It's a blessing to be here this
morning, to be able to come and not only handle the word of God,
but to be able to fellowship with you, to be able to see your
faces, to be able to worship our Lord and Savior with you.
I want to thank each and every one of you for coming last week.
and fellowshipping with us across for my ordination. It meant a
lot to me. Thank you for all the encouragement
that was sent my way. And I just pray that God would help me do
that which he's called me to do. Which I know he will because
he's faithful. The Lord will have us in 1 Thessalonians today,
chapter 5. I tried to search another book
to preach out of, and we'll be getting in this book in a couple
of weeks, but the Lord directed me to this book, so we're going
to spend a little bit of time here today. I look forward to
our church going through this book. To me, it's a very powerful
book. Probably when you know the context
and the people in this book whom Paul is writing to, it's probably
one of the most powerful books in the whole Bible to me when
you look at who these Christians are. I mean, Paul leaves the
church of Philippi, he plants it, and then he goes in the Thessalonica,
and he does what he always does. He goes straight to the synagogue
where he received most of the persecution, you know, like a
wild man, we would say. He goes in there and he goes
three Sabbath days and he reasons with these people through the
Old Testament, proving through prophecy that Christ was the
Messiah, that he was the true living God, that he was the one
who was promised to us, that would be what John the Baptist
would call the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
And some of the Jews come to faith, and some of the Gentiles
come to faith. And some say he might have been
there for a month or three months. But we know he was only there
for a short period of time because as anywhere Paul went to preach
the gospel, people took offense at the gospel. And because they
took offense at the gospel, the Jewish people of that day rose
up some men to help rush and want to take over Paul. And they
went to the house that Paul was staying at, which was Jason's
house in the book of Acts 17. Well, Paul and them wasn't there.
By God's grace he let him escape a beating this time. He let him
escape jail time this time. But we know Jason was locked
up and because Jason was locked up they felt like they better
rush Paul and Silas out of there. So they could escape the persecution. And you just imagine Paul's mind,
because Paul, as you read through this letter, you see that he
considers himself, like in all of his letters, to be a spiritual
father. And in one part of this letter he talks about how he
was torn away from them. as a father torn away from his
children. And you just imagine that most
of you in here who have children, if you were torn away from your
children, it would bring you great heartbreak to be torn away
from your family. And Paul saw these people as
truly being his beloved children, even though he was only with
them for three months. Only thought he knew them for about three months,
he considered them to be his beloved children. That great
agony he had, he probably wept over these people as scripture
teaches that he did. And the thing is, you just see the supernatural
work of God in these babes. These babes in Christ because
Paul loved them, they love Paul in the same way. Which is hard
to believe because we, in our day, we must spend a little bit
of time with somebody and get to know somebody before we really
start loving them. But it just shows the supernatural
work of the power of God in saving these people. In the time He
saved them, they just fell in love with each other. Just fell in
love with each other. The same spirit that lives in
them is the same spirit that lives in the church today. The
same powerful Holy Spirit that changed people's lives and caused
people to fall in love with each other is the same Holy Spirit
that lives in us today that causes us to fall in love with each
other no matter what race it is. That you got these Jews who
hated these Gentiles and they're at war with each other. They
cross the streets to get away from each other. The next thing
you know, they're in love with each other. Living together.
Eating meals together. Worshipping the one true living
God together. And it's the same spirit today
that dwells in us. That if we do not love... That's
what St. John says, that if we do not love our brothers and
our sisters in Christ, then we're not in the faith. And these people
right here love their brothers and sisters in Christ, but even
more than loving their brothers and sisters in Christ, they love
the Lord their God. To the point that Paul compares
this church to the first church that was planted after the ascension
of Jesus Christ, the church of Judas. He says you become imitators
in them. How? Because they're suffering
the same way that the first church suffered. They were marked to
be true Christians, just like the first church was true Christians
because they suffered for the name of Jesus. And when you read
the New Testament, you learn that every church that is planted,
that is truly planted by God, is going to suffer for the name
of Christ. That is we know it's been given us and if we believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ Then we will suffer for his name's
sake if we're a church that's going to live to glorify Christ
with our life Then we are going to suffer for his name's sake
mark it down write it down. We're going to suffer And you
know what we're gonna do we're gonna do is this first church
did or this church right here the first church and this church
We're gonna suffer with great joy See they were known for their
joy in the Lord No, they're known for their love for each other,
they're known for their joy in the Lord, and they were known
for preaching the gospel. Powerful stuff. We ain't talking
about people who knew the Bible that well. We're talking about
people who heard the gospel, believed, and the next thing
you know, Paul and them's gone. But they knew that the gospel
saved their lives and after they heard the good news and they
were radically changed, they went in the marketplaces and started
preaching the gospel that their faith was well known around the
world. Babes in Christ out preaching the gospel. But in our mind we thought, well
man, we gotta get a good grasp of this whole Bible before we
can be a witness of it. But we gotta know the gospel.
And if we know the gospel, folks, we can give it to people. And
if we don't know the gospel, then how have we been saved?
How can we be saved if we don't know the gospel? But they knew
the gospel, and they boldly proclaimed it to all. To all. And Paul was worried about them.
So what does he do? He risks his beloved child, Timothy,
knowing that if he sends Timothy to these people to see how they're
doing, because he's afraid they are fell away from the faith,
that if he sends Timothy, he might never see him again. But
he's willing to risk Timothy's life for the sake of the body
of Christ. So he sends his son out as a
missionary, knowing that he could be put in jail. He could be killed. He could be stoned to death.
He could be crucified. Because he knew that he had to
find out how this new planted church was doing. And guess what? Timothy comes back and says,
Paul, they're walking with the Lord. They're pursuing Christ,
Paul. And Paul, you know how we love
them, Paul? They love us the same way that
we love them. And Paul goes on to, as he moves from there and
he incurs them, talking about staying away from sex morality,
talking about the end times, because they had men creeping
in their lives, talking about if you died before the coming
of Christ, then you would miss the resurrection. which we find
kind of odd. But in their day, that's what
they thought, that if you fell asleep before the coming of Christ,
then you would miss it. And Paul encouraged them to look, brothers,
that we can rejoice because if Christ rose again, we will rise
again also. That those who have fell asleep
will precede those who are alive when Christ comes. That the dead
will rise first and then Christ. I mean, then everyone who's alive
will rise to be with the dead in the air with Christ. And he
goes on like, look, we don't live in the darkness, we don't
live as drunkards do, we don't live as the liars do, and the
thieves, and the prostitutes do, but we live in the light
as the children of God. That for Christ to come, we'll
not be like a thief in the night dusk, and we're already ready,
we're prepared. We're prepared for the coming
of Christ. Our hearts long for the coming of Christ. We think
about the coming of Christ every day. We long to see Him. We ain't like most people, most
Christians, well, I want to go to heaven, you know, but I just
want to live on earth a little bit longer. No, we long to see Him. We hope
for Him to come this day. To rapture us out of here. To
take us out of here. To take us home to be with Him.
For that's who our hearts long to be with, is it not? And then,
Paul is starting to close out this letter. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5
verse 12 He says, we ask you brothers
to respect those who labor among you, and are over you in the
Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love
because of their work, be at peace among yourselves. Let's pray. O great God who has bestowed
Your goodness towards us, has given us this amazing grace that
has saved our souls, That Lord, when the world said we were past
the point of being saved because of our wicked actions upon You,
God, You showed Your amazing power and love and mercy towards
us that You snatched us out of darkness and put us into light.
And now God, you have called us here today as brothers and
sisters in Christ, siblings, and you, O God, to come to know
you more intimately, to come to know each other more intimately,
to worship you together, to honor you with our lives together,
Father. And Lord, I just pray, Lord, as we're here this short
time today, Lord, that you would speak through a weak man such
as I, that you would be glorified through that which is said, Father,
and that the people who hear, Father, would be encouraged,
would be comforted, would have peace, It would be exhorted to
continue on in the faith, Father. Pray, God, that we would learn
today about you and you alone. And, Lord, that you would be
glorified through all things. And we say this in no other name
but the name of Jesus. Amen. This sermon today, by God's grace,
will maybe be an overview or overview of some of the things
that James has preached in the past couple weeks. It was not
one of my favorite things, probably, to dig into scripture to preach
to you today, but the Lord has called me to do it, so by his
hand and his grace, I will do so. Paul is starting right here,
closing this letter out. He's asking them to do something.
And we know when the Apostle Paul or Scripture asks us to
do something, it isn't just asking us, but it's commanding us. Because
if God asks us to do something, He's commanding us to do it.
You know, but Paul in his humbleness and his grace, he's asking his
brothers, in love, I ask you to do this. And only by God's
grace we can do this which Paul asked us to do. He says, we ask
you, brothers, to know those who labor among you and over
you in the Lord and admonish you. And really, when you study
this, you're kind of alarmed because you're like, Paul left.
Silas left. Timothy left. Who's leading these
people? These are babes in Christ. All
of them were babes in Christ when they first come to faith.
Even the Jews who probably had a good grasp on the Old Testament,
but they didn't see it spiritually until Paul showed up by the grace
of his preaching through the power working of the Holy Spirit.
They saw what the old scripture was talking about. So you've
got babes in Christ here. With what we would say, well,
there's no shepherd, there's no pastor, there's no elders
there to lead these people. Paul's gone, Timothy's gone. You just imagine Paul concerned
that they fell away because they had no one to lead them. And
we underestimate that God is able to raise up babes in Christ
in a short period of time to lead others. We underestimate
that. We think a man must have 8 years
in college to lead man. That he must have 4 years in
college or he must be already a pastor at this church for a
certain amount of years before he might get called to what we
would call this bigger church. But God doesn't work according
to the way man works. God takes the weak people of
the world like these babes And He raises men up in a short period
of months to take over and shepard these other people. To me that's
powerful. That means if something happens
to James and something happens to me and something happens to
Dave and some of these other brothers who have been called
to teach, then God will raise up another man. The church doesn't
just fall away because the pastor dies or the pastor moves on. Because the church isn't held
up by one man of God. The church isn't held up by five
men of God. The church is held up by Jesus Christ. That when
you see churches fall away when their pastors leave, that we're
not following Christ, they were following their pastors. They
were following their elders of their church. They were following
their Dinkins. And we're not following Christ. That Christ
and His power and His love causes the fellowship of the saints
to always remain. that the devil cannot destroy
that which God has created for His glory. That if God called
the people to join together for the glory of His name, Satan
cannot destroy that. God holds it in His hand. Hear
that. That grace, truth, because it's
been planted by God, cannot be destroyed. cannot be destroyed. At times we will feel like our
flock is being destroyed because of the suffering, because of
the persecution that we receive, because of our faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But we will not go away. We will
remain. We will always be, by the grace
of God, And you just imagine that these babes are leading
babes, and you just imagine that they are not coming to know their
elders in the church. They're not coming to respect
their elders in the church. So Paul says, look, brothers,
I ask you to come to know those whom God has put over you. Come to know them intimately.
Come to respect them. And the thing is, you can see
some churches, they overdo their pastors, they overdo their elders
of the church, they esteem them as gods. And see, that ain't
right either. But we are supposed to come to
know each other intimately. And you've got to understand
that we know from Ephesians for you who were here in Ephesians,
which many of you weren't, but in Ephesians 4 that we know it
talks about what James went through, that God gave gifts to the church.
That He gave what? Apostles and prophets and evangelists
and shepherds and teachers to what? To equip the saints for
the work of the ministry. To equip the people so that when
a false doctor comes along, they can overcome it. They're not
tossed back and forth because of the false teaching. When they
hear false teaching outside of here, they're not wavering back
and forth because God has placed men in the church that have been
taught correctly. And God placed men in the church
that we might grow into Him. That we might mature in Him. And it's as famous that some
men will take their call and esteem themselves with it. Like
you go to some congregations and they'll get up there to preach
and they'll have five titles before they even come up to preach.
Well this bishop, elder, pastor, evangelist, missionary is here
to present the word to us today. The elders and pastors of the
church don't consider themselves highly, they consider themselves
lowly. I don't know about, well I feel
James feels the same way, but we consider ourselves slaves
unto Christ. And we take the position or take
the, what we would call title or elder because the church calls
for it. They don't want to be known for something, they want
to be known as a slave of Christ. If I'm going to be boasted over,
let people boast over me that I'm a slave of Jesus Christ.
That I'm a servant of Christ. And I think we all should present
ourselves that way. That's what Paul presented himself
as. That's what the other apostles presented themselves as, as slaves
of Christ. Servants are the most high. He says, we ask you, brothers,
to come to know those who labor among you. And then Paul lists
three things here that those who are called to shepherd the
flock must be doing or are doing. He says, those who labor among
you, When I think about laboring or
men laboring amongst the flock, I go back to the call that God,
Jesus Christ, gave Peter. When he catches him on the fishing
again and he calls him in to eat with him, he says, Peter,
do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Feed my sheep.
Peter, do you love me? Lord you know I love you. Take
care of my sheep. Do you love me Peter? Lord you know that I love you.
Feed my lambs. That we as people who are designed
to preach are designed to lead people. And I think, listen to
this, I think every man in here is falling into this category
because we're supposed to lead our families. Though I think
he's specifically talking about the elders and the shepherds
of a local congregation, but we know this even falls for the
men because even we're called to lead our families. That we
must labor amongst them. Think about labor. Labor is hard
work. And think about this, that what
we call when a woman's pregnant and the baby's coming, that she's
laboring. And I remember watching my wife have her Ezekiel. It looked like hard work, something
I didn't want no part of. I was just there for support. But laboring. is hard work. That we must labor amongst the
body of Christ. That we must be behind the scenes
laboring in prayer. Laboring in prayer for each one
whom God has called into fellowship with us. Each one whom God has
called for us to shepherd, we must be laboring in prayer diligently
for them. That if a man does not pray for
his congregation, it's because the man does not love his congregation.
That men who have been born of God, who are called the shepherd
God's people, God puts a supernatural desire in their hearts to love
those whom He has called to shepherd. And if He loves them, we will
pray for them. Because anybody whom we love,
we're in prayer for. But we're not. Because how can we say we love
someone if we're not willing to take time out to pray for them? That's when Paul says we
know prayer without ceasing because we always can be praying about
something or praying for someone. That we labor in prayer, but
we also labor in the Word. Because we know, as people who
teach and preach the Word, we'll be held accountable for that
which comes out of our mouths. And that's all of us. If we're
out giving the Gospel, being a witness for Christ, then we're
all accountable, are we not? And we know if we labor, we must
be laboring in knowing the foundation of Jesus Christ. The foundation. What is the foundation? The foundation
is the gospel. That we fall short to the glory
of God. That we have sinned against God. That we have broken every
one of God's commandments. That we're all liars and thieves
and blasphemers and adulterers and murderers at heart. And what
should God do with such people as us in this room today? He
should destroy us in the lake of fire for all of eternity.
And I should be the first one thrown in amongst us. But we
know that He sent our Savior, Jesus Christ. That though He
knew no sin, He became sin so that we, as the evildoers of
the world, could become the righteousness of Christ. That we, the scum
of the world, could become the righteousness of Christ. that
Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that He took hell on the
cross for us, that He drunk the full cup of the wrath of God,
that Jesus, at the end of His life, said, It is finished, that
the wrath of God has been satisfied towards us. That's good news. And that He died on the cross,
and that He was buried for three days, and three days later, He
rose again from the grave, and that we've been called to tell
people that good news and call them to repent of their sins
and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. that we must know
the gospel in order to lead the people of God. Because we never
get past the gospel. The gospel is needed for the
lost man, but the gospel is needed for the saved man as well. I
don't know about you guys, but I have to think about the gospel
every day. Bad thoughts run through my mind, I have to think about
the gospel. Sometimes when I fall for temptation, I have to repent
and trust in Jesus as my righteousness. I can't look to something else
as my righteousness when we sin against God. We got to look to
Christ and Christ alone for salvation. And we must labor in the word
that we might know the gospel. Also, we must labor in the word
that we might build upon the foundation that's already been
laid, which is the gospel. that we know, we must know the
gospel, but there's other things been taught on top of the gospel
and we cannot be wrong about that. You know, Paul writes to
the Christian church and he talks about men will stand up before
God who have taught God's word and they will give an account
for that which they taught because whatever they placed on the foundation
will be burned up. Some place gold and silver, some
place, I think, straw and it was all burned up. Cause they
laid a era on top of the foundation. And that's when it's very hard calling to lead the people
of God. Because you can't be wrong. Though
God gives us grace when we're wrong at times, but we're never
always right about everything we teach. But we know we must
strive to be in God's word that we might be accurate. Because
we do not want to be these men who follow other men's teachings
all the times that we fall into man's traditions. We cannot be
men who spend all of our time in other people's books. It's
good to have other men who we would call solid in the faith,
and we can learn from them guys, but at the end of the day, most
of our time should be spent in the Word of God. Allowing God
to feed us that we might feed others. And you should spend
most of your time in the Word of God, that God feeds you, you
can feed others. That as God feeds you men, you
can feed your families. The Word of God. Teaching your
families to walk in the ways of God. We must labor amongst the people,
not only behind the scenes in prayer, not only behind the scenes
in studying the Word of God, but we must labor amongst the
people. We must be always willing to
give up our time to shepherd the flock of God. We must be willing to risk our
lives to shepherd the flock of God.
It's beautiful stuff because remember we said that Paul sent
Timothy to check on him. Paul sent Timothy to see how
they were doing but also probably to teach them while he was there.
So he was risking Timothy's life. Timothy was risking his life
that he might shepherd the flock of God. That every man who is
called to preach the gospel must be willing and able to risk his
life for it. It's just only in our culture
that we really don't risk our life for it. Four missionaries risk their
life every day meeting together. They risk their life every day
having a Bible in their hand. And most of the time when you
read about most of them who get personally recruited over there,
the ones we hear about most are what? Are the ones who are teaching
the people. The ones who are distributing
Bibles. And we must be able to lay down
our life for the sheep. laid down our life. As Christ
laid down His life for us, the under shepherds laid down their
life for the people of God. They go extreme in any circumstances
to reach out to the people. That we teach them the word that
they might grow in their salvation. You know 2 Timothy 3.16 says
this, All Scriptures breathe out by God and are profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.
So why don't we spend our time in the Word that we might be
equipped for every good work to shepherd the body, and as
we shepherd them and God lays it upon their hearts to stay
in the Word that they might know Christ more, they can shepherd
others. He says, we ask you, brothers,
to know those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord. God has placed men in a church
to be over the flock. I love the way Matthew Henry
puts it. He says this, As elders in the
church, they must rule not with harshness, but with love. They must not exercise dominion
as temporal lords, but rule as spiritual gods. By setting a
good example to the flock, there are ministers under Christ appointed
by Him and must rule the people by Christ's laws and not by the
laws of their own. That as we labor amongst the
people, we must I hate to use the word rule, but we rule over
them in love. Not that we rule over them as
kings by no means, but we rule over them as good shepherds.
And we don't rule over them with our own opinion. We don't rule
over them with ourselves, but we rule over them with Christ.
We rule over men through the words of Christ. We don't teach
people the laws of man, but we preach them the laws of Christ.
That we're all subject and so submit to the Word of God. So it isn't that when a man stands
up and preaches, or leads you and guides you, it isn't as though
you're submitting to him, you're submitting to his Master, which
is Jesus Christ. See that? Because he's nothing more but
a spokesman for Christ. And that's the reason we should,
as the church, should always be studying the Word of God,
so that when a man stands up to preach, we don't become misled. Because my Master is Jesus Christ,
your Master is Jesus Christ, your Father is the Heavenly Father,
my Father is the Heavenly Father, and we must always be understanding
that which is said must be accurate with Scripture. Because if we come with our traditions,
we come with a false doctrine, people will end up submitting
to it. Believe in it. And we must be, though God has
placed men over us to be watchmen over our souls, we must also
be watchmen over our own souls. Because we know from the Old
Testament to the New, there's always been more false teachers,
more false shepherds than true shepherds. Always. And I say in the same way in
our day, there is more false shepherds than true shepherds.
And I think, Paul, that you got the blind leading the blind.
And why is the blind leading the blind? Because those who
are being led by a man are not taking time to be in the Word
themselves. I've been times where I have
witnessed the people, where my pastor don't say that, My pastor
doesn't teach me that. My pastor doesn't believe in
it. Well, ma'am, can we look at the Word? Can we look at the
Word, ma'am? And they want nothing to do with
it. Because they're following men. That men, through the work
of Satan, raise themselves up to lead away the people of Christ. to lead away people to the pit
of hell. Because Satan is at work in them. But those who have
been called by God, who have been given to the church as a
gift, has been called to shepherd the people in holiness, to shepherd
the people in righteousness. To shepherd the people that they
might come closer to Christ, that they would not abandon Jesus
Christ. For we know that in the seeds
of the sower that many hear the Word of God and they receive
it with joy, but in time they fall away. They fall away because
they had no joy within themselves. And we must be willing and able to hold fast to the faith that
we have. We must teach this faith. We
must teach the Word that me and my growing Christ that he places men over to rule,
to shepherd a people. This is what Hebrews 13, 17 says. It says, obey your leaders and
submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.
As those who were having to give an account, let them do this
with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage
to you. I know I've said some of this stuff,
You understand that God, in His grace and His mercy, has called
people to be the overseer of your soul. That's the reason why, you know,
times in talking to James, when you have people come in, the
fellowship, for a short period of time and they leave, it breaks
James' heart. Because God supernaturally called
him to be a lover of these people and to be a watchman over their
souls. And it should break our hearts. It shouldn't only break
Jay's heart, but it should break other people's hearts. If people
come in for a short season and they leave, it should break our
hearts. But it should definitely break the elders' hearts, as
God has called them to watch over these people's souls, to
go after these people when they go astray. That when men come
in the fellowship and they leave, we should go after them as leaders
and elders of the church. We shouldn't just let them carelessly
walk away and act like everything is okay with them. We should
check on them, we should call them, we should go to their house
and beat on their door. To find out what is wrong with
them. Because I know this, when people go out of being in the
fellowship of the body, something is always wrong with their spiritual
life. You get outside of the Word,
you get outside of prayer, and you get outside of the fellowship
of the saints, you're pretty much giving yourself over to
the devil to do as you will with it. Because it's only through
being in the fellowship of the saints that we are strengthened.
That we must sit upon the Word of God and let it be taught to
us. That must be the heart of the believer. I must hear the
Word of God taught to me that I might grow in Christ. I must
hear the Word of God taught to me so I don't go astray. It is
vital for the church to be in fellowship with each other. To
have the Word of God taught to them. And as people hear the Word of
God and it be true, listen, if the Word of God be true that
it was taught to you, then what must you do? You must submit
to it. You're not submitting to me,
you're not submitting to James, you're not submitting to the other elders
of the church, you're submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ. But a lot of times, when God
calls men to shepherd people, especially in counseling, people
want to come and they want to hear the counseling, but yet
in the counseling they just want to tell their problems. But they
don't want to submit to that which is said. I'm going through this. I'm going
through that. I'm going through this. And we open up the Word
of God and we tell it to you. And it's like you don't hear
it. But we must submit to that which
God has said to us to do. That if God has put a man in
your life to shepherd you, then we should adhere to what He says
through the Scriptures. And woe to us if we do not submit
to the Scriptures of Jesus Christ? Isn't that what causes most churches
to split? Because people do not submit
to the Word of God? Isn't that what causes most people
to hate each other amongst the body of Christ because they do
not submit to the Word of God? What causes most faithful preachers
to be kicked out of their church Because man is not willing to
submit to the Word of God. And see, it's individually each
one of us who has to submit to the Word of God. If we're going
to grow in fellowship and we're going to grow in love and fellowship
and be at peace with those whom God has put over us and be at
peace with each other, then what? We're going to have to submit
to the Word of God? And we know that though we had the Holy Spirit
of God living in us, we still had this flesh. And the flesh
does not want to submit to that which God says submit to. I don't
want to do that, that's too hard. I don't want to do that, that
might cost me something. But we must submit. We must be submitting to the
Word of God, church. For our salvation depends on
it. For we're in the practice of not submitting to that which
God has called us to submit to. You know what that means? We're
in the practice of sinning. And those who are in the practice
of sinning, the scripture tells us that they're not of God. Hear that church. He says, We ask you brothers to respect
those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and
admonish you." Admonish is to rebuke or reprove
in the Word of God that the man whom God has called the shepherd
must be a man who strives first to please God and not man. Because rebuke comes publicly
through the sermon. Not that anyone sometimes might
know your problem, but through hearing the Word of God, at times
we can be rebuked. There have been many times I've
been rebuked through James' preaching. But also, the rebuke comes through
the Word of God, comes individually at times. And we must understand that when
God calls for us to be rebuked through the Word of God, that
it's not really the elder or the pastor rebuking you through
the Word of God, it's God rebuking you, because it's God's words. And listen to this, that when
we come, and we come to each other, and we admonish each other
in the Word of God, we must understand this is not God's judgment towards
us. This is God's grace. The prophet
Nathan going to David was not God's judgment towards David.
It was God's grace towards David. Hear that? Because if God does
not send an elder or the pastor or someone else to us to show
us our sin through the Word of God, then guess what? We don't
belong to Christ. Because God disciplines those
whom He loves. And I don't know about you, but the biggest discipline
comes through the Word of God. I know anytime that things in
my sin that's hurt me the most, it isn't the repercussions of
the sin, but it's the rebuke through the Word of God that
hurts the most. That I love God, He's my Heavenly
Father, and then He shows me my sin. And I'm like, woe is
me. Woe is me. That God loves this
church. And He loves us in this way that
He disciplines us when we're in error. He disciplines us when
we're in sin. That the man who preaches or
teaches the Word of God must call out sin. Must call sin for
what it is. And see that's what makes it
hard because man does not want to create enmity between him
and his people that God has called him a shepherd. One of the hardest
things is to go to someone that you know is living in sin and
you have to talk with them about it. Who wants to be that guy? Who wants to be that person?
But that's the call of being an elder in a church. That's
when it's hard. You don't want to have people
in the fellowship who are in practice of sexual morality and
have to go and say, look, you can't do this no more. Or you
hear about so-and-so gossiping about somebody and you've got
to go to them. You've got to cut it off. Did you hear this one's talking
bad about this one? You've got to go to them. You've got to cut it
off. You've got to risk yourself. And you know, like James says,
man, I don't want nobody nothing to like me. So he said, well I think he said
that last week. I don't want nobody to lock me. But the thing
is, as you know brother, that what? We know that if we do that
which God has called us to do, we're not going to be locked
by everybody. At times, James isn't going to be locked by some
of us. Sometimes he ain't going to be locked by me. Because the Word of God is sharp.
Is it not, it pierces us, it cuts us, it convicts us, and
the first thing we do when we're convicted and we don't like that
which we hear, we point the finger at whoever's preaching. And really when we point the
finger, especially if we test it and it be true, we're pointing
our finger at God, we're not pointing the finger at who's
preaching. Really, if we really think about it, sit down, if
I do not like that which is being said and it be true, then my
anger isn't towards Him, my anger is towards God. Men who desire to preach and
men who lead their families must call out sin. Not in harshness, but with gentleness,
with love. That it should break our hearts
when we see those who we love fall into sin. We shouldn't go
to them with a proud heart because we're not doing it. We shouldn't go to them with
a proud heart that, look, I'm your pastor and you've got to
listen to me. I know that sounds funny, but some men do that.
They lure their title over people. No, it breaks our heart when we see people fall away.
And then because it breaks our heart for them, we have to listen
to what God tells us to do to go and try to restore them. That's the reason most people
raise up teachers to itch their itching ears because they don't
want to hear about their sins. They don't want to hear somebody
say, call their baby ugly as James would say. They want to hear that they're
sinning against God so they go down the street and they find
another church that's going to not talk about sin. And if they go
to that church and it talks about sin, then they're going to go
to another church. And if that church talks about sin, then they're going
to sit at home and watch Joel's thing. You know, it's true. Notice the
people raise up teachers for themselves. Because they don't
want to hear the sound doctrine. And we can laugh, but if we don't
put ourselves in check, that could be us. I know men who are set up under
sound preaching, preach sound preaching to themselves and fall
away from the faith. because they just got sick of
it. That we must all check ourselves. We must all be working our salvation
out with fear and trembling to see if it is God who lives in
us or work in us for His good pleasure. They must admonish you, it says
in verse 12. and to esteem them very highly in love because of
their work. That we at times in some churches
do not really love their pastors. I've been part of some of them
churches or one of them at least. The people in the church really
did not love their pastor. And we We should highly love
those whom God has called over us. We should strive to love
them more. You've got to think that a pastor
or elder of a church is a gift. It's a gift that God has given
us. Because I don't know who you
are, all of us has got somebody to be thankful who God has used
to what? To grow us in our faith. I mean, you take a man giving
me a million bucks, or you take a man who God has used to grow
me in my faith, I'm going to love the man who God has grown
me in my faith, not the one who gave me the money. Though I'd
be thankful for the one who gives me the money, but I'm most thankful
for the one whom God has used to grow me in my faith. Because
my relationship with God means more than money. That we should
love those whom God has working amongst us. Why? Because that's the tool
that God is using to grow us in our faith. And if we catch ourselves not
loving them, we need to work it out. Why am I not loving him? Because normally when someone
gets mad in local churches, they get mad with their pastor and
they tend not to love him. What do they do? They go and
they tell somebody else. This is what he's doing. This
is what he's doing. I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like
this. I don't like that. He did that. And what does it do? It divides the church. I think Brother Luke, I imagine
you're 20 years of ministry, you can talk about this. Brother
Luke, you know that's what happened to him? They quit loving him
because the devil snuck in and next thing you know it divided
his church and he got kicked out of his church because of
it. And we must strive to be loving
those whom God has put over us. Well, because when we're in love
with them and we're in love with the words that they preached
to us, then guess what? We become at peace with them.
And when we're at peace with them, we become at peace with
everyone else in the church. That if I don't have peace with
the elders of my church, how in the world can I have peace
with everyone in the church? Because when the peace doesn't
start with them, then it causes the rest of the church, because
they end up dividing over it. So it causes the whole church
to be at war with each other. And the end result is this, that
most churches end up splitting over it. Because people would not die
to themselves and submit to the word of God. They were not willing
to fight to stay at peace with each other. Realize this, that
Satan wars against our local bodies and he wants us to be
at war with each other. He wants us to hate each other. And we must fight against that.
We must fight to have peace with each other. And what better,
what better place to start than to get you mad with someone,
with James, or get you mad with someone else who's helping, shepherding
you. What better place to get you mad? Because if you get mad
with him, then you can just walk out of the church. Or you get
mad with him if you've been there for a while, then you can just get other people
mad with him. Isn't that normally how it goes? We must strive. to love the body
of God, that the one whom God has given us to shepherd us,
is not a hired hand. He's not a hired hand, he's a
gift. See that? He's a gift. Most people
hire impastors and they don't like him no more, they fire him.
He was never a gift to them. He was just there for as long
as they didn't, as long as he didn't step on their toes. And
the moment he started stepping on their toes or convicting them of their
sin, because he preached the word of God, then he's out the door. They
never truly loved him to begin with. Never loved him to begin
with. Because how can you just dismiss
somebody? They don't care what happens to them. Well, you got
two weeks to get out of this house or let your stay in. No, we're not giving you no money.
You need to just go. That's not loving the people
of God. That's not loving the shepherds.
When we love the shepherds, we stay at peace with everyone else. And this peace... He says, because
of their work, be at peace among yourselves. So it isn't just
about being at peace with me or James or Dave or Luke, but
it's about being at peace with each other. Striving to be at peace with
each other. Because if we stay here long
enough together, we're going to end up sinning against each
other. Or we're not. We're siblings in Christ. We're
the family of God. What are we going to do? We're
going to sin against each other. Mark it down. It's going to happen. So we can't act like it's not
going to happen. That's where forgiving and forbearing comes
in. That's where we come, we start applying a grace to each
other. striving to not be mad with each
other but to stay at peace with God. Because when, hear this,
when I'm not at peace with one of you, something's wrong with
my relationship with Christ. Because the overflow of my relationship
with Christ growing and my love for Christ growing is what the
overflow of that is my love for you will grow. That's the overflow. That if I cannot get over this
thing that this brother has done to me or this sister has done
to me, it's me, not them. Peter, how many times must I
forgive him, Lord, when he sins again? Seven times? No, seventy
times seven. You must forgive him. That there should always
be peace amongst the believers. So when we are not at peace with
each other, we've got to call it what it is. It is sin. And
God hates it. And we must strive against it.
We must strive to please God. That's what I love about this.
This first, that's the only letter that these people were not only
at peace with each other, but these people were over in love
with each other. They loved each other. They fellowshiped
together. One lost their house because
of their faith. They moved them in. I got extra room. Move in
with me. You ain't got no food? Come live with me. You can eat
my food. That's beauty. That's love. That's laying down
your life for each other. That's what we're called to do,
is it not? That we lay down our life for each other. That Jesus gave us peace with the Father.
And yet we were enemies of God. Jesus Christ reconciled us back
to the Father that we might have peace with Him. And if we have
come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have come to faith by
His amazing grace to us, that He has given us repentance and
faith in Him alone for salvation, and we have true had peace with
Him, then we will have peace with everyone who belongs to
Him. We will have peace with everyone. Because of what? We're all siblings in Christ. Let us pray. Father God, I pray, Lord, that
you would just use this word for your glory, Father. Even
if everything I said was rubbish, Lord, your word was read. and
that I could rejoice in that your word was read and we know
that your word is good enough to grow us. Your word is good
enough to sharpen us. Your word is good enough to cause
us to love each other and to be at peace with each other.
Your word is good enough, Lord, to grow us and cause us to be
workmen for your kingdom, Father. Lord, I pray, Lord, that our
church, our local fellowship would always be at peace with
each other. Lord, that we'd always love each other. We'd always
be laying our life down for each other. Always striving to love.
Those whom God has put over us to shepherd us, Father. And Lord,
I pray that we all, Lord, would be people who are known for submitting
to your word. Known for loving you. Known for
holding fast to your word, O God. Lord, that you would use us all
for your glory. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.