again, but we've been going through the letters of Paul in the Youth Sunday School, and so that's what we'll be doing again this morning. We're now to Titus 1, but to begin, we'll just ask the youth a few questions from 2 Timothy 4. So I hope you all have been studying that this past week. So from 2 Timothy 4, we'll have a few questions. 2 Timothy 4, Paul begins with a charge to Timothy. He says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge these two groups of people. I think Maria had your hand up first. Who were those two groups? The quick and the dead. The quick and the dead. And what was, who are the quick? What does that mean? Carrie? The living. The living. So the living and the dead. In 2 Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4 verse 3, Paul warns Timothy that there are those who, the time will come when there are those who will Not endure sound doctrine, but they will heap to themselves teachers. What is the reason that he gives why they would heap to themselves teachers? Having itching ears. They'll have itching ears. Where did Paul send Titus? Where did Titus go out from? Where did he travel to, Lizzie? Dalmatia. Dalmatia. Titus left to Dalmatia. Who was the one person left there with Paul? Luke. Only Luke is with me. Verse 11. What did Paul leave at Troas with Carpus? His cloak. He also says, verse 16, at his first answer, Who forsook him? That's Paul's first answer. Lizzie? All men. It's all men. My first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. And last question, she's writing to Timothy here. He asks Timothy to come to him before this time of year, Lily. Winter. Very good. So you all were paying attention. That's very good. So we'll turn then to Titus. Titus chapter one. We're going to talk a little bit first just about who Titus was, looking at some of the other, just very briefly, some of the other passages that mention Titus. And then through Titus, through Titus 1, looking at the greeting, the true teachers, and then false teachers. Those are the categories that we'll be looking at, the division of this particular chapter. And four pages of notes, so I don't know if we'll get through all of that, but we'll get through as much of it as we can. So your usual practice, we'll read through the chapter once and then we'll come back to and look over, spend some time with certain verses. So Titus 1, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began, but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. To Titus, mine own son after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. Holding fast the faithful words as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Unto the pure, all things are pure. But unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work, reprobate." Amen. So talking a little bit about Titus, just as part of our introduction, Titus isn't mentioned in the book of Acts, he's not in the gospel, he's not in the book of the Acts. He was a Gentile convert, we see this in Galatians 2, verses 1 through 3, pointing out one of these, but neither, Paul writes to the Galatians there, but neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. So we see that he was a Gentile. He's featured, he's very prominent in the book of 2 Corinthians. He's mentioned a number of times there. Paul there calls him his brother, 2 Corinthians 2.13. It's actually beginning at verse 12. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and the door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother. But taking leave of them, I went from thence unto Macedonia." So Paul describes him as his brother. He describes him later in 2 Corinthians 8.23 as his partner and fellow helper. We see him also in 2 Timothy 4.10. He was in Rome with Paul and was then sent by Paul to Dalmatia. And here in Titus, in the book of Titus, we find that Paul is writing to him from Macedonia while, and we see this also here in chapter one, he's in Crete. So we see some of the life of Titus, who he is, his brief overview of the ministry that he has. He's not assigned to any one church. We see him somewhat like Paul and the other apostles. He's ministering in various churches. Matthew Henry noted that his office was similar to that of Timothy. We saw in 2 Timothy there, Paul's admonition to Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. So Timothy and Titus held similar roles as an evangelist, and that's not an evangelist as we might think of an evangelist. A modern evangelist would be more like a type of missionary, except you're not going typically to other countries, but you're going around preaching the gospel not necessarily working in building up any specific church. So the modern evangelist is typically just involved in teaching and spreading the gospel. But that's not the type of evangelist that these men were. So Matthew Henry describes them as more of a vice apostle or a sub-apostle whose work was to water the churches planted by the apostles and set them in order. So that was Titus' role. So moving then into verse 1, Paul, a servant of God. Paul is, as he did in his letters to Timothy, he sets out his qualifications, his roles. We can see from that that these letters are not just written to Timothy or to Titus, but they're intended as those men would have already known these things about Paul. These letters are written really to the churches and to the church at large. But a servant here, he describes himself as a servant of God. Now this word servant could also be translated and is sometimes translated as a slave. It's not the kind of servant we would often think of where someone has just decided that's their, that's going to be their job in a way, a servant. If you watch any old English television or movies, films, you might see that someone who has chosen to make that their line of work. In these cases, most of these people that were servants, that's not something they chose. It was something they had to do, whether they were indebted to someone or for some other reason had to do this. So they were there often as a result of a debt. So Paul there is a servant of God. He has a debt. I think that's a good picture. He has a debt to God for the work that has been done in him. He was once a slave to sin. And now, by grace, as we are, is a slave to God, bound to him by the blood of our Savior. He's a servant of God. Calvin pointed out also the servanthood of Christ. We see this in Isaiah. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. So we see Christ as a servant. Paul describing himself as a servant, if those were servants, if those, if Christ is as our example, as our ultimate example as a servant, we certainly should be as well. We should be taking that, taking that upon ourselves. serving others. He also describes himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. We've talked about, it's been a couple of weeks since we talked about this. What was the other, what was the other term we used for the, this apostle? What is, what is an apostle? Carrie? Say a messenger. There was another term we used. An ambassador. So he's a servant, he is an apostle or ambassador of Jesus Christ. An ambassador doesn't have authority in themselves, but they're given authority. They have authority as they represent the one who sent them. And so that's also a good picture of Paul as an apostle or an ambassador. The elders and teachers in a church should also be those ambassadors. They should represent Christ in that way. And that's also something that we each should do as those who call themselves Christians. We should also consider ourselves ambassadors, representatives of Jesus Christ. According to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. And I won't spend a whole lot of time on those last couple of phrases. There were pages and pages, though, written about those in the commentaries, the faith of God's elect and how that relates to Paul as this servant and ambassador of Christ and his role in bringing people to Christ, and then its relationship as well to this truth, which is after godliness, the truth and its relationship to godliness. The truth that we believe doesn't exist by itself. We don't believe and then have no change in our lives. That truth must change us. And so there's much we could speak about that, but for time's sake, we'll move on. So we'll move on to verse two then. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began, And so that's really that hope of eternal life. That's the end. That's the goal of our lives, of our faith, of the work that Christ has done. That hope, that's not an uncertain hope, but as he points out, it comes from a God that cannot lie. And we'll compare that to These verses that we read earlier, later in the chapter, verse 12, the Cretans are always liars. Compare that environment that these early Christians were living in, that Titus was ministering in, comparing that environment of lies to the truth that we have here from God and this hope that we have. the truth coming from a God which cannot lie, promised before the world began." And we're reminded in that phrase there, promised before the world began, the words of Jesus in John 17, verse 24. Where our Lord, as he prays, says, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. So that's that hope of eternal life coming from a God which cannot lie. Verse three. that God which cannot lie hath but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. Returning from to the The Gospel of John, thinking in that, hath in due times manifested his word through preaching. What's the word manifested mean? To manifest is to make it visible, to make it clear or plain. And manifesting his word, who is, who is the word? Who is that word? What is that word? Think of those first few lines in the Gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word, and that Word was with God, and that Word was God. And it goes on to talk about how that Word was manifest and dwelt among us. So we can see some similarities there, reminders there that that Word that is manifested, that Word is Christ. And that's spread through preaching. Manifesting His Word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. So I lost myself in my notes here. God our Savior. We've talked about this in the Youth Sunday School before. We tend to think of God, we think of Christ as our Savior. God is also referred to as our Savior, not just here, but in other places as well. The will of God the Father and of God the Son. They're not separated. They're not working against each other. It's not that God is just this angry judge, this judge of sin, and Jesus is coming in to rescue us from this angry judge, but they're working together. And it's right to call God our Savior as it is to call Jesus our Savior. One of the commentators, and I mentioned this before, I've been using three or four different commentators as we go through Titus and these other works. But one of them, Jeffrey Wilson, commented that our salvation is equally the gift of the Father's electing love and Christ's redeeming work. And that's really a glorious truth there. Seeing these titles used interchangeably for these two also speaks to the deity of Christ. We're seeing the same title used for God the Father as God the Son. They're both our Savior. And the final note I had on this was that he uses the word our. He's God our Savior as he's writing to Timothy, excuse me, to Titus here, he's writing to those Believers in Crete, as an apostle, he is identifying with these believers. We're all of the same, as he writes later on, common faith. It's the same faith that they all have together. And so moving to verse four then. To Titus, mine own son, after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord. So we've seen there in that first section his setting out his, oh, the word's escaping me, the criteria of his ministry, the principles or the characteristics of who he is. He's a servant of God, he's an apostle, he has The gospel has been committed to him. This preaching has been committed to him. That is his role here in these churches. And so we'll turn then to the, moving on then to the second section, true teachers and the characteristics of true teachers and the ordering of the church. I don't think we'll find too much here that's unfamiliar. We've seen this in our Youth Sunday School, as we went through First Timothy, Chapter 3 in particular, verse 5 then, for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting. and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. So we see here he's left, he has left Titus there in Crete. So he set out his own, what is his authority in this matter? His authority has come from Christ and he has left Titus there in Crete as the sub-apostle, vice-apostle. He has the authority. He's there with this authority. And so he's setting out these characteristics of elders, in particular of teaching elders. as we'll see later on. But looking here at verse six, we'll talk a little bit about some of these characteristics. If any, be blameless. That doesn't mean being blameless obviously is not sinless. Calvin comments, this does not mean exempt from every vice. We know that there is no one on earth who is sinless. That's not what he's being taught here. No one would qualify to be a teacher then if we were looking for people who were sinless and who were sinless. So he says, not exempt from every vice, no one would meet that criteria, but marked by no disgrace that would lessen his authority. I think that's a good explanation there of that particular phrase. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife Matthew Henry commented on that, kind of comparing or pointing out some of the Roman Catholic teaching on who could be a teacher, who could be a priest, or the equivalent of an elder or a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church, and their requirement that those not have wives We can see from this that that's not a biblical position. That's not what the Bible teaches. Here, these men are to be the husband of one wife. Calvin commented on the polygamy that was common during that time. And so that would be the primary reason, the primary the purpose of this particular command, that a man not have multiple wives. Matthew Henry had also commented on the idea of, I guess you can get that, somebody's knocking at the door. They may be going around to the front. It's all right. There's some question as to whether this applies also to men who have been divorced before. Is that what is meant here as well? And there was some uncertainty there among the commentators. We know that polygamy was common in those times. You can see from some of our Lord's records in the Gospels At the very least, in certain circles in the Jewish faith, in the land of Israel, in the people of Israel, in God's people there, there were at least some teachers who were teaching that divorce was allowable really under any circumstance, and so I think we could imply from that that divorce would have been common at least in those circles as well. And this is written to a Gentile church. So it's a little less clear there whether that is meant as well, but at the very least, we know it's, he is speaking toward polygamy and maybe speaking toward divorced men as well. So the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. We see in 1 Timothy, read in 1 Timothy 3, he gives a little more reason behind that. It says, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? This kind of home, this one with faithful children, not accused of riot, speaks of the presence of God. The Word of God speaks of a loving discipline in that home. As Calvin wrote, a chaste and honorable discipline. So they're looking for men who have a well-ordered home. faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. He goes on again in verse 7, for a bishop must be blameless, repeating that line about being blameless, as the steward of God. We'll just comment briefly. So Paul uses the term elder and bishop interchangeably here. So earlier spoke of elders, now speaks of bishops. Those are the same, that's the same office. A steward of God, a steward. in those days, in those times, was often a slave. So returning to that picture of one who is a slave, one who is a servant, one who is carrying out his master's will, it's not his own will. As a slave, you couldn't be selfish. You couldn't do whatever you wish to do. Your time was not your own. Your desires were not your own. Your desires were toward your master there. So R.C. pointed out that, as I said, the steward was a slave authorized to manage their master's estate and accountable to their master. So that bishop must then be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. Self-willed, self-opinioned, self-confident versus being confident in Christ. That's the picture that's being painted there. Not soon angry, Again, Matthew Henry's commented how unfit are those to govern the church who cannot govern themselves. So being able to govern yourself, governing your lusts, your desires, governing your home, those are things that are necessary for someone to be a bishop, a steward of Christ. Not given to wine. Ephesians 5.18 says, be not drunk with the wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit. So those are some of the characteristics there that he puts forward for these elders or bishops. So those are some of the negatives. Those are what an elder should not be. Verse 8 then begins a list of what should they be. A lover of hospitality. And compare that to those that we just saw, not given to filthy lucre. Lucre, you all know it, that's money. Not having a desire for money, that not being the driving force behind your life. Not seeking to bring all this, bring this gain and collect wealth, but instead to be a lover of hospitality. being hospitable, to provide for others, to entertain strangers, those things, those things cost money. So we're not to be one who seeks to gather it, instead we should be one who seeks to disperse it, to be free with what God has given to us. A lover of good men. We think of the Lord's words in John 13, 25. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. So those are the good men, the good people that are being mentioned here. Lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. Being temperate again, self-controlled. Jeffrey Wilson, one of those commentators, self-controlled because he is filled with the Spirit. not seeking to fill himself with other things, not seeking to fulfill those other lusts and desires. In verse nine, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. We've talked before about that word exhort. Anyone remember, anyone from the youth class remember what is exhort? What does that word mean? No one? Peter? No? No, that would be the word to convince the gainsayers. That would be the idea there, convincing the other. Translations would be to admonish or to correct. To exhort comes from that word, and I'm sure you'll remember this as soon as I say it. Paracleto. It's close to the word paraclete. Paraclete is someone who comes alongside, and so the parakaleo is to really exhort alongside, to encourage someone. The Holy Spirit is described often as the paraclete. Jesus is also described as the periclete, but the word pericleo is coming alongside, it's encouraging, to exhort someone is to come alongside them and to encourage them. So that's what we should be doing. That's what these men, these elders and bishops should be doing, doing that through the faithful word, through the scriptures as they've been taught. by sound doctrine, exhorting, encouraging, and convincing the gainsayers, convincing those who speak against the truth. So that's the, those are some of the characteristics of the true teachers. That's what they should be, what they should be doing. That applies, certainly applies to our own church, but also I think could be applied if we're listening to a sermon or listening to a podcast. A sermon in particular, I would say, if someone is known to not have those particular characteristics, that should make us cautious in following after their teaching if they're not showing those things as best we can know them. So then moving on to false teachers, and we have just a few minutes left. So we'll move through this a little more rapidly. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision." As we did in 2 Timothy, this assault is coming from inside the visible church. These are people who are teaching from inside, unruly, headstrong, unable to be guided. They won't listen to the scriptures. They won't listen to the faithful ministers of the gospel, they want to go out and do their own thing, have their own gospel, their own thoughts on things, and mentions especially they of the circumcision. R.C. Sproul commented, this is not a condemnation of Jewish Christians as a group, but rather those who were teaching the necessity of circumcision. They were teaching adding works to faith, adding works as a means of justification to our faith. We see that in Acts and in Galatians. As Paul writes, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? They've come to Christ, they have come to salvation through the gospel, through faith in the work of our Lord, and now they're adding other things to that. And so that's the condemnation there that's mentioned here, adding to the gospel, adding to this the faith that is through grace alone, faith in Christ alone. That is what we should be following after. Verse 11, whose mouths must be stopped, as Matthew Henry points out, stopped not through violence, but through correction from the Word of God, as we saw there in verse 9, by sound doctrine, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert a whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake." And their goal in teaching, God knows their purpose. He knows why they're doing what they're doing. They're doing it because they love money. Reminded that the love of money is the root of all evil or of all kinds of evil. Certainly something he was seeing there in Crete. Verse 12, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. He's quoting there a Greek poet, a man by the name of Epimenides. He has another quote there, and Matthew Henry pointed this out. The Cretan culture, they were so ungodly. They had a phrase, to play the Cretan. That was a term they would use for someone who was a liar. They were playing the Cretan. That's what they were known for. That was their culture. And I think that's a reminder. Here he's, in verse 13, he says, this witness is true. That comment, even from hundreds of years before, Epimenides lived around the year 600 BC. and here we are writing in that first century, seeing this writing in the first century, that has, that culture has been their culture for hundreds and hundreds of years. And Paul is telling Titus, he's warning against that kind, he's warning against that thinking. We don't, the point I would make from this is that we don't judge ourselves by the standards in our culture. We judge ourselves by the Word of God. We judge ourselves by the truth that we find in the Word of God. And that's, we see in the rest of the second half of verse 13, wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. that they may be sound in the faith. We've seen that repeatedly. The purpose of discipline is to correct, it's to return someone to the true faith. And so that's Paul's advice to Titus here. He is to rebuke these sharply, that they may turn from those, that they may not be known for being liars and for rebuking these teachers that they may return to the faith, they may be sound in the faith. Verse 14, and not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. And then finally, the last couple of verses, unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Very sober words and words that these false teachers and false teachers in general, they lead ultimately, they eventually show themselves, show themselves to be what they are. that the unsound teaching, the unsound things that they teach and believe, they lead ultimately to evil works. And those are things we must flee from. So here, just to recap, just to summarize, we've seen in Titus, Paul establishes his authority as a servant of God, as an apostle of God. He set Titus here to do this work. He sets out then the characteristics of a true teacher and then also the characteristics and warnings against false teachers. All things we need to try to consider as we might read these initially and think, well, how does this apply to me? Talking about the characteristics of an elder, these false teachers, they're things that really are applicable in many areas of our lives as we hear the Word of God preached both in our pulpits and other places and the teachings that we see on the internet and other places. We need to have wisdom to know how to apply these and how to seek after God, how to seek that truth that comes from God. So, amen. I pray that you all will be encouraged by those thoughts. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you that we can study it, that we can read it, that we can be encouraged. We thank you, Lord, for the truths that you have set out in your word, for the gospel, for the faith that we can have. We thank you, Lord, for this day in particular, where we celebrate the rising again of our Savior, for that victory that is in Jesus. We ask that you would bless us as we continue this day in hearing your word and praying and singing your praises. We ask that you would bless Pastor Kimbrough as he comes later this morning and this evening as well. Give him Faithful words, words that will lead souls to you, that will correct sin. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.