Titus chapter 1. If you want
to find both of those places, they are parallel passages. I just wanted to read the parallel
passage to where we are studying over in 1 Timothy chapter 3. We are studying on the qualifications
of an elder, and this is the parallel passage to Titus chapter
1. So look here in 1 Timothy chapter
3 and verse This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of
a bishop, a pastor, an elder, an overseer, he desireth a good
work. A bishop then must be blameless,
the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given
to hospitality, apt to teach, able to teach, not given to wine,
nor stracker, nor greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler,
not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his
children in subjection, with all reverence, all gravity. For
if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take
care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted
up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover
he must have a good report of them that are without, lest he
fall into reproach and snare of the devil. Now turn over in
our text where we've been studying in Titus chapter 1 and look here in verse 6. Let's
go back to verse 5 and begin in verse 5. Titus chapter 1 verse
5, For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest
set in order the things that are wanted and ordain elders
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 temperance,
holding fast the faithful word, as he hath been taught, that
he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince
the gang sayers." The pastor is somewhat a paradox, really,
within his own heart anyway. Paul said to Timothy, If a man
desire the office of a bishop, if a man desire to be a pastor,
He said he desires a good work. There has to be a desire there
in a man's heart to pastor. There has to be. You know, if
you tried to pastor without having the desire, it would probably
kill you and everybody else around you. You've got to have a desire
to pastor if you're going to pastor. But while he has this
desire, he also has a sense of dread. I've done several jobs
in my life and this is the most dreadful job I've ever had to
face. In that sense, while you desire
it and it's a joyful work, yet there is that dread to it. Paul
put it this way. He said, when I came to you to
preach the gospel, I came to you in weakness and in fear and
in much trembling. And he had this holy dread about
him. I don't know if it was knowing
the task that was set before him, speaking to eternity-bound
souls, representing God, being ambassador for Christ. But it
is so serious, it makes a man tremble. Moses, you remember
Moses, he said, Lord, send Aaron. Send Aaron. And Jeremiah said,
Don't send me, I'm just a child. So that's the paradox that the
pastor finds himself in. I think teachers, anybody that
steps out to represent the Lord, finds themselves in that in a
way. There's that desire to do it, and yet there's that dread
to do it. We used to call that in the Scriptures,
we used to call that the burden of the Word of the Lord. So that's
the first thing. But secondly, a desire is not
enough. He must have the desire, but
the desire is not enough. I have talked to women who desired
to be pastors. We had a lady here in our congregation
one time that was dating one of the men here, and one of the
reasons they broke up and had to call off the wedding was because
she desired to be a preacher. She wanted to be a preacher.
So it takes more than a desire, doesn't it? Because God doesn't
call women to preach publicly, pastor a church. He has to be able to teach. That's what Timothy told us,
wasn't it, what we read in chapter 3 and verse 2. He has to be able,
apt to teach. I've talked to young preachers,
and one of the things that kept them from pastoring, churches
called them the pastor, and you talked to them, and they'd say,
I can't pastor. Why can't you pastor? You've
been preaching for a while. You're a fine preacher, you know
the truth. And one of the things they say
is this, I can't counsel people. What am I going to do when a
husband and his wife wants me to counsel them? But you know,
that's not what a preacher does. You don't have to get a degree
in psychology. You don't have to go take courses
in marriage counseling and grief counseling and all of that stuff.
Apt to teach the Word. Preach the Gospel. Holding forth
the Word of life, Paul said. I counsel three times a week.
I counsel tonight, I'll counsel Sunday morning, and when we have
a Sunday evening service, that's counseling isn't it? Preaching
the Word. That's what a man has to be able
to do. Now if he's not able to do that, If the Lord hasn't given
him a gift to teach the Word, then he's not qualified to teach. Paul said in this verse here
that I read to you, "...holding fast the faithful word, as he
has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both
to convince and exhort the gangster." Now, some are more qualified
to teach than others. I realize that. All of us have
our favorite preachers, don't we? But if a man is not qualified
to teach, however weak he may feel about his own teaching and
preaching, then he is not qualified to be a pastor. Then in our text, the Apostle
Paul gives many qualifications and he purposes it with this
word, blameless. If any man desire the office
of a bishop, he said, okay then, that's wonderful. A desire is
good. Then he must be blameless. Now let's be honest with one
another. None of us are blameless before God, are we? We know that. There's only one
way to be blameless before God, and that's to be in Christ. We
are complete in Him. God can see sin in us. He can
see fault in us and felons in us. When and where, we can't
see it in ourselves. But what Paul's meaning here
is that qualifications that he's going to list unto us here, there
is where we need to be blameless. In other words, if a man can't
teach the truth without preaching heresy, then he's not qualified. If he's not able to rightly divide
the Word of Truth, he's not qualified. And if a man is not found blameless,
that is, if he can be justly charged with some immoral spot
in his life that he's not qualified to be a pastor, blameless. And that's what he's talking
about, blameless in these qualifications that he's going to give us here.
There have been pastors who resigned as a pastor because they disqualified
themselves. I know pastors, and I bet some
of you know pastors, that were qualified to pastor, but something
in their life happened And they said, I'm not qualified to be
a pastor. And so they stepped down. That doesn't mean they're
not saved. But it just means that they're
not qualified to be a pastor. The Lord Jesus, everybody, poor
sinners are qualified for salvation, aren't they? Jesus Christ came
into this world to save sinners. But you know, everybody, every
saved person is not qualified to be a pastor. So there are
these qualifications. And I think it's very telling
here in verse 6 that the Apostle Paul begins with a home, right
in the home. If any be blameless, the husband
of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot,
are unruly. I think that's very telling where
he begins with his quantification, right down where a man lives. in his own house. Somebody made
this statement that before there ever was a church, there was
a home in this world. That God established the home
before He ever established the church. And I think that tells
us, doesn't it, how important the home is. And that's probably
why the devil is fighting against it like he is in our day. I remember
a little sitcom that used to come on years ago. Some of you
may not remember it. Remember Murphy Brown? That sitcom
where she had a, we never did watch it, but I remember when
the big controversy came on about it. And she had a baby out of
wedlock on the TV program. And they glorified that. Hollywood
was glorifying that and trying to get people to accept that.
Of course, this was back in the late 80s and early 90s. And I
remember our, the vice president, he was our senator, Dan Quayle.
Remember Dan Quayle back then? And he said, what would this
lead to if this becomes an acceptable lifestyle? And people laughed
him to scorn. I remember I had some of my relatives
just laughed him to scorn. But look what's happened. That
has become an accepted lifestyle, hasn't it? I just saw today,
I was reading today that 29% of all white babies are born
out of wedlock. Fifty-three percent of all Hispanics'
babies are born out of wedlock. Seventy-one percent of all black
kids are born out of wedlock. Ain't that amazing? What's happened? What's happened in our society?
When the family breaks down, society will break down. You'll
not have a society without a family. So it's not difficult to see
why Paul begins where he begins, is it? In the family. Right where that pastor lives
and spends most of his time, right in his family. Somebody has to keep the home,
don't they? He says over here in chapter 2, look here in chapter
2 in verse 3, that the aged women likewise,
that they be in behavior as become of holiness, not false accusers,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may
teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love
their children, to be discreet, chaste keepers at home." Somebody's
got to keep the home. When the children are little
and dependent, somebody needs to be there at the home because
it's important. So that's why the Apostle Paul
begins here with the husband and his wife. And he says here,
the husband, here's the first qualification, the husband of
one wife. Now what does he mean here? Every
commentary that I've read on this says that this is the husband
of one wife at a time. And what they said they were
running into in the New Testament time, that marriage among the
Greeks And marriage among the Romans was full of polygamy. That it was not only divorce
and remarrying, divorce and remarrying. You know the Jews put away their
wife for any cause. They didn't care. They just put
them away and gave them a written divorcement. But one of the problems
they were running into when the gospel went out among the heathen
was polygamy. I was reading a man, I don't
know who he was. His name was Dr. Graham. He lived
back, I think, in the 1800s, but I'm not for sure. But he
was talking about he was some way connected with the missionaries.
And he said one of the problems that he just got some notification
from the missionary, they were having problems with this. They
were in some foreign country. And he said some man had came
in and he had three wives. And the Lord saved those four
people. They heard the Gospel and the
Lord saved them. And the missionary says, here's the dilemma we find
ourselves in. What is he supposed to do? How
are we supposed to advise this man? And Dr. Graham said, we've
searched the Scriptures and we don't know what to tell them.
And you won't find any help for that in the Scripture. That was
a dilemma, wasn't it? I've often wondered what they
did about that. What did the apostle do about that? And I
think that's what he's talking about right here, the husband
of one wife. If the Lord saves somebody there
on the Isle of Crete, and he's got two or three wives, the Lord
can save him. I don't know what he's going
to do with his three wives. Bless his heart! But he's not qualified
to be a pastor. And that's what he's saying here.
The Lord saves sinners, but the very lifestyle that people have
got themselves in, disqualifies them from being a pastor. Here in verse 6 he said, Having
faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. One of the reasons I wanted to
read I Timothy chapter 3 because this is the parallel passage
and here is what he says in Timothy. One that ruleth well his own
house. having his children in subjection
with all gravity, all reverence. For if a man know not how to
rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of
God? Now, let's show some pity to
the poor preachers here. I've searched this out and I
tell you, sometimes I've felt devastated over this because
I know how my grown children act. I know what they've done.
But I think if we leave this in its context, it's to the grown children that
the dad cannot anymore be responsible for. When children are in your
house and you're responsible for them, there's when you make
them mine. There's when you raise them and
train them and teach them. And if they go out in the neighborhood,
terrorizing the neighborhood, and you're responsible for them,
and you won't correct them, and you let them act that way and
be that way, then you're not qualified to be a pastor. If
you can't rule your own house, and boy, how many houses have
we seen? Go to the grocery store and stand in line sometimes and
watch people try to rule their four- and five-year-old children.
The children are ruling them. And Paul said if there's a man
that desires to be a pastor and he can't rule his children that
is in his house, he's not qualified. But I think he's speaking of
those that's under his authority. Once your children get grown,
well, I know for the grief of my heart that you can't do anything
about it. And it shows their depraved heart. It shows their disrespect. The
time you go to them and plead with them, son, I didn't teach
you this. What are you doing? Dad, this is the way I'm going.
This is the way I'm going. And you know there's nothing
you can do about it. And then the in-laws get involved. The
wife gets involved. The son-in-law gets involved. And his mother gets involved.
And if you're not careful, you'll make things worse. You know,
Abraham was still alive when Jacob pulled some of his stunts. when he deceived his brother
out of his birthright, when he lied to his own dad, when he
had to flee into a foreign country just to save his life. You know
Abraham was still alive while some of that was going on. You
wonder why he didn't step in, why he didn't do something. But
you know, that was Isaac's house. Isaac was responsible for his.
And Dave, you've got two sons. They're out on their own now.
And they're accountable. They're responsible. They're
responsible for themselves and their children. And there comes
a time when the poor pastor, though it breaks his heart, has
to pull back and say, Son, you're in God's hands. Have mercy upon
you. That's the way you want to do
it. That's the way you want to act. God have mercy upon you. But I'm
not going that way. And my little children, my little
grandchildren while they're at my house are not going to do
that. So he has to have those in his
own house under authority, and he's responsible for those. You
remember Eli the priest? He had his sons, and they were
young priests, and they were sons of Belial. They were crooked
as they could be, and he didn't reframe his sons. And he could
have, but he was slothful about that. And the Lord took the priesthood
away from his family and killed him and his two sons, didn't
He? And Eli loved the Lord, but his two sons, they were taking
bribes and everything else. Fourthly, here's another qualification,
not self-willed. There in verse 7, not self-willed,
self-pleasing or arrogant. Someone said this, and I thought
this was a good definition to give you. He said, Not self-willed,
not doing things in the worship of God's house, and the ministry
of the Word, and the administration of ordinances, not doing any
of these things according to his own will, but according unto
the will of God revealed in his Word." Otherwise, he said, that
man comes under the name of will-worship. A self-willed person is obstinate,
stubborn, inflexible, conceited with a sense of his own ability
to judge, and resolute to have his own will and way in all things
relating to the affairs of God's house. The word signifies one
who is pleased with himself. He has such a high opinion of
himself that he thinks he is able to judge better than everybody
else. He won't listen to anyone else,
even God. He's self-willed. Man, God keep
me from that. God keep me from that. I don't
want to be a dictator. I just don't want to be a dictator.
I want to talk with people and reason with people and be reasonable
and get along, not self-willed. Verse 7, fifthly, not soon angry. The word simply means slow to
wrath. Well, that's a good lesson for everybody. Let every man
be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Slow to wrath. What's the first thing we do
when we get angry? We speak. We speak. Never speak when you're
angry. Listen to some of these places
in the book of Proverbs that I looked up. Proverbs 15, 18. A wrathful man stirreth up strife,
But he that is slow to anger appeases strife. Chapter 16 verse
32. He that is slow to anger is better
than the mighty. And he that ruleth his spirit
better than he that taketh a city. Chapter 19 verse 11. The discretion,
the wisdom of a man deferreth his anger. A man that is wise
will not get angry. And it is His glory to pass over
a transgression. Proverbs 27, verse 4, wrath is
cruel, anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous. Not soon angry. It is good to
be angry against some things. But boy, most things would make
us angry. That's not good. And the Bible
even said when we get angry about what we should be angry about,
be angry in sin not. Anger makes us sin. And sixthly,
here in verse 7, not given to wine. The word there
means addicted. Not addicted to wine. Most of
us was raised, I was raised, and I bet Dave and Darlene was
raised, some of you was raised, that alcoholic beverages, if
you drunk any of them, it was a sin. Boy, I tell you, I've
embarrassed myself. I tried to convince a man one
time that he was vainly using some alcohol, and I got all over
him. until I went to the Scriptures.
And you did this too. I went to the Scriptures and
I was embarrassed because I finally proved from the Scriptures that
the Scriptures does not teach to abstinence. I learned that
to my dismay that drinking some wine is not a sin. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess. That's what's condemned, isn't
it? It's always the excess. And you have seen it and I've
seen it, whole families, you've seen it Wayne, whole families
devastated by alcohol. It's an awful thing, isn't it?
But what does that? The abuse. The access of it. My dad used to, I don't know,
he said his doctor told him this, I think he said his doctor told
him this, but he always drunk a little glass of wine before
going to bed. And he said, son, that's better than any pill I
ever had in my life. He said, I can drink a little wine, lay
down and go to sleep, and I don't get addicted to some pill. So
I don't judge people for using some wine. He said over here
in the second chapter when he's talking about the aged women
not giving too much wine. You have to watch it, don't you?
You have to be careful. I don't drink wine. The only
wine I use is what we use here in the communion service. But
the reason I don't drink it, I like it. That's just it. I like it. We was raised making
wine, drinking it, buying that old Boone's Farm wine, and I
don't drink it anymore. I just stay away from it because
I like it too much. When the Lord saved me, that's
one of the things I promised the Lord. Lord, I won't be drinking
that anymore. And I don't. I don't drink it. But I don't condemn those who
use it. I just don't do it. Not addicted to wine. If a man's addicted to it, then
he's going to get himself in trouble. In verse 7, the 7th
thing is this. No striker. No striker. Timothy, that passage I read
to you there, he's got brawlers and strikers. These two sort
of go together. A brawler is a noisy person who
likes to stir things up. We've seen a man, but that man's
a brawler. He's out in the crowd somewhere and he's stirring everybody
up. He's the loudest guy in the whole crowd. But a striker goes
one step further, and that's just what it says. He's a striker,
boy. He's ready to punch somebody
with his fist. He's ready to slap somebody with
his hand. Remember when Ananias, the priest,
was trying to judge Paul and condemn him in Acts chapter 23? And Paul said, I've lived with
all good conscience towards God. And that high priest told the
guard standing by, I said, smite him. That's what that word is,
striker. He's a striker and he smoked
Paul in the mouth. Paul said, God's going to smack
you, you whitey wall. Why would you smack me for? You
know why the high priest had that done? He was a striker.
That's the kind of guy he was. He loved to see people slap that
he didn't agree with. Also, this word striker means
to smack with words. Not just with hands, but with
words. That's what we're seeing with
our politicians now. Those guys are strikers. They're striking
each other with a written word or they tweet something out or
they say it. They're strikers. Jeremiah 18,
18, the ungodly said to Jeremiah, Come and let us devise devices
against him. Come and let us smite him with
our tongue. and not give heed to what he's
saying. Smite him with our tongues. So
there's different ways to be a striker, isn't it? That Baptist
church. Is it Westboro? Westboro Baptist
Church? Have you heard of them guys?
They're so cruel. They're the cruelest people.
They're the ones that was right on their sides. God killed the soldiers. when
they were bringing back soldiers from Iraq, they would get next
to the funeral and hold up their signs and say, God killed the
soldiers. You know, they hated us. They
hate the country. They're the ones that make out
the big signs, God hates gays, and they go out in the street
and scream it, gays, you know, and everything. They're strikers. They're strikers. They like to
fuss and smite people with their words. Paul said, the servant
of the Lord must not strive. He can't smite anybody with his
hands. And he don't need to be smiting somebody with hateful,
cruel language. He must be gentle and in meekness
instructing those that oppose himself. Boy, there's a time
to get firm. And we need to be bold when we're
preaching against things. But we should never be mean.
Don't be a striker. In verse 7, the eighth thing
is not given to filthy lucre. That word given there means greedy,
not greedy filthy lucre. And this lucre is gain in money
or goods or worldly profit. Gain in goods. Some kind of profit,
worldly profit. That's lucre. And the whole attitude
is what makes it filthy. If a man covets that, and that's
what his heart is set on, that makes it filthy lucre. Nothing
matters with profit, is it? Nothing to do with saving some
money if you're going to work, trying to save towards retirement,
nothing to do with that. But if that's where your heart
is, coveting those things, and you can see why a pastor doesn't
need to be that way. If he's seeking to get gain,
that's where his heart is, he's coveting that, increase the finances
some way or another, he'll start compromising the truth just to
gain his ends. There are pastors who know something
about certain truths, but they won't preach it. And they won't
preach it because they are greedy and filthy liquid. I wonder,
Demas, I wonder if that is what was bothering him. Paul said
he has loved this present world. That is why he has left me, having
loved this present world. I wonder if he saw some profit.
Some way to get that gain, that filthy lucre. Whatever it was,
Paul said he is loving this present evil world. Well, a pastor cannot
be greedy of filthy lucre. But he says here in verse 8,
a lover of hospitality. A lover of hospitality. And that
word means fond of guests. Entertaining others for their
profit. Hospitable. I think, if I'm not
mistaken, you can search this, I'm not for sure, I think it
may be the root word of where we get our hospital. It's where
you go when you need help. People there are nurses and doctors
to care for you. Hospitable. I was, Sunday, some
of you don't know this, I don't think Esther would care for you
knowing this, but Esther's been very, very sick. She's had all
kinds of trouble with her blood pressure. And she don't trust
doctors. And Joe told Joanne about her
and asked Joanne, reckoned she could, you know, talk to her
and get her in to see her maybe. Well, they weren't taking patients
there, but here's what Joanne and Greg did Sunday. They took
Randy and Esther home with them and spent the evening talking
with her, trying to help her and see what she needed. And
now she's got her in to give her some medication and things
like that. That's hospitable, isn't it? bringing someone in
to help them be hospitable. That is what the pastor is supposed
to do. Peter said, using hospitality one to another without grudging. What did he mean by that? Do
not grudge a time that you would give to them. Do not begrudge
whatever you would give to help them. Help them without grudging. Do good to all, especially to
those who are of the household of faith, and be not forgetful
to entertain strangers." So boy, this hospitable, hospitality,
I imagine that was much appreciated in the early church, don't you?
Because some of them were fleeing for their lives. They were scattered
everywhere. Left their homes and their property,
some of them their family. Don't you know it's a good thing
when there stood a pastor out there and said, Come into my
house. You're going to stay with me. Come out of the street. And
the other churches did that as well. A lover of hospitality. In verse 8, Tenthly, a lover
of good men. This word means two things. A
lover of good things. A pastor has to be a lover of
good things. What are some good things? Well,
I tell you, prayer is a good thing. That's good. That's the
love to pray. Reading, that's good. Loving
to read. Loving to meditate. That's a
good thing. Whatsoever things are good, think
upon these things. And a lover of good people, that's
another interpretation. It's a lover of good people.
By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, if you have
love one for another. And I tell you, if the pastor
don't love his people, I don't know how you expect brother to
love brother, do you? A lover of good things. If a man don't love good things,
then he's not going to spend his time in those things. And if you don't love the saints,
he won't be any help to you. Levith in verse 8, sober, sober,
as opposed to being drunk. Don't be under the influence
of any bad thing. And sometimes this sober is connected
to diligence or being awake. Listen to what Paul said in 1
Thessalonians 5 and verse 5. You are all the children of light
and the children of the day. We are not of the night. nor
of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as
do others, but let us watch and be sober." Watching and being
sober. What does a drunk man want to
do? He wants to go to sleep, doesn't he? That's the first
thing he does when he gets sleepy. He's not watching. So sober is
the object of that. Watch and be sober. For they
that sleep, sleep in the night. They that be drunken, are drunken
in the night. But let us who are of the day
be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an
inhelment the hope of salvation." And Peter says this, the end
of all things is at hand. Be you therefore sober and watch
unto prayer. Be sober, be vigilant, your adversary
the devil as a roaring lion. He goes about seeking whom He
may devour. So be sober. That is what the
pastor is supposed to do. That is why he is called a watchman.
He stays awake and he watches. The twelfth thing. A couple of
more things. The twelfth thing. Just. Just. This word just means innocent
in dealing with others. Never doing unjust harm to others. Boy, we've got plenty of examples
in the Word of God to be just, don't we? Remember when Joseph
thought Mary had committed fornication and she was pregnant, she was
found with child of the Holy Ghost, and he didn't know it.
He thought she'd been with another man. But notice how the Holy
Spirit says this about this man. He being a just man was minded
to put her away Just. Didn't want to bring shame
on her name. The Bible says the law is just.
That's a good example for us isn't it? The law is just and
holy and good. And you know the perfect example
is the just one. The Lord Jesus is just. I don't
like all these little sayings they come up with in our day,
but I do like the one, this one, at least for myself. What would
Jesus do? Or when you're in a situation
and dealing with somebody else, that's a good question to ask
yourself. What would the Lord do? And do what He would do. He's our example, isn't He, that
we should walk and follow His steps. Verse 13 here in verse
8, Holy, holy, just and holy. This word is only used seven
times in the New Testament. This word, holy, is only used
seven times in the New Testament. Other aspect is used many times.
You look up the word holy, but if you don't look up this word,
you won't see. But it's only used seven times.
And it means right. It simply means right. Right
according to the standard of truth. Right according to the
will and Word of God. Five times it's concerning Christ
Himself. Such places like this thou wilt
not suffer thy holy one to seek corruption. Such a high priest
become us who is holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from
sinners. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?
For thou only art holy." Jesus Christ is the Holy One. He is perfectly right, isn't
He? He is perfectly right. Everything
He thinks, everything He is, all that He does, He is perfectly
right. And this shows you and me the
distance between us and Him and between Him and the best of pastors. We have to question ourselves
sometimes. Am I right? Am I right in my
attitude? Am I right in what I'm thinking?
Am I right in what I'm doing? Am I right? And you know, sometimes
the answer comes back, No, you're not. And then you repent, don't
you? Then you ask the Lord for grace
to repent. I know pastors that read this
and read these qualifications here that you and I have been
looking at, and boy, they're just like your pastor. They're
humble over them. They're absolutely humble over them. I was looking
through Henry's qualifications for a pastor, and he had just
a little bit on Brother Mahan, just a little bit on him. He
didn't have much to say about him because he is a pastor. It's
a humbling thing to read these things. And there ain't no pastor
going to read these things and start bragging about, man, that's
me. I'm holy. That's me. I'm right. He just ain't going to say that.
God has so fixed it where no flesh is going to glory in His
presence. I don't care who he is. You read men like Charles
Spurgeon and Horatius Bonar and John Bunyan and John Gill and
those guys, they spent much time weeping before the Lord because
they felt like they were unqualified to be pastors. This place here, not soon angry
and patient. Paul was writing to Timothy about
the pastors had to be patient. And it wasn't long ago I got
so angry I mean, I lost my temper. And I said, I am tired of this
foolishness. I'm not going to take it anymore.
And I got to acting like a fool. I became a fool myself. Worse
fool than those who were acting foolish. I was like a beast. And you know where I wound up
at? On my face before the Lord, asking Him to have mercy upon
me and forgive me. When you come to these things,
nobody says, boy, I've arrived. If you want the qualifications
for a pastor, just hang my picture up. I'm it. It don't happen that
way, does it? It don't happen that way. We can tear down in five minutes
what it took us five years to build up. And that's a very humbling
fact. And that's enough to keep us
low before the Lord, isn't it? It's enough to keep us low before
the Lord. The last thing is this, number 14, temperate, self-controlled. The word means having his soul
and body and passions and tongue and hands and eyes and ears under
his own control. Boy, if a man can do that, he's
temperate. He's temperate. And if we care
about our pastors, God helps us to pray for them. If you love
your pastor, spend time every day praying for him. And not
only for this pastor, but all pastors, all pastors that preach
in the Gospel, we should spend time in prayer for the pastors.