Untitled Sermon

The qualifications of elders are designed to keep men out who ought not be in the Eldership. There are plenty of great men who do not need to be in the eldership and it is sometimes beyond human understanding to know exactly why. God may

have some plans for someone very capable where God doesn't want them fettered with the responsibilities of an eldership. At the end we rely on God by following the qualifications. The Qualifications are about visibility and verification.

A man who has the essential qualities but cannot demonstrate them in the way specified by the qualifications cannot serve as an elder. As to the husband of one wife, there are a few difficulties in understanding how to apply it. One

thing is clear, its a qualification which must be met and demonstrated. A homosexual who repents, obeys the truth and grows mightily yet never takes a wife cannot meet that qualification. A man who is divorced may have no blemish of his

own, but it is difficult to see that in that condition he fails to be verifiably the husband of one wife.

As to children there are a few things that are important. All of this must go with what is above concerning verfiability. A man must have faithful children. Children can be many children or one child. The way the Bible uses the word

works both ways and I think there was a good explanation in the material I sent (if not let me know and I'll gather something). Sometimes the argument is made that a man with an only child doesn't know how to manage many personalities.

The problem is the Holy Spirit didn't make that argument. It is just as easy to argue that if there are adults who were raised as only children then you must have an elder who raised an only child.

Does the child have to be a Christian (I think the material I sent addressed this also, but I'll include my material here). The question comes from Titus one which says, "having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly". The

overwhelming majority of the time the term "faithful" is used as an adjective in the accusative case it means responsible in the context of discussion; faithful stewards are faithful in their stewardship. I will send a list showing all

the occurences in the New Testament of the word used in this way. With that being said, the verse in Titus is a perfect compliment to what is in 1 Timothy: "One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all

gravity; 5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)". So the answer is "no, he does not have to have baptized children". This leads to a couple of important things. First, a lot of

people look to see if kids are baptized without considering the father's work as the head of household. Does the kid talk back, take out the trash, skip school, etc? We usually know who runs the house and that's the thing Paul is drawing

attention to. Is the elder responsible for the beh