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Bro. Otis Fisher
Alright, open your Bibles to 1 Timothy 2 .15, David saved this for me, so I want him to listen.
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
Well, it's true that Eve brought the sin into the world.
Now every time a woman bears a child, she brings a sinner into the world. That's all she can do.
Mary brought the Lord Jesus into the world, the
Savior. There's a difference. So how are women saved?
By childbearing. Because Mary brought the Savior into the world.
Don't ever say that a woman brought sin into the world unless you are prepared to add that woman also brought the
Savior into the world. No man provided a
Savior. A woman did. However, each individual woman is saved by faith, the same as each individual man.
She's to grow in love and holiness just as man is. That brings me to another question.
Why did Jesus come as a baby and why not a man? Russell? Well, but all of the reference, yes, yes, all of the prophecies and everything, why not just the man?
I know the prophecies prophesied a baby, but just why not a man?
Roger, you got any thoughts? Greg, you got any ideas?
We knew him from an infant up, from the time he was born. We have no doubt as to his origin.
If he had been a man come walking on the stage like John the Baptist, we could always question, and we'd never know for sure.
So with him coming as an infant, freshborn, we know that he was without sin.
All right. Are there any questions? All right.
1 Timothy 3, verse 1. This is a true saying.
If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Now, in the early church, the preacher was always called first presbyter, elder, pastor, shepherd, bishop, overseer, minister.
He was never referred to as a reverend. Reverend, the word means terrible.
That which incites terror. It's a name which applies only to God.
Yore. The minister is to serve the church, never to ride over it.
So don't call Brother David a reverend. 2.
A bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach.
Not apprehended that he cannot be laid hold of. Hence, that cannot be reprehended.
Not open to censure. You're irreproachable.
One wife means the first. The little word apt.
Apt to teach. David, what does apt mean? All right.
Not merely given to teaching, but also skilled in teaching. To have a willingness to teach.
Not given to whine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous.
A bruiser, ready for a fight. A pugnacious, contentious, quarrelsome person.
4. One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection to all gravity.
Subjection. To set over a place before, to be over, to superintend, preside over, to be a protector or guardian, to give aid, to care for, give attention to, profess honest occupation.
5. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?
Simple question. How shall he who cannot perform the lowest function perform the greater and more difficult?
We have a nephew, my wife and I, by marriage. He runs his house like this.
It's his job to see that their income is sufficient to support all of their activities. It's his wife's job to take care of the household and see after the children.
It's the job of the children is to go to school. I never looked at it like that, but he does.
Your job is to go to school. See after chores assigned to each one of them.
I would say that was a well -organized household, wouldn't you? And as far as we know, he's not a
Christian. 6.
Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into condemnation of the devil.
Novice. Greg, what's it mean? A new convert.
Neophyte. One who's just recently become a Christian. Pride. To blind with pride or conceit to render foolish or stupid.
Condemnation of the devil. Now you'll notice that it says that he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
The devil had no choice in it. He's already condemned. Don't you fall in the same trap.
Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
Them which are out. What's it mean, Greg? All right.
Members means those outside of the church. In other words, if a man has a bad reputation on the outside, if he doesn't pay his bills, is untrustworthy or is a liar, he immediately is not a candidate to be an officer in the church.
If he is such a man, he's really a candidate of the devil. He would better represent the devil than he would represent the cause of Christ.
Eight. Likewise, must the deacons be grave, not double -tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre.
We think sometimes that because a man is successful in business, he'll make a good deacon.
Well, there's far too many men selected on that grounds. Double -tongued, double in speech, saying one thing with one person, meaning another with another.
In other words, he says whatever is convenient, what you want to hear, no matter where he is.
Holding the mystery of the faith in pure conscience, free from corrupted desire, from sin and guilt, free from every mixture of what is false, he is to be sincere, genuine.
And let these also first be proved. Then let them use the office of the deacon being found blameless.
A deacon, one who by virtue of the office assigned to him by the church, cares for the poor, has charge of distributing the money collected for their use.
A waiter, in other words, one who serves food and drink. I believe, and it's borne out indirectly in scripture, that a man must be doing the work of a deacon before you ever elect him.
Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderous, sober, faithful in all things.
A good wife makes the cares of the world set easy.
And adds sweetness to the pleasures. She's a man's best companion in prosperity.
And his only friend in adversity. The most careful preserver of his health.
The most attendant on his sickness. A faithful advisor in distress.
A comforter in affliction. And a discreet manager for all of his domestic affairs.
Is a wife. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own house as well.
For they that have used the office of the deacon will purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living
God, the pillar and ground of truth. Paul was writing to Timothy, hoping that he got to go and visit him, tell him in person.
But just in case he doesn't, he wrote this letter. Sixteen, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on the word, received up in the glory, was manifest in the flesh.
He was seen here on earth, justified in the spirit to declare, pronounce one to be just or righteous.
Spirit, the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ.
There is nothing more excellent than this truth, of which the church is the keeper and preserver here among men.
The ministry of the world begins, the ministry of the world being appointed to that end and purpose, for it teaches us the greatest matters that may be thought, that is, that God has become visible in the person of Christ by taking our nature upon him, whose majesty, even though in such great weakness, was manifest in many ways, in so much that the sight of it pierced the very angels, and to conclude, he being preached to the
Gentiles was received by them and is now placed above in unspeakable glory.
The power of the Godhead showed itself so marvelously in the weakness of Christ, that even though he was a weak man, yet all of the world knows he was
God. Does anyone have anything to add?