No Church Obeys This?

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Who starts a podcast episode at eleven fifty nine am? I mean, do I say good morning? Do I say, well, kind of almost afternoon? I mean? Who starts it at eleven fifty nine? All I needed to do was wait sixty seconds and then I could say, good afternoon everyone. It is high noon right here in West Texas. Oh wait, I can't say that yet. All right, it's it's not high noon yet. Please, no, no, no, go move away from.

0:43 The f Okay, Oh, here we go. Now we can say good afternoon everyone. It is high noon here in West Texas. It is Friday, February the twenty first, twenty twenty five. It is currently what. Time, ladies and gentlemen, twelve pms Central Time? And I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. I got emails coming in, I got people trying to call me. I got I don't know what's going on outside things. There's all kinds of things going on. But we've got to really ask ourselves a very important question, right, and that question is this is it true that no church in thirty plus years has ever obeyed a specific scripture? Is it true that no church in thirty plus years has ever obeyed a specific passage of scripture? Now I know you say, well I kind of need a little bit more details.

1:47 What exactly are you talking about. Well, we will get to that in just a minute, but first I do need to tell you this. On Monday, the Sermons three point zero app will be released. All you need to do right now is download the Sermons two point oh app right for your Apple device or Android device. Download the Sermons two point oh app and it will update on Monday. Now, if you have automatic update set, you may have to go in and manually update it, but an update will drop sometime Monday that will turn it into the Sermons three point oh app. And well we'll see all the features that will be available or not available.

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4:06 And well we will we will see how it all plays out. So please download the sermon's two point oh app Monday. As soon as the app drops, I'll go live. I will download it live on the air. I won't even look at it first, and then I will react to it in real time. But we're not here to talk about that. We got to get back to churches obeying a particular. Passage of scripture. Here's what happened this morning. I was attending chapel Bob Jones University, and in that sermon someone made a statement about churches and their failure to obey a particular passage of scripture.

4:46 So what I'm going to do. Is I'm going to play for you a segment of what was said during chapel at the Bob Jones University this morning. I'm not here to review the entire sermon. I'm not here to do any of that. This This is just one specific thing that I want you to hear. The name of the message is God's mercy to his Church. It's kind of like a part one. So the text is Revelation chapter two. He's talking about the Church at Ephesus. All right, so he's talking about the Church at Ephesus. He only did part of it this morning, and then tonight they'll do another live webcast. You can listen to it on the sermon's two point oh apple watch it and they'll complete his discussion of Revelation chapter two, verses one through seven, and his discussion about the Church of Ephesis.

5:34 I would challenge you to watch it tonight. But in the meantime, let's go listen to what was said in chapel service Bob Jones University. He makes this statement about churches failing to obey something, and you can tell me whether you agree, disagree, and what you've experienced in your life. Here we go. So we'll close this morning by looking at four things very quickly that Jesus commends about her function, about her existence. Three of them are found in verses two and three. Right, there's three couplets in verses two and three, two and verse two one and verse three. But the fourth one is found in verse six. He says, first of all, verse two, I know your works, even your labor and endurance, and that you cannot bear evil ones It's fascinating to me.

6:27 The word works, labor, and endurance all relate to these evil ones in the church. Like they were doing a really good job. Making sure, as we said earlier, that those that would disrupt the function of the church were addressed and quickly removed. What does the word works mean, Well, these are general works that churches do that create health in the church. They're faithful to worship. They're faithful and caring for the spiritual and physical needs of the flock. Faithful in normative study of God's word and in the preaching of his word. They're faithful in fellowship and the breaking of bread. Those are just general works. But they went beyond that. They went to labor. This is the Greek word copiahoh. This is like blood, toil, sweat. Right. Edward quotes Edwards quotes Robinson's Greek work. He said, it's like a beating accompanying with wailing and grief. They really really went deeper. What are those harder copya oh, things that Jesus is commending them for doing. They were faithful in the practice of preaching the harder parts of the Bible. Right, They were rebuking and exhorting with all long suffering and doctrine, just like Paul told Timothy to do at Ephesus, and he did it faithfully. They were doing the Galatians six one and two thing in the Matthew eighteen fifteen to seventeen.

7:53 They were confronting people who were walking. With the Lord but had been found in a fault, or who had been offended, and they had that hard one on one conversation. Those are the copy I oh, things of local church ministry. They even practice one Timothy five nineteen and twenty in Ephesus. Timothy's the pastor there when the elder, when the pastor falls into sin, or someone suspects that he is, they even follow I call for simity five nineteen and twenty the Matthew eighteen fifteen to seventeen for pastors. And I will tell you, I've never seen one church obey that text. After thirty five years in ministry, not one they did.

8:39 They honored godur. Now. Wow, now he's saying the Church of Ephesus obeyed this. I don't know if I can. Can I take that from that revelation to passage, I don't know, But so here is his statement and thirty five years of ministry, he has never seen one church that has obeyed one tim at the five nineteen through twenty, which reads against an elder received not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses, them that sin rebuke before all that, others also may fear them, that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. So, according to him, in thirty five years, he has never seen a church who either they received an accusation from one person, but there weren't two or three witnesses, and then.

9:38 They acted upon that. So do you act upon an accusation if there's not two or three witnesses? Do you investigate it? What if it's just the words of one person versus another? Like? Okay, all right, so are there any nuance here? And then them that's sin. I'm assuming he's referring to the them there goes back to the elder, not just to anyone. So them, that's the the elder that sins rebuke before all that others may also fear. And when I say rebuke before all, does that mean rebute before the gathered church or a public statement? Well? Again, is there any nuance here? And that no church in thirty five years has ever done this right? Now, of course he's referring to that he's never seen one.

10:21 It's what he has encountered. That's a pretty bold statement. So I was like, well, this is interesting. Interesting, Now you can tell me if you've ever seen a church do these things right? If they do these incorrectly, how does this allow for any nuance? Is there any room for like, well, every situation is somewhat different. What I've always said is when sin occurs, whether it's in the pew or whether it's from behind the pulpit, whether it's a church member, whether it's a pastor every situation, sin breaks everything, right, I mean, sin causes problems and damage and it hurts.

11:05 But. Sometimes it's not. It can. What I'm trying to say is can sin always be easily addressed in a very simple like this is what you do, this is what you don't do. Is there not any room for nuance? And maybe, and I'm not saying we compromise scripture, but scripture can be very black and white. And is it always that simple? Maybe it is, maybe it should be. Maybe there's some room for nuance. I don't Maybe each situation is different. So for me, what I want to do. First, I just want to ask you to you so I want to expand this because I think nineteen and twenty if you'll look in verse seventeen to twenty five, there's a list of things here, and my question would be, okay, if churches don't obey, if there's not been a church that he's aware of in thirty five years of ministry that obeys one Timothy five, nineteen through twenty, what about seventeen to twenty five, Because there's a list of things here, do you feel the churches obey them or disobey them?

12:11 So what I want to do just briefly, because as I was listening to that while, I started asking Ai some questions about it, but then I finally kind of gave up on that kind of that that conversation. So then I was like, hmm, I know what I'll do. So I asked Ai. I said, if we look at the entire section seventeen through twenty five, and if we look at everything that we know about church history and everything available to us about the modern church, which of the things listed has there been more of a not following, more of a disobedience of within the church. So I basically like, ay, I look seven, I've got a.

12:54 Pastor here telling me that he doesn't know of any churches that have that obey Verses nineteen through twenty and thirty five years, Well, what. About seventeen through twenty five? Now already I got to stop right here, because this is interesting if you really think about it. Sermon after sermon after sermon, after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon we hear is that when you become a Christian boom, you're freed from the power of sin. You can obey God. You can obey God. You can obey God, you can do it. You can basically keep the law. Basically, they don't ever want to say you can be perfect, but they almost act like you can basically be close to perfect. But then we hear a sermon.

13:35 Where they're like, hey, in thirty five years, not one church that I know of has obeyed one Timothy five nineteen through twenty. Not one church can even pull off obeying Verses. Nineteen through twenty that you are aware of. That would seem to imply that I don't know, we probably disobey hundreds of scriptures, which would then go with my thesis that I put forth all the time is that we are positionally perfect. Practically we're in a perpetual state of sin, because I mean, just think of all the sermons that constantly talk about we do this, and we do this, and do this and stop this and do this, and I bet you some of this, but then at the same time it's basically acted like.

14:18 You can all be perfect. Well, if everyone can basically be perfect, we wouldn't need all of these sermons trying to rebuke people and tell everyone what they're doing wrong, because everyone would be doing right. Right. Okay, it seems to make sense to me, So I wanted ay to Ai to break it down. So this is what AI did, And I think this is pretty fascinating. AI said, looking at First Timothy five seventeen through twenty five and its entirety, and considering church history and modern church practices, we can analyze which aspects have been most neglected or violated over time. And I'm like, oh, this is good because AI can pull from everything. Right, there's when you just stand behind a pulpit and basically saying thirty five years I've never known a church to obey.

15:06 This that's a pretty like that's a big assertion. That's a big claim, right, So, I mean, there's a lot of implications from that. I mean he didn't even say I mean, I'm sure that there are many that do. He didn't even say that. He was just like, I mean, you can tell there's almost a sense of nobody does almost to it. I'm not saying that's what he was saying, but it's kind of implied. So let's look at seventeen through twenty five. All right, I'm going to read it from the translation. That AI gives me. All Right, here we go, One Timothy five seventeen through twenty five. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you shall not mussle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborers deserve his wages. Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

15:59 For those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. And I would really stress verse twenty twenty. Those who persist in a sin. If someone confesses, repents and says, okay, I'm gonna stop, then well then okay, I mean don't does that not taken into consideration? Okay? Verse twenty one and the presence of God and of Christ, Jesus and of the elect angels. I charge you to keep those to keep these rules. Without prejuding, doing nothing from partiality, all right, So without that, I think it's a typo. I think without prejudice, doing nothing from partiality. Oh, I'm sorry, without prejudging. There we go the way this was typed out. So let me read this again. I don't know why. I'm I don't know how I said that word. Okay, let's do this again.

16:51 Verse twenty one. And the presence of God and of Christ, Jesus and of the elect angels. I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. It's when you read the King James like your whole life, and then you read a different translation. Your mind starts filling in words that may not be in the actual text because you're so used to hearing it. I know I'm making an excuse because I should have read it correctly, but you get the idea Verse twenty two. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourselves pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent, frequent elements.

17:34 The sins of some people are conspicuous, conspicuous going before them to judgment. But the sins of others appear later. All right. So also good works are, and even those that cannot remain hidden. Okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna read this from the King James. I think it flows. I think it actually flows better here. All right, I'm gonna read it from the King James. All Right, there's Timothy five seventeen. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture, say that thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the labor is worthy of worthy of his reward. Against an elder received not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses them, there's sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.

18:26 That's interesting the King James, huh them that sin okay. The other translation says, those who persist in sin oh, that could have a major impact, because because for one Timothy five twenty them that sin rebuke before all, that doesn't seem to imply doesn't matter if they persist or don't persist. So that's interesting, right. Verse twenty one. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one one before another, doing nothing by partiality, lay hand suddenly on no man, neither be partakers of other man's sins. Keep the thyself pure, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and for that infirmities. Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after. Likewise, Also, the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise.

19:26 Cannot be hid. All right, I apologize for messing up some of that in the other translation. All right, but yes, there we go. All right now, So let's see how Ai breaks this down. So AI says, which verses have been most neglected throughout church history and today all right starts with verse seven. Honoring elders who rule. Well, here's what AI says. In the historical church, there have been times when pastors and elders were honored and revered too much. That's interesting, sometimes leading to unbiblical power structures. So they're like, hey, this says too and verse seventeen, Let the elders rule well, be counted worthy of double honor. He said that the AI is like, what, but in early church they went too far, and you basically create the entire papacy, the entire structure of the pope and all of that, and that some cases it goes too far. Ai, this is, but within the modern church, many pastors, especially in small churches, are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. However, and some megachurches celebrity pastors receive excessive honor, wealth, and influence without accountability. So,

20:58 in other words, what AI is saying the church has never quite yet figured out the exact proper way to do this. The churches it goes to extremes too much honor, too much celebrity, too much wealth, too much, too much of everything. And the others are like, you know, they're just basically underappreciated, overwork and taken for granted. So this is how AI says the neglect level they rate it as AI rates it as a moderate neglect level. Some pastors are not honored as they should be, while others are honored to an unbiblical extreme. So AI's basically this kind is kind of a moderate neglect level. This is a moderate issue, a moderate issue. Now you can tell me do you think pastors receive double honor though, especially those who labor in word and doctrine, someone who spends all their time and word and doctrine and teaching, do they get double honor? I think the people who get double honor, this is my now, this is my jaded approach, are those who are good with people. They know how to kiss the baby, shake the hand, look the people in eye.

22:17 Do this. Do that help give people a little bit about what they want, make the people like them, make the people love them, be very personable, be very charismatic. Have those people's skills, know how to influence people and make friends, and you'll get double honor. Who stinking cares about doctrine and teaching. That's my own personal opinion. That's my own personal opinion, because you can kill yourself teaching hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour, and for the most part people don't care. You'll always have some who are very appreciative and you're grateful for that.

22:59 But that's my own personal opinions. So there we go. How about verse eighteen financial support for pastors? Ai says, historically, the Catholic Church and other institutionalized denominations a massed of vast wealth, often beyond what was needed and contrasts, some Protestant traditions undervalued financial support for pastors, expecting them to struggle. So the Catholic Church did a mass great wealth. Now does that pass down to the priest? I don't think that. I don't think that's typically how that works. But okay, but it is true that in Protestant traditions, I think they undervalue financial support for pastors. I think within the Protestant tradition, it's almost like, well, a pastor shouldn't be driving that kind of car, a pastor shouldn't be living in that kind of house, because, I mean, being a pastor is not necessarily a real job. You need to go out there and get a real job. That it's very undervalued. In many pastors then struggle or have to be by vocational, and it's all great for the people sitting in the pew saying, well, be by vocational, And when the pastor's family is utterly and totally destroyed as a result of it, nobody in the pew ever takes any responsibility or cares. Okay, They're just like, well, you know, you should have done better. Well, in many cases, bivocational is not a positive thing for anyone, all right, But I think there's some some case here.

24:26 So AI says this. AI says, where did I just go? All right? Ai? What just happened? Okay, okay, here we go right? AI went crazy there for a second. AI says this about this problem the. The financial support. It says, the neglect level is moderate. Some churches don't adequately support their pastors, while others enable financial abuse. Some some financial abuse sometimes and it's always and it's very subjective. It is very I was I was listening to a sermon the other night where someone was like literally just tearing into John MacArthur.

25:09 I mean he was. They were accusing MacArthur is some really messed up stuff. But they did bring up the very controversial thing that was reported by the Roys Report. John MacArthur owns three homes, three houses. His salary he gets from the church. He gets a salary from Grace to You, from Grace to You Radio, which is just his edited sermons. So I don't know why you're getting paid for that? What? What are you getting paid for that for someone else's unless he's sitting in the studio editing the sermons. And I mean, you've already preached the sermon. It would I mean, be like me preach a sermon. Someone then takes my sermons, edit them into twenty five minute segments, produce the intro and the outro, place it on radio stations, and then I get paid for I mean like so it raises some questions but should I? But the real issue is should a pastor have three homes? Can a pastor have three homes and.

26:02 Not be okay? Is that too much support? Can a pastor have a really nice home in three cars or a boat? Like where I see? It becomes very subjective, and I think sometimes the people in the pew can be like, I don't know if you should be getting that much. It's very once you bring money into the situation. It gets ugly, it gets ugly. So but Ai, but well again, please no, please. Note Ai has yet to say that no one does this. But AI is acknowledging that there is problems throughout church history on all of these issues. How about the due process for accusations against an elder historical church, this has often been neglected. Some church leaders have been removed based on false accusations, while others have been protected despite clear wrongdoing.

27:00 The modern church, in recent years, many churches have ignored this principle, sometimes assuming a pastor is guilty without proper evidence, while in other cases covering up abuse instead of addressing it biblically. The Catholic Church's history with clergy abuse scandal is a major example of the failure to address accusations correctly. Now this is. Whati Now AI seems to agree with the Bob Jones chapel. Now it doesn't say no church. But of course AI can pull from greater information. And remember the speaker only said what he had witnessed. Ai said. The neglect level of this is high. Many churches either fail to protect pastors from false accusations or cover up legitimate accusations to protect their image. Now when you look at those, when you look at verse seventeen, eighteen, nineteen and twenty, you got two of the most controversial aspects of church life. Right, You've got power, double honor.

28:01 He's worthy of double honor, power authority, So you really have three issues power authority. Will just group that as one power authority. Right, Then you have money, and then you have accusations. Well, how much power should a pastor have, How much authority should a pastor have? How much double honor should he receive? What does that look like? And then money, how much money should he get? How much is too much? How much is too little? How little is too little? How much is too much? How should that work?

28:42 And if as the King James says, is the King James says for the scripture say it that thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out his corn, the labor is worthy of his reward. Now what happens is some people will sit in the pew and go, well, I don't think the pastor is only worth this much or worth this much. And in other cases Christians will will will There's no other way to get around this. I know this sounds self serving, but they will feed, they will get, they will glean from a ministry. Take take, take, take, take, take, take. Hour after hour of teaching, and you never hear from them, and they never give a cent, nothing, no support, no support.

29:26 Some people will go to church sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon, they will complain they don't give that much. But then how much is too much? I see? The thing with these is it's very difficult to know how much is too much honor? How much is. Too much money or too little money? And then how do you handle accusations? One person brings an accusation, Well, do you have two or three witnesses? No? All right, well so you're out of luck. Is that the way you should be done? I don't think anybody would agree with that. So then do you say, well, okay, now we're going to investigate it all right now, But the only thing we can investigate is your claims. We still need two or three witnesses.

30:14 Do you do you do that? Or is one accusation sufficient? You say, well, it depends on the evidence they have. Well, then do you need then you don't need two or three witnesses? Well, no, we need two or three witnesses. You see, that can. Get very convoluted. How that can work, right, that can get ugly the way that a pastor could utilize that to their advantage. But if at the same time an accuser could use it as to their advantage. If the church doesn't require any other evidence other than what one person states, then you have to say, well, maybe it's the type of evidence provided, right, so, and then the rebuking before all, well, we'll see, we'll we'll go, We'll go in the direction of AI.

30:57 So we've looked at h A has given us. Honoring elders who rule well, financial support for pastors, due process for accusations against elders, public rebuke. A historical church, some church leaders were excommunicated publicly Martin Luther, but others were protected despite grave sins the modern church, many churches handle sin privately, avoiding public rebukes to protect their reputation. Public scandals, such as financial misconduct or moral feelings often lead to quiet resignations rather than clear public accountability, and then AI says the neglect of this is very high. Churches frequently fail to publicly rebuke sinful leaders, as scripture commands, so again, when it says public though is that public for the congregation? Is that public for everyone?

31:49 And again then we can get back to the translation issue. Do your rebuke. If they persist in sin? Or no rebuke if they confess the sin translations? There we have one translation that says, in fact, let me go back to it, the translation that this the AI provided that I was having trouble reading at times. It says, here, where is it as for those who persist in sin? Rebuke them? The King James. Has let's see here them that sin rebuke before all.

32:29 I mean that's a major difference. I mean, that's a significant difference here. All right, that's a big difference, a very big difference, very very very very very very very big. So we would have to we would have to consider that. Now let's go to the next one here, going to AI, going. Through all of these issues. Here it says here, okay, here we go, so public sin? How do you handle that? Okay? Now? Not no partiality or pre judging. Historically, many church decisions throughout history have been driven by politics, favoritism, and bias.

33:13 Religious leaders have been given special treatment or condemned unfairly. Modern church of modern churches often applied discipline inconsistently depending on the leader's popularity, financial influence, or thiological alignment. Some pastors are protected while others are sacrificed because of church politics. The neglect level to this, according to AI, is very high. Churches frequently show partiality, protecting some while disciplining others. All right, and then that, of course is based off the scripture I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one another, doing nothing. By partiality. There should no be prejudging. There should be no partiality. There's not to be any bias. The churches should be a place where no partiality, no prejudging, none of that, no prejudice. However, we know against sinful people. Once again, what we're seeing we just look at. Anytime you see a list of scriptures telling you do this, don't do this, all you see is failure, because that's what failure happens. Whether it's the speaker at Bob Jones going, I haven't seen a church do this in thirty five years.

34:29 Even AI is like. Hey, the failure level on some of these is extremely high. Right, then, Ai goes on to verse twenty two, caution and ordaining leaders historical church. Some church traditions require rigorous training for leaders, but many promote leaders quickly for political or financial reasons. The modern church, many churches ordained leaders too quickly without assessing character, leading unqualified or spiritually immature pastors. The neglect level of this is very high. Many churches rush to ordained leaders without due diligence. All right, so Ai says that so AI is almost listed all of these as high in the in the amount of.

35:19 Failure that occurs to these, all right. Using wine for. Health says this verse has been followed practically but debated theologically. Many churches have avoided alcohol entirely despite this passage modern churches. Some churches teach total abstinence from alcohol, ignoring Paul's practical advice. However, this isn't a major doctrinal failure compared to other verses. The neglect level here is low, most more of a debated issue than a serious neglect of biblical command. And I would say we got to also understand it's in historical content texts. All right. The verse in verse twenty three says. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. Now, first of all, well you don't take that, don't ever drink water, I can, Okay, obviously we don't take it that way. And then use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine infirmities. All right, they may be prescribing alcohol for your infirmities. I think we've advanced a little bit in our medical knowledge and we can probably see there could be something going on in your stomach. There could be something going on in your intestines. Maybe we need to test it try, Maybe it needs surgery. Maybe here's instead of wine, maybe this medication.

36:31 So I mean, come on, so that one I think we can. We have to again. We got to take these things with someone's form of reason, all right. And the next verse. Twenty four and twenty five hidden and revealed sins. Historically, corruption and sin have often been hidden for years before coming to light. Many church scandals took generations to be fully revealed. And that happens so many times. Right, it's kind of that old saying. It's kind of a cliche. You know, you either you die young a hero, or you live long enough to become to be basically, to become the enemy, become evil, to be seen as evil. Either the longer you are around in ministry, the longer you are around in ministry, sooner or later you're gonna have some failure. You're gonna have some because you're a sinner.

37:21 So but the key is, some cases things are hidden, some things come to light. The modern church, the Internet age is exposed hidden sins, sexual abuse, cover ups, financial corruption that went unchecked for decades. Please note, a lot of people, the church is getting so much worse. We just got now ways to get you got the Roys Report. You can just you can see all of the Dirt of the Church being published Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. She updates the site regularly with horrible stories about what's going on in the church. Sexual abuse, sexual abuse, sexual sin, this corruption, financial this. Sometimes it's just like horrible to see and it should bother you. But on the other hand, it just proves what I say over and over and over again, Christians were not better than anybody else.

38:12 We are sinners. We're just declared to be righteous positionally while we're still sinners practically. Right, Ai says the problem the failure here is high. Many churches have ignored this principle, assuming hidden sins won't be exposed all right. So then AI's like, here's the final ranking of the most neglected principles in one Timothy number one, verse twenty. Public rebuke of sinning elders number two, verse twenty one. No partiality in church discipline number three, verse nineteen, recurring requiring two or three witnesses number four. Caution and ordaining leaders number five, recognizing hidden sins and good works verse seventeen. Honoring elders who rule well, some times overdone, sometimes neglected number seven, verse eighteen.

39:04 Financial support for pastors with abuse both ways verse twenty three, using. Wine for health. Low or not worry about it. So here's what AI says. The two areas where the church has most failed are failure to publicly rebuke sinful elders and partiality and prejudice and church discipline. Historically and today, churches have failed to consistently apply discipline fairly and biblically. What do you think have you seen this pattern in how churches handle leadership issues? Now? The church is an institution has failed. Why because the church is made up of.

39:50 Sinners who fail. Now that's just the that just makes us uncomfortable, but is true. But when you're dealing with power and authority of a pastor, pay for a pastor, and then how to deal with sin within the leadership within the pastors. The churches struggle in all three of these areas, how to handle the authority, how much authority, how much honor? What does that look like? Pay? How much? Pay? Too little? Pay? Taking it for granted, where the people in the pew take take, take, take, take, and they just take it for granted. People take teaching for granted. They're like, I can get and again, I love the sermon's two point oh app But you know how hard it you you get six thousand sermons a week, you just take it for another sermon, another sermon, another sermon, another.

40:40 You don't even think about it. You don't think how much time went into preparing it, how much effort went into it. You just take it for granted. And in many cases those people will get not to see a. Dime or or get no support for the work they go into it. In some cases they're barely getting any support from the church they're working at, and some may be getting way too much. And they've got you know, four houses, fifteen cars, you know, and it's like, so is that? But again, who am I to say that's too much? All right? And then sin? Look dealing with sin, whether the sin is in the pew or whether the sin is behind the. Pulpit, it gets ugly, it gets difficult, and it's it's not easy.

41:27 Now what I want to do is I messed up a word? Here? Where is it? Let me go back here? Let me find it. I want to correct this. I want to correct this right when I let me do this, I gotta I gotta select this. I don't know why I'm messing up this word, but let me let me correct it really quick. All right, let me correct this really quick. I have no care. I don't care if it makes me look stupid. I would rather be accurate than trying to look smart. Conspicuous conspicuous, that's the word conspicuous.

42:10 All right, let me go back to I was having trouble reading the translation, just the way it was typed out here? How AI typed ituus? Conspicuous? Conspicuous is the word? All right? Here we go. So now I'm going to read this and I'm going to use conspicuous correctly you think I will. Let's see, all right, here we go one Timothy five seventeen through twenty five, using the translation provided by AI. All right, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. Verse eighteen, for the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages. Verse nineteen, do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear and the presence of God and of Christ, Jesus, and of.

43:11 The elect angels. I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging. Remember I messed up that word doing nothing from partiality. Verse twenty two. Do not be hasty and the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourselves pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent elements. Or here we go The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others up here later conspicuous Verse twenty five.

43:54 So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden there. Do I no? Do? Am I worthy of double honor? Because I corrected conspicuous, And because I kept saying conspicus conspicuous. I don't even know how I was saying it, because what happens is I start reading it, and my mind is reading the King James, and the King James does not say anything like the King James says, some men's says are open before them, going before judgment, and some men and some men they follow after. Likewise, also the good works of some men are manifest. It doesn't say it's conspicuous either way.

44:38 And so my brain I was having trouble because I kept hearing the King James while I'm trying to read these other. Words, and I'm like, where are the right words? Who changed the words? Okay? That's where I stay with two. Well, you know, been using the King James my whole Christian life. I mean, that's the only translation I've ever known. It's the only one I've ever used to preach your teach in so conspicuous. It's not that complicated double word, right, it's not. It's complicated when you're you know, when you mess up. But there you go. So what do you think? Do you think churches obey this? Do you think churches disobey this? I will say we all struggle with it, which just demonstrates my thing. So here are the areas honor and well we'll put this with position and authority.

45:23 How do you think your church handles giving honor and the position and authority respecting that position and authority of your pastor? What do you think? What do you think? And we got to get practical. For example, if the pastor dedicates their life. To teaching, teaching, teaching, doctrine, theology, and all of a sudden you just think, I think he's wrong. What does it look like. In that situation to show double honor to the pastor? Do you just start arguing with him during sermons? Do you just get mad and leaving go to another church? Is that showing double honor? How does that work? See it's a great it's a theoretical concept, but how does it work in practicality? What does it look like to show double honor? What does that mean for their position and thority? And can you go too far? Well, obviously you can go too far. What does it mean to pay the pastor accurately? You know, to our correctly or or you know significantly enough, or or you know and an.

46:30 Actual correct amount? What is too much? What is too little? And how do we deal with sin in the church when it comes to those behind the pulpit, those in leadership? Do we show partiality and bias in the church? Where does that show up? How about do we ordain people who may not actually should be be a pastor? And I'm talking about just qualifications, And how do we deal with just in not just within the church. Some men's sins are open, others are are not. Good works are manifest? How do we deal with sin and good works within the church? Forget and forget the people behind the pulpit in the pew sin good works?

47:16 How do we understand it? Some sins are hidden? In other words, we don't always truly know what's going on inside of anyone. We may see bad, we may see good. We don't really have an accurate picture. How do we bring that into the church. All right, all of that from the Bob Jones Chapel service. So please consider that this morning, and just and I just want you to consider what you've seen. I mean, the Bob Jones thing is about what he had seen thirty five years nobody obeying verse nineteen and twenty, nobody and his experience. I will say this, and I'll and this is how I'll end you. Go one Timothy five seventeen through twenty five. You will see no church obeying all of that perfectly. And you know what that proves.

48:05 That proves what I have been trying to teach you for most of my Christian life. Okay, no one keeps the law of God. No one does, no church does, no person does, no pastor does. We all sin perpetually, everyone in your church. They're all in sin perpetually. And that pastor behind the pulpit, he's in perpetual sin. Now, how do we process that reality? If the pastor is in perpetual sin, You're like, well, you're in perpetual sin, and that's okay, but you can't commit that sin because now you're finished. Well, hey, you're in the pew. I know you're all in perpetual sin. But now you've committed this sin, so now we've got to do something. So you can be in sin twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, no.

48:56 Problem, no church discipline. But if you commit this sin, now qualification, church discipline, excommunication, public shame, public I don't know how we work that out because it seems so subjective. You're already in perpetual sin. But but but it's. Okay, no, no, no, no, no, now it's over. Okay, Uh, I'm sorry. Throw throw you know, let's let's let's go after people for this sin, all those other sins that we say matters so much. We we have our list of mortal and venial sins. And if you tell me we don't, well, i'm sorry. Facts prove otherwise. Thanks for listening, everyone, have a great day.

49:38 I'm sorry, I'm messed up. The word conspicuous. I'm sorry, all right, I'm sorry. Okay, public public shame. Okay, now trust me. If you're gonna have publicly shame me, conspicuous is the least of my problems. I got, I got far moors. I can send you a list. Okay. Remember I'm just a degenerate with a microphone. Thanks for listening, God bless