If you will turn back in your
bibles to first timothy chapter three as we revisit some of the
explicit commands and qualifications for leadership in the local church
Much of which we have done over a four-week series in our men's
Theology class so some of you will be hearing these things
again. They will be in brief today but it's important for
us as we prepare to install two young men to the office of deacon
for the congregation to know that biblical qualifications
are a requisite to service in the kingdom of God that you can't
just have anyone in leadership that you feel like. Like you
can't vote people into leadership just because they're popular
or because they look good or because they have money or because
they have influence. The church is not a democracy
It's not a a business organization It's not a political institution
by which you use those sorts of means and ways to have your
system run The Bible is very clear that biblical leadership
in the local church. And this is what we are dealing
with calls for specific Qualifications of which let me say at the beginning
no man really fully qualifies let me say that at the beginning
because it's so difficult sometimes when we are working with the
Impossible standard that God is calling us all to and then
try to find men who can fit within the framework of those biblical
mandates and It's very challenging sometimes how to approach the
scriptures along those lines And I say what the Apostle Paul
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 by nature who's sufficient for these
things? none of us But by the grace of
God what he does is is we follow the rules. We can find men who
over time meet the basic framework and tenor of these texts so that
our conscience is clear when we lay hands on them that they
have followed the biblical protocol as they aspire to the office. So once again your conscience
will be born witness to as to what the Word of God has to say
about these things. So our title is Bishops, Elders and Deacons,
a very simple concept, a very simple term to extract it directly
from the text in front of us. First Timothy chapter three.
And it opens up saying this is a true saying. If a man desire
the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. So the first thing
I want to call your attention to is that the idea of leadership
in the church is that of the purpose for which the church
is to be governed. First point in your outline,
their purpose is to govern the church. That's the role of leadership
in the church. It's to govern the church. And
the idea of government in the church has to do with the lordship
of Christ over his church, working through men who are submitted
to his will and his word, thereby Christ is able to safely navigate
his precious church through the storms and trials of life into
the safe haven of the kingdom of God. So when we talk about
church government, we read in Ephesians 4, verse 11, that God
gave gifts unto the church. Ephesians 4, 11 will tell us
about five characteristics or what we call five gifts that
he has given to the church as a function of guiding her and
strengthening her. Notice, what it says in Ephesians
4 verse 11. And he gave some, that is Christ,
he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers. Now this list of gifts that are
given in verse 11 actually encompass the whole church of Christ. But
we must break up this category into two sections. The first
three are apostles, prophets, and evangelists. Do you guys
see that? These three are what we call universal church gifts. They are leaders and governors
of the whole church of Jesus Christ. They are not local members. They are not part of the local
body of Christ. In fact, we call them the foundation
of the church as a whole. For God gave 12 apostles, He
gave evangelists and he gave prophets through Jesus Christ
in the early days by which the word of God was established and
the church itself was born and formulated. The office of apostle,
the office of prophet, those two offices do not operate today
in the classical sense of apostles and prophets. Let's get that
clear right now. If you have in your church those
who call themselves apostles, and those who call themselves
prophets. You have in your church foundation
gift ministries by which they have the authority to declare
to you and me, thus saith the Lord, and thus bring new revelation
to the Bible. And the Word of God will not
have that. So when we say there are no apostles and there are
no prophets, we're saying in the classical sense, as the Lord
Jesus handpicked twelve men, these twelve men became the foundation
of the church. Thus, we read in Ephesians chapter
two and the foundation of the church are the apostles. and
the prophets and Jesus Christ who is the cheap cornerstone.
Now it's upon their ministry, these men who have died and left
us the depository of truth called the New Testament, it's upon
their ministry that the local churches built. So then who exists
as government in the local church? pastors and teachers. Do you
guys see that? The word evangelist is a term
that we can use for a roaming missionary or a roaming minister
of exhortation. He might be an individual who
is gifted to go around and encourage the saints and preach the gospel
and have the lost come into the local church. But as a ruling
office, there is not such a position in the church. And that's why
when you read in first Timothy chapter three, you only read
of two fundamental offices, and that's elder and deacon. So the
term pastor-teacher actually has to do with your local church
government. So the elders in your church
are what are called the rulers, and among those rulers we have
teachers. So we have divided it up like
this historically in the Protestant Church. You have what are called
ruling elders. That is, those elders who qualify
and meet these biblical standards in 1 Timothy chapter 3. but they're
not necessarily given the gift of teaching. That is, they may
be able to teach, but they fundamentally exercise the role of discernment
because of their knowledge of the Word of God and because of
their maturity to help govern the body. Does that make some
sense? So what I've often said is there is a distinction between
the gift of teaching and the office of elder. In other words,
you can have the gift of teaching and not qualify to be an elder.
and therefore be used as a teacher in the church, but not be able
to occupy the office of an elder because you have not met these
requisites. Does that make sense? Very important
to know that. So often you will discover when
new Christians are born again, whether they are men or women,
and they actually have the gift of teaching. They will be used
by God to teach others the Word of God, rightly dividing the
Word of God, laying it out precept upon precept, and pointing men
and women to Jesus Christ, and strengthening the body politic
from a teaching level. But that you have the gift of
teaching doesn't mean you're qualified to lead the congregation.
That you have the gift of teaching does not mean you can be an elder
or a pastor. And so you have to make that
distinction. And again, what we've done historically from the time
of the Reformation, we're about to start a series in our Sunday
school called The Fundamentals, where we're going to learn church
history and then understand and revisit what we call the doctrines
of grace, which fundamentally made a distinction between Catholicism
and the evangelical church as we know it today. Revisiting
these things will help you understand why we hold to the Bible alone,
why we hold to Christ alone, why we hold to faith alone, why
we hold to grace alone, why we hold to the glory of God alone. Revisiting these things will
be a benefit to us. So in the local church, the job
of the eldership is to govern the body with the objective of
building them up. Notice what it says then in verse
12. for the perfecting the word perfecting should be maturing
for the maturing of the saints for the work of the ministry
and for the building up of the body of christ so why did god
give us leadership in the church to develop the body it's a it's
an organism it's a metaphor of the growing maturing body and
that body has to be nurtured through the milk of the word
and through the meat of the word and guide it into maturity so
that it might meet these ends look at verse 13 Notice what
it says, until we all come into the unity of the what? That's
right, until we all come into the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, that is a
complete man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ. So verse 13 is the end game for leadership in the
church. That we all come into the unity
of the faith means that we come into the knowledge of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And that that gospel grows us
up in a way that as a local body and as the church universal,
we can do the will of God. And in doing the will of God,
we become an extension of Christ. the earth it's called his body
so that's the goal of the leadership in the church so now I want you
to go with me now in your Bible to first to Titus chapter 1 verse
5 and notice again in what we call the pastoral epistle the
instruction or the imperative given to Titus around these same
things that you and I are doing today calling on men to enter
into the ministry to help labor and Build and edify and strengthen
the church. Here's what the Apostle said
to Titus now the book of Timothy and the book of Titus are what
we call Pastoral epistles is from one pastor to another pastor
about how the church is to be governed So Titus and Timothy
are sons of Paul in the faith and here's what Paul says in
verse 5 for this cause left I'd be in Crete and that you should
set in order the things that are lacking and ordain elders
in every city as I had appointed thee." And if you'll notice,
verse 6 and verse 7 actually give the same qualifications
that we have in 1 Timothy 3. Note, if any man be blameless,
the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused
of riot or unruliness, For a bishop must be blameless as the steward
of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine,
not a striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality,
a lover of good men, sober and just, holy and temperate, holding
fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may
be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers. I'll stop right there. What a
list. What a list of qualifications. And we can narrow them down this
way as we go back to our first point. The leadership in the
church idealistically should be men who are blameless. Now the word blameless there
does not mean impeccably righteous so that they don't have any kind
of flaws or sinful characteristics in them. There's only one we
know who is blameless like that. What is his name? But the term
blameless means that that individual does not walk in such a way as
that he brings ill repute to the gospel or to the cause of
Christ. That he doesn't live such a life
that the congregation or the secular public can blame him
for immorality or unethical behavior. that's exactly what the term
means and the idea of being uh blameless in this context is
for that individual to serve as a model to the congregation
and notice what it says strictly concerning him in first timothy
chapter three and we have always held to this at grace not all
churches do but we do The bishop must be, or the elder must be,
or the pastor must be, and I'll talk about the interchangeableness
of this term in a moment. This is 1 Timothy 3 verse 2.
He must be the husband of how many wives? Can y'all count? He must be the husband of one
wife. Not to stay on this long at all because we have, again,
massive controversy around how to apply these texts relative
to men. We live in a day where divorce
is rampant. We live in a day where remarriage
is just as rampant as divorce. We are not one of those churches
that hold to an extreme position of no divorce for any reason
at any time. We would never do that because we don't believe
the Word of God supports that. But what we do hold to is the
idea, according to the Word of God, is till death do us part.
Right? And so the leadership in the
church should be aspiring to, and that's what the word desire
means. He desires the office. He should be aspiring to the
biblical model of faithfulness to a wife, faithfulness to children,
faithfulness to the household in a manner that would correspond
to the church. That's why Paul said, if that
man doesn't know how to rule his own house, what, how shall
he rule the house of God? And so he's making a natural
connection between the earthly family and our heavenly family,
is he not? He's demonstrating how Christ
is the head of the church, the church is the bride of Christ,
and the children of the kingdom are under the rule and auspices
of Christ through the church. And as Christ loves his bride
and laid down his life for his bride and gave her the gifts
that are needed for his bride to be fruitful and productive
and raise children for God's glory, even so the pastor and
the elders and the deacons are to strive to that model. Because
to the end that we are striving for that model, we are going
to encourage the congregation to do the same. Am I making some
sense? to the end that we strive for
that model, we are going to encourage the congregation to do the same. A lot more could be said about
that in terms of our broken society, but when you are wanting to choose
leaders, you really do want to fit that bill. There are exceptions
to the rule. There are situations in missionary
work. There are events where it makes
it hard to achieve those goals. And so on some levels, missionary
institutions and churches have raised up men who have been gifted
and qualified in other academic areas and set them in a position
of authority as pastor over the church prior to them being married,
prior to them raising children. We simply say that that's a dangerous
thing to do. although ultimately it could
work out. If you can, you want to fit the script of looking
for men who have already gone through the arduous, impossible
task of raising children because it humbles you to a degree by
which when they read 2 Corinthians 3 again, who is sufficient for
these things? They say, Paul, I know what you
mean. These are the men that you really
want in office. because they have their senses exercised to
discern good and evil, particularly in the area and matters of growing
people up in the faith. So notice what we have in our
outline. Point number one, let's quickly make our way through
here. The purpose in governing the church is to oversee its
total welfare. You guys see that? To oversee
it. The word episcopate is our Greek term for bishop in our
text. It's a term that's misinterpreted largely today, and it takes on
one of these grandiose positions that's often seen either in the
Catholic Church or in your Episcopal churches, where he is some kind
of grand ruler over many dioceses or over many different congregations. The word episcopate literally
means to oversee. Epi is a preposition, meaning
over. Scopios is the term for viewing,
and the role of the overseer is to watch over the flock. That's his role. So there are
three aspects of these terms that actually correspond to the
same office. The bishop is an elder, but he's
also a pastor. The bishop is an elder, but he's
also a pastor. Three categories that fundamentally
fall into this one and same office. So on the one hand, he is an
overseer. On the other hand, he is an elder.
Presbyteros is a term that we have for elder and I want you
to see this in first Peter 5 verses 1 through 5 and in fact Peter
in a very cunning way brings all three categories of the calling
of the elder into view here in the verbal form when we read
first Peter chapter 5 1 2 & 3 now notice what he says the elders
you guys see that that's the word Presbyter from which we
get our term Presbyterian and it simply means mature men Mature
in the faith not young men babies children are brand new in the
kingdom They're mature enough to know something about the difficult
issues of life and the challenges of life and can speak wisely
into situations because of their Experience they're mature. They
don't have to be as old as Methuselah But they can't be so young that
they don't know anything about life's difficulties. Does that
make sense? Right, so an elder is not some
chronologically fixed number that you would put in your mind
like 50 years old. In fact, if you go through your
Bible, both old and new, you will discover that elders generally
fell in the category of 35 and up. God brought men into the
ministry between 30 and 35 years old in the Old Testament in the
Levitical priesthood and the Aaronic Order. And so they were
generally about 35 years old this follows because remember
when our lord started his ministry He was in his what 30s And so
if his disciples were his peers and most of them were except
for john, they would have been in their 30s, too So here he
starts the new testament church with himself and his apostles
and they're all in their late 30s They are elder material They
are elder material. So here's what Peter says the
elders which are among you I exhort who am also a what? And i'm a
witness of the sufferings of christ and also a partaker of
the glory that should be revealed verse 2 mark this Feed the flock
of god. Do you see it? Feed the flock
of God. That word feed there is our verbal
form for the term pastor. Poiminante is the verbal form
of poiminé from which we get the term shepherd. Now what does
the shepherd do? He feeds the flock. He nurtures
the flock. He gives them the corn of the
word of God, the meat of the word of God. He cares for the
flock. That's what a shepherd is. Now
we have one shepherd over the church of God and his name is
who? He's the chief shepherd, he's the good shepherd, and he's
the great shepherd, but he does have under shepherds. And those
under shepherds are elders, and they are overseers, and they
are shepherds. So there's the three aspects
of it right there. Mark it again. Feed the flock
of God which is among you, taking the what? That's our word in
the verbal form for episcopate. So we have the elder in verse
1, we have the shepherd in verse 2, now we have the episcopate
here. So they are elders and mature,
they are shepherds in that they feed the flock, and they are
overseers in that they are overseeing the flock. Now watch what it
says. Watch this. Watch what the text says. It says that they
are to take the oversight. See it? Take the oversight. Not
by what? In other words, no man being
called to the ministry is to be pushed into it. He's not to
be forced into it. He's not to be compelled or conjoled
by necessity or by external mandate. He must be called of God internally
to this office. There must be a real spiritual
drive on his part to take a position which if he is not careful will
tear him to shreds. because the position of an overseer
is a very difficult position. God has to put him there and
then qualify him to endure what it takes to take care of the
flock of God. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So he doesn't do it by constraint. He does it what? Willingly. He does it willingly. Now that willingness is not some
kind of sort of casual or precipitous or personal willingness. He does
it willingly only because over time God has confirmed his call. God has qualified him experientially
and God has sort of shut him in up to it to the point where
he knows this is what God is calling me to do. Am I making
some sense? So not everyone who aspires or wants to be a leader
in the church is either qualified or should be there. So aspiration
is not enough. You have to meet certain requisites.
And when you meet those requisites and everything works together
according to God's providence and according to God's word,
then the man that's going to be in a position of leadership
in the church as a bishop, as an elder, as a pastor, is going
to be one who has met all those qualifications. His conscience
is going to be clear. His conscience is going to be
clear. And then he says, do not do it for money. Do you see that?
A lot of people people kind of really struggle over that but
I'll tell you almost all the pastors I know stay broke. Because the filthy lucre thing
really in the first century to our present time has never been
a problem for godly men. It's only been a problem for
ungodly men. Ungodly men who view the call
to being an elder pastor or an overseer as simply a job to make
money. Y'all know what I'm talking about,
don't you? Just a job to make money. And therefore, he skips
over all the other aspects of the ministry that has to do with
the heart, that has to do with the mind, that has to do with
the soul, that has to do with relationships, deep, committed
relationships unto death as he stands as a representative of
Jesus Christ. The man that is going to give
himself to the task of the ministry cannot do it for money It's just
no money not enough money for him to be actually satisfied
for what he has to give for the cause of christ Now what goes
on in your church where these folks are making? Buku tons of
money. I have no idea what that's about.
That's something you have to work through But in so far as
the normal pastor who is seeking to be obedient to God's word
is concerned, he is not in it to get rich. You guys understand
that? That's what he's talking about.
And in fact, if you were to have gone through the study with us,
this is what you would have discovered as we get ready to go back and
work through the rest of our points. The Bible says that the
men who are to be considered must be honest men. They must
be lovers of truth. And then they must be men who
hate covetousness. Honest men, lovers of truth,
and men who hate covetousness. You guys understand that concept
there? Honest men, men who are willing to live honest before
you. Honest before you. Men who hate covetousness. What
does it profit a man if he gained the whole world and loses soul?
But there are also men who love the truth. And these become the
foundational qualifications for leadership. So then let's go
on. Under the purpose of government to the church, he oversees the
welfare of the church. And therefore, as an episcopate,
he's an authority. As a presbytery, he is a mature
man. And as a poimena, he is a shepherding,
nurturing individual. And his desires and aspirations
to the office pastor according to verse 1 is that he is desiring
a good what's the word work you see it this is a true saying
if a man desire the office of a bishop he desires a good what's
the word work just to talk about that for a moment when you are
being called into a leadership position you're not being called
to a desk you're being called to a duty You're not being called
to a computer where you sit there all day long and kind of just
get a little heavy You know what? I mean, you're called to a work. It's a very very arduous task
the greek term there Corresponds to our english term energy energy. He's called to apply himself
Energetically to a task that is larger than himself. So if
you're lazy don't think about the ministry There's a couple
other things I want to mark as we get ready to go into our second
point. According to our text, it's very
clear, and let's just get this out of the way while we're here,
since we all agree that the pastor, elder, teacher, shepherd ought
to love the truth, right? Since we all agree with that.
Pastors must be men. You guys know what the word men
means? I had a couple of people couple
ladies accidentally going to the right to go into our men's
bathroom and somebody said there's no sign up there pastor they
don't know if it's the men's restroom or a women's restroom
and then I had a couple men almost accidentally going to the left
to the women's bathroom because there was no sign up there either
and I rushed and got one of our red and black markers I hope
y'all notice and I wrote women on the left side and I wrote
men on the right side now watch this Cuz cuz we not
we not we not we not we not cross-eyed it We we understand what it means
to go to the right and what it means to go to the left You understand
that textually the Bible is very clear textually. There is no
nuance here There is no grammatical as it were ambivalence here.
It is a man who is called to the office of pastorate It is
a man who is called to the office of deacon. Let's get that clear
right now. I Because in this generation,
a woman can marry a husband and that husband be a woman, right? So we got battles to fight. So when the text tells us the
bishop must then be blameless and the husband of one wife,
that's what it means. No more interpretation needed.
That's what it means. And when we get off course in
this area, we are far from the church of the living God. So
let's go on now as we work our way through our first point.
Secondly, the job of the leaders of the church is to maintain
its twofold function. Its twofold function. What is
that? It's prophetic and it's what?
Priestly. You guys have listened to me
make this expression before. It's so very important for you
to know it. There are two large ministry functions that take
place in the church. First, it's prophetic. The job
of the leadership in the church is to make sure that the word
of God is preached, taught, expounded, and obeyed. The job of the local
church is to make sure that the word of God is taught, It's preached,
it's explained, it's expounded, and it's obeyed. Our job is to
make sure that the word of God is being preached. And so when
we talk about the preaching of the word of God, we are talking
about taking this, which we call the Bible, and explaining to
men and women the way of salvation in Jesus Christ from Genesis
to Revelation. That's the prophetic office.
The other side of the office of the believer then is the office
of what we call the priesthood the saints so a local church
when it's operating biblically will be sound in its doctrine
it would be comprehensive in its biblical teaching but it
also will be a ministry of prayer a local church must be a church
of prayer Often when people are asking me the question about,
you know, how can I define a local church? When do we know that
we are a local church? I say, when you actually have
biblical government, when that biblical government is capable
of teaching and ministering the word of God, and when that congregation,
our body of believers, understands the enormous privilege and non-negotiable
necessity of prayer as a primary element in the church. Unfortunately,
a lot of churches do not give themselves to this aspect. And
I'm talking about prayer. I'm talking about prayer. Unfortunately,
people think that it's just not enough to go through the form
and protocol of church. And we see the consequences of
it in our society, do we not? But if you actually follow the
Old Testament saints, you will find that virtually every man
of God that you know in the Bible and in the Old Testament, men
and women of God, they were both people of the word and people
of what? Prayer. People of the word and
people of prayer. And so those are the two functions
because we are a priesthood. Let's see if we can make that
good. Moving then on to point number two, the church is, according
to what Paul says in verse 16, The ground and pillar of the
what? Interesting statement. Again,
we will not get into any real problem with that. I'm going
to use verse 15 because it's verse 15 that he uses the statement.
Notice what he said. But if I tarry long that you
may know how to behave yourself in the house of God, which is
the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the
truth. Now, what is a pillar? A pillar is a post, a pedestal
upon which you set something. A pillar is a post, a pedestal
upon which you set something. Pillars will hold up ornaments,
it'll hold up vessels, it'll hold up some type of ornate thing
that you want. Pillars will hold up buildings.
Pillars are often used in your ancient days for entryways into
your stately facilities. They will have pillars. The temple
in the Old Testament had pillars there. Boaz and joachim were
written on the pillars as you entered into the temple and pillars
are supports That upholds something what the bible is saying is that
the local church should be known for upholding the word of god
You guys got that And then it says not only is it a pillar,
but it's also the what of the truth the ground of the truth
Now again, don't get it twisted It's the word of god that created
the church. The church didn't create the
word of god It's the Word of God that produced the body of
believers. It's not the body of believers that produced the
Word of God. But the body of believers now is a steward over
that Word, so that you're not going to find the Word of God
outside of the body of believers. You're only going to find it
among the believers. And so when Paul says it's the
ground and pillar of the truth, what it's saying is if people
are going to look for God, they're going to find God in a faithful
local church where the word of God is highly exalted and given
to us as the truth of the word of God. So under point number
two, two things quickly. It's where the word of God is
upheld as its authority. Notice how Paul uses that in
second Timothy chapter 4 verse 2 second Timothy 4 to Paul speaking
to Timothy says this to Timothy in his active duties as a preacher
of the Word of God in chapter 4 of second Timothy verse 2 Here's
the first opening imperative that he gives the pop Timothy
in chapter 4 verse 2 preach the what word The job of the preacher
then is to preach the word What I am doing with you right now
is preaching the Word. I'm explaining the Word of God
to you. This is what we do week in and week out. Our text is
Scripture. Our text is Scripture. And we
explain the Scriptures, and we proclaim the Scriptures, and
we declare the Scriptures. And so you are confronted every
time you come under the teaching ministry here with the Word of
God. Not stories out there in the
world. Not fads, not events. not circumstances outside of
the scope of God's purpose and will, you are confronted with
the Word of God. This is why when I come to the
pulpit, the first thing I say to you, open your Bibles. Would you turn in your Bible,
please? Why? Because the instrumental
means by which we meet with God is the Word of God. It's the
means by which God speaks to us His Word. And when we can
do church without his word, we make a mockery of God in Christ.
We make a mockery of God in Christ. If you're going to train people
to meet God, you're going to train them to meet God in his
word. You come to Bible, come to church with your Bible. Or
you come to church with your Bible in your phones, as my kids
have taught me now. Daddy, you don't need a Bible.
We got Bibles in our phones. Well, turn in your phone to 2
Timothy chapter 4, verse 1. Or verse 2. As long as you have an authentic
translation, I'm cool with it. In fact, now you're not turning,
you're just touching your phone, if you will. I can handle that. You know,
old days, the pastor used to say, would you turn over in your
Bible, please? We're not turning over, we're touching today. Would
you scroll on your Bible now? And that's all good, as long
as you understand that the mediating instrument between you and God
is the Word of God. Now also what we do when we come
to this thing called the Word of God, we're coming to the Word
of God in order to preach a message. And what is that message? Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. So a local gospel church has
as its content an instrumental means of talking with God and
hearing from God the Word of God. And the message we preach
is Christ. That's 1 Corinthians 2, verse
2. I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. So from the book of Genesis to
Revelation, we are teaching men and women about the redemptive
purposes of God in Christ. And we constantly inculcate that
here. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book is written of who? Jesus Christ, to do his will. And so Jesus himself tells us
in John 5, 39, you are searching the scriptures and in them you
think you have eternal life, but they are they which what?
Testify of me. What then is the church about?
It's about knowing Jesus and it's about knowing Christ through
his word. If we are not preaching Christ
to you, you are in danger. So that's what we do when we
preach and teach and lay out from Genesis to Revelation what
the word of God teaches. This is how Paul puts it in the
book of Acts chapter 20. He says, I have not shunned to
declare unto you the whole counsel of God. and the totality of the
counsel of God is all that God has done for us in the person
of Christ to bring our hell-bound souls into a right relationship
with Him. To take sinners that are bound
by sin, liberate them as our elders said, bring them into
a relationship with God through Christ and prepare them for glory. So some of our old preachers
put it like this, you and I by nature are ruined by the fall. We teach the doctrine of sin
here. If you don't know you're a sinner, you don't need a savior.
We teach the doctrine of the fall. All have what? And come
what? Way short of the glory of God. Here's the other way you can
put it in the actual Greek. We keep on coming short. Now, what's the solution? A savior,
the Lord Jesus. The lovely Lord Jesus, who assumed
a human nature, lived a perfect life, died a perfect death, rose
again from the dead, took his seat on glory, and is giving
sinners salvation now through the gospel. That's what we preach. That's what we preach. So we
preach ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood. We got a bloody
book, and we are not ashamed of it. This is a bloody book.
This is a bloody book. For without the shedding of blood,
There's no remission of sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. And so we we teach ruined by
the fall, redeemed by the blood and regenerated by the Holy Ghost.
You must be born again. You must be born again. If you're
going to enter into God's kingdom, you must be born again. Flesh
and blood won't enter in you must be born again. The spirit
of God must change your heart and mind He must give you a new
nature. He must write his laws on your
heart and mind He must put his spirit in you and cause you to
obey his word. Is that true? We call this new
covenant theology This is new covenant theology where we believe
that God works in us the will and to do of his good pleasure
We believe that God saves us by his grace and then he gives
us his grace to believe on him and in believing on him We walk
with God as God walks with us We teach that every day here
in this church, and that's what all local churches should do
So being the ground and pillar of the truth our instrumental
means is the word of God Our essential means is the gospel
of Jesus Christ and now we deal with our third point The church
is a royal what? So royal priesthood I touched
on that here briefly, but go with me in your bible to first
peter chapter Two and I want us to look at verse nine now
this we're going to expand fully When we do do our conference
up in our sacramental church In a couple of weeks and i've
heard a number of you talking about joining us up there And
we'd be glad to have you as I told you our fellowship in sacramental
would be highly encouraged by the saints here at grace But
we're trying to make sure we feed people So if you're going
to join us, put your name on the list out there because there
ain't but two names up there, mine and my deacon's. Please
put your names up there because we have to be able to have a
scale for food. So I'm going to leave that and
trust that you won't forget that after you leave here today. It'll
be in two weeks. What do we mean by the priesthood
of the church? Will you mark what Peter says
to the church, who was also an apostle, This is a wonderful
statement for you and me to remember Not only are we prophets? Operating
prophetically in terms of our proclamation of the word of god,
but we're also what saints priests But you are a chosen generation.
That's verse nine You are a chosen generation a royal priesthood
a holy nation of peculiar people. Isn't that amazing? you you Are
all that That's a message in itself He describes four aspects
of your priesthood. First, he says you are chosen.
We believe in election around here, right? If the Lord had
not chose us, we wouldn't have chose him, would we? I sought
the Lord didn't you but afterwards I knew he moved my soul to seek
him seeking me So it was God who drew me to himself Call me
to himself not me and the Bible is clear Blessed is the nation
whom the Lord hath chosen to be his own inheritance and as
the people of God He called us to this holy office of priesthood.
He says in verse 9 that you and I are a chosen generation Do
you see that? The word is genos in the Greek.
Genos, what that means is you are a chosen seed of God. Literally, it can be called family.
We are the family of God. As tore up as we is, we are the
family of God. God chose us. Is that okay? Say,
Pastor, I'm not that bad. Yes, you are. Just like the Old Testament saints
that he brought out of Egypt, was they a mess? But they were
his chosen mess. That's what you are, his chosen
mess. called a family. Now you know
the family is a mess. Is the family a mess? That's
what the genos is. And I love it because God knows
how to deal with us. He knows how to deal with us.
This is what makes the gospel so wonderful. This is where you
and I should find your core of rejoicing, not in who you are,
but in who he is and what he has done for you. And we all got a long way to
go, don't we? Do we got a long way to go? And notice what he
says. You are a chosen generation.
You are a royal priesthood. You know what that word really
means? You are a body of kingly priests. You are a body of kingly
priests. This gets into what we call the
Melchizedekian model. You know what that means? Melchizedek,
who is our Christ, is both a king and a priest. You know what that
makes you? Both a king and a priest. Again,
to be developed in a few weeks. But every believer rules and
reigns with Christ. You know what that means? You
really answer to nobody but Him. But as a king and priest, you
operate under His authority for the welfare of the world. Because
we stand in the gap between God and a sinful world to preach
and pray. Preach and pray for the lost. You got that? Preach and pray.
We proclaim God and we pray to God for this lost world. Are
you guys following me? So vertically, we pray to God. Reconcile sinners to yourself.
And then also vertically, God speaks to us and through us to
tell the world, be ye reconciled unto God. But we don't just talk,
we pray. And the privilege of you being
a priest is that you get to draw nigh to God. as God draws near
to you, and you get to walk in fellowship with God just as close
as Aaron did. In fact, closer, because you
are in Christ. And you can't get closer to God
than Christ. You're right there with the Father
as His holy child, His holy seed, His royal priesthood, able to
talk to the Father about the needs of people that God has
laid on your heart as a priestly body. That's the role of the
church saints. Listen to it. And then you are
also a holy nation. Do you see that? That means you've
been set apart, set apart as a nation. That's what we are
as children of God. Are we set apart? Not as we ought
to, but we are set apart. God called us out of darkness.
He brought us into the kingdom of God. He's growing us up in
Christ. And then he's training us to
serve him as a nation. We are a holy nation. Here's the next word that blows
me away. We are a peculiar people. You like that? Now see, don't
nobody argue with that. Are you peculiar? Yeah, you are.
You're peculiar. You are special. There you are. You're special. And thank God for it. It's Deuteronomy
chapter 7, verse 6. It's a beautiful concept. See,
God doesn't have a problem with you being you. You do. But not God. Do you guys understand
what I'm getting at? And here's what He says about
you as a true believer. He says you are His own unique
treasure. Like when He found you, you in
His eyes were like no other treasure in the universe. This is what
he says about his elect. This is what he says about his
people. For thou are a holy people unto the Lord your God. The Lord
your God hath chosen you to be a what? Special people unto him
above all the people that are upon the face of the earth. Those
are shouting terms. Those are rejoicing terms. Those
are amazing terms. They make no sense, but the gospel
makes no sense. That God would view you like
that. But here's the reason why. Because you are in Christ. when
he places you in Christ he sees all the beauty and all the splendor
and all the glory of his magnificent son in you and we become special
because of him is that good news and that's the nature of the
church now watch this church watch this church don't let anyone
tell you you're not because you are and to the degree that we
we don't understand that we have failed to understand our high
and holy calling to be a people brought near to God, to be able
to talk to God and hear from God and serve God. Do you know
there was a day when you were dumb, deaf, blind, dead, lost,
real lost? There was a day when you didn't
know God from the man on the moon. Do you understand that?
There was a time when you and I were nothing. That's literally
the term, nothing. People who are not a people have
now been made the people of God This is how far God had to reach
down to make something out of nothing When he chose you in
Christ before the foundation of the world And this is what
God has done for all of us as the people of the Living God
This is why you and I want to continue to grow in the word
so the church is the the the Royal priesthood of God and it
serves as its earthly mediator given to a life of prayer and
And then the message in ministry is that of what? Reconciliation. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse
18 and 19. We'll quickly move on here from
here so we can close up. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse
18 and 19. The apostle Paul puts it like
this. God was in the world, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
its trespasses to them. And then he has given unto us
the ministry of reconciliation. You guys see that? Capture that.
Because our heads are on backwards. when we're not operating out
of the Adam gathering principle. Are you hearing me? Our heads
are on backwards when we're scattering and not gathering. Do you hear
me? Our heads are on backwards when
we're scattering, not gathering. Because the ministry is a ministry
of what? Reconciliation. The premise is what? Forgiveness.
There's forgiveness with God, is it? God forgives, does he
forgive? In order to reconcile and then
to restore. So the ministry of the church
is one of a ministry of reconciliation. We're calling men and women to
be reconciled to God. Is that right? Reconcile to God. Reconcile to God in order that
they might experience the restoration of the kingdom of God. And that
is a priestly duty. All right, let's go on to our
third point. Let's go on to our third point. And this is where
we get to our preparation for ordination today. And that is
the deacons. Do you see that? Is that yours
in your outline? I'm sorry, fourth point. The
deacons serve as a diligent minister of Christ to the what? All right,
go back to 1 Timothy 3. I'll close here. 1 Timothy 3.
Let me work through this. I actually love teaching on being
deacons. I have to get my lawnmower out
and my weed whacker out. and hack down all the weeds and
cut away all of the grass of false ideas about what it means
to be a deacon. Because y'all know, when you
think about a deacon, don't you think about that brother with
that black suit on? That's sitting over in the corner.
You know, Deacon Jones. And if your name is Jones in
here, don't get upset with me. And if you're a deacon, deacon,
don't get upset. But this is how I learned it growing up.
I saw the deacon as some old dude that's rather disinterested
in the real practical issues of the church. Does anybody bear
record with me? That's the way I see it. So 50%
of y'all, okay. That's how I saw it. And I thought
deacons kind of just were kind of errand boys. That's not really
true. That's not really true. And then
when I began to study the word of God, guess what I discovered?
that in all practical measures, from a functional standpoint,
you couldn't have a more dignified position in the church than to
be a deacon. The term diakonos is the Greek
word for which we transliterate into deacon and it literally
means to minister. It means to serve. The word broken
down phonetically, its proposition is dia, which means to make something
thoroughly what it is. Dia means complete. And its root
word is konis, as you see. You see that word konis? The
deacon is somebody who kicks up the dust. You know what that
means? He is diligent about the Lord's
business. A deacon is someone who mentally
is so concerned with the nature and state of the kingdom of God
that he is willing to do anything necessary to make sure that the
management in the kingdom is done well for his Lord. This
is an attitude situation. And what I say to the young men
who are aspiring to be deacons in our church is that you are
actually modeling Jesus Christ. Is he not? Does Jesus care for
his church? Does Christ take care of his
church? Is he the one ministering to us and not to him? The Son
of Man came not to be ministered to, but to what? Minister and
give his life a ransom for many. Here's what I'm saying as we
get ready to ordain these men. That the deacon is not some kind
of lowly position in the church. He becomes a model of what every
Christian should be. He becomes the zeal of Christ
personified When you have deacons who understand their roles Every
time they receive an order from heaven, they kick up the dust
getting it done That's good. That's good. They kick up the
dust getting it done Because they have that much passion and
that much interest in the glory of the Savior Now watch this. I taught our men this that word
deacon is a general term that applies to every one of us. I The Greek term is minister or
serve. Are we not all called to serve?
Every one of us. There's a real sense in which
every believer is a deacon. That means when God has something
to be done, you and I should have the mindset, Lord, here
am I, send me. Are you guys hearing me? I'm
getting ready to close it down. But really, When you observe
us lay hands on these men and take them through the form of
subscription, don't sit here thinking that, oh, that's great
for them. What you get by watching this is actually a model of what
you should be doing every day in your life. You should wake
up saying, this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be
glad and rejoice in it. Lord, here I am. Whatever you
want me to do, give me grace to do it. I know that you woke
me up in my right mind. I know that you gave me grace
to think thoughts after you. I know that you have allowed
my heart to continue to meditate on your precepts and on your
commandments. And I know that you have given me a passion to
want to do your will. Now give me my assignment, Lord.
And then when you give me my assignment, give me grace to
execute my assignment. Don't leave me sitting on the
sidelines watching everybody else do what they do. That's
not the goal of the member of the church. Every member of the
church has ministry duties. But what you're going to see
around here as we add two more deacons to our servants list
is you will see seven men at grace who will be kicking up
the dust. You guys understand what I mean
by that? Kicking up the dust. Because we just don't believe
in lazy. So you know what that means? You're going to see the
pastor some days and you're going to think he's the janitor. You
guys understand what I'm saying? And I like going undercover like
that. I like going undercover because when I'm undercover and
people come in, they get to talk about the pastor to me. I like
going undercover. And I say, you know, I agree
with you too. He get on my nerves too. You'd have caught me this morning
standing on a chair. I'm the one who wrote the women on the
women's side, men on the men's side. I was a deacon this morning.
It doesn't matter as long as the job gets done. Do you know
the angels in heaven are just as content sweeping the streets
of gold and glory as sweeping the streets in the neighborhoods,
the poorest neighborhoods in our city? Do you know why? It's
to whom they are doing it. And when we understand that,
we will be about our Father's business. You guys understand
that? Very, very important. So two
things in closing, two things in closing. The deacon serves
as a diligent minister of Christ to the church. His character
is to be what? He's not a perfect man. Neither
is the elder a perfect man, but they are to be honest men. Y'all
know the difference between honest and perfect? Let me see if I
can help you. On my way home, I saw this sign
and I couldn't quite understand what it was saying. You know
how sometimes when you're going home, you take a different way
just so you can change up, just so you can make sure you know
something about the city you're in? So I decided to go a different
way to my house in Castro Valley. And so I was going down Chabot
Road. Some of you will know this. This is why I'm citing it. I'm going
down Chabot Road, and then I'm turning up by the 76 gas station
to go up to Seven Hills. So there's a little park there.
Y'all know which park I'm talking about? So if you go down Seven
Hills, I mean, go down Chabot Road, make a right to go up to
Seven Hills, you'll see a sign at the park. And this is what
the sign says. And I'm slow, so I drove by it
about five times saying, what's that all about? Cause it was
really weird. Here's what it said. The sign
says, I love you. You're perfect. Now change. I had to work it through. I had
to work it through. Can I preach the gospel to you?
The love of God in Christ declares me to be perfect because of him
who is perfect for me. And the grace of God in Christ
now is preparing me for change. Because I'm already perfect in
Christ, God mandates change. Do you guys get that? Because
I'm perfect in Christ, He mandates change. And you and I, when we
think about perfection and we own that term, own it this way.
If I'm perfect, it's because I'm changing every day. I'm growing
in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. I'm already perfect
in Christ I'm being perfected every day by the grace of God
and one day I'm gonna look at him face to face and when I see
him face to face I'm gonna be just like him because all that
he is I am in him and all that I am he was for me Christ is
our perfection and And this is what we encourage with our young
deacons that we're about to deal with now. So at this time, we're
gonna take the offering, get that out the way and do our ordination.