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All right, tonight we're going to finish up 1 Peter and we're in chapter number five. So a lot of what's going to be said tonight is going to be a lot of teaching. Of course, we'll implement some preaching in here. But we're just going to go ahead and finish this up. Of course, this chapter is made up of 14 verses. There's a lot of good stuff in here that deals primarily with elders and pastors and how their office is supposed to be, how they're supposed to execute that office of a pastor. Look at verse number one. It says, the elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Now, who is he talking to? Well, if you remember in the beginning of the chapter, beginning of the book in chapter one, he says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the stranger scattered throughout Pontius, Asia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. So he's referring to the elders who are scattered abroad in that area. Now, what do we know about this passage of scripture right here? Well, we can read this and simply see that the apostle Peter was also a pastor, okay, because it uses the phrase elder. Now, this is not uncommon because you see a lot of apostles having different offices in the New Testament. So it wasn't uncommon for him or for an apostle to be a pastor. For example, John was also an elder, you see that in his epistles. We see that the apostle Paul was not an elder, he was not a pastor, he would be considered more of an evangelist or a missionary, okay. So it wasn't uncommon to see an apostle take on different offices as we see here. Now, why does it use the word elder? What does it mean? Well, elder simply means pastor and there's really three words or three names that we see for this position. We see pastor, elder, and bishop. Notice that we don't see reverend, okay. Notice that we don't see father, okay. Notice we don't see these titles that are given to men. These are not biblical titles. Biblical titles is elder, pastor, bishop, et cetera. Go to Titus chapter number one if you would, Titus chapter number one. Now, these are all interchangeably used, they all mean the same thing. And how do we know that elder and bishop mean the same exact thing? Now, a lot of times if you're not careful, people often do this, especially false teachers, false prophets, they'll take a unique word in the Bible and because it's not used very often, they'll just completely create some false doctrine out of that word or whatever. And this is a good example of this because people often say that an elder is not a bishop and is not a pastor. These are three different types of people. What they don't understand is that all languages have what's called synonyms, right? You go in a dictionary, you find a word, you can look at a thesaurus and find synonyms to one word, they all mean the same exact thing, just different ways of saying them. See, the English language is not subject just to one word for every single definition. There's multiple words for one definition, that's what's great about the English language. And so that's what we see when it comes to this term, this title of elder, pastor, and bishop. Now, to prove that to you, look at Titus chapter one, verse number five. It says here, for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. So Paul is writing to Titus, Titus is obviously ordained, and he's sending them to the island of Crete to set in order. What is he sending in order? He's ordaining elders in all that region, all those islands that we see there in Crete. Now look what it goes on to say, if any be blameless, it's talking about these elders, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy, a filthy lucre, so on and so forth. So what do we see here? We see that bishop is often used interchangeably with elder, not uncommon. Now, today we don't really use that word elder for a pastor, we don't necessarily call someone a bishop just for the simple fact of the association of the word, okay, why? Because today when you think of a bishop, you think of the Roman Catholic Church, right, a bishop. So it's better to just use the word pastor, there's nothing wrong with calling a pastor a bishop or an elder, just most commonly in our modern vernacular we would use that word pastor, people know what you're talking about there. So but why is elder being used? Well, elder simply means what? Someone who is older. You know, an elder brother, an elder sister, and the reason this term is being used for a pastor is because the spiritual definition there would be someone who is older in the Lord, okay? Now we're not talking about age-wise. Now that is important, right? The age is important, but the spiritual age is far more important. Now that's not, now here's the thing, when we think of like a physical age, right, like for example, I'm 33, I know I don't look it, I know I look like I'm 21. Don't laugh. Don't, you laughed, okay? You know, thank you, Brother Politis, he's far, he's more of an elder than I am though, okay? No, I'm just kidding. He threw me off here. Okay, so when we think of someone who's older, you know, someone who, for example, myself, I'm 33 years old, right? Well, you know, there could be people who have been in church for 33 years and still they're not old in the Lord. Because they have not grown up. They're spiritually immature. They have not read their Bibles, or how about this, people who have been in and out of church for 30 years or 20 years. You know, when we think of someone who is an elder, spiritually speaking, as someone who is old in the Lord in the sense of they've been consistent in the things of God. You know, obviously an elder, we see the qualifications of an elder in First Timothy chapter three and in Titus, but, you know, one of those qualifications, obviously you're reading the Bible over and over again multiple times. It's having a wife and more than one child, right? More than two children, or at least two children. But another aspect that I think is important is just consistency in the Christian life. Consistency in church. You know, an elder should be someone who has been faithful in church their entire spiritual life. Okay? Why? Because consistency is very much an important quality for every Christian, but especially for an elder. You know, an elder should not be in and out of church, right? It should be someone that esteems the house of God, it is better to dwell in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. This ought to be the theme of a pastor, of an elder, even prior to them becoming an elder, right? Now, being in church, that's important, but an elder is someone not only who's in church consistently, but they know the Bible. Now they don't know it perfectly because the Bible is inexhaustible. What does that mean? You're always learning the Bible. But here's the thing, you know, we see in Hebrews chapter number five and in Hebrews chapter number six, Paul the apostle talking about the first principles of the oracles of God. And we talked about those principles like two weeks ago, or maybe a week ago, when we referred to that which is foundational, salvation, right, baptizing, you know, the resurrection from the dead, eternal judgment. These are fundamental foundational doctrines that every elder should know. But what do we see today? We see elders and pastors who don't know these things, you know, elders who they pass off, you know, a person who has a question to their wife or to a Bible college student, right? If you want to learn that, you should go to Bible college, which by the way, you go to Bible college, you're not going to learn that. In fact, you're going to learn something worse. You're going to learn a lot of bad doctrine when you go to Bible college. Now, I went to Bible college, I graduated from Bible college, don't hate on me, but, you know, I went there and I learned a lot of good things. I learned some doctrinal good things, but the vast majority of the things that I learned in Bible college were not good, okay? I'm talking about doctrine. It was not good. We had to sift through a lot of sewage in order to find a good piece of meat, okay, to chew on, to eat, you know. And so elders should be someone who is old in the Lord, they've read the Bible through a couple times. Go to 1 Timothy chapter number 3. First Timothy chapter 3, I'm going to read to you from 1 Timothy 5, it says, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father. So we see there that the application that's being made or the association is a father who would be older, right, as age, and it's telling us, hey, don't rebuke an elder, but you shouldn't treat him as a father. What does that mean? Be respectful towards your elders, right? We have to say, hey, respect your elders. Respect those who are older than you. Well, the same principle is being applied to those who are older in the Lord, okay? You know, you should never go to some elder of whatever church, you know, and just rebuke that person because they're wrong on this point or wrong on that point. No one has the right to do that. By default, you should respect that person, and if you can't respect them, here's your answer. Go somewhere else. Don't remain in a church where you cannot respect the pastor, right, and treat him as a father. You never know. You might gain a good friend. You know, I know of a guy who's part of what we would consider to be the new IFB, and he is in an old IFB church. He entreated his pastor as a father, and guess what? He's won him over. They're great friends. You know, he's thriving at that church. He's even dating right now. They're not in persecution. Say, hey, don't go with this guy. He's part of the new IFB. You know, he's doing good. Why is that? Well, I believe it's because he didn't rebuke his pastor. What did he do? He entreated him as a father, and now they have a great relationship. The Bible says, and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity. Now let's look at the contrast of this. First Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 says this. This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. So what does it mean to be apt to teach? You should be able to open the word of God and expound upon it. You know, whether a topical or expository sermon, you should not be afraid of the Bible. You know, get out of the book of John every once in a while, amen? Get out of the book of Proverbs every once in a while, amen? Preach from the book of Revelation, preach from Leviticus, preach from Deuteronomy, preach from the minor prophets. Preach from Hosea. Why? Because they don't fear the word of God. The Bible says here that they should be apt to teach, capable, okay? Not be inept. Look at verse number 3, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre. We'll see that word again in 1 Peter chapter 5. That's referring to the fact that they're in it for the money. But patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children's objection with all gravity. So what's another qualification of a pastor? They should be able to rule over their own household. In other words, you know, be able to lead a wife. Not like the husband's doing one thing, the wife is just doing something completely different, just completely on a different page. Or how about this? Having children in subjection with all gravity, in other words, they obey you. They're not doing something that is contrary to the word of God. And when they do something contrary to the word of God, you know what the pastor should do? Is correct that. Or step down. Because they can't have their children in subjection with all gravity. That is part of the qualification. I thought the part was just reading through the Bible four or five times, six times, no. That's part of it, but you know what's also part of it? Your resume as a family. Are you able to lead your wife? Are you able to raise godly children? Are you able to get them to obey you, respect you, and reverence you, and follow you? If not, you know, not that you're a bad person, but you can't be a pastor at that point. Yeah, but you know, what if they've been in the ministry for 20 years? Then that's even worse, because you've had 20 years to perfect this. You've had 20 years to raise your children. And if you still can't do it right, you know what I mean, you shouldn't be a pastor, okay? For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how should he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. So the contrast to an elder is a novice. Now what is a novice? Well, a novice is not only someone who doesn't know the Bible completely, but it could be someone who does know the Bible, but just hasn't been a Christian for very long. Now here's the thing is, when you first get saved, you start off as a novice. Everyone does, right? But it's not a bad thing, but we don't put the novice behind a pulpit to lead a church or whatever it may be, you know, to be the pastor of a church. That's not a wise decision. Why? Because a person who is young in the Lord has the tendency, has the propensity to lean towards pride, you know, because they're the leader, you know, the Bible, and they're not good leaders, you know? A novice, what does a novice need to learn how to do? Well, aside from reading the Bible, praying, and doing that, which is basic, leading themselves. Someone needs, a novice needs to learn how to lead themselves. Get up in the morning, pay your bills, hey, get yourself a wife, right? Hey, getting a wife is part of being a pastor because, you know, you've got to persuade the opposite gender to marry you and stay with you for the rest of your life and hers or whatever, you know? I know of a guy in Duarte who was a pastor for how long? I think he's been a pastor for a couple of decades, a couple of decades as a single man, as a single man, you know, he didn't get married until like he was in his 50s, 60s, oh, I'm sorry. I'm afraid on that one, you know, 60 years old is when he got married. Oh, you know, why are you hitting on that guy? Look, whatever he does, it's his business, but we're talking about a pastorate here though, you know, husband of one wife. It's not like you become a pastor and then you go looking for a wife, you know, that person is disqualified, okay? But a novice, it says not a novice that's being lifted up with pride. Look, and if you're a novice, don't get mad at that, don't feel like someone's talking down on you because of that, just grow. Take years to grow, okay, to growing into becoming a spiritual elder, so to speak, right? Now, go back to 1 Peter 5, I'll read to you from Ephesians 4 verse 11, it says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, we mentioned this morning that apostles don't exist anymore. By the way, the apostles and the prophets were coming towards the tail end of the Old Testament and then they transitioned into the New Testament, you have John the Baptist and the apostles, but evangelists, pastors and teachers still exist today, but their existence is not so they just can glorify themselves in the leadership position. What is it for? For the perfecting of the saints. What were we doing yesterday when we had so many training? We're trying to perfect the saints. What do we do Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Thursday evening? We're trying to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry, okay? Back to 1 Peter chapter 5, just give it some time, thank you, all right. Verse 2, now look what it goes on to say, feed the flock. So he's talking to the elders here, he's talking to the pastors, and what is the first thing he says? Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage but being examples to the flock, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. So we see here that the first thing that Peter tells those elders is this, hey, you need to learn how to feed the flock of God. Now he's not talking about, you know, the potluck, Sunday morning and Sunday night. Hey, you got to learn how to get the right type of foods, hey, I'm all for that. We had some healthy food this morning, we had raspberries and berries, Dr. Rita, amen. We just didn't have the bacon, okay, I'm sorry that we didn't bring home the bacon, but, you know, this is not talking about, hey, you got to learn how to feed God's people, you got to pick the best restaurants. This is talking about spiritual food, which is the most important aspect of a church service, is the preaching of God's word, it's feeding the flock of God. Now this is the first instruction that he gives here, and here's the thing, a lot of churches like that too, you know, oh, you're just criticizing all these churches. Here's the thing, though, is in order to show you how to do it correctly, you also got to show how not to do it. In order to show how to do it correctly, you got to point out the errors of how they're doing it wrong. And many churches, independent, fundamental, Baptist churches, we're not even talking about like all churches, we're just talking about, let's just hone in on independent, fundamental, Baptist churches, they're not feeding the flock of God. Or here's the thing, they're feeding them tofu, spiritual, fake meat, horse meat is what they're feeding. You say, well, what do you mean by that? What I'm saying is many pastors, unfortunately, they're not studying the Bible to teach the Bible. What are they studying? Those outside of the Bible talking about the Bible and they teach that, okay? You have a 30-minute sermonette, right, you have a 30-minute sermonette just talking about the grace of God. Look, I'm all for the grace of God. I'm for the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, but let me remind you that this book is made up of 66 books. And there's a lot more to talk about other than those three subjects. We hit on those subjects, we talk about those subjects, but isn't the Bible filled with a lot more interesting things as well? We should talk about those things. And here's the thing, a lot of people get bored with church. You know why? Because they hear the same thing over and over again and they're not growing, okay? You hear about the grace of God so much, it's like, well, you know, that's why you have people in church on their phones all the time. Now if that's you here, you just put it away your phone right now is what you just did, like ooh, like let me put that away. You know, I know that in churches, they're so bored with the preaching, they pull out their phones, check the score, they're checking on other things, you know, just not paying attention to the preaching of God's word. Why? Because they're being fed tofu meat is what they're being fed. Fake meat. Now there's churches, I would say the fake meat would be like the NIV, okay? These denominational churches that do that. But let's say independent fundamental Baptist churches that are preaching from the King James Bible, they're just giving you these little portions of meat. You know, you ever seen those like those dishes that they make where it's just like one piece of meat and it's like a little string of sauce or something like that, it just looks pretty? It looks like, you know, it's good for food photography or something like that? It's aesthetically pleasing as they would say, right? But is that going to fill you up? No. Someone feeds you, you're like, that's it. A slider, they just give you a slider to eat. You know? Hey, this is filet mignon, amen? This is sirloin steak, okay? So if God has given us the best meat possible, why not serve it? Okay? All right, guys, I know you're hungry and everything, right? Just, hey, mind heavenly things, not just the earthly thing. We're giving the spiritual application here, okay? What I'm talking about is this. Hey, God's given us good meat. Let's cook it. Let's serve it. But here's the thing. You know why a lot of pastors don't want to do this because they don't know how to cook. They're bad at cooking. You know what I mean? They're afraid to butcher the word of God sometimes. You know, but to that pastor I said then you should just sit down and let someone else do it then. Go find yourself a regular job. Be a regular church member. There's nothing wrong with that, you know? But don't glorify yourself as some pastor, but you're not preaching the entire counsel of God. Oh, no, but if you preach on those deep subjects from Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Hosea, you're going to scare people away. No, actually people want to hear about that stuff. You know, a lot of people in church have a lot of questions, but they're afraid to ask because the pastor's not a good cook. They're afraid to ask for number five, but they're afraid of getting number five because the pastor doesn't know how to cook, okay? You know, as pastors we need to make sure we know how to cook, we know how to, what servings come with that steak, you know, baked potato, you know, macaroni and cheese, asparagus, amen? I have to throw that in there because Dr. Reed is right here, amen? I actually like asparagus though. Asparagus is good. You know, broccoli, vegetables, got to get your rice, got to get a well-balanced meal, okay? And you have what? The main part, which is the meat, okay? What do I mean by that? Well, you know, feeding the flock means a well-balanced diet. This is teaching them doctrine, right? It's teaching them life principles, so it's not just doctrine. We got to teach you how to live life, how to be a good husband, right? How to be a good wife, how to be good children, how to be a good employee, okay? Family concepts, order in the family, all right? Child rearing principles, but not just that, how about end times Bible prophecy? We need to talk about that too. You know, we have an array of subjects that we need to hit. We can't just talk about one thing, you know, we need to hit it all. Old Testament, New Testament, spiritual gifts and how they don't exist today, you know? We need to expose heretics, okay? We basically, what the shepherd does is it teaches the sheep what fields not to feed on. Like, hey, don't go to this field, this is bad grass right here, or don't go over there. If you go too far, you're going to run into some wolves in sheep's clothing. They're going to devour you, which we see later on in 1 Peter chapter number 5. You know, we expose the heretics, call the names. Paul called the names, Peter, I mean, Peter has 2 Peter chapter 2 is the most rude, rude chapter in his epistles, right, talking about false prophets. You know, we need to give the flock a well-balanced diet. Talk about all of these things, because all of these things are important. We want to make sure that we're a church that is not deficient in certain areas. You know, there are churches that only focus on the family, and look, I love preaching on the family. Why? Because I want to be a better husband, I want to be a better father, I want to be able to lead my home, but you know what, that's not the only preaching that we should get. That's part of it. Amen? There are certain churches that only talk about soul winning. I love soul winning, but you know what, there's more to life than just soul winning. There are certain churches that only talk about the grace of God, the love of God, these are all great things, but we need to major on everything. Give a well-balanced diet. Now I'm going to read to you from Hebrews chapter 5, go with me if you would, to John chapter 21. It says in Hebrews 5 verse 12, for when, for the time you ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Now here's the flaw in a lot of churches, it's like we can't give them deep doctrine here. So when someone wants deep doctrine, they show an interest in the deep things of God, what do they do? You should go to Bible college. You know, I can't preach on that, but you know what, come to Bible college, we'll teach you all about that. You know, pay $400, $500 a month, a tuition, and we'll teach you the deep doctrines of God. Yeah, that's wrong. You know, teaching doctrine should be free, learning doctrine is free, learning deep subjects is free. It should always be free. And the problem is, is that a lot of Bible colleges, they promise to teach you deep doctrine in the Bible college, but they end up teaching you something completely false. They teach you dispensationalism. I mean, they teach you all the wrong, you're paying to be taught the wrong things. Oh man, you're being too critical. Look, I graduated from Bible college, I was in Bible college for like five and a half years. I taught Bible college as well, I taught the classes, I saw the type of teachers that were in Bible college, how they were there just for the money. They're just teaching for the money's sake. They just, what they do is they purchase a book by David Cloud, okay, and they just go through that book. What did you do brother Mejia? I made my own books. You know, I'm not from Bible college, but when I was a teacher, I wrote my own books on doctrine. What books did you use? This one? 66 of them? I figured, hey, I got 66 right here, why do I need anything else, okay? But you go to Bible college and you learn all this false doctrine, and then you start having fellowship with others who have false doctrine, so you're fellowshipping with people who don't have the right doctrine. It's terrible. Now look at John 21 verse 15. So when they had died, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, loveth thou me more than these. He saith unto him, yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my lambs. So how do we show God as elders that we love him? By feeding the sheep, okay? He saith to him again the second time, Simon son of Jonas, loveth thou me. He saith unto him, yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, loveth thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, loveth thou me. And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. I think this is important to the Lord. He's like, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. Why? Because that's what is important to the heart of God. Why? Because my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And even Paul said, look, after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. So what is the solution? Feed the sheep. For in doing so, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee, the Bible says. Okay? Now go to Ezekiel 34. I'm not done on this point. I want to talk about this a little more. So what is the commandment that Jesus Christ gives to the elders, the pastors? Look, you may not have the best personality, but you better feed the sheep. You may not be the best looking, but you better feed the sheep. You may not be the most talented. Thank you for that whoever just shouted real loud, amen. You may not be the most talented or the most gifted, but you know what? Feed the sheep. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We ought to labor in the word and in doctrine to feed the sheep. Now look at Ezekiel 34 verse 1 says, and the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. By the way, another word for shepherd is pastor. Prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? So what is he condemning them for? Feeding themselves. Okay. Now this is going to take a turn for the worse in the next couple of verses or we're going to read a couple of verses here. Verse 3 says, he eat the fat, he clothed you with the wool, you kill them that are fed, but you feed not the flock. The disease you have not strengthened. Neither have you healed that, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost, but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them. So we see that they're not doing a whole lot of good, okay? And we can apply this spiritually speaking to preaching. Preaching should heal. Amen? How do we heal? By teaching you how to overcome depression, overcome an anxiety, become emotionally strong, strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, right? They were scattered, verse 5, because there is no shepherd and it became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. What happens when you don't have biblical preaching? The sheep are scattered and then Satan devours them. The beasts of the field come after them. The false prophets and the false teachers, the Joe Olsteins of this world, okay? My sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill, yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord as I live safe, the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey and my flock became meat to every beast of the field. Because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherd search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and fed not my flock. Therefore you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Now before we get into verse 10, I want you to notice that because they're not feeding the sheep, what happens to the sheep? They become a prey, okay? That's why you have a lot of Christians today, they're just involved in all kinds of false doctrine. They're confused on repentance, they're confused about the Bible, they're confused about doctrines. Why? Because they're not being taught. It's not hard to teach about, you know, what faith alone is. Just stick to the book of John. Look, if you're scared, just read through the book of John. The Bible will teach itself if you're afraid of that. That's how easy it is. But you know, you talk to pastors about this and they're just like, well, you know, I don't know. I think it's faith alone, but you know, I don't know. Well, you know what, then you shouldn't be a pastor then, because this is very basic, okay? Now look at verse 10. Thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against the shepherds. Whoa. Now, if he was against the shepherds then, I guarantee you, God is against shepherds today. And I will require my flock at their hand and cause them to cease from feeding the flock. Now look, remember at the beginning it said that they're feeding themselves, not feeding the flock, right? This doesn't mean that they're feeding themselves like they're reading the Bible, but they're not giving the Bible to them. You know, they're feeding themselves, they're making sure that they're spiritually, you know, good to go and they're learning doctrine and they know all the right things and all these things, but they're just not giving it to the flock. That's not what this is saying. Look what it says here. Neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore, for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. So who are the shepherds feeding on the flock? Now in the New Testament, how does that look? Well the Bible tells us that false prophets and false teachers make merchandise of people. Now I'm not saying that every single pastor who's not feeding the sheep, feeding the flock are false teachers and false prophets, but you know why they're not teaching the flock of God? Because they just want to tell them whatever they want to hear to keep that paycheck coming so they can keep paying the bills. What are they doing? They're feeding on the flock. They'll tell you whatever you want to hear, whatever sermon you want to hear about. If you want to hear about the love of God, hey, we got that. If you want to hear about the grace of God, we got that. As long as you're happy and the money keeps rolling in, they're good to go. What is that called? Being greedy of filthy lucre. Whereas someone who feeds the flock, they can care less if anybody gets offended. They can care less. You know, they preach the entire Bible no matter what the repercussions. Whereas someone who feeds on the flock, these people are giving deceitful sermons, you know. They're giving flattery and I'm not joking, these people exist. I know of a church in this area and the city of Monterey Park is doing something like this and it makes me mad because there's good people in that church who want the truth and they're being deceived. You know, I had a pastor tell me, the so-called pastor, he said this, because you may think, well, you're just being mean. Well, listen to the words I'm about to tell you. You tell me if I'm mean or not. You know, there's a new family in the church and this person says, hey, pray for them. Pray for them. Pray for their salvation? No. Pray for them because they got money. Pray for them because they got money. And I told him, I said, are they saved? And he's like, I don't know, just I know they got money. That's wicked. I'm thinking these people are coming to church, they're looking for God, give them the gospel. But you know what he's concerned about? The bank accounts and people like that give Christianity a bad name. No, people like you give Christianity, no, no, no. People who make merchandise off of the flock of God give people a bad name because they're rolling around in their Benzes, buying their, you know, airplane and feeding themselves on the flock, taking advantage of people. This same pastor said, told his congregation, don't study the Bible, just know Jesus. He instructed them and said, don't study the Bible, you only need to know Jesus. This is wicked. This is a shepherd who is feeding on the flock of God. How can you tell the difference between a false prophet and a real prophet? The real prophet is feeding the flock of God. And look, I'm not the best cook. This restaurant here is not the best restaurant. I don't have the best menu. I know I don't have to preach the best sermons. You don't have to tell me that. You don't have to remind me that I don't preach the best sermons. I don't have the best topics. I get that. You know what, it's a lot better than what's going around here. At least, at least, look, I'm not the best cook, but at least you know that I'm not going to burn the meat. At least you know you're going to get filet mignon. At least you know that I have your best interest in mine and I'm going to give you a full meal. I mean, I look pretty, but you know what, I guarantee you by the end of the service, you're full. You learn something, you're full, you're getting fed. Okay? You know, better this than McDonald's, amen? Better this than 99 cent tacos from Jack in the Box. Someone's like, whoa, hold on a second. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Now you're getting defensive. Well, you know, I don't care if I offend you. I just said that, okay? I'm going to tell you the truth. It's not real meat. Ain't that right? It's not real meat. You're like, well, I still want to just live in the matrix and believe that it's real meat. I know. But here's the thing. At least I know that I'm using the right type of meat and that I'm not afraid to use it and say, look, I know it doesn't look pretty, but you'll like it when you eat it. Look, it might be all a little messy. My plate might not be the best. You know, I might not be the best looking cook, but you know what, I guarantee you you're going to like what you eat. Okay? Go to Jeremiah 14. So they're feeding on the flock. Peter's telling them, hey, you need to make sure that you feed the flock of God which is among you. And I know safe pastors who are not doing that. You know, they get older in their age, they start becoming fearful because of what's going to happen to finances or whatever, and what do they do? They start softening up a little bit, not preaching as hard. You know, they start not hitting on the specific topics that need to be hit on. They start tolerating sin in the church, okay, and why? Because of the fact that they're feeding themselves. They're feeding themselves on the flock of themselves. Look at Jeremiah 14, verse 14. Then the Lord said unto me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination. And think of naught and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not. Yet they say, sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. So what is the message that these guys are bringing? They're like, hey, don't worry, peace, love, and joy, peace, you know, the soul train. Peace, joy, love, and soul train. That's the sermon. Hey, don't worry, sword and famine is not going to get you. You're good. And you go, okay, well, sword and famine is going to get you. Because God hates lying, especially when you come in the name of the Lord. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness upon them. You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of people who get out of church because of their church. You say, what do you mean by that? Because their pastor just preaches lies, you know, everything's going to be all right, live your best life now, and it doesn't go according to that way. What happens? They get offended. They fall away. They get backslidden. They get chewed up by the world, okay, because they were not warned. Go to Jeremiah chapter three. So we see here that the false prophet preaches deceit of their heart, a false vision and divination, deceit of their heart. Look at Jeremiah chapter three, verse 13, only acknowledge thine iniquity, well skip down to verse 14, eternal backsliding children, sayeth the Lord, for I am married unto you, and I will take you of one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion, and I will give you pastures according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. That's the kind of pastor we should want to be. Pastures according to the heart of God. How do you know if it's according to the heart of God? If they feed you with knowledge and understanding. If they teach you the word of God, okay, not just kind of sugarcoating things, not touching certain things that they don't want to talk about, not sending you to Bible college so someone can lie to you over there, you know, they themselves teach you the word of God. They give you understanding and knowledge. Go back to 1 Peter chapter number five. I know I spent a lot of time on that, but that was important. Look at verse two. Verse two says, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. That word ready simply means willing mind. Now when it says not of constraint, but willingly, this kind of reminds me of Bible college students, and I know I'm getting on Bible college right now, okay? But it reminds me of it. It reminds me of Bible college students who, like, I remember when I was in Bible college, there was guys who would come and they're like, yeah, I'm called to preach, but man, I don't want to do it, you know? It's like they want to make it seem as though God's just chasing them. Like oh, God's just, he just, he wants me to do it, I don't want to do it though, but he's just like begging me to do it, you know? It's like, he probably doesn't want you to do it, you know? But they want to make themselves seem like some hero who just submitted to the will of God, you know? They're just God's gift to the ministry. And they give their testimony, I didn't want to be a pastor, but God just had to chase me down. He had to just, you know, speak to me through the clouds and do all these things, and now I'm a pastor. They're doing it by constraint. The Bible says you're supposed to do it willingly, right? Not by constraint. And look, here's the thing, there is no such thing as God calling you to be a pastor. Now we'll say this, God calls you to preach. Every single Christian is called to preach. Hey, women are called to preach. The gospel. But as far as the pulpit is concerned, the Bible says if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires the good work. If you just desire, look, my pastor never once said, I'm called to preach, right? He just said, I was never called, I just volunteered. Pastor Joe Esposito used to say that over and over again. You know, people will say, oh, I was called to preach, I was called to preach. And then he'd get up and say, you know, I wasn't called to preach, I just volunteered. And he was one of the best pastors I've ever met in my life. He volunteered. You know, he's not gonna, because he wasn't a charismatic who, you know, he saw a 50 foot Jesus come to the clouds and say, come, my son, preach my word. That's fake. People who want to do that, they want to just glorify themselves, you know, and make it seem as though they're so special to God that God would just chase them down just to make them preach or whatever. It says not by constraint, okay? And then it goes on to say, verse three, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. Now what does it mean to be lords over God's heritage? Go to Mark chapter 10, hold your place there in 1 Peter chapter five. So when you think of someone who's being a lord over God's heritage, it's like a pastor who just pushes, throws his weight around, you know, tries to use his label as an authority to basically lord over the flock of God, okay? In other words, you don't question him. Okay? Now look, let me just make it very clear, I'm 100% for authority. And in fact, I'm 100% for authority telling me what to do. Since when I got saved, up until this point, I've always had an authority over my life. And look, I've had authorities tell me to do something nicely, and some people tell me to do it just without, just as rude as possible, but I'm good with both. Because they're the authority, they're the ruler. I never want to be the type of Christian that bucks authority. They just don't want to be under authority, they just want to be this anarchist type Christian or this ronin, rogue type Christian, they don't like to be told what to do. Let me just tell you, that is not pastoral material right there. Because in order to be a pastor, you have to learn how to follow. And you have to learn how to take instruction, and sometimes in a rude way. You know, sometimes authorities, they're rude. If you don't know that, you know, you need to grow up in a Hispanic home, you'll know their authority's rude sometimes. You know, she's just like yelling at you and stuff. But you don't even have a job, right? Your boss is, and look, don't try to be at a job, I just need to find a job where it's just this full-blown Christian, independent fundamental Baptist, you know, that's not the way it works. You're going to get a boss who's just mean, who's, I don't know, the Bible would say forward, right? Not kind, if you have a good boss, praise God for that, but that doesn't happen all the time. But I'm all for authority, and I'm all for, by default, obeying that authority. And here's the thing, once the authority crosses the line, you know, at that point, we're on even planes, at that point, we're supposed to entreat them as a father, okay? I'll get into that in just a minute. Mark chapter 10, verse 42 says, But Jesus called them to him and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them. And we see that that's what he's referring to in 1 Peter chapter 5, don't be the kind of pastor who's just exercising your authority over people, you know? Be an example, what does that mean? Be someone that they will want to follow, right? And look, that works for a husband, as a boss, as a pastor, as any authority, you ought to be the authority that people just naturally want to follow. And if you don't want to follow that authority, then go find an authority that you can follow. And that's something that I commonly say here, if you can't respect me, if you don't like my leadership, I'm not offended, you should probably go somewhere else where you can follow. I'm not saying like, get out, don't let the door hit you where the Lord split you. I'm just saying, you know, if you feel like you can't be under my authority, you should probably go somewhere else, for your sake and your family's sake, or whoever's with you sake, you know what I mean? But here's the thing, we never want to take this to the extent that we've seen in times past where an authority is involved in some sin, or their household is not in order, their children are disobeying the word of God, and the church members just don't want to say anything about it. They're just like, well, we can't, he's the man of God. Well, he doesn't have special powers. He's not Superman. You entreat him as a father. So let me give some instructions here. If there is a pastor whose children are out of order, you know, they're like, you know, getting involved like in fornication, or they're dating someone who's divorced, something to that extent, you know, and it's violating the scriptures as a church member. I'm not talking about as another leader in the church, as a church member, you have the biblical right. He's the man of God, you can't question him. This isn't the Catholic Church. You know, this isn't some Catholic Church where you just don't question any of the pedophilia going on. You understand that? Okay. You respectfully go to the person and say, hey, your child is doing this. It's in violation of the Bible. And the Bible says that you should have your children's objection with all gravity. Can you correct that, please? And if they say, well, I'm not correcting it, then when you know what you do, you say, okay, then you should step down. Because you've disqualified yourself because you don't, your children are not in subjection with all gravity. I say that as respectfully as I can. I'm not yelling, I'm just telling you, you're offending us as members because your children are involved in this sin. But you know what the attitude that most churches have is just like, they have the bystander apathy. Well, I'm gonna wait till someone else says something. I'm gonna see what they do first. No, you get up and you do it. You're not gonna be struck dead. You're not gonna be like an Ananias and Sapphira. I'm afraid if I just go up, I might just fall over dead. You know what? Your church is gonna fall over dead if you don't do something about it. So I'm all for authority. But here's the thing, we should never be lords over God's heritage. Do so because I say so, don't question me, I can preach whatever I want, I can do this and that, and you just don't question anything at all. That's wrong, that's sinful, okay? Hebrews 13, seven says, remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. That's what we see in First Peter chapter five who says, be an example to the flock. So what is the leader supposed to be there for? As an example for you to follow. Not a perfect example, not a perfect person, not a person without error or without flaws, not with the perfect wife, not with perfect children, just with a godly conversation, an example, a template that you can use to emulate, whose faith you can follow, okay? That's what that Bible's teaching us right there. Go back to First Peter chapter five, we're gonna finish up. Church members have the right to go to a pastor and tell him that, and treat him as a father. And unfortunately, the old IFP didn't teach that in their churches. That's why you have sin just rampant, fornication's rampant, people are just doing all kinds of crazy stuff, just stealing money, the Spanish pastor's stealing money from the play, all kinds of things, and then just sweep it under the rug. I've said it multiple times here, we have rugs here, but we don't sweep anything under the rug. We either vacuum it, or we sweep it up and we throw it in the trash, okay? We don't sweep things under the rug here, okay? But that's what the old IFP does, and unfortunately, it's due to a lack of training, you know? I love Jack Hyles, Jack Hyles is a great preacher, he was a great pastor, but that generation unfortunately conditioned a lot of pastors or churches to think that way, whereas like don't question the authority, even if they're involved in sin, you don't question the man of God, you know, that's not right, okay? We need to make sure that we have a healthy relationship between church and pastor, okay? You and I, we need to have a healthy relationship, you know? Look, I tell people all the time, you know, if you believe differently than I do, or if you believe differently than what the church teaches here, keep your mouth shut, okay? Because if you believe something that you know is completely different than what we believe here, you know, you're free to believe the Pre-Tribulation Rapture if you want, but don't go spreading that around in our church, okay? But here's the thing, does that mean you can't come to talk to me about anything? And look, when I said that, you know who gets offended? Is the infiltrator. It's always the infiltrator that gets offended, because they're the one who's actually in violation of that, whereas regular church members, they always come up to me. Always. I've offended people in our church, and you know what those people? They've come up to me and say, hey, I didn't really understand this, or can you explain this? And you know what? I'm always open to that. We should have a healthy relationship between church member and pastor, where I can be just transparent with you if you want to be transparent with me, and that's how we need to do it, okay? Not be lords over God's heritage, but just me trying to be an example unto you, okay? Now, verse number four, man, oh. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisted the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore into the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, cast in all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Now the exalting that he's alluding to is the authority that a believer obtains in the millennial reign, because he talked about that crown of righteousness that you're going to get, and in the beginning of the chapter, we see that he's a partaker of the sufferings of Christ, which according to Romans chapter eight, is what qualifies you to be a joint heir with Christ in that millennial reign, okay? I want to mention that. Now let's see here, verse eight, be sober, be vigilant. I'm sorry, let me talk about one more thing. So the sufferings of Christ, Peter experiencing the sufferings of Christ, I believe he was martyred, okay, I think the Bible's clear about that, because in John chapter 21, Jesus speaking to Peter says, verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest, but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shalt gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God, okay? And when he had spoken this, he said unto them, follow me. Now some say that Peter was crucified upside down, how many of you have ever heard that before, okay? I can't validate to say that that's true, because the Bible doesn't necessarily say that, but we could possibly say that, yeah, he was martyred, because he's talking about someone else girding him, right, someone else doing this unto him. Verse number eight, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. And I'm gonna finish up there, this is my last point here. The rest is pretty self-explanatory. What he's saying here in verse number nine is that he gives us an application here, he's basically telling us the greatest offense against the devil is just a real consistent defense. You know, because the devil, we're not fighting with the devil, you know what I mean? So what is he telling us here? How do you defeat the devil? You just have to resist him. So when he comes with temptations, he comes with discouragement, he comes with imaginations, he comes with an anxiety, he comes with all these weapons, what do you do? Resist. So the way you can, your greatest offense is a consistent defense. You just resist, resist, resist, resist, and the Bible tells us, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. So look, don't get charismatic and rebuke him in the name of the Lord, you know? I rebuke you, you know? Don't get all exorcist on us, the power of Christ compels you, just resist. When the temptation comes, just quote scripture, come to church, read your Bible, pray, don't give in. You resist the devil, and what happens? He'll flee from you, okay? And that's pretty much it, right? So what is chapter five dealing with? Well chapter five, the theme that we see here is the theme all across the board in First Peter is suffering. Okay, we see a lot of suffering taking place, but the main thing that we see being emphasized here is the pastorate. What are the responsibilities of the elder and why that's important, right? That's pretty much it. Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer, and we'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you so much for First Peter and so many truths that we got from this book here. Help us to be the type of Christians that are not afraid of suffering, and not only that, but when Satan comes with temptation, help us to resist him and to consistently resist him, knowing full well that your word teaches us that he will flee from us. Of course, we know that he flees for a season, but when that season is over, we have to just repeat the process and resist again. And I pray, God, that you'd help me to be the elder that I need to be. I pray if there's any young man here who's planning to be a pastor one day, that he would give heed, earnest heed, to the things which he has heard, that he should not let them slip and apply these principles as well. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.