Got front pockets full, back
pockets full. Mr. Gadget. I love him. I wouldn't talk to him like that
if I didn't love him. But everybody knows him knows
that. If you know him very long, you know if he ain't got it,
he's going to get it. But I surely love him. All right,
you know we talked about correction and Things that we need to be
corrected about and things that we need to care about and people
that we need to care about. And last week he talked about
those that's widows indeed. Talk about not rebuking an elder
and the church taking care of widows that are widows indeed.
That means that they haven't got no one else to care for them,
no one else to take care of them, no family. And then the church
becomes responsible for them. And he dealt with that, and then
he talked about those who refuse Christ and go after to get married
just for the sake of getting married and leave the church.
And they go around house to house, idle, talking, things that they
ought not say. And then he keeps on going, and
he deals with continuing along the same vein. And he says there
in verse 14, He said, I will, therefore, that the younger women
marry. You know, if you're a young woman,
especially if you're a very young widow, and your husband died
very young, he said, you ought to, you know, marry. Get married. Yes, by all means, get married.
I will that the younger women marry. That's the first thing
he says. And so then he goes on to say,
and you know, this is the thing about Marriage, you know, and
I said I missed this before the first marriage God himself performed
He made Adam he says not good for Adam to be it's not good
for man to be alone I was talking to a brother yesterday. He said
yeah, it's not good for man to be alone and It ain't so God
said I'm gonna make him a help me and that word help me be somebody
fit somebody able to be a help to him and So he made a helpmate
for him And he presented her to Adam. And the scriptures tells
us after they were married, he said, you forsake everybody,
father, mother, everybody in your family for that one person
that you're married. And that's what he said. And
Paul said, and I'm gonna show you a mystery. He said, the thing
that happened to Adam and Eve is just talking about our relationship
with Christ. And you know, we're joined to
Christ. You know, God told Adam, this is now bone of your bone
and flesh of your flesh. And that's what Christ said about
us, we're bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. And so it's
good, I encourage younger women to be married. And then, you
know, and God made marriage, and here's the reason, and it's
in most marriage ceremonies, so that people would not be out
running around and doing things they ought not do, burning in
lust for one another, for one thing. And also for the happiness
of men and women in this world. And God ordained marriage for
us and to help us. And I'll tell you, and then he
goes on to say this, that they guide the house, bear children. You know, young women bear children,
have children. That's a wonderful thing to have
children, more than bear children. And then it says guide the house,
that means to manage your house. Manage your house, take care
of your house. And this is one of the most blessed things that
God can give a man or a woman, is a man and a woman that they
know their place in the marriage, they know their place in the
home, they know their place as far as God has taught us to do.
And he said, guide the house, that means manage the house.
And then he says, don't give more occasion to the adversary
to speak reproachfully. Now you take a young woman, before
she's married, she's got to be very, very cautious. Because
you know people are going to try to say something about them,
look for any fault, anything they can say, so they can slander
them. accuse them of something, make
up something about them. And they'll begin to question
her purity. And that's why they said, don't
you give an occasion to the adversary to speak blasphemy about you. Don't do that. You keep yourself
to your husband and your husband alone and the husband keep himself
to his wife. And this is what the scriptures
teaches about marriage. And then, you know, then he goes
on to say in verse 15, and this is so sad. He said, for some
of these young women, some of these young widows have already
turned aside after Satan. Now what does that mean? They've
been drawn away from Christ. They've been drawn away from
the fellowship of the believers. They've been drawn away from
Christ. They've been drawn away from being in unity and being
in fellowship with God's people. And so what they did, they said,
I don't care what the church thinks. I don't care what the
Bible says. I want my way, and if I see that
man or that woman and I want them, I'm going to do what I
want to do and I don't care what anybody else thinks or does.
And so they go on their own way. They want their way. They want
to do what they want to do. And the scripture says when they
leave the fellowship of believers and turn from Christ, and that's
what it says, And he says, and that's why you don't speak, you
know, a woman's got to keep herself pure about these things. They
turn aside after Satan. And that's exactly what it is.
They're actually following Satan. That's why we say, Lord, not
my will, but thine be done. That's why we say, Lord, don't
never leave us to ourselves. Please don't do that. And evidently
these people did. And there are people that's that
way. They're that high minded that they'll say, I don't care
what anybody says, what anybody thinks, I'm gonna do things the
way I wanna do it. And I can't help it if people
don't like it, I'm gonna do it anyway. And next thing you know,
they're in trouble. You're in trouble. And then look
what it says in verse 16. If any man or woman that believeth,
if a man or a woman in the church believes, they're believers. And they have widows in their
family. If there's somebody in their
family, if they're believers, let them relieve them. Let them
take care of them. You know, I was reading today
about like Lydia. Lydia was a wealthy woman, very
wealthy woman. And she had a big house. She
invited Paul and all the apostles and all those people that went
with him into her home. Now here's a woman that if somebody
was a widow, and a widow in need, she would have the ability to
relieve them, and maybe even invite them into the home. And
that's what they're saying. If you're a believer and somebody
in your family is a widow, so the church won't be responsible
for them, have to take care of them, you take care of them.
You bring them into your home, you do whatever you need to do,
and you supply the needs of those widows, that the church may be
used, and look what he says, that they may relieve them that
they're winners indeed, that the church and the Lord's people,
and there are people who really get in need, and it's the church's
responsibility to meet those needs and take care of those
needs, but he says they have to be winners indeed, and that
means that they have absolutely nobody, nobody that can take
care of them, and they're too old to take and go back to work
or whatever they do. And then in verse 17, this is
a little hard for me to deal with when we get down to it.
And, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double
honor, especially those who labor in the word and in doctrine.
For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that
treadeth out the corn, the laborer's worthy of his reward. Now the
apostle here teaching Timothy and talking to Timothy, Instructed
them to honor widows that are widows indeed, provide for them,
support them. But he goes on to say, but let
the elders, and what he's talking about elders are pastors or missionaries,
preachers, and then he qualifies it. Those who labor in the doctrine
and word, and in the word and doctrine. Now see, they're worthy
of double honor. Now what he's telling us is here,
Is that when they're worthy of double work, they're worthy of
double whatever. Now some people say that that
means they're worthy and I've heard preachers say this, that
whatever anybody in the church makes, they're worth double that. If you make $100,000 a year,
the preacher should be $200,000. But now I don't believe that
for a minute. Don't believe that for a minute. I don't think that's
what that teaches. I don't think it teaches that
whatsoever. Some men believe that and they teach that. I don't
think that's what that's saying. But what it's talking about is
that they're double worthy. They're worthy of your respect
first and foremost. They're worthy of your encouragement.
They're worthy of your prayers. They're worthy of your acknowledgement
of them. They're worthy of everything
that you can possibly say or encourage or do for them. And
then secondly, they're worthy also of being prayed for and
encouraged. And here's the key to this to
me. Have double honor. I mean, not
only respect, but it also has to do with take care of them
physically, materially, and I've been blessed,
fortunately, that we're in good shape in that way. But anyway,
it's those who labor in word and doctrine. And believe me,
you know, you talk to any preacher, anybody, and you're talking about
a laborer, it's a laborer. It really is. You know, everything
in the scriptures about a preacher, endure hardness as a good soldier.
A husband, you know, he takes care of his own husband, and
you know, he's the fellow that does all the tilling and does
all the work in the garden and in the yard. And everything you
read about it talks about being in a war, talks about labor,
talks about running, talks about fighting. It talks about so many
things as a preacher, and it's a labor. It's a labor. And it's
not a labor that anybody, I don't think anybody wants to lay their
burden down. I don't want to lay mine down.
You know, it's not got so hard that I think I want to quit.
It's not got so heavy I want to quit. But anyway, you know,
it's a labor. And then, you know, because you
got to study the Word. You got to study the Word. You
know, and you can't just get up here and like some fella says,
you know, God said, you know, stand up and open your mouth
and he'll feel it. Well, listen, he's not talking about just get
up and open your mouth and God will give you something to say.
No, no, you'd never get up without something to say. You know, I
may have to read my notes sometimes. I may have to look at them. I
may have to go down like this and look at them, make sure I
got them right. But I do know this, that once you got to understand
the word, and you got to, you know, and here's the thing about
it, a preacher that's been gifted of God, and a pastor or a missionary
that's been used of God, the fact is you can tell very quickly
whether they know anything about the Bible. You can tell very
quickly if they're using scripture to interpret scripture. You can
tell very quickly whether they're using the Bible and staying true
to what they're talking about. And then not only that word,
but also in doctrine. You know what doctrine means?
People say, boy, just give me Jesus. I don't want no doctrine,
just give me Jesus. You know, it's called the doctrine
of Christ. Over in 2 John, it's called the doctrine of Christ.
And doctrine just means teaching. That's all it means, teaching. You know, our Lord says, you
know, they that believe in them are my doctrine. them that believe
God will understand, know my doctrine, know my teaching. And
so it's what we're doing, that's what I'm doing tonight, trying
to teach us a few things here out of God's word. But I tell
you what, they're worthy of support and care by the church. But I
tell you some people that don't need support, and I'll tell you
that, you get a lazy preacher, you get a professional, Somebody's
a professional when they get in the pulpit. You know, that's
one of the things that, you know, have y'all ever seen this? A
preacher gets in the pulpit and he automatically, you know, takes
on the pulpit personality. You know, he just changes his
voice and I mean, you know, he just, you know, he's not himself. You know, he gotta get up and
he gotta, you know, he gotta have a certain voice he has to
use when he gets up and all that. And you know, use the voice God
gave you. Man, y'all know in a heartbeat
if I got up and said, well, good to see y'all today. But those who do what God's called
them to do, and they're dedicated to it, and they do it, and the
duties of their office very well, and labor faithfully in preaching
and teaching. They're worthy of honor, they're
worthy of respect, and they're worthy of being taken care of
financially. All right, and I tell you, you
know, and this is something I'm so thankful for. You know, man
should be, the preacher, missionary, whoever, they should be honored in words and by attitude. And
that's one thing I'm so thankful for. There's people that no matter
how things go in a service, they always say, I appreciate it,
preacher. Thank you for that, preacher. That was good, preacher,
whether it was or not. But there's people that always
say that, and I'm thankful for it. I'm very thankful for it.
All right, let's go down to the next verse. For the scripture
saith, and you know where this comes from? Deuteronomy. This
comes out of Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse four. And he said,
the scripture says, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads
out the corn. Now why in the world would you
muzzle an ox and he's treading out the corn? You know why they
said don't muzzle him? Cause he's working, and let him
every once in a while stick his head down and grab him something
to eat. Give him something to eat. You muzzle him, then you're
gonna work him and work him and work him, and he ain't gonna
have nothing to eat. That's why I said, when he's
threshing that corn, and they're using him to go around and do
all that work, Don't put a muzzle on him so when he's going along
he can reach down and get him a bite to eat. Every once in
a while he can reach and get something to eat. Don't take an ox and
you know somebody that's working, working hard and they're doing
something for you. Don't starve him to death. Don't
starve him to death. Don't do that and that's what
he's talking about. And that's the same thing, the
same principle and that's why it goes down there in the next
line he says, And the labor is worthy of his reward. If a man
works all week, you know what he wants when he gets Friday
comes along? He waiting for the paymaster to come along, give
him his check. And labor is worthy of his wages. And that's what
he's saying, don't take a preacher and try to muzzle him. He's worthy
of your respect and your honor and being fed by you. And it
also says that a laborer is worthy of what you give him, what you
give him. And that's what he's talking
about. And I tell you, you know, a man, you know, a preacher who's
preaching the gospel ought to be allowed to partake of the
fruits of their labor. That's why Paul said, you know,
said, if you partake of our spiritual, And we feed you spiritually,
should we not also partake of your carnal things? Your carnal
things. And I tell you, he ought to be
very, very worthy of your support in any way. And then look what
he goes on to say now. And this is, I think this is
really, really important right here. Really important. Against an elder, against a pastor,
a missionary, Anybody that God's called and God's using them and
and and God's open doors for them, and it's obvious. They
got the Spirit of God on Against an elder don't you receive an
accusation and and if you do you better have two or three
witnesses? two or three witnesses and what
he's saying is if you got a preacher and you got a minister you got
a missionary you got somebody and and their teachers, don't
let them be criticized, don't let them be assailed, don't let
them be slandered, don't let them do it privately, and certainly
don't let them do it publicly. Don't do that. And those individuals who don't,
they like to criticize the preacher. If they don't like what they
preach, or they don't like how they do things, don't like how they
manage a congregation, or don't like how some of the decisions
they make, then they'll start finding fault with the preacher.
And you know, that's not right. I could tell you time and time
again, I went to a place one time and I was standing getting
something to eat and a man told me, he come right up to me and
said, did you hear what so-and-so did, some pastor so-and-so did?
And I said, what? And he said this. I said, you're
lying. I said, that's not true. You're lying right now. I was
standing in a Kentucky Fried Chicken place. And they accused
a preacher that I knew, I knew him, I knew him, I knew him.
and faithful preacher. And they accused him of one of
the awfulest things that a man could do. And I told him, I stood
right there and said, you're lying. That's not true. And you
better stop it right now. And I went straight to that preacher
and told him. And somebody come to me one time,
slandered Bruce Crabtree. Sitting down at the farm and
they started saying something about Bruce and I said, just
stop right there. Just stop. Just stop. I don't want to hear
a thing you got to say negative about Bruce Crabtree. And that's
the way we ought to be about every preacher. And that's the
way we ought to be about each other. That's the way we ought to be
about each other. When somebody wants to come say, did you hear
Oh, I'm like that monkey, I got my hands over my ears. I said,
you don't gotta, ooh, ooh, ooh. You know, we're gonna be like
the three monkeys. Don't see no evil, don't hear
no evil, don't speak no evil. Let's be like that, let's, oh
my. Stand fast, stand up for one
another. But don't let nobody, don't let
anybody slander your preacher. Especially somebody that's preaching
the gospel. And I tell you, then you take
people that's just indifferent in their religion, you know,
careless professors. They don't care much about anything.
Whenever they, you know how they excuse their sins? They start
blaming the preacher. Start blaming the preacher. I'm
gonna tell you a true story. This is just one I could tell
you. Years and years ago, there was an elder in a church. Even
taught some Bible classes. Well, this fella decided to take
up with another man's wife that was in that congregation. And
he took up with that man's wife. And you know what excuse he used
for doing it? And this was come out of 13th
Street Baptist Church. He said, if Henry had been preaching
against sin enough, and against adultery enough, and been preaching
against sin enough, I wouldn't have done that. He burned Henry because he took
off with another man's wife. Somebody like that, you know,
I'll not say it, but he needs a good slapping. Tony Brad, listen,
you know that, but that's what he said, if Henry preached more
on holiness and how we ought to live, and preached on all
these things, then I wouldn't have gotten this shape. You know,
listen, if you've got it in your heart to do something like that,
you're going to do it. I don't care who the preacher is. And
I don't care how much you can preach against sin. I don't care
how holy living you want to preach and how godly you want to live.
If you're going to do that, the preacher ain't going to stop
you. And preaching against sin ain't going to stop you. You're
going to do it with or without it. Ain't that right? If it's
in your heart to do it, you're going to do it. And then it takes two to take
over. That's just awful. But that's
just one instance that I know, that people's done over the years,
and they always blame the preacher. Always blame the preacher. Oh
my, but anyway, they go on down here, and even our Lord, and
under the law, here's what happens under the law. I believe it's
in Deuteronomy 19. He said and our Lord taught this
also He says he said if you bring an accusation against a man,
and you know you bring you want to get somebody before judge
You want them tried for something? You better have at least two
witnesses Preferably three and that was under the law and And
that's what I, that's what it's saying here. You get two or three
witnesses. If you ever bring an accusation
against a man or anybody, you get two, at least two, hopefully
three witnesses that can see it and bring it out themselves.
But I tell you what, and they told our Lord Jesus Christ, you
know, they said, you know, he ain't got, he ain't got no witnesses
about him. And he said, oh, listen, I've
got John the Baptist witness. I got my Father's witness, I
got the Word's witness, I got all my work's witness, I got
plenty of witnesses to who I am. And I tell you what, you know
when you start finding fault with the preacher, and once you
start down that road, you just can't stop. But now listen, if
there is, listen to me now, if there is a legitimate complaint,
either doctrinally or morally, against an elder or a preacher,
you deal with it in a private, scriptural, and brotherly way
before the church. And here he goes on to say, and
this is the reason why, them that sin, in verse 20, them that
sin, rebuke before all that others may sin. And what he's saying
is, is that the preacher, gets off doctrinally or morally does
some awful, awful sin, then you deal with it in a brotherly,
kindly, gracious way, but also you let them be rebuked so that
everybody, all other preachers in that will understand that
this is what the consequences of sin is. Walk in fear of sin
and walk in fear of false doctrine. false doctrine. And then look
what he said now here in verse 21. And that word charge means
I command you. I command you. And listen to
what he says. He does it to about three people
and he says, I charge thee before God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring
one another before one another, doing nothing by partiality.
I charge thee, first of all, I said, I charge you before God. He said, Timothy, before God
Almighty, I give you a charge. God who sees all, knows all,
and has purposed all things, predestinated all things, before
God. Then he said, secondly, before
the Lord Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, your Savior, the one who bore
your sins in his own body, I charge you before the Lord Jesus Christ.
the one whose body was beaten and broken and bloody and put
away sin by the sacrifice of, before the Lord Jesus Christ,
he's your Savior. He's your Savior. And then before
the elect angels. You know, there's even elect
angels, but here's something, I'm gonna tell you something
about elect angels. You know, there's so many angels that fail,
but the elect angels, do you know that God never done anything
for an elect angel other than just elect them? But he never
made a move to save them. But you know what he did? We're
not angels. Not even close. But the Lord
Jesus Christ died for us. He didn't die for an angel. Didn't
die for an angel. But they're upheld by God himself. And then he goes on there and
he said, now you observe these things. You observe the things
that I've taught you. So far up to this point, you
observe these things. And he said, I'll tell you one
thing that you don't do. And every member of the church,
and that's what he says, don't observe these things without
preferring one before another. Well, I like this one better
than I do that one. I want to pay more attention
to this one than that one. That's not what he says. Don't do that.
Don't do that. All members of the congregation
ought to be loved exactly the same and do nothing by partiality. And that's what he says here,
he says, you know, let your dealings with one another be done in love
and affection. Don't perverse somebody before
somebody else. Don't do that. And don't do nothing
by partiality. He said, I'm gonna, you know,
I'm gonna do for these people over here and I'm not gonna do
for that. That's not what he's talking about. Not setting yourself
up and putting people against one another. And then look what
he says in verse 22. I was teaching, I was with a
fellow the other day, and I used this verse of scripture. In verse
22, lay hands suddenly on no man, do the betakers of other
men sin, keep thyself pure. And he thought this here, lay
hands suddenly on no man, means that when you, if you got upset
with somebody, don't be quick to put your hands on them. And
that's all he believed to say. And I said, no. And then he told me that's what
he thought. But I said, don't lay hands suddenly
on nobody. That means if there's a preacher. If that means there's
a deacon, if that means there's an elder, if that means there's
a preacher, and somebody feels, you think they got the gifts
of God on them, you got the spirit of God on them, they got some
ability in the scriptures, you think that the Holy Spirit's
on them, but whatever he says, don't you rush up there real
quick and put your hands on them. Don't approve on them, that's
what he means. Put your hands, don't approve of them. Don't approve
of them. Oh no, let them be approved first. Let us show that they've
got the grace of God in them. They got gifts so that they can
do something publicly. And I tell you what, and that's
why you don't lay hands on no man suddenly, you know, that's
just. And then he says, and then if there is anybody, listen to
this now. If there is somebody that's unfit,
that don't have gifts, that's not qualified, And he says if
somebody lays hands on them, don't you do it. You want them
not to do it, you be pure from other men's sins. If they're
gonna lay hands on somebody that's not qualified, don't you do it.
Don't you partake of their sins. And I tell you, you know, this
is the strangest thing. You know Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
I hope I ain't taking too long. Charles Spurgeon, he went to
be ordained one time. He's a young man, you know, and
he started preaching when he was 17, and went to New Park
Street, and next thing you know, he's preaching to thousands.
In his early 20s, he's preaching to anywhere from 5,000 to 7,000
people at a time. And he went to get ordained.
He went and sat outside in this office here, you know, and it
is a Baptist ordination place, and he went there, and he sat
there, and nobody ever called him, so he got up and left. You
know he was never ordained by anybody or any organization or
anything. Do you reckon it hindered his
ministry? What good would it do for somebody to lay their
hands on an old empty head? But if somebody, if God raised
up a preacher out here, out of us, raised us up a preacher,
And then, you know, you all, and I say, I think this is the
person God would have to start preaching here. And then, you
know, what we'd all do as a congregation, we would approve of them. We'd
commend them. And we would, you know, we'd put our hands
on them, be ordained, and we would ask for God's blessings
to be upon them. God to put his spirit on them,
God to bless him in his work. And I'd love for that to happen,
I really would. Maybe he'll do that one of these
days. But don't you join with others in ordinating somebody
that's unfit. Don't do that. And then look
what he said in verse 23, and I'll hurry on. Drink no longer
water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine
orphaned infirmities. Now, I want you to know something.
He says, take care of your body. Well, I said, you know, evidently
he has some kind of infirmity and has something wrong with
his stomach. He said, use a little wine. Did you know what he said?
He said, use a little, just a little. Don't take a bottle. He said, use a little wine, just
a little. Do you know why he said a little?
So you won't get a big bottle. That's what he's talking about.
Use just a little. Just a little, but he had, and then those places
where the water is so bad that they use wine. But he said just
a little to discourage intemperance. And this here is something that
I think is very important for us to pay attention to here in
verse 24. Some men's sins are opened beforehand, going before
the judgment. Some men they follow after. Likewise
also the good works of some are manifest beforehand and they
that are otherwise cannot be hid." Now let me tell us, tell
us all something this, when we start looking and discerning,
trying to discern sin in somebody, hypocrisy or whether anybody's
got true faith or godliness or they're spiritual and they've
got a spirituality and professing Christians, we're so handicapped.
We're so incapable. You know why? Because all we
can look at is the outward appearance. We can't look on the heart. We
can't look on the motive. We can't look on the reason.
All we can do is judge by the outward. So we're so handicapped. We're confined to what we can
see and what we can hear. And then he says, some men's
sins are open beforehand. Some men's sins and false are
so open, so evident, that everybody can see them, and it's clearly
understood that they're gonna face God in their great day of
judgment, lost, without any hope in Christ. And then there's some that says
here, some men follow after. That means that their sin and
hypocrisy is so well hidden, just like Judas. For three years,
his sin was so well hidden that nobody else knew anything about
it. But the sin and hypocrisy of some is so well hidden that
we're gonna have to wait for God to expose it, expose it. And then there in verse 25, and
then the same is true of good works. You know, we see people
and we're well aware of the good works of some and most. There's
some folks here that's got some really, by God's grace, do some
wonderful, wonderful things, good works. They love God, they
love Christ, they love the Lord's people and do a lot for them.
And there's many works, but there's lots and lots of works of righteousness
and love that's done that nobody knows anything about except them. And men don't never recognize
them. And they won't even be known until Christ comes And
that day, everything will be revealed. Some men's sins are
already, it's obvious they got them. Some men so hid, you go
see them. Some people's works, we just
know they got them. Other people so secret that they,
only God knows what they've done. Well, I hope that was a blessing. Hope we learned a few things.
I feel like I did, feel like I did. All right. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing us to meet here
tonight. Thank you for allowing us to look into your word. What
a joy it is to deal with your word. What a privilege. And Lord,
I thank you for these dear saints of God. They've been good to
me. They've been loving to me, gracious
to me, kind to me, prayed for me. And I don't doubt their love,
not the first moment, not the first moment. And I thank you
for it, I bless you for it. And Lord, I pray that you would
make me faithful, increase in my heart a greater zeal and greater
desire for preaching and teaching and learning your precious word. And Lord, as these dear saints
go their way, I pray that you would protect them and preserve
them Keep them in their going down, keep them in their rising
in the morning. Lord, they're your people, and
I pray you keep them for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear,
love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. See you Sunday, God willing.