Again from the book of Revelation. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near. We don't have prophets today, we don't believe that. Our prophet is going to be giving us the message of God as he wrote down in his word. This is important, that this is what the word of the Lord is going to be given to us today. So if you have ears to hear, listen. Friend of God, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. First Corinthians will be the text that we are examining this morning, and your bulletin is an outline. I encourage you to locate that and use that to follow along, take notes, read some of the quotes that I'll be using, and hopefully thereby get a better grasp of what you've heard in this text before us this morning. Paul went to Corinth many times. He wrote many epistles. We only have two of them. He actually wrote four. We know that because 1 Corinthians references a letter he wrote to them, presumably lost. 2 Corinthians references a stern letter, which clearly 1 Corinthians is not. That presumably is lost. So in reality, our 1 Corinthians is 2 Corinthians, and our 2 Corinthians is 4 Corinthians. Regardless, we've got this incredible record of an exhortation that this shepherd, this pastor gave to this congregation when they were struggling and in turmoil. And it's our privilege this morning to look at one passage from this great epistle in which Paul exhorts that body with regards to the leadership and how they ought to view their leaders in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 4 is that text we'll be looking at, 1 through 5. I'll read it. I remind you that the office of preaching occurred when God's people were so frightened by the quaking mountain because of God's greatness. God wasn't trying to frighten them. God's just awesome. He's infinite, eternal, unchangeable. We are not. And so God's people were frightened by His greatness. They were traumatized by His holiness. And so they said, man, please, Lord, don't talk to us. Send someone else. And that's when God was pleased to institute what we now call the office of a preacher. So please know that when the Word of God is read, The still small voice of the preacher is replacing the smoke and the clouds and the thunder and the lightning and the awe of God's greatness. So out of reverence and respect for your king, our God, let us stand at the reading of his word. Let's stand. 1 Corinthians 4, Paul writes, let a man regard us in this manner. as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by any human court, in fact. I do not even examine myself, for I am conscious of nothing against myself. Yet, I am not by this acquitted. But the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness, and disclose the motives of men's hearts, and then each man's praise will come to him from God." Thus far, the reading of God's Word. Let's pray. Lord, what an incredible privilege it is ours to come this day, this very moment of our lives, this seminal point where from the beginning of time you ordained that we all, this moment, would sit beneath the teaching of this particular passage. And therefore, Lord, we walk away with the conclusion that you intend us, each and every one of us this day, to hear this passage, to study it together. God, we pray that you would send forth your Spirit and open eyes, humble the proud, break the arrogant wayward, and Lord, humble us all, give us brokenness and repentance that we might cling to Jesus Christ and through the preaching of your word, cling to you, and be refreshed and built up and encouraged in Christ. Lord, we commit this time to you. Be exalted, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. How many of you know where the Shema lies in scripture? The Shema. Y'all know? Some of you? Deuteronomy 6, it's that title because in Hebrew the first word for here is Shema. Shema Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord is one. How about, how many of you know where the Magnificat is? Ooh, even more hands. Surprise, surprise. Luke 1. That's Mary's ascription of praise to God when she heard about Christ. Well, most of you didn't know where the Shema is. Most of you didn't know where the Magnificat is. How about the Great Commission? Matthew 28, 18-20, Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." That's the Great Commission. We know that passage. We love that passage. But did you know that that Great Commission was given not to the individual, but to the church? That is why the church baptized, and that is why the church understands that one of our seminal responsibilities is to instruct, to teach the body of Christ and raise them up as disciples. It is therefore logical to conclude that if there were leaders in a church, their primary job would be the Great Commission. And ironically, if that's what you think, you'd be wrong. The Great Commission is but a very small responsibility. In fact, it's given to the whole body, not the leadership, but the leadership's job is something else. So we know the Great Commission for the body. What's the Great Commission for leadership? There's many passages that we could turn to in scripture that would help us understand the Great Commission for leadership, but one of which we're gonna look at this day is 1 Corinthians 4. This passage gives us an anatomy of church leadership. It tells us how we ought to think about leaders. And by way of footnote, what that means is not how you ought to start programming your mind to think about leaders, but it's an exhortation for all leaders to realize this is how, if you're a man of God, this is how the body of Christ should look at you. If they see you as a savvy businessman, you've missed the mark. If they see you as someone who, name it, what the world might view preachers as, unless they see this, you've missed the mark. Well, what is the anatomy of a leader? How does a leader, what ought a leader to look like? Well, we've seen four things. We're looking at four things. Two last time, two today. Last week we saw his conflict. Notice chapter four, verse one. Let a man regard us in this manner. Why was Paul worried about how the Corinthians viewed him? For that matter, any leader. He says, us. Why does he care how the Corinthians thought about him? Well, the reason why, you know the context from last week. We saw that last week this church had a bunch of false leaders rise up amongst them. They fancied themselves as super apostles. That's what they literally called themselves. We see that from 2 Corinthians. And they criticized Paul. They called him weak. They called him effeminate. They called him a bad teacher. They called him a heretic. They said his teaching wasn't powerful. They said it wasn't with pizzazz. I mean, it wasn't one of those things that moved you. And so Paul, rather than defending himself, says, you know what, I want to set the record straight. If you're going to think about me, if you think about any leader, this is how you ought to think about leaders. And from this, we saw the first thing is the people from whom Paul received the most conflict in his life was the body of Jesus Christ. We tend to think it's the Gentile world and the Romans. It wasn't. It was the very people to whom Paul poured his life into. is the very people to whom Paul gave everything. And we saw, therefore, if you're a leader, Understand that sheep do bite, and they will bite. And by way of footnote, that may sound condescending, I'm a sheep too. I'll bite back. Not as a leader, but as a sheep. We all bite. That's part of being sinners. We bite each other, right? We hurt each other. If you were getting married, one of the things you'd hear is, you know, part of marriage is you're gonna At times you're not going to get along, but you've got to learn to forgive and be gracious and put the other above your own needs, right? The same thing in ministry. Church leaders will be devoured by the people they seek to minister to. It's a mark of faithful leadership. Second characteristic we saw of leadership from this passage is his concern. Notice he says, let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ. From that phrase we saw that servants of Christ primarily deals with the concern of a servant. Servants, the thing that you walk away from being a servant in this day was the concern of your master was now your concern. whatever his will is, whatever burdened him was your burden, whatever excited him was what that which excited you. And so we see that a mark of a church leader is he's driven by the concern of Christ. And we saw there that primarily the two main concerns of Christ, many, many concerns, but the two primary ones we know was the glory of God, That must be the concern of a church leader, the glory of God. And secondly, the concern of Christ was the inheritance of God, which was the people, which is the people of God. Secondly, a church leader ought to be concerned for the people of God, the glory of God as manifested in and through the lives of God's people. That's what church leadership are concerned by. Not the numbers of people, not the empty pews, not the offering, not name it, not all the different things that churches get so caught up with today. Church leaders first and foremost ought to be concerned with God's glory manifested in the lives of God's people. Is that not the hope of the gospel? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Church leaders, therefore, are giving themselves, ought to give themselves to those things. So much so, that this becomes their reputation. Remember we saw when Paul says, let a man, the reference there in verse 1, let a man, is all men. This just isn't people in the body. This is everywhere. This is outside of the church. Sadly today, the world has such a various and sundry view of leadership in the church. Growing up, I was not raised in a Christian home. My folks preached to me on and on and on. The church cares about one thing, money. That's all that they care about. Leadership is about one thing, they want money. So I grew up with this, almost with this complex. In fact, if we visited a church, we never went. But if I wanted to visit one in high school, which we did, my folks always said, don't sign anything. Whatever you do, don't sign a thing, because if you sign it, they're going to come back at your door and say, give us money. That was their view. What's your view? Isn't that sad? What it should be is, that's a place where the leadership are concerned about God's glory worked out in the lives of God's people. That's a leader. Thirdly, and now we'll begin new ground this morning. Thirdly, would you notice his commission. So this is now the commission of the church. Leadership, not the church, but the church leadership. Notice with me verse 1c. Let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Let's look at the word steward for a moment. You've got this written in your bulletin there. Broad term in Paul's day, used of a person in a position of trust, but accountable to others. That's the key phrase. In a position of trust, but accountable to others. In other words, they're not kings. They're not dictators. They're in positions of responsibility, but they're under Shepherds, they're under leaders, is what they are. In fact, you got the words there, let me keep on going. The Greek word is oikonomos, which is a compound word oikos, where we get the word house, also where we get the word economics, oikonomos, economics. And nomos, which means law. Together the idea is house law, or someone charged with keeping the law or order or affairs of a household. So someone in that day who was charged with keeping the orders or the affairs of someone else's household was a steward. That's what a steward was. In fact, the word was used in the Greek world to refer to a person who supervised a large estate. You've got the notes there. So in the ancient world, if you were a wealthy, wealthy landowner, you didn't deal with the day-in and day-out workings of your estate. You hired or you bought most oikonomoses, most stewards, were slaves. You purchased someone who would manage your household. And therefore, to the rest of the group, you'd be called master, but to the owner, you're slave. To the rest of the group, you'd be the one where the buck stopped. But to the owner, you're just simply a slave. And that, brothers and sisters, is what an oikonomos is. I think the closest parallel in our culture would be a butler. So when you think of a leader in a church, don't think of a king, don't think of a savvy businessman, think of a butler. You know, you go to a large mansion, you knock on the door, and Jeeves answers it, right? Jeeves answers it and says, welcome, you know? Do you have an appointment? Yes, I do. So he ushers you in, takes your hat, takes your coat, makes you comfortable. Would you like tea? Would you like coffee? What can I do to make you comfortable? What can I do to meet your needs? Okay, now because of that, we have this idea that Jeeves is passive, somewhat effeminate, somewhat weak. We'll just cross him one moment. Do something in the master's house that the master doesn't want done. And Jeeves becomes like Gandalf. You shall not pass. Right? You know what I'm talking about? Gandalf was this kind, if you watched Lord of the Rings, this kind-looking old man. But boy, I'll tell you what, if you did something you weren't supposed to do, he became the strong. That's called meekness. He became the strong leader. That's the idea behind a steward. Now, if you're a steward, what are church leaders a steward of? No doubt, people. Exactly, right? Absolutely not. Notice the text. He says, let them regard us as stewards of the mysteries of God. The word musterion in the Greek where we get the word mystery. Our definition for mystery is like a whodunit novel, you know what I'm talking about? You know, a mystery is something you don't know in our language, in the English, right? So you buy a mystery novel, you don't know whodunit to the end. And once it's revealed, it's no longer a mystery. In fact, you don't wanna read the book again. I know, yeah, the butler did it, Jeeves. Jeeves did it. You don't wanna read it again because you know who did it. The mystery's gone. Well, it turns out in the Bible, the definition of mystery is the exact opposite of our word mystery. Our word mystery refers to something you do not know. In the Bible, a musterion was something that in the past was not known, but now by revelation, by inspiration, it's been revealed. Did you get that? A mystery in the Bible is something that heretofore has not been known, but now has been made known through revelation. If you want to turn there, you can, or just listen. Ephesians 3, 3 through 5, gives us the sense of this word. Let me read it to you. Paul writes, and by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the musterion, the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit. Based on that verse, what's a mystery? A mystery is something that, prior to this time, has been hidden, but God has, through revelation, inspiration, revealed it to His people. That is why when we're reading 1 Corinthians 14, that a man who speaks in tongues speaks mysteries, we understand properly that that means that the man who speaks in a tongue is speaking by direct revelation from God, number one. So if the Bible's closed, there can be no tongues. Secondly, it's something that was, it is a revelation of something that in the past was not known, but now is made known. Hence, the person speaking in a tongue would have understood what he spoke. Amazing. That's the word musterion. And hence, summarize, what therefore are church leaders a steward of? They are given the charge of the word. Did you get that? That is their commission. The church's commission, very, very refined, very singular. It's make disciples. The leadership's job is much more than that, although it includes that. It's much more than that. It's being a steward with regards to this word. God's Word. Let me look at some verses, have you look at some verses with me. You've got them written there. Would you turn to Jude chapter 3? Let me show you this in case there's any doubts. Notice Jude. Right before, right before, what is it? Hebrews, James, Jude, right? Jude, John, Revelation, am I saying it right? Let's go back. Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, Jude, John. So it's right after James, right? Turn with me to Jude. Verse three, small little book. Hebrews, James, Jude, after James, sorry guys. Right after James. Where is it? Hebrews, James, Jude, John, Revelation. Right before John. Thank you very much. Right before Revelation. Hey, I'm right on all this, guys. It's right before Revelation. Oh, man. That's called a major brain attack there on that one. Okay, Jude is right before Revelation. Guys, I turned 50 this past year, and you know all that explains it. Good night. All right. Thank you. Yeah, erase the tape, please. All right, let's go to Jude, verse 3. Now that I've made a total fool of myself, and that is proper. That's what leaders are. Jude 3, notice, Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude has written to the whole body, not just leaders, get this. Jude says, I'm exhorting you, church, to contend for that which was once for all given to you, God's word. Realize God's word is a trust that God has given to you and to me. Our job is to understand it, to defend it, to proclaim it, and to live it as we'll see. It's a trust given to the entire body, and therefore, understanding it's that trust, understand it's now the trust as well of the leadership. Notice this quote from MacArthur, the deposit of our lives with God is secure. The question is, how secure is his deposit of truth with us? Christian colleges, seminaries, pastors, and other church leaders who deviate from Scripture, defecting to a different gospel, and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ, will face a dreadful day of reckoning before God. The most solemn responsibility that any believer has, especially those the Lord has called to be preachers and teachers, is to uphold and defend the integrity of His Word." I love that statement. Man, we have been given a huge charge, brothers and sisters, the charge of God's Word. And especially if there's anything that a leader will be held accountable to, it will be, how did he handle this Word? Did he proclaim it accurately? Did he defend it properly? Did he inculcate it in the lives of the disciples that has been given to the church? Notice it is the church, it's the responsibility of leadership. Go back to 2 Timothy now. Yes, now it's back and I do know where 2 Timothy is. 2 Timothy is before Hebrews. 2 Timothy 1 verse 13. Notice what Paul told Timothy, a leader, a shepherd in this body. 2 Timothy 1, 13-14, retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Now to clarify this, it says, retain the standard of sound words. Hold on to this word. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure, which is the sound words, which has been entrusted to you." Paul specifically exhorted Timothy. One of the last things Paul ever wrote was, Timothy, guard this deposit of truth. It's amazing, you know, God's word gives us very, you might think a lot of commands, really not. The Bible says the same thing over and over and over again, it really does. It's rather simple as leaders. Leadership's job is to main, have and hold, maintain this God's word. They're to proclaim it, defend it, disciple people unto it, And get this, they're also called to live it. Go back now to first Timothy six. First Timothy six, 20 through 21. Notice 1 Timothy 6, 20. Oh, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. That almost sounds like a spiritual gift, right? God gave him a spiritual gift, guard that. That's not what he's talking about. Listen to how he modifies it. Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Paul says, guard this from two things, professing, or better yet, perverting it, saying that it says something that it doesn't, guard it, and secondly, protect it from apostasy. Notice the way that those who are not guarding it do two things. They proclaim false things and they fall away from the faith. This passage therefore brings the call to protect God's word into the realm of ethics. So we all know about orthodoxy, right? Orthodoxy means straight. Ortho means straight, so straight words. So we want to hold to orthodoxy, to straight doctrine. But we also are responsible as leaders for orthopraxy, straight living. Did you get that? We're called to have straight living as leaders, which means God has given us a trust of his word, and that trust therefore means we are responsible not only to proclaim it, defend it, teach it to others, but make sure that the body of Jesus Christ is living it. Isn't that incredible? That's our call. That's the call of a leader. They're known as people who are who are concerned for the glory of God and God's people, and they're concerned they take seriously this word, what it says, and it's being lived out in the lives of God's people. That's what church leaders, if you're gonna bite into a church leader, what flavor should you taste? That's what you should taste. You shouldn't taste, man, that guy is a savvy intellectual. Well, in one sense, I hope leaders are savvy intellectuals. Man, that guy knows his theology. Well, I hope they know their theology. Man, that guy is self, you know, he's proud. whatever our view of leadership is, what it should be. You spend a significant amount of time with a leader, a true leader in the body of Jesus Christ, they must be known as someone who's driven by the concerns of Jesus Christ, which is God's glory, God's people, and the word of God, not only worked out in their own lives, but the lives of God's people. That's what we're about as a church. But today in America, we become the consumerized public. Are we not? We're consumers. And so we go to malls, and malls are all about presenting and experience. And now we go to churches, and that's what churches have become. Because we have all learned from the 70s that the chief competition with Sunday morning is the mall. So now churches today are competing with the mall. Family of God, church leaders, fellow shepherds, fellow leaders. We're not in competition with them all. Our calling is very certain and very clear and very simple. It is this body glorifying God and growing in their love and devotion and humility in Christ. If it's not, we are failing our job. We're miserable failures if we're not growing in grace. I don't care how big we are. or how much money goes through the coffer, right? Biblically, who cares? You know, on the Day of Judgment, God doesn't say, whoa, wait, time out, hold the horses, hold the judgment. Everyone stop, look, this man helped pastor a church that raised $40 million to build a statue, whatever. No way. I mean, think about, I love this one. Person goes to heaven and he's carrying all his gold with him. And Peter's at the pearly gates and he says, why are you bringing paving stones to heaven? Right, this is like bringing asphalt. Can you imagine someone dying and before he dies, gathering up the asphalt in front of their house? Family, God doesn't care about gold. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, Psalm 50. He didn't care about wealth. Leaders, why do you? You better not. You better care about the things that God cares about. God's inheritance, we saw last time, is people. This people. So fellow leaders, Fellow officers, soon-to-be officers and leaders in Christ's church, your charge is to be concerned and driven by Christ and his concern, and your charge is to be a steward, a good steward of this God's word, not just proclaiming it orthodoxy, not just defending it orthodoxy, not just discipling it orthopraxy, but also living it orthopraxy. And that brings us then to the very last point, and that point is verse two. Notice the last one. Turn your paper over. Notice his personal, individual calling. In this case, verse 2, Moreover, it's required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. Now I've written this here, follow along. In the context of the quality of the work of the butler or steward, if the master was to check on everything, he might as well do the job himself. So by definition, a steward has to be faithful. And if a steward by definition has to be faithful, the word faithful in the Bible means able to be trusted. If a steward is able to be entrusted with the word, able to be entrusted with the people of God, able to be entrusted with the will of God and the glory of God. If that's what a steward is, he's able to be trusted. This speaks, therefore, of his personal piety, his humility, and his godliness before God. Holiness, by definition, refers to one's sin or lack thereof. We talk about a holy person typically as someone who doesn't sin because they're set apart unto God. Godliness speaks of the motive. But how does holiness differ from godliness? A holy person and a godly person? A holy person typically is so devoted to God he doesn't sin, but a godly person is driven out of love for Christ. Okay, so we're dealing with piety. godliness, the personal holiness and the personal godliness of the church leader on this one. In this case, moreover, it's required that however you take a leader concerned with Christ, a good steward of the mysteries of God, that they are able to be trusted and hence their leaders. They are shepherds. They're holy. They're godly. They're submissive to the Lord themselves. It's a huge issue today in the church. It's so easy in the context of ministry to put on a show, I've written this there, to play act, and so project yourself in a way that's not true. That was what was going on at Corinth with the super apostles, and sadly today the church is rife with such leadership. Let me tell you a true story. My mentor, a man who I have looked up to for 25 years since I've been in the ministry, have had dialogue with him frequently recently the last month I sat down over lunch with him and we were talking about leadership and we're talking about the dangers of leadership and the pitfalls that you fall into as leaders. He told me, he related this story to me. He said years ago, this guy was a pastor of a large congregation, over 2,000 people, and he said they hired an assistant youth director, young married man, who hit the ground and ran. This guy was a shepherd and a servant and a caretaker like no one else's business. The news of anyone hurting in their congregation. This man and his wife showed up at their door with food. They would be the first there, the last to leave. Sometimes they even spent the night at people's houses being nursemates to the people. He was the first at the hospital, last to leave. He taught, served, supported, counseled, encouraged, called, and labored to equip the body of Christ. He said within very short order, the entire congregation, over 2,500 people, were talking about this young man and his wife. Well, he was there for many, many years. Not surprisingly, over the decades, this guy went from assistant youth director to youth director, missions coordinator, pastor of spiritual development, and then executive pastor. This guy became a pillar in this body. And then he ran away with another man's wife. They disciplined him, they deposed him, and he's now out of ministry, out of office. But a couple of years later, after this time, this happened a decade or so ago, a couple of years later, he met with my friend, my mentor, Jerry. And then we began talking, and Jerry said, what happened? What was going on? I mean, you had so much. I mean, everyone, you had it all. What happened? And this is what he said, and I'm gonna read it. In all the years of his ministry, he confessed to Jerry, his delight and joy was not the righteousness of Christ, but the praise and adulation of the people of God. That is why he did all those things. It wasn't because he loved Christ or the people. It was because the ministry had become his platform of fulfillment. It starts very innocently, doesn't it? We all are born this way. We're born and we find that something we do makes someone smile. We go, we like that. We like making people happy. Well, now we become adults and we become leaders in the church and we sort of get a corner of a market on making people happy. And so, hey, if showing up there at five in the morning makes them smile, I'll show up at five in the morning. Pretty soon before long, I've got an idol. I've got a false god, and that false god is making you think I'm a great guy. And so I'm not humble. Oh, I look humble because that makes you praise me. I look humble and sound humble. I mean, we've learned this, the easiest language to learn. What is it? What's the easiest language you'll ever learn as a human being? What is it? Second, a language. What is it? It's God speak. Easiest language in the world. Greg, how you doing? Fine, thanks. God is so great. Was that hard to learn? And your sentences with a question makes you sound humble. The other day I was walking down the street, and I ran into this guy, and he was really cool. And I shared the gospel and told him about Jesus, and he became a believer. Wow, that guy's a humble man. Follow that man. Family of God, God speaks the easiest language in the world. And the idolatry of the leader is the idolatry of praise. We want people to like us and we want people to be happy by what we do. We want people to affirm us. And that's exactly what this, the pitfall this man fell into. And hence all the things that he did, he could say, Much of the things I did over the last 20 plus years of my ministry were to get people to say, my oh my, look at Brad. What a wonderful man is Brad. Leaders, watch over your heart with all diligence. How do you know if you're in the ministry for the praises of man? Well, go back to our first point, you're gonna get bit by God's people. And how you respond to getting bit will determine why you've been doing what you're doing. If you respond to people biting you with a sense of superiority, a sense of offense, a sense of how dare thee, do they know how much I've loved them? That tells me you've got an idol. And by the way, footnote, every leader, I'm one of them, has an idol. It is. We need to see this wicked idol and root it out. We're people pleasers. And hence a major problem in the church leadership is hypocrisy. I'm going to give you one more example of that found in scripture. If you want to learn to turn there you can, Ezekiel 8. Let me give it to you quickly. Ezekiel is a prophet in exile. Between 593 and 587 is the date in which he's writing. This passage, Ezekiel 8. Ezekiel 8 is a prophet called by God in exile. He was a phenomenal speaker. People flocked to him because his voice was like honey. Ezekiel 33, 32. People loved hearing him speak, but he was a genuine servant of God, and as such, he saw things. He could see the future. He could see what other people couldn't see. Well, one such prophecy God gave him, a vision, and it was of the temple hundreds of miles away. So he's in exile in Babylon, and he sees the temple hundreds of miles away, and he sees an Asherah pole, which was a base Canaanite goddess of the Canaanites. Base goddess set up by Manasseh in the temple. Second Kings 21.7 is the description of him setting this up. And he sees that Asherah pole set up, and he in his vision goes, oh my, I can't believe it, how far God's people have fallen. And God says, you think that's bad? You haven't seen nothing. And then he says this, verse seven, then he brought me to the entrance of the court of the temple. And when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. And he said to me, son of man, dig through the wall. So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance. And he said to me, go in and see the wicked abominations that are committed there. So I entered, this is the temple, and looked, and behold, every form of creeping thing and beast and detestable things with all the idols of the house of Israel were carved on the wall all around. Wow, man, this wasn't the Astropole. It was thousands of creeping, crawling things. If you know Romans 1, you know that describes the de-evolution, the devolution, whatever, of religion. It goes from monotheism, and the very last expression is the worship of creatures. So this tells us, man, they have really gone down. God's people are really, really down the road of depravity. And then it's as if the guy says, you think that's bad? You haven't seen nothing yet. Verse 11, standing in front of them were 70 elders of the house of Israel. These are the leaders. These are the shepherds, the pastors. These are the ones that you want your daughters and sons to grow up and either marry and be like. 70 elders were standing there with Jaazaniah, the son of Shiphon, standing among them. The idea behind that in Hebrews, he's leading them in the worship of these creatures. Each man with his censer in his hand and the fragrance of the cloud of incense rising. Oh, what could be worse? This is awful. Can you imagine living in that day? You'd be shocked at what you see. Guess what? You wouldn't be. You wouldn't. If you'd go back in time machine to that time, you'd see these church leaders and you'd still want your daughters to marry them. You'd still want your sons to be like them because they looked great. How do we know that? Verse 12. Then he said to me, Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? In other words, we learn from this that what Ezekiel saw was not what was going on in the temple, but what was going on in the hearts of these leaders. They were idolaters. Man, they walked around and maybe even wept over the fact that the Asherah was placed in the temple, but they were more guilty than Manasseh. because they were doing it in their own hearts and not confessing it. Christians, listen, leaders, listen, we're all gonna fall into sin. We're all gonna struggle with idolatry. The problem here is they didn't confess it and repent. They simply played the game. Church leaders, brothers and sisters, are men who watch over their hearts with all diligence. Or in the words of Paul to Timothy, pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching, persevere in these things. So another mark of church leadership is that they are men who are quick and willing to examine themselves and thus they're humble men, they're men willing to be rebuked and corrected There are men who are willing to have you come up and say, you've done wrong. I love the story of the Puritan man who was going around preaching and he got to a certain house and this boy came in and said, there's a guy in town who says that sister Sue isn't saved. He got offended. I know Sue. She loves Christ. And there's a man and he's saying that brother Bob doesn't love Christ and is not a Christian. That's horrible. I know Bob. He loves Christ. And then the boy says, he also says, you're not saved. You know what the man says? Quote, be gone, let me examine my soul. I would have defended myself. I would have said, are you kidding me? I read the word of God. I do all these great things. No, no, no. Humility says, if you're going to accuse a brother of something, I'm going to defend that brother. But if you can accuse me of it, I'm not going to defend. I'm going to say, I'm sorry. Have I led you to believe that I'm arrogant? I am so sorry. Forgive me. Fellow leaders, future leaders of Bethel Presbyterian Church, Today, if you're visiting, some of you are here because of this, but if you're visiting unawares, we are installing six deacons, ordaining six deacons, installing six, and installing an elder at Bethel. It's a big day for this body. Let me exhort my fellow leaders, be known, not for your winsome speech, be known not for your hold, your grasp on life, be known as a humble, responsive, repentant leader, a servant leader, whose biggest concern is not having people say, well done, now good and faithful servant, but whose biggest concern is the glory of Christ manifested in the people of God and thus the protection, the proclamation, the inculcation, and the living out of this word. And if you're not a church leader at Bethel, settle for nothing less, pray for nothing less. Hold your leaders to nothing less. I close with this. When I first got here, first got here, when we first started this church, did a lot of pastoral visits, we still do. And at one particular visit, I met with a businessman and I was sitting down with this very busy businessman and I said, brother, I like to ask on a pastoral visit, what can I do to be a better minister to you. What can I do to better encourage you in the Lord? This man said, be faithful in the study of God's word and preach the full counsel of God. And I can't tell you what that did to me. Normally it's, well, you could do more for me, which is great. And if that's true, I wanna know. Really, that sounds bad. I don't mean that bad. If that's what your need is, you could pray for me. I will pray and I am praying. I hope I pray more. But boy, to hear someone say, be a good steward of the mysteries of God entrusted to you, not just to what you say, but how you live it. Be a man of God. McShane said the greatest gift a leader could ever give his congregation is his holiness. Family of God, pray for such men as these. Let's pray. Father, what a delight and joy it's been to look at 1 Corinthians together as a group. Lord, I see that if there's gonna be anything we walk away with, says Paul, let it be this. God, I pray that you would so inspire and burden my fellow leaders at Bethel, that we would do what it would take in order to be known, not by play acting, but by genuine living and humility, this passage. God may it not be known that Bethel is filled with savvy leaders, But may it be known that Bethel is filled with humble, broken servants who will do what is necessary to grow you in your walk. Lord, I pray that would be the leaders that you continue to raise up here and the leaders that you'd make me and these leaders into. Father, we just want to be the hands and the feet of Christ. We just want to be the face and affections of our Lord. So Lord, we pray you'd send forth your spirit and humble each leader. Break us of our wayward will. Crush us and make us a people who would cling to Christ and to Christ and none other. That the praises of men or even the biting of a sheep would not be met with how dare they, but with prayer and weeping for the dear sheep that bites, and the desire to repent if need be, to say sorry if need be, but also to help them to walk alongside them into comfort. Father, raise up such leaders, we pray. Or better yet, raise down, bring down such leaders as this, that Bethel might always be gifted with such men as these. We ask this in Jesus' name.