Reasons Why We Ought to Obey, Part 2

Introduction: The Mandate for Obedience and Submission to Church Leaders

0:03 In the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 13, I shall read verses 7 and 17, the first and the last directives in this paragraph of miscellaneous exhortations and admonitions to the people of God. And they have this in common, that they speak concerning the broad subject of the responsibility of church members to their God-appointed leaders, leaders called by various names in the word of God here, simply leaders or governors or rulers called in other places, those that have the authority over us, bishops, elders, pastors, shepherds.

0:59 The first directive has, of course, reference to past spiritual leaders, and we are told to remember them that had the rule over you, men that spake unto you the word of God, and considering the issue of their life, imitate their faith. And now verse 17 speaks of our present responsibility to our present spiritual leaders. 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 were unprofitable for you.

1:44 We come today to the fourth in this series of studies focusing on this portion of the word of God. We've emphasized each Lord's Day morning that anarchy and tyranny are the twin evils which have been unrighteous. A blight to the visible church throughout its history, and that if we are to avoid those evils, there must be, on the one hand, a knowledge of the mind of God with reference to the proper spheres of responsibility, both of leaders and of followers, and secondly, a desire and the ability by God's grace to obey those directives. But the right thinking lies at the foundation of right action. And therefore we are concerned to know the precise limits of the responsibility of the overseers, as well as the precise limits of the responsibilities of those whom they oversee. And perhaps there are few passages in all of scripture that give a more succinct but comprehensive outline of these mutual duties than do verses 7 and 17 of Hebrews. So we will present verse 7 in Hebrews 13.

3:02 We have seen thus far, and I will attempt in the next three minutes to condense about almost three hours of exposition. We have seen, first of all, that the text set before us, the fact that there is a constituted rule in the visible church of Christ. When the writer said, remember them that had the rule over you, when he says, obey them that have the rule over you, he is asserting the fact, of the institution of a spiritual rule within the visible church of Jesus Christ. So we've considered the fact of that rule, the origin of that rule, in the sovereign will of Christ, and in the saving work of Christ, and then some essential aspects of that rule. It is bounded by the Word of God, verse 7. They rule by speaking the Word of God. That rule is carried out in the context of exemplary life.

3:59 They imitate their faith. It is a genuine, exemplary, spiritual rule. And then in the second place, we have seen not only that there is a constituted rule, but there is a clearly defined responsibility to that rule. The essence of that responsibility is bound up in the meaning of the two words.

4:21 Obey them, a present imperative, and submit, another present imperative. We've seen who the objects of this duty are. Obey them that have the rule over you. The objects of this obedience and submission are the constituted rulers within the visible church.

4:44 And now we are presently considering the reasons why we ought so to do. And they are given in these words, 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 were unprofitable for you. Here are the three reasons annexed to this definition of duty and the objects to whom the duty is to be performed. Reason number one, the nature of their rule.

Reason 1: The Nature of Their Rule – Watching for Your Souls

5:16 Obey them, submit to them, for they watch for your souls. In other words, they are solicitous. They are concerned for your highest and eternal interest. Therefore, it is in your own self-interest to obey them and submit to them, indicating that the duty is not to be performed where that kind of concern is not exemplified.

5:43 When elders and bishops and overseers cease to watch on behalf of the souls of men, men cease to be obligated to obey them and submit to them. Reason number one, is not valid apart from the other. Well, that's as far as we've gone in our consideration of the text, and we come this morning to complete this trilogy of reasons as to why we ought to obey and submit to our spiritual rulers. Having considered the first reason, namely the nature of their rule, this morning we consider the last two.

Reason 2: The Effect of Your Response on Leaders – Joy or Grief

6:23 The effect of our response to that rule, upon the rule of the Lord, upon the rule of the rulers themselves, notice that they may do this with joy and not with grief, and finally, the results of our response to their rule upon ourselves, for this were unprofitable for you.

6:43 First of all, then, this morning, reason number two as to why we ought to obey and submit to those who are over us in the Lord. It is given as the effect which your response to your rulers, will have upon those rulers. As they watch for your souls, and in that capacity have occasion to teach you, have occasion to warn you, to admonish you, to reprove you, to console and to exhort you, your reaction to that total complex of activity called watching for your souls, your reaction will cause them either joy, or grief. Now let's look for a moment at the significance of these two words. What is joy? Well, this particular word used is elsewhere translated in the New Testament, gladness.

7:44 It is that deep emotion felt by the living God himself, when he brings home to himself one of his elect. For we read in Luke chapter 15, that there is joy in the presence of, the angels over one sinner that repenteth, and the joy is the joy of God. Who as the shepherd, having sought and found his sheep, gathers his friend? Who as the woman who has lost her coin, upon finding it, gathers her friends to share in her joy?

8:17 Who as the father of the prodigal, having had the son returned, gathers the family and friends to share in his joy? There is joy in the presence of the angels, the joy, the joy of God, when he brings home to himself one of his elect. This is that joy spoken of in Hebrews, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame, anticipating the hour when he would gather to himself, one by one, all of the elect for whom he shed his blood. It is that deep emotion experienced by the Godhead, upon the return, of a lost sinner.

9:00 It is the emotion spoken of in Luke chapter two in verse ten, when the angels announce the birth of the Son of God. Now, that emotion of joy is measured in direct proportion by the worth of that which produces it. Some of you who follow basketball know there was great joy in North Carolina yesterday. When North Carolina state defeated UCLA in the NCAA, when North Carolina state defeated UCLA in the NCAA, When North Carolina state defeated UCLA in the NCAA, AAA semifinals. There was great joy. There was near pandemonium, a breaking loose when they won that game in double overtime. But there is also the joy that a miser may have felt when he walked out of that Coliseum and found a $5 bill on the street. But at the same time, there was a woman in a hospital somewhere in that same time giving birth to a child who, upon the news that she had given birth to a healthy son or daughter, had joy. Now, you see, the depth, the quality of the joy will be in direct proportion to that which produces it. Now, the joy at winning a basketball

10:10 game cannot be compared by any sane person with the joy of a mother who's just given birth to a child. Nor can that joy be compared to the joy of the miser who finds $5 to take it home and sew it up in his mattress. So you see, though it is the same emotion, the depth, the breadth, the implications of it are to be understood and measured in direct proportion to the issues at stake. Now, what are the issues at stake in this text? Obey them that have the rule over you and submit, for they watch in behalf of your souls. Their joy is a joy conditioned and determined by the joy of the Lord. Obey them that have the nuevación to the joy and the well-being of that,ispare a malign from yer midst. Obey them that have no sword. But you see, by grace of Your own will, you make

11:24 where it takes you. You obtain that game easily experienc'th sense of sex, which is to be set at a right place within your kami So you see, though it is the same emotion aración in看 if you extend what you have a good doubt of that, which is of inestimable worth, the soul, the immortal soul, of a human being, which makes the depth of the joy of a mother of a conquering basketball team or a miser whose found his money, seem as near nothing. The joy here is a joy to be understood in terms of the issues that produce it, likewise, it is soiled in mass whenhas created from the produce it likewise the grief what is this word grief well it's a very strong word it's the very word rendered groaning in romans 8 in verse 23 when the apostle speaks of the experience of the sons of god waiting for their full and complete redemption not only so but ourselves also romans 8 23 who have the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body paul uses it again in second corinthians 5 verses 2 and 4 we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened in its noun form it's used to describe the experience of the hebrews down in egypt acts 7 34 that speaks of their groaning in egypt now if you catch something of the intensity of the word it's speaking of that powerful emotion of sadness in which the spirit is pressed down as were the spirits of the israelites in egyptian bondage

12:45 it is that inarticulate venting of the deepest sadness its depth likewise is measured by that which occasions it. If the miser loses his five dollars on his way home to sew it up in his mattress, he is grieved.

13:06 If the mother is told that her child was stillborn, she is grieved.

13:13 And when elders see men losing their souls for eternity, they are grieved. So you see, the grief like the joy is conditioned, is determined in its breadth, in its implications by the issues that produce it. And what greater issue is there than the issue of the salvation and well-being of immortal souls? And so the writer says, Obey them and submit to them because your obedience or non-obedience, your submission or non-submission, will have a direct effect upon them.

When Joy or Grief is Experienced: A Present Reality

13:57 It will produce joy or it will produce grief. Now having defined the terms, we must address ourselves in the second place to the question, when will this joy or grief be the portion of those who are over us in the Lord? Some say the joy or grief will be experienced when they give an account at the last day. Referring to the words of Paul is a parallel passage in which he said, Ye are my joy, and proud of rejoicing in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

14:28 Or 1 Corinthians 3, in which Paul says, The day will declare every man's work of what sort it is, speaking of Christian workers, and they will experience joy or grief in terms of the permanence of their labors. They would say that the understanding of the text is to be such as to put the joy or grief forward to the last day. However, I do not believe that this joy or grief is the only joy or grief. However, I do not believe that this joy or grief is the meaning of the passage.

14:57 Rather, the form of the verb that they may do this seems clearly to make it a present experience. So if you'll take the little phrase as those that shall give an account and put it in parenthesis, I think the sense will come through clearly. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them. For they watch on behalf of your souls that they may do this.

15:24 That is, that they may carry out their responsibility of spiritual watchfulness with joy and not with grief right now. For this were unprofitable for you. Therefore, it is a present watching and your present response will elicit present joy or present groaning.

15:49 Now, this be the proper interpretation, and I believe it is supported linguistically as well as by the Bible. And I believe it is supported linguistically as well as by the Bible. And I believe it is supported linguistically as well as by parallel passages that we shall consider. The reasoning is powerful and most persuasive.

The Nature of Leaders' Joy and Grief

16:03 Obey them that have the rule over you. Submit to them. Lovingly comply with their administration of the rule of Christ. For in so doing, you will make their hearts glad.

16:18 Not because they are having carnal desires to lord it over you gratified by that obedience, but because they are watching for the good of your souls when they exercise their oversight by teaching doctrines based upon sound interpretation of the word of God. Obey them. Receive that word as the word of God. This will give them great joy because they know that that doctrine will lead you to know Christ better, to worship Him and love Him more fervently, more in truth as well as in spirit, that doctrine will preserve you from sin and from error.

17:00 Make their hearts glad by obeying and submitting as they inculcate the doctrines of the word of God. When they warn you, when they admonish you, when they must go into that realm that is distasteful to their flesh in terms of public censure or public discipline, obey them, submit to them. Why? You'll bring great joy to them to know that their rule is true.

17:26 Their rule is received with a spirit of submission as unto Christ who has constituted their rule and constituted them rulers in the midst. And when they give corporate directives for the well-being of the entire congregation, obey them and submit to them. Why? You will cause them great joy.

17:49 If otherwise, you'll cause them grief. Not the grief of frustrated persons, nor gain, advantage, or ambition. It will be the grief and the groaning of frustrated love. And there is no grief or groaning like unto that produced by frustrated love.

18:14 Think of the mother and father who have warned a headstrong son or daughter about the evil of wicked companions. They've pleaded. They've entreated. They've pleaded.

18:27 They've pleaded. They've pleaded. They've pleaded. They've pleaded.

18:27 They've pleaded. They've pleaded. They've done everything but bar that son or daughter's way to go out with his companions. They've done everything but bar the way by prostrating themselves before him.

18:40 That son or daughter convinced that mom and dad, you just don't understand. You lived in a different age. Their days are different. With a bit in his teeth, he goes headlong into those wicked associations only to lose his way.

18:57 Only to lose his virtue. Only to lose all that is dignified of the human being and become a veritable beast enslaved to his appetite, to his lust, to his drug habits, and to his wicked companions. And the parents who in love have exhorted and admonished, they see him turning away in a course of resolute disobedience and they experience deep and indescribable grief. Not the grief that their name may be somehow reproached if people find out.

19:36 No, no, true parents think beyond their name. They think beyond their reputation. Their grief is the grief of frustrated love that sought the good of its object only to have that love and its tangible expression spurned. And that's exactly what the writer to the Hebrews is saying.

19:58 Obey them. Submit to them. For they watch for your souls that they may do it with joy. The joy of knowing that in obedience to the doctrines taught, the warnings administered, the discipline enacted, the admonitions and exhortations given, it is for your good.

20:22 It is in your best interest and how they rejoice when they see you flourishing in the courts of God growing in holiness increasingly preserved from sin and error and growing up more and more into the likeness of the Son of God.

The Present Influence of Joy or Grief on Leaders' Ministry

20:41 When will this joy or grief be experienced? Here and now in direct proportion to your present response to their watching over you. But there's a third question that we must address ourselves to in this part of the text. What will be the present influence of this world?

20:59 What will be the present influence of this joy or grief upon those leaders? Why does he say, obey them and submit to them that they may do it with joy and not with grief? Is it that he simply wants to spare the leaders the inward pain of grief as though he is hedging up a way of protection for himself and fellow leaders? No, that would be selfish.

21:21 That would be selfish.

21:24 But you see, the joy will spur them on to greater service. It will make them more faithful, more diligent, it will put life and zest into their labors. Their health, mental and emotional,

21:39 is directly affected by your response. Remember what Paul said to the Corinthians? We live if ye stand fast in the Lord. We live.

21:52 In other words, he said life is full and rich when you stand fast. Implying that when you do not stand fast something dies in us.

22:03 Something dies in us. John Brown has spoken very perceptively to this very principle and I read just a few words from his comments on this very text. He says, Think of the influence which the manner in which the work is performed. Sorry, consider still further the effect which your submission or non-submission is likely to have on the discharge of the work of your overseers.

22:37 If you do not submit yourselves they will perform their work with grief. There are few more people with bitter sorrows than that of a faithful elder laboring among a people who counteract his attempts to promote their spiritual improvement. Even Moses, one of the elders who by faith received a good report when the Israelitish people were disobedient and rebellious was tempted to wish that God would kill him out of hand rather than continue to cause him to see his wretchedness. Numbers 11.15 When the people rebelled and complained he said, Lord, kill me out of hand and let me no longer behold my wretchedness. Slothful, selfish, cold-hearted, cavilling, conceited, contentious congregations have broken the spirit of many a faithful minister of Christ and made him go mourning to his grave.

23:37 Turn to the book of Proverbs and let Solomon speak to our hearts this morning concerning the present influence of this joy or this grief. We're looking now at the influence of the grief upon the very hearts of those who have the rule over us. Proverbs 12 and verse 25 Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop. Proverbs 13 verse 12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.

24:16 But when desire cometh it is... is a tree of life.

24:21 Proverbs 15 verse 13 A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance. But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. Verse 15 All the days of the afflicted are evil. But he that is of a cheerful heart hath a continual feast.

24:45 17 verse 22 A cheerful heart is a good medicine. But a broken spirit drieth up the bones. Now let me ask a very simple question.

24:59 These statements of the wise man Solomon with reference to the overpowering effect of deep grief and the salutary effect of exhilarating joy observations that lie open for all to see are they suddenly neutered and cancelled by the grace of God? Are they suddenly because the person happens to be an elder? Does he cease to be a true man with all the complexity of the psychological makeup in which grief in the heart even has physical effects upon him? It makes rot in the bones in which heaviness in one relationship colors all of his relationships and makes the heart to stoop? Is a man suddenly lifted above these things because he is a man? Because he happens to be one of those who has the rule over us?

25:58 Not at all. Not at all. That's why the writer to the Hebrews said, Oh, dear people,

26:06 face with gutsy realism the effect which your response to your overseers will have upon them. In terms of your present response creating present joy or present grief, if you create grief, you cause their hearts to stoop, you unwind, you unwind, you unnerve them for all of their other labors. The mind is fettered so that when the man goes into the study to labor in the word and in doctrine, this cloud hangs over the mind. It's not fertile.

26:40 He looks at the text. He consults the original. He looks to the commentators. He prays that this cloud of heaviness is like iron bars around his soul.

26:54 He tries to enter into the joys of his people and his spirit will not soar because it's imprisoned by this groaning, by this grief produced by those who will not be obedient. And the family begins to see the effects of it. The nerves are frayed. Sleep comes hard.

27:17 Patience runs thin. Oh, my dear people, is not this reason enough to cause you to cry for grace to obey and submit lest you cause such grief to your leaders? Stating it positively, if the joy of the Lord is thy strength, if gladness of heart maketh a merry countenance and causes a man to attack his work with fervor and delight, is it not enough to make you pray, Oh, God, may I contribute joy to those that are over me in the Lord.

The Intimacy of the Leader-Flock Relationship

27:54 It is a fact of human experience that the more intimate is any human relationship, the greater capacity that relationship has for grief or joy.

28:07 Think of it for a moment. Your fellow students can cause you grief or joy, but your wife or husband can cause you greater grief or joy.

28:18 What grief or what joy can even approach the grief and joy found in a marriage relationship or in the parent-child relationship?

28:29 They are the crucibles of the deepest joys and the deepest sorrows because they represent the most important thing. They represent the most intimate of human relationships. But you know what takes third place? The relationship of elders to the flock.

28:45 That takes third. Husband-wife first, parent-child second,

28:52 under-shepherds and the sheep third.

28:57 Oh, dear people, listen. You have the capacity to cause joy, to cause grief because the relationship is so intimate. And if you love your under-shepherds, the scripture says, love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

29:18 As we have a number of men present today who aspire to the office of a bishop, let me remind you from this text of one or two important principles. God's word knows nothing, absolutely nothing, of the idea that a minister is some detached, bloodless, tearless, joyless, emotionally neutered word machine.

29:46 No, no. His life is bound up in the lives of his people as the shepherd's life is bound up in the life of his flock. Away with the idea of the country to labor with a broken heart and a crushed spirit. Seek other pastures because the flock of God will at times cause you grief.

30:12 But blessed be God, they can cause you joy. Joy unspeakable and full of glory. When the admonition is received and you see the end effect of the purifier, the restoration of communion with the Lord Jesus, the opening of his word again, the vindication of his name and of his cause. Oh, what a wealth of truth is bound up in this second reason as to why you ought to obey your overseers.

Reason 3: The Influence of Your Response on Yourself – Unprofitable for You

30:48 Your obedience or lack of the same has a powerful effect upon them that they may watch with joy and not with grief. But then we have the third reason given. The influence which your response will ultimately have upon yourself. Notice how he puts it.

31:13 For this were unprofitable for you. Not only will the joy and grief have an effect upon them, but your lack of obedience and submission will have a direct negative effect upon yourself. Now, what do those words mean? This were unprofitable or unadvantageous to you.

31:40 Well, this expression is a literary device and I'll give you a little English lesson this morning called a litotes. Spelled L-I-T-O-T-E-S. L-I-T-O-T-E-S. L-I-T-O-T-E-S.

31:52 Would be the way you think it was pronounced, but it's a litotes. And it's the use of an understatement for a fact. Understatement in which something positive is expressed by a negation of the contrary. You say, what was that?

32:08 Well, let me illustrate. Somebody's just made a trip to Florida and when they come back you say, how you doing? Oh, you look nice. You're all ten.

32:14 How was your trip to Florida? The man might answer this way. I have not a few regrets that I ever went. What he's saying is, I am sorry I ever went.

32:25 And when you begin to talk to him, he says, his car or the engine threw a rod on the way down and then when he was getting it fixed and in a motel someone broke in the motel and stole his money and he had all these woes and so you say, how was your trip to Florida? He says, I have not a few regrets. What he's saying is, I have many regrets. You see, it's a figure of speech.

32:46 We use it with enough degree of commonness that you understand what it is. Now that's what the writer to the Hebrews is using. He's saying, obey and submit because if you do not, this were unadvantageous for you. They may groan, but you do more than groan.

33:06 They may be grieved, but their grief is not their loss. You will actually suffer the loss over which they are grieving, but the loss is not theirs, but yours.

33:24 Now how is that statement statement fulfilled? Well, it's fulfilled directly and indirectly. Directly, since the response which causes grief is rebellion to the word administered by the leaders, it means that the person is thus rebelling against his Lord. Remember Jesus said, he that receives him that I send receives me.

33:50 He that receives me receives him that sent me. He that rejects him that whom I send rejects me. He who rejects me rejects me rejects him that sent me. Luke 10, 16.

34:00 The principle of Romans 13, the powers that be ordained of God, whosoever resists them resists the ordinance of God and will bring to himself judgment. It can only be a provocation of God's chastening rod when men and women do not submit to that rule that is administered biblically. We come back to it again and again. That's the qualifying phrase.

34:25 But when they, when they do show a spirit of insubordination, they're provoking the chastening rod of God, they're asking for it to come,

34:37 that is unprofitable for you in terms of its present experience for no chastening for the present seemeth joyous, the writer to Hebrews tells us. But not only so, presently and directly conscience will be crippled and there will be that inability to pray with the knowledge that my Father hears me. Because John says, we know we have what we ask of him when we do his will and keep his commandments. And when you are not keeping his commandment, obey them that have the rule over you.

35:12 Submit to them for they watch for your souls. There is that blot upon your own conscience. There is the crippling of liberty in prayer. And then there is the frightening possibility of having to stand before the Lord and give an account for having been a deleterious, a negative, a baneful influence in the church of Christ.

35:38 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16 says, If any man destroy the temple of God, which temple ye are, referring to the church at Corinth, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy. Oh, my brethren, my heart is trembled. Literally within me I haven't felt it jump. But you know what I mean when I say my heart is trembled.

36:00 As news has come to me of the disruption in some of our sister churches in the past year, when church members have taken, as it were, the law into their own hands and rather than simply saying, I don't like things here, I don't like the rule, I don't like the set up and leave, they have stayed with him and caused schism and disruption and the crippling of the house of God. I said, Lord, how dare they?

36:29 Someone dared attempt this with reference to the work at Hazleton, over which God has placed us. I faced him and opened up 1 Corinthians 3 and I said, Sir, you listen to the word of God. And I read it to him. And I said, if you're determined to stay in this situation and cause disruption, you better be prepared for God to say amen to his word and begin to lay his hand heavy upon you.

36:54 Thank God it put the fear of God in his heart. My friend, the temple of God is holy. That temple in its holiness and in its beauty is to reflect the unity that is in Christ. The body is to manifest that Christ is not divided, that Christ is one, that the hand cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee, let alone follow me to set out to cut off the foot.

37:23 It's a frightful thing when through selfish interest and through headstrong perspectives, people begin to wreak havoc within the body of Christ. This were unprofitable for you. Obey them that have the rule over you. They administer that rule as we saw in an earlier study with a view not only to the maintenance of your own individual well-being, but the corporate well-being of the family of God, no little part of which is its essential unity, its love, its peace, and its concord.

Indirect Unprofitableness: Lessened Efficiency of Leaders

38:03 But then indirectly, this were not profitable for you. Why? Because your obedience that brings joy is matched on the other hand by the disobedience that brings grief to your elders and that grief will then return upon you in the lessening of their efficiency. Listen to John Brown speaking on this issue.

38:30 And I read him again because trying to paraphrase him, I only spoil him. He says it more concisely and beautifully. Think of the influence, which the manner in which the work is performed will have on your own interest. If it's performed with grief, that were unprofitable for you.

38:47 The labors of a disheartened spiritual teacher or superintendent are not likely to be effective. Even where there is the highest degree of spiritual holy principle, the hands will wax feeble when the heart is discouraged. The hands will wax feeble when the heart is discouraged. And the blessing of the great master is not likely to be imparted when his commands are disregarded and his servants misused.

39:23 On the other hand, if your elder's work is performed with joy, it will be profitable unto you. He'll be enabled to do his work in the most satisfactory way. His best affections will be strongly drawn out to those who rightly estimate his labors and show a regard to the law of the Lord. They will pray for you and preach to you with double fervor and impressiveness, seeing of the travail of his master's soul and of his own.

39:51 He will be satisfied and he will become more and more desirous that those in whom the good work is going forward under his instrumentality may grow in all holy attainments. He'll become ingenious in devising and unwearied in executing plans for their spiritual, spiritual improvement. The great head of the church regarding with a benignant smile the affectionate, laborious eldership and the docile, obedient church will pour upon them in rich abundance of the selectest influences of his grace and bless them and make them blessings. Happy elders, happy church.

40:31 In their experiences, verified the ancient oracle, quoting now from Isaiah, then, shall thy light break forth as the morning in thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward and the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. Happy people, happy elders, whose lot it is to administer the rule of Christ in a context in which there is this blessed, spiritually, scripturally intelligent submission and obedience to the rule and authority of Jesus Christ. Here then is an appeal in this third reason to what we could call his legitimate self-interest. Isn't it self-interest? This were unprofitable for you.

Legitimate Self-Interest and the Call to Obedience

41:38 That's self-interest, but it's legitimate self-interest. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves, indicating that legitimate self-love is the index and the measure of proper love to my neighbor. Would you willingly and deliberately sit here this morning and take a hacksaw and start cutting off your own fingers? If we saw anyone doing that, we'd know that something had snapped up here.

42:08 Why? Well, as Paul says, no man ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes and cherishes it. And women, too.

42:18 Some nourish it a little bit too much. If they cherished it a little bit more, they'd nourish it a little less, as far as caloric intake is concerned and other factors that create the problem of corpulence.

42:33 But the principle is nonetheless there. We have a legitimate self-interest. Now the word of God does not bypass that. It seizes hold of it.

42:43 And incorporates it into these three fundamental reasons given as to why it is right and good that all of us should obey those who are over us in the Lord. And I use the us not in terms of a literary device as we indicated last week. I am subject to my three fellow elders. And I thank God for the privilege of having them watch for my soul.

43:09 And I must be obedient to them. And they to the rest of us and all of us to them as appointed overseers. The true nature of their rule, it's instituted for your good. Obey them.

43:23 Submit to them. They watch for your souls. Reason number two, the effect your response will have upon them. It will cause them present grief or present joy. The effect which your response will have upon yourself. It is unprofitable if you do not obey and submit both present directly and future and indirectly.

Responding to the Reasons: A Test of Your Relationship with God

43:48 And you know, your response to those three reasons is a good index of just where you are in terms of your basic relationship to the living God. Do those three reasons cut mustard with you?

44:03 Do they grab you? Do they take hold of you? As you've heard them expounded, have you said O Lord, I see that that's reasonable. That's right. That's good. O Lord, help me. Help me in that time when I'm tempted to repent. Bail to the insubordinate. Lord, bring those reasons to remembrance.

44:22 Use them effectually. Is that the way your heart has been responding under the exposition of these things? Or have you sat there dead as a dodo, unmoved by this? My friend, if these things have not struck you in the inner chambers of the heart, you're in a bad, bad place.

44:44 If you sit there in the arrogance of your so-called self-sufficiency, saying, I need no one to watch over me. I've got my Bible and I've got the Holy Ghost. My friend, you've got a head full of ignorance and a heart full of arrogance. Almighty God in the person of his beloved Son, who is the great under-shepherd, who is the great shepherd, has instituted a rank of under-shepherds because he knows that we desperately need them. You show the arrogance of your ignorance by sitting back aloof from such considerations and saying, I can make it on my own.

45:31 Would that I could share for just a few minutes something of your ignorance. Life would be a lot simpler, but oh, so dangerous.

45:44 There are others of you who sit there and say, Pastor Martin, that's just the whole thing that bugs me. I don't want anybody watching for my soul. I want to do with my soul what I please, and by that you mean I want to destroy it and send it to hell without anybody ever raising a whisper of an objection. Well, the fact that you're here by God's providence, whether it's worked by means of parents who won't let you be elsewhere on Sunday morning, whether it's worked by friends who've invited you, we're not going to let you sink into hell without someone raising a voice and calling upon you to take heed to your ways, to consider that you're a creature made in the image of God, that you're on your way to stand before that, that God, and you with me will breathe your last and enter His presence. As I sat here on the platform this morning praying again, Lord, give me a mind and a heart prepared to preach. And as I heard my own breathing, the thought came over me with fresh power. One day these lungs will inhale their last breath, and they'll exhale their last. As

47:03 surely as they've assisted me in these 45 minutes to suck in air and to exhale carbon dioxide and other gases, they'll suck in their last lungful, and they'll expel their last, and I'll be done. And my friend, those lungs that have sucked in air and exhaled them while you've listened this morning, the moment, the hour, the second is coming when they'll expel their last. Then what will matter? All the flesh pots at which you've sacked and satiated your carnal baser appetites?

47:47 What consolation from your flesh pots when you stand in the presence of the God who made you? What consolation, your sensual delights, when you meet the God of the universe and have your sins placarded before you? And hear Him say, depart from me, cursed into everlasting fire. Oh, my dear friends, though you want us not to watch, we will watch.

48:20 We will plead. We will warn. We will entreat. We will earnestly reason with you.

48:28 Can you deny that your lungs will suck in their last breath and breathe out their last? Would you dare to stand here this morning in the presence of reasonable, sane people and say, I have a niche on immortality? You say, no, I got more sense than that, my friend. Do you have enough sense to realize as your own conscience affirms that death is not the end?

48:56 And you know as well as I that it is not the end, and you don't even need the Bible to prove that to you, for the scripture says it's part of the remains of the image of God within the human heart and mind that we know the judgment of God awaits us in the life to come.

49:16 Oh, dear young people, parents, visitors, we watch for your souls. We seek not yours, but you. And our great concern is not that you come into the membership of this church and submit to its overseers. No, no.

49:33 That's cart before horse. Our great concern is that you seek the mercy and grace of the great shepherd, the Lord Jesus, who laid down his life for an innumerable company whom no man can number and has pledged, pledged that all who come unto him, he would receive them. My friend, listen. If you've missed everything else, I hope you will not miss this.

50:00 The one answer to your greatest need is found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in watching for your soul, that's our great concern, that you be joined unto him, the one who is called in the latter part of this very chapter, the great shepherd of the sheep. And then for those who have been sought and found by that shepherd and who are a part of this visible local assembly or any other visible local community of God's people, may the words of Hebrews 13 17 be etched upon our hearts and minds. By the grace of God, may we do what they direct us to do, obeying them that have the rule over us and submit to them for they watch for our souls that they may do this with joy and not with grief, for this were unprofitable for us. Let us pray. O Lord, we worship you this morning and we praise you from the depths of our hearts for your love and concern

51:29 for us, your people,

51:33 in that you have instituted such a rule within the visible church and you have put it into the hearts of men with no thought of their own gain to make our greatest interest their greatest concern. O Father, we thank you for those in whom we are able to read something of your selfless concern for us, and we pray for this congregation that it may be preserved from the spirit of tyranny in its leaders and from the spirit of anarchy in its followers. We thank you and bless your name for the measure to which you have graciously wrought a spirit of submission and a spirit of gentle, loving concern in the hearts of the overseers. But, O Lord, we are not so foolish as to think that the enemy of our souls hates this, with a vile and a deep hatred. And we pray, O blessed God, that you will preserve the spirit of sweet and gentle submission, the spirit of deep and biblical concern. Father, we likewise plead for those who resent anyone even meddling in the affairs of their souls.

53:04 May the exhortation given this morning, be sent home into the deep inner chambers of the heart and speak where no man can speak. And, O God, prevail upon the heart and the mind where no man can prevail. We thank you for this portion of your word. Thank you for its richness and how it is ministered to our own hearts. We bless you.

53:33 And now we pray that grace may be given to us to remember and to apply and to implement in those times when we most desperately need to remember what we have heard today. Bring it to remembrance, O blessed spirit, marking out the way that is the way of blessedness. Hear us in these our prayers and receive the praise we bring. Take us from this place, we pray, into the remaining hours of this day to sanctify and hallow the day to our prophet and to your praise through Jesus Christ our Lord.

54:16 Amen.