First Timothy, First Timothy chapter five. And I need to finish up last week's lesson and leave anybody hanging. Last week we were reading and we had read verses 17 through 21 in this chapter. And we, our outline was number one, the care of a pastor. Went through that, we talked about the respect of their leaders and then secondly, the reward, reward their labor. And then secondly, we talked about the concern of a pastor and we began to look at the concern of the pastor and we looked at the appropriate procedures and the accountable witnesses. that Paul brought up here in this chapter, in these verses. And then the third point, which we didn't really get into, was the correction of a pastor. And that is the correction of the pastor. And you'll find this in verses 20 and 21. And I wanna begin reading there, and then I will read all the way through verse 25 to the end of this chapter. 1 Timothy chapter five, look with me in verse 20. It says, them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. He says, I charge thee before God. and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. And then verse 22, lay hand suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins, keep thyself pure, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sakes, And he says, and thine often infirmities. Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after. Likewise, also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid. And what we'll do is I want to finish up on the comments on verse 20 and 21. and is dealing with the last part of our outline, the correction of a pastor. Treating a pastor biblically applies also to instances of egregious sinful behavior. And everybody here, if you've been in the ministry or been in church, you will hear of a pastor, or maybe you've been involved, indirectly involved, with watching a pastor step out of fellowship with God and step into sin. And so here, this is what Paul is teaching young Timothy, a young pastor, And so it's important. What happens when a pastor is actually convicted of sin? Well, what happens? In verse 20, I think this is what he's bringing up. Number one, we see judge publicly. This is a public judgment. This is what he's speaking of. Look at verse 19, against an elder received not an accusation, but before. two or three witnesses. Some pastors will teach, well, you're not to receive an accusation against an elder. That's not what it's actually saying. You say, well, that's the words it's using. Well, if you put them in context, he's saying, he says, they're against an elder, receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. All right? You say, well, I told somebody, and then they told somebody, and that's the two witnesses. These are eyewitnesses to the same thing. This is what Paul's speaking of. And so, yes, a pastor can have this situation, especially an egregious sinful behavior. All right, and then he says in verse 20, them that sin, all right, same context, this is an elder. He says, before all, that others also may fear. That's where we get our sub-point, judge publicly. When a pastor sins in a way that affects his congregation, he should be corrected, not covered for, all right? And that's done with two or three witnesses and probably with the leadership of the church, but it's done publicly. It's not done privately. I could tell you of instances, true stories of of men, godly men, men that you probably will respect, and many people do, but step into sin and then it gets covered up. Everything's okay. While I repent, everything's fine. They go right back into their, not only fellowship with a believer, but also their ministry or a ministry. And you want to be mindful of that. And not to say that you can't step back into ministry, but some sins, you're going to affect your ministry. Now, it might not necessarily affect the fellowship, maybe for a while. All right. but not ministry. And so here you want to be mindful of that and this is why it should be done publicly. Some of this stuff is swept under the rugs and then nobody really knows. And he says this needs to be brought out. He says here in verse 20 again, them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. And so here in the context, doctrinally speaking about elders that have stepped and to sin. Here he rebuked. You say, what is the word rebuke? It means to correct, to call into account and show his fault to reprove. All right. The Bible, I don't know if I shared this last week. I don't think I did. I don't think I got this far, but there's a verse in Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 28. If you want to turn over there, turn over there with me. Chapter 28, and I believe it's verse 13, it is. And Proverbs 28 in verse 13, it says here, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Some of the hardest times, and I'm using the word hardest times in the context of, leading up to the point of confessing his sin and getting it right, sometimes it's like something's like a resistance there and it's hard to do. I don't know if it's pride, pride could fall in there. but a number of things, and you're like, but once you reach that point, and you say, I don't care what happens of this, this needs to be gone right, I'm owning up, we call it extreme ownership, and I'm confessing to this, I'm wrong here. And you don't say, well, I'm 90% wrong, and that person's 10% wrong, no, I'm 100% wrong. And here this verse says, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper. But it goes on to say, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. You'll find, you will find that if you're willing to do that, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt with God, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. All right. He doesn't have a category of sins that he says, well, I'm not able to forgive. Amen. I think the only one that I could bring up theologically would be the sin of unbelief. That's the one you can control and you can step into eternity having not believed Christ and you won't go to heaven. You go to a devil's hell. And so here, any sin that you can come up and confess, God will forgive. His blood is righteous and pure enough to forgive of any sin. And he said, you'll find mercy. All right. And so here. We're looking at a word rebuke. Let's look at another one there and I slip back to 1 Timothy chapter 5 and he's speaking of, he uses the word in verse 20, them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. The word fear means being afraid. It is, in this context, the fear of God's judgment. You say, what does that look like? Well, a working definition, one that shows in Acts chapter 5, if you remember Ananias and Sapphira, well, Satan had filled their heart to lie. And it says in two places, right in the text, against the Holy Ghost, and the next one is against God. And I believe they're the same. I think it works theologically. If you're a Bible student, there's a part of your Godhead right there. And so they had lied. They acted upon what Satan had put into them. And so, you see, what happened to them? They died. And they said they died right where they were standing, and they carried them out and buried them. And both of them did. The man and the wife, and so the husband and the wife. So here Acts chapter 5 would show that. It was early on. Let me say this by way of illustration. Disaster in ministry or life tends to be preceded by neglect or poor decisions. You don't wake up one day and then all of a sudden you have a disaster, especially in ministry. It generally comes by neglect or poor decisions. that are made, and I'm speaking to the context here of a pastor or a preacher or somebody in authority, and I'm reminding you, remember, you look back and you remember of the Titanic. Before it struck an iceberg that caused it to sink, the ship had ignored more than 30 different ice warnings. You can have somebody listen to the Word of God for a number of times, and if the heart's not pricked, it's not punched, and the neglect, poor decision-making, causes the disaster. And so we see here that he is telling, look, them that sin, rebuke before all that others may fear. Then he says here, judge without partiality. Look at verse 21 now. We'll move at verse 21. I charge thee before God. and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another." This is hard to do for some folks. I've even seen pastors hard to do this. You get a relationship with somebody and then you have emotions attached and then they want to, we spoke of this earlier in the back, their perception, it jades the perception of what you have. And here he's telling Timothy, he's teaching Timothy. You can't be preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. So judge without partiality, especially if you think a lot of the pastor, or you have a relationship, watch, without a predetermined opinion, observe, and preferring, an opinion formed before the facts are known. Prejudice, you ever do that? Sometimes, young, I try to stay away from it, is prejudge something before you know all the facts. We as humans, we're quick. Christians are even quicker at it. Make a judgment call based off what somebody told you, and it's third-hand, second-hand, fourth-hand at best. Be careful. It'll cloud your thought or judgment based off of somebody because of what somebody said about that individual. Be careful of that. Be careful. The warning's fine, but what happens is it'll preload your perception or perspective of that person. He's saying, look, when it comes to judgment, you don't want to have a partial favor or opinion one towards another. It needs to be neutral. And let me say this, you stand before a judge in a certain case or situation, you're hoping that that judge is looking at everything without prejudging it, but open and looking at it with an open mindset, weighing all the facts, especially if you're the one that's in the accusing seat. the defendant, they might say, all right? So judge without partiality is what he's saying in verse 21. There's two things here. I said without a predetermined opinion, all right? But I'm going to say secondly, without favoritism. Sometimes confrontation with someone we respect is difficult. Think with me here. However, the Bible encourages us to engage in confrontation without bias. You realize you can have that type of discussion, but still not be biased. Don't bend your opinion to the person because they don't agree with you, or you have a partiality in judging that person based off of your conversation with them. They're still a brother. You still need to love them. But here he says, without favoritism. Let's key on that. And so I think that's what he's saying in verse 21. Let's look at it again. He's saying, look, this is going to be, he says, I charge you before God. So this is laid out seriously. It's like, look, uh, I'm saying this in, as a witness before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by partiality. And so this is what he is charging this pastor to do in regards to judging, all right, another pastor who has fallen in sin. So partiality, what does that mean? An inclination of the mind, favoritism. That's what that means. And so that will, that kind of finishes that outline. I know some people when I skip past it, what was that third point? What was, what was those other points? So that finishes that. Now let's look at verse 22 and tonight we're going to, I won't get through all of it for the sake of time, but tonight we'll be dealing with honoring leaders. All right. Honoring leaders. I think I have that right. Nope. We'll be, uh, that was last week. Continuing in a caution. Continuing in caution, look at verse 22. He says, So we find here Paul continues to describe to Timothy what he should keep in mind when considering making somebody a leader or someone a leader, especially in a church setting. And Paul knew the need for choosing and developing new leaders, which was why he wrote to Timothy in the first place. He now gives Timothy some guidelines for finding the next leader. And this is what he's going to get into in verse 22. And number one, I have, I've jotted down, number one, principles for ordination. principles for ordination. In verse 22, ordination was a significant event in a leader's life. I think back to my ordination, and I've been to several ordinations. My older brother and brother Samuel, there's been a number of men here in the church that has been ordained, and so it's an important part of being called. called into the ministry, not by man, it's man who is agreeing with what God has placed on that man's life, all right? And so there's a certain way you look at it. He says here, lay hands. Look at verse 22. You say, what is that? Well, it's a part of recognizing God's call on them in their ministry. And then Paul and Barnabas, the ordinations were recorded in Acts chapter 13. And so I'm going to go back there. I like going back and looking at what the Bible has recorded concerning these ordinations. So Acts chapter 13, if you look with me in verse 3, and we're just grabbing a verse, but if you want more of context, you can back up and pick up. It talks about Simeon, which was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manon, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul, in verse two, and as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, I'm in Acts chapter 13, verse two, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Verse three, and when they had fasted and prayed, a lot of times in ordinations, there'll be some fasting going on beforehand. And so you'll see that that's common, common, you'll hear that, and laid their hands on them and they sent them away. noticing that the Holy Ghost had already called them, separated them, and so the men, as he's telling them, they lay their hands on them and say, yes, these men are called of God, and we're commissioning them to go out of this church and go do what God has called them to do. And so that is part of it, it's a special time. There's also another one, back in our text in 1 Timothy, if you look there at 1 Timothy, back up to chapter four, you have Timothy. Timothy himself has a record of ordination in verse, I believe, verse 14. Let's see here. He does in verse 14, neglect not the gift. I'm in first Timothy chapter four, verse 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by the prophecy, by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. So what was going on there? That was when he was, his ordination took place. And Paul was bringing him into remembrance of that time. So two things here on the principle of ordination. Number one, it should be unhurried. It shouldn't be done hastily or quickly. And he speaks of this. If you look at the first part, lay hands suddenly on no, he said on no man. All right. And he'll get into the reasons here, but number one, let me deal with this. And then secondly, I'm going to say it should be unblame, unblameable. Okay, it should be unblameable, and he gets into this, but let's deal with the hurriedness or quickness of it. You get somebody saved, they get discipled, and the next thing you wanna do is you wanna ordain them to service. You're asking for a problem and a disaster. And this is what Paul is warning, Paul is warning them. not to do this. And so here Paul already mentioned when describing the attributes of a pastor that he should not be a young Christian, all right? So suddenly means hastily, quickly, sometimes with a suggestion of not being considerate of what is actually being taught or laid out a warning, you might say, look, go back to chapter three, right where we're at chapter three in verse six, he says here, dealing with now, remember, first Timothy should have a, you should have that logged in your mind or want to begin to log in your mind. This is the requirements for the ideal pastor. All right. First Timothy chapter three, and then look at verse six is the one I want to draw your attention to. He says, not a novice less being lifted up. The reason why with pride, he fall into condemnation of the devil. All right, and so we see here that pride, he gets caught away with pride, the position of maybe where he's at, who he's serving or trying to serve, and he gets caught up with pride, gets caught up with himself. And so not a novice, that means not a beginner. And so we see here, it should be, we said it shouldn't be hurried. Let me say this, it is dangerous to impulsively place a new Christian in a place of spiritual responsibility. This has backfired. One of the advices that was given to me two years ago almost was that, look, be careful of who you place in positions or He said because if they don't have any previous experience, they're a young Christian, maybe just had gotten saved but still struggling, you want to be mindful of that because it leads to problems. And so here, Paul is telling Timothy, especially dealing with picking the next leader or leaders. And so it's important. Some things in life should not be hurried. And this would be one of them here. A lot of times I've seen churches do it desperate in a setting of desperate. They want a pastor, so they'll pick maybe somebody young or inexperienced or a novice, as the Bible says here, and it just backfires. It's not healthy. And so some things in life should not be hurried. And so we see secondly, not only it shouldn't be hurried up, but it should be unblameable. Look at the latter part of that verse, verse 22. And I'm going to say because laying on of the hand shows association with someone, it should be done with caution. You say, well, we just ordain them and that's their deal. It's whatever they decide. No, you're attached to it. You're going to give an account to somebody and it seems here that you're going to be connected with it. And so you say, where do you get that? Well, let's read verse 22. and see what the warning is and the instruction, the advice given, said, lay your hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins, keep thyself pure. So here in this, I believe two things should be unblameable. Number one, you should be unblameable in your recommendation. All right, who recommends this person? A church should avoid laying hands on someone and recognizing their calling if the person has a questionable testimony. One of the things you'll find, very basic thing to do, especially if you're joining the church or you maybe want to work in ministry, first thing we ask for is your salvation testimony. And then we ask for a scriptural testimony of water baptism. Scriptural means if you're sprinkled, that's not scriptural. If you've been submerged in a like-faith church, then that's going to work. If you say, well, I was emerged, but I was emerged in the Mormon church, that didn't go to work because they don't preach the gospel. I said, well, I was baptized. I don't even know if they baptize. I think they do baptize. I was a Jehovah's Witness. I baptized. That didn't go to work. They don't preach the gospel. Not the one we preach. They preach a gospel, but not the gospel. So here, your recommendation is very important. You say, well, how do people handle that? Most people who are saved don't have, it's the people who aren't, that struggle with salvation, or maybe the definition of it, who will struggle with a testimony. And it's not to get them to struggle, it's just you want to know, so it's like vetting, a verbal vetting. When did you get saved? When did Christ come into live inside your heart? When did you realize that you needed a savior? At some points, well, I never remember, I've always been saved. Say, you've never heard that. I've heard that here. It's like, that isn't going to work. We're all born lost. So kind of like when you had a date of birth. Mine's August 29, 1977. He said, well, you remember that? No, that's just the date that has been recorded and logged. And so I remember that. I don't remember the date or the time when I got saved. I know where I was at. I remember what I said. I remember what was going on in my heart, a storm, realizing that, you know what, I need a savior, just a young little guy. But he said, well, what time was that? I don't know. I don't think it really matters. But come to the point of when did that take place when you say, I don't know, that's a problem. And so here we're seeing that your recommendation is important. And so he is in the context here, maybe not necessarily salvation, although that's an important part. You don't want to ordain somebody that doesn't believe in salvation or doesn't have that doctrine nailed down. in their lives. So recommending somebody, you want to be careful, especially if it's in question. That's why you have a board of pastors at an ordination that will ask questions. One of the questions that would be asked is, when did you accept Christ as your Savior? And then you want to get into that. When was you scripturally baptized? They might ask you a doctrinal question or two, or want to know something about you. What church was you a member of before you were a member here, or whatever. They'll ask all kinds of questions. Well, I don't have a right. Look, if you've got everything laid out before God, you shouldn't have a problem with any. You might not be able to answer every question. You see what I'm saying? They have some weird doctrinal question. What do you believe about the peccability of Jesus Christ? Or what do you believe about the sins of the spirit? What? You know, you can get some crazy questions. But here, dealing with salvation should be a plain one in your testimony in that regards. A partaker, he uses the word, look back here, let's get back on point here, kind of get off in the weeds there. He says neither, I'm in verse 22, neither be partaker of other men's sins. So a partaker means to fellowship, partner, or associate with. I am careful, this is, you see, my preference or my standard or my convictions might necessarily be yours, all right? But I would use one of the areas that I have a conviction in my life from this verse right here, I'm careful who I associate with or spend time with. I don't go out of my way to spend time with somebody who's anti-God, anti-Bible. You know, I'm not going to spend a lot of time. I witness to them. I don't have a problem with that. But them saying that they're a believer and they're preaching another doctrine, I don't spend time with that. I think this is one of these situations, a partaker. So while I'm not a partaker of them, I can hear he's saying that you will become a partaker. And he says here in verse 22, notice it carefully, neither be Partaker of other men's sins, keep thyself pure. It doesn't affect me. It does affect you, and it will. You might not know now, but the advice given here from Apostle Paul is that you want to be careful of this. Partaker means to fellowship, partner, or associate with. And here's where it gets tricky. You got somebody that has a looser conviction than you do, and they'll partner with anybody, but then they want to know why you don't partner with them. And it's like, what's who you associate with, you gotta be careful. This is what he's talking about here, especially in the context of a pastor. Now watch, not only in our recommendation, but we should be unblameable in our purity. It doesn't matter, it really doesn't. It seems to matter is what he's saying here. Let's read it again. We're still on that verse. He says to, he says, neither be partaker of other men's sins, keep thyself pure. In the context of laying on of hands, this is our context here, verse 22, Timothy, Paul tells Timothy to keep himself pure from the sins of others. All right, and so you wanna be mindful of that. I've never forget one of the ordinations that was going on here. The gentleman, the pastor, was Brother Vic Wilson. He's been in the ministry a long time. A soldier of the cross, you would say. But one of the things that he always asks in the ordinations that I've been in, he says, if you fall into sin, will you turn your ordination papers back in? Because I don't want to be associated with you. And my name on your ordination means I am associated with you. And the obvious correct answer would be say, yes, you would. And he's in the context of fornication, adultery, And anything else you want to list at the Bible list. So here, Paul is warning this young preacher, you want to be mindful of this. He says, keep, he says, keep thyself. I'm looking at the words that he uses. It helps frame the thought and what he means. Means to guard carefully, to attend watchfully. To keep yourself from something, that's what you're going to have to do. And I know from time to time, we Christians, we get loose in that keeping ourselves. And here in this context in ministry, we'll just stick with what we're looking at now. The ordination of another pastor or preacher is you want to be mindful of this. This should be one of the charges sent forth to a young man that's being ordained. You'll hear this spoken of. And then the next word is pure. So what's that mean? Well, it simply means clean and then faultless or sacred. So you want to keep yourself pure. And so it's part of what he's telling Timothy here. Let's get into my second point. I'm looking at the clock now about running down. Priority of health. Now he kind of changes here. Notice verse 23. I want to make mention to this in the middle of these instructions, verse 22, 21 and 20. Paul inserts a quick parenthetical statement for Timothy himself. Well, notice this. I've got some thoughts on it. I'll lay out for you, hopefully be food for thought. The apostle gives Timothy admonition about his health habits. And he's speaking to Timothy here. Now watch what he says in verse 23, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach sake and thine often infirmities. And so two things I'm going to draw your attention, but I want to break it down. Number one, because of a particular culture, verse 23a, drink no longer water. The statements that Paul's making here are given to the particular context of a first century water and wine, all right? Today, we enjoy in America, pretty much just about anywhere in America, you probably can go somewhere and get sick drinking water, but more likely than not, you can drink the water from the tap. You can drink the water that's handed to you. And some people get particular, I'm careful. I like drinking filtered water. I think it's important with what type of water you drink, but that's me. Again, that is a preference. You like ketchup. I like mustard. You know, one of those things. But good water is very important. And here, though, Timothy, think of his setting. They didn't have a lot of water filtration systems. Matter of fact, probably none at all. And so Paul is making this remark in regards to Timothy. There's a couple of things I want to add. They're not in my notes. If you're a Bible student and you want a little bit more, I'll give you just a tidbit more here on this. Let me get into my sub point, the nature of water. So the water in that day was often impure as it is today in many third world countries. Sanitation was poor and filtration or purifications. The systems, they were not widely used back then. I'll give you some story, real life stories of some of my sister's missionaries just in Mexico. Their kids grew up on the field and you didn't use water from the tap to brush your teeth. You, when you wash your hair in the shower, you never open your mouth and let the water get in your mouth when you're in Mexico. Not unless you just want to get really bad sick and possibly of dying from something like that, amoeba or whatever. So they had that training as babies. They grew up in that culture. It's a lot of bottled water and whatever have you. But when they come back to the States to live, one of the things is they, it took them forever. They still talk about being careful where this water come from. And I always thought it odd when we'd sit down to a meal, we always have water or tea or whatever. And they'd say, where do you have anything? They would not drink the water. They didn't know where the waters come from. They didn't know the source. They would not drink it. It was just something ingrained into you in a third world country. I have a, well, he's a friend, but he was a man that I worked for. He owned a plastering contractor and he took a vacation to Cancun, Mexico at about, 2006 and we stayed behind and helped him keep up with his job, contracts and stuff. He come back after a two-week vacation and he got sick, 2006. And I last worked with him in 2020 and he was still He had been gone to doctor, to doctor, to doctor, dealing with some disease he got from eating the ice from Cancun, Mexico. And they for sure, they know that the bug that he has is just hard to treat. It gets into the system, gets into the blood. And he's had all kinds of issues with his legs, his nerve system. He said, what is it? That's the water that he drank from the ice, not thinking anything about it. vacationing at Cancun. You say, can it happen? Oh yeah, easy. And so this is not uncommon even in today, but mostly here in America, you have filter water. Hopefully, you're drinking filter water. There's different kinds. Some are probably better than others, but not too much on water. Let me get to the wine, the natural wine here. Now, the word used here is just oinus. I did a study on the oinus and the osin. One is not fermented, has no fermented system to it, The other one has been fermented, all right, has alcohol alongside, if you look at the definition. But here, so the natural water, but the natural wine, wine from here is speaking of grapes, and it seems like you're going to need to drink this instead of the water. Now watch, wine was used as medicine back in this day because of the impure water. In some cases, it would have been healthier and safer to drink wine than drink water exclusively. Now watch this. But due to different fermentation process, even the alcohol wine of the day had a significantly smaller alcohol content than modern wine. When we think of wine, we have a definition of, and I have here, I did some research, in today's wine, the average ABV, that's alcohol by volume, that's what that means, is about 12 to 16%. He said, you know that off? I had to research it. And in the Bible days, a consumption by the Jews and the Jewish culture or anybody of that Greek too, how they mix it was three parts water, one part wine, three to one. Their drink here, the wine, would have been about two and a half to 3% alcohol. That's where it had been. And so quite a bit different than what we think of as wine today. So here, this wine wasn't even fermented. So it's untelling what it was, if you got a hold of something old or new. But here, according to how it's here, it wasn't fermented. A lot of people who like wine and agree with drinking, social drinking, however you want to call it, this is a verse they know. Out of all the other verses they really should know, but this is the one they think they know. and it's not even dealing with fermented, I don't believe. Here, from what I gather, my studies. But let's move on. A personal instruction. So he has the priority of health and he gives a personal instruction in this section. Paul is not talking to the whole church here. He's speaking directly and specifically to Timothy. Seems like Timothy had a problem with his stomach. Now, let me give you the Bible tidbit. Here's a Bible tidbit. When you get into the apostles, the apostles had the ability to heal, to drink poison things, to raise the dead. They had a number of powers that God had given them. And he said that they would become to wane off the scene. It appears here from Gathering Bible Student that Paul doesn't have the ability to heal Timothy. And he tells Timothy how to deal with his infirmity, his oft infirmities. And so Paul's given Timothy these instructions because of his personal health issues. He said, for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities, often means reoccurring, and infirmities means sickness or disease, lack of strength. So he battled this, it seems like, on a personal level. Thirdly, I'm gonna get into this and I'll be done, the perception and delegation. So let's watch him get back on point in verse 24. So verse 23, I'll read that and then verse 24, and then we'll close. Remember, there's one of the things that he told a pastor he shouldn't partake in or have any of, same with the deacon. all right, of the wine because of just what it spoke of, and to stay away from something that could control you. Verse 24 now, watch as he changes. Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after. So the perception in delegation, having finished his comments to Timothy in verse 23, On his health, Paul now, he comes back from the personal side to the major topic at hand, the selecting godly leaders with care. Number one, he's going to talk about discerning issues of sin in verse 24. He's going to talk about two different ones, an obvious sin, one that you can actually see, and he's going to talk about a hidden sin. And you say, well, we should only be concerned with the one that's obvious. That's not what he teaches here, and it's not what we should pick up and take from. So we see here, look at verse 24, some men's sins are open beforehand. That's the obvious. And then watch, he says, going before to judgment. That's what takes place. And then he says, in some men, they follow after. So those are not readily seen or known, maybe cloaked or hidden. We know what the Bible says about that. about trying to hide your sins, you're not going to prosper. He that covereth sin shall not prosper. And he said before, he says, look, the wages of sin is death. Then he goes on, I think it was a Moses. What did he say about that? Be sure your sin will find you out. Sin always comes out. And so he speaks of two different ones. And so those who are living in sin are clearly unfit for the ministry, period. They absolutely should not be placed in leadership in the church regardless of their personality, finances, or their positive factors. A lot of times we pick one of the latter three and think that is enough to put somebody in a leadership role. You're asking for trouble. And then let's deal with the hidden sin real quickly. For the sake of time, I will cover this again next week or the following week, Lord willing. He said, some people are not living in blatant sin, the latter part of verse 24, but they do have issues in their lives that would disqualify them. Paul says that they should not be placed into the ministry either. That's why I believe he says, lay hands suddenly on no man. Because you want to know what their past is and what their testimony is. It's important to get to know the individual. So we deal with number one, discerning issues of sin. And we see verse 25, discerning a godly testimony. Look at verse 25. I think we got, I can squeeze it in. Likewise, also the good works of some are manifest beforehand. Now watch this. He's on the positive side. And they that are otherwise cannot be hid. I believe the latter deals with recognizing godliness and the people who have Testimonies provide clear evidence that they are living for the Lord. This is important. It can't be like, well, I think he is or have a partiality. But then he speaks in the latter part of verse 25, revealed godliness. Look at that. And they that are otherwise cannot be hid. And so revealed godliness, they that are otherwise means of a different sort differently. Be hid means to be concealed, to escape notice. Here's what he's saying. I think it reverts to those who have service. Some service is not visible. They're still working and serving God, but just kind of like behind the scenes. And maybe they are serving in a capacity. It might be something where it could be like folding the bulletins or making the bulletins. We never see that person do that, but it gets done and they're done and they're done every week or cleaning the church. You might not see somebody clean, but it gets done. Somebody does that. And so that's kind of behind the scenes. Though they may not be noticed at first, when their testimony is investigated, it becomes apparent that they are godly as well. And they're serving God and have a good testimony and it comes out. He said it won't be hid. And this is what Paul mentions that some people's good works may not be as obvious as others, but that their service cannot be hid forever. And they should be recognized and appreciated. And I think this is what he's telling Timothy, make sure you keep track of this. We have a lot of people who do a lot of things here at Hope Baptist Church behind the scenes. It's not something you might see here where you walk in and you sit down and you see the service conducted, but there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. And I got news for you, the priority of the work The main part of the work, believe it or not, is what goes on behind the scenes. That's what keeps it going. And a lot of times you're like, wow, you lose sight of that. You don't realize that it takes a lot of time, a lot of effort. And this is what I think verse 25 is referring to. Those that you can see what they're doing, and then those that you might not see, they're still serving God. They're just as important. All right, let's all stand. Looks like we're getting some rain, some more rain. Hopefully it's been a blessing to you. circle back on some of those words and those last verses, and we'll move on to chapter six and close out 1 Timothy chapter six. I don't think we'll pray tonight or sing tonight. We will pray and we'll be closed and dismissed in a word of prayer. Brother Greg Smallwood, brother, it's good to see you. Thank you for tonight's service in the back. It was good. Would you close and dismiss us in a word of prayer?