Turn with me if you would to
1 Timothy chapter five. 1 Timothy chapter five. We will continue here in our
study of 1 Timothy. And Paul is giving Timothy instructions
on many different matters right here. He is giving him good,
obviously this is all good instruction from a physical point of view.
Everything that he has to say right here is very needful instruction. But with the physical, as we
go through this, we also see the spiritual. We never only
focus on the physical without seeing the spiritual, and that's
what I want us to do today. There is some vital instruction,
physical instruction, and I wanna point it out and I wanna emphasize
it, but only in light of the spiritual application of this
concerning Christ. So let's begin by reading the
verses that we're gonna look at here. Look with me at verse
19, 1 Timothy 5, verse 19, it says, against an elder receive not
accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin
rebuke before all that others also may fear. I charge thee
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that
thou observe these things without preferring one before another,
Doing nothing by partiality, lay hands suddenly on no man,
neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. Drink no longer water, but use
a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. Some men's sins are opened beforehand,
going before to judgment, and some they follow after. Likewise also the good works
of some, which those words are in italics added by the translators,
likewise also the good works are manifest beforehand and they
that are otherwise cannot be hid. Now usually I'll give you
the physical application first and then the spiritual, but I
don't want to do that today. I want to reverse this order
and give you the spiritual application for each one of those verses
first, and then I'll tell you what this is physically saying,
all right? Verse 19 says, against an elder. An elder can be an older person. Sometimes that's what it's referring
to. In this case, though, it is referring
to a pastor or a man who has been given the commission of
preaching. And from a spiritual point of view, we're going to
start this with the spiritual. From a spiritual point of view,
the preacher is Christ. Christ is the elder. Christ is the laborer in the
word, the laborer of the word. He is the word. concerning Christ,
and this is the glory of the gospel concerning Christ. Look
at verse 19. Against an elder, receive not accusation, but before
two or three witnesses. What that's saying is, if you
do not have two or three witnesses confirming a matter, don't believe
it. Don't receive it, don't act on
it. In order for there to be no doubt
that the accusation is so, there has to be two or three witnesses
confirming it. There has to be. Now, our salvation
is built on the fact that Christ was made to be our sin. That's what our salvation is
built on. It's built on the fact that our
iniquity was literally actually taken off of us and laid on Him. Actually removed out of us and
pressed into Him. Now, did that really happen? Did that really happen? Was He
made to be our sin or did He just pretend to be our sin? Was He really made to be our
sin or did He just pretend to be our sin? Was he really made
to be our sin, or like Brother Scott Richardson used to say,
did he just have a post-it note stuck on him that said sin? You know, sin was laid on him,
charged to him. There it is, sin. Which one was
it? In order for the accusation of
sin to be charged to him and for him to be convicted of it
and to be condemned of it, according to holy justice, there had to
be at least two or three witnesses to bear record of it, that it
was the absolute truth. All right, well, look at this.
Turn with me to 1 John 5. First John five, this is speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse six, it says, this is he
that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water
only, but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth
witness because the spirit is truth. For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood,
and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his son. What was the record that God
gave of his son? In Isaiah 53 verse 11 it says,
he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. When Christ cried, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? It is because the father bore
record. Why did the father forsake the
son? It's because he was an eyewitness to the fact that sin had been
transferred to his only begotten son. The father bore witness,
the spirit bore witness, and even Christ bore witness of himself. He said in Psalm 22, I know why
you have forsaken me. It's because you are holy and
you must punish the sin that I have been made to be. Christ
said concerning his own self, right there in Psalm 22, bearing
witness of his own condition, he said, this sin has made me
to be a worm. for Jacob, my worm." That's the
glory of the gospel. That's Christ bearing our sin
debt and suffering the punishment in our place. And it was confirmed
by witnesses. The law and the prophets witnessed
it, the Godhead witnessed it, and it was established and forever
settled because of that. All right, go with me back to
1 Timothy 5. Verse 19, against an elder received
not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them
that sin, rebuke before all that others also may fear. Them that
sin, rebuke before all. Our Lord Jesus Christ knew no
sin. It's critical, critical information. He never committed one sin. He
is sinless. He is spotless. But when the
Father made Him to be the substitute for me, He became me. He became me. Hebrews 7 says,
He became us. He became me. He became what
I am. He stood before the judgment
of God, not just for me. I know that that's what we think.
He stood there for us, and he did. But not just for us, he
stood there as us. He stood there as the sinner
that I am. In him, Gabe Stoniker stood there. There's a judgment that every
soul has to face, and in Christ, that's where I faced it. He stood in my humiliation. He had no humiliation of his
own. He had no guilt of his own, but he literally took mine for
me, as me. He stood in my humiliation. He stood in my guilt. And when
he did that for me, as he hung there on the cross, I was rebuked. That's where I was rebuked. in
Him. My sin was rebuked before God,
before man, before everything that is. My sin was acknowledged
and dealt with right there, rebuked before all. Verse 21, I charge
thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels
that thou observe these things without preferring one before
another. Do nothing by partiality. Our
salvation is in the fact that God the Father did not show partiality. He was no respecter of persons. He showed no favoritism at the
expense of his holy justice. Not even for his own son. Not
even for his own son. Even though Christ was the Son
of God, the Father of God showed no partiality. And He justly
dealt with Christ, showing no partiality. The fact that God
is no respecter of persons, that's our salvation. Verse 22. Lay hands suddenly on no man,
neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. This is all speaking of the ministry.
And it's saying, don't be flipping about who you call on. Don't
lay hands on a novice in the faith. Let a man be tried. Let a man be proven. And it absolutely amazes me that
our Lord walked this earth for 30 years before the Spirit descended
on Him, calling Him into the ministry. It amazes me. Who was that little baby laying
in the manger? That was God Almighty. He grew up as God Almighty. The
Son of God, the Son of Man. Which one was He? And he walked this earth for
30 years. Now I'm going to go ahead and
flip to the physical on this one for just a minute. We young
men, if we think we may be called to preach, we want to get into
the ministry as soon as we can. And here's the reason why. It's
all pride and it's all self-righteousness. We're ready to jump into the
ministry as fast as we can. And it's because the earlier
we get in, the more time we have to be in it, and come the end
of our time, we can say, I've been in the ministry for 50 years. I've been in the ministry for
60, I've been preaching the gospel for 60 years. You know, to be
able to say that, you got to get in at 18 years old. God waited until he was 30. May God give us some wisdom and
not lay hands on any man suddenly. Well, we're going to grab him
and shove him into the ministry. Let's not do that. Let's wait
a minute here. Let's let God call him in God's
good time. Let's wait on the Lord. Verse
23, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's
sake and thy often infirmities. In the scripture, wine always
represents blood, the blood of Christ. That verse is spiritually
telling us it is the blood that heals the sickness. It's the
blood. The blood alone. It's not Christ's
blood and my good pure works. I don't have any. The life is
in the blood. The remission is in the blood.
Verse 24. Some men's sins are opened beforehand,
going before to judgment, and some men they follow after. Christ carried our open sins
and our secret sins to the judgment of God. Thank God. our open sins
and our secret sins. Verse 25, likewise also the good
works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise cannot
be hid. There are some things that we can see, obviously, the
good work of Christ in it, and there's some things that we can't
see the good work of Christ in it. Some things happen and we
just don't understand it. But His perfect work will be
made evident. It will be made manifest in His
perfect time. All right, so that's a spiritual
application from what's written here. Very quickly, I'm gonna
be very quick about this. Let's just look at this at face
value. This is good, wise counsel from
the Lord, okay? Look at verse 19 again. Against an elder, receive not
an accusation but before two or three witnesses. Pastors are
targets. Okay? Become one and you will
find out how true that is. Pastors are targets. They are
men whose calling in life is to promote the truth of Christ,
the truth concerning Christ. And it is the adversary's desire
to bring those men down. And he influences the hearts
of men and women, and it's according to the will of God. He can only
do what God lets him do, but he does. He influences the hearts
of men and women to desire to bring those men down. We may not realize it, but this
sinful flesh will develop a desire. It's very prone to a desire to
see men fall. I know this may be a little odd
to hear, but if you think about it, it's so. The flesh likes
to see men fall because it lifts self up. Anytime you see another
man fall in your eyes, you're a little higher than you were
before. So the flesh very much enjoys, sinful flesh very much
enjoys seeing men fall. And it's very willing to hear
slander and to believe it. It doesn't take much at all.
It's very common, very, very common. And I honestly, I'm not
saying that I put myself at the top of the list because that's
a good example for what I'm saying. I really do. OK, it's very common
for us, me being at the top of the list, to hear something,
and then to exaggerate it, and then to pass it along to everybody
that I can possibly pass it along to. That is a very common thing.
We need to fight that desire. If the Lord does not step in
and help us and teach us and give us wisdom, the gospel's
going down in this country. The men are going to go down,
the pastors are going to go down, nobody else is going to come
along, and God will move it to another country. He has done
it time and time again. America will not have the gospel
anymore. I'm being very serious. We need
to fight that desire. Just because somebody says something
in slander of another, that does not mean it's so. We need to give everybody, but
for the sake of the gospel, knowing what principalities and powers
we are wrestling against, we need to give the men that God
has called to preach the truth the benefit of the doubt. We
need to give them the benefit of the doubt until something
has been absolutely confirmed at the mouth of two or three
witnesses. Verse 20, them that sin rebuke before all that others
also may fear. If anybody in here is without
sin, let him cast the first stone. He that is with them that sin,
okay? Them that sin. Every soul in
here sins. Every soul in here is worthy
of rebuke for sin. Them that sin, rebuke. Okay,
that's everybody in here. Everybody in here is worthy of
rebuke, and we receive our rebukes through the preaching of this
Word. Our rebuke comes from God's own
Word. Our God has not commanded us
to go around in self-righteousness and arrogance rebuking everybody. He hadn't called us to do that.
God is the one who rebukes His people, and He does that through
the preaching of His Word. Romans 14 verse 4 says, who art
thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he
standeth or falleth. God is the one who deals with
and convicts his own people and he will do it through his word. This word is quick and sharp
and powerful like a two-edged sword and it will pierce and
it'll say, that's right, that's truth, truth, Lord. I'm the man. And He will do it. He will deal
with, He'll convict His own people. As a matter of fact, concerning
us seeing each other's sins and witnessing each other's sins.
Proverbs 10 verse 12 says, love covers them. Love covereth all
sins. That's what Christ did for our
sin. He covered them. Years ago, I
saw a video, you sent it to me, a YouTube clip of a false preacher
going through his congregation, calling out their sins publicly.
He had a microphone and walking through the crowd and he'd tell
them, stand up. And he'd say, I know the two of you are living
in fornication. And he would sit there and call out there
in the microphone to everybody. And they just stood there, you
know, like this. And he'd this and then, what's
wrong with you? I'd this and I'd that. And he told them, he
said, I'm only doing this because I love you. That is not love. That is arrogance. That is self-righteousness. That is pride. He is, I promise
you, he is twofold the child of hell from everybody he's calling
out. Love covers. Hide me, oh my Savior, hide.
We all need to be hid, that's what we need. That's what Christ
has done for us. That's what we need to do for
each other. That's what we need to do for
each other. Verse 21, I charge thee before God and the Lord
Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe these things
without preferring one before another. Do nothing by partiality. To our shame, And again, I'll
put myself at the top of the list. I hate to load this on
the internet. I hate to say this. But to our
shame, all of us have favorite preachers. How many times did Paul say,
don't do that. Don't do that. It tears the body
of Christ apart. It creates division. It promotes
a wrong spirit towards worship. Any man who has, we have a few
here in this room right now, any man who has ever stood right
here will tell you this pulpit is one of the loneliest places
on earth. One of the loneliest places on
earth. You can get up here and for however long it lasts, I
mean, you can be all alone. All alone. The man who stands
here attempting to preach the truth, he feels like he has everything
going against him. The moment you hear you have
to preach, something comes over your gut and it's just slaying
to you. It's like, um, well, he's about
to tell us in a minute, it creates stomach trouble and you worry
about it. I, you know, I woke up, I had
an alarm set this morning. I didn't make it to my alarm.
I was too worried. I got up early, and I studied, studied, studied,
and wrote, wrote, and scratched, and highlighted this, and changed,
and that, and all that kind of stuff. And finally Hannah came
in and said, you realize that it's like ten after nine, and
you're still in your PJs? And I needed more time, and more
time, and more time. The man who stands here feels
like everything's going against him. Evil spirits and principalities
are against that man. You can go to the movies, we
all can go to the movies, and we are just enthralled for an
hour and a half. And you come into this place
and evil spirits and principalities will darken this place for 28
minutes. It's so, and will darken this
man right here for 28 minutes. The wickedness of the man's own
flesh is against him. Everything, every avenue, every
angle, it's against him. The pride of being here is against
him. Everything is against him. The pride of thinking I can do
this is against him. The insufficiency of thinking
I can't do this is against him. Everything is against him. The fear and dread of not having
the spirit and blessing of God. To him, that's against him. Those
of you who do this, tell me, how much time do you spend saying
these words right here? Please, Lord, please meet with
us. Please speak to us. Please bless
these people. Please don't let me stand there
alone. Please don't let us waste our time. We need you. We need
you. Come to us. Come to us. How much
time do you spend doing that? The man who stands in truth desperately
needs the love and prayer and support of God's people, no matter
what his characteristics are. I understand that with all men,
we all have different characteristics and different personalities.
I understand that. But for Christ's sake and for the gospel's sake
and for the truth's sake, we need to love and support and
be with and be for all of them. And I'm not talking about men
who stand up and preach lies. I'm talking about men who, when
they step down from the pulpit, we have no choice but to say,
yes, that man preached the truth. That man preached Christ. That
man preached the gospel. If that's the case, we need to
be for that man. We need to be for that man. Our
partiality and our favoritism is always based on fleshly things. And I've gone too far, but I'm
going to finish. It's so important. We just need this. Our partiality and our favoritism
is always based on fleshly things, always. This is what we hear,
this is what we think. I don't like listening to him
because he's too loud. I guarantee you that was said
of Rolf Barnard many times. He's just so loud. I can't listen
to him, he's just too loud. Well, I don't like listening
to him because he's too quiet. Well, I don't like listening
to him because he's too hard. I don't like listening to him.
He's too soft. I don't like listening to him.
He's just too animated up there. He won't even stand behind the
pulpit. He's over there. He's over there. I don't like listening
to him. He's just too boring. I don't
like his personality outside the pulpit. I don't like his
personality inside the pulpit. Who cares? Who cares? I'm speaking to myself. I have
said those things. What does the man have to say
about how sinners are justified before God? What does the man
have to say about the blood of Jesus Christ? What does the man
give glory to in salvation? Who does he give glory to in
salvation? That's all that matters. If God
before us We need to be for us. Otherwise, I'm afraid we'll end
up on an island with nobody. I'm afraid we will. Well, I don't
think I want to have fellowship with him because I don't like
the decisions he makes personally in life. Well, I'm telling you,
this sinful flesh will time and time again give us a reason to
want to cut somebody off. Wrongly, but it will, and we
will end up on an island with nobody. And I am gonna stop. Verse 22,
I already told you, let's not lay hands on men suddenly. Verse 23, drink no longer water,
use a little wine for your stomach's sake. If a man preaches, he is
gonna have stomach trouble. Throughout the generations, it's
been called PPD. Before preaching, it's pre-pulpit
diarrhea. And after preaching, it's post-pulpit
depression. Pre-pulpit diarrhea, post-pulpit
depression. Everybody who preaches has had
PPD. And Paul said, Timothy, have
a glass of wine. Verses 24 and 25, that's saying
Christ is gonna work everything out in the end. If he will just
let us get through this, Christ is going to work out everything
in the end. May he teach us to just love and patiently wait
on that moment. All right, you're dismissed.