What is a local church? A local church is a group of people saved by the grace of God, gathering together as a result of what they believe, not just about Jesus, but in how their congregation and local gatherings are to be ordered. There are various denominations, which together would confess the truth about the Lord Jesus, but would see in their various places of worship and in their traditions convictions to worship and regulate their gatherings differently. We gather here at this local Baptist church with Baptist convictions, and we know that in this local church, there remain the kinds of groups that can really be across the board and throughout Christian history that is the case. Beyond denominational distinctives, you can think of ways to express the groups in a church. Paul does this in 1 Timothy 5, 1 and 2, for example. He says that there are older men and there are younger men. There are older women and there are younger women. And so among the different traditional distinctives among churches, those who gather may find themselves taking part in a local gathering where such groups exist. There are more than one way to divide up a group in different, or divide up a church in different groups. And those four groups in verses 1 and 2, were part of Paul's emphasis a couple weeks ago when we studied those verses. In verses 3 to 16 he mentions another group. You may have in your local church widows. And in verses 3 to 16 Paul focuses on widows in a very lengthy set of instructions. That is another group in the church. He mentions another in verses 17 to 25 this morning. Here is a group that are the elders. These are the church leaders. He's not primarily talking to the elders here, you may notice. He says to Timothy, and therefore to the church, about these who are church leaders, even though certainly these instructions would be helpful to address the leaders themselves. The church needs to know, and Timothy in particular, about this material. The elders are the subject being addressed, and Timothy and the church at large, under his authority and instruction, needs to know about this group. And one of the reasons we know that the elders are being addressed in chapter three, they're called overseers there, and also here in chapter five, is because there are leaders and influencers in the church in Ephesus who are not helping, but rather harming the situation. There are leaders who are false teachers who have followings and gatherings where their influence is about false doctrine and about a conduct and behavior that is contrary to what would be in step with the gospel. Paul's very concerned about that. And therefore the presence of false leaders and false teachers in the midst is one of the reasons he's very interested in talking about sound doctrine, true teachers and shepherds of the faith, and the qualifications for overseers in the midst of the people. And we can divide the passage today into three parts. Verses 17 and 18 are about paying elders. Verses 19 to 21 are about rebuking elders. And then in verses 22 through 25, to the end of the chapter, choosing elders, paying elders, rebuking elders. choosing elders. This is a long paragraph and it reminds us of what we've seen earlier in chapter 3 where overseers were addressed. And here when he refers to elders, he does not have a different group in mind. You may recall that when we were in chapter 3, I tried to make a case, though brief as it was, that when you look at the book of Acts and when you look at the other letters of Paul and Peter, you will find that elder, overseer, and pastor are interchangeable ideas or offices. They refer to the same referent, the leader of the church or leaders plurality that are referred to here. In verses 17 to 18, he's talking about paying elders, in verses 19 to 21, rebuking them, and in verses 22 to 25, choosing them. So if in our minds we can substitute paying, rebuking, or choosing pastors, overseers, elders, we will all have the same idea in mind. In verses 17 to 18, what is he talking about here about paying elders? And why would they want to do that? In verses 17 and 18, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages. You'll notice that he starts to instruct them in verse 17 in a manner that he believes can be defended from what the Old Testament teaches. And then there's this other line. The laborer deserves his wages in verse 18. That's not from the Old Testament. More on that in a moment. But he teaches something in verse 17 that he believes has some biblical warrant. So he would say the reason we want to do what verse 17 exhorts us to do is because of what the Word of God teaches in verse 18 that he quotes. Looking at these two verses together, the exhortation and then the reasoning or the defense for it biblically, he himself worked as a tent maker and no doubt other trades so that going from place to place as he did as a missionary he did not demand nor did he feel obligated from the church to be supported when he was teaching and serving those churches for that time and then leaving to another place. What we know is that in the ancient world, itinerant speakers would travel all around taking money from people and therefore being very suspicious in the minds of those who would look and see some other teacher wanting more money for this. Paul wanted to have no big target on his back. Preaching the crucified and risen Jesus was offensive enough to the ears he would come across. So he would not expect those in the local setting to provide for him. Instead, he received help and gifts and support from previous ministries and previous locations that he had been a part of in the past. And so when he would leave a location, it would not be unheard of for that location to later become a direct supporter of Paul. When Paul was there, he wanted no one to wonder, is Paul just telling us this in order to get our money? Paul did not consider himself a local pastor or elder in the sense that he's referring to here. Paul was a missionary. And as Paul traveled around, he received financial support and gifts of food and money to help support and sustain the work of the mission. He's talking here about a different situation, isn't he? He's talking here about not those who are engaged in the traveling missionary work like he was a part of. He's talking here about an office of church leadership. And so we look at the example of Paul being one way, and we see that this is different. In 1 Timothy 5.17, he's referring here to elders. These would be those not traveling around from place to place doing missions. Instead, they are serving and shepherding a particular flock, aren't they? So you have shepherds or elders or overseers all in view here, and they are to rule well. The idea of ruling means to exercise authority, to have oversight of. That's the idea of an overseer, isn't it? Someone who sees over the church in a spiritual sense and therefore guides and guards and leads and serves and nourishes the people of God. And these elders, he says, are to be considered worthy of double honor. And what he means there is honor in a two-fold sense. This is not exclusively a financial idea. There have been some in interpretive history that have wondered, does this mean that the pastor should make twice as much money in the church as others, like double honor? That is not what this means. Two-fold honor no doubt has in mind the respect that the office itself warrants. So not only a personal and relational respect and honor, but also a financial provision for the sake of sustaining the work of the ministry. Two-fold honor probably refers to respecting and following the lead of those in the church. That's the one of the two-fold. And then the other is the financial provision. We see that even in the Old Testament, the Levitical priests served at the sanctuary with the people of God and they had a very unique set-apart role. The lives of the Levites and the priests among the Levites were not the lives that were like necessarily those outside the tabernacle, was it? You had the rest of the Israelite tribes having the privilege and importance of maintaining a focus upon the spiritual lives of the community of Israel and representing them, leading and instructing them, and conducting mediatory work at the sanctuary were these priests. And these priests had in principle the provision in their lives from the people of God. So when he says here, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, he must have in mind people in leadership and ethicists who were not ruling well. What would it mean to rule well and not rule well in Ephesus? Well, ruling well would certainly above all mean serving the unvarnished gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with clarity and conviction to the people of God, and false teachers in Ephesus were undermining it. They were not ruling well. They would not have been those overseeing the people in any meaningful way, but have instead brought great harm and confusion. In the context of the Ephesian church, to rule well would be to exercise not just spiritual oversight for the good of individuals, but to see that the community of the church is to be anchored in and oriented toward sound doctrine and the truth of the gospel. and that the church has a vested interest in seeing how they could be financially providing for that work. It seems to be the case when you read beyond 1 Timothy, a practical value is being able to have ministers in the church be able to focus upon the work of the gospel in that midst And therefore, the idea of laboring and preaching and teaching and having financial provision from the church is a blessing. The church receives the benefit of more focused work. And then that preacher, that elder or elders, as it's given here, receives that honor from the church. When it says elders plural, notice here that in many churches there is provision financially for a variety of pastors and staff. And when you see verse 17 talking about elders in the plural and being worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, He has in mind the church's vested interest and the preacher's blessedness in receiving from the church the financial provision on a practical level. So two-fold honor, both a sense of the office itself, of those who are leading in the church, and then in that other part of the two-fold that makes the double honor, the financial provision. Now what is his thinking here biblically? I think you could argue in verse 17, there's a practical value that could be obvious to the Ephesians anyway, but he's going to defend himself, not that he would have to, but in verse 18, he's going to appeal to some scripture. It says in verse 18, for the scripture says, and when he says, scripture says, he gives you two quotations. Now, I'm trying to draw attention to something that I hope will be even clearer in a moment. But heading these quotations is this phrase, the scripture says. And then he says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages. So there's this coordinating idea with the word and between these two citations introduced by the scripture says. Now, the first citation, you shall not muzzle an ox, is from Deuteronomy. And you might say, well, wait a second, he's talking about elders. What do oxen have to do with elders? I mean, why is he talking about the animals work there at harvest time? He's drawing a principle, isn't he, from verse 18. Deuteronomy 25.4 talks about the oxen at work treading the grain, which would separate the grain from the husk itself. And therefore, the oxen is engaging in work on behalf of the people. And when you have this oxen at work, It would be fitting and right for that oxen to benefit from what he himself is involved in, and namely the work on behalf of the people and the food itself. He's saying here, don't muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. What he has in mind is someone who would say, well, we're going to have the oxen tread this grain, but we're going to keep him from any benefit from what he is doing and what he is offering and the work he is engaged in. So Paul says, you know what the Word of God teaches in Deuteronomy 25? You don't do that to an ox. And the argument seems to be from a lesser to greater. If you wouldn't do that to an ox, don't do that to the leaders of the church. That seems to be the principle, right? That's the logical move there from lesser to greater. You shall not muscle an ox when it treads out the grain. On that biblical principle, he says, well, we can learn something then in church ministry about those who would lead the church, and especially in the labor of preaching and teaching, he says. But then he says in verse 18, another part of this, a citation, another part of this verse, under that heading earlier, the scripture says, the laborer deserves his wages. This is not from the Old Testament. Where is it from, you may wonder? Luke chapter 10, verse 7. It's an exact rendering from Luke 10, verse 7. And this has caused not a small amount of head scratching here among Old Testament and New Testament scholars thinking, wait a second, is Paul already having access to New Testament writings in the 60s of his ministry? My leaning on this is, yes. that the citation so exact from Luke chapter 10 verse 7 would give us confidence in the already accessible nature of the gospel of Luke. I want to make a couple observations about that idea. When Paul is ministering in the 60s, he's to Timothy and to Titus. These are events after the book of Acts. Acts 28 ends with Paul under Roman house arrest from which he will be released after two years. It goes from 60 to 62 AD at the end of the book of Acts. What he's doing when he writes to Timothy is after those events, it's later in the 60s, it's between the events of Acts 28 and Paul's martyrdom. He'll be killed. under Emperor Nero in the mid-60s. So First Timothy is written after the 60s, after 60 to 62 AD when he was under house arrest. The Book of Acts ends where it does and it's book two of a two-volume work. the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts are written by the same person. Not only was the Gospel, not only was the Book of Acts therefore completed shortly after Paul was released because of where the Book of Acts ends in the 60s, it would imply Volume one was already complete. You see the move there I'm making? If Acts ends where it does, and is completed shortly after the ministry of Paul there in those two years, and now he's writing to Timothy, already previous to that, you have Luke's gospel completed. That's volume one of two. We know from Paul's missionary journeys, Paul knows Luke. ministers with Luke, calls Luke, in Colossians chapter four, that beloved physician. Luke was a doctor. Traveled with Paul, wrote firsthand accounts in the travelogue that we see in so much of the book of Acts, especially in the latter part. Not only does Paul know Luke, his knowledge of Luke personally would give him easy access to the writings of Luke. When we see Paul in 1 Timothy 5.18 citing something that's from Luke 2.7, that's not weird. It makes total sense, given the timeline and the accessibility of Paul to the man we know as Luke. And one other observation about verse 18. These citations are preceded by the scripture says. So I want you to notice something that is happening and Paul's not even dead when it's happening. The gospel of Luke is being treated on par with the authoritative words of the Old Testament. The scripture says that's very significant. that not only are the Old Testament writings to have sway and inform the practice of the church, so are the New Testament writings, here given an example of Luke's gospel. Well, we've seen in verses 17 to 18 the notion of paying the elders. Now let's look at the idea of rebuking the elders, all right? Verses 19 to 21. Verses 19 to 21. By the way, it's an interesting preaching experience being an elder talking about these verses with all of us together, okay? We're talking about paying the elders and now rebuking the elders, but here we go. In verses 19 to 21, do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. The devil hates pastors, do you know this? The devil hates the leaders of the church of Jesus Christ. He would prefer the leaders of the church of Jesus Christ be disqualified and for those that remain in the church, though disqualified, would be leading the people of God by their word and example astray from sound doctrine in the gospel. Timothy needs to know the leaders that are leading people astray and who are false in their teaching and lives they must be dealt with. But they must be dealt with in a manner that is thoughtful and careful. So he says in verses 19 through 21, don't admit a charge against an elder except on substantiated evidence. If there were just accusations flying here and flying there about leaders in the church, that could do widespread damage. So Paul wants to avoid one particular error, and that would be to just believe anything and everything that's said about a church leader. But you know what he doesn't believe? Paul wouldn't say, hey, you know what, they're church leaders, you know, touch not the Lord's anointed, you know, or something like that, as I've heard some people in the word faith movement say in their prosperity errors. Touch not the Lord's anointed as if their words and actions are not accountable to the word of God. Okay, so you have here Paul recognizing that when you see these, or hear, I should say, get the right sense here, hear or see, hearing these accusations, They need to be substantiated and therefore taken seriously. So is it the case that you should consider any and all things that would be said about a church leader? Well, no. In fact, slander and gossip can do much damage to reputation, ministry, and the confidence of the people of God in the work of the ministry. The devil would delight to sow such divisiveness, wouldn't he? But the other error we want to avoid as well, and that would be the error that you could never bring a charge or a legitimate accusation against an elder. Oh no, indeed, he says, it needs to be admitted on the evidence of two or three witnesses, this as well is an Old Testament principle. Not only has he just quoted from the book of Deuteronomy in verse 18, this is from a principle also in Deuteronomy. It's in Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15, a single witness, the word of God says, shall not suffice against a person for any crime or wrong in connection with any offense. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be established. This principle is not only found here in the New Testament, it's found in the Gospels and other letters where they're drawing upon the principle of multiple witnesses. This no doubt has to do with the fact that you wouldn't want to be falsely accused. You would want substantiated evidence for something to be brought forward. But added to that, you also want the importance of leadership in the church to be handled thoughtfully and carefully. There can be not just short term, but long term damage to the lives of the people of God, those in church leadership and beyond when false accusations are entertained and advanced. So Paul says, don't admit a charge unless it is substantiated on the evidence of two or three witnesses. And then in verse 20, here is what's envisioned. An elder or church leader who is in sin. He says in verse 20, as for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. Now we know from Matthew 18 and from other parts of the New Testament, there comes a point in the confrontation and discipline of those who are doing what is dishonorable before God and harmful to others, there comes a point when things are brought before the church. When you read the order of steps in Matthew 18, there are small conversations, one-on-one or in small groups, where things are to be handled, exhorting people to repentance. But sometimes that plea and that exhortation is not met with repentance, and the church itself must become involved in a more public scene. It seems Paul is writing to Timothy about that step, about things that are progressing beyond wanting to handle something in a more discreet way, saying, listen, you know, if you wanna be a leader here and an elder here and an overseer here, We want to exhort you in this way with your words or this way with your example and making sure godliness is the pursuit. What if that fails? What he says here in verse 20, as for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all. And I take that to mean on a practical level, the church becoming aware of disqualifying behavior and the removal of that individual from leadership. That reminds Timothy and the church by implication, becoming an elder in a church is not a lifetime appointment. Being an overseer or a pastor in a church is not something that is untouchable. Instead, those who lead in the church of Jesus Christ must be qualified for the ministry in which they are engaged. And for those who would persist in sin, they are to be publicly rebuked. And that kind of step parallel in the other passages of the New Testament involves removal due to accountability. Remove them in the presence of all or rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear." Who's in view there? Who should stand in fear? I don't think we have to say only the church or only the rest of the elders, but we know in verse 17, he has a plurality of elders in view. Let's say one of those elders has to be removed because of disqualification. Then the rest of those elders should tremble before God in humility and not in arrogance, as if nothing such could ever happen to them. They should walk in humility and fear of the Lord. But not just the elders. Those who are the rest standing in fear should include the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, who see that when people are accountable to the Word of God, there are consequences for sin, and especially in light of a plea to pursue holiness, a plea that would be resisted and persistence in sin maintained. Even the rest of the congregation should take note. And they should think to themselves, we are living and moving and having our being before the Lord our God. He sees and knows, nothing is hidden from His sight. And so in verse 21, Timothy is to have the heavenly witness of the court of the majesty of Yahweh and the others that are in view in verse 21 in mind. He says in verse 21, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. He's told here, don't act from prejudging. Well, even earlier we were told, according to verse 20, I'm sorry, verse 19, don't admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. What if Timothy's going into a situation and the false elders, those undermining shepherds, those gospel denying, morally bankrupt, Doctrinally lacks individuals. What if they are advancing false charges against sound-minded, sober-minded leaders? And Timothy says, well, here are these charges, and here's these accusations. I guess what I've heard, I'm just gonna go ahead and act. He wants Timothy to not prejudge. Don't just make decisions. Don't be hasty with this, Timothy. You need to act, but not with prejudgment. You need to talk and you need to interact with and you need to hear evidence and you need to examine and you don't need to just prejudge and make a move. Because what if you end up ousting those who need to remain and tolerating and reinforcing those who are poisoning the well? So don't prejudge, but neither should you do things from partiality. Being swayed by externals. then this is a younger man or an older man. When you have here the groups in the church who are going to be at work and teaching, when you have people who are exercising influence, what if there's an external thing that would make Timothy predisposed toward that? He would say, Timothy, don't act with prejudgment. Don't act with partiality. Pursue the truth. Timothy's not to cultivate a good old boys club mentality. Well, you know, we've just all known each other for so long, and we're all just friends here, and we're all just, he says, well, Timothy, don't you see that'd be partiality if you act against what you know you should do because of some other consideration. He doesn't want Timothy to prejudge. He doesn't want him to act from partiality. He wants him to conduct these rules and instructions faithfully in the presence of the one who matters most, in the presence of God. There's a weight to that, isn't it? Timothy's work is conducted here, not just in front of the Ephesians. Oh, the Ephesian saints are watching. No, no, no. Timothy is to have a larger perspective informing all of his work in the presence of the Father and the Son, if you will, God in Christ Jesus. But not just the Father and the Son. He speaks here of the elect angels. which would be the New Testament's way of referring to those that are not demonic. Those that serve the Lord and are ministers of His will in the world He has made. Those who are the chosen angels, the elect angels of God. It's as if heaven itself bears witness to what Timothy is to do. That feels like a little pressure, doesn't it? You've got the Father and the Son, you've got the angels of heaven, and He says, you're doing what you're doing in their presence. But Timothy, It shouldn't paralyze you. You gotta act. So when you act and when you seek the health of that local church in Ephesus, you're not gonna do it with prejudgment, you're not gonna do it with partiality. So if he is to think about paying elders and thinking about rebuking elders, how is he to choose elders, especially if those who are gonna be persisting in sin are gonna be publicly rebuked and removed, are gonna be challenged and opposed for the sake of sound doctrine and gospel health? Well, in verses 22 to 25, the passage ends on this notion of choosing elders, and it should not be done hastily. Timothy's not to look at his watch and say, well, if people are removed, we've got to have all these vacancies filled next week. No, he says in verses 22 to 25, don't be hasty in the laying on of hands. In fact, couldn't we recognize that hastily laying on hands could end up resulting in the kinds of problems Timothy's having to deal with? So when he says, don't be hasty in laying on of hands, there's some real wisdom and guardrails there, isn't it? Don't be hasty in the laying on of hands. Laying on of hands is the public symbolic gesturing through prayer and commissioning of setting apart leaders in the church. It's an idea present in the letters of the New Testament, it's present in the Book of Acts, as Paul and the others are prayed over and commissioned. The idea here of laying on of hands means to set apart for the role of the church leader, to be an elder. He says, so don't be hasty. Nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Timothy's words, mindset, and action here are to be void of corruption. In what way could Timothy be taking part in the sins of others? If you look at the fullness of this verse together, one way to read this is that you could say, well, Timothy has continued to pursue godliness. Don't pursue wickedness. Timothy set the example, like in chapter 4, verse 12. So keep yourself pure. Another way to read that doesn't diminish that first possibility, but this deepens the notion of the verse. What if part of what's gone wrong is the foolishness and the bad and wrong decisions of not only setting apart unfaithful leaders, but in reinforcing their influence and letting sound doctrine be diluted? All of that is wrong. So for Timothy to not be hasty in laying on of hands, he will not be guilty of the bad decisions or the sins of others that have been committed already. He will be keeping himself pure by not hastily laying on hands. So that one way he's to keep himself pure is to engage faithfully in raising up and choosing elders. Don't be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. There is a wrong way Timothy could take this though. Because apparently in verse 23, Timothy has some health concerns that could be addressed. And among those who are teaching falsely in the church in Ephesus, they are teaching things like chapter 4, Verse 3, they forbid marriage and abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. So they are teaching with language forbidding what God has given to be rightly used and employed. If Timothy is to keep himself pure and is to walk in godliness, He says in verse 23 to Timothy, don't only drink water. Use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. The reason I'm trying to tie verse 23 to verse 22 is because sometimes a reader might come across verse 23 and say, why is this here? Why, and all of a sudden, is he talking about Timothy's stomach and his ailments and telling Timothy, use a little wine? He's talking about elders and choosing them and setting them apart. Is this just right out of the blue? I don't think it's out of the blue. I think Timothy could wrongly take this in a direction with the language in verse 22, not taking part in the sins of others and keeping himself pure. He's to not follow the false teachers who demand abstinence and forbidding certain things God has created to be received with thanksgiving. Paul doesn't want Timothy to be misled. He's got to make sure he's setting the example. And in verse 23, water in the ancient world could be a cause of health issues as you traveled. And in order to address that, you see in the writings of those of the ancient world, like Pliny the Younger and Plutarch and Hippocrates, you have examples of writers who speak about the use of wine to deal with ailments. Timothy is to obey Paul, set the example, and not neglect his health along the way. That is to be something he has in mind for sure. So I don't think verse 23 is unrelated at all. I think it's connected to verse 22 in helping Timothy think wisely about his own state. But verses 24 and 25 that end our passage today continue the idea of verse 22. If he said, don't be hasty in laying on hands, what's the reasoning for that? Our passage ends this morning by giving you some things to think about that explain why you wouldn't want to be hasty. Verse 24, the sins of some people are conspicuous. This means obvious, evident. going before them to judgment, probably meaning they're the final judgment. Even before the final judgment of the Lord, the wicked can reveal themselves easily. The sins of some people are conspicuous. So you might say that those who would be obviously in rebellion against the Lord, they are not living in a godly way, their words and actions are contrary to sound doctrine, we would not lay hands upon them to be church leaders. Timothy would say, or Paul's to say to Timothy, don't be hasty though, look at the rest of verse 24. The sins of others appear later. The sins of others appear later. I think an implication of this is, Timothy's not to be hasty because over time people's fittedness for ministry or disqualification for ministry becomes evident. It might not be immediate. There might be the sins of some people. They are conspicuous and obvious. And you might think to yourself, we would never see this individual in pastoral ministry. That would not be, we would want them to be a Christian. We hope they are, you know, but it's certainly not the case that they would be qualified to lead in the church. But he says, don't be hasty, Timothy, because some people's character and ways reveal itself over time. And so at the end of verse 24, the sins of others appear later. There might be others that Timothy would say, well, I don't know about this person, because it might not be obvious of their good character or their faithfulness or good works. So he says in verse 25, so also good works are conspicuous when their obedience to the Lord and their faithfulness to Christ is what they pursue. That's not held secret. That's not done in a corner. People come to know here is a person who loves and pursues the Lord. But what if someone is not immediately evident to Timothy? He's told at the end of verse 25, even those that are not, meaning good works that aren't immediately evident, can't remain hidden. Don't be hasty to lay on hands, Timothy, because those who are disqualified and those who are qualified, it becomes evident over time. It becomes evident over time. One of the reasons Paul says a certain qualification in 1 Timothy 3 has to do with this. In 1 Timothy 3, in verse 6, the elder must not be a recent convert. For an elder to be a recent convert would mean someone hastily laid on hands. And Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, he must not be a recent convert or he'll become puffed up with conceit, fall into the condemnation of the devil. Paul's concerned then about that individual's character and faithfulness and the effect it will have on the church. Same notions right in 1 Timothy 5. Don't be hasty in laying on hands in verse 22. Why? Because maybe you don't know initially who would be disqualified and that will show itself. So don't be hasty. Some wickedness is conspicuous, it's evident, but not all disqualification is immediately evident. That becomes known as you get to know people and see the way they live. And you think, well, my goodness, we really avoided a snare there because this person is clear in their words and actions. They would not. They would not qualify in first Timothy three to be a shepherd. Maybe Timothy. Maybe Timothy would easily overlook another. And the good works not immediately be evident though, but over time it won't remain hidden. And Timothy, by not being hasty, will rightly discern those rightly fitted for pastoral ministry in the church. So the end of our passage explains Timothy's reasoning about choosing elders. Paul's writing to this group, writing about this group in the church, not to the elders, though they'll receive this instruction, but about the elders and to the church through Timothy. He's talking about paying the elders, he's talking about rebuking the elders, he's talking about choosing elders. When we were studying 1 Timothy 3 together in the passage about overseers a few months ago, I said then, and want to end this way again this morning, that you should pray for your elders in several respects. First of all, Mike and Jacob and Caleb and me, we serve as elders here joyfully with one another and among you, and yet we would desire eagerly and urgently your prayers for us. While we love one another and love Cosmosdale and love the ministry of the church, We want the Lord to sustain a joy in the labor of ministry. So prayer number one, would you be prayerful and faithful to pray that the Lord would give your elders the joy in the labor of leading? And secondly, that God would protect the leaders of the church from spiritual and physical assault. We know that the assaults of the evil one and his fiery darts are certainly aimed at the saints of Christ. In First Timothy, we recognize from chapter three and elsewhere, the Lord has snares for those in ministry. So pray for your elders that the Lord would protect us from the snares of the evil one. Thirdly, would you pray that the Lord would bless the families and the ministry of the elders here, because in our households, as the Lord has granted us people to most immediately care for, faithfully caring for those in our households is what is required in order to be qualified in pastoral leadership in the church. So would you pray that the Lord would give us wisdom and strength to do that. And fourthly, that the Lord would continue raising up future elders who will love and shepherd the flock of God. It's certainly the case that being an elder is not a lifetime appointment. There are people who have been elders here who have moved away and gone elsewhere, who have graduated and are serving in other places. And you have reasons over the life of the church why there would be elders in one season of the church's life. It doesn't mean they're always gonna be the same, right? You want the Lord to be raising up godly men to be overseers in the flock of God. So this fourth prayer is that you would pray for the Lord to raise up elders or overseers who will love and shepherd the flock. And then lastly, pray that the church here, Cosmo Stowe Baptist, would be tremendously blessed by the ministry of the leaders, built up in peace and joy and love, because in the end, we are desiring for the glory of God to be displayed and treasured above all things. That ought to be our heart's desire corporately. That when we gather together, we want to learn things like what Paul's teaching to Timothy because we're part of a local church where these things matter. Thinking on these thoughts and reflecting on these instructions will help orient us in wisdom for the sake of the health of the church and for the glory of Christ Jesus, our blessed Savior. Let's pray together.