The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Elders ｜ What Does A Pastor Do？

00:00:00.000 Amen.

00:00:06.680 Sadly, in the modern evangelical church for decades now, it's been kind of a known phenomenon

00:00:13.440 that you can expect Mother's Day to be one of the largest attendances in terms of Sundays

00:00:18.580 with most evangelical churches, and then Father's Day has been traditionally one of the least

00:00:23.820 attended Sundays of the calendar year, and by God's grace, that's not the case for our church

00:00:30.580 because we actually like men and don't hate them. Many churches, I mean, that's just, that is what

00:00:37.940 it is. They hate men, and we don't. We like men, and we don't like men, you know, as a facade when

00:00:46.520 what we really mean is we like women, and we like when men pretend to be women. A lot of churches

00:00:52.160 are transgender in spirit, and you need to feel that. They would never have a man wear a dress 1.00

00:01:00.120 outwardly, but they want a man to behave in his mannerisms, in his tone, in his voice,

00:01:06.280 his limp-wristedness. They want him to have all the trappings of a woman, 1.00

00:01:12.000 but just outwardly look like a man, and that's how you know he's fit to be a pastor,

00:01:16.460 right that in most evangelical churches you can bet that the most qualified men by their standards

00:01:24.760 would be the most effeminate men in the room the guys with a little bit of a lisp when they speak

00:01:32.440 that's that's your guy that's who we're going to ordain and so by god's grace we don't do that

00:01:38.780 here at covenant bible church we love the bible and we love biblical masculinity we see the

00:01:45.620 potential for its abuses, but we want to recognize the times in which we live. We want to recognize

00:01:51.760 like the sons of Issachar. They knew the times. There's a lot of guys who are bravely and boldly

00:01:57.560 fighting dragons that were slain 50 years ago. And what they're doing is they're just, they're

00:02:03.440 larping. They're kicking the corpse of a dead slain dragon that some other knight with true

00:02:09.520 bravery actually killed, right? That would be, it's like, well, what's an example? What is he even

00:02:14.140 talking about, like fighting racism. Amazon was not running ads against racism. I know they

00:02:22.120 didn't technically even exist, but hear me. I think you'll get the point. You did not have major

00:02:27.780 world companies fighting racism in the 1950s when there was actually some racism,

00:02:35.900 when there was actually a living dragon that actually did need to be fought.

00:02:39.500 how do you know when a dragon's dead you know a dragon's dead when billionaire

00:02:46.840 ceos start publicly fighting it on national television right i stand for the current thing

00:02:55.380 i support the current thing very stunning very brave that's how you know it's dead

00:03:02.140 but what you don't necessarily see in terms of a living dragon

00:03:06.240 would be something not racism but feminism. Feminism is alive and well. That dragon 1.00

00:03:12.560 has a beating heart. That dragon is currently decimating villages and burning up whole swaths

00:03:22.200 of land. That dragon is still alive and that dragon needs to be fought with true courage.

00:03:28.680 Not just acting out the battles of the past again and again and again but actually fighting the

00:03:34.580 battles that we're facing today even within the reformed world it's sad but a lot of reformed

00:03:41.240 conferences and reformed focuses are just uh it's like a you know have if you've ever seen like a

00:03:48.620 reenactment of a civil war battle you know you can go to like a museum or you go to you know and

00:03:53.280 you see here's the confederates and here's the north and they're acting out you know this historic

00:03:57.680 battle that's what most reformed guys have been doing for 500 years right every conference is

00:04:04.340 tulip reliving the glory days. I'll pretend to be Martin Luther and you can pretend to be,

00:04:12.300 you know, Tetzel, you know, and the terrible Catholic priest. And he was terrible, 0.97

00:04:16.700 you know, and we'll relive that. Meanwhile, there's actually living dragons. And I'm not

00:04:21.780 saying that the Reformation and the doctrines of grace don't matter. They do. And there is a real

00:04:27.080 sense in which they're still under assault. But there are other forces and other threats in the

00:04:33.260 land today. And real men, real fathers will lead the way for their sons, for their families in

00:04:40.920 fighting living dragons, fighting existing threats, not just garnishing royalties off of the threats

00:04:49.520 that some other man already vanquished for you, in many cases long before you were even born. So

00:04:56.080 by God's grace, our church, we do want to emulate and esteem biblical masculinity. That's why

00:05:05.120 many of the men who are here today, that's why you're here and why you've led your family to

00:05:09.620 this church and not another. And that's why on Father's Day, we have a good attendance. And

00:05:15.940 sadly, in many churches, Father's Day is not good because dad would rather be fishing because church

00:05:22.480 has been engineered primarily for women and children so men don't go to church on their day

00:05:28.400 because church isn't for them and churches have made that painfully clear they've said we are

00:05:33.240 not for you we exist for women we exist for children we don't exist for you but our church

00:05:39.060 by God's grace we want to be a biblical church that esteems biblical masculinity biblical fatherhood

00:05:45.040 also biblical womanhood motherhood and also trains and admonishes children and trains them

00:05:52.260 up in the way that they should go for a hope and a future for the glory of God. So thank you for

00:05:57.900 being here. And let's get to it. So I think it's fitting in the providence of God. Elders is the

00:06:04.560 topic for today. It's the third part of this, what turned into a little bit of a mini series on this

00:06:11.000 ordained office of elders and elders very much are spiritual fathers in the church. And it's

00:06:17.320 important. I know this sounds self-serving because I am an elder, but it's biblical and I'm going to

00:06:20.900 say it. It's important as fathers that we set an example for our sons, for our families.

00:06:28.400 Fathers provide and fathers protect. Those are two of the main headers of a father's duties,

00:06:35.340 his ministry to his family, familial fathers in the home, provision and protection. And we do that

00:06:41.940 both in the spiritual sense and in the natural sense, making physical provision. If you are a

00:06:50.880 And, you know, the Bible has strong words for you, that you are worse than an unbeliever, 1.00

00:06:55.440 a man who does not provide for the members of his household, that there's stark and strong 1.00

00:06:59.980 words that the Bible would say to a man like that. 0.58

00:07:03.020 So it's not just leading your family and family worship, but it's not less than that.

00:07:06.400 That's, you know, the spiritual provision, but there's also a physical provision, physical

00:07:11.840 provision, money, house, food, an inheritance, future.

00:07:16.580 And then the spiritual provision is training and discipleship and catechesis and then certainly leading your family into church on the Lord's Day.

00:07:25.100 And then, you know, with protection, a man should physically protect his family.

00:07:30.280 And also he should spiritually protect his family from false doctrine and heresy and all these things.

00:07:35.980 And an elder, in many ways, does that same thing, but not just for his household, for his family, but the family of God, the house of God.

00:07:44.480 providing both protection and provision.

00:07:49.540 And it's important that familial fathers,

00:07:53.180 one of the ways that you can train your sons

00:07:56.160 and ensure that they would respect you and honor you

00:07:58.960 is as you, as a father, seek to honor your fathers.

00:08:04.180 Everybody, I think of the centurion man who comes to Jesus,

00:08:07.240 you know, he has a sick servant,

00:08:10.220 and Jesus says, well, I'll come to your house and I'll heal him.

00:08:12.920 And he says, you don't need to come.

00:08:14.160 I'm not worthy of that. I'm a man who understands authority. You can just give your word and my

00:08:19.920 servant will be healed because I understand that the nature, the way that authority works,

00:08:24.160 because I'm a man who's in authority, but I'm also under authority. He knew that even though

00:08:29.840 he was high up in many ways, there were many people under him. He also was someone who was

00:08:34.500 under others. And that's how fatherhood works as well. This, this masculine fatherly authority.

00:08:41.960 Every father has authority.

00:08:44.380 He's in authority.

00:08:45.340 There are those who are under his charge.

00:08:48.020 But every earthly father also is under authority.

00:08:51.520 So there are people who are under him.

00:08:53.200 And then there are people that he also is under.

00:08:55.420 And one of the ways that you can set the tone for your children,

00:08:59.660 especially both your sons and daughters, but especially sons,

00:09:03.680 and training them to be fathers is showing them how to give honor to fathers,

00:09:10.300 not just demanding that they honor you, which is good and right.

00:09:13.880 Children should honor their father and fathers can command that

00:09:16.840 and should command that from their children.

00:09:19.520 Honor me because the Bible says to and because I want you to live a long life

00:09:23.920 and be blessed in the land that you're inheriting.

00:09:26.380 Did you know that life expectancies are currently,

00:09:29.400 this is the first time in a couple hundred years that in the West,

00:09:32.820 life expectancies have actually reversed and are shrinking.

00:09:36.160 And I truly believe, not to over-spiritualize it,

00:09:38.680 certainly there are natural explanations for that, but in addition, not a substitute, but in addition

00:09:44.240 to these natural explanations of diet and processed foods and physical, you know, lethargy and all

00:09:50.560 these different things, there's also, in addition to all that, part of the reason that life

00:09:55.540 expectancies, I believe, are shrinking in the West is because the West hates fathers. And the Bible

00:10:01.880 clearly says this is the first commandment with a promise. Children, obey your fathers, honor them,

00:10:06.560 honor your father and mother that you may live a long life in the earth and be blessed in the 1.00

00:10:12.020 land that you're inheriting the land will actually spew a people out a land will not allow people 1.00

00:10:19.140 to inhabit that land there will be a curse on the land and a curse on the people who inhabit 0.84

00:10:23.640 that land if they choose to break the fifth commandment and to dishonor their fathers and

00:10:29.100 like i said in my opening in our call to worship and prayer this morning there are all kinds of

00:10:34.860 fathers. And right now you can be sure that most Westerners hate them all. They hate the founders,

00:10:40.720 civil fathers. They hate ancient fathers in church history. They hate familial fathers in the home

00:10:47.060 and call it toxic masculinity and fathers are bad and a negative influence on children. They hate 0.94

00:10:53.060 civil fathers as they currently exist today. That if you find a good, honorable civil father in the

00:11:00.860 civil sphere today, that you can be sure that he will be mocked and belittled by many citizens.

00:11:07.100 And so in all these ways, we choose to dishonor fathers and we're setting a bad example for our

00:11:13.940 children, especially sons. If we want our sons to be honorable fathers, we need to teach them to

00:11:20.780 honor their fathers. And one of the ways I believe that a familial father in the home that you can do

00:11:26.500 that, teaching your sons not only to honor you, but setting an example for them is that you honor

00:11:32.840 your fathers. And so looking beyond yourself and saying, who are some of the fathers that the Lord

00:11:37.900 has assigned to me outside of myself that I can set an example for my children to honor? That's

00:11:44.720 one of the reasons why my family moved back to Texas. We were in California. There's a lot of

00:11:50.380 reasons that we moved back. One being it's California, you know, but beyond that, you know,

00:11:55.880 I didn't want my children to be raised in a communist, you know, Soviet state.

00:11:59.940 But beyond that, also, my parents were here in Texas.

00:12:03.860 And I remember thinking, my wife and I discussing this and thinking,

00:12:08.140 what example, you know, we love our kids.

00:12:11.240 And we were thinking, man, we really hope that our kids would live close to us

00:12:15.540 when they're grown and adults and start families of their own.

00:12:18.880 And I was thinking, well, we're kind of off to a bad start if that's the goal.

00:12:22.680 Because what did I do?

00:12:24.860 What I did was, well, you know, I'm going to be a missionary to California and move 1,300 miles away from mom and dad.

00:12:31.820 And, you know, and I'm not saying that God doesn't ever call someone to be a missionary and sometimes not just another state, but another nation.

00:12:40.340 That's true.

00:12:41.140 But when you look at the household today and extended family, it's all split up all over the world and certainly all over the country.

00:12:49.500 That's what children do.

00:12:50.280 They grow older, and once they're adults, they usually leave mom and dad, and not just metaphorically, but physically, geographically, they move because family and parents and grandparents are not a priority.

00:13:04.940 It's not important to them, and so we wanted to try to break that trend in thinking, okay, we would like for our children when they're old to raise families somewhere near us so that we can be a part of their lives and a part of our grandchildren's lives.

00:13:18.840 And so if we want that, we can't just tell our kids what to do and instruct them.

00:13:24.020 But we also need to embody that.

00:13:26.440 We need to exemplify that.

00:13:28.580 And that makes me think of 1 Peter with spiritual fathers, ecclesiastical fathers, elders in the church.

00:13:34.600 They're called to train and equip the saints.

00:13:37.540 That means instructing the saints, saying this is good, this is right, do it.

00:13:41.000 But they're not just told to tell the church what to do, but also set an example for the flock.

00:13:47.440 that means that they're they're doing it themselves so they're telling the flock what

00:13:51.700 to do but then they're also doing that themselves setting an example showing them what to do and so

00:13:57.100 too in a home or in a church with familial fathers or spiritual fathers there is an instruction that

00:14:03.700 comes for the children but there's also an example that should be set for the children telling them

00:14:09.800 what to do and also showing them what to do so let's go ahead as our primary text today and read

00:14:15.900 1st Peter 5. If you would join me in standing for the reading of God's word. We did this two weeks

00:14:21.160 ago. Last week we looked at 1st Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7. But again now we're going

00:14:26.240 back to 1st Peter 5. This is just going to be verses 1 through 4. I'll read the text. When I

00:14:31.060 finish reading the text I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord. At which point I would

00:14:34.600 appreciate if you would respond by saying thanks be to God. The Bible says this 1st Peter 5 1 through

00:14:40.960 So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

00:14:50.520 Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

00:15:06.180 and when the chief shepherd appears you will receive the unfading crown of glory this is the

00:15:12.100 word of the lord all right so you see there shepherds elders are charged by peter who was

00:15:20.580 an apostle but also an elder in the local church that was found in jerusalem so peter has kind of

00:15:26.420 a dual office he's an apostle of the lord jesus christ but he's also functioning along with the

00:15:31.480 other apostles as an elder in the church of Jerusalem. And so he says, I'm writing to the

00:15:37.200 elders, the shepherds, the pastors among you, and I'm doing so as a fellow elder. I'm doing so as

00:15:44.360 someone who also holds this office myself. And these are the things that you need to do. You

00:15:48.560 need to shepherd the flock of God that's among you. You need to do this not for shameful gain,

00:15:53.520 exercising oversight. So there's a ruling capacity, an overseeing capacity, shepherding,

00:15:59.420 overseeing not with compulsion but willingly so that needs to be voluntary i think in that

00:16:05.780 indicative is joyfully something that you desire to do as god would have you not for shameful gain

00:16:12.240 eagerly and not domineering there is authority there is command but how you exercise that

00:16:19.060 authority and how you exercise these commands should not be with the spirit of domineering

00:16:23.740 over those in your charge but rather being examples to the flock and if you do all this

00:16:29.840 then Peter he now is appealing above himself he's saying I'm an elder and an apostle and I want you

00:16:35.780 to follow my example and follow my instruction as elders but if we all do this well then there

00:16:41.420 is an elder even above me namely the chief shepherd the chief pastor the Lord Jesus Christ

00:16:47.200 And when he appears, he will give to us an unfading crown of glory.

00:16:53.700 So that's the text.

00:16:55.580 What I want to look at here is the roles and duties of elders.

00:16:58.540 And I'm going to kind of go back to deacons as well and correspond, comparing and contrasting, going back and forth.

00:17:04.700 We spent a couple of weeks now on the qualifications of elders.

00:17:07.600 And we spent a little bit of time on the qualifications of deacons.

00:17:10.980 But today I really want to focus on the duties.

00:17:14.220 What does it look like?

00:17:15.620 what are the job descriptions of an elder and also a deacon going back and forth between the two.

00:17:22.400 So the duties of elders as a headline, kind of a large banner encompassing all the various

00:17:30.220 duties that an elder has, is that their ministry is a ministry of the word. The ministry of an elder

00:17:36.340 is a ministry of the word, the word of God. It's to be faithfully administered to the members of

00:17:42.200 the congregation in multiple capacities and we could do more this is not an exhaustive list but

00:17:48.360 i believe that the different capacities of ministering the word to the saints can be boiled

00:17:54.340 down to five main categories one is a ministry of prayer which is still word centric it is centered

00:18:02.160 on the word of god it's praying the word all elders must commit to regularly praying for the members

00:18:07.920 of the congregation. We find that in Acts chapter 6 verses 2 and 4, but especially when they are

00:18:14.320 sick. James chapter 5 verse 14 and 15 says, is there any among you that is sick? Then have him

00:18:20.880 call upon the elders. The elders will come and lay hands on him and pray for him and anoint the sick

00:18:25.560 person with oil. And the prayer that is made in faith, offered up in faith, will make the sick

00:18:30.160 person well. All the saints can pray for each other and all the saints can pray for each other

00:18:34.860 when you're sick. The Bible certainly allows for that and not only allows or permits but encourages

00:18:40.900 that. That we should pray for one another earnestly in all ways. That we should pray for one another

00:18:47.340 especially when our friends and family and fellow church members are sick. But there is certainly

00:18:54.620 an emphasis that's added in James chapter 5 for elders in the church to go and to pray for the

00:19:01.800 sick person. So elders are tasked with a ministry of the word. And what does that look like? Well,

00:19:09.660 one element of that is praying the word, praying the word for the church and doing that on a

00:19:17.300 regular basis in their private prayer, also publicly on the Lord's day. That's why in our

00:19:22.200 Lord's day liturgy, it includes confessions, corporate confessions of sin and confessions

00:19:26.900 of faith, assurances of pardon, preaching the word, preaching the word, but also there are

00:19:32.600 pastoral prayers that are sprinkled throughout the liturgy, every Lord's Day. So there's a public

00:19:38.260 praying for the saints, for elders to perform. There's also private praying for the saints

00:19:44.180 that elders are called to perform. And then there's also this personal prayer for the saints

00:19:49.860 in person, especially when they are sick, and anointing them with oil. Number two, a ministry

00:19:58.800 of preaching and teaching. Again, praying the word, now preaching and teaching the word. All elders

00:20:05.220 must function in at least some capacity in a public preaching, teaching ministry. The reason

00:20:10.660 why is because every elder is called to be apt to teach, able to teach. If the elder is not able

00:20:18.620 to teach the word of God to others, then he's not qualified to be an elder. That's one of the

00:20:22.700 qualifications. And if he is qualified to be an elder, he's meeting all those qualifications,

00:20:27.720 including the qualification of being able to teach. Then if he has that ability to teach,

00:20:34.160 then it seems, well, it seems foolish not to utilize it. So every elder will publicly preach

00:20:41.620 and teach the word of God. The question is simply how often and what capacity and what context,

00:20:47.040 but every elder is called to some degree or another to the ministry of publicly preaching

00:20:53.420 and teaching the word some elders will preach and teach more some elders will preach and teach less

00:20:58.840 but all elders should preach and teach publicly the saints to some capacity beyond just preaching

00:21:05.680 and teaching in their homes with their wives and children but publicly with the congregation

00:21:11.060 an elder must be able to do that and if he's able then he should be exercising that gift

00:21:16.440 in some capacity. Third, so ministry of prayer and ministry of preaching, but all this again

00:21:23.500 is a ministry of the word, praying the word, preaching the word. Now, ministry of the ordinances.

00:21:30.020 We see this each Lord's Day. The word of God has prescribed, Jesus Christ, head of the church,

00:21:36.160 has given to his church two ordinances, two sacraments, and that is the Lord's Supper

00:21:42.880 and baptism the lord's supper and baptism you really could take um the everything that we do

00:21:50.080 on the lord's day the means of grace is what often uh the lord's day and the things that we do

00:21:55.800 throughout the liturgy that's often what it's referred to the means of grace and you can take

00:21:59.960 that and boil it down to uh four main four main elements that there's preaching the word praying

00:22:06.600 the word singing the word in hymns and psalms and spiritual songs and then lastly seeing not

00:22:14.000 singing but seeing s-e-e-i-n-g seeing the word and there are only two images that can be seen

00:22:21.460 that the Lord Jesus has prescribed to the church and that is the Lord's Supper and baptism other

00:22:27.040 than that faith is not something that we do by sight we don't walk by sight but walk by faith

00:22:33.280 and faith comes not by seeing but by hearing and hearing the word of christ that's what we see in

00:22:40.160 romans chapter 10 verse 14 how would they believe unless they see no how would they believe unless

00:22:46.480 they hear and how would they hear unless someone preaches and how would they preach unless they're

00:22:50.560 sent sent out as it is written blessed are the feet of those who bring good news that that the

00:22:58.260 word of God, the Christian church, is a proclamation. It is preaching. It is spoken. God's spoken word.

00:23:09.760 And faith is developed. That muscle of faith is grown and developed through hearing. Hearing the

00:23:15.860 word of Christ. That's one of the reasons why, one of the good reasons why Protestants broke with 1.00

00:23:22.340 Catholicism. That's one of the distinctions between Roman Catholicism as well as Eastern 0.91

00:23:28.040 Orthodoxy and Protestant Christianity. Now, sadly, many evangelicals, modern evangelicals,

00:23:35.540 aren't really that distinct. They've embraced the same thing that originally Protestants 0.94

00:23:40.940 protested about Rome. Modern evangelicals have actually come back and embraced those things,

00:23:47.060 but they just do it with much more cringe than Roman Catholicism. 0.57

00:23:52.160 What am I referring to?

00:23:53.320 I'm referring to images and sight.

00:23:56.740 The Christian faith is a faith that is heard.

00:24:00.460 It's hearing.

00:24:02.180 And sadly, within Roman Catholicism, not always, not always,

00:24:07.100 but in the 15th century, during the time of Luther and Calvin

00:24:11.760 and these kinds of things,

00:24:12.880 Roman Catholicism was particularly bad

00:24:17.180 and they were actually even training Roman priests at the time 0.77

00:24:21.040 not so much with doctrine, right?

00:24:24.780 It's like, hey, I want to learn theology. I want to be a Roman priest. I want to minister

00:24:28.340 to people. So I want to know good, sound doctrine so that

00:24:32.840 I can instruct the people in what to believe and what the Word of God

00:24:36.860 teaches. And, you know, the bishops and the cardinals

00:24:40.660 And, you know, you always know who's in charge by the size of hat.

00:24:44.060 You know, just the hats get bigger and bigger and bigger.

00:24:46.700 And that's how you know who's, you know, who's the boss.

00:24:49.340 And the response, you know, the proverbial response was, oh, we don't do that here.

00:24:54.320 Wait, what do you mean?

00:24:55.040 We're not going to, you're not going to train me so that I can train others.

00:24:57.660 No, you're not even going to do the Catholic mass in a language that they can understand.

00:25:02.820 It's going to be in Latin.

00:25:04.060 Who speaks Latin?

00:25:04.960 No one, just us.

00:25:06.860 No one will understand what you're saying.

00:25:08.120 Did you know the phrase hocus pocus?

00:25:09.580 It comes from actually the pronouncement that the Catholic priest would make right before administering the sacrament of the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, communion.

00:25:22.060 And, you know, they believe in transubstantiation and still do that, you know, the bread, the Eucharist actually became the physical in a literal sense, physical sense, the physical body of Christ.

00:25:32.080 and that the wine became the physical blood of Christ

00:25:35.640 and the people had no idea what was going on,

00:25:38.360 but they knew that, you know, at that moment

00:25:40.260 the priest would be swinging his arms

00:25:42.180 with the big, you know, robes and tassels

00:25:44.080 and, you know, there would be some incense

00:25:46.300 and candles that had been lit

00:25:47.540 and, you know, and so there's all this visuals going on, right?

00:25:51.220 It's the robes, it's the tassels.

00:25:53.760 There's even the senses of sight and smell

00:25:57.380 and, you know, that are going on.

00:25:59.080 There's bells that are ringing

00:26:00.320 and and there's there's incense and candles that have now been lit and the catholic priest would

00:26:05.940 then begin to pronounce you know what's going to happen um you know this this thing as he's praying

00:26:11.180 about right before administering the eucharist and it sounded it was like i can't pronounce it

00:26:16.240 it's latin but it's you know and i don't speak latin our kids will speak latin praise god i won't

00:26:20.620 i it's the you know that ship has sailed for me that's just not going to happen but it sounded

00:26:24.920 like hocus pocus and that's literally where the phrase hocus pocus like magic comes from

00:26:29.280 because the common man would think that that's what the priest was doing.

00:26:33.640 The Catholic priest was performing a spell.

00:26:35.660 He was doing magic and turning bread into flesh and wine into blood. 0.89

00:26:40.700 My point is, that's how far removed the leadership,

00:26:46.240 the ivory tower priestly, clergy leadership of Roman Catholicism at the time was from the people.

00:26:54.240 They would read from the Vulgate, which was the Latin translation of the Bible,

00:26:57.540 which was not just in Latin, but they actually had changed certain words.

00:27:02.000 Like within, you know, the Vulgate, instead of repentance, it would say, do penance, do penance.

00:27:10.980 So the Catholic Church had actually removed the concept of repentance apart from works,

00:27:16.820 but instead it was penance, which means you need to repent, and repentance, it necessitates works,

00:27:23.380 whether that's climbing steps, you know, or paying indulgences or whatever that might be.

00:27:29.400 But it's some kind of works-based dogma.

00:27:32.800 And all this, again, is something that the people, they can't even understand.

00:27:38.820 But Protestants today, sadly, we've gone back to that. 0.56

00:27:42.760 Instead of, you know, with the Protestant church and the Puritans and the Reformers, 0.88

00:27:46.680 one of the things they did was they took the Lord's Supper at the table,

00:27:49.460 which was central in Roman Catholicism.

00:27:53.380 And it was literally central.

00:27:55.120 It was right there in the middle of the stage.

00:27:58.660 And the pulpit was something that was kind of, you know, it was a side piece.

00:28:03.460 It was an addendum and just an addition.

00:28:06.280 And what the Protestants did was they took the Lord's table that was central and they moved it to the side or they put it central but beneath, under the pulpit, to show its subjection.

00:28:20.440 that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper only holds its validity in conjunction

00:28:26.720 when complemented in concert with the preaching of the Word of God.

00:28:31.520 For instance, I won't serve the Lord's Supper at a wedding.

00:28:35.280 And I will not serve the Lord's Supper in my home or in a small group or in this setting or that setting

00:28:40.880 because it rightly belongs. 0.64

00:28:42.760 It's not a sacrament for fathers in the house or marriage,

00:28:47.120 but it's a sacrament that is tied to the church

00:28:49.760 ministers of the gospel

00:28:51.060 and it's always in conjunction with the word being preached

00:28:54.300 the word is preached and heard

00:28:56.240 and then it is seen in the Lord's Supper and received

00:29:00.160 and that's you know

00:29:02.220 but the preaching of the word

00:29:03.700 Luther and all these guys

00:29:04.860 Calvin and Zwingli

00:29:05.720 they all argued the same

00:29:06.740 they had a high view of the Lord's Supper

00:29:08.860 a higher view than most Protestants today

00:29:10.720 but the Lord's Supper was still inferior

00:29:13.620 or in subjection to the preached word

00:29:16.120 So the pulpit signifying symbolic of preaching would be central and the table would be to the side or the pulpit would be above and the table would be below because faith comes by hearing.

00:29:28.600 And so all the duties of an elder, it's word centric.

00:29:32.380 It's word centric and it's all about hearing.

00:29:36.000 It's praying the word.

00:29:37.220 It's preaching the word.

00:29:38.780 It's administering the word so that the word can be seen in the only two images.

00:29:44.580 Everything else is heard, but seen in the only two images prescribed to us by Christ.

00:29:49.340 Baptism as a symbol, visible symbol, and likewise the Lord's Supper.

00:29:54.580 So a ministry of the ordinances or sacraments.

00:29:57.700 And then a ministry of overseeing, which is using the word of God as the standard to oversee and to make rulings for the life of the body.

00:30:06.080 And then a ministry of shepherding.

00:30:09.440 and in shepherding the tool that is being used to shepherd the sheep is again the word all this is

00:30:18.120 word centric and so within historic protestantism and within our church trying to get back to that

00:30:25.240 and follow better examples everything is word centric and all of it is hearing it's a pronouncement

00:30:32.300 in hearing, except for the Lord's Supper and baptism. We preach the Word, pray the Word,

00:30:39.100 sing the Word, and see the Word in baptism and in the Lord's Supper. And these functions are

00:30:46.860 performed ordinarily by elders, the chief fathers, ecclesiastical fathers in the church. There's a

00:30:55.080 reason for all that we do. So that ministry of prayer, I've read that, ministry of preaching,

00:31:00.200 read that ministry of the ordinances elders will ordinarily administer the ordinances or

00:31:07.260 sacraments of baptism the lord's supper but the administration of the ordinances especially

00:31:12.780 baptism can be rightfully administered by any member of the congregation in good standing

00:31:19.300 the reason for this is matthew chapter 28 i do believe that the great commission was not just

00:31:26.680 issued to the clergy or to ecclesiastical officers of the church, but rather that it was given to

00:31:33.940 Christians, to the church itself, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them. Also,

00:31:41.660 we know that Philip was not an elder at the time, but rather he was a deacon of the church in

00:31:46.900 Jerusalem, and he baptized the Ethiopian who came to saving faith through the prophet Isaiah,

00:31:54.820 as Philip helped give exposition, exegesis and understanding of the prophecies of Isaiah.

00:32:01.640 The man comes to faith and he says, is there any reason that I cannot be baptized?

00:32:07.000 There's water here.

00:32:09.140 And when he says there's water here, the reason why just, you know, I'm not trying to be insufferable,

00:32:14.360 but I do think it'll preach.

00:32:16.600 He doesn't say I have a canister of water with me at all times.

00:32:20.600 And so at any point, you know, you could perform a baptism.

00:32:23.880 if there's a convert because you know everybody carries a little bit of water on them for drinking

00:32:28.860 purposes and a little bit of water is all that is required for baptism because it's sprinkling

00:32:34.040 no that's very clearly not what he's getting at he's saying i could be baptized now because i've

00:32:40.920 been converted and baptism follows faith and i could be baptized catch this here why here he's

00:32:48.040 not saying i could be baptized you know 15 more minutes up the road where i could have been

00:32:52.200 baptized back there. No, he's saying here, right? Not because of a small canister of water for

00:32:57.620 drinking that's carried on this person always. No, but because there's water near the chariot

00:33:02.720 where they are. A thimble of water, a bottle of water, no, a body of water, enough water

00:33:11.620 to be immersed in. That's very clear. So all that being said, baptism is one, I do believe,

00:33:22.080 its immersion. But secondly, it can be rightly performed by someone who is not a pastor.

00:33:28.760 Philip is a deacon rather than an elder, but it's still connected to the church. Philip is not doing

00:33:35.620 this as a head of a household. This is not, if we think of the spheres of the home, the state,

00:33:42.360 and the church, this is not Philip the husband or Philip the familial father. And this is not

00:33:48.220 Philip the Christian prince, the civil ruler. This is Philip the deacon, the ecclesiastical deacon

00:33:55.720 attached to the church. So it's not reserved for elders exclusively, but it is reserved. The

00:34:01.800 sacraments, both the Lord's Supper and baptism, they are reserved for the church. It doesn't have

00:34:07.920 to be elders in the church, but it does have to be the church. These sacraments are not given to

00:34:14.200 families they're given to churches and the church has the keys and the authority for wielding this

00:34:21.720 authority in the church and administering these sacraments in the church although it could be a

00:34:27.180 deacon and not only an elder and i would argue in addition not just the example of philip in the

00:34:33.560 ethiopian but also just the great commission itself in matthew 28 that this is given not just

00:34:40.180 to elders and not just to elders plus deacons, but given to all of the church made up of the saints

00:34:46.920 and that it includes the Great Commission includes baptism. And so saints can baptize,

00:34:52.720 but it should still be a church of a church function so that is actually the agency baptizing

00:34:59.920 is actually the church. But but an individual church member in right standing, good standing

00:35:06.460 in a local church or deacon or elder is standing in representative of the collective corporate

00:35:12.160 church as a whole. That's why when we perform baptisms, I'm intentional and I know that not

00:35:17.760 everything is necessarily picked up. It may be missed, but I'm intentional to say that we baptize

00:35:25.300 you upon your profession of faith. We baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy

00:35:30.320 Spirit. We are buried with Christ in his death and then raised with him to walk in newness of life.

00:35:35.040 what i'm pointing out right now is just one small word we we baptism as a sacrament has not been

00:35:42.820 given to to me it has been given to the church the saints and when the ecclesia gathers together

00:35:50.380 that's what ecclesia that greek word for church that's what it means it has a few different

00:35:54.520 meanings but one of those meanings is to gather and so when the church gathers together the church

00:36:00.120 is the people that's a true biblical sense of using the word church called out ones that's

00:36:05.380 another definition or way of defining the church the church is a people who have been called out

00:36:11.680 from the mass of humanity called out from the world so that's true and marked by by christ

00:36:18.680 so that's who the church is but then there's also something to be said for what is the church

00:36:23.740 the church is the called out ones the people but particularly when they gather church is a noun I

00:36:31.180 guess is what I'm saying but it also can be used as a verb noun is the people the called out one

00:36:36.580 saved by the Lord Jesus Christ coming in having union with him through faith and faith alone

00:36:41.940 that's who the church is the people but there's also something the church does as a verb the

00:36:48.040 church churches the church churches the ecclesia ecclesias what am i saying that the church

00:36:55.660 gathers it assembles and when the church that is the people called out once church together

00:37:02.980 ecclesia that is gathered together particularly on the lord's day the christian sabbath the day

00:37:09.080 that christ was raised from the dead when we do this there is a unique presence of the lord jesus

00:37:17.200 with us. Jesus is always with the saints by virtue of the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit.

00:37:22.740 But he is particularly with the saints when they gather together on the Lord's day. And he is

00:37:27.800 present not with just communion and sweetness and fellowship, relational presence, but he is

00:37:35.140 uniquely present with an authoritative presence. He's present with power and authority for the

00:37:44.020 church to use and wield the keys of authority, Christ's keys, to be exercised by the church

00:37:51.140 in an authoritative way for binding and loosing and also for administering the sacraments of

00:37:57.500 baptism and the Lord's Supper. So anyone can do this. And when we do baptisms and when we have

00:38:02.420 children who've made a profession of faith in Christ being baptized, I always include their

00:38:07.720 father. But it's not just their dad baptizing the child on a Tuesday afternoon in a swimming pool

00:38:14.220 at home, and the church is not invited or has no clue. No, because baptism is a sacrament. It's not

00:38:21.040 given to dads, familial dads in the household, but it's given to the church. However, I can involve

00:38:28.380 a father along with a minister. Why? Because that father is not functioning so much as familial

00:38:34.200 father in that moment i mean his heart is i'm sure you know he's like this is my little girl

00:38:39.280 i'm baptizing her you know and he's elated he can't help that he is a familial father but he's

00:38:44.180 also standing in as representative of the church not his household but of the church and why is he

00:38:50.600 qualified to do that along with an elder because baptism in the great commission matthew 28 is

00:38:55.900 given to all christians not just ecclesiastical clergy and that father if he's a christian and

00:39:01.760 a member of this church then he is a member of Christ's church in good standing and the keys

00:39:06.580 and the sacraments have been given to him and not just elders and so he can come and represent the

00:39:13.200 church and together we say we that is the church baptizes you into the name of the father the son

00:39:19.780 and the holy spirit we are buried with Christ in his death and raised to walk and newness of life

00:39:24.960 so that's a little bit on the sacraments or the ordinances baptists traditionally have called

00:39:30.000 them ordinances, because Baptists don't like the word sacrament, which is why I try as often as I

00:39:37.000 can to use the word sacrament, because Baptists need to get over that. They are holy. They are

00:39:43.920 sacred. And I believe that the correct view of the Lord's Supper, since we just talked a little

00:39:49.200 bit about baptism, the Lord's Supper, no, we are not Rome. We are not Catholic. And so we do not

00:39:55.240 believe in transubstantiation. We don't believe that the bread becomes the literal body of Christ

00:40:01.020 and that the wine becomes the literal blood of Christ. But traditionally, well, actually not

00:40:08.460 traditionally, but recently modern Baptists, as we've continued to splinter more and more and more

00:40:14.460 and more and more and more, now there's this Baptist and that Baptist. And, you know, there's

00:40:17.760 there are thousands of just not just Protestant denominations, but just Baptist denominations

00:40:24.080 alone. Different kinds of Baptists. And

00:40:27.740 many of them, their view, the term, their view of

00:40:32.060 the Lord's Supper would be memorialism. Meaning

00:40:36.000 they believe that the Lord's Supper is a memorial, which I do

00:40:39.780 as well, but they believe that it is a memorial only. A memorial

00:40:43.820 only. Meaning, think of a memorial just being

00:40:48.080 looking back, memory, remembering with a

00:40:52.080 sense of honor and esteem and reverence. That is what we do when we partake of the Lord's Supper.

00:40:58.720 Jesus tells us, he commands us to do that. He says, you know, as often as you drink, you know,

00:41:05.120 eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So you're

00:41:12.140 remembering something that happened in the past for us, that is the Lord's death, and you're

00:41:16.440 proclaiming that past historical event with a a forward sight a forward um view uh doing it in in

00:41:24.680 um in light of the the faith and the belief that the lord jesus who died was raised and will return

00:41:31.100 that he is coming you proclaim the lord's death until he comes again and so there is a memorial

00:41:37.360 we're remembering when we eat the bread and drink the cup we're remembering that jesus died on the

00:41:43.300 cross for our sins. And we're remembering with honor and with reverence and with thanksgiving

00:41:47.920 for the sacrifice that he made. So it is a memorial, but it's more than a memorial

00:41:54.020 in the sense that Christ is present. Christ is present. And again, this is it's not that

00:42:01.400 complicated. Once you get it, it's pretty easy to. Oh, OK, that makes sense. What we're saying

00:42:08.380 is that in the administering of the Lord's Supper,

00:42:11.380 Christ, who is always present,

00:42:13.820 is now uniquely present.

00:42:16.540 So think of it like this.

00:42:18.660 Christ is always present.

00:42:20.460 Why?

00:42:21.140 He's the God-man.

00:42:22.200 He's taken on flesh,

00:42:23.200 and He took on flesh in His incarnation.

00:42:27.240 He took on flesh,

00:42:28.580 not just during His earthly ministry,

00:42:30.560 but He remains the God-man.

00:42:32.680 He now is still in the flesh,

00:42:34.400 forever will be in the flesh,

00:42:35.920 but it is now, since His resurrection,

00:42:38.380 The glorified flesh.

00:42:40.320 And so he is the God-man in a human body.

00:42:43.080 He has taken on a human nature.

00:42:44.740 It is now glorified humanity, glorified flesh.

00:42:48.360 And so in the physical sense, because Jesus really does have a body,

00:42:53.480 in the physical sense, Jesus in his physical presence,

00:42:58.060 with his physical body, he has a physical locale.

00:43:02.400 Because that's the idea of physical beings.

00:43:06.080 have you know they're not omnipresent they cannot be one physical being cannot be everywhere at once

00:43:13.420 because Jesus is the God man he has a physical body glorified as it is still there is a physical

00:43:20.440 one physical body and where is this physical body Jesus in the flesh is in a particular place

00:43:26.900 namely at the right hand of the father wherever that is at the right hand of the father

00:43:32.060 but jesus is not only man but he is the god man and so the spirit of the risen christ is omnipresent

00:43:41.780 everywhere by virtue especially of the ministry of the holy spirit so for those who are in christ

00:43:49.860 through faith have union with him and have been born again caused to become a new creature in

00:43:54.420 christ jesus with new hearts regeneration the heart of stone removed and the heart of flesh

00:43:59.100 put in its place. 1 Corinthians 6 tells us that if that's you, you're a new creature in Christ

00:44:05.040 Jesus. You have faith in Jesus and have been born again. Then the Holy, you are now a temple of the

00:44:10.400 Holy Spirit who dwells within you. So the Holy Spirit dwells within you. And one of the chief

00:44:16.060 ministries of the Holy Spirit is to exude the spiritual presence of the risen Christ. And so

00:44:23.240 in a technical theological sense, it is perfectly permissible and biblically valid to say

00:44:28.860 Jesus is in my heart yes technically yes because if you're a Christian you have the Holy Spirit

00:44:35.240 dwelling within you and the Spirit exudes he loves to exemplify and draw attention it's like the

00:44:42.420 Holy Spirit J.I. Packer said this once he said the Holy Spirit is not weak or scared but he is shy

00:44:51.940 that sounds weird speaking of the Holy Spirit who is God the third member of the Trinity

00:44:57.320 But what he meant by that is he's a shy person.

00:45:00.240 And we can speak of personhood when we speak of each of the three persons of the Trinity.

00:45:04.400 He said he's shy in the sense that the Holy Spirit does not shine the spotlight on himself.

00:45:12.600 But what we see through the book of Acts, what we see throughout the Gospels,

00:45:16.240 what we see is Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit in his ministry.

00:45:20.020 Not its. It's not the force in Star Wars.

00:45:23.220 But he, he is a person.

00:45:24.640 When Jesus speaks of he, the Holy Spirit's ministry in John 14 and John 15, much of what the spirit lives and loves to do is to instead of being the lead actor in a Broadway play, he likes being up in the balcony, working the spotlight and just following Jesus the whole time.

00:45:45.300 Just putting it on Jesus.

00:45:46.620 That's what the Spirit loves to do.

00:45:48.060 Which is a tragedy.

00:45:49.560 That's not a tragedy.

00:45:50.800 But it's a tragedy when you think

00:45:52.980 how many modern churches

00:45:55.060 have emphasized the Spirit

00:45:58.280 over and against the Son.

00:46:02.520 And I understand the rationale.

00:46:04.380 The thought process is this.

00:46:05.600 Well, the Spirit is the one person of the Trinity

00:46:11.040 who's active and present with us,

00:46:14.260 which is technically wrong

00:46:15.700 because through the Spirit,

00:46:17.380 the Son, who is God,

00:46:18.920 is omnipresent and with us.

00:46:20.580 God the Father is a most pure spirit

00:46:22.580 without body, parts, and passions.

00:46:24.120 And therefore, as God infinite

00:46:25.760 and His presence is omnipresence

00:46:28.520 and He is with us.

00:46:30.220 But there's this thought process of,

00:46:31.760 well, God is in heaven

00:46:32.600 and Jesus was on earth,

00:46:33.980 but not anymore.

00:46:34.800 He's at the right hand of God.

00:46:36.260 But the Spirit was sent.

00:46:37.640 He proceeds from the Father and the Son,

00:46:39.880 which is theologically accurate and true.

00:46:42.120 So I'm sympathetic.

00:46:43.000 I understand.

00:46:43.580 The Spirit was poured out.

00:46:45.320 And so the Spirit is now the one with us.

00:46:47.340 And so He's the one that we're going to emphasize the most.

00:46:50.740 Because He, out of the three persons of the Trinity,

00:46:52.940 is the one who is active and present with us

00:46:55.060 in this New Testament Spirit-empowered age.

00:46:58.600 And I get that.

00:47:00.120 And I don't think that's entirely wrong.

00:47:02.040 But remember, the Spirit who was poured out

00:47:03.940 and sent by the Father and the Son

00:47:06.020 and poured out on the church

00:47:07.540 for courage and bravery, boldness,

00:47:11.140 to be witnesses, brave, bold witnesses

00:47:13.600 of the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:47:15.220 This spirit and in the way

00:47:16.920 that he empowers the church,

00:47:18.540 he does all this and works in all these ways

00:47:21.280 to what end?

00:47:22.640 To magnify Jesus,

00:47:25.740 the person and work of Jesus Christ.

00:47:28.420 He lives to glorify the Son,

00:47:30.920 to magnify the Son,

00:47:32.620 to exude the Son.

00:47:35.040 So all this again back to the Lord's Supper

00:47:37.280 and presence, presence.

00:47:39.400 Because of the Holy Spirit,

00:47:41.140 and His indwelling ministry for all believers,

00:47:43.980 it is true, undeniably true,

00:47:46.600 to say that if you are a Christian,

00:47:49.320 Jesus is with you always.

00:47:51.640 Not just on the Lord's Day at church,

00:47:54.080 but He's with you always.

00:47:56.240 And we know this,

00:47:57.500 even there's a sense in which this is true, 0.99

00:48:00.120 even for the unbeliever.

00:48:02.460 David talks about this.

00:48:04.240 King David in the Psalms,

00:48:05.220 where can I go from your presence? 0.96

00:48:08.300 If I'm in the belly of Sheol,

00:48:10.180 right, which would be the realm of the dead, in the belly of the earth, down below, Hades.

00:48:17.840 If I'm in Sheol, you're there. If I'm in the bottom of the sea, in the ocean, you're there. If I'm in

00:48:22.680 the heavens or the clouds, you're there. On the mountains or the valleys or wherever I might be,

00:48:27.280 there is nowhere that I can go from your presence. Why? Because God is omnipresent. So God who is

00:48:33.780 omnipresent, because he's God, infinite in every capacity, including presence, omnibenevolent,

00:48:39.780 all-loving, omnipotent, all-powerful, right? Omni-omniscient, all-knowing, but also omnipresent.

00:48:48.120 He is present everywhere. God is present, all three persons, including Jesus in his spiritual

00:48:53.940 presence, physical presence at the right hand of the Father, spiritual presence is omnipresent

00:48:59.120 everywhere. So our triune God is omnipresent for everyone, even if you're not a Christian.

00:49:03.940 i'll add one thing with that real quick including in hell what makes hell so terrible is not that

00:49:11.160 god is not there what makes hell so terrible is that god is there he is always present in hell

00:49:17.720 in his white hot just wrath for sin pouring out his justice without any ounce of mercy

00:49:27.600 forever and ever and ever

00:49:29.500 to the praise of His glorious justice.

00:49:33.280 That's what makes hell so terrible.

00:49:36.480 So there is nowhere where God is not.

00:49:39.280 He is omnipresent even for the unbeliever.

00:49:41.720 So God is present with all people in one sense.

00:49:45.920 God is especially present with all Christian people. 0.56

00:49:50.080 Why?

00:49:50.780 Because He's omnipresent in the fact

00:49:52.600 that He's divine and infinite.

00:49:53.740 but he is especially present for Christian people

00:49:57.780 because they have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them.

00:50:01.160 But then he is especially, especially present

00:50:03.720 with Christian people on the Lord's Day

00:50:06.280 when they gather together.

00:50:08.560 I believe that Revelation 1 describes this.

00:50:11.780 The Apostle John is caught up,

00:50:14.160 and don't miss this, it's significant.

00:50:16.340 He's in exile on the island of Patmos.

00:50:19.480 He has a revelation of Jesus Christ,

00:50:21.660 which, by the way, the last book of the Bible

00:50:23.680 That is the title.

00:50:24.760 It's not revelations, but it's revelation of Jesus Christ.

00:50:30.080 That's the full title.

00:50:31.940 John receives a revelation of Jesus Christ.

00:50:34.580 He receives it from Jesus Christ.

00:50:36.960 Where does he receive it?

00:50:38.460 He's caught up in the spirit.

00:50:40.680 So a spiritual exaltation, a vision,

00:50:45.420 while physically he's on the island of Patmos in exile.

00:50:50.080 But when?

00:50:51.620 So we can think of what he receives, a revelation of Jesus Christ.

00:50:54.940 From whom? From Jesus Christ.

00:50:56.880 Where? Physically, the island of Patmos, but spiritually caught up into the third heaven.

00:51:02.320 But here's the last question.

00:51:03.540 When does he receive it?

00:51:05.720 I was caught up in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.

00:51:09.960 And that's not a coincidence.

00:51:12.520 And what does John see in this revelation as he's caught up into heaven?

00:51:15.620 He sees Jesus, the Son of God, walking amidst seven lampstands.

00:51:23.800 And it explains that the seven lampstands are, they represent seven churches.

00:51:28.840 Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 are specific words from the Lord Jesus Christ,

00:51:34.860 who is head of the church, given to these seven churches.

00:51:37.900 Words of consolation, but also mainly rebuke.

00:51:40.940 but the first thing in revelation 1 that john sees first thing he sees is he's caught up in

00:51:47.960 the spirit to the third heaven with the lord jesus christ as he sees jesus and where is jesus

00:51:53.740 where is the presence of christ concentrated walking amidst the lampstands and what are the

00:52:02.740 lampstands churches that the lord jesus on the lord's day which is when john receives a vision

00:52:09.300 The Lord Jesus on the Lord's day is present with the Lord's church.

00:52:16.000 God is everywhere.

00:52:17.380 Right now, God is in the middle of the ocean.

00:52:20.120 God is on the top of Mount Everest.

00:52:23.100 God is everywhere.

00:52:24.320 But he's here uniquely.

00:52:27.260 He's here with the saints on the Lord's day uniquely.

00:52:31.960 And I believe one of the reasons we do the Lord's Supper last

00:52:36.340 is that the entire liturgy of our worship is a crescendo with praying the word,

00:52:43.540 preaching the word, then singing the word, and lastly, then seeing and even tasting the word

00:52:49.480 in the Lord's Supper as the climax of this crescendo of worship, climaxing in communion.

00:52:58.640 John Owen, a wonderful Puritan, very hard to read, but a wonderful Puritan.

00:53:03.680 he said that the chief end of the gospel is not justification by faith alone right modern reformers

00:53:12.220 hardest hit that's a tough one it's like oh no but we just planned our 27th conference

00:53:17.980 called justification alone 27 years running you know or you know every now and then we like to

00:53:24.020 switch it up and say you know suffering and persecution is the theme of the conference

00:53:27.780 We'll do that one on a cruise ship.

00:53:30.220 Ligonier?

00:53:31.520 I like Ligonier, but that one, not a good look.

00:53:37.140 But the point is this.

00:53:39.120 John always says, no, no, no.

00:53:40.200 The chief end of the gospel is not justification.

00:53:43.300 Justification by faith alone is the heart of the gospel.

00:53:48.120 But communion forever with the triune God 0.83

00:53:51.080 is the end of the gospel. 0.90

00:53:53.160 I'm going to say that again.

00:53:54.360 You need to understand the difference.

00:53:56.400 Justification is not the end of the gospel.

00:53:58.700 It's not the climax of the gospel.

00:54:00.800 It's not the aim of the gospel even.

00:54:03.080 It is the heart of the gospel. 0.94

00:54:05.100 And it is true, as the reformers and Puritans said,

00:54:07.580 that the gospel of Jesus Christ, it hinges.

00:54:10.000 It will either make or break, stand or fall,

00:54:12.980 on the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

00:54:15.820 I'm not negating that.

00:54:18.200 Justification by faith is the heart of the gospel.

00:54:21.580 But communion forever, eternal communion with the triune God,

00:54:25.380 is the end of the gospel.

00:54:27.580 Meaning, all the sermons we preach

00:54:29.820 about justification,

00:54:31.700 you must believe in your heart

00:54:33.160 and confess with your mouth

00:54:34.540 and that we're saved by grace alone,

00:54:36.960 through faith alone,

00:54:37.740 in Christ alone,

00:54:38.520 and not by works.

00:54:39.700 All that is true.

00:54:40.820 And it's absolutely necessary for salvation.

00:54:44.460 But then there's a point of salvation.

00:54:47.500 And the point of salvation

00:54:48.480 is not just remembering

00:54:49.720 how we got saved again and again

00:54:51.820 for ten eons.

00:54:53.800 The end of salvation

00:54:55.180 is not just remembering how we got salvation but it's actually enjoying salvation and namely the

00:55:02.200 author of salvation the triune god and so even on the lord's day in our our earthly worship

00:55:10.380 it's like john bunyan who was a baptist by the way john bunyan he wrote in pilgrim's progress he said

00:55:16.720 that there was this one part of the journey the delectable hills where there were shepherds who

00:55:22.440 would tend to these weary pilgrims who had gone through many trials and tribulations they were

00:55:26.620 tired by this point and they were not yet to the celestial city which represents heaven they hadn't

00:55:32.300 made it all the way but this was the first part of the journey the delectable hills where they

00:55:36.920 the pilgrims could catch their first glimpse they weren't there but they could for the first time

00:55:41.860 see the celestial city and the shepherds would minister to them and they would take hope and

00:55:48.600 and consolation and encouragement,

00:55:50.560 seeing the glory of a celestial city

00:55:53.560 that they would eventually arrive to,

00:55:55.700 eventually inherit.

00:55:57.320 And for Bunyim, this was indicative, 0.97

00:55:59.460 this part of Pilgrim's Progress, the journey,

00:56:01.680 was indicative of the church on the Lord's Day.

00:56:05.200 And the shepherds, of course, representing pastors,

00:56:08.720 belonging to the church,

00:56:09.880 and ministering to the church on the Lord's Day.

00:56:12.260 The pilgrim was saying,

00:56:13.420 I've been weary, I've gone through the valley

00:56:15.180 of the shadow of death,

00:56:16.520 where I couldn't see anything,

00:56:17.940 and it was so dark.

00:56:19.380 I could barely see my hand in front of my face.

00:56:21.940 I've gone through this.

00:56:23.000 I've gone through that.

00:56:23.820 But I've now arrived

00:56:25.340 after six days of working

00:56:28.180 throughout the week.

00:56:29.660 But now I'm arriving on the first day of the week.

00:56:32.820 The day that Christ rose from the dead

00:56:34.200 on the delectable hills.

00:56:36.300 And there I am given

00:56:38.140 certain treasures and nourishment

00:56:40.300 by shepherds who have been appointed

00:56:42.300 by the chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:56:44.540 I'm cared for.

00:56:45.760 These delectable hills have green grass

00:56:47.700 to eat still waters to drink and best of all they have um a million dollar view of what heaven on

00:56:57.100 the lord's day when we gather together as the saints we get a glimpse of heaven we're seeing

00:57:01.500 a picture of heaven and and what is the end of heaven it's the same as the end of the church on

00:57:06.240 the lord's day it's not just another sermon on justification by faith alone but rather the end

00:57:12.120 of our liturgy once we want to point we want it to serve the point towards the end of heaven

00:57:17.800 and eternity with christ it's a meal it's a feast a small feast in the literal physical sense but a

00:57:26.020 feast nonetheless it's a feast of faith where we feast upon the lord jesus christ spiritually

00:57:32.800 trusting in his promises embracing his communion his fellowship meaning that the end the climax of

00:57:40.980 our liturgy we pray the word preach the word sing the word but then see and taste the word

00:57:46.360 by belling up to the table of the lord eating the lord's meal in fellowship communion with the lord

00:57:54.040 that's the end john owen was right the end of the gospel is communion with the triune god

00:58:00.700 the heart of the gospel is justification by faith and so too even when we worship on the lord's day

00:58:06.460 the end of our worship liturgy

00:58:08.460 is communion with the triune God 0.98

00:58:10.480 bellying up to a table

00:58:12.120 at which sits Christ Jesus

00:58:14.660 at the head of the table

00:58:15.700 it's His table

00:58:16.800 it's His supper

00:58:17.780 and we are His people

00:58:19.600 and we commune with Him

00:58:22.100 and we get just a taste

00:58:23.120 it's not heaven

00:58:23.880 not yet

00:58:24.740 but we can see heaven in the distance

00:58:27.180 just as the pilgrims could see

00:58:29.380 the celestial city

00:58:30.460 from the delectable hills

00:58:32.200 and so elders administer the supper

00:58:34.920 in this way

00:58:36.080 than a ministry of overseeing.

00:58:38.040 Elders must participate in elders' meetings

00:58:40.820 by voting on certain decisions for the life

00:58:43.060 and the health of the church.

00:58:44.480 There are some things here at Covenant Bible Church,

00:58:47.440 this is expressed in our bylaws and Constitution,

00:58:51.060 in our membership covenant,

00:58:52.800 and ultimately it's in the 1689,

00:58:55.160 which is our specific statement of doctrine for the church.

00:58:58.500 There are some things that belong to the common suffrage

00:59:01.200 of the church, not just the elders,

00:59:03.860 But the saints themselves actually are voting on certain decisions.

00:59:09.560 Those things are narrow, but they do exist.

00:59:12.480 It would be ordination.

00:59:14.640 With ordination, there has to be a majority, in our case a super majority vote,

00:59:21.740 from not just the elders and the deacons, but the membership of the church

00:59:25.400 in order to ordain a deacon or ordain an elder.

00:59:29.380 Likewise, in order to remove a deacon or remove an elder.

00:59:33.860 would require a majority vote of the membership,

00:59:37.380 not just the leaders, but the membership of our church.

00:59:41.700 And then also with our primary documents,

00:59:45.680 our constitution and bylaws, our membership covenant,

00:59:49.380 and then also our general statement of faith.

00:59:51.840 These cannot be edited or revised or amended in any way

00:59:56.120 simply because the elders decide to or the deacons decide to,

01:00:00.320 but it would require a majority vote of the congregation.

01:00:04.000 It would have to be presented in a member's meeting

01:00:06.040 by the elders of the church.

01:00:07.320 This is the change that we are wanting to make.

01:00:09.460 These are the reasons why we want to make this change.

01:00:11.560 And then the members ultimately would vote.

01:00:13.600 And without their approval, it would not happen.

01:00:15.920 Now, that's that.

01:00:18.160 Beyond that, and I don't mean this to be insulting,

01:00:22.940 but maybe a little, like a good righteous insulting.

01:00:26.760 beyond that democracy is not our strength democracy is terrible it is every biblical

01:00:37.340 example of it is bad the people wanted this bad the people wanted that bad all the people got

01:00:43.560 together and said crucify him remember that one that was democracy at work pilot roman official 0.59

01:00:51.100 he's up for re-election he's over a particular province which one the jews and the jews are 0.98

01:00:57.860 going to cause trouble for him where he won't get re-elected unless they give him what they 1.00

01:01:01.600 what the jews want what did the jews want the death of jesus right and just for the record 0.73

01:01:07.660 that's not anti-semitism that's called bible and right now we live in a world that wants to make 0.55

01:01:14.200 the christian faith anti-semitic don't fall for it it's the christian faith in the same way that

01:01:19.600 they wanted to say if you're against homosexuality you're a bigot nope you're just a normal person 0.92

01:01:23.860 throughout all of human history until 15 minutes ago right you're misogynist nope 0.99

01:01:29.460 you're a bigot and a racist nope you're anti-semitic nope any other fake words we want 0.98

01:01:35.800 to make up and sling around it's all a joke don't cower do not cower to fake made-up words 1.00

01:01:43.440 okay don't do that if you're proclaiming violence like i physically uh outside of the civil magistrate

01:01:51.920 which is they have a monopoly according to the word of god on the sword god gave the sword not

01:01:56.620 to you to be batman in your spare time a vigilante that's not a thing the sword was assigned to the

01:02:02.440 civil magistrate that's it so outside of the civil magistrate exercising executing just laws and just

01:02:11.180 penalties, in some cases being capital punishment, aside from that, there's no violence for Christians

01:02:16.960 to take. We're not vigilantes. We don't do mob justice. We're not going to get our pitchforks,

01:02:22.640 light torches, go round up this group or that group. No, no, we're not doing that. If anyone's

01:02:28.220 calling for that, that's wrong. Anything other than that, if you're not talking about that,

01:02:32.100 and I don't know anybody talking about that, then you're not being anti-submitted.

01:02:34.840 you're not unless you're forming them all then you're not and so when someone says you're being

01:02:43.000 anti-semitic tell them when they say you're being a racist and when they say you're being

01:02:49.640 a misogynist that is the christian response that is sound biblical exegesis that's what it sounds

01:02:57.100 like okay don't do not fall for that joke it's a joke okay so all that being said democracy

01:03:07.860 it's not our greatest strength it's not god uses fathers right whether it's the democracy of

01:03:15.320 crucified jesus or the democracy of we want a king or the democracy of this or democracy of that

01:03:20.180 democracy is not our greatest strength it has not helped us and part of the reason why is because

01:03:25.020 men must be governed and especially bad men and right now we live in a time where we don't have

01:03:33.920 a lot of good men we have a lot of bad men i believe that a constitutional republic is the

01:03:39.640 ideal i don't believe that is prescribed in scripture so specifically that any other form

01:03:45.840 of government is inherently sinful right like i don't believe god sinned with having a monarchy

01:03:52.400 in Israel. And I don't believe that England was in clear, unadulterated sin for centuries

01:04:01.680 with King Alfred and monarchs and things like that. Or, you know, there are other forms of

01:04:07.720 government besides just monarchy and democracy. So I don't think that a constitutional republic,

01:04:13.100 which by the way, includes elements of democracy, but is never a raw democracy. Our founders

01:04:17.420 hated a raw democracy. They had nothing but negative things to say about it. So that was

01:04:21.600 never what america was intended to be but all that being said a constitutional republic with

01:04:27.660 representative government where there's a lot of power to the people for self-governance i believe

01:04:33.020 that's the ideal in the same way that i believe the ideal for a father in the home right that's

01:04:38.020 civil fathers a father in the home i believe the ideal is that eventually that my children would

01:04:42.640 be able to have a motorized vehicle drive it safely come home at a reasonable time go out to

01:04:48.740 wise places and make wise choices. I think they can do all that. I really do. Not today.

01:04:54.260 And for anybody who's wondering, oh man, there he goes again. Right? Because I went viral a year

01:04:58.460 ago for saying something like that. And they're like, he tells his children what to wear and when

01:05:02.300 to go to the bathroom. For the record, my children are six, four, three, and one. Those are their

01:05:07.900 ages. Okay? So I'm not talking about 17-year-olds. Goodness gracious. Right? That's not a good faith

01:05:12.560 argument. Give the benefit of the doubt here. Give the benefit of the doubt. I want my children

01:05:18.060 to be able to have a lot of self-governance is what i'm saying but not at six four three and one

01:05:23.920 years old that's what we're working towards well right now i know it hurts but if we move from the

01:05:32.220 household example to the citizenship nation example right now our nation is made up of

01:05:37.960 six four three and one year olds that's just where we are

01:05:42.580 i'd like to be a constitutional republic with a lot of self-governance but you need big boys

01:05:49.980 and girls for that to work you need adults we don't have those anymore we just don't we don't

01:05:58.000 i'm not advocating so therefore uh take control and do this or do that no i'm not saying any of

01:06:02.560 that i'm saying pray fast and ask the lord to intervene and i have certain guesses of what

01:06:08.300 that intervention might look like. We can talk about that another time. Now let's go to the

01:06:13.600 church. That's the home. That's the state. The nation as a whole. The church, same thing. Because

01:06:19.580 of the priesthood of all believers, because of everything I theologically labored earlier about

01:06:23.940 the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit, the church actually does. The people have some, some

01:06:29.860 wisdom. Some measure of wisdom. And the church, therefore, the saints, not just elders or deacons,

01:06:35.840 but the saints should be trusted with some decisions.

01:06:39.060 Which ones?

01:06:39.780 The big ones.

01:06:41.220 Ordaining elders, ordaining deacons, removing elders, removing deacons.

01:06:44.780 Also church discipline, that's Matthew 18.

01:06:47.320 Excommunicating a member of the church.

01:06:49.240 I don't think just pastors make that decision.

01:06:51.000 I think the church actually makes that decision.

01:06:54.260 And then guarding the general statement of faith,

01:06:57.580 which will not be specific doctrines, secondary and tertiary,

01:07:00.700 but main and plain primary doctrine, like the Trinity.

01:07:03.660 or the inerrancy of Scripture,

01:07:06.320 authority of Scripture.

01:07:07.660 Those things, I think, belong

01:07:09.000 not just to elders or deacons,

01:07:10.580 but the church, the members.

01:07:12.400 Other than that,

01:07:14.700 elders are in charge.

01:07:17.820 Other than that, 1.00

01:07:19.280 the church is not run by the peanut gallery. 0.99

01:07:24.740 Here's the thing. 0.92

01:07:25.640 We believe,

01:07:26.600 if we believe the Bible,

01:07:27.620 we believe in hierarchy.

01:07:29.520 We believe in hierarchy.

01:07:30.840 We are not egalitarian.

01:07:32.020 we are not all the same equality of outcome is wicked right that's where if somebody's faster

01:07:39.280 than the other guy you shoot that guy in the foot slow him down right you rig you rig the competition

01:07:45.940 to where the outcome is the same but here's the thing we know that's bad right we're like yeah

01:07:49.740 we learned that 2020 you know dei that's bad diversity equity inclusion wokeness we're not

01:07:54.340 well here's all right let's let's graduate now here's another one this might be harder to hear

01:07:58.480 equality of opportunity also doesn't exist not just equality of outcome equality of opportunity

01:08:04.860 doesn't exist michael jordan and joel webbin did not have an equal opportunity to play in the nba

01:08:10.440 did you know that we did not have an equal opportunity it doesn't matter how hard but

01:08:16.440 joel it's just hard work no it's not i'm not saying that mj didn't work hard i know he did

01:08:22.100 I've watched the flu game. God bless him. That guy worked hard. I could work just as hard and I will

01:08:29.020 not get as far. Why? I mean, I think I don't have to explain. I mean, it's visibly apparent the

01:08:36.740 difference between me and Michael Jordan, right? Our height. When I jump, I literally, I lose

01:08:42.880 inches. I feel like I immediately go down. I'm watching my son try to jump into the pool with

01:08:47.700 his floaties. He's one and a half years old. And me and Megan have been laughing about it.

01:08:51.740 His mother and I laughing about it because he jumps and he does not go up. It's just like he

01:08:55.920 just kind of bends his knees and immediately goes down. And we're laughing about it. And I haven't

01:08:59.600 had the heart to tell Megan that I don't think this is a one-year-old thing. I think this is

01:09:03.160 genetic. It will follow him all the days of his life. He got it from his dad. White man can't

01:09:10.240 jump. You know, I don't know what to say. At least this one. I know some that can't, but I cannot 0.92

01:09:14.120 jump my point is equality of outcome that that's marxism that's communism that's socialism that's

01:09:21.540 bad but even equality of opportunity is a myth we don't all have the same opportunity and not

01:09:26.640 just physical prowess i gave that example me and michael jordan but also financially

01:09:30.920 it's not like the monopoly or the game of life where everybody starts with this much money no

01:09:37.260 and it shouldn't be fathers listen to me as fathers say if you work hard and leave your

01:09:42.700 children and your children's children, as Proverbs says, an inheritance, and not just spiritual

01:09:47.080 inheritance, but also monetary inheritance, then your children will start life. They will start

01:09:53.280 life with more money than other people's children. Good. That's how we beat the pagans.

01:10:00.760 Good. It's not supposed to be fair. You worked for it. So it belongs to your posterity and not

01:10:06.480 somebody else's. And that's why, again, back to fathers, that's why it is absolutely a direct

01:10:11.700 rebellion against the fifth commandment to honor your fathers when we open up borders and give what

01:10:16.860 our fathers fought and died for to strangers it's not yours to give away this country is not yours

01:10:23.980 to give away you didn't bleed for it you didn't die for it your fathers did and you know who they

01:10:29.300 did it for they did not do it for strangers they did it we find it in the founders documents the

01:10:34.380 founding documents, it says this. They did it for us and our posterity. They did it for their

01:10:41.500 children and children's children and children. They did it for their great grandkids. And now

01:10:46.840 their great grandkids are spitting in their face and saying, well, I'm going to give it to whoever.

01:10:53.640 Whoever. America can just be an economic zone. It can just be a set of propositions. It can just be

01:10:59.260 an idea. No, no, no. It is people in place. Every country is people in place. It's blood and soil.

01:11:05.900 Every country is. That's what it is. It has boundaries. It has people. It has monuments.

01:11:12.300 It has traditions. It has all these things. And you do it for your children's children.

01:11:18.680 And if you give the children's bread to someone else, a stranger, at the expense or the cost of

01:11:25.400 your children you're a bad dad and you've sinned and if you're a child that is the posterity of

01:11:31.260 great men who've come before you who bled and sweat and died so that you might have something 0.53

01:11:36.080 and you give it away then you've broken the fifth commandment and dishonored your father and mother

01:11:40.880 that's just that's the way the bible works that's the way nations work that's just that's

01:11:48.440 tale as old as time that doesn't mean there can't be some mitigated wise degree of immigration

01:11:54.500 legally of course they can not arguing against that but millions every year and in addition to

01:12:03.100 three million legally another nine million six to seven nine illegally and all that within three

01:12:10.760 maybe three and a half years and that's just what's counted it could be 15 million

01:12:14.520 and then we're thinking yeah we can yeah sure we we can sustain another four years of that no you

01:12:19.880 can't. You're done. The country's over. You're done. Texas will be blue in 2028 by immigration

01:12:28.300 alone. You will never, and without Texas and the electoral college, you will never win another

01:12:32.560 election ever, ever. I understand that abortion has been for many of us and rightfully so the 0.99

01:12:39.440 single issue, single issue voter, because it's, it's the life of human beings made in the image

01:12:45.420 of God. I'm with you. Immigration is a big one, though. It hasn't always been this big. It is

01:12:51.900 massive now. It is massive. And it does entail, right, abortion, sixth commandment, thou shalt

01:12:58.820 not murder. Immigration, fifth commandment, honor thy father and mother. I'm not even saying

01:13:05.140 immigration is more important, but I'm just saying at least put it on your radar. Have abortion right 1.00

01:13:10.320 there fighting for life that is the complete abolishing of abortion the complete abolishing

01:13:16.300 of abortion but also be thinking as best you can a lot of this is matters of conscience because

01:13:21.020 it's it's it's complicated but be thinking okay but also thou shall not murder honor thy father

01:13:29.500 and mother immigration fifth commandment abortion sixth commandment they both matter so all that

01:13:34.700 being said back to elders ruling they rule elders rule that that's clear first sympathy chapter five

01:13:44.660 in the scripture first sympathy chapter five uh the elders who rule well are worthy of double honor

01:13:50.020 in the mind of the apostle paul inspired by the spirit writing to elders leaders in a local church

01:13:56.120 setting he's saying look there a church has elders so number one a plurality we've talked about that

01:14:00.840 before. I won't talk about it again. More than one pastor. And then two, one of the things these

01:14:05.440 pastors do is not just preach and not just pray and not just administer the sacraments, but they

01:14:10.260 also rule. They make decisions for the life of the church. I've already said we are an elder-led

01:14:16.060 congregational church. There are elements of democracy, congregationalism in our church and

01:14:21.260 have already espoused what those things are that the church would vote on. But other than those

01:14:26.060 things, the elders are going to be making decisions. And the reason why is because we believe in

01:14:31.420 hierarchy. Not only is equality of outcome not a thing, equality of opportunity is not a thing.

01:14:36.620 My whole point of bringing all that up was to say this. God has gifted and enabled some men to be

01:14:42.820 wiser than others. And so it is for the good of the whole church that those men who God has equipped

01:14:49.340 and called particularly to have more vested authority than others. That's the way the world

01:14:57.220 works. God uses fathers, right? You don't get together with your kids at the dinner table and

01:15:02.160 say, all right, let's vote. You know, what's going to be the decisions? How's the home going to be

01:15:07.520 ruled? No, you don't do that. And I understand that the membership of a church is not exactly

01:15:12.780 the same as three-year-old children at the dinner table. I'm aware. I'm not saying it's a one-to-one

01:15:17.040 ratio. The saints have the spirit of God, the priesthood of all believers, and therefore have

01:15:22.940 some authority. And as I see it in scripture, that's what's represented in the bylaws. Matthew

01:15:28.000 18, it's not just the pastors making the call, but it's the church. Tell it to the church. And if he

01:15:33.380 does not listen to the church, the impenitent sinner, then the church would hand him over 0.99

01:15:37.560 and treat him as a tax collector or Gentile, an outsider, remove him from the church. So the 0.95

01:15:43.160 church actually has that ecclesiastical keys authority binding and loosing when it comes to

01:15:48.400 excommunication and i also believe with ordination that's in the scripture and it's in the 1689

01:15:54.240 london baptist confession of faith but beyond that i don't see the church having the authority

01:16:01.320 in scripture to rule outside of those things ordination and church discipline outside of that

01:16:08.080 there is hierarchy hierarchy is good the bible affirms it and we should trust the leaders that

01:16:14.680 god has given us unless those leaders have given us a good reason not to the default posture of a

01:16:22.020 good church member back full circle to the beginning of the sermon as you're seeking to

01:16:26.320 teach your own children in the household to honor you as their father one of the ways you can set

01:16:31.180 the example not just instruct tell them what to do but then show them what to do as a good example

01:16:36.260 show them how to honor you as their father by also honoring some of your fathers and the way

01:16:41.760 that you honor your fathers is not by being a yes man when your spiritual fathers are walking off a

01:16:47.120 cliff not saying that there is a time to speak up but if your spiritual fathers if the the civil

01:16:54.980 fathers or in the church realm ecclesiastical fathers have not given a legitimate reason for

01:16:59.980 distrust, then the default posture of a good churchman, a good church member, should be a

01:17:05.620 posture of trust and not suspicion. All right, last one, last duty. Ministry of shepherding. This is

01:17:13.200 what people think, back to the text that we read at the very beginning, 1 Peter 5, 1-4, shepherd

01:17:18.080 the flock of God. People, I've already said this, but I'm going to say it one more time. When people

01:17:21.740 think shepherding, they think interpersonal, one-on-one pastoral counseling. And if we could

01:17:27.560 play myth busters theological myth busters today that's one of the myths that i would like to bust

01:17:32.120 shepherding is the whole enchilada and counseling is one of the many facets of shepherding so let

01:17:40.180 me just read what i wrote i think it'll make sense elders have a ministry of the word um and that's

01:17:45.760 through preaching prayer ruling uh administering the sacraments and then lastly shepherding all

01:17:52.260 elders must serve the members of the congregation by faithfully shepherding the flock which mandates

01:17:57.220 prayer, public preaching, teaching, and oversight. Ordinarily, faithful shepherding of the flock 1.00

01:18:03.140 will also include the regular and rightful administration of the ordinances, and when

01:18:07.840 necessary, faithful shepherding of the flock may also include pastoral counsel, primarily in the

01:18:14.220 areas of discipline, doctrine, conducting membership entrance and exit interviews, training and equipping

01:18:20.080 leaders, and officiating weddings and funerals. Other forms of counsel that are common in the life

01:18:25.700 of the church may include premarital counseling, marriage counseling, financial counseling,

01:18:30.480 relational mediation, conflict resolution, etc. These forms of counsel may be performed by an

01:18:37.680 elder. He can do it, sometimes will do it, but do not always, and certainly not from the scripture,

01:18:43.320 mandate the wisdom and doctrinal insight of an elder, and therefore often will be performed by

01:18:49.820 the deacons of a church, or for that matter, any other mature member of the church. So here's the

01:18:55.680 deal. Ephesians 4, train, equip, leaders, training, equip the saints for the work of ministry. Saints

01:19:01.100 are doing the work of ministry, but that's Ephesians 4. 1 Peter 5 says, elders, no, don't

01:19:07.020 domineer, but set an example. I can't set an example if I don't also do the work. So elders

01:19:12.740 are to do the work in the sense that we're setting an example, the work of ministry. But we're also

01:19:17.900 called to train and equip so that the saints would also do the work of ministry, so that the work of

01:19:23.220 ministry whatever that looks like on a day-to-day basis would not be exclusively done by the elders

01:19:29.260 or pastors of the church but the church would serve the church the church would serve the church

01:19:34.160 so elders will shepherd we will shepherd but we will not always or exclusively shepherd through

01:19:41.280 counseling counseling here's my point most people in the church today think shepherding equals

01:19:47.580 counseling what i'm trying to say is shepherding includes counseling say it again shepherding does

01:19:52.860 not equal counseling. Shepherding includes counseling, among many other things. I am,

01:19:58.520 whether you like it or not, I am shepherding you right now. When a pastor preaches the word,

01:20:05.000 that is shepherding. So when Peter says in 1 Peter 5, shepherd the flock of God among you.

01:20:11.380 If Peter was standing here right now and I was to ask, hey, Peter, does that include preaching

01:20:15.520 expositionally through the word of God, faithfully to the people of God? What do you think Peter

01:20:19.720 would say? You think you say, no, that's separate. That's preaching. That has nothing to do with

01:20:24.100 shepherding. Shepherding means personal counsel. How often that pastor answers the phone. If he

01:20:29.860 answers the phone, always he's a good shepherd. If he answers the phone, sometimes he's a bad

01:20:34.440 shepherd. That is not what Peter's talking about. That's what you want Peter to talk about. It's not

01:20:39.800 what he's talking about. What he's talking about when he says shepherd, he's talking about all the

01:20:44.460 different avenues and all the tools that the Lord has given to shepherds to use. Preaching, public

01:20:50.800 preaching, public praying, administering the sacraments, ruling, making decisions when you're

01:20:56.460 not even there, but the elders who are talking and determining what is good for the life and the

01:21:01.100 future of the church. Ruling, let the elders who rule well be worthy of double honor, 1 Timothy 5.

01:21:06.320 So it's ruling, it's administering, it's preaching, it's praying, and it's shepherding as

01:21:12.260 counseling. Elders are called to do that too. If they're not doing it at all, that's a problem.

01:21:17.280 If they're the only people in the church doing it, that's also a problem in the other direction.

01:21:22.080 All right. We could do elders forever. And I never even got to the duties of deacons,

01:21:26.640 which is a bummer because we're going to ordain deacons. But we've talked about it some. We talked

01:21:31.920 about it three weeks ago, and I could talk about it more in the future. But let's go ahead and pray.

01:21:35.740 The kids are just incredible because I know that this was not fair. I went way too long.

01:21:41.020 And usually one of the things that makes me stop

01:21:43.480 is that the kids kind of just, you know,

01:21:45.580 in their loving kid-like way,

01:21:48.020 they'd say, Pastor Joel, you're done.

01:21:49.680 And they usually do it by saying, ah, you know.

01:21:52.200 And they just, but if the kids are well-behaved,

01:21:54.440 it makes me feel like I could go longer.

01:21:55.960 And that's not fair.

01:21:57.420 Fathers, speaking of fathers,

01:21:58.500 do not exasperate children.

01:22:00.440 So my bad.

01:22:01.100 Thank you, kids, for your patience

01:22:02.140 and good behavior today.

01:22:03.280 You did a great job.

01:22:04.420 All right, let's pray.

01:22:05.020 Father, thank you for your word.

01:22:06.020 Bless it to your people for your glory.

01:22:08.040 In Jesus' name, we pray.

01:22:09.760 All right, we're going to worship

01:22:10.440 the Lord through song. Go ahead and stand.

The NXR Podcast - June 17, 2024

THE SERMON - Elders ｜ What Does A Pastor Do？

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