Elders, Part 1

I want to read this afternoon in 1 Timothy chapter 3. I have a very specific exercise for this conference, but before I get on to it, coming down, generally I try to have a ministry on the person of Christ and I was thinking of the words from a man named Gordon Rieger. I don't know if any of you know the name, he passed away about 50 years ago, but a number of years ago, Alec Dryborough passed on three thoughts to me that he said about the Lord Jesus from Mr. Rieger and three statements and he said, you'll find them in every chapter in John's gospel. Number one, the glory of his person.

You could write this down because I'm going to give you homework. The greatness of his power and the grace of his person. The glory of his, the grace of his presence, the glory of his person, the greatness of his power and the grace of his presence.

And for example, you can see that in John 1, verse one, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The glory of his person. Verse two, all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.

The greatness of his power. Then if you went down to verse 14, uh, the word became flesh and tabard knuckled among us the grace of his presence. So I didn't get any of these thoughts on the chapters from brother Alec driver.

I would pass them on to me. So I sat down one day a while ago and I wrote them all down, went through John's gospel. You know, the good thing about it, it makes you read the gospel about three or four times.

And I read the chapter and I thought of those and I put them down. So that's just by the way, just to encourage our hearts and refresh us. But my exercise is a little bit different today and it follows on beautifully from our brother, uh, Murray's exercise about the pattern and the place and the people and the purpose.

I want to talk about oversight. Now I contacted the elders before I came here and received their encouragement. I don't think this is a subject I'm too cognizant of hearing at conferences and certainly not too much in ministry in assembly gatherings, but I have taught these truths in my own assembly and two of the largest assemblies in Manitoba.

And I firmly believe it's a, it's a needed teaching today. My exercise is not for the elders. So elders sit back and, and be relieved.

I'm not here to criticize you. Uh, the opposite actually, my exercise is you young men, because if the Lord tarries, you will one day be administrating in the house of God as an overseer. And verse one says, if a man desire overseership, that's my prime objective.

But number two is to teach the people of God, the requirements for overseership. There's about 26 different requirements for an overseer. And I'd say over 20 of them apply to each one of us.

So the next time you point your finger at an overseer, just remember you have three pointing back at you. And, uh, it's very important. The overseer is a very difficult work.

We'll go through it in the next two days, if God allows. I want to ask you a question. When last did you criticize an overseer in your assembly? Oh, you say never did it never have.

Well, that's wonderful. If that's true, let me ask you another question. Murray was told he was like Elijah.

You have no beard brother and you've got hair. He was bald. So he doesn't look like him, but it might be like him.

One day a brother used to, every time he saw me, he used to say, good morning, Duncan and the car park. You're looking very prosperous. I thought it was a cut off my suit.

I learned later. That's not what he meant. You're fat.

He was being kind about it. I didn't get the message too well. Listen, child of God.

And we'll show you this as we go through the overseer is a work. So work for God. So difficult work.

So prayerful work. It's a stressful work. And we need understanding from the people of God.

It's not an easy work and comes under many times criticism. I remember I received a card once from a couple in the assembly thanking me for my work on the oversight. I appreciated that.

It doesn't happen too often. So my exercise this weekend is today. I'll look at the first seven verses in Timothy three, which we'll now read.

And tomorrow, God willing, we'll look at a number of points about overseership and cover many of the things that are covered. The number of scriptures that you have is Acts 20, Thessalonians five, first Timothy one, Titus one, and first Peter five. And they all cover the overseer and give you all the different requirements and characteristic.

And so we'll look at that. I've prepared notes. That doesn't happen at a conference too much either, but I did.

I sent Jeremiah some notes and he'll make them available tomorrow for those who require these notes. Let's read, please. And first Timothy chapter three, verse one.

This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a Bishop, I'm going to change that a little bit. If a man desire overseership, he desireth a good work.

A Bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, up to teach. I'm going to change that a little bit. Skilled in teaching, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy or filthy looker, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, 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? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation or the judgment 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 we trust God will bless to us the reading of his precious word.

This is a true saying. Paul says it's a faithful saying. And he says that a number of times.

He uses it quite a bit, Timothy 115. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. It's nice when what we say is true, is faithful.

We shouldn't be given to flippancy with regard to the word of God, making things up, things that are not verifiable, things that are outlandish. It's good to have a thus saith the Lord. It's nice brethren when we teach the word of God that we can point and read the scriptures to teach what we are teaching.

We teach from the scriptures. This is a faithful saying, a true saying. If a man desire overseership, here is a personal exercise.

Now we're going to show you tomorrow, God willing, that this is a spiritual gift, but we'll just leave that just now. Here is a personal exercise. Now let me say this, that there is nothing really we should be doing in the assembly unless it's from a spiritual exercise.

It's not a duty that you do something. It should be a desire to do something. Someone said this, I've got it in my notes.

I have a bad habit of ignoring my notes and going on, but this is highlighted so I read it. What one does voluntarily is more esteemed than what he does when asked. What one does voluntarily is more esteemed than what one does when asked.

Don't be afraid, brother and sister, to volunteer to help in house of God. Don't be afraid to volunteer to help a widow to do something around our premises. You might find to your delight that they will be delighted to have you to do it.

If a man desire, now here we have this expression and we'll deal with the word bishop in verse two. The word bishop and the word deacon are not really the best translations, I'm sorry, but they seem to speak of a title. They speak of an office, of wearing a regalia, and that's not what's intended at all.

And I understand, I can't recall exactly where I read this, I think it was in the, there was a preface in some of the old King James Bibles that told us a little bit about it. And when the King James was translated, the translators were told that there were certain words they had to leave alone because of their ecclesiastical meaning. And the word bishop and the word deacon were two of the words.

Now we don't have bishops in our assembly. And the word is far better translated, if a man desire overseership. The word office is not even in the text.

If a man desire overseership. And the beautiful picture of the overseer is the one who's looking over the flock of God. And we'll deal with that as we go on.

I'm going to watch my time here. We finished Jeremiah what time? 4.30. Well, I'll be finished long before that, so we'll be okay. He desireth a good work.

It's not a title. It's not an office. It's not a place of supreme authority.

And we'll speak about the plurality of the overseer tomorrow. It's a work. Sometimes it's a work that takes night after night or day after day of toil when there's issues in the house of God.

It's a work that entails looking after the flock. You know, some of us are not easy to look after. I think maybe when I was a young boy, I was brought up in a different assembly than you have here in Wisconsin.

We had a musical instrument, and we had entertainment at the gospel meeting. And I remember the first time I was asked to preach the gospel, and I came in in the morning, and one of the elders told me that this brother would be singing. I says, well, I thought I was preaching.

No, no, we've asked this brother to sing. I says, well, I don't think I can preach with someone singing. And well, I never stood on the platform for over three years.

That was me finished. And the elders must have had a rough time with me. A lot of the things they didn't do, and I was a little bit unwise in the way I reacted to the things that were done.

I'm glad to be in fellowship in an assembly where we don't have entertainment and an open table and things like that. But the elder, he's got to care for the flock, and he has to look after each one in their individual needs. And it is beautiful when you see, and hopefully we can talk about the shepherd later.

It's beautiful when you see the shepherd character of the elder. Now, I told you that there's a list of requirements in these chapters, and I'm not going to go over what they are, but here in 1 Timothy 3, you have 17 requirements. In Titus 1, you've got 16.

And in 1 Peter 5, you've got six. There's four, six of them in Titus 1 that are unique to Timothy chapter 3. You have three of them in 1 Peter chapter 5 that are unique to the others, giving us a total of 26 characteristics for an overseer. And as I say, the bulk of them will apply to each one of us.

So, verse 2, a bishop must be blameless. That's the overseer. It speaks of his activity.

Now, when you come to Acts chapter 20, Paul called the elders, and that's the word for elders, and that's to do with their maturity. Now, I have a list in my notes of eight different names used to cover overseers, and we'll try and explain them later. When you speak of an elder, you speak of his spiritual maturity.

It doesn't mean that he has no hair or gray hair on the top of his head. It means that he's got spiritual maturity, his years and experience in the Christian faith. But when you speak of the overseer, you speak of his activity, the care and the work that he does for the flock of God.

And so Paul writes, a bishop must be blameless. Now, this is a difficult one, and let me try and explain. Now, when I do a word study, I use two different Greek texts.

I use Mr. Vine. I use some other word studies that I find. I use Mr. Darby, Mr. Newbery's margin, and the revised version.

And I check them all for the meanings of the words. Mr. Vine, I love. And if you don't have a Mr. Vine New Testament word study, it's an invaluable document that will give great help.

And Mr. Vine is a big help on this subject. We get the thought of blameless with regard to the elder here in Timothy chapter three. In Titus chapter one, we get the same English word used.

We get it used for the deacon later on in the chapter. But if you notice, Mr. Vine, he will tell you that there's two different words used. The word used in Timothy chapter one is he's done nothing worthy of being charged with anything.

He's done nothing wrong. But the word used for the deacon and in Titus chapter one is entirely different. The word used there is there is no charge against him.

It's nothing to do whether it's valid or not. There is no charge against them. This place is overseer in a very difficult position.

As I know from experience, and some of you do too, that it's not uncommon for a false charge to be made against an overseer. How does Paul deal with that? Well, if we turn to chapter five, we would get the answer. In chapter five, Paul writes this, bring not an accusation against an overseer, except in the mouth of two or three witnesses.

We went through some situations, nothing to do with the overseers, but just some situations where charges have been made, but no validation. In other words, I heard from a third party that this happened. Well, bring the third party in.

No, they don't want to say anything. Where can we validate it? We have someone saying I heard, but there's no one saying I saw, or I heard the actual words being said, or I seen the act being done. Bring not an accusation against an elder, except it be in the mouth of two or three witnesses.

Now, God's principle in the Old Testament is you couldn't put a man or a woman to death, except it be in the mouth of the testimony of two or three witnesses. Now, brethren, let me stop here right now. It's most unfortunate, but I've been in assembly fellowship for close to 70 years.

Not quite, a few years off it, but not much. So you will grant me that I have a little bit of experience of hearing what people say. You be careful about repeating a story.

I read once of a brother, and he wrote this. Someone comes along and said, did you hear what Brother Dunsire did? No, I didn't. Well, let me tell you.

Hold on. Wait till I get my coat. Let's go along to Brother Dunsire, and we'll discuss it in front of him.

Right? Oh, no, no, no. I don't want to do that, because I just heard it. If you're not prepared to face the person you're speaking about, keep your mouth shut.

You understand that, brethren? Our Brother Murray rightly talked about strife. Have you ever read the book of Philippians? What's Paul doing in every chapter? He wants the saints to be one-souled, to be of one mind in the Lord. We'll come to chapter 4, and he speaks of two ladies, Eurus and Syntyche, and it appears they have a difference between them.

You say, well, that's just two ladies. No, no. You see, if it's Mrs. Dunsire and Mrs. John Doe, well, the husbands have got to take the wife's side.

And I've got some boys, and so my sons have got to take my side. And they've got wives, and their wives have got to take their husband's side. And before you know, what began as a little crack is a major fracture.

Murray, that's what you were speaking about. The strife that split Israel. The strife that has split many of the house of God.

And that's something we have to be careful about. It must be in the mouth of two or three witnesses. But let me go on in Timothy 5. Now, I know that some of you might not agree with my interpretation.

Bear with me. I'll repeat it again. Bring not an accusation against an elder, except it be in the mouth of two or three witnesses.

I believe we're still in the same context. I believe Paul is still writing about the same thing. Them that sin rebuke before all that others may also fear.

Now, my brethren tell me that that's a different setting. It's just a general term if someone sins. I don't believe it.

I believe that those that sin are those that bring unvetted, uncorroborated accusations against an elder. You see, if the elder cannot have a finger pointed at him, when one is done, it has to be dealt with. Here's a brother.

He comes along, and he says an elder's done this, and it's untrue. He can't prove it, but he's public about it. He's telling everyone.

The elders have to deal with it. What are they going to do? They've proven that there is no veracity to the statement. This brother that's publicly speaking against an elder must be publicly rebuked.

Why? That others may also fear. That public rebuke will do two things. It will prevent others from the sin.

And it will clear the testimony of the elder and allow him to continue his activity. Because brethren, an elder cannot do the work of God among the people of God if he's got accusations that are against him that have never been cleared up. And Paul is defending the work and position of the elder in chapter five by making sure that any untrue statements against him are dealt with.

If an elder does sin, then there's other scriptures to deal with his sin. If it was, for example, a sin of Corinthians chapter five, it would not be anything other than excommunication from the house of God. So we must be careful there.

The husband of one wife. I've got all the difficult ones first in this chapter and you'll have to excuse me. The husband of one wife.

What does that mean? I'd love to be doing this in a Bible reading and get your comments and get some of the comments of my teaching brethren. I was taught as a young boy that this was to do with the missionaries. On the mission field, there might be, and there is in some mission fields, polygamy is recognized and a man might have a number of wives.

Brave man, but they might have a number of wives and he gets saved. What we're going to do? Well, I know that some missionaries have said, well, that's the culture. We'll leave it alone.

But I don't agree with that one. But some have said, well, okay, you have to look after the ladies and you have to look after the children. That's a moral responsibility.

But you could only live with the first one as your wife, not one of them. You know, if a man's got four or five wives, there'll be one his age, maybe 60 or 70 and they maybe have a 20 year old. Well, no, you live with a 60 or 70 year old as your wife and the rest you'll have to look after.

But that would always place them under suspicion. So that's been a consideration. However, when I came over to chapter five, I read the same expression about a widow indeed.

The widow indeed, she's to be the wife of one husband. Now I'll give you a literal Greek for it. In first Timothy chapter three, the elder has to be a one woman, man.

Got it? A one woman, man. The wife, the widow indeed in chapter five, she's to be a one man, woman. That's a literal Greek.

Read it for yourself. You'll see it right there. A one man, woman, a one woman, man.

And I thought, well, I'm not too sure in this world. And in the world of Paul, there was too many woman had many husbands. So why if what I am going to teach in chapter three is correct, I have to teach it in chapter five and it doesn't fit.

Then there was another thought and I had a good friend who believed it very firmly that you chapter seven, I read and Paul takes the law of the husband, read it for yourself. And he teaches from the law of the husband that we are dead to the law. The law has no power over us because we're dead to the law.

And the law of the husband is that when the partner dies, the living partner is free to remarry. They're no longer under an obligation to the partner who has died. In other words, there's perfect liberty to remarry.

And suddenly I come to chapter three and I'm told, well, you can't remarry if you're an overseer. So my friend who held this very well, we talked about it a lot. I says to him, brother, I said, you know, if you, if you really believe what you believe and you marry again, you know, you can't get up and teach them, teach the minister anymore.

You can't stand on the gospel platform and preach the gospel anymore because the same requirement for an elder is the same requirement for a deacon. He didn't like that one. Uh, I think in Scotland, some of the brethren thought a deacon was a brother who swept the floor and, uh, and cut the grass.

And that's not what it means at all. So what does it mean? Well, I was very happy after I came to my decision and years later, I don't remember who I read, but I read a writer and he agreed with me a hundred percent. Here's what I believe.

An elder must show true fidelity to his partner. Nothing about immorality now. True fidelity to his partner.

No fair thing. A widow indeed in her lifetime must have shown true fidelity to her partner. And you know, it fits for both of them.

When I find that one scripture dovetails with another scripture, I get very happy about the interpretation. When I find that one scripture cannot dovetail with another scripture, I get very unhappy about the interpretation. So I would, I would teach and I believe very strongly that what the apostle is saying here about the elder being the husband of one wife is he showed in his lifetime true fidelity to his wife and is free to remarry in accordance with the scriptures.

And Hebrew tells us that marriage is a pure thing. It's not a defiling thing. Enough.

Let's read on very quickly. Vigilant. That's the word for, for being sober.

It's not the thought of vigilance as we would express it. It's a thought of sobriety, a temperate unmixed with wine. That's really what it says.

And that's the exhortation Peter gives. It says the end of all things is at hand. Be there for sober.

And he uses the word and watch and to prayer. And that's where we get the word vigilance. Now, if I'm not sober, I can't be alert.

I can't watch. And I'm going to use the word vigilant because I like it. The overseer has to be vigilant as to the activities in the assembly.

He's to know the people of God. You'll know each one. You'll know who they are.

You'll know their children. You'll know their strengths and weaknesses. You'll know their needs.

You'll keep an eye on what is going on. He won't be sitting in a, as it were, a drunken state, totally unconscious about what's going on around him. He has to be vigilant and sober.

And that's the thought of being a sound mind, sober minded, not given to over levity, not being a fool, but there's a certain uprightness and sobriety about him of good behavior. That's the thought of a well-ordered life. And you know, sisters, here's where that word comes in that you may be interested in.

In chapter two, in like manner also that women adorn themselves, watch this, in modest apparel. It's good to have your colors coordinated. You know, I come out in the morning and sometimes my wife says to me, what are you doing? Because your shirt and your tie don't match.

You men, you get the same problem. And my wife is into colors. And I'm not.

I remember once I bought a shirt and a tie and I won't tell you the color, they were probably horrendous. And I went into the office and the girls right away, they said, Dunsire, who dressed you this morning? Chris came into the office a couple of days later and they bawled her out for sending me out like that. So the sister has to be well adorned.

There's nothing wrong, sister, with your colors matching and looking nice and orderly. That's really what's in view. And so we'll go on because it's given to hospitality.

That's a word that gives the, it's used in a little bit different sense of being generous to guests. The Hebrew writer says, be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Now let's be careful here.

You say, well, we've people in the house all the time. What do you have in your house? Well, I've got my son and his wife and children. I've got my brother-in-law and I've got my good friend.

They're in my house all the time. You're given to friendship. That's not what he's speaking about is given to hospitality.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. I have no problem with enjoying the hospitality of the people of God around the country. There's always someone willing to open their home, to share their table.

But let me ask you in your assembly, is it always the same people that do it? Now I know this is a responsibility for the elders, but listen, what about you and I? What about each one of us? Do we not have a responsibility when a stranger comes along to invite them to our home? We've made many, many good friends over the years. People who come to visit us in the assembly, they come over and we establish a friendship. And I've had many friendships established with people as I've traveled over the country.

Now we come to the next one. It's rather difficult and we'll spend a little bit of time on it. Up to teach.

Well, the elders in our meeting, they're not teachers. They never get on the platform and teach the scriptures. Neither should they.

They're not required to do that. If we went to 1 Peter 5, I'll turn to 1 Peter 5, please. And let's see if I can... No, sorry, it's not 1 Peter, it's Titus chapter 1. I'm getting mixed up.

When you get my age, you get senior moments and they come with more frequency sometimes. Titus chapter 1. Okay, verse, I think it's about verse 9. My Newbery Bible, I love the Newbery Bible, but they've taken the verse letters and they're half the size of the print and half the color. So I have bad eyes.

I get injections in my eyes on a regular basis. And so I don't see too good. So excuse me, not recognizing the number.

I can hardly make out the number here, but I can read the words. So I think it's verse 9. Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince against theirs. The elder has to know his Bible.

In Scotland, they used to have a term. You say, well, if you think so much of Scotland, what are you doing over here? Well, I love it here. But they used to have a term in Scotland when I was a boy.

They speak of a man and they say, he's a man of the book. What a, what a lovely term. Not as a teacher, not as a great preacher.

And instead of woman, she's a woman of the book. We had a sister just passed away, went to be with the Lord just recently, over a hundred years old. She was a woman of the book.

When we sat in the house and we talked about the scriptures, you couldn't find a passage she wasn't aware of. She knew the word of God. That's the elder.

The elder has to have a knowledge of the word of God. And when someone comes along with error, he's to recognize it. There are erroneous teachings going around.

There is one, I think it's been around for a long time and it's to do with the rapture of the Lord Jesus. And there are those who teach that the Lord Jesus will not come before the tribulation, before the tribulation, but he will come either around chapter 13, mid-trib or he'll come at the end of the tribulation. They call them mid-tribulation-ness and post-tribulation-ness.

It's not in my Bible. He'll deliver us. First Thessalonians chapter one, verse 10.

He'll deliver us from the wrath to come. Child of God, you will never see the tribulation in the flesh. The Lord will take you before that time.

But the elder has to recognize when such teaching is around. He's to recognize the fallacy of it and able from the word of God to deal with it. He's to know his Bible, skilled in teaching, able to handle the word of God.

How does that come? The only one way I know is by reading the scriptures. Now brethren, just another thing, very careful. It came the other day.

This was an issue that came with me personally with someone else. We were on a certain thing. I won't mention what it is, but they quoted a well-known teacher among us and a book that he'd written and he had a statement on it.

Well, as far as I was concerned, the statement was incorrect. I know what the brother meant, but the passages he referred to were not dealing with his exercise and what he was speaking about. Listen, it's good to read commentaries, nothing wrong with it.

Perfectly good, helpful, but make sure they line up with the word of God. And when I have a difficulty, I prefer to go to the word of God rather than to a commentary. I'm sorry.

And the elder has to be able to go to the word of God and from it open up the truth of God and he's able to recognize when there's something wrong. Now, that takes time. That takes experience.

One reason why he can't be a novice, because he doesn't have an understanding of the truth of God. He's skilled in teaching. Verse three, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patience, not a brawler.

This causes difficulty in some areas because we don't have in your Bible a prohibition from drinking wine. You understand that? And I'm glad we don't because tomorrow morning I'm going to drink wine. I'm going to remember the Lord Jesus and I'm going to drink wine.

But I think there's other scriptures would prohibit me from drinking wine. Now, I know what Paul said. He said, take a little wine for your stomach's sake as a medicinal reason.

And there was a sister in our assembly in Scotland and she had to take a bottle of, I think it was called stout. Was that a name or something? It's some kind of beer or something like that. She had a disease and the medicinal practitioner said, you have to take a bottle of this every day.

Well, that's okay. That's a medicinal reason. But I don't have a medicinal reason that needs a bottle of stout every day.

And I can get, I'm quite as happy with a glass of cold water with some sweetener in it than anything else. It's lovely. Listen, you may feel it's okay to partake of wine, but what about your children? What about others who are watching? You know, in every person, there's a latent possibility of alcoholism.

And you may be the one that sets someone off on the path. It's a downward path to drunkenness by your feeling you're at liberty to partake of wine. So although we can't find and point out an absolute prohibition against the partaking of wine, we have not to be given to wine.

And personally, we have to consider, this is what Paul says to Philippians chapter two, look, not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others. Galatians five, bear you one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. We could go on and see those scriptures that would prohibit doing things that might lead others astray, not given to wine, no striker, no quarrelsome.

I like my own way. Do you? I do. I think my way is probably the best, but sometimes you've got to let your own way go.

And it's not too easy sometimes when you know you're right. Like, well, I know I was wrong once. I was wrong once.

I freely admitted it. It was a time when they thought I was wrong and I was really right. And no, we all make mistakes and we all get things that we have to do.

And we heard about the man with 20 raisin pies. God bless him. Raisin pies are lovely, Murray.

Don't know what's up with you. Especially a la mode. Beautiful.

No, no. We listen. We have to know something of sweet reasonableness.

We have to know something of yieldingness. Let our yieldingness be made known. We've not to be quarrelsome.

And, uh, you know, you know how you spoil a Bible reading? It's to start an argument. And you get two men beating their drums in the middle of the Bible reading. And we're all setting.

Oh, I wish they'd stopped the noise. And sisters, I was at an assembly in Scotland visiting. And the sister said to me, we just about can't stand what's going on with this particular brother.

He was argumentative. No one could say anything that suited him. And he was given.

He was given to strife, not greedy or filthy looker. I don't think God's people are that way. I trust they're not certainly not to be seen on an elder, but in a general sense, we have to be careful about the love of money.

It's the nothing wrong with riches, by the way. I don't have them, but there's nothing wrong with them. If you're rich, God bless you.

He has blessed you. One brother says, God couldn't trust me with riches. He knew his own weakness.

The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil, not money. It's the day that will be rich fall into the snare of the devil. And so on the overseer ship, there is not being done for base gain.

I'm just about out of time. I'm going to move on. He's got to be patient.

The word is moderation. He's fair. He's gentle.

He's willing to listen to others. You know, one of our problems, maybe mine, I don't know, is we don't listen to what someone's saying to us. We're too busy figuring out in our mind what we're going to say.

And we don't listen to what's being said. You know what I'm talking about? You done that? If you haven't, you're wonderful. God bless you.

You're a great person to be around. Let your moderation be made known unto all men. And then we have to be patient for bearing equitable, fair and mild, not a brawler, not covetous, not loving money.

I'm moving on very quickly. Verse four, one that ruleth well his own house. Now, Titus talks about having faithful children and some translations have believing children.

Let me say right off the start, I do not believe that it's necessary for an elder to have believing children. I'm sorry if I'm offending some of you. I don't know that anyone believes you should have.

But if for me to work as an elder, my children have to be saved, that would speak of salvation by my works. And my Bible says, not of works, lest any man should boast. God does not save children because of their parents' goodness.

Oh, but listen, listen. God does not not save children because of their parents' badness. God saves children because of his love for souls, because it's a deliberate choice of God.

And child of God, my child will never be in hell because of me. And my child will never be in heaven because of me. But I have to have faithful children.

I have to have children who are subject in the home, not running unruly, not disobedient to their father. Because if I can't rule my own house, if I can't take leadership in my own house, how can I take leadership in house of God? And the man who's fell prey to the whims and fancies of his children in his home will be prey to the whims and fancies of carnal sense. He's to be in his own, having his children in subjection with all gravity.

How can I take care of the church of God? I'd like to speak of the church of God, but time has gone. That's the ecclesia, the house of God, child of God. We've heard a little bit about the pattern and so on in respect to the house of God.

I'm just going to make one statement, and I'm being very careful. I want you to listen carefully. I don't decide what is house of God.

Do you understand me now? I don't say a gathering down the street and say, well, that's not a local assembly. That's not house of God. That's not my business.

But I'm not in fellowship with them, and they are not in fellowship with me. I don't gather with them. I don't go to their gatherings.

Do you see the distinction? God decides house of God. We talked at the table today with Brother William about Corinth, and it's true that Corinth didn't have the teaching that we have today, but Corinth is still house of God. Sad to say it was in a bad shape, but please don't go around making out that the assembly at La Crosse is the only house of God in La Crosse.

I don't know, and you don't know. God alone knows. But this is the place that we fellowship, and we shouldn't be running all over the place going here and there where people teach doctrines that we don't hold, because when I go into another gathering place of a different persuasion, I am saying to those who see me, I am in agreement with what's going on in that place, and I'm not.

So all I'm trying to do, because I've heard this so often, it sort of bothers me a little bit, people taking the fact that we alone are house of God, and in La Crosse we are the only house of God. You may be. I do not know the church of God.

We'll leave it there. We'll go on. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Can a young man be an overseer? That will depend on the young man. That will depend on his spiritual acumen. That will depend on how he reacts to the people of God.

That will depend on his spiritual wisdom. But certainly I would think I'd be correct in saying not one who's just been saved a few years, not a teenager. You know, I was saved when I was 10.

By the time I was 20, I'd been saved 10 years. I was in no shape to be an elder, none at all. But when you get to be my age, and I'll soon be as old as Brother William, I don't have the energy for the work of an elder.

Do you understand? So we need a man with fitness physically and fitness spiritually, not a novice, because it's not a position. It's not a place of lording over, and Peter deals with this in chapter 5, of lording over the people of God. It's a shepherd leading his flock.

I might speak to you tomorrow about Isaiah 40, verse 11, about Jehovah, and he's going to gently lead those that are with young. He's going to carry them in his bosom. He'll gather them up in his arms, and he'll carry them in his bosom.

There's a gentleness. There's a warmth. There's a love.

There's a care that's seen in the relationship of the elder to the people of God, not pride and being lifted up, lest he fall into the condemnation of the devil. That's the judgment that comes from the devil. I'm finished, and we finish off.

Moreover, verse 7, and this is me finished, he must have a good report of them that are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. The biggest enemy of the overseer is the devil. The devil is out to destroy you.

He's going to judge every move that you make. He's the accuser of the brethren, and he has snares for you that he wants you to fall into. Maybe that's what Peter fell into in Caiaphas's house.

The devil has got tremendous power. Never underestimate the power of the devil. He will bring reproach upon you, not the reproach of Christ, the reproach of the devil, because you've done something that's wrong.

You've done something you shouldn't have. It's for the reproach of Christ that you preach the gospel and live for Christ. When you live for the flesh and for self, you'll get the reproach of the devil, and he's got snares that we can fall into.

How do we miss those snares? I only know one way. I was speaking today about the grace of the Lord Jesus, and I'm finishing with this. You get the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit in four scriptures.

I talked about this at lunchtime. With Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with your spirit, Timothy. What for? Well, Timothy is a young man, and he's got a spirit of timidity, of fearfulness.

Philemon. Not exactly the same words, but the same idea. What's the problem with Philemon? He needs forgiveness with anesimus.

What's the answer? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we come to Galatians, the same thing again at the end of Galatians 6. What's the problem at Galatia? It's legality, isn't it? Judaism. What's the antidote? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We talked about Philippi, the Philippians. What's the problem at Philippi? Strife, division. What's the answer? The same thing.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, what will keep me from the snare of the devil? Paul says, he says, I sought the Lord thrice for my thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians. The Lord says, my grace is sufficient for the child of God.

If nothing else will help us, remember this, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ can be with our spirit.