We greet you this morning in
the name of our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I wanted
to read three passages of scripture at the outset this morning. First
of all, I'll be reading from the book of Jeremiah, chapter
3, verse 15, one verse, where the Word of God says, and
I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding. I will give you pastors according
to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. I now read from the 20th chapter
of the book of Acts, verse 28. The Apostle Paul speaking, he
is speaking to the Ephesian elders. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood. I now read from the chapter that
Brother Randy read to us, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 7. Thou therefore my son, Paul writing
to his son Timothy in the faith, he had been saved under Paul's
ministry. Be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast
heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth
entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please
him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also
strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive
lawfully. The husbandman that laboreth
must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say,
and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. In Jeremiah chapter 3 and 15,
God promised His people, He said, I will give you pastors according
to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. In that promise, I believe there
are three things that are clearly stated. First of all, true pastors,
or the word pastor means shepherds, the true shepherd is the gift
of God's own heart to his church. The true shepherd, I say, the
man who has been placed by God to take oversight over his assembly,
over his called out people in this area, that man, if he be
that man that God has truly placed there, that he was given out
of the heart of the Lord. Romans 10 and 15 says, And how
shall they preach, except they be sent? And it is written, How
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace,
and bring glad tidings of good things. Now those that God has
by His own heart raised up and set over His church to proclaim
knowledge and understanding to through His blessed Word, these
will bring glad tidings of good things. They will be laden down
with a message of grace and truth. They will have an understanding
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and will bestow and preach
to the people of God that message of grace. They bring good tidings
from the heart of God to the hearts of needy sinners, declaring
that righteousness is established and redemption is accomplished
for all who believe by the Lord Jesus Christ. They publish peace
We never tell helpless sinners to make peace with God. And you
may be concerned that we are not here to tell helpless sinners
to make their own peace with God. How can a traitor, how can
a rebel, how can a felon make peace with a sovereign that he
has offended? If peace is made, it must be
made by the sovereign himself. God's servant proclaims that
peace has been made for the sinner by God's servant, the Lord Jesus
Christ. They bring tidings, good tidings
of good things. Preachers are not here, you know,
to offer good advice to people. They proclaim good news. They
have a proclaiming ministry. They proclaim good news. Justice
is satisfied. That's wonderful news, isn't
it? God's strict, absolute justice has been satisfied. Redemption
is finished. Redemption is not something that
we're working on. Redemption has been completed
by the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. Sin has been put away. It has been put away. And so
we're not here this morning to publish and to say to you that
sin is something that you will have to deal with yourself and
that you have to put away. No, the Lord Jesus Christ put
sin away by his death on Calvary as for as those whom God had
chosen and had given to him are concerned. And we're here to
proclaim that God is reconciled. There is a people that God has
reconciled unto Himself through the death of His Son, and we're
here to proclaim that reconciliation. We were in enmity against God. We were the enemies of God by
nature. We were not in fellowship with
God. We were lost and undone in a
rebellious state before God was pleased to reconcile us through
what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross. God forgives sin. We're here to proclaim that.
That God, even this our God, blots out iniquity and will not
remember the sins of His people anymore against Him. God has
been so satisfied through the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ
once for all that He said, I'll blot out. I'll blot out your
sins and your iniquities and I will not remember them anymore
against you. I'll not remember them in the
day of judgment. I'll not remember them as you
live out your life. It will not control me toward
you in that I will continue to bless you and bless you for Christ's
sake. Bless you for the sake of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so sin has been put away. God accepts sinners. And that's
the proclamation of the man whom God sets in His church. He proclaims
that God receiveth sinful men. And that those who are brought
by the saving work of the Holy Spirit, those who are brought
to regeneration in faith in Jesus Christ, that God accepts them
through the Beloved One. That they're accepted not in
their own person, but they're accepted in the substitute, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the message that
the true and faithful servant of God who's been given to the
church, that is his message. That God accepts sinners, and
God is merciful to the guilty. Now there's not a one of us in
here this morning that is not guilty before God. Now there
may be some here that do not know themselves to be guilty
sinners. Might I tell you this morning,
in standing in this place, that mercy is for those who will accept
their guilt before God, who will own their part in the fall and
will accept their guilt before God. Mercy is for the guilty. Innocent people don't need mercy. It's those who are guilty before
God that needs His mercy. And so we proclaim that God is
merciful to the guilty, for those who have sinned, for those who
have broken His law, that God is a merciful God. God freely
receives sinners as objects of His everlasting love. God has loved a people from the
foundation of the world, and God freely receives them as they
come in brokenness with a contrite heart, as they come in repentance
and faith, God receives them through faith in the blood and
righteousness of His dear Son, the sinner's substitute. Now
they publish salvation. Gospel preachers do not tell
helpless, depraved, dead sinners what they must do to save themselves. No, no, you misunderstand. If you think that we tell these,
that we preach to the sinner, the lost sinner, that we tell
him how that they must save themselves. No, the true preacher of the
gospel proclaims to the helplessly lost sons of Adam how that God
sovereignly saves his elect for the glory of his grace by the
blood atonement, by the imputed righteousness, and the effectual
power of his mercy and love. They say unto Zion, thy God reigneth. And every man who is sent of
God as a messenger of his grace to needy sinners proclaims in
clear, unmistakable terms the glorious, the absolute, the universal
sovereignty of God in creation, in providence, and in salvation. Our God is in the heavens, the
Bible says, and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Psalm 115. And verse 3, Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the
seas, and in all deep places. Psalm 135 and verse 6. Any man, hear me out, who will
not preach these things is not sin of God, and must not be received
by the church, heard by the church, or aided by the church in any
way. These men are not sent of God,
not if they will not proclaim the absolute sovereignty of God
in creation, in providence, and in salvation. Now any man who
does preach these things is to be heard, and he's to be received
by the church, and treated as the angel of God among them. because he is God's messenger
who has been sent of God to proclaim his truth unto the church. Now,
beloved, these things you will accept if you know the value
of your own soul, if you know the preciousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and if you know the blessedness of the gospel. I say that the feet of those
that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good
things, yea, as God has said, their feet are beautiful. Now the number two thing I see
in this text, in Jeremiah 3 and 15, that faithful, God-given
pastors, according to God's own heart, are men who feed the flock
of God. They are men who will feed the
flock of God. They do not fleece the sheep.
They do not beat the sheep. They do not use the sheep. They
do not abuse the sheep. They feed the sheep. Their life's work is the business
of feeding the Lord's sheep. Number three. Those men whom
God gives to His church as pastors feed the church of God with knowledge
and with understanding. Those who God calls to this office,
He gives the understanding. He gives the knowledge of His
truth and an understanding of the needs of His people in this
world so that they can feed His people accordingly. Now I realize
and recognize that many times there are those who feel that
they understand the issues that the church is involved with in
our day and in our time, and they are quick to tell us what
it is that is the issue of our day. Now brethren, I do believe
that God gives insight. It does not mean, when he says
he gives knowledge and he gives the ability to proclaim his truth
and to give understanding and knowledge to the church, it does
not mean that he knows everything that can be known. Absolutely
not. There is no man that's infallible,
no man who knows all the truth. Somebody said, I preach the whole
counsel of God. You don't even know the whole
counsel of God, much less being able to proclaim it. But those
that God has placed as pastor shepherds over a flock, I believe
He gives them an understanding of the issues of the day. Now we're living in dark days
and the Church of God has suffered much abuse at the hands of unfaithful,
self-seeking, self-serving pastors who make merchandise of men's
souls and handle the Word of God deceitfully. But my friend,
let me say to you that those men who have truly been chosen
and called of God and placed In this position, I believe God
has given them an understanding of the issue that's involved
in our day. And let me pass that along to
you. I know there are some people that feel that the issue of our
day is the sanctity of marriage and the sanctity of the home.
There are some people that believe that the issue of our day is
that we need to drop all the differences between the churches
and we need to become unionist. We need to unionize. We need to, as it were, come
together. All of the professing Christian
bodies of the earth need to come together and to form a big, what
I would call, a big mess. But my friend, we do not believe
that that is the issue of our day. Unionism is not what we
need. Neither do we need to believe,
and we should not believe, that the sanctity of the home, however
important it is, and the sanctity of marriage is the issue in our
day. The issue in our day is who is
boss. That's the issue. Is God's Sovereign
sitting on the throne? Is His Word our rule of faith
and practice? Will we bow to His Word? Will
the woman bow to her husband? You know the Bible says in the
book of Genesis that her desire, that is the desire of the woman,
shall be unto her husband. And the Bible says as Christ
is the head of the church, the husband is the head of the wife.
And a lot of the problems that have come to us in our day and
time has come concerning the home and concerning the relationship
and marriages has to do with the woman's movement and the
fact that women will no longer accept what God says about them
and their need to be subject unto their head, Jesus Christ. And the church, in their rebellion,
will not bow to the headship and lordship of Jesus Christ
Himself. They will not do that. But the
real issue is, who's going to be boss? And beloved, I'm telling
you that God is sovereign, absolutely sovereign, and we need to come
to understand that clearly in our day, and it needs to be proclaimed
in our day. The Lord reigns, He reigns, and
we need to bow our knee to His Lordship and His sovereignty. Now that's my view of the issue,
and that's why that I stay on this business of the sovereignty
of God and continue to expound upon it and to proclaim it because
I believe that's where the problem, the real problem really is. Rebellion
is in the heart of a man and only God by His sovereign power
can dethrone that rebellion and raise the flag of peace in a
man's soul so that he submits himself unto the Lord. Well,
God has promised to give His church pastors who would be faithful
to their souls, and He does, I believe, what He promised.
Matthew chapter 9 verse 37 and 38 says, Then saith He unto His
disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors
are few. Pray ye therefore that the Lord
of the harvest, that He will send forth labors into His harvest. When the Lord Jesus Christ is
sent up into heaven as the head of the church, one of his extension
gifts to the church was pastors and teachers for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. Ephesians 4 verse 11 through
12. Now these men are spoken of in
Revelation 1 verse 20 as being the angels of God to his churches. They are heaven-sent messengers
of the grace and truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now the one thing the church
must have in this world is those who will feed them with knowledge
and understanding. We do not have to have fine buildings
in which to meet. We can meet at a barn or in a
field or in a mountain, but we must have those True churches,
if they're to function right and properly, they need these
faithful men whom God has raised up who are committed to the gospel
and are gifted of God to preach it. Now, a church without a pastor
is like a body without a head. It's not possible to overemphasize
the necessity for these faithful men that God raises up to give
to his church. Now using Paul's message now
in Acts chapter 20, verse 28, to the Ephesian elders, I want
to raise and answer a basic question or two about the work of the
gospel ministry and point out a few things here that Paul had
to say to these Ephesian elders. He called the Ephesian elders
together because he felt like he knew that they were in a position
of responsibility and what was to happen to the church after
he left and after he departed from this world that it would
be in the hands of these men. And so we want to discuss a couple
of three things here. First of all, let me ask the
question, what is the pastor's responsibility? Now most people
think that a pastor's work is that of a social worker or a
promoter, or one who is involved in community affairs, or one
who just merely is around to conduct weddings and funerals,
and also to be a counselor of those which have problems. But the Word of God, let me say,
never mentions any of these things in describing the work of the
pastor. It does not mention these things.
It does not tell us that these are his responsibility. It is
every pastor's responsibility to do the work of an evangelist,
seeking the salvation of God's elect and helping to establish
local churches. The sphere of a pastor's ministry
is limited only by the providence of God himself. I believe that
every man who is gifted for the work of the ministry has a responsibility
to preach the gospel to all men in his generation insofar as
God permits him to do so, exercising his gifts in the widest range
possible for the glory of Christ. Every open door must be entered,
brethren. Every opportunity must be seized
for the furtherance of the gospel. Yet the principle, and I think
the principle sphere of work of the pastor is that local church
over which the Lord has placed him. The primary concern of every
pastor is that congregation of believers which God has entrusted
to his care. He must not neglect them. God has set him over that church
and he must not neglect them. Now in verse 28, Paul shows us
five things about the pastor's responsibility that I want to
point out to you. First of all, he says, take heed
therefore unto yourselves. Take heed therefore unto yourselves. Now, that simply means that we're
to watch in all things and certainly are to watch our own heart. Pastor,
be sure you do not neglect your own soul, is what Paul is saying
here. Ever be mindful of your relationship
with God and of your responsibilities as the servants of God. 1 Timothy
4 and 16, Paul told Timothy, take heed unto thyself. Paul
was often reminding preachers to look after themselves, to
take heed unto themselves and unto the doctrine, he said, and
continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself
and them that hear thee. He is to let nothing sidetrack
him, let nothing turn his heart away from the Lord Jesus Christ. We're told in the book of Timothy,
2 Timothy chapter 2, that our brother read to us this morning,
that he's to endure afflictions. That he's to endure afflictions.
He's not to become involved with the things of this life, but
that he might be able to please Him that has called him to be
a soldier. Endure hardness. as a good soldier
of Jesus and not the man that goes to war. He doesn't entangle
himself in the affairs of this life. Here's a man, and he's
in the military, and he doesn't tell when the military says you
go someplace, he doesn't say, now wait a minute, I got affairs
here, I can't go. No, no. And so the man that God
places in the ministry, he does not untangle himself with the
affairs of this life so that he's not able to do that which
God has called him to do. that he may please him who hath
chosen him to be a soldier. God has chosen his servants to
be his messengers, the angels of the church, and they are to
bear the message and bear the truth of God to his people and
not to become involved in the affairs of this life. And you
say, well, how can he do that? Well, verse 6 says, the husbandman,
that is the farmer, that laboreth must be first partaker of the
fruits. That means that the man who preaches the gospel must
live of the gospel. He ought to live of the gospel.
Just like a farmer, he's got a farm, and whenever he raises
a crop on that farm, he gets the first cut out of it. Now,
you may question that. You may say, well, no, the bank
gets the first cut. But according to this text, the
husbandman or the farmer that does the labor, he must be the
first partaker of the fruits. And that's how he is sustained
so that he can minister the gospel to those that the Lord has placed
him over. But we notice here in this business
of taking heed, therefore unto yourself, that the apostle here
in 2 Timothy 2 and 1, he told young Timothy, thou therefore
my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now
beloved, I believe in a preacher taking heed to himself that he
needs to study, that he needs to understand the word of God
and the truths of the gospel, and he needs to understand them
to the place where he is strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. Strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus. Now I realize that there's a
lot of people in our day that's interested in eschatology, events
of the last day, interested in their preacher, studying prophecy
and digging out and trying to discover what it is that's going
to happen in this world. But my friend, I believe truly
that the preacher of the gospel should, first of all, understand
the gospel. He ought to understand the truths
of the gospel. Now, when Paul says, Thou therefore,
my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, I think
he meant at least three things. One, Timothy, if you're going
to be strong in the grace That is, in Christ Jesus, you must
understand what happened in the Garden, when man fell in the
Garden of Eden. You've got to understand that.
You must know what happened there. Now, beloved, we know that man
fell in the Garden of Eden. and that he wasn't partially
disabled in the fall, that he died spiritually in the fall. And that all of this business
that's talked about in the world, in the religious world, about
man having his choice, about man having a chance, my friend,
it all took place in the garden. That's where it took place. That's
where man made his decision. Somebody said, well, salvation
is by decision. No, it isn't. No it didn't. Let
me tell you what happened in the fall. In the fall, man exercised
his free will. In the fall, man said no to God
and yes to self. In the fall, man chose to die
rather than live. That's what he chose to do. That
was his choice. And if you ever live, my friend,
live unto God, if you ever have eternal life, if you're ever
eternally saved, if your undying soul spends eternity with the
Lord, it'll be because of God's choice of you. Salvation is by
choice, alright. but it's by God's choice of your
soul. God must choose you. You've already chose to die and
you're dead in sin until God quickens your soul and brings
you to life. Do you know what happened at
the fall? Well, at the fall, man was left without any spiritual
ability. He had no ability any longer
to come to Christ. He willed not to come that he
might have fellowship with God. His will, by an act of his own
will after the fall, he would not approach unto God. And that's
exactly where you and I are today if we're outside of Jesus Christ.
We're outside of Christ. We have not the will. We have
not the spiritual ability. Sure, we got two legs, and we
can walk on them as well, maybe as most people. And sure, we
got hands that we can use, and eyes that we can see with, and
ears that we can hear with. But we've been robbed of our
spiritual ability. And now, no man can come except
the Father by the Spirit. Draw him. And he said, I'll draw
him, and I'll save him, and I'll raise him up at the last day.
I'll do that. But my friend, to be strong in
the grace, take heed to yourself. Study until you know what happened
at the fall. And then we need also, if we're
going to be strong in the grace that's in Christ Jesus, we need
to know what happened at Calvary. What happened at Calvary when
God hung His Son on a cross to die? What took place there? Well,
my friend, we believe that the sins of all God's people were
laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And we believe that God exacted
from Him full payment from the Chief Shepherd, from the Lord
Jesus. He exacted from Him full payment
for all of the sins of His people. That He died in that room and
stood in place. He died with a definite people
in mind. He laid down His life for his
sheep. He died to save his people from
their sins. And God received the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, he was buried. God raised
him up from the dead to give us a receipt paid in full. Jesus paid it all. He paid our
sin debt. His death of sin was my death
of sin. And I will not have to die the
second death because Jesus died that death on Calvary's cross. We must know what happened at
Calvary. And we need to study until we
do know what it was that happened there. That we won't go out here
misleading people and talking to them about God having made
an opportunity for everybody to be saved if man will just
simply agree with God and cooperate with Jesus. That is a lie, my friend. There's
no truth in that. The truth is that Jesus Christ
died in the room and stead and place of His people, and if God
is pleased to work that salvation in your heart and your soul,
you will have it. You will have eternal life. If
He's pleased to give it to you, you will have it. And if He's
not pleased to give it to you, you won't have it. The Bible
said, Jesus said, I give unto my sheep eternal life. I give
it to them. I give it to them. And it's His
sovereign prerogative to give eternal life to as many as the
Father has given to Him. Now then, thirdly, if we're going
to take heed to ourselves as preachers, as those who will
minister the word of God, as those who will bear the message
of the gospel, we need also to know what happens in the heart
of a sinner when God saves him. We need to study this book until
we know what it is that happens. Mitch quoted that verse out of
Titus this morning. about the renewal brought about
by the Holy Ghost, not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of
regeneration and the renewal brought about by the Holy Ghost.
Now, beloved, when God saves a man, that individual is regenerated
by God's Spirit. He brought to life. He was dead,
you see, dead in sin, And God quickens him. Paul said, you
have to quicken who were dead in trespasses and sin. God makes
the sinner live. And until they live, my friend,
they cannot repent and they cannot believe the gospel. They will
believe and they will repent as the effects of regeneration. It's repentance and faith is
not the cause of God bringing a sinner to life. They are brought
to life and then they repent and then they believe the gospel.
Show me somebody that has repented, genuinely turned from their sin,
and I'll show you a man or a woman whom God has quickened, whom
God has made alive. And this life is through the
Holy Spirit. It's a regeneration. It must
take place. And I know of poor souls and
they have They have tried to quit this, and they've tried
to quit that, and they've made an effort to quit something else,
and they just reform, reform, reform, and they'll tell you
about their moral stability, and they'll tell you about who
they are and what they are. But my friend, the only way a
sinner gets out of the mess he's in is for God to deliver him
by quickening him and bringing him out of death, translating
him out of death unto life. And only when that happens will
the sinner be alive. And if you're ever going to take
heed to yourself, and if you're going to be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus, know what happened to Paul. Know what
happened in Calvary. Know what happens in the heart
of a sinner when God saves him. And if you know these things,
you'll be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now then, I must hurry on here
to a conclusion. The time is getting away from
me. Well, we've said that a man must take heed to his doctrine.
He must make certain that his doctrine is the pure doctrine
of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the gospel, the doctrine of
pure, free, sovereign, eternal, effectual grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The man who neglects these things
is not fit for the office, and he ought not be in the office.
He must, as a shepherd, take care of and tend to the flock
of God. The word pastor, we've mentioned
means shepherd. Christ Jesus, you know, is the
chief shepherd to whom the flock belongs. Pastors are just His
appointed under-shepherds whose responsibility it is to take
care of the flock. I would invite you to listen,
and I may not be able to finish the message, but I invite you
to turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 5, and I'd like to read here what the Word of God says to
pastors here. And listen carefully to what
it says. The elders which are among you. This is 1 Peter 5,
beginning with verse 1. Which are among you I exhort.
Peter says, I exhort you elders. Who am also, he said, I'm an
elder. And he says, I'm 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. Blessed, blessed scriptures. Now the Lord's sheep in this
world are fickle, they're weak, they're helpless, defenseless,
stumbling, falling sheep, and they're sheep that need shepherds
to care for them at all times and at all circumstances, and
the sheep are to be protected by the shepherd. They're to take
the oversight, Paul said, Now this is the third thing that
I see in this text. They are to take the oversight.
It is their responsibility to be an overseer. And the church
belongs to Christ. It does not belong to the pastor. It doesn't belong to the deacons.
But the pastor is responsible to rule the church of God in
exactly the same way as Paul expressed in 1 Timothy 3, verse
4 and 5, as a husband is responsible to rule over his own house. The pastor must rule by example,
not by intimidation, by love, not by legislation, by the word
of God and not his own word, according to the will of God
and not his own will. The Bible says in Titus 1-7,
for a bishop 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. He must aspern the respect of
men, He must not labor just in order to get men's respect, but
at the same time, He must earn the respect of men and women
so that they are willing to be ruled by Him, because rule He
must. Listen to these verses in Hebrews
13. The Bible says in verse 7 of Hebrews 13, Remember them that
have the rule over you. Remember them that have the rule
over you. And then in verse 17, he said, Obey them that have
the rule over you, and submit yourselves unto them as they
that must give an account. As they that must give an account.
My brethren, be not many masters, James said, knowing that you
shall receive the more severe judgment. That man who is placed
over the church has an obligation, a responsibility to rule, to
take the oversight in the church. And you are to submit yourself
to that man in the fear of the Lord, so that when he gives an
account of you, he will not do it in grief, but he'll be able
to do it with joy. Now, the church of God can never
be strong if it is ignorant and uninformed. All preachers called
to God are doctrinal preachers. And I say this because I hear
people saying, this doctrine business, we don't need it. Well,
my friend, all preachers called of God are doctrinal preachers.
There are men who study, and they labor in the Word and doctrine,
and they instruct God's people in divine truth. They study. The preacher without doctrine
or teaching is like a shotgun without any load. It's just simply
empty, full of air. It's useless. And my brother
and my sister in the Lord We can tell the difference whether
a man, whether he's filled his hopper, whether he's got any
seed in his hopper, or whether he's just up running on emotionalism,
or whether he's just blowing hot air. My friend, we need to
study the Bible. Now, the doctrine of the Bible
is the doctrine of the cross. The doctrine of the cross is
the revelation of God's glory and redemption. It's the hope
of helpless sinners. It's the motive for all obedience. and the strength against all
temptation, the comfort in every trial, the rule by which we live,
and the gate through which we enter into the Kingdom of God. Christ crucified is the milk,
it is the milk for babies, it's the meat for men, it's the ointment
for the aged, it's fire for the cold, balm for the wounded, armor
for the warrior, strength for the weak, help for the tempted,
hope for the fallen, and joy for all the redeemed. And you
better know the doctrine of Christ and Him crucified when you stand
before people to preach it to them. The last thing I want to
say is the work of the gospel ministry is an awesome burden
of responsibility. I quoted just a moment ago what
James had to say about it. My brethren, be not many masters,
be not many teachers, knowing that you shall receive the more
severe judgment Judgment, a man must give an account of this
responsibility that he has toward God. Therefore, he must be his
own man. He cannot be owned by anybody.
Nobody can tell him what he's to preach, what he's not to preach.
He must be his own man. He's got to bear the responsibility
for what he preaches because the church which the pastor serves
is the church of God, notice, which he hath purchased with
his own blood. God has purchased this church
over which you want to be an overseer with his own blood. The price of our purchase was
the precious blood of Christ, 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19, for as
much as you know, that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Beloved, we
were born under the sentence of death, deserving of eternal ruin. Only the blood of Christ could
remove this curse from us and deliver us from the hands of
divine justice. The transaction which took place
at Calvary between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit,
which we talked about a little while ago, was a legal purchase. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the
price of our ransom. He was the lamb slain in the
mind of God from the foundation of the world. And he was the
price of our ransom to the offended justice of Almighty God. 1 Peter 3 and 18 says, For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, and
quickened by the Spirit. And having paid the price of
our redemption, the Son of God obtained His purchased possession. He obtained them. And I believe
the bride, the church, is His purchased possession. And I believe
that that body, that body of believers, the body of Christ
finds expression in places just like this. And this is the body
of Christ in Great Falls. Right here it is. And I believe
that God, when He places a man over that body, that He would
have that man to know how that body, how it came into existence. And He would have that man to
know that that body was purchased with the blood of Emmanuel. God with us. Christ suffering
and spilling and paying the debt of our sins, spilling His blood
in order that our sin debt be paid in full. Christ loved the
church with an everlasting love. He did for the church what He
does for no one else. The Bible says He loved the church
and He gave Himself for it. Now, Christ loved this church
with an everlasting love, because the love of God is an everlasting
love, as it was chosen for and given to Him by God the Father
before the world began. Christ purchased His church with
a particular and effectual blood redemption. He nourishes His
church and He cherishes it, even preserving it by His grace, and
He will present this church before the Father in the perfection
of beauty and holiness, in ultimate glorification. With a static
joy, He will present us before His Father. The church of God
is so precious to Him that He has committed faithful pastors
to that church. Let none abuse it, but serve
it with ardent love and diligent faithfulness. And I want to close
by reading these two passages of Scripture. The first is found
in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 12 and 13, We beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the
Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love
for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 1,
Finally, brethren, Paul says, pray for us. that the word of
the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is
with you. Father, in the name of Jesus,
I pray that you'll take this word today and that you might
use it to encourage this body. Use it, our Father, to establish
in the hearts of any man who would take the word of God in
his mouth that he must take heed unto himself and that he must
study earnestly and diligently the Word, and that he must give
himself over, lock, stock, and barrel, regardless of what happens
and whatever he gives or don't give. He must submit himself
unto God day by day, come before his people, sanctify the living
God before the people, and he must zealously preach truthfully
and honestly the Word. I pray, Father, that you'll own
this message. Only you know the length of our
days. Only you know, our Father, how
long we have left to be able to stand before men and women
and preach the Word. But I do pray, as Paul did, that
we should be prayed for by your people. And that we would, our
fathers, see the word of God run well, the message of the
gospel run well in our day. Preserve this church and preserve
the truth that has been preached in this body and to this body. And Lord, we pray that we might
all behave ourselves in a becoming way to the gospel here in this
place. Thank you for this church. Thank
you for these that have gathered this morning. under the authority
of Jesus Christ. And you've been in our midst.
You've been here to help us. You've been here to warm our
hearts. You've been here to encourage us. You've been here, our Father,
to strengthen us. And may we go out with joy, the
joy of the redeemed, in our souls. We pray it in His name, the name
of Jesus, and for His sake, Amen.