We will go to 1 Peter chapter
5 and just hold them open on your lap as we look at these
first seven verses in 1 Peter chapter 5. The elders which are among you
I exhort, who am also an elder, Now when Peter speaks of elders
among you, he is not talking about numerous elders within
one local congregation. That is not the case, particularly
in this passage. There may be many elders in a
congregation as God raises them up and as the need is found,
but that's not a requirement for a local church and that's
not what this passage is saying. We know that because back in
chapter 1, flip back there if you will, Peter is writing to
the saints of God scattered abroad in many places. Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied. So Peter
is writing to a number of congregations of God's saints, like you and
I, scattered in various places. And the elders here were the
pastors of those congregations, individual pastors of individual
churches. And I stress this because there
is much talk today about churches being pastored by a number of
elders. It can't happen. It can't happen. It's not only
not scriptural, it can't happen. There is but one pastor in a
local church, as there is but one father and one husband in
a household, there is but one pastor in a local church. Other
gifted teachers, preachers, elders in the congregation, if God raises
them up, deacons, serve the Lord together under the direction
of a single pastor. Now this is what Peter describes
himself as being as an elder, and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ. Now Peter was literally an eyewitness
of the master's sufferings. He saw what happened. He saw
our Lord in the garden. He saw him in Pilate's judgment
hall. But that which he witnessed with
his eyes had no effect on his soul. Will you hear me? What you witness with your eyes
affects your emotions, it affects your mind, it has no effect on
your soul. Matter of fact, there were a
lot of people who witnessed more of the Lord's physical sufferings
than Peter did. You remember Peter went out in
the judgment hall. He wasn't with him to the end.
There were lots of folks who witnessed all that our Lord suffered. Witnessed it in the flesh, sitting
right before him, who went to hell. Now I stress that because
of all the silly, I mean silly, insane, insane religious nonsense
connected with this movie about the passion of Christ. Oh, so
moving. It affects your emotions, it's
not going to change your soul. Oh, but people converted to Christ.
Converted to some religious experience. Not to Christ. Not to Christ. That which Peter was an eyewitness
of, which made him a believer, that which he was an eyewitness
of, which made him a preacher of the gospel, made him faithful
in the proclaiming of the gospel, was the sufferings of Christ. You see, the preacher is a man
to whom and in whom Christ is revealed. That's what a believer
is. The difference is that the preacher
is a man to whom and in whom Christ is revealed, who is sent
of God to witness these things, to bear witness of them. He declares
to men everywhere the sufferings of Christ, the person who suffered. He was a man and is a man. Indeed,
he is. But this man is God Almighty,
the incarnate God. They declare the thing he suffered. His sufferings were many. The
thing he suffered was one. He was made to be sin. And you're not going to put that
in a picture. He was made to be sin. Because he was made to be sin. He suffered all the horror of
God's holy wrath. He was abandoned by God, forsaken,
separated from God. so abandoned and forsaken by
his father that at one time he endured all the wrath of the
holy God that we deserve, the wrath and justice that would
have sunk the world to hell. And he did it all in a course
of three hours to the full satisfaction of divine justice. And the preacher,
that man sent of God, he is a witness of the result of his sufferings.
forgiveness and redemption accomplished, justice satisfied, righteousness
brought in so that those sinners for whom Christ died shall never
suffer any of the fury of God's wrath because God declares there's
no fury in me. Preacher, how do I know if he
died for me? Believe him. Trust the Son of
God. Somebody asked me last week,
well, who are God's elect? I said, you are if you believe
Him. If you trust Him. If you trust
Him. They're witnesses of Christ's
sufferings. Now watch this. And also a partaker
of the glory that shall be revealed. Peter says, I am a partaker of
that glory that I don't yet possess in person, that glory that is
yet to be revealed. All who are witnesses of Christ's
sufferings, all who have been made to see who he is and what
he accomplished, all in whom he is revealed, all who trust
him are made neat, made worthy to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. And that glory which Christ earned
as our mediator, that glory which he now possesses as the God-man,
our Savior, he has won for us and gives to us every one of
them. Now, look at verse 2. Here's
his exhortation to the elders. Feed the flock of God. Not impress them. Feed them. Feed them. Not entertain them. Feed them. The church is God's
flock. I hear preachers talk about my
church. I don't have one. I haven't redeemed
or saved anybody. This is not Don Fortner's church.
Oh, no. And not yours. It's not even
ours. It's God's. God's flock. The pastor's responsibility is
to feed the flock, all of Christ's flock, the little lambs and the
mature sheep, and to feed them with knowledge and understanding. Now, I cannot say this often
enough. I can't say it to enough preachers
or to enough of God's people. is more than communicating facts. Preaching is more than just opening
a text of scripture and giving the true, accurate sense of the
text. Anybody who believes God can
do that. Anybody. Anybody. Preaching is
feeding your souls with the knowledge of God's Word. Now, that comes
by diligent study and prayer. being taught of God. But there's
more than knowledge. It's understanding too. It's
understanding you, where you are, what you need. And not just
in a general way. Understanding what's needed for
your soul right now, this hour. Brother Scott Richardson, one
of our conferences several years ago, made this statement. profound
statement about preaching. You've heard me say it many times.
He said, preaching is getting a message from God's heart to
my heart and delivering it to your heart. Anything else is
just filling in time. What a profound, insightful,
deedful statement. The Lord God promised to give
his church pastors after his own heart, who shall feed you
with knowledge and with understanding. He commands his prophets, speak
ye comfortably to the heart of my people. And that's a responsibility
every preacher has, every time he stands to preach, to speak
to the heart of men and women. And no man can do that. No man
can do that. The only way that happens is
if God Almighty is pleased to speak through this worthless
vessel by his word and by his spirit to your hearts. 200 years
ago, a preacher by the name of John Rusk made this statement. I want an experimental preacher. One who, when he has had one
message, has tried how he shall get the next. One who is tormented
with devils fit to tear him limb from limb. One who feels hell
inside himself and every corruption in his nature stirred up to oppose
the work of God. One who feels so weak that every
day he gets over, he views it as next to a miracle. Such a man will find a message
from God for me and for you. Now look at this. Feed the church
of God which is among you. Among you. God's servants, no
matter who they are, no matter how greatly they may be used,
no matter how unknown they are. God's servants are just sheep
among sheep, just sinners saved by God's free grace. Folks talk about this and speak
disdainfully of preachings as an elevation of the man. My being
your pastor, my being a spokesman from God to your souls, if indeed
I am, is no elevation of this man or of any other. No, no. It just happens to be God's gifted
man called me to this work. We don't have clergy and laity. We leave that to the papist and
folks who want to be papist. There's no distinction between
God's people. We're one in Christ, redeemed
by the blood of Christ, saved by the grace of God, robed in
His righteousness, and that's all. Feed the flock of God which
is among you. Now watch this. Taking the oversight
thereof. As your pastor, it is my responsibility
to take the oversight of this assembly. I dare not take the
oversight of any other assembly or presume to do so. I dare not. I get letters all the time. Or
when I'm traveling, somebody will ask me something, and they
People, I guess either they're dumb as a box of rocks or they
think you are. They'll ask you a question and think you can't
see. They're trying to get you to say something against their
pastor. And this is how I respond to them. What's your pastor say
about that? What's your pastor say about
that? Listen to him. He's your pastor. Listen to him.
It's the responsibility of each pastor continually to take the
oversight of the flock committed to his trust. Let me see if I
can illustrate this. I have never known a woman who
did not want a man as her husband she could submit to, and look
to, and lean on, and trust to guide her and lead her life. And I've never yet met one who
wouldn't run over a fellow if he'd let her. It's just the nature
of the sweet beast. She's going to do what she can.
Not only she won't, she won't respect it. But she'll run over
him if she can. And I have never in my experience
known a congregation who did not need and want a pastor they
could look to to give them direction and lead the congregation. And
I've never known one who wouldn't run over him if they could. That's
just the nature of the sweet beast. That's just the way we
are. It is the responsibility of the pastor to take the oversight. Nobody's going to give it to
him if he doesn't take it. Not by force. Not by constraint. You see that? Not because he's
coerced to. Not by constraint. No, no, no.
Take the oversight as a shepherd responsible for sheep. Take it. Take it. You men and women are
responsible for your own souls. You understand that. I am responsible
for this congregation. I am responsible for everything
taught here, for everything we do as a congregation. I am responsible
to God. And you can be dead sure. Some
of you men are here who talked to me originally about coming
here as your pastor. If I'm going to be responsible for sailing
the ship, I am going to have the helm. That's just all there
is to it. That's necessary. And it's my
responsibility to do so. Not by constraint, but willingly. That doesn't mean Merely that
a pastor must be willing to preach. Lots of fellows are willing to
preach. Anxious to preach. I'm ready. Step aside, Brother
Don. I'll take over. Lots of folks are anxious to
do that. God's servants are men who are willing. Now listen to
me. Listen to me. Willing to devote their lives
and their families and their personal interests and their
personal concerns to the care of God's flock, watching over
their souls as those that must give account, laboring in the
word and in the doctrine to bring them meat in due season, praying
for them, carrying them upon his heart all the time, seeking
their eternal welfare at the throne of God's grace. I want
to be a preacher like Samuel the prophet. You hinted at it
in your prayer. God forbid that I should sin
against you and cease Him to pray for you. And for me to cease
to pray for you, to carry you before God's throne is to sin
against you and to sin against God if I am His messenger to
you. Look at verse 3. I know, let's
stay in verse 2 for just a second, not for filthy lucre, not for
filthy lucre. God's servants, faithful men,
now you listen to me, are not motivated or in any way controlled
by money and personal interest. You can't buy them, you can't
pay them off. You see, God's servants, like
the apostles, feel in the depth of their souls their debtors
to all men. If this nation, if the world
around us were all dying of a horrible disease and I have the cure,
I have the cure, that makes me a debtor to the whole world.
I've got to cure. I've got to take it to you. I've
got to. I've experienced God's grace.
I've got to cure for your soul. I've got to take it to you. Willingly. Of a ready mind. Preachers are
to be taken care of by the generosity of God's saints. All of them.
But they won't enrich themselves by the generosity of others.
They will not do it. They will not do it. Now look
at verse 3. Neither as being lords over God's heritage. Now how can you take the oversight
and not be lords over God's heritage? How can you do that? He's a dictator. He just rules everything. Not
lords over God's heritage. This is exactly what that means.
I don't attempt to rule your lives. As a matter of fact, I
make it my deliberate purpose to know as little about your
private affairs as I possibly can. I don't want to know and
I don't want to be influenced about your private affairs. Preachers
love this new thing called Christian counseling. New in the last 30,
35 years. Oh, they love it. They love it.
You know why? Because preachers like to think
they're priests. They like to think they can help
you. They can intercede for you. They can be mediators between
you and God and come to me and I can take care of your troubles.
No, the pastor doesn't need to stick his nose in your life.
And any pastor who does has no business sticking his nose in
your life. None whatsoever. I personally know of congregations
where pastors and elders and deacons, they come by and visit
and check up on you, see how much you're reading and how much
you're praying and all that. That's not my business. Not being lords
over God's heritage, but leading as examples to the flock. The pastor is responsible to
lead the sheep, to set an example before them of faith and faithfulness,
devotion, consecration, steadfastness, uprightness, love and mercy. Verse four, and when the chief
shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that
fadeth not away." When Christ the Chief Shepherd
comes, every faithful shepherd will have his everlasting reward. But you know what it's going
to be? Exactly the same as all God's people. That crown of glory
that fades not away is Jesus Christ our Lord. He said, I'll
be to them a diadem of beauty and a crown of glory. and he
never fades. In other words when we enter
into glory we will have an ever increasing sparkling crown of
glory. Let everybody else who must serve
for filthy lucre God's people and God's servants serve him
for eternal things with Christ Jesus the Lord. Verse 5, likewise
ye younger. Younger in years and younger
in faith and younger in experience. Now
listen to A 54-year-old man talk, and you who are younger are everybody
54 and under come June. You younger, submit yourselves
unto the elder. You who are in the congregation
led by a faithful man, submit yourself to that man God has
placed over you to rule the assembly by his word. Submit your judgment. and your thoughts and your inclinations
and your desires to the word of God. Submit. Submit. Submit. When God speaks, bow. And with regard to this thing of
younger and elder, it applies to the whole assembly. I know
people today that think, well, things are so different. These
poor young people, they've just got so much to face. Let me tell
you something. Mama and daddy get your head
out of the sand and quit faking. Your sons and daughters haven't
got one thing on this earth to face that you didn't face growing
up. They don't have one thing to deal with you didn't have
to deal with growing up. Not one thing. Now, you younger,
listen to me. Submit to the elder. Oh, God
give you the sense that no young person has by nature, including
the one who's talking to you. I've been there. Submit. Oh, but brother Don, my mom and
daddy don't know what I'm going through. Yes, they do. But they
haven't experienced it. Yes, they have. We have walked
in your path. We've been where you're headed.
And we know the consequences. submit yourselves. Now look at
this next line. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another. All of you. Be subject one to another. That's
how you exist as a family. That's how you get along. I just
shared with the men in the back and I'm sure my friends down
at Franklin won't mind me telling you this. I've never seen a congregation
so near destroyed that God was pleased to heal. And it was all
over petty, insignificant, little, personal things. And they were
about gone. They were about gone. And they
asked me if I would help them, serve as their pastor until they
got one. And I said, I will, but if I do, I'm going to treat
you like I was your pastor, sure enough. And I'm going to speak
real plain to you. And I got on the phone and made
some calls. I said, now, you fellas, men and women, eat crow. And start with the tail feathers
first. If you can get those down, the rest will go down easy. Find
everybody you've offended or you think has offended you and
put it behind you for Christ's sake. You wouldn't destroy your
family for this, would you? I ask every man, you wouldn't
destroy your family for this, would you? Oh, no. And you're
going to destroy it. God stand before it? Submit one to another. Submit. Submit. And you know what? It's so hard to fight with a
fellow who submits. Man, it's tough. It's tough.
I mean, if he quits struggling, you quit fighting. I don't care
how mean you are. You just submit. You submit.
And be clothed with humility. When you get up tomorrow morning
and you take your shower and shave and put on whatever you
put on to go to work, be sure you put on humility. Be clothed
with humility. Be clothed with it continually. What on earth does that mean?
I'll tell you exactly what it means. I'll tell you exactly
what it means. To be clothed with humility. is to walk before
God Almighty consciously realizing who and what you are before the
Holy Lord God and He made you to be one of
His sons one among His sheep recognizing yourself to be nothing
but sin and your brethren perfect in Christ. Be clothed with humility. Recognize that you are God's
servants, God's people. Be clothed with humility. Don't
ever forget who you are and whose you are. Don't ever forget what God's
done for you. Each esteeming other better than
themselves. Our Lord gave us the example.
Paul said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus, who humbled himself. He walked on this earth deliberately
conscious all the time that he is God's, God's servant, come
here to do God's will for the good of God's people all the
time. Now look at the next line. For
God resisted the proud. Notice the present tense. Always. Always. God resisted the proud. God resisted the proud. God resisted
the proud. As long as you strut before God,
you're strutting against a brick wall. God resisted the proud. God resisted the proud. Now look
at the next word. You'd think it'd be but, wouldn't
you? And. And. This same holy, just, righteous
God who demands that every sinner bow before Him, acknowledging
who and what he is, confessing his sin before Him, who resists
the power always and giveth. There it is again. Present tense,
continually, giveth, giveth. He delights in mercy, this God
who resists the power and giveth grace to the humble. God gives
grace to the humble always. To the humble? to those who bow
before him. This is what it says, to this
man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth at my word. Find me a broken-hearted soul,
a truly broken sinner, one who weeps over his sin before God,
and I'll show you one who's the object of God's grace, one to
whom the Lord God has promised everlasting salvation, one God
Almighty is about to lift up and sit among his son. calling
him the sons of God. Now look at verse 6. Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God
that he may exalt you in due time. You who are without Christ Take your place in the dust before
the throne of His matchless grace. Confess yourself nothing but
a sinner. And plead His mercy. And God
will give you grace. He'll never quit giving you grace.
Saving grace, sanctifying grace, sufficient grace, daily grace,
everlasting grace. Grace as you need it day by day.
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. And he'll exalt
you. The time has come. He'll declare
you to be a son of God. But this is primarily talking
to you and I who are believers. You see, Though we are humbled before
him, and acknowledge our sin, we are proud, proud creatures. And God's going to take the starch
out of us, a little at a time. If we're his, he's going to.
But the starch keeps popping back. It's not a one-time experience. And God demands that we bow,
kiss the sun. The way to be lifted from your
lowest state is to bow down before God in your lowest state. He
resists the proud. Quit fighting God. Oh, Don Fortner,
quit fighting God. It's a losing proposition. And
you know what? It's best that you lose. Quit
fighting God. He gives grace to the humble.
So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. What does
that mean? It means bow down before Him
as our Master did when He said, not my will, thy will be done. Over in John 12, you remember
our Lord was pressed down heavy. He said, now Is my soul exceeding
sorrowful even unto death? But what shall I say? Shall I
say, Father, save me from this hour? Oh, no. That's written. I came here. For this cause came
I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. And a voice spoke from heaven.
The Father said, I have both glorified it and will yet glorify
it. God resisteth the proud, giveth
grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
season. Now what's next line? Verse 7. Casting all your care upon him. Now I see what e'er betide all
is well if Christ is mine. He has promised to provide. May
he teach me to resign. When a sense of sin and thrall
forced me to the sinner's friend, he engaged to manage all and
by the way and to the end. Cast, he said, on me thy care. Tis enough that I am nigh. I
will all thy burdens bear. I will all thy needs supply.
Lord, I would indeed submit, gladly yield my all to thee. What thy wisdom sees most fit
must be surely best for me. Only when the way is rough and
this coward flesh would start, let thy promise and thy love
cheer and animate my heart. And notice the tense of the verb
again. Casting. Casting. We sometimes seem to take your
burden to the Lord and leave it there. That's a good idea,
and I've tried if I was you, but you're not going to leave
it there. It's not going to happen. Just as soon as you can, you're
going to grab it and put it back on your own shoulders again.
Just the nature of the beast. That's just the way we are. So
he bids us, casting on him all your care. As often as God places
a heavy burden on your soul, cast it on him. As often as God
puts a care in your heart, cast it on him. All thy care. All of it. All of it. Yep. All your spiritual
care. Cast upon the Son of God the
care of all your sins, past, present, and future. Cast on
Him the care of your unbelief. Cast on Him all your personal
weaknesses. Cast on Him the care of your
present circumstances, trials and temptations. Cast on Him
the care of all your future dangers. Cast on the Lord Jesus, your
Savior, your God, your King, your Heavenly Father, the Spirit
of Grace, all the care of your immortal soul. Until you bow
before Him, I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded. that He is able to keep that
which I've committed unto Him against that day. Casting all
over on Him all your care. Now, if I can cast on Him all
my spiritual care, earthly care ought not be too difficult, should
it? If I can cast on Him the care of my corruptions, it shouldn't
be too difficult for me to cast on Him the care of my children.
If I can cast on Him the care of my transgressions, I ought
to be able to cast on Him the care of my troubles. If I trust
the Lord Jesus with my wickedness, surely I can trust Him for my
welfare. If I trust Him with my soul,
surely I can trust Him with my body. If I cast on Him the care
of time, surely I can cast on Him the care of eternity. Is that reasonable? Is that smart? Is it? Larry Brown, is it reasonable
for you to cast on him all your care? I mean all of it. Lock,
stock and barrel. All of it? Let's see. For he
careth for you. That makes it reasonable, doesn't
it? He careth for you. It's great to know that He is
the omnipotent God. Great to know that He is the
mighty God. Great to know that He can do
all things. But His omnipotence, His might,
His power would be meaningless if I were not assured of His
unceasing care. And there it is again, in the
present unending tense, he careth for you. What does that mean? That means he has a special love
just for you. Just for you. Oh my soul, get hold of this. God Almighty loves me, Don Fortner,
as He loves His darling son. That's called special love. Special
love. And He has special providence
just for you. Everything He does just for you. You'll remember in Mark chapter
6. You can read it later. Our Lord's disciples were in
the midst of a terrible storm. We looked at Mark 4 this morning.
When you get home, read this, Mark 6. They were in the middle
of a dark, dark night. They were toiling hard with trouble. But everything seemed contrary
to them. In those circumstances, our all-glorious,
ever-gracious Savior came to his troubled friends walking
upon the water. And this ought to teach us to not
be too hard on our brethren who have trouble with different things,
they thought they saw a ghost. You talk about fellows who were
messed up, they thought they saw a ghost. I got over that
before I was six years old. But they thought they saw a ghost
walking on the water. And as the Lord approached their
little storm-tossed boat, He said, Be of good cheer. It is
I. Be not afraid. And then he went
up unto them into the ship, and the wind ceased. Now that's written
for our learning, for you and me, that we through patience
and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Remember, it
was the Lord Jesus who sent his friends into the storm and sent
them away from himself. This time he's not in the ship
with him. He said, you get in the boat and you go over there.
And he stayed behind. He seems to have done so specifically
that he might come to them when they were in desperate need of
him. And speak these words to them.
And make himself known to them in a way that they could not
have known him otherwise. He walks to them across the raging
sea. He says, it is I. It is I. Be of good cheer, it is I! And the way I walk to you is
upon the concrete of this raging storm right here that's troubling
you. This is my path to you. He says
to his disciples, it is I who raised the tempest in your soul
and will control it. It is I who sent your afflictions
and will be with you in them. It is I who kindled the furnace
and will control the flame. It is I who formed your burden
and carved your cross and will strengthen you to carry it. It
is I who mixed your cup of grief and will enable you to drink
it. and drink it with meek submission to your father's will. It is
I, don't be afraid, your friend, your brother, your God, who careth
for you. And I've sent this to you because of my special love for
you. Not to hurt you, oh no, never,
never, never, but because I love you and I know what's best for
you and I'm doing you good. You see, the Lord is my shepherd.
That means surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me like hounds
on the trail of a rabbit shall pursue me. all the days of my
life, and goodness and mercy shall
pursue me right into the house of the Lord, where I shall dwell
with Him forever. Then shall I be satisfied with everything that has been,
and with Christ my Redeemer, when I awaken His likeness. Amen.