Hebrews, and if you have outlines, there's the passages also in there, if you've got an outline off the table. We're at Hebrews 13, continuing on there. Chapter 12, We saw that as Christians were pilgrims who are running a race going to God. That's where we're headed. We're going to God. We're going to be in his house forever and ever. The Lord Jesus said that he is the way to the father, and we're in that way. If we have come to trust in him, we have come in order that we might be reconciled to the father. If we've come in the way that we're supposed to come for salvation. Some people come, they just want not be punished. But the way to truly come to salvation is to come to be reconciled to God, to go to him. And the Lord then helps us as we go along, ever growing and learning of him. We carry on as we're told in the first part of Hebrews chapter 12 by looking to him. looking unto him who is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the one who strengthens us. He is the one who is our example. And he is the one who helps us to be able to go on and who has made atonement for us so that we can be accepted by God. And the first 10 chapters of Hebrews set him forth beautifully as our high priest who reconciles us to the true and living God. through faith in him. It presents him as the only one who is able to do that and shows that by sacrifice of himself that he was accepted. His sacrifice was accepted, and we're accepted then who trust in him. So he's beautifully presented there. And now you see we're having this. Okay, how do we go on with him? Chapter 12? How do we go on with him? And then it talks about going through trials and all sorts of things. Now, in Chapter 13, where we are, we're given instructions about how we're to conduct ourselves as we go forward together with God's people. We're part of a body. We don't just go by ourselves. We go as part of the great assembly that Christ has redeemed. We have responsibilities and care one of another. So first there we saw in chapter 13 basic instructions about loving one another. I'm not going to go into the details, you just saw that in the first six or seven verses. Now we're looking at the worship that we are to engage in particularly. It no longer centers around an altar that's made with human hands. But now it is centered in the Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he made. And we partake of that altar of Christ himself offered for us. And the partaking, the eating that we do, as I've told you, is we receive by faith the benefits of his sacrifice. When you eat of the sacrifice, it's symbolic that you're receiving the benefits of that sacrifice. How do we receive the benefits of Christ crucified? It is by faith in Him, all the benefits of salvation that He brings to us in that way. We've seen in Hebrews that we have to, if we do take Him as our Savior in this way, who is crucified, that's an offense in the world. It's an offense in the broader church that it has apostatized. They don't want to have a Savior that died on the cross for the sins of His people with no other way than Him to come to God. They want to have him as some kind of example that they have for some of the cause, whatever cause they want to put on his name. But they don't have the true Jesus. If you have the true Jesus who was crucified for sin, then you're gonna be offensive to people. And it says in Hebrews that we have to bear his reproach as we go along as part of our calling as those who follow him and who are on this pathway to the Father's house. Christ was offered before the throne in glory. not in an altar made with human hands. So no longer is in the Old Testament. We have a priest with robes and sacrificial offerings and all these things at a place somewhere. But now we gather together in every place and we lift our eyes up to glory where he is reigning and exalted as our mediator and king. and we come to God by Him, by His sacrifice. And just lately, we've been looking particularly at the call to our worship, the coming in, praising God, and confessing His name. As we saw, confessing His name, it says giving thanks to His name, that that word confession includes both the idea of praising Him for who He is, and thanking Him for what He has done. And this is our relationship with God. I explained to you that if we have this, if we're doing that, if we're actually delighting in our God, who He is and what He's done, then we're loving Him. We're loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And with the fruit of our lips, we're speaking of who He is. And we need to learn to do this. As I've told you, we don't do this enough in our walking with God. We tend to go to Him with our petitions and things like that. And we don't thank him and praise him and delight in what he's done. This is our communion with the living God that we're to have as his people. And it is a beautiful thing. If you don't keep this up, you'll grow tired of God. You won't want it. You'll grow tired of serving him. We need to continue to praise him the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. And we said that All four of the first commandments we're gonna observe if we're doing that. We have no other gods, no idols. We're not gonna be taking his name lightly and vain as if he's not important or the things that he's about are not important. We're gonna remember the Lord's Day. We're gonna come and praise him on the Lord's Day. And then we saw last week the second type of sacrifices that he is pleased with, and that is that we do good and we share. And this is very important as well as we, as his people are to love our neighbors ourselves. And this takes care of all the rest of the Ten Commandments, doesn't it? Loving our neighbor as ourselves. Anyway, getting a little too much into that, but it's very, love doing a little bit of review here. But, you know, now here we are coming before our Lord. And today we see that we're to go forward in harmonious fellowship with the stewards of God's house, with those that he has appointed to be shepherds. We're supposed to function as those who are on the road to God with Jesus Christ is our head. We're to function within the assemblies that he has appointed for his people. Again, we're not to go independently. We're not alone. We're to go together with God's people in the structure that he has appointed. That's what we're going to be looking at today. So I'm going to read this passage and really it's just verse 17, but I'm going to start at verse 12 just to read bring you into the context. So here is the word of God beginning in Hebrews 13 12. Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore, by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. And here's our text today. Verse 17, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. Thanks be to God for his precious word. And I draw your attention there to verse 17. We'll be looking at that. I want to begin in a little different way than I often do with looking at this passage. I want to begin by showing you an assumption that is behind this passage. rather than going directly to the passage and what it says, there's an assumption that lies behind this passage that is very important for us to consider. It's an assumption that needs to be pointed out in our day, because if you wrote to a bunch of Christians today, as Hebrews was written to a bunch of Christians, there were Jewish Christians, if you wrote to a bunch of Christians today, this would not be something that you could rightly assume. what is assumed in Hebrews 13 17. Do you know what it is that you couldn't assume? The assumption here is that if you are a Christian, you have those who rule over you in the church that you have that. Now, it's simply assumed here that every Christian has such persons to obey. Clearly they are specific persons that the believer knows about. They aren't generalized people or people that are distant to them, don't have anything to do with them. And these ruling ones, they also know who they're ruling. They answer to God for them. They have oversight and they have to answer to God. And there is personal knowledge then that these leaders have because they're said to be those who watch for their souls, the souls of those that are under their care. And they are also shown to be appointed by God to do this because it says that they have to give an account to God. In the same way that if you had, if you work at McDonald's and you're a manager there, you have to give an account to the owner about the people that are on your shift. You know, he wants to know how that's going. Are there problems? Are they treating the customers right? Are they handling their orders right? Are they efficient? He wants to know those things. They're under your watch. And so it's that same kind of a thing that there are people that they're responsible for. So this assumption cannot be made today because there are many Christians who could not tell you of any such persons. They couldn't identify or name anyone that was one who had the watch of them. They might mention a parent or something, but they have no such persons in the church that they answer to, and that answer to God for them. There simply were no such persons like that, except those that were in very extraordinary circumstances, in the early church. Extraordinary circumstances, like the Ethiopian eunuch. He was a guy that was evangelized after coming up and worshiping at the temple. He came to believe, and he's on his way to a faraway place where there was not a church yet. He actually established one there, but he went away. And he didn't have someone in the local area, though he did have, of course, certainly the people that he could talk to, like, you know, Philip, who was evangelize him and things like that, and some of the leaders in the church. But he was far away from them, and you didn't have internet, you didn't have any way to talk to them. And so yeah, there were extraordinary circumstances, but they were very extraordinary. Maybe there was a person that was in a church somewhere, and it was a relatively new church, and they had a couple of elders, and there was a sickness that came through, and both the elders died. And he would say, well, I don't know. We're in a kind of a remote place. I don't know. And then someone would show up to visit from the broader presbytery of the church, the elders and other churches and things. One of the leaders, maybe one of the apostles would come and see how they were getting on and say, oh, there will still be some oversight, you see, but there would be now a need to establish that kind of oversight. And so this is something that You know, these would know that there were those that were going to be caring for them. Now, the reason it was assumed that believers would have those in their assembly who ruled over them is because this is how the church that Jesus established had been set up. Okay, he didn't set it up another way. He set it up this way. There was a government It was a government. Yes, there was a government in which there were distinct assemblies, each with their own elders, mature men, presbyters, who served as bishops, overseers of those in their assembly. This is the kind of government that we also find in the Old Testament, with only one difference. In the Old Testament, the body of elders included priests, along with teachers or scribes and such, together with those who are simply the appointed governors, rulers within the church, those that had the oversight. And in the New Testament, The priests are replaced with ministers of word and sacrament. Because now, instead of offering sacrifices, a priest offering sacrifices in an altar is a central aspect of our worship. We proclaim the one sacrifice that Jesus made, the good news, the gospel, and we gather around the preaching and proclaiming of the gospel rather than around an altar with a priest officiating. That's the change from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And we still have those also who are teachers. There's pastors and there's teachers, maybe a seminary professor or something like that, that might be one among the elders in the church. And then there's those who are ruling elders, as it were, in the Old Testament. So in the Old Testament rule by a body of elders in every local assembly was the established pattern that was instituted by God through Moses when he appointed the weekly assembly in all their dwellings in Leviticus 23. They would have a holy convocation, a calling together of people. It is here that oversight was given. It was here that proselytes, new converts, were examined and received and given circumcision and stuff when they professed faith. It was here that persons who broke God's covenant and did not repent were admonished, rebuked, suspended from the ceremonies of the church if they would not repent and cut off from the body if they still refused to repent and would not be reclaimed. Jesus showed that he expected the same government to go on in the New Testament. For example, a place where that's really evident is in Matthew 18. He said that those whose sin were to be confronted privately first by those that knew of their sin, this wasn't a new thing that Jesus was instituting, then by one or two others to take with him to try to persuade that person to come back to the Lord that had gone away. And if they would not hear, they were to be brought before the church, the ecclesia, The assembly. What was the assembly that they were brought before? It was the assembly of elders. Jesus even describes it as where two or three are gathered together in my name. That he would be there in the decisions that they make and the actions that they make based on the word of God. It wasn't the whole congregation that would have been in great disorder to bring every single trial that needed discipline before the whole congregation and have all the people to judge. No, there were those that were set apart as officers, as elders in the church, and they were responsible, as Jesus said, for receiving and for removing as well. This assembly had always been the assembly of elders, and there is absolutely no reason to think that it was anything else when Jesus spoke of it. Why would he change it? to appeal to American democracy or something if he was instituting something that had been long established practice in Israel where these matters were brought to the elders. So he assumed the same structure that he, before he was incarnate, had established under the old covenant for his people with elders that watch for the souls of those in the assembly and which are responsible to remove those who go away from the Lord in an effort to try to reclaim them. First they try to reclaim them and then remove them if they will not. Now, if this is still uncertain to anyone, then perhaps it would close the case if we look at the fact that the apostles carefully established churches always with elders. This was their practice from which they did not deviate. For example, in Acts 14, you have a picture of Paul's regular pattern of ministry. His standard practice in establishing churches is described here. It is described In the Word of God is a model for us to imitate. Paul and his fellow apostles were charged with doing everything according to what Christ had commanded them. They weren't to do their own thing. They weren't to go their own way. They were to act according to what Christ had said. So there was a uniformity in the church. So what did Paul do in Acts 14? Well, he had gone through preaching in all of these places, going into the synagogues and preaching, and converts had been made. People had been called out to be disciples of Christ and were gathered in this place and that place. Paul was often driven out by persecution. People would stone him. He even got stoned once. He recovered from all kinds of things. Normally, the people that were converted had to go outside the camp, like we've been seeing. They were not accepted. They were removed from the synagogue. They were put out. of the synagogue that they were in under the old covenant. Now, often many of those who believe were already elders. or priests. And some were, at that time, given the special gift of prophecy as well, which was very much needed. They didn't have the scriptures of the New Testament yet. They weren't written yet. And so all these things were going on. God looked after everything. But Paul, he returned to those churches. And when he returned, he made sure that each one had designated elders to lead them. Here's what Acts 14 21 says. And when they had preached, Paul and Barnabas had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. where they had ministered on their way there, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Do you see that pertinent to our situation? They appointed elders in every church. This is an occasion mentioned in Titus, or there is an occasion mentioned in Titus, where Paul departed before he had been able to appoint elders on the island of Crete. He was there with Titus, it appears, and he had to go. He was often called to go somewhere else. Now, did Paul consider this to be of no concern? It doesn't matter. They have churches there. They don't have any elders. That's okay. No, he made sure that it would be done. He made provision for it. The churches were not established in his eyes, something was lacking, until they had elders to watch over the congregation as bishops. That's why we call a church a mission church, until it has its own elders. And we provide elders, even for the mission church, from surrounding churches, elders that serve and give oversight. So in Titus 1.5, Paul says, to Titus, for this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order what the things that are lacking, the things that need to be done that have not yet been done to establish these churches. What are they? And appoint elders in every city, say every hamlet, as I had appointed you. You know, these little cities a lot of times on the island of Crete, wherever there are assembly of God's people. It might seem like a huge task to us. He's got to train up elders and raise up elders. But remember what I mentioned before. There were people who were already elders. They had been in the synagogue. They already knew God's word. They already knew about the promises of Christ and all these things from the Old Testament. In fact, they were already, many of them, regenerate people who when they heard of the Messiah rejoiced at the news and came and embraced him and said the Messiah has come. Look at this. and they were able to carry on, you see, as elders and as teachers and things like that. But it would have been a very difficult task still in many ways. They would also share leadership if there were little villages around. They might have two elders that oversaw all of them and went around to the different ones. There was fluidity with it, but it was very much of a concern that they all had this kind of structure. They could serve now in these fledgling congregations. So we conclude then from the assumption, okay, that everyone who is addressed in Hebrews 13, 17 has people that are called those that rule over you, that we conclude from that assumption that those who ruled over them, that this ought to be true. Sorry, I'm stumbling around. This ought to be true. of every Christian, that they ought to have those who rule over them. That's what we see. Now, this is the reason that in most Reformed churches, such as ours, we do not allow those who are not members of a faithful church to come to the Lord's table, because there's something lacking. They are persons that are without the oversight that Jesus appointed for all those who are his disciples. They are to be committed to a local assembly with elders that they answer to who provide them with care and oversight. Now, some claim that they bypass, you know, well, I just bypass all the middlemen. I go straight to the Lord. He's the one that that I answer to. He's the one that looks out for me. I don't need these people, these middlemen that are there on the earth. Now, that sounds nice, doesn't it? But all of us are taught actually to go directly to Jesus Christ. We're all taught to go directly to Christ for our salvation, to have dealings in our soul with him, to answer to him. We don't go through mediators for that. No, we cannot just, but neither can we just make up whatever we want Jesus to be. Jesus is who he's revealed to be in the scripture, not who we want him to be or who we might make him up to be. We can't attribute things to him that are not true of him. And if he is the one that you're talking about, if it's the Jesus that is revealed in the scripture that you're talking about, then he's the one who established a church that has these middlemen. these governors that he has appointed to give oversight to his people. It wasn't someone else that appointed that. It was him. So if you are going and answering directly to him, he tells you that you should have these governors. We're even given descriptions in the Word of God with qualifications of these elders. And we're often told to, in the scriptures, to honor them, or to obey them, or to receive their admonition, or to support them, or whatever. And they're told to be faithful in their shepherding. So if it is the Jesus who came here and died on the cross that you're talking about, he is no other Jesus than the Jesus that established a church with those who rule. and those who are ruled. That's the Jesus that we go to. You better listen to Jesus because he is that Jesus because he is the real Jesus. So this arrangement with those who rule looking out for us is a wonderful and wise arrangement that is conducive to our spiritual growth. where it drives the elders to be diligent in learning what the will of God is because they have the responsibility to lead. They have people that are depending on them, that they're giving oversight to. Just as the guy at McDonald's always talking about, he has to know what is supposed to be done there and how it's supposed to be done. He has to lead and guide and make sure things are done. And it gets these elders praying for the people. And stirring up others to pray, the congregation to pray for one another because they have concern for them. If you have responsibility for something, it burdens you to see that it does well. There's a pressure there that is helpful and conducive to their growth. And it gets them and others then looking to Jesus. How many times, you know, crying out to Jesus in desperation when someone's going astray, Lord, have mercy, act here, Lord, bring your grace into this situation and act on behalf of this brother or sister. There's a there's a a real urgency and a communion with the Lord that goes on there. And because people aren't perfect, And because the elders are not perfect, both those who rule and those who are ruled have to learn patience. You know, we just had the Lord and he does everything right. We'd still have to learn patience because of our part. But it would be, it's a different situation. We have to deal with people that don't always do the right thing. That don't always make the right decision. They're sometimes neglectful in these things. And you see, this has the potential also, though, having these relationships, it has the potential and ought to, in a good situation, cultivate a lot more love and appreciation within the body. Because you have those that are caring for others. And so there's mutual love, care, appreciation. One is thanking the other. One is helping the other. One is serving the other. As we saw last week, there's all kinds of different ways. There's diversity in the body. One person has strength to do this, one person has strength to do that, one to encourage, one to admonish people. We're all different, and the strong ones help the weak ones. At the same time, they're being helped by the one that's weak in that area who's stronger than they are in another area. So you get all kinds of interaction and engagement. We're supposed to love one another. If there was no, if we were all just our little separate little channel with the Lord and there was no body, there was no governed body with this kind of structure, then we wouldn't have much to do with each other. We would just be, we wouldn't have any responsibility toward one. God has established everything like this. We have families like this where children, they don't learn about God unless their parents teach them and bring them to church. He made it that way on purpose. They don't learn how to behave and honor God. They don't learn what to believe. God has made us to be a community people, a people that are together in societies that are supposed to function and operate and where love grows up. It's a beautiful thing that the Lord has done this. If we could all just get fed by direct pipeline, there wouldn't be much body life, would there? The joy of being used and needed goes on in this kind of a situation. One of our Lord's desires is to bring us together in sacrificial love for one another, where we pour out our lives for one another. And there's need to pour out our lives, because there's issues that you have to deal with. We shouldn't resent that. We should be ready to do service to the Lord, to bring about his blessing in whatever situation we're involved in. Okay, but I must move on. Let me just say, if you are a Christian and you're not a member of a church, you need to rectify that. And if you are not a Christian at all, you need to rectify that too. Come to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. He will have mercy on you. He will not turn you away. Now in this passage, moving on, you are admonished to obey those who rule over you and to submit to them. Now these words obey and submit are quite instructive. The word translated obey means to let yourself be persuaded by them. Isn't that interesting? Interesting word. You can see that all through. Sometimes it's translated that way. And when they were persuaded, or he persuaded them, you know, that kind of thing. So you see the obedience here is not the kind of obedience that a slave has. that so he won't get whipped, you know, I better obey or I'm going to get whipped or that an employee has or he'll get fired or so that he'll get a raise or whatever. The relationship is one where you have a savior that you love. He's redeemed you and you love him. You want to please him. That's you. And then you have an elder who wants to help you please him. So it's not like the elders come and say, I don't want to do that. It's where you're saying, show me. I want to please the Lord. Help me to please the Lord. And the elders come and say, you could do this and maybe this. Or what about this? Did you think about this? Or did you know this? That kind of thing is what we're talking about. It's one where you're saying, tell me more about Jesus. And the elder wants to show you wonderful things about him that he has learned through his experience and through the word of God. And you want to learn about his promises. And the elder wants to share those promises with you. It's not where you're just having, you're forced into some kind of a weird obedience or something here. Show me how he wants me to live. I want to know how to live for him. And the elder wants to help. And so this is essentially saying, be eager to learn from your elders about the Lord and how to please him. Be eager to learn how Christ wants you to live and what he wants you to believe and how you can do better and be more useful in his service, how you can glorify him and enjoy him, how you can adore him more and grow in his grace. Now this desire to obey, to be persuaded, will be evident in your behavior. You will attend all the stated meetings of the church. The elders seek to provide a healthy diet of spiritual nourishment for you from the word of God. In the morning, often the preaching is more the kind of preaching where we go through passages of scripture and expound them, bring them in often a doxological way, as well as a way that helps you to live them out. And in the afternoon, it's often more of a teaching of doctrine and that sort of thing. We're not having that quite as much that distinction as currently in our Revelation series, but that's the general characteristic of it to give you a diet that you have to be grounded, catechized in the basic teachings of our faith, the understanding of it. And you also have to have that walk with the Lord. And if you're missing part of that, then you're not well grounded. You see, if you're missing the teaching part, the catechetical part, and if you only have that, then you're missing the fullness of your walk with Christ. Now, you can also demonstrate an eagerness in hearing in how you listen, not selecting what you want to learn, not tuning out when there's something that you're not interested in. or something that's not really pleasing to you. This is God's Word that we're talking about. You need to be interested in receiving those things, even that maybe are not as pleasant to you. That's one of the reasons for having living teachers. If you listen to people that are far away, you can say, oh, it's a sermon, I don't want to hear that one. I'd rather hear this one. And you go looking for the ones that are especially appealing to you. You will be attentive, you'll come well rested, maybe even regulating your diet and your sleep and things like that to help you to be alert and attentive. You will be eager to hear the word of God in order that you might do it, not just to learn, but to do it. You won't be like the fellow that James talks about that comes and he learns all about everything, learns about himself and says, isn't that wonderful? And he goes away and completely forgets whatever it was that he learned. You will go over the material. You will talk about it. You will pray about it. You will tell others about it. You'll have discourse with them to think about how to apply the word in your home or with your friends. You will ask for help to implement things and for accountability in areas that you need help to keep up that walk with God. That may be something new that you haven't been doing that you realize you need to do. You'll listen up for such things. You'll also be willing to work to learn things. Some things take more effort to understand than others. The scripture is very frank about that. It says some things are very hard to understand. And others are not so hard. But do you just tune out? You have lazy ears? You say, oh, that's over my head. It's real easy to say that. It's just a lazy comment. Do you engage yourself? Do you diligently engage and say, OK, I'm having a hard time understanding this. I need to understand this. And you work at it. You see, that's a very different kind of a hearing attitude. That's a willingness to what? To be persuaded. The obedience that's talking about here as a hearer of the word of God. Proverbs says that God's word is to be desired more than treasures like gold and silver. Now I bet that we would have very good attendance at church if instead of giving out the word, we were giving out gold and silver in our services. I bet we'd have lots and lots of people that would want to come to church. Furthermore, if people had to solve complicated puzzles in order to get an ounce or two of gold, We'd have a packed house of alert, attentive people who are trying to solve those problems. I'm gonna get two ounces of gold if I can solve this problem. And they'd be listening and trying to figure it out and wanting to get it so they could, oh, I've gotta figure this out, I've gotta know this. This is what it's talking about. It's better, God's word is better than treasures of gold and silver. That's something to think about, isn't it? How are we hearing? Finally, remember that you are a member of this church. You are to obey your elders that are over you in the Lord, the ones that you can name as your elders. There may be more exciting ministers in Texas or in California. It's fine to listen to them. But your duty is to hear in the church that you have been appointed, that you are in, where God has placed you. The preacher in Texas is not there to observe you, as I mentioned before. You can pick and choose what you want. Remember the Pharisees? Who were their favorite people? There's a lot of Christians like this today. Their favorite people were the dead ones. They loved the dead people. Oh, Moses. We're disciples of Moses. What would Moses say? That's what Jesus said to them. What would Moses say to you if he was here? You can have Moses in your idealized way that you, whatever he says to you, whatever you want to hear. But a living person, you have to deal with, they're going to say, hey, what about this? You're like, no, I don't want to talk about that. They're going to be there to see that. Even if you don't say it, those things aren't even said, it's there, it's present in the relationship. This is why God has appointed that we have elders over us. And you see, these are always kind of hard things to say because you feel like, well, I'm just saying, listen to me as the preacher. It's not because my preaching is better. It's because this is how God has appointed things in the assembly. My preaching may not be nearly as good, but it's what he has appointed for you, where you live, where you are. And somebody else has another preacher. And again, it's fine to listen to others and things like that. But we need to. The command here is to obey those who have the rule over you, not not others be persuaded by them. And not only that, but. When sermons are prepared by a local pastor, he knows the flock. And sometimes, I know one of the things that's very troubling is when I have something and I say, oh, this will be really helpful for so-and-so, and so-and-so is not there. And I don't have any real reason not to be there, and it's like, oh. You know, oh. I was praying before for the congregation, and I was really like, this is something that's gonna be so helpful. and then they're not there. It's a disappointing thing. Or you're doing even a whole series and someone's not coming at all in the afternoon or in the morning or whatever it is. It's a difficult thing. Okay, the second word is to submit. Now, this is different because it's suggestive of what we might call raw obedience. It means to surrender. It literally means to surrender to someone else's will. It's used sometimes even when an army conquers a place and they have to surrender. It's like, okay, now we're talking, sounds like the slavish obedience we were talking about before. You don't have to agree, just obey. That's what this word is getting at, whether you're persuaded or not. See, real submission happens when you don't agree. And you still go on and submit. You say, OK, well, I have to submit. I'll do this. Maybe you don't like to pay taxes. You submit. You pay taxes. You have authority over you. You have to yield. Well, this is certainly not to say that you're to do that with what you believe about God. and about how you're to live. It's not talking about doctrine. It's not talking about conscience. It's talking about things that elders do that are judgment calls that they're appointed to do that would be common to any kind of society. For example, if they impose church censures on your friend, church discipline on your friend, and you think they were too hard on him. Oh, they were too hard on my friend. Well, what are you supposed to do? Well, you can come to talk to the elders and say, hey, guys, I think you were too hard on Billy here. You know, he's he didn't understand what was going on. The elders will listen. They should. And they say, yeah, OK, well, let's talk about it. The elders say, no, we think this is the right decision. We submit to it. Why? For the harmony and good of the church. You're not in charge of that decision. They're in charge of that decision. If you're in charge of that decision, then it'll be your responsibility. Same thing you have in a home, isn't it? Where parents have to make a decision. And children, oh, I don't want that. No, you need to then submit. And if they summon you to answer to charges. You should go and answer to them. You don't say, oh, I don't need to go. I don't want anybody telling me. You need to go. This is what it's talking about. Keep in mind that if you say, you can't tell me what to do, you're saying that about Jesus. Because he's the one that appointed them to give the oversight that you're to submit to. And if it's a matter of church discipline or something like that, and they're calling you in to talk to you, then you need to be willing to hear. This also pertains to things like service times. You might think that it's better to have the service started at a different time or something like that. You can talk to them, you can state your concerns, and they're looking out for the best interests of the whole congregation. They have reasons for making decisions about that. God has appointed them to make the final decision. And he's appointed you to cheerfully submit to that. He's not going to make a big stink and say, oh, I don't want anything to do with this place because they have the church at a time I don't like. This is the kind of thing that we're talking about here with submission. Submitting to correction is a thing, too, that is very important here. I remember years ago, a young lady in our church that Dave corrected for cutting up during the Lord's Supper. She was kind of joking around with her friends. She was a new believer. And she was kind of teasing around and stuff. And the Lord's Supper was being served. And Dave spoke to her about it. And afterwards, she came to him by herself. And she said, Mr. Alexander, thank you. Thank you for talking to me about that. I really needed to hear that. And if you see something like that, please talk to me about it. That's submission. That's submission. She wanted to be corrected. She wanted to know. This is the kind of thing that we're talking about that the Lord wants. A beautiful attitude. Now, this is a difficult thing for people today, because we live in an anti-authoritarian society. Societies go back and forth, don't they? You can see it in the scriptures. Like in the time of the judges, what were they doing? Like we are. Everybody does what's right in their own eyes. I've got nobody telling me what to do. I'll do whatever I want. Everybody does what's right in their own eyes. And then they got sick of it because everything's anarchy. Like you've got people like, you know, raping your concubine or whatever. All kinds of crazy things that were going on. They got sick of it. And so then what did they do? They came and said, give us a king. Give us a king like the other nations have. We have to have somebody to order us and to bring us together. We want a king like the nations. And that wasn't right either. You see, they wanted someone that was going to, they were swinging back and forth. And this is how societies go. You'll have a society where it's like, we all have to conform, we all have to be one, we all have to think the same way, we have to do the same thing, and there's a rigid, disciplined, military, kind of everybody's marching step, and people want that. We can't think that way, we don't want that, because we're in the other direction. But then there's that other side where it's just like, everybody do your own thing. Like, oh, I wanna walk this way. I'm gonna go this, soldiers are, you know, this guy's going this way, this guy's going that way. I wanna walk slower, I wanna go fast, whatever. This is the kind of thing that we're talking about here that we want to have a biblical approach to. So, yeah, it's a difficult thing for people, but everyone can in churches do what's right in their own eyes. But this is not what our Lord wants. He wants us to learn to function together as a body, as a harmonious, beautiful household full of love and mutual appreciation where those under authority appreciate those who bear responsibility and honor them and where those leading lead with an eye to benefiting the congregation as much as possible. We have a long way to go to achieve that. We need to have that in our families too. Harmony under leadership and authority. That's God's design. And now we need to look at the motive that we're given to obey and submit to those who rule over us. It is because they watch for your souls. Wow. You see the love of Christ here. Nothing is more important than the preservation of your soul in fellowship with the Lord. What's more important than that? Not a thing. He has organized his church so that there are persons whose task it is to give oversight of souls. They are to watch and make sure that you're not slipping away from the Lord. And if you are, they're to admonish you in the Lord and earnestly call you back. They're to see that you don't get discouraged to come and comfort you, to look after you. What appreciation you ought to have for such a ministry provided for by Jesus Christ. Now, sometimes that ministry is not done very well. But it is the ministry that Christ has provided and that we should pray for. You should be like that young woman that I mentioned who thanked the elder for rebuking her. You can also go to an elder when you're struggling with sin. You're struggling with sin, you go and get help. Don't just go on grinding away. Go and get some help. Instead of hiding it, make it known to those who are charged with watching out for your soul. Ask for their help. Ask for their prayers. Ask for their accountability. Most of the time when you do that, you draw ministry out from them. As soon as they see that you want help and are looking for soul care, they'll be more eager to provide it. They should be eager to provide it anyway, whether you want it or whether you don't. But when you show a desire for it, then it's gonna stir them and move them to provide it. This is God's answer for you. Make use of it. One of the reasons that this goes downhill, it's both sides. But we're talking about submitting to elders today as our focus. And one of the reasons that this goes downhill is because people don't want that kind of care. So of course, it's easier for the elders not to provide it. They don't want me to talk to them. If I go to them, they're not going to listen to me anyway. And so it just stops. It just evaporates. A second motive is that they must give an account to God concerning you. What do you want their prayers to be concerning you? Lord, please do whatever you have to do to bring this guy around. He simply will not listen. He comes to church occasionally, and when he does, he's half asleep. Or I spoke to Susie about her relationships, but she continues to be foolish. Help her to smarten up. Lord, where's Tom? You know, he's never around. What is he doing? Or this? Lord, thank you so much for Paul. He's growing so much. Help him to continue to have hunger for your word and to find avenues of ministry that he can engage in. Thank you for how he encourages me with his loving, gracious spirit. Help me to learn from him. Thank you for Janice. What a kind servant she is. Help her to be a tremendous encouragement to the seniors that she is helping. and help her to find a husband who is worthy of her love that she can pour her love out. Not the Lord. Help her to grow up so she can be a wife someday for someone. Notice that he says to see the elders that the elders give an account is so they can give an account with joy. Very vexing for an elder when you're pulling away from the Lord and refusing to listen. What can He say about you? It's great joy. John said, I have no greater joy than to know that my children are walking in truth. Remember Paul, he'd be somewhere and he'd be thinking about the Thessalonians, for example. He would send someone, you've got to go and see how they're doing. And then we heard the report. Oh, that's great. I was concerned because, you know, they were just starting out and they were persecuted and I was afraid they might not be doing well. He said it just filled his heart with joy and gladness. When he learned it, yes, they're doing well. Yes, they want God. Yes, they want to go on with the Lord and they are going on. Elders spend sleepless nights over those who are going away. And they rejoice with great joy over those that are restored. I've been shocked sometimes that the way people think about things like someone that goes astray and you're praying for them and you're crying out for them to be restored. And then they come back and they think, well, you know, they're not going to want to talk to me because they put me out of the church and they don't think I'm a good person and all this kind of stuff. They're going to be thrilled if you came back to the Lord. That's what they were waiting for. That's what they were living for. It's going to make their day. It's so weird the way people think about these things. There's rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents. It's very profitable for you when all of this is the case. When you're doing this in a way that makes the elders glad. It means that you have the blessing of a good conscience. That makes you bold and willing to suffer for Christ and to sacrifice for others when you have a good conscience. It means that you're much more useful in the kingdom of God. You're reaching out, you're setting an example, you're helping others. That's good for you. It means that you're growing in your walk with God, your fellowship with him, that you're pleasing him more and more. You're doing what is pleasing to the Lord, as it says in Colossians. It means that you're laying up for yourself a great reward in heaven. It means that you're encouraging the elders and drawing out more ministry from them as a whole in the congregation. When people are eager to hear the word, when they benefit from it, when they ask for it, But it also benefits the preacher and those who counsel them. It makes us more eager to communicate when people are eager to hear and to receive. And it means that you're glorifying God. And that delights him. And that will delight you. And it will delight others who are wanting to serve the Lord as well. What a wise, kind, gracious, loving Savior Jesus is to arrange his church in a way that is so suited to us to help us grow in grace, in love, in mutual care, and dependence on him. And that a dependence that instead of making us less responsible, makes us more responsible. You know, if you're, let's do an illustration. If someone is dependent on you like for financial provision, and you're just providing for them, and they have no responsibilities, they don't grow. They don't mature. But if they have a situation where they're being pushed into greater responsibility and service and doing what they can do, then they grow and mature and they develop. You see, it really changes things a great deal. So it's a kind of dependence that makes you not less capable and responsible, But this, what God has established in the order of church makes you more capable and more responsible and more looking to the Lord. This is the goal. Please stand and let's ask God to help us with these things. Oh Lord God, how we do need your help. We are a people who are, we're very well acquainted with the fact that we are sinners. And we thank you Lord that We're also acquainted with the fact, if we know Jesus, that you're a savior and a very good one. And we come to you, oh Lord, to look to you for help in order that we might serve you in the way that you've appointed in your church. We thank you that you've established the church in this way. We pray that we would grow up into it and that we would have a delight in our Lord Jesus who has structured things this way and we would receive all of this as his ministry. We would not look that we would be looking at it as, you know, like the obedience part that we want to please the Lord. We want to know what pleases him and that we're working together. Elder and people are working together to to please the Lord. That's our goal. That's what our desire is. And we pray that we would have that beautiful harmony that you want for your household where there is order and structure and unity. or we aren't quarreling about silly things, but there is an established order that is recognized and that is practiced. Father, thank you so much for what you have given us and for the help that you give us every day. And we pray, Lord, that we would all be active and engaged in these things. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, let's join our voices now in singing Psalm 84. Receive now the blessing of the Lord. the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all amen.