We're in Titus chapter 1. The book of Titus, the epistle
of Titus chapter 1. Let's begin reading here in verse
5. Titus chapter 1 and verse 5.
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set
in order the things that I 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 riots
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, good things, sober, just, and holy, and temperate,
holding 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 or pervert whole houses, teaching
things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake, for
money. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said,
The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This
witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be
sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments
of men that turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are
pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing
pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess
that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable
and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. When I started
this little epistle, I was going to take about five or six verses
at a time, but that's not happened. Sometimes that happens, but it's
not happened this time. So I am working my way, I confess,
very slowly through this epistle. And I hope you'll bear with me,
but I hope more than anything maybe you can get something out
of it. And tonight we want to look mainly at verse 5, but I
want to look at it in a general way or overview of it. Ordain
elders, he said there in verse 5 in every city. Now an elder is not speaking
of someone that is older in age, but he is speaking of an office,
the office in the church that, well, he says here in verse 5
he calls it a bishop and he calls it stewards of God. In Ephesians
chapter 5 he calls them pastors and Acts chapter 20 they are
called overseers. So this is one of the most common
names for a pastor in the New Testament And that's elders.
They call them elders. And as we study about these elders
tonight and all through this first chapter here, we'll see
one of the reasons why this is the most important office in
the local church. And it's not because of the man.
It's because of the office. Hebrews chapter 13 refers to
these elders as rulers. They're called rulers. He said,
Remember them that have the rule over you, and obey them that
have the rule over you, and submit yourself. So this, among other
things, shows the absolute need that these elders be men of a
good character. They have to be men of a godly
character because their office carries such weight with it.
And if you get an elder, you get a pastor in that office,
and he doesn't have a good character, he can do more harm than you
can imagine. There was a man, Diotrephus,
it was his name. You find him in 3 John. He was
a pastor of the church there. But he got lifted up in pride.
He was a proud man. And John wrote epistles to him,
and he wouldn't even receive John's epistles. And John said
he loves to have the preeminence among you. And he said, who are
we going to receive into the church? Who's going to come and
listen and who he's going to put out? And John said, when
I come, when I come, I'll deal with him. I'll remember what
he's done and how proud that man is. But he got in that position. Whether he was a saved man or
not, he was obviously a gospel preacher. But I tell you what,
he got lifted up in pride. And it shows the importance not
only of knowing the truth and preaching the truth, but also
of a good character. Peter advises the elders of this,
and it shows how far removed this Deuteriphus thinking and
his disposition was from what it should have been. Peter said
this to the elders, not as lords over God's heritage, but examples
to the flock. Not as lords. The pastor's not
the lord. Not lords over God's heritage.
Remember how Paul said that he served the Lord? With all humility
of mind and with many tears. That's the mind the pastor ought
to be in. That's the mind he's called to
be in. And that's why the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and said,
when you're ordaining these elders, be sure and refuse a novice. Don't get someone that's newly
come to the faith, a young believer. No matter how old he is, if he's
a young believer, don't ordain him as a pastor. And he tells
us why. Lest being lifted up with pride,
he fall unto the condemnation of the devil. So that gives us
a hint, doesn't it? Maybe why Satan fell from his
lofty state of beauty and wisdom, pride. His heart was lifted up
with pride. And he said, I'm going to set
my throne above the stars of God. I'm going to be like the
Most High. That's proud, ain't it? And pride
brought him from that holy and happy state down to where he
is now without any remedy for his sins. So Paul said, don't
put a novice, one newly coming to the faith, into this office
lest he be lifted up with pride and fall into the condemnation
of the devil. One thing a young believer needs
to do is just sit and listen, isn't it? He sits and listens
and he reads and he learns by experience. And Brother Wayne
asked the question last week when we were studying this, he
asked a question about this. What did they do about these
novices on this island? We don't know how long it was
since these people were converted. They obviously didn't have pastors.
At least all the churches didn't have pastors. My only thought
about that, Wayne, would be probably there were some older believers
on this island. Some of them were converted there
at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. There were men there from
Crete. Probably what happened, they went back and they began
to preach the gospel there. Paul and Titus went there and
maybe there was a revival on the island. But we know this
much that when he was told to ordain these elders, we are told
there in verse 9 that they were men experienced in the Word.
They were not novices. He said, ìHolding fast the faithful
Word as He has been taught.î So there were men on the island
that had been taught and they were learned in the Scripture.
So they were not novices. They must have been those probably
that were converted under the Apostle Peter's ministry. Holding
fast the faithful word as he has been taught. He's read it.
The Holy Spirit's taught him. And he's qualified to be an elder. Let's look at these elders. Let's
look at some of them this way. And I think as we look at these,
maybe next week as we study more of the character of these elders,
but tonight I think when we look at the elder itself, himself,
and just being a pastor, being a bishop, would hint to us at
least why a man would have to have the kind of character that
verses 6 through verse 8 would tell us that he'd have to have.
He says there in verse 9, and I just quoted it, they must be
preachers of the Word, holding fast the faithful Word as He
has been taught. preachers of the Word. Paul's
instructions to Timothy was what? Preach the Word. Preach the Word. That's one of the qualifications
of a minister, of a pastor was to preach the Word. Two things
I want you to notice he says here in verse 9 about preaching. He says, "...holding fast the
faithful word as it has been taught, that he may be able by
sound doctrine both to exhort. One of the things about preaching
is to exhort, that he may be able to exhort. This word exhort
means to advise, to instruct, to warn, to caution, encourage,
comfort, cheer, give strength, embolden, stimulate to exertion,
to use words or argument to excite a good Deed are deeds. A pastor is to preach the gospel. First of all, he's to preach
it to everybody that's under his hearing. And he's to do like
Peter said when Peter preached to them on the day of Pentecost
and exhorted them to save themselves from the wrath to come. He instructed
them in the way of salvation and exhorted them. He encouraged
them. Save yourselves. Flee to Christ. from the wrath to come. And then
when there are believers, He instructs the believers. He instructs
them how to live. We've got some of that here in
the book of Titus. Look in chapter 2, here in verse
6, speaking of exhorting. He says here in verse 6 of chapter
2, Young men likewise exhort In other words, advise them,
instruct them, and encourage them to be sober-minded. That's what a pastor is to do.
And boy, young men need that, don't they? They need it, don't
they? And look what he says in verse
9, "...exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters,
and to please them well in all things, not answering again."
And then he says in verse 15, and he says this in the context
of verses 11 through verse 14, "...these things speak and exhort
and bebuke with all authority, let no man despise thee." So
he is to exhort. And when He exhorts and when
He encourages and when He advises, that's what we call feeding,
feeding the congregation. And one of the things that you'll
see written in the New Testament and even in the Old Testament
that elders are commanded to do is to feed the flock of God. feed the church of God which
He's purchased with His own blood. And even back in Jeremiah's day,
the Lord told Jeremiah, I'm going to give them pastors after my
own heart and they're going to feed them with wisdom and with
understanding, with knowledge and with understanding. That's
what a pastor does. He's to exhort, he's to feed
the congregation with wisdom and with understanding. How many
times I hope this applies to you. I hope you've come in here
sometimes. I know it's happened to me when
I've been under preaching that maybe you come in here and you're
discouraged and you leave encouraged. Did that ever happen to you?
You come in here and maybe you've erred in practice or you're erred
in doctrine and you've left and you've been straightened out.
That's what a pastor's for. That's what the Lord raises up
pastors and gives them to the congregation for, is to exhort
them, to advise them and instruct them and encourage them and keep
them from error and uplift them. I remember, I think it's Psalm
73, you'll remember ASAP. The psalm was written about ASAP
and the trouble that that poor man had got himself into. And
he said, I know God is good to Israel, but he said, ask for
me. My feet had almost slipped. My
steps was well nigh known. Gone. Remember that? He said,
I was ready to fall. I was standing on ice. And he told us the difficulty
he had got in. He said, I became envious at
the foolish. I saw the prosperity of the wicked
and I began to envy them. Because every day I was having
all this trouble. And the chest and hands of the
Lord was upon me and I just couldn't figure this out. And it was really
grieving me and getting to me, he said, until I went into the
sanctuary of God. I wonder what happened when he
went in there. I wonder if one of those Levites
didn't get up and open the Bible and begin to preach unto him
about it's going to be well with the righteous, and I'm going
to cut the wicked off. Don't envy the wicked. But whatever
happened to him there, he got this understanding. His knowledge,
He came to Himself and He said, Oh, I was like a beast, like
a beast before the Lord. But then He said, I'm still with
Him. I'm still His child. He's still my Savior. But I imagine
He heard the preaching. It exhorted Him and it helped
Him and He went home enlightened and encouraged. Look over here
at what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter 4, old Titus
chapter 1. Look in Ephesians chapter 4.
This is what he says here about these elders, about these pastors,
why the Lord give them. It was to exhort, encourage them.
But look here in Ephesians chapter 4 and look in verse 11. This is where the Lord Jesus
had ascended on high and gave gifts to men in Ephesians chapter
4 and verse 11. And He gave some. He gave these
gifts. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth
be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the sly of men, and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive." What does these apostles do,
and prophets, and evangelists, and pastors, and teachers? Well,
we're down to pastors and teachers now, aren't we? And this is what
they do. They're preaching, and the Lord
is using their preaching to bring men to the knowledge of the Son
of God and edify them and keep them, keep them from error. So
what's the first thing that these pastors were to do? They were
to exhort with sound doctrine. Get in the Bible and learn what
the Bible says and exhort people with it. But there's something
else he said back over here too in verse 9, not only exhort but
listen to this, to convince the gang sayer. This word gang sayer
means those who oppose and contradict the truth. There are men who
oppose and contradict the truth, aren't there? And these pastors
had to stand against them. This word convince, to convince
the gangsters, it means to convict or confute, to disprove, to prove
to be false or defective or invalid, to overthrow as to confute false
arguments, false reasoning, false theories and error. So the light,
the Word preached, it does more than just exhort, doesn't it?
It does more than just encourage you in the way of truth. It exposes
lies. It exposes the darkness of this
world. I don't want a negative attitude,
and you don't want me to have a negative attitude, but there's
times when we have to be negative, isn't there? And that's times
when we're exposing falsehood, exposing lies. And boy, it's
so needful. Look back over here in our text
again. Look what he says about this. This shows us the need
of this, the seriousness of this. He says here in verse 10, Well,
there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially
they of the circumcision, the Jews, whose mouths must be stopped,
who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not,
for filthy lucre's sake. And he says down in verse 13,
this witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply that they
may be sound in the faith. You know if the church, if pastors
had been more faithful to expose error in our nation instead of
building mega churches and getting their worldwide outreach programs
If they'd have been more faithful to Paul's admonition here to
convince, to confront the error, Jehovah Witness would have never
got a toehold in our country as it has. Mormonism would have
never got a foothold in our country as it has. And this is so serious
because they're perverting, Paul said, whole houses. Whole families
are being deceived. The precious souls of men are
going down into ruin, and who's leading them there? These blind
guides, these men who do not believe and preach the truth. In old time, they had watchmen.
Remember reading in the Old Testament about the watchmen? They sat
on the walls, and one thing they had, that was a trumpet. And they looked out through the
night all around and as soon as they spotted the enemy, what
did they do? They put that to their lips and
blew. Why did they blow? To wake people up. Wake up! And then point the enemy out.
There he is and there he is and there he is. And you know sometimes
people don't want to be woken out of sleep. It bothers you
ever have somebody wake you up out of a deep sleep? You start
smacking and, oh, what's going on? You wake my wife up sometime
when she's asleep and you better stand three or four feet back
because she's going to smack you if she can. People don't
want to be woke up, do they? And I wonder if that's the reason
sometimes that so many wouldn't cry out against the falsehood
and expose it. Obey them that have the rule
over you, for they watch for your souls." My goodness! If they watch for your property,
that would be enough to keep a man awake. If they watch for
your physical health, but they watch for your souls. That's
serious, isn't it? Souls. I had my wife. Before we came
down here, I was thinking about, we were at school not too long
ago, the kids were having some kind of little program and they
were honoring all the veterans of different services and they
had the singing, singing the songs as the veterans come around,
they'd sing for the army and they'd sing for the the Navy
and the Air Force and the Marines were last. They sung the Marines
were last. I stopped one of the old veterans and I said, they
saved the toughest to last. It is like what they were saying.
They were singing that Marine fight song, From the Halls of
Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli. And you know, I've sung that
and heard that song all my life. I never did know what it meant.
Never knew what it meant. They were fighting from Mexico
where they took over the castle down there, Montezuma's old castle,
the old Mexican fellow, all the way to the shores of Tripoli.
Thomas Jefferson organized the Marines and sent them to Tripoli
to fight. You know who they were fighting?
Muslims. Muslims. And you know what he
did? You know what he did before he sent them over there? He got
to the presses and gave them a Koran. and said, I want you
to print these up in English and hand them out to the American
people. When I go to war with them, when I send the Marines
over, they were getting our ships and other countries' ships and
charging them ransom to let the ships go. And they said, Allah,
give us this right. Allah. So he had the Quran printed
up in English and sent it out to the American people. And he
said, look at this religion. Look at this religion. that blasphemes
God and denigrates women. This is not a peaceful religion.
This is a warlike, this is a violent religion. And he exposed it. And when he sent the Marines
over there to fight, the nation was behind him. We need some
of that today, don't we? We not only need it in our silly
politicians, but we sure need it in the pulpit. When our politicians
stand up before us and say, Islam is a religion of peace, somebody
needs to sit down and let him read the history of Islam. Look
at the millions and millions of people, brothers and sisters,
that Islam has populated hell with. Hell has enlarged itself
to receive men that's going there worshiping Allah. Their mouths
must be stopped. And I don't want to be negative
and I don't want to have a negative attitude and spend my time on
this one thing, but there is a place for it. And Paul said
to convince the gang sayers, their mouths must be stopped.
And the way to convince them is open the Bible and stop their
mouths from the Word of God. And when Mormonism and Jehovah
Witnessism and all these other isms say Jesus Christ was a great
man, He was a great prophet, but He wasn't God, then open
the Bible and stop the mouths of those contradictors, those
gangsters. And that's what a pastor is for.
And if a man don't want to do that, he ought to sit down. That's
just to be honest with you. Just sit down. If the Lord hasn't
given you grace and understanding to convince the gangsters, then
for Christ's sake, just sit down. And maybe he'll raise somebody
else up to do it. It sounds harsh, but that's what
he said, isn't it? That's what he said. It's not
easy. It's not easy being a pastor,
is it? It's not, because you stand against these things. Well,
you go to funerals. I don't know how many funerals
I went to. I finally just tell them up front, no, I'm not reading
anything you wrote. I'm not reading your songs. I'm
not reading your poems. And sometimes they'll get upset,
but you're better off just to tell them up front. You know,
I don't do that. Because, man, I tell you, I've
been given literature to read at funerals and at weddings. Can you see here why a pastor
has to have a good character? As we read, can you see? He's
a man that has to exhort other people in the way of truth, to
encourage them, instruct them in the way of truth. What if
he's living a lie himself? He's got to exhort and convince
the gang sayers. What if they start pointing at
him and say, You lying dog! And I tell you, there are preachers
they can point to and say that about, ain't there? Paul was writing there in Romans
2, and Wayne covered this in his Roman study. And he was writing
to those Jews, and he said, You fellows are preaching, don't
steal, and you're thieves yourselves. You're telling people not to
commit adultery, and you commit adultery. You're telling people
not to worship idols, and you're committing sacrilege yourselves. And the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you! Through you! It's an awful thing
not to know the truth and preach the truth, but I tell you it's
a more dangerous thing to preach the truth and live like a devil. And my wife was just talking
the other day, some of the language and some of the stuff that's
going on today in the realm of the church that just sickens
and breaks your heart. I know these folks and I go there
sometimes and I don't know what this pastor preaches. It's a
small community and I know him. I've known him. I don't know
what he preaches. I've heard him preach two or three times. But in that
whole community where he pastors that church, I'm not hearing
what he's preaching. I'm hearing how he's living.
I'm hearing about his lives that he's telling, how he's defrauding
people. And he's lost all credibility if he ever had any. Nobody wants
to listen to him. Ain't that sad? That's sad. And that's why a good character
is necessary. It's absolutely essential. We'll
see some more of that next week. It's so essential. Two things I think when people
are looking for a pastor, two things I think that's essential,
and they ought to examine both of these things. First of all,
does he know the truth and does he preach the truth? Does he
know the truth and does he preach the truth? And secondly, what
kind of a character does he have? What kind of man is he? I mean,
that's important, brothers and sisters. That's important. What
kind of man is he? And does he even care? Is he
the kind of man, if he brought shame on the Lord's name, would
it break his heart? A pastor ain't perfect. My goodness,
I know that by experience. And you know that by my spirit.
But when a man don't care, he can go on and say it and do it
anyway. That's heartbreaking, isn't it?
That's heartbreaking. Something else about these elders
I thought was very encouraging as I was looking at some of these
things. The Scripture says there are gifts, there are gifts, there
are gifts to the churches. Jeremiah 3.15, I will give you,
pastor, I will give you, pastor. And when the Lord Jesus died,
shed His heart's blood and woke up from that tomb and ascended
back on high, the Bible says He led captivity captive. and
gave gifts to man. And what's one of the gifts he
gave? Pastors. What a gift of God, a pastor. I think sometimes Paul said here,
you know, I've left you there to set in order things that are
wanted. And if you don't have a pastor, you're wanted, aren't
you? I mean, there's things that are
lacking. And you know what I think sometimes would be good for just
about every congregation is to be without a pastor for a while.
That may sound, Bruce, that's not right, but you know, I know
a church right now that's without a pastor. Had a wonderful pastor
and he died. And I tell you, their hearts
are as heavy as they can be. And if they ever get another
pastor, if they ever get another pastor, you talk about a happy
bunch of people. I know of a little congregation
in West Virginia that went for years without a pastor. And finally
they got a pastor, Mike Walker. Nobody remember Mike Walker,
don't you? Some of you do. And I'm telling you what, they
love that man to death. They just always hugging on him
and talking good about him. Love him to death. It's because
they went for a while without a pastor. It bothers me when
people, and I know, I know, every one of you tonight, when you
can be here, you're here. Sometimes you can't, can you?
Sometimes the providence of God keeps you from worship service.
But there are people that just don't care. They just don't care. And one of the reasons they don't
care, and I think they're believers, I think they've just taken it
for granted. Boy, you're not taking it for granted. Usually
without a pastor, you ain't got much of one now, but you don't
take it for granted. Things that are wanted. What
a gift. What a gift. And sometimes we need to feel,
boy, what it's like not to have a pastor. What a gift. What a
gift. And if we don't have a pastor,
we ought to be heavy-hearted. Two quick things, and I'll close
with these, and next week we'll pick up on some of these characteristics
of a pastor and what he requires of them. We're said here in verse
5, I read to you, they were ordained, ordained elders in every city. This word ordained means to designate
or appoint or set aside. Sometimes they set these pastors
aside by laying on of hands. Paul told Timothy not to lay
hands on somebody suddenly. Remember that? And don't be partakers
of another man's sins. And what he was saying, from
what I understand about it, when you ordain these guys, they laid
their hands on them to say, we approve of them. We approve of
them. And he said, don't do that too quickly. Be careful you know
the man's character. Be careful, you know He has gifts
to preach. Because if you don't, and He's
bad, then that's going to reflect on you. Don't be partakers of
another man's sin. Sometimes we lay hands on people.
I wouldn't do it if I did it by myself. Don Fortner said there's
no sense in me laying my empty hands on your empty head. It
ain't going to do you no good. But sometimes we do that. But
the main thing is being recognized. being recognized, being set aside
for an elder. No doubt about it. The church
recognizes, here is the pastor, here is the elder, here is the
bishop. That's the main thing. Down south
where I was raised, half the men in the congregation were
preachers. Everybody was a preacher. It's the funniest thing on looking
back. But these men, boy, when they
recognized them as a pastor, They were recognized. They were
set aside. None of this play stuff. Secondly,
and this is awfully important, this was done according to one
rule. You'll notice there in verse
5, As I had appointed thee. That's the way this was ordained. As I had appointed thee. Who
was it that gave these qualifications? Christ. Christ said, here is
the character that they must have. Christ said, here is what
they must do. Here is what they must have the
gift to do. Hold and fast the faithful word. That is the criteria
for a point. There are only two offices in
the church, as far as I know. As I can read, there are only
two offices in the church. We need helps. Boy, we have got
plenty of room for workers, don't we? I mean, so much to do. But there's only two offices
that I know, and that's the deacons and the elders, the pastor. That's
ordained, and it tells their qualifications to be set aside
as a deacon and a pastor. And I'd like to ask the Pope,
if I ever got to talk to him, where did you get your authority?
Where did your office come from? I'd like to ask some of the cardinals.
Where did you fellows get yours? Who ordained you for a cardinal?
Where do you get that from? Where does that name come from?
What is that? And ask the priest who leads the congregations in
worship and absolves men of their sins. Where did you get that
authority? Christ never gave it to you.
Heaven never gave it to you. And that leaves one place. Either
you're wretched hard or hell. But only two offices here. Everything
we do, we're careful, aren't we? In our worship. We're careful
in our worship. One fellow is wanting a friend
of mine. He's an old deacon friend of mine. I've learned more, I
think, from that old deacon than any preacher I ever sat under.
He said somebody's wanting to come over and start coming to
church where they were going and wanted to know what they
did over there. And he said, you may not want to come over
here. I said, all these folks want to do is pray and sing and
read the Bible and preach. The guys want to come over and
start a ball league or something. He said, you probably won't want
to come over here. But where did we get that at? The Bible. The Bible. Let everything be
done decently. All right. I appreciate it.