You're listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit ministry
podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
learn from God's Word together. If you would like more
information regarding Key Life or to speak with one of our
pastors, please visit us at keylifefellow-ship.com.
Amen. We pray that we do truly find
satisfaction for our soul in Christ and Christ alone.
We all know it's true that prior to Christ we spent enough time
trying to find satisfaction in this world.
Now I'm thankful that we no longer have to look for a
satisfaction that we cannot find.
But the true satisfaction found us where we were and our sin and
in our self deceit and the misery of our wickedness.
Christ Himself, the one who satisfies the broken hearted who
come to Him, has satisfied those of us who are in Christ and then
we rejoice in that. Amen.
If you have your Bibles, if you would turn to First Timothy
chapter 5 as I am excited to return back to our study in the
Pastoral Epistles, the series titled Biblical Ministers and
Biblical Ministry. And I pray that we have learned
how to be both, both biblical ministers and to run and to lead
biblical ministry the way that we should to serve one another
and to serve the Lord as appropriate according to
Scripture. But here in First Timothy
chapter 5, as we will finish out this chapter of Scripture, we
come to a topic and to be quite honest.
And to be frank with you is very awkward for me to preach.
Now, don't do well with awkward. Awkward makes me nervous.
Awkward frightens me. But I come to this an awkward
subject, right? Because I'm going to talk today
about honoring church leaders, right?
So I'm going to stand before you today in the congregation and
I'm going to say honor me to many of you.
You say who? Great.
It's going to be a quick message to others, hopefully you want to
understand why. Why should we honor our pastors,
our elders? Why should we honor the leaders
in the church? Though it's awkward, though it's
rather uncomfortable for me to talk about, it is biblical and
I'm not going to jump over it just for the.
Sake of my comfort. Or to somehow relieve my
awkwardness in preaching this text.
It's important that we as a church understand this.
We are to honor our ministers, and I am only one of many
ministers who are leading this congregation.
I want you to understand that there are many elders and
pastors who lead this congregation and lead this
congregation well. And I pray that we would honor
them appropriately. I pray that we would honor them
biblically. It's not for a topic that most
of us have probably never even heard addressed, right?
Because of the awkwardness. What am I going to do, stand in
the pulpit and tell them to honor me?
Yes, if you preach the full counsel of the Word of God when
you get there, that's what you're going to preach.
And hopefully they'll understand that.
They'll honor you. They'll honor the other pastors
and leaders in the church, and they will honor church
leadership the rest of their life, long after you're gone and
you're with the Lord. Why?
Because that's pleasing to God. So before we ever get into it
today, when you honor those who God commands us to honor, you
honor God. And when you dishonor those who
God commands that we honor, you dishonor God.
It just got real, didn't it? I hope it did.
I hope it got real. I hope today that you don't
roast the pastor over lunch, if that's what you're in the habit
of doing. I hope today that instead you
would pray for him, you would encourage him, you'd honor him
as the Word of God has prescribed for us to honor the
leaders in our church. First Timothy chapter 5 verse 17
when we pick up right where we left off.
And it says this, 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 drain, 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.
I charge you in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect
angels, to keep these instructions without partiality
and to do nothing out of favoritism.
Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in
the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
Stop drinking only water and use a little wine because of your
stomach and your frequent illnesses.
The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of
judgement 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.
Let's pray together, Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to
you, thanking you for your word, thanking you that everything in
your word is important and we are not at some passage that we
ought to just skip around or look to something else, or to
seek to be entertained with something more appealing.
Toss. God, I pray that we would see
the importance of this, that the entire church would see that
honoring their leaders comes with great reward and to
dishonor them will also come with great discipline.
God, we pray as we look at this topic that you would teach us
all that we need to know about it, all that you have divulged
in your Word, bring it to light. Give us wisdom, give us
understanding through the power of your Spirit who lives in
those of us who are in Christ. We pray that you would be
glorified through it and we pray these things in Christ's name,
Amen. As we approach this most.
Awkward subject for me. I want us to consider some
things. I want us to consider what the
Scripture is actually saying here regarding honoring church
leaders. The first thing that I want you
to take note of is there in those first 2 verses that we
looked at, verse 17 and 18, and that is just that honor is
expected. Well, watch how Paul approaches
this as he's teaching young Timothy, the pastor there at
Ephesus, who would be leading alongside of the elders and the
teachers and those men who are in leadership there.
He says the elders who direct the affairs of the church well
are worthy of double honor, especially those who work in
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. Paul here approaching Timothy.
And Paul knows full well the work and the weight.
Of church leadership. As an apostle who has at this
time served the Lord faithfully for years, he's riding to young
Timothy and he's instructing him to pass along the teaching that
those men of God who lead in the church are to be honored.
And not only are they to be honored, they are to be doubly
honored. And then he goes on and he says,
especially those who teach and preach, Paul makes this very
clear that this honor is expected.
And it's expected, yes, for all who are in leadership here at Ty
Fellowship, we have what we know as elders.
Some of them are ruling elders. Some of those teach and preach,
though all of them must be apartment to teach.
We know that historically, not all elders stood in a prominent
teaching or preaching role. Though they knew the word of
God, though they knew sound doctrine, and though they were
required to be apartment to teach, it doesn't mean that they
were the ones there employed by the church to do the majority of
the teaching and the preaching. And so he singles that
particular group out with that word, especially that these men
are to receive double honor, but especially those who teach and
preach. I told you this was going to be
awkward for me. Why?
Because I am the one who stands in the pulpit week after week
and who predominantly teaches and preaches the Word of God
here in this room. But there are many pastors who
are here on staff in this church, who are leaders in this
church, who are teaching all of the time.
And there are various Bible studies.
There are various age groups, specific ministries like our
student ministry and our college ministry, our small children,
our preteens. There are ministers who pastor
and who lead these groups on a consistent basis.
Right now, just next door, some of you attended it at 9:00
there's an enriched Bible study. And there are men there who are
leading you in teaching and preaching the.
Word of God. And they deserve double honor.
Not because I think so, not because I could benefit from
this, because I can promise you this.
I benefit from you honoring me. It is a great encouragement when
you do, but not just so that I can benefit from it, so that
those who teach alongside of me would also benefit, he says.
Especially those who preach and teach.
Now we know all church. Leaders deserve honor and
deserve double honor. That is what we are to give to
them. You read in your Scripture
reading just a moment ago. He says we now we ask you
brothers in First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 12.
We ask you brothers to acknowledge those who work hard
among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you
hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work,
live in peace with each other. What is?
Paul telling the believers there in his letter.
To the Thessalonikins, he is saying this.
He is saying honor is expected toward your leaders, just as
he's saying here to those in Ephesus through Timothy who will
be passing this long. Paul also says in Romans 13,
verse seven, he says give to everyone what you owe them.
If you owe taxes, pay taxes, right?
When the IRS says you owe taxes, pay them or suffer the
consequences, he says if revenue, then revenue.
If you're supposed to pay somebody for a job that they
did, pay them, right. This is all common sense stuff,
isn't it? He goes on.
And he says if respect, then respect.
If honor, then honor. And God's Word is very clear
that we are to honor those especially who teach and who
preach the Word of God. We can and we count, devoting
their lives to the Scriptures, to studying the Word of God, to
preparing, to praying so that they can deliver the message
that you need, so that you can grow spiritually by what they
have brought forth. Paul says they deserve double
honor. What does he mean by this?
He's saying to take care of them.
Reserve that special honor for those who labor in the word.
Many of you don't have a clear understanding to what it means
to labor in the word, the battle that comes along with that, the
work that that entails. But it is a.
Great work, and it is a hard and at times difficult task.
We ought to properly honor those who have dedicated their life to
that task. John Owen said this.
He said it is the duty of the church to value, esteem and
support those who labor in the Word and doctrine.
It's our duty as a church to honor those.
Who are laboring studying the word?
Learning the word, growing in the word.
Why? So that you can be fed the word.
He says honor them. Honor them by supporting them,
by encouraging them. But also we can't leave out the
fact here that in verse 18 he's talking about compensating them.
Now let me just make this. Clear.
Right up front. I am not looking for a raise.
I don't want to raise. I don't need a raise.
Key Life Fellowship and the leadership here and you folks
who faithfully give to this ministry, you take care of all
of your pastors who are on staff, who are paid to teach and
to preach the Word of God and to lead in these ministries.
Thank you for that. You honor us by taking care of
us, and we're thankful for that. So I'm not trying to get a raise
here. But what I want you to
understand that when I talk about honor being expected,
especially for those who teach and preach, I am saying that
when we honor them properly with compensation, we're actually
enabling them to do the Lord's work.
I could not do what I do for the Lord and for you, the members of
this. Church.
If I had to have a second job in order to support myself and my
family, I could not give all of the time, I could not give all
of the energy and I could not give all of the effort that I
give, yes. 1st for Christ, but. Secondly, for all of you, but
thankfully, because you have honored the Lord and you are
honoring me, you're enabling me to do the Lord's work, but.
What if you didn't? Things would be difficult,
wouldn't they? Things would be difficult.
Paul uses an Old Testament analogy here.
In fact, he borrows from Old Testament scripture, which he's
very, very skilled at doing. He says do not muzzle the ox
while it's treading out the grain.
And the worker deserves his wages.
Borrowing from two different Old Testament passages, he says, and
don't, don't muzzle that ox. He's working.
He's doing all of the labor he ought to be able to when he
needs to, when he's treading out that grain, just bend down and
get a bite of it so that it will sustain him, so that he can
continue doing the work of treading out the grain.
He's saying we ought to treat our ministers in the same way,
refusing to hinder their efforts.
By simply making things difficult for them, I have been
a part of churches. Many of you may have been a part
of churches where they thought that what they were to do for a
minister. Is just to keep them just barely
above the poverty level if that high and that the pastor was
willing or should be willing to suffer more then the CEO in that
church or the one who owns that company or the one who's a
successful businessman that that all of you ought to be taken
care of. But the minister, he, he, he
ought to just, you know, minister till he dies, and then
so long we'll replace him with another.
It shouldn't be so. We should refuse to hinder the
efforts of these pastors by taking care of them.
Again, Deuteronomy 25 four, where God establishes this and
Paul borrowing from it. Do not muzzle an ox while
treading out the grain while your pastors are working hard
for you. Take care of them.
Honor them by taking care of them.
Make sure that they're taken care of.
Why? Because in doing so, you are
obedient in honoring them the way that God says for them to be
honored. I'll put a muzzle over their
mouth. Make sure that they're able have
all of their needs met as well through serving the church.
There are many who like to criticize this right.
You shouldn't be employed by the church.
That's not what the Word of God says.
The Word of God makes it very clear that those who preach and
teach the Word of God ought to be honored by being compensated
through the gifts of the church. What a noble task that they have
been entrusted with and shouldn't they be honored in
that way? Of course I know it's easy for
me to stand here and say Amen. Yes, they should.
But I'm not asking you to agree with me.
I'm asking you to agree with the Word of God and what the Word of
God is clearly saying here. First Corinthians Chapter 9,
verse 7 says this. Who serves as a soldier at his
own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does
not eat his grapes? Who tends to flock and does not
drink the milk? Do I say this merely on human
authority? Doesn't the Law say the same
thing? For it is written in the Law of
Moses. Here we go again.
Do not muzzle an ox while it's treading out the grain.
Watch what Paul says here. Is it about oxen that God is
concerned? That's a rhetorical question
that we know the answer to. No, He's using oxen as a
parallel, as a metaphor. He says.
Surely He says this for us, doesn't He?
Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and
threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the
harvest. If we have sown spiritual seed
among you, is it too much? If we reap a material harvest
from you? It goes on as if others have
this right of support from you. Shouldn't we have it all the
more? But we did not use this right.
On the contrary, we put it up. We put up with anything rather
than hinder the gospel. Paul said we should be
compensated by you, but if you're not going to compensate
us, that's OK too. We're not going to let the
gospel be hindered. You know what the church told me
tomorrow, Kirk, we can't pay you anymore.
You know what? I'm going to be here Monday
morning. I'm going to be with the parent
of sermon to give to you guys and God's going to take care of
me and they're going to answer for not honoring me properly
when we honor the ministers, the leaders of the church in this.
Way when we compensate them for their work, we're doing
something very biblical. I find it interesting that most
of the time the people who think that the ministers ought not to
be paid by the church or the lost people in the church,
because the believer understands this, that that.
Minister who is responsible for their spiritual well-being.
If he worked for another company 40 hours a week, he couldn't
give much time to helping them benefit from spiritual growth.
And he couldn't. In fact, we would all be
malnourished if that were the case.
So by honoring them as expected, we're enabling them to do the
Lord's work. We're simply compensating them
for that which they do. How many of you have a job?
How many of you at payday you want to be taken care of, right?
How many of your companies pay you before you do the work?
No, none of them do, because that's common sense.
You do the work, then you earn it, and then you get paid.
And so a minister who does. Well and leading ought to be
taken care of. Deuteronomy 2414 God establishes
again this principle and the law.
He says, do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor
and needy, whether that work is a fellow Israelite or a
foreigner residing in one of your towns.
Pay them their wages each day before sunset because they are
poor and are counting on it. Those ministers who are paid by
the Church are counting on it. Without your support they would
be poor, or without their spiritual nourishment you would
be malnourished spiritually. Let us not.
Forget that he says otherwise. They may cry out to the Lord
against you, and you will be guilty of sin over all these
churches who think that it's the thing to do.
Starve your ministers to death. And if they fizzle out, they
just didn't really love Jesus anyways.
And if they last, you know, hey, that God will take care of them.
You know how God takes care of those leaders in the church who
preach and teach, who are worthy of double honor?
He takes care of them by you doing what you're supposed to
do. Are you doing?
That are you honoring those leaders as expected and as
mandated by scripture? Are you seeing to it that they
are compensated for their work? Let me make this simple for you
to understand. If you receive spiritual benefit
from the teachers and the pastors in this church and you
don't give a dime toward the ministry here, that make sure
that they are taken care of, that they are compensated for in
the work of the ministry, you're not honoring them.
And if you're not honoring them, you're not honoring God, and you
don't have to Amen that you don't have to get fired up about
that. That is clearly spoken through
the Scriptures. You are to take care of them.
First Corinthians Chapter 9, verse 13 says, don't you know
that those who serve in the temple get their food from the
temple and that those who serve at the altar sharing what is
offered on the altar? He's talking about Old Testament
compensation. Those who worked in the temple
were compensated by the temple. And watch this.
In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach
the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
It should. And how does that happen?
You honor them by honoring God, by being obedient in your life
in the area of giving, honoring those leaders in the church so
that they're not treading out grain with a muzzle on, being
starved as they feed everyone else the mistreat church.
Leaders is counterproductivity. Understand when you mislead or
you mistreat the the pastors in the church, when you mistreat
them, you are inevitably mistreating yourself.
Can I ask all of you this this morning when you came to the
service, do you expect my best? Do you expect my best effort all
week? You expect my devotion to
studying the word of God and being sound and doctrine.
Do you expect that the answer should be of course we expect
that. Hold me to that.
You expect that, but if you expect that and that is
delivered, then it should be rewarded and to do opposite of
that is to kick yourself in the knee.
Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17 it says have confidence in your
leaders and submit to their authority because they keep
watch over you as those who must give an account do this so their
work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no
benefit to you. You expect me to devote myself
to the work of the Lord and the work of the gospel for your
benefit. And God's Word is teaching us
today that if that is my expectation, I should never
mistreat, but I should honor those pastors by making sure
that they are taken care of. Why?
So that they don't fall into an attitude of, of just not having
any joy at all or an attitude of complacency or apathy.
They don't have to worry about those things.
They know that they are going to be taken care of by the church,
so they don't mind pouring it all out.
Understand that those who are in the.
Church who truly love Christ will honor them, make sure that
they're taken care of and so the church leaders should be
honored, should be expected because the Bible says that it's
so they should. Be receiving care and even
compensation for the work that they do.
Why? Because the one who lives for
the gospel ought to make his living in the gospel.
I make no apology for that. Why?
Because the Word of God has spoken again.
I know what all the critics say, right?
They really pay you to preach for a few minutes on a Sunday
morning, knows so much more to it than that.
But you don't quite understand. Is this one hour or so?
And I do say, or so lightly. Most of the time it requires A
workweek that none of you would be able or willing to do because
God has not called you to do that, nor is He empowered and
equipped you to do that. The only reason that I can do
that, the only reason that the ministers on staff here can
endure what they endure is because the power of God living
in them enables them to do that. So they're expected to be
honored biblically. The second thing that I want you
to consider is this. Honor is not an exception.
No, we are to honor these men. No, I can boldly say, honor me
that honor does not buy me any kind of exception.
And you'll understand what I'm going to mean.
Here in a second when we read the rest of this.
First, he says in verse 19, do not entertain an accusation
against an elder unless it is brought by two or three
witnesses. He's saying here, don't make an
exception to how we handle accusations, right?
Because there's many churches who they hear one thing about a
pastor without any witnesses and they want to hang him for it.
You know why they've wanted to hang him anyway, and now they
finally have a reason to get rid of him running down the road.
I'm so thankful that we're not a church who somehow enjoys
because I have been a part of those churches and I have seen
those churches. Well, they somehow enjoy running
their pastors away. You know what I pray for?
Every one of our pastors that are here, I pray that they stay
here till the day that the Lord calls them home, but they get to
see the full fruit of their labor.
So many people in today's instant gratification society
don't ever get to see the fruit of their full labor in ministry,
right? They're quick to up and leave
when things don't go their way or people are mean or ugly to
them. Let's not be those people.
And Paul is telling them here, the believers there at Ephesus,
first to Timothy, who would receive this, and then to pass
it along, that we're not to entertain an accusation against
an elder, just as we wouldn't entertain an accusation against
anyone else in the church, that it must be brought or
established by two or three witnesses.
What is he saying here? He's saying that they shouldn't
be unfairly scrutinized. I understand that we as
ministers live in a fish bowl, but we as ministers are also
human beings, aren't we? I promise you can come up here,
you can pinch me, it'll hurt. You can cut me and I will bleed.
I'm not a superhero, nor are any of the other leaders in this
church superheroes, so they don't deserve unfair scrutiny.
I love that he begins this because in a moment he's going
to say when they do wrong, they're going to have to answer
for it, and they're not going to get any exception for when they
do wrong. But we're not going to tolerate
unfair scrutinizing of the pastors.
He says do not entertain an accusation against an elder
unless it's brought by two or three witnesses.
I wonder where he got this from. Paul, being the Old Testament
scholar that he was, goes immediately back to Deuteronomy
chapter 19, verse 15 when it says this one witness is not
enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense that
they have may have committed. A matter must be established by
the testimony of. Two or three witnesses Now if
the Old Testament doesn't carry any weight for you, Jesus while
he was here on this earth during his earthly ministry in talking
about how we are to address those who commit some kind of
offense or sin. Matthew chapter 18.
The Lord says this. If your brother or sister sins,
go and point out their fault just between the two of you.
If they listen to you, you have won them over.
But if they will not listen, watch what Jesus says.
Take one or two others along so that every matter may be
established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Where do you think Jesus got that from?
Deuteronomy chapter 19. What we just looked at the law.
It tells us how we are to handle this.
And you know what? This is the exact way we are to
handle it when the. Pastor is accused of something.
Have a good friend and I shared this story at another time in
history so I hope I don't bore you with it, but I can't help
but think about it. My good friend Bobby Clark was.
Removed from a church at one point in time because some lady
in the church came by his house, was delivering something to his
wife, walked to his back porch, opened a trash can, went to put
her trash, paper towel or something from her automobile
into the trash can, and as she looked into the trash can, she
saw empty beer bottles. You know what she didn't do?
She didn't ask any question. She didn't understand that that
weekend some kids in the town were going around drinking and
thought that it was funny to throw their empty beer bottles
in the pastor. 'S yard and you can.
Identify because you were once lost.
That would be a pretty funny joke for a group of lost
teenagers. However, it was not a funny
joke. When said lady leaves his house,
goes to her husband who happened to be the chairman of the
deacons at this particular Baptist Church.
And if you were raised in a Baptist Church, you know that
the chairman of the deacons is a can to.
Well, the Grand Poobah of the Royal Order of the Water
Buffalo. You're familiar with Fred
Flintstone. You know exactly what I'm
talking about. This was a big deal.
His wife went to him and, and and said this brother Clark has
a drinking problem. I've seen all the evidence and
that's all she needed, right? Turns out they had another axe
to grind and this was just a sharpening stone.
But ultimately it cost him his place as the pastor of that
church and they dishonored him by entertaining an accusation
that was not brought forth and established properly according
to the word of God. They took one lady's second hand
information out of a trash can that she never even began to
wonder how did they get there or even ask.
And he lost his job. You know the sad thing about
that? There were probably people on
his side who knew that he wouldn't have done that.
But there were probably others who didn't know him very well
and thought that their pastor was some drunkard who got
excommunicated from the church. And that's the farthest thing
from the truth. I know him personally.
So Paul begins this section on the fact that honor is not an
exception with saying we're not going to make exceptions when we
accuse elders. We're gonna bring witnesses just
like we do with everyone else. However, though they shouldn't
be unfairly scrutinized, they should be unbiasedly held
accountable. Watch what he says next.
He says those who sin are to be rebuked.
He says there are those who are going to be accused of things.
And for some reason, people just like accusing the pastor of
things, right? And I had a group in the church
not too terribly long ago. They left, but they accused me
of not believing in John 316, and the reason that they did
this is because I believe the entire chapter of John chapter 3
and the entire Gospel of John. And I wasn't just going to
single out John 316 just to make them happy because of the
particular theology that they had.
So they became angry with me and looked for a charge, and that's
all that they could find. But anybody who knows me knows
that I do believe in John 316. In fact, the theme of John 316
has been my life, the preaching of the gospel for gods who loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting
life. But you can't John 316, until
you do the rest of John chapter 3.
And that is God intervening into your life supernaturally by His
Spirit and by His power, regenerating you to new life so
that you can John 316. Because if you couldn't, John
316. John 317 would be a very scary
thing. Which tells us we were condemned
already. And it's God who rescues us from
our condemnation, not we in and of ourselves.
But yet there are people who brought accusation against me.
Accusation was completely false. And thankfully they didn't bring
any accusation that would hold water to any of our elders,
which would call for my resignation.
But there is the instance where an elder or pastor or leader in
the church. Does commit a public sin?
What do we do with that? He says those who are those who
sin are to be rebuked publicly. Why?
Because their sin was public. This is not talking about the
general congregation. This is not talking about the
horrible tradition that you once saw in the church where a
teenage girl became pregnant and you paraded her before the
church and made an embarrassment of her and the boy was nowhere
to be found. This is talking specifically
about the elders who serve in a public ministry role.
He says they're be to be rebuked publicly so that the others may
take warning the other who the other elders so that they can
say, I don't want to commit an open and public sin so that I
can be rebuked publicly. I want to live a life that is
above reproach. I don't want this happening to
me. It's called church church
discipline. And I know it's foreign to the
American church, right? We don't even think about it any
longer. But it's biblical.
He says I charge you in the sight of God, in Christ Jesus
and the elect angels. Why would he say I'd charge you
in the sight of God? Of course, Speaking of the
Father, Christ Jesus and the elect angels, why would he even
mention that? To keep these instructions
without partiality and to do nothing out of favoritism.
Why would he involve the Father, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the holy angels? They are all instruments of
God's justice. The instruments of God's
justice, they're not going to miss a thing.
And so he's saying, Timothy, I'm reminding you that you were
going to stand before a God who does not miss a thing.
So don't show partiality to those elders that you may like
particularly more than the others.
And when they mess up, you have to address this.
You can't just ignore it. Can't be biased and holding them
accountable, right? Because I'm sure like everyone
else, Timothy was probably closer to some people than
others. And what if he was really close
to one of these elders who fell into some type of public sin?
He would be tempted to say, you know, I'm going to make an
exception for him because he's my really good friend.
I'm going to, I'm going to look past this.
And Paul says you can't look past it.
Got to use them to teach the others not to fall into the same
kind of reproach. They should be unbiasedly held
accountable. Galatians chapter 2 we see an
example of that and 11 through 14.
I would ask that you read it on your time.
But what was happening here is Peter.
Came to Antioch and had a confrontation with Paul, and
Paul condemned him to his face because what Cephas or Peter was
doing is he was teaching things that were not an accord.
To sound doctrine in reference to the Gentiles, he had isolated
himself from them and Paul stood up and it says down there in the
last verses there around 14 of that small section of 11 through
14, he says, when I saw that they were not acting in line
with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them
all, you are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and do like a
Jew. How is it then that you force
Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
What happened here is. Paul openly confronts Cephas
Peter, and he openly confronts him with the error that he was
involved in. And he could have said, well,
you know, Cephas is an apostle like me, and he's a pretty good
guy. And he's, he's a little off on
what he's teaching, what he's living.
However, it was a public sin. It was open.
And So what happened? Paul addressed Cephas openly.
He rebuked him sharply. That's exactly what Paul tells
Titus to do in Titus chapter one, verse 13.
And confronting those leaders who end up being false teachers,
he says rebuke them sharply. Don't play around with this.
It has to happen. It has to happen now.
Don't let it. Continue.
Don't show any bias. Don't show any favoritism.
Do what needs to be done. So being in a position of honor
as a pastor, as a leader in the church, it doesn't exempt you
from the judgement and the discipline that goes on in the
church, the accountability that we should have.
It doesn't exempt you from that. And I know we live in a time
where it seems like it somehow does.
We see it over and over and over again, but God's word is spoken.
No exception should be made for church leaders if they publicly
sin, which should be. Publicly reviewed.
And if accusations are brought against them, we shouldn't treat
them any different than we treat any other church member.
We should say, well, who's bringing these accusations?
Well, so and so said that she heard from so and so and they
said, no, that doesn't work. You bring me two or three people
who are witnesses. You know what that means.
They saw it, they know it to be true.
They have verifiable evidence and that is not hearsay.
That is not you saw it on social media.
No, you saw it with your own two eyes, right?
That's what a witness is. We all understand that, don't
we? We all understand that that is
what a witness is. Why is that important?
Because people accuse pastors of all sorts of things.
He said this and he said that. I've been accused of saying
things that I never would have said just because somebody
wanted me to say that. I remember one time somebody
accused me of saying something in a sermon.
I came to my office all upset with me.
You said this. I said, no, I didn't say that.
Oh, yes, you did. I was there.
I said, I'm telling you right now, I didn't say that.
You think I haven't mulled over every single word that I said,
every single way that I've? Said it.
Oh, you said it. I said, well, this is real easy.
So you remember when I said it? Yeah, you were between .1 and .2
right there. OK.
Technology's awesome, isn't it? I pulled up the recording of the
sermon, and I said it just exactly the way that I said it.
But he heard it in a different way.
You think the enemy doesn't run wild with things like this,
right? You know what he said.
Thankfully, this was a man of. God, he said.
Pastor, I'm so sorry. I need you to forgive me.
I have no idea how I heard that that way because you said it the
completely opposite of that. I said, yeah, I forgive you.
I just want to make sure that you know that the accusation
that you're bringing against me is not true because what he said
that I said was almost borderline heretical.
So we shouldn't unfairly scrutinize ministers, but in the
same sense, we shouldn't show any bias.
We're holding them accountable, right?
What have said? Man would have come into my
office, and what I did say was heresy.
Should I have been held accountable?
Yeah. I committed a public sin.
You know what I need to do? No, I don't think that's
dismissal from Pastor It. It was an error.
I think I get up the next week and say, you know what?
I made a mistake. I said this this way, but I
didn't mean that at all. It came out of my mouth.
And can't we all say that we've all had those moments where
something came out of our mouth and it was far different than
what was in our brain? Yeah, we'd have an opportunity
to correct that. So we show honor to these men of
God, we don't make exceptions for them.
We don't treat them any differently than we would any
other accusation, and we don't biasly hold them accountable,
right? Only holding them accountable
for what we want or those particular people that we want
to hold accountable, not others. So no exception should be made
as we honor the leaders in the church.
Thirdly, for considering these things, I don't want to leave
out this most important part here, verse 22.
It says do not be hasty in the laying on of hands.
I do not share in the sins of others.
Keep yourself pure. What is Paul saying to Timothy
here? Is he changing subjects?
No, if he was changing subjects, I would have ended in verse 21.
He's on the same subject here and I don't want you to forget
that. He says do not be hasty in the
laying on of hands and do not share in the sins of others.
Keep yourself pure. What is he teaching Timothy
here? He's teaching in this and we
need to learn it. Honor is earned.
It's not just given honor. The place of honor in the church
that belongs to those pastors and those elders and those
leaders. It is earned.
That's why he starts there. Don't be hasty in the laying on
of hands. Now.
He's not coming up with some kooky charismatic doctrine of
laying on hands for for a miracle.
He's talking about the laying on of hands when someone is
commissioned and ordained to ministry to lead in the church.
That's what the laying on of the hands is.
And he's saying don't just do this for any person who says I I
feel like I'm called to preach. Well, don't ordain them the next
service and give them a church and the pulpit the next week.
That would be foolish. He's saying that they have to be
properly vetted. Why?
Because honor is always earned. It's never free.
You shouldn't just receive it because somebody gives you a
title. The sad day that we live in that
so many people in the church are just chasing after a title so
that they can have the honor, but they want the title.
They want the honor, but they don't want the hard work and
they don't want the responsibility, he says.
Don't be hasty and laying hands on these men and commissioning
them to gospel work. Why?
Because honor is earned initially, it has to be earned
first. Again, we're not to give someone
the place of honor who's not lived and honorable lives up
until this point. And this is information that's
not to be treated as light or to approach it haphazardly.
This is important. Because we have seen it, many
novices who enter into the pulpit, they enter into
ministry. Only to fall out of ministry
because they weren't qualified for ministry.
And instead of them being people of honor, they become
dishonorable. And not only dishonouring to
them, but also dishonouring to the church that ordained them or
the church that they serve. In so, honor's earned.
It's earned initially. Again, a church leadership is
not a position that should just be given to anyone.
Paul instructs Timothy, as we saw in First Timothy chapter 3
earlier instructs that they'd be evaluated, that they'd be
examined. That they actually live up to
the standard of above reproach before they're ever ordained.
First Timothy, chapter 3. We saw this.
I'll remind you of it. As we read it, it says this in
verse 6. He must not be a recent convert
or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgement as
the devil. We don't want that to happen to
anyone. He must also have a good
reputation with outsiders so that he will not fall into
disgrace and into the devil's trap.
So it must be earned. Man, you don't take a guy in
just a little while, we're going to have baptism.
You don't take a guy who gets baptized today and says, I think
God wants me to be a preacher and ordain him tomorrow.
The elders lay their hands on him and commissioned him to
work. Throw him in the pulpit.
You do him a disservice. Why?
Because he hasn't. Earned the honor serving in that
position. It's earned initially, but it's
also kept by integrity. He says do not be hasty in the
laying on of hands and do not share in the sins of others.
Now many think that he's saying here do not share in the sins of
others. He's saying the sin of hastily
commissioning people to ministry.
Perhaps Paul is saying that there are others who are laying
hands on people and ordaining them to service and they
shouldn't do so. He could be saying that do not
share in the sins of others. Or he he could be talking about
sin in general. Either way, it doesn't matter.
He's telling Timothy to avoid sin in your life and he throws
this tag on there. Keep yourself.
Pure live a life of integrity. Paul is reminding Timothy to
remember to live a pure life as a leader in the church that it
is important. Your testimony of your life is
important. You must continue to live a life
of integrity if people are going to truly honor you biblically.
We've seen it over and over and over and over again where a
person. Comes in.
Maybe they even come in with the right heart.
They enter into this position of high honor.
It is the highest calling of mankind.
And they enter into this and they initially earn it by being
above reproach, by being exactly what Scripture says that they
are, to be above reproach, faithful to your wife,
temperate, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to
teach. But they become complacent.
They become satisfied, They become lazy.
They become apathetic. And then before you know it,
they're not keeping integrity. And if they're not keeping
integrity, should they be honored?
No, absolutely not. They should not be honored if
they're not willing to continue and living a life that is above
reproach. Again, we see so many times
people think, well, I'm a pastor and I'm in this position of
honor, therefore the rules no longer apply to me.
I am successful. I have a rather large church and
I'm somebody. And before you know it, pride
takes root in that person. And before you know it, they
compromise and they don't keep themselves pure and they lose
all honor that is rightfully theirs if they just would have
made in a position of being blameless and above reproach.
You see it time and time again. Let's be reminded that honor is
not only earned initially must be it's kept by integrity no
matter what others may be doing, right.
I don't know when pastors became the the standard for pastors,
but somewhere in church. History.
Recent church history. Pastors think, well, if pastor
so and so can do this, well then I can do that too.
But last time I checked, and just correct me if I'm wrong,
the standard to which we are to measure our lives is Christ and
not some person. And so I, as the pastor ought to
be continually saying, Lord, take everything out of me and
also me that does not look like Christ, not that does not look
like brother so and so down the road.
Because if I'm not careful, I'm going to fall into the same
shame as those other men who are not keeping their eyes on
Christ. And I'm to fix my eyes on Jesus
the author and the perfector of my faith, as all good ministers
are to do. We have to keep.
Honor by our own integrity, living blameless life above
reproach. First Timothy chapter 3 already
read that section. He uses the term above reproach
and tied is chapter 1 versus 6 and seven.
He uses this term. An elder must be blameless.
Faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are
not open to charge of of being wild and disobedient.
And since an overseer manages God's household, he must be here
at his end. Blameless.
Not overbearing, not quick tempered, not given to
drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.
He tells you what blameless is. You know the difference between
blameless and above reproach. You know what it is?
Nothing. You're saying the exact same
thing. We are to be blamelessly above
reproach. If we are above reproach, no one
can bring a worthy accusation against us established by those
witnesses. According to the word of God.
And so when we talk about honor, and Paul makes it very clear
here that honor is earned. It's earned initially.
And it's continually earned as it is kept by integrity.
Just because I was an honorable pastor 10 years ago does not
mean that I am still an honorable pastor now.
It's important that I consider every single day and every
single day I rely on the power and the strength of the
indwelling Holy Spirit so that I can continue to live a life that
is honorable, so that I can continue to be conformed to the
image of Christ. So we see honor is earned as we
contemplate, excuse me, not con complicate.
I don't want to complicate. I don't want to contemplate.
As we contemplate these things, honors earned.
It brings us to our fourth point today.
And I love this because there are those who say this is out of
place. This is Paul just going on some
rant. This is Paul going on some
tangent. This is Paul just communicating
in Pauline style. Just random pulling stuff out.
It's not. It is so beautiful.
It is so perfect, it's so right because Paul is going to
actually turn and do what he's saying to do.
He's telling Timothy, honor the leaders among you, and they
should honor you as well. And the church should honor
those leaders, especially those who preach and teach the Word.
Is Paul one who preached and taught the Word?
Of course. And this preacher and this
teacher is now going to turn to another preacher teacher there
at Ephesus. You know what he's going to do?
He's going to show him honor. And in showing him honor, he's
going to encourage him. Did you know the greatest
encouragement that you can give to a pastor is when they're
living an honorable life, honor them.
They're living an honorable life.
Honor them. Let them know that what they're
doing is worth while. Let them know that their
ministry is not in vain. Let them know.
And when they teach you something and you've never
learned before in the word of God, let them know.
Thank you for teaching me that. It changed my whole perspective
online. Watch what Paul does again.
Many people think he ended the thought and picked up somewhere
else. He doesn't, he says stop.
Drinking only water and use a little wine because of your
stomach and your frequent illnesses.
Paul is actually going to model what it is that he's teaching
Timothy to teach the church, and he's going to honor him.
He's going to honor Timothy knowing that it's going to
encourage him and he shows him this honor.
How does he do it? By being concerned about his
physical well-being. You know how many churches that
I have been on staff ad and been involved with who They didn't
care about your physical well-being.
They didn't care if you lived. They didn't care if you died.
Just keep pouring out everything you have.
One day you'll be like a big pen.
When you run out of ink, we'll throw you away and we'll get
another one. It happens.
Paul stops and he gives concern for his physical well-being.
I know this is the one of the scriptures that people like to
just take out of context and use it to justify your drinking of
alcohol. If you want to do that, that's
fine, but it's wrong. He says stop drinking only water
and use a little wine because of your stomach.
And I know they're little wine, not enough to get drunk off of,
just a little. And he says, use a little wine.
You know what he didn't say? Budweiser, Bud Light, Crown
Royal, Jack Daniels. Why?
Because a little amount of those will make a man drunk.
Drunkenness is always a sin. I don't have to argue with you
about that. But it's interesting that
people. Always like to take this
particular portion of scripture out of context to try to justify
social drinking. Drink a little wine?
Well, you just drink a whole bottle.
You think that's a little? I'm sorry that my common sense
is disrupting your justification of your sin.
He's not even. Talking about drinking here at
all. He's talking about an ailment
that his friend has physically, many believe.
Perhaps he had some type of ulcer, maybe he had some type of
bacteria. I'm not a doctor.
I don't claim to know. I don't know that I buy into any
of the claims because I was not there.
I'll say this, he obviously had an issue with his stomach.
And you know what Paul said? Take care of yourself.
Take care of your stomach. Why?
Because if you get sick, you're no good.
To those believers there at Ephesus, who's going to teach
them? Who's going to lead them?
Paul honors him, and in honoring him, he's encouraging him.
Take care of yourself. Physically, I love it when
people notice that we as ministers become tired.
And we do thank you for those of you who noticed that right, who
don't just keep wanting us to continue to plow with no rest,
weary as we may be. For those of you who have some
compassion and some concern and say, hey, pastor, you seem
pretty tired, is everything OK? You know what?
It's OK to ask me those questions.
Get ready, because I'll be honest.
But it means so much here for Timothy to hear from Paul.
I'm concerned about your physical well-being because if
your stomach issues continue to plague you, you're going to be
hindered in the work of the ministry.
We can't have you being hindered in the work of the ministry.
Drink a little wine, right? That was for medicinal purposes
in the day. Never to get that.
Stop using this to justify your drinking.
It's silly because if you use this to justify your drinking,
you limit yourself to a little wine.
Anything else, you've done nothing, made no case at all,
and you must have a stomach issue to do it biblically.
So it says drink a little wine for your stomach and your
frequent illnesses. We know that people had all kind
of illnesses from bacteria, things that were in their water
system, and this wine, this fermented drink would kill those
things. The point here is he's thinking
about the physical well-being of Timothy Paul's encouraging him.
Take care of your health, take care of yourself.
Watch this, take a break, relax faster.
Hey, it's OK for you to go on a vacation.
I've been in places where if the pastor went on a vacation, it
was the end of the world. I remember I went on a mission
trip one time for two weeks, working with indigenous people
in Mexico and places that most of you wouldn't even believe
still existed. I was not staying at the Ritz
Carlton. It's bad when you're there two
weeks and the best meal that you had the entire time was a can of
Vienna sausages and mustard and saltine.
And I'll never forget, I got home from that trip and I had a
family vacation scheduled that summer, a week in between my
mission trip and that other trip, and I had a lady in the
church rebuke me because I was just on vacation for two weeks.
But isn't that the way some people think?
Not, Paul. He says, drink a little wine for
your stomach issue, Timothy, so that your health will be what it
needs to be, so that you can minister to the people that you
need to minister to, and so that nothing will hinder that.
So he talks about his physical well-being, but he also talks
then about his spiritual well-being.
He says the sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of
judgement ahead of them, and the sins of others trail behind him.
He's going to use a comparison here.
He's going to use the comparison of unrighteous deeds.
That will be noticed with the comparison of righteous deeds
that will inevitably be noticed. Why?
Because Timothy, just like any other pastor, is probably at
times sitting there and he's wondering, is any of the good
that I'm doing worth anything? Is anybody getting it?
Is anybody's life being changed? Am I getting through or is my
ministry for nothing? Is it all in vain?
So Paul assures him and encourages him, he gives them
this honor, encourages him not to not grow weary and his well
doing. He said just as the sins of
people, we'll find them out, right?
Isn't that what Scripture says? Be sure your sins will find you
out, Timothy. You worry about your spiritual
life and all the good that you're doing is going to come to
the surface at some point in time.
It will be noticed. If by no man, it is noticed by
God, it will be made obvious. Your good deeds are for
something. What is he doing here?
He's encouraging him and he's honoring him.
And nudging him toward spiritual well-being.
Keep on keeping on Galatians 619.
Just what he tells to the church at Galatia.
He says let us not become weary and doing good, for at the
proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
I read this every single day. It sets on my desk.
Why? Just as George Whitfield said, I
tire in the work, never tire of the work.
I know that this work that I do and the pastors of this church
know that the work that they do, it's for something.
Better put, it's for someone and it does not go unnoticed.
And so we strive to stay well, not just physically but also
spiritually, so that we continue to do the good works that he has
prepared in advance for us to do, knowing that one day we will
see the fruits of our labor. What an honoring thing for Paul
to say to young Timothy, a young protege.
Keep on keeping on. It's just as those who sow in
unrighteousness are going to reap a harvest of
unrighteousness. You who sow in righteousness
through spiritual means, you're going to reap a harvest of
righteousness and your work is not going to be in vain.
What encouragement for this young pastor?
What encouragement for me, a pastor, the pastors of this
church, to know that there are people who honor us by caring
for our physical well-being and who honor us by caring for our
spiritual well-being. Reminding us, us not in vain,
must be constantly encouraging our pastors, our elders, our
leaders in this way to press on spiritually to continue to run
the race to win the prize, just as Paul says to do in
Philippians chapter 3 verse 14, when he says, I press on to the
goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in
Christ Jesus. May we press on as leaders.
May you encourage those leaders to press on and in doing so, may
we continue to press on together.
True Honor, as displayed by Paul here for his dear friend.
True Honor will care for and encourage other leaders in the
church. May we do the same.
So how do we wrap all this up? Well, it's real simple.
Church member, are you honoring your leaders as you should?
It's not optional. We saw earlier it's expected,
it's mandated by scripture. Are you doing this?
You must. Why?
Because in doing so. You will reap.
Spiritual benefits. If they are doing their task
well, keep honoring them, keep encouraging them, keep loving
them. Those leaders in the church, you
know who you are. You know the role that you have.
Be reminded, honors earned. It's earned and it's kept by the
way that you live your life, the way you conduct your ministry,
and the way you serve the Lord. Live honorably.
If you can't resign from church leadership.
It's that simple to the unbeliever.
And I know what you say, Kirk. What in the world could an
unbeliever get out of this message?
Nothing. Nothing.
An unbeliever is sitting in a seat or her seat right now
wondering why should we listen to the Gray haired?
Man with glasses and a green shirt standing behind a block of
wood. None of it makes sense to you.
Did you know this? There was a young man in the
service at 9:00. It didn't make sense to him
either till he surrendered his life to Jesus as Lord and Savior
in the earlier service. Today you said Kirk, Are you
kidding me? You You preached about honoring
pastors and someone was saved. Yes, that's exactly what I'm
telling you. I'm not in charge of saving
people. I'm in charge of proclaiming the
word of God as I get to it. Here it is.
You know what God says, keep being faithful to that which
I've given you to do, and I'll keep being faithful to that
which I am only able to do. He is the only one able to do
that. In just a moment, along with the
others who came forward for baptism, you're going to get to
witness that. A man who was saved just an hour
ago, he says, I'll get baptized in my clothes today.
He'd heard the gospel. He'd heard the gospel.
And then God used a message
about honoring your pastor to show him his need for Christ.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was regenerated a new life
and he now believes, Amen. Perhaps that's you.
Maybe you've heard the gospel over and over and over again.
You can't figure out why. This stuff just doesn't make
sense. The natural man does not
understand the things of the Spirit.
Until you get Christ right, nothing else will seem right.
It will make no sense to you. And my prayer for you is this,
that God would have mercy on your soul today, that He would,
just like the young man Aaron, who I am Speaking of or I spoke
of a moment ago, that he will open your eyes to see that you
are a Wretch. You were a Sinner, you were
alienated from a holy God because you were a transgressor
breaking the laws of God by your very nature.
And it is only in Christ and he will show you mercy and offer
you forgiveness, complete cleansing for all of your
wickedness and your impurity. Would you trust Christ today,
crying out to him as the only hope that you have?
Jesus said, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy
laden, you're sick of that life of sin.
And the only reason you're sick of that life of sin because he's
going to let you know that you are come unto me, all you who
are weary and heavy laden. And he promises this.
I will give you rest while you have toiled in your sin long
enough. Come to Christ today and enter
in his rest. He will not turn you away.
Let's pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus.
We thank you for your word. We thank you that it does what
it does, what it alone can do through your power.
And I pray that you would convict the hearts of those who
need conviction today, that you would draw the Sinner who is in
need of repentance and eternal life and forgiveness in Christ.
God, I thank you for these who are going to publicly profess
Christ through baptism in just a moment.
We rejoice with them, and we rejoice in you for saving them.
Again, Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you for giving me the courage and the strength to not
shy away from something because it's awkward and uncomfortable,
but to deliver it just as you have delivered it to me.
May you be glorified through it may accomplish your will.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen. You've been listen to Key Life
Fellowships Pulpit Ministry podcast.
Join us each week for more teaching from God's Word.