Got 22 minutes. OK, tonight we're going to be looking at that portion of our statement, our membership statement that talks about preaching and teaching, and we'll come to that. And so I'm going to tell you something that if if you will heed this advice, it can positively impact your life and beyond this life. We'll talk about that a little bit later. The Lord has always taught his people. He taught through Moses, he taught through Nehemiah, he taught through Ezra. The Lord spoke to Aaron the priest and said in Leviticus 10, 11, you and you are to teach the people of Israel, all the Israelites, that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses. So remind them of everything the Lord has told them. And we have a record in Scripture of how the congregation of Israel professed their allegiance at the first and then drifted away from the Lord and into their sins. They followed the ways of the nations around them. they as a whole. They didn't practice the life the Lord had instructed them to live and the majority of their wanderings, majority of them fell to their wanderings. But the Lord had his remnant. The Lord gave them judges and kings. The Lord gave them prophets to steer them back to repentance. But eventually the cup was full. And just like the nations that the nation of Israel drove out before them, they were driven out into exile. But the Lord had not finished with them. Upon the return to Jerusalem, and while they were building it, Nehemiah prays. Confessing the nation's sins against the Lord in Nehemiah 1, chapter 1, verse 8 and 9, we read, Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them. And so Nehemiah reminds them of the teaching of the deserved punishment because they disobeyed it. And then the promise that comes with repentance. And so the Lord promises through Moses reconciliation if they repent. So then we come to Ezra as we come along and it's being reestablished. And there's this passage that I thought I knew by heart, but there's more to it than I realized. I won't, so also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Acob, Shabbatai, you get the point. The Levites helped the people understand the law while the people remained in their places. So they're all standing when they're hearing the law. And they read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense, preaching. so that the people understood the reading. So it wasn't just Ezra, it was all these other guys, the Levites, that gave the sense. And so you see this tradition of teaching and preaching that's going on throughout the age of the canon of Scripture being revealed. So this pattern of leaders, of God's people continues right up to Jesus' day. We know the synagogue was still there. Jesus went to the synagogue and stood up and spoke. And Paul went to the synagogues when he would go to cities and first of all bring the word of Christ there. Even though these people in the synagogues in this habit had wandered from the teachings, okay? But they were still there. They were still established. They were still a community. So in the Old Covenant, they knew that a prophet was from God. How did they know? When he spoke the words of God, that if he spoke the words of God, he was a prophet. But the canon of scripture is still being written. and a prophecy had to come true. So what does Leviticus 18, 20 to 22 tell us? It says, but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how may we know that the word, that the Lord, whether they had spoken the word of the Lord when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord? If the word does not come to pass or come true, that it is a word that the Lord has not spoken. So it had to come true, it had to come to pass. And if not, then don't be afraid. In the New Covenant, there is no prophecy directly from God besides Scripture, because the canon is complete. And if a man comes to you and he says, I have a word from God, as we've heard in the past, grab your wallet and run. Okay? There's nobody authorized to speak prophecy today. The Scriptures are closed. Revelation 22, 18 and 19. The New Testament criteria for the teacher-preacher is that everything taught must agree with Scripture. And we must question everything that doesn't agree with Scripture. If anything is taught, it doesn't agree. We should catch it, or the members should catch it and bring it to light. So why do we need teachers and preachers when we all have the Holy Spirit? Well, we need to be reminded. The argument has already been made that there are no lone Christians in the community of God. We don't just say, me and my Bible. But we need to be reminded. We need to be a part of community. The people of God drifted away when they disregarded the prescription the Lord had given them. The prescription is many passages you could choose from this. Let the word of God dwell in you richly and admonishing one another in all wisdom. Colossians 3.16 Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanks thankfulness in your hearts to God. These things are done in community as well as in our private. God has always taught and reminded his people his statutes, and he's called them, calls them to repentance, and he promises them blessing for obedience. He has reasoned with his people. In the first chapter of Isaiah, we read, come now, let us reason together, though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. We don't only need faith to come to Christ and be saved, but also to continue to walk in faith. We need to be continually pointed to the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. So now we're the new covenant people of God. Just like the old, we gather on the Lord's day, was the Sabbath, now the Lord's day, and we know the reasons why. And we share life together. We center our lives around the word of God. just as they did, and we aim to live our lives according to His Word. For all Scripture is God breathed, and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." What verse is that? 2 Timothy. So we have elders, overseers, who are responsible for all that is taught. They are to devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So how can we help them do that? Think about that. How can we help them do that? They carry on the ministry of the word passed down from the apostles. This is a neat verse to consider as it's the carry down, 2 Timothy 2.2. and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." And so passed down, the teaching is passed down to faithful men, faithful ministers. And so we come to our statement from the membership covenant. We commit to submit to the teaching and leadership of the elders in as much as it accords in good conscience with the truth of scripture. to the governing of the church according to its constitution and bylaws. Elders seek the Lord on many matters. Matter of fact, it's a weekly thing. If not more. The elders are seeking the Lord on many matters. Right now we're talking about, you know, we don't share everything public. We don't even share with our wives. because our wives aren't elders. So right now we're talking about, well, what are we going to preach through next? We're almost finished with 1 Peter. What are we going to talk about for Vesper? We're almost finished with this. We'll be finished in the second Sunday of next month. And so the elders are praying about these things. And I'm bringing that to your attention is because some of the gist of what I'm talking about as we read this covenant, we commit to submit to teaching. Well, we're also committing ourselves to praying for what's taking place because we take responsibility for what goes on. Every one of us as members. Think of this as you pray for the elders. Think about how the Lord leads. You know when Pastor Josh has broken away from the series and gone through a series on apostasy. How we were led to do that. Last week he was so moved by Thanksgiving that the sermon was changed by that. So pray for your elders. Pray for your leading. I'll probably ask you this three or four times Don't raise your hand. Do you pray for those feeling leading come Sunday? Do are you praying for them during the week? Are you praying for your leaders? or do we or and I'm probably speaking to the choir here, okay, so So good that you're all here because this this this shows your commitment to the church just that you would be here this evening Second Timothy four so there's a lot of this in Second Timothy Second Timothy 4 1 through 4 I charge you in the presence of God in Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom Preach the word be ready in season and out of season reproof rebuke rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming for When people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. This is a sobering charge. Another reason why you need to pray for your pastors. I'm sure we could go on with many stories of people we know who maybe go to other churches that perhaps you would say this passage fits them with itching ears seeking teachers whom they want. for various reasons, like, you know, there's so much poor teaching going on out there that some people just aren't hearing the right things and they think they're doing things right, but they're just being taught so poorly. And in those environments, there are also people who possibly think they're Christians, but they're not because what they did was they prayed a prayer and they think they've checked the block and they're not getting teaching much better than that. So we have the word and we have guidelines, a constitution and bylaws derived from the word, agreed and voted upon by the membership, elder led, congregational ruled. This is a safeguard that leaders don't wander off course for everyone in membership is under authority. We heard lampstands mentioned this morning, and I had been thinking about that this week. I'm so happy. So in the book of Revelation, beginning with chapter two, lampstands are mentioned for each of the seven churches. And we come to understand they represent Christ's presence in the churches. So notice Revelation two verse five, he threatens to remove the stand from the church for lack of repentance. It says, remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent. And so notice this removal is not just a removal for the leadership's actions, it's a removal to the church. It shows our shared responsibility To walk closely with God personally and as a body Know the word ourselves, so we need to know the word ourselves so that we don't just trust what is being taught but like the Bereans Sorry X 1711 says now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness and There's that word eagerness again. Examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. And so, what's being taught, is it from scripture? Are you taking that for granted or are you searching it yourself? So since our constitution and bylaws are derived prayerfully from principles of scripture, as well as our confession, we ought to be familiar with these documents as well. And you can find them on the church's website under member resources. And you'll even find the membership covenant in there and the vows. And so you could look at them anytime you want to. Well, I have an exhortation for us if you haven't got the gist of that already. So we understand the role of shepherds, but I want to exhort us also to engage, to pray, to be all here, to anticipate in behind your prayers, and to see the Lord work. A man can produce a message doctrinally and grammatically correct, yet it could have no power. The Holy Spirit must engage with the speaker and the congregation. Our part is to pray the Lord speak and lead through these men. And here's the part that can benefit us tremendously. We pray during the week with anticipation that the Lord would meet with us. making the Lord's Day meetings the most significant meetings, moments of our week. The whole gathering. By faith, through a fallible man, the Lord speaks. How important is it that we prepare ourselves for this weekly event of gathering? How important is it that we do all we can to pay close attention, to even remember what was taught, that we might get all we can from it? Perhaps even take notes. It helps me pay attention when I take notes. And I would also say that children can gain a lot from watching you take notes because they see that your interest in what's being taught. You might say, well, I don't always hear, and I'm not saying any of you do, I don't always hear something that significant when I come. Well, I'll ask you, how much prayer do you give it during the week? How important do you see your participation? This is a participatory event, all hands. Navy guys. We would do very well to center our lives around the Lord's Day. That is not a cultural norm to center your life around the Lord's day around the Lord's people. That is that is going against the flow in most every way. But I promise you, if your heart is in that, that you will gain from that and your children will gain and your family, the heritage of your family will gain from that. So be ready to hear the word when you come. See past the man and look to be fed from the Lord. The Lord has always taught us people. We can be forgetful. We can drift from our first love. That is why we are in community. He gave us his perfect word and he teaches us through imperfect men. for the purpose of building up his church. So first the foundation of reconciliation through Jesus Christ, then the building up of that foundation. Ephesians 4.11, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood and womanhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And this is what you ought to hear from your church. No matter which book of the Bible is being taught, we will find our way to Christ. When challenged as to our authority, we will answer that we speak not from our own authority, but by the authority of Jesus Christ. This is his church. And I have one example in closing of Peter's response after he healed a man in Acts chapter 4 verse 10. This along the same line of thought. Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. By him, this man is standing before you. Well, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Amen. So if you have any questions and I thought someone might ask the question. We have a minute. Someone might ask the question. I mentioned if someone teaches aside from scripture. We should question that. Well, how would you how would you do that? Do you have an idea how you would do that? Let's say you hear something that I'm not sure that's biblical. How should you go about that? Yeah, but in the sermon or yeah. Yeah. I've I've heard of people walking out of a sermon, though, when they heard something unbiblical, and I think that's right. But this is your church now. You're a member of this church, and it's your responsibility. It's all of our responsibility to make sure what's to be sure what's taught is biblical. But if you heard something that wasn't, That's a choice. But think about what would maybe be your first thing? Who would you go to first? Right. So privately, maybe? Privately? Anthony? sure yeah it's a good idea way and that's good that's good where do you get that from but what if he responds don't worry about it Well, this is something that I definitely – I was in a Bible study and it was with a bunch of Presbyterian folks that are really good people, but – well, they're not like mainstream Presbyterians. Anyways, we were talking about the possibility, and they were bringing up like all these old basics that would like – the reason they had the creed is because these people came up and said certain things. that were false about Jesus. And I remember the pastor that was like leading the thing was saying one of the worst parts about the heretics was they used a lot of scripture. So, you know, Anthony's example, you might come and say, where's this in scripture? And he might be a genius and be like, well, he just lay out this huge case. And it's all lies and not true, but he's very good with scripture and he could twist it and make it seem a certain way. You know, I mean, it seems like it would be a Matthew 22, Yeah, and I think as we talk about this, we realize that it can be tricky and the person can be slick and come back and maybe they were right or maybe they're being slick and they're being deceptive and they're looking for money and all that. You have to work through it, don't you? Yeah, that's Matthew 18. And that's for someone in your church. If they're not in your church, you don't have any authority over them. And so you might just get to rebuking them. But it depends on the clarity of the error. or yes, how clear you are, whether it's air, Patrick. and come to realize on your own that there is no argument you're going to have with anybody in the Catholic faith that is a strong Catholic that will convince you that what they're showing in the scripture is acceptable. They're going to point you to the catechism. They're going to point you to different bishops and popes through the decades. Don't stay at a church that doesn't preach the truth. I'm going to dismiss us. People have children to retrieve. So let's I'm going to pray. Father, we thank you for this discussion. We thank you for church membership and all that it brings into our lives, Lord, and all the benefits we receive, Lord, as we as we walk with you in community. And I pray that you bless these people, Lord. Give them grace and safety as they travel home. And Lord, Father, we just want to thank you for our time of gathering. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. We hear the benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit will be with you all. Amen.