Amen, and if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to 1 Timothy, chapter 5, 1 Timothy, chapter 5, verses 17 through 25 as we continue to plow our way through this letter from an apostle to a young minister in the church at Ephesus, he's pastoring. Tonight we have come in our study again for a second week to a passage about elders and even church government by elders. Now let me say before you roll out your eyes or fall asleep or otherwise tune out because church government just sounds like something not very interesting but perhaps not very relevant to you. I want to say I hope that you'll pay attention.
Think how important civil government is to you, whether you pay attention to politics or not, whether you like or think it's good the government that we now have or have had or one day we'll have, think how important it is. Not that the US government can fulfill for you what it takes to be a citizen, but the government can tell you what you need to be a citizen, the government can help you fulfill your requirements to be a citizen. The government can assure you if you are a citizen, a government can help reserve and protect and defend the freedoms and rights that you have as a citizen. Government does a lot of good things for us and a good government does especially good things and no less so in the church.
A good church government can help us be a healthy people and help us really enjoy the rights and responsibilities and freedoms that we have as the people of God and that government can really hurt us. So for some of us who have various political passions and interests in government, I hope that we will cultivate and reason is much interest and concern for the good government of God's church as we do the government of the lands in which we live and it affects all of us whether we think about it or not. So how does a healthy church function? How should a church be led?
Who should lead it? What structures should be in place to hold leadership accountable to God? And one another, these are some of the issues we're reading about in Timothy. Let me invite you to give your attention to God's word and learn from it.
First Timothy chapter 5, tonight we'll pick up the reading back of verse 17 and then continue it through 25, hearing again some words from last week and then Paul's extension of it. This is the word of God. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages.
Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others.
Keep yourself pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment. But the sins of others appear later.
So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot be hidden. Amen. This is God's word, making Shapah's Spide. Let's look to him in prayer.
Father, in heaven, I pray that you would bless your church tonight, mold and Shapah's by this word for the glory of Christ and for the blessing of his people. In Jesus' name I ask it, amen. There's a 1952 speech by Noah S. Soggy, Sweat Jr., a young lawmaker from Mississippi.
On the subject of whether Mississippi should continue to prohibit or legalize alcoholic beverages. Here's what he said. My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy.
On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time. Regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be, you have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right? Here is how I feel about whiskey.
If, when you say whiskey, you mean the devil's brood, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones, reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty. Yay, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children. If you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation and despair and shame and helplessness and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it. But if when you say whiskey, you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips of a warm glow of contentment in their eyes.
If you mean Christmas cheer, if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring and the old gentleman's staff on a frosty, crispy morning, if you mean the drink that enables a man to magnify his joy and his happiness, and if you forget, if only for a little while, wives, great, tragedies and heartaches and sorrows. If you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars which are used to provide tender care for little crippled children. I'm sorry. This talk to me, a politician.
Our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful age to infirm to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it. This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.
I've long wanted to work that new sermon. Why did I work that into this sermon, you ask? What does that have to do with Paul's speech here? Well, Paul is telling Timothy to drink a little wine and he is telling him, and don't be a politician who shrinks from taking a stand on difficult issues and who tells anyone what they want to hear.
Don't be that kind of politician. Because verse 21 and 25, back to the Bible, is an extension of what verses 17 to 20 spoke of last week. Let me take a little bit of time to remind you of what he said there and apply that. And then we'll see the cautions that he adds to it at verse 21 to 25.
So I want to do half our time on the context of 21 to 25 thinking again about 17 to 20. And then I want to do half our time on the cautions of verses 21 to 25. Context and caution. First the context.
Last week we saw verse 17 to 23 things. Paul says in verses 17 and 18, pay respect and remuneration to hardworking elders. Show them double honor. He says, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching why.
Because well, the Old Testament teaches that you shouldn't muzzle an ox when it turns out the grain unless you treat your elders, then you do your domestic animals. And because Jesus, he says, quoting Luke 10, says the labor is worthy of his wages. And then in verse 19, he says the second thing, protect the good reputation of elders. It's easily damaged, we said, last week.
So don't listen to spurious or unsubstantiated charges against an elder and don't receive an accusation against an elder unless there are two or three witnesses. So be careful with and protect and guard the good reputation of elders. But that doesn't mean you do that at all costs. Verse 20, he says publicly rebuke elders who persist in sin.
Where an elder is accused and found to be at fault, rebuke him. And there are examples of Adam and New Testament. A lot of them have to do with Peter. We read of one even tonight.
You know, in March, after eight when Peter self confidently rebuked Jesus for teaching as Jesus did, that the son of man must suffer many things and be killed, Jesus turned around and rebuked Peter in front of the disciples for not having in mind the things of God, but only the things of man. Later Peter, as we know, kept on publicly denying Jesus even to his face three times. Yet after his resurrection, Jesus publicly forgave him and gently but pointedly in the gospel of John, it tells us, ask Peter three times, do you love me? And then Jesus told him, having heard, yes, I do Lord, you know that I do.
Jesus appointed him to go and feed his sheep. Later in the book of Galatians, we read that Peter again steps in it. He refuses to eat with Gentiles and was practicing racism against Gentiles, non-Jews, and Paul publicly rebuked him to his face for not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. We are all one in Christ, male or female, Jew or Gentile.
Poor Peter, I mean to pick on him, but he so often failed spectacularly. And as a reminder, do as I think that elders can get things spectacularly wrong, say and do stupid and foolish and sinful things and be blind to it while they are doing it. And yet how wonderful it is that even these public rebukes for sin did not mean that Peter was disqualified to serve as an elder in the Lord's Church. He repented, he was restored, no doubt, but not every public and even persistent repetitive sin permanently disqualifies a man for serving as a preacher or elder in the Lord's Church.
God is very patient and gracious. Now there are disqualifying sins and disqualifying persistent sins. Don't get me wrong. But what a wonderful thing how gracious a patient restored it, God is in his word.
Let me apply this. Some of what we looked at last week, let me apply this with a little bit of length as we think these things through. Did you notice then in this passage that Paul is teaching that things in the Church should be done decently and in good order? There's a kind of order and organization to the body.
As Christians we're not just a loosely affiliated and lightly connected amorphous conglomeration of floating relationships in any community. Hopefully we're more than that. Hopefully we're growing in the strength and intimacy of relationships building stronger bonds within the body of Christ with one another, absolutely. And even then though it's not a disorganized intimacy.
It's not an anything goes organization. It's not one week I lead in the next week you lead in the next week we let the third greeters greeters lead. God has given structure to his Church. It begins with Jesus who is the King and head of his Church.
He is the chief Shepherd. There are under shepherds, first Peter chapter 5. They are called overseers or elders. They are to manage the Church we saw in first Timothy chapter 3.
Shepherd the Church, pastor and preach and teach the Church. And some of those elders will be dedicated to the ministry of preaching and teaching. It will be their full time work and they should make their living by the Gospel. In the PCA, the president and Church of America to which we adhere, we call them ministers or pastors or teaching elders.
Some elders will make their living through work in the world and they will help rule and instruct the Church. And we call them ruling elders. And first Timothy chapter 3 we saw that all elders help manage the Church and need to be able to teach. That isn't to say that some teaching elders won't work another job and some ruling elders couldn't ever be full time in the Church.
But we talk about teaching and ruling elders. Certainly there is in any man different gifting and emphasis in their ministry. Now what we are doing when we say all this is that we are talking about structure. And different denominations we readily admit do things differently.
And there is a lot of freedom, even among the President's terms about how we work these things out. Now it's true, I want to say this, that you can get the structures a bit off. But because of the godliness and competency of those involved the Church still thrives, even when the structure isn't all that it ought to be, biblically. And likewise the Church can have a great structure and organization, the most biblically faithful one you can have for fine, but due to the ungodliness and incompetence of those involved, the Church can suffer.
Why? Why can the Church thrive even if the structure is bad? Because Jesus rules and overrules his people to build his Church and not even the gates of hell could prevail against her. But we ought to aim as the people of God to be a Church with godly elders who follow the form of Church government most clearly taught in the Bible and let us be very charitable, of course, with those who see a different form.
We have a sketch here that I'm saying. The bare outlines of healthy government, not all the details, but enough to see the Church be governed by elders, even multiple elders, not just one at the top of the sort of a role of a bishop or higher. And these elders are to be accountable to one another in a kind of court of peers. Also that if there are accusations, Paul says, and if those accusations come from multiple people and they prove true, there's to be disciplined, Paul says.
That's what courts do, Church courts. Let me help you appreciate that in the PCA, the way our courts work, just for a moment, we have three Church courts in the PCA. The first is local. It's the body of local elders that govern a local particular Church, shepherding that Church.
In the PCA, we call that the session. Not a biblical name. That's the name. The second court is regional.
All the ministers and all the churches represented by the ruling elders have made it. They have mutual accountability regionally. We call that the Presbytery. The third court is national, or even both high national, but the PCA is a North American denomination.
And all the ministers and missionaries and all the churches represented by the elders. And all the presbytaries collectively together are part of this court. We call it the general assembly. Local sessions are not autonomous.
They are accountable to the regional presbytery. Presbytaries are not autonomous. They are accountable to the whole Church through the general assembly. We are organized that way in the PCA because of passages like 1st Timothy 5 and that's chapter 15, if you were to turn there sometime.
In Acts chapter 15, there was a dispute that arose among the body of Christ. There were some false teachers and there were some confused Christians and there was some discussion and debate about circumcision in the Church. And after some of that debate, Paul and part of this and others were appointed to take the issue to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. So they left Antioch and they went and had a public debate about this at Jerusalem.
And once they made a decision, the churches of Jerusalem, as well as the churches at Antioch and the churches at Syria and Solisia says in Acts chapter 15, they abide by the decision. That was a kind of general assembly of the Church. Antioch wasn't autonomous. It was connected.
And they sought help and received help from the larger body of Christ in this way. And so likewise, the local Church ought to be connected with other local churches in some way, shape and form. And there should be mutual accountability and responsibility. This is how we do the PCA.
Why is this good? Well, if it's true among people that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely as the same knows. And if it's true that people are depraved, and they are, and if it's true that Christians still struggle with sin, even if they're elders, and that's true, and we all struggle until heaven, then it's good and wise that we don't invest too much authority in any one elder. And it's good and wise that we make groups of elders accountable to other groups of elders across the Church.
They say that leadership is lonely. And I do think that can be true. I've certainly experienced plenty of it myself. But I'm a happy Presbyterian because I'm not a lone ranger minister.
And God has me in a brotherhood called a Presbyterian where I can commiserate with others. I can be open and honest about really hard and difficult things going on that I have no idea what to do about pastoralism. I can do that with other elders, and I can be held accountable by other elders. And that's part of why I'm a happy Presbyterian, the Church is connectional.
And that's the context. That's the background, all the same here about holding elders accountable for things. And so that's the context of what he then says in verses 21 to 25, where we'll spend the last half of our time. And I'll highlight three things that he says.
What does Paul do? Or add to this discussion in verses 21 to 25, he adds three or cautions in three ways. At verse 21, he says, don't prejudge or show favoritism to accused elders. Verse 22 and 24 to 25 flow into this.
Don't be hasty for new elders. And at verse 23, I think there's a bit of an aside, but no less important, don't neglect your health as an elder. Three things. Don't judge your show favoritism.
Don't be hasty. Don't neglect your own health. It's what Paul counsels Timothy. Let's think about these three things then.
First verse 21, notice how he puts it. I'm sorry, verse 20, back to verse 21. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. So first, don't prejudge or show favoritism to accused elders.
Paul says, don't be passive. Paul says, don't be presumptuous. Paul says, don't be partial. On the one hand, don't be passive.
Timothy, I charge you to keep these rules. You must do these things. Don't be tempted to let all of this slide, however much pressure comes on you in the ministry. Don't stand back and do nothing.
After all, what would a congregation think, Timothy, if the elders of the church who were supposed to administer discipline for the whole church won't even discipline themselves and their fellow elders? So I charge you in the presence of God. Do this. I charge you in the presence of Christ Jesus.
Do this. I charge you before the elect angels. Do this. Take this seriously.
All three are involved in the judgment of the end times. They're all watching you now treat elders as God would have them be treated. Do these things. Don't be passive.
But also, don't be presumptuous if an elder is accused and Timothy receives that accusation. He is not to prejudge the situation. He's not to presume to know the truth. He's to wait until all the evidence is in.
That certainly makes for a fair trial, doesn't it? It's so tempting to jump all over someone after hearing only one side of a story. Parents know exactly what I'm talking about. Children know exactly what I'm talking about.
No less is it true in the church. And this is found to make somebody mad, of course. Perhaps somebody comes to Timothy with an accusation, right? Timothy might say, well, where are your other witnesses?
Well, perhaps there are other witnesses. So he gets the story from three or four or five reliable people. Yet Timothy still might say, you know what? Let's hear from the man you're accusing about this too.
What does he have to say for himself? Well, Timothy might be accused of not believing the accusers. I've had that happen to me in just this kind of situation. And people might get mad thinking, Timothy doesn't believe that.
When Timothy is simply saying, we need to hear the whole story and not prejudge the situation. Wouldn't that have a more faithful of that as a pastor and as a parent? But Paul is saying, don't make snap decisions. So don't be presumptuous.
And don't be impartial, he says. As you can imagine, maybe Timothy has friends or family in the congregation, or people he just really clicks with who are elders and they're being accused. He might be tempted to deal leniently with them. But for people who aren't friends or aren't family, people he doesn't click with.
He might be tempted to deal harshly with them. And it's hurtful to everyone when some people are treated as if they can do no wrong and some people are treated as if they can only do or can do no right. And so as you know, this is what every jury, every court, every judge, every witness is tempted to do. Two apples were up in a tree looking down in the world.
The first apple said, look at all those people fighting, robbing, rioting. No one seems willing to get along with his fellow man. Someday, we apples will be the only ones left. Then we'll rule the world.
Reply to the second apple. Which of us? The Reds or the Greens? Don't show favoritism.
And we're all tempted to it, Paul says. So this is the first big addition he adds to this subject. Don't be passive, don't be presumptuous, don't be partial. The second thing he says is verse 22, don't be hasty.
Four new elders in the church. Do not be, he says, hasty, verse 22, in the laying out of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Now what are you talking about here?
He's talking about laying out of hands. Now what's that? It was part of the ordination service for a man being set apart or ordained as an elder or minister. You may remember in verse 24, verse 14, you can look back to the next chapter, that Timothy had been ordained and hands had been laid on him and he actually received a gift by the Holy Spirit during the laying on of hands of the Council of Elders or of the Presbyterian.
So he's talking here about this ordination. What's going to happen here? And this is how it goes, generally speaking in the PCA world, is that other preservatives, other elders having examined a man for ministry, having looked at his theology, is he sound in the faith, having looked at his character, having looked at his marriage and his home life, does he manage these things well, does he have good relationship with outsiders, having tested this man's gifts and his aptitude to teach, having heard his sense of call, does he aspire to this work? And has he been approved by others for this work?
They would likewise approve him if he's qualified and gifted and godly for the work. And then they would meet with him and they would set him apart. They would put their hands on him and pray for him. He branches of the Lord's Church, have done this and we do it in our denomination too.
And Paul here, speaking of this laying on of hands, cautions us, don't be too quick to set people apart as ruling and teaching elders. You remember back in 1 Timothy 3, he talked about one of the qualifications, is that another not be a new believer? And not somebody so young in the faith that they're tripping all over themselves, don't enroll them into the training program and get them as quickly as possible into positions of leadership in the Lord's Church. But wait, let time work.
The Holy Spirit sanctify, let them show maturity and stability in the faith. If you're too quick about it, Timothy, Paul warns and that person is later discovered to be unqualified or ungodly or even just too young to bear the weight of responsibility and they fall into temptation or otherwise fall into sin, then he says you will share in their sins. I think he says you'll bear some measure of responsibility for bringing them into the state of affairs and circumstances that should have never happened in the first place. And the best way to prevent the public rebuke of elders is to be careful about those who are ordained in the first place to that office and for all of us then to pray for them.
So Paul says, go slowly, allow time for fruit to be born in the lives of people, verse 24, 25, the sins of summer conspicuous, going before them to judgment, the sins of others appear later. It's the iceberg principle, nine tenths of a person is sometimes buried under the water and we have very little sense in the short term of what a person really is like. It's hidden from view. So there may be patterns of sin present in a person's life and we just don't see them.
They're not immediately obvious. Sometimes they are, but sometimes they're not immediately obvious. So it is with good fruit as well. Some things are immediately obvious, he says.
So also good works are conspicuous. And he says even those that aren't cannot remain hidden. Over time they become visible. So his point is be patient, don't be in a hurry and if you get in a hurry you might ordain unqualified men or you might overlook qualified men.
So be patient, don't rush. That's the second new thing he has. The third and final is this. Verse 23, it looks like a kind of a side.
It seems really weird. He starts talking about Timothy's stomach and drinking wine. I think what he's saying in verse 23 is don't neglect your health as an elder. No longer drink only wine in verse 23, but use only water but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your free canalements.
Wives verse 23. Well one reason is that he had just said he didn't want them to share in the sins of others. So he says keep yourself pure. Timothy might have taken that and heard that to be a confirmation of his practice of abstaining completely from wine which apparently he was doing.
So I'm going to drink a little bit of wine. Timothy may have seen elders who were drinking too much and who were getting drunk. Timothy may have said either of them will drink nothing at all. And it was harming his health and Paul wants his conscience to be at liberty, to be free to drink some wine with his water.
He won't make you impure he's saying to him. But there's another reason why it was known for its medicinal qualities. It would have helped certainly to purify water that had been improperly purified and they didn't have the systems in place that we do. And it had other positive medicinal effects.
And Timothy had a weak constitution. He was often sick Paul says and his stomach couldn't evidently handle the bacteria in the unclean water. And Paul is saying Timothy I don't want you to care for people's souls. I want you to care for your own body that you can be a good minister and helpful to people.
And it is true for all any of you who are caretaker of others. True of parents, true of grandparents, true of people in the caretaking and teaching fields. All kinds of positions of responsibility over others. And we're dealing with hard things, we're dealing with stressful things, we're bugging other people.
Timothy's stress likely caused him to suffer physically. The weight of it, not being able to sleep at night or waking up in the middle of the night, mulling over people's problems early to meet with someone, out late to meet with somebody else, working on his day off because things are pressing and people have needs. Ministers are not the only kind of people in this kind of take care of people business. Many of you know the kind of mental and emotional and physical toll it takes.
And Paul I think to say to Timothy, would you pay attention to you and practice good self-care so that while you're looking after others you're not neglecting to look after your self-drink, a little wine with your water. Now listen, application, I don't need you to exhort me to drink a little wine with my water. I enjoy a good glass of wine. But I welcome your encouragement to me to otherwise care for my body through exercise and good eating to take a day off and mentally and emotionally disentangle myself as much as possible and be refreshed that I might better serve.
Paul in the caretaking world need that. Moms and dads help each other in that. So Timothy is told don't be passive or presumptuous or partial when elders are accused. He's told don't be hasty for new elders to try to get them on board too quickly and thirdly don't neglect your own health as an elder.
And in conclusion, I just want to say I'm hoping I'm provoking your thoughts and questions about these things here at Redeemer. We are a mission church work governed by our presbytery currently and we're asking more to raise up from among us our own godly and gifted elders to govern us locally. Men who love Jesus. Men who desire to serve Jesus.
Men who love the truth and love their wives and love their kids and want to nurture not just their families but the whole church. Men of faith. Men who are apt to teach. Men who can manage the affairs of the church.
And down the road whenever that will be, there will need to be nominations from the congregation of men you think might be qualified for this. There will need to be training of these people and the approbation of God's people giving their assent and blessing that they desire these people to shepherd them. And eventually there will need to be the ordination by presbytery. The council of elders through the laying on our hands.
There is no certain timeline for this here at Redeemer. We're asking the Lord for it and I more than happen to speak with you about these issues and answer questions you may have made the Lord have his way with us as he builds his church, his bride whom he loves and gave his life for. Let's pray. Father in heaven we pray that she would bless and build your church.
I want you to over protect and defend her. Help us be our king and head in Jesus name I pray. Amen.