again in verse 7 but I want you
to look again before we before we get into the detail
of the text I want you to see again how Paul begins this thought
and ends it he tells Titus that he sent him
for a purpose. He left him in Crete and he was
to go to other places in every city, he said in verse 5, for
a purpose. To set in order the things that
are wanting, primarily the ordaining of elders. And then he begins
to describe those whom God sends. God said to his people of old,
I'll give you pastors after my heart. And what Paul is saying
to Titus here is here's what they look like. Here's what God
has done. Here's who God sends. Who he
raises up, who he makes, who he gives. If any be blameless,
the husband of one wife, verse 6, having faithful children, Four, verse seven, a bishop must
be blameless as the steward of God. Blameless as the steward
of God. In that context, as God's minister,
as God's bishop of his church. And then, so what does that entail? What does that involve? Well,
if we look at the end of this, and we'll see, In verse 9, we'll
see as we get there this morning, I pray. Holding fast the faithful
word. Verse 9. All of these other things
that he says in between there apply to that. As faithful stewards
of God, we hold fast the word. We declare the word. That's his
commission to us. Go and preach. He didn't say
go and be the husband of one wife. But, as a preacher, that's
who he sends, and there's reasons for that. Be that husband holding fast
the faithful word. Don't be self-willed holding
fast the faithful word. Be sober holding fast the faithful
word. Verse seven, not given to filthy
lucre. This is where we left off at
the end of verse seven last time. And as I said then, you can be
a preacher and be greedy and selfish, but not God's preacher.
Not God's preacher. Our Lord did not permit when
he called his disciples and sent them forth, what did he tell
them to do? Go and preach. Preach the kingdom of God. Everybody
that'll listen to you. If you go somewhere and they
don't want to hear from you, then shake the dust of their
city off of your feet and go somewhere where somebody will
hear you. And hold fast the faithful word. And when you go, don't take purse
nor script. As you're holding fast the faithful
word, don't be given to filthy lucre. In fact, don't even take
A wallet, your wallet with you. And don't even take a lunchbox
with you. That's what a script is. It's
a food bag. It's one thing not to take your
wallet, but at least I gotta have something to eat today.
No? No? That's gonna be taken care
of. You forget about all of that.
And hold fast the faithful word. You see what he's teaching Titus
here? You talk about contrary to this
flesh now. Let me tell you from experience,
this is contrary to the flesh. But you see why our Lord does
that. But what if? What if? What if? All of the what ifs have to be
given to God. It's called faith. It's called
trust. And we don't have any of it unless
he gives it to us. But when, in his economy of grace,
in the preaching of the gospel and sinners hearing the gospel
and coming to faith in him, he gives us some of it. That's what
this is teaching. It's just real simple, isn't
it? Everybody knows that religion is all about money. Everybody
knows that. Even people that aren't religious,
and really everybody is religious in some sense or another. But
all they talk about is money. They come up with all kinds of
creative ways to raise money. It must not be so in God's house. Not given to filthy Luke. When
our Lord was presented with the need for money, do you remember
what He did? This is important now. The disciples came to Him one
time. And isn't it amazing how everything is dealt with in God's
Word? If it's not in here, you don't need to know it. The disciples
came to Him and said, we need some money. We've got to pay
our taxes. We need some money. So you think
about this. I know this was for the purpose
of paying taxes, but this is God's people, His disciples,
presenting Him with a need for money. Have we ever done that? Is that something we might do?
Come to the Lord and say, we're going to go out of business unless
you provide something. They came to Him. They came to
the right place. And you remember what He did? And again, understand this in
the general context of we need some money. Okay? In Matthew
17, 27, listen to it carefully. Our Lord, He taught them something just
before this is why he said notwithstanding, and you may want to look that
up later. But listen, he said, lest we should offend them, lest
we should, you know, offend these tax collectors or
the government or whoever, go thou to the sea and cast a hook
and take up the fish that first cometh up. And when thou hast opened his
mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. That take and give
it unto them for me and you. Now you think about that for
a second. Have you ever wondered where
is it going to come from? Where is it going to come from? Do
you think they knew? Did they come to the Lord and
say, Lord, we need a fish with some money in its mouth. They
had no idea where it was going to come from, but they knew it
was going to come from Him, ultimately. Now, in light of that scripture,
where are you and I going to get what we need? Everything
we need. We don't have to figure it out.
We never would have figured that out, would we? Well, the Lord's
put some money somewhere. Let's see if we can find out
where. No, let's just go to Him and say, we have a need, Lord.
We never would have found that money, would we? We may have to do a little fishing. The Lord's going to just provide
it, isn't he? Isn't that just screaming from that text? The
Lord's just going to give it to us. There may be a process. He could have just taken it out
of his pocket and handed it to him right then. But he said,
go cast a line. That's what they did. Just go do what I've given you
to do and you'll have what you need. Don't take your purse or
your lunch box with you. Just go fishing. We're fishers of men, aren't
we? By His grace now. The flesh is never content. The
flesh is never content. But there is such thing as contentment.
And I want to show it to you. Not just by quoting just the
scripture that you know I'm going to, but the context of it too.
There is contentment. What scripture does that make
you think of? Godliness with contentment is great gain. That's
right. Let's look at the context. First Timothy six. First Timothy chapter six, verse
six. 1 Timothy 6.6 Wherefore, I put
you in remembrance, that you stir up the gift of God which
is in you by the putting on of my hands. Stir it up. For God hath not given us the
spirit of fear, but of power. You know we have the spirit of
fear, don't we? We're always worried about where
we're going to get it from. Just like we just read. Lord,
we need something and we don't know how we're going to get it.
We're worried about it. We're afraid. We have that spirit. Well, we didn't get it from Him.
We were born with that one, weren't we? That one's our fault. What spirit did He give us? Power
and of love and of a sound mind. Did you know being afraid is
insanity when God is your God? He gave us the spirit of a sound
mind, that's contrary to fear. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. If we got to get
burned, then so be it. according to the power of God,
who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. So
if He saves somebody else, is it going to be according to our
works? If He uses us in the salvation of sinners, is our works going
to have... We're going to work, but it's
going to be according to His power and grace. It always is. When He saved us, it was. If
He saves our children, it will be. It will be His power and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. This is an eternal salvation,
and we're involved in it now in time. But now, it's made manifest. Y'all don't know where I'm reading,
do you? I'm in chapter 1, verse 6, that's where I started. But
now is made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel, whereunto I am appointed a preacher
and an apostle. You see, that's what we're talking
about. I have both of these scriptures in 1 Timothy, and I've got them
reversed here. But he makes us He makes us he
calls us he appoints us you see that how that applies to our
text Titus us Titus's He appointed us and he provides and it's according
to his power and grace now chapter 6 verse 6 1st Timothy 6 But godliness with contentment
is great gain. But what is that? What is that? Godliness with contentment is
great gain. Just being content, just doing
and being what He has made us and given us today. For we brought nothing into this
world. You see how the context is important here? And it is
certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment,
let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich now.
And this is what religion is all about, isn't it? Not only
is religion all about enriching religion, It's all about how
you can be rich too. Isn't it? You can find all kinds
of books and hear all kinds of messages about it. They that would be rich fall
into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of
money is the root of all evil. The love of gain, the love of
the flesh, of the fulfillment of the flesh, the lust of the
flesh. which while some coveted after they have erred from the
faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows not given to filthy lucre now
the next phrase a lover of hospitality this is generosity to guests
generosity to guests and this shows itself when we have guests
here It's not just about that. We're all guests, aren't we?
When we have a Bible conference, you know. And the fact that we
love to do that. We love to have people here. But think about this. It's not
just about setting the table with food. God's people set another
table. The gospel of generosity. Look at the next one. A lover
of good men. And if you look this up, you'll see this. It's
a lover of good. A lover of good. Or goodness. And I want this. I want this for all of us. You
know what this is? No ulterior motives. No ulterior
purposes. No selfish motives. Why do we
do what we do? Good. We love good. Everything that's good. And He
gives every good and perfect gift. And we love that. That's
what we pursue. That's what we want. That's what
we desire. Good and not evil. That's grace, isn't it? That's
grace. And not to be somebody or to... We don't come to the worship
of God. We don't do this to get something.
We come to give Him glory. And of course we receive too,
but if that's our motive, there is a selflessness in worship
now, by God's grace. Every other occupation really, in this world, and even that
of a preacher, If we're left to our own flesh,
it's a competition, isn't it? It's all about us. When I was a salesman, there
was competition. But not in this. It's not for
the promotion of the flesh. It's not for selfish gain. I
just want to, by God's grace, how about you? See if this is
true now. Don't say it if it's not true. But I believe I just
want to see some good. I think that's what this is talking
about. I want to see some good. Who
will show us any good? The scripture asks and answers
it. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. That's
what's good. And I want that. I want that
for myself. I want it for you. I believe that's true by God's
grace. I believe we can say that honestly. I just want to see
some good. And here's what that looks like.
Here's what that looks like now in a preacher and in a ministry
and those who are in on it. First Corinthians 2, 1, Paul
said, Our brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and him crucified, his person and his work. And I was
with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God." You see that Paul loved good as a preacher. He wanted some good to be done
to the souls of those that heard him preach. And he knew how that
happened, by the power of God, not the flesh. May there never
be a man that stands in this pulpit, including myself, that
doesn't come that way, the way Paul did. And then he said, sober. This means of sound mind. Controlling one's desires and
impulses, temperate, self-controlled. We think of this word sober in
regard to drinking alcohol, and that's already been mentioned
in the text, not given to wine. But this is called being sober
because like when you are drunk and not sober, you're reckless
in your language and your actions, you're uninhibited. You're not
of sound mind in a sense. But here's the thing, some people
don't need alcohol to be that way. In fact, it's true of all of
us. We don't need alcohol to be idiots, do we? But here's the thing, God's man
cannot be that way as the steward of God. In holding fast to faithful
words, It cannot be, because this is serious business. It
doesn't mean that we, like all others, don't have this character
trait of foolishness and lack of self-control. But it's simply
this, that God will restrain it in us for the sake of Christ
and His gospel. He must do that. And if God doesn't do that, for
you, then you might make a great salesman or a businessman of
some kind, but not a preacher. Although I think even a salesman
should be God's way, don't you? Sober. Even as a professional
would be the word in business, be professional. But that's not what we're talking
about here. It doesn't say a bishop ought to be this way. Verse 7,
He says, He must not. He must be. He must not be this. He must be that. That word must
applies to every bit of this now. Verse 7, He must. He must. And then the next word, just.
And this word means righteous, but it's not talking about righteousness
before God. Although, if you're going to
be God's preacher, you're going to be righteous before God. Not
in yourself, but in Christ. But these are characteristics
that you'll see in a preacher of the gospel, by God's grace
and power. And sinlessness is not one of
those. That's not what you're going to see in me. Or any other
preacher. Or anybody in the ministry of
God. This simply means to be right in your dealings with men.
Just. Fair. And again, and always,
it's because of who we represent. How can a man claim to speak
for God and doesn't care anything about doing things God's way?
God's way is fairness, justice, equity. The next word is holy. Now I know a lot of people that
say there is no sense in which a sinner is holy. Well, instead of just directly
contradicting the word of God, let's maybe find out what God
means when he says we're holy. Do you think that would be a
good idea? Instead of just outright contradicting...
If you say there is no sense in which a sinner is holy, you're
just contradicting God's word. Let's find out what he's talking
about. Not holy in ourselves, not righteous in ourselves, we
know that. Paul, even as a believer said, in my flesh dwells no good
thing, we know that. Well, we don't know it as we
ought, but we know something about it. But let's not oppose God's word,
let's find out what it means. It means set apart. God's preachers
are set apart for the work. They're sanctified, they're holy,
they're consecrated unto the work as a steward of God's grace
in this, in the ministry. It means devout, it means free
from corruption in the office that's spoken of. Nobody is these
things even before God. But if God doesn't make it so
that I'm this way to you, then you're not going to ever hear
a word I say. You're not ever going to hear a word I say. I
know some men who are this way, who are holy in this sense. I
know some men that are. Does that mean that I don't see
any sin in them? I wouldn't know them very well
if I didn't see any sin in them. So it doesn't mean that, but
what I see is that they're serious about the business of God. They're
set apart unto it. They're consecrated unto it by
God's grace and power. They're holy in their jealousy
for the truth of God and in their concern for the church of God.
As men, they're just like other men, but as stewards of God,
they are holy in this sense, in the Bible sense. Does that
make sense? As preachers of the gospel, they
are blameless to me. Not before God, but to me they
are, or I wouldn't listen to them. I'm able to hear what they say
with respect, and I trust them. Because I trust the one for whom
they speak. They are ambassadors of Jesus
Christ. And there are a whole lot of
preachers I can't say this about. And I can see the difference,
can't you? God makes the difference. And it's not hard for a believer
to spot. And so we know what he's saying here. And what he's
not saying. Then the next word temperate.
Now we use this word temperate with regard to being sober but
this word primarily means strong. Well you say well no temperate
means you know maybe restraining yourself from certain things. That takes strength. Strong is
what the word is. Strong. Robust. And I know men who are very Timid
and unassuming and unpretentious in their character until they
get behind the pulpit And that doesn't mean that they're
overbearing But they're bold they're strong
as ministers of God strong and robust God makes them that way
There is a leaning here toward being robust and strong in your
self-control. It goes with the other word.
Thus the word temperate. But remember this is as a steward
of God. And the word primarily means
strong. Be strong in it. You can see how this would apply
to being in self-control. Because when you're tempted maybe
to drink too much for example. Because that's a word. This word
temperate is a word that we think of when we think of drinking. What does it take to not drink
too much when you kind of want to? Strength. A kind of strength. A very important
strength. And that's what this word is
here, but it applies to many, many things. When a preacher
might be tempted to compromise the message. Just a little bit,
you know. You know, just so nobody will
be offended. You know, it's for a good cause. I don't want to offend
anybody. What will it take to be faithful to the truth, even
if everybody's offended? Strength. That's what this word
is. This is the character that God
gives his preachers. John the Baptist was able to
be strong in his dealings with Herod, was he not? He stood there
in front of a man who had the power to just give the word,
as we later learned, and his head would be cut off. And he
said, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. That's strength. Peter was strong
the Apostle Peter when he stood up in Acts chapter 3 and said
you people killed the prince of life So God's man must be strong in
many ways and strength doesn't manifest itself the way we might
think Is the strong man the one that
is brash and boisterous and domineering who is that way by nature, or
is the strong man the one who is also that way by nature, because
we're all the same by nature, but has strength from God to
restrain that, and instead be reasonable and submissive to
God's will? Which one is strong? The boisterous,
bold, overbearing man might appear strong to men. But did you know that submitting takes a lot of strength? It takes more strength than you
have submitting. That's not the way this world
thinks. To this world, submission is weakness. But that all depends
on who you're submitting to. Submitting to the flesh often
looks like strength to this world. Just being what you are by nature
and submitting to God may look like weakness to this world. But that's true strength according
to God. And that's what his people must
have now. They must in the ministry. And
then verse 9, holding fast the faithful word as he has been
taught. You see that word holding? Holding,
I-N-G. Instead of saying, also he must
hold fast the faithful word, he says holding fast because
this is something that all of these other words apply to. All of these other things are
true while this one thing is happening. You see that I-N-G,
how that means that? We're talking about a bishop
as a steward of God And all of these other things we've been
talking about tells us what kind of steward we must be. And this
right here tells us what stewards do. See the difference? All of these
other things, sober, holy, just, temperate, husband of one wife,
those are what a steward of God's grace is. This one thing is what
he does. These other things are what he
is while he's doing it. That's important now. Holding
fast the faithful word is not just one thing we do. It's what
we do. We must be just in holding fast
the faithful word. We must be sober in holding fast
the faithful word. In holding fast the faithful
word, we must not be self-willed. We must submit to the will of
Him that sent us. Not desirous of the things of
this world. Not given to filthy lucre. Not
contentious. Not unreliable. When we're holding
fast the faithful word of God, we must not be any of these things.
We must be sober and vigilant. And we must be plain. Paul said,
seeing we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech.
There are many things we must be. There is one thing we must
do. Our Lord said to us, go and preach. Do you remember the one thing
needful? We talked about this recently
and we didn't turn to Luke 10 then, but I want us to look at
it today. I'm going to close with this. I want to talk more
Next week, Lord willing, about holding fast the faithful word.
But I want you to see one thing about this now. This is what
we do. It's about the Word. It's not
about activities and the Word. It's about the Word. It's not about singing and the
Word. What are we singing? The Word. If we ain't singing
the Word, then we need to quit singing. You see what I'm saying? This is what the ministry is. One thing is needful. Look at
Luke 10. I hadn't been turning, so I'm late. Luke 10, verse 38. I know you know this passage,
but you haven't looked at it after I've preached for 30 minutes
on what we're talking about. And that's how the Lord teaches
us, you see. That's how he teaches us. Dividing the word of truth. How does this verse apply to
that first? What light can this scripture
shed on that scripture? I pray we find out by God's grace
Look at now Luke 10 38 one thing is needful Luke 10 and verse 38 now it came
to pass as they went the Lord and his some of his disciples
But he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman
named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister
called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. And that's all she did now. You're not going to find anything
else about Mary except that and what the Lord said about her.
She sat at Jesus' feet and heard But Martha was cumbered about
much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me. What was Martha doing? Serving
the Lord. Serving the Lord. If you went down to this church
right up the street and asked them, what do y'all do here?
You know what they'd probably say? We're serving the Lord. Let me ask you something. Are you serving the Lord if you're
not hearing Him? You're doing something, but I
wonder If it's the Lord's business, if His word didn't mean that
much to you. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and troubled
about many things. But one thing is needful. One thing is needful. And think about this. I'm going
to paraphrase here. One thing is needful. And if
you want to know what that is, look at Mary. Is that not what
he's saying here? Mary. He didn't just say one
thing is needful and here's what it is. He said one thing is needful
and Mary's doing it. By choice. She's doing it because
it's more important to her than everything else. And it just so happens that the
one thing that is more important to her than anything else in
this world is the one thing that matters. That's the grace of God. Mary hath chosen that good part. What is a bishop? He's a lover
of good. What is a steward of God's grace? What is a minister of God? He's
a lover of good. He chooses that which is good,
like Mary did. And it'll never be taken away.
You know why? Because the gifts and calling
of God are never taken away. God gave her that. And he don't
repent of that. As commendable as what Martha
was doing, Maxine, Our Lord is saying to her very
clearly what you need to be doing is listening to me, worshiping me, hearing me, sitting
at my feet. How do we do that this morning?
Is this just A history lesson or just some...
No, I need to know how to do that right now. How can I do the one thing that's
necessary and how can I do it right now? You know how? You
may be doing it right now. One thing is needful. And this
is why a bishop must be these things. Because one thing is
needful. One thing is necessary. How necessary? How necessary is this? Job said
in Job 23, 12, I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than
my necessary food. You don't have to eat, but you
have to hear the gospel. You must. You must hear it. Seeing then that we have such
hope, we use indeed, may we, by God's grace, great plainness
of speech. The word we preach cannot be
confused or compromised by anything that we say or anything that
we do. Titus 7 through 9. Titus 1, 7 through 9. It can't
be confused or complicated or compromised by anything we say
or anything that we do. It's that needful. It's that
important. It's that necessary. It's that
vital. So my prayer is for all of us this morning is Lord take
away everything from me that would get in the way so that
your word may go forth in clarity and boldness and in the very
power of your throne. We would see our loved ones saved And we know that it pleased you
by these vital means to save sinners. May we, Lord, by your grace hold
fast your faithful word faithfully. Let's pray together.