Would you open your Bible please to 1 Timothy chapter 5. Our text today begins with verse 17. Before I read it I want to say that as surely as ruffles have ridges, churches have problems. The church at Ephesus was one of the most notable churches of the New Testament era, and yet it was a church that had its problems. Timothy was the pastor of the church.
We see in chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 that there were apparently some generational problems with tensions, and so there are some words of exhortation to the pastor about that. The last time we were together we talked about the situational problem of how to support the widows who were widows indeed. So there were situational problems. We're going to see today that there were administerial problems. How to administrate the church. Problems with leadership.
Chapter 6 verses 1 and 2, social problems that are addressed. Chapter 6 verses 3 through 5, doctrinal problems are mentioned, and how to deal with them. And then verses 6 through 19 of chapter 6, motivational problems. Churches have problems. That's a fact of life. Paul's letters are always practical. They deal with the realities of the church as it exists in this world. While he often points to the ideal of what the church ought to be, Paul was not an idealist.
Although he expounds the truth of our position in Jesus Christ as believers and points to the goal that we have, he always writes with the recognition that none of us has yet arrived at that goal, the goal of perfection. He understood the distinction between what ought to be and what is. Some of us get frustrated because we have not yet seen that distinction. The church of Jesus Christ is a body of believers called out of this world to belong to Christ.
We have been delivered from sin and its condemnation. We are indwelt by the Spirit of God. We are gifted to serve. We are united to Christ and to each other in the body. We are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit. We share together a heavenly destiny. The church is composed of saints. All of these things are true. But sometimes God's saints are cranky, mean, unforgiving, lazy, selfish, and self-serving, faithless, and disobedient.
That's the distinction between what ought to be and what is the reality. In writing to the Ephesian church, Paul tells them they are characterized by a seven-fold oneness in chapter 4 verses 4 through 6. And yet he says that they as a church must walk worthy of that calling. And he exhorts them to that end to stop lying, to stop stealing, to put away bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and malice, and to be kind and forgiving to one another.
So what he is telling us is that those saints in Ephesus had a wonderful position in Jesus Christ that as yet they had not achieved in their daily lives. And that's true of us as well as Grace Church. But today's text in 1 Timothy 5 talks to us about some problems that were apparently surrounding the leadership in the church at Ephesus. Notice what Paul writes to their pastor.
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also may be fearful of sinning.
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of his chosen angels to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in the spirit of partiality. Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thus share responsibility for the sins of others. Keep yourself free from sin. No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment.
For others their sins follow after. Likewise, also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed. So we come to some sort of a problem in the church of Ephesus dealing with leadership. The role and work of leaders in the church is a common point of friction. God has ordained leadership, of course, for the church. I have said before, the church is not a democracy. God does not intend for the church to be a democracy.
The New Testament model for the church is that of authoritative, yet humble leaders who are empowered to direct the affairs of the church, that is, to rule it, and to teach and preach the word of the Lord on his behalf. God has established the principle, it seems to me, in the New Testament of strong leadership within the local church. The congregation that follows that principle will know the blessing of God. Now, it's important for any church to talk about this. It's important for our church.
I suppose it's customary on a anniversary Sunday to look back and to look forward. As I look back, I thank God for the many happy and wonderful things that have happened here in the 14 years that we've been together. But I must confess to you that occasionally over the last 14 years, there has arisen at some critical moments a certain sourness in our congregation. And I have sought over and over again to try to understand what is this? What is this at Grace Church, Roseville?
What is this sourness that is submerged for periods of time and then comes to the surface at certain critical moments? I was thinking about this a few weeks ago and talking to the Lord about it, and he put a phrase into my mind that immediately in my heart confirmed what it was, what this sourness has been that I have sensed. And the phrase was, the people are resisting leadership. Resistance of leadership.
And I began to go back and think the various times when I have sensed this sourness and the phrase stuck in every case. And I've wondered since this has come to my heart, where did this arise? Where did it come from? It's not something new. It has been in this church since near its beginning as Grace Church, Roseville. And I have wondered, did it come from the Emmanuel Church out of which we were born? Because there were problems in the Emmanuel Church. It was dying.
Did we inherit a spirit of resistance and cynicism about leadership from the Emmanuel congregation? I don't know. In our early years we had a lot of transfer growth from other churches in the area. Some of those churches were troubled churches and some of the people who came to our church brought troubles with them. Did this sourness about church leadership come from some of those people who came to Grace Church? I'm not sure.
I'm not so interested to be frank with you about where it came from as to what to do with it now. And I want to talk to you about that this morning. I want to go back and repeat my main emphasis today. It is this, that God has established the principle of strong leadership in the local church. And the church that follows that principle will be blessed by God.
I don't think it's too important what terms are used to delineate the leadership, whether they're called deacons or elders or executive committee or what they're called. I don't think that's terribly important. I think what's really important is what their job is and how they're perceived in the church. There is a right way and there is a wrong way for a church to organize itself and to operate.
And it seems to me that the right way in the New Testament is in part appointing qualified men as elders in the church and giving to them the responsibility and the authority needed to direct the affairs of the church. Now, what Timothy is told in this text that we're looking at today is that there are two crucial responsibilities that a church has towards leadership. First of all, it is to give it honor. A congregation is to give its leadership honor.
And that honor involves a couple of ideas, it seems. The first idea is that of respect. A congregation is to give to its leadership respect. Leadership is not merely a privileged position. Leadership is hard work. And those who are called from within the congregation to this duty must take it up with a sense of personal commitment and sacrifice. What they're going to do requires of them their very best. And if they can't give that, they shouldn't be leaders.
Because of that, the congregation is to appreciate them, says Paul to the Thessalonians, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. And so part of the responsibility of a congregation is to honor its leadership by respecting its leadership, trusting its leadership, supporting its leadership. And secondly, he seems to introduce here the idea of remuneration. He speaks about double honor, a second honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
The second honor is that of remuneration. As in verse 18, he goes on to quote both from the Old Testament and from Jesus regarding this matter. He quotes from the law in Deuteronomy 25 verse 4, the ox, you shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing, he says. But then he brings together in tandem with that a statement of Jesus from Luke chapter 10, in which our Lord said the laborer is worthy of his wages.
It is interesting, isn't it, that Jesus' words are here equated with Scripture, given equal weight with the law of Moses in the Old Testament. And so a church is to honor its leaders, not be cynical about them, not be suspicious of them, and certainly not to resist them. But a church is to honor its leaders by being respectful and by remunerating when that's appropriate.
There was one church member who observed that preachers were called to be humble and poor, and in the prayer meeting he said, Lord, you keep him humble, we'll keep him poor. I do want to say to you that Grace Church Roseville is generous with those of us who are on the paid staff, and I have no complaint about that at all. And you as a church have well honored those of us on staff in that respect, and I'm grateful for that.
But as we're talking about the responsibilities of a congregation to its leaders, let's keep in mind it begins with honoring them. And then secondly, guarding the integrity of the leaders, of that leadership group, guarding its integrity. He spends most of the text on this particular topic, and why is that? Because leadership work is dangerous work. It can cause people to become proud and thus to incur the condemnation that the devil incurred.
It can cause people to become conceited and self-centered and thus fall into sin. It is dangerous work. It is also dangerous because it makes one vulnerable to the attack of others. One of the reasons some people are hesitant to step up into leadership in the church is because they have been so wounded there in the past by the people of God. The nature of the responsibilities of a leader make him vulnerable to accusations and charges. Now that wouldn't happen in a perfect church, would it?
But remember, we aren't there yet. None of us. And so he gives some instructions as to how to guard the integrity of the church's leadership. There are several observations about accusations and guarding that integrity that I want to make. The first one is obvious. It is this that accusations must be expected. Accusations and charges against leaders must be expected. That's part of the price of leadership. Leaders will sometimes make people unhappy. Leaders will sometimes be misunderstood.
It is unavoidable that there will be charges leveled against leaders. Because no leader can please everybody. Abraham Lincoln made the famous statement, you can please some of the people all the time, all the people some of the time, but never all the people all of the time. And that's right. For leadership to attempt to please everyone, to offend no one, will lead to paralysis in a church. So the first observation we want to make is this, that accusations have to be expected.
But secondly, accusations must be substantiated. Or they must be rejected. Verse 19. There's a principle that is derived from scripture in Deuteronomy 19 verse 15 that tells us that it is important to have witnesses when accusations or charges are made. It says there in Deuteronomy, a single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed. On the evidence of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed.
And so under the Old Testament law, it was important for there to be more than one person who makes a charge, there have to be witnesses to it, to prove it. Our whole jurisprudence system is built upon that concept. Now this helps prevent malicious charges or frivolous accusations against leaders. Accusations must be substantiated by two or three witnesses or they must be absolutely rejected. Number three, accusations that are substantiated must result in public discipline.
Verse 20 says those who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all. Whether this presence of all refers to all of the rest of the elders or all of the rest of the congregation is not really clear. But I understand it the latter way, that when an accusation is substantiated against a leader, there is to be public discipline and rebuke regarding that. We have practiced that at Grace Church. Number four, discipline carried out properly will result in a healthy church.
Or he says in verse 20 again, do this so that the rest may be fearful of sinning. And so discipline that is carried out properly will result in a healthy church. For there comes upon all of us in witnessing discipline a fear, a fear of the consequences of sin. That of course is what the devil tries to hide when he tempts us that there are any consequences to our actions. When we are reminded that there are consequences, then we fear it results in spiritual health.
So discipline carried out properly helps the church to grow and to be healthy. And finally discipline must be administered without bias or partiality, verse 21. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God. Notice how he says this. This is not a comment made in passing. This is a specific charge given before God, before Jesus Christ, and before the angels of God. What he's talking about here concerning leadership and its integrity must be maintained without bias and without partiality.
Bias means not to prejudge. Partiality means that there's to be no favoritism. And James has a lot to say about that, doesn't he? Both of these terms are used only here in the New Testament. But he tells us that when it comes to the discipline of leaders, there's to be no prejudging about it, nor is there to be favoritism. It's to be done justly and openly. And in doing these things we will guard the integrity of leadership. That's the point.
As a congregation we must be concerned that the leadership that we honor has integrity, and we must guard that. And we guard it in part with regard to accusations by practicing these principles. Now there's a second way in which we must guard the integrity of leadership, and that is with regard to appointments that are made to leadership. He says in verse 22, do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily, and thus share responsibility for the sins of others.
And so he says when leaders are appointed, that's the picture of laying hands upon. That same picture is used in chapter 4 regarding Timothy himself and those who laid hands upon him when he was set apart to his work. Now he says to his pastor, don't lay hands hastily upon anyone to the work of leadership. Don't be premature in ordaining others to the work of leading in the church. He says doing so may cause us to share in the potential negative consequences of their sin.
It's not always an easy task to discern the character of someone about to be appointed to leadership, and that is why time is the best way to judge. Let time pass. Let it be proven. Let this person be proven. Don't lay hands hastily upon him. Verses 24 and 25 remind us that sometimes the works of a life are evident, and sometimes they're not. That's both true of evil works and good works, he says. And so we're to allow time to reveal the truth of the character of the individual.
Be cautious, he says. And so a church is responsible to guard its leadership's integrity by being careful who it appoints to leadership. We have not always followed that principle here, and we have sometimes paid a price for it. Let us remember to be cautious, because those that we put into office of leadership, we want to be able to honor, and honor without reservation.
Now there's a principle that we see in the last part of this chapter that is sobering to all of us, and the principle is this, that all of us are headed to judgment. There is a day coming when all of us will stand before God to give an account, and on that day everything about us will be revealed. Now as I close the message today, there are some questions I'd like for us to ponder. I want to personalize these, because it does no good for you or me to consider the questions for somebody else.
The first question is this, how am I showing respect for God's leaders in my life? How am I showing respect for God's leaders in my life? Let's think of that in the terms of the church, because that's the context of our passage. Am I supporting them? Am I praying for them? Do I pray for them by name? Do I protect them against gossip and malicious charges that are unsubstantiated? Or do I tend to criticize, to gossip about leaders, and to quietly resist them?
I thank God that for the most part we have people in our church who are very strongly supportive of the leadership of this church. But as I said earlier, there is a stream somewhere within this congregation, and I'm not pointing fingers at anybody because I don't know, but I have witnessed it, I have sensed it, and I know that there is a stream of resistance to leadership in our church.
And I want to call upon you if that is your attitude about leadership, that you're cynical, untrusting, negative, critical, that before God this day you repent of your sin. Because that attitude displeases God and it prevents the blessing of God upon this church. How are you showing respect for God's leaders in your life in your home? You are children toward your parents. In your marriage, are you showing respect for God's leaders in your life?
In all of those dimensions where you are subordinated to someone else, the workplace perhaps, are you showing a proper godly respect for those that God has placed as leaders over you? Because you see, God places leaders in the lives of all of us. None of us are free of this, all of us in some or several contexts deal with leaders. And God says here that our attitude needs to be right toward the leaders that he places in our lives to represent him.
I can expect God's blessing in my life if I have learned to submit to authority that he has placed over me. And to the extent that I have not learned to submit to authority, then I cannot expect God's blessing. Furthermore, in those leadership responsibilities that all of us have, none of us can lead until we have first learned to follow. Followership is a skill and a grace as much as leadership is.
And it is only when I have learned to be a godly follower that God can then give me the responsibility of godly leadership. The second question to ponder is this, how can I guard my leaders' integrity? How can I guard the leaders that God has placed in my life? Well, we see from the context here by refraining from false charges, unsubstantiated accusations, we guard that integrity.
By confronting others, challenging them to be honest and straightforward and not allowing gossip or backbiting in our presence about leaders, we guard the integrity of our leaders. There's too much allowance in our congregation for talk and gossip. We permit that to go on. We may not ourselves agree with it or share in it, but we permit it to go on and the result is devastating. It is the responsibility of all of us as the people of God to guard the integrity of the leadership.
The third question is this, and it flows out of the last one, am I satisfied with the integrity of my own life? Am I satisfied with the integrity of my own life? If we're honest, all of us will say, there are chinks in my armor. Because none of us have arrived. In some areas, we all lack wholeness. In some ways, the talk and the walk and the life of every one of us doesn't quite match.
And so we have to isolate those ways in which we lack integrity and ask God to do a work in us to bring together our walk and our talk. Andrew Carnegie said, as I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do. Integrity. A young Christian businessman from Nashville was asked to speak at a local church and he chose for his text the commandment that said, thou shalt not steal. And he spoke well from the text before the church body.
The next morning, he boarded a bus in the city to take a ride to work. And as he did so, he handed a dollar bill to the bus driver. The bus driver handed back the change. As the man walked down the aisle of the bus toward the back where there was a seat, he looked at the change and the driver had given him a dime too much. Just a dime. But he was a man of integrity. And so he turned around, walked back up to the driver and said, sir, you gave me too much change. You gave me a dime too much.
And the driver said, I know I did. I heard you speak in church yesterday and I wanted to see what you would do with it. Integrity. In every church there are problems. Grace Church Roseville is not free of problems because it's made up of people like you and me. We haven't arrived yet. And as we start our 15th year together, it's important for us to look within and say, Lord, wherein I have problems or wherein I am a problem, please do a work in me.
Please make me a man, a woman of character, of integrity. And let that be shown in my life. We can say, Lord, I haven't arrived yet. I'm not there. But I press on. I press on toward that mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus. And so, Lord, do a fresh work in my heart. Posing me to deal with sin honestly, to repent where I need to, to give myself a fresh to you. Let's pray. What does the Holy Spirit say to you? And how are these questions answered?
How are you showing respect for God's leaders in your life, whether it be in the church or any other dimension? Or is there a subtle rebellion, a cynicism, a stubbornness about leaders? Oh, my friend, that's a terrible character flaw that will get us all into trouble. Before God today, deal with that. And ask Him to press into your heart an attitude that pleases the Lord Jesus Christ regarding that leader in your life, or that board in your life, or that boss in your life, that loved one.
Are you allowing gossip to go on around you unchallenged? Are you allowing lies or backbiting to take place? To not challenge it is to participate in it. Would you say to the Lord, God, I want to be your person, your guard, your sentinel to protect those who are leaders? And then making it personal, what about the integrity of your own heart? I just watch what they do, said Carnegie. What are you doing? Does your profession match your life?
Where it doesn't, will you ask God right at that point to bring about the kind of change that needs to take place? Father, we sang before this message that in your time you would make all things beautiful. We thank you that you're going to do that, but that's true. But the process may be painful at times, and it may be painful for some of us this morning. Nonetheless, we pray that you will continue that process.
In those areas that we've talked to you about and responded to you about in the last few seconds, I pray that you will graciously go about your loving work and bring about such character change in us that not only will we personally be changed, but our church will be changed. I specifically pray that you will remove the spirit of sourness that lies dormant but is present and arises from time to time in this church.
Uncover it, deal with it, and remove it so that there may be a sweetness that is consistent. There may be a wonderful oneness and unity in the Spirit of God. As we as a congregation look ahead, Father, we look ahead with faith anticipating what you're going to do and with a deep desire that you will make each of us a part of that process of what you're going to do. We get very busy and very self-centered.
We would lay that aside and we say, make us a part of what you're doing in the world that our lives may have significance that lasts and forever. Would you stand together with me, please? And now, Father, may your grace and the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit sanctifying us, cleansing us from sin, making us like Jesus, rest and abide upon us as we leave this place. May the joy of the Lord be upon us, for we serve a risen Savior who works in and through us each day.
In His name we pray, amen. We're dismissed.