Alright, let's take our Bibles
and turn to 1 Peter chapter 5. Peter's been teaching us something
of our relationship to this world and their attitude and conduct
toward us and ours toward them. And in particular, he's been
talking about our sufferings for his Word. That's where the
Christian suffers is over the Word of God. That's where it
begins. That's where his suffering begins.
He testifies of the Word of God, and he rests there. He won't
go past that. He's not going to include upon
that man's ideas and concepts, but he stays right there on the
Word of God. And we often suffer for that. We'll suffer isolation and division
and different things over the Word of God. And then he talks
to us about our sufferings over the Word of God and over
the Son of God. We insist on who the Son of God
is, that He's God over all, blessed forever, that He's This is God. Jesus Christ is God. This man
who walked on this earth is every wit God. The Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And that's all of John's writings,
the Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, all through there.
John insists on Jesus Christ being the Son of God. He emphasizes
that all through his writings. And now Peter begins to close
his letter with some exhortations concerning our attitude and conduct
toward one another. He talks to us about our conduct
toward this world and about our sufferings in this world, and
then he turns and he begins to talk to us about our relationship
to one another, the believer's relationship to other believers.
And he begins here in these first four verses of chapter 5, with
an exhortation to the elders or pastors of local churches. Now, let's read all four verses,
and then I'll make some comments on the verses. 1 Peter 5, verse 1. The elders
which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is
among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly. Not for filthy lucre, that is
not for gain, but of a ready mind. Neither is being lords
over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. Now, it
seems by the language that Peter uses here that most, if not all,
the churches to whom he's writing had pastors. This has been a
fixed principle from the very beginning. This is what our Lord
has ordained, and this is just the way it is in this gospel
age, that he's going to have assemblies here and assemblies
there and assemblies over here, and all of those assemblies are
going to have a pastor. That's God's ordained means. And it takes some time to go
through the scriptures and show you that, but it's in the scriptures.
It's taught in the scriptures, and it was practiced in the early
church. And so Peter writes to them concerning
these elders. Now, the word elder here doesn't
refer to an older man. The word elder here has to do
with pastors, pastors of churches. Some believe that a pastor can
act as a pastor over more than one assembly. I won't argue with
them. I'm not going to divide with
them over that. And I suppose we could have some influence
over other groups of men. But I believe as a pastor begins
to have that influence on another congregation or going and preach
where there is no pastor to a small group gathered there, I believe
you begin fulfilling a different office than that of a pastor.
I believe you've begun to take upon yourself the office of an
evangelist. And so we visit and we preach
to them, but I have no, there is no authority other than that
authority which accompanies preachers everywhere they go. There is
no authority of me as their pastor. You know, Paul spoke of the days
when men would not endure sound doctrine. I believe we're living
in those days. They won't endure sound doctrine.
I don't care how much you read them, how much you show them
in the Word of God, they'll run off to the left and run off to
the right. And they just won't submit to
sound doctrine. Those days are coming, he told
young Timothy. He wrote to him and told him
these things. And he said, but after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they turn men's
ears from the truth to fables, to fables. But he said to Timothy,
watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, and do the work. Now listen to this of an evangelist. You go ahead and do this work.
You go out and preach. If a group calls you to come,
you go. And you go out there and preach, and you do the work
of an evangelist. And then you come back to where
you're pastoring, and you faithfully pastor those people. I believe a pastor is a very
particular office. It seems to me that a pastor
has his best effect upon a single congregation. And actually, this
relationship between a church and its pastor begins to take
upon itself the nature of a marriage. They're joined together in love. That assembly is, that pastor
is. He loves them, they love him.
And because they love one another, because God has by his spirit
joined their hearts together, he is then able to take the oversight
of that people, and they in turn are made to willingly subject
to him as their pastor. And so he rules in love. He rules,
but he rules in love. And by love, his rule is accepted.
Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 3. Let me show you something
over here. prophetically speaking of the
coming days of Christ in that gospel age. You could find the
prophetic writings of these old prophets all through the Old
Testament where they were speaking to Israel as a nation and yet
speaking beyond Israel to spiritual Israel and prophetically speaking
to that day in which we live. And often our Lord takes things
that these old prophets said and applies them to that present
age. But prophetically speaking of
the coming days of Christ in that gospel age, our Lord speaks
to spiritual Israel these encouraging words here in Jeremiah chapter
3. In verse 14, He said, Turn, O backsliding children, saith
the Lord, for I am married unto you. The church is the bride
of Christ. That's what the Scripture teaches.
And this is how our Lord addresses them. I'm married unto you, and
I'll take care of you. One of a city, two of a family,
and I'll bring you to Zion. That's His church. I'm going
to bring you to My church. I'll bring you into My church.
Make you a member of My church. And I'll give you pastors. Now
listen to this, verse 15. I'll give you pastors according
to mine heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."
And as our Lord brings His bride into His house, into His church,
He also gives them pastors. Now turn with me to Ephesians
4 and I'll show you where that's fulfilled. Ephesians chapter
4. Every man, every believer that's
here this morning, called into the visible church, living and
serving God all his days in this world, he has a gift of grace
of some kind in which to serve his Lord in certain places in
that church. He has something that he can
do. He may be only able to support that church. He may be only able
by his attendance to be a faithful member of that church. He might
be endowed with some kind of special compassion to the ignorant
and compassion to the sick and able to minister to them. But
he has something. He has a gift of God's grace
that he can contribute in that assembly. Ephesians 4 saving. Listen to
this. unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Here's
the giver. Christ is. He gives these gifts. He called us into His church,
told us we was His bride, told us He's going to send us faithful
pastors after His own heart. And they're going to feed us
with knowledge and wisdom. And so now He tells them, He
said, Wherefore, He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led
captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended,
what is it but he that also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? He came down from heaven. God
Almighty in the person of Christ came down from heaven, accomplished
our redemption, established for us a perfect righteousness, and
then ascended back up into glory. And he that descended is the
same also that ascended up far above the heavens that he might
fill all things. What is he saying here? He's
saying that he purchased the rights to give these gifts to
whom he will. That's what he's saying. He come
down and accomplished their redemption. And having accomplished those
things and satisfied God completely, satisfied His justice and His
righteousness and His mercy and His grace, He ascended far up
above all the heavens. And from that place, having purchased
the right, He gives gifts now unto whom He will. And He gave
some, verse 11, apostles. Those are the writers of the
New Testament. These few men that God confirmed
by miracles and signs and wonders, which He did by them right in
the people's midst. Think about that day of Pentecost.
Here's these old ignorant fishermen, claimed to be apostles, claimed
to be disciples of Christ, whose master had been crucified in
open shame. And now here these men sat, and
on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God was poured out
on them, and they began to speak in every man's language that
was gathered there from all over the world. They had no background
in it. They had no formal training in
these languages. These were just ignorant fishermen.
And here they were preaching, and everybody there heard them
in their own tongues. Think about it. Peter, they wait
for Peter and Paul to just walk past and lay the sick down in
their shadow that they might be healed. God confirmed these
men. There was nothing else like them.
People today who claim to have all these extraordinary gifts
of healing and all this, show me that. When God gives a man
a gift, he shows it. He shows it. He don't cure a
man with a headache. He raises the dead. He cleanses
the leper. These men were established beyond
any doubt to be His apostles. And He gave some apostles. And
He gave some prophets. And some evangelists. And some,
now listen, pastors and teachers. That's not two different offices.
That's one office. They're pastor-teachers. Why
did He give them? Here it is, verse 12. for the
perfecting of His church, for the perfecting
of His people. What's that mean? Well, some
writers say that means for the maturing. That word perfect is
said up here, and we're way down here, and we're growing in grace
up to that point, perfecting. But here's what it means. He's
talking about that man of faith, that new man in you, which is
Christ. He's perfect. So what does the believer do
by faith? He grows in grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's growing, that man, that
man of faith that's in him, his knowledge of that man is growing
up to that perfect man. And so here he calls it perfecting. perfecting of the saints, and
for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body
of Christ, until we all come in the unity of the faith, and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man." There's
that word again, a perfect man. Now this old sinful flesh is
not getting better and better. But that man of faith is growing.
He's maturing. I understand a whole lot more
about Christ now than I did at the beginning. And it's growing
toward that perfection. That faith is growing toward
that perfection. And then in the very last day
when Christ comes, we'll see Him as He is and we'll be like
Him. That new man will be complete. And this old man will go back
to the dust. Till we all come into the unity of the faith of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. unto the
measure, now listen to this, unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ. Isn't that what I just told you?
That's what that faith's doing. That we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things which is the head Even Christ,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplies, according to the effects of working
in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love. He's growing up in Christ. And pastors, these pastors who
feed these people for this reason, they have the mind and heart
of God. That's what he told us through his prophet Jeremiah.
They have the heart of God as to minister wherever and to whomever
God sends us. Isn't that what he says over
there in Romans chapter 10? How are you going to hear that
preacher and how is he going to preach if God doesn't send
him? I don't know where God's people are. I don't have a clue
where they are. I don't know who they are. But
I know how God makes them known. He makes them known through the
preaching of the gospel. And so he establishes a group
somewhere. Can I explain that? No, I can't
explain that. Why did God raise up a church
down here in the middle of Arkansas? And you go up around New York
City and you go up there where there's millions, just millions
upon millions of people, and you can't find a single church
anywhere. There's nobody up there preaching
Christ and Him crucified. There's churches, there's churches
on every corner all over the country, but there's very few
churches with pastors who feed the flock of God. And that's
what Peter's saying here. What do we feed the flock? What
do pastors feed the flock? Well, they don't feed the flock
ceremonial duties. They don't do that. And they
don't feed the flock legal morality. In other words, by something
you do, you can establish some kind of righteousness in yourself
to recommend yourself to God or to win God's favor. You're
not going to win God's favor by your works. You remember what Job said when
they started talking to him about the just man? Job said, he put
no trust in his saints. Huh? God doesn't put any trust
in his saints. He don't say, boy, there's a
guy now. He's faithful. He's faithful. No. If he's faithful,
he's faithful because God enabled him to be faithful. Pastors feed the flock of God
with the gospel of Christ. And then Peter tells us in verse
2, back here in 1 Peter chapter 5, he tells us in verse 2, taking
the oversight thereof, not by constraint. Now, I've attempted
to serve as an interim pastor in times past to a couple of
little groups, but those little groups didn't want me to serve
in the capacity of a pastor. They didn't want me there. They
wanted me to be there. They wanted me to be there when
it was convenient for them, and they wanted me to be there on
certain days and certain times and to say certain things but
don't say other things. They didn't want me to serve
in the capacity of an interim pastor. And so I left. You might fall out with me over
that. Some people may in other places fall out with me over
that. But I'm taught here not to pasture by constraint. I don't constrain you, and you
don't constrain me. Now, what are you saying here?
You take the oversight, but not by constraint. I might have made some phone
calls and pulled some strings and had some special meetings.
I might have won the day with those groups. But here I'm told
not to do that. And I believe this. I believe
pastoring is a willing endeavor. I believe that congregation must
be made willing, and I believe that pastor must be made willing,
just like in a marriage. I do not constrain them, and
they do not constrain me. And so Paul follows these words
with this. He said, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Of a ready
mind. And there's all kinds of ways
you can constrain men. You can constrain men by money.
You offer them a really big wage, and he says, well, this might
be a pretty good setup. I think I'll come here. You can
constrain men with money. You can constrain men with reputation. Boy, if I go there, now that
church is known all over the world. If I go there, I'll be
somebody. I'll be somebody. And you can
constrain men with acceptance. Just, there's some churches that's
well-known in a community, and just by going into that church,
you're just welcomed right into the community. And you can constrain
men by promise of reward. But there's only one acceptable
constraint, and that's the love of Christ. Now, I want you to
listen. Here's the man who wrote this epistle. I'm going to take
you way back, Your Honor, right after the resurrection of Christ.
Peter quit the ministry. Him and John and all the rest
of them, they quit the ministry and went back to fishing. They
was out on the lake, throw the net in, fished all night, wasn't
catching anything. And Christ appeared to him. He
was over on the bank and had fish over the fire. And he said,
come and dine. And they came in and they gathered
around. And Peter knew what he'd done. All the rest of them knew what
they'd done. But this was the master. And they came down there.
And our Lord turned and looked Peter right in the face. And
he said, Peter, do you love me? And Peter said, you know. all
things, and you know that I love you." What did he tell him? Feed
my sheep. Huh? That's the only acceptable
constraint there is. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. He asked him that three times.
The last time, he said, feed my lambs. Feed my little ones. And pastors are not to rule.
in 1 Peter, as lords over God's heritage. They're not dictators. They're not dictators. The Scripture
says they have the rule. He tells us that over in the
book of Hebrews. I believe it's chapter 13. He
said, obey them which have the rule. They have the rule of God
over that congregation. He gave it to them. And we're
to obey them that have the rule over us, as them that watch for
your souls, and as of them who must give an account. And that's
not talking about way down the line at judgment. That's talking
about daily must give an account to Him. You abuse His children,
you're not going to be long for the ministry. God will take you
out. We're the Lord's undershepherds,
and we're accountable to the chief shepherds. And pastors
rule in love, and then they lead by example. See that there in
the Scriptures? Being examples unto the flock,
not as lords over God's heritage, but as examples. What is it I
hope for you to do? In preaching to you, what is
it I hope to see? What is it I hope for you to
do? Do I want you to love God and to love Christ and to love
me? Then let me love you. Let me love God. Let me love
Christ. Huh? Isn't that what he's saying?
Be examples to the flock. Whatever it is, I must lead by
example. Love, generosity, faithfulness,
sincerity, work, whatever it is, truth, compassion. Set the
example. That's what he's telling us.
Paul said, brethren, be followers together of me and mark them
which walk so as you have us for an example. We're examples. And that's the only way for a
pastor to rule. And to rule well and be counted
worthy of double honor, as Paul told Timothy, is to minister
in love and remember at all times who we represent and to whom
we minister. You know, God said that these
little ones, he said, Woe unto him that offends one of these
little ones, one of my little ones. He calls them the apple
of his eye. That means the pupil. Boy, you
don't have to get anything too close to your eyes before you're
ready to try to protect them. He said, they're the apple of
my eye. And we're told in the Scripture
that their angels, these ministering angels sent forth to minister
to those who shall be heirs of salvation, their angels do always
stand before your Father. All the Father has to do is send
that angel in a heartbeat. So we know whom we serve. We know pastors. They're aware. I'm aware that I'm an ambassador
for Christ as though God did beseech you through me. I'm aware
of that. And I'm aware of who it is I'm
ministering to. His children. His children. I
don't want to take up a scepter and start being some kind of
lord over God's heritage. I'm not a lord over anything.
I'm a pastor, and I'm a pastor by the grace of God. by the grace
of God. And so we just keep in mind who
we're ministering to and who we represent. And that'll pretty
much take care of all this other stuff before you go sideways. And then think about this phrase,
the flock of God. His flock. His flock. I really get tired of these words
like clergy and laity. You know what old John Gill said?
He was one of the best commentators who ever lived. And old John
Gill said the word clergy is common to all the saints. So
when you go down to Hoss Field and you see this little sign
that says clergy, that means if a pastor comes down there,
he can park his car there and nobody else can. Well, this word
clergy, Gill said, is common to all the saints. Because all
God's church has a royal priest to it, aren't they? Isn't that
what he says over there in Revelation 1, 6? He hath made us kings and
priests unto our God. So this word clergy is common
to all God's people. Now, we don't all have the same
job, but we're all ministers. Paul said, but now hath God set
the members, every one of them in the body, as it had pleased
Him over in 1 Corinthians 12, 18. He put them there. He put them there. And in the
same chapter, the apostle says, there are diversities of gifts,
but the same Spirit. He doesn't gift everybody to
be a pastor. He doesn't gift everybody to
be a speaker. But some men are gifted, they're especially gifted
in prayer. We have them here and I call
on them often. I call on them often because I recognize that
God gave them that gift of prayer. There's diversity of gifts but
of the same spirit and there's differences of administrations,
he says. The office of an apostle is different
from the office of a pastor. The office of a pastor is different
from the office of an evangelist. There's differences in administrations. And there are diversities, he
tells us in verse 6 of that chapter over in 1 Corinthians, there
are diversities of operations. The gospel must be preached.
Providence must be ordered. Hearts must be prepared. Support
must be given. Support must be dispersed. Those
in need must be helped. People must be invited. There's
all kinds of operations performed, some ordinary and some extraordinary. But there's diversities of operations
in the church. Different gifts, different offices. But he tells us in 1 Corinthians
12, 7, but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every
man to profit the whole body. And you can't look at that little
finger and say, because you're not a toe, I don't care for you.
Just chop it off if you don't care for it. No, I don't think
so. I don't think so. You need that
just as much as you do that little toe. But you don't think about
it, do you, every day? You don't think about those things.
God put us as members all in the body of Christ where we do
the most good and where we do the body the most good. And though
some offices, they might seem to be more prominent than others,
yet the truth, the truth of the matter is that every member working
together is how the body of the church is able to function. 1 Peter 5, verse 4. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
This is not talking about a pastor's reward. That's not what this is talking
about at all. Christ is the chief shepherd.
He's the good shepherd that lays down His life for the sheep.
He's the shepherd known and made known to His people. He's the
real shepherd. He said, My sheep, hear My voice. And I know them, and they follow
me. He calls his sheep by name, and they come out when he calls.
He's a protecting shepherd. The hireling fleeth because he's
hiring. But the shepherd don't flee.
He'll lay down his life for the sheep. And he's the only shepherd. There's one flock and one shepherd. Pastors, they're under-shepherds.
Whatever they have, they have of him that are led by him and
serve him and they're faithful to it. When the chief shepherd
shall appear, he's going to receive a crown
of glory. There's two things I want you to see here and I'll
quit. First of all, I want you to know
that the chief shepherd shall appear. He's coming back. He's here right now by embassy. The church is his embassy. We
have embassies over in foreign countries that represent this
nation. The church is his embassy. And he's represented by that
embassy. He's also represented here and
he's here with us now by his spirit. I can't teach a natural man anything.
I can't do anything for you. But God through me can do something
for you. And so he's here by his spirit.
And he's here by his ambassadors. Now what Paul said, now then
we are ambassadors as though God did beseech you by us. But
there's coming a time when the ambassadors are going to stand
aside and the embassy is going to stand aside and the chief
shepherd is going to stand. He's coming back. He's coming
back. He's going to appear. And that's
the treasure, that's the glory, that's the crown that every believer
hopes to have. He wants to see Him in His glory
and be with Him where He's at. And be like Him. Be like Him. In all the glory of His Father's
house and with all His heavenly angels. And then Peter says this,
Ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away, not as
a reward, but as the lot of all his sheep." And since he's talking
about pastors, he applies it to pastors. But that same crown
of glory is going to be given to that man who'd been faithful
to give and support that church, that same man who'd been faithful
to walk in this world as his sheep, as his child, And I tell you,
these people, they might be pitied now by their unbelieving relatives. Every now and then, mine will
just pat me on the head and walk out the door when they come to
visit to feel so sorry for me and pity me. Our Lord, here He is. They constrained a man to carry
His cross, and this man carrying the cross, and our Lord's beaten
beyond recognition. tell who he is, and he's walking
along, and these women are just wailing and weeping, and he turned
to them, and he said, don't weep for me. Don't pity me. Weep for yourselves. Weep for
your children. We might be pitied now by this
unbelieving world, and we might be laughed to scorn by the big
denominations and big-time religion of this world, but not in that
day. And that day when He appears,
the dead in Christ shall rise first, and they that are alive
and remain should be caught up with Him, and will stand with
Him, with Him, in His judgment of this world. Isn't that what
Paul told in his first letter of the Corinthians? He said,
don't you know you're going to judge this world? You can't even
judge matters in the church. Don't you know you're going to
judge this world? And that day the chief shepherds
shall gather his flock together with him. They'll be called up
to meet him in the air, and they'll stand with him and with him judge
this present evil world. God help us to be faithful to
whatever office he's called us, to whatever job he's called us,
to whatever position he's called us, because it's all a gift of
his grace. Hell's what we deserve. And anything
this side of hell is mercy, isn't it?