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[0:00] 1st Peter chapter 5 we'll read verses 1 to 5 and we'll look especially at verses 1 to 4 for our study this evening.

[0:14] So verses 1 to 5 we read through these first of all. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

[0:45] And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another.

[1:00] For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now this really obviously is of necessity a two-part study, if you like, because it's very important that we hold together what Peter is saying here in regard to the elders and their place and their function, and also those who belong to the congregations that he was writing to, as he calls them here, the younger.

[1:32] It doesn't just mean younger men, but also those who are under the elders' leadership, particularly those who are not of that experience or age. But it's a division between, or a distinction between, those who are in leadership as elders in the church and the rest of the church, you might say.

[1:50] And it's so important that we hold together the importance of a good relationship between those who lead and those who are led, those who are elders and those actually who have appointed them or elected them as elders.

[2:06] Now one of the most frequent and best-known images in the Bible with regard to God and his relationship to his people is the image of a shepherd and his flock.

[2:21] God is brought before us so often in the Bible as the shepherd of his people, and his people are then described obviously as his flock, as the sheep over which the Lord has not only rule but very specific care.

[2:36] And that imagery, of course, fits so well with the spiritual care that God gives to his people and the relationship his people have with him as well, just as the sheep know their own particular shepherd.

[2:50] And Jesus, of course, makes use of that imagery in John chapter 10, for example. Now this was part of the role of kings in the Old Testament. In 1 Chronicles and chapter 11, you have a reminder there that David was taken from being a shepherd in the usual sense, in the natural sense, to being a shepherd over God's people.

[3:13] And so frequently you find in some of the prophets of the Old Testament, Ezekiel particularly, you'll find that he and others like him, of the major prophets, criticized what they call shepherds in Israel, the kings who had as their remit to look after the flock, and particularly the poor of the flock, those who didn't have the resources themselves, that those in power and those with financial resources had.

[3:44] They were responsible, especially these kings, that's why they were called shepherds, to really look after and care for the flock, and particularly those who couldn't care for themselves, or who could be exploited.

[3:56] And by the time Ezekiel wrote and Jeremiah, things had come to the point in Israel where the poor were being exploited, and kings were not fulfilling the role as shepherds of the people.

[4:10] And that's why you find some of the prophets like that saying, woe to the shepherds. They were really fleecing the flock for their own gain. And that follows through into the New Testament as well.

[4:22] Remember Jesus, John chapter 10, he begins by saying, all that came before me, before I came, were thieves and robbers. Going back to the Old Testament imagery of shepherds abusing the flock for their own gain.

[4:38] But he said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. He is the shepherd par excellence. And it's on that particular shepherding of God and of Jesus Christ, as the shepherd of his people, that the role of elders and the shepherding of elders is actually patterned.

[4:59] That's why you find here, not only are they called elders, but their role is to shepherd the flock of God that is among you. And you'll find the same in Acts chapter 20, where Paul met with the elders at Ephesus, where he said farewell to them in a very emotional passage, where he actually instructed them then to, again, shepherd the flock of God, which God had purchased with his own blood, giving them that incentive, that seeing it had cost so much for God to actually bring this flock to be his own, then they were obliged to actually look after it.

[5:37] So here is Peter saying, in the light of what's been said previously, so I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, to shepherd the flock of God that is among you.

[5:52] Now this is just obviously, as we've gone on in the study of 1 Peter, this is the passage obviously we've come to. So we're not picking on the elders here, in any particular way, so as to just draw this passage out, and somehow be getting at them or picking on them.

[6:08] They themselves acknowledge very well, because I know them, that they and I need this passage, this kind of passage to come back to again and again, to remind us of our position, our responsibilities, our accountability to God and to each other, and indeed in a sense to those that we rule over as shepherds of the flock.

[6:29] And of course, as we said at the beginning, it's not picking simply on those who are shepherds, those who are elders in the flock or over the flock. It also follows on to the flock itself, and how they are to conduct themselves in relation to being God's pastored people.

[6:46] So they're hugely important points for us as a congregation, to know of that relationship, and to value that relationship for the elders towards the people, and the people towards the elders as well.

[7:03] And you see he's saying, therefore. Now that word isn't used as the word so in this translation, but actually the word literally is therefore. Therefore I exhort.

[7:14] Why is he saying, therefore? Well, it points back to the previous passage, doesn't it, especially? And much of what we've seen going through 1 Peter has been that he's writing to people who are being suffering for their faith and being persecuted in some cases for their faith.

[7:31] They're going through a hard time. It's really a struggle for them as they go through their constant witnessing to Jesus in the hostile environment in which they're placed. And it's all the more important in that environment that they have good leadership, that their leaders understand what their role is, and that the people understand what their role is in relation to these leaders.

[7:54] And it's no different to ourselves. When we're placed in the world, we're placed in so full of hostility to the gospel, so full of things which you as a people meet with day by day, challenges to what you believe and how you live and to your being part of the church and of this congregation, whatever it may be.

[8:13] That's why it's important to have a leadership that understands their role and carries it out as they are able. That's really what we're looking at this evening.

[8:25] Hebrews has a similar thing in chapter 13 of Hebrews, where the writer there is rounding off what he has said previously. Chapter 13 and at verse 17 there, he is saying, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.

[8:43] They are people like shepherds who keep watch over the flock. They are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

[8:57] So again, you see that relationship between the leadership and those who are led, between the shepherds and the sheep, is very much to the fore there as well. So we'll look at four points. First of all, the leadership itself and the way that they're called elders.

[9:14] And then secondly, we'll look at what the elders are to do, which is specified especially in the words, shepherding the flock of God. And then thirdly, how they are to do this.

[9:26] And we have three negatives countermatched by positives there where you find it's not to be this way, but it is this way, where he says in verse 2 there, not under compulsion, but willingly, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering, but being examples to the flock.

[9:50] That's the manner in which they are to carry out their shepherding. Finally, what awaits these shepherds when their work is done? When the chief shepherd, who is Jesus himself, appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

[10:07] First of all, they are called elders. elders I exhort. Therefore, I exhort the elders among you. Of course, this does go back to the Old Testament where you had elders in Israel, along with Moses, and they're referred to all the way through the Old Testament.

[10:24] And they were chosen initially due to their age and experience, and that develops into a specific office in the New Testament where people who have certain qualities or gifts are seen by the people that they belong to, by the church they belong to, whatever it is, to have certain qualities that are God-given gifts.

[10:48] And as we've done ourselves recently, these are taken note of in order for the congregation to choose them as elders. So it's become a specific office by the time you get into the New Testament.

[11:02] It's not just simply about age or experience, it's about other gifts that are mentioned in the passage like we actually read in Titus chapter 1, verse Timothy 3 is another passage.

[11:13] But you notice what he's saying about himself. Who am also an elder? I am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

[11:27] In other words, here's an apostle. Here's a person who has the position of an apostle which is above that of the eldership because Christ chose apostles to be the authority in the church at the time under his own leadership.

[11:41] And as you read about the apostles and about the authority that God gave them to establish the New Testament church, here is Peter saying, I am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, but also a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

[11:56] In other words, Peter is keen to stress to these elders that he's writing to or referring to in this part of his letter, what I'm saying to you I have to apply to myself.

[12:08] In other words, he's saying, I'm not writing to you as an apostle as it were looking down on you or in any way thinking that I'm superior to you in terms of my needs and my relationship with the Lord.

[12:21] I'm writing to you as one who actually is himself an elder too. I am engaged with you in the leadership of the church. Not only that, but I am a partaker of the glory that is going to be revealed when Jesus returns.

[12:34] What he's been speaking about earlier on, the glory that God's people are going to partake of when Christ himself comes to bring his people into that glory.

[12:46] Well, Peter is saying, that's how I'm writing to you. I'm not writing to you in any other way but one who is in all of these respects on the same level as yourselves.

[12:59] And we'll see that that's important when he comes to think about how the elders are to shepherd their flocks because one of the things that he mentions there is not being domineering.

[13:11] It's one of the worst things when anybody in the leadership of the church takes a domineering role towards either their fellow elders or those that they are elders over.

[13:23] And here is Peter saying, I'm not saying this as one who is domineering, one who is superior to you, but as one who is on that same level a Christian, a follower of Christ, a partaker of the glory that is going to be revealed.

[13:40] And that's really in many ways to encourage these elders that here is somebody who understands them, who understands what they're going through, who understands their needs. And therefore, he is really setting out to win their trust or to gain more of their trust so that they'll really listen to what he has to say and that they'll conclude, well, yes, I am prepared to accept that because this person is humble enough to admit that although he's an apostle, he's bringing himself down to my level as far as what he's saying to me is concerned.

[14:14] Now he says he's this fellow elder, but also a witness of the sufferings of Christ. In other words, what he's been saying through this letter up to now and that he's now going to say to the elders, he is saying, I have actually with my own eyes and in the presence of this Christ, I have seen his sufferings.

[14:39] I have witnessed it for myself. I'm not talking theoretically when I speak about the sufferings of Christ and when I speak about the examples that I've made up, that I've given out in the previous passages, Christ, an example of how to meet suffering and endure suffering.

[14:58] I have seen it, he says, for myself. I was there with him. I saw what he went through and I can tell you now that I'm bringing this to you in my exhortation and a partaker of the glory that is going to be revealed.

[15:19] So Peter's point really in the leadership that he mentions here, exhorting the elders, Peter's point is that he is involved with them in the same life and lifestyle, in the same challenges, in the same temptations, in the same needs as those who lead the church of God.

[15:40] Secondly, what is it then the elders are to do? Well, he says in verse 2, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising or taking the oversight.

[15:56] Now, the flock is the flock of God. This congregation is not our congregation. This congregation is not my congregation. It's not the minister's congregation.

[16:08] It's not the congregation of the Kirk Session. The flock of God is the flock of God. And he's reminding the elders right at the very beginning that the flock doesn't belong to them.

[16:20] That the flock, in fact, has been purchased by God, as Acts chapter 20 put it so graphically, that he has purchased with his own blood.

[16:31] Now, that's theologically challenging to say the least. But remember that Jesus as the person of the Son of God, the second person of the Godhead, as God in the flesh.

[16:45] Mystery, but yet reality. That it is that person who shed his blood through his human nature that was made possible.

[16:56] And what is said in Acts chapter 20 where Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders is pay careful attention, he says in verse 28, to yourselves and to all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseer, to care, and that's the same word, to pastor, to shepherd the flock of God which he obtained with his own blood.

[17:24] The flock of God. we have to remind ourselves every day that that is what you are. And that not only do we belong to the flock and have the same salvation needs as anybody else, but we have to remember and remind ourselves daily that the flock that God has actually set us over as elders in the church is his flock.

[17:52] It's his church. He has purchased it. He has paid that great price. To make this flock his own. And that is why for the elders that is itself something of a huge challenge to remember.

[18:07] That is what they're looking after. That is the charge that God has given them. Nothing less than the flock of God is under their care.

[18:19] They are not to treat it as they think best. They are not to treat it as if it belonged to them. they are not to neglect it because God has purchased it for himself.

[18:35] And there's hardly a greater incentive than to think of the price that Christ paid his own blood, his own death, the death of the cross to purchase this flock.

[18:49] That of course applies to you as the flock as well because the same price applies to your conduct and to your relationship with the elders as theirs to you.

[19:02] Not only is that an incentive to them to rule well and to do it in the way that God himself specifies and requires of them, it's an incentive, it's a motive for yourselves as well to be God's flock in the world, to remember that that's who you are, that you are God's people, that you belong to him, that he has put his name on you, and therefore that you are to live in accordance with that great privilege, with that great mark.

[19:33] So he's saying it is the flock of God. But he uses this word then shepherd them. Shepherd the flock of God. shepherd. And it's an imperative form of the verb.

[19:45] It's shepherd them. It's a command. It's an imperative. They're not to think of this as something that they can choose to do or not to do. As they're appointed as elders and called by God to be elders and set over the work of the eldership, they are to shepherd.

[20:02] Christ is giving them this imperative. It's not optional. It's not something that they add on to other aspects of their Christian life. Now please don't think that elders shouldn't have time to themselves.

[20:21] That they shouldn't have times when they don't carry out the duties of eldership. They need rest. They need recreation. They need the things that every one of us needs. They need time for families, for themselves, those of them who are younger especially.

[20:36] But it does mean that they are there to shepherd the flock of God. shepherd. And that wherever possible, as time allows, they are to do that. And the shepherding, just as a shepherd ordinarily looks after the sheep, all the elements that you think of in shepherding sheep come into the spiritual shepherding of God's flock.

[20:56] They are to feed them. They are to care for them. They are to defend them. They are to look after them. They are to guide them. They are to be examples to them. Now you remember, as we saw in Peter's life when we studied it, when we came to chapter 21 of John, we saw Peter's restoration, where the Lord three times questioned him in regard to his love, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

[21:23] And every time Peter answered that he did so, the Lord said to him, feed, or the word is pastor again, pastor my sheep. Feed my lambs, pastor my sheep.

[21:35] That was the specific injunction or imperative that the Lord gave to Peter. He didn't say to him, what you've done means you're no longer qualified anymore for the work of the eldership or the apostleship.

[21:51] See, when Christ restores, he restores. When Christ brings back someone like Peter from a lapse or from a fall, we have to accept that when God has accepted them back into fellowship with himself and accepted their repentance, then they're accepted, then they are restored.

[22:07] That's the whole point of church discipline. It's not there at least merely for a punishment, there may be an element of that in it, but the emphasis throughout all our standards as a church, when it speaks about the discipline of the church, it's with a view to restoration.

[22:28] It's with a view to bringing people back to the Lord whenever they've gone astray. And you see that from the chapter we read in Titus. Paul there said some things that were pretty harsh about these people of Crete, and you might say reading through that, well you wouldn't get off with that today.

[22:47] He's not being very politically correct, is he? He's quoting one of their own poets and saying the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

[22:59] This testimony is true, therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Talking there to the people of the church in Crete, and he's saying some of them are just like they've always been, just like their reputation.

[23:18] You've got to deal with that, he says to Titus, in a way that rebukes them, do it lovingly, but rebuking nonetheless, so that they may be sound in the faith. And that's the role of shepherds too.

[23:31] When they come to shepherd the people of God, they feed, they care, they defend, they actually lead, they pastor them, they correct them when they need correction.

[23:43] And we're living in days when correction is not easily accepted in the world in which we live. even advice is rejected if it conflicts with a person's own view of how their life should be.

[23:59] It's very often when you go with the gospel itself to people, they'll challenge you and say, well, who are you to tell me how to live? And it doesn't matter when you say to them, well, it's not actually my view of how you should live your life, I'm trying to convey God's view.

[24:13] And they'll say, well, I don't believe in God, and I don't accept this Bible of you, so just leave me alone. That's the natural human mind. And that's the natural human mind that belongs to you and belongs to me.

[24:25] It does not readily accept reproof or correction till God gives us the grace to receive it when we need it. And that's why the shepherding includes that as well as the other matters that we've mentioned.

[24:41] Just like a sheep that goes astray, it needs to be brought back into line lovingly but firmly. That's what shepherding is about. So the flock of God, shepherd the flock of God, exercising oversight, he says.

[24:58] And that really emphasizes diligence. This word that's used there in Greek is only used one other time in the New Testament, and that's again in Hebrews, and in chapter 12 and verse 15.

[25:13] It's not very obvious actually in translation that that's what's used there, but Hebrews 12 and verse 15, which begins, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, means give diligence to this.

[25:30] Give diligence to make sure that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.

[25:42] But the emphasis there on being really diligent about this. And that's the same word exactly that's translated here, that's in 1 Peter here translated by the word not, a shepherd of exercising oversight, being diligent about this shepherding of oversight.

[26:06] In other words, it reminds elders, it reminds ourselves as ministers too, that watchfulness, being diligent about this work is so important, and it's at the very heart of it.

[26:21] Give all diligence to it, and be a shepherd, is what he's saying to them. So there's the leadership of elders, and their role is to shepherd the flock of God.

[26:33] Thirdly, how are they to shepherd the flock of God? Well, these three knots, as we've said, and there's the corresponding positive side of it as well. First of all, where he says, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you.

[26:52] In other words, they're not forced into this. You see, some places might have elders appointed by people coming and saying to them, look, I really want you to be an elder, I think you're qualified, look at your status in society, look at what you've achieved in your life, look at your business acumen, look at all the things that you've managed to accumulate in your life, and you really have a social status about you, so therefore you'll be a good elder in the church.

[27:19] And they're compelled, really, to look at it in those terms, or terms similar to that. No, he says, Peter is saying it's not under compulsion. Nobody's to exercise the office of an elder if they're forced into it.

[27:34] They take it willingly, they recognize the will of God, they recognize the will of the people who in a proper way choose them to be their elders as you have.

[27:46] So it's not to be forced, it's not to be something that constrains them in that way or according to social status. Notice it, he says, then, secondly, to be not for shameful gain, but eagerly.

[28:06] In other words, elders are not in it for any social advantage or any financial advantage. Peter and others will very easily, you can very easily see from what they say, Paul as well, about the eldership, they're not in it for personal gain, otherwise they shouldn't be in it.

[28:25] They're not there to really, as we said earlier, that the kings were doing in the Old Testament, just fleecing the flock for personal advantage or gain. Of course, all the elders here recognize that.

[28:36] But you can see even at this early stage, the temptation is there, and the temptation is never far away, that we use status, even a God-given status, in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons.

[28:50] They are not to shepherd the flock of God in a way that's under compulsion, nor is it to be for shameful gain, but eagerly, really wanting to do it for the right reasons.

[29:03] Remember Jesus again in John 10. There may be a link, I think, here with what Peter is saying. John 10, where Jesus spoke about himself as the good shepherd, and he compared himself to the hireling, the person who was hired to look after the sheep, but the sheep didn't belong to them.

[29:24] They were just paid on an earlier daily rate. When the wolf comes, because they're not their own sheep, they're saying, well, I'm not putting up with this, I'm off. So they leave the sheep, and they're ravaged.

[29:35] But he says, I am the good shepherd, who goes so far as to give his life for the sheep. Now, there's the hireling, there's somebody who's really hired just for that particular purpose, and the sheep don't belong to him, so he's not committed to those sheep.

[29:50] And what Peter is saying about the elders is exactly the same. They don't do this for shameful gain. They're not in it as hirelings.

[30:04] They're in it because they recognize this is God's flock. They recognize their willingness to do this under God, and they recognize that far from being for shameful gain, they are to do it eagerly, and include the element of zeal in that.

[30:23] Thirdly, it's not to be domineering, but being examples to the flock. And that fits in with what he's going on to say later, as we'll see in our next study, which is humble yourselves, clothe yourselves, all of you with humility, towards one another.

[30:39] That includes the elders. They're not to be domineering, they're not to say about the fact that they are elders, that they have a special place in the church as leaders of the church, that they have been called to by God and appointed to by the church people themselves.

[30:54] They're not to say, well, you'll just do as I say or else. They're not to domineer, they're not to abuse the power that they have. One of the easiest things in the world is to abuse power or status that's given you.

[31:11] And in many cases, that has been through of the eldership as well, down through the years of the church. In fact, if you go to 3 John, that little letter that John wrote, the third letter of John, you'll find an example of that there in verses 9 to 10, where he says, I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, or the older version has the translation, who likes to have the preeminence, he does not acknowledge our authority.

[31:43] so if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us, and not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to, and puts them out of the church.

[32:00] There was a domineering figure, there was somebody the apostle John was very well aware of, and as he wrote that third letter, he pointed out this person as abusing his position, and that he was going to deal with him when he came to that location.

[32:18] And what Peter is saying is, diligent eldership is never domineering, but rather being examples to the flock, even when they have to carry out discipline, which is thankfully not very often.

[32:43] But even when they do so, they're not to do it in a domineering fashion. They're not to do it as if they themselves were not sinners, as if they were simply there to place their own will upon the people.

[33:01] Not domineering, but examples. In your charge, is what he says, being examples to those in your charge. The word is literally lot, which is really, again, going back to the fact that this has been appointed by God.

[33:20] You as a congregation are the lot, the apportionment that God has apportioned to the elders of this congregation.

[33:31] It's God who has done that. He has marked you out in that sense as you mark out a piece of land and, not speaking abusively or in a derogatory way, but just think of boundaries and think of yourselves as within the boundaries of the flock of God that is torn away free church.

[33:50] That's the lot of this eldership. They are charged by God to look after you, not in a domineering way, but to do it in a way that is an example themselves to the flock.

[34:06] An example of tact and of love and of care and of compassion and of firmness to the truth, but always examples in a biblical way.

[34:19] That's the third thing then. They are to shepherd the flock in this way, not for shameful gain, not under compulsion, not for shameful gain, and not domineering.

[34:33] And finally he comes to what awaits them when the work is done. When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

[34:45] Well, the chief shepherd is Jesus himself. All the shepherds that we have in the church, the eldership of the church, they are under the chief shepherd.

[34:57] He is the boss. he is the shepherd par excellence. He is the king shepherd. And they are answerable to him. But the great promise here is that for those who carry out their duties, even though they accept they have many failures as we all do, and as you well know, but nevertheless, to the best of the ability God gives us, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfailing crowd of glory.

[35:24] You see what he's saying there? The chief shepherd is going to appear. He's now shepherding his flock through the eldership as they exist in this world.

[35:36] He himself is in heaven, but from heaven he exercises his authority, his shepherding, through the shepherds that he has appointed, but he is going to appear.

[35:49] And when he appears, there will be no further need of eldership, of shepherds as you have them now, because Jesus will have been revealed and will be revealed at that day as the chief shepherd.

[36:04] Now, he's not going to appear as he did the first time, as a servant, but as the glorious king that he is, in all his splendor and all the retinue of heaven with him, as he comes for his flock, as he comes to reward the shepherds that have been diligent in their work.

[36:27] When he appears, he says, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. That really means that the glory itself is their crown.

[36:39] All the Lord's people, in a sense, are going to receive the crown of righteousness. They're going to be crowned with glory in Christ's presence, in the image of Christ, in his likeness.

[36:52] But he's particularly singling out the elders to encourage them, and for this, again, to be part of the incentive. It's not simply the flock of God that they're looking after as their incentive, it's also an incentive to them when they think about what's going to happen when the chief shepherd appears.

[37:11] When their pastoring of the flock is over, they're going to receive the glory that's going to crown them, crown of glory.

[37:24] And he calls it an unfading one. In those days, in the likes of the Olympic Games in these early times, and other similar games, there were wreaths given out to those who had finished their races successfully, and the wreaths were often made of amaranth flowers, which were long-lasting.

[37:48] so they wouldn't just fade away overnight. What he's saying here is really building on that imagery. He's saying this crown of glory that you will receive from the chief shepherd lasts forever.

[38:04] It lasts forever. It never will fade. It will never grow old. It will never become in need of replenishment or replacement.

[38:14] And of course, when it was used in those regards, literally, it was used as emblems of victory.

[38:27] And what he's saying here is nothing less than that awaits those elders who are faithful to their charge. Immortality. The crown of glory.

[38:40] The unfading crown. what an incentive that is to look after God's flock. To regard it as worth their while every single day.

[38:52] This is easy to say in the pulpit. It's difficult when it's tough to do so. When things happen that make it difficult to pastor the flock, it's then that we need to remember, I and all of the elders here, that we need to remember, well, whose flock is it?

[39:12] What is the charge that God has given you as to how you are to look after it? And what then awaits you when all of that work is done? There's a crown of glory awaiting you, and it awaits you too, as we'll see next time when he brings those who are led and those who are the sheep of the pasture of God and their relationship to these elders.

[39:40] elders. Well, I hope that that's given us something of an insight into the place and the function and the role of the elders and how they're to carry it through, and gives yourselves that way more of an idea of what's involved and the challenges involved, as well as that final reward.

[39:59] May God bless these thoughts on his word to us. Let's sing in conclusion, and this time we're singing Psalm 133. on page 424, Psalm 133, Tuna's Bays of Harris.

[40:18] Behold, Sam, behold how good a thing it is, and how becoming well, together such as brethren are in unity to dwell. Like precious ointment on the head that down the beard did flow, even Aaron's beard, and to the skirtstead of his garments go, as Hermon's Jew, the Jew that doth on Zion hills descend, for there the blessing God commands life that shall never end.

[40:42] We'll stand to sing these verses. Behold how good a thing it is, and are becoming well, together such as brethren are in unity to dwell.

[41:19] Like precious ointment on the head, but down the bearded flow, he made on spirit, and through the skirts, did off his garments go, as her monster, Jaelavam god главное see if a woman pornography isęd on cenviron L oing

[42:25] I'll go to the main door this evening. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you now and always.

[42:35]  Amen.