We're gonna be looking at 1 Timothy chapter five, the last part of this chapter. What the Apostle Paul continues to do here is to instruct Timothy on some practical issues within the church. And this is the church at Ephesus, but it's to all churches. And he continues to deal with widows, especially younger widows who are still eligible to marry And he deals with that. And as I said, one of the things I always think of when we see things like this in the Bible, and you would say in this particular set of scriptures, the gospel is not spelled out like it is in Romans 1 and 2 and 3, places like that. But it always has to be taught and preached under the umbrella and upon the basis of the gospel of God's grace in Christ. Because I always tell people, if you preach the precepts, the commandments, the instructions of the scripture without the gospel, I use this analogy. That's like trying to, you may have the best car in the world, but if you're not gonna put gas in it, it's not gonna drive. And that's the way I look at these things. But one of the things that always impresses me when I go to these passages is how blessed we are in our day to live in this day. You know, I've heard people say, oh, I wish I could live back in the Bible times. They don't know what they're talking about. These were rough times. Some say they were even barbaric times. And you go back even further, and the Old Testament is even worse. And the reason I'm saying that is he deals specifically with widows, young widows here, and they're correcting the church and the care of the church for them. Other places he deals with orphans. These were individuals who claimed to believe the gospel, but when a woman lost her husband back then, if she didn't have family to take care of her, she was just out on the street as a beggar. And I told you last week, they didn't have IRAs and social security and all of that. The same with orphans. So the instruction here is for the church to take care of those who are widows indeed. In other words, they're not in their situation because of capricious behavior. or being irresponsible, but they just really need help through no fault of their own. It could have been that their husband left them because he hates the gospel, that happened. And some abandoned their families, even the children. It could have been their husband was a believer who suffered unto death. over the gospel. The world hates the gospel. Back then, there were no constitutions and laws to protect the church. And so if you lived in Jerusalem, you were constantly under danger of being arrested, put in jail, losing your job, losing your income, losing your life. And then in other places, in the Gentile churches, it was the same way. So Paul, he begins, if you look at verse 14, he says, I will therefore that the younger women marry, talking about those who had lost their husbands, widows, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Now this is, you know that what I'm reading today is not popular in our modern times because, you know, Today, all they want to do is just blur the gender separation, and for their own selfish purposes. But the Bible doesn't do that. And I've often said, just like the Bible doesn't forbid a woman working outside the home, but it talks about how the husband's got a role, the woman's got a role, and that's the way it is. And we need to be aware of that, and we need to follow that, lest we give occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. The enemy, that's who that adversary is. Some say, well, it's the devil. Well, it is. The devil who hates Christ, who hates God, who hates the believers, but it's his followers, too. And their eye is upon you. It's almost like he's saying, their eye is upon you, just watching for you to do something wrong. And if you watch long enough, you're gonna see it. You've heard this old saying that I'd rather see a sermon than hear one, and that's crazy because nobody's gonna be saved looking at our lives. But we ought to do our best in all of these areas not to be the cause of their reproach. I've often said it like this, if they do accuse me, I would rather them accuse me falsely than to be right. So that's what I'm saying. Our lives are to be consistent with our relationship and our acceptance with God through Christ. And that's what we ought to strive for in every way, whether it's with our marriages, with our families, raising our children, whether it's on our jobs, wherever we are. It doesn't mean that we're going around trying to shove the gospel down people's throats. We don't do that. I've often told you I believe in the open door policy in that area. If God opens a door, we'll walk through it. But if people don't want to hear what we have to say, walk away. Christ said it this way, shake the dust off your feet and go on. I wish that everybody would hear, listen to, and hear the gospel. And I'd like to witness to everybody I know, and others, tell them about Christ, who he is, and what he did, and why he did it, and where he is now. But not everybody wants to hear it. I had a dear friend of mine tell me, he said, I don't want to hear anything more than that you have to say. And I hated that. I said, OK. And I pray for another opportunity. He's still alive, and I pray for another opportunity. He's a preacher, but not of the gospel. And I pray that the Lord give me another opportunity before he dies or I die to tell him about Christ, tell him about a righteousness that God demands, that we don't have, but that God freely gives his people through Christ. I'd love to tell him about that. Will he believe it? Only God knows. I can't do that. I can't save myself, can't save anybody else. God saves sinners. But in this case here, what he's talking about, if there's a young widow, and usually back then, as I said, they didn't have Social Security and IRAs and insurance and all that. A young woman who was left destitute by her husband through death or abandonment, she would look for somebody to marry. And so he says, that's good. Let that younger woman marry, bear children, she's of childbearing age, and guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary. But now here was the problem that Paul's addressing. Look at verse 15. He says, for some are already turned aside after Satan. Now how they did that, I don't know. I know what he's talking about now. He's talking, I believe he's talking about apostasy there. They abandoned the gospel. And it could have been they married an unbeliever who would not allow them to worship God as they ought. Or it could be they just got frustrated. We don't know the exact. But he says in verse 16, if any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, that is support them, and let not the church be charged, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. In other words, what he's saying there is that if any believer has a needy person in their families, a widow or an orphan, and they're capable of supporting them, then let them take that responsibility. But now if they can't do it, let the church help. You know, it may be that a man had a daughter who married and her husband got killed, but he doesn't have the wherewithal, the means to support her fully. Well, the church is to help. If they're widows indeed, and you know what a widow indeed is. It means through no fault of their own. I'll never forget one time. I laugh, but it's really not funny. But there was a woman, probably about in her 40s, who came to church years ago, sit in the back there. And she seemed to be really happy with what she was hearing. But she came to me one day in the office, and she said, she said, I want you to know that I'm living completely by faith. And I said, well, I live by faith too. I look to Christ for my salvation. I rest in him. And I said, what are you talking about? She said, well, I quit my job. She apparently had a pretty good job. She said, I quit my job and I'm just depending upon God to feed me and to support me. And I said, well, ma'am, that's not living by faith. Because living by faith means living by the word of God. And the word of God says those who are capable of working and don't work, they don't eat. Do you believe God? Well, I never saw her again. But anyway, that's the kind of thing that Paul is dealing with here. Widows indeed. And so he says in verse 17, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. especially they who labor in the word and doctrine." Now he's not talking about degrees of Christians that, you know, if a man, if an elder, you know what an elder is. Paul dealt with that. Elder is one who knows the word of God, who has the ability to either preach it or to encourage people speaking a word in season. and all of that, let him be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. And he's talking about supportive preachers who are in need of it. He says in verse 18, he quotes here from, I think it's Deuteronomy, yeah, Deuteronomy 25. And you know, in Israel under the old covenant, It was the responsibility of the 11, some say 12 tribes, to support the tribe of Levi, who was the priestly tribe that dealt in the sacrifices and the worship, the day of atonement, and they were to support Levi, the tribe of Levi. And in the New Testament, it's impended upon the church if they are able to support the pastor. And if it's a big church with two or three elders, pull around to support them all. Very rarely do we see a huge church where the gospel is preached. In fact, I don't know of one right now. I mean, I'd like to say I do, but I don't. The biggest church I ever found was 13th Street in Ashland. And of course, when Henry Mahan left and I got up there, we lost about 100 people in the first year, because they were following him and not the gospel, not Christ. But this is the support, he says, for the scripture saith, verse 80, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the labor is worthy of his reward. And that's not talking about rewards in heaven. It's not talking about rewards based on obedience. It's talking about just being supported in daily life. And we'll talk about that in just a minute. We're going to go over to 1 Corinthians 1 and I want to show you some things. But he says in verse 19, against an elder, receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. And that continues with the principle of accusing anybody in the church. He says here, them that sin, which we all do, but he's talking about something specific here. He said, against an elder received not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses, them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. What he's talking about is public scandal. You know, somebody said one time, well, there's no difference in sin. Well, in God's court of justice, All sin deserves death. And that's why we don't speak of degrees of sin. Standing before God outside of Christ, there'll be some things that come up that are different. Some people say different degrees of judgment. Christ spoke of that in Matthew 11. But all sin deserves death. When it comes to our daily lives, there's a difference. For example, there's not one of us here this morning, now you all know what I'm talking about. There's not one of us here this morning who can say, I love God perfectly at all times. I can't say that, you can't say, if you say that, you're deceiving yourself. But you know, to not love God perfectly at all times is sin. That's sin. There's not one of us who can say, I love you all. We love one another perfectly at all times. But you know, if we don't, that's sin. But now, we're not to bring each other up before the church and say, well, David Bell here, he doesn't love God perfectly. What are we gonna do with him? And what that shows you is this. Our only remedy for sin is the blood and righteousness of Christ. And that applies to all people. That's what we need. That's what we don't want by nature. Christ bore our sins to the cross. They were imputed to him. And he drank damnation dry. He put them away. He erased them. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. But now there are sins that bring public scandal on the church and on the gospel. And you see an example of that in 1 Corinthians where there was a man who was committing fornication with his, what was his step, his mother-in-law, his stepmother, or something like that. I can't remember exactly. And Paul said, go to, just like Christ said, go to him privately and say, no, brother, you're sinning with a high hand. You're bringing scandal in the church and it's got to stop. And if that doesn't work, you take two or three other brethren with you, same thing. And if that doesn't stop, you bring him before the church publicly. And if that doesn't work, you withdraw fellowship from him. Not in order to condemn him, and the way Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians, he said, let Satan have him for a while, that he might learn. You know just like in Galatians chapter 6 when he says if a if a brother sin, you know and you who are spiritual go to him and Draw seek to draw him back seek to bring him to godly sorrow over sin to where there's that that kind of repentance there And so don't don't go to him said oh, you're you're on your way to hell. You know that kind of thing Now if none of that works, what have you got there? you got an apostate. But boy, I tell you what, that's not what we want to see, is it? And we don't want scandal brought on the church. And that's what he's talking about here. When he says, he says in verse 21, well, verse 20, them that sin, rebuke before all, that's the last resort. We go through the process privately, individually, and then if none of it works, we rebuke that person before all, that others also may fear. And that's not the fear of hell, I don't believe, it's the gospel. It's that gospel fear that causes us to worship God and respect God. I don't wanna bring dishonor upon my God. I wanna follow Christ. I want people to know that my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now they're not gonna know that by watching my life, I know that. But if they watch your life and they see scandal, do you think that might hinder them from hearing you about your hope? Most people, the natural man, won't receive the things of the Spirit of God anyway, but what they would say is something like this, well, there's nothing to that guy. His hope is just him wanting to please himself. And we don't wanna hear that. But now, our testimony is the gospel. It's not how we live. How we live ought to be consistent with the gospel, the grace and the love and the mercy of God in Christ. But that's not our testimony. Our testimony is the gospel. So he says in verse 21, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels. Isn't that interesting? You know, the elect angels, I think it's in 1 Peter, talking about how they marvel when they see a sinful human being saved by the grace of God. They marvel. You know, God chose, the angels that will exist in eternity, they're elect, just like we're elect. If we're believers, God chose them. The rest of the angels went with Satan and rebelled. And their abode is going to be hell. But there's elect angels. Now, some people say this is not talking about the angelic beings, but it's talking about messengers, because the word angel does mean messenger. But either way, this is a testimony that whoever he's talking about, they marvel. at the grace of God. And shouldn't we, in our lives, whether you're married, a widow, young, old, he said that thou observe these things without preferring, which means without prejudice, and he says one before another, doing nothing by partiality. That's the kind of judgment that we engage in. by the word of God. And the only way that we can really do this without prejudice is do it by the word of God. Because we've got natural prejudices. And you know where prejudices come from? Pride. Pride. And that brings about the false gospels of salvation and assurance based on works. Like the old Pharisee, I thank God that I'm not like you. Now what he said, I give more than you. I go to church more than you. I've got my pen. Is that your righteousness before God? No, Christ is. And so we do it without partiality, do it by the word of God. Verse 22, lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other man's sins. Keep thyself pure. Don't give your respect and submit under the authority of any man quickly. That's what that means. The ministers of the gospel have to be proven, men proven in the faith. Grown, growing in grace and in knowledge, knowing the scriptures, the ability to communicate. Don't do like false religion. In the church that I grew up in, they'd get people down the aisle, get them into baptistry, and then they'd be teaching Sunday school the next week. You've seen that. Especially if it was somebody who was well known in the community, because, oh, if we could just have him, you know. That's the partiality. But he says, When you do that, when you put that, lay hands, recognize the authorities, what he's talking about, as the apostles did, they laid hands on Timothy. When you do that too quickly, you become a partaker of his sins. If he gets up and doesn't preach the gospel and preaches things contrary to the gospel, if you laid hands on him or recognized his authority, or agreed with him being in that position, you shared in his sins. I love that, I think I read this over in 2 John last week, where it says, he that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath the Father and the Son. And he said, do not bring them into your house, not meaning your homes, meaning the church, Don't call them brother or sister if they abide not, because when you do that, you become a participant, a sharer, a fellowshiper in their evil deeds. When they get up and they mess up and preach contrary to the gospel, you're a part of it. And then he says, and then he gets into a little bit of hell there. I don't know what was wrong with Timothy. You know, Timothy was not a Jew, he was a Greek, But you know, a lot of the Jews, when they went out into the Gentile world, they weren't used to eating the foods that the Gentiles ate. It may have made them sick for a while. You know, they just weren't used to it. And Timothy apparently had a stomach problem. Look at verse 23. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities. Now, don't go too far with that. Drink no more. You know, somebody offers somebody a glass of water and says, no, the Bible tells me not to drink water. Give me a bottle of wine. Well, you know the rule of scripture is, what's the word I'm looking for? Moderation. In all things. In all things that we do. But he said, for thy stomach's sake. So wine had a medicinal purpose. Verse 24, some men's sins are opened beforehand, that's the scandalous, going before the judgment, the judgment of men, and some men may follow after. Likewise, also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid. The good works, you know what good works are, that's the fruit of the grace of God in Christ. No good work is to be performed in order to attain or maintain righteousness. That's works. No good works are aimed at being a foundation of our assurance. That's Christ, okay? But you know, when somebody does a good work, Of course, the world doesn't know what a good work is. They just see it as human morality. But we know better. We know that a good work is the work of God within us through Christ, covered by his blood, and aimed toward his glory. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. And the light there is not the good works, it's the gospel. And glorify your Father which is in heaven. And that's what we do. And some are open beforehand, some are not. So we leave it with that. Let me conclude, look at 1 Corinthians chapter one, then I'll close. I don't have this in your lesson, but I thought about this thing about preachers and support and preference and all of that. I've often said, and I'll say it again, that one of the worst things that can happen to any preacher is to have a following for himself. And what I mean by that is we ought to be able to listen to and rejoice in the gospel through anyone who preaches it consistently. And don't divide people over preachers. I've seen it happen. And that's why Paul addressed the division that was in Corinth over preachers in verse 13 of chapter one. He said, is Christ divided? The answer's no. Some of them preferred Paul over anybody else. He said, well, was Paul crucified for you? Is Paul your savior? Did Paul, did he work out that perfect righteousness and by which you're justified? No. Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? We have three people are going to be baptized. They're not going to be baptized in the name of Bill. They're going to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So he said, I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius. The reason Paul said that is because they were dividing over preachers. Who baptized you? I was baptized by John the Baptist. Oh, what an honor. No, that's not an honor. You were baptized in the name of Christ. That's an honor. The honor goes to him. And he said, lest any of you should say that I had baptized in mine own name. And then he mentioned several others. Some of them said, I'm of Paul. Some of them said, I'm of Apollos. Some of them said, I'm of nobody. I don't listen to anybody. That kind of thing. Well, that's forbidden. But I hope that's helpful to you. OK.