God Alone

Good morning. Well, as Sam emphasized, that was a portion of the sermon text. It has been warned a prolonged sermon can cause great damage and be a great danger to young men, apparently. So we're going to jump right into our text. We are starting in chapter 19, verse 20. And the reason we're taking this large text is we could take each particular story, but I wanna make sure that whenever we're looking at the text, we see a clear declaration of God and the gospel. That is why we're taking such a large text, because as we're gonna see in chapter 19, it's an interesting event. It is no little disturbance, as Luke says, but there is no gospel declaration. And so we we want to move ahead to to chapter 20, but I do want to explain what's going on here in these events and Something I want us to always see is that the primary character in Scripture is always God He's the primary mover. He's the primary cause he is he's the one who's moving and shaping and and helping and so our outline this morning is God protects the church and God protects the church that we're gonna see in 19 with the riot. And then God empowers the church. And I'll explain where we see God empowering that movement of all the different people around the story of Eutychus. And then finally, where we'll spend most of our time, God provides for his church. Let's begin. God protects his church. Let me read verses 21 through 27. After these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem. We see Paul, kind of like Jesus in his last days, he's focused on getting to Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit has led him to this conviction. After I've been there, I must also see Rome, and having sent him to Macedonia, two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsman. These he gathered together with a workman in similar trades and said, men, you know that from the business we have our wealth. And you see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. there is danger, not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship." We see Luke, he set this up, he's built up already a great anticipation of verse 23. There's no little disturbance. We expect something fairly significant to happen here. And what's happened is there's so many Christians converting to Christ, which means they're repenting of their idols, that it's actually hindered the business of idolatry. Last week we saw that many Christians, they burned their magic books. And it was expensive. They were willing to sacrifice the cost of those books because they were evil. Here we see Christians turning away from what's evil, and now those who make those gods, they realize it's affecting our wealth. Luke has numerous kind of themes he's always bringing in, and wealth is one of them. He shows that their motivation is their trade, their well-being, their personal gain. And to show how weird and twisted this idolatry is, they're worried about protecting a God's magnificence. If you have to protect a God's magnificence, that God isn't so magnificent. The one true God is awesome and holy. He doesn't need us to protect it. He is holy. Here, they seem to be aware that this God relies upon them for the magnificence and the great position. They're afraid their God will be counted as nothing. If your God can be counted as nothing, your God is nothing. Now look at verses 28 through 41. As the story continues, we see the problem, the silversmiths, particularly Demetrius, he's got two problems, really. He's worried about the trade going bad, which seems to be the primary focus, and that his God would not be counted as nothing. Verse 28. Listen to how Luke continues to repeat the confusion focus. They're enraged, they're confused, they do not know. Verse 28, when they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So the city was filled with confusion and they rushed to gather into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. Now some cried one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion. And most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowds prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. But when they recognized he was a Jew, for about two hours, they all cried out with one voice, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis, and where the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with them have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are procounsels. And let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today. Since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion, and we had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. Demetrius got a large crowd gathered. It's very easy to get people riled up against something. Notice here the people are just enraged, they're confused. Some are saying one thing, some are thinking another thing. They're all just together to be upset about something together. This is a large disruption. Paul wants to go in, his friends wisely keep him from doing so, and then when this Jewish man, Alexander, begins to speak, the crowd just begins chanting for two hours. Finally, a clerk comes in, and he corrects them. If no one has a proper crime, or a proper charge of a crime that they've committed, we can do nothing. There's a court to do this in, and then he warns them, we're rioting today. This can be considered a riot, and we need to be understanding the context. Ephesus is a very important city in Asia for Rome. It's the capital of this province. And Rome didn't like one thing particularly, trouble in their cities. If Rome hears there's a riot, what's Rome gonna do? They're gonna send in troops, and they're going to crush that riot. He's warning them. What we're doing here is dangerous, and it's going to put us in danger. And so the crowd disperses. Notice Paul's not the one who puts an end to it. It seems to be a pagan member of the society. He simply is reasoning with them, you need to disperse because this is dangerous. God has protected the church. As we go back to one of these themes, money again is prominent in the message that Luke has been putting together. As we look to Demetrius, it made me want to think, how are we like Demetrius? You see, Demetrius lets his desire for his personal gain keep him from believing in the one true God. He can't give up what he desires to be his personal gain, and therefore, he actually loses the opportunity to worship the one true God. Oftentimes, what we think is good for us, we cling to, and it ends in our destruction. Another challenge I want us to see is that how we spend our money actually can have a great effect on society. Last week we saw Christians sacrificing for their own sanctification. Here we see the way Christians were repenting and not participating in sinful practices. It actually changed the way people were making profit. We need to realize that we're always investors. We always think of ourselves as consumers. We are consumers. We're constantly consuming, but when we're spending our time and money on something, we're investing in that. We invest our time and money in social media, entertainment, fashion, food, sport. None of these things are evil themselves, but when we really invest in them with all our time and energy and finances, they can and oftentimes do become idols. We need to be careful in the way we're investing ourselves. Moving ahead very quickly, we want to go to God empowers His church. Something that may not be real obvious is Paul has all new companions here. He has companions that are Bereans, verse 4, Thessalonians, from Derbe, they're Asians. So all those cities that Paul had gone to in the missionary journey, there's actually been disciples who have been converted, and they've grown and matured to the point where they're now with Paul, helping him on his missionary journey. These are new believers of the last few years that are now helping Paul. It shows the power of the Gospel. It's very likely that since this is where we believe Paul's taking that offering back to Jerusalem, these men are representing the churches that have gathered an offering to take to Jerusalem personally. Then we have this interesting story about Eutychus. Eutychus had a deep sleepfall upon him as Paul prolonged his speech. Now, I'm very thankful that we have secure windows in our building. It gives me the confidence that if I happen to prolong my speech, it's very unlikely that someone will have a significant injury. Now you could fall off the pew, and that's actually happened before. And it'll be a minor injury, but here we see Eutychus, he's in the window, it's late at night. We're going till midnight here. We're gonna let you out by lunch, don't worry. We're going to midnight, and Paul is preaching, and Eutychus has a deep sleep fall upon him. He falls down, they think he's dead, and Paul says, no. His life is still in him. What's interesting is that Luke doesn't immediately tell you he's okay. He then tells you verse 11, and then Paul went back up, they broke bread, and he conversed them a little longer. And then they took the youth away alive, and they were not a little comforted. We see Paul continuing on his journey. What's amazing about this particular section is how God is using many people to move them in different places to continue the mission of Christ. Now let's look at our, where we're gonna spend most of our time. Where we're spending most of our time this morning in God Provides for His Church. That section where Paul speaks specifically, we hear a message of Paul. He's called elders from Ephesus. It doesn't appear that there's some unique problem in Ephesus that he needs to call the elders from there. I think it has more to do with his affection for those elders, and he had to leave that city very quickly. He's not seeking to correct a problem, he's seeking to exhort and to encourage them. And if we look at what he says, it really breaks down into two parts. Verses 18 through 27, Paul recounts how he served the church while in Ephesus. So 18 through 27, it shows how Paul presents himself really as a model elder. And then verses 28 through 35, Paul then gives specific charges to the elders. So he's encouraging them, exhorting them, challenging them in two ways. One, first he's setting up his own way of conduct. model, and then he's going to give a charge. He's going to give commands. Let's look first at what Paul says about himself as a model. Something he repeats is that Paul remained steadfast in his mission. If you look at verse 20 and verse 27, he did not shrink. He did not shrink. He continued to declare the one true message that had to be declared for Christians to believe in God. For pagans to be converted, for Christians to be built up. He remained steadfast. There were trials. There were trouble. There were tears. But Paul did not shrink from declaring the message. Second, Paul remained steadfast because he trusted God. Look at verse 22. And now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. Or Paul, we talked about this last week, how he receives specific revelations. And these specific revelations are to continue his perseverance. Last week, Jesus appeared to him. Do not fear, keep speaking, for I am with you, and I have many people still in the city. He's given this clear revelation so that he will persevere. Now it's the Holy Spirit who's telling him, in every city there will be afflictions. You must keep persevering. And notice the motivation behind why he's able to remain steadfast and not shrink. He trusts God. Even though God's going to tell him there's going to be trouble, he trusts God in his goodness. He is going to follow Christ. So Paul remains steadfast in his mission. Paul remains steadfast because he trusted God. And Paul remains steadfast because he viewed himself according to Christ. Look at verse 24. I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and my ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. He did not count his life of value compared to the great value of others hearing about the life giver, Jesus Christ. He understood himself. Remember, every letter he calls himself a servant of God. He's a bondservant. He is bound to be the man that God has called him to be, and therefore he pours himself out. We see him following his own instruction that he saw Christ modeling. He counted others more important than himself, their interests more important than his own. Verse 33 to 35, he talks about it's better to give than to receive. He's learned to follow his Savior, Jesus Christ. He gives sacrificially. He realized that's the way of Christ. That's the way of the church. That's the way of the elder. He's willing to lose all of his own personal gain, unlike Demetrius. He's willing to lose all of his own personal gain just to be able to see the glory of Christ, to finish the race that Christ has set before him. So elders, let me challenge you this morning as we look at this model. This is a challenging model. It tells us we need to set our course to persevere in the proclamation of the gospel. It calls us to be clear in knowing that this one gospel is what must be believed to be saved. It's the one truth that the church must always be built upon, and it depends upon us standing firm in steadfastness, not shrinking back in tears and trials and in difficulty. I dare use this analogy, but what the gospel calls us to be are Tar Heels. I realize I'm in Cavalier country. But in Carolina, North Carolina, the mascot, the Tar Heels, and that goes back from a war imagery where the troops, they wouldn't move. They would not move in the face of death. They would not move. Their heels had tar on them, they said. Elders, we do not step back when the lion roars. Satan roars like a lion. We do not move back in the midst of temptation or fear. We stand firm because of the gospel. Church, as elders, we ask for your prayers. One of the things that's been so encouraging lately is how many of you have communicated your prayers for us and believe us. We have felt it and we are thankful for it. All of us. I want us to point us back to verse 21 very quickly. He did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable, verse 20. And then verse 21, testifying both to the Jews and the Greeks, the one gospel, it's repentance toward God and faith in Christ Jesus. We have to repent towards God and believe in Christ Jesus. And if you're not a Christian, this is especially for you right now. Repentance means you turn towards God, which means you're also turning from sin. You're turning from a way of destruction and you're going to turn towards a way of life and of peace. It means we first recognize, I'm not living the life that God has created me for. I'm not living the life that is actually uplifting and building up. I'm living a life that is destructive. And so turning away from it means we turn to God and then you have your faith in Christ Jesus and the reason He is so important. that God is a just and righteous God. We're just saying our sin, not in part but the whole, has been nailed to the cross. If our sin is not fully paid for by the death of Christ, then we will still be judged guilty. Jesus Christ died on the cross for all and every sin of everyone who believes in Him. So that when God looks at us, He sees us as innocent and righteous. You can believe in Christ and be forgiven for your sin today. You must turn from your sin, turn towards God, and place your faith in Jesus Christ. Now let's look at these specific commands. The model is, Paul is steadfast. He's steadfast in the message. He's steadfast in the midst of trials. He's steadfast to proclaim the one gospel, not counting himself of any value, but all to be poured up on the grace of God, for the grace of God. And now let's look at the commands, and there are three basic commands. He says, pay attention to yourselves, that's verse 28. And the second command is implied, pay attention to all the flock. That's also verse 28. And then verse 31, be alert. Pay attention to yourselves, pay attention to all the flock, and be alert. Let's look at this first command. Pay careful attention to yourselves. This is a call to devotion. Paul tells the elders to first consider their own walk with Christ. Consider how you're denying yourself, carrying your cross, and following Christ yourself first. It's an interesting starting point. If you read through the pastoral epistles, Paul is constantly going back and forth with this theme with Titus and Timothy. He's constantly telling them, watch your life. 1 Timothy 4.16 is one of these places. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers. Elders, the first command is to be careful about our own lives. to have a personal devotion to godliness. It's an important duty because we're supposed to be building up the godliness of other people. You have to realize a real problem for many elders is burnout. I'm warned about it regularly. I've seen friends from seminary resign because of it. There are numerous books on it. I believe Paul's focus on teaching here is the primary prescription to avoid burnout. Take careful attention to yourselves. Know when and how to rest in Christ. See, one of the most difficult things is whenever you're an elder, you're supposed to be pouring out to others. Well, if that cup's empty, that's one of the most painful feelings you'll ever have. To be expected to pour out when the cup is empty. It's like squeezing your dry bones. But elders, what he's saying here is regularly keep that cup full. Because you're supposed to be pouring yourself out regularly for the church. One of the things we see here is a principle stated by another pastor. What the church needs most is for the elders' holiness. What the church needs most is your holiness and your godliness, Elder. What the church needs most is to be a model and to be a teacher and to be the one who's being full, to be taking all medicine. One of the ways this passage can also be interpreted is that the elders are supposed to be paying careful attention to the other elders. It's not just me personally watching myself, but it's the elders watching one another. And this is important. Pastors need pastored because they're sheep too. It's important pastors to remember this. It's important elders to remember this. We're sheep too. This is why there's more than one of us, so that we pastor one another. Now let's look at the second command. Pay attention to yourself. Pay attention to all the flock. This is another kind of devotion. There's a personal devotion to Christ. Now there's a pastoral devotion to Christ. Notice the pastoral devotion to Christ is towards the flock, but Christ is the motivation. Here we see the men, they're called elders. This word means to oversee, they're guardians, they're watching over as protectors. And is that something we just do on Sundays? Verse 31, it's something that Paul did day and night. It's a kind of watchfulness that has tears. Verses 19 and 31. We carry the burdens for and with the flock. We weep with a sheep when they suffer loss. We weep for sheep that we have lost. Paul makes the high calling clear with the three ways he qualifies all the flock. One, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Two, to care for whose church? God's church. And if that wasn't clear enough, that the Holy Spirit has appointed you to this, that it's actually God's people you're watching, which He obtained with His own blood. God's precious people, purchased by the blood of Christ, is who we are called to oversee, to care for. This is a high calling. Let's look at those particular points in order. Verse 28, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. This is both challenging and encouraging. The Spirit simultaneously calls you to this and empowers you to do it. That's encouraging. If the Holy Spirit has called you to it, He's also empowered you to do it. If you will simply submit to walk by the Spirit and not the flesh. The primary action here is to care for the Church of God. Pay attention to yourselves. Pay attention to all the flock to care for the church of God. Again, it's very important to remember whose church is it. It's God's church. It's not our church. It's God's church. We're merely ambassadors that are supposed to be representing someone else. And again, the encouragement is it's His church. He's mighty at work to love His church, to build her up, We just have to be obedient and faithful. If we look at this job description, it's loaded with shepherd language, which is why we read Ezekiel 34. We can always remember the one true good shepherd is Jesus Christ. We're merely under a shepherd seeking to point you to Him. care for all the flock. The word care for, in verse 28. That's actually the word for feed, or protect, or it could just be the verb shepherd them. The best way to translate it is actually shepherd the church of God. Everything that a shepherd does is what the elders are supposed to do as they care. So let's think about what that looks like. To care, the shepherd needs to know their sheep. This is how Jesus defined his relationship to the church. He knows his sheep, and they know his voice. There needs to be a personal relationship. Church, you should know a pastor. One of the many of us, you should know them, and they should know you. There's supposed to be a relationship built up with the church members, all the flock, and a pastor. One of the things that's interesting is it's all the flock. There's a lot of different personalities and dispositions represented right here in this room. And sometimes it makes it kind of awkward to try to figure out how to care for each one, because we're all so different. We're all in different stages of life. And this is why, again, we have a plurality of elders. So that we're all able to think well together about each one of you. To care for the church, shepherds feed the sheep. First, we must know the sheep, and secondly, we need to feed the sheep. What do we feed the sheep? What do we receive? We receive instruction from God and then we give it to the church. Look at verse 32. I now 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. Our primary way of feeding is by giving God's people God's word. 1 Timothy 3.16, as Paul is speaking to his young pastor Timothy, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. As Paul himself declares, to teach the whole counsel of God. so that it's taken off the rough edges. It's helping us repent of sin. It's helping us become more like Christ. We feed the sheep. Third, shepherds, we know the sheep. We feed the sheep. We protect the sheep. We'll get into this more with that third command, but as Paul makes it very clear, there will be wolves. There are always going to be dangers. You have to protect the sheep from feeding on the wrong plants, the wrong wisdom. You protect the sheep from danger, from predators. Fourthly, we care as shepherds by leading the sheep. A shepherd leads out front and the sheep follow. It's one of the interesting things is once a sheep gets to know the one who cares for them and feeds them, if you take a walk, that shepherd will take a walk, those sheep are gonna follow him. Sheep, by definition, are going to follow the one that they've got to know and trust. There is something very counterintuitive about Christian leadership, Christian shepherding. It requires the utmost humility and confidence. First, you have to be humble enough to receive what Christ says and desire His glory above all things. And then you have to be so confident in what He has said that you're willing to point His people to Him. It's interesting because the whole point is to make Christ most glorious by being bold. You see, the point is to be unrecognized in the midst of that process. As elders, the point is to not be considered great in the midst of declaring Christ, but to always be making Him great. Servant leadership prioritizes Christ. This is amazingly empowering. It means that when elders or pastors fail, it gives them a greater opportunity to actually point them to Christ. It's empowering. Failing does not deter leadership, but pretending we never failed does. Because there's only one good true shepherd, it's Jesus Christ. An elder deflects glory to Christ and takes responsibility for his shortcomings. So church, let me take the opportunity to restate what we have already sung this morning. Jesus Christ is our true shepherd. He is the King who perfectly feeds you, heals you, corrects you, and protects you. Go back to Ezekiel 34, what Mark read earlier. He is the one who binds up the wounds. He is the one who gathers and scatters. He is the one who will love you perfectly, and we want to always be pointing you to Him. We will fail. And it's at that point we want to make sure that you understand Jesus will not. When we fail you, it is our opportunity and your opportunity to reflect on the glorious truth that Jesus Christ is your true shepherd. Church, let me also encourage you to have the proper posture so that we can lead you. The church is called to submit to her elders. As Paul prayed earlier, God has set up many authority structures, and these authority structures are important for our well-being. Let me read Hebrews 13, 17, what Paul, what Sam would be preaching next. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they're keeping watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be no advantage to you. Now, submission is not anyone's favorite topic to talk about, is it? It's kind of awkward to talk about what does it mean to submit and to call somebody to submit. It's awkward, but here we have it in God's Word, and it's part of teaching the whole counsel of God. I want to be very careful what submit means. It means showing deference. And you typically only see if somebody is submitting or willing to submit to somebody if you come to a disagreement. See, when you come to a disagreement, that's when you see if somebody's truly willing to submit or not. It's a posture that is always supposed to be there. So things we ask for submission in is things like what we're doing with Sunday school, how we organize home groups. And I use those as two examples because nowhere in Scripture does it say what Sunday school is supposed to look like or home groups. But we as elders are trying to look at all the different principles and priorities in Scripture and say, here's how we want to do these two kinds of ministry for your building up. If I could give an example, Those of us who are parents, we realize we often do not know what we're doing. If you're a parent, is that true? We can't ever figure it out. We always feel like we're not doing enough. We don't know what to do in every situation. But God in His sovereignty chose to put children in your care, even though we don't know what we're doing, and it's good for them. Even if you don't always do it exactly right, it's just good for the children to learn to Honor. You. Parents. It's a way of teaching them an idea of honoring. And I believe it's in the Ten Commandments the way that you honor parents right before it goes on how you're going to worship God. It's a training exercise to realize to submit myself is good. In the same way we as elders, we don't always know what we're doing. But we trust Jesus Christ does. And we trust that if we're seeking to pursue Him and His Word, we're seeking to have wisdom, that if we unite together, then God is going to use whatever we do to build up the body. We're not asking you to submit to us because we're always right. We're asking you to submit to us because we're seeking to glorify Christ and want you to join us in that. So, elders, we must commit to seeking to obey Scripture where it is clear. We must humbly ask Christ to give us wisdom where it's not clear. To not lead double-minded, we must seek to give clear care. Church, I've asked you to pray for us. I'm asking you also to prayerfully consider how you'll submit to us. That means proactively participating in what we're prescribing. You are the church of Christ that he has purchased with his blood. We trust that he is going to lead us together, to be built up into a glorious body. Let me encourage you with this. In Romans, the thing I wanted to emphasize was there, in the middle of Romans, that we're grace, we're sin abounds, grace abounds. That is the God we get to worship. We're sin abounds, grace abounds. Well, let me try to apply this to how we as elders are going to try to lead you and care for you. I'm certain that we're grace abounds, sin abounds. We're sin abounds, grace abounds. I'm also certain that we're our weakness abounds, grace abounds. Where our weakness abounds, we're going to seek to make sure grace is abounding. And Paul teaches this explicitly in 2 Corinthians 12. He says, Christ said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect by you. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ, when I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, I am strong. See, there has to be less dependence upon, for elders, upon our ability. It's not about our insight and our ability. It's about God's grace. It's about God's grace working together to build us up together. To do work in us, so that, that we're living together as a people of grace. Now let's turn to this third command. Be alert. Look at verse 34. Therefore be alert. Now, now the context is important. That elder, he's a guardian. He's a guardian of the gate. He's going to have one eye on the gate and one eye on the people to make sure that horizon, he's going to have one eye on the horizon and one eye on the people to make sure there's nothing coming. But a pastor, he's going to have his eye on the people. And the reason is, is that Paul tells them, fierce wolves will come in among you. They're not going to spread the flock. Verse 30, and from among you, your own selves will arise, men speaking twisted things. Paul isn't saying it might be the case someday that this might happen. No, he's saying it's going to happen. He knows the pattern of Satan. Whenever there's a building up of God's work, Satan wants to attack it. And he does so with wolves. He's convinced wolves will come in, and he tells elders, you need to be watchful. Be on alert. The wolves. They're not coming to feed on the Word of Christ with the sheep. They're coming to feed on the sheep. Wolves come in and some of them things, they never reveal themselves as wolves. I'm not sure wolves actually realize they're wolves. And there's many different kinds of wolves. But what I want to talk about is the two ways you identify a wolf that Paul gives us in verse 30. There's two things he says there. From among your own selves will arise men. They'll do two things. They'll speak twisted things and they'll draw away the disciples after them. Those are two things that wolves do, two ways to identify them. So let's just focus on the first one now. They will speak twisted things. They're going to misrepresent God. And this is always interesting because they're typically gonna quote scripture a lot. But they're gonna take one particular point in Scripture and they're gonna talk about it in such a way that they actually created a lie because they're not in any way looking at what the rest of Scripture says. They teach it in a way that it represents the rest of God's Word. They take what God's Word says and they twist it to their own liking in their own way. And there's four classic false teachings. One is legalism. This ignores grace. Legalism says God will only like you and love you if you do enough to appease him. That denies the gospel. It takes the law. The law was good, the Ten Commandments. And it says you have to obey this for God to love you. No, God gave you the law because he already loved you. Legalism takes the rules and the righteousness of God and it uses it in a way that trumps the grace of God. If you want to read more about this danger, read Galatians. The second great false teaching, or the classic false teaching, is liberty. They emphasize that you have the freedom to sin because where sin abounds, grace abounds. Well, if you look at Romans 6, Paul asks that question, should I continue to sin more that grace may abound? No! Jude is also a correction to this. We are not given the freedom to sin because of Christ. We're given the freedom not to sin because of Christ. The third classic false teaching is love. And this one is actually more prominent today. To emphasize that God is love. You say God is love and what you do then is you put your own definition of love where love is. You don't take what God says is love. You take the idea of love of tolerance. So if love is tolerance, God must be tolerant. If love is a letting me be me, then God must want me to be me. No. Love is a commitment God makes. Love is something you don't fall into. Love is something that just doesn't happen. Love is a commitment, a choice. If we really want to define what love is, love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never The reason God's love never ends, the reason the love of the bodies was never end, it's not dependent upon the people you're loving. It's from your choice to love. The fourth classic false teaching is luxury. And I say luxury because I needed an L. It's just a way of referring to the prosperity gospel. This one is amazingly twisted because as we talk about grace, The gospel is so clear, God gives us so many good things. God is generous. Everything we have that is good, he gave it to us. And the prosperity gospel takes that generous giving God and they say, well, you can ask God for whatever you want and he'll give it to you. God gives us the good things that he knows are good for us. The prosperity gospel takes it and says God intends for your luxury according to your selfish desires, not according to what is good for you, according to the sacrifice of Christ. These are four popular ways of twisting the truths of God. It is in contrast to what Paul has said about himself. I did not shrink back from teaching you, repent towards God and have faith in Christ. I did not shrink back from giving you the whole counsel of God, all of God's word represented together as he intended. The second thing we see about wolves is that they draw disciples after them. I believe the best way to understand this is in contrast to what Paul says about himself and the elders. Paul did not shrink away from declaring the truth of God. Paul stands firm in the misty of any and all trouble of the church. He realizes that the church is the people that Jesus purchases blood and he cares for them. He stands with them. Paul doesn't flee. He has a fierce commitment to Christ. He has a fierce commitment to stand with the church. A wolf does not stand firm. A wolf draws disciples away after them. Before we had modern technology where you pass a hay field and you have bales. What you used to see is a pole with hay gathered up. And I would say that an elder is like that hay pole. The haystack pole, it's about the size of a fence post. It's dug deep down so it has roots. It has a strength to it. And so the farmer, he takes the hay that would be easily blown by wind and he stacks it around that pole. That pole stands firm so that that which is easily blown, the hay, can be stacked up around it and not be blown away. The deeper that pole gets, the more sturdy it is. The more hay on that pole is, the more the wind feel of strength comes, and that pole stands firm. That's what an elder does. What a wolf does is he creates that wind that captures the hay, not strongly connected to the rest, and blows it away. In contrast to the elders, Elders deflect glory so that everyone thinks much of Christ. They take responsibility for sin. Wolves, they want to take responsibility for the glory, and they deflect when someone wants to talk about their shortcomings and sin. Elders feed the sheep sacrificially. Wolves feed on the sheep selfishly. Our application. Elders stand firm for the glory of Jesus Christ. We're sinners. and the glory can be tempting. Do not settle for less in our prayer, our commitment, our teaching, than the glory of Jesus Christ. That's what we stand firm for. Our grace, our position here has never been earned. By grace, we will be able to receive and accomplish this task. Church, trust Christ. He is your good shepherd. Trust Christ. He's the one who purchased you with His own blood. He's obtained you. You have a precious position. We have a precious position that cannot be taken away. And just as He gives you the Spirit that calls you out, Abba Father, His Spirit has appointed men to watch over you. We're all the flock together. We're all seeking to be built up together. I believe if we do so, with that humility to receive God's word, that confidence that it is right and good, then we will be built up to be a church that sees the glory of God. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for this word that Christ called out, Paul, that we see that dynamic, life-changing power of the gospel that brought a man who was hating you to loving you. We see how you used him to build up your church, to make disciples, to not shrink back. Father, I pray that the elders of Jefferson Park will always be men who do not shrink back. Help us, Lord, to stand firm on your promises. Help us to stand firm on your word. Help us to stand firm, prayerfully committed to the gospel and glory of Jesus Christ. We thank you for your grace that is sufficient. We pray for our church, that we would continue, Lord, to grow. We would continue, Lord, to heal. We would continue, Lord, to see the gospel go out into our city and rejoice in the power of that gospel to save sinners and to make us then servants of that great High King. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.