Before we go on with this text, I wanna just iterate something, say it again, especially for the young men who are here. Young men, over the last two years, I have seen so many young men who seem to have started well, who have somehow turned away in part from the emphasis of the gospel to other things. There was a time when it seemed that the reform faith was very despised. Then the reform faith became a fad. It became a movement that people seemed to want to join. And now it seems like for a lot of young men, another fad has come and taken its place. We need to be very, very, very careful. Also, I want you to understand something. Just because you may have an academic view of a Calvinistic soteriology, that does not put you in the realm of the Reformation. I also hear so many young men today and they say, you know, I'm reformed in my soteriology, in my doctrine of salvation. But when you look at the way they do church, it's pure pragmatism. It's pure pragmatism. It is the very opposite of what the reformed faith was about. The Reformed faith and the Reformation is about the doctrine of Scripture alone. It is about doing what Scripture commands and also limiting yourself to what Scripture commands. God does not need American pragmatism. He doesn't need movers and shakers. He doesn't need extraordinary leaders with great personalities. He doesn't need men who talk like the culture, look like the culture, try to dress like the culture. He just needs men who know his word and submit to it. And especially working in areas where many of you are working, where it is very difficult. Also, most of you work in a place so different than me. I live in a place that's very rural. There's not a lot of, I don't have cultural sophistication and there's not a lot of cultural sophistication around me. No one comes to near my house to see a museum or to listen to a classical concert. And there's no great theological heritage in my area. No theological academics that are extremely high. And my whole point is, I think where I am, I am less tempted to try to appear culturally and academically sophisticated. But I see so many people today who seem to be doing that. And that is contrary to the spirit of Christ. It's contrary to good theology. You need to be men who know the scriptures and submit to it. And that's why we're studying 1 Timothy, so that we be those kind of men who are going to rely upon the power of God's word and the power of his spirit. Now, let's begin in verse one. He says, first of all, then I urge that in treaties and prayers and petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men. Now, first of all, I just want to look at the word urge. He's urging us to do something. Every time I see this word, I want to remind preachers that preaching is not merely the communication of truth. It's not less than the communication of truth, but it is more. The goal of communicating truth is transformation. Salvation of the lost and transformation of God's people. And if we preach and there's no sense of earnestness or urging or exhortation, if we're just sort of transferring information, then we're not really doing what we're called to do. Now, all of us have different personalities and those personalities should be sanctified, but they are different and they will determine in some ways how we preach and teach. But when you teach the truth, you must always be teaching it in order to urge people to obey it. You're not just laying something out there apathetically. If my little girl was about to run in front of a train, I would not simply inform her of the dangers of it. I would respond accordingly. I would urge her, plead with her, turn back, turn back. And this is a part of our preaching. But he says, I urge there, first of all, The word urge, parakaleo, means to call alongside. And there's something, even though we need to be careful here, I don't want to nuance this too much, from that word, from that Greek word, but also from what we have of Paul's life, the biographical parts in which he writes, even his praying, the two prayers in Ephesians. His emphasis on prayer in Colossians. Paul is not urging men to do something that he's not doing. He's calling people to come alongside him and join him in a ministry of prayer. And that ministry of prayer, in this case, is principally intercession. Now, if you look at the reformers, the Puritans, the early Baptist, Congregationalists, Presbyterians. Their greatest theologians were also great men of prayer. Their greatest pastors were great men of prayer. No one is going to ask you to preach in a conference, probably because you are a man who gives himself to secret prayer. But you will be used of God. There's an old preacher who passed away who was a powerful, powerful preacher. And someone asked him one time, they said, we're going to have a conference on prayer. Do you have someone who can teach on prayer? And he thought for a moment and he said, no, no, I don't. And they said, why? He said, well, I know people who teach on prayer, but they don't pray. And I know people who pray, but they never talk about it. So, no, I don't have anybody who can teach on prayer. Now, that, of course, is something of a hyperbole, but it does communicate a great truth. If you were asked to teach on prayer, Would your teaching contradict your own prayer life? And so here we have a man of prayer. Paul the Apostle was a man of prayer. Spurgeon was a man of prayer. And our great and dear brother, Martin Lloyd-Jones, his wife, Bethany, said, If you do not understand my husband first as a man of prayer, you'll never be able to understand him as an evangelist, as a preacher. And so this is very, very important. Now, Paul says, Therefore, He says, therefore, in the English text, or first of all, then, or therefore, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men. Why? In this present context, there's two primary reasons why Paul is urging for Timothy and others to pray. First, if you look back in verses 19 and 20 of chapter one, Keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenes and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. We pray to protect God's people from the dangers of shipwrecking. We need to pray for God's people. And here's something we're going to see throughout this text. Is God sovereign? Absolutely. I would affirm the great confessions, whether they be Westminster, whether they be the 1689 and similar confessions, I would affirm them that God has decreed all things. Yet at the same time, I must affirm the other side of that coin revealed in scripture that we have not because we ask not. I'm not called to put those two things together. I hold them in attention and I'm not going to deny one for the sake of the other. I'm supposed to take scripture on its face value. God's people need us to pray. And as pastors, we need to be those interceders. We need to intercede, intercession. And it is not a last resort. Here, Paul is making it clear that it's a first recourse. He says, first of all, Above all things, the thing I'm going to give priority, Paul says, in order is this. First of all, prayer. It's interesting that the apostles, when they were attempting or when they were tempted to give their attention to the needs of the widows and forego preaching, they put prayer even in front of ministry of the word. That prayer, they said, we must give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. I think I may have told you that if I have two young men talking to me and one got their theology out of and they both have the same theology, but one got their theology out of a theology book and the other one got it out of the scripture, I'm going to be able to tell the difference. Not that we shouldn't study other books. We should. I enjoy many great systematics. But if you're getting all your truth secondhand and not from Scripture, it's going to be noticeable. But it's also noticeable when you begin to speak theology or you begin to teach from the pulpit and you're prayerless. What you and I have to understand is we cannot do this. This job that has been given to us You've got two options, young men. One, you face the difficulty of the task that's been given to you and you run to God in intercession and you run to God clinging to his word or you go over here and you find some false fire. I'm not going to mention names. There's no need to it, but I'm going to give you an example. A great historic church that had a great historic preacher. And after he died, someone took his place. And that person literally went straight to full on charismatic movement. I mean, full on strange fire. And I asked an older man, how did it happen? Because the man knew the older preacher. I said, how did this happen? And he said, here's what I believe happened. That young preacher took the place of a great expositor. And after he preached up all his best sermons, everybody has, you know, I don't know, five, ten of their best sermons. When he preached up all of his best sermons, he realized he could not preach on the same level. with the expositor that came before him. And so instead of turning to God in fasting and prayer and asking God, help me, give me strength, use me, help me expound your word, that that young man turned to strange fire to try to keep it all going. And of course, it didn't. And so we need the word of God and we need prayer, not as a last resort, but as a first recourse. He mentions here entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving. I think the plural here is very important. Paul is writing, of course, in the Greek language, but Paul is a Jew. And if you look in the Old Testament, when something is being emphasized or the largeness of it, is being put forth to the reader, the Hebrew will often use the plural. And I think that what Paul is saying here is that we ought to make all kinds of entreaties, all kinds of prayers, petitions and thanksgiving, that not only should they be abundant, it should be all everything that has to do with prayer should be a part of our lives. With these words, entreaties, prayers, petitions and thanksgiving, especially the first three, there are different Greek words used and we're going to look at those. But I think we need to be very, very careful not to nuance things. I believe Paul is again doing something that is very Hebrew in that he is piling one term upon another. For example, when Jesus says we ought to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, he's not trying to divide up the human psyche in heart, soul, mind and strength. That's not what he's doing. He's piling one term upon another to say we ought to love the Lord our God with all our being, with everything that we are. Now, of course, we can go back and look at those different words and it can be edifying and helpful. But the main idea being presented is that we ought to love God with everything we are. And the same thing, that we ought to be abounding in petitions, all kinds of petitions, and for all kinds of things. Now, let's look at entreaties. Entreaties can also be translated requests. The emphasis here is on petition. The Greek lexicon dealing with semantic domains by Lao and Nida is very helpful here. To plead or to beg, that which is asked with urgency based upon a presumed need. And the idea here is the recognition of a certain need, seeing the urgency of it, and asking God on behalf of that need. William Hendrickson, who I greatly enjoy, he calls it, he says this, petitions for the fulfillment of certain definite needs which are keenly felt. So again, a sense of urgency over definite needs. I think one of the things that troubles me oftentimes when I examine my own prayer life, And when I hear the prayers of others, is that they seem to be so general. I remember praying years ago. I was probably 21 or 22 years old. I had just been a Christian. And this elderly lady sat down with me, very godly woman. And she said, young man, general prayers bring general answers. that can hardly be recognized. Specific prayers bring specific answers that prove the faithfulness of God. Now, there's nothing wrong with general prayers because we don't need to be informing God with regard to how he needs to do everything. Yet at the same time, are you asking for specific things with regard to your congregation? Is it just blanket prayers? Or do you recognize maybe that your congregation is young and made up of a lot of young people that have been highly influenced by this last generation's cultural deviations? Are you praying specifically in those areas? When you see a man who maybe is sound in the church, it seems, but is neglectful of his wife, are you praying for specific things? Here's another thing that's very important. What would it be like if everyone in the congregation had a list of the character qualifications of a pastor and the specific duties as outlined in the New Testament of a pastor, and they were praying specifically for their pastor in that way? The other night I have a Bible study with my children and I said, we were looking at Paul where he said, Paul, an apostle according to the will of God. And I said, what are you according to the will of God? And my two youngest children said, well, I'm not certain. And I said, well, I know God's will for you in some things. And I said, first of all, it's God's will that you be saved. Second of all, it's God's will that if you're saved, that you grow in sanctification. And we went and looked at different things that a person could pray for that is definitely God's will. And so, you know, we use the scriptures to pray and we pray for specific things. So he talks about entreaties. Then he talks about prayer. And these prayers, it's just the common word for prayer. And again, I believe that he's heaping one term upon another to say that we ought to be doing all kinds of petitions before God. Now, he comes to the word, finally, petitions here in verse one, and it denotes intercession. Here, this specific word, we can probably define it more specifically. Again, William Hendrickson writes, it is a confident interview which is in the interest of others. That means that you're having an interview with God. You are before God, but on behalf of others and on behalf of the need of others. And he this word is used in Romans 827 with regard to the Holy Spirit. It's used in Romans 834 with regard to the person of Christ in his ministry of intercession. And again, brothers. So many battles are fought and won in prayer. They really are. Let me ask you a question, a question I have to ask myself. When was the last time you won a battle in prayer? When was the last time? that you saw a specific prayer according to the will of God actually specifically answered? Very, very important question. You see, we can talk about prayer all the time, but it's those questions about ourself that can really be like a knife going into our heart. Because we would all go, yes, prayer is important. Yes, prayer is the first resource. Yes, we need to win all our battles in prayer. And then someone ruins your day by asking you, when was the last time you fought a battle in prayer specifically? And when was the last time you won? Oh, I thought you were just talking about theology. I didn't think you were talking about practice. But all theology, if it doesn't result in practice, You haven't learned it. Let me put it this way. This is the way I look at it for myself. If I can say something and I'm not doing it, it means I'm really not understanding it, which means I'm little more than a parrot. I'm little more than a bird brained parrot. who's talking and squawking, but not understanding even what he's saying. And you know what? Others may benefit from the squawking because they may hear it and go, yes, I need to do that. And yet the preacher says it and is not doing it. You see how dangerous it is to be a preacher? You should always recognize how dangerous it is. That you may help others, But you yourself end up being disqualified. It's very dangerous. Now, the same word here, petitions, is used in First Timothy 4, 5. It says, For it is sanctified by means of the word of God in prayer. It's talking about food. And although I don't want to press the point, I would just like to say this. If food can be sanctified through prayer, How much more can we, how much more can the believers for whom we pray? I am fond, I've been very blessed in my younger years of being around very godly people. Also, reading biographies can be very, very good. You have to take them with a grain of salt because they usually only write about the good stuff. But men like David Brainerd, as a man of prayer, looking at Spurgeon's prayer life, E.M. Bounds, phenomenal. You can download the works of E.M. Bounds, I think, on Kindle for five dollars. It's worth its weight in gold. And I have found that the biggest help to praying for me is being reminded of the importance of prayer by reading men of prayer. Probably for every book on theology, you need to read a book on prayer, not necessarily the theology of it, but something that will convict you of not doing what you know. Now, he says Thanksgiving, and I define Thanksgiving here as active confessions of gratitude. where you actually have gratitude in your heart. And we're going to see not just for the church, but even for our persecutors, that we have thanksgiving and we offer it unto God. Now, here's a question. How can thanksgiving be made on behalf of evil men? especially on behalf of evil men who persecute the church. Because Paul says here in verse two, for kings and all who are in authority. How can we do that? Only in one way. We recognize that God is using them somehow. Yes, even evil men, that God works all things for good. He's not causing the evil men. He's using the evil men even for our good. I never hardly go on the Internet because there are so many groups that literally, I think, will throw a party on the day that I die. And you can become so bitter. So bitter. Sometimes you want to tell them, look, I could openly tell you so many things for which you could criticize me. You don't need to criticize me for things I haven't done. It's important to offer prayers of thanksgiving even for that. Why? Because God is using it somehow in our lives. It is necessary. Now, he says, be made on behalf of all men. And the word that I would put out here is to pray indiscriminately. That is, none are beyond the saving power of God and none should be beyond our mercies manifested in prayer. You know, there can be and, you know, I have talked to many, many people in the persecuted church. Many people who, for example, lived in places where persecution during, for example, the reign of communism in Europe that were so persecuted. And all of them, you know, would share about how you had to be so careful that you didn't begin to despise your persecutors, to want judgment to be heaped upon them. We have to recognize, not by looking at our persecutors, but by looking at God, that we can offer thanksgiving even for them, because God is using them in some way. Also, we need to realize something. What do you have that you have not received? And if you have received it, why do you boast? The point is, if you're loving Christ. It's a work of grace. It's not that you were born special. You're of the same stock of Adam. And both you and I would be the greatest haters of Christ and Christ's people right now if it were not for the grace of God. That's the only thing we can attribute to our salvation. And the only thing we've contributed to our salvation is our sin. Everything is Christ. Now, let's go to chapter 2, verse 2. For kings and all who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Citizens of the United States, I mean, some of you are North Americans. Citizens of the United States are really, they like words, certain catchy words. And one of those words they really like is radical. I'm going to be a radical Christian. I don't really like that terminology. I would prefer normal and obedient rather than radical. But we're going to see here in a moment that We shouldn't be desiring persecution. We shouldn't be desiring the opportunity to live in that kind of radical lifestyle. We should desire that the nation in which we live allows us to live in such a way to fully manifest what it means to be a Christian. And I'm going to explain that in just a moment. But he says, pray for kings and all who are in authority. A possible translation here is pray on behalf of all men, even for kings and all who are in authority. Because at this time, kings were one of the greatest sources. The authorities in the Roman Empire were some of the greatest sources of persecution for God's people. And Paul is saying, pray even for them. I guess maybe if we wanted to put this in our modern context, pray for liberal politicians. and those who seem to be trying to literally hem the church in and destroy its ministry. Pray even for them. Pray for those who are most responsible for the church's suffering. Pray for them. But also, these people who are most responsible, these authorities for the church's suffering, could also be the people who would be most responsible to assist in the spread of the gospel. I pray for kings and all those in authority. I pray that they be converted. What would happen if a great number of national leaders were converted? What would happen if leaders of institutions, whether it be judges or professors or people who in this present day seem so opposed to the gospel, what would happen if they were converted? And don't think this is beyond God. Nothing is beyond God. God can do anything. But do we believe him? We need to be very, very careful. I am not a post-millennialist. I can see some of the truth in what they're saying, but I can also recognize something, that one of the greatest missionary movements were the result of post-millennialism. Why? Because those who are not post-millennialist have this tendency always to think that the world is just going to get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And that we all need to go hide in a hole somewhere and wait for a trumpet to blow. And one thing about post-millennialism that I've seen is, no, it doesn't matter how bad it looks. It's going to get better, better and better if we fight, fight, fight, fight. If we're constantly fighting, if we're constantly preaching, if we're constantly praying. That's why I like it when churches are built out of stone, because it's the idea we're going to stay here. We're going to do something. We're going to accomplish something. And so I want you to think that way in this present age. I am so tired. You know, I want to go to heaven. I really do. I mean, I have no problems with that. And there's a part of me that would love the Lord coming back. But there are entire nations to be reached, my dear friends. There are countless people who are lost and without Christ. There is so much glory, I would like to see one in battle down here. Instead of everyone just curling up in a ball and not fighting. We need to fight, but we don't fight politically. We fight on our knees, not before authorities, but before God. And a man who's been on his knees before God can stand before kings and preach to them. So for kings and all those in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Now, I think this passage is so important, and I think it links back to a passage in the prophets. And I think we need to understand it in that context. He's saying, pray for those who can most enable the church to openly display the benefits and blessings of the gospel and the sanctified Christian life. Now, what do I mean? My brothers in Eurasia, brothers today in Asia that I speak with, in China, different places, Myanmar, the Middle East, there's persecution. They have to be very, very careful, and they're not able to openly display what it means to be a Christian. They're not enabled to even explain it. They can't. They're not going to hold a seminar on marriage for the whole world to see what marriage ought to look like. There's so much of Christianity that cannot be displayed during persecution. Now, I agree. Sometimes through persecution, the church grows. The church is refined through persecution. But what Paul is praying for here is that there be leadership in a nation that would permit Christians to live openly their Christian life so that people could see the benefits of living the Christian life, so that people could see how a man is to love and serve his wife and children, so that they could see how a man is to order his life and his finances and everything else so they can openly display all the good things that Christianity, the gospel, all the blessings it brings to a life. For example, if I go into a university setting today and begin to explain even the benefits of marriage, the beauty of a man and a woman coming together and in their coming together, they're most able. Yeah, we have a tremendous storm outside. And so it's really, I don't know if we're going to get a tornado or something, but it's going pretty good. All right. Let's get back. I want us to look again at praying for kings and all who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Pray for those, pray for those authorities who can most make the way or enable the church or create a surrounding in a nation or culture where the church can openly display the benefits of the Christian life. When you're in a nation that is not persecuting the church and the church can meet, And it can meet openly and the church can dialogue openly with people on the streets, can openly invite people into their home to see what a Christian marriage looks like. That's the idea. That's the thing that is most important. And that is the way when there's not persecution that the church can function. Now, persecution does have a refining purpose. It does have a refining purpose. But I want to say this. Excuse me for just a moment. It looks like the building is going to come down. I'm going to keep preaching until the windows blow out. So we'll just keep going. Persecution does have a refining purpose. However, the Christian life is not placed on full display in the midst of persecution or activism. But it's put on full display when God's people are able to order their life according to the word of God and live openly according to the word of God among a people group. And that's why Paul says, pray for peace, pray for peace, pray that we can live tranquil lives so that we can openly show everyone our Christianity. and so that there be something of an atmosphere of openness to listen. For example, if I go on a university campus today and even just say that marriage is between a man and a woman, that's the end of the dialogue. I mean, people are going to begin to scream and yell and get angry, and they're not even going to be willing to dialogue. Do you see? He says, in godliness and dignity. Godliness is a misunderstood word. Laonita, again, define it this way. Godliness is appropriate beliefs. and devout practices of obligations relating to a supernatural person or power. Now, they're defining that with regard to classical Greek. I'm going to read it again, then we're going to apply it to the Christian language. Godliness is when you have appropriate beliefs and you have devout practices with regard to the obligations of your religion, or of the deity over your religion. Now, applied to Christianity, godliness is appropriate beliefs. It's believing the right thing and it's devout practices that are set forth in the Word of God. So godliness is believing God. seeking God, trusting God, loving God, but also living under the will of God, according to his revelation, not a revelation that's been received in a dream or a vision or something like that, some prophet, but living according to the word of God as it's set forth in the scriptures. Now, dignity here refers to being able to live in a manner that is worth valuing, a life that is, it has a seriousness to it. Not in the sense that it is somber or sad, but it is a life that has purpose. A life that is according to the image of God that is in us, living in a manner that reflects why we were created, living with dignity, living with honor. For example, it is not a thing of dishonor for a pig to wallow around in the mire. It's what pigs do. It's what they are. But it is dishonorable for a man. In the same way, you and I were created in the image of God. Laughter, even joking, can be a good thing in its appropriate place. But our life is not a joke. Our life is a gift. And it's to be spent wisely. And we are to devote ourselves to those things that demonstrate the dignity of who we are. We are sentient beings with a soul created in the image of God for the glory of God, and we ought to live in that way. And every aspect of our life should reflect this kind of dignity. Even our clothing. Even our speech. There's a group of people, it's a religious group in the United States that in the early part of our country, and I think still today, and they were called shakers. And they were prone to what we would call enthusiasm. But in another sense, they wanted their life, every aspect of their life, to reflect things about God. And today, if you want to buy a piece, an ancient piece of shaker furniture, you better be a millionaire. Why? Because the furniture was so well built, the furniture was very simple, not extravagant, but at the same time, beautiful, elegant. They wanted things in their life to reflect their God. their belief in that God, the order of their God. So when you're a young preacher and you want to be a spokesperson for God, but you want to reflect your character, you want to reflect your culture in the way you dress, the way you act in the pulpit and everything else, you're a walking contradiction. You are literally a walking contradiction. That's not the goal, especially when your culture is messed up. Never forget the difference between Roman Catholicism and the Reformation. There were many. But what I want to point out that's especially important is this Roman Catholicism went out into the world and accommodated itself to the world. It adapted itself to even the superstitions of the peoples it was trying to reach. And that's what a lot of missionaries are doing today. That's what a lot of preachers are doing today. by their tailor-making their church to fit a certain culture or certain age group. That's wrong. The Reformers did the very opposite. They said, we are going to order church according to the Word of God, even if it contradicts everything about culture. Culture has to bow its knee to Scripture. Scripture is not going to change to meet culture. They weren't about making a truce with fallen culture, no truce whatsoever. It seems to me that we want to appear today like I'm a Christian, but I look just like you. The only difference is I'm a Christian. That doesn't work. I'm a Christian, so now I'm going to spend the rest of my life studying God's word and seeking to conform every aspect of my life to the word of God, even if it contradicts my culture. And when the church has done that, the church has been powerful, not politically, not with regard to some human authority, but with regard to the spirit, with regard to people being converted in the advancement of the kingdom. Now, that doesn't mean that you all need to go out and dress like Puritans tomorrow. But what it does mean when I look at you in the pulpit, what am I going to see? You know, and I'm not even necessarily saying, you know, you have to wear a suit and tie, even though that's what I do because I want to be countercultural. But I need to see dignity. I need to see that you're a serious man. I don't need to see someone dressed in the latest fads that will and he'll look different next year. I need to see something consistent. I need to see a man who is moved by scripture, even in the way he presents himself, rather than by, you know, he's 60 years old and he tries to dress like a millennial or something. It just doesn't work. And everyone's laughing, whether you know it or not. We're not hipsters. We're men of God. And I think that is very, very important. Some of you may disagree with me, but you're wrong. You're just wrong. Let's go on. I want to point out, I want us to go to Jeremiah 29. And I think Paul may have this text in mind. Now, the false prophets in Jeremiah's day was saying they were saying, look, don't build houses, don't plant vineyards, don't do anything. You're living in exile and you're going to come out really quick. And Jeremiah writes and says, no, that's a lie. You're not going to come out really quick. As a matter of fact, you're going to be there for about 70 years. And he tells them to do just the opposite. And it's really an appropriate text that needs to be preached today in our world. So in verse four, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses, live in them. and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease. You know, I'm hearing so many people saying, you know, I'm not going to I'm not going to marry as a Christian because the world's getting so bad or I'm not going to have children as Christians because the world is getting, you know, it's a dangerous place. I don't think that's really the counsel of God. Apart from some unusual work of providence in an individual's life, I do not believe we should adopt such a procedure. Notice also in verses five through six or four through six, there's nothing radical about this. He says, go on and live a normal life, normal as with regard to scripture. Keep living as a man, keep living as a woman, keep living as husbands and wives and fathers and mothers, according to the scriptures. And in doing so, and there's evidence here, they did have an impact on their culture. The Jews did have an impact when they went to Babylon. Now, he goes on. Verse 7, Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare, you will have welfare. Does that not sound very similar to what Paul told Timothy? Pray for kings, pray for those in authority. Do you see that we may be able to live our life in obedience to the Word of God and therefore our lives become a testimony to the world around us? Now, here's something that I just want to throw by you that I think is important. We are called to live in the midst of a fallen culture. We are to seek its welfare. And we are to do so by doing two things, proclaiming the gospel and living according to the commands of Christ. And I believe not always, but in the case of the West, at least now, one of the reasons why judgment comes and the refining of the church is because the church has stopped doing this. When the church becomes so conformed to Babylon and its ministers so conformed to Babylon that it can no longer present a healthy picture of the Christian life, judgment begins with the household of God. And I think that's what we've got in the West. We have so many Silly ministers. I think it was John MacArthur who said and Steve Lawson, we don't need more preachers today, we need less preachers today. We need some of them that are preaching to stop preaching because they're doing more damage than they're doing good. And the way people are told to live. all about self, all about self-fulfillment, your best life now. The way they worship God as though He was some, I don't know, Saturday morning cartoon character or a vending machine. When the church is no longer able are those professing people are no longer able to be a benefit to their culture because they're so conformed to the culture. Judgment happens to bring the church. What is the church? Back out of it. Now, let me say this. You probably you don't have this problem as much in France or Quebec. But a lot of times someone from the United States will hear statistics like in a certain country, only 2% are professing evangelicals or 1%. And in a country where so many people claim to be born again Christians, they think to themselves, how can it be that a country could have so few Christians? Well, many scholars have said this. When Americans or people from the United States say, how could it be that there's only 2% Christians in a certain country? They need to realize that the same statistic applies to their own country. There are conservative people. There are religious people. There are people who, in comparing men to men, may be moral and ethical. But there are not many Christians. There are not many Christians. But what is known publicly as the church has become a vanity fair, very polluted. And the main reason are the ministers. Who is given for the strengthening of the church, according to Ephesians 4, evangelists, pastors and teachers? When you have a weak church, what does that mean? You either have an absence of evangelist pastors and teachers or you have evangelist pastors and teachers who are extremely weak. And ungodly and conform to culture. And so we want to teach our people to believe in Christ and to hold on him exclusively for their salvation. And we want to teach them to live according to the commands of Christ and young people, you young guys, listen to me very carefully. All my life, I have heard that in the non essentials, there should be unity. It's a fair statement. The problem is every year the list of essentials gets smaller and smaller and smaller and the list of non essentials get larger and larger and larger. And that is frightening. That is frightening. I was just have to look at a case that of two pastors who are working in the same church and one of them is leaving. or wants to leave. And the reason he wants to leave is because he appreciates the other pastor, but he doesn't agree with his leadership model. And the other pastor says, yes, I have a different leadership model and we have different leadership models. So he should go lead the way he sees fit and I should lead the way I see fit. But there's a problem with that. Leadership models are not to be conformed to people's character or our people's personalities or what they desire. God has showed us how a church ought to be led. He has showed us what the leaders ought to look like. And so when people start talking that way, what they're basically saying is we have different leadership models and we're going to part with each other. as though God did not have one biblical way to do leadership. You see, every year, more things are relegated to this is the way I like to do them or this is the way my culture likes to do them. Instead of going back to scripture and saying, hold it, God has given us some commands here. I don't like it when someone says my leadership model differs from his leadership model. I would rather say it this way. How conformed to the principles of Scripture are we? This is not a battle of personalities. This is the regulative principle. This is leadership according to Scripture. So when we study the Book of Timothy, don't sit there and go, oh, I think this would be a good model for some to embrace. It's either biblical or it's not, gentlemen. Now, we all have different personalities. We may be in different settings, but there are fixed principles with regard to Christ's church that no one has the right to deny or add to. Verse seven, seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. We are in exile. We were born in exile. We were born again in exile. We are in exile and we should seek the benefit of everyone. That's why we pray for everyone. We even pray for the politicians who try to destroy us. We pray for everyone. We serve everyone. But the greatest way we can serve them is by telling them the truth. Even when they hate us. I meet so many young parents that tell me, well, I don't discipline my child because I love them. And I have to tell them, no, you don't discipline your child because you love yourself and you want your child to like you and you feed on their affections. Well, I just love people. That's why I don't say these things. Hold it. Jesus commanded you to love people and at the same time told you to tell them these things. You see? So be very, very careful. The most loving thing we can do is tell the truth. Now, we need to tell it with humility. Without a fighting spirit, but we need to tell them and we need to stand on it. Now, let's go back to. to First Timothy. In First Timothy 2 and chapter 2, verse 3, he says, This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, God, our Savior. And what he's saying is prayer for the welfare of the church and prayer for the salvation of all men, even our persecutors, is good and acceptable in the sight of God. The word good here means that it's excellent. It's agreeable. It's pleasing. It's delightful. It's even somewhat beautiful to God when he sees us praying for all men, even for our persecutors. It's acceptable. It's according to his will. Now, why is it? Why is it that when we're praying for people, it is a beautiful thing in the sight of God? because it displays the heart or disposition of God rather than an embittered spirit that can germinate as a result of living among the ungodly and especially ungodly persecutors. In Christian history and in my own life and in other brothers that I've talked to, when you're suffering persecution, when you're suffering attacks from people, One of the worst things that can happen to you is you begin to have an embittered spirit. You begin, you know, God, please intervene. But it's not intervene by saving them. It's intervene by judging them or vindicating me or something like that. And one of the greatest ways to avoid this type of bitterness of spirit is by offering petitions, entreaties. prayers and thanksgivings, even for your persecutors. There are several, but there are two in my mind. I don't want to mention their names. I don't want to dishonor them. But there are two really good preachers in church history that at the end of their life became so embittered in spirit. that they even stopped attending church. Now, they would pray, they would read the word, but the church in their area, all the churches had gone to such a degree liberal and opposed to godliness. And they had spent so much of their life denouncing sin and preaching righteousness that in the end they just became embittered in their spirit. We want to be very careful, especially as hostility increases, that we don't do that. My pastor, Anthony Mathenia, preached a sermon a couple of years ago, and I still remember it. He works very, very hard at the gospel. But another thing is he works very hard in his opposition to abortion. And rightly so. But one thing he said in one of his sermons, he was talking about that if you hate someone in your heart, it's like murdering them. And he said, if you begin to hate the abortion clinic doctors who murder babies, you've become just like them to some degree. And that stuck with me. And I saw the general application over, you know, all kinds of circumstances and people. And there is, especially in the ministry, you can become embittered against people who will attack you or people who will find something that honestly is wrong with you. But instead of seeking to help you, they just want to display it for the world to see, just to shame you, just to hurt you. And it can lead to having an embittered spirit. But when we pray for them, we offer thanksgiving for them. It has a healing effect, a guarding effect upon us. Another thing that is very, very important to point out when you and I pray for our persecutors, when we pray for those who oppose us, when we're seeking their blessing, we are acting like our father in heaven. Do you see that? We're told to be perfect as our father in heaven is perfect. And he doesn't just love those who love him, but he sends rain upon the good and the evil. And there is a real sense, I believe, in which God desires truly all men to be saved. And when you and I desire the same, even of our enemies, we are demonstrating a likeness, a conformity to God. Now, in verse four, it says, Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Spurgeon has a wonderful sermon on this verse, and I recommend that you all read it. There are theological questions here that are extremely important, but we need to be very, very careful about something. You do not need to protect God, nor do you need to protect doctrine that is true. Simply take the text as it is in the context of the whole. But don't be afraid of what a text is telling you. There are some things in scripture that are far bigger than any of us. Let me give you an example. The Trinity. Can I explain fully the Trinity? No, I cannot. But what do I do with the Trinity? I affirm those truths that are clearly marked out in scripture, that there is one God, not two, not three. There is one God. And there are three real, distinct persons that are God. And those three are one. I can go a little bit farther with that, but with each step, I'm walking further and further into mystery. There are great theologians, of which I am not one, who have wrangled with these topics all their life. But for me, I simply accept what I am told in Scripture. God is one. The Father is God. He is a person. He is God. The Son is a person and he is God. The Spirit is a person and he is God. And those three are one. I accept that. Now, I am a what's known as a Calvinist. I am what's known as a person who believes in the sovereign grace of God. And I affirm all of that. Yet, I also believe that this passage is telling us something very, very important when it says who desires all men to be saved. Yes, it could be referring to all different kinds and categories of men. It could be saying that. But I also see no problem with this text revealing to us something about God's disposition, his true disposition, his true nature is revealed here. And so I want to talk about that for a moment. The verb desires where it says God desires all men to be saved. The word desire does not denote decree. It does not denote that God decrees all men to be saved, because if God decrees all men to be saved, all men will be saved. I believe that's what's going on here is that we're having an expression of God's true benevolent character and disposition toward all men. Now, first of all, I want to read something from Dr. MacArthur. There is a distinction between God's desire and his eternal saving purpose, which must transcend his desires. God does not want men to sin. He hates sin with all his being. Thus, he hates its consequences. eternal wickedness in hell. God does not want people to remain wicked forever in eternal remorse and hatred of himself. That is God's general disposition. That's who he is. And I think this is backed up by scripture. Let me read a few scriptures to you. Ezekiel 33. Eleven, say to them, as I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why then will you die, O house of Israel? God here is expressing his true benevolent nature. He doesn't delight in the death of the wicked, and he calls all wicked men everywhere to turn back to him in Jonah chapter four, verse 11. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals? I think sometimes God has more love for animals than we have for souls. Honestly. Honestly, Matthew 544. But I say to you, love your enemies. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. So what we're seeing here in verse four is God's true disposition with regard to the wicked. Now, I've written here without doubt or disputation, this same disposition should mark or characterize God's people. We should not delight in the death of the wicked. We should not delight when the wicked are even destroyed because of their own wickedness. We should be like our father in heaven and we should have a sincere and real desire that all men be saved. Now, in Romans 9, 1 through 3, Paul writes, I am telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow. and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh." Did Paul not understand the decrees of God? Of course he did. Did Paul not understand the doctrine of sovereign grace? Of course he did. But what are we seeing? We're seeing a man conformed to the image of Christ. We're seeing a man's desires that are conformed to the desires of God. A man who truly had grief in his heart over the death of the wicked, over the lost. And every Reformed guy, including John Calvin, that I have ever read, that was true to their theology, wept over the lost. cared about the lost and cared about the lost world. People have no idea that not only was John Calvin one of the greatest theologians who ever lived, from his teaching came one of the greatest missionary movements of church history. I've been to Brazil where martyrs sent out, where men sent out by Calvin basically were martyred. How many went out back to their nations, burdened over the lost in their nations, only to die, thrown off cliffs, burned at the stake, stoned to death, executed? If you read John Calvin's in John 3.16, you will be amazed in him talking about genuine love for the world. Now, I'm saying this as someone who is a five point Calvinist. I can only hold to what Scripture tells me. I cannot deny one for the sake of another. I must hold on to both truths, even when for me, the detail of it is a mystery. Romans 10, 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. My desire for every politician in Washington, D.C. is their salvation. My desire for every politician in the EU is their salvation in Canada, their salvation everywhere, their salvation. It should always be the case, because what glory would there be in some of Christ's greatest enemies to be converted? I always say this when in our prayer meetings on Tuesday and every morning, Lord, defeat your enemies by making them your friends. Defeat your enemies by making them your friends. Thus, we should pray for and labor for the salvation of all men indiscriminately and labor for the good of all men. We should do this. We should do this. Now, I want to go down through something that I've written out here, and I'm going to just go down through it all at once to give you kind of a general summary of putting these two things together. We must affirm that God is love. It's not just a disposition. It's not just something he does. It's not something he is for a moment and then is not. God is love. It's a part of his. It's his nature. He can no more stop being love than he can stop being holy. God is love and desires all men to be saved. I believe that. And yet we must believe these things in full submission to other biblical realities. And what are those biblical realities? First of all, mankind is an evil race, deserving of hell and when left to itself, always choosing hell over God. That's mankind. That's a reality. And if you don't understand that reality, you can't understand anything else. Sometimes we use the word man is a sinner and we could go out and even tell secular people you're a sinner and they'll chuckle about it. But when you say you're evil, well, that's throwing down the challenge right there. But mankind left to itself is an evil race, deserving of hell and always choosing hell over God. Second, God does not want men to perish, but they will perish. All of them and entirely of their own cause, if God leaves man alone, if God were to just appear in the sky and say, make your choice. Once they knew who he was, his holiness, his justice, his righteousness, all men will reject him. All men will perish and they will perish entirely by their own hand. Why? Why do men do this? Because they love darkness. Why do they love darkness? They hate light. That was Jesus's judgment in John chapter three. Now, knowing this about man. If God leaves all men to their own natural and unaided volition, then all will reject him. None will be saved and all will be condemned to death by their own choice. That's a reality. Man is that evil. Man is so evil. that he will choose hell over God every time. When left unaided, unhelped. If God leaves all to their own natural and unaided volition, then all will reject him. None will be saved and all will be condemned to death. This condemnation of the entire human race will reveal God's justice. But his grace, mercy and desire to save will never be manifested. The fullness of God will be left unknown to his creation. Next, though God desires all to be saved, if he leaves them to themselves, all without exception will be lost. Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, the prophets, you, me, everyone. If God leaves everyone, just here's your choice, make your choice. Here I am. Even though God has a disposition to save, everyone will reject his salvation. Everyone without exception. Though God desires all to be saved, all will be lost of their own accord because they willingly reject him. choosing darkness over light and death instead of life. This leaves us with two options. One, all perish. Everyone, all of humanity, Adam to the last, they all perish. The son is unrewarded for his sacrifice. And the grace of God, the salvation of God is never revealed. Forgiveness, grace, mercy, compassion, none of it is ever revealed. God remains unknown for the most part to creation. All perish, the son is unrewarded and grace, the grace of God is unrevealed. That's one option. Second option. God elects a people out of the mass of fallen humanity to reveal his grace and to reward his son. In order that the son's work might be rewarded and God's grace, mercy and willingness to save might be displayed. He elected a people from the mass of condemned humanity. In time, he regenerates them, grants them repentance and faith. And as a result, they believe unto salvation. Now, something very important that very few people think about the non-elect. Do not feel slighted in the least by God's choice, but rather they are relieved. They do not want God. Even in hell, they will not want God. Men always choose a tyrannical king, whether it's Caesar or Satan, over a savior. And they do not want that Savior because they do not want God. And they do not want God because God is good. And they do not want a good God because men are evil. John 19, 15, So they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. They hated Caesar. They hated him with a hatred you and I can't even imagine. And yet they would still choose Caesar over a savior. Why? Because that savior was light. And in that light, they saw their darkness and they just ran deeper into darkness. Men will continue apart from God's working, apart from his sovereign grace. Men will continue in their rebellion rather than repent, even when they know that they're under God's judgment. Now, how do I know that? Revelation 9 20. Listen to this 20 and 21. The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands. So as not to worship demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts. Even though they know that these plagues are the judgment of God, they will not give up their sin. They will not, and they will not come to the knowledge of the truth. And this is just a reality. When you say everybody in the world rejected God but Noah. Do you realize what you're saying? In a sense, you flopped the whole table and now Noah is God's savior. God's whole plan of salvation through the Messiah is going to fail. He's wringing his hands and then he happens to look over. Oh my, there's Noah. If it wasn't for him, the whole plan would fail. I found one man among all of them that actually is righteous. No, my friend, Noah should have died in the flood. He proved that after the flood, didn't he? When he drank to drunkenness. God's electing grace. If it were not for that, no man would be saved. No man would want to be saved. And so much of what we know about God would never be revealed. Because we are a wicked and fallen race. Now, he says, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. This is a very simple but powerful statement that should regulate all we do as ministers. All men, regardless of culture, are saved and sanctified, justified and sanctified by means of comprehending the truth and growing in truth until they reach a full knowledge or mature knowledge of the faith. This is the minister's job. How does God save those whom he saves? He does it by means. And that means is the communication of truth primarily through preaching and the preaching of his men. The word here is not just gnosis, it's epinosis, it's full knowledge. So we want to preach the gospel and people come to a saving knowledge of God in Christ. But then we want to keep communicating truth until what? They come to a full knowledge. Paul talks about this throughout Ephesians and in Colossians, a real and full knowledge. Young men, we don't need movers and shakers. We don't need great personalities. We don't even necessarily need pleasant men, although I hope you're far more pleasant than I am. We need men who are going to tell people the truth. And going to disciple people with truth and counsel people with truth and confront people with truth and encourage people with the genuine knowledge of God, that's what we need. But you're not going to be able to do that, young man, if you don't spend hours a day studying. If you do not spend hours a day studying, you know, I have been very, very fortunate to have various friends in the medical industry, and I am absolutely amazed at the amount of knowledge they must have to become a doctor. But what even amazes me more is the amount of continued study that they must do in order to remain a doctor. The field of medicine is constantly changing, constantly evolving, constantly learning. When you go to seminary, all right, seminary cannot make you a man of God. Seminary cannot even prepare you necessarily for the ministry. And I'm all for a good seminary. Do you know what seminary does? What it should do? A real seminary is designed to give you the tools that you need so that you spend the rest of your life preparing. A real seminary gives you the tool of the languages, gives you a tool of learning how to exegete. It gives you systematic theology, systematic ethics. Why? To teach you how to think in a manner that is non-contradictory. That is in harmony with the harmony of God's mind. It teaches you how to pull everything you need for life and ministry out of the Word of God and apply it. And you spend the rest of your life doing that. We don't have time to go in it. Maybe we will. But Job 28. It's not about preaching. It's not about study. But I wish it was over every door of every pastor's study. Because it's about a miner who is willing to leave the daylight leave fellowship, go down in the mine, and even it says bore through solid rock and turn over mountains in order to find the precious gems, the gold and silver that's there. That is what a pastor does. You're going to have many people in your congregation who are mechanics and carpenters and housewives and they're sincere followers of Jesus Christ. And they're working 12 hours a day just to put food on the table and how they would delight to be able to study the word for hours a day. That is your privilege and that's your responsibility. And so you go down in the mine and your goal is to pull out things for them, the precious jewels of scripture, of the gospel, of Christ, and show it to them. The precious nutritious food. of scripture and feed them. That's your responsibility. The church has always grown through preachers. And where preaching has waned because study and prayer has waned, the church is weak. Do you know, back in the 70s, there was this big movement about multiplication of disciples. Most of you, some of you weren't, most of you weren't even born. There was this big drive for multiplication of disciples. You know, everybody ought to disciple somebody. And if you're a little bit more mature than someone else, you can disciple them. And all these types of things. And they based it on Second Timothy 2.2, entrust these things to faithful men. But Second Timothy 2. 2 is not about multiplication of disciples. Second Timothy 2.2 is about training up elder qualified men. Now, I have nothing against the multiplication of disciples. As a matter of fact, I'm rather fond of it. But I believe that that movement started because of the weakness of the pulpit. People were not being fed. And so instead of looking at the problem, what did they do? Invented something else. Invented something else. And so I want you to see, brothers, that it's coming to the knowledge of truth. It's coming to a knowledge of salvation, and then it's going on and growing in full knowledge. I have devoted my life to one field of study within the realm of theology, and that is the gospel. And I've spent 30 some year. I mean, I've literally I've made that my reference of study. I haven't even scratched the surface. We will be in eternity and eternity, thousands of eternities, and we will still not reach the foothills of the Everest of the glory of God revealed in the gospel. And you need to give yourselves to study, young men. Now, let me say this. All truth is important. All truth. They need to understand everything. You need to teach the full counsel of God. And if you're a preacher, if you're a pastor, I would really recommend for your own soul and for the soul of your people to preach through books. Now, as you're preaching through books, you can stay somewhere and say, I'm going to work on justification for two months or something like that. You can always go and look at single doctrines and things like that. That's good. But if you will dedicate your life to preaching through books of the Bible, you will know the Bible. That's the best way to know the Bible, because it forces you to deal with the problems that are in the text. So preach the Bible, preach the great fundamentals of the faith. They need to know the full counsel of God, but of all things, give the people the gospel, give them the gospel. And don't think, well, they've already heard that. If you say something like that, man, I'm just going to kick you or something. You can spend all your life preaching on John 316 and never exhaust the gospel that's revealed in that passage. Give them the gospel. And the only way to do it is by expounding the scriptures, expounding the scriptures. Now, I want to finish with a list of things about us being stewards, because that's kind of what First Timothy is about, is us being stewards, stewards of the gifts that have been given to us, stewards of the gospel, stewards of the scriptures. I want to say these things. We are entrusted with the oracles of God, entrusted with the oracles of God. Now, Israel was they were entrusted with the oracles of God pertaining to the law, which brought them great privilege and great responsibility. But how much greater is the gospel to the law? We've been entrusted with the oracles of God pertaining to the gospel. We have a stewardship that is entrusted to us, which we must discharge voluntarily. So when I said we are entrusted with the oracles of God, that's Romans 3, 2. When I say we have a stewardship that's entrusted to us that we must discharge voluntarily, that's First Corinthians 9, 17. We have been entrusted with the gospel, so we must speak not as pleasing men, but God who examines our heart. First Thessalonians 2.4. The treasure of the gospel has been entrusted to us. Therefore, we must guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to us. Second Timothy 1.14. We must entrust these things to faithful men who will be able to teach others. Second Timothy 2.2. Now here, men, listen to me. Those of you who are pastors, your job is to take care of the sheep. Forget about the conferences. Your job is to take care of the sheep in that local church of yours and be faithful to them above all things. But you are also required as a minister of Christ to be constantly praying for, looking for faithful men. with whom you can entrust the oracles of God. Second Timothy 2.2. And men are trained. Like I said, Bible institutes are good. Seminaries, if they're biblical, are good. But none of them can take the place of the local church and the pastors. Men, the incubator of godly men is the local church. And when you forget that, I was on a panel a few years ago and even with some friends of mine, and I had to, like, contradict them because they were saying things like, yes, seminaries need to let local churches participate more in the training of men or mission agencies need to let local churches participate in missions. And I'm like, gentlemen, I'm sorry you got the tail wagging the dog. If I have young men in my church, I may allow them to study in your seminary for a while because you've got some really good Greek and Hebrew scholars, but I'm not turning over my boys to you. They're mine. They're my responsibility. They're the responsibility of elders and a local church. Don't you ever forget that. Because that seminary is not going to be able to study their life and their character. Those elders are. Never forget this. The leaders. Of the great commission in every aspect today are elders of local churches. The most important person on the planet is not a conference speaker or a seminary president. Elders. And like I said, I think I shared with you last time in the book of Acts, we see apostles, apostles, apostles, elders, apostles, elders, elders, apostles, elders, elders. It's like the apostles. Now, an apostle and an elder are not the same thing. But with regard, there are no more apostles today as the 12. But it seems to me they've handed the baton over to the local the local church and the pastors, the elders. I'm not an elder here. And people ask me, why aren't you an elder? I said, because I believe elders have a very specific purpose. They they pastor people. They care for souls. Well, you can be a preaching elder. I said, I don't believe in that. I believe elders should preach. But if you're going to be an elder, you're great. Your whole thing are the sheep of that local church. And I'm one of those sheep. And those elders are over me and they're over heart cry. And there is a specific thing set out on what we do at heart cry. And if there's an opportunity that seems good, but deviates from that, the elders are called in. All those elders are. I've been in the ministry longer than one of those elders has been alive. But I'm going to submit my life to them. They're goodly men. They watch over my soul. Do you see that? Guys, I believe this. I believe it. That's why it's so important that you have the qualifications of an elder, because you have some tremendous responsibility and authority. And you will stand before God one day. You know, one of the things I love about one of the many things I love about Dr. MacArthur, something that he told me. is, you know, people ask him, how did all this happen? You know, you these mission, all this mission and seminary and university and all these things. And I know he was speaking a little bit in exaggeration, but are in hyperbole. But he was saying, you know, people ask me how this happened. I go, I don't I don't know. He goes, my what I do, I pastor this church. I pastor this church. These are my people. I'm a shepherd. And man, he won my heart. He won my heart. He said, you know what? I never asked God to give me any of these things. I asked God to let me do two things. Preach through the word of God, the entire New Testament to my people and train men. That's what I asked God to let me do. And I think God just honored it. Oh, brethren, look, we live in a day and I'm pleading with you, OK, and I'm going to stop. But we live in a day where people think someone's arrived because they preach in a conference before six thousand people. Really? Have we really declined that much to think that that's what's important? It's the pastors. of the local churches, you've been given an honor that much of evangelicalism is sort of kind of inclining you to despise. You're not a big guy unless you wrote a book that is so wrong. Get in your study for your people, study for them, live for them, love them, and you will see on the day of judgment just how fruitful God has made you. And so I really want you to to think about these things. And we'll end with Second Timothy four, one through two. I solemnly 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, exhort with great patience and instruction. Do this. Don't despise the day of small things. We just sat in here a few hours ago and listened as one of our coordinators was sharing about a missionary in one of the most difficult places in the world that is very communist, very atheistic. And literally he has stones on his desk that he keeps. Well, one particular stone. Because when he first started the church, people would throw rocks through the windows to break the windows. And every time he'd fix the window, they'd break it again. And he kept the rocks just to remind him. He's in a small place, frozen and cold in Eurasia, and he's been laboring there for years. And right now he has eight faithful baptized believers. And what are you thinking? How is he going to stand on the day of judgment beside preachers who have written books and spoken conferences? I'll tell you how, because God judges faithfulness. God judges faithfulness, hidden, secret faithfulness. And I'm pleading with you, learn this early, shun, you know, shown all this other stuff. If God opens the door and you're, yeah, you give an opportunity to preach to a bunch of people, always take that opportunity. But realize that's not what this is about. It's about being faithful, being faithful, brethren, be faithful. Another thing, and I've told you this before, you don't start a church so that through that church you can start other churches. Because in the end, what happens is you'll despise your church because they're not working with you to obtain your vision. As a matter of fact, they're hindering you from carrying out your great church planting vision. You want to start a multitude of churches and Instead of doing that, you're having to counsel people who want to get a divorce. Another person who's fallen into the same sin for the last 10 years. Now, you start churches, brethren, because you love the people who come to your church. Not so that you can use them to carry out some grandiose scheme. But here's what happens if you do love them. You will bear fruit. You will bear fruit. All right, well, we've gone on for two hours and I've actually got to go somewhere. I got some things I have to do, but next time I won't preach so long and we'll do questions and answers. But I hope this has been helpful, especially for like while I'm preaching this, I'm looking at the other old guy that's sitting there and I pretty much know that we're kind of nodding back and forth at one another. You young guys, please listen to me. You live in an age of glitter and gold and evangelicalism. Don't let it don't let it get you. Don't let it get you. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you so much for these men. I pray that you would strengthen them to be faithful in what you've put before them, faithful as ministers of Christ, faithful as husbands and fathers, faithful as friends, faithful as co-workers, faithful to your word. Dear God, please, please raise up from these young men, not radical believers, biblical ones. In Jesus name, Amen.