Now the subject before us today is Christian affections.
And so in this first session, the first of three sessions, I will be directing your thoughts in two areas only.
I will first of all endeavor to give a very brief introduction to the whole concept and meaning of this term, Christian affections.
And then secondly, the bulk of the message I'll be addressing the specific subject allocated to me, and that is the pastor's affections.
The pastor's affections.
But first of all, then let me endeavor to introduce you to this concept of Christian affections.
Now what do we mean when we use this term?
What do we mean when we talk of Christian affections?
Well, you see, when we talk about Christian affections, we're simply talking about a very, very important dimension of Christian experience.
We're making the point that if Christianity is real, it must be what the preachers of a former age and a former era called felt religion.
If Christianity is real, it must be felt Christianity.
John Bunyan once said that he preached what he smartingly did feel.
And it's that concept of smarting and feeling under the truth and conviction of God.
It's the concept of the love and the joys of knowing God.
But the chief point is this,
that it's a thoroughly biblical concept.
In fact, wherever you turn in the scriptures,
in the Old and the New Testament,
you'll find that if our knowledge of God is real,
then our affections will be engaged.
And that is a constant recurring theme in the word of God.
For example, I'll direct you to just two or three
illustrations of this.
For example, turn to Deuteronomy 30 and verse six.
And here the Lord God says, in Deuteronomy verse six,
he says, moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise
your heart and the heart of your descendants
to love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul in order that you may live.
We remember the Lord Jesus said,
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
mind, soul and strength.
Now, what is that text if it is not a reference
to affections, loving God with heart,
soul, mind and strength?
The words are words which convey the impression
of intense ardor and devotion and love
and longing after God.
And God is saying that that kind of view and love for God
will be the mark of a circumcised heart.
That the circumcision of the heart in these Israelites
and their descendants will issue forth in this love.
Now, you cannot love someone in a cold, indifferent way.
If you do, then it's not love, it's something else.
Love is love.
And God elsewhere speaks in the word of God
of love as strong as death.
Loving with all my heart, with all my soul
is a love which will engage every fiber
of my moral and spiritual being.
That is Christian affection.
Well, you may think of another example, the Psalmist.
And the Psalmist is a wonderful example
of Christian affections.
Just about any of those Psalms
will convey something of Christian affections.
But let me give you one example.
The Psalmist at one point in Psalm 119 and verse 136,
he makes this statement.
He says he's been glorying in the word of God
and then he says this.
He says, my eyes shed streams of water
because they do not keep thy law.
My eyes shed streams of water
because they do not keep thy law.
And here the Psalmist is a humble believer
in God speaks of his grief.
He speaks of his great sadness.
He's saying to God that he's brokenhearted at the fact
that many who profess to follow God
and to love God disobey the law of God.
And he says that when that happens,
he finds in his own heart that he's sad.
He is so sad he's broken.
And he's so sad that he's like a baby,
weeping like a baby.
And he's saying the tears, God, are so copious
that I liken them to streams
which are running down my face.
And what is he weeping over?
He's weeping over the fact that men do not keep God's law.
Why?
Because he loves God's law.
Because he loves the God of that law.
Because he wants to keep it
and he wants other people to keep it.
Because he has a deep affection for God.
And he has a deep affection for that which is God's,
especially God's truth.
Now, this is not out of place.
You don't find the Lord God turning around
and rebuking the psalmist,
rebuking him for excessive emotion.
Indeed, he's commended.
And this is not a man who is here
with his emotions out of control.
This is not the tears of a man
whose emotions have been whipped up by some spurious thing.
These are not the tears of some Hollywood superstar
that can be turned on or off at will for the camera.
This man is weeping because men do not keep God's law
and he's doing it because of his affections for Christ
and the things of Christ.
This is a man whose interests and love
are bound up with Zion and the God of Zion.
That's the point.
We'll take another example.
Consider the words of the Lord Jesus
in Matthew five and verse six.
When the Lord Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount,
he says, blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness
for they shall be satisfied.
Now, here we are shown by the Lord Jesus
the image or an image of people who seek for righteousness,
of people who are looking for righteousness.
The Lord Jesus is wanting to get across something to us.
He's wanting to get across to us
that these people are looking for righteousness
with an intensity about their desire.
It's not an academic disconnected kind of desire.
And so much is their desire that the Lord Jesus
uses the concepts of hungering
and thirsting after righteousness.
Very graphic illustration, very graphic concepts.
Now hunger and thirst are very intense desires.
They are very real affections and wants.
If we know anything about these two things,
hunger and thirst, then we know that they become,
for example, to the dehydrated man.
It becomes the sole object of his thoughts.
It's the thing that he's bent upon.
It's the thing that's occupying all his mind.
It's the thing that's, he's closed up to everything else.
And the same with the man who's suffering hunger.
This is his great need.
Everything else is subordinate to this other need.
He's hungry and he's got this gnawing hunger
and it needs to be satisfied and he's preoccupied by it.
He'll die if it is not satisfied.
He'll die if his thirst is not quenched.
He's driven by it.
He's totally preoccupied with it.
Now this is the image that the Lord Jesus uses
to describe the affections of those he calls blessed.
The Christian, godly, regenerate man.
Now this is what we mean then.
Just three little illustrations of something
of Christian affections.
And I say wherever you turn in the Bible,
you will find similar proof and evidence
of the importance of affections.
Now, if this is the case, as it surely is,
and this is where the rubber hits the road for us,
if this is the case, then surely it must follow
that the absence of such affections
in those who profess to be Christian
is a very, very serious thing indeed.
And so today, in these days, our ability
to remain sometimes indifferent, many times apathetic,
unmoved, unexcited about the preaching of God's word
or about the people of God and the blessings
of being part of the people of God
or about worship or fellowship.
The indifference that we sometimes show in those things
should be a very great concern to us.
How is it that we can come Sunday by Sunday in midweek
and we can hear the very words of life being preached?
We can enjoy the blessings of fellowship
with the people of God and we can remain detached,
our thoughts wandering,
or we can remain unaffected and indifferent.
And this is where the application of this doctrine
is so very searching and so very important,
and in the next two sessions,
that will be dealt with in more detail.
So if we are Christians, we should long to know the power,
zeal, warmth, the ardor of love and devotion
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we are lukewarm or if we are cold in the things of God,
then we should be terribly concerned.
That is the relevance of this doctrine to the church,
to me, to you today, a very, very relevant doctrine.
Now it was of course that great Puritan pastor,
Jonathan Edwards, who wrote so powerfully on the subject
of what he called religious affections.
And he wrote out of his own experience of the revival
and the aftermath of the revival in Northampton,
in Massachusetts.
And in the revival and the aftermath of that revival,
he saw both the excesses and spurious affections
that accompanied that revival while it was going on.
And then in the aftermath of the revival,
he saw in that same place, the coldness and the deadness
and the indifference set in.
And it was being privy to those things that animated him
in his writing of that work on the religious affections.
And he makes a statement, a statement about how concerned
we should be if we're not moved and affected
by the things of God.
And this is what he says.
He says, if we are not in earnest and our wills
and inclination strongly exercised,
we are nothing as to religion.
We are nothing as to religion.
The things of religion are so great
that there can be no suitableness in the exercises
of our hearts to their nature and importance
unless those exercises are lively and powerful.
In nothing is vigor in the actings of our inclinations
so requisite as in religion.
And in nothing is lukewarmness so odious.
True religion is always a powerful principle.
And this power in the first place is exercised in the heart,
the principle and original seed of it.
Great words, true words from Jonathan Edwards.
So there's a brief introduction to the concept at least
of what we mean when we say we're gathering to study
Christian affections.
But now secondly, I want to address in a more full way
the specific subject which is allocated to me
and that is the pastor's affections.
And I invite you to turn in your Bibles
to the third letter of John,
because this is the part of the word of God
we'll be referring to, the third letter of John.
And as you turn to the third letter of John,
I want to draw your attention to the first four verses,
but in particular, draw your attention to verses three
and four.
We're thinking about the pastor's affections
and I hope and pray that you're convinced of the relevance
of this subject and that you're convinced
of the importance of this subject.
You're convinced of the relevance of this subject
to a conference like this.
This is not a pastor's conference, but believe me,
this is a most relevant subject to every single one of us.
Now let me read these opening four verses for you again.
The elder to the beloved Gaius whom I love in truth.
Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper
and be in good health just as your soul prospers.
For I was very glad when brethren came
and bore witness to your truth,
that is how you are walking in truth.
I have no greater joy than this,
to hear of my children walking in the truth.
And it's those last two verses, verses three and four,
in which God speaks to us and gives us insight
into a pastor, a godly pastor's affections,
saying of Gaius, I was very glad when?
Well, I was glad, he says, when brethren came,
bore witness to your truth,
that is how you are walking in truth.
He goes further, I have no greater joy than this,
to hear of my children walking in the truth.
Now, we don't have time to go in great depth
to what these epistles of John are about,
but in this little epistle, John is obviously writing
to an individual called Gaius.
In doing that, he is also writing something
for the church and for the people of God
as it was read to us, you heard reference to the church
and to the people of God in general, not just to Gaius.
And in it, John addresses the subject of a man
who was a troubler of the church called Diotrophes.
And Diotrophes was apparently a very bad man.
And he also mentions in this letter, Demetrius, a good man.
Now, Diotrophes apparently is a man who is very egocentric.
So egocentric that he has reached the stage
where he refuses to tolerate visiting teachers,
visiting bona fide teachers of the gospel.
Diotrophes sees such visits as such a great threat
to what he perceives to be his own standing
and importance in the church,
that he will not counter such visits.
And in fact, he's reached the stage
of excommunicating anyone in the church
who will dare show hospitality to such a visiting preacher.
And perhaps Gaius is a man who is holding out
and determined that he will indeed show hospitality
to such teachers.
He will not be influenced by Diotrophes.
And so John is writing, and one of his purposes
is to encourage Gaius in this way.
So that gives you some idea of what the letter is about.
But would you notice, first of all,
as we come to think about the pastor's affections,
would you notice the capacity
in which John writes this letter?
He opens the letter with these words,
the elder, the elder,
the elder to the beloved Gaius.
The elder, that is the overseer,
the pastor, the shepherd, the presbuteros.
And then when you notice in verses three and four,
he makes a confession about his affections.
So he tells them, first of all,
he is writing in this capacity,
and then he makes a confession about his affections.
He mentions specifically his affections.
He is a pastor.
What are a pastor's affections like?
What's involved in godly pastor's affections?
Well, he bears his soul a little bit.
He says there was something that made him very glad,
very glad.
What was it?
Well, he says it was when brethren came
and bore witness to your truth.
That is how you are walking in the truth.
That made him glad as a pastor,
to think that Gaius was walking in the truth.
There's a little insight into a pastor's affections.
But then he goes further.
He says, in fact, I have no greater joy.
He means it when he says that.
I have no greater joy than this,
to hear of my children walking in truth.
He may have some joys which are just as great as that,
but he has no greater joy than that.
Now, my simple point is this,
that in these verses,
John is, in this confession,
drawing our attention to the true nature and importance
of a pastor's affections.
You see, we learn immediately.
Here's a pastor, for example,
who sees his relationship with his people
as a filial relationship.
He talks of them as his children.
He's probably an old man at this time.
He can really speak like this.
He probably was instrumental in the conversion of many of them.
But he enjoys this relationship with his people.
He talks of them as being his children,
and in wanting to see his children walking in the truth.
Here's a man who loves God's people,
and loves the church of God.
Now, surely this must be the mark of a godly pastor,
that he loves the church of God.
But he doesn't end there.
You see, what he's doing is,
he's beginning to show us that as a pastor,
as a godly pastor, he has affections.
And part of that involves that he carries around in his heart
certain desires and certain burdens.
And this is true for every pastor who is worthy of the name,
who is a godly pastor.
He will carry in his heart burdens, desires, anxieties,
cares, rejoicing.
You see, he has a group of people
entrusted by the providence of God
to his and his elders' care.
And he finds that he desires for those people
what God desires for them.
That is, that they might walk in the truth.
That's what God desires for every one of you today.
That's what God desires for me, that I
might be walking in the truth.
And that is what John desires for these dear people of God.
And so in showing us that, he begins
to show us one of the great and governing principles
in the experience and the affections
of a godly pastor.
And this is what it is.
When it comes to the pastor's affections,
it's true to say that a pastor's joy and sorrow,
grief or anger, are inextricably bound up.
Those affections are inextricably bound up
with a spiritual state of the flock of God at any given time.
Now, that is a most important principle.
You won't understand your pastor if you don't
understand that principle.
Let me say it again.
A pastor's affections, his joy, sorrow, grief, whatever it is,
are inextricably bound up with the spiritual state
of the flock of God at any given time.
And so what does that mean in practical terms?
It means that when the flock of God walk in the truth,
the pastor is over the moon.
The pastor is rejoicing.
When there's a brother or sister walking in the ways of God,
the pastor looks on that brother or sister, not to judge them,
but as one who he is responsible for, and he finds he's encouraged.
He finds joy filling his heart.
In fact, his joy couldn't be greater.
What could be better than a soul walking in the truth?
But then, when there's one who will fall into sin and backslide,
that same pastor is grieved and he's mournful and he's burdened
and he's cast down to the dust and he's humbled.
And yes, he may come to the service and you say,
what's wrong with the pastor?
Why isn't he so happy today?
Why is he downcast?
What's worrying him?
What's burdening him?
Well, you need to begin to understand a pastor's affections, you see.
And as Pearl was grieved, wasn't he, and mournful
over the state of certain ones in Corinth,
grieving, mournful over the immoral man in Corinth?
Remember what he says in 1 and 2 Corinthians about that situation.
Well, now, this I say is a governing principle in the pastor's affections.
His affections are bound up with the people of God
and their spiritual state.
Now, it is this that many times explains a godly pastor's behavior.
It is this that accounts for his burdens, that accounts for his sorrows,
that accounts for his joys, for his anxieties,
for his discouragements, for his cares.
And in application, this means that the godly pastor
will at times be sad and sorrowful and heavy of heart.
How can he not be unless he is callous and indifferent to the flock
and the eternal welfare and temporal good of the people of God?
You see, the pastor that is not moved by the people of God's condition
is not worthy of the name pastor.
The text is absolutely clear.
John's supreme joy, his supreme concern, not just a joy,
but his greatest joy was that the people of God might walk in the truth.
No greater joy do I have.
Now, you must begin to learn this about your pastors
and view them from this perspective.
You must begin to think of the burdens that your pastor carries in light of this.
And I trust that you're not one of these Christians
who is critical of your pastor if he's not always like the TV compare,
bride and bubbly or froth and bubble and over the moon
and up front with a big smile on his face.
I tell you there'll be times when a pastor will labor
under the burdens he carries and it may show.
And that is maybe a mark of his godliness.
Not a reason to be critical, but a mark of his godliness.
And remember your responsibility towards your pastor according to Hebrews 13
is to make sure that when their pastor gives account for your soul
he can do it with joy and not with grief.
And as a pastor's affections, let me ask you this morning,
at this present time are you causing your pastor joy?
Or are you causing your pastor concern?
Or are you perhaps even causing your pastor grief?
Think about it.
Another principle of course that is at work in the godly pastor's affections
and with regard to his affections, and it's very evident in John's life
and in the life of all in the New Testament, is this.
It's a very simple principle, it's a very biblical one.
And that is that sanctification heightens spiritual sensitivity.
Sanctification heightens spiritual sensitivity.
And by saying this I'm saying that it's a general principle
that the more godly, the more godlier man is,
the more sensitive that man will be to spiritual things,
to the demands of the word of God, to the law of God, to the love of God.
Now this in the scripture is exhibited negatively by the hardness of heart,
and that hardness of heart being accompanied by dullness, coldness, lifelessness.
Now I'm not saying that the pastor is any better man than anybody else,
but I am saying that the pastor is in a position where he is a man
whose whole life is given to immersing himself in the things of God.
That is his whole life.
That is his sleeping, his waking, his whole life is geared to that.
To immersing himself in the things of God that he might be of benefit to the people of God.
To preparing the word of God, to prayer, to reading, to study, to pastoral visitation.
His whole life is dealing with handling spiritual things.
He, if you like, traffics in spiritual things.
That's his job, that's his day-to-day experience.
He has opportunities to study the word of God.
And as he does that he does it with a view to benefiting the people of God,
but what he finds is that that study of the word of God,
even when it's aimed at other people, ministers to his own soul,
and causes him to grow, and causes him to learn more of God,
and become more mature in his own faith.
And he finds as he goes along that as a man of God he becomes sensitive to the will of God.
He develops discernment about the word of God.
And he develops a heightened sense of spiritual sensitivity.
And when he walks amongst the congregation, and when he talks to the congregation,
when he's in the business of helping the congregation,
sometimes he has discernment, which even the people themselves don't have.
And he can see something in your life which you can't see yourself.
This is not because he's better, but because by virtue of his office,
and by virtue of his being able to spend time in the word of God.
And what does he find?
He finds that to him sin is a great burden.
Maybe to other people in the congregation it's not.
Maybe to the people who are sinning themselves it's not.
But to the pastor it's a great burden.
And he can see it in someone's life.
And he can see how that might work out, not only in that person's life,
but it might start to affect other people in the congregation.
And he can't remain unmoved, and he can't remain unanimated by that,
if he's a pastor worth his soul.
And he feels the weight of these things.
And he's tender-hearted, and he's anxious,
and he worries about the state of the people.
Yes, he worries about them.
And I can tell you categorically, speaking to some of my own congregation,
who are here today, and they'll be witness to the truth of it.
There are times when I've worried about you.
And there are times when Pastor Hogg has worried about you.
Worried about you as he's brought his discernment,
and his sensitivity, and his familiarity with the word of God.
On the one hand, to bear with your walk, on the other.
And it's concerned him, and it's concerned me.
That's a pastor's affections.
That's what he finds.
And then the pastor sees, and assesses, and he can notice problems.
Or he sees a brother or sister slipping backwards, going downhill.
Perhaps that brother or sister can't see it themselves.
And it's a great grief to the pastor, a great burden to him.
And he has to live with that, he has to carry it, and he has to pray it through.
And he has to seek to deal with that person and bring them back.
Now on top of all this, the pastor, with his affections,
must learn to leave his burdens at the cross.
And in this, you must pray for your pastor.
It will do the pastor no good a good at all,
to carry some of these burdens and cares into his home,
for example, and family relationships.
I'm telling you these things so that you can begin to appreciate the gift
that God has given you, if he's given you a godly pastor.
And so that you can begin to pray for your pastors.
And so the pastor mustn't let the worry and discouragements
spill over into his family life.
Or he can bring the joys home, and the exciting things, and the encouraging things.
But sometimes he's tempted to let the worries and the discouragements,
and sometimes the anger, spill over into his home life, into his family life.
And you must learn not to take these things personally.
Your own pastor gave me a good bit of advice when I was a younger man,
to learn to keep things at arm's distance, at arm's length.
And he mustn't fall prey, the pastor, to that subtle temptation to transfer his anger.
The anger he feels about someone who's cold and critical,
and stiff-necked and stubborn and thoughtless.
And if he's not careful, he finds himself falling into the trap,
where he's too afraid to front that person up with those things,
but he's angry in his heart about those things.
And so when he gets to the secrecy and the quietness,
and the shelter of his own home, he can transfer his anger onto his wife and children.
And his wife should turn around and say,
You know what your problem is? You should go and deal with it with those people.
Don't take it out on us.
If sin has made you angry in the life of that person, you go and tell that person.
That's what happens sometimes.
These are the things that a pastor must watch against.
Because I tell you, if you're a godly pastor worth your salt, sin will make you angry.
There's no doubt about that.
And sometimes the thoughtlessness and the carelessness
of individuals in the congregation will make a pastor angry.
Righteously angry, I mean.
But a pastor has to deal with all this,
and he must learn to leave his burden at the cross.
And now in doing all this, John employs an illustration.
In wanting to shed light on the pastor's affections for his people,
he uses the illustration of a parent-child relationship.
He likens the relationship of a pastor to the congregation
as the relationship of a parent to a child.
He talks, you see, of his children walking in the truth.
And he uses this image, if you like, to explain or describe the relationship that he feels.
And so this transfers into the experience of the pastor in a very real way.
It's a very good illustration.
So just as perhaps a parent, when he's absent from his child,
or a mother absent from their children, is burdened, sad, preoccupied,
preoccupied, thinking of those children all the time,
then that should be the pastor's affections for his people.
That kind of closeness and intimacy and love.
Well, perhaps an illustration that we're familiar with is when one of our children is suffering,
when we have an ill child.
Perhaps you, some of you as I have, have had occasion to, at a moment's notice,
jump in your car and race down to the children's hospital with your child, very ill.
And how you've prayed at those times.
How you've been so preoccupied and so almost obsessed and praying every second, every instant.
Even while you drop your wife off and you're parking the car, you're praying all the time.
Why? Because this is your child.
This is part of you.
This is the one you love.
This is the apple of your eye.
This is the one on whom all your affection terminates as a parent.
Well, he says, now this is like a pastor.
This is like a pastor's affections.
And because your affections are bound up with that child and that child is part of you,
you can't see that child ill without suffering.
And you wished and you hoped, oh, God, if only I could change places.
If only it could be me that was lying in hospital.
And that child, well, I'd gladly do that, you see.
And that's part of the affections. Why?
Well, you brought that child into the world.
You nursed that child. You dangled that child on your knee.
You prayed it. You rocked it to sleep in the cradle.
You read it the Bible stories.
You taught it the lessons. You disciplined it.
You loved it. You cried with it. You laughed with it.
You shed tears over it.
You've invested so much time and so much energy and so much prayer into that child.
That child is part of you.
Take the child away and a part of your life is gone.
Well, he says that's what it's like with a pastor.
And there is a member of the congregation
that came along to the church years ago.
Graciously, God converted them.
And then the pastors watched them grow.
He hasn't had time to go to them every minute of every day
and say, I'm encouraged because of this or that or the other.
But he's been watching and seeing and how encouraged.
And you don't know how many times that pastor has gotten down on his knees
and blessed God and wept
because he'd been so happy at the growth in your life.
You don't know the times that there have been
when you've done something you didn't think the pastor even noticed it.
But if the pastor is a discerning man, it's spelled out that you were growing.
And he went back to his closet and he got down on his knees and he thanked God.
And he said, God, this is what makes it all worthwhile.
This is what makes all the hardships worthwhile.
Yes, that pastor is like your father in that sense and you are like his child.
Perhaps he was instrumental in your conversion,
certainly instrumental in your growth.
And then he sees you go backwards, perhaps.
What a grief.
Or he sees you spiritually sick.
What a grief.
What a burden.
Now, why is the pastor like this?
Why these affections?
Well, because to the godly pastor, the bottom line is this.
To the godly pastor, truth matters.
Truth matters.
And to the godly pastor, truth doesn't just matter in an academic, disconnected way.
To the godly pastor, the walk of the people of God matter.
And the pastor who is a faithful pastor is not content merely to preach.
He doesn't get all this joy from preaching.
He doesn't say that, you see.
He doesn't say, I have no greater joy than this to stand in the pulpit
and preach a good sermon every Sunday.
The pastor's joy is not wrapped up in his preaching,
but it's wrapped up and he is concerned with how the people of God walk.
His greatest joy comes not from preaching the truth,
but from seeing the people of God established in that truth.
His greatest joy comes when he can look at the people
and he can see no dichotomy between their profession and their practice,
between their confession and their conduct,
between their Bible and their behavior.
Now I'm saying again, if you have such a pastor today,
then you have a gift from God.
If you are subject to such care and oversight, then thank God.
Such pastors are a gift of God to the church of God.
And whatever they are, they are by the grace of God.
They are great, great sinners.
And whatever they are, they are by the grace of God.
But what a great and glorious gift.
And you always remember,
do not revile or reject or ignore or spurn or dishonor the gift of God.
And that's what a pastor, a godly pastor is.
To reject and to despise the gift is to revile and insult the giver.
Let's never forget that.
To reject and despise the gift is to revile and insult the giver.
John was so extremely concerned to see these people walking in the truth.
I'll tell you why.
Because walking in the truth is the only real evidence of your conversion.
That is the foremost evidence of a genuine work of grace.
That is the foremost evidence of salvation.
And that's why this man desires to see it.
This man desires the souls of his people.
This man wants those people to be in glory.
He wants to see them in glory.
So what does he look for?
He looks for the marks of a work of God's grace in their heart and life.
And what is that?
It is if they walk in the truth.
Now he will expend himself gladly.
He will take all steps necessary to encourage them in that.
But this is what he desires.
He desires for them to be saved.
And that's why he desires for them to walk in the truth.
And what an example the Lord Jesus Christ is.
A supreme example in this when for the good of our souls
he willingly sacrificed himself.
He would die for our salvation.
He the good shepherd, he the good pastor.
The shepherd that was so good according to the parable of John 10
that he stood between the wolf and the sheep
and gave himself to the wolf that the sheep might be free from harm and injury.
So in doing this John is merely imitating his saviour of a godly pastor.
But these are the responsibilities of a godly pastor.
The majority of us here today are not pastors.
But the majority of us are those who are in churches where we have pastors
and I trust godly pastors.
And I've spelled out to you the affections and responsibilities of a pastor.
Not that you might feel sorry for pastors.
To tell you the truth there is no greater privilege a man could have
than to look after the people of God and preach God's word.
We're not canvassing for your sympathy or anything like that today.
But trying to get you to feel the weight of two things.
The wonder of the gift and grace of God in giving you men to care for your souls.
And the weight of responsibilities to pray for and to support such men.
And that is what you must do.
And the best possible way you can do that
is to take stock of your own life as a Christian.
To examine your walk in the word of God.
And to discipline yourself and to apply yourself
so that you are walking in the word of God.
So that you become a cause for joy and not for grief.
To the faithful pastors of God's flock.
Amen.