Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com. I'm Pastor Greg, and I welcome you to our study in 1 Timothy 3, verse 2, titled, The Office of a Bishop, Part Two. All right, The Office of a Bishop. We're continuing where we left off, looking for qualifications for bishops and pastors. And this week, we read through all three, or I'm sorry, all seven verses of the text last time. This week, we're just gonna read verse two and jump right in. So if you will, read verse two with me. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, amen? Alright, we continue our coverage of Paul's inspired list of 15 qualifications for the bishop, and pastor, minister, chaplain, preacher, please don't call me reverend, or some of those other highfalutin titles. But today, at the end of this study, we'll have looked at a total of seven, Lord willing, and the church don't rise, and boy, it would be nice if we did. Amen? And so we're going to look at six because we're going to pick up with number two where we left off. We saw that the pastor is to be the husband, male, of one wife. And six qualifications listed. We're reviewing these, we just want to point out, line upon line, that's the way you're supposed to study your Bible, and this is the source, as we began last week, of two main absurd false standards used to attack preachers, and I mean, I'm talking about Christians attacking preachers in churches. Number one, the false teaching, first false teaching, is the pastor must be married, and there's not supposed to be any singles in the pastorate. And we're not going to repeat all that. We talked about that all last week. So we answered that charge in the previous study. Now we come to the second absurd false teaching, and that is that a divorced and remarried man is disqualified because he has two living wives. And the Bible says the husband's to be of one wife. I mean the husband. The bishop's to be the husband of one wife. One wife. And so these guys say, well, if you're divorced and remarried, you have two living wives. Now, what does God say? God says when a wife leaves her husband and remarries, she is no longer her first husband's wife. Somebody's wrong. And I'm going to get my money out, Bob, and I'm going to put it down on God. Amen? We're not promoting gambling. That's just an illustration. Let's go to Deuteronomy 24. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Final book of the Pentateuch. That's fun to say. Pentateuch. Torah. You know, these politicians, they always try to pronounce words with the language, you know, spelling. Torah. Torah. Pentateuch. Deuteronomy 24, now look close at this. Go ahead and read. Let's just read the first two together. When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife." Now, people will say, God hates divorce. Have you heard that? Bible doesn't say that. Never once does it say God hates divorce. Go to Malachi. Just keep your finger here. Go to Malachi. Malachi 2.2.16. I didn't write it down. I was trying to remember it off the top of my head. That shows you how good my memory is. 2 could be 16. You said Malachi 2.2.16? All right. We're going back to that other book then. Malachi. 2, 16. Malachi 2, 16. It's in the Old Testament. I'll give you a second. Yeah, right before Matthew. Find Matthew and turn left. Go about three blocks. Alright, Malachi 2, 16. Now let's see what God hates. Are you there? Read it with me. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. Stop right there. Does that say he hates divorce? It doesn't. He hates the putting away. In other words, whatever it is causing the divorce is what he hates. That's what it says. The putting away is what he hates. the putting away of the marriage, the cause of the divorce. What's that mean? That means that if you have suffered divorce because your spouse was rebellious and went into adultery, or maybe she abandoned, or he abandoned you, and then you've gone on to get a divorce, that's not what God hates, not the divorce. He hates the abandonment, or He hates the adultery. That's what it says. But let me tell you, just like those guys, I've talked to people who teach this two living wives thing, and they're just like those liberals with the masks on. They don't want to look at it. They don't want to see it. I had a guy tell me one time, well, you're probably right, but if I told everybody I believed that, I'd lose my church. I've heard that sort of thing more than once. God hates the putting away, so I'm not chewing you out, but I'm telling you that if you've had that pounded in your head, God hates divorce, you need to stop saying it. Because that's changing God's word. That's adding something that isn't in God's word. And preachers will get it, they'll say it over and over and get it in your head. That's why you have to be a Berean. And I'm not showing you out, but I'm just telling you, when you heard that preacher say that years ago, you should have said in your own heart to begin with, that's not what the Bible says. And then approached him lovingly and said, the Bible doesn't actually say God hates divorce. And then talked to him about it. You'll find out what kind of preacher you got. What kind of pastor you're dealing with. So go back to Deuteronomy. And it says that when a man takes a wife and he's married her, it says he found some uncleanness in her. It doesn't mean she doesn't bathe. Although I do suggest men and women bathe. It's good for a marriage. But it's talking about the fact that either right off when they consummated the marriage, she pretended to be a virgin, and we're all adults here, so I'm just gonna talk plainly. The first time they had intercourse would be on a white sheet, and after that was over with, the bride would fold that thing up and give it to her parents as proof that she was clean and a virgin when she got married. Now, if a man knows the woman's been married before and she's been divorced and her husband left her or whatever or she's a widow or whatever the case may be, he knows that ahead of time, it's not a problem. But if a girl sells herself, and I shouldn't maybe use that terminology, but you know what I mean, you sell yourself kind of thing, you know, like what you are, but a girl presents herself as a virgin and then gets married and she's not a virgin. That's the uncleanness that the man can turn around and then get a divorce because he's consummated the marriage. Today, our law, our courts will annul it and that sort of thing, but biblically it was required divorce, but it could also mean that he found evidence that his wife has committed adultery on him. later on in the marriage. That's an uncleanness. And I hate to bring it up, but nothing new under the sun. It could be with a man or a woman or other. The saying, it's a true story. So what happens? Verse 2, And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be what? She's no longer that first guy's wife. God says she's another man's wife. So all these preachers running around talking about double married and all that nonsense, it's not biblical. Now, God says she's another man's wife. Fun to Pharisees say that he's double married with two living wives. You won't find the words double married or two living wives or anything like it in the scripture. Jessica? So what if she doesn't get married to another man? She doesn't get married. She's still not her first husband's wife, but this is just saying that if she goes and gets married, she's another man's wife. Did you make up fundamentalist pharisees? Fundamentalist pharisees. I've called fundamentalists And people think I'm calling like mental, you know, so I'm like, well, this is mine and I'm gonna put a copyright or something on it and make t-shirts. Fun to Pharisees. And all the fun to Pharisee is, see, cause not, you know, Bible believers aren't Pharisees. I've explained that before. Pharisees are the ones who add to God's word. So a fundamentalist by profession who then does things like add double married and two living wives to the Bible, they're funda-pharisees. They're not really fundamentalist or Bible believers in the technical sense of the word. Well, they're both, they're funda-pharisees, that's why I'm calling that, because they claim to be fundamentalists. Which means they claim to believe the Bible and not add to it or take away, but they do add to it and take away. Too many fundamentalists do that. So anyway, moving on, let's just talk about what would disqualify a pastor who is married or on the question of marriage. Pornography use. If you found out your pastor was a pornography user, then he's disqualified. A man cannot stand up here and tell you to keep your mind pure and to be following Christ in a spirit-filled manner, and he's using pornography. It just, it can't happen. I just want to say this. You do have to be careful. There have been men falsely accused. So it's not just an accusation. There has to be some evidence for it in the mouth of two or three witnesses, just not one person. Oh, I saw that preacher looking at me. And people have made that stuff up. So I just have to say that. But if it's, you know, these days, I mean, if you catch them with DVDs or catch it on their computer and he can't prove that it's been put there by the FBI, I'm not joking, Cheryl Atkinson, just look it up, they'll do that. But if you can't prove that that's been done, then he needs to step down. Of course, if he's committed adultery or fornication, a man that has that big of a problem keeping his hands to himself and not being involved with another woman should not be pastor. He can still be in the ministry in some way, like street ministry or evangelism, not like an evangelist going to even preach revivals necessarily, but he can still do things in that sort of capacity like all others, but he should not be in a position of leadership. Sexual imposition is those who have been accused and admitted to or been found with evidence of sexual imposition means they've fondled or molested somebody. They haven't had sex necessarily, but it's inappropriate physical touching. Inappropriate relationships, meaning they may say they haven't had sex, there may be no evidence of it, but they've carried on and there's texts, they've gone places together, met places secretly, and yeah, there's possible they haven't gone into the sexual thing, but that's still totally inappropriate for a pastor. It's inappropriate for any man, but we're talking about pastors. And finally, domestic abuse and or violence. I say that because not all domestic abuse involves violence. There's mental abuse, psychological abuse as people like to call it. And there's people who have been just torn down and destroyed by what James calls the tongue set on fire of hell. And that kind of domestic abuse by a pastor is disqualifying. A pastor who is divorced by a rebellious woman or granted divorce on biblical grounds is under no bondage. Some of you may not even know some of the men who've been divorced in the ministry. C.I. Schofield, Walter Martin, Noah Hutchings, Peter Ruckman, and there's a few other names in there I can't remember, Greg Miller. There are men who have been divorced and most of those remarried and then like Noah and I share kind of a common thing and I think Peter Ruckman as well, our first wife did die but there was a divorce before they passed away and you know that sort of thing. Full disclosure here, I didn't do anything to cause the divorce. I fought the divorce, but there's no fault divorce. You can't really do much of anything to stop it these days. Peter Ruckman took his all the way to the Alabama Supreme Court fighting it. And Noah Hutchings just had a wife who was just psychotic, and there's nothing he could do about it. And so I don't know much about Schofield and Walter Martin, their situations, but I know that it was investigated and they weren't found at fault. And 1 Corinthians 7.15 says, but if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God hath called us to peace. Are they saved? We don't know. I don't know their heart. We can only treat people by their words and their deeds. And when someone leaves a spouse, commits adultery, and is unrepentant, and will not be restored, and they go off and get a divorce, you have to treat them as an unbeliever. And so that puts the pastor in that situation in a condition of being not under bondage. And think of that, we're told right there they're not under bondage, but so many Christians put them under bondage. If a pastor or bishop divorces his wife without biblical grounds, then he is disqualified on that basis. And there are a few in ministry today And I'm not going to name names, because if I'd thought about it, maybe I would have. But I don't have the names and specifics about it. So I'm not going to name names. But I think most of the guys I would name, most of you wouldn't even recognize. But if you find out there's a man as a pastor, a teacher, and he divorced his wife, traded her in for a new model, as they say, or just thought that this would be better than the other, you know, an upgrade. I know enough to know the grass is not greener when you get to that other side. I mean you saw that down in Myrtle Beach, that guy traded his wife in for a newer model and then she ended up having all these issues and then she ended up committing suicide and everybody thought he killed her. All this, this is a pastor down in Myrtle Beach that went through all this. So it all would have been saved and avoided if he'd stayed with his first wife. But again, error begets error. And false teaching then destroys ministries. So you have a false teaching on a husband and one wife doctrine, and it destroys ministries. How many of you know that they've closed churches because they don't have enough pastors? There are fundamental Baptist churches who have closed their doors because they couldn't find anybody to pastor. One of the reasons is because those very churches have an unbiblical standard that men can't meet. And then on the other hand, a lot of men have quit the ministry because they were told they were disqualified and they bought it. Pastors being single have been banned in certain denominations. If a guy doesn't get married, he can't pastor. And so that leaves them out of the pastoral ministry. Did you know there are men who are widowed? Their wives die and the church says, well, you need to take a sabbatical and when you get remarried, come back. Yeah. A wife divorces without biblical grounds, and they say, well, sorry about your luck. Think about how Satan can destroy pastors, and he doesn't even have to go after the pastor. All he has to do is get the wife. We'll also come back to another case where they'll use his children as a way of attacking the pastor, but I don't want to jump in there yet. Pastor divorces with biblical grounds. A pastor having an adulterous wife, he gets a divorce. They say, well, sorry, your wife was an adulteress, but that means you're disqualified. And that's not what the Bible teaches. And that's why there's so many men who ought to be in the ministry. And they're not today. I have had conversations with these men. And I've tried to explain to them, you're letting a false teaching ruin your ministry. You got one life to live and live it for the Lord and to follow his calling. And you're letting these nutbags ruin your ministry. Words came out of my mouth. And I know you mean well, but that's the judgment of the elders. And so that's what I'm going to stick with. That's the judgment of a bunch of elders who shouldn't be elders. So with that, we move on to the third qualifications. Anybody have a question before we move on? I know that threw a lot at you. Doug? It's a question that I'm just asking. Would that have something to do with the family? Well, we're going to touch on that again in probably next week's study. So we're just specifically about the husband-wife relationship tonight. But that's a good question. We're going to come back to that. Johnny? Just think, would it be valuable to mention here the passage in Matthew 19 where Jesus gives his opinion Marriage and divorce. So this is God here. Is this a strength of the thing that God does not hate divorce? Sure. In Matthew 19, what's the verse you're talking about? Matthew 19. 7-9. And I'll just say, the only reason I haven't, and this is good, but the reason I didn't run all these other references is because it would take a lot more time, and we've taught on this. Matthew and Mark and I believe in Luke but for a refresher Matthew 19 17 you said well no seven yeah okay there it is they say unto him why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away now first of all who gave the writing of divorcement they're asking about Moses well Moses wasn't the one who gave it The Lord gave it to Moses. Verse 8, that was somebody else talking there, but in verse 8, he saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, suffered you to put away your wives. But from the beginning, it was not so. Now again, Jesus is answering his question in like verbiage, but it was God who gave it to Moses in the first place. And it was for the hardness of their hearts. Why? Because that's what someone's committing adultery. They've got a hard heart. And he said, but from the beginning it was not so. Verse nine, read that with me. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. So again, that's a man whose wife has committed sexual sin, then he's free. to divorce that spouse. But if he divorces her for unbiblical reasons, he is causing her to be put in a situation that technically is adulterous. But who's in the fault and who's going to pay the price? He is, not her. He's the one who put her in that situation. And we don't have time to get into great depth about that, but that's a good refresher there about that question. So again, we move on now to the next qualification. This is the third in our list. We're going to go a little faster on some of these. They're not quite as heavy and deep. But it says a bishop then must be vigilant. Does everybody know what vigilant means? I'm like, are you kidding? Vigilance is literally my first name. Gregory. The meaning of Gregory is watchful or vigilant. Gregory is a classic name that originated in Greece. The name is derived from the Greek word Gregorios, which means watchful or vigilant. And if you look it up, my picture is right next to it. I was just kidding, just kidding. This actually means nothing if I don't demonstrate actual vigilance. You can be named Gregory, but you better be vigilant if you want to be a pastor. And the real point of it is that a bishop is to be self-motivated, constant, persistent in ministry. I can just tell you I've never had to have my wife say, Greg, get up off your lazy butt and go do some pastoring. But I've met some men who are doing this all the time, and this all the time, and that all the time. I've known them. They do very little ministry. and they are demonstrating they're probably not really called, but they're definitely not qualified to be a pastor. I talked to a guy who's a Methodist graduate of the seminary, and he's a Methodist minister back in 1990, and he, without even a, you know, hesitation, I said, why did you go into the ministry? He said, oh man, the benefits, the retirement plan, He said, I'm on the clock when I golf. I'm counseling. He was as serious as could be. He was talking about selling. He was kind of like he was selling the idea that you ought to go up here to the Methodist Seminary and get yourself a church. Yeah. Hirelings. Not like Riker. Riker. Now I'm not saying, when I say constant and persistent, it doesn't mean a man don't take a day off. You got to get away from people. You got to get away from stress. You got to get away, and that's all of this, not just the pastor. We all need, God took a day off on creation week, not because he was tired, but because he's a good example. He leads by example. So we need some time off. But otherwise, constant and persistent ministry, attentive to discover and avoid danger, and to provide for safety. It gets me in trouble from time to time, but I'm never going to stop doing it. If somebody's teaching false doctrines, someone's promoting error, someone's causing discord, someone's in sin, I'm going to confront it. And don't try me. Because I'm just one of those guys that's just not really got that ability, even though I don't like confrontation. I know some people know me and think otherwise. I don't like confrontation. Jenny will tell you, I don't like confrontation. I avoid it with her as much as possible. But I avoid it with anybody. I don't like confrontation. But you know what? When there's something just right and wrong, I'm going to be confrontational. I mean, I've lost sleep and had stomach aches and shaky and everything dealing with people at times because I didn't want to have to do it. But I've lost friends down in Southern Ohio. I've lost friends I grew up with. I've known 40 some 50 years. I've lost friends because I wouldn't just let it fly. I said, this is wrong. This is just wrong. And I'd rather just walk around town everybody, man that's great, keep doing that, oh yes, alright. And in the morning I'll get to do that. Spiritual infants have consistently criticized those of us who actually are vigilant. I mean, you know, I've had them just say, you know, you need to lighten up. And they don't like the fact that I won't get involved in the ecumenical stuff and I won't allow bad teaching and bad music in our church and in our home and that sort of thing. And oh well, they'll just have to get over it. I'm just not gonna go there. Be vigilant. Number four, a bishop then must be sober. Now this isn't talking about drunks. Although that is part of it. But we're going to come back to the issue of wine in the next study. But it means it's not in an altered mind through substances, spiritual deception, or physical mental disorder. I mean, it's not necessarily a sin that's causing it. It can be old age or, you know, a tumor. Who knows what? It can be medication. Sometimes pastors have been told, you're going to have to step aside until you can stop taking that medication. It's making you a whack job. You're supposed to be sober. Now, it means the pastor cannot be unreasonable or unsettled in mind or mental faculties. Now, I've told you this story. BBFs started because we were in a situation where a guy was going aloof. But I didn't know at the time that there was something, I believe, that caused that for about two years after, three years after. I can't remember how long. But at the time, it just looked like he was going off into error and apostasy. So I had to step out of that ministry and was not an associate there anymore. Yes, Jessica. Maybe they should have characteristics like that for the president? Saying the president should be sober and... Well they do, they actually do, but I mean it's and it should be a high threshold. Is it the 25th amendment? that you can remove a president for that. And they probably would try to remove Joe Biden if it was only like his second year in his term. I really believe that. They didn't stall Kamala. So it is there actually. A bishop then must be of good behavior. And you know, Jenny will tell you, I'm a good boy. but it means generally able to get along with other reasonable believers of good behavior. I don't get along with everybody, but I get along with everybody who can. I mean, everybody's gonna have their, and there can be conflict, that's gonna happen, but if I can't get along with people, I've known mostly deacons and elders who can't get along with anybody. They should never be put in that position. I've never really known a pastor who couldn't get along with anybody, but I've known some deacons and elders like that. And so also a bishop then must be given to hospitality, and I describe that as showing kindness and consideration to everyone willing to fellowship in a reasonable manner. In other words, I haven't had this happen, but if someone, I have a pastor I know, somebody would show up at their house several times a week, and wouldn't even call ahead. He's just, hey, preacher! And finally he's like, you know, you guys, we gotta have some boundaries here. Call ahead of time, and let's plan, and my wife needs some privacy. She can't have you here all the time. And so then they get their feelings hurt and stop coming to church. You just can't deal with people like that. But he was reasonable. That pastor did the right thing. But there are pastors who preach and they're out of here. The people don't know them. The people never get to talk to them. They have nothing to do with the people, and that's a disqualifier. I mean, you do have to have rules, borders, and get away from people some. I mean, you do. It's true. But you can't just teach, pastor, and then not have any relationship and friendship with the people. Fellowship is a big part of pastoring. And I don't think anybody could accuse me of that. I mean, we're the only church where we hang around for two and three hours after the service. And I stay for most of it. I mean, I do let Dan lock up after your party animals are done, but I stick around for a good while anyway. And so. Yes. Finally, a bishop then must be apt to teach. And that just simply means you're qualified, able, and motivated to teach. Qualified means you've read through the Bible consistently throughout your life, or since becoming a Christian, you are able to teach. I know some guys who know the Bible, but they're just not able to teach. I know some people who are able to teach and motivated, but they're not qualified. It should be all above, apt to teach, qualified, able, and motivated. I've known a couple of people that were really qualified otherwise. They had the ability to teach, but they just weren't motivated. So there you go. That's where we'll pick up next time. Lord willing, and the church don't rise. Amen? Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time in your book. Everything we've discussed tonight, line upon line, precept upon precept, from Your Word, we pray that it will be something that we will, each of us, not just pastors, but it's really, these are all good qualities. And we need more men, more pastors, more preachers. And I just pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send out more workers that are qualified, that would meet these qualifications, full of the Spirit, with a love for this book, all for the glory of Jesus. Amen.