Let me say first of all what
a privilege it is and honor to be invited to bring a message
here during this conference and to hear the Word of God preached
by these other two pastors as well. I love them and have benefited
through their ministry, and I'm so thankful for all of the men
that God has called to preach the gospel, wherever they may
be preaching. And we certainly love Eric and
Amy, and we miss them, but I'm thankful that they are here.
And it's obvious that this is where the Lord would have them
to be. God's given you a ministry here, and we're just thankful
to be able to come and share at this time. Now, when we meet
together, always our purpose is to worship the Lord, to honor
and glorify his name, to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. We recognize
that. But part of the purpose of these
meetings this weekend will be to ordain Eric Richards to the
gospel ministry. Now, we all recognize that man
do not have the power to make a preacher. God does that. What we will do is just recognize
the gifts that God has given him and the message the faithful
Word of God that he preaches and to identify with him. And at such ordination services,
usually there's one message preached to the church and one message
preached to the pastor. And the Lord willing, this Sunday
I'm to preach to you, Eric. I look forward to that. And Brother
Don Fortner will bring a message especially to the church. But
as I thought about the message this evening, prayed about it,
and I thought about this question, what is a pastor? What is a pastor? And I want to answer that question
from the word of God. What is a pastor? You know, if
you were to go out here on the street and ask various people. What is a pastor? You'd get all
kinds of answers, I'm sure. But I want to answer that question
tonight from the Word of God, and I want to answer it in five
ways, five things that the Scriptures declare unto us that is true
of a man that God calls and puts into the ministry. What is a
pastor? And when I finished, I know these
men, they could take up where I leave off and they could give
you 5 or 10 or 15 more things from the Word of God. What is
a pastor? Let me give you what I have for
us here tonight. First, what is a pastor? He is a man who is the gift of
the ascended Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first thing I want
to say in answer to that question. What is a pastor? He is a man
who is a gift from the ascended Lord Jesus Christ. And I would
point us to Ephesians chapter 4. And this passage that the Apostle
Paul, writing to the church at Ephesus, declares is true concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, the ascended Lord. In verse 8, and we will
skip the parentheses in verses 9 and 10, but in verse 8, The
apostle says, wherefore he saith, when he, that is, when the Lord
Jesus Christ ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and
gave gifts unto men. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. You know, the apostle
here quotes from a psalm, and in that psalm it speaks to us
of our Savior as He ascended back on high to the Father's
right hand, and when He did, He led captivity captive. And by that, I understand that
He had completely conquered all of the enemies of God's people. All of the enemies of God's elect. The Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't
just come and try to conquer, try to defeat. He accomplished
that work which the Father gave Him to do. And when He ascended
back into heaven, He had fully dealt by His one offering By
His one sacrifice, He had put away the sins of His people forever. Doesn't that cause you to rejoice
tonight? Just knowing that if you trust
in Him as your Lord and Savior? You know, they've been searching
for that plane that disappeared in the Indian Ocean. And it's
so deep, I assume that the instruments that they have looking for it,
they can't go down deep enough. And I thought, well, will someone
ever find that plane? And I would have to say yes,
in all probability. Someone, maybe hundreds of years
from now, but someone will have something that they can go down
deep enough and find that plane that disappeared. And the point
I'm making is the Lord Jesus Christ put away our sins in the
depth of the sea. Will they ever be found again?
No, never, never again. He has so put them away. He led
captivity captive when he ascended. And Satan, that foe of all of
God's children he had defeated, dealt him a death blow at the
cross, just like that first promise in Genesis concerning the Deliverer
said, He shall crush your head, speaking to the serpent. The
world, death, death is no longer our enemy, death is our friend. It's our friend, because to close
our eyes here is to open them in the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a blessing to think about
that. But the point is that this glorious, ascended, exalted Lord
Jesus Christ, with all power, all authority given unto Him
both in heaven and in earth, that He has given gifts unto
men. And the gift, of course, especially
is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who qualifies, the Holy Spirit
qualifies men to these five offices that are mentioned here. That
is, first of all, the Apostle and the Prophet. Now man didn't
just decide he wanted to become an apostle or he wanted to be
a prophet. No, these men, holy men, the
scripture says, God chose and God anointed and God blessed
these men. And there can be no more apostles
nor Prophets. These were temporary offices
in the beginning of this dispensation, my friends, until the Scriptures
had been completed. And they are complete. One of
the qualifications for an apostle was he had to have seen visibly
the ascended Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's not true of any person
today. I laugh sometimes when I see
on church signs, Apostle so-and-so. There's no apostles today. Not
apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the word evangelist.
Now some consider this to be the office of a missionary. That
is a person who takes the gospel and preaches the gospel in places
where Christ has never been named. But then we read of the office
of pastors and teachers. That's one office. I said five
offices a while ago, but actually there's four. Because this last
office, the pastor is a teacher. Now that's one of the qualifications
that Paul lists for a man to be a pastor. He must be apt to
teach. One of the greatest blessings
that God bestows upon a people is to give them this gift, a
pastor. And I think about this church
here, San Diego Grace Fellowship, how you met for years and watched
videos and was ministered to in that way. There's groups all
over this country that meet like that without a pastor. how the Lord has blessed you
here and sending and giving you a pastor. What is a pastor? He is a gift and he's a gift
from God, a gift from Christ. Now, if the Lord were to give
you something, for instance, I know this cannot be true, but
if he were to give you a Bible, you would cherish that Bible,
wouldn't you? I mean, if he came to die, and it's not going to
happen, you understand what I'm saying? But if he gave you any
gift, personally, gave it to you, how you would cherish that
gift? Cherish your pastor. One of the
requirements of a pastor is he must be faithful. It is required
of a steward that he be faithful. And I know Eric, and I know he's
proved his faithfulness, and he will in his ministry here. But you be faithful. You be faithful. Faithful to him. You know, nothing
Nothing encourages a preacher any more, I don't suppose, than
the faithfulness of those who hear the gospel, believe the
gospel, and rejoice in the gospel, and show that by their faithfulness.
The second, what is a pastor? Well, he's a man who has beautiful
feet. Look with me in Romans chapter
10. What is a pastor? He's a man who is the gift of
the ascended Lord Jesus Christ, and second, he is a man who has
beautiful feet. Romans chapter 10. You know the
passage well, I'm sure. Beginning in verse 13, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. What makes the feet of a preacher
beautiful is his message, the message of peace. When you have a problem with
someone, maybe in your family, maybe your neighbors, you know,
you just don't have any peace until that's settled, do you?
It's a discord. But can you imagine that all
of us by nature were enmity against God? And yet the preacher comes
and he preaches a message of peace. And that peace was made
by the blood of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God. What a joy, what
a wonderful thing it is to lay your head down at night on your
pillow and go to sleep and knowing that you have peace with God. You know, To have a problem to
fight with anyone is awful, but to fight to have a problem with
God, you're not going to win that fight. I don't care who
you are, you're not going to win that fight. But to know that
through the blood of Jesus Christ, through His person and work,
His righteousness, that you have peace with God. I noticed when
I prepared these notes the other day, Paul quotes, you see that
he says, as it is written in verse 15, how shall they preach
except they be sent as it is written. Now he quotes from Isaiah,
but when I looked in the passage in Isaiah, I noticed something
that I had not noticed before. Here it says, the Apostle Paul
says, how beautiful are the feet of them, plural. But in Isaiah,
it is how beautiful are the feet of Him. Singular. How beautiful are the feet of
Him. Now who does that Him refer to? Who was the first preacher? Who
was the first one who came preaching the gospel to fallen men and
women? Well, the Scripture says that
they heard the voice of the Lord. in the garden. It was the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the eternal Word of God, who
spoke that first message there to our parents, who were sinners,
who had transgressed God's holy law. And then in the fullness
of the time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law, that they might
receive the adoption of sons. The very first preacher was the
Lord Jesus Christ. And every preacher, every pastor,
he would do well, I would do well always to remember how many
times did the Lord Jesus Christ say, the words that I speak are
not mine. but him that sent me." In other
words, we're not up there in this pulpit expressing our opinions
and our philosophical thoughts and political things and trying
to straighten everybody out in this world. That's not our place,
is it? But our purpose, our place is to preach the Word of God. How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace." What is a preacher? He's
a man that has beautiful feet. Now, if you look at Eric's feet
tonight, I don't know, he does have some shiny shoes on there. He told me Amy made him wear
those tonight. But it's not our literal feet,
it's the message. The message of the gospel that
the Lord has given. Now, And God gave this message to
Eric through men. You see, the gospel comes by
revelation. Our Lord Jesus Christ made that
very clear, didn't he? that the gospel comes by revelation. Does that mean that God's going
to give a person out here a revelation? He's at home or in his bedroom
or something like that, God's... No. God is going to use the Word
of God and use a preacher in preaching the Word of God and
God the Holy Spirit takes the veil away that hinders us or
keeps us from seeing the truth. as it is in Jesus Christ. Yes,
salvation comes by revelation, but God uses preachers and he
uses the Word in revealing himself unto his people. Now, here's
the third thing. What is a preacher? Well, he
is a man who has a treasure in an earthen vessel. Look with
me in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. In verses 5 through 7, Paul said,
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we He includes himself as
well. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. What is a preacher? He's a man.
He's a man. But he is a man who has a treasure. the greatest treasure of all
that is the gospel of the grace of God but he has this treasure
in an earthen vessel. Now that word earthen means among
other things frail. He's just a frail man. We saw
that when when Eric was reading just a few moments ago in 1st
Corinthians chapter 2 when the Apostle Paul said I was among
you in fear and trembling. Not an excellency of speech God
gives a man this gospel, but he's still a man. And he's frail. And if you look at him as though
he were God, you're going to be disappointed. I don't care
which man it is. Now he's going to be preaching
Christ, he's going to be pointing you to Christ always, and his
desire is that you look to Christ, that you trust in Christ, that
you believe in Christ, that you follow Christ, and not follow
him in that sense. Because he's just a man. He's
just a man, that's all he is. And we must never forget that.
He's not a superman. He's a man. And he has his weaknesses
and his problems and his needs and just like you do. Just like I do. But he's God's
man. And the thing is, he's got a
treasure. but it's in an earthen vessel. That may be easily broken,
easily shattered. You take a clay pot, that's a
good example, isn't it? A clay pot. And you drop it. What happens to it? It goes into
a hundred, a thousand pieces. That's all it is, just a clay
pot. Nothing special about the pot. Some of the cookery that
people buy and that they sell cost hundreds and thousands of
dollars, I assume, but not a clay pot. That's usually pretty cheap. And the pastor, the man of God. He's got a treasure, yes, but
he has it in a clay pot. Now fourth, what is a pastor? He is a man that God has made
a watchman. Look with me in Hebrews chapter
13. He is a man, but he is a man
that God has made to be a watchman. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse
17 the Apostle said Obey them that
have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for
your souls as They that must give account that they may do
it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for
you What does it mean he watches for your souls? The pastor watches
for your souls. The primary concern of every
pastor is the salvation of those to whom he preaches. That's his
primary concern, that you hear the gospel, that you believe
the gospel, that you look to Christ, that you know Christ,
that you trust in Christ. And that's his primary concern
every time he stands up to preach. Why? Because he's watching for
your soul. And he knows that he is responsible
and one day he must give an answer unto God. Now in the book of
Ezekiel you see this, that God made men watchmen on the city
wall. And that's a good picture of
a pastor, isn't it? And the man's up there on the
wall and he sees the enemy coming and he doesn't sound an alarm. And so the enemy just comes in
and destroys those in the city. Whose fault is that? Who's to
blame for that? I see, and I know you do too,
I see men preaching today to thousands of people on television
and Services like that and and and evidently they they have
no idea of the Responsibility that they have before God That
one day they're going to stand before God and give an account
For what they have told people What they have preached unto
people Every pastor is a watchman He's also charged to feed the
flock of God as the scripture says In every flock in every
household There's a there's different stages of growth in a flock of
sheep. You have some lambs you have
some that are older and in a in a congregation of God's people
you have those who have just been saved by the grace of God,
and you have those that have matured, and you have some that
have matured more. And the pastor, he watches for
your souls, and it is his place to be able to give milk to those
who need milk, and strong meat to those who need strong meat.
And only God can give a man wisdom to do that, to rightly divide
the Word of God so that all of the congregation are benefited
and blessed by his ministry. And we must give an account now.
I think it was Dr. Gill that said this, we must
give an account now to our own consciences. When we have preached
the gospel, when we preach the Word that God's given us, that
we can sincerity and honesty live with ourselves that I've
told I haven't I haven't kept back anything from you that was
profitable and I haven't shunned to declare unto you the whole
counsel of God the Word of God is it's given unto me and here's the last thing what
is a pastor notice in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and
verse 6, the Apostle says, who also have
made us able ministers of the New Testament, or the New Covenant,
not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter killeth,
but the Spirit giveth life." What is a pastor? He is a man
who is a minister of the New Covenant, the New Testament. Now we know there was an Old
Covenant. If there's a New Covenant, there
was an Old Covenant. And that Old Covenant was a covenant
of works. It basically said do and live. obey and live and Adam Disobeyed
he was under that covenant of works and he was our representative. He represented all men All of
his posterity we all proceed from him and when he sinned we
sinned we fell in him That was a covenant of works And when
God put Adam and Eve out of the garden, he put those cherubs
there with the flaming swords to keep the way to the tree of
life, to show for all time that the way of salvation by works
is forever closed. That man, by his doing, by his
works, will never be able to please God, to satisfy God. That we need a substitute. We
need a Savior. We need a surety. And that surety
is the Lord Jesus Christ, who came under this new covenant. And this covenant is not of the
letter. The letter killeth. You sit under
a ministry that preaches the law, the law, the law, the law,
the law, and what will it do? It will kill. That's all it can
do. Why? Because it tells you what
you must do to please God, but it gives you no power. It gives
you no ability to do that. I thank God. We are ministers
of a new covenant. And it is a covenant of grace,
my friends. It's the everlasting covenant.
It is a covenant that God made with us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. And it's unconditional on our
part. It's unconditional on our part. It was conditioned on His part. That is, upon the part of Jesus
Christ coming and obeying God, satisfying, honoring God's law,
and establishing righteousness. And then suffering at the hands
of that broken law to pay the penalty for our sins. This covenant, we're made ministers
of the new covenant. And this message that we are
to preach proclaims the blessings of this covenant, and they are
given unto us by grace, not by works, not by merit. What are
some of the blessings of this covenant? Well, in Hebrews 8,
we're told this, God said, I will put my laws into their minds
and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people. Now, if God tells you that he
will be your God, you don't need anything else. Right? What more could you need? If
God is your God, if God pledges himself to be your God, to meet
every need to satisfy himself, his holy law on your part, what
more could you want? What more could you ask? And
they shall not teach every man his neighbor. You see, in the
kingdom of God, everyone is born into the kingdom of God. And
and we all know his his will his word We we hear his voice
and we follow him From the least to the greatest
and God said for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness And
their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more What
a blessing, right? That's the covenant that we're
preaching. We're ministered. What is a pastor? What is a pastor? Well, he's a man who is a gift
from the ascended Lord Jesus Christ. He's a man who has beautiful
feet. He's a man who has this gift
in an earthen vessel. And he is a man who is a watchman
and he watches for your soul. And he is a man who is a minister
of the new covenant. And I know that Eric is such
a man, and I thank the Lord for him and for this congregation
and for your support of him. You know, every pastor needs
sheep, right? And sheep need a pastor. I mean,
you couldn't be a pastor without any sheep. And sheep need a pastor. That's just so, my friends. I
remember hearing a man, it may have been at Don's church years
ago from Australia, but I think he said his brother owned a big
ranch of sheep out in that country. And he said, there's one thing
for sure. If you see a sheep by itself,
there's either one or two things. He's either sick, are lost, one
or the other, because sheep are animals that must flock together. And they're dependent upon a
pastor, and the pastors, it's a common dependency, isn't it?
Pastor and church, church and pastor. What a wonderful thing
it is when God gives you a pastor. May the Lord bless these words
to us tonight.