Well, good morning. It's good to see you all. We're going to get started in just a moment. But before we officially get started, let me mention a few preliminary matters. If you're visiting with us this morning, we're delighted that you are here. If you would like to leave a record of your visit, then there's a visitor card on the back of the pew in front of you. You could grab that. and jot down some information about yourself, and then at the end of the service, right out there in the hallway, there's a box. You could just put that in the box, and then if you'd like us to, then we would give you some more information about our church. Either way, whether you leave the card or not, we're delighted that you've joined us for worship this morning. There's another card on the back of the pew in front of you as well. It's the taller card. or it's the paper stock card, and that's a prayer card. If there's something that you would like to see prayed for, then you can grab one of those cards, grab as many of them as you need to, and jot down the nature of that prayer request. You will drop those in that same box out there in the foyer as well. Those cards are used for Carl and Freddie and myself. They're helpful to us. It's a way for you to communicate. ways that we could be praying for you as elders, and we would count it a joy to know that, whether it's a praise or whether it's a burden that you have. Now, there's a box you can check on that prayer card. If you would like us to publish that prayer request in our Wednesday night prayer sheet, you could check that box, and then some folks will join us as well to pray for that on Wednesday evening. But if you'd rather not that to be shared in that context, then don't check that box. And those would just be for Carl and Freddie and myself. And so we would love to have those. And so use those as you would like to. There's several things in your bulletin that I would just defer you to in terms of other announcement. There's a lot in play throughout the week over the next couple of weeks. And so if you're familiar with those things, you'll know other ways that you could plug in to the life of our church. Small groups have resumed. Our Sunday evening small groups meet the second and, I'm sorry, at the second and fourth Sunday evenings of the month, if you would like to be in a small group. Even though we've already resumed, it's not too late to jump into that. So if you'll just let me know and we'll get that worked out. All right, well, we've come in this hour, in this room, at this moment, that we might worship God. I want to read Psalm 145 as our call to worship. And when I say call to worship, this is God himself inviting us, calling us to worship him. And so as we gather this morning, we want to respond to that invitation, to that call, and we want through our time of singing through our praying through the preached word. We want this to be a time in which the Lord is worshiped. Psalm 145 begins like this. I will extol you my God and my King and bless your name forever and forever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Why, why would we do that? Verse three, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. Let me pray. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather together, to worship you. It's fitting. that the very God who made us, the very God who holds our lives in His hands, the very God who superintends all of the events and the affairs of our lives, the very God whose greatness is unsearchable. It's fitting that we would gather to worship such a God. We acknowledge from the start that we gather in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, to be more specific, we acknowledge that it is only through Jesus that we could gather in your presence and come before you. We gather in the name of the one whose life was perfect and flawless and whose sacrifice was accepted. We come through the one who has been raised from the dead and is now at your right hand, interceding for his people. We come through the one who will one day return for his people. So we gather in the name of your Son, Jesus, and we gather mindful of our need for the presence and the operation of your Holy Spirit in our midst. We pray that you would, by your Spirit, stir in our hearts so that we're not just going through motions and we're not just engaged in thoughtless rituals, but that we are engaged from our hearts to sing, to pray, to receive your word so that you are honored and glorified. For we pray this in Jesus' name. Now, if you're able, we would invite you to stand as we begin singing to the Lord. ♪ Oh Lord my God ♪ When I in awesome wonder ♪ Consider all The works Thy hands have made I see the stars I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed It sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art How great Thou art, how great Thou art. ♪ That God his Son not sparing ♪ Sent him to die ♪ I scarce can take it in ♪ That on the cross ♪ My burden gladly bearing He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, how great Thou art. How great Thou art! Who saves my soul, my Savior God, to Thee? How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Chains my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Chains my soul, my Savior God, How great Thou art How great Thou art How great Thou art Let all the earth rejoice, all the earth rejoice. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. And oh, we'll see how great, how great is our God. Age to age He stands. It's our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, we'll sing. How great, how great is our God. Name above all names. My heart will sing how great is our God And my heart will sing, how great is our God. How great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our God. Oh, we'll see how great, how great is our God. Amen. We serve a risen Savior, and we never have to wonder, is he true to his word? Is he there with us? Has he got our back? And over this past week, we're thinking, I think I already mentioned this a while ago about the debate. We have nothing to debate. God is true today, tomorrow, forever. And he is the ancient of days. So join with us as we sing. Though the nations rage, kingdoms rise and fall, reigning over all. So I will not fear, for His truth remains that my God is the Ancient One. ♪ None above Him, none before Him ♪ All the time in His hands ♪ For His throne He shall remain and ever stand ♪ All the power, all the glory I will trust in Him Though the dread of night overwhelms my soul He is here with me, I am not alone For His love is sure and He knows my name ♪ For my God is the Ancient of Days. ♪ ♪ But above Him, not before Him, ♪ ♪ O the time it makes sense. ♪ ♪ For His throne it shall remain and ever stand. ♪ For all the glory I will trust in this Who I may not see What the future brings I will watch and wait For the Savior King In my joy complete Standing faithfully Face to face in the presence of the Ancient of Days. None above Him, none before Him, all of time in I will trust in his name. Oh, my God is the angel of day. Oh, my God is the angel of day. Please be seated. Before we begin our time of prayer this morning, I'd just like to read a few verses from the Gospel of John chapter 10, beginning in verse 1. This is our Lord Jesus speaking when he says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them. and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, you are indeed the great God, the one who is worthy of praise and of adoration. You're the one who has set everything up in the beginning. You have made it so that in all the things that you have created, Lord God, in the way that you determined the creation would be and what you have allowed to occur since the beginning of time, you have made it so that you would call a people to your own self. And we're grateful to you for that, for we gather together today because we are that people who have been called to you. Those people whom our Lord Jesus called us to himself, those people whom our Lord Jesus, who we recognize his voice, when we hear Him. And we thank You, Lord, that You did give Your Word to us to speak, the Word who became flesh to speak to us, and that You gave us ears to hear Him, that we would be the ones who would receive Him, who would believe in Him, and who would follow Him. Father, we live in a world today, a world that is full of many voices, Lord, a world that has voices from family who do not know you, voices in our culture, voices in our ethnicities, voices from our government, voices in our politics, voices in the media, voices from our own sinful nature. All the noise that is occurring in the world, Lord. The voices that we can hear. And while we heard Your voice when You called us to Yourself, Lord, sometimes it becomes difficult to hear how when all these other sounds are around, when all these other voices, when all these other noise are around, Lord, and we look at the experiences of our lives and the things that we see with our eyes, Lord, the things that we feel in this life as we go through this life, and it can be difficult, Lord, to hear, but we can Because of our sinful nature, tend to want to gravitate toward a voice that is not yours, to hear things that is not of you, Lord. Things that may sound good, but ultimately, they aren't the things that you would promote, Lord. Things that may sound good and we would put too much emphasis on those things. Those things bring about division in this world and even in the church as well, Lord, as we... are still hearing those things from our own cultures, from our own background, from our own upbringing. And Lord Jesus, we know that You have set us free from those things. And so we pray that You would grant that we would certainly, in our living out this life, that we would be sensitive to hear Your voice. that even though all the noise and the crowd is going, the crowd and all the other voices are occurring, and we can hear your voice, Lord. As Elijah heard your voice, and I know, Lord, you were brought about the wind and all the earthquake and the rocks falling, all those kinds of things, and he didn't hear your voice and all those big things that were occurring. But when you spoke to him in a small voice, the still way he heard, he heard because his ears were tuned to listen to you, to hear you, God. His ears were set to recognize your voice, even in the midst of all the other things, and to be able to distinguish your voice from everything else. I pray, Lord God, that our ears would be tuned in that way. To hear Your voice, even in the midst of all the noise that is occurring in our world. All the other voices that would try to speak to us. Even those that would try to speak to our sinful nature and entice us to not hear You, Lord. That You would so work in us. that our ears would be tuned, that our heart would be tuned to hear Your voice and to follow You in this life as we are seeking to be a sanctified people, to be a holy people, a people who follow after our God, a people who delight in You, Lord Jesus, who seek to please You, who find our existence, our worth, and our value, our whole being in You. People who don't identify with anything other than You, Lord. Recognizing, God, we certainly were born into a culture, we were born into an ethnicity, we were born into an economic situation, and maybe exist in those, and some of those might have changed those which could change. But yet, Lord God, their identity isn't found in all of those things, it's found in You, Lord Jesus. But we don't just say that with our mouths, Lord, that we believe that and trust in it with our hearts, that You're the one in whom we live for. You're the one whom we seek to please. You're the only one whom we seek to hear from, Lord. Your word tells us in Hebrews that in many times and in various ways, You spoke through the prophets, but in these last days, You've spoken to us through Your son. Lord Jesus, you're the one who speaks to us in your word. Lord, give us understanding, give us sensitivity to your word, Lord, that we might understand the truthfulness of it and live according to that. That we might live our lives as people of God in this generation, this wicked and adulterous generation. That we might show ourselves as light in this dark world, Lord. As people who are promoting all that which is good, even if it costs us in this world, Lord. That we would be willing to give up all the things that we have been given stewards over in this world. That we would live for you and bring glory to your name with the lives that you have given to us. For, Lord, we would have no life if it were not for you. We'd be worthless, Lord. We'd be useless. There would be nothing that we could do that would bring joy to you, that would be satisfying to you, Lord, that would bring glory to you, God. There would be nothing we can do. All we would do is wickedness and evil because that's what our sinful nature delights in, opposing you in every way. But we're not that kind of people, Lord. Not because we ourselves are at work not to be that kind of people, but you, Lord Jesus, have called us to yourself. Father, you made us alive in Christ by the power of your Spirit. By grace, we have been saved, your word tells us. And we are yours, and we want to live that kind of life, Lord. So let's make our ears and our hearts sensitive to your word that when we open it up, when we read it, when we hear it, even that's gonna be preached in a few moments, Lord. Make us sensitive to hear, Lord, your spirit speak to us through your word, that we would be like our Lord Jesus, that we came to do the will of our Father in heaven. And that's all we seek to do, is your will and not our own will. But Father, I recognize that there may be people even sitting among us now who don't know you, Lord. There may be people who understand things about you because they've heard your word spoken. There may be people who knows what it's like to be religious people, but they don't know you, Lord. She reminded of Samuel as a young man who was dedicated over to work in the temple to be given to you by his mother, because you so graciously and mercifully answered her prayer. And he was given over to you. And he was accustomed to the law, all the things that was involved in the sacrifice and everything else. But when you called his name, he didn't recognize who you were. He didn't know you, Lord, at that time. He went to Eli, and Eli said he didn't call him, and he, you called him again, he went back to Eli, and Eli didn't call, he called him again, and Eli told him, if you hear that voice again, say yes, Lord. Even though he had been around the tabernacle, even though he had saw all the things that occurred, even though he was familiar with your law, he did not know you. He did not recognize your voice when he heard it. And there may be people among us right now, Lord. There may be people who are listening or watching a live stream who may be in that situation, Lord. And we pray, Lord God, that by your great mercy, that you might open up their ears and they might hear your voice. They may recognize you as a true and a living God. The one who brings life and joy and peace. The one who can forgive of sins. The one who can make the dead alive. The one who can give hope to the hopeless. You are the one God who is the God who is to be worshipped. You're the one whom people can take delight in worshipping and giving praise to for all the things that you've done and who you are. May they, Lord God, by your grace, may they hear your voice and be awakened and come to life in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with one voice, all of us in this place can lift up praise and glory to you, Lord, and give honor to your great and wonderful name, and then live in such a way, Lord God, that all the world will do what your word says, that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Lord, that they would see our good works and give glory to you on the day of your visitation, that in everything that we as your people do, you would be glorified. Thank you, Lord, for our time together with you as we continue on. Bless our time, Lord, that we might worship you in spirit and in truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Dear all, if you're able, please stand as we continue our time of worship this morning. There is no song we could sing to honor the weight of your glory. There are no words we could speak to capture the depth of your beauty. Jesus, we love you. Ever adore you. There's no one like you. Jesus, we love you. Ever adore you. There is no sinner beyond the infinite stretch of your mercy. How can we thank you enough for how you have bought us completely? Jesus will love you, ever more for you. There's no one like you. Jesus will love you, ever more for you. There's no one like you. Jesus we love you. have and all we need, all we want is you. And all we have, all we need All we want is You Jesus, there's no one like You Jesus, we love you, ever adore you. There's no one like you. Jesus, we love you, ever adore you. There's no one like you. Jesus, we love you, ever adore you. Jesus, we love you. Ever adore you. Let you know why I like you. Jesus, we love you. Ever adore you. If you'd like to remain standing, please do so. Either way, I would invite you to take a Bible and turn to Titus 1, verses 5 through 9. Titus 1, that's on page 998. If you'd like to use a Bible from the church, there should be one from the pew in front of you. Grab that, turn to page 998, or turn to Titus 1, 5 through 9. Thank you guys for helping us to sing to the Lord this morning. We're always grateful for your leadership. Verse five, this is what God says. Here's God's word for us this morning. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you may put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children or believers are not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 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. You may be seated. Father, thank you for your word, for there is no word like your word. Every word of yours is true, and it's alive, it's active, It's able to produce in us what it describes and speaks of. And so we would pray that your word by your spirit would do its work in our midst this morning, that we would receive it as an act of worship, and that you would unleash the power of your word in our hearts and lives and change us. For we pray this in Christ's name, amen. Well, we have begun our study now going through the book of Titus. Last week, we started that study. This week, we pick up where we left off. And as you notice, these verses that we've just read pertain to and deal with the subject matter of elders. And in the New Testament, there are two primary offices, there are elders and there are deacons. There's three terms that are really kind of used interchangeably in reference to the office of elder. There's the word overseer, there's the word elder. and there's the word pastor. And we touched on those things as we, earlier this year, back in the spring, for instance, when we were in 1 Timothy chapter three, as it spoke about the work of elders, then we've, some of what we are going to touch on this morning, we would reference back to what we spoke about in the spring. And part of what I mean by that is the bulk of this passage really deals with the qualifications for who would be appointed as an elder. So, verses 6, 7, and 8 deal with character qualifications. I'm not even going to touch on that this morning, in part because We touched on that extensively back in the spring. But also, if you'll just hold on for a second, Lord willing, next week, when we look at verses 10 through 16, it'll be really, I think, fruitful to do a comparison and contrast because 10 through 16 describe a lot of the vices of certain people, and that should be in contradistinction to the virtues that are listed there in 6 through 8. And so, it's almost like the virtue list compared to the vice list, or the character qualifications for a church leader. as opposed to the kind of characters that oftentimes we have to deal with and interact with. And so we'll deal with some of the content of 6 through 8, Lord willing, next week. So really, for this morning, I want to touch on some of what's being said in verse 5. So we want to look at the appointment of elders. And then we want to look at some of what's said in verse 9. We want to talk about the assignment of elders, right? So verse 5, it's Paul writing to Titus, and he says, this is why I left you in Crete. so that you may, and there's two things that are spoken of here, and we want to understand the relationship between those two things, so that you might put what remains into order and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. So, Titus, I left you behind there on the island of Crete, and you are to dispense the charge I've given you. You have a work to do. And now, coming off the tail end of what we looked at last week, the kind of overarching theme that will run throughout the book is that Titus was to promote the, well, look at what it says back there in verse 1 and following, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness in the hope of eternal life. And so we looked at three themes that are introduced there, faith, truth, and hope. And in a sense, now part of what Titus is left to do from a coordinating standpoint is to put things into place that would continue to foster notions of faith and truth and hope in the hearts and lives of God's people. And so Titus is there, if you would, to straighten some things out. Titus is there to put some things in place. Now, I would suggest to you, when I just said, put some things in place, technically, I think what he means is to put some people in place who could put some things in place. So, even when he says, I left you there to put what remains in order, I would suggest you almost to feel is, and how would he be putting things in order? By appointing elders. The things that were left undone, whatever else might be left undone, that would get done by and through the appointment of elders. Now, when you hear the word appoint, I think it's important to maybe parse out what that means. In essence, what Paul has told Titus is what he wants him to do. What is that? Appoint elders. What is not, is maybe clear, is how he wants Titus to do that. And that's where sometimes churches might even differ in terms of what is the process by which an elder is put into place. Well, the word appoint doesn't give us all the details that we might need to know. In fact, the word appoint is really not... It's really not the same as ordain, so, you know, like an official installation to an office. The word appoint literally kind of just connotes, like, to assign someone a task. which is really helpful because in a sense, whether it's the office of elder or any other office as far as that goes, it's really not, the office itself is not like the big thing. But the work that the officer must do is the big thing. And so even the notion of appointing really means like, so here's your work. I'm assigning you this work. You have a task to do. Go do it. So he's told Titus what to do. Titus, you are to put what remains into order by, if you would, appointing elders in every town. there seems to be a pattern that the apostles performed when they would travel from town to town and do their work. For instance, if you notice like in Acts chapter 14, which is one of the missionary journeys, the pattern is that Paul and others, they would They would come into a town, they would come into a region, and they would begin to tell people about Jesus. And as they told people about Jesus, then the Spirit of God would open people's hearts and lives and minds, and people would turn to Christ and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And as people did that, then the next... component of that segue is that then churches, local assemblies of these believers would form, and then Paul would go on to another town, and then almost invariably he would circle back in terms of fulfilling another aspect of He preached the gospel, people turned to Christ, churches were formed. He would come back in Acts 14, it talks about, and they would come to those very same towns, they would come to those very same churches, and they would strengthen the disciples and urge them to continue in the faith. And then it uses the word that's relevant here to Titus, and then they would appoint elders. So for whatever reason, that hadn't been done yet in the churches, in the towns on the island of Crete. And so that's Titus's task. The gospel had been preached, churches had been formed, perhaps even others have come through and strengthened those disciples and urged them to continue in the faith. And yet one thing was still lacking, if you would. There wasn't people assigned to do the work that is attached to the role of an elder. That still had not been done. And so that's what Titus needs to do to get done, to appoint elders. Now, how does that appointment occur? Well, the word appoint itself doesn't really unpack all of that for us. But I would suggest to you that there's another passage in the book of Acts that I think maybe gives us some insight as to some of the possible process as to how appointment occurs. For instance, in Acts chapter 6, there was an issue brewing in the church there in Jerusalem. Certain widows were being neglected and overlooked, and that's not a good thing, and that was creating a disruption in the fellowship. And so members of the church brought that issue to the apostles. And the apostles recognized that as a need, as a legitimate issue, and yet called for the need for others to be assigned the work to care for those widows. And the apostles then said to the members of that church, Look, here's the kind of person that you're looking for. Go look for this person." In fact, here's what Luke says in Acts 6, 3. "'Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.'" So there's this interplay, the members of the church brought this need or this concern to the apostles, the apostles recognized that as a need, the apostles then gave instruction to the members, here's what we need, here's what you need to go look for, here's the kind of person that you want, and then bring those people back to us, and we will approve of those candidates, and we will assign them the work. I point that out to say, even when the apostles roamed the earth, they didn't have that unilateral authority to just simply install people on their own. They worked in the context of that congregation. They worked in the context of the membership of that church. And there was this beautiful interplay between the leadership and the membership. There was a back and forth in that they arrived at their conclusions together, and that the ultimate outcome of appointing those, in that case, in Acts 6, what would arguably become the office of deacon, the appointment of those men to the work of deacon, it maybe sets up a pattern for us as to how any church could go about the process of appointing elders. It would be an interplay between whatever the current leadership is in the church, But that would be done not apart from the membership, but in cooperation with, in conjunction with, in harmony with the congregation of that church. And so appointment doesn't in any way necessitate that it just been done unilaterally, that Titus would have just marched into town and said, you, you, you, you, I don't care what you think, you, you. No, it was probably an interactive process. as he went into each town on the island of Crete and said that there's a need here for men to be appointed to do the work of overseer. And so let's figure this out. Let's get these people assigned that work and put into place. I would just add as a sidebar that the directive was for Titus to appoint elders in every town. Now, and I think the significance of every town is that presumably in that day and age, each town had a church. And there were to be a plurality of elders that would take up the assignment of doing the work that is assigned to elders to do in each of those churches in each of those towns. that there would be not one person, because no one person is suitable, is omni-competent enough, but that there would be a plurality of men that would be commissioned and raised up and assigned the task of engaging in the work of an elder. Titus, that's why you're there. You've got to figure out a way that men will be assigned the work given to an elder. and to the elders to do. And that's really the second point then. Now, skipping over the character qualifications, and I in no way, in fact, I almost cringe in skipping over those because it's like there is the locus of what's going on in this passage. In terms of leadership in a local church, gifts and abilities and strengths are not the most important qualification for leadership in a church. I mean, not everyone can be tall, dark, young, and handsome like myself. The young part was really important to me, but... We look at someone who's got a certain look, and a certain image, and a certain charm, and a certain pizzazz, and a certain charisma, and we think, now that's gonna be a good church leader. Probably not. If we pay attention to the New Testament, most everything it says about church leadership revolves around what kind of person is this. But we'll get to that, Lord willing, next week. What we will do as we move on from just acknowledging the importance of character, is we will look at verse 9 and see what is the assignment given to elders. The appointment is to assign them a task. What is the task? What is an elder to do? What are the elders to be about? And so we move from character, six through eight, to, if you would, competencies. Notice what he says, he lists one central thing with two applications. One central thing, the elders must be competent in this, and then the two applications that flow out of that. It says there, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. The elders must have a tight grip on something. They must have a sure grasp in regard to something. They must have a fierce attachment in regard to something. Well, what's that something? He describes it here as the trustworthy word or the faithful message as it has been taught. In other words, what he's implying here is that the elders that are being installed in those churches on the island of Crete must be men who grasp and understand, who have received, who have lived it out, and who are committed to explain and proclaim the message that was handed to them. It's a message that was passed down. Over there in Ephesians 2, it speaks about the church, and one of the things it says about the church is the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. In other words, the message that the elders of a church should hold forth, it should be a message that originates from Jesus and the apostles. There's no room for something newfangled. In other words, if a church is preaching something that the Apostle Paul would say, huh? I have no idea what you're talking about. Then that's not a good thing. You say, well, it's the 21st century, Joe. I mean, you gotta get with the program. I'm not sure the 21st century is the model for the program that we should be. In other words, what Paul is telling Titus is that the one competency of these elders is that they must be men who have a sure grasp, a tight grip, a firm attachment of the message that has been handed down to them by Jesus from the apostles. It's not open to reinvention. It's not... Editable by personal preference. It's not swappable to cultural fickleness. It's not changeable or malleable to cultural demands. The task of faithfulness for an elder is not one of creativity, but one of faithfulness. That an elder would know the book and that the message that the elder would proclaim is a message that faithfully flows from the Bible because it faithfully focuses upon the Christ of the Bible, upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ himself as he's revealed in the scriptures. Not the Jesus of one's own imagination, not the Jesus of the world's speculations, but the Jesus who has been revealed in God's perfect word, the Bible. So that's really, even though it's speaking out in conceptual framework, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. Well, what was the trustworthy word that the apostles taught? It was a word about Jesus. A church ought to gather and it ought to talk about Good answer, good answer. We're good so far. If we manage to gather here this morning and we don't sing about Jesus, we don't pray in regard to Jesus, we don't, in our preaching, we don't highlight Jesus, what have we done? The faithful message that elders are to know, to have a fierce attachment to, a tight grip of, a sure grasp of, is who Jesus is, what he has done, and the implications An elder ought to know his Bible and ought to know the Jesus who is the center focus of that Bible. We're given lots of warnings in the New Testament that while it may seem like, duh, well, I mean, what else would we do? There's lots of warnings that imply that it's easy for us to get knocked off message. It's easy for us to put our ear to the...Freddie's prayer talked about the voices, the voices of the culture, the voices that swirl around us. It's easy to start paying too much attention to those voices. Paul would write to the church at Colossae, he would say, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of this world, and not according to Christ. That you and I, as a church, because the elders in that church are helping us to have a category of discernment that says that does not accord with Jesus. I can't go there, that's man-made stuff. That's demonic stuff that doesn't come from Jesus, that doesn't affiliate and line up with Jesus, and so I can't go there. We would have the discernment to know that. That don't sound like Jesus at all. Or what Paul would write in two places to the church at Corinth, first of all, in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5, where he says, for we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. You and I do not have, quote-unquote, freedom. to hold on to a belief that is not obedient to Jesus, that doesn't correspond to Jesus. Now, I know that's dangerous because, in this sense, there's a lot of people that think they know a lot about Jesus. I mean, I've had people say to me, well, my Jesus would never do that. And I'd say, you know what? You're probably right. Your Jesus never would, but here's what Jesus actually said in His words. So that's why it's important that the elders would have a firm, tight grip, a fierce attachment to the message of Jesus. So that they would know that. Why? Because it's essential that you and I not believe anything that is out of sync with the truth as it is in Jesus. That you and I would not have any belief that is in rebellion to the Lord Jesus. Or even, as he would say in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 11, verses 3 through 4, so the next chapter over, the one I just alluded to, he says, "'But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, that your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, You put up with it. In other words, that people will come, and they will offer alternative Jesuses. They will speak about another spirit, and they will try to introduce a new-fangled gospel. And Paul says, run, because ultimately that will take your heart away from a pure and sincere devotion to Jesus. Elders must be rooted and grounded in these things that the Bible teaches in regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because out of that one central competency flows two applications. And he alludes to that, then, where he says then at the second part of verse 9, so that he may be able to, first of all, this is the positive angle, that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine. Now, that word sound doctrine is really just another way of saying the trustworthy word as it was taught. In other words, elders are to take the Bible, the Bible that they themselves competently know, and they are to give instruction from that Bible. Other translations, instead of instruction, use the word encouraged, that they may give encouragement in sound doctrine. So whether you use the word encourage or whether you use the word instruction, there's a range at which that occurs, depending on what the need is. Oftentimes, that word instruct or encourage would connote a long-term patient nurturing of sound doctrine. Week in, week out, patiently instilling wisdom and truth from God's word. At times, that encouragement or instruction may take the range of not patient nurture, but bold directive. You say, how do you know which one you do? Because I know which one I prefer. Well, the issue is not what you prefer. The issue is what is needed. How do you best help that person? You know, Hebrews 10, 24 says, let us consider how we may stir one another up toward love and good deeds. And if you think about that, when he says, let us consider, no, but think about it, think about it. How could you stir up someone to engage in love and good deeds? What does that person need? Do they need the patient nurture that would result in stirring them up toward love and good deeds? Or do they need a bold, stern directive? Is that what they need at that moment? Some people need a hug, some people need a, well, we won't go there. It's just what is needed. And so an elder would be so attached to the Word of God that they would know not only what to say, but they would know the way to go about saying that, that they would have the very wisdom of the scripture to give that instruction in sound doctrine. Again, it goes without saying, but an elder is to teach doctrine. I mean, that seems so passe in churches. Oh, well, we're not really a doctrinal church. We just love Jesus. Well, what is it that you love about him? And once you start describing that, guess what you're having a conversation about? Doctrine. You're beginning to say things that are true about Jesus or not true about Jesus. You're having a doctrinal conversation. There's no escaping this. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We are to love Jesus. He is lovable. We're to love him based upon what his word has faithfully taught us about him. That is related to that. We're not only to encourage or instruct, but we're also to rebuke or refute those who contradict it. What's the it? The sound doctrine. A word that does not conform to the trustworthy word that was passed down is not sound doctrine. And so a person who does not believe sound doctrine needs to be refuted or rebuked. Again, I know you're like, finally, a ministry I could get into. I love me some rebuking. But even then there's a range at how we could think about the whole notion of rebukification. It doesn't always have to be a hostile adversarial kind of In fact, it would be probably very wise that that's not the default setting on how rebuke or refute unfolds. Sometimes we could rebuke and refute by just simply issuing a reminder of what is good and beautiful and true. I think that's what Paul does in Ephesians chapter four as he's addressing the believers there as to the things that they're to stop doing and the things that they're to begin doing. He would just inject this. He says in verse 20 and 21 of Ephesians chapter four, but that's not the way you learned Christ. The way you're thinking, the way you're emoting, the way you're carrying on, the way you're living, that's not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you've heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Sometimes we can rebuke and refute by just simply saying, that's got nothing to do with Jesus. That's nothing that Jesus is about. But the other component of the notion of rebuking or refuting, can we even do that anymore today? I mean, is it permissible to do that anymore today? We live in a culture that I think is getting notions of tolerance all wrong. We should be tolerant, but tolerance does not mean that we would approve of something that the scripture does not approve of. We should be kind and tenderhearted and gentle. We should be the first people in line for those qualities. But that does not imply, because we're told in the love chapter, love does not rejoice in wrongdoing. You and I have bought the lie when we say, well, I'm not going to render a judgment on this because I'm just a sweet, loving guy, me and Jesus. There's two of us. That's a misreading. The scripture teaches us about the love of Jesus, and it's a misreading about what love truly consists of. If you love your neighbor, if you love your brother or sister in Christ, then a part of that love figures out a way that when needed, as necessary, you find a way to rebuke and refute your brother or sister when they are contradicting scripture. If they're thinking, they're living, they're talking in a way that is not in accordance with sound doctrine, that it is actually the loving thing that pursues that and has that conversation. No, no, no, not in an adversarial and a hostile way, but in a way, nevertheless, that tends to rescue people from things that are contradictory to God's word. If you love your brother and sister, if you love your neighbor, then you won't approve of that which God condemns, and you won't condemn that which God approves of. Why? Because you want to do refutation, you want to do even the rebuking in a way that accords with sound doctrine. So where does it leave us? The elders, that's what he's talking about here, that are to be appointed for the task of what? Knowing the word, instructing the word, and rebuking from the word as needed. Why would they do all of that? Why? Because what's important for you and I is that we know who Jesus is. and that we trust and follow the Lord Jesus Christ truly and faithfully. Because the assignment is for us to get home. And God has been so kind to say, and that's so important for you to get home, that I want you to be a part of a local church that has elders, that know the word, and that would hold the word out to you, and when necessary, even give correction, as well as instruction from the word. Why? Because those elders should be men who want you to get safely home. And that comes by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Jesus that gets his people home, but he gets his people home through local churches, through the leadership of that local church who hold out the faithful word, the word about Jesus, who instruct in that and who rebuke off of that. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for what your word tells us, not only about the assignment given to elders, but more importantly, about what your son has done for people such as us. So we're thankful for Christ. We're thankful for Christ's church. We're thankful for Christ's leaders. But we're thankful for the shed blood and the perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ. who has pardoned us who believe in Jesus from all of our sins, and has guaranteed us eternal life, and has given us the Spirit. So we pray that as we journey home, that we would look to you, and that we would trust in the resources that you have given to us to get faithfully home. For we pray this in Christ's name. Let's stand and sing this song together. Jesus draw me ever nearer As I labor through the storm to this passage and I'll follow though I'm worn. May this journey bring a blessing On wings of faith And at the end of my heart's testing With your likeness Let me wear Jesus guide me Through the tempest, keep my spirit state and sure, where the midnight meets the morning. To bring our blessing With your likeness, let me wear. Let the treasures of the tribe. It's long past noon, and you're gone. As we close, let me read a passage from Jude, verses 20 and 21, and let this be our charge that sends us out of here this morning. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Go in that word, you're dismissed.