Turn with me, if you will, to
Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah chapter 52. What should I do for my pastor? That's the title of my message.
I want to answer that question. What should I do for my pastor? I want to talk to you about serving
God together with his servant in this place. I love and highly
esteem your former pastor, Brother Jack Shanks. I so much hoped
he could be here tonight. Glad you're here, Shirley. Love
him dearly. He faithfully preached the gospel
to you for nearly 30 years. Don't ever forget that. Don't
ever forget that. He faithfully served your souls
for nearly 30 years. This congregation has been dear
to me for almost that long. I believe The first time I came
here to preach to you was 1984, in the fall of 1984. That's a
long time ago. And you've been dear, so thankful
that God brought us together, knit our hearts together, gave
us this blessed time of fellowship together in the cause of Christ.
And I couldn't be more delighted in seeing already how the Lord
has knit you to your new pastor and to his wife, Teresa. Brother
David has been a friend for a long time. I've known him and Teresa,
as he told you a little bit ago, for about 23, 24 years. We first
met in Franklin, Tennessee when he was there. He served the Lord
in the congregation there. Then about 20 years ago, they
moved to Madisonville. He'd been under the ministry
of Brother Maurice Montgomery. He taught Sunday school there
and preached for Brother Montgomery for 20 years. He's a man of proven
faithfulness, and when you asked me to recommend someone to you
to consider as your pastor, I didn't have any hesitancy at all in
recommending David to you. I know him well. Thank God for
you. Thank God for you. Thank God for your faithful service
in Madisonville and now here. It's my prayer that our God will
give you many fruitful years together as you serve him in
this generation. What can I do for my pastor? I don't have any question. That's
a question that you want to know an answer to. But before we look
at the answers, let me read a very familiar text of scripture to
you and describe the pastor and his work just a little bit differently
than Brother David has just done so. Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah
chapter 52, verse 7. Here the prophet of God describes
the attitude which ought to prevail in the hearts of God's saints
toward those men who are sent of God to preach the gospel to
them. Isaiah 52 verse 7. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation,
that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Now, the picture here
is of a city in captivity. But this city that's in captivity
begins to hear the sound of feet coming from a distance across
the mountains. It's the sound of a liberating
army coming to set them free. And that's just exactly the picture
of God's church in this world. They are by nature, we were by
nature, captives. Held captive to sin and to Satan
under the curse of God's law, terrified with the thought of
judgment. Until God sends a messenger. A messenger of free grace. proclaiming
liberty to the captives. That's what the pastor is. He's
a man sent to proclaim liberty to those who are captive. God's
servants are an army of men coming over the mountains of sin and
difficulty and trial and heartache and darkness, proclaiming deliverance
from God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And those men are
highly valued by God's people, and rightly so. Those men who
preach the gospel are highly valued by God's people, and rightly
so. You ought to cherish them. You
ought to cherish them. I remember when Brother Pledger
first came back to Houston and started to work there in Houston.
That's been a long time ago. That's been a long time ago.
There's some folks sitting here who cherish that man. Is that
right? Cherish. Preach the gospel to
you. Use the God to show you the way
of light and life and salvation. used of God to guide your sons
and daughters in the way of light and life and salvation. It's
but right that such men be cherished by those they serve. Look again
at the prophet's words here. False prophets, preachers of
freewill works religion, their feet aren't beautiful, they're
despicable. They don't bring good tidings of redemption accomplished
by Christ. They only bring bad advice, telling
sinners what they need to do to get saved. And false prophets
are not to be treated with respect. They are rather to be treated
with contempt. But not so with God's servants. God's servants
are identified here by these five distinct things. They bring
good tidings, good news, good news. Preachers sent of God have
got a message and it's good news. The good news of redemption accomplished. Salvation finished. It is the
good news of God's free grace in Jesus Christ to needy sinners. Our Lord Jesus entered in once
into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption. We're not
here to give you good advice. We're here to give you good news. We're not here to tell you what
you ought to do. We're sent of God to tell you
what Christ has done. This whole religious world, the
whole of this religious world, I drove up down the road a couple
of times today, a couple of times yesterday to see these huge goat
barns everywhere. I'll tell you how they're built.
The preachers make their money giving good counsel and good
advice, they say. It's bad counsel and bad advice.
The whole religious world is built by men trying to get you
to do something. Trying to get you to do something.
That's how they make the living and get you to send them their
money and build their buildings so they can get more money to
take more folks to hell with them. to get folks to do something. God's servants are sent to declare,
done! Christ has finished the work.
Second, they publish peace. Not the possibility of peace.
Peace obtained by the blood of Christ. Peace made between God
and men. Not to tell you how to make peace
with God. You can't. God's servants come
to declare peace is made for all who believe. Third, they
bring good tidings of good. Well, isn't that what you just
said? Yeah, and he's repeating. Good tidings of good. Good is
atonement by the blood. Good is election by grace. Good is free justification. Good is complete forgiveness. Good is acceptance into beloved. Good is redemption by Christ. We come to proclaim good tidings
of good. I can't think of a greater burden
in this world than the responsibility of seeking a message from God
to deliver to you eternity-bound sinners who must spend eternity
either in the bliss of glory or in the torments of hell. Seeking
the message that God would have me bring to you right now, this
hour, before you take your last breath. But I want to tell you
something else. As heavy as the burden is, and
these preachers can verify it, and their wives can sometimes
verify it better than they can. As heavy as the burden is, as
taxing, as demanding, as heart-rending as it is, it's the sweetest,
most blessed thing in the world. I'd rather be right here doing
this than anything on this earth I know. Preaching good tidings
of good. Publishing peace, bringing these
good tidings to God's people is a joy. They publish salvation. They don't tell helpless, depraved,
dead sinners what they must do to save themselves. They proclaim
to helpless, lost sons of Adam how God sovereignly saves His
elect for the glory of His name through blood atonement in His
own dear Son. And fifth, they say to Zion, Thy God reigneth. What on this earth does you better
when you come in from the midst of a miserable day at work? Everything gone wrong. And you
turn on the news and you hear that Obama got elected president.
And then you listen to him talk about what he's going to do.
What does you more good than to come to this place and be
assured from this book, again by God's messenger, God's put
away your sin and he's still on his throne. Thy God reigneth. Not, He did reign, or He's going
to reign. Thy God reigneth. He's right
now on the throne, and God's servants, all of them, publish
this good news to His people all the time. Our God is in the
heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. You say, well, Brother Don, I
know some good preachers who don't believe God's sovereign. No,
you don't. They're false prophets. Read the next verse. They shall
all see eye to eye. Every one of God's watchmen,
every one God sends, they shall see eye to eye. They declare
this good news. They publish God's salvation.
They publish peace. They declare, Thy God reigneth!
And they tell it to Zion again and again and again, as often
as they have opportunity to speak on the walls of Zion. Any man
who doesn't preach these things is not sent to God and must not
be received. He must not be heard. He must
not be aided in any way by God's church. Read 2 John verses 9,
10, and 11. Don't receive him into your house.
Don't bid him Godspeed. The man does not preach this
glorious gospel of God's spring grace, do not treat him with
respect but with contempt. But if a man preaches these glorious,
glorious good things, hear him. Hear him and hear him. Hear him,
hear him and hear him. Receive him and embrace him.
If you know the value of your soul, the preciousness of Christ,
the value of His blood and His righteousness, if you know the
blessedness of the gospel, You cherish that man sent of God
to preach the gospel to you. You want to treat him right. You want to treat him as God's
messenger. You want to do for him what you
can to be of help to him, and of help to your soul, and of
help to the cause of Christ as you labor together with him.
That being said, I want to show you from the scriptures ten answers,
very briefly, very quickly, but I want you to look at them with
me. Ten answers to this question. What should I do for my pasture? Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. If you have trouble finding it, please write down the answer
in the reference and look at it later. Number one. Knowing. 1 Thessalonians chapter
5 verse 12. We beseech you, brethren, to
know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord
and admonish you. To know your pastor is to acknowledge
him as God's messenger to your soul. Now, I know that these
other preachers here will verify exactly what I'm telling you.
We're getting a little older now. And we do love those people for
whom we labor, for whom we have devoted our lives and soon got
to leave them. And they got to find another
pastor just like you had, just exactly like you folks did. And
you want them to, I want them to find a good one, don't you? What do you do? We want you to
know every faithful gospel preacher you know. I put our folks in
contact with preachers all over the world. Give them addresses,
email addresses, telephone numbers. Write to them. Encourage them.
Get to know them. Let them get to know you. You're gonna need
them. You're gonna need them. But having said that, know your
pastor. You should have a special relationship
with your pastor. There ought to be something distinct.
about a pastor in the congregation he serves. I recall years ago,
years ago, a lady was sitting in the hospital room with my
wife, a nurse, waiting on me to come out of surgery, and the lady's a friend, and she said
concerning her pastor, said, I was here when we called him
as pastor 25 years ago, and I knew him just as well then as I know
him now. And sadly, it was the pastor's fault. That ought not
be. That ought not be. Knowing. Your
pastor is to be acknowledged by you above all others as God's
messenger to you. That makes him special to you.
To know him is to love him. To know him is to respect him. To treat him as your pastor.
To treat him with respect. Our Lord Jesus said, He that
heareth David pledger, heareth me. That's exactly what he said
to the pastor. You're his servant. He sent you.
He that heareth you, heareth me. He that despiseth you, despiseth
me. To know your pastor is to show
concern for him, for his comfort, his welfare, his safety, his
protection. Pray for him. Pray for his spiritual
safety. Pray for his spiritual well-being.
Protect his name and his reputation among men from the slanderous
gossip of evil men, and I promise you it will come. I promise you
it will come. And I advise you never make an
effort to defend yourself. Never make an effort. I advise
you to defend him. That's exactly right. You take
up the name. He's your pastor. There are three
reasons Paul gives for this. They labor among you. Pastoring a congregation is a
labor. It's a labor. I make it my business. I have
now for nearly 40 years. To see to it there's not a man
in our congregation who works at any job who works as many
hours a week as I do. I make it my business to do so. Not only that, it takes that
to do it. It's lifelong labor. Study is labor. It's labor. I can study all day and go out
and work with my hands while I used to. I can't do it with
my hands anymore. When I was in good health, I could study
all day and go out and work at night. But I couldn't work all
day and come in and study at night. Just couldn't do it. Studying, prayer, seeking a message
is labor. Then it says they are over you. Over you by divine appointment.
Overseers. Placed over you as your spiritual
guide and ruler in the kingdom of God. Brother David dealt with
this just a little bit ago so well. A pastor is one who must
rule well his own house. Because that's what a pastor
does in the house of God. He rules the house of God. Just
like a husband does his own house. They admonish you. They remind
you of God's goodness to you. Remind you of your past experiences
of grace. Remind you of the Savior's redeeming
love. Remind you of your responsibilities
and cares. Alright, look at verse 13. 1
Thessalonians 5 verse 13. Know them and distinguish them. and to esteem them very highly
in love for their work's sake. And don't forget the next sentence.
And be at peace among yourselves. I promise you. I promise you. The peace of this church family
will be determined over the next number of years by your esteem
for your pastor. I promise you it will. esteem
them very highly in love for their work's sake. Super abundantly.
Entertain the highest possible opinion of your pastor at all
times. Speak honorably of him in your
home, among your children, among your workmates. Speak honorably
to him. Speak honorably of him among
yourselves, and speak honorably to him all the time. Speak respectfully. He's God's messenger to you.
God's messenger to you. Brother Don, don't you know we're
not supposed to call any man Lord? I know that. Or Reverend,
or Father, or Doctor. But God's servants are to be
spoken to in respectful terms. Neither the pastor's office nor
his work should be looked upon with levity. I said to our men
A couple weeks ago we meet before services in my office and have
scripture reading and prayer and we were chatting about something
about the Old Testament. I said with regard to the worship
of God, I'm weary of people treating what we're doing here tonight
as something casual and insignificant. Take it or leave it. In the Old
Testament, once a year, just one time a year, just one time
a year, Folks came together at the tabernacle and later at the
temple for the sacrifice of the paschal lamb. And that's a whole
day long ceremony. Just imagine, all day long. All
day long. I'm talking about from sunup
to sundown. They carried on the ceremony. They picked up this
lamb that had been set aside for 14 days and inspected. And
this other lamb, equally perfect and clean. And they watched as
Avon put on his gorgeous garments, and he slit the Lamb's throat,
and he took off his gorgeous garments, and put on those white
linen garments, and he applied the blood everywhere it's supposed
to be applied, and he went in and sprinkled the Mercy Seat,
and obtained the Toadman, and he came back out and set the
scapegoat out in the hands of a fit man, and they watched this
whole thing! And they observed it with great
care, until at last the day was ended, with Aaron on the basis
of atonement made, in his gorgeous array, with holiness to the Lord
on his forehead, lifting his hands over the congregation,
saying, The Lord bless you, and keep you. And I'll guarantee
you, there wasn't a bubblegum pop in the whole day. I'll guarantee
you folks came on time, and stayed for the duration. and looked
at it with great concern and great reverence. We ought to
look at every worship service just that way. It's just that
important. It is just that important. Here
is where God said he would meet with men. He never said he'd
meet with men anywhere else. Right here. He said, I'll meet
you on the mercy seat. Is that what he said? Where else
did he say he'd meet them? where two or three were carried
by name. That's it. You mean Brother Don? Every time we're allowed to meet
together in the house of God to worship our Redeemer and sing
His praise, it's as important as that highest of all holy days
in Israel, the Day of Atonement? Every bit as important. to be
treated with just that kind of reverence and respect. Look at
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 7. Remember Him. Know Him. Esteem Him. Here's the third
one. Remember Him. Remember them which
have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
Remember Brother David and his wife and family at the throne
of grace when you pray. Remember the messages he preaches
to you. Do whatever you have to do to
remember them. If you take notes or get copies of tapes or discs
and listen to whatever it takes, don't let it slip. Remember what's
been said. Remember the doctrine he preaches.
Listen carefully and ask God to seal it to your heart. And
here the Spirit of God gives two reasons for remembering Him.
First, He has the rule of the church. They have the rule over
you. They're your spiritual guides.
They're your pastor who preach the gospel to you. Second, He
speaks to you the Word of God. He opens this blessed book. and
declares to you the wondrous things of God out of His Word.
Speaks to you the Word of God. Well, I can study it on my own.
You won't understand it. Well, don't you? Well, do you
think preachers are priests? No. No. I'll be the first to
tell you that. I don't act like one either.
I don't want you to come to me for counseling. Go see a shrink
for counseling. I'm here to counsel you from
the Word. And God Almighty gives His counsel by this Word through
a man who stands in this place, who's devoted to the study of
this Word, and gifted to understand this Word, and gifted to declare
it to you. And if you understand it, it's
because somebody taught you, who was gifted of God, for you
to understand it. Go to verse 7 again. Follow it. Whose faith? Follow. Well, I'm
not going to follow any man. You'll follow one to hell, or
you'll follow one to glory. Whichever way you choose. You
will follow God's servants or you will not follow the Redeemer.
Whose faith? Follow. I remember, oh, 32 years
ago, 31 years ago, my dear friend, Brother Watson Dufour, who pastored
Beacon Baptist Church in Annstead, West Virginia for nearly 50 years,
I went to his funeral. His deacons handed him the funeral.
That's what he requested. And one of the deacons in the
congregation, just before we left the graveside, they had
lowered the casket and body into the grave and covered it up. We stood there for the whole
thing. And Brother Harold Cole led us in a word of prayer. I
remember exactly what he said, his very last words. He said,
Lord, you gave us a faithful pastor. We followed him as far
as we can. Give us another one to follow. whose faith follow. Considering
the end of his conversation, the end of his message, the end
of his life, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Look at verse 17, Hebrews 13.
Follow him and obey him. Obey him. Obey them that have
the rule over you. And submit yourselves. Kind of
necessary to submit if you're going to obey. For they watch
for your souls, as they that must give account, and they do
it with joy, or that they do it with joy, not with grief,
for that's unprofitable for you. Obedience is not servitude, but
it involves service. God's people are expected and
required to obey their pastors. Some of you may not have heard
this, I suspect that Eric is careful to speak only to his
single buddies. When we had the wedding ceremony
a few weeks ago, he got married and Eric got one of our daughters. I love her dearly. And I did
something with that girl that is not in politically correct
taste in our day. I required her before witnesses
to obey you. Did I or didn't I? And if she
had not agreed, I would not have married you. I wouldn't have
done it. And if you're not agreed to obey
your pastor, don't call him as your pastor. Go on and play religious
games with somebody else. Obey a man, obey him. Obey Him following His faith
and faithfulness. Considering Christ the end of
His conversation, this man who is gifted of God to minister
to you, obey Him. Even when you don't understand
exactly why, He does what He does. He's a faithful man. He's a faithful man. He won't
take advantage of you. He won't abuse you. He won't
misuse you. He won't guide you in error willingly. He won't do it. You have to.
Obey him. Obey him. Obey him because this
is right. And this is how you live in peace. I realize that he's just a man. But if he's not worthy of your
obedience, he shouldn't be your pastor. I think Brother David
handled this thing of elders and pastors and bishops the best
I've ever seen it, read it, heard it from anybody. It's ready to
go. But if you've got elders in the congregation, more than
one, you don't have more than one pastor. Elders serve in subjection
to their pastor. or they don't serve. For the
Darwin Pruitt, been in church in Danville for a number of years,
he is down here at Taylor now. He will verify what I'm telling
you. As many times as he preached for me, and I have four men in
our congregation who are gifted preachers. Gifted preachers.
I'm thankful for them. Use them all the time. And I
don't ever tell you what to preach, do I? Did I ever tell you what
to preach? Or say, don't preach this? I
don't think I ever did that, did I? Never. But I'm going to
tell you what none of them will do. Lindsey Campbell teaches
the adult Sunday school class, has done it every Sunday for
nearly 30 years. I've been pastor there. And I
write Sunday school literature and never tell them what to say
or don't say. Never have. Not one time. But I'll tell you
what you're not going to hear from them. None of them. Well,
Brother Don, I know he doesn't believe this, but this is what
I think. You might hear it once. You might hear it once, but I
guarantee you it ain't gonna happen twice. Either that or
I won't be pastor there. That's rebellion. That's anarchy.
It's the pastor's responsibility to lead God's people, and the
responsibility of God's people to follow him. That means that
he holds the reins. He's the captain of the ship.
He's the one who gives direction and worship, obeys message, obeys
admonitions, obeys reproofs. Submit to him. Submit yourselves
is the sixth thing, verse 17. For they watch for your souls.
Submit yourself. Boy, I just don't see how men
could do that. You know, several years ago, been a long
time now, 30 some years, I was dying with cancer. Doctors didn't
expect me to live. And back in those days, they
had what they called a full mock treatment. They split me open,
took everything out, see what was messed up, put most everything
back, what they could fit in, what they couldn't, I guess they
left out. But then I had to go through this new procedure called
chemotherapy and Cobalt. Chemotherapy wasn't very refined
in those days. It was more likely to kill you
than heal you. But I was dying. And the doctor that I didn't
even know, Somebody told me his name. That's
all I could do about it. I read his credentials. And I
went down and submitted myself to a man to make me sick as a
dog for a year. Injecting me with drugs that
just the slightest mis-mixture would kill me. I took cobalt
treatments. I still got tattoos, only tattoos
on my body. I had to put lead blocks on my
chest and my ears to protect certain organs, hopefully, from
the rays. And so why would you do that? He was the doctor. I didn't have a clue what he
was doing. I don't even know to this day how cobalt helps.
And you know what? I really don't care. I really
am not interested in it. I've never studied it. He was
responsible to know. He was gifted to know. He was
trained to know better than I what I needed. And that man right
there probably knows better what you folks at Lincoln would need
than you do.