Ephesians chapter four. We'll
read this verse. It's kind of been the backdrop
verse for our sub-study in our overall study of the church,
Christ's church or Christ's ecclesia. We've been looking at the officers
of the church, the officers of the church. And we kind of did
a general look at these gifts that the Lord has given to the
local church. here in Ephesians, and we've
seen primarily that the only offices that are left in the
local church is the office of pastor and deacon, but yet we've,
let's just go ahead and read the verse here, and then we'll
kind of get into it. I don't wanna recap too much,
but Ephesians chapter four, starting in verse eight, it says, wherefore
he saith, when he ascended up on high, He led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is
it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended
up from far above the heavens, that he might fill all things.
And he gave, now that's a gift, right? If he gave, that's a gift.
And verse eight speaks of he gave gifts, okay? And so here
are the gifts that he gave to men. And he gave some apostles,
and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ." Now, we know that
the body of Christ is speaking of the local church, wherever
that congregation is gathered together, that whenever that
congregation is gathered together, it forms a body of Christ, okay? We've talked about this. Whoever's
watching, listening, you can go back, listen to the first
part of this whole series on the Ecclesia, And you'll see
that the word church, the word ekklesia, does not mean a universal,
invisible group of people, but it always speaks of a congregation
of believers. And that the body is referring
to is a metaphor that speaks of how that congregation is viewed. It's viewed as a body, okay?
So that's a descriptive metaphor that talks about the church or
the local gathered, assembled, group of people. He says, For
the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby
they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working
in the measure of every part, make an increase of the body
unto the edifying of itself in love. Now let's bow and have
a word of prayer. Jesus Lord, we come now thanking
you so much for the blessings that you've given us through
your blood and your body. We thank you, Father, for the
way that you have saved us. You've saved us from our sin.
You've saved us from condemnation. You've saved us from the wrath
that is to come. And Father, we are grateful that
we have this salvation. We know, Father, that we do not
deserve it. We know, Father, that apart from Christ, that
we have no merit whatsoever, but because of his imputed righteousness,
we stand this morning justified before you. We lift our praises
and our glory and our honor to you this morning. We sing these
things, these praises that we have just sung. We preach these
words now because you have given us life to understand them. You've
given us your Bible to read and to understand and to know. But
more importantly, you've given us your spirit to teach us these
things and what they mean, how are they to be understood and
interpreted. So Father Lord, we thank you
so much today that we stand here as a church, a gathered body
of believers that you have put here together to study your word,
to praise your name, to edify one another. And we ask the Lord
that you might do that, your presence, that it might be among
us, that it might be in us, helping us, to understand, helping us
to hear, to see, to learn, helping us to work among each other,
to lift each other up in encouragement, even for rebuke and reproof and
instruction and righteousness. Lord, we thank you for all these
things. Lord, we just pray for those that are not here this
morning. We pray for our members that are absent today. Lord,
we just ask that you just be with them. Father, we pray for
those who have been gone for Many weeks now, Lord, my heart
burns and it's heavy for that. And we desire to see them here,
Lord, whether it be for the fact that they're just not coming
or the fact that they've chosen to seek worship in another place,
Lord, we pray that wherever you lead them, that they might be,
and that it might be to a place, Lord, that preaches the truth,
and that it might be a place that stands in the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Father If they have strayed away to go and listen
to the things that their itching ears want to hear, Father, we
truly pray that you would bring them back, that you would convict
them of those things that they might look at once again, whether
it's here or anywhere else, Father, that they might look and find
a place that preaches and teaches the gospel, and that they find
a place that preaches it faithfully, Lord. And we ask now that you
just might minister to those that are listening, to those
who are watching by Facebook Live, Father, we ask that you
just might minister to them as well. We're thankful for all
those that the word of God goes out to and is able to hear. And
so, Lord, we just pray that your blessing would be upon to help
me to minister this word. Lord, I need your help to preach
these things, to teach these things, to keep me in the truth,
that I might be able to faithfully deliver the word of God, the
whole counsel of his word. And so, Lord, we again look for
your guidance, your direction, your leadership, your enabling,
this morning as we worship you today. And it's in Jesus' name
that we pray, amen. What we see here in Ephesians
chapter four, we've been talking about it now for several weeks, that the Lord has given gifts
to the local body, to the church. And we've seen already that these
gifts of apostles and prophets, that those gifts in that form
has gone away. There has been no need for those. And when I say prophets, I mean
that in the sense of foretelling futurist events. There is no
need to have people telling future events now that we have the word
of God telling us what is to come and what is to be. But yet
he has put within the church evangelists and pastors and teachers,
and of course we want to see also deacons as we go along.
But we see that the evangelist is separate from the pastors
and teachers. The pastors and teachers are
those who are still there in the local assembly, week after
week, conveying the things of the word of God to the congregation,
where the evangelist is one who has been ordained to preach,
but yet in that being ordained to preach is one who goes from
place to place preaching the gospel to the Lord's people wherever
they might be. And so now the modern terminology
that people use for those evangelists are missionaries. We don't believe
that term is biblical. And we also don't believe that
all the way that missionary work is being done today is biblical
either. And so we believe in the biblical
gift of evangelists and the way that it was being using the scriptures
and how it should be used today as well. But we're centering
now on pastors and teachers. Now, I've already read a lot
of the verses, some of the verses, a lot of the verses that we're
gonna look at today. I already talked a little bit about pastors
whenever we were going through showing the difference between
an apostle, an elder, and a pastor, okay? And We kinda, you know,
are gonna say some of the same things, but this morning I want
us to look a little bit closer at the pastor. Now, we've already
seen in the scripture that the term for pastor, teacher, is
one thing, okay? Pastor and teacher is not two
different things, it's one thing, okay? The pastor speaks to what
he does as far as his overseeing of the church. He is the one
who is overseeing the things of the worship, the things of
the ministry of the church. He is overseeing the people and
watching after their souls, watching after their lives, their conduct,
and looking for truth and error, false teaching that might pop
up. Those are the things that a pastor does. He shepherds and
guards the people. But as far as teacher, that is
where he is taking the role of the one who is opening the Word
of God and explaining the Word of God to them each week and
sharing and encouraging them through the preaching and the
teaching of God's Word. And so not only does he do that
orally like I'm doing it now, I'm opening up the scriptures
and we're teaching what it says in it, but also the pastor is
an example and he teaches by his life as well. He leads and
teaches by his life. And so we see that that term
is one term. We have also seen that the word
pastor has other terms found in scripture. The word uses an
overseer, the word uses bishop, the word uses shepherd, elder,
all these terms refer to the same thing, it refers to the
pastor. And so we've already looked at
the title of pastor, can be any of those things, bishop, overseer,
shepherd, and that is the title or the office of pastor, okay? And I know, I'll say this again,
I know a lot of people get hung up on this and they think that
we're trying to make all these segregated platforms of hierarchy
and we're not, we're not. This is what the Bible teaches,
right? The Bible says that there is some that have been given
to be pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ, okay? And that office, that gift
is not given to everybody in the congregation, okay? Now,
we're gonna learn as we look at pastor that while the pastor
has a title, an office, Okay? As the pastor has a responsibility
as an overseer, that the pastor also, by the word of God, is
told to not lord that over his people. Okay? And so there is
this balance that has to be there for a pastor to be a biblical
pastor. He is to have that oversight
and to be a leader in the respects of teaching the word of God and
his conduct of life. but yet he is also to be a servant
of the people and not to think of himself more highly than he
ought, okay? And so we want to make sure that
that is definitely seen, and we'll see that as we go through.
Anyhow, let's look first at the duties of the pastor. I tell
you what, I put down in my notes the duties of the pastor first,
but I think we're gonna swap it My next point was gonna be
the qualifications of pastor. I think we probably ought to
talk about that. We need to know what the qualifications are of
a pastor before we talk about his duties. Turn with me, if
you would, to 1 Timothy chapter three. And we'll just begin there. 1 Timothy chapter three. Now, here's another reason why
I believe, and I believe that the scriptures bear this out, that the pastor teacher is not
consigned to all the men of the church, okay? And that the office
of pastor, teacher, bishop, whatever you want to call it, is an office
that is a gift of God, it is a calling of God, because God
places requirements for that man to be eligible for that office. And there are some things that
disqualify. Now, that doesn't mean that the
man is a lost man. It doesn't mean that that man
is not a worthy man or even an educated man in the word of God
and knows the word of God, okay? It doesn't mean that that man
is unforgiven of his sins. But a lot of times what people
think is, well, you know, hey, we're under grace and we've been
forgiven of all of our sins. And so, you know, there shouldn't
be any requirements for someone to be a preacher or pastor, okay? There shouldn't be any requirements
for that. Well, you know, did not God know, did Christ not
know that there would be people with sin in the church? Of course
he did. Did not Paul even deal with those
who had sin in the church? We know in Corinth that Paul
dealt with sin and immorality and a lot of things that was
going on in the church. Jesus wrote letters to seven churches
and there were sin and immoral things that was going on in those
churches. There is sin in the Lord's churches
because we are still in this tent of flesh and we're gonna
battle with those things. So there's gonna be sin in the
church and there is truly forgiveness of every one of those sins. Christ,
whenever he died, he died for every sin that would ever be,
has been, ever will be committed. OK, so that sin is all been taken
care of. And yes, we are forgiven. However,
God has for the leadership, the overseeing the ministry of the
gospel in teaching and preaching has placed some restrictions
upon who is eligible to be that person. OK, and so that is not
to say that we have the authority to say who can and who can't
be. they must meet these requirements, be called of God, and show forth
these things, right? If they don't, or if they ever
go to a place where they no longer are fit for these requirements,
then they should not hold that office, okay? Now, let's look,
if you would with me, at 1 Timothy chapter three, and I wanna start
reading in verse one. It says, this is a true saying,
if any man desire the office of bishop, he desire a good work,
okay? So the first thing that we find
in the office of pastor is the fact that it is an office. It is an office. So we know that
pastor teacher is an office in the New Testament church, okay? Clear as day. Anybody that wants
to combat that and say there ain't no such thing as officers
in the local church, in the church, that we're all just equal and
even, as far as that nobody has one gift over another or anything
like that, here it is right here. The pastor or the bishop is an
office. Now, the one that has helps,
the gift of helps, that's never considered an office. The one
that may have the office of forgiveness? Nope, we've never heard that
either, but there is a gift, okay, of having generosity. There's those who have been given
the gift of generosity, but that's not an office, okay? But here
we see that the office of pastor or bishop is such a thing within
the Lord's churches. And Paul tells Timothy here,
This is a true saying, if a man desired the office of a bishop,
he desired a good work, okay? So being a pastor is a work among
the people of God, okay? To be a pastor is a work to be
desired among the people of God. But let's look, and right off
the bat, we find the first qualification of a pastor, and that is if a
man desires the office of bishop, okay? The office of pastor, teacher,
bishop, overseer, that is a office for a man. God has ordained that
the men be the ones who hold this office, who are given this
gift, okay? And again, this isn't a male
chauvinist thing. This isn't a misogynist thing.
This isn't a, you know, down on women type thing. This is
God's order that he has set up. He has set it up in the family
as well, that the men are to be head of the household and
that the women are to be in subjection and submission to the husband.
And that doesn't mean that the husband is more important than
the wife. That doesn't mean that the husband is better than the
wife. It means that that is the role that God has put. He is
the one that God has given the responsibility for the family,
and the wife is in submission to him, and the children are
in submission to both of the parents, okay? That is the role
that God has given to the family. And in the same way, in the church,
God has given roles. He has given the pastor the role
as overseer, and he has given him a place of leadership among
the people of God, Not that he might be a dictator, not that
he might be, you know, a driver of the herd, but that he might
be a shepherd of the flock, okay? That he might watch out after
the people, and that in that, there is order that is being
kept. The Bible says that God is not a God of chaos, but a
God of order, okay? That everything should be done
orderly, okay? Neat and orderly, and and done the right way. And so
one of the ways that God has designed that is that there be
someone who is an overseer to help keep the order of things
in the church, okay? And so that is a qualification
that is given to a man, not to the women, okay? Women, you have
great responsibilities and roles in the roles that God has given
you among the church, and we cherish those. We desire those. We want to see those being used
among the people to edify the body of Christ and everything. We live in a world today that
women have become so prominent in their desire for feminist
activity. Probably one of the greatest
things that's ever infected the church has been feminism. Women
who think they need to have an equal amount of say as far as
getting up and being able to preach and teach, and that platform,
trying to rule the church. And that doesn't mean that they
don't have a say so. I think that they have just as much say
in the things of the churches as the men do. But the Lord has given the men
to be the ones to operate as far as the overseeing of the
church. and that the women are to be
in subjection and not to have authority or be, what's the word
I'm looking for, to assert the authority over the men. And actually,
whenever you see a church that works in this way, you see a
beautiful thing. There's a gentleman on my Facebook
page that we were talking about this. I've made comments about
a, certain Southern Baptist woman teacher, Beth Moore, that's out
there. And I'll tell you what, she's just all over the TV and
books and bookstores and all this stuff. And there's churches
all over that's playing her videos and all that kind of stuff. And
listen, she shouldn't be teaching and preaching. That's not her
role. That's not where she should be.
Now granted, there's a lot of things that she says also that
is not doctrinally sound. that she is preaching a false
gospel. She is also preaching a lot of
things out of context of the scriptures, and so just her teaching
in general is horrible, but the very fact that she is usurping
herself over men in the ministry of the preaching of God's Word
is in direct contradiction to God's Word, okay? And so people
should be listening to that and especially should be supporting
that. But a lot of them are and it's sad to see that the Southern
Baptists have embraced this and is now pushing for more gender
equality in their convention and siding with women preachers
and things like that. It just, you know, and I'll just
say this, and I can say this because I was a former Southern
Baptist. There is a vast decline in the
Southern Baptists, and I believe it's because they have left the
scriptures. They have went away from the
scriptures. They have began to embrace the world. They begin
to embrace the traditions and the teachings of men, and they
have rejected the true gospel. They've rejected the expositional
preaching and teaching of God's word. and they have, you know,
dived into all this fanciful entertainment and junk that's
going on in churches today. And I think that that's why there's
such a great decline within those churches. But that's just a side
note. So okay, verse one, first qualification
of pastor, he must be a man, okay? Okay, verse two, a bishop
then must be blameless. Okay, he must be blameless. Now
does that mean that he doesn't have any sin? No, it don't. Okay, there's none of us that
is without sin. So if that was the case, then
there would be no one qualified to be a pastor. Okay, Peter,
did he sin? Absolutely. You know, did all
the other apostles sin? Absolutely they did. So we see that there is sin. That's not what this is talking
about. The word blameless here does not mean sinless perfection.
It means that he has a, that his demeanor, that his character
is blameless, okay? That he is known for his character. His character exemplifies that
one of a Christian. Okay? There isn't anyone that
can lay blame to him on why he should not have this office. Okay? The Lord is fixing to give
us the qualifications of a pastor, and to be a qualified pastor,
he should be blameless in everything that's in these prerequisites.
Okay? We're looking at the prerequisites.
And if he is blamed in one of these areas, then he is disqualified
from that. Okay, so the term blameless here
means that his character should not only show forth that one
of a Christian, but it should be blameless in all the prerequisites
that's about to follow. Okay, that's why Paul began with
this. This man needs to be blameless. He needs to be without accusation.
He needs to be one who no one can point the finger and says,
well, he's a pastor, but look at here, look at that, look at
this, okay? So he needs to be blameless.
Now here's the next one. The husband of one wife. Okay,
again, you can't be a pastor if you're a woman because this
qualification now, you are now blamed in this one accusation,
right? This one prerequisite. If the
prerequisite is to be the husband of one wife, then you have to
be a husband. And that doesn't mean that you
are a transgender acting as a husband, okay? That's not what that's
talking about. The Bible throughout from cover to cover teaches that
there is a husband and there is a wife, and that is always
one man and one woman, okay? It is not a man and a man. It
is not a woman and a woman. It is not a woman with a woman
acting like a man or a man with a man acting like a woman. It's
not a woman who has went and had a sex operation and been
changed into a man or a man who has went and had a sex operation
and been changed into a woman. There's only two genders. There
is a man and there is a woman. If you get down to the DNA, you're
going to find there are chromosomes. And there is an X and an X and
an X and a Y. There is not an X with a partial,
okay? You're either a man or you're
a woman. It doesn't matter how sinful
you act. You're either a man or you're a woman. It doesn't
matter how you self-identify. You are either a man or you're
a woman. And God has determined that gender
before you ever came out of the womb. You're a man or you're
a woman. And the prerequisite to have
the office of pastor teacher is that you are to be a husband
of one wife. A husband of one wife. Now what does that mean, a husband
of one wife? Does that mean that everyone else can have three
or four wives, but the pastor only has to have one, be married
to one? No, we know that that's not true. We know that that's
not true because even in the scriptures we know that polygamy
wasn't allowed in the Word of God, okay? Polygamy wasn't allowed
within the churches. It was one man and one woman,
okay? So he's not talking about you
are to be the husband of one woman as opposed to all those
Gentiles out there who have 50, you know, wives or the, you know,
the guys with the hair on that has you know, a whole harem of
women, you know, that's not what it's talking about. What does
husband of one wife mean? Well, number one, to be the husband
of one wife means that you are to be faithful to one woman and
one woman only, and that is that woman who is your wife, okay? To hold the office of pastor,
you are to be married to one woman, faithful to one woman,
okay? You're not to be accused of being
an adulterer. You're not to be accused of being
a fornicator. But you are to be a husband of one wife. You're to be faithful to that
one wife. Okay? Now, there's the whole issue
of divorce. Can a pastor be a pastor if he
has been divorced? And there's a lot of discussion
on that. I believe that if there is a
biblical ground for divorce, and that man is biblically divorced,
then there's biblical ground for remarriage. And if he is
remarried in a biblical way, then he still is considered under
this husband of one wife, okay? He is still considered a husband
of one wife. And I know there's probably gonna
be some that's gonna disagree with me on that. I'm still open
for correction, but as I've studied, that's where I am at this point.
My understanding of things that if there is biblical grounds
for divorce, and only in those grounds, if they are divorced,
then there has been given biblical grounds for remarriage because
they are no longer bound. And if they are no longer bound,
then they are free to marry. And if they are free to marry,
then that woman that is now his wife is his wife, his only wife,
and that that is okay for him to continue as a pastor. Now, I will say this, with that
being said, I think that a man should do everything that he
can to keep that marriage intact. I think that he shouldn't just
jump right back into marriage, okay? I've seen some men who
have biblically been divorced who've jumped right back into
marriage within a few months, okay? I just, I don't, that's
kind of, I'm not trying to judge anybody on that, and I don't
mean to get off on a discussion on any of these things, but it's
just, it seems weird. But anyway, the husband of one
wife, okay? The Bible says that he should
be vigilant. He should be vigilant. He should
be sober, okay? So he should be tenacious. He
should be vigilant. He should be always engaging.
okay, in the service at hand. He should always be sober, okay. Now that word sober
can mean a couple of things. Number one, it can mean not drunk,
okay. Your pastor shouldn't be drunk.
But sober also means can be in his right mind, okay. He should be sober and vigilant.
That means he is attentive, that he is aware that he is in his
right mind, that he is not cuckoo Okay? He's not gone off to the
deep end. Okay? That he is sober. He is right-minded about things.
Okay? He is not foolish and adolescent
in his thinking. Okay? He is sober and in his
right mind and vigilant about the task at hand. Says that he
should be of good behavior. Again, this kind of goes back
to what Blameless was talking about. He should be of good behavior,
okay? His behavior shouldn't be something
that would bring embarrassment upon the church and upon the
Lord. His behavior shouldn't be something
that would be considered evil in the eyes of men, okay? The Bible says, given to hospitality. Boy, you don't see a whole lot
of that today. A pastor ought to be given to hospitality. What
does that mean? Well, that means that It could
mean a lot of things, but most generally it means that, is this
door always open for those who have need? If you ever need to
come and visit with me, guess what? My door is always open.
We may say, hey, give me 10 minutes so we can clean up our mess here
before you come in. But our house is always open.
We are given the hospitality. I don't have a problem. Now,
of course, we live in a very small house. five children, so
seven of us living in that small house. But we have no problem
if somebody wants to come. If they don't have money to stay
somewhere and they want to stay with us, they're welcome to stay
with us. We have a preacher that comes over. Matter of fact, when
we had our Bible conference not too long ago, Brother Tom and
his wife, Judy, they stayed at our house. Now, they are our
relatives, but hey, we put them up in our house. We let them stay there, took
care of them while they were there. Given to hospitality means
that you are open to be hospitable. You are to be helpful, to be
generous, to take on the ability to care for somebody in their
time of need, to bring them into your house, to share your things,
to give of yourself to that person. That is what a pastor needs to
have as a quality given to hospitality. And a lot of preachers today,
They're like, you know, hey, I'll see you next week. Don't
bother me until, you know, I see you again. You know, some of
them don't want you coming to their house. Matter of fact,
it was, Brother Raines was telling me of a gentleman, and I won't
mention his name, but he was mentioning to me about a gentleman
that he was gonna be going through that area, and he was a pastor
of a church, and he was going to pick up a book from this man. They published a book, He was
gonna pick this book up. And so he contacted the man ahead
of time, said, hey, we're gonna be coming through your town here
in a couple of days. And he said, can you give me
your address and we'll stop in and pick the book up, that way
you don't have to ship it to us. And the guy basically called
him back and said, why don't you just tell me where you want
it shipped and I'll ship it. He said, we really just don't like
to have too much company at the house, okay? So he said, all
right. And then this man, I guess, this
brother was coming through again and met up with this guy's son. And the son actually brought
him back to the house. And the father was kind of a
little irate about that, that he had brought the guy back to
the house. And that's not being hospitable,
okay? And now we're not here to point
fingers at people or anything like that. Trying to give you
an example. A pastor should be hospitable, and think about that.
Here's a pastor, and we already have talked about one of the
terms, the word pastor means to be a shepherd, okay? The word pastor means to be a
shepherd. Turn with me, if you would, over
to the 23rd Psalm, and I'm not in no way am I equating the Lord
Jesus Christ with me or any other pastor, okay? I'm not saying
that we are like that. Christ is definitely the great
shepherd to the sheep. But we as pastors overlooking
Christ's sheep, we should at least strive to be like our shepherd,
right? We should strive to be like our
shepherd, our over shepherd. And look what it says about in
Psalms 23 about the shepherd. He said, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. Now, one of the ways of being
hospitable is to make sure that anybody who has need that asks
you in your church, you ought to help them as best as you can.
You know, I'm not a rich man, I'm poor, okay? But I ought to
be able to, as best as I can, supply any kind of want or need
that somebody might have. You know, if somebody, I may
not have money, but I might be able to help you with actually
giving you something. Here, this is mine. You can take
it and use it. Okay. Or here, I might not be able
to give you money, but here, I'll go get you something and
bring it to you. You know, do whatever we can
to help each other. That's being hospitable. Okay.
He says, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth
me beside still waters. Now, again, I'm not going to
go through the whole Psalm and kind of teach what it means.
But again, if I'm to be like the overpastor, if any pastor
is to be like the overpastor, okay, and be hospitable, well,
one of the things here is he makes me to lie down in green
pastures and he leaves me beside still waters, okay? He supplies
nourishment and sustenance for me. He restores my soul, okay? Whenever your soul is troubled
and vexed with things, the pastor ought to be there hospitable
to listen to you and to pray with you, right? If you remember,
that was one of the things that really that made me where I didn't
want to be a pastor back when I was a young man and wanted
to preach. And I remember I told you the
story about going into my grandpa's study and I told him, I said,
you know, pops, you know, I want to be a preacher, but there ain't
no way I want to be a pastor. You know, I don't want to listen
to everybody's problems and have them knocking on my door in the
middle of the night. crying about their ingrown toenail that they
can't get over, and they want me to pray with them over every
little problem. And my grandpa told me, he said,
if the Lord calls you to do that, he'll give you a heart for that
kind of stuff. And the Lord has. He changed my heart. He brought
me to a place where I don't mind that. Matter of fact, I want
to be involved with the people whenever they hurt. I want to
be there for them. And that's how a pastor ought
to be. If you're listening, if you're watching, If you're desiring
the office of bishop, you need to be given to hospitality. He
says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy
staff, they comfort me. If we are to be under shepherds,
we ought to be willing to have the rod and the staff be a comforting
thing to our people and not be a fearful thing to our people.
Now, what does he mean by that? Well, whenever there is correction
and rebuke to be done. As a pastor, if I'm to correct
and rebuke anything that goes on within the church, any error,
I ought to do that in such a way that whenever that rod or that
correction stick is being laid, it ought to be laid to the point
where it brings comfort to the person and not offense. See,
a pastor can Be literal in the fact that he's
trying to correct and rebuke, but he can do it in such a way
as to be in defense to somebody. Not necessarily because of his
correction and rebuke, but because of his attitude and his carelessness
in the way that he does it. And I'll be honest, that's things
that I'm still learning and I'm not very good at. I fail a lot
of times in the way that I go about doing things. Sometimes
I just don't do it right. You know, I may say it in a way
that is hurtful to somebody, and I don't mean it that way,
but it comes out that way. That's because I still lack wisdom,
a lot of wisdom. I still need more wisdom, you
know? But a pastor's heart ought to
be to deliver that correction and that rebuke in such a way
that brings a comfort to the person and not an offense. Now, there's gonna be an offense,
I'm gonna tell you that. Whenever you stand firm on the
word of God, preach the word of God, teach the word of God,
and correct error and expose false teaching and false actions
and things like that, there will be, there will be offense taken
by people who are not given a heart to receive those things, okay?
But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you
can do things in such a way as being flippant, being arrogant,
being prideful, being unthoughtful about the other person, and how
you deliver those corrections and rebukes. It says, thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of mine enemy, thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over, surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. So that is a description of the
over-shepherd. The under-shepherd should strive
to be that to Christ's people, okay? And that is what's being
given to hospitality. Being one who is open to take
care of, look after, and to console and to be there for those who
are in need within the church. Okay? So, blameless, husband
of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality. Here it is, apt to teach. There's
a lot of people that want to be pastors and they absolutely
have no apt to teach. whatsoever, okay? Some people may even say that
about me, I don't know, but we need to be apt to teach, apt
to teach, okay? If they don't have the apt to
teach, then that disqualifies them from being a pastor. And listen, having the apt to
teach doesn't necessarily mean that everyone who has the apt
to teach is called to be a pastor either, okay? It works two ways
and everything. What does that have to teach
me? Look with me, if you would, to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. We see it reiterated here again,
2 Timothy 2, look at verse 24. And the servant of the Lord,
and this also goes along with being hospitable, it also means
about being vigilant and sober. These things kind of build upon
each other. And the servant of the Lord must not strive. Wait a minute, I thought you
said that he should be vigilant. That's kind of a similar language
there. Now, he's not talking about, he shouldn't strive in
the faith and strive in the service to the Lord and to the people.
He shouldn't strive in arguments. If you look back before that,
we're talking about, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid
knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord should
not strive, okay? He shouldn't strive for these,
you know, stupid quarrels. The Lord is slowly but surely
teaching me that, where once I love, Let me just read how
the Bible says it. Youthful lusts, foolish and unlearned
questions. Those things I just love to debate
about. But slowly the Lord is showing me that all that does
is stir up problems among people. It says, and the servant of the
Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men. So as the pastor, one of the
prerequisites is that we should be apt to teach, okay? But how are we to teach? Well,
we are to teach in gentleness. It says here, but be gentle unto
all men, apt to teach, patient. That means I'm gonna teach you
this and you better listen, okay? I'm going to teach you this,
and after it's all done, you better start putting it into practice.
No, that's not what that means. It means we teach, we teach,
we teach, we teach again, we teach again, we teach again. You know what? We continue to
teach until the Lord comes. Patiently teaching, knowing that
it is the Lord who brings them the understanding. Now, there
are going to be times that there's going to have to be discipline
that's involved. in the cases that require discipline. But
I'm just saying, just because somebody doesn't grasp what you're
saying, you're saying, well, you've got the Holy Spirit in
you, here's the Word of God that's telling you, and here I am, instructing
you in what this is saying to you, the Holy Spirit ought to
be telling you right now to change your mind, you ought to start
believing this right now. No, that's not how it happens, brother.
Until the Holy Spirit lifts that veil, or that blindness to stuff,
Until the Holy Spirit teaches us, then we're not going to see
it no matter how much a enabled, inspired, I don't want to use
the word inspired, an anointed preacher, if you want to use
that word, a preacher with unction, preaching in the Spirit, preaching
truth. You know, I can preach truth
day after day after day, but until the Spirit gives you the
understanding of that, you're not going to understand that.
I can't make you understand that. And what we see is there's a
lot of people who, because somebody doesn't just jump right off the
train that they're on and jump on the person next to them's
train, then they write them off as being, okay, well, you're
just a believer of false truth and I ain't gonna have anything
to do with you. Now, what does it say here? The servant of the
Lord. Are you a servant of the Lord? The problem is, here's
the problem. There are too many people out there that are in
pastoral offices that are not truly servants of the Lord. We've
got a lot of people that aren't servants of the Lord, they're
servants of themselves. The servant of the Lord must
not strive, and listen, I'm preaching that at me just as much as I'm
preaching to anybody else. I'm not putting myself up on
a podium by any stretch of the means. I have a lot of faults
and failures that I pray that the Lord continue to get out
of me. The servant of the Lord must
not strive gentle unto all men, apt to teach patient, and here
it is, look, verse 25. In meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth. Okay? So the pastor is to gently
and patiently, in meekness, instruct those that oppose themselves
If God would, per adventure, give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. See, until one repents of that,
we are to continue to patiently teach it. Patiently teach it. Okay? That's what it means to
be apt to teach. Apt to teach is not to just be
able to get up here and tell you what this is saying. Apt
to teach is to be able to get up here and tell you what this
is saying whenever you don't believe it. Be able to continue
to every week get up here and say, this is what this means.
This is what this is saying. And love you, and in gentleness
and patience, wait until the Lord gives you that understanding.
To try in every way possible, tell you how this is true. But
whenever you still don't believe it, you continue to be patient
in teaching. That is being apt to teach. Apt
to teach isn't just to have a scholastic ability to convey truth. Okay,
that's not what teaching is. Teaching is the ability to take
God's word and to open it up, explain what it means, and then
patiently continue to instruct those who have been given under
you to listen and to hear, apt to teach. There's some that don't
have that, okay? Verse three, what's the next
prerequisite to the office of bishop? Not given to wine, what
does that mean? Not given to wine. Well, that
means not to be overcome with wine, not to be drunken, not
to have wine in excess, okay? Again, we've studied here before,
we've talked about it here. The Bible doesn't teach that
the child of grace is restricted from alcohol altogether, okay? The Bible teaches moderation,
the Bible teaches not to be drunk, okay? The Bible also teaches
that we should also be careful of our witness and not be stumbling
blocks to those who may have a conscientious thing about alcohol
or wine and all these things, okay? So we should be careful
about those things, not compromising God's word, but also being considerate
of our weaker brethren, okay? But it says here, for the pastor
not given to wine, Well, why is that? Well, you don't need
a pastor coming in drunk, trying to preach the word of God and
to deal with other people, okay? He shouldn't be trying to exposit
the word of God in a drunken state. He needs to be, again,
what does it say up there? Verse two, sober and vigilant,
okay? Not given to wine, no striker. Anybody know what a striker is? Look with me again at 2 Timothy 2. And verse 24, and the servant
of the Lord must not strive. That word strive is the same
as that word striker, okay? He must not be into verbal combat
all the time, you know? Shouldn't be arguing all the
time. Says not greedy of filthy lucre. OK, the pastor shouldn't be one
whose main goal in life is to make money. He shouldn't be preaching. For money, that doesn't mean
that he can't live off of what those who are given of the Lord
to give him. You know, we'll talk about some
of that later as well, but. He His deal isn't, well, I can't
come to that church because I'd be taking a cut in pay. I've heard that from preachers.
I've heard that from men. They say, well, I feel that the
Lord's leading me to somewhere else. I say, well, where are
they leading you to? Well, over to this church. Well, why is
he leading you over there? Well, for one, they pay a lot
bigger salary over there, and I don't have to work anymore.
Well, OK, all of a sudden, now you've You've shown me that you're
doing it for the wrong reason. Now you're preaching the gospel
for filthy lucre. That's what the word filthy lucre
means, by the way, kids. It means money, or filthy gain. Pastors should never be preaching
for money. If the congregation feels led
to give the pastor money to help him where he doesn't have to
go out and work, where he can spend his time and study, and
everything, that's up to them, okay, to do that. But he should
never be preaching to get them to do it. He should never be
saying, well, I can't preach there because you ain't, okay? Pastor is not greedy, a filthy
lucre. Now, with that being said, you
can also have a pastor who is a faithful preacher that doesn't
preach for money, but if his whole life is consumed with becoming
rich then he's also greedy for filthy lucre, okay? Now, I'm
not placing any blame or anything on a pastor that's out there
that wants to work hard to provide for his family to make sure that
they have everything that they have need of. That's actually what
the Bible calls us to do, okay? I'm talking about that all his
mind is consumed upon is becoming rich, richer, and making money,
and doing whatever he can to get that money, whether it be
live, sleep, chill, do whatever he wants. Okay. Not greedy, a
filthy lucre, but patient. Okay. We saw that a while ago
in second Timothy, right? He's to be patient. There's one of those things that
the Lord really needs constraint on me about because sometimes
I'm not very patient. So he has to give me patience,
not a brawler, not covetous. Okay. So not a brawler, not one
who's out there arguing and fighting and all the time causing ruckus.
Not covetous, okay? Not always desiring other people's
stuff. Now, let me just say, what does
that mean? Well, for one, he ought not be
covetous in his own right, in his own personal life, keeping
up with the Joneses and stuff like that. But here's another
thing. Well, that church down the street
there, they just got them a new big old LED sign. Well, now we
gotta get one. Well, they got a big rock band,
we better get us a big rock band. Okay, the pastor, as pastor,
ought not be covetous of other pastors. Now, I'll tell you,
and I'll say this, we can be covetous in good things, though,
right? If you see another church and you see that the Lord bless
them, we can say, well, Lord, we'd love to be blessed that
way. We see the people coming to know
the Lord and being baptized. Hey, there's no reason not to
be covetous of that. We'd love to see that. We'd love
to see the Lord bring that in our direction. People faithful
in the ministry of the gospel, yeah, be covetous of those things. but we don't wanna be covetous
of worldly things and mammon and fleshly things, right? It says here, one that ruleth
well his own house. Now we've already talked about
this a little bit. One that ruleth well his own house, having his
children in subjection with all gravity. Okay, so what does that
mean? So a pastor needs to be a man
who ruleth well his house, who governs over his house, who oversees
his house well, and his children are in subjection to him. They're
not wild and unruly children. Doesn't mean that they're always
gonna be obeying, that they never disobey. It means that they are
always in subjection. Okay? Verse five says, for if
a man know not how to rule his own house, How shall he take
care of the church of God? Now, again, let's kind of put
some thought into this, this word rule, okay? This isn't something
like a king on a throne being a dictator of some kind. This
word rule means to govern, to oversee, okay? To keep the peace, to keep the
order, okay? That's what he's supposed to
do in his house. And it's saying here that if he doesn't rule
his house well, how is he gonna be able to rule in the matters
of the church? If this guy is over here, can't
keep control of his own house, how is he gonna keep control
of people that aren't even his own family? Okay? That's what it's saying. So if
a pastor is not one that rules his house well, that disqualifies
him from being a pastor. And I know a lot of people say,
well, that's not fair. It's not fair that my kids disqualify
me from being a pastor. Well, you need to take that up
with the Lord. And the second thing is, you should have listened
to the Lord and how to raise those kids so they wouldn't have
been so wild and unruly. Verse seven, or excuse me, verse
six, not a novice. What does that mean, not a novice?
Anyone know what the word novice means? Yeah. Say what? Do what? Somebody that's not,
they're not just grown up, they're not mature. Yeah. Someone that's
not mature. Okay. Someone that's newly come
to the faith. I don't know how much y'all pay
attention to this. I really don't pay much attention. Matter of
fact, I don't know if I've even heard one song from this guy,
but this Kanye West guy that they talk about on TV some rapper
or hip-hop singer, something like that. He's married to some famous woman.
Anyway, supposedly he's become a Christian, and now he's only
gonna sing about God and all that. Well, as I've been kind
of watching all these things come across my news feeds and Facebook
feeds and all this stuff, it seems like this guy has professed
to be a Christian, but he's just basically becoming a cult leader.
Uh, you know, people are starting to follow him. For one, he's
preaching a false gospel. He's been listening to a false
gospel, preaching a false gospel. And it's all about still about
show and how great he is and all this kind of junk. But anyway,
already he is preaching to people and people are already listening
to him. And there's the church of, uh, Kanye and all this kind
of junk, you know, right here is what that's talking about.
Not a novel, someone who has newly come to the faith. Okay,
there's someone that can become new in the faith and they still
have a lot to learn. Matter of fact, remember in our
discussion on the commission, the Bible says that we, that
the ye are to go to the thee, okay, or the them, and to make
disciples of them and baptize them and then teach them all
things whatsoever Christ has commanded. And so they are still
the them until they become mature in the faith and become the ye.
Okay? There's still the time that they
need to learn. Somebody could jump into this
right off the bat, and they still don't have a biblical foundation
or grounding in doctrinal things, and they get out there and out
of zeal, just wanna run around for the Lord, and yet they may
run around speaking false things. So that's why someone should
be done as a novice. I believe that I was put up to
preach as a novice. I didn't have maturity, not only
personally, but spiritually. I didn't have novice. So, you
know, I'm thankful people were patient with me in that, and
I'm thankful that the Lord still called me to preach, even though
before I was a believer, I was put up as a novice preacher,
and that shouldn't have been. But anyway, not a novice, okay,
that's important. So if you're new in the faith,
that disqualifies you from being a pastor. How long is being new
in the faith? Well, I don't know. That's why
the Bible says that before we lay on any hands, suddenly, that
we ought to examine that person, right? See whether they are in
the faith, whether they are grounded in the faith, they understand
the faith. Whenever one is ordained, why do you think that they're
questioning these guys? You know, they question us on
the foundational things. Whenever you guys ordain me,
A lot of the questions that the men asked were foundational doctrinal
issues, okay? Of course, there was one guy
that asked what I thought about the new perspective of Paul and
everything, and at that time, I didn't even have a clue what
he was talking about. But anyhow, they were asking about foundational
things. What is the gospel? What do you
believe about the church? What do you believe about baptism?
Is baptism salvific? Is it essential? What are the
things about baptism? What about your roles as husband
and wife and children? Foundational things that we need
to know about the deity of Christ, about justification. How is a
man justified? What is sanctification? I mean,
those were the things. And so if one is a novice and
doesn't know those things, he shouldn't be a pastor. And unfortunately,
I've seen men who have in ordinations have been asked some of these
questions and not had a clue or even answered in a very biblical
way, and they've been made pastor. And they shouldn't have been.
So not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the
condemnation of the devil. Okay, that's another thing, not
just the doctrinal aspect of it, but also the prideful aspect
of it. If someone is put in, to a place
of leadership, being immature in the faith, they can become
very prideful. We'll say, I haven't been a Christian
very long. Look, they already see that I need to be a preacher. Pride can enter into that. And
pride, this was, I don't think, there was some doctrinal issues
with me early, but this was the main one right here. I was a
very prideful person. Matter of fact, I also, this
is to my detriment, and I probably shouldn't be saying this, I do
this so that other young preachers don't follow after my ignorance. You know, that was one of the
things that actually was a thing that I really liked was the fact
that, hey, I'm a young guy and I'm able to get out here and
tackle hard doctrinal things with some of these older preachers
that's been preaching for years. I'm able to go out here and some
of them guys are, you know, I'm setting them straight. Ain't
that ignorant? You know, I say that to my shame.
I say that to my shame. I'll tell them what they were
thinking of me whenever they walked away. And no wonder they
hardly, no wonder they never had me come very often to their
churches. So, but you know, and I pray the Lord is taking that
out of me and I hope that that's not what people see me still
today. Verse seven, moreover, he must have a good report of
them which are without. Okay, so it just doesn't matter
what the pastors thought about inside the church, okay? You
know, I hope you guys love me. I hope you guys respect me. I
hope that I'm a good witness and a testimony of the Lord to
you and a good leader and pastor. I hope that's true. But see,
it doesn't matter just what you think either. It also matters
what is on the outside. Okay, what is the report of them
which are without? See, there are men today that
are leading churches or quote unquote so-called churches that
in their inner circle, yeah, there's people that says all
kinds of that. Hey, Jim Jones had a great following, didn't
he? David Koresh had a great following. Them people loved
them men. What's his name? Manson, the
killer. What was his name? Charles Manson.
He had people in his inner circle that they loved the guy. Thought
he was awesome. But what about the outside? What
are they thinking? See, there are men right now that are, preaching
in quote-unquote churches, who as long as those people in that
inner circle are loving him, you know, he's got that good
report. But soon as they trespass those
men, then they kick them out or those people leave or whatever
and everything. And, you know, it's their fault. It's their fault. It's their
fault. And then on the outside, these people are saying, well,
this is what happened. And the whole story is different on the outside
than what it was on the inside. And what happened on the outside,
the report of that person seems to be the same everywhere, you
know. That's what this is talking about.
Moreover, he must have a good report of them, which are without,
outside of the church. Is your, is the way that people
see you in the church, is it the same as what they see outside
of the church? Is the report of you from other
people the same as what it is of the people who are underneath
your guidance, your care, your direction, your preaching, your
teaching? See, you guys can love somebody
because they're there who are working with you and who are
loving with you and preaching and teaching and praying with
you and helping you in all your issues and problems and studying
the word with you and all those things. You know, we become close
like that. But then whenever you get out
and your real stripes are seen outside, then what are the people
saying about you outside? It says, moreover, he must have
a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach
and the snare of the devil. So see, if I have a good report
here, but I don't have a good report out there, then I can
fall into reproach. So a preacher must have a good
report outside of the church as well as inside of the church.
Now these are the prerequisites of the pastor. This is what he
has to have. If he doesn't have that, then
he's disqualified from being a pastor. Now that's not the
Baptist rule. That's not Sovereign Grace Baptist
Church's prerequisites. That's not my prerequisites. That's the Lord's prerequisites
to being a pastor, to holding the office of pastor. You must
have these prerequisites. But that's not the only place
that we find this. We find it also in Titus. Look, if you would, over to Titus
chapter one. Now, someone might be listening
and saying, man, that's a lot of stuff. I don't know if I want
that burden or responsibility to be held to that standard.
Well, that's why Paul said in that passage, this is a true
saying, if any man desired the office of a bishop, he desired
a good work, okay? It's good, but it is a work. Not only a work outwardly, but
a work inwardly. Look at if you would, Titus chapter
one, And I'm gonna start in verse five. For this cause left I thee in
Crete, that thou should have set in order the things that
are wanting, and ordained elders in every city, as I had appointed
thee, if any be blameless, okay, there that again is he's attesting
to the same thing they told Timothy, right? If any be blameless, the
husband of one wife, okay, same thing. Having faithful children,
not accused of riot or unruly. Okay, still the same qualifications
as in Timothy. For a bishop must be blameless
as the steward of God. Okay, so he must be blameless
as the steward of God. Okay, now in Timothy, he was
called a servant of God. In Timothy, he was called, again,
he was called the office of bishop. So he's called a bishop. But here he's called a steward
of God. How does that use the word, what
does that mean? Look with me if you would in
Matthew chapter one. Excuse me, Matthew chapter 24. Matthew 24. Look with me, if you would, down
to verse 45. Who then is a faithful and wise
servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household? to
give them meat in due season. So the Lord is asking that question.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant? Okay, so we see that that word,
that's the same word that's being used over here as steward, being
a good steward. Who is a good servant? A faithful
and wise servant. Blessed is that servant whom
the Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Okay, so one who
is a good steward is one who is being a faithful servant,
okay, a faithful servant of God, not self-willed, okay, not self-willed. So a bishop must be blameless
as the steward of God, okay, so as the servant of God, Faithful
servant of God, he must be blameless. That again, also, if you don't,
if you remember back in Timothy, whenever I said blameless, that
means that he needs to be blameless in all those prerequisites that
was to follow. That's what means the servant
of God is to be like, okay? So he has to be blameless in
that. So to be a good steward, not self-will, not meaning that,
hey, I'm gonna run this show the way I wanna run it, okay?
It's all about me here, okay? It's not, it's not all about
the pastor. Now, unfortunately, the pastor is the one who gets
all the limelight, right? I mean, you look across and who
is it, you know? Most of the time, they got their
name out on the billboard out there, Pastor So-and-So. Usually,
it's Reverend Doctor So-and-So, Pastor THD, MDIV, LMNOP, QRX
at the end, you know? What are they doing? They're
shining. They're shining their pastor in front of everybody,
right? Oh, come to our church. Why? Because we've got a scholarly
pastor. He's been to school. He's been
to seminary. You can come listen to him and
know that you're hearing God's word faithfully preached. Why?
Because he has a THD and a MDIV and THM and like I said, an elemental
peak. You know what, I've seen guys
with all those numbers and names behind their name that can't
preach God's word, that don't know God's word. That don't make
anybody anything. The church isn't about the pastor.
That's one of the reasons why I asked whenever we voted on
this billboard out here, and then even before that, the little
vinyl sign that we used to hang up at the other place that we
met. That's why I asked, don't put my name on there. Don't put
my name on there. When we had this sign made, it
came up, do you want us to put Pastor Michael Smith or what? I said, I don't want anything
I'm gonna put on that thing. Don't put my name on there at all.
It's not about me, okay? This is where the church meets.
It's not where Pastor Smith preaches, it's where the church meets,
okay? It's not about being self-willed.
It's not about me getting my way, me running this the way
that I think it ought to be ran. It's about us under the headship
of Jesus Christ, faithfully preaching and teaching God's word and following
the way that he is prescribed in his word. And so a pastor
that is to be a faithful pastor and to be considered a pastor
should be one who is not self-willed, but willing to look and see what
does the congregation think, but more importantly, what does
God's word say? Okay, not self-willed, not soon
angry. Okay, not soon angry. That's
basically saying the same as what was in Timothy. Not given
to wine, again, same as what's in Timothy. No striker, not given
to filthy lucre. These are all things that he
said to Timothy, right? But a lover of hospitality, a
lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast
to faithful word, okay? Now, what's a prerequisite to
being a pastor? Well, the Bible says he should
be apt to teach, right? Well, look what he says right
here. I think this is another way of saying it. Holding fast
a faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by
sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Okay? So I should be able to,
or any pastor should be able to, hold fast the faithful word
of God, as they have been taught, that he may be able to, by sound
doctrine, not by man's tradition, not by a confession of faith,
not by a creed, not by a seminary, okay, not by what Grandpa preached
or Grandma preached or what Aunt Elda preached. If anyone has
Aunt Elda out there, I apologize, I just made that up. on the fly,
okay? He's to hold fast the sound doctrine. That's what he's to hold fast,
the word of God and with sound doctrine. See, I'm not to try
to tell you what you ought to think based upon what the Baptist
believed back in 1800, 1500, 1400, 1200, 1100, 900, 300, 200.
I probably ought to try to convince you of what the Baptist believed back
in A.D. 31, 32, 33, whenever Jesus built the church
and began to give the doctrines. You know, that's what we believed
then. That's what we ought to believe now. See, I ought to,
by sound doctrine, be able to exhort you. If a man cannot exhort
with sound doctrine, but has to argue and debate and name
call or point people to creeds and confessions, other preachers,
sermons, if he can't sit down with the Word of God and to exhort
somebody or to convince somebody who is a gainsayer with the Word
of God, then he shouldn't be a pastor. Shouldn't be able to
be a pastor. It says, for there are many unruly
and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision
whose mouths must be stopped who subvert whole houses, teaching
things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake." So, a pastor,
a bishop ought to be one who is holding fast the faithful
Word of God. Are you going to a church and
do you have a pastor who is faithful to the Word of God? If he has,
you have a blessing there. You have a blessing there, okay? If you're going to a church and
that man does not hold the Word of God, then you need to get
out of there. Get to a place where there is
a man faithfully holding the Word of God. But you need to
find a pastor who meets all these qualifications. If you're a church
and you're calling a pastor, looking for a pastor, here it
is. Here's what you should be looking
at. Not whether or not he was popular in the convention. not
whether or not the association recommended him, the associational
missionary, okay? And I'm using terminology from
my Southern Baptist days here, okay? A lot of times the churches
would call the association office, okay? And then in that association
office, there is a man who was appointed as the associational
director or the associational missionary, And so he was kind
of over all the churches in that. And see here again, the Baptist
are the ones that claims autonomous, but yet they have these associations,
they have these conventions, they have these associational
directors who are over the churches that are within those associations
to watch over them and to, you know, give recommendations and
all this kind of stuff, okay? It's crazy. But, you know, we're to hold
fast to these things, right? Not to what they say, not to
what the association says or the convention say. So what would happen was people
would call and say, Mr. Associational Director, we need
a preacher. And they'll say, well, OK, well,
here's the man. We recommend this man and this
man. And here, this guy, you ought
to have this guy. Matter of fact, when I was leaving the Southern
Baptists, they even had come up with this new program. And
right off the top of my head, I can't think of it. but all
it was was basically a social psychology type program. But
what they would do is they would take all this information about
the church, and then they would disseminate that information,
and then come up with all these preacher candidates that were
out there, and they would appoint a pastor that are, I say appoint,
they would recommend the pastor that best fits the attitude,
the likes and dislikes of that church. See, basically they were
saying, you know, well, let's match the preacher and the church
based upon social activity, you know. Well, this preacher likes
upbeat music. This church likes upbeat music.
Okay, well, this church, this pastor here, he's a hymn guy.
Well, let's put him with the church that believes in hymns,
you know. You know, this guy here has this
kind of a temperament. This church here has this kind
of temperament. Well, we ought to put those two together. See
how that is crazy? Let's forget about the Holy Spirit.
Let's forget about the calling of God. Let's forget about ordination.
Let's forget about examining the man. Let's forget about the
biblical principles and biblical prerequisites. Let's just find
who is best for our needs. The man looked good. The man
was young. The man dressed nice. The man dressed casual. The man
had expensive suits. The man had cheap suits. The
man didn't wear a suit. The man had a cool haircut. The
man didn't have a cool haircut. The man was able to speak the
modern language of the kids today. The man couldn't speak the modern
language of the kids today. You see, all the things that people
look for in preachers except for this right here. We need
to be diligent to follow God's Word, to listen for God's Word. And so many people, whenever
they're calling a pastor or looking for a church to go to, are not
looking at the Bible on where I should go and why I should
go there. Or they're saying, I'm not going there because I'm
not getting this, getting that, getting this, getting that. And
a lot of that doesn't have to do with what the Bible says you
need or is there. So we need to be careful. This message
is for me, it's for you, it's for everybody listening. It's
so that the congregation knows what to expect in a pastor, look
for in a pastor, and it's to the pastor so that the pastor
knows this is how I should be. And if I don't meet these prerequisites,
I need to abandon my pursuit of that office and find another
place where I can serve the people of God. Those are the qualifications
of a pastor. A church should not call for
the ordination of a man who does not meet God's requirements as
set forth in these scriptures. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 5,
and this will be our last thing we look at. 1 Timothy chapter
5. I alluded to this verse earlier. Again, these are instructions
of Paul to the pastor Timothy at the church of Ephesus on how
the things in the church should be practiced. Remember, Timothy was the pastor.
He was the overseer. He was the one who is the one
overseeing the doctrine and the practice of the church. and leading
by preaching and example the doctrine and the practice of
the church. And so Paul is instructing Timothy,
who was a young man that came under the preaching of Paul and
heard and was a convert from the preaching of Paul and was
also one young in the faith who Paul instructed and taught and
who was called to the ministry by God and ordained of God by
the church. And here's what Paul is telling
the pastor Timothy. It says, lay hands suddenly on
no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins, keep thyself
pure. Now, what does he mean by that? Lay hands suddenly on no man. That means don't ordain somebody
to the ministry suddenly, just because they look good. Examine
that person. How long does that take, pastor?
I don't know. Sometimes it takes longer than
other times. Sometimes it don't take as long
as other times. Sometimes men will exemplify
this thing right off the bat. Maybe this is somebody who has
been in your church for years. You have seen that exemplary
pattern, but the Lord has not yet called that man in his heart.
But whenever the Lord does call that man in his heart, he already
has years of service before you in the church, maybe not in the
pastoral and preaching capacity, but you can see, hey, we've examined
this man for eight years. He definitely has the qualities
and the qualifications set forth in scripture. Yes, let's lay
hands on this man and ordain him to the ministry. Or he may
be someone who is just not been here very long, he's moved in,
we don't know him very well, but the Lord has called him all
of a sudden, it may take a little while longer to see his doctrine
in practice, see how faithful he is to these things. Or someone
who has recently come to the faith, he must be instructed
in the Lord for a while. Okay, so sometimes these things
are a lot, there's no cut and dry way of
doing them, but there is some cut and dry prerequisites. And
we start there and move forward. If they don't meet at least these
prerequisites, there's no sense in moving forward. If they meet
the prerequisites, then we move forward and laying on of the
hands as we see whether or not they, after examination. You
say, well, so you're basically saying that now the church has
the power to examine, to say whether or not a man can be a
preacher or not a preacher. Well, if you say it in that connotation,
if you say it in that way, you know, you make it sound worse
than how it's being said, but what does the Bible say? What
did Paul just instruct Timothy? He says, lay hands suddenly on
no man, neither be partaker of another man's sin. So he's saying,
do not ordain these men. Who's ordaining the men? The
church is. We've seen that way back already
when we talked about what the church does. The church is the
one who ordains. God calls, the church ordains. God calls the man. God puts it
within the heart of the church to recognize that call. And when
meeting the prerequisites, they ordain the man by laying on of
hands and by prayer. And they put that man to the
ministry. Okay. Now that's not, again,
that's not a Baptist tradition. That's the gospel. That's the
word of God saying that. Okay. That's the practice of
the New Testament church. And so if we want to follow the
New Testament church, that's how it's to be done. That's how
we should do it. And so we should be careful in
how we do that. If we as the church are going to ordain any
man, we need to, for one, look at the prerequisites, and two,
we should examine that man to see whether or not it's time
for him to have hands laid upon him. isn't about hierarchy it isn't
about being potpourri it isn't about it isn't about uh catholicism
oh it's just catholicism i've heard that i've heard people
say oh you're making yourself out to be popes and hierarchies
and all like that no we're not we're following the head of the
church and how he put practice into being in the new testament
church this is how we are to ordain men this is how we put
them in the ministry And if one seeks to be in office of a bishop,
guess what? This is what we ought to look
for. If we were a church without a, if ever the church would be
without a pastor, something would ever happen to me, Lord, electrocute
me in the x-ray machine tomorrow, and I die, and now next week,
you begin looking for a pastor. You know what you need to be
doing? You need to be drilling into this word of God and looking
at what it says. The pastor that you call, don't look at him because,
oh man, he's a nice-dressed guy. are well-educated. Look right
here. What did God say? I would hope
you would reel back and say, well, what did Mike preach on
last week? Reel back and listen. What does the word of God tell
us? It's not popular anymore. Matter of fact, church is not
popular anymore. The word of God's not popular
anymore. It's all about feelings. It's all about popularity. It's
all about being relevant today. If you want to be relevant in
the kingdom of God, you need to be biblical. We need to follow
God's word. We need to look and see what
God's word says. Let that be our rule of faith. We've said
that here. Baptists have said that for centuries
now. Our only rule of faith is the
word of God. Let that be our guide. All right,
we'll look at some more things about the pastor next week. Anybody
have any questions, comments, additions, or subtractions? Well,
if a woman can speak, I would speak to the fact that you say,
man, God has to be given to hospitality. That gift has to be given to
life too. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. If not, the woman will fight
against her husband, not wanting to bring people into the house.
That's right. That's right. The wife has to
also be hospitable. Well, that would also fall on
the fact that he rules his household well, and that his family is
in subjection, his children are in subjection to him. All those
things work within that realm of him ruling his household well.
If he's doing that, if he's being the lead in the house, then if
the wife is a godly wife, a Christian wife, if the children, whether
they are believers or not, they're gonna be in subjection to the
parents. But if the wife is a godly wife,
then she's gonna see that, well, God has given my husband to,
as long as he's not going against the scriptures, right? Being
hospitable is not against the scripture, so the wife shouldn't
say, well, not only does the Bible say that, but I trust that
my husband, that's what he is supposed to be as a pastor, is
hospitable. So I shouldn't have any flare-ups
about him being hospitable. So yes, I think they ought to
be in unison on that. And I tell you what, I'm thankful
for my wife. I'm thankful that I have a wife
that is sensitive to the things that a pastor has to do and go
through. Matter of fact, sometimes my
wife has to prompt me on things that a pastor should do because
I'm not thinking of those things. And so she's a very good helpmate
to me. And she knows whenever we have
pastor people or guests and things like that, that my attention
is going to be directed in that way. A lot of times we're at
Bible conferences where the preacher likes to talk a long time to
people and it's getting late hours. And so I'm thankful for
my wife. She is very hospitable. And so
anyway, you're right, sister, that also falls upon a wife as
well. It's hard for a pastor to be
a pastor if you don't have a wife that's behind him, supporting
him in that. I've told you guys before, of
a preacher I knew, and knowing he had a wife that, not only
was she not a very good wife in general, but as far as a pastoral
wife, you know, she never did go, whenever he had to travel
to go preach places, she would never go with him. And if she
did, she was always a deterrent. I mean, just was just always
being rude and, causing a distraction and very selfish. But whenever
it comes to being hospitable, she wasn't very hospitable at
all. And I always felt bad for that brother because he was always
zealous for the work of the Lord and always was an upbeat, cheerful
guy. But man, that woman just always
was a blight in his ministry because he couldn't go anywhere
without her being an embarrassment. But everybody in that church
and around in the futures, conferences and stuff, your wife shows hospitality. Yeah, she does. I'm thankful
for that. That's good for not only me,
that's good for our church to see that. Good for everybody
to be that way as well. But yeah, it's good. It's good. I think we ought to
keep her, don't you think? I don't know. I might be able
to get a good price for her. Oh, no. You might, but no, you
keep her. We love her. We love her children. Yeah, she's a good wife, good
kids. Appreciate that compliment, too.
I wish I could say that I trained her well, but that's something
I couldn't teach her. God give her the gift. That's
right. That's right. Anybody else got
anything? Couple of announcements then
before we close. We will, on the 24th of November,
that's the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we'll have our yearly Thanksgiving
dinner together here at the church. Also gonna have the Lord's Supper
on that day. We'll observe the Lord's Supper
on that day. I think that's probably what
we'll do. We'll meet together, probably maybe around 10, 30
or 11 that day. And we'll sit around, we'll eat
and visit. If anybody has anything they'd
like to share, any testimony of the Lord, want to share anything
that's on your heart as far as a testimony of the things that
the Lord has done, what you're thankful for, what the Lord has
done. We can hear those things and
then we can observe the Lord's Supper after we're done eating
and just have a time together as a church doing that. We won't,
for those watching, we won't live stream our Thanksgiving
dinner and Lord's Supper that day. Not unless y'all just want
to see us eating turkey and dressing. We're not going to do that. I'm
just kidding. My wife is shaking her head at me. No, we're not
going to do that. We will not live stream the Thanksgiving
dinner. You all see how much turkey Ed
could eat if we did. He's being pretty stoic back
there. Anyway, so that'll be the 24th. We'll meet on the 24th. And unless anybody has a problem
with that date, that's kind of usually what we do. If you guys
have any prior engagements that you already had, we can move
that to the week before that if you need to, or another day
or the week after, Sunday after the fact. But that's usually
when we did it is each year is the day before. So if there's
any conflicts in that, just let me know and we can definitely
move that around to accommodate whoever if you need to be gone
for that day because we surely want everyone to be here. All right anybody else got anything? All right let's bow and have
a prayer. Father again we thank you for