Well, it is so good to get to
be here this morning with you, and it says so much about you
that you would arise early and come to a men's gathering like
this to have encouragement in the Lord. And I know what a steady
diet of the Word of God you receive from this place, and yet you
still want more. So, maybe you have holes in your
soul and it's just leaking out of you faster than it's coming
in. I don't know, but such an encouragement to be able to spend
this time with you. I have a group like this in my
church that I meet with every Friday morning, the men, and
I tell you, for me, it is the most impactful time that I have
all week, I guess, except for the Sunday morning preaching.
And so, I just want to underscore what you're doing and the high
value of a time like this as men to come together. And there
is a certain locker room dynamic that happens in here where it's
just the men on the team together. And so, if I do a headbutt here
with you in just a second, it's in love, okay? It's in love. And so, thank you, Bruce, for
that introduction. The last verse is ringing in
my ear, the way of the wicked shall perish as I walk up here.
So, thank you for that devotional Scripture reading. And, of course,
it's good to be with my good friend, Rick Holland. He was
just in our church a week ago preaching for us. And so, thank
you for lending Rick to us. He just knocked it out of the
ballpark. We're still looking for the balls that he hit. He went so deep. And our whole
church, we're naming our children now Rick at our church. And so, we just love him to death. He's kind of our church mascot
now. So, he's on our letterhead and we just love Rick. 23 Rick Holland fans can't be
all wrong, so it's just... So for our time this morning,
if you've got your Bible, I trust that you do, turn with me to
the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13. And I want to speak
to you this morning on spiritual leadership and the effect of
spiritual leadership on your life. One reason why you need
to be closely connected to this fellowship and to this church
is for the shepherding influence of spiritual leaders in your
life. Unfortunately, we live in a day
and an age in which many men have become isolated islands
unto themselves in an ocean of the marketplace and busy activities
and remain disconnected. And many times their wives have
more fellowship with other ladies in the church than the men have
with the men. And I just want to reinforce
to you how critically important it is for the weight of spiritual
influence through spiritual leadership to be brought to bear upon your
life. It's not enough just to hear
the truth. You could sit home and just listen
to it on a tape. You need other lives to model
for you before your watching eyes what it is to to walk with
the Lord and to live the Christian life as God has designed. Just by way of illustration,
my boys, we're a golfing family. My twin boys have played for
the Master's College here on the golf team, and I'm grooming
another headed that way. Hopefully, either that or quarterback
for Southern Cal, be one of the two. And growing up, teaching
my boys how to play golf, bought a video by Jack Nicklaus entitled,
Golf My Way. And that is required watching
at the Lawson house. And my boys have just grown up
watching someone else hit a golf ball and it becomes just a part
of your processing on the inside, what it looks like, what it...to
see someone do what you desire to do on the golf course. Well, exponentially more so,
how much more important it is in the Christian life that you
have mentors and you have examples and you have men who are out
ahead of you, whom you are following and coming under their influence,
who are modeling and pattern...are being a pattern for you in the
Christian walk. And so, how important it is to
be a part of a vibrant church like this, and not just to show
up on Sunday and to get the message and then to leave powerful as
the message is, but also for there to be the example of godly
men in your life that you desire to emulate and to follow. So
my heart this morning is drawn to Hebrews chapter 13. And I want to read verses 7 through
9. It's difficult in making choices on what to bring in a morning
like this, but if we could focus our time this morning on these
few verses, I think we will be profited. The Word of God says
in Hebrews 13, verse 7, remember those who led you. Remember those
who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you. Considering the
result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday and today, yes, and forever. Do not be carried
away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart
to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those
who were so occupied were not benefited. I want to begin by
saying to you that no church can be any stronger than the
spiritual maturity of its leaders. And it's very difficult for any
individual Christian to be any stronger than the spiritual maturity
of its leaders. As its spiritual leadership goes,
so goes any church. It starts at the top. It's a
trickle-down effect. Godly leaders bring a godly influence. upon the lives of the people
under their ministry, and they become a source of immeasurable
blessing upon the flock. But on the other hand, immature
leaders and carnal leaders will bring the very same influence
upon those under them. There will be the passing down
of a carnal influence or an immature influence. And so it's vitally
important who your leaders are, who are your shepherds, who your
elders are, who your pastors are. and the teachers of the
Word of God. As a church's leadership goes,
so inevitably goes the church. Spiritual leadership produces
spiritual men, and a carnal leadership produces carnal men. Your pastor, teacher John MacArthur
has written, quote, to put it simply, leadership is influence. The ideal leader is someone whose
life and character motivate people to follow. The best kind of leadership
derives its authority first from the force of a righteous example. I like the way he puts that.
Leadership is influence, and it is the force of a righteous
example that is exerted on the lives of others that compel them
and motivate them to want to live a righteous life. John goes
on to say, The best kind of leadership derives its authority first from
the force of a righteous example and not merely from the power
of prestige, personality, or position. By contrast, much of
the world's leadership is nothing but manipulation of people by
threats and rewards. That is not true leadership,
John says. It is exploitation. Real leadership
seeks to motivate people from the inside by an appeal to the
heart, not by external pressure and coercion. For all those reasons,
leadership is not about style or technique as much as it is
about character." So that's what all of us need, myself included. There's none of us who do not
come under the purview of this. We all need to have the force
of righteous examples brought to bear upon our lives that motivate
us to want to embrace the truth and to live the truth and be
sold out to the truth because of the spiritual leaders who
are influencing us. I could sum it up this way. Spiritual
leadership then is the godly character of a godly life. that
is influencing people under them to be more godly. That's why
these verses in Hebrews 13 about spiritual leadership in the church
is so important to the life of every believer. And specifically,
that would be you here today. These verses, verses seven through
nine, acknowledge and reinforce the powerful effect of spiritual
leadership in your life. and the spiritual vitality of
your walk with the Lord is in part influenced by your spiritual
leaders. What verse seven is saying, look
at it again. Remember those who led you, who
spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of
their conduct, imitate their faith. What verse seven is saying
is you need to remember your spiritual leaders and call them
to mind. You need to remember the word
of God that they spoke to you and you need to remember their
lives and how they modeled the word of God. And you need to
imitate them. Now, verse eight is often ripped
out of context. Look at it again. Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday and today. Yes. And forever. What verse
eight is saying in context is this. If one of your leaders
passes off the scene, the Lord remains the same. And the same
Lord who was with your previous leadership yesterday is with
your new leaders today and will be with your future leaders tomorrow. And while there may be a changing
of the guard of leadership in a church, it is the the church
belongs to the Lord and the Lord is the head. And he is the same
yesterday, today and forever. The Lord will speak with the
same power through the same book and give the same salvation today
as he did yesterday and shall tomorrow. Then verse nine says
you need to resist carnal leadership who bring you strange doctrines. Let's look a little bit more
carefully at these verses this morning. And I believe all Scripture
is profitable and will sanctify us today. If you're jotting down
an outline, in verse 7, the summary thought here, number one, remember
your spiritual leaders. That's the exhortation to us.
Remember those who led you. According to this text, spiritual
leadership, spiritual leaders, are to have a very important
role in your spiritual life. Remember those who led you. The
those obviously refer to spiritual leaders. That's a self-apparent
truth. Remember those who led you. He's
referring to spiritual leadership, although not stated. Implicitly,
this would refer to the pastors and elders of this Jewish community
that gathered together And it was these men who provided leadership
for this congregation. And so he says, you need to keep
them at the forefront of your life as you live the Christian
life. You need to remember them. I would remind you, the book
of Hebrews is mainly doctrinal. The applicational section is
very minimal. It's very short. It is a very
exhaustive, doctrinal, theological treatment of the supremacy and
the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what little exhortation
there is and what little application there is comes at the end of
this letter. And the words and the verses
are very strategic, whatever is put here. And out of all the
things that he could have brought this influence, leadership is
at the top of the list. In fact, look later at verse
17. 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." He brings the subject back up again. He doesn't have
many words to mince, and he is drawn again to the focus of spiritual
leadership and its powerful effect upon the spiritual vitality of
those who are in the flock. Look at verse 24. Greet all your
leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. So this is a subject of major
importance to the writer of Hebrews. Now, he says, remember those
who led you when he says, remember, John Owen and his exhaustive
commentary said on Hebrews writes this when he says, remember,
quote, Think of their work in preaching the word of God and
follow and imitate them in their faith. So for the good of your
spiritual life, the author of Hebrews writes, keep the teaching
and godly their teaching and godly living ever before you. Remember what they taught you.
Remember what they held to. Remember how they live. Remember
their convictions. Remember their integrity. Remember
their humility. Remember their example. And your spiritual life will
be positioned and well motivated to be on right course. I want
to draw something to your attention in verse seven. The spiritual
leaders spoken of here, I think, are no longer on the scene. I
think that they have they are dead. They have passed away.
And quite possibly, these leaders that they are told to remember
have been martyred for their faith, which adds to the weightiness
of why you should remember them. These were valiant warriors for
the Lord. These were men who sealed their
testimony with their own life. Let me give you just some clues
in this text. as to why he's not talking about
present leaders, but past men in your life who have influenced
you, first of all, because it says, remember, the clear implication
here is that your mind is to go to the past. Same word that's
used in First Corinthians 11, Rick, when you preached at our
church on remembering the Lord and the Lord's Supper. When you
come to the Lord's Supper, you're to look back 2000 years to the
past, to the great leader of the church, the Lord. Jesus Christ. Believe this is what he is saying
here. You need to remember and look back to those influences
that have been brought to bear upon your spiritual life. All
of us are the sum total of various influences that God has sovereignly
placed in our lives in the past. And we need to remember what
was profitable from those examples. Also, in verse seven, he uses
the past tense. Remember those who led you past
tense, who spoke the word of God doesn't say who are speaking
the word of God to you. It does not say who are leading
you right now. But in the past, those men who
have spoken into your lives and who have brought the word of
God to bear upon your life, do not forget these men who have
poured themselves into your life. Also, it's contrasted in verse
17 with the present tense. As he speaks of present leaders,
he says, obey your leaders and submit to them these who are
in your life right now. But also the context here is
of persecution. Look at verses two and three.
In fact, let me just begin in verse one, let love of the brethren
continue. And now he gives some specific
examples. Verse one is the is the topic
sentence, it is the umbrella over the whole. And now in verses
two and three, really all the way down into verse four, he
gives some subcategories of how we are to love the brethren,
how we are to put our love into action. And he says in verse
two, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some
have entertained angels without knowing it. These strangers,
I believe, without having the time this morning to lay the
whole context of the book of Hebrews for you, I believe these
strangers are those who in this generation have stood for the
truth of Christianity, who have preached the truth, who have
taught the truth, as well as men in the church who have lived
the truth, and they have literally been so persecuted and so opposed
for their faith that they have been run out of town, and they
have been flushed out of town, and they have had their possessions
taken, and they have lost their job, and they have lost their
home, and they have had to run to other towns. And as they come
into your town as strangers, you need to show them hospitality. These are valiant men who have
upheld the standard of sound words. Bring them into your home,
shower your love upon them as they find themselves in this
critical hour. And out of some of these, the authorities will
still come into your home and will arrest them and pull them
out of the grip of your love and will take them off to prison. And when they are taken to prison,
you go to prison and you love on them in prison because they
are there for the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You be
willing to be identified with these great men who are praying
and paying an enormous price and many of whom will be martyred
for the faith. And so look at verse three. Remember
the prisoners. And this is not so much talking
about starting a prison ministry. We have a prison ministry in
our church. There is a place for that. We need to preach the
gospel to every living soul on the planet, even those in prison. But the reference here is to
those brothers in the faith who, because of their commitment to
the gospel of Jesus Christ, are suffering persecution in prison. You need to go stand with them
in prison so that you can encourage them in their testimony before
the authorities. So verse three, remember the
prisoners as those in prison with them. and those who are
ill-treated since yourselves also are in the body. And the
reason I bring that up is I believe in verse 7 when he says, remember
those who led you. There is a connection between
verses 2 and 3 and verse 7. Many of these in the past who
have pastored you and shepherded you are those who have been run
out of town and who are in other cities now and who prayerfully
will be taken in. Some of them will be captured,
arrested and put into prison. Don't you forget the example
of their life. They are your real heroes. You
draw up close to them in your memory and what they were willing
to have bold convictions for and what they were willing to
stand up for in the marketplace and in the public arena. You
remember these valiant warriors of the kingdom of heaven. You need some men like this in
your life who dominate your mind, who sit on your shoulder and
who speak into your ear as you live your Christian life. I've
thought about this in my life. Pastors that I've had in the
past. I did not grow up in a church like this, where the Word of
God was expounded. It wasn't until I was in college
that I ever heard someone say, take your Bibles and turn with
me and direct me to a text. I came to Christ as a young boy
at home. My father led me to Christ as
a young boy. Week after week, I went to a
church that did not preach and teach the Word of God. I mean, this is like Christian
Disneyland to me here. You got to be kidding me. I mean,
you could come back on Sunday night and hear it again. Are
you serious? You wouldn't come because of,
like, traffic or something like that? Are you kidding me? I'd
crawl to hear this. I remember when I was in college,
a man named Adrian Rogers, who is preached here, was my pastor. And I remember I was going to
live in Dallas, Texas, and I visited that church. And what I heard
was like nothing I'd ever heard in my life. For the first time,
I heard the truth preached by a man who was filled with the
Holy Spirit of God. And it was like God was grabbing
me by the lapels every Sunday and pulling me up. I went and
bought a new set of clothes and just stayed. found a job, just
stayed. At that time in my life, I could
have come under any influence, I suppose, but in the sovereignty
of God, He put me under the influence of a man who believed in the
inerrancy and the authority and the infallibility of the Word
of God. And every time he stepped into the pulpit, I want to tell
you, it was a come-to-Jesus meeting. It was an event because God showed
up. Because the power of the Word
of God was unleashed. And I tell you, that influence
is written on my heart. I can't tell you. I can't tell
you how many times my wife will say to me when someone calls
me and I maybe haven't given as much attention to that person,
remember Adrian Rogers, how kind and gracious he was. to always
make time for you. That example screams in my ear
every day. Do you have some men in your
past that just stand out like that, that you literally wear
their influence? I was so energized as I sat under
his preaching, I literally could barely sit still. I sat in the
middle of the front row. Sunday morning, Sunday night,
and Wednesday night. I began to pray that he'd be
sick, and they would say, is there someone here who could
stand up and bring the message? And I would always in my mind
have a message ready, which would be nothing more than just his
notes from another passage, until I couldn't stand it any longer
and I had to go to seminary. Everything I owned, I put in
a Volkswagen bug. I had $100 in my pocket and literally
just drove off to seminary, had no idea where I'd live, I didn't
know anything. I just knew that I had to do
what this man was modeling before my eyes. The four years I was
in seminary, actually five years, a man named W.A. Criswell was
my pastor. I know when John, for his 35th
anniversary here at Grace, the elders He was the one man who
would have the stature to be able to preach John MacArthur's
35th anniversary. I want you to know they picked
my pastor to come in and preach. And for those five years, Sunday
after Sunday after Sunday, I saw this man so committed to the
Word of God. I saw him weep in the pulpit.
I saw him weep for souls to be saved. I saw him bring heaven
down with the power of the preaching of the Word of God. I remember
when he turned 80, I went back one Sunday to visit. He's 80
years old. He said, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Romans chapter 1 verse 1, and he was announcing
he was starting a new series on Romans. He said, Paul, a bondservant
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he said what John said on
his tape. Now, stop right here. preach the whole rest of that
message on the first part of Romans 1 verse 1 to start a new
series at age 80. I got that tape and listened
to it many times, and I noticed that every time he said the name
Jesus Christ, there was a crack in his voice. As he would later say, he never
felt so close to the Lord as when he stood in the pulpit to
preach. the Word of God with an open Bible. I tell you, examples
like that just sit on my shoulders and they massage my heart and
they influence my life. You need some men like that,
that you can call to the forefront of your mind men who have influenced
you for spiritual good. I want to tell you, even take
this back further, We have the advantage now in the 21st century. They had one generation to look
back upon. We are in a very ideal situation. We have 21 centuries to look
back upon. Rick Holland just came and stayed
with us and slept in my study, which is also a guest bedroom.
You walk up the stairs to go up into my study. I've got some
pictures. that hang. Great men of the faith. They're not there because I idolize
these men, they're there because I revere these men and I want
my life to follow their example. You go up the stairs, the first
thing I see is a picture of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. It was painted
for me by a man in our church, previous church, in Little Rock
during a time when I was being greatly opposed for preaching
the sovereignty of God and salvation. This dear brother painted a picture
of Spurgeon to remind me. The great men who've gone before
me and who have upheld sound doctrine. And sound words. Every time I walk into my study.
Spurgeon. Staring me in the eyes. You follow
my example. You know, Spurgeon died of a
broken heart. The downgrade controversy as he stood for the word of God. You continue to walk up, I have
two pictures in the stairwell of James Montgomery Boyce. You
go over to the Gray Shack, you buy every book you can by James
Montgomery Boyce. Other than John MacArthur, I
believe he's the greatest preacher of the 20th century. Verse by
verse, by verse, by verse. When I was a young man, I wrote
him a letter just at a seminary, asked if he would come preach.
I remember the day that letter came. I really thought everybody
else on staff was playing a joke on me. I thought they, with a
Xerox machine, had made a letter and imposed his name on it. He said, no, I'm going to come
to your church and preach the word of God. So he came and preached
through Romans. Came back again, finished up
Romans. I'll never forget flying to Philadelphia,
going into 10th Presbyterian Church on a Sunday night and
hearing him preach one verse, Romans 11, 26, and all Israel
shall be saved. Next day, he took me to lunch,
downtown Philadelphia, men's club, and just talked about the
things of the Lord. the influence of these men from
the past, boys now in heaven, Spurgeon in heaven. You come
up into my study and I have intentionally put and framed pictures of great
men from the past. Two years ago, I sold every golf
club I own, which for me was radical revival. They put them
on eBay. I sold everything that I had.
I just cleaned out the closet. I took the money to buy a frame,
to frame a picture of Jonathan Edwards. I called the library
at Yale. They were so kind. They literally took the original
portrait of Jonathan Edwards off the wall. They laid it on
the floor. A lady got a ladder, crawled
up the ladder and took a picture of it. As far as I know, I have the
only life-size replica. You can see the mold even on
my picture. That hangs in my office. Jonathan
Edwards looks over my shoulder every sermon I write, every text
I study. I have pictures of Luther, Calvin. I have the Reformers. I have
Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, the stalwarts of the Christian
faith. And it's not because I idolize
these men. It's because I want to remember
those who have led me even through the written page, who have spoken
the word of God to me. I want to imitate their convictions. I want to imitate their priorities. I was eating lunch not long ago
with a man. He's the president of a seminary. W.A. Criswell had just died.
I asked him this question. I said, so where are preachers
like this today? Who at age 80 are announcing
their new series, where are men who have marked their times in
the pulpit?" I said, what's missing? And he gave me one word. I want
you to hear this word. He said, gravitas, weightiness. We have too many
silly men today as if they fell off a set of hee-haw. Where are the men who have the
eternal weight of glory resting upon their shoulders, who are
willing to die for the truth? This is my preaching Bible that
I preach out of. I travel with it. In the front
of my Bible, I mentioned this in the board meeting not long
ago at Master's Seminary. And I was sitting on the platform
with your pastor. I was the speaker at graduation
last year for the college. He said, let me see that picture
in your Bible. So I handed it to him. Every time I open my
Bible, there's a picture of John Rogers. John Rogers is the first
martyr to be put to death at the stake by Bloody Mary. This
is a hero in the faith. You go over to Grace Book Shack
and you purchase Light from Old Paths by J.C. Ryle. Read about the men who were burned
at the stake for their commitment to the Word of God. And it has
a way of maturing you. It has a way of putting things
in right priority. We get so hung out on nothing
things. And then you read about men who
were burned at the stake over the Lord's Supper. And what they
said as they were being led to the stake. The French ambassador
was there that day at Smithfield when John Rogers was martyred. And he wrote back to the king
of France. that this man looked so composed
as he went to the stake, it was as if it was his wedding day. I want men like this to shape
me and to mold me and to mark me. I want something of their
convictions. I want something of their priorities. I want to be raised above this
generation. I don't want to be the product
of this trivial, shallow, evil and adulterous generation. I
love your pastor who says, we're not trying to become like the
world here. We're trying to be as set apart
from this generation as we know how to be. We want to be like
heaven, not earth. We want to be like those who
have gone before us. I want you to know this baton
has been passed down from generation to generation and it's now put
in our hands and it's been put into your hand if you're a believer
in Jesus Christ. And I want you to know there's
blood on this baton and there's sweat on this baton. And men
have paid an enormous price to advance the gospel to our generation. And no matter what you do, no
matter where God has called you to serve, And for most of you
in the marketplace, that is a vocational call from God. And you are God's
ambassador there and you are God's representative. And God
has a has a place for you in this church that is so strategic
and is so important. And there are others who are
coming in behind you. And God must raise up out of
this group a future generation of leaders for Grace Community
Church. so that you can pass this baton
down to those who follow after you." That's what he is saying
in verse 7. Remember those who in the past,
who have led you, who have paid the ultimate price for their
faith in the Lord, who were some of these strangers and some of
these prisoners, and some who have already been martyred. You
remember their their convictions and what they stood for and let
that imprint be upon your soul and don't ever forget it. Remember
your spiritual leaders. As I was reading John MacArthur's
book on spiritual leadership. He makes mention of the importance
of reading Christian biography. Let me read this. John writes, from the time I
was in junior high school, I have devoured various biographies
of great Christian leaders, eminent preachers, distinguished pastors,
prominent missionaries, and other heroes of the faith. Their lives
fascinate and challenge me. I'm strongly motivated by men
and women who have served Christ well. You want to know what makes
John MacArthur tick? You want to know what makes him
such a driver? Number one, it is the glory of
God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. But number two, he has been greatly influenced
by the reading of Christian biography. I was just here for the Resolve
conference, and we had a Q&A with Rick that he led. And John
made mention of recently rereading a second time the biography of
William Tyndale. I was put out of my church three
years ago for preaching the Word of God. I remember calling John
on the phone and John getting on the phone
and Patricia getting on the phone to encourage me. You know what
John did to encourage me? He said, oh, let me go get you
the biography of William Tyndale. So I had my own Grace to You
program on the phone. John said, let me read you some
paragraphs that I can't even read publicly from the pulpit
of grace because there's too much profanity in it of what
they called Tyndale for translating the scripture into the English
language, and he read paragraph after paragraph after paragraph
to me. To put steel into my spiritual
backbone. But you hold fast to the word
of God. What did he use to motivate me?
What was motivating his own heart to hold the torch high here?
At that time, the biography of William Tyndale. Their lives fascinate and challenge
me. I'm strongly motivated by men
and women who have served Christ well." John goes on to say, their
stories have been a powerful catalyst for me to move ahead
in my own spiritual walk. Collectively, they have influenced
me as much as any living, breathing influence I have ever been exposed
to. Of course, I am the sum of many
influences. This is just peeling back the
layer of your pastor's heart as he says this. I am the sum
of many influences, not the least of which would include my father's
godly example as a pastor and preacher of the word, my mother's
pattern of prayer and holy living, and many other personal spiritual
mentors who have taught me But I cannot discount the profound
impact on my life that has come from biographies written about
people I will never meet face-to-face this side of heaven. I have always
found Christian biography to be inherently practical. A book
that expounds the history or career of a noble Christian,
now listen to this, doesn't need to be enhanced with explicit
how-to steps. or imperatives and admonitions
directed at the reader. We live in a generation of how-to
sermons. The testimony of a godly life
by itself is sufficient to motivate. I remember one time John asked
me, he said, how did you learn how to preach? I said, I didn't
learn how to preach in preaching class. I learned how to preach
by reading the sermons of the greatest preachers in the world.
But more than that, strangely enough, I've learned how to preach
by reading about their lives because it was as much who they
were that stood in the pulpit as what they said. John Piper has said, my best
friends are dead men. By that, what he means, there
is a fellowship of motivation in his heart from other godly
men. I've got five minutes. Look at
verse 8. It's killing me to pass over the rest of verse 7. Look
at verse 8. I say this to encourage you. Jesus Christ is the same. Yesterday
and today, yes, and forever. In real estate, there are three
important things. You know what that is. Location,
location, location. In hermeneutics, the science
of interpretation, there are many laws of hermeneutics, but
at the top of the list is location, location, location. We refer
to it as context. Look at verse 8 in its context,
in its location at the corner of Main and Broadway here. What
verse 8 is saying is, human leaders come and go, but there is one
leader who remains the same, Jesus Christ, the sovereign head
of the church. He is saying that our Lord is
the unchanging factor in the church, in the influence, that
is brought to bear upon the lives of the congregation. When he
says Jesus Christ is the same, he is saying that this to be
a source of great encouragement and strength to them, that it
is his power is the same to build the church. His word is the same
to guide the church. His spirit is the same to empower
and revive the church. His grace is the same to add
to the church. His mercy is the same to comfort
the church. And no matter what the changing
circumstances are that surround a congregation and surround a
city in which they find themselves, Jesus Christ is this one constant. And even as your leaders who
led you and who spoke the word of God to you have been removed
from you by his providence, he nevertheless remains with you,
Jesus Christ, and he is the same. Notice the designation yesterday,
today and forever. Yesterday points to the past,
today to the present, forever, forever to the future. And what
the author is saying is this. The same Jesus who was with your
leaders yesterday is with your leaders today and will be with
those leaders who follow after them tomorrow for your spiritual
good. Yesterday, Jesus was with the
fathers. Today, he is with your present
leaders. And forever, until Christ comes
back, he will be with your posterity. That is what he is saying here. And so for every Moses who comes
to the end of his ministry, God always has a Joshua to be raised
up, to advance them into the promised land. And for every
Stephen who dies a martyr's death, there is a Saul of Tarsus who
is standing in the crowd, who is watching this, who will be
sovereignly brought to God, to himself, to take Stephen's place. And for every apostle Paul who
is imprisoned and beheaded, there is a young Timothy to pick up
the baton and run the next race, the next leg of this race. And
for every John Calvin who passes off the scene, there is a John
Knox sitting at his feet. listening and learning and ready
to step forward to carry the Reformation to the next generation.
And for every Jonathan Edwards who preaches the word of God,
there is a David Brainerd is brought into his house, who is
nurse back to health, who then goes to the mission field to
reach Indians with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
is faithful to his church. He is the same yesterday, today
and forever. And though your leaders who spoke
the Word of God to you, some of them have even been removed
from you because of their stand, the Lord will be faithful to
raise up other godly men to sustain the ministry for it is His church. I've never had the privilege
of going to London. I wish that I could because so
many of my heroes lived and died there. I would love to go to
Bunhill Field where they buried the Puritans outside the city
limits in order to disgrace them and not even allow them to be
buried inside the city limits. I would like to just go stand
with those men. I would love to go to Westminster
Abbey. And there in Westminster Abbey is buried some of the greatest
men in the history of England. The great poets, great writers,
statesmen. David Livingston's buried in
Westminster Abbey. He died on the mission field
in Africa. You know the story how they brought
his body all the way back to England so he could be buried
in Westminster Abbey. And before they put him in the
coffin in Africa, the natives took a knife and plunged it into
his chest and cut out his heart. and said, we will bury his heart
here in Africa, for this is where his heart was. When you walk into Westminster
Abbey, I'm told, amidst this panoply of great leaders that
call out over the centuries, when you walk into the vestibule,
there on the floor are just two words. Remember Churchill. That man who stood alone, who had the audacity to stand
up to Hitler when France was caving in, tripping over their
skirts. Churchill got on the BBC and
said, we will fight them in the air. We will fight them in the
streets. We will fight them on the water. We will fight them
on the beaches. We will never, never, never surrender. And a hundred years from now,
when England looks back upon this generation, may they say
it was their finest hour. Remember Churchill. His courage. his convictions, his audacity, who could give a rip about public
opinion polls. That's what this text is saying. You remember those who led you,
who spoke the Word of God to you, and you draw the best of
how they emulated everything are many of the things that you
need to be. And a hundred years from now, may people say of your
life, it was your finest hour as you stood for Christ in this
generation. The powerful effect of spiritual
leadership may it be brought to bear in full measure upon
your life. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these men
who are valiant warriors for your kingdom, who have been so
well taught in the Word. God, I ask that you would open
the windows of heaven and pour out your blessing upon these
men. May they know what is the height
and depth and breadth and length of your love for them in Christ.
And I pray, God, that you would call them to shake off any mediocrity
and spiritual things and be so distinct in this hour that they
would draw upon the example of godly men who have gone before
them, pastors in their own lives from the past, a godly father
like mine who led me to faith in Christ. And Lord, I pray even
the voices from church history would speak down through the
corridor of time into their lives and elicit and draw out the very
best from these men. May they be highly motivated
to be pacesetters in this church. And may you support and encourage
the elders and pastors who are present here this morning. And
may you strengthen the others who are not here and who serve
so faithfully. And may you raise up from these
men a future generation of elders and even pastors for this church.
And we base this upon the fact that Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.