Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the chapter we read, 1 Timothy
chapter 5, and reading for our text is part of verse 22. Verse 22. Neither be partaker
of other men's sins, The whole verse reads, Lay hands
suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins,
keep thyself pure. 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse
22. In Paul's epistles to Timothy,
his son in the faith, in many of the chapters there is reference
to people and how Timothy is to actually interact with those
people, those that are office bearers in the church, how he
should appoint them and what their characters should be. In this chapter here, chapter
five, in the first three verses, he gives directions as to when
it may need be that there be a rebuke or a warning to any,
as to how that should be. He says regarding an elder, rebuke
not, but entreat as a father. And this word, entreat him as
a father, the entreat, advice to entreat, then follows on for
the young men, entreat as brethren, elder women, entreat as mothers,
younger women, entreat as sisters, and with all purity. guarding
Timothy in that way from sins interacting with the opposite
sex, then there are the widows to honour them. And he has a
lot to say about the care of widows and the preventing of
those that are widowed when they are young from falling into many
sins and snares associated with that. He charges the families
of widows to look after them, to provide for them, rather than
have the church provide for them. But those that are widows that
have none to provide for them, then the church will look after
them. He then goes on to give advice
regarding elders that preach and teach that they have double
honour, that they be provided for in a material way. and that there be the directions
against receiving an accusation towards an elder, that it must
be between two or three witnesses, and those that do sin. He charges
Timothy that he should rebuke them before all that others also
may fear. And so he charges Timothy to
keep these things, observe these things, without preferring one
another, doing nothing by partiality. And then comes the words of our
text, lay hands suddenly on no man, that is, either restoring
one to membership after they've been disciplined, it must be
proved first, not suddenly done. or those as he gives advice in
another passage as to bring them into the ministry when they are
a novice or newly come to the faith. It is by observing and
watching a man over a period of time that we actually really
find out who they are and what they are. And so the word that
is upon my spirit is the charge that he gives him the warning
that he is not to be a partaker of other men's sins. Now partakers mean to share with
them or take part in them. And there are two main points
that I desire to bring before you this evening. And the first
is ways how that we can be a partaker of other men's sins. If Paul
is warning Timothy here to not be a partaker of other men's
sins, what are those things that we are to watch for? and be warned
against, and not just applying to Timothy, though some will
apply to those in position in the church like he is, but really
applying to all the people of God. And then when we are thinking
along these lines of partaking in another man's sins, we cannot
help thinking of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, though
never partaking in making himself a sinner, but bearing sins of
others, all of his dear people, in his own body on the tree. And that which is warned against
for his people, he takes those sins and he bears them away at
Calvary. And so I want to look in our
second point on our Lord's bearing the men's sins, other men's sins,
his people's sins on Calvary. But firstly, how we may become
a partaker of other men's sins. And I want to base my remarks
on several passages of scripture and where we have these examples
that are set before us. The first I bring before you
is by not taking action against sinners when we are in a position
to do so. Of course, with Timothy, if he
was in authority in the church, he must take those actions of
discipline in the church. But we think about it with fathers,
with mothers. The example, really, of the combination
of these two in the case of Eli. Because Eli had two sons that
were in the priesthood off Nile and Phineas. And they abused
their position. They lay with the women that
assembled at the door of the tabernacle. They abused the sacrifices. They made the people to abhor
the service of the Lord by how they were behaving. And all he
did when it became as general knowledge was to almost meekly
rebuke them, tell them that it was not good what they were doing.
The Lord sent one prophet to tell him that both those sons
would die in one day. He spoke against his house, that
it would come to nothing because of those sins. And the thing was, Eli was in
a position where he could have, he should have, put them right
out of the priesthood. Not just reproved them, but actually
removed them, and he didn't. And so in that way, he was a
partaker and In one sense, he partook and his whole household
of the Lord's judgment of that. And in years later, the whole
house of Shiloh, they were destroyed. Samuel, of course, when he was
raised up, the first time the Lord appeared to him in a dream
was to bring Eli that same message concerning his house. because
of his lack of action against his sons. We read of a similar
charge and warnings in the book of the Revelation, where we have
the message to the churches. We have particularly in chapter
two, the church at Pergamos, And we find that church, the
Lord saying to them, I have a few things against thee, because
thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught
Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel.
There was a church and they had in it those that were holding
wrong doctrine. Then in verse 15, the same chapter
two, Revelation, They had those that held the doctrine of the
Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. And they were charged to repent,
or else I will come unto thee quickly. These letters are to
the angels, the pastors of these churches. So the same as what
Paul is writing to Timothy, so it is here. that the letters
are sent to the angels of the churches, the pastors. We have
also another, a warning as well to Thyatira, and it is in this
case because there were those in the church, they didn't only
hold wrong doctrine, they taught it. There was those that were
like Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, and thou hast suffered
to teach and seduce my servants, to commit fornication, and to
eat things sacrificed unto idols." And so not taking action when
there is sin and we are in a position of authority and position where
we can take action against it and we don't. we turn a blind
eye to it, then we are becoming partakers of those sins. Whether we be in the church,
whether we be a father, whether we be a teacher, whether we be
in any position of authority, then those that are under us
be not partakers of other men's sins. Another way is by following another's
wrong example. We have the case of Paul reproving
Peter. We read in the epistle to the
Galatians how that Peter came to Antioch And Paul, he says,
I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. For before
that certain men came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles.
But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing
them which were of the circumcision. And we read this, and the other
Jews dissembled likewise with him. inasmuch that Barnabas also
was carried away with their dissimulation. You know, Peter, of all people,
could have known. So clearly he was the one that
was used to first bring the gospel to Cornelius' household. He saw
the blessing. He knew that Jew and Gentile
in the Lord were one and the same. They didn't need to separate
in eating at all. And he knew that, he practiced
that. But then when he had those come that he feared, then he withdrew. The fear of man bringeth a snare. He wasn't prepared to defend
what he was doing against those Jews that received not the Gentiles
into the church. And so here was a case that not
only Peter was walking in a wrong way, but there were other leaders
of the church, preachers, that were following him. And Paul
saw this was happening and so reproved him. And so it's a warning
to us in that how we can be a partaker of another man's sins. by actually
following their example, and that be a wrong example. You
can think of Barnabas and the others that were with him saying,
this is Peter acting like this. It must be right. We'll follow
him. And we may have those as well
that we rightly esteem, and the Lord's people, and have been
used, and have been a real blessing. We should only follow as he follows Christ, and not
be a partaker of their sins when they depart from the Lord's right
way. But then we have the case immediately
prior to our text, where Paul warns about doing things by partiality. That is, turning a blind eye
to the sins of some, but not others. Or, as in the case set
forth before us in the epistle of James, where he warns in chapter
2, My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory, with respect of persons? Or if there come
unto your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel,
there come in also a poor man in virement, and ye have respect
to him that weareth the gay clothing, and saying to him, Sit thou here
in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand there there, or sit
he under my footstool. Are ye not then partial in yourselves,
and become judges of evil thoughts? How he reproved them. and how
easy we can be partial. We can treat those who may even
come into our assemblies as long as they wear a suit and tie and
look all right. We treat them well. If they don't
come dressed in the right clothes, then we don't treat them the
same. Or if they're our flesh and blood, if they're those that
have our own kindred, we treat them one way and we treat others
a different way. He warns. about being partakers
of another man's sins in that way. When we wouldn't be partaker
of a stranger, but because it's flesh and blood, or because it's
someone that is one of our number, then we are partial. And our
judgment is to allow those sins and to let it go. The next I bring before you is
being in a position to warn but not doing so. In the prophecy
of Ezekiel, Ezekiel was warned of God and told by God that God
had made him a watchman unto Israel. And he said that if he
was to see the danger, the evil coming, and that he gave warning,
but the people did not take warning and that they were then wounded,
destroyed, he would be clear of their blood. Their blood would
be on their own head. But if the watchman did not give
warning and the people then were wounded, then the blood would
be on his head. And those sins that they did
or what befell them, would be laid to his account because he
gave not warning. And of course, in a way, that
principle applies to many things in this land. And many of us
that either are trustees or own land, especially public land,
have to be very careful. In the scriptures, it warns about
having battlements upon the roof of your house because If you
don't, then someone walks on it and falls off. And of course,
we have our health and safety laws in the land. Sometimes it's
not very clear. We might have a situation of
a graveyard with much uneven ground, with many cracks in it,
with many things you could put your foot in, break your foot.
How do you warn people? Should you warn them? If you
don't warn them and someone is injured, How accountable shall
we be in that situation? Really any church with a public
graveyard needs to consider things like that or charity. And so
there is a need of warning where we see a danger. And if we don't
warn and there are those that fall by it, then we are partakers. of the calamity that happens. And if it is a warning against
sins and walking in sin and walking in an evil way, and we do not,
then those people walk in those sins and walk in those evil ways,
then though we personally are not walking in them, yet we are
partakers of those evil ways. There are some men that Well,
they're like Jezebel we've just read at home, the account, solemn
account, where she said to Ahab that she would get for him the
vineyard of Naboth. She didn't kill Naboth herself. She just gave all the directions
for others to do it. And then others sent the messengers
to her. He was dead. So then she could
say to Ahab, that the vineyard was his, and distancing oneself
from the actual deeds, she was just as culpable as if she had
been the one that threw the stones at Nabal. Another way is when we do not
see our sin in the sins of others. The Lord has ordained it that
it is easier for us to see sin in others than to see it in ourselves. I've often found it very useful
where we are exhorted in the Word to pray for our enemies. And there have been many times
that, well, whether you describe them as enemies or not, There
have been those that I have felt to cry unto the Lord because
of what they were doing and because of what they are doing to me.
And as I've been praying to the Lord, as if the Lord turned around
a mirror and he said to me, you're doing the same thing to someone
else. And he's made me see my sin by
what I've seen in others. But sometimes it is like it was
with David, when David had sinned in the matter of Bathsheba, his
adultery, and then murder of Uriah, her husband. And Nathan
was sent to bring a parable to him. Nathan made out that he
was speaking of someone completely different to man in a city. One a poor man, one a rich man.
The rich man had many, many flocks and herds. The poor man had nothing
but one little lamb that he brought up as a pet. And the rich man
then had a traveller come to him and he spared his own flock
but took the poor man's lamb and slew it for his traveller.
And David, he was so angered that this man should do this,
that he should pay fourfold because he had no pity at all. And Nathan,
when David saw this sin of the man that had been described to
him, Nathan turned and he said, thou art the man. There David,
with all his wives and all his riches, had gone and taken the
one wife of Eurychius. Uriah, and has slain him too. And David fell under it. But
when the account was first given, when David was, as it were, watching,
listening to this story, he looked at it as if this has nothing
to do with me. I'm judging it as wrong. I'm
not taking any lessons from it, any instruction from it at all,
until it was applied to him by Nathan. And we can be like that. The Lord can be showing us the
sins of many around us. And we're seeing those sins,
but we're not thinking, I can see them, but are they a reflection
of my life? Are they what I am doing? And so it was also with those
who brought the woman taken in adultery, Could they see their
own sins? They could see hers. But when
the Lord said, let him that is without sin among you first cast
a stone at her, and then continued writing on the ground, they all
went out one by one from the eldest to the youngest, convicted
of their own consciences, partaker of other men's sins,
We may see other men's sins and actually be partaking of them
and not realising. And it is a blessing if we see
other men's sins and we thank the Lord that we do see them
because he speaks to us through them and warns us through them. because as in water face answereth
to face, so the heart of man to man. We not all tempted and
do not all outwardly walk in the same manner of sins, but
our hearts are fallen alike and all prone to the same abominations
and wickedness. When it was told Hazael what
he would do to his master, that he would murder him. He rose
up and he said to the prophet that foretold that it should
happen, am I a dog that I should do this thing? But then he went
out and he went back to his master. His master said, did the prophet
say that I would recover? Yes, he said. What the prophet
had said, And he'd set his face, and he said, the Lord has shown
he may certainly recover, but that he will not. He will die. You will kill him, and you will
be king in his place. And as though he rose up as something
abhorrent at first, he took a cloth with water, laid it upon his
face, and murdered his master, and then took his place as king.
There are those things we may rise up in horror that we should
ever do. And yet, the seeds put in the
hearts, we do that very thing. Be not partaker of other men's
sins. We have another case in John's
epistles. He warns against bidding God
speed. to those who are holding false
doctrine, and specifically false doctrine concerning our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. In his second epistle, he says,
there are many deceivers entered into the world who confess not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, This is a deceiver
and antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive
a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. Then he warns this, if there come any unto you and bring not
this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid
him God's speed, for he that biddeth him God's speed is partaker
of his evil deeds. What a solemn word. Very direct
to our text, is partaker of his evil deeds. May we be delivered from being
a partaker in that way. Another way is by not separating
when we actually should. Paul, he writes to the Corinthians
that we should come out from among them and be separate, touch
not the unclean things. I will receive you, you shall
be my sons and daughters, saith the Almighty. We have a solemn
word in the Revelation 18. And I heard another voice from
heaven saying, come out of her, this is Babylon, the great, the
world and all that it is. Come out of her, my people, that
ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues. For her sins have reached unto
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. The Lord has
said, whosoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God. There's a solemn case in the
days of Jehu, when Jehu was enacting the will of the Lord in destroying
the Baal worship in Israel. And he made out that he was going
to serve Baal much. And he proclaimed this great
gathering of all of the worshippers of Baal. But his intent was to
bring those worshippers together and then to kill them all. But it appeared to those in the
land that he was Jehu, who already was killing people, who already
was going through the land and executing the judgments of the
Lord. And it appeared here that he
was on the side of the idolaters. And he gathered them all together.
And he told them to have vestments, to have cloaks on for all the
worshippers of Baal so they'd all be identified. And then he
said something else to his servants. He said, seek and find out that
there be none of the worshippers of the Lord here amongst those
of Baal. And you think of those that would
have been a weak believer. a fearful one that was fearful
of making a stand, of separating, and thought that they would be
safest, at least for this time, by mixing with those at bayon. And yet, Jehu was going to kill
all of those. But he didn't want to touch those
that were of a fearful spirit that really weren't wanting to
separate. But it's a real warning to us. Let us go out unto him without
the camp bearing his reproach." How would we be? If we had an enemy come into
the land and they said, now we're going to separate you. Those
that believe in God, believe in Christ on one side, those
that don't on the other side, If you discerned and you thought,
well, these people, they're going to kill all of those that believe
in the Lord. I'll escape this just for this
time by going on the other side. And then you found out actually
they were going to spare those that serve the Lord and kill
the others. What a solemn place to be in,
to be a partaker, as it were, of another's sins by not separating,
joining with them, identifying with them. As for me and my house,
I will serve the Lord, says Joshua. And when the spies come back
from searching out the land of Canaan, 12 spies there were. 10 of them brought back an evil
report too. They didn't side with them. They
reproved them. They wouldn't have any part in
the wrong report that they had bought. And the Lord blessed
them. The Lord dealt with the children
of Israel. In 40 years, they had to wander
in the wilderness. Another way is by not asking
counsel of God. When the children of Israel did,
go into the promised land. They were commanded to destroy
the inhabitants of the land, to show them no mercy, but to
destroy their idols, their gods, and destroy them utterly and
to dispossess them. The nations, they knew that.
Those at Gibeon, the Gibeonites, they knew that. So they set out
to deceive the children of Israel. They made out they came from
a country a long, long way away. And to reinforce their story,
they made their shoes, their clothes, as if they'd travelled
a great distance. Their bread was all mouldy, their
provisions were all spent. And we read to the children of
Israel that they asked not counsel at the Lord. They took of their
victuals. They just looked with their own
eyes and thought, this is an open and shut case. We know what
the situation is. We'll make an agreement with
them so that we do not destroy them. They can be one of us.
And they did that, and three days later, they find out they
dwelt among them, and they were only three days' journey away.
But they had already made the agreement. How many have not
looked into a contract, have not inquired at what a firm is
doing, or what entails to make an agreement to join with someone?
Everything seemed to be in order. Everything was right. And they
trusted their own wisdom instead of taking it to the Lord and
saying, Lord, what is hidden? What am I not seeing? And what a warning here of the
children of Israel. Those that should have been destroyed,
now they are dwelling amongst them. And they are. And later
on, they were partaker of their sins. The idols became a snare
to them. and yet they were bound unto
them. Maybe always. If we are to escape
being partaker of another man's sins, ask that counsel at the
hand of the Lord. What is involved here? What is this as it all appears? Or is there something hidden
that I'm going to be bound with and joined with? You know, years
ago when I was in my mid-twenties and working in the engineering
office as a design draftsman, and I was offered the position
of chief design draftsman in that firm. But I knew the things
that went on. As just a design draftsman, I
was not responsible for the drawing office. But if I was in that
position, I would be. And I said to the owner, the
manager, I said, if I take this position, I will not be a party
to the things that you are doing. Well, that was the end of that
promotion. Lord provided another job, a
better one instead. But there are those times that
we can get drawn in, and sometimes we have not looked for it. Another
time, and for those of you that are hearing me tonight, you're
working in secular employment, you have dealings with the world,
you're in the world, but maybe not be of it, but there'll be
those times you come across things, You hadn't looked for them. One
firm before I was solely in the ministry over here that I was
working for, we had two parts of the premises that we used
to work in. It was next to the man's house. And one day he urgently came
and closed down one section, herded us all into another, put
fishing nets and everything like that over the machines and all
in the other section. I said, what's going on? And
what it was that he only declared half of the property for council
tax and the inspectors were coming round. And I said to him, now,
I said, you are going to involve us in this. And the inspectors
come round and they start asking us questions. You are going to
expect us to be telling lies on your behalf to support this
visual lie. And I protested strongly to him. I believe that they didn't actually
come round. But it was through that that
the Lord appeared and gave another employment after that. But it was necessary to make
a stand and very suddenly be put into that position. And we
are not to be partakers of another man's sins just because another
man says, you are my employee. And you must do this and we expect
this of you. You do it. But especially to ask that counsel
of God where we may be in a position to withdraw back from that position
before being actually in it. Exhorted in Exodus 23 to not
follow a multitude to do evil and especially where it is to
rest judgment, where it is thought that if there can be enough that
join with a demonstration or join to change a law, if it's
done in a lawful way, that's one thing. But if it is to make
something that is just and honourable and right to be overturned, that
is another. And the judges of Israel were
warned about that. Another way of partaking is by
learning the sinful ways from others. In Jeremiah, we are warned,
learn not the ways of the heathen. And when the children of Israel
went into the promised land, they were forbidden to look at
their idols and to look at what they had worshipped and to inquire,
how did they worship? How did they do their service? because even just inquiring into
it would bring them to learn it and to follow it, which indeed
they did. But if Timothy, if you, if I,
are not to be a partaker of other men's sins, then we need to be
very careful inquiring into those sins. Our hearts are inquisitive
and they're fallen and Often it's a great blessing to be completely
ignorant and don't even know of those sins that have been
done and carried on. Learn not the sins of other men,
neither be partaker of other men's sins. A warning to Timothy,
a warning to us, as sinners in a world of sinners, as with the
heart so easy drawn aside, and in a position, as Timothy was,
where sin would render his position to be untenable and ineffective. We'll want to then think and
speak of our second point. Here is a warning concerning us being partaker
of other men's sins. We cannot but think of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, who was sinless, spotless, holy,
incapable of sinning, and yet he willingly and freely bore
in his own body the sins of his people. Peter, when he writes
his first epistle, is very clear on this. He says of our Lord,
who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when
he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him. that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes ye were healed. And just in those words as well,
it's so easy a way, isn't it, to be partakers of another's
sins. Our Lord, when he was reviled,
reviled not again, how prone we are to end up reviling again,
or when we suffer we threaten, but with the Lord he did not.
Those sins of others didn't provoke him to sin, but then he takes
the black sins of his people Can we say, our sins, my sins,
your sins, he takes those sins, bear our sins in his own body
on the tree. What that must have been, spotless,
pure, holy, and yet to bear in his body our sins. Isaiah in
53, the well-known chapter, prophetic about the Lord's death and sufferings. and he was numbered with the
transgressors, and he bare the sin of many and made intercession
for the transgressors. What the Lord endured for sins
not his own, that which he suffered of the hiding of his father's
face, because in a sense, not as being made a sinner, but in
the scriptural way, made sin for us who knew no sin, so that
the wrath of God came upon him as he was made a partaker of
our sins. In that sense, he became a partaker
of the wrath of God. And he endured that. And enduring
that, he put away our sins upon Calvary's tree. There are many exhortations in
the Word of God that have a counter in the Lord Jesus Christ. One
of them is, he that is shorty for a stranger will smart for
it. In other words, if we were to
say to a stranger, a person that we do not know at all, if you
cannot pay your debts, I will pay all of your debts for you. And it's a stranger. We don't
know who he is. Might be a con man. Might be
a man who already has lots of debts. And we become shorty for
him. He's a stranger to us. And we
end up losing everything because he has nothing to pay and we've
got to pay everything. The Word of God warns us about
that. But you know, the Lord Jesus
Christ is our shorty. And he became shorty not for
strangers, but for those that he has known. and love with an
everlasting love, and those that he knew of a certainty that they
would sin, and that they would have nothing to pay, and that
he would have to pay all, even unto death, to put away their
sin. And so what he warns against
us being wounded for and falling under, he willingly, freely does
for his people. The love of the law, You know,
you might think, well, the Lord hasn't known all my sins. He knew all your sins. He knows
all the sins his dear people have committed, will commit.
All of those sins of his people were laid on him at Calvary.
The sins of the Old Testament saints, the sins in gospel days,
the sins of Adam, of Abel, and of the last that shall be called
by grace. All were laid upon him there,
one time, one place at Calvary, and he knew them all. He paid
that utmost price. Again, in the Scriptures, it
demands that there be a just balance, a just measure, that
they both equal each other. that it shouldn't be one weight
for a buyer and another weight for a seller, but there be a
right payment for the goods. Whatever sins required, whatever
was demanded for the sins of the people of God, the Lord shouldn't
say, well now, those that are not my people, they shall suffer
one suffering, But those that are my people, I'm going to suffer
in their place, but I'm going to make the sufferings that I
endure for them less. I speak with reverence on that.
No. The sufferings that the Lord
has endured for his people are a just weight. He has endured
the hell that they deserve. He hath endured the wrath of
God and the separation. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me what they deserved? And those sufferings are not
lessened in any way. There's no partiality with the
Lord. He doesn't say, those are not
my people, they shall be punished much more. Those are my people,
I'll be punished less than them. No, he deals the same. He requires the same of all of
mankind. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. But where he is the shorty and
where he bears the sins of his people, he bears them to the
uttermost. His is a wrath-appeasing sacrifice
that hath truly satisfied the justice of God. and renders his
people to stand faultless before the throne, giving them his own
righteousness and blotting out their sins with his own blood. Our Lord then, bearing other
men's sins, he did not die for his own sins. He died for his
people's sins. He had no sin. And so when we
read of Paul, the Holy Spirit, through Paul, saying to Timothy,
neither be partaker of other men's sins. He cannot help thinking
of our Lord Jesus Christ being partaker in the sense of bearing
other men's sins in his own body on the cross. May we view that
those sins were ours. They shall look upon him whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for him. It is there that we see sin, what
it truly is, how hateful, how evil it is. Neither be partaker of other
men's sins. The Lord bless this word and
lead us to the sin bearer. to the Lord Jesus Christ and
keep us pure from the sins of others and that our sins be blotted
out through the Lord. Amen.