chapter 2 verse 8 and then going into chapter
3 through verse 7. I desire then that in every place
the men should pray. lifting holy hands without anger
or quarreling. Likewise also that women should
adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control,
not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but
with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good
works. Let a woman learn quietly with
all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach
her to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain
quiet. For Adam was formed first, then
Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and
became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through
chower-bearing, if they continue in faith and love and holiness
with self-control. The saying is trustworthy. If
anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble
task. Therefore, an overseer must be
above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled,
respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not
violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must
manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his
children submissive. For if someone does not know
how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
He must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with
conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must
be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into
disgrace, into the snare of the devil. All right, here we go. Now, last week, we looked in
the context, and we're going to be going back into between
chapters two and three for the next few weeks, maybe even more,
as we continue to put the context together and show the tone and
the purpose for which Paul's writing. You have to remember,
in every sense, when you read the Bible, we aren't to say,
that verse means this. That's an error, unless we know
that the letter is teaching this, and in that context, the verse
means this. Never is there ever an exposition with a myopic verse. That's called eisegesis. That's
where we read into the text. Exegesis means we take out of
the text what the text is saying. And that always, always comes
with context. So in other words, the way we're
taught to read the Bible with verse and chapters, et cetera,
is often a misapplication of good learning. And in doing so,
we create all sorts of philosophies and all sorts of ideas and things
that breed and promote speculations rather than, as Paul has already
said, that which regards the stewardship from God that is
by faith. So as we read this today, we need to keep in mind
what Paul is doing. He's writing the elder of Ephesus,
commanding the elder of Ephesus, thus those elders behind Timothy
and today still learn what our job is and what our calling is
by the teaching of Paul to Timothy and also to Titus. And then we
see then the commands through other letters like Hebrews and
Romans and other places like that where Paul will instruct
the church on how they are to relate to the elders and with
all of this together we get a perfect job description. But why does
Paul do this? Is Paul not writing Timothy because
of false teaching? Well, he tells us why he's doing
this. I write these things so that
you may, what, put in order, so that you may make things right,
so that you may, what, learn how the church ought to behave.
There's a paraphrase for you. So in the context of all sorts
of disorganization, all sorts of hubris, all sorts of puffed
up knowledge, all sorts of confident assertions, all sorts of theological
debates, Paul writes the letter to the elder of the churches
of the whole city who says, this is what I'm telling you to do.
Charge them to stop saying, teach them what is right, now I'm gonna
show you what an orderly church looks like. That's as much time
as Paul spent on the matter Now he'll talk about it more over
here, but he uses it as a thread that runs through. What Paul
is doing is saying that the people of Christ are humble people.
Why? Because Christ is the prime example.
What does Peter say? Though Christ was hurt and derailed
and everything else, he did not return that. with the same attitude,
the same desire, but yet he entrusted himself to the one as faithful.
He entrusted himself to the Father. He did what was required of him
in submission and humility to the Lord, to the Father, to God
the Father. And this is God the Son, the
creator of the cosmos, who's submitting himself to become
an object of wrath in the place of another people, that is the
elect of God. And so we're learning. Don't forget, when Paul is teaching
this, he's showing Timothy what a humble display of God's gracious
character in the lives of his people really looks like. And
it's not just here, it's everywhere. We go to Galatia, we see that.
We go to Thessalonica, we see that. We go to Corinth, we see
that. We see the instruction everywhere
we go in the New Testament. So for the saints, You realize
that the New Testament letters are not evangelistic in their
purpose. They are instructive, they are didactic, they are to
teach the church something. So elders then, according to
Paul's letter to the elders, are to teach the church something.
Not just theological things, but the so what now that the
theological things are there. Okay, God is and God requires,
now what? Then we put these things into
the right perspective so that we will be known and that we
will live as a people of humility and a people of orderly lives,
especially among the assembly. And so when Paul writes this
letter, there are a lot of things that are taught for the elders
to command and instruct and teach and build. I'm going to use that
word there, but grow the church in its building of itself and
It's all about the assembly. It's all about the gathering.
It's not how the church ought to operate out here in the world,
but yet we see some of that instruction in it. We're not showing, Paul's
not telling how things ought to happen at Walgreens or at
work or at school. We see that teaching elsewhere,
but Paul is teaching the elders of the church. of what the church
ought to look like when it comes together, how the church and
its order displays the gospel that even the creation showed. And we saw some of that last
week and the week before. So God's people display his gracious
character, his humility, God the Son's humility. And how is
it that we do that? This is a review by grace through
his salvation that he's given us in Christ alone because of
the imputed righteousness that is ours, that we are taught by
God. We are instructed by the apostles. And now we are learning that
we are watched over and cared for by the elders. So see, there's
no break in the chain. Though the elder may be the highest
office in the church, it's the first slave. Paul, the greatest
calling of any person in the world to be an apostle of Christ,
yet it was the most humble place. Many times where Paul even had
the authority to say, I'm going to come down there. It is my
right as an apostle. I'm going to deal with this in
a way that I could in a godly way, but because of God's mercy
for me, the chief sinner, I'm going to treat you with greater
gentleness. I'm going to treat you with greater
gentleness. And so we've learned last week
that not all men have the authority to teach the church and women
don't have authority to teach the church. And in this context,
it is about the what? It is about the assembly. It
is about teaching the church what they ought to know and then
holding them accountable for what they ought to know and do
in the context of the assembly. It has nothing to do with the
home, has nothing to do with the work, has nothing to do with
the schools, has nothing to do with anything else. It has everything
to do. There's nothing in the instruction
of the scripture that takes women out of leadership, even in the
church, or even in the home, or even in the community. It's just talking about the assembly.
Just like with elders, we're going to learn this morning,
what is an elder? What does he do? What is his purpose? What is his qualification? Why? Why would we need to learn
that? Why does this letter to the elders need to be read to
the church? Because that was the instruction of the apostles.
Read the letters to the church so that you may know. Don't take
my word for what I tell you my job is. Don't take the elders
of this church at their word. We could make it say and do what
we want it to say and do, right? I could just, because I have
this platform, I could just come up with all sorts of creative
arguments that sound plausible that you would go, yeah, that
sounds right. All right, amen. We're gonna say amen, but yet
it's not what God's word says. Beloved, we live in a society,
in a Christian society, historically, that has done that over and over
and over again, that we have come up with all sorts of beliefs
that are not necessarily from the Bible, even though they are
claimed to be biblical. And so men are not allowed to
be elders just because they're men. Women are not permitted
to be elders and do not have the calling. Only elders have
the calling and only elders are qualified to teach the church.
Now think about that for a second. That's what Paul's arguing here.
That's why in the very next breath of chapter three, he says the
saint is trustworthy. He's talking about order in the
church, in the context of false teaching, because what happens?
What happens? I mean, look at our world. Imagine
if God had provided Paul just a 30-minute glimpse at social
media through a vision. Paul would have died. What is
this? What is this? I mean, I had the
knowledge, the privilege of knowing great grandparents and great
aunts and uncles. It was wonderful to have the
influence of people in their 90s and upwards to triple digits
in my life for so long. And I'll never forget all the
times where I would visit those people. And after a few months,
you know, of not visiting, you go in, you visit, and they always
said something about how the world was so different. It's
changed so much in the last three months. And I thought, that's
odd. Still hot, still nuts. I'm still
in school. You know, that kind of stuff.
That changed for me. But as I age, I begin to see what they say.
That the world and its technology, the world and its ideology, the
world and its rapid philosophical realities, it just leaves us
behind if we're not really in it. And so sometimes it begins
to make us feel like we're just, we're somewhere else. But beloved,
I'm gonna tell you this. If we really focus on getting
our understanding of the faith from the Bible itself, we also
will feel like we're being left behind. And in the world, as
we see Paul teach in 1 Corinthians, what did he say? There was a
real, it's every generation feels this way. Every generation. And if you really want to look
at the sophists and the philosophers of antiquity, beloved, we're
stupid in comparison. I mean, you know, talking about
highbrow discussions, a what? We're just not the same. We don't
think the same way. It doesn't mean we're dumb. It's
just in comparison to that subject matter, we don't know. We're
ignorant. But that was happening in Corinth. And what does Paul
say? It's not about the wise people. It's not about the soothsayers.
It's not about the philosophers or the debaters of the age. Where
are these people? They're nothing. Christ in simplicity,
the God of all truth. He is God, He is the highest
of all things. So here is God in human flesh
walking upon the earth that He created so that He could reveal
Himself to His people divinely in a way that it seems so silly. That's the foolishness of the
cross, the folly of the gospel, the story of the good report
of the Redeemer, Jesus the Christ, Messiah, Mosheach, whatever word
or language you want to put it in. This is the Holy Anointed
One of God who has been sent by the Father to do the work
of redeeming His people alone by grace, and it is not something
that we can obtain. It is something that God grants
us. Repentance is the granting of faith in Jesus Christ. It's
a change of disposition. The new birth is what God does
to secure his people in the redemption that he has already accomplished.
Think about that for a second. And this is just John's gospel,
which is why I get really animated, because it's what I live for. But this is the gospel. And now
because the gospel is what it is, Paul is writing these things
and he's saying there's order in the church, and now he's going
to show what the slaves and the leaders of the slaves look like,
and that is the elders of the church. The word episkopos, sometimes
presbyteros, it doesn't matter. It's where we get episcopal and
Presbyterian. And the polity or the government
of how the congregations operate. But it literally means two things
in the context of scripture. The context, not the definition
of the word, defines what is being said. In the context of
the scripture, in two ways, the word elder is used, or overseer,
same word. It's an older person. Someone
older than you is an elder. So if you're 20 and a person's
30, that person's an elder in time. Okay? And then the office. the office. And there are two offices in
the church, people who serve in a particular capacity with
certain instructions, certain commands and certain authority,
and then a very strict and simple job description of what they
should do. And that's what the second one is an overseer, someone
who looks after or looks over the care of the church. And a
lot of people say, well, care is visiting the sick. Not necessarily. Care is making sure the sick
are visited. Care is doing this. Well, not necessarily. Care is
making sure that this is done. And our world has ruined. I mean, here we are. I personally
have been in the ministry full-time as a pastor 23 years. And I can
write horror stories in books on how I have been called in
disciplinary meetings because I didn't go to football games.
when it's 95 degrees outside in Nance. I'm not going to a
football game in Nance. I don't care if my kids play in Nance.
Have a good time, son. Dad's gonna stay in the air conditioner.
Oh, man, if you really love the Lord, you gotta go to football
games. But that's what Virginia football's all about. If you lived in Athens, it'd
probably be the same way. I've been rebuked because I didn't,
my Bible study in a middle school that I had one time wasn't big
enough. I had 63 kids in that study on Friday mornings that
I took out of my day to go and do, and it wasn't big enough
because another school had a bigger Bible study. So I was reprimanded. I'm like, can somebody just tell
me what I'm supposed to be doing? What should I eat for breakfast?
I was a little smart aleck at that time. Let me write this up. Wheaties
or Frosted Flakes? You know, that's not how you
handle stuff like that. That's not humility. But this letter was written to
one elder, thus all elders can learn from his prescription.
And the church learns and listens to the word of God and then watches
and obeys the elders according to the word of God. And when
should we obey the elders? I don't know. When should wives
submit to their husbands? When should the church submit
to Christ? Now this is tough because the
word submit in and of itself is negative in our culture. The
connotation of submission, the connotation of humility makes
men feel weak. Remember last week when I was
talking about, you know, the bandolier, Bible study, prayer
meetings, just put our rifles in the air, thank you Jesus,
we're coming, we're charging the gates of hell and we're ready
to do it. No, it's about humble submission
and learning quietly for all of us, myself included. In all circumstances related
to the assembly and relationships therein, the sheep of Christ,
the body of Christ, of which I'm a part of, by the way, must
submit to the leadership of the elders according to the scripture.
In all matters relating to the public reputation of the church,
the sheep should submit to the leadership and the oversight
of the elders. In all matters regarding to what God's word
affords that authority, this is order. A church without qualified
elders is not a church, it's out of order. A sheep without a qualified body
is out of order. An elder without a qualified
flock is out of order. These things are nonexistent.
It's like I'm a husband, but I've never been married. Yeah,
I got a wife. Who is she? Don't know yet. I
mean, that's silly, right? Paul tells Timothy that in the
face of division, frustration, and the like, that order is the
special of the day. Order is the prescribed menu.
And that's what he's teaching. That's what he's teaching. The
saying is trustworthy. When Paul writes to Titus, he
says, I left you in Crete that you may put in order that which remain.
By how? He didn't give him a list of
things to do. Appointing leadership teams and committees and develop
all sorts of things and ministries. by appointing elders in every
city. And Paul, of course, taught him
the same thing he's teaching Timothy or reminding Timothy.
Timothy didn't just learn this, oh wow, I didn't know. No, he's
reminding Timothy of the things he already knows. That this is
what an elder must be and this is why. So elders put in order
that which is out of order. Elders keep in order that which
is brought out of order. The sheep must be in order. See,
that idea doesn't, don't you hear it? Don't you feel it? The
Gestapo. Don't you feel the oppression? Don't you feel oppressed here
at Grace Truth Church? Don't you feel manipulated and pressured?
Don't I beat this pulpit and water hose you down good with
holy fire every few weeks so that you feel guilty enough to
keep coming back? No, that's not how we do it.
That's ungodly and that's unbiblical. I can get animated, but it's
because I'm an excited animated type person when I'm in public.
When I'm in private, I cry to myself. I mean, you know, we
don't do... It's not about power and strength and keeping people
doing what you say they must be doing. It's about leading.
Order is about presenting a picture. The marriage is a picture of
Christ in the church. The church is a greater picture of an internal
reality of Christ and his people because that's what it is. And
on this earth, the family units and the individuals that make
up the church, we work together to display the gospel in a way
that God alone, in His wisdom, which is absolutely ridiculous
in a logical sense, but in His wisdom, He has established, this
is how I want to show myself through my people. That by the
church, in the display of the church, His manifold wisdom is
revealed. So the sheep must be in order,
thus the elder must be in order. The elders are not alone. There
must be more than just an elder. We have to work toward those
things in a church that doesn't have more than one qualified
man who is ready. And not only is the elder not
alone because he needs other elders, the elder's wife and
family are part of his life. And then the deacons and their
families are a part of the life of the church. And those who
refuse any part of the order and instruction at any given
time are to be corrected. And if they're unwilling to listen,
they're to be put out of the church to keep order. We don't
keep fighting. We just put the people who aren't
willing to sit down and say, listen, Jesus says, sit at his
feet and listen like Mary who chose the greater thing. And if Christ commands that of
His people, and there are certain people who claim to be His who
refuse that instruction, we don't have to continue to carry that
fire and garbage inside of our family, inside of our household.
We are able to say, until you get straight, you are going to
go. But those who are put out can
return once they submit in humility to the order of Christ. Then the flock is back in order
when we put people out of the church. Those who put out, they
lose their voice, they lose their opinion, they lose their influence,
they lose their intimacy, they lose their friendships, they
lose the benefits of the body. And the flock receives them fully
and gladly when they come back. People who refuse the assembly
are not going to receive the ministry of the body. Now there
are times when you can't. be in the assembly. That's different. The saying
is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of elder, chapter
three, he desires a noble task. He desires a noble task. So right here, we see that a
qualified elder must be called. He must desire it. It's not like
one of these, I heard this from a mentor years ago, mama called
and daddy sent. And that's like, oh, look at
my little preacher. And when he turns 18, get out of my house, that
kind of thing. Yeah, that's not what it's all about, a calling.
This implies first that he's born of the Holy Spirit, that
he is truly a believer. And that means he understands
the grace of God. He understands the mercy and
the authority of Christ. He understands the sufficiency
and the authority of the word of God. Without this, no man,
no elder is worth his weight in eggshells, much less salt.
Salt's pretty valuable now. He understands he is a redeemed
sinner. He has no ground for boasting. He's no better than
anyone else. He's not a leader by suggestion
or authority, but by calling. And that call is defined by God
alone. An elder is not supposed to follow after culture or history,
not follow mom and daddy, grandmama, not tradition, not the church. He is to follow Christ only by
God's word. This call is very costly and
sometimes it is very thankless, but he cannot do anything else.
That's what a call is. I remember one foot in the ministry,
one foot in the world. And when I say the world, I meant
vocation. And I remember that struggle of talking to pastor
after pastor. You know, I'm teaching, I'm serving,
I'm finding myself, you know, it's 80 to 90 hour weeks because
you're doing all of it. And you talk to people and they
go, well, I had one guy, well, that's what, praise the Lord,
pulls out a seminary application with his name at the top of it.
Just submit this and you'll be a pastor. That's not, that's
not my person. And I had one person give me
good advice. He says, do not go into the ministry as a pastor.
Whatever you can do, fight it, stay away. Don't do it. I'm like, that's rude. Then all
of a sudden I realized, I can't do anything else. I have to invest
in God's people. I can't not do this. And I'm willing at all costs
to do it. I don't care what it costs me.
It's got to be done. You see? And that's my story. It may not be yours. But for
years, the work of oversight, the work of teaching, the work
of investing was happening. And then someone finally said,
brother, husband, go answer the call. And that was my wife. This call, this call of the pastor
is something that someone aspires to, and it is a noble task. Noble. That word emphasizes a lot of
things. It emphasizes that it's a spiritual
task, and the life of the elder must be spiritual. He must have
a servant's heart. We can go through all the texts
of Scripture, but for time's sake, you don't have to trust
me. Just look it up. Just go in and look and see what
all Paul teaches about the person and the character of those overseers,
of himself, of then Christ. A servant's heart. He has a desire
to give himself away for the sake of others. A full love of
God's people at any cost. A desire to show Christ to all
that he meets. A desire to be leased among men. A desire to live and even die
for the Sheba. And the calling is a divine gift
of simple understanding of God's word through study, which gives
a ceaseless passion for the word itself. The call, the noble task is teaching
the church to do the work of the ministry by equipping them
through that teaching. The pastor, the elder has a mind
that continually centers on these things in the midst of every
season, as we'll see in the second letter, in season and out of
season, insist, command, rebuke with all authority, instruct,
for the word of God is sufficient for these things. And you, Timothy,
will be successful. We saw that a little bit last
week. And I believe that as another mentor told me a long time ago,
he says, a man ain't worth paying what he won't do for free. That in the context of the calling
of the ministry in the office of deacon and the office of elder,
those brothers who do that will be serving in that capacity in
some sense and the work long before they're ever affirmed
in the office. Because that's what a calling
does. That's also a call to oversee,
the overseer, this noble task. What in the world does it mean
to oversee? Just what it says, to look after, to care for. There's a lot of Greek in here,
a lot of Greek words that aren't necessary. You can pull it out
in the English if you want, but let's look at this list. It must
be above reproach, a one-woman man. That's what literal translation
would be. The sober-minded, self-controlled,
respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not drunk, not violent,
gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, managing his
household and his children submissive, must not be a recent convert.
He must be well thought of by the community. Let's go through
those. Why? Because you need to know,
you need to know what it means to have the character required
to lead God's people. Now the cool thing about it is,
is I can go through the New Testament and I can find the same instruction
to the sheep of Christ, to the general chair-sitter as I can
the elder. So everything that the elder
is called to be, every church member is also called to be. above reproach. What does this
mean? Free from any charge? Free from any of the following
requirements? A charge of being called out
that these things are not matching the man standing in the office
of elder? As Paul would tell the church
of Ephesus, these things should not be counted among you. Should
not even be known among you. These types of things, you can't
be known for these things. Be above reproach. He must be
known for fleshly things in a sense that the world could easily say,
that guy's a pastor. You know what I'm talking about.
Some people maybe even come to mind. And though it may be haute couture
to curse and swear in the pulpit, it is so unbecoming of a man
called of God. Why? Because it offends the senses
of many people and it's not beneficial. Do pastors curse? You better
believe it. Husband of one wife, little translation,
a one woman man. Now, goodness, here's one of
these things where people take that verse and they build an
entire theology out of that verse. You know, it's about polygamy.
It's about divorce. And there's a lot of conversations
that could be had. But in the sense that Paul is
saying here, there is order. A one woman man means devoted,
devoted. devoted to his spouse. So how many times have I been
disqualified in my spirit and even my actions in that context?
Have I loved my wife as Christ of the church every single second
of my day? Absolutely not. I have to give the pause there. Absolutely not. It is specifically
saying here That all husbands are to love their wives as Christ
loved the church. The elder must reveal this. The elder must strive
in this way. The elder must understand this. His wife can't be under his thumb,
and he can't be under hers. He can't neglect his family,
his marriage, for the sake of investing in everybody else.
There's a problem. Because sometimes the church
requires it of a man. And the only answer to that,
well, your wife ought to do something, too. The wife of the elder must be
the center of his focus and not an afterthought. According to the commands of
Christ within reason, his marriage must be sound and working to
reconciliation in every sense. If a man could care less about
his wife, he will care even less about the flock of Christ. This is not perfection, but pressing
purpose to be devoted to his spouse. That's what Paul's saying. Sober-minded. One who controls
their emotions and their mouths. James even says that to the saints
at large, doesn't he? Watch out with your mouth, boy.
It's like a rudder of a ship. That little teeny tiny thing
turns a big ship. That little teeny tiny spark
sets the whole world on fire. Such is the mouth. Sober-mindedness
is often out of the outer flow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Sober-mindedness deals with emotions. My dad used to say, don't let
your mouth write a check your butt can't cash, son. Being led by the spirit and the
word versus led by the flesh and the emotions, passions, zeals,
and attitudes. Emotions are true and real, I
have them, I share them with you. I share a small little picture
of the turmoil that I have sometimes in my life, of the suffering,
of the stress, of the aggravation, of the anger even. But being so reminded is to sit
down and to rest these things and not act out according to
our desires, but live according to the Spirit and the Word of
God. And it's very difficult to do. It's like my father used
to always say when he worked with the Bureau and the Sheriff's
Department all those years. And he'd say a lot of times, the
fear of the penitentiary keeps a lot of men honest. The fear of hurting you sometimes
is a very clear and present danger that God uses to say, you're
really going to destroy the sheep for your own desires. Shut your mouth. God doesn't
talk to me that way. I haven't read that in his word.
The spirit of God brings to mind those realities. An elder must
be a self-controlled man. This deals with what is good,
sound, and right judgment in all circumstances. A self-controlled
person is not carried along by the crowd. A self-controlled person has
good common sense on the matters of life. A self-controlled person,
in the context of the elder, is led by the Spirit of God,
who works this into him so that he doesn't make a mess of God's
people. Because if I make a mess of my
life, after all, most people, what? Look to the pastor for
everything. What should I do about this?
I mean, I even had people come up to me one time with a rash
on their arm. What should I do with this? I
go to the doctor. That's what you should do with
that. I'm not, and I'm a, I have horrible phobias of fungus. I
don't want to touch that. I'm not going to lay hands on
that person. You know what I'm saying? And all jokes aside, I don't know. And it's OK if you want me to
look at it. But I don't know as much as anybody else in the
room about that kind of stuff. I've been an accountant. I've
been a lawyer. I've been a general contractor.
But I can't do any of those things. But people come to me. Hey, can
you help me with this? Can you help me with that? Let's
look it up. Imagine, because that is the
case, if elders are not self-controlled, they make a mess out of that
wisdom. They are constantly just running into walls and just giving
flipping advice. A self-controlled person doesn't
run his mouth and act out and fail in his service. He doesn't
ruin his own life and bring others down with him. But the Lord is
faithful to God. I confess to God me and to God
other elders. I confess my messes. And it isn't
that I don't feel and think messy things. It's that God helps us
to learn and to lead others to do what is right, to do what
is profitable, and to do what is beneficial, no matter what. And for those of you who've known
me a while, you know how many times I've said, punch in the
throat. It's been a long time since I've
put somebody in the throat in anger, but for those of you who
have taken Kung Fu with me, fair game. Respectable. Is the life and the character
of the man in order or in chaos? Now, I feel like my life is constantly
in chaos, don't you? Not for me, but for you. Isn't
there a time we think, am I ever gonna get some peace? You know,
may not, but to be respectable is to be in order. All life to
me is chaos, especially when many people are involved, but
can the elder, can the man manage the chaos and make order and
peace in the midst of it? Does he have a handle on how
to bring solutions? Is he respectable? Is he responsible?
Is he orderly? Because this is directly related
to how he can manage the Lord's teaching of his people. An elder must be hospitable. We've ruined ourselves with the Florida resorts. It's the hospitality
suite. Oh yeah, what's that mean for
an extra $5,000 today? You can eat free. Wow, let's
do it. And it's like snack crackers.
canned sodas. Hospitality in our world means
laying out the table, rolling out the carpet, putting on the
service thing, a little bow tie saying, come on in, take over
my life, have all that I have, it's yours, eat, drink and be
merry. That's nothing to do with it.
It's not about fellowship at all. Hospitality has nothing
to do with fellowship, has nothing to do with hanging out, has nothing
to do with eating. The word literally means a lover
of all people without favoritism. James even talks about that,
right? This has nothing to do with having people over for dinner.
That is a matter of desire and a matter of self-control and
what is profitable and good and fits the obligation and most
importantly the occasion. This has nothing to do with fellowship
and community. The pastors of the church have
to spend time with their families more than most of us because
we are called out more often. It has to be scheduled. It has
to be focused. It has to be orderly. There's
nothing flippant like, hey, what do you want to do today? That
doesn't happen in my house. Somebody calls on Saturday morning,
hey, wanna go do this? Probably not, because I already
have a whole schedule of getting things I've got to do. I've got
to pet the dog, and I've got to water the flowers, and I've
got to like hug one child at three and the other child at
four, slap one of them at the back of the head, get it straight,
hug him 30 minutes later. I mean, I'm being ridiculous. We have to spend time together
to answer the strict focus and command of God to equip the future
elders of the church as well. You realize that's a direct command
to the elders is to equip other men to continue the lineage of
elders. Believe it or not, there's no
biblical mandate for a pastoral search committee. I tell you
what, let's let the business leaders who pay people nothing
to do everything find the next leader. You know what? That ain't the way it works. And then let's hold them under
the fire until they quit or get fired. What in the world? A pastor must be kind to all
people. That's what it means to be hospitable. A pastor must
be able to equip the men and women of the church without respect
or of persons. Even lost people. Even unbelievers,
a pastor must be kind to them to do the work of the evangelist.
And he must be on par to continue to do the work of the church
itself by enabling and equipping the church to actually do it. Church members do not own the
pastor's time and ministry under the charge of hospitality. It
is wide and deep. But it must be balanced and focused,
respectable and self-controlled. A pastor must have friendliness
toward his community, and he must care for it. Not just the
body, but the community. I mean, my wife can tell you
how many times a month our doorbell is rung by somebody that is not
a member of this church, nor attends it. Because I didn't
get my thousand acres. I got my two acres. and my door's
25 feet from the street. It's just the nature of the call. He must be able to teach. And
I'm going to talk about this more in depth later, a whole
sermon on the teaching of scripture, what it means and how it's done
and how to understand it. This is a must. If a man is an
elder and he cannot teach or will not teach, he is disqualified. Now, teaching is not necessarily...
I've been doing public speaking for a long time. It's just one
of those things. It's not about eloquence. It's
not about demeanor. It's not about the ability to
persuade. It's not about any of this kind
of stuff with all these other knuckle-headed, big, mega-church
pastors that like to tell everybody else how they did it, which gives
God no credit. I'm talking about just being
able to teach. Listen to the Word of God, read
the Word of God, live out the Word of God, apply the Word of
God, and then instruct other people in it. It's not about Greek or outlines
or alliteration or PowerPoint presentations. I can teach with
a PowerPoint. I do about 400 slides for a one-hour
sermon. No kidding. It moves, and it's
fun. But it's 20 hours a week to put
the slide together. You save those for conferences that aren't
about scripture. The teaching of the elder is
a gift of God. So that the church can apply
the Bible in every sense to every circumstance. And the most amazing
thing is that we have to be learners long before we're teachers. And
then while we're teachers, we have to continue to be adamant
learners. An elder cannot be drunk. Not
a drunkard. It doesn't mean that he cannot
drink. Paul tells Timothy to drink. He commands Timothy to
drink wine. And I know our SBC friends may
say, well, that wine was unfermented. There was no Welch's Corporation
in antiquity. Unfermented wine was a grape. And the wine that Jesus used
in John chapter two was the greatest wine that any of those people
had ever tasted after they had already had too much. It's not
a prescription, it's a narrative. It has a deep theological purpose,
and I've taught on that. It means that a pastor can't
give in to drunkenness to escape the stress of his calling. He has other things that he needs
to do to do that. He cannot drink himself into peace, because what
does Paul tell the Ephesians? Do not be drunk, but what? Be filled with the Spirit. What
defines drunkenness? We know. What did we do last
night? I don't know. Me either. That
was drunkenness. I mean, we don't have to get
so technical with it. For some people, you shouldn't drink,
but you can't say that a man can't have wine. You can't say
that a man can't have alcoholic beverages. That's not okay. But at the same time, we don't
have a church social and pull out a keg. I mean, you know,
there's a context in which this stuff makes sense. Get the keg
and the bandoliers, we've got a full house. I mean, you see,
we're not catering to the culture. We live in the culture, but we
do so in order, with order. And a pastor cannot be violent.
This literally means he cannot get into physical fights. He
cannot be the guy that's known to pop one in the jaw just because
he got in front of him at the McDonald's. Back in the 80s and
90s when I was coming up as a kid, we were getting in fights all
the time. I got my butt handed to me on Smith Street twice. Knocked out once. The dude spit
in my hair. He was on a fence. I kicked the
fence, knocked him off. Ha ha, laughing. Turned around,
poof! He punched me in the head. I wake up with my buddies laughing
over my body. That's what children do. We get
into fights. I don't even know if y'all do that anymore. Fights
today are like death sentences. I mean, we used to brawl and
punch and kick and kung fu masters before we even had any kind of
online training. I mean, you know, this is just
watching Bruce Lee, much less a real teacher. Jiu-jitsu was
WWF. I mean, you know, that was wrestling.
But a pastor cannot be getting into physical fights. People
don't need to be scared of the pastor because, hey, he knocked
the last deacon out. Did you hear about John and Judy?
They were at a marriage counseling session and the pastor tumped
the table over them, hit them in the head with it. and went
hoorah. Don't make him mad. I mean that's
not the character of a man of gentleness and humility and order.
Do I want to do those things? They cross my mind once a year.
But must be gentle. That's the opposite of violent.
In the direct context, it means able to back off, able to step
down from conflict. A man who doesn't press an issue,
but possesses the wisdom and the common sense and the respectability
and the orderliness and the humility to go, Lord Jesus, help me. And that's
not blasphemy, that's a prayer. That is a prayer. Lord, Jesus,
help me. One of the simplest prayers I've
ever learned to pray. Because you know what it feels
like when you don't want to be gentle. A man who presses an issue is
not fit to lead anyone in a household of faith because Scripture promises
wisdom when one is impartial, patient, a learner, listening,
so that they can get to the point of the matter. Not quarrelsome. I love this one. It's like my
middle name when I was younger. Quarrelsome. Sure is hot. Compared to what? Do you know
how heat works? Let me tell you this. I invented
mansplaining just to make an argument. Not
quarrelsome. An elder who is orderly cannot
readily engage in disagreements. He doesn't need to look for disagreements.
And when he disagrees, he needs to be gentle. He needs to go,
I'm not going to take that fight today. I'll talk with that brother
when we're having coffee or I'll just let it go and watch and
just teach. I don't even have to make a deal out of it. See,
that's the order of the church. Anytimes there's hostility or
suspicion or frustration, that's all of Satan, folks. It's always
of Satan. One million times over, it's
always negative, it's always evil, yet we know that God in
his providence and sovereignty purposes it for our good. So we're not in despair, but
it doesn't mean that we don't put it in order. And when people
don't wanna come to order, they have to leave until they get
orderly. Everyone must humbly submit to
the instruction of Christ in the right manner before any other
discussion can be had. A seminarian, a philosopher,
a debater, a theologian, a sophist, etc. are not qualified for overseeing
God's people. If they're not, what? Gentle, patient, kind, etc. Those things don't qualify you.
These things that we're talking about today qualify us. He must
not be a lover of money. Now, what does that mean? A vow
of poverty? Absolutely not. There are three
places in the New Testament instruction where the church is told that
a pastor must make his living according to the gospel. And
beloved, I've tried. I've done all sorts of side jobs.
I've tried to do other things. I've tried to take full-time
teaching positions, and God just goes, this is so funny. Watch
this. It's like your child getting
through with like a three-week Lego project. Hey, Daddy, look.
And you're just going, crash, stomp, stomp. Why did you do that, Father?
That's not your calling, boy. Not a lover of money. We know
that centers on greed. Not entering the ministry because
the salary at that church over there that you want is big. It's not about that. Scripture
commands the flock to support the family, the pastor's family,
financially. But it cannot be his motivation.
And oftentimes people give based on their emotions and personal
interest and how everything's going according to them instead
of their service to the Lord. Elders cannot be motivated in
this way. They cannot be motivated by greed, but must be driven
by the love of God's people. If people get benefit from the
teaching of the elder, they should honor that benefit by giving. Now this one, managing his own
house. What in the world does that mean? Paul explains it. That he can
lead his children in the same way that he's commanded to lead
his church. You know what it doesn't mean?
Beating your children into a sect of obedience. We're not a dog kennel. A household
is not a dog kennel. We don't take the fly flap to
the face or the wrench to the head. And that's a joke. Don't call
the authorities. This literally means to be diligent
before his family. That's what it means, to be diligent
before his family. In other words, he leads his
home just as he leads the church. What does that mean? Handling
matters that arise, giving patient instruction, correcting when
it's needed, without anger, without violence, but gentle. Teaching his children on matters
of spiritual attitudes, not just requesting behavior. Teaching his children on issues
of relationships, reconciliation. Children are going to act up
when they're little, and they're going to act up worse when they're older. They're going to do it. And sometimes for those who spank
or correct, it should not be punishment. It should be management.
Punishing a child is not managing a household. Teaching and instruction
with consequences is. And it is one of those things
where we are able to teach our children according to the scripture. The
question is, does the man allow his children to act out in rebellion? Does he let that go? Does he
see his young child smart off at somebody and go, that's my
son right there. They said, let the attitude of
the teenager just act out in rebellion as if he doesn't care.
Kids are going to do these things. And there's no other instruction
here besides this. Any attempt to add anything to what it means
to manage a household is adding to scripture. Some people say,
well, you know, you got to do this. The wife must be doing
this. The kids must be doing this. This is what you ought
to watch on TV. This is the type of radio you
ought to have. This is the type of yard work needs to be handled.
Your car's a little dirty. What about education? Home school?
Private school? Public school? No school? These aren't in here. And to
add to this is an abomination. It's an abuse of God's Word to
control God's people. The next thing, he should not
be a new convert. We know this. But what does it mean? Two things.
One is it means that he shouldn't be recently converted time-wise.
What is that time? Don't know. But more importantly
is that conversion evidenced in maturity and spiritual wisdom
and these qualities are there. In other words, Paul's saying
these qualities need to be grown. and growing and intentional.
They need to be aware of these things. In that same voice, I
should not have been ordained and put into ministry when I
was. I wasn't a recent convert, but
I was not mature because I wasn't taught it. Matter of fact, I
was praised for my aggression. Boy, Tippin slapped him in the
head right there with what he said. Man, he smashed my toes and all
my foots and everything, you know? And the Bible tells me
not to rebuke an older man, but to instruct him as I would my
father. You know what I would do to my daddy? Anything that
would cause him to be upset. Because if he's called and placed,
it doesn't mean he's not called, but if he's placed before he's
ready, before he's mature, before his time in the faith, He'll become puffed up, he'll
become conceited, and he could fall into the condemnation of
the devil. That means he'll make a mess, and it's very difficult
to get an elder out of office, especially if he's the only one
and he's made a mess of everything. So I'm going to tell you, other
than absolute personal failure with most congregations, when
you appoint an elder, it's a lifetime deal. If he's not submissive to recognizing
his disqualification and then sits on the front row while some
other man teaches for a season so he can get these things right,
you're stuck. He must be well thought of in
the community by outsiders. You know what this implies? That
he's outside. He's in the community. He's not
myopic as in his interests. He's not just doing church stuff.
See, that's one of the things I don't want to get on this,
but I mean, look at the churches of our culture where instead of engaging
and being a part of. the culture and all the different
things that we could do as human beings, they want to build their
own stuff. Let's build our own league. Let's
build our own stuff. Let's build our own school. Let's
build all this. Let's do it all and keep everybody within the
confines of church membership. That's not what the scripture
teaches the church to be. I love it. I'm not going to lie. It would be great. When I first
got into ministry, I thought this would be great. Let's have 43 campuses
over nine states. and everybody's required to go
to the school and everybody it just it fits it fits my obsessive
nature to have order and everything's in its place or I'm insane you
know but it's not biblical an elder must have genuine relationships
with unbelievers a man who is able to have relationships
with people outside the church can handle patiently when worldliness
creeps up inside the church for the science He saw me, flagged me down, pulled
in. He'd been having a hard time, had some illness. His wife was
ill. He asked me to pray and in that
request for prayer, he used the Lord's name three times and the
F word. And I'm going, no lie, seriously. And I'm like, okay, I'll pray
for you. Most pastors, if they hear that
stuff, would drive into the building trying to get away. Well, sir, I don't rightly know
how to pray till you clean your mouth up. Come on, people. Come
on, folks. See, an isolated person who doesn't
understand the world out there and who's in it can't even do
the work of an evangelist. We're not looking for clean people
to bring into the church. We're calling for the elect of
God to hear the words of Christ. And before God shows us the truth,
we don't even know how nasty we really are. And we're not better than anybody. An elder must have genuine relationships
with unbelievers, and those relationships must be equally respectable.
As he's known by the people in the world, he should be known
for his faith. He should be known for his gentleness,
his reasonableness. He should be known for being
an understanding person, not a hard-hitting Bible-thumper
who tells everybody they're going to hell if they don't get straight.
It's not even the gospel. When a pastor creates a vitriol
reaction to the unchurched world because of his attitude, behavior,
hatred, words, impatience, you better believe he's going to
do the same thing in the church. A qualified man is engaged in his community.
If he's not, with good respect, he's going to fall into disgrace
and he's going to create a schism, the snare of the devil. So what
else? What else? Well, we've got to
review ourselves. We've got to, as elders, and for some of you
who may be called and feel that you're called, disqualification
comes and goes. The staying power of grace and
maturity resolves all issues. Some things, obvious, grievous
acts of debauchery and illegal activity have to be addressed,
and they might have long-term consequences. But for the most part, generally
speaking, every elder already knows disqualifying issues every
day of his life. We see them, we smell them, they're
constantly there, they're biting us at our heels, they're weighing
us down on our shoulders, but we address them. The qualified
man addresses these things. He doesn't stand six years into
the firmness of, I've done no wrong. No, I did wrong. That
attitude I had, forgive me. The church doesn't have the authority
to bring a charge against the elder of the church. They bring
the charges to the elders of the church privately, and the
elders of the church, when they hear enough, they approach the
elder for correction. Because talking about a pastor
with anyone else is a serious sin. Just like talking about another
brother or sister in the faith is a serious sin. If it is not building them up,
it is a sin. Because the command to build
up is there, and the command to not talk about people is there.
So those two things rest in congruence. A pastor is a true disciple of
Christ, a learner before a teacher. And it's not always the only
gift he gives you, but it must be one that he has. Elders can
serve in other places that they're equipped, not just teaching and
oversight. But he cannot serve in other
areas if it causes him to fail in teaching and oversight. Sometimes
hobbies and interests and gifts. But all elders are not going
to be able to do everything. All the elders aren't going to
be able to have the same gifts in every area of life. but they
must all be able to have the gift of teaching in all wisdom. If they cannot teach the church
and keep emotionalism out of the way, they need to take a
closer look to see if they're even called at the present time.
But what do elders actually do? That'll be a couple of weeks.
But in short, elders equip the body in order that the body may
build itself. You should hear that again. Where
do I get that, Ephesians 4? equip the body that the body
may build itself. Elders aren't the builders of
the body, the body builds itself. Elders equip the body and then
keep everybody from killing each other in the process. And when
everything goes sideways, they say, wait, the pastor I mean,
the great shepherd has spoken, not me, the great shepherd, the
true pastor has spoken, Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's hear what
he says in prescribing how we deal with this. Oh, first, everybody
calm down. Second, everybody come together.
Third, let's all pray. Fourth, let's be humble. This
is first Timothy. So we've already learned in the
last 27 weeks. Let's be humble. And then fourth, fifthly, let's
put everything in order. Oh, listen to your elders because
this is how they're living and learning and growing. They have
a lot to give you because they're going through the same garbage
exponentially. And God is bringing through this
prescription the same resolve of unity and humility and peace
for them. So watch them. and mimic them, listen to them,
for they will give an account for your joy and for your soul. We oversee the building of the
church, the correction of the church, the training of the church,
the growing of the church. No other person in the congregation
has the authority or the responsibility of that. Isn't that a blessing? And some of you might, well,
I want it. Is it because you like being in control or do you
have a call? And if you have a call, get ready for the ride,
because it's going to be a horrible ride with the greatest of outcomes. And some people say, well, I
have a responsibility to my brother or sister. Yes, to serve them. And
if you have intimate relationships, consensually speaking, in the
context of friendships and intimacy in the faith, then if someone
intimately opens their life to you, then you have a responsibility
to share the faith and to share the scripture and to teach one
another how to handle the things of life. But we cannot go into
people's lives like police officers investigating to see who's doing
wrong. We don't have that authority, and we don't have the authority
to say, you see so-and-so, you know so-and-so. That's sinful.
That is murder. We can't have murder. But we
need to see the body. Elders need to see that the body
is learning and serving itself according to the gifts that God
has given them. And beloved, that's rarely taught
because culture, history, tradition has overcome Clear, simple instruction. Jesus Christ has given his life
for the church and he leaves us in this earth that we may
be together against all odds and against all differences in
unity and humility because he is the picture of that humility
where he gave himself a ransom for his people. So now we have an obligation
to learn and to live out according to the instruction given us by
Him through the apostles now overseen by the elders of the
church. Oh my goodness, how easy is that? On paper, sounds pretty
easy. Until you realize that on paper,
the occasion for this instruction was pure chaos. So out of chaos, God separates
and creates light from darkness. And out of chaos, out of sin,
out of destruction, out of death, God the Son has saved the people
and snatched them out of death and put them into himself. That
when he died, we died. And when he lived, we live. So rest in that, because we'll
never get all this. We'll never do it right. We'll
never be fully, completely, always qualified. But we are qualified
according to Paul's teaching in Colossians. We are qualified
to inherit righteousness and glory because we are counted
in Christ. Perfect. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your undying
love, for your eternal purposes, for your grace and for your mercy.
And as we take the table today, Father, I pray that you would
help us to remember and realize exactly who we are and what you've
done to redeem us. And the fact that you've called
us to be in this body together to live and to serve according
to your purposes and to your prescription. And there are many
people, Father, in the faith, brothers and sisters across our
lives who do not agree with what you've written in your word.
So, Father, help us to not be haughty and feel like we've got
it together, because, Lord, just with your will, you could cause
us to lose sight of these things. And so we thank you for your
mercy, and we pray That you would show all of our brothers and
sisters the truth of true peace. Beyond the gospel of redemption,
but in this life, as we wait for that day of glory. As we
take this table, remember, help us to remember. To what end and
to what calls for your namesake that we sit here today in Christ
Jesus, we pray. Amen.