Our Responsibility to Church Rulers

Introduction: The Necessity of Understanding Church Rule and Submission

0:03 Please turn to Hebrews, chapter 13, the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 13, and I shall read the first and last verses of the major concluding paragraph in this great epistle, verse 7 and verse 17. Verse 17, remember them that have the rule over you, men that spake unto you the word of God, and considering the issue of their life, imitate their faith. Verse 17, obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them, for they watch in behalf of your souls as they that shall give account, that they may do this with joy and not with grief. For this we're all going to do. We're all going to do. The history of the world reflects the twin vices of the vicious tyranny displayed by unprincipled leaders and the crippling anarchy displayed by incorrigible subjects.

1:21 And sad to say, this tendency both to tyranny and to anarchy, latent in the human heart because of sin, has often been the cause of the world's most terrible and most terrible sin. The church of Christ has crept into the church of Christ, or better yet, has shown an outcropping from the hearts of those attached to the visible church of Jesus Christ. God's glory, our good and our usefulness depend in great measure upon our understanding of and submission to those biblical directives which are calculated to preserve leadership from the sin of the world. And so the biblical doctrine concerning the constituted rule of the church of Jesus Christ is no peripheral doctrine. If once leaders begin to usurp the position of God or of the Holy Ghost, it can only bring miserable bondage upon the people of God. On the other hand, the church of Christ is a church of God. And if the people of God refuse to render that submission which is due their appointed leaders, it can only bring what the text says, grief to the servants of God, and will in

2:46 some measure rob the people of God of blessing that would otherwise be theirs. And so we need no higher motive in treating this vital subject than that motive which is forced upon us. And so we need no higher motive in treating this vital subject than that motive which is forced upon us by the people of God. And so we need no higher motive in treating this vital subject than that motive which is forced upon us by the people of God.

Review of Principle One: The Constituted Rule of the Church

3:02 And so we need no higher motive in treating this vital subject than that motive which is forced upon us by even a brief perusal of the history of the church and a very cursory acquaintance with the teaching of the word of God. And so I embarked last Lord's Day morning upon this very brief series dealing with this subject. And I shall in the next three minutes give you the substance of what we covered last week. We saw in Hebrews 13, 17 this one great principle.

3:29 The text asserts that there is a constituted rule. In the church of Jesus Christ. The fact of that rule is established by the very word that is used. Obey them that have the rule over you.

3:44 Or those that are governing you. Those that are leading you.

3:50 We then considered the origin of this rule. And we saw that it was rooted in the sovereign will of Christ as the head of the church. Administering his headship through apostolic authority. And it is rooted in the sovereign will of Christ as the head of the church.

4:04 It is rooted in the saving work of Christ, the redeemer of his people. It has the preservation of his church at its heart. They watch for your souls. Even as the Lord Jesus watches over the souls of his people.

4:21 And then in the last place we considered three vital aspects of this rule. Its boundaries, the word of God. Verse 7. Remember them that had the rule over you who spake unto you.

4:34 The word of God. And that's why the ASV rendering is more accurate than the King James or authorized version. The form of the verb indicates that they were men who spake the word of God to them in the past. But that text indicates that the boundaries of this rule are the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments.

4:56 And therefore this rule is never to leap the traces of the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. And then we saw the motivation of this rule, the good of its subjects. They watch for your souls. They do not use your souls as a pedestal upon which to parade their flesh.

5:17 They do not use that rule and you over whom they rule as a platform to promote their own ends. Verse 17 says, For they watch for your souls. And then we concluded by a consideration of what I called the platform. I found a better word.

5:36 The attendant of that rule, their exemplary life. Verse 7. Remember them that had the rule over you who spake unto you the word of God. And considering, the writer says, the issue of their conversation.

5:52 The blessedness of having a rule which has as its attending circumstances the godly exemplary life of those who seek to bear. Verse 8. Verse 9. Verse 10.

6:03 Verse 11. Verse 12. Verse 12. Verse 13.

6:03 Verse 13. Verse 13. Verse 13. Verse 13.

6:03 Verse 13. Verse 13. Verse 13. Verse 13.

6:04 Verse 13. Verse 13. Verse 14. Verse 14.

6:04 Verse 14. Verse 15. Verse 16. Verse 17.

6:04 Verse 18. Verse 17. Verse 18. Verse 19.

6:05 Verse 20. Verse 21. Verse 21. Verse 22.

6:05 Verse 23. Verse 24. Verse 25. Verse 26.

6:05 Therefore we concluded that ignorance of this rule is inexcusable. Unwillingness to come under that rule is dangerous and insubordination to that rule is grievous sin. So much for what we covered last week. Now this morning we have a second great principle here in the text and I wish to begin to expound it and God willing complete that exposition next Lord's Day morning.

Principle Two: The Essence of Our Responsibility to Church Rulers – Obey and Submit

6:30 Having seen principle one. There is. A constituted rule in the visible church of Christ. It is our concern to see this morning that there is a well-defined responsibility to that constituted rule.

6:47 Not only has a rule been constituted but well-defined responsibilities to that rule have been enunciated by the living God. We shall see first of all the essence of that responsibility. Obey. Submit.

7:05 The objects to whom that responsibility is rendered. Obey them that are ruling over you. And then next week God willing the motives to enforce that submission. And there will be three considerations from the text.

7:21 All right. Now this morning. First of all the essence of our responsibility to the constituted rule in the church of Christ. And the essence of that responsibility is bound up.

7:34 In two present imperative verbs. Boy my kids have been really getting good old-fashioned English lessons. I'm so tickled. They were talking the other day about prepositional phrases and predicate and nominatives and I didn't know such things existed anymore.

7:51 So I'm not at all averse at least for my own kids. I don't know what yours are getting in their school but I hope you know what a verb is. It's a word of action. It calls upon you if it's in the imperative to do something.

8:03 Not to sit and look sweet and nod your head and say that's true. A verb comes by way of the head when it's in the imperative to your will. To your chooser. To your doer.

8:16 And so we have the essence of our responsibility to constituted rule in the church of Christ bound up in two imperative verbs. Present imperatives. Be continually obeying and be continually submitting. Now let's look at these two words.

8:37 The first word, obey, is a word used with great latitude in the New Testament. In its various forms and cases it is translated persuaded, trust, believe, yield. And as in this text it is rightly translated obey. That is, render willing, intelligent submission to a given directive and to the one given, that directive. Let's look at a couple of usages in the New Testament in which this word has the same sense of meaning as we have it in the Hebrews 13 passage. Turn please to Acts chapter 21. Acts chapter 21. When God says that your responsibility to your leaders is to obey them, what does he mean? Acts 21 beginning with verse 12. The apostle

9:39 Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. He is meeting with some of his disciples or some of the disciples of the Lord, some of the believers, and a prophet appears in the midst and tells Paul by this very vivid object lesson that if he goes to Jerusalem he's going to be a Christian. If he goes to Jerusalem he's going to be a Christian. If he goes to Jerusalem, going to be bound. He's going to suffer for Christ's sake. And so the saints tried to dissuade him. Verse 12, And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What do ye, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, here's the word, when he would

10:31 not be persuaded, we cease saying the will of the Lord be done. Now do you see what that persuasion was? They were not trying to convince Paul there was danger at Jerusalem. They were trying to convince him to the point where he would will not to go to Jerusalem. So they addressed reasons to his mind and they addressed motives. To his affections, to secure the willing compliance of his will, his chooser, his willer.

11:02 But he says, it says he would not be persuaded. He would not obey them. It could rightly be rendered in this context. Now turn over to Acts 23 and we see another example of the use of this word. Acts chapter 23, beginning with verse 21.

11:25 You remember Paul is in prison and there's some people who've taken an oath that they will not eat until they have killed him and there happened to be a little boy standing around, some inconsequential character, and they made sure no big shots were around when they hatched their plans. But here's the little boy there probably sitting in the dirt whittling away or playing marbles or something. And they say it's just some silly little kid so he doesn't matter. But that was the Lord's ear. That kid was God's ear in the right hand of a child. There's a son. A son. A son. A son. Now there's a chapter where Paul's so you're in the right place at the right time. So you children, never despair that God can sovereignly put you in the right place at the right time to accomplish some of his own gracious designs. So this little nephew of Paul's overheard their plot and went to the proper authorities, and some of you, of course, are acquainted with the story. But now the use of the word in this passage, beginning with verse 21, Do not, therefore, yield unto them, for there lie in wait for him of them more than forty men who have bound themselves under a curse, neither to eat or drink, till they have slain him.

12:31 You see what he's saying? The Jews are going to ask you something. They're going to say, we would like you to do this. Do not yield. That's the word.

12:38 Do not obey them. Do not be persuaded by them. Don't let your mind be so affected by what they say that you will yield and willingly comply to their wishes. And you find this again in Acts 5, 36 and 7.

12:54 This will be the last example. And I only use these, again, not for filler, but that you might catch something of the sense of the meaning of this command to obey them that have the rule over you. Acts 5, 36 and 7.

13:13 Gamaliel speaking, giving words of wisdom as to why they should be a little less adamant in opposing this new movement, be a little more conciliatory. And he gives a historical instance. And he says, He says in verse 36, For before these days rose up Thutis, having himself, giving out himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves, who was slain. And all as many as obeyed him were dispersed and came to naught.

13:46 After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the enrollment and drew away some of the people after him. He also perished, and all as many as obeyed him were scattered abroad. Now you see what these men were? They were false teachers.

14:01 Or they were insurrectionists. They were men who gathered people to themselves, not by the force of the sword. And that's the important element. They were men who spoke their minds, who laid out their platform, and they were people who willingly embraced their position and yielded themselves up to them.

14:23 Now that's the precise emphasis of this word. It is a yielding and obeying which rests upon the persuasion that the doctrine given, the duties enjoined, and the admonitions administered are indeed the word and mind of the living God. It is the kind of obedience that is rendered intelligently and volitionally under the conviction that what is required is right. But isn't it interesting that the writer says not only are you trying to convince me to obey them that have the rule over you, but he brings in another word.

15:02 Look at it. Translated in the ASV and I think also in the authorized version, and submit to them.

15:13 Now this is the only place this word occurs in the New Testament.

15:19 God was so concerned that this aspect of our well-defined responsibility to constituted leadership be stated with precision and accuracy, that he moves the writer to the Hebrews to use a word that he moved no other writer in the New Testament to use. It's a compound word. It's a word put together. We say, well, so-and-so's active, but that other guy, he's hyperactive.

15:47 That's a compound word. Now this is a compound word. And the basic word, such as the word active, when we have the compound word hyperactive, is used one time in the New Testament. Let's look at Galatians chapter 2,

16:02 Galatians chapter 2.

16:07 The Apostle Paul, speaking of the efforts of the Judaizers to bring him and his companions in subjection to their Judaizing tendencies, says,

16:20 we go back up to verse 3, but not even Titus, Galatians 2, 3, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised, and that because of the false brethren, Privile Bravian, who came in privily to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. Now here's the word, the basic word, to whom we gave place in the way of subjection, no, not for an hour. Now get the emphasis. Here were these people seeking to bring Paul against the inclinations of his renewed heart into bondage to Jewish trappings which had no place in the gospel dispensation.

17:02 He said we did not give place by way of subjection, we would not yield ourselves up to their principles. Now Paul takes, or the writer to Hebrews, whoever he be, takes that word, subjection, adds a prefix which means under. So it intensifies the concept of subjection. It speaks of abject submission.

17:27 It is defined in the lexicons, the dictionaries, yield, give way, submit to someone's authority, surrender, yield, yield utterly, to concede, those are the synonyms, concede, yield, give way, submit utterly. And now God says the responsibility of members in the visible church as defined by Christ, the head of the church, is to obey and to yield.

18:03 Using the two words together, not only to, to obey when you are persuaded they are right, but submit as a matter of dutiful yielding when your judgment and natural will incline you in an opposite direction. Notice the writer does not say when the clear teaching of Scripture inclines in another direction, but when your natural judgment and will incline you in an opposite direction. Or as another has expressed it,

18:37 one obeys, first word, when one agrees with what he is told to do, persuaded of its correctness and profitableness. One yields, gives up, when he has a contrary opinion. Now granted, we are to obey and yield only when the directives are rooted in the word of God.

19:02 And when there is no higher command that is violated, but within that framework God calls upon us to obey and to yield. Now these words are foreign to the human heart by nature. Romans 8, 7 says, The carnal mind is enmity against God and it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. The language of the human heart is the language of Luke, chapter 18, we will not have this man to reign over us.

19:39 Not only are these words foreign to us, to our hearts by nature, they are peculiarly foreign to our own day in which everyone does that which is right in his own eyes.

19:53 May I say that any words of command which cut across the grain of your own inclination are perhaps the surest index of whether or not you are in a state of grace.

20:09 For Jesus said, If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. 1 John 2 says, Hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. The scripture tells us not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. What is the will of the Father?

20:35 This is one aspect of that will with reference to constituted leadership. Obey and submit and rebel in against that command of God resolutely rendered, unrepented of, persisted in, will land a man in hell just as surely as resolute, persistent disobedience to the second, fourth, seventh, ninth, or tenth commandment will land a man in hell.

21:06 These are imperatives. They come with all the authority of Christ the King and head of the church. Obey them. And submit to them.

The Objects of Our Responsibility: Divinely Delegated Authority

21:18 All right? Having seen what the essence of our responsibility is in the two words obey, submit, consider in the second place the objects to whom this responsibility is discharged. Now look at your Bibles. Who or what are we to obey?

21:36 Well, the scripture says obey them that have the rule or better translated, more literally translated, obey your governing ones.

21:48 Obey your leading ones.

21:53 Hence the objects to whom obedience is to be rendered is fellow human beings, fellow sinners. The text does not say obey the Lord and submit to him. It says obey them that are ruling over you. It doesn't say obey the word of God.

22:12 It says obey them who speak the word of God to you.

22:16 Now just by way of aside, notice he doesn't say obey him that has the rule over you. It's a wonderful passage on the normalcy of the plurality and parity of eldership in the Church of Jesus Christ. Obey them that have the rule over you. Not him, them.

22:34 Some of you young men aspiring to the ministry. Maybe what you're aspiring to is a mini-popery.

22:41 And you will never develop under God a plurality of elders until you demonstrate right now as a non-elder your ability to establish deep, harmonious relationships with your peers in the pew. And any man who cannot develop harmonious relationships with other men while he is a peer in the pew will never develop the kind of relationship that under God will bring to birth a plurality of godly discerning elders when he gets in the pulpit. But that's another whole subject. That's just an aside.

23:23 All right? Now, look at the objects. Obey them that have the rule over you. Not the Lord, not the Word.

23:31 Ah, but someone objects. Jesus said, Call no man master, didn't he? Well, not quite exactly. You're quoting it a little bit imperfectly.

23:39 You can get the exact quote by looking in Matthew chapter 23. I'm fully aware that Jesus said something like that. Doesn't the Bible say you ought to obey God rather than man? In Acts chapter 5, yes, I've read that too.

23:52 Well, doesn't the Bible say to his old friends, Don't master a servant, standeth or falleth? Yes, and I'll tell you where that is. That's in Romans chapter 14. Well, doesn't the Scripture say, Be not the servants of men?

24:04 Yes, and that's in 1 Corinthians. I'm fully aware of all of those commands. And so was God when he said, Obey them that have the rule over you. Hebrews 13, 17 didn't catch God by surprise or in a moment of absent-mindedness.

24:19 God did not forget that he himself had written, Call no man master. He himself had written through his servant, Be not the servants of men. Well, what's the answer to this apparent contradiction? Here we are called upon by present imperative verbs to obey, to render glad, delightful, intelligent submission where our judgment follows us in the path of submission and even to yield, to capitulate, to submit where our natural inclination is fallen.

24:51 We are yet to submit. Now, how do we reconcile this apparent discrepancy? Well, the answer is when we understand the Bible doctrine of divinely constituted rule.

Reconciling Submission to Man with Obedience to God: Delegated Authority

25:08 When we understand the Bible doctrine of delegated authority. If you don't understand that, you can't understand this passage, you can't understand Ephesians 5, the submission of a wife to her husband, you can't understand Ephesians 6, the submission of children to parents, Romans chapter 13, the submission of citizens to the state. You can understand none of these portions unless you lay hold of this cardinal biblical doctrine concerning divinely designated rule. Let me read from the Confession and the larger Catechism and move, as it were, backwards into the Scriptures.

25:49 In the Confession, and I read from the Confession as it's in our own hymnal printed at the back, 600. Under this great chapter on the liberty of conscience that a Christian has, you have this beautiful statement in paragraph 1, the liberty which Christ hath purchased, page 683, the liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the Gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law, in their being delivered from this prison, from this prison, from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, dominion of sin, and goes on to say in chapter 2, paragraph 2, God alone is Lord of the conscience, doctrines and commandments of men cannot bind my conscience. And if you've seen that production of Luther with that classic ending where he stands and his jaws shake and he says, my conscience is held captive to the Word of God. And something in you in every cell in five of your beings says, amen, hallelujah, so be it. Amen again.

27:01 And this second paragraph asserts that we in Christ are free from bondage and commandment, bondage to the commandments of men. However, look at paragraph 4. And because the powers which God hath ordained and the liberty which Christ has purchased are not intended by God to destroy, but mutually to uphold and preserve one another, they who upon pretense of Christian liberty shall oppose any lawful power or the lawful exercise of it, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical, resist the ordinance of God. And for their publishing of such opinions or maintaining such practices as are contrary to the light of nature or to the known principles of Christianity or to the power of condemnation or of godliness, and then they qualify of this, all of these, he said, shall be censured by the church. Now, do you see what these wise framers of the confession were doing? They were asserting the truth of these other verses. Call no man master.

28:11 To his own master a servant standeth or falleth. Be not the slaves of men. But they said, however, there is a parallel doctrine, the doctrine of submission to constituted authority and any person who uses this doctrine as a foil to try to destroy this doctrine, he says, is liable to church censure and deserves it. Now, moving to the larger catechism, you have a beautiful statement as to what lies behind this doctrine of delegated responsibility when it comes to the church.

28:46 The larger catechism, question 45. How did Christ execute the office of the king? Do you believe Christ is your king, your prophet, your priest? How?

28:56 How does he exercise his kingship? Oh, you say he governs the nations. He does. You say that he exercises his kingship by subduing his elect, his almighty.

29:07 Yes, he does. But there's another way. Listen. Christ executed the office of the king in calling out of the world a people to himself and giving them officers, laws, and censures by which he visibly governs them.

29:27 You get that? The framers of the larger catechism said Christ visibly governs his church. But in whose person does he govern it? By the officers' laws and censures of the visible officers in the church of Jesus Christ.

29:47 And so, because this rule, as we saw last week, has its origin in that sovereign will of Christ the head, we must recognize that he has the right to delegate any part of that administrative headship to whomever he chooses. And he has chosen to delegate it to duly recognized elders and bishops whom congregations set over them by their common suffrage.

30:21 Now what happens when anyone resists delegated authority duly constituted by God? Well, look at Romans, Romans chapter 13. There's the broadest statement of it. Verse 1.

30:35 Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers. I thought God said, be not the servants of men. Ah, he did. But that had nothing to do with what Paul's talking about here.

30:50 Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers, for there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power withstandeth the ordinance of God. There's the most explicit statement in all of Holy Scripture. We find it again in a more narrow sphere in Ephesians chapter 5.

31:19 Wives, be subject to your husbands. Chapter 6. Children, obey your parents. What is this?

31:27 But God delegating his own rights, of rule, to specific structures within his world. Human government, the largest sphere. The human family. And then within the church of Jesus Christ.

31:45 What happens in the family where there is no recognition of delegated rule?

31:50 Well, just look at our society and you see the answer to that question. Where parents don't consciously recognize by virtue of being a parent, God has appointed me a parent. In this home. It's not a matter of, well, I'll take it or I won't.

32:07 No, I have that position. I shall either discharge it to God's glory and the good of my family or I shall fail to discharge it to the destruction and disintegration and damnation of my family.

32:23 Likewise with the church of Jesus Christ. The king, the head, has said, I delegate my authority. Not all of it. But certain measures of it.

32:34 Within certain boundaries to those duly recognized office bearers. Now he says to his people, obey them. Why? Because I put them over you.

32:44 And failure to obey them is rebellion against me. As failure for a child to obey a parent is rebellion against God, failure for a citizen to obey the state is rebellion against God. Romans chapter 13. Whoever resists the power, whoever resists the ordinance of God, and he'll provoke the judgment of God upon his head.

33:09 Now do you see that doctrine? Do you understand that doctrine?

33:14 Therefore when the object of our obeying and yielding is said to be our leading ones, our elders, our bishops, it is an obedience rendered to them not as private persons, but as public officers who stand under Christ and therefore to whom we must render due obedience and due submission. When God says obey them that have the rule over you, that does not mean obey Mr. Martin, Mr. Blaze, Mr. Rogers, and Mr. Dixon as private persons. No, no. It has to do with that position of being over you in the Lord.

33:56 You see? As those to whom delegated responsibility has been committed by the Lord Jesus.

34:05 Now you children, when mommy and daddy spank you and warn you and admonish you, do you see beyond mommy and daddy to the God who put them over you? Do you? You must. Or you'll never appreciate their discipline.

34:21 When daddy and mommy spank you, it's not because they're bigger than you are and they can grab you and hold you. They shouldn't have to grab you and hold you.

34:30 You haven't caught the thing. The whole emphasis. If mommy and daddy say come here and you're going to be spanked. The parent will have to run after the kid and grab him.

34:40 Has not conquered that child in the way God says he should.

34:44 When they spank you kids. When they warn you and they admonish you and they have rules and regulations. It's not because of something inherent in them as persons. It has to do with their position.

34:56 God has put them between himself and you.

35:01 He says your response to them. I reckon as your response to me. In precisely the same way God's put the governor, president, kings, rulers, prime ministers between himself and the ordering of his world. That would be nothing but absolute chaos.

35:19 The worst of governments is better than your government.

35:25 Because there's chaos.

35:28 And God says I've put those powers between myself and you. Resist them, you resist me. And resisting me, you'll provoke my anger. Romans 13.

Exceptions to Obedience: When Commands Violate God's Moral Law

35:36 In the church of Christ. You say but oh isn't every Christian a priest, a prophet, a king? Yes. But the same king who taught that said obey them that have the rule over you.

35:48 And we're going to see God willing next week. In classic examples of a rebellion to constitutive authority. One of the most common ones and it's as old as the Old Testament is to say since we have the same spiritual privilege we ought to have the same right to rule. The two do not necessarily exist side by side.

36:08 Nadab and Abihu and their crowd of 250. Well we're all part of this nation. Aren't we sanctified as well as Moses and Aaron?

36:19 God says that's not the issue. I appointed Moses to lead you not you.

36:24 Oh the principle that's there. Do you see it? Has it come home? Filtered down?

36:28 Become a part? At this level.

36:32 I trust it has. Now someone says are there not exceptions to this command? Of course there are. When anything is demanded which clearly violates the moral law of God then we are not to obey.

36:48 Suppose a parent says to a child I want you to go out to the neighborhood store and steal five candy bars. The child has every right in response. He has every responsibility to say I'm sorry daddy. I'm sorry mommy.

36:59 I'm willing to go out and collect newspapers to earn the money. I'm willing to do anything you say but I can't disobey my God because he's told me thou shall not steal. If that child recognizes the truth of designated authority he will never obey the parent at the expense of obeying God.

37:18 Never. Same way with a wife. When the scripture says wives be in subjection to your husbands suppose the husband expects of the wife that wife. That which is clearly a violation of the precepts of God a denial of the law or the gospel.

37:32 She is not to render obedience. We ought to obey God rather than man. Therefore if elders teach false doctrine don't submit to them. Don't obey them.

37:42 Don't accept their directives. If they impose false standards upon you and try to bind your conscience beyond the word of God resist to the death any such efforts so to bind your conscience. But ah listen where you have elders such as are described in this passage who watch for your souls in a body of praying discerning loving elders it is rare that they will ever impose upon people anything that is a clear violation of a clear precept of the living God found in his word. Now they may often be called upon to give directives commands admonitions and exhortations which may not suit your personal inclination.

38:39 But don't you substitute personal inclination for clear preceptual revelation. How much anarchy has been based upon well the Lord has not revealed it to me that way. What a bunch of pious drool infected with the venom of hell.

39:03 The spirit of that one who said I will ascend nobody is going to lord it over me. Listen my friend when it's a matter of your personal inclinations your own personal sensitivities rooted in some constitutional bias so that you cannot flow out with that kind of obedience described in the first verb obey then you capitulate. That's the second verb yield. Submit concede and follow.

39:34 That's the command of God. And only in such places as you are prepared to demonstrate by sound exegesis and by the general teaching of the word of God called by the old writers the analogy of faith and being buttressed by sound commentators proven trusted guides in Israel don't you start making your own private kookish interpretation of a verse here or there a scream behind which you hide your unwillingness to be submissive to your constituted leaders.

Application 1: Church Membership and Submission to Christ's Kingship

40:16 Obey them that have the rule over you. The essence of your duty obey and submit the objects to whom this duty is to be discharged or with reference to whom it is to be discharged your appointed leaders.

40:34 Now in the light of this I want to draw several very practical applications as we bring the message to a conclusion. Do you see now in the first place why none must be admitted to the visible church but those who profess and give evidence of subjection to the kingship of Christ?

40:58 What happens when the doors of the church are open to all these people who say I trusted Jesus as my savior but I haven't yielded to him as my lord when King Jesus exercises his lordship through his appointed leaders and his appointed office bearers and I go back to the beautiful wording of the larger catechism Christ executing the office of a king in giving them officers laws and censures by which he visibly governs them what happens in such churches? The fact that there are still rebels who've never bowed to Christ is expressed not by saying directly to Christ we will not have him to reign over us oh no they say we love him we trusted him as our savior our gripe is with these people who try to rule us we've got no gripe with Jesus oh we love him we trust him our gripe is with these people who try to give us orders and directions and commands we're free in Christ we're free from all men you see you see why there is so little real discipline exercised in the visible church in our day do you see why there is such schism do you see why there is such disrepute and destruction of visible unity it's because the churches are filled with people who've never capitulated to the authority of Christ and how I bless God

42:28 for having the privilege of shepherding a body of God's people for these twelve years who by and large have evidenced their genuine submission to Christ the Lord by their loving submission to their appointed governors and leaders may God bless you may God bless you more than all the talk that reflects your mind has absorbed the doctrines of grace more than many other things the proof to me that grace has subdued many rebel hearts in this place is evidenced by the fact that when your leaders demonstrate a given direction whether it be contrary to the natural inclinations of our flesh to past tradition or anything else once they have demonstrated that the course set before you the warnings given the admonitions laid upon you the rebukes given are based upon the word you have rendered obedience and oft times you've just capitulated against your wills and we thank God for that evidence of practical expression of saving relationship to the Son of God that's the first implication application application we see in the text the second is this do you see the importance of carefully screaming

Application 2: Careful Screening of Elders

43:56 anyone whom you set over you as an elder once by your congregational suffrage you have submitted yourself to a man to join the body of them that rule over you you are no more at an option to submit to him than the woman who's made that great decision and said yes I will marry this man once you've made that decision the course of action is clear submit to him one of the questions I always ask the young ladies and the young men in premarital counseling is this after we've laid out the role of the husband and the wife the husband to love as Christ loved to administer his headship in the sacrificial tender sensitive love wherewith Christ loves the church and the wife trustfully to submit to the husband as her head I ask this question of the young woman have you seen in this man in a period of previous acquaintance and courtship have you seen that in him which makes you feel safe in submitting to him because once you're married you've got to submit no option once the relationship is established even if he proves to be an unconverted man 1 Peter 3 so likewise with the church and the elders you don't say

45:25 oh I think that'd be nice oh let's make that person oh he's just a nice man no no you'd better carefully screen election time is coming nominating committee's meeting what a responsibility is laid upon you who've been entrusted by the congregation who's seeking to be an expression of its mind and searching through the available members what an awesome responsibility dear people listen the minute this assembly begins to lower its standard of having a church of eldership that's the beginning of the end that's the beginning of the end may God grant great sobriety to us in these days as we prayerfully plead with God Lord great head of the church are there men amongst us whom you have furnished to rule over us to watch for our souls for our good and for your glory and for the manifestation of your praise in the visible church if so Lord Jesus help us to discover them and how do we discover them not through the church but by then closing our eyes and feeling around for some subjective warm spots for brother so and so and brother so no no after we've prayed that prayer then you open your eyeballs and you open your Bibles to 1st Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and you pray through that standard and say oh God do we see this in that person that's how you do it

Application 3: The Awesomeness of Aspiring to Ministry

46:51 that's how you do it and the third implication in the text and I speak to you dear young men aspiring to the work of the ministry do you see the awesomeness of aspiring to that office do you see the great responsibility upon those of us who try to help you that under God you may be the kind of men to whom people can submit without feeling they're committing a form of spiritual suicide the kind of selfless men who will live for the good of their souls the kind of men who have demonstrated long before there's been a pulpit available that you live to serve the people of God not hirelings not lords over the heritage who go around with big five pronged clubs batting people on the head to make them Calvinist not going around theological acts and chopping everything in sight if you do that just walking amongst the people with no office bearing capacity what in God's name would you do if you turned loose behind a pulpit you'd bloody and butcher the people of God inside of three weeks you'd leave them all dead or bleeding to death

48:19 God's people are an imperfect bunch including the office bearers that's why they need someone to watch for them so that the man who aspires to that office shows no heart to bear with God's people to be patient to have that love which suffers long that hope with all things believe with all things if there's no evidence that Christ is giving a man an enlarged tender compassionate heart the pulpit is barred I ask you young men aspiring to the work of the ministry do you find being kindled within your bosom a compassion for God's people a longing to bear with them in their weaknesses a tenderness in dealing with them if not one of two things are true either it's an element of the head of the church and his preparation of you that needs to be done is greatly to be augmented or you can conclude right here and now that the head of the church is not fitting you to be a gift to the church he never gives as a gift to his church that which flays his church bullies his church

49:47 ruins his church he gives that which will cut out cancers but as a surgeon not a bloody butcher he won't give you people who just put Vaseline over your cancers he will give you people they'll take the knife many times they don't have time to anesthetize you they gotta say grab on the chair grit your teeth here we go you'll feel the hot sting as the scalpel cuts through living flesh but you'll look up into the face of the one who's holding it and you'll say he loves me hurts but he loves me and it's amazing what true sheep will take from a shepherd that's cutting out their cancers in love but he loves me he loves me he loves me he loves me he loves me he loves me he loves me he loves me that just doesn't come because a group of people have had an ordination service and laid their hand on me that's something that grows as Christ the head of the church is preparing is he growing in you? I ask you young men to be judgment day honest oh how vital that this concept have its commensurate effect upon all of your aspirations to the work of the ministry and then the third application I make is this do you see the importance

Application 4: Church Members Living in the Word of God

51:16 of church members living in the word of God? obey them that have the rule over you submit to them in so far as they speak unto you the word of God what's the great safeguard that your elders will not teach you false doctrine that your elders will not impose false standards upon you it's when you as a congregation live in the word when the Berean spirit is not only cultivated but augmented constantly you see what happens when that's so? when an elder knows that his people are living in the book oh how careful he is to make sure that any assertions he makes are really founded upon the book he knows I can't put anything over on that crowd they'll catch me sure as anything but if he begins to sense that they are lazy and careless and gullible you know what happens? he's just wicked enough to begin to get lazy and take advantage of their gullibility but what a wonderful reciprocal effect and I speak from blessed hallowed experience when you minister to a people whom you know are searching the scriptures maybe only 15-20 minutes a day because of the pressure of schedule but they live in the word of God they meditate upon the sermons they're taught of the Holy Ghost what a wonderful thing

52:45 it's a tremendous safeguard upon those of us who rule because we know we can't get away with carelessness in the administration of that role if you begin to get lazy you know what will happen? your laziness will bounce back on us as our laziness will affect you you see we affect each other and so you've got one group saying oh if only the pulpit was better the church would be better another group saying if only the pew were better the pulpit would be better well who's right? well both are right and both are wrong if they think only one thing is the cause we have this reciprocal effect upon one another we're going to see that God willing in our exposition next week under the mold hues grief to them unprofitable to you you affect them they affect you you see you can't separate this and so I plead with you as a congregation as you feel increasingly the pressures of time the pressures of responsibility don't let other things crowd out your feeding upon and living in the word of God I speak to you dear children listen to me this morning listen carefully dear pastor will you? listen children listen I know there are times you get weary of mommy and daddy calling you together for devotions there are some times when there's homework you want to do you want to go out and you want to skate and so and we as parents know your body's there but your heart ain't much there we know that

54:14 but you know why we do that children you know why we try to instruct and explain why we try to get you to understand how to read the word of God perceptibly this is why we never want you to come under the tyranny of spiritual leaders who teach you lies that will damn you who will bind your conscience to rules that will bring you into bondage we want you to be saved by the doctrine of free grace and we want you to walk in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and what kind of parents would we be if we didn't want that for you if all we did was put clothes on your back this is our concern dear children and I pray that you will grow up and if God in his presence and providence keeps you in this area geographically I pray that you will be under God the future discerning members who sit in these pews and are jealous to know that those who have the rule over you are indeed speaking the word of God and when they depart from that and there is no power to put them out of their office then you leave this church or any church like it and shake the dust off your feet and you will be find some people that mean business with God and start all over again from scratch and don't you have

Conclusion: The Authority of Christ's Delegated Messengers

55:42 false loyalties to this place or to this system this then I say is the essence of our responsibility obey and submit that's the essence of it the objects of it them that have the rule over you and I close with reading three verses of scripture in your hearing Matthew 10 and verse 4 Matthew 10 and verse 40 where the doctrine of delegated authority comes through loud and clear Matthew 10 verse 40 speaking of those who were commissioned with peculiar responsibility in that sense the passage is not speaking directly to office bearers but in that it reflects this doctrine of delegated authority and its practical implications it speaks to us he that receives you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me you see what Christ is saying I come as one who has authority from the Father to accomplish a specific work part of that work is the delegation of the authority I have from my Father to give that authority to my followers if they receive you they receive me receive me receive the Father if they receive me they reject you they reject me

57:11 they reject the Father you see you can't have direct dealings with God and with Christ in the visible church and bypass having dealings with his appointed office bearers you may try to you may want to but you can't Luke chapter 10 verse 16 Luke chapter 10 verse 16 he that heareth you one is reception of their persons right now recognizing their delegated authority now there is response to their words he that heareth you heareth me he that rejecteth you rejecteth me and he that rejecteth me rejecteth him that sent me and a man duly recognized to an office bearing capacity speaks the word of God you are to receive that not as the word of men but as it is indeed the word of God you are to receive first Thessalonians chapter 2 and then the final text in John chapter 13 John chapter 13 and verse 20 verily verily I say unto you he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me

58:39 and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me and I believe our Lord's statement whomsoever broadens it up tying it in with Romans 2 chapter 10 how shall they preach except they be sent so that this verse is at worst stretches out and encompasses the entire age of gospel ministry and all who are duly sent and authorized by the Savior the head of the church are to be received obeyed and submitted to for the good of our own souls I say this is an unpopular doctrine in our day but God has said it God hasn't scrubbed it out of his word and with a sense that I've delivered my soul in honestly expounding the meaning of the words I ask you today does your heart say Lord Jesus I do love you and I want to show my love by obeying this portion of your commands to obey and to submit some of you you can't find those words in your mouth nor in your heart and you know why it's because you're a rebel and I don't mean to say you're a rebel I don't mean you're south of the Mason-Dixon line either you're a son of that arch-rebel you're a daughter of that arch-rebel oh my friend listen to me

60:06 the same Christ who has delegated authority to his office bearers has reserved a certain authority for himself and you'll meet that authority unless you repent he says the Father has given all judgment to the Son the word that I have spoken unto you shall judge you in the last day King of kings King Jesus demands that you capitulate and bow at his feet they're pierced feet thank God for that it's a Savior King who bids you come but he bids you as a Savior King to come I don't cajole you to embrace the Savior I command you in his name kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish in the way bow before him tell him you've run that life that was no business of yours to run and say Lord Jesus all the fruit of my running the show you took upon yourself at the cross I give that life up to you take it and be glorified in it cast yourself upon his mercy bow at his footstool and you have the promise him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out let us pray the message that you have just heard was produced by the Trinity Pulpit in Essex Fells, New Jersey and distributed through the Mount Olive Presbyterian Church tape library

61:35 in Bassfield, Mississippi with permission permission for the reproduction of this tape for the purpose of distribution should be requested from the Trinity Pulpit the Trinity Pulpit Post Office Box 277 Essex that's E-S-S-E-X Essex, New Jersey Essex Fells F-E-L-L-S New Jersey 07021 itself O Lord Jesus we admire we worship you for that great wisdom that loving provision that has constituted such a rule in the visible church and Father we give you thanks for the measure to which these directives have been obeyed by your people here but oh how we plead for a greater measure of the grace of obedience and submission Lord help us in those times when we must obey against constitutional inclination against temperamental inclination oh God help us to render principled submission to our Lord Jesus Christ as he exercises his own authority

63:03 through those who rule over us oh Lord we bless you for this portion of your word which you've given for our good bless it to our good for those present who've never bowed to your son lovingly draw them to his footstool we pray for any who may be having a spirit of insubordination rising up in their bosoms Lord help them to see it for what it is and to bring it afresh to the cross and there to have it crucified hear us God in what we've prayed for we believe we've asked according to your will we ask that our eyes may behold the answer to our plea in our life together in the days ahead thank you for your presence thank you for each other thank you for this oasis of love and trust and respect in the midst of a desert of sin spiritual barrenness oh God we bless you for all that you've done for us and are presently doing among us leave us not to the mercy of ourselves if so Lord we would be turned into a wrangling mass of bitterness and anarchy and tyranny oh Lord help us we pray that we as a congregation may be preserved in that love and unity

64:32 which will manifest to the world that we are indeed your disciples hear us we pray for the glory of Christ our Savior Amen