Titus chapter 1. Let's read some of the verses
here in Titus chapter 1. Maybe begin in verse 5 again.
Titus chapter 1. For this cause left I thee in Crete,
that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanted, the
things that are needful, lacking, and ordain elders and bishops,
pastors, overseers in every city as I had appointed thee. If any
be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children,
not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless
as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to
wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of
hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. Hold in fast the faithful word,
as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine
both to exhort and to convince the gang-sayers. For there are
many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they
of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert
whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy
lucre's sake." Here we begin our study the last
two or three weeks on these elders, the pastors. He calls them bishops
here and elders. And this is one of the precious
promises that the Lord promised His church all the way back over
in the book of Jeremiah that He would give them pastors. Pastors
are essential, precious gifts to congregations. We all probably
have memorized this verse in Jeremiah 3.15. I will give you
pastors according to My own heart which I feed you. with knowledge
and with understanding. I will give you pastors. So pastors are a gift. I want
you to look over in Ephesians, a couple of places, one over
in Ephesians, and then we'll look over in Psalm 68 where Ephesians
was quoted from, but look in Ephesians chapter 4. You can
put your little marker and Titus there if you want to and we'll
come back to that a little bit later. But here he tells us something
about the gifts that the Lord Jesus gave to His
people. But look in Ephesians chapter
4 and verse 7. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore
He said, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is
it but that He also descended first unto the lower parts of
the earth? He that descended is the same
also that ascended far above all heavens, that He might fulfill
all things. And when He ascended on high,
in verse 11, He gave these gifts, apostles, prophets, and pastors
and teachers. But I was noticing here what
he said back in verse 8. Wherefore he said, when he ascended
on high, he led captivity captive. Now that means two things. One
of the things that that means is that you and I have enemies. And our enemies are Christ's
enemies. And His enemies were Satan His
enemy was sin. His enemy was death. His enemy was the curse of the
law. And He overcame and defeated all of these enemies and led
them captive. You remember how they used to
do it in the old times? Even when Jerusalem was taken
by Titus, the Roman general. He brought those men out that
had fought against Him and He took them captive. And He led
them in chains all the way back to Rome. It was called leading
your captives captive. And what the Lord Jesus did,
He triumphed over all His enemies. And He made a show of them openly. He spoiled them. He destroyed
him that had the power of death, the devil, made Him captive,
and death our mortal enemy, we spent all our lives in bondage
to the thought of death, didn't we? But what did the Lord Jesus
do about death? When He raised from the dead,
He said, I am He that is alive, and I was dead, and I'm alive
forevermore, and I have the keys of death and hell. The curse
of the law, what did He do with that? He cursed it, didn't He?
He was made a curse, and being made a curse, He led that thing
captive. What did He do to sin? Well,
He defeated it, didn't He? He put it away by the sacrifice
of Himself. And you can almost picture Him,
the great Captain of our salvation. And He's taken all of our enemies
captive. And now He's got them in chains.
They're under His control. You know, Satan is not loosed
like he was back in the Old Testament. He was basically free to come
and go and deceive the nation, wasn't he? And he did deceive
the nation. You know, he's on a chain now.
He's the Lord's captive. The Lord Jesus has taken him
captive. You know, sin doesn't reign anymore.
Ain't that amazing? Sin don't get the victory anymore. Christ has got the victory over
it. So all our enemies, He's led captivity captive. But it
means more than that when He said He's led captivity captive. A great number of poor sinners
that had been held captive, He now has freed them from their
captivity and they are the happy captives of Jesus Christ. He's
freed you from your enemies and now you're His captive. He's freed you from sin. He's
freed you from the curse of the law. He's freed you from the
oppression of the devil. And you know something? He's
freed you from death. Death can't bother you. You don't
have to fear death. You're His captive now. Isn't
that a wonderful thought? He led captivity captive. And
then He says He gave gifts unto man. And then He tells us here
the gifts that He gave. He said He gave apostles, prophets,
evangelists, and then pastors and teachers. Now why did He
do that? Why did He give the church pastors,
for instance? Well, look in verse 12. For the
perfecting, that word means the equipping, of the saints for
the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, you know something? A pastor
is so essential to a congregation that the saints are not going
to be properly equipped without a pastor. I'm not saying they
won't be equipped, but I'm saying they won't be properly equipped.
They won't be as edified as they could be if they had a pastor. And look in verse 13, Till we
all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of
the Son of Man, into a mature man, unto the measure of the
statue of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind
of darkness by the sly of men and cunning craftiness whereby
they lie in wait to deceive." You know, can you imagine what
the early church would have been without apostles and prophets? If the Lord Jesus had not ascended
on high and gave the early church apostles, what kind of condition
would they have been in? And we can apply that same thing
to pastors now, can't we? And teachers now. What kind of
condition would the church be in if the Lord Jesus did not
give them pastors? It would be pathetic, wouldn't
it? It would be pathetic. As we said
last week, we've all been there at one time or another. But look
over here now in Psalm chapter 68 with me, because the apostle
was quoted from Psalm chapter 68. He led captivity captive
and gave gifts to men. Look here at what he says in
chapter 68 and verse 18. Here's where he's quoting this.
And he tells us just a little bit more about this. When you see a passage in the
New Testament where the Old Testament is quoted, read it in the New
Testament, get acquainted with it, and then go back and look
at it in the Old Testament, and it always enlightens you just
a little bit. Look what he said in verse 18.
Thou hast ascended on high, Now we know who that's talking about
now, don't we? This is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Paul
said that's Him. He ascended on high and He led
captivity captive. We know now what that means.
And He hath received gifts for men. Now I love this, for they're
rebellious also. Isn't that wonderful? When He
first comes to us, what kind of people are we? We're rebellious,
aren't we? We're under the dominion of sin,
its reigning over us. Satan has taken us captive. We're
under the curse of the law. And what does he do? He frees
us from that captivity and he says, You're my slaves now. You're
my slaves. We come under captivity to him.
He frees us from our rebellion. And then what does he do? Well,
he not only assembles us like we are, makes us a church, but
he calls some of these former rebels to be pastors. and He
gives them the gift to preach, and He sends them to His people,
the church, and they preach to the church. They preach the gospel. And then what happens? He gives us a little nugget here.
Why does He set pastors over His people to preach the gospel?
Look here, "...that the Lord God might dwell among them." You know what you and I can be
assured of? where the gospel is preached and where the gospel
is believed, where the gospel is embraced and loved, where
the Son of God is worshipped in the gospel. You know something?
The Lord God is among us. The Lord God is among us. Everywhere
the gospel is preached, the Lord is among us. That's why He gives
us pastors to preach to us. And that's how we can know He's
among us, where two or three are gathered in my name, I'm
among them, when the gospel is preached there. He's in your
heart. I don't care where you go, Christ goes with you. He
abides with you. But I tell you, it's special
when we come here, is it not? It's special. And one other thing
that makes it special, when God sends His pastors over the church
to open up the Bible and preach to them, the Lord is in our midst
as a church. It's a gift. It's a gift. Pastors
are a gift. And wherever, wherever Pastors are lacking. If a congregation
don't have a pastor, then it's lacking, isn't it? It's lacking. I left you there
on the Isle of Crete that you should set in order the things
that are wanted, the things that are lacking, gifts. There will never be a substitute
for a pastor. There never will be a substitute
for a pastor. Just as there was no substitute
for the apostles and prophets and evangelists in the early
church, there's no substitute for pastors now. There's just
not. A person may stay home and say,
well, I'm going to watch live streaming. That's no substitute. That's
no substitute. There's no substitute, brothers
and sisters, for a pastor. There's just not. There's not. Last week we looked here at the
characters of the pastors. We looked at that last week,
and I want to give you about five more things concerning a
pastor. And see, maybe help us to discern a little
bit some things about a pastor. And it doesn't bother me talking
about a pastor since I'm one because I'm still learning these
things myself. So it doesn't bother me. I need
to talk about them myself. And since this is our subject
in our text tonight in Titus, let me give you five things about
a pastor, about an elder, as best we can to discern. And let
me give them to you in this order. First of all, about a pastor,
he is to be saved himself. A pastor is to be saved himself. I tell you what, if I was in
the congregation and we were looking for a pastor, one of
the first things I want to know and talk to a man about, do you
know the Lord yourself? Don't talk to me about the new
birth. That's fine. I want to hear about it. But
have you been born again? Judas went out and preached that
men should repent, and he's about it himself. I want a man who
knows Christ, don't you? I want a man who's been washed
himself, who believes himself, who is saved. I don't want a
man to preach Christ to me if he don't know the Savior himself.
That's the first thing. That's important. It's short,
but it's important. And secondly, a good character. A good character. Is he concerned about representing
the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he concerned enough to keep
his own heart and watch over his ways? Does it bother him
if he thinks he's bringing shame on the Lord's name or on the
church? Does that bother him? I want
a man, if he stumbles and falls, it will break his heart. I want
him to have some character, don't you? And that's important. That's
important. Before anything else, these are
two things I want to know about a man to try to discern about
him. if I can. We are told here in Titus 2.
He said, Show yourself a pattern of good works. And Paul was writing
to Timothy and he said, Be an example of the believers in word,
what you say, in your conduct, in your love, in spirit, in faith,
and purity. What kind of conduct does he
have? Thirdly is this. I want to discern
this about him. Is he apt to teach? Is he apt
to preach? Is he gifted as God gifted? You know God doesn't call everybody
to preach, does He? He just doesn't do it. I remember we had a fellow
come here. I let him preach, I don't know,
two or three or four times. Not only was he not preaching
the gospel, he couldn't preach. He just flat couldn't preach.
And I finally got him off of his self and I told him. I said,
listen, you can't preach. You're not preaching the gospel
and you can't preach. And he took it to heart and he
quit trying. And he saved himself and a lot
of other people trouble. I know two dear pastors. Most
of you know both of them. Both of them have got men aside
in the congregation and told them, you don't have to give
to preach. Quit trying. Await. God doesn't call everybody to
preach, does He? There's a definite call to the
public ministry and when God calls a man to preach, He gifts
him. Now He gifts them differently. There are some He gives more
bility than others, but everyone He calls, He gifts. Peter said,
As every man hath received the gift, so let him minister. We are not born with gifts. We
are born with natural gifts, and it may help in the ministry,
but I don't care how many natural gifts we have. A call to the
ministry is unique. It's special. And God has to
call a man to preach. Whatever gifts God has given
you, some of you have helps. Some of you are good teachers.
But use that gift for God's glory, especially if it's a gift of
preaching. And that gift is developed through
use. Even though it's a gift, it has
to develop. All of us have seen young preachers
start out and it's pretty rough, ain't it? It's pretty bad. But
they grow. They develop. How does that gift
develop? Reading. It develops by prayer. It develops by meditation. It
develops by experience. It develops by preaching, using
the gift. Look back over here in 1 Timothy
Chapter 4. The Apostle Paul talked about
this. Let's go to chapter 4 and look in verse 13. Brother Scott
Richardson was telling me one time he knew this young preacher,
and he said he was such a good preacher. He was just so filled
with Scriptures as he preached. And he noticed that he began
just to back off from preaching. And when he did preach, it was
all empty. And he said, what had happened? The young man stopped reading.
He stopped reading. And here's what Paul tells Timothy.
Look here in verse 12. Let no man despise thy youth,
being an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in charity,
in spirit, in faith, in purity, till I come, give attendance
to reading. to exaltation, to teaching, doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is
in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying
on of hands of the Presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give
thyself wholly to them, that thy propheting may appear unto
all." So when God calls a preacher, He gifts him, and then he grows,
that gift develops. But I tell you, if God don't
give him the gift, he can't develop it again. Have you ever sat under
a man that you heard him the first time and you thought, if
I ever sit under him again, I'll die? That's happened to me. That's happened to me. Sometimes
I preach that way. I thought if I ever preach again,
I'll die and everybody will hear me. But I was sitting under a
guy at one time and it was so obvious. God had not given that
man any gifts to preach. And I about died and everybody
in the congregation about died. And the pastor was sitting there
behind him chewing his fingernails off. Remember that? Don't tell
that. Don't tell. You might tell who
we're talking about. Not gifted. So we want our pastors
to have gifts. Do we not? We want God to gift
it. We want God to gift it. Two more
things. These are the last two things
concerning our pastor. And I left these two to last
because I can't really explain these two things. But I know
them when I see them. And the fourth thing is this.
There is a certain degree of discernment that God gives pastors. I cannot explain that. This discernment
is not infallible. He can err in discernment. But
there is no doubt when God calls a pastor He gives him a certain
degree of discernment. You've seen that, haven't you?
I've seen it in other pastors. Some of you have said you've
seen it in me. But it's a gift that God gives of discerning
things. You discern there's trouble ahead.
You nip it in the bud. You discern what needs to be
said, what doesn't need to be said, What needs to be done,
what doesn't need to be done, there's a certain discernment
that you have. That's why a pastor is called
a watchman. They sat on the walls and they
watched. And they didn't blow the bugle and wake everybody
up because they'd seen a bush move. And I tell you, they didn't sit
there and look at what they thought was a bush move blowing with
the wind when it was the enemy. They had to have some discernment
of what's out there. Is that just a bush blowing or
is that an enemy? And they're called shepherds
because when shepherds led the sheep up in a valley, they had
to know what was in the mountains. They had to be careful in certain
passes where bears and lions would hide. If a sheep was sick,
they had to know what medication, where the pastors were, what
feed to give them. So there is some discernment
that God gives a pastor. He has to have it. Like I said,
it's not infallible. He can make a mistake and he
mustn't lean on this discernment. But I tell you, it's not only
a needful thing, a helpful thing, but I think it's an essential
thing. It's essential to have this discernment. And fifthly is this. And this
I think probably may be as important, may be more important than the
rest of them. Discern if God has sent him. Boy, this is so
important. Has God sent him? How can they
preach except they be sent? There's men who have gifts, but
God has not sent them. I can't always explain that and
when he doesn't send a pastor or a preacher, you know he won't
profit people very much. Listen to Romans chapter 10 and
verse 14. How shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. They bring glad tidings of good
things. And let me add two words that
will probably explain what I'm trying to say. These two little
words to me. They bring glad tidings of good
things to me. The pastor. Is He bringing these
glad tidings of the Gospel, is He bringing them to my heart?
Are they coming to my heart? That's how I know personally
that God has sent the pastor. I think we've all said under
men that we realize they were gifted, but they did us no good. Everything they said went over
our head or by us or around us, but nothing went to our hearts.
And we could say this, God has not sent Him to me. God has not
sent Him to me. I often think of Brother Henry
Mahan, and I've been places with Henry, and he's preached here
for us several times, and I've been to other places where he
preached. And one of the things I've noticed about the preaching
of Henry Mahan, when he preached a message, people in that congregation
heard and they understood exactly what he was saying. It was amazing. I've seen men and heard men testify
that they had preached to their congregation and nobody got anything
out of what they were saying. They didn't understand what they
were saying. Really, they weren't hearing what they were saying.
But when Henry came and preached to them, he went home to their
hearts. And here's the reason, God sent
Him. That's it, isn't it? God sent
Him. And when God sends a man, He
gives people ears to hear what He says. Here's what Paul said in I Corinthians.
He said, Brother, when I came to you, I came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom. I did not come with the wisdom
of men or the wisdom of this world, declaring unto you the
testimony of God. I determined to know nothing
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of men's wisdom,
but listen, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power for this
reason, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. And what Paul is saying, when
I come to you preaching the gospel to you, he said it had nothing
to do with me, It had nothing to do with my character or my
education, but it had everything to do with your faith taking
hold of the message that I preached because it comes to you in power,
in demonstration of the Spirit and power. When God sends a man
to preach, when God sends him, it goes beyond that man's ability.
It goes beyond His character. It comes from God. When God sends,
God speaks through that man. We are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you. God beseeched you by us. And what He is saying there,
God is speaking through us to you. Does God speak to people? He does, doesn't He? Through
these voices. Through these voices. There was a time when God spake
to the fathers by the prophets. And now He's speaking to us through
His Son. And His Son is still speaking.
He's speaking through this Word as preachers preach it. And the
way we know that God has sent a man, God speaks to us through
that man. He speaks to us through that
man. If the message of the Gospel
never comes to us, to our hearts, as glad tidings, if it never
comes to me and you as glad tidings of good things, then there's
two things we have to consider. If while I'm preaching, the Gospel
never comes to your heart as good news and you're able to
take hold of it and believe it, And it don't bring joy to your
heart. There's two things that you have
to consider. One is God's not sent me at all. He's just not
sent me at all. Or He's not sent me to you. He's
not sent me to you. Because when God sends a man,
He speaks to men through that man. And if He's not speaking
to you through me, then that's the two things we have to consider.
That's why it's so important It goes beyond character. It
goes beyond a man's ability. It comes right down to God sending
him and speaking through that man. This is one of the things
that I've learned to pray for. If I go off to a conference,
we have a preacher here, our teachers. On Saturday, I try
to make it a point, especially, Lord, in the morning, please
speak to my heart through these men. Speak to the children's
heart as Wanda teaches to them. It doesn't happen very often.
I wish it happened more. But when it happens, it's a wonderful
thing for God to speak to you through a man. And when you hear
His voice in the preaching of the Gospel, you hunger for more,
don't you? You hunger for more. If you've
ever heard His voice, You want to hear it again and again and
again. You read back some of our forefathers in the 1800s
and way on back, and they gathered in caves. They gathered in barns
in the wintertime. They gathered in fields by the
thousands and stood for hours to hear one man preach the Gospel
because they said God is speaking through them. God has sent that
man. That's the kind of pastors we
need, isn't it? That's the kind of pastors we need. Solomon wrote that wonderful
love song, Songs of Solomon, about the little Shulamite and
her lover, how she loved him. And then he begins to close that
little book, and here's what he says. This is what the Shulamite
says to her lover, O thou that dwelleth in the gardens, the
gardens of the heart bringing forth fruit, the companions hearken
to thy voice. Cause me to hear it. Cause me to hear it. Oh, that
voice is life-giving, is it not? It's life-giving. And here's
the importance of having a God-sent pastor. The Lord speaks to men
through him. He said, The hour is coming when
the dead shall hear His voice. How do they hear it? Through
the preaching of the Gospel. And they that hear shall live. It's a life-giving voice. I remember
when Saul of Tarsus was on the Damascus road, and remember the
Lord struck him down very late in the dirt. And the voice said,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And you know that voice brought
life to Saul, quickened him, opened his understanding, saved
him. And you remember what he said about that voice? He said,
Those men who were with me, they indeed saw the light. but they
heard not the voice of him that spake to me." And that's what
happens in a congregation. The preacher will be preaching
the gospel and the Lord will speak to this one and bless him. The Lord will speak to that one
and convert him. But he speaks through this preacher,
this man that he's sent to preach. Don't you crave his voice. Don't
you savor that little shootle, my Lord, cause me to hear it.
Cause me to hear it. It's food for my soul. It feeds
me with the knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ, my Lord. Paul
said, I count all things lost for that knowledge, didn't he?
The knowledge of Christ, my Lord. The knowledge to know that in
Christ dwells all the fullness and to know that I'm in Him accepted. and that I'm complete in Him
and that He loves me and has forgiven all my sins. Oh, did
you hear what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. And He
has to speak that to our hearts, doesn't He? Have you ever heard
a message from a preacher and you just played it over and over
and over again? It's because the Lord spoke to
you through that message. I've got one message. I bet you
I've listened to that thing a hundred times. And I'm not exaggerating.
I like to take it with me just about everywhere I go. Because
every time I play it, there it is. And it comes with power to
my heart just over and over. And I just crave it. I crave
it. There's a restaurant over there
in Anderson. And I never go by there because
I can't resist it. Skyline Chili. They've got these
little short hot dogs. And it's full of cholesterol.
And you put one on a bun, and they put that skyline chili loaded
with cinnamon, and they put the cheese on top of that, and I
order two, cram them down, I leave, and I never look back there where
they're fixing them, because I can't take the temptation. And every time I go through there,
there's another place in Ohio I can't avoid it. In there my
little car goes, and I stop and get a couple. You know why? I
crave those things. I crave them. Isn't that the
way it is when you hear His voice? You crave Him. You crave His
voice. You've got to hear it. When God is speaking, if God
has sent a man to preach, the pastor himself can undervalue
that gift. He cannot understand it and appreciate
it enough himself. And what happens when he doesn't
do that? He'll neglect it. He won't give
himself wholly to it, which he must. He must read and read and
read and meditate and pray and seek the Lord and give himself
wholly to this. But if he don't realize what
a gift this is, he's apt not to preach it. And I tell you
what happens if you folks don't realize the preciousness of that
gift. You know what you'll do? You'll not attend the man's ministry.
You'll look for excuses to miss if you don't value that gift.
It's important to value that gift. What does it mean for God
to send a man to preach? Why, that's a gift that can't
be estimated, can it? Look back over it one more time
and quickly. No, we can't. We can't. That
would take you too long. We'll look here at verse 9 next
time, holding fast to the faithful word, and see what the Apostle
Paul said about the word, the high estimation he had of the
word. We'll look at that next week. Greg, would you dismiss us?