we often take a lot of time looking
at passages of scripture that teach, and all of them teach
the same thing. The doctrine of grace, the doctrine
of Christ, the doctrine of his saving power, of his successful
atonement, of his sovereign will and giving life to whom he will. And somehow the later parts of
the epistles get passed through more quickly. But is it not all
the gospel? That's my question this morning.
Is it not all the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? And if the
doctrine doesn't result in action, Does not the scripture teach
that it's false doctrine? If we do not live the word of
God, then we haven't heard the word of God. And so these exhortations
are key to the gospel. They are part and parcel of the
gospel. The gospel is not just a set
of doctrines to be believed mentally. They are a heart changing, heart-giving, life-giving
truth, the truth of Christ, and he himself dwells within the
believer, and that is manifested in us being doers of the word
and not hearers only. To walk disorderly, according
to our text, is to walk like a soldier out of ranks. That's
an easy thing to spot, isn't it? And it is in life. It is
in spiritual matters. When a group of soldiers is marching,
and everybody's exactly the same distance apart, and everybody's
stepping at exactly the same rhythm, if somebody breaks ranks,
it's clear that they are breaking ranks. It means to be immoderate,
inordinate, deviating from the prescribed rule or order, to
break ranks, be neglectful of duty, or lawless. And in the
context of the church, the church is an assembly of believers that
walk in unity. They walk in lockstep all through
the New Testament, especially at all through the scriptures.
The church is one body. one family, the church of God,
the people of God. And here's what's key, listen
to, turn with me to Ephesians four and let's look at something
very important when I say that. We have, there's a reason that
we walk in lockstep. It's not because we all have
the same personality or the same individual traits as individuals. It's not because we all agree
on everything in the world. There's a reason why we walk
in rank with one another. Ephesians 4.1, I therefore, the
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation or calling wherewith you are called. With all lowliness
and meekness, if somebody's proud, that's not easy to hide, is it?
And that's a breaking of ranks. And the gospel doesn't sit well
with human pride. They don't go together. When
the Lord saves us, he brings us down, doesn't he? We're not
gonna talk about our rights and our will and our this or anything,
our anything. We're gonna say, the Lord saved
me. There's nothing I can talk about myself about except my
sin. And I don't really wanna talk about that except to say
that the Lord has put it away by his grace, thank God. He's
had mercy on me. lowliness and meekness with long-suffering
for bearing one another in love. If that doesn't happen, if we're
quick to backbite or to respond harshly whenever we're wronged
or somebody says something we don't like, that's a breaking
of ranks in the church. We're to be long-suffering because
our Lord was long-suffering to us. Charles Spurgeon said one
time, if somebody says something bad about you, don't worry about
it, you're way worse than what they said. So I wouldn't worry
about it. Forbearing one another in love.
If there's a lack of love, that's gonna stand out, isn't it? It's
gonna stand out. The Lord said by this, shall
all men know that you're my disciples, that you have love one for another. on the other side of that coin,
it's going to be obvious that you're not, because you don't.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit. If everybody is
striving for that, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit,
and somebody, it looks like they're just looking for something to
stir up. That's kind of obvious, that
kind of stands out. There is one body, verse four,
one spirit, one body. Whose body are we said to be?
The body of Christ. Let's look at the commonality
here. What is our bond? Why are we in lockstep with one
another? What's our unity, our order, our purpose? One body,
the body of Christ, and one spirit, the spirit of Christ, who the
Lord said, when he comes, he'll take the things of mine, of Christ,
and show them to you. That's what the spirit does in
his church. and you're called in one hope of your calling.
Who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light? One
Lord, that's the Savior. One faith, what's the one object
of faith? Christ. One baptism, you're baptized
into Jesus Christ, the scripture clearly says. It's Christ that
is set forth in that burial and in that resurrection from pictured
in the water baptism. One God and father of all who
is above all and through all and in you all, Christ in you
is the hope of glory. So our bond is him. And those
words, one, one, one, one, one, we're one in Christ. And to step
out of rank, not only is it obvious like it is in earthly matters,
but it's obvious in the church. And there's a reaction, there's
teaching regarding that here. So we're soldiers marching in
rank and Christ is our, he's our commander, he's our champion,
he is the one that we serve. Our purpose, his glory, the good
of his sheep, the salvation of his sheep, his worship, his ministry,
his people. Notice that the person who walks
disorderly in our text is all about themselves. They don't
want to work, they don't want to do anything, they don't want
anything to cost them anything. Any energy, any effort, they
don't want to do anything to support the church or to have
any part in anything that happens in the church. They exclude themselves
from just about every aspect of the church. It's all about
them, supported by others, and having all that time on their
hands, of course, they impose themselves into matters where
they don't belong, busybodies. You know, there's several places
in Scripture where this is warned against. Is that not part of
the gospel? Is Christ not glorified in us
hearing these exhortations and obeying them? By God's grace, living the gospel,
and not just hearers only, It's vanity just to hear it and agree
with the logic of it. The gospel is a new creation. The good news is that he makes
us new. This is to his glory just as much as what happened
on the cross. Though that's more glorious than
anything else, it's just as much to his glory, is what I'm saying.
And these are prone to, being busybodies because they're
just not gonna exert themselves. They're not gonna include themselves
in anything that costs them anything. And this is not the only place,
as I mentioned in scripture, where this is condemned. And
listen to what it is to be a busybody. To bustle about uselessly. To
busy oneself about trifling, needless, useless matters. A person officiously inquisitive
about others' matters. We know what that is. We are
all that to some degree. You know, it's fun to make fun
of people and that's fine to a point when you, people make
fun of me to my face and I laugh with them and that happens, we
do that. But that's not what this is talking about. That's
not what this is talking about. This is inserting yourself, imposing
yourself into matters that have nothing to do with you and stirring
up strife and division. and hard feelings. These are prone to criticize
what others do while doing nothing themselves. That's part of this. These are the ones the scripture
talks about who see a splinter in somebody else's eye, but they
have a beam in their own eye. The Lord says deal, you know,
when you're without sin, then you can start pointing to other
people's sins. We're carefully, and that's Matthew
7, 5, and we identify this carefully in the scriptures for a reason. It's repeated over and over in
the word of God. It's a prominent warning to churches
in the scripture for a reason. Paul speaks of the danger of
idleness in 1 Timothy 5.13, listen. And with all they learn to be
idle, wandering about from house to house, and it doesn't have
to be that, just wandering around from person to person. And not
only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things
which they ought not. What's the point of it? If it's
just to stir something up, then shut up. I'm talking to myself. It's one thing to joke around
and to, you know, have fun, you know, roasting one another. That's
not what this is. It causes real division and it's
deadly in the church. And that's why we're warned against
it. First Peter 4.14, if you be reproached
for the name of Christ, happy are you. If people have a problem
with you because you're united to Christ, because
you serve Christ, because you speak for Christ, then that's
fine. Happy, don't worry about it.
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their
part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as
an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's matters." You
notice the things that that's listed with? Being a busybody
in other men's matters is listed with being a murderer and a thief. If you have conflict with the
world, with the enemies of Christ, because you belong to Christ,
then count it all joy. But if you have conflict with
the enemies of Christ, because you're acting like an enemy of
Christ, and they call you on it, and the powers that be that
God puts in place are, as in a murderer or a thief, clearly,
That's a problem legally, but also listed with that is being
a busybody in other men's matters. Notice particularly that this
problem in our text is identified as
a departure from the word of God. I want that to sink in. for us. When you walk this way,
disorderly, without regard to rank, without... It's not that you're walking
out of line with the dictates of church discipline. Some churches
have a church discipline thing where there are rules and things
like that. That's not what's happening here when you're walking
disorderly. You haven't departed ranks with the pastor and his
pet peeves. You've departed from the word
of God. Look at verse 12 of our text. We'll read verses 12 and
verse 14. Now them that are such, we command
and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness,
quietness is such a beautiful thing, isn't it? Such a beautiful
thing. When you're a sinner, it is.
With quietness they work and eat their own bread. And look
at verse 14, and if any man obey not our word by this epistle,
note that man. This is what we're writing, and
it's the word of God. This epistle is God's word. You're
not just disobeying the church rules, or like I say, some pet
peeve the pastor has. It's the gospel. You're not walking
according to the gospel. I have no company with him that
he may be ashamed. You know, that's not very subtle,
is it? We don't want to hurt nobody's feelings. Yeah, we kind
of do, don't we? Doesn't it say that he may be ashamed? We kind
of do. And look, it's not a holier than
thou. It's not, you know, I live better than you and you need
to straighten up. It's not about that, as we'll see when we go
through this. Some like to say, well, I march to the beat of
my own drum. Well, then according to scripture, I can't have anything
to do with you. We don't march to our own drum.
We march to the drumbeat of the ranks of Jesus Christ, the army
of Jesus Christ. We're soldiers of him. Listen
to 2 Timothy 2.3. If you march to the beat of your
own drum, then you've broken ranks with the people of God,
those who serve the Lord Jesus Christ. and I can't have anything
to do with you, nor you me if it's me. Now listen to 2 Timothy
2.3, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It's not gonna be easy as far
as the flesh is concerned. It's the easiest thing in the
world spiritually to lay down every weight and fall at the
feet of Christ. It doesn't take any energy at
all to fall. And that's what we do spiritually. We fall at
his feet and beg for mercy, but it's gonna ruffle this flesh.
No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this
life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. You didn't volunteer. He told
his disciples, you didn't volunteer, I picked you. Is that what he
said? And enduring hardness, part of the
hardness that we endure as the Lord's soldier, if not just about
all of it, is to resist this flesh. To resist this flesh. Have you ever thought about how
hard it is to not be selfish? You can resolve to never do anything
selfish again, and you'll find yourself 10 minutes later being
selfish. It takes grace. With men, that's
impossible. That's why Paul ends this epistle
with a prayer. The Lord be with you, His grace
be with you, because it's not gonna be that way. You're not
gonna be able to walk orderly. You're not gonna be able to hear
His drum and march to it. unless his grace is with you,
unless he's with you. It doesn't happen by the will
of the flesh. It takes grace not to indulge this flesh. And notice that Paul did two
things in our text that we read to admonish this church to teach
them to promote an orderly walk in the church, which just means
you're walking according to the gospel. Did you hear those things
we read a while ago? Love, forgiveness, not backbiting,
no division, no quick temper, no pride, lowly. Remember that
word lowly when you think about walking in step. The minute the
flesh rises up, you're out of step. And everybody's gonna know
it. And most importantly, God knows
it. But he did two things to admonish
them to make this happen. And I wanna identify these because
they're in the text, but for the sake of experience, for us
to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, we got to listen to
the Lord's wisdom. And this is part of it here.
He promoted an orderly walk in the church two ways. And one
of them was this epistle, as he said there in verses 12 and
14. According to the words of this epistle, obey, follow us,
follow what we've taught you. And other epistles also, not
just this one, as we read. In other words, let's make it
simple. What did Paul do to make this
happen so that everybody would walk according, worthy of the
calling wherewith they're called to walk orderly. It just means
to do what God said. That's the first one, he told
them what God said about it. That's what he did. And that's,
what else are we gonna follow? What else is gonna be? Our God,
the psalmist said, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a
light unto my path. Do you have any other light?
Besides his word, he simply taught them what God said about it.
That's how he promoted this. That's what all of God's preachers
do. If they don't, they're not God's preachers. It doesn't matter
what anybody else says about it, but God. That's it. There's all these contemporary
ways of handling things, of disciplining your children. We don't wanna
break their spirit. That's exactly what you wanna do. Read the scriptures.
We have an evil spirit by nature. What does God do when he saves
us? He breaks us. He puts us in the dust. When
we would be with like Satan, he said, I will ascend unto the
heavens. But nowhere, God put him in the
dust, crawling on his belly. That's a figurative thing. But
that's what he does with us by nature. We have a satanic nature.
We say, I will, I will, I will. And God's got to break us of
that. We trust our works and God's got to break us of that. Saul of Tarsus went from high
and mighty and being in charge and having all this authority
to laying in the dust saying, Lord, what do you want me to
do? What do you want me to do? That's got to happen. The second
thing was Paul's example. Look at verse seven. And this is key, and this is
not just the preacher. He's not talking about just looking
to the preacher. What about in your home? Who's the example
in your home? Who's the example at work? Although
you're not trying to be, you know, act religious so everybody
will, you know, turn their attention to you. That's a thing that we
gotta be careful about, isn't it? Or really, do you just have
to have the heart? the mind of Christ and the heart
by his grace to do that which glorifies him and not you, wherever
you are. But look at verse seven, for
yourselves know how you ought to follow us. Imitate, that word
is imitate. For we behave not ourselves disorderly
among you. Paul's not giving himself as
an example here as being holier than thou. Look how good I am.
You need to be as good as me. Look at the text. We didn't behave
disorderly, neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but
wrought with labor and travail in night and day, that we might
not be chargeable to any of you, not because we have not authority.
The scripture teaches clearly that don't muzzle the ox that
treadeth the corn. that a workman is worthy of his
labor, that preachers, that ministers should live of the gospel, that
if they minister the gospel, they should live of the gospel.
But Paul said, even though I might have that authority to do that,
and it might be the best thing for him to devote himself completely
to spiritual matters, he said, I worked anyway. I'm not gonna be chargeable by
anybody with regard to that. not because we have not power,
but to make ourselves an example unto you, to follow us, to imitate
us. And look, I don't make this point,
Paul didn't make this point for that reason, and neither do I,
to make you look at me, but simply to tell you what God said about
it. Never follow a man who is the cause of trouble in his own
home, at work, in this world, If he's the cause of trouble,
this is one of the qualifications of a bishop. Turn with me to
1 Timothy 3 too, because we'll see several things in this. And
this again, don't just think of the preacher. This is all
of us. Are you an example? Are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Do you bear his name? Are you
a witness of him in this world? Then listen to these things.
Of course, the bishop or the We'll talk about what a bishop
is, and well, let's just say it now before we read this so
you'll understand what he's talking about. A bishop is an overseer
of the church. Christ is the great shepherd,
the sheep are his, they belong to him, but he's put overseers,
one given the charge, and this is interesting, one given the
charge of seeing that things done by others are done rightly. That sounds like a terrible responsibility,
isn't it? I have enough trouble ruling
myself rather than trying to get y'all to do what's right.
But the way that happens is by the word of God. It's not my
power of persuasion or even my example, though that's important.
It's the word of God. Our example, the scriptures are
profitable. for reproof, for instruction
in righteousness. Not my opinions or my rules,
it's God, it's Christ. But look at it with me. A bishop
then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober,
of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. That's all of us,
isn't it? Apt to teach, not to argue, not
to debate, excoriate somebody for not seeing what we see, but
to teach, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy
of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous,
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 of the church of
God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride,
he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good
report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and
the snare of the devil." So you see, an overseer of the church,
one given the charge of seeing that things which others do are
done rightly. How am I gonna do that? The way
Paul did. by telling you what God said,
the gospel. And by His grace, not being an imposter, but by
the grace of God, live in what we preach. I'm not the only one
here that needs to live what I preach. What I believe, live
the truth, live the gospel. All of us, this is true of a
necessary. Faith without works is dead.
It's man produced faith that agrees maybe with some points
of doctrine, but doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
if you love me, keep my commandments. Not if you want to go to heaven
when you die, keep my commandments. We're past that, aren't we, as
believers? by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. But if you love me, do
what I say. You see that in our text though,
that seeing that things done by others are done rightly, that's
what Paul's doing in this epistle. He's saying, here's what God
said, I charge you by the Lord Jesus Christ, that you walk not
disorderly. but according to the gospel of
his grace. What does a pastor do? In order
that he oversees others and causes them to do rightly, he tells
them what God says, and by the grace of God, he's an example
for them to follow. If that's not true, don't follow
a man. God doesn't find people like that to oversee his church.
He makes people like that and gives them to his church. He
didn't say, I'll find you pastors after my own heart. He said,
I'll give them to you. God's preachers being what we
are, we may well strain the limits of that, of those qualifications. But this is still an important
consideration. It's not a measure, listen to
me carefully. It's not a measure of the goodness
of any person. It is a sign that God is in it. Is that clear? Verse 13. But ye brethren, be not weary. and well-doing. These are though,
this is an exhortation to those who are not walking disorderly,
that by the grace of God, you know, we just wanna worship the
Lord and we wanna be part. If we can help, let us know,
tell us what to do. We're not gonna do things on
our own, we're not gonna march to the beat of our own drum.
We're not just gonna haul off and say, look at me, look what
I did, no. We've talked about that before. Don't be weary. Don't be weary
in not walking disorderly, in well-doing. And it's translated
elsewhere in scripture, that same word, not being weary, it
means faint not. When the scripture says faint
not, don't faint. That's what this is talking about.
Walking in rank. as a soldier of the Lord Jesus
Christ is, as we've shown so often in scripture, not just
this morning, but listen to this, and maybe jot these references
down if you want to read the context of them. It's a striving,
Luke 13, 24. It's a striving. It's not just
showing up and sitting there and saying amen. I'm glad for
that. Not showing up is worse than
showing up. But there's a striving. There's
an endeavoring, Ephesians 4.3. There's a laboring, Hebrews 4.11. There's an enduring, Matthew
10.22. It's likened to a race, to running
a race, 1 Corinthians 9.24. And there are many others Let's
say the same thing, and yet we who have trusted in Christ have
wrested from our labors. What does that mean? Spiritually
speaking, He didn't say, take my yoke upon you and anything
that happens today, me and you can handle together. He said,
you take my yoke on you and rest. Here's your part in it, in the
spiritual work of salvation. Your part in it is that you need
it. That's it. We rest in Christ. We don't try
to please God in order to be accepted of God. We want to please
Him because we love Him. We're already accepted in the
beloved. Christ is our righteousness,
not our good works. Our good works are our sin, unless
they're done by faith, by grace through faith in the Son of God,
out of love for Him. Thanksgiving for him saving us
freely. Freely. Our labors as far as trying to
please God or establish our own righteousness, we've ceased from
that. He's given us faith, which worketh by love. And his yoke
is easy and his burden is light. If you strive not to break ranks
with the people of God in order to be righteous before God, Christ
will profit you nothing. That's not the motive. If you
strive to be in lockstep and be a good Christian and live
the Christian life as religion talks about, in order to be accepted
of God, Christ shall profit you nothing. That's a burden you
got to lay down. Christ is all of our righteousness,
or we just don't have any. He's all of it. It's not what
Christ did in our response to it. It's not what Christ did
in our contribution to it. It's Christ in what He did. And
all of our working is to glorify Him out of love. to glorify Him for His precious
blood that washed us white, not to make us white. He washed us white in His precious
blood and we're white, we're clean. And we serve Him because we're
thankful. Because He loved us, we love
Him. And we do it for this reason,
what we do, we do it to tell sinners that there's hope, that
there is righteousness without the law, without you keeping
the law. There is acceptance with God in Christ and only in
Christ. That's why we do what we do now.
To walk out of step with that gospel is to deny the Lord who
is the gospel. You think about that. Think of
the illustration of an army marching and a soldier just says, well,
I don't really feel like marching today. I think I'm gonna go take
a nap. Who have you betrayed? Who have you betrayed? The one that called you to serve,
the country, the country, your brethren. Who do we betray when we decide
that our free will is bigger than what God said? That we'll
march to the beat of our own drum, that we'll just do as we
please because, you know, as Paul said, that grace may abound. God forbid. Scripture says God
forbid. Can a believer do that? Can a
believer step out of rank? with God's church. We'll look
at verse 15. Look at verse 14. If any man
obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company
with him. Don't say, you know, look at
him and say, yeah, I feel like a gnat too. Let's just go do
that. We don't need, you know, we've done a lot of marching
today. That's enough. Now, we're not our own, we're bought with
a price. That he may be ashamed. You ought
to be ashamed. Not because I say so, because
God says so. We ought to be ashamed, you and
me. When our flesh dictates what we do rather than
the truth of God and his ministry. Yet count him not as an enemy.
It's not like a believer can't do that. Count him as a brother until
proven otherwise. It's as much as that can be proven
to us because we don't know that much, do we? We don't know anything.
But even when somebody is in trouble spiritually, don't condemn
them. Who are we to do that? Who are
we to judge another man's servant? He's not serving us, he's serving
the Lord Jesus. And he'll stand or fall to his
own master, not us. But treat him like a brother.
Isn't that interesting? It seems like Not having anything
to do with him is not treating him like a brother. Oh, yes,
it is. It's important, isn't it? It's important. When your loved ones or maybe
your family are just blasphemous, I mean, they're just determined
to blaspheme around you because they know. They don't need to
be coddled and say, well, it's, you know, it's all right, you
know, you hate my God and that's that, you know, we'll just get
along. No, we won't. but I'm not gonna treat you like
an enemy either. You see the truth here, the balance
of that. Don't have anything to do with
it. I'm not part of that. By the grace of God, I'm gonna
step, step, step, left, right, left, right. By his grace, that's
what I'm gonna do. And if I don't, pray for me,
encourage me, but don't condone it. Don't follow me. You don't follow
somebody that's off on a tangent. You follow the Lord. Turn with me to Galatians 6,
one through three. Galatians 6. One through three. This is so
beautiful. Please, God, don't let me forget
this. Don't let us forget this. Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such in one. In the spirit of meekness, considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bury ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill The law of Christ. And you know what we tend to
do when somebody else is in trouble, when somebody else has fallen
or stumbled or, it tends to puff us up, doesn't it? But if a man think himself to
be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. It tends to cause us to be self-righteous
and so we're specifically warned against that. And let's close
with verse 16 in our text. What a beautiful prayer this
is. What a wonderful, beautiful prayer. Now the Lord of peace
himself give you peace always by all means. In every way that
God does that, may He do that. What are some ways that God,
what are some means that you suppose God might use to give
us peace? Well, He's made peace for us
to begin with by the blood of His cross. We have peace with
God, Colossians 1.20, by the blood
of our Savior's cross. There's no peace apart from that.
And we hear what the gospel of peace, Ephesians 6, 15. Is the
Lord ever giving you peace by this means? Hearing how mighty he is to save and how that he needs nothing
from us, no qualification, no goodness, no work in order to
save us. He saves the guilty. He saves
those without strength, without ability. And we strive for what here in
this church? The unity of the spirit and the
bond of peace, Ephesians 4.3, the bond of peace. Proverbs 16.7 says, when a man's
ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace
with him. Is that what you want in this
world? Just Even my enemies, just leave me
alone. Just leave me alone. God will even use the enemies
of his people to bless his people. If we're in Christ, that's how
our ways please the Lord, if we walk in Christ. Isaiah 26
three, thou will keep him in perfect peace. whose mind is
stayed on thee. No matter your circumstances,
no matter your troubles and trials, your sin, your trouble spiritually, may our minds be stayed on him,
on him. Not circumstances, not situations,
not the troubles, not the world, What did he say for us to do
when the world is falling apart? If we're alive when that happens,
when literally this world is burned to the ground, what did
he say to look up? Look up, for your redemption
draws nigh. Thou will keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in you.
He trusts, he looks to you. Trust ye in the Lord forever
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. May God give us grace
to trust him. Let's pray together.