Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Don asked me to read the Scriptures tonight and
lead in prayer. I thought of Scripture that has taught
me the most about preaching and preachers and what this thing
is all about. And I suppose I have learned
more from these two chapters than all the rest of the book
put together as far as preaching and preachers and the heart of
what this thing is all about. So, if you will look with me
at verse 18 of chapter 1 and then I will read some in chapter
2 also. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
or being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified. unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the world, and things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. And I, brethren, when I came
unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. for I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of the world,
nor of the princes of the world that come to naught. But we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of
the princes of this world knew, for had they known it they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in
him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit
of God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. But he that is spiritual judges
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ. Our Father, where do we begin
on such an occasion with our request, not only for
our own sakes and our fellow ministers in this building, but
this one which we ordain? Oh, our God, be with him in power. Humble him, do those things that
only God can do. Work through him, in him, and
by him for Christ's sake. Amen. I count it an honor to be asked
to participate in this service tonight, and I'm certainly thankful,
and I know that you are as well, as a church, that the Lord has
sent you a pastor. And that's a great blessing and
a great gift. Now, I'm to speak to the pastor,
so it shouldn't take me nearly as long, because there's only
one being ordained. Don's going to speak to the members
of the church, so he'll have more time. But I'll be brief.
If you will, open your Bibles tonight to 1 Peter chapter 5. Let me read these first five
verses. 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, ye 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. There are three words
in the New Testament which I believe were used interchangeably that
speak to us of this office that you are being ordained to tonight. The title Elder and then Bishop
and Pastor. I believe these terms are used
interchangeably in the scriptures if you will look at the various
passages. And we see all three of them
here. We don't see him in the English translation, but the
title, elder, you see in verse 1. The apostle is exhorting the
elders, and he too was an elder, even though he was an apostle.
And then in verse 2, the Greek word, which is here translated
feed, is the word also that gives us the title of the pastor. He's to feed the flock. And then the overseer. when he is to take the oversight,
that's the word for bishop. So, elder, pastor, bishop. These terms are all used interchangeably
in the Scriptures. This is one office, sometimes
referred to as the elder, sometimes referred to as the bishop, sometimes
referred to as the pastor. And someone has said that the
elder refers to the man. The man. He's the elder. And
the term bishop refers to the office. He's to take the oversight. He's the overseer over the flock. And then the term pastor refers
to the work of the ministry. That is, he is to feed the flock
of God. And you see the same thing in
Acts chapter 20, when the apostle called the elders of the church
at Ephesus to meet with him. And he knew that was the last
time that he was going to be seeing them. And specifically,
we are told, he sent for the elders of the church at Ephesus. And this is what he said to them,
take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. That's the bishop. He's the overseer to feed the
church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. To feed the
church of God, that is to pastor the congregation. So I'm going
to take these three words and make a few comments on each one
of them. First of all, the elder. The
elder. This man who is being set apart
tonight for the gospel ministry, he is an elder and he should
meet the requirements. No man should be set apart to
this ministry, to this office, who does not meet the requirements
that the apostle wrote both to Timothy and to Titus. And I've
chosen the passage in Titus for us to look at tonight because
of the use of the word elders. And again, we will see how this
elder-pastor-teacher is used together. But in Titus chapter
1 in verse 5, Paul writing to Titus, For this
cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the
things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city,
as I had appointed thee. You see, it's elders that he
is to ordain. This man is being ordained an
elder. That's the man. He's an elder.
And then we are given these qualifications. If any be blameless, the husband
of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot
or unruly, or a bishop," there is the word bishop, the overseer,
he must be blameless, as the steward of God, not self-willed,
not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to
filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good
men, sober, just, holy, temperate, 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. The reason I
chose to read this passage here in Titus rather than the one
in Timothy is that we can see that this man who meets these
qualifications, he is an elder. In Timothy he said, not a novice,
don't ordain a man. Lay hands suddenly on no man
and do not ordain a novice lest being lifted up with pride he
fall into the condemnation of Satan. So the man himself is
to be an elder, and you see these qualifications here. They all
speak to a man that I would say is a seasoned man. Not necessarily
in age, but a man who is seasoned in the things of God, and he
has to be one who has been well taught. That's one of the main
qualifications, that he be well taught. Holding fast the faithful
word of God as he hath been taught. Now we know that this brother,
David Edmondson, he's been well taught. He's already mentioned
how that he's been blessed under the ministry of Don, and we also
know that he was under the ministry of a faithful man of God, Pastor
Maurice Montgomery, for many years. And Maurice is a man that
I think all of us here who know him would would say he's a man
of God. He's proven himself over the
years. One of the finest gentlemen that
I've ever known personally in the ministry. And you've sat
under his ministry and you worked with him there. And I know he
commends you and recommends you. And that's good. That's enough,
isn't it? That's enough for me. Now I know
this. You're starting off with a good
name, David. I told him that the other day.
I said, now don't run it. You're starting off with a good
name, at least. But the ministry is a burden.
That's what it is. It is a burden. And if a man
can do anything else, then that's what he should be doing. And
I don't mean when I say if a man can do anything else. I'm not
saying if a man can earn a living doing anything else. I mean,
when I was a young man, they used to say if a man failed at
everything, you know, he couldn't work here and he couldn't work
there, well, he must be called to preach. No, I'm not saying
it in that fashion. Not hardly. But if a man could
do anything else, if God would allow you to do anything else,
then that's what you should be doing. And I'm just convinced
of that more and more the older that I become, that the ministry
is a burden and God lays it upon certain men. And it's a blessing,
it's an honor that God calls you to this ministry, but it
is a burden. And if it isn't a burden, then
I doubt very seriously that the man has been called. So the elder,
we see the qualifications here. And the Apostle Paul said this
about himself. He said, I thank Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. Now when he said that God counted
him faithful, he's not saying that God foresaw that he would
be a faithful man and so God put him into the ministry. No,
God made him faithful. He was faithful because God made
him faithful. And that's the reason it's so
important that a man be called to this ministry, to this work. It's not a matter of, you know,
in high school they have those career days. And a friend of
mine used to teach that class. And she would invite different
people to come to school and tell about their work and help
young people make their decision as to what kind of a career they
wanted. But you don't ask the preacher
to come to something like that. Preaching is not a profession.
It's a call that God extends to certain ones And when he does,
he burdens you for the work, and you cannot be content doing
anything else. So that's the first word. The
second word is the word elder. And in this office, it is an
office of oversight. He must watch over the flock.
That's his work, to watch over the flock in this office. Because
grievous wolves, as the apostle told those elders of Ephesus,
And grievous wolves will come in. And then he said, not only
will they come in from outside, but from among you some will
arise. And a wolf doesn't come in wolf's
clothing, does he? Our Lord said that. He comes
dressed as a sheep. And yet he's a ravenous wolf. A devouring wolf. He doesn't
care for the flock. He doesn't love the flock. No
one will love this church like you. I just know that's true. Other people may love it as much,
but no one will love this church like you will love this church,
because this is your church as the pastor. Yeah, I know it's
the Lord's church, but it's your church under Christ. And no one's
going to love this church. No one's going to care for this
church. No one's going to have the burden for this church that
God has given you. And isn't that true, Don? Darvin? I know it's true. I know it's
to no one. Other people may care as much,
but none any more than you're going to care and love, and already
do. I know the Lord's given you love.
But false teachers, they will come in, and they are crafty.
And they can easily deceive some in the church, because some are
naive. Some believers are just generally
naive, and they think anyone that comes in and acts religious
and spiritual that they are to be listened to, not necessarily. And time proves men. I believe that's one reason Paul
said not to ordain a novice. Time. When people come in and
become a part of this church, this congregation, you don't
put them in places of responsibility. You let them prove themselves.
And in time, If God's added them, if God's brought them in time,
it'll work out for God's glory and for the good of this church.
But you must watch out for the wolves. Now, as Peter said, the
bishop's not to lord it over the sheep, and he's to love them,
and I know you do, and to recognize that these sheep, Christ purchased
them with His blood. How valuable are they to Christ? He's given you this responsibility
to tend this sheepfold that He purchased with His blood. How
precious they are to Him. And I know there's a proverb
which says, in the multitude of counselors there wanteth not
wisdom. And you have men, I'm sure, in
this congregation, I know you do, who are counselors and they
help you in making decisions. But let me say this, the pastor
is still the overseer. And on a ship, you've got many
officers on that ship, but you have one captain. And I remember
what a friend of mine said one time, two people can ride a horse. You can have two people riding
the horse, but only one man can hold the reins. If two try to
hold the reins, you may run into a three or something. The pastor,
he's the overseer. He's not the lorded over the
flock, no. But he is the pastor. He's the bishop of this congregation. I went back and read again the
story of John Gill. I read his biography several
years ago, but you know, when he got older, and he really,
I don't think he was much older than I am. He kind of scared
me when I read that. But when he got older, and he was sick, he was infirmed,
the people of the church, some of them at least, they sent word
to him that they would like to relieve him of some of the burdens,
some of the responsibilities, seeing he could only preach once
a week. And they would hire, or they would look for a co-pastor. And he sent them a rather lengthy
letter telling them that he would submit his resignation. because
he could not find the office of a co-pastor or an associate
pastor in the Scriptures. And of course, they wouldn't
have his resignation. They loved him and they wanted
him to continue to be their pastor as long as he was physically
able. But that brings out the point.
There's no co-pastor. There's no associate pastor.
There is a pastor of the church. He's the bishop. And then the
third word is the word pastor, and he's given the ministry of
feeding the sheep. The apostles, you know, when
they were spoken to about the need to choose
out some to take care of feeding the elders, I believe that's
in Acts 6, they said, you choose out some ones to feed the poor. I think I may have said feed
the elders, but it was to feed the poor. And they said, we'll
give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of
the Word. And that's it in feeding the
sheep. Give ourselves to the ministry,
to prayer, continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Some of my grandchildren were
over at the house last Monday, and they had been recently to
a petting zoo, and they were talking about the goats. And
those goats are cute, aren't they? Those little goats they
have in those petting zoos. But they were talking about how
the goat tried to eat something they had. We got to talking about
goats will eat anything. And my wife said, they'll eat
a tin can. I don't know if that's true or not. I've heard that
for years. But goats will eat things that sheep will not eat.
And God's sheep They need sheep's food, don't they? Don't we all? And so that's the ministry of
the Word and of prayer. And I thought about some people
in the Old Testament, how I might illustrate this. But there were
some people in the nation of Israel, and they were the Gibeonites. And I won't go into any detail
as to how they got into the nation. You probably recognize them.
But this is what Joshua said to them, that they would be allowed
to continue in the nation, but this would be their ministry.
They shall, or you shall, this is what he said to them, you
shall be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my
God. And I thought, my, that picture is really the work of
a minister. to be hewers of wood. They had
to go out and shop the wood. They had to continually make
sure there was wood for the fire on the altar to be kept burning. And I would liken that to prayer.
And if a preacher, if we neglect prayer, then preaching is going
to become a drudgery to us, and it's going to become a drudgery
to those who must listen to us. I mean, we must pray. We must
keep the fire burning in our hearts. And I found, over the
years, the best way to do that is in prayer. And when we neglect
prayer, the fire begins to ebb and not be as alive as it has
been. And then the drawers of water,
of course, to bring the water. The priest had to wash themselves. They had to wash the sacrifices.
Those labors are always necessary for water. And I think about
that. as it is our joy to draw water out of the wells of salvation. And that's the work of the preacher.
And I would say this to the people that you pastor. They're out
in the world all week working on jobs. And it's so easy for
all of us to get our eyes off of those things that are eternal,
those things that are most important. And so the pastor, because of
your work, the fact that you're given the time to spend in prayer
and study of the Word of God, you are continually to call back
God's people, making them aware, because we do so easily forget
these things, that what we see takes up our time, our attention. But my friends, this is all passing.
This is all temporal. And so the pastor calls us back
to that which is eternal, that which is important. And I just happened to read this
story. I'll share it with you in closing. I know you've heard
it, but I like it. I've read it several times, but
every time I read it, it's a blessing to me. And I happened to be reading
this sermon by Spurgeon last week, and he told this story.
And he said, This is Spurgeon speaking. You remember the story
I told you of the Welshman who heard a young man preach a very
fine sermon, a grand sermon, a highfalutin, spread eagle sermon. And when he had done, he asked
the Welshman what he thought of it. The man replied, he did
not think anything of it. And why not? Because there was
no Jesus Christ in it. Well, said he, but my text did
not seem to run that way. Never mind, said the Welshman,
your sermon ought to run that way. I do not see that, however,
said the young man. No, said the other, you do not
see how to preach yet. This is the way to preach. He
said, from every village in England, it does not matter where it is,
there is sure to be a road to London. Though there may not
be a road to certain other places, there is certain to be a road
to London. Now, from every text in the Bible
there is a road to Jesus Christ. And the way to preach is just
to say, How can I get from this text to Jesus Christ? And then
go preaching all the way along it. Well, but, said the young
man, suppose I find a text that has not got a road to Jesus Christ. The Westman said, I have preached
for forty years, and I have never found such a scripture. But if
I ever do find one, I will go over hedge and ditch, but what
I will to get to him, for I will never finish without bringing
in my Master. And that is the food to feed
the sheep, isn't it? It's to preach Christ, as you
read just a few moments ago, to preach Christ and Him crucified. Again, it's my privilege to be
a part of this service and our prayers are with you. We love
you already. Thank God for you. Thank you.