too quickly. Depends on what
we're going through. First Timothy chapter four, starting in verse one. Now the spirit expressly says
that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting
themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. through
the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid
marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to
be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know
the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing is
to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is
made holy by the word of God and prayer. If you put these
things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Jesus
Christ, being trained in the words of the faith and of the
good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent,
silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness.
For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of
value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life
and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and
deserving of full acceptance. For to this end, we work and
strive because we have our hope set on the living God, who is
the savior of all, especially of those who believe. I'm going
to specifically be dealing with verses six, seven and eight this
morning. As Paul in this, I think there are 43 or 44 imperatives
in this letter. That's commands or instructions
that are given to the church or excuse me, that are given
to the elder of the church of Ephesus in order that he might
know himself and then instruct the church therein. And when
you think about this type of writing, it's one of the reasons
why we believe the word of God is sufficient and therefore it
should be taught verse by verse as well as read and heard and
understood is because it is very easy as an elder to listen to
the instructions of the Bible and say, hmm, I don't think I
really am doing that well. Let me skip that and just go
to the next thing. never been there and the greatest day and the
greatest act of obedience that we could all muster individually,
it is still not sufficient for righteousness, except that it
is done by faith in Jesus Christ. It doesn't count toward our righteousness. It is Christ's righteousness
given to us. and so when we see that the elders are to do certain
things they will do them at the best of God's grace I talked about the qualifications
of elders and deacons and things that are going to be authoritative
over the body of Christ. He is now going to give Timothy
some instruction, and then he's going to talk about how the men
and the women and the children and the body of Christ are supposed
to act and behave. After all, that is the reason
for this letter and the occasion of false teaching causing division. He's saying you need to behave
rightly. You need to act accordingly. operate in a system of order
and here is how you do it and you do not depart from this whatsoever
and Paul is perfect in the way he illustrates these things,
perfect in the way he argues these things. As we see in Ephesians
chapter 4, we see that God gave gifts to the church, right? He
gave the teachers and the apostles and the prophets and the pastors
and those who teach and labor in study and prayer and oversight
and interest and investment in the lives of the church so that
they would, to the praise of the glory of Christ, would work
to the joy of the saints, to try to understand and admonish
and teach and learn and live and then expose that to the body
of Christ so that we might all walk together with contentment
because of the gospel. So Sundays are not a time of
us to just come get our spiritual kicks on. They have a very practical
reality. They have very pragmatic opportunity. We are here to learn things that
are highly spiritual that we may live things for the sake
of those spiritual things. And I'll say this later as I
close this sermon out, but any man who serves the church, who
neglects either the truth of the gospel or the truth of the
life of the Christian is neglecting Christ and rejecting the doctrines
of Christ. And though there may be times
that I will emphasize, almost to the point where it feels as
though it is antinomian, it doesn't matter what we do or where we
are, that's okay to emphasize strongly certain things that
are important. But if after six to eight months I haven't gotten
to the next section to where then the what fours, their fours,
and now get twos, then I'm negligent. The same way would be that if
I sat around here and all I ever preached is what we should do
and what we shouldn't do and how we should live and how we
shouldn't live, and then I've made 45 minutes of every hour
sermon segues into my own pet peeves of how I think you ought
to look, act, and smell. against the context of the scripture,
and then neglect the reality of the sovereign grace of God,
free the gospel of Christ, then I'm negligent. I'm negligent. See, good servants, as we think
about this, are gifts to the church. Jesus gave gifts to the
church. And these gifts are to be enjoyed,
not ignored, just like marriage and food. These people, these
false teachers, they emphasize something that is not correct
about Christ's redemptive work or Christ's person. They emphasize
something that is not correct about the application or the
command of God through the scriptures, through the apostles. And then
what happens is they put an undue burden on the body of Christ
and everybody is in a state of fear and frustration and hopelessness
and despair and then aggression. And then what happens when we
get fearful? We get aggressive from trying to put, We're trying
to maintain some sense of order that's outside the boundaries
of what God's Word tells us for our peace. Yeah, we're to enjoy,
we're to enjoy the teaching of the Word of God, we're to enjoy
the praying to God, we're to enjoy the worship of God. We're
not to come in here downtrodden and diseased in our spirit. We
may come in that way, but when we engage in the right worship
of God in spirit and in truth for the Father of light who loves
us in such a way that he proves his love for us in the example
and in the reality and the efficacy of Jesus Christ being sent to
earth through the Virgin Mary and living a life of absolute,
complete submission to the will of God the Father in great righteousness
in his humanity dying on the cross as a substitute for the
elect of God, and then being raised to dead, showing that
he was not indeed a sinner. And he waits for us. Why is that
an opportunity for despair? It's not. It's only despair when
the men teaching the church are misapplying the Bible. It's only
despair when wolves and snakes and dogs and goats come into
the body of Christ under the guise of sheep and say, I want
to make sure everybody here is unfettered to the hope of Christ
in such a way that they're worried about their salvation. For only
when you worry about your salvation is it the Spirit of God. That's
hogwash. What does that even mean? It's
nonsense. It's not good. It's not clean. It's not positive. We aren't
to sit here and labor over and over again as to whether or not
we are in the faith. We are to be secure that we have
been placed in the faith by the promises of God. Because one
side evaluates what God has done in us, and therefore it is looking
to us. The other side evaluates what
God has done for us through Jesus Christ. There is only assurance
in one of those, and that is the second. But now we see in
1 John that there is a good and prudent and beneficial way of
staying disciplined, as we'll talk about in a moment. And in
that discipline, it does eliminate the constant evaluation of things,
the constant fear of things. And beloved, there are promises
that God has given us in the New Testament for His church
that if we do not follow the discipline required for those
conditions to be met, the promises will not be ours. Guess what?
You will not get the ministry of the elders of the church if
you are not in the fellowship of the church on Sunday mornings.
You're neglecting God's promises to you. Also, when other people
pray for you, you are hindering your own prayers by not being
in fellowship. But if you don't want the promises
of God, that's fine. But don't point fingers at the body of
Christ and say, they're not there for me. That is going to start
getting some of my fury. And my fury looks pretty light.
Shame, shame, shame. You know. But these servants, myself included,
I'm just a slave of Christ to do what I've been called to do
without escape. I'm to be a gift to you. The
elders of this church are to be a gift to you. The church
is a gift to itself. We are to be enjoyed, not ignored,
not neglected, just like other things that we've talked about
already, marriage and food and other things. Thus, the good teachers
must put good gifts before the church in oversight. As an elder,
we must put good gifts before you, including instructions on
matters that are practical as well as theological. Now recently
someone's asked me, can you really define that? I'll work on those
as the months come out. But you know the point. There's
a difference in learning the doctrine of God theologically
and the ether of it all, just saying, have the knowledge of
this divine stuff versus the application of this divine stuff.
The therefore, the what good is it now, so what? Okay, Jesus
Christ is God in the flesh, so what? Just because you know that
doesn't give you any ticket into any type of divine favor. The demons know that. They have
not been granted to rest in the sufficiency of Christ's death
because it was not for them. Never forget, beloved, that there
were only room for eight human beings on the ark. Yet the call
to the masses for a hundred years was, you better get on the boat. So Paul is telling the elders,
if you put these things, it's not a condition. It's just basically
saying you put these things before the brother. Verse six of first
Timothy four, put these things before the brothers. If you do
that, you'll be a good servant of Jesus Christ. So let's talk
about that first. I know for me, when I look at second Timothy
chapter three, and when I see what I need and for my training,
it is the scripture. It is the Word of God. The Word
of God is sufficient for my understanding. The Word of God is sufficient
for my oversight. The Word of God is sufficient for my teaching.
The Word of God is sufficient for my correction. The Word of
God is sufficient for everything that I need to do as the call
of God on my life for the church. So therefore, anything that I
add to the Bible is superfluous, and if it doesn't point me back
to the scripture, it's honestly getting in the way. It's getting in the
way. Not that we can't enjoy the knowledge
of other people, But beloved, it's not our knowledge if we're
just absorbing that which someone else has studied for. It's just
copy-paste. And it may be true, and it may
be accurate, and God the Spirit will use it for your good, but
it's not going to carry me there, and sometimes the church can
be more mature than its elders when they neglect the Bible. Submit these things before the
brothers. Now I want to make an emphasis that a lot of people
would ignore here. Commentators would ignore it. Other people
would ignore it. People would emphasize the preaching
of the Word of God, which is obviously in view here, but more
specifically, the preaching of that which Paul has already talked
about, Timothy, and that which will continue in the end of the
letter with 40, I think it's 43 commands given to Timothy
in order that the people of God may have instruction on how to
live an orderly life. Remember, that's why the letter
was written, to live an orderly life in the midst of false teaching,
to answer the call and the charge of refuting false teaching through
the positive doctrinal teaching of the Word of God for the sake
of the joy of God's people. And so here we see this emphasis
on brothers. And of course, that's a plural
word used in the context of the word siblings. So it includes
sisters, like the word they. So plural
or singular, but the word brothers and sisters put these things
before the siblings, put these things before the congregation,
put these things before. But Paul uses the word brothers
to emphasize the intimacy of the congregation. We're not just
sitting in seats together. We don't just have a membership
covenant that we're all just saying, okay, we agree. And then
we're part of the role here as an institution. We're not an
institution. We're a family. And so we're here as a family,
and Paul is saying to Timothy, put this before the intimate
family. Put this before the brothers and sisters. This is a familial
bond that comes only through the gospel of Christ by the Spirit
of God. And it is greater than the blood
of family. And that's strong. Some people say, well, I've never
really experienced that. It's because of the lack of discipline,
of being intimate, And the lack, sometimes, of confidence that
God's promises are sufficient through that discipline. Why? Because there's no worse place,
there's no darker place than I've ever had pain than the church. I've never been hurt more in
my life than the church. And I have been beat up physically
by groups of people three times. Stomped and kicked and thrown.
And beloved, that ain't nothing. compared to what a brother or
sister can do to you in the name of Christ. Brothers, put these things before
the siblings of Christ. Intimate reality of a confessed
hope. Faith in Jesus Christ to the praise of His glory. This
is who the church is. This is not a flippant term.
We do not get to decide who is and who is not a brother outside
of the biblical instruction therein. To do so makes one God. I'm gonna
say that again. We have people come into the
church, oh, that's not a brother. Oh, not a brother. They are God
by profession. I'm gonna say it a third time. Anyone who tells you someone
else is not a brother because they've determined outside the
biblical parameters of commands that this person is not a brother
or sister, That is Jesus. Bow down to him and lick his
feet, wash his hair, worship him, put him up on a pedestal
and praise him as God because only God can say those things.
Emphasis taken. The devil speaks that lie. Have nothing to do with those
people ever. Where do you get that, Timothy?
It's told to that, and Titus also. Brothers, the body of Christ
is the local assembly of those who confess to be found in Christ
by faith in His finished work. Every iteration therein that
comes along like, circumcision, wait a minute, you forgot about
circumcision, Galatia. There are people who would suppose
that anyone who took circumcision in the region of Galatia were
reprobate. Those people that think that are God also. Wow,
there are so many gods, I don't know who to pick. Have nothing
to do with them. Nothing to do with them. Let
that cult be their own thing. And don't take my word for it,
read the scripture. Those who confess to be found
in Christ by faith and has finished work are to be considered our
siblings in Christ. And as we grow and understand
and learn. Now, you notice what I didn't
say there. You believe anything you want to believe. And I come
and you say, you know, that squirrel over there sort of. And I think God's
showing me that he loves me through that squirrel. I believe I'm
a Christian. That's come on now. The same
thing is true that if I tell you, and if you hold your finger
in your ear, and you stick your other finger in your nose, and
you put your right leg out, and you do the hokey pokey, and you do the
teapot and pour yourself out, that you'll be saved. Well, I
know Johnny, he came in for the teapot salvation, but all in
all, he really trusted in Jesus. Folks, listen, the proclamation
of the gospel of Jesus Christ in part or in full, in any part,
in John chapter four, in John chapter one, God the
Holy Spirit, through the hearing of the first 18 verses of John's
Gospel, will, at his pleasure, as he sees fit, call someone
to rest in the sufficiency of the work of Christ, not even
having a complete knowledge of what justification, election,
or redemption is. It is a work of God and it blows
where he wishes. Anyone who suggests anything
different is either speaking across or against you or talking
somewhere else, or they themselves are God. We can only use that which is
given to us in the Bible in its context, and most importantly,
we need to listen to the narrative of the New Testament and the
instruction of the New Testament in our evangelism and our understanding
of the divine work of God and salvation, which most people
think that means regeneration, being born again to the knowledge
of Christ. No, false gospels do not save,
beloved. But God, the light of Christ,
is greater than the darkness of false gospels. And we're in
the business of making disciples and that those who come in to
profess to us that they are in Christ, we take it to their word.
And when they come and hold to the values and the doctrines
that we hold to as a people, then we take them at their word.
And when something comes up and they start to think about other
things, We correct them patiently because that's what we're supposed
to do and not any time are we to say then anything except hallelujah,
praise God for your grace because you have shown this brother the
truth. The greatest idol in the United
States of America's church and in the sovereign grace circles
of that type of theology is the salvation of experience and neo-gnostic
knowledge. Hot diggity-jig, I read Calvin,
now I'm a Christian. Hot diggity-jig, I understood
election, now I'm a Christian. Is election the gospel? Yes,
it's good news too. Is justification the gospel?
Yes. Is faith the gospel? Yeah, it's all part of the good
report of Jesus Christ. It is His work. We put it before the brothers.
You see what I'm getting at, right? Nowhere in any of this
has Paul said, we got to put it before the goats. They put it before the brothers.
The goats will be determined by the what? By the judgment
seat of Christ. But we'll treat goaty people
as goaty until they act like sheep. Only instruction to the truth
and correction thereto are grounds for exclusion. if someone refuses
correction. What was Paul's correction to
the false teachers? Command them to stop talking. Hallelujah. Who's hurting anybody
believing something in their head? Not a soul. If I poured
out my poetic stupidity over the edge of this pulpit, your
heads would blow up. Things that I've pondered, considered.
I've got journals when I'm 14, 15 years old of things that I've
considered. Some of them are spot on. Some
of them are stupid. Some of them are scary. I mean, my journals over the
last six months, I haven't even been talking about doctrinal
stuff in my journals. I've been opining about all the
bad things that's happened to me. Hallmark's looking at it. But I'm not a woman, so they're
not going to buy it. Into the Hallmark channel, all the bad
things. So instruction to the truth,
correction to the truth. You made a mistake. You're thinking
wrongly. Where did you get that doctrine? Oh, you came in here
to teach that stuff? No, sir. You know what else is false doctrine?
Meddling in the salvation of the people who Christ have died
for. It's not evangelism. to come in and uproot hope. It's
Satanism. It's humanism. Same thing, by
the way. Did God say? We are unable to declare somebody
lost if they consider different doctrines or lose sight of different
doctrines or are troubled by certain doctrines. We further
are unable to insist on any aspect of what must be declared or understood
in any cognitive way in comparison to the truth or
something that's false. We can't say, well, we know that
person's saved because now they know this is a lie. Beloved,
the lie doesn't save. You don't have to know what malnourishment
is to starve to death. You don't have to know what starvation
is to want to eat. I'm done with this. I'm done
with the conversation. Remember I talked about as I
started, there are things in here that are like, I don't want to teach this
because I have not been doing them. This is the sermon. This
is a slap in my face. Because I've entertained in the
name of patience, stupid stuff. Because the only thing that I
knew to do was to make waves. I don't have to make waves. I
can say, no, we're not doing that. I want the chocolate. You're going to bed early. You're
going to the penitentiary. We don't have to permit fit pitching in the church. No one has that
right. No one has the right to be angry.
No one has the right to be upset. We all have the right to go to
hell by the wrath and the justice of God. But in his mercy, he
has given that wrath to Jesus. So we're the recipients of grace.
And because of that, I have to put these things before you,
brothers and sisters. And I'm not going to be troubled by people
who are troubled, people who are weak, people who are angry,
people who are fearful. but we can instruct them in the
ways of Christ and that the ways of Christ are sufficient to give
them hope that God is sovereign in the reconciliation of these
things, they should not be considered our siblings because they do
not behave appropriately. The brothers and sisters are
only subject to the Lord's instruction, not the cultural ways of doing
things. The Lord's instruction in all manners, not culture and
certainly not cults. You know, all cults think they're
right. The difference maker is that
cults control people's behavior through fear and intimidation.
Cults control people's behavior through constant oppression.
Cults control people's behavior by fear of not being what you
think others think you should be. And oh boy, now you know
why I have called for 10 years the evangelical church, the evangelical
cult in some instances. It's not a broad brush, it's
just a statement. I can't count on all my ten toes
and fingers the number of dear brothers who have left the faith
because of their experiences in the evangelical cult. So the elders are charged with
submitting both true doctrine and true correction therein to
the brothers and sisters, thus making the case that true brothers
are certainly in view here when it comes to heresy. You'll see how long it takes
me to get to a point. To think otherwise is absurd and has no
ground in reality. I don't understand how people
can't comprehend it, except that maybe they are part of the delusion
that God speaks of through Paul in 2 Thessalonians. Believing
the lies, not always the false gospel. Believing the lies, also
not to believe the sovereignty of God and His promises. Period. These things. So put these things
before the brothers. What is these things? Well, Christ
supremacy. So go to chapter three, verse
15. What does it say there? If I delay, you may know how
one ought to behave. which is the church of the living
God, the pillar and the buster of the truth, how we ought to
behave. Christ died for the church. We aren't the arbiters of purifying
the church. Christ is. We are the overseers of keeping
the church focused and organized and the body of Christ must be
at peace. and those who refuse to be at
peace with the promises of God have to do something else because
you can't play here if you're pitching a fit. Isn't that Paul's
instruction? Could you imagine? I used to think that social media
was the most evil device, use of the enemy. Generation before
me and before them, television. Then the radio, and before that,
the bicycle. The evangelical church rose up
hard against the manufacture of the bicycle. I'm not lying,
look it up. This is the kind of stupid stuff
I waste my time on. I read two hours about the hatred of the
bicycle, because they knew that if young men could get faster
to another village with young women, the whole world would
go to hell in her handbasket. And the handbasket was on the
front of the bike. I mean, it was already a kit made in hell. You get the point. The light overcomes the darkness. And that's
our hope. And nothing can stop the gospel. And nothing can stop God from
doing what he's going to do in the midst of his people. And it doesn't matter what other
people think about you, beloved. It doesn't matter what other
people think about your thoughts. What matters is that God has
seen you before the foundation of the world. And the incarnation of Christ,
the crucifixion of Christ and the imputation of his righteousness
to you. So put these things before the
brothers, the supremacy of Christ, the order of the church. The
distortions of things that should not be, like chapter four, verses
one through three. People saying what they should
and shouldn't do and holding over the heads of the body things
that cause them to think they're sinful. So Timothy is charged with keeping
these things clear and positive. And in doing so, he's a good servant. A good servant. I get hot and
I start to cough. Anyway, he's a good servant.
A servant of the Lord. Isn't that what we all want to
be? Some of us think we're a good
servant by causing waves. We call those waves love. We
call that love truth. We call that truth rocking the
boat because, you know, Jesus doesn't compromise when he loved,
he was honest. But you're ignorant, you see?
And you're mean. And truth is never ignorant,
and truth is never mean, neither is love. And honestly, wisdom
knows its place and knows its business, doesn't it? And salvation
is of the Lord, and purifying the church is of the Lord, and
God has given that task to the elders only. Period. And when the elders look at the
Bible and they hear something that comes along and there's
things going on in the church personally or either corporately
and the elders hear those things and the elders go right to the
Bible and pull out the whole context of the New Testament
letters and say, we must do it this way. Then you get to be
quiet and watch God work in his time. And the results are none
of your business. And if you want it to be your
business, Jesus, then take it somewhere else. You see? Because do you want
people digging into your mess? Do you want people coming to
get the specks out of your eyes? Do you want people to come and
start influencing your thoughts and worse, your joy? When you
go to bed at night and you're trying to pray, is it a prayer
of praise or is it fear? Is it frustration? Is it hope?
This is not of God the Spirit. Ever in the history of the world,
even in the Garden of Eden, has God the Spirit caused trepidation
when focusing on the gospel of grace? Well, fear the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. That's a pretext and it's devoid
grace. Be a good servant. I won't tell
you who said this about this particular text right here, but
it was A quote I read this week, I thought it was interesting.
A golden testimony, eminently capable of comforting us. It
ties together everything that Paul teaches in this letter.
You see that? That's the whole point. As a
pastor, I read this letter and I'm thinking, this is the point.
I'm to put this before the brothers and the sisters that they may
be comforted. But that's the antithesis of
good evangelical preaching, isn't it? Remember, I've said in the
last few weeks or months, Some of the worst compliments I've
ever received is, oh, you stepped all over my toe. You kicked my
teeth out. You knocked the wind out of me. Be a good servant
of Jesus Christ. And as an elder, it is my job
to be a good servant, to put these things before you that
your joy may be full, to the praise of your glorious grace.
Not thank you, God, that you've changed me. Thank you, God, that
I'm not like this anymore. Those are not thankful prayers. Those are arrogant blindnesses. Oh God, thank you for propitiating
for me. Thank you for satisfying your
wrath for me. See, that's the declaration of
a gospel servant. Being a good servant of Jesus
Christ as an elder means to serve the Lord by doing what he asks. The Lord asks the elder Timothy
in the midst of great conflict, division, false teaching, and
baloney, to just put the teachings, the positive instruction of order
and righteousness before the church. So if I'm to be a good
faithful servant, if Brother Trey is good to be a good faithful
servant, Brother Jesse is to be a good faithful servant, as
elders, then we must do what the Lord asks us to do. You know,
it's very easy for us to do what we think is good, but if it's
not what the Lord has asked us to do, we're really hurting you.
And believe it or not, we're not all drinking cognac and smoking
cigars at the end of every week going, yeah, we really told the
devil where to go. I mean, you know, this is a serious
thing. Serving the Lord's people through
the teaching of the Word of God is awful and awesome. You know how those words mean
the same thing? We obey the Lord. as servants,
which means we love the brethren in the way that God instructs
us to love the brethren, not in the way culture instructs
us to love the brethren. I remember many times through
my 23 years of being in the pastorate, people have been upset with me
because I'm not a manifold being. I'm not a diverse thing that
can split myself and be in four places at once. And so sometimes
as the church is larger, And people need the pastor. The pastor
can't always be there for those needs. And nine times out of
10, they don't tell you. They just think that I'm supposed
to wake up in the morning and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, spidey
sense. Bobby's in trouble. Swim the ocean, go get him. You
got to tell somebody you need something, right? Especially
when they ask, because I ask. Oh, it's all good, pastor. I
leave. That scoundrel didn't even call me last week. I was
dying of a cold. You know what I've had to tell
people patiently? If one part of the body comes to minister
to you, the body itself is there. And when two of you are together,
the Lord Jesus Christ is there. Who do you want? Do you want
it your way or do you want it God's way? Is your joy found
in the sufficient promises of what God has promised for the
church? Or do you have in your own mind this cultural cult-like
mentality of what must be in order for it to be a perfect
church? If you need food, don't ask me to come teach a cooking
class. because you will get Subway sandwiches.
That's what I cook. Subway app, pick up, take home.
The whole marriage. Rob was out of town. Here's some
food for y'all. I'm going to Subway. That's it. I can make fried bologna and
I can boil a hot dog. Don't wanna learn anymore. If
you're hungry, I can call somebody who can get you some food, or
I can give you a Subway sandwich, or I can find somebody that can
cook if you need to learn how to cook. If your marriage is
in trouble, don't play games. Don't pretend like everything's
good. Come and say, pastor, my marriage
is in trouble, I need help. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm
gonna refer to you people, I'm gonna refer you to people who
are experts in helping you communicate. I am not. I've got the book knowledge for
it, but no longer the nerves, and it's not my calling. Had a young man reach out to
me over the last few weeks, and I made it clear, if your interest
in talking to me, he's local, if your interest in talking to
me is that you want to learn how to live as a Christian and be
submissive to the word of God in all things, I will walk with
you and teaching you what those are. Otherwise, I'm not talking
to you about anything. You know what I've heard of him?
Zilch! I love it. I don't have to disobey the Lord.
I can just say, this is what I can give you. I can make pizza
with my mind. Poof! If that's not what you
want is mind pizza, you're gonna be real hungry. The elders must serve as the
Lord has commanded, love as the Lord has instructed, and it is
to humbly submit to those who God has ordained to manage
and teach the church. We're to teach you to humbly
submit to the Lord through our teaching. And when my teaching
becomes a burden, we have to ask ourselves, what is burdensome?
And here's what it typically rolls down to. My flesh hates
that. Because if I'm asking you to
do anything outside of what God's grace has shown you, then it's
probably not prudent. Being a good servant as an elder
means that elders, the Bible teaches that elders are the,
listen to this, the sole overseers of the ministry. Paul didn't write this letter
to the church of Ephesus so that the church could get in all on
the ministry. Paul didn't write the church
these things so that everybody could do the elders work. Now
I know what some people say. Oh, there we go. These elders,
man, they're just totalitarian. Where? Bring the evidence, buddy. I'll eat it for breakfast, repent
of it with tears and tear my clothes. It's Old Testament reference. Not happening. Anyone who says
that I'm stern and mean is a liar. Because I am mean and I am selfish. And at my own fault, sometimes
not to show anyone that, I let things go too long. The elders are the ones who will
give an account to the Lord, not you, for the teaching of the
church, for the correction of the church, to do what the Bible
says to do. All those who claim Christ will
submit to Christ. and submit to the teaching therein,
because they can hear His voice according to John 10. The Spirit
of God that indwells them gives them the ears to hear, and then
the ears that hear the gracious words of our Savior through the
prophets, through the apostles, then overseeing that teaching
by the elders. Those are the ones who will hear
if you can't hear, if you don't want to hear. It says something
about you. All those in Christ will eventually
submit to the Word of God. And if they are to be considered
in the faith, they must submit to the Word of God in relation
to the benefits of the faith. Elders, in order to be a good
servant of Christ, have a lot of tasks that are not just found
in Timothy. There are other places that we
see instruction given. the letter of Hebrews, in Romans,
there's other places, everywhere that Paul wrote to the church
or James wrote to the church, there's always something in there about
what the elders ought to be doing. So there are many things that
we know elders are to do, and thus, there are many things that
elders are not to do. If it's not explicitly instructed,
then the elders should not be doing it. We do not add things to the body
or those who lead her. We do not add requirements to
the body or those who lead her. We do not impose ideals related
to the world or to social construction or society or historical things. Elders have the job of oversight
for the teaching of scripture and of the prayer to the joy
of the saints. Doctrine for life because of eternal life and training
of the body to do the work of the ministry therein. They are not to do the work within.
The elders are to work as they are equipped in the context of
ministry, but their primary role is to lay down some of those
things that they may instruct the church in those areas. But
to be the first, to be the leader shows. But I can't lead in everything. I can't do everything so you
can follow in everything. Just like you, how many of you
can sew? How many of you can cook? How many of you can build?
How many of you can paint? How many of you can play a musical
instrument? But can we all? Are we all a hand? Are we all
an eye? Are we all a toenail? Toenails are important, beloved.
Pull one up and find out. See how you limp on out of here. We can't all be everything. We're
not all the same thing. And therefore, the elders can't
be everything. But we can make sure everything
is readily available for everyone to see the difference. Oversight is given to hold accountable
the body to learning and living according to the unity and the
maturity of the household of God, to the full stature of Christ. The final emphasis that Paul
really puts on this thing is love. Everything should be done
in love. Love and patience and kindness and long-suffering and
gentleness and meekness. These are not attributes that
men in our century and our culture are praised for. But for those of you who've known
me long enough, you know I can be extremely harsh, mean, stressful. I mean, you've been around me
enough where you've not seen me exercise that, but you know me.
I've told you stories before. We can be tough, cruel, sarcastic. See, that's my biggest weapon. but nobody wants to be mild,
meek. The reason we have to be, that's
the example of Christ. The God of the universe, the
creator of all things coming into the world to lay down his
life for a people who hate him, who deny his promises, who reject
his love, who take all the good things that he gave them and
created for them and make a mockery of it. Like I've said, it wouldn't make
a good Marvel movie. I mean, at least Jesus could
have come out of the tomb and the rock could have blown the
guards away. Yes. He at least shone back up
to the high priest and, like, punched him to Jupiter. I'm alive, sucker. I pitted the
fool. The final emphasis is love, nothing
less. And love believes all things and rests in the sovereignty
of God in all things. Those who know God with their
minds know that his word is true and that his word is sufficient
in dealing with matters of the faith for the church. Those who
act outside of these promises are to be shunned. Teaching the church is the primary
function of the elder. What are we to know and then
what are we to do as a body? An elder who invests his times
in matters unrelated to this while calling it ministry is
really jumping off of a cliff. Scripture
here now says to do this, put these things before the brothers
and you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ. And then look
at this next phrase, being trained in the words of faith and of
the good doctrine that you have followed. I'll put the emphasis
on the latter part. Paul says this numerous times
in his letters. You have followed my aim. You have followed my
drive. You have followed my mission.
You had followed my behavior. You followed my attitude. You
followed my tongue. So being trained, being trained
in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you
have followed. Words of the faith and good doctrine, see, both
things are true. We learn the truth of the gospel
and the work of God divine, and we learn the truth of what we should do because
of it. One of them is our salvation, the other is an offering for
our salvation. because of our salvation, a submission
to Christ and his headship. This is why the quote lordship
type things have been so misconstrued and has become such a false gospel
in our culture. Well, we know you're not born
again because you won't do these things. Well, that's nonsense.
No, because you are a child of Christ, a child of the King,
act like it. Oh, you don't want to act like
it? Brother, I'm going to have to ask you to leave until you
act like it, brother. See how messed up we get? And both of these things, the
word of the faith and the good doctrine are contrary to blasphemous
and silly teachings, myths. If an elder is to become and
remain qualified as a servant of Christ, there's something
he must do. He must train. He must be nourished. He must feed himself that which
food, the food that leads to this nourishment, that leads
to this practice. In martial arts, there are certain
exercises that you need to do in order to maintain the ability
to do certain things in the forms. In firearm training, there are
things that you must do physically to always make sure that your
muscle memory works. If you do them wrongly, practice
makes permanent, and wrong practice makes wrong permanent application. So the minister who neglects
the scripture, who neglects the study of the word, His muscles
go down, his spiritual life goes down, his spiritual stamina starts
to wane and he atrophies. And when the church demands he
does everything but that which God has commanded him to, then
they wonder why he can't move. They wonder why the elders are
not functioning. But the elder doesn't submit
to the body except according to the scripture. Just like the
body doesn't submit to the elders except according to scripture. So what does it mean? It means
to be trained that my goals and desires and the outcomes thereof
need to have a purpose. What does Paul look at it? He
says, rather train yourself in godliness. And he gives the example,
for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of
value in every way. Why? Because it holds a promise
for not just this life, but the life hereafter. It's like my
grandmother used to always say, where is the eternal value in
that? What is the eternal value in that? Thought, in this problem,
in this thinking or in this object, in this plan. So the elder must work with the
same zeal and eagerness and discipline and purpose and the spiritual
things of his calling, just like he will eat correctly or exercise
in order to be healthy. And for those of you who have
never really done a competitive sport, you may not understand this,
but Paul is relating to someone, an athlete, who's a competitive
person. And you just can't go, you know,
do two or three curls a month and be able to throw a baseball. You can't, you know, take out
the trash every Friday and then say you're gonna be a world-class
bodybuilder. You can't eat tofu and rice two
days a week and say you're going to be a wrestler, unless you
eat a lot of it. I mean, you have to practice. You have to do things that will
condition your body to stay at its peak performance. And some of you who lift, you
know, man, you can be like, oh my gosh, personal best, I just
squatted a trailer full of melons. I just picked up the gym, shook
it all to one corner. Everybody's like, what's up?
Tomorrow I can't get out of the bed. The next day I go to pick
up something I can't, what happened? I ate that candy bar last night
before I went to bed. My macronutrients have screwed up my chemistry
and now I can't compete. It happens. For me, when it's
biking or fighting or rowing or any of those things, I can
go forever and never stop and it's like stamina, stamina, stamina.
When I stop, I bonk and I'm done. I pass out, I fall on the floor,
I wake up on a stretcher every single time. Hey, we need a break. No, if we break, I die. Why? Because I didn't do what was
required to make sure I had the fuel to make it to the peak. As elders, we must continue to
eat and nourish ourselves to have the fuel to make it. The truth of what God is saying
in Revelation regarding the gospel of power and the life of his
people, the elder must be dedicated to the work for which he is called,
which is one reason why the body that receives his labor must
support his household. Because the opposite of that
is being misled, isn't it? Think about this for a second.
Being misled. Do not be misled. Do not think that you're supposed
to chase after these things. Do not chase, do not think that
the leaving the 99 and going after the one is chasing after
nonsense. Myths and silly debates and arguments
over doctrine. Was there never a time to argue
over doctrine? No. We can learn it and we can discuss
it, but we don't debate it. There's no one called of God
that does debates and say, God called me to this debate. Now,
I like them. Listen, most of my academic brothers,
they're big into this stuff, and it's great, and I appreciate
what God can do in and through it, but it's not for the church.
It's for the academy. It's for the apologist who likes
to go after the word of religion so that everybody in the world
religions. I mean, sometimes God does call some people that are
in these cults to go, wow, I never thought about that, but it's
only the word of God in the local and through the local church
that's going to grow that person into a disciple of Christ. Train yourself in godliness rather
than do these silly myths and these irreverent things. We don't
look for suspicions. We don't look through suspicious
eyes. We don't assume and live in a context of assumption. We
don't look for errors. We don't mark false teachers.
That's an elder's job in the context of the local assembly.
No one else's job. And you have to take the word
of the elders to say, hey, so-and-so that was coming in here, used
to teach classes or used to share this pulpit, has fallen off the
spiritual wagon, if you will. Don't talk to him. Stay away
from him. The elders are working to reconcile this brother. But
until he comes to a knowledge of his error, don't go and listen
to him anymore. Don't let him get your ear, because
he'll twist you. And the church has to trust that. See, that's hard to trust the
Lord, isn't it? But do you know that trusting the Lord in almost
every situation in the Old Testament and New Testament meant trusting
the people he had sent to be his messenger? Thank God the apostles are the
messengers and not James Tippens. I just get to relay. I'm the
second relay. The message can't change. The
mission can't change. The means of transmission can't
change. It's still the Word of God, right? We don't worry about false teachers.
We don't worry about them. We don't look for them. We don't
mark them. We don't worry about politics or cultural conspiracies.
The one surefire way to see someone who is absolutely not led by
the Spirit of God is when they're assumptive, suspicious, and full
of conspiracies. They have not read the Bible.
And if they have, they usually are in the prophets. They usually
are suspicious of people in the body of Christ as well. Titus, we see in Titus 3 verse
2 says, speak evil of no one. It says to avoid quarreling.
It says to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
The same thing that Paul has already told Timothy to be. Above
reproach. dedicated to his wife, sober
in mind, self-control, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not
drunk, not violent, but be gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover
of money, manages home with dignity, keeping his little children submissive,
and so on and so forth. Titus, same thing. So we are
not to deal with all these aberrant beliefs. We're not to worry about
all this stuff, all these different things and ideas and these falsehoods
and these teachings. And there may be a time that
we have to deal with it, but it's not the bread and the butter
of the church. And when we do deal with it, we deal with it
in the context of what God's word says in contrast, rather
than putting so much time and emphasis on the negative. Church, we're gonna do 25 weeks
of what it means to die and live a life of misery so that you'll
know not to do it. We'll have a candle vigil at
the end. It'll be spiritual. No, it won't. It'll be terrible.
And if you showed up for that, I would lead you in those things.
And then your heart would turn into that. And then all manner
of fruit will come from that. And it won't be the fruit of
the Spirit of God. We don't need to be looking at websites and
blogs. We don't need to be involved in polemics. We don't need to
be listening to what the Baptist Convention and the Methodist
Convention and the Presbyterian Conference and all these other
people are doing. And I know I just messed them all up because that's
not what they call them. But I don't care. I don't care. We have nothing to do with polemics.
We have nothing to do with false doctrines. We have nothing to
do with emphasizing contrasting doctrine, focusing on distinctions
not found in the immediate context of our church from the Bible. We're to have nothing to do with
forsaking the instruction of the church about life. We're
to have nothing to do with ignoring all the good teaching of the
Bible for the sake of a few doctrines that we think are more important.
We're to have nothing to do with those who refuse to stop behaving
wrongly and insist on doing these things. There's a person, Titus
3, 10 and 11, who stirs up division after warning him once and then
twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a
person is warped and sinful and he's self-condemned. See, a division
maker is the one who refuses to, listen to this, a division
maker, I wrote this down so I wouldn't misquote myself. A division maker
is one who refuses to act and obey according to the commands
of Christ. I'm going to read it again. A division maker is
one who refuses to act and obey according to the commands of
Christ. I'm not coming back to church. Then you're a division
maker. I'm not listening to you because
of that. Then you're a division maker. I'm not going to have
a meeting with that person. Then you're a division maker. I'm
not going to stop talking to my friends about that. Then you're a division
maker. A hundred percent of the time
in any things that we've ever dealt with as a congregation,
People would come and say, well, I got a problem with so-and-so.
Okay, this is how we're going to handle it. The Bible says
to do this. Well, I'm not doing that. Well, then you're the division
maker. Because what's really crazy is usually the people that
come to me about a problem, when I go to the person who is the
problem, they do exactly what I say. And it doesn't matter
because people like to be Flustered, I guess. People like to have
anxiety. People like to be bent out of
shape and be a victim, but they're actually the ones that are victimizing
the body of Christ. The division maker is the offender,
not those in error. Everybody in error in Ephesus
wasn't an offender. It was the ones who would not stop doing
that which they were commanded not to do. We live in this realm by the
authority of Christ. No man can determine a better way to handle
these issues that God has not already laid out under the oversight
of the elders of the church. So our contentment in these matters
is relative to the depths of our faith, which is relative
to the level of our discipline on the things that God has promised,
and God's promises are certain in Christ, even those that are
conditional through the means of grace. Resolution, reconciliation,
hope, peace, love, ministry. Because Christ has given his
his life, his death as a good gift to his people. We are to
be embracing the good gift of his mercy. As we live by faith
in the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. See,
we need to remember that the Gospel of Grace is about the
work of God. God the Spirit working in the hearts of His people in
order that they would rest in the person of the work of Jesus
Christ. God the Spirit who instructs His people through the teaching
of the Bible, who rests in the matters of teaching from the
Bible. God the Holy Spirit who seals and perfects His love in
His people and those in whom He dwells that they may just
not trust the story of Christ, but the sovereignty of God through
the revelation of the Word and instruction in every circumstance.
God the Spirit always declares and returns his people to the
cross of Christ. Because that is the lens to which we see everything. Being trained in godliness, then,
is a true and constant dedication to the learning and the study
of scripture for the sake of the instruction of the saints.
Somebody's even told me, well, you've been doing this so long,
you should know it all. No, I don't. I don't have under my belt the
constant application of what I taught last week. It's a struggle. Paul told Timothy to train himself,
and an elder does not learn and train and focus, he will not
be able to handle threats that come into the church. He will
succumb to his flesh, which some people is fits of rage, and others
is ghosting and just forgetting about it, letting it all run,
which is what happened in Corinth, right? I'm just not going to
deal with it. Look at all this sin. This place
is on fire. Well, I just don't look over
there. I mean, we're not going to do
either. Out of the 43 imperatives in
this letter, they all have something to do with being trained to do
something according to the gospel. Elders are part of those imperatives. And any pastor that ignores the
imperatives forsakes the doctrines of Christ, just as anyone who
ignores or maligns the gospel do likewise. We have the truth
of life and the way of life, and we also have the order of
life. And these things go together, which is the entire occasion
of the New Testament. So beloved, the promises of God that we see
in this instruction has value. And though I may be getting healthier
in this age that I am, I am not going to get younger and stronger
than my age is going to catch up with me. And though in doing
certain things and taking certain nutritional supplements and eating
certain ways can help even eliminate the effects of arthritis and
other things, I still wake up every day and I'm reminded exactly
what I am in my body. So my physical health does not
have a promise in eternity. But my spiritual health does.
And it's you. I want you to hear that, church.
Such is the elder called to invest his life in the sheep of Christ,
of which he is, so he must invest his life himself in the way of
life that he may teach others in the way of life. But it's
you. I'm not earning anything before
the Lord. I'm helping you to stand before him with confidence
because of the gospel of grace. And so when people come against
the church and come against the pastors and come against the
body and come against the brothers and sisters, they are they are
literally choking the life out of Jesus. No matter the reason. Train yourself, elders. The promises
of God are in Christ, Corinthians 120, right? For all the promises
of God find their yes, their amen, their amen in Him. That is why it is through Him
that we utter our amen to God for His glory. And it has to
do with everything. Training is not putting away
sin. As I said earlier this week to someone, that putting away
sin is, we put away sin by faith. And that first means to trust
that Christ in His death has put it away forever. That means
justice and righteousness prevail in the death of Jesus Christ
for his people. And while there are practical and wise instruction
and commands found in the New Testament, these are not means
of righteousness or salvation, but rather prudent and holy principles
for living as those who have received grace upon grace. So
in the end of all of this, we view everything that we are and
everything that we do as God's people through the lens of the
gospel. We look at it through the gospel of Christ. And then
we deal with everything that we have to deal with, everything.
There's not one thing that we have to deal with as human beings
that we can't deal with through the lens of the gospel. because
we were promised all things through the gospel. And as we know, not just here
and other places in Ephesians, we see that we have received
all things because of the gospel. So in that, beloved, we are able
to worship because of God's glorious grace, and we thank him for it
And we need to emphasize in our own hearts and minds the practice
and the discipline of praising God for what we have in Christ
rather than what we have lost or what we do not have or what
we wish we could obtain. Because when we do the latter,
we lose our joy. So think about the things that
are eternal. Think about the things that are
prudent and wise and good. And as we take the table today,
let's think about the fact that Jesus Christ gave himself for
us. Let's pray. We thank you again, Father, for
the. For your mercy. So for your power, the power
of your spirit just to give me the ability to stand here and
to teach, to to look at your word through the week, in spite
of everything else that I have to think about. That, Lord, you
are able. You are able to sustain us. Lord, I just pray that we would
all live in a manner of peace more than being frustrated and
fearful and anxious. It seems like it's just the commonplace.
It's the road upon which we walk is the road of anxiety. Lord,
help us to look to you and to your promises and to be reminded
that in comparison to what the first Christians went through,
we've got it made. And the world's problems are
not our problems. The way in which we are to handle these
things is for our own good. So Lord, teach us to be obedient
to your word. Teach us to be patient with those
who are not yet there. And Lord, teach us to be loving
to those around us who, even when we have to put them aside
until they change their lives, help us to be kind and show compassion. and we pray for ourselves and
pray for all of a church we pray for those who just forsake the
assembly 345 weeks in a row and all, we'll know what's going
on in causes us to labor and anxiety where we know one thing's
for sure they are not growing and their joy is found in other
things and not the gospel But Lord, more than a requirement,
it's a blessing. It's an obligation that is a great affection that
sometimes causes just all sorts of things in our lives. But Lord,
at the end of the day, we see the blessing of it because you
work in it through and through it for our good, and it is great.
So we praise you for how you can work in the simplest of things
to bring about your purposes and we praise you all for these
things in Christ and we pray all these things in the name
of Christ. Amen.