Evening. Thank you everyone for
coming here. I really appreciate the pastors
who traveled a long way and then Moody's you guys came from a
long, long distance and I really appreciate that a lot and Jesse
as well. So thank you very much for being
here. It means a lot to not just to me, but I know even the congregation
just to know that brethren are thinking about us, praying for
us, and that they care and that it's meaningful that the Lord
is doing the work here. So it's no small thing to know
that the Lord has a work here in Missouri. And so let me just
say a few other announcements just afterward. Don't disappear
men because there is some paperwork to sign for the ordination. That will have all the men signed
it will be over there Everyone use the same pen it'll just look
nicer if we do that if you all sign with the same pen that's
over there And then after the services tonight at Carlin barbs. They've opened their house for
a little ice cream social We don't want to do it here because
we didn't want to wreck anything, but it's not far. They live in
Nixa so We don't have the bulletin So, but we will get you the address
before we leave. So that way, if you who are visiting
want to go, you know how to get there as well. And then the way
that the service order is going to go tonight is we'll have,
when I sit down, Joe will come up and lead us in the hymn. Levi
will come and read a scripture and say a prayer. And I'll come
up and just introduce the speakers. It'll be Clay first. And then
when Clay's done, we're gonna have just two hymns. That's the
time to use the bathrooms. If you need them, they're right
there. We're just gonna roll right on into the next message.
So if you need to use the restroom, go in the middle there during
the two hymns, and then we'll just go right into the next message.
So, all right, let's just open in prayer. Our gracious Lord,
Father, we thank you, Lord, for your mercy, for your grace, in
establishing a work here, Lord. Father, we thank you for your
mercy, Lord, because we know that it's by you, it's by your
grace, your power, your choice, Lord. And Father, we pray for
the people here, Lord, just that you would give us all a heart
to hear our Savior. to hear your gospel, to long
for your gospel, and to love the Lord and Savior that we preach.
Lord, keep our hearts. Lord, you know all things. Father,
we just pray that you would help us to hear the word that these
men have to give to us tonight for Clay and for Darwin for coming
up here and taking the time to prepare a message. Lord, we ask
that your spirit would be here among us and upon us, help us
to hear what you have for us to hear, Lord. We pray this in
Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior, amen. All right, Joe. We're gonna sing How Great Thou
Art, number 37. Does everybody have a hymnal?
We've got some extras up here. We've got plenty, so number 37.
If you'd like to stand, that'd be
good, yeah. How great thou art. O my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the stars, I
hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe
displayed And sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great
Thou art! How great Thou art! And sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
plains I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty Mountain Dranger, And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my
soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great
Thou art And when I think that God, His
Son, thus bearing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings
my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great
Thou art When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art! Then sings my
soul, my Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great
Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art. Good evening. We'll be reading
Isaiah 53, picking up in verse 7. Isaiah 53, starting in verse
7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth.
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as sheep before a shearer's
asylum. So he opened not his mouth. He
was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare
his generation? For he was cut off from the land
of the living. For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. And they made his grave with
the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had
done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He was put to grief. He has put
him to grief. When you make his soul an offering
for sin, For he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He
shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge
my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong. because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was
numbered with the transgressors. And he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. Lord, we come before you as sinners
that have transgressed. Lord, looking to you for mercy
in your Son, we're thankful that you sent your servants, Lord.
I pray that you give them the words to say and preach Christ. for us and give us the spirit
to turn to him, Lord. In the name of Christ, amen. So the first pastor we've asked
to come and preach to us tonight is my pastor, Clay Curtis. And Clay came up to us about, I guess
about 13 years ago, he came up and Don had sent him up along
with some other men. Clay was coming to us and several
of the other men, and they were good preachers. But the one thing
that impressed me most, and my wife, and all the brethren, is
that he had the heart of a pastor. And that really came through.
And he's loved us ever since, preaching the gospel to us. and
that congregation there, and it was a slow start, right? And there was some subtraction
before it really became, got into the positive. There were
some families that had come and then left. But Clay, what really
helped me more than anything was how faithfully he preached
Christ. No matter what passage we were
in, he always saw Christ in it, and he was faithful to declare
our Savior and the Gospel clearly and that's what fed us and that's
what really changed our lives for the better. It was so refreshing
and so helpful because He never turned us to our flesh, He just
kept turning us to Christ, to Christ, to Christ. I've heard some of the arguments
that law preachers would say, but you preach Christ and there
is no better antidote for sin than just preaching Christ and
turning you to our Savior consistently and that's where we're fed and
taught and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior.
So I'm just thankful to have Clay come and preach this first
message to us and I pray the Lord will bless it. So come on
up brother. If you will, be turning with
me to Ephesians chapter 4. On behalf of Melinda and your
brethren back in New Jersey, we're happy to see that the Lord has sent Brother
Eric and Michelle down here to serve you. We're very happy for
that. Eric and Michelle, have been
faithful from the very beginning. The things that I'm going to
speak about tonight, things I'm going to show you tonight, they
did these things. They did these things for their
pastor. And that's what I mean when I say they're faithful.
And I trust that since the Lord is sending them here, that by
His grace, He will enable them to continue in that faithfulness. We look forward to years of fellowship
with you. And I appreciate Brother Darvin
for helping you out and staying out of the way. That was important,
wasn't it? And letting you hear some men
and trusting the Lord to knit your hearts together with them,
with him. I want to talk to you tonight
on the subject of the church's responsibility to her pastor. I feel like most pastors probably
feel this way, that having sat in the pew and now being behind
the pulpit, you feel like maybe you learned a few things and
if you could go back and sit under your pastor again, maybe
you could be a little more faithful. I hope that's the case. If it's
not the case, I would be without excuse anyway. But my divisions I'm going to
take directly from the Scripture. All I really know to do is to
go through Scripture where the Bible, where God speaks and says
this is what the church is to do for her pastor. And I want
you to bear in mind this is Christ's Word to His church. He uses men
to pen these words, but this is Christ's Word to His church. Before we get to that, I want
to start here in Ephesians 4 and verse 9. It says, Speaking of
Christ, now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended
first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended
is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that
He might fill all things. Now God our Savior first descended
into the lower parts of the earth to fill all things. That's why
He came. If you look at the margin there,
it says, to fulfill all things. And it pleased the Father that
in Him all fullness dwell. And when Christ walked this earth,
He said, think not that I came to destroy the law and the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to
fulfill." That's the purpose for which He came. He came to
fulfill the Law and the Prophets. To do that, He had to descend
to the lowest parts of the earth. He descended when He was made
of a woman. He descended when He was made
under the Law. Then He descended further when
He presented Himself and was made sin for His people. And
then He descended to the lowest point whenever He was forsaken
of God and bore our curse and our condemnation. And yet, while
He did that, Scripture says He highly, highly exalted God. He declared God just and the
justifier of every believer. What did He accomplish when He
was on the cross? When He said it's finished, what
did He accomplish? Well, the prophets tell us, Daniel
9, 24, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city to finish the transgression. To finish the transgression.
To make an end of sins. To make reconciliation for iniquity. To bring in everlasting righteousness
and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most
holy. That's what He accomplished when
He said, It's finished. And now for you that He's called
by His grace, of His fullness, of His fullness have we received
and grace for grace. So, as sure as He filled all
things when He came down, now He's ascended high above the
heavens to fulfill all things. And because it pleased God our
Father to do this through the foolishness of preaching, Christ
fulfills or fills full His pulpit. He fills for His church, He provides
His pastors. He promised in Jeremiah 3.15,
I'll give you pastors after mine own heart which shall feed you
with knowledge and understanding. And He fulfills that prophecy. He fills the pulpit with the
pastor he would have for his particular people. This is what
he does. Now, always remember this. Ephesians 4 verse 8 says, When
he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and he gave
gifts unto men. Verse 11, He gave some apostles,
and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. So remember this. And always
remember this, your pastor is Christ's personal gift to you. Remember that. He's Christ's
personal gift to you. And if you always remember that,
it will help you when trials come. If you always remember
how thankful you are right now for this gift of your pastor,
and always be this thankful, it'll help you in the way that
you're to treat Him. Christ said, He that receiveth
you receiveth Me, and him that receiveth Me receiveth him that
sent Me. If you always receive your pastor
in that spirit as receiving Christ, you'll have the right spirit
towards your pastor. It's that serious. It's that
serious. Now let me get to the things
I want to show you tonight. Right here in Ephesians 4, first
and foremost, and you might think this goes without saying, but
you'd be surprised. First and foremost, if you want
to be a help to your pastor and a support to your pastor, be
here every time the gospel is preached. Be here every time
the gospel is preached. Christ gave this gift to you
for the purpose of edifying you. It says there in Ephesians 4.12,
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. And He is going to
continue this until He causes His last elect child into the
body. And he says there in verse 14,
that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and
carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of
men. Verse 15, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into
him in all things which is the head, even Christ. And catch
this word, from whom? From Christ, through the gospel,
this whole body, is fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint, every member here is supplying. How is every
member in the body supplying something? According to the effectual
working, according to Christ's effectually working in the measure,
in measure, in every part. That's how each part is providing
something to this body. Christ is working effectually
in every part, in measure, And so he's making an increase of
the body unto the edifying of itself in love. So through preaching,
he's going to grow his people. That's the purpose of it, so
that you won't be tossed by vain deceivers. Now I was thinking
about this. My pastor, when I sat under my
pastor, he preached three times a week. And that means in ten
years, he preached 1,560 messages. Now if I missed one message per
week, just one message per week, I missed 520 messages. That adds up, doesn't it? Now which one will be grown and
no longer tossed? Will it be the one who attends
and hears the ministry or will it be the one who missed one
third of the message? We get this in everyday life, don't we? If these
two were surgeons, which one would you want to operate on?
The one that was there every time there was a class or the
one that missed a third of the classes? But not only does it hurt myself
if I don't come, it hurts the body, it hurts the brethren.
You know in Hebrews when it said, forsake not the assembling together
of yourselves, but exhort one another. We exhort one another
and encourage one another just by assembling with one another. That's a huge encouragement to
your brethren when you're there. Think about if you showed up
and nobody else did. But not only does it hurt the
body, it hurts your pastor. If you don't show up here, it
hurts the pastor. There's nothing more hurtful
to a pastor than to labor for a message from God for your needy
brethren who you love. And then show up. You know you've
got the message. You know you've got just what
they need and just what's going to help them through this trial
they're in or whatever it is that's troubling them. You know
this is going to help them. And you get there and they're
not there. It just hurts the pastor. But here's something even more
important. That word from whom From whom? That means Christ
is as really here in the midst of His people ministering through
the gospel when His gospel is being preached. He is as really
here as on the day of Pentecost whenever Peter cried out and
he said, being by the right hand of God exalted and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed
forth this which you now see in Him. Christ was there and
He's really that present with us when the gospel is being preached. If we knew Christ was going to
be here in person this Sunday, we wouldn't miss the service,
would we? Well, He said, where two or three are gathered in
my name, I'm there. I'm there. He's there. He's there. So if you want to be benefited,
be here. Last time that I was down at
Brother Darvin's A brother called me over before I got up to preach,
and he wanted me to know that he was taking some medication
and he was having trouble staying awake. He told me, he said, you're
going to look over here, and I'm going to be asleep. And he
said, but I figured if I'm here, at least I can get a few crumbs
when I'm awake. He said, I wouldn't get nothing
if I was home. You know how old that brother is that said that?
He's over 80 years old. over 80 years old. If you arrange
your life around the preaching of the gospel, God might just
bless you to where you'll be faithful when you're 80 years
old. All right, here's the second thing. Know your pastor and esteem
your pastor highly. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 12. He says, We beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the
Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love
for their works' sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Know
your pastor, and know his labor among you. Some people think
the preacher only works three hours a week. And for deceivers,
that's probably so. But it's not so for God's preacher.
God's preacher is laboring in the Word and in prayer for the
people to whom he ministers. He's laboring under the weight
of knowing that he's God's appointed overseer over God's own elect. That's a weight. He's laboring
under the pressure of knowing He's ministering to those Christ
shed His precious blood for. He's laboring under the pressure
of knowing that one day He's going to give account to God,
brethren, and stand before God. I've done some labor-intensive
work, but there's nothing I've ever done that has carried this
much pressure. as laboring to get a message
from God to bring to his people. Absolutely nothing. Your pastor has preached for
us for over ten years. Preached for me for over ten
years. Every time I left, he filled the pulpit. And every
message he preached, he proved that he's a workman that needed
not to be ashamed. In every message. Now God's placed
greater labor on him. Much greater labor. Know him
by knowing this labor. And then esteem him highly in
love for his work's sake. Esteem him highly in love for
his work's sake. In your own heart, when you're
speaking to the members of your family, When you're speaking
to the members of your community, whoever you're speaking to, highly
esteem him in love for his work's sake. You place the highest value
on his labor, and you'll highly esteem him. And I'll tell you
this, the influence that his preaching has on you will be
directly linked to how highly you esteem him and his labor. I guarantee you. If you don't
esteem Him highly, and you don't esteem this labor as being the
most important labor there is on the top side of this earth,
it won't benefit you at all. But if you esteem Him highly,
knowing this is the vital issue right here, God will bless you. Because He's made you see this
is the all-important thing, being under the preaching of the Gospel.
Now here's the third thing. Recognize that God's given Him
the rule over you for you to follow Him. Go to Hebrews 13. He's given Him the rule over
you for you to follow Him. Hebrews 13, 7 says, Verse 7, Remember them which
have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation,
their conduct, Jesus Christ the same, yesterday and today and
forever. The Great Shepherd, the Bishop
of our souls, has given you this man to be His under-shepherd. Christ is the chief shepherd
and He's given you this man to be His under-shepherd. And Christ
has given Him the rule over you. And primarily, the way He's going
to rule the house of God is through the preaching of the gospel of
Christ and Him crucified. That's primarily the way. As
He preaches, Christ is going to rebuke. He's going to admonish. He's going to exhort. He's going
to correct. He's going to build up. He's
going to pull down. And don't ever think that the
preacher, well, that's the preacher just preaching to me. We have
a tendency to say, if we're blessed, we say, oh, the Lord blessed
me today through the message. But if we're rebuked, we have
a tendency to say, well, that's just the preacher talking to
me. No, that's still the Lord talking to us. That's still the
Lord talking to us. So obey and submit to Him by
listening diligently as He preaches. Take notes if you have to. And
when He turns to Scripture, you follow along and you go to those
Scriptures and you look up those Scriptures with Him. And then
when you go home, study what you heard. Don't let it just
be in these four walls. Take it with you home and study
what you heard. Be like the Bereans. And if you
don't understand something, If there's something he's preaching
that you just don't understand, maybe it doesn't line up with
all the tradition and all the commentators and what they've
said and what you've always read. If it's in this book, though,
we're going to have to throw the commentators away and go
with what God said. So if you find something that
you hear you don't understand, go home and study it and ask
God to give you an understanding. Ask the Lord to give you an understanding. And then give Him time to give
you an understanding. Because I'll tell you how He's
going to give you an understanding through this preaching. Now you
question your pastor to death and you question him and you
question him and you get him writing you emails and trying
to answer your thing. You're taking him away from his
study and he's not going to be able to study. But if you just
sit and wait, God will answer every question you've got. He'll
answer every question for you through this means right here.
When I stand in the pulpit, I'm going to preach only what I've
studied for days and days and days. So that when I say it,
I know what I'm saying is the truth according to this word. One of the discouraging things
is when you finish preaching and somebody runs up and they
object to what you preach. Run up right away and they object
to what you preach. Before you make that mistake,
take at least as much time as the pastor took to prepare the
message before you go up and object to it. Listen to James. Wherefore, my
beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak,
slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness
and overflowing naughtiness. That's what it's called when
we don't receive the word with meekness. Lay that aside and
receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save your
souls. But be ye doers of the Word and
not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." And that's the second part. Not
only are we to diligently hear the message and understand what's
being preached by God's grace, we're also to do it. And he tells
us in this passage to do it by following your pastor as he follows
Christ. That's what it says in the text.
Follow him as he follows Christ. And in both his preaching and
in his conduct, in what he preaches to you and
how he conducts himself, Always remember the end motive of His
heart, the end purpose for it all, is Jesus Christ the same
yesterday and today and forever. His message is not going to change,
the motive of His heart is not going to change, because His
Lord does not change. He is going to preach to you
the same message. He is going to preach to you
the divine electing grace of God who chose His people apart
from anything in us. He is going to preach to you
the limited atonement accomplished by Christ at Calvary. He is going
to preach to you the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit
apart from our will and our works so that God gets all the glory.
And He is not going to change that message because the message
does not change. The message is the same because
Christ is the same. And so in all of this, consider
that He's wanting you to know Christ. He wanted to teach you
Christ, both in His preaching and in His conduct. And so as
Paul said, follow Him as He follows Christ. Now, here's the fourth
thing. Obey Him and submit to Him. Now look at Hebrews 13 and let
out verse 17. He says, 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 greed, for that's unprofitable for you.
Now what's he talking about here when he says obey and submit?
He's talking about in spiritual matters? When he's in the pulpit
preaching? saying repent, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, obey Him. Submit to the Gospel. And in everyday mundane matters
that have to be done in the church. The saints are to obey our pastor
and submit to him. That's what Christ is teaching
us to do. Well, what if he makes a mistake?
What if He makes an error? Oh, He's going to. He's going
to do that. He's going to make plenty. You can bank on it. But do you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ is absolutely sovereign over everything in heaven and
earth? Do you believe that? Do you believe He's even sovereign
over your pastor? Then you can trust Christ. to
rule the heart of His under-shepherd that He's given you and that
He's preaching to you through, you can be certain that Christ
is going to take care of it if He's in error about anything. And you can just wait on the
Lord. And I'll tell you what's going to happen. As He does that,
as He corrects His preacher, Christ will teach you and edify
you at the same time. This is a little different. This
has to do with a member of the congregation. But when I first
moved to New Jersey, there was a member of the congregation
and everybody thought that we had to have this man in the congregation. And the Lord removed him. The Lord removed him. If there
was anything we could do about it, the Lord removed him. And
through it, the Lord taught us all that this is the Lord's work. It's not a man's work. He don't
need a man to do this work. This is the Lord's work. And
where the Lord is working, you remember over there when He said,
I want to hear of you in Philippians 1, He said, let me hear of your
affairs, that you stand fast with one mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel. And then in Philippians 2, He
says, do all things without murmuring and disputing. He says, do it
with fear and trembling. Work out your salvation with
fear and trembling. That word salvation is the same
word as affairs. It's the exact same word. He
said, work out all the everyday things you have to do together,
knowing that God's working in you both to will and do of His
pleasure. He's going to work in his pastor. You can bank on
it. And you can rest in Christ to do it. See, this is why it
pleased God to save through preaching. Our Lord Jesus Christ fitly frames
us into one body and He gives us a pastor and He gives us brethren
so that we can all make mistakes in front of one another and sin
and offend one another so that you have to forbear your brethren
and you have to be long-suffering to your brethren and you have
to Cover the sins of your brethren. And He does all this, brethren,
because we don't only need to hear God's grace preached to
us, we need to go through the clinical. We need to experience
it and experience it so we know that that grace is real and that
He's really working in our midst. And this is how you're going
to experience it, together as a body of believers. But remember
this now. A mistake in judgment is not
a mistake in motive. Don't throw a man out because
he makes an error in judgment when his heart is right. And
he's doing it for the end purpose of one who's wanting you to know
Christ. He may make a mistake in judgment,
but if his heart is to honor Christ for your good, you can
trust that Christ is going to use even his errors to glorify
himself and to edify you. I guarantee it. I've been there
and seen it happen. Now remember this motive. This
is the motive right here of the heart that God gives us. When
He gives these commands, He gives a motive with it. Watch this.
He says, for they watch for your souls. They watch for your souls. In your families, you lead your
families in ways that every member of your family doesn't always
understand. Now when I was younger, I didn't
understand a lot of the times why my dad was leading us the
way he was leading us. I did not understand it. But
when you're leading your family, you're not just leading it for
the benefit of one or two, you're leading your family in the way
you do for the benefit of the whole family. There's going to be some daily
decisions that Brother Eric's going to make and there's going
to be times you don't understand why he's doing it. You may even
say, I think it ought to be done another way. But a pastor's going
to lead everyone that he's responsible for. He's not leaving anybody
out. He's going to lead the weak in
faith the same as the strong in faith. And he's confided in. A pastor
is confided in, so he knows better than anybody in the group what's
best. Because he hears. He knows what
this one's trouble is and what this one's having problems with,
what this one's strength is, what that one's weakness is.
He knows these things. So he can take it into account
as he's leading the congregation. And what he's doing is he's trying
to lead so as to cause the least amount of distraction from this
one necessary thing of hearing Christ preached in the gospel.
That's the purpose. So if I start saying, well, I
don't like that, and I'm going to fuss and talk about it and
carry on, and I'm just going to distract from that one purpose
of preaching the gospel, when that's what his whole thing was,
just to get us not to be distracted from the gospel. And also remember
this, he's leading as somebody who has to give account to God. Let me read this to you from
Ezekiel 317. Son of man, I have made thee
a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word
at my mouth and give them warning from me. When I say unto the
wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning,
nor speakest to warm 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." So make it easy on him. Make
it easy on him. Make him rejoice to behold God's
grace working in you. Make him rejoice in that day
when he gives account to God for those the Lord entrusted
to him. Because here's why, that they may do it with joy and not
with grief, for that's unprofitable for you. See how we, in all these
things, if we don't do what the Lord says do, it's just so in
everything. The only one we're hurting is
ourselves. He's telling us what's profitable
for us. So here's my fifth thing. Pray
for Him. Go to Ephesians 6.18. Pray for
Him. Paul said, praying always with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, And here you
go, verse 19, Ephesians 6, 19. And for me, pray for me that
utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I'm an ambassador
in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Every single time the men in
our congregation stand up to read the scriptures and to pray.
Every single time since the first day I've gone there, they've
prayed for their pastor. Every single time. I've been
in their homes many times when they prayed before we had a meal. Every time they prayed for their
pastor. Every single time. You see, a pastor is a sinner
just like everybody else. He's got all the same infirmities
that everybody else has. His flesh is worn against his
spirit just like your flesh is worn against your spirit. And
all his strength, just like all his righteousness and all his
holiness, all his strength and all his fruit is from Christ
divine. He's a branch just like you're
a branch and he's getting all his strength from Christ. Christ
said, without me you can do nothing. But Christ said, I will be inquired
of to do this for you. We're going to come to the throne
of grace and ask the Lord to bestow a blessing on our pastor.
Because he's going to have us worshiping him. He's going to
have us at his footstool worshiping him. And so we're going to come
and ask him to do this work in the heart of our pastor. So when
things are good, everything going smooth, pray for him. And when
things are not so good and you don't understand what he's doing,
and maybe even he's made an error, rather than going and talking
to other members in the congregation about him, go to God and pray. to our Heavenly Father and ask
His blessing upon Him. That's far better. That's far
better. Here's the sixth thing. Stand
with your pastor. Stand with your pastor. 2 Timothy
1.15 Paul said, This thou knowest,
that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. He said,
They are all turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus and
Hermogenes. The Lord give mercy unto the
house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me and was not
ashamed of my change. But when he was in Rome, he sought
me out very diligently, and he found me. The Lord grant unto
him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And in
how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest
very well." It's very discouraging when you
labor and you preach in spirit and in truth for years and years
and years to somebody. And then they hear that There
are some deceivers that are opposing you. And so they look into it
and they end up taking sides with the deceivers. That's discouraging. Your pastor has a responsibility
to stand between you and the wolf. He has that responsibility. And you have the responsibility
to stand with your pastor. So long as He's preaching this
Word right here in truth, you stand with Him. When He mourns,
you mourn with Him. When He rejoices, you rejoice
with Him. When He's down and He's worn out, you lift up His
hands like they lifted up Moses' hands. And never, ever be ashamed
of it like Onesiporus. Don't ever be ashamed of it.
And when Satan sends his ministers to oppose Him, you defend Him. You're going to have You're going
to have fixers. In a little while, you're going
to have some fixers. Fixers are folks who never stay in one church
very long. They just float from church to
church. And while they're there, they try to fix the pastor and
fix the people. But they don't ever just leave
quietly. They want to try to trip up the
pastor somehow, so they point the finger and justify their
reason for leaving, just like the Pharisees did our Savior.
When the fixers come, you defend your pastor against the fixers.
Here's the seventh thing, and this is so very important. It's
similar to our first point, but it's a little different. Respect
him as the minister of Christ. respect him as the minister of
Christ. The first point was to know him
and know his labor. This is respect him as the minister
of Christ. Let a man so account of us, Paul
said, as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries
of God. Now that word account, let a
man so account of us, that word is the same word as impute. Let
me tell you something about imputation in the scripture. I'm not talking
about men's definition of imputation. I'm talking about scriptural
definition of imputation. God only imputes what a man has
been made by a prior act. He only imputes what a man has
been made by a prior act. Every single use of the word
imputation and its forms will bear witness to that in the scriptures,
every one of them. God imputed sin to us because
Adam, by his disobedience, made us sin. He imputed to us what
Adam made us by his disobedience. God imputed righteousness to
the believer because by Christ's obedience, He made us righteous. There's no as if to it. You read
Romans 6, Paul uses the most definitive language he can use.
You reckon, you impute yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the reason
that our Lord imputed sin to our substitute is because He
had made Him sin who knew no sin that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Well, I don't understand that.
Well, they don't hang on you understanding it. God said it. That settles it. God said it. So when God says through Paul,
so account, so impute of us as of the ministers of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God, He said, you impute us to
be what God has really made us. What God has really and truly
made us to be. Christ has made your pastor a
steward. in His own house, in Christ's
own house. This is His house. And He's made
your pastor a steward to take the mysteries of God and bring
them to you. Before Brother Eric is your minister,
he's Christ's minister. Before he's your minister, he's
Christ's minister. Isn't that what it said? 1 Corinthians
4-1, we're ministers of Christ. And this is why, this is one
reason, God said over there in 1 Timothy 5.19, against an elder,
that's a pastor, against an elder receive not an accusation but
before two or three witnesses. Why? He said respect your pastor as
Christ's minister. Respect him as Christ's minister
so much that you'll only receive an accusation against him if
it's been proven in private so thoroughly by two or three witnesses
that there's no doubt about it. But you do it privately with
two or three witnesses. And here's why. Because he's
Christ's minister and we don't ever, ever, ever want to bring
reproach on the Gospel and on our Redeemer. Ever. That's why
we don't accuse him. We've got to respect for him.
Brother Darvin and I were just talking about the pastors. These
men, I'm not worshiping men, you know that. But these men
were giants to me because they're Christ ministers. And I know
they're Christ ministers because I know them because of their
labor. I know the gospel they preach.
And they're giants to me. They're so beneficial to me. I had a man tell me one time,
he said, Henry Mahan and Don Fortner and all these pastors
y'all look up to and you talk about, he said, they mean nothing
to me. And I said, let me tell you something.
A man could be on the other side of the world and I've never met
him before. But if I hear Him preaching my
Redeemer in spirit and in truth, He means something to me. Respect Him. He's Christ's minister. Now, here's the last thing. Provide
for Him. Provide for Him. 1 Timothy 5,
17. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double
honor. Let the elders that rule well
be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in
the word and doctrine. For Scripture says, Thou shalt
not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer
is worthy of his reward. Now brethren, this ought to be
the easiest command of all for you and I, because we're chosen
freely by God's grace. You chosen freely by the grace
of God, you that are here. And God gave His only begotten
Son to us. And our Lord Jesus Christ gave
His own body to bear our sin and bear our condemnation, bear
our separation from God. And we have this promise that
he who spared not his son, but delivered him up for us all,
shall freely give us all things. And these things, brethren, ought
to make us the most cheerful, generous givers there are. The dollar is not our salvation.
And we think it is. We're all very covetous by nature. It's just fact. The dollar's
not our salvation. Christ is, because you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet
for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty
might be rich. Just think about that. Here was
one who was rich. He needed nothing from us. And
what did he do? He took the place of bankrupt
sinners. that could give him nothing,
that could offer him nothing. He said, I restored that which
I took not away. He took the place of bankrupt
sinner. And he willingly made himself to be loaded down with our debt, with our sin,
and the wages we owe to justice. He loaded himself down with that. so that He could load you with
His unsearchable riches freely. He gave His blood for us. Do
we think He will spare a dollar if it's for His honor in the
promotion of His gospel? I used to ask myself, Do I prove
how valuable the preaching of Christ is to me by how I support
His pastor? Do I prove how valuable the gospel
is to me by how I support Christ's pastor? Let's do what Paul said. If we've sown unto you spiritual
things, what kind of price are you going to put on that? If
we've sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing? If we reap your carnal things?
He's saying if we've given you something of such inestimable
value, is there really anything you can give us that's going
to match that? No. There's not any material possessions
we possess. There's not any dollar amount
we have that can equal what we receive through the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ. I've spoken at length to Brother
Eric about this. He asked me which I want to speak
to, you or to him. I said, I've had 13 years to
preach to you. I've tried to tell you in 13
years everything I know to tell you. So I want to preach to you. But I have talked at length with
him about this. And I've told him, whatever you
do, you cut out all the extras so that you can live below your
means, so that you don't live above the congregation, so that
you don't ever take advantage of their generosity and you don't
ever become a burden to that congregation. And it's his responsibility to
do that and it's his responsibility to cut himself free from all
the entanglements of this world. And it's the responsibility of
every local church to help their pastor do these things. Your
pastor has the very same expenses, the very same responsibility
to provide for his family that you have. And I'll tell you this, the congregation
that does whatever it takes to keep their pastor in his study,
seeking a word from God for you and your family, is the congregation
that's blessed. I guarantee you. As soon as you're able, you're
going to want to support missionaries. You're going to want to support
younger congregations. And right now there's some older
congregations that helped us out. and they need help, and
it's our turn to help them. But you're small. You can't do
what larger congregations can do. Well, God doesn't require
you to. Remember what the Lord said about
the woman that brought the alabaster box of ointment? She's done what
she could. See, He doesn't require us to
do what we can't do. He just requires us to do what
we can. Are we doing what we can for
the cause of Christ? Are we doing all we can for the
cause of Christ? It means we're going to have
to do without some things. It means we're going to have
to sacrifice our time and our sweat and our money, but it won't
be any sacrifice at all if we'll just remember what David said.
He said, who am I? And what is my people that we
should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things
come of thee and of thine own hand have we given thee. O Lord
our God, all this store that we've prepared to build thee
a house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand and it's all yours. See, we don't ever really give
God anything. He always gives us all things. Now let me sum it up. These responsibilities
we see here that God's servant needs the total commitment and
the total support of the congregation if he's going to give himself
to this work and be useful. And we see here, too, because
we see these things in God's Word, and we know this is what
the Lord works in the heart of His people. We see here that
when God brings His servant to the feet of Christ and gives
you a heart after His pastor, these are the things you'll do,
willingly. Because you now see the value of the gospel. And I want to tell you one other
thing. A few years after I moved to New Jersey, a door was opened
up to me And I could have went to this
other church. And they had a really nice building
that was completely paid for. There we were meeting in a firehouse. And they could have fully supported
me and my wife. And there we are struggling to
make ends meet. But the brethren there were doing
all these things toward their pastor. And it didn't matter about the
building. It didn't matter about the money. I could not leave
them because they had my heart. And I'll tell you this, you do
these things for your pastor, You'll have his heart even more
than you have it now. And you'll make it impossible
for him to leave you. I guarantee it. I pray God will
bless you. Thank you, Master. All right,
let's pray, and then Joe will come up, and then we'll have
Brother Darwin come up. Oh, if you want to make sure
you get that thing in there, too. God bless his prayer. I
knew I was going to go long, Brother Darwin. Our gracious Lord, we thank you.
Lord, help us to hear it. Help us to hear your word as
you intended to be heard. We ask that your Blessing now
your spirit be upon Brother Darwin, that you would help him to preach
the word that I need to hear as well, Lord. And I was blessed
by what Clay said to the brethren here, and I ask, Lord, that the
brethren would also be blessed by what Brother Darwin says to
me. May I ask this in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. So
this is a good time. You've got to use the restroom.
It's right out there. And we'll do two hymns in between. Thank you. I gave you a handout, a paper. Proclaim the gospel men of God
and that's going to be sung to the tune of Oh God our help in
ages past. We can do that standing if you
like. Proclaim the word of truth abroad
to all the sons of men. Tell how our God by sovereign
grace saves all who trust in him. Proclaim our God's electing
love and Jesus' precious blood. Christ's righteousness the spirits
call, salvation by our God. Proclaim the gospel, men of God,
your work is not in vain. God will apply His Word and save
a multitude from sin. Wherever faithful men today proclaim
Your sovereign grace, We praise the Lord for Jesus' sake, sinners
from death to grace. If you would, we're going to
sing the second hymn out of our blueback hymnal. And let's see, I love to tell
the story. I've got to find out what number
that is. I had it written down. What is it? It is 431. 4, 3, 1. I'd love to tell the story. I love to tell the story of unseen
things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story because
I know it is true. It satisfies my longings As nothing
else can do I love to tell the story Will be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story Of Jesus and His love I'd love to
tell the story, more wonderful it seems. And all the golden
fancies of all our golden dreams. I'd love to tell the story, it
does so much for me. and that is just the reason I
tell it now to thee. My love to tell the story will
be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and
His love. I love to tell the story, it's
pleasant to repeat. What seems each time I tell it,
for wonderfully sweet. I love to tell the story, for
some have never heard. The message of salvation from
God's own Holy Word. I love to tell the story, it
will be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus
and His love. I love to tell the story for
those who know it best. Seem hungering and thirsting
to hear it like the rest. And when it seems a glory, I
sing the new, new song. To tell the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. So next we have Pastor Darvin
Pruitt. And Darvin was the pastor of
the Brethren here before I came. And the Brethren spoke very highly
of you. And when I received the call
by the Brethren to come and be their pastor, I thought it would
be good to call and talk to their pastor, to Darvin, just to hear
what he had to say. Darvin was very sweet. on you
brethren, and one of the things that really encouraged me was
he said, I threw everything at them. I preached everything to
them, and I threw it all at them, and they received it. And that
was a good encouragement to me. And he believed that this was
a work as well, and that the people here love the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that meant a lot to me. And he's been kind. We spoke two times. And he's
been kind and gracious to me both times. And I'm looking forward
to hearing what the Lord is giving you to say now. So, come on up. You've got that mic on, then? Is it on? I don't know.
Let me check it for you. I'm about as high-tech as an
outhouse. It falls my lot tonight to say some things to your new
pastor. And I want to begin by saying
some things about this office I remember years ago when I was
ordained at 13th Street Baptist Church. I remember Henry Mahan,
and like Clay, he was a giant to me. And I remember him reading
this passage, and I remember the hair standing up on the back
of my neck when he read it. This is Paul. over in 2 Timothy
chapter 4 and he's speaking to young Timothy and he said, I charge thee therefore
before God. The things that I have to say
to you tonight are charges before God. and the lord jesus christ he's our savior and he's our
lord these charges are before god and before the lord jesus
christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing
preach the word preach the word and that's what this office is
all about Preaching the word. There are four offices which
our ascended Lord declared to be gifts to his church. The apostles. He gave some apostles. Who were
they? That's Peter, James, John, Paul. These were apostles. Apostles. Those who were eyewitnesses of
his person and work, and these men were supernaturally gifted
to teach men and women from the Old Testament Scriptures. They
had no New Testament. They were the New Testament. They were supernaturally gifted.
It takes the gift of God for a man to discern the Old Testament
Scriptures. But I'll tell you, when you do,
there's nothing sweeter than to read those old passages and
to see those pictures and types and see them come alive and see
how well they declare the Lord Jesus Christ and His work. And that's what these men were.
They were supernaturally gifted to show us from the Old Testament
scriptures that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God. Paul tells
us in Romans chapter 16 verse 26 that the mystery of the gospel,
which was kept secret, it was kept secret since the world began,
is now made manifest by the scriptures of the prophets according to
the commandment of the everlasting God and made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith. Who made it known? The apostles. The apostles. They were the writers
of the New Testament Scriptures, and they held the highest office
in the church. And then secondly, the Lord said,
our ascended Lord gave to His church. He gave them prophets. Who were they? That's Moses. Moses. And Isaiah. and Job, and Jeremiah, Daniel,
and Hosea. These are prophets, prophets
of God. And these men were supernaturally
gifted to foretell of the person and work of Christ. That's an amazing gift for a
man in that age, with the light they had, and the light of the
revelation of God to foretell what was going to come to pass
thousands of years. And Peter even said they inquired
diligently, diligently, these old men, they inquired diligently
about that grace that was to come, that one who was to come. And to whom it was revealed that
not unto themselves did they say these things, but unto us.
these things which are now declared unto you by them that preach
the gospel with the Holy Ghost. He gave them prophets searching
water what manner of time the Spirit that was in them did declare. The apostles and the prophets
make up the foundation of our faith. They make up the Holy
Scriptures. No matter where we turn in the
Bible, we're either reading the word of one of God's prophets,
or we're reading the word of his apostles. And that's why
so often you hear in our messages, Paul said and Peter said, I know,
I try to use this as often as I can, the Holy Spirit said it,
and he said it through Peter, and he said it through Paul.
But they actually said these things. And I want you to know
this. When I was just a child, the
Gideons used to come around to schools and they'd give away
those little New Testaments. And they did so when I joined
the Navy. They gave me one of those little
Gideon New Testaments. You know what a New Testament
is? That's half a Bible. It's half a Bible. God gave to
His church apostles and prophets. And those two michael everything
that god has to say to him i say that because i want you
to understand how high in all and i will say this because i
believe so apart from the old testament scriptures you cannot You have to go back there. Even
our Lord, when He preached, He said, and even when He preached,
He said, it's written, it's written, it's written. So the first two offices given
to the Church for the work of the ministry are the Apostles
and Prophets, the writers of what we call the Bible or Holy
Scripture. The third office the Lord speaks
of in Ephesians chapter 4 is evangelist. What in the world
is an evangelist? Well, he's a man to whom God
opens many doors. The apostle Paul was an evangelist. Timothy was an evangelist. Paul
wrote to him and he said, Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. I'm an evangelist. The Lord's
used me to minister to this group. It's not my church. I pastor
a church down in Arkansas. But I come up here and act as
an interim pastor and I preach to you and minister to you by
phone and in person up here and that's what an evangelist does.
He's a man to whom God gives the hearts of many and gives
to them hunger to hear him. He opens many doors. And he's
a man that the Lord sends into places, Walter Gruber. He didn't
have any money. He didn't have a lot of means.
But he had to want to. He wanted to go down to Mexico
and preach to those people down there. And he went down there
with just about nothing. But the Lord's preserved it.
And you know what? How long has it been? 60 years? He's still down there preaching.
And now there's 40 some churches, native churches down there. That's
an evangelist. God uses him to open many doors
and he goes out and establishes a work, establishes churches,
and then sees to it or oversees it until God sends them a faithful
pastor. And evangelists work with pastors
That's usually where pastors come from, is out from under
another pastor. I have a young man who used to
come down to the meetings. I haven't seen him for years
now, but he used to come down to the meetings, and he lived
just on the other side of Little Rock. And I never seen a guy
want to preach the gospel so bad and go and pastor a church
in my life, was this young boy. And he was always calling me
and asking me for information. And I said, I can't tell you
what to do. But I said, I can tell you what I do. And what
I did do, I found a man that I believe was preaching the gospel
and I got in his back pocket and I didn't come out until the
Lord gave me a chance. That's what you do. That's where pastors are born.
They sit under pastors and they watch and they listen and they
shut up. And they listen to not only what
the pastors say, and they go out and they see all these confrontations,
and they see things that are going on in those churches, and
they learn to pastor sitting under pastors. An evangelist is a man who preaches
and believes the doctrines of Christ, and so as an evangelist,
he's a bringer of good news. into places where they had no
news. An evangelist. And then, fourthly, the Holy
Spirit tells us that our ascended Lord has given us pastor-teachers. I don't believe that's talking
about two separate offices. It's talking about pastor-teachers. I won't split up with you if
you don't believe that, but that's what I believe it's saying, and
I've given it a lot of study. Pastor teaches. Alright, so what
do we got? Vision if you can. Moses. You got a picture? Holding that
rod out. Seeing God split that sea. Leaving
those people, all those millions of people across that sea. taking
them through the wilderness by God's direction and God's hand. Moses. And then over here, Peter. Oh man, Peter. What an apostle,
Peter. John. And then we look down and
we see the evangelist, the apostle Paul. And what else does it take to
complete that picture? Very glitter. I don't say that
to you to puff you up. Because when you understand what
I'm telling you there, you could sit on a penny and dangle your
feet over the side and they wouldn't hit the bottom. That'll make
you so small when you go into your study that God is using
you in the capacity that he uses his apostles. and prophets and
evangelists, and your work is as necessary to the church as
Moses. Is that correct? That's right. And I tell you, it's the most
humbling thing in the world when you go into that study and you
think about what God has entrusted you with. And I tell you, you
won't chase the Planned Earth Syndrome or anything else when
you get this in your heart. There's nothing else you're going
to want to do except please Him and preach His gospel. All true preaching. This office
is that of a pastor-teacher, and all true preaching is expository. It's expository. We're taking
the, I'm not trying to convince you of what I think. I don't
have my own private collection of sayings and I'm trying to
convince everybody that Darwin Pruitt's right. Somebody told
me that one time. You think you're right and everybody
else is wrong. No, I don't. But I think God's
right and everybody else a liar. That's what I, I know that stuff.
I know that stuff. but all true preaching is expository. All we're trying to do is point
you in here to what God says. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1.23
that we are born again of incorruptible seed by the incorruptible seed
of the word and then in verse 25 he tells us and this is the
word which by the gospel is preached unto you. This man carries through
the gospel and under the power of the Holy Spirit the very seed
of regeneration. The Word of God. And he preaches
it. Well, you say, I just don't believe
that's so. Well, let me tell you what Paul
said. He said, you've got a lot of teachers, but you don't have
many fathers. That's what he told the Corinthians.
And he said, I have begotten you through the gospel. Now,
you give that some thought, what he said. We carry that. Pastors carry that. And I'll
tell you this, you say, well, I did it. One fella told me one
time, he said, Paul wasn't saved that way. Paul got on a white
horse, and he was on his way doing this and that, and God
unhorsed that proud rebel and throwed his face down in the
mud. And I said, well, if I was you then, I wouldn't stay here.
I'd go over and get me a big white horse and ride around Texarkana
until God throws his face down in the mud. But if you're really
interested in knowing God, Why don't we go over here and see
what God says about preaching? Your preaching's necessary. This
office is necessary. He doesn't send this office of
pastor-teachers way over here to the side somewhere and say,
here's my prophets, here's my apostles, here's my evangelists,
now down there's my pastors. No, that's not what he says.
He listened right beside the rest. And I'll tell you something
else about pastors. I've just completed my study
in Revelations. And in the very first chapter
of Revelation, he calls his pastors stars. And I looked at that and
looked at that and looked at that. Do you know stars? God puts that
star where he wants it, and it never moves. 6,000 years ago, they get on
a ship, and they fix their ship on that star, and it tells them
how to go. It gives them direction in the
night for that ship to sail. It gives them the direction.
They look up at that star, and they get their direction. That's
exactly where God's people get their direction from that star. And you know those stars, where
he puts them, they never move. They stay right where he puts
them. When somebody needs direction, they know where to go. They know
where to find the star. And that's what he tells us,
these pastors. I tell our folks all the time,
Invite folks to come in here. When you buttonhole somebody
downtown or something, and you start trying to force all these
things on them, you can't even get a sentence out, because they're
already thinking. They're not listening. They're
just thinking about what they're going to say to you next. They go back
and forth and back and forth. They come here. They're a captive
audience for 45 minutes. And you at least get to tell
them what they need to hear. Mark tells us in that that the
commission of Christ to his church was to go into all the world
and preach the gospel. In Matthew's gospel, he said,
go ye therefore and teach all nations. Pastors did both. They declared, we're not tossing
something up here as a like they did on Mars Hill, either to tell
or say some new thing and let everybody know. We're declaring
the truth to you. We're not saying this may
fit in with that. We're telling you this is it.
This is what God says. That's a declaration. That's
preaching. Teaching is to show you in this book where it teaches
that. So pastors are pastor teachers. They're preachers. but they're
teachers. And what do they teach? Well,
he told Matthew, to teach all nations, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you. You teach them
that. As far as I can determine, the
word apt. You know, he said over there
at pastors, it must be apt. to teach. And I looked at that
word a long time, read a bunch of dictionaries and different
things about that word. But as far as I can determine,
the word apt means well instructed and gifted of God. That's what
it means. He's well instructed. I know
you know what to preach. I've heard you preach. You know
what to preach. And I believe God's blessed you. I believe God's gifted you. You remember what I told you
you were struggling over this thing with the pastor? I said,
I'll tell you some of the greatest words that I've ever heard, and
I got it from the scripture, when it comes to a man knowing
whether or not he's a pastor. And here's the words. It came
to pass. That's right. It came to pass. We're not talking about in a
preacher school somewhere what could happen, what might happen.
Now we're talking about what happened. It came to pass. It came to pass. You didn't come
down here and start a work here and try to sell everybody on
your person. You just come here and preach,
didn't you? That's right. And God put you in the ministry. All right, so what are the duties
of a pastor? Well, his first duty is to be
faithful to God. Somebody told me when I first
went down to Arkansas, we had some troublemakers, same as you
did, and everybody does, I guess. But this one fellow said, ain't
you afraid the folks will just kick you out talking like you
talk? I said, well, they might. But I'm more afraid of God than
I am of them. I can talk to you the way I talk
to you. I'm more afraid of Him than I am of you. All you do is destroy my body,
destroy my soul. It's to be faithful to God, and
faithful to your calling, and faithful to your congregation.
The minister of Christ is a steward of the mysteries of God. He has
by the gift and appointment of God the greatest treasure there
is. But now know and understand this,
you have it in an earthen vessel. It's in a clay pot. He has in his possession that
which is never entered into the heart of man. Did you ever think
about that? That's what Paul, when he was
talking about preaching the gospel, he said he did so in power and
demonstration of the Spirit. And then he quoted that scripture,
and he said, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, natural man, fallen man, the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
them to you by his Spirit. And then he goes on to talk about
how that spirit accompanies his pastors. The spirit has what
the scriptures call things of the spirit of God, the word of
God, the gospel of God, pastor-teachers, evangelists, and so on. Mysteries that even the princes
and wise men of the world have never seen. And he carries in
his head and in his heart the gospel which is the power of
God unto salvation. And Paul said in 1 Corinthians
4-2 that it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
Faithful to God, first of all, and faithful to his congregation,
and faithful to your calling. Second Timothy 2.4, it says,
no man that warth entangleth himself with the affairs of this
life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. So pastors are not businessmen. They're pastors. William Carey talked about his
son. I can't quote him exactly. But
what he was saying was that his son took a great demotion from
being a preacher to be the ambassador of some great land, England or
whatever it was. He had stepped, he might have
stepped down from being a preacher to doing that. They're not businessmen. They're
not politicians. They're pastors. And know this,
you are an ambassador of God, an ambassador of Christ before men. If God speaks to
a man, he's gonna speak to him through his pastor. That's just
so is it. I know people hate that today
and I emphasize it a lot in my preaching because it's so. If
I thought there was anything else I could do for my loved
ones, I'd be doing it. If I thought I could compromise
a little and join some established religion and be able to minister
to them, I'd do it. But I know it can't be done. It's going to be done this way
or it's not going to be done. I had a guy, Van Buren, Arkansas
down there by Fort Smith. He came to me after the message
that Sunday and he said, if gospel preaching is necessary to the
saving of the soul, how do you justify my profession? And I
said, I'm not here to justify your profession. You justify
it. It's yours. I'm here to preach the gospel.
And I'm reading to you from the Word of God and you're running
off to your old experience. Pastors, here's another charge.
Study. Study. Well, visitation ought to take a big
part of my ministry. It might well do it. But you
better not interrupt your studies to do it. You better take it
from some other time that you got and go do that, not in your
study. I set me a time for study and
I tell them I'm not available to talk on the phone, I'm not
available for anything, I'm studying. Study. That's what Paul told
Timothy. Didn't tell him visit, he said
study. Well what's all this studying
gonna do? It's gonna prove what you are. That's what it's gonna
do. Go prove what you are. Study
to show thyself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth. Pastors must study, not so much
to know the gospel, but to expound the gospel from the word of God
and convince the gainsayers. The word of God is full, now
hear me, it's full of gins and snails. What's that? That's John 3.16. Nobody but a believer can read
John 3.16 and get anything out of it. It's a gin and a snare. 1 John 2.2. There's another one. 2 Peter 3.9. I don't know how
many people quoted that to me. God's not willing for anybody
to perish. That's just not what they're
saying. He said, God is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And you can go on and on. There's
gems and snares, and a pastor must study to rightly divide
the truth. Secondly, a pastor must keep
his finger on the pulse of his congregation. They watch for
your souls as they that must give an account. Now I've looked
into that, and I may be wrong with this, if I am, you can correct
me after serving. But when he says that they must
give an account, he's not talking about out yonder at the judgment. He's talking about right now. He can take you out of this ministry
just as fast as He put you in it. Now if you don't believe
me, you go talk to Eric and Frank. He can take you out of this ministry
so fast it'll make your head spin. We give an account. We watch for your souls as those
who must give account. God entrusted those souls under
your care, and you're going to give an account for it. He's
going to hold you responsible. That's what I'm saying. He's
going to hold you responsible. Obey them, Paul said, who have
the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for
your souls, that they might do it in joy. And pastors, this is a hard lesson. Learn to be listeners. Listen to your congregation.
I know so many pastors who dominate conversations. I go to Bible
conferences and they're there and they just dominate everything
that's going on. Two or three conversations and
they'd be dominating over all of it. Learn to listen. Listen
to what your people are saying. That's the only way you know
what they really believe, is to listen. Listen to their complaints. You may be the very reason for
it. Listen. Usually are. Listen to what they're saying,
and watch for enemies of their souls. They're like roaches in
the woodwork. They're not there one day, and
the next day, there they are. enemies of your souls. Pastor,
you know, I know I have a lot of friends and I love them and
they come to Bible conferences and all this, but they will not
move and join a church. And you can, these CDs and DVDs
and all these live streaming and all that, that's all great.
But a CD can't watch for your soul. A CD can't pray for you. It can't
make intercession for you. It can't approach you and correct
you. It's just people going through,
ah, here's a good sermon. Here's a sermon on love. I'd
like to hear that. And they take that sermon out
and fix it to them. Ain't that way with you. You're going to
have to study and beg God to give you a message for them.
Not just something to stand up and say, and something that's
correct. No, the message that God has
for them that day. And it don't just fall in your
lap, does it, Clyde? I tell you, I've had a lot of
times when it come right up to the time. Up in Danville one
time, I had a message and I couldn't get off of it. And I couldn't
find a single bit of information on it anywhere in the scripture.
And I tried to set it aside and I just couldn't. That's the only
scripture I was sitting there. And it was this serum that they,
when a wife was accused wrongly of something or rightfully, she
had to drink this potion. Do you remember the story? He
had to drink this potion. And if you was guilty, you died. But if you wasn't guilty, you
lived. And man, I couldn't put that
thing down, and I couldn't find nobody, not Gil, nobody. Virgin? I asked Don. He's the most well-read
man that I know in the world, and he couldn't... I said, I
can't leave this alone. And man, it was getting time
to pray. All of a sudden, it come to me. This is talking about
the gospel. When the gospel comes, it condemns
you, and then it justifies you. It shows you your guilt, proves
your guilt before all, and then proves your innocence before
all. Justifies you. Justifies you. That's that potion. That's the
gospel. And I'm going to tell you this. Pastors must love their congregations. Our Lord looked at Peter, and
I know it hurt him. It pierced his heart. He said,
Peter, do you love me? Peter had already left and went
fishing. And then he called him in. And
he was so ashamed, so ashamed. I could just imagine standing
before the Lord He said, Peter, do you love me?
Peter said, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. He said, feed my sheep. He said,
Peter, do you love me? The boy would say it the second
time. It had to just pierce his heart. He said, feed my sheep. And then
he asked him the third time, Peter, do you love me? All my soul, yes, I love you. Feed my lambs, feed my lambs. The Lord has sheep and he has
lambs. I got some little lambs at my church and it seems like
God's giving them here in years. I'm so thrilled, I'm so thrilled.
But I get now where I preach to those little lambs, I pick
one of them out after I preach to the little 11, 12 year old,
preach to them. God has lambs. Everyone that loveth him that
begat, loveth them also that is begotten of him. Let me ask
you a question. I'm not directing this to you,
I'm directing this to him. But y'all could listen in. What
makes a successful parent? Huh? They love their children. They
can be college educated. They can be high school dropouts.
But they'll be successful parents if they love their children. That's what it takes. And I'm
going to tell you, if you don't love your children, you ain't going
to survive their youth. Because they're going to test
that love. They're going to test it. It's the love of their children
that enables them to endure their rebellion, to endure their ignorance,
to endure their temptations, and sometimes even their cutting
remarks. And this much I can tell you
as an experienced pastor, if you do not love your people,
you're not going to make it as a pastor. Love, Paul said, suffereth long. It'll suffer these things. It
won't say a word. It'll suffer. It'll just go right
through. Act like it never happened. And it's kind. Oh, be kind one
to another. It envieth not. It bonteth not
itself. It's not puffed up. does not
behave itself unseemly, and seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
but it beareth all things, and endureth all things, and love,
and this is why I tell you that, never faileth. You can't fail as a pastor if
you love your people. And it's your duty, and that
which is required of God, that you love those whom God has joined
to you. Fourthly, pastors are to rule
over their congregations. What kind of rule? In 1 Peter
5 it says they are to take the oversight not by force. Not by force. Not for filthy
lucre. but willingly, and not as lords
over God's heritage, but as being examples to the flock. You want to rule your flock,
walk right before them. I guarantee you, they're going
to know more about what you do than what you say. I know what
you say is important, but what you do is important, too. Pastors, as he said, are under
shepherds. Christ is the chief shepherd.
And his rule is a merciful and gracious rule and a loving rule,
and so must ours be. But understand this, congregation,
the kingdom of God is not a democracy. It's a theocracy. And God rules
the way he will. And God's will is to rule through
his pastors. And it's a loving role, but he
rules. Something I learned managing
work, especially in the construction field, boss is not always right,
but he's always the boss. He's always the boss. And he's
always your pastor. Can you give me something from
the scriptures? I sure can. Cory, Nathan, and Byron. They
said Moses got to them. And there's millions of people.
How's he gonna watch over millions of people? How's he gonna lead
millions of people? We need to split this rule up.
And I'll, what we'll do is I'll take some, and you take some,
and you take some. And we'll divide it up between
us. And we'll help old Moses out. And Moses said, everybody's on
the Lord's side, come over here. And those who lined up with Cordaeus
and Nabirah went to hell with their shoes on. He's always the pastor. God rules
through his man. And he's not a lord over God's
head. He don't come up here and start
dictating how you, everything you have to do and all these,
but he's gonna teach you through the scriptures and he's gonna
lead you by example. and a rule is a merciful and
a gracious rule. Find out the revealed will of
God and keep your eyes open for His providence and make your
decisions based on that. Don't go against your pastor
unless he goes against God. And do not obligate your people,
now hear me, to endure anything that you yourself are not willing
to endure. If they sign a note for a loan
to build a building, don't you leave them until that building's
paid for. That's right, don't you load
your people up with great debt and then pay off the lease. Don't
do that. You don't load them up with anything
that you yourself not willing to endure. Now you ask our folks and see
if I tell you the truth. When we built our addition, I
worked as much as anybody in that church on their addition.
And I didn't drop my study time, and I didn't drop my obligation
to the church, and I didn't quit preaching. But I did as much
work in there as anybody in that church. Don't ask them to do things that
you yourself, they might not let you. And if they love you,
they'll try to keep these things away from you as much as they
can so that you can do your study. Paul told Timothy to do the work
of an evangelist. And the heart and soul of every
God-called preacher is to preach the gospel to all who will give
him hearing. In the early churches, there
were satellite churches that the Lord sprung up here and there
and yonder out of that one church, like the church at Ephesus or
the Philippian church. And there's other churches out
there that popped up. And these men, these pastors,
would go out and preach to them, and if they had some People like
you in the church, they'd send them out, but they'd oversee
everything that's going on and listen to the comments of the
people and so on. That's evangelism. And whether God will do that
here or not, I don't know. I don't know. Only He can determine
that. But we're to be ready and willing
to do it. to do it. And also, this might be talking
about some kind of outreach of radio, internet, television,
whatever. That's an evangelistic outreach.
That's evangelism, doing the work of an evangelist. But what
else? Pastors must be approachable. Don't set yourself before your
congregation as unapproachable. Well, I don't want to talk to
him. Let me talk to Joe. Joe's a lot easier spoken. I
talk to Joe. Now, make yourself approachable. Pastors are required. They're
required. That's what it says in Scripture.
They're required to be given to hospitality. Some of that
falls on you. But make some dishes up ahead
of time, put it in the freezer so you'd be ready when this pastor
and half his congregation show up unexpectedly and there you
sit. Oh, we're gonna feed them, you
know. Doris Mahan used to bake cakes and put them in the freezer.
Everything was there, all she had to do was get it out, thaw
it, and it was ready to go. Be given to hospitality. The door must be, under ordinary
circumstances, an open door. Pastures are not to live as a
recluse or a hermit, but as a man who loves people. He loved people. I sensed this the very first
time I met Henry Mahan. I said, that man loves people. I was a nothing, a nobody. I didn't know anything. I wasn't
anybody. All I was full of was questions. And after the first time I went
to that church, well, it was about three weeks later, Henry
come down to visit me. I lived 50 miles from Ashland.
He came down and visited me at my house. Talked to me about
my work. And then here's the seventh thing.
Pastors must be wise. Our Lord said to his disciples,
I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. You know,
you think you're just dealing with everybody's the same. No. No. Without our dogs. Isn't that what he says over
in Revelation 22? And sorcerers. And murderers. And whoremongers.
and on and on the list go. That's without. And our Lord
said, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So, be
you wise as serpents. Wise as serpents and harmless
as a dove. You must be wise. Pastors are
not ignorant of Satan's devices. He's not ignorant of his ways
or his doctrines. As far as their God is concerned,
Christ is his wisdom. That's your wisdom. And then
another duty of a pastor is to administer the ordinances of
God. He's to officiate over the Lord's table. and lead you in the service.
Our Lord gave these ordinances. He's also the minister of baptism. And our Lord gave these ordinances
to His church and told us what they meant and who it was that
was to observe them. And He didn't put a time limit
on it. He didn't put a time limit. He said, He that believes, that's
who's gonna be baptized. And then, as far as the Lord's
Table is concerned, he said, anybody who can discern, if you
can discern, if you understand what those things represent,
take it and eat it. Take it and eat it. Very important that your pastor
have control of all these things, the song service and all of these
things. And I tell you, if he don't,
it is gonna be trouble down the road. I remember years ago, Marvin
was trying to pastor a Southern Baptist church and he'd been
talking to them a little bit about the doctrines of grace. And he wanted Brother Mahan to
come down and hold a meeting for him. And Brother Mahan said,
I'll come, but Marvin, he said, I want you to understand something.
If I come down there and preach for you, they're going to fire
you as their pastor. Marvin said, no. He said, these
people love the gospel, Brother Mahan. They love the gospel.
He said, Marvin, I'm going to tell you one more time. If I
come down here and preach the gospel, your people are going
to fire you as their pastor. Well, you come on. You come on.
He said, OK. Second day there, they fired
Marvin as their pastor. And he showed up that Sunday
at our church in Ball. Their song leader was just singing
anything he wanted to. The pastor had nothing on that.
He had no say-so whatsoever about all these special days and all
these activities and all these things the church was doing.
Brother Man got there and he made their focus on the gospel,
period. Took the song service away from
that song leader. Took Sunday school class away
from Sunday school teaching. And between him and Marvin, they
preached to that church and they fired Marvin the next day. Pastors, I know I haven't been
exhausted in this whatsoever, neither has Clay, but I hope
we brought some things to you that you'll think about, because
these are serious things. This is serious office. This
is serious business. And I don't in any way want to
make any kind of a joke or make light of it whatsoever. This
is a very serious matter. And I believe this man's up to
it. I believe the Lord's enabled
him to be your pastor. Will he be the same in 10 years? No. He'll be a lot better. He'll
be a lot better. He'll grow. And you'll grow.
And this whole church will be wiser and better off for his
coming here. All right, so we're going to
have Joe close us in to him, and if you would like to come
to Carl and Barb's, as long as you're still opening your house,
I assume you are, we'll retire over there for some ice cream
and just a little more fellowship. And then tomorrow we'll be back
here at 10 a.m., so get here maybe a few minutes before so
you can get settled in. We'll have Darvin and then Clay.
close us in that order tomorrow. Same order of service as well
as we just did here tonight. So, let's close in prayer and
then we'll be, and then Joe will close us in a final hymn. Our
gracious Lord, Father, we, we thank you, Lord. Lord, who's sufficient for these
things. Lord, we trust you. We know that
you, you know what you're doing. And Lord, we're looking to You
to bless this work. Lord, to help
me and this people here to be faithful to Your Gospel, to be
faithful to the one that You sent, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, help us to exalt Him and to send the Gospel out in this
community here. And Lord, that You would call
Your sheep by this gospel and bring them here to be, gather
them here, Lord, with your people. We pray this. Lord, just protect
this people, be with this people as they go out and travel, their
homes and in the hotels, Lord, where they're staying. Lord,
be merciful. Bless our fellowship here tonight
and bring us back here safely tomorrow. We pray this in Jesus'
name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. We're going to sing Great Is Thy Faithfulness,
number 40. Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness, O
God my Father. There is no shadow of turning
with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions
they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever
wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness, great
is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. Summer and winter and springtime
and harvest, sun, moon and stars in their courses above, join
with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness, mercy
and love. Great is Thy faithfulness, great
is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. Hardened for sin and a peace
that endureth, Thine, O dear Presence, to cheer and to guide. Thankful for today and bright
hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside. Great is Thy faithfulness, great
is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me.