Before again this morning Ephesians
chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 We're still
in our subsection of our overall study on Christ Church looking at the officers of the
church. The officers of the church. So far we've looked at the fact
that God has given gifts of ministry to the church. And yet these gifts of the ministry, the offices that we currently
have within the local church, there are only two. But yet,
whenever Christ gives gifts, there was other gifts that was
given to the church that were temporary gifts. These were those
of the apostles and of the prophets. When God's word was complete
and given to the people, where they were able to have for themselves
the word of God, the need for the apostles and the need for
prophets was no longer there. And so apostles and prophets,
those gifts that were given to the church have gone away. However, we still have evangelists,
we still have pastors and teachers that are given to the church.
And we also will see as we go along here that the office of
deacon, now the word evangelist here, we'll look at it today,
Lord willing. And we'll see the distinction
and why we say there are only two offices, but yet we're talking
about three things that are still prevalent in the New Testament
church. And we'll discuss those as we
get to it. But first I'd like us to look,
we left off last week, we finished looking at the apostles. But
let's read our scriptures before we get too far into this. Acts
chapter four, and starting in verse eight. Acts chapter four, starting in
verse eight. The word of God 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 far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. Of
course, if you remember, I've mentioned that this is a parentheses
talking about who Christ was, but the flow of the passage,
the flow of the point that Paul is making here in verse eight, flows into verse 11. So if we
read that, we would read, wherefore he saith, when he ascended up
on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men, and
he gave some apostles, and some prophets, 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. 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 and wait to deceive. By 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 supplied according to the effectual working
in the measure of every part making increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love." Now, as we've seen already in
this, the gifts that Christ gave when he ascended up on high to
the church was the gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor
teachers. And the reason that they were
given, and this is why it's important for us to assemble together,
it's why it's important for us to be in a body of Christ, okay? It's why it's important for us
to come to church, is because Christ has given gifts to the
church, look at verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body,
of Christ. So it is the maturing we are
given, the gifts that are given to the church, the apostles,
the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, teachers, are given
to help bring maturity to the saints for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, the first and
foremost thing I want you to see here, and I don't want people
to get get the wrong idea that I don't believe that we should
be outspreading the gospel, that is definitely one of the things.
In our commission by Jesus, our head, he tells us to go make
disciples, right? So we do have a commission to
go make disciples, to go with the gospel and teach and to preach
and to share and to witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So
don't get me wrong, we are not saying that we should not go
preach the gospel. But notice here that the pastors,
teachers, these gifts that are given to the church are for,
look at verse 12, perfecting of the saints for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. See, the
ministry of preaching the gospel, of preaching and teaching the
whole counsel of God in the local assembly is so that each member
of that local assembly is matured in the scriptures, matured in
the faith, okay? So they too might learn and understand
and become part of the ministry of the local church. You remember
back in our section where we were talking about the commission
of the church, we said that that commission was a threefold commission,
right? The commission was given to the
ye, it was given to the collective, to the church, okay? To the whole
local church. And that was to go and make disciples,
to baptize those who are made disciples, and then what was
the third part of that commission? You remember? What was the third
part of the commission? To teach them all things whatsoever
Christ has commanded, right? And so, the ye goes to them,
and whenever them are made disciples, the ye baptizes them, and the
ye teaches them until the them becomes part of the ye, right?
Now, they become part of the ye by membership, but until they
are taught and matured in the faith, they do not know and understand
the things that are of Christ, that Christ has commanded. And
so that is what we do here at the church, is we have this reciprocity,
where when we make disciples, we bring them in, we baptize
them, and then we add them to the membership where they follow
in the teaching of Christ, and we teach them the things of Christ. We teach them about the church,
we teach them about the gospel, we teach them about God, we teach
them all, again, the whole counsel of God, and we begin to teach
them, and as they begin to hear and learn, as the Spirit gives
them instruction, and as the Spirit gives them understanding
and stuff, then they become vital members in the work of the ministry.
If somebody, and it's very suspicious whenever someone says that we
are a disciple of Jesus Christ, first of all, they come in and
they don't want to be baptized, okay? That's something suspicious
there. They should, if after instruction
of the scripture showing that Christ has commanded them to
be baptized, they should be willing and wanting to be baptized, right?
Second of all, it's suspicious whenever one who comes and says,
I'm a disciple of Christ, if they don't want to gather with
the assembly. Because Christ has commanded
them to come and be taught all things whatsoever Christ has
commanded them. And then to reciprocate that,
once they become mature. It's suspicious whenever one
comes, is baptized and is assembling, but yet is never maturing in
the faith to the place where they become workers of the ministry. Now that doesn't mean that you're
a preacher or a teacher necessarily, but that you are involved in
the local church's ministry. There's a lot of things that
can be done here at this local church that is part of the ministry. If it's not, the preaching or
the teaching, but there is other service that can be done. There's
ways that can be done, looking in on people of the church that
has need. We have upkeeps of the ground,
we have givings, we have all kinds of ways that the church
can be served for the edifying of the body of Christ, for the
building up of the body of Christ. So it's suspicious when someone
all their life, or however long, says I'm a disciple of Christ,
but yet they refuse some of the tenets of the things that Christ
has commanded, being baptized, joining the assembly, and being
a part, a faithful part of that assembly, being instructed under
the teaching of that assembly, to be a part of the ministry
of that assembly, to in turn reciprocate and edify the other
parts of the body of the assembly, okay? I mean, just think of it
now, I mean, what if my heart, It's a member of my body, and
it's a very integral part of my body, right? But it's no more
important than any other part of my body. I mean, my heart
doesn't mean nothing if my arteries and my veins decide to say, I'm
going to shut down and not let any blood flow through. Well,
my heart can beat all at once, but if my veins close up and
say, nope, we're not letting no more blood come through, then
my heart's no good. Okay? Same as with any other
part of our body. If all the parts are not working
together, there is not a functioning healthy body. And so to say,
you know, hey, I can be a part of this body, but yet I'm going
to be, you know, a non-functioning part of this body. What happens
whenever we have a non-functioning part in our body? It becomes
a cancer. It becomes a liability, you know. Man, I can tell you
that for a fact. You know, whenever I had my injury
to my arm and I had my surgery done to restructure my bicep,
they got on this nerve that goes through my arm. And still to
this day, even though it's almost two years later, you know, I
still haven't regained all the feeling in these two fingers,
especially in this part of my finger. And it is very detrimental,
especially at my work whenever I'm testing high voltage stains
and my fingers are in there closed and I'm having to hold on to
these probes and whenever I'm trying to thread in screws at
my job and stuff, I mean, my body isn't working right. And
I can see that and it's a detriment to my body. Brethren, that's
why we are given these gifts. And so as we've been seeing in
the officers of the church, that Christ has given gifts to the
church and these gifts are gifts not for us to be puffed up or
prideful about. I'm not to be going around and
saying, hey, I'm God's gift to you. That's not what it is about. God has given these gifts, these
special gifts to the church for causing the rest of the church
to become more functioning. See, the gift of pastor, teacher,
and as we'll see also of deacon, The gifts of those is to help
function, or help the body function more fluidly and become more
functioning together, okay? Look what it says, for the perfecting
of the saints for the work of the ministry, okay? You coming
and hearing the preaching and the teaching here in the local
assembly is so that there would be maturity in the faith so that
you might be a part of the work of the ministry, not just to
sit and go home and just say, that was a great sermon the preacher
preached. That should be causing you, the purpose of this is to
cause the body to be fed. And what happens whenever a body
is fed? It's nourished and it's functioning right. It's healthy. A body needs food. Food is God's
gift to us. That's why Jesus said, I am the
bread that came down out of heaven. Moses gave you bread, and that
bread wasn't bread that was good bread, okay? It was sustaining
bread, but it wasn't great bread. My bread that I bring, my bread
gives you life, my bread sustains you. If you eat and drink of
this body, then it's gonna be all that you need, okay? You'll
never hunger, you'll never thirst, okay? And so we see that we as
the pastors, teachers, evangelists, we are given to the church to
help feed the church with the word of God. And as we feed a
body, that body should naturally grow. We wouldn't expect if we
have a little baby, we wouldn't expect that little baby that
if we fed that baby, well, first of all, if that baby's not fed,
what happens? It's gonna die, right? And any child of grace
that's not fed on God's word, I'm not saying that they're gonna
lose their salvation. But what I'm saying is spiritually they're
gonna dry up, they're gonna shrivel up. They're not gonna know and
be fed by God's word and they're not gonna know the greatness
of God, the wonders and the glory and the love and the mercy and
know the things of God. Those are the things that spiritually
liven us. And so we need the word. The
Bible says that man should not live by bread alone but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And the Bible says that
this right here, all scripture is given by inspiration or as
what that word inspiration means is breathed out by God. All these
words are breathed out by God. So man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
These are God's words. And so we have been given gifts
in the church, the assembly, to give the food that God has
given us for spiritual life. for spiritual health, for spiritual
growth, right? And so we take that and we feed
the flock with that. And in turn, the outcome of feeding,
and that is long as we're feeding them healthy food, right? You
know, if you feed somebody junk food all the time, their body's
gonna be not healthy. And so we feed with healthy food. We preach what God's word says,
not what tradition says, not what man says. Okay, and so we
preach and teach for the edifying, or for the perfecting of the
saints for the work of the ministry. Why? So that in turn, you, as
you are doing the work of the ministry, are edifying to the
body of Christ. How long are you to do that?
I put in a good job, man, I did that all last week. How long is this reciprocity
of the ministry of Christ, of the ministry of the gospel of
the local church? How long are we to do that? Man,
I'm going to put in a good month, man. Boy, I've done it all month
long and you know, I need to take a break for a while. Now,
what does it say? 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. Remember, the commission is an
age-long commission. And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. He's with us always in what?
In going, making disciples, in baptizing, and in teaching and
all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. Okay, and so till
we all come into the unity of the faith, okay, that's not talking
about the unity of the trust, that's talking about the body
of doctrine. Till we all come in the unity of the body of the
doctrine, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
or mature man unto the measure of the stature of Christ. Remember,
the illustration or the metaphor of a church is a body, right?
And so we're edifying the body, we're building up the body, why?
So that it might become mature. And that's what he's talking
about, till we become a mature man. This body will become a
mature man, okay? Unto the measure of the stature
or the fullness of Christ. Why? That we henceforth no more
children, okay, tossed to and fro and carried about by every
wind and doctor. And listen, today, people are
just so easy to pick up on any little thing that comes down
the pike. We should be firmly established in the faith, rooted
and grounded in the faith. The Bible says that the church
is the pillar and the ground of truth. How can we be that
if we don't have mature people rooted in the faith? See, it's
not just the pastor, brethren, okay? The pastor surely should
be grounded in the faith, but yet it's also the responsibility
of the church to be grounded in the faith. And how do they
do that? Well, one of the most simplest things that I can say
is to be here for the instruction of the word of God. You become
rooted in the faith whenever the gift that God has given to
the church to teach them, to bring them to maturity for the
work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ,
whenever they're there preaching and teaching the word of God.
Now see, people want to negate that, and I'm not here, again,
I'm not here trying to toot my horn or to pat myself on the
back or to make myself be risen above everybody where I'm the
clergy and you're the lower people, okay? That's not it. All we're
doing is taking what God's word is saying and we're looking at
what God's word is saying. The word of God is saying that
pastors, evangelists, pastors, teachers are given as gifts by
Christ to the church. And they're given for the purpose
of feeding you the whole counsel of God so that you will become
more mature in the faith a part of the ministry so that in turn
you will help edify the body of Christ. So it may start here
with the feeding, but it's reciprocated because once you become mature
in the faith and become a part of the work of the ministry,
you also are building up the others in Christ, just as I'm
doing with my gift that God has given. You're in turn with your
gift building up. So I'm building from the place
that God has called me to build, you're building in the place
that God has called you to build so that everybody is being built
up. Okay? And so that's why the gifts
have been given. The word of God is to be preached
so that the people of God will be fed so that once nourished,
they will have the energy, so to speak, they will have the
ability, the maturity, the ability to do the work of the ministry,
which is to edify the body of Christ or to build up the body
of Christ. And so some people want to negate
and say, well, you know, we're all taught by the, you know,
the Holy Spirit teaches every Christian. And so every Christian,
you know, can be built up by studying the word of God. And,
and, and, you know, listen, he's given the gift to the church,
to the assembly, There's something about whenever the people of
God gather that is different than whenever we are not gathered.
Yes, we all study our Bibles when we get home. Yes, the Holy
Spirit gives us understanding, but there is something that is
feeding and maturing that comes when we sit in the assembly and
we worship God together, when we serve God together, and whenever
we exercise the gifts of God together, and we hear the word
of God preached to us in the context of that assembly. There is something that the Holy
Spirit does that is a special work of grace that Jesus promised,
that presence to be there, that power to be there, that is the
place of service that he is ordained to be. And so whenever we come
and be a part of that, not only is that a privilege, But brethren,
it is very, very important to our growth and to our understanding
of God's word. And as it says here, that we
henceforth be no more children, that we might be grown up. That's
what matured means, right? Whenever these kids were a little
bitty, okay, they were immature, but as they've gone along, now
they're at teenager age, they've matured more. They still have
more maturity to go. So as we grow from children,
to adults, we begin to mature. And that's what he's using this
metaphor for. The reason that these pastors and teachers and
evangelists have been given is so that the word of God might
be preached, so that the people of God might be fed, so that
they might be an integral part in the ministry of the church,
and that they in turn will build up the body of Christ, and that
in doing that, they're not gonna be tossed back and forth with
every wind of doctrine. I can guarantee you, and again,
I've mentioned this before in the past, this has been one of
the things that was very evident to me whenever we come out of
the Southern Baptist Church that I grew up in, and that, of course,
not just that church, but a lot of the Southern Baptist churches
that I'd ever been in, and not just Southern Baptist churches.
Whenever I traveled and sang with that gospel group across
the country, we went into all kinds of churches,
quote unquote churches, you know, whether they be, you know, Baptist
churches or non-Baptist churches, we went to a lot of different
churches. And it was the same just about everywhere you went,
that the preacher was the one that got up and supposedly had
all the knowledge of the word of God, but whenever you talk
to the people, they didn't have a clue. They could hardly carry
on any kind of really theological conversation at all, much less
have a grounded, faith of, this is what I believe, and this is
why I believe, and let me show you. Well, what about this? What
about this? And then go to the scriptures and be able to defend
what they believed. But whenever we came out of that,
we began to fellowship and we began to see these churches that
preached the truth of Christ, the true gospel. And whenever
we began to see these churches that held to the New Testament
pattern of the assembly, And we began to visit and go to their
conferences and all this stuff. We began to see, listen, the
people that was in the pews had greater depth of understanding
of God's word and was able to defend the faith than a lot of
the preachers that I met in all these other so-called churches
out there. Why, why is that? Well, because of this right here.
This is the pattern. The New Testament church with
the true word of God, with the gospel of Christ, true given
gifts of pastor, teacher, true churches gathering together under
the right gospel, under the right ministry of the gospel. What
was God doing? God was teaching them. And listen,
those people were grounded in the faith. And whenever someone
would come with some sort of odd doctrine or odd teaching
and everything, listen, they knew it and they weren't easily
swayed to that. And that's what we should be
here. If the Lord would ever take me, you know, whether it
be by death or any other way from here, would you guys be
able to stand for the faith? You know, Brother Tom Armstrong,
I know you guys know Brother Tom, he preached here at our
conference and then he also has been an acquaintance of ours,
you know, here at the church for quite a while. He was making
mention to us at a men's breakfast a while back that how amazing
it was that he has pastored a church over in, I'm trying to think
of, where was it that you and brother Howard went to? Fairview. Over in Fairview, and he pastored
there for several years, and it wasn't long after he left
that church that that church completely and totally went Armenian,
that they completely turned and brought in, had a pastor, and
everybody in the church was believing in free will and decisionism,
and just completely, totally turned away from what he had been preaching. Same
thing whenever he's preaching up in, what was the other town,
not by Sarkozy, La Russell. He said that some of the people
there preached for years and years
and years. I never did hear these things. But why do you think
that a person that preaches the doctrines of grace or preaches
the truth of God can preach that and then once they leave, they
are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine? Okay, was it the pastor's fault
for not preaching that? Well, no, I know Brother Tom,
he's a faithful preacher of the gospel. But what happens here,
remember, it's not just the pastor. It's not just on the pastor. He gave some apostles, some prophets,
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, 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 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. See, there's
a reciprocity within the local church. It's just not on the
pastor. However, the Lord has given the gift of pastor to be
the initiate. The one who brings forth the
word of God that in turn causes the reciprocity to happen, okay? And so it's an important thing
that we be in the local church and we have faithful men of God
and everything. And just because a man stands
in this pulpit, okay, just because I'm standing here doesn't mean
that I'm the be all end all. It doesn't mean that everything
that I say is 100% correct. You're to judge by the word of
God. You're to judge. See, if all
you do is just listen to whatever a man says and just agrees to
it because, oh, well, he's the preacher, I gotta listen to him,
then that's where we get tossed to and fro by every whim of doctrine. See, we need to be rooted and
grounded in what? The faith. Till we all come in
the unity of the faith. See, that's what we're preaching.
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come into
the unity of faith. So if that's what we're all to come into,
that's what we are to be preaching, is the faith of Christ. Now,
again, I'm not talking about his faithfulness, although we
do preach about his faithfulness. I'm not talking about the work
of Christ. I'm talking about, we are to
preach and teach, and we are to take the doctrine that Christ
has given us and to preach that. If I preach on the sovereignty
of God, not only does that teach you about God, but it also helps
you in consolation. If you know, if you're a true
child of grace, you're gonna rest in the fact that God is
in control of all things. If I preach on the death of Christ
and what it has done, not only is that gonna tell you historically
what has happened, but it's also gonna give you comfort to know
what Christ has done. You're gonna trust in Him, in
Him alone. If you know that salvation is only by His work and not by
anything that you do that's gonna relieve you, for one, that you
don't have to maintain the standard of holiness to be accepted of
God, then He has done it for you. And what's that gonna in
turn do? It's gonna cause us to praise
the Lord. Why are we praying? Why do we sing those songs today?
Because of what Jesus has done for us. And so we have this,
gift given in these men. Now we've talked about, and that
was a little longer introduction than I wanted to have this morning,
but I felt the Spirit was needing to lead to that because there
is a purpose that the gifts have been given. And we don't want
to negate that. We don't want to belittle that.
We don't want to just pass it off as, well, it's not much importance,
you know. We all have the word of God. We all have, you know,
and everything. Again, I'm not saying that we
are priests and that people have to go through us to get to God.
I'm not saying that. I'm saying that it is an integral
part of the ministry of the gospel, how Christ has set it up. It's
a gift to the local assembly, and that that gift in the local
assembly is so that the whole assembly might be a part of the
work of God, just as much as the pastor is, okay? So it starts
with the pastor preaching faithfully to the people of God, but the
reason for that is so that the people of God will hear and will
also grow into maturity and become an integral part of the ministry
as much as the pastor is, and that all of them would be faithful
to the work of the ministry. Now, like I said, we had apostles,
we looked at apostles, and we've seen that the apostles was a
gift that was given for a foundational office, that it was given to
establish the doctrine of Christ in the churches as the church
The institution of the church was new. It wasn't what was in
the Old Testament. The New Testament was built,
or excuse me, the church began with Jesus Christ. He laid that
foundation himself. He taught it to the apostles.
The apostles then became the ones who foundationally was the
ones going out and making sure that the churches as they began
would follow the doctrine of Christ and the practice of Christ.
But today let's look at prophets. What are prophets? Well, all
apostles were prophets. We know that because every one
of the apostles was taught directly by Christ and was given the words
to say by Christ. So we know that prophets, all
apostles were prophets, but not all prophets were apostles, okay? Not all prophets were apostles. Look with me if you would at
Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11 and look with
me if you would down to verse 26. Well, I guess I need to back
up just a little bit. Look, let's go back to verse...
Man, where's a good place to... Verse 19, now they which were
scattered abroad upon the persecution that rose about Stephen traveled
as far as Phineas and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word
to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of
Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake
unto the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the
Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto
the Lord. Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem, and they
sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch,
who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad and
exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto
the Lord. For he was a good man and full
of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto
the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus
for to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he
brought him unto Antioch, and it came to pass that a whole
year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much
people, and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. And in these days came prophets
from Jerusalem unto Antioch, and there stood up one of them
named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should
be a great dearth throughout all the world, which came to
pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every
man according to his ability, determined to send relief under
the brethren and dwelt in Judea, which also they did and sent
it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul." So here
we see in Acts that there was a prophet named Agamas within
the church. And this was at the church in
Jerusalem. And he came to Antioch. And he spoke and he told for
some things that was to happen. that God had given him ability
to know ahead of time. And we see that Agabus was not
an apostle, okay? But he was a prophet. He was
to tell the things that was to come, all right? Look also with
me, if you would, over into chapter 13. Look at verse one. Now there were in
the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers
as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger, and Lucius
of Cyrene, and Manan, which had been brought up with Herod the
Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul
from the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had
fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them
away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto
Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. Okay, so we
see here that there was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers,
and of course we see there's Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, and
Menaion, and neither of them, none of them, were apostles,
okay? So none of them were apostles.
So apostles can be prophets, but prophets doesn't necessarily
mean they were apostles, okay? So there is a distinction between
the two offices there. The prophets, like the apostles,
was a foundational ministry. The prophets received direct
revelation from God. Now keep in mind that it was,
from the time of Christ until the time of the Bible being given
to, or the New Testament being completed, was a time period
of about 60 years, okay? So this apostolic time period
was a reach of about 60 years. And so these foundational offices
of apostles and prophets was needed because there was no word
of God There was no scripture that was given to them for these
New Testament teachings, for these New Testament things. Yes,
they had the Old Testament and they surely preached the gospel
from the Old Testament. But the doctrine of Christ concerning
the ministry of the gospel in this new covenant dispensation
had not yet been written and given to the churches. And so
during that period, the apostles and the prophets were needful
offices where God directly spoke to those men and directly give
them the words to say unto the people of God. And so there was
a ministry that took place during those 60 year periods. But once
the New Testament was completed, it wasn't necessary to have the
gift of prophecy. or the gift of the apostles anymore. The gift of prophecy and the
gift of apostleship was no longer needed. The authority was in
God's word. The record was in God's word. Christ Jesus has given us the
words that he has written down by his own inspiration. And so these are scriptures.
And as a matter of fact, the Bible says in Timothy that all
scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And
so we are to look to them as our sole understanding of what God has
said. Prophets supplied the need of
the early New Testament churches for the new covenant revelation. What they were teaching and what
they were preaching was what Christ had fulfilled of the types
and foreshadows of the Old Testament. And then they were to tell of
the things to come, what Christ had been doing. Of course, as
we've seen there with Agabus, he foretold that God was going
to bring a dearth throughout all the world and it came to
pass. Now, I would also like to mention this, for those who
want to get real technical about the gift of prophecy and of a
prophet, okay? The gift of prophecy and a prophet.
If you look in the scripture, a true prophet of God, whenever
he spoke, was 100% correct every time. Matter of fact, God's word
says that if one comes and claims to be a prophet, and he speaks
for something that doesn't come to pass, what was that supposed
to do to him? They're supposed to kill him.
They're supposed to stone him. You think of all these guys on
TV, all these charismatic guys that's on there that's calling
themselves prophet this and prophet that, and said they have these
divine revelations. Benny Hinn that gets up there
and says that God spoke to him directly. Or Oral Roberts who
said that God spoke to him directly. You remember Oral Roberts saying
that God told me that if I don't raise this amount of money in
so many days that I'm gonna die? That didn't happen, did it? You hear Benny Hinn, I remember
one time he said that he was going down, I think it was somewhere
down in South America, and that he was gonna be doing a crusade
down in South America. And he said that God had specifically
told him that Jesus was gonna appear in the flesh and would
even be seen by the cameras that they would have down there televising
this crusade, that Jesus would be on the platform with him.
That came and went and didn't happen. Yet everybody continues
to call these men prophets and listen to them when they say,
God told me this, God said this, God, let me, you know, give me
a vision of this and that. Yet the Bible says that if that
man speaks and it doesn't come to pass, you're to stone him,
you're to kill him, you know? But yet what do the people in
quote unquote, Christian, Christendom, What do they do? They continue
to put them up on platforms, and they continue to give them
millions of dollars. They continue to listen to all their drivel.
Why? Because they preach the tickling things that they want
to hear. They preach the tickling things they want to hear. However,
the true prophet of God, whenever he said anything, you know what
happened? It happened. It happened exactly
the way that it happened. And we have people today that
are doing these visions, and it kind of goes back to this
illustration also, Preacher gave me this one time, he said this
guy came into his office where he was, his study one time, and
he was some charismatic or Pentecostal preacher that had been going
around to all the churches and was wanting to come and do some
sort of a revival or crusade or something at everybody's churches.
And so anyway, he came to this preacher and he came in and he
said, you know, God told me to come to your church and that
I need to, you know, preach to your church, the pastor said,
well, is what you have to say to our church in the Bible and stuff? And he said, well, yeah. And
he said, well, we don't have any need for you. We have the
Bible. And the guy said, well, it's something that's, you know,
it's something that God has revealed unto me. He said, well, is it,
is what God has revealed to you not in the scriptures? Well,
no, he said, well, we don't need you then because we only need
what's in the scriptures. So he basically cornered the
guy and he said, you know, listen, we have everything we need in
the word of God. Okay. We don't need new revelation
given to us outside of the word of God. God has revealed what
he wants us to know in the word of God. Okay. Now, if you're
coming to want to preach and to expound the word of God, then
that's wonderful. You know, now he didn't say that
to this guy because he wasn't going to let that guy preach
in his church anyway. But anyhow, that's a prophet. If the prophet
comes, he's coming to tell things that are unknown to foretell
what is to take place. But yet Christ has revealed things
to us now in his word by him, by himself. And he's revealed
that to us through his word. And so we don't need somebody
to foretell what's gonna happen to us. Why? Because it's all
right here. We don't need anybody to say, this is what God says,
because God has said it right here and revealed it to us in
the scriptures, okay? So apostles and prophets have
gone away. Well, what about the word evangelist?
It says the word evangelist there. These men were gifted heralds
of the gospel, gifted men of God to be able to preach gospel. Have you ever noticed, you know,
I'm, you know, I'm a, I'm a pastor teacher and, you know, my form
or way of teaching is more of a kind of a teaching way, you
know, but have you ever seen there, there's a lot of preachers
up there that whenever they get, you know, they, they preach and,
and, and, you know, they come with, with, you know, directness. They put forth the word of God
and in a, in a way, in an oratory way that, that is more, authoritative
sounding, and you know, they herald the gospel, like, you
need to hear this type thing, you know? Whereas, you know,
I'm kind of, let's open the word of God, let's discuss it, teach
it, and open it up, and everything like that, okay? Well, there
are some men who have been gifted to be able to preach the word
of God, and they may not have the gift or
be able to shepherd a flock, by being here to oversee or to
care for and to open up and just teach the word of God in an environment
like we do here. And so the evangelist was this
type of person. Now, do we have evangelists today? Yes, I believe that we do have
evangelists today. I believe that this ministry
is still here. I do not believe that it is an office of the local
church. Okay? It is not an office of
the local church, and here's the reason why. The evangelist
is the one who typically was sent by the local church to preach
the gospel in other places, to organize churches. See, now,
again, we see in the scriptures there are some men who held multiple
offices. The apostles fit this bill. Paul. He was an apostle, but he also
was a prophet. He also was an evangelist. He
went about by the sending of the churches to go out and to
preach the gospel to other places. And whenever those people were
made disciples, to gather them into the church. Okay, this is
typically the ministry of the evangelist. They were gifted
heralds of the gospel. Now, typically today, this gift
or this ministry is called missionary, okay? It's termed for a missionary. That's not a biblical term. Let's
use the biblical term. He's an evangelist, okay? He's
sent forth to do evangelism. He's evangelizing. He's speaking
the gospel. He's spreading the gospel outside
from the church, but he is sent by the church. And we see that
the Bible teaches that there were several men who fit this
bill and who were called evangelist. Philip was an evangelist, but
we also know that Philip was also a deacon, right? We learned
that Philip was one of the original seven, but that later, Philip
was found to be an incisoria, and the apostles came and met
with Philip there, and at that point, the Bible calls him Philip
the evangelist, okay? We know that Luke fit this bill.
Luke was one who went around with the apostles and he aided
the apostles. And so the evangelist seems to
be, in the apostolic time, was an aid, a person sent out from
the church, but was sent out to aid the apostles. But after
that apostolic time, the evangelists were the ones that the church
sent out to minister the gospel in other locations and other
regions, okay? They weren't tied to the assembly.
They went out and preached the gospel outside of the assembly,
and then outside of the assembly, as men and women were being brought
to the faith, and they were repenting and believing, they were being
baptized and brought into churches, those evangelists, by the sending
of those churches would go out and to gather them into a church
and to establish the things of Christ there, and to make sure
that that church was set on a footing just like how it was in the first
century. Just how they did it in the first
century. That ministry continues, as I said, that commission is
still being reciprocated today by all the true believers in
Christ and those who are following the commission, the way Christ
has given it to us, and the commands and the doctrines of practice
that Christ has given us. And so that still is being done
today, and the evangelist is the one who carries those things
out under the direction of the local church. And so we see that,
we see that in Philip again, Luke, Titus fit the bill of the
evangelist, Timothy, Paul told Timothy that he is to continue
to do the work of an evangelist. Now we know that Timothy was
also the pastor at Ephesus, right? But he was also to do the work
of the evangelist, to preach the gospel and to go out and
to teach. I've been given opportunity here to be able to go outside
of here and to preach and to teach. Whenever I go, what am
I doing? I'm doing the work of an evangelist. I'm going to preach
and to herald the gospel outside of where God has called me to
pastor the local church. So I have not only the call of
pastor, but I also have evangelist whenever you send me out. And
so these works are outside of the local church. Now, surely
whenever the evangelist is home and within the local church,
And he has the ability to be able to preach and to teach because
he will be an ordained minister of the gospel. He has the ability
to preach and to teach. But yet, the reason that he is
not an officer of the church is because that he is usually
not in the meeting of the local church because he is always out
away preaching the gospel. Whenever we talk about the officers
of the local church, we are talking about the permanent offices that
are here in the assembly all the time, and that is those of
pastors and teachers. And so, let's see what time it
is, 11.23. We see that the term pastors
and teachers is given to those who are, turn back with me to
Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4. The office of pastor, teacher,
and the office of deacon is what we believe to be the two offices
of the local church today. These are the permanent offices.
These are the ones that are set within the church to function
within the church and not necessarily outside the church. other than
as it pertains to the ministry of those within the church. Pastors
and teachers. Most Bible students agree, though,
this is a two-fold description of one office, pastor and teacher. Matter of fact, if you look in
your scriptures there, I think that the Holy Spirit makes that
clear in the wording. I'm in the wrong chapter here. Makes that clear in the wording
also. Look how he, look how he, gives
the different gifts. He says, and he gave some apostles,
and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Now I believe that pastors and
teachers is speaking of one office, of one person, And one of the
reasons why is because he delineated each one of these gifts or offices
by beginning with some. He gives some to be this, some
to be that, some to be this. But whenever he came to pastors
and teachers, he didn't say, and he gives some to be pastors
and some teachers. Now, there are a lot of people
that wanna make that two categories, and then thus in the church,
they make two categories of people, especially a lot of the Reformed
Baptist churches, they have differing ministries. They have, well,
this is the preaching elder, this is the pastoring elder,
this is the teaching elder, okay? So they have different things
and they split it up. But the pastor and teacher or
the pastor teacher is actually one description or is a twofold
description of one office. And the way we look at this is
that the pastor is a shepherd over the spiritual concerns of
the flock, but he also feeds the flock by preaching and teaching
the word of God. If you look with me in Philippians
chapter one, The reason I say that there's
only two offices and the evangelist isn't counted in the office of
the church, that it is an office or a gift
that Christ has given to the church to use as an instrument
outside of the church, but he's also given to the church two
offices. Look here in Philippians. It
says Paul and Timothy, verse one, Paul and Timothy are the
servants of Jesus Christ. to all the saints in Christ Jesus,
which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." Okay, so
he mentions the bishops and the deacons, only two offices there.
There was the bishops, there was the deacons. You say, well,
wait a minute, I thought you said pastors and teachers, not bishops. I thought bishops was something
totally different. Okay, we're gonna get into that. But if you'll
notice there, there are two offices here. Evangelists move from place
to place as they evangelize in established churches. However,
the office of pastor and deacon are normally, or the standard
is usually within the already established churches, okay? So their responsibility is within
the body where the evangelist's responsibility is being sent
by that body to work outside of that body to gather into one
another body somewhere that the Lord brings disciples together. Now, there are many titles for the
word pastor. The New Testament refers to ministers
as bishops, as elders, as pastors. The word bishop, it means an
overseer. Pastor means a shepherd. As a
matter of fact, let me get my notes here. I've got just a little
breakdown on the words here that's used in the scriptures. The office of pastor, the word
is, there are two words, I guess, that we should look at in the
word pastor, and that is the word episkopos, That word literally
means an overseer, okay? It literally means an overseer.
That's where we get our word episcopal, okay? Episcopal. But it means, the word means
overseer. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Timothy. Chapter three. starting in verse one, 1 Timothy
chapter three, verse one. This is a true saying, if a man
desire the office, and notice that he says the word office
here. There's only two places, or there's only two things in
scripture that the scriptures declare as office in the church,
and that is the office of bishop and the office of deacon. Okay,
the office of bishop and the office of deacon. But if you
look here, it says, this is a true saying, if a man desired the
office of a bishop, he desired the good work. A bishop then
must be blameless, the husband of one wife, okay. Sorry, ladies. Okay, that is not your role in
the church. Now for those, For those who
may not have heard that, we got an amen from one of the ladies
in our church. They know that to be true, okay?
They know that to be true. Ladies know their roles in the
church. We're not trying to suppress
women. We're not trying to say women are unequal to men in how
God made us. There is differences in how God's
roles are given to us in the family and in the church are
different roles, okay? And so we don't want to squelch
the ladies or anything. They have a tremendous, tremendous
ministry, not only to the family, but to the church. And we don't
ever, ever want to look down upon them. But the word of God
has given us what is different now in the church. I know people
like to go to all these different things in scripture. Matter of
fact, we had this conversation on one of my posts on Facebook
not too long ago. everything people always want
to go back to the Old Testament point to Deborah and point to
some of these other prophets this in the Old Testament that's
not the New Testament Church these are specific rules that
Christ has given the Apostles to lay down in the churches and
the rules for the New Testament Church is that a bishop must
be the husband of one wife not a wife of one husband okay It's
not to be a woman. Now, there's other scriptures
besides that, and we'll eventually get to those before too long,
but it says, a bishop must be blameless, the husband of one
wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality,
apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy, a filthy
lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetedness, one that ruleth
well his own house, having his children in subjection with all
gravity. For if a man know not how to
rule his own house, how shall he take care, here it is, take
care of the church of God? Okay, so one of the things about
being a bishop or a pastor is that we take care of the church
of God. We rule the house of God. Now, not as a dictator, We don't
rule it that way, okay? How do we rule the house of God?
That word rule there, it doesn't mean to command, but it means
to set an order, to keep in order. Just like in the house, I keep
in order the house. That's why it's talking about
the children. You know, with the children, we are to keep
in order the children, okay? Not a novice, lest being lifted
up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. I
don't know how many times, and I'll be the first one to say,
I think I fit the bill here early on in my life, is I believe that
there was a lot of allowing me to be in a place of leadership
too early. And I still was puffed up with
pride, and I probably did more damage than I did any good and
everything. But at one time, whenever I was
young, still barely out of high school, and even some in high
school, you know, I was in teaching in the church. And of course,
at that point, I don't believe I was a believer. You know, I
wasn't a believer then. You know, I believe in a false
gospel, a false Jesus, and holding to false truths at that time. And so everything that I did
anyway wasn't profitable. But anyway, says, moreover, he
must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall
into reproach and the snare of the devil. Now that there, brethren,
is the qualifications to be a pastor. OK, so as the church, that's
what we are to look for in a pastor before anybody is put up and
considered and prayed upon fasting in prayer to consider that person
to be a pastor. Does that person meet these qualifications? Not that one of these days he
might make it to those qualifications. Does he meet those qualifications?
Because those are the qualifications that God has laid down for one
to be a pastor of a local church. A lot of times, what do churches
do today? Well, the first thing they do
is, well, where'd you go to seminary? That's usually one of the first
things that they ask. Well, have you been to seminary?
Well, there's a lot of churches that if you've not been to seminary,
they won't even consider you to be their pastor because you've
not been educated. Well, what do you mean? Educated
by who? By other men? You want somebody
to be your pastor that his whole spiritual education has come
by the hands of men? Hello? You want someone to come and
teach you spiritual things because he's got a degree in carnal things?
Hello? The other thing is, what other
churches have you pastored? Have you ever pastored any other
churches? They may look at you, well, you're
young and vibrant. That will appeal to our younger
people. Maybe we can get more younger
people to come to our church if we get a pastor that's young
and hip, okay? You know, I'm not the most exciting
person in the world. But you know what, if they're
drawn to this church because of me Whoever would be drawn
to this church because of me is in sad shape. But if they're
drawn because of the pastor, not only is that idolatry on
their part, but that's foolishness on their part. The reason that
anybody is drawn to a church is because of the establishment
of the truth that is there. The preaching of the truth, the
believing of the truth, the carrying out of the truth. Those are the
things that we should look for when we're looking for a church.
But when we're looking for a pastor, We're looking at all these external
things, and these are the things that God has called. There are
many of men right now who do not fit these things, and yet
they continue to seek to be pastors, and churches say, hey, let's
just put them in there. At one time, the church where I attended,
there was people in the church that said, you're gonna make
a good preacher because your grandpa was a good preacher.
Well, that doesn't make a good preacher. And I know what they
were saying. Their heart was in the right
place. They was thinking that because
of my grandpa being grown up underneath that and listening
to that and everything, and then what little bit of teaching that
I did. But listen, that no more made me a preacher than anything
else. Matter of fact, I've got several relatives that are preachers
that didn't make me a better preacher, didn't make me a preacher.
It doesn't make anybody a preacher. These three boys of mine, just
because I'm a preacher, that doesn't mean that they're gonna
be preachers. It doesn't make them apt to preach. It doesn't
make them gifted with preaching. It doesn't make them anything.
Only the Holy Spirit gives those things and calls us to those
things. But notice if you will, it says,
moreover, he must have good report of them which are without, lest
he fall into reproach and a snare of the devil. Likewise, must
the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given of much wine, not greedy
of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in pure
conscience, and let these also first be proved. Then let them
use the office of a deacon, the word office is used for deacon
here again, remember, being found blameless. And then it goes on
and talks about the wives, okay? And so, We see the two offices
found here, bishop and deacon. But the word here, bishop, if
you look again, we see that it talks about taking care of God's
church, it's an overseer. Turn with me to Titus. Chapter one. Again, these are the office of
pastor, The word episkopos, or an overseer,
you'll see is found in the qualifications of this. Titus chapter one, verse
seven. Actually, let's move up to verse
six. It says, if any be blameless,
the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused
of riot, or unruly, see if my children were otherwise, I wouldn't
have the qualifications to be a pastor. We've said often here, and you
guys have been kind and have always commented on my kids and
how well they are behaved and things like that, and one of
the things that me and my wife always try to make known is that
we have been blessed by the Lord, okay? Have we raised them the
way that we should? Absolutely. Have we failed in
raising them the way that we should? Yeah, we've also done
that too. We've not been perfect in our raising of our kids. But
the Lord has blessed us with children the way they are now. That's not to go to their heads
and they think that they're wonderful and great in all things, okay?
And they're not perfect. But God has brought that to be
and he has given me and my wife to teach our children and to
raise our children, but if God, and if you think about this,
if God had a purpose before the foundation of the world for me
to be a pastor of a church and to have children, then for me
to be a pastor and be considered with the qualifications of pastor,
I would have to have children that were ruled and have, as
it says here, not accused of riot or being unruly. It's as
much as God's purpose and providence that my children are what they
are than it is in our teaching. Our teaching is just God's predestinated
work in us to raise our children and their makeup of how they
are is all of God. All of that was of God, why?
So that I would be able to be considered to be a pastor. There are a lot of people, though,
out there, and I can tell you, there are preachers out there
that have children that are riotous and unruly. And they don't have
any control over those kids. And you know what? A lot of people
talk about them whenever they leave. They say, man, those kids
are the worst. And you talk about them. Well,
what does that do? That's bringing reproach. And what is the thought?
How in the world is that man gonna oversee the Lord's church
if he can't even oversee his own home. That's what Paul is
saying in these two passages in Timothy and in Titus. Why
is the qualifications for a pastor to be such? Well, how in the
world is he going to be an overseer to conduct and keep order within
the church if he can't do that in his own home? If he fails
to do it to the people that are the closest to him, how is he
going to do it to the people that's not as close to him as
his intimate family? But look on, it says, it says,
for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed,
not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to
filthy lucre, not a lover, not a lover, but a lover of hospitality,
a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast
the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able
by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially
they of the circumcision, whose mouths must, now look at this,
whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses teaching
things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. Now, we'll
stop right there. But notice, if you would, that
a pastor here is one who keeps the oversight of the local church
by how? Well, number one, holding fast
the faithful word. Are you looking for a pastor
out there? If you're looking for a pastor, you need to find
someone who holds fast the faithful word of God, who holds fast the
faithful word. He's not compromising. You know,
what would it be here if I were to compromise the Word of God
for everybody that comes in here? Well, we'd have all kinds of
people in here. We'd be preaching all kinds of doctrine that contradict
itself in here. We wouldn't be faithful to Christ,
right? We'd be ecumenical, yes. And boy, the people love ecumenicalism. They love that. But whenever
you say no, You can't do that. No, you can't be that way. No,
that's not what God's Word says. See, people think that their
feelings and their emotions and that secular unity is more important
than biblical unity, which all biblical unity, and this is just
a side note, and it's for free, all biblical unity is centered
upon the Word of God, the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Christ.
The only way we have unity is around proper doctrine. It's
not about that we get along or agree with each other or love
each other. Those things are byproducts.
What brings unity is the doctrine Okay, but if everybody has different
doctrines, but they all can hold hands together and love each
other, then that's not biblical unity, that's some other kind
of unity, and that unity is not the unity that we are looking
for. Now, we will get that unity if we're biblical and centered
around the word of God. We will also have that unity
too, but we're not gonna have it at the detriment or at the
adulterous activity of holding hands with a false gospel or
a false church. Those are the churches of Babylon.
Those are the churches of the harlot. Those churches are solicitous
of other people, trying to get them to be a part of what they're
doing. And we don't have any desire
to be a part of that. But what does it say here for
the pastor? How is he the overseer? Or how is he, as we've seen,
the word episkopos means overseer. How is he the overseer? holding
fast the faithful word as he has been taught. Why? That he
may be able by sound doctrine. Okay. How is the pastor to oversee
the church of God and hold fast the faithful word?
How is he to do that? By just being the nicest guy
in the building? By being the most loving and
thoughtful guy in the building? Well, I think a pastor ought
to be those things, surely. okay but the measure of the pastor
isn't necessarily on how well he attends to your sick bed now
that's part of i'm not negating that that's part of okay as a
pastor do i want to be there do i want to hear whenever you're
in the hospital yeah i don't know how many times i've mentioned
this lady right here you need to tell us if you ever go to
the hospital whenever brother howard was was with us and him
getting in and out. You guys be sure to let us know. We wanna know whenever you're
sick. We wanna know when you're in
need, whenever you have troubles. We wanna know those things. Why?
We wanna try to be a help as much as we can. Okay, pastors
want to do that. But see, that's not really the
measure of the pastor. The pastor as the overseer is
to make sure that everything that's done in the assembly is
done first and foremost according to the commands of Christ, and
then second as the overseer, he is to make sure that the word
of God is the standard by which we go by. Holding fast the faithful
word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound
doctrine both to exhort, that's to help build you up, right?
We're exhorting you, challenging you, giving you something to
go on and say, man, man, the word of God really spoke to me
today. And man, I just really wanna do what that says and be
a part of that or whatever the case might be to exhort, but
also to convince the gainsayers. One of my jobs as the pastor,
one of my callings and duties as a pastor is to know the word
of God and to hold fast the word of God without compromise, Why?
So whenever there's any gang sayers that comes within the
church or any gang sayers that is attacking those within the
church with things that are not true, that by sound doctrine,
I can help them to see and to understand and to correct those
things or to not listen to those things, to be easily swayed into
those things. That's why the pastor has to
be diligent about his studies, in the Word of God, that's why
the pastor has to be diligent about doctrine and that's why
he preaches doctrine. You wanna know why I preach doctrine
here all the time and I hound you on doctrine and not so much
about your feelings? It's because doctrine is what's
gonna keep you rooted so that your feelings will be kept in
check. Your feelings are kept in check by proper doctrine.
Your service is kept in check. I shouldn't have to preach and
tell you how to serve. Why? Because if you know proper
doctrine, then you will know how to serve. Matter of fact,
I just spent several minutes a while ago talking about that
whenever I was talking about service. I was talking about
that you have a responsibility as the body of Christ, as the
members of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, to attend the worship
and the ministry of the gospel in the local assembly. Why? Because
God has given a gift within here of edification among the people. And that gift, as it's being
exercised, grows you up to a mature person so that you will edify
the body of Christ in the work of the ministry. So what was
I doing? I was exhorting you with doctrine.
Why? So that you might not let astray
just think, well, it's just okay if I come, or not okay, or okay
if I don't come. You know, if all I do is just
sit here and do nothing and not ever contribute to the body,
then it's all right too. That's exhortation, but it's
also to convince any gainsayers that may think that that we are
called to this, this is what we're called to do. Look at verse
10, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,
especially they of the circumcision. There are many who claim, who
are of the religious order, and of course here, of the circumcision,
he's talking about of the Jews. See, there are many who was among
the Jews who was going out to the Gentiles, the Judaizers,
who was telling them, oh yes, we believe what Paul says about
grace. We are saved by grace, but yet we still have an obligation
to keep the law of Moses, because if we don't keep the law of Moses,
then we're not saved. There are Judaizers among the
Lord's churches today that continue to say that, that we have this
obligation to continue to keep the law of God, and if we don't,
then we're not saved. We're not saved by law keeping,
brethren. We're not kept by law keeping. We will not be rewarded
by law keeping. All of the reward, all the inheritance
is on Christ. We are given reward because of
being in Christ. And you say, well, what about
on the day of judgment, Preacher, whenever we stand before God
and have to give an account? The Bible says that every man
will give an account on himself, on whether he's done a crime,
all this stuff. I say, well, here's the account
that we're gonna give. Nothing in my hands I bring,
only to the cross I claim. The account that we give is he
did it all. I am nothing, but he did it all. And that's what we're going to
give an account for. But anyway, we see here in Titus,
it says, there are gonna be those who are vain talkers and deceivers,
but look what it says, whose mouths must be stopped. Brethren,
I keep continually saying this, in the service of the gospel,
Whether it's in the church or outside of the church, there
is going to be confrontation. We are going to have to accept
the fact that there's going to be confrontation. When a brother
and sister is in sin, there's going to be confrontation. When
there is wrong teaching, there's going to be confrontation. Okay? When one fails to serve and minister
within the church as they're called to do, there's going to
be confrontation. Okay, whenever one needs to be
disciplined from the church, there's gonna be confrontation.
Whenever you go outside of the church and you preach the gospel,
there's gonna be confrontation. When you deal with your families
and you lay down the order of Christ in the family, you know,
and this is especially true, especially in families who have
never been under these things and they come underneath these
and they have a man who's not been the head of the household
and a woman who's been ruling the place and everything like
that, They get saved, they come in, sometimes, hey, that's gonna
cause confrontation whenever they begin to teach the roles
of the home. There's gonna be confrontation.
But it says here, these gainsayers, mouths must be stopped who subvert
whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy
lucre's sake. So one of the roles, or one of
the, ways that a pastor is the overseer is to make sure that
sound doctrine, faithful words are preached and taught so that
the church might be kept from being convinced by gang sayers.
Look with me if you would to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, look with me
if you would at verse 25. This is Paul here. It says, and
now behold, Acts chapter 20, verse 25. And now behold, I know
that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of
God shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. And I want to exhort all preachers,
all pastors that are listening, watching, whatever, and all churches,
they need to know these things about the pastor, that they are
to declare the whole counsel of God. We have too many churches
with too many preachers who continue to preach over and over and over
the same dogmatic point. Now, some may say, well, you
guys are preaching the same dogmatic point. All you preach about is
predestination and election. Well, no, we don't. However,
predestination and election covers a lot of things in a lot of points
of scripture. The sovereignty of God covers
a lot of things. You know, whenever I was asked
in the church where I used to go, you know, whenever they were
worried about, you know, they said, you know, the health of
the church, you know, have you ever considered about, you know, what your grandpa
was preaching and what you were preaching, being different things
and teaching different things, you know, do you think that's
gonna divide and pull the church apart? And whenever I said that
I would go and pray about that and consider that, that maybe
that I should, you know, step down from, being the associate
pastor and preaching there, what was said is, well, you know,
we like your preaching and everything. Is there any way that you can
just not preach on those particular points? Mainly being God being
sovereign over all things and predestinating all things and
all that kind of election, all that stuff. And I said, no, there's
not. Because even though I might not preach on the sovereignty
of God in every sermon, the sovereignty of God in every sermon is gonna
show up. If I'm gonna preach on the family,
if I'm gonna preach on finances, if I'm gonna preach on the church,
if I'm gonna preach on service, if I'm gonna preach on whatever
you wanna talk about, joy, sorrow, persecution, if I'm gonna preach
on the spread of the gospel, if I'm gonna preach on anything,
it's all gonna come from the vantage point that God is completely
sovereign and has predestinated all things. It's gonna come from
that vantage point, why? because we're talking about God,
and the work of God, and not the work of men. And so, here
we see Paul has said, I have not shunned and declared unto
you all the counsel of God. Preachers, preach the whole counsel
of God, and get off your hobby horses. Okay, I'm not saying
that the things that you're preaching are wrong, it's just spread it
out, brother. You know? There are some men,
we're in a series now, on the church, right? And how long has
it been since I preached on the church? Been quite a while. I
haven't preached on it in a long time, okay? Now, here and there,
when we're in certain passages, I bring up certain aspects of
that, but it's been a long time since I preached on the church
as a topic, okay? Well, if all I do, day after
day, day after day, week after week, is preach the church, the
church, the church, the church, the church, the church, the church,
I'm gonna fail in declaring the whole counsel of God. You need
to hear more than just about the church, the church, the church,
okay? So it needs to be spread out.
Same thing with other things, man. Some guys are more, you
know, on baptism. Baptism, baptism, baptism, baptism,
baptism, baptism. Is baptism important? Yes, it
is. But is that all we need to hear? No, it ain't. We need to
hear other things. So Paul says, for I have not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. And here
it is, verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and unto all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you," here's the term, overseers. Wait a minute, you mean to tell
me that the Holy Ghost has made some men to be overseers of the
other men and women? Well, you're talking about a
hierarchy. You're talking about Catholicism. You're pressing
Catholicism. In the New Testament church, everyone's equal has
equal say and everybody does the same thing. Is that true?
No. Do I lord that over you? No,
I shouldn't. Am I a dictator? I shouldn't
be. But does that mean that I'm over
you? No, it doesn't. I'm given a different
ministry than you. And there is a certain respect
that comes to that ministry, but that doesn't mean I'm better
than you or that I lord that over you, that I'm any kind of
lord over you. I'm not a lord over you. It says, take heed
therefore unto yourselves first. The pastor ought to take heed
unto himself first, studying the word of God, making sure
that his life meets these criteria and continues to meet the criteria
of the overseer, of the pastor, of the bishop. Take heed unto
yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath
made you overseer. Is it my responsibility to What
does it say here? To take heed unto all the flock. If we talk about the church being
all the elect, universal, invisible, everywhere, then it's my responsibility
then to take heed over to them and that I'm the overseer of
all of them. And that is my responsibility
to feed all of them. Well, that's impossible. That can't happen. Why? Well, I can't get around to all
of them. Not all of them are going to be able to hear me.
I'm not going to be able to minister all of them. And I'm not going
to be able to, as overseer, keep the order among them. What is
that talking about? It's talking about the local
church again. But what? The Holy Ghost has
made these men overseers. You say, well, wait a minute.
How do you know they're talking about overseers? Well, because
he's talking here, he's giving this word to the elders of the
church. He says, he has made you overseer
to do what? To feed the church of God, which
he has purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that
after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not
sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after them. Therefore, watch and remember
that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone
night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified."
Okay, so Paul here is giving more instruction here and he's
saying that those who have been made overseers by the Holy Ghost,
that they are to feed the church of God. So here we see, so far,
in what we've looked at as the pastor and as being an overseer,
is that he is to keep the order, he is to make sure that proper
doctrine is preached and taught, and that he is to, what, feed
the church of God. These are all things that he
is to do. So he is to teach and to watch. He is to oversee. That's what oversee means. An
overseer is a man that is charged with the duty of seeing that
things can be done by others and that they are done rightly. From the variation of that word,
episkopos, it means to look upon or after, to look upon in order
to benefit, to look after, to have the care for. So one of
the terms that is used, episkopos, is that one has the oversight,
but not to be the dictator. The other word that's used for
this is presbyters. This is one who is, a person
who is advanced in life among the Christians, those who preside
over the assemblies. Of course, we see this term used
in several passages of scripture. Turn, while you're there, Max,
turn back just a few pages, and we're gonna look at a few verses
here before we dismiss, but we're gonna pick up with Pastor next
week as well. Acts chapter 11, look with us
if you will to verse 30. Matter of fact, let's back up to verse
29. This is where Agabus had come. We read it a while ago. It says, then the disciples,
every man, according to his ability, determined to send relief unto
the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent
it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul." So we
see the word elders is used here, and that's what this term presbyteros
means, is elder. Acts 14, 23. And when they had ordained them
elders in every church and had prayed with fasting and commended
them to the Lord on whom they believed, and they that passed
throughout Pisidia, they came to... Oh, just verse 23 is all
I wanna read. Matter of fact, I wanted to go
up in verse 21. It says, and when they had preached
the gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned again
to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch. confirming the souls
of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith,
and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom
of God. And when they had ordained them elders in every church and
had prayed with them, prayed with fasting, they commended
them to the Lord on whom they believed." Okay, so we see here
that the word elder is used in this passage. They had ordained
elders, And each church had an elder ordained to them. Now look,
if you would, at chapter 15 there, just a couple of verses down,
starting in verse one. I'll start in verse one, but
there's a couple of verses here that I want you to pay close
attention to. It says, a certain man which came down from Judea
taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Wherefore, or when
therefore, Paul and Barnabas, had no small dissension and disputation
with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain
other men should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders
about the question." Okay, so the office of elder and apostle
was considered separate to the apostles and elders, okay? and being brought on their way
by the church, they passed through Phineas and Samaria, declaring
the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto
all the brethren. Verse four here. And when they
were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and
of the apostles and elders. Okay, so the term is separate,
okay, apostles and elders. And they declared all things
that God had done with them. But there arose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise them and to command them, to keep the
law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came
together for to consider this matter. Drop down to verse 22. It says, then it pleased the
apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men
of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely
Judas, surnamed Barsabbas, and Silas, chief among the brethren. Okay, so we see that there were
elders, and those elders were not the apostles. So within the
church, there were elders separate from the apostles. Now look with
me at chapter 16. He said, start in verse one.
Then came he to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple
was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman which
was a Jewess, and believed, but his father was a Greek, which
was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.
Him would Paul have to go forth with him, and took and circumcised
him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, and they
knew all that his father was a Greek. And as they went through
the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that
were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so the churches established
in the faith and increased in number daily." Now, there's a
whole lot within this that I can point out. Number one, you notice
it said churches, not church singular as in a universal invisible
body, but the churches were established in the faith. They established
them in doctrine, not in not in faith as in trust, but in
doctrine. They established them in doctrine.
They already had faith or they wouldn't be in the churches.
They'd already been given to believe because the commission
said to go make disciples. Well, what's a disciple? One
who repents from false thinking and believes correctly. But you see here that as they
went through cities, They delivered them the decrees for to keep.
They delivered them the decrees for to keep. That's in connection
with the commandment. Teach them all things whatsoever
Christ has commanded. To keep them in remembrance of
these things. The things that I've told you
did not come from me, but come from God, okay? And so, these
are the things that Paul was delivering unto them, but it
says here, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which
were at Jerusalem. Okay, so we see that there is
a separation of the apostles and the elders. Okay, the apostles
being those foundational men, they were not the pastors of
the church. They could be the pastors of the church. Okay,
they can hold both offices, but there was a distinction between
the office of apostle and pastor. Look at chapter 21. Acts chapter 21. Look at verse 17. And when we were come
to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the day following,
Paul went in with us unto James and all the elders were present. Okay. Now, what are they talking
about here? Well, they're talking about how they had went through the
different regions of Caesarea, but now that they had come to
Jerusalem, okay, now that they were back to Jerusalem, and remember,
in Jerusalem, that's where all the apostles hung out, Okay,
that's where they had a pretty large crowd of church there,
okay? However, most of them had been
dispersed by this point. It says, and the day following,
Paul went in with us unto James, and all the elders were present. So James was there, and all the
elders were present. So, look also, if you would, with
me back at 1 Timothy chapter 5, look at verse 17. It says, let the elders that
rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they
who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou
shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the
laborer is worthy of his reward. Against an elder, receive not
an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that
sin, rebuke before all that others also may fear. So we see here that there is
elders, and these elders are to rule, but they are to rule
well. But for the church, they are
also to count the elders, those who labor in the word and doctrine,
with double honor. They're not supposed to take
any accusations about an elder, except by the mouth of two or
three witnesses. So while we see that the elder
is one who isn't above anybody else, there is still a place
of respect that should be given to those who God has given to
carry out that work of the ministry. And we'll deal more with that
later on down the line. Again, in Titus, we see, in, chapter 1, verse 5 again. For this cause left I thee in
Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are
wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed
thee. So Titus here was instructed by
Paul or appointed by Paul to make sure that there were elders
ordained in every city. There was an elder to be ordained
there, wherever they met, okay? Why, because God has ordained
that the local visible assembly needs to have an overseer. They
need to have an overseer. Someone who is to watch after
them, who is to feed them, who is to keep the oversight. Look at 2 John. 2 John. Chapter
one. 2 John. And verse one. that says, the elder unto the
elect lady and her children whom I love in the truth. And not
only I, but also all that they have known, but also all they
that have known the truth. So here, John is considering
himself an elder. John is considering himself an
elder. Look at 3 John, how he opens
3 John, the same way. The elder unto the well-beloved
Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Okay, so John uses the term elder
as it pertains to him. So we see these two words are
being used for the pastor. There really doesn't seem to
be a real distinction between these, to be honest. I was doing some reading on what
some of the commentary guys have said about these words that know
the words a little bit better than I do, but it doesn't mean
that what they say is the truth, but I find that it coincides
with what the scriptures has laid out. But Thayer says this,
it says that they did not defer at all from the bishops and the
distinction between these two things, the bishop and the, or
excuse me, the episkopos and the presbyteros, that they did
not differ at all from the bishops and overseers. It's evident from
the fact that the two words are used indiscriminately and that
the duty of presbyters is described by the very term episkopos. So
the presbyter, is described by the term bishop. So it means
that the bishop and the presbyter are one and the same. But if
you remember, I was telling you that in the Presbyterian church,
they have the presbyters and the synod and all that stuff
is all separate. They have, in the Catholic church,
that you have the bishops that are separate, then the priests
and the cardinals and all these things, they have these hierarchies.
But if you'll look and see, the bishop and the, or excuse me,
the episkopos and the presbyter are all underneath the same heading
of pastor. It's used in the same way. The
title episkopos denotes the function, presbyteros, the dignity. The former was borrowed from
the Greek institution, episkopos, the function of the pastor. where
the latter, the presbyteros, deals with the dignity, and that
comes from the Jewish aspect of it, okay? And if you think
about that in the Old Testament, the elder were just the respected
men of the tribe, or of the family, or of the group, you know? They had elders within that.
And if you look back also, you know, And I know some people get kind
of caught up on this and I believe that the Lord does raise up different
men ordained of God within a church and that there can be a ministry
of preaching that is shared by those men. But you find that
there is usually only one pastor. And if you look even in the Old
Testament in the types and foreshadows, you'll see that when God raised
up someone to lead Israel, he had many officers within Israel
but he still had Moses that led him. Whenever you look in the
New Testament, whenever you look at the church at Jerusalem, there
were 12 apostles, but who was the one that always got up and
spoke for everybody else? It was Peter, right? And they
all seemed to confer to Peter, and so the same with the preaching
to the Gentiles. A lot of them conferred with
Paul. Look to Paul. Why? Because Paul
was made the apostle to the Gentiles, and there were men that was given
to aid him in that ministry. So we look and see that God,
in order to keep order and not to have chaos, has made it where
he gives a gift of a man to govern as the overseer, and he's kept
in checks and balances. How's he kept in checks and balances?
Well, by the church. Some say by the other elders.
Some say by the elder board or by the pulpit committee. The pulpit committee is to hold
him into account. No, who's to keep me held accountable
to what I say and what I do? You guys are. You guys are. You're the ones that hold me
into account. He goes on to say this, he says, these words are used Interchangeably,
of course, we've seen already in Titus 1.5 and 1.7, in Acts
chapter 20, we see that the words are used interchangeably. Let
me read that to you real quick. Acts chapter 20. And it was in verses 17. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus
and called the elders of the church. And then down in verse
28, he says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the
flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. So he
used the term overseer, he used the term elder, all to speak
of the same persons or same group of people, okay? The word is used interchangeably.
Now, Lord willing, the next time we meet, we will begin to look
at what the duties of the pastor are. We'll look a little bit
more at the qualifications and we'll kind of break that down.
I read you the qualifications, but we'll break those down a
little bit further, but we'll continue looking at the office
of the pastor the next time we meet. Does anybody have any questions
or comments Anything that you'd like to add to this? Any questions from anybody? Comments? All right. Well, let's bow and
we'll have a word of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, once
again, we come to you and we thank you so much