Let's pray for the Lord's blessing now on our time in his word. Father, we thank you for giving us the words of eternal life. May we receive their truth with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Please turn your Bible to 1 Timothy chapter three. 1 Timothy chapter three, verses one through seven. Again, and we're gonna look at each of the verses. Attributes there that are separated by commas, and there's a lot in each of them this morning. 1 Timothy 3 verses 1 through 7, this is God's word. It is a trustworthy statement if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. Not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? And not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. May God bless the reading of this holy word. This will be the third message on deacons from God's Word to you this morning. There will be one more next week on deacons. We're gonna cover deacons. The attributes required for deacons are very similar to those for elder, with one exception, that elders are to be able to teach. But we're gonna see also that deacons have a lot of opportunities to do teaching. And in fact, the longest sermon in Acts was preached not by an apostle or an elder, but by a deacon named Stephen. As deacons have a lot of contact with church members, they need to be able to teach others as well. And we've seen in the previous two weeks the following essentials regarding the work and qualifications of elders. First, they must hold fast and be immovable in their commitment to the written word of God. They must exhort with sound doctrine and be willing to refute all opposition to sound doctrine. Why do they have to do that? Because the scriptures tell us there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, progressives, liberals, heretics, legalists, smooth talkers, and big personalities who want fame and followers, who market themselves well, and they'll teach false gospels to get followers. all the while assuring their victims that they are orthodox and reformed and love the truth and are social conservatives and etc. There are many such men at any moment. Elders have to be able and willing to refute and to answer them with meekness and reverence. Elders must also rebuke unrighteousness and wickedness in the church. Remember where Titus was supposed to appoint elders on the island of Crete and the people there were evil beasts, lazy gluttons, they were liars. And he told them, you're gonna have to rebuke them sharply. The elder must also defend Christian liberty of conscience from the intrusion of Jewish fables, as he told Titus in Titus one, but also American fables and Tennessee fables and Appalachian fables and the commandments of men that are not found in scripture. Elders have to defend Christian liberty. And if elders are married, they can only be married to one woman. No polygamists are allowed. He has to be able to teach the Bible and to teach the doctrines of the Bible to people with clarity. Elders are not allowed to be confusing. They're not allowed to be confusing. They cannot be wordsmiths. They cannot be ambiguous. The mark of a good elder will be the clarity with which they speak and the understanding that they bring to the doctrines of the Bible. They must be able to teach, okay? They cannot just sound deep, okay? Because someone can sound really deep and not actually teach you anything. They can't just sound profound or confusing, but actually teach. The elder must manage his home well. If he's married, he needs to have a sweet and loving marriage. He has got to be good at that. He's got to be good at being a husband. He also has to have a good reputation with people outside the church, with the world of unbelievers that he lives and works among. He has integrity in his business dealings and his word can be taken at face value. He has consistent character everywhere he is. That's what we've already covered. This morning, we're going to look in more detail at each of the attributes that are listed in first 73, one through seven, as they are extremely important. That's a lot here we didn't address in the first two messages on this. So let's go ahead and plow right into it. Look at first one there. I've given you an outline of each of the attributes there. as they're translated in the New American Standard, but I've also provided some other translations for you there. Verse one, it is a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. Okay, now this text here is not praising the aspiration to office on the part of a man. It's praising the office itself. Being a bishop, being an elder requires sacrifice. And it's very hard. It's sometimes very painful. And it's often lonely. It's not saying, if you aspire, it's good that you aspire to it. It's not saying that at all. It's saying the work that you aspire to do, if you do desire to be an overseer, is a worthy work. It is a fine work. Anyone who is nominated for the office, however, does need to desire to do it. Bear in mind, when the Holy Spirit breathed this forth through his pen that he was writing with, being an elder is a fine work. It was a fine work then, it's a fine work now, it's a good work. But back then, especially, it was dangerous to be an elder. It meant you were a marked person in this culture. the martyr Polycarp. You may recall, if you've ever read the wonderful narrative of his incredible martyrdom at the age of 86, he was disparagingly known in his community as the teacher of Asia. He frequently had to hide throughout his life to save his life. If you were an elder in this context, in the New Testament when it was being written here, you would experience persecution from Jews and from Gentiles and having to deal constantly with false teachers and legalists and false apostles and false doctrine. Aren't you glad that's over now? You would then, just like today, have to be ready to engage in constant warfare. You're gonna be an elder, you're going to war. You're going to war against all the heretics and bad guys and legalists and false teachers, the smooth talkers, the big personalities, you're gonna be going to war. The battle against false doctrine, it never ends, it never lets up. The purveyors of false doctrine, these many rebellious men, these empty talkers, deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, those that teach that faith in Jesus is necessary, but not enough to save you, they never go away. They never do go away. There's always new crops of them coming up inside the ranks of the church. Always remember that the reason you got to have good elders is because the bad guys come from inside here and they've got to be willing to deal with them. A man who just doesn't have the stomach to enter the lists in order to fight cannot and must not be an elder. In other words, if you desire to be an elder, and it's a good desire to have, if you have a heart for the church, a love for theology, a love for the Bible, a love for lost souls, a desire to see the church thrive and grow and be prosperous and its holiness and all those things, you have to be willing to make those sacrifices at times. You have to be willing to be someone that is hated, that gets nasty mail from people, and you've gotta be willing to fight those battles. The road to apostasy is paid by a slow series of compromises, and a good elder is going to recognize all of them and not go with the flow. But a biblical elder holds fast, unwavering, to the simple and clear teachings of Scripture, summarized so well in the Westminster Standards. The need in Paul's day was just as great as it is now. We need good elders. In the church, in the United States of America, American Christianity is a catastrophe for the lack of good elders. It's a noble work. It's a fine work, a good work. And such a work requires a similar man, a noble, fine, and good man. And we need some good men. Look at verse two. An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife. Okay, stop there. We saw last Sunday, this means that a man must be blameless and above reproach. Being above reproach means being so good and morally upright that no one can criticize your actions or your character rightly. Their behavior is consistently exemplary and they are not suspected of wrongdoing. The husband of one wife, that phrase there, is a prohibition against polygamy for elders. It's not a requirement that they have to be married. Single men are qualified to be elders. If a man is married, it can only be to one woman, never more than one. Now, it's very important that we look at each of the words that the Holy Spirit breathed forth here in the rest of the passage. You all, as the congregation, need to understand the men that you are thinking about nominating. Are these character traits things that they have? And I would encourage you, even to do this, I've heard that folks here have done this before, to invite a man and his family over for dinner and walk through these things with them. But you might want to give them a heads up if you're planning on doing that though, okay? It's not like we go through the attributes of elder to everybody that comes over here. No, you don't need to do that. Now, look at the first thing, temperate. Some of your translations render that next word as sober-minded. Temperate or sober-minded, very important attribute. Listen, this refers to the mode in which he lives, referring to his tastes and his habits. The term can also be translated as sober. The man that is an elder has to live carefully and soberly. He's moderate in the pleasures of the world around him. He does not live for the pleasures of his senses. He is a deeper person than that. His pleasures are primarily those of the soul, finding his sense of identity in that which is most important to him, his creator and his redeemer and his holy word, the Bible. He has a spiritual and moral earnestness about him. He is careful in what he does, where he invests his time, what he drinks, what he eats, and what he watches. He's temperate, sober-minded in those things. And there is a deliberateness to his life, okay? He's deliberate about what he's doing, what he's watching, and where he goes. He's temperate, modest. He's not flamboyant or reckless in the way he lives his life. He's temperate, sober-minded about everything. Okay, look at the next term. New American Standard has prudent. Other translations render this as self-controlled. That's really what the term means, self-controlled. What an important attribute. He has a sound mind. He is always cool, calm, and collected. He does not get rattled. He does not lose his temper. Even when he's very angry or righteously angry, he will not falter. He is not held captive to sudden passions that arise in his mind and heart. He has control over them all. And this is absolutely crucial for an elder. Elders must be self-controlled. They need to be temperate in the way they live their lives and their habits, and they've got to be self-controlled. They've got to be prudent. They've got to have a reign on their tongue, a reign on their passions, and a reign on their bodies. Consider this God-breathed proverb along these lines. Listen to this, Proverbs 25, 28. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. A city broken down without walls. What does that mean? It means that this guy, this man who doesn't have this ability, he doesn't have prudence and self-control, he loses every battle that comes against him. He's defenseless against everything. Why was the city of Jerusalem the cause of Israel being a laughingstock in the time of Nehemiah? Because its wall was destroyed and its gates were burned with fire. It was defenseless. It was vulnerable. A man who doesn't control his speech and his passions is not only like a grown infant or a grown toddler, but he's like a defenseless city. Every temptation that comes his way, there's no defense. It just overruns the city. It overruns his heart and defeats him. Every passion that comes into his mind and heart defeats him. A man qualified to be an elder is a man with a tall, wide, strong wall that is constantly watched and maintained and fortified. There's no gaps in it. There's nowhere to get into the city. And how does he keep that wall watched and guarded and fortified? By the means of grace. A man who's going to be an elder or a deacon has got to be someone who is saturated in the word of God. He sees that as his lifeline. That's the mortar that keeps the wall standing. That's what guards me from temptation. That's what guards me from losing control. He's a Bible reader, a doctrine lover, a church goer. It's rare to see him ever miss a church service. Why? Because he wants the wall guarding his heart to be strong and firm, so it's not destroyed by the trials and temptations, and every hard providence that slams a battering ram against his wall, it stands. A man who has no rule over his own spirit, who has no self-control, is like a city without a wall. Another God-breathed proverb, Proverbs 16, 32. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Like, I don't care if you're the baddest MMA dude on the planet. If you can't control your temper, you're a loser. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. He who rules his spirit is better than he who can take a city. We all know a hothead when we see one, right? We all know people who are quick to anger, who easily throw down and are ready to fight. It is infantile, juvenile, and silly when full-grown men have hot tempers and lose them regularly. God tells us that a person who is slow to anger and is able to rule over his own spirit, he who has self-control over his own heart and spirit is greater than someone who takes a city, is greater than an excellent military general who can siege and take a city. A man with self-control over his temper is greater than such a person. The person you nominate must have self-control and be prudent. Have self-control and be prudent. Prudent means they act with and always show care and thought for the future. A prudent person, a self-controlled person, thinks about what they're about to say before they say it. I had a roommate, a wise roommate. He was the number one student in the College of Engineering at Ohio University, brilliant guy. And he had a saying that we'd meet guys at the church, went to a big church with lots of college students and we'd meet someone and he would describe people this way. He said, yeah, he's one of those people that he just says whatever comes into his little bean. We all go, yeah, we know the type, okay? A godly person, they think, how might this land? Maybe I shouldn't say it. It's kind of like when you click send on a text or an email, once you click send, it's out there, right? So he thinks that before he speaks too. You know people who just say whatever comes into their head. People like that can't be elders, folks, they can't. Okay, a good elder thinks before he talks. And he thinks before he acts too. He's not impulsive, he's self-controlled. He's not subject to his passions and pleasures. They are subject to him and the Holy Spirit who dwells in him. He has complete control over his sensual desires. Okay, look at the next attribute. Respectable, some of your translations say of good behavior. The elder must be a man of inner moral excellency and of outward orderly behavior. He is a person of honor in the way he conducts himself, the way he acts, the way he talks to people, even when he's upset at them. Their outward behavior is a reflection of their inward life and inward control of their spirit and body. They duly fulfill their calling and vocation with joy and diligence. They get to work on time. And while they're there, they work hard. They handle conflict and turmoil and trials well. There is consistency and respect in their outward behavior, no matter what is going on in their life, in their house, or their work, or their church. They are respectable of good behavior. You want to think about people in the Bible that were respectable of good behavior. Here's a few examples. Ruth. Job, Zacharias and Elizabeth, John the Baptist's parents, Simeon, Anna, they're in the temple precincts. They were people who were virtuous, respectable, of good behavior. They handled their trials well, and they were respectable in the way they acted. Okay, look at the next term, hospitable, hospitable. This term is translated hospitable, it literally means a friend of strangers. The elder's gotta be someone who is a friend of strangers. This was especially crucial in the culture in which Paul said this because organized welfare was pretty much non-existent at this time. An elder would be someone who was eager to help strangers, eager to show kindness to those in need. And they would not forget vulnerable people and people in need of physical help and people in need of friends. Hospitable is also something that deacons have to have a heart for. You know, our provisional book of church order right now, chapter nine of the deacon says this, listen, for deacons, it is the duty of the deacons to minister to those who are in need, to the sick, to the friendless and to those in distress. To be a friend to people that have no friends, to be kind to strangers, Some people are so painfully shy that it's hard to even try to get them to initiate contact with a stranger, to introduce themselves, to ask them questions, or to try to get to know them. An elder must be the opposite of that. They've gotta be someone that can meet strangers, get to know strangers, talk to strangers, and has a desire to do so, wants to do that. Hospitality, a natural inclination to befriend strangers and love on them. must be in the heart of anyone that you nominate to be an elder. A defender of biblical truth, a defender of doctrine, willing to rebuke sin and unrighteousness, sternly if need be, a defender of Christian liberty, and a soft-hearted, kind, hospitable friend to friendless people and to strangers. An elder, the calling is so high, the standard is so high here, but this is what you're looking for. Are they a friend of people? Are they a friend of strangers? Okay, look at the next thing, able to teach. Here's a real important one. That literally means qualified to teach and able to do it well. Every elder ought to be able, without a huge amount of preparation time, be able to prepare a lesson on a given passage of scripture and teach it successfully to others. And I cannot emphasize to you enough that this qualification does not mean merely that someone is well-educated or smart. It also does not mean that they are merely knowledgeable or well-read, although it's important for them to be those things. This refers to the ability to communicate biblical truth and doctrine to people who do not presently know or understand it. An elder can open the Bible and teach it to someone. This qualification can only be known if you have heard this man open the Bible and teach it. This is a special God-given ability that God gives to certain men. They're good at teaching people. You can only know if a man has this ability if he has taught you the Bible and has taught you sound doctrine from the Bible. So do not nominate someone for elder if he's never taught in the church in any context that you know of. You need to have heard this person open the Bible and teach it successfully to you. You went to him not understanding something and walked away having learned it because he taught it to you. You must personally know by experience the man has the God-given ability to teach. Remember what made the great revival in Nehemiah's time happen? Remember what happened there? You know why that revival happened after they rebuild the wall and they gathered all those people together? There were a bunch of really, really good teachers there in the form of those Levites. And they actually give a whole bunch of their names, very strange names, but they were a wonderful crop of teachers. And listen to what happened when Nehemiah finally rebuilds the wall and he's managed not to get killed by his enemies. And he hasn't sat down at the table with any of his enemies. He keeps telling them, leave me alone. I've got a great work to do. And now the final goal has happened. All these people, thousands and thousands of them are there. And here's what happens. Nehemiah 8, 8. So they read distinctly from the book, from the Bible, and the law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites, who taught the people, said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept. when they heard the words of the law. Why were they weeping? Why were they weeping? Why this heartfelt and deep repentance? Listen, they had good teachers who opened the word of God to them and gave its proper sense so they could understand it. And they all saw we have fallen so far short. of this law. And God, we pray that he'll be merciful. And of course the Levites go on to do what? They preach the gospel to them. The God that you love and worship is a God of compassion. He is slow to anger. He is abundant in mercy. Please hear me, to understand the Bible correctly is to understand God and what God says correctly. And if an elder cannot help you understand the Bible, I don't care if they've written 400 books and are speakers at national conference, if they can't teach you the Bible, they can't be an elder. It is a sin to misinterpret scripture. So if you have teachers who interpret it correctly and they've spent a long time studying it so they can handle it accurately and faithfully, that is a huge blessing. Now think about this folks, think about this illustration. Why do we remember Augustine, Athanasius, Luther, John Calvin, John Owen, R.C. Sproul, Charles and A.A. Hodge, Benjamin Warfield, and the Puritans? Why do we remember them? Because they were doormen for us understanding the word of God. We read them and we understood the Bible better. We've all heard of those guys, right? Have y'all ever heard of Tillich, Bultmann, Ludemann, Harnack, Spong, and Schleiermacher? Only if you went to seminary. Why don't you remember them? Because confusion, ambiguity and obfuscation was their profession. They confused people to hell. Paul Tillich wrote a three volume systematic theology, 948 pages. There are three Bible verses cited in it. I don't recommend it. We need elders who love God's Word and are servants of God's Word, able to teach God's Word, vigorous students of the Word, students of church history, students of good theology, and who see themselves at all times and in all places as under the authority of God's Word. It is their joy and their passion to open that Word and to teach it to others, and they're good at doing it. Elders are called by Christ to, according to Acts 6, 4, to the ministry of the word and prayer. The office of deacon was created so that the elders would not have to take their time to serve tables and handle the physical needs so they could minister the word and pray. So able to teach, vital truth. You've got to have personally experienced that man's ability to open the Bible and teach it to you. Okay, look at verse three. Not addicted to wine, given to wine or a drunkard. That's how that is translated there. Not addicted to wine, given to wine or a drunkard. Elders cannot be addicted to anything. Wine, pot, drugs, whatever. Wine is a gift from God to be used in moderation, wisdom and maturity. And if we cannot use drinks with alcohol in them with moderation, if we can't do that, if we can't use them with moderation, wisdom and maturity, then we ought to use our own Christian liberty to avoid drinking altogether. We know that Paul told Timothy, he actually ordered him, drink some wine that will help with your stomach and deal with your frequent illnesses. But moderation is the key. An elder cannot be a wine bibber. He can't be a drunk. We can't play games with alcohol or with any substance. Maturity and wisdom must always accompany a moderate use of such things. An elder cannot be a man who regularly drinks too much or uses some other substance that dulls his senses in any way. By the way, that's the coward's way of dealing with stress. That is a coward's way of dealing with stress. God's Word everywhere exhorts us to be sober-minded, to stay watchful, to pray when we're troubled. And if drugs or alcohol are what we turn to when we're stressed, we certainly cannot be elders in the church or deacons. Not only is that sinful, it's a terrible example for others to see. Wine and fermented beverages are a gift from God. But listen to the warning that the scriptures give us. Listen to Proverbs 23, 29. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who's always fighting with somebody? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly. At the last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying, they have struck me, but I was not hurt. They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake that I may seek another drink? Alcohol has destroyed many a marriage, many a career, and many fortunes. Listen. Proverbs 21, 17, he who loves pleasure will be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil will not be rich. You know, once in a while, I walk down the wine aisle at Food City, and at the end of the aisle is a locked case of bottled wine. And if you look carefully at it, you see why it's locked, because the wine in there is extremely expensive. There's bottles of wine in there that are over $100. Really good wine tends to be pretty expensive. And it's not really worth it if you can afford it, if you can't afford it, if you can't afford it. As the Holy Spirit says, if you have a love of pleasure and wine and oil, you're not gonna be rich. My father had a saying that he would use sayings on me when I was young, and I didn't figure them out until I was much older, because he wouldn't explain them to me. But he used to use this phrase a lot about, he knew so many people because he was an insurance agent. and just knew so many people, he would say, that guy has wine taste, but a beer budget. And I got older. Ah, wine's way real expensive. And you can get beer real cheap. Elders can't be given the wine. They can't be drunkards and they can't be addicts of anything, any substances. It's sinful to be that way. They're gonna be counseling and helping others get rid of and fight against addictions. They can't be addicts themselves as they're ministering the word and praying for people to overcome their own addictions like that. Being a drunkard is a terrible example to set for others. Remember, elders are examples to the flock, so they can't be winebibbers, not addicted to wine, not given to wine, not drunkards. Can I look at the next one in verse three there? Or pugnacious. Now, some of your translations say, not violent, not given to striking. Some men are always ready to fight with their fists. By the way, that's not tough, it's childish, foolish, and it makes them utterly unqualified to be an elder or a deacon, or godly Christians either. Remember, a person who is able to rule over their passions is greater than a military general who takes a city. Some of the toughest things to control are our own temper and our own appetites and our passions. You know a man is strong and mature if he can rule over those things. An elder cannot have a bad temper. He cannot be violent. He cannot be a man that you would characterize as having a chip on his shoulder. What does that mean? When we say, yeah, so-and-so's got a massive chip on their shoulder. What does that mean? It means that they are perpetually feeling resentful about something. They're always resentful of something. It means holding a constant grudge against someone or about something because of a perceived slight or insult or injustice that they've suffered. Elders cannot be excessively confrontational or appear as constantly ready to fight or constantly wanting to argue or prove themselves in any way around the people that they're by. Now, if the basic gospel message or biblical righteousness is denied or any kind of serious false teaching is happening, we are, in a self-controlled way, supposed to fight. We're supposed to go to war in a self-controlled, meek and gentle manner for the truth at all times. But we don't threaten to smash someone's nose down to get the gospel wrong, right? An elder cannot be easily provoked. He cannot be ever engaged in out-of-control violence with his fists or with his words unless it's self-defense. He's not violent, he's not given to striking with his body or with his words that he says. Okay, look at the next one, see it? But gentle. The opposite of pugnacious, given to striking is gentle. This is said really as being the precise opposite of violent pugnation and ready to strike. In opposition to this, an elder must be gentle. In fact, the word but there, but gentle, is the strongest adversative particle in Greek. As opposed to wanting to hit people all the time, they're gentle. In opposition to being quick to punch and fight, elders have to be gentle, patient, not easily provoked, not quick to raise their fists. This man would never compromise, would never negotiate the gospel and all the doctrines related to it ever for any reason, but he's willing to yield. He's willing to suffer wrong when it comes to his own rights, like 1 Corinthians 6, 7. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? Paul was upset at them. They were going to court before unbelievers with their fellow Christians. And he's saying, basically, why can't one of you just be bigger than the other? Let the guy cheat you. Don't disgrace the name of Christ over this stuff. That's what would mark a good elder. One commentator pointed out that this particular word is almost impossible to translate with just one English word, gentle. And the lexicon of the New Testament BDAG defines it as, not insisting on every right of letter of law or custom, yielding, gentle, kind, courteous, and tolerant. This is a man who is not quick to fight and become intense. He will yield when it's not the earth at stake. He loves with a love that covers a multitude of sins. He is not divisive. He's not pestilential. He's not pugnacious. He's not eager to assert his will. But when it comes to the truth of the gospel of Christ, he would rather die than see the Lord Jesus's work be misunderstood or blasphemed by the intrusion of works or merit or anything that we do in it. but he would let himself be wronged and cheated rather than assert his own rights as long as nothing serious is at stake. He's not eager to fight, he's gentle. Okay, look at the next one. Peaceable, that term means not quarrelsome, not quarrelsome. A good elder is not combative. He does not pick fights. He doesn't look to find fault with every little thing anyone ever says that he might disagree with. He is able to let things go for the sake of peace. He's not the piety police in his church. The word really means averse to fighting. And it's really a further explanation of the earlier qualification that elders can't be given to striking or pugnacious. They can't be eager to fight. He's a peacemaker, like Jesus praised in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the peacemakers. He knows when a fight or a strong stance is needed, and he also knows when it's not needed. For some people, if you disagree with them on anything, literally anything related to the Bible or the Christian faith or the law of God or what we should or should not do, they are ready to throw down and go to war, to drop pistols and shoot. Qualified men for elder are not like that. Some men in the church are literally bored until they find some kind of cause that they can take a hardcore stance on and make a ruckus over and fight about. There are men like that in Christian churches. They're bored and aren't overly involved until something bad happens. And all of a sudden they come out of the woodwork. That is someone who is the opposite of this. That is a quarrelsome person, a striker. Such men not only can never be elders, they're a menace to the church. quarrelsome and combative people, drain the life out of elders and make doing ministry a grief, not a joy. Hebrews 13 says, be submissive and obey those that rule over you, else you're gonna make their service to you a grief and not a joy, which it should be. Okay, look at the next thing in verse three. Free from the love of money. Judas was fond of money. He sold his lord to the devil for 30 pieces of silver. There are people who obsess about money morning, noon, and night, and they are either focused on acquiring as much of it as they can, holding as much of it as they can, or are constantly worried about not having enough of it because they live above their means. We are all able to recite the verse. Everyone knows it's not money. Money is not the root of all evil. It's the Love of money. That's the root of all kinds of evil. For which some have strayed from the faith. There were believers that Paul knew about. They're so in love with money, they've strayed from the faith in their greediness, and they've pierced themselves through with many sorrows. We are called to be good stewards of the money that we work for and earn. And we all ought to work if we are able-bodied and can do so. 2 Thessalonians 3.10. If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. but it's so easy to slide into the bigger, better, faster, nicer mentality when we have the means to do it, especially if we've worked hard for it. Just remember that everything that is given to us can also, by the will of God at any moment, be taken from us. Our primary duty in life is to love, worship, and obey God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, no matter how much or how little we may have. In a very short period of time, God's plan involved the loss of every possession, every child, and even the health that Job had. And Job's response showed where his heart was all along. Job 1.20, and Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped and said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job owned his wealth, his wealth didn't own him. The Puritans wrote a lot about what they called the burden of great wealth. It said there's a lot of burdens that accompany great wealth. Number one, you never know for sure who your friends are and there's temptation and there's everything else. Wanting to be great in the eyes of the world and arrogance that can come with that. A good elder knows what the Bible says about these things. He owns his things, his things don't own him. Listen, Proverbs 23, 5. Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. 1 Timothy 6, 6. Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world. It is certain we can carry nothing out, and having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. Godly men own their wealth. Their wealth doesn't own them. And true believers that really wanna be godly, they pray with the wisest of men. In Proverbs 30, listen. Proverbs 30, verse eight, they pray this. Give me neither poverty nor riches. I don't want poverty or riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me, lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. There's incredible peace and blessing that is found in the divine art of contentment. Now there's everything good about working hard and being financially successful, but don't let your money and the bigger, better, nicer mentality take over your life. Remember this proverb, Proverbs 20, 21, an inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed at the end. Reflect on that. If a young person started out on their own with mountains of money, instead of having to work hard, sacrifice and go without and save, that mountain of money would destroy their life. How many times do we hear stories about the lottery winners who are totally destroyed by coming into so much money. Their families are destroyed. Their reputations are ruined because they won the lottery. They got an inheritance hastily. An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed in the end, says God. Great wealth cannot be a blessing to the spiritually immature. And a ruling elder in Jesus's church must be a good steward of what he has, and he must be free from the love of money. if he's going to be a good elder. Look at verses four and five. We talked about this last time. I want to touch on it again. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? We covered this last Sunday morning. His children cannot be disobedient and disrespectful terrors in the church or in their neighborhood. The godly man in a self-controlled and God-honoring manner has his children in subjection, diligently instructs them in the word of God and in our catechism, and they respect and obey the authorities in their lives. Never perfectly, of course, but generally, they are good kids. This is not a requirement that all children of elders must be born-again believers. There is a small minority position that some take based on three words in the book of Titus, having faithful children, who believe that means that if the child of an elder at any moment shows themselves to be an unbeliever, the father is immediately disqualified from being an elder. That would mean, of course, Samuel could not have been a spiritual leader in Israel, neither could David and many others. What this passage is really saying, in a much fuller way in 1 Timothy 3 than it does in Titus 1, is that the children of elders must be in subjection to their parents and be respectful to the authorities in their life, in their family, in their church, and in civil society. God is sovereign over the salvation of our children, just as he is sovereign over the salvation of the whole world. Now, finally, the last two things, look at verse 6 and 7. and not a new convert so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." So an elder has got to be a seasoned believer. He's got to be someone who's weathered a few trials in his life. And his faith has been shown to be from God because he's gotten through grievous trials. How did he handle those trials? Is he stronger in his walk because of them? Remember what Jesus taught about stony ground here is they immediately receive the word and they spring up quickly, but then when trials and tribulations come, they disappear because their roots were not divinely planted. New converts cannot be elders because their pride might bring them to the condemnation of the devil. And they also have to have a good reputation among the people that they live near and work with and for and things like that. So in summary, elders need to be the total package. Their love for Christ, the Bible, their God, and their Lord's church must be supreme in their life. Because of this, if they're married, they've got to be great at being married. Great at loving the woman God entrusted to their care. They've got to be great at instructing and managing their household with patience, with consistency. They've got to be good at managing money. They've got to be free from the love of money. They can't be prideful. They can't be quick-tempered. They can't be alcoholics or drug addicts. They can only be married to one woman. They need to be a friend of strangers and easy to talk to. They need to be personable, able to open the Bible and teach it successfully to people. They can't be fighters at the drop of a hat. They need to be gentle, peaceful, free from the love of money, as I said. They hold fast the faithful word, the Bible, and the doctrines it teaches. They exhort in sound doctrine. They refute people that contradict sound doctrine, no matter who they are. They rebuke, severely if need be, unrighteousness. They hold fast to Christian liberty, binding people only to what the Scriptures command and forbid. And they love the church of Jesus. And if their church is struggling or goes through a controversy or a dark providence of some kind, they do not withdraw from that church, but they pray harder for it. They make sure they're at all the worship services. They keep track of the prayer needs of the sheep and that local flock, because that's Jesus in their midst. They have a broken heart if anything in Jesus's church suffers loss, shame, or disgrace. And they rejoice when things go well in the lives of their brothers and sisters. Remember what Jesus said to Saul? We all can cite it from memory. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It would never cross the mind of a godly man who really loves Jesus to despise the church in the world and to withdraw from it. The local church is what we've got in this world, warts and all. It's what Jesus founded, where the true gospel and true biblical righteousness are upheld and preached, where the sacraments are rightly administered, and where church discipline and biblical holiness are enforced with the keys of the kingdom. There is the true Christian church in this world. Godly people love the church and they'll always be part of it no matter what. Look for men who meet these qualifications among us. Pray for this. Pray that God would bring them to mind. The procedure to nominate someone for elder or deacon is gonna be on the table out there starting on the first Sunday of November. So look for that, we'll announce it. Pray for Jesus's church in this world to have good elders. The need is so great and the qualified men are so few. And remember what scripture says about another group of their tasks. Listen, Ephesians 4.11. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, those offices expired because we don't need them any longer, evangelists, some pastors and teachers. for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. Elders are supposed to help you not be blown about by every wind of doctrine. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Good elders and good deacons, where do they come from? They come from the Lord Jesus on high, from ascended glory. They are given by Jesus to churches. We need good shepherds. I need good shepherds in my life. And elders shepherd each other too. Remember the gospel. Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose again. We are declared righteous, justified on the last day, on the day of judgment by faith alone in Christ alone on the grounds of his cross to satisfy divine justice against us and his imputed personal obedience to the 10 commandments into our legal account in God's sight. Elders need to know and understand and love that truth and be willing to defend and die for it if need be. They need to love and stand for that truth above all else. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us clear instructions in your word about who can be elders in the church. Bless the message next Sunday about deacons, and we pray you'd raise up a few of each in our church. And we trust that you will provide as you always do, in Christ's name, amen.