As we consider this message to the elders of the church, we realize that though he's speaking directly to the elders of the church at Ephesus, that the concern is a concern that affects every church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a message preached, as it were, We get excerpts of it, but it's a message preached to elders. And so therefore, very pertinent to us as elders or those seeking the eldership in Christ's church. And we see as we look at this passage that the Lord is directing to us a concern to consider not only the example that Paul lists up to the Ephesians who were there and saw his ministry, But by a vicarious way, as it were, we looking to what is recorded in the scripture can look at the example of Paul in the church of Ephesus and see that as a way for us to understand the work of the elder in the church and our responsibility. And the great theme of the message, as I would suggest, is there for us. while he's reminding the elders of what his ministry has been in the midst of the church in Ephesus, he ultimately has as that great central theme of the message. We find it in verse 28. It's a result of this ministry that Paul has given that the words directed to the elders are, take heed to yourselves. Take heed to yourselves. And he is concerned that we would be watchful to our own spiritual condition in order that we might be able and effective to do a similar kind of ministry amongst the flock of God in which God would place us to serve Him. There's a great concern that we see this this spiritual liveliness in ourselves as a basis for effective ministry. In 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 16, a similar kind of admonition is given specifically to Timothy. We see Timothy not so much as an elder, though he served in an elder's capacity within the church, but we see very clearly from the writings of the various epistles to Timothy from Paul that's particularly the calling of the Spirit and the gift that's given to the church through Timothy is that of an evangelist, as one who's had the laying on of the hands and been set aside for the work of an evangelist in the church. And yet, the same kind of admonition comes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, verse 16, where the Spirit speaking through Paul says, Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you." We see combined in there a concern for his own spiritual well-being, his watchfulness for his own soul, along with a parallel concern for the doctrine, the doctrine as it would bear upon his own life, but his doctrine in terms of ministry, how it would bear upon the lives of the people to whom he ministered. But I would suggest to us that it speaks more than just of the doctrine. We can't separate the two. While he says, take heed to yourself and to your doctrine, the next phrase is, continue in them. He's not saying continue in the doctrine alone. He's saying, continue in the practice of looking to your own self and taking heed for your own self, as well as carefully taking heed to your doctrine. And he's saying, by doing this, the ministry comes both to yourself and to those who hear. Now, in our Western way of thinking, it's very easy for us to fall into the idea that doctrine is the absolute most important thing that there is in the Christian faith. Doctrine is absolutely essential. And please do not misunderstand me. I'm not demeaning the doctrine of our faith. But what I am saying is that the doctrine is not a philosophy of life. It's not an intellectual process alone. But it's doctrine unto godliness that the Holy Spirit commends to Timothy through Paul. It's doctrine that flows over into Christian living That is what the Spirit is speaking of. And so it's foolishness on our part to think that somehow if we can simply teach the people of the church the doctrine, right doctrine, that the church will be healthy and flourish and grow. And that's not what we have before us in the Scriptures. That's not the example of Paul that we have declared in Acts chapter 20 for all the verses leading up to the verse 28, where we're told, take heed to yourself is a description of a ministry whereby Paul is living out his faith in the presence of the church, that they might not only hear his message proclaimed, but they might see the message demonstrated in his life. And so we see. The Scripture is again and again pointing the elders to the fact that it's not just doctrine, but it's doctrine yoked with godly example. And so we can turn to 1 Peter in chapter 5, as we're told about the great shepherd of the church, and we're told about his encouraging the ministers and elders to shepherd the flock of God. And the admonition comes to them to not lord it over the flock, but to prove to be examples to them. We see then this very thing flowing out in the ministry of Paul in his writings to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 10. He speaks of his relationship and ministry to Timothy as first one who's sat under his teaching and the preaching of the gospel, and then one who's nurtured along and brought along as a helper, and one who's being trained for the work of ministry. But as Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 10, he says, But you have carefully followed my doctrine. You see, I said yes, doctrine is is essential. Right doctrine is essential. But what's the next phrase? Manner of life. He says, what you've done, Timothy, you've carefully followed my doctrine. But with that, you've, yo, followed my manner of life. And so he could say to the churches when he was writing to them, he said, I have no other one like-minded but Timothy. There's no one else that I can truly trust And trust your care to. But Timothy, why? Because Timothy, of all those that had been nurtured under Paul's ministry, was one who had followed both the doctrine and the manner of life. And we see Paul continually nurturing Timothy in the epistles that are written to him. Nurturing him because Timothy, knowing right doctrine, Knowing what's right is often still intimidated by the temptations and the trials of Christian ministry. And he's fearful when he sees Paul imprisoned. And he's been facing imprisonment himself. And he has to be reminded by Paul that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but a power, a sound mind. God has given us a spirit of love that overcomes fear. so that we are empowered to put right doctrine into appropriate action. So Paul would continue to describe Timothy's discipleship by saying, you have carefully followed my doctrine, my manner of life, my purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, perseverance. Timothy saw all these things. Simply words explained in the classroom. As a lecture, but they were were demonstrated in the living of Paul's life. And so he could say to the to the church at Corinth in First Corinthians, chapter four and verse 16, I urge you to imitate me. Then he goes on to say regarding Timothy, for this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ. My ways in Christ? He's talking about doctrine. But he's talking about doctrine lived out, fleshed out in the heart of faith of the believer, living faith in Jesus Christ. And he's saying, this is just as I teach everywhere in every church. And so he would continue in his letter to the first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 15 and verse one, where he says, imitate me just as I also Christ. Christ drew a flock of men around him that they might be with him. that they might follow Him, that they might see Him in His teaching and hear and be instructed, but they might observe Him in His action and how He dealt with people, how He lived out the very words that He spoke. I've come to do the will of my Father, the will of Him who sent me. And so it is, it's in this context of understanding the relationship of right doctrine and right living and how they're inseparable. that Paul speaks to the leaders of the flock in Ephesus and tells them, take heed to yourself. Take heed to yourself. He does this in the context of a much broader message. We see in this message, and I just highlight for us, it seems a helpful tool, perhaps, at least it did for me, to see that he seems to pair concepts in two First of all, I'd mention in verse 20, there seems to be a two-fold method for ministry illustrated that Paul reminds the elders at Ephesus that they should follow in their continued ministry there. In verse 20, he says, I have kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house. We see a method for ministry there, public ministry. We see also that that nurture and care and looking after the welfare of the flock, knowing your flocks well. So there's a twofold method of ministry. He also mentions a twofold ministry or message of the gospel that he proclaimed in verse 21. Verse 21, he says, testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a two-fold message of the Gospel. Essential repentance and faith. Repentance and faith. And this is so much the essence, as you boil down the various parts of the Gospel, of knowing what it is to turn from sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. our Savior and the great high priest of our faith. And you cannot neglect it. And this is the danger as we'll come to dangers later. But this is the danger that somehow you would embrace a portion of the gospel message and talk about faith without repentance. And many have fallen into that trap in their ministry. choosing one or the other. The other side of it is that you talk about repentance and you speak not of faith and the good news of the gospel, of redemption in Christ Jesus and the hope that we have because of our Savior. So there is this two-fold method for ministry. There's a two-fold gospel message of repentance of faith. There's also a two-fold duty, as it were. And that two-fold duty is seen In verse 28, our text, he says, therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock. All the flock. It's a twofold ministry. If you fail at the first. You're definitely going to be prone to fail at the second. If you're not effectively looking out for the well-being of your own soul, you're going to have a defective ministry. And what you'll find as you minister to people is you pick and choose within the congregation when you're ministering in the strength of the flesh. I know that from personal experience of my own weakness through 30-some years of ministry, when my heart is led by the Spirit, I might be fearful like Timothy, but I'm granted the courage to do what is right. When I'm not walking in the Spirit, oh, there's people I enjoy in my flock to be with, and there's other people who intimidate and I'm not comfortable with. But the call is to look and take heed to myself and to all the flock, not just some of them. So there's that two-fold duty to have a ministry, not only the care of my own personal soul, your own personal soul, but the flock of God, that portion, whatever it may be, that the Lord would entrust to you and have you to be accountable for. It's also mentioned in this message of the Holy Spirit through Paul the Ephesian elders, a warning about a twofold danger. A twofold danger, and perhaps I'm stretching a bit, but I believe not, because these are themes that are dealt with elsewhere by the Spirit, but they're not as clearly set together. And that is, he talks about wolves. He says that the reason that we need to take heed to ourselves and to the flock is because wolves are coming. He uses this figure to speak of those who would come and ravish the body of Christ, who would seek to destroy the people of God. He says in verse 29, know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And the picture he's describing here, if we put it into a live picture in our mind of the figure that he's using, we see wolves coming into the flock. And from what I've read about wolves coming into the flock, a wolf doesn't say, oh, there's a fat lamb over there. I'm hungry. I'm going to take that fat lamb and I'm going to enjoy him for supper and I'm going to eat to my full. And though I haven't seen this wolf, I've seen this with squirrels in my peach tree. The squirrel doesn't come to my peach tree and he doesn't say, oh, look at that juicy peach. That's the one I want. Oh, it's going to be delicious. No, he goes up and chews that one peach off and it drops in the ground. And then he runs around and he chews on five or six other ones on that visit. And he'll do the same next visit around. And so the wolf coming into the fox comes and he destroys the flock, as many as he can kill and drags one off for dinner. And the Spirit of God is warning us about dangers that are coming, dangers that are coming to the church, and yes, those dangers were coming to the church at Ephesus, but the same dangers or similar dangers are about in the church today. When you gentlemen have studied your church history, you realize that history repeats itself. And people today who don't know church history think, oh, these are new things that are going on. But usually you can find something very similar that's happened by way of heresy being introduced in the church previously or attacks and divisions that Satan brings in the church that have happened over and over and over again throughout the history of God's people. And so he warns us of this twofold danger, the attack from without and the attack from within. And beloved, that all the more it should drive us to this earnestness of looking to ourselves, of taking heed to ourselves, because he's not only saying, watch out for those wolves that will come in and ravage the flock that's entrusted to your care, but beware, wolves come from within. among yourselves. And as we think of the Lord Jesus seated at the Last Supper, He says, one of you will betray me. What's the response? Did Judas jump up and say, I'm the guy? No. But Jesus says, this is the one. But what do we hear from the rest of them? Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? You see, that's the concern that we must have to look to ourselves and to take heed to ourselves, because the one who ravishes the flock may be me. Apart from the grace of God, that will be true. We see In this twofold danger of where the attack's going to come from, either from those outside or from those within, there's also two areas that he mentions. He mentions in verse 30, amongst those who would attack from within, there'd be men that would rise up from among yourselves, speaking perverse things. He's talking about heresy. He's talking about introducing corrupt ideas that would pervert and undermine the church. And then he mentions also, in verse 33-35, he says, I've coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities for those who are with me. I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember the words of our Lord Jesus. that he said it is more blessed to give than to receive. And as you look at the various passages of Scripture that admonish the leaders of the church, the elders of the church, one of the continuing concerns that is brought out in the various passages of the New Testament is the concern for lust, for position, for wealth, for power of influence, longing for such things And here Paul is talking about the fact, by God's grace, he has been won as a pure example to the flock. I didn't come to you to get money out of you. In other places he explains, I had the right as an apostle to rely on you to provide for me as you provide for one who ministers the Word of God to you. But he said, I didn't claim that right. I provided for my necessities and even for the guys that were with me. For Luke and for Titus and for Timothy and for others at various times that were with him and accompanying him in his ministry. Why? Because of the danger, the love of money. An example that he needed to provide to the flock of God. We also see that finally, as I give a survey of his message to the elders and then focus in on the remedy for this. Lastly, I would mention that there's a two-fold remedy to the danger that's before the elders at Ephesus and before elders of Christ's church. And that two-fold remedy is seen in verse 32 when he says, And now, brother, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. I would urge you to consider the fact that as the prophecy of the Spirit spoken through Paul prove true in the Scriptures, it could also prove true for you and for me, if we are not diligent to heed the warning of the Spirit. Consider these evidence as a warning to cause us to earnestly grasp the message of verse 32, when he says, there will be those from among your spells that will rise up speaking perverse things, heresies and so forth. You see, it was true. In Paul's day, it was fulfilled. Paul writing to Timothy in Second Timothy, chapter two and verse 17. He speaks of messages of those are from within that were spreading like cancer. He speaks of Hymenaeus and Theletus, who are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying the resurrection is already past. Here's the perverse things, the lies. We hear Paul addressing to the church in Corinth in chapter 15, those who say that there is no resurrection. A heresy that has been creeping into the church, that's seeking to, as a cancer, destroy the people of God, the flock entrusted to the elders care. We have reason to give heed to the warning of the Lord. We also see the other temptation to want to look out for ourselves, to pick the best for ourselves, to see that we prosper in our ministry, to use it to our advantage. We need to be careful that we do not misuse our influence in a sinful way in ministry to people who rely on us and trust us for guidance. that we not be seeking sordid gain in the process. And beloved, that comes. That comes with people being enticed by worldliness. We see an example of this in the Scriptures. Again, Paul giving Timothy this warning and encouragement in 1 Timothy 4 and verse 9. He says, Be diligent to come to me quickly. Verse 10, For Demas has forsaken me. And what does he add to that? having loved this present world. This desire for sordid gain is because your heart has been made an enemy of God. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, boastful pride of life, have made in their attack upon you, made you an enemy to the Savior who has loved you. He has given Himself for you. We must beware that that cannot come true for us by God's grace. And so, let's look then briefly in closing at the two-fold remedy that I mentioned in verse 32. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace. I wrestled and wrestled and wrestled with this portion. I can only share with you what the Lord has chosen to reveal to me at this point, and I trust that He might continue to give insight into it in practical application as well as a faithful understanding. The word for commend is the Greek word to set before. To set before. And what I wrestled with in trying to understand this, brethren, was how do we take this here? Because we're talking about Paul commending. And if we take it in one sense of commending them to God, the father, then how do we understand it as him commending them to the word? There's a different sense that they're not they're not equivalence. He doesn't say, I commend you to God and then I commend you to the Word so that you might take it. There's only one pronoun there. He's talking about them, but there's two different aspects of what he's saying. I commend you to God and I commend you to the Word of His grace. And as I wrestled with this, I sensed that what God was saying, and I can confirm this, from other places in the Scripture, so I can speak with a certain confidence before you. What he's saying is that he's committing them to God in a commendation. But it can't be taken just simply in the sense of, I pray for you. Because you see, when you put a commendation in that context, where I commit you to God or I commend you to God and I'm praying to you, you can't say that regarding the word of grace. You can't pray to the word of grace where you can pray to God who you commit someone to for their care. But there is this sense in which we can understand this, that he's saying, I commend you to pursue God. And with that is the intent that he's commending them by praying for them. And we'll see that he indeed does that for having finished his instruction to him. He kneels down on the ground and he prays for them all. And so there is that sense of prayer, committing them to God for his protection and care in their lives. But with reference to his encouragement of them to look to themselves, he's speaking about their need to draw near to God. and their need to lay hold on the word of grace, of God's grace. And that I can speak with confidence before you as a representative of the Lord, that these are the great needs of the elders of Christ's church. Paul speaks of this and his his personal testimony to the church at Philippi in chapter three, when he talks about how all his accomplishments in spiritual things are as manure from the barnyard by comparison of knowing Christ Jesus. He talks about a knowledge of Christ Jesus, of knowing the truth, of having right doctrine, right understanding of who Jesus is. But he talks about the experiential. He talks about, I want to know Jesus. And he says, I want to lay hold of those things for which Jesus has laid hold on me. He wants to have that experiential knowledge which is essential for those who are looking to themselves, who are taking heed to themselves and those things that are essential to an elder, a leader in the church of God, for the ministry and care of the flock. He wants to know Jesus. As he said to the church in Corinth in chapter 9 and verse 2, For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There is a blending of both knowing Jesus personally and also the idea of having a right understanding of who Jesus is. It's the crucified Jesus. It's the one who came to shed his blood for you, to bear your sins on the cross, The one who makes intercession for you at the right hand of the Father, making atonement with his own blood. He wants you to know the effects of salvation so clearly that when you minister to others and you watch out, not only for yourselves, but for all the flock, you know to lead them to Jesus. We see that these elders who came down to meet Paul at Miletus, to a certain degree were effective in applying Paul's message. We don't know all the details about the church at Ephesus, and certainly I'm not well read on church history to give you all the fine details of it, but we do have a brief glimpse into the church at Ephesus when we read the book of Revelation. We see the letters to the seven churches. And we see there that these elders who have been sent by Paul back to minister, having been encouraged and built up and pointed to the right way to ministry, how to effectively minister, remembering how he demonstrated to them the ways of the Lord and the right way to minister in the church. They've gone back and they've ministered, and then you see The letter to the angel of the church at Ephesus, he writes. I know your works, your labor, your patience, that you cannot bear those who are evil. Well, these elders must have, by God's grace, been quite effective. They were warning about the wolves that were going to come in. They were warned about the people within who would mislead them, speaking deceptive things. And they could not stand evil. He said, you tested those who say they are apostles. Oh, the wolves, the ones from your midst, you know, they come in to ravish you. And they weren't really apostles. And you found them to be liars. The effectiveness of ministry, praise the Lord. You persevered and have patience. You have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary. They were effective in not only talking about the church needing by patience and perseverance to enter in, but you see, they had received Paul's example of laboring day and night in their midst, and apparently they had gone home and were able in some way to effectively communicate to the church the importance of not growing weary in well-doing, of persisting in doing what was right. But he does. have one matter that he chastens them over. And what is that matter? You've lost your first love. See, he says, I want to commend you to God. I want you to commend you to the one who has loved your soul and who has ministered delightfully to you in the sweetness of wooing you to himself. And he's saying, beloved, repent. and return to your first ways. It's as if we were using different words to say to the church at Ephesus, look to yourselves. Take heed to yourselves. I commend you to God. It's not just outward behavior. It's not just having a biblical view of life. It's not being just a good reformed person. with having the right philosophy of life. But it's that true Reformed person who has both doctrine and a heart for God. You see, they wouldn't give in to the Nicolaitans, those who sought to compromise Christianity with paganism. They resisted that. And so, beloved, the Lord would encourage you to take heed to yourself and to look to God. But lastly, he says, to the word of His grace. As I read the commentators trying to understand this verse, some suggest that the phrase that follows which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Some would say this refers to the word of His grace. Calvin suggested that it refers to God. My best conclusion that I can share with you, it refers to both because God's word is not separated from who God is. That when you flee to the Lord, You see, a relationship with Him is dependent on having right doctrine, a right relationship and right doctrine. And when you flee to God, as you're commended to God, you're also commended to the word of His grace. You must know the truth and the truth will set you free, Jesus said. You have to have the word, as James says, implanted and is able to save your souls. And so you need a relationship with the living God that is founded on the Word of God. So it was that Paul had said to them earlier in his admonitions and encouragement, he says, I am free from the blood of all men because I have proclaimed to you the whole counsel of God. The Word of His grace. But in proclaiming the whole counsel of God, we mustn't neglect the fact that He does emphasize that it is His word of grace. That it's the love of God bestowed on His people that draws our hearts to Him and holds us fast to Him. No one will be sustained in a relationship with the living God merely by a sense of fear that I'm going to hell if I don't get things right. But rather, we're sustained in a relationship with the living God because we know the grace of God in Christ Jesus. We know the love of God. And so Jesus said, no one can come to the Father except by Me. is only as we understand the outpoured blood of our Savior. We understand that it's the mercies that He has marvelously bestowed on us through Christ, our covenant mediator and covenant head. It's the grace that He bestows on us, and the great plan of the Father from the foundation of the world, and the working of the Holy Spirit, and the ministering to us in the moment that shows us that God cares for us. He loves us. He delights in us. And He is providing for us and we must be established in the knowledge of God's demonstration of favor towards us. As we read in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 9, there's a warning against heresy. He says, Do not be carried away with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace. It's grace. It's knowing that God has dealt favorably with us. That He cares for us. That He is seeking our good. And that you have this assurance within your heart. And knowing that, that's how your heart is established. And so he's saying, look to God. Look to God's love for you. That you might experience the marvels of God's grace in your life. As Paul says to the Ephesian church, the very familiar passage in Ephesians 2, 8 and following, for by grace, for by grace, by the favor of God, you have been saved through faith. And that's not of yourself. It's the gift of God. It's not of what your works are going to be. You see, he's not saying when he says, Take heed to yourself. He's not talking about you've got to really get it together and you've got to try harder. And when you see yourself fail in your ministry, when you see you fall short of God's glory, you're not measuring up to your calling. You don't just simply go out and try harder. Yes, you do try harder. But you try harder to hold on to the Lord Jesus Christ, to cling to the grace of God that will transform you and change you and you're experienced by His means of grace of reading the Word of God, taking up that Word that is able to truly save your soul, and seeing and praying that the Holy Spirit would take biblical truth and implant it in your heart, so that you are not only knowledgeable of the truth, but you are experiencing the truth. And that you are then a person as a child of God, who can truly say, I am His workmanship. I am His workmanship. I came to repentance. He brought me to my right senses so that I could see the snares of the devil. I have faith. Not because I sat around and tried to conjure up faith, I trust in Him, I trust in Him, I trust in Him. But it was the gift of God. It wasn't what I did. But I cried out, Lord, have mercy on me. And when I found myself on a day where my faith was so small, I cried out as the man to Jesus, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. So you are God's workmanship. I commit you to God. I commend you to God. I commend you to the Word of His grace. And I pray that you would, as I seek and desire to do, to imitate the Apostle Paul. To imitate him as he imitates Jesus for us. Imitate means what? It means that we attempt to be like him. We might think of the word mimic. But mimic, while it displays some aspect of the truth, it also has some false connotations. Because mimicking can be done in different ways. Someone can make fun of and mock somebody by mimicking that person. mimicking typically behind someone's back. But it's the copying of the Lord Jesus, and as you see Him demonstrated through the Apostle Paul, where we imitate or we copy in the pious sense of the word of having respect for who He is and what He's done, and we become truly disciples of the Lord Jesus. because we pattern our lives by His grace after Him. And so we're told to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises of God. And so it is when we read that closing phrase of verse 32 He says, and now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. He's talking about the ends of salvation being accomplished by a right relationship with God and a right understanding of his word.