Timothy chapter 3 starts out in verse number 1 with this is a true saying,
if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work, a bishop that must be blameless.
So right away the Bible starts giving the qualifications here for the bishop,
or what the Bible also calls the elder or the pastor of the three terms that the Bible uses interchangeably
for the person who's basically running the church, ruling over the church.
The Bible says that the elders that rule well should be kind of worthy of double honor,
so it is a position of authority in the church.
And so he begins to lay out the qualifications, but first of all he says,
if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
You see, young men should desire to be a pastor or something.
I mean, if they have the ability to do so, if God's given them the ability,
and if God's given them the talent to be able to be apt to teach,
which is something that you're kind of either born with or you're not in a way,
I mean, some people have certain aptitudes.
That's what the word aptitude means.
It's something that you naturally have an ability or an inclination to.
And there are many men who have the ability to stand up and preach and teach God's Word,
and you that are young men should begin to maybe have a desire to have the office of a bishop.
Why? Because it's a good work.
Now, being the pastor of a church is not about having a title or a shingle outside the door.
It's about work. It's about doing the work.
And it ought to be hard work.
Now, today many pastors aren't working,
and that's part of the problem that we have today with people not going soloing.
You wonder why people don't go soloing in the church,
because the pastor doesn't go soloing.
And everything rises and falls on leadership.
Now, we ought to go into this thing,
and those of you that are young men that are thinking along those lines
and desiring to be a pastor someday,
you ought to go into it as, boy, that is worth that I would like to do.
And the work involves preaching the gospel to every creature,
knocking doors, winning souls to Christ.
It involves preaching the Bible, studying the Bible, knowing the Bible.
And it's something that you should want to do.
That's what he says. If a man desires the office of a bishop,
he desires the good work.
But just because you want to do it doesn't mean that you're qualified to do it.
God gives the qualifications for being a bishop,
for being a pastor, and begins to lay them out.
Look at verse number 2.
It says, a bishop, then, must be blameless,
the husband of one wife.
So the most important qualification here for a pastor
is that he's only married once.
Now, this does not mean one wife at a time.
Now, if you would, put your finger there
and just flip over one page to the writing of the Bible.
And we ought to let the Bible interpret itself.
And so let's get the context.
Look at 1 Timothy, chapter number 5.
This is talking about a widow in verse 9.
It says, let not a widow be taken into the number
under threescore years old, or 60 years old,
having been the wife of one man.
Now, that's not basically talking about a woman
who has more than one husband,
because I don't think any woman anywhere
has ever had more than one husband.
I mean, maybe in some bizarre, sick, weirdo culture.
But people will try to say that back in Bible times,
a lot of men had multiple wives.
He was just saying the husband of one wife.
No, a man who's been divorced and remarried
is not qualified to be the pastor of a church
because he's not the husband of one wife.
You say, oh, man, you're saying that he can't serve God.
No, he can serve God.
He can be out there right next to me,
out winning souls to Christ,
and he can do all kinds of great works for God.
But as far as the position of being the bishop,
he's to be the husband of one wife.
Now, would somebody tell this to the Roman Catholics, please?
Because the Roman Catholics have a bishop
who's not even married.
And the Bible says that the bishop
must be the husband of one wife.
It doesn't say he should be or it'd be great if he is.
No, it says he must be the husband of one wife.
So really, just from his first qualification,
we can see that the bishop needs to be married one time.
Okay, that's pretty simple, isn't it?
So if we don't try to twist it to say what we want,
it's pretty simple.
But go back to 1 Timothy 3, 2.
It says a bishop that must be blameless,
the husband of one wife.
Here's the key, and I think he gives these right up front.
The most important, you know.
It's important that he had his family in order, first of all,
because if a man knew not how to rule his own house,
how should he take care of the church of God?
But then he says he's got to be vigilant.
This is why.
Because bad things are always trying to creep in
to the church all the time.
All the time.
It's just like a shepherd.
That's what the word pastor means.
He has to guard the flock.
And basically, if you remember the stories in the Old Testament
about David being a shepherd over those sheep,
and you remember how a lion came
and you had to defeat the lion and a bear came,
you had to defeat the bear.
Enemies are always trying to creep in.
And the pastor has to be vigilant.
He has to be there to nip it in the bud,
to stop false doctrine in its tracks,
to stop all the worldly music and carnality and liberalism
from creeping in, and to stand up.
And here's the most important word
that every pastor should learn.
No!
That's what you have to know, that word.
No.
No, no, no.
Because some people don't want to say no.
You know, people bring in other versions of the Bible.
They bring in all kinds of weird music.
And it's just, oh, well, you know,
we don't want to offend them.
No.
That's what the pastor has to be able to say.
He's got to be vigilant.
Does anybody know what a vigil is?
Vigil is when you stay up all night, right?
Vigilant means you're on your guard.
Like the Bible says, be sober.
Be vigilant.
But for your adversary, the devil,
walketh about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom you may devour.
And so we've got to be vigilant.
And so much more in 2010.
There's so much evil out there,
and there's so much wrong things
that want to creep in.
And so pastors need to be vigilant
and stand guard
and not let bad things creep into the church.
You say he's got to be vigilant.
Next, he's got to be sober.
You say, what does it mean to be sober?
Well, first of all, obviously an absence of alcohol
would be a good place to start.
And also an absence of drugs.
You know, it's funny.
I said to Brother Dave one time
that I was having trouble finding a place
where the Bible just flat-out condemned the drugs.
But he said, really, it's covered by be sober.
Be sober.
You're not sober when you're smoking pot.
You know, and you're not sober
when you're taking all these mind-altering drugs
that will prescribe you by the doctor either.
And so you've got to be careful.
Just because a doctor prescribes it
doesn't mean that you should be taking it.
Because today, some of the worst drug abuse
takes place with prescription drug abuse.
You see, I've known many people
who are addicted to prescription drugs,
and it's damaging their life,
and I know a lot more people
who've had their life ruined by prescription drugs
than by so-called street drugs.
Okay, and so we ought to be sober.
But not only that,
the word sober just means serious.
You know, life's not always a joke.
They can basically be serious,
take their job seriously,
take the position of being a pastor seriously.
Now, look, this is why
I'm wearing a suit and tie right now.
Not because the Bible says to wear a suit and tie.
Not because it's a sin not to wear a suit and tie.
This is just a sign of my sobriety,
a sign of my seriousness.
You see, if I were up here
in a Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops,
you might not take me as seriously as the pastor.
I mean, even the President of the United States,
this has nothing to do with religion,
even the President of the United States
wears a suit and tie
because he wants to be taken seriously.
He doesn't get up and make a State of the Union address
in a jogging suit.
You know, and nothing wrong with wearing a jogging suit.
But for the President of the United States
to make a State of the Union address
in a jogging suit would not be appropriate.
And guess what?
I happen to think that I'm a lot more important than he is.
Because I'm a child of God and he's going to hell, okay?
So I'm a lot more important than he is,
and so are you.
And so that's why I think that we should take seriously,
take church seriously,
and take the things of God seriously.
And that's part of what sobriety is,
is being serious,
being clear-minded,
taking things seriously.
It's that vigilant sober of good behavior
given to hospitality.
You know, what does hospitality mean?
You know, having people over to your house,
taking them out to eat,
those type of things,
what we would normally think of as hospitality.
That's the type of person that the pastor should be.
Apt to teach.
Again, aptitude.
Ability.
A man who is going to preach the Bible
needs to have a certain ability and talent
that comes from God to teach
and to expound the Word of God
and to bring it down and make it simple
and to make it so simple
that even a theologian can understand.
But in verse number three it says,
not given to wine.
So the pastor should obviously not be drinking.
No striker.
And that goes along with,
a little bit later in the verse,
where it says not a brawler,
not someone who gets in a fist fight.
Now, I've often been out scolding
and had people attack me physically.
You know, I had a guy one time shove me up.
Who's been with me when somebody attacked me
or branched a gun at me or...
Now you're messing up.
You know.
But as a Christian, as a pastor,
I'm not supposed to go out and pick fights with people.
And I can honestly say that since I've been pastored,
you know...
No, I'm just kidding.
No, since I've been pastored
for the last four and a half years,
I've never hit anyone.
Isn't that great?
Give me a hand, officer.
I've never hit anybody.
You know, because I'm not supposed to...
And, you know, I've had people attack me
and harass me and threaten me,
but I'm not supposed to get in a fist fight
as the pastor.
Now, obviously, if I need to defend myself
or defend my family,
I'll use whatever force is necessary,
including a firearm.
Okay.
But the point is that I shouldn't be brawling.
I shouldn't be out in fights,
and I never have.
You know, thank God.
And so the type of person
that I think needs to be a pastor
is someone who's not a hothead.
Right?
Because if somebody has a short fuse
and they're a hothead,
they're not going to make a very good pastor
because they're going to get in a fight,
because somebody's going to get you mad or worked up
and you're going to lose your temper and so forth.
You've got to be able to control yourself
if you're going to be a pastor
and control your emotions.
Because the type of person
who's a brawler and a striker
is someone who's angered easily
and flies off the handle
and does something stupid.
And so you've got to have temperance,
as the Bible says.
But let's keep going through these.
Excuse me.
It says, no striker,
not greedy, a filthy lucre.
Basically somebody who's not in it for the money.
Okay?
Now, there's nothing wrong with making money,
but it's the love of money
that's the root of all evil.
And so if you would,
keep your finger there.
Just go a few pages
to the right to Titus chapter 1.
Titus chapter number 1.
He said, not greedy, a filthy lucre.
If we go over to Titus chapter 1,
I think it makes it a little more clear
what exactly he's talking about.
Look at verse 11.
It says, whose mouths must be stopped,
who subvert whole houses,
teaching things which they ought not,
for filthy lucres save.
So back in verse Timothy chapter 3,
what he's saying is,
not given to filthy lucre,
he's saying not somebody who's going to teach
what people want to hear
so that more money will come into play.
That's what he's saying.
Teaching things which they ought not
for filthy lucres save.
You see, the pastor can't be motivated by money
because no man can serve two masters.
Rather, he will hate the one and love the other
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and man.
Because when you preach God's word faithfully,
when you're instant in season and out of season,
when you reprove, rebuke, and exhort
with all longsuffering and doctrine,
a lot of the people who have the money leave.
And the temptation is there to trim the message
and to water it down and to sugarcoat it
in order that Mr. Money Bucks will stay there
and keep giving and putting in the plate.
You've got to be able to stand on the pulpit
and preach what you know is right
without any regard.
To what man thinks.
Paul said it best in Galatians 1
when he said,
For do I now please man or God?
For if I yet pleased men,
then I should not be the servant of Christ.
So he said right away that
we've got to be preaching to please God,
not please man.
And it shouldn't be about the money.
He says in verse number 3,
continuing there, he says,
Not greedy of filthy lucre,
but patient, not a brawler,
not covetous.
Now why is being patient tied in
with not greedy of filthy lucre?
Because sometimes for a church to grow,
for example, takes time.
And if he's not patient,
he's going to want to dip the sails,
water down the preaching
in order to grow faster,
to get the money coming in.
And so he's got to be patient.
He says patient, not a brawler,
not covetous.
Of course covetousness is desiring something
that belongs to someone else.
Again, it's greed.
It's wanting material wealth.
And then he says in verse 4,
One that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection
with all gravity.
For if a man know not how to rule
his own house,
how shall he take care
of the church of God?
Now before I go any further,
let me just make this point.
You see, these qualifications here,
you say, oh, that's just for the pastor.
Hold on a second.
This is the kind of person
that can become a pastor.
But see, this is the kind of person
that really all of us should be.
It's not that these are special rules
that a pastor has
different than anybody else.
He just said if you're choosing a pastor,
these are the qualities
that you want to look for.
But you know, none of us
should be given the wine.
None of us should be covetous
or greedy of filthy lucre.
None of us should be,
you know, we should all be vigilant.
We should all be sober.
We should all have hospitality.
We should all teach the Word of God.
But you know what?
We as men,
and I'm just going to park on this
for a minute here,
we all need to rule our own house.
Now look if you would at Genesis chapter 3.
We're just going to hit this quickly
from a few different angles.
And this is not popular today.
It's not PC.
It's not what a lot of people believe.
But it's very scriptural.
It needs to be preached now,
I think,
more than it's ever needed to be preached.
I think today in 2010,
this is more necessary than ever.
Genesis 3.16.
Now, you're probably thinking of John 3.16,
the most famous verse in the Bible.
And you know what's interesting?
I don't think it's a coincidence.
John 3.16 is the most famous verse in the Bible, right?
Genesis 3.16 is the least famous verse in the Bible.
So one you've heard a million times,
and one you've never heard.
Okay?
So isn't that interesting?
Look at Genesis 3.16.
It says,
unto the woman he said,
I will greatly multiply
thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,
and thy dearest children.
And thy desire shall be to thy husband.
And what's that last phrase say?
And he shall rule over thee.
Now, you'll never hear that preached
almost in any independent Baptist church anywhere,
but you're hearing it tonight,
because that's what the Bible says
in the third chapter of Genesis,
that the man is supposed to rule his house.
You see, I'm not going to rule your house.
I don't have any business in your house.
It's none of my business what goes on in your house.
It's only my business what goes on in this house,
the house of God,
because I'm the pastor.
But your house is your responsibility.
And today we have men
who are not ruling their house,
and it's not right.
God said in 1 Timothy 3,
rule your house.
He said in Genesis 3
that the husband is to rule over the wife,
and that doesn't fit in
with the women's liberation movement.
But let me tell you something.
The women's liberation movement is just satanic,
is what it is.
You can call it what you want,
but it's rebellion against everything that's right.
It's ungodly.
It's wicked.
And it hasn't brought women freedom.
It's put women into bondage.
The feminist movement has turned women
from not being feminine.
It's made them turn masculine.
So how is that feminism?
It should be called masculism.
And not only that,
but the feminist movement is supposed to liberate women,
basically has forced them to go get a job
and clock in, clock out,
wear a uniform,
follow a bunch of rules.
That's not freedom.
Women need to be living in their God-given roles, ideally,
and you say,
oh, I'll never come back to this church.
Well, that's why you're getting it while you're here.
And not only that,
that's why I got to give it to you while you're here
in case you never come back.
But you know what the point is, though,
it's not me that you have a problem with.
It's Genesis 3.
And I believe Genesis 3 just as much as I believe John 3.
In fact, I like both verses.
I love all verses that are 3.
I really like 1 Timothy 3.
That's a good verse, too.
Look at Esther chapter 1,
and I'm going to show you why it's so important
for the pastor to rule his own house.
Look at Esther chapter 1,
and I'm going to explain to you
why is it so important that the pastor rules the house.
Now, look, I'm not talking about ruling with an iron fist
or being a jerk.
Look at the smile on my wife's face right now.
She's happy.
She's fine.
And, you know, my kids are happy and everything,
but guess what?
They all know who the boss is.
That's all.
Somebody's in charge.
That's all.
Not that I'm rude or a jerk or mean or anything.
You have a boss at work.
Is he in charge?
But does that make him a jerk?
No.
I've had a lot of great bosses in my work career,
but they were always the boss.
They always demanded obedience,
and, you know, that's what the Bible teaches about men
in the home as well,
to be the king of their castle.
Look at what this says in Esther 1.17.
Before I read it for you, though,
let me just explain to you the story.
Basically, King Ahasuerus has a wife named Queen Bashtai,
and she was basically rebellious
and refusing to obey her husband.
And she's refusing to obey her husband,
and he doesn't know what to do.
So he has to call, like, seven advisors in, you know,
to come explain to him,
I don't know what to do.
My wife won't obey.
So he brings in, like, seven advisors
and gets all their names and everything like that.
Karshina, Shether, Abmaitha,
all these guys come in.
I mean, you can.
And basically, this is what they explain to him in verse 16.
And Manuchan answered before the king and the princes,
Vashtai the queen hath not done wrong to the king only,
but also to all the princes
and to all the people that are in all the provinces
that the king Ahasuerus.
For this deed of the queen
shall come abroad unto all women
so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes.
Did you get that?
And he says,
When it shall be reported,
the king Ahasuerus commanded Vashtai the queen
to be brought into the forum, but she came not.
So we see here that these wise men
are explaining to king Ahasuerus,
they said, look,
if the king's wife just refuses to obey
and other women start to find out about it,
it's going to be this whole women's lib movement
that's going to start in the kingdom.
And it's a few thousand years early for that.
You know, that's going to happen a few thousand years later.
And we don't want it to happen now while we're alive.
You know what I mean?
And so basically they said,
look, he's not just doing wrong,
she's not just doing wrong in his house,
but really she's doing wrong by the whole kingdom.
Now, obviously the way that he handles it is wrong and so forth,
but the principle is still there.
Look at verse number 22, it says,
And he sent letters unto all the king's provinces,
and unto every province according to the writing thereof,
and unto every people after their language,
that every man should bear rule in his own house,
and that it should be published
according to the language of every people.
It's important that a leader sets the example.
The Bible says that the pastor should not lord over the flock,
but to be an example to the flock.
So how would it be if I'm the pastor of the church
and I say, oh, you know, you ask me something,
and I say, well, let me go ask the boss.
You know, I have to go ask my wife.
What message is that sending out?
Basically I'm destroying the authority of every man in this church.
I'm destroying their authority,
you know, that God gives them in the home.
And let me tell you something,
both husbands and wives will be happier
when they do things God's way,
which is the wife in submission
and the husband in authority,
everyone will be happier when they live that way.
The children will be happier,
the husband will be happier,
the wife will be happier.
It's our God-given natural roles.
Now, we live in this messed up, gender-bending society
that has everything twisted around and topsy-turvy
to where this kind of preaching sounds radical,
but this used to be the norm worldwide, worldwide.
United States, Europe, wherever you want to go,
this was the norm because it's biblical
and it's also just human nature.
It's just instinct to know that obviously men are in authority.
And let's go back to 1 Timothy 3.
So a man who's going to be the pastor
needs to have an exemplary home
as far as he needs to have his wife
not running the family, wearing the pants in the family.
He's not going to be hen-pecked
and the children should not be running things especially
because it says in verse 4 there,
one that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity.
For if a man know not how to rule his own house,
how shall he take care of the church of God?
In Titus chapter 1, it says,
you don't have to turn there,
but it says having faithful children,
not accused of riot or unruly.
You see, a man who can raise his children right
is a man that can pastor the church right.
That's what he's saying.
Because children need to be disciplined.
They are born sinners.
They need guidance and spanking's not enough.
They need spanking for sure though.
They need spanking.
He said in the Bible,
he that spareth his rod, hated his son,
but he that loveth him, chaseth and betis,
the book of Proverbs.
He said, thou shalt beat him with the rod,
and he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod,
and shall deliver his soul from hell.
You see, spanking your children's important.
Disciplining them.
Exerting that authority over them.
But also the Bible says to train your children,
train up a child in the way he should go
when he's old and not in parliament.
And he said also to bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord.
So it's not just enough to spank,
but you should also spend time with your children,
raise them, teach them, guide them, love them,
speak to them in the Bible and so forth.
Let's move on.
He says in verse 6,
Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride,
he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
The word novice, look at the first three letters.
No, it's like nuevo, in Spanish, right?
Nude.
Novice is somebody who's nude.
Now, there's nothing wrong with being a novice
because everybody starts out as a novice, don't they?
Everybody at some point, no matter what you're doing,
you start out as a novice.
Everybody got up and preached their first sermon
at one point.
And they were a novice at that point.
But should a novice be pastoring the church?
No.
Shouldn't it be a new believer?
Shouldn't it be somebody who's new to preaching?
Shouldn't it be somebody who's new to having a family?
It should be somebody who's established
and grounded in the faith.
They've ruled their family.
They've preached.
They know the Bible.
They know what it says in order to lead.
And until then, they should follow
and then learn how to lead.
And so we don't want a novice to be the pastor.
Lest being lifted up with pride,
you fall into the combination of the devil.
Moreover, he must have a good report of them
which are without, lest he fall into reproach
and the snare of the devil.
Now, let me say this about verse number seven.
Obviously, if you preach the truth,
the people out there are going to hate your guts
in many cases.
Jesus said that if they called the master of the house
Beelzebub, how much more so they called him of his household.
But you shouldn't be having a bad reputation out there
because of, like, dishonest business dealings
that you're doing or just other things
that give you a bad reputation.
If you've lived a life of sin
where people see that you're not what you say you are
and that you're a hypocrite,
that's what the Bible's talking about here,
not just being hated because you preach the truth.
Because anybody who preaches the truth,
the Bible says,
Yea, and all who will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
Now, in verse eight, we get off with the pastor
and we get on to what's called the deacon.
The Bible says that the deacon, verse eight,
likewise must the deacons be grave.
Grave is referring back to being sober.
He says likewise because he already mentioned being sober
and grave is the same thing.
He says not double tongued.
That means they don't talk out of both sides of their mouth.
You ever meet people where they get around one person
and they say one thing?
And, you know, for example,
let's say somebody called me up and said,
Hey, I'm looking for a church to go to.
You know, what do you think about,
what's the music like?
You know, and it's like,
Well, what kind of music are you looking for?
You think that's what I say when somebody called?
Yeah.
No, I say we sing the old hymns.
You know, it's funny,
I was knocking on doors today off soul winning
and I knock on this guy's door
and he said,
How many people come to the church?
What's the size of the church?
I said, I said like 50.
I said we had like 49 people on Sunday morning.
You know, around like 50.
He said,
Why so small?
You know, I told him we started the church
like four years ago from scratch.
But he said,
Why so small?
I said,
Well, let me give you a couple reasons why.
Because there's no girls doing back flips across the stage.
There's no rock and roll.
There's no,
We're not jamming for Jesus.
That's why.
Like the big church across the street
that has 2,000 people coming.
Because it's a rock concert.
You know, if you really want to see a big crowd,
go to a baseball game.
You know, but today,
many people have turned away their ears from the truth.
And let me tell you something,
we don't need preachers and pastors and deacons
that are double tongued.
We need them to just say it how it is.
Look,
What do you believe about salvation?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
I believe salvation is by faith alone.
Faith alone.
You know, you get around certain people
and they want to mix in everything else
and say you can lose your salvation
or you have to turn away from your sin.
Well, you know what?
Good luck with turning away from your sins.
Good luck with that.
Tell me,
We'll see how you do with that.
Turning away from your sins business.
Turn away from your sins.
First of all, that's impossible.
And second of all, it's work salvation.
That's what it is.
And I'll just say that to anybody.
You know,
Oh, you're easy believe-ism.
Yes, I am.
And you'll never catch me
talking out of both sides of my mouth on that one.
It's all faith.
It's all believe.
That's all.
And it's easy.
Jesus did the hard part.
Dying on the cross.
You know, that was the hard part.
We just do the easy part.
Just believe on Christ.
And so not double tongued.
Not double tongued.
So tired of the double tongued preacher.
We don't need it.
Not given to much wine.
Not greedy of filthy lucre.
Somebody said,
Well, the pastor's not given to wine.
The deacon's not given to much wine.
That means deacons can drink it.
Some people's logic is a little blown away.
But certain things are okay for the pastor.
And not okay for him.
No, it's the same.
Obviously the same rules for everybody.
But he says,
Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
And let these also first be proved.
Then let them use the office of a deacon
being found blameless.
Now let me just say a word about what deacons are.
Because I think that there's a lot of confusion today
about what deacons are.
Somebody asked if our church had deacons.
And if you look at the Bible,
they had deacons when their church had
several thousand people in it.
Then they appointed seven deacons.
Because they needed help getting the work done.
The daily workload of the church.
Now, what we have today as deacons
is totally unscriptural.
Okay?
In most churches,
and I'll just explain this briefly
and I'll show you why I believe this from the Bible.
In most churches,
you have what's called the pastor.
And then you have assistant pastors.
And then you have the board of deacons.
Or it should be called like the boring deacons.
Because whatever they preach, they're so boring.
You know what I mean?
Because they can't preach out of a wet paper bag.
Because they basically choose deacons
that can't preach.
That aren't filled with the Holy Spirit.
That don't win souls to Christ.
Now, if you go to Acts chapter 6,
flip over to Acts chapter 6 if you would,
we'll see the first deacons that were appointed
in that early church that was running several thousand.
Look at Acts chapter 6.
And in Acts chapter 6,
basically what happened is
the apostles were too busy with menial tasks
and they needed someone to help out with that.
They wanted to focus more on preaching
and soul winning and praying.
And so it says in verse 2,
Then the Twelve called a multitude of disciples unto them
and said, It does not reason that we should leave
the word of God and serve tables.
Wherefore, brethren, look to God among you,
seven men of honest report.
So here are some qualifications
where the deacons are given.
Honest, full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom,
whom we may appoint over this business.
You say, how do you know if someone is filled with the Holy Ghost?
Well, Acts 4.31 is a good place to start
when he said they were all filled with the Holy Ghost
and they spake the word of God in the boldness.
That's a good place to start.
Or how about in Acts chapter 2
when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost
and they preached the Gospel and the multitude
and had thousands of people saved.
That's a good place to see if somebody is filled with the Holy Ghost.
So we see these men are chosen.
Look who they chose.
They chose these men.
It gives a list.
Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.
Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas,
and Nicholas, across the light of Antioch,
whom they set before the apostles,
and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
And the word of God increased.
You know, as a result of these guys being hired.
The word of God increased
and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.
And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
And Stephen, full of faith and power,
gave great wonders and miracles among the people.
Now, Stephen, in chapter 7,
he has a whole chapter dedicated to him.
Chapter 8 is all about Philip out preaching the Gospel,
winning people to Christ.
These are preachers.
These are powerful men.
Men of faith, men of boldness,
men of preaching and soul in it.
Today, we have deacons that are not...
That's not what they're doing.
Basically, churches choose deacons
to basically run the church,
like to basically be an authority of the church.
And what it is, is it's based upon our United States Constitution.
Okay?
Now, the United States Constitution
has basically an executive branch, like the president,
and then there's a legislative branch,
which is like a group of representatives from the people
to decide and to legislate and to make rules,
and then the president carries out those laws
and executes those laws.
That's the way most Baptist churches are set up.
They have the deacon board,
which is like the House of Representatives.
They elect deacons to just represent the common man.
And these guys don't work for the church all the time.
Think about it.
Every church you've been in,
the deacons don't work for the church all the time.
They're just laymen in the church.
They're electricians, plumbers, carpenters, whatever, okay?
And these guys are called deacons,
and they basically vote on things,
you know, to basically make decisions.
Now, in the Bible, the deacons were preachers,
and they were men who worked for the church full time
to help carry the workload
of administrating this church of thousands of people.
So really, today, what we call an assistant pastor
should really be called a deacon,
because that's what a deacon is, an assistant pastor.
An assistant to the pastor, a preacher.
Because if you think about assistant pastors
in churches you've been in,
they usually can preach well.
They're usually winning souls.
They're usually all the things
that the deacons are supposed to be doing.
They're running the show.
They're doing the administration, okay?
That is a deacon, and you say,
well, what do we call that guy that they call a deacon?
He shouldn't even exist.
You don't do that.
That's not a scriptural concept.
Okay?
And so we ought to have,
get back to the Bible's method here,
of pastors and deacons.
So, you know, I don't have a problem
with you calling it an assistant pastor,
but why not call it a deacon?
Because that's what the Bible calls it.
And why not get somebody who can preach
and instill in the Holy Spirit and call him a deacon?
You know, instead of just some solid, boring guy,
you know, who doesn't do anything.
But anyway, that's what it means to be a deacon.
Go to 1 Timothy 3.
And therefore, the assistant pastor,
which I would call a deacon, not an assistant pastor,
should follow these qualifications.
He should be the husband of one wife.
He should be filled with the Spirit.
He should be blameless.
He should have his wife in subjection,
his children in subjection with all gravity.
Let's go back to 1 Timothy 3 and finish that up.
Said in verse 11,
Even so must their wives be great,
not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.
You say, now, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson.
Why would it matter what their wife is like?
I mean, aren't we just judging them, you know,
based on their own character?
But yet God considers it the man's responsibility
to make sure that his wife is these things
and that his family is these things.
You see, we are to be leaders, men.
We are to be leaders in the home.
We should be teaching and preaching
the Word of God in our home.
The first church I ever pastored was my family.
You know, long before I passed the church,
I had a family and I taught my children
and I taught my wife and I spent time with her
and loved her and helped her grow
and helped her to become the person that she needed.
And she helped me a lot.
You know, she taught me a lot of things, to be honest.
But the point is, though, that we are responsible.
The buck stops here.
I mean, if something bad is going on in this church,
really, ultimately, the responsibility lies with me
to take care of the problem, OK?
Same thing in your house.
You shouldn't just throw your hands up, man,
and say, well, you know, what can I do?
It's time to take the bull by the horns.
I mean, it's time to take over your house.
It's sad that you have to have a revolution
in your own house, you know,
but if you have to, you have to, you know?
Because today, our society is so warped.
And, you know, my wife, I married my wife,
she's a new believer.
You know, she had just been saved for a very short time, OK?
And she came from a very left-wing place.
She came from Germany.
And let me tell you something.
In Germany, they're just total left-wing socialists.
I mean, even the conservatives over there
would be like a flaming liberal here.
I'll put it that way.
So she's coming from a total left-wing agenda,
you know, a women's lib agenda.
But, you know, when she got saved,
you know, the Holy Spirit moved in.
She's a new creature, the new man.
But, you know, the flesh is still there.
And so in the early days of our marriage,
you know, I had to be a leader.
And it wasn't always easy,
but, you know, I had to be that leader,
and we had to grow,
and that's where I learned how to lead.
That's why I can pastor a church right now
because I learned those lessons.
And, you see, you single guys,
you don't know how to pastor a church.
You don't even know how to get married.
You don't even know how to...
You don't know how to pastor your wife.
You know, and what you ought to do
is go out and...
Don't tell me about starting a church.
Go out and get married.
And let's see if you can handle that challenge
because, you know, being married
is not always a bed of roses.
You see, that's why 75% of marriages end in divorce.
And especially if you're not doing things God's way.
Now, we...
My wife and I have been married for almost ten years,
and we have a wonderful marriage.
We have a great marriage.
Okay, but do you think that we've never had a fight?
Do you think we've never had problems in the last ten years?
And, see, today people go into marriage
with such an unrealistic expectation
that they got from Hollywood
and all their rock and roll music
that tells them how,
you know, I just looked at you,
and I just fell in love with you,
and everything was great,
and you're the only reason I'm even alive.
You know, that's not real life, though, is it?
Isn't it, or is it?
Is your life like that?
No, it's good.
But the point is that there are challenges.
You know, there are ups and downs.
There are times when things are going to be great,
and then there are times when things are not good.
That's why when you get married, you say what?
For better, for worse.
For richer, for poorer.
Richer is before you got married, okay?
For poorer.
And then poor-esque when you have children.
And so, you know, it's not...
It's not always...
And people go to it with an unrealistic expectation,
like, oh, everything's going to be perfect.
And then they have their first fight,
and it's like, I've been looking for a person.
You know?
No.
And my wife has never run home to mama.
Well, that's because her mom lives on the other side of the world.
Thank God.
You know?
And I've never slept on the couch,
unless it was for snoring.
You know?
And I've never slept on the couch
because I was, like, banished to the couch or something.
You know what I mean?
No man ought to go be banished to the couch.
You stand your ground.
You sleep in that bed every night, okay?
But anyway, the point is...
You know, I don't want to get too off on that,
but I do want to say that, you know,
we need to get back to a marriage that honors God.
And it's not about being some kind of a male chauvinist pig.
That's all propaganda that you can brainwash.
That men who are in charge are evil.
You know, like, men who have authority in their home
are bad and evil.
And, you know, you can do it and all this kind of stupid stuff.
You know, we need to get to God's Word
and not care what the world says and Oprah says
and all this junk says and just say,
look, man is in charge.
Done.
End of story.
One leader.
Not a two-headed monster, but one leader.
That's where we need to be in our houses today.
And it's nothing about being a jerk
because you'll have less fighting when one person's in charge.
I mean, this doesn't even make sense.
Two authorities.
That sounds like you're going to have a lot of fighting.
And if there's a constant power struggle,
trying to usurp the authority,
I'm constantly trying to fight to keep one, you know, up here
and have a little bit of authority.
And she's constantly beating me down.
No, I'm just kidding.
That's not a harmonious marriage.
A harmonious marriage is when there's one decision maker,
one leader, and one follower.
And you say, oh, that's so terrible to be a follower.
You know, it could be a blessed thing to be a follower.
You know, it's called being right with God.
It's called obeying the Bible.
You know, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ.
I don't want to follow anybody, be my own person.
I want to be my own man, so I'm going to get an earring
like 500 million other people.
I'm going to show that I'm unique.
I'm going to get a Mohawk like 20 million other people
because I'm unique.
I'm different.
I'm going to wear all black and paint my fingernails black
and be gothic so I can be like 50 million other people.
You know, you think you're unique.
You know how you could really be unique?
If you live for God, you'll be like one in a billion.
Think about it.
You want to really stand out at your school,
young people, teenagers?
It's not a purple-spiked hairdo that you need.
It's not sockets screwed into your head with a Mohawk's bites.
If you want to stand out, just dress like a normal human being.
Dress like a man.
Dress your own gender and carry the Bible in your hand
and, woo, man, you'll get detention right away.
You want to be an individual?
Live for God, you'll be an individual.
Or follow the crowd and pretend and think
that you're thinking for yourself.
You know, how many people today think they're thinking for themselves?
They're an independent.
You know, and then they all go vote for Obama.
You know, like, oh, wow, you know,
but you didn't do it just because you're a Democrat.
You did it because you were thinking for yourself, you know?
Like, oh, wow, you thought of that yourself.
It couldn't have been that you were brainwashed
by like 5,000 hours of TV and radio that made you think that.
No, you thought of that all by yourself.
And so, let me get off that side.
I forgive you, man.
Anyway, and it says, let these also first be proved
proved means tested.
Then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless.
Even so, must their wives be great,
not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.
Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife,
ruling their children in their own houses well.
For they that have used the office of a deacon well
purchased to themselves a good degree
and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Now you see, Pastor Anderson,
I was thinking about getting a degree in the ministry.
I was thinking about going to the ministry,
wanting to preach the word of God.
I was thinking about getting a degree.
Can you refer me to a good seminary
where I go to get a degree in God's word?
Because I want to become a doctor of divinity.
Or even better than that, I want to become
Master of Theology.
You know, you get this on the wall.
Stephen L. Amberson, Master of Theology.
You know, like, it's the coolest thing since He-Man.
Masters of Theology.
You know what I mean?
And now, I thought the Bible said,
call no man master.
But you know, I don't know.
What do I know?
But anyway, you know how you get a good degree?
You say, well, where does it talk about a degree in the Bible?
Well, there's a degree.
Here's a degree in the Bible.
You say, is getting a degree spiritual?
Well, it says right here,
they that have used the office of a deacon well
purchased to themselves a good degree
and great boldness in the faith,
which is in Christ Jesus.
That's what you don't get with the other kind of degree.
You see, no college can give you great boldness
in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
You can get that from soul winning and preaching
and reading the Bible and memorizing the Bible,
not from sitting in a classroom.
And so this is how you get the good degree.
Using the office of a deacon well.
Preaching God's Word.
Winning souls to Christ.
Using God's Word.
And I know that you can mail in so many box tops
and money and read a book and whatever,
and they'll give you a degree.
But that doesn't make you a man of God.
You know what I mean?
Some of the best pastors that I know,
some of my favorite pastors in America
don't have Bible college degrees.
You know, it's great.
They haven't been ruined.
They haven't been corrupted yet.
One of these liberal, lame brain universities, okay?
And you know, you can get mad about that all you want,
but you know what?
It's the truth.
I can tell you, my friend Roger Jimenez
started a church on September 5th.
He has no college degree.
Thank God!
I love how he puts it around his website.
No college degree.
No Bible college degree.
Right on the Our Pastor page.
Yeah, he's really ashamed of it.
You say, oh, he doesn't have education.
That guy knows the Bible so well, it'll blow your mind.
You know what I mean?
It's about knowing the Bible,
not about having a piece of paper.
And his pastor of his church that he goes to right now,
very successful pastor,
and I want to say Vacaville, California,
pastoring a great big church,
great big soul-winning church that's on fire,
no college degree.
Another great church that I know of in New York,
a great pastor, no college degree.
You know, it's not about getting a degree,
because I've seen so many of these little limp-wristed,
little sissified little queers
that come out with their little degree
and their pink shirt and their lavender tie,
and they're going to preach the Word of God boldly.
You know what I mean?
That's not what does it.
It's about reading the Bible.
You know, why don't you memorize the Bible?
Why don't you read the Bible?
Why don't you go out soul-winning
and do something for God
instead of reading what some deadhead theologian
who's been dead for 200 years
who was probably a Methodist or a Congregationalist said?
You know, I want to hear from Baptists only.
I said I want to hear from Baptists only,
because Baptists believe salvation's by grace and faith,
and they can't lose their salvation.
And I'm a Baptist,
and I don't want to read doctrine
from somebody who's not a Baptist
who believes that you're going to lose your salvation.
I don't want to hear it.
I want Baptist doctrine.
And guess what?
I believe in this thing, this institution.
It's called the local church.
In fact, Jesus died for it.
You know, and today it's all about seminaries and colleges
and programs and CDs and DVDs
and mail-order courses,
but in the Bible it's about the church.
Let's keep reading.
He says in verse 14,
first of all, he said,
The good degree, there is boldness in the faith,
which is in Christ Jesus.
These things right I unto thee,
hoping to come unto thee surely.
But if I tarry long,
that thou mayest know how thou artest
to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the college,
which is the church, the Bible says,
of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth.
So the church is the house of God.
The church is what Jesus died for.
The church is God's institution.
And I love what he says in verse 16.
And without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness.
Listen to this powerful phrase.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Isn't that a powerful phrase?
God was manifest in the flesh.
What happened next?
Justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
received up into glory.
Isn't that a great verse about Jesus Christ?
That he was God in the flesh?
That he was preached unto the Gentiles,
that he was believed on in the world,
that he was received up into glory?
But you see today,
there's an attack on the word of God.
And I'll show you what these modern Bibles have done.
Here's just an example.
Here's the NIV,
the New International Version.
I call it the non-inspired version.
But all these new Bibles,
they all pretty much do the same things.
But I'll just give you this as an example.
Give me a moment to turn there.
1 Timothy 3.16.
Remember how I said I liked all those 16s?
Genesis 3.16, John 3.16.
I like 1 John 3.16,
hereby perceived legal love of God,
that he laid down his life for us.
He laid down all his brothers.
1 Timothy 3.16.
You're looking down at your King James Bible.
Let me read for you from the non-inspired perversion.
It says here in 3.16,
beyond all question,
the mystery of godliness is great,
he appeared in a body.
Now, you see a difference there
between God was manifest in the flesh
and he appeared in a body.
Now, the reason why is because the he,
everybody knows what a pronoun is, right?
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.
And a pronoun has what's called an antecedent, right?
An antecedent is the word,
a noun that comes before it.
That's why it says ante,
because ante means at the beginning.
An antecedent is the word that comes before it
to tell us what that pronoun is referring to.
Now, in verse 14,
if you go back in the NIV
and you want to find the person
that was mentioned last, okay?
You want to find the antecedent of that pronoun he,
you'll find at the end of verse 12,
Christ Jesus, okay?
So basically, instead of saying
what the King James Bible says,
God was manifest in the flesh,
you basically end up with
Christ Jesus appeared in a body.
But you see, the King James Version
is proving the deity of Christ
by saying God was manifest in the flesh.
Not just Jesus was manifest,
God was manifest in the flesh.
Same thing in Acts chapter 7
in the King James Version.
Stephen, calling upon God
and saying Lord Jesus.
You know, receive my spirit.
But in the NIV,
it leaves that out completely.
It just says he just, he called out,
you know, Jesus.
But it leaves out the fact that he called one God
and that he called him the Lord.
So you say, well, these new Bibles
are easier to understand.
Well, look, if you want a book
that's really easy to understand, brother,
let me tell you something.
You ought to try Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss.
That book is easy to understand.
Who's read Hop on Pop?
Open up your hand.
Open, would you open Hop on Pop, please,
to page number 5.
I'm going to read the scripture tonight.
Pop up. Pop is up.
All ball wall.
We all play ball on the wall.
All ball wall fall.
We all play ball on the wall,
and then we fall.
But you know what?
It's very easy to understand.
It's very easy to comprehend.
Hop on Pop.
But does that make it the Bible?
Does that make it God's Word?
No.
And so you can have something that's easy to understand,
but when you're changing what it says,
you know, and twisting it around,
like the NIV says that Jesus had an origin
in Micah 5-2,
when the Bible says that he is without father,
without mother, without descent,
having neither beginning of days,
nor end of life,
but made like unto the Son of God,
by the priest continually, Hebrews 7-3.
He had no beginning.
He is the beginning.
He's the beginning and the end,
the authentic omega.
He didn't have an origin.
But you see, these new Bibles are making an attack
on the deity of Christ.
And that's why we're King James only,
without apology, without exception.
You see,
what we can learn from 1 Timothy 3
if we take the whole thing in toto,
is we've got qualifications for a pastor.
We've got qualifications for a deacon,
because church is so important, okay?
Because it's about Jesus Christ.
It's about the truth.
It's about people being saved and believing on it.
And it's not something that should be taken lightly.
It's not a game.
We don't come here to play church.
This isn't a social club.
This is a place where we come to get equipped for the battle.
This is a place where we come
to get our marching orders from the Lord Jesus Christ
to take the gospel and preach the gospel to every creature.
That's what this church is.
Now, that's not what every church is.
That's what this church is.
We're not playing games around here.
It's not about entertainment.
It's not about feeling good.
Hey, it's about coming here
and getting some biblical preaching,
some sound preaching, some Bible doctrine
from a man who runs his house and who runs this house,
and from a man who are leaders,
who are preachers, who are filled with God's Spirit,
who aren't a bunch of drunks, who aren't sitting around
and letting everything pass them by.
No, we're sober.
We're vigilant.
We're fighters.
We want to go out and get people saved.
We're not playing games.
That's when we need leading the church
because that's what we need the church to be like.
And if you've got a leader that's namby-pamby,
it's going to be namby-pamby Baptist Church.
And you've got to have a pastor who can lead the right direction.
Now look, not everybody always likes all the things that I preach.
But that's not the point, is what I preached biblical.
That's the point.
And sometimes people aren't going to like you
when you tell them the truth.
And that's why the Bible says the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears
and shall turn away their ears from the truth
and shall be turned unto fables.
Let it not be ever said of our church
that we're following cunningly devised fables.
This is our standard of faith and practice.
This is how I run my home right here.
If you want to have a successful home,
this is how you'll run your home.
This is how we run this church.
This is how faithful we're Baptist Church is run.
According to this book, that's all done.
And this is how you ought to live your life.
Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the church, dear God.
I would hate to be just on my own going solo.
That would be very difficult, dear God.
Without the encouragement and friendship
of brothers and sisters in Christ to keep me motivated.
I love going to church and getting fired up
and built up and edified.
God, please just help us all to join together here
and get something done for God.
And Father, I want to pray especially tonight
at the end of the service here.
Father, I want to pray for young men
that are in the service tonight
who have a desire in their heart to be a bishop.
You said if they desire the office of a bishop,
they desire a good work.
Father, I pray that you would just help
every young man in here tonight
who has that desire in their heart
to understand that they're going to have to live up
to these qualifications,
and they better start living up to it now
so that they won't be a novice when the opportunity comes
and when the time comes that God could use them.
Help them to be serious about this list.
They ought to memorize this list
and the list in Titus chapter 1
and help it to be something that they live by every day.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.