Once again, I want to express
my appreciation for the invitation to come and be with you and to
get to know many of you for the first time, some to visit with
again. And what Eric just said made
me think of something. I wasn't going to say this, but
since he brought it up. We had a professor in Bible college. He said there are only two things
that are bigger at birth than at death. One is a red wasp. Now I'm not, I don't know if
he's right about that or not. But he said one is a red wasp
and the other is a preacher. Bigger at birth than at death.
And that seems to be the case sometimes. young men, and it
has to be that way. That's the way it ought to be.
Men beginning out in the gospel ministry are full of zeal and
have a vision, and whenever we lose that vision and zeal like
we've just heard, it's a sad day, isn't it? And I'm thankful
today to be here with you all And to participate in this ordination,
I was just thinking, in 1966, I was ordained by the church
that I was a member of at that time. And they did it differently
back then. They had an ordination council. And they questioned the one who
was going to be ordained on various subjects and doctrines. And that's
all been taken care of. We won't do that here today. Let's look in our Bibles today,
if you will, to 1 Peter chapter 5, and let me say how much I
enjoyed the message and how much I needed the message that we
have just heard. And Brother Fortner is a very
gracious, kind, merciful person, except in one area. when he preaches first. He has
no pity on the man who's going to follow. 1 Peter chapter 5, 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, but of a ready mind. neither
as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, you younger submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you."
There are three terms in the New Testament which are used
for a pastor, and all three of these terms are in this passage
that I just read, and the terms are elder, bishop and pastor. Now, you don't see the word pastor
and bishop here, but it is in the text. If you would look at
the Greek words that are translated, for instance, you see the word
elder, the elders which are among you I exhort who am also an elder. And then from the word feed,
the flock of God, It's the word pastor comes from that root word. The pastor is to feed the flock
of God. And then the taking the oversight
is the work the bishop. And someone has said that the
elder refers to the man, the bishop to the office, and pastor
to the ministry. And I would remind us of Paul's
words to the elders of the church at Ephesus the last time. that
he would see them. He called them. He was on his
way to Rome and he called them to meet him. And he said this,
take heed therefore unto yourselves. Now he's speaking to the elders.
We see these three things in this passage. Take heed therefore
unto yourselves and all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseer. That's Bishop. to feed the church
of God, the pastor, which he, that is God, hath purchased with
his own blood." So let's look this morning at these three terms.
First of all, the elder. Eric is being ordained today
as an elder. And that has nothing to do with
his age. He's an elder. And in an elder,
Paul gave us certain qualifications for a man to be called an elder.
He gave these qualifications both in the letter to Timothy
and also in the letter to Titus. And let's turn and look at these
qualifications as given in Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1 and beginning
with verse 5, Paul writing to Titus, For this cause left I
thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things which
are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed
thee, if any be blameless. Now he doesn't say if any be
sinless, does he? If he said that, there would
be no pastors, there would be no elders, there would be no
bishops. Before God, isn't it wonderful
today that we know, those of us who trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we are accepted in Christ, that our sins have
been put away, they've been taken away, they've been removed from
us as far as the East is from the West. Before God, we are
justified before God, declared righteous in the sight of God,
through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But an
elder must be blameless. That is, he must have a character
that no one, even those who are outside of the church, can bring
an accusation against him. That is an accusation that is
truthful. If a man, for instance, had been
dishonest in his business dealings with the world, with the people
in the world, then he shouldn't be ordained as an elder. He must be blameless. And he's
a steward of God. A steward. It is required of
a steward that he be found faithful. A steward is a person who is
entrusted with something. Many times in a large house,
for instance, they would have the gold or the silver, whatever
was of value, they would have that locked. And I've read in
homes in England, they even kept the sugar behind lock and key
and things like that. And the steward, he's the one
who had the key to open up the cupboard and give out the things
that, they were not his, but he was in charge of them. And
a minister, an elder, he's a steward of the grace of God. God has
committed unto him the gospel of his dear son, and he's a steward. And as I said, I quoted Paul,
it's required of a steward that he be found faithful. And I found
this man to be faithful when he was a member of our congregation. Before him, another young man
was in our congregation who is now a pastor in Kentucky. And
he went to the hospital and he talked to them about coming there
to have a service. And sometimes he would go, there'd
be one person, sometimes two, sometimes five, sometimes zero,
you know. And when he left our congregation,
Eric took his place. And I guess what impresses me
the most about anyone who says that he wants to be a preacher
is that he's faithful. And Eric was faithful. I mean,
every Sunday that he was there. In Houston, he was at that hospital. He was preaching if there was
anyone there to hear, you know, or not. And that's required of
a man of God. He must be faithful. He's a steward
of God. Not self-willed. Not stubborn
and self-willed. And not soon angry. Patient. Because after all, and we'll
get to this more in a moment, we are pastors of God's sheep,
of Christ's sheep. And we must not be soon given
to anger, nor given to wine, and no striker. I remember a
man years ago, he thought that meant you shouldn't be a union
man out there on the picket line. No, no striker. You know, sometimes
you might like to take someone by the collar, you know, and
shake them, and this is the way it is, you know, but no, with
patience, the Scripture says. not given to filthy lucre. That
is, not seeking a better opportunity where they pay more, something
like that. Don't go into the ministry with
that in mind. A lover of hospitality. And Eric
and Amy, God's given Eric a helpmate who qualifies so well to be given
to hospitality. They've taken us into their home
the last two days and couldn't have been more hospitable than
they have. And I know he's always been that
way. Sober. He's not a foolish man. He's
not a comedian, you know? That's not what God calls a man
to be when he calls him to be a pastor. He's not a comedian.
He's not an entertainer. He's dead serious about this
business of preaching the gospel. And just, holy, temperate. And notice here, holding fast
the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able
by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. When we were going to the airport
the other day in Houston, for the first time, my grandson,
because of the back surgery I had recently, and I can't lift supposedly
over 20 pounds, he said, he said, Papa, get you a taxi. He said,
get your taxi and what you'll pay to park your car out there
will pay for the taxi and I'll pick you up when you come back.
So I said, okay. But on the way to the airport,
this taxi driver, he said, where are you going? Well, we're going
to San Diego. Why are you going to San Diego?
Well, there's a church there, San Diego Grace Church. He said,
a Grace Church? They're not a denominational
church? Non-denominational? And I said, well, now wait a
minute. I said, no, they don't have a denominational name or
title in their name, but I want you to know this. They're very
certain about what they believe. Doctrine is very important. I
don't want you to think that we're just like these people
that you see so often now. You know, they say doctrine separates. And that's the last thing we
want. We just want everybody to come here. Everybody, no matter
what you believe, you'll feel comfortable worshiping with us. I said, no, it's not that kind
of a church I'm going to. They know what they believe.
And they believe the sovereign grace of God. And that was quite
an experience talking to that taxi driver and himself. But
an elder, and you see in this passage as I said there in 1
Peter, but here in Titus you see also that an elder and a
bishop is the same person because he uses that word interchangeably
here. But a bishop, an elder rather,
he must have been taught sound doctrine. And I know Eric, I
know the men that he has listened to, and today you can hear men
over the internet, and Grace Radio, and Sermon Audio, and
all of that. And I know that Eric has listened
to Brother Fortner quite a bit, so he's set under sound doctrine,
and other men as well. God calls a man to be a preacher. has turned to that passage in
2nd Corinthians the other night where he hath made us able ministers
of the new covenant. Who is he? God. Men, we can't
make a preacher. That's God's business. He's the
one who calls men and puts them into the ministry. And for a
man to take up a to be a pastor or minister of the gospel as
a profession, it's just a sad thing, isn't it? You see, children
go to middle school and sometimes even in elementary school, they
have career day, just like a child in the second or third grade
would know what they want to be, you know, when they grow
up. My experience has been even when
they go off to college, they usually start taking a subject
that they don't work in, you know, when they get out of college.
But anyway, to go to career day at a middle school or high school
or whatever, you know, and someone says, well, I'd like to be a
fireman or I'd like to be a policeman or a tugboat captain or whatever. And someone said, I'd like to
be a preacher. That looks like an easy job to me. They get to
wear a suit and a tie and just take it up as a profession. And
I know that way too many people today, way too many men are in
the ministry and they look at it just as a profession. You
know, the Scriptures speak about the burden of the Word of the
Lord. And some men, God burdens with
this. And I tell young men that when
I've been asked, not too many times, but if you can do anything
else, do it. do it. And when I say that if
you can do anything else, I'm not saying if you can make a
living at anything else. That's what I heard when I was
growing up, you know, someone said, well, I tried to work here
and I got fired or couldn't do that. And I tried to work here
and I didn't do that well. And well, I just knew God wanted
me to be a preacher because I failed at everything else. Now, Eric,
he had a business. He had a profitable business.
And when he felt led to come here, he sold out. Lock, stock,
and barrel, didn't he? To come here. So, when we say,
if you can do anything else, do it. We're not saying if you
can earn a living, do anything else. But if you, if God will
let you do anything else, that's what I mean. If God will let
you do anything else, then do it. But if God gives you a desire
and a burden to preach the gospel, God does it, you'll do it. You'll
do it. All right, the second word is
the word bishop. And this office, the same man,
he's first of all an elder, and that deals with him as a man.
But then he's also called a bishop. And this speaks to his office,
that is, the oversight. And he must watch over the flock. Because as Paul told those elders
of Ephesus, grievous wolves will come. And they will. They will
come here. I told Eric this morning, I said,
you've got a good group of strong men who are with you and behind
you. And I said, that's so important
because when some man comes in here and he starts to try to
undermine the pastor, those men will put him in his place. They'll
put him in his place and he'll either get right or get gone. One or the other. I've seen it
happen too many times. Now these false teachers Paul
calls grievous wolves and they're crafty. They're sly. No one ever comes in to a church
and has a sign around his neck saying I'm a false prophet. He
just doesn't do that. But he comes in as a sheep or
in sheep's clothing rather. And our Lord warned us that when
a wolf comes, what he will do, the end result is he will scatter
the sheep. He will catch and scatter the
sheep. Now the bishop, it's his responsibility. This is his place. He's behind this pulpit. And
he's the one who invites men to come and preach I've known
of some churches over the years, they've got a committee, and
the committee will decide who comes to preach, who they invite
to preach. It should never, never be like
that. No, this man, he's the bishop
of this congregation, he knows this congregation better than
anyone else. And let me say this, he loves
this congregation. I won't say better than anyone
else, but I will say no one loves this congregation like this man.
Not anymore. When he came out here to visit,
when you invited him here to preach several times, after one
of those times, I believe it was after he had decided you
had invited him to become your pastor and he had decided Felt
like it was God's will for him to come here. I asked him one
Sunday morning there in the service. I said, Eric, would you take
about five minutes and just tell the congregation about the work
there in San Diego and what you've experienced? And you know what
he did? He stood up and he called every one of you by name, every
man and every woman. He knew you. And when he sat
down, I said, it's obvious. It's obvious God has given him
a love for this congregation. That's just obvious. And I know
it's so, and that's so important. I learned a long time ago when
I was a kid, you know, a couple of boys, young boys, kids, they
can get on a horse and they can ride together, but there's only
one who can hold the reins. the boy in the back, he can't
hold the reins. And in a congregation, in a church,
there's one who holds the reins. He's not deluded over God's people,
no. But he does have a responsibility
for this congregation. And I know that he takes that
seriously. There's only one captain of a
ship, right? There's only one captain, and
there's only one pastor of a church. I told this story once before.
I read it in John Gill's biography about the time when he got so
old and sickly, the church thought they would help him out, so they
called a man to be his assistant pastor. And they told him about
it, and he sent them a letter of resignation. He said, I don't
find but one pastor in the scripture of a church. Not two or three,
one pastor. And that's the way it must be.
Now the last word is the word pastor. And the pastor, the elder,
speaks of the man, the bishop of his office, but the word pastor
especially speaks to us of the work, the ministry. And what
is the ministry? It is, as the apostles told those
in Jerusalem, we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to
the ministry of the word. Now, in feeding the sheep, a
man must give himself to prayer and the Word of God. When Eric
finishes his message on Sunday evening and a new week begins
for him, he doesn't ask, well, I wonder what I'll preach this
week. He knows what he's going to preach. Preach the Word, right? Look in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy,
chapter 4. There's no option here. Preach
the Word. Many times in these ordination
services they refer to what I'm doing as a charge. Well, here's
the charge here. I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and
the dead at His appearing in His kingdom, preach the Word. Preach the Word, be instant,
in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering
and doctrine." Now, why is it that he is encouraged to preach
the Word, or commanded, charged to preach the Word? Well, first
of all, let me say three things about this Word. This Word, now
look at this book I've got in my hand. It's a small book, relatively
speaking, isn't it? And yet everything that we know
about God, other than what we may learn from creation, and
that tells us that there is a God, yes, and that's enough for men
to be responsible unto God. But everything that we know about
God, about Christ, about salvation, we know from this book. This book. Well, people think
you're crazy. That book was finished over 2,000
years ago, and yet you're still hanging on this book, what this
book says, what this book teaches. When we speak to certain issues
today, people say, well, you're out of step. That's archaic,
that whole idea. That a woman is to be in subjection
to her husband. That's all gone. That's all past,
you know. Why is that? I'm talking about
people who confess to be believers. And why is it that the husband
must love his wife even as Christ loved the church? Because that's
what we're taught here in this book. This small book that I
have in my hands. You have in your hand. And yet
everything that we know about God and we're going all of us
soon will leave this world and go out into eternity. We're going
out to face God. Trusting in what? Trusting in
who? We're trusting in what we have
been taught, what we have read, what we have learned from this
book. Right? And we have a good hope,
and we have assurance, and we look forward to that. Why? Because
we know that this book is the inspired Word of God. It's not just any book. I've
got a number of books in my office, and they're good books, but none
of them are like this book. None of them. If I'd taken any
one of those books, And I think of John Gill's Body of Divinity,
and I've often thought that a young preacher, if he'd just take that
book and read it along with the scripture and just study, but
you know what? As long as Don has been preaching
and myself, if we had taken that book, we would have exhausted
that book. As hard as that may seem to me
even to believe, but we would have exhausted that book, we
would have grown tired of it, have grown weary of it, and certainly
the people to whom we preach would have grown weary. But here
we have a book, my friends, that's inexhaustible. I mean, generation
after generation, 70 generations since our Lord was here upon
the earth, and yet this book, the Word of God. Why? Because
it is the inspired Word of God. Look with me, if you will, in
2 Peter. 2 Peter, chapter 1. You know, Peter, Beginning in verse
16, he speaks about the experience that he and John and James had
that day when the Lord separated them from the other disciples
and took them up on that mountain that we call the Mount of Transfiguration. And they saw something there,
my friends. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ
transfigured. His face, the scripture says,
did shine like the sun in its brightness. And his clothes were
whiter than any fool or any laundered person could wipe them. Why? Because you see, he's the
eternal son of God, right? Who, I like to say, he veiled
his glory when he took upon him a body, when he became a man. The Word was in the beginning
with God, and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us as
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And Peter and James and John,
Peter says here, we've not followed cunningly devised fables. How many people It would surprise
us, I'm sure, and there's no way we can know. But at this
hour right now, between 11 and 12 o'clock on Sunday morning,
how many people are sitting in buildings and listening to a
man who is giving out a fable? A fable. He's entertaining people,
no doubt about it. But we haven't followed cunningly
devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We saw his deity break through
or shine through. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory, this is my beloved son. Whom I am well
pleased That thrills my heart doesn't it you? Because we are
in him those of us who are trusting in Christ and he is well pleased
with us in Christ We are accepted in him and This voice which came
from heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount
We have also Notice, "...we have also a more sure word of prophecy,
whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star
rise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy,
no word of God, no part of the scripture is of any private interpretation."
A man did not just sit down one day and start thinking and write
down what he thought, how he thought things should be. That's
not the way the Word of God came. For the prophecy came not in
old time, by the will of man, but holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." And
that word moved is the word that is used when the wind, you see
a sailboat out there on the lake, and it just moved along. And these men, as they wrote,
and this book itself is a miracle. It's a miracle. I was talking
with Pastor Darwin Pruitt the other day about the fact that
you can read different books of the Bible, and if you didn't
know where you were reading, you would know, that's John.
Or that's Paul. That's James, you know. And not
just because you're familiar with that, but John writes like
John, and Paul writes like Paul, and James like James, and yet
all of them were moved by the Holy Spirit. And the same goes
for Ezekiel and Isaiah and all of those Old Testament books
as well. Whenever or wherever the church begins to question
the Word of God or a preacher begins to question the Word of
God, well, the forces of evil have already won. Remember our
Lord said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. The gates of hell, evil forces
are always coming against his church and against his man but
they will not prevail against it as long as he stays with this
book. You stay with this book, you
preach this word and That's what the Lord would have
you to do because it is his inspired word. Now, a second thing I want
to say is the Holy Spirit enables you to rightly divide this word. I mean, he's the author, right?
He's the author, ultimately. He used men, yes, but he's the
author. And when you study the Word of
God, prayer. You pray and you ask the Lord
to show you, to teach you. And yes, you study other men,
but it's still, it's God the Holy Spirit who enables a person
to rightly divide the Word of God. 2nd Timothy 2 and verse
15, Paul said, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of truth. Now, Paul made it clear in his
day, and things haven't changed, that there are false ministers,
men who call themselves preachers, who are false prophets, and what
they do is they corrupt the Word of God. They twist the Word of
God. And they take this book, this
same book that I have today, and they use it to teach and
to preach doctrines and things it was never intended to teach
and for man to preach. This book was brought out the
other night, is a book that testifies of Christ. It's a hymn book.
Our Lord said, when He, that is the Comforter, has come, He
will testify of me. And He's given us this book,
this word, that testifies of Jesus Christ. If you look back
to 1 Peter, where I began just a moment ago, I noticed, and of course, when
Peter wrote this letter, it was not divided into text or into
chapters, but have you ever noticed that the way it was divided,
in every chapter, Peter speaks about the sufferings of Christ? The sufferings of Christ. He's
speaking about Christ. That's the message, right? God
the Holy Spirit enables us to rightly divide the word of truth.
Look at the verse I read in chapter 5 in verse 1. The elders which
are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of
the sufferings of Christ. Look back to chapter 4 in verse
13. But rejoice inasmuch as you are
partakers of Christ's sufferings. Chapter 3, in verse 18, For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit. And in chapter 2, verse 21, For
even hereunto were you called, because Christ also suffered
for us. And in chapter 1 and verse 11, searching what, he's speaking
about those prophets of old, searching what or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ. The
sufferings of Christ. Another wonderful thing, when
our Lord said, do this in remembrance of me, the Lord's table, when
we take the bread and drink the cup, we do this in remembrance
of Him. You could be correct in everything
about the church ordinance, but if we do not remember Him, when
we eat that bread, which represents His flesh, which was broken for
the suffering, The sufferings of when we drink that cup, that
wine, we remember. And the wonderful thing about
this, God sent his son, but the Lord Jesus Christ, he came willingly. He willingly laid down his life. He willingly suffered to put
away the sins of his people. I read this story the other day.
John Newton, we sang the hymn earlier, Amazing Grace, How Sweet
the Sound. But John Newton, I read, continued
preaching into his 83rd year. But he got somewhat forgetful,
so he had an assistant who was somewhere close to him, and his
assistant would call out his heading. He would have his message
divided into, you know, three or four points. And the assistant
would call out his heading, and he'd preach on that. And then
when he finished that, the man would call out the second heading.
Well, this day, his first heading was, Christ is precious. And he preached on the preciousness
of Christ. And when he finished, the man
knew he had gone through his notes. John Newton said again,
Christ is precious. And the man tried to correct
him. He said, you've already covered that point. He said,
I know, but Christ is precious. Christ is precious. And the last
thing I'd say about preaching this Word, preach it because
it is the inspired Word of God. And look to God the Holy Spirit,
who is the author, to rightly divide this Word. And know this,
that God uses His Word in saving sinners. The Church of the Lord
Jesus Christ continues in this world because of the work of
God the Holy Spirit using this word that testifies of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And God has his people, doesn't
he? We know that. God chose his people
in eternity past. God the Eternal Son came into
this world as a man to redeem his people, and God the Holy
Spirit, as someone one time said, somewhere from the cradle to
the grave, somewhere, God is going to cross the path of his
elect with this message, with this gospel. And his sheep are
going to hear, and they're going to follow. Others, they may say,
well, that's an old message. You know, we've heard that all
of our life. That's old hat. That didn't mean anything to
me. But I tell you what, it means everything to God's people. That Jesus Christ came into this
world to save sinners. Now, we've got a certificate
of ordination here, and if you'll notice, it's blank. And the reason
for that is my hand shakes so much, I wouldn't dare try to
fill it in. And we're going to let some,
I think Amy, she's been chosen to fill it in, and then Don Fortner
and Darwin Pruitt and myself, we will sign it. But it will
basically be we, the undersigned upon the recommendation and request
of the San Diego Grace Fellowship at San Diego, which had full
and sufficient opportunity for judging the God-given gifts,
and after satisfactory examination by us in regard to the Christian
experience, called to the ministry and views of Bible doctrine,
hereby certified that Eric Quade Richards, was solemnly and publicly
set apart and ordained to the work of the gospel ministry on
this 24th, 25th day. of May in the year of our Lord
2014. So we'll get this filled out.
But but it is such a privilege. And God's blessed you. I told
you that the other night. You know it by giving you a man
a pastor and treat him well. I know you will. And his wife
as well. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Dear Father, we bow before Thee
today, and oh God, we are so thankful for this day. We recognize
Thy good providence that has brought each one of us here today.
And Father, for this occasion, when Eric will be set apart,
acknowledged to be called to the ministry, and Lord, It's
with pleasure that we commend him unto thee and the ministry
that you've given him. And this church family as well,
we're so thankful for each of them. And Lord, I pray that you
will give them a ministry here for your glory and for the good
of thy people. Oh Lord, we just pray for your
hand of mercy upon each and every one. For all of these things
I ask in Christ's name, amen.