If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, we'll be
looking at verses 28 through the remainder of this chapter. Acts chapter 20, beginning in verse 28. The title
of the message this morning is, A Pastor's Care. A Pastor's Care. We get this from verse 28, when
the Apostle said, "...take heed therefore unto yourselves and
to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,
to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own
blood." And last week we went over Paul calling these pastors
to record. how He came to them, and how
He came in humility, and how He preached the gospel unto them.
And now He turns to them and He says, take heed to yourselves. Take heed to the church of God,
that you care for the church of God, and that you are an overseer
of the church, which God hath purchased with His own blood. This is a strong caution to every
preacher of the gospel. This word, take heed, it means
to be very careful, to be warned. In other words, this is a warning
for pastors. This is a warning to those who
would preach the gospel of God's grace. And he charges them with
several things. The first two of which is that
he is to take heed to himself. and then to take heed to the
church of God. First of all, what does it mean
when the Apostle says, take heed unto yourselves? Well, first
of all, he's not talking about them taking care of their physical
needs. That's not what he says. He's
not saying, you need to take care of yourself first. You need
to make sure that you have everything that you need. You need to make
sure that you go to the gym and you work out You make sure you're
healthy. That's not what he's talking
about, taking care of ourselves. He's not telling us to take care
of our physical bodies. But what he is telling us is
to take heed, take care of the calling, the gifts, and the office
that we are called to by the Holy Spirit. He said, you need
to be very careful about this. This is not something that you
should take flippantly, this office and this calling. A pastor,
the pastor has only one calling. Only one mission. Only one job. And that is to preach and declare
the gospel of Jesus Christ to the church of God. That we are
not to shun to declare to you, God's people, the whole counsel
of God. I was speaking with some preachers
a few weeks back and we were discussing preaching. Preaching is a physical act,
isn't it? It's something that we do. It's some gifts and talents that
we have to communicate to people the gospel of Christ. But altogether,
preaching is more of a spiritual act. It is more of a spiritual
matter. And we're to take care of the
spiritual doctrines, the spiritual matters of the gospel of Christ.
We're to care for these things, take heed to ourselves that we're
not tempted from our calling. Friends, there are a lot of temptations
in this office. There are a lot of testings and
trials and difficulties. that most people never see. And it's not for you to see.
It's for me. I must take heed to myself so
that I am not swayed in any measure from delivering to you what God
has said in His Word. I'm to be careful about this.
I'm warned about this as a pastor. We must not be distracted from
our mission. I'll tell you, there's a lot
of things that can distract us. There's a lot of things that
distract us. Sometimes when we're studying, we think about maybe
a need of somebody and we go off on a tangent and we have
to cut those things off so that we go back to the Word of God. We must take heed to the gospel
that we preach, regardless of what men do in this world and
regardless of how men feel about this message. We should not be
deterred or swayed from the message of the gospel at all. Be careful. I'll tell you, if a man feels
he is called to preach, but over time his message changes from
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, he is not a gospel preacher. If a man may shift his message,
and I'll tell you, it doesn't matter what he confesses. And
I know many men who confess to believe in the sovereignty of
God, who confess to believe salvation is by grace alone. But when they
stand up to preach, that's not what they're preaching. And they
may have started out that way, but they've not taken heed to
themselves. They've not taken heed to the
message that they have been called to preach. Sometimes because churches lose
members. Because sometimes churches grow
small and there's not enough money generated. Many times people
compromise the message so that they might get more people to
come in. That's not what God's men are
for. That's not what preachers are to do. Men change their message
and mission of preaching the Word of God to telling interesting
stories. I caught myself this morning.
I flip it through the radio station. I caught myself this morning.
This man, he started out with an interesting story. And man,
I was captivated by that interesting story. But when he got to his
message, there was nothing there. There was no message. It was
just an interesting story. We're not here to entertain.
I'm to take care of myself so that I do not entertain people
all the way to hell. I'm to take care to preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ. I tell you, some men are no longer
interested in sinners being saved by the grace of God, by the foolishness
of preaching. And this, they're more concerned
about entertaining the world rather than preaching the gospel
of Jesus Christ. That man I listened to this morning,
he said he was like on the 32nd message in a series on giving,
on money, from the parable of the three men with the talents.
Now, I don't know how in the world he got 32 messages out
of that, but I'm sure he did. He got 32 of them. And none of
them were about Christ. None of them were about salvation.
None of them were about the souls of men. Why? He's not taking
heed to this. because he's not a preacher of
the gospel. Paul says, I charge you, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4,
1 and 2, he says, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing
in the kingdom. Preach the Word. Be instant, in season, out of
season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and with doctrine. How do we preach the Word? How
do we rebuke people? How do we exhort people with
longsuffering? Only by preaching Christ and
Him crucified. How is it that you've made it
thus far? Is it not by the message of Christ? Is it not by the blood
of Christ? Of course it is. That's the message
His people long to hear. We must be careful to preach
this truth. Be careful in our study. Be careful in our calling. I
tell you, it's easy to put our two sins in. When I prepare my
messages, I know this, sometimes I want to put my two sins in.
Really, it doesn't matter. My two sins is worth less than
two sins. What matters is what God says
to you. What matters is what God says
to you. We must preach the Word of God. We must be careful in our preparation,
careful in our delivery, careful in our conversation. We must take heed. This is a
very important thing. A very important thing. We are called to preach. And friends, we must set ourselves
before all men. And when we do, when I stand
to preach, when people know that I'm a preacher, you know what
happens? They watch me. All of a sudden, I become set
up in front of men when they know what I do. Why? Well, the wicked are looking
for an excuse not to hear me. They're looking for an excuse
not to hear me. And friends, it is incumbent upon each pastor
to take care of himself so that we don't give them one. We must
be above board in everything. We must be blameless. We must
be careful in our conversation and to be above reproach so that
we may preach the Gospel. I have a group of friends, and
I know most of them are not believers in Jesus Christ. Most of them
are religious, but they're not believers in Christ. They don't
know the Gospel of Christ. And you could tell by their conversation. You could tell by their lifestyle
and how they speak. But I know this, when I come
into the room, all of their conversation changes. Why? Because they know what I
do. They know who I am. And in their
eyes, I'm above reproaching those things. I don't enter into the
folly that they enter into. I don't enter into the jokes
that they enter into. And so when they have need, when
the time comes maybe that God would be gracious to them, then
they would come to me and not anyone else. So that when I declare
the gospel to them, they'll at least take heed to what I'm saying.
They'll pay attention. And this is why we're to take
heed to ourselves. Second of all, we're to be careful and
take heed to the church of God. It is the responsibility of every
pastor to rule the church as a man would rule his own home.
Now, you know I love my children. You know I do. But you also know
that I love you. I love you, every one of you.
I want to care for you as I would care for my own children. As
I would care for my own family. Remember Paul talking to Titus,
he says, treat the older men as you would treat your father.
Treat the younger women as you would treat your sister. And we should do this. We should
be an example for the sheep to follow. We should be an example
in our actions and our conversation and our doctrine before all men,
especially before you. I should be an example to you.
I should lead by example, not by driving you, but by showing
you. Showing you how I do it. Showing
you how I would witness, how I would conduct myself in the
affairs of this life. And you should follow me. You
should follow my example. Even as I follow Christ. I'm called to care for your needs. That if you're lacking in anything
in the service of God, I'm to shore that up. I'm to call you
to it. And I'll tell you, there are
many in our church that are lacking in service to God. What do I
do? I know you've heard me preach
it. I know most of those are times it happens like this, when
I'm preaching a message and I rebuke people that are lacking in service,
it's usually the faithful that hear it. The faithful go, oh,
me, I'm lacking. He's talking about me. And then
the people that are lacking, the ones that it's meant for,
they don't hear it. They just go, oh, they don't
understand. But this is not my responsibility
to make someone hear this. It's my responsibility to tell
you, to teach you. And how do I do that? Through
the preaching of the Gospel. The preaching of the Gospel.
I tell you these things as they come along. How many times have
I preached a message and I don't know what's going on with you
all the time? And yet when the message comes, it fulfills your
need at that particular time and moment. We've all had that. Why is that? Because this is
how God has ordained for us to take care of the church, through
the preaching of the Gospel. This is how you should learn,
is by the preaching. And we're here to care for the sheep, to care for
God's people, must teach you and instruct you in matters of
faith and practice. And friends, I would not be guilty
of any man's blood. As a pastor, I must be careful
for the church and careful for myself, and I'm not guilty of
any man's blood. And so every time you hear me
preach, you'll always hear me preach to those who are lost,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's my desire to show you
Christ in every message. I want you to see Christ. I want
you to see Him more vividly, more real today than you saw
Him this morning. I want you to see Christ. I want
you to cling to Christ and hold to Christ in your troubles. This
is how we care for the church. The pastor must take care and
love the church of God. God says this about pastors. He says to His church, He says,
I will give you pastors according to mine heart. And it should
be the heart of every pastor to love the church as Christ
loved it. How much did Christ love the
church? He gave Himself and died for it. And the apostle here tells me
to take heed that I give myself to the church. I give myself
for the church. My heart is for the church. A
hireling is nothing more than a person who does the minimum.
I remember a friend of mine, he was just about to exit the
military and he was doing his last physical fitness test and
the minimum, I think, was, you know, 25 push-ups. It was just
nothing. He could easily do that. And
he did 25 push-ups and he stood up. And they said, well, you
still got time left. You can do more. And he said,
well, if the minimum wasn't good enough, it wouldn't be the minimum. So this is how most people who
aren't called to be pastors, this is how they treat the gospel.
They treat it as the minimum. When they've done the minimum,
they go, oh, I'm done. I'm finished. I've done the minimum. I've done
exactly what I was supposed to do. And that's all. That's not
how we're supposed to be. That's not how a pastor is. He
is to give himself completely, totally, absolutely, wholly to
the ministry of God's grace. We're to be a steward of the
grace of God. Steward of the grace of God.
To deliver the grace of God. Not and do our minimum, but do
our best. Friends, I long to do my best.
I know that my best is not at what I want it to be. And I want
to strive to be better at what I do. And so a man of God will not
leave his post until properly relieved." What is that? Either
physical malaties or death. Those are the only two things
that should relieve a man from his office as a pastor. We don't
retire. We don't retire. We go until
we can't go no more. We preach until our voice is
taken or our physical and mental abilities no longer allow us
to be in the pulpit. We give ourselves our lives for
the gospel. And I'd have us notice something
in our text. Go back to your text and look at that again. Acts chapter 20 and verse 28.
Look at this, what Paul says, "...take heed therefore unto
yourselves and to all the flock of God, over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath
purchased with His own blood." Who purchased it? God did. With what? His blood. Now friends, the church here
is mentioned is the invisible church of God. There are three ways the church
is mentioned in the Scripture. The local church, the local assembly,
a group of local assemblies, or the invisible church which
is the church of all time. Now, I am called to this local
assembly and to care for the local assembly. But friends,
you being a local assembly of believers, you are also part
of the universal church of God. The universal church which He
hath purchased with His own blood. We're a much larger group than
we seem. We are in a much larger group
than we seem. Friends, we are a part of a church
that God purchased. Now, how can God purchase with
blood? The only way is to become a man. God became a man. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
took upon Himself human nature, so that in Him dwelled the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Our Lord Jesus Christ was just
as much God as if He was not man, and just as much man as
if He was not God. He is the God-man. The God-man. And this is because man, it was
by man that sin entered in. It must be by man that sin is
paid. And so God could not bleed. God could not die. God could
provide the righteousness, but He could not provide the blood.
He must become a man. And so as becoming a man, the
God-man, as God, He provided the righteousness as a man, He
provided the blood. He provided all that we need.
God having elect people that He would purchase and redeem
by blood. Scripture says without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sins. And friends, God has
purchased you and me by His own blood. Now how precious is God's
church in His eyes? If He would do such a great thing
as that. How precious. He purchased it
with His own blood. If God purchased His church with
His own blood to redeem it, who then will not be redeemed? If God purchased it, if God shed
His own blood for it, then who of them will be left out and
cast into hell? Who? None of them. None of them. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Instead of them that the Father
giveth me, I should lose nothing." Why? He's God. Who's going to
stop Him from doing exactly what He wants to do? No one. No one. And His blood was enough. I say
there are some for whom, some of them say that there are some
for whom God shed His blood that will suffer under the wrath of
God. I tell you, that's blasphemy.
That's blasphemy. And this leads me to my next
part. We not only care for ourselves, not only care for the church,
but we are also to protect the flock from false doctrine. Look at that in verse 29. He
said, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves
enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves
shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them. Therefore watch and remember
that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one
night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among them which are sanctified."
Friends, how many times have I warned us of false doctrine? I constantly do this over and
over again because there are wolves that would enter in if
I didn't. If I did not remind you How readily
would we forget? Friends, this is, Peter said,
it's good that I remind you of these things that you already
know. It's good. The gospel is something that
we must repeat over and over and over again because we can't
get it all in. It doesn't always stick. Child,
one of my kids bought one of those little things you throw
on the wall and it sticks. And about after ten seconds, it stops
sticking. Well, that's pretty much how
the gospel is at times. It doesn't stick. It doesn't
stay. Because we're always bombarded
by our flesh and the world and sin. And we forget these things. And we become discouraged. And
we become downcast in our souls. And it's by that that sometimes
these false prophets enter in unawares. You're downcast. You've
not been coming to hear the worship of God, and you hear some smooth-talking
man say, Oh, I've got peace over here. I've got peace. Come listen. And you start coming in, and
the next thing you know, you're dragged in by false preaching. I'll tell you, friends, it's
subtle. False. Satan does not come in with a
pitchfork and a cape and horns. He doesn't. That's not the way
he comes in the church. He comes in not in wolf's clothing,
but in sheep's clothing. And you won't recognize him.
You won't recognize him. He comes in and he speaks of
sovereignty. He speaks of grace. He speaks
of regeneration. He speaks of justification. All
the while, he says it's not by what you do, but then you hear
him preach, and it's altogether different, isn't it? They say that salvation is not
of works, and yet they preach, unless you make your decision,
God cannot save you. Now, only one of those is true.
Only one of those is true. Either God's sovereign or man's
sovereign. There's no middle ground. And I've told you this before,
but I think it's important that you understand it's not what
they're saying, it's what they're not saying that makes them a
false prophet. Because what they're saying sounds
good. I listened to that man this morning
a little bit. He talked about the money. That sounds good.
I mean, who doesn't want to put away money? Who doesn't want
to give money to the church? Doesn't that sound good that
you should give to the church? That sounds wonderful. Where's
Christ? Where's Christ? He wasn't to
be found. So we must warn you about these
things. And last, we must not covet your silver and gold. Look
at that in verse 33. It says, I have not coveted any
man's silver or gold. Yea, ye yourselves know that
these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that
are with me. At this time in the early church,
the people were so in bondage by false religion which demanded
them to give to their false gods. These people were, I mean, you
talk about a tithe, these people would come and take what you
had and put it into the coffers of this false religion. It wasn't
a matter of giving and neither was the Jewish religion. You
remember the Jewish religion, it's the tithe that you had to
pay. Ten percent, that was necessary,
that was according to their law. But Paul, in order to show the
truth of God's grace, he said, look, I didn't come after your
money. Give if you want to and don't give if you don't. I'm
not here for that. I'm here to preach the gospel.
I'm not hired to preach the gospel. I preach the gospel because God
called me to. Gospel preachers should be supported
by the local church. Matter of fact, 1 Corinthians
9.14 says that the Lord ordained that they that preach after the
gospel should live after the gospel. That's simple. That's
plain. We should. But we don't complain. We don't complain because we
don't have as much as we think we should. Why? I'm not preaching
because you pay me. I'm not preaching because you
pay me. I'm preaching because God called
me. I'm preaching because I care for you, because God's called
me to this place. We're not here for money. We're
not hired hands. We just preach the gospel according
to God's grace and God's people give according to their hearts. And then he says, take heed to
this, in verse 35, he says, I've showed you all things how that
so laboring you should ought to support the weak and remember
the words of the Lord Jesus, how it is more blessed to give
than to receive. We as pastors are to teach this
by our example. How? I give myself to you. I give myself to the gospel of
Jesus Christ. So are you also to give yourselves
to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you what, giving money is the least that
a man could do for the gospel. That's the least, isn't it? How
many times have we not wanted to go somewhere to someone's
birthday or something and we just sent money? Why? Because that was the easiest.
That was the easiest thing for us to do. It was worth us sending
the money so we didn't have to give ourselves to that time. Friends, we are to give ourselves
to the witness of Jesus Christ. It is more blessed to give the
gospel than anything else. You have the greatest gift that
a man could possibly receive in this lifetime, and God says,
go and give it out. Friends, it is the mission of
a pastor to care for the church. And we must be careful for our
doctrine, our conversation, that we should not offend the weakest
of the children of God, but we should come alongside you, encourage
you, and tell you the truth. Faithful, Solomon said, are the
wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. We must warn you, remind you,
and tell you the truth, even when it hurts your hearts. And
I'll tell you this, when it hurts your hearts, it hurts mine. It
hurts mine. We must give ourselves and live
in front of you as examples. We must care by preaching Christ
to you. I hope the Lord will bless this
to your hearts.