Titus one. Versus five through nine. Let
me just let me just deal with some technical things and then
we'll look at the text. The outline for this today will
give you a a broad overview. of the qualifications for pastor,
and then we will take some of them in the weeks to come and
we will look specifically at the scripture. From the point
of view of Paul to Titus. Ask yourself. In your history and your experience
As you come to this place today, through all of your life in church
and out of church and around church, whether you've heard
preachers on television, radio, pulpits, whether you've been
part of a denomination or a non-denomination or an undenomination, quote,
undenomination, or whether you've just had this preconceived idea
or definition of what a pastor is. What an elder is, what an overseer
is. And if we were to ask ourselves
that question, what is a pastor? We could answer that in many
ways. Oftentimes in in today's world, a good pastor is the one
that's the friend of everyone. I've heard and sat with many
a pulpit committees. If you don't know what that is,
pastoral search committee, pulpit committee. This is how the American
church has chosen as a majority to find men who are qualified
to come into their churches and lead them in governing the word
of God as applied to them. And I would suggest to you that
what I'm about to say, if it hits a nerve, I believe that
then wholeheartedly listened into what Paul tells him, tells
Titus. And what he tells Titus is parallel
to what he tells Timothy. And so as we look at this text
and as we consider the reality of why it's important to us is
that, well, why don't we need to know about the qualifications
of a pastor? Well, you're looking at one. How do you know I'm qualified
to stand before you today? Well, you know what you're talking
about, really? Is that what makes a qualified pastor, that he's
got the brains to stand up and babble on about something? Some
people would say, well, he's got fire, he's got charisma,
that's that's what we're looking for. We're looking for a pastor
who has charisma. Well, what do you do with Paul
when he says to the Corinthians, I did not come to you with eloquent
speech and with boldness, but I came to you with fear and trembling,
unable to barely speak. What do you say with someone
who who says, well, a pastor must be, like I said earlier,
the friend of everybody in the church. He must hang out with
them and do barbecues with them and play Frisbee with them and
pet their dogs and wash their dogs, wash their feet. Good stuff. And you say, well, that's what
we're looking for, a pastor that's just a good old guy. Well, what's
a good old guy? When Jesus says to the rich young
ruler, as he calls him good, teacher and Jesus comes back
with a repute with a rebuke and says, no one is good, but God. Or better yet, why don't we take
the populace of our congregation, let's look at our people and
let's put out a survey and say, what is it that you're looking
for in a pastor? What do you want to see? And
we see all sorts of things. And then the committee comes
together and says, OK, this is what the people want. But so
let's find somebody who matches this. Friends, I've seen those documents. I've been called in by people
who say, hey, we'd like you to talk to us about possibly being
your pastor, being our pastor, would you would you come talk
to us? And I look at these requirements and I go, there's no way I'd
even contemplate this. I can't, number one, do all that.
I'm not this. And the Bible doesn't say that.
But I cannot say that in the beginning of my ministry that
I did not try to be that. What we're looking for is someone
with a little more youth so that he can relate to the younger
generations, because if the younger people don't come in, then the
older people are just going to fizzle on out and then the church
is going to be non-existent. Well, I would say that a church
that's non-existent probably wasn't a church to begin with. We need someone who can relate
to multi ethnicities. We need like a half Mexican,
Blackanese, white man. And so he can get everybody.
He speaks, you know, a good English on this hand and a good Spanish
on that hand, a little Chinese at the foot. And we can really
make it work. And you think I'm being funny,
but these are things that I've heard. We're looking for someone who
can who can, you know, not wear a tie because wearing a tie,
nobody can afford ties anymore. They're so expensive. And if
he wears a tie, he's not going to relate to people of our day.
And, you know, nobody does that anymore. So we want to make sure.
I tell you what, we're not going to preach from the Bible anymore.
He's going to wear it. He's going to carry a tablet. He's going
to look cool and we're not going to let him stand by the pulpit
and let him sit in a chair. We're looking for a pastor who can
sit in a chair. Who cares where he sits? or what he looks like
or how he dresses or how eloquent his speech is or how redneck
he sounds or how relative he is to the culture. Who cares
about what's relative to the culture when the cultures of
the world and the world is going to hell and the only thing that's
going to make a difference in the world not going to hell is
the gospel of Jesus Christ preached from the pulpits of the churches
of Jesus. But I can be a pundit and sit
here and commentate and And prepare myself for the Super Bowl of
pastoral search committees and tell you what all is wrong. But
I wanted to plant some of that stuff to make you think, yeah,
at one time in your life, you probably have had the wrong idea
about what a pastor is, what qualifies a man to be a pastor. And, of course, the job of the
elder we saw last week. It is to feed the flock of Jesus
Christ, to shepherd the flock that is among them, as Peter
teaches. Look at chapter 1, verses 5-9
as we look at God's Word. This is why I left you in Crete,
Titus, so that you may put what remained into order and appoint
elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone, verse 6, 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 must
be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy
and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy
word is taught in order that He may be able to give instruction
in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict sound
doctrine. And we stop there next week,
we will look at the very idea of verse seven for an overseer
as God's steward must be above reproach. Today, I want to give
an overview of all these qualifications. And if you really want to see
a comedy show, then I could say, you heard God's word. Now, behold,
that would be the funniest thing I've ever said. As you see God's
word, therefore, I stand before you perfectly fitting to the
fullness of all these requirements and absolute perfection. So therefore,
you should just do what I do. How about we do what Paul does
as he says, follow me as I follow Christ, as I follow Christ, you
follow Christ. So what I want you to see here
is like I mentioned last week, we could be very self-serving
for me to try to play this out, and it's very easy because it's
natural as I see that as I read it and I read it often and I
go through these things at least twice a year personally. How am I doing in this? How am
I doing in that? Oh, man, I didn't see that. I better I better take
good note of that. So what I want you to see is
that this is vital for the church to understand. Friends, it is
not OK for the church to just say, well, that's the pastor.
There is absolute authority. That's not the way it is. Well,
that's the guy. And I've said this and I'm saying
it sort of jokingly, but I've said this. Touch not thine anointed. Trying to be an Old Testament
prophet for those who spoke against Moses and the prophets. Friends,
a pastor is not a prophet. A pastor has a prophetic office
to behold, thus saith the Lord, that the prophet is the word. The prophecy is that which God
has said already and is continuing to say through his word. And
so as you measure these things, I'm going to tell you that I'm
not the one that's completely in the spotlight for all of these
things. are also your responsibility. Every Christian, every one of
these requirements in the context of how an elder should present
himself and live also is a requirement of every person who carries the
name of Christ. There is no exemption. Christian
pastors are not higher people in the chain of command. Christian
pastors are not higher holiness in the chain of command. Christian
pastors are not expected to be better than those that they shepherd.
They are to exemplify that which is required of those they shepherd. So even there, maybe you would
say, well, I understand what Titus and Timothy, I understand
what they say about what a shepherd should be, what an elder should
be, what a pastor should be, one and the same. But now I realize
that it's also talking about me. So let's look at this verse
six specifically, if anyone, if anyone now here, if you flip
back over to Timothy and you don't have to do that, but if
you flip back over to Timothy, what you'll see there in first
Timothy, chapter three, where he says the same is trustworthy
if anyone. And then the next word aspires
to the office of overseer. He desires a noble task. And
I'm of the opinion biblically that every man in the church
should aspire to the office of overseer to some degree, because
it is a burning, burning, burning goal to really be at least an
approved worker. But not every man will be an
elder, nor is every man necessarily called by God to be an elder.
But there ought to be that there ought to be that urgency to maybe
I need to prepare that God might call me. So as you look at Titus, Paul
sees Titus and when he says that if anyone did hear what he said
to Timothy, anyone aspires to office, if anyone is above reproach,
Friends, in the construct there, it's very stressful for me grammatically,
but as I look at it and understand it, here's a way of explaining
this. One who is to be appointed, because
of what Paul says, as elder should be above reproach and be very
focused on that. Elders are appointed. I was appointed. Elders are appointed. They're
not divinely established. These maverick church planters,
these maverick evangelists, these maverick street preachers, these
maverick deacons and these mavericks, these guys and the other guys,
and they don't have a home church, don't even have a pastor to help
them grow up in the faith. But, you know, I sat in a hole
and I soaked up the rain of the Spirit of God. And I came out
and floated to my city. And God, you know, I belched
and out came a church. And I'm answering to nobody.
That doesn't work. Anyone who is appointed as an
elder is above reproach. Let's go through these one at
a time. There are three basic categories that we have here,
and then we'll list all these things. And this is going to
sound so much like sort of like a I don't know, a classroom. But I promise you don't look
at it that way, examine your pastor and examine yourself.
Anyone who is a pastor, anyone who is a Christian should be
above reproach. The word there, reproach, meaning
blameless, blameless. Someone who is a pastor should
be blameless. Someone who is a Christian should
be blameless. What does that mean? That means
everything we do in life, everywhere we go, are we able to be accused
of that which is unholy? Do we, are we seen in places
and in circumstances? Do what we put and post on our
social media pages, does it show something other than a Christ
centered life? Does it smell of old clothing
and old habits and old attitudes? Are we able to be blamed? These
three things, the person who is going to be the pastor must
be of high reputation. The person who is going to be
pastor must not please himself. And the person is going to be
pastor must be seen visibly, indeed, and in doctrine that
the doctrine is going to push the deeds. Above reproach, the
above reproach is blameless. We see that also paralleled,
if you will. And the context of Paul's teaching.
To Timothy. That no one should be able to
come and say, I'm accusing you of this, except they'd be lying
through their teeth. What is it in our lives that
cause others to think that we are indeed living a double life? What do we do, what do we have,
what do we talk about, what do we see with our eyes and listen
to with our ears, for the scriptures say that the eyes are the window
to the soul. Friends, that sin which we invite into our lives
is inviting if we are indeed in Christ and he and us is inviting
the very Lamb of God into that debauchery. Be very, very careful. To not downplay your sin. And
what is sin? What is the accusation? Oftentimes
we think of these things and we say, OK, being above reproach.
Well, you know, pastor doesn't go to bars and he doesn't drink
and smoke and dance or date girls who do and all this other kind
of stuff. He's not doing all these now. I've never heard him
curse. I didn't see him break the pulpit, though it does have
a crack in it. I don't know what's going on, so I can't blame him
for that. I can't blame him for this. I
can't bring him into a reproachable position in this way. What about
pride? What about arrogance? Lack of
concern or apathy. Must be above reproach. The pastor. must be the husband of one wife
if he is married, if he's married. And you'll notice that the blameless,
the reproach issue is recapitulated as it restated in verse seven. And that's how I want to really
focus on that next week in more detail. But he must have one
wife. Now, let me tell you what this
isn't saying. And for the sake of time, I can't
really pull this out. So this is one of those things
where you have to sort of trust my study, but don't take it As
absolute, until you do your own, be a Berean. It is not saying
that a man must be married and it is not saying that a man who
has been divorced cannot be a pastor. But it does say that a man who
is in his marriage must be fully dedicated to his wife and no
other. And when we see the purpose of the family being measured
as a way of seeing truly if the man is actually able to be governed,
to be measured in order to be To govern the church, we understand
that as Paul teaches in Ephesians chapter five, wives submit husbands
love as Christ loved the church by giving his life away. For
what purpose? To have a woman who stands in
line? No, to have a spotless, blameless, beautiful bride without
reproach. So when we look at our marriages,
we look at the marriage of pastors, when we look at our own relationships,
whether we're in dating relationships or whether we're married or whether
we're so far from it, we haven't even considered it as we get
to that place. If a man is married, his marriage
needs to be in order. Or he cannot pastor. Now, you
might say, well, my gosh, what do we do if something happens?
Well, you do what anything would do. If you fall down and break
your leg and you actually are a runner, then you don't run
for a little while till your legs heal. If you break your
finger and you play piano, you either bang on it like a clubber
or you either just don't play until your fingers heal. If you
spray poison in your eyes and you're a pilot, you don't fly
until your eyes are healed. And if you're a pastor and your
marriage gets in trouble and then you don't preach until you
get your marriage healed. Disqualification from ministry
is not a permanent forever. But we need to always pay close
attention. Church discipline is something that we believe
in. What does that mean? That means we want to correct
sin for the sake of unity. Because when you sin and you're
down and when you're falling away from the Lord, everybody
in the church is falling with you in empathy. When you're hurting and mourning
and weeping, your brothers and sisters in the body are mourning
and weeping and hurting with you. And when you rejoice, they're
rejoicing. So you must be the husband of
one wife, totally dedicated, and if he has children, children
must be believers. Now, let me share with you what
that means. Must having believing children. In other words, they're
not open. He explains what that means and
are not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
So if our children are rejecting the faith, And they live in our
house. How do we govern the home? How
do we govern the so-called house of God? We don't. Why? Because when our house is in
a wreck. And our children are gone astray, it takes our heart
away from shepherding the people of God. And so it is in those
seasons that the church surrounds each other and undergirds each
other and hopes and prays that the wayward child would come
back. Because typically what happens is when a child goes
astray, it's because the father of the home has not really parented
godly. Not always, but it is an indication
that needs to be looked into. Do your children have the charge
of debauchery and subordination? Well, I saw pastor's kids and
one of them talked back last week. Yeah. But does He allow
it? Do you allow your children to
do that in public? When you discipline them, is
it a rod of correction? Is it discipline to bring them
back to right standing? Or is it punitive? An elder or
an overseer is God's steward. What does that mean? A steward
is someone who has been given control of something that does
not belong to them. Friends, a pastor does not own
the people of the flock, they are not his, yet they are given
under his care, but they belong to Christ and Christ suffered
and was crucified to purchase them. And so as a steward, then
now Paul says again, they must be above reproach. He must be above reproach. And I believe what happens then
now is Paul begins to lay out what that looks like. What does
it mean? Are you blameless in these areas? Are you blameless in this in
this in this in this place as the overseer? And don't forget,
church, it is also for you to govern your own life and to measure
your own heart. Are you blameless in these areas?
I would suggest that fathers and men and young men and boys,
that they pay close attention for it is not your choice as
to whether or not you lead as the head of your home. It is
God's absolute command and he's placed you there. The question
is not, will I lead and be the head? The question is, will you
be Christlike in leading? So what is the blamelessness
look like? He must not be self. What? Must not be arrogant. Must not
be quick tempered, must not be drunkard, must not be violent,
must not be greedy for gain. So those are the negatives. Verse
seven, he throws out a bunch of negatives. You can't do this,
not this, not this, not this, not this. In verse eight, but
must be this. Paul loves to do that. Here's the negative. Here's
the positive. Here's the things I don't want to see. Here's the
things I do want to see. It's sort of like when you tell a
two-year-old or a three-year-old when they're talking and they're
hanging on the mini blinds. It's happened recently. And you
see the two-year-old or three-year-old hanging on the mini blinds, and
they're swinging, and they're having fun, and they're pulling.
And the mom and the dad, they come up and they say, don't pull
the mini blinds. Stop pulling the mini blinds.
Get down from the mini blinds. And they hear all that negative.
And what children hear, mini blind, pull the mini blind, get
the mini blind. They don't really hear the negative,
they hear the action. So they just jump right on in
there and keep pulling down the mini blinds until it falls down
and then they get beat with a chair, a broom, or a brush, or a flop
flap, or whatever it was, or a flip flop, sparry topside or
upside the forehead, whatever it might take. And then the next day they pull
the next mini blind down and then there's no mini blinds.
When the better thing would be, let's get down on the floor.
Let's come over here and do this. Let's sit down this way, because
then the child goes, oh, I'm not my mom or my dad's not talking
about this. He's talking about doing something
completely different. So the mindset totally changes
and it positively redirects. And I'm not talking psychology.
I'm talking theology. I believe Paul does the same thing. He's
not going to skirt the issues. You can't be this. You can't
be that. You can't be that. But you must be this. Because if we spend
our time, if I spend my time as a pastor and you spend your
time as the flock measuring me by what I'm not doing, is he
not doing that? Is he smoking, drinking, lying,
stealing? What is he doing? Oh, I tell
you, he must be arrogant. I think he's arrogant. Was he
arrogant? Without any positive action of looking at what is
coming out of our own hearts, then what happens there? I believe
we come into a place of bondage rather than freedom in the gospel.
So we must not be arrogant. A better way of saying this is
you must not be self-pleasing. Arrogance is rooted in pride.
Pride is rooted in self-worth and self-worth is rooted in self
intrinsically self. What's the word I'm looking for?
Just self-love. I'm right. I'm good. Y'all need
to listen to me. I know what I'm talking about.
You ever know anybody that way? You ever know any pastor that
way? If you ever hear me that way, you better do something
about it then, not three weeks later. And if you find yourself
in that same boat right now, then repent of it. Not be self-pleasing. In other words, the opposite
of self-pleasing is then what? Hospitable. You must be in a
place as an elder that you're not thinking
about what you want. But you're thinking about what's
best for the church, what's best for the world, what's best for
the gospel, what's best for the name of Christ. And so if you
think about servanthood, here's something for you. This is what
got me in trouble. A servant who does not serve
is no servant at all. A slave that doesn't serve his
master is not a good slave. A public servant who doesn't
serve the will or not necessarily the will, but the good of the
people to whom he is a servant is worthless, especially when
the servant fulfills his own desires and his own will and
his own love and affection, his own glory. That's what arrogance
is. And friends, I hate to say, yes,
I'm guilty of that historically. And by God's grace, I pray he
does not lead me to that temptation again. But friends, I know every
single moment just this morning in this world, all over the world,
there are pastors all over the place who are holding hostage
their church through some absolute arrogance. And they will tell
people who question them, don't question me. I'm the pastor,
a very wise mentor of mine. For about five years, told me
one time, when you say that you're the pastor. You stop being the
pastor. And then he stretched it into
leadership, he says, if you say you're a leader and then you
look behind you and no one's there, you're just a man taking
a walk. The sheep know the voice of Jesus
Christ. And if the shepherd of the sheep
is Jesus and the under shepherd pastor is following Jesus and
preaching the words of Jesus, the sheep of Jesus will follow
the words of Jesus. Must not be self-pleasing, must
not be arrogant, must not be angry, quick tempered. What is
quick tempered? Oh, I know Pat Tibbs got angry.
I heard him that day in his kitchen when he threatened to kill all
of his kids. Some of you were there. I'll take you out and
put you in the grave and preach your funeral." Boy, girl, whoever
it might be, everybody in the house would have backed up. Am
I next? Is that quick-temperedness? I don't know. It depends on whether
or not you call three weeks of putting up with it quick. But you also must see that even
when anger comes, it's not often. And when it does come, ever so
rarely, it's repented of. Do you repent of your anger or
do you justify? It's easy to say, you don't know
what those people said to me, it doesn't matter what they said to me, what did
they say to Jesus? He was brought up under charges, he was lied
about, but he did not come up and fight against that, he kept
silent. Like a pastor of 40 years told
me in the bay one time as we sat around, a bunch of us pastors
sat around and all of us were in our 30s and he was well into
his late 60s. And he said, it used to make
me mad when people tell me I was a fool and I was a liar. And
I used to get so defensive and prove them wrong. And I got to
realize they were telling the truth. And maybe I wasn't lying
about that, but I have lied before. So in essence, I'm a liar. So
I need to thank them for continuing to remind me of what God saved
me from. But at the same time, I don't walk in that quick temperedness. Friends, there is no better way
to lose your witness than to be someone who's known for losing
his temper. Losing his temper. It's so easy. And I remember young in my ministry,
you're already I'm still young in my ministry, but younger in
my ministry, when when when I felt like that as the pastor, I could
be just like Jesus in the temple. And he went in and I had somebody
argue with me one time that Jesus went in and shooed the animals,
shoot, shoot, shoot, get that stinky animal out of here. And then he went out and he told
these people, y'all need to pick this stuff up now. This is inappropriate.
Clean it up. And I remember her telling me
that because... The very week before I had just
sort of given an illustration and I'd gotten really excited
and I was preaching about that. I don't even know what. But anyway,
I said, you know, Jesus, this is how Jesus responded to the
wickedness of the temple when they were where they were mocking
the glory of God in worship. And he went in there and he dumped
over their tables and he beat their animals and he whipped
them and he slashed them and he hurt them. And he said, don't
make my father's house a thin of thieves, but make it should
be a house of prayer. And I just went. and a karate
kick or judo chop or something like that. And it offended her. And I apologize
that it offended her, but we disagreed that he got a whisk
broom and shooed them out. But I used to think that that
was appropriate for pastors, that when the sheep were stubborn,
beat them and shoo them out. Well, Jesus didn't shoo the sheep
out. He shoos the wolves out. He loves the sheep, and as they
go meh and mess all over the place, he lays his life on the
cross and dies for them. Hot-tempered. You know what hot-tempered
looks like. Must not be drunkard. What is
a drunkard? A teetotaler. I am, but it's
not because that I believe the Bible says you cannot drink alcohol.
It does not say that. The Bible says you cannot be
drunk. But I would say that if you drink, you check your motives
on alcohol, because if you need to drink, I would suggest you
not drink. If you really, really, really want to drink, I suggest
you be careful. If you just enjoy a drink every
now and then, just watch your testimony. A little wine for
the stomach is a good thing, says Paul to Timothy. But drunkenness. Whether it be through drink or
pill or joint or whatever, when your mind is not lucid, when
you are now high or drunk, you are sinning before God because
you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, but rather what is Paul
saying in Ephesians 4? Do not be drunk on wine. The
antithesis, but be negative, then positive. Be filled with
the Holy Spirit. And I know that's debatable,
and I'm not saying go drink. I'm just saying, and I don't,
and probably never will, but a drunk pastor, a bar hopper,
wine guzzling, have a good time at my Super Bowl party, would
you want to stand under that teaching? Do not be drunk or violent. What
is violent? Wrath. Afflicting justice. Vengeful. Are you vengeful? Do you find
yourself wishing, not necessarily praying imprecatorily for others,
praying God will get them, smite them, burn them with a magnifying
glass? Outbursts? violent, someone who
likes to punch and fight. I did have someone come to me.
I was preaching one day and I had bruises all over me. We had done a belt test or sash
test for one of my Kung Fu levels. And it's about 12 hours to finish
the whole test. And it's over two days. And it
was brutal. And I was beat up really, really
bad and had bruises all over me. My eye was bruised up and
my lip was busted and I had bruises all up my forearms. And if they
see my legs, I mean, somebody just took the twelve bats and
just took me to town and somebody came up. So what are all those
bruises? Hemophiliac? What's going on? I know it's
my kung fu. I mean, we were fighting yesterday
and darn if they didn't go and call some of the other elders
in the church and make an accusation that I was prone to violence.
Because the Bible says you can't be prone to violence. not be
violent. Well, violent is going to blows
always want to fight, always want to argue, always want to
be the one that has the that has the last word. And if you
brought in, they were going to put their finger in your face.
You know what a violent person is. When the Bible tells us to
be at peace, someone who is not greedy, the leader of God's church
must not be greedy for gain. What does that mean? An embezzler,
a pilferer, someone who steals, who does dishonest business transactions,
who sells watered down gasoline, who sells retreaded tires for
new, who says, hey, I did all this work, but you only did half
to pay me for it all. And all of these things combined,
not only should pastors not do that, Christians shouldn't do
that. Because it's stealing. It's dishonest game. And it rules,
it comes out of a desire to have to have more shameful profit. This is where I believe corporations
who make billions on the backs of impoverished people are greedy.
What do we expect from Babylon? But if someone claims to be in
Christ and they do these things, they cannot stand that way. Christian
business owner, Christian service person, Christian doctor,
Christian, whatever. Be honest. Don't be greedy. And then the opposite of those
things, the positive is, but be hospitable, a lover of good,
self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. Look at the
end of that in verse 8. Be hospitable. Now, I have someone
tell me one time, Pastor, you've never invited me to dinner. And
I felt so bad, I didn't know you wanted to come. Well, the Bible says you must
be hospitable. I said, well, if you came to my house, I'd
treat you fairly. I'd treat you kindly. I said,
but with the life we live, we don't throw dinner for ourselves
one night a week, maybe. We might, when are we going to
have time to open our home and have dinner parties? That's not,
I'm not talking about hospitality. The word there means the lover
of strangers, lover of those who are not in the church, not
don't don't just have the little clique, but these are my people
and we don't want anybody else coming around. But lovers of
those who are from the outside coming in when people you see
people in the in the world, are you hospitable? Are you open
to them? Christian, are you open? Would you open your home for
someone in need? Would you open your home and
have people live with you if they were in need? Have you? Maybe you can't, but would you
desire to help? Are you hospitable? We have so
watered down the reality of what the Scripture teaches us by putting
it into sort of the bourgeois mindset of our culture. We're
going to have a party and we're going to invite people that we
really don't like. We're going to invite them to be hospitable. How about you
take that person and let them live with you? Loving good, loving goodness,
loving virtue, not loving the ungodly, loving things that are
beneficial to others. As 1 John says, that if we have
the world's goods and we see our brother in need, but close
our heart to him, we are a liar and the love of God is not in
us. Do we see our brothers and sisters in need and go, I'm not
helping them. It's one thing to say, I can't.
That's another thing to say, I'm not. Do you love good? Do you love life? Do you love
truth and honesty and integrity? Is what we feed our souls good
and honorable and upright and holy and fair? Look at this self-controlled,
upright, holy and disciplined. They can all go together. But
we know what righteousness is. We know what holiness is. We
are to strive for holiness, church. A pastor ought to live a holy
life and strive for it. A pastor ought to be one who
is self-controlled. A pastor ought to be one who
is able to put the doughnuts down and put this down and not
fall to that temptation, just as the church ought to be able
to do that. For what good is it for one who leads the church
to say, hey, you need to be controlled, while he jumps off a cliff after
something? You must be disciplined. Verse
9 will close. He must hold firm. How must he hold? Firmly. Friends, and we'll talk about
this in more detail. All of those things could be
the epitome of what you see in a pastor. And you say, yeah,
I see that. But failing in one is failing
in all. And church, you can walk the
walk and love it on the way there. But if we don't hold firm to
the trustworthy word, look, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus
Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge
of the truth, which accords with godliness and hope of eternal
life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
and at the proper time manifested his word through the preaching
with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior
to Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God
the Father and Jesus Christ our Savior. Do you hold firm to the
trustworthy word as taught? Does the pastor hold firm to
the trustworthy word as taught? And I'm not here to make an indictment,
but I'm here to tell you right now that the day I stand up here
and have so much to say, that's not the Word of God. You call
me on it. And the second day I do it, you
bring me before the church. See how that works. Really? You're serious? Absolutely. Pastor,
everything you said just then wasn't in the Bible. Last week,
Tuesday night, you said everything but what the Bible said. You
were pulling stuff out of the rabbit's rear end. The rabbit's
out of the hat and then out of the rabbit's rear end. It was
coming out of everywhere but the Word of God. You need to
bring it to the attention of each other. If it's me, bring
it to my attention. If it's you, somebody else, bring
it to their attention. Hold firm to the trustworthy
word as taught. Why? What is the word of God
as taught firmly held? Why? Because it is through the
teaching of the word that the shepherds of the flock are able
to govern and minister and shepherd and care and feed and fend and
fight. So that he may be able to give
instruction in sound doctrine, sound teaching, This is an absolute
anomaly holistically in America's church. It blows my mind, not
just that it's so rare, it's that when it's brought to the
attention of others, see, also to rebuke those who contradict
it. When I bring that to the attention of other pastors, brothers,
friends, they laugh at me. You might think, well, what kind
of arrogant, You see, when I said to you last week, there was a
season of my ministry that I would have at that time called the
prime of it. I was unqualified to be there. We need to pray. We need to pray
for ourselves. Pray for our fellow brothers
and sisters. And pray for the Lord's grace
and His will to be done in Grace Truth Church. And pray for the
pastor of your church and for the elders of your church. And
pray for those who share the name of Christ in other congregations. Because when I think about what
Paul told Timothy, chapter 2 of 1 Timothy, pray for all people. And he also tells us that there
will be a time when people will not endure sound doctrine. When is that? It's right now. It was then and that day and
it's been there ever since the world began. Satan tempted Eve
and she did not stand for sound doctrine and she fell. And all through Christendom,
all through the history of the church, from the time of the
apostles to date, sound doctrine is not important. People visit and I try to call them and they
block my phone. That happened recently. visit and they get excited and
then somebody says something to them in the community, I can't
believe you go down there to that place. Did you know some people
call us a cult? Newsflash. Remember what I told
us two years ago when we moved into this building? That if you
align yourself with this ministry, that you may be ostracized and
it may cost you everything. And you know what? It's not this
ministry, it's the Word of God. Because whether you were here
or there or yesteryear, if you stand as a part of the people
who hold fast and strong and bold to the Word of God, you
will be looked at by your so-called fellow Christians as a cult. Now, one of the warning labels
of a cult is when someone who leads it warns you that you might
be in one. And don't worry about it. And
that might be a warning sign, too. They might tell you not
to worry about it. But friends, we have a charge. And the charge is that the people
of God live a life that's exemplary. Why? So that we can feel better
than others? No. Because we've been called to
a greater purpose. The purpose of praising and reflecting
the glorious grace of God. The purpose of the world looking
and seeing and going, I see God by seeing the work of God. Well,
you get that. Jesus says in John 6 when they
say, what must we do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus says
this is the work of God, that you believe on the Son whom He
has sent. When you look at the reflection
of the church When the scripture teaches that the church is to
be, to reflect the glory of God and the nature of God, what God
does is God is completely pleased with himself. How egotistical? No, but he's worthy. He's perfect. He's holy. He's righteous. He's
awesome. He's powerful. And in his power and wisdom that
surpasses all understanding of humanity, When we were dead in
our trespasses, he made us alive in Jesus Christ to the praise
of his glorious grace, quoting Paul in Ephesians. So therefore,
the purpose of the church, Ephesians 3, verse 10, is to display the
manifold wisdom of God to the cosmos and the rulers and the
heavenly places. And the children thereof of the
rulers of darkness. Not because we're better, because
we've been recreated. And when the church doesn't live
to function that way, the church is not the church. And Jesus
is very clear in John's Apocalypse revelation that he will take
away the lampstand of the people who claim his name, who do not
shine. As the body. Friends, If you wash your face
every day and never shower your body. It doesn't matter how clean
your face is, how white your teeth are. You will smell. Your clothes will be tattered,
they will rot on your flesh. Jesus is the head of the church,
we are his body. Why would we want to be a tattered,
ragged, rotted, wicked, sinful body walking under the glorious
face of Christ. We don't. We don't. And I hate to use this, but the
old acumen that everything rises and falls with leadership. Friends,
if your pastor isn't striving, you won't. And we won't, together. Do you
know how you're saved? And what you're saved to? If
you do, I promise you it will follow the power of God in you. For as Peter says, I promise
you the last thing I'm going to say, His divine power has
granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
How? through the knowledge of him
who called us to his own glory and to his own excellence, by
which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises,
so that through them you may become partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world
because of sinful desire. For this reason, make every effort
to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue, with knowledge
and knowledge, with self-control and self-control, with steadfastness
and steadfastness, with godliness and godliness, with brotherly
affection and brotherly affection, with love. For if these qualities
are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective
and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For
whoever lacks these qualities is so short-sighted that he is
blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former
sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make
your calling and your election sure, for if you practice these
qualities, you will never fail." Sounded like qualifications for
elders, didn't it? No. It's for all the Christians
who have been scattered. including you and me. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this day, for this
moment where we are able to come and to worship and to hear your
word. And Lord, I thank you for the
soberness that we have right this moment. Just being able to see clearly
the very nature of the work that you've done in us. And we don't
stand claiming sinlessness. We stand claiming righteousness. And as we strive and repent fully
and forever believing, Lord, we know that you will complete
the work that you've started. And I pray, Lord, that as a under
shepherd, That you would continue to work in me the holiness that
is mine in Christ. And that those who are under
the teaching of the word through me, your word, your teaching
through my voice and time, Lord, that they would see it and that
they would grow in it as well. Father, help us to learn to pray
for those who fall. To grasp them, to hold them. that we might not fall into temptation
ourselves, but to strive in a way that our calling and election
is sure, that we prove, that we prove, that we prove that
we are indeed born again. And we pray these things in Jesus
name. Amen.