Now turn in your Bibles back
to Acts chapter 20. A little background. Before we
get right into the verses, as you know, the Apostle Paul spent
a great deal of time here in this city of Ephesus, anywhere
from two to three years. And he made a lot of friends there. The gospel made a lot of friends.
And he made a lot of enemies, too. the great uproar, no small stir,
Scripture says, about his preaching. And Paul, though, was an evangelist. He was not a pastor. He was an
evangelist. He went about, the Lord used
him to establish churches, to preach the gospel in a pioneer
way. People had never heard it before. And the Lord called him
out, gathered them together. The church was formed and the
Lord brought a pastor in. In this case, I believe it was
Timothy who was the pastor of this church later. But Paul was
bound for other places. He was bound for Jerusalem. It
says there, verse 22, Now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem. Now, he knew, obviously, that
persecution awaited him and perhaps even death. and that he would
never see these people again. So needless to say, this was
a very sad time for these people. But this, I'm glad it happened because
of what was written here in Acts chapter 20. And as I said, he
wrote the book of Ephesians on his way somewhere. And I'm sure
glad he left Ephesus. I'm glad all this took place.
With a genuine concern, he calls the elders of the church to meet
him at this meeting place, Miletus, a convenient
place. He called the elders of the church.
Now, those are teachers and preachers. And some of them were those twelve
men, as you know, that the Lord gave the power of preaching the
gospel to, among others. So Paul calls them in this meeting,
and he has a genuine concern for the welfare of the Church
at Ephesus. And he begins to instruct these
elders, and this is where we left off here, verse 28. He gave his defense there, the
defense of the gospel and words of instruction from the Holy
Spirit concerning the counsel of God and all. Verse 28, he
gives these needed instructions to these teachers and preachers.
And this is to me. If this message is for anybody,
it's for me, but I believe you can use it, too. Paul says to them, take heed,
therefore, unto yourselves. The first thing Paul says to
these men is, you need to be watchful over
your own self. And the scriptures say that several
times, that he first needs to be a partaker of the gospel himself
before he can administer it to others. He said that to young
Timothy in his letter. In other words, a man needs to
know whom he has believed and be persuaded and know the truth
and be grounded and settled in it and know the gospel himself. He needs to examine himself,
see whether or not he is of the faith, and he needs to As Paul
said in another place, keep his own body in subjection, lest
in preaching to others he himself becomes a castaway. So the first
order he gives to these preachers and teachers is that they watch
over themselves and make sure that they are of the faith. They
are of the faith. And it's obvious to me from most
of the fellows I'm hearing preach on TV and the radio and so forth
in our day that they don't know the gospel from the hole in the
ground. So they sure can't teach other
people the gospel. Well, he says to these men, though,
you need to first be partakers of the gospel. You take heed
unto yourself. And if a man has any inclinations
toward the ministry, a young man or anybody, If reading 1 Timothy 3 wouldn't
dissuade him from that, all those qualifications for a minister,
that ought to do it. But I remember some required
reading for us by my pastor to us young men that studied under
him was to read a book by Charles Spurgeon entitled Preaching and
Preachers. and lectures to my students. In the first chapter,
the very first chapter, Spurgeon, I'll never forget reading that.
He took this verse here, and the first phrase in it is what
he dwelt with. Take heed therefore unto yourselves.
The title of that was A Minister's Self-Watch. And if a man still
has inclinations after reading that, because he is so convicted. If he still has those, then maybe
he's caught. But that's the first order of
business for a preacher of the gospel, that he first be a partaker
of the gospel himself. So this is written to me, that
verse there. Then he says, verse 28, Take
heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock, over the
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, and so on. Take
heed unto the flock." The flock. Whose flock? Well, chiefly, they're
God's flock. He's the shepherd. They're his
sheep. But John said, My little children,
if he's an under-shepherd, then he esteems them as his own. Paul
said, I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. I've espoused
you to one husband, and I want to present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ." So there's this real sense in which, well, a man that's
truly called by Christ to shepherd Christ's sheep, he'll have the
heart of Christ, won't he? He'll have the people and love
for those people, just like Christ does, won't he? Not to the same
degree, but he'll have it. And he should take heed unto
them. He should be concerned for them. know them, love them,
know their needs, enter into their burdens and trials and
afflictions and so forth. Now, that's easier said than
done, because most people won't let you near them. And this thing
of watching over people and so forth, he's called a watchman.
Most people do not want advice. And a good rule A man has reached
some level of maturity if he comes to the conclusion not to
give any advice unless asked for it. He has reached a level
of maturity when he realizes that. Don't give any advice unless
people ask you for it. And then, only give it from the
scriptures. Make sure it is scriptural advice. So really the only thing. that
a man can do, or the chief thing that a man can do as an overseer
and taking heed unto the flock, is this right here. Look at it
again, verse 28. Feed the church. Take heed unto yourselves and
to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseer. Now, that right there tells me that God sends his preacher,
doesn't it? The Holy Ghost hath made you
not even the church, but God sends them. That's the way it
better be, because people might get a false prophet, mightn't
they? They might get someone sent by somebody else. We want
someone sent by God's Spirit, a particular man for a particular
people with a particular message, a particular redemption. The Holy Spirit sends his preachers. That's what he said in Jeremiah
3. He said, I'll give you pastors. I'll give them to you. They don't
have to candidate. I'll send them. I'll give you
pastors after my own heart. That's comforting, isn't it?
I had one for a long time. I still have one. A man who's
after God's own heart and has a heart for the people. And I've
said so many times, there's a difference between a man who loves to preach
and a man who loves those to whom he's preaching. Big difference,
big difference. So the primary job of the pastor
or the elder teacher is this, to feed the Church of God, to
feed them and pray for them. As I said, if they don't want
your advice, then pray for them, that they'll take it. No, but
pray for the people. Pray that they will take heed
to the scriptures and all that's right and true and good. and
necessary, and to feed the church of God. Feed them. It doesn't
say feed on them, does it? That's the indictment against
false prophets in our day and in the day of Jeremiah. They were getting fat off of
the people instead of fattening them up, weren't they? They were
fleecing the sheep instead of covering them. feeding them. They were feeding off of them.
It doesn't say beat the sheep either, does it? It doesn't say
beat my sheep. Feed them. Feed them. And, you
know, this feeding is not so much fellowshipping, visiting,
counseling, entertaining and all that. There can be some feeding
in all of those situations, but that's not so much the task at
hand. The task at hand is to feed,
and what is sheep food? What is sheep food? It's the
gospel. It's God's word. It says, Now
the Lord is my shepherd, pastor. That's what shepherd means, pastor. And he maketh me to lie down
in green pasture. And he leads me beside the still
waters which restore my soul. So that's the word of God. That's
what we feed the sheep with. That's sheep food. More specifically,
Christ is that sheep food. Christ is that bread. Christ
is, as it were, the word is like an ear of corn
with husks. and to get down to the kernel.
Christ is that kernel, that grain of corn in there, isn't it? He
is that bread. He is that sweet-tasting manna
that must be gathered out of the scriptures, isn't it? Christ
is the Word. Christ is the believer bread,
bread of life, and that he is the one we feed upon and nourish,
and he nourishes our faith. And we grow strong, as Paul said
in Ephesians 6, grow strong in the Lord. to go strong in the
Lord. Jeremiah 3, he went on to say
this in Jeremiah 3, verse 15, he said, I'll give you pastors
after my own heart, which shall feed you with knowledge. He doesn't say they'll give you
a good feeling. He doesn't say they'll pump you up and inspire
you and motivate you and send you out clapping and shouting
and singing. He says they'll feed you with
knowledge, or that's the truth, isn't it? The truth. Christ said
you shall know the truth, knowledge of the truth, which shall set
you free. Free from what? Free from feelings.
Your faith's not based on feelings. Any faith based on feelings is
a fleeting faith. Feelings come, feelings go. As
Newton said, feelings are deceiving. Up one day and down the next,
right? You feel like you save one day and not the next. You
feel like you believe one day and don't know if you do the
next. Feelings come, feelings go. So your faith better not
be based on how you feel, how spiritual you feel, how saved
you feel, how good you feel about yourself. You better not ever
feel good about yourself. But your faith better be fixed.
toward the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. Your faith better
be grounded and settled on the truth. Christ said, I am the
truth. Feelings come, feelings go. Feelings
are deceiving. My faith is in the Son of God.
There is nothing else worth believing. No place else to hang your anchor
of it on the rock, or your boat is going to sink. out on shifting
sands of feeling. So a knowledge of Christ is what
the preacher endeavors to feed the people with. Understand and
know him, whom to know is to have eternal life. Grow in grace and knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So a true overseer feeds the
Church with a steady diet of Christ, a steady diet of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look at this, what it says.
This church of God is the church which he purchased with his own
blood. The church of God which he hath
purchased with his own blood. The blood of God? Is that what
it sounds like it's saying to you? That God's blood was shed? It was. If it sounds like it's
saying that, because it is. God our Savior, Paul said to
Timothy. God our Savior, Jesus Christ. God was on that cross. God was
on that cross. God, man. God and man in one. The Lord Jesus Christ is very
God of very God. This verse leaves no doubt about
that, does it? No doubt. If there's any doubt
in anybody's mind of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
ought to dispel that doubt. Jesus Christ is God. Bury God
or bury God. And it took God's blood to save
us, because it had to be holy blood,
didn't it? It couldn't be just the blood of a man. It had to
be blood without spot, without blemish. No man has ever had
that kind of blood. Every man's blood from Adam on
has been tainted with That's the reason he was born a virgin.
His blood wasn't tainted with the blood of man. And the Holy Spirit's the one
that conceived that seed in that virgin's womb. There was no seed
of man in that. But God Almighty, seed of God,
firstborn of God, the only begotten seed or son of God Almighty. So that made him without sin.
Is that important? You notice the people now don't
believe in the virgin birth of Christ? I mean some orthodox,
conservative, so-called Christians that don't believe in that anymore
because they can't explain it. Well, if Christ wasn't born of
a virgin, you're yet in your sins. Right? He couldn't put
away our sins. It took God Almighty to put away
our sins. It took sinless blood. You see, man couldn't satisfy
Man couldn't satisfy the justice of God, because man's sin is
infinite. That's to read that hell is going
to be where the worm dies. It's not. Man's sin is against
an infinite God, so his sin is infinite. Man could never pay
for his sins, but God could. He took an infinite sacrifice
to pay for an infinite sin against God, to satisfy his justice. And God couldn't die, though.
Man couldn't satisfy God's justice, but God couldn't die. So God
and man had to come together, didn't they? Isn't that the wisdom
of God Almighty? So God became a man, God to satisfy
law and justice, man to die under the penalty of the law. So a
man died, and he was the blood of God. Now, if you would like
to explain that a little further for us, that would be my case.
I can't. But spice it to say that God
is the one who shed his blood there that day. But God didn't
die. God didn't die. God is life. Now, Paul gives some parting
warnings now to these overseers. Let's go on down through here
now, and I'll quit early. Try to. Paul gives some parting warnings
to these overseers, these watchmen. He says in verse 29, I know this,
that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among
you, not sparing a flock. And oh, they sure did. Church
history records a terrible, terrible time in the history of the early
church, my, oh, my, the slaying of the church and the martyrs
and so forth. Wolves, he says, verse 30. of
your own selves men shall arise." Preachers. Remember, he was talking
to preachers, teachers, and he said, elders, and he said, of
your own selves, maybe one of you, he said. I'm talking to
you people. I'm talking, you know, in a place,
Paul says, maybe one of you preachers. And that has happened many times.
Sadly to say, some have arisen out of the ranks of preachers
as well as the people. as well as the people. It says
they speak perverse things. Why would anybody sow discord among the brethren?
Why would anybody speak perverse things or things that aren't
right? Why? Verse 30, the only one reason, to draw away disciples
after themselves. The chief purpose of a true God-called
man is to draw away disciples after Christ, isn't it? Huh? That's how you'll know a true
disciple. He wants you to know and follow
and love and be enamored with and taken with and bow to and
fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? Not him. He doesn't want you
to make him famous. He wants you to be enamored with
the Lord Jesus Christ and follow him. As I've said so many times,
John the Baptist, he had two fellas that quit following him
one day. They were following him for a
while, and John said, don't follow me, follow Christ. There's the
Lamb of God that takes away his, I can't, all I'm trying to do
is tell you about him. There he is, now you follow him. Don't
follow me. Right? And they went to following
Christ, and John said, hey, we've got revival going here. Had two
members and lost them both, and said revival is coming. Right? But the only reason a man would
do anything like this is to draw away disciples after themselves.
A man like, who is it, Diotrephes that wanted a preeminence, wanted
a place of leadership, jealous and envious of this thing. Well, Paul says, verse 31, Therefore
watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease
not to warn everyone night and day with tears. And you know,
this is a good message for me to preach. If I preach, as Richard
Baxter says, a dying man to dying men, I preach as though I may
never preach again. And if this is the last message
I ever preach, it would be a good one for me to preach. Is this
Paul's parting message to Ephesus? And if something happened to
me, this would be a good message for you to hear. I've tried to
point you to Christ, to him, and not me. And Paul has warned
them that after his departing, grievous wolves will come in.
There'd be men just chomping at the bit to come here and pastor
this church. They'd care less about you, but would want the
position of pastor. Right? Oh, man, you don't think
they would? They'd candidate by the dozens. They sure would. But you wouldn't want them. But
you'd want that man who had these qualifications. Verse 18, he says unto them,
You know from the first day I came into Asia, after what manner
I have been with you at all seasons. And he said that to Timothy in
another place. He said, You have fully known
my doctrine and my manner of life. That's the order of things,
isn't it? That's what he said down through
there. He said, I've kept back nothing profitable. I've received
of the Lord to testify, verse 24, the gospel of the grace of
God. The gospel, and there's only one, the gospel of God's
grace. That is a free, unmerited, sovereign
gift of salvation, not earned, not of works, but of grace, grace,
grace, grace, the gospel of the grace of God. There is no other.
That's the doctrine, the doctrine of God's sovereign grace. That's
the gospel. Paul said, I am ashamed to declare
that unto you, repentance toward God, faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then he says, in my manner of life, down verse
32, verse 34, he said, you know that I have worked and so forth.
Right? So that's the order. And if a
man came here preaching or whatever thing you'd need to do first
is Listen to what he's saying. What are you preaching now? What's
your message? I'm listening for Middle C. I'm
listening for Middle C, and I'm not going to be happy, and you're
not coming here unless I hear it. Unless you ring it loud and
clear, loud and clear, and then examine him personally. Alright,
verse 32, read on. And I'm not going anywhere, I'm
just saying that if something, and it could, I could walk out
to my car and somebody run over me. Could happen. Might be the last message you
hear, who knows? Verse 32, he says, Now I commend
you, he says, I have ceased not to warn everyone night and day
with tears. Now, brethren, I commend you
to God." He's talking to these preachers still, and for such
a difficult task and a weighty responsibility, this is where
they need to be commended. And this thing of commending
someone to God is really saying, I'm praying for you, praying
to God for you. I asked a brother before we entered
in here, I said, I need you to hold my hands up. I feel real
dead. feel real dead. This felt good
the first time I tried it on. It doesn't fit tonight. So I
said, hold my hands up. You be Aaron and somebody else
I hope will be her. And hold my hands up. Well, this
is what Paul is saying. I commend you to God. I'm going
to pray for you. I'm going to pray for you. God
forbid that you should sin against the Lord and cease to pray for
your preacher. If the message doesn't touch me, it's not going
to touch you, unless God overrules, unless he takes the word and
sees it, and it's not for me at all, but it's for you. But
generally it doesn't work that way. If I'm not touched, if there's
not a cold from the altar on my lips, then it's not going
to warm you. Right? And I beseech you all the time
to pray for me. Just pray for me. If you haven't
before it started, while it's going, Lord, open his lip. Did
you read that poem in the Sunday's Bulletin? Oh, that's such a good
poem. I thought, I hope somebody reads
that from the heart and means every word of it. And I understand
I'm not lifting myself up purely on that. I'm just asking you
to lift me up lest I fall down under the weight of this task.
And that's what Paul says, I commend you to God. I commend you to
God. Seek his help and his guidance
in all things. Seek his wisdom and the word
of his grace. There it is again. Do you see
why I'm going to devote a complete message to this one verse, Sunday
night? The word of his grace, which
is able, it says, read on, the word of his grace is able to
build you up. The gospel is God, the word of
his grace is the gospel, isn't it? And it's able to build you
up. It's God's power. It's the minister's
tool. It's the hearer's salvation.
It's able to build you up. The word of his grace and give
you, it's able, he is able to build you up. and to give you
an inheritance among all them that are sanctified." To give
you an inheritance. The law condemns us. The grace
of God pardons us. The law tears down and says,
You've broken, you've broken, you've broken, you've broken.
Grace builds up. In Christ, you've kept it, you've
kept it, you've kept it. The law cuts us off and says,
No part here, no part here, don't approach, don't approach. Grace
includes, says, Come near, come near, come near. That's the reason
we don't preach law here. Not without law, we're under
law to Christ. The law casts out, says, Get
out, get out, get out. Grace makes joint heirs. Come
on, you've got a part here. You can come on. Joint heirs. Partakers, partakers of the inheritance. with the saints. And Christ is
the one who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. All enter sanctified. Partakers. And we enter in like old weather. What was his name? I forget. That old saint that said he got
into heaven not on his own rights, but on the rights of another.
And we have this inheritance because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the chief heir. If we're in him, we get everything
he has coming to him. Read on. Paul says in verse 33,
I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. In other words, Paul says, I'm
not in this thing for the money. Verse 34, Yea, ye yourselves
know that these hands have ministered unto my necessity. and to them
that were with me." Paul was a hard-working man. He made tents. Do you remember when he dwelt
with Aquila and Priscilla, who were tentmakers like him? And
he dwelt with them and worked and so forth. There wasn't much
support for him, and he didn't want to appear in any sense to
be in this thing for the money. So he worked hard and helped
support himself and others. All of it was with him. He doled
out the money. And that reminds me of Brother
Bill Clark and Ken Wymer and Walter Gruger and these missionaries
in these foreign lands. They don't take money from churches
where they go and minister. That's God's man, isn't it? Look at verse 35. He said, I
have showed you all things. He said, I should not shun and
declare all the counsel of God. Now here he says that we ought
to labor to support the weak. Just turn real fast with me to
Ephesians 4. I do want you to see this. Ephesians chapter 4.
He said there, we ought to labor to support the weak. Remember
the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed
to give than to receive. This is significant, because
he writes back to them in Ephesians 4, verse 28, and he says in the
second line there, rather let him labor, working with his hands
the thing which is good, that he may have to get rich? No, to give to him that need
it. So a believer is supposed to
be a distribution center, not a savings and loans church. Supposed to be distribution,
come in one hand and out the next. And that's what he says
here. Labor to help the needy and help
to support the weak. Apparently this is one of the
most Christlike virtues of all. Isn't that what Christ did? Isn't it? That's what he did
all his life. He worked for the good of others,
didn't he? His work was not for himself,
it was for others. He laid down his life. Remember
the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it's more blessed
to give than to receive, more blessed to give than to receive. Now let's read these last verses
in closing. He said, verses 36 through 38, and when he had thus
spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with the baller, and they all
wept sore. They wept sore and fell on Paul's
neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which
he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied
him into the ship." Verse 1 of the next chapter says, in the
Amplified, it came to pass after we had gotten from them. In the
Amplified it says, after we tore ourselves away. Paul didn't want
to leave. He loved his people. And he had a destination the
Lord sent him to, and we saw that in another message, didn't
we? How Paul experienced all the
affliction and persecution and all those travels and all, so
that we can have the Bible, so that we can have the scriptures. that he went to Rome. He went
to Jerusalem and they bound him and took him to Rome. We've got
the Book of Romans. And others. See, all those prison
epistles? Think of it. That's the Lord's
good grace and wisdom in it. Well, feed the Church. That's
to me. Feed the Church, the Church of God. It's his Church, which
he hath purchased with his own blood. Feed them. I need that
counsel. If this wasn't for you, maybe
it's for me. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for every word of your blessed book. Every word is so necessary and
so true and eternal truth in it. We're not able to get it
out, yet it's there. Christ is there. We thank you,
Lord. for Christ our bread, Christ
our water, Christ who is the Word. We ask that you would continue
to feed us that steady feeding of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
asked Peter, Peter, do you love me? And then you told him, if
you do, feed my sheep. Lord, enable me to do that. And
they in turn feed one another and feed others. Bring sheep
in here, Lord, to hear your gospel. Do not exclude anyone. We would
have many to be saved and hear your word and rejoice in it and
bow at the feet of Christ and rejoice with us. It would please
us to know him if you would fill this place up with those longing
to hear the gospel. But if not, at least fill our
hearts with it. with that gospel. Fill us up
with joy that no man can take away from us. Thank you for your
gospel, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And carry us
through another week until we meet again on Sunday, your church
that you purchased, your precious wands. I pray for them as you
watch over them. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.