"[An Elder] must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it." Titus 1:9

In establishing the principle of elder governance in the church, God gave the church a vital line of defense against false teaching. Elders are not only to be able to teach but also correct and rebuke falsehood. Those elders whose daily labor is the work of ministry - vocational elders - are especially vital in this role of building and defending the church through the work of teaching and preaching and a life of study. A church needs men dedicated to this work, it is a noble task (1 Tim. 3:1), and God has given these men as a gift to his church (Eph. 4:11).

Wonderful thing that the Lord Jesus Christ loved children. One time, the women brought their children for him to bless them. And those very important disciples say, well, listen, this man's too busy. He's the head of a big company, starting a whole new religion. He doesn't have time for children.

And the Lord said, well, don't ever stop the children from coming to me, because that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. You know, women don't bring their little children to academic theologians, or I'm better than thou kind of people. Women have their own radar system and they knew the Lord would accept their children. They could see that in him. They didn't bring their children to the rabbis.

Kept them far away from those fellows. So, always receive the little children and bless the little children. Wonderful to see these young people here. That really thrills me. Thrills me beyond words.

Well, I want you to open to 1 Timothy. It's a very interesting book, 1 Timothy. And where is Jason? Is he hiding? There you are, Jason.

Thank you for all you've said. I don't know how it is that we agreed on all this, but maybe we read the same Bible. I don't know. That was very wonderful what he's saying. Isn't it interesting the book of 1 Timothy addresses every single issue we are struggling with in the evangelical church today?

Isn't it interesting? Men and women's roles, teaching the church, false teachers, leadership, qualifications for leaders, widows. Just everything we are seeing debated today is right here in this book. And that's why it's so tragic when our Bible-believing scholars just write this stuff off and say, well, it's cultural. It was a special issue being addressed with women in chapter 2.

Now, I want to remind you of this church, that this church was originally planted by Paul's team of Prilla and Aquila and Paul and Timothy, right there at the start, the dawn of this church. This was a very privileged church. No other city did Paul spend nearly three years ministering. And I want to remind you from Acts chapter 20 that Paul and these elders were intimate in their ministry together. They knew each other.

And that's why when Paul says, I'm giving you my farewell message, they fall down on him and all weep together. I mean, can you imagine being three years in the battle with the apostle Paul. Can you even imagine it and how close they must have gotten to him? But here's the sad story and it is a sad story. Much of life is a sad story because the world is broken, it's cursed, It's in rebellion against God.

By and large, these elders failed. He gave them the warning in Acts 20, wolves are coming and from among your own members and it appears, many scholars believe and I think there's good evidence for it, that the false teaching rose from within and not from without. And it may be, it may be, that's why Paul talks about the novice, You cannot be an elder as a novice. People that were not really prepared become elders and they get caught up in false teaching. So when you look at the book of 1 Timothy you better get the background because it will help us to understand how much is written about leadership in this particular book.

So here's a mature church. Here's a church that had the best of the best as teachers, and yet it falls under the death grip of false teachers. Look at chapter one, verse three. As I urge you, when I was going to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may charge certain people not to teach any different doctrine." So that sets the pace for the book. False teaching is gripping this Church.

Serious situation. Look at two of the ring leaders. Look over at verse 19. Holding fast and a good conscience by rejecting this some have made shipwreck of their faith. Now he names them.

And among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander. That is no relative of mine. Please do not do that to me. I'm not one of the false teachers. These are the ringleaders of the sedition.

Now whether they're elders or not, we can't say, but they were certainly leaders of the teaching, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. So Paul disciplines such a serious situation, he disciplines them, hands them over to Satan, just like in 1 Corinthians 5, for Satan to buff at them and there's a purpose, a redemptive purpose they may learn not to blaspheme. So, Paul is not happy with the situation, you need to get that. Timothy's there, and like deep rooted weeds, which every year my father made me go out in the garden and pull out these weeds, but it's only come back the next year. It's hard to get out of them.

The same is with false teachers. Once they get a grip in the church, it is just about impossible to get rid of them. Have you ever argued with a false teacher? We were in battle with a false teacher two years ago. It actually wound up in national news.

The very abusive church, we were trying to rescue one of our young people from this church and three of the elders wound up in prison because of their treatment of children and you can read about it online. But here's what I learned. It's hard to argue with these guys. In fact, you can't. They twist and turn scriptures so badly you don't know if you're coming or going yourself.

And it's just what Paul said in Acts 28 to 31. He says they twist the scriptures to their own purpose and to draw people after themselves. They're good at scripture twisting. That they tie up such knots, you hardly think of how to untie them without some work. So there are a tough breed of people to deal with.

Timothy had a tough job on his hands. Now this letter is to authorize Timothy to act and it was, even though it's written to Timothy, as we know from the end, it's to be read to the church. The church is to know Timothy is an apostolic legged and he's to straighten out the situation and he says, stop this teaching. End of story. Stop it.

Don't let this teaching be taught anymore. Now to straighten out and reform some of the problems, Paul gives instructions. Isn't it interesting, we have all these instructions on the church leadership. You have chapter 3, well actually it starts in chapter 2, but in chapter 3 specifically lays out for us the qualifications for elders and deacons. As has been said already, many of our problems come because we bring on the wrong men.

And somehow in this church we don't know the details, the wrong men got on the eldership, and maybe men like these two men, Hymenaeus and Alexander, we don't know, but in this mature church, well, well taught by the great apostle, They got a grip on the church. Think of that. That's pretty frightening. I remember Dr. S.

Lewis Johnson from Believers' Chapel in Dallas. He used to always say this. I've heard him say it four or five times in that beautiful Charleston, South Carolina accent, you know, gentlemen, in 50 years, believers chapel may be a Unitarian church. He wasn't exaggerating. Probably could happen in 10 years, if we're not alert.

So Paul says in Acts 20, 31, be alert, be alert, be alert for three years. I didn't stop night or day warning you with tears to guard yourself from false teachers. Because behind false teachers, if you look at chapter 4, you look at chapter 4, now the Spirit expressly says that in, that's the Holy Spirit, that in the last time some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons. Let me remind you demons are good teachers. They're good communicators.

And they're scripture twisters. They can take a doctrine and turn it on its head and you just take the next year or two to try to untangle it. And that's what we ran into a couple of years ago with these scripture twisters. They had so twisted the scriptures and deceived so many Christians and divided so many families, and arguing with them was a tough job. You really had to know what you were talking about and had to put your foot down with them.

They still kept twisting the scriptures and people followed their distorted ideas, trying to root it in the Bible. So in handling the problem, publicly he says through this letter to Timothy, Timothy, these are the requirements for all elders and deacons. No one comes on the eldership, no one comes on the deaconship unless they meet these requirements. Now he says, if anyone has a desire for that's a good thing. I'm sure after a number of battles, there were people saying, I don't want to get on the eldership.

When people look at the eldership and they see nothing but fighting and conflict and problems, they want to stay away from it. But Paul says this, no listen, if you desire oversight, You're desiring a very noble, praiseworthy, honorable task. He's using that to encourage them and he says the same thing about deacons in verse 13. But now we come to chapter 5. All that's background to bring us to chapter 5.

In chapter 5 we have some of the finest and most fundamental teaching on biblical eldership and it's chapter 5 verses 17 to 25. And Brother has already read verses 24 and 25. I'm saying to you that this is an extremely fundamental central passage to understanding a biblical eldership. Many churches have eldership because it's in the Bible, but it's not a biblical eldership. In most cases, is what I call, the only term I can think of is bored elders, bored elders.

They come on for three years. Some churches, it's sort of give the rich guys in the church a chance. And they make policy. They're administrators, they're advisors to the pastor. That is not a biblical eldership.

It's an administrative kind of eldership. A biblical eldership is a pastoral eldership. The job is shepherding people, which means teaching and guiding and disciplining, protecting and caring for the people. Our work as Biblical elders is people work. And here's something very interesting about this passage, 1 Timothy 5, 17 and 18.

It doesn't fit in most churches' policies, so they actually can't understand it. When you say to people, elders, elders, laboring and preaching teaching, they don't know what you're talking about. That's what the pastor does. So we had this very famous theologian. If I mentioned his name, everyone would know his name here.

So he came to our city and he was speaking. And I'm a young buck and I'm studying this and preparing for the book, Biblical Eldership, trying to get everything I can from people. So I go up to this theologian and I say to him about the elders who labor in preaching and teaching, I wanted to get his view on double honor. And he goes, he starts by saying they don't labor in preaching and teaching and then he caught himself. He said, well, yeah, there is a verse someplace about it, isn't there?

Yeah, at this point, I'm shocked. He doesn't even know this central, central, fundamental passage. You know why? Doesn't fit in his frame of reference. Doesn't know anything about elders that do.

The elders, you know, I'm in this church, maybe you've heard this illustration, I've given it before. I go into this church, and as soon as I come in, in fact, I've seen this twice, one's just a terrible way, I come in, and here's this big picture of the pastor. One church I went into in our city, you walk right in and there's a big pillar. See that, like that pillar? Big pillar, just like that.

And the entire pillar is from the head to the toe of the pastor, the picture of the pastor. I just wanted to bow down and say how great thou are, you know. What folly, what folly, what disregard for the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, he was a bully pastor and wanted everyone to know he's the boss. You come in that church, he's the boss.

We're not the boss. We're only underservants. Most of us are not even worthy of that. Promoting ourself in such a way he doesn't understand the headship of Christ. So anyway I come into this church and here's a nice big picture of the pastor and then all around going down the pyramid are the sub-pastors and associates and assistants.

I don't know what the difference is but they're all there. They're pictured like a pyramid but he's at the top. So I'm looking for the bathroom and someone says, I'm going down the hall and I'm going, and all of a sudden down the hall, way down the hall is a picture of all the elders. And I thought, wow, what a great illustration. Put the elders down the hall and the pastor with his pyramid organization right there in the front.

An exact opposite of what Paul would do. An exact opposite, and this passage shows that. All right, so, background, troubled church, Paul's not happy, Timothy's got a big job, and now we come to this marvelous passage, and he says this, Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor. Now, maybe you've heard me say this before, all elders rule, some rule well. I do not like the word rule.

It is way too strong. We don't rule. This is a brotherhood, a holy brotherhood where all have gifts and all have the Holy Spirit of God and we all have a part to play in a healthy church. The word rule is too harsh. Actually the NIV is not bad here.

Those who direct the affairs of the church. Or we could say those who lead well. That would be softer. And if you know the Greek word, you know that it has a latitude of from caring for all the way to rule. And when you make your interpretation of this word, you've gotta do it in the context of the full teaching of Jesus Christ of humble leadership.

So when a word is translated from one language to another language, it's not just the context, it is the context, but there's the larger context of the theology, which we know from Christ, followed by Paul, that our leadership is truly a servant leadership. We are there to care for God's people, and we're among God's people. We're not outside them. So let the elders who lead well Be considered worthy of double honor. Now, there's two groups he's talking about here.

First is those who lead well. And I would say there are, Romans chapter 12 verse 8 talks about a spiritual gift called leadership. It's the exact same Greek word as here, prohistemi. And in Romans 12.8, Paul says, those who lead with diligence. Those who lead with diligence, or wholeheartedly, or forget some of the other translations those who lead you to do it with diligence so undoubtedly These are elders who are leading diligently or capably.

Now, this is not meant to put down the other elders. It's a fact of life. So let's say you have five elders. Or let's start with our church. Our church was started by three families who became the first three elders and they really did a very good job.

They had determined when our church started, they started in the basement of one of the elders, that they would have a real biblical eldership. That was actually the start of our church and the Lord brought me into that very church six years later. Now, there were three very good men, but one just stood out among the three. And he stood out because of his conscientiousness, his ability to motivate people and organize people, and the amount of time he would spend, the amount of time was extraordinary. He was 100% committed to the flock.

In fact, he worked for Boeing, and Boeing wanted to ship him out to another part of the state. He quit his job, a good job. He was not leaving the flock. You talk about a man called to the flock. And he took another job and started into sales.

He was very successful in it. Here's something very interesting. Herb, this is Herb Banks who started our church. He wasn't a razzle dazzle guy. He wasn't a public speaker.

He wasn't charismatic at all. He was just a solid man. And you know, he was in sales and you would think, he's not gonna be a very good salesman because he doesn't have that charisma, you know, he didn't look sharp and anything like that. But he outsold everyone year after year, you know why? I'm gonna tell you why.

Because the people weren't looking for a razzle-dazzle salesman, they were looking for someone faithful they could trust and would do what he said he would do and he got a great reputation. He became a great salesman in electronic parts. So we're not always looking for razzle-dazzle, super charismatic people. Sometimes that faithful man, that man who can trust his word, he's gonna be there. Great example, great example to all us younger men.

He was an elder who ruled well. Now the other elders were good men, but they didn't have the time, they didn't give the time, and they didn't have that capacity to just oversee the whole flock and understand how the whole thing works and motivate people, put people in jobs and see when people are leaving and when people are there and who's not been here for a couple weeks? Wonderful eye, a wonderful, you know a shepherd has to have a good eye. He's gotta look at sheep. Now one time I was in England in the Cotswolds.

You know where the Cotswolds are? No, you don't, of course not. But someday you will. It's some of the finest sheep in the world. You get a sweater from the cotswolds, you know.

Maybe when you get to be, you're 13, right? Maybe you're 16, you want a sweater from the cotswold. People say, oh, oh. So I was in the cotswolds, and whenever I'm around sheep, I want to learn as much as I can. So I'm talking to this shepherd, and he's got the sheep in there.

He's the finest sheep. And I said, they all look the same. They all look the same. How do you know the difference? They looked at me like an insult.

They don't all look the same. Now, that one over there is a little bit of a rebellious one. I gotta watch him because he misleads it. That one over there is sick all the time. That one over there is really the leader of the pack.

They all look the same. Not to a shepherd. Not to a shepherd. Oh no. So some people have a real eye for the people and know the people and see the people.

So what he's talking about here is an elder who excels in shepherding the people and leading the people. Not all elders are on the same level. They all have, share exactly the same authority and position, just like all 12 Apostles shared apostolic authority. One didn't have more authority than the other. Twelve apostles with apostolic authority all commissioned to go out and represent the Lord Jesus.

But they weren't all the same in giftedness or in prominence. There is no question all you need is a Bible dictionary. Peter stood out among them, Matthew 10.2, as first as the natural speaker, the mouthpiece of the group. Nothing wrong with that as long as we understand the equality side and the different side. So these are elders who stand out because of their leadership.

Well, they're worthy of double honor. But there's a second group he talks about, and the second group is especially, above all, particularly, watch out, make sure you get these ones, those who labor in preaching and teaching. Now, the word labor is a very strong word. It's the word that indicates manual labor, but it emphasizes the idea of working to the point of weariness. It's more of a secular word, it's not a religious word, by the way.

Those who work to the point of weariness at preaching and teaching. Now if you're not a preacher, teacher or student, it sounds like a cozy job, doesn't it? You know, he's a teacher, you know, you get up and you say a few words and talk and then you go play golf in the afternoon and people who don't teach and preach regularly have a hard time understanding how could you possibly labor, labor to the point of weariness in teaching. Those of us who do teaching regularly know it's hard work. It's many hours of discipline sitting yourself down at a desk, and I'm not talking about a half hour, I'm talking six, seven hours a day.

Long hours of reading the commentaries, preparing sermons, making sure you're saying the right thing. It's really a lifetime of learning, building a large frame of reference. You can't get that in a year or two. It's a lifetime of learning and serious study and preparation and sometimes it's hours of boredom, you know, it's not easy. It's nice to study but then you gotta bring it all together, put it in an outline, put in illustrations, application.

Takes a lot of thought. Takes a lot of self-discipline. Many people cannot do this. And then you've got to keep up on reading. You need to know what's going on in the larger world, because it all comes into the church eventually for our young people.

And so it means that you're aware of world events, your world of cultural changes, you're aware of theological changes and ecclesiastical changes. And it means she's got to stay up on things, stay up on the news, stay up on what's going on, because it all comes into us. It's part of the protecting ministry. So it's a lifetime committed to diligent study, preparation. It also means spending time with people teaching.

How about 2 Timothy 2, 2, where Paul says, now Timothy, I want you to look for those reliable, faithful people, and then I want you to transmit to them the message of the gospel. But I want you to pick people who will do that to others, they'll carry on the task. Well, that takes time. That takes time with men to transmit to them what you have learned. And then there's speaking to the assembly, to the local congregation, which you need to be prepared.

You can't get up there and just fake it and shoot from the hip. Maybe you get away with that one or two times, but after that, people catch on. You're just repeating the same thing you repeated. To have fresh teaching, fresh words, fresh concepts from the Word of God takes a lot of preparation and it's interesting, very interesting, it doesn't take long for the people to see if you've got credibility or not. They know.

They're getting something. The teaching is bearing fruit. The people are being blessed. The people are learning. The people are being exhorted.

They're being convicted by the word because the teacher has spent the time needed. So, especially, especially, above all, those elders who labor in preaching and teaching. Now, what is the difference? This is always a question that comes up. Go back to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4. Here's a question that often comes up. Alright 1 Timothy 3, we've already looked at it. We've looked at Titus 1-9, we've already seen these. The passages teach that every elder must be able to teach the word.

In fact, Titus 1-9 is even more important. He must cling tenaciously to apostolic doctrine for a purpose, two purposes, that he can instruct others in sound doctrine and refute anyone who contradicts sound doctrine. So in other words, every elder must be able to instruct in the word of God. Doesn't mean he's a platform orator or spirit gifted teacher. It means like any mature Christian, you ought to be able to open the Bible and instruct people out of the Bible.

Any mature Christian, Hebrews chapter five, we just looked at that earlier. They were babes because they couldn't teach anymore. They had to go all the way back to the little milk of the new, of the faith. So, the question is, if all elders have to be able to teach, apt to teach, and all elders must be able to instruct and sound doctrine and be able to spot false teachers and deal with them. Well, who are these elders who labor in doctrine that get double honor?

What's the deal here? Well, go over to Ephesians 4, and you go to Verse 11, I think this is the answer, and he gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the shepherds and teachers. I don't believe he's talking about office here. I think he's talking about functioning gift. So, there are people that Christ gave to his body to equip his people so they'll do the ministry and use their spiritual gift, there are shepherds and teachers who do equipping.

So here's what I think. I think the way to explain this is that some elders, not all elders, are Holy Spirit gifted shepherds or teachers. All must be able to teach because they're mature Christian men, but some are Spirit gifted. And you can sense the difference in the results. People are edified, they're built up, they love to hear the person.

Some of us are teachers but we cannot sustain consistently a ministry that people are really interested in and blessed by. But you should all be able to open your Bibles and instruct one on one, small group, etc. So I think the answer is this. First Timothy 5, 17 is talking about spirit gifted leaders, because that is a spiritual gift, and spirit gifted teachers, shepherds. And because they're spirit gifted, the church is built up because it's the Lord's plan to build this church through our gifts.

It's not eldership per se that builds up the church. It might kill your church. It's spiritual gifts of every member that edifies the body. And that's why we must equip every member for their ministry so they're effective. Now, let's bring it back to the problem.

There is a serious problem in this good, otherwise good church, very serious problem. So serious that Paul has to leave Timothy, his representative there, to straighten this situation out. He must have been there a short while because he excommunicated two people. And you can imagine what chaos that caused in the church. The division that must have caused.

Because you know all false teachers got their following. Must not have been very pleasant. What is the solution ultimately to this problem and how do they get to this problem? Well right here is the answer. Right here is the answer.

The way to deal with false teaching is to have consistent, positive, scriptural, doctrinal ministry. So you strengthen the congregation and protect the congregation from false teaching. If a congregation is well taught, normally, not always, because false teachers are really tricky guys, and sometimes they're from within the church. But it's the normal way to protect the church, feed the church well, so you have fat sheep, healthy sheep. So This passage, all the way to verse 25, really is the ultimate solution after Timothy will leave.

He will leave. He's going to meet Paul in Rome, his elders laboring in preaching and teaching. Because through the Word-ministered, the church actually is created. We're created, we never created the church, by the way. The church didn't create the church.

The Word, the gospel, created the church and caused us to be born again. As the word is ministered, people are born again of the Spirit and people are matured and people are protected. Ephesians chapter four, go back there to chapter verse 15. So we're seeing here the importance of proper ministry of the word and leadership. So what is the response?

Now, he's talking to the congregation here. Here he's not talking to the elders. He's talking to the congregation. And he says, now congregation, Timothy, those elders among the elders who lead well, and above all, those elders who are laboring in the Word, there must have been elders laboring in the Word, they're to receive double honor. Not all elders receive double honor.

Now this could cause jealousy, it could cause division, it can, especially if we're operating the flesh, But it's a reality. It's a reality that he's acknowledging and he says here's what you just to do now just real quickly without getting sidetracked if You get confused by this passage Just go back to the the first church the Lord Jesus when he left this earth did not Anoint Peter the Pope you may not know that but it's not true. He did not anoint Peter the Pope. You may not know that, but it's not true. He did not anoint Peter the Pope.

I'm glad he didn't. When our Lord ascended to heaven, he had already chosen 12 men. The earliest church was led by a plurality of men called the apostles. They were the first eldership. What we read here is illustrated in the twelve.

You have twelve men. They are all equally apostles. They are all equally sent, but they're not all equal in gift. Some of the apostles, we don't know a single thing about them except their name. We know a lot about Peter, James, and John.

So they were leading men among the leaders. And the Lord even said to Peter, he said, now, when you're restored, strengthen your brothers. Because he was the natural leader. He was the mouthpiece of the group. So you read next that the 12 stand up and Peter speaks.

No, excuse me, Peter stands up with the 11. Peter stands up with the 11. Imagine 12 men facing the Sanhedrin. 70 rulers, get this picture, 70 of the rulers of Israel. The Supreme Court, 12 men stand in front of them.

Hmm, sounds like the 12 tribes of Israel, doesn't it? And proclaiming the Messiah. Must have been quite a dramatic moment. But who speaks? Peter is the speaker.

On the day of Pentecost, it's no one else but Peter speaks and gives a message, 3, 000 are saved. John had his own character, his own personality. We can see it in his letters. And James. So, if you have a problem understanding this diversity among the elders and the equality among the elders, just go to the twelve apostles.

It's all illustrated there. So now we come back to our passage. There's a plurality of leaders over the church. There are leaders who are laboring and preaching and teaching, probably fighting for their lives with these false teachers. Timothy is there to help them with apostolic authorization and this letter to help them To tell the church, now you support these men.

You care for these men. You need these men who are laboring in the Word and teaching. Just like I labored when I was with you. And so he says, give them, they're deserving, he says. They're entitled to double honor.

So the question is, what's the double honor? Lots of different theories. Verse 18 explains it. So let's look at verse 18. Four, you see that four?

That's always look for those connecting words. A good Bible student will always look for the words of logic, the words that explain connections. If you're a good Bible student, look for the therefores, the hence, since, for. They tell you something very important, So learn to look for those words, and that's why a good study translation should not remove those words. Now some of the translations remove those words so it reads smoother.

Well that might be alright for people who don't know the Bible that well and want just an easy reading Bible. There's all kinds of Bibles for different purposes. But a good study Bible for a good student should be essentially literal. We don't want to remove these words. So, for is important.

He's going to explain something. For the scripture says. Now, the moment we see the scripture says, we should be, did you see your ears come up? Your ears should have come up right there. For the scripture says.

Anyone who loves the scripture sits upright away. What does the scripture say? What is it connected to? It's connected to the double honor. For, explanatory, the scripture says, Old Testament, New Testament, You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.

Great Old Testament principle. 1 Corinthians 9, was he talking to ox? No, he was talking to us. In other words, you've got to feed the ox or the ox will be fallen over, dead. To do his job, it's a hard job, he's gonna pull that big stone and crush that wheat.

And then the laborer, this is from the Lord Jesus, deserves his wages. Now, the Lord applied it to itinerary preachers, Paul applies it to a resident elder working in a church. So in other words, these elders who are laboring to the point of weariness in word and doctrine, they're to get their wages. In other words, they're to care for them. So then from there we could go to verses 19 to 25, talking about protection for an elder, discipline of an elder, choosing of an elder.

Very important teaching, but we can't deal with that now because you all want to eat in 15 minutes. You guys hungry? Yeah, I'm hungry too. So you've been very busy all day sitting there. Takes a lot of energy to sit and listen.

Okay? We'll stop at this passage, but this passage is very important and it's for the local church. The local church has a job to do. We always think of the elders job, don't we? The elders gotta do this, the elders gotta do that, duty, duty, duty.

How about the responsibility of the local congregation? That's what he's talking about. And he wants the congregation to support these elders so they can labor in the Word because that's the best protection. That's the best thing the church could have. Elders who are leading well, elders who are laboring in preaching and teaching.

By the way, that word preaching is a broader word, which would include gospling, evangelizing. The second word, teaching, is much more limited. It's the teaching instruction to the congregation to build them up. So the preaching is a bigger exhortation, comfort, evangelizing. The second word, more limited.

So he's covering the whole gamut of audible ministry here. One of the greatest needs in our churches today is for elders laboring in the Word. You know, this is a big book. It's not a little book, it's a big book. And we're to master this book.

And by the way, it's got thin pages too. You are to know this book from cover to cover. To preach a sermon and to interpret the New Testament, you've got to know the oath. It's all the word of God, right? You don't master that in six months.

You don't master that in one year of Bible school. It's a life fully devoted to the teaching and to the meaning of this book. And there's a real difference between someone who Saturday night scratches out a little sermon and reading a verse, who someone has devoted himself fully to a lifelong discipline of learning the scriptures. It's a big difference, huge difference. It's the difference between credibility, someone really actually knowing what they're talking about.

It doesn't take people long to realize they're just squeezing out a sermon. Got a little thought to give us. You know what they say, sermonettes produce Christianettes, which produces raisinettes. I have no idea what raisinettes are, but it does sound good. You know what grows a church?

Good ministry of the word of God. You know what builds up the believers? Good ministry from the word of God. And so, Paul is encouraging that very troubled congregation. Support your elders.

Show them double honor. Here's what I think happened, because I've seen so many church divisions and fights within a church and I've seen and tried to help in churches where false doctrine has gotten a grip. People get to dislike their leaders. They think the leaders are at fault here. They get in division with the leaders.

They get in conflict with the leaders, and they disregard the leaders, and they have little respect for the leaders, although they may be fighting for their lives. It's not easy to be a leader among the Lord's people. And so when such a thing happens like we see here in this church, there must have been a disregard for the elders who, there were good elders. We know there were good elders because he says those who are leading well, those who are laboring in the teaching, They're fighting for their lives. Timothy, I had to put Timothy in there.

I had to go in there myself. To root out these false teachers is no easy job. It's tough. Do not despise your elders. In fact, you were to highly honor them.

You were to show them double honor, not just honor. And I think the double honor, it's two ways to take it. The double honor means respect and remuneration, financial remuneration, And by saying that, he honors the other elders. All elders are to be honored, but these receive double honor, respect and remuneration. In other words, financial help, wages, he says wages there.

Or it means especially extra honor, It could mean that too. It's very hard to know exactly what he means, because both meetings can work there. The point is, these elders who are laboring diligently deserve from the congregation financial help. That's the only thing verse 18 can mean. You take care of them physically.

They don't starve to death because they're laboring. You've got to care for your laboring elders. The laborer is worthy of his wages. So here we have the scripture says, the scripture says. Now, he doesn't say how it's to be done.

I think it's done that way, much of the New Testament is done this way because the New Testament is not the Old Testament. The New Testament doesn't have 613 commandments. The New Testament church is a worldwide church. It's not a locality. Israel was a locality.

It was an ethnic people. They had specialized personnel. Everything was laid out. The church, Matthew 28, 19, 20, is for all nations. We go every place, New York City, the jungles of Africa, wherever God's people gather together, there is the people of God, there is the church of God.

And the church is designed for persecution, and the church is designed for world evasion, world spreading, because Jesus said, go to all nations. In Acts 1-8, he says, to the ends of the earth, so to the ends of the earth we are to spread. So the church is made to be adaptable and flexible to meet in New York City or to meet in the jungles of the Amazon. And so he doesn't give details of how to do this. And so the principle is there.

Congregation, support your laboring elders. So in some places It might mean giving them chickens and rice and beans so they can live. In another place, it could be a part-time worker or partial support or quarter support or full support. It's really quite open how we do this based upon our situation. Some churches cannot afford fully supporting an elder, and so the elder may have to have a part-time job.

Thank God for those elders who labor like that. And I know some right in our neighborhood who are working a full-time job and starting a church and ministering to the church. It's exhausting. One brother particularly I've worked with because not only had he a full-time job selling cars, he's a good Bible teacher and loves the study of the Word and is a big family, and he was in a church that he started himself, and there was probably four or five years where I didn't think he was gonna make it, the arguing, the fighting, the people would come in and try to make accusations. Well, praise the Lord, he pushed through.

Today the church is at peace. It's at peace, it's very happy, and they're raising up elders. But I'll tell you, he fought the good fight. He was a soldier, he was a Marine. I told him, you're like a Marine hitting the beach, and you stayed there.

When the bullets were coming at you, you didn't go running. Praise the Lord. And I think the Lord is greatly honored by such men. But when they get to the point, and he did get to the point where now the church can make his financial needs, and He's able to give himself full time to training men, ministering the word, building up other believers, getting other elders, getting others to teach also. So he shares the ministry with them.

So I just want to say this. It's our job. It's our job to care for such elders. In other places, 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 12 and 13, I want to remind you, there are verses that talk to the congregation about our responsibility to our leaders. We are to know those who labor among us and have charge over us.

And he says, we are to love them. And he actually uses a triple intensive. We're to highly esteem them in love because of their personality. Oh no, I'm sorry. For their work's sake.

Live at peace with one another. Highly esteem them in love for their work's sake. That's quite a strong statement. Very easy to criticize our elders. It's hard to esteem them highly in love for their work sake.

In other words, Paul's saying, these guys are working hard. They're there to admonish you and to have charge over you. Now, well, that leads us right to Hebrews 13, 17. I could see it on your face. Hebrews 13, submit to those and obey those who, oh, I love this, have watch over your souls.

That's a beautiful statement. They have watch over your souls. Let them do this with joy, not with grief, because it's not going to be good for you if you make it grieving for them. So the church has its responsibilities. It's not always elders, elders, elders, do this, do this, you're not doing enough.

You have responsibilities to pray for them and highly esteem them because of their work. And when you have to disagree with them and when they're doing something you don't agree with, There's a way to talk to them rather than threatening them or charging them with misbehavior like, I'd like to in any way help you. We're praying for you regularly. Every day I take one of our elders, his wife and family, and pray for them because when you pray for them, it's hard to criticize them. It really is because as soon as you pray for them, the Lord convicts you when you've talked evil of them.

And the Lord does not like that when we speak evil of those who are over us in the Lord. So remember, this is your responsibility to care for, to provide for, assist those who are laboring in the word for you. And now we're going to get ready for another wonderful meal. Have you enjoyed the meals here? I have really enjoyed the meals.

They've been so good. And I just love the way they do it with joy. You notice that? No sour pusses out there. They do it with great joy and love for us.

Isaac, do you agree? I agree too. Levi, do you agree? I agree too. Zachariah, do you agree?

Where's Ezekiel? Ezekiel, do you agree? Alright, where two or three agree, it must be done. Let's pray.