Well, today in our series in Hebrews, we come to chapter thirteen and verse seventeen, which says, "Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." There are, you no doubt, recall two verses in Hebrews 13 that deal with pastors. We've already seen the first one in verse seven, which says, "Remember those who rule over you and have spoken the word of God to you; whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct." That verse had to do with our Responsibility to remember faithful pastors who are now with the Lord, those who led us faithfully, those who spoke the word of God to us truthfully, and those who lived godly lives before us, and we have the responsibility to remember those things and to imitate their lives in our own. But as we come to verse seventeen, we have a different situation, and here we are told, as Christians, to obey faithful pastors who are presently ministering to you. In verse seven, those who are now with the Lord.
In verse seventeen, those who are now active and ministering in your church, those who are watching out for your spiritual welfare. And to those we are told, you owe as a believer, obedience and submission. And that exhortation requires thoughtful consideration. It's not a text that is frequently examined. In fact, I think it is more neglected than considered.
And yet, sometimes it is it is emphasized in a wrong way and abused. It's not the easiest text for me to preach to you.
Someone has said, "Why did you choose that one today?" You know why? Why? Because it is next. It's the next one in our series, and so we faithfully take up each passage as we come to it and deal with it as we are enabled by God. And so this morning we want to look first of all at the text, secondly at objections to the text, third to parallel relationships that will help us understand this text, and finally, a an examination of the extent, the proper biblical extent of pastoral authority.
We begin with the text, and it has four elements, as I see them: first, a command. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive. A command involving who?
Well, on the one end, involving Christians, involving church members, and what they owe to their spiritual leaders, and number two, to those spiritual leaders, pastors, under shepherds. Who are placed in churches for your spiritual welfare? These, in verse seventeen, are the successors to those who were mentioned in verse seven. In verse seven, remember those who are with the Lord. Who are we talking about?
Those who have spoken the word of God to you. Those who rule over you. It's pretty clear what he's talking about here. Follow their lives. Remember them.
Imitate them. Those who have gone on before, but now he takes up those who have stepped into the places that they have left vacant by their departure to be with the Lord, and he says, "Here's what you do in relationship to them: obey those who rule over you, and be submissive." And so the requirement is number one to obey, and number two to be submissive. Almost difficult to separate those two concepts. They are basically two different words that describe the same thing. That's the command.
What's the reason?
Well, the reason why this command is issued to us is for they watch over your souls. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive for for this reason. For they watch out for your souls. In other words, this command is given for our spiritual benefit, for our spiritual good. God's commands always have that purpose for the people of God.
God doesn't command anything that is for our detriment, that is for our harm. He always issues commands that are for our good, and so this is one that falls certainly into that category. They watch out for your souls. They have an important God-given role in the salvation of men and women, for the spiritual development of those who are saved. God has appointed them to be under shepherds for your spiritual welfare.
Which is telling us, therefore, that pastors functioning according to God's design are a means of grace. When we talk about the means of grace, we generally all agree on two things, namely, the Word of God is a means of grace, and prayer is a means of grace. But it doesn't take us long to also get to a third one, which is the fellowship of the saints. Our participation in the local church, God uses as a means of grace, and this falls under that category. This is part of what happens when you are properly involved in a healthy local church.
In addition to the benefit that you receive from the fellowship of the saints and the praise that is lifted to God, and that you are invited to. Enter into and many other things that take place in the context of the local church. This is another one. In the context of the local church, you are ministered to. The word of God comes to you from those that God has equipped, and gifted, and called for that purpose.
And you are guided spiritually. You are shown what ways to go and what ways not to go. You are you you receive much spiritual benefit from your participation in a healthy local church, and the role of the pastors in that church is a very key element in that benefit that you will receive.
So that's the reason. Thirdly, a reminder, and this is a reminder to both you, but also to those leaders. Namely, there's a day of accountability. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account.
Now, obviously, all of God's people are going to give. Account to God for our obedience or disobedience, for our faithfulness or unfaithfulness, but our accountability will always be in part related to what responsibilities God has given us.
So, for example, a husband will give an account for how well he, how how good a husband he has been, according to the design of God. And that will be somewhat different than his wife, who will also give an account for how well she has obeyed the word of God in her role as a wife and mother, and so forth, on down the line. And so, all of us will give an account for those areas of responsibility that God has given to each of us, and to those who have been given pastoral ministry in the church. There is going to be an accounting for how obediently, how faithfully, how prayerfully, how fervently they carried out that role. Keep in mind that those who minister to you, those who rule over you, as the way they are described in this verse in particular, they will answer to God for their faithfulness.
To that particular task, in other words, they will give an account because they have been given a divinely appointed responsibility. Because God has given them a particular responsibility, which is pretty well defined in Scripture. There are a lot of different places that we can go to get the full picture, but. The responsibilities of pastor are well defined in the Word of God. Those who have been chosen by God and appointed to those areas of responsibility are going to give an account for those areas because they have been given a divinely appointed task.
You may recall what James said in chapter three, the opening verses of that chapter that has to do. Primarily with speech and the control of the tongue, but he starts out by admonishing God's people in this way. He says, "Don't everybody, and I'm paraphrasing now, don't everybody aspire to be a teacher. Why? Because teachers have a greater judgment, a stricter judgment." They have a great responsibility to handle the word of God, and because of that greater responsibility, they also have a greater accountability, a greater judgment which they will face.
And so, there's a command, a reason, a reminder, and then finally, there is a blessing and a warning in the last part of the verse, an implied blessing and a stated warning. But he says they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. And then this, let them do so with joy. And not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. Let them do it with joy.
If your response brings them joy, if your response to them and to their God-appointed responsibilities will enable them to give a joyful account of you at the day of their judgment, and the implication seems to be that under shepherds are going to give an account for members one by one individually.
Some they'll be able to give a joyful account concerning. Others, perhaps not so.
So be sure that you relate to them in the ways that God tells you to, so that when they give an account. They may do so with joy. This is certainly talking about the day of accountability. I don't think it ignores their joy in this world or their grief in this world as they are endeavoring to carry out these responsibilities. It can certainly include that as well.
But primarily, the focus is upon that day of accountability. And when that day of accountability comes, and God says either directly or through whoever He has appointed to Lead in this day of accountability," he says. Pastor Barkman, how about? And he calls your name. What do you have to say about that one?
Oh, that one brings great joy. That person has been a great encouragement. That person has faithfully listened to the word of God. I've seen that person putting God's word. To work in their lives, I've seen them growing in grace.
I've seen them blossoming and and becoming more and more fruitful, more and more effective as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, when I give an account for that person, I do so with great joy. All right, thank you.
Now, Pastor Barkman, what about so and so? Another name is called.
Well, I wish I could give a better report, but that one has been a very difficult, and stubborn, and disobedient church member. The recording angel is writing all this down. When you get called to account, you're probably going to answer for these things. And so the implied blessing is, if your response brings them joy, that's going to bring joy to you. That's going to bring great benefit to you.
But if the way you respond to your pastors brings them grief, now. This is not implied; it is stated. That's unprofitable for you. The whole purpose for this is to bring you spiritual good, spiritual profit. And if you don't respond in the right way, it's going to bring you spiritual detriment.
That's not good. You don't want to face. Your Lord in eternity, and try to explain why you rejected a means of grace that God gave you for your benefit, and you did not take advantage of it. In fact, you balked and rejected it.
Well, that brings me number two to some of the objections that are raised in regard to this whole question of pastoral authority, and I think there are two primarily. And one is to remind us, have we truth, stated something like this? But, but, all believers are equal before God. In other words, that means that nobody has any more authority than others. All believers are equal before God.
Well, that's true, but in what sense is that true? Is that true in every sense? That all have equal authority in the church is that what that general truth is saying to us, or is it's telling us that all have equal standing before God? That everybody from the lowest to the highest to the most Least significant person, perhaps in the church, to those who are leaders in the church, that if they're saved, we all have like precious faith. We all have the same standing before God, as far as our salvation is concerned.
But that clearly does not cancel this instruction regarding regarding authority structure in the church. It's strange how people do that. When the when the Bible teaches us about the roles of men and women in the church, sometimes people say, "But, but, but, the Bible says that there's neither Jew nor Gentile, there's neither male nor female, all are one in Christ." So, zip! That just completely destroys and cancels whatever else the Bible says about. Male leadership and so forth in the church is that true?
Is that is that the way we should understand that text about neither male nor female? Jew or Gentile, bond or free?
Well, clearly not. That is a truth, and it does have to do again with our standing before God as Christians. There's there's nobody that's more of a Christian than anybody else. If you're saved, you're saved. If you're saved, you have the same spiritual standing before God as a child of God as anyone else.
But that doesn't cancel other things that the Bible says. And it's foolish to talk that way, but that's very common to hear things like that in our day from people who evidently are looking for excuses not to accept what the Bible teaches in areas that they don't appreciate.
So, objection number one: all believers are equal before God. That's not a valid objection. Number two, pastoral authority can be abused, and I'll be the first to nod my head and say yes, it can. In fact, and and it ought not to be, but it can. The Bible says as much.
The Bible warns pastors in First Peter five, when it says, "The elders who are among you, I exhort, I who am a fellow elder." Peter was an elder. He's writing to elders. I, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed, shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers.
Some people are happy for shepherds, but not for overseers. You can't separate them. Shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly; not for dishonest gain, but eagerly; not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Yeah, there is.
Potential for abuse, even mentioned in Scripture. It's possible for those who've been given overseeing responsibility to be overbearing, to go too far, to act as a lord over God's heritage. No, that's that's not to be done. But misuse of the authority that is granted by God, the the proper and rightful and scripturally defined authority that is granted by God, does not. When when that is misused, that doesn't just cancel all the proper use, the appropriate use of Scripture.
I think I mentioned when we were looking at verse seven, that in my lifetime I have heard many people lament. Abuses of pastoral authority, but I seldom, if ever, have heard anybody lament the the lack of submission among members. That does never seem to be considered to be a problem. But abuse by pastors is a great problem.
Well, it is a big problem. It ought not to happen. But that's only half of the equation. And there are responsibilities for pastors to lead in a godly way, in a loving way, in a humble way, in a way that God has prescribed. And there's also the responsibility for Christians to obey and submit.
And the neglect of one, or the rejection of one. Is just as sinful as the other. Which brings us now to parallel relationships, which I think helps bring all of this into a little bit clearer focus. And there are at least four relationships in the Bible that involve divinely granted authority. One is civic authority.
And all of these have multiple texts that refer to them. I'll only, for sake of time, give you one per item this morning. But here's what the apostle Paul, by the Spirit of God, writes in Romans 13:1 and 2: Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. You see any parallels there?
We have to be careful in this area of civil authority.
Some people seem to. Carry through life a settled resistance to government in general, to all government personnel, all government, all people who are given a responsibility in government. I'm opposed to it. I'm against it. I resist it.
I, I drag my heels. I do my best to not cooperate with it.
Well, you're going to give an account to God someday for that. You're resisting an ordinance of God. That is a God-ordained area of authority. The second one we could call family structure. I'll turn to the passage in Ephesians five twenty-two through twenty-five, which says, "Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife." Is also Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for her. There is another authority structure. God has ordained the structure of the human family, and God has appointed.
A leader, and those who are to submit and follow, the husband is given that responsibility. That's divinely appointed by God. A third area we could call commercial relationships or working relationships, and for that I pick up Colossians three twenty-two, which says, "Bond servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service." As men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. In the world of commerce and the world of work, some are supervisors, and some follow their supervision.
Some obey their instructions and their requirements. That's designed by God. If that all were washed away, we would have chaos in this world, as you know. If civic government were washed away, we'd have chaos in this world. If family relationships were swept away, we have chaos in this world, because in the minds of so many, they have already been swept away and they count for nothing.
And sure enough, things aren't improved thereby. Things are. Worse, because we are unhappy with God's design in these areas. But civic authority, family structure, commercial relationships, and my question is: in these three areas, do the same objections apply? Number one, is it true that, particularly, we'll talk now about believers?
Is it true among believers that all people are equal before God? Yes.
So that means that government officials have no authority. I can ignore them. No, it doesn't mean that. You know that.
Well, in the area of civil government, that authority can be abused. Yes, it can, and often is. But that doesn't mean that there is no. Rightful authority, divinely appointed by God, and and likewise on down through family structure.
Well, in the area of family structure, all are equal before God.
So really, the Bible isn't really teaching that husbands are the heads of the wife and the wife should submit to the husband. Oh, really?
So you think the Bible contradicts itself? Maybe what you need to think is if if if one thing is said here and another thing is said here, and at my first glance that seems to be contradictory. Maybe what I need to do is study the whole issue a whole lot more carefully, so I can bring both those things into harmony. Obviously, they don't contradict one another, but they will. Each one will help us understand what the other one means.
Properly, what it means before God.
So, in family structure. Being equal before God doesn't remove the structure that God has given. the The possibility, the the reality that these authorities in the family are are often abused is a shame, but it doesn't mean that that negates that cancels the structure that God has given. Likewise, in commercial relationships, what's the remedy in each case? Where abuse occurs, it is to correct the abuse to whatever extent you are able to do that, and to welcome the proper use.
It's very simple. If these relationships are abused, as they often are in a fallen world with sinful people, then do everything you can to correct the abuse. But what you're striving for is a Replacement of abuse with proper use, so that it functions the way God intended, for the benefit of mankind. To destroy the structure that God created only makes things worse, not better. I read something this week that said something like this.
French people are really nice people, if they're not rioting. That comes to mind here. Yeah, we got to be careful about our attitudes toward government, and when you're rioting all the time, that doesn't contribute to the health and peacefulness of society in general.
So, those are some parallel relationships that help us with the verse that we're looking at now in Hebrews thirteen seventeen. And that brings me number four to consider extent of pastoral authority. And this one was very challenging to me as I got into this in a way that I never really have before, in trying to identify within Scripture. Various areas of pastoral authority, which are either clearly set forth or are alluded to, that there seems to be a strong implication in certain areas.
So I'll try to do these, and I start with the most obvious one. Pastoral authority certainly extends to the ministry of the word. Paul said to Timothy, Second Timothy four one and two. I, Paul, who is a preacher, an elder, charge you, Timothy, who is also an elder. I charge you therefore, between before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the word.
Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. The ministry of the word. I don't think anyone. Would raise an objection to that area of responsibility and authority.
There's a certain authority attached to preaching the word. The authority to, as this text tells us, to reprove, to rebuke, with all patience, all longsuffering. But there's an area of authority there. The teaching ministry, the pastor isn't just to inform. This is what the Bible says.
La la la! Let's go on to the next thing that the Bible says. There are places where the pastor is, if he's faithful to God, is required to say, "Some of you are not obeying this. I rebuke you. Straighten out.
Get right. Correct this." That's that's pastoral authority from the pulpit. Clearly, that is an unchallenged authority given to pastors. But some, I've heard say, and that's as far. That's the extent of pastoral authority.
It goes no farther.
Well, I can think of several other areas. In addition to pulpit ministry, there's clearly authority in administrative oversight. Start with one of the titles. One of the primary titles that's given to the role, the position of pastor. What is it?
Bishop. What does bishop mean? Overseer. That's a God-given title. The pastor, elder, is a bishop.
He is an overseer. He oversees what?
Well, evidently, from what we can draw from Scripture, he or they, elders, are responsible. For the overall function of the local church, they are, as it were, the upper-level administration. There are other areas of administration below them, but they are the ultimate overseers. That's seen in the title bishop. That's seen in the many times that the word "rule" is used.
Those who rule. Paul tells Timothy that those who rule well should be counted worthy of double honor, and there are so many passages in Scripture where the function of the pastor is to rule, who is to oversee, who is to administrate. We see an example of that in Acts chapter six, where the first deacons are selected. That's a very helpful passage. The church was growing.
They had a benevolence program to help feed widows, and it wasn't functioning as well as it should have. And there was a complaint of the Hellenistic widows, the ones that came from outside Jerusalem, outside of Judea, the dispersion widows, were complaining that the Jewish widows were getting. Getting more potatoes, or more soup, or more something, that was being distributed than the others. They were being treated more favorably. It was not being done equitably.
So they brought the complaint to the people who are ultimately responsible. In that case, the apostles who were serving as the elders. But they said, "Yes, we agree that this is wrong and it needs to be corrected, and we have a responsibility for it." But are Ministry responsibilities really make it wise, make it make it wiser that we not take over that responsibility directly and give ourselves to that, because we have the responsibility of giving ourselves to the ministry of the word and prayer. There are other people who can oversee this, so choose out seven men. Qualified men, godly men, full of Holy Spirit, whom—and this phrase supports what I'm getting at here—whom we may appoint over this business.
So the deacons clearly have an administrative role.
Some people have the idea that this is telling telling us that the deacons were now to get down there and wait on tables. That's not really what it's saying. It's saying the deacons are going to administrate the program. In the place of the elders who had that responsibility, but weren't carrying it out very well because they had more important responsibilities to attend to, so that particular responsibility sort of fell out of view. But we can solve that by employing other people.
But those other people are going to be appointed by the elders and are going to. Be accountable to the elders; they're responsible to them because the elders have this authority of ultimate oversight.
So, there's a second area of biblical pastoral authority. Number three, I would take up the role of leadership development. Paul said to Timothy in two Timothy two two. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit those to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. This is the role.
Paul said, "I, I helped train and prepare you for ministry, Timothy. I told you the things that have been committed to me.
Now you take those things and you find qualified people to teach them to, so that they can fulfill this role of." Pastoral authority, pastoral ministry in the church, and let them also do the same thing. They should teach others also, so that there will never be a time when there will not be qualified leaders in the church. And there we have a ministerial responsibility for leadership training. What else? Leadership development.
What else? Number four, doctrinal disputes. Most of you are familiar with Acts chapter fifteen, when the church at Jerusalem came together as a body with all of the leaders to decide who's right and who's wrong in in this area of dispute. Out among the Gentile churches, where Paul had been evangelizing and planting churches, some had gone after him. Paul and Silas and his team, and were teaching the new converts that except you be circumcised after the law of Moses, you will not not be saved.
A clear heresy, a clear error, and evidently these.
So-called preachers and teachers, self-appointed ones, that come from the Church of Jerusalem. That's the mother church.
So let's get down there and get this thing settled. And so, everybody has a chance to testify. Peter testifies as to how the Lord opened up the door to the Gentiles on the same basis. The same same basis of salvation, as for the Jews, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. That's the same for Gentiles as it is for Jews.
Peter testifies to that, Paul testifies to that, others testify, and then finally somebody steps up and says, "Okay, enough discussion. It's time to bring this thing to a close. Here's my decision. Who are you?" Pastor James, that passage always astonishes me.
Well, no, wait a minute. Let's let's get together and have a have a consensus here. Enough said. We've already done that. I've listened to everything.
You've heard everything.
Now here's the conclusion. Here's what we're going to do. Bang, bang, bang. Whoo! And you're not even an apostle.
In the narrow sense of that term, who are you, half brother of Christ, who didn't even believe on him until after the resurrection? But now he's the senior pastor of Jerusalem, and he takes to himself a pretty big chunk of authority here when he says, "This is the way it's going to be done." I'd have trouble being that dogmatic. In a situation like that, I would be very uneasy in it. But there, I have an example of it.
So clearly, in doctrinal disputes, pastors have authority in the church—more authority than than simply the members. Disciplinary activities, and again, there's a lot to be said. And I'm turning now to First Corinthians chapter five. This Terrible situation in the Corinthian church where there was a member of the church who was living with his apparently his stepmother, and was unrepentant and had not been confronted and dealt with, and Paul basically says, "Shame on you! You should have put this guy out before now.
If he won't repent, if he won't acknowledge his sins, he's got to go." Okay, and there's going to be a vote.
Okay, but the question is, who's going to lead in this? And by way of implication, it has to be the pastors. Who else is going to be the leader to lead in calling upon the church to carry out this disciplinary procedure? It will have to be the pastors.
Now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother. Who is sexually immoral? That would be this guy, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, an extortioner. Not even to eat with such a person. For what have I, Paul, to do with judging those who are outside, outside the church?
This, by the way, I'll have to stick in aside. Is a very strong text on the. Doctrine of church membership. When it comes to issues like this, there are people who are identified as inside the church, and there are those who are outside the church. And if you have somebody who's inside the church because he's a member of the church, and he's acting like a person who.
Is outside or should be outside the church because he's not behaving like a Christian? What do you do? You remove him from the inside, from his identification as a member, and you make it clear he belongs outside.
So Paul says, "I don't judge people who are outside who commit all these sins." Some Christians have it backwards; they are going around railing at the world because of their adultery and covetousness and so forth. How terrible it is! And yet, don't do anything about this sort of thing going on in the church. You've got it backwards. The church has a higher standard.
The church members are the people of God, and anyone who claims to be a Christian and has been received into the church, which is other Christians. Adding their endorsement, other churches' endorsement, the other other Christians' endorsement to this person's profession of faith, then they now have a responsibility to behave in a Christian way. And when there are terrible violations of that that will not be acknowledged and corrected, then the remedy is put them on the outside. That's the way they're acting. That's from from all we can tell.
That's where they belong. Only God knows the heart. We can't judge the heart, but we're not called upon to judge the heart. We're called upon to judge the actions.
So actions put them out of the church. Membership removed. Unbeliever, as far as we are concerned.
So who's going to take the lead in that?
Well, this text doesn't say, but I call upon you to suggest any one other than pastors who clearly ought to take the lead in this. And one more text in a similar vein, and that's the one I started with in my scripture reading in First Corinthians chapter six.
Now you'll see why I read that chapter, because this brings us to my final area of biblically indicated pastoral authority, and it's what I will call membership conflicts. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul scolds the Corinthian church again. He's been scolding them for different things. Chapter 5 for allowing this man living in immorality to remain in good standing in the church, and he. Calls them out for that, and in chapter six he calls them out because some of them were taking other members of the church to court, suing them, lawsuits.
He's saying shame, shame, shame, shame, shame! Don't do that. And then he uses some reasoning. When you do that, what you are doing are asking people who are unbelievers. To make judgments upon the behavior of believers, they're less qualified to do that than the members of the church.
Don't you have anybody in the church who's qualified to do this? Don't you have at least one who's wise enough to do this?
Now, this is an area that almost never gets employed, but evidently, this was something that they understood ought to be done. And somebody's got to be that wise person, or persons, who gets involved in judging other members of the church.
Now it doesn't say here clearly that this is the elders, but my question is, who would we appoint as being wiser than the elders if the elders don't rise to the level of the wise man that is? Required in this situation, then they probably don't qualify to be elders.
So, in all likelihood, though it doesn't say it here, the wise person that Paul has in mind is one of the elders.
Somebody's got to do it if it's going to be done, and it should be done. Don't take one another to court. Be willing to set your disputes before a Court of the church, judged by the wisest men in the church, and abide by their decision. This is part of what it means to obey and submit to those who rule over you. It's an area of pastoral authority.
I've got a conclusion, and then I've got three quick lessons. Here's a conclusion: Pastors have God-given authority in churches. Pastors must not abuse their authority. I I will insert here. I think all of us who have authority positions have wrestled with the proper and improper use of it at times.
I know I had a learning curve. I'll admit it. In regard to being the head of my wife, I think there were times when I was overly abusive, overly authoritarian. I had to learn to balance proper leadership with love. Your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for them.
Wow, that's a huge responsibility. Men who Abuse the authority of a husband, almost always fixate upon the wife's responsibility to submit, and almost never want to talk about the husband's responsibility to love in such a high way, such a high level of love, like Christ's love to the church. It's a learning curve. We we have to learn how to do these things. As a father, I I know there were times when I was overbearing in my relationship with my four daughters.
I had to learn not to do that.
Sometimes the Lord used my daughters to help me understand that, and to make an appeal to me. And I had to admit they were right. And so you have to learn these things. You don't step into the role. The first time you have a baby, you're not a mature father.
When you say "I do," you're not a mature husband and wife. You have to learn these things. But back to what I was saying: pastors have God-given authority in churches. Pastors must not abuse their authority. Christians must respect their authority, and Christians must not reject their authority.
Now, three quick lessons. I've got time for them before we say amen. All of this impinges on number one: spiritually healthy churches. First of all, to be for there to be spiritually healthy churches, pastors must faithfully exercise their properly their proper God-given authority, and Christians must accept and support this for the church to be healthy. You want a healthy church?
Oh, we all do.
Well, here's something you can do to help that, or here's something that if you resist it is going to impede against it. Do you want healthy churches? Then pay attention to this responsibility. But going from churches, we move to individuals, spiritually healthy Christians. Obviously, it's Christian by Christian matter.
And so each individual Christian must learn to utilize the various means of grace that God has given, and this is one of them—a faithful under shepherd. And so, in in addition to the Word and prayer, there is the church, and a properly functioning, healthy church will involve these areas of pastoral authority that I have set before you this morning. And the third area is a spiritually blessed nation, and we live in a country, and we see the decline, and we are grieved, and we pray for revival. But you see, spiritually blessed nations require a good, a good number, lots of spiritually healthy churches, where the word is proclaimed, and where. Biblical church order is maintained, and if we're not willing for that, we're on a fool's errand in praying for revival.
It really gets right down to where we live, right down to where the rubber meets the road, and I can't, I can't do much to impact this in churches that I'm not a part of and I'm not even familiar with. But I can certainly do my best to employ these things by the help and grace of God in the church of which I'm a part, and you can do the very same. And who knows what God may do with that? Shall we pray, Father? Thank you for this portion of Your Word.
We do know that it's difficult, in some ways, but Father, we're confident that you have given it for a wise and gracious purpose, and therefore, Lord, help each of us to find our role and to submit to that as we submit unto you. As we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.
