(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And turn, if you would, to the book of Jude right before Revelation. We're going to come back to number 16, but go to the book of Jude. This is actually a continuation of my sermon this morning because there was so much that I wanted to preach about this morning and I already preached a long sermon this morning and I just didn't get to all the things that I want to cover and this is such an important subject and this is such an important doctrine that needs to be laid down strongly in 2014. The devil would love nothing more than to attack Jesus Christ's institution, the local church. Because the local church is the institution that throughout history and in our present day has done the most for the furtherance of the kingdom of God. Don't tell me about a school, a university, some TV show, no. It's the local church, my friend, that Jesus Christ established and instituted. He said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. You look at most of the books of the New Testament and they are addressed unto the church at Ephesus, the churches of Galatia, the church at Philippi, the church at Thessalonica, the book of Revelation is sent out to churches. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And churches today are being slandered and maligned and accused by people who just don't want to go to church anywhere. And the Bible says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as we see the day approaching. And we see a lot of people forsaking the assembly, forsaking legitimate congregations with legitimate pastors that are qualified according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1, and a lot of them justify this forsaking of local churches and they say, well we just have a house church. And what this means is that they just sit around with some buddies, with some Christian friends at their house, but there's no qualified pastor, they're not growing, they're not reaching, it's not a bona fide church. This doctrine is of the devil and the reason that it is so devilish is that number one, it's accusing every church of being apostate, which the devil's very name derives from the fact that he is the accuser of the brethren. But not only that, it's devilish because today there are many people who are saved people who know the Bible who are doing nothing for God because they're not in church. You see, if I were not in church, I would be doing very little for God. Let's just be real tonight, if you were not in church, if you quit going to church, but you kept reading your Bible, kept praying, but you just didn't have a church to attend, you just weren't a part of a church, you'd be doing very little for God, you'd be doing very little. You're not just going to have your own accord, go out, do a bunch of soul winning, win a bunch of people to Christ. We do more when we get plugged into the institution that God commanded us to be a part of and he said he wanted us to be members in that body and to use our spiritual gifts for the edification of that body, the local church, the local congregation, not a universal invisible church, but a local, literal congregation of believers. And this morning we talked about one of the big attacks on the local church and just attacking pastors and just criticizing pastors about being paid and I already covered that this morning, I'm not going to recover that. But secondly, another accusation that's being made and another tradition that people want to throw out, and again, all traditions aren't bad. Traditions are bad when they're contrary to the Bible. Jesus said to the Pharisees, you've made the word of God of none effect through your tradition. That's a bad tradition that nullifies what the Bible says, but a tradition that conforms to what the Bible says is something that we need to hang onto. That's why Paul said, he said I beseech you brother in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received from us. There is a good tradition, a positive tradition where we're handed down methods and ways of doing things that are from Scripture. So one of the things that I want to cover tonight is what the Bible calls the gainsaying of Corey, and it's a part and parcel of the movement that I preached about this morning, this so-called house church movement. And again, nothing wrong with a church meeting in a house. Our church met in a house for the first year and a half that we existed, but we weren't a house church, okay? We were a real church that met in a house. Big difference. If you don't understand the difference, you just have to listen to this morning's sermon. But look at Jude right here in verse 11. This is a chapter about false prophets. A parallel passage is 2 Peter chapter 2. They both deal with the same subjects in the same order. They're about false prophets. Here's what he says in verse 11, woe unto them, woe unto these false prophets, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greenly after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Now these are three aspects of false prophets. These are three areas that God wants us to be aware of so that we can watch out for these guys. Now first of all, we see they've gone in the way of Cain. What does that represent? Well Cain was the one who did not bring unto God the lamb. He didn't bring of the firstlings of the flock. He didn't bring that animal sacrifice that would represent the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. Instead he brought his own produce. He brought his own works. He brought fruits and vegetables that he had worked for. That's a picture of someone who teaches that salvation is by works, something that we produce, as opposed to being through the blood of the lamb. That's what Abel brought. He brought the blood of the lamb. He brought the right sacrifice. Cain brought his own works and he was rejected. So that's the error of Cain. False prophets teach a work of salvation in a lot of cases. Also a sign of false prophets is that they have run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward. Again, nothing to do with just being a legitimate pastor who's paid to do his job. This is talking about those who teach things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. If we go back, we don't have time of course, but the study of Balaam, the story of Balaam is found in Numbers 22 through 24. And in that story we see that Balaam is told by God not to curse Israel and not to even go with the messengers of Balak. He's told not to go. And he wants to go anyway because he wants that paycheck. He wants that money. And God tells him, don't do it. Then Balaam asks God again and God says, okay, if they come call you in the morning, go with them. He just gets up early and goes. He doesn't even wait for them to call. He's like, well, God kind of told me to go. And then of course God sends an angel to come kill Balaam. And thankfully his ass or his donkey that he's riding on actually saves his life by refusing to go forward because there's an angel of the Lord with the sword ready to slay Balaam. And he was just barely, his life was saved. The Bible says the dumb ass speaking forbade the madness of the prophet. What does madness mean? Insanity. Crazy. So Balaam was a guy who was crazy for money. And by the way, Balaam was an unsaved man. He was a false prophet, he was a false teacher, he was a soothsayer, he was not a bona fide prophet of God. Even though God did speak to him, he was not a man of God. He was not a righteous man of God. So when Balaam gets there, he doesn't end up cursing Israel, God actually gives him a different word to speak and he speaks what God tells him to speak. But then afterward, he taught Balak, after that whole encounter, he taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication. And so he got them into sin and then God ended up having to kill a lot of the children of Israel. So what is the error of Balaam for reward? Well that's preaching lies and false doctrine for gain's sake. The preachers today who preach lies because that's what people want to hear and they want to make a lot of money. But also it's this permissiveness where Balaam is teaching it's okay to commit fornication and it's okay to eat things sacrificed unto idols. He led people into sin with a permissive type preaching. Are you starting to see what a false prophet looks like? And then the third thing about these false prophets is that they have perished in the gainsaying of Cori. So he said they've gone in the way of Cain, they've run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and they perished in the gainsaying of Cori. So these three men are false prophets, Cain, Balaam, Korah, and these men are used as examples for us in the modern day of what to watch out for in a false prophet, true? Let's go back to the story of Korah and let's see what the gainsaying of Korah was all about. Go back to Numbers chapter 16. I think it's pretty easy to see what Cain's error was, brought the wrong offering. I think it's pretty easy to see what the error of Balaam was, disobeying God because someone's offering him money and gold and a reward, that's pretty easy to understand. You can't serve God and mammon. You can't sit there and say, well, you know, I know God said this, but there's this money over here. Okay, obviously that's wicked and ungodly. But what is the gainsaying of Korah? Well, to find out, we go to the story of Korah. It's all found right here in Numbers 16. This is the story. We'll look at a few other verses that barely kind of mention Korah, but this is the story in Numbers 16. Look at verse 1, it says, Now Korah the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men, and they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation men of renown. Let me just point out to you two words in that verse, assembly and congregation. These are both words that in the New Testament mean church, and they are translated in the New Testament as church. In fact, in Acts chapter 7, this exact group at this exact time in this exact place is known as the church in the wilderness. These were with Moses in the church in the wilderness. So the words congregation and assembly are referring to the nation of Israel that have gone out into the wilderness, but that congregation or assembly is where they've gathered together and it's called the church in the wilderness. Look at verse 3, they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation. Now this is a whole story about Korah who is the ringleader. He's got a couple of sidekicks, Dathan and Abiram, and then besides these three men, they have gotten 250 people that they've talked into joining them in a rebellion against Moses. They're basically going against Moses, it says in verse 3, they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. These are the two leaders. Moses is the prophet, he's leading the group, and then Aaron was the high priest that God had appointed. And so they've gathered together and this is what Korah says in verse 3, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. Now we can read the whole rest of the chapter and we're going to look at more things in this chapter, we're going to see the story. But let me just start by saying this, this is the only thing that Korah says in this whole chapter. I mean, Dathan and Abiram say something similar a few verses later. This is where we hear from Korah. Now when the Bible says the gainsaying of Korah, do you notice the second half of that word? What is it? Saying. So if we want to know what the gainsaying of Korah is, let's go see what Korah is saying. And it's just this one verse that he's saying. So it's pretty easy to see what Jude is talking about. Because Jude is referring back to this character. And he wants us to notice something about Korah and to be warned about something derived from this story about Korah, and it has to do with what Korah said. Because it's the gainsaying of Korah. And what did he say? Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Therefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. What's he saying? He's attacking Moses for being the leader. That's what he's saying. And he's saying, you know, you can't be the leader, we should all be the leader. We should all be in charge. We're all holy. We all can lead. Now let's jump down to see what Dathan and Abiram have to say. These are Korah's sidekicks. Let me just remind you, we read the whole chapter before the sermon began, but there's some serious wrath being poured out in this chapter. First of all, the 250 guys that went along with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, they all get burnt up. I mean the fire of the Lord just burns these guys up, the 250. Then the chasm opens in the earth and Korah, Dathan, and Abiram drop down alive into hell. So this is a pretty serious thing. And then after that, if you remember, then God just sends a plague among the whole congregation because he's angry at the whole congregation. And in that plague, 14,700 people die besides those who died with Korah and Dathan and Abiram and the 250 men who had the censors. They all die. And this is after Moses has interceded and prayed for the people. Multiple times saying, God, please don't destroy them, please save them. And even with Moses' intercession, 14,000 people die. So there's a lot of wrath here in this chapter. A lot of people dying, a lot of suffering, it's a very negative occurrence here. Korah was a wicked man. Don't downplay the wickedness of Korah because Korah was one that was so wicked that him and all his friends were destroyed, sent straight to hell, and it ended up just wiping out 14,000 some other people, even after Moses. I mean God's just saying, I'm just going to wipe out the whole congregation, and Moses is saying, no God. He's trying to tone God down in this chapter. We read it before the service. But let's see what Dathan and Abiram have to say because they say something similar. It says in verse 12, Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab which said, and of course this is not Korah but these are people that were with him, we will not come up. Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness except, watch this, doesn't this echo what Korah said, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us. And the word prince means first. It comes from the Latin there and it's basically the principle thing would be like the most important thing, or the prince is the first born son of a king. Prince means the first or the leader, the one who is in charge, the ruler, whatever. Verse 14, moreover thou hast not brought us into the land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards, what thou put out the eyes of these men we will not come up. Those are just Korah's friends. But what Korah said was in verse 3. That's the gainsaying of Korah. You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, the Lord is among them, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. Now let's go to Jude again. Let's go to the end of the Bible, Jude. We already read the whole chapter so I'm not going to reread it even though a lot of it's in my notes again. We already saw the mass casualties that God carried out on the children of Israel because of this wickedness and this rebellion against Moses. But when we look at the book of Jude we can get a little more information now that we kind of understand what it means, the gainsaying of Korah, what exactly they were attacking. I want to apply this to a modern day application of what today would be the gainsaying of Korah. Because today there are people who are teaching the exact same thing that Korah was teaching. And this ties in with what I preached this morning. They're teaching that it's wrong for a church to have a single pastor or a single leader. Who's heard of this doctrine? They say, you need a board of elders. If you go to like a Presbyterian church, there's a board of elders. Or if you go to these Reformed Baptists, they don't have one pastor, they have a board of elders. Now let me start out by saying this, and I'm going to show you a lot of scripture in the New Testament to back up sound doctrine on this point. Let me just start out by saying this. I am not against a church having more than one pastor or elder. I'm not against that whatsoever. And in fact, for a very large church, it would probably be advisable that there would be multiple elders or bishops or pastors, whichever of those three words you want to use, those three words are used interchangeably in the New Testament. Pastor, elder, bishop, it's all the same guy. I think that in a very large church, it would make sense to have multiple pastors and multiple deacons also, in addition to the pastors, because there's just a lot of work that needs to be done and it becomes too much work for one man to carry out. So I'm not against a church that has multiple elders or multiple pastors. I don't think that's unscriptural whatsoever. I think there are examples of that in scripture. But you know what I am against? I'm against the ones who are blaspheming and accusing the church that has one pastor as being an unscriptural church, or that there's something wrong with having one pastor. Because frankly, there isn't anything wrong with a church having one pastor. Obviously in the early days of a church, when a church is small, there's only going to be one pastor and there aren't going to be any deacons because frankly one person is able to do the work and carry out the deeds that need to be done. Later on when a church gets huge, like in the book of Acts when they're running thousands, and I've been to churches that had a lot of assistant pastors. They had a lot of other pastors on staff that would help bear the burden of pastoring the people and leading the people and making decisions and just leading and guiding. That all makes sense. Making deacons just to do some of the menial tasks. Although let me just stop and say this, the deacons in 99% of Baptist churches are not really deacons. I mean it's not what the Bible teaches. You want to talk about throwing out a phony tradition? It's the deacons in modern day Baptist churches. By the way, you know what the word deacon means? Who knows what the word deacon means? The word deacon. Who knows what it means? Servant. That is what it means. Servant means minister or servant. The deacon, according to scripture, if we actually look at Acts chapter 6 where those first deacons were ordained, the first seven deacons of which Stephen and Philip were part of that group, and if we look at the qualifications for the deacon in 1 Timothy 3 and we look at all the scripture surrounding deacons, the deacon was a guy who was a full time servant of the church. The whole point in even having a deacon, according to Acts 6, was because it was too much work for the elders or the apostles to do. They couldn't get all the day to day work done and so they needed someone to serve the table so to speak, just to do some of the menial tasks and so they said we need to ordain these men to be deacons to just run, and this is the word they use, the business of the church. Every part of this phony house church movement that I was preaching against this morning, you think business is a dirty word. Now business is only a dirty word if you're a communist or a hippie. If you're a communist or a hippie, you hate the word business. Jesus said I must be about my fathers. They said we need to appoint deacons to sit about this. There you go. What I'm saying is that the deacons in the Bible were servants of the church. They were a full time worker. They were not a governing body, but a lot of churches today are patterned more after the US government than they are after the Bible. So they have like an executive branch, a legislative branch, then the pastors like the executor, the president, and then the deacons are like a congress that like votes on things and everything. That is so unbiblical. The deacon is a servant. I heard a story about a pastor one time that was being attacked by Korah in his church. He had Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in his church and they started attacking him and they said you're not letting the deacons make enough decisions. You're not letting them rule like they should. The deacons need to make the decisions. One guy shouldn't be running the show. And they said you take too much upon you, oh pastor. You need to have the deacons do it. And so here's what he did. On Sunday morning he got a bunch of cans of food and he put bags of food and then he said every widow in the auditorium wanted you to stand up and then he had the deacons come up and take the food and hand it to the widows and he said there you've just done everything you know that the Bible said that the deacons are supposed to be doing. Now you can't say that I'm not having the deacons do enough because they just did everything the Bible said. So what I'm saying is the deacon in the Bible is a servant of the church when there's just too much work to do. You got to delegate some of that work and the church needs more full time workers. They're not at the level of being a pastor but they are a deacon. And by the way the deacon should be a spirit-filled preacher. Not a respected businessman in the community. He needs to be a preacher. He needs to be a soul winner. Because look at the first deacons. They were some of the best soul winners, right? Stephen, Phillip, they're getting multitudes saved down in Samaria and everything like that. So having multiple elders, having deacons, I mean these are all good things. The rulers of the church are the elders, okay? They're the ones who run the show. Or a single elder in the case of a smaller church or a newer church. Now let me say this, all throughout the Bible there's a pattern in God's Word of having a man lead and be the guy who God uses to lead spiritually. For example, if you just think back through the Old Testament, Moses, I mean we just saw it. The guy that God had as a single leader, it wasn't led by a board. It was led by one guy, Moses. And then after Moses got it, Joshua. Throughout history of the children of Israel, when they were in God's will, and when they were at least following His form of government somewhat, the judges, God would raise up these men like Othniel the son of Kenaz. He'd raise up great leaders like Ehud and Gideon and people that would rally the people and preach righteousness and guide them and teach them and lead them. So God using a man as a leader, an Elijah, an Elisha, is not foreign to scripture for a guy to be used as a leader. Everything isn't done by committee always in the Bible. There's often just a man that God uses. But they say that, you know, well all the people are holy and we don't need a pastor and in fact having a single pastor is unscriptural. You take too much upon you, oh pastor, we should all preach. We should all get a chance to teach and preach the Word of God. Everybody should get a chance to talk and why are you this one man show and you're this and that? Okay, well let's examine that with scripture. First of all let's look at Jude and let's get the scripture about the gainsaying of Corrie in context. The Bible says in verse 8, likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. Now what does dominion mean? It means somebody's in charge. Dominion means there's a ruler. And it's not saying that they despise a particular ruler, but it's just saying they just despise dominion in general. They just don't want anybody to be in charge. They just don't want anybody to do any ruling. They just despise dominion. And then of course later it says, woe unto them, you know, they've perished in the gainsaying of Corrie. Now jump down to verse number 16, the Bible says, these are murmurers, complainers walking after their own lusts and their mouths speak of great swelling words having men's persons in admiration because of advantage, but beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they, and this is the point that I want to point out, these be they who separate themselves, sensual having not the spirit. Now go to Acts 20. Let me show you what I think he means by these be they who separate themselves. They separate themselves. Look at Acts chapter 20, and in Acts chapter 20 the apostle Paul warns about some of the bad things that are probably going to happen after he's gone. It says in Acts 20, 29, for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Now does that sound like the false prophets of 2 Peter 2 and Jude? Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. These are the Korahs that basically separate themselves, meaning that they try to split the church, form a different faction that rebels against the pastor, and they separate themselves. They draw away disciples after them, and they perish in the gainsaying of Corey. This is why we don't do the whole New Evangelical life group, cell group, small group type Bible study model of a church. Go if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 3. You see, a false teacher would love nothing more than to develop his own little group, his own little faction that he can indoctrinate and teach false doctrine to and rebel against the church, and rebel against the leadership of the church. And I'm going to get into what the leadership in the church consists of, what the pastor's authority is and isn't, and what it means to have a single elder versus multiple elders. I'm going to get into that, but first let me just touch on a few things. Where did I have you turn? 1 Timothy chapter 3. But this is why it's dangerous. For example, we had a guy come in here one time and he said, you know, do you guys have any Bible study where basically we can get in smaller groups and where I can teach some things and everything? Five minutes later the guy's denying the Trinity. But his goal is to, and he said, and before he started denying the Trinity, five minutes before he started denying the Trinity, he's telling me how, well you know, you can't just have one guy preaching, I mean just one guy doing all the teaching and preaching, I mean everybody should get a chance to teach, but we should hear from everybody. Aren't all the people, and look, let's just keep in mind throughout this sermon what Corey said. What is the gainsaying of Corey? You take too much upon you seeing all the congregation are holy. Every one of them. And the Lord is among them, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. What's Corey saying? Everybody in the church is equal, everybody should be teaching, everybody should be preaching, everybody should be leading, and there should not be one person running the show. Is that not what Corey said? If not, then tell me what Corey said. Then what is the gainsaying of Corey? He only said one sentence in the whole Bible, and I just read the sentence to you, and it's him saying, well you single guy Moses, and single guy Aaron, you know you two guys are just running everything, when everybody should be in charge, everybody should be leading, everybody's holy, everybody should be preaching, everybody should be teaching, everybody. Have you ever been to one of these small group Bible studies where everybody gets to talk? Who's been to one? Put up your hand nice and high. When I was a teenager I went to some of these, and you know why I went to these? To meet girls. And let me just tell you why. Because I was a Christian young person, and I was at the age where I was thinking about getting married, and I wanted to meet Christian girls, so I would go to a lot of different youth groups and different churches in the area and just try to make Christian friends, not just to meet girls, but just to make Christian friends in general, and also just to, and by the way, some of you single guys need to meet some girls, okay? That's another sermon. But anyway, and all God's people said, yeah, but anyway, what I'm saying is, what am I saying? No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, I'd go to these small group Bible studies, so I'm familiar with these small group Bible studies. I've been to a lot of them. When I was a teenager, if you were to find me when I was 16 years old, let me tell you what my week looked like. I went to church on Sunday morning. I went to Sunday school, Sunday morning, and Sunday night. Then on Monday night I went to a small group Bible study. Then on Tuesday night I went to a different small group Bible study. Then on Wednesday night I went to Wednesday night church. Then on Thursday night I went to another church that had their service on Thursday nights. Then on Friday and Saturday usually one of those churches or youth groups had some kind of a youth activity that I would participate in. I mean I was plugged into the local Christian churches and youth groups. Now once I became King James only, got into soul winning and became fundamental, a lot of those people didn't like me anymore. But that's what I did. I just liked the fellowship. I just wanted to be around God's people and just wanted to meet Christian friends and stay out of trouble. So that's what I did. But man, these small group Bible studies are ridiculous. They're ridiculous. Cora, Cora group Bible studies, everybody should be teaching. No guess what, everybody shouldn't be teaching because some people don't know anything. And what happens is when you get to these small group Bible studies, this is how they work. Usually this is what they were. You read about four or five verses and then everybody says what it means to them. What does it mean to you? By the way, some of them everybody had a different version of the Bible. That really made it interesting. That's not what mine says. But anyway, you go around and you hear from everybody and people said the dumbest things. Let me just give you some examples. I remember one time I was at a small group Bible study and we're going over the story of Noah's Ark. And I mean people are going back and forth about whether there was an aquarium on the ark for all the fish to survive. And God's pretty clear. Everything that's creeping on the dry land is what he's going to wipe out. He's not wiping out the fish with the flood, folks. But they're like asking themselves, you know, what about fish? Was there an aquarium or something to preserve the fish? And I mean this went on for 20 minutes. I mean everybody's putting, you know, but this verse says it, but what about this verse? I mean it just goes on. It's ridiculous. Because you know what it is? The blind leading the blind and everybody falls in the ditch. And these things are frustrating to listen to because just, I mean, women, men, everybody and just, they don't know anything. They're just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, my friend, in these Bible studies. There's no leader. There's no ruler. There's no doctrine that's coming from, you know, real knowledge and experience. But you know what? That's not what Jesus ordained. Jesus said we need elders in every church. He said ordain elders in every church as I had appointed you. There needs to be a ruler. There needs to be a leader. There needs to be somebody who's qualified and knows what they're doing. Why did God even put these qualifications for the bishop or the elder if we don't need him? You got to have him. And you say, wait a minute, I thought we were talking about one. Well let's get to that. But let's look at the qualifications. This is why everybody doesn't just teach and preach and why everybody doesn't just run the church. And by the way, this is like communism or something. Like democracy or something. And by the way, the people who founded our country never called it a democracy. They said democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. They said democracy is a failure because democracy is just mob rule. And let me explain it to you this way. Most people are always wrong about everything. I mean think about it. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many there be what's going on in their act. Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to life and few there be that find it. Most people are wrong. Most people are dumb. Most people are uneducated. Most people don't know the Bible. So let's put them in charge. Let's vote on what Bible we use. Let's vote on what songs we sing. Let's vote on what's preached. Let's vote, no let's not. Let's have one guy who knows what he's doing who's filled with the spirit of God who's qualified to run the church. And then we can do it right. Let's have Moses, not 30 people who don't know what they're doing. 100 people who don't know what they're doing. 250 guys who don't know what they're doing. So let's look at the qualifications. First Timothy 3.1, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work. A bishop then should be, is that what it says? No it says a bishop then must be blameless. The husband of one wife, is that optional? No. He must be what? Vigilant. He must be sober. He must be of good behavior. He must be given to hospitality and he must be apt to teach. What is aptitude? It means you have the ability to teach. So this guy's got to be married to one wife. He's got to be blameless. He's got to be vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, he has to have the ability to teach. What else does he have to be? Not given to wine, verse 3. No striker, not greedy, a filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. Can you have your children in subjection with all gravity if you don't have children? No. But look at the next verse. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Look, how do you know how to rule your own house if you don't have a wife and if you don't have kids? You haven't even been proven yet. Let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. We don't even know what your leadership ability is until you've been married and had children and you have ruled your house well, then that is your training ground for being able to take care of the church of God. And until you're married, and until you have children, and until you have properly run your marriage and properly raised your children and taught your children, then you're not qualified because you have not known how to rule your own house well. You haven't had the experience or been proven. Verse 6, not a novice. Now what is a novice? Novice comes from the word meaning new, okay? And novice just means not somebody who's new or somebody who is a beginner. Now is there anything wrong with being a beginner? Is there anything wrong with being new? No. Guess what, we all started out new. At some point we were all a beginner, but does that mean that you should be the pastor when you're new? You should be an elder when you're new? You should be preaching the word of God when you're new behind the pulpit in the congregation when you're a beginner? No. The Bible says, moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Now what we just did is we just ruled out a lot of people from being the elder. So again I said I'm not against a church having more than one pastor eventually if there are more than one person in the church that are qualified and if the church can financially support more than one person because both the elder and the deacon, I mean you heard the sermon this morning, I proved it to the point of ridiculousness with so many Scriptures to prove that point this morning. If the elder and the deacon are both paid positions, the church would have to, number one, have multiple people that fit that bill, that fit all of these qualifications, and we would have to have multiple people that could be supported financially. So the church would have to be to a size where it could sustain multiple elders and multiple deacons. Great, let's get there. But think about this now. Brother David Berzins, I use him as an illustration a lot lately just because we're excited about the fact that he just went out to start a church in November and he's doing a great job and he's working hard and it's a difficult job starting a church, pastoring. He's really doing a great thing and I'm proud of him. But let me just say some things about Brother Dave Berzins. Brother Dave Berzins was at our church for over seven years. When he first came to our church he was already saved but he'd not been baptized and he'd also not been taught much from the Bible at all and he'd also not read his Bible cover to cover at that time when he first came to our church. He was just not a new believer because he had been saved nine years earlier, but pretty much like a new believer. He was a complete babe in Christ because he had never grown or been discipled or gotten in church, not even getting baptized, which is the first step of obedience after salvation. But when Brother Dave started coming to our church over seven years ago, he got baptized and right away he jumped in and started growing, he started soul winning, he started reading his Bible cover to cover multiple times a year, a ton of Bible reading. He started preaching in the preaching class, he's out knocking doors, soul winning. He learned about how to run the church, he learned how to lead the singing, he learned all the things that he needed to go out and start a church and pastor someday. But that took a long time. Now when he first started coming he was single. So he was in no way qualified obviously to pastor or to be an elder or a leader, anything like that, but over those seven odd years he got married, he had some children, he ruled his house, he started to get to the point where he could preach very well and he started getting that aptitude to be able to teach. You say, oh it's just an inborn talent. I had to work hard to learn how to preach, Brother Dave had to work hard to learn how to preach, but now he's preaching great sermons but he had to develop that. By the time he left he was no longer a novice, he was no longer a beginner. He had a lot of experience, he'd been with our church through all its ups and downs for seven years, he saw everything, he was right there in the thick of it, he was serving, he was working hard, he was loyal, he was faithful, he was serving with zeal for over seven years. And look, I think that Brother Dave grew about as fast as anybody grows because it takes time to grow in the Lord and to learn the Bible. He was on a fast path and it still took him seven years to get to the point where he was ready to take on the challenge that he's taking on. Because it just takes that long, just to learn and to grow and to get where you need to be. Now that being said, it's not easy to live up to 1 Timothy 3 and to get to the place where you're ready to take on the office of a bishop or an elder. So this willy-nilly just, okay, let's just make everybody an elder or let's just have five elders just because we want to have five. Just because somebody's telling us we need five, somebody's just telling us we need three and let's not pay them at all and let's just have guys that are half qualified or whatever. Now, you'd be, and look, we have a lot of great people in our church. We have a lot of great men in our church and I love the men of our church, but look, do you really think that all the men of our church are qualified to pastor this church? Do you think that most of the men of our church are qualified to pastor this or any church? No. Now there are a lot of guys that are on their way toward reaching that qualification and maybe even very close to reaching that qualification, but honestly what we're probably going to do at that point is to send them out to start churches somewhere else just because number one, that's what they want to do and number two, that's what's needed today. We're not just dying to have a second elder at Faithful Word Baptist Church right now, but you know what? There are churches all over America that are dying for another church to be started. Now eventually our church is going to grow to the point where we're going to have more staff and more leaders and that's great. Praise the Lord. Thank God. But you know what? This idea of, well yeah, one man show, one pastor, everybody should be, no, it's stupid. If you've got a guy who's qualified, if you've got a guy that fits the bill and he's preaching three times a week, well thank God for it. So what? We don't have to just have two just so that we can say we have two or just to say we have four, just to say we have five because people that fit the bill of 1 Timothy 3 are a little hard to come by. That have the apt to teach part also. Some people might be qualified in the sense that they're faithful, godly people who are the husband of one wife and are great leaders in their home, but can they preach? Can they teach? That is an ability that takes time to develop and some people will never develop. Other people will develop better than others. And obviously we can't just put everybody behind the pulpit, I like to put guys from our church behind the pulpit from time to time. Brother Dave preached behind our pulpit many times before he was pastor. Brother Romero has preached behind the pulpit and Brother Miller has preached and other people have preached. Nothing wrong with that, but we don't have to just do it just to make somebody happy, it's just not biblical. Look at Titus chapter 1 verse 5, I'm just going to hurry up and crank through the rest of this material. And again, what is the gainsaying of Corey? Let me read it for you again. You take too much upon you seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them. Not a bold statement, there's millions of people. Every one of them is holy? I doubt it. And the Lord is among them, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. Now look, was Moses really lifting up himself? No, the Bible says that Moses was the meekest man upon the face of the earth. This is a false accusation, this is a lie. Now look, just because there's one pastor or one elder, does that mean he's lifting up himself above everybody and talking down to everybody? No, it just means that one person is in charge. Was Moses in charge? But was he lifted up above the people and a prince? But you know what, he was made a prince by God. But was he haughty and prideful and arrogant and ruling with an iron fist? No he was not. That's a false accusation. That's the gainsaying of Corey that equates a strong leader with a tyrant. And people will do the same thing in a family. In a family, guess what we need? A strong leader. A dad who's firmly in charge. Not two people in charge, but one person who's in charge. A man of the house. And little Corey and Johnny and Susie, you take too much upon you, dad. They don't want dad to be, look, you need that one man to be in charge and to be a boss. And that one leader doesn't have to be a tyrant or a jerk, but he's the boss. But a lot of people in this world will equate that with being a tyrant and ah, you are lifted up and you, because you say that the wife should obey their husband, like the Bible says. Or because you say the children must obey their parents, like the Bible says. And they'll accuse you of being dictatorial or tyrannical when in reality you're just following God's model. Same thing in the church. There is an elder. There is a ruler. Yeah, could a huge church running many thousands like the early church in Jerusalem have multiple elders? Sure. But does a church have to have multiple elders just to make sure that there's not one guy in charge? Well, that sounds like the gainsaying of Corey. Now look if you would at Titus 1.5, for this cause, left I thee in Crete that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop, notice bishop and elder are used interchangeably in verse 5 and 7, bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word, that sounds like a name for a church, holding fast the faithful word, as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the what? The gainsayers, right? Just like the gainsaying of Corey. Look at verse 13, this witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. The gainsayers often need to be rebuked sharply, the Bible teaches in verse 13. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 5, 1 Timothy chapter number 5. While you're turning there, I'll read for you this, Acts 14, 23, when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commanded them to the Lord on whom they believed. So there have to be an elder or elders in every church, we do need leadership. There could be multiple leaders, but oftentimes there's one leader, that's the way it works. And there's nothing wrong with having one leader. Look at 1 Timothy 5, 17, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. Let me ask you this, is it the elder's job to be in charge, or is he just like everybody else in the church? And they're all holy, and don't lift yourself up above them. No, what does the Bible say? Let the elders that rule well, and I want to talk about briefly at the end of my sermon now, what it means for the pastor to rule. Do you think that it's just an unlimited rule? He is just the boss of every area of our lives? Of course not. You'd be in a cult if that were the case, right? I mean if you had a pastor that just demands your unquestioning obedience in all areas of life, okay, his name's Brigham Young, or whatever, you're following Joseph Smith, you're following David Koresh or whatever. It's a cult. And there are cult-like followings. And this is what people who say, we've got to have multiple elders, they'll try to point to people like that and compare you to them. You can always find a bad example. I mean look, people who are against spanking, they'll find some person who beat their kid within an inch of its life. See, this is what spanking does. I mean you can find a bad example of anything, folks. Are there some pastors who take their authority too far? Of course there are. Are there elders who rule in areas that they shouldn't be ruling? Of course. But does that mean that elders should just have no rule? No authority? And they say, oh there's doctrine of pastoral authority. No, there is a doctrine of pastoral authority. It's called, forget authority, it's ruling. Now look what the Bible says, go to Hebrews 13. So in 1 Timothy 5, 17 it says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. Verse 13, 7, remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow considering the end of the conversation. Now I think the key in this verse is to see that the one who has the rule over you is the one who's spoken unto you the word of God, not just somebody who's speaking unto you their own opinion. He's saying obey them that rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God. Now when you look at life, life has different spheres within it. For example, we have the family, and we have nations, and we have churches. These are all institutions ordained by God. God ordained nations, God ordained churches, God ordained families. These institutions exist because of God's will and God has proclaimed that these institutions should exist. Within these institutions, there are leaders that God has given certain authority and a certain scope of rule. For example, in the home, the husband, the father, he is the king of that castle. He is the head of the home. Does the government have the right to come in and tell him how to rule his family? No. Does the government have the right to come into our church and tell us how to rule our church? No. Does the church have the right to go into your family and tell you how to do your home and come in and start ruling over your house? No. See, these leaders need to stay within their scope. You don't want the church to run the government either because the government is the government and the church is the church and the family is the family. You don't want the church running the government. You ideally would want godly people running the government. Keep dreaming, dream on pal. But ideally you'd want godly Christians, but you don't want the church running the government. You don't want the family running the church. You don't want the church running the family. These are just separate institutions. God said Christ is the head of the church, but he said the husband is the head of the wife, the father is the head of the home, and the pastor is the ruler of the congregation. He is the shepherd. Pastor means shepherd. He is the shepherd and he is underneath of the great shepherd. There's a change of command. Who is the great shepherd? Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 13 we see that. Let me turn there myself. In Hebrews 13 it says in verse number 20, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. So Jesus Christ is the great shepherd and we as elders, the Bible says, are like an under shepherd because it says when the chief shepherd shall appear, we will receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. We as his shepherds, pastors. Now the Bible uses three words to describe the office of a bishop or pastor or elder. Those are the three words. Bishop, pastor, and elder. People have often criticized the King James Bible for using the word elder and they've criticized it for using the word bishop and they, you know, the modern versions will change some of these things and I've heard a lot of people say that that's a bad translation, but in reality I've actually read the New Testament in Greek and guess what? There are three words in Greek that describe it and it's the same three words that we have in English. I mean there's one word corresponding to each of them. It's three different words and they mean the exact same thing. This is the thing, people, preachers always want to go back to the Greek. It says the same thing as the English. What's the point? It's the same thing, but people will try to say the King James is translated wrong. Guess what? You read it, it's the same thing. It's a different words. And the word that the King James uses elder is the same word where the Bible talks about one person being older than another. In Greek, same thing. Elder. That's what it means. That's what it says. Now why did God use three different words? Elder, bishop, pastor. Because it's three different aspects of the ministry. Bishop is the overseer aspect of the ministry. Elder has to do with the maturity level, the spiritual maturity, not a novice. And then pastor has to do with the shepherd, or feeding the flock, caring for the flock, feeding them with the word of God like Jesus told Peter, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. So we see that the King James Bible rightly uses three different words to describe the man at the helm in the local church on this earth, obviously under Jesus Christ's authority. He is the pastor because he feeds the flock. He is the bishop because he is a ruler who oversees the church, and he is the elder because he is someone who has a higher level of spiritual maturity, not because he's a better person, but just because he has served the Lord long and gained the experience and has that level of knowledge and maturity that would make him an elder. See how these three words are important, all three of them? And they all have significance and meaning. The Bible says in verse 17, Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Now go to Mark 10, this is the last place we'll turn, Mark 10, and let's understand what are the limitations of the authority that a pastor has. What is that realm? What is his scope of authority? Well first of all the Bible said if a man knew not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? That tells me that the authority of a man is his house, and the authority of the pastor is the church, and the authority of a king or a governor or a judge is the nation. These are the places, now Romans 13 is real clear about what the purpose and scope of earthly government is. Now does earthly government have the right or mandate from God to rule every area of our lives? Absolutely not. Does the government have a right to tell me what food to eat, what beverages to drink, what to do inside my own home or inside my own bedroom or inside my own closet? I can do whatever I want in the four walls of my home and it's none of the government's business, but they want to bring their cameras in and they want to bring their listening devices in and snoop on me and want to know what goes on in the bedroom between me and my wife and they want to know how I raise my kids and what I'm teaching them. Our government's out of control. They want to tell you what to eat. They want to tell you what to drink. Isn't it funny, and look I'm against drinking alcohol but it's none of the government's business. I think it's a very unwise thing to ride your motorcycle without a helmet, but I don't think that's the government's job to tell you that. I think if you're smart you'll wear a helmet. I've ridden a lot of motorcycles and I always wear a helmet because it's dangerous, but you know what? If you want to go out and pop a wheelie with no helmet, God did not set up government to protect you from yourself. That's why the crimes in the Bible were crimes that hurt others. They hurt society. It wasn't just, you know, you're hurting yourself. You know why the homos are put to death back in Leviticus today? Because they prey on others. Because they're child molesters. Because they're abusers and predators, that's why. But I digress. So what I'm saying is that the scope of government according to Romans 13 is crystal clear. He said it's for the punishment of evildoers, those who harm others. The punishment of evildoers, not to provide you health care, to provide you food to eat, to provide you housing, to deal with public emergencies, no. It's to punish evildoers. That's it. That is the only authority that government is legitimately supposed to have from God. That's all. Punishing evildoers. You know, otherwise if we didn't have government and we just had anarchy, then people could just rob and hurt people and kill people and there would be no repercussions, there would be no recourse. That's what government is there for, to avenge the evildoer. So that's the scope of government. What is the scope of my authority as a man? My own wife and my own children. I don't have the right to tell your wife what to do. Well I'm a man, she's a woman. No, not my woman. I'm going to tell my woman what to do. I'm not going to tell someone else's woman what to do. I'm going to discipline and teach my own children. I'm not going to discipline your children. I don't have authority over your children, I have authority over my wife and my children. You have that same authority. Do you see how everything needs to be in its proper place? So the pastor's authority is over the church, not over the people within the church to rule their personal lives. Do you understand what I'm saying? But the pastor rules the assembly, he rules the congregation. What does that mean? That means that as the pastor, I have the authority to decide what kind of music we're going to have, what kind of preaching we're going to have, what Bible we're going to read, what our ministry is going to consist of, soul winning, and we're going to do King James Bible only, we're going to sing only the old hymns, and if there's somebody who wants to come preach here and I say no, I don't approve him, I think he's a false teacher, I'm the one who decides. This is not an open mic, it's not even a mic, but you know, I don't need a microphone. My chest is my microphone. I'm saying I have the right to decide who preaches behind this pulpit, because I run this congregation, I run this assembly, and I'm going to keep out your liberal, watered down, pansy, sissified, girly man music too, by the way. I don't like it, I don't want it. I don't believe it's biblical, I don't believe it's godly, I believe it's sensual and worldly and devilish. So I run the church. I don't run your personal life. Now are there pastors who overstep that boundary? Oh yeah, and they say they want to tell you how to make all your personal decisions. Nothing wrong with asking me for advice, but nothing wrong with asking anyone in the church for advice. You could ask your dad for advice, ask anybody for advice. But the point is, my job is not to rule you personally, not to monitor you outside of church and see what you're up to. Obviously people who are commonly reported to be drunkards and fornicators must be cast out, but it's not my job to come to your house and tell you how to do things and how to run your business and rule over your personal life. That would be overstepping my bounds. But you know what, I do lead the congregation, and it is not up for grabs what Bible we're going to use. The music is not up for grabs, the pulpit is not up for grabs. If somebody preaches behind this pulpit, it's because I approve it. Oh you dictator, hey, somebody's got to be the watchdog. You know, there are a lot of churches today that are great churches and great pastors with a lot of idiots getting behind the pulpit. If you've ever been in a great church and some idiot guest preacher came in and preached lies, who's been there? Some guy comes in and you know, the church is a good church, but then some guest preacher comes in and preaches a bunch of nods. You know what, the pastor should be held accountable for that. Did you hear me? So with authority comes responsibility. So do I have authority? Yeah, but that makes me responsible. That means if some guest preacher gets up and preaches something foolish or false, you know what, come talk to me about it and I will be responsible for it. I will answer for it. The buck stops here. Because that's my job, to guide the congregation. Now the congregation meets how often at our church? Three times a week, right? That's when I'm in charge, those three times. You know, that's when I am in authority. I'm not just this guy who's just your authority figure watching over you throughout the week dictating what you eat and drink, dictating your lifestyle. I'm not even going to tell you who to marry and who not to marry. But the thing is, I'll tell you that if you marry an unbeliever you're not right with God. I'll tell you that's sin, but you know what, I'm not going to try to run your life. But I will say this, I am a ruler in this church. I am a pastor that is a boss. I'm not just up here just, you know, well, you know, guys, is everybody with me? I don't care whether you like it. You know, I am here to lead and to rule because I know what's best for this church. Because I read the Bible, I studied, I know what I'm talking about, I've been around the block, I'm not a novice, and I'm leading this church in the right direction. Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. The soul winning we're doing is right. The Bible that's being preached is right. The songs that we sing are right. And look, I don't want to take too much on me, but I don't want to take too little on me either. So we need to be careful of the gainsaying of Corey. Yes, pastors can go overboard on authority. I don't think anybody would accuse me personally of being one of them, because I'm actually a pretty hands off guy. But you know, if I see something that's not right in our soul winning or in our music or in our preaching, I'm going to put the smack down. And that's my job. Somebody's got to. And in churches where nobody puts the smack down, then the devil just comes in and just does whatever he wants. Because there's no ruler. There's no boss. When the cat's away, the mice will play. This cat is here to make sure that the devil does not destroy this church. And it's good to have a leader that wants to do that. And that's why the elder has to be vigilant. That means he's watching for the enemy that wants to creep in all the time and change the church, destroy the church, corrupt the church. Look at Mark 10 42, it says, But Jesus called them to him and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, Mark 10 42, exercise lordship over them and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister and whosoever of you will be the cheapest shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life for ransom for many. He says look, rulers among the Gentiles, they abuse their followers. Rulers among the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and exercise great authority upon them. And even in 1 Peter 5 it says that we as elders or pastors should not be lords over God's heritage but being in samples of God. The Lord is the one who owns you. The Lord is your master. I'm not your master. I'm not your rabbi. I am not your Lord. I am ruling, but I'm not like the Gentile ruler that exercises lordship. I'm an ensemble to the flock, or at least I should be. That's what the Bible is teaching. So we as Christians should understand that a pastor is a ruler, Jesus Christ is a ruler. But wasn't he also the servant? So what the Bible is teaching is that the ruler of the local church should be a minister, should be a servant. He should be a person that does not serve himself and use you, but rather a person who wants to serve you and uses his position of being the ruler to make your life better, to help you succeed, to teach you the Bible, to love you and care for you and help you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Not to just build himself up and build up his bank account and just become this wealthy multi-millionaire guy with fame and fortune, you know, just exalt himself. No, it's about helping you. It's about serving you. But look, does that mean that Jesus was not the boss because he washed the saint's feet? Did that mean Jesus is not really in charge, he's not really the ruler because he washed the disciple's feet? No. What the Bible teaches is yes, be a ruler, yes, be the boss, but serve. Isn't that the same way with being a husband? I mean look, when you're the husband, you're paying the bills, you're serving, you're providing, you're teaching, you're loving, you're nourishing and cherishing your wife. Does that mean you're not in charge though? No. So the Bible teaches that yes, the pastor does have a position of ruling, but he doesn't abuse that and try to exercise lordship and authority over your personal life or to overstep his bounds in that way or to serve himself, rather he should be a minister. That's why pastors are often called what? Ministers. Right? And being a pastor is called being in the ministry. Why? Because it's a position of being a servant and doing things to help people. All right, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for our church, Lord, help us to understand the principles of your word. We looked at a lot of scriptures tonight, helped them all to sink in and for everybody to understand them and I pray that people would go home and study their Bibles further and understand this subject. It's an important subject. Pastors today are being attacked. Pastors are being falsely accused. People are saying that it's not even scriptural to have a pastor and that a church with a pastor is not right with God and we need a board of elders and all that. Lord, help us to just study your word and follow your model and Lord, pastors that are abusive, I pray that they would stop, but Lord, help every pastor to be a ruler, not to be a namby-pamby who just lets anything go, but help them also to serve and be a minister. Help me to be the pastor that I need to be, Lord, and I know that I'm not a perfect pastor, Lord. I pray that you'd help me to do a better job and to be the best pastor that I can be. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.