Younger Be Subject Unto the Elders, #2

Introduction: The Necessity of a Balanced Spiritual Diet

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, March 12, 2000, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 Now let us turn again in the Word of God to the first epistle of Peter, the book of 1 Peter, and chapter 5. Will you follow, please, in your own copy of the Word of God as I read the first five verses of this chapter? The elders, therefore, among you, I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed,

0:53 tend or shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God, nor yet for base gain, but of grace. The elders, therefore, among you, I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the suffering of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall be manifested, you shall receive the crown of glory that fades not away. Likewise, you younger, be subject unto the elder.

1:34 Yea, all of you, gird yourselves with humility to serve one another. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now, I don't think there is anyone here who would argue with me were I to assert that God has made us in such a way that a balanced diet of food is a vital ingredient in the maintenance of good health. That's a truism accepted, I trust, by all of us sitting here.

2:11 That a balanced diet is... That a balanced diet is a vital ingredient to the maintenance of good health.

2:19 However, most of us have a natural or an acquired preference for certain foods. If we allow ourselves to be governed in our eating by those natural or acquired preferences, eating only those things that are at the top of our preference list, we know that the result will not contribute to our good health. Now, we had a good example. Here's an example of that Friday night.

2:46 In our family fellowship supper, I moved around many of the tables and there were all kinds of wholesome, delicious, nourishing foods. There were few other things, but for the most part. But when someone came in with two of those square boxes with the red and white print and the smell of pizza immediately, it was as though some important personage had walked into our fellowship hall. The kids were lined up for half the length of that hall trying to get to their pizza.

3:22 Why? Because pizza is high on the preference list of foods. Now, for a family fellowship supper, for a good time, for something special, pizza's fine. But if you limit your intake of food to pizza, you're going to end up looking like a ball of pizza dough before it's flattened, and there will be many deficiencies in your overall physical health.

3:46 Now, why do I say all of that? Simply to underscore a principle that is equally true in our spiritual well-being. Left to ourselves, all of us have either a natural or an acquired preference for certain spiritual foods, that is, certain aspects of the teaching of the Word of God, towards which we more naturally respond. We gravitate and which we assimilate with more natural spiritual relish and delight.

4:20 But our Lord Jesus, quoting Deuteronomy 8.3 in Matthew 4.4, said these very important words, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Not man shall live by those words.

4:42 Not man shall live by those words. Not man shall live by those words. Which he naturally likes to live by, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And for our Lord Jesus and for us, Scripture is God's mouth.

4:58 And therefore, the kind of discipline that we undergo corporately in the consecutive reading of the Word of God is not an inherited tradition that should be up for grabs, grabs with the passing of time and religious preferences. If this is to continue to be a healthy congregation, its corporate mouth must feed upon every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And it is for this reason that we engage, as part of our regular diet, in verse by verse, careful, meticulous examination of a portion of God's Word,

5:42 such as 1 Peter, as we come now to, in the mid-80s, the man who does the tapes, and I don't agree on how many there are, and since he sends them out and numbers them, I defer to him, but I have a different number on my notes. But we have been working our way through carefully. Why? Because we believe, I trust, that man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Context of 1 Peter 5: Peter's Pastoral Burden and Charge to Elders

6:09 And we've come now in our study to this part, to this part of the epistle of Peter, where he has finished addressing his central pastoral burden to the people of God scattered among the churches in what we now know as the land of Turkey, Asia Minor, those Roman provinces named in the opening verses of the epistle. And Peter's great burden was to instruct, to comfort, and to exhort these people of God there in Asia Minor in the light of their presence. He completes that pastoral burden in great measure at verse 19 of chapter 4.

6:53 But realizing that in the midst of that suffering, and in spite of the opposition, God has still ordained that his church will be the framework within which his people will come to further maturation in Christ, he now turns to address issues relative to the church, specifically here in chapter 5, beginning with the spiritual leaders of the church. Verses 1 through 4 are Peter's charge to the elders, the pastors, the overseers of the churches. He sets out their duties. They are to shepherd and exercise oversight.

7:34 He focuses upon the disposition with which they are to perform those duties. The motives not. Not, but, but, and then the manner, not lording it, but making themselves examples to the flock. And then in verse 4, he sets forth the reward for faithful elders.

Defining 'Younger Be Subject Unto the Elders': Clarifying the Command

7:56 Then in verse 5a, he addresses the duty of the people towards such elders. Having addressed the elders, he now turns and says, likewise, younger ones be in submission to the older ones. Well, last Lord's Day, I spent about an hour seeking to open up these words in terms of what they mean. The major difficulty is not in the verb, the command to be submissive or subject to. Peter's

8:27 already used it five times in this epistle, and in each instance, the meaning is clear. One person is called upon to subject himself to another, not in a relationship of mindless submission, giving to another human being absolute authority, but within the boundaries that would not contradict the law of God. Citizens are to be subject to the state, chapter 2, verse 13. Servants subject to their masters, chapter 2, verse 18. Wives to their husbands, chapter 3,

9:01 verse 1, verse 5. And principalities and powers have been made subject to Christ, chapter 3, and verse 22.

9:11 The major difficulty is who did Peter have in mind when he said, you younger, literally younger ones, be subject to older ones. No article in either one. Not the younger ones subject to the older ones, but younger ones be in submission to older ones. And what I attempted to do was lay out before you the four possibilities, and then tell you my conviction that this is using the term younger ones.

9:41 The first one is that the elders are the church members, and the elders are their overseers. And I sought to persuade you, giving you four reasons as to why I believe this understanding is the most proper understanding of the passage. And then we began to open up what I call the fundamental and all-embracing duty of church members, and the fundamental and all-embracing duty of church members. And I sought to persuade you, giving you four reasons as to why I believe this understanding is the most proper understanding of the passage. And I sought to persuade you,

What Submission to Elders Does NOT Mean

10:23 giving you four reasons as to why I believe this understanding is the most proper understanding of the passage. And then we began to open up what I called the fundamental and all-embracing duty of church members, and the fundamental and all-embracing duty the elders have in relation to these elders who have normally been charged and also have been given their marching orders. It does not mean in our day, nor shall it ever mean. When church members are called upon to be submissive to their elders, it never, never means, number one, that church members are to give their elders absolute authority over their consciences and wills, no more than the citizen is to give absolute authority to the state, the servant to the master, the wife to her husband.

11:08 In all of the previous commands to submission, absolute authority is never given to the one who is in the place of authority. But there is authority. There is legitimate authority in the state, in the domestic sphere, in the marriage relationship. And submission can never be brought to mean non-submission.

11:31 And so the apostle says, Younger ones, Younger ones, you church members, be in submission to your elders. I do not mean, Peter says, that you are to give your elders absolute authority over your conscience and wills. Secondly, it does not mean that church members are to regard their elders as infallible in their interpretation and application of Scripture. The Scriptures tell us that every believer who has the Holy Spirit is taught by that unction, and he is to put everything to the test.

12:04 Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. The Bereans were more noble in that they received the word with readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures to see things were so. And thirdly, it does not mean that church members must agree with their elders in all of their judgments and decisions not explicitly addressed in Scripture, any more than the citizen necessarily has to agree with all of the decisions of the king, of the Congress, all of the bills signed by the president.

12:40 But unless they are matters of violating biblical law, it must not nonetheless be subject. He doesn't have to necessarily agree with that judgment. A wife may not necessarily agree with her husband's judgment on an issue not explicitly addressed in the Word of God. Does that mean she's to set up a tent and set up an area of protest?

13:05 No. She's to say sweetly, with a smile, stroking his cheek, sweetheart, I believe you're dead wrong.

13:15 Time proves me wrong, but I'm going to submit, and if it proves me right, by God's grace, I won't rub it under your nose. Does she have to give up her judgment? No, God doesn't require that of her. But he does say, wives be subject to your husbands in everything.

The Duty Defined Succinctly: Conscientious Embrace from the Heart

13:30 Now, you see, what is true in every authority structure is true within the church. So the fundamental, all-embracing duty of church members to their elders is to be in submission, but that does not mean these three things. Now, please, as we now come this morning to address what it does mean to be submissive, for I ran out of time last week and just read off the heads, I've reworked the material, expanded it, and I hope it will come with greater clarity and more convincingness. What does it mean to be submissive to one's elders?

14:08 And if at any point you're tempted, to import notions that forget those first three negations, just pause in your mind and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. He has already made it plain from the Word of God. It doesn't mean that. And why do I say that?

14:26 Because the native indisposition to embrace authority is such that you'll raise up smoke screens in your own heart. Oh, well, if it means that, then...

14:34 I've already underscored what it doesn't mean. And without taking back anything that I've given, the left hand, I'm not going to take it back with the right. I do want us to go to our Bibles and discern from our Bibles what does it mean to be submissive to one's elders. And so I'm going to do this by, first of all, setting before you the duty defined succinctly, or if you prefer, summarily, the duty defined succinctly.

15:05 And then we're going to consider, secondly, the duty described specifically and then we're going to deal with the prerequisites that are essential if we are going to perform that duty. First of all, then, the duty of church members in submission to their elders, that duty defined succinctly, summarily.

15:30 And I state it this way. To be submissive to your elders means that as a member of the church, you conscientiously embrace from the heart, every aspect of their Bible-based efforts to shepherd and oversee you as part of the flock of God committed to them. That's it. What's it mean?

15:58 You younger, you church members, be submissive to older ones, to your elders. What does that mean, Peter? It means this. It means to conscientiously embrace from the heart every aspect of their Bible-based efforts to shepherd and oversee you as part of the flock of God entrusted to them.

Elaborating on 'Conscientiously Embrace from the Heart'

16:29 Now, let me pause to just work out and tease out the significance of several of those key words. I've said it means to conscientiously embrace from the heart. Now, what do we mean when we say I do that conscientiously? Something that is done conscientiously is done out of the conviction that we believe the thing to be right.

16:53 Therefore, we do it with care, with diligence, with precision. Here's someone who goes to his doctor for the annual checkup. The doctor says to him, now look, you're getting to that stage in life where you can't afford to be indifferent about your weight, about your exercise, about caloric intake, your cholesterol level is too high, your cardiovascular system is a mess, and look, you're a heart attack waiting to happen if you don't do something. Well, doc, what should I do?

17:24 Well, if you have any regard for your life, and this happens to be a Christian, and by the way, he has the benefit of having a Christian doctor, and he says, if you're going to treat your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and if you're going to obey 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. If you're going to believe the Bible that says bodily exercise is profitable for a little, and this doctor lays it on him with his medical facts, so well with his Bible. He says, you have got to begin to conscientiously watch your diet.

17:59 You've got to begin to conscientiously make time for exercise. You've got to begin to conscientiously bring your wife on board that she becomes more heart healthy in the amount, amount of fat included in the foods, etc. And so this man now begins to conscientiously work towards honoring God in the way he treats this temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, if we say, you know, John is really conscientious about his diet.

18:35 He's really conscientious about his exercise. What are we saying? We're saying he believes he has a duty, before God, and with care, with precision, with discipline, with earnestness, he's following through. Now, that's how I'm using the word conscientious.

18:54 What does it mean? You're younger? Be in submission to the older ones. Church members, embrace from the heart the rule and the oversight of your elders.

19:05 It means that you're doing something conscientiously. That is, you are persuaded it is the will of God, you are convinced that since it is the will of God, it cannot be treated lightly or indifferently. You are making it a matter of conscience before God. To do what?

19:26 I've used the words embrace from the heart. In defining the duty succinctly, I've said it means conscientiously to embrace from the heart. Now, why do I emphasize that? Well, for the simple reason that not all of us are content.

19:43 All mere external compliance is pleasing to God. Remember what we read a couple of weeks ago in 2 Corinthians about giving?

19:54 The Spirit says through Paul, Let everyone give according as he purposed in his heart, not what? Grudgingly, nor of necessity. Not saying, well, I know if I don't tithe and give the Lord his portion, he might zap me.

20:11 And because I don't want to get zapped, I'll fork it over. Not grudgingly, or of necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver. He wants not only the hand to go out with the gift, but the heart to go out with the gift.

20:27 Whatever your hand finds to do, we read in Colossians, do it with all of your might as unto the Lord, and not as unto men. Jesus condemns the mere external compliance. This people draws near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. As we emphasized a few weeks ago, God, in demanding anything of us, is not satisfied with mere external compliance.

20:53 He wants the whole man, the whole woman, the whole boy, the whole girl to be engaged. That's what he said to elders. Shepherd, exercising oversight. It's not enough that you do it, but what's your motive?

21:06 Are you doing it simply because you're constrained under the pressure of having to provide for yourself and your family? That's to do it of constraint. God says, no, do it not of constraint, but willingly from the heart. And in the same way, when God calls upon church members to be in submission to their elders, he is not calling them to say, all right, just knuckle under, and though you can't stand the guys, and you can't stand the way they function, and you don't like them always sticking the Bible under your nose for the sake of peace in the home or some other reason, do it.

21:44 No, no, that will never do. To be in submission to your elders is conscientiously to embrace from the heart, what? Every Bible-based effort to shepherd and oversee you as part of the flock of God entrusted to them.

22:07 Notice, I did not say to embrace from the heart their preferences about the color of your tie, or whether or not you wear or don't wear a beanie. Grow a beard, not wear. Nobody here wears one. Some of you grow one.

22:22 No, not when they would impose personal taste upon you. It has to do with every Bible-based effort to shepherd and oversee you as part of the flock of God entrusted to them. For example, in seeking to underscore why we read the Word of God consecutively, I've given you the biblical basis for being concerned about, and having lots of Bible in our public worship, because man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And let the churches by the carloads throw out Bible.

23:03 And many times preachers don't even read a text anymore.

23:08 It doesn't change what God has said. And when your elders are seeking to govern with Bible-based stuff, God's calling upon you to embrace, from the heart, every Bible-based effort to shepherd and oversee you as part of the flock of God entrusted to them. That means corporate Bible-based efforts and individual Bible-based efforts. You're to embrace from the heart every Bible-based effort to shepherd and oversee you as part of the flock entrusted to them.

23:48 So then, when the Scripture comes to you and to me, as I pointed out last week, I have pastors. I have my fellow elders who are my shepherds, and wherever there is the shepherd-sheep-relationship and the Word of God says, younger ones, you who are the sheep of the shepherds, submit yourselves to your shepherds. Younger, submit to the elder. Succinctly stated, this means that you and I are to conscientiously embrace from the heart every aspect of their Bible-based efforts to shepherd and oversee us as part of the flock of God entrusted to them.

The Duty Described Specifically: Responding to Elders' Shepherding Functions

24:32 Now, that's the duty described succinctly. Now we come, secondly, to the duty described specifically. What does that mean in specifics? Well, those of you who are here, when I sought to open up verse 2, I ask you to look back at it.

24:51 When Peter wrote, tend, and a better rendering is shepherd, it's simply the verb form, the noun poimane, shepherd. Poimino is to fulfill the functions and sustain the relationship of a shepherd to sheep. When we ask the question, what did that mean, given Peter's background, in the Old Testament, given the example of his Lord, the great shepherd, given his understanding of an agrarian culture in that day, when he said to these elders, shepherd the flock, and in so doing, you are exercising oversight of them, what were the elements of that shepherding?

25:35 And we looked at many passages in the Scripture, and we saw that there were four things involved in that shepherding. Do you remember? Do you remember what they were? Remember what they were?

25:47 Feeding, guarding, guiding, healing, restoring. We saw from the Scriptures that bound up in the task of elders as a task of shepherding, letting the Scriptures interpret for us the significance of that task under that imagery. The task of the elders is to give themselves, first of all, to secure, to secure adequate nourishment for the sheep. Now, if that's the duty of the shepherds, what's the duty of the sheep in submission to those shepherds?

Specific Duty 1: Being Present for Feeding (Corporate Worship)

26:28 What is it? You see it? Well, surely it is this. It is the duty of the sheep to be present when the food is set out and the drink is provided.

26:43 It's to be present and to be active in eating, eating and drinking.

26:51 You say, well, any old dummy knows that. Well, yeah, I hope any old dummy knows that. If the shepherds are to secure adequate food for the sheep, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack no good thing. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, leads me beside waters of stillness.

27:12 There's the shepherd imagery, providing adequate nourishment, food and drink for the sheep. Then for sheep to be in submissive, submission to such shepherds is to be present and when the still waters or waters of quietness are set before them. Very, very simple deduction, but inescapable. The responsibility of the sheep to be present when the shepherds are engaged, particularly in seeking to bring them corporately into green pastures and by waters of quietness.

27:54 John Brown captures this principle so clearly and powerfully. He writes, The same authority which requires the elders to be present to teach in the assembly requires the brethren to be present in order to be taught. The pulpit must not only be filled, but in every case where there is not a sufficient reason for absence, filled by its proper occupant, and so ought the pew. Regular attendance on the public instruction, the instructions of the teaching elders is the fundamental part of submission to them.

28:30 If you do not hear your own elders, how can you be taught by them so as to be obedient to the Lord? What would happen in this place? And I've thought of it over the years. I've had a number of fantasies that I've never pursued, that are not, I don't think, sinful in themselves.

28:48 And this is one of them. What it would be like to have everyone gather here on a Lord's Day morning, and have one of the elders come up, when it's time for the priesthood, and say, Pastor Martin just felt, he didn't feel led to come and preach this morning. And then three weeks later, same nonsense. Well, sorry, we have no preaching this morning.

29:10 Pastor Martin didn't feel led to preach. Or Pastor Martin had a little headache, and felt he couldn't come. Or Pastor Martin's back was aching, which is true most of the time when I'm preaching. He didn't come.

29:24 What would you think of me as the shepherd? Say, get rid of the bum. Man, call him to repentance first, but if he doesn't repent, get rid of him. Get rid of the bum.

29:33 He's a shepherd in name only. A shepherd is supposed to give himself to leading the sheep into green pastures, and by waters of quietness. That's the shepherd's duty. It's the sheep's duty, to be there in the pasture, and to be there by the waters of quietness.

29:55 You cannot imagine the exquisite pain of a shepherd, who when he's praying over the passage that he's going to preach, and he's thinking from the passage, out to the congregation, and the congregation back to the passage. And there are several sheep that he feels this will be a particular help to them in this area of need. This will be oil upon their wounds. This will be wine upon another wound that needs to be made, and needs the antiseptic and the astringent of the wine.

30:29 And he's thinking of his people at his desk, and he's praying, and then he stands up, and that sheep is not there, and this sheep is not, and that sheep is not. And he goes home with a broken heart, and his heart is doubly broken, and he finds out later that there was no real providential hindrance. They just preferred an extra night at the shore. They just preferred this, preferred that, preferred the other.

31:04 Whereas if the shepherd said, I'd prefer, I'd prefer to stay home and nurse my headache, they'd be up in arms. You see the weight of this directive? John Brown is bold enough to assert regular attendance on the public instruction of the teaching elders is the fundamental part of submission to them. Now I know what some of you are thinking, oh yeah, that just their nose is bent and we don't come to hear them.

31:36 God have mercy on you if you think that of any of us. If I want people hanging on my words, all I need to do is hang up my shingle. I'm open for conference minutes. Then people drive hours to come and you get a totally distorted view of who and what you are.

Specific Duty 2: Heeding Warnings (Protection from Harm)

31:55 I'm committed as a shepherd to this flock. If you are sheep committed to Christ the chief shepherd and to his under shepherds, you will be present when the congregation, the flock, is led into green pastures and by waters of quietness. Secondly, we saw from the scriptures that the shepherds are responsible to guard and protect the sheep from anyone or anything that would harm them. That's the duty of the shepherds.

32:25 We looked at Psalm 23. Thy rod and thy staff comfort me. What was the rod for? That was to beat on the head of wolves and she bears.

32:37 The rod was to smack them on the head, get them away from the sheep. We looked at David, rescuing the lambs from the mouth and the paw of the bear and the lion. We looked at Acts 20 where Paul says to those shepherds, I know that after my departure wolves will come from without and perverse men will rise up from within. Therefore be watchful.

33:00 Well, if it is the duty of shepherds to guard and protect the sheep from anyone or anything that would harm them, it's the duty of the sheep to heed their warning both corporately and individually as they warn them of the dangers to their soul. Paul could say to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20.31, Day and night I cease not to warn you with tears. Warn you with tears.

33:40 You see, Paul wasn't paranoid. He didn't have some narrow, constricted, overly negative perspective about reality. He was a realist. He realized that after his departure there would be those who would say, Aha, Paul's blown out of town.

33:58 The chief honcho's gone. Now we can seize upon the vulnerable sheep. So he says to those under shepherds, You watch. You watch.

34:08 You watch. And watch with the remembrance of my warnings and my tears in your memory. It's the duty of the sheep then when the shepherds warn to heed those warnings. Some of you, I'm sure, think, Well, you know, as people get old and perspective on life changes and some of you young ones say, Well, some of the things Pastor Martin warns us about have really not a real problem.

34:34 My friend, I don't spend my time setting up bogeymen and shooting at them. There are things to be warned about. In the Christian life, if the person of Christ before us draws us into a life of obedience, and that is true of every Christian, any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. If it's the person of Christ before us that draws us into a life of obedience, if it is the love of Christ within us impelling us, 2 Corinthians 5.14,

35:12 the love of Christ constrains me, if it's the person of Christ before us calling us, the love of Christ within us motivating us, it is the warnings of the Word of God that form the fences and the pathway that leads to Christ to keep us from falling into ditches on the left and on the right. That's why the Psalmist in celebrating the Word of God in Psalm 19.11 said, Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in the keeping of them there is great reward. Dear people, never get weary of being warned.

35:54 If you've got true shepherds who are true to the Word of God, David says, Moreover, by these words thy servant is warned. When you don't want warnings, you're saying you don't want whole segments of the Bible. God help you to be good sheep who not only heed the corporate warnings, but the individual warnings. The same Paul who said in Acts 20.31,

36:24 warning all of you day and night with tears, could say in Colossians 1.28, individualize, individualizing it, admonishing every man, as well as teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man mature or complete in Christ. Don't get irritated when your shepherds see signs of danger in some facet of your life and lovingly put a hand on your shoulder and warn you. Don't resent it.

36:56 Don't resent it. Receive it. It's God's gracious means to keep you. To keep you in the way.

37:06 A well-timed warning is like the shepherd's staff. The staff was not to club the predatory animals. It was to put around the neck of a sheep that was straying to bring it back. When you feel the shepherd's staff around your neck pulling you back, be thankful someone cares enough to put the staff around your neck.

Specific Duty 3: Cheerful Guidance (Following Christ's Voice)

37:34 Then we saw from the Scriptures the third duty of shepherds was what? They are to govern, to guide, and to direct the sheep. You lead me, David said, into paths of righteousness for your name's sake. Jesus said of the shepherd imagery, the shepherd goes out before his sheep and they come after him.

38:01 The shepherd guides them, leads them, goes before them, gives direction to them. Well, if the duty of shepherds is to guide, to guard, and to govern the sheep, then it's the duty of the sheep to cheerfully walk in the paths marked out by the shepherds from the Word of God. Remember we said the only map that true shepherds use is the Bible. And they persuade your judgment from the Bible.

38:35 That's why they are given to the painstaking path of careful, meticulous handling of the Word of God. That's why they impose upon you little grammatical lessons and the difference between finite imperatives and participles. Why do they do all of that? Because they want you to have a mind held captive by the Word of God, not by the cunning stories and moving anecdotes from some eloquent pulpiteer.

39:07 They want you to have a mind that is disciplined to think as to how we are to know and ascertain the mind of God in the Scripture. Your duty then as sheep is to follow those paths marked out by the shepherds from the Word of God. Jesus said in John 10.27, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

39:35 Christ said the mark of My sheep is they hear My voice, they follow Me. Not they heard it, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, came to Me, got forgiveness, and now they hear every other voice, the voice of their own prejudice, the voice of their own remaining sin, the voice of the world, the voice of Christian consensus. No, He said, My sheep hear, present tense, they are hearing My voice, and they are following Me. Now let me ask you, where are you going to hear Christ's voice?

40:04 How many of you get up this morning, went to a certain place in your home, put your ear like this, and you heard Christ speak? Anybody? Now me. Where are you going to hear Christ's voice?

40:19 You hear it one place. Here. In this book. This is the voice of Christ.

40:27 And Christ speaks His voice with unique clarity and authority through those whom He gives to be His under-shepherds. It's the ascended Christ who gives to His church pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of service, unto the building up of the body of Christ. You see, preaching is not a one-way discipline of oral communication. It's not even two-way.

41:00 It's three-way. There is Christ, the unseen Christ, whose mind is contained in Scripture. There are the people of Christ in whom dwells the Spirit of Christ. And there are the gifts of Christ to His church, pastors and teachers.

41:17 And in that three-fold relationship, insofar as the Word of God is opened up faithfully and applied faithfully, this is Christ speaking through His under-shepherds. And the sheep then go beyond merely sitting there saying, Well, I don't like particularly the way Pastor handled that point or the way he...

41:40 No, no. The issue is you see through and hear through the human voice. And you say, That's the voice of my heavenly shepherd. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for speaking to me.

41:54 Lord Jesus, I respond not to the preacher, but I respond to You, Lord Jesus, for You have spoken through Your Word as it has been brought to me by Your servants. See, when people say, You know, what right do you have to stand up there and think people ought to listen to you? Well, not a lick. That's all it is.

42:16 Just me standing up here and talking. Well, you have every right to say, Well, let them blether on. I've got more important things to talk about with my friends. But if you're a Christian, a true sheep of Christ, you long to hear the voice of Christ.

42:29 And the same longing that brings you in private to your Bibles, to have your devotions, to hear the voice of your great shepherd who loved you and died for you, that's what brings you to this place and brings you with expectancy that people who stand up here are not going to blether on and give their own opinions and the latest psychological insights and the latest sociological fads. But you're going to get your Bible. Why? Because you're Christ's sheep and you want to hear His voice.

43:00 And when you hear it by His grace, you say, Lord Jesus, I will obey. That's what being in submission to your elders means. Not only does it mean that you are present when they seek to take you into pastures and by quiet waters, heed their warnings and their admonitions, but it means that there is that willingness to be guided and directed by the voice of Christ speaking through His word. And then we saw that the fourth duty of shepherds was the responsibility to heal the sick sheep and restore the strange sheep.

Specific Duty 4: Welcoming Healing and Restoration (Corrective Care)

43:41 We looked at Ezekiel 34 where God condemns the shepherds of Israel that they did not deal in mercy and peace and pity with the sick and they did not seek out the straying. Well, you see, if that's the duty of shepherds to heal the sick sheep and to seek out the straying sheep, what's the duty of the sheep? When the shepherd comes with his medicine, you don't run and hide, whether publicly or privately. When the shepherd comes to sheep that have some kind of intestinal parasite and they've got to drink down something that doesn't taste like the sweet, refreshing

44:26 waters of the quiet stream, they don't spit it out. It's for their good. When the shepherd wants to get his fingers in the fleece to find the burrs and to seek out the ticks that have attached to the flesh, you don't run and say, who are you to put your thinking hands on me? What are you doing interfering with me?

44:49 Shepherd abuse! Heavy-handed shepherding! Bless God for the heavy hands of a shepherd when I've got a tick buried in my skin. It ain't going to go away by somebody just looking at it from fifty feet away.

45:03 It ain't going to go away by someone just saying, oh little sheepy, I think you've got a ticky. I hope it'll go away in due timey. No, the shepherd's got to get his hands in there. And if you're a true sheep, you're going to welcome that.

45:19 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. That's what Solomon said. That's a wonderful thing. I can honestly say this of many of you.

45:32 You periodically affirm to me. One of the older saints, even last week with tears, said, Pastor, have you ever seen anything in my life? Please come to me. I said, brother, I've never felt I could do anything other than that.

45:43 Your whole demeanor has made it evident you welcome the shepherd's fingers in your fleece. And I believe this brother would welcome it if I said, look, we've got some medicine to go after an intestinal parasite and this stuff tastes rotten. I mean, castor oil mixed with tar. This is bad stuff, but it's going to be good for you.

46:04 I believe there are many of you who would say, all right, I'm going to close my eyes, hold my nose. Let me have it. Let me have it. Let me have it.

46:10 Is that where you are as one of the sheep? It's a wonderful thing. It makes the whole shepherd-sheep relationship joyful when the sheep welcome that function of the shepherd to go after their diseases and to seek them when they're straying. So when one of us asks, you know, I've not been seeing you so much at prayer meeting recently, don't get your hackles up and get defensive.

46:36 We've been around long enough to know many times the first sign of a cold heart that a shepherd can discern is when people begin to put the prayer meeting down on the list of their priorities. Now is that to say if you're missing prayer meeting, you've got a cold heart? No, no, that's not saying that. One would have to be God to say in every instance of drawing back for a few weeks from prayer, prayer meeting is the sign of a backslidden heart.

47:02 I'm not God. Pastor Lamar's not God. No other elder's God. But not being God, we do know that that is an almost an infallible sign of the beginnings of backsliding.

47:16 And if we come and graciously put a hand on your shoulder and say, brother, sister, we've missed you at prayer meeting. Is everything right with you and God? Don't get defensive. We're just trying to be shepherds to you.

47:30 Please act like a sheep and not a billy goat. And get resentful. And begin to mumble and seek out others and say, you know, those elders at Trinity, they really are heavy handed. You know the kind of stuff I've had to answer?

47:43 I'm going to bare my heart. I prayed, said, Lord, should I share this? I said, yes, this is my people. My people, along with Jeff's people and Pastor Lamar's people and Pastor Barker's people and Pastor Carlson's people.

47:58 I've had the indignity at a large Midwest conference some years ago. A dear Saint came up to me. I could tell she was quite agitated in her spirit. And finally, I said, look, what's troubling?

48:09 She said, Pastor Martin, I'm so reluctant to believe this, but it's hard for me to sit and listen to you preach because it was reported to me what was reported to be good evidence that you elders at Trinity make your members periodically show you their checkbooks to make sure that they're tied down. She was dead serious. She was dead serious. She was dead serious.

48:32 She was dead serious. She was dead serious. She was dead serious. I looked at her and smiled and I said, my dear sister, that's about the easiest problem I'll face all this week.

48:44 That's a lot of baloney. And then I start asking, Lord, how could that kind of a vicious lie ever get spun out to where a dear Saint was reluctant not to believe it? And the only thing I could trace back was this. Over the years, when some of the women have been widowed in our assembly, the only thing I could trace back was this.

49:08 Over the years, when some of the women have been widowed in our assembly, they have come to the deacons and the deacons have gone to them and said, look, we now have a special responsibility to you. Are you set financially? Do you have someone to handle your finances? And if they said, no, will you help me?

49:27 The deacons have said, well, let's sit down and look at your financial picture. That's the only thing that could remotely approach such a vicious lie. Again, it was someone that said, I'm loath to believe this, but it was recorded to me on good authority that the elders of Trinity go around Sunday afternoons unannounced showing up at the homes of the members to make sure that married couples aren't having happy nappies on Sunday afternoon. They asked me with a straight face.

50:09 Now, you see, if we were to be spooked off from doing our task by those kind of lies, we'd say it's not worth it. Why be involved in the lives of the sheep if you're going to be reproached with that kind of ungodly . But you see, we can't back off because our job description comes from Christ the chief shepherd. Why is it some of you can't look at me when I'm saying this?

50:41 Is your conscience troubling you? If it is, I pray in God's name if you believe any of those lies, be man or woman enough to come and confront me and the other elders with them if you refuse to, then I beg you for the sake of your soul put yourself under another eldership. We can't do you any good. We can't do you any good.

Specific Duty 5: Imitating Exemplary Lives

51:11 And then, if it's the responsibility of the shepherds, look at verse 3b. If it's the responsibility of the shepherds to make themselves examples to the flock, what's the responsibility of the sheep? You see it? Not lording it over, not engaging in a carnal weight throwing flesh fed kind of oversight, but one that is marked by an exemplary life in the light of the word of God.

51:43 If it's the responsibility of the shepherds to make themselves examples to the flock, what's the responsibility of the flock? It's to imitate the shepherds. Yes? No?

51:53 Is that some great leap of logic? Make yourselves examples to the flock. What's the assumption? That the flock is looking at you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you

52:37 and you and you and you and you and you Remember them that had the rule over you, Hebrews 13, 7. Men who spoke unto you the word of God and considering the end of their lives, imitate their faith. What an awesome responsibility upon us to consciously seek to live an exemplary life before you. What is it to be a godly man?

53:09 To be a principled leader of one's family? Why? To be an example of Christ's tender, sensitive, nurturing, caring love for His church so that in all your observation of my relationship to my wife and Pastor Jeff and Pastor Carlson and Pastor Barker and Pastor Lamar, you will see within that broad range of diverse personalities, what's it mean? I'm a young husband.

53:35 I came out of a home where my father set no example of leadership. Or I came out of a home where my father was...

53:42 I was a tyrant. He thought that leading meant just tromping around, exuding macho. No sensitivity to my mom, to the daughters. I don't know what it is to love and lead like Christ loves and leads.

53:56 I ought to be able to look at every one of us and say, it means I'll do like that. When I see Pastor Jeff in his relationship to Julie and when I see Pastor Lamar and when I see...

54:06 You're supposed to be able to do that. God says we are to be examples to the flock.

54:11 We're to be examples of what man... He encourages.

54:14 You are to see in us that determination that when God marks out a path, nothing will move us from that path. I told someone recently, those who beat on us in recent months, thinking they'd drive us from our post. They have no idea who we are. I said everything God made me as a man and as a new man in Christ, when you push me and try to bully me by threats, you cause me to be so riveted you'll not only have to shoot me, you'll have to hack me up.

54:45 You'll have to cut me up in pieces while my body twitches in its death throes.

54:51 God help us in leadership to have that kind of determination to manifest what it means to quit yourself like a man.

55:01 But we must be the kind of men that the little children feel free to come to and find it easy to pop up in our arms and joke about us and joke with us and tweak us. Gentle men, principled.

55:20 And as the sheep are committed to following the example, you see what that does? It makes us the true shepherds. It makes them cry out to God all the more, Lord have mercy on me that I should ever mislead your sheep. And where you have shepherds determined to make themselves examples and sheep that look to their example, what a marvelous interaction, each one feeding the other in terms of the pursuit of godliness.

Recap and Conclusion: The Spiritual Nature of Submission

55:44 Well, my time is gone and I didn't get to the prerequisites and I'm not going to just give you the heads. That'll wait till next week if God spares us. We've looked at the duty. What?

55:55 Does it not mean? To be submissive to your elders does not mean that you give them absolute authority, that you believe them infallible in their interpretation and application of the word of God. It does not mean that you necessarily agree with them in all of their judgments in matters not explicitly addressed by the word of God. But it does mean, succinctly, that you conscientiously embrace from the heart every aspect of their body, and that you bear the same form of souffling on the title and position of the meaning of the teaching of the Bible.

56:35 And that also is a service that you receive in your intercessory life. And that means a powerful, diving, breathing, kind,managable efforts to shepherd you as part of the flock entrusted to them. What does that mean specifically? It means that in their shepherding work of teaching, you're there to be taught.

56:54 You receive the word with gladness, publicly, and privately. anything that would be detrimental to your soul, it means that you're ready to be guided and directed and governed through the human instruments who bring the Word of God to you. That's why Hebrews 13, 17 says, Obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them.

57:16 A lot of people say, like the one who said, You know, I love humanity. My only problem is I can't get along with people.

57:24 What do they say? I love humanity. This generic, no-faced mass of people. But when I get to my neighbor and my uncle and my aunt and my brother, I have problems.

57:36 People say, Oh, I love God and His authority. I just have a problem with the authority of elders.

57:43 Now, there's a chain of command that's organic. Jesus said, He that receives whomsoever I send receives me. He that receives me receives him that sent me. You've got problems with the one he sends.

57:54 You've got problems with the sender. And you've got problems with the sender. You've got problems with his father. You see that organic chain of command?

58:04 That's the problem that some of you have and you've not faced it honestly. You really think, Oh, I'm submissive to the Lord. I've just got problems with elders. I've just got problems taking orders from fellow human beings.

58:15 Oh, yes, the directives are in the Bible, but I didn't see them myself. I didn't get them in my own devotions.

58:23 My friend, deal with that, or you're never going to be happy in a climate where there is gracious biblical rule by elders. It's going to cause you to chafe again and again and again. And then it means that if elders are responsible before God to seek the straying and help to heal the sick sheep, you welcome the medicine. You welcome the crook.

58:45 And since they are to make themselves examples, you're willing to follow that example as they follow Christ. Now, there's no human structure that can secure this kind of relationship. What I hope to demonstrate, God willing, then next week, is that it's only as the people of God, are filled with the Spirit, and the leadership is filled with the Spirit, that the shepherd-flock relationship functions as Christ intended. Without the presence and power and operation of the Spirit, the leaders who lead will either become tyrants or wimps.

59:22 And the people will either become tyrannical themselves and anarchists, and they will rise up to run the show, or they will allow themselves to be beaten into a mindless, Jim Jones-type of subjection. From such may God deliver us. Filled with the Spirit, regulated by the Word, we can enjoy what many of us have enjoyed for decades. Shepherds who shepherd according to the Word, and sheep who act like sheep.

59:58 And it's a monument to the grace and to the power of God. Let us pray. Our Father, we're so thankful that we have the Scriptures as a lamp. A lamp to our feet, and a light to our pathway.

60:19 We thank you that you have revealed in the Scriptures your will for the government and ordering of the life of your church. And we thank you that that revelation is not obscure, and that these past weeks we've been privileged to look carefully at your mind, revealed through the pen of the Apostle Peter. And Father, I would ask for those of us in this awesome, beautiful place of shepherds, elders, overseers, forgive us for our many failures. Forgive us, Lord, when we have not shepherded your sheep as we ought.

60:59 Forgive us when we have not taught, and led, and sought, and healed, and been the examples that we ought to be. Help us, O our God, that more and more we may move towards the pattern of Him who is the Great Shepherd, even our Lord Jesus. Help your dear sheep, our Father, that having looked at these things together, there may be new and deep resolves, that by your grace, they will embrace from the heart your word to them, to be submissive to their elders. We thank you that your grace can work this in us,

61:43 for our good and for your glory. Hear us. We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.