First Peter chapter 5. I was
looking at that just then and I thought I remember you saying
that. First Peter 5. The elders 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, not by constraint, but willingly,
not for filthy lucre, not for money, but of a ready mind, neither
as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensembles to the flock.
And when the chief shepherds shall appear, ye shall receive
a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger,
submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time. Casting all your care upon him,
for he careth for you, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary
the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,
whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto
his eternal glory, By Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered
a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him
be glory and dominion forever and ever. By Silvanus, a faithful
brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly exhorting
and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye
stand. The churches at Babylon, elected
together with you, saluteth you, and so doeth Marcus my son, greet
you one another with a kiss of charity. Be with you all that
are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Oh, our God, the God of all grace. The God has called us under your
eternal glory. Called us to an inheritance incorruptible. fadeth not away that you've got
reserved for us to that inheritance that the saints in light are
already enjoying and rejoicing in and rejoicing in you. Lord,
we are so blessed, so blessed, so blessed. Lord, we wouldn't
know where to start to bless you and to praise you and thank
you for how you've blessed us. Lord, we get up every day and
you give us new mercies every day. You give us strength for
our day. You give us the blessed hope
in Christ our Lord. You give us your word. You give
us your promises. And Lord, none of them's ever
fail. You are indeed faithful and true. And Lord, we bless
you that you and your sovereign mercy will to save us will to
keep us, and will to carry us to glory someday. Oh, blessed
be your name. And Father, I thank you, bless
you for these saints of God who's come out. Pray, Lord, that the
gospel would be a blessing to them tonight, that they would
get food convenient for their soul, that, Lord, I'd feed the
sheep, take care of the flock, Lord, as you've charged me. And
our Father, we I ask that you would be merciful to our children,
lost, helpless, and hopeless grandchildren. And oh, blessed,
blessed Savior, cause the church to flourish, cause sinners to
be saved, cause Christ to be glorified, cause the gospel to
run well. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Come unto me and rest. I did and I do. I did and I do. 1 Peter 5 again with me. Look here with me in 1 Peter
5. 1 Peter 5. Let's look at these
first three verses together. The elders which are among you
I exhort. who am also an elder. I'm an elder, so I exhort you that are elders. And not only
am I an elder, but I'm a witness of the sufferings of Christ.
And if we are witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also
a partaker of that glory that shall be revealed, When Christ
who is our life shall appear in glory then shall we also appear
in glory with him. Then he says feed the flock of
God. You elders. You elders. Feed the flock of God which is
among you. Taking the oversight thereof.
Not by constraint. Not because somebody made you.
Not because you didn't have anything else you could do. But willingly.
Do this willingly. Don't do anything against your
will. And not for filthy lucre. Not for money, silver and gold. Paul said, I covet not any man's
apparel, any man's silver, or any man's gold. But do it of
a ready mind. Have your mind ready to do this
thing. And don't be lord. Don't be like
a lord over God's heritage. It's God's heritage. You know
that? He said the flock of God is His. And not being lord over
God's heritage. God's people. God's heritage.
You're His heritage. But being ensembles to the flock.
And I want to use that subject there. Feed the flock of God.
Feed the flock of God. If we feed the flock. If we feed
the sheep. What's the message that we're
to feed them with? I don't know. Shirley said today, she said,
I'm hungry. I need, I need fed. I need to, I need to hear a message. How many times do people say,
come and they say, I need something from the Lord. I'm hungry. I
got a spiritual hunger. So what is the message that the
sheep are to be fed? And when we talk about feeding
the flock of God, we're talking about a message that feeds them.
The word of God that feeds them. And what is, what are we to preach
to, are we to preach Christ to believers? People that are believers. And people say, well aren't there
places where Christ is not in the text? Yes, yes they are. But if you preach in the context,
in the context of anything, and you always, always preach in
the context. If we preach Christ in the context,
we'll find Christ our Lord in the context of any place that
we go. I'm reading through the book of Leviticus and law after
law after law after law after law after law. And I've seen
the law giving, I see that Christ is the end of the law, the one
who obeyed the law. And then I've seen, you know,
that what preachers are supposed to do, how that they're supposed,
what the priesthood's supposed to be and what preachers. And
then I've seen that Christ was our great high priest, our great
example. So the one who says here, Simon Peter, the one who
says, feed the flock, knows what he's talking about. You remember
when our Lord Jesus says to him, when they were sitting there,
after he had fed them there on the lake, and he says, Simon
Peter, lovest thou me? He says, yes, Lord. He said,
feed my lambs. He says, Simon, lovest thou me? Yea, Lord. Well, feed my sheep. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? Lord, thou knowest that I love
you. You know whether I do or not. He said, well, feed my sheep. So he knows what he's talking
about when he said, feed the flock of God. Because our Lord
Jesus Christ told him to do it twice and feed the lambs, the
little ones, the youngs, the babes in Christ. And that's why
he said, in one place, you know, desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. Peter's the one who said that.
And so he knows something about feeding the flock of God. And
look at the words of a wise master builder over here in 1 Corinthians
3. Look what Paul said over here,
the wise master builder. We're talking about what does
sheep need to be fed? One time a fella asked a fella,
he used to be a friend, but they said, what do you do? He said,
I dehorn goats, shear sheep, dehorn goats. That's cute, and everybody re-hauled
and laughed about it. But we're not in the dehorning
goat business, you know. You know, he said, let the tares
and the wheat grow up together. And we're certainly not in the
business of shearing the Lord's sheep. If the Lord's gonna deal
with it, you know, He knows how to take care of His sheep. All
I'm supposed to do, it says here, is feed them and feed them. If
they're fed good, things will be right. But look what He said
here in 1 Corinthians 3.10, the words of a wise master builder.
Chapter 3 and verse 10. According to the grace of God,
which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I've laid the
foundation And I've laid this foundation, and what is that
foundation? We're going to see in a minute. And another builds
on this foundation. There's no other foundation.
The foundation's been laid, and another builds on that foundation.
But let every man take heed how he builds there on that foundation. For other foundation can no man
lay than that he has laid, which is Jesus Christ. So we, the foundation
is Christ. We've got to build on that foundation.
silver and gold, or wood, hay, and stubble, one or the other.
And it's all going to be tried one of these days. But let me
tell you why we're to preach Christ to the flock and feed
the flock with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look in
Hebrews 12. Look in Hebrews 12. Because we're
told, we're told to look under the author of our faith, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we preach Christ to the flock
of God, to the sheep of God, because we're exhorted by the
scriptures to look to our Lord Jesus Christ. Look what he says
here in verse 2. One and two, we're foreseeing
we also are compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let
us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that's set
before us. Now that's the thing that we're
doing. We encompassed about with all these saints before. Looking,
looking. looking not look once and then
look away not look once and look away look once and then go on
about your business looking looking i know one time if you ever start
looking to christ ever start calling on christ you'll always
be looking to christ and always be calling on christ I mean it's
just as natural for a man who knows Christ how many times a
day do you look to Christ in your life? How many times in
a day in your life in a 24 hour day period during the night if
you wake up or during the day do you look to Christ? And call
on Him, and speak to Him, and ask for Him, and ask Him to do
things, and remember Him. How many times did I, and that's
what He said here. And He says looking unto Jesus,
why are we looking at Him for? Because He's the author of our
faith. He's the one who gave us the
faith. He bought our faith for us. Everything that our Lord
Jesus Christ gave to us. He bought it and paid for it
with His blood. He gave us the gifts of God.
Faith is a gift of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ bought
it, and then He brought it to us, and He gave it to us. This
faith, that we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us.
And then He says, look at all those encompassed with those
that's gone about us, before us. That's Hebrews chapter 11.
You look at all those people, every single one of them was
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't that right? Look what it
says in verse 24 of Hebrews 11. Just give you an illustration.
He was looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Moses, he
said, he said, if you believe Moses, you'd believe me, for
Moses wrote about me. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the sons of Pharaoh's
daughter. choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. Listen to it. Esteeming the reproach
of Christ. Christ didn't come for 2,000
more years. Esteeming the reproach of Christ. Greater riches than the treasures
in Egypt. And Abel, when he offered that
sacrifice, You know why he offered that sacrifice? He was looking
to the Lamb that one day would come and be slain. So we're seeing
we're encompassed with all these people that's gone before us
who look to the Lord. Abraham was a soldier looking
for a city whose builder and maker was God. He went up on the mountain expecting
God to raise Isaac again from the dead because he knew that
the promise was in the Messiah and in his son. And oh, listen,
and then I tell you, we look to him, he's the author of our
faith because he said in verse one here, let's lay aside ever
weight, ever weight. Oh, listen, what weight does
he reckon he's talking about? I tell you, I think the greatest,
let me ask you this, let's let me ask it by a question. What's
the greatest weight you carry with you? Is it not your fallen
nature? Is it not your all fallen nature,
your Adamic nature, that nature that Paul says, when I would
do good, evil is present with me, and what I wouldn't do, I
do. And what I would do, I don't.
I will, I get up, we get up and we say, this is what I'm going
to do today. I'm going to honor Christ this way, and we don't.
We end up doing just the opposite. We make promises and that's what
he's saying here. We have this weight, the greatest
weight we carry that is in our flesh, well it's no good thing,
our fallen nature. Oh, what a weight that is to
us. Paul said it's carrying a dead man around on his back. And oh,
then look, he says, and lay aside every weight. Oh, I'd love to
lay aside that weight, wouldn't you? One of these days, bless
his name, we will lay it aside. And then look what he said, and
the sin which do us so easily beset us. What sin easily besets
us? I thought of this today and I'm
going to give you two. I'm going to give you two and
see if you don't agree if these ain't the two sins that besets
us more than anything else. The first sin is self-righteous.
There's not one of us in this building that's not got a streak
of self-righteousness. I mean, we got a streak of it. We'll see somebody do something,
we say, oh, why did he do that? How could he have done that?
Oh, I don't think I'd have done this. I don't think I'd have
said that. I don't think I'd have went here. And that's self-righteousness. We all got a streak. And the
second sin that measly besets us is unbelief. Because when we see that self-righteousness,
we turn around and say, oh, God, how could I ever, ever think
that there's anything better about me than anybody else who
looked down on somebody and judged them? How could I possibly do
that? Oh, God. And then you realize
you're in unbelief. We're like that old fellow that
said, Lord, I believe. I do believe. Oh. Help my unbelief, help my unbelief. That's why we look so forward
to the day when our faith shall be sight. And then he says here,
lay aside the weight that so easily besets us and the sin
which does so easily beset us. And look what he says, and we
have a race. Let us run with patience, the
race said before us. We have a race to run. We have
a race to run. I've been running for years.
Run eight miles last night, yesterday afternoon. I thought, man, I
get to five, I'm gonna quit. Next thing, five, six, seven,
eight. And what it is, it's just patience, just plodding and plodding
and plodding and plodding and plodding. You get tired, you
get sweaty, you get aggravated, you get weary, you get thirsty,
but we have a race to run. And this race that we have to
run is a race, beloved, that we cannot afford to not stay
in the race. And look what he says here, run
the race with patience. What does that word patience
mean? That means persistence, perseverance. This is an active
patience. And don't mean just sit and twiddle
your thumbs. That means our Lord says in your
patience possess you your souls. That's an active patience. That
means when you're living your life and whatever's going on,
you actively, actively endure. You actively go through what
you're going through. You're actively running, but
you can't not stop. You can't stop. You just keep
on going. Look like you're marking time, but it's with patience. You just, you know, it's an active
patience. You keep on keeping on. And, oh, look at Philippians
3. I'll show you exactly what I'm
talking about in Philippians 3. Here's what he said in Philippians
3. Oh, to have to run a race with
patience. Oh, with patience. Persistence,
perseverance, and active patience. You know, in Romans 5 it says,
experience worketh patience and patience hope. That patience
he's talking about there, this work active patience in us. We actively continue on and the
patience is, is going on with what you, you know, I've got
to run this race. I've got to run it and I'm weary
so I'll slow down a little bit and I'll just take, I'll just
keep on going. But look what he said here in Hebrews, I mean,
excuse me, Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13. Brethren, oh, what
a wonderful thing to call it. That's what Bruce Crafty calls
that, brethren and sister. You know, he says, I don't have
brethren and sisters. And I love him for it. Brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, I don't
apprehend. I don't apprehend everything.
I know Christ apprehend me, but I don't apprehend all the ramifications
of it. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things are behind, Reaching forth, reaching forth, reaching
forth unto those things that are before. I press toward the
mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Oh my, that's what he's talking
about over here. Pressing, pressing on. Now look
back over here in our text with me again in Hebrews 12. Oh see, oh my. And so looking
unto Jesus, he's the author of our faith. He's the author of
our faith. He gave us this faith and then
he told us all that we're going to have to do after he gave us
this faith. And then look what else it says
in verse 2, looking unto Jesus the author, the beginner, the
beginning of our faith and the finisher of our faith. Oh my. We're looking to Christ because
he's the finisher of our faith. And when it says, when he talks
about being the finisher of our faith, that means he's going
to bring an end to it. He's going to bring an end to
it. Faith will one day receive its end. Faith will one day be
finished. And he said he's the finisher
of our faith. He's going to bring an end to it. He's going to perfect
it and bring it. It's like when he said on the
cross, he says, cried with a loud voice, it is finished. And that's
what he's going to say about our faith. It is finished. And
we know he shall perfect our faith. And why do we know he'll
perfect our faith? Because he sat down right now
at the right hand of God. That's why we know. And you know
how he got there? By the way of the cross. He went
there through a bloody cross to sit down at the right hand
of the throne of God. So if he's sitting there with
all the power and authority and he gave us this faith and the
author of this faith, don't you think that he's got the power
to finish it and bring an end to it and perfect it? And let
me tell you something. Hebrews starts with the Lord
Jesus Christ. God spake. in Son. He's the brightness of God's
glory. He's the express image of God's
person. It starts out with Christ, and
look over here in Hebrews 13, and look where it finishes at.
Starts with Christ, He's preeminent in all things. There's no angel
did he ever say set at my right hand till I make the enemy's
footstool. No other did he say I've anointed thee with oil above
the gladness of thy fellows. No other did he say thou shalt
accept of righteousness and shall reign in righteousness. Nobody
else did he say that to. So Christ starts out with the
premise. Look what he says here now in Hebrews 13 20. That's
what I'm talking about. This is what we feed the flock
with. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead,
our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through
the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in
every good work to do his will, working in you that which is
well-pleasing in his sight, listen to it now, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. God's going to do
everything in you, through you, and for you because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Huh? And shouldn't that be our
message? Shouldn't that be our message
then to the flock of God? Now look with me in Colossians
1. Let me give you another thought in Colossians 1. Verse 28. Feeding the flock of God. What
are we going to feed them? What are we going to feed them? What are we going to feed them?
Did I ever tell you all that story about that one calf I had?
I'll never tell you all that story. Years and years and years
ago, I had a little old Holstein calf. I had one. And I'd go down there every day
and feed that little Holstein calf. I'd go out down to the
barn and feed him every day. See, water's just a little old
bitty thing. And back in them days, I mean,
when we was down at the old building, and sometimes Sunday night, you'd,
boy, you'd just think, man, if anybody gonna come, anybody gonna
show up? You know, and you get to thinking, well, and about
time you was getting ready to go over to the house, three or
four show up, and then on Wednesday night, it was really scarce pickings.
For a long time, scarce pickings. Boy, I'd get discouraged. Oh,
I'd get so discouraged. And I'd say, Lord. And one day,
I was down at the barn. It was on a Wednesday. And I said, what in the world's
the use of me to even try to get something to say? There ain't
nobody going to show up anyway. And if they are, they're going
to be so tired that they ain't going to pay no attention. So
what in the world do I even need to get a message for? And I was
on my way to the barn to feed that one calf. to feed that one
calf. And just like a bolt, just like
God, wow, you think he can't get you attention? He said, oh,
I just felt condemnation and guilt all over. I said, here
I'm going to feed one calf. Faithful to feed that calf. And
Lord, if you'll forgive me, if you'll please forgive me of thinking
what I just thought. I'll never, ever, ever think
about not getting something to feed your sheep when I go to
the service. I may not feed you good, but I learned a lesson
that day that I ain't never forgot. And I ain't never come to a service
and care who was there, who wasn't there, that I didn't have to
feed something when the people was there. If I could feed one
calf, surely I could feed one sheep. That's a hard lesson to learn.
You all just don't know how hard it was. But look here at Colossians
128. Look what it said. So we preach
Christ to the sheep, to the flock of God, to warn them. Talking
about Christ here. Christ, the riches of which Christ
in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach. Warning every man,
warning every man. What is it that we want to warn
them of? Warn them that there's no other
sacrifice. How many times do we say, how many times do we
preach, there's no other sacrifice to be offered? No other sacrifice
than Christ. He's the end of all the sacrifices.
He's the final Lamb of God. He's the Passover. Christ our
sacrifice passed over. No other way to God. We warn
men, tell them over and over and over again, no other way
that you can come to God. No other way is there to approach
God than the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other righteousness
under heaven that God will accept us by that we can stand in other
than the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no
other righteousness. Don't add any part or don't add
a thread, don't add a smidgen, don't add a thought, don't add
anything to it. It's enough. Christ is enough. No other righteousness. And oh,
listen, let me tell you, there's no other obedience. You've never
obeyed God one time in your life that God would look at you and
say, that's a good thing you just did. We've never prayed a prayer,
we've never shed a tear that it didn't have sin in it.
So we got to have an obedience. And I read today in Leviticus
22, 21, it shall be perfect to be accepted. And we got to have
perfection. We got to have an obedience that
God looks at and says, that is obedient from the day you was
born to the day you die. And there ain't but one person
been like that. And we got to be identified with him. And that's
why we preach Christ one in every land. Paul was talking to the
Hebrews, and he says, you know, he said, the earth brings forth
herbs, you know, rain falls on it, brings forth herbs and food,
meat for man. And then over here is another
prodigal ground, and it's just nigh unto being cursed, and it
don't have nothing but briars and thorns, and don't bring forth
nothing. He says, listen, but I, he said,
and now he compared these two things, but he said, I'm persuaded
of this of you, I'm persuaded that better things and things that
accompany salvation are yours. I'm sure, I'm persuaded that
you have better things of salvation for you. And so we warn man,
oh my, and I'll tell you what, The more you can warn me, I'll
sit and listen to any preacher anytime. If he's telling me there
ain't but one way and warning me that there ain't but one righteousness,
one obedience, one acceptance, I'm going to sit and listen at
him. I'm going to listen to him. And
listen, I'll tell you something else now. Not only do we warn
them, but we teach all men in all wisdom that we may present
every man perfect. If you warn people and they believe
what you warn them of and there is no sacrifice, no righteousness,
no obedience, nothing else but Christ, then we present every
man perfect. Now how do you present every
man perfect? Teaching them in all wisdom. All wisdom. What wisdom? The wisdom of the
scriptures. The wisdom of what God has to
say. Huh? The wisdom that God has to say.
Teaching all men. And what does that mean? Well,
it means just the opposite of teaching carnally. Teaching naturally. Teaching reasonably. It's not
teaching men how to live right in this world. Oh, there's some
people over there at Tansy, they turn on all the televisions and
they put every one of them on some Jake Glade preacher that
just, it's awful the things that they say. Absolutely awful the
things they say. If you don't believe me, get
on Inspiration Television or get on one of them other things
and just sit and watch them for one hour. You'll be ready to
throw something at the television, but don't do it, change the channel.
Because it'll upset you. It really will. Listen, we're
not teaching men how to live right. No, no. Boy, I tell you one thing, if
I ever get saved, I'm going to show them folks how to live right.
Yeah, I know you're going to show us how to live right. If
you're living right, if you've got this standard of living right,
you're living wrong. I can tell you that right now.
And all but what we teach them is, is to teach them this is
the wisdom of the scriptures. This is the wisdom of Christ.
This is the wisdom of God. To teach them who is perfect,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that, His perfection, and
He brought into this world a perfect salvation. It's not what we do
for God, but what God does for us. And old Scott, I've heard
him say this, I don't know how many times, the best method of
teaching is repetition, repetition, repetition. Say it over and over
and over again, and here's what we say over again, Christ is
all, Christ is all, Christ is all, by Him, for Him, through
Him, because of Him, all things. Huh? You don't get tired of hearing
that, do we? And we're to learn Christ. Look
over here in Ephesians 4. We're to learn Christ. He said,
come unto me and learn of me. Learn of me. Learn of me. Look in Ephesians 4.20. We're
to learn Christ. Present every man perfect. Look
what he says, but you have not so learned Christ, Ephesians
4.20, you have not so learned Christ, if so be that you have
heard him, I heard the voice of Jesus say. If you have heard
him, and listen to this, and been taught by him, what is our
Lord gonna teach us? The truth that's in him. You can't beat that, can you?
If that's what we're to learn, well, I'll tell you what, I'm
going to set at his feet and I want to learn. I really want
to learn. And again in Colossians 2 verse
9 and 10, let me show you this. Talking about warning men and
then presenting every man perfect. Oh, listen. And you know where
perfection's at? You notice every man perfect
in Christ Jesus. You know, it's not in the church.
It's not in Calvinism. It's not even in the gospel.
It's in Christ. It's in Christ. And look what
he said here in Colossians 2.9. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And listen to it. And you are
complete in him. You know what that word complete
means? Perfect. And you are complete in him which
is the head of all principalities in God. So when you present somebody
perfect in Christ, then you go down there and find out that
you're already perfect in Christ. You're complete in Christ, complete
in Him. And now what about practical
preaching? What are we supposed to preach, teach people in practical
preaching? And I don't like the term myself.
I don't like the term, but I'm going to use it tonight. Look
in 2 Timothy chapter 4. What about, you know, we feed
the flock of God with Christ looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. We want to present every man
perfect in Christ. Warn them and teach them in wisdom. Teach them in Christ. But what
about practical preaching? What about, and practical preaching
means telling folks how to live. And I don't know, I don't know
how that works. I don't, I used to know how that,
one fellow asked us one time, said how in the world did you
all He used to preach works all the time. I said, I don't know.
I said, you know, I can't find it in the Bible now, but that's
all I used to be able to find. But I don't know how. Do you
all remember that when there was a time? That's all you seen
was works. Until you see the grace of God,
then you don't see works anymore. It's kind of strange. You know,
that's the difference between being saved and not being saved. And working to be saved and trusting
Christ who saves you. And oh, thank God, thank God,
thank God he never left me in that mess. But what about practical
teaching? Let me tell you something about
a preacher that preaches the gospel, preaches Christ. There's
three kinds of preaching that they tell us in these books and
all they do in these seminaries. There's doctrinal preaching,
there's experiential preaching, and then there's practical preaching.
Now, doctrinal preaching, If you're going to preach Christ,
you're going to preach the gospel. You've got to preach doctrine.
Doctrine means teaching. And then experience. If you're
going to preach experiential preaching, that means that you
preach what people have experienced. And that deals with their emotions,
their affections, what they've actually experienced. And then
practical preaching is the fruit of what the gospel's done for
you. Now, the man who preaches the gospel, he preaches all three
of them in every message he does. Is that not right? You did it
the other night, Gary, reading the scriptures up here. You dealt
with doctrine, you dealt with people's experience, and you
dealt with applying the scriptures and how God teaches us in the
scriptures. And so what about practical preaching?
Well, look what Paul said here to Timothy in verse 1 of chapter
4. I charge thee before God, I charge
thee therefore before God in the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
judge the quick and dead at his appearing. He's the one that's
going to be the judge. And before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ, he said, this is what I want you to know. Preach the
word, be instant in season out of season. You know what that
means? Preach no matter what's going
on. Not just no matter what's going on. whether you're struggling
to do it or whether you're just setting the woods on fire, don't
make any difference. Reprove, rebuke with all long-suffering
and doctrine. And let me tell you this, when
we're talking about preaching the Lord Jesus Christ in all
of his character, in all of his character, I charge thee before
God the Lord Jesus Christ who's going to judge us and judge us
at his appearing. That's why we preach the word,
preach the gospel. We preach the Lord Jesus Christ
in all of his character. And it causes us and constrains
us and causes us to come to want to submit to him. Submit to him. Desire him and to be like him.
How do I want to be like Christ? How do you want to be like Christ?
I think the first way I want to be like Christ is in love.
I'd love to be like Christ in love. Second thing I'd like to
be like Christ is in humility. To make myself of no reputation. Third thing I'd like to be like
Christ is, is I'd like to have compassion like our Lord Jesus
Christ. Look upon men with compassion.
Look upon them with compassion. Fourth way I'd love to be like
Christ is with some patience. Oh, do you know how patient he
was with those men and women that was around him. And another
way I'd like to be like Christ is the fifth way I'd like to
be like Christ is I'd love to be forgiving as quick as Christ
would forgive and I mean when I forgive let it just leave your
mind and never come across it again. Oh, to have the wisdom to walk
godly in this world to honor our Lord Jesus Christ. and the
reason for all this teaching and preaching. And when we talk
about practical preaching, it's talking about a relationship
we have with Christ. We're talking about spiritual
things. We're not talking about the way we dress, the way we
wear our hair. We're talking about a vital union
with Christ and being conformed to His image. Wanted to be like
him in character. But here's the long and the short
of it. Over here, Titus chapter 2 and
verse 10. Just one page over to your right.
And I'll wind this up. Oh, listen. This is why. This is why we use reason for
all teaching. And the motive is love. In verse 10, Titus 2, not puloney,
that means not just lollygagging around, stealing time, but showing
all good fidelity, all good faithfulness, and here's the reason, that they
may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Make God's doctrine
to be beautiful, to be, you know, We adorn ourselves. I put this
vest on tonight, you know, and thought, boy, that looks nice.
Riley said, boy, Papa, you're a handsome man, you know. I said,
thank you. And you know, ladies get their
jewelry down and they adorn their bodies, adorn their hair, and
adorn their, he said, let's do the doctrine of God that way.
Let's dress it up. Let's make it shiny. Let's make
it sparkle. Let's make it look like it's
dressed well. How are we going to do that?
Love for Christ, love for his gospel, love for his word. Huh? You reckon that'll work? Well, tried to feed the flock
tonight. I really did. What are we supposed
to feed them? I believe I just hit the high
spots about some of the things that we defeat one another. Oh,
what a wonderful savior is Jesus our Lord. Oh, our Father, our Father, our
Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank
you for allowing us to meet here tonight. Oh, for the gospel,
for the word of Christ. Oh, may it dwell in us richly
in all wisdom. And oh, Father, Father, we're
your children, and that's what we are. We're just children.
John called us little children. You called us children. And so, Lord, we're your children,
and we're so thankful to be your children. We want to be your
children. And so, Lord, teach us, grow
us, instruct us, and help us, please, in our lives, in our
hearts, in our thoughts, and our love and everything, help
us, oh please, to honor and bless your holy name. Oh God, help
us please, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.