1st Timothy chapter 3. This is
a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth
a good work. A bishop then must be blameless,
the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given
to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker,
not greedy 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. Likewise
must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, and not given
to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of
the faith in a pure conscience. And let those also first be proved,
then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless,
Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful
in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands
of one wife, ruling their children in their own house as well. For
they that have used the office of a deacon will purchase to
themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith,
which is in Christ Jesus. Now let's talk about the bishop
here, the description of a bishop. It means this, to
look upon in order to help or benefit, to look after, to care
for, provide for. If you think about that, I'm
gonna read it again. I want you to think about this.
This is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. to look upon in order to help
or benefit. You remember the Good Samaritan?
Everybody else passed that poor dying man by. Didn't want anything
to do with him. The Good Samaritan says he looked
at him and had compassion on him. To look upon in order to
help or benefit, to look after. He took him to the inn, paid
his way. poured in oil and wine, treated
his wounds and took care of him to care for, provide for. Most
people don't think of pastors in that light. A lot of folks
that this world calls their pastor are some kind of comedians or
some kind of power of positive thinking. Proponents. Say that three times. Power of positive thinking proponents. But you know what I mean. Even
at funerals, Vicky went to a funeral of somebody and the guy just
told jokes the whole time. He said, what you need is to
laugh, you know, at a time like this. No, what you need is to
look to your creator and realize that the wages of your sin is
death. and think about when you're gonna meet God someday and how
that's gonna go. How can God accept you? How can
you have favor with the God that made you? But Bishop, The same word is
attributed to Christ in first Peter 2 21 for even under even
here unto where you called Because Christ also suffered for us Leaving
us an example that you should follow his steps who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled,
reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness. That's
the gospel. That's talking about Christ and
him crucified. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree for you were a sheep going astray. But in that character,
in the character of the Lord Jesus Christ coming down here
to save his sheep, you're now returned unto the shepherd and
bishop of your souls. So that's what we are. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God on that basis, that Christ bore the sins
of his people in his body on the tree. Now, I wanted to include
the first part of that passage for even here in two where you
call because Christ also has suffered for us, leaving us an
example, because this is what we're doing as pastors, bishops,
and even as believers. We follow Christ. We follow his
steps, like it said there. That's what we're doing. We preach
what he preached. He said, you go into all the
world and preach the gospel, telling people what I told you. We are to forgive, even as God,
for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. We come to you in his name. Second Corinthians 5.20, now
then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us. So you see, we pray you in Christ's
stead, the Lord Jesus Christ bodily, physically has left this
earth. But what did he say before he
did? Now you go and preach the gospel. All authority is mine,
therefore you go. So we go on his authority. He
commissioned us to go and preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. Not save the world, not fix all
of people's problems and make sure you're involved in charity. Preach the gospel. Not solve
the political issues of the day. Preach the gospel. So our text this morning is simply
saying a bishop or a deacon or anybody in the church that has
any office of oversight, any authority in God's church is
gifted of the Lord to be like Christ in these ways. This is
not saying he ought to be these things. This is what God does
when he makes somebody a preacher. This is not about you sitting
there and seeing how I measure up to this. When God calls somebody to preach,
he gifts them. I mean, I've seen this in everybody
that I've ever heard preach the truth. I can't see it really
in myself. If it was a matter of that, of
seeing how I measure up, I'd have to apologize to you. But
I'll tell you this, it's the word of God. This is who he,
not who he finds, But He says, I'll give you pastors after my
own heart. When I get done with them, they'll
love you. And this is the expression of
love right here. To be kind and patient. To care. And all of these things. So let's
look at it together and see our Savior primarily in this. We
want to be like Him. We want to be like him, following
his steps, as we read there. And it also says, you notice
that when it was talking about the deacons, it says, also prove
them, before they ever become deacons, prove them that they
have these qualities. And it says also, because even
though it doesn't say that specifically in the bishop part, clearly it's
implied. And so it says also with the
deacons, prove them. Prove them. Don't listen to somebody that's
mean-hearted. Don't listen to somebody that's
always beating you over the head with the law. Don't listen to
somebody that doesn't preach Christ, because that's love. If you love somebody, you're
gonna want them to know the Savior that you know. Let these also first be proved. Let them use the office of a
deacon Being found blameless. We'll talk about that word blameless.
We know what it don't mean, don't we? Because they're in any preacher
that's perfect But first of all, it's it says a Good work you
seek a good work when you seek the office of a bishop Now that
word good means beautiful, excellent, choice,
and precious. It's not saying good on you if
you seek the office of a bishop. That's a good thing to seek.
What Paul is doing there is instilling a sense of what it is to preach
the gospel. How beautiful are the feet of
them. that bring glad tidings of good things. Precious. What's going on this morning
and what goes on where God's preachers are everywhere around
this world, when the people of God gather together into worship,
it's a precious thing. It's not something to be trifled
with. And let me just say, since it's appropriate to the hour, that people in some churches
that we know and love have been so petty as to make an issue
of whether to wear masks or not. They've taken that which is precious
and they've defiled it with their fleshly stupidity. I can't imagine
anything more stupid than God's people getting together and having
an issue with one another over whether you want a mask or not
want a mask. Who cares? If you feel comfortable
wearing a mask, if you don't, don't, but be considerate of
others. And this issue is coming upon
us again, so let me just talk about it a little bit. I'm a
proponent of being careful, because other people talk like they know
everything about this stuff. I've had it, and you don't want
it if you haven't had it. Those of you who've had it don't
want it again. So be considerate of those. If you just are just
happy-go-lucky and just don't care and everything's, you know,
it's just the flu. I mean, I can stand up here all
day and tell you it wasn't the flu. I promise you that. It was
life-changingly horrible. And even more so for some people
that we love. So look, don't fuss about that. Don't disagree over, what we
have here is precious. It's beautiful. It's the only
beautiful thing in this horrible world is to get together and
worship God as brothers and sisters. Don't think so lightly of that
as to impose your stupid, just prejudices and have an opinion
so strong that you don't care what anybody else thinks. and
you'll run them down and say stupid things to them because
your opinion is so wonderful that everybody's got to have
it. Nonsense. Shut up about it. Put your mask
on if you want to. Stay home if you want to. But let's worship the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the beautiful thing. Not
you convincing everybody to think like you think. There's nothing
beautiful about that. That's ugly. This is precious. This is precious, that's what
I'm saying. Nothing, and I'm just using that as an example
because I've seen it, I've seen it do some real damage in churches
of folks that we love. And that's ridiculous, it's absolutely
ridiculous. If we all get the coronavirus
and every one of us dies from it, let's die as one, worshiping
the Lord, one in heart, one in spirit, loving one another. How
about that? Let's do it that way. But it's a good work, and the
ministry is work. Many of you know that. Some people
in every ministry, and it's the Lord's ministry, But there are
some that really don't see it that way. They don't see it as
work. They see it as just coming and
showing up and listening and going home, and that's fine.
That's fine. But there's a handful of people
everywhere where God is worshiped that understand that the ministries
work, and the pastor's one of them. It don't matter where you go. We're to be workmen that needeth
not to be ashamed, too. and that's before God. We're
to strive to be workmen. Listen to 2 Timothy 2.15, study
to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not
to be ashamed, approved unto God. The only thing God's gonna
approve of is the gospel of his son. And so when I study, I know before
I ever say a word in front of anybody that if I haven't seen
Christ in the passage, then I don't know anything about it. I'm completely
lost. I'm twisting in the wind because
this book concerns his son in every chapter, in every verse.
And that's the only thing God's gonna approve of, is to preach
Christ and Him crucified. To tell sinners that there is
a Savior that saves. The Jesus of religion is foolish
and idle, and mocks men's souls. But there is a Savior that saves,
there's a Redeemer that redeems sinners. There's a Lord Jesus
Christ you can come to and be confident that you're able to
rest in Him. You're able to cast your soul
upon him. So our work is to tell about
him who did all the work. The Lord Jesus Christ worked
out my righteousness on this earth as me. The last Adam, representative
of his people, he did everything he did. He accomplished the work of salvation
perfectly and alone. And our work is to just tell about
him and what he did. Tell about him, tell about him
doing that. As a boy, our Lord said, wished
you not that I must be about my father's business. And as he went to the cross,
he said to his father in John 17, four, I've glorified you
on this earth. I finished the work that you
gave me to do. And what beautiful, excellent,
precious work he did. He went everywhere pointing centers
to himself saying, come unto me, believe on me, trust in me. Everything he did was perfect
in thought, word, and deed. I can't do that, but I can look
to him and do what I do for his glory by his grace. I can tell
about him. I can tell you who he is as the
Lord gives me wisdom and light. The difference, you know, he
did what he did for me and you, if you're his. He did what he
did for his people. And you know what? His people
do what they do for him. Difference is he don't need us
He doesn't need us But he gives us the privilege of working in
his ministry What he does for us is him blessing
us and what we do for him is him blessing us and The Lord Jesus Christ literally
faced the devil for us and faced him down for us. He tirelessly worked out our
righteousness on this earth. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again. You know, that's impossible for
me. I just can't do that. You insult
me, it's coming back at you. I can't help that. That takes
grace, doesn't it? That takes grace. That's not
in my nature. He accomplished the perfect work
of salvation for me, and that included every moment he lived
on this earth. It included the covenant in eternity
that he made with his father and the Holy Spirit to be our
surety, to be our mediator, to be our substitute, to be our
representative. We need to know what those words
mean. He's our surety that is knowing that we would default. He said, whatever they can't
pay, I'll pay it. And you know how much we paid?
Nothing. He paid it all. Our mediator,
he stands between us and God and pleases God in this matter. There's a problem between us
and God by nature. Our sin has separated between
us and our God, but he's able to live perfectly for us and
please God in all aspects of his law. and sheds his precious
blood, the only offering that would be enough before God to
pay for all my sin. And he's able to please us, he's
able to satisfy us, all of our needs, everything, redemption,
righteousness, peace. As our mediator, he was our substitute. He went to Calvary for us. He
was our substitute as he lived. Everybody that's ever played
a sport knows what a substitute is. When a substitute goes in
for you, you sit down. That's a pretty good illustration.
When God said to the Israelites at the Red Sea, just be still
and watch me save you. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. That's substitution. You're out
of the game. You're out of the game. We're
losers. We were costing ourselves, our
own souls. We're our own worst enemy. Sit
down. What the law could not do and
that it was weak through my flesh, God sent his son in the game
to accomplish everything for me. The burden of my sin crushed
his heart in Gethsemane. His soul was exceeding. He bled
there like no other man ever has in Gethsemane. His soul was exceeding sorrowful
even unto death. He bore my sin and bore the wrath
of God for me on Calvary. His work for us is so great and
so glorious that in the revelation He gives us in Matthew 25, when
He mentions what we did for Him, we say, when, Lord? When did
we ever do anything for You? Everything that ever happened
between us and God was Him doing something for us. We're literally
not gonna know. Because we haven't done anything.
He just imputes it to us anyway. Blameless, we used to be blameless.
Y'all are saying, we're not gonna get through this. And you're
right, we're not gonna get through all of it. Blameless in verse
two, doesn't mean without sin, we know that. Doesn't mean less
sinful than other people. You know, the preacher is exemplary. You know, he's better than everybody.
No, he's not. No, no. It means unrebukable
though. It does mean unrebukable I'm open to rebuke in every other
thing and in every other way But not in the gospel by God's
grace you're not gonna find it When Peter and John The apostle
Peter was able to raise that man, give him strength in his
legs. That lame man, he was able to
walk again. It says they could say nothing
against it. They stood there and watched it happen. That's
how the gospel is. If you try to say something against
this gospel, you're just gonna make a fool out of yourself.
You're gonna contradict yourself. You're gonna say stupid things
like God loves everybody. You're just gonna make a fool,
you can't contradict it. It's unrebukable. And so the
man who preaches it is unrebukable in that regard. Blameless. And for me to be blameless is
to not ever say anything else. If I wanna be blameless in this
office, I say what God says. If I ever say anything else that
God didn't say, then I'm rebukable for that. God's under shepherd. I'm to
be blameless and that is it needs to be so that if someone has
a problem With me they have a problem with God And that's how it needs to be
Not that I'm in you know to Stand in the place of God in any other
sense other than just speaking That's what I'm talking about If you have a problem with what
I preached, by God's grace, I'll show you who you've really got
a problem with. If I just simply tell forth the
glories of God concerning His Son, and preach salvation by
grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, then nothing
can be said against it. Our Lord was blameless in every
way, perfect, authoritative. They didn't dare bring an accusation. Even the Pharisees, they didn't
have the guts to rebuke him, and they were authorities on
the scripture. They didn't have the guts. Every time they asked
him a question, he pulled their feet right out from under them.
That's how it ought to be when the gospel's preached. Finally, it says they dared not
even ask him any more questions. They've had enough of that. May we speak for God like that,
all of us, to our children and whoever will ask a question. May we be able to give a reason
for the hope that lies within us with his authority, not ours. I can say what he said with his
authority, by his grace. so that we may know how we ought
to answer every man. But I know this, my hope, my
salvation is this, that in Christ Jesus, because of his life and
death for us, we're not even reprovable in the sight of God.
This word blameless, unrebukable, We're unrebukable in the sight
of God. That's what it says in Colossians
121. And you that were at one time alienated and enemies in
your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the
body of his flesh through death. Gospel, that's who we preach,
Christ and his soul redeeming death on Calvary. in the body
of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable. That's our word, unreprovable
in his sight. That's where we stand. In Christ,
unrebukable. If even God can't rebuke you
for anything, what's man gonna say? He's gonna make a fool out
of himself. The husband of one wife. Now
this is mentioned because polygamy was not uncommon in that place
at that time. And it's just talking about faithfulness,
being faithful. It's a character thing. It's
not like some kind of a technicality. Oh, you've been married, you're
married to two wives. It's a question of care, of who
it is that you're calling to be your pastor. Who it is. Let them prove themselves in
this. Faithfulness. Faithfulness. A pastor is to
be the husband of one wife. And that doesn't just, it's not
just a matter of not being a polygamist. It's a matter of being a good
husband, a faithful husband. Faithful to her. And be all that
she needs. And she all that he needs. That's
when people commit adultery and things like that, they say, well,
this is not enough. That's also the problem in churches,
when people say Christ is not enough, not enough. It's a matter of faithfulness,
isn't it? It's a matter of faithfulness. Everybody knows this gospel stuff.
Let's go on to prophecies and end times and weird stuff like
that. No, let's not. Let's be faithful to the truth
that God told us to set forth. To whom shall we go? We don't
have to be faithful to him. We got nowhere to go. We have
no desire to leave. And so that's what that is. He
will never leave us nor forsake us. And then it says vigilant. That means watchful, watchful. That's why, you know, I said
what I did a while ago about, you know, a lot of, in several
places, it's become, you know, this big horrible issue, you
know, about the China virus and how we should react to it. I'm
warning you against that. I'm watching over us by saying,
let's not, please let God keep us from being that stupid. Please
pray that God would keep us from being that ridiculous. But it's
mostly in questions of doctrine, to be vigilant when something
comes up, and that doesn't happen here, thank God. It's not for
lack of us being susceptible to Watchful. Listen to Hebrews 13, 17. Obey
them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for
they watch for your souls as they that must give account,
that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that
is unprofitable for you. It's unprofitable for you. It's
a lose for everybody, a loss for everybody. Able to watch for your souls
because Christ watches for all of our souls He gives me whatever
wisdom he's pleased to give me To be able to watch because he's
watching that's our comfort. That's our comfort. He's watching
He won't let me lead you wrong If he does I will if he lets
me but he keeps my soul, that I might be a watchman for him. And of course, we all have a
role in all of these things. Let's watch for one another.
Be careful of things creeping in that can be a disruption or
a distraction or cause division. Be careful of that. This is beautiful. This is precious. The Lord might use our enemies
to teach us and to afflict us if it's good for us, but not
one hair of our head can fall to the ground without our father. Exodus 11, six, listen to this. Now this is the Lord's vigilance
over us. There shall be a great cry throughout
all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall
be like it anymore. But against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast,
that you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. I wouldn't even have to worry
about my old dog Clark getting hurt. Man or beast, he gonna
take care of his people. And you know what the difference
was there in that context? The blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ, that's the difference. The way that I watch for your
soul is by always and only by God's grace preaching Christ
your refuge. You are only safe in Christ.
You're not going to be safe because I'm, and you notice, you know,
all of these, some say these are the qualifications for a
pastor. I don't know if I really like
that word. That sounds too much like God looked for somebody
qualified, you know. I don't know about it being the
qualifications for a pastor. It's what God does. when he puts
somebody as a pastor over a church. But you notice it doesn't say
anywhere in here he's got to be smart. Aren't you glad? If it did say that, I'd have
to step down right now. No, it doesn't say it. But the way I watch for your
soul by God's grace is by preaching the only refuge the only refuge
from any harm. Think about what a refuge He
is, a refuge for your soul under the blood of Jesus, safe though
the worlds may crumble, safe though the stars grow dim, unrebukable
and holy in the sight of God, unrebukable by anybody anywhere,
and nothing in this world can hurt you. It doesn't mean bad
things aren't gonna happen to you. It just means when they
do, it's good. That's pretty good news, isn't
it? The worst thing that happens to you happens. It'll be a blessing
from God, because he makes it so. He makes it so. And then it said, Sober got to be sober and we
know what we associate that with but this means self-controlled
and temperate of a sound mind and of course that's associated
with Drugs and drinking and things like that. You don't want a pasture
that's indulgent of the flesh in any way though temperate Intemperate
means just indulging your flesh and just doing what what if it
feels good do it kind of thing No, there's got to be some self-control.
There's got to be some temperance there's got to be some some denying
the flesh a Gospel preacher And it has to do, if you think
about it too, temperance and of a sound mind, it has to do
with focusing on the work and not going off on tangents and
not being distracted from the work of the ministry. You don't
want a preacher that's distracted by anything else. A gospel preacher
preaches the gospel and everything he does has something to do with
that. The apostle Paul was a tent maker
for a while. You could say, oh boy, you know,
he shouldn't have been doing that. You know, that's a distraction
from the gospel. You know why he was doing it?
So he wouldn't be a burden to the church. Everything he did
had something to do with the ministry. And that's how it is. That's what of a sound mind is
self-controlled, focused. So him doing that didn't mean
he wasn't focused on the work of the ministry, it means he
was. It's also talking about this
as far as temperance. Use the things of this world
that God gives and provides and enjoy them. That's why he gives
them to his people. We don't just get by because
God loves us. We're not just scraping by in
this world. Look what he's blessed us with. But listen to this verse, 1 Corinthians
7.31, and they that use this world as not abusing it, for
the fashion of this world passeth away. If you start getting into
this world to the extent that it's kind of what you're living
for, you know, is the things of this world, understand this,
this world's gonna be burnt up. And then where are you? So enjoy what God provides, but
don't be addicted. That's what that word, the word
abusing there, it means to use excessively, to use excessively. So don't be addicted to anything
except the ministry of Christ. We read in 1 Corinthians 16,
15, that some folks were addicted to the ministry of Christ. Don't ever be addicted to anything
else. Use it. Enjoy it. But live for his glory. And then
it says of good behavior. Well, we just got a couple more
and then we'll continue. Well, we've got a lot more, but
I'm not going to I'm not going to I'm not going to try to go
through all of that today. It's going to be too long. Okay,
sober and then of good behavior. This means well-arranged. Your
life is well-arranged. What you do is well-arranged.
In other words, your priorities are right. You got the important
things first. It's easy to get that the other
way around, isn't it? To major on the minors and minor
on the majors. That's what this good behavior
has to do with. It doesn't mean you help little
old ladies across the street. If they need help across the
street, help them. But it's more than that. It's
more than that. Well-arranged, seemly. Seemly
and modest. It just means being decent. That's
what it means, be a decent person. thoughtful and considerate and
not selfish or proud or unruly or goofy. You know what I mean
by goofy. To be well-arranged, modest. And when I saw this, I thought,
oh, to be like the master. He always did whatever was perfect
and not just perfect in itself, but at the perfect time, in the
perfect way. with the perfect people there. He would deal with different
people differently based on where they were before him and what
their situation was. Not changing the message, but
adapting to the situation, to the timing
of it. He told his disciples, there's
a lot of things I need to tell you, but you can't hear them
right now. You can't hear them right now. He always knew exactly what to
say, when to say it, and said it in exactly the right way,
did the right thing at the right time in the right way. That's good behavior. Priorities. And then given to hospitality.
That means generous to guests, welcoming, And this is not just
greeting people, you know, having a professional greeter. I thought,
well, this is, you know, welcoming. I'm going to have to appoint
a professional greeter. Who's it going to be? Maybe Tommy. No, he'll scare everybody away.
No, he'd be a good one. He'd give everybody a big old
hug and then they'd have to, they'd have to stay because they
wouldn't be able to walk out the door. But no, it's not just about that. That's kind of the superficial
way that false religion takes this kind of instruction. You
know, if I'm going somewhere for the first time, I don't want
people hugging up on me that don't even know me. That's crazy. Certainly be friendly and welcoming. But what this means is, if you
look into the language here, it's an opening
of your heart. It's a welcoming heart, not just
behavior, but heart. It's actually being generous
toward people. Our Lord said, I was hungry and
you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me.
I was in prison and you came and visited me. That's exactly
what this is talking about. And he said, when you've done
it to the least of one of these, my brethren, you've done that
to me. And I sure do want to be like
him in that. You remember what they said about
him in Luke 15 one. They drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth
with them. His heart was welcoming to sinners. Apt to teach, that literally
means skillful in teaching. And this is an amazing thing
in my case because I've told Vicki many times when I was younger,
I didn't say, I'd go a whole day and not say 10 words to anybody
about anything. I was very shy and just withdrawn
and the last thing I wanted to do was get up in front of anybody
and say anything. But your boldness, the boldness
comes from knowing what God said and sticking to it. I can be
bold in this pulpit like I'm not in any other thing because
of who it is that sent me and what he sent me to tell. Skillful in teaching. I've known people, and I'm sure
you have too, that knew just about everything there is to
know about a certain subject. But when you're trying to learn
from them, they can't teach a lick. You sit there and spend the whole
day with them and still not have any idea how to do anything. That's all of us by nature, we
don't know anything. But to teach, one thing is you
can't assume that people know certain things. I was saying
that a minute ago. I think a lot of preachers just
say, well, everybody knows this gospel stuff, so let's just move
on, you know, to the... I'll tell you what, we talk about
the simplicity that's in Christ. The gospel's not a complicated
doctrine, but at the same time, we're talking about the unsearchable
riches of Christ. We'll never exhaust, we'll never
even scratch the surface in this world, talking about the Savior. And by the way, there's nothing
else worth talking about. If we could figure it all out,
we'd have to start all over, because there's nothing else
worth saying. We need Him and we don't need
anything else. So that's skillful in teaching.
Don't assume that people know things that they don't. I've
had people, you know, they're trying to teach me something
and they're using words I've never even heard before. I'm
like, wait a minute, slow down. What does that mean? Our Lord always taught with illustrations
of things that people understood. He talked about trees. He talked
about seeds falling into the ground and things like that.
Things that people understood and taught. Spiritual things,
high things, deep things. with these simple illustrations
and stories so that we might understand. He took the glories of heaven,
and this is what a preacher has to do. If you hear a preacher, and it's
real complicated, it's hard to understand, he sounds real intelligent,
it means he's a fool. And God has to keep us from that.
God has to do this. The hardest thing in the world
to do is just to take something immense and make it plain as
day. That's hard to do now. It's impossible
with regard to the gospel. God's got to do that. He took the glories of heaven
and taught them in earthly plain Paul said we use great plainness
of speech about things that are unfathomable and yet plain, plain. To teach, you have to be patient
and kind too. Because the whole premise of
teaching is that you know something that people need to know. It
doesn't mean you know more than them, especially in the gospel. But by God's grace, I've got
a message this morning that all of us need to hear. And if somebody
doesn't understand, they have a question or something like
that, Be patient and kind. You've heard the story. If you
get some chicken feed and start throwing it at chickens, they're
gonna scatter. But if you just hold your hand down there, they'll
come eat it right out of your hand. That's how it is with the
gospel. Be gentle and patient and kind
and long-suffering. And people will come and hear
from the Lord. The publicans and sinners came
for to hear Him. Our Lord was so long-suffering
and kind when he taught. And the disciples were just like
us. They weren't getting it a lot
of times. He said to Philip, have I been
with you all this time, Philip, and you don't know me? If you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. You see how gentle he was and
long-suffering? And then we were gonna go into
verse three this morning, but I'm out of time. And let me just
say this about it. Again, these are not qualifications. I don't think that's the right
word to use here. But I'll tell you what, if you
take any of these and turn them around, look at the flip side
of them. Instead of being patient, you're
impatient. Instead of being welcoming, you repel. you're kind of up
on your high horse, you know, there's the, you know, the reverend is standing, you
know, over everybody and telling them all his wisdom and things
like that. You take any of these things and turn them on their
head, there's no way the gospel can be preached. You think about
that. There's no way. None of it would sit well with
the gospel. It's just not gonna be, it's not gonna be right.
And so the Lord does it this way. He gives us the grace to
be just a little bit like the master in these things. When
you're teaching your children, be kind. When you're talking
to somebody that doesn't know anything, don't try to prove
them wrong. Try to show them that they're
wrong. There's a difference. There's a difference. Make it
so always that if somebody has a problem with what you say,
they have a problem with God and not you. That's how to be a witness to
people. And may God give us grace. I said this is not about my qualifications
or the qualifications of anybody else. But at the same time, you
can't help but look at yourself when you read this and say, what
am I doing up here? But then I see how that the Lord
chose fishermen. He chose tax men that everybody
hated. He chose his greatest enemy probably
on earth at the time, Saul of Tarsus. And by his grace, gave him the
ability to set forth Christ powerfully. And so then I say, maybe the
Lord is using this. Maybe the Lord, maybe the folks
are encouraged and comforted in the gospel in spite of me.
I pray it's so.