(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

If you look at 1 Timothy 3 in verse 15, it says, But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. The title for the sermon tonight is A Pastor's Behavior. You know, the pastor here, Pastor Timothy, has been asked to behave himself. He's got to know how to behave himself in the house of God. You know, often when we read 1 Timothy 3, we tend more to think about the fact that to become a deacon, or sorry, to become a pastor, a bishop. And that is the case, of course, we can compare that with what we see in Titus, and we'll do that soon. But actually, this list that we're going through that's been read for us from now, it's all about how a pastor ought to behave himself in the house. And if he's not up to that right behavior, then he can disqualify himself and fall from that ministry. But let's just compare, let's go to Titus. Keep your finger there in 1 Timothy 3, and go to Titus 1 verse 5. And we're not going to read the whole thing, but we do have the qualifications for a bishop right here. And it says in verse 5, So what is the purpose of Titus 1? To teach Titus how to ordain elders, or ordain pastors, ordain bishops. These are three titles for the same role. He says in verse 6, Can he be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of right or unruly? For a bishop must be blameless, you see bishop and elder have been used interchangeably there, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. And if you keep going through the list, you'll find that there's a vast number of similarities, and some little differences, but a lot of similarities between the qualifications that we read about in Titus chapter 1, and as well what we read there in 1 Timothy chapter 3. But they actually serve two different purposes. I don't want you to lose sight of that. Are they both qualifications for a pastor? Absolutely. But they meet two different purposes. Purpose for Titus was to look at this list, identify people that measured up to all those qualifications that are listed, and by that list he was able to determine who should be ordained into the office of a bishop. Now when we go back to 1 Timothy chapter 3, the reason this was written from Paul to Timothy is that Timothy knows how he ought to behave himself, meaning that not only should you meet the qualifications to be ordained, but once you are ordained, you have to keep the qualifications. You have to keep living in that same behavior, that same character that once ordained you, you've got to maintain that in order to stay in the office. This basically proves that someone that is ordained as a pastor isn't going to necessarily be a pastor for his whole life. If a pastor messes up bad enough where he steps out of the qualifications, then he should be stood down. He should step down if he no longer meets the qualifications, he's become disqualified, because he's not carrying out the behavior that we see required from a pastor in 1 Timothy chapter 3. So let's start from verse number 1 now. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 1. And actually before we read verse number 1, like I said, the book of Timothy is for pastors. It's primarily for pastors. But if Paul is right to Timothy, you ought to behave yourself in a certain way in church. Timothy is learning about church behavior here. Don't you think then this is applicable to all? Because we're all the church, we're all part of the church, we're all part of New Life Baptist Church. Like we shouldn't turn around and say, well, the pastor should measure up to this and that in this list. But so should you. You know, we're all members of this same one church. You know, like for example, if you look at verse number 3, it says, Not given to wine. Should a church member be given to wine? No striker. Should our church members be strikers? Not greedy for fuel for Luca. Should our church members be greedy for fuel for Luca? But patient. Should our church members be impatient? Not a brawler. Should our church members be brawlers? Not covetous. Should our church members be covetous? You know, you should say no, of course. You know, the same things that we read there as far as the behavior of the pastor should be required or should be expected, should be something that we all strive for. And so even though we're looking at the qualifications and the behavior of the pastor, please don't let this go over your head. This is for you too. If you're going to behave yourself in the house of God, well, this gives you a great list that you ought to be working toward as well as an individual, even if you're never going to be a pastor one day. This should still be a requirement to have good behavior in the house of the Lord. So let's start there in verse number 1. It says, And as I already said, and I've proven this in the past, bishops, elders, pastors, it's the same office for the same man. There's just different titles for different roles that they play. The bishop, the term bishop is an overseer. He's given the oversight. We would use this today if you were working a job, we would say, this person is my supervisor. It's the same thing. The supervisor, he's got supervision over you, he's looking out, he's overseeing that situation. And so that's what the bishop represents, the overseer or the supervisor. Then you've got the elder, and why would we look at the word elder? Because an elder is someone that we would look at and say, well, he's got spiritual maturity, right? But I would also say, not just spiritual maturity, but I would also say that he ought to be someone who is of a decent age. He's aged up, he's not a child, obviously. He's an adult, he's been married, he's worked a job, he knows what life is about, he's experienced life. And so that elderness comes in his age as well. And then we have pastor, and we know that pastors are a shepherd. And the shepherd is required to lead and to feed the flock. And of course, you know, my goal is to lead you to heaven, ultimately, right? To live a holy life and a life that pleases the Lord, and to feed you God's work. So as you read, and as I preach, and I teach, that you can learn more about God's word. I'm not here to teach my wisdom, I'm here to feed you God's word. Let's keep going. Actually, the next thing I want to say, in verse number one, it says he desires a good work, okay? Being a bishop is work. And I've started to realize, as I'm in this role, more and more just how much of a work it is. It does take up a lot of my time, okay? You should never have the mentality, if someone wants to be a pastor one day, one of the men, says, you know what, maybe when I just get older, when I'm ready to no longer work my 9 to 5, Monday to Friday job, you know, maybe I'll become a pastor, you know, I'll sort of set my sights to retirement, you know, get an easy and cushy job, you know, just to settle down. And that's what I think, that's what some people think. I think some people really think that's what pastoring is like. That it's just this easy job, you know, you don't have to do that much, you just have to get up and preach and open your mouth a few times a week. No, no, it's much more than that, it is work, it is work, okay? And it's important, you know, because some people think that it's not right for a pastor to earn a living, like being a pastor alone should not be all that it does, that, you know, a pastor should also go and work some other job. Why should he go and work another job if being a pastor is a good work, okay? And so, look, I'm not against pastors working, you know, a pastor needs to provide for himself if the church is unable to meet those needs, yeah, he should have another job. When I started New Life Baptist Church, for the first two months I was working a part-time job, you know, and toward the end of those two months I travelled down to Sydney, trained someone else up into my position, I resigned and I went to being a full-time pastor. The reason for that, you know, obviously we had to settle down a little bit, I didn't know how we were going to manage financially, I was waiting for my property to get rented out so I could have that income, and so, yeah, I had a part-time job just making sure we had something coming through, so there's nothing wrong with working in of itself, but ideally if a pastor can take care of his needs and his family needs from the church, that's the ideal scenario because it is a good work. Verse number two, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach. Now, we've got a whole list of qualifications, I'm not going to spend time in any great detail going through every single one, I've actually preached an entire, I think it might be a four-part or five-part series on the qualifications of a bishop, so if you want the detail of every little point, you know, you can go back and listen to those sermons, I preached that during the men's leadership class, they're on our YouTube channel, but, you know, I'll just touch upon a few key things that we read about here. The first thing that gets brought up, and gets brought up many times, is the word blameless. What does it mean to be blameless? Well, the word blame means to find fault with, okay? Now, have we all been at fault for something? Absolutely. You know, every time we sin, we're at fault. You know, when we sin, we can't blame others, we can't even blame the devil when we sin. When we sin, we blame ourselves, and we sin every day. So this obviously does not mean sinless, okay? And we've got the word blameless here, and, you know, it's interesting, the Bible doesn't really go into any great depth of what blameless means. And I feel like sometimes people might want to take their own certain liberties and explain, from their point of view, what blameless is, and I understand that, because we don't get the detail, you know, in this passage. But let me share with you, you know, three ways that I understand this term blameless. What is it that would make someone blameless? Number one, the first thing that I would say, obviously, just in context of this whole chapter, number one, if he's disqualified himself from any of these qualifications, okay? I mean, he would not be blameless, right? Later on, we'll have a look that he's got to be the husband of one wife. So if he's been divorced, I would say he's not in a position where he can say, I'm blameless, okay, and he wouldn't be able to take on that offer. So I'd be looking at the qualifications, number one, just found within this chapter, and if he doesn't meet up to that, then we can't say that he's blameless, okay? The next thing that I look at, if you can turn to Philippians chapter 2 and verse number 14, Philippians chapter 2 and verse number 14, Philippians 2, 14, it reads, do all things without murmurings and disputings, okay? God does not want us to be murmurers, complainers, whiners, disputing, constantly in disputes with people in our church and just constantly, just that negative kind of person, you know? And if you know me as a pastor by now, you know I don't like murmuring and complaining, okay? I've got 11 kids. If my 11 kids were all murmuring and complaining every day, it would be a nightmare, all right? I don't like it, all right? I've trained my children not to murmur and complain. Now what does it, keep going to verse number 15. Verse number 15 says that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world. And so notice that here, is there an issue with the sermon at all? Or is that working just fine? Well, I'll keep going for now and see what happens, okay? I'm not sure if the sermon has stopped on line, but I'll keep going. And so you notice that in verse number 15 it says that ye may be blameless and harmless. So if you're murmuring, complaining, whining, you know, just you're that negative kind of person, you know, when people meet you, you know, you just bring people down, you're just always on the negative side of things, you're not blameless, okay? Because your actions are contagious, right? The way you behave and act are going to bring other people down. That's not how a pastor should be. A pastor should be motivated, right, trying to encourage the brethren to live a godly life and be positive minded and try to push the church forward for the kingdom of God. The kind of the negative, naysaying kind of person will just destroy the house of God, will just destroy people's lives. So that's the second thing that I look for, for blameless. Number one, that he obviously meets all the qualifications, okay? Number two, that he is not a whiner and complaining, like just a negative personality in the church. And the third thing that I would look at, and this is, I guess, you know, I'm adding my own thoughts here, but I believe this is important, that he is not someone who has committed a sin worthy of death. That's what I would look at, right? This man has not been, for example, an adulterer in the past, okay? He's not been a murderer, okay? And of course, we know that the punishment from God for such sins as murder and adultery is the death sentence, all right? So if we had godly laws in our nation, these people would be put to death. And of course, we wouldn't ordain someone who's dead. So, you know, this is the third thing that I would be looking at, that making sure that this person has not committed a sin worthy of death. And then this is a person that I would consider blameless. And, you know, if he desires to be a bishop one day, hey, you can start working toward those things. The other thing that was mentioned in his passage was the husband of one wife. Now, I'll just address this in a different way. Obviously, I don't believe a man that's been divorced and remarried should be a pastor or a bishop. You know, I'm not saying a man who's been remarried is disqualified. You know, of course, if his first wife, unfortunately, has passed away and he gets remarried, he didn't get divorced but he got remarried in the proper way, then, you know, I would still consider that man the husband of one wife, all right? But I've been challenged to kind of think about de facto relationships on this issue, de facto relationships, because, you know, our country, Australia, and there are different laws for different countries, but, you know, if you've lived together, like, you know, in fornication, a man and a woman in a fornication relationship for a long time, living together, our nation will basically view that couple almost in the same sense as a marriage. Like, from a legal status, they basically have the same kind of rights as anybody that is married. And some people consider that, well, that's marriage. You know, if I've been in a de facto relationship, that should also be marriage. And so, you know, the thought would be there, well, what about if a man in his past, you know, was in a de facto relationship, hey, maybe even had kids together in that scenario, you know, and then later on, he realises this is wrong, gets out of that. Later in his life, he gets married and follows God's commands and does things the right way. Would I consider that guy disqualified? Well, no. And I'll explain to you why that is. And I've had to, again, I've been challenged with this kind of question a few times. And let me just go over why that is. Because, again, it said the husband of one wife. And if you look at what a husband is, what is the definition of a husband, a husband is a married man. What is a wife? A wife is a married woman, okay, a married man, a married woman. What is marriage? Well, marriage is obviously the union between that man and woman, but it is entered in through a wedding, okay, a wedding ceremony. Of course, the Bible uses the word marriage, uses the word wedding, even the word wedlock is found in the Bible, okay. Now, when you consider the word wedding, I'm not sure if you're all aware of wedlock, that term wed for wedding, wedlock, basically that means to pledge oneself a covenant to do something or a vow, okay. To pledge oneself a covenant to do something or a vow. And so a husband and a wife are ones that have been wedded, okay. They've pledged themselves one to another till death do us part. They have made vows, you know, before other witnesses. When other witnesses can testify this took place and this is a wedded couple and that wedded couple is a husband and a wife. And so this should not include any kind of de facto living girlfriend, living boyfriend situations of the past, you know, that they've repented from and they no longer, you know, they've cleaned up their life, they're no longer doing that. I would say a man that has done that in the past would still meet the qualifications to be the husband of one wife. I would say that he is to blame now, okay. I would still say this man is blameless. Now, look, I can't, obviously as a pastor, I can't factor in every scenario, every situation. You know, there are so many messed up, you know, situations and families and unions and breakups and, you know, divorce and stepdads and stepmoms and there's a variety of things that can exist obviously in the world and I can't factor in every scenario. Just as a general rule of thumb, you know, I would happily, you know, ordain a man if he meets all the qualifications. As long as the husband of one wife, okay, but he may have made some mistakes in the past, I would happily still ordain that man. But I would just say one other thing, you know, and here's the situation, right. When these things generally happen, when someone's been living in a de facto relationship and they, you know, usually they get saved and then they know the truth of God's word and so after they get saved, they realise the mistakes and now they realise they stuffed up and they want to serve God and do what is right. But then, you know, there might be another scenario where somebody's already saved, someone that's already a brother, a member in the church, he knows what the Bible says, he knows the Bible's against fornication, he knows the Bible is not in favour of de facto relationships and, you know, regardless of God's word, he still goes out and lives that kind of lifestyle, right, you know, and then later he goes, he turns around and says, well, now I want to be a pastor. You know, maybe he marries that woman that he had de facto relationship with. Well, at that point of view, you know, from that perspective, then I would say no, right. You knew God's word, like you got to a situation where you've turned away from God's word on purpose, knowing what it says, you're not just like an ignorant worldly person in the past, right. You've known God's word, you've turned against God and now you want to be a pastor, you know. So again, you would have to, you know, look at every scenario. As long as we line up with God's word, right, we're not contradicting the word of God. As long as we're not contradicting God's word, you know, different scenarios might play out a little bit differently and so that's why, you know, I'm glad the Bible doesn't give us every scenario at hand because then the Bible would just be filled with all these kind of scenarios that might develop in someone's life. And so anyway, that's what I believe. Let's keep going. Verse number three, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy or filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. So this is someone obviously not given to wine, I would say it's a man that doesn't drink alcohol, okay. No striker, he's not someone that goes on the attack to tear people down, not greedy or filthy lucre, right. His life is not centered around finances and money and how much money can he make. His life is centered on what he can do for Jesus Christ and the kingdom of Christ, laying up his treasures in heaven, all right. Not a patient, not a brawler, it's obviously someone that doesn't get into physical fistfights, not covetous, that's self-explanatory. Verse number four, one that ruleth well his own house. This is so critical. One that ruleth, why does he need to rule his own house? Well, he's got to be a husband, he's got to have kids because it says having his children in subjection with all gravity. Why is that so important? Because in verse number five it says, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? So what God is saying is if someone has not proven himself as a husband, a father, a family man, he's not ready to take on the responsibility as a bishop. He's not going to be able to rule the house of God, okay. And it is ruling, okay. Being a pastor is someone that has authority. You've got authority in the house of God. And a father, a husband, is also someone that rules well his own house. He's got authority. You know, it's not 50-50, it's not 50% authority the man, 50% authority the wife. That's not the case. It's 100% authority that the husband has, he's the head of his wife. And if he rules well, how's that going to look? If he rules well, his wife will be in subjection to him, his kids will honor him, all right. When he commands his children, you're going to see them, that they obey their father, you know. And so this is, you need to keep this in mind. If someone wants to be a pastor one day, that you've got your house in order. If you haven't got your house in order and you become a pastor, well the house of God's not going to be in order. It's going to fall apart, okay. And so it's so important that this person is someone that has authority, knows how to lead, and people, his wife, his kids, are willing to get behind that leader, you know, support that leader. If the wife and kids can't get behind him, how's the rest of the church going to get behind him? So it's so important that this person rules well his own house. And I'll quickly read to you Hebrews 13, 17. It says, You know, I hope you realize that as a church pastor, I'm not this hard task master, right. I'm not trying to put heavy burdens on people's back and huge responsibilities. You know, if you come to church, generally speaking, I'm going to organize. Well right now I'm far away in Sydney, but you know, generally speaking, I'm trying to organize as much as I can. Why? Because I'm the servant. I'm the minister, right. And if I ask you to help out or do this or that, you know, please be willing to assist, be willing to minister and be a help to the local church. Obey them to have the rule of faith. It's going to be profitable for you. When we stand before Jesus Christ and I'm able to speak of our church and speak of the people in church, I want you to be greatly rewarded for being just a good, faithful, obedient member of New Life Baptist Church. Verse number six, not a novice. So the idea of a novice, that would be the opposite of an elder, right. A novice is new, new to the faith, or young, young person. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Why was the devil condemned? You may remember that he was the anointed cherub. He rebelled against God. He was full of pride. He wanted to be like the Most High. So when you see a pastor that gets pumped up full of pride, and he lifts himself up, and maybe he lifts himself up even above the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, and he's there to be that difficult taskmaster. He's there to try to have the preeminence in the church house. Well then you can mark it down, this person was a novice. Why was he put in this situation? And quite often, just like the devil was cast out of heaven onto the earth and ultimately held, these novice pastors will also be cast down from their positions. They'll become disqualified, disgruntled, and they'll step themselves out of those positions of authority. Verse number seven. Moreover, he must have a good report. This is so important. You know, this is the one that I think people need to really think about the most. This says moreover, meaning that this is even more important. Moreover, he must have a good report of them that are without. So not them that are within, that's within the church, no, those that are without. A good report is a good reputation. Because people can come to church and maybe for the few hours that we're together in church and fellowship, they can show themselves to be great and wonderful and loving, but when they step out of the door, they might just be horrible people. They might be horrible employees. They might have come from churches in the past and been a horrible church member. And so it's so important that these people have a good report of them that are without. Meaning that if someone wants to be a pastor one day, you know, and you want to be that pastor one day, I'm going to ring your employers. I'm going to ask you for a list of employers. I'm going to ask you a list for your pastors and I'm going to call them and I'm going to ask them, what is he like without? What is he like in the workplace? What was he like as a church member in your previous churches? And I've always said it and I'll say it again. If anyone wants to call and ask about me, any of my employers, you know, any of my pastors in the past, I will happily give you their names and numbers. You can call them. I have complete confidence, complete confidence that they're going to say, yep, he had a good reputation in whatever area he served. I have no doubt about that whatsoever. The rest of verse number seven says, Lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Verse number eight, likewise must the deacons be grave. And now we're dealing with deacons. So they must be grave. Now, what is a deacon? The word deacon means a servant, a servant. And this deacon is another office that can be held in the church. And if we look at the Bible, we realize that deacons came to play when the one having the higher authority, whether they were apostles or pastors, needed assistance. Now, I still don't believe at this point in time that we really need a deacon. We may need a deacon. I can kind of see the development of a deacon might need to develop, especially for down in Sydney, for example, when I head back up to New Life Baptist Church, we may need someone to eventually take up that office. But I feel that at the moment, as a pastor, because it is good work, because I do talk to my church members and I get contacted and I have to prepare sermons and pray for the members, etc., that I feel like I'm handling things just fine. I can still be there as a good husband, a loving husband. I can still be there with my children. I feel like I have a pretty good balance. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm sure there are things that I can adjust here and there. But generally speaking, I feel like with two churches, with, I don't know, what are we all together, maybe over 100 people, we've got it together. And I don't really feel like I'm stressed. I don't really feel like things are being left out of, like anything that's majorly important is being disregarded. But if our church continued to grow, as it were, I might need the deacon. So it's not like every church just needs deacons. The deacons are there to help a pastor. And I personally believe that the deacon should also be a paid position. It might be hourly to begin with. It might be eventually a full-time position. Because, again, I'm looking at just my own experience. I feel like we're doing just fine. I feel like if we had 100 people, let's say I wasn't a pastor of Blessed or Baptist Church. I was just pastoring New Life Baptist Church. Let's say we got to 100 people in that church. I feel like I could manage that just fine, because when I look at the two churches, I'm doing that right now, about 100 people. And then I've got the travel in between. So imagine removing the travel, I'm just pastoring New Life Baptist Church full-time, I feel like with 100 people, I'll be just fine. And I'm able to earn from that, people faithfully giving the tithes, I'm able to earn myself something that can help me take care of my family. I feel like if it got larger, like to 150 maybe, maybe even 200 people eventually, then obviously the resources and the finances will increase in the church, so would the responsibilities. And at that point I can see why I would need a deacon maybe to help me organize things, maybe take care of the administrative tasks. And because there is a higher amount of resource and finances, then that deacon can also be put on a wage. And so many times, many churches they've got people they refer to as assistant pastors, okay. But really that assistant pastor is really operating more like a deacon. He's there to be the right-hand man to the pastor to help him out, making sure that things in the church are not being neglected. And so I truly believe the Office of a Deacon is a really important office, and maybe something, maybe being pastor is not for everybody, but maybe being a deacon is something that you can hope to achieve one day. Verse number eight, likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given too much wine, not greedy for filthy lucre. And again, the filthy lucre gets brought up a couple of times, and this is because, you know, finances are given to church and, you know, as a church we've been growing, every year our finances are going higher and higher and higher. You know, you can be handling large sums of money, and it's no surprise that many pastors in the past have stolen money from the church, okay. So, you know, we don't want that kind of person, this is why it's so much better, you know, before you become a pastor, before you become a deacon, that you've already shown yourself to be a hard-working man, you've shown yourself to be able to provide, you know, you've got your finances together, so when you are handling church money it's not like you're just going to be tempted and drawn to it and steal it. You know, we don't want those kinds of people. I don't want someone that has basically just come out of high school going to Bible college and now he wants to take an office as a deacon or a pastor. I don't want that person. I would much rather he go out and work a job for a while, okay, and become an elder, you know, start gaining experience before he steps into a position as a deacon or a pastor. The other thing that's mentioned in verse number eight, which I think is quite interesting to think about, when it says, the deacons be grave, not double-tongued. Now, we often think of the word double-tongued as a backstabber, and yeah, you know, it can, it does relate to that, of course, but when I think about why it's referred to this double-tongued for the deacon there, you know, I'm reminded of the times when I've been like a middle manager, where I've got, you know, I've been working a job and I've got, I'm a manager, I've got authority, okay, but I've got a manager above me and then I have staff under me, and you're kind of like that, you're sandwiched in the middle there, right, and, you know, many times my manager, for example, would want to do certain things, operate a certain way, and I would not like it. Like, I would not necessarily agree with how they wanted to do that job or operate, you know, that day. And, you know, and then, like, my manager would put it on me, basically to guide and instruct the staff to carry out what he wishes, but I'm not in agreement with it. So, I found that many times. So, what happens when you're not in agreement, right? I'm not in agreement with what, and so, let me just quickly say, what I would do, what I would normally do in that situation, I would go to my manager and ask for a meeting, just a short meeting, five minutes, ten minutes, and say, look, I just, before we do X, Y, and Z, I just want to share my concerns. And usually if you do that, they're happy to hear, okay? And I'll share my concerns and I'll say, look, this is, I think it's going to cause problems here or there. I recommend we do it this way. And then I would always end like this. I would say, Bat, at the end of the day, you're in charge, boss, right? You know, I respect whatever decision you want, as long as it's not wicked or sinful, right? But I respect whatever decision you want to take. You know, I'm not saying that, you know, I'm angry at you or anything. You know, if you want me to do it this way, I'll do it this way, but I just feel a lot better now that I've been able to share my concerns with you, okay? And so, sometimes they'll take on board what I've said, and they'll change, and they'll do things my way. Praise God when that happens. Sometimes they'll be like, no, you know, thank you for sharing for your concerns, but we're doing it my way. And I'll be like, fine, boss, all right? Then I have to go to my staff and teach them and explain to them the changes and what we're doing, and I've got to do that even though within me, I don't really want to do it this way, okay? And so what I think can happen is that's kind of what the deacon becomes, because the deacon is taking on an office, he's an assistant to the bishop, and he might be stuck in the middle there, right? He's helping out in the church, but really he's trying to carry out the instructions of the bishop. And sometimes the deacon may not see eye to eye with the pastor, okay? So we don't want that person, like in an employment situation, where I'm going, I'm teaching the staff, yeah, I'm telling the staff, yeah, we've got to do it this way, do it this way, do it this way. I mean, yeah, I know it's horrible, I know it's rubbish, I don't like the idea either. You know, I've really told the boss what I felt about it, but, you know, you know, can't change his mind and, you know. No, that would be double tongued, right? I've gone to my boss and I've said, hey, boss, yeah, we'll do it. Then I go to the staff and I complain about the boss. That would be double tongued, that would be like backstabbing my boss, right? And so I think that can happen with a deacon. I think this is why it's listed in here as an issue for deacons, because they've got to try to have that balance. We're not always going to be in agreement. Deacons and bishops are not always going to agree, but the one that has the higher office is the bishop. Remember, he's the overseer, he's above the church, you know, the reign of the church, and so the bishop sometimes, yeah, he can share his concerns, but hey, if the pastor doesn't want to do it that way, he's going to have to just eat humble pie and carry out the wishes of the pastor without being double tongued and bag out the pastor, you know, because he disagrees with this or that. So that's what I think of. I think of double tongued as someone in meal management, struggling to be the meat in the sandwich, as it were, okay? Verse number nine, verse number nine, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And this is another one that's very, very important to me. I've said it many times. It's so important for me as a pastor, and even when I was serving as a deacon at Victory Baptist Church, that I have a pure conscience, that I have a clean conscience before God, that whatever I do, you know, I'm doing it for the Lord and I'm doing the best I can. I'm not trying to cheat anybody or cause any problems. And, you know, when I preach doctrine, I want to know, I want to be sure that I'm 100% confident in what I'm preaching. You know, sometimes I hear doctrines from other preachers and I think, yeah, that's good doctrine, but I just can't ground myself in that teaching from the Word of God. And maybe eventually I will ground myself from the Word of God as time goes on, but sometimes I'm just not and I just can't be convinced. And you know what? I don't want to preach something out of pressure because that's what people expect or that's what people want. And I want to have a clean conscience. I want to make sure that whatever I preach, that I've established myself there in God's Word, that I'm staying true to the convictions that I have through His Word and that I maintain that clean and pure conscience. Man, if I defiled my conscience as a part, I'd rather step down. I'd really rather just step down. This is God's business. This is God's house. It's too important for me to stuff up and mess up, okay, and not have that clear conscience. But the deacon here is asked to be holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And I do believe what this is referring to, I've preached it before, that this is referring to his knowledge. He's holding the mystery of the faith, meaning that he is also not just a man that can organise things and is good with administrative tasks, but he's also someone that knows the Bible well, okay? He knows the mysteries of the Bible. He can expand on the mysteries, you know? He's someone that can get behind the pulpit as well if the pastor needs him to preach as well. And so I do believe that's what verse number 9 is referring to. Verse number 10. And let these also first be proved. So it's important that they get proved, okay? We need to make sure that this person that becomes a deacon has been serving faithfully in the church before he takes on the office, all right? He must first be proved. Then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless, okay? They must first be proven in the church. Now let me ask you something. If it's important for a deacon to first be proved in the church before he takes on an office, wouldn't you say it's even more important that a pastor, a bishop, is also first proved in the church before he's made a bishop, okay? It's so important that if you want to be a pastor one day, that you don't just go and start your own church, you don't just give yourself the title, I'm a pastor. No, you have to first be proved, okay? You have to show yourself to be someone that loves the Lord, that loves the church, that loves the brethren, that is able to serve, you know, sacrificially. You're given of yourself, of your time to be a faithful help in the local church, and as time develops, people are going to see, hey, that you stand out. You stand out above, you know, the other members of the congregation. And then, hey, you're going to have the whole church behind you. The whole church is going to want to see you one day take on an office, an important office such as a deacon or a pastor. Let's keep going. Verse number 11, please. It says, Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. So you notice once again, the deacon as well, he's required to have a family, right? Wives and children, you'll soon see that. But their wives are to be grave, they're to be serious, not slanderers, not slanderers. What is slander? A slanderer is one that goes around defaming another's reputation. Now, look, ladies, I love you, okay? If you're a lady in that church, a member of that church, I love you. If you're a lady that's listening to this online, I love you, all right? I love you in Christ. I'm not trying to have a go at the ladies, all right? But again, in my experience in churches, this is a problem with a lot of ladies. The slandering, the gossiping, trying to pull people away and making those people look down on other individuals, right? You got a bit of dirt on somebody and it could be true, it could be false, we don't know. You got a little bit of dirt on somebody and you just need, there's just that sinful nature, that need to tell someone else and show them how bad someone else is. All the while, you've got your own sins racked up as well. And this is slander. When you're trying to destroy someone's reputation, let me just say something right now. We all have dirt, okay? We've all messed up. We all have something you can point out. Yes, even this pastor, all right? I mean, if you were able to get a list of all my sins, I'm sure you're going to turn around and say, man, this guy probably shouldn't be a pastor. Yeah, if we looked at everybody's sins, yeah, that's going to be the case. You want to just go around slandering people for some wrongdoing, all right? And for some reason, in my experience in churches, ladies just seem to be attracted to slander like a magnet, all right? And so obviously we don't want the pastor's wife and definitely not the deacon's wife as well being a slanderer, going around turning people, turning ladies against another lady, turning families against other families. That is not acceptable, all right? And that person would not be considered for the role. Again, why? Because the man is to rule over his house, all right? If his wife likes the gossip and the slander, it's his responsibility to make sure he's got control over his wife's tongue. Verse number 12. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, there it is again, one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well, okay? So he's going to be a family man, one wife, not divorced and remarried, okay? One wife, not just married, ruling their children and their own houses well. Remember when we were looking at the pastor, the bishop, it said that he's ruling, that also he's got to rule over his house and he's got to rule over the house of God. Well, the fact that the deacon has also been, it's important for the deacon to be a ruler, I believe this is basically reinforcing the fact that the deacon has some authority, some accountability in the church as well, okay? As far as the tasks that the deacon is responsible for, he ought to be ruling over that task. He ought to be managing those tasks. And again, that he's to be proven, not just in the church, but also in his family, that he's guiding his family, right? Everyone can see, hey, his wife is submissive, his children are listening to the parents there, he's got his household in order, and when you see that, hey, that's another good qualification, I guess, for a man to take on the office of a deacon. Let's keep going, verse number 13. 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 so being a deacon is something that we should attain for. Hopefully, if the need comes up one day, it's something that is achieved, because you're purchasing themselves, the one that becomes that person, a good degree. We think about the word degree, I know we think about universities, and when it comes to education, we say, hey, did you get a degree? You know, the word degree has to do with like a measurement or a level. That's why we say it's 20 degrees today. It's a certain measurement, a certain level. And so when you've attained a degree, you're saying, I've reached a certain level in my education. Well, hey, if you become a deacon, you've also purchased to yourself a good degree. You've risen up at a spiritual level, right? You've shown yourself to be someone who's faithful, you kind of stand out above the average church member, and not for pride's sake, but simply because, hey, you love the Lord and you're serving the Lord, you're serving the church, and so you've purchased to yourself that good degree and great boldness. You see, if you become a deacon, it's going to help you become more bold for God, because you're more involved in his church. You're going to be more aware of what takes place behind the scenes, you're going to be helping the pastor, you might even find yourself in spiritual battles that you didn't find yourself in before, and so you develop that boldness, that faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's keep going, verse number 17. These things write I unto you, hoping to come unto thee shortly. So the way we need to read verse number 14 is pause the siren to come and see Timothy soon, all right, because it says I hope it's come unto thee shortly, but then these things write unto you in the case that he doesn't come shortly, okay? It's basically what he's saying, because then he says in verse number 15, But if I tarry along, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. So the reason I'm really writing this is in case I do tarry along, I can't see you face to face, Timothy, that you know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, and yes, pastors need to behave themselves, all right? I was joking around with Brother Les down here in Sydney, and he goes, you know, before the service starts, you know, you're just down to earth, getting along with everybody, and then when you get up behind the pulpit, it's like a switch takes place, and you're like this professional preacher, this professional pastor, you know, just behind the pulpit kind of thing. Yeah, you know what, I'm putting myself in that, oh yeah, I'm taking on the office, I'm stepping in right now in the church, you know, we've got to take things seriously, it's God's house, we need to do things decently and in order, we want to love the Lord, we want to make sure that we praise him, we don't want to make sure, you know, yeah, I love to joke around, I love to play around, but you know, when it comes to the house of God, we take things seriously, we're there to praise and worship our Lord God, and yeah, maybe there is a bit of a switch that takes place, but it's still me, you know, I'm not any different, I'm still the same person, right, behind the pulpit, or even when I step down, I'm still the same person, you know, when you see me behind the pulpit, of course, it's like, you know, dealing with my friends or with my children, and then I go to work, of course I'm going to behave a little bit differently in the workplace, right, I'm not going to be rolling around wrestling my work colleagues the way I might roll around and wrestle with my children or something like that, right, so different places requires different behaviour, and so a pastor needs to make sure not only that he measures up to these qualifications to become a pastor, but that he maintains these qualifications, okay, in his life, and if he doesn't maintain it, he needs to step down, you know, I respect pastors when they get to a point, you know, it's not a bad disqualification, but when they realise, hey, you know what, I no longer measure up and they step down, you know, I don't have any respect for pastors that don't measure up, the kids don't care about the Lord, right, their wives are clearly not submissive to them, you know, they're not apt to teach, they don't have the skills and they just want to retain the office, I don't have any respect for those kinds of people, I have much more respect for the pastor that's willing to say, hey, you know what, I don't measure up anymore and I need to step down, and so it's important that pastors behave themselves in the house of God, verse number 15 keeps going by saying, which is the church, what is the house of God in the New Testament? It is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, okay, this is the place that you're to come to and hear the truth, okay, turn on the news media, the mainstream media, you're not going to get the truth, you'll get some elements of the truth, but there's always going to be a little bit of poison, there's always going to be a bit of lies, I mean, I've seen so many lies over the last year coming out of mainstream media, okay, and again, let me remind you, the source of truth is not YouTube, the source of truth is not the internet, it is not Bitchute, or whatever alternative media sites there are, okay, it's not that either, again, they might have elements of truth as well, but I'm telling you, they're tainted with lies, the source of truth is God's word, and this is why it's so important if the church is going to be the pillar and ground of truth, that we're preaching God's word, to make sure that it's true, all right, and this is the place, you want truth, church is the place that you need to come to, to hear the truth, we hear the truth of God's word, you may not like it, hey, sometimes I may not like it as a pastor, right, because we're still striving to work ourselves to that perfect man, striving ourselves to work toward being like the Lord Jesus Christ, and sometimes the flesh gets a bit angry, the flesh doesn't like it, okay, but the new man loves the truth, the spirit of God that endures a believer, loves the truth, the reason you've been coming to church for the past four years is because within you, there's someone, the new man, the new creature, that just loves the truth, brethren, that's the reality of it, and so it's so important that the pastor preaches the truth. I also like the fact that it's called the pillar and ground of truth, and again, the fact that it's called the pillar, it points back to all the other houses of God that existed in the past. So let's just do a quick summary, I know I've preached on this before, but I think it's interesting, I really like comparing the house of God one to another, because the more we know about historical houses of God, the more we kind of understand the importance of our New Testament church. So please keep your finger there and go to Genesis 28, go to Genesis 28, verse number 16, Genesis 28 and verse number 16, Genesis 28, verse number 16, and I might need to hurry up, Genesis 28, verse 16, it says, And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. Remember that dream that Jacob had? Verse number 17, And he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God. This is the first house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. We ought to look at our church and say, hey, this is the gate of heaven. When people need to know how to get saved, they need to hear the gospel, we ought to be that gate of heaven as it were, that we're coming in and showing people how you enter into the gates of heaven. Verse number 18, And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. So notice the first house of God has this pillar, and he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Lazat I. Bethel means the house of the Lord. Go to Exodus 26, go to Exodus 26 and verse number 31, Exodus 26, 31, the next house of God was the tabernacle, the tabernacle, which contained the Ark of the Covenant. And I'll quickly show you here in Exodus 26, we're looking at the interior of the tabernacle in Exodus 26, verse number 31, it says, And thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen of cunning work, with cherubims shall it be made, and thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittem wood overlaid with gold, their hooks shall be of gold upon the four sockets of silver. So notice the interior of the tabernacle, the house of God here, had pillars, drop down to verse number 36, and thou shalt make a hang-in for the door of the tent, so now this is the entrance or the outward of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen wrought with needlework, and thou shalt make it for a hang-in five pillars of shittem wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold, and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them. So notice the tabernacle had pillars at the door and had pillars on the inside. I'll quickly read to you from 1 Kings 7.21, now the next house of God was of course the temple. The temple replaced the tabernacle. And it says in 1 Kings 7.21, And he set up pillars in the porch of the temple, and he set up the right pillar and called the name thereof Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and called the name thereof Boaz, and if you understand the meaning of the name Jachin and Boaz, they're basically very similar, it means strength, to be established. And so the pillar is a place of strength. If we want to get stronger for the Lord, we need to be in the house of God, we need to be the place that's called the pillar and ground of truth. And sometimes there are passages in the Bible where we talk about certain church members that are referred to as pillars in the church. What are we trying to strengthen? Do we need physical pillars? No. We're trying to turn the people of God into strong pillars. We want to turn the people of God into Boaz's or Jachin's, right? People that were faithfully serving God and strong and faithful for the Lord. Let's go back to 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. It ends with this. It seems almost out of place, verse 16. It says that without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. And so it says here, great is the mystery of godliness, so we learn what the mystery of godliness is with all these things that are mentioned in verse 16. And of course, it's all referencing Jesus Christ. Now, before I go into what that all is, I want you to notice at the beginning of verse 16, that says, and without controversy. So what is controversy? Controversy is dispute or contention. So this, this story of Jesus, that He came to this world, that He died on the cross for us, rose again, ascended up to heaven, this whole story is without controversy. It's without dispute. It's accepted by the whole world, is what I'm saying to you, brethren. Our calendar affirms Christ. When we talk about the calendar being BC, we say that was a time before Christ. When we say our calendar today is AD, we say it's the year of the Lord. Our calendar, every time someone writes the date, every day, every time, someone asks, what's the date today? We're saying, hey, how long has it been since Christ? We say it's 2021. It's been 2021 since Christ has come to this world. Our whole world is centered upon Christ. It's without controversy. People that say, I don't believe there was a man named Jesus. I don't believe it really existed. You know what? It's without controversy. Everybody knows. Everybody knows. This is why we have so many churches that proclaim the name of Christ, whether they're saved, rather than being saved, but even unsaved people, or even the Roman Catholic Church, right? Even the Russian Orthodox Church and even the Protestant churches, they all claim the name of Christ. It's without controversy. We all know about it. There are so many witnesses of Christ's life that has generated these latter days that we live in, we constantly hear about Christ. Even Hollywood has pumped out movies about Jesus Christ. Hollywood! It's without controversy, even in Hollywood. I'm not saying that those movies are good, usually contrary to the Bible, but I'm just saying, people know. Even false religions, even religions that do not claim Christ, they're still forced to acknowledge Christ. Buddhists still have to acknowledge Christ. Muslims, Islam have to acknowledge Christ. What else? Hinduism, they acknowledge Christ. The whole world knows about Jesus Christ. We don't have to be ashamed of His name. But we should be bold because we have the truth. We are the pillar and ground of the truth. What is the mystery of godliness? Well, God was manifest in the flesh. So this proves the deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, yes, but He's also God. He's God, alright? God in three persons. Justified in the Spirit. What could that mean? Well, I tend to think about the fact that the Holy Spirit bore record of what Christ has done. For example, John chapter 1 verse 32 says, And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. So we have witnesses that saw the Holy Spirit fall upon Christ. Christ says in Luke 4 18, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Christ says, look, all the works that I did, I did it through the power of the Holy Spirit. The fact that He could do these miracles, testify that He was justified of the Spirit. Then to the scene of angels. I believe this refers to the heavenly hosts. I know the word angel can mean messenger. And some people might say, well, that could be pastors or the disciples that saw Jesus Christ. I do believe it's referring to the heavenly host here because we had angels at the birth of Christ. They were there announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds. In Mark 1 13, it says, And He was there in the wilderness forty days. I'm sorry, I'm reading the wrong passage. But we know the story of the angels testifying of the birth of Christ. And then even after Christ was tempted of the devil, you may recall at the end of that temptation period, at the end of the forty days of His fasting, it says in Mark 1 13, And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beast. And then it says, And the angels ministered unto Him. So the angels were involved as well in the work of Christ that He had on this earth. It then goes on, the mystery of Godliness goes on to say, Preach unto the Gentiles. Yeah, amen. This is why we're saved today. This is why there's the gospel of Christ in Australia today. This is why we're all saved today. Praise God. The Great Commission to preach the gospel to every creature. You know, including the Gentiles. Jesus Christ did not just come for the Jews, as is incorrectly taught by many people. No, He came for the Gentiles as well. Preached unto the Gentiles. Then it says, As I said, everybody has heard the name of Christ. Everybody knows some element of Christ, right? Believed on in the world. You know, there's somebody in every nation on this earth that believes on Christ, that is saved. You know, we have brothers and sisters in every country in this world. The Bible says in Revelation 7, 9, After this I beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people. You know, it's because some nations have different kindreds, have different people, right? Well, not just the nations, but even every, you know, ethnic group within that nation, right? Of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne. All tongues. Every language that's spoken, there's someone that speaks that language that believes in Jesus. Stood before the throne, before the Lamb, clothing white robes and palms in their hands. And then it ends in verse number 16 by saying, Received up into glory. And so the body of Christ did not remain on this earth. He was resurrected. He ascended up to heaven. He's on the right hand of the Father. We serve a risen Saviour. Amen? We serve a living God. Jesus Christ is involved in our lives today. He cares about our life today. He's not some false, sorry, he's not some dead, you know, man. He's not some dead God that we worship. He's a living and true God who's interested in our lives. Now, as I said, verse number 16 almost sounds like, what does that have to do with the deacon and all that? And the bishops and et cetera. Well, you know, we need to tie this back into verse number 15 because the church once again was the pillar and ground of truth. And so what is church about? Church is about preaching the mystery of God in us. Church ought to be about Jesus Christ. Church, the job of the pastor and the deacon is to help people know more about Jesus. Church ought to be all about Jesus Christ, you know. Colossians 1 18 says, And he, speaking of Jesus, is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. Christ comes first. He has the preeminence and new life of the church, not pastor Kevin, not any of the other men. It's all about Jesus. We come to church to learn about Jesus and what Jesus expects from us, what he wants us to be, what he wants us to become. This is what church should be all about, centered on Jesus Christ. And so, brethren, I hope you love your church. I hope you love new life of the church. It is the pillar and ground of truth. You know, God has given us a bishop myself, you know, not that I'm a great man, but God has used a weak man to further his work and further his kingdom. You know, get behind your pastor. You know, please obey. Don't make my life difficult. I want to have a good report of you when we get to heaven. I want you to be blessed by God and receive great riches. And I hope if there's someone in our church that one day wants to be a deacon, wants to be a pastor, that you start working toward these behaviors that we see here, these qualifications. And if you have no desire to take on that office, well, still, hey, you have to behave in the house of God, amen? So I hope there's something that you can take out of this sermon today. Let's pray.