Overseers

Just read with me first of all in 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1, 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1. This is a faithful saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Now I am going to restrain myself with the consideration of the time as to how much we will read from the scriptures together this morning, but just to put a label on what I want to bring to our attention is simply this. Perhaps then in relation to some younger men here today, or even perhaps to encourage those that have been active in this capacity to this present time for a good period of time, the label is this, who me? An overseer? Now of course that will relate particularly to some who have not yet perhaps been recognized in that work.

This morning I want to, by both comparison and contrast, refer to two men very familiar to us that have been saved for some period of time, read our Bibles, but I hope there'll be some measure of encouragement from it for any of us that are here today, whether you're male or female, and a perspective for this work, the men. Saul and David. Let's just go back to 1 Samuel, we'll read a couple of verses in relation to each one of them.

I trust that in looking at this you won't see it as a topic totally removed from what we've already heard. We've been hearing of the character of a David today, as recorded in those two Psalms, 61 and 62, a man who displayed tremendous confidence in his God, and if there's anything then that a man who is going to be used of God in a local assembly as an overseer is he has got to have confidence in God, but it must be true of any believer. As well what we've just been hearing from our brother relative to the call upon all saints to be active in gospel work.

Things that are true of an overseer largely are true of any individual. I think we'll see something of that as well, but this is particularly then a message to try and encourage young brethren that are with us here today in view of the need that is not only present, but I think we can all agree will only become greater as time progresses. 1 Samuel chapter 9, verse 1. Now there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zior, the son of Bechoreth, the son of Uthiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power, and he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly, and there was not among the children of Israel a goodly a person, and he from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.

Verse 17, in the interim Samuel has been instructed as to the fact that God is responding to the sadly unnecessary request of the people of Israel to have a king. Verse 17, and when Samuel saw Saul the Lord said unto him behold the man whom I spake to thee of this man shall reign over my people. So the story will unfold how that Samuel, in response to God's direction, anoints Saul to be the king over the people of Israel.

Chapter 16, please. In the time frame between these chapters, Saul has failed miserably in his obligation to God to lead the people, and in chapter 16, verse 1, the Lord said unto Samuel, how long wilt thou mourn for Saul? Seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel, fill thine horn with oil and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided me a king among his sons. Verse 11, and Samuel said unto Jesse, are here all thy children? And he said, there remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep.

Verse 12, and he sent and brought him in. Now he was ready, and with all of a beautiful countenance and a goodly to look to, and the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.

Now there are several other things we could read about these two men. It has amazed me in the past when looking at them just how similar they were in their initial introduction to us in the Word of God in the early days of their life. But then there will come a tremendous contrast between the two of them, and in looking at them we will see something of what it takes, the makeup of an overseer, and then we will consider the manner of an overseer.

And again, not to dismiss what our brother Thompson already has been reminding us of the great need for men to take the gospel as the Lord Jesus has called, and to go into diverse places to present the gospel. Those of you that were at Blue River last weekend, on Saturday particularly, there was something on my heart and I tried to communicate as best as possible for the occasion, the tremendous need of knowledge amongst God's people. And then of course with that is the need of men who have knowledge in the Word of God, a tremendous understanding of it broadly, extensively, in detail as well, and the gift from God to communicate it to his people.

Particularly then, as we're going to look now, in each individual local assembly. Whether you sense it now in your home assembly or not, generation to generation, there is ever the need of men who are familiar with God's Word, with their Bibles, have knowledge of it, and then God has prompted them to use that and to communicate it devotedly, as we've heard already, to his people, to shepherd the people of God. Some places will feel it more than others presently.

Some may, frankly and unfortunately, be suffering the shortcoming of it for many years of the lack of it, and are in great need even presently, and then of course it will be so even in the future. But in these two men, let me just run down through a list of things that I have noted in the experience of these two. We'll see similarities, we'll see difference, and then we'll move into the New Testament to consider what we are looking at.

As best as I can, I've got about 13 minutes here according to my watch. I don't see an official timepiece on the walls here anywhere. I guess they don't want students to know what time it is when they're in this school, but I think we've got about 13 minutes.

Here's Saul, a review quickly of his life. He was a man that was sent out obediently. He sought after the asses, the donkeys of his father, so he responded to his father.

There was the livestock that needed to be searched out. This is just reviewing things we haven't read. He took that upon him as called.

He was very evidently in response, as we said, to Israel's false sense of need, chosen by God, and appropriately anointed. He was anointed privately. He was surprised that it happened.

He was a man that was physically attractive. We could have read that there was a point very distinctly after that anointing when he had a changed heart from God, that God gave him a heart for that work. He was a man that heard the Word of God, and he saw it even fulfilled in his early experience after that anointing.

The Spirit of God had come upon him. He did not tell, though, his uncle when questioned about his journey looking for the lost donkeys. He didn't tell his uncle what Samuel had done in anointing him, and when the time came as Samuel then was to present him publicly, and they were going to call tribe by tribe, when Benjamin, Saul's tribe, was called, he was nowhere to be found.

He was reluctant to be identified as the leader of God's people. Shortly thereafter, just a year having been reigning in Israel, he disobeyed God when he should have waited for Samuel the prophet. An offering was to be made to seek the mind of God relative to battle with the enemy.

He stepped out of his position, and he disobeyed God, and when it came time for one to replace him, he was reluctant. He resisted replacement as the king of Israel. Now here's David.

David kept his father's sheep. That's what we see characteristic of Saul. He was chosen by God and appropriately anointed.

Pattern is the same. Now he was anointed publicly in the sense in the midst of his brethren, and there's no mention of David being surprised. Now you can take that whatever way, but there's no specific mention of it.

David, like Saul, was physically attractive. He was recognized for how he appeared physically. David, we are told in the scriptures, particularly in the book of Acts, he had a heart that recognized, rather that God recognized.

God recognized his heart, and he behaved according to the heart of God. David had known God's power to keep. The Spirit of God came upon him.

You can see how that list is so parallel. There are at least six things there that in the initial days of Saul and David is very, very similar. But once David had been anointed, Saul was reluctant then to be brought into the public position and to take the responsibility.

David just waited patiently until the day that God would establish him as king. And when it came, he was ready to do the work. David was noted.

We haven't read it yet, but David was noted as one who fulfilled all God's will. And when it came time to be replaced, David readily recognized that need and sought and identified his replacement. What made the particular difference between these two men? I want to suggest that it is simply this, that David was willing, ready to obey God's Word.

Saul, very early, as we've mentioned, was known as one who wouldn't, but David did. And in that, he carried into his experience before the people of Israel a quality that distinguished him from the likes of a Saul. He obeyed God's Word as he knew it.

Okay. Now in these remaining minutes, what does it take? Is there a young man here today and circumstances of life? You found yourself in an assembly, whichever it may be. You enjoy studying the Word of God.

You have a heart to be a help in whatever way others would see you capable of. And they're seeking to impress you, to pursue certain paths of purpose and service for God. And yet you have this desire to be a help in leading the assembly.

It's not something then that you are pursuing, but you feel the constraining of God's heart upon your heart. In 1 Timothy 3, verse 1, then, we have read this. If a man desires the office of a bishop, if he is seeking overseers work, he desires a good work.

It is a recognized good work. Not just good that it's beneficial, but it is a right work. It's notable.

It's honorable. In those two terms, if he desires the work, he desires a good work. They're not the same.

The first one, the first desire there, if he desires the work of an overseer, it is the thought of a man stretching after this responsibility. He's not seeking place, though. That's not the attitude that is presented to us.

He is an individual. If I could suggest this, it's something about the obvious outward demeanor of the man's life. Stretching for.

You put your, I've illustrated this way in the past. I was going to say in the kitchen, but men, I guess a little more comfortable in the workshop. You've got a shelf and there's something on a high shelf that you can't reach from the floor.

You've got a stool underneath your feet and it's at the very extent of your physical means and you are stretching to get a hold of something on a shelf. You can't be thinking of anything else. You can't be to distracted anything else.

You've got to have your feet well planted on the stool. Everything is focused to reach what you're stretching for. And that's the picture that the spirit of God brings to us is an individual then who in his life is focusing on, is, as it were, setting other things aside.

Other distractions of life are being dismissed and he is stretching for this work. Not to have place, but to fulfill what is being placed in his heart and we'll look at that, even the constraining power of God. This man has a constrained heart.

That's what it takes. One of the things, one of the makeup of an overseer is his heart is constrained. He's stretching for, that's the first desire, and the second desire then, sadly, in other parts of the New Testament, to give you an idea of the extent of this desire, it is translated lust.

Commonly the word is translated lust. So if I can just back up then and blend the idea, the desire and the lust, that there is a passion in the individual's heart. So the outward arrangement of life is seen.

He is letting go of distractions and he is giving himself to this particular objective. But in his heart then is a passion. There's the inward and the outward.

He desires to do the work. And it is a passion for something that God highly esteems. Now we're not going to read the list, but verse 2 says in 1 Timothy chapter 3 that this overseer, this bishop must be.

Let's not, let's not too readily ignore the word must. It's there. It's God's word.

And someone says, well brother, I mean that's, you know, that's a little bit unrealistic to think that any man that's going to be an overseer in assembly is got to have all these qualities, these characteristic qualities. He's got to have a constrained heart and he must have the characteristic qualities that are now listed. We're not going to go down through the list.

But let me just say this, very assuredly, that there isn't one thing in this list that elsewhere in our New Testament the Spirit of God doesn't expect of every believer in Christ, whether a man or a woman. It's not an unusual list at all. Yes, there'll be greater and lesser evidences of some of these things in an individual's life, but these are not unusual things at all.

It just seems to impress us the more when they're all put in this abbreviated list right here and it just seems to hit us in the face and go, wow, who could ever measure up? These are the characteristic qualities. It is a must list. And as we said, six things were seen very favorably noted in both Saul and David, but there came a time when the marked difference was David obeyed the Word of God.

Of David it is said that in the book of Acts, we didn't read it, that he was the man after God's own heart. David desired the will of God's heart and his demeanor was according to the manner of God's heart. That was David.

He had the right desire. He was after God's heart, but even still that term after God's heart could refer to the very manner of the man's life. He was marked as one whose heart was marked by the heart of God.

A constrained heart is part of the makeup, characteristic qualities. I'm just going to turn to it and read it quickly with the minutes that are before us. Many of you will be familiar with this, but Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 says, as Paul the Apostle speaks to the elders from the church in Ephesus, he says to them, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

One of the things that is part of the makeup of an overseer is that he is called of God, called of God. I think the more commonly when we think of that concept, we think of those that go out into the mission fields abroad or in the Lord's work as we would refer to it, particularly in the home fields. But a man who is to be an overseer in God's assembly, he is made such by the work of the Holy Spirit in his own person.

So those three things I want to note are particular. There are other things, of course, you can look at, but the makeup of an overseer is this. He has a constrained heart.

There are these characteristic qualities and there is the call of God upon his life. Now just for a couple of minutes as time has gone, turn to a very familiar passage that speaks of this, 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. What's the manner then of an overseer? Verse 1, the elders which are among you I exhort, whom also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

The manner of an overseer. If somebody says today, me, an overseer? What does it take? Well, we've looked at three things, three elements that are necessary, the makeup of him. Well, what should I do? Someone might ask.

Well, the manner of the overseer is brought to our attention here by Peter's writing in this chapter. If I could just put it in this way, he is actively overseeing. Therefore, it's the idea that he's desiring, he's stretching for it, he's actively overseeing.

Not constrainedly. Saul, where are you? It's the day to present you to the people. They couldn't find him.

He was hiding in the stuff, even though he'd been anointed, even though God had given him a heart that was different. When it came time to do the work, they had to go looking for him. He wasn't there to be presented.

He wasn't, as it were, in his own self prepared to take what God was calling him to do. Actively overseeing, not constrainedly, but voluntarily. Voluntarily.

So again, those things balance out. It's not a man seeking position, but he's ready to serve. And when a time comes, he is there, ready to do it.

And he gives himself to the work. Not greedily, it says here. Not for filthy lucre, not greedily, but of a ready mind.

Eagerly, eagerly. And just then, I'm going to take a couple minutes here very quickly and comment on these things. I think we all appreciate, if we don't, then just quickly, the idea of shepherding, the term flock, and the word feed are all related terms.

The particular mark, then, of the man who is overseeing, who is an elder, whether publicly or privately, whether gifted to teach the word of God as necessary, or a man who will give himself just being able to teach what he can privately, yes, and even in assembly, Bible readings and whatnot, but not obviously the gifted public man. There is distinction amongst elders. You can find it in 1 Timothy as well.

But, he's ready to nourish the flock. Feeding. Shepherding is feeding.

Therefore, as we are trying to relate last week, it is the necessity of knowledge, knowing the Scriptures, then knowing God in life, and being able to nurture the sheep. Shepherding the flock. Feeding.

It is teaching that characterizes that work. As it says here, taking the oversight thereof, doing the work, even before you're recognized in the work. That's the man that God has called.

That is a David keeping his sheep. Not by constraint. You know, there's, in each one of these aspects, you could find, time is gone, you could find something in a Scripture related to the Lord Jesus that just so beautifully exemplifies this, but not by constraint.

The Savior's words, here am I, Isaiah said, we often apply to him. Then, in Hebrews 10, lo, I come, what? To do thy will, O God, not by constraint, but willingly. Let me just throw in here, very practically.

You remember that I had mentioned that Saul was resisting replacement. And, I am not one that believes when men become older. Old men.

How do I define that? That's tender ground. I am not one that would, for a moment, encourage the people of God in a local assembly, overseeing brethren, to dismiss the recognition and the ability of old men to be a help. But, this much I would encourage.

When they've got to that point, be ready to see younger men taking up the weight. It's sad to see the man, with all due respect, in the casket. And, not another generation readily, and already particularly, taking the weight before that time.

It's next to impossible to make the transition effectively in the assembly. And, Saul resisted it. But, David was a man that was noted.

He was prepared to see the replacement come on board. That would go with the idea of constraint. You know, what Saul wanted, he wanted his son there.

Brethren, that's not a good pattern today. If the son's God's man, fine. But, it's not just passed on by blood relation.

Not for filthy lucre. Oh, you say, well, we don't have anybody worrying about financial gains, being an overseer in assembly. Fine.

But, there's always the danger that we, that is, brethren, would be looking for recognition, gaining some sense of position. No, it's not for that. Rather, it's an eager availability.

It is the focused passion. And, as the next verse says, not being lords, but examples. Every one of us that's been on the road for some period of time, we look back in our experience.

Who had the most impact on us in our formative days of our Christian life? It was the men who not only fed us, but they exemplified service at large in the local assembly, whether as an overseer or in the Lord's work. They were examples to us. So, if I could just conclude, Saul, he ruled compulsively.

He had to be compelled to get there, and when he got there, that was the way he worked. But, David, he ruled compassionately. He led compassionately.

Why? Because he was a man after God's own heart. He desired the heart of God, and he manifested the heart of God in the way that he was. Is there a God will place you in a place where you can very markedly serve him in feeding, in an exemplary way, God's assembly where you are.