In the sermon 'Take Heed To Yourselves and the Flock' by Scott Brown, the focus is on the responsibilities of church elders, using Acts 20 as a foundation. Paul’s journey and his final address to the Ephesian elders emphasize the need for self-examination among leaders to maintain humility and integrity. The sermon discusses the critical role of the Holy Spirit in appointing elders, underscoring that leadership in the church is divinely ordained rather than self-appointed. Elders are warned to be vigilant against 'savage wolves,' or false teachers, who may arise from within or outside the church, threatening the congregation. To combat this, the sermon stresses the importance of focusing on 'God and the word of His grace' as a means to build up the church and protect it from false teachings. The imagery of shepherding is used to illustrate the responsibility of elders to care for and protect the flock, emphasizing a life of service over personal gain by adopting the mindset that 'it is more blessed to give than to receive.' The sermon concludes with a call to both elders and the congregation to work in harmony for the health and strength of the church, highlighting the sacrificial love of Christ, who purchased the church with his own blood, as the ultimate example for all believers.

Acts chapter 20 starting in verse 1. After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and when he had exhorted them and taken his leave with them, he left to go to Macedonia. When he had gone through the districts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece. And there he spent three months, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews, as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. And he was accompanied by Sopitura of Borea, a son of Pyrrhus, and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.

But these had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Tross. We sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came to them at Tross within five days and there we stayed seven days. On the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together, and there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the windowsill, sinking into a deep sleep, and as Paul kept on talking he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. But Paul went down and fell upon him and after embracing him he said do not be troubled for his life is in him.

When he had gone back up and broken the bread and eaten he talked with them a long while until daybreak and then left. They took away the boy alive and were greatly comforted. But we going ahead to the ship set sail for Assos intending from there to take Paul on board. For so he had arranged it intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Middeline.

Sailing from there we arrived the following day opposite Chios and the next day we crossed over to Samos and the day following we came to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia and he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost. For Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church and when they had come to him he said to them, you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.

But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

And from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one's silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me.

In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus as he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. When he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them all and they began to weep and embraced Paul and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken that they would not see his face again and they were accompanying him to the ship. Dear Heavenly Fathers, we prayed as we sang today already we are awaiting the consummation of all the ages and in the meantime while we await that consummation we ask that you would sanctify us, that you would prepare us to be the bride of Christ, and we ask that you would do that today by the preaching and the hearing of your word. In Jesus' name, amen. In these last 12 verses of what Jonathan just read, Paul is speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus.

And so we find ourselves being observers to a conversation of Paul to elders that are gathered there. And there's much to learn from the conversation for the elders of Hope Baptist Church, Jason Dome and I. There's much to learn by those who are candidates to be elders, which would be Dan Horn and Steve Brege at Hope Baptist. But there's also a great deal for all of us, because when we were saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus had a plan for shepherding our lives, to teach us, to deal with the sins in our lives, to help us to learn how to love in ways we never knew before, to help us become a people for his own possession. And one of the means that he uses to shepherd his people is through these men, appointed men, who are shepherds of the Church of God.

This is his plan. This is not something that any of us invented. Obviously, it's been going on for 2, 000 years in this manner that we attempt to do it today. The idea of headship, shepherding, leadership in the church is not man's idea, it's God's idea. For God always works with his people through men.

He works through his spirit as well, obviously, but he establishes shepherds among his flock, and that's what this passage of scripture is all about. All those shepherds are under the chief shepherd and cannot move independently of the chief shepherd but should always be under shepherds and humble and carrying out his will and not their own. So we're dealing with the subject of the shepherding of the leadership of or the eldership of a local church and you know there are so much written about leadership today. It's deafening. Go into Barnes and Noble and look at the shelf after shelf of books on leadership.

There are all these hot ideas. And every year, a new hot idea has to be birthed so that more books can be sold. And often, that's what the book writers do. They're really not so much looking for what's best. They're looking for what could be hot.

Now, what we're talking about here is the hottest stuff. It will remain hot forever regarding leadership. And the Bible presents to us this whole area of leadership in a number of different ways. We have examples of leaders. We have examples of good leaders like Moses and Samuel and David.

We have examples of bad leaders like Saul and Ahab and Manasseh. We have the blind guides of the Pharisees, those who clean the outside of the cup and not the inside of the cup. There's so many different illustrations of good and bad leadership among God's people. Now last week we saw the pattern of Paul to deliver the whole council of God and why he did it. Remember that?

He delivered the whole council of God so that he would not be guilty of the blood of the men and the women under his charge. And so he's already placed before us the tremendous importance of bringing the whole Council of God to the church. And elders in our last session on this whole subject are confronted with the possibility of blood guiltiness because they did not declare the whole council of God. So Paul now is stopping in Miletus with the elders of the Ephesian church. The first half of the section, he's reminiscing about his life in Ephesus, telling them, recounting for them what he did and why he did it.

And he says that he came with humility and lowliness, with tears and trials, with being courageously poised for action. He proclaimed, he taught, he testified with intensity. It was impartial teaching to both Jews and Greeks and and he and it was all for a purpose and that is to deliver the whole counsel of God so that he would not have blood guiltiness for not for being unfaithful as a shepherd to deliver everything that was profitable. So verse 27 is the pivot point of the passage where he says, therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore, take heed to yourselves.

Now that's where we are today. Therefore, we're at another therefore. So he shares all the things that he did he says Therefore I did this so that I So I would not be guilty of the blood of men now therefore because of all that Take heed to yourselves so so Paul is is moving through this in a very clear way in his own mind as he's communicating to the elders in the Church of the Ephesus. And he's saying, you see how I led, therefore you do the same, and therefore take heed to yourselves. Now why is this important?

Is this just important to the four people in this room who are either elders or elder candidates? Absolutely not. This is important for every person in this room. Some of you little girls who are like only six years old today or seven or eleven or twelve, you know someday guess what you may be the wife of an elder. Did you ever think about that?

What kind of wife would be needed for a man like this that's described here? So I just want to urge every little girl in here to pay very close attention here. Because here are the things that elders must do. You might be married to an elder someday. Or how about you little boys?

I don't know how many little boys there are in this room who will be elders. Oh, I have an idea. I have an idea who some of them might be. But I do know that a holy God has his hand on little boys right now in this room who will be elders, who will be shepherds of the Church of God. And so I speak to all of you, who knows what God might do in your life to raise you up to serve in such a time as that that's coming in the future.

God desires to nurture his people from their youth up. So I don't want any of us to think here that this is just a teaching to four guys in the room. Absolutely not. The other thing is all of us need to understand how God has arranged his church. Whether you're an elder or not, you have to understand the arrangement and the wisdom of God in the way that he desires his church to function.

And all of God's people are placed under the care, the shepherding of elders, of shepherds. And so we need to understand how that works and how God thinks about it. Now I'm gonna give you five points this morning that are on your outline, if you could just look at your outline for a minute. First of all, he starts with what I'm just going to call a life-giving command, and that is to take heed to yourself and to the flock. And then Secondly, a solemn warning to elders and to all of us about the possibility, actually the promise of savage wolves coming in from among us and coming in from without us.

And then thirdly, just a crystal clear priority of the life and ministry of every church, of what elders should accomplish, and that is the priority of God and the word of His grace as the chief diet of the church. And then fourthly, an example that instructs. Paul presents before us his example of life in Ephesus, of his hard-working manner, and that, that he, it is more blessed to give than receive and that we must help the weak. Paul lived that way by example and how important it is for elders to live that way but also all of us in the church to live that way. And then finally, there is this very loving farewell where they wept freely together before their departing.

This is really a beautiful picture of church life and how the different tensions and problems that are presented to all churches, how people function in the midst of it, and then what the bottom line is in all of it, and that is love and tenderness and affection. Well let's jump off here in verse 28. There's first of all this life-giving command. Here is a way that elders can be a blessing to their flocks by obeying this command. And the command is to take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.

So he says to take heed to two things. Do you see them? First, yourselves. Take heed to yourselves. This is self-examination.

Examining your own heart before God. You know, who we are before God all by ourselves is who we really are. It's not who we are publicly, it's who we are before God in our hearts. And how important it is for us to examine ourselves. You know, elders must examine themselves.

You know, in a few minutes, we're going to all take communion together, and we are going to all examine ourselves. That's One of the aspects of the Lord's table is to examine oneself. Well, elders here are called to do that. And it's interesting that the way that this is all described here in this passage. It describes a situation where elders are not above the people under their care.

We're fellow workers, we're fellow sinners. It says here, among which God has made you overseers, not above which in a way that sets himself apart particularly spiritually. We are fellow sinners among the flock and so we must pay attention to ourselves. C.S. Lewis said that believers need to have a nostril sensitive to their inner cesspool.

People want to get in touch with their inner child, their inner goddess or whatever insane thing there might be in there that is birthed by Satan himself. But there is this inner cesspool that we must understand, we must examine our hearts to see what sin might be there. And so elders must pay attention to take heed to themselves, to examine themselves. You know, this is very practical because it just makes me think of a number of situations I've been in in the past. I've known men who really had become recommended to be elders and they have exempted themselves from being elders for a number of reasons.

As they examined themselves they might have seen something in their behavior, their patterns, or their affections that really was not right and that it would not be fair to subject the church to their affections that they have. Or I've also seen it where an elder would decline the office because of something going on in his family. It might be his wife. I've even spoken to wives and Deborah has who were grieved in their hearts because their husbands declined to be elders because the man knew of something going on in his wife's life that really, that he felt would disqualify him from being an elder. And it was grief to these wives.

So Here's one reason why a wife should be an exemplary wife, is because her behavior, her life, her affections, her tongue, her heart, whatever, might actually be the cause of her husband not being able to rise up and give his energy that God has given him to the church or maybe children. Sometimes it's the behavior and the hearts of children that would cause a man not to accept the the the sort of the nomination to be an elder. I've seen this many, many, many times where a man will say to me, you know, I can't be an elder because usually what they say is I'm not managing my household well, my children are not in control. They always say it's their own fault, but it's so important that elders examine themselves on a broad range of things and you know just how important it is to do that. You know, there are things in our lives that need to be purged.

I know there are things in my own life that need to be purged. Paul was writing to Timothy about this very subject. And he said, you know, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also wood hay and stubble there's some for honor and dishonor he's talking about our life there's some things in our lives that are for honor some are dishonor some are wood hay and stubble and some and some are gold and silver and then he says flee from those youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, pursue faith, love, peace, with all those who call on the Lord with a pure heart. He said, but avoid foolish and ignorant disputes that generate strife, for the servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but he must be gentle to all, able to teach, and patient. And you know, he's talking about these things that exist in our hearts that need to be purged.

And so he says to the elders, examine yourselves. Examine yourselves. So this would be a charge to to those about to myself and to Jason and to Steve and to Dan and then and all of us as well and even for the little girls who someday might be elders wives or the little boys who may somebody be elders or who may have to live under the leadership of particular elders. He says that they are appointed overseers in verse 208. God, it says that the Holy Spirit appoints these overseers it says among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

There's an interesting juxtaposition of the language here that helps us understand the church. It says that you are elders among which, you're among a flock, so there's a specific group of people. Peter talks about not being lords over those entrusted to you. Don't be lords, you know, don't be kings, but there are people entrusted to you. Do you see, there are these, Both of these things are working in harmony.

If one is a harsh Lord as an overseer with among those placed in his charge, then it will be a bad thing. But if he's a shepherd like the Lord Jesus Christ with those put in his charge, then it's a good thing, obviously. But notice that there are people that are put under the charge of elders, and therefore it's very important that elders are trustworthy with those who are under their charge. The word he uses here is the word episkopos. The word overseer, elder, it's translated in different ways because the term shepherd, overseer, elder, they're synonymous.

Verse 28 uses the same word episkopos as we see in verse 17. Now, episkopos, let's just think about that for a minute. Because it tells us a little bit about what eldership is all about. It's configured of two different words, episkopos is. Scopos, which means to look, kind of like to scope it out.

You heard that term, we're going to scope it out. Here, give me the scope. Scopos, to look, to look over. And then epi, which means over or upon. So you take episkopos, epi, scopos, and you have one who looks over, he keeps watch over.

And so there's, in the church, God gives elders particular people among which, among whom they labor with. In other words, yes, we are members of the global church, but we are also members of a local church where there are local leaders and accountabilities. Elders, like for instance, Jason and I don't believe that we have authority or eldership or to look over the entire flock of God in the whole world. You know, that's not our job. We have a small job.

It's right here and that's why Paul when he was writing to the Thessalonians he says he said to them recognize those who labor among you and who are over you in the Lord to admonish you. This is the way God set it up. He sets elders up to labor over particular people, not all people, but particular people, ones that they can know and look at just like a shepherd does. A shepherd knows his sheep. And that's the idea that's here.

That's why we read in Proverbs the statement, know the condition of your flocks. The first priority of shepherds is to labor among the flock and to know the condition by looking over, by episcoposing over the flock to be scoping out what's happening. So let's just stop for a moment and apply this. So it's appropriate for elders to say, hey, how are you doing? And then to say, no, how are you really doing?

OK? It's appropriate, because that's part of the function of episkopos. One has to look and see, and see reality. Well, if people lie to you about how they're really doing, you can't really do anything about that. But of course the best thing is to have an open and honest life together in the church.

Now notice the seriousness of this. Not only should we examine ourselves because there's sin, not only should we, not only are we appointed overseers to see what's going on, but the seriousness of it is so poignantly illustrated by the fact that it's the Holy Spirit that makes men overseers of the church. Isn't that amazing? He says it was the Holy Spirit that made you overseers. I mean, that just stops me in my tracks to think of that.

That God has an actual spiritual, Holy Spirit directed process that brings elders to be. How does he do that? We were talking about this on Tuesday morning. What does the Holy Spirit do to work to appoint an elder? There are at least three things.

I would like to talk about this more. There are probably other ways that I haven't thought of. But here are three ways. The first thing that the Holy Spirit does to make a person an elder is that he gives elders gifts to make them carry out their duties. They do not make themselves qualified elders by going to an elder class or by going to seminary.

Hello, going to seminary does not make one an elder or a pastor. It's the Holy Spirit who imparts gifts that make one fit. You can go to seminary as long as you want and will never be an elder if the Spirit of God has not by His own will imparted the gifts of grace to perform that function. You know what do you have that you did not receive? The gifts of grace are that, they are gifts of grace, and they come to men to whom God desires to make elders.

So the Holy Spirit imparts gifts of grace for His own purposes. He arranges the body of Christ by outpouring His gifts into particular men in particular ways. So, that's the first way that the Holy Spirit makes elders as he gives them gifts. The second way is that he causes he causes them to be recognized by the congregation and they affirm him. You know an elder should not be an elder if they're not affirmed by the body.

And the Holy Spirit appoints elders and there's a process in which elders are appointed. And that process includes their qualifications. Who knows their qualifications? The congregation. It's the congregation who stands up and says, nope, that guy's not qualified.

Or, yep, That guy's qualified. So the Holy Spirit works through the discerning work of the Holy Spirit in the congregation. And of course, Timothy is exhorted in 1 Timothy, chapter 5, do not lay hands on elders too hastily because there's judgment toward us. There are many pangs that we introduce into the church when we lay hands too quickly on elders. There are many sufferings that the church suffers from by elders who are not qualified because they were, hands were laid on too quickly or there were practical reasons that elders were appointed and not spiritual reasons.

So the Spirit of God helps the people to recognize the qualities. Thirdly, The Holy Spirit works to give a man desire for eldership. If any one of you aspires to the office of elder, he desires a good thing. So a man must have a desire to be a shepherd. And I believe it's the Spirit of God that gives a man that desire.

Now, can a man have a desire for eldership not by the Holy Spirit? Yes, I think so. I think a man can desire something for sordid gain or for prominence or maybe his wife wants him to be. There are a lot of different reasons why a man might aspire that might not be godly reasons but I would say mainly it's the Holy Spirit that gives a man a firm conviction that yes he should do this, yes he must do this And a man should wait for that as well. So the seriousness of it is that it's the Holy Spirit that does the work.

And the work is to shepherd the church of God. That's the work of elders. Verse 28 explains the nature of it with this word shepherd. It's a beautiful word and it implies that the flock or that the sheep are a flock together. The imagery is beautiful imagery.

Of course, it's also convicting imagery, because we know a little bit about sheep and how dumb they are and how much care they need and how they get dirty, but yet they have a shepherd. It shouldn't be a surprise this too much if we have brambles in our coats and if we If we fall into ditches and things like that You know this lot just this last week one of our one of our baby cows was just born fell in fell into a pond and couldn't get out And Lester around here who's the chief shepherd of these cows, he now Lester hates electricity. Can I just tell you that? Lester despises electricity. Whenever we're testing the fences, guess who tests the fences?

Me. Okay? He will not test the fence. I will test the fence to see if it's hot, but he will not. He hates it.

So guess where he was positioned? Outside the fence. And this little calf was drowning, just brand new born. And it was a small calf by measure of other calves. It was kind of a frail one, probably the most frail one we've ever had.

And so here This calf is drowning and there's poor Lester. Which does he hate the most, a dead cow or electricity? Well, Lester went right through the fence because he loved the cow, Okay? That's the picture of a shepherd. The shepherd is willing to go through whatever, the suffering that's necessary, the pain, to go get the drowning lamb.

And this is a beautiful imagery that's here. You know, it's the shepherding of the flock of God. You know, Jesus himself explained this in the most wonderful terms. And we read Psalm 23, which is really the basis of it. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. You know Psalm 23 is so beautiful to help us understand what this is all about. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the quiet waters.

Hey, I'll just have to tell you, our heart's desire is to bring us to the best pastures and the clearest waters. Now, we too are sheep of our shepherd, our great shepherd. And so we often miss things. But our heart's desire, really, is to bring the clearest water and the best food. And of course it's here.

It's found right here. We desire to be very, very close to this book and to speak of it line by line. We think this is the best food. This is the clearest water for the church. So the Church of God is a flock and it's a very valuable flock.

He purchased the flock with his own blood. Now here we've come across something that I think we should just pause and ponder very carefully. The price that was paid for the church was blood. Now, when you're buying something, it matters what you're giving for it. It's either a lot or a little, but it may be something very precious.

Well, blood is very precious. And here it says that the flock was so precious to the Lord Jesus Christ that he shed his own blood. You know, if there are any of you today who are not converted, who have not repented and given your hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what you need to know. That You were purchased by blood.

The Lord Jesus Christ loves you just marvelously. And he shed his blood to take care of all of your sins. And his blood, His blood would literally wipe out your sins before him and allow you to come happily into his presence and to experience his life. He shed his blood so that you might have life. This is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement and death.

That he became the replacement for your sins. That the anger toward you from God for your sins was diverted to him. And the blood of Jesus Christ was the cleansing flood that made it happen. So he purchased the church with his own blood. You know it's it's fascinating to see these themes running all throughout Scripture.

You know husbands are supposed to love their wives like Christ loved the church. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, who gave himself up for her. That's the same thing. That's the blood sacrifice. Husbands are supposed to love their wives with the same blood sacrifice that Christ did for the church.

That he might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of the water of the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. This imagery runs through marriage, it runs through the church, and it runs right down into my own individual heart that I was paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's not enough though just to examine yourself, It's not enough just to feed, it's not enough just to shepherd. There's more. It's critical that elders take heed to themselves, but they also must do it because there's a great danger to the flock.

It's always present in the church and that brings us to the second way elders can be a blessing to their congregations and that is by heeding a solemn warning. This is point number two, the solemn warning of savage wolves. The work of a shepherd is to protect the flock from danger because of these savage wolves that will come in among us, not sparing the flock. So Here we have the reality of wolves in the flock. We shouldn't be surprised.

Let's don't be discouraged when this happens. Let's don't run away from the church when this happens, because it will happen. It's promised here that it will happen. Have you ever known a charlatan? Have you ever known a wolf in the church?

Have you ever known anybody who's abused the flock? Have you ever known any leader who's done the wrong thing? Well, guess what? We just have to grow up sometimes and realize that that's going to happen. And let's don't let this destroy our lives and our relationships in the church forever.

That happens all the time with people. People need to grow up and quit saying, you know, I'll never go back to the church again because so and so did such and such. Here we find out that it is a terrible blight. It's a horrible condition, but it is a real condition. Now how do we identify them?

Well, they are wolves in sheep's clothing, and so they have an outward profession, and they can come in the form of elders and evangelists and individuals in the church, and they have a voice in the congregation. And they come from two different places. They come from the inside and they come from the outside. Now that's kind of scary, isn't it, to think about that? Is it possible that there are any wolves among us right now?

If there are, you know, repent, you know, turn to God. But it's quite possible that there are wolves here. Now, if there are, I just like to put all potential or future wolves on notice. We have a strategic way to deal with you. Okay?

We will deal with you the way that scripture speaks of. So we're ready. We're ready for you and we're not afraid because we're supposed to protect the flock. We're not afraid of you at all if you're there. I don't even know who I'm looking at.

Probably no one, honestly. But, you know, it is interesting. I've gone through many, many years of being in the church. I haven't really personally seen very many wolves. I haven't seen very many.

I'm very grateful for that. But I want to be ready for the next ones that come along. I really honestly want to be poised for action for that. Perhaps better than ever. I hope so.

Savage wolves will come from the inside, not sparing the flock, and they'll also arise. And How do you detect them? Well, they speak perverse things, it says here in verse 30. They say things that aren't exactly right. They twist things up.

Whenever you find a man who twists things, then just be on your guard. It's possible. If there's intentionality to twist it. Now, we all see through a glass darkly. I'm not talking about not completely understanding everything, because we don't completely understand everything.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about intentional twisting. It's a heart that desires to twist and to make things different than what they were intended to be. They speak perverse things, in other words, they distort things, and there's a premeditation about them. And also, they don't spare the flock.

In other words, they abuse the flock, they beat the sheep, they hurt the sheep, They don't speak tenderly to the sheep. And it ends up that they're not spared. They don't really care about the fallout from it. And also they draw men to themselves. They want people to follow them, and So they get people to rally around them and the thing that they're twisting.

It's driven often by pride or covetousness or some form of idolatry. Men in the church draw men to themselves by a lot of different things. In modern times they can do it by phone calls and emailing and politicking and they're aggressively trying to communicate with people to draw people to themselves, to get people on their side. They work very hard to get people on their side. Now it's interesting, you know, Paul left Timothy in Ephesus and he instructed Timothy there for how to deal with things like this.

In fact, in 1 Timothy chapter 1, he says, remain on in Ephesus, that you may charge some, that they teach no other doctrine, and don't give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification. It seems like Timothy wanted to leave because of the disputes and and Paul said no stay on there. And then he explained some of the behavior in 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy 3 verses 1 through 9. Now I'm going to read this to you just to help you think about how you can discern the behavior and the heart attitudes of wolves. He says, but know this, men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away.

For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janus and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith, but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was." Now those are some of the things if you want to discern a wolf, just look through that list. And you can see when you have that thing at work. So it is for shepherds to protect the flock from wolves and to contend with them, you know, and to deal with them. So this solemn warning to protect against savage wolves has an antidote to it and It comes in the form of this third way that you see here, a clear priority of life and ministry, God and the word of his grace.

How would you best prepare a flock of people to resist wolves and how would you do the best to run them off? And it's this kind of ministry, to be focused on God and the Word of His grace. Verses 32 and 33 says, Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. So there are two things, God and the word of his grace. So that's, I believe that's an antidote to wolves.

If to keep the ministry focused on God, everything that is of God and everything that is of the word of his grace. You know that's why Paul said to Timothy, he said, Timothy, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Preach the word in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and humility. And this will have an impact.

What's the impact? It will be able to build you up. That's why we have the focus of our times, the Word of God. Every time we get together, the Word of God is going to be the focus of it. It's always going to lead back to this text of Holy Scripture for us.

It's able to build you up. Now, all of us are in this room, we're at different ages, we're at different places in our lives, But here's one thing we all have in common from the elders to the flock to the children, everybody. We all have this one thing in common which makes life beautiful in the church. And that is we all have things that need to be built up. We have foundations that need to be laid.

We have things that are not in place. We have issues and there's building that needs to happen no matter where we are and you know all of us have maybe a different angle on what needs to be built up. But all of us need to be built up. And it's the word of his grace and God himself that's able to build, to do the building. I hope that right now God is building us.

Well, I know he's teaching us about elders and flocks and wolves. He's building us. He's placing building blocks in the building. The church is a building And it says that we are living stones built together. But each stone has to be built up too.

If one stone is weak and crumbles, it threatens the building. So it's so important that all of us gather together around God and the word of his grace so that we can be built together. You know, I know what some of you are thinking right now. Some of you are thinking, I have so much building to do, I'm overwhelmed. I have nothing.

You know, I'm a new believer or things were so wrecked in my upbringing that there was their scorched earth everywhere what do I do well relax just relax God and the Word of His grace is able to build you up he is able to do it he does it through his word through the word of his grace and through the work of the Holy Spirit, and through the interaction of living stones. You are a stone being built into the building of God, And you have a certain lack in your life, fear not. God has another stone that has that built in. And we work with one another and we're strengthened with one another. Well, one of the problems with stones is that they rub up against each other.

We need to be in close contact for the building to really be strong. Have you ever seen a rock wall or something where the stones are just thrown out all over the place. You know, I have an example of that just this last week. Somebody hit one of the fire pits up here, and the stones are all over the place. Well, a lot of churches are like that.

The stones are just scattered all over the place. They're not together. They're not close. Stones should be up against one another if they're to be built up into this building of God. But so more walls need to be built.

Foundations need to be strengthened. You know the electrical system needs to be improved, everything about the building needs to be improved in the church. But it also gives you an inheritance among those who are being sanctified. Gives you an inheritance among those who are being sanctified. Now here's what I believe he means this.

We are God's inheritance. He inherits us. We are the inheritance of God And those who are being sanctified are the inheritance of God. And through God and the word of His grace, we are being built up and sanctified and being made into an inheritance. Here's a question that a pastor asked in response to this, asked of his congregation.

He said, are you denying God any of his inheritance by your affections and by your behavior. Pastor John Piper posed this question to his congregation several years ago. Are you robbing God of his inheritance because of your denial of God and the word of his grace in your life? Because your affections are restraining your growth. Are you robbing God of some inheritance in the saints among all those who are being sanctified?

Here's the picture. We are God's inheritance. He's inheriting us. God thinks differently about everything. He's inheriting us, and we are being sanctified, and through the sanctification process, the beauty of His inheritance has increased.

God is building up his people through the word of his grace. You know, God, he's replacing insecurities with his promises. He's replacing unprofitable behavior with profitable behavior. He's taking broken hearts and he's binding them up, you know when we were praying before the service I Always I don't know why that I always I always I think I always pray That God would would comfort any broken hearts that are among us. Because I know every time we gather, there are broken hearts that gather with us.

I don't know why, I just think of it every time. But God is sanctifying us, he's healing broken hearts, He's mending us together. He's building us up in the body. And it's a marvelous thing. God is sanctifying his people.

And he's setting them free year after year. And so the reward for this sacrifice is to present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. What a wonderful thing the Lord Jesus is doing in his church. This is what he wants. He's working out the spots.

You know, we have, you know, the bride has many spots, doesn't she? Think of how messed up the church is. We talk about that a lot. How messed up we are, or how messed up, you know, the church in America is, or something like that. You know, there are lots of spots and wrinkles that need to get worked out, both here and there, but particularly here.

But this is God's marvelous work, is that he is presenting to himself a glorious church, which is his inheritance. He is inheriting the saints who are being sanctified. What a beautiful thing. So Paul is encouraging elders to have a clear priority in their life and ministry, and that is God and the word of His grace, not philosophy, not the next new latest hot leadership tip. No way.

The word of his grace. So elders are to do that and the fourth way that elders are a blessing are that they They follow this example that instructs that it's more blessed to give than receive. So elders should understand it is more blessed to give than receive. They're not takers, they're givers. My father-in-law used to say there are two kinds of people in this world.

They're the givers and the takers. You be a giver." And that's what Paul was. He says, you must help the weak, verses 33 to 35. Paul's example is one that would rescue elders from being lovers of money. And he mentions his relationship with money, and he uses a word that we find in the Ten Commandments, the word covetousness.

He goes back to the Ten Commandments and he says, I have coveted no one silver or gold. So he had a life, he had the blessing of having a life of being free from covetousness. Are you free from covetousness? Well, here's the encouraging thing. Hey, get this, it's possible to be set free from this.

Isn't that neat? You don't have to be in bondage to covetousness. Paul was not. The power of the Holy Spirit in your life can literally set you free from the sin of covetousness. He says, I've coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.

He's speaking honestly, he's not bragging at all. I just think he's rejoicing in the freedom in Jesus that he's been given. Not to be pushed around by money, not to be motivated by money at all. And so he's warning though, he's warning elders by the example of his own life that they need to be rescued from the love of money. Jesus said you can't serve God and mammon.

And he said, the writer of Hebrews said, let your life or let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have. And this is a mark of false teachers. They love, they love money and they, they think mostly about how they can increase it and they go through all kinds of gyrations to do it. And there are ways, there certainly are ways to amass wealth if you love money. But here, an elder is not to be fond of sordid gain, but to labor and to be content.

Paul mentions his labor. Did you notice that? This is the work ethic of an elder. He labors. And he's like Paul, who said that he was poor, yet making many rich.

He was making many rich in faith even though he was poor in this world and he worked very hard. Paul was a hard-working elder and he identifies the problem of support in here. He says these hands worked, he was making tents and sometimes we know that sometimes Paul worked with his own hands for support and sometimes he was completely supported. There's no... We just see both of them.

In different seasons, maybe it was different seasons of his life. It might have been different places that he went to. He did say that he labored particularly so that nobody could accuse him of loving money above the gospel. And then he mentions, he quotes this statement of Jesus. He says, even the Lord Jesus said, it's more blessed to give than receive.

That's nowhere in the New Testament. You cannot find that anywhere. Where did Jesus say that? Well, Paul is quoting something that Jesus said that was never recorded by the writers of the Gospels. You Remember at the end of John, you know when I was first saved I was so struck by the end of the Gospel of John where it says if all the books in the world, all the things that Jesus said, if they were all written down, all the books in the world couldn't contain them.

Jesus said a lot more than is written down. Well, here's one of them right here. Well, it was written down in the book of Acts. We have it, but it wasn't written down by the gospel writers. But Jesus said, Jesus said it's more blessed to give than receive.

It's happier to be a giver than a receiver. That's true in everything. Boy, wouldn't you know this isn't this one of the things you try to teach your children when they're young. It's more blessed to give than receive. How many of you, don't raise your hands, How many of you are having particular issues in training your children that it's more blessed to give than receive?

Don't raise your hands. I know you're all struggling with this because you struggle with it. And your children are just like you are. And unfortunately, you know, it comes out, you know, in more offensive ways in them than it does in you, because you've learned to kind of gloss it off. But it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Paul had a labor ethic that was just off the charts. You know what? We should do this. We should spend our lives for the gospel. We should pour out our energy.

We should wear ourselves out for it. We should not be seeking an easy life. Paul was poured out like a drink offering. Well, he was poor yet making many rich, having nothing yet possessing all things. What a work ethic.

Let it be that we would not withhold our labors for the work of God in the world, but that we work vigorously. Well, a fifth way that elders are a blessing to their flocks is that they they pay attention to this loving farewell. It says here they all wept freely, verses 36 through 38. Now this is one of the great farewells in Scripture. One of our friends, Kevin Swanson, has a CD about goodbyes And he talks about the tragic goodbyes in the church.

How many people have many bad goodbyes and their sorrows in those goodbyes. And these are the parting words. In this CD he gives profiles of some of the different goodbyes in scripture, the good ones and the bad ones. You know, how have your goodbyes been? Well this is a wonderful, wonderful goodbye.

You know, I was recalling some of my own goodbyes. And this is the kind of goodbye, though, that we would desire in all of our goodbyes. Here, in this farewell, there are words of belonging, words of brotherhood and affection. He knelt down and prayed with them all, and they all wept freely and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more, and they accompanied him to the ship. They were brothers and sisters, they were shepherds and sheep, they loved one another, they traveled together, they wept together, they took care of the sick and the wayward sheep in Ephesus for three years together.

Now it's the responsibility of every church to raise up elders like this. The atmosphere, the culture of a church can make good or bad elders. And so we sit here in this room with a responsibility to raise up elders like this. Our culture should forge our young boys to be just like this as we've seen it here. We should make eldership an exciting engagement for our young men, train our boys early on, teach them what elders are all about, teach them the qualifications and help them to see the beauty of the work and the glory of it all.

Okay, application. I'm gonna go really fast here. Number one, I want you to, you know, I hope we've seen how seriously God takes the church. You know, he shepherds the church with the Holy Spirit and he purchases it with his own blood. Now, he cherishes the church.

Do you cherish the church? Or do you take the church lightly? Secondly, are you a wolf in the making? Wolves are made in two ways, at least two ways. First of all, by loving their own ways above the word of God and being proud in it.

They distort because they like their own thinking more than the mind of God and they might like, they might enjoy controversy too much. They might enjoy it when they should not enjoy it. They ought to, They ought to love humility and patience and kindness in their speech, yet speaking the truth in love. It's easy for a person to become a wolf because he's full of himself and is impressed by himself. This is one way that men become wolves.

You should be very careful. Humility and lowliness is the order of the day for elders. Of course, That doesn't mean that they don't have anything to say or that they don't stand firmly on what God has said. It doesn't mean that they don't argue passionately, but it does mean that they watch their hearts for any pride, for any love of something that is sordid. Secondly, they become wolves by nursing dissatisfactions.

They nurse hurt feelings. They grow them into envy and strife. And then they get so confused that they think they're doing the work of God, but really they're just dividing the church. And they're full of themselves. This happens.

They're full of their own hurts and their own problems. I believe these are the two ways, at least they're two ways. Now of course they're more than that, But these are two ways that one can become a wolf. So first of all then, I would just ask, are you so proud of your own thinking and you love your own ways that you would become divisive in the church? Secondly, Are you nursing dissatisfaction?

If you're nursing dissatisfaction you could so easily become a wolf in the church. Number three, don't fall into the trap of serving yourself. Are you living in the church as a picture of this principle, it's more blessed to give than receive? Or do you just see the church as something that gives to you all the time? No.

God would have us be a fulfillment of the words of the Lord Jesus. It's more blessed to give than receive. And then number four, could you be an elder? Could you be an elder like the ones that are being encouraged here? Are you a wife that could assist a husband who was an elder?

Are you a child who could rally around the greatness of the kingdom of God and love it so much as to help your father and elder to do his work. And then lastly, are you willing for shepherding? Are you willing to take the teaching seriously? Are you willing to search your own heart and to examine yourself? You know, the Lord Jesus Christ purchased the church with his own blood.

The church did not purchase herself by her own works but by being blood bought by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as God in Christ is reconciling the world to himself, he does it partly by appointing elders and congregations for her health and for her strength, so that they would work together in harmony for the sake of the gospel. And that's, I think, is the heart of this passage of scripture, that God would use elders in the church to work in loving harmony with the flock so that they would bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, these words are beautiful.

I'm so struck by them and I pray that you would help us to be a living picture of them. In Jesus' name, Amen.