["The Star-Spangled Banner"]
We will see you at turn of page number 296.
Song number 296 and we will open the service with follow on song number 296.
Down in the valley with my savior I would go, song number 296. Let's go ahead and sing it out on the first.
Down in the valley with my savior I would go,
Where the flowers are blooming and the sweet waters flow,
Everywhere he leads me I would follow, follow on,
Walking in his footsteps till the ground be born,
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Everywhere I would follow on,
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Everywhere he leads me I would follow on.
Song number 296 on the second. Down in the valley with my savior I would go,
Where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow,
Everywhere he leads me I would never, never fear,
Nature cannot fright me if my Lord is near,
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Everywhere, everywhere, I would follow on,
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Everywhere he leads me I would follow on.
Sing it out on the last.
Down in the valley or upon a mountain steep,
I said,
He will lead me safely in that path that he has trod,
I fall, I gather on the hills of God,
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Anywhere, everywhere, I would follow on,
Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus.
Follow on.
Amen. Great singing. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church here on our Sunday evening service.
We are glad to see everyone here this evening. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, again we thank you for the opportunity to come to your house this evening.
Lord, thank you for everyone that's here. Thank you for a great day that we've had.
Lord, pray that you would bless the service, pray that you would bless the singing,
pray that you would bless the preaching, and obviously the fellowship to come, Lord.
Pray that everything that will be said and done this evening would bring glory and honor to your name.
We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Alright, it's now time for our favorites where if you're selected,
we will sing a stanza from the song that you picked. Go ahead, brother Salvador.
What was it?
416 on the last song, number 416.
As a volunteer, song number 416.
416, sing it out on the first.
Soldiers come to one and all, soldiers for the conflict.
Will you heed the call? Will you answer quickly with a ready cheer?
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
A volunteer for Jesus, a soldier true.
Others have enlisted, why not you? Jesus is a captain we will never fear.
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
Go ahead, brother Max.
Song number three? Song number three.
My song doesn't have that.
Song number three? Jesus paid it all, sing it out on the first.
I hear the Savior say, Thy strength in this mall,
Shall the weakness watch it break, finding me that I know.
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
Sin had left the princes sing, He washed it white as snow.
Brother John died.
Song number 43.
We will sing, we're marching to Zion, song number 43.
Sing it out on the first.
Come we that love the Lord and let our joys be known.
Join in the song with sweet accord.
And thus surround the throne, and thus surround the throne.
We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion.
We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.
Brother Moses.
Song number 410.
Faith is the victory, song number 410.
Sing it out on the first.
And kept along the hills of life,
The Christian soldiers rise,
And rest the battle-given night,
To veil the golden skies.
Against the fold and veils below,
Let all the strength be heard.
Faith is the victory, we know.
That overcomes the world.
Faith is the victory, faith is the victory.
Oh glorious victory, that overcomes the world.
Alright, let's sing one more song brother Matt, go ahead.
149? Song number 149 on the second.
This will be the last song for favorites.
Trusting Jesus, sing it out on the second.
Brightly the Spirit shines, sing it out on the second.
Brightly the Spirit shines,
Into this whole heart of mine.
While He lives I cannot fall.
Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Trusting as the moments fly.
Trusting as the days go by.
Trusting in whatever befall.
Trusting Jesus, that is all. Amen.
Amen. We're going to welcome you to the evening service here at Ready Baptist Church.
We're glad you're with us. Let's go ahead and take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements real quickly.
If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we'll get one for you.
The verse of this week, Titus 1.5, for this cause left I thee in Crete,
that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and remain elders in every city,
as I had appointed thee.
That's a good verse there. We like that. If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time Sunday morning service, 10.30 am.
We had a wonderful service this morning. We're glad you're back out tonight for the evening service.
We have a special service, of course, tonight. We do invite you to be with us on Wednesday night for the midweek Bible study.
If you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 am,
and then we have additional soul winning times on Thursdays and Fridays and Sundays at 2 pm.
If you are a soul winner, please do not go to our website.
If you are a soul winner, please don't forget to add your salvations on your communication card so that we can update that in the bulletin.
If you have a map that you did not finish, please make sure you clearly mark what was done, what was not done,
and put it in the bin in the foyer so that we can get that recycled through and get it done.
And of course, if you're running late, make sure you call us or text us at the number there, 916-868-9080.
Let us know your plan on being there, but you're running late.
That way we can make sure we have a partner for you and the maps and all of the things that you need.
You'll notice there we are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the service.
We do not separate children from their parents for any reason.
We do have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience.
So if you have a child that's being distracted during the service, or if you need some privacy, we would encourage you to use those rooms as needed.
All of the rooms have comfortable seating. They have monitors set up so you can watch the service and listen to it.
So please make sure you use those rooms. If you're not sure where they're at, you can look at the back of the bulletin.
You'll see a layout of our church building. It will show you where the restrooms are, where the mother-baby rooms are, where the daddy room is.
If you need to be baptized, let us know. We'd love to baptize you.
On the communication card on the back, you can check off that you'd like information about baptism, and we'll follow up with you in regards to that.
If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course this morning we had a special service with the ordination of Pastor Matthew Stuckey.
Praise the Lord for that. We're excited about that.
And then tonight we have a special service. Of course we've got Pastor Aaron Thompson from Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Vancouver.
He's preaching for us tonight. And then right after the service we have a potluck.
So I received reports that there's a lot of food. All right? So praise the Lord for that. Good job.
And it's like I was preaching about this morning. Like sometimes you reprove and you're like, hey, we're having a potluck.
And then sometimes you just have to like rebuke and say, hey, this doesn't make sense.
Your family of 12 needs to bring something more than just a pudding cup, you know?
So it just the math doesn't work out unless you're the Lord Jesus Christ and you're planning on, you know, multiplying fishes and loaves.
It just doesn't make sense. So we bring enough food to share. So good job.
And now Pastor Thompson can preach a positive sermon. So no, praise the Lord for that.
We do have another special guest with us tonight. Pastor Bozarnsky from Whole Fast Baptist Church is here.
And if I would have known he was coming earlier, now we're just going to have to have two sermons.
I'm just kidding. I'm not going to make him do that. But we I do, since we've got so many of our Verity pastors here,
I think if I can call them that, we want to make sure we get a picture with all the pastors.
So please make sure none of the pastors leave tonight. And we've got, of course, Pastor Thompson,
Pastor Bozarnsky, Pastor Stuckey. And these are all men that have been ordained through the ministry here at Verity Baptist Church.
And we'll get a nice picture and then we'll just have to Photoshop Pastor Jones and pretend like he was here tonight as well.
But we'll have a good time of fellowship in the fellowship hall with the potlucks.
So praise the Lord for that. We do want you to just be aware next Sunday, we're back to our normal schedule.
So we'll be in our Book of Numbers series, Wilderness Wanderings. And on Wednesday night,
we're starting a brand new sermon series, Bible study through the book of Hebrews.
I want to encourage you to be here for the Wednesday night Bible study. I want to encourage you to read Hebrews,
chapter one before you come to church on Wednesday night. Be ready to study it.
And if you have any good ideas out of Hebrews one, send those to me. All right.
Before those Wednesday night service so I can use that. And so it'll be a good study.
Make sure you bring a new notebook with you and you can we can study the book of Hebrews together.
Verse by verse, chapter by chapter. There's other things there for you to look at.
Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent.
Make sure if you're part of the homeschool group that you see my wife. If you haven't seen her already,
make sure you get a field trip flyer. There's a field trip coming up on Tuesday, October 3rd at 10 a.m.
And it is where we're taking the entire homeschool group to these Oakland Zoo,
which is a nice zoo is 100 acres and it's real nice. But you have to let us know you're coming.
You need to RSVP. You can't just show up the day up.
So make sure you get the flyer from my wife to get all the information you need and make sure you RSVP.
If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for September. Of course, today is brother David and Miss Victoria's anniversary on September 17th.
Tomorrow is my son's birthday. Joel Jimenez on September 18th.
And we've got Max Maples has a birthday on September 19th.
But Matt Taylor has a birthday on September 19th.
Brother Jacob Shaboyan has a birthday on September 21st. Brother Nate Deacon has a birthday on September 22nd.
And Brother Graham and Miss Michelle Scott have an anniversary on September 22nd.
And Brother Rain, Miss Denise Anderson have an anniversary on September 23rd.
So make sure that you say happy birthday, happy anniversary to all those people.
Praise report, money matters. All those things are there for you.
And this, of course, last Sunday was our church's 13 year anniversary, our family and friend day.
We had 279 in church last Sunday. But this morning we had 252 in church.
So those are all good numbers there.
So we're going to be ordaining Brother Stuckey every Sunday just from now on.
And he can't leave. We'll just ordain him every week and have those numbers.
That's good. Praise Lord. There's 203 in church tonight. So praise the Lord for that.
Those are all good numbers there. I think that's it for all of the announcements.
So let's go ahead and take our song books.
And let's go to page number 164. Page number 164.
And we're going to sing Praise Him 164.
Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed redeemer. Sing it out on the first.
Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed redeemer.
Sing the word this wonderful love proclaim.
Hail Him, hail Him, highest on angels in glory.
Strength and honor give to His holy name.
Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children in His arms.
Praise Him, all they want. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness.
Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song. 164, sing it out on the second.
Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed redeemer.
For our sins in suffered and threatened life.
Mark our hope, let me turn to salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the crucified.
Sound His praises, Jesus who bore our sorrows.
Love unbounded, wonderful deep and strong.
Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song.
Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed redeemer.
Heavenly Lord, all of those hammers reign. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever. Come in, come in, Prophet and priest and King.
Christ is come over the world victorious. Glory unto the Lord be won. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness.
Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song.
Amen. Good singing. We'll have the ushers come up and help us with the offering at this time.
And of course, we're excited to have Pastor Thompson preach for us tonight. And he doesn't need any introduction.
He's a friend of our ministry, of course. And after the offering, we'll have the reading of the text and then Pastor Thompson will come and preach for us tonight.
Let's go ahead and bow our heads tonight and have a prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you and we thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight.
Lord, we pray that you bless the offering, the gift of the giver. Of course, we pray that you bless Pastor Thompson as he preaches to us.
Lord, I pray that you would speak through him to us. Lord, help us to draw closer to you to learn.
And Lord, we pray that you bless the sermon and then, of course, the fellowship afterwards. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Please open up to First Timothy 5.
First Timothy, chapter number 5. If you need a Bible, please put your hand up and I know you can come by and bring your Bible.
First Timothy, chapter 5. Just keep your hand up or she'll come by.
First Timothy 5. We'll read the entire chapter as our custom.
First Timothy 5, verse number 1. Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father and the younger man as brethren, the elder woman as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity.
Honor widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable before God.
Now she that is a widow indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.
But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. And these things give in charge that they may be blameless.
But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.
Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works, if she hath brought up children, if she hath lodged strangers, if she hath washed the saints' feet, if she hath relieved the afflicted, if she hath diligently followed every good work.
But the younger widows refuse, for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry, having damnation because they have cast off of their first faith.
And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also in busy bodies, speaking things which they ought not.
I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
For some are already turned aside after Satan. If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the labor is worthy of his reward.
Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins, keep thyself pure.
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and then often infirmities.
Some men's sins are opened beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after.
Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and neither otherwise cannot be hid.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for our church, Lord, and for your word.
And I ask that you please meet with us tonight, give us a whole lot to the heart, to the message tonight.
I ask that you please be with Pastor Thompson to strengthen him and fill him with his spirit.
We love you. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen.
Amen. It's great to be back at Verity Baptist Church, and I'm very happy that I was able to see the ordination service this morning.
And it's great to see all of you. And hopefully we'll get some time to talk later on.
I know I haven't been very accessible today. I apologize for that. It's all Brother Oliver's fault, but why blame somebody?
Anyway, yeah, so I just want to also say thank you to Pastor Jimenez, Mrs. Jimenez, and for the Verity family for having me preach tonight.
And I'm very excited about getting to see Brother Stuckey. We had lunch together and got to spend a little bit of time,
but I definitely want to catch up a little more afterwards. So I heard there's some food, so that should usually keep everybody here.
I have some fond memories of Brother Stuckey. And I believe the first time I met you, Brother Stuckey, wasn't it at Verity Baptist Church?
Like you were traveling to do a job interview or something with Pastor Jimenez or something like that,
or you were wanting to know whether you were going to move here or not or something along those lines.
And I'm getting old, so I might be wrong about this, but I think that Brother Joel Usher was here at the same time,
and we all came at the same time for that visit. I'm pretty sure that's the case.
But I knew Brother Stuckey from, I guess, Facebook or something before that.
But meeting in person was at Verity Baptist Church, and so we've been friends for a long time,
and I really appreciate Brother Stuckey and his ministry, and we support him as a missionary also.
And one of the things, I guess, the main thing that I remember from Brother Stuckey's preaching that I'll never forget
is that there's a prepared place for a prepared person, and he might not have come up with that coinage,
but I remember when he preached that sermon, it really affected me in my soul, Wayne,
because people walk past us all the time, and if you're prepared to give the gospel,
or any situation, as long as you're prepared, God's going to put you in a position where you can share the gospel
or be effective as a Christian. So I really like that.
Another thing, I've mentioned this to the church before, but maybe some people weren't here,
but when Brother Stuckey was moving here, I asked a really special favor of him to go to my sister's house
and preach the gospel to my sister and my brother. My sister was already saved,
but my brother-in-law and their children. And what I didn't realize is, you know, sometimes you're like,
oh, it's Pennsylvania, but like, I think it was like a four-hour drive or something for you.
It was a big ask, and I didn't realize how big of an ask it really was.
And, you know, afterward, he preached the gospel, and he had some questions that were asked of him,
and they didn't get saved. But I do want to say this, that Brother Stuckey had an effect on that family,
and he did a really great thing for me. He didn't have to do it. I'm sure it was a pain in the neck
for him to drive all the way over there. But my sister and my brother-in-law are in church today.
My brother-in-law is saved, and my nieces and nephews are saved.
And so they're still attending the Baptist Church, and they're serving the Lord, so I really appreciate that.
And I think I said that before when I preached, but, you know, I'm saying it to you now, Brother Stuckey,
thank you so much for doing that. I really appreciate it.
And so I thought I would keep my theme as the same as it's been for the last couple weeks here,
preaching about pastors and church planting and things like that.
And I think that this would be a timely sermon, and the title of my sermon is Rebuke Not an Elder,
out of verse number one. Let's look down at the Bible here. It says in verse number one, in 1 Timothy 5,
it says—actually, hold on just a second. I'm going to put the timer on that I won't look at for the rest of the sermon.
I'll try to be a good boy tonight. All right. So, rebuke not an elder.
It says, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren.
And the pastor kind of talked—he brought this verse up, and, well, he brought it up as far as preaching goes.
So we're supposed to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine as pastors.
But the Bible is talking here about not doing that to an elder, not rebuking an elder.
And rebuke means to express sharp disapproval or criticism of someone because of their behavior or actions.
That's one definition, and that's the only one I'm going to kind of look up.
But I've noticed that there's a trend that's happened lately of people rebuking pastors in our movement,
and not only pastors in our movement, but also pastors in the old IFB or long dead pastors
that are really highly esteemed by people in our movement, like Pastor Jack Hyles.
And, you know, he's been dead for 20 years, but people are still going after him.
But it's an ungodly trend that I see happening. I think it's wicked. It goes against the commandments of God.
It goes against the principles that are set forth in the Scriptures.
And sometimes I think that people just, you know, they get this idea that it's just okay.
And I want to just pass this on. Of course everybody probably already knows this verse,
but yet people still do this today. They still will rebuke a pastor instead of entreating him like a father.
Because, you know, when you entreat someone like a father, nobody's going to go up to their dad
and just tell him off or tell him how wrong he is to his face unless you just want to be picking yourself up off the ground or something.
But that's kind of what would have happened if I would have done that to my dad.
Now, obviously, you know, we're going to get rebuked by the world.
But you know what? Where it shouldn't be coming from is inside our churches.
We're people that know better to do it.
Now, I want to have you turn to Hebrews chapter 13, but keep your place in 1 Timothy chapter 5
because I'm going to be coming back here. And most of my sermon is based upon verses that are in 1 Timothy chapter 5.
But I wanted to have you go to some scriptures here in Hebrews chapter 13 just to kind of like set the groundwork here for the sermon.
A pastor went to one of these verses in his sermon. There's going to be some overlap with some of the things he preached this morning.
But look at verse number 7 in Hebrews chapter 13. It says,
Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation. That word conversation there means lifestyle or the way that they live their life.
But what does it say? We're supposed to remember them that have the rule over you.
So, and I believe it's obviously talking about pastors. And it's talking about in a church setting.
And you know, obviously, you would respect them even outside of church. But it says,
who have spoken unto you the word of God.
And so obviously, I think that it's definitely talking about a pastor here.
Now skip to verse 17. This is the one the pastor read earlier.
It says, Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they must give account,
that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.
So it's basically saying obey them, submit yourselves to them.
And it says that they may do it with joy.
So it's basically saying don't be a pain in the neck to your spiritual leader.
Don't be a pain in the neck to the pastor of the church and make it hard for him to give the account.
You know, it's a lot easier to give a good account of someone when they're, you know, you're like,
you think of a church member that never gives you problems, their kids never give you problems,
they're like a great church member, but then sometimes there are church members that can be a pain in the neck.
And the Bible is saying here that you shouldn't be that person.
So if you know you're not supposed to be that person, why would you not submit yourself?
Why would you fail to obey the pastor?
And I'm talking about things in church, not what color of car you want to buy or what type of house you want.
That's beyond the scope of our leadership, obviously.
You might ask for an opinion on what color of the car you should get, but like obviously,
and some pastors take this to a weird level and I don't think pastors in our movement are like that at all.
But look at verse number 24, it says,
Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints, they have idly salute you.
So the Bible is also saying to not only obey and submit yourselves to them and remember them, but also to salute them.
So what does that mean?
You know, it's not like, yes sir, you know, I'm in the Marine Corps or something.
But it is like a respectful way to address the pastor, is what I think that's saying.
So with those things in mind, I mean, rebuking an elder should be something that's far from anybody in our church.
And obviously there are people, there's different people, different learning and all that, I understand that.
But once you know the responsibility of someone not to do this, this should be something that we never do.
Now my first point tonight is, and I'm just going to go over things that you should not,
I'm going to give you four things tonight of things you should not rebuke a pastor over.
So obviously you're just not supposed to rebuke them in general, but also we're not supposed to rebuke them for specific things.
Now I just had like four things that I wanted to cover tonight.
So my first point is rebuke not elders over being paid.
Rebuke not elders over being paid, because you know the world does attack pastors for things like this.
And you know, it shouldn't be something that goes on in our churches.
If someone's getting paid, they're working hard, like don't you want a paycheck guys,
at the end of two weeks when you've worked hard for something?
And I just think that some people get this weird mentality where they don't think that pastors should be paid.
And I think it's just bizarre and strange, but it is something that's out there.
And I think it's out there with churches too.
But we ought not to get that attitude.
Look back in our text at verse number 17 in 1 Timothy chapter 5.
The Bible says,
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor,
especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
And I can't think of other pastors that labor in doctrine as much as the pastors in this movement do,
or they're just laboring in doctrine, they're preaching many verses,
they're expounding on the scriptures, it's not just one scripture,
and then let me tell a bunch of funny stories,
or let me give you some poems, or things like that.
You're actually getting meaty Bible doctrine,
you're getting what you need,
you're getting the feeding that you're supposed to be fed by the pastor,
and it says,
Let the elders that rule well be counted of double honor.
So not just honor, but double honor.
And what it is talking about monetarily here,
it's not just talking about a double salute or something,
it's talking about double honor as in a reward for what they do.
Look at the context here, it says,
Especially they who labor in the word and doctrine,
so someone that labors, they rule well and they labor in the word and doctrine.
It says, For the scripture saith, Thou shall not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,
and the laborer is worthy of his reward.
It does say hire in another scripture, but yeah, reward.
So a reward is something that you get for doing something, right?
Sometimes you'll give your kids stickers on a, maybe at a home school sheet or something,
you get however many stickers,
I mean they did that in school when I was in school,
but anyway, I don't know if they do that anymore,
but maybe it's chicken tendies.
But anyway, the laborer is worthy of his reward.
So I did look up the top ten paid religious preachers in the world,
and honestly I'm not going to give you the list because I don't really care that much,
and there's different lists for, you know, obviously they can't get it straight,
how much money these guys make,
but there is literally preachers or so-called pastors
that make millions and millions of dollars for preaching,
and they give you no doctrine.
The pastor was talking about it this morning,
he's like everything's 100% positive.
It's just like you're going to a self-help Tony Robbins, you know, seminar or something.
And then not only that, but the doctrine they do teach is false.
You can lose your salvation and all this other stuff,
and they're getting millions of dollars,
and some of them have Lear jets and multiple cars.
I think Kenneth Copeland is like one of the richest,
if not the richest preacher that there is.
I don't know, maybe that, what's that false prophet's name in?
Apollo Kibiloy.
Apollo Kibiloy, yeah. He's got a lot of money too.
I better not mention him.
I don't want to get Brother Stuckey hit or something.
But anyway, but you know who's not on that list?
Pastor Roger Jimenez.
He missed the list of the top ten.
He didn't make the top fifteen.
Pastor Anderson is not on that list.
Pastor Shelley, also not on the list.
Pastor Berzins is not on that list.
Pastor, he is not on the list.
Pastor Berzanski, nearly made it, no I'm just kidding.
He's not on the list either.
And Pastor Robinson is not on that list.
Pastor Jones, not on that list.
Pastor Stuckey is not going to be on the list either.
Pastor Enrique Reyes, not on the list.
But, you know, obviously we should not labor to be rich anyway as pastors.
And it's really bizarre that someone would get millions of dollars to preach.
But the Bible does say that the laborer is worthy of his reward.
So pastors should and can get paid.
Spiritual leaders should and can get paid.
But to gainsay that or to, you know, try to make it out to where pastors should not get paid.
You should just do everything for free.
Well, why don't you do everything for free and see how much you like that.
So pastors should be allowed to make a living wage without getting rebuked by people for getting paid.
Wouldn't you agree with that?
Especially pastors that labor in the word and doctrine.
I'm going to have you turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter number 9.
A lot of people say, well, tithing isn't in the New Testament.
And they'll also say, where does it say that pastors should be paid and all this kind of stuff.
And I believe that tithing does transfer over into the New Testament, obviously.
I believe that the Apostle Paul in this passage is teaching that tithing does transcend from the Old Testament law into the New Testament.
And it was even a practice before the law even became into existence.
Abraham gave tithes of all.
You know, Isaac tithed.
Jacob tithed.
So, tithing is the way that churches are supported.
Tithing is the way that the man of God is paid.
Now look at verse number 3 in 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
It says, and this is the Apostle Paul speaking here.
He says, mine answer to them that do examine me is this.
Now the Apostle Paul gets attacked for a lot of things and he does defend himself some.
And then he speaks as a fool and defends his works versus other people's works.
But apparently people are saying, oh the Apostle Paul, you know, he thinks he should get paid or whatever.
I don't know what the attack is, but it says the people that do examine me, you know, the answer, mine answer to them that do examine me is this.
Have we not power to eat and drink?
Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles and other brethren of the Lord and Cephas?
So he's talking about, you know, the Lord Jesus' brethren, the ones that got saved and were in leadership also.
And then Cephas, which is Peter of course, it says, or I only in Barnabas.
Have we not power to forbear working?
Now he's not saying we shouldn't have to work and do anything.
He's talking about working in the secular world.
Now of course we know the Apostle Paul continued to work as a secular job.
And he's basically saying we have the power and we have the option to do that.
And it says in verse 7, who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?
Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof?
And who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
Say I these things as a man, or sayeth not the law the same also?
So what is Paul saying? He's referring back to the law, isn't he?
And so why would he say this in the New Testament if it doesn't still apply in this day?
It says, for it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn, doth God take care for oxen?
Or sayeth it all together for our sakes, for our sakes no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope.
You work, you should expect a reward, right?
And that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of this hope.
So when you, the idea is as the man of God that you're helping grow the ministry,
you're doing the work and you should be able to partake of the work that's getting done.
It says if we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
Carnal things meaning money or material or whatever.
It says others, if others being partakers of this power over you, are not we rather?
Nevertheless, we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
Do you not know that they which minister about the holy things live of the things of the temple?
He's talking about the Old Testament temple there and it says,
And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar.
Even so hath the Lord ordained, so who ordained it? The Lord, right?
That they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
So this is Paul going back to the Old Testament, applying it to the New Testament
and saying that the Lord has ordained it to be the same way as it was in the Old Testament as it is today.
And so does a pastor or spiritual leader have the right to be paid?
Yes, they do.
People love to open up their big yaps about pastors getting paid a living wage.
I just think it's ridiculous.
And they want to keep them poor.
Oh, as long as you're just poor and your wife is sewing all the kids' clothing and whatever.
People want to keep pastors poor for some reason.
I don't know why and I'm not saying we should be rich either.
But we do have the right to be paid or to forbear working.
And notice it says multiple times the power.
And obviously power means a lot of different things. There's a lot of definitions for it.
But it means a right or authority that is given or delegated to a person or body.
And then the etymology from it is from the Latin but in the Middle English it says,
be able is what it means. So the power, don't we have the power?
Aren't we able to forbear working? Aren't we able, don't we have the right as leadership to be paid?
And the answer to that from the Apostle Paul is yes.
So look at Proverbs chapter 30 verse 8.
And this should be how all Christians view money and monetary things.
But I think it helps us to put things in perspective for a pastor.
It says, remove far from me vanity and lies.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Feed me with food convenient for me.
So we shouldn't seek to be super poor poppers because
like these Catholics that take vows of poverty and things like that.
They just think it makes them look so righteous and so holy.
They wear like the Friar Tuck outfits with the rope around their waist or whatever.
I mean they just want to look holy. They want to look righteous.
And I'm not saying that if someone's poor that's bad.
But what should be the desire? Well to remove vanity and lies.
And give me neither poverty nor riches.
So not to be super poor but not to be super rich.
So what should a pastor, like a pastor shouldn't be super rich.
I agree with that. And pastors shouldn't be having three mansions
and you know, Lear jets and Lamborghinis and Maseratis
and pulling up with these fancy flashy cars.
But it does happen. And you're like, well you're rebuking them.
I'm rebuking false prophets.
So Kenneth Copeland's a false prophet in case you didn't know that.
Joel Osteen's a false prophet. These guys that are making millions of dollars
are false prophets. And you're like, well what gives you the right to say that?
I hear what comes out of their mouth. That's what.
I try not to hear too much because it's just vexing to me to hear these bozos preach.
But you know, people hold pastors on high standards and rightly so.
But I think it's weird. I think it's wrong that people want to pay them peanuts
for them and their big families that we promote to live on.
And I'm not saying anybody does that with this pastor. This point is
that if that starts creeping up in your mind,
or that starts creeping up, well I wonder how much pastor's getting paid.
It's none of your business. Is it really your business?
Does pastor walk up and go, how much do you make, brother?
I mean, it's kind of like in my grandpa's day, he would say to ask somebody
how much money they make is rude.
It is. How much money do you make?
It's like, how much do you make? It's none of your business.
Like, why would you bring that up?
But they also say, don't bring up religion and politics.
But I mean, they're wrong about that. That's the boomers, right?
So, not all boomers are bad though.
But in Old life beat churches, they like to hire people right out of Bible college
as assistant pastors, even if they don't have a wife or children or anything like that.
But they do this so they can shovel work on them and pay them less than minimum wage.
And that's not a trend in our type of churches, the New IFB type churches.
But, you know, and obviously, if you don't know what you're doing,
you build up to a wage.
Like, if you have no skills, you should be getting paid top dollar to not have skills.
Like, if you're expecting to make like $100,000 a year at McDonald's,
I don't know, they might bump up the minimum wage where it is so,
but like we're going to be paying like $16 a gallon for gas too.
But all I'm saying is like, you know, don't worry about what your pastor is getting paid.
You know, when he buys a Learjet, when he rolls up in a Lamborghini,
when he has a mansion that he's bought, then you might want to ask a question.
But even so, don't rebuke him and treat him as a father.
But I mean, that's never going to happen, folks. Never going to happen.
Sorry, pastor. He might have a Lamborghini in heaven, but he's not going to have one on this side.
So, but, you know, I think that pastors deserve what they get paid,
and especially pastors, the Bible says that, labor in the word and doctrine.
So, number one, rebuke not elders over being paid.
Number two, rebuke not an elder by perceived transgressions.
By perceived transgressions.
Now, look back in our text at 1 Timothy 5 verse 19.
1 Timothy 5 verse 19.
It says, against an elder, received not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
Let me read that again.
Against an elder, received not an accusation,
but before two or three witnesses.
So, if somebody comes to you, and they say, well, I heard this about pastor so-and-so,
and there's not two or three witnesses, then you're wrong for listening to it,
that person's wrong for saying it, and the Bible says that you have to have two or three witnesses. Why?
Because it's a big accusation to just accuse a pastor of something without having evidence.
Now, it's not what you think you know, or what you think it looks like,
or what it might seem to you, or it's not what so-and-so told you,
but it's what is able to be proven.
So, you're not to rebuke an elder over some perceived transgression.
The Bible says, received not an accusation.
So, but yet people in 2023, and even people in our style of churches, will do this kind of stuff,
and it's just like, have you not read the Bible?
Like, and look, I'm not saying that pastors are untouchable, or unable to be questioned, or anything like that,
but it is the way you question, and if you have an accusation, you better have your ducks in a row.
You better have proof.
You better have two or three witnesses.
Because you know what, it's wicked to accuse somebody of something without having the goods against them.
You know what, we as pastors have to hold those standards when it comes to church discipline.
So, but yet people just think that they can just talk to a pastor however they want.
They can talk about how much money they're getting paid, or whatever, or not getting paid.
You know, and then they can just accuse a pastor over something that they perceive as the truth,
because so and so told you, that is not right, that is wicked, and you shouldn't be rebuking a pastor in that way,
by accusing them of something without having the witnesses.
Now, you know, and it's funny, people can just say things, and people will believe it.
The Bible says, the simple believe every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going.
And unfortunately, there's a lot of people that are simple,
and you know what, if someone, if some person is trying to just like turn you against your pastor,
you should really think, why is this person coming to me?
You know why they're coming to you?
You know why all these freaks and weirdos that end up getting kicked out of our churches,
you know why they are coming to you?
Because they perceive that you're simple, and you should take offense to that.
And you should think, like, why is this person bringing this to me?
Why is this person trying to turn me against my pastor? And you think, oh, because they think I'm simple.
And so if they think you're simple, maybe you need to get smart, so I don't know.
But don't be that person, don't be that guy, don't be that lady that just receives an accusation.
Look, I've been accused of, look, people accuse us of stuff all the time,
that are truths, or half-truths, or whatever it is, it doesn't matter.
You're not supposed to receive an accusation, but by two or three witnesses.
But again, pastors are not beyond questions, pastors are not untouchable,
but if it's not in your sphere, or if it's not relevant to you, then you should just mind your own business.
You should give that man the benefit of the doubt before you just believe everything that he's being accused of.
So, and look, the more a church is doing, the more a pastor is doing,
the more people are going to try to take him down.
It's just the way it is, and we understand that, but you know who it shouldn't be coming from?
Our own people!
So look at Psalm chapter 131 verse 1.
Psalm 131 verse 1.
The Bible says in Psalm 131 verse 1, it says,
Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty,
neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
There's some situations, folks, that are none of your business,
they're great matters that don't concern you, or they're just something that's too high for you.
And I'm not saying that, look, and look, I understand that we're all as Christians, we're all equal.
I understand that.
But, like Pastor Mez was saying this morning, that pastors are expected to have a higher,
you know, they have to have a higher standard of excellence to be pastors.
You know, there's qualifications that we have to meet, and qualifications that we have to continue to keep to be a pastor.
So, but like, I would say it's not your business, and it's not in the realm of your authority
to go around and just correcting pastors all the time, and telling them what you think of their sermons.
Look, I'm not saying that you should never ask a question about the sermon, or maybe there's something that you have,
but go respectfully to them.
Go respectfully to them, and ask them with respect.
And, you know, when people start coming up and criticizing every sermon I preach, or they say,
well, I didn't really agree with that part of it, it's just like, if you get that every time, it's like,
what do you, what do you, are you the perfect police or whatever?
I mean, everything I say has to be perfect, and you know, I believe that we should be accurate when we're saying things.
I believe that.
But obviously, we're human beings.
You know, we make mistakes, and we say, you know, you have everlasting life, and go to hell forever,
or whatever, you accidentally say something like that, but it's like, you didn't mean that.
You people should know that that's not what was being meant.
But they're like, well, you said hell, pastor, instead of heaven.
It's like, duh.
But thanks for telling me.
But in verse 2 it says there, surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother.
My soul is even as a weaned child.
David, this is David.
And he says he shouldn't exercise himself in matters that are too great for him.
And he's the king of all Israel.
So, I mean, there's obviously matters that David just thought, this is not my realm here.
This is not something I should exercise myself in.
Now, and here's the other thing.
How do rumors get started?
How does gossip and backbiting and tale-bearing, how does that get started?
Well, it gets started by someone being a tale-bearer.
And what is a tale-bearer?
Well, I mean, just think about the word.
Tale. It's like a story, right?
And then a bearer, someone that carries something.
So, it's somebody that carries a story.
And this story could be true, it could be half true,
and there's that game called, I think it's called campfire.
No, it's not campfire. I always forget what the name is.
Telephone, that's what it is.
And like where you'll say, I do this every time.
But you say it to one person, and then by the time it gets around,
then it's something completely different.
And this happens in church rumors too.
This happens in rumors where people are spreading malignant gossip
around the church or around the movement or whatever.
And you know how you stop this from happening?
Stop doing it. Just stop.
The Bible is very clear about this.
Look at Leviticus chapter 19 verse 16.
You're like, oh, you're going to go back to the Old Testament.
Yeah, I'm going to go back to the Old Testament because it's still true today.
Amen.
Leviticus chapter 19 verse 16 says,
Thou shall not go up and down as a tail-bearer among thy people.
Who are these people? The children of Israel.
Who's the children of Israel in the New Testament? We are.
So apply it to the New Testament here.
It says, Neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor, I am the Lord.
So we should not have tail-bearers in our churches, but yet we do.
But yet the scuttlebutt reaches to the uttermost, doesn't it?
And so a tail-bearer is not just one who carries tales to others,
but it's a person who maliciously gossips or reveals secrets.
They maliciously gossip or reveal secrets.
You're like, well, there shouldn't be any secrets, Pastor Thompson.
There shouldn't be anything like that.
Well, it's funny you say that.
Well, turn to Proverbs chapter 11 verse 13.
Because people just get this idea that somebody else's business is their business.
Somebody else's sin is their business.
Somebody else's misfortunes is their business.
And they like to spread those tales around and look,
it's just like that telephone game where by the time it gets to somebody else,
it's turned into something completely different.
You know, Pastor Mendez has a Lamborghini? When did this happen?
It's like, how did you get that?
Well, Pastor Thompson said it in the sermon.
No, that's not what Pastor Thompson said in the sermon.
Go back and watch it.
But anyway, look at verse 13 in Proverbs chapter 11.
It says, a tail-bearer, what do they do?
Revealeth secrets.
So is being a tail-bearer wrong?
So then, yes, revealing secrets is also wrong, isn't it?
It says, but he that is a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.
So who's the right one here?
The one that's concealing the matter if you know something about somebody,
and then you're spreading it around.
You are the tail-bearer, but you know, you're a faithful spirit if you're concealing the matter.
And I'm not talking about, you know, some gross misconduct sin or something.
I'm just talking about, just, you know, obviously pastors can mess up
and they can disqualify themselves.
I'm not saying conceal that matter. I'm just talking about matters in general.
There are things that as pastors we can't repeat to other people.
And I think people forget that.
When someone comes to me and says, hey, I want some counsel, pastor.
If I reveal what they came to me in counsel for, I'm actually breaking the law by doing that.
It's wrong, it's unethical, it's wicked, and I should be able to have,
someone should be able to come to me and I keep their secrets in confidence.
Whether that's sin, you know, and obviously everybody sins.
But there is such a thing as confidentiality.
And as a pastor, it's my job to keep the confidence of people that come and tell me things.
Now obviously, if it's something like, hey, promise not to tell, so and so is fornicating.
You said you wouldn't do anything about it, right?
Now, don't go and tell that to other people, but come and tell it to the pastor.
Go to the person who it's their sphere of authority to address those issues.
But you know what, even if someone would be point blank just ask me something about somebody else,
which people do this. I mean, pastor, do people do this to you?
Pastor, did people do this to you?
Or they ask about somebody else and sometimes obviously it's for a genuine, concerned reason,
but sometimes people just want to get the scuttlebutt.
That's what they want.
And they'll ask you a question, but I am not bound to give someone the answer.
You're like, when you're a Christian, you're supposed to always tell the truth.
Yeah, but I don't owe you the truth.
It's none of your business.
Why are you asking about other people in a way that you're just trying, you know,
and they'll try to pin you and look at your expression or look, you know, they'll try to read you.
And it's like you shouldn't even be asking that question.
You're just trying to be a tail bearer and it's not right.
So I'm not bound to give out other people's private information, private business, list of sins that they have
or have not done.
In fact, it's against the law, like I said, and it's unethical, just plain and simply wrong to do that.
And let me ask you this.
Do you want everyone to know all the sins that you've committed?
What if we just did like a confession every Wednesday night instead of a prayer request that's a confession booth
and you had to confess all the sins that you did this week.
Would you be embarrassed about that?
And the problem is that, you know, people, you know, and I get, sometimes people just are curious and I get that,
but when you're dealing with people's personal life, you know, it's their life.
It's not something that you just play around with and that you just nonchalantly reveal.
So pastors are supposed to conceal things that are secrets of other people.
And, you know, we're supposed to be faithful in that area, but also if you hear something about a pastor,
maybe you should just shut that person down.
You don't know that it's true. You just don't know.
Do you have the evidence? It's like with Jack Hiles.
Like, I think Pastor Mendez was telling me about a story where someone was saying that they used to sit,
him and his secretary would signal each other with their lights flashing or something like that.
And then they'd both leave the parking lot at the same time.
But does that really prove he's having an affair?
Like, would you take that as evidence, oh, they're having an affair for sure.
Now, maybe it is weird. I don't know.
Maybe he's just being safe.
You know, he's making sure she gets home safe or whatever. Who knows?
But you know what? You can't jump to conclusions in your mind like that.
In fact, your default should be to not accuse an elder,
to not rebuke them with your thoughts and a perceived sin that you think that they're committing.
So, you know, and just think about this.
Christianity is pretty big on forgiveness, isn't it?
And yet when people come to practice in it, people seem to not realize that the Bible teaches that or something.
But isn't forgiveness and Christianity like a pretty big deal?
But then when it comes to people hearing something or knowing about something,
then they just can't help but do something with that in their mind.
So like if the pastors, which they're not going to do this,
but if pastors just told everybody else's sins all the time,
wouldn't that be a mess? Wouldn't that be, you know, it'd be wicked.
But shouldn't people be allowed to live down some of the things that they've done?
Should we just attack, you know, and here's the other thing.
Maybe if you knew something about somebody that you wish you hadn't known,
you know something, you probably wish you hadn't known it because you can't help but judge that person in your mind.
So like that's why it's just like, you know, it's just bizarre that people just want to hear every sin that everybody commits.
I think it's, I'm kind of out of the realm of my sermon here a little bit, but it does tie in.
You know, and when someone does something that's worthy of being kicked out of church,
I don't always tell the whole church.
I don't always, I don't always kick the person out that commits a sin that's in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
And why not? Because they should get a chance to repent and to come back. That's why.
Now if someone's unrepentant and they're dug in about something, I will kick them out.
I will bring it before the church. If someone needs to be rebuked before all, I will do that.
Because in 1 Timothy chapter 5, let's go back to our text there, it says, 1 Timothy chapter 5,
it says, then that sin rebuke before all that others may fear also fear.
But like I believe that this is in the realm actually of the pastor.
Someone bringing an accusation against the pastor without the evidence,
and then that person should get called out for it.
So, and the Bible is very clear, Paul is very clear about a guy that got kicked out for fornication
in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the guy that's actually being talked about.
In 2 Corinthians, go ahead and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 6, when it's talking about letting this person come back,
look how Paul says to deal with this person.
It says sufficient, verse 6, to such a man as this punishment which was inflicted of many.
They kicked him out, right? He told them to kick him out, they kicked him out.
It says, so that contrariwise, you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him,
lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
So, what's Paul saying? Let him live it down. Forgive him. Bring him back.
So, because, you know, if someone has to walk around with a scarlet letter on them all the time
for the rest of their time that they're at the church, then, you know, then you're putting too much on that person.
You're making it where they can't ever succeed. They can't ever come back from something that they've done.
And that's just not right. And Paul said, I'd rather, wherefore I beseech you, verse 8,
that you would confirm your love toward him, for this is the end, also did I, for this, excuse me,
to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether you be obedient in all things.
So, you know, he's telling them to forgive this person, and he's saying, I kind of want to know
if you're going to be obedient in all things. To whom you forgave anything, I forgive also.
For if I forgave anything to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ,
lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we're not ignorant of his devices.
So, when you're not forgiving, when someone is to be restored, when you have that attitude that someone,
you just can't let it go, and, you know, they've done something you just can't get past,
then Paul is saying that Satan gets an advantage of us. Because aren't we supposed to forgive people that repent?
We are. So, point number one is rebuke not an elder over being paid. Point number two is rebuke an elder,
excuse me, rebuke not an elder by perceived transgressions. And point number three is rebuke not an elder
by prating against them with malicious words. So, you know, perceiving transgressions,
you know, coming up with some kind of, you know, some kind of half-baked Sherlock Holmes type thing
where you're just like, well this, you know, flashing lights means affair. I mean, you just can't do that.
So, but also we shouldn't just be prating against them with malicious words, rebuking an elder.
And, of course, Pastor brought this up this morning, and the word prating means talking bad about someone at length without weight.
So, he had a different definition, but this definition is true too. So, it's talking bad about someone at length without weight.
That means really you have a flimsy thing that you're trying to, you're talking about someone,
you're overdoing it, and it really doesn't have, there's no weight to what you're being, what's being told.
Now, turn to 3 John chapter 1 verse 9. 3 John chapter 1 verse 9. I'll make this a quick point here.
3 John chapter 1 verse 9. This pastor already went over it, so. But this is a way that people use to rebuke elders too.
They prayed against them, and we see this a lot with old IFB pastors where we say, hey, go to the best church you can in your area.
And then they do, and then the pastor's like, we're not letting Andersonites into this church.
It's like, they didn't even do anything. You know, they're saved too. So, why are you kicking them out?
Well, the Bible kind of explains it here, and John, you know, like pastor said, the beloved, he was the beloved apostle.
He was with Jesus, you know, he was like one of the main guys with Jesus.
And so, this guy gets such a big head that he believes that he's greater than John or something.
I don't know, it's just bizarre, but I see this happen with old IFB pastors,
but I've also seen it happen with pastors that were part of our group and part of our movement,
and they kind of get this diatrophies attitude about them where they're rebuking and just making up things
or saying malicious things in order to puff themselves up so that they can look better than that pastor.
So, it says in verse 9, it says, I wrote unto the church, but diatrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
So, this diatrophies like, I'm not allowing anymore Andersonites in my church, or you know, whatever.
That was a good Manly Perry impression there, but I'm going to put all my sermons on private and whatever.
You're like, well, you're rebuking a pastor right now.
Yeah, but I'm a pastor.
So, you know, if someone's going to rebuke a pastor, it should be a pastor.
So, that's my personal belief.
Like, when Paul rebuked Peter, it wasn't the little 80-year-old lady that was of the Gentiles saying,
now, Shani, you better, you know, she's not, it's Paul.
It's an equal.
And that's kind of how that, and even like, when it comes to kings, other kings are rebuking other kings, but look, that's the anointed of God.
So, you know, when kings are going to rebuke each other, they're going to do it to their face, or they're going to send letters to each other or whatever.
But, we ought not to be like diatrophies here, who loveth the preeminence.
You know, he wants to be the number one. Who's supposed to be number one?
Jesus is supposed to have the preeminence, not diatrophies, not some other pastor.
And like, you know, there's been people that have come and tried to just like, I don't know where they get this from,
but this perception that they need to stab their way up to the top and be the number one guy or something.
Like, there is no number one guy. There is no boss of the new IFB.
There is no boss. We're independent Baptists, and you know, contrary to popular belief,
I don't have to pass my sermons over to Pastor Anderson before I'm allowed to preach them.
I don't have to get, I don't have to send Pastor Jimenez an email before I preach a sermon.
Maybe it's a good idea sometimes, but I mean, I don't have to do that.
You know why? Because I'm an independent Baptist pastor of my own church, or church has, but you know, we're all independent.
But you know, there's been people that have kind of just jumped in and you know, we're supportive of them.
You know, if they're coming our way, maybe they're not 100%, you know, great on their doctrine or something.
You know, we're accepting. We always are accepting of people.
And then they stab us in the back. They pull the diatrophies on us.
Look at verse 10. It says, Wherefore, if I come, I'll remember his deeds,
which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith,
neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would encasteth them out of the church.
Now, there's a church that just closed down recently in Tennessee, and that pastor was doing this exact thing.
Prating against us with malicious words.
And you know, not receiving the brethren basically started just like demonizing the people that were, you know,
that believed like us, to the point where there was nobody left to preach to.
And that person pulled up the tent. But you know what, I'm not happy about that.
I'm not happy that that happened. You know, I didn't like have a big, you know,
woo, someone, another soul winning church shut down. You know, it's sad to me when that kind of stuff happens.
We shouldn't be cheering that kind of stuff on. It should grieve us that what could have been a great church for many years to come would shut down.
But you know, that pastor got a diatrophes type spirit, where he's just like anybody from our movement or whatever would come in and they would,
you know, they were just not treated well. And so when the whole church leaves because you're not treating them well,
well, I mean you got a problem. But this is the diatrophes attitude. Because it says neither does he himself receive the brethren.
So he won't receive the Apostle John anymore. He's too preeminent for that.
It's just like, I'm not comparing us to the Apostle John. I'm not saying that, but I'm just saying that this is the attitude.
This is what John was dealing with. And he's like, you know, this is a problem.
There's a lot of diatrophes out there today hating on pastors of the new IFB. Not just, you know, people have come and attached themselves onto the movement,
but you know, these other pastors out there will make up things like Pastor Anderson's a Jesuit. You heard that one?
Or we don't believe in repentance. That's just a lie. That's not true. We believe in repentance.
We just don't believe you have to repent of your sins to be saved. We believe in repentance though.
Or we're post-driven. We take away the blessed hope. It's like, it's still a hope. Like we're going through the tribulation.
Jesus comes back right at the last second. You know, and it's funny because that's a theme in scripture.
The children of Israel backed against the Red Sea. The armies of Pharaoh are coming in on them.
And then, you know, all of a sudden the Red Sea parts and they're all able to go on dry ground.
I mean, God does that over and over again in the Bible where people are in an impossible situation.
Then he comes and takes care of business at the last second. So why is that so weird?
Why is that taking away the blessed hope? I think it actually improves the blessed hope.
Because the idea that a bunch of Baptists that have grown moss on their back and they're just sitting around doing nothing
get to go before all the stuff takes place. Like they're the special ones. Oh, the biggest not doing anything.
People get to go up in this rapture that nobody gets to see and all of our clothes fall on the ground or whatever.
It's just ridiculous. But because of stuff like that, because of our stance on Israel, you know,
or that we're hateful, we're anti-Semitic, but like, Sem had more than one son. Did you know that?
Anyway, but I'm anti-Judaism. I'm anti-Mormonism. I'm anti-Jehovah's Witness. I'm anti-Seventh-day Adventism.
I'm anti-false religion. I hate every false way. I hate them all. Maybe not equally, but I hate them all.
You know what I love? I love Christianity. I love Bible believing churches.
And then people will say like, oh, you know, they hate the homos and the child molesters so,
and that we don't believe God can save them. That's what the Bible says. I mean, I don't know what you want to do with that.
But these are the types of accusations that we get and that's why you can't go to their church.
And Pastor Jimenez preached a great sermon in England about why the New IFB is not a cult. If you haven't watched that,
you should watch it because it's really good ammunition for the people that want to say that we're a cult.
I just like to go drop it in the comments where I see these, I mean, there's pastors that rail against us all the time.
There's pastors that make videos and it's like they don't even know what they're talking about.
They're prating against us with malicious words and, you know, they shouldn't be doing that.
Why don't you check into it? Why don't you actually know what you're talking about before you just start blowing off your mouth about things that you don't know about?
So number one, rebuke not an elder over being paid. Number two, rebuke not an elder by perceived transgressions.
And number three, rebuke not an elder by prating against them with malicious for, malicious words, excuse me.
Number four, rebuke not an elder by taking part in destroying their ministry.
Rebuke not an elder by taking part in destroying their ministry.
Look at Psalm 105 verse 13. Psalm 105 verse 13.
Forty-nine minutes faster.
Alright, that's the last time I'm looking at my phone. Okay, Psalm 105, just kidding. Psalm 105 verse 13.
It says, when they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong.
Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes.
Now, what is he talking about here? What is the Psalm talking about here?
It's talking about the patriarchs. It's talking about the early believers like Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Now, Abraham was even lying about something and, you know, Abimelech was warned by God in a dream not to touch Sarah, Abraham's wife.
And he rebuked him and he was like, I wasn't going to do it.
And he was like, yeah, because I said you were not going to do it or whatever.
So he was going to kill him. God was going to kill this guy.
And the same thing I think happened with Isaac and with Jacob. Laban wanted to kill him and he didn't allow Laban to harm him.
He came to Laban in a dream.
So, and notice what it says in verse 15. It says, saying, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm.
Touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm.
Now, where's the verse where you saw Abraham get anointed?
Where's the verse where you saw Isaac get anointed?
Where's the verse where you see Jacob get anointed?
But yet God calls him his anointed, doesn't he?
Because those are the people that God anointed to be prophets and, you know, preachers and, you know, Moses, of course, was, you know, going up against Pharaoh.
And Pharaoh was rebuked by the Lord and destroyed his whole nation basically because of him going against Moses and Aaron and the children of Israel.
So there's this principle here where it's talking about touching, not touching the anointed.
Now, I was not, Pastor Amenos didn't pour oil on top of my head when he ordained me.
But in the Old Testament they did ordain people, but you don't see it happening with the patriarchs, but you do see it later on.
And you see kings being anointed with oil.
And that, what does that symbolize?
It symbolizes the Holy Spirit being poured upon that person, right?
And in the New Testament you see, you know, when people are ordained by the laying on of hands, there's a special anointing that happens with that person.
And, you know, God doesn't want his anointed, his men, to be harmed.
He doesn't want them to be touched.
And so when we as Christians, if we're the ones that are doing that, then it's really, it's bad.
Now, again, we can expect the world to do that, but God's still going to deal with those people.
Like, I know that the people that come against us all the time and hate us and try to do all these wicked things to us all the time, their day is coming.
It's like, I just, I sleep fine at night.
I sleep fine at night and I don't worry whatsoever about it at all.
Now, let's look at 1 Samuel chapter 26 verse 7.
Now, people will say, well, you're talking about, you know, the Old Testament versus the New Testament.
But yeah, but there's still anointed people that God puts in leadership and they're called pastors.
They're called evangelists. They're called deacons, right?
And God puts us, you know, obviously everybody has the Holy Spirit.
We're all priests and kings. I get that. I understand that.
But when it comes specifically to touching the leadership and God's anointed, he gets very upset about this.
And, you know, we can see these principles in the life of David.
You know, and think about this. David was anointed also, wasn't he?
So while Saul's trying to kill him, why Saul, you know, when Saul's doing all this evil to him, David already knows he's going to be the next king.
Look at verse 7. It says,
So David and Abishai came to the people by night. Now Saul has gone bad at this point.
He's saved, but he's really wicked. He's done a lot of wicked acts.
He's killed the Lord's priests. He's disobeyed the Lord.
He tried to be the priest when he wasn't the priest and offer sacrifices. He wasn't supposed to sacrifice.
He tried to murder David multiple times and he still even does it after this point.
But, you know, so just keep that in mind as we read this here.
So David and Abishai came to the people by night and behold Saul lay sleeping within the trench and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster.
But Abner and the people lay around about him.
Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day.
Now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once.
And I will not smite him the second time.
So he's asking David for permission to kill Saul right here.
He said I'm just going to get him once. I won't have to stab him multiple times. Just one time he's dead.
And David said to Abishai, destroy him not.
For who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?
So when you put this, apply this to modern day anointed people, modern day people that are in leadership of churches, that would be the pastor.
So, you know, David's saying destroy him not.
David is the equal of Saul in the sense that David is also anointed to be the king but he's really still not the king yet.
But he was anointed to do so.
Now look what it says. So it says in verse 10, David said furthermore, as the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him or the day shall come to die.
Or he shall descend into battle and perish.
So David's just like saying, okay, it's not me. I'm not going to do this.
I'm not going to touch the anointed of the Lord regardless of how bad he is.
And he's still the Lord's anointed.
So even if you just perceive, say I don't like this pastor or I think this pastor is bad, you better just keep that to yourself.
And you know, if that's revealed that God destroys that person or whatever, then yeah, you're right.
But to go around and actively try to destroy a pastor's ministry is wicked as hell.
It really is.
And even to just backdate it by someone who's been dead for 20 years, that's ridiculous.
Let the man rest in peace for crying out loud.
But anyway, look what it says in verse 11.
I really like this verse. It says, the Lord forbid.
So who's forbidding you to do it? To put your hand against the anointed?
Who's doing it? The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed.
So God is saying, David don't do it.
David knows he's not supposed to do it.
But do you think he might be tempted?
I mean he already cut the skirt off his robe at one point when he's covering his feet in the cave.
And now in this chapter, he's got another chance to kill him.
You know, God's testing him. He's like, what is David going to do?
Is he going to behave himself wisely like he has in times past?
Because that's what the Bible says about David.
Even though Saul's eyeballing him and chucking spears at him and doing all these things trying to murder him
and all the wicked things he did, David still behaved himself wisely in front of Saul.
And he ran when he had to. And he hid when he had to.
But the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed.
And this, I believe, this principle applies to us in the New Testament.
It says, but I pray that you take now the spear that is in his bolster and the crucible water and let us go.
So it is interesting though to me that David already knew.
David was already the Lord's anointed at this point too.
But he, you know, as tempted as he might be, and he would have been right.
You know, he would have been right to campaign against Saul, right?
He's tried to kill him. He's done all these wicked things to him.
You know, he made him go get a hundred foreskins of the Philistines trying to get him killed that way too.
And that didn't work. And just all the things he did.
David didn't, David had a, he had a legit grievance with him, didn't he?
Anybody would agree with that.
But David still would not stretch forth his hand or allow anybody else to stretch forth his hand against Saul.
Who was going to get, you know, David kind of had it figured out.
Well at some point God's just going to take care of it.
And that should be our attitude about rebuking elders or trying to, you know, trying to go and move your hand against the Lord's anointed to try to get them overthrown, to try to get their names sullied.
Why don't you just let God take care of that?
Because God will take care of it.
It's like why do you have to be the one that tries to be the dirt digger, the one that's trying to get the dirt.
Like why is it, it's such a weird phenomenon that people are always just trying to disqualify pastors.
Like in this movement.
And all this stuff is flinged at us all the time.
And we're just like trying to serve God and win souls and build churches and help people.
And yet people always want to try to stretch forth their hand to try to destroy God's anointed.
So look at, now turn to 2 Samuel chapter 1 verse 14.
What was David's reaction when someone actually slew Saul because they didn't actually slay Saul.
But this guy claimed to do it.
Look how David responds.
And David said unto him, How was thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?
So he just said he did it, but in actuality what did Saul do?
He killed himself, didn't he?
And why did God allow them to lose that battle?
Because he went and saw a witch instead of seeking after, I mean he sought after the Lord, but the Lord wouldn't answer him.
So he goes, maybe I'll just go to a witch.
And then the Bible says that that's why God killed Saul in 1 Chronicles.
So now it says here, How was thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?
And David called one of the young men and said, Go near and fall upon him, and he smote him that he died.
And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head, for thy mouth have testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed.
So in applying this to the New Testament, you know going around bragging about how you try to destroy one of God's ministers,
you know, that's not going to be a good thing for you.
It's just not something that we should be doing.
It's not your job to go and destroy somebody's ministry or take part in destroying it.
Now obviously again, you know, pastors fall, they do, it happens.
But is it your job to make them fall? Is it your job to smite Saul? It isn't.
This is the principle that's being taught to us here in the Scriptures, and David actually kills the guy that just said he did it.
He didn't even do it. Like what an idiot. Yeah, I killed him.
He was an Amalekite too, so he's probably suspect at that moment.
But, you know, it was like, I don't know if I believe you Amalekite.
You know, you're not really the best sources for information.
But anyway, so, and then how did David respond to Saul dying in battle?
How did he respond? I mean this guy that's tried to kill him multiple times, you know, all this stuff.
You know, Jonathan, his best friend, is killed at his side.
How does David respond to Saul, his enemy, who's the anointed of the Lord dying in battle?
Look what it says in verse 19. It says,
The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places. How are the mighty fallen?
Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon.
Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
So, is he saying that it's a great thing that Saul died?
No, he's saying, you know, Saul made a lot of mistakes and, you know, he's saying don't publish it here
because the heathen are hearing about the things that Saul did and, you know, obviously going to a witch.
It's just a bad testimony. But David's not rejoicing in the fact that he falls.
He thinks that, you know, he probably wishes that Saul would have just done what was right
instead of being envious and, you know, just a control freak.
Look at verse 23. It says,
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided.
They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions.
So, you know, David's like applying all this stuff to them that they are the instruments of war for God.
And today, in modern day New Testament Christianity, the pastor is the one that leads people out.
The pastor is the one that deals with a lot of the major battles.
Obviously, we all battle together. I'm not saying that.
But you don't know what's being said about him.
You don't know what kind of attacks your pastor is under.
But I guarantee you, we're under attack a lot more than people in the churches are.
I'm not saying you're not under attack. I'm just saying it's multiplied upon the leader.
And, you know, David is saying they were swifter than eagles.
These guys were a great help to the battles of the Lord.
It says in verse 27,
How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished?
And David lamented the death of Saul and the death of Jonathan.
And he said they were the weapons of war and they're perished.
These were God's instruments of war in the Old Testament.
And in the New Testament, pastors are the instruments of war in the battle of Christianity versus everything else.
And again, I'm not trying to raise pastors above,
but it is true that your pastor is anointed with a special anointing as being the leader of this church.
He's the pastor. He's the boss. That's the way it was in the Old Testament.
That's the way it is in the New Testament. One leader is calling the shots at this church.
So, how did he respond?
Well, he responded in lament, didn't he?
And that should be our attitude when a man of God that's saved that you might not like,
but you believe they're bad, but it shouldn't be your attitude to be like,
Oh yeah, they're bad. Just throw them in the trash.
And obviously, I believe that pastors, if there is some kind of battle to be fought,
it should be fought between them.
And obviously, maybe going to that person before you have some kind of battle with them
to maybe work out peace between you.
But sometimes that doesn't always work.
But what should be your attitude towards men of God that are saved that you might not like or believe?
That you might believe that they're bad.
Look at 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 12.
The Bible says that we beseech you brethren to know them which labor among you
and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.
And to esteem them very highly in love for their works' sake and be at peace among yourselves.
You want to be at peace? Well, highly esteem the men of God that are working hard
and esteem them for their works' sake.
I mean, obviously, Saul, his works got pretty bad, but he's still fighting the battle of the Lord.
You know, he just lost.
So he lost because of what he did.
But it says, Now I exhort you brethren to warn them that are unruly.
Moses being mistreated led to the downfall of the children of Israel.
I mean, he told them not to do something. They ignored him.
And he didn't even get a chance to go into the promised land because they bothered him to the point where he lost his temper.
And then God said, You're not going to the promised land.
But here's what I see.
If laymen are ripping on pastors, it's just not a good look.
Don't go around ripping on other pastors.
It's not your job to do that.
You know, maintain your station.
You know, don't take good doctrine and turn it on side of the...
You know, yeah, are we supposed to rebuke people?
Yeah, sometimes we have to rebuke people, but who are we not supposed to rebuke?
What does the Bible say clearly?
Rebuke, not an elder.
Leviticus 19 verse 16 says...
Oh, never mind.
Turn to Matthew, let's see, Proverbs chapter 16.
We'll finish here.
Proverbs chapter 16 verse 27.
We shouldn't be going around trying to destroy a pastor's ministry.
Look at what it says in verse 27, Proverbs 16.
It says, An ungodly man diggeth up evil in his lips.
There is a burning fire.
A froward man soweth strife, and a whisperer seperateth chief friends.
A violent man enticeth his neighbor and leadeth him in a way that is not good.
He shut his eyes to devise froward things, moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass.
This is not a good person.
And I would say it's even worse if that person's doing that to try to overthrow some pastor's ministry.
And here's the thing.
According to some people, Peter would not even be qualified to be a pastor or an apostle anymore.
I mean, didn't Peter deny the Lord three times?
But what was he afterwards?
After the Lord restored him, I mean, he went back to his secular job.
He's finished. He's disqualified, right?
But is that what Jesus said?
Jesus didn't say he was disqualified.
Jesus restored him.
And he said, feed my sheep.
Feed my lambs.
Feed my sheep.
And he charged them and Peter still said stupid things after that.
But, Peter was a man of God.
But people think that it's just their realm to judge who's qualified and who's not.
And obviously the Bible does give clear stipulations for that.
But it's not your job to touch the Lord's anointed.
It's not my job to touch the Lord's anointed.
It's not anybody's job.
God is the one that's going to deal with that.
And we shouldn't be trying to be froward and devise things to happen to people.
It's just wrong. It's wicked.
So, number one, the first point, just to recap everything.
Rebuke not an elder over being paid.
Unless he's making millions of dollars or whatever, don't say anything to Pastor Mez.
He drives a Lamborghini here.
Even just ask, is that your Lamborghini?
Or did you rent that for the day?
Because, I mean, don't just assume if he pulls up in a Lamborghini that he's rich all of a sudden.
I don't know how much it costs to rent one, but I'm sure it's not cheap.
Number two, rebuke not an elder by perceived transgressions.
You have to have two or three witnesses.
You have to have the goods.
And even then, tread carefully.
Number three, rebuke not an elder by prating against them with malicious words.
You shouldn't be talking crap about pastors and just saying all kinds of things about them.
Especially when you don't really know the facts.
And number four, rebuke not an elder by taking part in destroying their ministry.
We should not touch the Lord's anointed.
And that goes for anybody.
I mean, let God deal with it. The world's going to do it.
The world's going to rebuke elders.
But you know what? God's people should not be doing it.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for this great church.
I pray that it would just continue to be a great church.
And that, Lord, for many, many years to come, the blessings would still flow from Verity Baptist Church.
Pray for Brother Stuckey, Pastor Stuckey, Lord, that you would just bless him and his ministry.
Lord, just help them to have a time of refreshing while they're here in the States.
And Lord, to get back to the work.
I pray that you just bless them and their family on that hard trip back.
I pray that you just give them strength.
And Lord, I thank you so much for this church.
Once again, I pray that you just bless the meal to follow and just all the fellowship.
I pray we'd have a great night of fellowshipping in the Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Well, thank you very much, Pastor Thompson.
That's a great sermon, great truths there.
And of course, we appreciate your friendship.
And I'm not sure how long that sermon was, but I'm not going to rebuke a pastor over the length of this sermon.
No, that was great, great sermon.
Let's take our song books, go to page number 121.
Page number 121.
We're going to sing Like a River, Glorious, 121.
As we finish up the service tonight.
Like a River, Glorious is God's perfect peace.
Sing it out on the first.
Like a River, Glorious is God's perfect peace.
Over all victorious, in its quiet grace.
Perfect at its core with former every day.
Perfect at its grow with deeper of a way.
State of Banda, hoe, the hearts are fully blest.
King as he promised, perfect peace and rest.
And 121, sing it out on the second.
Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand.
Never poke and follow, never chase him.
Not a surge of glory, not a shade of care.
Not a blast of glory, touch the spirit there.
State of Banda, hoe, the hearts are fully blest.
Fighting as he promised, perfect peace and rest.
Sing it out on the last.
Every joy or triumph, fall in from above.
Traced upon our diet, by this our God.
We may trust him fully, all for us to do.
They who trust him wholly, find him holy too.
State of Banda, hoe, the hearts are fully blest.
Fighting as he promised, perfect peace and rest.
Amen. All right. Well, thank you very much everybody for being here tonight.
And again, thank you to all the pastors that are here tonight.
And we appreciate all of you being here.
Thank you to Pastor Stuckey for the great preaching this last week.
Great sermons he preached.
Pastor Thompson, great sermon.
And I don't know if you guys noticed, but all of the sermons were
alliterated with the letter P.
So I'm glad they got the memo and they knew to do that.
No, I'm just kidding.
They didn't submit their sermons to me or anything.
I didn't alliterate it for them, but praise the Lord for that.
And I noticed, so praise the Lord.
I appreciate you guys doing that just to make me happy.
But we appreciate all of you.
Of course, we've got the potluck tonight.
And what we want to do is a couple of things.
First of all, I'm going to pray and then you're going to be dismissed.
Of course, we're going to the fellowship hall.
I think there should be signs or somebody directing you in there
to tell you where to go.
But we want to make sure that we remember them
and honor these pastors that are with us, of course.
Pastor Stuckey, Pastor Brzezinski, Pastor Thompson.
So I'm going to ask that we allow the pastors to go first.
We allow our guests to go first.
And let's esteem them highly for their work's sake.
So let's allow them to get in line first with their families.
Of course, Ms. Tan and the children.
Let's make sure that the guests are taken care of.
So please don't run out there and rebuke them for being in line.
I'm asking them to get in line first and let's let them go through and whatever.
And then all the pastors, make sure you don't leave here tonight.
I want to get a picture with all the pastors.
I love all these men. I love them dearly.
I count them personal friends.
And we want to make sure we get a nice picture before you guys head out.
Make sure you say goodbye to the Stuckey family.
They're leaving town tomorrow.
They're on their way out.
So this will be the last time you will see them probably forever.
It might be a long time, though, before you see them,
unless you guys go to the missions trip in February.
If you could help us out, look around your area,
kind of make sure all the hymn books and everything are back where they need to be.
And I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I'm supposed to announce.
Oh, homeschool field trip.
Make sure you see my wife.
If you've not yet got the field trip, make sure you see that.
I'm going to go ahead and pray, and I'll pray a blessing on the food,
and I'll dismiss us with a word of prayer.
Let's bow our heads.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight.
And Lord, I thank you for this week and just all the things that have transpired, Lord.
And thank you for these men and just their friendship to me
and their ministries, their stands.
Pastor Thompson, Pastor Pozarski, just such a blessing to myself and to my family.
And thank you, Lord, for Pastor Stuckey.
And he's been such a blessing to us as well.
I pray, Lord, that you would bless him and his wife as they travel,
keep them safe as they go back home, continue to bless their ministries there in the Philippines.
Lord, we pray for the food tonight.
We pray that you'd bless it to our bodies.
We pray that you'd help us have a good time of fellowship.
Lord, we love you.
In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen.
God bless you. You are dismissed.
Amen.