Godly Men in The Local Church - Pt. 1

This is the Faithful Expositor, a podcast from the preaching and teaching mastery of Pastor Jonathan Sims of Shepard Will Mills Baptist Church. Welcome again to another edition of the Faithful Expositor and I'm your host, Joe Carpenter. Today I'm sitting here in the studio with Brother Jono Sims. Brother Jono, how you doing? How you feeling? Good, it's good to be back, missed this time together and my wife and I did the Bach Ride Across Tennessee a couple of weeks ago and then this past week I was at Grace Community Church in Kingston, Tennessee with a friend of mine, Le Grand Lamb, the pastor there and I was preaching a Sunday through Wednesday meeting with them and so it's been a busy time but a great time and but it was such a blessing to be back here, there's no place I'd rather be than Shepard Will Mills and it was a joy to be back in the pulpit here yesterday preaching from Revelation chapter 8. I can't wait to get into the message that you had preached when you were there but before we do I know that this would have been a very special bike ride across Tennessee for you because if I understand correctly this is the first time that you would have been able to do that with Kayla. Yeah, for our anniversary this past year I bought her an e-bike which kind of has pedal assist and she was able to ride most of it with me. She took one day off because it was supposed to rain but I think I rode close to 300 miles and I think she rode about maybe 250 somewhere along in there. It was just great to be together, it was great to be out there together and we really enjoyed it. A church member, Gary Thrasch, one of our deacons let us borrow his RV and so we camped in the RV and then rode the bikes in the daytime. It was just a wonderful, wonderful time. Beautiful weather, great, great fall weather. It was just gorgeous, Cumberland Mountain State Park up on the Cumberland Gap, just beautiful territory here in Tennessee and we just enjoyed every minute of it. That's good. I'm glad you all got to do that. It's very, very special to be able to do that and then coming right out of that you went and preached a revival, was it a four day revival at Le Grand Lam's church in Sonny through Winsden? Grace Community in Kingston, Tennessee. That's right. That's right. Yeah. How was your time there? Brother, it was wonderful. Preached a meeting for Le Grand's dad, Chris Lam, he's at Glen Iris Baptist Church down in Birmingham, Alabama and just a great dear brother that's shepherding that church according to the Word of God and I met Le Grand through his dad, Chris. David Miller had actually recommended me to them to preach down there and I love Le Grand, I love his dad. Le Grand is a man of God, he's just a father of five children, sweet wife, charity and they are striving to see that church built on the New Testament. He is a man of integrity, a man of great character, I have great respect for him. He is doing a great job shepherding that church over there. Amen. How long has he been there? I think he's in his second year, so he's kind of just getting started but the church was already doing a lot of things right before he got there. There already used to expository preaching as a matter of fact that church has hosted several of David Miller's expository preaching schools and so they're already very much given to expository preaching. They're balanced but very much believe in the doctrines of grace and just a solid doctrinal church and so there's a lot of foundational things in place there for which he can build a foundation and move forward. That's good. That's good. Well I wanted to talk to you today then about one of the messages that you preached and just as a side note, that would probably be a good idea too, one of these days to just discuss how it is that you come to decide what you're going to preach when you're called to go preach at another church but maybe that's another topic for another podcast but one of the messages that you preached there and you just told me a little bit ago that you've preached several times and other churches was one entitled Thoughts on Being a Man of God in the local church. I'm just curious why is this, well I mean we need to get into the subject matter of it I guess too but why is this one of those messages that you kind of a staple of your ministry as you're preaching away? Well we thank God for godly women in the church, churches couldn't be what God desires them to be without godly women but the fact is that sovereign God chose that the local church be led and overseen by biblically qualified men, that is the word of God and I can just tell you that from my earliest days as a young man in my 20s I just had a dream, a desire in my heart that a church be led by a band of brothers, a group of men that first of all love Jesus supremely, second of all love their wives as Christ loved the church are being the shepherd leaders in their home first and then lock arms with the man of God the preaching pastor to see that church be all that the New Testament says that a church must be and here's the bottom line unless and until a group of men get over fear and get over political correctness or whatever other strongholds and wrong systems of thinking there are that cripple man until there's a band of brothers that are willing to lock arms with their pastor the church will never be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can lead but somebody's got to be following and somebody has to be with me and there's so many pastors that are crippled because they're standing alone and that was me for for decades and when men step up and decide we're going to stand with the word of God we're going to stand with the man of God the Lord begins to build his church but it won't happen without godly male leadership, about a week ago had it opportunity to minister to a brother who had just been fired from his church and this brother had been fired not because of moral failure or anything like that or doctrinal error it was he was fired because he had moved from preaching from the King James version to the new King James version and he told me he says one of the things that I desired the most in my three years there was just exactly what you're talking about just having a plurality of brothers that were there who could lock arms with him he said nobody came to my defense and it's the tragic story that's told over and over and over again and the thing is if a man can go into a church and survive the first five to ten years finally and it's sad that it takes that long but if he does survive and there's some men that decide to stand up that's when God really begins to build his church and so this is foundational to everything that we talk about being a biblical healthy church it requires godly men to stand with the pastor lock armed yeah and it's sad when a pastor has to look outside of the church for this too this is one of the things that the Lord used to bring you and I together for friends I mean it I saw it out that kind of fellowship I was looking for that type of you know close knittedness there which is appropriate and you should know I'm glad you did but I couldn't go back to your church with you and translate that over to yeah you know affecting that local body it has to come from within yeah there have to be men stand up within each local church to be met of God and before we get into a little bit any of your message here where you basically lay out what the characteristics of what that man would look like within the church body I wanted to bring this up to that and I know you know this already but in the climate that we live in today this would be considered radical it would be considered repulsive by some we've got a very effeminate culture that we live in in today and the thought of male leadership is just absolutely repulsive to some why is that well I want to just say so as a bloody cross yeah and so as substitutionary vicarious atonement and so are so many the other foundational doctrines in the word of God it's just because we live in a post doctrine generation churches have acquiesced preachers have given in and they've been what the surrounding culture wants rather than what the word of God says and I mean this brother I think you know me well enough to know I don't mean this arrogantly or pompously I could care less I could care less I don't care what anybody thinks outside of the Lord Jesus us the Father and the Holy Spirit and this body of believers. I don't care what social media says, I don't care what news outlets say, and I don't care what the prevailing opinions of our culture are. That's not what God's calling me. He's calling me to preach the Word. That's my operating orders is to preach God's Word. And these things are clearly taught in God's Word. It doesn't matter if they're accepted or embraced. All that matters is it true. That's all that matters is this what the Word of God teaches. If this is what it teaches, then this is where we live and die. Now, if I understand this correctly, this would have been something that you didn't experience right away in your ministry. This was something that has come over time. Explain a little bit then about the differences then about serving in that post, godly men era that are right there with you. And then now, whereas you got guys that can lock arm. They're not a bunch of yes men or anything like that. But these are guys who love you, love the church, love the Word. Like you've said here, lock arms together. What is some of the differences then between those two time frames? We could spend the whole time right here. And I know this wasn't even a part of the manuscript, but I would say this, it's the difference between feeling alone. It's the difference between loneliness. It's the difference between feeling like sometimes you're crazy. It's the difference between feeling like something's wrong with you. It's the difference between just being always wide open and vulnerable to any disgruntled person that wants to rip your head off or nitpick you or parse your personality into oblivion. So many preachers live their lives right there at that level of unjust scrutiny and criticism and complaint. It's just the modus operandi of the average church that they bicker and fight and fuss and they're hypercritical and just constantly load and pack up pastors heart down with criticism. And the book of Hebrew says in Hebrews 13, 17, "Let them do this with joy and not with grief for that's unprofitable for you." It's unprofitable for the church. If the pastors constantly be insubjected to that level of criticism and attack and introspection, he can't be what the New Testament commands him to be for the benefit of the body of Jesus Christ. And brother before, I just felt alone. I felt on an island. I felt unsupported. I felt like the Word of God didn't matter. I felt like the stance that I was taking were unappreciated and not only unappreciated but looked upon with hatred and disdain. And I just grieved because you see that the holy things of God are just completely disregarded and counted as worthless and not important. And the shallow carnal, worldly, superficial stuff is what's held up as paramount and all important. It's just the difference between night and day. And now to be surrounded by men that love the Word of God, I don't feel alone. I don't have to make decisions alone. I don't face difficult situations alone. I don't go into treacherous waters alone. I feel like, and it's not that I feel it's the reality that I'm flanked by men that are just as offended as I am when God is offended, that are just as upset as I am when someone brings reproach on the name of God or the Word of God. They take it just as personal as I do. And so it's literally the difference between night and day of being unsupported and supported, being unloved and loved, being unaffirmed and affirmed. And I would say this being unappreciated and highly esteemed. And by the way, the bobbles on the side of highly esteemed, esteemed them very highly in love for their worksake. And listen to this and be at peace among yourselves. The church cannot be at peace among itself unless the pastor is being highly esteemed. That's just the way God's ordained it. And the ramifications then of this not only affects you, but we're talking about the entire body of believers here. One hundred percent. And when the climate in the church is one of suspicion and questioning and doubting and undermining the pastor, it just creates a climate and an atmosphere in which Satan can keep that church disrupted all the time. And so the answer to this is man of God standing up with the man of God and the Word of God to see that church be a Biblically healthy church. Amen. Well, let's get into that just a little bit. Okay. Since we definitely want to get into the message here, some of those biblical characteristics that you talked about then that are going to be necessary for these men to have. Well, number one, you said here is love of God. If these men are going to, these men have to be men who love God first and foremost. This is a topical message. And I would just say to any exposter out there listening, I pray that God gives you the wisdom to know when and how to weave topical messages in to your exposition because they're so needful. Sometimes a pastor has to step aside from his exposition to address specific things need to be addressed in his church. And that's what this message kind of grew out of. But I did put these in the order that I felt like they needed to be listed in and love of God is the first one. You know, Jesus was asked what is the great command and his answer was hero is real. The Lord that God is one and thou shalt love the Lord that God will the heart with all thy soul and with all thy strength. In the New Testament, Jesus added with all your mind. And so basically we're commanded to love God and our neighbor with all that we are. And when you do that, you've in essence fulfilled all the law and all of the prophets. And there's so much we can say about that. And I know we dedicated an entire podcast to the church at Ephesus and leaving your first love. So I won't go there. But I just want to say to the pastor that's listening, a lot of men are going to come and go in your life. A lot of men are going to walk through the doors of your church. And they're going to look real good. And they're going to look real impressive upon first glance. But here's my word to you. If those men are not in the church, if they're not in this out of a love for God, they will not be with you long. They will not be a long term because the very first thing is missing the most important thing. We do what we do out of a love for Jesus. We do what we do out of a love for God. And brother, not to be critical because I love the book nine marks of a healthy church. It's one of my favorite books. A go-to book to give to a young pastor. You can hand him that and say, here's a good foundation from which you develop your view of the church. And I know Mark Devar in writing that book could have entitled at the 139 marks of a healthy church because there's -- but I would say this brother, to me, it proves my entire point that when we start looking at the marks of the healthy church, love wouldn't even be mentioned. I think that we all are guilty of thinking if we get the mechanics right, if we line up all the pieces, then voila. But if you don't have love, you're a clinging symbol and a sounding brass. And without love being the motive that drives us, you'll never be a man of God in the local church. That guy is going to be the guy that breaks your heart and disappoints you because if his loyalty and love is not to Christ, it's not going to be you either. And this isn't something that you can create in someone else or that they can produce in themselves. That kind of love, the Bible says, comes from God because God is love. Romans 5. The love of God is shed or brought in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who's given to us. And so this is a love that, you know, it's one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, very first one in Galatians 5. And so we're to walk in that love and we're to operate in that love. And love is to guide everything we do, not preferences, not opinions, not political persuasions, which a lot of people are given to nowadays, not a particular view on this issue or that issue, which some people hold up to be the test of whether or not you're a legitimate Christian. Brother, it's a love for God. Do you truly love the Lord your God and a man will never be a man of God without genuine love for Christ. And if he doesn't love God, then his heart's going to be filled with a thousand loves. And there's constantly strings of his heart that are going to be pulled. And he's going to be the guy that's pulled off to some other new thing or some other new exciting thing because if he's not being held by the court of love, he won't be held. Yeah. That's good. Anything more on on love for God before we walk away from that Obviously we could say everything so let's move on. I mean that's obviously the the key one the number one thing But you know love is the is the highest of all the commands when I was going over this manuscript here and without even having turned to the next page Which point number two was glory of God right? I wrote here in the mice and my margin here is there a distinction between loving God and then glorifying God and that's your very next point exactly exactly and That this type of man that's necessary for the church to thrive and to grow and to free up the pastor to do what he needs to be able to we need Men of God who are glory of God focus. That's what Jeff Knobler always says glory of God focus. Yes What would before we dive what would be a kind of a distinguishing mark between loving God and glorifying God if there is one Well, that's there's so much overlap. Yeah, and that's why I put them in the order that they are You can't have one independent of the other they go together When I preached through the book of Romans, you know, you deal with the great sovereignty text from Romans 8 through Romans 11 and those grand themes of predestination and foreknowledge and election and the sovereign will of God and when Paul ends that section His doxology is Romans 1136 For speaking of Jesus of him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever a man And that's what I mean by glory of God focused everything we do is of him which means it originates with him Everything we do is through him which means it flows through the power of his spirit Everything we do is to him which means it's offered up to him as an act of worship and everything we do in the church is For his glory glory speaks of his radiance glory speaks of his beauty glory speaks of God's excellence and majesty and purity and radiance and holiness Everything we do should be to make Jesus shine Everything we do should be to put put the focus on Christ and here's why you can't separate them Just like the love of God If a man doesn't love Christ supremely his heart is going to be filled with other loves chiefly the love of self And secondly if a man's not in the local church because I'm speaking about the local church If he's not in the local church for the glory of God He's probably in it for the glory of self right and so the first time His little God of unmet expectations doesn't get stroked the right way He's offended because he's in it for his glory and he gets offended And then he has to punish you or he has to pout or he has to soak or he has to go out and build a coalition you know or Get people in his corner. Yeah, but that guy is full of pride He's full of the love of self and he's in it for his own glory A man will never be a man of God unless he's in this for the the glory of God and here's what I want to say and I know I'm gonna be repetitive But there's going to be a lot of men walk through the doors of your church And they're going to look real good really impressive for a time But if they're not in the local church for the glory of God they will not be a long-termer You're not that's not good. That's not the guy that you're going to build your ministry on yeah Those guys are going to break your heart and they're going to be disappointing to you Because their motive is not right. Yeah, they're not doing this for the love of God And they're not doing it for the glory of God secretly they want the glory. Yeah, secretly they want the affirmation in the love and whatnot And this is difficult to discern sometimes very hard sometimes when they walk in the door They look great look impressive. Yeah, what what would be your counsel to You know to pastors then who were starting to see this kind of a thing kind of flaring up in their church where they're man This guy was with me and now all of a sudden he's not I would back up a step from that And I would caution any guy listening that you are not Discerning enough and you do not have enough knowledge and you probably don't have enough maturity In the first few years of your ministry in a new church to appoint elders. Yeah, you better be careful Almost every guy that calls me is in trouble because he's quote got an elder That's not in it for the love of God and he's not in it for the glory of God And he's given the pastor and everybody in the church fits because he's making power plays and wanting to flex his muscles and show I've got authority and I can you know, I can say and will this thing to go my way And so I would back up a step from your question and just say be very patient Be very deliberate take your time. Don't get impatient. Don't lay hands suddenly on any man um, you know You learn the people let the people learn you and teach the word of God, which is our next point Yeah, teach the word of God so that it thoroughly You know permeates the fabric of that church and they begin to recognize what a godly man is because if you if you make a Uh, you know an impatient decision You're going to suffer for it for years. That's right One thing that you we all talked about in our staff meeting this morning too is the importance of gatekeeper Yes, uh, we're not not even just from a leadership aspect but You know for the common layperson that's coming into the church somebody that's coming from membership Somebody that's coming for baptism how we have such an important responsibility then to right. Yeah, sure And I and we'll miss it some sure, you know, we're not Christ. We're not omniscient. We we don't have the full knowledge of God But we I'm the reason we're talking about this today is that it gives a guy some The way marks to you know some some You know boundaries some landmarks From which to navigate and you know to say here's what a man of God looks like in the local church That's good. That's good. Well, let's move on to the next the third one here This will probably be about what we have time for here today. We'll tackle maybe the rest next time but also Man of God who's going to be servant and faithful in the church is going to be a lover of truth Yes, and as as I read that this the yesterday I was thinking about first Corinthians 13 Where it says speaking of what love is he says love rejoices. Yeah with the truth Love does not take any pleasure in unrighteousness That's the man that you want to lock arms with You know, they say a man when he's about to die he chooses his words carefully And the night before Jesus died with full knowledge that his hour had come He said in John 17 17 Father sanctify them through thy truth And then he defines what that is thy word is truth John heard that John recorded that yeah, and at the end of his life John wrote this I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth truth is everything brother and see There's so much overlap love of God Glory of God focus Love of truth. It's impossible to love God without loving the truth. He is the way the truth is right in the life It's impossible to glorify God without love of truth right and when we say truth Let me be specific the 66 books of the Bible. What glorifies God more than his word. It says he has exalted his word above his own name So Here's what I want to say again A lot of men are going to walk through the doors of your church and they're going to look real impressive for a time But if they're not in this for the love of God If they're not in the local church to bring glory to Christ and if they're not in the church because they absolutely love The written word of God they are not going to be the man upon which Jesus builds his church. Yeah Peter was questioned by the Lord you know who to men say that I am And Peter correctly answered you are the Christ The son of the living God and Jesus said that's the rock upon which I'm going to build my truth The truth I'm going to build my church upon that bedrock truth The church is called by Jesus The pillar and the ground of the truth The church if we were talking about seismology the church would be The epicenter of God disseminating his truth through the nations The local church is the epicenter from which the bands go out through the nations of God revealing his truth to this world the local church is God's Plan and he has no plan B to disseminate truth through the nations It's the pillar and the ground of the truth and the pastor Is the man who is given to that truth he's called to preach the word Reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine in season and out of season the pastor is to be a man caught up With love for Jesus. He's to be given To live his life not for his own glory, but for the glory of God and he's to preemanately be a man possessed With a love for and an adherence to the written word of God. He is called To the church by Jesus Christ To structure that church upon thus sayeth the Lord, not personal opinion, not charisma, not talent, not ability, and not a new marketing niche. His job is to see that church built upon the Word of God, and I'm telling you, we have a saying here at Shelbyville Mills, and early on, a lot of guys didn't understand it. They thought I was just being mean-spirited. They thought I was just being critical. But I can't tell you the numbers of Deakin's meetings that I went into early on as a younger pastor here, and a brother would come up, somebody had a burrow in their saddle, somebody was pouty, we used to say poochy-lipped, and they were talking and murmuring and so in discord, and this would be my Pat statement that I would say every single time he's not with us according to truth. He's not with us according to truth, and brother, I'm telling you, if a man's not with you according to truth, he is not going to stay with you because he's in this for a thousand different motives. He's in it for a thousand different reasons. He may not even be aware of some of the impure motives that he has. But if he's not here because he loves the truth, he's not going to stay. And by the way, you've been here at Shelbyville Mills Baptist Church long enough now to see this. Time was years gone by. We'd have people stopping on Sunday because you have such a beautiful building. Oh, you have such a wonderful location. Oh, I saw where you guys have this children's ministry. That almost never happens now. Right. What do people say when they come to us now? Why are they here? Yeah, because they've heard the word preached via the internet or whatever they've heard it, and they're in love with hearing the word of God preached. And they say something like this. Y'all preach the truth. That's what we're looking for. And that's just become who we are. And I've said it to our people again and again and again. Don't get discouraged when sweet and they are sweet, sweet, handsome, pretty families walk through the door of our church and how we long for them to stay, how we wish that they would, but they just don't get what we're about. They don't get the word of God. It's the word of God for them is an accessory, a component piece of a busy wardrobe. Whereas for us, the word of God is the wardrobe. I mean, it's everything. And if they don't love the word of God, they're just not going to stand with us. I remember one time in its comical. It's a little bit funny, but a lady came up to brother Jeff Noblet and she was miffed. Things weren't going her way. Her expectations weren't being met. She was kind of one of these consumer-minded church goers. And she said to brother Jeff, and I thought it was so funny. She said, "A person would have to love God to want to come to this church." And you know, we're not trying to make it hard for anybody to be here. We're not trying to make it difficult for anybody to be here, but I got a nose for you. If you don't love God, you're not going to like shabby females. If you don't love the glory of God, you're not going like our church. And if you don't love the word of God rightly divided, this is probably not going to be where you're going to stay. It's taken me years, but I'm finally okay with that. I'm okay with it. Because I can't be everybody's everything. I've got to be true to my master, true to my calling, and true to the word of God. And so I just want to say to a brother listening that if a man is not with you according to truth, then he's not going to be with you in the trenches when the chips are down. He's not going to stand with you very long. Yeah. And like you said, and it's very liberating to say that too, it's okay, it's okay to part ways. Yes. That's a very difficult thing to do for a small church pastor who can look out and see on a Sunday morning, there's only 20 or 25 here. And man, I got five that I know just are not with me in the truth. But I just want to say to that brother, you're laying the foundation. Yeah. And we're digging the footers. It's not impressive. It's not romantic. It's dirty. Yeah. But you're digging the footers and pouring the cement that will create the foundation for better days, happier days, more fulfilling days. Sad truth is most pastors get discouraged and they quit at the foundational level and they never get to see the fruit of a healthy church built on that foundational time where you have to stand alone and are criticized and don't get a lot of support. Be faithful in those years because they will give birth to years later on down the road that will be very satisfying, very fulfilling, very meaningful. And then you'll get into seeing generations of families touched and their children and their grandchildren. And it's very, very rewarding. But if you don't fight the battle in those early years and hold the line, there won't be any men of God stand with you. There's a lot of good men in the role that God will hone and shape and sanctify. But not if a godly man doesn't stand and show them the way. And men of God are made and developed. They're not just, you know, born that way. They have to be sanctified. They have to be tall. They have to be instructed and they have to be led. And sometimes that requires you to spend several years, you know, doing the heavy lifting yourself. But it pays dividends on down the road if you don't fudge on the foundational things. And these are foundational things. We really are. Yeah. Thank you so much for that, brother. I think we may have reached a good point where we can cut it off and tie the knot here. These first three points, like you've said, are there's a lot of overlap. And there's certainly a great deal of connection to them. And we've still got seven more to go. And it would probably be wise for us to save those for a future podcast. So we just want to encourage you to continue listening as we continue to develop and build upon these marks of a godly man in the church. We love you so much and we'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to the Faithful Exposter. For more information on whether John O's mystery, go to our church website, smbconline.com, and follow him on Twitter at John O's Sims.