Tonight's text, congregation, taken from the New Testament, and if you'll turn to the pages of 1 Timothy, and tonight the concern here from the pulpit will be that of chapter 3, starting at verse 8, verses 8 through 14. Let us now hear the Word of God, 1 Timothy 3.8. Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. and may God, the Holy Spirit, see fit to teach us the meaning of these words and the application of these words here in 1 Timothy 3. As we consider the topic tonight, a little bit longer than what's actually in the bulletin, the topic tonight is that Paul spells out the character of officers who will conduct themselves well in God's church. Now tonight, by the grace of God, I continue a series of messages on 1 Timothy that I began, I guess, about a year ago, Paul's letter to Timothy, and Paul being the mentor of this young man who was an evangelist in the church. And because of the march of time and because of the because of the forgetfulness that characterizes all of us. I remind you again of the purpose of this letter, which is summarized succinctly in 1 Timothy 3, verse 15. If you look at verse 15, it says, that if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now here, the apostle wields his unimpeachable apostolic authority. He instructs his spiritual son, Timothy, how to behave himself in God's house, particularly in respect to church officers, that is, choosing church officers, and in this case, the choice of qualified deacons that might serve in the congregation. So the behavior of us as church members pertains not only to sound doctrine, which is healthy, hygienic doctrine, and also blameless, godly living, but also spiritual discernment, that is, our choices about who rules as elders and who also serves as deacons. Previously, I zeroed in on the qualifications of elders, but tonight the floodlight is the diaconate. Now, if you look close, you'll be able to see that there's actually three groupings in the text that I read tonight, and each is introduced by the word must, a very all-important verb here. Chapter 3, verse 2, which I did not read, is one of these. There it says, a bishop or an overseer must be blameless. And what follows after that, of course, is a cavalcade of qualifications. Then, in verse eight of the chapter, again, you meet the verb must, which underscores the sterling character of deacons. Deacons, like the proverbial Caesar's wife, must be above suspicion. And then, much to the surprise, perhaps, of some, You have either the wives of the deacons, or what is more probable, it's up to me to prove this, helpers or assistants, found in verse 11 of the text, which reads, even so, must, there's our word again, must, must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Now you can very easily trace the logic of the Apostle Paul. Our God is a precise God. Let us never forget that. And this is reflected, of course, in the precise theology of the Apostle. God never mispronounces Sibyleth, Shibyleth, or Shibyleth, Sibyleth. Our God, as the Puritans like to say, is a precise God. When you do theology, the theology ought to be precise because precise theology leads to precise living. And when it comes to the choosing of church officers, precision is the name of the game. We must not err in this regard. The glory of the gospel and the very existence and the peace of the church depends upon wise decisions in the choice of officers. Spurgeon once described a minister who was an excellent preacher, but a complete strikeout when it came to the practice of personal godliness. He said something like this, when he's in the pulpit, you didn't want him stationed anywhere else, but when he's out of the pulpit, the last place that you want him to be is in the pulpit. So the word must distinguishes three groups here. And on these three groups, much is expected. The bar is very high when you look at their qualifications. This is not keep the bar low so that you won't be disappointed, but keep it high. In other words, it's not an impossible standard or it wouldn't be here. God doesn't expect us to make brick without straw. God does not expect us to hurl a strawberry through a battleship. but God has given us qualifications that by His grace, the deacon can meet up to or live up to. Now it's strange that 1 Timothy doesn't describe what the deacon is supposed to do, if you've ever noticed that before. The Greek word for deacon simply means to serve, and perhaps that's all we need to hear. He serves, and according to Acts 6, he serves tables. But we are told that he occupies an office. In verse 10, they�re said to use the office of a deacon, just as the bishop or the overseer also occupies an office in the church. Alright, well then the question is, how do we know exactly what he�s supposed to do if the Bible doesn�t tell us here? Well, as I said, the answer is to be found in the word deacon itself, together with the origin of the office, which I believe does take place in Acts chapter six. A little church history is in order. There, the Grecian Christians were murmuring against the Hebrew Christians because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. That is, the distribution of food and foodstuffs and the groceries and things of that nature. The Grecian widows thought of themselves as playing second fiddle to the Hebrews. They were sort of third-class citizens in the church at Jerusalem, which was, of course, a recipe for division. In fact, this is the first division recorded in the New Covenant Church that we have right in Acts 6. And so the Twelve summoned the church to choose seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, to oversee this business. And as for the apostles, they devoted themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. It was unreasonable for them to leave the Word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, deacons were chosen. And these deacons did serve. They served tables. Now that's Acts 6, where the seven men are not specifically called deacons, even though they were doing diaconal work. Yet paradoxically, in 1 Timothy 3, they're called deacons, even though there's nothing specific about their work stated here. Now before proceeding, let me say this, that it's not demeaning. to serve tables. Serving tables is holy work, and there are several reasons. First, serving tables is the specialty of the Lord Himself. He specializes in setting our own tables. God, for example, set a table for the Israelites in the wilderness, you remember. And yet in Psalm 78, verse 19, they doubted the Lord's ability to do this, but the Lord did do it. They complained They complained, they said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? That was a statement of unbelief. They didn't believe that it was possible. And yet God was in the business of setting their tables. They had their sandals, as you know, lasted for 40 years. They had warmth in the evening, the pillar of fire. They had the cloud in the daytime, and of course they had the manna, the manna that was sent from heaven. And then second, Psalm 23, of course, broadcasts God's bountiful care of us, his people. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies, said David. God lays the tablecloth and the china and the crystal, as well as the sweet wine and the succulent food before us. Never forget, the church marches on her feet, as well as on her stomach. The church can't be a mighty army if there's nothing to eat, if there's nothing to drink. And so deacons must imitate God in this regard. They serve tables, or better, they serve God's people when they serve tables. And in Acts 6, they served the tables daily. It's called here the daily ministration. And then third, I think it's healthy to excavate a little church history. Some of the greatest men in church history were deacons. Consider, for example, Athanasius, back in the fourth century, who battled the Arians in Alexandria. He was a great man, that Athanasius, a champion of the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, that Jesus is very God of very God. He met, of course, a lot of trouble from the Aryan rulers of that time who exiled him. No less than five times was this man exiled. But it was when he was a deacon that he made war on the Aryans. Later on he became a bishop. And as you know from your knowledge of church history, there was a saying that was coined centuries later, Athanasius against the world. He was willing to take on the world because of his jealousy for the deity, the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ as very God of very God. Arius himself was an elder, Athanasius a deacon. But Athanasius was a great theologian, well-steeped in all the doctrines of the Word of God. And then, of course, not to be forgotten was Stephen. Stephen, who was one of the deacons chosen in Acts chapter 6, the very first martyr of the New Testament church. We call him the proto-martyr because he was the first. Stephen was a man who was full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom and a man of honest report and stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 7. You remember they preached that great sermon, a sermon that so infuriated the mob, it says that they were literally in the Greek, that they were sawn asunder. Their hearts were sawn, like a saw went right through them. And of course they gnashed on him with their teeth. They hated his guts and he ended up under a rock pile as the proto-martyr. These deacons were great men. Now let's look then at some of the qualifications of the deacons. What must the deacons be? What must they be? First thing that is mentioned here in our text is that the deacons must be grave. The idea here seems to be that of dignified, reverent. Now this doesn't mean that you're funereal in your disposition, having the look of the grim reaper as you walk around, as pale as a corpse. The thought here is you have dignity, and you, let's turn it into a verb, you dignify the office of deacon. This is done by not only people in the church, but often in the political realm as well. I think of a contrast between President Ronald Reagan with Bill Clinton in the White House. Clinton committed adultery in the White House. But Ronald Reagan wouldn't even take off his coat whenever he entered the Oval Office. Such respect he had for the office of the presidency of the United States and the history of our nation. Of course, deacons must be men of good cheer as well. A number of years ago, when I served in San Jose, I overheard a phone conversation between a young woman in the church whose first name was Phoebe, which is very interesting because the Phoebe of the Bible is called a servant or a deacon in Romans chapter 16, verse 1. Anyway, this Phoebe was talking to a woman who was in need of a visit. And the woman seemed like she was wondering why she was coming or had some second thoughts about it. Anyway, Phoebe said over the telephone, I'm coming over to cheer you up. And that was the turning point right there. That's sort of what deacons do, too. Now, the word grave simply means that a deacon must be serious about his work. The office of deacon shouldn't be despised, should not be demeaned, either by us or by the deacon himself. How can it be when the people that you're helping as a deacon are Christians? When you visit the poor and the needy, when you visit those that are wounded in heart, When you visit those that are going through, we'll call it a kind of temporal hell, you visit Christ. Jesus even said in Matthew 25, if you do it unto even the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me. You see, the Christian church is more valuable than the crown jewels of England because Christians have been purchased by the precious blood of the Lamb. The deacons must also not be double-tongued. A deacon doesn't speak out of three sides of his mouth, in other words. He doesn't say one thing to one person, then the opposite to another. He's a good guy to one person, and then turn around and say that he's a rat to somebody else. That's not only in politic, but it's lying. And this, of course, is what politicians are famous for. Increasingly, they lie like Persian rugs. They tell the public one thing and then they do the opposite. The word politician, as we know, has almost become synonymous with a liar. Their handbook, either officially or unofficially, is that old book by Machiavelli, the Italian counselor, the book called The Prince, when he advised politicians to lie, to lie like a rug. Deacons also must not be addicted to wine. You don't linger long at the wine. You're moderate in the use of wine. And thus, you're a person of great self-control, which, of course, is an outstanding and notable fruit of God the Holy Spirit in the life of the deacon. Wine, of course, is the good creature of God, as many of the Reformers called it. Jesus made the best wine in history, probably, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. But wine must not be abused. As Cotton Mather said, wine comes from God, but the drunkard comes from the devil. I remember an incident in the life of an American president when, in the company of a famous actor, they were in a restaurant somewhere, enjoying a cocktail or some other drink, and after they finished, the other actor ordered a second drink. And the man that became President of the United States said to him, as he was astounded, he said, why do you want a second drink? And he asked him, why do you want a second drink? Well, it was mind-boggling to him that anyone would ask for a second drink as potent as what he was drinking. Also, deacons won't covet filthy lucre. Now, of course, you can be fond of money, but that doesn't mean that you're automatically an embezzler. Money is good. Just in the Old Testament and Genesis, gold is good. but not the love of money, not coveting after money. You see, the embezzler will align himself to a good cause with the view to embezzle. He's totally driven by a mercenary spirit. Everything is weighed in terms of dollars and cents for him because mammon is his God. He covets and makes him an idolater. His ultimate love is money, though he may speak flatteringly of God and of God's works. Sadly, many people will join the church in the hopes of gain. For example, an insurance man might join a church, might put a particular church, especially a mega church in his crosshairs, and then join in hopes of making a killing, having people flock to him so he can sell insurance. And the more prestige that you have in the church, the brighter your star. You become a magnet to other people. How did Judas ever become an apostle? Why did he join the apostolate? Well, obviously because Christ chose him for his own sovereign purposes. Was he a man who was a treasurer before? Had he had experience in this? Well, we don't know. But he was certainly very anxious to count the shekels that were in the money bag. His heart was freighted with gold. John chapter 12 verse 6 says, that Christ's feet were anointed by Mary with a pound of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus. But Jesus knew Judas' heart. And then we have this telling description. And this he said, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was his thief, and he had the money box that he used to take what was put in it. And then the apostle tells us another qualification, he spells this out, holding the mystery of the faith in a clear conscience, in verse 9. Now to our western ears this may sound very, very strange, perhaps utterly unintelligible, because who today speaks about holding the mystery, holding a mystery in your hand, grasping that mystery? It doesn�t sound very tangible. at first glance anyway. How do you hold, how do you grip with your fingers a mystery? It sounds too ethereal, let's put it that way. Well, first, the verse certainly speaks about being conscientious. If your conscience is washed by the blood of Christ, it's purified by the Holy Spirit, then your conscience is clear, it's cleansed, it's clean. The deepest dye of sin has been removed. Unlike the red heifer in the book of Leviticus, exiled into the wilderness where it can never return. If your conscience is clean, if you've been genuinely washed by the blood of Christ, you won't be like Lady Macbeth, who failed to wash the blood of Duncan, remember, from her skirts. Out, damn spot, she said. She yelled helplessly as she walked around sleepwalking. You see, guilt is a worm in your conscience. That's why Jesus connects Hellions to the worm that dieth not. In hell, they suffer torture of conscience for the sum total of all of their crimes that they have committed to God, adding to their guilt, just think of it, every single day of the week. And when your conscience torments you, how can you function? How can you be effective? How can you not be a hypocrite? Second, what this business of holding the mystery of faith actually is. Once again, we return to the principle that context is king, and so we fly immediately to verse 16 of this chapter. Verse 16 says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Well, now we know what the mystery of faith really is. It's none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself and his incarnation, God become man and yet not ceasing to be God. And so for the deacon, your passion is Christ, all for Christ. You're not just a Christ-centered man, as I've said before, you are a Christ-saturated man. And your mantra should be, for to me to live is Christ and to die, gain. Not as a pious platitude, but as a pious passion. And so you grip onto this truth, your grip is tenacious. Your grip is not that of a wet noodle. This is not a jump ball doctrine, but this is something that is written in the scriptures with a pen of a diamond. And then the deacon must also be proved according to verse 10. And let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. Now obviously this office excludes rookie Christians, neophytes, beginners in the faith. Only tested men should become deacons, should serve. Now this doesn't mean that you undergo a probationary period. Rather, it's a tested life that is the issue. Has your life survived the test? Has your life recommended you to be a deacon? Those are the people that should serve. And particularly, and we'll get to this later, are you a man of love? Do you see that this office actually is an office of love? Are you interested in the temporal and spiritual concerns of God's people? You live a godly life. Your life is unimpeachable, blameless. You're not notorious for sin, but you're notorious for love and service. And you pass the magnifying glass of the young believers as well, because a deacon must be a man of honest report, honest report, not just among believers, but also unbelievers. For example, if you're in the company of a lot of unbelievers in your work, what do your friends who are unbelievers think of your profession of faith? Do they really believe that you are a godly man, a hallowed man, or do you use language, bad language, just like they do? The focus here is character, character, character, service, service, and more service. Now there's a number of blunders, even sins that mar the choosing of such men. Here are some of them. First, this thought that even if a man isn't qualified to be a deacon, he can still grow into the office once we ordain him. Well, this is madness. It's like granting a driver's license to men who fail both their written and their road test. Driving like King Jehu, who drove his chariot furiously all over the map. You don't license a driver who's reckless, who practices road rage. He'll wreck the church as well. It just takes one to do it. Second, you don't ordain a man if he's a hypercritic of the church, thinking that you can tame him once he's out of his lion's cage and is working side by side you as a deacon in the church. Sadly, these are some of the ideas that sometimes surface. The Michael Corleone philosophy of keeping your friends close and your enemies even closer simply does not work and cannot work in the church. Third, you don't elect a deacon on the basis of democracy. That is, that every Joe Christian in the church should have his opportunity to serve as a deacon, to be given a chance to serve, despite or disregarding the qualifications. This sounds almost like they relate to William F. Buckley. He, remember, once said that you could take the first 20 names in the phone book and find people more qualified to serve in Congress than the people that we have there right now. Well, the church is different. Sometimes a blunder can be worse than a sin when you ordain somebody that is not qualified. To be a deacon is not a popularity contest that you enter. Well then this takes us to the next must here, and that�s found in verse 11. It says, �Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.� Now I believe that this 11th verse is a kind of parenthesis, as it appears just before verse 12, which continues the list of the qualifications. What�s at issue in this verse is the translation. This 11th verse is often misinterpreted, that the wives of deacons are also deacons, that is, deaconesses. It's sort of a joint marital endeavor, that's the idea some have. It's claimed that the deaconate is a husband-wife ministry and both are ordained to that office. Well, there's major problems with this viewpoint, and first and foremost, the most compelling argument is that men only are ordained as deacons. That's what we find in Acts chapter six, verse three. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you, seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. The qualification is that men are chosen, and what's true in origination is also true in perpetuation. Now if only men are chosen, then only men are ordained. So we have in Acts 6 a template, men of honest report, men filled with the Holy Spirit, and men who are filled with the wisdom of God. Also, verse 12, Paul leaves the parenthesis and returns to the role of the man. He says, ìLet deacons be the husbands of one wife.î The thought here is very similar to an elder, a husband of one wife in verse 2 of this chapter. This isn't a statement so much about polygamy or anti-polygamy, but about faithfulness in marriage. A deacon should be a man of one wife, committed to his one wife. In other words, he's not pornographic, he's not lewd. He's a one-woman husband, that is maritally faithful. You should be a one-woman husband. But what about the wives here in verse 11? Why are the wives even mentioned? Well, now we step into it. You'll notice that our authorized translation, that the word there is an italics, meaning that there has been supplied by the translator. And sometimes that's good, and sometimes that's not all that helpful. Point being, it's not there in the Greek. And what you may not notice is that the Greek that's translated wives, the Greek word here, gune, is also a common word for women, not for wives, but women. And so the passage can read, even so must women be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. So the idea, they're wives, isn't, that idea is not really here in the text. It's the women, not the wives. Now this may not seem to have solved any problems. I'll admit that. For if a deacon's wife isn't here, then the door might seem to be open for all women to be conceivably qualified to be deaconesses. Well, many take that stand today, not only in evangelical churches, but also in some reformed churches. They argue that it's nothing but prejudice that keeps women from the diaconate. So we have to try to understand who these women are. Why are these women even mentioned here? If these women aren't wives, nor are they deaconesses, who are they? Well, the answer is that these women were servants in the church. even assistants to the deacons. That explains why Phoebe is called a servant in Romans 16.1. Paul says there, I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant, the Greek there is the Greek word for deacon, in the church which is at Sancreia. that ye receive her in the Lord as become saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she has need of, for she hath been a succorer of many, and of myself also." Or in the words of William Hendrickson, the able Reformed commentator, he writes, The simplest explanation of the manner in which Paul interjects a few remarks about women is that he regards these women as the deacon's assistants in helping the poor and the needy, etc. He says, these are women who render auxiliary service, performing ministries for which women are better adapted. So verse 11 is sort of a parenthesis. Paul addresses the assistants or the helpers of the deacons, women like Phoebe, for example. So if these women assist the deacons, they might be privy to confidential, privileged information and who knows what. They too must be grave, they must be serious, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. The Bible's replete with faithful women. But sadly, it also depicts unfaithful women, women who are slanderers and gossip mongers and double-tongued. In fact, they imitate the devil when they do this because the Greek word here for slander is diabolos, the very word of the devil. So consider only Potiphar's wife who slandered Joseph or consider Jezebel who slandered Naboth. Gossip can destroy your reputation. Now the last thing that Paul says about deacons is that you're a husband of one wife, and that you rule well your children and your household. This is very similar to the elders. A one-woman man that is faithful to one woman. But here it's added, ruling well his children and his household. This sounds as if the deacons were well-propertied, doesn't it? They not only have children, but they also have a household. But they were expected to rule well this household. You see, the life of a deacon is a fishbowl existence. The way you rule your family impacts the whole church. There's a sense in which you're sort of a Hollywood production, only without the hypocrisy of Hollywood. Everyone is watching you. Everyone's watching you, watching your wife, watching your children, how you raise your children, watching your household. Not that they have it in for you or as if it's some sort of a revengeful attitude that they have. It's just they know you're a deacon or an elder for that matter. God's people will study your family. They'll notice pluses and miscarriages and deficiency of government. They'll also see, of course, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to you and to your family and to your children and praise God for it. They see the way you control or you don't control your children. They'll see the way you love or you don't show love toward your wife. But the deacon does rule, but his rule differs from the elder. The deacon rules his family. He's notable for that. The elder rules his family and the church. So the office of elder is based upon the kingship of Christ, but not the office of the deaconate. This difference is spelled out beautifully with crystal clarity by the standards of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, which underscores the differences. The directory of the OPC for public worship says this, the office of deacon is based upon the solicitude and love of Christ for his own people. So tender is our Lord's interest in their temporal needs that he considers what is done unto one of the least of his brethren as done unto him. And R.B. Kuyper chimes in. He writes, the deaconate is accurately described as the office of love, the greatest of Christian virtues. Christian love comes to its most tangible expression in the office of a deacon. This office is preeminently that of love. Love, he says, is its beginning and its end. So, you can see that a deacon is supposed to mirror Christ's mercy to God's people. Now, when your job as a deacon is accomplished, there's two wonderful rewards. The first is that you'll attain a good degree, says Paul, or an excellent standing in God's kingdom. Now, this doesn't mean that you'll be promoted. if you're a deacon. That is, that you'll advance from deacon to ruling elder, and then from ruling elder to the pastor of the church. It doesn't mean that you'll step from the diaconate to the pastorate. Being a deacon is not an apprenticeship for a higher office. It means, rather, that you'll serve well as a deacon. You'll be esteemed very highly in the congregation. And like Athanasius and Stephen, you'll be famous. famous principally before God, but famous also before God's people, because your job performance as God's servant will be well known and spoken of. The word here, degree, is a word that means step. It's connected to the steps in the sundial. The sundial, for example, in 2 Kings 20, in the Septuagint version, The step on the sundial is illuminated by light, it's lustrated. A good deacon is a step up. There are deacons and there are deacons indeed, deacons that are a step up from the ordinary. Deacons should not be thought lightly of by us. No one is just a deacon any more than Jesus was just a deacon or Stephen was just a deacon. And a deacon should never refer to himself in that type of language. I'm just a deacon. Second, the trustworthy deacon acquires great confidence in boldness. He'll boldly exercise his gifts in the office. His boldness is given birth by his trust in Christ. He testifies of Christ. He's a dynamic witness for Christ. He's like Athanasius. The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. A deacon states his faith that way, as bold as a lion. I'm reminded of our preacher last Sunday night, the Reverend Hank Bowen, who you may not be aware was formerly a deacon in this church. Do you know how Hank used to do his job as a deacon? Was he served here? Well, there's many examples that shine forth, but when interviewing people off the street, he would actually take them apart, go into a corner of the building somewhere, maybe even a room, and open up his Bible and testify of his faith in Christ. Whatever he did as a deacon, he did in the name of Jesus. Now remember, a deacon is filled with wisdom, according to Acts chapter 6. That's one reason why we examine people who aspire to be deacons. They should be filled with wisdom, the wisdom of the Word of God. And they serve, this is what they do. They govern the temporal affairs of the church, but when distributing material gifts, they're like the deacons in Acts chapter 6, who are filled with the Holy Spirit and with wisdom, having an honest report. They're filled with the Holy Spirit, then they are filled with love. And if they're men of wisdom, they'll be theologically astute. They'll not be theological dunderheads or featherweights. A deacon is a major leaguer, no softball for the deacon. He doesn't play in the minor leagues. He's well-steeped in the scriptures. Why? Because he's driven by supreme love to God and by supreme love for God's people. And when these traits are in place, he'll know how to conduct himself properly and well in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. May God give us more deacons like this. Amen.