Preventing Scandal in Church Leadership

, anyway, let me have you guys turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 51 Timothy. Chapter 5 for. Our time of study in the word this morning, for those of you that are visiting with us, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy. And as we continue in our study of this book, we're just going on a verse at a time.

Whatever God wants to say to us, we're gonna let him say it. This is the church God is describing how to do church, and he's saying, this is the church that I want to attend. Survey me and ask me what I'm interested in. And God spends a significant amount of time in this section talking about elders and the way that they need to behave.

If you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be Preventing Scandal. Preventing Scandal. In the leadership. God is saying in this passage, the church I want to attend is the church where scandals are not caused by the elders, by the pastors, by the leadership of the church.

In fact, one of the things that I've noticed about this particular book or this section of First Timothy. is that when you come to verse 17, it seems like this section's going to be about telling the people of God to honor elders, and how to go about doing that. But as you get further into this section of verses 17 through 25, you begin to realize Actually, it's not really primarily about telling God's people how to honor elders. In fact, I'll just say it this way.

This section of First Timothy has more to do with showing elders how to behave honorably, than it is about showing a congregation how to honor their elders. There's a lot of instruction here for elders how to behave worthily of the double honor. That God calls the people of God to give to elders and pastors in verses 17 and 18. It is one thing for, for God's people to give honor to a pastor.

It is another thing for him to behave worthily of that honor. As I studied this passage, I couldn't help but think of a pastor back in the 80s. and I had a book or two by this guy. back in the 80s, he was the pastor of the largest church in the New England area and he received honor, great honor from his congregation, double honor from his congregation and from other leaders within the evangelical world.

One prominent Christian leader said of this man, he's one of the most godly men I have ever met. Charles Swinall said of this man. This man is a rich and rare blend of personal intensity, scriptural integrity, and practical insight. Very high praise, great honor being bestowed upon this man.

However, for a season of his life, he did not behave worthily of that honor, and he committed adultery. And when the accusation was brought to the leadership of the church and it became known to them, they confronted this pastor about it, and he confessed to it and said, I've repented of it, and they decided that, well, we'll just keep it hush hush and we'll let him continue to serve as pastors so as not to create a scandal. However, as things like this tend to go, word got out and it became known.

And this man ended up losing his ministry.

And not only that, but the elders of this church lost the trust of this congregation. They themselves, along with this pastor for that particular season, did not behave in a way that was worthy of the honor that God calls the people of God to give to them. The truth is, guys, that whom a church allows to be its leaders, its pastors, its elders, how its leaders behave once they are in office, how the church's leaders handle accusations against fellow elders, and how the church's leaders deal with sin in the lives of their fellow elders.

All of those kinds of things have abundant bearing upon whether there will be scandal in the church or not.

And really, the more time I've spent with this passage, the more that word scandal comes to mind. That's really what this section is all about. You see a lot that's being talked about here regarding sin. In fact, let me just read this to you beginning in verse 19.

I'll read from verse 19 to 25. Paul says, 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 will 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 a spirit of partiality.

Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily, and thereby 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. I think when you see him talking about accusation, public rebuke, and sins being evident and keeping himself from sin and so forth, you begin to see that really what this section is about in verse 19 to 25 is preventing the scandal of sin in the lives of the leadership of the church. So here's how we're going to break it down.

this morning, Paul gives 6 instructions beginning in verse 19 to show Timothy how to prevent scandal in the church. what guys, there's scandal everywhere else, right? it's unavoidable. Every week there's scandal somewhere, either a political figure, be they Republican or Democrat, or a religious figure, be they Catholic or Protestant.

Not a week goes by that there's not some scandal that is being talked about somewhere, and we don't want scandal in the church. And that is my burden. I don't want scandal here at Cornerstone. None of the elders want scandal here at Cornerstone.

How can we prevent scandal from happening here? Well, there's 6 instructions at least that Paul gives in this section to show Timothy and us, the leaders of Cornerstone, how to prevent scandal here at this church. Alright, 6 instructions. The first instruction, let's just begin in verse 19.

Here, here's what Paul tells Timothy. You want to prevent scandal in the Ephesian Church, at least scandal emanating from the elders. Here's the first thing you need to make sure to do, and that is formally entertain only substantiated accusations against an elder. Only entertain formally an accusation against an elder if those accusations are substantiated.

Look what he says in verse 19, do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. We learned a couple of weeks ago that it's inevitable that accusations are going to come in Scripture, Jesus, the apostle Paul, Daniel, Joseph, The greatest figures in all of the Bible had false accusations leveled against them, so it's inevitable that false accusations will come. Therefore, there's this provision to protect the leaders of the church, and that is that we are not to receive to formally entertain an accusation against an elder, except on the basis of 2 or 3.

Witnesses.

Now if there is substantiated testimony, then we do need to receive that and be ready to hear that in some formal capacity, acknowledging the fact that it may very well be true, but we also Need to have that threshold that Paul identifies there, knowing that there are false accusations that will be delivered. Do you realize, guys, that, that, in order for there to be scandal at Cornerstone, we don't even need for the elders to do anything wrong. All that needs to happen is false accusations to be leveled and to be heard and to be believed and to be spread by the people of this church.

That's all it takes.

And so we need to be very careful about how we hear, knowing the role that our ears can play in causing scandal unduly as a result of false accusations. In fact, I was reading this week, there was a lady that wrote to Charles Spurgeon back in the 1800s and, and asked him this question, what can I do to stop scandal in the church? And she was expecting a certain reply from him, and he gave her a number of suggestions. His first recommendation is cotton in both ears.

Seriously, that. And then he goes on to say the things that we would expect him to say by way of preventing scandal in the church. But the first thing he said was, we would recommend cotton in both ears, telling this woman that you have a critical role to play, sister, in terms of what you do with your ears. Not everything is to be believed and to be entertained.

If it's not substantiated by the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses, so Timothy is to be very careful, with this. But if there is corroboration, Timothy is to put together some formal hearing to where the accusers are brought forward and the elder is brought forward and they are allowed to state their accusations and they have a chance to speak and the elder has a chance to speak. And if they find out that the elder indeed has sinned and maybe he refuses to repent or he has repented, but his sins are of such a nature that there has been a significant breach of trust, that leads to the second instruction to prevent scandal, and that is to publicly rebuke an accused elder who is found to be in sin.

Paul says in verse 20 those who continue and sin, literally those who are sinning, and it could mean those that refuse to repent and say, I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing, even though you're telling me I'm wrong.

Certainly those elders who refuse to repent, you need to rebuke. But it could mean those that maybe they have been sinning, they've been confronted, they're repenting, but the nature of their Sin is such that it still merits public rebuke. So however you want to understand that those who are sinning, Paul says, rebuke in the presence of all, in all the presence of all the elders and perhaps even the entire congregation, so that the rest, certainly the rest of the elders and the rest of the congregation also will be having fear, a fear of sinning.

Paul is saying that there are some sins that are of such a nature that you need to blow the lid off of them and expose them.

That doesn't create scandal that prevents scandal, which is the opposite of the way a lot of people think. Now, like I said two weeks ago, please understand this doesn't mean that every time an elder ever does anything wrong or shows any maturity, that we got to haul him in front of the congregation and publicly rebuke him. for that. Otherwise that would be all we do on Sunday mornings.

We might get one worship song in, but, think about the different levels. Certainly there's private rebuke of an elder. I have been on the receiving end of this. I've been rebuked by fellow elders and by people in this congregation.

in fact, even after the first service this morning, a sister came up and very gently delivered a very kind rebuke to me that I actually needed. So that's private rebuke, and that happens. We all do that for one another. Then there is public rebuke, but not every public rebuke necessarily means that the elder is removed from office, and I couldn't begin to tell you, like, here's the things that don't mean removal from office, but I'm sure it will happen at times that an elder maybe has failed in some way, and he acknowledges that and there might be some level of public rebuke, at least in front of the accusers or the rest of the elders and who knows, maybe the congregation, but it doesn't necessarily mean that he's removed from office.

Then no doubt there's failures on the part of an elder where he's publicly rebuked and he's removed from office temporarily, but it's not necessarily a permanent disqualification. forever and always from ministry. I've known men in the pastorate who have disqualified themselves from ministry temporarily, and they've ultimately been able to make their way back into the ministry. Having said that, I do believe that there are sins where, public rebuke is merited and the elder should be removed from office, permanently.

And I believe adultery is one of those sins, especially the commission of adultery. With someone in the flock whom God has entrusted to the care of that elder, someone who's been blood bought by the blood of Jesus Himself, that Jesus entrusted to that elder to care for that person, and the elder then exploits them and leads them into sin. There are certain sins of such a nature that is such a significant breach of trust that the person is permanently disqualified. from ministry, so it'll be up to, to us as a church to see our way through this maze and seek the Lord's wisdom and To follow his guidance within the parameters of what we find in God's word.

However, having said that, Paul in this context is dealing with sins on the part of an elder that brings forth from the congregation accusers and two or three other witnesses. So there's obviously a group of people in the church that are bringing this forward and And so it's already become known to some in the church body, and if the elder is found to be in sin, don't conceal it, blow the top off of it, and publicly deliver the rebuke of the sin. it's amazing how timely and how practical God's word is.

if you've been reading the news at all, the second half of this past week, there's been headlines about what's going on in the Roman Catholic Church here in this country and, and especially over in Europe.

Just a headline that I saw yesterday on MSNBC.com. A read Catholic abuse claims sweep Europe. An amazing thing is going on over in Europe right now. It says from Ireland to Germany, Europe's many victims of child abuse and the Roman Catholic Church are finally breaking social taboos and confronting the clergy to face its demons.

There are people I've read 40, 50, 60 years old who were abused and exploited as children. That are only now coming forward to give testimony to that and to confront those that were involved. And what's interesting is that when these things happened decades ago, the policy of the Catholic Church was, let's just try to address it and keep everything private and put the lid on it and maybe we'll just quietly remove the priest from office or we'll just quietly move him to another parish where he would then exploit.

even more, and I'll read to you from a Roman Catholic apologist who's concern, for this practice, listen to his description of what has happened historically.

He says the church policy was to keep it all quiet, to help people, but to avoid scandal. Avoiding scandal was a huge issue for the church. Of course there was cover up, but worse was the systematic lack of concern for the victims. And now the attempt was let's avoid scandal and let's keep it all hush hush.

Well, how well is that working out for them? Not well at all because it's all coming out as sin does, and a greater scandal is being created as a result. What, what if a church would be public and confront sin, causing everyone else, all the other leaders in the congregation to fear sinning? What kinds of exploitation and sins could have been prevented if there was the proper fear of God instilled in the culture?

Through handling sin and leadership in the way Paul identifies here in 1 Timothy chapter 5, so it doesn't create scandal to be open about sin and to confront sin openly and publicly. It actually chokes off the scandal mongering and the rumor mill to deal with things forthrightly and openly in this way. Well, there is a third. instruction that Paul gives to Timothy to help Timothy to prevent scandal from occurring in the church.

And this is an instruction he gives to us as elders here at Cornerstone. And that is realize who's watching you. Realize who is watching you, realize you are being watched all the time, and realize who it is that is watching you. Look at verse 21.

He says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, literally in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus and of his chosen, or elect angels. Literally, the way Paul is speaking here in the Greek text is this, I solemnly witness you. It's the Greek word marcheretto with a preposition attached to the beginning of it. It means to observe, to witness, and also then to testify what one has seen.

He's literally saying, I solemnly witness you in the sight of God, the Father, in the sight of Christ Jesus, and in the sight of His elect angels. He's saying, Hey, Timothy, just want to that this correspondence that I'm writing to you that you are right now reading, this is not just between you and me. This is not a private moment between you and me. We are actually right now in the company of a very awesome audience that is watching this exchange, that's watching you read what You're reading right now, and the audience that you are before right now that's watching and witnessing you reading this text, and that will watch you in terms of how you respond to these instructions is an audience consisting of God the Father, and God the Son, and God's elect angels.

Think about for a minute the most intimidating audience that you have ever had to stand before, perform in front of, or speak to. That's one of the care group questions that for discussion tonight. Think about that. And we all behave differently when we know we're in front of an audience, right?

some audiences are more intimidating than others. Think of this audience, God the Father. You're on a stage, God the Father's out there watching, and Jesus Christ. is in the audience and God's select angels.

And just to show you how impressive angels are, the apostle John. was a guy who had his theology straight, right? When the apostle John encountered an angel in Revelation 22, he fell on his face before the angel and started worshiping him. That's how impressive this being was, and the angel had to say, Get up, John.

Don't worship me. I'm just a fellow servant. Worship God, he said to John. That's one angel that so powerfully impacted the apostle John that John just, just fell on his face in front of the angel and had to be gently rebuked.

Imagine a whole audience of elect angels. And among those angels is God the Son, and God the Father. And Paul is saying, Timothy, here's what I want you to know. I am publicly exhorting you right now in the presence of these awesome witnesses, and how you respond to these exhortations and instructions will be watched and viewed by these awesome witnesses of God the Father, God the Son, and these elect angels, whom I am referencing here.

And Paul says, and what, in that audience, for whatever it's worth, is me. He says, I solemnly witness you. I'm in the crowd. I'm in the audience.

I'm going to be watching you, to see how you respond to these instructions that I am giving to you. I'm watching you, Timothy. I want you to see this face whenever you're tempted to not do what it is that I tell you to do here., my mom, godly woman, prays for her children just as my dad does, on a regular basis. but I talk to my mom at least once a week, and whenever there's a scandal that breaks out, like a pastor or an athlete, like most recently with Tiger Woods or whatever, it always comes up in our conversation, and my mom will say something like, you had better never do that, and she'll say this to me.

She says, if you are ever tempted to do anything stupid like that, I want you to see this face. She literally, and I'm like, I see your face, mama. I see your face. Just.

And I do. Amongst the other faces I see the face of my Father and Jesus Christ, and so forth. I see her face, and that's not something I want to reckon with or face in a future day. And Paul is saying the same thing for whatever it's worth.

You got God the Father, God the Son, the elect angels, and you got my face too. I'm watching you, Paul says, and I'm going to hold you to account. For how you respond to these instructions that I give to you. Paul is trying to hit Timothy with the fact that Timothy, you have no privacy, get over it.

Absolutely no privacy. Guys, listen to this, because this isn't true just for elders and church leaders. It's true for every believer. You never, you never do anything that is private.

Everything you do is a public act. Before the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and angelic beings, both good and evil. And what you may do and keep secret on earth is an open scandal in heaven and among the angels. You have no privacy.

I was listening recently to a pastor in South Carolina who used to be a missionary to Cambodia, and he came from America to Cambodia with something of an American sensibility and And he noticed as he learned the Cambodian language that they had no word for privacy. They had no Cambodian word for privacy. And he says, trust me, I looked for the word because he wanted to use that word because he wanted at times privacy, but there was no word to convey that. There was a word that was close to it, but it meant loneliness.

It was a negative word, but they had no word for privacy. And in a way, we need to remove privacy from our vocabulary. Because there is no privacy. Everything we do is a public act before God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And the elect angels. Paul is saying, Timothy, I want you to realize who's watching you. This ought to sober you up, Timothy. In fact, I love what John Calvin says about this verse.

He says the man who is not shaken out of his carelessness and laziness by the thought that the government of the church is conducted under the eye of God and His angels must be worse than stupid. And this is not just true of elders. All of us need to be shaken from our fantasy of privacy and that we do things secretly and realize that all of our lives is in front of this amazing cosmic audience that sees everything that we do. Well, having given that introduction, imagine whatever the command is Paul's about to give, this is impressive.

I solemnly witness you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of his chosen angels. What's the instruction that's about to follow? Whatever it is, it's important. And that leads us to the 4th instruction that he gives to Timothy to show Timothy how to prevent scandal, and that is to show fairness and impartiality towards the elder involved and his accusers.

Look what he says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and His chosen angels to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality. And let me just explain the word bias and partiality. The Greek word for bias is the word for judge. With the preposition that means beforehand, it means to jump to a conclusion, to come to a judgment before you have considered all of the facts.

The word translated partiality is a word that literally means to lean towards, and it can go either way. Maybe Timothy's predisposition would be to show favoritism and lean towards the elder who's being accused, or maybe he will automatically lean towards the accuser. Without having all of the facts. And so he's biased.

He's showing partiality and favoritism in that way. I like what one writer says. He says the first phrase says that one is not to come with pre-formed opinions and the second, is that one is not to be ruled by partiality to one party or to the other. Timothy.

don't hold any allegiance to any preformed opinions. You need to give the elder an honest and a fair hearing. You need to give the accusers an honest and a fair hearing and allow your thoughts and your opinions and your viewpoints and your decision in the case to be determined by the evidence that is brought before you. And realize that in the courtroom is God the Father and God the Son and the elect angels who are watching.

And they're going to hold you to account, and I'm watching you too, Timothy. No partiality. The guy being accused may be your favorite elder, he may be your right-hand man, you may be thinking, I cannot imagine the Ephesians Church without this guy. Do not show partiality, be fair towards his accusers, and also be fair and impartial towards the elder who is being accused.

Well, there's a 5th instruction that he gives to Timothy on how to prevent scandal in the church, and I love this. And that is, what, Timothy, I'll tell you what, let's make things real simple. just be careful whom you commission as elders in the first place. you can save yourself a whole lot of trouble if you're just careful and prudent.

regarding who you even allow to assume the position of elder in the first place. Look at verse 22. Do not lay hands upon anyone. Too hastily.

He may be a friend. He may be someone who makes a great first impression. He may have been at your church for 3 months and has a great teaching gift. but Timothy, do not ever lay your hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others.

This is sobering, guys. when he says lay hands, he's talking about commissioning just like I think a couple of weeks ago we laid our hands on Vince Greene. And his family and we commission them. That's, that's the picture here.

He's talking about commissioning someone for the role of elder and he's saying you be very careful. You don't rush into this. Don't lay your hands on approving someone, commissioning someone for the role of elder too hastily, because if you do, That if you're careless and you put someone in that position who's not biblically qualified and that person ends up committing some great evil while he is in office that causes injury or exploits the people of God, Paul says, Timothy, you will have to share in the responsibility for the sins of that elder.

You're partly responsible.

And so be very careful about this. One writer says, whoever lays hands upon an unworthy man must take responsibility for the man's sins. Churches can save a whole lot of trouble by just insisting that elders are biblically qualified according to the qualifications that are found in 1 Timothy 3, and they take the time to really examine. that potential elder to ensure that he's qualified.

Now something interesting happens in chapter 5 here that I don't know that I can entirely explain, but I'll, I'll just say this, that almost every commentator that I read says that verse 24 and 25 that you see at the end of the chapter is Paul talking about the examination process. It's out of sequence because some other things crowded into his mind that he wanted to get out. but let's go ahead and treat verse 24 and 25 this way. Paul is saying, Don't lay your hands too hastily on any man and share responsibility for the sins of others in this way.

And so obviously a process of judgment and examination is in order. And so look at what he says in verse 24 and 25. He says, The sins of some men are quite evident going before them to judgment. And the judgment he's talking about is not a future judgment before God, although that's going to happen.

He's talking about the human judgment that Timothy's going to go through and whoever else as elders is going to go through in determining someone's fitness for the office of elder, and he says the sins of some men that you might consider for the office of elder, they go before them to the judging, examining process. In other words, there's some people that you're like, man, should that guy be an elder? No, he absolutely should not, because you already know the sins that this person is engaged in.

They're up front.

Everyone knows about the sins in that person's life. Those sins precede that person to judgment, and it's simpler to make a decision about the lack of fitness of that particular individual. But then look what he says. For others.

The sins follow after them to judgment. In other words, they come to judgment. They come to that examination process. The sins did not precede them.

of nothing. You cannot see anything on the surface in the way of sin in that person's life. Those things come after. In other words, after you begin the judging process, the examination process, they, these things are discovered on the other side of that.

Some sins are easier to conceal. Than others. Some are obvious, some are less obvious. Maybe a particular individual is exceptionally gifted.

People in the church love this individual. They show a lot of promise, but there's hidden sin in their life. Maybe there's an anger problem that people don't see when they're at church, but it is there at home or it is there in the workplace. Maybe there's a moral problem that is not evident and it takes searching to find that out, and it takes time and, and Paul is saying you want to err on the side of taking time to do a thoroughgoing examination.

Of those that are potential candidates for elder, our judgment can never be perfect or as thorough as God's, but he's saying you need to err on the side of being careful and thorough. You can save a whole lot of heartache down the road. Verse 25, it's interesting he flips this around and says, likewise also deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise, in other words, those which are not evident, those good deeds that are not evident cannot be concealed.

What he's saying is, on the flip side of things, Timothy, there are people in the church that their good deeds everyone knows about.

They're obvious and they're publicly done. They're genuinely good deeds. Paul's not slighting the goodness of the deeds at all, but there are some people maybe in their teaching ministry or some other way. Everyone knows, that those person, that person's deeds precede them and they're like, man, I love that person.

This person does this and that and the other. The good deeds are really obvious. But then there are people in the church that are just as godly, if not sometimes even more godly, who are doing ministry. Doing good.

But what they're doing is not as visible as the good deeds of other people. And Paul is saying, Timothy, in your examining process, you don't want to just look on the surface and look out over the landscape of the congregation, say, well, these guys, they're qualified to be an elder, because, look at the good deeds they do. And then you over Looks some that are biblically qualified, but the good that they do just isn't as loud. It's not as visible, and you need to go searching for good just as much as you go searching for sin that might disqualify.

Paul's concern in verses 24 and 25, in fact, let me say it this way, his concern in verse 24 is that unqualified men would be put in the office of elder. His concern in verse 25 is that qualified men would be overlooked. Because the leadership of the church did not take the time to really get to know that person and to see the good that is in them and the good that they are doing that just isn't quite as visible. And so I think verse 24 and 25 does serve as an effective template that Timothy could use and we could even use to just guide us in that process of being careful and examining someone's fitness for the office of elder.

Does that make sense? OK. OK. you guys missed an hour of sleep, so, You're doing well though.

Let's see, let me, let me read this guy real quick. Guthrie says hasty action relies on first impressions, but these impressions are often deceptive. Unworthy men might be chosen whose moral culpability or guilt lies deeper than the surface, and worthy men whose good actions are not in the limelight might easily be overlooked. The whole situation demands extreme caution.

What great wisdom we get from the pen. Of the apostle Paul inspired by the spirit here. Well, there's a 6th and a final instruction that Paul gives to Timothy to help. Timothy, to know how to prevent scandal in the church, and that is continuously keep yourself free from sin.

Hey, Timothy, while we're at it, keep yourself free from sin. Don't just, be an expert on dealing with accusations against other elders and knowing how to effectively deal with sin that's in your fellow elders, publicly rebuking them, and, and you're really good in the judging process about is this guy qualified to be an elder or not and And I'm really good at seeing sins on the surface and also examining deeper and seeing sins that are underneath the surface and, don't just occupy yourself with that Timothy to prevent scandal.

You can do all that stuff great, but neglect yourself and you may very well be the cause of scandal. Keep yourself free from sin.

In fact, some of your translations, I think, don't use the word sin, but has the word pure. Any of your translations have that? and that is the meaning of this, this term we find it back in 1 Timothy 4:12. Paul is telling Timothy to be an example in his youth of various things, one of which is purity, and that's the same Greek word.

1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 2. You remember how Paul's telling Timothy, relate to older men as fathers and younger men as brothers and older women as mothers and younger women as sisters in all purity, and that word purity is the same word, same root. that he uses here. It's used in 1 Peter 3:2 to speak of the chaste behavior, sexually chaste behavior of a wife.

Clearly, when he says keep yourself free from sin, he is at least talking about sexual sin. But almost certainly he's going beyond that to speak of any and all senses. And at the very least, he means keep yourself from sin in the sense of don't commission men, lay your hands on men to be put in the office of elder that are going to commit sins to exploit and injure the people of God, and you will have to share responsibility for their sins. You're going to be tied to those sins, as it were, keep yourself from sin in that way.

But also, he's just saying in your own life and in your ministry, be continuously keeping yourself from sin. and the tense of the verb here implies. That if Timothy does not consciously decide to keep himself from sin, he's going to sin. And that's not just true of elders, it's true of believers.

We have to consciously, daily be perpetually, deliberately deciding and acting in a way that is designed to keep ourselves from sin. If we don't do that intentionally, we will sin. And as godly of a man as Timothy was being discipled by Paul himself, Paul says, Timothy, if you're going to be kept from sin, you've got to daily be keeping yourself from sin. So keep yourself from sin, Timothy, if you want to prevent scandal in the Ephesian Church.

And then verse 23, no longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. What in the world is that doing? In this passage. In fact, James Moffat, who did a translation of the Bible, and his translation of the Book of First Timothy, he left this verse out.

And his belief was this verse was not in the original manuscripts, and if you would have asked him about it and said, Hey, by the way, this verse is in every Greek manuscript of First Timothy, so why did you leave it out? Why do you think it's not in the original, he would tell you what he said when he was alive, and that is, it wasn't in the original. I know it wasn't because it doesn't fit in the context here. And so he left it out of his translation, and it is something of a puzzle to some as to what it's doing in this passage, but I really think if you, if you take time with this and think it through, I think there is a strong connection.

Look again at the end of verse 22. Paul says to Timothy, Keep yourself from sin. Paul knows Timothy well enough to know that one of the things that Timothy was doing to keep himself from sin was to totally abstain from drinking wine. And in Timothy's mind, for whatever reason, maybe Timothy knowing his own weakness and not wanting to be mastered by anything, maybe not wanting to cause a brother to stumble or, for whatever reason, maybe his upbringing, Timothy, in his mind, keeping himself free from sin, part of that involved complete abstention from drinking wine.

Paul though sees Timothy suffering physically, stomach ailments and so forth, and Paul knows that wine would be an aid, that would be a physical help to Timothy, and he says to Timothy, Timothy, partaking of a little bit of wine for the effect that it might have on your physical health, Timothy, it's not going to create a scandal, OK? You can drink a little bit of wine for that intention. Let me just, this passage is misused by some. In fact, I love what Ironside says in his commentary.

He says, I would not dare attempt to say how many times this passage has been quoted to me by inebriates. Seeking to justify their indulgences to alcoholic liquor. So, we obviously don't want to use it to justify drunkenness. and guys, let me just say regarding drinking alcoholic beverages, I made a few references to it when we were back in 1 Timothy 3 looking at the qualifications for elder, deacon, and Mike Barry took a goodly portion of one of his messages to talk about just the broad sweep of the teaching of scripture on that, and I would commend you.

to those resources, all the time that we have today is to just only tether our thoughts to verse 23 itself and based on what we see in verse 23, let me just read this to you. Here are things that we can observe if we just look at this verse. We can observe number 1, that Timothy was a Total abstainer. I think that's obvious.

No one disagrees with that. Verse 23 clearly indicates that Timothy, for whatever reason, was a total abstainer. The Bible doesn't require believers to be total abstainers from wine, but Timothy was a fact which Paul does not criticize at all. Paul doesn't say, Timothy, you're too uptight or it's wrong for you to abstain.

Paul does not criticize the fact that Timothy was an abstainer at all. That's the first thing we can observe. Secondly, Timothy experienced frequent ailments, some of which were stomach related. Don't know the details of it.

Probably don't want to know the details of it, but we know that from the passage here in verse 23, and Paul seems concerned for Timothy, and I believe Paul's not just concerned for Timothy, I think Paul's concerned for the people Timothy ministers to. because they're affected. when a pastor has stomach related issues, it affects his ministry and frequent ailments, just being of poor health, it can affect a person's disposition and ability and freedom to minister. A third thing that we can observe from this verse is that Timothy's total abstention from wine was cheating him out of a great medicinal product that he physiologically needed, right?

Paul's observing him. Paul's like, Man, it's fine that he wants to abstain, and if he were in perfect health, I would never say a word to him about it. I would leave his practice completely intact and affirm that. However, he's sick, he has frequent ailments and has stomach issues.

That get in the way of him being all that I think God wants him to be. And so number 4 in this verse, Paul instructs Timothy to drink wine for the sake of his physical health. And by the way, conventional wisdom back then in the Jewish Talmud, Hippocrates and other guys back then, they, they prescribed the drinking of wine. For physical health reasons, but notice also in verse 23 5 that Paul counsels Timothy only to drink a little wine.

Paul's concerned that Timothy not overdo it. He doesn't just say, Hey, drink up. No, drink a little wine. He's concerned that it be done in moderation.

In fact, I cannot read this passage without thinking of a guy. A pastor, when I was in college, this pastor would come to the university where I was a student and speak to the ministerial class that I was a part of, and he was a powerful, preacher, had a fairly significant church and the circles that that we were in at that that time, this, this man had a stomach disorder. He was diagnosed with some stomach disorder, and his doctor actually recommended that he drink a little wine for his stomach's sake.

This pastor began to do that and actually became addicted.

And ended up losing his ministry because he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and arrested for public intoxication, and he ended up losing his ministry because he didn't drink a little wine. It got out of hand. So Paul is, again, Paul's, Paul's concerned on both ends. Timothy, you need to drink for your health, but drink a little wine.

And so at the very least, the Bible says more than this, guys, but just from verse 23, here's Paul's point. Timothy 6, drinking a little wine for health reasons is not a scandal. You're not going to be sinning, and you're not going to be scandalizing the church or the cause of Christ by doing this for the sake of your physical health. Well, I don't want scandal here at Cornerstone.

I know you don't want scandal here either. Pray for your elders because as other people fall morally and in other ways that could happen here. But for the grace of God, pray for us. That God will help us to be holy men of God who are worthy of the honor that God calls you to give to us, that scandal will be avoided here, and the cause of the gospel would go forth, and that's really Paul's ultimate burden and should be ours.

Let me ask you to bow your heads and let's just take a moment to To pray And, we're going to give you an opportunity to give to the Lord in just a moment and just give as the Lord leads prayer requests, praise items. You can put those on the back of the comment cards. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

I'm just, I'm amazed at, at the timeliness of it. your word is, omni relevant. It's just, it's forever relevant, no matter what culture, what situation, what day, what era, it's always relevant and the, the things that we've learned today from, from this text are so relevant to the church of Jesus Christ today and the cornerstone. Help us, Lord, to realize that we're being watched not just by a lost.

world around us, but you, the Father and God, the Son and the elect angels that, that they are, you are all watching, Lord, we are before a vast cosmic audience, and we can bring great glory to you by behaving with holiness and obedience in these areas where we've been instructed this morning. Make our elders holy to the degree that we are, keep us holy, help us to excel still more, make us as a whole congregation a holy people. That would not cause scandal through sin. We thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive our offerings and do much with them.

Like you did the loaves and the fish, fish is a long time ago, Lord, do much with what we give to you. And in addition to our monies, Lord, we give you our hearts in the name of Jesus. And all God's people said,