Titus chapter 1. For those of you perhaps visiting for the first time, we've been on a series of messages on the T and U people of the Bible throughout the summer. We have come now to settle in the closing of that series on an individual by the name of Titus and the book then that the Apostle Paul through the Holy Spirit wrote to Titus. And so this morning, we are considering Titus chapter 1, verses 6 through verse 14, I believe it is, is where we're going to. Yes, 6 through 14. Tonight, we return to our series on Samson and the Valley of Sorek and the important role that that plays. Titus chapter 1. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life with God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior to Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and 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. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the cretins, a prophet of their own, said, cretins are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. Thus far, the reading of God's word this morning. Let's bow in prayer. Shall we pray? Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, because you have adopted us and because of the work of our Savior, we can approach your throne And Father, because of your wisdom, you've set aside a day in seven, even before the world began, Father. You knew this. And because of your grace, when we open your word, we would see Jesus. We pray that you'll be with Pastor Bob this morning as he brings this word. Give him everything that he stands in need of, Father, and open our hearts and minds, Father, that we will not leave this place unchanged, but we would be further fitted for work in your kingdom. All this in the precious name of Jesus, our Savior, alone we pray, amen. And amen. We have learned so far in the book of Titus about the great salvation that God has given and the goodness, the godliness that we are called to as God's people. We have learned about Titus being a faithful servant of the Lord in many areas that he was used throughout the New Testament and now has been sent or is being used by the Apostle Paul and by the church and by Jesus Christ himself here on the island of Crete. One of the things in order to get this church moving and headed in the right direction, we received last Lord's Day the instruction that elders were to be at every church. Not just one elder, but elders. There is a proper form of biblical church government that the Bible lays open to us here. And we seek to follow that in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And so we know there are to be elders and that those elders are to put in order what remained. This is a church that had been in existence or churches that had been in existence since shortly after Pentecost as those from the island of Crete were present at that Pentecostal service and were baptized and then they were sent back to Crete. It has now been 30 plus years that churches have been going on there. Paul has now come, has preached, sees the need, sees the problems that are present, and as I said, has left Titus to deal with getting things set up properly. And he's to do so by the use of elders. But what are these elders to be like? Those who rule in the name of Christ. Let's not forget that as we look at this. This isn't just churches having elders. This is Christ ruling through elders. That's the understanding here. Christ, who is the king, the head of the church, uses elders as the means of ruling the church. Christ rules Little Farms by the means of the elders that she, the church, has been given. What are these elders to be like? What kind of people are they to be? We're gonna learn what most Cretans are like, okay, in a few verses, but Paul, first of all, through the Spirit, lays out for us what are the qualifications of these men? What kind of men should Titus be looking for to be elders in the church? And he lists three categories. That's the way I'm going to divide these up. Three categories of qualifications. His home life, his character, and his faith. His home life, his character, and his faith under the qualifications. What does Paul say? say must be present in regards to his home life. Well, if anyone is above reproach. Beginning of verse 6. To be above a reproach is the way in which sometimes we read that a person is righteous or that a person is blameless. Now obviously there can be no human being who is sinless. So when we read this passage and we think about this in terms of they ought to be above reproach, Paul is not saying they ought to be sinless. That's an impossibility. If that were true, we'd never have any elders. Or we use the substitute words, meaning the same thing. They must be blameless. Once again, that can't mean sinless. or righteous in the sense of sinless cannot mean what we would think that to mean. What does it mean then? What it means is that there is no chargeable offense that can be given against them. In other words, they haven't committed a crime. They don't have a record. Now, we don't mean that just in the formal sense, that they have no police record, but we mean it in the sense that this is a person against whom individuals, groups of individuals, when it's an elder, it always needs to be two, but that's after they're the elder, it needs to be two. There's nobody coming forward and saying, this guy is a thief. or this guy murdered my son. This guy stole my paycheck. No, they have to be no chargeable offenses. In his life at home, in his life in the community, in his life in society, he is to be a man against there is no chargeable offenses. Only elders have, let me rephrase that. Elders have to have that qualification. And we're gonna learn why in a few minutes as we come to the rest of the sermon, but that's there. Secondly, what else about his home life? He is to be a one woman man. He is to be a man who is the husband of one wife. In the day and age in which Paul wrote, it would have been common that they would have had more than one wife. No, Paul says, not here, no. So the whole Mormon thing about having multiple wives is the daydream of Joseph Smith. It's not the word of the Lord. It's also interesting they are to be the husband of one wife. Obviously, it was permissible for elders to have wives, unlike some churches that say, nope, we're going to make this extra biblical requirement of those who want to serve in the church and church office. You can't be married. You can't have marriages. Nope, can't have wives. The Bible says you ought to be the husband of one wife. That's a requirement. Not multiple wives, and it would be a good idea if the guy is married. And he doesn't have a trail of them in his wake. And, note in terms of his home life, his family ought to be in order. His children are believers. His children. Now, when the Bible uses the word children, it is thinking about those who are under his roof. Now, once again, in biblical days, to be under one's roof might have been your whole lifetime. All right? So it might have been 30 years old. It might have been 40 years old. It might have been 50 years old. If you're under the roof, if you live in that house, even if it's in the basement, In our day and age today, the father is responsible. Whoever dwells under his roof is considered a child. So you say, well, wait a minute. I'm maybe 25 years old. I'm married. My wife and I live in our own house. Am I still a child of my father? Well, yes, you are, but not in the sense that this passage is talking about it. Because you have cleaved, and you have left. That's the biblical warrant. If you're still at home, well, then you're under that. And if you're in that home, the elders' children, even if they're 40, 50, 60 years old, if they're in that home, need to be believers. Well, what about if my son rebels and moves away and lives in California and never goes to church? He's not under your roof. Different circumstance. So they need to be believers, but there's more in terms of his family. They need to be believers and not open to the charge of debauchery. In other words, they can't be wild hooligans. They can't have reputations of being out of control. They can't be social misfits, nor the charge of insubordination. They don't listen. Live under the roof, but don't come to church. Insubordination. Dad says, we're going to church this morning. Kid says, no, I'm not. That's insubordination. Man cannot be an elder. That's what the text says, OK? That's what it means here. That there has to be this understanding. When he writes to Timothy, he says to Timothy in this regard, if a guy can't control his own family, under his own roof, that he has that responsibility for, how can he care for the house of God? Home life. Character. We're given a list of several negatives. Can't be arrogant. In other words, he can't be prideful. Can't think he's always right. Can't think he's got the solution to everything. He's got the answer to everything. No, that's not a candidate for eldership. Can't be a hothead. Can't have a flaring temper. Can't be going off in anger at other people. all the time. Can't be a drunkard. Can't be addicted to alcohol. Can't be a fighter. Violent means to be physically a fighter. The guy who at any moment is, let's fight it out, and he's willing to throw the fist. That's not an elder candidate, nor one who is greedy. Nor they're looking out for their gain. How can this benefit me? How can this benefit me financially? How can I get ahead financially by using the church to get ahead? No, not that. But, verse eight, they must be hospitable. They must have an open house. They must have an open home. They must have an open life. They must be willing to meet with people. They must be willing to talk to people. They must be willing to spend time with people. Hospitality. He's to be a lover of that which is good. Not the smut of this world, not the sewer stuff of this world, but the good stuff, the pure stuff. Paul's going to speak about that, doesn't he, in that next verse. To the pure, all things are pure. They love the pure things. They're not into raunchy jokes or using certain innuendos in order to make a point. They're always kind of at the gutter level. No, they love that which is good. They're self-controlled as far as the world is concerned. They know how to keep the world at bay. They know how to make sure that the world is not too much part of them, which is Samson's big problem that we'll look at tonight. Holy in regards to the Lord. They know what it means to be a sinner who's been cleansed by the blood of Christ. They have a relationship with their Father who is in heaven. An elder should have this and disciplined. They're always late. They never have their work done. Never have their sermons prepared for Sunday. Never have their Bible lesson set to go. Come to the cadets to lead cadets, but I didn't put any time into it. Come to a building and grounds meeting, but I didn't do my work. No, there are people who are disciplined in every sphere and aspect of their life. They practice that discipline. Now remember, we're not looking for perfect people, sinless people. We're never going to have elders. This is the character of these individuals. But then Paul mentions their faith. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. He has to hold, his faith must be a holding firm, not a wavering thing. Not if he believes one thing on last Sunday and this Sunday you talk to him and he's off on some different tangent. He's completely reversed himself and you talk to him next week and he's off on some other topic in a different area contradicting the last two weeks. Now that's the extreme obviously, but we know these individuals. They seem to hold to a position at one point, a biblical position, and the next week they're off somewhere else and on some tangent of some sort. No, these are people. Elders are to be those who hold the faith firm as the word as taught. That means as it is given from the apostles. That's why we recited the Apostles' Creed, not that they wrote it, but it does form the church's testimony about what is the substance holding to that truth, not wavering from it, with an ability to communicate that truth. so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradicted. That ability to give instruction. And Paul, in writing to Timothy, talks about the fact that an elder must have the ability to teach. Yes. And oftentimes, when we hear the word teach, we think of some formal instruction. We think of, well, they have a class, they have 30 students in it, and they're teaching in front of that. That's not what we mean here. It means they're able to communicate to individuals the truth of God. Sometimes that might be in a one-on-one. Sometimes that might be over a cup of coffee. Sometimes that might be in a small group. Sometimes that might be in a more formal presentation. Sometimes that might be in family visitation. House bazooka, as we used to call it. It's that ability to carry on the truth of God in a sound way, not speculating. Just imagine this, okay? Just imagine an elder coming to your home. You're going through perhaps some struggles about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let's just use that. And the elder comes into your home, sits down, and says, you know, how are things going? We have a few words. And then he says, anything troubling you? Yeah, I've been studying about the resurrection, and I'm just really having a hard time grasping this resurrection concept. And the elder says, well, you know, I really don't believe in resurrections either. I think that part is all made up. Oh, this is going to go well. This is helpful. Or I've been reading about the Mormon's perspective of resurrections. And I think the Mormons might have some part. It's just speculation. It's throwing out thoughts that are not established by God's truth. An elder is to be somebody who isn't there speculating, but an elder is one who is bringing God's truth to bear to this sheep of the fold who is struggling. They're bringing God's truth to be helpful, to be beneficial, but also to rebuke those who flatly contradict what God's truth says. They have to know the truth. They have to be convinced of the truth so that when they hear untruth, they say, that is wrong. It's one of their main tasks when they come to worship here. Not only to worship the Lord our God, but they're to hear the words I say and to call me or whoever occupies this pulpit to task when those words are not the words of the text. It's their responsibility to rebuke. Those are the qualifications. In a few weeks, months, we're gonna be voting, Lord willing, on elders and deacons in this congregation. Keep this in mind. as the elders sit down and think about and pray about who are the men of this congregation that have these characteristics. Pray for us. Do we see this? Do we see this conviction of faithfulness in life, godliness, and in salvation? The question would be, why do we need such men? Why men who meet these qualifications? Why do we have to have them? I mean, why can't we just vote for popular people? Why can't we just vote for richest guy? Let's just vote for the richest guy in. He'll just pay all the bills. And then we're all set. We probably don't have to give anything anymore. He'll just take care of it all. Just take out his checkbook. Yep, here it is. Build your new sanctuary. Why don't we do that? Why don't we just take the guy who has the most knowledge, okay, maybe with, they're a great medical surgeon, certainly he'd be a good elder. Well, sometimes if you've had a surgeon, you know their bedside manner isn't always necessarily warm and pleasing. Probably not the guy you want to send on a house visitation. See, we're not to vote for the brightest bulb in the room just because they're the brightest bulb. The question is, do they meet the qualifications? Or the wealthiest, or the most popular. Do they meet the characteristics? Why? Verse 10, why those kind of men? For there are many. There are many what? There are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. You see, there's a problem in the church. The church happens to have sinful people. And some of those sinful people are insubordinate. Remember, we talked about that up above, right? As the child in the home who is insubordinate. Now he's talking about members who are unwilling to listen to the truth. They're unwilling to listen to their elders. In one of the commentaries I have, I just want to read you the section that he wrote about this. He wrote it in 1984. And I'm just thinking, 1984. Wow. Those were quite the years, right? Ronald Reagan's president. Those were quite the years. This is 40 years since then. But listen to what he wrote 40 years ago. They are insubordinate, which is to say they are unruly and undisciplined. A mark of false teachers, listen to this carefully, a mark of false teachers in every age is their unwillingness to be under disciplined. They are fiercely unaccountable. With all of its problems, I appreciate denominational life because of its demands for accountability. Though the process may be cumbersome, we are less likely to become misleading and false teachers when we submit to some forms and structures of discipline. You know what's happened in the last 40 years? Oh, I can tell you this. You know what's happened in the last four years? There has been an explosion of independent churches. We're independent. Yeah, we don't want to submit to anybody's authority. Try to correct them once. See how far it goes. Try to correct them online and see what you get called. Because they are unwilling to submit. Paul says, see that's the reason the church needs elders. And they need them in every church. Because false teachers love that sense of independence when they don't come under anybody's authority but their own. For there are many, you see. And then he goes on, if you go down, skip verse 11 for the time being, go down to verse 12, he says, actually, that's the nature of you Cretans. Titus, this is why you need elders, because the people who live on the island of Crete have a reputation, they have a nature. He even quotes one of their own prophets, one of their own people saying, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. Yeah, no wonder you need these kind of men as elders. Because the nature of the people who are part of the church, who are part of this island, who are part of this nation, who are part of this culture, need these kind of men to rule over them. Not much more so today in the church of Jesus Christ. Do we need these kind of godly men to rule over us. Because of the day and age in which we live, in which we all think we're so fiercely independent, nobody can tell me what to do. I don't care what letter the elders send me. I don't care what they say on that visit. I'm not gonna do it. Yeah, yeah. The nature of these folks, but there's also a particular group At the end of verse 10, Paul mentions this circumcision party. These people who belong to this group, they're part of the church. They're in the church. They've been there for 30 plus years. They are well established and entrenched in the church. But Paul says there is a problem because they belong to this party. They have separated themselves out from the rest of the people. They are in their own clique. They're in their own group. And they're unwilling to submit to the rule of the elders because they think their ideas are superior to all of the rest. And the issue is the issue of circumcision. They still are saying, you cannot be a follower of Christ unless you have the right. R-I-T-E of circumcision. We must have this Old Testament letting of blood, this cutting of skin, in order for you to be a true believer in Jesus Christ. And Paul, in the book of Galatians, rips these folks up one side and down the other. Because all the shedding of blood that's needed for you and I to be Christians is not done by us. but it's been done by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You see, it is a denial of the truth. It's a denial of Christ's work. And oh, my friends, there are always those of the circumcision party. Oh, not that there are people in the church today who are saying we all have to go get circumcised physically. But there is always this sort of culture. Can't be a Christian, can't be a Christian unless, unless, unless, unless, unless. Folks, what makes us a Christian is grace. Grace. And those who belong to the circumcision party, it always works. You have to do, you have to do, you have to do, and you have to do. And the Word teaches. It's only by grace. Israel wasn't Israel because of their works. Israel was Israel because God chose them. Grace. So, you see, there are many. The nature of the cretins, the circumcision party, that's why we need elders and they need to be silenced. They need to be, have their mouths shut. They need a piece of duct tape across it. They've got to stop talking. They've got to stop talking this way. They've got to stop advocating their position. They must be silenced. Verse 11, they must be silenced. Why? Because they're upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. They're just after power. They're after the pocketbook. Just look at the bank accounts, folks, of people who are on TV, TV evangelists. Just look. They're not some poor laboring pastor. They're wearing gold diamond rings. They got palatial estates. They're in it for gain. And they're upsetting folks. And he's saying they need to be silenced. Verse 13, rebuke them sharply. Rebuke them. What does that mean? It means church discipline. It means you need to take action, elders. You need to stop this, whether it's on personally by visiting with them and talking to them, or whether it's formally. When they fail to listen and heed that which an elder calls upon them or elders call upon them, then you do it formally. You do it by the preaching of the word. You do it by declaration. Why? What's the purpose? Because we want to be a bunch of meanies? No, what does Paul say? So that they may be sound in faith. and not wasting their time in what is unimportant and untruthful, but that which is pure and holy and righteous. Titus, you need elders to put in order what remains there on that island of Crete. And these are the kind of men that Christ desires to rule his church. And when a church does so, when a church has those kind of men serving as elders, Christ is glorified. What a blessing you should see that it is to be a member of Little Farms Chapel. with godly, godly elders ruling over you for your good, for your soul, because they seek to serve Christ, their King, their Savior. And God's people say, Father, as we contemplate this passage, it is challenging to all of us. It's challenging to those who have the title of elder or pastor to look and to be humbled by this passage and to realize, Lord, we all fall so short as we look in the mirror. And yet, Lord, you have given as well elders to the church. There are those who are qualified. There are those that you call, and you show us that calling. You give us that calling in practical ways. And we thank you, Lord, for the men that you have called to serve Little Farms Chapel at this particular time and moment in history, for those who have served faithfully in the past, and perhaps, Father, for those who will serve faithfully in the future. For we come, Father, not to serve ourselves, but to serve our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This passage is challenging to us as members. Father, we live in a time and age and a spirit of great independence where we will not submit to anybody. And in some regards, Father, it's understandable. We've been pushed around and shoved around, especially in these last few years, by governments, by agencies, by schools. And so, Lord, when it comes to the church, our natural inclination may be to rebel as well. And yet, Lord, you call us to humble submission to those who Christ has appointed to rule over us. And so give us hearts of humble submission to Christ and to those who rule in the name of Christ for the glory and for the honor. of Jesus Christ and for the good of our souls. Thank you for this passage. It'd be easy to pass it by, to pretend it isn't there. Many churches do in this day and age. And yet, Father, this is your truth too, and so help us to each deal with it as you have given to it us today for the glory of Christ. In his name, God's people say, amen.