Practical Instructions for Biblical Eldership

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit us at our website at graceedmonton .ca. You can also find us on Instagram, Grace Church, Y-E-G, all one word, or on Facebook.

You can also find us on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever else you listen to your favorite podcasts. Please enjoy the following sermon.

I don't like to start a sermon on a negative note, but sometimes it's appropriate. I think that maybe today would be an appropriate occasion to start on a negative note. And I want to begin by pointing something out.

That if you were to carefully examine the way that modern Christianity views much of pastoral ministry today, especially in the practical matters, it would not be long before you would be forced to admit that many in the church today have a messed up, backwards, and broken view of pastoral leadership.

I want to give you a couple of case studies. When it comes to the material support of the elders, how we remunerate or compensate the elders, you would have to agree with me that there seems to be either a feast or famine kind of attitude.

On one side of the spectrum, you have men who will openly announce that they intend with the people, the money of God's people, to buy yachts, and airplanes, and mansions. And without having to look very hard, even private airports.

And in the name of Jesus, you wouldn't have to look very hard to see that there are throngs of professing Christians who are prepared to line up to fund that very thing. While at the same time, if you were to visit other churches, you would see that they've adopted somewhat of an austere philosophy that can best be encapsulated in a pithy maxim that has become popularized because it is popular that to keep the pastor poor enables God to keep him humble.

When it comes to the integrity of elders in the church, we find the same extremes. In some cases, we will find many who are willing to overlook glaring sins in the lives of their pastors when they show a unique giftedness in their public ministry, their forward-facing ministry.

In some cases, men who are greedy, or violent, or even sexually abusive, are covered for by their elders and members of their congregation because their larger-than-life public ministries draw large crowds and even bigger donations.

While at other churches, and I have seen this firsthand, faithful men who labor diligently to preach and teach God's Word in season and out of season are driven out because of petty squabbles or because they do not measure up to that congregation's idea of a faithful minister as painted by their favorite internet preacher.

Meanwhile, when it comes to appointing pastors, some churches are so desperate for elders that they will appoint anyone who is willing to serve regardless of whether or not they meet the biblical qualifications.

And you see it where as so long as you have a pulse and a penchant for service, you can serve as an elder. While at other churches, with their stringent and ironclad expectations, it is almost impossible to become an elder unless you have a doctoral degree, or you know someone on the inside, or in the case of one church that I heard about where the pastoral interns were required to produce two converts per week in order to stay in the internship program.

And when someone asked the question, what happens when the pastoral interns don't produce two converts per week, the senior pastor said, I just replace them with men who can and who will. I said it at the beginning.

You don't have to go far. Go into the highways and the byways of mainstream Christianity, even in our city. And you'll find that far too many professing Christians and not a few church leaders have a messed up view of pastoral ministry and the way that we administrate the pastoral ministry in the local church.

I know you hear me say it quite often, and I say it because it is true and because we need to stay as far away from this as possible that we live in a time and in a place of inexcusable biblical illiteracy, where we have more resources, more Bibles, access to more true knowledge, more truth than ever before, and yet so little apprehension, possession of it.

We live in a time of unbridled pragmatism and in a place of unapologetic disinterest in applying God's Word to the life and organization of God's church. It's a negative note to start on, but I need to start here because it is true.

It is the Christian air that we breathe, the Christian ethos in which we exist. But what our passage shows us today in 1 Timothy 5 is that instead of leaving it up to pragmatism or leaving it up to the flavor of the day, God actually has great concern for the practical ordering of his church, and he has in particular spoken on these matters, especially in particularly or in particular in relation to the eldership of the church.

We've already seen as we have studied through 1 Timothy, we saw in chapter 3 that God concerns himself with the qualifications of an elder. We saw in chapter 4 that he has made clear that his design for the priorities of the elders.

And now as we get to the conclusion of 1 Timothy chapter 5, we will see that he is even concerned for the seemingly small and insignificant things like the support that the elders receive, the accountability of the elders, and even the appointing of elders.

And this is because God in his wisdom knows something that most churches have lost sight of, that a truly healthy, well-ordered, and well-shepherded church only comes by a healthy, well-ordered, and biblically informed eldership in the big things and in the small things.

So today we're going to make an investment in the health and well-being of our church by getting into the particulars of biblical eldership. In verses 17 through 25, what I want to do is look at these under three headings.

And we'll start in verses 17 and 18 with what I am calling, under the first heading, the elders provision. So let's look together at verses 17 and 18. Paul writes, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in teaching and preaching.

For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages. Now as Paul begins this section, I know it's been a few weeks since we were in First Timothy, he's transitioning from his instructions related to honoring widows.

You might recall that from the first half of the chapter. And he moves now to the organizational matters of the local church, particularly the eldership of the local church. And I agree with one observer who, looking at this passage, said the following.

He says that this next section is a series of the most practical regulations for the life and administration of the church. And we don't have to look long before we see this exact thing. That as Paul enters into it, he deals with the practical task of supporting or of compensating the elders.

In verse 17, he tells us that elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. Now our Presbyterian brothers, and we have one today, we welcome you brother.

Our Presbyterian brothers and sisters have used this text at times to make a case for a distinction between the lay ruling elders and the ordained teaching elders. And while I can appreciate how they got there, I do not think that this passage teaches that or warrants that kind of formal division.

But rather it reflects the diversity of roles that you'd expect to find within any healthy eldership that is characterized by plurality, meaning we have a plurality, a multiplicity of elders, and parity or equality within that eldership.

In a healthy eldership, it is just natural that some you might find are preaching and teaching more because of their unique giftings, while others are more involved in discipling or counseling or other shepherding tasks according to their gifts.

And as we look here, these words really do teach us something about the authoritative function of the elders. In the words of MacArthur, John MacArthur, he says, elders are the spiritual rulers in the church.

And while this doesn't strip away the important role of the congregation, what it does reflect is the fact that elders possess a very real authority under Christ to lead and feed and protect and care for Christ's bride.

It is what the Puritans used to call the aristocracy of the eldership. It is the rule of the eldership under Christ, what we might call a Christocracy. And for those who rule well, we're told that they're worthy of double honor.

What does that mean? Well, we saw that word honor in First Timothy chapter 5 and verse 3, if we look there together, where it says, honor widows who are truly widows. And this is speaking about more than simply paying our respects to those widows, but it had something to do with providing material support for those who were in need.

And that's what Paul has in mind here, that the elders should receive some kind of support to free them up for the work of their ministry of preaching and teaching. But the next question that we must ask is this, what is double honor?

If we're to honor widows, what does it mean that we are to pay double honor to elders? Does it mean that elders should receive twice as much support as the widows do? So that if the widows receive three meals a day, the elders receive six meals a day.

Does it mean that the elders should receive so much support and in such a generous fashion that you come to my home and I say, well, actually my address has changed. I'm in the estates now, south of Sherwood Park, and I'll just send a helicopter to come pick you up.

Is that what Paul has in mind? Not at all. But instead, when scholars have looked at this idea of double honor, what seems to be communicated here is that there are two forms of honor. And this expression has been used often to speak of this double honor of respect and of remuneration, meaning those who rule well as elders are worthy of the esteem of the congregation.

But more than that, those who give themselves, who labor in preaching and teaching, also are to be supported through the generous contributions of the congregation. And in verse 18, Paul backs this up with two proofs from divine revelation.

Here Paul first quotes in verse 18 from Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse 4, where he says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Now what Paul has in mind here is the ancient practice of threshing wheat.

And what would happen is typically it would be a round threshing floor. The agricultural worker, whether it was the master or one of the servants, would lay out the sheaves upon the ground. There would be a post in the center of the threshing floor.

You would tie your oxen or team of oxen to that post. And then what would you do? You would drive them around and around and around the post until they eventually worked out the grain. And then you were able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Sometimes they would pull a big threshing sledge, this weighty piece of machinery that would come and rub against the kernels of wheat and break them open so that you could separate them. And it was only right, according to God's law, that these oxen labored, who labored for hours and hours, sometimes for days on end to feed others, that they were enabled to sustain themselves from eating the kernels of wheat that were at their feet.

Right? Don't put a muzzle on them and starve them while they are working hard to feed you. So Paul builds upon Deuteronomy 25, but then he takes us somewhere else. And he says the scriptures also teach that the laborer deserves his wages.

Now you have to remember that as Paul is writing this, he is not writing in the time of the New Testament. And so whenever Paul speaks traditionally about scriptures, he is speaking about the Old Testament scriptures.

And I ask you the question, where in the Old Testament do we find that teaching, the laborer deserves his wages? We don't. It is not in the law. It is not in the prophets. It is not in the writings. Then where is it?

We actually find it in Luke chapter 10 and verse 7. And what is fascinating here is that Paul is now looking at the teaching of Christ as he taught his disciples about what they were to do when they were going town to town to town.

He says, remain in the same house, Luke 10, 7, eating and drinking what they provide for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. And so here what we see is something fascinating.

And I alluded to this. I don't think I even alluded to it. I think I stated it plainly at the beginning of our study in this letter, that we see something very interesting in first and second Timothy.

And that is this, that while it is a very practical letter, it is not a theological. But every once in a while, as we see the practical instruction that Paul is laying out, it's like we can peek underneath and see this foundation that is under the practical instruction.

And what we see is this, that first, according to Paul's theology, the Old Covenant law or the Old Testament civil law is not irrelevant to the Christian. But it has what we would call a general equity application.

And what this means is that while we're not bound to those Old Testament laws, like the Israelites were when they were establishing the nation, it does teach that these laws still find application by showing us how to wisely apply the moral law today.

That's why, and if you go there with me to first Corinthians chapter nine, in verse nine, as Paul is dealing with the very same issue of compensating, supporting, caring for the elders, he brings up the very same passage.

In first Corinthians 9 .9 he says, for it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. And then he does something very surprising. He says, is it for oxen that God is concerned?

Is that really why God gave this law principally? He says, it was written for our sake. Or does he certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.

If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it not too much to reap material things from you? And so what he's getting at here is he's saying that while God put that in Israel for a very specific civil application as that nation was becoming a nation in the promised land, its true fulfillment is the general equity application that if we would not force an oxen to tread grain for hours without allowing it to eat from the produce, then why would we allow even our elders, those whom we love and care about to labor and labor and go on and so forth and say, and you can find your own food somewhere else.

But we see something else here in Paul. That Paul, as he looks to Luke chapter 10 in the New Testament, as he quotes from the teaching of Jesus, he regards it as Scripture, as what it really is, the Word of God.

He's showing us that the apostles and the early Christians in the New Testament had what many theologians would call a canonical consciousness. Meaning they understood that when Jesus came, he ushered in a period of new revelation that was going to require new inscripturation and therefore we would be receiving new scriptures in addition to the old scriptures.

And this is a remarkable thing. Anytime anyone ever says to you, well the reason why we have the New Testament is because some councils met and they declared what books were what, and they will go on about how the authority of the New Testament, or at least the canonicity of the New Testament, is found not within itself, but it's found within the church and its councils and its witness, and you say false.

In 1 Timothy 5, we see the apostles in Scripture pointing back to the teachings of Jesus and saying this is Scripture. And while Paul is doing this about the words of Christ, Peter is doing it over here about the words of Paul, and that we have internal evidence, not external evidence.

We're not dependent upon the Roman magisterium for our Bibles, but we have the internal evidence to support the existence of our New Testament canon. Now that was a bit of an aside. Let's try to get back here to 1 Timothy 5.

Next thing that we need to ask is, what is the purpose of financially supporting elders? So we have elders who rule well. We have elders who are preaching and teaching. What is the purpose? And I think we see it when Paul writes, especially those who labor in preaching and in teaching.

Now you know, if you know me well, you know I like the granular things. I know that I like the details that we find in words. I want to show you one of my favorite words, favorite Greek words in the New Testament.

It is this word behind the word labor. It's the Greek word kapiao. And it is remarkable, because it doesn't describe an elder as having a haphazard interest in their work. An elder who is casually interested in preaching and teaching, that's not what kapiao means.

It's not a take it or leave it kind of mindset. But this word labor, it means an all-in, all-encompassing, laborious, striving, working, literally toiling to exhaustion kind of effort. It speaks to the elder, not who is casually engaged in the work, but who throws himself into the work so that it is all-consuming as he engages in it.

And it's interesting, Paul shows us what this looks like in practice in Colossians chapter 1. In verse 28 he speaks about this. Just a few verses earlier he said that he was there amongst the Colossians.

One of his desires as he was ministering was to make the word of God fully known. Now that is a great ambition for someone in eldership to say, I don't know how long the Lord is going to put me in this church, but one thing I know for sure, I'm going to labor so that if anyone comes in, the next guy who comes in, he's going to say, the word of God is fully known in the midst of this people.

That they have received, maybe not in every possible dimension, all the depth that could be discovered, but the whole counsel of God is familiar to these people. And what he says in verse 28 is remarkable.

He uses a bunch of different synonymous language. He says, him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone. So this is broad, with all wisdom that we may present everyone, mature in Christ. And then he says, for this I toil, kapia 'o.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. That is what we should find the elders doing. So that when church, when you evaluate the elders of this church, and when we think about what it means to support biblical elders, those elders that receive the support of the church, they are engaged in this toiling and striving to make the word of God known.

This is what Paul had in mind, no doubt, when he said in first Timothy four, in verse 13, to Timothy he says, until I come, devote yourself to public reading, the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching.

And some have looked at this whole passage, and maybe you can appreciate this, I had a good laugh about it as I thought about it. But it's not very flattering to compare the pastoral, the shepherding elders, the pastors of the church to oxen.

It's not very flattering to compare them to first century laborers, right? They're almost slavish in the type of work that they do. But the reason I think why we see this is because it emphasizes the hard work that is required to preach and teach God's Word.

That oxen tied to the post. And if you find any man who has ministered long in the word of God, I know my children will hear it outside my door. Shouts of excitement or laughter. I sound maybe like a hyena at times, I'm not sure.

But while there is all the excitement, there is also just the discipline of being there and working your way through the text that you might know it better, and better, and better, and explain it better, and better, and better for the sake of God's people.

I remember when I used to think, and maybe you know for my new preacher brothers, for those of you who are preaching on Thursday evenings, I want you to get this, take this, and let the Lord plant it deep in you to shape and fashion you in his likeness, for his glory.

I remember when I used to think that the mark of a capable preacher was that they were able to preach and speak without much study. That they could just get into the pulpit and unleash them. And I will tell you now that that is the mark of a lazy and irresponsible preacher.

I think of one brother who speaks about not preparing so much. I've heard Paul Washer say it, that he doesn't so much prepare for sermons, but he would be the first to tell you that he spends most of his time studying God's Word, and then what you get in the pulpit is the overflow of that study.

I went back into the annals of history to look at this. If you can think about this, John Calvin used to preach 10 times per week. I remember reading one of his quotations. I can't remember if he had preached eight times that month or 10 times that month, and he said, I feel as if I am an unprofitable servant.

I'm just useless this month. He used to study past midnight often, usually five to eight hours a day, in addition to those 10 sermons that he would preach in the week. Jonathan Edwards was known for being in his study up to 16 hours per week.

The great prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, while he preached almost every day, he read almost a book every single day, six days a week. John MacArthur, for those of you who are familiar with him, when he was alive and preaching, he would often say that it took more than 30 hours each week to prepare a given sermon.

And I would venture to guess that if you find that your favorite preachers in the world, and you were to inquire with them what their preparation looks like, you would be amazed that it does not come simply oozing out of them naturally as an overflow purely, but that it is the result of the diligent study of Scripture.

And then if there is an overflow, it's the overflow of that, not the overflow of their personalities. That is the reality, is that solid expository preaching takes an incredible amount of time and effort.

So one of the wisest things, this is what Paul is getting at. I know this has been a long point. But one of the wisest things that a church can do for itself is to support an elder, or two, or three, as it is able, as it is appropriate, to free them up that they might labor diligently to teach and preach God's Word to God's church.

We need to understand this when we meet together for our members meetings, and we look at the budgets, and I recall our brother Sam saying at one point, you know, it's expensive to have you. It is not a ministry, and this is not a correction of my brother, but it is not a ministry expense.

It is not a drain on the church's financial resources. It is an investment in the health of the church, and in the health of its eldership. And that is what Paul is after. It is an investment in the prospering of the ministry of the Word in the midst of the church.

Our church has a little bit of a story behind us having a vocational elder. And for those of you who have been long enough to know this, you'll know part of this story that when we first met in this room, and this is, this room is really an evidence of God's providence to us.

Our brother Steve, you will remember that when the first summer that we met, where did we meet? We met outdoors, and Steve has a little, it's not a pup tent, it's one of those pop-up tents you'd see at the fair when the radio station is nearby.

And when it would rain, the few of us that were there would all get under the tent. And it would rain, we'd wait it out, and then we would meet and sing and pray and praise. So when we got this room, it was a remarkable thing.

But one of the things that happened was this. We lived in perpetual fear that at any point, the brothers and sisters down the hall were going to say, okay, you've been here long enough, pack it up and move.

And we were going to be back under the stars. And so what we said is, we're going to have a facility fund. And that's what we're going to invest our money in. We're going to save our money and build a facility fund.

And then I remember a brother coming to me one day and saying, I understand you want to have a facility, but is it not more biblical that we have a vocational elder? And I remember thinking, well, that is certainly wise, but I don't want to be self-serving.

I don't, here I am as the lone elder of the church. I don't want to say to the church, please compensate me. And then I remember reading Galatians chapter 6 one day. And some of you have heard me share this before.

But if you turn there with me to Galatians 6 and verse 6. In verse 7, we often hear this quote, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. And we often quote that out of context.

But what does the context say in verse 6? Galatians 6 .6. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

This is not a passage about sowing and reaping for prosperity. This is a passage about a church that understands that when they share all good things with the one who teaches the word, they will reap more of the word.

So that when we make investments in the ministry of the word, we get more of the word. And what a word it is. What a word it is that when the preacher comes up to preach God's word, we are hearing the very living and active word of God coming to your ears in the assembly that God himself has ordained for us to be here and to hear from him.

What an investment it is. Because what a word it is. There's a story I think that demonstrates this about an English preacher, a man named Robert Bruce, who was a preacher in England in the 1600s. And one day he found himself preaching before King James.

We heard the King James being read today. And the same king who authorized that version of the Bible. And despite King James seeking or authorizing that translation, he was a fairly immoral man and known widely so for it.

I won't get into some of the vices that he is known for. But as Robert Bruce was preaching the word to him, he would come to places that were particularly powerful, that were even convicting. And King James would do something.

When the conviction started to come on, he would turn to his servant and begin speaking to his servant. Just having a conversation with his servant as the sermon went on. And Robert Bruce noticed this and eventually they came to another moment where King James began speaking to his servant and he stopped and paused.

As if to say non-verbally, I want you to hear the sermon. And so if you're going to speak, I will wait until you're finished speaking. And so he waited and the king stopped. And then Robert Bruce went on and the king began to speak again.

And then Robert Bruce said one of the most fantastic things. As my son and I were listening to this biographical sketch together this week, I laughed out loud and I said, you have to listen to this again.

Listen to what he said to the king. Robert Bruce there looks at King James the first, one of the most powerful men in the world. And he says this, it is said to have been an expression of the wisest of kings, that when lions roar, all the beasts of the field are to be quiet.

Well, the lion of the tribe of Judah is roaring in his gospel and it becomes all kings to be silent. And I like what our brother Mac Tomlin said, quipped about this scene. He said, me thinks there was silence the rest of the sermon.

But valuing God's word is more than remaining silent when it is being preached. It is investing in it. And the principal way that we invest in the ministry of the word of God is through the material support of the elders.

And I'm not saying this to enrich myself. I'm saying this to enrich all of you. And the question is, do we believe it? My next two points are much quicker. We'll look at the elders accountability in verse 19.

In verse 19, Paul transitions to how we are to ensure that the elders are kept accountable without entertaining false accusations against them. In verse 19, he writes, do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

I'll do verses 20 and 21 as well. 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.

So do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Why would Paul have to write this? There is a saying amongst old Dutch divines that he who stands in the front is kicked in the rear.

Now I think there is truth in that. That those who end up in the leadership at the front of the pack, it's very easy to just give him a kick once in a while because you go, he's not leading us in the right direction, not at the right pace, whatever it might be.

Now that might sound kind of cute, but it is in fact very sinister when it happens in the church. There's a quote from John Calvin on this passage that I think we would do well to pay attention to. He says, none are more liable to slander than godly teachers.

Think about that the next time you hear criticism leveled against any man in ministry who at least at face value appears to be faithful. None are more liable to slander than godly teachers. Although they perform their duty correctly, they never escape a thousand censures.

The more earnestly any pastor strives to advance the kingdom of Christ, so much more is he loaded with envy and so much the fiercer are the assaults made on him. And listen to what Calvin emphasizes here.

He says, this is the craftiness of Satan to draw away the hearts of men from their ministers that their instruction may gradually fall into contempt. So translation, if God, sorry, translation, if Satan can't keep you from being a miserly people and choking out the word by sowing sparingly, he's going to undermine the word by false accusations against the preacher.

If he can't deal in his first approach, he will deal in his second. And again, what's interesting is Paul makes another general equity application of the Old Testament civil law, this time from Deuteronomy 19 .15, where we read that a single witness is not suffice, but two or three witnesses are necessary to prove an accusation.

We saw our Lord Jesus, he did this as well in Matthew 18, speaking about church discipline. What do we do? We go to a person one-on-one. Then how many do we take? Then two or three come together. And if they do not listen to them, then you take them to the church.

And if they do not listen to the church, then you treat them as a Gentile and a tax collector. And so what this is implemented for is to protect innocent parties from false accusations. To protect, in this case, elders from malicious or frivolous accusations that come by the craftiness of Satan.

And we need to understand that this will take place. And we're used to living in the court of public opinion, where one person makes a claim, the rest get on board, and we cancel whoever it is who's the subject of that claim.

And while it's tempting to live in that world and to do that very thing, we must not. But we must be measured. When we hear a charge against an elder, we ask the question, where are the witnesses? Do we have witnesses?

If we don't, then we don't have sufficient evidence to continue with the charge. But if there are witnesses, then their testimony needs to be seriously considered. And Paul gives us recourse when these testimonies of pastoral wrongdoing are found to be true.

What do we read in verse 20? As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all that the rest may stand in fear. Now what this passage is not teaching is the sinless perfection of the elders.

If we had to require that the elders be sinless, we would just never have elders. I will stand at the front of the line and tell you, I am a saint in Christ. But if you get close enough to me, you will see that I sin.

And that is true of every elder, and that's true of every Christian. So what Paul has in mind here then is cases of ongoing, habitual, unrepentant, or disqualifying sin that violates the instructions regarding the character qualifications of an elder.

And when we have cases of disqualifying sin and of habitual, ongoing, and unrepentant sin, then the path forward is laid out clearly for us. That we cannot tolerate repeated, unrepentant, and disqualifying sin in our elders.

But the sin must be identified, confirmed by witnesses, and then the guilty elder is to be rebuked openly for the good of the church and for the good of that elder's soul. It's one of the things that you have heard me say in a members class, if you've taken a members class, that we will love you, we love you so much, and we will love you so much in this church that we will not tolerate self-destructive sin.

And we will love you so much that we will put you out of the church if necessary to communicate the devastating consequences of that sin. And the desire the whole way will be your restoration. And the agreement that we enter into, brothers and sisters, is that as a congregation and as your elders, we understand the other aspect of that, that you will love us so much.

That better is an open rebuke than hidden love, right? That faithful are the wounds of a friend, while the kisses of the enemy are profuse. That you will love us well enough that when you see unrepentant and disqualifying sin in our lives, you will say we cannot tolerate it in you either.

So that it works both ways. And I know that some of you have come from difficult church backgrounds. I know that some of you have been injured by unchecked sins of men in ministry. And I can almost guarantee you that in those cases this process was not followed.

And if you have experienced such things, you know the hurt that results from the neglect of this passage. Some might look at this and go, you know, couldn't we get a more Christ-centered message today?