Should You Love The Church? (part 8)

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The Man Christ Jesus (part 9)

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Father in Heaven, we thank you this morning. Thank you that we could be gathered together here to just reflect on all that you have done, all that you will do in our lives.
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And Father, even as we study the church, just pray that this time would be a blessing to those who are here.
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Father, and a challenge to us as we think about how we ought to think about the church, how we ought to love the church.
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And Father, would you bless each one here, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, after a brief interlude of about six months, we met last week and we talked about, well, we had a little quiz.
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And because I just basically wanted to refresh us on where we were in talking about the question of, should you love the church?
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And I think the answer to that is clear. Yes, you should. Because if Jesus loves the church, you should love the church.
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And we've been going through the nine marks of a church written by Mark Dever, nine marks of a biblical church.
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And we come to the ninth mark. And I began that some months ago. But so we'll just briefly kind of catch up to where we are here.
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I want to turn to First Timothy, chapter three. First Timothy, chapter three.
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And I'll begin by reading the first 10 verses. The saying is trustworthy.
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If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, uncontentious, free from the love of money.
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He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity.
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But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?
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And not a new convert, lest he become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
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And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he may not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
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Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double tongued or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
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And let those also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach.
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So there we see kind of the categories of elder and deacon, the qualifications for each.
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I like what Samuel Davies says about desire.
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He talks about the strong emphasis, but in the second part of his quote here, he says,
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I now have nothing to do with those unhappy creatures who desire and catch at the sacred office.
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They reach for it as a post of honor, profit or ease as the last shift for a livelihood when other expedients have failed.
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It just reminds me of the movie. I don't know how many of you've seen it, Sense and Sensibility. And the lead character,
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I can't even remember the actor, the guy who stutters all the time, Hugh Grant.
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And basically, you know, his last option is the ministry and because it's going to be a pretty easy life and he's going to be able to afford a wife and such.
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So that would be the opposite of what an elder is or what it ought to be.
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Strock says of elders, such qualifications, when he's talking about teaching, he says, are not required of all teachers or evangelists.
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One may be gifted as an evangelist and used of God in this capacity, yet be unqualified as an elder, which is a good point.
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Why do you suppose that there's such a high bar? I mean, when we read the qualifications for an elder in verses 1 to 7, that's a pretty high bar.
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Why do you suppose it is so high? Bob. They should be examples of the flock, spiritual examples.
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That's right. Anyone else? John. Okay. Not everybody's able.
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That's right. Anyone else? Yes. The influence they have.
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Excellent. Charlie. Which is an excellent, excellent point, because if we think of elders as shepherds, those words are used together.
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In fact, Peter says that the elders should, what, shepherd the flock. Well, what does a shepherd do?
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If the picture of the church is a bunch of sheep, then shepherds protect the sheep. So you have to have someone who is able to do that.
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Excellent. Good points. Now I want to get to the issue of where we're going.
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You know, he says, not a new convert, because he doesn't want them to become conceited.
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Well, what happens, I mean, what is the problem with a new convert? Why should a new convert not be an elder?
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Other than what it says there, you know, that there's a danger of them becoming conceited. Pretty, I think that's a big one.
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They're probably immature. Elder, you know, doesn't always mean old. You don't have to be as old as me, necessarily.
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You can be a young man like Pradeep, still be an elder. That's not the issue, but there is with age, typically, not always.
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I think some of us will be immature into our 80s, should we live that long. But there should be at least a spiritual maturity, and there's certainly, what, life experience that goes with it.
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I mean, I think back, even if I was, I may have been, I may have had more
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IQ when I was younger, but it was a dumb IQ. You know what I mean?
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There are young people who have a lot of intelligence and not a lick of common sense. And as we get older, Lord willing, as we learn more, as we see more of the folly of thinking that we know everything, and as we actually learn that what we knew we didn't know, then there ought to be more wisdom.
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And if you're a new convert, there is the issue of becoming conceited, thinking that you're better than you are.
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But I also think it's important to think about the issue of age, but that's not a disqualifier.
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Let's look at 1 Timothy 4 .12. You know, when we talk about, do the elders have to be a certain age?
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Well, not necessarily, because even though I think, and I forget exactly how old
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Timothy was, but he was considered young culturally. I think he was in his 30s. I think that's fair to say.
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And there was the issue of, you know, was he old enough to be a pastor? Which I think is kind of funny.
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But was he old enough? And look at 1 Timothy 4 .12. In fact, would somebody read that, please? 1 Timothy 4 .12.
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Bruce. Okay.
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So again, this idea of him being young and that culture would value age.
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And he says, Paul writes to him and says, look, don't let anybody discount you, ignore you, despise you because of your age.
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But he says that Timothy, as we said earlier, should be a good example.
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How? In the way he lives his life, in the way he speaks, in the way he loves, shows affection and faith and purity.
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Oh yeah, I have it here. He was probably in his mid to late 30s. I knew that. I knew that was coming from somewhere. I don't know where. It was in my notes.
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But that would be considered young. They valued gray hair. How different is that for now, right? The older you get, the more likely you are to not be considered worthy of listening to,
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I think, in our culture today. Young is the main, I mean, things are upside down right now in that regard.
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But the church at Ephesus had problems. They had false teachers. There might have even been women who were teaching.
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We'd see that in 1 Timothy 2, at least the hint of it. And so what was Timothy supposed to do?
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Well, he's supposed to be an example, right? But let's just put in this a bigger context here, back up to verse 7 of chapter 4.
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And let me start there. Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths.
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Rather, train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, it's good to get out and walk, to go to the gym, to go for a run if you can.
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I wrote to somebody on Facebook, an unbelieving friend, I said, I'd like to go running with you, but I'll need bionic knees. Bodily training is of some value.
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Godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life. In other words, it has an impact now and for the life to come.
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I mean, you could train all you want in this life, and it's going to have how much impact in the life to come? Zero. But it has some impact now.
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The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end, we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living
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God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. And listen, here's the key.
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Command and teach these things. Don't suggest these things, don't sort of throw them out and see who will accept them, but command and teach these things.
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Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity.
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Until I come, that is until Paul comes, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture.
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You want to know why we read scripture in service? It's right there. To exhortation and to teaching, that is to public and private exhortation of scripture.
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And then verse 14, do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
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Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.
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Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
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This is the essence of pastoral ministry, is to proclaim the word, but it's also to be focused, to be immersed in these things in private.
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And this is the nature of what elders are to be doing. Now, again, the problem
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Timothy was going to be facing at Ephesus was people were going to want to discount what he said.
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They were going to, it said they're despised, to look down on someone or something with contempt or aversion, with the implication that one considers the object of little value.
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Look down on, scorn, treat with contempt. So when he would go into,
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I'll just call it the pulpit. But when he would begin to preach, he had, there were some people who were going to be antagonistic.
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You know, who is this whippersnapper who's getting up to preach? Let's talk a little bit more about the qualifications for elders.
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First Timothy chapter three, and then Titus chapter one, verses six to nine.
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Now listen to these qualifications. Both of them have above reproach, meaning that accusations can come, but they ultimately don't stick.
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Both of them have husband of one wife. Well, what does that mean? It means he has to be a one woman man.
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His affections are set solely on his wife if he's married. First Timothy three says temperance.
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Titus one says having children who believe. We talked about that months ago in the most controversial
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Sunday school ever taught here at Bethlehem Bible Church. Thank you. Thank you very much.
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He must be prudent, not self -willed, respectable, not quick tempered. All these things kind of fit together.
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Hospitable, not addicted to wine. You ever known anybody who was hospitable and yet like to tip a lot?
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I mean, what happens? I mean, there are, there are friendly drunks, but there are a lot of drunks who are obnoxious. I was telling the story, just as an aside, tell a story about the first drunk driver
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I ever arrested. We followed him out of the, as he got into the, his car outside of the bar and he started driving up a fairly steep hill when we stopped him because he was weaving all over the road.
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And I walked up and I could see that, you know, his eyes were glazed over and alcohol was like hit me.
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I was almost drunk from just breathing what he was breathing out. And, uh,
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I made the nearly fatal mistake of asking him to step out of the car because he got out of the car.
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And if I hadn't been ready, he would have just fallen down and rolled down the hill. I mean, it was that bad. And my partner said, he said, uh, well, it's obvious why he had to drive home.
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He was too drunk to walk. People have no sense whatsoever.
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But anyway, I digress. Uh, not addicted to wine. It should not be like that.
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Uh, able to teach now really. I don't like that because it's, it's not just, you know,
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I can fill in, in a pinch. I don't mean me. I just mean as an elder should really be skilled, able to handle the word, able to handle tough questions that come from the audience, those kinds of things.
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Not pugnacious means he's not spoiling for a fight. Gentle. In fact, um, you know,
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I think of second Timothy, let's just look at that. Cause I think that's just such a great illustration of several things. Let's look at,
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I think it's second Timothy chapter two. And again, when we think of first Timothy, second
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Timothy, Titus, those are letters written to men on how they ought to pastor a church.
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Now listen to a second Timothy chapter chapter two, verse 24 and following.
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And the Lord's servants must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness, gentleness.
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God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do as well.
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Now at the risk of sounding like I'm committing myself, I just, I had just really a great time the last few days on Facebook sin book, but I posted, uh,
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I posted something in, you know, upon reflection, I wish I'd changed what I said there because I said, uh,
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I don't remember what I said in my thing, but I wish I just asked this question. Is the Pope Catholic? And then answered it and said, no, you know, because that's a standard joke, right?
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Is the Pope Catholic and you know, of course he is. Well, he's not Catholic anymore because he said what this week, did anybody see what he said?
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Unbelievers can go to heaven. So, you know, is the Pope Catholic? No. I mean, he's denying all these centuries of Catholic teaching.
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Now you, you don't even have to believe in God to go to heaven. You know, all roads go to heaven, I guess, but somewhere after, you know, the initial comments and everything like that, one of my cousins who happens to be
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Mormon made a comment. He goes, you know, I hope I don't take this too far off track.
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And then he started talking about Mormonism. And so we had a little interaction back and forth.
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And then I just thought, okay, I'm not going to blast him because I know what second Timothy chapter two says, but I'm going to basically employ what
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I believe, which is presuppositional apologetics. He says over and over again that I think
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I feel, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I, right?
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Because he is the person here who's been captured by Satan to do his will. And I'm like, well, okay, I'm going to proclaim the truth to him.
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And I'm going to say to him, what you believe is subjective as indicated by your own language. And this is a super smart guy.
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I mean, his dad, my uncle is a, not a figurative genius. He's a literal genius.
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I mean, super smart. And my cousin is no dummy either. And I said, look, you're an intelligent guy, but those are your opinions.
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They're entirely subjective. Let me tell you objectively, objective truth, which is scripture, what the
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Bible says. And I, you know, I even asked him a few questions to kind of, which he didn't respond to, but here, here's one just for fun.
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If you have any Mormon friends, try this one out. Uh, how many temple marriages are there recorded in the
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Bible? How many, anybody know the answer to that?
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What was that? I heard an answer over here. Zero is correct. Now here's another tricky question, which you probably don't know.
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How many temple marriages are recorded in the book of Mormon? Zero. So, you know, just like, okay, it's so central and so key to be married in the temple.
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And yet the two books that you basically claim to believe in, neither one of them talked about it.
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So I just went on and I talked to, I said, there's no evidence that there was ever a wedding in the temple.
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In fact, that would be contrary to what we know about the design of the temple and everything else. I said, and he cited a first Corinthians 1529 and said, you know, we're supposed to baptize for the dead.
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And I said, look, that's a strained understanding of first Corinthians 1529. But here's what we know.
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There's no evidence that there was ever a baptism in the temple. There's no baptismal fonts in the temple.
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And by the way, there are no other temples built anywhere. There's one temple in one place, and that's the only temple there can ever be.
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So, I mean, all these things are contra the Bible or, you know, all his beliefs are contra the
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Bible. But what I'm doing over and over again, besides just asking hard questions, is pointing him to the truth of scripture, pointing him to the fact that he needs to believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ and be saved, not kind of subjectively, but believe the objective truth as presented in scripture.
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And really it's a work of the spirit. And that's what I want. I want him to. And I kept saying, you know what, you need to read the
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Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible. How do people get saved? It's the Bible. But, you know, we'll see.
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But what I don't want to do is just become argumentative and kind of, you know, get down in the mud and wrestle with him.
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I could come up with all kinds of, you know, issues concerning Joseph Smith.
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But what happens then? He was going after the
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Bible. He says, you know, basically it's edited by men and all these kind of things. And I'm like, well, I believe it depends on the
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God you believe in. If you believe in a God who spoke and the universe leapt into existence, then is it so hard to believe that the
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God who's able to do that and who says my name, according to the ESV, I think, my name, that is to say in the
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Hebrew understanding of things, my entire being is equal with my word.
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Okay. Is it hard to believe that a God who says my being and my word are equivalent would be able to preserve his word, would want to preserve his word, is able to stop men from corrupting it?
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I don't think that's hard to believe. And so what we want to do is we want to be able to present those things.
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And so I don't want to be pugnacious. I don't want to be argumentative, but I need to declare the truth.
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And I need to do that in a way that is not contentious. It's gentle. And I want to do all those things.
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But it's interesting here, again, getting back to this, and I have this table of these elder qualifications.
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If we look at Titus, we see not fond of sorted gain. And if we look back at first Timothy chapter three, it says free from the love of money.
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Is it wrong to have money? No, it's just wrong to be consumed by it.
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Now I want to do a focus on this idea of elder rule for a moment.
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Why not congregational rule? I think I might have even said last week, why not congregational rule?
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I just don't think that we'll find an example. You know, even thinking back, we read Hebrews 13, 17 last week.
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Let's just read that now. Hebrews 13, 17. When somebody has that, would they read it, please?
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Hebrews 13, 17, because I'm going to focus on a different part of the verse here this morning for just a minute.
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Now, it's interesting. I think I'm on fairly firm ground if I say there is no verse in the
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New Testament that will say anything like the congregation needs to be careful in their decision making because they will give an account.
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Think about that. The leaders, the elders are going to have to give an account before the
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Lord for their stewardship. Now, you're going to, everybody's going to have to give an accounting for the stewardship of their own life and husbands for the stewardship of their own home, their own families.
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But who's going to give an account for what goes on within the local church? It's the elders.
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It's the elders. Let's go back to 1 Timothy 3 and listen to verses 4 and 5 again.
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He must be one talking about an elder who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity.
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But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?
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Now, listen, this word manage is to exercise a position of leadership.
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So husbands, fathers are the heads or leaders of their homes, and it means to take care of, to look after, to have charge of.
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Here's the picture. If someone doesn't run their household well, in other words, if they're married and their house is chaos, the bank wolves are growling at the door, they're coming after him because he can't run his finances well, and there are other issues within the home, then you say, okay, that's the guy, the guy who can't control his own household, the guy who can't run his business well, the guy who can't run his finances well, this is the guy that we're going to put in charge of the church.
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That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make any sense at all. You want somebody who does that.
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I mean, you have to be skilled to teach. These are all true. You have to know the word. That's all true. But you have to run your household well.
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You have to manage it well. You have to be a good leader within your household. Let's put it this way.
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Would you take somebody who, you get their resume and it says, ran the
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French fry department of McDonald's for six months.
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Would you go, hey, you did such a great job at running the French fries. I want to make you
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CEO of Microsoft. That'd be crazy.
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You want somebody who's a proven manager who's already shown that they know how to be faithful in smaller things before you give them greater responsibility.
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If they can't, if they're not going to be able on judgment day to say, you know, if the Lord's not going to say, you know what, you did a good job of running your home.
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Then why would you put them in charge of a bigger home, which is what the church is right. In, in one sense it is, we're a family.
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There needs to be spiritual maturity and proven managers who are in charge of it.
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Why would you hire someone in essence? Why would you make someone an elder who can't prove faithful in the smaller things and give him a greater responsibility?
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Any questions or comments? Okay. Uh, first Timothy five 17.
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Again, it says, let the elders who rule well, that idea of rule or the definition of that word is to direct, to be at the head of, manage, care for, apply oneself to that word occurs eight times in the new
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Testament. And there are six of them in the pastoral epistles. Why is that?
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Because this idea, again, you're writing to Titus and Timothy and you want you being
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Paul. You want to tell them how to run a church, the household of God, then you're going to use this word, rule direct, be the head of managed care for first Peter chapter five versus one to three.
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I'm not going to read all that, but familiar versus he says, Peter writing to these fellow elders, he says, exercising oversight.
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Well, they're not to do it in a domineering way. Well, what does that mean? It means that they're not elders are not supposed to subjugate or Lord their authority over you, but there to be examples of godliness.
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It doesn't mean that they don't have authority. It just means they shouldn't Lord over you. Well, what does that mean? I like to say it this way.
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If the Bible doesn't say X, Y, or Z, then I don't have authority to tell you X, Y, or Z.
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Where does my authority end? When the scripture ends. Now, is it possible that I could suggest to you something that the
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Bible doesn't say? Notice that word very carefully suggest to you. Yes, but I should probably preface it with something like,
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I don't have a verse for this. This is just my opinion. This is the wisdom such as it is.
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I have, and based on, you know, 53 years on this earth, these are the things that I've observed during the course of my life, but I can't say, you know, you must do
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X, Y, or Z. If I don't have a verse to back it up, I don't know why I'm picking on X, Y, or Z, but there you have it back to a first Peter chapter five again.
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Shepherd, that idea of shepherding the flock of God. Listen to this.
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Freiberg says it literally means one who takes care of a group of animals, especially shepherding a flock and feeding, pasturing them.
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That's a great picture, isn't it? Not because that would imply the church members and animals, but because it just, it shows the level of care that the elders, the pastors should have.
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Now he says, he goes on to say that it really has to do with the administrative and protective activity in relation to a community of believers.
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What does that mean? That means that their elders are to care for, to guide, to look after the flock.
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But you know, aren't shepherds supposed to be gentle? What's with all this ruling stuff? Well, isn't
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Jesus gentle? And yet, what does it say, the scripture say of him in Revelation 2, 27, he will rule them with a rod of iron.
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Talking about the nations. Same verb. So they're to shepherd, we're to shepherd the flock.
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We're to do it kindly. We're not to dominate, not to subjugate, but it's because we care for the flock of God.
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And again, back to Hebrews 13, 17. Obey your leaders. Just listen to the language.
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Submit to them. That is not a great word these days. Raise your hand if you'd like to submit.
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John Christoforo. Let's hear it for John. You know, when you submit in wrestling or I guess, mixed martial arts, you know, you submit, it means
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I surrender. I say, uncle, you know, you're about to break my arm. I give up. When you submit to your elders, it's not with the idea that they're going to break your arm, but what is it with?
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It's an idea that again, Hebrews 13, 17, you understand that they're responsible before the
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Lord. You say, you know what? I may not always agree with what they do, but I'm going to submit husbands, wives, wives are to submit to their own husbands.
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Does that mean that they always agree with their husbands in my house?
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It does know us submission. It does not mean agreements.
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We need to get that thought out of our heads. Submission is,
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I don't necessarily agree with everything, but I'm going to submit a wife says to herself, you know what?
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I don't agree with this decision. My husband's making, but I'm going to anyway.
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Why? Because it glorifies God. It glorifies
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God. Now, when a member of a church says, I don't necessarily agree with what the elders are doing here, but is this a biblical issue?
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Do I think that they are violating scripture? That should be the threshold. Is this a preference issue or is this a scriptural issue?
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If it's a scriptural issue, should you just say, well, you know what? They're violating the Bible, but I just, I'm going to submit.
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No, may I just say, no. What should you do? I'll tell you the right thing to do is after a
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Sunday morning thing and you disagree with the elders, then you should just start a little conversation with all your fellow people.
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No, that's not right. What you do is if you think the elders here are in violation of the
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Bible, then you need to talk to one of the elders. And say, look, I have a question about this.
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It seems to me like the scripture says this, and yet you guys are doing that. Can you explain that to me?
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But if it's not a biblical issue, just like my authority ends, you know what? I want to keep wanting to say at the, you know, the water's edge.
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I don't know why. But my authority ends where the scripture ends because I have no authority other than what the
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Bible says. I would like to say that your capacity for refusing to submit that this would be the right way to look at it is where the scripture ends.
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If you don't have a verse, then you either need to say to yourself, I'm not thinking rightly.
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I mean, imagine your wife, if you're married and you're a husband or for you ladies, just imagine being able to say to yourself, well, you know what?
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There's no biblical reason for me to fail to submit to my husband. I just don't want to do it. Therefore, I'm not going to do it.
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What does that sound like? It sounds like sin to me.
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I know what the Bible says. The Bible says I need to submit to my leaders, but I really don't want to.
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Therefore, I'm not going to. God said
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I shouldn't partake of that tree, but I really want to. Therefore, I'm going to.
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I don't want to believe what God says. I want to believe what I want to believe. I can't tell you that you have to obey.
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I can just tell you what the Bible says. It says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.
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Listen to what Lenski says about keeping watch. This is so good.
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I mean, I think of my dogs, and it's a really bad example because they're not really good guard dogs.
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But listen to what Lenski says. Those who are called to watch are to give the alarm at the approach of danger.
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They are to give it early enough so that those who are watched over the flock may meet the danger or may escape it.
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When an appointed watchman proves a dumb dog, calamity results. And just by way of illustration, when
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I was in the army, I probably said this years ago, but it doesn't matter. It's a good story because it's true.
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We were on a readiness exercise, which means that they're testing us. They're our evaluators.
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And we had to dig these foxholes, and we had our tents like right behind our foxholes.
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And we were on what's called 50 % watch, which means, guess what?
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One out of two needs to be awake. 50%, right? So it's my turn to be on guard.
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My little foxhole partner is asleep inside the tent. Somebody comes from inside our perimeter, okay?
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I can hear the voice, and they come from inside the perimeter, really behind the tent, and they gave the appropriate password.
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But there was just something wrong. I don't even remember what I was thinking at the time. I mean, hey, come on. It was a long time ago, 30 -plus years ago.
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But I'll just never forget thinking there's something wrong here. I'm going to move, leave this side of the foxhole and come over to this side of the foxhole.
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So that voice comes around, and it's completely black. I mean, we're out in the middle of nowhere. And he comes around the corner, and he shines his spotlight or his flashlight exactly where I was.
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And he says, bang, you're dead. And I put my rifle in his face, and I said, no, you're dead.
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And he goes, congratulations. He says, out of your entire company, he says, there were two people awake, and you were one of them.
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And I said, let me guess. The other was Albert Reynolds. And he goes, yeah, how did you know? I said, well, that's my roommate, and he went to sleep.
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The picture of a shepherd keeping watch is somebody who's awake, somebody who hears that voice from inside the camp and knows it's not right and warns the flock, because they're watching out for your souls.
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The people who are asleep, they're not shepherds. They're not shepherds.
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The people who aren't ready, willing, and able to be discerning, they're not spiritually capable of telling you truth and error, of separating the two, they're not shepherds.
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The people who say doctrine doesn't matter, they're not shepherds. You need shepherds who are going to protect the flock, who are going to be on the alert, keeping watch.
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Listen to what Lenski goes on to say. He says, woe to the people whose leaders are blind watchers, unable to distinguish foe from friend or to recognize danger before it is too late.
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Watching means warning, warning as early a time as possible, as early a time as possible.
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And the warning must be heeded. Otherwise, why have watchmen? The watchmen are to keep the flock safe.
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And he says, he goes on talking about the same verse here, because we look at, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
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It gives you the purpose. These leaders are defined followers, their followers, obedient and yielding, submissive so that they may do the work and bear their responsibility with joy and not with groaning.
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Why, why, I'll just use I, you know, why am I awake on the perimeter if nobody on the interior cares or if everybody thinks, you know, well, why don't you just sleep or what's the big deal?
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The idea is there's supposed to be thankfulness and I'll never forget, just to finish this army story.
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It was a sergeant who came around the perimeter there and he said, well, he goes, now
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I'm going to go wake up your lieutenant. And he went into the camp and we could hear the lieutenant.
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He was not very happy because he woke him up with a, you know, nice little bang, you're dead.
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And lieutenant didn't like that very much. Kistemacher says this, talking about Hebrews 13, he says, a lack of obedience prevailed among some of the readers.
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In other words, the, the readers of this letter of Hebrews. Note, for example, the author's admonition not to be carried away with all kinds of strange teaching in 13 verse nine, the leaders needed help and encouragement.
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Thus the appeal to obey them and to submit to their authority is timely. Of course, the readers could question whether this authority was self -imposed by the leaders or delegated to them by Christ.
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If a leader is a dedicated minister of the word of God, he proves thereby that Christ has given him authority.
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Why? Because we don't go outside the bounds of scripture. And if crisis entrusted him with the task of assuming leadership, the people need not question his authority.
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Again, I think it's fine if we're not staying within those boundaries to raise questions to come to us.
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I think those things are all good, but there needs to be submission to the leadership that the
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Lord has appointed. Questions about elders, deacons, any of that stuff before we wrap up here.
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Final kind of summary here. Are you under obligation to love the church?
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Yes. So when I started this whole thing, I mentioned Matthew 16, 18, and I even use this in my note to my cousin.
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Here's one of the great fallacies, and I'm giving you way too much information about Mormonism today, but the
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Lord says what Matthew 16, 18, upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell, the gates of Hades, the gates of death will not be defeated.
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In other words, nothing's going to stop it. And yet the Mormon church says that within, let's say,
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John wrote it late, probably within about 10 years of John writing that gospel,
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I'm sorry, Matthew. So it'd be five decades of Matthew writing that gospel, that the truth basically stopped being taught, that it disappeared from the face of the earth.
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And it was gone for 1700 plus years. So Jesus said,
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I'm going to build my church. The Mormons say he took 1700 years off. I'll leave it for you to decide who's telling the truth.
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So back to this, should you love the church? Yes. Listen to Ephesians chapter five, verse 25.
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Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
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Did he give himself up for the church universal? Yes. Did he give himself up for the church, the local church?
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The answer is yes. Does he work through the local church? Does he appoint leaders in the local church?
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Yes. Is he going to, in essence, judge the leaders of the local church on their faithfulness?
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Yes. Should you love the local church? Yes. I mean, this is more than a place where we meet on Sunday, you know, and participate in 45 minutes of religion.
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I hope nobody does that. We're to love the brethren.
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We're to love the fellowshipping of the saints. That's why we gather together. It's one of the reasons why we gather together.
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We gather together to worship God. Yes. To have fellowship with the saints. Yes. To practice one another.
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Yes. And if you say the only reason I'm here is because I need to be here on Sunday, then you're not thinking rightly.
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You need to love the church. You need to love the people here. You need to find ways to serve them, to be among them.
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That's what James Montgomery Boyce said. He said the full measure of Christ's love for the church was his dying for her.
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We're told, and I think this is just a very poignant example, we're told in one of the
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Greek histories that the wife of one of the generals of Cyrus, the ruler of Persia, was accused of treachery and was condemned to die.
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At first, her husband did not know what was taking place. But as soon as he heard about it, he rushed into the palace and burst into the throne room.
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He threw himself on the floor before the king and cried out, Oh, my Lord Cyrus, take my life instead of hers.
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Let me die in her place. Cyrus, who by all historical accounts was a noble and extremely sensitive man, was touched by this offer.
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He said, love like this must not be spoiled by death. Then he gave the husband and wife back to each other and let the wife go free.
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As they walked away happily, the husband said to the wife, did you notice how kindly the king looked at us when he gave you the pardon?
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The wife replied, I had no eyes for the king. I only saw the man who was willing to die in my place.
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What I want us to see is if you say, I love Bethlehem Bible Church, this is the place where I'm going to worship.
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It's not a question of, I agree with Pastor Mike all the time. I think
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Pastor Mike is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think Pradeep is just better than sliced cheese.
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I think Steve is like sliced roast beef.
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I don't know why I'm talking about food. Here's the point. Don't confuse, do not confuse the elders with the local church and say, well, okay,
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I love the people in the church, but the elders I'm not too crazy about. That is never the issue.
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It's not the issue at all. It's not, it's not personal love and affection.
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It's thinking, this is Christ church. This is where he's called me. These are the people that are more dear to me than my own physical family.
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I want to serve these people. I want to be among these people. I am determined to love the people of Bethlehem Bible church.
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And in that respect, because I love the people here so much. And I understand that the
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Lord says I need to submit to the leaders because they're the ones who are watching over my soul.
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And they're the ones who are going to even give an account to the Lord. Then I can submit to them.
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Not because they're perfect because they're not, I speak for myself. I'm not, but because this is what the
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Lord has called us to, to fellowship, to love, and ultimately to submission. Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, Lord, we're just so blessed to have your word, to be able to gather here and to listen to what the men you inspired to write wrote.
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Father, I pray that there would be an increasing sense of love. If Jesus said the world will know us by the love that we have for one another.
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Then father, I pray that you would give us an increasing sense of love and commitment to one another.
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Father, I pray that you would grow us in every sense in our desire to serve one another, to be faithful to one another, and to just as each day goes forward to love one another and father to do so to your glory.
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And because your son loved us all enough to die for us.