Titus 1:5-9
Turn in your copy of the New
Testament to the book of Titus. Our reading today is Titus chapter
one. We’re reading verses five through
nine as we make our way through this Little letter of the Apostle
Paul. We need to be reminded that it’s
one of his pastoral letters at the end of his life. He wrote
three letters to two men. Timothy got two letters and Titus
got one. These are young men who came
to faith in Jesus. And under Paul’s teaching and
training, they became gospel ministers. And so when Paul and
Titus were ministering on the island of Crete, it seemed that
Paul was needed elsewhere. And so as we’ll read in verse
five, it’ll tell us the reason I left you on Crete. Paul goes
on to do other ministry elsewhere. He leaves Titus on Crete to continue
to strengthen and to build up the churches there on that island. And so as we read Titus chapter
1, 5 through 9, we’ll be told one of the main tasks of Titus
is to put elders in the church in place. And so we hear God’s
word together. Titus chapter one, verse five
through nine. This is why I left you in Crete
so that you may put what remained into order and appoint elders
in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach,
the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not
open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer,
as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant
or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,
but hospitable. a lover of the good, self-controlled,
upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy
word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in
sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it.” Thus
far, this is the reading of God’s holy and inspired word. Pray
with me and let’s ask for his help. in reading it and hearing
it and receiving it. Our Lord and God, we thank you
for your holy word. We pray that today it would be
a light to our feet, a lamp into our path. We pray that we would
hear it and receive it as it is the word of God. And may it
be powerful. May it be like a two-edged sword.
May it cut to joints and marrows. May it go all the way into us,
revealing our sin, showing our pride. May it Show us the way
of salvation through Jesus. May it show us the way of you
caring for your church. And most of all, may it bring
you glory. We ask for your help and blessing and your grace in
this through Jesus. And it’s in his name we pray.
Amen. One could ask what are the concerns
or the struggles or the difficulties of being a church in the year
2018. And we could put those difficulties, those struggles
into two categories. One category would be inside
the church. The other category would be outside
the church. To take it a step further, but
to keep it simple, outside the church, inside the church, we
might say outside the church, you have a rotten culture. You have a culture that is devolved
into debauchery. It is devolved into idolatry. You have a culture that is self-seeking,
self-centered, self-gaining, the whole self-centered world.
And then inside the church, you have, for the most part in America,
what we might say is a worldly church. It is no longer an outpost
of heaven reflecting the realities of the glory that takes place
in heaven. But you have a worldly church.
You have a worldly church. You go in and it’s not much different
than a Starbucks or a rock and roll concert. You go into the
church and its message is not otherworldly. It’s not a message
from God about the way of salvation. It’s a message of self-help.
It’s a message of you can do it if you just believe in yourself
and quit the negative thoughts. It’s a church that has become
like the world. And so what is a church like
ours to do in the midst of a rotten culture? What is a church like
the churches on Crete? What are they to do when the
world has come in to them and they are much like the world?
Well, what is Paul’s solution? Paul’s solution is simply this.
appoint elders. Now you could spend all kinds
of money on church consultants. You could bring in the experts.
They’ve got their doctorates, they’ve got their experience
and they could come into your church and they can recommend
all kinds of things. And I bet the first thing on
their recommendation list would not be what the first thing on
Paul’s list is appoint elders. Oh, they’re going to tell you
things that you could do and not do the things to quit doing
the things to start doing. But notice Paul appoint elders. The church, according to the
apostle Paul on the island of Crete, the churches, this 135
mile long island has several churches, no doubt in several
cities. They are not yet in order. I remember from several weeks
ago, we took a moment to look at verse five. The reason I left
you on Crete was to put things straight. Remember it was an
ortho word. We get our orthodontist who straightened
teeth. We get our orthopedist, they straighten our bones. We
get our orthodoxy. We straighten our theology or
our beliefs. And so the reason that the apostle
Paul has left Titus on Crete is to straighten out the church,
to strengthen the church. And the best way that Paul can
come up with biblically and theologically and practically is to appoint
elders for that task. And so what’s a church to do?
like the ones on Crete or like where we find ourselves today,
a church that lives in the midst of a rotten culture, a church
that has become worldly, we appoint elders. And so the question that
may come to your mind, okay, if God’s word, if the apostle
Paul says appoint elders, that will straighten things out. How
is that gonna take place? Well, you find the answer in
verse nine. The elders will give instruction in the sound doctrine. They will rebuke those who contradicted. Remember, at the outset of our
study of Titus, one of the things we learned is that our beliefs,
what we believe about God, what we believe about ourselves, what
we believe about the Christian life, what we believe about worship
will determine how we live and how we live will affect how the
world looks in and sees what the Christian faith looks like,
what heaven must be like, what Christianity really is. And so
if we get our theology straight, our Bible straight, our beliefs
straight, our living straight through the work of the elders,
give instruction in sound doctrine, rebuke those who contradict it,
you will have a straight church living in a crooked world. One of the things you hear me
pray for every week and you’ll probably hear it until I die,
is we pray in the pastoral prayer that God will help us as we try
to live the Christian life in the midst of a dark and dying
world and in the midst or before a crooked and depraved generation. Friends, living the Christian
life, holding fast to the word that has been taught to us and
handed to us, trying to be the church in the midst of this chaotic,
crazy world is no small task. It’s hard on us personally as
individuals to live the Christian life. We have the flesh that
we desire, but we’re called to live by the spirit. The world
tugs at us and says, live this way, but we’re to live by the
word. And we have Satan every day trying to enter into our
lives. And just as he tried to destroy
baby Jesus through Herod and Adam and Eve in the garden through
the serpent, he is trying to destroy us. He’s trying to destroy
his church. And so we need the faithful work
of elders to give us instruction and sound doctrine and to rebuke
those who contradict it. And so the church. will be shaped,
it will be formed, it will be strengthened by the ministry
of the elders of the church. When I hang out with other pastors,
we did this week when we went to Presbyterian, sometimes we’ll
go to a minister’s conference. I have minister friends that
I’ll eat lunch with from time to time. We’ll get our families
together. And very often you wonder sometimes
what do ministers talk about? Well, I’ll tell you one thing
we talk about. We talk about our elders. I have a friend who
pastors not too far away. And guess what? He has no elders. He has no elders. He is laboring
by himself and he is absolutely alone and miserable. And he desperately prays for
and cries out to God for elders. I have friends who are planting
churches. And one of the great tasks of planting a church is
not only gathering people under the gospel, under the sound preaching
of the word, establishing a place of worship and word ministry.
But one of the great tasks of church planters is to train up
and to establish and to appoint elders. Now, Titus’s job here
is not simply to go from city to city and say, you, you, you,
you, and you, I want you to be elders. Now, as we’re gonna see,
it’s a more involved process. God has much to say about who
will rule in his church and who will teach in his church. I had a teacher in seminary,
Douglas Kelly. He was a good teacher. He taught
us many things, but in class he would also, he would very
often. give us his ramblings. He had pastored churches, he
had taught in the seminary for many years, and he was a man
who knew his subject and knew the work that he was sending
us into. And I remember this with thunder clarity. He said
this over and over again, but I remember the very first time
he said it, it struck me. He said, nothing has hurt the
church in the world more than persecution, than rotten elders
in the church. That’s a pretty stinging commentary
he gives. But as I’ve ministered over the
years and I’ve seen the effects of generation after generation
of poor leadership in the church, it is very true. And yet we have
to remember this one great truth, God and his sovereignty, when
Jesus ascended up into heaven after dying on the cross and
rising again from the dead, as he ascended into heaven as a
king, a warrior, going back to his castle, Instead of receiving
gifts like would have been done in the ancient near east, when
the king would come back from the battle, people would line
up on the way back to the city. And as the king came, they would
give gifts. Oh king, you fought. Oh king, you were valiant. Oh
king, you have been victorious. Here are gifts. Well, in Ephesians
chapter four, the apostle Paul says, Jesus, when he ascended
back to his throne, he didn’t receive gifts, he gave gifts.
And in Ephesians chapter four, he tells us that he gifts his
church with men to rule and to teach. And so while we may live
in a rotten culture, while we may live in a church that has
become worldly, while we may live with the struggle of unfaithful
men who have ruled the church, we have to remember this, Jesus
rules his church through men. Jesus from the throne of glory
rules his church by his word, by his spirit and through men
who are put into the office of elder, into the church of his
own making. The Lord Jesus, the prophet and
priest and king rules from the throne of glory, his church through
faithful men. And so brothers and sisters,
we have to affirm several things. One is that elders are important
to the church. But even more than that, the
right type of elders. I’ve found in my experience,
and maybe this is a little sarcastic, maybe this is a little bit pessimistic,
but I found that most of the way that elders are elected in
a church is you find men whose arm you can twist. to serve their
mail. They have a pulse and they’ll
take a nomination. It’s very sad because it’s big
commitment. It’s a big task. It is a huge, huge job. And then secondly, I found that
very often in the church, we elect to the office based on
worldly standards. Let’s pick so-and-so because
he’s influential. Let’s pick so-and-so because
he’s a doctor or a lawyer, or he’s run a business and he apparently
knows how to make decisions. And so we get the cream of the
crop. in the pool of people in the church. But the apostle Paul
says, no, it’s not that way. The apostle Paul in his pastoral
letters to Timothy and Titus, he says there is a purpose for
the elders. They keep the church straight. There are qualifications
for elders, their home life, their character, and their knowledge.
And then in the pastorals, he also issues a warning in Paul’s
first letter to Timothy. He says, do not hastily lay hands
on men. For when you do, you share in
their wrong doing. And so how does God strengthen
his church? He strengthens his church that
lives in the midst of a rotten culture. He strengthens his church
that may have become worldly by elders who give instruction,
verse nine tells us, in sound doctrine. And they rebuke those
who contradict it. Now, next week, as we study verse
10 forward, we’re gonna see Some people who contradict sound doctrine
and we’ll have to see what elders have to do when that comes up.
But today I want us to focus for a few moments on the qualifications
for elders as found here in Titus. Now, some of you have heard in
your hearing before you’ve heard the reading of God’s word from
Proverbs 31 that sends chills and shudders through the ladies
of the church. Do I have to be that kind of woman? Do I have
to do everything and be that fantastic in my godliness and
in my productivity? And when Proverbs 31 is read
and maybe on Mother’s Day and other times in the church life,
it’s read, it sends chills through our bodies. Who can do this? Well, When you read the qualifications
in Titus and in Timothy for the office of elder and deacon, it
ought to do the same thing and say, who is sufficient for these
things? So let us, with humility and
grace, look at these three areas of qualifications for elders.
First, we find in verse six, qualifications center around
the man’s family. Look at verse six, if you will.
It says, if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his
children are believers and they are not open to the charge of
debauchery or insubordination. Now, immediately, when you bring
up this qualification, the man’s family, you’ve gone from preaching
to meddling, as they say. You’ve gone from preaching into
meddling. But here’s the thought process we have in the Bible.
If a man can run his little congregation at home, How much more will he
be able to run the larger congregation of the family of God? Or to put
it the other way, if he can’t run the little congregation,
how do you expect him to then run the big one? And so a man’s
family is important. And there’s two main features
of his family. He needs to be a one woman man. He needs to be a man married
to one woman. Now you understand culturally
in the Greek culture, a man might be married to several women.
Some of you might watch that show on television. The people
out west in Utah or wherever, they got a bunch of wives. OK,
that’s weird, right? That’s not biblical. It’s wrong.
God doesn’t want that for the elders of his church. Our laws,
thankfully, prevent it. But in the church, it is not
allowed. You need to be a one woman man. But also it speaks
of having faithful children, children who are faithful. And
it gives two tests, as it were. These children are, what does
it say in verse six? They are believers or faithful,
but they are not open to the charge of debauchery. They’re
not the prodigal son. They haven’t said, dad, give
me all my money. I’m going to live prodigiously or lavishly
or sinfully. They’re not open to the charge
of debauchery or insubordination. They are submissive. Now this
is speaking of a man’s home, those under his roof. He’s a man who has his family,
his little congregation in order. Now, One thing can ruin an elder’s
credibility very quickly, and that’s his family. And we have
so many men who hold the office of teaching elder and ruling
elder and their families are in such disarray. And we let
them hold on to that office because it’s their livelihood in some
cases. And in other cases, it’s their social standing. But the
word of God teaches us otherwise here and says of his family,
they should be faithful. He should be a one woman man.
Now, is a man’s home going to be perfect? Oh, absolutely not.
We’re all sinners. We all struggle with the flesh.
We all struggle with the devil. We all let the world in on our
lives. And it is a difficult thing. But the trajectory of
life should be such that if this man has heaven at home, We are
going to have heaven in the church. And so family is extraordinarily
important. This man who bears the office
of elder, usually older in age, usually able to bear that title
in age, but also in respectability. He’s honorable. He’s a man who
through his family has proven himself. And so one of the qualifications
is family. The second qualification we find
in verses seven and eight is character. Character. We read in verses seven through
eight, an overseer as God’s steward must be above reproach. Note
also that in verse five, it says, verse six, if anyone is above
reproach, so twice it uses that language. He must be above reproach
as God’s steward. He must not be arrogant, quick-tempered,
a drunkard, or violent, or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover
of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must
hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught.” It speaks of
his character. Think about this for just a moment.
If a church is an outpost of heaven, It’s like in the wild
west when some went across river and forest and vale and through
valleys and all these enemies to establish an outpost, a place
where people might come and live the realities of the big cities
or the realities of back east. But they want land, they want
space, they want freedom. They want Uncle Sam to donate
a mule and a plow and 18 acres or whatever it was. That’s how
we need to think of heaven. We are a church. We are an outpost
of heaven. And we reflect the realities
of home. And if that is true, how important
is it to us? It’s very important according
to Paul to Titus and to Timothy. It’s very important for the men
who lead the church to have character that matches heaven and not hell. We’re an outpost of heaven and
the realities of the Christian faith, the Christian life, the
new birth, being new creations in Jesus, not perfect, we understand
that, but on a trajectory of growing in grace, becoming like
Jesus. those character qualities need
to be there. Now there’s an overarching character that ought to be there,
and it’s blameless. Twice he says, the man ought
to be blameless. He ought to be above reproach.
It basically means this, you can’t present a charge against
him that will stick. He’s unchargeable. A judge would
throw the case out of court if one were presented. Now we ask
a question, We ask a question when we interview elders in our
church, and it’s this question. We ask a bunch, but this is the
big one. If, or is, is there anything in your life that you’re
holding in secret that should it come to light, it would bring
shame to the name of Christ and do damage to his church? That’s
a really good question, isn’t it? Especially in today’s culture. What’s the hashtag? Me too. Just
a few weeks ago, a minister in the South stood up in front of
his church and basically said, 20 years ago, I assaulted somebody. Oh, and all is forgiven. And
the other pastor comes and hugs him and says, we stand by him.
What did that say to the one who was assaulted? A whole lot
actually. And the church gave him a standing
ovation. How much hurt does that bring on that young gal? And
just think if he had been asked that question, is there anything
brother in your life that you’re holding in secret. And should
it come to light, it would bring damage to the church and shame
to the name of Jesus. Friends, it is that serious.
We say, Oh, it doesn’t matter. Just pick a few good men. It
matters to God. It matters to Paul. It matters
to Jesus so much so that he died to make old men new and to give
us his spirit and to change us. You see, God has made it possible
for there to be men like this in the church. Oh, friends, it
does matter. It matters greatly. When I was a pastor at a church
in Greensboro, we were a church that had a lot of busyness, as
you might call it. And one summer I was at General
Synod meeting and my phone rang and it was Fox 8 television. And it was a reporter and a man
in our church had been arrested for doing things he shouldn’t
have done. And they wanted to know what we had to say about
it. And you see in time, we realized this man had not been vetted,
the church had not been protected, and the name of Jesus had been
called into question because we just said, okay, you’ll do.
And it hurt the church. It hurt the reputation of Jesus.
That is a phone call you don’t want as a pastor. The news saying,
we thought, but, and doesn’t that affirm so well and so quickly,
the church is full of hypocrites. So character, friends, really
matters. And there’s this overarching characteristic. Is he blameless?
And then there’s two lists. Verse seven has a list of things
he cannot be. And verse eight has a list of
things he ought to be. Start in verse seven. He says
an overseer as God’s steward must be above reproach and he
must not be arrogant, quick tempered, a drunkard, violent, or greedy
for gain. And then it goes on in verse
eight with a list of things he ought to be. He ought to be hospitable.
a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. Now I think you understand the
gist of each of these words. He ought to display the realities
of heaven, the realities of the new birth as the Holy Spirit
takes us from death to life. And as we live the Christian
life by the word and the spirit and through the ministry of men
in the church, this person is more and more dying to sin and
looking less like Adam and more like Jesus. You see, character
matters. This person positively should
be a person, or he cannot be a person who lacks integrity.
He cannot be a person who is self-centered and lacks self-control. But this person must fear God
and have self-control and live in such a way by the grace of
God that he adorns the gospel of God, our Savior, and is able
to strengthen the church by knowing the truth, speaking the truth
and correcting those who do not follow it. The Apostle Paul,
in his letter to Timothy, says this. He says, Keep a close watch
on your teaching and your conduct. He says, your living and your
teaching, the content of it, matter. He says, for you may
save some of your hearers. The way we live and what we profess
with our lips really matters. He also says in his letter to
Timothy, don’t be hasty in the laying on of hands. When I first moved into my home
down in Huntersville, we were meeting the neighbors. Where
do you go to church? I told him. And in the course
of time, we chitchatted. Well, who do you get a church
with? And in the course of time, this conversation come up. So-and-so
is an elder at my church. This neighbor says, that man
is an elder at your church. And they couldn’t believe it.
They were up in arms and they went on to tell about all this stuff and
it got on. And I want to show you why that’s dangerous. Because
later in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he says, do not admit
a charge against an elder. unless there are two or three
witnesses. Once a man holds the office, he gets near immunity
in the church. Oh, you can hold him accountable.
Yes, but it is a strict standard of accountability. And so we
must be careful to look at a man’s family, to look at a man’s character. Finally, I want us to look at
his beliefs. Verse nine tells us this. He must hold firm. hold firm to the trustworthy
word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction and
sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradicted. Oh, friends,
we live in a rotten culture. We live in a church that is daily
threatened by and tempted to become like the world. And if you have good elders,
qualified elders who know sound doctrine and teaching and are
willing to teach it positively and rebuke it and correct it
negatively, you will live straighter in a crooked and depraved world. Oh friends, our home life, our
character, but especially our beliefs really matter. And it
says of the elder, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word
as taught. This week in our Presbyterian
meeting, we examine teaching elders, men who want to be ministers. They’re examined in five areas.
It’s church history, it’s church government, it’s church ministry,
like the theology of ministry, it’s theology and it’s Bible.
And these men sit for two days, And they take comprehensive written
exams without a stitch of paper or a Bible or anything. They
just have a laptop or a piece of paper and a pen. And for two
days they sit and they write answers to about 700 questions.
That’s what it takes to get into the ministry in the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Church. But then when it comes to ruling
elders, you know what we say? Here’s the test for them. Which
hand’s it in? We don’t examine them. We don’t
instruct them. We don’t expect them to know the same things. But thanks be to God, our form
of government requires us that we examine a man and his beliefs,
his character. It requires that we certify him
and that we never, ever put a man up for elder. in the life of
the church until these things have been examined. It’s not
as thorough or stringent as a man who’s going to be a minister.
I think there is a difference, though the knowledge ought to be there,
we do think. But it is important for a man
to hold fast and hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught
and to give instruction and to rebuke. It’s important for the
life of the church. We want a church that is straight
and strong in the midst of a world that is crooked and weak. And so the question comes, how
is it possible to find a good elder? How is it possible, you
might say, to find a Proverbs 31 woman? How is it possible
for any of us to live a faithful Christian life as God calls us
and even commands us to do? It is possible this way. It is possible by your prayers,
And it is possible by the work of the word and the work of the
Holy Spirit. You see, God can take what is
dead and give it life. And he can take what doesn’t
know anything and he can instruct it. He can take what is lacking
in character and strengthen that character. And so we should never
lose heart and say, well, this was just for Titus. It’s 2018. You’re never going to find a
good elder. Or for that matter, a good deacon. Did you know that
these qualifications are nearly exactly the same as for deacons? One’s a ministry of mercy, one’s
a ministry of rule, but the same character qualities are required. And so here’s the question for
us. Can God give the gift to his church as he’s outlined here?
Or is it impossible? Should we just do away with it
and say, well, we’ll get what we can? No, God, by his word
and his spirit and through our prayers can provide good gifts
for his church. And so let us trust him in that. And may the blessing and result
be that we are a strong church living straight in the midst
of a crooked world and a depraved and dark generation. Pray with
me. Our Lord and God, we thank you that you give gifts to your
church. You give men and women and boys and girls who have knowledge,
who have skills, who have love and who have a desire to serve
you and to receive your kingdom and to advance it and to tell
the world about Jesus and to hope that more people as they
come to faith in him might worship him. Lord, we know where we live. We know how dark and dying it
is. We know how crooked and depraved
it is. And we want to live straight in the crooked world. And so
give us elders, give us men, give us doctrine, give us teaching
that will keep us straight and on the path. And may it be for
your glory, but also for the purpose of landing us safely
on heaven’s great shores. And in the name of Jesus, we
ask this in faith. Amen.