Well, during the War for Independence, one of the things that the King of England lamented was the power of the black regiment in this country. He railed against the black regiment, and the black regiment was a reference to the pastors. Many pastors, not all, but many pastors would wear a black robe when they would stand in the pulpit, hence the name Black Regiment. the British Parliament in describing what happened in the war for independence and the founding of the United States of America. One of the members of Parliament complained that the colonists had run off with a preacher. And so one of the key things that I believe we ought to be praying for and laboring to see established and grow and spread all throughout our land is the reclaiming of the pulpits of this land. The place of the family cannot be overestimated in the economy of God. The family was the first institution that God created, and in the qualifications for elders and deacons, the family has a very prominent place that pastors, deacons, elders and deacons, one of the qualifications that is really emphasized, spelled out in great detail. is the family has to be in order. And in 1 Timothy chapter 3, the Lord instructs us as His people, if a man can't take care of his own family, how will he take care of the church of God, the bigger family? the more complicated family with many, many more members of that family. We rejoice to see a revival taking place in this country where there is teaching and many people are seeing how important it is to have Christian marriages for parents to be taking their responsibility of nurturing and caring for children very seriously. And, for example, the homeschool and Christian day school movement is just growing every year, the number of people. That's all very encouraging. But if we do not see the puppets of this land reclaimed for the glory of God and to a greater faithfulness. Any strides that we see taking place in our land will be very short-lived. if we do not build on Jesus. The progressives are building on sin, but so are conservatives if they do not build on Jesus and the Word of God. And so I want us to look at several passages of Scripture this morning. dealing with what does God say a biblical pastor ought to be doing and what biblical preaching ought to be. So let's go over, first of all, to the book We're going to look at several passages in the book of 1st and 2nd Timothy. 1st and 2nd Timothy. This portion of scripture was written originally by the Apostle Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to a young man by the name of Timothy. Timothy was an apprentice of the Apostle Paul. The Lord had raised Timothy up to preach the gospel, and Paul was his mentor. And so we see in 1 Timothy chapter 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope. To Timothy, my true child in the faith. And so here we see the apostle Paul describing Timothy as his son, his child, his true child in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God, that is, by faith." Recently, I heard a man sharing his testimony. He was a sweet, godly, evangelical pastor, and he was born with cerebral palsy, and he At the age of 16, he was a Christian, had become a Christian at a young age, and he had a well-meaning neighbor who had embraced the false teaching of the Word of Faith movement. And this well-meaning neighbor told this young man, who walked with crutches, You can be healed if you just have enough faith, if you just say the word." And invited him. There was a prominent national leader in that false movement that was going to be in town. And so this young man described—his first name was Justin—he was so excited. that he was going to be healed. And he went, and he said, I had faith. I knew God was able to heal me, and I believed he would heal me. And when he left, he had cerebral palsy. Well, the Lord called this young man to preach the gospel. And he wrote his master's thesis on what does the Bible say about the Word of Faith movement. And one of the things he pointed out, and I had never really thought about this, that all but one of the books in the New Testament warns against false teaching. That's a startling thing to think about, that of all the books of the New Testament, all of them but one, and the only book of the New Testament that doesn't have a warning about false teachers is the book of Philemon. That's the only one. And I kind of did some spot checking, and sure enough, so far I haven't read all of the New Testament since I heard that, but all the books that I've looked at, sure enough, there is something in every book that I've checked thus far that has a warning against false teaching. Well, that's what God says one of the duties of a faithful elder is, is to guard the sheep from false teaching. And it's particularly important in this day and time with the availability of false teaching that you can find on the internet. There is no limit to the bizarre false teaching that is available. And so that's how he begins. Remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. And then we see in verse 5, the aim of our charge or the goal of our instruction is love. The goal of a faithful minister, of a faithful biblical ministry, gospel ministry, is to encourage, instruct, enable faithful teaching that will cause God's people to love. to love God and to love one another. And we shouldn't be surprised that that is the overarching goal. You remember in Matthew chapter 22, one of the Pharisees came seeking to ask Jesus a trick question. Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? And evidently, they had sat around and came up with this question thinking, this is a gotcha question. No matter what Jesus says, we can point to other duties and we're going to make him look bad. And the Lord Jesus answered by quoting two verses from the Old Testament. First of all, A portion of Deuteronomy chapter 6, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is the first and great commandment Jesus declared. And the second is likened to it. The second flows out of it. And then he quoted from Leviticus chapter 19, the last part of verse 18, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. on these two commandments hang or depend all the law and the prophets. Everything is summed up in loving God and loving our fellow man. And so that's what Paul says, Timothy, here is the goal of our instruction. It is love, to love God, to love one another. And notice he mentions three things that enable or have to be present if we are going to love God and love one another in the Lord Jesus Christ. The aim, the goal of our instruction is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. A pure heart. Where do we get a pure heart? Well, it comes from God. And how does God give us a pure heart, a new heart, the new birth? Well, we could go over to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, and we see God telling Ezekiel to preach the word of God to the dry bones. Now that doesn't make any sense, does it? If bones are dead, you talking to dry bones, is that going to do anything? Well, if it is the word of God, God's word can make dead people alive. And that's what we see in Romans chapter 10. Faith comes from where? from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. God uses His Word, and so it is the tool, the chief tool that God uses to make us alive, to give us a pure heart, to hear the gospel, is the gospel of Holy Scripture. Gospel preachers are to proclaim the gospel. And God gives us a pure heart in Jesus. And in Jesus, he gives us a good conscience. How do you get a clean conscience? Well, the book of Hebrews chapter 9, And you can just turn there, Hebrews chapter 9, we have a description here comparing the shadows of the Old Testament with the fulfillment of those shadows in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 11, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places. not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of the heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And so the goal of a biblical minister, a biblical ministry, is love. For us to love God, for us to love each other in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where does that come from? It comes from a pure heart. It comes from a clean conscience, where our heart, our conscience is washed with the blood of Jesus. And we have freedom now in Jesus to live for our glorious Savior. And then the last, a sincere faith, a genuine faith, not going through outward motions, but from the heart, believing in Jesus, receiving and resting upon Jesus alone. Well, look over in chapter 4 of 1 Timothy. Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. And so what does some of this false teaching look like? Well, verse three, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. This false teaching has to do with how people think and how people live. of false paths being presented for people. That if you follow this path, now here's the way life can be good for you. And here we see that this is a distraction from the true source of blessing in life. And the true source of blessing in life is Jesus and his word rightly understood and lived. And we'll come back to that here in a little bit. Timothy is reminded that it's not enough to believe the truth, but he also must practice. And we see a number of times where the Apostle Paul would tell the people in Corinth or other cities, imitate me as I imitate Christ. How do children learn? Well, they watch their parents. And it's fascinating. Parents teach children how to talk, how to walk, all kinds of amazing things when you think about it. Parents teach children how to develop their taste buds. Here's something good. Yum, you'll love this. The little child tastes it and goes. But the parent persists. Try it again. And if they don't like it, eat it anyway. And after a while, their taste buds go, well, maybe it's not too bad. And over time, that becomes the norm. Well, Timothy is reminded that he is to be a godly example. Look in a few verses later in this passage. Well, let's just keep reading. Verse 6. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but what? Set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture to exhortation to teaching. And so here we have a warning against false teachers again. In in this book, but always the emphasis is not on immerse yourself in the false teachers, but. Believe the truth. Preach the truth. Live the truth. Command these things. Teach these things. Even though you're a young man, let no one despise your youth if you're being faithful to the Lord Jesus. I'll never forget one of the first marriage counseling Situations I had was up when I was working in this really large congregation in north of Philadelphia when I was in seminary and I had been married two months Okay I sat down with this couple. They had been married about eight years, and they were really having a rough go of it. I started talking to them about their situation, and we started looking at some passages of Scripture. And in the middle of looking at about the second passage of scripture that we looked at, the husband interrupted me. He said, wait, wait, wait a minute. How long have you been married? And I said, well, I've been married two months. And he started immediately, you know, hey, buddy, I'm not really sure you're going to be able to help us. And so I said, well, I'm not going to draw from my vast experience of being married. because obviously I don't have any, but it is my joy and privilege to tell you what the one who invented marriage says about it." And he was like, okay, I'll listen. But Timothy was told, look, don't let anybody despise your youth. That continues to be a real problem that I have when I sit down with people. They say, young man, no. But when I first came here, I had people look at me and say that you're too young to be a preacher. Well, they don't say that anymore, but Timothy is told, look, you need to be an example and you need to practice in verse 15. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. And so here is instructions. Let's go over to 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. And here the Apostle Paul, he says, I'm near the time when the Lord's going to take me out of this world. And these are some of his last words giving instruction to this young pastor. Look at verse 1, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. And you see, back in chapter 2, the Apostle Paul comes back to this idea of Timothy, you need to be very careful how you think and how you live. Look at verse 14 of chapter 2. Remind them of these things and charge them before God, not to quarrel about words, which does no good but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." And so the faithful ministry of a godly church is that there will be elders who are faithfully handling the Word of God. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. One of the things that is shocking and sad is to see the correlation of false teaching with immorality. And we see that throughout the Scriptures, in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, in the book of Jude. You can read the book of Jude this afternoon, the book of 2 Peter, chapter 2 and chapter 3, these false teachers. They do not know the Lord Jesus, and therefore their lives reflect that rebellion. Well, verse 17, their talk will spread like gangrene. What a description. You know, if you have gangrene in your body, you're not going to be here long unless it is removed. If you have gangrene in your body, what happens? It spreads and will kill you. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some, but God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his. And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. And a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. And therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do. With foolish, ignorant controversies, you know that they breed quarrels, and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. And so we could look at the book of Titus, the same thing. But let's go over to the book of Acts. And in chapter 20, we have again, instructions about what this black regiment ought to be about. In Acts chapter 20, beginning in verse 17. Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And the word there in verse 17, the elder is Presbyteroi. And if you'll look down in verse 28, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers or bishops. And so, in Scripture, these two terms are used as synonyms. Elders are called bishops. Bishops are called elders. They're one and the same. Scripture does not put forth this idea that you've got elders and then you've got bishops. All elders are bishops. All bishops are elders. And they came to him. He said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials. that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so a faithful biblical ministry will focus on the heart of the matter. and that is repenting and believing in Jesus. That is what the heart of the matter is, that no matter where we get on the road network in the Bible, if we faithfully follow that path, It will always lead us to repent of our sin, to turn from anything that's against God to Jesus Christ, to believe in Him. And so the Apostle Paul says, here's what I proclaim to you. I did it publicly. I did it from house to house. Verse 22. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." And so a faithful biblical ministry will focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ, the person and work of Jesus. But he goes on, that's not the only thing you will hear. Look at verse 25. And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again, and therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. Now what's this matter about being innocent of the blood. Well, turn with me to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 33. And Ezekiel 33 is a passage where the Lord describes to Ezekiel who he is. We see in verse 1, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, speak to your people and say to them, if I bring the sword upon a land and the people of the land, take a man from among them and make him their watchman. And if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away. His blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning. His blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. And so you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. And so that's this concept that we see here in Acts chapter 20. The Apostle Paul says, look, I am innocent of the blood of all men. He says, I've been a faithful watchman. I have blown the gospel trumpet. I have warned the people. And that's what a faithful biblical ministry is going to be. It will be blowing the trumpet, declaring the gospel according to Holy Scripture, and warning God's people about, don't turn away from Jesus. Don't walk against God. And the consequences. It will focus on the person and work of Christ, but it will be applying that message of life to every nook and cranny of our existence. Family, what is a family? And you can just stop and think now, what if our country had been full of faithful gospel preaching that had been heeded and embraced, would we have the Supreme Court justices throwing out thousands of years of people embracing a biblical definition of marriage? No. If there had been faithful gospel preaching that had proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ and warned God's people about What sexual immorality is, would the Supreme Court of the United States have thrown out the biblical definition of how to express sexuality and said, same-sex marriage is fine. Homosexuality is, you're good to go. Of course not. And so you can see how basic this thing of faithful gospel preaching is, it has huge ramifications. In this passage, he goes on, we don't have time to look at it, but in verses 10, down through verses 29, he says, listen, if somebody's doing wickedness and repents and turns to the Christ, there's forgiveness. But if somebody claims to be righteous and does wickedness, they will perish. And then the last thing that we see in this chapter is the response. But the point is, Ezekiel was to proclaim God's word. He wasn't to make something up. He wasn't to add to the word of God or take away from it, but to proclaim what God says. At the end of this chapter in verse 30, As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, Come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord. Now that sounds good, doesn't it? You go, wow, these are people who are hungry for the word of God. and they come to you as people come and they sit before you as my people and they hear what you say but they will not do it for with lustful talk in their mouths they act their heart is set on their game and behold you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice, and plays well on an instrument. For they hear what you say, but they will not do it. When this comes, and come it will, then they will know that a prophet has been among them." And so it's not enough for us to hear. It's not enough for us to understand. It's not enough for the gray matter to get another wrinkle. up there. The Lord wants us to embrace Christ and follow Him. And so that's what we see here in Acts 20. The Apostle Paul has said, listen, I didn't shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention, verse 28, to yourselves. And so a faithful biblical ministry, the elders will be keeping watch over themselves. You've heard the expression, the good old boys club. And that's a deadly concept in practice. Where in Congress, they'll pass laws for everybody else and exempt themselves. Well, sadly, why is that going on? It's because it's been going on in the church for a long time. And pastors are supposed to hold themselves. Other pastors are supposed to hold them accountable. pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. And this concept of pastors, elders, are going to stand before the Lord and give an account for the sheep. It's awe-inspiring to think of who God is. It is a terrifying thing to think of being responsible and not fulfilling the care that Jesus, the great shepherd, desires, has. for his sheep. Well, let's read just a few more verses quickly. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Here's this warning about these false teachers. Be careful. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. And so one of the things that is a take home for us is we need to be careful who we're listening to. And I would encourage you, if there's some guru that you are attracted to on the internet, you need to ask one of the elders in the congregation, what do you know about this guy? Do you think he's a faithful teacher? And there are some wonderful, faithful teachers on the Internet. But there are also some wackos. And some of these wackos, at first glance, seem to be good. That's the tricky thing. And so he says, care for the flock. And if it's the responsibility of elders to guard the sheep, it's the responsibility of the sheep to be taking advantage of the care and the teaching of elders. Verse 31. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." He goes on talking about how he coveted no one's silver or gold. and that he was not going to see them again and they all wept together because they said, well, you know, this dear man who has loved us and we love him, we won't see him again this side of heaven. I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. The whole counsel of God and the focal point of that counsel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you have time this afternoon, not only the book of Jude, 2 Peter, but Jeremiah chapter 23. We don't have time to look at it this morning, but another passage where the Lord says, I sent these men to be under shepherds and they haven't cared for my sheep. They haven't tended my sheep, so I'm going to tend to them. The Word of God, it tells us about Jesus, it tells us about life. Every nook and cranny brought under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what a faithful, godly ministry is going to be doing. for us to love God and love each other. What does a happy, holy Christian home look like? God tells us in his word. What does it look like to be godly parents? God tells us in his word. What does it look like to be godly young people? God tells us in his word. What does it look like to do our work, our callings for the glory of God? God tells us in his word. What should civil magistrates be thinking and doing? God tells us in His Word. The Word of God focused on the person and work of Jesus and applied to every aspect of life. Well, pray for this pulpit, for these elders to be faithful to Jesus, to grow. to love Jesus more, and that God would pull forth His Spirit and there would be a great awakening that would take place in our nation. That is desperately needed. Desperately needed. All right. Boy, I had so—we were just getting started. I had so many other things I wanted to share, but another time. All right. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your people. Thank you that you have made us your lambs, Lord Jesus. You purchased us. You're the good shepherd, and we want you to feed us your word. We thank you, Lord, for those that you have brought into each of our lives to encourage us to love you, Lord Jesus. And Father, we do pray that you would have mercy upon the ministry of the gospel in this place, that it would be faithful to you, that you would grow me and the other elders to understand your word rightly. Correct me where I'm wrong, Lord, and take us all by the hand and lead us in your paths. Lord, as watchman, We tremble because, Lord, we're going to answer, not only for ourselves, but for the lives of those that you have entrusted into our care. And so, Lord God, please bless. Lord Jesus, you're the good shepherd, and you have told us in John 10 that your sheep hear your voice, and that your sheep won't listen to the voice of strangers. And so grant that to us, Lord. Give us discernment. And we pray that in our nation that you would raise up the black regiment to be faithful to you. Hear our cry. In Jesus we pray. Amen.