Midweek Bible Study | 1 Timothy 5 | Gary Hamrick

let's open our Bibles to first Timothy we're in Chapter five tonight first Timothy chapter 5 we have some Bibles for you if you didn't bring one feel free to raise a hand the ushers are coming down the aisles right now with some Bibles in their hands and they will be glad to pass one your way if you wave in their direction first Timothy chapter 5 is where we are tonight that's page 8:40 in the church Bibles that are being handed out page 8:40 we're making our way here through Paul's letter to Timothy first Timothy second Timothy and Titus are known as the pastoral epistles because Paul is giving pastoral advice to a young Timothy and also a young Titus as they would lead their respective churches and so these letters are basically instructions for the church in very practical ways as to how the church should conduct itself and what the church should believe and what should be some of the important things that are emphasized and should define the church and so we're making our way through a list and we'll recap that list and bring us up to speed as we come here to chapter 5 but first let's have a word of Prayer Bart it's good to be in your house tonight we just thank you for the rain we thank you for your grace we thank you Lord for your love and we pray now that you would help us as we make our way through chapter 5 here to give us eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart they would receive what you would have to say to us tonight and we're grateful people Lord we just love you and thank you that you first loved us and it's in Jesus name that we pray and everybody said amen so things that should define the church we were making our way through a list and so far in our study of first Timothy we've seen a few a few points number one it should be a place of sound doctrine number two it should be a place of grace people come in with sinful messed-up lives and find forgiveness in the Lord because they experience his saving grace should also be a place of prayer where we pray for everyone Paul says in chapter 2 particularly for all those in authority that we might live peaceful and quiet lives but we should pray for everybody and then also we looked at number 4 it should be a place where there are godly elders and deacons and the qualifications for elders and deacons are given respectively in chapter 3 it's not that God is looking for perfect people but he's looking for people who will live according to a higher standard if you're going to be leaders in the Church of the Lord or in the case of Deacons if you're gonna be you know ministers servants in the house of the Lord you you need to have your life at a place where it is exemplary not perfect but exemplary and so there's a there's a tall order there's a list given in chapter 3 for both elders and deacons and then into chapter 4 paul warns here that in latter times some will abandon the faith that's what he says in verse 1 that in latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons so his warning is that in latter days as we get closer to the return of Christ it's it's not just the tragedy that some will abandon the faith but it's even more tragic that some will start to believe false doctrines deceiving spirits things taught by demons that there will actually be an abandoning of the true faith and there will be an embracing of false faiths and we're seeing a rise in our own culture of of Islam and Hinduism and Mormonism and Jehovah's Witness and Sikhism and Shintoism and Buddhism I mean it it's continually gaining traction in our world especially as we get closer to the return of Christ so we have this wonderful privilege and obligation of sharing the truth with people and letting them know about the truth of Christ and the love of Jesus and he died on a cross for their sins don't shy away from it and don't get caught up in this game of well I I just I don't want to be offensive to people listen truth by itself is offensive and you you can't escape that it is both exclusive and offensive it doesn't have to be presented in an offensive way but what I mean by that is when when one person and I can remember my own life when an individual is confronted with truth it feels offensive at first until you surrender to it believe in accept it and embrace it so if you want to live your life the way you want and then you're you're confronted with the truth of Jesus no matter how it's presented in a loving wonderful package people can be offended by that what do you mean I'm going to hell what do you mean I am a sinner what you mean I need to be saved what do you mean Jesus is the only way that's narrow minded that's bigoted that's all that kind of stuff people will tell you but what I try to encourage people to remember is if you really believe that you have with within your care something that is liberating healing and eternal I mean why wouldn't you want to share that it just really comes down to the degree that you believe it and the degree that you understand the desperate condition of the human soul because if you for example were a doctor and you came across finally a a cure for cancer here's one remedy one pill one vaccine one something for the cure of cancer it's not it's not narrow-minded to be able to say to every cancer patient here if you take this you'll be cured and and for the sake of being politically correct how tragic would it be to say well you know if you don't want this you don't have to there's some other remedies that you know might it's it's truth is exclusive and truth is liberating if you believe it and if you share it with people who are desperately in need of it and so as Christians we're called to you know let present the truth presented wrapped in the love of Jesus let God do the rest of the work but it's important that we follow truth understand truth obey truth because we're living in a day where more and more people will abandon the truth and will follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons which leads us to point number five Paul says that's why it's important that the church should be a place where it's teaching the Bible because the Bible God's handbook for truth is the source of truth is going to be the information that we need to live our lives in truth too and truth and to share the truth and listen the more that you know the truth you will be able to spot a lie you see when the warning here is that some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons the truth of the matter is that I don't really need to spend a whole lot of time trying to expose deceiving doctrines inside and outside the church because there are those things but my main responsibility is if I just simply teach God's Word simply then as you grow in truth and as you for yourselves study God's Word and understand what it says then you will understand you'll be able to spot the deception you'll be able to spot the lie you'll be able to spot what is heretical because you will be grounded in the truth years ago John MacArthur wrote a book called Restless truth sorry restless faith and in the book MacArthur talked about how federal agents who specialized in spotting counterfeit money don't spend their time studying counterfeit money they spend their time studying real currency because if you spend your time studying real currency then you'll be able to spot the counterfeit so and that's the way it should be in our faith now I read this interesting this guy was this this Canadian author who who took issue with what MacArthur wrote in his book about federal agents you know only being trained primarily in the study of real currency and so he decided to take it upon himself to see if he was accurate so he wrote on his blog curious person that I am I decided to find some answers I called the Bank of Canada's Canadian he said and I worked my way through various levels of bureaucracy and eventually arranged a meeting with one of the nation's foremost experts on counterfeit currency he says it turns out that John MacArthur is correct training and identifying counterfeit currency begins with studying genuine money there are certain identifying characteristics that are added to each bill printed by the Bank of Canada and using this example that he experienced these characteristics are necessarily difficult to reproduce some are intended to stump the casual counterfeit are armed with no more than a scanner and a color laser printer and some will stump the more serious counterfeit or even if armed with expensive high-tech equipment so the point of the matter is that if you really want to be able to spot what is deception and be be protected against deceiving doctrines and things taught by demons you don't need to be studying the the the deceptive stuff you need to be studying the truth and be equipped in your faith by knowing the Word of God and then you'll be able to tell what is a lie and you'll be able to tell what is deceptive so he focuses here in Chapter four about teaching the Bible and that's why he says in verse 13 until I come devote yourselves to the public reading of scripture to preaching and to teaching and then he gets into chapter 5 which is where we left off here and it's number 6 on our list he's gonna talk about how the church should be a place where it is caring for people where it is caring for people and he's actually going to talk about three groups of people three categories of people he's going to talk about older widows he's gonna talk about younger widows and he's going to talk about elders now you might read those three topics and think to yourself well none of those you might say to yourself I'm not an older we'll do it widow I'm not a younger widow I'm not an elder and how is this how's this chapter relevant to me the fact is again it's it's all just being you know educated and equipped on our faith to understand this is what the church should look like this is how it should function so let's take a look together here at chapter five first he begins in verse one by saying do not rebuke an older man harshly but exhort him as if he were your father and treat younger men as brothers older women as mothers and younger women as sisters with absolute purity so again he's instructing Timothy as a pastor he says now listen and Timothy again was around thirty years of age so he says when you are dealing with older men I want you to show respect to them I want you to treat them as as you would your father now this of course assumes the idea that we know how to respect our elders otherwise the analogy doesn't work I mean you know i-i-i grew up in the day where you you back talked you know your dad once and then after that you know you you were injured I'm saying it and you and you learned respect very very quickly and unfortunately we're living in a day where you know elders are not as respected as they once were but they should be and so the instruction from Paul to Timothy is when you're dealing with an older man in your church you need to treat him with respect you need to exhort him the Greek word there's parrot Kaleo meaning to come alongside of him like to encourage him as if he were your father and you need to treat younger men as brothers yo bro I mean it's it's good to treat them as brothers older women as mothers again showing respect to them and younger women as sisters and he adds there with absolute purity and I think it's you know not just that Timothy had some kind of problem with younger women and so he's saying absolute purity to me but I think it's just the idea that in general we should see each other as family if he says you know treat older men like fathers treat older women like mothers treat younger men like brothers younger women like sisters we should have a love and respect for each other like we're family because because we are we're that we're part of the family of God and so we should be treating each other with decency and love and respect and encouragement and and to do this with purity and then he gets into verse to sorry verse the three and on with dealing with widows and the first category he's going to look at are the older widows and so in verse three he says give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need but if a widow has children or grandchildren these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so and so repaying their parents and grandparents for this is pleasing to odd the widow who is it uses this phrase again really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help but the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives give people these instructions so that no one may be open to blame we'll pause there and again the idea is give people the instructions here's what we're doing on a Wednesday night we're going through God's Word we're reiterating these things so that people can understand the instructions for how the church should function so he's gonna talk here about older widows and and the first thing he wants to distinguish between are those who are really in need versus those who are not really in need and he's going to define that and he only means that in the sense of regarding whether the church should help them okay a widow who has lost her husband is obviously in need no matter what the situation so he's not saying some you know are really desperate and others aren't I mean it's a desperate thing to be a widow or to be a widow were for that matter but he's saying as far as the church's involvement what should the church be doing and coming alongside of widows financially materially spiritually and so he wants to distinguish between those who are really in need and those who aren't because those who aren't should not become a burden to the church he uses that word I'm not trying to be disingenuous to widows by referring to them as a burden he just talks about it could become a financial burden to the church to try to take care of too many widows who aren't really in need but those who are in need he says the church needs to step up and help to take care of them now he's going to distinguish and what he says here about those who are not really in need are those who have children and grandchildren because he says there in verse 4 but if a widow has children or grandchildren these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family so if a widow has children or grandchildren this obviously means adult children or grandchildren because little tiny kids can't really take care of MA who's a widow but the inference is if you have adult children or grandchildren who are able to take care of you then family should take care of family first I mean biological family the the church family is secondary so if a widow has children or grandchildren that can take care of her they should and he says here and I love the way adds there in verse 4 and so repaying their parents and grandparents for this is pleasing to God what does he mean by that well what he means by that is the obvious isn't it it's like listen this the widow now who whether she's your mom or your grandma you know when you were a kid she fed you she changed her stinking diaper all right she took care of making sure all your needs were met she stayed up with you in the middle of the night when you had a fever all right she was always there for you taking care of you now she's in need and you need to return the favor you need you need to take care of her you need to repay her with with similar kindness take care of her now now you're older and she's in a place where in particularly first century Roman Empire you became a widow you became destitute and sometimes widows would resort to things in order to try to just survive and Paul says that as Christians the immediate family has a responsibility to take care of their mom or their grandma and in this way you repay them for their kindness in the many ways that they took care of you as a kid for this pleases the Lord now then he talks there in verse 5 about the widow was really in need man she's left all alone and she's gonna have to put her hope in God and she continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help and so she's in a more desperate situation because she has no family and that's why she's quote more really in need and so he's gonna call the church to help step up and take care of her but then he's also gonna talk about the qualifications for one who's really in need because she may not qualify and he's gonna talk about that a little bit but notice verse 6 he says but the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives in other words if if there's a widow and she is just turning to a different lifestyle now that she's you know separated from her husband her husband has died and she's just living for the world he says she's dead even while she lives and he says give the people these instructions to see that no one may be open to blame he says I want you to treat everybody properly and I want you to know your responsibility in all of this and he says in verse eight if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for his immediate family he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever that is strong language now in the context he's talking here about taking care of widows so he says if you have a mom or a grandma who's a widow and she's a part of your family and you have the means and the wherewithal to take care of her and you don't Paul says you're worse than an unbeliever you're worse than an unbeliever because believers don't treat their family members like that believers take care of each other and look out for each other and tend to each other's needs but I also think that's the context I also think that this verse can apply from time to time to people who just have a lazy work ethic and there's been a couple of times over the years of my ministry that I pulled this verse out and talked to some men who need to get a job now I know that there can be legitimate real circumstances sometimes why a man is not gainfully employed there it can be laid off you can be fired it can have health issues there there can be other extenuating circumstances so taking that into consideration that's legitimate but then there are just some men who don't take care of their family and some deadbeat dads who don't pay child support and and and guys who just are lazy and this verse should be a strong reminder to every provider that if we don't provide for our family we've denied the faith and we're worse than an unbeliever it's a very sobering verse to make sure that we're doing all we can to work hard and to take care of our family members in need now between verses 9 and 10 he's going to talk about the qualifications for a widow who was really in need in the and this is where the church needs to step up and help so he says in verse nine no Widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty has been faithful to her husband and is well known for her good deeds such as bringing up children showing hospitality washing the feet of the saints helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds Wow who can make the list I mean that's that's a pretty strong list there Paul but here's basically just to summarize the four things he says she needs to be over 60 she she and and she can't have any family thus the church needs to step up and be her family she has to have a reputation that she was faithful to her husband during the days of their marriage and she has to have strong spiritual character that's why he says all these things like you know she has to be you know showing hospitality washing all the few the Saints helping those in trouble devote I mean so he makes this list here now it's not intended to be legalistic all right you know if some Widow were to show up at our church office a part of our church family and she's 59 and a half we're not gonna say sorry you don't meet the list and by the way you have to wash my feet you know I mean I would actually know but anyway and the other weird thing here is just by way of statistics in first century the average lifespan you know the average lifespan 37 so Paul says here average lifespan is 37 in Paul's day but if you don't reach the age of 60 you're not on the list I mean that's who's making it to 6 I did a little math and and the the equivalent ratio because today's average lifespan is 78 so the equivalent ratio would be that a widow has to be 130 isn't that too bad you like you don't make the cut that's that that's not what he's singing here all right he's saying there has to be a way to tell legitimate need from illegitimate need and so if she's up there in years and she has no family and she's been faithful in her marriage and she just loves the Lord and has a good heart the church needs to be the family for her but see he's also recognizing that if the church is too careless in this regard that the church then could deplete itself of its resources trying to help people who aren't really legitimately in need I can tell you know we have a benevolence fund here at our church 10% of everything you give goes to our benevolence fund I should say outreach fund because that 10% serves not only local benevolent needs but also missions and we have people who will have legitimate needs in our own congregation that we have helped we also have people outside our church who will call us drop by we've had social services when they've run out of their budget for the year of Loudoun County they've contacted our church that can you help our families and we've been glad to oblige but we have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that these are legitimate needs because we just can't have everybody showing up saying I want a handout because then we're not being good stewards of what God is entrusted to our care so we have to be careful with every need that presents itself and try to decide is this legitimate should we help if by our helping are we just contributing to a pattern of careless and recklessness regarding their management of money so we have to investigate things and that's really what Paul is saying as it relates to widows investigate make sure are they up there in years to they have no family are you to be the church family where they faithful in their marriage or they do they have good spiritual character and then come along and help them because the word honor they're actually in verse three were an NIV it says give proper recognition in New King James and ESV it's the word honor honor the widows and we're going to talk about how that word throughout this chapter can actually mean honorarium it can actually mean financial support and helping them in in material ways so he talks about old widows older widows they're I shouldn't say old everything's relative but older and then in the next section verse 11 to 15 he's going to talk about younger widows and and I'm gonna I'm gonna summarize for you here on the slide what he's what he's saying here but let's read the verses here first verse 11 he says as for younger widows do not put them on such a list for when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ they want to marry thus they bring judgment on themselves because they have broken their first pledge besides they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house and not only do they become idlers but also gossips and busybodies saying things they ought not to so I counsel younger widows to marry to have children to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan so in summary I put it up on the slides for you is basically saying here if the church finances their lives because they're younger they are liable to become dependent upon the church instead of God and their idle lives may lead them into sinful situations that's why it talks about they could start to give way to being gossips and busybodies because they're they're taken care of you know the church has become you know the big daddy for them and they're just sitting around they get themselves into trouble so he counsels them there to remarry now not every Widow will feel led to remarry but he just cautions the church to be careful with younger widows because you could actually be contributing to sinful choices that they end up making when they just sit back and become dependent upon the church to finance their lives so he actually encourages them verse 14 I counsel younger widows to marry to have children to manage your own homes to give the enemy no opportunity for slander and some have taken some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan and he adds there in verse 16 if any woman who was a believer has widows and her family just kind of restates this she should help them and not let the church here's the word be burdened with them so that the church can help those widows who are really in need now obviously widows are not the only people who were in need there are plenty of people in desperate and difficult situations who are in need and the church should come along and help them as well for whatever reason there seems to have been a large number of widows in Timothy's Church there at Ephesus such that Paul felt like I need to really address this particular group of older widows and younger widows but you know James 1:27 says pure religion that God the Father finds us faultless is this to take care of widows and orphans in their distress and there are a lot of people in distress and there are a lot of ways of the church can show itself helpful and caring by ministering to people who are legitimately in need now he goes on here in verse 17 through 20 to talk about elders not that they need care like a widow but how they are to be treated and some of the ways that that they are to be considered and taken care of in the life of the church so verse 17 the elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor especially those whose work is preaching and teaching for the scripture says do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain and the worker deserves his wages do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses those who sin are to be rebuked publicly so that the others may take warning this is a little a little bit a little bit uncomfortable for me to have to teach you this passage because as an elder I'm talking now about elders and how we're supposed to be treated the the good way and a bad way based on an elders conduct not that they are mistreated but based on the elders conduct there they might get themselves into trouble and they need to be treated in in the proper way in God's house so basically there are four things that he I'm bullet pointing that he says here between verses 17 and 20 he's going to talk about the distinction of an elder the remuneration of an elder the protection of an elder against false accusations and the correction of an elder who sins so first in verse 17 I mention this when we in Chapter three because in Chapter three he talks about the qualifications for an elder but he distinguishes between two types of elders in this verse when he says that the elder who directs the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor especially those and then here's another distinction those whose work is preaching and teaching and as I mentioned when we were in chapter 3 there seems to be here by Paul this indication that some elders were more focused on directing the affairs of the church as in being administrative and some elders were more gifted in the areas of preaching and teaching as in the spiritual aspects of being an elder I've also made the statement that every pastor is an elder because every pastor has to qualify according to the qualifications of an elder but not every elder is a pastor in the sense that there are some administrative elders who do not feel called into ministry ministry of the gospel and there are some who are the some who are called to the ministry of the gospel are pastors those who are not called into the ministry of the gospel may still be elders but they're primarily responsible for the administrative oversight of the church so for example here at Cornerstone we have two groups of elders that do slightly overlap I have a group of elders who are the majority of which are not on staff they are not paid they are men of our church who qualify coordinate first Timothy chapter 3 and whose main responsibility is the fiduciary oversight of our church they examine the books they examine the the the giving the financial stewardship they are responsible also for holding my life accountable somebody needs to and so the this group of men are a part of that and not just in a bad sense but in a good sense of encouraging me praying for me and my family and they also were very instrumental in getting into this building as they had to give all the oversight and approval for everything related to the expansion in the building the development of this property then there are a group of elders at our church who are gorel team those are the the the spiritual elders not that the first group are unspiritual but the second group pastors in the sense of their responsibility is the gospel and and ministering to people and caring for them as Shepherds under the chief Shepherd which is Jesus so he distinguishes here between those elders who direct the affairs of the church and those elders whose primary gift or the spiritual matters of preaching and teaching now in the middle of this he talks about worthy of double honor the Greek word for honor arias to may II and it can either be translated honor as in the sense of virtue and it can also be translated in a monetary way as in honorarium that's how this word is being used here and how do we know that it's being used in terms of honorarium like remuneration or financially because of the way he follows it up in verse 18 when he says for the scriptures say do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain and the worker deserves his wages so he defines double honor when he quotes from Deuteronomy talking about an ox don't muzzle the ox and the idea behind it he's quoting from I think the Book of Leviticus it's the idea that when an ox was treading out the grain don't muzzle the ox let it be able to eat some of the fruit of its labor as it's working it should be able to in a sense be compensated for its hard work and then Paul quotes out of Luke's Gospel chapter 10 verse 7 when he talks about the workers worth his wages he's quoting Luke but Luke was recording what Jesus said which is interesting just on a side note on a theological doctrinal note here where Paul says as the scriptures say and then he quotes out of sorry it wasn't leviticus it's deuteronomy about the ox deuteronomy 25:4 and then he quotes out of luke 10:7 a worker deserves his wages in other words he is describing scriptural definition to the Gospel of Luke he's saying Luke was writing Scripture when he was quoting Jesus there in luke 10:7 but all that to say that he's speaking here about compensation and remuneration and he's saying he that the elders who directly affairs of the church especially those whose work is preaching teaching they're worthy of double honor now literally it means worth double honorarium but he's speaking here metaphorically and respectfully not literally and here's how we know because in Chapter three one of the qualifications for an elder is not to be greedy for money so he's not saying pay your pastors double money what everybody else makes in their community he's just saying in the sense of everybody who earns an income is being paid based on their hard work and what he's saying is in respect for the gospel if there's if there's something that is the most important work that anybody could do present company excluded sorry but is isn't preaching the gospel like there's no other greater thing that a person can do and I respect all that everybody does here in the room but he's saying is one who preaches the gospel but he's not saying literally go ahead and pay him double he's just saying that that is it's worthy of double honor because of the importance of preaching the gospel this honestly is where when taken literally it has it has caused a black eye on the church because when you get into these you know certain telltale evangelists and you can google it you know I don't even know what to believe anymore about who lives and what kind of house and drives what kind of car and flies what kind of you know private jets anymore but when when the outside world sees pastors and ministry leaders and TV evangelists living above what other people generally live by and especially in their own community it brings the black eye in the church when people are seen living high on the hog as pastors as as ministry leaders as evangelists and and you know and and abusing their their privilege of preaching the gospel and now it becomes this money-making venture of just living in lavish lifestyles it it's a violation of Scripture and it does a disservice to the gospel and and people look at that kind of thing and it's a major turn off and so in general I know our elders here have been careful that we we want to take care of our pastors but we also don't want anybody living larger than their own community and so it we have to be careful about that kind of thing so again this is a little it's a little uncomfortable to talk about this kind of stuff but it needs to be said because this is important and this is how this is how some churches get off course they're like well we're just gonna you know throw lavage expensive you know salaries and bonuses and gifts and all this kind of stuff and and people have to be super careful about this kind of thing now he adds in verse 19 is going to shift from remuneration to the protection of an elder against false accusations because it says in verse 19 do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or more witnesses reputation is a valuable commodity and it takes a lifetime to gain one and it takes 5 minutes to lose one and we all know the importance every single one of us I don't care if you're an elder or not every single one of us understands the value of a good reputation and the tragedy of when a good reputation is tarnished because of false accusations I think many of us will remember in 2006 the court case against three Duke University men's lacrosse players it turns out that the woman who accused them of raping her lied about the whole thing and the district attorney who later found out she was lying still tried to prosecute these three guys and it ended up a year later in a court case where these got the Attorney General of North Carolina on in an unprecedented decision when when the when the true facts came to light not only dismissed the case but in an unprecedented move declared those three lacrosse players innocent innocent of the charges and also disbarred the lead District Attorney and in 2011 those look raus players those guys sued the district attorney Mike Nifong and the lead investigator and won in court and the judge ended up in his statement calling it malicious and malicious conspiracy all right now it was all settled and it was all discovered and the woman admitted and she had lied about the whole thing but in the process three guys reputations were completely tarnished and and it's hard to get that kind of thing back so Paul is saying here listen and this is good for anybody but he's talking about in protecting leadership in the church don't entertain an accusation unless it's brought by two or more and even then you need to investigate because two people can get together make up lies so you got to be careful that people are legitimate they're coming for with legitimate claims years ago I was involved in a situation where a woman came to me and told me this is this was that another Church had nothing to do with here told me how a pastor at another church had made inappropriate sexual advances towards her and I sympathized but I couldn't do anything about it because it's one within the same month I had another lady seek me out about the same pastor about the same accusations and those two ladies didn't even know each other now I knew out of situation to deal with before I could even go to the senior pastor a third woman came forward so now I got two or more and I got a situation where there's an elder being accused of of sexual advances in flirtatious behavior so I said to these ladies if I'm gonna go forward you're gonna have to be able to allow me to use your names I can't I will never say anonymous sources have said and two out of the three said yeah you can use my name so I went to the senior pastor I said I got three act three accusers but only two are giving their names of charges against one of the pastors on your staff and you need to do something about it the pastor being accused said they're just miss Reed me I'm not being flirtatious I and they they're just miss reading me and it isn't true and therefore the senior pastor decided do nothing about it and I had to go and tell the ladies that but my I had done all I could do they had done all they could do and now is up to the Lord the sad tragedy of the story is that because nothing was done the man ended up in moral sin ended up his wife left him ended up losing his ministry and the whole thing was tragic and it may have possibly been prevented had it been dealt with when you have two or more witnesses coming forward before it actually became sexual sin it could have been dealt with earlier this is a reason why Paul says listen you got to come two or more but you can't have these false accusations and you're gonna have to investigate this you got to be really careful because you're dealing with somebody's reputation and you got to take that very very seriously and you can't you can't you can't walk into an area where somebody's reputation could be ruined if these things aren't true so you better be very very careful about this kind of thing but if you do it biblically maybe maybe just maybe it could have prevented some more grievous sin issues now when an elder sins he adds in verse 20 those who sin are to be rebuked publicly so that others may take warning this is where it gets a little controversial or gets a little people can disagree about about the way to interpret this I know some churches who interpret that verse to mean that if there is some kind of sin issue among an elder in the church you're to get that elder up in front of the whole congregation or in the absence of that person just publicly tell the whole congregation what they've done and I would say that that might be appropriate depending on the situation but when you read this verse and it says those who sent her to be rebuked publicly King James says before all you have to ask okay who is all and then it says so that the others may take warning and you have to ask who are the others and it is my conviction that he's speaking narrowly there about the other elders so that if an elder falls you need to tell the other elders what went down so that the other elders will be warned now having said that though there may be some situations where it might be necessary that the whole congregation may need to know if in fact what the elder did affected the whole congregation in some in some way so I go by this motto that how public it gets in terms of the explanation depends on how public the offense was there are some offenses that are more public and more visible in fact he's going to go on to say that verse 24 jump ahead to verse 20 for the sins of some men are obvious reaching the place of judgment ahead of them the sins of others trail behind them so by and large and unfortunately I've had to handle situations like this even on our own staff over the years if if it is something that impacts the greater congregation I need to say something even though I may need to say something to the greater congregation I still don't believe it's necessary to air all the dirty laundry because I believe it's important for somebody as far as it depends on us to help restore an individual who has fallen it doesn't necessarily mean they will be restored to ministry at that same church but to help them in some way in the process and taking steps to be restored eventually and so in order to respect that restoration process I don't think it's always necessary to spill out all the details that can that can become humiliating and and it could become very very embarrassing and it can just simply be something sufficient to say so-and-so has disqualified them as an elder or a pastor according to 1st Timothy chapter 3 and that everybody needs to know that there are other cases however where it is something that I think is just need need-to-know basis on the staff or among the elder body and by the way it doesn't always have to be people get certain sins in their head that they think are the real big ones that are worthy of of dismissal or worthy of this kind of Correction and and unfortunately we we categorize sins as being really large and really little and the reality is any ongoing unrepentant sin is sometimes cause for correction and dismissal it doesn't necessarily have to be the sexual sin the big things we often think of it can just be an ongoing pattern of lying it could be an ongoing pattern of divisive 'no sit could be an ongoing pattern of disunity an ongoing pattern of anger it could be a a whole host of things that that if dealt with properly and talked to and constantly addressed and they still are unrepentant then they need to be corrected and they sometimes even need to go because the church is the Bride of Christ and the bride has to be protected and and that's why even in these situations which are difficult to do these kind of things that's why he says in the next verse verse 21 let's see we can finish out this chapter I've already gone over time but let's see if we can finish this he says I charge you verse 21 of the sight of God and in Christ Jesus and the elect angels that's a pretty important charge all right inside of God and the elect angels in Jesus to keep these instructions without partiality and to do nothing out of favoritism sometimes you know you're dealing with with the brother and the lord as an elder and you know okay there's two or more that's come forward they have to be corrected they have to be disciplined they have to be dismissed whatever the case might be and you have to do it without showing partiality as much as you love somebody you treat them with grace you do it in the right way you do with dignity but you still have to do it and sometimes you have to do the hard thing and it's painful and people can you know have questions about it and people can you know raise issues about it and why does this happen why did that happen and but it says you're gonna have to do and you have to do it without partiality you have to do nothing out of favoritism verse 22 do not behave stealing a lot of hands don't ordain elders and do not share the sins of others keep yourself pure okay so Paul turns and he says all right now Timothy don't just consider what you have to do in regards to other elders you need to look at your own life as an elder to make sure that you're not contributing and sharing in the sins of others keep yourself pure the adds in verse 23 this is a versa some of you have highlighted and your Bibles stopped drinking only water and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses all right so if you have a medical condition go ahead bottoms up but otherwise moderation moderation drunkenness is the sin but if this is not a violation of first Timothy 33 where he talks about you know elders abstaining there there was a medicinal issue to Timothy had some some thing going on there and verse 24 the sins of some men are obvious reaching the place of judgment ahead of them the sins of others trail behind them in the same way good deeds are obvious and even those that are not cannot be hidden in other words God will expose everything eventually just be discerning and be careful it's a heavy chapter but it needs to be read and understood and lived out amen and man let's pray Lord we thank you for your word and sometimes we read verses that just make our hearts leap because it's just a joyful thing and other things are heavy you give an instruction here about the church and particularly as it relates to accusations against an elder in and how to correct those who have sinned and we also Lord want to be a church that tends to those who are legitimately in need we think about widows in their own fellowship and we pray Lord for your your grace for them whoever said time heals all wounds was never hurt because he even when time passes it can still be really really difficult so help those widows Lord and help the where's help the men who have lost wives help the women who have lost husbands and help us Lord as a church to help them who are really in need that we might be a family towards one another careful to care for and love each other as Christ loves the church Lord we thank you for loving us and giving us the perfect example of how we should treat one another and love one another so thank you for your word Lord be with us as we go home tonight we thank you in Jesus name and everybody said amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 2,953

Rating: 4.8769231 out of 5

Keywords: Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel

Id: rcLwbZZg_Qo

Length: 49min 42sec (2982 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019