I'm going to go ahead and get
right into this message. We'll maybe sing a closing hymn. All
right, turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 3. Continue our studies in the book
of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 3. This is a very, very difficult
matter to deal with, but we come to this portion of Scripture
that deals with the office of a bishop. And I would not shun
it or avoid it, but I want to deal with it faithfully, as with
all the Scripture. And were it not in the line of
our study here, I might take something else. It's very difficult
to talk about one's own office. But the thing said here, In describing
a bishop, these things are true of every
God-called pastor. And I, in studying this, was
made to think of not only my own pastor but other men that
I hold in high esteem and think so highly of. And I feel far
inferior to most and come short in every area that's mentioned
here. This is the testimony of my conscience.
I can say this with the Apostle Paul. Absolutely. The testimony of my conscience
in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, or that
is not trying to impress you with my knowledge, but by the
grace of God, I have had my conversation, or that is my life, among you
and more abundantly toward you. my life in the world and more
abundantly toward you. And I can also say with the Apostle
Paul, in Hebrews 13, that we trust we have a good conscience,
that I have a good conscience toward you and willing to live
in all things honestly. In all things willing to live
honestly or do what it takes to be a good pastor to you people. Now, the things that are said
here The true bishop. Our Bible. And they're necessary. And this is God breathe. It's
under inspiration of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God's profitable. Doctrine for approved instruction.
It's vital, it's necessary, and you must ascertain. You must
ascertain if these things are true of your own pastor. I'll
leave that to your to your understanding or your
decision. Because if this is not true of
your pastor, he's not a true pastor. And it behooves you to
know this. Remember when we dealt with that
in 1 Thessalonians. Know them. Know them that labor
among you. If these things are not true,
at least in principle, He is a false one and you better find
another place to go. In a day, and this is relevant
because in a day of so much corruption, a day of so many false prophets
and false pastors and shepherds, abuse of this office, this office
has been more abused than politics. It really has. It's more dangerous. It has more far-reaching consequence,
eternal consequence. And even among some that I know,
have known, men that I have known and thought highly of, have abused
this office. It makes me want to weep now
thinking about it. But God helping me, I want to live above reproach.
I don't want to give offense in anything that the ministry
be not blamed. And nor that the gospel be diminished,
nor that this church should ever come to harm in any way. God's
dear, sweet people such as you are. Now, as I said, I had my
own pastor in mind here when I think of these things and other
men. And you judge for yourselves
if I fit the description, but I'm not talking about myself
here. You ascertain that whether this applies to me. All right,
let's look at verse one here. First Timothy three. And as I
said, this is difficult and I would not deal with it were it not
in the context. It's necessary. Now, he says
in verse one, and this is a true saying. Now, this is worth hearing. If a man desire the office of
a bishop, he desires good work. It's a good work. Now, the word
bishop here means episcopate. That's where episcopal word came
from, superintendent. Episcopal, an overseer, a pastor,
a ruling elder. And he says here, if any man
desire this office, this office of superintendent or pastor or
bishop, he desires a good work, if he desires this work. Now,
desire is necessary. And I've said so many times before
that this is not an office that a man seeks after. It's not an office to be sought
after, planned for, or even trained for. You'll not find that in
Scripture, where a man decides, I'm going into the ministry,
I'm going to be a pastor, and then he goes to school to do
so. That's not the way it's done. God said about the Apostle Paul,
he separated him from his mother's womb and called him by his grace
and sent him to preach the gospel. It's not something you plan to
do. It's not something you plan to
do. God is, the Holy Spirit is the one who separates and removes
and leads and guides. It's sad to say that too many
men have placed themselves in these positions and it's revealed
later on that they were the ones that did it. And it won't last. And the same way with missionaries,
it's the same way with all of these things. A mission board
doesn't send a man, God sends a man. And he puts within a particular
man, and we saw last week how it is a man. It is a man, is
it not? He puts within a particular man
at a particular time, God's time, when he gets ready for him. Just
like Moses, remember? Moses was 40 years old when God
called him, and He made him wait another 40 years, didn't He?
He sent him to school, all right, didn't He, Terry? But it wasn't
a seminary. Moses thought it was a cemetery,
the backside of a desert. And I'm sure he thought, what
kind of preparation is this? Well, it's good preparation.
You have to learn to wait. Forty years is a lot of waiting,
a lot of patience. And shepherding. Made him shepherd,
didn't he? Learned something about sheep.
That's good preparation, isn't it? Learn how to deal with people
who are God's people, who are called the sheep of His pasture. And God puts within a particular
man, the man of His choice, at a particular time, His time,
when God gets good and ready, not when the school says, You
graduated. At a particular time and for
a particular people. Now, that's what I like. He marries
people. He marries men with His people, a marriage of sorts.
And this desire, he says, if a man desires the office of a
bishop, this desire is not a desire to preach, per se. That is there
within every young man or even young woman that desires to get
the gospel out, to tell other people what great things the
Lord has done for him or her. Every believer has that desire,
and every believer does that. When the Lord first saves you,
you get on a soapbox at work or wherever. And you begin propounding these things. And
it's not a desire to preach. That's there. But this is a different
desire. And it's not within the heart
of every man. But God puts it within the heart of a man for
a particular people. It's called a pastor's heart
for a people. And it's much like the heart
that a husband has for his wife. Very much like it. And he won't
rest, and he won't be satisfied, nor will he be comfortable until he marries
that woman, until he's with her to stay. Because God gives that
man a heartfelt desire to minister to a particular people whom he
falls in love with. And many times, as in my case,
it's love at first sight. No divorces either. I'll not
give you a writ of divorce. Forget it. You may ask one, but
I won't. All right. Well, he says this
is a good work. This is a good work. Any man desire the office
of a bishop, he desires a good work, a good work. This is a
good work. We saw him back there in Ephesians
four, how that God gives these gifts, the gifts of men, and
I believe and I know it's true from experience. that the greatest
gift God gives to a people other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
that great shepherd of his sheep, is an under-shepherd, one to
oversee and take care of his flock, a God-called, faithful,
loving, true pastor. Now, a gospel preacher is included
in all that. He's not a faithful and a God-called
man if he's not a gospel preacher first. He may be a good socializer. And that's what churches, so-called
churches, want today more than anything. They don't care anything
about the preaching part. They want a good socializer and an
organizer and a what have you, a good visitation man. But that's not the first thing,
the first qualification. The first is a gospel preacher,
a gospel preacher, a man who majors on preaching the gospel.
But he's also a people person, and this is a noble and a high
and a glorious calling. It really is. Time will reveal
this to be the highest calling on the face of the earth. Time
will reveal it to be so. Those twelve fishermen that God
called are going to rule nations, as Scripture says. They'll be
sitting on the twelfth throne. Now, that's something, isn't
it? Twelve fishermen. Time will reveal this to be the
highest calling on the face of the earth. I'll remind you of
that. You remember that old faithful missionary years ago that spent
many years on the mission field. And he had a son who grew up
to be a missionary like him. God called him to be a missionary.
And he was very fluent in that language of the country where
they lived. And the United States of America made that man, or
contacted that young man, and asked him to be ambassador, ambassador
to that country. And the man accepted it. The
young man accepted that, which to the world was a great promotion,
wasn't it? To go from a missionary to an
ambassador of the country. But that man's father, mourned
and grieved about it. He said, My son has taken a demotion.
He's gone from being an ambassador of the king of heaven to an ambassador
of a country. And time will tell, time will
reveal this to be the highest calling on earth. And for this
reason, the responsibilities are great. And I wish more men
took it seriously and shamefully abused. shamefully be abused. Not only is a man being entrusted
with the gospel. That's a serious enough thing,
isn't it? To be entrusted with the gospel. And he's, necessities
laid upon him, he must preach it. And many men abuse that,
don't they? And go aside from preaching that
gospel. I've known many, I know them,
that it's still happening. God forbid that that should happen
here. Not only have they been trusted with the gospel, but
God entrusts them with the apples of his eye, his little children.
God forbid that they should harm those precious sheep in any way.
Now, here's the qualification that are given. Oh, my. And if any man thoughtfully reads
these verses, as well as other things, oh,
my, he'll He'll see how far short he comes,
and it will humble a man. It'll humble a man. It'll remove. This is effectual to remove much
of the pride that is within a man. Well, look at the qualifications
here. I almost wish somebody else were reading this or dealing
with it, but here it is. He says, a bishop, verse 2, a
bishop then must be blameless. It's tough right out of the box,
isn't it? Now, look over with me at 1 Thessalonians
2, just back a few pages. 1 Thessalonians 2. Now, this is not talking about
without being out without blame before God Almighty. My, my. There's none good, none righteous,
none without blame. Well, all of us are without blame
in Christ. He makes us holy and blameless, unreprovable in God's
sight. And God must do the same for
preachers He does with anybody else, make them blameless in
Christ, righteous in Christ. That's not what this is talking
about here. It's talking about blameless
before men in His office. Before being put in office, He
must exhibit a blameless a life before men. Look at it here in
1 Thessalonians 2, verses 8 through 10. The Apostle Paul said, Being
affectionately desirous of you. You know, there's that desire,
see? There's that heartfelt love and desire for the people. We
were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God
only, but our own souls. Do whatever it took. Lay down
our lives for you because you were dear unto us. Not because,
oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, I get to be a pastor. Only a fool would desire this
office for the sake of the office. Verse 9, but with a love to the
people. And you remember, brethren, our
labor and travail. Paul, evidently, was a very hardworking
man. He made tents. He studied long and hard to preach
the gospel to these people, and he made tents to support himself. Church was very poor at the time,
early church. And plus, he was trying to establish
from the outset that he was not in this thing for the money.
And he went, he bent over backwards. He went to great lengths to keep
the people from thinking that he was in this thing for the
money. Now, he could have used the authority God gave him and
the power and said, I demand that you support me. He said
that, didn't he, in 1 Corinthians 8, I believe it is, 8 and 9.
And but he didn't he said I wouldn't be chargeable. But blame was
first and I know I won't be chargeable under any of you beholding to
or. I just wouldn't be held chargeable
over anybody to think that I was doing this thing for any other
reason than my love to you and desire to preach the gospel to
you. And that's the way he said we preached on the gospel of
God. Verse 10 you're witnessing. And God. witness how wholly and
justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. And I know many men like that. Men that are faithful pastors
are the hardest working men I know, as well as they should be. And
they're blameless before men in this respect, in their lives. All right, go on. Back to the
text. More qualifications. A man must be blameless That
is, before men. Verse two, the husband of one
wife, or that is, one to time. People use this to say that a man who has been
divorced or whatever can't not be in the ministry. That's not
what they're saying. Back then, polygamy or being married to
more than one woman was very common. And Paul is saying that
a man, a true bishop, is only to be married to one woman at
a time. My, my, why would he want one?
One's hard enough. But I assure you, she's the only
wife I have. You can check around on that.
And monogamy, that's what he's talking
about here. And so he used to be the husband of one wife. And
I tell you, you know, people will let a murderer, a former
ex-con, a drunk or whatever in the pool, not a man who's been
divorced. You know? That's not what that's talking
about here. It's talking about the monogamy or being married
to one woman. All right, he must be vigilant.
Number two, he must be vigilant, or that is circumspect, or carefully
watching, a watchman is the Old Testament word for a pastor,
a watchman, carefully watching in all things and areas of life. Go on. He must be sober, sober,
or that is serious minded, not clowned. And this makes me want to weep.
I want you to please ask these ten. Look over there. It makes me want to grieve. It
does make me grieve. The reputation that preachers
have among the people to be the biggest cut-ups and the biggest
clowns around. That's not the way it's supposed
to be. If you see the qualification there, you should be a sober
man. You should be a serious-minded man. Look at this verse. This is very striking. Ecclesiastes
10, verse 1. Dead flies cause the ointments
of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor. In other words,
the medicine can be good medicine. It can be needful. It's just
what you need and all, but if you have dead flies in it, it
will ruin it. cause it to stink. So, look at this, so does a little
folly or a little foolishness or too much levity in him that
is in reputation for wisdom and honor. And I've known men to
be the biggest clowns outside the pulpit, and then when they
get in the pulpit, all of a sudden they turn serious. And who's going to take that
man seriously? Huh? Who's going to take him
seriously? That's not the way it's to be
done. But he's a sober man. He's serious minded. He's got
a serious office. And to let your laughter be turned
to mourning. I'd say that man does more mourning and weeping
and crying than he does laughing outside of the pulpit. Because
of the care and the weight of the church. All right, go on.
Good behavior. A man of good behavior. Modest behavior. A man on his
best behavior in public, a modest man, a meek man, a humble man,
not a brash, obnoxious fellow out in public, but a meek and
lowly man. Christ's love. All right, go
on. Given to hospitality. A man who's a lover of people.
That's his office, a pastor. He's a lover of people. He's
given to hospitality. He loves to entertain people. He loves to be around people.
People are his business. People are his life. people on
his mind, in his heart, in his thoughts all the time. A man
given to hospitality. It's sad to say, I know men,
too, that rarely, rarely entertain
the church. I just don't understand that.
I don't understand it. If people are a man's business,
it seems like he's going to be around them. And he is, given
the hospitality. The last part of verse two, Apt to teach means he's ready.
He's always ready to say something, a word in season. Always ready
to teach and always teaching. Whenever you're around him, or
at least the most part when you're around him, he's got a fit word,
a word fitly spoken. He's ready to teach, ready to
say something that is profitable, something that is edifying. Apt
to teach, ready to teach, always teaching. And his conversation
is seasoned with salt and grace. Not levity, not foolishness,
not a bunch of joking, carrying on, cutting up. All right, verse
3, and he's not given to wine. Not given to wine, not a drinker.
Not a drinker, not a drunk, not given to wine. No striker, that
is, he's not hot-tempered. Not hot-tempered, nor, now this
is so necessary, so important, he's not greedy of filthy lucre.
He's not greedy of money. He's above reproach in this area. Above reproach in this area.
And this is the fall of many a seemingly good man. Money. The love of money is the root
of all evil. And sad, sad, sad, grievous,
sad is it that men in this position become greedy, a filthy lucre. And that seems to take precedence
over the ministry. Now, ministry means servant.
Ministry means minister unto the people. Christ said, I didn't
come to be ministered unto, but to minister, didn't He? And we, our preachers, are His
minister. And Paul said in one place, he
said, it's not right that the children lay up for the parent,
but the parent the children. He's talking about pastor in
reference to the people. He does more giving than they
do. Or at least he should. He should lead in this area anyway.
You know what's contrary to greed? What's opposite of greed? Generosity. Generosity. And a bishop should
be known for it. Mine is. I'm really embarrassed
and ashamed to be talking about this in reference to myself.
It falls far short, but mine is this way. I mean, buddy, whatever
comes in this hand goes out this hand. Whatever comes in one hand, out
the other. And a preacher, a pastor, a bishop
should never be solicitous. He shouldn't have to, for one
thing. He shouldn't have to ask. That's the responsibility of
the people. But he should never be solicitous. Not in any way,
shape, form, or fashion. He should never even hint for
favor. See, God, the Holy Spirit, God
provides for that man, and God will lay it on the heart of the
people. That man should never even hint, never give the slightest
notice to the people that he's in the same for the money. Preachers
are the worst. I'm picking on preachers. It's
so. Preachers are pity players. They play on people's pity. I've
seen it. a multitude of preachers come
and go. I've seen preachers be the greatest objects of the affections
of the people only to abuse those people later on. One man in particular
I knew and respected well, he was a great preacher. A man in
the pulpit, he was unsurpassed, one of the greatest preachers
I've ever heard. And he was the greatest object
of the people's... Brother Bob alluded to that very
man in his Bible lesson last time. But the people just poured
out gifts and things to this young man, bought him cars, and
found him an apartment to live in, and furniture, gave him furniture,
and just did things, all kind of, all the time doing things
for him. And that man turned, ended up turning on the people
and accusing the pastor of being an antinomian and not preaching
good words. Not preaching good words. The people were living
their good work. He was an object of their good
work. And he left, and now is an outspoken
opponent of 13th Street Church and the pastor there and the
people there. It boggles your mind. It boggles your mind. And
I know many preachers who play on the sympathies of people,
taking advantage of them. I've known them. I've seen them.
Boy, my pastor could tell you story after story. They're the
worst. They come in and they play on the sympathies and the
pity of people, and they do it in a subtle and a tactful way.
They let the people know, people who are hardworking, who earn
just a few dollars an hour perhaps, and while they live in relative
comfort, and they hint here and there about things that they
need. I've seen this happen many times. One man in particular. that uh... every time he'd come into ashlam
uh... we and there were many men of
means there and there were men who uh... worked on automobiles
and all that and he'd let it be known that his car needed
some things very subtly very tactfully how was your trip? always fine but the car just
about didn't make it you know the tires are bald and the front
end's out of line and the motor's using oil and uh... but we made
it and god provides That snake in the grass is what
that is. You don't have to do that. God
will lead a man over there and say, look at his tires on him. You don't have to sneak up on him. I bring this out because
I want you to beware. Beware of these sort of men who
take advantage of people. Greedy of filthy lucre. That
needs to be addressed, people, because this has been abused
in our day. All right, he's not greedy, a
filthy lucre, and he's patient, long-suffering, gentle, understanding. He's not a brawler, not looking
for a fight. He's not militant. He's harmless
as a dove. That's what Christ said to the disciples, didn't
he? Wise as a serpent, but harmless as a dove. He's not covetous.
He's content with what he has and thankful for it. He knows,
like the Apostle Paul, how to abound and how to be obeyed. If you feed him a steak, he'll
be real thankful for that. If you feed him cornbread, he'll
act like it's the greatest thing in the world. Fine, both's fine. If he doesn't get anything, that's
fine, too. Verse 4, one that rules well
his own house, and all you have to do is ask his wife how he
handles himself around the house. One that has his children in
subjection with all gravity, that man's children should be
an example to other parents, to other children. Verse five,
if a man know not how to rule his own house, how's he going
to take care of the church of God and many children? Huh? Can't
handle little children, how's he going to take care of grown-ups?
All right, verse six, not a novice, or that is one newly come to
the faith, not a man who just as a recent convert, and man,
this is so prevalent, isn't it? You let a guy, you let a guy
get saved, so to speak, and exhibit, you know, he can just even say,
bless God or anything, read with any ability at all, they'll make
him a Sunday school teacher. They'll have him preaching, you
know, 18, 19, no matter how old he is, they'll put him in the
pulpits. Scripture plainly forbids that.
I'm a novice, he's to be tried. He's to be proven, isn't he?
over a period of time. He used to be recommended by
the church. That's the way the disciples were. He'd fall into the condemnation
of the devil. And this has happened more than
once. This right here is the most dangerous
place in the world to be. I'm telling you. It's the most
dangerous place in the world to be. I've seen more than one
man turn and appear to be a, tell me if I got this right,
appear to be a Dr. Jekyll. And then get him up in the pulpit,
he turns out to be a Mr. Hyde. Is that the, was Hyde the
monster? I got that mixed up. Was it? Somebody tell me. I think so.
At any rate, he appeared to be a nice, civil, meek, mild, humble,
sweet fellow, you know, out of the pulpit, get behind this piece
of wood and change. It happens. It happened. And he begins to become harsh
and lord himself over the people and think he's a little pope
after a while. And he thinks he's something
when he's nothing. You know, when God made him everything,
He gave him his mouth, gave him That's what God got mad at Moses
for, wasn't it? Huh? Moses was the meekest man
on earth. But one time, Terry, Moses stood
up and said, am I going to have to fetch you water out of that
rock again? Remember that? And he said, you ungrateful people,
I'm going to have to do this for you again, aren't I? And
he smoked a rock. And God got angry with him. He said, you're
not going into promised land now, buddy. Didn't he? You didn't
sanctify me before the people. You made it appear as if you're
the one that gave them water. You're nothing, Moses. Do you
remember where I brought you from? A backside of nowhere. A fumbling mumbling. You said
yourself you couldn't speak, and I made you everything you
are. How dare you act like you're something when you're nothing.
Act like you know something when you know nothing. You ought to
know you're going to die, buddy. Oh, I'll save you, but you're
going to die. I'm going to replace you with Joshua. A man after
my own heart. And this happens more times than
once. It's happened down through the scriptures, and it's happened
in my generation. A man becomes a usurper, and
he falls into condemnation of the devil. Pride. He begins to
be lifted up with pride, and that's what Satan uses more than
anything. Pride. Pride. God is not going to use a proud
man. He's not going to use a proud
man. I'm not saying it. I'll say it. Barbara Ross
is the one that said it. Your no good wife, Charles, said
that the reason the Lord was removing my hair off the top
of my head was to remove my pride. Well, if that's what it takes,
fine. So be it. So be it. And that may be so. Knock my
tooth out. That's right. That's right. Well, let me know, maybe Manoah's
wife talking behind that Manoah. All right, I thought you'd appreciate
that. I didn't at the time, but I do
now. All right, verse seven. He says,
verse seven, moreover, he must have a good report of them that
are without or a good reputation among others, good work record.
Good work record good character. Good well reported by people
he's worked with and been around and the church and all. Lest
he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil a life a past
life of dishonesty now that goes without saying is before it's
not it's after the Lord saves a man and the apostle Paul was
the worst you know but after the Lord saved him he was an
example. Before but after he was an example.
But a life of dishonesty and corruption and a bad reputation
is harder to live down than anything else. And Satan will use that
to his advantage. And much like the news media
does with a politician, it'll come out somehow or another if
a man's been whatever, been unfaithful or been living a... David, when
David fell and had that great sin with Bathsheba, he was finished. You know that? You look at that.
You see that in the scripture. If you'll notice, after that,
for all practical purposes, John, he was finished. God was finished
with him. You don't hear a whole lot about
him after that. And he lived in trouble and exile
and all after that. I want you to go back over to
go back over to first Timothy or first Peter I mean first Peter
chapter two I will run over these verses real fast. And I want to bring something
out of this something to bless you something for you to go away
with first Peter chapter two. First Peter two. First twenty five I would be
greatly remiss if I did not bring Christ out of this passage of
Scripture, if you didn't go away from here thinking about Christ
rather than the man. All right? He says, verse 25, You were as
sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and
bishop of your soul. We have another bishop, a greater
bishop, the archbishop. of his church. Go back now and
look at these verses in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, see
if they don't apply. Go back, go back to the text,
1 Timothy 2. If a man desire the office of
a bishop, he'd desire good work. Christ desired this, didn't he?
He said, with great desire, I've desired to eat this Passover
with you. He desired for the love of his people, he desired
to come down to them and shepherd them, a good shepherd. All right
then, here's what he's going to have to be. First, he's not
to be blameless. That's Christ, isn't it? Blameless.
Totally blameless. Husband of one wife. He's a faithful
husband, isn't he? One Lord, one faith. One husband. One church. We're the unfaithful
ones, not him. We're the adulterers and adulteresses,
not him. He married us and he'll stick
by us through thick and thin. He married a harlot, didn't he?
Husband of one wife. Vigilant. Oh, he's a watchman,
isn't he? He watches out over his church. Sober. He's serious. Oh, he was a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. Serious from day one, wasn't
he? Can you picture our Lord cutting up and cracking jokes? I bet he laughed at Peter every
now and then. But, oh, serious. Sober. He's my supreme example, buddy.
I want to be just like him. Of good behavior, how did he
behave himself before men? He said, Who convinces me of
sin? Wrongdoing. They tried to drum
up something, didn't they, John? They couldn't. Good behavior,
given the hospitality? Oh, my. He came to minister. Apt to teach? He's the great
master, isn't he? The great teacher. He said, Call
an old man master. He had one. real teacher. Not given to wine? Oh, thank
God he did eat and drink with public and sinner, but he wasn't
given to it. He wasn't drunk with it. He was drunk with the
Holy Spirit, wasn't he? Not a striker? Oh, on the contrary. He got struck. He turned the
other cheek. He bared his cheek for us. By his stripes, by us striking
him, we're healed. Not a striker. What if he struck
back? Not greedy, a filthy lucre? He
didn't do this for mercenary reasons, did he? Did Christ come
down for what he could get out of it? No, he did it for the
love that he had for his people, for his bride. Patient? Oh, he's long-suffering, isn't
he? Patient? Not a brawler? Not militant? Meek, lowly. Not
covetous? Oh, he said, I don't have any
place to lay my head. But that's all right. One that rules well
his own house. He's Lord over his house. He
rules it well, doesn't he? As a kind, tender, gentle, heavenly
father, having his children in subjection. Every one of them
are obedient children with all gravity. If a man know not how
to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of
God? He knows how, doesn't he? Not a novice. He wasn't a beginner. Oh, he had no beginning. No beginning
of days and no end. He's a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek, isn't he? He not lifted up with pride.
He said, learn of me, I'm meek and lowly. He must have a good
report, verse 7, of them that are without. The angels could
tell you about him, couldn't they? Oh my, he's a good bishop,
all right. He's got a good report of all
the heavenly hosts. Lest he fall into reproach in
the snare of the devil. And like I said before, He even
challenged the devil himself, and the devil could find nothing
in it. Nobody could. He is our faithful bishop and
our great shepherd, shepherd of his sheep, pastor of his church. And all of his under-shepherds,
all of his pastors, like God said in Ezekiel, I believe it's
Ezekiel 15, that he will give the people pastors after his
own heart. that resemble Christ in all those ways. Not perfect.
And don't ever think the man he is and have patience with
him and pray for him. But he should resemble Christ. He should resemble Christ and
operate and treat the people much like the Lord did. I'm glad I have a faithful pastor.
All right. Let's stand, and I'll just dismiss
us in prayer. Our Lord, we thank You so much
for coming down to be our bishop, our great shepherd, to lead Your
sheep. Oh, we like sheep who have gone astray, turned every
man to his own way. We thank you for condescending
to lead your black sheep and to come down to marry a woman
in harlotry. We thank you, dear Lord, our
faithful husband. Our maker is our husband. The
Lord Jesus Christ is his name. He came down to a people to marry
them and to change them, convert them, regenerate them and conform
them to his blessed image and someday receive them to himself
and take them into his Father's house. as his dearly beloved
bride. How we thank you for doing all
this for our great shepherd, our great bishop. We pray, dear
Lord, I pray that you make me such to this lovely people. And may we all esteem one another
highly, think on things of one another, and pray for one another.
God forbid that I should sin against thee, and ceasing to
pray for these my brethren, God forbid that they should sin not
only against thee, but themselves, and me, and not praying for me.
But you may help me and hold me up by your power. Lord, hold
this church up. You don't have to. The many are
falling by the wayside. We ask that you would keep us
by your power. Keep us looking to you. Keep us in love with
thee, in love with one another. Deliver us from evil men's seducers. Let me not be one of those. nor
any of these precious people. In Christ's blessed name we pray.
Amen.