“A Charge Concerning Elders” 1 Timothy 5:17-25

Lord willing, next Lord’s Day, next Sunday, we are planning another, and this is exciting, another baptismal service. And so if there’s anyone that needs to follow the Lord in matters of water baptism, that is a possibility. Just see me after the service and we can talk to you about the possibilities of that being done. If it can’t be next week, I suppose we’ll fill the baptistry up again on the following week. I say that obviously jokingly, but we’re just praising God and his blessing. here at Fellowship Baptist Church.

Well, take your Bible and turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5, as we continue our trek through this epistle of the Apostle Paul, a letter written to Timothy, who was the pastor or one of the pastors at Ephesus, and he is giving Timothy some instructions. And we’re spending some time here because we would like to be and we desire to be as biblical of a church as we can to follow what the Bible says. And here we have the old guy, the apostle, who has just gotten out of or soon to get out of prison. And he’s expecting at least to get out of prison. And he’s telling him until I come, conduct yourselves in this way. And this particular passage of scripture that we have seen that when he writes in chapter three, He says, I write to you that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church, the church of the living God and the pillar in the ground of truth.

So if we want to know what is church supposed to look like, the Bible gives us an idea. And this is one of the good books to come to to see what that’s like. There seems to be in this day and age people that keep trying to improve on God’s plan, or they expect something out of church that the church was never meant to fulfill. And there may be a need for all of that, but it may or may not be something that is the church is about. And so a lot of times people get confused, well, what is church about? And so we come to a book like this and we say, okay, well, what did Paul have to write about? Well, in chapter one, he said that the one thing that the church is about is about sound or healthy doctrine.

That’s why we read from a London Confession of Faith, which is like a mini, it has, I mean, it’s 1689, so it has a historical context. But it also shows us what was really important in the establishment during the time of the Reformation, of those doctrines or those teachings that are important. What does the Bible say about the doctrine of God? What does it say about the doctrine of the church? Or the doctrine of the Holy Spirit? The doctrine of, of sin and all of those kinds of things. And so the church is about the teaching of what does the Bible say about truth? The second thing that he goes on and in chapter two, he talks about how churches are to be conducted. And he talks about who’s to conduct those services and how they’re to be conducted. and who’s to pray and so forth. Then in chapter three and we’re going to refer back to that from chapter five because it has an overlap. But it talks about the qualifications of the elder. It says he that desires, a man that desires the position of a bishop or elder or pastor. Those are all synonymous words in the Bible. And we’ve taken time to look at all of that, but that he desires a good work.

A bishop then must be blameless. And what that means is there’s nothing in his life upon which someone can grasp. that a pastor is not without sin. I’m a sinner saved by grace, just like you are. And there has been, over the years of church history, putting the preacher on the pedestal. Or, if not that, that it is the division of the laity, that would be you, and the clergy, that would be me. You know, and it’s this kind of division. And that makes sometimes people think that preachers are untouchable. I remember going to my first church at a seminary and they said, well, we could have you over for a meal, but I have to go out and buy a roast. Because, you know, they wanted a nice beef roast with potatoes and gravy. Because that’s the only thing preachers ever eat, especially on Sunday, right? And I looked at her and said, I kind of like pizza. She was amazed. And she looked at me and said, you like pizza?

Now, I know the people here will think that’s funny because you’ve seen me eat pizza sometimes. And so, but they somehow make it a division. You know, I’m a sinner saved by grace. I’m not something special, but I am called of God to be a pastor. And that’s what makes the offices special. But God uses sinners in doing that. But they’re qualified sinners because it says there is to be blameless, that is outwardly good, a husband of one wife, temperate, sober minded, of good behavior and the like. So and we’ve looked at those qualifications. Then he goes to the deacons. And then he says, OK, the deacons also. And he defines some of those qualities like deacons. It must be reverent, not double tongue, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with the pure conscience and so forth. And so he gives some biblical qualifications of deacons. Now, what happens in some churches If you’re a man, you know, in some churches, it tends to be pretty strongly female. And if a man shows up, hey, would you like to be a deacon?

Well, they don’t even ask questions about does he hold the mystery of the faith with a good conscience, which is kind of a major one. They don’t they don’t. But they will fill. And in many churches, they have unqualified deacons and and that can do enough damage but it’s even worse that when you have an unqualified pastor. And we’ve all heard of the horror stories of when preachers mess up. Now it’s easy to pick on the Roman Catholics concerning some of the sins of the Roman Catholic priests and what they have done. And that is a terrible, horrible thing. But we’ll be to a Baptist that would ever self-righteously point to the Catholics and say that there’s not sin in our camp too. And that’s despicable. But guess what? This passage that we’re gonna look at today is basically, I’ll give you the sum total and we’ll look at it specifically. Preachers are not above church discipline. Preachers, while we are sinners saved by grace, are not above being approached about sin in our lives. Now, it needs to be done in a certain way. because of what can be done and who we are and that we are targets of Satan and so forth. But preachers are not above sin and they are not to be treated with partiality.

Now there’s a lot of preachers that won’t preach a message like this. So we’re gonna talk about, this is really in a sense, what if there’s a question about me? Or what if there’s a question about Pastor Ryan? And what if there’s a question about Chuck Smith? He’s watching, he was here for Sunday school, he’s home watching online. When you’re in your 90s, you can do that. The rest of you should be here, okay? I just thought I’d clarify that. And so, but David Marsteller, Harold Cummings. You know, the other day, it’s one reason why I showed you Harold Cummings, one of our elders and one of our pastors, he’s down in Brazil and he baptized his grandson. That’s important so that you can see, you know, elders live in a sense like in a fishbowl. And it’s great to see what God is doing in the lives of the eldership. But we’re not above being approached about sin, even in our lives. And so we’re going to see that in this particular passage. Well, we have the qualifications given in chapter three, chapter four. He then gives the reason why all of this is important. Why do we need a letter like this? Chapter four, verse one.

Now, the spirit expressly says that in the latter time, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to the deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. And that’s not doctrines about demons, but it’s about doctrines that are not healthy, that are not biblical, that are not of God. They’re the doctrines of demons, or we could even say the doctrines of the teachings that Satan would want to spread throughout. So because there will be a falling away, and they saw that within the book of Acts, but they definitely saw it in early church history. And throughout church history, there have been churches that have gone astray. And so even in our day, things that were never, never under debate over whether it was a sin or not. Now there are churches now saying, well, we’ve kind of it’s 2024. It’s this is no longer a sin.

Well, unless you can show me that in the Bible, I think you’re part of the ones that are departing the faith. And it’s just part of what the Bible even forewarns us that this is going to come and happen. Now, we look like the old-time fuddy-duddies, but yet we’re just the ones wanting to hold the faith in a pure conscience, which is what this book is all about, and other books in the Bible as well. Well, then he gives us the idea, well, what do we do with these things coming in that are going to be false? Well, verse six, if you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and a good doctrine. And that kind of that verse is a segue. both of what comes before it when he talks about how men become with a seared conscience, as if with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and so forth. And we’ve all considered that, but it’s this idea that Their teaching is wrong. But then in chapter four, beginning of verse six and on, he says, reject those things, those old wives tales and so forth, and exercise yourself unto godliness. For to this end, both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the savior. And so he goes through and he mentions these things. Verse 11, he solidifies that again. These things command and teach.

But it’s interesting because Timothy would have been in his 30s. But in that culture, you weren’t like a real man until you were about 40. And so then we get the instructions. This is personal instruction. It just goes. These things command and teach. But the implication is, but some won’t take it because you’re a, you know, a hick or you’re a boy. And so he says, let no man despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word and in conduct in love. Now, that’s important. because of what he’s going to do in chapter five, where we’re going to soon go. And he’s going to say, verse 16, take heed unto yourself and to the doctrine, continue in them. And so Paul gives direct instruction. The old guy giving direct instruction to the young guy on what’s supposed to happen in the church and so forth.

Then in chapter five, the first two verses, he then starts to talk about people in the church and the relationship between a pastor and people. And he speaks it very generally so that he says, do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. So be careful how you treat the older men and the younger men as brothers. older women as mothers and younger women as sisters. And so it takes that on the church family kind of a concept, but as a pastor, you’re my flock and you’re my sheep, but he also is giving instructions on how do you approach different people, that if you’re my age or younger, I will try to approach you or treat you like you were my brother. And that’s kind of hard, because I’ve never had a brother, Some of the stories I’ve heard how some of you that had brothers, don’t worry, I will not treat you like that.

So that may be a good thing or a bad thing, but in my mind, that’s a good thing. And to treat the older ladies as my mother, that’s why I like to, you know, I would hug my mom. So, you know, now don’t take it as an insult on your age if I give you a hug, okay? I do want to clarify that. Get me in trouble. But the idea is, is that how you treat older men with respect and dignity, like your father, your mom’s like someone that you dearly love and that you care for. And this has got to be genuine, because if it’s full of hypocrisy, yeah, you’re going to end up paying for that. And the and the younger men and then the younger woman. But when it comes to younger women, Paul knows how that can go when the preacher gets a little bit too friendly with younger women. That is a pitfall that has taken down many, even took down the king of Israel and King David, a man after God’s own heart.

But notice what he says, and the younger women as sisters. I do have a sister that I dearly love. She’s older. She’s 87 right now, but I will treat them as sisters with all purity. You can love a younger woman and treat her as a sister and you can do that with all purity. And that is what a pastor and his relationship with people generally is supposed to be like. Then in verse three, he takes on another group that we considered last Sunday, honor widows who are really widows. He says it again over in verse 16. At the end he says, do not let the church be burdened that it may relieve those who are really widows. So in that day and age, many of the men were being killed or imprisoned because of the faith. Nero, one nasty dude, you know, sent Rome on fire and then blamed the Christians. He was impaling them, which is a gross thing. I’m not going there at all. But he would impale them and then light them as a torch, the dead corpses so that and then throw a party. while people are burning. He’s sick. And there were a lot there was a lot of death in the early New Testament times and in early church history that that was truly wicked. And the church was overwhelmed with widows.

Now, men just take more risks. And we talked about that. Men take more risks. And that’s why men tend to die younger than women. And I’ll just leave that one there. But but there were a lot of widows. And but you had to have a particular to be a widow indeed. But the church has responsibilities. Now, first of all, it’s the family. But then after that, many may not have children, they may not have believing children or the children may not take care of them. and they’re acting like they’re unsaved, well then the church needs to take care of them. But it also mentioned that, that if you’re a younger widow, you ought to get married. So I just mention all that by way of quick review. because this is a passage that’s extremely practical. Now, in our society, and especially in the United States, sometimes widows can become very wealthy because their husband died, but there’s wills, and she might have been employed, and with Social Security, and all of that. The idea of being a destitute widow is not as common in our culture. And so we we tend we have a benevolent fund and we tend to broaden that up and for people that are in need. And we come alongside to be the presence of Christ. And so we considered all of that last week.

Now, right in the middle or right after that, it just says, again, look at verse 16 of chapter five. Now if any believing man or woman has widows or is taking care of widows, let them relieve them and do not let the church be burdened that it may relieve those who are really widows. Women 60 years old and more and are really destitute and need real help. The church is supposed to come alongside and to help them. No space. No challenges, verse 17, we jump in. Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. Now, first of all, the word elder, who is he talking about? Is he back to the older men? That’s really the same word over there in verse one. It said, do not rebuke an older man. Well, that’s the word elder. And here it’s the word elder again, but the term elder or bishop or pastor was a term that was reserved out of respect to the older generation so that you would honor them, show them respect. A lot of Asian, the Filipinos and other Asian cultures tend to show a lot of even to the point of ancestor worship, but they show respect. You know, sometimes you’ll see me greet the Filipinos here that are this morning, and I always give them that monopo handshake. That’s to recognize their culture, but it technically, it’s supposed to be one that you would do to an older person.

So I love it when I do it to the kids and to the ladies here, because I’m older than all of them. It makes me feel young. But it’s a show of respect. And the term elder is what’s there. But is this talking about older men? No, because if you look at the content, just look at the first verse that I read, let the elders for 17, that the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. And so this is talking now about the pastors or elders of a local church. and that you’re supposed to show them honor and we’ll discuss all of that in just a moment. But what this does is it’s talking about the elders or the pastors. This is one thing to show us the importance of the plurality of elders because this was a letter by Paul to Timothy at the church at Ephesus and it does include Timothy but it’s for other leaders called elders within that local church. And that local church is going to and he’s going to come here. He says you need to honor them. You need to protect them. You need to rebuke them and you need to select them. And those are going to be the areas that he’s going to bring up there.

So we’re going to look at four important areas concerning Paul’s charge to the elders. and to the congregation, they need to over listen this. But it’s part of that picture of not every church can have, not every church has enough men to have a plurality of elders. But if you can, it’s good because it helps balance out the authority and the ruling and you can’t get the big tater dictator, the strong leader in some of our Baptist churches where the pastor is the ruler and the warning giving in scripture by Peter when it says that a pastor should never lord it over his people. because it is a position of authority. And even within Baptist churches, the term rule, the pastors that rule well, well, that doesn’t sound good, because usually you got a deacon that’s trying to rule, or you got a diatrophies in the third John, they have a guy that’s trying to rule. Well, who is the leader of a local church?

Well, ultimately it’s Christ, but Christ calls elders to the position of pastors to lead. In fact, one of the words, the Greek words for each of these, presbyteros, episkopos, poimenes, the one has to do with oversight. Who is the one with oversight of a church? It’s the pastor. We have congregational government, but a pastor is the one that has oversight and rules and manages that which is the local church. Well, when you have that, well, what if you have a problem with a pastor? Well, he’s gonna get to that.

So let’s take a look at this particular passage and see what he has to say. Now, so it starts off in the four important areas of the charge concerning these elders. The first area is verses 17 and 18 of chapter five, concerning honor them. It’s a position of honor. First Thessalonians chapter five, verses 17 and 18 says this. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Hebrews. says this, Hebrews 13, seven. Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct. And Hebrews 13, 17 says, obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. I’m gonna pause there. I have to give an account. of you.

Now, I can’t make you obey the scriptures and make you obey, but I am held accountable before Almighty God that I tell you the truth. There’s an awful lot of preachers in the world today saying things, and they have forgotten that, that they are going to be giving the answer to God Almighty for what they told the people to do. But I gotta be careful that I tell you the truth. I don’t tell you things that are overstated. I present to you the word of God and exhort you to listen to it. But I’m held accountable that I stick with the word of God.

Now, notice, let me continue on when it says, obey those who rule over you, be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief. for that would be unprofitable for you. I told them that, whatever it is, I told them that adultery is sin. I told them fornication has not been written off. It’s a sin and needs to be repented of. Well, today everybody else is doing it. It doesn’t make any difference. We don’t believe in statistical morality. What is biblical reality and what does God say that he hates? And that’s what I’ve gotta present. That can deal with areas of alternative lifestyles or all of that. What does the Bible say? Because I’m held accountable for that.

Now, having gone through all of that, those are other verses, what is kind of a popular thing? Well, the preacher, he only works one day a week, so wow, what a job. Or sometimes when they say, well, you know, that’s a great job, but Lord, you keep him humble and we’ll keep him poor. It’s a practice, I mean, those are, let’s face it, the one about one day a week, that is said to me about two or three times this past week. And I know it was done in jest, but that’s how the world tends to look at the office of the pastor. Not like for me, and I tell you, I’m a 24-7. You can call me anytime, night or day. If I hear it, I’ll answer it. And if I’m not doing other things, that would prohibit it. So, but this particular passage now, it’s talking about pastors. that we rule is a respectable position, that what I preach to you and you’re in the hearing, you need to obey, not because of me, but because this is what God’s word says. But I got to be for sure to tell you, what does God say?

Now, all that being true, let’s come back up, first part of verse 17. Let the elders, or the pastors, who rule or do their job well, be considered or be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in word and doctrine. Well, what does that all mean? The term honor does mean respect, but it does refer to financial support. Actually, it’s where we get the idea of the honorarium. An honorarium is money given to honor the speaker. It’s used in Acts 4, verse 34, and 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20. A person being worthy of double honor means to be blessed and to show a financial remuneration. And it’s going to say because, if you notice verse 18, the scripture says you shouldn’t muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain. Now, some preachers may be offensed by being compared to an ox. But that’s an Old Testament passage that refers to in Deuteronomy 25 verse four. And the idea there is, is that you have an ox and it’s pulling the big millstone that it’s gonna run over and it’s gonna crush the grain. And the idea is, some said, well, if he’s crushing the grain where he’s walking, there’s gonna be grain, he’s gonna eat it. And there goes the prophets.

So some people wanted to muzzle the ox that treads the grain and keep him from eating it, but yet he’s the one that’s making the grain. Well, part of the biblical ethic for animal rights, well, I didn’t get any response on that. I thought somebody would say something. For animal rights, you do not, this is what it says, you shall not, according to the law given to Israel, you shall not muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain. And the concept behind that is, that if a person is working and you’re able to pay him, you need to pay him because you don’t want, he’s worthy of what it is. So when we talk about equal pay for equal work and that sort of thing, that’s where that concept all comes from. But notice what is here, double honor is especially to those who labor in word and deed.

Two, three weeks ago, we celebrated my 30-year anniversary here. And it was fun. It’s always fun because Baptists really know how to cook and they know how to bring food. And it was, just the fellowship and the food was great. And there was recognition and there were stories. Some people said, thank you for being there, burying my mother, my father, or you came and visited me. And 30 years, you do a lot of ministry. And your little notes to me and everything were extremely humbling. But the gift of the watch. Was. It reminded me of Second Samuel, Chapter 23. When Daniel I’m sorry, when David is contemplating the Philistines are between him and Jerusalem and Bethlehem and that whole area. And David is just saying, wow, I would really like a sip of water from the well in Bethlehem. Three of his men, because they loved him, broke through the Philistine line, went and got him some water. and brought it back to him to show, to honor him because they loved him. And that is where my heart and my mind went when I was presented with the watch. I am not worthy of that. I really personally don’t feel that I’m worthy even of a Timex, but it’s a whole lot more than a Timex. And as explained, this I mean, a watch tells time, a Timex tells time, therefore, that’s all you need. But this is a particular watch that expresses far more than that. And it was more than double, I think, triple, quadruple, you know, trillion times, I don’t know. But I was humbled.

And even as what David did in taking that water that they brought to him and they put He said, this isn’t just water, this is blood that they were putting on the line. And you know what? He poured it out on the altar because he said, that belongs to the Lord. And really the watch is like that. It’s like so much, but it’s because of the Lord. And so and the reason why I go into that is I haven’t really I mean, we’ve done the official thank yous and all of that. But that is the illustration that is here. And I want to highly commend Fellowship Baptist Church. For honoring. Their elders and for me, for 30 years. But that’s biblical. Now, that can be grudge people. He doesn’t need a watch like that. Well, no, I don’t. But it was given in love, respect, honor, biblically, way over. And that’s what the term there means. Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy. Not every church can do that. be worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in word and doctrine. And then the biblical reason, because muzzling the ox when it treads out the grain is a bad thing. The laborer is worthy of his wages.

Now, we have that and that needs to be done. But then that’s not the only instructions that he has, because then that would sound like, wow, I’m gonna go into the ministry because I’ll get nice things and I’ll get double salary or whatever. No. Because he goes on, and the second area that he goes into is, well, elders need to be protected. Look at verse 19. Do not receive, and this is the idea of don’t even give it the time of day, but do not receive an accusation against an elder. Now, it would be nice if that’s all it said, but it doesn’t. It didn’t stop there. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Because pastors are public, you know, I’m in your lives, I’m in your lives, I’m in your lives, and I’m in some of your homes, and I have lots of relationships. And there can be a lot of things said about me, but there’s a lot about me you don’t know. And this deals with human nature. We don’t always know what’s going on in the lives of people.

Now, I’m gonna tell you what that’s done to me in the life of ministry. I give a lot of grace. I don’t know always everything that you’re going through. I don’t. I may know a lot, but I may not know everything. And you may get angry, and you may bite my head off, and then you go, well, I’m sorry, pastor. That’s okay, and it’s done. And and so forth. Or you don’t know what’s going on mine. And I might bite your head off, although that would be very odd because I’m not that don’t have that so much of as part of my personality. But preachers are not above sin. And that’s the point. This idea of partiality, because he’s going to mention that. Let’s read the whole passage. It says, Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. It needs to be accurate. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear. I want to get to that in a little bit when we come to rebuking elders. But that is.

There can be a lot of temptations that come against pastors. And someone might say, you know, well, I think the pastor’s got his hands in the offering. And there have been many that have. I think the pastor’s writing checks to himself. I know a church where that took place. He also went to jail. And he needed to go to jail. And so pastors have opportunities, and that’s why sexual sin is, he knows who is vulnerable, he knows where weak marriages are, and it can be a mess. But we’re also targets of those that are not believers. And so there may be a woman who wants to say, I will feel more feminine and more desirable if I can say that I seduce the pastor. Really? Well, do not receive an accusation like that, except for two or three witnesses. There’s gotta be more than just he said, she said. Because a pastor’s in the position of being very vulnerable. And so this is the protection.

Not that pastors can’t fall, because they do. But you can’t take every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants to do something and say something against a pastor and then automatically go through church discipline. For that’s not fair. Now that’s what this passage is talking about. Even in the history of this church, I mean way back in the 70s, some terrible days and accusations and things, you do not receive the accusation unless you’ve got two to three witnesses. But then you investigate it because it may be true, but it may not be true. Verse 19 again, do not receive an accusation against an elder except for two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning, okay, There’s an automatic assumption. The accusation against the elder must have plurality of witnesses. It needs to be investigated. You call the witnesses. And there is, as it were, like a church trial. That’s what church discipline is all about. Very few churches do this. Pretty much you go before the board, they’re fired. And then there’s a cover up of sin. And that’s why sin has plagued the church for years. There’s a good reason why preachers don’t preach us, because I could be self condemning myself. I got to keep my nose clean. But I’m supposed to keep my nose clean before God, because I have to give an account. So there is protection.

But now how do you rebuke? The key thought here is this, and this is what the congregation needs to hear. It’s what the other elders need to hear. One, there is no immunity. There is not to be Any bias? Well, I love Pastor Pyatt, and I don’t think that he really meant to take that $2 million, not that we have $2 million, but, you know, that’s why I’m keeping this into absurdity so that you don’t think. You know, and I don’t, I think that he probably didn’t, no, that’s bias. You love me. You’ve already proven that. I love you. But that doesn’t mean that if I fall into sin, you don’t do something about it because the church is about the defeat and the judgment of sin. And so there’s to be no bias. No immunity, no partiality is given to elders. The idea is, now there is repentance, okay, and that is the goal of all of this, but this has the idea that he continues in sin. My home church up in Ohio, they had to hire a private detective to prove of a room or of a house rental. Who made the payments? and there was an open trial in the church. They pulled his ordination. They undefrocked him, I guess, or unfrocked him. They pulled his ordination. He was, well, kind of repentant. No. A lot of churches will just dismiss the pastor and let him go on and pastor another church. And there will be a lot of judgment on the judgment day because of churches that forgot 1 Timothy chapter five.

Now those who are sinning, notice what it says. He gives us this thing, what do you do? It’s a public, I’m a public person, it’s a public sin, there needs to be a public rebuke. It’s not just between the elders. I say that because this is where we would differ just a little bit from the Presbyterians. They let their presbytery do all of this. I was told by a dear friend of mine who’s a Presbyterian, well, I’m judged by my peers. Well, I’m judged by my peers too, but I view my peers as you. That’s why we have congregational government. That would be one of the distinctions between Baptists and Presbyterians. We we can create a presbytery, like what that said, that if we can’t figure out our problems, we can bring in other churches. But as far as it goes, that’s it. We don’t have a continuing presbytery. And this is what it’s talking about. Those who are sinning rebuke. That is a word I bring judgment to rebuke. And notice what it says in the presence of all. not just of the elders, but of all within the congregation.

Now you know it’s that, because look at what he goes on to say, that the rest also may fear. You see, there’s another verse that says, if judgment like this first falls at the household of faith, what about those outside? Well, this is one of those deals that if the local church brings church discipline against me, that ought to put a fear of God in you also. Because if the deacons or this church is concerned enough, and if sin is bad enough and non-repentant, it can even take down the pastor and the church brings judgment to bring him to repentance. That is not just me, that’s for all of us. Because this is not just a social club, although it’s not a club, but we are social. This is about being part of the family of God of a bunch of sinners who have been saved by the grace of God. We are loving, we are kind, we are forgiving, but guess what? We don’t want to bring down the name of our Savior. He is to save us from our sins and from the practice of them.

Now, we have a problem with that. Let’s face it. We can all be tempted. And when confronted, if you have a problem and you have a Christian brother comes to you, how is that supposed to take place? Jesus told us, go and talk to your brother by himself. And then if he doesn’t hear, take another one. And now you got your two witnesses. And if they don’t hear them, what happens? You take it to the church. The church then brings the judgment. And that’s what this is talking about. Those that are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest may also fear. Now, notice what he continues on. This is in context. I charge you. This is Paul telling Timothy, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels. That’s just, you know, a way of saying. We might tend to say it, although I don’t say this because I never want to take God’s name in vain, but we will sometimes say God is my witness. Only he brings God, Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, God incarnate, and the elect angels.

We’re talking about, he’s saying this before all of heaven, that you observe these things. I had a person, one of my neighbors told me once, I was talking about church discipline and how we have done it in the past of our non-repentant adulterer. I said, well, that doesn’t sound very loving. And I just said, loving to whom? We primarily love God. And God wants purity in those that are going to take the name of his son and call themselves Christians. We need to be serious about sin in the household of faith, and it includes the preachers. Observe these things without prejudice. See, there that comes again, without bias. You know, oh, well, Pastor Piatt, he came and prayed with me when my dog was sick. You know, that’s great, but that doesn’t get me off the hook. Without prejudice. There’s gonna be some of you wondering, did he really do that? I’m just gonna let that dangle. Doing nothing with partiality.

Then he goes on and talks about the selecting of elders. How do you get elders? If a church is to have a plurality of elders and you go and find them, and with so many schools, one, shutting down, or two, blowing it that they don’t teach Bible anymore, how do you select? And he says, verse 22, same paragraph. Do not lay hands on anyone. And I’m just gonna quickly, because of the time and the hour, that refers to laying on of hands, I believe, with respect to ordination. We can say, to lay hands on is a metaphor, and it can be positive or negative. Like if I get angry at Pastor Ryan, which would be really wrong, because he’s bigger than me, but if I got to him and I said, I can’t wait to lay my hands on you, If he lays his hands on me, I’m done. But you get the idea, lay your hands up. That’s not what this is talking about. Before you lay hands on, meaning what we do, pray and lay hands on a man who’s being ordained. Before you pick, people are gonna follow you, Timothy.

Before you fill in the church with some elders that can give godly advice and help and so forth. of which we’re gonna be doing not too long from now for two men in the church. We’ll have an ordination and then we’ll have an ordination service on a Sunday morning. It’s gonna be great. In October, do not lay your hands on anyone hastily with quickness. Let them prove themselves. And then he says this, share anyone hastily nor share in other people’s sins. Keep yourself pure. The idea there is You don’t quickly ordain anybody and everybody that you think can qualify, but let a person prove himself. And I’ll use Pastor Ryan as the illustration. He was hired as an associate pastor. Then he was ordained, we laid our hands on him. We haven’t really changed that, but we changed the constitution for elders and he’s an elder. So he’s kind of like in that between of, Well, as an associate pastor, well, kinda that is what we called him to be. But there was nothing else.

But there does come a time in the changing and the passing on of the torch and the recognition. But it’s been three years. And that has been by design, do you understand? Let’s see, first of all, does he like the heat? He’s from Maine. I didn’t know there was actually people that would choose to live in Maine, but I guess there are. Dairy farmers. And so he’s from it, but he likes the heat. Well, that’s a plus, you know. But then you go on to, does he have a desire to preach God’s word? So now he’s working on finishing up his doctorate in preaching from the Master Seminary in California. Well, is he willing to be accountable Well, he puts his seminary papers online for anybody who wants to read them. I didn’t even do that on my doctorate. I wouldn’t want you to read some of the stuff I might’ve written. No, just kidding, but he’s countable. He’s faithful. He’s here reading. And so as an elder, and when there’ll be an upcoming vote in sometime, probably in October too, later on at the quarterly meeting, he’s proven himself. So any suggestion that might come from the elders and from the deacons, this isn’t a hasty thing. You know why we’ve done it that way? Because that’s what the Bible says how you’re supposed to do it.

You wanna know why so many churches get it wrong? Well, the pastor announced, well, I’m resigning as of next week and throws the church into a tizzy and they gotta go out and find someone. We, of course, that kind of, in a sense, when we started searching during COVID, that was just bizarre days, but it took forever. Three candidates didn’t turn out. Well, I guess two didn’t turn out. And you see, because people get into a rush, don’t be hasty to pick elders. They need to be proven, but even proven, I share in other people’s sins. Some sins will go before some sins will stick out. You’ll see some weaknesses. Can this work in it? But then there can be other sins of temptation, something like that that can take a man down. But he’s already given us. But then you can judge him. There can be the rebuking even of elders. So all of this is basically a sermon that I’m preaching to myself and to the elders of our church, but the but the church congregation needs to hear it. but the application goes something like this.

Leadership is important in the church. Leaders must be qualified, chapter three, in the church. Leaders must be able to teach and preach for and to the church. Sin must not be tolerated even in the leadership of the church. Leaders must be judged carefully two, three witnesses and so forth by the church and in the church, the other elders leading that. And where they don’t have a plurality of elders, then you would have to do what the confession said, call in other churches to help lead the church in that. And then finally, faithful leaders should be rewarded. Remember, that’s how this whole thing got started. Reward those who are faithful, even double and praise be unto God when those exist. Any preacher that’s worth anything goes into the ministry, first of all, because there’s a divine calling. And he desires to be all that God wants him to be. But the journey is not easy. The journey needs to be truthful. The journey can come back and bite you in the backside if you mess up. But forgiveness is always real. real, but sin always has consequences. That doesn’t mean that a preacher always continues in the ministry.

Now I mention all of that because that’s the part that applies to elders. But now let me apply it to the sheep or to the older men, the older women, the younger men and the younger women. God doesn’t tolerate sin in an elder’s life, in my life, but he doesn’t in yours either. but praise be unto God for the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is forgiveness to all who come to Christ and say, forgive me. That’s the gospel. That’s why he lived a life of righteousness because none of us do. And we are all to be humbled because of the greatness of our Savior who takes a thief on the cross and forgives him while Jesus is dying. Your sin cannot be so ugly that God will not provide forgiveness. Come to him by faith, trust him with the promise, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, how we thank you and praise you for this thing that we call church. Father, I thank you for your call in my life. I was headed to be a veterinarian, senior in college, ready to go, and yet you called, and what a journey it’s been. Father, may we all understand the wickedness of sin, but the absolute marvelous reality of sins forgiven when we confess and repent. Father, thank you, and may we trust Jesus as our only Savior. For we pray these things in his name, amen.