Well, congregation, let's continue to worship our God this morning by considering His Word. I invite you to open your Word this morning, your copy of God's Bible, to 1 Peter chapter 5, and we're going to be considering verses 1 through 5. If you're following along in a pew Bible, you can find that on page 1016. 1016. So let's give our attention to the reading of God's word. 1 Peter chapter five verses one through five. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord endures forever. and we are thankful for it. Congregation, join me in prayer this morning, asking the Lord to illumine our hearts to receive his word. Father God, we confess to you this morning that standing at the very epicenter of all of our sin, all of our rebellion against you, standing in the middle, if you will, of that clenched fist of rebellion against you, is the overarching sin of pride. Pride that we would not have a God over us to rule. Pride that we would not have rulers over us to rule. Pride that we would not have anyone over us to rule because secretly we have said in our hearts, I will ascend to the heights. I will be like God. Father, forgive us of this disposition, this prevailing disposition which we oftentimes find in our hearts. And I pray, Father, for your Spirit to be sent from heaven into this place right now, that you would illumine our hearts, prepare them to receive this word that you have from First Peter that quite frankly, Lord, is controversial, like often your word is, but I pray that it would not be among your people. I pray that in this place, Grace Covenant Church, as we think about the relationship between pastors to congregation and congregation to pastors, that there be no enmity, Father. that there be no pride, but as Peter says, that all of us would clothe ourselves with humility, taking upon ourselves the roles that you have divinely given from heaven and happily assuming them in the context of this place. Father, may you be glorified as we do that. May your spirit be magnified and may we be content as we glorify you. We ask these things in your son's name, amen. You know, I am not a big football fan. I like football. It's enjoyable to watch, but I'm not one of these hardcore football fans that like has a professional football team shirt or a college football shirt. Nope, nothing against those that do. But one of the things I do enjoy doing is going to somebody's house on maybe a big game day and watching a game with a group full of people. And one of the things that I actually enjoy or get more entertainment out of than actually watching the game is watching the armchair quarterbacks. The people there who have assumed to themselves the omniscience and the authority and the expertise and the experience and the wisdom of a coach of a NFL or college team. And when they see a play that was handled infelicitously, or let's just say stupidly, they begin to berate the TV and berate the quarterback and berate the coach as if they know better. And the fact of the matter is, sometimes they do. But hindsight is always what? It's always 20-20. What they don't know is the conversation that took place in that huddle, right? Between the coach and the players. What they don't know is how the history of that particular play has been successful or unsuccessful against that particular team in the history of their team as a whole. They don't know those things, but yet they assume to themselves the authority and omniscience of those things. Well, you know, there are, if we could call them, armchair quarterbacks in the church, who likewise think that they know better than the pastors. And again, just as with normal armchair quarterbacks, sometimes they're right. And sometimes, hindsight always is 20-20. But I'm not here speaking of those black and white issues that are explicit and clear in Scripture, like should we have in the morning and evening worship time a sermon, or should we have a finger Painting display for Jesus. I mean those are black and white things. We're not gonna have a finger painting display We're not gonna have a representational dance. We're going to have a sermon We're going to preach the word because that's what the Lord calls us to do. I'm not talking about those black and white things I'm talking about the day-to-day week-to-week month-to-month year-to-year decisions that that elders as under shepherds in the church have to make on an array of different issues. Issues like, if you have a women's ministry, how do you run that women's ministry? If you have a nursery, how do you run that nursery? Do you have background checks of those who are working in that nursery? Or do you just trust everyone and be foolish and naive? There's a number of issues that we have to figure out in respect to public worship services. What time do you have worship service? Do you have it at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. or do you have it at 3 a.m.? You've got to make those decisions, right? Well, these are the kinds of decisions that elders throughout the course and life of a church have to make. And in all of these areas, it's not so much, as I said, a black-and-white, cut-and-dry decision. Rather, it's a judgment call. It's a matter of wisdom within which there will be good, better, and best decisions. So let me begin this morning with a question. What do we do in those circumstances when individual members or even a group of members have opposing opinions regarding how the elders rule? In other words, does the word of God give us some light on how order and rule is to be carried out in the church. And I would submit to you this morning that, in fact, the answer is yes. This is exactly what Peter is getting at in verse 5a. When it comes to how, listen to me very carefully, when it comes to how the church is to be ruled, Peter says that the congregation is to submit to the leading of the elders. What I wanna do this morning is I wanna unpack a few items in verse 5a that are gonna help us untangle some, what we might call exegetical knots, okay? Because the bulk of what I'm gonna say, not only this morning, but for the next two Sundays, I'm gonna park on 1 Peter 5, verse 5a. We're just gonna talk about that for three weeks. And why is that? Because of that rascally word in the Greek, hupotasso, submit to. The moment we hear that word, especially in the context of the local church, there is a tendency for some, not all, but for some of us to get our dukes up. What do you mean I've got to submit? What does that mean? What does that not mean? What are you saying about my position of my conscience in respect to the elders' decisions? And those are good questions. And just as when we came to the passage in Peter about wives being called by God to submit to husbands, I spent a considerate amount of time dealing with what that doesn't mean. Why? Because so often the headship of husbands in the context of a marriage is abused. And on the one hand, we don't want to say because it is abused, we jettison the principle. But on the other hand, we want to try to flesh out and massage and give articulate detail to what it does mean, how that is to look in the context of a marriage. So I want you to look at verse 5a, and there's a few things that I want you to note. Number one, I want you to notice the first word in verse five. The first word is likewise. Now that is a connecting word, it's an adverb. And what it's doing, very simply, is it's serving as a connection between verses one through four and verse five. What does that mean? There's a connection between the relationship that Peter is talking about in verses one through four, and the relationship that Peter is talking about in verses, verse 5a. What is the relationship that he's talking about in verses one through four? He's talking about what pastors or elders owe to their congregation. They're to shepherd the flock. And he tells all the ways in which they are to do that. And then he says, likewise, and now he turns from the pastors to the congregation. He says the congregation is to submit to the elders. Now, this word likewise was used a number of times in Peter, at least two times, where he made similar transitions. In 1 Peter 2, he was talking about Christian citizens' subjection to the state. So they are to submit to the state with all the qualifications and all the limitations. And then in chapter 3, verse 1, he turns to the wives' obligation to submit to their husbands. And he says, likewise, chapter 3, verse 1. And then in chapter three, verse seven, he again says, likewise, and now he's turning from the wives' obligation to their husbands, to now in verse seven, the husbands' obligation to the wives. So big picture, what are we looking at here? In chapter five, verses one through five, we're looking at the relationship of pastors to congregation and congregation to pastors, what pastors owe to the congregation, verses one through four, and now verse five, what the congregation owes to the pastors. Now the second thing I want you to note is that we are still talking about the relationship between the elders and congregation is seen in verse 5 by that word elders. He says, submit to your elders. Now that word presbyteroi in the Greek is the exact same word that Peter uses for elders in verse 1. And he does not here mean just someone who is chronologically older than another person. That may or may not be the case. He's talking about the specific office of elder or pastor or bishop within the life of the church. So he's not changing gears here. He's not talking about elders in a chronologically older way. He's talking about elders. But now thirdly, that brings us to the phrase that you see in verse five, younger ones. And this is where we need to spend a little time. he tells the younger ones to be subject to the elders. Now, why would he single out younger ones? Well, there are various interpretations. I'm not gonna bore you to tears with all of them, but I'm gonna draw out two particular ways to interpret this and give you my judgment as to which one I think is correct. Some take younger ones here to be metaphorical, okay? So it just basically means, in the same sense that elders are, generally speaking, but not in every case, older, The rest of the congregation therefore is younger. So all Peter's saying here is the younger ones in contrast to the older ones meaning the whole congregation. That maybe is the case. It wouldn't be wrong to understand it that way if that's indeed what Peter's getting at. But the only flaw is that It requires you to take younger ones metaphorically, but elders literally. And there's nothing in the text that necessarily tells us to do that or indicates that we should do that. Peter seems to be taking both of these phrases in plain language, that is to say literally. So the second way to understand it is just that he's literally isolating younger ones in the congregation and telling them to be subject to the elders. Now, why would he do something to that like that? Why would he do that? I think we could say that Peter probably isolated the younger ones in the congregation, because it may have been in those congregations in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, that the younger ones were the ones who most needed a reminder to be submissive to authority in the church. Now, I can't prove that. Nobody can go back in time with the time machine and say, Peter, is that what you were thinking? We don't know. But the fact of the matter is, the younger in general, I don't care what generation you're talking about, the younger in general tend to be more independently minded, right? With youth comes great zeal. And while great zeal can be good, sometimes zeal is accompanied by an inordinate level of ignorance and naivete. I mean, someone once told me, if you ever want to learn something, go ask a teenager because they know everything. And I think we can all confess that in our younger years, we thought that we knew more than we really did or we thought that we were wiser than we really were. We start out in life, all of us, right, with a set of ideals, right? This is how life is. This is how everyone should think. And then time and age have a way of kind of beating those ideals out of us. Not that they beat the ideals completely out of us, but they modify them, right? They change them a little bit. Well, in reality, though it should be this way, I understand in reality this is the way it fleshes out. and time and age have a way of doing that. So I think the command to submit to the elders is particularly here, isolated to the younger people, but I don't think that Peter is saying only younger people have the obligation to submit to the elders. That's not what he's saying at all. In fact, if we could say, that those who most likely needed to be reminded to be submissive to the elders, it follows certainly that everyone else must be submissive to the elders as well. I mean, let's, we've picked on younger people, let's pick on older people for a second, okay? It's not the case that older people never buck against the system, okay? Older people can just be as just as cantankerous and ornery as younger people. In fact, sometimes the older people get, the more they get set in their ways, don't they? They hold on to, in the context of a church, church tradition. And when a new generation of elders comes in and seeks to maybe tweak certain customs in the church, the older generation digs in their heels and repeats the seven words that so often keep a church from flourishing. But we've always done it this way. But the fact of the matter is, Paul tells a younger elder named Timothy, who was probably around 40 years old, he tells him in 1 Timothy 4.12, let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers, that is, all under your charge, an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. That is, Timothy, don't let anybody, whether they're younger or whether they're older, look down upon your youth. But do what you were called to do, Timothy, Preach the word of God, administer sacraments, lead the congregation in prayer. You pray yourself. Be an example to them of what you're calling them to be. Now, if after all of this, we're still unconvinced that Peter has in mind and generally all the congregation, all we need to do is go to the rest of scripture. And Hebrews 13, 17 tells us to all the congregation, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. So let's summarize in a very clear and unambiguous statement what Peter is saying here. The congregation, the local congregation, is to submit to the elders in the context of the local church. Just as a wife is to submit to her husband with a real divine authority that God has given, so a congregation is to submit to her pastor. Just as a Christian citizen, and any citizen for that fact, needs to submit to the state with all the qualifications and all the restrictions and all the limitations that scripture puts on it, there is nonetheless a real authority vested in the state to which the citizen is to submit. Peter likewise mentions the relationship between slaves and slave masters. Not a very popular topic today. But in his world, slavery was just the way the world run. And he says to slaves, submit to your slave masters. Do what they tell you. With all the qualifications and all the restrictions that come with that, submit to them. And so also here, we are to, as a congregation, submit to the elders in the church. So over the next two weeks, what I want to do is I want to try to unpack and clarify and apply what this does and does not mean. In many respects, there aren't many passages that get more practical than this one in the life of the church, are there? 1 Peter 5, 5a tells us what the congregation owes to her elders. And our life together as a church is predicated on the ability to distinguish between what the roles of the different people in the church are, pastors and congregation. Unfortunately, the culture in which we move is extremely uncomfortable with this idea of submission, especially in the context of the local church. So allow me, secondly, to issue what I'm calling a pastoral plea for the proper touchstone in defining these roles. So secondly, We need to let scripture be the touchstone of how we think about and carry out our responsibility to the pastors in the church. What's a touchstone? It's a standard or criterion by which something is judged. Okay, so just a measuring rule, a rod, a standard. Where do we look for the standard in our lives of how the congregation is to respond and act and submit to her pastors? We look to the scriptures. Now listen, no doubt, and I mentioned this two weeks ago, many of us have negative experiences of how shepherds have abused authority and lorded it over the congregation in an unbiblical way. Some of you maybe don't, but many of us do. And yet, this is also true, as I said, of how husbands have illegitimately used the clear biblical teaching of authority over their wives to browbeat them into subjection in unloving and uncompassionate ways. I've often told you the story of a counseling session I was in. I was not doing the counseling, I was observing. This is during my time of training and schooling. But the counselor was counseling a man who was no doubt domineering over his wife. He knew one Greek word in the whole Greek Bible. You know what it was? Hupotasso, submit. And in his mind, all of the problems in their marriage would simply go away if she just submitted. And that became for him a black hole into which everything else got sucked, especially the admonition to him to live with his wife in an understanding way. That's not important. What is important is that she submit to me, okay? That is an imbalance. That is an abuse. And you know what? This counselor met with this couple for a year and unfortunately didn't solve anything because this man was fixated on this idea of hupotasso, of submission. Well, I get it, I understand, and that's why we need to take some time and unpack what this does and does not mean. But here's the basic principle here. Just because a principle is abused doesn't mean that we are justified in jettisoning it, meaning throwing it overboard. If it doesn't work, we get rid of it. That is an extremely pragmatic way of doing things, okay? We don't, we're happy if things are pragmatic. We're happy if they're practical. But let's face it, there are many things in life that are not practical, but we have convictions that we hold to despite the fact. And so we must let the Bible create and inform categories in our mind and heart, which will give us a heading and a blueprint for how the congregation is to relate to our pastors. Now, one of the problems is that we live in an anti-authoritarian age, and so that creates a challenge when it comes to this. But let me just give you an example, okay, of what I mean when I say we need to let the Bible create categories in our minds for how we are to fulfill our particular roles. Let's say there's a woman, and I actually know of a woman who this actually happened. You got a woman who, when she was brought up by her parents, she had a completely unloving, uncaring jerk of a father. Okay? Let's say her father was verbally abusive. Let's say maybe even he was physically abusive. Maybe even more. You can imagine. Fill in the details. All right? And he never had a good word to say to her. In fact, he was always tearing her down. He was always telling her that she was miserable and pathetic and all these types of things. And now she's grown up and she gets saved. And she comes to church, maybe for the first week in her life, and the first sermon that she hears is that God is her father. What is she gonna do? Because in her mind, her category of a father is completely negative. It's completely abusive, it's completely overbearing and domineering and nothing that she would want to snuggle up to. Nothing and no one that she would want to cry out to and say, Abba, daddy, father. So what is she to do? Well, she needs to let the word of God come into her heart and inform for her what a father should be, and more importantly, what our heavenly father is. And you know what? When she does that, She can actually have hope and consolation that despite my own experiences, there is a Father in heaven who stands ready to receive me through His Son, and I will never, ever experience from Him the things that I experienced from my earthly father. So we need to let the Word of God be the touchstone of clarity when it comes to the congregation's role to pastors. So, I invite you this morning, bring your bad experiences of pastoral abuse and dominion, bring that in. I don't say forget it, I say bring it in and let the word of God shape and form and manipulate and tweak and build up for you what that role of submission should be, what it does look like, how you can do so, listen to me, willfully and cheerfully. Not in a begrudging way. Not like I'm, well, the pastor says that this is what we're going to do in the nursery ministry, so I'm just going to white knuckle it and do it even though I don't want to do it. No. Husbands, if you had a wife that did that, that submitted in that way, you would say that's not the way a wife is to submit to her husband. The way a wife is to submit to her husband is she says, honey, I don't agree that we should get this minivan. I think we should get a panel van with windows. But after all your research, you decide we're going to get a minivan. And maybe grabs his cheek and strokes his face and says, honey, I love you. I completely disagree with you. But I'm going to submit to your decision. And if in time it turns out that your decision was a lousy decision, I'm going to make every effort not to rub your nose in it. That's what submission is. And you know what, husbands? We can learn a lot from our wives in that, can't we? When it comes to submission in the local church, our wives probably have more experience in what it means to give godly submission to the authorities over us than we do. And it's something that we can learn. So that brings us to the third observation concerning this command. Number three, let me just give a brief definition of submission, very brief. Submission in the Bible, generally speaking, is more than honor, it includes honor. It's more than respect, it includes respect. It's more than deference, but it includes deference. Deference is a willingness to defer to the wisdom or knowledge of another. And in most cases, it's because they have more knowledge than you or more wisdom than you. So you still may not agree with them, but you're like, you definitely know better than I do, so I'm gonna go with you on this, and then I'm gonna search it out for myself, okay? And certainly as I said, deference is assumed in the idea of submission, but submission is more than deference, it's more than honor, and it's more than respect. Let me give you a running definition. Submission is a self-conscious decision and determination to willingly and cheerfully submit to the leaders of the church as they lead, teach, instruct, and even lovingly admonish you with the word of God. So there's a sense in which, listen to me very carefully, you're not so much submitting to the elders as much as you are submitting to the voice of Christ leading through the elders, okay? You're submitting to the word of God as the elders of the church lead you with the word of God. So this word, hupotasso, which we see in verse five, submit to, here's just some various ways in which it's used in Scripture, okay? It's used in Scripture of Jesus submitting to the authority of his parents, of demons being subject to the disciples. It's used of citizens, as I said, being subject to governmental authorities, of the universe being subject to Christ, of Christ being subject to God the Father, of wives being subject to their husbands, and of Christians being subject to their masters. I want you to note in all of these examples, in none of these relationships is the submission ever reversed. Does Christ ever submit to the powers of the universe? No. He controls the powers of the universe. And so, Yet within each of these relationships, listen to me very carefully, all parties involved have equality of being, which means what? Submission is not a matter of you're submitting because someone over you is better than you, or in some sense, as the philosophers say, ontologically is greater or better than you. No, it's a matter of roles. The husband is not better than the wife in his role of authority over her. They are equal. In fact, Peter says they are co-heirs of the grace of life. But in that relationship of the marriage, God has given roles that man be the head and the wife submit. So these are roles that God has established in society, even within the Godhead. And with all of these relationships, there are always exceptions. And that is incredibly important as we continue to look through this issue. Now finally this morning, I just want to highlight how submission to elders and submission to Christ come together in the ministry of the word. I'm gonna ask you to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 2 this morning. Ephesians chapter two. And I'm gonna ask you to go to verse 13. We're gonna read verses 13 through 17. But I wanna leave this with you this morning, this idea, just a very simple idea that we're gonna unpack in the weeks to come, that a congregation is to submit to our elders. And I just want you to grapple with it. I just want you in the next two weeks to grapple with this idea that I am called by God to submit to my elders. Okay? Let us search our minds and hearts and see if there be anything within us, any aversion to this concept, any aversion to submission, and ask the Spirit of God to eradicate it from our hearts. Let's ask the Spirit of God to show us where we might have a spirit of the age, an anti-authoritarian age that wants to dissolve any distinctions of authority whatsoever and make me the one that calls out what is true and what is right. And now I want you to look at Ephesians 2 because what we see here, very simply, is how Jesus works through the leaders in your church. More specifically, how Jesus speaks to you through the elders of the church. When you look at Ephesians 2, 13 through 17, Paul says this. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, that is the Gentiles, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has made us both, that is Jew and Gentile, one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the wall of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Now I want you to look at verse 17. And he, in the context that is Christ, came and preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near. I want you to focus on verse 17. Paul says that Jesus came to the Ephesians and preached peace to them. Now, if you got your biblical chronology all worked out, you know that by the time the Ephesian church became a church, Jesus was already ascended into heaven, right? Already resurrected. Okay, already crucified, resurrected, and ascended, and he was at the right hand of the Father. So did Jesus make a cameo appearance to the Ephesians? Did he come in the flesh and say, here, I've got a sermon for you, open up your Bibles this morning? No. How does Jesus come to the congregation, let me make it personal, how does Jesus come to you in this congregation and preach peace to you? It's in that word preach, keruso. Jesus' voice comes to us through the preaching of the word when the duly ordained elder stands up, opens the word of God, properly exposits and exegetes the message of the word of God, and then puts it out to you and presses it on your conscience. You know who you're hearing? You're hearing the voice of Christ. Jesus Christ comes to His people internationally. Every Lord's Day when the Word of God is open, when the corporate worship of the people of God are joined together, the saints are assembled together, Jesus comes and He shepherds His people through the Word. That is why we here at Grace Covenant Church make such a big deal of the preaching of the Word, and that it be the Word, not a story, not a poem, okay? Not sentimentalism, but just open the Word and expound it and tell me what Jesus, my shepherd and my Lord of my soul, wants me to hear. And the face of our Savior is seen on every page of Scripture. And so it is incumbent upon the minister of God to show you Jesus. And so I want you to see here the connection between the way in which the elders lead you, mainly through the preaching of the word, and how that leading comes from Jesus himself. That Jesus speaks to you, that Jesus admonishes you, that Jesus encourages you, that Jesus lifts up your countenance. Sometimes Jesus comes to you with law. He says, do this, child of God. And sometimes he comes also with consolation. I have done this for you. But in all ways, Jesus comes to us through the word of God. I remember the day I was sitting in my seminary class 15 years ago when this concept dropped in my mind and heart. When the shoe dropped and I realized, and preaching is much more than just some guy getting up there and giving a lesson. He's not just getting up there and making sinners smarter sinners. Like there is something supernatural going on there. Now, mark my words, I'm not saying that the preacher is infallible, okay? And it's very possible for the preacher to give a wrong interpretation. And when a wrong interpretation is given, Jesus is not speaking through that. So mark my words. But at the same time, When he gives the proper interpretation, and the sense of Scripture comes out, and the sense of the preaching, Jesus is speaking to us. We hear his voice. John says, well, Jesus says in John 13, verse 20, you don't need to turn there, but I want you to notice the unbreakable chain of connection here. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. What is he saying? As Jesus sends out ministers, apostles, prophets in all different times, in all different ways, to the degree that the ones who receive this messenger receive him and his message, they receive Jesus. And to the degree that they receive Jesus, who are they receiving? The Father who sent him. You know what that also means? That also means that the contrast is also true. Luke 10, 16, listen to this. Jesus says, the one who hears you, hears me. And the one who rejects you, rejects me. And the one who rejects me, rejects him who sent me. You see the converse there. When the minister of God comes and brings the word of God to you to the degree that you reject it, it's not just that you're rejecting the messenger. He's just the guy that's bringing the message. You're rejecting the message of God. That's why sometimes, you know, I mean, it's a dangerous thing to be a minister, quite frankly. And you always hear the phrase, you know, don't shoot the messenger. I'm getting shot at all the time. Why? Because I open this Word and I say, brother, sister, this is what God's Word says. I don't like how you said, okay, maybe I need to massage it a little bit, but still, this is what the Word of God says. And there's smoke screens and there's this and there's that. Friends, the Word of God comes, And the minister is simply the messenger. But to the degree that you receive him and the message, you're receiving Jesus, and to the degree that you receive Jesus, you're receiving the Father. What is the main point? Listen to me very carefully. Listen. God uses means. God uses means. If your brand of Christianity is, I'm not gonna do it unless I get a message from heaven, then you're never gonna do it, whatever it is, okay? God uses the word of God and the messengers of God to bring you his will, and we should not be afraid of means. I've often heard humble, godly women tell me, in matters of life that God has neither commanded nor forbidden, nor revealed in scripture, okay? In the context of my marriage, when my husband and I have a hard decision to make. And again, it's not a decision like, does God say black or white, or does God give wisdom? It's just like, you've gotta make a decision. You can't go to a book, chapter, and verse to decide what I'm gonna do. I can go to a book, chapter, and verse to decide what kind of attitude I should have as I make that decision. I should go to a book, chapter, and verse and find the kind of faithfulness I should have as I make that decision. But there's no book, chapter, and verse that tells me what to do in this situation. I've heard godly, humble wives tell me, when my husband makes a decision, I see that as the will of God. And I'm gonna submit to it. And if he's wrong, we'll deal with it. But this is how my Lord is leading me through my husband. That is a godly, biblical way to think. And so also in the context of the congregation, there are going to be, and we'll talk about this in weeks to come, decisions that the elders make that you're not always gonna agree with. And if it's a matter of book, chapter, and verse, you're wrong, okay, let's have a conversation, and maybe we need to be rebuked, and maybe we need to repent. Maybe we need to confess. But if it's a matter of Bible doesn't command it, Bible doesn't forbid it, we could go either way. Then the elders make decisions and we submit to it. And that's what the Bible tells us. So Jesus' voice comes not only to believers, but the voice of the shepherd comes to unbelievers. And there are some of you this morning who do not believe in Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ this morning is coming through his word and saying, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, Jesus says, and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Dear unbeliever, I charge you this morning, I beg of you, I plead with you, lay down any objections that you might have to the means and the manners that the Lord uses to bring you this message. If you have never known this shepherd, know this, he is meek and he is mild. He will not cast you out if you come to him right now. And some of you, you are seeking God. You're unbelievers and you're seeking God. And you know what you're trying to do? You're trying to keep the law. I keep the law. Maybe if I keep the law, the more I keep the law, then God will somehow, in some way, zap me and save me. And the thing is, that's good that you're keeping the law. That's great. But you know what? You will, until your dying breath, be discouraged and despairing if you think that your keeping of the law will commend you to God. Because the law can only condemn you, and it's right in condemning you. Because you're not good enough. The law says do this and live. The law says if you want to have fellowship with God and be saved by God, be perfect. So Jesus told the rich publican, do this and live. And guess what friend, you can't. You can't. Do you know what the law also does? It points to somebody who can. Jesus Christ can. Jesus Christ has. Jesus Christ has kept the law and that's why the other word in the Bible is the gospel. Christ has done it for you. So dear unbeliever, come to Jesus this morning. He will not cast you out. He is a gracious and wise shepherd who will receive you and love you and guess what? Keep you until the day of judgment and you will stand because of his merits and his atoning blood. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word. We confess that it is not always easy to hear this word, Father. We confess that we have cultural blinders. But Father, we also confess that you are a sovereign God who has in so many ways in our life broken through our cultural blinders, broken through our hard heart. In fact, you've taken out our heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh. You've given us your spirit and written your law upon our hearts so that we now desire to do what you've called us to do. So also in this area, Father, we pray, I pray specifically that you would give to us as a congregation an openness to what your word says and an unashamed approach and character to do what you have called us to do by your spirit and your grace and for your glory. We ask these things in your son's name, amen. Let's stand for the doxology.