This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day four of our look through 1st Timothy chapter 5,
Paul has been talking about relationships, relationships in the body of Christ
the church. He's been talking to us about how the church relates to widows and
now in these verses for today he's going to talk about how the church should
relate to elders, specifically the elders who lead the church. You might
remember back in chapter 3 we looked at how elders should relate to Christ in
the church.

Here in these verses beginning in verse 17 there are some practical issues that
are dealt with on how the church should relate to an elder and that's a
relationship. Chapter 3 how elders relate to the church that's that half of the
relationship. Here we have the other half of the relationship in verses 17 to
20.

So let me read those verses for you. 1st Timothy 5 verses 17 to 20. The elders
who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor especially
those whose work is preaching and teaching for the scripture says do not muzzle
the ox while he's treading out the grain and the worker deserves his wages.

Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it's brought by two or
three witnesses. Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly so that others may
take warning. That's verses 17 to 20.

These verses are really these relationships that we're talking about in these
verses in this chapter are really about how you and I live a motivated life of
faith. If you and I are to live a motivated life of faith we have to realize
there are some things that Satan can use to steal that motivation. I love how
down to earth and daily life God's word really is and there are four principles
in these verses that we just read that just talk about the motivation for faith
and how it can be stolen from us in the way that we relate to each other in a
church particularly in these verses in the way that we relate to leaders within
the church.

Four principles. First principle is it's good to honor those who are doing the
work of God. If you don't honor those who are doing the work of God it's going
to steal faith motivation from your life and from their life and from other
people's lives.

Now it's interesting in verse 17 it says they're worthy of double honor. Someone
on our research team asked I mean isn't honor honor? Why do you have to double
it in order for it to be honor?

That's a very interesting question and it's a very wise question because it
really relates to what Paul is going to say in verse 18. The reason he says
double honor is he's talking here not only about respect he's also talking about
financial reward. Financially making sure that the needs of an elder are being
taken care of.

That's why first truth is it's good to honor those who are doing the work of
God. Second truth is don't muzzle the ox. Now that is a motivation principle.

Don't muzzle the ox. You get the picture if you ever grew up on a farm. On a
farm the ox is tied to a pole and walks around and around in a circle treading
the grain and if you were very stingy as a farmer you could put a muzzle on the
ox and it wouldn't be able to eat while it was working treading out the grain
walking on the grain so that it would pop and come out.

But if you took the muzzle off then when the ox got hungry it could eat and it
could keep working it could eat a little more and keep working. This is a
principle from God's word. This comes from the Old Testament.

Don't muzzle the ox. But Paul is writing here and saying this isn't just about
oxen. This is about people.

Muzzling the ox steals the motivation from the ox and muzzling a servant, not
making sure that a servant's needs are met, basic needs are met, that steals
their motivation also. It steals their motivation not only from the one serving
but also the one who is being stingy about their service. Now Paul is not saying
here that elders should be made wealthy.

We read back in chapter three that elders shouldn't be concerned about having to
become wealthy or overly concerned about money. He's just saying that they
shouldn't be worrying about where their next meal is going to come from. This
answers the question, is it okay for a church to pay for the work that its
pastors do?

These verses say not only is it okay, it is commanded. It is the right thing to
do because it helps them to be motivated in the work they're doing for Christ
and it helps the body of Christ to be motivated in the fact that they're helping
them to do the work of Christ. Don't muzzle the ox.

That's part of the motivated life of faith in the way you relate to leaders.
Third truth about the motivated life of faith is the truth about accusations and
Paul says let there be accusations by only two or three witnesses. Why?

Because Satan would love to use a spirit of judgmentalism to take our eyes off
of the life of faith that Christ wants us to live and get our eyes on accusing
one another. So Paul says don't even listen unless there's two or three
witnesses. Now I know some people say oh there's just one witness and whether
smoke there's fire and that's true but the fire might be that the accuser has a
need for attention.

The fire might be that the accuser is resisting God's word in their life so
they're angry at the pastor so they're accusing them of something. You don't
know what it is with one person. You just don't know.

So Paul says let there be two or three witnesses and if there's not don't even
entertain an accusation. Don't get caught up in a spirit of judgmentalism. It'll
steal the faith right out of your life.

However there's a fourth principle here and that is publicly rebuke a leader's
sins. If there are two or three witnesses and if the sin is clear then that sin
is to be rebuked publicly. Public sins deserve public rebuke in a public
figure's life and a leader an elder of a church is a public figure and the truth
is if a leader is sinning in a way that other people know about in the church
this isn't talking about a word that I say maybe as a leader to somebody and
it's a personal relationship and I have an angry exchange and now I have to go
confess it before others.

This is talking about sins that are known by the church publicly known publicly
seen. It's talking about a leader who's cheated somebody in a business and
everybody knows about it but nobody talks about it. This is about a leader who
has some kind of sexual immorality in his life and everybody knows about it but
nobody talks about it.

Two or three witnesses come forward and it's known. It's to be publicly talked
about in a leader's life. This isn't talking about those who are not leaders
this is talking about those who are leaders.

Why? To embarrass the leader? Obviously not.

To protect the church that's why. If I as a leader if I as a pastor involve my
life in some sin and one of the members of my church sees me involved in that
sin as they see that they're going to have a thought in their mind well maybe
that's okay maybe that's not so bad. I mean they're a pastor and they're doing
that so someone needs to say publicly no that is wrong and when that person was
doing that going down the wrong road in that financial dealing that is a wrong
thing to do a public rebuke so that others don't get caught up in the same sin
because of the visibility the influence of that leader.

So four principles it's good to honor those who are doing the work of God don't
muzzle the ox accusations only by two or three witnesses public rebuke of
leaders sins and these four principles all have one one goal behind them and
that is to make sure that our life of faith stays vibrant and stays growing.