We left off last week at verse 16 of chapter 5, so we'll start with verse 17 today. And it says, let the elders that rue well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they that 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. Against an elder receive not accusation, but before two or three witnesses. them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be a partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine oft infirmities. Some men's sins are opened beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid. Now if you remember we are studying a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to his good friend and to his fellow minister and what he even calls his son in the ministry, to Timothy. And he's charging Timothy with the care of the church and in the first parts of the letter he talks about the church order and about sound doctrine and about sound teachings and discipline. And the things that are needed to set the church in order. You see, the apostles up until this time had ruled the churches themselves. They were there and present to be able to handle any of the disputes or anything that would come up among the churches. But the apostolic age is coming to an end. And the apostles are not going to be there for very much longer. And so Paul takes his pen and goes to set into writing things concerning the order of Christ's church. He tells Timothy that I'm doing these things that you ought know how to behave yourself in the church of the living God. He talks about legality and unsound doctrine. He talks about prayer and the order of the sexes that are now enjoined in the churches. If you remember the Jewish temple, the women were not allowed to worship with the men. But now in the Christian church, they are. And so there needs to be some orders set there. He talks about the qualifications of the elders and the qualifications of the deacons. And then in chapter four, he talks about the walk of a good minister. And now here in chapters five and in chapter six, he's talking about the work of a good minister. And he talked to us in the first 16 verses, he talked about how to deal with other members of the church. Remember, he said you deal with the elderly men as if they were fathers, and the elderly women as if they were mothers. And the younger men and women of the church, you deal like they're brothers and sisters. In other words, you treat them as if they're family. Because indeed, they are family. Because we all are the family of God. And then he talks about the care and the provision of widows. God's welfare system, if you would. And now he comes to verse 17. And in verse 17 he says, let the elders that rule, rule well. Now in verse one we talked about where he says, rebuke not an elder, we talked about that being not the office of the church, but that being an older member. Well when we come to verse 17 and he says, let the elders, there he's talking about the office of the church, he's talking about the bishop, he's talking about God's ministers. And he says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of a double honor, especially they who labor in word and doctrine. There's a lot that can be gleaned from this one verse. First of all, he says, let the elders that rule. Do you realize that the elders are the undershepherds of the church and that they are to rule and oversee God's church? Hebrews says obey them that have the rule over you right Hebrews 13 As they must give an account God's pastors rule over the congregation and brethren. It's it's the pastor of the church that is going to give an account before God of how he ruled in that church and First Peter says, feed the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof. Pastors are charged with feeding the flock of God, and Peter says that you're to take the oversight of that church. Our pastors are to rule, and in Acts chapter 20, it says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and unto all the flock over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. The apostles thought it very important that we know that it was the ministers, the God called ministers, appointed by the Holy Spirit that were to oversee or to rule the church of God. Paul says, first of all, he says, let the elders that rule. It's not Deacon rule it's not committee rule. It's not a presbytery rule It's rule of the elders Now we know that in our church the tradition is is that there's the is brought before the congregation But that is to lend credence or to give support to the pastor But it's the elder of the church who is to lead and guide the direction of the church. Obviously from reading this, some elders must rule better than other elders. Because it says let them that rule well. So I'm gonna take from that that there are some elders that maybe don't rule as well as some elders. But he says let those that rule well Be counted worthy of a double honor. Now we talked last week about the word honor. It means support or maintenance. It says let them be counted worthy of double support or maintenance. Now there are some that would tell you that that means that an elder that rules well is supposed to get twice the salary of an elder that doesn't rule so well. I don't think that's what it means. If some of you wanted to take it that way, that would be alright. But you see, he's worthy of a double honor. The elder of God, the minister of the church, first of all, is worthy of the respect due his office. That's the first honor you're to pay him. He is worthy of that. He has earned it. And as the one having the oversight of the congregation, you're supposed to give that to him. Alright, Paul tells us in Hebrews that we are to submit ourselves to those that have the oversight of us, to those that have the rule over us. So you're to pay him that honor, that respect, but then I also believe that the double portion of that is that you are to support him financially. You are to support him in a way that he is able to keep his family in his home in a proper way. Then it goes on and it says, especially those who labor in word and deed. Because it says especially there, that tells me that not all of the ministry labored in word and deed. but we're to pay a double honor to those that do. He's talking here first of all about a full-time ministry. Those who give themselves over to the study of God's Word and to prayer and to supplication. Those ministers are due, they're worthy of a double portion. There are some And obviously in this time even, in the first century church, there were ministers who were not given wholly to the ministry. There were ministers then who still had to work outside of the church in order to support their families. We sometimes tend to think that this is a modern day thing and it's just the primitive Baptists that do this, that their pastors have to hold jobs outside the church. But that's not true. This was true all the way back in the first century. In fact, you can go into Acts chapter 18 and you can find where the apostle Paul labored with Aquila and Priscilla making tents in order to earn money to sustain himself and his ministry. It's not a new thing for God's ministers to have to work outside of the church or to hold a secular job in order to maintain their homes or their households. But I want to tell you that I don't believe that that's God's pattern or God's plan. It says here that we should count them a double honor that are labor full time in God's word. The apostles said that they wanted to have deacons so that they could give themselves to supplication and prayer and to the study of God's Word, to the ministry. And I believe that's what God fully intends for His ministry. But knowing that that might not always be possible, Paul says in here that especially those that can do that, that can labor in the Word and the doctrine, are to be counted worthy of a double honor. I also believe that it means that there were different types of ministry. You had pastors, you had teachers. In Ephesians 4, it says that there were apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. There were I believe different types of ministry. You might have one minister who was a pastor, who was the overseer, the elder of the church, but he might have another minister there with him, younger, younger in the faith, younger in the word, who might help him to teach some of the new converts. Some people call that catechism, when you teach the doctrine to new converts. You might have one elder appointed to help do that. You might have an elder appointed to help with the young ministry of the church, or one that was appointed to help oversee the care of the widows. You might have one in the church that was just purely an evangelist, who went out to where he believed God was sending him to talk to new converts. This again is something that in our modern day church seems strange. Now not as strange to us, we have gone through a time when we had a pastor and an evangelist working out of our church. But I believe that's more to be the rule than it is the exception. And for us, it's the exception. But I believe that God intended for there to be a multiplicity of elders in the church so that there could be a division of duties among them. So that the care of the members could be more well established. You know, some of the modern day churches, you see where they have maybe a ministry of music. a youth ministry. And to us, that seems kind of strange. But I'm going to tell you, it really shouldn't be. And if any of you, if you've never been on the internet and gone to the website or looked up the Cincinnati Primitive Baptist Church, you should do that. You'll find, I think they have, what is it, six or seven elders in that church. And you'll see on their webpage where different ones are assigned duties over different areas. In fact, I believe Brother Tim is one of their youth ministers. Assign the duty to help minister to and to care and to bring up the young people in the church with a better understanding of the doctrines of the church and of Christ. There's a division of jobs that can happen when that's there. But the Apostle Paul says to count them worthy of a double honor, especially those who labor in the Word and the doctrine, those who take it upon themselves to preach and teach and have to do a major portion of what's required of them in the church. And then he goes on and he gives a reason for this. In verse 18 he says, For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn and that goes back to Deuteronomy chapter 25 It was against the Jewish law to muzzle an ox while you had him working trading out the corn Because it was given that if that ox was doing the work that he was free to eat of that corn as he worked there in that field Paul says, you don't muzzle the ox, you don't muzzle the ministry, you don't keep from them the fruit of their labors while they're laboring there in that field. If they're laboring full time in the field of the gospel ministry, laboring full time in the church, then the church has the obligation to take care of that minister in a financial way. And he goes on and he says, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. that can be found either in Matthew chapter 10 or in Luke chapter 10. It's quoted there in both places. It's the words of Christ as he spoke. So labor is worthy of his reward. There's something else that's I think very interesting about that particular verse. and that in that verse you see the Apostle Paul linking the Old Testament Scripture with the New. Do you realize that the letters there, or the books of Matthew and of Luke had only been in circulation maybe eight or nine years? But you have the Apostle Paul here saying that the Scripture saith Then he quotes the Old Testament and then he says, and, in other words, and the scripture says the Apostle Paul has elevated the books of Matthew and of Luke to the level of divinely inspired scripture. The Apostle Paul even in this time, so soon after those books were, it was years, even centuries before the church would agree on what books were divinely inspired. The Apostle Paul tells us right here. Matthew and Luke was divinely inspired because he calls them scripture. The elders that rule well are counted worthy of a double honor. And we're to care for them and pay them their due. Then in verse 19 he says, against an elder, again the office of the church, Receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses." Before... Against an elder, receive not an accusation. Notice it doesn't say, it doesn't stop there. It doesn't say that... It doesn't say against an elder, receive not an accusation. For a long time as a young man, I kind of thought the scripture ended right there. You know? You're not supposed to bring an accusation against an elder ever. You're not supposed to reprimand or reprove an elder ever. But that's not what Paul says. Paul says to do it, but if you do it, do it before two or three witnesses. Bringing an accusation against an elder is a very, very serious thing, and it's not something that we're to do lightly. The messianic law said that for everybody you should have two witnesses. Roman law, though, is a little bit different. Roman law said that for the average citizen, one witness was good enough. So if you went to a Roman court against an average citizen, one witness could put them in prison. But if you went against a senator, a senator required two witnesses. You see, they recognize that someone in a position of authority is more likely to have people They might get a little upset with them sometimes. Maybe might not like some of the decisions they make. And would be more prone to carry on a false accusation against them. And so they made it tougher to accuse somebody that was in a position of authority. And you know, it doesn't have to be anything real serious, does it, for us to get upset with people? You know, all it takes is, well, I don't know, somebody saying, well, I wanted them to paint that wall dark blue, but I see they went with that other brother that wanted it that light blue like that. I just don't think that's right. Next thing you know, here they are bringing accusations up before the ministry because they're mad at him because he didn't paint the wall dark blue and he painted it light blue instead. Isn't that how we are? It doesn't take much to upset us sometimes. Paul understood this. And he says, no, if you're going to bring an accusation before a minister, if you're going to accuse a minister, then you must have at least two, maybe even three witnesses. And Paul, in so doing this, elevates the ministry at least to the level of the Senate of Rome, if not even higher. Brethren, you have to understand that when you're talking about the ministry of the church, you're talking about God's called messengers that are charged with the oversight. And that's not to be taken lightly. It's certainly not to be taken lightly by the ministry, And it's not to be taken lightly by the congregation. Sometimes in the ministry of a true and faithful minister, if he is preaching the whole counsel of God's Word, sometimes he's going to step on some toes. And if he's not stepping on somebody's toes, then he's not preaching the whole council. Because there are things in the scripture that are not easy for us to take sometimes. We don't like to be told that we're sinners. And we certainly don't like to be reminded of our sin. It's okay to remind the other person of their sin. Just don't remind me of mine. But if you're preaching the whole council, then you'll do that. And you do it not out of spite, but you do it out of love for your congregation. Notice he goes on and he says, them that sin rebuke before all. I think he's talking specifically about the ministry, but I think this also extends to any of the members of the congregation that are sinning openly. He says to rebuke them in front of the congregation, in front of the church. You're to rebuke them openly. Why? Because you hate them? Because you want them thrown out of the church? No, you do it out of love. Listen to what he says, you rebuke them openly that others also may fear. Brethren, if he's going to call out a minister like that for his sins and rebuke him in front of the church, I sure don't want to do anything that I may get called up there. you rebuke people for their sins because of love. God tells us that He chastises those that He loves. Brethren, if you've never come under the chastisement of God, I'd have to wonder whether you're truly one of His or not. Even David, who is said to be a man after God's own heart was chastised severely by the Lord. If God loves us enough to chastise us and to rebuke us, ought not we love one another enough to do the same? You know, our world has gotten this perverted view now that if you discipline your children, somehow you're abusing them and the government needs to step in and take them away from you or teach you some way to parent them better. God's word tells me if I love my children, I will chastise them and rebuke them. Why? So that they might fear never doing that again. Brethren, I want you to understand something. Fear is a very great motivator. What is it that keeps you from going back and sticking your finger in the light socket? It's the fear of the shock that you're going to get. What is it that keeps you from placing your hand on a hot stove? It's the fear of the burn that you're going to get. Fear is a great motivator. Not only can fear motivate you not to do something, but fear can motivate you to do something. The fear of the chastisement that's going to fall upon you if you don't accomplish a certain task. Leadership class taught me years ago that there are two distinct types of leaders. You have a democratic leader and you have an autocratic leader. It seems to me that our armed forces today are full of the democratic type of leaders. They don't want to hurt the self-esteem of the troops. They don't want to offend anybody. If you don't mind, could you please kindly go and take that hill over there so that we can get our supply lines through here? Do you think you could do that for me? But history tells us about one very great autocratic leader. that we had in the army, a man by the name of General George S. Patton. He was the quintessential autocratic leader. He would tell his men, you will go take that hill and you will take it by sundown or you will regret it. And at sundown, they would have that hill because they would rather face the enemy than they had the wrath of General Patton. Fear is a great motivator. And so Paul says that those that sin, we are to rebuke before all. We're to rebuke them openly. That the others may fear and not sin. Then he tells Timothy, he says, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels. This, I believe, is the third charge that Paul has given to Timothy in this short book. This time, it's a little different. This time, it's a little more solemn charge to him. Before, he's just said, I charge thee, Timothy, to teach sound doctrine. This time, he's charging him before God and before Christ. He's charging him before the witness of the Creator God of the universe and before Christ our Savior. And he says before the elect angels. Now the elect angels there are the angels that I believe that God chose that stayed with him after the fall of the third that went with Satan. These are the angels that still minister around the throne of Christ. He says, I am charging you before this holy witness, Timothy. that you observe these things. What things? What things is he to observe? He's to observe what Paul has written him from verse one down to verse 20 here. He's to observe how he treats the members of the congregation, that you treat them as family, you treat the older men as fathers and the older women as mothers. He's to observe the oversight and the care of the widows and to make sure that those that are in the care of the church are widows indeed. And that the other widows are being taken care of by their families. He's to see that the elders are properly cared for and given the respect, do them. And to see that those that sin are dealt with in an appropriate manner. He says, I charge you to observe all these things. But then he tells me that he's to do it without preferring one before another or without partiality. Timothy, you're not to be partial one to another. You're not to regard a person because of his rank. You're to deal with the garbage collector the same way that you are the mayor. You're to do this with no preference to their rank or to their wealth or to their friendship to you. Timothy, I don't care if they are a homeless person standing in the soup line and sleeping in the missions or if it's the richest man in the city. It doesn't matter, you deal with them equally because they are equal before God. And Timothy, it doesn't matter whether this is your best friend or whether it is your worst enemy. I expect you to deal with them equally without partiality. because you're equal in God's sight. It doesn't matter whether you are poor and destitute and homeless, or if you have more money than Bill Gates. When God looks down upon us, he sees us through the blood of Christ, and he sees us as equals, justified by the blood. Timothy, there is no difference and you don't treat them differently. You call them before the church if that's what is needed. But you be sure that you treat that poor man in exactly the same manner that you do the rich. Then Paul says in verse 22, he says, lay hands suddenly on no man. Lay hands suddenly on no man. And I believe here the Apostle Paul is talking about the ordination of ministers and deacons. Now I've read some that believe he's talking about the laying on of hands of the sick, but I don't believe that because why would you not lay suddenly the hands on someone that's sick? Why would you delay in treating God for the healing of the sick. No, he's talking about the ministry. That's what he's been talking about most of this chapter. He's talking about the ordination of the ministry and laying on the hands of the presbytery of a ministerial candidate, someone that you're ordaining to the office of the ministry or of a deacon, which is a ministry in itself, being a deacon. He's saying lay hands suddenly on no man. Now, remember, we can go back to chapter one, and in chapter one, the apostle Paul warned Timothy that there were going to be men desiring the office of a teacher, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whether they affirm. There's going to be people that see the office of the ministry as being something to be desired. They're going to see the respect that the ministers get, and they're going to want that. But they don't know what they're teaching. They don't understand the doctrines. And Paul says here, Timothy, lay hands quickly on no man. You're going to have those people like that. You're going to have people that are going to come up that want to teach, that give creed to the seducing spirits and the doctrines of devils. There are going to be people that come up that want to take over the church and start teaching false teachings. And the easiest way to short circuit that or to keep that from happening, Timothy, is to lay hands not quickly on any man, but rather take the time, Timothy, to know this man's heart. To know that he understands the doctrines that he's to teach. To make sure that he understands and believes the doctrines. In chapter 3 he lays out a whole list of the qualifications for the elder or for a bishop. He must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy, a filthy lucre, patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth his own house well and having his children in subjection. You don't learn those things quickly. Timothy, you need to take time and observe these men. To be certain of their integrity. To be certain of their doctrine and their beliefs. To be certain of their ability to teach. You don't take a man fresh into the congregation that's just become a member who's full of the Holy Spirit and anxious to worship God, and lay hands on that man and make him a minister. Take your time, Timothy. Don't do that quickly. The office of the elder, the office of the ministry of a bishop is too important in the kingdom of God to do that with haste." And he goes on and he says, neither be a partaker of other man's sins. Now that's easy for us to understand. Well, if Brother Jeremy over there is out stealing cars, I don't want to go steal cars with him. I'm not going to partake of his sin. That's pretty easy to see. But what the Apostle Paul really is talking about here is he's talking about if other people want to ordain somebody before they are ready or before they have truly known their character. Timothy, you do not join that presbytery. I don't know how many of you have ever been to an ordination service. But especially for an elder, the ordination, it's common for there to be several elders come and join what we call a presbytery, a gathering of the elders. And they'll question the candidate, and if that candidate answers the question satisfactorily, then these elders will all gather around, they will lay their hands upon that elder, and they will pray. that the Holy Spirit would take hold of this man and that he would guide him and that he would be a good and a faithful servant and a good and a faithful minister. And it's not uncommon for ministers to come from a great distance to do that. Paul's telling Timothy here that if they're ordaining a man too quickly, Or if they're ordaining a man that you don't know or not confident that he is clear in the teachings of the doctrine of the church, Timothy, you do not be a partaker of their sin. You do not join that presbytery. You do not lay your hands on that man. Now I believe that's a very grave warning from the Apostle Paul to the ministry. That is, as faithful ministers, that they are to observe and to know well their candidates before they are ordained. You don't want to ordain a man and then find out a year later that he doesn't believe the true doctrines of the church. And you see, that's what's happened, I believe, in so many cases. That's why there's so many splits, so many offshoots with the churches out there. That's why there's so much contention between the churches. It's because men have been ordained that either did not believe or just were ordained too early sometimes. Paul says this is very weighty matter, Tim. Do not partake of their sin because it is a sin to ordain a man too soon or one that is not sound in his teachings. And he warns me, he says, keep thyself pure. Keep yourself pure in word, in deed, in your heart. Keep yourself pure, Timothy, knowing that you have not partaken of the sins of these other people. And then he inserts this little parenthetical clause here. It's almost as if, when he says, keep yourself pure, Timothy, it reminds him of Timothy's health. And he sticks this little clause, or this little verse in here, and it says, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sakes and thine oft infirmities. Not only is Paul concerned with the spiritual care of his friends, but he's concerned with their physical well-being also. And you know, a true minister of God is that way. Yeah, there is great concern for the spiritual well-being of the congregation. You want them to be well-instructed and well-taught. You want them to be faithful and true believers. but we should also have a concern for the physical well-being of our congregation. He says, Timothy, take no longer water, and by that he means not water only. Timothy evidently is a teetotaler. Timothy does not drink at all. And quite honestly, that's probably not, that shouldn't be surprising. The law of the Levitical priesthood forbid priests to drink. The tradition in Rome or the law in Rome at the time was that you could not drink until you were age 18 and then only in very moderate amounts until you were age 30. And at age 30, you were free to take freely. of the wine. And now wine, what they're calling wine here is not what you and I would call wine. The tradition then was to take the wine and actually to water it down, usually one part of wine to two parts or three parts of water. So it would be almost like a Kool-Aid, but it could have some intoxicating effects if you drank enough of it. Or especially if you drank it straight without diluting it. But he tells Timothy here, he says, to take a little wine. Take a little wine. Now notice he very specifically tells him a little wine because if you remember one of the qualifications for the ministry, one of the qualifications of a bishop was that you not be given to wine. So Timothy, we don't want you to overdo it. But it's okay for you to have a little bit of wine, Timothy. It will help with your stomach and with your oft infirmities. Timothy evidently was a frail young man. And Paul tells him, a little wine is not going to hurt you, Timothy. In fact, a little wine might help. Then in verse 24, He goes right back to where he was with the laying on of hands and talking about the ministry and not ordaining ministers too quickly. Because he says here, he says, some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment. And some men, they follow after. What Paul is telling him, Timothy, is there are two types of sin, Timothy. You have the open sin that everybody sees. Then you have secret sin that they don't see. Timothy, some men sin in the open. You know, there are some men that you look at and they're known to be drunkards or liars or thieves. You know it, they don't hide it. Those men you don't have to wait till judgment to know what they are That's what he says here when he says going before to judgment You know what they are now They don't try to hide it They are our sinners right out in the open But then he says in some men they follow after there are some men that They hide their sins Timothy We may not know them until they're revealed at the judgment. Timothy, this is why it's important that you lay hands quickly on no man. Because you need to discern these things. We need to know these things, Timothy. Then he goes on in verse 25 and he says, likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid. Just like there are some people that sin openly and some people that hide it, there are some people whose good works are open for everybody to see. But there are some men, Timothy, that they do their good works in secret. They don't want them to be open to all men. There are those that are manifest beforehand, there are some that are, it says those that are otherwise, those that don't do their good works openly, those that are otherwise, it says they cannot be hid, they will be revealed. Whether now or at the judgment, whether now or after time is gone. What the Apostle Paul is trying to tell Timothy is that Timothy, you can't judge a book by its cover. You can't judge a book by its cover. Just because you've got this member that comes in and it looks like a fine, upstanding person, they may be harboring secret sin. And just because you've got some other members that come in that, man, it appears that they are never doing any good works, You know, they never go with the church to the nursing home in the afternoons. They're never there giving out the baskets at Christmas time to the sick and to the shut-in. It just doesn't look like there are any good works. He says, Timothy, you don't know that. Because you don't know what they're doing in secret. There are some that you may look at and say, gosh, this person looks like they're so qualified for the ministry, only to find out that they're harboring all this secret sin. And another one that you'd look at and say, well, he's certainly not qualified because he doesn't do any good works, only to find out later that he does. That's why he warns Timothy, he says, Timothy, lay hands quickly on no man. Take the time to find these things out, to discern them. Timothy, the ministry of God's church is too important to rush into the ordination of anyone. Whether they appear to be the best of men or whether they appear to be not so good. Timothy, we need to take time to discern these and to be deliberate about laying hands on the ministry. What Paul has told Timothy in this chapter, and he'll continue in chapter 6, is he's telling him about the work of the good minister. The good minister deals with his congregation in a way that he will not be despised by them. Remember, Paul tells Timothy in chapter four, let no man despise you for your youth. And Timothy, even though as a minister of God, you have authority over the church, be careful how you deal with the members. Deal with them like you would your family. Deal with them like you would your mother or your father. Then he goes on to tell him about the care of the widows and the elderly. Timothy says, give the family the first opportunity to care for the widows. Those that have no family, then let that fall upon the church. And then he comes back and he talks to him about dealing with the ministry. You know, Timothy here is a young man. I think Paul's telling him there are going to be ministers that he's going to have to deal with. There are going to be other elders. There may have been other elders at that time in the church there at Ephesus. But he says, Timothy, as an apostle and as your friend, I'm setting this in writing so that it might be known, and not just to Timothy, but through Timothy to all the churches in all ages, how they're to deal with ministers, and how they're to go about and not ordain ministers too soon. I said, Paul, these are important matters. And I hope to our church today that these are important matters. Because Paul tells us that the church is the pillar and the ground of truth. And we are responsible for maintaining that truth. The church is the bride of Christ. was important enough to our Lord and Savior that Ephesians tells us that He gave His life for the church. Brethren, if the maintenance of sound doctrine, if the maintenance of the truth of the church of God was so important that His Son gave His life for the church, should it not also be important to us? God has charged us with the care of the church. He's charged us with the care and the maintenance of the doctrine. And to see that the truth and sound doctrine is taught. And we need to be careful to do just that. God bless you this morning.