Today, we come to the last of the pastoral epistles, Paul's letter to Titus. Titus, interestingly, is not mentioned in the book of Acts, but he is mentioned in several of Paul's letters. He's mentioned in the Corinthian correspondence. He is also mentioned in the book of Galatians. And he was a Gentile convert and he traveled with Paul. Paul trusted him greatly. And the last time he's mentioned in the New Testament is in 2 Timothy 4.10, where Titus goes to Dalmatia. Paul tells Timothy that Titus has gone to Dalmatia on a ministry assignment from Paul. So he was a Greek and Paul considered him to be a son in the faith as we'll read in verse four of chapter one to Titus, a true son in our common faith and therefore they had a very close relationship with each other. There is something very businesslike, however, about this letter, as Paul's specifying everything that he wants Titus to do. And it reads like a commission mandate, and in this way it overlaps with many of the themes of 1 Timothy. buttressing Titus to carry out his calling on the island of Crete. And if you want to know where Crete was, you can find any study Bible or look at the back of your Bible at the maps, and you can find the island of Crete just south of Greece. Crete was a difficult ministry context because of its well-known moral baseness. And Paul is going to mention that in this letter in something that to us sounds somewhat unscrupulous maybe for Paul to say, but it's not. He's telling the truth when he talks about Cretans and a poet of their own who said some very not nice things about Cretans and their way of life. The book was probably written sometime in the mid-60s. So again, after Acts chapter 28, Paul was apparently released from prison. He penned 1 Timothy, and then he penned Titus, and then he penned, before his death, 2 Timothy, and then he was martyred, according to Christian tradition, under the emperor Nero. So this puts the composition of the letter sometime between 63 to 65. The main topic that Paul strikes over and over again in this letter is the necessity of living a life of good works rooted in gospel grace. Let me repeat that, it's very important. The main topic that Paul strikes over and over again in Titus is the necessity of living a life of good works rooted in gospel grace. So we have belief in the truth, Is that eye in the right spot? Yeah. Good. Thank you. And then we have belief wedded to behavior. We have orthodoxy and we have orthopraxy. And these two are wedded at the hip. This theme is struck early in the letter with Paul speaking about the truth that leads to godliness or that is in accordance with a godly life, a life of fruit bearing good works. And this is in contrast to the false teaching being peddled on the island. with false teachers who claimed to know God, but Paul says clearly denied him by the way that they lived their lives. It's possible to claim to know God through Christ, but deny him by the way that one lives. And he says that these false teachers are unfit for good works, but he says our people, Christians, should be very fit for good works as they understand the grace of God that enables us to live a sober and godly lives in the present age. Christians based on God's grace that worked their regeneration are to live lives transformed by grace, living as witnesses to the unbelieving world and adorning the gospel of God. And this emphasis on good works is found in chapter two, verse seven to 14. 3.1, 3.8, and 3.14. Let me read some of these verses. Chapter 2 verse 7, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works. 2 verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Then chapter 3, verse 1, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work. Verse 8, this is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God, though you have the belief, Those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. And then he says in verse 14 at the very end to put the exclamation point on this theme and let our people also learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful. So it's possible to be a Christian and to be living an unfruitful life, but we're not supposed to be. We're supposed to be living a life of fruit-bearing obedience, evangelical obedience rooted out of a regenerated heart. All right, the purpose of writing. Paul clearly had a brief missionary journey on the island of Crete, One that had fruitfully produced many Christian believers in the towns on the island. And so you have churches, but they're not churches fully formed according to the mind of Christ. They need eldership. And that's one of the reasons why Titus has been commissioned to stay on the island. The main point of his leaving Titus on Crete is mentioned in chapter one, verse five. The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone. And this word for set right is a word used for mending broken bones. So anything that's not fit, I want you to make fit. And he says, I want you to appoint elders in every town. That is in every place where a church has been formed, I want you to appoint elders there. What is the structure of Titus? Here is the structure. It has one of the longest greetings in Paul's letters. Interestingly, I think apart from Romans, it's one of the longest greetings. And then in chapter one, verses five through 16, Paul talks about Titus's ministry on Crete. Specifically, what are the qualifications that are necessary for leadership in the church? And why are elders so important and why do they have to teach the faith once for all delivered to the saints? Because there's all of these false teachers who are peddling teaching that is contrary, that is different, that is heterodox to the teaching that Paul wants proliferated. All right, then in chapter two, verses one through 15, we have an emphasis on sound teaching and specifically what Titus is to command various age groups are to live like. There's various age groups that he is supposed to teach. He's supposed to teach older and younger men and women both to live in specific ways with specific characteristics. And yet, what is the conduct that he is supposed to command rooted in? And here in chapter 2, verses 11 through 15, it is rooted in salvation. Our conduct flows out of what God has done for us in Christ. Same thing from 1 Timothy, that the mystery of godliness is the root and the core of everything. And then, in the final chapter, there's the importance of good works mentioned before, but especially in the final chapter punctuated three times by the mention of this. Christian conduct in society, in chapter 3, verses 1 through 7, that we are supposed to honor authorities. Cretans were known for being insubordinate and rebellious people. And Paul says, if you're a Cretan and you're a Christian, you should not be insubordinate and rebellious any longer. And then dealing with divisive people in chapter 3, verses 8 through 11, with his final instructions, his conclusion to Titus in chapter 3, verses 12 through 15, he tells him that he's going to relieve him with two potential people. Paul's not sure exactly who he's going to send, and then he closes off with a benediction. Does everyone have that? All right, with that, let's turn to the very beginning of Titus, and we will begin working our way through this letter. In chapter one, one through four, we have Paul's greeting. Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, an authoritative emissary sent out to preach. And what is he supposed to do? He is supposed to bring into being and foster and nourish the faith of God's chosen people. So that's why he says, according to the faith of God's elect, I'm an apostle to bring about faith in God's elect and then to nurture that faith in them. and for their knowledge of the truth of God, which is particularly Paul's good news message of gospel grace in Christ. Although I believe this is the only letter where the word euangelion is not used, the good news is actually not used, or the word gospel. But the gospel is all over this letter nonetheless. And Paul says that this is for their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness. And that's the key to the entire letter. The doctrine of Christ, the gospel that Paul preaches, accords with a life lived of practical piety and godliness to the Lord. And it is a life that is lived in hope. He says in verse two, it is in hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised before time began. There's a reference to the covenant of redemption. So we live in the hope of eternal life, which God has promised in eternity, but which has in due time manifested in his word through the preaching, which Paul says was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior." And by the way, God our Savior is a very common phrase in the pastoral epistles. And yet here in the book of Titus, we have three mentions of God our Savior and three mentions of Christ our Savior. So Paul was writing to Titus, whom he calls a true son in our common faith. So Paul's not some super saint who has a different type of faith than Titus has. Titus and him share the exact same faith, and he calls for grace, mercy, and peace to be given from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. And immediately he gets into the specific reason he has tasked Titus to stay on Crete. Here's his commission. For this reason, I left you in Crete that you should set in order the things that are lacking. All right. So because of Paul's brief stay on the islands, he was not able to fully teach and to fully implement the proper order of the church. And the specific thing that Titus is to do is to appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. And then he begins to move into the moral requisites of an elder in Christ's church. Now he's going to call them elders. He also calls them overseers. In verse seven, a bishop must be blameless, but a bishop or overseer, an elder, pastor is all referring to the same fundamental office. Now, what I want to emphasize here in particular is the moral requisites that are necessary for an elder. Most of the qualities are moral. He says in verse six, if a man is blameless, and then he repeats that in verse seven, for a Bishop must be blameless. Now blameless means perfect, right? No, blameless means that the elder is a man of integrity. And there's no area of his life that you could look at and say that is a blatant moral failing. So it's not about perfection as much as it is about integrity. If a man has integrity and then it has to do with a man's home life. His marital relationship, it says the husband of one wife or literally a one woman man. Is the man faithful to the wife of his youth? Is he a one woman man, not flirtatious or romantic with other women? And then what about his domestic relationship with his children? It says, having faithful children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination. Now, a lot of people have read this requisite, having faithful children, and they've translated it, having believing children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination. And people have said, this is very clear proof that an elder has to have children who are believers. and the Lord Jesus Christ. And I deny that requisite. I do not believe that that is what Paul is saying here. I believe that this word pistos in Greek should be translated trustworthy or faithful children. Children who are faithful to him, children who love him and children who are not accused of wild riotous living. All right, so we cannot control the salvation of our children. We are Calvinists and we believe that God is sovereign over the salvation of our kids. And that's the best way I think of interpreting this specific word, having children who are faithful. Verse seven, for a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not someone who is going to fly into a rage in a moment's notice, not someone who is given to wine, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for money. Someone who is not going to serve for the sake of filthy lucre, as the old King James used to say. But someone who is hospitable, someone who opens their home, someone who is a lover of what is good, someone who has affection for what is good. And there is another emphasis upon good works. Someone who is a lover for what is good, good behavior, right practice. someone who is sober-minded and temperate in their judgments, someone who is righteous, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught. So here we verge onto the idea that an elder must know the faith well and be able to teach it and be able to contradict those who contravene the word of the Lord. It says, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort, there's the public teaching ministry, and convict with the subsequent idea of rebuke those who contradict it. Right now, why are elders who are able to teach the faith so important? Why are elders who can contradict those who contradict the gospel so important because of verse 10? For there are many insubordinate and rebellious people who are false teachers. I have a quote here from John Stott, when false teachers increase, the most appropriate long-term strategy is to multiply the number of true teachers. I love that. When false teachers increase, the most appropriate long-term strategy is to multiply the number of teachers who are equipped to rebut and refute error. And that is exactly what Paul is telling Titus to do. Get elders, teach them the faith, make sure that they can teach it, make sure that they have these moral requisites, and then have them contravene all of the false doctrine that's taking place on the island of Crete. Because they're idle talkers and those who purposefully deceive. And Paul says, especially those of the circumcision. So it seems like we have a circumcision, Judaistic sort of party on the island of Crete who are disseminating false doctrine. And Paul says, with no uncertainty, these mouths must be stopped. because they are subverting entire households who have believed the truth and teaching things which they ought not to teach for the specific sake of dishonest gain." Which is why Paul says you better make sure that an elder is somebody who is not greedy for money, who is not thinking that the ministry is a quick and get rich sort of scheme. And then Paul says, one of them, a prophet of their own, a writer named Epimenides, I think that's how you spell it, from the sixth century BC, wrote this about the Cretans. One of them, a prophet of their own said, Cretans are always liars. evil beasts, lazy gluttons, and then Paul says, this testimony is true. Now, what he doesn't mean is that every single Cretan was like this. All right. But in the ancient world, several writers wrote about the moral baseness of the Cretan people. For example, Polybius wrote this, it is almost impossible to find personal conduct more treacherous or public policy more unjust than in Crete. What a reputation, huh? Or Cicero, moral principles are so divergent that the Cretans consider highway robbery honorable. And the ancients coined a verb, critizo, or to criticize, which was a coin phrase meaning to lie and to cheat. I understand why Paul was emphasizing the need for good behavior and for orthopraxy, right? Based and rooted in true belief in Christ and right doctrine that he teaches. This is why it's so important. What Paul was saying is this is the prevailing cultural milieu of Crete. It is not an untrue stereotype. certain sins can begin to characterize specific groups of people, while not every person on Crete was per se characterized by this base immorality. However, it was the general and prevailing moral fiber on the people of Crete, and specifically, since Paul has just been talking about them, these false teachers. So in light of this, what is Titus supposed to do? Now think about this, an elder is supposed to be gentle, an elder is supposed to be patient, an elder is supposed to be able to teach, but look at what he says next in verse 13, rebuke them sharply. Tell the Cretan Christians and the false teachers who are living in these dishonest ways that they should stop living in those ways, rebuke them sharply, that instead they may be sound in the faith. And by the way, this is another thing that we've seen as we've gone through the pastorals, that there is healthy doctrine or healthy teaching. There is teaching that leads to this, godliness, and there is unhealthy or unsound teaching that leads to the opposite of this. And you'll know them by their fruits, as Jesus would say. So rebuke them to be sound in the faith, healthy Christians, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. He says, the problem here is that they have defiled consciences, thus believing that nothing is pure, probably indicating that they have some sort of ceremonial flair, the Old Testament ceremonial law flair for teaching. They profess to know God, verse 16, but in works, they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. And that's why Paul was emphasizing here the necessity that we follow and do good works. And so he says at the beginning of chapter two, since these false teachers are teaching all of these morally based things, and they're not helping people live godly lives rooted in Christ and in union with him. But as for you, Titus, what are you supposed to do? Contrary to the false teachers, you are to speak the things which are proper for sound, healthy doctrine." And then he goes into several different people groups that Timothy is to instruct about how to live. So in verses one through nine, Paul talks about these different groups. And then in verses 11 through 14, he gives the orthodox backing and root behind why they are to live in these ways. So he begins with older men, and then he moves on to older women, and he moves on after that to the young men, and to servants or slaves. And he says how each of them are supposed to live, and you'll notice why these groups are supposed to live in these particular ways. Before we get into this, there's an emphasis here on self-control. So different age groups have different proclivities and temptations towards different things, don't they? For example, I think a besetting sin of old age would probably be the sin of grumbling, just being generally sour and dour about everything. And then you probably have various besetting temptations for people who are of the different sexes, men or women. And Paul wants each one of them taught how they are to live. In verse 2, Titus is to teach that older men, of whom he would be much younger, mind you, ought to be sober. They ought to live in a self-controlled, reverent, dignified, temperate, moderate, even-handed way. and that they ought to be sound, there it is again, healthy in the faith and in love and in patience. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, they are to be dignified. And perhaps this is a besetting sin of older women, they are not to be slanderers. not to go around telling tales among the people of God. They are not to be given too much wine. And instead of doing those bad things, they are to actually become teachers of good things. Here's the emphasis on good behavior and orthopraxy once again. And who are they supposed to teach? They are supposed to teach the younger women, women who would be probably less than 40. So older women are supposed to admonish the younger women to do particular things, to love their husbands. How? How, older woman, says the younger woman, can I love my husband? How should I love my children? How can I be discreet? How can I be chaste? How can I be a homemaker? How can I be good? How can I be obedient to my own husband? In order that the word of God may not be blasphemed. That's one of the key reasons behind why Paul wants these different groups taught. That the Word of God may not be blasphemed. Verse 8, having nothing evil to say of you. Verse 10, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in everything and make it appealing to those who are not believers. Okay, so the older women have a place to teach. Wow. If anyone's listening to this from our church on audio, you older women have a place to teach the younger women. And that might be something that we think about when somebody is going through premarital counseling in our church, maybe inviting the younger woman to go to some of the older women of the church to ask them how they can follow these teachings from the Apostle Paul. All right, what about young men? Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, self-controlled. It's a besetting sin of youth to have certain passions like being hot-headed, impatient. There are sexual temptations, not that there aren't for younger women either. But Paul says in verse seven, in all things, Titus, you are to show yourself to be a pattern of good works. There it is again, behavior, orthopraxy. You are to show yourself to be a type or an example of good works. And in all of your teaching, you are to have integrity, reverence, that's dignity again, and incorruptibility, sound speech, healthy speech that cannot be condemned so that no opponent may shame you and may have nothing evil to say about you. And he says here that I want bond servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well-pleasing in all things, not answering back. So this would have been a great temptation for servants and slaves who have especially unjust masters to talk back, to not do very good work, to steal from their masters. But instead, Paul says, I want the slaves who are on Crete, who belong to the church, to show all good fidelity, behavior and orthopraxy, in order that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. That other people might say, no, why do these slaves live in such a distinct way than all of the other slaves that I've ever had? Why have you never stolen from me? I mean, I'm happy, but why? And the slave then has an opportunity to actually give a reason for why they live the way that they do because of God, my Savior, who has saved me, who's transformed me by the grace of Christ to live for Him. And ultimately, Master, I'm living for Him and not for you, and that's why I want to do honest work. Okay, so that's how Paul wants Christians to live on the island of Crete and everywhere else. But in verses 11 through 14, we have the reason, the theological ground about why. And it has everything to do with two epiphanies. There is the first epiphany of Jesus appearing, his incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. And then there is the epiphany at his second coming. What appeared when Jesus came on the scene of history? It was the grace of God. Verse 11, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared, that's the word epiphaneia, to all men. And grace not only is the bringer of salvation, the bringer of forgiveness, but it is also that which teaches us and that instructs us about, excuse me, how to live, how to behave. So Paul says that the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men in Christ and it teaches us about pushing off wickedness and putting on righteousness. It teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, there's the self-control aspect, and righteously and godly in the present age. This brings us back to the very beginning of the letter where Paul talked about the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness. The grace of God teaches us to live uprightly in the present age. It does not legislate moral compromise or antinomianism, but actually transforms us for living a life that would have been impossible to live outside of the grace revealed in Christ. All right, so we live our life in between the two epiphanies. The first epiphany being Christ's ministry, and the second epiphany being in verse 14, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is one of the most plain, clear, emphatic designations in the New Testament, akin to Romans 9, 5. Jesus, who is God, blessed forever, amen, right? That Jesus is divine. And we are waiting for the epiphany of our God. And Jesus is that God who took on flesh in order to bring us salvation, but who is coming again in order to bring us into the age of glory. And we are looking for that. In other words, we are waiting for that. We are living our lives, recognizing that we are on the cusp of the arrival of Jesus Christ. And this Jesus is the one who gave himself for us. There's the substitutionary aspect of Christ's atonement. And what was his purpose? That he might redeem us or pay the price to buy us back from our sin. from every lawless deed, which would be ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to purify or to cleanse for himself his own special people who are zealous for good works. There it is again. And Paul tells Titus, Speak these things, preach these things, teach these things, exhort the people of God and rebuke the people of God if they need rebuke with all authority. And he says, let no one despise you. Now, it's important to see here in verse 14, that when Paul mentions that Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. that we have a lot of Exodus terminology here. This is Old Testament precedent. Here's a quote, Paul deliberately chooses Old Testament words and images from the beginnings of Israel as a nation. So as to describe Christ's salvation as the fulfillment of these foreshadowings. Thus he gave himself, recalls the Passover sacrifice. To redeem us recalls the Exodus redemption from Egyptian bondage. And a people that are his very own recalls the Sinaitic covenant by which Israel became Yahweh's treasured possession. But now we are the new people of God made up of Jews and Gentiles who trust in the true Israel, who is the Messiah, Jesus Christ. All right, zealous for good works. The grace of God creates an enthusiasm for living a new life. Fruit-bearing. What Jesus talks about in the parable of the four soils when he said, some 30, some 60, and some 100-fold bear fruit. All right, well, that brings us to Titus chapter three. where the broader application of Christian life to their subjection to emperors and rulers and authorities is mentioned. Remind them. So they already know this. Paul was already taught Romans 13 sort of doctrine to these Cretan Christians. And he says, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work. Once again, there it comes down to the behavior. And then he says, remind them to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, to be gentle, showing all humility to all men. This is the way that Christians are to carry themselves in relation to their deportment. Why? How is it that we can do that? Well, Paul's getting to the point in verse four through seven, where he will again wax eloquent on the nature of Christ and the gospel. But notice that he says we are to live distinctively different than the way we did pre-conversion. Verse three, we ourselves were once foolish, We lived in very stupid and foolish ways. We were disobedient to God. We did not live righteously. We did not obey, right? We were deceived. by Satan, and we served various lusts and pleasures. Not everyone has the same lusts and pleasures that they served, but we all served various lusts and pleasures before coming to Christ. And we lived in malice, that's inward hatred, and envy, desiring what other people had, hateful and hating one another. And some people say that Paul's, you know, slightly hyperbolizing here. He's not hyperbolizing at all. Look around at our society and what do you see? You see people hating one another. You see people with malice and envy. You see people serving various lusts and pleasures. But Paul makes it very clear that is not the way that Christians are to live now, because there's a but. And that but is so important because in Ephesians and a lot of other places in the New Testament, in Paul's letters, he says, but God, right? Verse four, but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared. There's the first epiphany. Not by works. Now, isn't that interesting? So in a letter where Paul was saying Christians are to live lives filled with good works, he says, but we're not saved by them. not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us." That's the incalculable, inestimable debt that we owe to God, that he cleared away in Christ. He saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. This is John chapter three. We have to be born again to see the kingdom of God. And when we are born again, what happens? We are transformed in our inward man and have the law of God written on our hearts. The Holy Spirit performs a surgery upon us inwardly to take away our love and our desire for the previous life. impiety, the previous sin, and the law of God is written on our hearts through the washing and the cleansing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit." And what does he say? All Christians have abundantly received the effusion of that Spirit. He uses the same verb here that is used for the day of Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit was poured out. The risen Christ pours out the Holy Spirit upon His people, so that the Holy Spirit takes up residence. This all took place through Jesus Christ, our Savior. And then from that regenerative grace, what took root in our hearts? Faith. And what did that faith bring about? Justification. He's justified us by His grace. And then here's the hope again. that we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is very similar to Paul's statements in Romans chapter five. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. That's what he's talking about. We have the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying. This is the fifth of five faithful sayings in the pastoral epistles. And what is this faithful saying? It relates to the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward men appearing in the gospel of Christ. So the source of our salvation is the merciful disposition of God, like I said on Sunday, The one who accomplishes our salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the one who applies our salvation is the Holy Spirit to us who regenerates and renews us so that we have here a triune Trinitarian salvation that we have participated in. You have God, our Savior, you have Jesus Christ, our Savior, and you have the Holy Spirit who has washed us and regenerated us by God's grace. This is a faithful saying, Paul says, and these things about this grace, I want you to affirm constantly. I want you to talk about how everything resolves itself in what God has mercifully done in the lives of his people through giving them new spiritual life, that what might be the case, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. these things are good and profitable to men." Then he says at the very end here, to Titus, you need to avoid foolish disputes. There are things that will edify the people of God and there are things that will not edify the people of God. the things the false teachers were teaching are not unto the edification of the people of God. So, avoid the foolish disputes, avoid the arguments that terminate in Old Testament genealogies and draw out all sorts of mystical and odd applications from them, contentions and strivings about the law, sounds very similar to 1 Timothy 1, Why should he avoid them? Because they are unprofitable and useless, and if a man continues after being warned once and then being warned twice, he says, reject him. Knowing that such a person is warped in their mind and is sinning, and they are self-condemned. So apply, this is probably in relation to excommunication. All right, and then in the final verses of Titus, he says, when I send Artemis to you, and we don't know who this Artemis is, this is the only time that he's mentioned in the New Testament, or Tychicus. So Paul is not sure exactly who he's going to send to Crete to take over for Titus. But he says, when I send Artemis to you, or Tychicus, who is mentioned often in the New Testament, be diligent, he says, to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Send Zenos, the lawyer. I was gonna make a joke. I was gonna make a joke about Robert. Somebody made a joke at our last RBC meeting about how Christian lawyers are, it's like an oxymoron or something like that. And everybody looks at Robert like. So I was gonna make a big joke tonight about how Zenos, the lawyer, you know, he's a Christian, okay? So it's possible to be a lawyer and a Christian. And Apollos on their journey with haste that they may lack nothing. So Zenos and Apollos are going to be teaching on the island of Crete, and he wants to make sure that they have all the monetary funding that they need to get where they need to go. Apollos is one of Paul's traveling companions, the one famous for preaching the gospel, who preached it in Ephesus and was corrected by Priscilla and Aquila. to preach more clearly the gospel of Christ. And then Paul gives us one last punchy remark in verse 14, just in case you haven't heard the rest of my letter, right? And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, like speeding Zenos and Apollos on their way, that they may not be unfruitful. It's possible to be an unfruitful Christian, but we don't want to be. How do we not be unfruitful? By maintaining good works. All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith, not the false teachers. And then he says, grace be with you, plural. This is supposed to be read to the congregations. Grace be with you all. Amen. And that closes our time in the book of Titus. Any questions? Ready to maintain good works? Yes. Just thinking how in the instruction to Timothy, it really focused on public greeting, preaching, exhortation. It seems like what Paul is doing with Titus is adding another distinction for the role of the pastor being rebuke, oversight. So like the preaching isn't like the only or like the main, well, you know what I mean by the main job, but like the distinction between like a gifted brother and a pastor, a gifted brother is not charged with rebuke. Rebuking. And oversight and counsel and those sorts of things. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a great point. I would say that the main task of a shepherd and overseer is the definitive instruction of the body of Christ to be instant in preaching and teaching, and that there's a rebuking aspect to that. But it is also the management of and oversight of God's house, His household. And that will include rebuking those who need it and doing so to older folks in a gentle and reverent, dignified way if you're younger, but appealing to those who are younger as brothers. You do have an emphasis on that in the correspondence with Timothy, but it's more prevalent, especially prevalent in the book of Titus. and especially that people are to be instructed in how to live. Don't live this way. Live this way instead. Why? Because you've been redeemed by Christ. That's the gospel indicative meeting with the gospel imperative. But that's what's lacking. What's lacking is enough leadership of the churches in order to be able to contradict those who are teaching falsehood, which is a necessary job for elders to do. And that's why he says appoint elders in every town. Absolutely, yes. By the way, our confession does add to watching over souls, like you're saying, when it speaks in chapter 26 of the church, in paragraph 10, the work of pastors being constantly to attend the services of Christ in the churches, in the ministry of the word and prayer and watching over their souls. That's right. And another thing that our confession states that is inculcated here in Titus is the reality that a church fully formed according to the mind of Christ is made up of officers and members both. It's not like if you don't have officers, if you don't have a pastor, you don't have a church, but you don't have a church fully formed according to the mind of Christ, which is why Paul first goes through a place, preaches the gospel, people gather. All right, we got the people. Now we're gonna go to all these other places and then circle back and we're gonna appoint elders in all of these places. And I really do not believe, here's another, here's a hot take for the Anglicans. I do not believe that when it says that Titus is to appoint elders in every city, I don't think what that means is Titus gets to go into the church and say, all right, I pick you and you and you, and then he goes to the next place and says, okay, I pick you and you and you. What it means by appointee is who's going to lay on hands. of those appointed by the church, recognized by the church to be the leaders. So I don't think what he's saying to Titus is you can impose from above these decisions upon the church. I think what he means by appoint is, gather the church, figure out who are the most spiritual men and who follow these requisites, who can hold fast the faithful word as has been taught, and then lay your hands upon them to ordain them to eldership. And that is correspondent with Acts chapter 14, verse 23, where it says, So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. But if you go back and you look at the Greek lexicons, what does that word appointed mean? It means that basically the church took a vote. By the raising of hands, by voting, they appointed elders in every church. And then that appointment was placed into effect by the apostles who laid their hands on those who had been chosen by the church. All right, so Anglicans will say, you know, we can have bishops because Titus was, he was a bishop. Okay, well, let's just say that Titus did have the authority to impose elders on congregations. that went away, that authority went away after the apostles then. Oh, absolutely. And he clearly had a delegated authority from the apostle Paul to do that. But once the apostles are gone, once the evangelists are gone, once the prophets are gone, What do you have? You have the church, which carries into effect everything that Christ has entrusted to the church by its own power and ability to do. Yes, sir? You're forgetting apostolic succession. Yeah, I don't believe in apostolic succession. Well, I do believe in apostolic succession of doctrine. I do have a question about the qualifications for elder. I would be able to distinguish, for example, as a member of the church body, you know, these are what you're called to. But I guess in terms of specific application, you know, basically what's the line where you're like, okay, this is disqualifying and this is not, you know, for example, say with regards to children given to devotory or insubordination, what does that look like in practice, I guess is kind of what I'm asking. You know it when you see it. When no one remembers, right? Well, what could I say? So much, but we're out of time. We're clearly not. You know, I was saying it tongue-in-cheek, but I do think that there's an aspect that it's true. You just kind of pick up a vibe from somebody if their children don't respect them, if they don't love them. Well, I mean, love them through obedience, right? Maybe multiple people in the church recognizing something. Sure. I guess what I'm thinking in my head is, is it a case where they're faithfully obeying their responsibility set from God to their children and their children are I do think that we have to make a distinction between in the home and outside the home. What children do after you've raised them and set them on the path that they should go, you're really not in control of after they leave home. I think that there's a lot more control that needs to be exercised when they're young to develop those patterns of respect. And I do think that sometimes you see the seeds of dereliction of duty in later years that manifest in a rebellious sort of attitude. There are a lot of authors who say, no, like the man's children, they have to be believers. Well, that would significantly inhibit a lot of men's ministries who are currently serving in pastorates. And what if you have three who are, and you have three who aren't? It also does disservice to the doctrine of election. Yes. Yeah, or what if you don't have children, right? So I don't think that, I think the point that Paul's making is very clear. The point that he's making is if a man is going to serve as an elder and he has a family, is his household subservient to him? Are his children, do his children listen to him? And, you know, I mean, it's a great reminder for all of the children here who have officer dads in the church that in some way your behavior does reflect upon us while the primary responsibility for our homes is reliant upon daddy-o. And I didn't really answer the question. So, um, I don't know, but I think that you would know it when you saw it. I can think of examples, but I can't say them. I don't want to be slandering like the older women. It was a joke, everybody. Remember? Remember, don't be slanders. Did you look shocked? I mean, he tells the older women specifically, don't be slanders. Anyway, anyway. All right. Let's pray. Father, we ask that You would bless and keep us as we go home now, our homeward way. We ask that You would help us in the household of faith to live godly lives. We ask that You would help us to live in the hope of eternal life, which You promised before time began. And you cannot lie to us. So because you have promised this, we believe you. We pray that the elders of this church would be blameless men, one women, men having faithful children. We pray that you would help us to be stewards of God, not self-willed, not quick tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but instead to be hospitable and to be lovers of what is good. We pray that if the need would come that we would rebuke those teaching falsehood in this congregation. We pray that you would help us to do that in the light of the fact that there are many insubordinate and rebellious men who are idle talkers and deceivers. We pray that you would help us to rebuke them if need would come. And we ask that you would help us to be sound in the faith, to be sound in doctrine. We pray that Grace Baptist Church would be a place where the older men would be sober and reverent and temperate and sound in faith and in love and in patience. We pray that Grace Baptist Church would be a place where the women, the older women, would be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, but teachers of the younger women, how to love their husbands, how to love their children, and to be chaste homemakers. We pray that you would help Grace Baptist Church to be a place where the young men are sober-minded. And we ask that you would help us in our secular callings and our work to be pleasing to our bosses as employees in all things, not answering back and not stealing from our companies, but acting in good fidelity. We pray that you would help us to remember that all of our works, all of our good works, all of our evangelical obedience is rooted in this fact that your grace has appeared in Christ and that it has brought salvation to us and that it teaches us that we can deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly and righteously and godly in the present age. We pray that you would help us to be Christians who are keeping our lamps trimmed and burning and watching for the arrival of Christ, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus, who gave himself for us. We praise you for that. We thank you that he came to redeem us from the lawless deeds of our flesh. And we thank you that he has come to purify and to cleanse us from our sin and to make us his special possession and to make us zealous for good works that you prepared in advance that we should walk in them. We ask that you would help us to be not rebellious subjects to rulers and authorities, but to be dutiful and obedient citizens, to be ready for every good work and to be peaceable and gentle and showing humility towards everyone, especially in light of the fact that we once were very hateful people. And we hated others and we lived in malice towards others and we were disobedient. But then you intervened and your kindness and your love appeared toward us and you saved us. Not because we were righteous, but out of your mercy. We thank you for performing spiritual surgery on us, the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit whom you poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. We thank you for justifying us by your grace, imputing us with the active obedience of Christ and forgiving us all of our sins through his passive obedience on the cross that we might become heirs according to the hope of life eternal. We're not worthy of that. And yet this is a faithful saying. We pray that our church would affirm these things constantly, that we who have believed in you would carefully maintain good works. Help us to avoid foolish disputes, genealogies and contentions and strivings that are unprofitable and useless, and to stick with that apostolic deposit that is useful for building up the saints in faith. And we pray that you would grant us your peace and your grace. And we ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen.