1 Timothy for the life of..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. 1 Timothy chapter 5 we'll be reading from verses 17 through the end of the chapter. Verse 17, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor especially those who labor in preaching and teaching for the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages.

Do not admit a charge against an elder, except on the evidence of two or three witnesses, as for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. Do not be hasty in the laying of hands, nor take part in the sin of others. Keep yourself pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment. The sins of others appear later." So also good works are conspicuous and even those that are not cannot remain hidden. Amen. This is the inner and infallible word of God.

Now we've been working our way through the epistle of first Timothy systematically verse by verse and we've been working our way and this evening we're looking at chapter five but in particular our reading was from verse 17 through the end of the chapter But we're going to be concentrating our efforts this evening from verses 22 through 25. And by God's grace, we'll bring this chapter to an end. Now, it's no surprise to us because we've been working through the book that we know the theme in this or these few verses. The theme really is the eldership of the church, the leadership of the church. You see it all over those verses.

But that theme also runs through the rest of First Timothy. It's a major theme. And it's the theme that not only leadership, but it's also the importance that the leadership plays in the life of the local church. The health of the local church depends on those who really preach and teach God's Word. Because if there's error in that category, then there's going to be error that runs its way through the church.

And we read in the end of chapter 3, if you remember, that the church is the pillar and the buttress of truth. And that truth is the Scripture. It's the Word of God that is upheld by the church of Jesus Christ. And those who are appointed to be elders of the church, not only are ones who are going to teach the Word, teach it faithfully, but also ones who ought to be living the word faithfully also. And beloved, we know, we're probably all aware of multiple occasions where we've seen elders, pastors, shepherds, who have been shepherding a particular congregation only to find out that they fall immorally or find out that they weren't true shepherds after all.

To find out this devastation, the church is is devastated when they find their pastor was never concerned for their soul, that he only had selfish motives, that he was only concerned with with satisfying the lust of his own flesh. And this man might have been, or these men may have been, men who were gifted. They're men who had great speaking ability or communication skills. They could have been loved by many people in the church. And this is how many churches elect their elders.

Are they good communicators? Are they loved? Have they got good management skills? But that's not how we choose the elders in the church of Jesus Christ. That may be the way you choose these people or elect these people and the criteria they use in the world to choose managers, for example, in institutions, but that's not how eldership or how elders or the leadership of the church is ordained or chosen within the church.

Jesus Christ is the head of the church and the church is his bride and it's precious and she's precious to him. He's the one who calls and he's the one who gifts certain men lovingly to teach and shepherd his people. You see the church simply identifies those men that Jesus has already chosen, that Jesus has already called, that Jesus has already gifted. So the criteria the world uses is not used in the church. The criteria the church uses is according to Holy Scripture.

according to the book and instructions in the book. Because if the church gets the elders wrong, then we've seen what mayhem and catastrophe that can cause to the church. But it is indeed God's intention through Christ Jesus that the church would be shepherded by the right men, men of his own choosing. And in this section of scripture, Paul gives Timothy some key practical instructions so that he would be able to identify and know how it is that elders ought to be ordained. In the last couple of weeks our brother has taken us through verses from verses 17 through 21 and in those verses we've seen that there are a number of things that we learned about the elders and the way the church ought to treat her elders and one of those is they ought to be honored because by virtue of the fact of their calling, not that they are any more important than anyone else in the congregation.

They are believers just like everyone else. They are loved by Christ just like everyone else. Jesus died on the cross to enchant His blood for their sake, and their value is exactly the same. There's no difference in value, but there is a difference in the calling, and their calling entails that they are to be men who preach and teach God's Word, and God's Word carries an authority, and that God's people ought to submit to that authority. Like Hebrews 13 verse 17 says, obey your elders or obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

It's on their neck. They're responsible. That's why James says don't be in a hurry to be teachers because they will be judged more strictly. And there are elders who are, and as our brother explained for us the other week as well, that the honour goes beyond that, because there are churches who have appointed that the elders would be full-time. In other words, they are going to commit their whole time and all their effort to the preaching and the teaching of God's Word, to the shepherding of God's people, and therefore, if they don't have time to be in the secular world, to make an income to provide for their family, then the honouring, the double honouring that Paul speaks of, can include also fulfilling the material needs for their elders.

But then Paul goes on and he speaks to things like, don't accept an accusation against an elder unless there's two or three witnesses. Now we know that we shouldn't accept an accusation against a brother or a sister in Christ unless we have two or three witnesses. It's the same principle. However, our brother explained for us last week, or the week before, that there is a seriousness when you do this against an elder simply because he has a public ministry. His ministry is to preach and teach the Word.

And so the consequences of accusing a brother who has a public ministry to teach and to preach, the consequences are greater. And the world is just waiting for opportunity to slander the Church of Jesus Christ, and we see this on the news, and we see how many times even in the last 10 years that we've heard of elders, pastors, shepherds who have fallen, they've fallen into immorality. Mikey the other day was telling me about a pastor of many years who has now become an atheist and just denouncing Christ altogether. These men were never elders. They never were chosen by Christ for that function.

They were there for selfish ambition. And it's important that in that context, as our brother said the other week, if they are truly chosen, then based on two or three witnesses, you can accept that accusation, but it must be done biblically. And then he took us through church discipline and took us through Matthew 18, and he explained for us what church discipline is. If we have a sin against one of our brothers or sisters, how we are to deal with that sin, how we are to address that sin in the biblical way. so that we're not slandering our brothers and sisters unnecessarily, that we don't produce gossip about our brothers and sisters, because that's devastating and very damaging to the church.

And it's very important that we, as the body of Christ, do things biblically, because as we do them biblically, he honours Christ, he is the head. of the church. This is his bride and he has given instruction for his bride how she is to conduct herself until he returns and brings her unto himself. And we ought to be heeding that instruction. So what we have in, so when the, my apologies, so when the person or the elder falls from his position we know that the examples we were given and the examples that we all know of as well of pastors who have no longer pastored the church because they felt immorally or because they've been found out to be just sinful men with putting on facades to trick and to deceive people.

It causes great harm to the church, great pain to the church indeed. It could be church splits that happen afterwards and it could be some long-lasting damage, scarring to the congregation. So it would be best for that sort of pain to be completely avoided. I think we'd all agree with that. And I think also that we can all agree that prevention is better than cure.

I think the Apostle Paul agrees also. Because in these verses tonight, he'll instruct Timothy from verses 22 through 25, how to best prevent appointing elders who have not been appointed by Christ. How to find God's choice. how to find Jesus's choice rather than the choice that we, humanly speaking, want, because we can be deceived, but the word of God is here to guide us and to lead us in all truth. And he starts with these words, verse 22.

Do not be hasty in the laying of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Don't be hasty with the laying of hands. Now, some have have suggested that the laying of hands because of the context and because of the verses from 17 through 21 speaks to the elders and those who have fallen away, those who have been under church discipline, probably and most likely those who have been excommunicated from the church, taken outside the fellowship of the church, Some have said that the laying of the hands is simply another way of saying, don't be in a hurry to receive these people back. In other words, receive them back, but just make sure that you're not receiving them back hastily.

Now, I disagree with NRT in a few moments, but there is a sense that when someone is excommunicated, At the heart, the reason why church applies the discipline is that purity would remain in the church, because Jesus is very concerned for the purity of his bride. There is a sense also that if that person is a true brother, and brothers and sisters do sin, they sin, and unfortunately we are actually capable of heinous sins. So if a brother does sin, or a sister does sin, and that brother or sister is excommunicated, taken out of the fellowship, then what happens in the life of a true brother and sister is true repentance. And then they have a true longing to come back. They want to be with their brothers.

They want to be with us. They want to be in the church community. They long to be with the church. And so when they long for this, they come back and they should be received back into the church in love. they may be elders, they probably will never get that positioning and they probably never teach, but that's okay.

They can still be in the church, receive, they can recover, they can grow, and they can be in an environment of love restored back to the church. However, I don't think this is what Paul is saying. I believe truly that when Paul says here, don't be hasty in the laying of hands, what he's saying is do not be hasty in the ordination of elders. You see, the context here from 17 through 25 speaks of elders all the way through. And Paul is saying to Timothy, Timothy, don't be in a rush.

Don't be in a rush to appoint elders into the ministry, elders of the church. And the laying of hand definitely, in my opinion, speaks to this because we have examples through the Bible that speaks to this. An example is Acts chapter six. We've referenced this on many occasions. This is when Peter says to the church, look, you know, the problem that came up with the Grecian women, widows, and he says, look, go appoint, go find seven men filled with the Holy Spirit, bring them back, and we will effectively, we'll appoint them as essentially deacons, the first deacons in the New Testament church.

And when they came back, what did they do? They prayed and they laid hands on them. In Acts chapter 13, when Paul and Barnabas were sent off from Antioch, the church in Antioch, into Asia Minor, so they would become the missionaries that would go through Asia Minor on his first missionary journey, What are we told? They said, after fasting and praying, they laid hands on them and sent them off. And of course, even here in the book of 1 Timothy, only the other month in chapter 4, we know that Paul reminds Timothy that he too was, he had hands laid upon him by the elders and received the gift.

He says, don't neglect the gift that you received in prophecy and laying of the hands of the elders. Oh, he doesn't say elders, but that's implied. Actually, no, he does say elders. So he received the laying of hands as well. So in that context, one would have to say the laying of hands is the ordination, is to ordinate the person into the office of elder in this context, or it could be deacon.

And so what they're saying is basically, to the best of my knowledge, the elders are saying that this person who we're laying our hands upon who we're ordinating into the eldership to the best of our knowledge and understanding through testing. We have found testing and through the duration of time, we believe and affirm that this person has been called by Christ, has been gifted by Christ, has been prepared by Christ for this function or for this office. And Paul says, don't be in a hurry to do these things. Now we've seen just earlier, how much there could be trouble when elders, when those who teach and preach the word of God, when those who shepherd the flock, we can see if they're not the men that were appointed or should have been appointed for that function, how that could cause so much harm to the church. Alexandra and Himemias were probably two of these that were spoken of in the early chapters.

Paul speaks throughout this book about men who have taught false doctrines. You remember what he says about these men? He says that these are men who were influenced by deceitful spirits. And the other one, brother, you probably have a better memory than me. Doctrines of demons.

These are very serious. These are very serious offenses. And so Paul wants to make sure that the church of Ephesus is not going to go down that path. He wants to make sure that they would, at least humanly speaking, God is sovereign over these things, but humanly speaking, that they would be prevented from doing this. So he's giving Timothy, he's giving him the instruction and the command and a directive, and he's saying, do not be hasty.

He'll go on and explain exactly what he means in verses 24 and 25, and we'll get to that very soon. But in a nutshell, Paul is saying, don't be in a hurry. God's never in a hurry. God's planned and He's ordained all these things. And if God's not in a hurry, nor should you be.

In God's eyes, it is more important, it is just as important that you do the means properly as the ends. So it's just as concerned to make sure that you're doing things correctly as the ends that you're doing. And so you see, It's very plausible or very possible the reason why Timothy may have been in a hurry to appoint elders was because he's probably just lost some. He's probably lost elders in the Ephesian church or churches, we're not too sure. And it's probably at this point where he's thinking, I need to appoint men to that mission, that office.

And so Paul understands this. Paul knows what's happening, but he says, look, The men you've probably lost, the men you've had to replace, they're not the men. They're not the type of people that you want to replace them with. Timothy, you need to wait. You need to wait to find Christ's calling.

Because those men, those men who have walked away, those men are more concerned with self-aggrandizement. They're more concerned with fulfilling their lusts, their pride. They have more concern for self-preservation and no concern for the sheep. They're not there because they love Christ. They're not there because they love the flock.

They're there for themselves. Jesus, in John chapter 10, speaks about a good shepherd, and he says the hired shepherd, the one who is not concerned over the sheep. If a wolf comes, do you remember the story? What does he do? He runs.

He runs to the hills. He leaves the sheep and goes away because he has no real concern for the sheep. His concern is selfish. But if you're looking for Christ's choice, then you need to take your time, and we'll explain why that is. Because Christ is the one who ordains the shepherd over his sheep.

And when he does ordain them, he ordains them to nurture and to fulfill and to faithfully care for his people. He gifts them with what's necessary, and what's necessary is a shepherd's heart, to do as the good shepherd has done, and that is to lay down their life for the sheep. The church ought to be vigilant. The church ought to be aware. Even if there's a desperate need, we must wait.

This is the bride of Jesus Christ and he loves his bride. You're not going to love her more than he does. And he says, through his word, wait. I will build my church and I will build her in a way where the gates of Hades will not prevail over her. But I'll do it in my own time.

Don't rush, and don't do the wrong thing. Because a rushed decision, in many cases in our lives, we probably do rush some decisions. We're called to do due diligence. We're called to do things correctly and biblically, with the wisdom that the Lord's given us. There are many instances we may rush decisions in our life.

And you know what? A lot of those decisions don't come back with detrimental consequences. But this is one that will. A rushed decision in appointing an office bearer, either elder or deacon, this is speaking of elders in particular, will always have very harmful consequences to the church if that person is the wrong person. It always will be the case.

And Paul is telling Timothy, and this is the seriousness of this verse, because the latter part he says, do not be hasty in the laying of the hands, nor take part in the sins of others. And these words are actually very weighted words. Don't take part in the sins of others. He's not necessarily saying that there's other people out there sinning. Don't go there and engage in sin, although that may sound like what he's saying.

But in the context, what he's actually saying is this. He's saying, that if you did lay hand in haste, if you did appoint someone to that office in haste, and that person turns out to be the wrong choice, then the sins he commits, you're co-responsible for those. Because you knew not to do that. You knew that you should take your time and examine this person's life. And just because there's a need, because you may have had a few elders walk where you've had to say, no, you need to leave because you're teaching false doctrine.

That doesn't give you an excuse to just appoint the best candidate there. Remember how when we went through the eldership a couple months ago, we said that it's not about just finding amongst us who the best option is and let's place that person there. That's wrong. They're not looking for the best option among you. You're looking for the right option among you.

And that takes time and examination. And beloved, that's not only the elders that do these things. Every single member of the church has a very weighty responsibility to examine, to test, and to be vigilant in these things. This is very, very important. And out of our love for Christ and our love for one another, we ought to be people who are always looking, who are always not being critically minded, not looking at someone like, is he a sinner?

Not that at all. But if there are signs, if there are evidences of sin, then we need to approach that person in love, Matthew 18, like our brother explained last week, and then confront that sin one-on-one. And if it's evident that that person is actually sinning, then we need to do the right thing and get two or three and then finally make it known to the church. Especially if that person is a candidate for eldership, because it is a responsibility for all of us. Because brothers and sisters, if we don't do these things, listen to the words of Paul.

He's telling Timothy that you are almost a partaker in the sins of those people, because you could have done something to prevent it. It's almost like the James 4 principle, which reads, whoever knows what is right, or the right thing to do, and fails to do it, for him, it is sin. For him, it is sin. When I was studying this, it really made me tremble. It made me tremble.

Because this is a very big responsibility for the church. And this is the church that Jesus Christ paid with his blood. And he's very concerned for her, and we should be. we should be also. And it's one thing to conduct the proper investigations, and then find out that that person is not the right choice.

Because then at the end of the day, if you've done that, then it's in the Lord's hands. It's in the Lord's hands. Because there will be people that will creep into the church, who will become elders and teachers, who will be reserved for condemnation. That will happen. But it shouldn't be on us that it happens.

It shouldn't be because of our laxity or our laziness or our haste that that happens. And Paul says to Timothy, You need to remain pure in these things. He says, keep yourself pure. And he said that, he used that word on two other occasions. Last time we did our study a couple of weeks ago, I said he's only used it twice.

Actually, three times he uses it in this epistle. And on the other occasions, once in chapter four, when he says that, Timothy, you need to be an example of purity and of love and of faith and other things. And then in chapter five, verse two, he speaks about purity when Timothy's dealing with the younger women of the church. And he's speaking about how he deals with the member of the opposite sex. His mind should be pure.

Treat her like a sister. Indeed, she is your sister. But in the context here, although the elder and the shepherd ought to be pure in their conduct, they ought to be very vigilant about the purity and the godliness that they live by, both in their actions on the outside as well as their heart content. In the context here, I believe Paul is saying, remain pure, Timothy, remain pure in respect to defiling yourself with the sin of others if you allow them to be appointed into the eldership without you doing your due diligence and giving the proper time. So this is what Paul is speaking to Timothy, and he's telling him, you need to be sure.

You need to be sure that you don't defile yourself. with that sin because of negligence. You see, Timothy is not infallible. Timothy is a man and all he can do and all his other elders can do is pray, is they can be careful in their consideration of the men that they may appoint into the eldership. They ought to be diligent to test that person biblically as we know.

They ought to be diligent to see that that person, that man, has the qualifications and the characteristics of an elder as we studied them in Timothy chapter 3 and in Titus as well. Give it some time. Give it some time. Because that's how the Lord works. He says, give it some time.

And if in time that person is proven to be a genuine believer and a genuine person who's gifted by Christ, then you can appoint that person. However, you're not infallible. And if you did appoint that person, and that person turns out to be corrupt, really good at concealing things, and you had no idea of these things, then you know what? You rest that God is sovereign over that. You'll give an account, but when you do, you can be faithful to have done what you needed to do.

But if you give an account and you've been lazy, then Timothy, Paul says, this is on you. Now it's at this point, where Paul adds something in verse 23. Put your eyes on the text. Verse 23. This is what he says.

He says, Now, to be honest, it almost looks like this is out of place. So before Paul speaking about Instructions to the the elders and elders who have sinned and the you know not not accepting accusations And then after that he's speaking to Timothy says don't be haste you know give us some time and then in 24 and 25 he reiterates those two points But here in 23 you have Paul saying something that sounds to be parenthetical to the whole course to the whole thrust of the text and Actually, some have have said that it's very likely that Paul was was writing on his papyri or he may have had a scribe writing also, but then he, on the margins on the side, he had a thought, and that thought was he wanted to tell Timothy to have some wine in his water. He writes it in the margin, and then later on it's been edited into the text. I don't believe that, of course, but some have said that could be a possibility. Now, I understand how that could be a possibility, because when I'm writing and I'm preparing for a sermon or a Bible study, and I'm writing and a thought comes to my mind, I have literally about 15 seconds to write that down before that thought goes away forever.

It never comes back. So if you look at my notes, you will see phrases within the text, and if you ever read it one day, you'll go, why did you write that in there? That's strange. So I understand the concept, but that's not what's happening here. See, before Paul tells Timothy about this, about drinking a little bit of wine in the putting a little bit of wine in the water, he says, Timothy, he says, keep yourself pure.

And that's important. Keep yourself pure. Now, we know why Paul has recommended this, that Timothy would put some wine in his in his water because we know that it's obvious to the text. It tells us that Timothy was suffering from frequent sicknesses or ailments, it says in the ESV. And of those is stomach pain or maybe intestinal pain.

Now we know in the first century that water, drinking water, wasn't always all that clean. There was a lot of bacteria in the water and that bacteria could cause all sorts of harmful intestinal tract infections. and those infections come with some fairly severe diarrhea, and that diarrhea comes with dehydration and so forth, and the person becomes very sickly very quickly. So they didn't have the desalination plants that we have, or the filtration plants for our water. So what they would do, and what was common in the first century, and you probably all know this, you've heard it before, is they would put a portion of wine in, or a portion of alcohol in the water, So the alcohol will kill much of the bacteria.

Now it wouldn't kill all of it, but it will kill some of that bacteria and make the water a little bit safer to drink. Most common alcohol was wine, right? And so Paul says here to Timothy, Paul says to Timothy, drink some wine. Put some wine in the water. It's okay.

Put some wine and deal with this stomach aches that you're getting. Deal with this sickness that you continue to get that seems to be from the bacteria that you've been drinking in the water. But we have to realize why it is that Paul put it here. As I said before, Even just in the phrase before he says to Timothy, keep yourself pure. The context of this whole epistle speaks to not only the elder's role and responsibility towards the church, but also the elder's role and responsibility in and of himself as far as keeping himself pure.

Paul says to Timothy, watch yourself, watch your doctrine. He says before, be an example in purity, be an example in faith. He says in chapter 3 that these are the characteristics of an elder. And if you realize in chapter 3 you have the first section which speaks to the elders and the second section that speaks to the roles, responsibilities and characteristics of deacons. And in both, Paul says, in one he says, do not give yourself to over, or the deacon must not be one who gives himself too much wine and the elder must not be a drunkard.

So here's Timothy, and Timothy would have known all these things. How? Well, he's ministered with Paul. They've been on missionary journeys together. They've had long conversations together.

He knows and understands the doctrines that Paul seems to be teaching. And that's why it's very likely that Timothy had become what we call a tea toddler. He became someone who was completely abstaining from all types of alcohol. And then furthermore to this, he's living and ministering in a place called Ephesus. And Ephesus was well known to be steeped in sin.

We've spoken about the temple in Ephesus, shrine prostitution, but alcoholism was also a concern in this place. And there's no way in my mind that Timothy wanted to be associated with anything to do with alcohol. So he kept himself pure in his mind in a sense that he would most likely be a person who said, I'm not touching the stuff at all. And Paul's come to Timothy and said, put some wine, put some alcohol in your water. If your conscience allows you, Timothy, it's okay.

You won't lose your purity. You won't be impure if you drink a little bit of alcohol. Impurity comes if you give yourself over to alcohol, if you give yourself over to the desires that can capture someone and bring you to its addictive power. But that's not the case here, Timothy. You've been proven to be a godly man in your conduct, in your actions, in your love for Christ and love for your people.

It's okay to drink a little bit of alcohol in your wine. And I think that's why Paul has put it here, because it does make sense. He's an elder and his conduct is important, People see him, his ministry is public. In fact, he's not only an elder, but he's also the apostolic representative in Ephesus. So he is an elder, but Paul is speaking, he's sending these letters to Timothy, and Timothy's the one who proclaims them to the church.

So it's okay, Timothy, you can drink a little bit of wine. But then we get these two very interesting verses. Verses 24 and 25. and verse 24 and 25, and they are really an explanation of verse 22. When Paul says, don't be in a hurry to lay hands, this is now the explanation of why he should not be in a hurry to appoint the elders.

Timothy, be cautious, be careful. Why? 24, 25, the sins of some people are conspicuous, clearly visible. seen by all, that's what it means, going before them to judgment. But the sins of others appear later.

So also good works are conspicuous and even those that are not conspicuous cannot remain hidden. So what's Paul doing in this? He's giving us a comparison between two different types of men. He's giving us two groups of men and in every one of those groups he's giving us two categories. The first is the men who are not fit for ministry as elders, who are not fit for that office.

And the second group is those who are fit for that office. So one, those who are not fit. The second group is those who are sorry, who aren't fit, and the second group is those who are not fit. And in both those categories, there are two subcategories, which we'll explain in a moment. But before we do, the word judgment that comes in 24 doesn't mean the full and final judgment of God, but rather the judgment or the decision that the church or Timothy can make in ordaining, whether he does or doesn't ordain the elder or the man as an elder.

In other words, he's saying, you will know them You'll know these people. If you give it some time, you'll know the sinners and you'll know those who do good works over time and you'll be able to make a proper judgment. You'll be able to come to a rightful conclusion if you do these things. Let's start with the first one. The first group.

Those who sin or who sins are clearly evident. This is verse 24. It's almost a given. You would say it's a no-brainer. In other words, This is the person who lives clearly in unrepentance or in sin, and it doesn't really take much examination to know that this person is clearly not the right candidate to be shepherding God's people.

He has no concern with godliness or purity. He doesn't even hide the fact. He doesn't even conceal his sin. It's open. He's an open book for everyone to see that this person is is just a bad tree producing bad fruit.

Everyone can see it. That's the first guy. And Paul's instruction here is, this is obvious, that you don't elect someone like that. It's not even that he had a gossip or rumor or an accusation against him. Paul put all that aside.

Everyone who knows this person can see that he's not the right fit. However, the second category in the first group, we're still in verse 24, this is not as clear cut. And this is why Paul exhorts Timothy in verse 22, hey Timothy, slow down. It's really because of these type of people. You see, he has to allow ample time to examine men like this, Because although the sins of some are clear, first part of 24, the second part of 24 tells us the sins of others appear later.

Brothers and sisters, this is where it gets really serious for the church. This is the category of men that can bring the most destruction and devastation to the Church of Jesus Christ, humanly speaking. They're motivated for self, they love themselves, and they don't love God, nor do they love God's people. And these type of men are clever. They're clever, real clever, and they're able to conceal, to hide their sins from others.

From an outside point of view, you may come across these people, these men, and you would think, this person is living a holy life, he confesses faith, He speaks truth, it seems. He lives a life that seems to be a life consistent with what the Bible speaks to. However, that's all outward. That's all outward. He conceals the reality.

He's able to put a facade on. He's able to put a wall that you just can't see through and you think this man is one who is appropriate. Because it says the right things, it does the right things, it seems. But Paul says, give it some time. Give it some time.

The time factor is really because of men like this. They have the ability to teach. They may have charisma. They may have, they seem like they have a genuine zeal for the people of God. But in time, their true colors will be revealed.

In time, he says, Timothy, give it time. Because that's how the Lord works. In time, the Lord will weed out the bad apples. But you may not see it straight away. And because you need time, he needs to give it to anyone.

And we're talking about us here and any church of Jesus Christ. You've got to give men time. They need to prove themselves. They need to be tested. This should be obvious to us by now.

Because when we went and did our study in chapter 3, you remember the first portion from verse 2? Let's put our eyes on that text. The first portion in chapter 3 from verse 2. These are the characteristics of an elder. The qualifications, what an elder ought to look like in order for him to be considered for the ministry.

From verse 2. Who would like to read that for us? Would someone like to read from verse 2 through, we'll go through verse 7. Sam, thank you. He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the confinement of the devil.

Morally, he must be lulled by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. So even just looking at some of those, and we're not gonna spend much time here, because we've already examined every one of these. But even if we look at these, husband above one wife, that sounds like it's obvious, like husband, the meaning of that is also, it's not just externally, but his heart is given to one wife, his affection is given to one wife, his loyalty, he is faithful to his wife. How do you know that? Like, from the outside, how do you know these things?

Well, you don't at first glance, it takes time. self-controlled, able to teach. You have to give that person an opportunity to teach, not once or twice. You need to see that person teach. You need to hear that person teach.

Not violent, but gentle. You don't know that if you're just in the pleasant environment of church fellowship. Like amongst us, there's no real opportunity to be violent. But over time, things happen. Manage his own household well.

How do you know that unless you're involved intimately with that person? If you're involved in knowing who they are and their family, their wife, their kids, are their kids submissive? You don't know that from an outside point of view. You need to be involved. You need to get to know these people.

Beloved, the truth of the matter is this. Weeks and months, I want you to hear this, weeks and months are insufficient. Under normal conditions, it's years, it's years before you get to know a person in the way that you need to know them to be at least reasonably certain that this person, this man, is apt or is God's choice to be an elder, to be a shepherd of the church of Jesus Christ. And I want you to think in your mind, how often do we see this happen? How often do we see the hasty ordination of the officers in the church?

that we have a need, let's just get some people on board. Oh look, someone's just left, or an elder's gone to another area, well just next person, let's get him up here. No, we need to make sure, we need to make sure that the men who are teaching us, the men who shepherd us, are God's choice. They're people that have been elected, that have been chosen by Christ. And the second category, we won't spend too much time here.

is those in the second category are the ones whose good works are evident to all. These are the ones that everyone knows. The first group is that everyone can see their good works, that it's obvious to everyone that this person is actually in Christ, that you've given them enough time, you've examined their lives, you've examined their family, you've heard them preach and teach and you've questioned their doctrine and their kosher, their orthodox. And then you can see that this person is not perfect, far from being perfect, but loves the Lord and loves the church. That person does hold the characteristics of an elder, as we just read earlier.

That person is obvious to all. But then you have the second category. And the second category, or the second group of people, are the ones whose good works are not immediately visible or evident to all. In other words, their good works may remain hidden for a while. Now, I want to just bring your attention to something very quickly.

In Matthew chapter 6, the Lord speaks to the crowd and He says to them, He says that when you, there are some who do their, when you do your good deeds, do them in secrets. He even says at one point, don't let your left hand or the right hand know what your left hand's doing. There's some people who take that very seriously. And so you might not necessarily see their good works in a sense that are so visible because they are doing them, but they don't blow their trumpet. They might be quite individuals.

They may love the Lord dearly and are committed to him and have the qualities of a faithful elder, yet it takes time to know them. And Timothy is saying here that over time, you will come to identify even those who up front may not show their good works evidently over time you'll get to know them and you'll know they're there because they will not remain hidden for long and basically what he's saying if there's a bad apple he'll be made known. And if there's a true, a good person who has been in Christ, who is saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and being gifted and appointed to become an elder, you will know them by their good works also. One church father said this quote, and I really loved it. He said, the good deeds of some are public property, while those of others we come to know only through long intimacy with them.

Some are visible for everyone to see and others not so much. But these distinctives, in closing, these distinctives are not only for the Church of Ephesus of the first century, these distinctives are for all churches in all generations. The fact of the matter is this, that the church ought to be intentional about appointing her leaders. No member ought to be blasé, no member ought to sit back and say, it'll be right. That relaxed attitude, it doesn't go in the church.

We ought to be all responsible, we ought to be all concerned with the well-being of our brothers and sisters. We ought to be very concerned to protect our brothers and sisters in Christ against false teachers, against the wolves who want to come in and kill and destroy. We ought to be intentional in our prayer, in our fellowship, in the things when we speak to others. If something comes up, we ought to deal with that thing because that could be that that person is in error. We ought to be intentional, in love, not looking at people critically.

That's not the heart of this. But the heart of this is that we ought to know that we all bear responsibility and it is a weighty responsibility that is upon every one of those of the members of the body of Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ paid for his bride with his blood. He deserves for us to be diligent.

He deserves for us to be faithful. in these things. So there are many questions we should ask ourselves. How concerned are we to protect our brothers and sisters? How often do we pray about these things, that the Lord would protect us from false teaching, protect our hearts, protect us from brothers or from people who come in who are only coming in because they want to harm the church.

wolves in sheep's clothing. How often do we pray about these things? How committed are we, and this is a big one, to studying the Scripture, the Word of God, because, beloved, unless we know God's Word, we won't know false doctrine from genuine, true doctrine. We need to be committing time in God's Word, studying God's Word, so that we will be able to identify that which is false if it tries to come into the church. But this is the I want to leave on this note.

Despite our best efforts, the book of Jude tells us something that is pretty scary. Listen to what he says. He says that some will creep in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation. ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. They'll creep in because they were designated for this condemnation.

That's a really scary thought. But we find rest and we find comfort despite knowing that that when we follow the instructions found in God's Word When the Spirit of God dwells in and amongst us, we know that Jesus is the one who keeps us. And our hope, our rest, is ultimately in our Lord and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. No man can protect any of us from the spiritual attacks of the enemy, but Christ is able to. And we find our rest in that.

However, we also need to do our due diligence. We also need to be found faithful in our conduct. Now that we know, now that we know what we should be looking for, now that we know that we ought to be concerned with the well-being and the protection of our brothers and sisters from false doctrine, we just need to be vigilant. At the very least, we need to be prayerful, always praying that the Lord will protect His people, our congregation, our members, our children from false doctrine and elders or those who perceive or who act to be elders who are indeed not elders at all. Amen.