Pastors Must Guard the Gospel

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle

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Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth.

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I'm your host. It is September 2011, and it is great to be back on the air.

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I guess I say that every day, or maybe I don't. Just a couple of things I want to remind the listeners of, especially if you're in the

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Massachusetts, Central Mass, New England area, there's going to be a big conference here held by Wretched Radio and Wretched TV.

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Host Todd Friel. It's called the Psalm 119 Conference, a .k

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.a. the Wretched Radio Conference. September 23rd and 24th, right here at Bethlehem Bible Church, and we are going to have featured speakers,

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Todd Friel, R .W. Glenn. I think Todd calls him Mr. Smarty Pants. Tim Challies, Trevor Wax, and then they had to really dig deeply into the bench.

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They had to go way down on the bench for some bench, you know, coming off the bench to show that God can work through weak people.

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Mike Abendroth will also be speaking at the conference. You want to go to wretchedradio .com.

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I don't know if it's .com or .org. Try either one, Wretched Radio, and enter, register.

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It's through Wretched Radio. It's not through Bethlehem Bible Church, so bbcchurch .org isn't going to help you.

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So Wretched Radio Conference, Psalm 119 on discernment, and that will be

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September 23rd, September 24th. Teaching sessions from one in the afternoon on Friday through 8 .30

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on Friday night, and then from 9 a .m. till 4 .30 on Saturday, September 24th.

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Teaching galore, and we have a full slate of teaching, and I like the

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Wretched Radio Conferences because it's just teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching, so that's coming up. You don't want to miss that.

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The second announcement I have before we get into our show today is that we have a new book out.

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I have a new book out, and it's my second book published by Day One, and you can go to our website and order it, and it is called

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The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus, Bowing to the

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Gracious Despot. Bowing to the Gracious Despot, and I put that, it's just at Christian Discount Books now.

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It's at Amazon, and I don't know who else is carrying it, but if you want to get the book, you could go to our website, nocompromisedradio .com.

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I believe it's $10 plus shippings included if you want to order, or you can order online.

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I think it's $11 through Amazon, and you'll have to pay shipping. $16 list, it's about 250 pages.

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Smaller print, and here's the scoop. If you understand what kings were like back in the Old Testament, New Testament era, since Jesus is called a king, this would be valuable information for you to understand and relate to Jesus as king.

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So, King Jesus, Bowing to the Gracious Despot. That's my new book on day one.

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I've got a couple other books that I'm shopping around to some publishers now, but this one's out now.

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September 2011, The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. I had

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Steve Lawson write the introduction, and maybe we'll do a show on the book. I could either interview myself, which would either really be interesting, or it'd look really stupid, or I'll have

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Tuesday guy Steve interview me, and you can pick this up. Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus, Bowing to the

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Gracious Despot. If you like No Compromise Radio, I guess you'll probably like the book.

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Maybe you should buy the book for your pastor, Sunday school teacher. I don't know who you want to buy it for. Well, today's topic is a very interesting topic, a very important topic, and it's the topic of leadership in the local church, spiritual leadership.

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And what kind of responsibilities do the leaders of the

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New Testament church have? And so today we're going to give you some charges from 2

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Timothy that all elders, pastors, and leaders ought to consider first, and then obey secondly.

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So hear and heed if you're in leadership. Now, if you're not in leadership, you still ought to listen.

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Why? Because we know who you are. I know, why do you listen?

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Because if it's a pastoral epistle that doesn't apply to you, it still is profitable for you.

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This would be a good way to pray for your pastors, to pray for your elders. This particular topic is important because there are many churches looking for a new pastor, churches looking for new elders, and what are the qualifications?

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What are the requirements? I was trying to think of a synonym for qualifications.

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What are the biblical mandates for Christian leadership? And so just recently, we had one of our elders leave, and he left to go to Texas for work.

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And so he left for all the right reasons. He didn't leave in a bad way, in a slamming way or anything like that.

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Pastor Dave Jeffries left in a God -honoring way. He had served here for a long time, and I wanted to give him some judgment.

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I wanted to give him some charges from the Bible during a Sunday morning worship service that would mirror an ordination service.

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So an installation of a pastor, ordination of an elder, our pastor, missionary, or the sending of a pastor, because I wanted to give him a charge.

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And charges don't mean that the person's not doing these things. The people probably already are doing these things, and so the charge is to keep going.

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Don't let up. God often motivates people, motivates Christians, lay people, leaders, through the

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Word. And so the Word can be of great use to keep us going upon the straight road of the gospel.

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So today on No Compromise Radio, Mike Abendroth here. You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com,

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and we're talking about marching orders for pastors found in 2

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Timothy. And so if you are a part of a search committee or you have a pastor or you are a pastor, this is for you today, because we tend to have a view of pastors as good managers,

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CEOs, coaches, life coaches, mentors, and they are just influenced, people are influenced by the world and what the world thinks a good pastor should be.

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Hegg said, what the church lacks today is not quantity, but quality in her pulpits.

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A strong case can be made that we presently have too many men in pastoral ministry, too many who have taken the mantle of leadership upon themselves without having been selected and formed by God for that purpose.

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They preach, but not with power, and often not with truth. They lead, but not with the platform of a life of godliness, holiness, and prayer.

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And slowly these men are charging, are changing the face of pastoral leadership. The image of a pastor as a servant teacher is fast being replaced with that of a chief executive officer whose knowledge of the modern organizational theory and communication technique is more highly prized than his commitment to praying and preaching, end quote.

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And so today we're going to look at impressing upon a man, impressing upon gospel ministers, impressing upon the people who submit to and are fed by the local pastor and elders the grave responsibility of being a pastor.

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This is going to be helpful for those churches that wonder what they're all about, because we're going to quickly see that it's about Christ, the gospel, both keeping it and guarding it.

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So Paul says at 2 Timothy 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus.

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To Timothy, my beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our

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Lord. Paul is writing to Timothy and he is awaiting trial. He is,

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I think, knowledgeable of the fact that it's pretty close to the end. He knows he's going to be executed soon by the

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Roman authorities. And Paul is writing this personal letter, very touching, very dear to one of his best friends who knew him and who knew him well.

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And these are the last words of Paul that we have as inspired scripture in 2 Timothy.

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And it's really a legacy for Timothy. It's a legacy to everyone who would dare call themselves a pastor.

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Last words are often very poignant, very instructive. I read of a man who was on death row in California, got executed, and his last words, do you have any last words?

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The last words were, go Raiders. You won't find that here in 2

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Timothy. You'll find solemnity, you'll find compassion, you'll find a charge, you'll find emotion.

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And so one of the first things I'd like to say, if you're a pastor today or you'd like to hire a pastor, one of the first things that pastor needs to do is to be loyal to the gospel, which means they have to know it, of course, and to be blood -bought by Christ Jesus himself, but they need to be loyal to the gospel, fidelity to the gospel above anything and anyone else.

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And in 2 Timothy 1, verse 13, it says, retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

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And so with a present imperative and ongoing command, he says, I'd like you to hold on to the standard of sound words.

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I want you to white -knuckle grip this. You've got a responsibility, pastor, to keep this, to retain these sound words that you've been taught by your pastors, yes, by your mentors, yes, by the apostles, yes, by Christ Jesus, yes, and you need to grab a hold of this.

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In context, Timothy, what you heard Paul teach, you better retain that, you better keep that standard. In case, pastor, you would like to be tempted, not to like to be tempted, but in case you were tempted to modify and cut and paste the message, some people saying you're talking too much about the justice of God or the wrath of God or the holiness of God, the transcendent attributes of God.

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We want more of a close God. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. Pastors need to teach both transcendence and eminence, and they're not to kowtow and to bow down towards the desires of the congregation, if in fact those desires that the congregation has would be, the congregation were to have wrong ideas about the gospel.

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So Paul says to Timothy, and he says to anyone else who's a pastor today, continue preaching the same message you learned when you first got saved.

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In other words, he says in verse 14, you don't only retain it, but you guard it.

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This is part of loyalty as well. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

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Paul not only says to retain the gospel, today on No Compromise Radio, we're talking to pastors, a pastoral charge that a congregant should be eavesdropping upon the conversation.

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Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in you the treasure which has been entrusted to you. Guard it. If you're a pastor, you need to guard the gospel.

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You need to defend the gospel. This is the kind of language that means there's going to be a prisoner in a jail, and you've got to make sure that guy doesn't get out.

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And so you've got gospel truths, you've got grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone.

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You've got those kind of biblical truths. Christ alone, so the glory of God alone.

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You've got the truth that Jesus Christ died for sinners and was raised from the dead on the third day.

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That kind of truth, you better guard it because it's under attack. Satan and his minions, through hypocritical lie speakers, through people, will try to attack grace and attack the gospel.

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And you need to guard that. If you're a pastor, part of your job description is guarding.

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You've got a great treasure, the text says, and you need to guard the gospel. If you're a pacifist and you're a pastor, you should change your view because you ought not to be a pacifist.

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If you want to be that way when it comes to wars overseas in Libya, that might be one thing.

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But when it comes to guarding the gospel, you cannot roll over, you cannot turn the other cheek.

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You, if you're a pastor, and if you're a congregant, this is what you want your pastors to do. You are to kill false doctrine.

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You are to murder it. With premeditation, you are to kill it, strangle it.

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You are to annihilate it with the truth. You are to say to yourself, this false teaching damages the exaltation of Christ Jesus and the proclamation of such, and we ought to wield the word, the truth, to slay false doctrine.

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Now, of course, I didn't say you're to kill false teachers. I never said that at all. You are to kill false doctrine.

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You are to murder it. You are a shepherd, and if there's a snake in the pen or a wolf in the pen or a lion in the pen or a fox in the pen, then you need to take care of that.

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And you don't cuddle false doctrine. You don't try to talk to it. You don't try to converse.

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You don't try to have a forum. You don't debate back and forth. Pastors guard their flock by the execution, by the summary execution of false doctrine.

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And the great news is, Paul said to Timothy, it's not through your own power. It's through the Holy Spirit's power, through the

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Holy Spirit to be enabled to do such a daunting task, a difficult work.

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But the spirit that indwells Timothy is the one who indwells Paul, is the one who indwells your pastor.

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He's the one who indwells you. And therefore, the pastor has the power by the spirit's strengthening to retain the gospel and then to guard it.

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Beloved, while I was making every effort to write about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all handed down to the saints.

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Jude 3. So here's what's happening. You need to have a pastor who's a man, a manly man.

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I don't care if he's five foot and 100 pounds soaking wet. You can still be a man.

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I've met plenty of men that are five foot, 100 pounds. And I've met plenty of girly men who are 6 '5", 250, because if they won't guard, they're not men of God.

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And as the songwriter said, rise up, O men of God. And there are some people who don't do this kind of thing.

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They don't love the gospel. They don't hold onto it. They don't retain it. They don't protect it.

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Some do turn away. And so Paul says to Timothy in verse 15, you are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are

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Phygelus and Hermogenes. Some did, in fact, they're negative examples.

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You know what, everybody's an example. They're an example of something to follow or something to avoid, someone to mimic or someone to,

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I was going to say mock, someone to avoid, to not have as a role model.

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Some weren't ashamed though, and Paul encourages Timothy. The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

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But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. What a positive example for Timothy of someone who was not ashamed.

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The Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. And so pastors be loyal to the gospel.

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Don't capitulate to those who say, hell isn't real. Hell isn't eternal.

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God only loves, he's not full of wrath. Don't contour, pastor, God's righteousness.

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Don't fall into preaching positive thinking and preaching some

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Joel Osteen, quote unquote, gospel. We are to preach against sin, against a rebellious man.

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We are to talk about the wrath of God, sin, repentance. We are to focus on Christ Jesus, his perfect life, his work, what he did on earth, how he assuaged the wrath of God, how

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God confirmed his great substitutionary propitious work by raising him from the dead.

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Nothing new, nothing novel, nothing something coming down the pike.

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No, if you're a pastor and you've been a pastor for one year, has anything of the gospel been lost through your charge?

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Have any doctrines just vanished and the people no longer believe them anymore? They once believed these biblical doctrines, but because during your charge you haven't retained and guarded, they've lost them.

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The good news is there's still time to repent, but you should preach in such a way that there should be no loss that would come through your holding the office of pastor, of elder.

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So Mike Abendroth here. We are talking today to pastors with congregants listening in.

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Pastors are to retain and guard the gospel, to be loyal to the gospel, to tell people the old, old story of Jesus and his love.

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Does your pastor do that? If your pastor does that, you ought to say, thank you, Lord, and then you ought to say, thank you, pastor.

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If your pastor doesn't do that, you ought to say, Lord, work a work in his heart, and then say to the pastor, pastor, you're contouring things.

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You're preaching to the empty pews instead of the Lord. You're preaching to the filled pews instead of the

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Lord. Preach for the Lord, pastor. Well, this is a big job.

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It's a very big responsibility. And so pastors could rely on their own strength, but then there's frustration, and then there's exhaustion.

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I know for me, when I try to do things in and of my own power and my own self -sufficiency, it's a disaster.

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The second charge to pastors is, don't rely on your own power. Don't rely on your own resources.

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Don't rely on your own smarts. Be strengthened by the grace that's found in Christ Jesus. That's exactly what

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Paul says in 2 Timothy 2 .1. You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

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Jesus said, without me, you can do what? A few things, one or two things, baker's dozen of things.

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No, Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. You can do no thing. You can do nothing. And so our culture, we want to be strong in ourselves.

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I call this sola bootstrapsa. You can do it on your own. Yet Paul says, be strengthened by the grace that's in Christ Jesus.

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It's a present passive imperative. It means that you need God every moment of the day when it comes to your ministry.

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As being a pastor, you should say to yourself, I need to be strengthened because I am weak, the enemies are strong and relentless, and God, I need strength.

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By the way, that's why it's important to pray for your pastor. Did a show on that a few weeks ago, praying for your pastor.

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Pray that he'd be strengthened by the gospel, the God of the gospel, the gospel of Christ Jesus.

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The spirit of God would come and so energize him. As the man knew, your pastor knows that he has no good thing in him, that he's not self -sufficient.

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His sufficiency is found in scripture and the spirit of God. And then that pastor is weak, and the

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God of the universe works through pastors just like that. He works in pastors as he supplies the strength to be faithful, to be loyal, to retain, to guard.

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I love Philippians 4, verse 13, he who strengthens me. That's what pastors need.

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Pastors need to know their limits. There's some things I just cannot do. And to just go to the top of the list,

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I can't save anybody. So if I'd like people to be saved, I need to ask God to save people, and then

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I need to respond to God and his call to preach the gospel since that is the means, that is the way people get saved.

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And so when it comes to the very number one issue, people getting saved, it's too big for me to do.

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When it comes to sanctification, there are certainly commands for us to work out our salvation, our sanctification with fear and trembling, but still relying upon the graces

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God has given us and the means of grace, whether that is the word or prayer, different other ways, spiritual disciplines.

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We need grace. I think you do. If you're a lay person today, I think you need grace.

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I think you need mercy. I think you need peace. And these are all from God. And so today so far on No Compromise Radio, it's 24 fast minutes.

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We are looking at what pastors are to do, a charge to pastors. And if pastors are to do these things, this is what the congregants should expect, should demand out of their pastors, should pray for their pastors that they could be loyal to such a call.

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And if you're in a search committee, you don't need to find somebody who's got a young family, who's good looking, who's well -spoken, who's a good mentor, who's a good life coach, does some administration, sings really well, has a nice hairdo, and the list goes on and on and on.

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I want one thing. Will that man be a man of God? And will he retain the gospel?

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Will he guard the gospel? Will he be strengthened by grace? And if so, you couldn't pay that pastor enough.

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You couldn't pay somebody enough to have a man like that, doggedly loyal to Jesus who bought him, doggedly loyal to the people he loves who

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God has brought into his life as sheep. My name is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. And we are at www .nocompromiseradio

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.com. You can follow us on Facebook. Don't forget Todd Friel Wretched Radio Conference. And we've got a new book here,

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Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus by Mike Abendroth. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.