“A Charge for Godly Leadership” 1 Timothy 3:1-16

Well, quickly take your copy of God’s word if you have it in whatever form and turn to first Timothy chapter three is where we’re going to be going today as we’re taking chapter looks in a real sense. We’re not going to commit to looking at all the verses of chapter three but the main message of chapter three is we’re going through and seeing this message. of the Apostle Paul to the young preacher Timothy. And this would be at the end of the book of Acts, historically in the New Testament.

We’ve kind of considered about the two imprisonments and so forth. Paul was looking at getting out soon and everything, and that he did get out and wrote 1 Timothy, and then was rearrested. And then we get 2 Timothy, which we’ll get to here in a couple of weeks. And in 2nd Timothy, things are a little bit different. He’s not so encouraged that he’s going to be able to be released, and it’s a different message. But within these particular books, the two, the pastoral epistles, Titus being the third of that group, that he is letting us know what is important to a biblical local New Testament church? What is it that we’re supposed to be paying attention to? What is it that should have our attention on what is a biblical church? Is it just social involvement? Is it just a coldness of a religious club or just really what is important? And so we’ve been looking at that.

So and for the first the first chapter, we see that his first concern was that of sound doctrine. In chapter one and verse 10, he makes mention of that fact. He’s going to mention sound or healthy doctrine, doctrine being a fancy word for just the word teaching. But the word the church is to exist to teach the truth of God’s word. That’s why we refer to it as being a biblical local New Testament church that we preach, not what we think, but what the word of God says. I just recently had come up on one of my social pages, a contemporary preacher who was giving some answers to some criticism. And one of the things that he said was, well, when you come to my church, that you should be able to find the kind of Jesus that you want. Yeah, thank you for at least a little bit of laughter or something like that.

You see, I personally am not interested in the kind of Jesus that you want or that you have in your mind. I want to know what does the Bible teach us about the Lord Jesus Christ? And when I have a problem with that, the problem is my conception, because the problem is not found in the Bible. And so when we talk about sound or healthy doctrine, it isn’t that, you know, we live in the day and age of the seeker friendly church where everybody should go to a church and get what they want, but rather to go to a biblical local church that teaches and preaches sound or healthy doctrine. What does the Bible say about this morning in the pastoral prayer? That’s one reason why I like to pray for political leaders whether we agree with them or not. In the New Testament we were told they were told as Peter would write or Paul would write to pray for the leaders that be show honor. The guy was Nero. Nero was a scumbucket. I mean this guy kills his own mom. He was he was a nasty guy. And Paul said you need to pray for him. You don’t just pray for people that you agree with. And so that’s an important thing.

So sound doctrine was important. Then when we come to chapter two, it comes to this idea of, well, then how do we conduct ourselves in local worship services? And in that section there. He says, I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplication, prayers, intercessions with Thanksgiving be made for all men so we can pray for Christians. We can pray for the lost. We pray for those. And he mentions King there in the neck and the end of that verse and for all men and that we pray for them. And it isn’t prayer isn’t just asking for things. It’s praying for people. And he goes on to say that we do this. Then he gives instructions that in a local service and how those are to be conducted, that they are to be conducted by men. When he says in verse two and the kings and all who are in authority that we may lead a peaceable and peaceable life and all godliness and reference for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior. And then he goes on and mentions those kinds of things. But when he says up there, I guess in this that he wants men to pray, verse eight, as he goes on, I will, I desire therefore that men pray everywhere.

And now this is talking about a local worship services isn’t talking about women can’t pray. It isn’t talking about women can’t pray at home and all of that. But it’s just saying in public services as worship is being conducted, that men pray. Well, that was the initiatory thing of how do we conduct worship services that if you take a biblical stance, does the Bible allow for women preachers? Well, it would seem odd that it would allow for women preachers if women can’t pray, because the word man there is this word on air, the Greek word that means men. According to the recent Olympics, you may have gotten a biology lesson on what is called a Y chromosome. And if we spoke Greek, this would refer to Y chromosome men, men, people, human beings with Y chromosome.

Now, why would God put that in there? Is it that God doesn’t think women can’t preach or anything like that? Well, he gives us the reason, he says, because, first of all, women fell first. In the fall of Adam and Eve, he goes on and uses this as justification that a woman, verse 12, I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. Well, it sounds like, and for those that are biblical Christians and churches that recognize the word of God, the world comes in and says, oh, we’re a bunch of male, you know, bigoted scum and you know that this is wrong. No this is what the Bible said but he gives a reason whether we like the reason or not or two reasons because Adam was formed first then Eve and Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. And so we are told that if we want to be a biblical church and something that was important in establishing of churches, to have male leadership roles and so forth.

Now, does that mean women can’t do anything? No, and we’ve looked at that too, because Paul gives instruction, women can teach women, women can teach children, and that that is important. Then we also looked at that unique verse there, it says, nevertheless, she shall be saved in childbearing. or the bearing of the child, the child, in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. So we go through this and we go, wow, Paul is not pulling any punches in avoiding some controversy and establishing some things on how a local church should be conducted and what’s important to be passed on down through the ages of It’s to be about sound doctrine. It’s to be about male leadership role in all of that. But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on and in chapter three gives us instructions upon godly leadership with qualifications. And that’s what we want to quickly take a look at today.

Now, we’ve been to this passage several times recently. Well, was that last year? We have looked at this area of of eldership. We’re going to broaden that out a little bit. We’re going to bring the deacons in here to the today very quickly. But it’s about leadership. And I want to start off by having now set the context of what we’re looking at. But as a country, we are right now looking at a change of leadership. And I can say that since President Biden has dropped out, that whoever is elected, there will be a change in leadership. And we’re all thinking about that sort of thing. And sometimes, and in that discussion, don’t worry, I’m not going into politics. That is not going there. But when there is a change in leadership and that sort of thing, and the discussion that’s being brought up is there may be discussions of DEI, and is that going to help identify? How do we know? How do you select? You know, is it the lesser of two evils? you know, it’s wherever the span is that, you know, it’s gonna determine how you might vote.

Well, the United States of America, I believe, and I do love my country, I think it’s the greatest country, and so forth. But if there’s that kind of confusion over picking leadership over the greatest country, and whether we’re gonna like it or not, or who, somebody’s gonna be crying on November 5th. There’s going to be a lot of emotion that’s going to be involved. If that’s true for the greatest country of the United States of America, how much more should we be concerned in the selection of leadership for a local church? And I just praise God this morning that God didn’t leave us alone to say, well, pick only preachers that are handsome. I would have been a veterinarian today. You know, oh well. You know, is it going to be just on, you know, only speak, only vote or only call pastors that are from the South or from the North? You know, what is the criteria? How do you know? how to choose the right kind of leadership for this thing called the Church of Jesus Christ. And God did not leave us alone on that.

He gave us specific instructions on how do you choose? What are things to look at? How do you choose not only for pastors, but the deacons who spend the money as it were in our culture? That’s basically, you know, they help maintain facilities. How do you choose those men and so forth? It was said that to have good leadership is paramount. Bernard Montgomery was a World War Two British military leader who said the qualities of a good leader are to be able to see a big picture not to be bogged down in details not petty choose men well trust those under him and not get in their way power of clear decision and should inspire confidence in others and have a proper sense of a religious truth. Well that’s kind of broad. What religious truth, according to whom, and according to what model? John Maude, a teacher, wrote in this area, he has to be good at doing little things well, learn meaning of priorities, be intense, how he uses leisure, take advantage of momentum, the power of growth, the attitude towards discouragement. And he knows what his weak points are.

Well, those are nice, but they’re pretty subjective. as a local church and when you go back and you read some of the things going on in the first century. And then as it goes on into after the ascension of Christ and you’ve got the early apostolic church and then the apostles are removed. And then we’ve been going through our Sunday school, the defenders of the faith and going through those dark ages. And Pastor Ryan made mention of a book, the defenders of the West. And I went ahead and got that book. and tried to educate myself on where I was truly weak on the man. It was bad back then. Well, how are you going to pick leaders in the midst of this turmoil and everything going on? Well, you know how you do it is you turn to the word of God. What does God say about how to do this? And that is found in the first epistle of Paul to Timothy in Chapter three. And when he makes mention of this, the office of elder and ultimately deacon to these offices have special demands and qualifications. And these qualifications reflect those.

So today, very quickly, before we come to the Lord’s Supper, I want to ask five questions concerning leadership. This isn’t an in-depth expository sermon because I don’t have enough time for that. And it also, we’ve done this fairly recently, but I want to look at the bigger picture and ask five questions of this particular passage. And I suppose the first question, just to kind of kick it off, is why are these qualifications so important? Well, it’s important because, first of all, what the church is. that the local church is the organization or is that which God and Jesus Christ have left behind to be the witness for the world today. The church isn’t a religious club. This isn’t something that is owned by any particular denomination or group of people. It’s not in a particular culture because the church is transcultural. The church, there’s a church in every continent and in all kinds of people. And we were given the command to go out and to reach the people of the world. And so because of what the church is, it’s important to have qualified leadership that’s gonna disseminate the message of the church.

But not only that, Realizing that the Bible clearly teaches the reality of our enemy, Satan, who is the God of this world, who wants to do all to bring the demise of the testimony of God and everything else. Because of the reality of Satan, that the leaders of the church, elders are the special targets of Satan. And I mean that in several different ways, but if you’re going, the leadership, is an important target. One of the things it was reflected upon in the Crusades and everything was everything falls or flies based on leadership. And if they could catch the leader, if they could kill the leader, and there are simply gross stories that I would not mention publicly, but gross stories of how can we get the leader and get the maximum attention of maybe sending a body back on a horse and into the city to let him see what we, because the leader was the target.

And may I say it once again, the a fortiori kind of an argument, if that’s true in the dark ages with on human leadership, how much more Is that true for the Church of Jesus Christ? Why is it so many preachers fall into sin, whether it be embezzlement, whether it be in and sexual, all kinds of debauchery and things like it? Why is that? It’s because Satan, who is the god of this world, will have certain temptations to take down people in real ways. And so when an elder or a leader in a local church falls into sin, it has the potential of greater harm to the whole. It’s bad enough, and that’s why church discipline exists, when someone who professes to be a Christian falls into sin. But how much more? when a pastor falls into sin. Oh, he was the one that married us. Oh, he was the one that gave us marriage counseling. Oh, he was the one who told me how to raise my kids. Oh, he was the one. Because leadership comes with responsibility. And that becomes important. Who can you willingly submit to? Because if you have a leader, you got to have followers. And when the Bible clearly says that elders are leaders of the church, that their sin can do real potential harm.

It also is important to answer that question. Why are these qualifications that we’re going to look at quickly? Why are they so important? Because elders have have greater accountability. In the book of James, be not many teachers for ours is a greater judgment. And so someone may say, wow, you ought to consider going into the ministry. Well, that can be a great thing. But you know what? The world sometimes laughs at us and say, you know, well, if you can’t do anything else and go into the ministry, well, that’s a two edged sword. Because if you’re really called into the ministry, you can’t do anything else. You are capable of, but you don’t want to. But the world makes fun of preachers and they say, well, you know, when I changed as a senior in college from veterinary medicine to go into the ministry, I had friends say, why? Why would you do that? Anybody can be a preacher. Not everybody can be a godly leader in the hand of God to be held to hold and to preach the priceless and precious truths of God’s holy word and be faithful to that. And so the elders have a greater accountability.

Elders and pastors have, when their sins are more hypocritical, I get up here and I preach to you against the horrors and the judgment and the sin of adultery. And then I become guilty of the very thing that just shuts down the validity of all the sermons. If I teach how to be, that you ought not to lie, but I am known for lying. You see, it is the mark of hypocrisy. The flip side is, It’s important because pastors are supposed to model what biblical Christianity is supposed to be all about. And that’s even going to come up because he’s going to say later on in this in the qualifications, by the way, what do those that are outside say about the spiritual leaders? If you incur debt, do you pay it? If you, you know, are you known for yelling and screaming at your kids? How are you as a husband? And so we have these areas of this life.

So these are important because of who the biblical leaders are. Now the second question is this. Then what is the call to the ministry of God and godly leadership in the church? Now we get this from chapter three verse one. So please follow in your Bible. It says that it says this is a faithful saying. If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. Well, we know it’s a good work. The term bishop there is in the Bible, and we’ve gone through this recently. The three Greek words that refer to pastors basically is the episkopos, presbyteros, and poimenes. a bishop, all referring to a sense of authority in the local church, an overseer, and then the pastor or a shepherd. And so these all refer to different functions of the role of eldership or of leadership in the local church. And when he points this out, he says it is a faithful saying, that term there, faithful saying is used five times. three times here in First Timothy, once in Second Timothy and once in Titus. And it has this idea. This is a faithful. This is a saying. Of of major significance, this is we might put it this way. I’m not lying. This is really true.

Now, if you get a car salesman or a politician saying that, you know, those words are kind of empty. But it should have meaning, and especially if it’s in the word of God. This is a really important saying. This is something that we ought to pay attention to. It’s of significance. Some even put, it’s of creedal significance. It’s a lofty or sacred something that you need to look at. Well, what is it? If a man desires the position of biblical church godly leadership, it is a good thing. Now that term desire is also an interesting word. The term desire means something that there’s a strong, well desire, I’m trying to avoid using the word in the definition, but a strong emotion A strong draw. The opposite was the word, and in some places it could be translated a lust. Now we normally think of lust in a very limited term, very negatively. But we might put it this way, a passion. He that has a passion for the office of godly leadership. This is something that is good. Being a leader in the local church, is special. It’s not special because of the people that have it, that exercise it or hold the position. It is special because of who God is, because of who God is using in that position.

Being the pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church, it’s not special. I’m not special, but this office is really special because the church The people of God are here and that makes it a truly special thing. So there is this thing called a call to the ministry that begins in the heart of the man and how he is felt. It’s an important call. It’s a true saying. It’s a faithful saying when these things are true. It’s a limited call. The call to ministry to be a godly leader in the local church as an elder pastor overseer. It’s limited to men. It’s limited in context to and local in scope to a particular local church. There’s no more like I’m the pastor here. I’m not the pastor of Heritage or Cornerstone. That same thing is true, by the way, of our deacons. You can be a deacon, a fellowship, but that doesn’t make you a deacon at every local Baptist church around. That this is a calling and a recognition of leadership in a local church. It’s a good and faithful saying when these things take place, and to have a desire for that. It’s a responsible call is what we’ve already seen when it comes with the idea of leadership and oversight. Secular use of the word was used also of those that were Greek city inspectors with authority. It’s a position of authority. And if you’re going to have a position of authority, you need to meet some qualifications.

Now, I’m going to pause. That is also very important when it comes to any kind of a position in a corporation or may it be in the running of a country or of our president or of those in elected position. There needs to be some qualifications. There need to be some abilities to accomplish that which can be done. Now God in the church does supersede that. It was read earlier about Moses at the burning bush. And all the excuses. And I love the one when Moses is starting to pull out as much as he can. And when he says, I can’t speak. Some believe he had a bad speech impediment or something like that. If God calls and God leads you and puts a passion in your heart to be a godly leader in the local church, and you have something that you feel is, I just can’t do this, but you meet all the biblical qualifications, which we’ll get through here. Then you get the response like this from God. Who made man’s mouth? If you stutter, I’ll take care of that.

My understanding is that President Biden used to stutter a lot. I don’t remember that. I’m not old enough like that to know that. But they said when he went into politics that he stuttered. Well, as far as I know, he doesn’t stutter too bad at least now. And God will meet your insufficiency if he calls you. into the ministry, into godly leadership. And so it’s a worthy call. It’s a good thing, a noble thing, an excellent, high, honorable situation. Wycliffe said it’s the highest service on earth. To preach the word of God. It’s a demanding call and it’s a lifetime call. Nowhere in the Bible does it say pastors kind of just stop being, having this call of God in their life. It’s eldership for life unless you disqualify yourself in some other way. But that leads to another question then. What is the overall qualification? Is there one thing that you can see and that is born out in the structure of the text here. When it says a bishop then must be blameless. Now that’s interesting. He must be blameless. That means without blame and he’s got to be perfect. It’s you know, that’s why it took us so long to find Pastor Ryan. You know, it’s hard to find him. And then, you know, he’s been here for three years and we kind of know he’s not blameless like that. But, you know, he’s not perfect. And so so what on earth does this mean? And that becomes important.

The word blameless. The word the Greek word means nothing in his life upon which someone could something can be grasped. In other words, it means nothing can be called out. A blatant sin in his life that just stands out and to help explain it and to help local churches in choosing qualified leadership that all pastors are supposed to be blameless. The term blameless is what’s called in apposition to all the other qualifications in the verse that follows. In other words, he doesn’t just say blameless and then leave it up to us to say, well, you know, he’s a nice guy, but he can’t be a preacher because he has a beard. Boy, they got quiet on that one. So, I mean, so, you know, like, what does it mean to be blameless?

Well, it’s not up for us and for subjectiveness to try and figure out what is blame. To be blameless is, and then we have the rest of the qualifications that are there. That we don’t lower the standard, but how do we uphold it in the midst of all of this? Well, we now come to then, what are the specific qualifications? that are mentioned here concerning elders. Now, let me jump into a little bit of the structure of the passage. If you see verse two, a bishop, elder, pastor, all those refer to the same one, go to the book of Philippians to see that. But then he goes through the qualifications, verse eight, likewise. So likewise, deacons must be. And that, would also refer to blameless as they would carry over. But then he goes on and says they must be blameless. They must be reverent not double tongue not given to much wine. And so we have. These qualifications for the leaders that are in the church specifically.

Well, what are they and how are we going to divide this up? Well, there’s a lot of things here. And again, like I said, we’ve gone through and specifically had sermons just on elders and then just on deacons and so forth. And today I just want the big picture that the church needs. May I say it stronger? The church must have. Biblically qualified, called, godly leadership that have the passion in their heart and that they are meet the qualifications of whatever it means to be blameless, meaning, and then you look at those qualifications and say, we must have that and it not be brought lower or substandard. When you have leadership that is substandard of the qualifications are based upon the things that they will be confronted with. You’re going to have problems. And so let’s take a look at this just very, very quickly. And if you do look at it, they are really there in five different areas. And that’s how I want to get.

First of all, there needs to be personal qualifications found in verse two. Some personal qualifications. And it says they must be blameless. The husband of one wife. Now that’s going to be something that’s more domestic. He’s going to make mention of that. But this is an important one. The husband of one wife. And that has had and we’ve gone through all the discussion. Does that mean one at a time? is divorce part of this discussion and all of that. The original language in the Bible, it is, he is to be a one woman kind of man. That is, he is not to be a womanizer. And it becomes quite evident of why, because he may be called upon to give counsel and so forth to women. If he’s gonna be a pastor, my opinion is, if he’s gonna be a pastor, he’s not just the pastor of the men of the church, he’s the pastor of the women. But the women need to feel comfortable with their pastor and to realize that the pastor loves me. If it’s that, you’re in trouble. that a woman must feel confident and at ease with the pastor. Why? Because he’s a one woman kind of a man. I have eyes for one. I think the women of Fellowship Baptist Church, all of the women here today, you’re all very pretty. But there’s one that’s better.

There’s one that you could only want to ascribe to be like, and that would be like my wife, Susan. that a pastor has to be a man that has eyes for one. Because if not, he’ll get nailed. You want to know why? It’s called testosterone, and men are just basically wicked. And only the men understand that. And what this means is that he needs to be a one-woman kind of man. My opinion is that if you only go into the discussion of, go into versus polygamy, I think you’re missing it. I think they already knew that. If you go into the thing and you only use this as the argument for whether a divorced man can go in the ministry, I think you’re shortchanging it. I think that one comes up with, can he rule his own household well? But when it comes back to this one, what kind of a man Because remember, it’s men, and this is the passage, chapter two, chapter three. This is talking men, women, and he’s talking men are to be pastors, and how does he handle women? That becomes important.

We go on. Temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to whine. I’m a total abstainer. It’s always kind of interesting. You go on a cruise ship or you do something like that. And they’re all saying, well, what kind of, you know, beverage thing do you want? And do you drink? And that would just, no, I actually have never drank. I’m not a drinker. And on all of that, and not given to wine. Now, I can also say, I’ve got to just point this out, because I know some people say, well, is it total abstinence? It can’t be total abstinence, because in chapter five, verse 23, Paul tells Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach’s sake.

So and I realize that’s medicinal, but that’s also why total abstinence can’t be a clear teaching in scripture, because then he couldn’t have said that. You’ve got to look at what the Bible says. Now, do I think people should drink or to chance getting drunk? No, because drunkenness is sin. He’s not violent. That term there, it’s not given to blows, not greedy for money. It’s interesting because later on he’s going to give instructions to the rich in the book, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, one who rules his own house well, having his children in subjection with all reverence. You see, all of these, they go, what is his personal qualification? Socially, domestically, spiritually, look at verse six. Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he should fall into the same condemnation as the devil. And then this verse seven, moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, that is outside the church, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. What’s his testimony? What’s the testimony of his kids? This man, who’s to be a leader in the local church, he ought to be able to prove the kind of a man that he is by his family, by his business conductions and how he, you know, his testimony in the business world.

All of these things are qualifications, how he treats his wife, how he treats others. And all of those things become very important. Now, that is the qualification of elders. And again, like I said, we’ve looked at those specifically. I don’t want to spend a lot of time there. But likewise, it’s true of deacons. Now, basically, just to kind of give the short summary, the deacons need to have all of these. The one that is missing is to be apt at teaching because elders and pastors, they’re the ones that are doing the teaching. The deacons are the ones that, well, We might refer to them as the trustees. I don’t like that because that’s not a Bible word, but it does convey the idea they conduct. You know, they help with the widow’s ministry. They’re the doers. They make sure things run well. And that like in Acts chapter six, the beginning of the office of deacon, I think when it says so that we as the elders and pastors are given unto prayer and study the word, you got to help disperse food and and to do a lot of the legwork on that sort of thing.

Well, let’s take a look at it. They must be reverent that that term there means serious minded or a sense of dignity, not double tongued. They’re not gossips. You don’t say one thing and then say something else. If you get a deacon that does that, you get him off the deacon board. Not given to much wine. Not greedy for money. holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these first be tested. So, again, you don’t get them saved and get them on the board. There’s churches that do that, and they’re the churches that have problems and they have bad testimonies in the world. Being found, get them, let these first be tested, then let them serve. as deacons and the word deacons means a servant or a minister being found blameless. There it is nothing in their life upon which something can be grasped. It continues on verse 13 for those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus showing accountability answer ability. and because of the ministry that is so important.

I find it interesting that Paul doesn’t seem to avoid controversy when it comes to women, because now we get in verse 11 that we have another statement here that has brought a lot of confusion to some. It says, and likewise, Likewise, their wives. Now, this is King James, although it’s new King James, it’s still King James translation. Likewise, their wives must be reverent. Not slanderers, she devils is the word there and not not not wicked women or she devils temperate, faithful in all things. Boom, that’s it. And then he goes back to let the deacons be the husband of one wife. Deacons need not be womanizers ruling their children and their own house as well. Now, how many have ever heard jokes about if you go to a church, don’t let your kids become friends with the preacher’s kids or please avoid those deacon kids. You see that that’s not the way the church ought to run deacons, kids and preachers, kids ought to be some of the best. But what about that women thing? Now, there are several things that could be said here. Some have taken this to say that a pastor and deacons, they must be married men.

Well, let me just say, I think there’s an advantage for a pastor or a deacon to be married for several reasons. Number one, that he has eyes for one woman already. But does the text require that? I don’t think so. that it is also good that a pastor be married simply because. You know, there’s some truth, even in secularism, that says men are from Mars and women from Venus, or maybe it’s vice versa. I don’t know. You know, there is a difference between men and women, even though our society seems to get that a little bit confused. And if a pastor is going to properly understand and be able to minister to women, it might be nice to be able to go home and talk to his wife about it. And so there’s advantages for leadership, godly leadership, to be married. But it’s not a requirement. It’s not a requirement. But here it says, likewise, their wives be reverent. And this has led to the question, is it only the wives of deacons? But what about the wives of elders? It doesn’t give any indication to that.

What’s interesting is, is that in the Greek language, there can be a strong case. I did a paper in seminary on this. that the term wives, it just says, and likewise women. I think it’s because of what he’s already said about women being quiet and can’t do anything, and you guys were made second and you fell first, and he said all those things. But women, if you are gonna serve in the church and have leadership roles subservient to men, but you’re still gonna work, that there are some qualifications for the women that are going to be active in the church, too. Well, what would those be? Would they be reverent, dignified, serious minded, not slanderers, not she devils, temperate, faithful in all things. And so there are qualifications for the women that as they’re going to be involved in local churches as well.

So you see, all of these things are given And those have qualifications and we could go on and develop those more. But the purpose I want to do this is is that Paul in writing to Timothy. He says that a local church in their leadership and those that are going to take leadership roles within the local church. These people need to have a sense of calling. They need a sense of seriousness. They need a sense of meeting qualifications. Just because someone comes in and says, oh, hey, I’m a Christian, words can be cheap. And that has gotten many church into trouble. But rather, are our lives open? Do I love the Lord Jesus Christ? Now the church itself and church membership is open to sinners to come in that have repented, that are trusting Christ. But that doesn’t automatically qualify everyone to be a leader, especially for the episkopos, presbyteros, poimenes, the pastors, elders, bishops. Overseers and also of the women that are going to be involved in the ministry and of deacons that are involved in the ministry. They need to be qualified men committed to the ministry. I just had, and the reason why that it is good to have more than one is to call into, I’m gonna say call into question, but to call into accountability, there be the word.

That same one who talked about different things, this pastor that I was talking about, we need to go to the community. They were approaching the whole issue of the LGBTQAI+, And the pastor decided to take on the issue himself and said, I have decided that we’re going to go ahead and allow people come and no matter what they are and so forth. And he was changing the whole complexion of the church. And he was the one that said, and you can choose the Jesus that you want in in your mind. Giving way to. But what does the Bible say? What is an acceptable lifestyle? And yet what that God clearly calls an abomination in the word of God. Now, it’s a sin. A sin can be forgiven. We’re not making it an unforgivable sin. But just like you cannot be a habitual adulterer. and become a church member and seek leadership and all of that. Neither can you be in a lifestyle that is ungodly and condemned in scripture. Sin is sin. And if we’re gonna go and change it, who has that authority? Well, no one does, because we bow to the authority of one, and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. And how do we determine what he desires? We turn to the Word of God. We’re right back to sound, healthy doctrine, the teaching of God’s Word. Then where does he go? Verse 14. He knew what he was writing underneath the guidance of the Spirit of God. These things, verse 14, I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of truth.

Culture, society. does not determine morality, but the Word of God with a holy ethic of a consistent hermeneutic on how to interpret the Word of God. That is how we determine. It is the pillar and the ground of truth. Will we submit? And that becomes important. Everything succeeds or falls on leadership. Godly leadership in the church is to realize the leaders of the church are only under shepherds of the true leader of the church. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gave us command. Take eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. This is the cup of the new covenant. Do this until he comes again. My brethren, God has called and does call leadership within the local church. But we’re all under the true leader. And that’s of Christ. And that is the one. He is the one of whom we remember this morning at the table.

Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, how we thank you and praise you for instructions in the word of God that you have helped us when it comes to this idea of leadership in the church. Father, I thank you for 30 years of being able to lead here. Father, I thank you for those that you have brought our way at different times and in different seasons to be leaders in our church. Other pastors, we thank you for Pastor Daniel, for Pastor Ryan. Father, we thank you for the leadership of our deacons and how you have over the years provided those to come alongside to help. and their qualifications. But Father, we all realize that our involvement in godly leadership in the church is all underneath the command of one, of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we focus upon him now at the table, may we be reminded of who our great Savior is. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.