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ប្រតិចារិក
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Take your Bibles now and turn to the book of Titus. Titus chapter 1, it's on page 1271 if you're using the Pew Bibles. It comes after the books of Timothy, then it's Philemon, then Hebrews. So if you find Hebrews, you're close. We've been looking at this book and we looked at the first part of this chapter where it gives a lot of character qualifications for elders. Elders are to exhibit their faith through godliness, through good relationships, through good character, and we as members are to follow them in their example. This week we're looking at how elders are also to lead through the Word. They're to hold fast to the Word and we're to follow them in that. So listen as I read. This is God's infallible Holy Word. It is sharper than any double-edged sword. It's able to pierce your heart and strike your soul. So, let's listen. I'm going to read Titus 1, verses 9 through 16. 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 gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and to 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. Both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work." And that's where I'll end the reading of God's Holy Word. My sophomore volleyball team in high school, was a motley crew and frankly we just weren't very good. The year before my sophomore year we lost every single game and we didn't expect much to change this next year. We managed to get the ball over the net every once in a while but we didn't really know the tactics or the strategy of the game. My sophomore year though we got a new coach. Someone who actually knew the game of volleyball and so he taught us the real system of how to play volleyball and we learned new positions and techniques and strategy. We were a totally different team, or so we thought. We lost the first five games of the season. The strategy and the positions that we learned were complicated. Sometimes it felt like we were just running around the court with our heads cut off, not really accomplishing anything. And with no great results, we were ready to give up on this new plan, this new system, the new strategy. But our coach urged us to hold firm, to stick with it, and even though we're not getting the results that we want, we need to stick to the plan because this is the only way that we're going to win. So we stuck to the plan and we improved. We improved a bit, but we still lost every single game in the regular season. The plan still wasn't working. Maybe we should go back to our old strategy. It's amazing how when things don't work out, you want to go back to a plan that also didn't work out. Or maybe we should try something new. In our small Christian school league, all the teams made the playoffs, so that year we made the playoffs. That's good. But being the worst team in the league, we'd be playing the best team in the league. We hadn't won a game in two years. They hadn't lost a game in two years. And we started and there wasn't much that had changed. We lost 15-6 or so. That was back when we played to 15. At the beginning of the second game, the other team put their second string in. So they were confident. They were confident they were in control of this thing. We hung in there with the second string and that was pretty good. The game was tied 8-8. And around that point in the game, something clicked. we were in the right positions, we were in the right place, the right time, we were passing well, we were hitting well, and we won that game 15-8. The third and deciding game, of course, we faced their first string again, but this new system had clicked. And we battled with them, we went back and forth the whole game, and we ended up beating them 15-11. And it was pandemonium. All five of our fans rushed the court. It was an exciting time. We made it through to the championship and later that day won the championship. Crazy. It's like a movie. All the way through the season, though, we were doubting this new strategy. It's not working. We weren't getting the results that we wanted, but our coach urged us, stick to the plan. It'll lead you to victory. And sure enough, it did. In the Christian life, we recognize that there's a spiritual battle that rages on all around us, a battle between Christ and his people, his church, us, against Satan and his people. And their strategic plan to win this battle is to use the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit, which is centered in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Cross of Christ. Jesus promises that He is going to transform this world and transform our lives as His Word goes forth. But as we experience, oftentimes this strategy doesn't work as well as we would want it to. It doesn't seem to work. Our lives are not what we wish they were. The world is not transformed the way that we would want it to be. Instead, sometimes it seems like it's getting worse. Oftentimes, we work with our friends and our families. We desperately want them to come to know God. We pray for them, but things don't seem to happen. Lives aren't changed. Marriages continue to struggle. We still deal with heavy burdens, emotional burdens, depression, or maybe even physical weakness and sickness. Addictions and sins continue to entangle us. And it's very clear that the curse is alive and well in this world and in our lives. And it doesn't seem like this strategy is working. Sometimes it doesn't seem like the Word of God or the Gospel have any power to change lives. And sometimes we're tempted to think, well, maybe we should try something else. Maybe we should give up on this plan and try a different strategy. In this passage, Paul urges us to stick to the plan. Even when you don't see the results that you want, stick to the plan, hold fast to the Word, cling to the Gospel, because it will, by the power of the Spirit, transform you and transform this world. We're to stick to the plan. Elders, stick to the plan. Hold fast to the Word of Christ, trusting that He will bring change, real change, lasting change, through His Word. And friends, we are to follow the examples of our elders. to hold fast to the world. God will use it to transform our lives and this world. Kids, if you want to draw a picture, you can draw a picture of yourself in a boat in the middle of the ocean, and it's storming all around you, and you have in your hands the Word of God. That's to symbolize the idea that when we are going through the storms of life, We need to stick to the plan and hold fast to the Word of God. Jesus is using it and will use it to change lives and transform this world. So after a list of character qualifications earlier in the chapter, Paul then goes in verse 9, he writes, elders must hold firm to the trustworthy Word as taught. Very simple. Elders hold fast to the Word. The word he's referring to, of course, here is the word of God, the Bible. Elders need to know the Bible, to meditate on it. An elder needs to chew on it throughout the day, to be nourished by it. One of the last times that Moses spoke to the people of Israel before he died, he reminded them that God himself had spoken to them. had given them His words. And He said in Deuteronomy 32, 47, Remember, these words, these are not idle words for you, but they are your very life. God has spoken to you. He's given you the words of life. You need to know them. Don't ignore them. Don't take them for granted. Don't let them collect dust on the shelf. But know the Bible. Charles Spurgeon describes it like this. Oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God and get that Word into ourselves. As I've seen the silkworm eat into the leaf and consume it, so ought we to do with the Word of God. Not crawl over its surface, but eat right into it, till we have taken it into our inmost parts. It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the Word or collect poetic expressions or the historic facts, but it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until at last you come to talk in scriptural language and your very style is fashioned upon scriptural models. And what is better still, your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord." What a great description of what it means to know the Bible, to know the Word of God, to stake your life on it, to have your life saturated with the Word. Elders. You're called to know the Bible. You're to be a student of the Bible, to cherish it more than gold, to long for it more than your daily food. In ancient Israel, when a man became king, he had to make his own copy of the Word of God, so that as he wrote it, he came to know it, word by word, and it became a part of him. Well, elders, as leaders of God's people, you must know the Word. Hold fast to the Word. And friends, you're to follow the elders in holding fast to the Word. Set your heart and your mind on knowing the Words of God. Now, it's important to take this step a little further. Not only do you need to know the Word of God, but you have to believe the message of the Word. You have to believe the message of the Word. What does the Bible teach? And then receive that by faith. You have to hold fast by faith to the message of the Bible. There are a surprising number of people who know a lot of things about the Bible. Some people who devote their lives to studying the Bible, they know it intellectually, they may even like the story, they may like it as a literary piece, but they don't believe it. There's a difference, a big difference between knowing and even loving the Bible as opposed to believing the message of the Bible and staking your life on it. Receiving it as your only real hope. Over the past 16 years, the most popular book series is clearly Harry Potter. And I know many of you have read the Harry Potter series, maybe read it multiple times. You could recite some of your favorite parts. Maybe you bought a cake so you could sort of act the part. Or maybe when you see an owl, you wonder if it just finished dropping off a message to someone. You've loved the story and it's changed the way you think, so the way you approach life. But I hope, I hope that you didn't believe the story or believe the message of the story. I hope that you didn't actually stake your life upon it. When Paul says to hold fast to the Word, he means that you're not only supposed to know the Bible and to really love the Bible, but you're to believe the message of the Bible by faith, to stake your life on it, to see it as your only real hope. Well, if we stake our lives on the message of the Bible, then we have to ask, what is the message of the Bible? Could you give the message of the Bible? Someone asked you just what the Bible is about. Well, it's the story of God saving us. In the beginning, God created everything. But through the temptation of Satan, we very quickly destroyed everything with our sin. And from that point forward, life has been cursed here on earth. Our lives, this whole world, the physical creation, it's all been cursed. And from that point forward in the Bible, it's the story of how God set out to defeat Satan to redeem His people from their sins and to reestablish His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. So God, in His love, sent His Son to come and live the perfectly godly life that we were called to and then to die on a cross. And through that single event, He crushed Satan and He saved us from our sins so that we might have life with God forever. And whoever believes in Him will be saved. Jesus, of course, rose from the dead and now he reigns in heaven as king over all things, over the heavens and the earth. And through the message of the cross, Jesus is establishing his kingdom here on earth, just as it is in heaven. And he won't quit until he's done. This is the good news. And this is the core of what Paul's urging the elders to hold fast to. You don't just enjoy the Bible, don't just love the Bible and read it like you would Harry Potter, but hold fast to the message, believe it to be true, stake your life on it, see it as your only real hope. Because it's this message, the message of the cross, that Jesus is using to transform your life and transform the world around us. We long to see change in our own lives. We long to see change in this world. We long to see change in our emotions, in our sins, in our relationships, but these changes oftentimes don't come nearly as quickly or in the way that we would hope. And our tendency then is when things don't work the way we want them to, our tendency is to give up and try something else. I know people who have said that they've tried Jesus, but it just didn't work for them, and so they moved on to something else. They didn't get the results, so, well, let's move on. They gave up. And this is really what's happening in the liberal churches of America today. They don't hold fast to the Word of God because it doesn't accomplish the results that we want. And so since they're not getting the results that they want, maybe they need to try to do something a little different. They begin to doubt that the gospel can bring real change to this world and to people's lives. And so let's change our strategies. Maybe real change is only going to come through social involvement or real change will only come when we're just nice to people and we don't tell anyone that they're wrong. Let's forget our differences. Let's forget sin. We all serve the same God who would never, of course, throw anyone into hell. They don't stick to the plan. They don't hold fast to the Word because it's not accomplishing what they want it to accomplish. And so they try something else. Well, the only hope for real change in our lives and in this world is the Gospel of Jesus Christ found in the Word of God. This is the fundamental strategy in changing our lives and in changing this world. And it will work. And in this passage, Paul's calling us to stick to the plan. In this verse, the word is called the trustworthy word, as taught. Or it can also be translated as the faithful word. Meaning that it will always accomplish its purpose. It's trustworthy. We need to stick to the plan. It's the only thing that's going to lead us to victory. And when change comes slowly in life or when you don't see the change that you hoped for, hold fast. Stick to the plan because it's trustworthy. Rehearse it over and over again because it's easy to second-guess the plan, to start thinking of other strategies. Continue to rehearse it again and again because it's easy to slip into the mentality of self-righteousness or self-hatred. We can easily have our identity or our hope wrapped up in something else. When you hold fast to the Bible, knowing and believing it to be true, it'll change you. It'll change everything about you. It'll change the way you live, the way you look at the world, the way you think, the way you look at yourself, the way you look at God, the way you perceive your environment. It'll change your purpose, your goals, your hopes. It'll change you. The message of the Bible should bring us to tears, knowing that God loved us so much that He died for you. That Jesus poured His blood out willingly for you. That He was ridiculed, mocked, condemned, crucified. That He died for you. That He took all of God's wrath and absorbed that in Himself. So that you don't have to. And instead of wrath, now He surrounds you with love and life. Through this cross, through this message, He's going to transform you. And He's going to change the whole world. We have to stick to the plan. Have you ever found yourself getting tired of this message? When someone speaks about it, you say, yeah, I already know that stuff. That's good and fine. Or, here we go again. God forbid that we ever get tired of this message. This is the message that's going to change your life. This is the message that's going to change the world. Nothing else is going to work. This has to be your foundation. This has to be our strategy. Stick to the plan. Elders. Do you stick to the plan? Are you sticking to the plan? Do you devote your time to studying the Word, to read it, to meditate on it, to memorize your favorite parts? And do you remind yourself of the Gospel, the reality of the grace of God every day, rejoicing in it, being in awe of it? Are you regularly baffled, just blown out of your mind? That Jesus would die for you. That He willingly did that and offered you His grace. As you meditate on this message, it's going to compel you to live and think differently. It's going to change you from the inside out. Hold fast to this Word. Stick to the plan. And friends, follow your elders in sticking to the plan and holding fast to the Word. It is easy to get distracted by all the activities of life, all the other important things, and it's easy to have our Bibles collect dust. And it's easy to get to the point where the message of the Bible isn't really that inspiring anymore, where it's sort of boring. You've already heard it. Don't ever let it be that way. Understand the majesty of this message. Hold fast to it. Know it. Love it. Remind yourself of the gospel every day. Rejoice in it. This is how Christ will change you and will change the world. So elders are urged to hold fast to this word, to stick to the plan. And the reason why elders particularly called to stick to the plan is because elders have a very specific purpose in the church. At the end of verse 90 says that elders are to hold fast to the word, this trustworthy word, so that he can give instruction. So that he can give instruction. Elders should know and believe the word so much in their own hearts, they should have such interaction, personal interaction with the word that they're able to teach others. to be also founded on the word. Elders, you need to be able to teach the word. In the Presbyterian Church, we have what we call teaching elders and ruling elders. The teaching elders are the pastors. Dean and I, we are given to the primary role of teaching in that we preach the word regularly. But we're told in 2 Timothy 3 that all elders are supposed to teach. All elders are to teach people to hold fast to the trustworthy word. To teach people to build their lives on the foundation of the word. Some of you here are engineers, or some of you, others of you, are studying to be engineers, and so you have to learn the factors involved in building a firm foundation for a structure. And I remember one of our engineers, Charlie Maggio, telling me of his experience, that before a building was built, he had to go and inspect the foundation first to make sure that it would hold the building. And if it wasn't able to hold the building, that he would have to tell them what changes to make. Tell them how to make a sure foundation. Well, in the spiritual sense, elders are meant to invest their lives into the lives of the congregation and to inspect our foundations. to make sure that the foundations of our lives are rooted in God's Word, rooted in the Gospel in all its fullness. And if it isn't, then elders, you need to teach us what it means to have our lives built on the foundation of this Word. You need to teach us to build our lives on this trustworthy Word. And when we think of teaching, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the classroom. Sort of an imparting of knowledge, and teaching most definitely includes this idea of conveying knowledge, content, but it's more than just imparting the content of the Bible. Along with information, elders are meant to apply the Word of God to individual lives. And this is done in all sorts of settings. It's done here, through the preaching of the Word, through classroom teaching, through personal discipleship, through counseling, through talking about life, through just walking together through this journey. The Word is best applied in real life, in real time. So elders, you need to teach others. to build the right foundation for life on the Word. And friends, you need to have your life built on this foundation of the trustworthy Word that's centered in the cross of Christ. And if you have not trusted in Jesus, then you have no hope. Your life needs to be centered on this Word. Your hope needs to be found in the cross, the victory of Jesus Christ. trusting that He has defeated all your enemies, Satan, sin, and death, and given you life and love through His blood. All of us, we are meant to follow our elders in holding fast to this trustworthy Word. So, elders, you're to hold fast to this Word which has at its center, at its core, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and you're to do so so that you can teach others to do the same. But that's not all. He also says in verse 9 that you need to hold fast to the word so that you can rebuke those who contradict it. You need to learn the word, know it so well that you can identify and then rebuke those who are either teaching or living in a way that's contradicting this word. Apparently there are a group of people there on the island of Crete who are teaching and living in a way that was contrary to the word. There were some Jewish people, he calls them of the circumcision. They professed faith in Christ, but Paul warned Titus that they are insubordinate, they're empty talkers, they're deceivers. In verse 11 it says that they were teaching things that were upsetting whole families. Well, what's going on here? What's the disturbance over? Well, very simply, these men were not holding fast to the Word of God. They didn't believe that the Word and the Gospel had real power to change lives and to change the world. They didn't think that the Word, which is centered in the Gospel, had enough power to transform lives. They knew the Bible, but they didn't think that it was sufficient to carry out their purposes here on this island of Crete. In verse 12, Paul says that these teachers were teaching that Cretans were always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. And apparently Cretans were notorious around the world for being liars and cheats and gluttons and traitors. You couldn't trust them. They were notoriously wicked, corrupt. The false teachers then were coming and teaching that, well, these people are never going to change. They didn't believe that the gospel had power to really change the notoriously wicked people. It may work in the rest of the world, but I don't think it's going to work here. These people are hopeless. So since the gospel was obviously not going to work on the island, they had to come up with some other adaptations. And so they added to the to the gospel, some Jewish myths, extra commands. Since they weren't convinced that the gospel was going to change the lives of these Cretans, they targeted their outward actions and tried to pound them into shape with the law. But Paul said in verse 15, basically he says that that's not going to work. He says to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Both their minds and consciences are defiled. And so what he means is that if someone doesn't have a pure heart, then it doesn't matter how many laws you put in place. If their heart's not changed, then the only thing that's going to flow from their lives is sin. But he says to the pure, all things are pure. Meaning that if somehow you can actually change their hearts, then their lives are going to be transformed. Well, the only weapon that we have to change hearts is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It alone has the power to strike the heart and pierce the soul. This is our only hope to transform the worst people in the world, and this is the only hope that we have for our own transformation. The Gospel alone has the power to change the heart. Elders, that's why you have to hold fast to the Word so that you can rebuke those who say that it's insufficient and who teach that it won't work unless something else is added to it. And it's important to clarify that this rebuke is so that they also, these false teachers, will be sound in the faith. He says in verse 13, rebuke them sharply so they will be sound in the faith. The goal of a rebuke is redemptive, not vindictive. The goal of the rebuke is to bring restoration, to protect the sheep and see that everyone is holding fast to the Word. He's urging everyone to build their lives on the firm foundation of the cross of Christ. So we are encouraged To hold fast to the word of God. To stick to the plan. Because it's this message, this is the message that Christ will use to change our lives and to change our world. It's our only hope. We know that we live in a cursed world. Our lives are cursed. The creation is cursed. Society is cursed because of sin. We live in a world where sin still very easily entangles. We live in a world where One student will go and stab 20 some of his other fellow students. It's a cursed world and it's discouraging. But Jesus died on the cross. He rose again. He's seated on the throne and he promises that he's going to change you and he's going to change this whole world through the message of the gospel. He's going to make all things new. The tool that he's going to use to accomplish his purposes is the Word. He is using that to transform hearts and minds, to transform lives and marriages and societies and all of creation. This is the plan to change the world. But when we don't see this change as quickly as we would like, when we don't see lives transformed as often as we would, or as completely as we would like, It's easy to doubt this plan. Maybe we should think of something else. When the addiction of sin is still too strong, you may wonder, does the gospel really work? When marriage never seems to change, you wonder, does the Word of God have the power to transform it? When you continue to suffer from emotional or physical pain and it wears you out, wears you down, you're tempted to give up. Try something else. It's during those times that the words of Paul here are so important for us. Hold fast to this trustworthy word. Stick to the plan. In volleyball, we were tempted to give up on this new system. It was too hard. It was too confusing. It wasn't giving us the results that we wanted, but we stuck to it. And it led us to victory. In the same way, the gospel may not bring the results quick enough or well enough as we would like. Nevertheless, stick to the plan. Jesus has promised to transform you and transform this world through the message of the cross. Stick to the plan and it will lead you, it'll lead us to victory. Build your life on this firm foundation of the trustworthy word. Elders lead the way in holding fast to the word so that you can teach others to do the same Friends build your life on this firm foundation The trustworthy word and Jesus will change you and I'll change this world around you and he'll lead us to victory Hold fast to the word It is our only real hope Let's pray together God, we thank you for your word that its message is the cross of Christ and that through the cross you are changing us. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for willingly going to cross in order to save and to transform us and to transform this world. Let us hold fast to this word, hold fast to this message. Let your word be the foundation of our lives. Don't let us give up when we don't see the results that we want to see. But let us continue to speak the word to ourselves and also hold out the word to others. Please continue to bring change through the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, and make this world new. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.
Elders Hold Fast to the Word
ស៊េរី Titus
Introduction: Stick to the Plan
Hold fast to the word
A. Know the Bible
B. Believe the messageSo that you can
A. Teach
B. Rebuke
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