1st Timothy 5 17 Let the elders that rule well
be counted worthy of double honor Especially they who labor in
the word and doctrine now You remember this chapter? that in
this book of 1 Timothy, Paul has begun by instructing the
Apostle Paul, an older preacher of the gospel, instructing young
Timothy on preaching the gospel and God's order in the church. I'll
say it that way. And of course, the gospel is
paramount. He talked about the doctrine, words of faith and
good doctrine. Don't let anybody stray from
the gospel, you nor anybody else. Then he talked about how we're
to behave in the church. And then he's talking in this
chapter five of how we're to behave toward one another. And
it was general sort of at first, at the beginning of the chapter,
just how believers should behave toward believers. And now it's
getting more specific. Speaking of the elders how they
are to Treat others and how they're to be treated by the church And
an elder is defined by the text itself. We don't have to wonder
It says let the elders that rule. Well be counted worthy of double
honor. They rule they are in authority
in the church by God's design God's churches have leaders any
group of people needs a leader and one leader, typically, that
has one purpose. And God calls them pastors in Ephesians
4.11, which means shepherd. And that's a clear picture. There's a lot to be learned from
that. Bishops, they're called bishops in several places, which
means an overseer. as we've seen several times in
the not too far distant past, that word bishop means one who
has the charge of seeing that things to be done by others are
done rightly. That's kind of a long definition,
but that's pretty clear. It's to oversee everyone's behavior. oversee the worship of God in
such a way that it's not hindered or disrupted. And we'll define
that a little more clearly in a minute, or in a little more
detail. Now this word rule has to be
understood as the Bible teaches it. We're not to be lords. Listen
to Acts 20, 28. The metaphor of pastors is helpful. What does it mean to rule? Does
that mean I tell everybody what to do and get into your business
and dictate to you how you run your family? Things like that? No, it does not. In the word
pastors, we have to see all of the context of this word rule. How does a pastor rule? Well,
listen, what does sheep need? What does sheep need a pastor
for? Well, listen to Acts 20, 28. Take heed therefore unto
yourselves and to all the flock. over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God. To feed them. Sheep need to be fed. They're
not the type of animal that's just gonna forage on their own
and make it. Even if they knew how to provide
for themselves, it wouldn't be long before they were provisioned
for something else. To feed the church of God which
he hath purchased with his own blood. Hmm. What else do sheep need? Well,
we just hinted at it. They need protection. They need
protection from the elements and from enemies. But think about it in the spiritual
sense now. It's a picture. Sheep, pastor,
shepherd. What do spiritual sheep need
protection from? Spiritual enemies. Listen to
Philippians 3.1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. What
is it that's safe? What is it that makes the sheep
safe? The gospel. To write the gospel. To write
concerning Christ and what He did for sinners. You look at
the context of that in Philippians. Paul, just not long after that,
is saying, I count everything but dung that I may win Christ. That's what's safe. And then
right after that, when he said, it's safe for me to write, and
his writings are the gospel that we preach. It's safe for you,
for me to do that. And then the next words out of
his mouth are what? Beware of dogs. What's gonna keep you from
dogs, the dogs from you? What I'm teaching you, the gospel
that I preach. If anybody preaches any other
gospel than that which we've preached unto you, let him be
accursed. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. I believe
that's talking about religion. They're the meanest snakes in
the grass, is the religious. And rejoice which worship, for
we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. So
you see the context of that verse that we often quote. It has to
do with what's safe for the sheep. Well, you might say or think
this too, sheep need correction at times too. That's up to this
ruler too. But what's gonna do that? You
know, a tongue lashing? A confrontation of some kind?
No, listen, 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. for instruction in righteousness
that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all
good works. The scriptures are profitable.
Me getting my flesh involved in something and jumping in with
my opinions on how you ought to do things that are none of
my stinking business is not profitable. It's proven to not be profitable.
The scriptures are profitable. And all three of these things
is really one thing. You see that in there. Sheep
food is the gospel. Jeremiah 3.15, I'll give you
pastors according to mine own heart, which shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding. Spiritual food is knowing Christ,
understanding the gospel by his grace. That which keeps sheep
safe is the gospel. As Paul said, what I write unto
you, and that which corrects is the gospel. Hence the last
part of our verse in our text, verse 17. They who labor, especially
they who labor in the word and doctrine. You see how that has
everything to do with the word ruler. The truth is in the context. As for the elder being counted
worthy of double honor, I only know of two or three cases
in my life as having any interest at all in the Church of God or
any knowledge of anything that goes on in it, which is probably
about, you know, 40 years or so. That's a pretty good wow. I know
of two or three cases where I felt like the so-called church somewhere
mistreated their pastor. I just didn't feel like it was
right, what was going on. And that's just me seeing the
situation from my point of view, but it sure didn't seem good.
In every other case, it happens naturally. The Lord blesses his
people, he blesses his pastor. We know how the pastor and his
family are supported and to be supported from the word of God.
It's not unclear about that. And so it's not bragging on anybody,
it's just telling it how it is. And see verse 18 about that in
our text. I never did turn over there,
so let me get over there. But look at verse 18 while I'm
turning over there. This is from the Old Testament,
of course. For the scripture saith, thou
shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the
laborer is worthy of his reward. You know, a preacher might read
verse 17 and say, ooh, you know, double honor, hoo hoo, I'm somebody.
And then you see that God compares you to an ox. Even an ox don't
deserve to not be supported in the work that he does. So it's
kind of, God has a way of not letting preachers get too far
above their raising, whatever that means. He's real good at it He's real
good He knows how to bring us down where we belong at his feet And I'm glad that he does So verse 18 And that Laborer being worthy of his reward.
That's that's something that you know, it's not an issue here.
I'm sure Paul is writing this Knowing of some examples as I
do in the past Where this was important to note so But that's
not an issue here. I thank God for your faithfulness
in the way That my family and I are treated here. It's such
a blessing Such a blessing such a special Blessing from God. Thank God for your friendship
in Christ. The pastor labors in the word
and teaching it. Notice that now. He labors in
the word and doctrine. That's not just saying it twice,
two different ways. It's saying two different things.
He labors in the word. He also labors on how to bring
the word to you in such a way that's clear and plain. The scripture
calls it rightly dividing the word of truth. He labors in both. I want to know what God said,
but I also want to be able to say it to you in a way that's
clear as a bell. If the trumpet shall make an
uncertain sound, who shall prepare for the battle? That's a great
question from the scripture. I want the trumpet sound to be
just as clear as a bell. I pray that God will keep me
out of the way of it. Pastors labor in the Word. Think
about that first of all. Knowing it, knowing the Word,
knowing what God said. All of it. And by God's grace,
knowing how to bring it, to rightly divide it. He doesn't labor in
putting out Christmas cantatas and developing programs for the
young people or anybody else. Outreach program. The gospel
is our outreach. I don't even know why we would
call it that. The gospel is God's message to
sinners, that's what it is. As pastor, I get invited several
times a year to fancy dinners and preaching workshops and all
kinds of events. Waste of time, not interested. I've never been to one yet and
I'm not ever going to, Lord willing. It's all kinds of perks, you
know, just being a pastor, not for God's preachers. We have
nothing to do with this world in that regard, nothing. Verse
19, against an elder, receive not an accusation, but before
two or three witnesses. And notice that it doesn't say
two or three people that are willing to come at you. Two or three people that actually
know what they're talking about. Not two or three people that
you've rallied to your cause. Two or three people that know
for a fact what happened. Now there are a couple of reasons
for this, for this warning. The first is kind of obvious
because he's the preacher. It's just a natural thing that
anyone in leadership really takes a lot of grief from people. If
he's really, though, the man that God has chosen and gifted
to preach the gospel to you, then it doesn't mean the accusation
is false. It does not mean that because
we're all sinners. Just because God has chosen a
man and sent him to preach the gospel, it doesn't mean the accusation,
whatever it is, is false, but it does mean that it should be
indisputable. It should be known, not suspected
or somebody's mad at the preacher and wanting to bring him down.
The other reason is that the pastor does just kind of naturally
get accused of all kinds of things. All the time. Anyone in any kind of authority,
as I said, gets that kind of thing, but it seems like the
pastor gets a double load of that as well. I'm just being honest with you,
and this is the text that we're looking at. but that's just the
truth. The Apostle Paul was forced to
defend himself in some of his letters to the churches. He was
forced to defend himself. Now think about that. Out of
all of Paul's life, we have a few letters from him, and we see
that in those, that he had to defend himself against people
that were bringing accusations against him, several times, about
several different things. The pastor's a target. One example of that, and I feel
it's important to give examples in these kind of things. We get
down in the weeds a little bit more than I prefer to do in this
type of thing. I don't know if that's the right
way to say it, but you see what I mean. This is not typically
what we would talk about, but this teaching here, I want us
to understand what this is talking about. Recently, a pastor of
a church, because of the pandemic, he, He utilized some safeguards
in the church to just avoid people getting sick. You know, he did
what we did. In fact, I did it because he
did it. It was a good idea, I thought,
to block off every other pew because one of the reasons the
pandemic is, one of the ways it's spread is long-term. airborne exposure to it. You
know, if you just walk past somebody, you're probably not, but if you're
sitting there for an hour, breathing somebody else's air, you know,
there's a good chance you're gonna get sick if they have it.
So he did that, and he encouraged them to wear masks. And I wouldn't
be talking about this if people just got mad at him for doing
that. People got mad at him for doing that, and people got mad
at him for not doing more. Everybody, I mean, not everybody
was mad about it. But you see what I'm saying?
It was both. It was, you know, those who thought
he was doing too much accused him of not having any faith.
You know, we just believe God. Whether we, you know, if he wants
me to get sick, I'll get sick. Why don't you go park on a train
track for a few hours and see if God wants you to get run over
by a train? Why don't you drive 80 miles an hour down the freeway
with no seatbelt on? Let's find out if God wants you
to go flying through a windshield and die a horrible death. It's
stupid. It's really, really, really stupid
to accuse somebody of not having faith because of common sense
precautions that God's given us enough sense to use. And then other people got mad
at him for not doing it. That's not enough. We need to
do a mandatory, you know, it needs to be mandatory for people
to wear masks. So he had the perfect storm going on. And I'm
thinking, really? And this is important because
if that happens at work, you kind of just expect people to
be petty. But in the church of God, really,
we're going to be like that? Are you kidding me? That's the
teaching of our text. Don't do or behave in such a
way or say things that hurt. That hurts a preacher. It hurts
everybody that's for the preacher. That hurts everybody that's going
to show up and worship God no matter how many pews are available
or whoever's wearing a mask or not wearing a mask. They don't
care. They're there to worship God. Can we be that person by
God's grace? When you include verse one in
that, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and
the younger men as brethren. What possible ulterior motive
could the preacher have What skin is it off of him where people
sit when he's preaching the gospel that he's worked on all week?
He's just doing it for you. He's doing it for you. And how anybody could have a
problem with that is just beyond, it's not beyond us, because we
know how petty we are by nature. It's our nature, isn't it? We
can be that way. We are that way, apart from God's
grace. God, help us. That's why Paul wrote here about
how to treat one another in the house of God, because the gospel
can't go forth rightly unless there's some decency that he
imposes upon us in spite of ourselves, and he's just teaching us here
what that is. If he leaves us to ourselves,
we know what's gonna happen. Bless God, maybe he won't. Maybe
he'll give us a little bit of grace so that we're here and
we don't care about any of that. We just want to worship God.
We just want to hear what God said and find rest unto our souls. Got to come there. We got to
get to that place by God's grace. We got to get there. Remember what we do here. Remember who we are. Remember who we worship and serve. Don't remember it right now.
Remember it when you're in the world. Remember it every time
you open your mouth to say some idle word. Remember it when if you're like
me, you're about to pull some sneaky stunt that's going to
hurt somebody on purpose. Every time you're feeling selfish,
you want everybody to know that you're important. You know, that's
our nature. You want everybody to know you've
been wrong and you're going to set it right. or every time you start to get
offended over some trivial foolishness. Remember that it's disrupting
that which is most precious and most vital. Remember it affects so many more
people than the one saying it and the one listening to it at
the time. Remember what we do. Remember
who we are. Remember who he is. Remember
why we're here. Not right now. Remember it when the time comes. Remember him when you're tempted
to butt in somewhere you don't belong. Remember him every time
you open your mouth. Remember him when you can't seem
to resist to pass some hot information along. What purpose does it serve? The scriptures deal with those
very specific things. Being busybodies and other men's
matters and gossiping and things like that. Remember how destructive
that is. Let me shock, I'm gonna shock
y'all this morning. I'm gonna shock you right out
of your chair. You ready? We're sinners. We're horrible,
wretched sinners. We get all bent out of shape
when somebody sins. You know why you do that? Why
they do that? Why we all do that? Because we're
sinners. That's why. Don't be so shocked about it.
You know what the scripture says? Be careful, lest you fall like
they did. Restore them and be careful of
yourself. I'm a sinner. Remember who I'm accountable
to. It ain't you. And you're not accountable to
me either. That's not what ruler means here. I don't mean that in a spiteful
way when I say I'm not accountable to you. Listen to this verse
carefully. Turn over there with me. Hebrews
13, 17. Hebrews 13, 17. Listen to this let's let's just
look through this carefully obey them That have the rule over
you Well, that's our text. That's what that's and submit
yourselves For they watch for your souls They watch for your
souls As they that must give account That they may do it with joy
and not with grief and for that is unprofitable for
you. It's not just about, they do
that for you. If God gave them to you, if this is real, if this is what
we say it is, what we believe under God that
it is, it's for you. It behooves you. to not be a distraction or an
impediment or a grief or anything else bad to the pastor. I am responsible, not to you,
but I am responsible to know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ. and him crucified. I'm responsible
to God for that. The message has always got to
be Christ. It's not my opinions on things.
You see this from the scripture. You see what we're talking about
from the word of God. It's not my opinion on things.
It's not a pet peeve of mine that I just had to get out this
morning. We just happen to be right here in the word of God. I believe the Lord is teaching
us. That way, it's got to be what
he did for sinners. That's the point of this. It's
not about our behavior, it's about the gospel and how our
behavior affects the gospel. The whole point of our behavior
is to honor him, mine and yours. Not to honor him as righteous
in ourselves, not to depend on that, not meritoriously. In other
words, I like what somebody said, somebody told me this recently,
I forget who said it. But they said this, works matter,
but they don't count. I think it might've been Tim
James that said that. That sounds like Tim, doesn't
it? Works matter, but they don't count. That's a good saying. They matter a lot, but our righteousness
is Christ. Only Christ. But we honor Him because we love
Him, if we do. We honor Him who redeemed us
with His precious blood, who loved us freely, and whose grace
toward us is sovereign. We didn't want anything to do
with Him. He had everything to do with us. And His grace is
saving, He doesn't try. He doesn't try anything, much
less to save sinners. He just does it. I'm responsible to be an example
to you. I'm responsible to God for that
in faithfulness and conduct. Now that doesn't mean what this
religious world thinks it means. It really doesn't. The scriptures
define what it does mean quite well. Forgive one another. As God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. Love one another, the Lord said,
as I have loved you. It's always Christ, isn't it?
It all points to Christ. Be kind one toward another in
longsuffering. Exhort one another. Pray for
one another. support and comfort one another.
All of that points to Christ. It honors Him. Speaking of prayer, I'm responsible
to pray for you and to care for you in any other way that I can.
As your pastor, if you just need somebody to talk to, I want to
be that person if that's the right thing. a shoulder to lean
on. I can't stand an unapproachable
preacher that people are scared of offending. How are you going
to offend me? I'm a bigger sinner than you
are. People, you know, preachers like that. I'm scared of saying the wrong thing.
You're not going to say the wrong thing to me. I may say the wrong
thing to you, but maybe, maybe the Lord will use it. I'm responsible before God not
to be that preacher that you can't approach, that you're scared
of offending. And the pastor who is all these
things that we've talked about by God's grace to you is worthy
of double honor Now clearly here that's talking about financial
support. It's talking about the living
of the gospel and that's clear from other scripture. There's
a lot of scripture we could turn to about that. It has to do with
him not having to work a job in this world so that he can
give himself and labor in the word and in teaching the word.
And that's clear here and in many places. But it goes beyond
financial support. And I think even more important
than that, even more important than that,
because some preachers have had to work. I don't think that should
happen for a long time because it needs to be the way God ordered
it. The Apostle Paul made tents for
a while when he didn't want to be a burden to churches that
were smaller. and things like that, and weren't
able to support him at the time for a lot of reasons at that
time. But, and I've seen that happen, but it should only be
for a while. That's not the ideal thing. But
it goes beyond that in this sense. To give the pastor double honor
is to listen to him, to actually listen to what he says. I tell
you that from experience. There's nothing more dishonoring
than to come to the preacher for advice and then turn around
and three days later, you're doing the opposite thing. Why
did you come to me at all? Does it not matter to you? I
mean, I don't know, that's insulting to anybody, right? That's just
insulting. Not because the pastor said it,
should that happen. But if he said it, if God said
it, then it's not just advice, it's the truth. Now sometimes
it is just advice. I want you to turn to another
passage of scripture though. Look at Hebrews 13, seven. We
were in Hebrews 13 a while ago, but look at verse seven this
time. Remember them which have the
rule over you. This is the third place where
we've seen that word and we see what it means. It doesn't mean
butt into everybody's business and tell them what to do. It's
not about that. It's got to be the scriptural
definition of it. Who have spoken unto you the
word of God. That's how they rule. That's
how they protect you. That's how they encourage you.
That's all the things sheep need. That's how they feed you. Who have spoken unto you the word
of God, whose faith follow. Also, they are an example. They've
got to be. God just makes it that way. He shuts down to a great extent
our natural foolishness so that you can hear what we say and
not reject it just because of us. That would be very possible
if God didn't do something about it. Whose faith follow considering
the end of their conduct. I thought that was key in this
verse. Think about that. Considering the end, if that
had maybe happened in the case where everybody's mad at the
preacher because of COVID stuff, consider the point of all that.
Consider the end. Consider what he's doing and
why he's doing it, who he's doing it for, who he's responsible to. Consider
the end. Consider the goal of the whole
thing. It ain't to restrict your behavior. He loves you God said
I'll give you pastors after my own heart And he does He does Considering the end of
their conduct considering the goal the point of it That's key
And listen to how it's described here Jesus Christ The same yesterday and today
and forever. It's no accident that the next
verse is the immediate context of that. Be not carried about
with diverse and strange doctrines. Don't listen to anything that
doesn't honor Christ, point you to Christ, set forth Christ as all of your
righteousness before God, as your sin offering before God,
as everything you need before God. Don't consider it. Don't listen to it. Don't be
moved by it. Don't be carried about with strange doctrines.
Anything except Jesus Christ, the immutable Son of God, is
a strange doctrine. For it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace. You see the end of His conduct?
Remember them which have the rule over you. It starts there
and it proceeds to this. It's a good thing that your heart
and mine be established with God's grace in Christ. Not with meats which have not
profited them that have been occupied thereby. And he does
here like I do sometimes. Just throw out one example of
what it's not. It's not about your diet. It's
not about dietary restrictions. It's not about whether you wear
a mask or not. It's not about anything but your heart before
God and His grace in Christ Jesus. Now, it'll be clear to you what's
directly, I hope I make it clear, what's directly from the word
of God, and sometimes just my advice to you. I may give you
advice about things that aren't directly related. aren't directly
related in the Word of God, described or addressed particularly in
the Word of God, but consider this. How many people do you
know, probably wouldn't take you that long to count them up,
how many people do you know that love you? I mean, I'm not talking about people
that ought to love you. I'm talking about people that typically that
relationship would love you. How many people love you and
make it clear? How many people do you know that
love you and love God and know God? They're jealous for the
glory of God and they love you. They love you. How many people
do you know like that? I'll tell you this, your pastor's
one of them. That's God's arrangement. It just is. You can't really pray for somebody
you don't love. You can pray in general terms,
God bless our country, things like that. How many, how many, how many?
Your pastor's one of them. And by God's design, he's in
the word just about every day. How many people you know like
that? This is God's arrangement, and
it's a good one. It's a good one. Verse 20, them
that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. Now don't
take this out of its context. It's not saying every time somebody
sins and you find out about it, everybody should know about it. What a disaster that would be,
wouldn't it? Can you imagine that? We wouldn't have time to
do anything else, would we? I see a lot of sin in y'all. And you might try to get up here
and talk about my sin and I'd say, get your own pulpit. I don't want you talking about
my sin. Oh boy, can you imagine that?
But keep it in the, this is talking about what he just was talking
about. If there are two or three witnesses
that know for a fact, if the preacher did actually sin in
a way that matters to this, you see what I'm saying? In a way
that makes, that's important to the context. If he is guilty of what he's
accused of, assuming that it's not trivial or just a personal
grudge, everybody needs to know about
that. You tell me that, don't say that.
Rebuke before all that others also may fear Not that they may
get some juicy gossip not that they may gloat or But that they
may fear If the pastor proves himself
untrustworthy in that which is vital to the gospel then nobody
should listen to him. They need to know about that.
I know examples of that in the past too and I've made no bones
about it. You tell me something in confidence
and it'll stay that way. But in this case, people need
to know that. And this, of course, goes for
those who falsely accuse the pastor, too. It goes in both
directions. You see in the texture, them
that sin, rebuke. You can't just get away with
that. This is too important. It's too important. It's vital. What we do, who we do it for,
who we're responsible to. It doesn't get swept under the rug.
Can't happen. Again, now, there's gotta be,
it's got to apply to this context. It's got to be a matter that's
vital to the preaching of the gospel. That's what an elder
does. We've seen that in various places just this morning. He
brings the word of God to you. He labors in the word and in
teaching the word. So it's got to have to do with
that. And it does go in both directions.
There's got to be consequences for it. There's got to be an
awareness of it for the reason given here. And I could give
you examples of that in both directions. You may be able to think of them. It's not a game, it's not political
theater. Everything in this world is politics
on some level. You know what I mean by that? This is not to be taken lightly.
Look at the solemn charge, and we'll have to close here this
morning. Verse 21, look at this solemn
charge. I charge thee before God. and
the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe
these things without. Now there's a way to behave in
these ways and there's a way not to. With regard to all of
what we've said this morning, it's got to be without personal
preference and partiality. You can't treat one person one
way or another another. You can't be motivated by your
personal preferences and prejudices in what you say and do in the
house of God. that would eliminate just about
every problem that takes place in the house of God. Because 99.9, in fact, 100% in
my experience, 100%, if somebody starts accusing, say, the worst
accusation you can make in the church is the preacher not preaching
the gospel. 100% of the time, it's a personal problem. that has caused them to make
that accusation 100%. That's what this is forbidding. There's a personal issue at the
root of it every time. And this can easily happen on
the part of preachers too. They can take personal sides
and treat people inappropriately
because of that, because of personal interests and prejudices against
certain people easily, easily happen. And I don't mean that
word prejudice in the sense that the world uses that. Not at all. You know what I mean by that.
Prejudices against people. You got something against somebody
for no reason other than that they're who they are. And they
made you mad 20 years ago or something. Can't do it. People's personal feelings I've
seen so many times in my life, sadly, cause division in the
church. and disruption of the gospel
in places. I've probably seen that, I don't
even know how to quantify it, I've seen it many times. You
know how many times I've seen the opposite of that, where somebody
you would think would be highly offended and it would make them
leave or something, and yet they took it in stride. Actually counted
the glory of God as more important than their feelings you know
how many times I've seen that happen about two or three times
It happens God's gracious God's gracious, but you see what
our text is talking about personal feelings prejudices against people
grudges It's got to be without that. The behavior in God's church
has got to be without that. And that would, as I say, eliminate
almost everything that would hinder the gospel. We're solemnly charged by the
word of God in this matter. Sinners hearing from God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ and how sinners are saved by him and
what he did, that's what this is. Never forget that. Never let anything, you'll see
it coming. You'll see it coming before it
gets there. You'll see it coming. Put a stop
to it right there. Never forget what we do here
and why and who it's for and who we're responsible to. Remember our text in Proverbs
recently, Proverbs 16, 32, he that is slow to anger is better
than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit is better than
he that taketh a city. One way to look at this is that
God has ordained his church. It's so precious to him that
as we read a while ago in Acts chapter 20, he purchased it with
his own precious blood. All the instruction concerning
his church, the purpose of it, go and preach. what it is, the
pillar and ground of truth in our very context, how we ought
to behave as members of it, 1 Timothy 3.15, all plainly taught and
perfectly reasonable. We understand exactly what it's
saying, and all we have to do is not mess it up. And we know that it's impossible
for us to not mess it up. Unless God is gracious. Unless
he's gracious to us. So we pray for that. Continually
pray for that. And strive. Endeavor to keep
the unity of the spirit, Paul said. Endeavor to keep the unity of
the spirit in the bond of peace. It's an endeavor. 1st Peter 4 10 I just want to
close with this as every man hath received the gift The gift
of salvation The various gifts that he gives
in his church Even so minister the same one to another As good
stewards of The manifold grace of God did you know you were
a steward of? of God's grace. You're privileged
to be that. And you know what the word steward
means? Managing household affairs. It's God's house. If any man speak, let him speak
as the oracles of God. If you're speaking for God, it
better be what God said. If any man minister, Let him
do it as of the ability which God giveth. That God, what's the point of
it all? That God in all things may be
glorified through Jesus Christ. Your ministering, what you say,
the way that you manage your part in the affairs of God's
house. May it be in such a way that
God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom
be praise and dominion forever and ever. That's the point of it all. May
God use us for his glory in the preaching of his gospel.