The next two weeks after that is going to be interactive. You can raise your hand you can interrupt For that topic in that discussion, but for this one, we're going to try to try to get through this All right. Let's have a word of prayer and then we'll begin Heavenly Father Well, we do thank you for this day God yet another opportunity on this earth father trust you believe you father open your word god to see what you have for us or operate father that you would help us this morning father give me clarity of thought and speech uh... lord i pray god that uh... they'd be liberty this morning father lord may your spirit father i can't show anybody anything if it's not your spirit working in dwelling in uh... doing the work that he does father lord nothing will be revealed or accomplished god i pray that uh... lord you would have your will and we got for all the request that we're going to be made God, I pray, Father, you'd answer those. Lord, you know the heart of every person. You know the plea of every person. Lord, there's a lot of people missing today, Father, with sickness and different things. God, I pray, Father, for them. Pray, God, that you would heal them up, Father, work out their situation or whatever they got going on, Father. Lord, bring them back safely to us soon. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, if you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5. Get there myself. 1 Timothy chapter 5. There's a reason I did this study and I'll get into it here in a second. We live in a world that is quickly leaving everything this book stands for. Quickly. Rapidly. It astounds me. I don't even have the words to say when I see so-called Christians or people that I know go to church. And when a topic comes up or a discussion comes up about anything, They have a worldly, carnal philosophy. Their answer is worldly. Their answer is not according to the Word of God. And there's a lot of things that we believe, or that's in the Bible, that this world doesn't stand for. And it's fine if the world don't get it. I get it. But there's a lot of Christians, so-called Christians, churches, that don't stand for a few things. And I'm not going to get into these, but let's just take discipline of children. You go in your average church and you tell them what the Bible says, how to discipline a child, and they will scream, child abuse. The Bible said beat it, it won't die. The husband being the head of the home. This is America, 2024, women's rights. And I'm all for women's rights, I get it, but what rights that God gives you in his word. See, I even struck a chord here this morning with that one. Even in an independent, white oak, independent Baptist church, the Bible says that there are two genders. You walk out and there's churches. United Methodist Church, there's others. And I'm not getting off into any one of these today. I'm just trying to show you how the world has affected the church, has affected what we believe, what we say. Hosea 4, 6 says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge, and this Bible is knowledge, I will reject thee, God said, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Even in Alabama, the Bible belt. I mean, you know, you go to New York City, you go to California, you go to San Francisco, you stand up and you start preaching some of this stuff, you will be physically injured. They won't just utter words at you. You will be taking a ride to the hospital, I promise. But even in Alabama, it's getting like that. There's churches on every corner. There's huge churches, big churches. People fly to them. Why can't you talk about Bible things without people attacking you and coming against you? There are a lot of things in the Bible that the Bible is very clear and plain about. But the majority of Christians don't believe the Bible. We all claim to be Bible believers. We all claim to believe the Bible. We all claim to follow God. Every church out there, there's not a church that says, we don't believe the Bible. They won't come out and say, we do not believe the Bible. They all claim to believe the Bible. That's their authority. Every Christian claims to believe the Bible. Every Christian claims to be a follower of the Bible. But when you show somebody what the Bible says, what do they say? Well, I don't believe that. That's not right. I thought you said you believe the Bible. I thought you said you followed the Bible. Jesus made an interesting statement. He said, Why call you me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? I have used that on so many people. They claim to be a Christian. They claim to be a Bible believer. You show them what the Bible says, which goes contrary to our nature, which goes contrary to our world, and they choose the world every time. Jesus said, Why call you me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? There was a situation that happened recently. I had a guy I know receive an accusation against an elder I know. He received that accusation and he talked to that elder. That bothered me. Who it is doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. It got me looking at the Bible and how to handle that situation. And we have to understand that the Bible is not an American book. The church is not an American institution. We handle scriptural and biblical matters according to the world we live in, and we shouldn't do that. We ought to handle situations how the Bible says we ought to handle it. If I was to come to you this morning and say, I can prove to you from the Bible this, would you believe it? I think everybody in here would raise their hand and say, yes, I would change my mind and I would believe what the Bible says. I don't think anybody would say, I don't care what that book says. I'm not going to believe it. So we would all agree that if it's in the Bible, we ought to agree with it, right? Amen? I mean, unless you just want to blatantly and publicly say, I don't care what that says. I'm not going to believe it. I've not done this many times. But if you have pen and you have a blank page on your Bible, this is an important enough study. You can't take every message you hear and put in your fly leaf. You won't have enough fly leaves. I believe this study is one you ought to put in your fly leaf because it's going to come up at some point in the future. and if you don't handle it correctly, biblically and scripturally, you're gonna make a mistake. You can do with it what you want. You can go back and listen to it if you ain't got a pen and put it in there, but this is one that I would find a blank fly leaf in my Bible, and you should have a few. It's just pretty much notes. It ain't gonna be that, you know, you're not writing a dissertation, but I believe you ought to put these scriptures in your Bible, and the title of the study is The Bible Way to Handle Accusations Against an Elder. the Bible way, not the American way, not how we do it, how we've always done it. And I've done a deep dive into this study, and I really want to try to get through it. 1 Timothy 5, verses 17 to 19. You need to write that down. 1 Timothy 5, verses 17 to 19. The Bible way to handle accusations against an elder, and it's in the Bible. I'm not making it up. I'm not, once you see this, you can decide for yourself what you want to do with it. But I am firmly convinced the Bible answers this. First Timothy, chapter five, verse 17 to 19. And I have all these, if you don't, if you miss any, I'll get with you afterwards. The Bible way, and you probably need to underline Bible way. We're Christians, are we not? Are we not supposed to follow the Bible? It doesn't matter what society does. It doesn't matter how it's always been done. You ever heard somebody say, well, that's how we've always done it. Well, is it right? Is it scriptural? Is it biblical? And I'm going to tell you how this has been handled in the past has not been scriptural. It's not been biblical. I've seen it. It's happened to me. It's happened to Pastor Andrew. It's happened to every preacher, evangelist, missionary that's been accused of something and how it was handled. 1 Timothy 5, verse 17, 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, that's our foundation. I mean, every believer in God has a foundation, not in their opinion, not in their thoughts, not in how they feel. We base everything that we have, everything that we do, everything that we believe, we base off of a book. I've had people say, well, you let that book tell you everything. Yes. I agree with that. I follow a book, the Bible. For they, especially they who labor in word, and the word in doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. Verse 19, against an elder. Receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. All right, just based on that verse alone. If a person comes to you and accuses an elder of something, can you listen to them? Can you receive that accusation? Based on the Word of God, you cannot. You cannot. If somebody comes to you and says, such and such did such and such, you need to be looking around and be like, what are you doing? I'm looking for another witness. The Bible says against an elder. Well, let's read verse 19 again against an elder. There's no ambiguity about this against an elder received, not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. So if he doesn't bring more people with him, you've got to cut it off right then and there. But you know what we do? We listen anyway, because we like gossip. And we know brother so-and-so, and we know this situation. But you're not allowed to receive, you're not even allowed to listen to it. Somebody walks up to you and says, hey, brother so-and-so, I want to talk to you about brother so-and-so. Stop. It stops right there. This is written by John Calvin. I went and looked at a bunch of commentaries. I can tell you I've done a deep dive on this. I read a bunch of commentaries, what a bunch of different people said. John Calvin's not perfect. No man is perfect. But I like what he said about this passage in 1 Timothy 5, verse 19. John Calvin's a little lengthy, but I think it's good. Why then does the apostle protect elders alone by this privilege, as if it were peculiar to them, that their innocence shall be defended against false accusations? I reply, this is a necessary remedy against the malice of men, for none are more liable to slander and defame than godly teachers." He's right about that. Many false allegations were leveled against the Apostle Paul and even Jesus himself. Not only does it arise from the difficulty of their offices, sometimes they either sink under it or stagger or halt or blunder in consequence of wicked men seizing many occasion to find fault with them. But there is this additional vexation that although they perform their duty correctly so as not to commit any error whatsoever, they never escape a thousand censures. And this is the craftiness of Satan to draw away the hearts of men from ministers that instruction may gradually fall into contempt. Thus, not only is wrong done to innocent persons in having their reputation unjustly wounded, but also the authority of the sacred Word of God is diminished. And this is what Satan does. He is the accuser of the brethren. Not only so, but is in charges against the ministers of the word, has gone abroad. It is believed as fully as if they were already convicted. Many believe and eagerly condemn their pastors whose good name they ought rather to have defended. On good grounds, therefore, Paul opposes so heinous iniquity and forbids that elders should be subjected to the slanders of wicked men. We need not wonder, therefore, if they whose duty is to reprove the faults of all, to oppose the wicked desires of all, and to restrain by their severity every person whom they see going astray shall have many enemies. What then will be the consequence if we shall listen indiscriminately to all slander that are spread abroad concerning them? The Bible tells you against an elder, you cannot receive an accusation with one witness. It's absolutely forbidden in the word of God. In every situation I've ever been involved with my entire life, happened to me, it's happened to other people, started with one person. There has never been a pastor who is doing his job who has not had false allegations made against him. There's never been a missionary, there's never been an evangelist, there's never been anybody who's tried to do anything for God that's not had things said about them. Most of Christianity and almost every church has a real problem with this one witness rule. Is it not in the word of God? You say, but what if he, but what if he But that says you can't receive it. That's just what it says. Keep your finger here in 1 Timothy chapter 5. I'm about to show you some wild stuff. 1 Timothy chapter 5. Keep your finger there. Go to Deuteronomy 19. Go to Deuteronomy. But what if, preacher? I'm going to answer the what if right now. What if I seen him? What if I heard him? Or her? Somebody doing something for God. Deuteronomy chapter 19, verse 15. Write down, Deuteronomy 19, 15. Everybody there? Deuteronomy 19, verse 15. One witness shall not rise up against a man for what iniquity? Any iniquity. Does that cover any iniquity or does he just mean most iniquities? Or really not bad iniquities? One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any what? Any what? Any sin? Does that cover all of them or most of them or some of them? It covers every last one of them. And in case you still ain't got it, in any sin that he sinneth, you see somebody do something they're not supposed to do. You can't do nothing about it. According to the Word of God, at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. One person sees another person do something. Wicked, sinful, iniquity, and any sin. He says it three different times. You can't do nothing about it. God did not put you on here to be judge, jury, and executioner of somebody you see do something wrong. God knows about it. Write down Numbers 35.30 and then flip over there. Numbers 35.30. It doesn't say it just in one... No, wait, wait, wait. Go to Deuteronomy 17.6 first. Back two chapters. Write down Deuteronomy 17, verse 6. There's a reason why God does this. We'll get into it right towards the end. Deuteronomy 17, verse 6. Deuteronomy 17, verse 6. The Bible says, at the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death. But at the mouth of how many witnesses? He shall not be put to death. But that's what the Bible says. You're sitting on a jury stand. Somebody says he saw this guy kill this guy. In America, he's frying. In America, he's going to the death chamber, or he's getting life, depending on what state you're in, based on a testimony of how many witnesses. The Bible says you can't do that. Are we Bible believers? Does the Bible believe? I mean, are we going to pick and choose what we want to believe? Or are we just going to say, well, I don't understand it. It doesn't make sense. I mean, if John killed Matthew, and he told me about it, and he's a witness, we've got to do something about it. No, you can't. According to the Bible. Turn to Numbers 3530 and write that down. It's back one book. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Numbers, chapter 35, verse 30. I told y'all when we got started with this, man, we have our own preconceived ideas and notions about every opinion and every topic. And what I'm covering right now does not make any sense to you. But they did this. But they did that. What does the Bible say? Numbers 35, look in verse 30. Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of, what's that next word? Is it more than one? But one witness, one, shall not testify. He can't even talk about it. Shall not testify against the person to cause him to die. That's fascinating. Preacher is God giving everybody a freebie? They gonna stand before God in the judgment? But as far as human intervention, as far as human government, as far as how we deal with it as a society, as believers in God, you can't do nothing about it. Is it not clear? Is it not plain? In America, we used to have this thing called innocent until proven guilty. You ain't got that no more. Let your child call the right people and say you've been abused. Now, it ain't on them to approve it. It's up to you to prove you didn't do it. Let a wife call, this has happened. I've had women hurt themselves, bleed, bruises. Call the police and say the husband beat me. You know what's gonna happen? Sucker gonna get arrested. No proof, no evidence, no documentation. It just looks bad. A child accuses somebody of doing something. You say it may have happened. It may have! But if you don't have proof, you don't have documentation, you don't have witnesses, there's nothing you can do about it. They're gonna get away with it. No, they're not. Did not God see it? Is not God God of all? The Bible says there's a sin unto death. Why do we think we've gotta take control of this situation and start intervening and being judge, jury, and executioner for God? Too many busybodies in the church is what we've got. Back to 1 Timothy chapter 5. There's two groups of people in this chapter, or in this verse. 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 17 to 19. Verse 19, against an elder, receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Look at verse 24. Look down verse 24. Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before the judgment. And some men, they follow after. There's two groups of people there. There are people whose sins you know about. We all know about, they're public. And there's some sins that men have committed, we have no idea. But they're all gonna stand before God. I think of, and the only reason I say it, because it's public. I'm not dragging any, I'm not throwing any name out there that y'all are gonna go, If you're old enough to remember Jimmy Swagger, he got on national television, cried, boo-hooed, and I believe he repented and asked God to forgive him, said, I've sinned. His sins are open beforehand. King David, his sins are open beforehand. We can read about it. God recorded it in the Bible. He committed adultery, he committed murder. We know about his. And there's some, we're going to find out about it in the judgment. First Corinthians chapter, you ain't gotta turn there. Or you can't, let's go ahead, we got time. First Corinthians chapter five. You cannot forget this. When you see somebody do something wrong, when you think you've gotta deal with it and you've got to be God's prosecuting attorney, you gotta meddle, get your nose in there. Won't you remember this verse? First Corinthians chapter five, verse 10. And I bet I wrote down the wrong reference. Try second Corinthians five, 10. Well, that ain't it either. Y'all find it for me. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body. Oh, is 1 Corinthians 5 here? Oh, I was in the wrong, man. I've still got this dizziness stuff going on. Yep, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10. For we must, how many? Does anybody get out of this? The guy you've seen doing what you think you saw, you saw? What you think you heard, you heard? He's going to stand before God. And you are too. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Oh, but you got to deal with it. You got to fix it. You got to make sure that guy suffers now. He pays for what he did now. You don't have that authority. If you are a Christian who's trying to do anything for God, you're going to have lies and falsehoods spoken about you. It's going to happen. Matthew 511, you ain't gotta turn there. But write it down, Matthew 511. Jesus said, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and watch it and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. If you do anything for God, that's coming. You won't believe the things you're gonna hear that you've done. It'll shock you that you've done, you're guilty of. You committed, they seen it. They talked to brother so and so who heard about it. There are two things that are true in life. You're going to be talked about no matter what you do. Whether it's spiritual, godly, it don't matter. People are going to talk. People love to talk. And that's the problem. People love to run their mouth and say what they think they know. And there are going to be people who talk about everyone. They just got something to say. They're just a peanut gallery, they sit out there. And if a guy falls on his face, I knew he was going to fail. He was sorry. And listen, to some degree, we're all guilty of it. Some people throw out accusations like candy at a parade. They question your motives, they question your desires, they question your intent. Turn to Jude chapter one, right there before Revelation, right down Jude. Then go to Revelation and go back one book. We'll show you some wild stuff here. Jude chapter one, look in verse eight, Jude 1.8. Jude 1, 8. Likewise also, these filthy dreamers, man, what a, what a, I mean God, God calls them filthy dreamers. Defile the flesh, despise dominion, speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael, watch this now, yet Michael the archangel, when contending, that's fighting, that's arguing, That's a struggle with the devil. He disputed about the body of Moses. Now watch this. Durst not bring him a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not. Verse 10, but these speak evil of those things which they know not. Do you see here, there are people that speak evil of dignities, they speak that which they know not, and Michael, the archangel, when arguing and fighting, listen, if you're ever gonna throw out an accusation, it's when you're fighting. You sorry, you always sorry, you always gonna be sorry, you did this, and you're throwing out accusations. The devil had better sense than to accuse Satan of anything. Was Satan guilty? I mean, Satan's everything that God's not. And yet, Michael the archangel kept his mouth shut. That's interesting. Why do you think Michael thought it was a good idea not to say anything? I'm opening this up to the floor. Why do you think Michael thought, I'm not going to bring up... Were they true? Were the things that Michael was thinking about Satan, were they true? Yes, but he didn't bring up anything. You know why? Because he knew God didn't like it. He knew God didn't like it. This is an interesting contrast. Satan is called the what? The accuser of what? Accuser, accuser, accuser, accuser. Michael, who was fighting with somebody who was desperately wicked, the most ungodly being you could ever have didn't open his mouth and say a word. If Michael the archangel didn't bring up any accusations to Satan about Satan, do you really think God told you to bring up accusations about a man? God takes this stuff serious. He does not like you talking bad about someone, even if they're doing wrong. You know, nobody likes a tattletale. Nobody does. God don't either. God don't like a tattletale. I remember growing up, we had 10 kids in the house. My mom had five kids. Y'all know my stepdad had five kids. Let me tell you what you didn't do in that house. You didn't tattle. I remember times mom and dad, mom and stepdad, Wayne would come in and somebody broke down. I know who broke it. Who broke this? Nobody gonna say a word. If I say Billy broke it, or James broke it, or Michael broke it, or Wayne broke it, or Carl broke it, or Chester broke it, or April, I'm going down the list. Guess what's gonna happen to me when mom and dad ain't there? Listen, it was like the mafia in my house. You didn't speak. If you got busted, listen, if you got busted for something you did, that's on you. But you didn't rat. You didn't see. You didn't see. Motorcycle gang's got the same rule. Mafia's got the same rule. You don't sing. Listen, you do prison time before you sing. If you're part of, y'all know I'm telling the truth, nobody likes tattletales. I've been a job before, and the little guy that runs in, he's out there, and he did this, and he took too long for lunch, and he took too long. How does it go for that guy? Nobody likes a tattletale. God don't like it either. And you think God doesn't know? If you have a kid who constantly tells another kid, you've got a problem. What are we pointing to her for? Here it is as a parent, you want to know. From the parent's perspective, I want to know it all. But from a sibling perspective, it's probably not best for you. I heard that didn't they pinch you and beat you up and bust you up for telling? Well, you deserved it. Thank you for telling me. I took that information, and I whooped children based on her information. But listen, nobody likes a tattletale. Right? Oh, listen, I didn't do this study beforehand. Yeah. Well, if a child comes to me and said that Emily broke a vase that I told her to leave alone, as a parent, I'm going to lower the boom. I mean, I've got enough evidence for me. We're talking about, she's not an elder. I guess an elder received not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. But listen, if you've got a kid, and I'm being a little serious here, if you've got a kid who's constantly telling on other kids, you need to put that in check. I know you want to know when they did something, but man, there's something about a kid that tells on somebody and sits back and laughs and gets an enjoyment out of them getting whooped, because you just keep running your mouth. But anyway, all right, there are certain positions in the Bible you are not allowed to say anything about. I'm about to show you. Just because of their position. This is a good one. Acts 23. Go to Acts 23. This is a good one. This involves the Apostle Paul. This is a good one. Oh, this is so good. There are certain positions, just because they hold a position, you can't say anything. And I don't care if they're wrong. I'm about to prove it to you. Acts 23, verse 1. Acts 23 verse 1, And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then Paul said unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. You think Paul's mad? He just got busted in the mouth for something he said. Paul's mad! God shall smite thee, thou whited wall, for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? Who do you think you are? Verse four, and they that stood by said, revilest thou God's high priest? Then Paul said, oh, I didn't know. I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest, for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. Paul admitted he was wrong, even though he just got smote in the mouth, even though he just got physically violated. Paul said, I can't say nothing. I didn't know. I know I'm preaching here and yelling a little bit, but this stuff is... Do you see what he says? I didn't know. Then he quotes the scripture. He's referring to Exodus 22, 22, 28, it says, you can't revile or curse the ruler of the people. So Paul's sitting there, just preaching his little heart out. Who is this guy here? The high priest? Says, hit him on the mouth, hit him. So wham! And then Paul said, thou whitest wall, God's gonna light you up. And the guy says, revilest thou, God's high priest. He goes, whoa. I didn't know, because the Bible says you can't do that. Do you see here where Paul realized, because of the position, he shouldn't have said nothing, even though he was done wrong? He can't say nothing. Why? Because he's God's high priest. Paul believed the Bible. Was Paul done wrong? Yes. But when he found out he was the high priest, Paul said, sorry, I didn't know. And I believe he didn't know. Whether it might have been his eyesight, I don't know. I don't believe Paul's lying here, because Paul knew he shouldn't have said it. Why? Because the Bible says you can't revile. Verse five, or verse four. And they stood by, said, revilest thou God's high priest? And Paul said, I wist not, which means I didn't know. Brethren, that he was the high priest for it is written, written where? In the Old Testament, written in the Bible. Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people, unless he hits you in the mouth. Unless he physically hurts you. There's a period there. Paul's like, hey, I didn't know. Give you a New Testament example of this. Well, there's one right there in Acts. Go to 2 Peter 2, verse 9. Go to 2 Peter and write that down. 2 Peter 2, verse 9. There are certain positions in the Bible you can't say nothing about. How people do it. 2 Peter 2, verse 9. 2 Peter 2, verse 9. Oh, I'm in 1 Peter. I wrote the right references, went to the wrong book. 2 Peter 2, verse 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation. Now watch this. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, but the Lord also knoweth how to reserve judgment, reserve the unjust until the day of judgment to be punished. You see that? God knows how to... God said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Won't you leave it to Him? Verse 10, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, now watch this, and despise government, presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to what? Speak evil of dignities. Now watch this now, whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord. The angels have got enough sense to shut up, and not say a word. You got people down here, ain't afraid to speak evil of dignity, afraid to accuse people, afraid to say things. And the Bible says you're not allowed to say anything against the dignity. Now, this is where we're going to kind of get hit over the head. Is Joe Biden a dignity? He said, but he's old, he's seen, pray for him. God put him in that position. The Bible says you're not allowed to speak evil of a dignity. The Apostle Paul, who got hit, you think that hurt Paul when he got hit in the mouth? I mean, I'm sure it wasn't a slap, I'm sure it was a good old knuckle sandwich. Paul was so mad he called him a whited wall and said, God's going to smite you. Paul, that's a high priest. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know because the Bible says I can't say nothing. Joe Biden is a dignity. Our government is a dignity. I don't like it. I don't agree with them. I get it. But angels, who sees all this goes on, sitting there right by God, saying, I see Gabriel and Michael, you gonna say something? I ain't saying nothing. I ain't gonna say nothing. God don't like that. God don't like it when you do that stuff. And it doesn't matter if the dignity is wrong. The Bible way to handle accusations against an elder. All right, we're gonna cover what to do. Let's say you see, I'm just, I'm being silly here, but drive by the ABC store, you see Pastor Andrew walking out with a fifth and trips over the parking lot and spills half his bottle, picks it up, gets in his car. and drives on. Now, you've seen this now. I know. He's going to hear about it. So that's why I did it. And that didn't happen. Internet, that didn't happen. I didn't say it did happen. I'm just saying. Just throwing something out there. Let's say you see that. What's that? OK. Let's say you see that. Is it allowed to be anywhere? Let's say that were to happen. Are you allowed to say anything to anybody about it? There's no other witness. Now, here's what you can do. You can go to the brother. Now, this isn't a Matthew 18 situation. We have totally messed up Matthew 18. I went back and read that. The Bible says if you go to somebody, you go to them if they trespass against you. Not if you've got a problem with them. We've always heard that. You've got a problem, go to a brother. It's not what it says. It says if they have trespassed against you, they've done you wrong. They stole your tractor and borrowed it and didn't bring it back. They've done you wrong. You can go to the brother. But let's say it bothers you. Steven, if you're putting this stuff on Facebook, I'm going to wring your neck. Let's say you see this and it bothers you. As a brother in Christ, as anybody, you're allowed to go talk to him. Let's say you go talk to him. Pastor Andrew, I saw you explain it all. He said, that wasn't me. I didn't do it. Man, I know you. I mean, OK. You can't get it worked out. I mean, you really believe in your heart, that's what you saw, and you're convinced. You really only have one option left at that point. If you can't accept to be agreed, how can they walk together? You can leave. I'm gonna tell you what you can't do. According to the word of God, the angels, which is greater in power and might, does not bring railing accusations. Keep your mouth shut. Just go. Let God deal with it. Why do you think you gotta deal with it? Why do you think you gotta take care of it? That's how we are. Let me tell you what you do if you're a brother in Christ. And a guy comes to you and says, man, you ain't gonna believe what I saw. You know what you need to be doing? Man, I'm standing right here, I'm looking for more witnesses. Yeah, but here's what he did. No, the Bible says against an elder receive what? Not an accusation. But what if it's not an accusation? See, this would eliminate a lot of the stuff that's going on down through the years. It's a clause in the Word of God that God has put in the Bible. You are not allowed to have one person bring an accusation against somebody else and it stick or have any validity. Receive not means you don't receive it. You don't listen to it. You don't partake of it. You don't dwell on it. You dismiss it. What if it's true? Let God deal with it. What about this one? Brother Stephen, I got it on video. You ever heard of AI? You realize this government could have you shooting somebody in the head in the middle of Main Street, show it to a jury and you are done. It's you. It's your voice, it's your body, it's your likeness. I don't believe 90% of what I see or hear anymore. You can't. What do you do in that situation? I don't know. Just give it to God. You keep coming to church. Yeah, I know the accusation against my pastor. I know what they got him on videotape doing. He said he didn't do it. You know how hard that would be? If somebody has generated something. Listen, there are videos, there are pictures on the internet right now of high school girls on naked bodies, and it's not them. It has ruined them and destroyed them and hurt them. It's not them. But the technology they got, man, they can put you in any situation. What do I do, Christian, what do I do? Preacher, as a church member, my pastor's on video and they said he did this, he said he didn't do it. You keep doing right, you keep believing God, and if he did do it, God's gonna deal with it at the judgment. 1 Timothy 5.17, don't turn there. 1 Timothy 5.17, receive not an accusation against an elder, but before two or three witnesses. So why are you saying all this? Because there's going to come a time in the future where something's going to be said. And if you know how to handle it biblically, we've had situations happen. It's happened to me. I've had accusations brought up against me when I pastored. It's going to happen. It just comes with the territory. John Calvin's right. Anybody who tries to stand up and preach this book are going to have lies and falsehoods told about them. When it comes to you, you know what you do. I remember Brother Charles, we gave this study, and he said, I can't receive it from the Bible. I'm like me saying it. You've seen it with your own eyeballs. You cannot receive that accusation. What if it's... Didn't that verse in Deuteronomy say, in any sin, in any iniquity, in any sin that he committed, Well, it sounds like God's giving somebody a freebie. No, nobody gets a freebie. You just want judgment. You want it dealt with here. You want it dealt with now. You want to see them people suffer. Because there's something wrong with your heart. If you came home and your 11-year-old child was spanking your 10-year-old child, how would you feel about it? I'm talking about wearing them out. What are you doing? Oh, he didn't put the dishes. I'm talking about wearing them out. Is that the child's job? To discipline the other children? That's your job. Hopefully it would frustrate you. That's right. Ding, ding, ding, ding. What do you think God's going to do if I chastise Stephen for something I don't think he ought to do and I get to heaven? What's God going to do to me? What she just did to that child who took it upon himself to beat the judge, jury, and executioner and make that other child suffer. I wouldn't want to be me. I wouldn't want to be that child. I'm telling you, if one of my kids would have been beating one of my other kids, God's the same way. Let God deal with it. I told someone in the past, not too long ago, who felt that they'd been done wrong by somebody in the past, that God will deal with it, that's a judgment. And do you know what they told me? That's a cop-out. I have the text message. I still have it on my phone to this day. They feel like they were done wrong. They felt like they were hurt. They want to see retribution and judgment and punishment. Now you realize God's going to do such a better job of it at the judgment. When you've got every creature that's ever been created, being dealt with that stuff at one time, but no, you won't throw it on Facebook and hurt them and damage them and destroy them. Now, when they said they didn't do it, you said they did let God sort it out. Recovering fundamentalists only exist to take pastors down. That's all they do is they talk about accusations and things that these preachers supposedly have done. You've got to remember, angels greater in might didn't say a word. You think it's your job and it's your duty to take people down. What do you think that does for the cause of Christ? And who do you think is behind that? These recovering fundamentalists are being controlled by Satan. Anyone who gets on a podcast or who gets on social media to accuse anyone or tell what they know about a situation is demon possessed. I'm thoroughly convinced of it. They are demon-possessed. They are trying to play God at the judgment seat of Christ and condemn whoever they are publicly speaking about. It's not your job. It's not your duty. It's not your obligation to whip the other children. Let God deal with it. But what if? Let God deal with it. So much harm is done to the body of Christ. I could start a rumor, anybody could, about anybody. You just name it. And when we listen to it, we entertain it, we receive that one witness, and we talk about it. I told you all about this study, or about this thing in high school. I'll try to be real quick. It's probably the greatest lesson I ever got out of school. We had an English teacher. She took a paragraph. I think I've talked to you all about this. It was a short paragraph. Somebody rode a motorcycle. They had a certain color shirt on. They went to somebody's house. Real short. And so she had the first kid read it, and then she took it away. And then they had to tell it, and tell it, and tell it, tell it, tell it, tell it. Last person stood up, and y'all, it was nothing like, and I'm telling you, nobody left the room. It was only about 20, 30 minutes at most. And when the last person stood up, the teacher read the paragraph. That was on paper. And she told us, please don't ever forget this. Nobody left this room, and it was only 20 or 30 minutes. And look how much the story has changed. Don't entertain this stuff. If anybody comes to you about Brother Stephen, Pastor Andrew, me, Brother Bowen, any of the ladies, I mean, just, no. I don't care what you saw. I don't care what you think you saw. And even if you did, we can't do nothing about it. Do you know why we can't do nothing about it? I saw Pastor Andrew, you know, he shot some guy in the head and he's out there in the shovel and he, you know what, we can't do nothing about it. You say, I don't agree with that. Take it up with God. The one witness rule is in the Word of God, is it not? You may not like it, you may not agree with it, but if we, just like Apostle Paul got smoked in the mouth and said, oh, I didn't know he was a high priest, because the Bible says you can't speak evil of the ruler. Do you see where Paul said that? We gotta be the same way. Well, he did what? Well, I can't receive this one. Listen, God put these clauses in here for a reason. And it not only protects him, it protects you and me. All right, I'm just gonna throw these two verses in there. Write these down. 1 Chronicles 16, you ain't gotta turn there. 1 Chronicles 16, 22, and Psalms 105, 15. It says the exact, there's word for word, punctuation for punctuation. God put it in the Bible twice. 1 Chronicles 16, 22, Psalms 105, verse 15. Here's what it says. Touch not mine anointed, and do my profits no harm. Is a pastor anointed by God? Yes. Is a pastor a prophet of God? Let God deal with them. with this stuff of accusing, and if God wants to kill them, God can kill them. If God wants to afflict them, let God afflict them. It's not your duty. It's not your job. It's not your mission to destroy a pastor. I don't care what he's accused of. You say you raped a child, God can deal with it. Leave it up to God. If God chooses to keep them in the pulpit and bless them, that's on God. You charge God foolishly if you want to. It's a clause in the word of God. If you got a problem with the preacher, you're allowed to leave, but you ain't allowed to do any, if you want to stand at the judgment and have clean hands, you can't say nothing. You let it go and let God deal with it. All right, let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your word, God. You've laid out so many things as far as the genders, as far as the husband being the head of the wife, Father, as far as just disciplining children, as far as just one witness rule. Lord, I believe the church really needs to get ahold of this. So many men down through the years have had to endure falsehoods and hardships and lies and accusations that's hindered the ministry, Father. We know who's behind all that. God, help us not to be a minister of Satan. Help us not to help him in this mission of destroying the testimony of your Word and your preachers and your mission, Father. God, we really need to get a hold of this. And Lord, our country was founded on innocent until proven guilty. proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And Lord, I pray, Father, that we as Christians would apply this in our life in every aspect, Father. And Lord, I pray you'd bless the Sunday morning service. I pray you'd fill the preacher with the Spirit of God. Father, help us to worship thee this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.