We beseech you, brethren, speaking
to the church, to know them which labor among
you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. Over you in the Lord does not
mean superior, but it means given authority
by the Lord. We understand from much of Scripture
that we've looked through God's order in the home, in the church,
and even in the business world. But think about this as far as
when it comes to the way that God gives authority and how some
might think that means superiority. You see how the hierarchy in
the so-called church of this world conducts themselves But the Lord himself The Lord
Jesus Christ had all authority given him by the Father He said
all power all authority is given unto me in heaven and earth He
said in his prayer in John 17, you've given me all authority
that I might give eternal life to as many as you've given me
and But as he walked this earth, as the Lord of all, superior
to all, walked this earth, he was submissive to his father.
Did that make him inferior to the father? Of course not. He was one with the father. He
is the father, the everlasting father, made flesh and dwelling
among us. So over you in the Lord, That
is, it's His authority given by Him, and not to be taken lightly
by me or you. But let's understand what it
is. It's just God-given order. I've said before to you that
having authority like this is not all it's cracked up to be.
And I hope you know what I meant by that. But I do want to be
clear about that. There's simply no greater privilege
in the world. I would not disparage what God
does in the church in any way. And so I don't mean it that way.
I just simply mean most people don't really know what it is.
They don't understand what it is. And you know, as far as it
being a great privilege, you want to, everybody wants to know
that what they do in life is meaningful. Even if your particular
job is not something that you necessarily enjoy or fulfills
you, you do it to support your family because you love your
family and that does fulfill you. And so everybody wants to think
that, that what they do is meaningful. And when I hear from you, when
I see the tears in your eyes, when I hear you say that was
a blessing, and I know that you're not just being nice, that I can
see that it was a blessing, then I know that. that what by the grace of God
I do is meaningful. And that's a great, wonderful
experience. So I'm not saying that it's a
drudgery. What I do mean is that it's not what people think it
is. You see the word labor in the verse. Most that call themselves
preachers are not laborers. I've told you before that I could
preach the messages that this world preaches without studying
at all. If you listen to one of them, it's just little stories
and rhetoric that you wouldn't even have to look into the scriptures.
You'll never find them going word by word. There's a few that
do, and they're terrible. If the Lord doesn't reveal it,
you're not gonna see it. You're not gonna get it. It is
Christ But the word labor there is important
I couldn't begin to tell you what all is included in that
word Only a preacher would know and and maybe Those who are the
children of of preachers might have some insight into that.
But I can't begin to tell you what that is. But I also can't
begin to tell you how gracious the Lord is to uphold, to encourage, to comfort,
to strengthen, to solve every difficulty, which are many. I don't have to fix things. I
have a Lord who is the head of this church that fixes things. And we know that all the storms
are ones that he means to calm when it comes to his church.
I've been using that analogy a lot lately because it comes
to my mind in just about everything. But all of the storms, we've
endured some things in this church, but every one of them is a storm
that he means to calm when it comes to his church. And so it's
not It's not a threat to us in the
sense that this world understands threats. It's trials. It's testing. It's what are you going to do
about it? Are you going to look to the Savior? Or are you going to complain, don't
you care that we perish? And learning that is an important
key to happiness. That every storm that the Lord
brings to one of His sheep is one that He means to calm. Look
to Him in it. Say, Lord, whatever You brought
it for, let it be done. Make me gracious. Make me submissive. Let me glorify You in it. Let
me glorify You in it. You know, that's grace. If you
have that desire, that's grace. I watched my friend Tommy Robbins
on his deathbed. That's a storm. That's a storm. And he said, I just hope I can
glorify God in this. That's grace. That's grace. Obedience to this exhortation
in our text is one of the very biggest ways that the Lord sustains
his preachers and his churches. By you obeying this, by it mattering
to you what the Lord's doing, by you having skin in the game, by you being in on it, by you
having regard to what the Lord's doing, what the Lord teaches, his gospel. And look, the preacher, you're
not looking to him. If a preacher is sin of God,
he's saying, look there, behold the lamb. And that's how you
regard The preacher is by regarding the one he's saying regard. And
that's what the word is regard, have regard for. And so this is an important exhortation. That's why it's needed here.
That's why Paul gives it. We beseech you brother to know
them, to have regard to, to give attention to. Those which labor among you and
are over you in the Lord and admonish you, that's how God
sustains those that are over you and his very church. That way, because if there's
no respect for God's authority, it falls apart. The word no, as I said, it means
to have regard for, to cherish, and to pay attention to. Give
some attention to this. The text says we admonish you.
That's what you give attention to, the admonishments of the
gospel. The gospel is not just something
to agree with, it's something to do. The gospel is something to do.
Not works of righteousness, not working out your, going about
to establish your own righteousness. It's laboring to rest in Christ,
as Paul put it. Labor to enter into his rest.
Actually live that he's sovereign. Live that he's all. Live that he, Plum saved you. in every way that a person could
be saved. Live that. So we admonish you, pay attention. That's what the word no means.
To have regard for means to think about, think about what would
be helpful and ask, how can I help? I told you one time that one
of the greatest blessings, the greatest ways you can be a blessing
to your pastor is by doing what he says. And I know that sounds
pompous of me to say that, but think about that for a minute.
That's not the spirit in which I'm saying that. If the Lord
sends somebody, he's gonna give that man some discernment in
what's needed. And what's needed is the simplicity
that's in Christ. And when we begin to stray from
that or, and it comes down to just practical things too. If
we're gonna focus on the gospel and Christ and what he did for
sinners, there's very mundane things that have to be taken
care of too. So it's spiritual things, it's
physical things sometimes. But, and look, this is not just
about me. I talk to pretty much all the
preachers and I know what grieves them. And it's, a lot of times
it's people doing things. Do what he tells you. Don't take
it on yourself to just do things. And again, you know, Let me say
this right now. In all of these exhortations,
you are an example in these. I'm not scolding you. Now, when
the shoe fits, wear it. Because here's the thing about
it. You may be an example in these things, but at times, any
of us can be the problem. And so there's that. But also, to be blunt about it,
when I say you are an example, this church is an example in
these things. And I don't hesitate to say that. You have regard
for your pastor above and beyond. But when I
say that, I'm not talking about every one of you. Can I be that
blunt? I'm not talking about every one
of you, but by far most of you, by far. People, people are the worst
bane of this earth and yet the greatest blessing in the Lord. Does that make sense to you? Cherish is something that the
Lord has given us for one another, we cherish one another. People are the problem, but when
God saves some people, and you think about what matters
to you in this life, the tangible, physical things that matter to
you in this world. Obviously, if
we talk about what matters, we talk about the grace of God,
we talk about the blood of Christ. that cleanses us from all sin.
But I'm talking about in your physical earthly life, what matters
to you? People. People. The Lord uses his people above
everything else to be a blessing to his people. He uses even this
wretched world to be a blessing to his people. Oh, but his people
are more of a blessing to his people than this world will ever
be. Think about your relationship
with every person in this church. You ever just think about it?
Sometime when you've got some time, you're at the DMV or something
and you're waiting for your number to be called or whatever. In
other words, limbo. I believe in limbo. It's at the
DMV and a couple other places. But when you've got some time
to think, which is pretty rare these days, think about every
person in the church and your relationship to them, and then
think about what it could be, what it might be, and how that
might be a lot more valuable than it is now. I think about
that every once in a while. Our Lord's exhortation is to
think not on your own things, but also on the things of others. I think that has something to
do with that, is just think about people, what you know about them,
what they mean to you. How could I help them maybe?
How could I be a blessing to them? I think that has something
to do with that, what our Lord said. Think on the things of
others. Of all the people in this world,
you think about this, of all the billions of people in this
world, the Lord has brought us together. This is our life. And here we are sitting next
to one another by the Lord's providence. Redeem the time. What could that be? What could
it be? Verse 13, and to esteem them
very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace
among yourselves. Again, y'all are examples in
this. And listen, let me just, since I don't need to yell at
you about this, and I wouldn't anyway, But let me say this about
the, you can't hide this. Or the lack of it. You can't
hide it. It's very obvious to me who does
and who doesn't. Very obvious. And let me say this about it,
for the work's sake, for the gospel, this is bigger than just
personalities, isn't it? It's bigger than that. It's the
glory of our Savior we're talking about, for the work's sake. This
is God's work. Because of and for the sake of
our Lord and His gospel. Remember how Paul, when he admonishes
the churches, he says, your body is not for fornication, it's
for the Lord. So in all of these things, in
all of these admonishments, in all of these beseechings and
exhortations, It's the Lord. It's for the sake
of the Lord and His gospel, His church that He loved and gave
Himself for. It's bigger than me and you.
And the last part of this verse 13 is connected to the first
part. Whenever there's discord and arguing and debating and
confrontations with the pastor, it's because of a lack of respect
and esteem. You know, there's a lot of people
that just love knowing more than other people. That's their attraction
to the gospel, a lot of people. It's just head stuff. Because the gospel is very, the
truth, the gospel of God's free grace, predestination and election,
God's choice of his people and things like that, it's starkly
in contrast to the whole world and how it thinks. And so there's
people that get a hold of that and love knowing it. They're
like the Pharisees who search the Scriptures because in them,
they think they have life. You don't know anything about
this. I know everything about this. But they miss the Savior.
They wouldn't come to Him that they might have life. And the
whole content of all the Scriptures is pointing to Him. The doctrine,
so-called doctrines of grace are the same way. They're pointing
to Him. The truth points to Him. I know about situations where
there have been shameful disputes with the pastor, and it's absolutely
because of what this verse deals with. It's just simply they don't
have any respect for the man. That's a shame. You need to go
somewhere else. You need to find somebody that
you can take your place in God's order under and hear with respect. How you esteem the one whom God
has called and sent, peace depends on it. That's what he's saying.
Be at peace among yourselves. That's when the trouble starts. It's when, well, you know, I
don't know about that and this and that, and you lose respect
for God's authority. It's really that simple. And
a lot of times it's personal things. Almost always it's something
personal that you make something doctrinal because you despise
the one that you despise. And even when
somebody is petty to someone else in the church and has a
dispute with someone else in the church and it's just a petty
thing, that's lack of respect for the pastor. How many times does that come
up in our messages? And you know what I do. I don't
preach on subjects. I preach word for word for word,
scripture by scripture by scripture by scripture. How many times
does it come up? Forgive, forgive, be long-suffering, consider yourself. Be kind. we're warned often about it from
the pulpit. And again, it's not a personal,
it's for the work, it's the work. It's God's authority, not mine.
Verse 14, now we exhort you, with teachings and exhortations. Brethren, again, brethren, you
see how the exhortations come? This is not a scolding. This
isn't whipping you with the law. This is, brothers and sisters,
listen to me. We exhort you, brethren..." And
there's several things that he exhorts regarding here that are
vital for the work's sake, for the gospel's sake, for Christ's
sake, to His glory. In every church, there are the
unruly, whether spiritually part of God's church or just here
physically. They are among the church just about all the time. And
the word means insubordinate. They're just not gonna submit
to what's being said. They've got their own way of
thinking, and nothing's gonna change that. They're unteachable.
That's what the word means. It's a military term, which means
to fall out of rank. And I want you to think about
that. Because in this world, it's real fashionable to fall
out of rank, isn't it? To not conform. I don't want
to conform to this or that or the other, the law or anything
else. I do not want to conform. That's
real fashionable. It's applauded by this world,
isn't it? Oh, yeah, he's just a troublemaker.
That's good. He doesn't conform to, you know,
this and that. Well, that's all fine and well
in the world. There's a whole lot that you
probably don't need to conform to in this world. But this ain't
one of them. In God's church, it's lockstep
because it's God's word. It's God's tenets. It's God's
principles. It's God's commandments. And so this military term is
a pretty good, well I say pretty good, it's what Paul used, it's
what God used in his word. But when I say pretty good, I
mean this is something to think about because again, there may
be things that you probably shouldn't conform to in this world. Don't
conform to the way of this world, that's for sure. To the manner
of this world, to the fashion of this world, which is pretty
much just hatin' God. But when it comes to fighting
for freedom, fighting against our common enemy, lockstep. It's time to buckle down and
do what we're supposed to do and not be He that woreth entangleth
not himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please
him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. The Lord has chosen
us. And we don't get sidetracked. Keep rank. Don't be unruly and
warn them that do. There can be no insubordination
in the army. The Scriptures are pretty clear
about this. Paul deals with many such people. Unruly, insubordinate. They just
didn't listen. They just refused to submit. Churches are made
up of sinners. But sinners who've been redeemed
by the blood of God's Son and given a new nature, They desire
very much to honor the Lord. And when somebody openly and
actively desires to not honor the Lord, it kind of sticks out. It's a falling out of rank in
the church. Now, the eternal security of
a person like that in any given situation is between them and
the Lord. We're not condemning somebody to hell for having a
stiff neck in a certain situation or something. But such a person's
place in the church, it's kind of between them and
me. Does that make sense? Because of the responsibility
that the Lord gives. It's kind of between you and
me when it comes to that. The Lord guiding me and giving
me wisdom in that. The Lord drove such people out
of his church with a whip. In case you're looking for an
example of that kind of thing. That's probably not always necessary,
but our Lord's taught us that if it is, it is. The church is
precious now. If you've got to be driven out
that back door with a whip, then so be it. So be it. If you're going to dishonor the
Lord openly, disrupt his worship. It's too vital to play games.
You know, it's just serious, isn't it? There's there's warning.
Warn them. if necessary, more than that.
The scriptures are clear on that in other places. Look at this
one, what a precious thing, comfort the feeble-minded. I think Paul said that first
one because kind of first things first, if there's no order, if
there's no If the worship itself is disrupted,
then that's gotta be just dealt with first, period. And I'm thankful
that that's just not the case most of the time. But look at
this, this is next. Comfort the feeble-minded. And
that's something that's precious to me, I think, because that's
what I am. I believe a lot of these apply to me, and I think
that's definitely one of them. But feeble, it means faint-hearted. It doesn't mean you're a weak
person. That's next. But your heart is broken or battered. You've borne heavy burdens. And
your soul is weary. And I believe it applies to all
of us to some extent or another. Some definitely more than others. faint-hearted, just one word of exhortation
for them, comfort them. Comfort them. Don't rebuke them. Don't say, well, you know, suck
it up or whatever. Comfort them, comfort them. Our
Lord is tender and kind-hearted. The Lord Jesus says, come unto
me and I'll give you rest. I want you to think about how
that applies here. Come unto me and I will give
you rest. What a powerful exhortation that
is and what a powerful promise. He gives rest to the soul. Peace, comfort, contentment,
he gives that. His gospel, every word of the
gospel says that, coming to me. And I'll give you rest. Every
aspect of it has an eye to that command right there, that exhortation,
coming to me. I will give you rest. So what's my exhortation to you? Not I will give you rest. He
will give you rest. He's the only one that can. And
how does that rest come? Come unto me. He gives rest to the soul and
that rest is by coming to Him. He doesn't say do this and do
that and you'll have rest. He is rest. And then it says support the
weak. Now this is weak people. For whatever reason, you're just
weak. You know, it means infirm. It may be just old age has brought
you to that place. I don't know that I'm weak yet
in this definition, but I'm weaker. I think I'm starting to know
what it means a little bit. There are those who are just
feeble, they're infirm because of old age, maybe, maybe an illness,
maybe an injury of some kind. Maybe they're mentally weak.
All my life, I've known somebody like that, that's mentally weak. And these are those people that
other people tend to avoid. That's just the truth, isn't
it? You tend to just not think much of. You think little of
them. They're weak, they're infirm.
They're kind of like, yeah, you know, we give a sympathetic thought
every once in a while. But they're not really in my,
Wheelhouse, you know This says they are This says
they are the word means to latch on to them Latch on to those
that are weak To grab hold of Make whatever
strength the Lord has given to you and to be a support to them. What a precious thing that is. When we were yet without strength,
the Lord latched on to us, didn't he? When we had no strength, it says
he died for us. He did the greatest thing that
could ever be done. Anybody when we were sinking
down to hell he grabbed hold of us It lifted us up You see how the Lord in these
exhortations the Lord in three ways Is the point of it First of all, he's our example
in all these, obviously, clearly, right? He's our example. What
he's done for us is what he's saying, you do this. We can't
be like him, you know, and any more than like a child can be
like, want to be like their father and imitate, you know, we're
pathetic, we're weak, we're impotent, we can't do anything without
him. But by his strength, by his exhortation, by his grace,
he says, be like me, be like me. He's our example. And you know this, too, secondly,
he's all these things to us. Not just an example, but he is
all of this to us. And to those that we're like
this to. If we have pity and we're able
to help somebody in some way, who is it that helped them? It's just such a blessing to
be in on it, isn't it? To be in on it. To experience
His grace to others. So he's our example, he is these
things. And the experience of salvation,
of his grace and mercy upon us, free grace, electing grace, the
experience of that is that we wanna be like him. So he's our
motive in it too, isn't he? Paul said, boy, I sure would
like to do something decent every once in a while. I don't know
how to do that. My flesh won't let me do that,
but I sure would like to. Is anybody here like that? I
sure would like to not mess everything up. Every once in a while, shine
a little bit. God, help me to shine a little
bit. He's our motive in that. So in three ways, it's the Lord
who's preeminent in these things. And then look at be patient toward
all. This has to do with bearing offenses. The word patient presumes
that you're gonna be offended. Are you ready for it? Does it
shock you when somebody offends you? And I'll tell you something
else it says. The word patient presumes that
you're gonna be offensive. You just are. And I am too. People are going
to offend you. The preacher is probably going
to offend you. And I'm not talking about just
the gospel being offensive. Just as a wretched human being,
I'm probably gonna offend you at one time or another, I know
that I have. And you're gonna offend others.
Mark it down, you're going to. This says absorb those offenses,
absorb them. Don't let this, don't let offenses
trump all of these other exhortations. You see what I'm saying? How
this applies to all of the other ones. Be patient in all of these
things. It's not support the weak as
long as they don't offend you. It's support the weak. It's not comfort and love those
who don't offend you. It's not forgive those who don't
offend you. It can be a deal breaker, can't
it? Somebody says something terrible to you or does something to hurt
you, and everything else is out the
window. You think none of the exhortations of the Lord apply
anymore. I'd love to be nice and kind
and forgiving and love you, but you messed it up. That's not
what it says. Be patient. Be long-suffering. Bear it. Bear offenses. Bear
them. and still be kind, supportive,
strong for others, helpful, merciful, have pity. And look, I know a little something about
your nature, because I got one like it. To be long suffering
is uniquely difficult. for us to forbear, to suffer long with
somebody, to take offense and absorb it and go on and not be
poisoned by it. That is uniquely difficult for
us. But again, has our Lord been
long suffering to you? Has he borne long with you? What has he put up with concerning
you? Has he loved you in spite of
offenses and coldness and failure? Those who have been forgiven
much love much. And what we're talking about
is love indeed, aren't we? Being kind, being supportive,
being considerate. That's love indeed. That's all
it is. And that being forgiven much,
loves much, that goes for our Lord and His people too. Let's turn to Matthew 18. Let's
look at this. This shows us our nature and gives us a real lesson. That by God's grace, because
of the new nature, we've got to be contrary to this, we can't
be like this. But we are, we are by nature,
1821. Then came Peter to him and said,
Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive
him? Till seven times. You know why he asked that question?
Can you think about that for a second and say, Lord, you're
saying to forgive one another. That's pretty tough, isn't it?
That's pretty tough to do. I mean, they deserve my wrath. They deserve for me not to think
the same way about them anymore. How many times have I got to
do that? Because it's not, just doing that one time is like the
end of the world to us, isn't it? It's like the end of the
world. And Jesus saith unto him, I say
not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 times seven. Whenever
you stop being a sinner, that's when you can stop forgiving people. Jesus saith unto him, look at
verse 23, Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain
king, which would take account of his servants. And when he
had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him
10,000 talents. But for as much as he had not
to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and
his children, and all that he had in payment to be made. The
servant therefore fell down and worshiped him, saying, Lord,
have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of
that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him
the debt. He didn't just give him more time, he said forget
about it because he had mercy on him. Is that our Savior? We don't ever pay him back. Forgave him the debt. But the same servant, verse 28,
went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him
a hundred pence, not near as much as he owed. And he laid
hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, pay me that
thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down
at his feet and besought him saying, have patience with me
and I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and
cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when
his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry
and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then
his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou also have
had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on
thee? And his Lord was wroth and delivered
him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto
him. So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you from your hearts. Not just because you're told
to, but from your hearts. You see, this is somebody that
the Lord has done something to their heart. So that from their
hearts, they forgive everyone his brother their trespasses. That's pretty plain, isn't it?
That's pretty plain. Listen to Galatians 6.1. And
look at this next verse. You know why you wouldn't do
that? You know why you wouldn't restore, encourage, support somebody
that's weak? Why you wouldn't bend down and
help somebody that's lower maybe at that particular time than
you are? You know why you wouldn't do
that? Because you think you're something. You think you're above
that. You think you're better than
them. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing You're a fool you deceive your
own self and that's me So clear so clear Verse 15 and Just a thought on
verse 15 see that none render evil for evil unto any but ever
follow that which is good and both among yourselves and to
all men." Now, this is the opposite of long suffering, to get back
at them, to get even. That's why he says this. Don't
do that. Don't render evil for evil. If
somebody wrongs you, maybe they deserve it. They really are wrong. They did you wrong, and they
deserve it. Don't render evil for evil. That's
the opposite of longsuffering. That's the opposite of what our
Lord did for us. He could have thrown us in hell. I don't know when it would have
been. When was the first time you sinned?
I don't know. How old do you have to be to
sin? But he could have thrown us in
hell right at the end and we'd have deserved it. It would have
been the right thing to do. He's not like that. He's not
like that. Don't be like that. I say to
myself, don't be like that. Don't grab somebody by the throat
when our Lord frankly forgave you fully for all of your offenses. And here we are grabbing each
other by the throat. Getting even, revenge. That's
the opposite of long suffering. See thou do it not. See to it, he says here. And
ever follow that which is good. Now he's not just saying that
generally, he's saying that in the context of all of this other.
When you've been wrong, when you've been hurt, when you've
been offended, follow that which is good. When you've been condemned
by somebody, forgive them. When you've been upset by somebody,
comfort them. When you've been forgotten, remember. When you've been disrespected,
honor. When you've been hated, love. Follow that which is good in the church and in the world,
he said. And always remember, the Lord
is preeminent in this. This is not just about you and
everything will work out better for you if you follow that which
is good. That may or may not be true as
far as fleshy things are concerned. You may suffer for it. But the Lord is our example. He is all of this to us. He's our motive. If we could
just be like him. Let's pray.