And the rest of us, please, back in our Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 3, continuing on. in our study of 1 Timothy. All right, 1 Timothy chapter three. And recently I spoke with a young lady that lives quite near to our house. And just speaking to her, she said, you know, I'm not anything. You know, I kind of believe in God, kind of not. And she said, but I grew up Christian. And I said, oh, I said, what church did you go to? And she goes, I don't really know. I said, well, was it the parish church? And she said, yes. And I said, well, that's a Presbyterian church, all right? And she didn't know that. And I think maybe there's a lot of people that kind of look at church like that. One church is as good as the next and they're kind of all the same and that sort of thing. But what we're talking about when we speak about Presbyterian or another religion is a denomination. It's a religious organization that has certain beliefs and whatnot. We are Baptists, okay? Our church is Independent Baptist Church, which is a local Baptist assembly. We'll talk about that a little bit here tonight. Others are Catholics. They call themselves Christians. Obviously, there's some that call themselves Christians that are, there's some that call themselves Christians that really aren't in what they teach, but there's Catholics, there's Methodists, there's Lutherans, there's Anglicans, and all these would say that they're Christian. Again, some more evangelical, some less evangelical, and whatnot. And so, In the Bible, has anybody ever seen the name Baptist? Well, yes, John the Baptist, but has anybody seen Independent Baptist Fundamental Bible Believing Church as an organization? No, it's not there anywhere in the Bible. Catholic is not there in the Bible. Methodist is not there in the Bible. Lutheran is not there in the Bible, okay? So denominations, though they're not there in the Bible, are important. because every denomination has certain beliefs that identify them. Because somebody could say this, why does it matter what religion I am as long as they're Christian and they believe the Bible? And that would be a common way that people would think about it. So the question would be this, do they really believe and teach the Bible. Okay, so you have Catholics. Catholics teach many things that are not in the Bible. They teach that tradition is as authoritative as the Bible. So, I mean, you go to a Catholic church and it's very formal and they've got incense waving and different things taking place. And they say, this is the way that we should do this. And because we've done this so long, this is as good as the Bible in authority. They believe that the Pope can't speak ex cathedra. In other words, when he speaks, he's infallible when he's speaking. Obviously that's false. And just to give you their definition, issued with the full authority of office, especially that of the Pope implying infallibility as defined in Roman Catholic doctrine. Okay, so they really do believe that. They pray to Mary. Well, the Bible says very clearly, we just studied the book of Hebrews, that we go to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And I mean, praying to Mary is no different than somebody in an Asian country praying to their dead relatives. I mean, it's nothing. Even today, I don't try to talk to my dad without calling him on the phone, all right? Because I know that's the only way he's going to hear me, but they think they could just speak to the dead. They do that in a Catholic church to Mary. Purgatory. They believe kind of a temporary hell idea. Transubstantiation. The idea that we just had at the Lord's table here on Sunday night. They actually believe the wafer becomes the flesh of Christ, or that it is the flesh of Christ, and that the juice is the blood of Christ. That when they take that into their body, it somehow becomes that. Well, we know cannibalism is wrong and that it was figurative and whatnot. Now, the Catholic Church is right on some things. They're right on the sanctity of life. Right? I praise God that they stand up and say abortion is wrong. I praise God that they do that. They say in the sanctity of marriage, though this Pope says that you could be homosexual, you just can't practice it. And we understand the Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. All right? So we understand that that's not correct, but praise God, they have stood up for the sanctity of marriage. Is it possible then in our day to find a religion that truly strives and largely succeeds to follow God's word in doctrine and in practice? I mean, that's a big question, isn't it? I mean, somebody that, a religious group that truly looks at the Bible and says, if the Bible says it, we believe it. If the Bible says it, we practice it. Again, I believe that independent Baptist churches have largely succeeded in doing this. I'm not saying that an independent Baptist church is a absolutely perfect church, that there is absolutely no error whatsoever in any doctrine or any practice, but I would say this, that they strive to look at the Word of God and say, what does God say? And to the best of their ability, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Word of God, they do follow God in doctrine and in practice. And the reason I believe that independent Baptists in particular, Baptists in particular, have succeeded largely in doing this is because of what makes us distinctly Baptist. It's called the Baptist distinctives. All right, the things that we hold as tenets of our faith that are fundamentals, that are non-negotiables, that help us to maintain the purity of the church and of what we do. And so let's think about that briefly as we come into this tonight, because it does bear upon what we're going to look at. And so several things about a Baptist church protect them from error. We believe in the absolute authority of Scripture. And so when we look at the Bible, we believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. In other words, the Bible says what it means, means what it says. It's not figurative, it's literal. Unless it's clearly figurative, like when the Bible says she had a nose like the cedars of Lebanon, all right? We're not picturing a woman that actually, when she turned her head, knocked people over because she had such a long nose. We know that's figurative, and there are some places like that in the Bible, where the Bible speaks poetically. But there's other times where it's very clear, God created in six days. You know or that Jesus walked on water we understand the Bible says it and again We believe it verbal inspiration of the Old and New Testaments in other words It's it's not just God gave us the concepts is that God gave us his word word for word and in doing that he inspired it that it's God breathed that It's not just penned by man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, so that when we pick up the Bible, we actually have a book that is what it claims to be, the very Word of God. We believe in the completion of God's revelation. You know, it's not ongoing. 66 books, 44 or so human authors, and that it's complete, and that it's done, that it is finished. And that revelation when it says at the end, if you add to this or take away from this, there's gonna be curses upon you. We believe that because that is what God said. We believe God's gonna preserve his word, and has preserved his word, and will preserve his word. Therefore, you go 100 years from now or go back 500 years, it's the same because God has kept it. So how does that help us? Well, we go to the book and we say, what does God say about this? And again, that's a great protection in faith and practice. Secondly, we believe in believers' baptism and then church membership. so that we don't have a church today that is made up of people that are unsaved, lost people that do not have the Spirit of God in their heart and a true understanding of what the Word of God teaches, because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, right? But we've got, by God's grace and through this practice, we've got a church made up of saved individuals that discern the truth of the Word of God with the Spirit of God and are able to protect the church. Again, saved ministers, saved membership. And then third, the autonomy of the local church. And so what that is, is like a Catholic church has all these churches underneath different hierarchies. An independent Baptist church is just a local assembly. There's nobody that is looking at us and saying, you've got to believe this, you've got to practice this. There is no general assembly for an independent Baptist church. It's just a local church made up of saved individuals that call their pastor, they call their deacons, that make decisions for that local assembly. Again, that's great protection because there is no outside control of that church. We believe in individual sole liberty, that there's no control over an individual in the church, that everybody has a right to be guided by the spirit of God, guided by the word of God, accept or reject the truth, whether that's somebody that's lost or somebody that's saved, but in the context of our church, it just means that we all have that opportunity to let God direct us, let God guide us through his word and the spirit of God to what is true. And then tonight, We'll look at this, but again, the two offices in the local church, the pastor and the deacons, again, in a congregational government, they are appointed not, again, by a general assembly or some outside source, but within the church, prayerfully, considering what the word of God teaches, this local assembly makes decisions and says, that's the pastor we'd like to have. Obviously, in this case, I started the church, you'll have to kick me out. But generally speaking, you choose your pastor, and then you choose your deacons. And obviously, always, yes, there is that opportunity, truly, to say, pastor, this is the word of God, this is where you're at, this is where we're at. And you could vote a pastor out because of the government that we use, and that is a great protection for our church. Now again, the Baptist distinctive that's taught In 1 Timothy 3 is the two offices in the local church. You got the bishop and the deacon. The bishop watches over the church, praying for them, feeding them, giving guidance, comfort, encouragement, okay. His primary responsibilities are spiritual, where the deacon primarily watches over the business of the church. We'll look at this tonight. Rent, mortgage, salaries, insurance, management of property, finance. Those kind of things fall more into the scope of what is a deacon's responsibilities. Now, again, many churches who say they're Christian do not follow this idea of bishop and deacons, okay? Two offices in a local church, pastor and deacons. I mentioned the Catholic Church. Catholic Church has pope, cardinals, bishops, priests. It's got this other system going on. Anglican Church, you got the queen, all right? And if it's a king, in the near future, it's the king that's over that church and then whatever else they've got, archbishop, priest, whatever. In evangelical circles, there are some that do not follow God's Word, and evangelical, when I say that, I mean, gospel preaching, Bible believing in the sense of Christ is it, he paid the price for our sin. It's through his death, his bloodshed, his resurrection that man receives God's gift by faith of salvation, right? Evangelical. Now, I praise God for brethren churches. I've got some good friends that are brethren. But brethren, churches do not have a pastor, and they do not have deacons. They have lay leadership, multiple leadership, but again, we look at the word of God, what does God say? Well, 1 Timothy 3, you got a bishop overseer, and then you have deacons. Now, the need for deacons came quickly after the birth of the church. When the church was born at Pentecost, it wasn't very long at all until the church understood that they needed an office to meet the business needs of the church. If you want to turn your Bibles to it, Acts chapter six shares a story of the development of the office of deacon, all right? So Acts chapter six, and we begin reading at verse one. It says, and in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. And what that was, it was like a soup kitchen, okay? But the needs of these widow women, these Grecians, were not being met. They were being overlooked somehow. And they needed provision, and so they let it be known that that was taking place. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over what? this business, this duty, this physical need that's there. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Again, the focus of the bishop or the focus of the pastors is on the spiritual needs of the congregation. Obviously, these were apostles as well. And the saying, please the whole multitude, And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them." Okay, and so the office of deacon was born right there. The Bible tells us this story because it's vital, because it's one of the offices that we need to prayerfully consider as we start Baptist Church. Now, our church is young, relatively speaking. Now, it's amazing for me to think about, we actually began in 2010 in March, or July, July. And so, we're 11 and a half years old, but relatively young, especially young in the sense of the size of our congregation, the development of our church. We are able to charter the church, as you know, last year. Praise God. We thank God for that step. We have trustees in our church. For legal purposes, we have trustees. Brother Tommy, myself, and my wife. My wife's secretary, Tommy, is treasurer, and I'm the chair, I guess. All right, and that's important for legal purposes, as we're recognized as a charity. Now, with regard to deacons, we continue to wait on God to give us deacons in His timing. Now, we could have godly men in our church, but for whatever reason, they're not qualified to be deacons. And that's fine. That's going to happen. If you go to the average independent Baptist church, there's a lot of godly men in the congregation. Not everybody's a deacon. Not everybody will become a deacon. But it's something that in God's timing, when God raises up men that meet the standards of the word of God and who are willing to step into that position, that office, it's something that we need to add to our church. As we think about that as a church, We can't make exceptions to the word of God. No more so than, say there's a church that really needs a pastor and they're burdened about it. We talked about last week, not a novice, being lifted up with pride, he'd fallen to the condemnation of the devil. But there's a young man in the church that shows promise and seems like he'd be a great fit and they've got a real need for a pastor. Well, they can't just go, well, we're gonna bypass the word of God in this, we really need somebody, so let's put this guy in, no. you've got to wait on God and say God's gonna send somebody that meets the standards that he has set out in his word. So as much as a church would love to get deacons, as our church would in God's timing, it's not something that we could step forward and say, well, let's rush this. We got to wait on God and say, let's make sure, first of all, that they're qualified. And then secondly, that they're willing to commit to the responsibility, a great responsibility to serve God. All right, so that's kind of introduction, but I'll tell you, it gets us a little further along than that and helps us with what we're gonna consider tonight. We should hopefully look at every detail here briefly regarding the qualifications and such for a deacon. All right, let's pray and ask the Spirit of God to help us as we come to the word of God. Father, we thank you again for the Bible. Without this, we wouldn't know how to structure our church. Father, we wouldn't know that, well, we're to have two offices. You got a pastor and then you have deacons. But Father, because of the word of God and this pastoral epistle, we understand. And because we understand, we can implement it into our church. And it's just right because it's what you intend. And Father, I praise you for that. So God, I know some of this is just kind of practical stuff and may not really be the stuff that a lot of times we're looking for in the Word of God as far as devotional and whatnot. There are challenges in this. But Father, it is vital to our church that we understand this. And so I pray, would you give us ears to hear? And obviously we can come back and review this when needed. But I pray, Father, for the power of the Spirit of God to work in our hearts, work in our lives. Father, our need is great. We need leadership in our church. And Father, I praise you for the men that we have. And I thank God for them. And I thank God we can get on our knees and pray together and whatnot. And in your timing from our men, you're gonna raise up deacons. And Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would do that good and gracious work in your perfect time. Help us to know your will. And I pray for your enablement tonight as I speak. I can't speak without your enablement. So I pray, Spirit of God, would you guide me in my preaching? And I pray tonight for the young people in their class. Mrs. Shore is still feeling a bit poorly. I ask right now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you'd strengthen her with your strength. And Father, I pray that you speak to the hearts of those kids. We would love to see one of them trust Christ as their Savior tonight. And Father, I pray for your blessing now. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen, all right, so four things, and again, we're just gonna be brief, look at these things. Some of these things we've already touched on under the bishops, so we'll just mention them and move on primarily from them, okay? And so the deacons' requirements. It says in verse eight, likewise must the deacons be, okay? Likewise must the deacons be. One thing first, I wanna point out that the bishop is singular and that deacons is plural. There's one primary overseer in any church. You might have assistant pastors, you might have youth pastors, but there's one primary head that God has appointed as bishop, but the deacon is plural, and therefore, that's why we have a deacon board, or multiplicity of deacons. But notice it says, likewise, but must be is in italics, okay? Likewise, but then must be is in italics. But what it does, when it says likewise, it just shoots it back up to verses two through seven. where it said about a bishop, a bishop must be, all right? And so it comes down to this verse here, and the italics means this, the words themselves are not actually in the original language, but that they're put in there by the translators to help us have a full sense of what the scripture is saying, okay? And so what the scripture is saying is, likewise, shoot it back up to the requirements, must be, And so it comes down to deacons and it's must be, it's requirements of them as well. And so what must he be? Well, he must have gravity. Likewise, must the deacons be grave. The word grave in Greek is semnas. It means venerable, that is honorable, grave, honest. You know, God blessed my home church, Bible Baptist in Hudson, Wisconsin, with good deacons. I wish I had them here for you to meet. Because these men, when I was in my teen years, some 25 years ago, these were godly men. These were good men, middle-aged men. But now, I don't wanna say they're elderly. Some have passed away. But they're older, but they're older in the faith. And you know what? They stayed true. They were honorable. So back then, if you looked at their life, they had a trajectory that showed they were gonna stick by it. And so as we look for a deacon, we're looking for somebody that has that trajectory, that has that steadfastness and that honor, honorableness or that venerableness that's in their lives. And then secondly, the Bible says they're not to be double-tongued or no double speaking. So this isn't somebody that says one thing in one case and says another in another case. They're not somebody that flatters and then slanders. They don't tell the truth and then tell a lie. They don't complain and then compliment, okay? So there is, you know what you get is what you get. It's kind of like the saying, straight from the horse's mouth, right? You heard that saying? It means get it from the source or as close to the source of somebody that certainly knows the truth. And there's no source better than the person themselves. And so what this man says, he says to one person, he says to another person. And so they're not a double tongue, not contradicting themselves. And then a third, No drunkards. It says not given to much wine. And again, we dealt with this in more depth when we're talking about a bishop. And so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on these points, some of these points tonight, but it just means this, they're not intoxicated. They're not somebody that becomes intoxicated. They're not somebody that will become intoxicated. In Bible times, we did talk about, you generally had to tarry long at drinking to become drunk. It's not that way in our day. It's very easy to become intoxicated very quickly. And so you think about it, just practically speaking, if somebody's gonna watch over our church finances, They're gonna be making business decisions for the church. It's very important that they be somebody that is always in control of their faculties, right? It's just practical, we understand that. And so they should not be somebody that drinks alcohol or is given to drinking alcohol. never intoxicated, and certainly our position as a church is teetotal, and if you missed some of that, we could go back and look at that another time, but certainly we believe that alcohol is not something that we're to provide for our flesh, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. And so not drunkards. And then not materialistic, not materialistic. It says, not greedy of filthy lucre. Okay, why would it be important for a deacon not to be somebody that is seeking after money and really wants money? Because like Judas, they carry what? The bag. You know, this is very sad to speak about, but embezzlement happens in churches. It has happened many times in churches. I did my internship back in 1998 with Dr. Ed Nelson, and this story isn't in the book, by the way. But I did my internship with him, and he said to me, he said, you know, one time in our church, we had an embezzlement taking place, and I knew money was going missing, so I hid under the desk in the office. And he actually hid under the desk, and he caught him in the act of embezzlement. At a church that my father pastored, when we got there, we found out the books were messed up, and lo and behold, there was a couple involved with the finances, and they were embezzling finances. And the church, very graciously, rather than take them to court, as the Bible says, not to take believers to court, dealt with it, and they left. There was another young man, believe it or not, that came into the same church that, I don't know if he was a deacon or not, but had access to the finances. He also embezzled at that church and later arsoned the church. Now, those are horrible stories. They're very sad stories, but they are real stories of what could happen if you put somebody in a position of authority that is somebody that is greedy of filthy lucre. Now, again, in our church, praise God, We've got great protection on our finances. We always, when the offering's counted, always counted by two people and recorded by two people. Two people sign the checks in our church. We have independent audits of our books annually. Anytime anybody wants to see the books, they're welcome to see it. And we have public annual meetings where we go over our accounts. Again, it's all important to the integrity of our church. And as you think about deacons, it's something worthy of consideration that they be somebody that's not greedy, a filthy looker. And then blameless, blameless. It says, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, okay? When the Bible speaks about the mystery, the mystery is the revealed mystery, and that is the gospel that God became a man, that as a man, he lived a sinless life, that he died on the cross for our sins, shed his blood, paid the price completely, and that, again, by grace through faith, somebody could be saved. Somebody gets saved, they take hold of that by faith, That being the case, they're to hold that with a pure conscience. I started, I said, when we came into this new year, I started reading through the Bible again. I started at Genesis, all right? I've just finished Exodus last night. You read through Exodus and what you'll find is that God's requirements for his servants is purity, right? that God desires the purification of his people. You read about the water and cleansing with water, the blood, the incense, the offerings, the sacrifices. And as you read about that and you read that in the story of Exodus, what you realize is God wants his people to be pure, but especially his leadership. especially those that are gonna be involved in ministry. Again, it's important, it's vital for every Christian to be blameless, but it is a must-be requirement for those in ministry. Isaiah 52, 11. It says, depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from fence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Somebody who's gonna be serving God as a priest, as a spiritual leader in the Old Testament, they were to be somebody that is pure. Okay, spoiler alert, plug your ears, because you've got the book. But Dr. Ed Nelson, in his book, when he talks about taking a church, he took that church And when he got there, the deacons were outside, and I think there was like 16 of them. There was actually a lot of deacons, and about half of them were smoking. And he gets there, and this is back in the day where smoking was becoming better understood to be something that really hurts your body, not something a believer should be involved in. And he said to them, if I take this church, you've got one year to get over that habit. Why? Because B, he claimed that bear the vessel is the Lord. Nobody should be able to point a finger at somebody that is in leadership in a local church and say, you got a sin habit in your life. You got something that is a disgrace to God in your life. They ought to be blameless. And again, like our text says here, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And it's what Paul spoke about, having a conscience pure before God and with men as well. And so that's the requirements briefly there. And then the deacon's trial. The trial. This is similar to the command, not a novice, that we talked about last week. All right, so this is similar to that. They must prove themselves. It says in verse 10, it says, and let these also first be proved. First be proved. Say we have a new family come to our church, and they're a Christian family, and we look at that and say, praise God, mom and dad married, got the kids, they love God, they're having family devotions, and we look at them and say, hey, this is exactly what we're looking for, for leadership for our church, but we don't really know them. Well, there's a couple things we can do. One, we can contact the church that they came from, and I ask them if it's okay, do you mind if I talk to your pastor? I'm kind of thinking about, we need deacons in our church, and I'd like to consider that with you, Let's talk to their pastor, right? Let's see what their life's about through the eyes of somebody that was involved with them in ministry. Or, maybe even more so, let's take time. Let's take time and let's get to know them. Let's see where they stand. And let's see how they live out their Christianity. Make sure, because, I mean, we could have somebody come and at first we're like, wow, you know, and I don't want anybody to think if I go to that church they're gonna be scrutinizing me, you know, or anything like that. But as we look for leadership and desire leadership and we see something, again, we're to be patient and say, okay, let them prove themselves. Let's see how they do. And that's why, again, it may take a little time to get somebody involved. Because they can make use of the office of the deacon only if they prove themselves blameless. And so the Bible says, then, okay, if they can prove themselves, then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless, okay? And with our church, let me say this too, the deacon is plural, deacons, okay? But we might start with just one. And that's okay, the Bible doesn't forbid that. But they have to pass this test. We can't make exception to this and say, well, you know, there's one thing in their life or two things in their life. We gotta be able to say, you know, by God's grace, their life works in accordance with the word of God. Now, having said that, does a deacon have to be perfect in the sense of nothing at all wrong in their life? No, because this pastor's not perfect either, right? There's nobody that's perfect in that sense. But there are people that are perfect in the sense of what we talked about largely last week. Remember the focus of what we looked at last week was that We are to be mature, not a novice, but somebody that's mature as a believer. They can be a minister, they can be a deacon. So we're not looking for perfection, but we are scrutinizing, rightly so, and saying, does this person have a life that meets the requirements of the Bible? Okay, that's the deacon's trial. We looked at the deacon's requirements. Third thing, the deacon's family. the deacon's family. All church leadership must be proved in their leadership ability in their family. So if somebody's a pastor or a deacon, their family's got to back them up. Okay, so it's not just, is this man okay? Is his family also okay with regard to what the Word of God says? So first of all, his wife, and this applies, by the way, back to bishop's wives as well. The Bible's not gonna ask one thing of deacon's wives, but not something of a bishop's wife. But it says, even so, must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober. faithful in all things, okay? And we've already considered gravity and soberness in the study, so I'm gonna leave those tonight and just take the other two with regard to leadership. And the first of those would be not slanderers, okay? Not somebody that maligns somebody else. Now imagine this, a church where a deacon's wife is abusing her husband's position in the church, and she shares with someone in the church, you know what my husband heard? He heard this, he was at a meeting and he heard what so and so said. So I got this from a good source and they're maligning somebody. That would be a very bad situation in the church if they slander the leadership of the church. Again, a pastor's not perfect, but it'd be a very bad thing if you got a deacon and you got his wife maligning the leadership of the church. That could be something that would undermine the strength of that ministry. Slandering someone in the community. You know, saying something and offending the community by their tongue, again, that would be a very bad thing. So we understand the Bible is saying, watch out for this. Be careful that that wife be somebody that's not a gossip, not somebody that's going to be speaking behind somebody's back and saying things they ought to say about them. And then faithful. In all things, okay? Faithful, it says, in all things. And with regard to that, let me just say this. If you're gonna serve God in ministry, as a bishop or a deacon, your wife can make or break your ministry. I mean, that's a sober reality from this text, what the Word of God is teaching. They can make or break it. Some men today are not in ministry because of their wives. Wow. You know, and maybe in Bible college or whatever, they didn't think it was that important. I mean, I'm the one that's gonna be up preaching. I'm the one that maybe is gonna be leading in the local church as a deacon or something like that. That's the important thing, it's me. It's not about my wife. Well, wait a second. It's not what the Bible says. The Bible says if the wife is to be faithful in all things, and if she's not, that man may be very well qualified. He may be gifted, he may have it, he may be great, but if his wife doesn't back him up in the ministry, then very sadly he can't be in the ministry because of that. Some men are not in the ministry because of their wives. Some men have incredible ministries because of their wives. I look at some of the great men that I know that are in ministry and I look at them and I say, you know what, your wife is incredible at what she does that supports you. And I'll tell you this, I praise God for the wife God's given me, and she is excellent at this. And I'm not saying that to flatter my wife. I praise God for my wife. And without a strong wife in ministry, it wouldn't work. And so that is vital. So it's very important for somebody that's looking at ministry to consider that, but we have to understand as a church, we can't just say, well, the man is great, okay? He needs a strong wife as well. And then his marriage. his marriage, it says, let the deacons be the husbands of one wife. Okay, now we consider this, again, under the office of the bishop, so we're not gonna dwell on it, but it's a one-woman man. It's not flirtation, it's not somebody that is showing infidelity in any regard, but very faithful to his wife. And then, with regard to his kids, if his kids are in his home, it says, ruling their children and their own houses well. Okay, and we've dealt with this under the bishops, so again, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time here. If you can't lead your home, how can you lead the church, right? That's what Paul said with regard to bishops. And if you can't manage your home, how can you manage the business of the church? So imagine we've got somebody, they're a great guy, they seem to love the Lord, but financially, their house is in shambles. Well, we gotta look at that and say, well, that's not gonna be somebody that God desires to be a deacon because they're not somebody that is ruling their own houses well. And so all those things are part of it. We got to look at that and say, well, that's part of what God said. We're examining somebody as a possible deacon. We've got to consider this. And I'll tell you this, praise God, we're talking about this now. It's a lot easier in the sense of future hypothetical than real so that we can examine it and say, who do we suggest and say, this would be somebody that would make a good deacon. And then fourth, The deacon's blessing, and this is final, okay? This is the conclusion of what we're looking at. The deacon's blessing. If God in his grace allows somebody to become a good deacon, it's a privilege with a blessing, okay? If they succeed in doing this for God, it's a privilege with a blessing. The blessing is conditional, it's conditional, upon them doing well. It says, verse 13. For they that have used the office of a deacon, well, not every deacon's a good deacon, not every bishop's a good bishop, okay? But those that do succeed, God's got a blessing, all right? And I'll tell you this, I've seen bad deacons. I've seen deacons that I look at that they should never have been appointed into leadership in the church. And the future after that proved that. These men that I think about, when I look back and I say, they should never be a digging, you know, in two cases, they're not in the church anymore. One wasn't faithful to the Lord or the church. The other wasn't faithful to the church. You know? And so, again, you gotta have somebody that is gonna do well at that office, but if they get in there and they do well, there's a prize the Bible speaks about, and that is this, they purchase to themselves a good degree, okay, and that means this, they obtain a step of dignity, a step of honorableness, it's a good position to have. It's a great thing. Someday, by God's grace, again, we'll appoint deacons, and it's a church servant. It's what we talked about on Sunday, a great Christian. And if they're like what we talked about on Sunday in the office of a deacon, that is honorable and that is something that we respect as a church and say, praise God for our good deacon, that God's given to us for good deacons. But not only that, but the Bible says, they purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus. If they are what the Bible speaks about here, you know what you've got in that man? You've got a man that unashamedly stands for God. The Bible says, the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion. That man has courage. Let me give you two examples from the Bible and we conclude. Remember Philip, one of the first deacons, great evangelist, preaching revival in a city, seeing the Ethiopian eunuch come to Christ. Honorable man, he was a preaching deacon. By the way, I didn't say that some deacons preach and teach. My home church, a lot of our deacons were Sunday school teachers, and they were adult Sunday school teachers, they were children's Sunday school teachers. So sometimes with the office of a deacon, there's also the giftedness of leadership in teaching, and praise God for that. Not everybody. Stephen. the great martyr, the first recorded martyrdom in the New Testament. You wanna look at a man that was bold. I mean, he just preached it to the face of those that are gonna stone him to death. Yeah, I think the verse is true. I think somebody that qualifies, and again, we're gonna get on our knees as a church, and we need to do this tonight, and say, you know, God, raise up deacons. And again, not everybody in our church is gonna become a deacon. We understand that. That doesn't mean that man's not godly or anything like that. But when it comes to those that God does desire to be a deacon in our church, we cannot make exceptions. We've gotta look at the word of God and say, what does God say? Well, God says this, he's gotta be qualified, his wife and family must meet requirements, and if they prove themselves, then they can step in, and if they do it well, Great. That's honorable, and you're gonna have somebody there that's bold for Jesus Christ. So that's a great thing, isn't it? And that's gonna be a great person to have in our church as a servant leader, and that's why as a church, we're gonna continue to pray and say, God, okay, we're almost 12 years old, but we'd really like to see you provide deacons in your perfect timing. God's able, and so we'll just trust God for that. All right, let's pray. Father, I thank you for the Word of God. Again, we come to it and we've got to go through it. We've got to consider it. We've got to look at it. But Father, what we've examined tonight is the Bible. It's what God says. And Father, I know that you're going to raise up deacons in your perfect timing. And I'm praying for that. And Father, it'll be exciting what it takes place. And as a church, we're going to get behind those men, we're going to get on our knees, going to pray that they'll fulfill that office well, so that they can be bold for God, so that they can have the honor of that position. And Father, I pray that our church would aspire to leadership and desire that, and desire to be godly. And Father, whether somebody is or is not a deacon, we pray, God, give us godly men. God, give us godly women. God, help us to have good families. And God, may you be glorified through it. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen, praise God, glad you're here tonight in your faithfulness.