Book of Mourning. If you care
to open your Bibles with me, the book of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy
chapter 3. As you're turning there, let
me tell you that Novi Sparks had a surgery, I think it was
on Thursday this week. And they think they finally found
out what's been causing her so much pain. It was scar tissue
that got around her intestine. So they finally figured that
out. I think they've got that corrected and hopefully should
be home now. And Gary Hoback is home and his
daughter Haley's out of the hospital and recovering there. Sue Thacker
had a very major heart surgery this week and Kevin says she's
recovering, but more slowly than what we would have hoped for.
They're hopeful that she'll have a full recovery, so we'll remember
them in prayer. 1 Timothy chapter 3, we'll read
the first 13 verses. This is a true saying. If a man
desires the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop
then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober,
of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine,
no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler,
not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his
children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not
how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church
of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall
into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have
a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach
and the snare of the devil. Likewise must the deacons be
grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy
of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.
And let these also be first proved. Then let them use the office
of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave,
not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things, Let the deacons
be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their
own houses well. For they that have used the office
of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree in great
boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." Thank God for
His Word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, our great God, sovereign
of all the earth, we bow before you this morning, thankful to
be able to bow before your throne of grace. So thankful that we
do not have to come before your throne of justice in our own
selves, in our own work, bearing our own worthless name, but how
thankful we are to be able to come in the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ and bow before your throne of grace and be accepted
in the beloved. Father, what mercy, what grace
that you would do such a great work for sinful men and women
such as we are. And we're thankful. We bow with
hearts of worship and thanksgiving and praise. And Father, we've
met here this morning to hear a word from thee. And how I beg
of you that you would give us a word from thee, that you not
let us hear the thoughts of a man, the words of a man, the voice
of a man, but that you would be our preacher, our teacher.
Speak to the hearts of your people. Enable us to see, by faith, the
Lord Jesus Christ. To run to Him, to hide in Him,
to rest in Him, to trust Him fully and completely for everything
that you require and everything that we need. How we thank you
for such a Savior who is all. He's everything that we need.
And we're thankful. We're thankful. Father, we're
thankful for how you blessed this congregation. You blessed
us with your gospel these many, many years. You blessed your
people through the preaching of your word. And we're so thankful,
thankful that you've not left us to our own devices. And Father,
we pray for your continued blessing. Would you continue to cause your
word to go forth in the power of your spirit Continue to reveal
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in this place to your people.
Continue, we pray, to call out your people. Bless the word as
it's preached. Here in this building, on the
radio, over the internet, Father, bless your word, we pray, to
your glory. Get much glory to your name.
Bless and help your people. Father, we're thankful for the
good report that we've had on those who've had surgery. Gary
and Sue, and pray, Father, that you'd undertaken their behalf
to give them a full recovery. So many others, Father, who are
in deep waters of sickness and heartache, brokenhearted. Father, we pray you'd bless.
Thou are able, and we pray you'd meet their need richly according
to your wisdom, riches of your goodness for your people. Father,
we pray for our country difficult time in our history, Father,
we pray that you'd provide some relief from this pandemic, the
sickness and the disruption in people's lives that it's caused.
Give us some relief from it, we pray. We pray for our leaders
that you would give them unusual wisdom, turn their heart to do
good for this country, to protect our freedoms and liberties that
we have so long enjoyed here. Now all these things we ask in
that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's for His glory and His name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. Darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil. rock I stand, all other ground
is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, O other ground, His sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. When He shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in Him be found, Dressed in His righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Alright, if you would, open your
Bibles with me again to 1 Timothy chapter 3. Our text this morning that we've
just read gives us the qualifications for pastors and elders in God's
church. If God calls a man to the ministry,
the church will recognize these gifts in the man. before he even
begins, they'll recognize these gifts in a man. But like I tell
you about so many texts that we look at, this text is not
about men. This text is about Christ. And
my job is to preach Christ from these verses and not to get us
judging how well a man meets these qualifications. Because
this I promise you, no man will do well under any kind of extreme
scrutiny in these issues because we're just flesh. Now, that being
said, don't don't make any mistake about this. If God calls a man
to the ministry, he will have these qualifications because
God will give them to him. Before he ever put him in the
ministry, God made him fit for the job. But it's going to be
far from perfect. So the blessing in these verses
is to be enabled by God's grace to see Christ. Not to be able
to go around and judge all the different preachers that we know,
but to see Christ in these verses, just like every other passage
of scripture. And that's what I pray for us
this morning. If you would hold your place
there, turn over to Jeremiah chapter three. The very first
year that I went to Mexico to visit the Groovers and the very
first time I ever preached or taught with a with a translator,
was to the preacher school there in Merida. And I wished that
one of those men could teach and I could listen. There have
been pastors 20, 30, 40 years. But it was my job to bring the
lesson that day. And I brought it from this text
with basically the same outline that I'm going to give you this
morning. And when I finished, one of the men said, what a pastor
we have. Christ our pastor, Christ our
shepherd. And that's why I got my title
this morning. The title of the message is what a pastor that
we have. Now we know God puts men as pastors
over his church, but now Christ is our pastor. Just like men
are the under shepherds, Christ is the great shepherd of the
sheep. Men are pastors, but Christ is our pastor. Now I'll tell
you where I got that from here in Jeremiah chapter three, verse
15. The Lord says, and I will give
you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding. And the word pastors there is
shepherds, shepherds. So men are our pastors, but Christ
is our pastor. He's Christ. Men are there under
shepherds, but Christ is our, is our, the great shepherd. And
I want to preach to you this morning, Christ, our pastor,
so that you will say, Oh, what a pastor that we have. I want
to preach Christ to you in such a way that you who do not yet
believe on Him will believe on Him. That you'll hear of Him,
you'll hear of His glory, you'll hear of His sufficiency, and
you'll see to cast all your soul on Him. And I want to preach
Christ to you in such a way that you who already believe on Him
will find comfort and peace and assurance for your soul when
you're reminded of Christ our pastor, Christ our shepherd,
who is the one responsible for your soul. Now I want to look
at a few key phrases in our text this morning to see what a pastor
that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. And the first one here
in first Timothy chapter three is a good work. Verse one, Paul
says, this is a true saying. If a man desire the office of
a bishop, he desire a good work. Now this is a work. The ministry
is a work. A man is going to be a pastor. is going to have a good work
ethic. He's going to be, he's going to have to have a good
work ethic because God's preachers are workmen. Workmen that needeth
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And it takes
hard work. Bruce Crabtree told this story
one time, a congregation that didn't have a pastor said, where
will we find a pastor? And Bruce said, exactly where
you're going to find him. He's working a job because he's
going to have a good work ethic. This is a work. And when a man
rightly divides the word of truth, I tell you what we preach. We
preach Christ who did all the work of salvation. Our Savior
came to this earth on a mission, a work that the Father had given
Him. And from very early on, He was about that work, wasn't
He? Just as a boy, He told His mother, I must be about my Father's
business. I must. This is a work that had
been given Him to do. And he was always doing it. I
mean, you read, I mean, you talk about a man who was a workman.
He was always teaching. He was always healing. He was
always working out righteousness for his people by obeying the
law for them. He never took a single moment
off that work. He provided a perfect work, a
perfect righteousness, a perfect obedience. He worked until he
fulfilled all of his father's eternal will. And he's our message. When we talk about our works,
our message is that our works are filthy rags. You don't need
bother counting up all your good works if you don't have none.
We have no good works. Our message is Christ and his
work. And Christ himself is the believer's
work before the father. You see, we who believe did what
Christ our representative did. What he did, we did in him. And
that's our hope of salvation. It's him. It's him who is the
perfect righteousness, the perfect work, the perfect obedience of
his father. He desired a good work and he
did it. He did it in full, perfectly.
The next word in verse two is blameless. A bishop then must
be blameless. Now this word doesn't mean sinless
or, you know, pastor's going to have less sin than somebody
else. It's not, that's not true at all. The word means unrebukable. It means that men are not normally
going to rebuke a man for the way he conducts himself in his
life. And that's God's elect. God's
elect are unrebukable. They cannot be rebuked. They
cannot be charged with sin because Christ, our pastor, our shepherd,
suffered for us. And that's our message. The Lord
Jesus is the only perfect man who ever lived. Now, that's not
just doctrine to say that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only
perfect man to ever live. That's not just doctrine. That's
our salvation, that He is the righteousness, the perfection
of His people. And our message is that the only
way a sinner can be made righteous is in Christ, through His obedience
given to us. You see, Christ is our righteousness,
or we don't have any. See, we're full of blame in ourselves
but in Christ we're blameless. He has presented his people perfect,
unrebukable in God's sight because of who he is. Then the next key
word here is the husband. A pastor is the husband of one
wife. Verse two, Paul says the husband of one wife. Now I'll
tell you what that means. Polygamy is such a problem in
this area of the world at this time. Still a problem in certain
areas of the world, men have multiple wives, but pastor can
only have one wife at a time. Because Christ our pastor has
one wife. One wife. And the important thing here
is that, you know, judging a man is married or remarried and all
that thing. Here's the important thing. Pastor
is to be the husband of one wife at a time and he ought to be
a good one. He ought to be a good one. If a man is going to minister
to the bride of Christ, He ought to know how to take care of his
own wife first, don't you reckon? And that man, that man will preach
Christ the glorious bridegroom. He will present in his preaching
Christ our husband. And that's what the Savior is.
The Father chose a bride for his son in divine election. He
chose him to be the husband of his people. And our message is
to God's elect bride, telling her, come to Christ. Look to
Christ, rely on him, rest in his bosom. Our message is to
her. Now you come to Christ. He's the faithful bridegroom.
He's the faithful husband to his bride. And he's everything
that she needs. See, she's born with nothing.
She's born in sin and ugliness. But Christ is the bridegroom
and he makes his bride beautiful. He clothes her with a beautiful,
glorious, spotless wedding garment, His own righteousness. He makes
her beauty beautiful with His beauty that He puts upon her.
And He provides for her everything that she needs. And He provides
for her everything that she needs by being everything that she
needs. And He'll never leave her. Never,
never leave her nor forsake her. And our message is to declare
Him And then tell the bride, now you come to Christ and you'll
be joined to Him. Joined to Him by faith. Why wouldn't you? What a glorious
husband he is. Why wouldn't you come to Him?
Why wouldn't you be joined to Him? Alright, the next word is
vigilant. Verse 2 says that pastor, deacon,
bishop must be vigilant. And the word is watchful. Now
a pastor must be watchful. Watchful for the leadership of
the Holy Spirit. He must be watchful over his
own self, over his doctrine, over his conduct. A pastor must
watch over the souls to those people to whom he preaches. Now we're watchful. I watch over
your souls. I pray for your souls. I pray
for you every day. But now a man Can't save anybody. Can't protect anyone's soul. Can't protect even your mind
from false doctrine that you might hear somewhere. But I'll
tell you what a vigilant man can do. We can be sure God's
people hear the Word of God every time we speak. We can be sure
of that. We can be sure that we seek out
sound doctrine to give to God's people. We can be vigilant to
be sure of that. And the one we preach, our pastor,
now he's vigilant. He's vigilant. He's vigilant
to watch over the souls of his people. And he doesn't just watch
over them. I watch over people and the example
I've heard is watching over your children and they're down the
street from you and they start to run out in front of a car.
You're watching them, but you can't do anything to stop it.
You could yell, they don't hear you. You can't physically stop
them and save them. Our pastor is vigilant to not
just watch over the souls of his people, but to keep the souls
of his people. You never so far away that his
hand can't reach you, that his arm, that you're out of his mighty
protective hand. He's watchful always. He never slumbers. He never sleeps. He always sees everything. He's
vigilant. And that means that a believer
is secure in Christ Jesus. Now, this is the one we need
as our shepherd. This is the one we need as our pastor. The
one who's vigilant, who watches over and keeps the souls of his
people. Then the next word in verse two is sober. And the word
means of a sound mind and it means self-control. Now, when
we think of being sober, we think of someone not drinking alcohol
to success. And, you know, we should. That's
a mighty good idea. Not to do something to excess
that causes you to make poor decisions and bad choices and,
you know, those kinds of things. But that's not just alcohol.
That's everything relating to the flesh. We should do everything
relating to this flesh and this world in moderation. Use it. Enjoy it. You who believe, Everything
in this world, God's made for you to supply your need, to use
it and enjoy it in moderation in its place. And don't get carried
away with all the things of this flesh. If you're going to be
addicted to anything, be addicted to the gospel. And God's preacher
certainly should be that. Be addicted to the gospel. Addicted to have no other message. Just to be totally consumed with
this message of Christ and preaching it for God's glory and for the
good of his people. And isn't that our Lord Jesus?
He was sober, tempering in all things, wasn't he? He never got
drunk on the things of this world. He didn't let anything get in
the way of his work to save his people from their sins. And he
won't let anything get in the way of keeping his people either.
He's sober. Then next verse two says of good
behavior. Now the word here means modest
and well-arranged and that ought to describe God's servant. The
pastor should be a modest man, humble, considerate of other
people. And this is very important, knowing
he's no better than anybody else. Now that's who a sinner needs
to hear the gospel from. Sinners need to hear the gospel
from a man who's preaching to them in kindness and humility
and not preaching down to them, not preaching down. Brother Nyberg
in his preacher school says so often, do not think you're up
here in your high ivory tower dispensing, you know, your glorious
wisdom down here to the masses. Nobody wants to hear a man preach
like that. Nobody enjoys that. You think who God gave the gospel
to, to preach? He didn't give it to angels,
did he? Angels who are much more glorious and wise of the things
that they've seen, they've seen God, they worship around his
throne. But that's not who God gave the
gospel to preach. God gave the gospel to be preached
by sinful men to sinful men and women. That's who God gave the
gospel to preach. And that man who is a sinner
should preach the gospel kindly. It should preach it compassionately,
certainly in compassion for the for the souls, the weaknesses,
the the The awful causes of what sin does to people. So we should
preach that in compassion for people. I understand. Sometimes I get
frustrated, but I understand why somebody doesn't believe
the gospel that we preach. I understand. Because I've got
the same nature. The same nature. But now our
Savior. Our Savior is the most modest
man to ever live. even though he's the most glorious
man to ever live. Can anybody compare to him? The
most glorious man to ever live, yet he is also the most humble,
the most modest man to ever live. He always has time for sinners. Now, I didn't say that he did.
In his earthly ministry, he did always have time for sinners.
But he's still the same. He's still the same today. He
always has time sinners. Now, he not have time for the
self-righteous, but he always has time for sinners. He's always
kind and forgiving to sinners. Sinners are always comfortable
in the presence of this Savior. Even though he is so, so far
above us, so much, so glorious, yet sinners are always comfortable
in his presence because he's a humble, modest man who always
forgives sinners. And he doesn't just say, oh,
I forgive you. He puts that sin away. Sinners
are comfortable in his presence. Then verse two, Paul says, given
to hospitality. Now preachers handle God's word. We teach God's word. We preach
the gospel. Like I said a little while ago,
just vigilant to, this is what we can do. We can give people
sound doctrine. But we're not in the doctrine
business now, we're in the people business. And that's not just
me, that's this whole church. We're in the people business.
We're on the trail of God's sheep, preaching to people, to the souls
of people. And a man cannot be a preacher
who does not love people. It's impossible. And if you love
people, you'll be hospitable to them. Not only will your home
be open to them, but your heart will be open to them. You'll
be a hospitable person. But our message is this, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is truly hospitable, this man receiveth
sinners and eateth with them. I mean the most hospitable person
in the world, out of care for his family, might not let certain
people in his house, would he? This man receiveth sinners. He's so hospitable, He receiveth
sinners and eats with them, has fellowship with them. He loves
to be with His people. He promised that if just two
or three of them were gathered together in His name, there He'll be in
the midst of them because He loves them. He loves His people.
And His people can come to Him at any time, at all times, come
to Him to find mercy and grace to help in time of need. And
our Savior is so hospitable to sinners. You know, He doesn't
just invite them to come to Him. He's so hospitable. He draws
them. He draws them with His everlasting
love. He draws them to Himself. Now
I tell you, I tell everyone here in this room, right now, you
come to Him. You come to Him. He's so hospitable,
He'll never cast you out. Come to Him in your sin. Come
to Him in your need. Come to Him naked and empty.
Come to Him as you are, without trying to fix yourself up, without
any reason in yourself that He would accept you. He's so hospitable,
He'll never cast you out. Now come to Him. He promised that He would never
cast out a sinner coming to Him, with mercy, seeking mercy and
seeking forgiveness. He never has, and you won't be
first. So come to Him. Then at the end
of verse 2, Paul says, apt to teach. Now pastors, Brother Henry
told us this so often, pastor-teachers, pastor-teachers. Not only should
a pastor have some knowledge of the Scriptures, he should
have that, shouldn't he? But he should have some ability to
be able to communicate that. He should have some ability to
teach the Scriptures to other people. But no one has ever been
saved by the oratory skills of the preacher. I mean, I've heard
some preachers who just really seem to have a difficult time
putting two sentences together. But they preach powerfully. I
mean, they preach powerfully because they're preaching the
power of the spirit. Now, you know, we should be able
to communicate. I hope we could put two sentences
together, but no man has such oratory skill. He's got the power
to be able to save anybody. Christ is our teacher. Christ
is our pastor teacher. If you and I ever learn anything,
I mean in the heart, learn it to believe it and trust Him,
if we ever learn anything, Christ is going to be the teacher and
He's going to be the lesson too. He's going to teach Himself.
Christ is going to just teach His people everything that they
need to know. Now He's going to do it through
His servant preaching His word, but He does it by His Spirit
who makes us learn, who applies these things to our hearts so
that we not just know them, but believe them. See, the difference
between a man who's the pastor and Christ our pastor is this. I could teach your head. I can
teach your head. I mean, our children here in
the head know more gospel than any preacher in this town. I
can teach your head. Your Sunday school teachers,
they can teach your head. But Christ our pastor, by his
spirit, teaches the whole so that we don't just know the facts,
but we know Him, and we believe Him, and we love Him, and trust
Him, and depend upon Him. That's the difference. That's
the pastor we need who's apt, able to teach. Then verse three,
and this kind of, it connects back a little bit to what I said
earlier about being sober, not given to wine. Nothing wrong
at all with drinking some alcohol, but it goes back to being sober.
Don't do that to excess, Use all things in moderation, especially
something that's addictive. Be careful about this now. I
mean, it's addictive. It can ruin your life. It alters your
behavior. It makes you do things that could
ruin your life. But this is talking about a whole lot more than a
bottle of wine. God's preacher is not going to
get drunk on the message of a man, on man's religion. Brother Marvin
Stoniker told me he went to a conference one time, staying with a couple,
He was supposed to preach that morning, and the woman asked
him at breakfast, where are you going to preach on? He said,
I'm going to preach on the evils of alcohol and don't get drunk.
And she said, you are not. And he said, yes I am, do. And
he did. He did. And you know what his
message was? About getting drunk on the wine
of Babylon, the great whore of Babylon. God's preacher is not
going to get drunk on the message, man's message and the methods
of man's religion. He's not going to get drunk and
pulled off on a tangent because we can never find a better message
than Christ alone. Now the Pharisees, they called
our Lord a winebibber, didn't they? They were mad at John the
Baptist because he wouldn't drink wine. They're mad at the Lord
because he did drink wine, but he wasn't a winebibber. But again,
the thing here is not just wine, not just a bottle of wine. Our
Savior never got drunk on the glory and the fame and the power
of the earth. Satan and the authors of all
tombs. And what did he use to send him away? The word of God. He wouldn't get drunk on those
things. He was always in his right mind, always in full control
of his faculties, always saving and keeping his people. Now,
the most faithful man may from time to time chase a rabbit,
but the Savior never will. You can trust your soul to Him.
Trust your soul to Him. Then Paul says, verse 3, not
a striker. And later on he says, not a brawler. Now this means not a striker,
not a brawler, not with his hands and not with his tongue. God's pastors are not bullies.
They're gentle, considerate men and they're just not looking
for a fight all the time. Don't you hate being around somebody?
Always looking for a fight. Always looking for a reason to
start a fuss, you know. That's not God's pastor. No, I'm not being any of God's
people. Now, we're willing and able to contend for the truth,
but not looking for a fight. I enjoy peace and harmony a whole
lot more than I do being in a fierce battle, but we need to be prepared
for it. Paul told Timothy about being
a soldier. I enjoy peace and harmony, but
I promise you this, by God's grace, I'm never going to compromise
the gospel in order to get it. I'm not going to shy away from
the battle for the truth of Christ and to protect God's people from
errors. Buddy, I'll go to war now for
it, to protect you from error, to protect this pulpit from error. We just can't allow that. And
you know, whenever there is a need for a rebuke, a pastor should
do it gently and do it from the Word of God. You know, the purpose
for a rebuke or correction of one of our brethren is never
to take out our frustrations on them and never, you know,
to crush them and make an example of them. The purpose of a rebuke
is to build a brother up and to restore him. Now that's our
Savior. Our Savior was so meek and mild,
He never went looking for a fight with guilty sinners, did He?
Never. Now the Pharisees, They saw a man who was a strong defender
of the truth. He called them out every time. They saw a man who was a strong
defender of his father's house. He braided a whip from just some
strings laying around, drove them out. I mean, you know, imagine
what they saw. But when it came to his people,
our Lord's rebuke to his people was always so gentle. Peter, Loves thou me more than
he is. Why are you so fearful? Oh, you
little thing. Now that's the kind of abuse
a sheep needs, isn't it? Aren't you glad this is our shepherd,
our pastor? Then Paul said in verse three,
not greedy of filthy lucre. He says another later on, not
covetous. Now greed. Is anything more contrary
to grace, any more contrary to faith in Christ than greed? And
every believer wants to avoid being greedy. I tell you, there's
nothing worse than a greedy preacher. I mean, there's nothing worse
than that. You've seen them. You've seen
them. They're just greedy. Greed is deadly to the gospel. It's deadly to the souls of men
and women because a greedy man will change his message in order
to get more money, in order to get a bigger following. So God's
preachers are not greedy men. And they can't be covetous. You
know, God's preacher can't be covetous of man's applause and
approval. You can't be covetous that, oh,
you know, somebody over here has got a bigger congregation,
you know, than we do over here. Can't be covetous of that. See,
we're not just talking about money. It's covetous of everything
in this world. Everything this flesh is so naturally
attracted to. God's preachers, if they're going
to be covetous, have to be covetous of this. Covetous of God's approval. Covetous of preaching the truth.
Covetous of the salvation, desiring the welfare of God's people. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
our pastor. He was a poor, homeless man. He had nowhere to lay his head. Yet, when Satan tempted him with
all the riches of the world, he couldn't be swayed. When those
people came to make him a king, he hid himself from them. Can
you imagine somebody doing that today? And just in this country,
we want to make you present and go hiding from them. It's not
going to happen, is it? But that's what our Savior did.
Because he would not be greedy. How could he? He already owns
everything. How could he be greedy? He owns everything. And you know
what he did? This is the message. This is
our message. Christ, the King of glory, became poor for the
sake of His people. He became so poor that He emptied
Himself. He became poor of righteousness
on the cross when He was made to be sin for His people. And
sinners, His people, are made rich through His poverty. See,
He took our poverty and gave us His riches. Oh, aren't you
thankful He wasn't greedy and covetous? But He's a generous,
giving Savior. And our Savior was never covetous
of the approval of this religious world. Now, that ought to be
our pattern, our example. And in all things, He was never
covetous of the approval of the religious world. He had one thing
in mind, giving Himself over to please His Father and doing
what was good, this good work for His people. That's their
salvation. Now, what a pastor we have. Aren't
you thankful this is your pastor? Then the next word is patient. Patient. I hesitate to say a lot about
this word patient. Those who know me best know that
that is not my great strength. But every preacher needs patience. We need patience to bear trials. We need patience to wait. on
the Lord, not to try to make things happen, but to wait on
the Lord. We need patience to deal with
the unbelievers, those who oppose themselves, who hate the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace. We need patience. Now, while
we need patience, there's also, this goes together, two sides
of the same coin. There's some things that we're
not to be patient about. We're never to tolerate an error
in doctrine. That's never to tolerate certain
behaviors that are spelled out in scripture. But we need to
be patient. Even when you see these things,
be patient with people and remember, all of us are dust. All of us,
from here to you, all of us are just dust. But aren't you thankful? Our pastor, our savior is patient. Oh, he's so patient with sinners. The patience of the Lord is salvation.
He's patient, he's kind, he's tender hearted, he's forgiving
of his people. He's so patient that a sinner can go to him at
any time and never get rebuked for waiting so long. I can't
tell you how many times someone comes to me and wants to be baptized
and they say, I don't know why I waited so long. But when we
come to the Savior, we'll think that. I don't know why I waited
so long. But He never says that to His people. He never kicks
the sheep in the ribs and says, what'd you wait so long for?
No, He's patient with sinners. And aren't you thankful? Aren't
you thankful He's long-suffering? Long-suffering with sinners. Long-suffering with His people.
Then, verse 4, rules His own house well. Paul says, one that
rules well His own house, having his children in subjection with
all gravity? For if a man know not how to
rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of
God? Now before a man can take on this awesome, awesome responsibility
of leading God's church, he needs to have some experience. He should
first prove that he can handle the smaller task of leading his
own home. If a man doesn't have the courage
and the will, the steel backbone, to lead his own home so that
the Lord's worshipped in his own home, he's not going to have
the courage, he's not going to have the necessary will and steel
backbone to be sure God's worshipped in the church. I mean, see that
he can see to those things in his own home first. But I'll
tell you what, if you want to see a well-run house, you look
to the house that the Lord Jesus Christ built, the house that
he's the head of, the house that he runs. Christ our Savior is
faithful. in all of his house. He built
his house well, perfectly. And he rules it well in wisdom
and love. And all of his children are obedient. They all are. They're obedient
to the gospel. They willingly submit themselves
to the righteousness of Christ. And all of his children, they
love him. They adore him because he first
loved them. They all do. Then, verse six,
Paul says, not a novice. Less being lifted up with pride,
he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Now, a preacher
cannot be obeyed in Christ. There's so many obvious reasons
for that. It takes time to gain some knowledge, to gain some
wisdom, some understanding. Just let a man be around long
enough. You don't have to be in a hurry
about this thing. Let a man be around long enough to prove his
faith in Christ, his dedication to Christ before he preaches.
But I'll tell you another thing about being a novice. It takes
time to gain wisdom and knowledge. It takes time to gain some humility. That doesn't happen overnight.
And we need some humility so we won't be lifted up with pride
and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Now before a man
can truly preach the gospel, God's just going to have to take
the starch out of him. because nobody likes listening
to a proud man. They think, you know, it just
comes off like he just knows he's better than you. Nobody
likes listening to a man like that. People need a humble man
to preach the gospel to. Not a novice. And I thought about
this. I've talked to several of the
other men that did the same thing I did. Spent years sitting under
Brother Henry Maine. That was the best thing for me. And in that time, I learned what
faithful preaching not just sounded like, but looked like. What it
sounded like. What it looked like. I learned
what leadership looked like. I learned what faithfulness looked
like. I learned about this thing about
not getting caught on a tangent and being determined to only
preach Christ no matter what's going on. I learned what that
looked like. I learned. I learned by watching. That time
was invaluable. Well, we need a pastor that's
not a novice, don't we? Well, our Savior is no novice. He was eternally with his father. There in Proverbs 8, he talks
about being with his father daily, his father's delight. Oh, he
knows everything that the father knows. And he's the eternal Savior. He's no novice now. He's no fly-by-night
guy. He's the eternal Savior. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And if we're going to be saved,
this is who we must believe. This is who we must come to,
the eternal Savior. There is no Savior for sinners
if Christ is not the eternal Savior. People talk about when
were you justified? I think when you're justified,
when Christ was slain. When was he slain? Before the
foundation of the world. If you're in Christ now, it's
because you've always been in Christ. Always. There is no Savior
for sinners if Christ is not the eternal Savior. He's no novice. He's the eternal Savior. Then
Paul says, verse seven, he must have a good reputation. Moreover,
he must have a good report of them which are without, lest
he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Now, a pastor
must have a good reputation with people outside the church. He
must have a good reputation in his business dealings and the
kind of neighbor that he is, because people will hate what
he preaches. I mean, if they hear what he's
preaching, if they really hear it and understand it, they will
hate what he preaches. But they should have to admit
he's an honest man. You're just not going to listen
to somebody that's dishonest, are you? You're not going to
do it. It may not be fair to hold a
pastor to a higher standard than you would other people, but it's
just the facts of life. You're not going to listen to
a man you feel like is dishonest. But the Lord Jesus, our Savior,
our Shepherd, our Pastor, He had a good report. had a good
report of those who are without. Now they hated him. They hated
him without a cause. They had no cause because of
the way he conducted himself. They hated him without a cause.
They hated his doctrine, but they couldn't find anything bad
to say about him. Not in truth, they couldn't. When it came time,
they finally laid their trap. The father finally let them get
their hands on his precious son. What did they do? that had to
find witnesses who would lie to condemn him because he had
such a good report. And again, this shows us Christ
is the sinless Savior and His sinless perfection is our salvation. He is our perfection. He say
His sinless perfection is what God gives by His grace to all
of His people. And that's not just doctrine.
That's Christ our salvation. You see here though what I'm
talking about. This is the qualification of men, God's pastors, elders,
teachers. But this is Christ our salvation.
You see that? And I want to give you this in
closing. It's something you can take with
you. Now these qualifications absolutely
they apply to pastors, elders, teachers. But these things should
be true. These qualifications should be
true of every believer. Look what Paul says in verse
11. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober,
faithful in all things. Now again, yes, that's true of
the pastor's wife and elders wife, but this is talking about
every believer, the bride of Christ. These things should be
true of every believer. We all have a good work. It's
not maybe, maybe it's not the work of the ministry preaching
and those kinds of things, but every believer has a service
to do in the kingdom of God. And whatever it is God's put
to your hand to do today, do it. Do with all you got. Do with
all you got. We should all, shouldn't every
believer have a good reputation of honesty and integrity? Every
believer should. I was with the man, actually
I had never met him before, but he was here doing some work at
the church and he knows one of the men here in the church. I won't say who it is because
it could apply to about every man here. But this is what that
man told me. I just smiled and beamed. He
said, I don't know a better man. He said, I don't know a better
man. I said, I don't either. That should be true of every
one of us. It should. We should have a good
reputation of honesty and integrity and hard work, kindness. We should
all be given hospitality to our visitors, But when you think
about being hospitable and kind, don't forget each other now.
Don't forget each other. Don't treat your visitors better
than the folks you see every week. They're so important to
you. That should be true of all of us. We should all be apt to
teach. Now, there's men here that may
have a hard episode and they would refuse to show up if I
asked them to preach on Wednesday night. I could ask Eric and he'd
say, I'd ask other men, you know, I'm not apt to teach. Well, maybe
not in the pulpit, maybe not like, you know, because pastor.
But I tell you what, in ruling your own home, well, you can
teach in your home. Teach your children. Teach your children
by word. Teach them by example. Remember I told you how I watched
Brother Henry. Not just I listened to what he said, but I saw what
faithfulness was. I saw these things in action.
I saw this is what a pastor is. Teach your children what a man
is. You ladies teach your children what a mother is, what a wife
is, what a woman is. Teach them. Teach them. Teach
them by word. Teach them by example. And might
I just add, make sure that your words match your example. Children
see through that faster than you do. And I tell you how we
do all that. Fulfilling all these qualifications
in our daily lives, in our homes, with our families, with our neighbors,
with our co-workers. You do it. by depending on Christ
alone. Do it by trusting Christ alone. The same as the pastor does.
The same way. See, all these things should
be true of all of us, shouldn't they? And I hope when you hear
this and you think of this passage again, every time you read it,
every time you hear it read, every time you think about it,
that you'll think, oh, what a pastor we have. What a Savior. See how
these things perfectly describe Christ our Savior. All right,
let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank You
for what a pastor, what a great shepherd that we have in our
Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that as we
leave here this morning, that You would let each one, each
heart, see and believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't let us leave
here without closing with Christ, Believing on him, resting on
him, trusting our eternal soul to him alone. Father, how thankful
we are for your steadfastness, your faithfulness, your patience
with sinners. How thankful we are for your
hospitality that you draw sinners, you draw your sinful people to
yourself. You receive us and eat with us,
have fellowship with us. Father, how we thank you. Father,
I pray you take this message and cause it to shine forth to
the glory of Christ our Savior. For his precious name, we pray
and give thanks. Amen.