So praise God for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, we'll dismiss the little ones to go to the class, their kid's class tonight. And please take your Bibles and open up to 1 Timothy chapter 5. And we're looking at a chapter, if you remember, this chapter deals with caring for the church. And so we talked about caring for the church as a family of God. At the beginning, the first two verses talked about caring for the elder as, you know, speaking to them like to a dad or to an older woman as a mother, younger as a sister. the young men as brothers and that sort of thing. And then we've spent, I think, if I remember correctly, maybe three weeks dealing with the social issue of ministering to the widows, legitimate widows that had need. And it's a very instructive passage. and very good to consider our responsibility to care for those in our congregation that have a real need as a church. How do we do that? And so that's been good for us. Tonight, we're looking at caring for the pastor, all right, is the text here. And, you know, Jesus is the head of the church. He said, I will build my church, but he's given leadership to the local church to help guide the church as far as a physical head or give direction to the church. Ephesians 4, 7, And the following says, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Okay, so God is, the Lord Jesus Christ gifted men, gave abilities to men, specifically for the ministries that he would call them to. And so it goes on to say, wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and he gave gifts unto men. It goes down in verse 11 to say he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. And pastors and teachers is one thing. It's the ministry of oversight as well as instruction that God's given. And these offices were to benefit the local church. and to help the local church for, it says in verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints, to build up the saints, so that they can do the work of the ministry, so that they can edify the body of Christ. There's those two phrases that follow after that statement of perfecting of the saints. And I'm told by those that know the Greek, that they point back to the church being enabled and equipped to do the work of the ministry, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And so a pastor leads in that to help the church to do those things. Now for the church to function properly, it needs a pastor who's been called and who has been gifted by God to lead that assembly. And so since every church will have a pastor, every church ought to know how to care for the pastor. Now a couple of things about tonight. It seems self-serving in some ways to preach on the pastor, But our church has to be ready to focus on that at some point and consider that and even consider that in the case of your pastor. And so that's a good thing. And some of the things that we're looking at They may not apply right now. They might not be things that we're really focused on right now. I mean, as far as a ministry to widows or something like that, or a social help type ministry. But when it comes down the road that we have that, we can look back and go, oh yeah, that's in the Bible here in 1 Timothy 5. Let's see what it says, because we need to see what God says we're to do in that situation. So hopefully that'll help us tonight as we consider this topic of caring for the pastor. Let's pray. Ask the spirit of God to help us as we come to the word of God. Father, we're grateful to you for the grace that you give. It has been a good week. Lord, thank you for the flyers that have gone out. Brother Tommy helped with that yesterday. Three days this week, our flyers have gone out into Pinnacook. We pray that you bless those. We pray, God, that they bear fruit, that someone gets saved. Lord, that someone have their lives changed by the power of the gospel, that they receive God's gift. of everlasting life. That's what our church is really about. Lord, there's a lot of things that line up with that. But the main purpose of our church is to be a gospel lighthouse and to reach those for whom Christ died. And that's the beginning. When they get saved, they're added to this assembly. And that's a great thing. And that's kind of what we're looking at tonight is the church. and how to manage the church, how to organize the church, structure the church. And Lord, this is a rich book to help us with that. And so Father, may we get every bit a blessing from it tonight that we can. We wanna pray for the kids in the kids' class that the Spirit of God would speak to their hearts tonight, give energy and strength to Mrs. Shor as she instructs them in the word of God. But Lord, would you open up their little hearts to the truth of the Bible. And Father, that it would just become a fabric of their being so that, Father, if any of our kids that come to our church, if they ever get out of church, Lord, that they would never forget what they've been taught, that someday it would reap a great result in their life. We pray that for the many children. that passed under the teaching of our ministry. And for us in this time, may the Spirit of God bless and guide. I'm a little bit weak tonight in voice. I ask for strength to preach and to teach the Word of God. I ask that you help me as I always need help, but then I ask for extra help to get the Word of God out tonight. And then God, would you also give us ears to hear and take on board truth and see that the Bible does speak about a lot of things that we need to know, maybe not right now, but when it comes time, we need to be prepared by understanding these things. And so help us here tonight. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, and so we start out with renumeration for pastor or caring for the pastor's salary. All right, so verse 17 and 18, it says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. So if you just read verse 17, you'd be kind of wondering what's the double honor about? What's it speaking about? But when you get to verse 18, it's clear that it's speaking about finances. It's clear that it's speaking about remuneration for the minister. And so again, it's speaking about his salary. And so a good pastor should be a well-supported pastor. His family should be well-supported. It says they're worthy of double honor. Again, it's both appreciation as well as provision for the pastor and his family. So in that need, obviously it's gonna be met by the congregation. Now, in saying that, I realized this, we're in Scotland. And so in Scotland, historically, you've got state supported churches. I mean, that's just the way it's been historically. So the state pays the pastor, the state pays for the church facilities and a lot of a lot of things like that. When the disruption happened in the 1840s, 1843, The free church, the reason the disruption took place, and that's the free church coming out of the Church of Scotland, was because the government, patrons, local patrons within areas, were putting into churches a minister of their choosing. So the congregation wasn't getting to choose the pastor, the patron was putting in the minister, and if he was a liberal, if he rejected the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, if he was a very poor minister, there's nothing the church could do about it. And tied in with that was the fact that the ecclesiastical courts, the church courts, were getting put under the civil courts. And so they were getting usurped, so they couldn't even rule on that. So they went down to Westminster and tried to convince them to give them religious liberty when it comes to putting a minister into a position. The government said no and said, and if you try to, you'll lose your support. So they threatened cutting off the finances. Well, the free church ministers, and I just saw this number the other day, I think I don't exaggerate. So like 450, 500, somewhere in there, walked out of the General Assembly in 1843. They lost the manse. They lost their salary. They lost their church buildings. They lost everything. Now, what they did, they did something called, I think, subscriptions, or conscriptions, one of those terms, where they would go and they would go through the community and have people pay, you know, sign up to pay so much to help them build a building, help them finance a ministry. They got rich people, perhaps in the community that were believers, to participate in that. Now that's what they did and that's the history, kind of in a nutshell, of the Church of Scotland and how ministers have been supported. But in an independent Baptist church, the congregation supports the minister. That's how it happens, that's how it gets done. And so now, Having said that, our church is different. Why? Because we are a mission-started church. Our family raised support in the United States to come over to Scotland without a church here and establish a church. And that's great, and that's the way missions works. We participate in that. We've got a church planter in Romania that we're supporting. We've got a church planter in Northern Scotland that we're supporting as a church. That's great. But when that church becomes autonomous, then that church has to pick up that salary and be able to pay the minister. And so the budget of the church falls into the responsibility of the church at some point in the future when the church is able to handle that. Now, we gotta pray about that a lot as a church, and that's where tithes and offerings really become important. Offerings being missions giving, giving to the building fund, tithes being used for the general expenses of the church. And so, And we'll come back to the financial aspect of it, but a good pastor should be well supported by the church. And let's talk about who a good pastor is. A good pastor is a good leader. Verse 17, it says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. Now, elder in the text, we've seen it a couple of times, refers to somebody that's older. in the church, a godly man, they're in the church. But when it speaks about that rule well, we understand it's speaking about the minister. It's speaking about a pastor of that local church. It's like Hebrews in chapter 13, where it says in verse 17, obey them that have the rule over you. It's speaking about ministers, overseers. and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you." If you wonder why a minister is burdened about people in the church and tries to help them and encourage them in their walk with God, it's because they are gonna give an account to God for their oversight of that church, all right? And so God has delegated authority to lead the local church. Now, I want to remind us that authority is both a responsibility and a privilege. A lot of times we think about authority, we think privilege. A lot of, in our day, there's a strong movement against men being leaders, whether in the church or, you know, in the church. And so God has delegated authority to lead the local church. Now, I want to remind us that authority is both a responsibility and a privilege. A lot of times we think about authority, we think privilege. A lot of, in our day, there's a strong movement in the home and the headship of the man. And there's that desire for privilege, but forgetting about the responsibility and the accountability that comes with that privilege. A woman is not gonna give an account to God for a family. and for the word of God being presented in that family, the religious instruction taking place in that family. The primary person that's gonna give an account to God for that is the man. It's the same in a church. People come to our church and we've got membership of our church. The person that's gonna give a primary accountability to God for what takes place in this ministry is the pastor. And so there's a great responsibility with the privilege, and there is a privilege to lead a local assembly, but with that privilege comes a lot of responsibility. And so the main point is a good pastor is gonna exercise godly leadership of the local church. So as he has that privilege of leading in that local assembly, he's gonna exercise that well. So we can observe that, we can see that, and say, you know, that minister is doing well in the responsibility God's given to him of leading the church. And then secondly, A good pastor is a good preacher, a teacher, all right? And by that, I don't mean that he's eloquent. I don't mean that he's clever. I don't mean that he's got great illustrations. I mean that he's faithful in the preaching, teaching, exercising of his gifts, responsibility that God has given. Because it says in our text, especially they who labor in the word and in doctrine. And you might think, you know, Is it hard to be a pastor? Is it hard to fulfill the responsibilities? Well, there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. If somebody comes and sits in church and they get to listen to a message from the word of God, understand there's a lot of hours of preparation that went into the preparation of that. Understand there's a lot of education that went into the preparation of that. Somebody that's prepared well for the ministry has spent years studying the Bible at maybe a Christian college or a seminary and took those years and invested in understanding, you know, not just the Bible, but current church issues and the way the way a church is run, the organization of a church and things like that, and has prepared themselves well. He's probably somebody that spent some time not just jumping into the head pastorate, but as an assistant pastor, going into a church either as a youth pastor, as a music pastor, serving under somebody, spending some years and some time doing that, getting used to, we were talking about Daniel preaching here in our absence, and understand this, Daniel is not right now in full-time ministry, and he said to me, he said, I don't know how you do it. Because he preached, I think, preached three times, you know, that week, and he had to prepare and get those things ready. And, you know, when I got out of Bible college, I did not jump into a full time ministry where I'm preparing for Bible studies and preaching. sessions a week, but that's what I do now. And my notes, you don't, I'm sorry, if you ever want to see my notes, you're welcome to see my notes. I used to put a lot of my notes online, but when I preach, and you could probably tell how long my sermons are, I hate to tell you how many minutes I spend per page. I kind of know, all right? But every week I'm preparing about 20 pages of printed notes, all right? So they're somewhat abbreviated of what I'm gonna preach during the week. So I'm just saying, as a minister, a minister is somebody that is spending a lot of time in the Word of God studying. and trying to condense things so that when they come to that preaching point, they can put it out in front of the congregation. The congregation can have a good meal, but they had to chew on it for a long time to get to that point of presenting it. And so there's a lot of work that goes into that if a man's doing the job as he ought to do it. Now, I wanna say this, I praise God that to be a minister, you don't have to know everything. I grew up in a pastor's home and I used to think, how does my dad know all the answers? Well, I understand as a pastor now, you know what? I don't know all the answers and I'm not ashamed to say that. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8 verse 2, if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know. And that's, the fact is, we don't know anything as much as we should. But a good pastor ought to be somebody that's putting some work in, some time in, understanding the word of God so he can present it to his church. So the two primary responsibilities of pastor, as shown in this text, are what? Leadership, ruling over the church, and then preaching, teaching, and our primary responsibilities of minister. And so a good pastor should be well supported. A good pastor is a good leader, good preacher, teacher. A good pastor should benefit financially for his labor. Now this is going back to the original idea of what we're looking at as far as salary. Verse 18, it says, for the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward, okay? Now, Paul's using an illustration. He's saying, you know, it's kind of an odd illustration for a pastor and ox, all right? But it's not to liken a pastor to an ox. He's going to the Old Testament law to illustrate a New Testament principle of providing for the man that is treading out the truth of the word of God. And so he's quoting from Deuteronomy 25, verse four, that says thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. It would be wrong to take away the benefit from a dumb animal that's treading out that food and you're benefiting from the labor that they're doing, it would be wrong and wicked to, I mean, that's food for that animal that he's treading on to muzzle him and not allow him to eat of his labor. That wouldn't be right. And so Paul takes that and he applies it to the minister. It's not right when a minister is laboring for spiritual benefit of the congregation to not allow him to eat of his labor. In fact, Paul uses this illustration more than once. And so 1 corinthians chapter 9 if you want to look there you can but i'll read it for us here 1 corinthians chapter 9 and verse 6 Paul says or I only in barnabas Have not we power to forbear work working who goeth to warfare any time of his own charges Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof or who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock. And you know, it's true, when somebody goes to war, Nathan would attest to this, if he was here this evening, guess what? The government pays him, we pay him, taxes. Why? Because he's fighting for our nation. A farmer, when he farms, doesn't just produce produce for the community, he produces produce for himself, for his family, and he benefits from that. And he goes on to say, say I these things as a man, or sayeth not the law the same, Also, for it's written in the law of Moses, all right, let me grab a drink here. Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Does God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes?" You know, is it just about the oxen? Does God just care about that? It's kind of like, you know, God cares for a sparrow. How much more does God care for men? If God cares for oxen, how much more does he care for men? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope, that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?" And so what is Paul saying? Paul is saying it is right for a church to support their minister. Now let me just say about our church Our desire is to plant churches out of our church. I am missionary supported. I cost our church nothing. All right? But we want to be able to either, in the future, if God desired to put a minister into this church, a national pastor into this church, we want our church to be in a position to be able to take him on and support him as they ought, providing an adequate salary for him to live on, his family to live on, so that he could be full-time. Now, if we do what kind of is in my mind, and if God leads us to do this, it would be that we take on an assistant pastor with his salary or that we put a church planting pastor into a neighboring community that the church supports as a minister so that he can get started without raising mission support elsewhere. Does that make sense? Because our church ought to get to the point very quickly, if we're giving as we ought to, of being able to salary a minister in the work of God. The main point is that it's biblical. That's a responsibility that we have, so it's something that we should pray about as a church and consider. And so caring for the pastor's salary. Secondly, caring for the pastor's testimony. caring for his testimony. I enjoy listening online to sermons. When I go running, I'll take my, they're not earbuds, but they are bone-density earphones that I use when I'm running. And I like to listen to preaching. And so I'll listen to Ambassadors Chapel Services, where Kaylee's going as a student. And there was a preacher there recently, and he said, you know what, Bible college prepares you for a lot of things, but there's a lot of things Bible college does not prepare you for. There are gonna be often those times where you go, man, what do I do here? My wife and I could share a lot of stories from our first year in ministry in New York City. One time, we were told by the pastor that we needed to go and speak to a mother and tell her her son was academically dismissed from the Christian school. So we go over to her house, come in, we say, I'm sorry, but your son is dismissed from the school. She passed out. I mean, boom, she hits the floor. It's like, you know, Bible college didn't tell me what to do when you tell somebody something. And it's so shocking that they responded that way. But there are other things. that the Word of God, they're very important, that the Word of God wants us to be prepared for, and this is something like that. Paul doesn't want Timothy to get into a future opportunity where pastor's testimony is at stake and not be ready to guard that to the best of his ability or to deal with it if there's sin there as he ought to. And so care for the pastor's testimony. Corroborate, any accusation against a minister, all right? So corroborate, meaning get other information. Make sure that it's verified by other sources other than just one. Notice verse 19. It says, against an elder, a minister, receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Okay, so if it was gonna be given, then it ought to be testified by others that say this is the case. This is legitimate, this is something that we know about. The law commanded that. Deuteronomy 19 verse 15 says, one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin, and any sin that he sinneth at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. Why would the Bible say don't just accept the testimony of one witness? because that would be a great way to get rid of your enemies, right? Go lie about them and that's it, they're taken care of and they're gone. So it was a protective clause that it had to be multiple witnesses. Barnes notes in his commentary, He writes, there might be reason to apprehend that evil-minded persons might be disposed to bring charges against the minister of the gospel or other officers of the church and it was important therefore that their rights should be guarded with anxious care. The ministers of religion often give offense to wicked people by the rebukes of sin. Wicked people would rejoice to see an accusation against them sustained the cause of religion would be liable to suffer much when its ministers were condemned as guilty of gross offenses, and it is right, therefore, that the evidences in the case should be as free as possible from all suspicion that's caused by malignity, by hatred of religion, or by conspiracy, or by desire to see religion disgraced." Now, it might be legitimate that there's sin in the minister's life that somebody has brought before the congregation that ought to be dealt with but at the same time it's possible that a minister could be slandered and that could hurt the testimony both of the church and of the minister and so therefore to consider it rightly it had to be verified it could not just be somebody somebody's word against the minister's word there had to be corroboration And so, caring for the pastor's testimony, guard it as much as possible. But then, condemn openly if an accusation has foundation. If there's legitimate sin that's there, then that should be brought to the congregation and put before the congregation. Verse 20. It says, them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. Now, notice in the context, it's broader than just the minister, isn't it? Notice what the verse says. It doesn't say just if the elder sin, but if any man sin. All right, if there's sin that needs to be dealt with publicly, then deal with it publicly. That's the right way to do it. You know, I was thinking as I read that, I'm smiling because I'm showing my age here, because I thought this. Do you remember 20 years ago when the young man was caned for vandalism? But it wasn't 20 years ago, it was 28 years ago, or close to 30 years ago, and that's where I say I'm showing my age. But do you remember this, Michael Peter Fay? Anybody? It was in Singapore. Okay, he was an American that was sentenced to six strokes of the cane, and maybe we heard it more in America because it was in American news, but I remember this when I was in high school, I guess, but I didn't realize it was that long ago. He was sentenced to six strokes of the cane in Singapore in 1994 for theft of road signs and vandalizing 18 cars over a 10-day period in September 1993, which caused a temporary strain in relations between Singapore and the United States. Well, that might have caused a rift between the United States and Singapore. But guess what? When it came to graffiti or vandalism to cars in Singapore, what do you think happened? I don't think I don't think anybody was going out and vandalizing any cars. Why? Because they dealt with it openly. They said, this is what's going to happen. Now, to be honest, I feel like we ought to bring this back a little bit. If I had my way, I'm sick of seeing properties devalued and areas deteriorating because of the crime of vandalism and graffiti and whatnot. I mean, it's sad. You go to Pennycook. down by the skate park. And I mean, that thing is just a mess with graffiti, but you don't just see graffiti there. You see graffiti other places in Pinnacook and the last couple of weeks, a couple of cars have been set alight, you know, things like that. And you just wonder what would happen if they came down very severely and very publicly on crimes like that. That would be a good thing. Ecclesiastes 8.11, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore, the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Okay, and so there is a time where it's necessary to bring sin before the church. Now, it's not fun to have a situation like that, but biblically there are times. Matthew 18 says once you've dealt with sin personally and you've dealt with sin with another witness, that the next step is to go before the church and say, church, this person refuses to hear, even though they've had opportunities, one, opportunity two, to get right. So we're telling it to the church so that that sin is dealt with. That really is a biblical thing. And we need to be careful that we don't omit that. And so that's what Paul goes to next. He says, make no exception, no matter how you feel about those involved. Make no exception to this. Verse 21. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that they observe these things without preferring one before another, a person before another person, doing nothing by partiality." Okay, so Paul says, hey, Timothy, this is so, so strongly stated. that I call heaven to witness that I'm saying this to you. I charge you before God the Father, God the Son, and the elect angels, the holy angels that are in heaven, that you fulfill this responsibility with soberness and discharge this duty of dealing with sin if it has taken place. Now let me ask you, if sin had taken place in the life of the apostle Paul, along these lines, what should Timothy do? An accusation comes. There's witnesses. It's about Paul. You know what Paul would say to Timothy? Timothy, it doesn't matter that it's me. Obey God. This is what the word of God says. How do I know that? Well, Paul said himself in Galatians 1.8, he said this, but though we, even if I, okay, even if I were an angel from heaven, So Paul says, Timothy, in a sense, even if it's me. So there's no favoritism there. You know, very sadly, in my life, I'm getting older, but I know of some great men of God that have failed, and that have had to be dealt with in this way. It's a very sad thing when that happens, but you know what, it's a very biblical thing and a very right thing for a church to take a stand and say, it's not right, and so we're gonna deal with that. And so caring for the minister's testimony. You want to guard it if at all possible. You don't want a wrong accusation against the minister because that really impacts the church. But if there's witnesses and corroboration and there's sin, even in the life of somebody in the church or the minister, then that ought to be dealt with accordingly. Third, all right, and we'll end here tonight, though there's a fourth point I want to come to next week. Third, caring for a minister's health. All right, caring for a minister's health. And we're gonna skip ahead to verse 23, because it kind of comes in the middle of another section that we'll look at next week. So verse 23 says, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. Okay, I am teetotal. Our church understands that that's my position and whatnot. But I'll say this, I've had NyQuil. NyQuil has alcohol in it. NyQuil is a cough medicine, you know, and, you know, I've had that in my life and I don't have a problem with somebody that takes cough medicine that has alcohol in it. And even for the context of this passage, the Bible here is speaking about medicine, the value of medicine and using that. Now, Paul has already said that pastors and deacons are not to be given to wine, in Timothy chapter three, and to the deacons not given to much wine. Okay, so the word of God twice has said that that is bad, and so obviously we're speaking about alcoholic wine in here. Again, I assume that we're speaking about alcohol because of the context of what Paul is saying, but let me emphasize, as he's speaking about the medicinal value of this, notice what he says. He emphasizes a big amount or a small amount? A small amount, okay. So he says, he emphasizes little. He emphasizes that it's a command to Timothy. Why would he have to command Timothy? Because Timothy is what? Teetotal. Because it wouldn't make sense to say take a little wine if Timothy's already cooking, you know, taking wine. He doesn't need that. But Paul saying it to him shows that Timothy's position is not to drink, but Paul says it, but why does he say it? Well, let me say this. He says, dilute it with water for the benefit of your what? Digestion. Okay, so Paul says it's okay, in this case, for the medicinal value of it to use it. Now I wanna give a big, careful statement with this. I know of a minister that was a really well-known minister that took this text, began drinking wine for his stomach's sake, and he became back to what he used to be before he got saved an alcoholic. It destroyed his life. So you never wanna take scripture further than it goes, but the emphasis here is speaking about medicine, right? Is it okay to use medicine? Now, and I wanna point this out as well. Charismatics teach healing, right? And Paul healed people, but notice about this. Paul did not heal Timothy. Paul himself had infirmities of the flesh that God didn't heal. But having that infirmity, Paul didn't say, well, just accept it, and that's the way it is. He said, do what you can about it and take some medicine. Now, on deputation, when we were traveling, we were at a church, and Parker was just a little guy. We were having a church picnic down by some water, and he got into some weeds or something that, I mean, he just had an allergic reaction. It was just, again, he's just like two years old, but I mean, he's just covered in this rash. And there's these ladies coming up from the church and they're like, here's some weed, you know, that they picked out of the grass to spit on and rub on him. And here's some, you know, and they've got these, all these natural remedies. And I said, does anybody have some Benadryl? It was dead silent. You could hear a pin drop. And then I found out later, they're like a very natural church. It's like medicine is like, oh, bad, bad or something. Well, listen, God gave medicine. You know, I mean, just think about God's word not being anti-medicine. Luke was a physician. That was his position. Jesus is the great physician. I mean, he cared for people's physical needs. And I would just point out, once Jesus used clay and spittle, and I don't understand that. but he used that and put it on the man's eyes, so he wasn't against using means, and I understand there's something more significant to that than just medicine, but God put Adam into a deep sleep, didn't he, before he took the rib out? and James Simpson, the Scot, that we have a monument to down in Princess Street Gardens, and I think, and I was thinking about this last night, Simpsons, all right? He was an obstetrician, and I'm quite certain that Simpsons at the Royal is named after James Simpson, but he was a born-again believer. He was the first to use chloroform as an anesthetic because he understood that God put Adam to sleep and took out his rib. An interviewer once asked him, What did you consider was the greatest discovery you ever made? The professor, James Simpson, replied without hesitation, that I have a savior. When detractors claimed that chloroform was unnatural, Simpson replied that so are railway trains, carriages, and steamboats. You know, if you wanna be all natural, get back on your horse, right? You know, there's gonna be times that you could take some medicine that God's given. We gotta be wise about that. I think a lot of people could take medicine that maybe they don't need to take, and it could be addictive, and there could be problems with that. So I think we need to be wise about that. But there are certainly times where there's benefit to medicine. And no, we don't have to be in pain just because for the sake of being in pain, if God's given us pain relief, let's take some pain relief while we ask God to heal us of whatever we're dealing with. All right, so a minister ought to care for his health. And there's gonna be a lot of stress in ministry. And so I would think maybe stomach problems might be a common ailment of a minister. And so to be aware of that and take what you need for that. And so tonight, caring for a minister. His salary, he's worthy of a good salary. If he rules well, if he prepares the Word of God well, the church is responsible for that, to consider that and say, what do we need to do financially to meet the needs of the minister? His testimony ought to be guarded. If there's legitimate cause of concern, it needs to be... looked at, identified, and then presented to the church if needed. And then his health, be able to take care to maintain good health under the stress of ministry. And what we're gonna end with as we finish this section is caring for the minister's appointment, ordaining, who to ordain is something also Paul deals with here at the end of this text. All right, let's pray. Ask the spirit of God to bless this word of God to our hearts. Father, we thank you. for the time that we've been able to spend looking at the word of God tonight. And Father, I thank you for our church. I know our church is generous in what they give to God's work, but as we consider the budget, we do have to look ahead to salarying a minister. And Father, if I was just to stay in this church and us not support any other man in ministry with a pastor's salary, whether a church planter or an assistant pastor, it would be robbing the churches of the United States. We don't want to do that. Lord, we are responsible for our own expenses. And so if it was the will of God that I stayed at this church and we did not ever get to the point of taking somebody else on, we have failed somehow. Or we should be supporting this pastor and finally let the church in America put their money to something else. And so I pray, spirit of God, help us to understand the soberness of that responsibility. But then as well, Lord, there's a lot of need to guard the testimony of a pastor. But if there's legitimate cause for concern, it ought to be exposed and dealt with. So we pray for that. And Lord, we pray as well that we'd be aware of physical needs in our lives and understand that you gave us medicine. Use that medicine appropriately. Lord, and I pray tonight, don't let anybody look at this scripture and think, well, that means alcohol is okay. Drunkenness is horrible and alcohol caused incest and sexual sin. In the first two mentions in the Bible where it mentions alcohol, it mentions sexual sin. This passage is as close as the Bible gets to saying it's okay to have alcohol, but here clearly it's speaking about medicinal use. a very little amount for the sake of the stomach. And so we understand that. May the spirit of God give us grace not to take scripture out of what it's meant to say to suit our desires. Thank you, God, for your love. Thank you for our time together here tonight. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen.