Elders: Primary Tasks / Functions, Part 1

Introduction: The Crucial Importance of Biblical Church Officers

0:04 Now today we take up the fifth crucial aspect of a biblically framed standard for church officers. And we shall address as the fifth element of this biblically established standard, the biblical standard for the specific functions, authority, and mutual relationship of these officers. The biblical standard for the specific functions, authority, and mutual relationship of these officers. Now in opening up this avenue of concern, we'll be addressing such things as, what has the king commanded his captains to do in the ordering of his army? Going back to the analogy of two weeks ago. What duties has the king ordered? Authorize the captains to lay upon the quartermasters in his army.

1:07 In what manner are the royal directives to be carried out by these officers? With what weight and clout are the rank and file of the soldiers in the army to regard their directives? Or to put the question in the language of the book of Numbers chapter 16, when do the leaders take too much upon themselves? And usurp authority that God has never given?

1:37 Or when is the congregation guilty of taking too much upon themselves when God has not given such authority to them? Now few matters are of more crucial importance to the well-being of any church than the answers we both give and live by with respect to the church. Respect to these questions. For both the Bible and church history constitute a sad saga of the ruin and wreckage that comes in the wake of the tyranny of unbiblically exercised authority on the one hand, and the anarchy of unbiblical independence on the part of the congregation on the other. Now John Brown in his classic commentary on 1 Peter comments in opening up the whole subject of Peter's treatment of elders by underscoring the very statement I have made. Listen to this sagacious servant of God from another generation.

2:55 It is quite plain from these passages that obedience and submission are required from church members to their office bearers. It is unambiguous. It is unhappily too certain that much mischief has been done and much good prevented by church officers assuming a power and authority that do not belong to them but only to the one Lord and encroaching on the liberties which every Christian possesses in inalienable right by virtue of the gift of this one Lord. So he says, who can calculate?

3:36 The horrible, tragic results of those in leadership usurping authority that Christ never gave to them and which they've rinsed from the people an authority purchased, a liberty purchased by the blood of Christ but usurped either through ignorance, ambition. But it is just as unhappily notorious that much mischief has been done and much good prevented in the Christian church, by anarchy as well as tyranny, by church members refusing to obey them that are over them in the Lord and by church officers allowing themselves to be denuded of the authority which their master has clothed them and without the exercise of which the great and salutary ends of their office cannot be gained. The Christian church is a very free society and they mistake, they mistake the matter who consider it as a democracy. It is a monarchy administered by their magistrates chosen by their fellow subjects who are to execute the king's laws being guided solely by his word and neither by their own judgment or caprice

4:59 nor by the opinions and will of those whom they govern. Christ is the Lord and he administers his government by officers, officers, and people. Christ is the Lord and he administers his government by officers, officers, and people. Christ is the Lord and he administers his government by officers, officers, and people.

5:09 appointed according to his ordinance and regulated by his laws. Now listen to his concluding statement of this paragraph. It is of great importance both office bearers and private members of a Christian church that they have distinct scriptural views on this subject that the former, we office bearers, may not exact what we have no right to and that the latter, you, the people of God, may not by the law to give. It is of great importance that office bearers and private members views not have the church's base preference determined to follow of scripture in this critical matter. Now then, with that introduction I trust persuading us

6:32 that as we are to pursue the standard for church officers, that as we are to pursue the standard for church officers, that taking up this one strand of concern, namely, the proper officers as defined by the scriptures, and then, God willing, next week, the proper authority of church officers as delineated in the scriptures, we are not going to get along this issue too thin. Both the Bible and church history tells us that to be wrong here is to find our sense on the rocks of tyranny, on the shoulders of anarchy, on the right, on the right, on the left, on the left, on the right, on the right, on the right, on the right. And any church cursed with tyranny or anarchy will not be a church full of joy and of the Holy Spirit and useful in its generation. So then do not be weary, my fellow believers, in whatever mental and spiritual energy is essential to come to distinct scriptural views on this critical subject. First of all, then, the task of church officers as defined by the scriptures.

The Primary Task: Shepherding the Flock of God

7:57 And this will not be a fully comprehensive treatment. We're going to just look at the major lines of biblical material. Open up before us of church officers this morning the task of the elders. And I have four simple biblical subheadings.

8:20 What is the task? If we do not understand this biblically, we'll not understand the issue of the limits and the extent of their authority. And therefore we will not be in a relationship to the limits and to the extent of their authority. We'll not have a conscience rightly instructed as to whether or not we're being vulnerable to tyranny or being guilty of anarchy.

8:48 Both of which are abominable in the sight of God. So we must start with coming to grips. With what the scripture says elders, bishops, pastors are to do. And what are they to do?

9:03 In a broad, fully exhaustive, can be subsumed under four simple headings. Each one extracted from the scriptures. Number one, they are to shepherd the flock of God.

9:22 Elders dash pastors are given according to Ephesians 4. 11. To the church, when he led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men and he gave some.

9:40 The same word translated elsewhere in the New Testament, shepherds. Exactly the same Greek word, shepherds and teachers. And these shepherds are commanded not to put on a robe and carry a crook and simply have a name, shepherd. These shepherds are commanded to shepherd.

10:03 The flock of God. And there are two passages which make this abundantly clear. In Acts chapter 20, when the apostle Paul is charging the Ephesian elders with their standing responsibility in the church at Ephesus. Knowing that he will see their face no more.

10:25 No longer will they have the benefit of an apostle laboring among them. And as all of spiritual oversight is being. Commended to these elders, he says in verse 28, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops, overseers, to feed. And that is a very poor translation.

10:52 It is the verb form of the noun shepherd. Here you have poimaino and you have an infinitive, not just to feed, but literally to shepherd. To shepherd the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood. What is to be the terminus of their continuous close attention to themselves and to the flock?

11:18 Take heed unto yourselves and imperative and to all the flock to do what?

11:32 To yourself and to the flock with a view to being and to perform and functions of shepherds. To their sheep and 1st Peter 5 to we have the same verb addressed to elders, but here in the imperative form 1st Peter chapter 5, 1st Peter chapter 5, the elder therefore among who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ to am a partaker of the glory that should be revealed. The 1901 renders it here tend to the flock of God. No reason for that difference. Same word, shepherds is among you. Here in elders, you are to performance of a shepherd to which is among you.

Shepherding Demands Comprehensive Responsibility

12:38 So the first then of elders, bishops, pastors, they are to shepherd the flock. What is bound up in the concept of shepherding? Obviously, God's people are not dumb animals. And those in the place of eldership are not professional agrarian shepherds.

13:01 Shepherds, those who are out on a hillside, it is a figure that is used to underscore the nature of their time. Well, certainly it involves at least these two things. Number one, consciously taking a place of responsibility for the sheep, which is qualitatively different from the responsibility of the sheep one to another. Now, I want you to listen.

13:34 I'm going to read it again. And I want you to. When he says to the elders, there Miletus, the congregation was not there, just the elders. He says, pay close attention to yourselves and to all the flock to shepherd the flock of God.

13:52 Now, Peter says, the elders among you, I exhort, shepherd the flock of God. What's that mean? Well, certainly it means this. That they must consciously take a place of comprehensive responsibility.

14:06 For the sheep. Sheep, which is qualitatively different from the responsibility of the sheep one to another. Now, if that's not true, then the whole imagery of the shepherd and the sheep is sheer nonsense. Now, the Bible has a lot to say about the responsibility that sheep have one to another.

14:30 We're to pray one for another. We're to exhort one another. We're to bear one another's burdens. There is a host of one.

14:38 And another in directives in the New Testament.

14:46 To shepherd itself.

14:49 That's congregationalism.

14:53 Where elders are mere. And this is the in word, if you don't know it. Facilitators. You know, that's the in word.

15:01 That's the cutting edge word in evangelicalism today. So and so will be the facilitator. You know what the word facilitate means? To make something easy.

15:10 So the facilitator is just the catalyst to make it a little easier for you to do what you would normally do.

15:18 Facilitate the flock. So the shepherd, the flock, that is every shepherd admonished in Acts 20 and in first Peter five is consciously to comprehensive responsibility for the sheep, which is quality print from the responsibility of the sheep one to another. If Christ heard and he is first Peter five, four, when the chief in a context where he says to the lesser. Shepherds, you El Shepard, the flock, are we prepared to have authority to his people than his people have one to another?

16:18 I hope not. Sheep like the rest of us who have some gifts of facilitating. Oh, no. They have an office of a shepherd.

16:41 And that means that it is their ability, according to the charge in Acts 20 and first Peter five, to take that place of comprehensive responsibility for the sheep, which is quality. So we will have an office of a shepherd who is qualitatively different from the responsibility of the sheep one to another. Will give a formal accounting for the flock of God. Part of the awesome attendant of being a shepherd.

17:16 Or in Hebrews 13, 17, we read obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them for it with joy and not with grief for this. We're not profitable to you. Give formal accounting for the flock. All of the members of the sheep and the flock know it is the shepherds.

Lesser Shepherds Under the Chief Shepherd

17:42 shepherds. They give a form for the care of the flock. And there are some who think that to take that position, though it seems to me patent in the passages, is to denigrate on the one hand the headship of Christ as the chief shepherd, and to denigrate the realities of new covenant blessings resident among the sheep on the other hand. But you see, you must not set up a dichotomy that is not recognized in the word of God. Now let me illustrate it from two clear Old Testament passages. Who was the shepherd of Israel? You say Jehovah. Exactly. The Israel is my shepherd.

18:34 I shall not lack anything. Psalm 23. But now I want you to turn to two passages in the Psalms that indicate that Jehovah as shepherd is in no way undermined because he appoints shepherds to govern and lead. His people. We read in Psalm 77 20, these very interesting and I think helpful words. I hope you find them helpful. Psalm 77 and verse 20. In this great celebration of God's mighty deeds towards his people, the psalmist concludes with these words, thou leddest thy people like a flock. Who was their leader? It was Jehovah.

19:23 Celebrated it. His mighty works in this particular passage. Thou ledest thy people like a flock. God was their ultimate shepherd and leader, but he didn't do it immediately, but he mediated his shepherding leadership. How? By the hand of Moses and Aaron.

19:47 Well, who was their shepherd? Jehovah or Moses and Aaron? Both. Jehovah is such under the new covenant.

20:04 But the establishment of lesser under shepherds does not detract from his unique glory. The shepherd he has chosen to look by the hand of brings into this office in a scriptural way as we saw last week, whom he alone marks out and equips and fits and anoints, whom his people thinking scripturally evaluate. And yes, a shepherd and in following leadership in the Lord. They are following the Lord who gave them, let us by people like a flock, but by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Second example. Turn over to the next psalm, Psalm 78. This lengthy psalm, again, celebrating as well as confessing the sins of God's people, celebrating the mercy and the goodness of God.

21:16 The psalm ends with this wonderful statement of the Lord raising his hands to the Lord. Pray it out loud. Pray it out loud. Pray it out loud.

21:21 Pray it out loud. Pray it out loud. Amazing of David, verse 70, he chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds, from following the ewes that have their young, he brought them, now notice, to be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he was their shepherd, according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

21:54 The very one who said, Jehovah is my shepherd, Jehovah says of that man, David is my shepherd. You see that? David is the person of the glory of the shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd, and now Jehovah says, David is my shepherd. Not to shepherd Jehovah, but to shepherd his people. So he was their shepherd, shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

22:32 Now someone counters and says, oh Martin, don't you know that Jesus said in Matthew 23, call no man, for one is your teacher, the Christ, call no man, one is your master, the distinction, it is only a matter of greater giftedness, my friends. That is sheer nonsense. It is Jesus Christ who by his apostles formulated this concept of a group who are mount as shepherds, and another group before whom they stand, and over whom they preside, and whom they lead, who are called sheep. And there's a qualitative difference between the sheep who are led, and the shepherd who leads.

Distinctive Functions of a Shepherd: Securing Food and Protection

23:31 And the shepherd who leads them is to distort the word of God and to fly into the face of the wisdom of Jesus Christ, who has instituted that distinction to keep his people both from the horrible tyranny of man-made leadership, and the wretched, wretched cacophony and confusion of anarchy, if there are no true shepherds. So, they are to shepherd. And what does that concept of shepherding demand? It demands, first of all, consciously taking a place of comprehensive responsibility for the sheep, which is qualitatively different from the responsibility of the sheep, one to another. But then secondly, it means discharging those distinctive functions of a shepherd to the sheep assigned to his care.

24:37 In the spirit of the great shepherd himself, it means not only consciously taking responsibility, but secondly, discharging those distinctions of a shepherd to the sheep assigned to his care of the great, or the chief, shepherd. And let me set before you A, B, C, D, E. Five things that are clearly of the shepherd. Shepherds function toward the sheep, which find beautiful parallels in the ministry of the chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus. Number one, it means securing wholesome food for the sheep. Securing wholesome food for the sheep.

25:35 That is one of the obvious, distinct functions of a shepherd. That's why when our Lord was recommissioning Peter in John 21, Do you love me, Peter? Do you love me? Do you love me?

25:47 And Peter's response three times, and in those responses, and this is one of those places where it's difficult to carry over into an English translation the nuances of the Greek, though some have done it. Twice, Jesus uses the verb bosko, which means literally to feed. It's the word used when in the Gospels it says that there was a herd of swine and their keepers were feeding them, they were securing food for them. He says, In the last of the three, he says, But in the middle, he uses the verb poimaino, So one of the clear and dominant responsibilities of a shepherd is to bosko, to feed the sheep, to secure food for the sheep. This is why the requirement of an elder is that he must be an apt teacher. 1 Timothy 3, verse 3. 1 Timothy 3, verse 1 and verse 9.

26:51 He must be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine and to convict the gainsayers. Why? Because in this way he is providing the sheep with wholesome food. Now, among the elders, some will have greater gifts and endowments of the Spirit that will warrant their being fully active in a work of official feeding of the sheep.

27:18 And therefore, 1 Timothy 5, 1 Timothy 5, verse 17 says, The elders that rule well are worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in teaching. Among the elders, all are responsible to secure wholesome food for the sheep and must be able to give to the sheep in settings and contexts appropriate to their gifts and calling and station and opportunity and all of those variables. There is to be no man in the eldership who cannot give to the sheep. There is to be no man in the eldership who cannot take the word of God and instruct the mind of a believer who cannot feed with wholesome food the word of God.

28:01 But some among them will have great and greater endowment of the Spirit and they will have a greater occupation in the securing of wholesome food for the sheep. But in discharging those distinctive functions of a shepherd in the spirit of the chief shepherd, all elders are responsible. To secure wholesome food for the sheep. Secondly, protecting the sheep from predators.

28:30 That's a responsibility of shepherds. Not only to lead the sheep into green pastures and by waters of quietness. Psalm 23. But to have a rod of the sheep from predators.

28:45 Acts chapter 20. Paul very closely ties together the role of shepherding God's people with protecting them from predators. Look at the emphasis again in Acts 20. Take heed to yourselves and to the flock to shepherd the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.

29:09 I know that after my departing, grievous wolves shall enter in among you. And you see the shepherd's sheep imagery is still in his mind. Not sparing the flock. You see this is directly tied to the function of shepherding.

29:25 The flock. Take heed. Securing.

29:34 But it will do. It will do no good to secure wholesome food if they themselves become food for the wolves and the bears. You must as shepherds, Paul says to the elders, protect the sheep from predators. And there's a beautiful example of this in the life of David.

29:52 You children will remember this in 1 Samuel 17. When David shows up there on the plains where that big giant was bragging and mocking God and his people. And David says I'm ready to take him on in the name of Jehovah. And they try to shut up David.

30:12 He wasn't a little 12 year old. He was a young man at this time. But compared to Goliath, he'd look like one of those wide outs that's 5 foot 7, 165 pounds. Standing next to one of those interior linemen.

30:25 Most of them now anywhere from 6'2 or 3 to 6'7. Weighing 285 to 320 pounds. I mean they're big dudes.

30:35 And by comparison. David was a stripling of a lad. And one of the little boys. You don't have to get rid of that song.

30:42 Only a boy named David. Like he was just barely coming into prepubescence. And maybe had one whisker on his chin. No, he was a young man.

30:51 He was a young man. But still a stripling. Compared to the giant. And not only was the giant mocking.

30:57 But even the people of God said who in the world are you? Verse 33 of 1 Samuel 17. Saul said to David you're not able to go against this Philistine. To fight with him.

31:07 Thou art but a youth. And he is a man of war. From his youth. And David said wait a minute.

31:13 I go forth with a proven track record. And David said unto Saul. Thy servant was keeping his father's sheep. And when there came a lion or a bear.

31:25 And took a lamb out of the flock. I went out after him. And smote him. And delivered it out of his mouth.

31:34 And when he arose against me. I caught him by his beard. And smote him. And slew him.

31:41 Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear. Then he reasons by analogy. And says if God can take this young man. Who's giving himself to the task of a shepherd.

31:52 Namely protecting the sheep under my care from predators. And I went after them. Took the lamb out of its mouth. Slew the animal when it turned upon me.

32:04 Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. God's flock now has this great predator standing out there. Mocking them.

32:17 Seeking to devour them. And as I was shepherd over the flock entrusted to be by my father. Now he says I will go forth and seek to protect the people from this predator. But it's that whole concept you see that as a shepherd though a relatively young man.

32:37 David knew he was not worth the name shepherd. If he was not prepared to protect his sheep from predators for which they were no match. And so are shepherds of God's flock, heretics, divisive people, immoral people. Those who would destroy the purity or the peace or stability of the people of God are predators.

33:02 God calls them wolves from without. And then he speaks of perverse men from within. And he says you shepherds protect the sheep. They're not able to protect themselves.

33:13 You protect them. You protect them. You protect them. God have mercy on any flock of God's people that have what are called shepherds.

33:23 Who say well my ministry is just wholly positive. I'm just an expositor. I just give the positive teaching. And I leave to the Holy Spirit to take care of exposing heretics.

33:34 And driving away divisive people. And exposing heretics. And exposing the immoral and if necessary exercising discipline. I leave all that with the Holy Ghost.

33:42 No you don't. You're an ecclesiastical coward. Tear your collar off. And go do something else but don't expose God's poor sheep to gutless shepherds.

Distinctive Functions of a Shepherd: Seeking the Lost and Separating Goats

33:54 Who have no heart nor will nor courage to protect them from predators. But then there's a third thing that shepherds must do if they're to function as they ought. Not only secure wholesome food for the sheep. Not only protect the sheep from predators.

34:13 But thirdly they are aggressively to seek out the wandering, the sick, the diseased and the feeble with a view to restoring them to the flock in good health. That's the task of shepherds. And that's all bound up in the shepherding imagery of the task of elders. Aggressively to seek out the wandering.

34:37 The sick. The diseased and feeble with a view to restoring them to the flock in good health. You remember how Jesus used this analogy? He said what shepherd if he has a hundred sheep and ninety-nine are safely in the fold doth not leave the ninety and nine and go out and seek the one that has strayed.

35:02 The one that is vulnerable to the storm and to the lightning and to the loose rocks upon a craggy hillside. He assumes that any man worthy of the name of a shepherd was committed aggressively to seek out the wandering and therefore the exposed vulnerable sheep and if necessary to lay down his life till he could bring that sheep back into the safety of the fold healthy and sound. Again in Ezekiel 34 God speaks to the leaders, the shepherds of Israel and he condemns them that they are the sheep of God. They are the sheep of God.

35:40 They did not do this very thing that was obviously their task to do. Ezekiel 34 the word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel prophesy and say unto them even to the shepherds thus saith the Lord woe unto the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves should not the shepherds feed the sheep? I could have used this text under that verse. It says fastly to them he spoke in nine Fry the devils fool and speak of the sheep for ordinarily they would too hold an opinion for it in catch that of the Lord.

36:21 So he leagues the sheep. I think three fizzled sheep on a plate to the shepherd with your blood. And they said where from the possessed they say these are the sheep what seed they are and he says them and he said we would also say that they would be thatbi and that the sheep would be water and he said now do not do anything for a while. You were driving the sheep as a herd you never stopped to see. Is one of them missing? Did you aggressively go after the wandering one if one stumbled and seemed sick? No, you were preoccupied with driving the remaining healthy ones. Why?

36:59 That you might cut off their fleece and put the money in your pocket when you sold it. You might kill them and have your mutton meals. You eat them. You live off them. But you don't live and if necessary die for them. That's the responsibility of shepherds.

37:21 Aggressively to seek out the wandering, the sick, the diseased, the feeble with a view to restoring them to the flock. Now what happens you see when a shepherd does this with dumb attitude? Animal sheep? We would think it utterly incongruous if the sheep could think and talk.

37:39 That if a sheep had gotten so sick with some kind of an intestinal bug, maybe there was some kind of a worm that he got from eating a certain kind of noxious weed. And that is tearing up his stomach and rendering him weak and he cannot eat and digest ordinary food. And the shepherd sees him slower than the others and occasionally dropping to the ground and falling behind until he's separated from the flock. And vulnerable to the wolves and the bear and other predators.

38:07 What would you think if one of the shepherds at great cost and exposure to himself was willing to leave his other shepherds and leave the flock and leave the safety of the campfire and the tent and go out and seek out that sheep and come to it and find it. And then begin to feel its stomach. What would you think if the sheep reared back and started to kick him and say who in the world are you to mess around with my private life? My stomach.

38:32 Stick your fingers in my wool. I've got my rights.

38:43 You'd say no sheep would be that stupid. No. No it wouldn't. Only professing Christians are that stupid.

38:52 To resent it when shepherds who love them say hey, you've got the marks of a sick tummy.

39:00 You've got the marks of a spiritual gastrointestinal problem and I want to help you. Who are you to butt into my life? I'm a shepherd charged with getting you safe to heaven.

39:15 You see how incongruous is the notion, this idea we can float into any old church, join it, do our thing, but nobody has a right to butt into our lives and say hey, I see the marks of sickness in your spiritual gait. I see it in your spiritual fleece. It's not full and sick like the rest of the sheep. When I pick up your lip, I see the marks of it in your gums, your speech, and I'm concerned.

39:48 What's the problem? Lovingly but aggressively seeks to heal the sick.

39:55 Who are you to be checking up on the fact that I haven't been in a prayer meeting for three months? Well, you're getting on the fringes of the life of the church and when you're there, the enemy can pick you off. That's why I'm coming and saying how come we haven't seen you at prayer meeting? Who are you to butt into my life?

40:10 My friends, shepherds not only butt into the lives of their sheep, the Bible says they lay down their lives for their sheep. Discharging those distinctive functions of a shepherd in the spirit of the great shepherd means securing wholesome food for the sheep. It means protecting the sheep from predators, heretics, divisive, immoral people, aggressively seeking out the wandering, the sick, the diseased, and feeble with a view to restoring them to the flock in good health. But then there's a fourth function involved in that imagery.

40:48 Always seeking to separate. Known goats from the sheep.

40:57 Always seeking to separate known goats who may have wandered into the flock from those who are true sheep. You say, where do you get that from the Bible? Turn to Matthew 25. It was apparently a common function of the sheep in the days of our Lord because he uses it as a simile, a like.

41:19 And you don't use similes as figures of speech. When you're trying to be understood and use as the likeness something that people don't know anything about.

41:34 If I were to say, now I want to show you what it is like to be thus and thus. And then I drew a likeness from some remote village over there in Serbia or Croatia where a lot of the problem's going on. You wouldn't know anything about rural life there. You'd sit there and say, Pastor, your likeness doesn't communicate.

41:53 You've got to exegete your likeness. So when the Lord Jesus. He was taking stuff from the common fare of what people saw and knew and heard in his day. So notice Matthew 25, 31.

42:05 But when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all the nations and he shall separate them one from another as the shepherd separated. The sheep from the goats.

42:30 So it was apparently a common function of shepherds in the days of our Lord that when goats wandered into the flock of sheep, he would separate them out from the flock of the sheep. They didn't belong there. And one of the great responsibilities of true shepherds under the new covenant is in the spirit of Christ and by the word of Christ and where necessary by the instruction, the institution of church discipline to separate out from the flock of God's sheep those who show themselves to be goats.

43:09 For it is not enough to be a goat and simply have a sign on his neck, I am a sheep. A goat called by any other name is a goat still.

43:23 He'll smell like a goat. He'll act like a goat. He'll buck like a goat and pen signs around his neck, I am a sheep. Don't make him a goat.

43:33 Don't make him a sheep. And likewise, there are some who come into the church by a false profession. Some who come in hypocritically and it isn't long. Sometimes it takes a long time.

43:45 But their goat-like nature manifests itself. What are true shepherds to do? Can God change a spiritual goat into a sheep? Yes.

43:54 So what are they to do? Oh Lord, that one that's obviously smelling like a goat, acting like a goat, making the noise of a goat, and all that's about him looks like goat. Oh Lord, because you can change him into a sheep and we don't want to lose him. We won't exercise any discipline.

44:12 We won't separate him from the sheep. We'll pray that we'll win him. Sounds very pious, but it stinks in the nostrils of God. God says if he or she shows himself to be a goat,

44:24 put that wicked man out from among yourselves.

44:30 And shepherds have a primary responsibility in taking the lead in the disciplinary action of the church. And like shepherds, like people.

44:41 A shepherd separates sheep from goats. The indication is that he could visually discern the difference. This is why all of our discipline must be cautious. We must not hastily come to the conclusion that a man or a woman is a goat.

45:00 But when all the indications point to it and all the combined evidence says this is no sheep, this is a goat, we have no choice but to separate. To separate the goats from the sheep. And then the fifth obvious distinctive function of a shepherd, to be discharged in the spirit of the great shepherd is this,

Distinctive Functions of a Shepherd: Guiding into Righteous Paths

45:23 to guide them into the paths of righteous thinking and patterns of life. To guide them into the paths of righteous thinking and patterns of life. Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack anything. He makes me to lie down.

45:42 In green pastures, he secures good food for me. Leads me beside waters of quietness. Apparently an analogy to the fact that these sheep there in Palestine will not drink. Where there are bubbling turbulent waters, but only by quiet pools.

45:59 He leads me by waters of quietness. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. It is the task of the shepherd.

46:13 To choose out the path in which the sheep is protected. In which the sheep is found fulfilling his function as a sheep. It is the task of spiritual shepherds to lead those under their spiritual care into paths of righteousness for the name's sake of the great shepherds. This is why all true spiritual shepherds, in God's flock, are given not only to preaching the word in its objective doctrinal tenets.

46:51 That they will do. But they are concerned to make application to the conscience and the lives of God's people. And to follow through in their personal interaction with respect to such things as their personal and family piety and their domestic godliness. Why?

47:10 They're committed to guiding their sheep. To leading them into paths of righteous thinking and righteous patterns of life. And I say without straining, without stretching, without going to the practice of eastern shepherds on Palestinian hillsides in 1991. None of that nonsense.

47:33 You don't exegete the role of shepherds from Palestinian shepherds. But out of this book, and I have not introduced any notion that rests upon any human analysis. Or any theology of current shepherding in Israel. But from the word of God itself.

47:53 I trust I've convinced your conscience. That when God designates the task of an elder as that of shepherding the flock. It involves consciously taking a place of comprehensive responsibility for the sheep. Which is qualitatively different from the responsibility the sheep have one to another.

48:14 And then with that responsibility weighing us down. And driving us to our needs. Discharging those distinctive functions of a shepherd. In the spirit of the great or the chief shepherd.

48:26 Securing wholesome food for the sheep. Protecting the sheep from predators. Aggressively seeking out the wandering, the sick, the diseased and feeble. With a view to restoring them to the flock in good health.

48:39 Always seeking to separate known goats from the sheep. And then guiding them into paths of righteous thinking. And patterns of life. And all of this in the spirit and disposition of the chief shepherd.

The Spirit of the Chief Shepherd: Love and Sacrifice

48:53 All that he did is the great and the chief shepherd he did out of love to the sheep. The good shepherd loves the sheep. Lays down his life for the sheep. Buy them in danger.

49:08 A hireling flees. Why? He says because he's only getting a paycheck. But the shepherd who's the sheep are.

49:17 He doesn't run. He doesn't run when the wolf comes. Like David. He goes after the sheep.

49:23 If in so doing he must take hold of the lion's beard and the bear's mane. And so it is with true shepherds. They stick by their sheep. They love them through thick and thin.

49:39 They do not go to another flock of sheep that seems to have thicker wool. And a greater rate of exchange come market time. I.e.

49:49 Bigger salary. Bigger image. More perks. The corporation mentality that is cursed.

49:57 Pastors in our day is sickening. I remember encountering it as a relative stripling like David in my early twenties. When I was in the itinerant ministry. Going around little churches across this country.

50:12 Holding meetings for a week or two. And finding church after church that the average pastorate was three to five years. And upon inquiry there were a few cases where men were run out on the rails in shame and moral deviation and financial chicanery. But for the most part.

50:29 You know where they left? It was corporation ladder climbing. Word had gotten out in the denomination. They were successful in that little church.

50:37 And so their resume went out. And they went to the next bigger church. And they climbed the ladder. No to the precious sheep.

50:48 And I vowed under God if he ever made me a shepherd. It was a commitment in principle for life until God wrenched me loose from it. My flesh. Sure my flesh likes it.

51:02 To go to places when people tell me they've driven all night long to come hear me preach for two hours. You think my flesh doesn't like that? Sure it likes it. To have people sit and hang on every word and scold me to death that I preach too short.

51:18 When I preach to them longer than I preach to you. Instead of being intimidated. And say they don't like it when I thunder. They say it's so good.

51:29 To have somebody preach with some light. And some fire and vigor. And I know some of you resent it. Some of you don't like it.

51:39 Like me to tone down a little bit. You think I'm ignorant of that? Why in the world do I stay on and take that kind of stuff? I'll tell you why.

51:46 Because I love you. And by God's grace I've given my life for you. And I believe. And this is not being melodramatic.

52:01 If push came to shove. I'd spill my blood for you. And the only way I know I can prove that. That you're willing.

52:12 To take mud in my face. Slander to my name. Lies about me. That if I told you.

52:21 And told you who said them. Many of you would form a posse. And burn down the house of those who did it. I'd make you sin.

52:29 That's why I don't tell you. Why? Because with all my sins and failures. I and my fellow elders have been determined.

52:38 To be true shepherds to your souls. Because we love you. The man sitting here this morning. Who one time was in such bad spiritual shape.

52:49 Full of self pity. Trying to manipulate people. I loved him enough. When he called me from a phone booth.

52:56 And said if you don't see me. I'm going to take my life. I said go ahead and send yourself to hell. Loved him?

53:03 Yes. I think he'd give my life for me. Sitting here this morning. Because he knows that's just what he needed to hear.

53:10 He didn't need for people to fall over him with pity. To love him enough. To shock him into the reality. He had to have dealings with God.

53:19 Tough love. Yes. But real love. And that man knows I love him.

53:25 I can say those things with him sitting here. And I have his conscience on my side. There are others of you. You've been straying sheep.

53:31 And I and my fellow elders have come after you. And you didn't like it when we did. And our fingers got in your wool. And we found some ticks.

53:39 And we said hey we've got to cut these out. And he said hey what are you doing? And we said these things will ruin you and kill you. If we don't get them out.

53:48 You see the good shepherd doesn't flee. When there's a little bit of rumbling from the sheep. And some of them get together in a corner. And learn to sing a little pity song.

53:57 Baa baa pinyas. We've got heavy-handed shepherds. Now they turn a deaf ear to that. And they say we're going to go on loving them.

54:09 And if they're real sheep someday they'll be thankful. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hireling flees when trouble comes. And dear people.

54:21 You better have a scripturally grounded intelligent conviction. About what it means for us to be your shepherds. John Brown said distinct scriptural views. Of the relationship of pastors to their people.

54:38 And our task is to know what our responsibility is. Distinct from that of the sheep one to another. And then to discharge those functions in the spirit. Of the great shepherd.

Conclusion: The Urgency of Biblical Shepherding

54:52 I only got to the one. I'd hoped to get to four. They're to take care of the church of God. They're to oversee the people of God.

54:59 And they're to rule or govern the assembly of God. But I determine I'm not running through this stuff brethren. The next generation. Will be carried or not carried.

55:09 On this crucial issue. The Holy Ghost is drawing the line. On this very issue in our generation. Across denominations.

55:18 And if we are not straight. On this issue. And committed with all of our being. Then it's goodbye Trinity Church.

55:28 The doors may be open. Services may be conducted. But we'll just be another church. Where people have their consciences sad.

55:37 While half of them are on their way to hell. Self deceived. And the other half. So crippled by worldliness.

55:44 And so sick and infected with other things. That they're of little use to the kingdom of God. May the Lord write upon our hearts these great truths. And if you're here this morning.

55:56 And you're not a Christian. You know what you need. You need to return to the rightful shepherd of your soul. For when Peter describes the conversion of those sojourners.

56:07 He said you were as sheep going astray. First Peter 2.25. But are now returned unto the shepherd.

56:16 And bishop overseer of your souls. Conversion is turning to the Lord Jesus to be our shepherd. The good shepherd who laid down his life. Casting yourself upon him in the virtue of his death upon the cross.

56:33 Casting yourself upon him in the virtue of all that he did. When he lived the life you should have lived. And died the death you dare not die. Embracing him as your shepherd.

56:45 To govern you. To rule you. To direct you. To do what?

56:50 Not to cramp you. He's the good shepherd. He laid down his life for sinners. And surely if he takes them into his fold.

56:58 He doesn't cramp their style. He doesn't do that to be mean to them. He does it that he might show you what real green pastures are. Those muddied waters at which you drink.

57:11 And you think they're so sweet. Oh one taste of the living streams by which he leads his sheep. And you'll say what a fool you've been. And you'll say to the great shepherd.

57:22 The chief shepherd. Return to him. And find him to be all we know him to be. Who by grace have embraced him as ours.

57:31 Let us pray. Our father we again are so thankful that we have the scriptures as a lamp unto our feet. And a light to our pathway. Lord we're so thankful that we're not left at the mercy of the current fads and experts.

57:54 We need not wonder what a facilitator is. But we do thank you your word tells us what a shepherd is. We thank you that your word tells us what a shepherd is to do. Help those of us who by this congregation have been recognized as a gift of the ascended Christ.

58:13 Lord these duties fill us with holy dread. And we cry out who is sufficient for these things. Our failures in them rise up and make us ashamed. And we can only take our place with our fellow sheep under the great shepherd.

58:30 And pray cleanse us in his own precious blood. We pray for any who are part of this congregation. Who have never embraced from the heart the teaching they've heard this morning. Who've sat here this morning and inwardly have had a clenched fist.

58:44 Said there's no way. No way. I'll give up my independence. Lord flush them out.

58:50 Show them to be the goats that they are. Butting against the Lord. The Lord Jesus and his rule in his church. But Lord flush them out.

59:00 We don't know them you do. And we pray you'd flush them out. Or change their hearts. And we pray that you'd give to this congregation a love.

59:10 For shepherds who will do those five things that you have said true shepherds are to do. And oh may we who are the shepherds. Reflect the spirit and disposition of the chief shepherd. Even the Lord Jesus.

59:25 May we hear your cry. Receive our thanks for your presence. And may your benediction rest upon us throughout the remainder of this day. We ask in Jesus name.

59:36 Amen.