Greetings, church, if you would take your copy of God's Word with me this evening as we continue our series through Titus, a series titled The Gospel-Ordered Life and Ministry. We're going to be looking this evening at Titus 1, verses 10 through 16. And if you would read with me as I read aloud, this is the Word of God, and it reads as follows. I'm going to begin in verse 9 for the sake of context as we're thinking about the calling and the responsibility of an elder, the office of elder. Notice what it says in verse 9. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful game what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons. The testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply. that they may be sound in the faith, nor devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. And this evening I'm preaching on the office of an elder, part two of this section here in Titus chapter one. Join me in prayer at this time. Father, we do love you and we thank you for this joyful occasion to gather together with open Bibles, to be able to study, to be able to learn, but to be able to worship. to be worshipers who come before your throne. And as the Word of God is preached, that we would submit ourselves to the Word of God, and that we would consider the importance of this text, not only for the situation and the context there on the island of Crete, back in this culture when Paul wrote this letter to Titus, but also to our own setting, to our own situation and our own circumstances here in our present culture in the life of our own church. So Lord, would you encourage us, build up our faith, and would you strengthen us so that we could not make mistakes as it pertains to the office of elder, And also that the people of this church could understand the role and the responsibility of an elder to protect the church from the wolves who are seeking to destroy them. And again, we ask that you would be blessed as we read and as we preach and as we study this text this evening, for it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. The setting of this specific letter was, again, Paul writing to a young man, a protege or a disciple of his, who would serve in the purpose of setting in order the things that remained. In other words, that his task, Titus' task, would be that he would put into place and order the ministry of the local church on this island. Again, we have discussed already in the previous sermons that Crete was A very difficult place for ministry. It was a place that would have been very difficult to serve as a pastor. It would have been very difficult to set in order the ministry of the local church on this island because of all of the evil and all of the philosophies and all of the sin and all of the injustice that was there in this specific context. But nevertheless, that was God's calling on Titus and Paul drives and he drills down on this specific issue. And we've already seen that in the previous text. If you look there at verse five, this is why I left you in Crete. This is what he says to Titus in the opening verses of this letter. As we've already looked here in verses 5 down to verse 9, we have seen what we call the qualifications for the office of elder, or the qualifications for the office of a pastor. And then in verses 10 through 16, the second part of these qualifications centers primarily on one of those qualifications, which is that of protecting the church from false teachers. And so this evening we're going to look at that very subject. That if you're going to be an elder in the life of a local church, you must be able to teach. Verse 9 tells us that. You must be able to hold fast and hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. And you must be able to give instruction in sound or healthy doctrine or healthy teaching. and also to rebuke those who contradict it. Now that would have included those who were living in sin in the church, but also specifically the false teachers. And as this intense spotlight is placed on their teaching and on their sinful heresy, Paul is saying to Titus, the men that you ordain, the men that you establish, and that you appoint to this very work, on the island of Crete, in the various cities, these elders must be able to bring about faithful correction to those false teachers, or else, if need be, place them outside of the church to silence them, we're going to see, so that the church would be protected. This evening we're going to see three specific divisions in verses 10 through 16, and we begin in verse 10 with the first point. As we look at the focus of protecting the church from false teachers, point number one we see is Paul gives us the characteristics of the false teachers. Notice in verse 10 what he says, he says, who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party." The first thing that we see is that there is a multiplicity of false teachers. There were many people who were teaching false doctrines. And again, they were to be rebuked. They were to be rebuked. Again, this is the idea of to scrutinize or to bring to light, to expose. And again, we see that here in the previous text. That's what he was called to do in verse number 9. They were to be rebuked. But again, we remember what Calvin said. Calvin said that the pastor, the elder, must have two voices. He must have one voice for gathering the sheep, and then he must have another voice for driving away wolves and thieves. And again, you see that here in verse number nine, do we not? That the elder must be able to rebuke those who contradict it. And then he says four, and this is the connecting word to the context that we see in verses five through nine. Four. For there are many, a multiplicity, who are insubordinate." And so again, he gives the descriptions there. So the multiplicity is a discouraging thing for Titus, because if you think about it, Titus was going to have to put in order and organize and set in place the ministry of the local church, but there were many people who were opposing him. So it would be a very difficult task as we think about our current landscape. We need to be mindful of the fact that there are many heresies in America. There are many false doctrines that are floating about on social media. There are many false teachings that are being proclaimed on various different radio stations, and through the internet, and on websites, and on the radio. Again, we see that on various different television broadcast networks like TBN, for instance, filled with health, wealth and prosperity teachers who are teaching us that we should live our best lives now, that we should put all of our focus on having stuff and having possessions and the best house that we could have and the best car that we could possibly drive. We see Mormons who are coming to our doors and knocking and peddling false teaching, teaching a cult, peddling false information about Jesus, claiming that he was a created being who is the spirit brother of Satan, which is an absolute heresy. Again, we have the false teaching in the cult of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Again, this specific organization, the Watchtower organization, is publishing material and sending out witnesses, and you find them at gas stations, and you find them walking about through neighborhoods, and they're teaching a false doctrine about Jesus, claiming that Jesus is not God in human flesh, one with the Father, I am, But yet they're teaching that Jesus literally is Michael the archangel. And they're peddling this false teaching with false hope. And again, we see this all throughout America and beyond the borders of America. We also have, a little bit closer to our front porch, we have many people who are peddling a false gospel known as easy-believism. It's this idea that just preach that hell is hot and heaven is wonderful and you get to go to a place where there's no more needles and no more shots and no more tooth extractions and no more pain and no more tears and no more broken hearts and a place where there's a wonderful buffet of food, and you can eat as much as you want, and you don't have to worry about dying anymore because death has passed away. And it has wonderful, great, large gates of pearl and streets of gold, and all you have to do is just pray and ask Jesus into your heart, and everything's going to be just okay. Well, this is what we call easy-believism. We need to teach the truth about the true gospel, which involves the reality of real sin. And it talks about real transgression. And it talks about real, genuine hope in a substitutionary death of God's Son on the cross. And that our faith and hope must be in Jesus alone. But yet this easy-believism is being peddled all throughout evangelicalism. just raise your hand and they'll have VBS in the summer and just get as many little kids in a room and teach them just to raise their hand. It's almost like a magic little mysticism sort of way of just ask Jesus into your heart and then we bring them up before the church and baptize them and then tell them that they're gonna have a home in heaven. Why do you think it is that we have so many people in Baptist circles today that are coming to faith later in life Coming to the realization that they never were saved in the beginning, but they were told by someone in a summer program that they were a genuine Christian. And so we see this easy believism. We have to be very clear on what the gospel actually is. But notice the characteristics as described in verse number 10. They are insubordinate. This is a particular word that means refusing submission to authority. Undisciplined. Disobedient. Rogue. Rebellious. God has given pastors to the local church for a specific reason. And the type of leadership that God expects in the life of the church is that the leaders of the church are to lead spiritually, and that they are to have authority, not in and of themselves or their office as pastor, but their authority is linked to the infallible, inerrant, and authoritative and sufficient Word of God. That's why it says in Hebrews 13, 17, obey your leaders and submit to them. They are keeping watch over your souls. So the church is to submit and to obey the pastors who are over them. In so much that they are to preach the Word of God. They are to be warned. They are to be rebuked. They are to be reproved. They are to be exhorted. They are to be brought to a place of healthy living and sanctification. Proverbs 10.17 says, whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life. But he who rejects reproof leads others astray. To resist pastoral leadership is to endanger your soul. Listen to what the Scriptures teach about obeying the very Word of God. Now we must understand the context here. These false teachers, they were insubordinate In many ways, to the leadership of Paul and to the leadership of Titus, whatever that might have looked like before the ordering of the local church and putting things in order and establishing the office of elder, these false teachers were coming along and rejecting their leadership, but specifically what they were rejecting was the Word of God. Because you see, again, we notice that The role of Titus in Crete was to establish and to appoint the elders. So the church was young and immature and yet disorderly in many ways. And the pastors that needed to be leading and guarding and guiding and protecting the flock were not there. That was the purpose of Titus' ministry in Crete. to establish. And so what we find is we find that these false teachers were coming along and they were trying to take the place of the God-ordained and the God-called elders that should be there. And so what they were doing is that they were being insubordinate to God's Word, but most importantly to God Himself. Listen to James 1.22. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. These false teachers, they had deceived themselves. They were insubordinate to God. They were hearing the word of God, but they were not doing the word of God. Listen to what John 14, 23 says. This is Jesus speaking. He says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My father will love him. and he will come to him and make our home with him. In other words, if you love Jesus, you will keep Jesus' word, you will keep. The Scriptures. In Matthew 7, 24, coming to the very end of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says this. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And then he goes on and gives the illustration of what that looks like and then he contrasts it with one who does not build his life on the very words of Christ. And so they were insubordinate to the word of God. Second of all, they were empty talkers. Notice what it says in verse number 10. For there are many, the multiplicity of these people, who are insubordinate, they are empty talkers. This is a compound Greek term that means to talk idly. It means of one who is a vain talker. Someone who talks with words of vanity. The idea is that these false teachers were worthless to the church. In fact, they were beyond worthless. They were into the negative. They were dangerous for the church. And so there's no value for the teaching and the speaking of false teachers. Again, remember the words that we find in Matthew 7 to 15. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Remember the warning about Satan, we often times think about Satan as being this being who is this red faced, horned, you know, pitchfork carrying with a long pointy tail type of being that comes with vicious fangs and he announces himself as the devil. But in 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13 and 14, it says, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, distinguishing themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So, false teachers, false prophets, false apostles, false pastors. will come just like the devil himself, disguising themselves in light rather than darkness. Consider the deception of false teachers. Jude 4 says, For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated to this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality. and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Consider if you will, in ancient Palestine, a shepherd would go out with a flock of sheep and he would often times, in the cold of night, he would have a long exterior coat. Sometimes that coat would be covered with sheep's wool. So when Jesus gives that illustration that a false teacher comes, that he looks like a sheep externally, but inwardly he's a destructive wolf. That's the greatest picture that you could have of a false teacher. or a false prophet. Consider the words of A.W. Pink, what he says here. He says, false prophets are to be found in the circles of the most orthodox, and they pretend to have a fervent love for souls, and yet they fatally delude multitudes concerning the way of salvation. The pulpit, platform, and pamphlet hucksters have wantonly lowered the standard of divine holiness and so adulterated the gospel in order to make it palatable to the carnal mind." Consider the words of Pink. That the false teachers, they have an agenda to lower the standards, to make what is not natural for the unbeliever to desire the Word of God. They twist the Scriptures, they twist the Gospel in such a way that it's attractive. That's why you have people like smiling Joel Osteen, who can deceive thousands upon thousands of people by taking the gospel, which lost people would never desire in and of themselves, and then he twists it in such a way that it makes it attractive, and one of the things that he can do to it, along with other false teachers, is attach to the gospel this idea that if you believe in Jesus, then if your faith is strong enough, that you'll have lots and lots of money, and you'll have good health, And you'll live a long life so that you can enjoy lots and lots of possessions. That's not the gospel. And false teachers are clever at taking the gospel and twisting it. Matthew 24, 24 says, For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Even the elect. These false Christs, these false prophets would arise. And this is the warning that we have all throughout scripture. Consider, if you will, the specific heresy that's mentioned of the characteristics in verse 10. They are of the circumcision party. This is the specific dominating heresy that was plaguing the island of Crete. And for that reason, we can see that it's a Jewish cult. It's a Jewish heresy. What was happening was that these specific Jews were coming into the church and they were saying, if you really want to be a Christian, then you have faith in Jesus, but then you must be circumcised. They were adding something to the gospel that should not have been added to the gospel. It was adding works to the grace of God. And so we see in this very text, when he mentions the circumcision party, you should immediately have a buzzer that goes off in your mind that connects you to Galatians chapter number one. Because that was, again, the leading heresy that was plaguing the church in the city of Galatia. And Paul writes to that church and he opens up with a stern rebuke and a warning of that specific heresy. And notice what he says in verse number 8 of Galatians 1. But even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Accursed in the Greek, anathema. It means to be damned to hell. Those are stern words coming from the pen of the Apostle Paul, and he's writing here to Titus, and he's identifying that very same heresy that was on the island of Crete. These Jews had come into the church, and they had used their knowledge of the law to pervert the very grace of God, and they were leading people astray. They were wolves in sheep's clothing. Consider John Flavel and what he said years ago. He said these words, quote, how dangerous it is to join anything of our own to the righteousness of Christ in pursuit of justification before God. Jesus Christ will never endure this. It reflects upon his work dishonorably. He will be all or none in our justification. Consider that. Jesus will be all or he will be none in our justification. Jesus is not 99.5% and then we have to do .5% in order to be saved. You'll hear people talk like that occasionally. Well, you know, Jesus did his part, now you must do your part. You'll hear preachers sometimes at the end of a sermon, they'll say something like that before they give some sort of altar call or invitation. They'll say, now God's done His part, now you must do your part. And it's almost as if Jesus couldn't quite do everything, and He needs a little bit of help from us. No, Jesus paid it all, and all to Him we owe. And so we must have faith alone in Christ alone for the remission of sins, or else we are not justified, we are not saved at all. This is the teaching of Scripture. J.C. Ryle said it this way, whenever a man takes it upon himself to make additions to the scriptures, he is likely to end up valuing his own additions above scripture itself. In other words, the false teacher that adds this and adds that to the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to value his additions more than the very gospel itself. A.W. Tozer once said this, Jesus is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is he the best of several ways. He is the only way. To deny the plain teachings of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ To deny the clear teachings of sola fide, faith alone in Christ alone for the remission of our sins, is to deny Jesus altogether. And so we must come to Christ and to Christ alone. And there are many false teachers that are plaguing us today. Joel Osteen, and Rod Parsley, and Benny Hinn, and Joyce Meyer, and Creflo Dollar here in the Atlanta area, and T.D. Jakes, who by the way denies the Trinity. Not only does he embrace the health, wealth, and prosperity, and word, faith, false gospel, but he denies the Trinity. He embraces the false heresy, the false gospel, the heretical teachings known as modalism, which is a flat denial of the Trinity. And so we must be very cautious to reject the teachings of these health, wealth, and prosperity teachers. But if I'm honest, pastors in our particular day, my job, my calling is to warn you. And it's almost so easy to call a Joel Osteen or a Benny Hinn, and you sit and you're like, well, I'm not even in the slightest degree tempted to believe their false teaching. And that's why it is when we start talking about pastors in our particular day, we need to be able to identify things that are a bit closer to our own front porch. And we need to be able to point out with clarity that there are other movements and there are other doctrines that are plaguing God's church and prostituting the very bride of Jesus. And we must be very cautious and pastoral, but nevertheless, we must speak the truth about these very things. We need to be able to say things like, to the church, that the social justice movement is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's adding things too. It's putting an emphasis on law rather than on grace. It's perverting the gospel of Jesus. When you're attaching woke, which comes out of the black nationalist movement to church and you're publishing books by that title and then teaching that this is the way that the church should function, that's to go outside of the bounds of scripture and it's to give a new definition for God's church that Jesus didn't give himself. And we have all sorts of things and all sorts of injustices and tragedies that are plaguing our land today. But yet the faithful pastor must be able to look at the scene, and look at the news, and look at the newspaper, and look at his iPad, and then look into the faces of his people and say, yes, yes, the lives of black people matter. They matter to us because they first and foremost matter to God. But then, The faithful pastor must be able to look at his people and say, but this Black Lives Matter organization is ungodly, corrupt, deceitful, and it is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus. And the Christian needs to disconnect himself or herself from the Black Lives Matter political movement. There's a better way to value people and to stand against injustice. And it's through the faithful proclamation of God's Word and the faithful love that the church should exhibit. And it should flow out of the Christian within the life of the church. So the pastor must be able to point out those characteristics. So notice the calling, second of all. Verses 11-14, the calling of the pastor. First of all, false teachers must be silenced. Notice verse 11. They must be silenced, which means literally to bridle, like you would bridle an animal, to stop the speech. Verse 11, they, these false teachers that have just been described in verse 10, they must be silenced. We need to be able to silence them. What does this mean? Well, it means that they must be stopped from speaking. In the sense of the local church, if they're teaching a Sunday school class, they need to be silenced. They need to be deplatformed in the church. They don't need to be in a teaching position in the church. If they're an elder, they need to not be an elder in the church. If it's a conference ministry, a parachurch organization, they need to be deplatformed and not preaching and teaching in that specific ministry. Now why? Notice what he says in verse 11. Because they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain, that's their motivation, What they ought not to teach. And then he quotes again from Epimetides, one of their prophets, a hero to the people. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own. Said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Then Paul says, this testimony is true. I can bear witness to this. I've been to Crete. I know what's there. I know the people. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply. This is what a pastor is to do. That they may be sound in the faith. The first thing the pastor must do is silence them. Must silence them. If you'll remember, If you'll remember in 2 Timothy chapter 2, what Paul said to Timothy, young Timothy, who was pastoring in a very difficult context in the city of Ephesus, he said this in verses 14 to 16, remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly, Handling the word of truth, but avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness." Notice, that was the word of Paul to Timothy. Notice what else he said in 2 Timothy 3, verse 6, he said, for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women burdened with sins and led astray by various passions. We see this once again in the health, wealth and prosperity circles again. We see that type of thing. I remember some time back I received an envelope in the mail and I opened it up and inside there was a letter and there was a prayer cloth and there was another envelope that already had postage paid on it. I read the letter that had instructions for me and it said, congratulations, you've received this prayer cloth and it contains a mysterious hidden blessing for you. And all you need to do is write out a check and sew a seed gift offering into this ministry, and it gave the name of the ministry, and put it inside this postage paid envelope and put it in the mail. And once you do that, then you can pray with this prayer cloth and this mysterious financial blessing will be unlocked for you personally. And I thought to myself when I read that, how many people are actually led astray by this? I mean, obviously, there are many people, because I got one, and it's probably sent to many others as well, and so people are just thinking, well, I need some extra money, so maybe I'll see if it'll work. Maybe like rubbing a rabbit's foot, or maybe like something else, or maybe someone actually takes it very seriously. How scary it is. Joel Osteen wrote to his congregation in 2005 and said the following, quote, God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny he has laid out for us, end quote. That's what Joel Osteen said was the purpose of God for their church. When Simon the sorcerer thought that he could buy the power of the Holy Spirit from the apostles, this is how Peter responded. In Acts chapter 8 verse 20, Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. In his excellent book, God, Greed, and the Prosperity Gospel, Kosti Hinn, the nephew of Benny Hinn, who spoke at G3 this past year, said the following, quote, the prosperity gospel distorts the biblical gospel by making the good news all about you and all about stuff, end quote. When I spent some time with Conrad and Bewe in Zambia some years back in 2014, as we were riding down the road, I asked Pastor Conrad, I said, what's the most difficult challenge that you face here in your context of ministry outside of Lusaka, Zambia? And Conrad said the following, he said, the most difficult challenge that I face as a pastor are all of these people. And he pointed outside of the truck window and as we were driving down the road and there were posters on the side of the road at intersections inviting people to come to these rallies and these services for these self-proclaimed apostles. And then he told me, he said, I'm a pastor. But in this culture, if you're not an apostle, you're a nobody. So they look down upon me and my ministry here because I'm not an apostle. But the very minute that you attach apostle to the front of your name, the people want to come and hear what you have to say and give you money. What a tragedy. So these teachers, they must be silent. Second of all, they must be sharply rebuked. The word rebuke here means to expose. To expose. We find this word used in the text of scripture on church discipline. In Matthew 18 and 15, it says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault. The word tell is the very same word that's translated rebuke here in verse number 13. If you go to John chapter 16 verse 8, the Holy Spirit does this. It says, and when he comes, he, the Holy Spirit, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. The word convict is the very same word translated rebuke here in verse 13. In Revelation 3, 19, listen to what it says about Jesus. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Jesus reproves those whom he loves. And the word reprove in Revelation 3.19 is the very same word that's translated rebuke here in verse number 13. And so the point is this, is that the elder that's appointed to this office by Titus in the churches there on this island of Crete must be able to rebuke those who are teaching falsely. But then he attaches another word, and it's the word sharply. It means to sharply cut. It means to sever. It means to sever rigorously. The picture here is to cut a branch with one blow, one strike. In 2 Corinthians 13 10, this very word is translated severe. For this reason, I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come, I may not have to be severe. in my use of authority. This is what Paul says to the church in the city of Corinth. So, to rebuke sharply, when connected to rebuke, this is the idea of a deep, sharp rebuke. This is no gentle rebuke. Vance Havner once said this, the early Christians condemned false doctrine in a way that sounds almost unchristian today, end quote. Because today you hear people say, well, that just wasn't very pastoral, or you just have to lighten up a little bit. Don't be so serious about doctrine. You hear the culture saying that, preaching that to preachers. If you really want to have a growing church, you won't say it just like that. You won't be so insensitive. You won't be so preachy. But the goal is not to run these people out of the church. Actually, the goal is what is always present in church discipline in any rebuke, no matter if it's a gentle rebuke or a sharp, deep, cutting rebuke like this one. It's the goal of restoration. Notice what he says. That, here's the purpose, verse 13. Rebuke them sharply that, here's your purpose, that they may be sound in the faith, that they may be healthy in the Christian faith. This is the goal of this false teacher that's teaching. You deplatform them, you silence them, they're no longer teaching, you sharply rebuke them, you work with them for the purpose of restoration. And if need be, obviously we know because Jesus has already said it to us in his text in Matthew chapter 18, if they refuse to repent, then you would have to excommunicate them. But the goal here is obviously restoration. But he draws a line in the sand, if you will. This sharp rebuke is this sharp cutting blow that draws a line in the sand. It's this line that literally separates heaven and hell. If you refuse to repent, then we will condemn you. We will condemn you as an unbeliever and we will have to put you out of the church. This is the work of a faithful pastor, to shepherd, to care for, to guide, and to guard the church. And then finally we see, last of all, verses 15 and 16, the contrast of true and false believers. Again, you see in verse number 13 and 14, the goal is that they would be sound in the faith, that they would not be devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth But here in verses 15 and 16, we have the contrast of the true and the false believer. Verse 15 at the beginning, to the pure, all things are pure. What does this mean? Well, it means that when a person's heart and mind is pure, that his motives and his intentions and his ministry are gonna be pure. In other words, he's not gonna be ministering for dishonest gain. He's not going to be trying to be selfishly motivated to twist people so that they can believe things that aren't true and so that they can gain possessions that will only rust and corrupt and decay and eventually perish themselves. But to the pure, all things are pure. Verses 15 and 16 go on to describe the false believer. To the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. In other words, to the defiled and unbelieving, motives aren't pure. Goals aren't pure. Intentions aren't pure. Nothing is pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. As 1 Corinthians 2.14 teaches us that the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Again, we see this, do we not? The unbeliever's mind and conscience is defiled by sin. This is human depravity. It's not what we eat or what we touch that defiles the heart, but it's human depravity. And then he goes on and he says that they are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. In other words, these are strong words that say that the person who teaches false doctrine is of zero profit. to the church. If God's church will be pure and if God's church will be organized properly according to the gospel, it must be led by faithful elders who will lead by example in lives of godliness and in teaching that is marked by the gospel. Again, as has already been stated in our previous text, if you're going to be an elder, if you're going to be a pastor in the local church, you must be able to teach the word. And what is the elder to teach? He is to teach the gospel. He is to teach the full counsel of God's Word. He is to teach Holy Scripture. He is to preach the message of the cross of Christ. It is to be expounded in full. He is to teach the law and point people to their condemnation under sin and point to the fulfillment of the law which comes in Jesus. The faithful elder is to come and to stand in the midst of the church and he's to teach the message of justification. How sinners need to be justified by faith alone in Christ alone. The faithful elder is to teach the message of man's horrid sinful peril and transgression before God. And he is to teach the glorious hope of Jesus' substitutionary death in the place of guilty sinners. The faithful elder that holds this office must stand in the midst of the church and teach the triumphant message of Jesus' victorious resurrection from the dead on the third day. And that he is to teach the wonderful message of hope to any and all who would bow their knee to Jesus Christ, pointing people to their hope in Jesus, teaching that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. As we come to the end of this very message this evening, I ask you this question. Are you a Christian? Do you have a desire for God? Do you detest that which is evil and cling to that which is good? Are you able to discern the false teaching of the day? Maybe you've never bowed to Christ, but you find yourself with a desire to call out to Jesus. You find yourself with a desire to call out to Christ. Maybe for the very first time in all of your life, you have come to the realization, as John Newton once said, you know that you are a great sinner, but that Christ is a great Savior. If that's you this evening, if you're listening to this sermon, Whether it's through this live stream or on a recorded broadcast of this very sermon. And you know that you're not a Christian. I want you to remember what Charles Spurgeon once said in a sermon as he was addressing unbelievers. He said, you are hanging over the mouth of hell by a single thread. And that thread is breaking. Only a gasp for breath. Only a stopping of the heart for a single moment. And you will be in an eternal world without God, without hope, without forgiveness. Oh, can you face it? End quote. This is the role and the calling of a faithful pastor to call out sin, to guard the church, to feed the people the true message of the gospel of King Jesus. Let's bow in prayer together. Father, we do love you and we thank you for this occasion to be together this evening, to be able to open up scripture and to once again put our attention and our focus on the calling and the responsibility of the office of elder. And I pray, Father, that you would strengthen the elders that serve in the context of this church, that we would be faithful, that we would be held accountable to these very qualifications. and that you would cause us to be men who would stand on the wall faithfully and guard the sheep of God's pasture. That we would not be men who are selfishly motivated, but that we would be people who are humble and that exemplify Christ to this congregation so that you would be glorified, oh God. We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.