Sending Out A Pastor (Part 2)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Ebendrock.

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Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

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I'm not big on church calendars. Let's pick a Mother's Day sermon, Father's Day sermon.

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I'm usually into just exposition sequentially, but once in a while in the life of a church, for ordination, there needs to be a special sermon.

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And for the sending of a faithful pastor, there needs to be one as well. And so today

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I'm going to preach to Dave Jeffries with all of you listening. I'm going to give you several charges from 2

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Timothy so that you might be found faithful by the Spirit of God. So let's turn our Bibles to 2

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Timothy. Dave Jeffries, suffer well. Marching orders for every pastor and today at our church for Dave Jeffries, suffer well.

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Would you like to have that for a command from Paul? Would you like to have that for marching orders? Suffer.

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Look at verse 3. If you're a member today of the church or a visitor, part and parcel of Christianity is suffering.

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Everybody suffers. Every Christian suffers. Verse 3, suffer hardship with me.

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Undergo affliction with me. Here's an imperative again, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

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Soldiers suffer. Soldiers of the cross suffer hardship. I can't think of any other model of a person with a job description who suffers more.

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The men in Afghanistan on the front lines, they suffer many hardships. Yet what does the soldier do?

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He's single -minded in his approach. He's got blinders on and even though he's suffering, he's got one aim, one view,

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Christ Jesus' glory. You suffer for the glory of God, Dave, but do you know who else you suffer for?

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For the elect. For the elect. Verse 10. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the what?

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Elect. For the sake of those chosen, NAS says, pastors suffer with a view towards Jesus' suffering, but also because the payoff is wonderful in the lives of Christ's blood -bought people, the ones that Jesus picked in eternity past.

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Suffer for them. It's amazing that they also, verse 10, may obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

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It's worth it, Dave, the eternal glory that's shown in the face of people as God has chosen them in eternity past and then the spirit of God illumines their mind, it quickens them and they believe and you say ministry is worth it.

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It's worth everything for the sake of those God has chosen. People say all the time, well,

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I don't like this election and I don't get predestination and I don't get this other stuff. Well, you just keep reading your

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Bible because then you'll get it. So Dave, for the glory of Christ, suffer well and for the elect, suffer well.

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Number five. Dave, study like God is watching you. Boy, this will be good for Sunday school teachers,

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Iwana teachers. I hope you're not the ones that get up in the morning at about 8 .35 and driving frantically to church saying, what am

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I going to throw up to the kids today? I have a little bit of advice for you, kind of a side note, since people like rabbit trails at Bethlehem Bible Church, at least

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I do, repent of that or drop out. If pastors are supposed to study well, that means everybody else is supposed to study too.

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Look at verse 15. I mean, talk about weight and gravity. By the way, this is the verse,

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Dave, that when I'm studying I say to myself, oh, I know that Greek word, and then I say, well, I think

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I do, but I better double check. It's worth opening up the book again to make sure. Be diligent, verse 15.

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Do your best, ESV says, to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

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Calvin said some preachers study like they were playing some kind of game. Paul says to Timothy, I want you to study diligently, sweat, have due care.

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It's difficult, but Paul says that word be diligent or do your best means to spare no effort, to spare no effort or you will be ashamed by, well, it would be horrible if I got up and preached something that wasn't in the

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Bible and you gave me shame because you said, you know what, Mike didn't really do a good job. That would be bad. I would not like that.

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But that's not what the text is alluding to here. This passive ashamed means don't be forced to be ashamed.

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Who's going to force you to be ashamed? And the text here alludes to being disapproved by God himself.

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Day of human popularity, human applause will come and go, but you want to know when you rest your head down at night after discharging your duty from the pulpit,

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God was pleased. And you have to cut things straight. You have to study.

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You have to sweat. You have to toil. Expository preaching is an exacting discipline.

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Maybe that's why it's not very popular. Number six, Dave, be encouraged.

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Dave, be encouraged in the gospel. What do you mean? Well, we've got some stuff here that's going on.

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Be loyal, guard, pass a baton, trust, suffer. There's some encouragement in gospel ministry.

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I'm very glad for that. Let's go to verse 16. There's going to be more discouragement, but then you'll see the encouragement.

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You're going to say, how is this encouraging? But we're going to get there. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lend or lead to further ungodliness.

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Verse 16, irreverent babble, the ESV says. I just keep thinking of people who go to baseball games.

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I never played baseball when I was a kid, and it shows today. But I do remember going to the

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Little League games, and they're saying, hey, batter, batter, batter, batter, hey, batter, batter, and doing all that stuff. I'm thinking, irreverent chatter, chatter, irreverent chatter, chatter, just this kind of all this talk that means nothing.

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It just leads people into more and more ungodliness. And their talk will spread like gangrene, a zombie -like sore eating itself, leprous green, gangrene.

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I've seen gangrene in the operating room before they have to amputate somebody's foot because it's gangrenous.

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These people's talk is like gangrene. Think, how is this encouraging? Verse 18, men who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place.

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Don't you know it? They upset the faith of some. Even though the church, universal and the church that you go to, there could be some people in there upsetting the truth of some, dabbling with the faith of others.

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We all ask the question, can the church stand up to the world these days? The answer is yes.

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Look at verse 19. Oh, this is great. It's like the pastor's favorite verse. In the midst of this gangrenous talk and this chatter, chatter, chatter, nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands.

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God's going to build his church. Having this seal, the Lord knows those who are his.

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How great is that? Sometimes I don't know that. Sometimes Dave doesn't know that. Who are the sheep and who are the goats? False teachers have all kinds of inroads and he says,

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Dave, the work and the permanence of the work of the gospel is sure. He wants to encourage

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Timothy. And then he says at the end of verse 19, let everyone who names the name of the

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Lord depart from iniquity. Where's that from? From which book of the Old Testament is he quoting?

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He's quoting Numbers 16, Korah's rebellion. Did it completely devastate

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Israel or was there a remnant? Were there a few people that didn't buy into Korah's horrible gangrenous rebellion?

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And so Paul uses Numbers chapter 16 to say, Paul, as the apostle,

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Timothy, you listen to me. There's going to be a great stability. God's church is going to be built.

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And Dave, how great is it that the gates of death cannot stop every elect person from coming to faith?

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Number seven, Dave, be patient with people.

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Now I first wrote this down, maybe in a little no compromise style. My first note down here,

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Dave, was be patient with people, be patient with fools. Now in one sense, unbelievers are foolish, aren't they?

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The fool has said in his heart, what? There's no God. Look at how the pastor has to deal with unbelievers.

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Sometimes I'm tempted to just want to whack them. There's a soft side too, and you can think of Jesus as you go through here.

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I mean, as I'm looking at the pastoral epistles and preaching about this, you could just think of Jesus passing the baton on.

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You can think of Jesus suffering well, guarding, retaining. You can just think this is exactly what

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Jesus would do. And Jesus, when he was around self -righteous people, he whacked them.

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And when he was around people who knew they were sinful, he did what? Just came right alongside of them and was patient with them.

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And here, verse 24, Dave, the

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Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents, talking about unbelievers with gentleness, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

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God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. In other words,

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Dave, people aren't the enemy. Unbelievers are just exactly what you were 30 -some years ago, unbelieving, dead, and blind until God brought somebody to preach the gospel to you.

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And so Paul says to Timothy, be patient. What's the goal?

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To win the argument? To decimate them? No, you want to preach the gospel so that they might believe.

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It's a great way for all of us to evangelize, because what do we want at the end of the day? Verse 26, that they may come to their senses.

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It's the most crazy thing in the world not to believe that Jesus is the creator. We want them to come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

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The biggest scheme in all the world is people have free will, when right here the Bible says Satan is making people do their will.

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Unbelievers say, I have a free will, and they're doing Satan's will. And so the gospel preacher comes alongside with patience, with gentleness, with doctrinal clarity, and preaches to those who are in opposition.

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By the way, as I think of that, I think Dave does a great job of doing that very thing. Number eight, three more.

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Dave, don't be shocked at how bad things are or how bad they'll get. Second Timothy chapter three, verses one and following.

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Friends, pastoral side note, the more you watch CNN, the more you read

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Real Politics, the more you read Slate, the more you read all that other stuff, the more you watch

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TV, the more you watch Fox News, I'm telling you, you're going to sit and say to yourself, it's only getting worse, it's getting worse.

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The world's going to hell, it's worse and worse and worse. The same amount of time you spend dabbling into those people's minds, and by the way, most of them do not have the fear of the

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Lord. They don't know Revelation 22 says Jesus comes back and we all what? We win.

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Everybody likes to be on the winning team. This is the most important winning team, we win. So all these people, how would you act if you didn't have

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Christ, you didn't have the hope of glory, you didn't think, you didn't have your own, you had only your own wisdom?

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Well, I'm telling you, that's enough to make you agitated and anxious. And Paul is saying to Timothy, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

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And so when we wake up and the world is worse, worse today than it was yesterday, when it's bad today, and it was okay yesterday, and it's even more horrible tomorrow, we shouldn't be shocked.

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Look at there's faithfulness everywhere, faithlessness rather. Realize this verse 1, in the last days, all the days after Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, after these last days, savage times will come.

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That's the word, savage, ruthless. These ages and epics are going to come, difficult times with difficult people.

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Verse 2, verse 2 of 2

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Timothy chapter 3, for people will be, what's at the top of the list? Lovers of self.

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Dave, don't be shocked when the world is imbibing itself with self -esteem and everything else.

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The list just goes on and on, I don't have to describe them all. Lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, fearless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self -control, brutal.

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And now we go back to the love issue, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

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Dave, people are born to worship God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and if they refuse to worship the

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Lord God, then they'll worship somebody else with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and don't let that deviate you.

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God is sovereign over everything. I picked up MacArthur at the airport 10 years ago, and how's ministry going?

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Well, struggling in this area and that area. So many people, they know the word

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Jesus here in our culture, but with their background and with their religion that they're in now, it's a different Jesus.

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It's a Jesus that if you said, is his death sufficient, they would say no, because week in and week out, they have to slay

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Jesus again. And I just said, it's very difficult in this environment to preach the gospel, to see people get saved.

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What am I going to do? I should have never asked that question to John MacArthur. He said,

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Mike, do you think the gospel is powerful enough to save people in New England? That's Fenway Park right there,

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John. It's an old, very famous ballpark, one of the originals. So Dave, it doesn't matter how bad things get.

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By the way, in Texas, it probably won't be as bad in New England externally, but on the inside, it's probably worse because everybody will go around saying,

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I'm a Baptist. I'm in heaven. Two more. Charge number nine for Dave Jeffries.

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Prayer request number nine, if you'd like to pray for your pastors. Dave, herald God's word.

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Preach the word. Listen to what Asgenis said. Whenever I meet a Buddhist leader,

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I meet a holy man. Whenever I meet a Christian leader, I meet a manager. Since scripture verse 16 of chapter three is

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God breathed, since it is profitable for teaching reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, since it does make preachers and everybody else adequate, equipped for every good work, then what?

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Verse two of chapter four, preach the word, herald the word.

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It's military language. Do you notice this doesn't say engage the culture?

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Be authentic in your relationships. Drama the word.

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Debate the word. It says preach the word. Dave, I know you know the

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Bible, and when I hear you pray, I just comes out of you, but be the man of one book.

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Homo uneus libri, a man of one book. You didn't make yourself a pastor, so you don't choose what you preach.

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You preach the word. John Stott said, no one has the liberty to invent our message, but only to communicate the word which

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God has spoken and has now committed to his church as a sacred trust.

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I'll just read some of the verses because we're basically out of time. Is it hot in here, or is it just me burning up, man?

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For the 42nd day in a row, I think it's 100 degrees in Dallas, so let's go. This is all language, yes, with military crispness, but with standing before the judge.

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I'll never forget going to Berlin, and in the Pergamon Museum, you walk into where Nebuchadnezzar's palace was, and alongside of his throne room, you can see the lions that they've unearthed from Babylon brought to Berlin, and you think everything about standing before the king or standing before the judge as he says, this is what you better do.

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I've got marching orders for you. It's very solemn. It's very weighty. That's why this verse in chapter four, verse one, it's few and far between, but because it is so stifling almost, it just takes the wind out of you.

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I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. Now there it's the Messiah Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, meaning judging you too,

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Dave, by his appearing in his kingdom. He's coming back. Preach the word.

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Preach be ready. Be in season and out of season. Reprove. Tell people this is sin. Rebuke.

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Tell them you're doing that sin. Exhort or comfort with complete patience and doctrine.

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There's no time for the weak people. This is no time for people who want to go AWOL. Verse 13, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine.

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Having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. They'll turn away from listening to the truth.

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Interestingly, Paul says, you just keep preaching anyway. You just preach anyway. You don't say, well, they're not listening, therefore

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I won't preach. I'll just be a pragmatist and we'll try to do something else. Maybe they'll like this new movie that we have and we can approach it that way.

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Paul says, I don't care if they listen or they don't. Matter of fact, they won't listen. Keep preaching anyway. And then he says, for you always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of evangelist, which brings me to the final charge.

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Number 10. Is that number 10 in congregation? I think it is. I told you I could do it all 10. Dave, finish well.

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You're in the fourth quarter now. Finish well. It was only about eight weeks ago,

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I got a phone call from someone and said, Mike, one of your pastor friends that you know and love and have ministered to has been unfaithful to his wife.

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And Dave, whether it is marital fidelity or doctrinal fidelity, Paul says,

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I want you to finish well. When it comes to burnout, I did some study this week on pre and post pastoral burnout.

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Do you know what, congregation? Most everyone that starts as a pastor doesn't finish as a pastor.

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It's just too much to take. It's too discouraging. It's too hard. 1 ,500 pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches.

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Many pastors' marriages end in divorce. This is gathered data by Barna and Focus on the

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Family. 80 % of pastors and 84 % of their spouses feel discouraged in their role of pastors, as their role of pastor and wife.

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80 % of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.

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Wives of pastors, 80 % of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.

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And then with just sadness, it says the majority of pastors' wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day their husband entered the ministry.

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Paul's fate was sealed. He knew he was going to die, verse 6. Marty B. poured out as a drink offering, and according to tradition, not very much longer after that, he was killed for his faith.

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So Dave, our prayer for you is with your dear wife, Deb, that when

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I come and bury you in 20 years or whatever that is, we can say these things about you because you have been strengthened by the grace of God.

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God did work this in your life. Verse 7, I fought the good fight. I finished the course.

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I have kept my faith. No, I have kept the faith. Verse 8, in the future there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the

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Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day better than disapproval of congregation, better than being discouraged.

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It's all worth it. And not only to me, but also all those who loved his appearing. Dave and Deb Jeffries. Of course, some people encourage.

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They're not all like Demas in verse 10. Dave, you've got your lukes.

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You've got your ticket kisses. You've also got your Alexander the coppersmiths like in verse 14.

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We never want to get that phone call. Pastor Mike, are you seated? Are you sitting down? Did you hear about Dave Jeffries?

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And so Paul uses these words, not because it's going to happen, God forbid, and I know you, but to keep you from the enemy, to keep you from being discouraged, to keep you from falling away.

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Isn't the Lord good to pastors? Look at verse 17, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.

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That's what we want for you, Dave and Deb, so that through me, the proclamation might be fully accomplished.

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It's not about Dave Jeffries. It's about the Bible. It's about the gospel and that all the Gentiles might hear was rescued out of the

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Lord's mouth. I leave Dave with these words from Robert Murray McShane.

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Dave Jeffries, take heed to yourself. Your own soul is your first and greatest care. You know, a sound body alone can work with much power, much more than a healthy soul, much more healthy soul.

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Keep a clear conscience through the blood of the Lamb. Keep up close communion with God. Study him in all things.

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Read your Bible for your own growth first, then for your people. Expound much. It is through the truth that souls are to be sanctified, not through essays upon the truth.

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Be easy of access, apt to teach. And the Lord teach you and bless you in all you do and say.

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You will not find many companions. Be the more with God. My dear people are anxiously waiting for you.

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The prayerful are praying for you. Be of good courage. There remaineth much of the land to be possessed.

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Be not dismayed, for Christ shall be with thee to deliver thee. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

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We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org

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or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.