Know Them That Labor Among You

Introduction: The Balance of Mutual Edification and Constituted Ministry

0:03 Let us turn again to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 as we continue our verse-by-verse studies through this letter of the Apostle to this infant church so wonderfully formed by the mighty operation of the Spirit of God and then having the privilege of being the recipients of this warm pastoral letter with so much practical instruction for the people of God. 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 Our attention this morning will be focused upon the beginning of the second last paragraph of the chapter beginning with chapter 4. You'll remember the Apostle introduces the theme of these last two chapters. He says that I have you've received from me how you ought to walk and to please God and he desires that they abound more and more and so that you may be able to walk and to please God and so that you may be able to walk and to please God. So these chapters are in a very general way a manual on the kind of conduct amongst the people of God that is pleasing in his sight and in the unfolding of aspects of that conduct he introduced the subject of the return of Christ first of all with reference to dead loved ones he didn't want to see Christians conducting themselves like the world when death intruded

1:31 and so he gives them the doctrine of what will happen at the return of Christ as a basis of alleviating this worldly grief and then he also exhorts them as we have studied for some weeks in chapter 5 verses 1 through 10 to conduct themselves in the light of that return of Christ in watchfulness, sobriety and preparedness for Christian conflict then when he gives that whole block of instruction as we saw last week he caps it off with this very practical directive in verse 11 wherefore in the light of this instruction exhort one another and build each other up even as also ye do well someone says if as the people of God we are warranted to exhort one another and to build each other up what need is there of any special teaching ministry in the church if all the people of God ought to be equipped to build up the other people of God why have a constituted ministry why have teaching ruling elders has not the office of the ministry become the occasion of clericalism that is using the position of eldership and oversight as a political base

2:56 has it not been the occasion of all kinds of ecclesiastical despotism are there not terrible days and dangers in having constituted ministries why not and there are some denominations that say this have every believer equally qualified to minister and to share Paul has concluded the section by saying exhort one another build each other up and if we're doing that why do we need any other kind of ministry to exhort us or build us up well it's as though he anticipated that objection so he moves right in with verse 12 to a very clear pronouncement of the fact that though there is this responsibility and privilege of mutual edification mutual exhortation this does not exclude or negate the constituted ministry of overseers within the flock of God for he says in verse 12 but we beseech you brethren though we've told you to exhort one another and though we've admonished you to build one another up we also beseech you brethren to know them that labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their work's sake

4:19 and be at peace among yourselves don't you marvel at the balance of Holy Scripture left to ourselves either we magnify the office of the ministry to a place of idolatry or we degrade it to a place of sinful a sinful disrespect of the office but if we'll take Scripture at face value we can do neither of those two things we cannot drift on the one hand into that terrible state where people feel nobody can be of spiritual help to anybody unless he's got a turn collar or a reverend in front of his name now that's not the Scripture it's a spiritual pattern as we saw last week there are many exhortations in Scripture setting forth the duty that every member of the body of Christ exists not for his sake alone but to edify his brother and his sister this is a wonderful scriptural privilege but in many of our evangelical churches the very thought that someone would exhort another brother or sister scripturally and admonish and edify is as far from the truth every time you see it you've got a problem get the preacher on the phone or call up the elders on the phone every time you need a question answered there's this whole idea of the sacred man in the sacred building and all these unsacred people who need their influence

Identifying the Two Groups: Brethren and Elders

5:48 now that's an unscriptural concept so some have said right, and a plague on your house we're going to be biblical and so they encourage everybody to exercise their gifts and minister one to another and if anyone comes with a turn collar or with a reverend in front of his name they say ah, that's the curse of Nicolaitanism the rise and progress of the clergy a plague on your house and they want nothing to do with it well, that's not scriptural either for the same apostle who says build one another up says in this text we beseech you to know them that are over you in the Lord and to admonish you from the standpoint of their official capacity as overseers so I trust in this brief introduction you see the connection between the text that we'll look at today and what has preceded now the first thing we've got to do is identify the two groups mentioned in verse 12 two groups of people are mentioned there are in the first place the brethren we beseech you brethren and the second place there are those that are not named but they are described know them that's the second group and they are described as those who labor among you are over you in the Lord and admonish you now the first group is easy to identify we beseech you brethren that is all of the men women

7:18 fellows and girls who constituted the church of the Thessalonians some who were sort of retiring they were introverts they needed leadership just psychologically and from their personality cast and there were some other brethren who were strong leaders people that really saw a job and rolled up their sleeves and went after it they were part of the brethren too they were the timid ones the forward ones the ones with lots of abilities or they just oozed with abilities anytime you touch them they're glad to tell you about all their abilities and then there are the other people they feel so weak they feel they can hardly eat their cereal in the morning without a little encouragement from their wife or their mother or their father just the opposite you had all of those different characteristics in that group in that church like you have in any church but this command comes to all of the brethren now I'm emphasizing that because I've seen in our own assembly in my own seven years of pastoral experience and I see it in other places where people think that some of the duties demanded here of knowing and esteeming God-ordained leadership is a matter of your personality if you're a strong person and can stand on your own two feet you don't really know the need to recognize the constituted office of spiritual oversight invested in elders bishops whatever term you want to use pastors

8:45 this is not a matter of personality or of psychological development or need this is addressed to all of the brethren that's the first group now the second group he doesn't tell us who they are but he describes them they are those who labor are over the brethren and admire and admonish them well who are they well I could take a long time to build up what I think would be an airtight case from the standpoint of scripture being the infallible interpreter of scripture but suffice it to say that they are obviously those whom we would call the teaching ruling elders in that assembly and one text of scripture that makes this abundantly clear is 1st Timothy 5 17 where two of the very same words used here in Thessalonians are used in 1st Timothy chapter 5 in this passage the apostle Paul says the elders he identifies them by office the elders that rule well the word rule is the same word used here those that are over you the elders who superintend well would be perhaps a better translation and it's the same word used in Thessalonians know them that are over you who superintend you who rule you and then he goes on to say

The Function of Elders: Labor, Superintendence, and Admonition

10:14 they're worthy of double honor especially those who labor and the same word labor is used here we beseech you brethren to know them that labor among you so the identification of the word laboring in the sense of superintending oversight identifies these individuals as the elders those whom God has constituted the under shepherds of his flock now notice though the main thrust of this passage before us this morning in Thessalonians is setting forth the duty of people to their elders we beseech you brethren now he's going to tell the brethren something they ought to do with reference to their elders in a very subtle and indirect but powerful way he reminds the elders of what their function is for he doesn't say we beseech you brethren know your elders he doesn't identify them by name but he describes their function and since it's there we want to look at it very briefly as we look at this second group you have the brethren on the one hand and those on the other hand who are the teaching ruling elders notice the description of their function first of all the essence of their function is what it is labor know them that labor among you

11:43 and the word labor here is a very strong word it means diligent toil even unto weariness in other words exercising spiritual oversight is a very taxing responsibility now most people don't believe this I had a very vivid illustration of this yesterday I stopped at the Sunoco station wherever I need gas when I'm in town and can't wait to get out to the Hess station why I go to the Sunoco station and Johnny the man who runs it there we're on good speaking terms he saw me in my work clothes I've been over at the building working and I had some spackling compound all over my trousers and my shirt and on my face and on my dirty old work hat and the rest and the first thing he said when he looked at me he says hey reverend you're working for a couple of days doing a little work for a couple of days now he wasn't being smart he was just talking nice friendly talk but you know as I was going over this I thought you know I believe he was giving an accurate analysis of the concept of most people may I say these past weeks when I've been spending three four days a week over at the church I haven't been working I've been playing when I've been pounding nails and cutting boards and fitting tiles into ceilings I've been playing

13:10 you get my message? brethren I've just enjoyed this to the hilt I'm as happy as a kid with a lollipop when he's just come out of the dentist's office and it's all over it's been play for my flesh to pound nails it's been play upon my whole emotional life to just leave the work at 5.30 and forget it till the next day unless I'm figuring out how to work out some angle of it that I couldn't quite make go that's been play to go up into the study those same hours day after day and pour over the word of God and pour over the books that feed my own mind that I might understand the truth better and understand people better and pour over the problems of people that's toil unto labor that'll drive a man to distraction without the grace of God and I don't believe that there's one Christian in ten that really believes that why is it when people evaluate a preacher so often they'll say oh he's a great he's not afraid to roll up his sleeves he'll go out and he'll do this and he'll do that and he'll do the other thing and then they'll say oh our preacher's not much he just studies a lot isn't that the concept? you've got a preacher running here

14:39 running there running here running there doing a thousand and one things that's a great preacher beloved let's get scriptural concepts he says those who take the rule over you they lay they labor that's the essence of the office of the ministry of the teaching ruling elders the essence of their function laboring well what are the two main divisions of that function how do they labor if it isn't with nails and hammers how is it notice two ways that they labor and he sets them before us here just as clearly as he does in 1st Timothy 5 and verse 17 this ought to be old hack to some of you but just to see it in another passage I hope will confirm it in your own thinking know them that labor among you and are over you in the Lord who superintend you in the Lord and admonish you the essence of their function laboring the two main aspects of that function exercising oversight or superintendence and secondly admonishing they are in your midst he says with a place of authority in the direction of the assembly of the people of God I need not labor that point we spent a good bit of time at it some months ago when we were dealing with the nature and function

16:07 of biblical offices but I do want to spend a little time on the second aspect of their labor he says they admonish you now it looks like a contradiction verse 14 he says and we exhort you brethren admonish the disorderly here he says all the brethren are to admonish other brethren here he puts as one of the distinguishing factors in the labor of the elders that they admonish those within the flock now what's the difference between the admonition of one brother to another and the admonition of a teaching ruling elder to one of the brethren ah listen carefully here's the difference the difference is that when a teaching ruling elder admonishes you in the light of the word of God he does so with a peculiar authority invested in him by the very rule of Jesus Christ feed the flock of God over which he has made you bishops or overseers over which the Holy Ghost hath constituted you overseers in other words the admonition comes with peculiar authority because they are Christ's peculiar representatives within the assembly of the people of God now what does the word admonish mean

17:36 it means to put in mind by way of instruction or threatening or reproof in the light of that instruction and I was interested as I looked up the word admonish in its usage that this was an integral part of the apostolic ministry Paul says in Acts 20.31 I say cease not to teach and to warn it's the word admonish I warned you and he puts warning parallel with teaching I cease not to teach and to warn you day and night with tears many people think the office of a pastor if he's a pastor teacher is just to say now this is what the text says hold it up look at it isn't that nice no no he says I taught you I told you what the text said then as it were I corralled you and took you by the ear and I said now if that's what that text says this is what it ought to do for you and I solemnly admonish you and warn you and entreat you in the light of the truth of God an integral part of true ministry Paul indicates in Colossians 1.28 it is by means of admonition as well as teaching that men come to maturity in Christ he says whom we preach Christ warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom if your ministry is all admonition you'll create people who've got nervous fits they're all the time

The Sphere and Number of Elders

19:05 hoping they're doing the right thing and wondering but there's no doctrinal foundation to their conduct if all you do is teach without admonish you get people who just fat and spread all over the place with all that they know but there's no resilience there's no life there's no virility there's no contagion there's no activity so this matter of admonition then is an integral part of the ministry of those whom God constitutes overseers within the flock so you have the essence of their function labor the two main aspects superintendence and admonition now what's the sphere of their function notice know them that labor among you and are over you in the Lord the sphere of their function is in the first place spiritual and not civil it is in God the Lord they oversee and admonish with an authority that comes from Him He instituted it and they administer it by Him in terms of the Word of God there is no other source from which they can admonish and it is unto Him in praise and glory as the people of God heed the admonition so the sphere of their oversight is spiritual and secondly it's local know them that labor among you literally who labor in you

20:33 these people recognize no spiritual authority outside of the apostolate other than their own constituted elders and this is a vital issue he said the people you are to know and to esteem are those who labor among you in your midst so their sphere of functioning as bishops overseers superintendents in the ministry of admonition is spiritual and it is local they labor among you and then there is a little hint in the fourth place of the number of those functioning this way he doesn't say know him who labors among you and is over you there was obviously a plurality of spiritual oversight in the church of the Thessalonians and I submit that this is the biblical ideal and as it grows and there needs to be a multiplication of overseers a church ought to be sensitive to those whom God equips for this function the whole idea that the norm is one overseer is not scriptural just as it would be unscriptural to say there must always be a plurality of overseers I merely suggest that this text is in keeping with the general drift of the New Testament data that the norm

Direct Responsibilities: Know and Esteem Them

22:02 is a plurality of overseers alright so much then for identifying the two groups in this little bit of a description we come to the core of the text what are the distinct responsibilities of church members to these overseers and Paul lays them out first of all two directly and one indirectly suppose I were to ask you this morning what is your responsibility to your teaching ruling elders here in the Trinity Church what would you say could you in some way crystallize what you feel your God given responsibility to them is well if you did so in terms of anything that approximates the teaching of this verse you would indicate that you were thinking scripturally your responsibility to your overseers is directly twofold here it is know them that labored among you verse 13 verse 13 and esteem them and then indirectly the latter part of verse 13 be at peace among yourselves two direct responsibilities one indirect responsibility and let's look at them in that order know them well that's a silly thing to say of course you know them you voted them into their place didn't you didn't you sit there one day when an apostolic representative

23:32 or the apostle himself gave the standards for every church and didn't you look out from your own group those that were qualified and did you not by your own common suffrage acknowledge them to be your elders and then submit to their oversight well of course we know them now he's telling us know them what's he mean well if you impose our anglicized ideas of the word know on this passage you won't understand it Paul is talking from the standpoint of the richness of this word from a Hebrew perspective we did a word study a couple of years ago on the word know in scripture God says of his people in Amos you only have I what known of all the peoples of the earth 2nd Timothy 2.19 the Lord knoweth them that are his Psalm 1 the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous what is the word know in this context the word know can mean nothing less than what it means in the context of these other passages which I've quoted it means to regard with peculiar affection and favor God says you only have I known of all the peoples of the earth God is saying to Israel you only have I regarded with this peculiar affection and distinguishing attitude of delight now God says then

25:00 to all the brethren that they are to know those that are over them that is they are to regard them with special affection and distinguishing favor they are not merely know them in the sense that they recognize them that they can identify them but that they are attached to them in true affection and love it's one thing to know your overseers and to tolerate them it's one thing to know them and to know them in this sense then the second thing he says is you are to esteem them now the word itself esteem means to think or consider it involves a direct activity of the mind in a given direction Paul says in Philippians 3.8 I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for the excellence for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them I esteem them but dung he says I look at everything I have by virtue of my breeding by virtue of my attainments as a religious Pharisee and I consider the whole thing and I say you know what it is it's a pile of dung that's the sober

26:29 assessment of my mind I esteem it as dung now that illustrates the meaning of the word it's dung to regard something an activity of the mind now Paul says you are to esteem those that labor among you and are over you in the Lord and by the way it's wonderful when you're just preaching through verse by verse can you imagine me just picking this text out and preaching on it you'd say well who in the world does a pastor think he is tooting his own horn this way spreading his own table telling us to esteem him but this was right here you see I had to preach on it and so it's a wonderful liberty you young men preparing for the ministry put that down will you one of the reasons why I just stick with the book chapter and go right through you can get away with things that otherwise you never never could alright so much for the esteem what is the measure of that esteem notice what he says esteem them exceeding highly that's the measure of your esteem and here Paul piles up words compound words if we were putting it in 20th century vernacular we'd say super abundantly esteem them super abundantly he uses the word for above measure and he puts another word in front of it to augment it and then he puts another word in front of that to augment it the word from which we get hyper we say he's sensitive

27:57 another person's hypersensitive sensitive is enough but hypersensitive that's terrible alright he's saying esteem them highly but then he puts the word hyper in front hyper highly in other words what he's saying is this is to be an esteem that is not a matter that's just taken lightly but we are to know a great measure of this esteem the measure of it super abundantly now what's to be the climate of that esteem here it is esteem them highly in love it's not to be esteem in a superstitious regard for the clergy what a stupid pagan idea that is and I see it all the time it just gripes me people will be cussing up a blue streak and then they find out your pastor oh excuse me reverend what superstition superstition that's all that's all he's not talking about that where people have this idea perhaps some of you I encountered out in the midwest where the the preacher's called the domine and I had people tell me when the domine would come up the front lawn the kids would ride hide in the back because the domine always came through the door see this cringing fear what a way to get esteem he's not talking about that

29:24 he said esteem them highly the measure of it great esteem but the climate of it what love esteem them highly in love not a surface respect but one that flows from the heart and what is the basis of that esteem which is to be super abundant in the climate of love here it is for their works sake it's for the sake of the work that they accomplish that you are to esteem them highly in love well what's the relationship I trust you see it what are they doing they're watching for your soul why are they laboring instead of playing I'd love to go to work I mean I'd love to go play full time I've told Paul this day after day when we were working I said I'd love to go play not that I'd love better than invest a couple hundred dollars in some tools and go play that keeps me working it's not my flesh I'd have run from it a long time ago a long time ago it's the work of oversight the work of seeking to be available to people in their needs the work of seeking to admonish that sheep that errs the work of seeking to build them up the work of digging into the ground the work of digging into the ground to the word until you feel you've sensed what God is saying and then laboring to lay it out clearly so that the person who doesn't have

30:53 an unusually disciplined mind can follow and say I think I know what the preacher's driving at I think I can follow I believe I'm beginning to sense what's going on here what is it what is their work well it's the work you see of wanting your spiritual good above anything else in life can you love the doctor who makes you feel your body's the most important thing in the world to him and the health of that body man it's easy to love a doctor we started going to a different doctor recently and we fell in love with him just like that and you know why it wasn't but the second visit in there when we somehow sensed our health and the health of our children is as important to him and even more important than his own health because he sits there sucking in cigarettes all the time and he knows it's no good for him but I think he'd cry out if he ever saw me doing it and tell me don't do that you're going to hurt yourself and he'd say we found it easy to love that man see we love him for his work sake he's concerned about our well-being the apostle says this is to be the basis of your great esteem in the climate of love it's for the sake of their work a work which has your good at heart teaching and admonishing and caring for you for your good and even when they must admonish you and warn you and rebuke you it's not because they have it in for you it's because they love you

Indirect Responsibility: Be at Peace Among Yourselves

32:21 what a delight for the parent who can convey this to his children and says to them I discipline you because I love you too much to let you do everything your little depraved heart wants to and go out and ruin yourself I love you enough to discipline you and what a delight when you get a homemade Father's Day card that says in its first statement I love my daddy because he disciplines me and you say I love my overseers because they discipline me because they point out my sins because they correct me when I'm wrong or do you have the petulant attitude of a spoiled brat nobody can tell me what to do which is Paul says esteem them very highly in love for their works sake so much for our responsibility to them directly to know them regard them with special affection to know them to esteem them the measure super abundant the climate love the basis their works sake now what's our indirect responsibility to them notice and be at peace among yourselves and I'm convinced that this is part of the same exhortation some of the commentators disagree because verse 14 seems to mark a transition and we exhort you brethren he's moving to a new subject

33:50 there's some question in the text by changing just one letter this is how it can read and be at peace with them and some of the old manuscripts have be at peace with them but the better manuscripts say be at peace one with another well why is that a responsibility toward your overseers well I think it's obvious what will break the heart of true elders more quickly than dissension in the flock so that instead of being able in the climate of love to give themselves to positive instruction and exhortation they've got to run around putting out the brush fires of dissension see so your indirect responsibility to your overseers is to maintain amongst yourselves a climate of peace that will make it easy for them to perform their task to the glory of God that's your indirect responsibility so that you see when you get word of a little ripple of friction even though it may not be directed to your elders if you don't put forth every effort as a child of God to deal with that thing you are indirectly undermining the work of those who are over you see so this is your indirect responsibility to seek to maintain the climate of peace

Practical Observations: The Beauty and Privilege of Biblical Leadership

35:18 now because there are some very practical observations and applications I want to move off the strict exposition of this passage now we've looked at what the responsibility is of the people of God to their overseers now consider with me several very practical observations and applications number one may God help us to be amazed at the beauty of a biblically oriented elder, pastor, bishop flock relationship to me there's nothing more beautiful except it be the relationship of a husband and wife with a scripturally oriented relationship but in some ways this is even more beautiful because it's a relationship because it's more intricate in the one you have two people involved in the other you have many now follow me closely the more intimate relationship the more possibility of blessing there is as well as the more potential for hurt the most intimate personal human relationship is marriage what relationship is at the same time filled with more blessing and blighted with more cursing what causes greater heights of ecstasy and lower depths of agony but marriage right the more intimate a relationship

36:47 the more possibility on the one hand for ecstasy and agony now this is true of pastors bishops elders and their people here is one of the most intimate of all human relationships therefore it holds one of the highest potentials for beauty and sheer spiritual ecstasy but it also is the climate of the possibility of some of the deepest heart-rending agony and I know of no grief deeper than the grief that some men have poured out to me when a congregation refused to have this biblical perspective on spiritual overseers when they imbibed the philosophy of our age that I'm a law to myself and I'll do as I please who is he to admonish me and the grief and the brokenness that is followed oh dear ones may we aspire to an ever increasing experience of the beauty of that relationship they are laboring unto weariness not for what they can get from you but what they can give to you know them esteem them

38:17 and where you get a flock of people knowing regarding with special affection esteeming highly in love for their work's sake and you get elders who are living not to fleece the sheep and get what they can from them in terms of advancement to a bigger pastor to some other cursed thing oh may God help any of you young men preparing for the ministry of ever looking upon any church as a stepping stone to bigger things this is cursed and blighted American evangelical life the minute an invitation comes from a church with more numbers and bigger salary my work is done I've heard it dozens of times my work is done what they mean is no I want my pocketbook fatter I want my prestige increased and we're a pastor whom God is blessing and if there is a sweet relationship there the Lord commands blessing and we read last week Psalm 133 the Lord will bless and people will hear about it and there will be people saying we'd like that kind of ministry will you come here will you come there will you come here he's blind to any other issue but this as God who placed me over this assembly indicated he's released me if not nothing else can bait me away and when people begin to know that they esteem him more highly for his work's sake he's not using the ministry as a stepping stone to personal gain but he's committed to that people

39:45 and where they in turn esteem him and know him and he lives for their sake what a beautiful relationship as I say perhaps the only thing more beautiful is a Christian marriage and I hope the picture of that beauty will ever be before us and we'll seek to preserve it and not let anything mar it here in our own assembly second thing I would say is seek to perceive in the light of this text the privilege of being under spiritual authority regard them highly in love for their work's sake and what is that work superintending and admonishing you see since we are what we are the best of us in our highest moments still with the potential of terrible corruption within and the possibility of all forms of weakness and sin without how wonderful to have those whose life is committed to admonishing us and superintending us what a privilege that God should love us enough in our state of spiritual development to place and constitute those over us who not just as one brother to another entreat us and admonish us but who with peculiar Christ invested authority seek to guard and shepherd the flock

The Wickedness of Rebellion and the Impossibility for the Unconverted

41:14 what a privilege I wonder if we really appreciate this great gift that God has given to his church in constituting the office of eldership bishops overseers to care for us I think increasingly as we breathe the spirit of our age it will be more and more a mark of a true church of Christ do they recognize constituted authority within the church we live in a lawless age that says nobody's gonna tell me nothing I care what men in the past have discovered in terms of history in terms of this discipline or that one of the marks of the present student revolt is we want to dictate our course matter you know what they're saying is that the accumulated insights of centuries aren't worth a blow of your lips what a spirit of arrogance the pride and more and more we'll be affected by that and more and more churches are going to feel the terrible creaking pressures of this philosophy I trust we'll never forget this passage that Paul indicates that once a Christian truly sees the nature of the work of oversight he will esteem the one thus placed those thus placed because he's grateful for the gift thirdly and I trust we'll listen carefully

42:43 in this passage we discern the wickedness of rebellion and disrespect for constituted leadership notice he says they are over you in the Lord that is by his institution and by his authority and by his expressed will therefore failure to know them and esteem them failure to submit to them is anarchy against Christ himself that's wickedness brethren sisters that's wickedness augmented to its highest degree when we will clench our fist in defiance against the sovereign of heaven we are not to submit with a blind submission we went over many of those things I can't qualify them now but put what I'm saying this morning in the context of all that we considered when we studied the office of elders and it's in that context that I say seek to discern the wickedness of rebellion and disrespect for constituted leadership and then in the third place see the impossibility of any but a true child of God complying with this command one of the things that I constantly ask myself is Lord how can I preach the gospel to sinners from the text that's before me and if ever there's one you'd say well there's nothing in there for sinners there's nothing in there for people who aren't converted

44:12 ah yes there is listen there's no unconverted man or woman fellow or girl in this building who can obey this text you may esteem certain elders preachers pastors bishops I'm using the terms interchangeably in order to get our minds thinking that they are synonyms in scripture you may esteem you may esteem them for many reasons you may esteem them because you like their personality you may esteem them because you like their background I've had people seem rather cold to me until I told them that my father's great grandfather came from Scotland and all of a sudden they esteem me because I had some of the same national blood that they had or if I'm in the area where there's Swedes I tell them both my mother's parents came from Sweden and all of a sudden they welcome me shake my hand well they esteem me very highly for my blood's sake other people may esteem me for my blood's sake other people may esteem you very highly for your personality's sake other people may esteem you very highly for your gift's sake but listen no one but a Christian can esteem a teaching ruling elder for his work's sake why? because only a Christian wants the rule of Christ extended in every area of his life and the work of elders and bishops is to help instruct that the word of Christ might extend in its implication but if you're unconverted this morning you've got a heart described by Romans 8-7 the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject

The True Nature of the Elder's Office and Call to Worthiness

45:41 to the law of God neither indeed can it be so for whatever reason you may like this particular pastor or preacher or elder for whatever reason it can't be for this reason because your heart loves darkness rather than light your heart's a rebel and so we're faced in this text with the basic truth that confronts us in every page of scripture that no one can understand no man can comply with commands to Christians except a Christian except a Christian and if your heart is not subject to Christ by the work of his grace I plead with you this morning seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near and then I say in the last place that this text underlines the true nature of the office of an elder whether it be one who's privileged as I am to live of the gospel or whether it be others who exercise oversight in keeping with other forms of employment to put bread on their table it makes no difference whether you are presently in that office or aspire to it in any of its forms notice this passage underlines the true nature of the office of a bishop an overseer an elder we must seek by the grace of God to be worthy of that esteem which God commands of his people that's why the first requirement for the teaching ruling elder is what the bishop must be

47:10 blameless you see God doesn't command us to do and I hope you listen carefully what is psychologically impossible for us to do I can't esteem that which I can't respect I cannot love in this sense that which I can't respect and so the first requirement for elders is what blameless blameless why that it might be relatively easy to esteem them now it doesn't say that they will conform to all of your peculiar likes they may part their hair in a way you don't like it may comb it back when you'd like it to the side may wear two button jackets when you like three I mean these are all peculiar but I'm talking about the basic moral and spiritual qualities you must be able to respect them and I say to you young men preparing for the ministry your greatest preparation is not that of your head to furnish it with your Greek and Hebrew though I trust you'll do it but I say to you young men it's the preparation of your heart and of your life to be the kind of life worthy of the esteem of the flock of God and we must face the fact that we're committing ourselves to a life of labor it be so easy to play and it's awfully easy to play and to kid yourself

48:39 that you're laboring the most dangerous thing in the world is to be set apart from the normal means of getting one's livelihood and having one's life have all the hours of the day for spiritual exercises there are few men who can take that awesome privilege and not abuse it I feel that one of the things for which I will hang my head in most shame when I stand before the Lord is hours fritted away that could have been given to being a better overseer of the flock of God we beseech you brethren know them that are among you and are over you in the Lord and esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves this is God's direction for the responsibility of the members of the church to their teaching ruling elders may God grant that we shall walk in its light to his praise to our good and to ever increasing circles of blessing to the world about us let us pray