Titus chapter 1 and let's begin
reading 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 are wanted, things that are likened,
need to be done, 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 nor stracker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover
of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, 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 gangsayers. 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. One of themselves, even a prophet
of their own, said, 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 to every good work reprobate. Let's consider
verse 5 tonight, this isle of Crete. If you ever got on your
computer and looked at this island, it's one of the most beautiful
islands I think that I've ever studied on or looked at pictures
on. Beautiful place out in the Mediterranean Sea. It's just
about probably 35 to 40 miles wide and about 160 miles long. So it ain't very big island,
but it's got beautiful mountains. It's got coastlines. If you look
at it, you've got to resist the temptation to think, that's where
I'm going on my next vacation. Because that's how beautiful
it is. It's wintertime. You've got places there on that
little island that's very mild. You can spend the whole winter
there. And if you want snow, you can go to the mountains.
It has deep snow that you can even get snowed in in the wintertime. Beautiful, beautiful place. Last
month, I was looking at some of the almond trees that budded
out and flowered out and blossomed out last month. They were talking about the industry
there. The biggest industry is almonds. I bet you ladies, if
you look at some of your little jugs of extra virgin olive oil,
you probably see some of these from Crete. You get your best
olive oil from that place. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful
place. But Greece owns it. So if you think about taking
a vacation, you probably better go pretty quick because Greece
is broke. Greece is ready to declare bankruptcy. And if Greece
falls, I just got a feeling nobody will be going to this island.
Because when Greece falls, Islam is waiting just to take it over.
Islam and ISIS, they've got their sights set on the Vatican. That's
their big prize. And if they can get Greece and
get Crete, it's just one step more to Rome and get in Rome
and get in the Vatican and turning that place into a large mosque.
So if you're thinking about going to Crete, you probably better
go before Greece declares bankruptcy, which they almost are in bankruptcy
now. But this island was a providence
of Rome, province of Rome. Rome owned and ruled this place. They're not for sure who settled
it. They thought it was the Philistines. You remember David and Samson
and the Philistines? They think the Philistines is
actually the one that settled this island. They had a huge
battle there in World War II. Germany invaded this little island
and killed so many of the men, left the women and children alone,
but killed the husbands and the brothers. It was an awful bloodshed
there on this island in the middle 40s. But I was thinking of what
Larry often mentions about the Lord paving the way for these
apostles and these preachers to go preach the Gospel. Alexander
the Great conquered this island, as he did most of the world.
And one of the things that he required when he conquered places
was they had to speak Greek. They started speaking Greek.
And then when Rome came behind him, and conquered, they required
people to obey their laws. Rome established laws that you
had to obey, and they built roads. So you can see how this paved
the way for these apostles when the Lord sent them out to preach
the gospel. Almost everybody spoke Greek,
and Rome had roads paved. Have you ever heard that old
saying, ìAll roads lead to Rome?î Well, that's where they got this
saying. They built roads all through their province. And they
could travel. It was safe to travel. If you
were a Roman citizen, you could go anyplace. You had the protection. Remember when they whipped Paul
and Silas, and the next day the magistrates sent a message to
them and said, let those men go. And Paul said, oh no, you're
not going to let us go. You magistrates that whipped
us, uncondemned, being Romans, You come down and let us out
yourself. And boy, when the word got back that we have beat Romans,
they were scared to death. And they come down and beg them
not to press charges against them because Rome was very strict
at this time with their laws. You could even appeal to Caesar
like we appeal today to our highest court, the Supreme Court. So
the Lord was paving the way here for these apostles and his preachers
to go out and preach the gospel as they did. But getting back
to this beautiful island, and you just have to see it, you
just have to see it, but I can just see it when the apostle
went there and Titus was there. We don't know who preached the
gospel to this island. It could have been Paul and Titus. You remember in Acts chapter
2 on the dead Pentecost when all of those different nations
were gathered there and there's 3,000 saved? Acts 2 said there
was men from Crete there. So probably what they've done
is heard the Gospel, the Lord saved them, they took it back
and preached it to their fellow men there at Crete. But anyway,
when you think about how beautiful this island was, but you never
read anywhere in this epistle or in all the epistles of either
the Apostle Paul or any of these writers about how beautiful these
places were when they went and preached there. Did you notice
that? They never had anything to say about this beautiful island
of Crete. And I can just imagine when they
went there how beautiful and pristine it was. It wasn't corrupted
probably like it is now with maybe some pollution and stuff.
But they never said a thing about it. And this I think is the reason
why they had their eyes set on a much, much beautiful country. They weren't looking at things
which were temporal. They were looking at things which
were eternal. They had the glory. They had
their eyes set on a glory that was far above the glory of this
world and the beauty of this world. I remember when Paul said,
I would see Rome. But I doubt seriously if he was
talking about I would see the Colosseum or some other man-made
beauty or the rolling hills of Rome. It was probably he wanted
to see the church and what the Lord was doing there in the church
at Rome. I was thinking today when I was
thinking about Brother Don and we were talking here Sunday about
Brother Don Fortner and Wayne was talking about when he used
to come up to that country up there where Wayne and Colleen
lived in Anchorage, Alaska and how beautiful it was. But Don,
they'd put him at a desk and that's where he would stay, there
at that desk. I know of only one time that
he went to Alaska, maybe the first time he went out and saw
anything. The rest of the time, nothing was going to pull him
away from that Word and away from his ministry. He saw something
in the Word. He saw something in Christ that
was more beautiful and glorious than in this world. I remember
Spurgeon, he got gout really bad in the wintertime. Around
London, it was so damp there anyway. And sometimes in the
winter months, he would go to Menton, France, where they had
a milder climate. And one fella talked him into
going fishing with him and got him out fishing. And he fished
a few minutes, and they said he laid his pole down and said,
what a waste of time. And they had to take him back
to his motel room where he could get in the word and ride again.
So that's why these apostles, when you and I look at this beautiful,
beautiful island and say, man, wouldn't you love to visit there?
Wouldn't you love just to look at that? The reason they never
wrote about it, they were just caught up. They were just caught
up in another world and the glory of another world. And another
reason I think they didn't write about it and speak about it,
they were just too busy. They were too busy. I noticed
here in my text he said, ìOrdain elders in every city.î Now, one
man told us that he counted the cities on this island just before
this, and there was a hundred cities on this island. And that
donít surprise me. If youíll take a thirty-five
and forty foot swap, mile swap, about 160 miles, it would be
easy to get 100 small communities and cities in that. But here's
what I'm getting at. Titus didn't have time to go
out and look at these things. He didn't have time to view them
and write about them and take them all in. Paul told him in
the last chapter, he said, I'm going to send some men over there
to take your place and I want you to come to me. So he just
didn't have time. They redeemed the time. They
had to do that. I don't blame anybody for taking
a vacation. I think sometimes we need a vacation,
but I bet you these guys never took much of a vacation. They
had a course to run and they knew if they run it and please
the Lord in doing it, they had to get it done. They had to get
it done. And you know, ain't it that way
with us? We don't have much time left of it. We have a course
to run. Wayne's got to finish Romans.
Larry's got to finish the book of the life of Christ. And I doubt seriously if dear
brother Randy's going to finish the book of Job until all of
us are dead. He's still on the first or second
verse. But we all have a course to run, don't we? You may not
be a pastor. You may not be a teacher. But
I tell you, if the Lord's called you in His kingdom, you've got
a course to run. And we ought to take it seriously,
shouldn't we? And redeem the time. Redeem the
time. And this world with its fashion
and all of its beauty is going to fade away, ain't it? It's
going to fade away. And see this here in verse 5.
He says, "...ordain or appoint elders, pastors, and bishops."
Those terms are synonymous. He did this because there had
to be congregations on this island. I don't know if there were churches
in every city, I wouldn't say that, but he said ordained elders
in every city, so there were probably several cities here
that had churches. And therefore they needed elders,
they needed pastors. Paul stopped by here on his way
to Rome, but he didn't have time to do anything. That's when they
got caught in the storm. Remember that in Acts chapter
27? But this tells us something about the New Testament churches,
how difficult it was to establish them and put everything in order. It was difficult to do that. Sometimes as Paul went preaching
himself, there were multitudes of people saved. And you wonder,
how did they get pastors in all those churches? How did they
establish those churches and get them in order? It took a
lot of sweat, didn't it? It took a lot of labor and prayers
and tears and patience and understanding to do this. Paul said this, "...that
which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." the
care of all the churches. How this man labored and how
his friends labored. And here is the problem that
they had. The Gospel invaded this heathen world all over Asia
and here in Crete and on the other islands. It was just given
over to idolatry, given over to devil worship, given over
to fornication and polygamy. Paul said, You know that you
Gentiles were worshippers of idols, that you were carried
away and led away into these dumb idols, led away by Satan,
led away by your own lusts that warred in your members. What
a mess the world was in when the Gospel invaded it. Let me
remind you there what I said in verse 12. Paul was talking
here about the whole culture upon this island of Crete. He
said, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own said,
the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. I
don't know the population on here, but I'm going to tell you
the culture of this island was given over to corruption. We've
seen that happen in families, haven't we? You've seen families
that that you get a bad attitude in that family, and it is spread,
and it takes two or three generations to get it out of that family.
Some families are mean, they're thieves, they're liars, they're
drunks. That's the way it was on this whole island. The culture
of this island had been given over to lying, drunkenness, corruption. And when the Lord Jesus saves
us from our guilt, He does that immediately, doesn't He? But
you know, as He saves us from our corruption, this inward corruption
of sin and corruption of this world that's around us, you know
that's a process. That's a process that will go
on the rest of our life, saving us from ourselves. And when the
Apostle Paul established this church here at Crete, it wasn't
just saving these people from their guilt. Then they had to
go back out and live in this miserable, corrupt culture that
was here on the Isle of Crete. And don't you think it was difficult
to establish churches? Man, it was. It was. And one of the big ways that
you help people, you help save people, and you get them to lay
aside the weights and the sins that so easily beset us, is for
them to sit under the Gospel. to sit under a gospel preacher. I've often told people I could
live without the church. I could live without hearing
the gospel. I just don't know how. I just don't know how. Don't you feel the same way?
I've heard people say, if I hadn't have found the church to go to
to sit and hear the gospel, I don't think I could have made it another
year. I felt so weak in my soul and it seemed like I kept getting
further and further away from the Lord. So it's important,
isn't it? You see the importance of the
Apostle Paul establishing the ministry among these churches
here to preach the Gospel. Here's what Paul said about it
when he was writing to the Colossians. He said, I'm absent in the flesh
but I'm with you in the Spirit join and behold in your order,
your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. It's
not just the Lord saving people, but then it's establishing those
people in churches. And Paul said when he heard about
the Colossian church, the order that it was in, that it had a
good pastor preaching, they were all there attending the services,
he said it just fills my heart with joy because he realized
the labor that takes, the difficulty that is. This is the very thing
these apostles and evangelists labored so hard to establish
in the early church to bother us brothers and sisters. when
we see so many people, they just don't care about the welfare
of the church. They don't seem to think, how is the church? How is it with the church? You
know it bothers me, and I bet it bothers you, when you see
people in our country, in our present day, right now, they're
just ready to give up all the liberties that we have as a nation.
Just give it up. Give it up. They don't care.
Go to socialism or whatever other ism. Just give up the liberties
we have. And one of the things that bothers me personally about
that is not just I don't want to lose mine, but look at the
blood of our forefathers that have laid down their life and
put their life and honor and property on the line to establish
the freedoms that you and I enjoy now. What bothers me, and I've
talked to some black people about this, but most of the black people
I've talked to, they agree with me on this, but what bothers
me is they talk about how the blacks were mistreated and how
bad slavery was. And that was bad, we all agree
with that. But they forget all of the millions
of gallons of blood that our forefathers shed to free them
from slavery. But what I'm talking about here
is that applies to the church. It applies to the church. Our
forefathers, Paul and these men, they worked their fingers to
the bone, didn't they? Establishing these churches.
And I for one am not willing to just lay down and turn over
and give it all up. I know it's difficult. It's difficult
to establish a church and maintain public worship there, but God
help us not just to roll over and give it up. If no other reason,
that our forefathers labored and strove to establish these
churches. And we're losing them fast in
our country, Arlen. We're losing them fast in our country. I have
people sometimes that call me from other states, and they ask
me if there's a place to go hear the gospel. Do you know of any
place? I had a lady that called me from
somewhere close to Dayton. one from Youngstown. There are
different places called and one knows if there is a place close
to them to hear the Gospel. And I call Brother Don and call
some others and ask them if they know. But here is what I am running
into sometimes too. Once I get to talking to those
people and finding out more about them, I don't think they would
go to a church if they could find one. Here's what I've found
out, in most cases, in most cases, not all cases, there are some
people that honestly don't have a place they say, we can go,
where they just worship and seek the Lord. Here, and I've told
my wife this sometime when I got off the phone with one or two
of these people, I've said this, I hope that person don't find
a good church, because they'll mess it up if they do. But you
know, they're not going there to be steal. They're not going
there to listen and pray and sing and worship. They're going
there to give somebody their opinions. They're going there
to critique the pastor or to find fault. And if they went
there, they'd mess something up. You know what I'm saying?
But boy, look at the labor these men went through to establish
these churches. God help us to love the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Something else here about verse
5. We see this. There can be true churches in
a community and in communities. There can be a true church, believers,
and still be wanting, still be lacking in those churches. That's what he said here in verse
5. Set in order the things that are wanting The Amplified says
this, For this reason left I you behind in Crete, that you might
set right what was defective, and finish what was left undone. Defective and undone. And this tells us that there
may well be a church with believers in it, but you have some problems. In certain areas be defective,
be undone, and be lacking. The Bible gives us goals to shoot
at. As individuals, the Bible gives
me a goal to aim at. As a church, a local church,
the Bible gives us something to aim at. And you know what
that is? Perfection. Perfection in whatever
area that it identifies. Seek with all your heart. What
did Paul say about it? I aim, didn't he? That's my aim. I haven't obtained it yet. that
I aim for it. Listen to how He says in Ephesians
chapter 4 and verses 1, I therefore the prison of the Lord beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called,
with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing
one another in love. Now that is your goal and my
goal. to walk humbly and lowly and
meekly in love one towards another. That's a good goal, isn't it?
Let that be our goal as individuals. And here it bleeds right over
into the congregation, the very next verse, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. So when love
gets cold, what happens? We lose a certain degree of peace,
don't we? Because it's love that covers a multitude of sins and
it's loving one another and seeking that peace and unity of spirit
among us that brings this peace. Here's what he said in Philippians
chapter 2 verse 14. Do all things without murmuring
and disputing, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons
of God, without rebuke. Now that's something to aim at,
isn't it? Do you ever murmur? You ever complain? A little bit,
don't we? And then he adds this, "...in
the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine
as lights in the world." That's the goal of the church. That's
the goal. Aren't you glad the Bible sets
goals out there to keep you digging after, keep you praying for?
And that's what that is. There is never a time when any
person or any congregation can sit back and say, I have arrived. I have reached the goal. It's
impossible, isn't it? It's impossible. We must always
be in endeavoring. We must always be watching. We
must always be laboring because of the situation. that you and
I are in requires that, requires us to do that. Lastly, we should never be discouraged
when we see that things are wanted. We should never be discouraged
when we see that things are wanted. Things are lacking. As long as
we're honest with the Lord and as long as we're praying concerning
our own selves and about the church, we should never be discouraged. I told some people just a couple
of weekends ago, I said, I know that churches have problems.
I said, I know your church is having problems. The church where
our pastor is having problems. I don't know of a single church
that's not having problems. And you know something else I
told them? I doubt seriously if all of our problems will ever
be remedied. I doubt it. Do you? Sometimes
the harder you try to fix one big problem, the more problems
you create. The best thing we can do about
problems is be patient, be understanding, and love one another, and seek
and endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of
peace. And sometimes the Lord will work them out. But we never
want to be discouraged about it. And that's easier said than done. Some churches don't have pastors.
I know churches. I've known several churches in
my lifetime that don't have pastors. And one of the things they do
is get very discouraged. They get very doubtful. And some
of them just say, I think, has the Lord left us? But listen
and think of this. Here were these great apostles
of our Lord. They couldn't fix all the problems
in these churches. It seemed like they'd get the
problems fixed in one church and the problems would rise up
in another church. If they had problems and they
had to exercise such patience and long-suffering and wisdom
and love and grace, then you and I shouldn't get discouraged
when we have troubles just like they did. This is why we read of the importance
of these elders that we're going to begin studying on next time.
The character. How important is it for a congregation
to have a pastor? But how important is it for that
congregation to have a pastor who has a good character and
who knows the scripture to preach it to other people? It's important,
isn't it? It's very important. A great
deal depends upon that man's character and his ability to
understand, his God-given ability. I want to turn over to Acts Chapter
20 and read this and close, and we'll close with this. Acts Chapter
20. This is where the Apostle Paul
was going to Jerusalem, but he wanted the elders of Ephesus,
and there were probably several of them, to meet him here at
a little place called Miletus. And all of these Ephesian elders
came and met him there. And I want to read what he said
to these elders in Acts chapter 20 and verse 17. And from Miletus
he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church, these
pastors, And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye
know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what
manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord
with all humility of mind, with many tears and temptations which
befell me by the line and weight of the Jews. And I kept back
nothing that was profitable unto you, but I have showed you and
have taught you publicly, and from house to house testifying
both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards
God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold,
I go bound in the Spirit into Jerusalem, not knowing the things
that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesses
in every city that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none
of these things move me, neither count my life dear unto myself,
that I might finish my course with joy. and the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. And now, behold, I know that
ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God,
shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. And
here he speaks directly to them. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseer,
to feed the church of God which ye have purchased with his own
blood. For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing
the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them. Therefore watch and remember
that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone,
night and day, with tears. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all of them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver
or gold or pearl. Yea, yourselves know that these
hands I ministered to my necessities, and to them that were with me.
I have showed you all things, how that so labored you ought
to support the weak, and to remember the words of our Lord Jesus,
how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. And
when He had thus spoken, He knelt down and prayed with them all.
And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him,
sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake. that they
should see His face no more. And they accompanied Him into
the ship. So the Lord's will and will take
up there in verse 6 next week and look at the character of
the elder and how important that is. Father, we do thank You for
this time to let us study Your Word, Your blessed Word. And
Lord, would You be pleased to fill us with the love and the
patience and zeal and the understanding that You gave Your people of
old to be concerned, to love Your church that You purchased
at a great price to Yourself. Help us, Lord, I pray, to love
one another as You've loved us and remember one another before
You and hold one another up. We know, Lord, our time is short.
You have reminded us of this every day. Seemingly, You remind
us that our time is so short. Give us strength, I pray, Lord,
to love and be patient in labor, not to be ashamed of You, to
be bold, not to be timid. Oh, Lord in heaven, bless this
congregation. Visit and bless for Your glory. In Jesus, our Lord's name, we
pray. Amen.