baptist Confession,
in my opinion, are extraordinary works of theological art. I don't know how to express that
any better. Yes, it is a weak and fallible
collection of thoughts by men, but all those thoughts, how I can say this, there was
an intense searching of the Word of God to collate and to define
what the Scriptures actually teach as a body. And while it
is certainly imperfect, it sets before us sometimes sentences
that are worth a series of messages. That's how rich they are. Just
remarkable because they're filled with biblical thought. That's
the idea. This is a comprehensive epitome
of Bible doctrine in a concise form. That's why sometimes it
reads almost like a contract or a legal document. Every single
word is important. It means something. And you're
trying to juggle all of these thoughts as they come rushing
into your mind. But notice the officers appointed
by Christ to be chosen and set apart by the church. That's how it's done. Christ
appoints them. We say, well, what do you mean
that's how it's done? We're to recognize them. How do we do
that? By knowing what the Word of God
says about them. And we're not to appoint someone
who doesn't fit that picture. Now, let me say before we go
any further. No one fits the bill perfectly. That guy does not exist. He's
a redeemed sinner just like you and just like me. And he will
have failings and holes. And that's why it's important
as much as is possible, it's not always possible, but as much
as is possible for them to be raised up within the congregation
to which they are appointed. It doesn't always happen that
way. Did not happen that way with me as I'm standing here
teaching you. So let me say, there's not any
ironclad system that has no loopholes or exceptions, but there are
clear general principles that we're fools to ignore. So, that
being said, They're appointed by Christ and we can recognize
them according to what the scriptures tell us. And then the church appoints
them. Excuse me, recognizes them. Christ
appoints them and the church sets them apart. See, the church
doesn't, quote, make them elders. Christ makes them elders. But
the church recognizes this and sets them apart to do that. It
was one of the reasons when I came here, having been the pastor
of another congregation, in fact, being a pastor during that time,
I said, I will not come unless we have a number of meetings
and I spend time here and everyone understands who I am, what I
believe, at least as much as possible. And we had numerous
meetings and discussions through the floor open for hours. We
had, as you might imagine, very lengthy meetings in which we
did Q and A for a long time. I myself struggled even with
the brevity of that, but that being the case, we did what we
could to abide in biblical procedure. This is not to be something overnight,
generally speaking. The Lord can do whatever He wants,
but I'm talking about the general principle. So let's look at terminology
for a few minutes. First of all, the Word of God does not recognize
three offices or more. It only recognizes two. Pastor, elder, and deacon. The
idea of pastor and elder is not two different offices. Some people don't even like the
word office, they would prefer the term function. Now that's
fine, we're a body and there are functions within the body.
But the idea is that there are clearly distinct acts and responsibilities
that officers have and that members have. So, Many people get confused
because there are several words in the scripture that seem at
first to point to different kinds of offices, but we're going to
spend a little time on that. We've got a late start this evening, and so we certainly will not
finish this this evening, but that's fine. We will take our
time because we do want to take time in the weeks ahead for questions
and answers as we work through this. We want everybody to be
very clear regarding these matters. So it may not be completely neat
and tidy, but I trust it will be thorough enough for us all
to be biblically informed as to the need before us. The functions
of elder or presbyter, overseer or bishop, or pastor and shepherd
are one and the same. A bishop is an elder. is a pastor. These are all different
aspects of the same role. We need to be careful not to
undermine the clear biblical pattern by adding non-biblical
distinctions such as senior pastor and assistant pastor. Now, when
I say things like this, I'm not saying that people that use this
terminology and even function this way are lost, not brethren,
or any of that type of stuff. I'm just talking about the fact
that we as human beings and all congregations having mixture
and error is that we can muddy the water by using unbiblical
terminology and then associating ideas with that unbiblical terminology
and thinking that we're talking about something biblical. This congregation has had two
pastors since I've been here. It's had two elders since I've
been here. It's had two bishops since I've
been here. It would be perfectly legitimate
for you to call Bishop Stephen or Bishop Frakes
by that title. And that's what he is. Because
the idea, and we'll look at this in more detail in the weeks ahead. Tonight again is just an introduction.
But the idea of bishop means an overseer. That is a vital
role of an elder, of a pastor. But each one of these points
to a different aspect of it. A presbyter, an elder. The idea
of an elder is someone who is older and wise and has spent
some time in life. I mean, the idea today, I mean,
should it shock us? Should it surprise us that our
churches often get in trouble? Because our idea of getting a
pastor is we take the best and the brightest, generally, in
our congregation, send them off to a seminary, and then someone
takes them to be a pastor somewhere when they're 25. And sometimes
not even married yet. Now, I'm not attacking these
brethren. Spurgeon was preaching in his teens. So there are always
exceptions. I'm talking about general principles.
And the idea is that very often, you know, here's a guy who hasn't
lived very often, doesn't even have any children. And he's going
to be ministering to people that are in their 70s, their 80s,
in their 40s, new families. They haven't lived enough. They
haven't been knocked down hard enough enough times. And they haven't experienced life
enough yet. The idea of elder is often associated
with the notion of wisdom. It's somebody who's lived a while
and knows how to make some applications. And the idea of pastor is so
clear. It's lovely. It's the same idea
of shepherd, someone who feeds and protects. So all of these
are the same role, function, office. And the scriptures make this
plain. Acts chapter 20, verse 17. From Miletus, he, that's
Paul, sent to Ephesus and called the elders, right? And the Greek word there is presbyteros. Now, I don't usually use Greek
or Hebrew when we're studying. You won't be impressed with it,
and I don't know it well. I try to study the men that do
know it well. But the fact is, the reason I'm
using it is because that word should sound a little familiar
to you. It should sound like presbyteros, it should sound
like presbyterian, which is exactly where it comes from. Presbyters,
that word comes directly over from this one. Presbyters or
elders. So Paul called for the presbyters
of the church. Acts chapter 20, verse 28. Take heed therefore
unto yourselves. He's now speaking to these presbyters.
He's speaking directly to them. And he says, take heed to yourselves
and to the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers. And that's the Greek word episkopos.
Now, that should sound a little familiar to you as well. It's
where we get the English word episcopal or episcopalian. And to feed, poimino. feed the church of God. That word poiminos is a verb
but it's connected to the noun form which means a shepherd.
Shepherds feed the flock. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd and carry them in his arms. Isaiah 40. So the same
presbyters are being spoken of as being episkopos, bishops. In other words, it's the same
office. Different aspects of the same
office. And they are to feed the church
of God. Purchase with his own blood.
Boy, that's sober. That's Christ's church. The church
is never the pastor's. There are times when pastors
will say, you know, to one another, how are your people doing? But
they mean in the sense of the responsibility they have, not
in the sense of ownership. I don't own this congregation.
Pastor Stephen doesn't own this congregation. It is the blood-bought
property of Jesus Christ. And he appoints men to be presbyters,
elders, episkopos, episkopoi, bishops, and pastors. Titus chapter 1 verse 5, For
this cause left I thee, Paul to Titus, in Crete, that thou
should set in order the things that are wanting or lacking,
and ordain elders, presbyteros, in every city as I had appointed
thee, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful
children, not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop, still
the same context, but now he changes the word. Ordain elders for a bishop, which
is the same thing as an elder, but the different aspect of his
oversight. For an overseer must be blameless
as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to
wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. 1 Peter 5, 2, feed,
poi mino, the flock of God, shepherd them. Feed them, which is among
you, taking the oversight. This is episcopeo. That's the
verb, taking the oversight. But that's connected to the idea
of episkopoi, the bishop, the oversight of God's people. Thereof,
not by constraint, but willingly. Not for filthy lucre. Not for
the money. But of a ready mind. And at 1st
Timothy 3, 2, a bishop then must be blameless, episkopos. It could have easily have said
an elder. It could have just as easily said a pastor. But
it's giving us the angle of the one who oversees. The one who
oversees. The flock of God must be blameless,
the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given
to hospitality, apt to teach. And we'll cover every one of
these because it's vital. You must understand it so that
you can recognize it. So then you can set apart someone
that the Lord has appointed. Does that make sense? Okay well we can only say that
as we close we're running over a little bit because of our late
start but let's just say that first of all what we see is plurality
of elders generally speaking and we'll talk about that more
in our future meetings and what the calling is and then the work
of pastors the very nature of their service The elements of
their service, the ministry of the Word, the ministry of prayer,
the description of their service. It says, Obey them. Now those
are words that people don't like today, but they are the word
of the head of the church. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves. For they watch for your souls
as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy
and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Until
you understand the issue of authority, you will never understand anything
about life correctly. Period. God's authority is supreme and
he has called his people and put them together. And he has
called and set apart some of them to administer his authoritative
word for them to obey. Pastor Stephen and I are not
here to give you suggestions that we think up. Now, if you
come and you talk to us about a car, we'll try to talk to you
about biblical principles and we might make some suggestions
there, but that's not from the pulpit. From the pulpit we are
to speak on behalf of the head of the church, and you have one
responsibility, to obey the head of the church. That doesn't mean
you have perfect elders. It does not. Everyone who's been
here more than ten minutes knows that. But the fact of the matter
is, You must understand, as our brother so wonderfully said Sunday
evening, you're going to be under imperfect authority all of your
days, all of your days. Every one of you that's a parent
know that you are in an imperfect authority. But God has commanded
those children to obey you. And they're outside of God's
will if they're not doing that. And it is the same in God's church.
That's weighty stuff. It's difficult for me to think
about that very long because I know how faulty I am. I know
my weaknesses. I know my limitations. At least
I think I do. There are times when I discover
I'm even more limited than I thought. But brethren, this is why this
is such an important matter. We're not here to vote for people
because they're funny, because we like to go fishing with them,
because they're fun to be around, or even because they're a good
Bible teacher as such. There are a lot of people that
are good Bible teachers that are not elders. And that is the fact. So we must be able, by God's
word, prayer and fasting, to recognize them so that we might
set them apart for the impossible task to which Christ appoints
them. I trust that we will have some
good discussions regarding this. Again, let me encourage you,
read your confession. Read that chapter over and over,
especially 8, 9, and 10. Be clear on these matters. And
we'll have good time discussing them and looking at the scriptures
and examining ourselves so that we might be able to do
that which is for the health of Christ's church. Amen. Holy Father, we thank Thee that
we can gather in Thy name. We thank Thee for these truths.
We do pray that in the weeks ahead, there will be a very great
interest and a sober participation by Thy people as we begin to
talk about this matter. We thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou lovest Thy church and
that Thou dost give elders and teachers and deacons and members.
And we all have a function that is absolutely crucial to the
life and health of Thy body. But it all comes down to submitting
to Thee. Our health is directly dependent
upon Thy grace. And by grace, our submission
to Thee and Thy blessed word. Help us in the name of Jesus
to honor and glorify Thee. Amen. Let's go in the name of
the Lord.
Introduction
Series Pastors After God's Own Heart
| Sermon ID | 1119142346188 |
| Duration | 54:22 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Jeremiah 3:15 |
| Language | English |
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