Lord willing, the ordinances. And on the twenty-first year to have your Sunday school program, so I'll not be with you on that Sunday, but on the twenty-eightth, I expect to take up the order of the church, its meetings, and its service, and so on. And finally, on the fourth of January, our last meeting of this series, we'll take up the outreach of the church. Now it's very frustrating to try in five Sundays to give you anything at all like a comprehensive outline, even a skeleton. And I just wish you folks would get together sometime during the meeting and have a real nice thing and give me a little more time on Sunday morning. I asked for this last Sunday and it didn't work this morning any better than it did last Sunday. It's just frustrating to think that you've got thirty-five minutes and you're supposed to cover all the material that I have tried to get together for you but I'm going to do the best I can and if you run over time maybe that'll cure you I don't know I'm going to try different things until I finally get something effective I love the thing too but I think that if we're going to have a study we're going to have to take time to really go into it now I'm going to begin this morning just by saying a little bit to you about tradition before we begin to read our Scriptures. Conditions in the world today, conditions in the professing church today, are such that you would hardly recognize the plan that is laid down for us in the Scriptures. And most people never stop to think whether we are justified in what we're doing. whether we have any scriptural background for what we're doing or not. For most people, they're satisfied to have tradition. They're satisfied to say, well, Grandma belonged to this church and I've grown up in it and I'm accustomed to this and this is the way we've always done it. And if you think they only do that in the Roman Catholic Church or or some other one, you're just mistaken. There are plenty of you who do things simply because you're in the habit of doing it. You don't have any real reason for what you're doing. You know that. I would like to give you scriptural background and scriptural reason for what you're doing. I don't think that it's enough to do it because we've always done it this way. I don't think you do either, do you? Shake your head the right way, so I'll know whether you're with me or not. All right. The world is filled today with organization. As far as I can see from the Scriptures, God works in spite of organization and not because of it. I see absolutely no organization in the church. The reason for this is, as we saw last week, the church is an organism, that is a living body. It has never been necessary for me to organize my body. It has been necessary for me to organize my work. But once I knew what I was supposed to do, my head was able to give the signals to the different parts of my body and was never necessary to play a fife and drum to get all the different parts of my body coordinated and start working together. Somehow or other, they're all attached to the head and the head seems to be able to control them. And if this is true spiritually, and it is true spiritually, that Christ is the head of the church, then organization is superfluous. And if it is superfluous, then I would say in this case that it is actually sinful. Because we are saying, when we organize, we are saying that it is not enough for us to be under the control of the head of the church. Now the true church has only one head, as all true organisms have. Once in a while a two-headed calf or a calf is born, but it never lives because it must be terribly frustrating for all the members of that poor thing's body who's trying to obey two heads. And yet you've got this kind of thing in organized Christendom's day, trying to obey the Lord in heaven. And Dr. Puba in New York, and somehow or other they don't seem to be able to get the job done so they ignore the Lord and do it the way that they have been told to do it down here the simplicity of New Testament meetings is simply beautiful I suggest that all of you read through the book of the Acts and see how totally without organization the early Christians function together I want to turn with you to First Peter chapter two, say a little bit first of all about the priesthood of all believers. It is not necessary for us to appoint certain people to do certain things because the Lord has already done this job. First Peter, second chapter, Verse one, Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby? If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming is unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Now the figure here is of a building and the Lord Jesus is the chief foundation stone. Ye also as lively or living stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood. The ye is indicative of the whole family of God. All Christians. All Christians are priests. Men and women alike. All saved people of this present age are priests. We are, first of all, in verse five, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. In the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews, we're told that these sacrifices consist, first, of praise to the Lord, and secondly, of good things which we can do to those around us, even the giving of our money. Just recently somebody said that it always spoils the meeting for me when they pass that collection around afterwards. Well, this is a mistaken idea because this is part of your worship. You are actually worshiping, functioning as a holy priesthood when you give of your substance to the Lord. Not when it's wrung out of you by plans and taxation and all this kind of thing. But when you do it because you love the Lord, this is one way that you express your appreciation for him. So the Holy Priesthood is to offer spiritual sacrifices. Now we don't offer any sacrifice for sins. Thank God that's been done once and for all. You and I will never need to bring a sacrifice for our sins. Never, never, never. Think of anything that you do as helping to make you a little more acceptable of God. The Lord Jesus did the whole thing on the cross, and before He died, He said it is finished. And when God raised Him from the dead, He said amen to that. It was finished. God proved that it was finished by taking the Lord Jesus back into heaven. And you and I don't need to add one penny worth to that price. We don't need to add one gram to that weight. All we need to do is to accept. The finished work of Christ. Rest our souls on what Christ has done. If you haven't done that, you're not a priest, and you never could be. You can't serve the Lord. You can't worship Him, because your heart hasn't been made right with Him. Now, in verse nine, we're told that ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. And Holy Nation, the peculiar people that ye should be. Show forth the praises of Him who have called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. In verse five, we are in the holy priesthood to offer sacrifice of praise to God. In verse nine, we are a royal priesthood to go out and carry the message to other people. You see, the priests in the Old Testament, and this was modeled after the Jewish priesthood, not after Roman Catholic priesthood or anything of that kind. That's unknown in the Bible. This was modeled after Old Testament Jewish priesthood. The Jewish priest went into the presence of God to take the offerings to the Lord. Then they came out from the presence of God to bring the words of the people. The high priest did this on the day of atonement. The other priest did it every day. And now we, as a holy priesthood, have a high priest in the presence of God. This is what the whole book of Hebrews is about. Eight times in the book of Hebrews, he tells us that We ought to consider Him. Think about Him, who is our high priest. Because He is there in the presence of God, you and I can go into the presence of God and offer our praise, and then we can come out and tell others about Him. And this way we show forth the praises of Him. In First Corinthians eleven, we're told that we do show the Lord's death till He come. We don't show it forth. Many people misquote this in their prayers. We don't show forth the Lord's death. We show His death. But we show forth His praises. And as we tell other people about His praises, we go to other people and tell them about our Savior. And this is part of our priesthood. You don't have to be ordained to this. Nothing that any man could do, putting his empty hands on your little empty head, could ever make you a priest, could ever make you in any way capable of serving the Lord or worshiping Him, This has already happened. The Spirit of God has done this when He saved us. Now, one more thing. In First Corinthians chapter twelve, we're not going to turn to it, for we don't have time, but again in Ephesians chapter four, we're told that each member of the body of Christ has a particular function, and there they are called spiritual gifts. Now, this has nothing whatever to do with native abilities. It's quite possible for us to sanctify our native ability. You may have a good voice, and you should turn this over to the Lord. You may have managerial ability, and you should turn this over to the Lord. But the gifts that we're talking about in First Corinthians twelve and in Ephesians four have nothing to do with native ability. These are gifts which the Spirit of God gives to each one. And every person has some gift or gifts. And we are supposed to function. We are supposed to use those gifts for God. This is what is so terribly wrong about hiring one man to do everything for the congregation. It is, first of all, an insult to the Holy Spirit of God because you are ignoring the gifts that He has given. And it is, secondly, a hindrance to the people of God because you are limiting them to get everything that they get through one man. and then it is a total ignoring of the headship of Christ because He is the one who designated that each of us should be given certain gifts and each of us are to function according to our particular gift as the Lord has given to us. Now you have to develop these gifts and you have to learn how to function just as you have to learn to coordinate the members of your body. But under the control of the head each member will learn to do its part. Now this we do not need to pass on to anyone else at all. Now one more thing I'd like to establish with you, turn to Ephesians chapter one. I would like to show you that Christ is truly the head of the church. I mentioned this at the beginning. I'd like to show it from Scripture. Ephesians chapter one. We'll break in the sentence of verse twenty-two and half, that is God half, put all things under his Christ's feet, and gave him, Christ, to behead over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Colossians chapter one. These are sister epistles. But each one gives us a little different viewpoint. Several things are said about the Lord Jesus in Colossians chapter one. Verse eighteen says, And he is the head of the body. Not a head. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. He is enough. He is the head. Chapter two. Here he's criticizing the people for some things that they are doing which are wrong. Breaking into the sentence again at verse nineteen and not holding the head. These people were not giving the head its proper place. Holding simply is being attached to. and accepting guidance from, and looking to the head for what we need. See, everything that I get, my body gets, I get through the head, I breathe through my head, I eat through my head, I see and I hear through my head. I get all the guidance that my body needs. I get all the sustenance, all of the nourishment that my body needs. My body is totally dependent upon the head. I could lose an arm, and it has handicapped me that I'd get along all right. But you've never seen a man walking around without a head. We are totally and completely tied in with a head, physically. And this is true spiritually. If God has to get along without you, brother, he can do it. But you can't get along without the Lord Jesus. We need him. We are dependent upon Him. He is the head, and He says some are not holding the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together, fastened together, increases with the increase of God. Now the Lord has given us, then, a head for the body of which you and I are the members. He also has done something else that we must not ignore. He has sent His Holy Spirit down here to this earth. The Holy Spirit came to function as a representative of the Lord Jesus. I strenuously object to the Pope or anybody else being called the Vicar of Christ on earth. Our Blessed Lord Jesus gave that responsibility to the Holy Spirit. He is the Vicar of Christ on earth. He is the representative of the Lord Jesus here in this present time. The Holy Spirit is the president of the people of God when we meet together. He is resident in our bodies individually. He is president in the local church. And we ignore the guidance and the leading of the Holy Spirit to our own peril. Anytime that we think that we've got a better program, that we can concoct something that will run smoother, why don't we do it this way? Why don't we just ignore the pattern of the New Testament after all that was given two thousand years ago and it probably won't work in our day anyway? Even a man who's no less than the head of the great Bible school at St. Louis, Dr. James H. Brooks, in one of his one of his uh... commentaries said the beautiful lost corinthian order a friend of mine who knew him quite well went to see him said mr brooks in that book of yours that just came out you referred to the beautiful lost corinthian order he said it might Be good for you to find out that it isn't lost at all. Some of you have just buried it under a snow of tradition. You have all kinds of things that you're doing, and the Lord is still able to guide his people, and the Spirit of God is still here to lead us, and if we ignore this, we do it to our own peril. Now, having said this, I think we can pass on to the matter of the representatives of the Lord here in the local congregation. Let's look at Acts chapter twenty. Paul was making his last visit to Ephesus. If you look on your map, you'll see what is now Turkey. Along the shore of the Aegean Sea, across east from Greece, you will find the country of Turkey. And in that area there, close to the seacoast, you will find the ancient city of Ephesus and then the seacoast town of Miletus. This was the port for Ephesus. Ephesus is nothing but ruins now. There is a fishing village at Miletus. Verse seventeen of the twentieth of Acts says, From my latest descent to Ephesus, and called the elders, plural, the elders of the church. Now the word elder is the translation of a word which means just that, older men, the older men of the church. And when they would come to him, he said to them, You know that from the first day, that I came into Asia after what manner I've been with you in all seasons. And he goes on telling them how that he taught them carefully. Verse twenty, kept back nothing that was profitable. Showed you, taught you publicly from house to house. And he tells them that he preached repentance toward God in verse twenty one. And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave him the clear gospel. And then After he had done all of this, verse twenty-seven, he says, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. I've taught you everything that you needed to know. Take heed, therefore. Now, because you do know the right way, because you do know the Scriptures, take heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers. Now the word overseers comes from a word which means just that, those who look after, who care for the rest of the flock. Elders and overseers are all exactly the same persons. Elder refers to their age, overseer refers to their work. Now the word overseer is the same word which is translated bishop a number of times in the New Testament. There's no such thing as one man being an elder, and then over this elder and other elders you have another man who is called a bishop. They're all exactly the same thing in the New Testament. We do not have any of these high-sounding titles that you see in Christendom today, that you hear in Christendom today. They're simply not there. You look from one end of your Bible to the other without ever finding a pope or an archbishop. or a reverend. Holy and reverend is God's name. That's the only time that word occurs in the Bible. Holy and reverend is God's name. Mr. C. H. Purgeon said in the last century, I see that the paper tells us that the reverend, Dr. so-and-so, is going to preach. and the very reverend, Dr. So-and-So is going to conduct services in another place, and the very reverend, Dr. So-and-So is going to officiate. He said, all I can say is there are great many very reverend and reverend sinners in the world. No man has any right to that title. I went into a store to get a suit, and the man didn't have anything to fit me, and the only one he could find was a gambler's check. It really was a traffic stopper. And he insisted on putting it on us. I said, no, I'm not interested in that. Well, just try it on. I said, look, they'd hang me for wearing a thing like that. I said, I'm a gospel preacher. Holy siss, forgive me, Reverend. And I said, well, I felt I had to set everybody right in those days, you know, and so I said, well, now, look, I'm not a reverend. Only God is reverend. I said, it isn't right for men to take the title reverend. Well, I said, that's all right, reverend. It's coming to you. So I gave up on him. There's no chance of educating him. He was as embarrassed as I was by trying to sell me the gambler's check, and so he just had to call it off. I can't help what other people do, but I can help what I do, and I have no right to take any high-sounding title. In the thirty-second chapter of Job, we read this. I know not how to give flattering titles. And then he says, if I give flattering titles, my maker will take me away. Now, you think that over a little bit. I didn't write that. I'm not going to change it. You be careful about giving flattering titles to anybody. There's nothing flattering about the title elder. That just means the old boy is getting pretty far down on the sunset side. That's all it means. And there's nothing flattering about the title overseer. That just means he's responsible for some of the rest of them. There's nothing flattering about the title shepherd. They made fun of David because he was only a shepherd. When he went down to the army to see his brothers, his brothers said, Well, who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? As much as to say, We're soldiers, you're just a shepherd. That's a disgrace. But the Lord has called those who try to look after his flock shepherds. Now these titles are scriptural. And we ought to stick with scriptural titles. The word pastor is just another form of the word shepherd. The word pastor comes from the same word as our word pasture. The pastor leads them into the pastures. The shepherd leads them out into where they can find food. This is true for the literal sheep. This is true for the sheep of God. Now, I'd like to read to you a little bit about the functions of the shepherds. from First Timothy chapter three. You know, of course, that when our King James Version was translated in sixteen hundred and eleven, that the man who gave orders for its translation, King James, was the titular head of the Church of England, the Anglican Church, and the Anglican Church had pulled off from the Roman Catholic Church and brought a lot of their things with them, and it is still known today as the English Catholic Church. So King James was faced with some real problems. He wanted to keep things going along smoothly, and he wanted to keep all of these men with high-sounding titles happy, and so he said to the translators, don't rock the boat. put down things that will please these men who have large positions in the church. And they did a good job of it in First Timothy chapter three and verse one. This is the true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. And you can just see the office of a bishop, can't you? You can just see this dignified old boy in his button-up gators and his black collar backwards and all of these things. Now, let me read to you what the Spirit of God really says. And you can tell this by consulting any careful translation of the Scriptures. This is a true thing. If a man reaches for the work of an overseer, he reaches for a good work. That's all the verse says. had nothing to do with office. The word office isn't in there at all. The word office and the word work are exactly the same Greek word in which this New Testament was written originally. But you see, it sounded better if you said office. Now, there's no such thing as the office of a bishop. There is no such thing as the office of an elder. We've got a lot of terms, and I heard somebody use one just last Sunday right here. I heard somebody say, He's on the oversight. Now, that's absolutely unscriptural. You couldn't possibly be on the oversight unless you were stepping on their shoulders. Because the overseers are the men who are looking after the flock of God. It's not a body. It's not an elect group. It's not a recognized membership. In other words, if you're doing the work of an overseer or an overseer, if you're not doing the work of an overseer, I don't care what you were last week. You're not an overseer, you're not working at it. Now get that straight. This is a very important thing for us to see. It's the work of an overseer, not the office. And each one who is doing what God has given him to do, looking after his younger brothers and sisters, is recognized by the Spirit of God as being an overseer. and there is no honor connected with it that he can claim because, well, I've always been on the oversight and I intend to stick with it and all of this kind of thing, it just isn't there. If you'll be satisfied just to be what God has given you, you'll have all you can do. A bishop then must be brainless, the husband of one wife, that is only one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given the hospitality apt to teach. Now, the gift of teaching is a separate thing. Some elders may not have the gift of teaching, but they ought to at least be apt to teach. You know what aptitude is. You take a test in high school, an aptitude test, and they find out that you are very good with your hands. You can do things with your fingers. Other people in all have got seven thumbs. They can't get anything done right. They just can't use their hands. They've got good brains. They can think a thing through, and they can't do anything with their hands. So an aptitude test tells you what you're capable of doing. An apt to teach means simply that this person is capable of transmitting to other people the things that he gets out of the word himself. I may not have the gift of the teacher, as I said. This is a separate thing. not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre. Now, filthy lucre is not money. Filthy lucre is money which is demanded for service for God. A fellow came to a preacher friend of mine and said, I got a little filthy lucre here for you. He said, if you have, you can keep it. So what do you mean? He said, I don't have any use for filthy lucre. He said, if you've got something that you want to put into the work of the Lord, you want to entrust to me. Philippians four says, this is an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice well pleasing to God. Money can be that if it's given out of a heart that is right toward the Lord and accepted in the same way. But if I say to you, no, I'm willing to come up here and teach the word, but I'll have to have eight thousand five hundred a year to start with. And I want a car and I want a parsonage, and it better be nice. This is what I believe that I should have. And you say we just can't make that. What are we going to do? Well, we want him. What are we going to do? Well, let's see if we can't raise the money. that's filthy lucre I'm not telling myself up to be a judge of others that's what the Bible teaches filthy lucre is money which is demanded for what we do for God when I left the jewelry business in nineteen hundred and thirty and soon before years I left behind any idea of ever making anything very much I was making good money in the jewelry business and could soon have owned the store But I left that idea behind, because it isn't possible to combine the two. If you're going to be of use to the Lord, you've got to be satisfied with whatever God gives you. And I'd like to say to you young men who are exercised about the work of the Lord, never think about whether it would pay you or not, because it won't. But if you are willing to do it for the Lord, he'll pay your bills. He'll supply all your need, not everything you want, but He'll supply all your need. He is faithful. God has enabled my wife and me to not only have what we have needed for ourselves, but He has given us the privilege of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for the care of children. And God is faithful. But whenever you demand so much for so much, that is filthy looker. And He's not to be greedy at filthy looker, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruled well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. His children means children, not grown sons and daughters. Don't hold a man responsible for what his kids do after they're grown. They make their own choices. If a man knows how to rule or guide his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? Not a novice. Novice means a newly saved one. How many times I've seen when somebody joins a church and he's influential in the community, he's the banker, or he's somebody that's important in the community, they immediately make him an elder. This is perfectly ridiculous. He is no more capable of doing this. He's just not fitted for it at all. Not a novice, lest being listed up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into the reproach and snare of the devil. That is the temptation of Satan. Now, Philippians chapter one is addressed to the church, which is at Philippi, with the bishops, plural, and deacons. I'm going to make several statements now that I won't have time to look up scriptures with you, but if you want the scriptures, I'll be glad to give them to you later. First of all, we do not elect elders. We do not choose them. The sheep do not choose their shepherd. We read that in the twentieth chapter of Acts, over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers. The Holy Spirit raises up man to do the work. There is no such thing as the election of elders. There is no such thing as the choosing of overseers of a flock of God. Elders are always in the plural. There is no such thing as one man who is paid to be the preacher being called the elder, and the rest of them are all deacons. And he's got a vote like Mussolini. You know what Mussolini did? He counted up how many men there were in his cabinet. There were seven, so he said, you get one vote a piece and I get eight. That way he got his own way. And that's exactly what happens in the average organized church today. This is unknown in the Scriptures. It's not God's way, and I'm sure that the Lord must frown on the whole thing. Elders are always in the plural. and they are elders only of a local congregation. Take heed to the flock, one over which the Holy Ghost have made you, plural, overseers. No such thing as a man being a bishop over a diocese, over an area, over a group of churches, or a group of men being over a group of churches. In the second century, The Episcopalian form of government came into effect. It was done by a leader of the first century who said there were so many abuses that he thought this might cure them, and it was fatal. That thing is still carried on today in most of the ritualistic churches. The Episcopalian form of government, one church even to even use that name as descriptive of their own denomination. During the Reformation, the second form of government came into being, and that was the Presbyterian form of government. This was done to get away from the domination of bishops, and they said, now if we have several men in an area responsible for all the churches in the area, we'll call this group of men presbyters, which just means old men, and these presbyters will be responsible for all the churches in the given area. They thought that would cure the ills of the others. Strange that nobody thought of going back to the book and seeing how they did it in the beginning. And then in this country, about the time of the Revolutionary War, Americans began to say, the forms of government that they had in Europe are not suited to our democratic nation, and so they invented a new one called the Congregational Form of Government. There's no more scriptural than the other two. congregational form of government assumes that everybody's got a right to be heard, that everybody has a right to vote, and that they all can decide, and especially the one with the loudest voice, can decide what's going to be done, and it'll be done this way. And this is just as unscriptural as the rest. God's order is for this multiplicity of elders, this group of men who are responsible for a local church, should meet together And they should do the things that God has given them to do. Let me name some of these for you. First of all, they're to feed the flock. They're to feed the flock of God, over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers. When elders meet together, the first order of business should be to pray together about all of the things that concern that local flock. Not just say, well, would you open in prayer so we can get going with our business? But elders should take time to pray. You don't know what to do with his flock. The Holy Spirit has put you over that flock, and you should by all means find out what the will of the Lord is. Then the first order of business at an elder's meeting should be to see what is needed to feed the flock. Are the flock getting the kind of food that we need? Who can give them what they need on Wednesday night? or on Sunday. What can be done to see that the flock is fed? Is there some brother here who can do it? If there isn't, who could we invite in to do it? And the elders have done this and asking me to come here and to give this series of studies because they felt that this was needed. And this is scriptural. This is God's order. That should be the first thing. Then another thing that elders are responsible to do, in fact the word bishop And the word visit are almost identical words in the language in which the New Testament is given. Because the idea of overseeing other Christians involves going to their homes and visiting them. You see, a man who is a shepherd doesn't stand out by his back door and blow on his horn and say, if any of you sheep need anything, come up here at the house and I'll look you over. That isn't the way a shepherd does things. And some elders seem to have the idea that we've got meetings and we invite the folks to come. If they don't come, then I'm sorry. And this is all wrong. Don't call yourself an elder if you don't have time to visit God's people. You have a responsibility to get into the homes where they are. You have a responsibility to help these people. God's people need all kinds of trouble, all kinds of help. They have trouble. Sometimes they need troubles, too. God sees that they get that. That's not your job. Some of them need comfort. They don't all need comfort. Everybody wants comfort. You don't all need comfort. Some of you need warning. Remember what he said, warn the unruly. We might have saved ourselves in a lot of trouble if we had warned some Christians who were getting away from the Lord in the last year. But we didn't. We have a responsibility to go out to them. Then we're called guides. Those who are responsible for the flock are called guides. Not rulers. Guides. Peter writes to them and he says, Not as being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. Set a good example before the believers. Guide them in the right way. Don't say to them, do as I say and not as I do, because I won't work. The way you do is the way the younger ones are going to do. You have a responsibility. Set a good example. One of the functions of elders is the reception into fellowship and the assembly. Now the whole assembly, in a sense, receives. This morning I understand you received a new one into fellowship into your meeting here. And all of you should have a part in that. You should all give to him the right hand of fellowship. And yet the preliminary arrangements are made by those who are in a position to know what the need is and to act in scripturally and in the fear of the Lord for the rest of the flock. And then they have a responsibility and discipline because when the Lord's people are not behaving themselves, they have to be disciplined. and the rest of you are responsible to back up that discipline. Don't say, well, I don't think they treated him right. So I'm going to show him that I'm on his side. If you do, you're asking for the same trouble that God will have to bring on that sinner. Now, you remember that. God holds the whole congregation responsible for the disciplinary action of those who are leading the flock. What is to be our attitude toward the leaders, toward the elders? Our attitude, first of all, is to be one of subjection. Ye younger, submit yourselves to the elder. Ye all of you be subject one to another. We're to pray for them. We're to recognize that they have a tremendous load to carry. When you get together, don't... put them on the dissecting table and criticize them. In the first place, it's like criticizing the President of the United States. Some fellow who couldn't make a living can tell you all the things that's wrong with the way President Nixon does everything. He doesn't have any of the information that President Nixon has, but he's so conceited that he thinks he knows whether Nixon is all wrong and this is the way it ought to be done. And the rest of us smile behind our hands at each other at the audacity of this fellow thinking that he knows just how it ought to be done. The same thing is true of elders. You don't know how many hours of patient investigation have been involved. You don't know how long they've prayed together about this. You don't know the tears that it's cost them before they finally acted in the fear of God and did what they believe was scriptural. You don't know. You back them up by your prayers and by your subjection. Now I haven't said a word about the deacons. The deacons are different from the elders completely. The word deacon means a servant. The deacons have a responsibility to take care of temporal things. Put on Acts chapter six. That's a good place to read. And then from where we stopped in First Timothy three, if you'll go on to the rest of the chapter, you'll find the qualifications of a deacon. Other words for deacon are servant. Well, it all has to do with the same thing. It all has to do with what we do for the benefit of our fellow Christians and especially in a temporal way. The first deacons were chosen in the sixth chapter of Acts. for the purpose of looking after the welfare of the poor widows. Second Corinthians chapter eight tells us very plainly that these men were chosen by the churches to carry the money to the poor saints. Now the church does not choose the elders, but the church does choose the deacons. This may be done through the elders. But anyway, the church has a responsibility to put the right men into the place of looking after the temporal affairs. No elder should ever be loaded down with who's going to replace that broken window light or what color we're going to paint that classroom. No elder should be burdened down with things like this. The matter of money, the matter of your building, the matter of ushering, the matter of serving the Lord's Supper, all of these things that have to do with service. should be in the hands of younger men who are godly enough to be counted as deacons. And if you don't have deacons, you're not functioning as a full assembly. You're loading your elders with things that are taking up their time, and they're not able to function as they ought in the care of the flock. Now, think it over very carefully and see if I'm not right. Some deacons began by doing the work that was given to them, and then they progressed on to something else. And we're told in I Timothy chapter three that such purchased to themselves a good degree. That's a word that means a stair step. One of these was the first martyr, Stephen. He served the Lord as the deacon. And then the next thing you see, he's witnessing for the Lord, and he's a martyr. He went up a step. Then you have Philip. He was one of the original seven. And the next thing you read, he's an evangelist. And he's traveling around over the country in evangelism. And he opened up Samaria to the gospel. So if you would begin, young man, if you would begin by living a godly life, by taking the responsibility in the local assembly. And by the way, when you choose men, you don't choose men whom you think would be good deacons. You choose men who are deacons. Somebody is doing this work. Somebody is concerned about this work. You can't make a man a deacon anymore, and you can make him an elder. But if he has the qualifications, and if he has an interest in the heart in it, if he comes to you and says, is there something I could do to help here, you know this is a man that has an exercise about doing the work of a deacon. Somebody said to Carol Brown, years gone by at Southside, he said, you're one of the deacons. Well, what do deacons do? He said, brother, we get in there and deek. And that's exactly what you're expected to do. The word deacon means a servant. What does a servant do? He gets in there and serves. What does a deacon do? He gets in there and deeks. You've got a job to do. Don't tell somebody that you didn't think you were appreciated very much, so you gave up the job. You can't resign from that job unless you resign from the Lord himself. Now, just let me finish with this. There are several things which are prohibited in the Scripture in the matter of oversight or overseership, leadership in the local church. One, it is prohibited to have hired servants. John chapter ten says, The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling. You hire a man to do your preaching here at Northeast, and you'll get exactly what you pay for. Don't ever fall into that trap. The second thing is women are not given a place of prominence in leadership in the local church as either elders or deacons. They certainly have a great deal of work to do. And in fact, Phoebe is called the deaconess of the church, which was at Sancrea. That wasn't an official title. It simply means she served. And every woman has opportunity to serve, but she does not do it in a public way. God has his order, and it's not that women are inferior. In many cases, in many respects, they are superior. This is what bugs some of the men. But the truth of the matter is, God's order is that the women should have a place of quiet service. Then the third thing you want to be aware of is inter-church authority. There is no such thing. as a deacon in Denver, I mean an elder in Denver, having any control over your group of Christians here. A group of elders cannot meet together in Chicago and decide that this is the way it's going to be done in all of the assemblers. And don't you think there aren't some in Chicago that would like to do it? I've been fighting that thing tooth and nail for the last twenty years. There are plenty of people who would like to get a hierarchy in some large city, and they, in turn, would control everything from here to Timbuktu. This was not God's order. Now, another thing that is totally unscriptural is one-man ministry. Every Christian has a responsibility. Every Christian has a gift. Every member of the body has a function. Don't expect the elders to do it all. Don't expect the deacons to do it all. Be looking for where you fit into the scheme of things. Find out what God has given you to do and do it gladly. And brother and sister, you'll be much happier. You'll be much happier if you get busy. You won't have near the time to criticize other people. If you get in there and do a fifth thing, and I want to point out that it's not only is one-man ministry scriptural, but Every man ministry is just as unscriptural. This thing can be carried to the extreme. In one place that I visited, they put a different song leader on the platform every night. And the third night they put a man up there who couldn't carry a tune in the basket. And I said to them, Why in the world did you embarrass that poor fellow by putting on the platform? Well, he said he isn't embarrassed. He likes to take his turn. Brother. If you don't have ability to lead, don't let anybody put you on the platform. If you've only got three song leaders in the place, let those three song leaders do the song leading. Don't pass it around. If you only have three men in the congregation who are capable of teaching the word, be satisfied to use those three. Develop the gift of the younger men. Give them opportunities to develop the gift that they have in other ways. but use whatever gifts God has given to you. Every man ministry is no more scriptural than one man ministry. Now, these are some of the things that I see in this profound subject. I've kept you ten minutes over. That's how much you stole from me. I apologize for nothing. Come back next Sunday and see if I can keep you longer. Let's pray. Our Father, in the precious name of the Lord Jesus, we thank you that we're not left in the dark. We're not left to organize. We're not left to figure things out for ourselves. Thou hast given us all that we need, in thy word, to guide us in the work that thou hast put into our hands, the local church. We thank thee, Lord Jesus, that thou art the head in heaven. And we thank thee for the presence of the Holy Spirit to lead us individually and to lead us as we meet together. We thank them, our Father, for the gifts that have been given. We thank them for those who have a concern for the flock. We pray, our Father, that they may not be discouraged. Help them to go on and to do what needs to be done and to look after the flock. We pray for those who have a responsibility to serve in temporal things. Help each of us, Lord, to be humble enough to be willing to do anything that we can for our blessed Lord. Now we ask thy parting blessing in his name. Amen. Amen.