1 Timothy chapter 3. Now, there'll be no Thursday. Service this Thursday. No, we
Thursday evening service Vicki and I are going to go in and
my mother's having her 90th birthday Wednesday and And we're going
to visit her mother be mother, you know for Mother's Day, so
we're gonna go in and visit our mothers and and Enjoy our time
with them And I know most of you, if not all of you, listen
to a lot of sermons on sermon audio, so it's not like you don't
have someone to listen to, because you do. I sent several of you
a message this morning that Henry preached. I sent it out to some
others, and I put on there, you know, outstanding by an old warrior. It was just an outstanding message
in 1 Timothy 3.16. A summary of the gospel. A summary
of true religion, I think is what the title of it is, if you
want to listen to it. I didn't send it to you. But we're going to look at 1
Timothy 3, 1 through 7. We may go all the
way to 13. We'll see what our time is. But
here, Paul continues to set forth the order of God's house. One of the key verses to this
epistle is found in verse 15. Look in verse 15. Paul writes
in verse 14 that he plans on coming to him shortly, if possible,
but he says, But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou
oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. This summarizes
this epistle that he writes to Timothy, that he and those to
whom he's ministering to at Ephesus. Remember, Paul left him at Ephesus
to set things in order and see that no one taught another gospel,
another doctrine. He says that they don't teach
any other doctrine, and that they might know how to behave
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.
Not this building that's made up of wood, hay and stubble,
but the church. You are the building of God.
You know the church is the house of God. He's building himself
a house. His son is building himself a
house in which to dwell. And that's what's going on. And
we have this epistle that we may know how to behave. Dad would tell us from time to
time, behave. Mom said it more than Dad. We're
more afraid of Dad. But behave. And this is why it's
written. We might know how to do so. Which is the church of the living
God, the pillar and ground of the truth. You know, there's
one There's one building, one, I
want to call it an organization, but there is a people in this
world that is the ground and pillar of the truth. You're not
going to hear the truth anywhere else. You're going to hear it
through the church, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
will not, you will not get the truth anywhere else. It'll be
distorted. It'll be twisted. But the church,
he said, is the pillar and ground of the truth. This is where the
truth is held. This is where the truth is spoken.
This is where the truth is preached. Right here. God's gift. Isn't
that something? We have the truth here. And we
have the responsibility to hold it forth in this dark, evil world. We have the responsibility and
the privilege of holding forth the truth, the light. So now
in chapter 3, Paul gives us the qualifications of pastors and
deacons. We don't just pick anyone. We
don't pick people out of favoritism. We pick them according to the
Word of God. And God has given us an outline. He's given us an outline of those
whom we we look to as pastors, pastors and deacons of the church. Now, verse 1 here, Paul makes
it very clear that the office of pastor and deacon, as we'll
see later on in this chapter, belongs to a man. A man who has been called of
God and equipped for this office, this work, it's not given to
women. He set that forth back in chapter
2. This is the order of God's house
and the office of pastor or deacon is given to men whom God has
chosen and God has equipped, He's gifted them. And it's not
for just any man. It's not for just any man. It's
given to a man, but not any man. It's a man, as Paul put it in
verse 12, God put me into the ministry. It's for a man whom
God has put into the ministry. And the evidence that God has
put a man into the ministry is the gifts that he's given. He
gives those gifts, those ability to communicate the gospel, to
preach the gospel. And here's another one of those,
I think, evident gifts. And someday I'll have to step
down from here, but it'll be a man who's able to interpret
scripture with scripture. He's able to take the Word of
God and just one scripture after another scripture, they interpret
each other, and he's able to use scripture to interpret scripture.
And then another evidence of a God-called man is that he speaks,
and I listen for this probably as much as I do anything, he
speaks with authority. He speaks with authority. You
remember when Christ came down off the mount after he had finished
the sermon on the mount, and they said, he does not speak
as one of the scribes. He speaks with authority. And
that I listen for. If I'm gonna sit under a man,
if I'm gonna be involved in calling a man, I'm gonna listen for that
voice of authority when he's standing in the pulpit preaching.
I don't want the voice of a scribe. I don't want that. I don't want
somebody to say, like they're reading from a commentary. I
don't want that. And you don't want that. You
want someone that you, it's evident, it's evident that God is speaking
through that man. And that's the evidence that
God has called a man, and it's not just any man, it's God's
man. It's God's man. And then Paul speaks here of
this, that this man who is called of God, equipped of God, he does
have a desire. You see, it begins with a desire,
but now a desire does not constitute a call to the ministry. I wrote
Henry many letters when I was about 22, 23 years of age, and
I was writing him about the ministry. And he wrote back to me, And
he said, a desire does not constitute a call for the ministry because
all of God's children desire to make Him known. Every believer
here desires to make Christ known, but those who are called have
a desire to make Christ known. A desire is there. It begins
with a desire, a desire to make the Lord known, a desire to preach
Him or witness Him to whomever the Lord enables Him to. And
it's a desire, but now listen, it's not a desire for a mere
office, just an office. I know it says here that this
is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires
a good work. It's a desire for the work which
is preaching. which is communicating the gospel,
making the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ known. It's a desire
to communicate the good news. This is good news, and you want
to tell somebody about it. You want to tell somebody about
it. And God makes that desire to grow, to grow. It becomes a burning desire.
It's not for the office. It's not for recognition, but
it's a desire to tell men and women of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, he gives an outline. He gives us, we don't have to
wonder is this one or that one. You know, sometimes just the
outline that God gives eliminates men. We don't have to, right
here will eliminate some. A bishop, a pastor. Now listen,
he must be blameless. That does not mean sinless. We all sin. The best of men,
or let me say, I don't like to use it this way, but the best
of saints, what we would consider the best of saints, they sin.
They sin. We're not without sin. No one's
without sin. But here, it's a man, he has
to be of a good reputation. An honest man, a man of integrity. He's gotta be blameless. He's
a man of integrity, he's honest, he has a good reputation. And
listen, the husband of one wife. Now, keep in mind, to whom Paul's
writing to Timothy, but to whom Timothy's dealing with, the Gentiles,
the church at Ephesus. It's a tough place. This church,
as far as the church goes, is an infant church. And you know,
they had everything coming and going. They just accepted everything
coming and going. It was a tough place. It was
a tough place. And Paul says he's got to be
the husband of one wife. One wife at a time is what he
means. He's saying one wife at a time.
You know, the Word of God does not promote polygamy. It does
not promote polygamy. Now, I know that God allowed
it in the Old Testament. He allowed more than one wife.
That does not mean that God promoted it just because He allowed it. God allows sin. Does that mean
God promotes sin? No. No. You know, when God created
Adam and Eve, He did not create Adam and three or four Eves.
He's created one. You know, there's what they call
the Law of First Mention. You go back into the Scriptures,
into the Old Testament, and the first time that word is used
or that situation is used, that's how it is. And God made Adam,
He created Adam, and He created one woman. for Adam. He didn't create 3 or 4 or 5
or 10, you know, like Solomon, 700. That wasn't very wise. I know he was the wisest man,
he was given so much wisdom, and he was the wisest man that
had lived other than Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ is the wisdom
of God. He's not just a wise man. Solomon was not the wisdom
of God. And he proved it by having 700
wives. And you know what he did? He went and made temples and
groves and let them worship other gods. That's not very wise. But this
man is to have this bishop, this pastor, is to be the husband
of one wife at a time. One at a time. And he's to be
vigilant. He's got to be a vigilant man,
a watchful man. He's watchful. First, he's got
to be watchful over himself, over his conduct, and over his
conversation. Because somebody's always listening.
Someone's always listening. Someone's always watching. And he's got to be watchful over
himself, and he's got to be a man that would be watchful over the
flock in which he's going to be the overseer. He's got to
be watchful over the flock. He's not interested just in Himself
but in God's people over your welfare, your spiritual welfare.
Watchful over you. That the doctrine, the gospel
does not get corrupted. And people, men, men that are
not qualified are not put in the pulpit. Not going to put
somebody in the pulpit. Someone said something to me
here some time ago about someone singing here who's never confessed
Christ. I said, no. No. This is not a talent show. This is not a talent show. This
is where the gospel is preached and Christ is glorified. He's
glorified. Gotta be vigilant. Sober. Temperate. Temperate in all things. He's not a gluttonous man. He's not a drunkard. He's not
given to wine. I didn't say he can't drink it,
but he's not an alcoholic. He's got to be temperate. You
know, you can be drunk with the world. You know that? You can
be drunk with the world. When we read of, you've got to
be tempered, sober, that's sober not just in drink, that's also
in things of the world. He's got to be tempered in those
things. He's got to be tempered in his
hobbies. You know, Johnny has heard Henry
say this, but Henry said to me once, if a pastor can shoot in
the 70s and golf, he's not in his study. He's not in his study. If he
can shoot in the 70s, he's not in his studies. And you can be,
you know, there was a time, and I was on the edge of it, I believe,
you can get carried away with things that you love. You know,
I love playing racquetball. I loved it. And because of that,
I can tell you this, whatever you love, you're gonna be good
at. You're gonna be good at what you love. And I loved it to a
point where I was starting to do it too much. Tournaments,
I mean, I was doing it too much. And I realized, of course, you
know, the Lord knows how to bring his or keep his children in line. He knows how to do that. But
it became evident to me that I was loving it too much. that
I liked it too much. It's one thing to play it once
in a while, just like I enjoy playing golf, but there's a limit,
because I can do it too much. This is what he means, sober.
Sober. You don't want a pastor that's
out playing this or that all the time. You want one that's
in the study. And listen, of good behavior. Of good behavior. He's kind. I can tell you this, I do not,
I do not want to sit under an overbearing pastor. I don't want
that. I don't want one where I am on
the edge. I could not stand that. I couldn't
do it. You know, I sat under Henry for
about 40 years, nearly 40 years. And not one time did he ever
stop the service and call anybody down. He talked to them after
the service. I can tell you that. You know,
he dealt with it after the service, but not during the service. He
never did that. And one man did it. One pastor
did it while at 13th Street. He did it from the pulpit. And
Henry got upset. He got upset about it. Here's why. When my boys were young, if they
were acting up somewhere and you corrected them, I'd be glad. But if I'm there and you correct
them, it ain't gonna go over well. It's not gonna go over
well. I'm there, I'll correct mine.
You can talk to me about it, you can tell me about it. To
me, you might as well just stop and go home once you stop and
do that. You might as well just cut it off, it's over with. The
spirit of that service is gone. It's gone. He's got to be kind,
he's got to be humble, he's got to be considerate of the people,
he's considerate of others, he's not overbearing. And he's got
to be given to hospitality. I'm telling you what, if a man
doesn't love people, don't be in the ministry. Don't be in
the ministry. If you don't love people, then...
Because here's something I know that's true. I've seen it over
the years. If you really don't love people, they really don't
love you either. Really. You get back what you put out.
He that has friends must what? Show himself friendly. That's what Solomon said. He's
got to show himself friendly. So he's got to be given to hospitality. If he's going to minister to
others, he's got to love all types of people. We don't preach
to just a certain race or a certain ethnicity, nationality. We preach to all people, don't
we? God has a people all over this world. He's going to save
people out of every kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation under
heaven. Anybody walks through that door,
I want to preach the gospel to them. And I, in my heart, I hope
God saves them. I do. I hope God, everybody walks
through that door, I hope, I have a hope that maybe they're one
of the Lord's today. Maybe they're one of His. Maybe
I get to preach the gospel to one of His today. I don't know. Then he's got to be apt to teach.
This goes back to handling the Word of God. This goes back to
handling the scriptures. One who has the gift and the
ability to rightly divide the word of truth. You hear me often
in my prayers, asking the Lord to enable me to rightly divide
the word of truth. Because naturally, you can't
do it. Naturally, you and I will twist
it. We will take it out of context, and that's how trouble gets started,
when you start taking it out of context. And if we leave it
in context, and we look at it in the light of the whole Word
of God, Genesis to Revelation, you can get an understanding
of what He's saying. He said, well, I don't understand that.
Well, leave it alone till you do. I've learned to do that. I've
learned, you know, there's been times I've thought about preaching
from a certain portion of scripture and I get to it and I'm looking
at it and I'm just not real clear on it and I've learned and I'm
learning to just lay it aside. Just lay it aside. Sooner or
later, if it's of God, he'll give me an understanding, then
I can preach from it. And then in verse three, he says,
not given to wine, not addicted. not addicted to wine. You know,
Paul wrote in one place, I think in Acts, that one group, they
were addicted to service. You know, we have addictions.
We have addiction. I talked to a young man some
years ago who had an addiction to alcohol. He had an addiction
to it. And I went to see him, talk to
him. by request. I said, first of
all, let me say this to you. And we talked, we're friends.
In fact, I'm going to baptize that man here in a week. I'm
going to go in to Wheelersburg, and I'm going to baptize that
man, that young man. I'm going to baptize him. He
asked, he requested that I do so, and I'm going to. But I told
him, I said, let me tell you this. We all have addictions. The trouble is what you're addicted
to is going to destroy you and your family. I said, I'm addicted
to Pepsi. I drink five, six cans of it
a day at that time. I said, now my addiction to that
is no more, and your addiction to alcohol, The sinfulness is
the same, isn't it? You know, Pepsi's just a slower
death, isn't it? It's just a slower, it's not
destroying my family. It's not destroying my family.
I said, but the addiction to me, the sinfulness of it is the
same. It's just yours is gonna kill
you, and it's gonna kill your family. And that was my conversation
with him. You know, we all have addictions.
You know, people are addicted to drugs. What are you addicted
to? Some are just stronger than others and more destructive than
others. There are some people who are addicted to prescription
medication. It's prescribed by the doctor. But this man, he's not addicted
to wine, but he's not a man given to addiction. I'll tell you what
addiction does. It controls you. You don't control
it, it controls you. It's got you. It's got you. In other words, temperate in
the use of all things. Those Gentiles that he's dealing
with were a bunch of drunks. I guarantee you. They were either
drunk with wine or drunk with the world or drunk with sexuality. They were just drunk with something.
They were addicted to something. Then he says in verse 3, no striker.
with his fist or his tongue. You know, Henry told us in the
preacher school, don't attack anyone from the pulpit. You got
the advantage. You have the advantage. They're
sitting there, you're standing there, you can nail them and
they can't do anything but sit there. That's unmanly, really. You just don't do that. No striker,
but this man is not to be a strike. You know, let's take it to the
street. No No, you don't you take it to the Lord in prayer
You take it to him. I don't know why we think manliness
is somebody's gonna fight all the time Paul said if that you
don't put that kind of person in the pulpit you don't do it
You don't put him in a classroom. You don't put him as a deacon.
You don't use him as a pastor It's one thing to strike with
the Word of God. Peter drew that sword, and man,
he cut off that man's ear, and he was going to cut his head
off, and the Lord said, put that up! Put that sword up! Our weapons
are not carnal. Our weapons are spiritual. Our
weapon is the Word of God. It's sharper than any two-edged
sword. That's our weapon. Now, I know
what the flesh is, because I got it in me. It rises up and wants
to fight, especially if somebody strikes you. That would take
a lot of grace to step away from that. That would. But our Lord
did it. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again. They plucked the hair off his face, and they slapped
him, and he never cursed them, never slapped back. No striker. Not greedy, a filthy
lucre. Isn't that, it's interesting
how he uses this as filthy, isn't it? Talking about money here.
When you have this love, or I, you know, whoever he's talking,
you know, whoever's gonna be a pastor, if he has this love of money,
this greed for money, it becomes filthy. Now, money in and of
itself is not filthy. It's a piece of paper. That's
all it is, a piece of paper. But the love of it turns it to
filth. Turns it to filth. This thing
of getting and amassing money is over with. It's over with. If a man's called to the ministry,
that's his business. Preaching the word of God, making
what we call making money is over with. It's literally over
with. You live on what God provides,
what God lays on the heart of the people. That's what you live
on. Patient. You know, it's unbecoming
for a pastor to be impatient. It's unlike Christ, unlike Christ. God's patient with us. I can
look back and I am so thankful. And I see this now, and I did
not see this when I was young, how patient Henry was with me.
Some of the stupid things I said. I mean, I could pop off. I mean,
Henry said that one time. He said, he can really pop off. But he was so patient with me.
He never burned me. Never burned me. Even when he
rebuked me, he was really kind about it. Patient. You've got to be patient. Long-suffering. Our Lord, long-suffering. Not a brawler. Not someone that's
a brawler. A brawler, ready to fight on
every turn. Not covetous. Not desiring others. That being me, not desiring what
you have. Not desiring what you have. One
that rules well his house. We don't like that word. You
know, God's people don't have trouble with it, but one that
rules. You do rule your house. That's
not a bad word. That's not a bad word. It's a
Bible word. One that rules well. Not one
that rules with his fist. Not one that rules with, where
the Bible says you're supposed to submit to me. That is not
gonna work. I guarantee you that won't work.
But one that rules his house well, he rules it in love, he
rules it for the best of the family, he rules it, and I'll
tell you this, pretty much the way he rules his house will be
the way he rules God's house. If he's weak in his house, he'll
be weak in God's house. If he rules his house in love
for Christ's sake and for the glory of Christ, he'll do the
same thing when he steps in the pulpit. He'll do the same thing. And he rules, well, his own house. It's his house. He doesn't rule
everyone else's house. I don't rule your house. You
don't rule my house. We rule our house. It's our house. He's to be a man of his house,
and he rules his house according to the Word of God. He guides, he disciplines, he
provides, he protects his house. He takes care of his house. And God will take care of him. And I believe this. He rules, he takes care, he provides
for his house. He protects it, he provides for
it. His wife does not provide for
the house, he does. He does. The word of God is not
going to change for us. It's not going to change for
America. It is what it is. He rules and takes care of his
house. He provides for his house. I said this, and I stand by this.
I've been asked several times if I'd be a pastor. And I always
made this rule, and Henry told us this in that preacher school.
Vicki was never going to go to work and provide so I could sit
and study. If God does not provide for me to do that, I'm not going
to do it. It's not for me to be there. I believe that. I believe
that with all my heart. And if it's a small congregation,
I would go to work. The ministry is not that busy
if you've just got a very small congregation. You can work part-time. But my wife was not going to
go to work and supply for me and take care of me so I can
sit and study all day. God's not in that. Now, I believe
that. I believe that. I stand by that. If God's in it, he's going to
provide for the pastor. And if that congregate's too
small, get a job. And that's what I'd tell any young man that
would ask me. I'd tell them the same thing I was told. Get a
job, part-time job. But don't you let your wife supply
for the household while you sit in the study. That's not of God. I don't believe it is. And then
not a novice, not a new convert, one who's young in the faith.
Don't grab somebody young and put them in the pulpit. You know, Jeremy was talking,
he's been talking to me about moving, you know, after Madison graduates next
year. And he was talking about moving down here. And I said,
now, I want you to understand, I'm not a young man. But I said,
I will advise you to this. I would much rather sit under
an older pastor, even if it's just for a few years, than to
go through the struggles of a young man and have to deal with all
that. I said, find, sit under a seasoned
pastor, someone first. I said, first, that speaks with
authority. I said, if he's God's man, he's
going to speak with authority. And if he speaks with authority,
he's going to have the gospel. He's going to have the gospel. There's a lot of things you can
learn. That message I sent out this morning, I said it's outstanding
by an old warrior. And you could tell it. You could
tell just in his voice, just in his delivery, that he's been
around a while. He's been in a few battles. I
thank God, and not everybody can do it, but I thank God that
he sat me down under Henry after he was 53 years old, 52, 53. Because he told me, he said,
I didn't become a pastor until I was 50. Not until I was about 50. And
then, last of all, I'm gonna close with this. He must have
a good report of them which are without. His neighbors. We're talking about his neighbors.
His neighbors said, why the biggest crook ever? You know, listen. We can be, we're at our, everybody's
at their best when they show up here, right? It's what that
person is out there. that means everything. It's not
really, it's not what I am here. We all behave here. It's how
I deal with everybody outside this church. My neighbor, in
business, it doesn't matter, wherever I'm at. He said he also
has to have a good report of those outside the church. Just
that guidelines alone gives us instructions in calling a pastor,
doesn't it? And we'll go on down through
here next week and about the bishop and he's got, his wife
has got to be grave, he says, grave, temperate, his wife, you
know, look at the wife. Did you all look at Vicki when
you called Vicki? Did you all ask about Vicki?
Oh, she could have been a rebel. She's not. She's not. By God's grace. And, you know, by the grace of
God. But he also brings in the wife
because she can absolutely destroy the ministry. She can destroy
it. All right.