Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Timothy chapter five. 1 Timothy five, we'll continue
our study. through 1 Timothy. Let's read
verses 17 and 18 together. 1 Timothy 5, verse 17, it says,
let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor,
especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the
scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out
the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. We're gonna put our bifocal glasses
on and look at the physical and the spiritual application of
this. We're gonna look at both the physical application and
the spiritual application. Verse 17 says, let the elders,
Elders are pastors. Elders are men who handle the
spiritual matters of the ministry, preaching, studying, teaching,
preaching. In most congregations, there
are men who help in the role of the elder. They help in preaching
and teaching and studying. And by definition, they take
that role of being an elder. But the scripture tells us that
we are to ordain elders, and that happens when a man receives
the call of being a pastor. A full-time commission to the
ministry. A full-time commission to the
ministry. I preached for years. The Lord
had me, called me to preach for years before I received this
calling of being a pastor. But I was not ordained until
I received this calling. And all that the word ordained
means is recognized by the church, as being set apart for this work
of preaching the gospel. We recognize that that man is
to be set apart for the work of studying and preaching the
gospel. That's all it means. Verse 17
says, let the elders or the pastors that rule well, that rule well. By the wording there, we can
deduct that some don't rule well. And this is convicting to me. I realize that I may be condemning
myself and saying this, but it still needs to be said. If I
do not rule well, may God help me. May God teach me and help
us all. If I don't rule well, may God
teach me and help us all. But to rule well is to stay on
Christ. That's what it is. A pastor who
rules well is a pastor who stays on Christ. To lead well is to
lead men and women to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what
it is. To speak well, if a man is going to speak well, it is
to speak of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Liberty is irrelevant. You know, a man gets up in a
pulpit and he feels like he connected with the word and the notes and
the people and he was blessed and they were blessed and everything.
You know, I don't know if that's liberty or not, but that's what
I think it is. You know, had liberty with it.
We had liberty with it. That's irrelevant. I have to
tell myself that all the time. All the time. I'd quit if I had
to base whether or not I'm going to continue this on liberty.
It's irrelevant. Delivery is irrelevant. Some, you know, some do it of,
what did Paul say? Some of spite, some of envy,
some of goodwill is irrelevant. Delivery is irrelevant. Personality
is irrelevant. It is irrelevant. I will say
that it is better to be nice than to be a jerk. It is. It's better to be humble than
to be arrogant. It's better to be approachable
than to be unapproachable. But none of those things have
anything to do with ruling well. A man could be the kindest, sweetest,
most humble, approachable, best personality, greatest delivery
speaker you have ever heard in your life. But if he is not leading
men and women and pointing men and women to Jesus Christ and
Him crucified, he is not ruling well. To rule well is to point
men to Christ. It's to lead men and women to
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. But with that being
said, if we have received this calling, we ought to strive to
not be jerks. We really should. There is no
room for arrogance or pride in this calling. None. We're not
above anybody. We are not more special. We are
not more favored. Hold your place and go with me
over to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5 verse 1 says, the elders
or the pastors which are among you, I exhort who am also an
elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker
of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which
is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither
as being lords." And if you have the center margin in your Bible,
it says overruling. Neither as being lords over God's
heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief
shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that
fadeth not away. This calling is a call to service. That's what this is. We're just
waiters at the king's table. I think about that all the time.
God's people in Christ are made to be kings and priests. And like kings, God's people
walk in and sit down and say, where's the food? And we servants
stand up who have cooked and prepared and placed in order,
and we dish it out. And that's all we are. We are
nurses at the King's Hospital. That's all that we are. Turn
with me over to Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34. After Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations. Ezekiel 34 verse one, it says, and the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel,
the pastors. Prophesy and say unto them, thus
saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, woe be to the shepherds of Israel
that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
the flock? You eat the fat and you clothe
you with the wool. You kill them that are fed, but
you feed not the flock. You're up there, hellfire and
brimstone and judgment and all that, but you don't feed the
flock. Verse four says, the disease have you not strengthened? Neither
have you healed that which was sick. Neither have you bound
up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which
was driven away. How do we do these things? By
preaching Christ. By preaching Christ. He went
on to say, neither have you sought that which was lost, but with
force and with cruelty, you have ruled them. You've ruled them,
he said. This calling is not a calling
to drive cattle or whip goats. We pastors need to know this.
This is a calling to feed sheep. This is a calling to nurture
and comfort and strengthen God's sheep. May God give us humility
in this thing of striving to rule well. Striving to rule well. Striving to point men and women
to Christ. Go with me back to 1 Timothy
5. Verse Timothy 5, verse 17, it
says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double
honor. When you look up that word honor,
it does eventually mean, you look these words up in a concordance,
a Bible dictionary, and it'll tell you meanings and definitions
of these words. And as you read down, it does
eventually mean respect and esteem. It does mean that. But the first
meaning of it is money paid. Now, I feel great freedom to talk
about this. I feel incredible freedom to
talk about this. And here's the reason why. You
all have honored me tenfold. And you know you have. I am well
paid. If anyone wonders about me, I
am well paid and well cared for by you. So I'm gonna say this
to support what you've already done, and I'm gonna say this
to inform anyone who does not know this and hasn't yet realized
this. If anybody hears this, this is
the word on it. Verse 17 says, let the elders
that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. What's interesting
to me about this is the average person believes that The pastor
is worthy of half honor. If the average man lives on 50
a year, the average mindset is the pastor ought to be able to
get by on 25. Really? And here's what I have
to say about that. I get it. I used to think that
way. Sincerely, I honestly used to
think that way. I thought that it was best for
the pastor to be the poorest person in the group. because
I thought it would keep him humble. I thought a pastor ought to be
humble, and I thought that that would keep him humble. That is
not what keeps a man humble. A man can be lifted up in arrogance
and pride no matter what his financial status is. It takes
God Almighty to keep a man humble. It takes God Almighty to keep
a man humble. And if a pastor belongs to God,
if God did it and God put the man there and God is in charge
of it, he will keep that man humble. That's why I can't rely
on liberty in this thing. Being a person who has now experienced
this from both sides for 35 years of my life, I was a supporter
of the gospel, a supporter of the pastor, and now I'm still
a supporter of the gospel, just like the rest of us, but I'm
now a supportee also. And experiencing this from both
sides, I now realize that the opposite of what I thought is
actually the truth. Seeing how God, through all of
you, has provided and cared for me and my family, humbles me
in a way that you could never imagine. I honestly could not
be more humbled by it. It could not give me a greater
desire to study and preach. The more you care for me, the
more I have a heart to care for you. And I honestly, I could
not have a greater desire to study and preach and feed us
with spiritual food as God has fed us with physical food. And God is the one who supplies
us with spiritual food. But you know what I'm saying?
It's humbling. The outpouring of you to me is
humbling. and it produces the exact opposite
effect from what I thought it would produce. And I pray, you
all know this, you've proven it, but if anybody hears this
over the internet, I pray that God will cause all congregations
to feel this way about their pastor because It's so good. It's so of the Lord. It's so
positive. What a congregation wants and
needs is for their pastor to labor in the word and in preaching. That's what they want and that's
what they need. And if the man has to worry about
how he's going to earn a living, that's not going to happen. That's
just not going to happen. All of us are flesh, and we know
how it goes. It's just not gonna happen. If
that does not happen, if the man does not give himself to
this calling, this ministry, it won't last. If the man standing
here does not give himself, it won't last. So the wise word
of our Lord is, a pastor ought to give himself, and I'm gonna
say first, I'm speaking to myself and all
God-called pastors. Seek ye first the kingdom of
heaven and His righteousness, and all these things will be
added to you. But a pastor ought to give himself to the spiritual
feeding and care of the congregation that has been given to him. And
a congregation ought to give itself to the physical feeding
and care of the pastor that has been given to them. When that
happens, love and blessings grow in the heart for each other. It's so. Resentment and bitterness
is turned away and peace and contentment is there. I can honestly
say that's all I've experienced since I've been here. I'm so
thankful for that. Trials and troubles have come
and trials and troubles will come. But honestly, the underlying
foundation, underlying feeling that I've had since I've been
here is love and contentment. And I'm so thankful for that.
So verse 17 says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy
of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, and
this is Deuteronomy 25 verse four, thou shalt not muzzle the
ox that treadeth out the corn. While he's treading out corn,
don't put a muzzle on him so he cannot eat from it. And Luke
10 verse seven, our Lord said, the laborer is worthy of his
reward. If the ox is working, let him
eat. A laborer is worthy of his reward. Now let's stop talking
about man. I had a lot of places written
down that we could go to. First Corinthians nine is where
Paul talks about, do we not have the same ability as you to live
off of the gospel and all that stuff? But let's stop talking
about man. And let's start talking about Christ for a second. As
I look at what this is saying, I can't help but think about
the elder, the laborer, the pastor. who is also the word and the
doctrine, Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. How much
honor is he worthy of? How much honor? All honor. All praise, all glory, as much
as we could possibly imagine. Let your mind go to as much as
you could possibly imagine. Once you get there, double it. Why? It's because all the work
was His. All the work was His, all the
labor. In Isaiah 42, the Father said,
behold my laborer. my servant." We talk about men giving themselves
to the ministry. He literally gave himself. He gave himself to the work. He gave himself to the work. I just love thinking on and dwelling
on His mind in the matter, His heart in the matter, His will,
His desire. He gave Himself to the work of
the ministry. Go quickly with me to Matthew
20. Let me read a couple of scriptures to you. Matthew 20. Verse 25. It says, but Jesus called them unto
him and said, you know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise
dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority
upon them, but it shall not be so among you. He's speaking to
his disciples here. But whosoever will be great among
you, let him be your minister. and whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. Even as the son of man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. He is the minister. I minister
to you and according to the word of the Lord, you minister to
me, but he ministered to us with nothing in return. We don't minister
anything to Him. He is the minister. Look with me at John 12. Verse
23. John 12 verse 23, and Jesus answered
them saying, the hour is come that the son of man should be
glorified, headed to the cross. Barely, barely I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. He that loveth his life shall
lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto eternal life. If any man serve me, let him
follow me. And where I am, there shall also
my servant be. If any man serve me, let him
will my father honor. Now is my soul troubled, and
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. There came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
He said, this is the whole reason why I came, this right here,
to give myself to this. This is the whole reason why
I came. Look at John 17, verse one, John
17, verse one. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify
thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. Verse four, he said, I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. He said, Father, the labor is
finished. The work is finished. I finished
it. I declare it because I'm the
one who finished it. He's not just the preacher of
the message. He is the message. He's not just the preacher of
the work, He is the work. He's not just the preacher of
Christ crucified, He is Christ crucified. And what is His reward
for all of His labor in the work that His Father gave Him to do?
What is His honor? What is His payment? What will
He receive? Look with me at John 3. John 3 verse 35, the father loveth the son and
hath given all things into his hand. All things, not just double
honor, all honor, not just some things or most things, all things. He gave himself. to and for the
congregation of people that was given to Him. And therefore,
we give ourselves to Him. We ascribe all things to Him. The Father has ascribed all things
to Him, and we ascribe all things to Him. We count Him worthy of
everything, worthy of everything. I love how we just read in 1
Peter 5, it said, when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall
receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. You know what
Revelation 4 says? It says, the 4 and 20 elders,
God's kings and priests, the 4 and 20 elders fell down before
Him that sat on the throne and worshiped Him that liveth forever
and ever and cast their crowns before the throne. saying, thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for
thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are
and were created. Paul said, we're gonna receive
a crown. John said, we're gonna cast it at his feet. He alone
is worthy. We ascribe everything to him,
the one who has ruled well. Who has ruled well? We want to
talk about ruling well. Oh, how he has ruled well, reigned
and ruled well. He has done all things well. He accomplished a work that caused
us to receive, as Isaiah 40 says, double for all our sins. Double
grace, double mercy, double forgiveness. And because of that, he is worthy
of double honor, double glory, double praise. All of it goes
to the shepherd and bishop of our souls. That's what he's called.
The shepherd, the bishop of our souls. The Lord Jesus Christ,
our pastor. I'll leave you with this. I'll
make it quick. But 15, 16, I don't remember how many years ago,
Hannah and I went to Mexico to the Groovers, stayed with the
Groovers. And I wanted to see if I could understand any Spanish
in Cody's Bible. Cody Groover, our missionary,
his Bible was sitting on the coffee table. So I opened it
up and I went to Psalm 23, because I knew what that said. And verse 1 said, Jehovah es
mi pastor. The Lord is my pastor. The Lord
is my pastor. What comfort. Oh, my pastor. He rules so well. He reigns so
well. He's worthy of double honor.
He's worthy of his reward. May all reward go to him. Thank
God we honor him for everything he's done. He's worthy of it.
Amen. All right, you're dismissed.