Let's turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. For the sake of time this morning, we'll go to the Lord in prayer and we'll read one verse of Scripture. So let us pray together. Father, we are in need of enlightenment. We are in need of Your Holy Spirit to lead us, to teach us, to guide us, to open our eyes, to understand, to grasp, and to live out what Your Word commands us to do. Father, minister to us. May we see a more powerful, sovereign Christ in Your Word this morning. May we have a sweeter taste of the Holy Spirit's ministry to us this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17. Hear the word of the living God. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. You may be seated. Last week, we began this sermon that we will continue this morning on how to esteem your pastors. How to honor and reverence and esteem your pastors. Not necessarily because there's anything inherently in them worthy of your honor or esteem, But because the Bible teaches it, Christ has established it, and it is through Christ that we are to honor those who are in authority. And this is part two. Just by way of recap, let's bring out a couple of things that we talked about last week from the book of Hebrews. We noticed it's context. That is, What was taking place historically in this church was hardship. But it was just the very beginnings of this hardship. It had not yet come to full-blown fruition where Nero, possibly at this time, had not yet poured out his cup of wrath upon the church. It was just the beginning stages. It was just the birth pains of this tribulation that they were experiencing. Yet many of them, or some of them, had been cast into prison, had their property confiscated. I mean, it was becoming very difficult to be a Christian during this time. And so many of these Christians were contemplating leaving the faith. And you find here, as the Apostle pens this letter, he's encouraging them to obey their shepherds, to obey their elders, to obey those pastors, those under-shepherds that the Lord Jesus Christ had put in their midst that they might herd the sheep and protect the sheep and to help the sheep persevere in this time of difficulty. They were not listening to their pastors. They were not heeding the voice of their ministers, but they were beginning to do their own thing. And the apostle writes this letter, and he encourages them, and he says, Obey those leaders that God has placed over you, for they keep watch over your soul. Now, beloved, there's not a more precious possession than your soul. And when you think about that, there is nothing on earth more precious than your soul, your wife's soul, your husband's soul, the soul of these children and teenagers, young men and young women sitting here this morning. Nothing, nothing, we should have never allowed anything to subvert the ministry of the church of the living and true God as it pertains to our life in salvation because we understand that inherent in all of us is rebellion. That is, when we read that verse, one of the first things we want to do is excuse it, find a loophole, and try to find some way of not taking it literally, not taking it in its context, trying not to understand it, but try to find some way around obeying men. None of us like it. It cuts cross-grain against our flesh. He's already told us over in chapter 13 in verse 7, He says, Remember those who led you, past tense. Remember those who led you in the past, who spoke the Word of God to you. Consider the result of their conduct and imitate their faith. He has already encouraged them to imitate those who had gone before them, who ministered the Word of Grace to them. He says, listen, Look at their lives from beginning to end. I mean, you have a complete picture. He says, imitate those men because they have proved themselves to be worthy of imitation. You can see the beginning of their life. You can see the end of their life. You can see how they stood fast and persevered to the end. You can see how they honored the crown rites of Jesus Christ and kept covenant with Him. Look at their life. Imitate those men who minister to you that precious Word of Grace. And beloved, God's never called us to be by ourselves and alone in this walk of Christianity. He's given us examples, and He's given us faithful examples. We can even be the most ignorant Christians out there, but if we would just imitate those men who have proved themselves to be faithful to God, we'd be much better off. Much better off. So he says, listen, not only imitate those who had gone before you in the past, who are no longer in your midst, but obey those who are now trying to leave you now. Obey them, for they keep watch over your souls. And we understand that the book of Hebrews is about apostasy. It's about apostasy. These brothers and sisters who are willing to walk away from their confession of faith, willing to walk away from Christ to embrace something that God was no longer pleased with, that God was no longer blessing. And he says, listen, to walk away from Christ is to reject Christ. To serve Christ, beloved, in your own way and in your own imagination, which is vain and futile apart from the Word of God and His Spirit, is idolatry. And the fruit of that is perishing. That's what the whole book, he gives those examples of those who did not heed the voice of the pastor in the wilderness. He says, and what happened? Because of their disobedience, because they did not obey Moses' commands, they didn't obey their faithful leaders, the sermons, they sat under the preaching of the Word and they walked out and never could remember one thing about the sermon. They never sought to apply it to their lives. And the Bible says in Hebrews 4, they did not add faith to that preached Word and they perished. That's what's at stake here. We're not going to go back and read all those warnings in Hebrews, but you need to remember that what all of these warnings have in common, they neglect the voice of God. You neglect the voice of God. And we talked about this last week, that is when faithful men preach faithfully the Word of God, When they handle the Word of God accurately, and they exposit that Word, and they preach it, you are hearing the voice of the living God. You are hearing the voice of Christ. You are to obey it, not because the preacher preached it, but because you hear Christ's voice in the preaching and the teaching of the Gospel. Now let me say this, there's not a man, woman, boy or girl here this morning that has been saved by the voice of any preacher. There's no one here that had been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the covenant of grace by some fancy sermon of any great preacher. And I don't care who it is, whether it's Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Watson, John Calvin, John Knox never saved anybody. Christ is Savior. It's the voice of Christ in His Word that penetrates hard-hearted men and women and boys and girls. And it's His Spirit that goes in and renews that heart and recreates that heart into the image of Christ. That's why men can sit, families can sit under sound, biblical, godly preaching and still perish. Because the voice of Jesus never penetrated their hearts and their minds and changed them. I mean, don't don't exalt yourselves here. Don't say, oh, we're in an RPC US church. We we've got this sound preaching and you know, and that's great. That's good. That's a good thing. But these folks had Moses to preach to. Moses saw God. And I promise you, I probably don't even hold nowhere near a candle to Moses, and they still perished in the wilderness because they did not heed Christ's voice in Moses' preaching. Now, I must go on, because it is our short Sunday this morning. A couple of things about the obedience we talked about last week. Number one, that obedience to leadership is a matter of the heart. It's a heart matter. Hebrews chapter 3, we just talked about that. They did not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Hebrews chapter 3 tells us that they always go astray in their hearts. It starts in the heart. Even though you may mechanically obey outwardly, Beloved, that's not obedience. You must understand God sees the heart. Young people, boys and girls, you may mechanically obey your parents, but if you're not doing it out of a heart of submission and honor and reverence, it doesn't please God. That's why you must always examine yourselves. That's why you must, as young boys and girls, cast yourself to the mercy and grace of Christ. As small children, you must say, I don't want to obey my parents. I do it so I don't get a spanking. But I don't want to. Listen to your pastor. That's when you need to pray. And you need to ask for grace. And you need to say, God, give me the grace to be submissive and obedient of the heart. It's a matter of the heart. Secondly, obedience requires knowledge. It's not blind obedience. We're not Catholics. We don't believe, just do it because I tell you to do it, even though mothers or children, when your mama tells you that, you probably would be better off to do it. Don't let Pastor Jess get you in trouble. But it requires knowledge. That means when pastors and shepherds lead the people, they must lead the people according to the knowledge found in the Word of God. And we use Acts 17 about the noble-minded Bereans and how they were called noble-minded because they examined what the Apostle Paul taught them from the Word of God. And when they found out that Paul preached to them the Word of God, what did they do? They submitted to his authority and apostleship. Wholeheartedly. What must we do? It requires knowledge. Thirdly, obedience assumes authority. Now, we're going to start there, even though we covered this point in a little bit of detail last week. That is, obedience assumes authority. Obedience to leadership assumes some kind of lawful, rightful authority, some type of legitimate authority. Obeying your leaders, or to obey those, as the text says, obey those who are leading you. That's the original language. To obey those who are in the process of trying to lead you, submit to them. Bring yourselves under their care. Bring yourselves under that obedience so that you are in their care and they're shepherding over your souls. Now, beloved, There are limitations to our obedience. That is, there is not an institution, and we're going to talk about this in more detail, there are no earthly institutions whereby Christ has given those institutions full sovereign authority. Remember that. There are no earthly institutions whereby Christ grants to them full sovereign authority. Now, as we talk about this, the limitations of this obedience, what we're going to have to do, we're going to have to lay a lot of groundwork. I mean, we're going to have to build in layers, I think, in order for us to understand it. So actually, what we're going to talk about are some of those legitimate things that the pastors and elders are allowed to do. Therefore, that's going to negate all the things that you shouldn't do. So we're going to look at this thing at different levels. And there's going to be a lot of overlap, but you can work through that. I know you're mature enough to listen and to work through this. So let's talk about these limitations to obedience to leadership. Now, when we talk about authority, the first thing we need to think about is, obviously in the book of Hebrews, we think about Jesus. Because Jesus has been established as our mediator. How does He mediate? He is our prophet, our priest, and our king. He rules over us. He sanctifies us. He protects us. He guards us. He is our blessed king. He is our priest. What does a priest do? A priest is a go-between between the people and God. Christ is our great High Priest and He is our go-between. He represents God to us and us to God. He is our blessed High Priest. And beloved, He is our prophet. He is our lawgiver. He is the only one who has authority in the earth, in heaven and on earth, to give out laws. All sovereign power resides in the person of Jesus Christ, granted to Him by the Father. Now, there are three legitimate spheres of government taught in Scripture. You need to understand this because, really and truly, if you can understand these three spheres of government, it's really going to help you in life, period. To understand these three legitimate spheres of government, is to understand how God has chosen to reveal Himself in the earth. Okay? How God has chosen to reveal Himself through His Son in the earth. Now, the first sphere of government is family government. That doesn't make it first and foremost. That's the first thing that we have in the book of Genesis is God established a family, and there was a family government. But now, the head of that family government is the husband. Even though he and the wife are equal in creation, maybe even in gifts and talents and abilities. The rib was taken out of the side of Adam, not his foot, men. Women are not doormats. God took woman out of the side of Adam, and He gave him a helpmeet. A helper. A helper for what? A helper to accomplish godly dominion. Young men, we've got men and women, and in the next couple of years, they're going to be thinking about marriage. You may already be thinking about it, but put it aside for now. You don't need to be thinking about it. You need to be grounded first. Listen. One of the first things you need to think about when you go to marry somebody is, will this man or will this woman aid me in me being a godly man or a woman? Or will they hinder me? Will they be an aid and a help to my mandate before God to bring dominion out over the earth, or will they hinder me?" That's the first question you need to ask, and you need to understand there is a family government, and the man is the head of the household. That means once the man and woman come together and counsel, the man must make the final decision. Does it mean that the woman's opinion? Our ideas are less superior or important than his, but he is established by God as the head of that home and everybody under him is subordinate. Now, listen, the father has limited authority. Limited authority. He's not allowed to treat his wife any way he pleases. You're not allowed to treat your wife or your children any way you see fit. You are mandated by Christ to treat your wife as a vessel of honor. Ephesians 5 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church. I will pattern for you men how to love your wives, Christ says. I will give you the example how I nurture and care for the church will be the pattern that you will use to nurture and care for your wife and children. Children are to be obedient to their parents because that obedience to lawful, legitimate authority is a sign of submission to Christ. Plain and simple. Young boys and girls, listen to me. If you can't submit to your parents who you see, you cannot submit to Christ who you cannot see. We're not mystics. You cannot talk back to your parents. You cannot treat them rudely. You cannot live life any way you want to in that house and still claim to be a good Christian. How you treat your parents and speak to them is a direct reflection of the submission and obedience of faith that the Holy Spirit has brought about or not brought about in your heart. I can't hang out there. I'd like to, but we need to understand this, that there's also church government. There is a lawful, legitimate church government that Christ has established in the earth for His glory and for the good of His people. There's a family government, and then there's church government. There's two lawful spheres. Now listen, I made the comment last week. I mean, the father has the authority to put before their children good food, not bad food, and say, I want you to eat your vegetables. And you eat them. Because your daddy told you to, or your mama told you to. But now your pastor, there's legitimate church authority where the father rules in the sphere of the home. The home is his sphere. I mean, dads, don't come over to my house and try to rule my house. Stay at your own house and practice that. You see, but you have limited authority, it's legitimate, in your home, in your sphere of influence that Christ has given to you. And in the church, there is legitimate, lawful sphere of authority given to those ministers, to those elders, where they govern. That is, I don't go over to First Pres or any of these other churches and try to tell them how to do their ministry. I don't have that authority. I don't have that right. I cannot do that. And they are to look at me and laugh. If I were to go over there and try to tell them how to do something, they'd laugh and they'd be right to do so. I don't have any authority over there. So the limitations and broadness of this authority is limited to this fear of influence. So there is a legitimate church government that Christ has established in the land for the benefit of His church. And then there's a state government. There's the civil magistrates. There are lawful civil magistrates, Romans 13, that Christ has put into earth, and that too is for your benefit, even though civil governments and civil magistrates can easily turn into tyrants just as ecclesiastical elders and pastors can, and just as fathers can be tyrannical. Every one of these governments can fall into tyranny. And how do you fall into tyranny? By neglecting the supreme sovereign head of each institution, Christ. Men are not kings of the castle. Christ is head of every home. Christ is the head of the church, just as Christ is the head of civil magistrates. Beloved, he's the great lawgiver. Now, there are house rules. I mean, there are things one family may require you take your shoes off before you walk in the house. That's great. That's fine. And you ought to do that. Be obedient to those house rules. But overall, the morality of that house is governed by what? The Scripture. It's governed by the law of Christ. Just as every church may, you know, some of us meet at 9, some of us meet at 10.30, some of us meet at 11. That's the prerogative of those men that God has placed over that congregation in their wisdom. They make these determinations because that's what's the most wise and expedient thing for them to do. And you're to yield to it because you're not violating Scripture to do so. Now, fathers, you can't coerce your children to break God's law. You cannot require your children to sin. If you ask your children to sin in some way, your children have the lawful right to look at you and say, I cannot disobey my God. And they would be right in doing so. Just as if any church authority asks you to sin, you are not to do so. And any state government asks you to sin and break God's law, you must be like Peter and John. You must say, we must obey God instead of men. So we need to understand that there are three spheres of government that Christ has established in the land. Now listen, all of these exhibit something about Christ. All of these governments exhibit something about Him. The home exhibits the goodness of God. How God nurtures and cares for His people in general. Listen, God even nurtures and cares for the wicked. They wouldn't even be breathing right now if He didn't want them to. We must understand, that's why the Psalms, when you read the Psalms and it says, All men everywhere and on the earth must praise God. Why? Because that's what they owe Him. They owe Him that by virtue of His goodness, by virtue of His power, by virtue of Him being God. In church government, we see exhibited the power of Christ. His goodness in the family, His power. How in His power? Because it's in the church where the bonds of sin are broken. It's in the church that the kingdom of Satan is beat back. It's in the church that people are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. The church expresses the power of Christ in the earth. I mean, when men and women drive by the church and they say, hey, there's old so-and-so. He was terrible growing up. Now look at him. He's a different person. We don't even know who he is. It exhibits the power of grace. Now let me say this, I know we've got a book club and the title of it is, The Family is God's Weapon for Victory. I understand the title and I appreciate the title, but we don't believe that. The family is not God's weapon for victory. It's the church. The church is God's weapon for victory. It's the church who has been commissioned to charge the gates of hell and to beat back the kingdom of darkness with the preaching and teaching of the gospel and the administration of the means of grace. And of course, the family is a part of that. So we must understand, beloved, That each one of these fears of government, His goodness, His power, and what is state government? That is, if state government is obedient to the laws of Christ, what is revealed to us? Justice. Justice. God is a loving God. God is a merciful God. But God is also a holy and just God. And that's why there's no justice in the land now. There is no justice in our court systems, if very little at best. And therefore, there is no revelation of Christ's justice, of God's justice in the land. Evildoers are not punished. But when a civil magistrate is faithful to the laws of Christ and evildoers are punished and those who are innocent are protected, his justice permeates the earth. So there's this revelation of God in all three spheres of these governments. Let me say a few other things about these governments and we'll move on. First of all, that family government again. What a blessing it is to have this institution. We all enjoy our families. But we wouldn't have families if it wasn't for Christ. God established the family. God created the family. Man could not make up the family. Man could not make up any of these institutions. So I want you to realize the source of its creation and the source of its authority and power. But what a blessing it is for a family to bring into its midst children, and to raise up children, to raise up the next generation, to raise up the next faithful Christians, men and women. That they too, that means when you leave this earth, you have labored diligently in your prayers and labors to make sure that these children follow the living and true God, and that there is a voice of God in the land. What's the most important thing? You pass on your family name or you pass on Christ? What's the most important thing? That your children can talk about Uncle Buck and so-and-so and so-and-so, or they can sit down and talk about Jesus. They can sit down and talk about the covenant of grace. They can sit down and talk about all of those victories that Christ accomplished in your family, and they hand down that to the next generation, and there's still that voice of Christ in the land. And we're going to talk more about that later. Children. Young men and women. That's why the Bible ascribes such a blessing to you if you obey. If you submit in your hearts and your minds, the Bible says it will be well with you in the land. But if you reject authority, if you reject that revelation that Christ has put there for your good, it will be hard on you. It will bring misery to you. It will be one hardship after another. That's why I love that story of Robin Caruso. You know, if you go back and you maybe if you can buy or rent the 50s version that was made in the 50s, you have Robin Caruso who's been stranded on this island for 20 something years. How did he get there? He goes to his dad. He tells his dad he wants to sell the seven seas. His dad says, son, don't do that. You need to establish a home and a family here. You need to be busy about God's work here now. But he doesn't listen. He's full of all kinds of ideas and vain imagination. And he goes out and tries to prosper himself, you know, bartering and trading. And then he ends up stranded on an island for twenty-something years. And he remembers the voice of his father, who he didn't heed. If I don't listen to my father, If I'd have just listened to my dad, I wouldn't be in this situation today. There's a great blessing attached to those young people who follow the voice and wisdom of their parents, as it is grounded in Scripture. Also, there's a great blessing for parents who train God-fearing children. Why? Because they will rise up and call their mother blessed. They will rise up and bring honor to their father by the way they conduct themselves. The home is such a blessing. Read first, again, the letters in this confession of faith of the duties and responsibilities of Christian families to their children. Very inspiring and convicting. You see, but they're still ahead of the home, and it's the husband. But if it's done right, if it's done in Christian submission, and it's done in the power of the Holy Spirit, the union and communion of love and nurture that's there and offered to the saints in that Christian home, beloved, it'll be a joy to submit. It will not be a terror. And in fact, let me say this. You know, it's not uncommon for women to come up and they say, well, my husband's a tyrant. He's a hard man. For the most part, men aren't tyrants. They're lazy. They will let the woman do it all if she'll do it. And men, we've got to fight laziness. We have got to fight allowing our wives to rise up and to do it all. We have got to step up and be men of God and be the leaders that God has called us to be in our homes. But our culture hates maturity. And I know I'm spending a lot of time on this, but I think it's important. We're at war with maturity in our culture. We want to keep them as little as we can, as long as we can. And that's why we're still in college, still trying to find our way. That's an indictment. That's not progress. So there, again, We see those roles and responsibilities, and when we submit ourselves to that, there's huge blessings. I'll tell you this, husbands and wives, listen to me. Your husbands will accomplish, you will triple his influence, wives, if you will bring yourself to be your husband's helpmate. Listen to me. Godliness will prevail in your home a hundredfold if y'all will work together. if y'all will support one another. If you will understand the role, and you will look at your husband, women, and say, husband, lead, and I'm going to support you, it will manifest righteousness a hundredfold in that household, and it will broaden your sphere of influence among your friends. They'll see a huge difference. What about the civil magistrate? Romans 13 talks about this authority, and it's a delegated authority. Do you know men do not have the right to legislate law? There's only one lawgiver and his name is Jesus. What men must do is bow a knee to Jesus's law and seek to apply it in every area of life. And if we don't do that, What are the consequences? If we don't submit to Christ's law, men will call good evil and evil good. Men will use their own vain imaginations and determine for himself what is good and what is evil. And beloved, that's why today we call the murder of helpless unborn children, a woman's reproductive right. Instead of murder. Instead of a culture of death. Instead of a woman's choice, we ought to call it murder. That's what it is. Or adultery, some type of affair or some type of midlife crisis. It's sin. It's adultery. Well, let's talk about church government. I know I've probably gone too far as an explanation, but I hope it builds up to climax to what I'm going to say. There is a church government. And this is set forth in the Bible in several different ways. Number one, in just the names of Jesus. He's the chief shepherd. OK? He's the true apostle. All right? He's Christ's minister. I mean, God's minister. So just in His own titles, there is a government. But not only that, we see in our text of Scripture that we are commanded to yield ourselves. And the Bible's not asking us to yield ourselves to nothing. but to yield ourselves to a government. Now, let me read this quote from Wilhelmus Brackle, a Dutch Reformed theologian. He says, No kingdom, republic, home, or society can exist without order. This is also true for the church. God is a God of order, and it is His will that all things be done honestly and orderly. The Lord Jesus is the only all-sufficient head of the church, her only Lord, her only Master, her only Bridegroom, her only Mediator, her only Foundation. Since the Lord Jesus is very God, He does not need help of men to gather and govern His church. As it is the Lord's common way, however, to govern and direct all things immediately, thereby ministering His wisdom and goodness, the Lord Jesus likewise does all His work in His church by the agency of men. For this purpose, He has appointed shepherds, leaders, elders, governing bodies, ministers to serve His church." Now listen, there's a phrase in there that should have caught your attention. because it's important to the limitation of obedience. And that phrase is found right in the middle of this quote where he says, since the Lord Jesus is very God, He does not need help of men to gather and govern His church. Now, do you believe that? I hope you do. You see, that falls into the definition, is He sovereign? If He is sovereign, and Matthew 28 says, all power and authority have been granted over to Him, then Christ is fully capable in and of Himself to govern, to protect, and to build His church apart from any help from any man. Now, you have to believe that because that's important. If you don't believe that, then you're going to fall into the trap of saying, you know, if Barry Bonds could just become a preacher, or some entertainer, or somebody, if they could just embrace Jesus, the gospel would cover the earth. Oh, if so-and-so would just get saved, oh, the church would grow. Beloved, you can't believe this doctrine and hold to that. Jesus is sovereign, and He doesn't need the help of men to grow His church. He's fully capable in and of Himself. Let me read to you another quote from another theologian. In the purest sense of the word, the church is a monarchy, a theocracy, a Christocracy, with Jesus Christ as King. He is the original head, the organizational head of the church, governing and regulating it inwardly by His Holy Spirit and outwardly by His Word. In the church, Christ's Word is law. Only Christ has jurisdiction in and over His church. No other person or institution has the authority of jurisdiction in Christ's church. He alone bears absolute and total government, Matthew 28. The church and all her members are to submit to the headship of Christ in absolutely everything. There's not anything that Christ asks of us that we are to say no to. Everything that Christ asks of His people, we are to do. Now, beloved, I'm going to give you three passages of Scripture. We're not going to go there. We don't have time to read them. But Hebrews chapter 2 talks about the reign of Christ in Hebrews. Matthew 28, 18 talks about The authority given to Christ and how Christ has commissioned His apostles to go preach and teach and to baptize, what? Their own whims and ways? No. He says, go teach according to all that I have instructed you to do. Go teach my law to the people. So we see that Christ's government was divinely instituted by Christ for what? The good of the church. Hebrews, I mean, Ephesians chapter four says that the reason he establishes pastors, teachers, apostles and evangelists so that you may all grow up into the unity of the faith, not be tossed to and fro, but that you would all be united in one mind, one heart, one faith and one doctrine. That's the purpose. That's the ministerial scope of pastors and teachers and elders. This lawful authority must be appointed by Christ. This is so important. Christ selects those He would have mediate His authority. Alright, so let's think about this. Do elders have any inherent authority? No. How do they have their authority? They have their authority through the name of Jesus Christ. They minister in the name of Christ. And apart from that name of Christ, they have no authority. Just as the civil magistrates and even just as the Father, He ministers to His household in the name of Christ. Okay? There is no legitimate authority outside that of Christ. But now Christ appoints men to mediate this authority. Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 says this, over which, Paul speaking to the elders, he says, over which the Holy Spirit made you overseers. How did those men become elders in the Ephesian church? The Holy Spirit appointed them to be elders in that particular body and church. A true pastor assumes no authority of his own, and it doesn't matter how gifted he is. You know, that's one of the big faults we have in the church. As soon as we see somebody that's gifted, as soon as we see somebody with a lot of influence, or somebody who can teach well and carry himself well, first thing we want to do is probably send him off to seminary, make a pastor out of him, or whatever, make an elder out of him. But the point is, is he appointed by the Holy Spirit? Because I don't care how talented, how gifted he is, if he does not have that appointment, he runs in vain. And he runs contrary to the law of Christ. Don't ever forget that. Because that's the basis of your obedience. Are these men appointed? Have these men been appointed to rule and shepherd over me by Christ? We need to understand they must be appointed. Romans 10 and verse 15 talks about how will the preacher go preach the gospel to save sinners? If he's not sent. If he hasn't been appointed. If they have not been commissioned to go preach, he doesn't preach. Listen, beloved, I don't care. You know, we have the mentality that anybody can go preach. They cannot. The Bible never teaches that. Only those who sent can go preach. If he has not been sent, he is not preaching, nor is his work blessed by Christ. Remember this, Christ doesn't need him. Right? Christ does not need him if he's sovereign. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 4 says this about Christ. It says that no one takes this honor upon himself, but they are appointed to such. Jesus did not even take the honor upon Himself to be the mediator of mankind. Who appointed Him? The Father appointed Jesus to be our mediator. That kind of blows that illustration that you hear in many evangelical churches that God looked all over heaven, And nobody rose to the occasion and Jesus stood up. He said, I'll do it. I'll go. I'll be the Savior. That's humanism. There could be no Mediator unless God appointed Him. There could be no Mediator with any authority unless God sent that Mediator. And that's what the whole New Testament, and the pouring out of the gifts, and the gifts of the apostles, and raising the dead, and doing miraculous things, all were signs and symbols and seals that Christ was this appointed Mediator. And that He was sent with authority. Even though the Jews rejected it. The Bible teaches us that Christ does not bless the ministry of those who run in vain. In fact, without Christ's divine commission, they are considered to be false teachers and prophets. And I know I just made a hard comment, but I'm going to give you a whole chapter of Scripture, a whole chapter in the Bible that lays this out clearly, and it's Jeremiah chapter 23. In Jeremiah chapter 23, let me give you the summation of the chapter. God has His prophets. God has the Levites there to teach and to preach His gospel, there to teach His doctrine, there to teach His authority. But when other men rose up in Israel and took upon themselves the duty and the responsibility to preach and teach to the people, The outcome of that preaching and teaching was devastation upon the culture and devastation upon the ministry. And that's the whole point of that chapter where God says, I am angry with those who have gone and preached without my commission. How dare you? Beloved, let that sink in because now when you hear those words and read in Matthew, Oh Jesus, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? Didn't we do all of these things in your name? And you scratched your head and go, but these were good things. Jesus goes, I don't know you because I didn't appoint you to do it. I didn't select you. I didn't choose you. I didn't send you out. You ran in vain and I do not know you. Your ministry was about you, not about me. You preached your own law, not my law. In Jeremiah 23, verses 9-12, this is the national effects this had upon the nation of Israel. Number one, they bore illegitimate power. They had no right to call people to certain obedience. God had not given them that right. Secondly, they were spiritually and morally adulterous. They were morally anemic and depraved. That is, the result and the fruit of their preaching was not holiness. It was not righteousness. And beloved, look out around us. Look out all over the land. Churches everywhere. Is holiness prevailing in America? Is righteousness established in America? No. And I'm here to tell you it's because men have ran in vain and in the own imaginations of their own minds. They don't preach the law of Christ. They preach their own whims and ways. They promote themselves and not the gospel. Apostasy prevailed because of this, that people were beginning to turn away from the covenant of grace and embracing a new gospel. The fruit of their own preaching brought judgment upon the land. Hello. What do we see around us? The Lord is allowing all of this vain preaching to bear fruit in this nation. It is it is dulling. It is bringing those who are even mature, like in Hebrews 5, it's dulling their senses to where they sit up under this mindless, moralistic gospel that does not promote the crown rights of Jesus Christ or any of these three spheres of government. Jeremiah 23 verses 13-15 are the traits of those who run without the appointment of God. He says, first of all, they're called idolaters. Why? They're not worshiping Christ. They sound like it. They look like it. Oh, they say they are, but they're self-serving themselves. They're serving themselves, their own ministry. It's not about the Church of Jesus Christ. It's about me, my own website, my own ministry, my own book. They're idolaters. And one of the things they did was they put Jesus, Jehovah, they put Jehovah God of the Old Testament on par with Baal. Have we not done that here? I mean, Muslims are brothers. The Jews are brothers. All of these false religions are serving the same Christ in different ways. We're all going to the same place. That's exactly the fruit of the preaching of men who have gone without God calling them. And you see it clearly around you. The same thing that happened in Israel is happening in our own land. The covenant is forgotten. How many Christians can you survey How many can even talk about the covenant? How many Christians do you know can even define the word covenant? Or even know that it's a Bible word? Not only that, another attribute of the fruit that these men bore, the fruit of their preaching in Israel, was they didn't like God's sovereignty. Where are we today? The sovereignty of God? You've got to be silly. Mans! Free will reigns. Man is the only determiner of his destiny. Man will determine for himself what's right and good. God's sovereignty is despised. They spread humanism instead of godliness. What about the message of those who ran without their appointment? It's human-centered and not God-centered. Let me ask you this. That's why when people come to the church, you know, they all want to let you know what they like. Oh, we're family oriented. Oh, we're end times oriented. Oh, we like social issues oriented. All those things are great and fine and good in their place, but we are not family centered church. We're not an eschatology centered church. We're not an end time centered church. We're not a social abortion issue centered church. We are a God centered church. We have one purpose, to serve and worship the living and true God, how He has laid it out for us in the Bible. We are a God-centered church, and if we are a God-centered church, we'll be concerned about abortion. We'll teach about eschatology, and we'll have strong and vibrant, passionate families. Keep the main thing the main thing, and it's God is the main thing. That's why this worship here is centered constantly around the Word of God, singing it, praying it, or hearing it. Because the words of men can't save you. God's Word is effective and effectual. A third thing of an attribute of their message, it gave a false sense of security to the people. How many people do you know, hey, I'm a Christian and you can't tell me I'm not? Oh, I know I'm going to heaven, even though their lives do not look anything or resemble anything the Bible teaches, but they've been told they're going to heaven. There's an emphasis. These false prophets emphasize God's love over His holiness. Hey, we don't change our tactics. False teachers don't change their tactics. We want to emphasize the love of God over everything else, and that's exactly in our culture today. Always God's love, love, love, love, love, love, love. But what about His holiness? What about His justice? What about His mercy? What about His goodness? God is love. He is that. You can't separate Him from that. But beloved, you preach a one-sided gospel if all you talk about is God's love and not His holiness and these other wonderful attributes that He has. The Word was a word of judgment and not a word of healing. You know, when God sends His ministers into the land, it's to bring healing. It's to call and gather those wayward sinners who have been separated from God out of that wretched, miserable kingdom and bring them into the family of God where God loves on them and God nurtures them and He takes the Word of God in His Holy Spirit and He heals and He binds up their wounds and He gives salve to the wounds. I mean, He nurtures and He cares for them. That's what true prophets, true preachers, true elders do. They create a refuge for those sinners who come into the family of God. But not these false prophets. Their gospel brought more misery and sin upon the nation, and God was judging them for it. Their message didn't bring healing. It brought wrath and judgment. God wasn't pleased with them. Go home today and read that chapter. Their word was not a word of healing, it was a word of judgment. God's anger burns against those who run without a commission. A true minister, teacher, or prophet of God has two basic things in common. Number one, he's commissioned by God. And number two, it's God's message. You don't obey the minister for the sake of the minister. You obey the minister for the sake of Christ. This is the reason the apostles and ministers are called God's ambassadors, because they were called the messengers of Jehovah. We are the ambassador of God to you. We come with God's message. We come with healing. We come with the salve of salvation. And that's where you see in Malachi 2.7, and Paul repeats that in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20. He says, unto us have been given the gospel as a ministry of reconciliation. We are the ambassadors of God to you. Now, we've talked about disobedience being limited to local congregations. Every local church has, by divine right, vested with a self-governing and self-purifying power to be exerted in accordance with the law of Christ. and that its rulers acting on its behalf and with its consent. We don't do anything that's not found in the Bible or in the Word of God. Have divine authority to admit members into membership, to edify the body, to judge the brethren, and to expel offenders. To restore the penitent and to carry out in accordance the divine directions and the general objects for which the church was founded." That's Thomas Withereau. And to carry out the sacraments of the Lord's Supper. The obedience is limited to the nature of the pastor's authority. The nature and sphere of the pastor's authority. That is, we have the authority to administer the Word of God, to minister to you the Word of Grace. That's the nature. Ministers, again, have no authority in and of themselves. They only have the right to bear the standard of authority, which is the Word of God. Now, what's the nature of this church power? The nature of this church power is called the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 16 and Matthew 18. And again, I wish we had time to go and read those passages, but write them down, log them away in your mind and go back and read them later. Let me read to you what James Bannerman says about these keys. He says, if the judgment or decision pronounced in the lawful exercise of their authority, the elders, by the church of its office-bearers be in accordance with the principles of the Word of God, that decision was before pronounced in heaven, and it is both valid and binding upon the conscience. Not only because it is consistent with God's Word, but also because it is a decision lawfully pronounced by a lawful tribunal appointed by Christ for that purpose. Now remember, we already established you've got to be appointed. There is no authority that's not an appointed authority. And he says that those who have been appointed as ministers and elders in the church have been given keys. Go read the passage. And what do these keys symbolize? Authority. Now, you can go read all kinds of commentaries and all kinds of Puritans, and they're going to tell you there are like five keys, there are three keys, there are two keys, or there are six keys, and all of that's irrelevant, because they're all saying basically the same things. I'm going to give you three keys, three categories, in which I think it's easy for us to understand the ministerial authority that elders have and that your obedience is tied to. Because that's the whole purpose of this sermon, is what's the sphere and limitations of your obedience to those men that God has placed over you? First of all, it's in the matter of doctrine. First of all, it concerns doctrine. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 13 and 14, Talk about the church being that pillar and custodian of the truth. And Paul tells Timothy, he says, Timothy, guard those things through the Holy Spirit that I have entrusted to you. Those sound principles, those sound words that I have entrusted to you, you guard and protect for the next generation. Now listen to this quote concerning responsibility the church has to doctrine. Listen to it. As the pillar and custodian of our revealed truth, the church is to be a witness, an interpreter of biblical truth to the consciences, minds, hearts, and lives of the people, both inside and outside the church. Now think about that. That is, Christ has appointed officers whereby they would what? Minister the Word of God. They ought to be grounded and mature in the Word of God. You don't choose, as Paul tells Timothy, don't be quick to lay hands on anybody, especially those who are young in the faith, who don't understand and know the Word of God. They must be grounded. That's why we had a deacon examination that lasted three hours. Now, as a deacon, if you want to be an elder, we'll be happy to examine you. But it's going to be an extensive examination. Because you stand in the place of Christ and you will give an account to Him, not the congregation, which we will talk about next week. The church has a responsibility to handle the Word of God within its members and without. As a witness and a testimony to those who are not in the church, what does the Bible say? Who is God? Who is Jesus? What is the resurrection? What is sin? How will they know if we don't tell them? So we have a responsibility to handle the Word of God within our membership and without. We need to teach people what they need to believe about God and His Word. Isn't that the summation of the catechism? Faith and practice. What about church vow number three? Let me read it to you. Do you now resolve and promise in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ? How are you going to live as a follower of Christ if you don't know how and what God expects? So there's this ministry of the Word that we must all endeavor to conform to. Second key is the matters of worship. These are the spheres of authority the ministers have, the matters of worship. The elders only have authority to affect Christ's law and nothing else in worship. And we cannot coerce, manipulate, or by force make anyone obey God's Word or worship according to the Bible. I don't even like asking people to join Zion. You need to be led by the Spirit of God that this is where God wants you. Not because any man or any family says, hey, you need to join Zion Presbyterian Church. No, you need to be where God wants you. And where God will use you, your gifts and your graces in that body. Elders have no right to manipulate or force anybody to obey anything. We have a sphere of ministry of grace and mercy. Number one, the church is commissioned to preserve from generation to generation the public worship of God according to the way prescribed in His Word. We are not to allow a culture dictate how we worship. And ministers, you're not the guardians of that. Ministers are. It is the job of the ministers, the elders, to preserve the true worship of God for your children and grandchildren, so that no vain imaginations permeate that worship, so that in the next two generations it's diluted and less effectual. Secondly, the church is obligated from generation to generation to observe the Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath as prescribed in His Word. And we've talked about this constantly, but beloved, the Bible teaches that there is a day that belongs to Christ by virtue of His being raised from the dead and seated at God's right hand. That's why we don't celebrate Easter. We celebrate the resurrected, exalted Lord 52 times a year. We don't wait for one holiday. We do it every Sunday. We celebrate the power reigning Jesus. And I hope that's what it is to you is a celebration. We need to pass on the importance of the Lord's Day from one generation to the next, and that's the sphere and responsibility of the elders, to train families also to teach their children why it's important. Thirdly, that the church has the duty to maintain the office of minister of the worship from generation to generation as God Himself has prescribed in His Word. Now, this is a very important paragraph. to preserve the office of minister. You say, well, sure. Well, look around. What are we seeing today? What is the fruit of the preaching of those men who have gone without the commission of Christ? I mean, they want to go start a new church. They get mad in the church they're in. They go out and they start a Bible study, and they start a church, and God's not called them to do it. They're not gifted to do it. They don't have the authority to do it, and yet there's another church. They're happening every day in Macon, Georgia. And they run in vain, and God's not going to bless them. But he says that we must preserve the office of minister. Why? Because everybody's baptizing everybody. Oh, they're doing the Lord's Supper with crackers and coke and pizza. Oh, they're doing the Lord's Supper, anybody that wants to come up and do the Lord's Supper. There's no ministerial office, and when you don't maintain the integrity of the ministerial appointed office of Christ, you lose Christ! It's that important! Now, beloved, you've got to be persuaded in your heart and mind that this is the truth. Or you've got to find another gospel. You're going to have to find another way. That God has appointed His ministers whereby they are to guard and preserve the purity of worship and doctrine. The church has the authority to minister the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper as prescribed in His Word. We don't let people come up in the church and say, you know, I think this would be a great way to do the Lord's Supper. Oh, I think this would be a fantastic way to do baptism. You know, we could show videos, we could hand out gifts, we could give out leather, you know, pouches with names. We could do all this stuff, but see, the point is, it's a Christ church, and He has prescribed how He wants His ministers to do such things. So, if you ever come up and you suggest those kinds of things, we will lovingly, lovingly and gently say thank you for your comments and opinions, but Christ, It's able and capable of ruling and reigning in the church. And I know you mean well. I know you do. But we all got to grow, right? We've all got to learn. Now, what about matters of discipline? This is the third key. Matters of discipline. This is something that many people don't know that much about. The church has the duty and authority to discipline its members while they remain under their authority. Now, what is the order of discipline? Let me say this about discipline. Discipline is a derivative of the word disciple. If you are a disciple, you are under discipline. If you are being discipled, you are being disciplined. That is everything God has put in your life. Everything God is using to discipline you into a more godly husband, father, man, woman, mother, child, young person, young adult. So the first order of discipline is the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Why? Because that's where the Holy Spirit binds your conscience. But when you begin neglecting that, as Israelites did, you begin hardening your heart, you harden your conscience, and you begin down that road of apostasy. So the first line of discipline is not to be barred from the table. It starts under the preaching of the Word of God. This morning, you are under the discipline of the precious Lord Jesus. And you ought to be thankful. You ought to be so thankful that Jesus loves you enough to place you under the care and ministry of the Word of Grace, because if it were not for His grace, you'd be out doing whatever you want to do. How blessed is it to be under the ministry of the Word of God? Second is exhortation. You're exhorted to obey. You're encouraged to obey the Word of God. Thirdly, admonishment. Fourthly, rebuke. I don't think I need to explain these. I think they're self-explanatory. Fifthly, that is, if you're exhorted to obey and you don't, and your lifestyle does not reflect that vow, as you resolve to live as a follower of Jesus Christ, and you're admonished and you're rebuked over a series of times, then we come to you and then we bar you from the means of grace. That's part of those keys. Keys do what? Keys lock up and they unlock. The ministers have the authority to lock away a member from the means of grace and to unlock that member so that he may partake of the means of grace. Why is that so important? Because if you understand the means of grace lead to salvation. Do you want to be locked out of salvation? Do you want to be locked away from those means by which God has prescribed to preserve you and to save your soul? No. That's why the Catholic Church would go into a city. If they would not obey the dictates of the church, they would go in and lock the doors of the church. And the people would stand outside and they would cry and they would wail and they would beat on the door. Why? Because they had been taught that in the church is salvation. And by locking up the doors of the church, they were saying, we have locked you out of the kingdom of heaven. Now, brothers and sisters, we don't have a a Catholic view of that, but we need to have a better view of that. We need to understand that in the church, the confession says is the ordinary means of salvation. Here is where Christ ministers and loves on you in a way that he does not anywhere else. Remember, the psalm says it's the courts of the Lord the Lord loves. It's his house that he loves above all things. So there is the barring from the Lord's supper. And then sixthly, if none of that works, there is to be excommunicated out of the fellowship of the saints and the means of grace, and to be considered a reprobate. And then seventhly, though, there is the receiving of those who come back to the church. There is a receiving of those who prove themselves to be repented of their sins, and they are received with open arms back into the love and the grace of the church. And the church has no authority to keep that person away from the means of grace. Because we are stewards of Christ's church. It's not our church. We don't have the right to allow our own personal peeves to keep people out of the church. And beloved, the church has no authority to fine. If you don't come to church, it'll cost you twenty bucks. Can't beat you, even though I thought about it sometime. I'm glad we can laugh. The church can't imprison you, the church cannot impose any physical suffering, and the church cannot kill you. That's outside their sphere of authority and influence and nature of their government. The church can admonish, exhort, rebuke, encourage, teach, and instruct you in the ways of faith so that you will live as Christ wants you to live. And if you choose not to be a follower of Christ, the church elders have the authority to say, we do not believe your testimony to be credible. And when they do that, and it's lawful, it's binding in heaven. Now, all the members of Zion took vows. And I brought a paper, and I'm not sure where it is. It's back there. Oh, it's back there. I brought a paper, Robert Shaw's Commentary on Church Vows, on the Confession of Faith on Vows and Oaths. You need to read it. I've got it enough for everybody. All the teenage boys and girls who can read need to read that paper, and I'm going to bring one on the conscience tonight. Beloved, you're only Your limitations of obedience is in the sphere of grace. We can't tell you what to wear, even though we can tell you to be modest. We can't tell you what to eat, even though it probably wouldn't be good for you to eat junk food all the time, but that's your choice. You see, the ministry of the elders and ministers is a ministry of grace. Let's pray. Father, we praise your name for your spirit. Sending us the comforter. Sending us your word of grace. Apply it to our lives and heart. Help us to be strong in our faith. Help this church pass down worship, discipline, and doctrine to the next generation. And we pray, Lord, that the next generation would be a bright, bright, bright star in our culture. Lord, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let us stand and sing the glory of Patra.