Timothy and to Titus concerning qualifications And given that in just a few weeks, we're going to be holding an ordination council for Stephen Payne. And sometime soon after that, we will be affirming him as an elder in the church. So considering these qualifications is very timely. And so I think that what we'll talk about today has very practical application. And hopefully you will see some benefit because a lot of times we're actually gonna touch on three things towards the end, probably the second half of the class, that people in conservative reform churches struggle with. How should we interpret this? What is the practical application of this? And so we will talk about three things related to that. To begin with, though, I want us to go back to 1 Timothy for just a moment and talk about the fact that Paul's first letter to Timothy was focused on warning against false teachers. And so in 1 Timothy 1, verses 3 and 4, if you recall, we read this. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promotes speculations, rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. So again, he's warned him on multiple occasions, be watchful for this. There are apparently certain persons teaching different doctrines, which is why he's told to remain in Ephesus and charge them not to. He is charged with protecting the word against false teachers. And then in verses 18 through 20 of the same chapter, this charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme." And so again, he's describing what Timothy is waging as the good warfare. Guarding the good deposit and waging good warfare are synonymous in Paul's mind and in his writings to Timothy. And the warfare is such that this language here of handing over to Satan, if you're familiar with 1 Corinthians 5, we have that same instruction from Paul to the church in dealing with a man who is committing sexual immorality with his likely mother-in-law or step-mom. I'm sorry, step-mom, not mother-in-law. So we have this handing over to Satan, we would call it perhaps excommunication or removing from the assembly. So, Hymenaeus and Alexander have been handed over to Satan, meaning they can no longer gather as a believer with the body of believers. The same was true of the man in 1 Corinthians 5. part of that guarding, part of that waging that good war is protecting the doctrine. So much so that if someone is in the midst preaching a different doctrine, we are to remove them. And obviously, that's going to depend on the level of doctrine, right? We understand from our statement of faith that there are things that are critical for people to understand the Trinity salvation by faith alone justification faith alone. And so those are typically things that we would call primary not that all scripture is not important but some doctrines are at a more significant level of focus and importance. So the Trinity justification by faith alone those types of things are considered primary. Then we have secondary things that tend to make denominations, but they're not necessarily considered heterodoxy or false teaching per se. And so our Presbyterian and Anglican brothers upstairs may teach a little bit different doctrine than we do regarding baptism, and we are not treating that in the same way as we treat false teaching regarding the Trinity, for instance. And then there are tertiary matters where we may just agree to disagree. A lot of what James worked on the last two weeks regarding interpretation of revelation within godly churches there are multiple types of views and interpretations none of which may be exactly the same. So we're much more cautious in how we you know we're not going to call somebody a heretic because they're amillennial versus postmillennial or something along those lines. So in these cases what Paul is talking to Timothy about it's severe enough that it's considered warfare. We have false teachers and specifically when we get to Titus we have the circumcision party called out. And so there we are talking about justification by faith plus works. If we are considering justification by faith alone a primary doctrine, those of the circumcision party would be teaching that unless you were circumcised, you cannot be saved. Similarly, those who believe in baptismal regeneration today would teach that unless you are baptized, you cannot be saved. And so it's what Paul calls teaching another doctrine or a different gospel in Galatians So anathema or condemnation for teaching. It's that kind of teaching that we're talking about here. So Timothy is to remain in Ephesus and guard against destructive heresy. That's the whole point of 1 Timothy chapters 2 and following. In fact, he spends chapter one warning against false teachers, and then chapter two begins, first of all, comma, then, dot, dot, dot. The idea is that Paul's given the warning, and then he's going to set things in place for Timothy that are practical things to be done within the church that protect the church from those things. I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. for Eve was deceived. Right. That is a instruction. And of course what we're talking about today as it regards elders. Chapter 3 begins if anyone aspires to the office of overseer he desires a noble task and he lays out qualifications for someone to be an elder and qualifications for men to be deacons. So that all of that is part of this warfare part of this guarding the good deposit that's been given to him. And so in Titus then, as we jump over to Titus now, we have similar instructions. He starts out his letter by telling Titus to appoint elders in every town. He doesn't give a reason initially, so it's kind of the reverse of what he did with Timothy. In Timothy he warns of false teachers and then gives things to do to guard against that In Titus, he jumps right into appointing elders and then explains why and explains the qualifications as to why. So when we read verse five, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. We see a little bit later on in verse nine why that is these. This is what he says concerning elders those elders that he's going to appoint in every town. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So it's not just about teaching it's about rebuking correcting you're wrong. Let me show you from God's word why you're wrong and how we need to correct your understanding of that. Why for when you see a for or a therefore you ask what is therefore 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 gain what they ought not to teach. And continuing on, one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. That's kind of a crude summary of false teachers, but that's what Paul, the message is trying to get across. Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. We talked about this when we looked at First Corinthians 5 and this idea of what does it mean to hand somebody over to Satan. When we excommunicate someone when we remove someone from membership it's not punishment. It's not we don't like you anymore. In fact we still love you and we want you to be saved. That that's what we have in view here to rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. We're seeking correction and restoration here not punishment. If you come in here teaching heresy and I sharply rebuke you, it's not because I don't like you. It's because I want you to be sound in the faith. And there's not anybody in here that I know of teaching heresy, so I don't have to sharply rebuke anybody. But rather than devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth, That's the contrast. There are those people who are doing those things. We want you to be sound in the faith. And so Timothy's job and Titus's job is to defend the body against false doctrine. That is the point. That's what overseers are there to do. The primary responsibility. Now that's going to obviously involve other things that the patients and long suffering and that the attitudes of an elder are going to go a long way towards making sure that that work is accomplished through the Holy Spirit of course. So the context in both First Timothy 3 and Titus 1 is the strong need to hold firm to the word because there are fierce wolves who must be silenced. Paul had already warned about that in Acts chapter 20 and it's coming to pass. False doctrine cannot be allowed to remain in the body. And so, what we're going to talk about this morning are the qualifications for elders in light of that. Why is he setting forth these qualifications and how do these qualifications accomplish what Paul is telling Timothy and Titus to accomplish? How do they work? So, on page 2, You have a chart that I put together that summarizes the commonalities and the similar considerations. I would say that everything in the two passages are similar in nature, they're just not exact, but there are several cases where there's exact wording in first Timothy three and Titus one that we should be aware of. So we're going to spend our time today talking about qualifications and understand why they are what they are and then addressing common controversies around some of them. So Turn with me to Titus chapter 1, if you're not already there. One thing that I want to point out just right up front, and we don't have to touch on it anymore. You will notice that at the top, the headings, 1 Timothy 3, everything that Paul writes is concerning an overseer. The Greek word is episkopos. It's where we get our English word Episcopal or Episcopalian. It is a that is the oversight of the church is governed by surprisingly enough overseers. Well in Titus chapter 1 in verse 5 we have qualifications for elders. This is why I left you in Crete so that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. Are we talking about two different offices there? The answer is no. Presbyteros is the word for elder. It literally means older, which don't there are no cracks that you need to make about me Todd is the elder elder here. But it does just mean older and the idea as you will see. That's right. Todd's been here longer than I have. Not by much. But the idea is that not that elders are necessarily elderly, thankfully for both me and Todd, it points to experience, it points to life experiences, wisdom, the time to gain knowledge, the idea of respect for your elders comes because they have those life experiences, they have that knowledge and that wisdom. And so that's the general idea here. However, when you go from verse five, where we're talking about appointing elders in every town, verse six, if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. Verse seven, Four, another four, because an overseer, episkopos, an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. So the whole conversation centers around the office of elder and the office of overseer being one and the same. There is no differentiation there. The context proves the point that What Timothy is, what Paul is writing to Timothy about in first Timothy one concerning overseers is the same thing that Paul is writing to Titus about in Titus chapter one related to elders. It's funny how those qualifications look surprisingly the same when we go through them. So elder, overseer, pastor, those three words as far as we're concerned mean the same office and so when you hear about some churches Saddleback for instance Rick Warren just his church was removed from the SBC this past this past session. It was removed because of appointing women pastors. Well they also appointed men elders. And so there was confusion just around what is the office of pastor. And we believe consistently scripture is number one. Peter commands to shepherd the flock among you. He's writing to elders and saying shepherd the flock among you. The idea is that shepherding overseeing utilizing your experiences as an elder that that's all one in the same. So one office. And so we're talking about the Office of Elder, we have two offices here, Elder and Deacon, or Pastor and Deacon. A lot of y'all call me Pastor Steven or Pastor Todd. Y'all don't call me Pastor Todd, you call Pastor Todd, Pastor Todd. But Elder or Pastor mean the same thing. And if you really want to, you could call me Overseer Steven. That'd be kind of harsh, I think, in today's culture. So you don't have to call me Overseer. But that is what our role is. just so you all understand. So some things that are common to both passages. We're not going to go through all of this right here. We're actually going to go to page three. This is here for your reference. Go back and study this. Look at the fact that a lot of these are almost identical between the two passages. And then even the ones that aren't identical, what we're going to see is that they mean largely the same thing. And so we're going to look at some of those now if you want to go ahead and flip over to page three. First, we're going to talk about the less controversial ones because it's easier. Not that they're completely absent from controversy, but these are fairly straightforward in how we think about these requirements for an elder. And I've grouped them so we can kind of talk about them together. The first set, above reproach, well thought of by outsiders, respectable, hospitable. Remember what we're talking about here. We are talking about waging warfare. We are talking about guiding a church through minefields, if you will. We have to be very careful in how we go about doing that. And so these qualifications are going to be important in terms of how the body looks at an elder. It's going to be hard to take someone seriously if you have doubts about them being above reproach or if the outside world thinks poorly of them or if they're not respectable or if they're not hospitable. Imagine an elder in a role where they're not very friendly, they don't want to be around you, they're standoffish, and at the same time, they're trying to rebuke you for false teaching. Do y'all have, have y'all had bosses before that are like that, right? You know, they're probably never going to coach you or develop your skills because you just don't like them. So, you know, likability, but not just likability, this idea of being well thought of and respectable, we should not be going off and doing things that would diminish how we look in the eyes of the church or in the world. because that's gonna diminish our ability to fight against false teachers. These false teachers, we are told, are doing it for shameful gain. They're in it for something other than Christ, which, by the way, we're in it for Christ, or we're in it for shameful gain. If we are not seeking to glorify Christ in what we do, then it's shameful for me to stand up here. It's shameful for Todd to be in the pulpit. We're here to glorify Christ and only to do that. So anything else is shameful. So it's important then if we are guarding against these people who are in things for shameful gain, all you have to think about are politicians. And I don't mean to be mean to all politicians, but we understand that politicians and really anybody in the public eyes is they're coached, you know, kiss the babies, right? So that people will like you be sure to shake the hands and look people in the eye and listen to them. It doesn't really matter if you are sincere or not. You have to glad hand those things because you're what you're you're seeking gain, you are selling yourself, so to speak. And by the way, not all of that is bad necessarily. When we go to job interviews, we talk about ourselves, right? We can be humble and still point out, hey, I've got the skill set you need to hire me for this job. But in that case, we are presenting ourselves in certain ways so that we can persuade them to either hire us or follow us if we're running for political office. The same thing is going to be true of these people who are false teachers in the church. They're going to be persuasive. We're told that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. He's going to look good. Their message is going to be attractive. And so if their message is going to be attractive and persuasive And you've got some guy who people don't even respect, trying to defend against it, you're going to fail, he's not going to be successful, they're going to go for the person they like, or the one who seems to be upstanding in his community. And so some of those qualifications, then, obviously, there are other motivations, but ultimately, those are key motivations to those things. Reputation matters. If you're fighting a battle against false teachers, how you are viewed within and without the body can tip the scales. And so that is an advantage of having someone who is hospitable and respectable and well thought of and above reproach. You don't want to have someone, by the way, above reproach does not mean sinless. It means that people don't have stuff against you. Right? If if if every Sunday morning, Todd or I are standing in the pulpit or standing here teaching, and all you can think about is how I've wronged you in some way, I'm not going to be very persuasive to you. We need to be reconciled. And so those are the ideas behind those qualifications, questions about that or comments. All right. Self-controlled, not violent but gentle, not quick-tempered, disciplined, sober-minded, not quarrelsome, not a recent convert, not arrogant. We are told to bear one another's burdens, to be patient and long-suffering because Christ was patient and long-suffering. So the example we have is someone who is slow to anger, right? I mean, those are the characteristics of a believer because just as Christ was patient with us and long-suffering with us and loving towards us, That's the attitude that an elder should have towards his flock. And the reason is because we're fighting a war with people, not who we are viewing as our enemies necessarily, but ones that we're trying to shore up, we're trying to make them sound in the faith. So in order to do that, we can't like physically attack somebody. We can't fly off the handle when somebody teaches something that's incorrect. We have to be patient. We have to be firm. We have to, in no uncertain terms, we may have to hand them over to Satan, but we're still patient. We're not violent. We're not quick-tempered. We're not angry with them. We are scared for them. We understand that the Holy Spirit must guide you into all truth. And if somebody's over here teaching false doctrine, my takeaway is that the Holy Spirit's not in them. That's a possibility. And of course, the other possibility is they just need some correction. They need a sharp rebuke. So we're not quick-tempered. We must be disciplined for the same types of reasons. We must be sober-minded. We'll talk about drunkenness later on as one of those controversial things, but the idea is that we need to be clear-headed. We don't need to be easily offended to where things like that could distract us from our job. We certainly don't need to be quarrelsome. There's a difference in debating a topic. Obviously, if someone is teaching false doctrine and you're trying to show them that they're You could become quarrelsome over it, but it's not a matter of being quarrelsome. It's a matter of them teaching something that's incorrect, and we have to correct it. And then not a recent convert and not arrogant are tied together in 1 Timothy, the idea being that a recent convert with this newfound power might have this sense of arrogance. I'm better than you somehow because I've been elevated to this position. If you have, have y'all come to the doctrines of grace as an adult? I have. Yeah. When you first when it first clicked with you, did you consider yourself a little arrogant? I can't believe these dummies who don't believe in the doctrines of grace. Somebody needs to tell these people what's what. And I admit to being quarrelsome at times. And you need that At that point, you need that sharp rebuke, right? We are to be patient with people. We only came to the truth because the Holy Spirit revealed it to us. It's nothing special about us. It's not that we're smarter than those other people. It's that the Holy Spirit hasn't revealed it to them. So we have to be very careful not to be prideful over our, you know, Of course we want to be confident that our interpretation of Scripture is correct, but there's a difference in wanting to be correct to glorify God and wanting to be correct so that you can be better than somebody else. Huge difference. Yeah, Jonathan. Well, and that's what we're saying. I mean, we're talking about here that this is a good warfare is what this is described as. So fighting a good warfare quarrelsome means that you're just arguing. There's a there's a difference in arguing and contending. In other words, I'm not trying to win a fight with you. That's, that's, that's quarrelsome. If I'm just sitting here arguing with you for the sake of arguing. I'm if I'm trying to lead you into a sound faith, then we're going to disagree, but the behavior is going to be a lot different, right? I'm not going to be quick-tempered. I'm not going to fly off the handle. I'm not going to get defensive. It's just let's look at God's Word and what it says and let me see if I can show you why you have this misunderstanding. I think I think the quarrelsome there is an attitude. I think, you know, as well as I do, sometimes you you are just quarrelsome, right? You're in that mood. You just you want to pick a fight, you want to be in control, whatever. What? Well, sure. Yeah, well, that yes. And and lose most of the time. Yeah, I mean, quarrelsome is an attitude. It's, I want to be right, for my own selfish reasons, right? That's the shameful gain of the false teachers. We're supposed to be correcting that, not living it out. So quarrelsome people are pugnacious, they're argumentative, their attempt is self satisfaction, not God satisfaction. We obviously sharp rebuke means kind of what Paul did to Peter when he called him out for not eating with the Gentiles. It was sharp. It was harsh. You're sinning, right? You're calling him out, but you're not calling him out because you're quarrelsome. calling them out because you're trying to make sure that the Word of God is proclaimed. And you can't allow a little leaven leavens a whole lump, Paul tells us. And so you can't just allow false doctrine to sit there uncorrected. But again, your mindset is one of restoration. It's the same problem people have with church discipline in general, they think that you're out to get somebody, it's like a witch hunt. There's nothing, there is no witch hunt in church discipline if it's done correctly. It's about correction and restoration, no different than when you correct your child who is misbehaving. But debate is good if you're debating about the word of God in a respectful way, but it's just the attitude that you have of being, I'm trying to make sure I understand you correctly, it's just the attitude you have. Think, think about it in terms of if you're offended, because they're disagreeing with you, then you probably have an attitude problem. I mean, that's right, because it's an insult to me that you don't believe what I'm telling you. Well, ultimately, I don't care if you believe what I tell you, unless I'm telling you what's in here. And if I'm telling you what's in here, and you don't believe it, then you're insulting God. And that's what I'm worried about. And that's got to be the attitude, or else you're going to fail in your mission, right? People are going to see that all he's interested in is proving his point. Somebody else have their hand raised show? I did. It was more or less a follow up to that question. I was kind of just wondering, you know, about like, how, Yes, you could be in error without realizing you're in error. Are you defending God's Word or are you defending your reputation? Well, only God knows our hearts, so there's no doubt that people can operate under both, right? You know, I mean, I'll be honest, I've been teaching Sunday school and preaching for a long time now. I have no doubt that at times I've been more focused on what benefits me or what makes me look better than I have been on what makes God look better. And when that happens, you need to repent of that. I mean, we all sin. So that's why we should be in constant communication with God through prayer. That's what pray without ceasing means. Always be cognizant of what you're saying, how you're saying it, what your attitude is going into it. Am I trying to please God or am I trying to make myself look better. Well, if you're getting hot, you may be guilty of being quick tempered. You might be a little violent. Right? I mean, you know, If if you're arguing with somebody over justification by faith alone and you slam their head into the wall, you're not elder material. Yeah. Sure. Now that's enough to speak up when you Right. No, that's right. Galatians 6 is important. If you catch someone in a sin, you who are spiritual, restore them with a spirit of gentleness. Number one, you have to evaluate, am I being spiritual in what I'm about to say and do? Am I being gentle in what I'm about to say or do? Or am I quick-tempered and quarrelsome in what I'm about to do? We all have to make those evaluations when we're dealing with sin. Don't ignore it. Don't not confront it because you don't want to make somebody mad. We may make somebody mad. We may be completely in line with what God wants us to do and make someone hate us. Entirely possible. And if that's the case, they're probably not a believer because they're not open to repentance from their sin. if you really want anything. So that's the first thing, is we must be ready to contend for the faith, argue for the faith. But at the end of the day, if it's just so that we receive the gratification of being right, that's not elder quality. Secondly, who is the only one that can change the mind and the heart of somebody in these things to begin with? The Holy Spirit. And so we, an elder, ought to be able to know when to leave it alone. I've said all I can say, what more can be said that's already been said, and leave it. And then pray for that person, pray whatever the case may be, but those are two things to remember. And I know for me personally, that's why I try not to get online too much, but if I'm just trying to win an argument, and keeps, now, there's a difference in trying to win an argument for the sake That's where sometimes good and well meaning men get into trouble. They're too busy thinking about the next thing they're going to say than actually paying attention. Absolutely. Yes. But yeah, but but like Parker said, you also have to be willing to take a stand and say what is right regardless. Yeah, that's right. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. That does not sound non-argumentative to me. It sounds like you are behaving like a liar, evil beast, lazy glutton. And now I'm not encouraging you as part of your pastoral council that you call, Jonathan, I need to talk to you for a minute. That's right. You are an evil beast. No, but we understand that if we are fighting a war, there's one of two things that are true about a false teacher in the church. Either they're really a believer who's just misguided, and your teaching and patience and correction are going to make them sound in the faith. They're gonna repent, they're never gonna teach that again, and they're gonna embrace the right teaching. Or they're an evil beast who needs to get out. They're evil, right? I mean, those are the fierce wolves. Nobody wants to be called a fierce wolf, but if you're teaching false doctrine, that puts you under condemnation, that's exactly what scripture calls you. You're an evil glutton, and glutton meaning someone who is in it for themselves, right? We think of glutton as somebody who eats too much, a glutton is somebody who's only focused about satisfying their personal lusts, whatever those lusts are. Right. Right. Well, like, yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure that that would not fall under the violent, not gentle, but yes. Greg is speaking of the confrontation over Arianism, right? And St. Nicholas, Nicholas was a real person. And in the debates over Arianism, that false doctrine, tradition says that he punched a guy. I'm not encouraging any elder to punch anybody. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. If they're teaching false doctrine and they don't repent, they're going to get a whole lot worse than a punch. So again, that's the attitude we ought to have too. We're trying to save people. with what we teach and how we interact with them. So let's keep going. A lover of good, upright, holy, not a lover of money, not greedy for gain. I put these together because ultimately your love, right? Scripture speaks of loving one of two things, Christ or the world. No man may have two masters. He will either love the one or hate the other or you know love the one and curse the other. You can't serve both God and money. So here in these qualifications you're looking for a man who loves good and holy and upright there are outworkings of loving what is good. In the contrast of being a lover of money or greedy for gain because again in Titus 111 That's exactly what Paul is accusing these false teachers of, shameful gain. They are teaching for shameful gain. So whatever motivation they have, if it's not glorifying God, it is shameful gain. It is their benefit, not God's benefit. And so if we are a lover of good, when Jesus said, blessed are you if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, we are seeking good And if we're not seeking good, we're necessarily seeking shameful gain. And so that's the measure, if you will, is I've got to defend the word of God against false teaching in any way possible, which may bring shame upon me. I mean, remember what we talked about? I preached on that two weeks ago. Do not be ashamed is what Paul's instruction to Timothy was. I'm in jail. Everybody's deserted me. I've been stoned and prisoned, left for dead, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I'm not ashamed of that. And you shouldn't be either. So whatever happens, our job is to defend the word at severe personal cost in the case of Paul and in the case of Peter and many, many others, most of the most of the apostles were met violent ends and John met an exiled end. So none of them came out very well for defending the faith. And so if you love money, if you're greedy for money or greedy for gain, you're gonna be like that rocky soil that we talked about with the soils. You have no depth. So the moment persecution comes, You're out of here. And you cannot be successful in your confrontations with these false teachers if you are focused on greed. Todd and I have talked about this many times with something as simple as tithes. Nobody likes confronting someone over not giving. But it's a spiritual weakness. God doesn't need your money. Understand that God's church does not require your money or my money or anybody else's money. But God loves a cheerful giver. So if I have a member who's not doesn't ever give anything I have to ask myself that question. Is there a spiritual problem going on there because scripture speaks of believers as being generous. as understanding that we sow what we reap, that we have great gain in investing in the church. And so if they're not giving, I'm not mad at them. And the church isn't going to fail because of it. But there's a spiritual concern. But that can be a problem with confrontation. The opposite can also be true of confrontation. What about the biggest donor in the church? Are we beholden to them in some way? Could they threaten to withhold funds if we didn't do things that they wanted us to do it? I can tell you that Todd and I have discussed that many times. And number one, we don't believe that this church would ever fail over something like that. But even if it did, we're not taking bribes. If that's what God's intent for this church is, then that's God's intent for this church. But it's never his intent that we accommodate someone over their threat of extortion, which is basically what that would be. So again, love of money, if I'm a lover of money, I may be more interested in my paycheck. And I may just go along and get along. versus fighting for the truth, I might allow a little false doctrine to creep in. Because I'm still getting my paycheck. Because I really want that bass boat. Right? I mean, people do it all the time. Alright, so you got to love the right things. And then able to teach Most hold firm to the trustworthy talk word as taught. Well, that ought to be pretty straightforward. It's hard to defend something that you don't know. And it's hard to defend something that you don't trust that you don't hold firm to it. Right. I mean, if we have a trying to think about recent debates and probably women pastors has separated, split lots of churches recently. Homosexuality in the Methodist Church in particular has created lots of splits recently. Those are real scriptural issues that are creating division. If I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, I'm gonna be a horrible, I'm gonna do a terrible job of fighting it. I got to hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. So I have to have a firm grasp of it. And I have to be able to teach other people to have a firm grasp of it, to understand the concepts. Why are we talking about this? Why is this important? If people don't see it as important, then they're not going to fight over it. I mean, we're talking about, you know, I mean, Paul's in prison, Paul's going to his death. all he would really have to do is just stop teaching what he was teaching, and it would all go away. And yet, it was important enough for him, he held firmly to the trustworthy word as taught, and he spent all of his time teaching, which is, again, what we talked about last week. You who have heard, what you have heard from me among many faithful men, commit these two faithful men so that they may be able to teach others also. I'm teaching you, Timothy, so you can go teach other people and they can go teach other people. If we don't understand the word, if we don't hold firm to it, that's going to die at some point along the way. If we're not passionate about it, if we're not contending for the faith without being argumentative, then we're not ever going to convince future generations that what we hold is not only true, but also critical. Pluralism in this country, it's that this attempt at multiculturalism, and I think I've said this before, but I'm not against multiculturalism in in the sense of, well, we these types of foods or where these types of clothes and these people wear these types of foods, and they speak this language and where these types of clothes, I don't care about any of that in terms of, yeah, we should, you know, celebrate that our clothes aren't the best clothes. All right. But when you're talking about multiculturalism directly tied in with religion. That's a problem. I don't celebrate multiculturalism. When I read articles, just a few a couple of weeks ago, Hindus have this celebration of Diwali festival of lights. It all goes back to the worship of all of their various gods. It's not just Oh, look at three lights. And Oh, what beautiful outfits they have on. Those things are fine. They are beautiful. But the underlying premise of what they're celebrating is heretical. It is against God. It is antichrist. So we can't go embracing other people's celebrations of other gods and how their God delivered them from something when their God doesn't exist. We're celebrating a lie. and a damning lie according to scripture. So of course embrace different people's clothing or speech or music or any number of things like that. Embrace those things learn about different cultures but don't think that because I worship this God and they worship that God that everything's all good that it doesn't matter. Of course it matters. Only one of them's right. Or neither of them are right. And by the way, if neither of them are right, then it really doesn't matter. But that's the only time it wouldn't matter. If one of them is right, if the God of the Bible, if this is correct, then we need to be concerned about people who don't believe this. We need to be praying for people who don't believe this. And that's what Paul is writing to both Timothy and Titus about. You are a defender of the word. You have to put controls in place to make sure that that word is being defended. And so one of the things in chapter two of first Timothy that he instructs is praying for all types of people. because God is not willing that any perish. Right. I mean this patience that's being described in First Timothy. First of all I urge that supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. That is an element that we practice because that is an ordinary means that God uses to save people. Praying for people's souls, God's response to that is saving people. And so that's why we pray. Not that we are affecting salvation, but God uses ordinary means to bring about salvation. Absolutely. Well, it's really a warrant, it's really a decision point. I've been there, done that. The decision point, I don't think people should just leave. In fact, I mentioned that in my sermon last week, that it really concerns me deeply as a shepherd when people leave and never had a conversation with me about the problem that they had with what they supposedly had a problem with, right? That's discouraging. What should happen is one of two things. If you are convinced that false doctrine is being taught, then you need to confront that within the church. And you need to understand that you could be wrong. That's why we have a statement of faith. There shouldn't be any surprises as to what we teach in terms of sound doctrine. There may be other topics that aren't mentioned that where we agree to disagree on and we may not agree, but that's not gonna rise to the level of false doctrine. So you shouldn't leave a church over, you know, a contemporary hymn versus singing nothing but Psalms, right? Or even a traditional hymn and singing nothing but Psalms. There are churches who sing nothing but Psalms. And if you were in that church and they were teaching sound doctrine I wouldn't tell you to leave that church. But I don't agree with the premise of just singing Psalms. At any rate you need to engage your church. You know you're you love the people you're there covenanting with the people you if you just up and leave what does that say about your concern for those people. Oh I'm leaving because you're sitting on because I'm sitting under false doctrine and you don't love the body enough to warn them of the false doctrine. Well I don't want to create confrontation back to Jonathan what Jonathan said might sharply rebuke them. is what we're instructed to do, at least from an elder's perspective. So if there's false doctrine in a church, you address that. You have to address it. That would warrant confronting your elders and saying, I think you're teaching something false. Let's look at it and see. And if you're right, then we're going to repent of that, right? You know what, Judy, you're absolutely right. This was wrong. I'm going to stand before the body and correct myself. And then there's no reason to leave. Alternatively, which was my situation, the pastor admitted that my interpretation was the right one, and his response was, we're not doing that at this church. And my immediate response was that I am no longer a part of this church, and I resigned my position and walked out. I think about that sometimes as to whether I made the right solution. Should I have addressed that with the body? I ended up getting a lot of phone calls afterwards. So I kind of did address it with the body. But you don't just up and leave a church, you owe it to the church, you owe it to the leaders of the church. This is what I have a problem with it with and doesn't get corrected, then we're going to have to go somewhere else. Right? I mean, that's just you know, that that is how you would want to handle that situation. And be open to correction if you're wrong, which is the other thing you have to be aware of. All right, we are out of time. So we will touch on these other things next week. If you would hold on to this and bring it back with you. Let's pray. We'll go to our time of worship. Father, again, we're thankful for your word. We're thankful for men like Paul and Timothy and Titus that you raised up in time to further your cause, to spread the word, to defend against false doctrine, So that almost 2,000 years since this letter was written, we still have sound doctrine being taught in our pulpits. We worry oftentimes about how much false doctrine is being taught in our pulpits, but we understand that there is nothing new under the sun and that The false teaching that occurs in our churches today has been around since Timothy's time. And your instruction to Timothy is the same instruction that we need today. And that is to defend the word and hold tightly to sound doctrine. So I pray this morning we would do that. And I pray as Todd brings sound doctrine now in our time of worship that we would listen and hear what you would have us to say and that we would live our lives seeking to please you. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.