1 Peter chapter 5, and we're
going to be looking at the first seven verses. Now the key to
this passage, the message of this passage is found in verses
6 and 7. This is the key to a happy and
healthy church family. Verse 5, it begins there about
middle way through, and he says, be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud,
and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. detrimental thing that we deal
with in our flesh is pride. It's the result of the fall,
the result of the sin of Adam. It's the result of our being
conceived in sin. We have pride in our flesh and
that's what we're being saved from, our sin, our pride. God
hates a proud look. And the cure for pride is humility. It's submitting under the mighty
hand of God, casting all our care upon Him, upon God who cares
for us. Now, there's three groups addressed
here in these first seven verses. And he begins with the pastor. He first addresses the pastor
concerning the care of the flock. And it gives much instruction,
and we're going to come back to this instruction, but we're
going to just read this first. 1 Peter 5, verse 1. The elders
which are among you, I exhort to them, also an elder and a
witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of
the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is
among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly. not for filthy lucre, but of
a ready mind. Neither is being lords over God's
heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief
shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that
fadeth not away." Now, Christ, our God, he is the elder, the
authority. He is the chief shepherd. He is the chief pastor who feeds
his sheep. Christ is the bishop of our souls. That's what the word overseer
means. He is the overseer of our souls over his heritage,
over all his elect, over his church. And he oversees with
his mighty hand. Now who's sufficient for these
things that the pastor's exhorted to? The Scripture says God resisteth
the proud, but He gives grace to those who submit themselves
under His mighty hand. It's the mighty hand of God that's
going to make all the provision. He's the full sufficiency for
God's pastor. So He says here in verses 6 and
7, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon
God, for He careth for you. Now next he addresses the flock
concerning the elder. Look at verse five. Likewise. Now I want you to notice something
here. Peter doesn't give an elaborate, as elaborate an instruction as
he did to the pastor, does he? But he says likewise. But we're
going to see in a moment that the principle in everything that
he told the pastor, he says likewise for the flock. Likewise for the
flock. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Younger sometimes in scripture
refers to age, but younger doesn't always refer to age. It also
means new. That's what the word means. The
Greek word means new. Figuratively, spiritually, it
means regenerate is what it means. born again. Those born of the
Spirit of God are children of the youth. That's what we saw
in Psalm 127.4. It says, as arrows are in the
hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Now who's
the mighty man? Christ is. Who's the elder? The authority. Christ is. Who
is the chief shepherd? Christ is. Christ is the bishop
of our souls. And we're in the hands of Him. All those that's born of God
are in His hands. Now God is caring for His flock
with His mighty hand. And He's doing it through the
preaching of the gospel. And for this reason, Christ Himself
gave the, He gives the pastors, for this very reason, to feed
the flock with knowledge and understanding so He can care
for His flock. Ephesians 4.8. I want you to
look at that with me. Ephesians 4.8. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
upon high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Look
at verse 11. He gave some apostles, and some
prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. That's one off. It's pastor,
teachers. It doesn't say, and some pastors
and some teachers. It's pastor, teachers. Why did
he give them? For the perfecting of the saints. for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. We're his body, his
elect are, and Christ gave the pastors he gave for the edifying
of his body. Till we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, carried
about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning
craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking
the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ. Now, those who've been truly
made new, those who are the youth, the younger, are clothed with
humility. They've been humbled under the
mighty hand of God, when we realize this, when we realize that God
our Savior, Christ the bishop, Christ the shepherd of our souls,
is caring for us with his mighty hand through those he's given
to teach us his word. God careth for you through the
ordained means of the preaching of the gospel. I'll tell you
the wisest word that was ever given to me. Somebody said to
me one time, I was having some difficulty with my pastor, And
I called another pastor, and that's a good thing to do, talk
to another pastor. And he said this to me, he said,
if you trust that God has given you this pastor after his own
heart to feed you with knowledge and understanding, if you trust
that the sovereign God has given you this pastor to feed you with
knowledge and understanding, to feed your family and you the
gospel of Christ, then you can trust that the chief shepherd
who sent him will correct his mistakes so you don't have to
be so proud as to make that your concern. Submit to God. That's what I said, submit to
God. And a mighty weight was taken off of me. It's called
humbling yourselves under the mighty hand of God, casting all
your care on God, for He careth for you. That's what Peter says
here. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. And then he gives us another
word here, for brethren towards brethren, believers toward one
another. He says, verse 5, Yea, all of
you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility,
true humility. Submitting unto the mighty hand
of God is knowing that God is caring for you through your brethren,
even as He's doing through your pastor. Look back. I should have told you to hold
your place there, but back in Ephesians 4 again, look at verse
16. Ephesians 4, verse 16. From whom? From Christ. The whole body. is fitly joined together and
compacted by that which every joint supplies. Every member
is called a joint here, and they're all put together like a skeleton's
put together. And every joint is fitly joined
together, compacted by that which every joint supplies. According
to, this is how that's coming about, the effectual working
in the measure of every part. Who's doing that working? It
said from whom? From Christ. The one who fitly
joined it together is fitly working in every part, making an increase
of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. So the same
word to the pastor here in caring for the flock, and the same word
to the flock toward the pastor, and the same word for the believer
toward all our brethren is summed up in verses 6 and 7. This is
the principle being taught through this whole passage. Verse 6,
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that
He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you. Are you saying that if I If I,
as your pastor, submit myself to God, that's the only way I'm
going to be able to care for you. is submitting myself to
Him to care for me so that I can care for you. That's what I'm
saying. I'm saying that in order for you to care for me, the way
to do that is to submit yourself under the mighty hand of God
who's going to care for you. That's exactly what I'm saying.
He's saying that for each of us here to subject ourselves
to each other, means that we're subjecting ourselves to the mighty
hand of God who's caring for us through one another. That's
exactly what I'm saying. Now let's go back and we're going
to see this laid out in the exhortation to the pastor. We're looking
at this principle that's being taught here about what true humility
and true subjection is. It says in verse 1, the elders
which are among you I exhort who am also an elder. Now this
word elder, like the word younger, has two meanings in scripture.
In some cases it does refer to age. But here it's referring
to one who holds the office of a pastor. Peter's not speaking
to the elders in age. He's speaking to those men whose
business it is to preach the gospel of God, to oversee the
flock entrusted to him by God. And just as we saw the principle
here, though, that's being taught to this pastor, it's likewise
to all the brethren. It's likewise to all the brethren.
What I'm getting at here is he's elaborate here in his instruction
to the pastor. But the principle behind all
of this instruction to the pastor is the same principle of humility
and subjection of God that's given to the younger and to all
brethren alike. Now, here's the first thing.
What are we? What are we? What am I? And what
are you who believe God? What are we? Here's what every
God-sent preacher is, and here's what every born-again believer
is. Verse 1, a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also
a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Now this is
what we are. We're all equally so this. Not anybody is more so above
another. Not one believer has rank above
another believer. This is what we all are. We are
all witnesses of the sufferings of Christ and partakers of the
glory that shall be revealed. Peter literally with his eyes
saw the sufferings of Christ. He saw him with his eyes. That's
not what made him a believer and that's not what made him
a Christian. That's not what made him a pastor either, an
apostle. It wasn't at all. There were
many who saw Christ's sufferings with their eye and died under
the wrath of God. But Peter was more than just
an eyewitness. Peter was a witness of the sufferings
of Christ. He's a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, and that's what every true gospel preacher is, and
that's what every believer is. We're a witness of the sufferings
of Christ. It's because Christ has been
revealed in us by the Holy Spirit. And we've been given faith by
God to behold the sufferings of Christ through faith. We see
with the heart that believes, we see and behold as an eyewitness. the sufferings which Christ endured.
And we've been sent to bear witness of that which we've seen, that
which we've been a witness of. That's what a witness does. A
witness don't tell what he hadn't seen. A witness doesn't tell
what he hadn't experienced. A witness doesn't tell what he
hadn't felt. A witness tells you what he has
seen, what he's been witness to. And that's what we are. He's been, this one who suffered
has been revealed to us. We know that the one who was
suffering is God come down. This is God come down. Christ
is God. He's the second person of the
Trinity. He's the fullness of the Godhead in a body. We know
what he suffered. He suffered the wrath of hell,
the wrath of ungodly sinners, and he suffered more so the wrath
of God the Father. He suffered under the wrath of
God. And we know why he did it. He
suffered that way because he was declaring God just. He was satisfying God's justice. And at the same time as he was
doing that, he was justifying everyone who shall be brought
to faith in him. So that God is both just and
the justifier. And he was dying, bearing that
wrath as the substitute of his people, in the place of his people,
so that his people don't have to bear it and won't ever bear
the wrath of God again. And we know what he accomplished
through that suffering. He's risen to the right hand
of the Father because God is satisfied. The scripture says,
he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. And he is satisfied. Justice
is accomplished. Righteousness is brought in.
All the sin of His people has been put away forever. His people
are eternally as with God as Christ is right now in the presence
of the Father. And every one of them shall be
brought to faith. Every one of them shall be kept
in faith. Every one of them shall be preserved. And every one of
them shall be brought with Him to glory. Every one of them.
We've been assembled together here Not to reform the world. We've been assembled together
not to try to clothe and feed the hungry. Those aren't bad
things to do, but we've been assembled here by God, by Christ,
to bear witness. of the sufferings of Christ,
to set forth, to be a sounding board to set forth the sufferings
of Christ. And here's the second thing we
are. We're partakers of the glory that shall be revealed. The glory of Christ, our mediator,
the glory that he accomplished. We are partakers of that glory.
We see it now through a glass darkly. We've been given a taste
of it, a foretaste of this glory. But we're going to see this glory.
It's the glory of eternal redemption. It's the glory of eternal life. It's the glory of heaven. Listen
to this word, John 17.22. Turn there if you like, John
17.22. and the glory which thou gavest
me." This is Christ speaking. He said, I have given them that
they may be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me
that they may be made perfect in one. And that one's Christ. and that the world may know that
Thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. And he said, Father, I will that
they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am that
they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me for Thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. Now we've been given this
glory of eternal redemption, this glory of eternal life, this
glory of eternal justification and we're going to be brought
into this glory where we see Him as He is. That's our hope
that we have because Christ is formed in us, the hope of glory,
to see Christ as He is. Now, that's what we all are,
that's what the pastor is, that's what the flock is, and that's
what every brother and sister to each other, that's what we
are. Now here's the exhortation He gives to us back in 1 Peter
5, 2. He gives this exhortation to
the pastor. But now listen to this. Feed
the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof. There's three terms in the New
Testament Scripture that applies to a pastor. And they all apply
to the same office. They're elder, pastor, and bishop. It all means the same office.
Elder, pastor, and bishop. And Peter said here in verse
1, he's exhorting the elders. And his second word is shepherd
or pastor. And in verse 2, he says feed. Do you see that word feed? feed
the flock of God which is among you." The Greek word that's translated
feed, poimenio, is just a slight variation of the same word that's
translated shepherd, poimen. It's just a slight variation.
Look back at 1 Peter 2.25. You were a sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd." If you look that word
shepherd up and you look the word feed up in our text, The
word shepherd and the word feed, shepherd is the word, feed is
what the shepherd does. Christ is the shepherd and he
feeds his flock. That's the work of the shepherd.
He's the chief shepherd and the chief pastor. The pastor who
is God and he feeds his flock. And Christ feeds his flock through
his under shepherds. Pastors who are under shepherds
and he feeds them through his word using his under shepherds.
The Lord told Peter, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, shepherd
my sheep, shepherd my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my lambs.
And Peter's saying here, feed the flock of God which is among
you. Now, it's not my flock, it's
the flock of God. which is among you. I'm a sheep,
a monk sheep, who's given the responsibility to feed the sheep
as a shepherd. Feed the sheep. Feed the flock
of God's sheep. You're His by election. You're
His by redemption. You're His by regeneration. And
that's a responsibility. Feed the sheep. What's a pastor
to feed the sheep with? He said in Jeremiah 3.15, I'll
give you pastors after mine own heart which shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding. Knowledge and understanding of
who? Look at Ephesians 4.13. Feeding you with the knowledge
of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins.
Telling you how that Christ has put away the sins of His people
and to feed you with His knowledge of salvation. That Christ is
our salvation. Look at Ephesians 4.13. He said
there, Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God. This is what the sheep food is,
the knowledge of the Son of God. Philippians 3.8 Philippians 3.8 Paul said, Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom
I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them but
done that I might win Christ look at 2nd Peter 3 verse 18 Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both
now and forever. The Lord said, I'm going to give
you pastors that's going to feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Knowledge of who? Knowledge of Christ Jesus, the
Son of God. He's who I preach to you. He's
who I preach to you. Knowledge of Him. Feed Him. What
a responsibility. Feed my sheep. Listen, you ever
pick this book up and you go to read and you try to look in
here for something for your own soul, just for you, just for
you at home by yourself, just for you. And you can't feed yourself. You can't find anything to feed
you. It's no different for me. Go
to this book to try to find food, not just for my own self, but
food for you. Find something for you. You know,
what do you do then? How is it you're gonna be able
to feed the sheep? What do you do? Verse six. Humble yourself therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. That's
what I have to do. That's the only way I'm going
to be able to feed the sheep, cast all care upon Him. So, what does
He say to you now concerning your pastor, concerning your
brethren? Verse 5, Likewise ye younger,
submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another, be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and
giveth grace to the humble. What do I do? Humble yourselves
unto the mighty hand of God. Cast all your care on Him. That's
what he's saying. That's the same principle he's
teaching to me, to you, to all of us. Well, here's the third
word. There's three words I said. Elder
is called, used to describe the pastor. Shepherd. which is the
word that he uses here in feed the flock. It's the same word
as shepherd, pastor. That's what it is. And here's
the third word is bishop, bishop. Look here, he says, he uses that
too, Peter does. Verse 2, he says, taking the
oversight. This word oversight, Right there,
if you look up the word bishop, the same Greek word from which
bishop is translated, this word oversight is translated. It's
because a bishop is an overseer and what he does is take the
oversight. You see it's different words
describing what the pastor is to do. He is to shepherd the
sheep, feed the sheep. He is to take the oversight,
oversee the whole flock. You get the picture of a, that's
what a shepherd does. But now remember, Christ is the
Bishop of our souls. He's the Bishop of our souls.
He's the only one who is, has with His mighty hand, is able
to take the oversight of the whole flock. It's His flock and
He's able to take the oversight of it. And He's given under-bishops,
under Him, to oversee His flock. And He oversees His flock through
them. The pastor doesn't have any sufficiency
in himself for this work. Our sufficiency is of God. So
what do you do? What do you do when you're trying
to take the oversight of the flock, to oversee the flock?
How do you do that? Verse six, you humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. You
see, this is submission. This is what true humility is. So what are we being exhorted
to do? What do you do then, therefore?
Verse five, likewise you younger submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another, be clothed with humility,
for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. So
you're saying, Clay, that to humble myself under the mighty
hand of God, that He may exalt me in due time, to cast all my
care upon Him, is manifest in me submitting myself to my brethren. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Here's the motive now. Look back at verse 2. Feed the
flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof,
not by constraint, not because you're forced to, but willingly. Why is it that the pastor shepherds
the sheep and why is it the pastor takes the oversight thereof?
Why is it that you, the younger, those made new, regenerated by
the glory of God, submit to the elder? Why is it that brethren,
all of you, submit to fellow brethren? It's not out of force,
is it? It's not because you're forced
to do it, is it? It's willingly, willingly. I can remember when
I first began to think about that God might use me to pastor
a church. I expressed that to a faithful
pastor. I told him. I was reluctant.
I was hesitant to say anything, but I did. I said, I think the
Lord might maybe use me. I just, I have a heart to study
and I have a heart for the Lord's people. And, and this was his
word to me. He said, don't tell anybody.
And he said, sit faithfully under your faithful pastor. be there
every time the doors open and hear him preach. And he said,
study everything he preaches. And he said, study him. Watch
him. Learn how he leads the people. Watch what he does. All I saw
my pastor do was preach Christ. As much as he tried to, as different
things tried to distract him from it, you know what I saw
him do? Preach Christ. You know what I learned? I learned
the solution to every problem is ignore the problems and preach
Christ. That's the only way the hearts
can be made new. That's the only way the hearts
can be brought into subjection. That's the only way men are going
to be brought to bow. to God and be useful in his church
submitting themselves to one another is by preaching the elder,
the shepherd, the bishop and declaring submission is submitting
all to him. If we trust him, we can trust
each other. Who's ruling over and in the
hearts of our brethren. So I sat there and I watched
him and I studied. He told me, he said, study. And
I listened and I waited. And six years passed. And then
one night my pastor asked me to fill in for him after six
years. And then several others did. And for about seven years, I
just filled in wherever anybody asked me to preach, I'd come
and preach for them. And then you sent me a letter and asked
me to come preach for you. I just found that letter the
other day, by the way. Just read it again when you asked
me to move up here. But I started to realize the
weight of a pastor in all that time. I saw my pastor suffer,
and I saw him suffer some heavy trials, and I saw him suffer
at the hand of some men who rose up against him. I saw him suffer
with his own flesh. I saw him suffer tremendously.
And I began to see the weight of this thing, the weight of
it. I wasn't so anxious to be a pastor. I began to consider
the weight of this when the Lord said to the Son of Man, Ezekiel
3.18, He said, When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely
die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn
the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, the same wicked
man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require
at your hand. That's weighty. That's waiting. There's the weight of watching
for your souls as one that must stand before the judgment seat
of Christ and give account. There's the weightiness of this,
to know that God's Word does not return void. To know how
dangerous it is for sinners bound for eternity to hear this word
preached, because it never returns void. To one it's the savor of
death unto death, and to others it's the savor of life unto life.
Paul said, who's sufficient for these things? Who's sufficient
for that? There's the weight of rejection.
When the gospel offended men, the apostle Paul was rejected. They discredited him by various
weaknesses in him, by his bodily presence, by his speech, so that
many tried to turn the church of Corinth against him so that
they questioned whether he was even an apostle or not. Those
are weighty things. I have friends right now thinking
about this call. And I tell them what wise men
told me. If you can do anything else,
then do that. But if God hedges up the way
and He calls you to this work, do it with all your heart knowing
this, our sufficiency is of God. That's our sufficiency. That's the weightiness only God
can make a man willing for. Willing to devote your life to
the care of God's flock. Willing to labor in the Word
to bring them meat in due season. Labor to pray for the flock. Willing to seek their eternal
welfare in all things. What do you do then? How do you
do that? How do you submit yourself to
the elder? How do brethren submit themselves to one another? Verse 6 Humble yourselves therefore
under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care on Him, for He careth for you. That's
where this willingness comes from. Well, he gives us another
motive. It's not being forced, it's willingly
that we do these things. Well, he says there in verse
2, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. There's a lot
of folks that want to preach. There's a lot of people that
want to teach for filthy reasons. Filthy reasons. Some want applause
of men. Some want prestige among men.
Some want money. There's filthy reasons that men
submit themselves to elders. There's filthy reasons that brethren
submit themselves to brethren. Filthy reasons. These same filthy
reasons. But here's the motive. What makes
a ready mind? What's the substance of a ready
mind? You know what the Lord told Peter? If you love me, feed
my sheep. If you love me, feed my sheep.
That's the motive. The love of Christ is the motive. His love for us and our love
for Him. As feeble as it may be, we're
debtors to all men. Debtors to one another. Debtors
to His flock. whoever they are in the flock,
debtors to them, to feed them, to nourish them, to look after
one another. How do we do that? How do we resist the pride of
wanting that filthy cane and going after those filthy motives?
How do we resist those things? Verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you."
He's using the pastor to do it. He's using fellow brethren to
do it. That's what He's put us here for. Well, here's the last
motive, verse 3. He says, neither is being lords
over God's heritage but being examples to the flock. If I turn
from God's Word, start preaching something other than Christ.
Start preaching something other than the fact that God elected
whom He would save. Start telling you that God did
the election because He looked down through time and saw some
would believe on Him. That's why He did the choosing.
I have become a lord over God's heritage, if I do that. I'm arbitrarily
preaching something that is not so, just because I made it up,
decided I could get more flies with honey than I could with
vinegar. Sarah and I were driving by one of the churches over here
on the way over here, and I showed her this building, and I said,
you see that building, Sarah? They didn't break ground on that
building until after I moved here. And it's a giant building. And
it's packed with cars every time you go by it. How'd they do that? You preach man, it's easy to
do that. If I turn from the method God's given to stand up and preach
the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. Maybe we could get more folks
in if we got a church softball team. If you want to play softball
together, go play softball together. Don't make it a church softball
team. This is what makes men lord over
God's heritage. It's God's heritage. It's God's
people. It's His flock. It's those He's chosen. It's
those He's given to His Son. It's those He's redeemed by His
own blood. It's those that He's called out by His own Spirit,
by His own grace. It's those He's keeping. He said,
touch not mine anointed. Don't lord over them. The Spirit
of God, turn over to Numbers 16. I asked Eric to read this
because The Spirit of God tells us Moses was the meekest man
on the earth. But in the eyes of Korah and
those who opposed him, he was a tyrant. He was lording over
them in their eyes. You know why? Because he submitted
himself to God and did what God gave him to do. And he wouldn't
submit to them. He wouldn't be turned from God's
way to them. And that carnal heart is not
subject to the law of God. It can't be. And a carnal heart
says, we won't have this man reign over us. Now, a carnal
heart can learn all the doctrine. A carnal heart can learn total
depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible
grace, perseverance of the saints, irresistible grace. A carnal
heart can learn all those things. A carnal heart can learn about
the attributes of God and all the whole doctrine. He can learn those things. But
a carnal heart can't submit to God's Word. A carnal heart cannot
submit to God and have God rule over him and have God save through His ordained means
and be content with it. He just can't do it. God set
apart Moses to be their prophet. He set apart Aaron to be their
high priest. But this is what they say, verse 2, Verse 3, they
got all these men together, and it says, they gathered themselves
together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, You
take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy. We're all set apart for holy
use, every one of us here. You've taken too much upon yourself.
Moses was the prophet. Aaron was the high priest. And
those alone, just Moses and just the high priest. Now these other
men had been set apart to serve in a lesser capacity, just like
the believers are called. And we're all set apart by God.
But they proved here they hadn't been set apart. You know why?
They, in pride, the opposite of this humility we're looking
at, they came and said, you take too much on you. We're all holy,
every one of them in this congregation, and the Lord's among them. Wherefore
then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord.
And what did Moses do? What do you do when that happens?
What do you do when that happens? Moses heard it and he fell on
his face. You know what you do? Humble
yourselves, therefore, unto the mighty hand of God, that he may
exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he
careth for you." That's what you do. That's what Moses did.
That's what humility is. That's why Moses is called the
meekest man on the earth. And then you read that on out,
and Moses said, Fellas, you're the ones that's taking too much
on yourself. You're trying to take the priesthood. You're trying
to take Christ's seat. You're trying to be the bishop.
You're trying to be the chief shepherd. You're trying to be
the bishop. You're trying to do this. How?
By not submitting to God's messenger, by not submitting to God's brethren,
those that he's given. That's how. Man can't fake that. Man can't fake that. He can learn
everything to say and say it to the point you think, man,
that guy knows the gospel. He can't fake this. He can't
fake it. Well, here's the promise to every
one of us who submit to Him. Every one of us, by His grace,
who've been brought to submit to Him. Here's the promise. 1
Peter 5.4, And when the chief shepherd shall appear, this one
who is the elder, this one who is the bishop, this one who is
the pastor. When he shall appear, he shall
receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Has any of this
made any sense to you? Do you get the point of the message? He doesn't elaborate all these
things when it comes to the rest, but he says, verse 5, likewise.
Likewise, the same spirit of humility. Likewise, ye younger,
submit yourselves unto the elder. Ye, all of you, be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.