I invite you to take the Word of God with me and open to the book of Philippians. We're going to start in Philippians, and we're going to go to a few places this evening. Philippians chapter 1. And we're just going to look here at the opening greeting here in Philippians chapter 1. We have been studying through the Baptist distinctives and trying at the same time to incorporate some brief historical events of those forefathers who held to those same distinctives throughout church history. And we're asking ourselves, why are we Baptist? And so I hope You probably know this in your mind if I've been successful in expressing those things. If I've not been successful, then I'm sorry. I will try to do a better job next time. But I want us to be able to answer the question, why are we a Baptist church? And if we are to sum it up so far, we might say that we are Baptist because the principles that make us distinctively Baptist are Bible principles. And then secondly, we are Baptists because we're not ashamed to be associated with churches who have suffered for these same principles throughout church history, the same principles that we hold to today that are part of our Baptist heritage. And so we certainly don't want to forsake the name Baptist. We don't want to disassociate ourselves from our heritage, and if we were to disassociate ourselves from our heritage, I think in a sense we might begin to obscure the principles that make us a distinctively biblical church. What principles have we covered thus far? We've looked at each one of the letters for Baptists, starting with the letter B. We talked about believers, baptism only, by immersion only. We talked, letter A, about the absolute authority and inerrancy of the Scriptures. Letter P, we spoke on the priesthood of the believer. Letter T, the two church ordinances. They are baptism and the Lord's Supper. Letter I, individual soul liberty. And then we did another message on the independence of the local church, both of those come under letter I. And then last week we dealt with the letter S, which is saved local church membership. We talked about the importance that those who are part of a local church must be born again, and how it is absolutely vital and essential for a healthy and functioning church. And now we come to the letter T in Baptists. The second letter T, the first one, remember, was two church ordinances. This T stands for two church offices. The seventh Baptist distinctive is our belief that there are only two formal offices in the church. That's the Baptist distinctive under letter T. We believe that there are only two formal offices in the church. I'll summarize it this way. Pastor and deacon. but you might say in the Bible beside pastor you could put bishop, and you can also put elder. And we'll talk in this study how pastor, bishop, elder are speaking of the same office, just highlighting maybe a different responsibility that's given to that same office. And then we're going to talk just briefly about the office of deacon and maybe talk a little bit about how really I want to deal with this particular message, not in light of history, but maybe in light of what we see today in the restructuring of churches. And again, I would emphasize to us this evening that I think the best thing for us to do is just to follow what the Bible says. That's the best memory. I think Jesus, who started this church, and the apostles upon whom the church is built on the foundation of the apostles, if we just follow their model, God's model, I'm pretty sure we're going to be in this safe, spot for us to make sure that we are faithful to continuing that which we have received. And so notice with me Philippians chapter 1 verse 1 and 2. So this is just an opening reading, but I want you to notice here how Paul breaks down the church at Philippi. And so this is an insight into the mind of Paul and how he looks at the local church at Philippi. Okay, notice verse 1. Paul and Timotheus the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, notice, with the bishops and deacons. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I would like to bring your attention here how Paul breaks it down. He says, first of all, to all the saints which are in Christ Jesus, Notice, at Philippi, so that are part of this local church. Notice, with all the bishops and deacons. So that's how Paul breaks it down. All the saints, and among all those saints, there are bishops and deacons. That's what Paul says. In other words, there's no other offices, if you would, in the church at Philippi. That is what Paul says. And by the way, Paul started the church at Philippi. So this is something that he is familiar with. And so let's pray as we begin this study this evening. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to study another one of our Baptist distinctives, namely the two offices that are recognized in the New Testament. to be a function, to help with the functioning of the local church body. And I pray that you would give us understanding and that we might know how we are to behave in the house of God. So we ask that you would give us understanding or guide us into this truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So as Paul here is writing to the church at Philippi, he mentions, notice, two offices that were present in the local church at Philippi. Again, I already broken down, but he divided the church into, and I would like to refer to it this way. He broke up the church, and I don't like to use the word broke. He didn't break up the church. He categorized all the people in the church into three categories of responsibility. Okay. He categorized the church into three categories of responsibility. First of all, he spoke of the saints. And the saints, that is all the believers in the church who have responsibilities as church members. And we'll talk about those responsibilities in just a moment. And then he went and he talked about with the bishops, that's a distinct additional responsibility, the responsibility of pastoring. And so we'll talk about that as well. But notice that's distinct from being a saint. In other words, there's all the saints, but there is some who are bishops. And notice the bishops are also saints, are they not? So that means that if a saint is a bishop, he has additional responsibilities. And then he adds another category and he says the deacons. And so are the deacons saints? Of course they are, but it describes category of responsibility in addition to the fact that these are not only saints, but they are deacons. They've added, there is an added responsibility upon them. And so, by the way, that's how Paul breaks it down. That's the church at Philippi. All the saints with the bishops and deacons. Now, very important, this is not hierarchy over the saints. It is rather a way for Paul to differentiate the distribution of responsibilities within the church at Philippi. I was reading here in the book, Why Baptists, James Alder and Dalton Robertson explain the fundamental difference within Baptist churches. He He said, in the Roman Catholic institution, there are cardinals, bishops, priests, and deacons who are all subordinate to the universal bishop, the Pope of Rome. The Episcopal institution has bishops and priests and deacons, but they deny the papacy. The Presbyterian make a distinction of order between the presbyter and the ruling elder, the latter being not a clerical but a lay officer." So the Presbyterian often they'll say there are some who are part of the clergy. Presbyter, and there are the elder. Those are not, if you would, paid by the church, but they are laymen. And so they make a distinction between, you could say, bishops and elders. But here's what he says, in all of these also, The clergy exists as a self-perpetuating and self-regulative body distinct from and for the most part independent of the congregation. Now, that last statement here is really what I want to highlight, which is very important. In all of these, you're talking about the different systems of church government, the clergy exists as a self-perpetuating and self-regulating body distinct from, and for the most part, independent of, the congregation. You see, although these institutions are all different, They are similar in the following way. They all have a church government model that exalts the clergy above the laymen and makes it a distinct group separate from the church body. The clergy, therefore, answers to its own hierarchy or a hierarchy that is outside the church and not to the local body itself. Now that's a major distinction here. From how we are to understand church government, how we find it typically found in churches, and how we are to find it in a Bible-believing church. And so there is something fundamentally different in Baptist churches. Something, I'll say, fundamentally biblical. And when I say Baptist churches, I'll say churches that That it may be our Baptist in name. Understand I know and am aware that there are many Baptist churches in name who do not have the same government that we have here. And so I understand that, but so when I say Baptist, I'm hoping we're assuming by now it means that it's biblical, okay? It should be a synonym. And so we begin with Paul's introductory greeting to the church at Philippi, mentioning, notice, the bishops and deacons. And Paul also mentions those two offices when he writes to Timothy, who was pastoring in Ephesus. If you turn with me to I Timothy chapter 3, You're going to find again those two offices, bishop and deacon, mentioned in 1 Timothy. So now we're in a different church. Now Paul is writing to an individual pastor, Timothy, but Timothy was left to take charge of the church at Ephesus, and that's what he was left to do. And when Paul wrote to Timothy in chapter 3, he mentions two offices that he had mentioned about what was present in the church at Philippi. And so here in 1 Timothy chapter 3, notice verse 1. This is a true saying. If a man desire, notice the expression, the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. So notice we have the word office, hence two offices. The first one mentioned in chapter 3 is the office of the bishop. But go down now to verse 8. Then he mentions, So twice here you have this expression. There is the office in verse 1 of the bishop, And then there is the office of the deacon, hence the Baptist distinctive, two offices, the pastor and the deacon. So Paul explicitly references those two church offices, bishop and deacon. So again, we're finding that consistency in the church at Philippi. We find now Timothy instructed by Paul, setting things in order at the church at Ephesus. So you see, there's a pattern emerging where we have an understanding that a church is comprised of saints, of bishops, and deacons. That's the pattern we find in the Bible. And I understand that there is something in the book of Acts, there is a separate group that we recognize, but that is no longer recognized today, and that is the apostles. You see, the apostles, the church was built upon the apostles. But what did the apostles do? Peter and Paul. What did they do? When Paul established churches, he ordained elders in every church. When he wrote to the church he started at Philippi, he talked about the bishops and the deacons. So we have to look no further than the scripture to ask ourselves, what are the categories of those who are part of the church? And there are three. All the saints, the bishops, and the deacons. Now, the biblical way for us to understand the distribution of responsibilities within the local church is by those two offices. So let me break it down to you because I mentioned this expression purposefully as responsibility. Do you understand this evening that every single person who is a part of the local church has responsibilities? Now this is very important and this is very key if we're going to understand why we are a Baptist church because the majority of churches who are not Baptist function where there is a group of people who acts independently from those who attend the congregation. They are rather rulers. They are rather board members or an elder board who makes the decision and the people who attend in the church have no responsibilities. Now, the first category is all the saints. That includes every member of the church. It includes the bishops. It includes the deacons. All believers have the same basic responsibilities. And I know that there might be more than what I mentioned here, but I like to sum it up in those three areas of responsibilities. All the saints have a three-fold responsibility as members of the local church. First of all, they have a responsibility to walk in communion with God. That's their personal responsibility. Secondly, they must exercise their spiritual gifts within the local church. Because God distributes to every man according as the body needs for the profit of all. So God equips believers and so the responsibility of every member is to exercise their spiritual gifts within the life of the church. And then thirdly, the responsibility is to edify the body of Christ. Okay? So all the saints have that threefold responsibility. We are all to walk in communion with the Lord, we are to exercise our spiritual gifts within the church, and we are to edify the body of Christ. Every member has that same responsibility. And you say, well, I don't understand that. Maybe you need to go back and listen to my messages through 1 Corinthians, and hopefully we'll understand that every member has a role and a responsibility. So that's the first category. By the way, that's everyone. But then Paul highlights two other categories and notice this does not mean that those basic responsibilities for all believers is gone. It means now you have additional responsibilities for certain categories. The next category is, let's deal with the deacons. So some are deacons, meaning that there are specific responsibilities assigned to the deacons by the church. The responsibilities of the deacons will be distinct from that of the bishop, but they work in order to help the bishop. And they, as we find it in the Word of God, they primarily deal with ministering in temporal things. Okay, so the church decides to add responsibility to a certain category of people that the Bible calls deacons. And they elect certain officers who are deacons to carry out those distinct responsibilities that are given to them by the church. And we can look no further than the model in Acts chapter 6 to find exactly that that's why deacons were elected. And I'll answer some questions about deacons at the end. But then there's the category of bishops. And here for the bishops, there are specific responsibilities which we will consider, which we will consider that are assigned to the bishop. And so notice, all believers have responsibilities. Some deacons now in top of that have more responsibilities and they tend to deal with temporal things to assist the bishop so that they might give themselves to spiritual things. And then the bishop, although they are saints, have additional responsibilities and we'll look at those at that time. And so we're going to look here at those additional responsibilities. So the reason why I put it this way is because I want us to understand as a church that a Baptist church functions where everybody understands that they all have a responsibility in the church. That nobody is designed to be in the church to just, as some preacher put it some years ago, to sit, soak, and sour. All right? I heard that. I thought, I'll remember that for the rest of my life, and I did. So there it is. But let us begin with the office of a bishop. There are two other terms used in the New Testament that reference the office of the bishop, and we find the term bishop, elder, and shepherd, or pastor. As we will see, these terms are used in reference to the same office. These terms, in fact, are intended to reveal the full scope of pastoral responsibilities. Remember, I talk about how all saints have responsibilities, but the bishop has another set of responsibilities that all these saints do not have, in addition to what he has as a saint. And so the Apostle Peter, for example, and so we have some consistency here between, we might say, the two primary apostles, Peter, And Paul, those are the two primary apostles. One, the apostle of the Jews, the other, the apostle of the Gentiles. Let's look first at the apostle Peter, and let's see if their teaching is consistent when it comes to the responsibility of the bishop in the church. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5, and let's begin reading in verse 1. Now I want you to remember, so there are three expressions. We're thinking about bishop, we're thinking about elder, we're thinking about shepherd or pastor. So let's look at 1 Peter 5, verse 1. says here, "...the elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed." Now, I just want you to notice, Peter referred to himself as what? An elder. But wait a minute, he was an apostle, was he not? Yes. That's the point. You can, you know, sometimes people refer, well, apostle, and then there's bishop, and then there's elder, and they separate all those, and the Bible brings those together. And here, Peter, who is an apostle himself, he says, I'm also an elder, so just like you are. And he says this, Verse 2, to the elders, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Now what you notice, the first word of verse 2 is feed. That term is the Greek word poimen, which means someone who is, it means to shepherd, to feed, to shepherd. That's the Greek word poimen. It's the same word that we'll see later in the text that's used for the word shepherd. He said, feed the flock of God which is among you. And notice, taking the oversight, that is the Greek word presbyteros, which is the same word that is used in 1st Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 for bishop. The word bishop is the Greek word presbyteros, which means overseer. So notice, the elder feeds the flock, he pastors the flock, and he also, the elder, takes the oversight. He is the bishop over the church. And so he goes on to say, verse 3, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock." Notice, the flock attaches us to the word feed, which is pastoring. Then verse 4, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, meaning that these elders and bishops are pastors. And when Jesus, who is the chief shepherd, well, who's the under shepherd? The elder, the bishop. The one who feeds the flock, that's the pastor. So you find those three words, elder, bishop, pastor, or shepherd used interchangeably to speak of the same office, but it highlights various aspects of responsibilities. So you have elder, presbyteros. The word feed, flock, and shepherd is poymen. He talks even that they're supposed to be in samples to the flock. And then the word oversight is episkopos, episkopos, which is bishop. And so the Apostle Paul had the same fundamental understanding as Peter. So this is Peter. And when he is writing this letter, if you go back to the beginning of this epistle, he is writing this to the believers who were scattered abroad. And so churches had formed in different places. So this letter is going to circulate to all the different churches. And he is speaking here of the office of elder, pastor, bishop. Turn with me to Acts chapter 20. In Acts chapter 20, we have a slightly different setting here because the apostle Paul is on his way back to Jerusalem. He has finished his missionary journey. He knows he's heading back to Jerusalem. And when he is, I believe it's in Miletus, He asks for the elders of Ephesus to come to him, I believe it's in Miletus, so that he can kind of give them a charge before he goes on to Jerusalem. And notice in this charge, if you go back to Acts 20, notice verse 17, And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. So that's important. Who is he gathering? The elders of the church. Now go down to verse 28. What does he say to the elders? Notice verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock. You know what that means? The elder's a pastor. He's a shepherd over a flock. over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you." What's the next word? Overseer. That's the Greek word episkopos, which is the same word for bishop. To, notice, feed the church of God, pastor the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. So again, in Peter's mind, he understands, he uses himself, the word elder, and bishop, and pastor, to speak of the same office. And when Paul gathered the elders, he spoke to the elders about being bishops and about being shepherd. And that's all speaking of the same office. And so the two primary apostle had an understanding. They're letting us know what this office is. And they highlight the different areas of responsibilities of the pastor. So elder is presbyteros. The word bishop is episkopos, overseer, and the word pastor is poimen, shepherd. feed the flock of God. So all of those terms are used of the same office. Again, those different terms highlight the various responsibilities found within the same office. These terms simply help us better understand the various roles of the pastor. You say, okay, what does that mean? How does that highlight the various roles? Well, let's start with bishop. The word bishop, the term describes the office responsibility of oversight. The word bishop literally means an overseer. And so in this role, the pastor oversees the ministries of the church, meaning that there is nothing in the life of the local church that does not come under his purview. Why? Because he's going to give account for it. It is His responsibility to oversee the doctrine, the music, the outreach, the finances, the teaching, all the things. He has that responsibility, notice, of oversight. Now, obviously, we find that your term used in the plural form. That means that I believe that you say, well, how many bishops does there need to be? Well, it's probably according to its size. The larger the church, the more bishops you're going to need. The larger the church, the more deacons you're going to need. We'll talk about that in just a moment here. But the word bishop simply has this idea, the pastor has the responsibility, the pastor or pastors have the responsibility of oversight. Then let's look at the word pastor or shepherd. This term describes the role as a shepherd of the flock. The shepherd's role is simply threefold. You could read Psalm 23. It is to lead, to feed, and to protect. To lead, to feed, and to protect. A study of Psalm 23 reveals the threefold responsibility of the shepherd, right? Psalm 23, verse 2, He leadeth me by the still waters. Then in verse 5, we have the aspect of feeding, not just in Grink's pastures, but he says in verse 5, Thou preparest a table before me, the shepherd feeds. By the way, Jesus, you remember what he told Peter? He told Peter after his resurrection, he says, do you love me? What was the instruction at the end? He said, feed my sheep. Paul instructed the elders of Ephesus to do what? Feed the flock of God. So, here is another responsibility. He is not just to take the oversight of the local church, but he is to pastor. The pastor is to labor in the Word for the express purpose of feeding the sheep. This involves both preaching and teaching. The pastor is called upon to transfer knowledge by teaching. He is also called upon to bring people to a place of decision by preaching. But he also, as the shepherd, is to lead the congregation. Not just feed, but lead. And also, the third aspect is to protect. Lead, feed, protect. When speaking to the elders of Ephesus, Paul said this in Acts 20, 28. He says, And so who does he say that? He says that to the elders. And so the elder is to not only lead, he is to feed, but he is also to protect. You say, well, we're not literally sheep and we don't have literal wolves coming around. It's a picture for us. The truth is, one of the responsibilities that I have is to protect the local church. To protect from what? Well, I think we could say from people who would come in the church and sow discord among the brethren. to protect the church from false doctrine creeping into the church. There are many ways in which the church needs to be protected. That responsibility is given to the pastor. So notice, the office of the pastor is to take the oversight It is to shepherd, meaning to lead, to feed, and to protect. But then there's the term elder. And the word elder is a term that describes the responsibility of ruling and leading. By example, the Greek word presbyteros means literally to preside. And so the elder, I believe here in connection to the church, the elder, the pastor, is to preside over the church meetings. And so we find these terms, elder, bishop, pastor, used interchangeably in the New Testament. Let me show you one more example, just in case you have not been convinced yet, okay? Turn with me to Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1. And notice with me verse 5. Titus chapter 1 verse 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordained elders in every city, as I had appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop must be blameless." Oh wait, he used elder. You see in verse 5, and now he interchanges with the word bishop. So now, look, throughout church history, you'll find that churches have broken those down into two separate offices. And now churches are equipped with many innumerable offices that are unrecognizable from what we find in the Bible. But there is a clear pattern to see that those are used interchangeably. They are the same office. They just highlight a different area of responsibility that the pastor has in the local church. And so we're considering here the biblical distribution of responsibilities within each local church. Saints, every member of the church, some have the additional responsibilities of being deacons, and some, in addition to their responsibilities as saints, have responsibilities as pastors. And so the responsibilities of the deacons are distinct from that of the pastor. So now let's think about the term deacon. The term deacon comes from a Greek word, diakonos, which means a minister, a servant, one who ministers to or serves others. That's what a deacon is. And there is no better example for us than to go to Acts chapter 6 to find out what is this deacon office all about. When Paul wrote to the church at Philippi and talked about the bishops and the deacons, what did the deacons do? What was their role in the life of the church? And so, look, understand, and I'm aware that there might be many people here who've, and I'm not here to, I don't want to, I'm not here to criticize other churches who have a different model, and they may be Baptist church. I'm just trying to highlight for us the biblical model of what we find. And so if our church is to have deacons, let's follow the biblical pattern of what a deacon is and what a deacon does and not invent some responsibility that's not found in the Bible for the deacon. And so deacons now, churches have replaced the deacon now. Churches are run now not no longer by a pastor but often by a deacon board or an elder board that often stands over the pastor to keep the pastor in check. And I'm saying to us that is asinine because the congregation keeps the pastor in check. You don't need some ruling class over the pastor. if the congregants are well able to do that themselves. Now, I believe the reason why people have set this up is perhaps because churches have been filled, churches are too quick to fill their pews with people instead of regenerated converts, instead of people who are spiritually minded. And so they have to elect a board to kind of rule over these people who are unruly, you see. Well, I don't believe that. So let me answer some practical questions here. For sake of time, I won't read Acts 6. I just read it recently. But let me answer some questions, some practical questions concerning the deacon. The first question might be, when are they to be chosen? When are the deacons to be chosen? Well, the answer is very clear. When there's a need for them. When there's a need for them. I remember the first year that the church was established here, somebody came to me, and they had just attended for a few weeks, and they said, who are your deacons? And I said, we don't have deacons. And they says, well, who's keeping you accountable? And I thought to myself, well, see, that's the way of thinking. And my reply was, the church does. The church does. But see, and by the way, that person reminded me that they made a very good deacon in a previous church at the same time. And I told him, I said, we only will choose deacons when we need them. You see, that is exactly the answer we find in Acts chapter 6. Jesus did not institute deacons, did he? He didn't. The apostles did. and it was instated only out of necessity. You see, in other words, there was no concept of deacons that Jesus said when he started the church. All right, now when you start the church, you're going to have, you know, the apostles, and then you're going to need some deacons. He didn't say that, but the apostles got to the place where they thought, right, in Acts chapter 6. They were serving tables. They were involved in temporal things, but they found that their involvement in temporal things was taking them away from the ministry of prayer and the study of the Word. And so they thought, we need to have deacons who are able to take that role to minister in temporal things so that we can give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. So it is not that the pastor does not mention, or that the apostle did not minister in temporal things, it is that those temporal things began to crowd out their time to study and pray. That's when it became wrong. And so they said, we need deacons. So understand, a church does not need deacons until it needs them. You see. Just because we exist out of church doesn't mean we need deacons when there is a need. So, let's ask the second question then. What are the duties of the deacon? Because, right, it's added responsibilities and it is an office. Well, very simply, they are to carry out the duties assigned to them by the church leadership in temporal affairs. Very important. They are to carry duties assigned to them by the church leadership in temporal affairs. They are not a ruling body. In Acts chapter 6, they served tables. That's what the word deacon literally means, servant, minister. And so they are not a separate governing group over the church body. They are rather assigned specific duties by the church body. The apostle says, we have need of seven men. And they came to the congregation and they said, choose you out among yourselves seven men of honest report, full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. And so they have to look among themselves And then, so you say, well, what did those deacons do? They did what was assigned to them. You see? When the need presented themselves. In other words, deacons were not there, well, we need deacons in the church, so, you know, let's have seven deacons. And there they are, there are deacons. What do they do? Well, they're deacons. There is no need for a deacon unless there is a specific duty that is connected to the deaconship. Okay? No duties, no deacons. Duties, then you need deacons. The next question is, what is to be their number? That's the question. So there was seven in Acts chapter 6. Now, that's a church at least of, you know, 3,120. Seven deacons. There is no explicit formula given. In its original institution, however, it was proportional, I believe, to the need. You see, the church leadership determined the number needed. They said seven. And the church body chose according to the number prescribed. So remember, who takes the oversight? The pastor. The pastor may see a need that it would take too long for him to do, and so he may come to the church and say, hey, there's a need in this particular area that is really in temporal affairs, and so we need to choose among us two men who can do this duty that we have prescribed, and the deacon may serve as long as that duty is there, but if that that is no longer necessary, then you don't need that deacon. So there's no prescribed number. It is determined by the need. Now, how long do deacons serve? That question again is simple to answer. As long as they're needed. You know, sometimes, and I hear those sometimes, well, you know, sometimes the conversation is, well, do you all have lifetime deacons? Well, that seems strange to me. What do you mean lifetime deacons? Often churches that have lifetime deacons is, well, we have deacons because we have to have deacons. That's what they had in the church. And what I'm saying is we have deacons as long as we need them. And so if something is carried out, a task that needs to be carried out, is carried out by a deacon, if that task is done or is no longer needed, and let's put it in Acts, and obviously that would be a strange scenario, but let's say there were no longer any widows. And then, and I would imagine, remember, there was a persecution in the church of Jerusalem. The believers were scattered. The seven deacons who were taking care of the widows. I wonder if their numbers was reduced because there weren't as many widows. I don't know. But you don't need all seven if not all seven are needed. You see, as long as they are needed, now how are they commissioned? They're commissioned in Acts chapter 6 by prayer and the laying on of hands. It is associated with a specific assignment that is given to them. And the last question is, and very important, who participates in their selection? Now you know the answer. It is the entirety of the local church body. That is what we find in Acts chapter 6, is it not? But you see, many churches don't function that way. Many churches, they have a bishop, or an elder, or a priest. They do their individual selections. Why? Because they're a governing body that acts independently of the congregation. And I'm saying to us this evening, a Baptist church should not be working that way. A Baptist church who is comprised of born-again Christians who have been baptized and who have been assembled to the church, all who have spiritual gifts, all who have the mind of Christ, are well able to fully participate in the governing life of the church. There is no need for a second class. There's no need for a hierarchy over the church members. We all work together under the headship of Jesus Christ. It is just a matter of what responsibilities do we have. We all have the same responsibilities as saints. Some are deacons. They're given additional responsibilities to minister in temporal things to help the pastor. And the pastor is given additional responsibility, which is threefold, to take the oversight, to be the shepherd, and to preside over the church meeting. So how do we implement this? A Baptist church is a church that follows the biblical pattern of the New Testament. This pattern establishes the various responsibilities within the local church body. It is not about hierarchy. Rather, it is about responsibilities. From a biblical viewpoint, there is not a church member that does not have a responsibility. There is not a church member that does not have a responsibility. You see, all local church saints, all saints are to walk in communion with the Lord, exercise their spiritual gifts, and edify the church body. Those who are selected as deacons, in addition to their responsibilities as saints in the church, deacons are commissioned by the church to minister and temporal things. These additional responsibilities are assigned by both the pastors and the church body where there is an evident need. And those who are chosen as pastors, in addition to their responsibilities as saints of the church, pastors take on the responsibility of oversight, of presiding, and of feeding. Pastors often minister in temporal things, no doubt. However, should temporal things take away from the ministry of the Word and prayer, deacons should be chosen to give relief to the pastor so that he can minister in spiritual things. So I'll end with this in a practical way. Should the church have such a need? Would we all be willing and fit to serve in the capacity assigned to us by the local church. Here's my firm belief. When the apostle says, look you out among you seven men of honorous report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, I don't believe that there were only seven men that fit that criteria. You see? They just picked seven because that's what the need was. I believe we should all strive. You know, we read of the, we might say the qualification of the bishop and the deacon in 1st Timothy chapter 3, but we have to be aware that we should all be striving to meet those qualifications, every one of us. Those qualifications are there to simply highlight when there's a need, you should be able to find people in the church who can fulfill that need. In other words, what I'm saying is that should there be a pastor or a deacon, the Lord could raise up somebody from that congregation. You see, many churches work, there's a vacation, not a vacation, there's a void. Pastor's gone or there's need for deacon. There's often an entity that is outside of that church that comes in and assigns somebody to that church. Assigns leader, and basically there is no accountability to the local body. There is a complete separate entity that acts independently from the local church. And I'm saying to us that is not the biblical motto. A Baptist church is a church that believes in two church offices, pastor and deacon. And these are simply this. That's not a hierarchy. It's simply additional responsibilities given from the responsibilities that members in the church already have. Let's pray.