The sermon, based on Titus 1:5-9, emphasizes the importance of appointing elders to bring order to the church in Crete. Paul instructs Titus to find men who are above reproach, faithful to their wives, and have believing children. The pastor must demonstrate personal and household order to administer church order. Key qualifications include not being self-willed, quick-tempered, addicted to wine, pugnacious, or greedy. Instead, they should be hospitable, lovers of good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, and able to teach sound doctrine. These traits are crucial not only for pastors but for all believers, as they reflect the character of Christ, who is the ultimate model of holiness and stewardship. The sermon calls on children and adults alike to aspire to these virtues through the grace of Jesus Christ, who embodies the perfect steward. The speaker highlights Jesus as the sufficient and adequate model for pastoral and Christian life, urging the congregation to trust and obey Him.

Titus chapter 1 beginning in verse 5. We'll read all the way from 5 through 9. But really this morning we'll be looking at verses 7 and 8 and a little bit of 9. Would you please stand with me? Hear now the word of the Lord.

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city as I directed you. Namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion, For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid game, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching so that he will be able both to exhort and sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. May God bless the reading and now the preaching of His word. Amen. Amen.

You may be seated. Well let's begin this morning by answering some questions. What was the task that Paul had appointed Titus to do in Crete? What was the task? Well, the answer is in verse 5.

Look there in verse 5. To put things in order in the church. In every city, there was a congregation, and each of those congregations needed to be put in order. And how was that order to be established? What was step one in putting what remained in order in the Church of Jesus Christ in each of those cities.

Step one, appoint elders. Elders, appoint elders. Paul appointed Titus and Titus was to appoint elders. Elders appoint elders, pastors appoint pastors. Overseers exercise oversight by appointing officers in the church.

Why does that matter? Why is step one in putting things in order in the church, why is step one to ordain pastors? Here's the answer. Because pastors administer order. Pastors are overseers, they oversee, they govern in the church.

Elders administer the very order that God has commanded to exist in his church. And so if elders administer order, then order should very much exist in the life of an elder. You say that again. If elders are responsible for order in the church, then order must very much exist in the life of an elder. You can't export what you don't already have.

You can't put the church in order if your own life and the life of your household isn't in order. And so that's why it should come as no surprise to any of us that Paul gives Titus qualifications for the kind of man who should be appointed as an overseer in the household of God, and that these qualifications have almost everything to do with the faithful ordering of a man's life and the life of his household. A pastor must be above reproach. We looked at this last week. A pastor must be the husband of one wife, a one-woman man.

The faithfulness or lack thereof of a man towards his bride is a good indication of the faithfulness, or lack thereof, of the man's faithfulness to the bride of Christ. If a man is likely to cheat on his wife, he will likely cheat on the church. A pastor must be the father of faithful children, children who are not full of dissipation, wildness, and rebellion. Again, if a man's household is not in order, then why do you think that he would somehow be able to put the household of God in order? If unchecked and un-dealt with sin, dissipation, and rebellion exist in the lives of his own children, what then can you expect in the lives of the children of God that he is to oversee?

Much the same. And so a man who is able to exercise righteous oversight of Christ's church must first demonstrate that in his home and in his life. If you wanted a sentence that summarized this passage, that was it. A man who is able to exercise righteous oversight of Christ's Church must first demonstrate that in his own life and in the life of his household. Now another question that we need to answer before we dive into part two of this sermon.

Are these qualifications just for the sake of pastors? What's the answer to that? No. Children, I need you to hear me. Children, I need you to listen very, very carefully.

These are the things that God would have you to aspire to. Children, these are the things that God has worked into you so that you might work them out. Children, I'm talking to you. These are qualities that heroes possess. These are the things that dragonslayers possess.

These words are used here to describe men, yes, who are to be pastors, but not just pastors. These are the kinds of men that are conquerors. These are mighty men. These are glorious women. These things are what glorious women and mighty men possess by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so little children and older children, I need you to hear these things. Hear about them and aspire to these things and ask God to work these things into you. You get with your father or get with your mother right after service when you go home tonight for lunch or when you are around the dinner table tonight, would you pray with me, Daddy? Would you pray with me, Mommy? Will you help me, Father, to become like one of the mighty men of David?

Will you help me to become like the brave man, Phineas? Men like St. George the Dragon Slayer? These are the kinds of things that those men possessed. Would you pray with me, Mother?

Would you help me to become like David's wife, the courageous Abigail? Would you help me to be like the unwavering Ruth and faithful Esther? Would you help me to become like you, Father? Like you, Mother? Children, go home and do that.

This sermon is for you. And for me. Saints, these character traits, they are for each of us. And so that is why they must be first possessed by your pastors. And therefore everyone in this room which they are, they first must be possessed in the ones responsible to shepherd you.

We are to be your example, And so, by our example and in our instruction, if these things do not exist, they will not trickle down. And they must. This is God's will for the church. And if this is God's will for the church, for you, it must be God's will for His pastors. I'll say it one more time.

A man who is able to exercise righteous oversight of Christ's church must first demonstrate order in his home and also order in his life. You'll notice that in verse seven, Paul says that the overseer must be above reproach. Does that sound familiar? It should very much sound familiar. He used the same phrase a verse prior.

Right? It's the second time that Paul has used this descriptor, above reproach, high character, A good name, a good reputation. This is the summary of all the qualifications that precede and proceed this verse. Man of high character, a man above reproach. Why above reproach?

Why does it matter to be above reproach? Keep going in verse 7. Because he's to be above reproach because he is God's steward. Do you see that there in verse 7? God's steward.

Steward. How many of you, I'm going to get a show of hands here, be honest now, how many of you have read the book series The Lord of the Rings? Okay, oof. If you haven't, which a number of you have not, I'm going to quote C.R. Wiley, it's not my own words, but not only will you be at a disadvantage at what follows for just a moment, but you're also at a disadvantage when it comes to life.

But in the Lord of the Rings, there is a character named Denethor. And Denethor is the steward of Gondor. The steward of Gondor. He's not the king of Gondor, but He is the steward. He governs the city of Gondor.

He exercises oversight over the kingdom that he's been given as one with authority from the king until the king returns. And that's a huge part of the story in the Lord of the Rings. In fact, it's so huge that the final book in the trilogy is called The Return of the King. But before the king returns to Gondor, Denethor, the steward, governs and performs all the functions that the king has tasked him to perform in the king's stead with the king's authority. That's huge.

It's very helpful, I think, when we consider that the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ are stewards of God's household. Elders, pastors, shepherds, overseers, they are given authority ultimately by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the King of Kings Himself. And so, King Jesus, while at the right hand of the Father in Heaven right now, while He reigns over the earth, He gives elders on the earth his authority to govern and to perform all of the holy functions of his church. The Word, the sacraments. And so the church will need stewards of God's household until when?

Until the king returns. And so brothers and sisters, that's why a man who is called to be a pastor must be above reproach. He must be holy. He must be a man of high character because he is a steward of the thrice holy God. He is handling the holy things of God in His preaching of the holy Word of God and in His administration of the holy sacraments of God all under the authority of the thrice holy God.

And so therefore the life of a steward of God's household must necessarily be holy as his king is holy. Which is why then Paul now gives two lists of additional qualifications, two lists of additional qualifications, two lists beyond a man's household that deal directly with a man's personal character, with a man's personal holiness. A list of five things that cannot define and cannot describe a pastor. And then a list of seven things that must define and describe him. Five things that cannot define and describe a pastor, and thus by extension, hear me, five things that cannot be in our midst as a church.

Five things that we must commit and covenant together to put to death within us. Five things that if they are in your life today, you must this day confess them to the Lord, you must repent away from them, that the blood of Jesus would cover those sins, and that you would then walk in newness of life, in obedience, repenting, and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Five negatives, which are for you and for me. And then seven things that must be in the lives of a pastor, and by extension, seven things that must be in your life and our lives corporately as a church as new creations in Jesus Christ. This is God's will for his church.

This is God's will for his household. Remember what Titus says, this is God's will for his household. This is the very way God desires for his children, each of us, to be described. And so all the more his students. So first, the negative, What a pastor must not be.

A pastor must not be, I'm going to just read out the list, you can see them there in verse 7. A pastor must not be self-willed, quick-tempered, addicted to wine, pugnacious, nor fond of sordid game. Now again, like last week, this list doesn't mean that a man hasn't committed these sins, but rather that his life isn't defined by them. A pastor must not be self-willed. Now this is a crucial, crucial qualification.

Pastor must not be self-willed. It's what our Savior possessed in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed to God the Father. What did Jesus pray? Not my will but thine. An elder is a steward.

He is not the king. And so because a steward is not the king, it is the will of the king that the steward must put into practice. It is the order of the king's word that must be put in order. That's why when a pastor preaches, this must be his standard. This is the only standard, beloved.

This is where a pastor gets his marching orders. This is where we as a church get our marching orders. You don't want a man up here Preaching self. You want a man up here preaching Christ, preaching Gospel, preaching sovereign grace, preaching sin, preaching divine judgment. You want a man up here preaching a triumphant Savior who is mighty to save.

Preaching the resurrection, preaching the ascension, and preaching Christ's final return. You want a man preaching the will of God. Preaching the will of God for his church. A pastor must not be self-willed. Second, he cannot be quick-tempered.

Quick-tempered is easily angered. Easily angered. What we often call today, I think it's a good translation, thin skinned, thin skinned. Brothers, hear me, brothers please hear me. If you aspire to the office of overseer and you are thin-skinned, if you get angry easily, let me just tell you this job ain't what you want.

If you are thin-skinned, you are aspiring to an office that you just don't understand. If you knew what it was, you wouldn't aspire to it. Just to give you a clue, and I'm not saying this to complainers, I'm saying this is my job. But weekly, sometimes even daily, I have to have a conversation with someone or make a decision about something that promises to make somebody upset. Not necessarily in our body, but at least outside the body.

And at least if it doesn't make someone upset, I know that Someone will say somewhere, well, I would have made that decision differently. Tempers can flare in and out of the church. You can be called names in and out of the church. You can be misunderstood. That happens all the time.

There's only Two people typically in elders meetings right now. No one else is there besides the Lord Jesus. You can be misunderstood. And yet your anger cannot be aroused by these things. You must model your Heavenly Father, which is said in Psalm 145, the Lord is gracious and merciful, for He is slow to anger and great in loving kindness.

The Lord is good to all. Brothers, the Lord is slow to anger. The Lord does not fly off the handle. And so elders who are quick to fly off the handle, they don't represent God well. But let me be clear, lest I'm misunderstood.

God is slow to anger. You got that? But God is very much a God of wrath. God is very angry against sin. God, in fact, hates sin.

And so there must be a righteous and holy indignation from your pastors, from God's stewards, towards sin in their own lives and in the lives within this church. And so we must work diligently as your pastors to call out sin and to walk through sin with you, to exhort you to confess and to repent of that sin, to admonish you when you have given yourself over to sin, to exhort you to repent and believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ even this day. And your pastors must be tender, yes. Patient, yes. But also firm, just as your Savior is patient and tender, and yet firmly committed to holiness.

A pastor must not fly off the handle as a steward of God's household, because God doesn't fly off the handle. But it is also true that a pastor must become righteously indignant toward sin, and that righteous indignation must flow into his congregation. Because why? Because God is righteously indignant with sin. Third, a pastor must not be addicted to wine.

Now, of course, this is not a prohibition against alcohol, But it is a prohibition against being controlled by it. Elders are to be self-controlled in the power of the Holy spirit and not controlled by strong drink. What was the thought in Acts chapter 2 when the spirit came upon the people at Pentecost? Do you remember that in Acts chapter 2? What was the prevailing thought at first?

These guys must be drunk. No. Drunkenness brings what? Disorder. But the Spirit brings order.

Men and women in Acts 2 were understanding the gospel and being converted as they heard the good news of Christ crucified for sinners in their own tongue. Their lives became ordered, Their worship became ordered, not disordered. Filled with the Spirit, brought about unity and order, salvation. But drunkenness brings the opposite. Disunity and destruction.

An elder brings order to the church, which means an elder must be filled with the Spirit of God, the Spirit of order, and not filled with wine. A pastor then must not be self-willed, quick-tempered, addicted to wine. What's the next one? Not pugnacious. What an interesting word.

Did any of you do this this week and go pugnacious? I told, I don't remember which girl I told, but it sounds like a dog. Pugnacious? Had nothing to do with the dog, just so you know. Pugnacious.

It literally comes from the Latin word for fist fight. A steward of God is not one going around looking for a fist fight. Looking for violence. He's not going around trying to be a bully. I worked as a middle school and high school math teacher for nine years before I became your pastor.

And those were very good years. But one of the things that was the most difficult thing for me, one of the things that we so often dealt with as teachers, was the reality of bullying. Those who were bigger, those who were older, those who were stronger, they would hold their power over the younger and smaller and less mature. These bullies held their power over these smaller children, and they used their power on them rather than for them. The bullies abused their power.

And it resulted in devastating things. If you have any kind of association with the public school system in America, you'll notice that it's not getting any better, but we would see from bullying all kinds of devastating things, children going home, contemplating taking their own lives. Some did. Children afraid to come to school. Children harming themselves in the school restrooms and at home.

I mean just devastating things from the way that physical power and physical might was abused by those stronger and older and more mature. And so you can see, can't you? Why would it be really important for a pastor not to be pugnacious? To not be a bully? Why?

Because a pastor has authority given to him by God. That's massive authority. That is a great deal of power. And if he wields that authority as a bludgeon, He can destroy people. He can destroy a congregation.

He can ruin lives for eternity. It would be better for such a man, Jesus said, to have a millstone hung around his neck and thrown into the sea and be crushed by the depths than for the pugnacious man to be an elder. A man called to the pastorate does not, brothers and sisters, a man truly called to the pastorate does not view the calling and the authority that is with the calling as something to wield over his people. But with trembling, he views the man truly called, he views his authority as something to be used for his people. This is the same thing husbands for you.

Do you view your authority as husbands as a bludgeon Or as a sword to protect your family. Massive difference. Something that can be used over your family or for your family. And so as a pastor I am leery. And I am, I'm just really leery of a man who cannot just wait to be a pastor.

He's just chopping at the bit. You know what I mean? I'm leery of it. I'm leery of a man who has no caution. He's got no Jacob hip socket, wrestled with God.

He's got a limp as he limping towards the calling I want a man limping with trembling is he limping towards the calling I'm leery with the man that's just running full board of the calling of being a pastor Do you not know what you're getting yourself into? A man who understands the responsibility that comes with the spiritual authority of the pastorate, if he really gets it, if he's really qualified, then that idea of authority in the Church of Jesus Christ does not make His head big. It makes it really small. It makes Him get on His knees and cry out, Oh Lord, help me. I'm lost without You.

It humbles Him. If a man is qualified, the call to ministry doesn't make him pugnacious. It doesn't make him a bully. It makes him a contrite and humble stupid. I've had conversations with your pastors, beloved.

I've had many conversations with the other two pastors. When we three think about the authority that we've been given by God as your pastors, Pastor Matthew, and Pastor David, and Pastor Grant, when we think about the responsibility we have as pastors to wield that God-given authority for the good of you, the sheep, to the glory of God, when we think of that responsibility and how that will be a stricter judgment for us as pastors, with how we steward our authority. The last thing that that does to us in an elders meeting is puff us up. The last thing that does in an elders meeting make us pugnacious. Your pastors tremble, and rightly so.

Do you know, and I think you do, that according to God's Word we have been tasked to oversee and to provide watch care for your immortal soul. So the last thing that this calling should do in any man is to make him proud and big and a bully. No, if he's qualified he realizes how small he is. And far from being a bully himself he must realize how important it is for him to stand up to bullies that are out against his people. There are pugnacious people that want to get at you.

We must not let them as your shepherds. He who is to shepherd must guard and protect His people against those who are pugnacious. And the pastor must understand how very, very much, how desperate he is for the Lord to sustain him and to hold him up in the office. The pastor must not be a bully. He may not be pugnacious.

And then the final vice, the final vice, the final negative. Look there in your Bibles with me. A pastor may not be fond of sordid gain. Sordid gain is another way of saying greedy. There's nothing wrong with gaining money from honest investments or earning an honest income for honest labor.

In fact, we are commanded to do so, and then Paul tells us, Paul tells each of you, and Paul tells me in 1 Timothy 5 that we would be worse than an unbeliever and we would be effectively denying the faith if we do not provide for a household as able-bodied men. So monetary gain is good. It's actually very good. It's very important. Monetary gain is a blessing from God.

Investing is a good strategy. It's actually one that Jesus commends. Look at the parable of the talent if you doubt that. But the love of money, the love of money, that's something else entirely. And profiting by sordid means, dishonest gain, that is sin.

1st Timothy 6 verse 10. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. So sordid gain, think about it this way, sorted gain is dishonesty and greed put together in one. And an elder must be neither.

Sorted gain is greed and dishonesty put together in one and an elder must be neither. If an elder will cheat someone outside the church for some kind of game, what will keep him from cheating those inside the church? To be greedy and dishonest is simply not above reproach. An elder must have a track record of working honestly. Otherwise, how can you trust him?

You won't be able to if he's fond of sordid game. And beloved, I just want to say here at this point, I just want to say out loud, thank you for trusting me. Thank you. Thank you for trusting your elders. I think we've been through some very difficult things the past several months.

And you have consistently supported us. That we may labor with joy and not with groaning, which is of great advantage to you. And so, I wanted to say publicly, I've said it privately so many times, but you have been abundantly encouraging to your three pastors. And so I thank God for you, your pastors thank God for you, and I'm just so grateful for your prayers and for the way that you've trusted us in this most recent season. There are three things, or those are the five things that a pastor must not be.

Can't be self-willed, quit tempered, addicted to wine, pugnacious, nor fond, of sordid game. And if you go past our verses for just a moment, we're gonna get into a different text that we'll come back to in weeks ahead. But if you go past our passage, look at verses 10 through 12. Look there for just a moment. Paul tells you why a pastor can't be those things.

Paul tells you why these things can't be in the shepherds of Christ's church. Look at verse 10. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families teaching things they should not teach for what? For the sake of sordid gain. I'm not sure if you noticed that but that phrase is there again as it was just there at the end of verse 7.

What do these deceitful, rebellious men, self-willed men do? In verses 10 through 12. What does it say there? Verse 11, they upset whole families. They ruin congregations.

Men with these character traits devastate the church. And Paul says in verse 12 that the island of Crete is full of these men. Cretans are liars and evil beasts and lazy gluttons. In verse 13 the testimony is true. So what's Paul saying in all of these verses put together?

With a big idea of the second half of really just chapter one? What's Paul telling Titus in chapter one? Titus, you got your work cut out for you. Not a lot of men are going to be qualified for this work in Crete. It's going to take some serious testing, a lot of prayer, some serious diligence in putting things in order in the Church of Jesus Christ.

You need to start with finding faithful stewards of God's household, faithful elders. It's going to be hard to find them, but the men whom God would have served in this capacity as stewards, they will actually be pretty easy to see because they will stand out like beautiful sore thumbs. Little beacons of light in the midst of the darkness of Crete. They will be men who far from upsetting whole families, Far from bringing devastation and disorder in the church, which is what's going on in the verses that follow. Far from that, these men whom you call that are faithful, that don't possess these things that they can't possess, but do possess these things in verse 8.

These men will promote loving order in the church. These men won't be rebellious men. These men won't be teaching for sordid gain, but they'll be pure lovers of good deeds. That's what Paul says. And so it should not come as any surprise then to you that it's to those good deeds that Paul now turns It's what you see how this fits together After he gives these qualifications then Paul says a lot of creed is full of rebellious men But there are some pure who will engage in good deeds and so Paul hasn't left Titus without some kind of map of what are the good deeds that I should be looking for.

Verse 8. Verse 8. It should come as no surprise. And it's to those good deeds that Paul now turns in verses 8 and 9. Those were the vices, verse 7, and now the virtues.

What a pastor must be. What a pastor must be. And again, I will just list them off for you you can see them there in verses eight and nine a pastor must be hospitable loving what is good sensible just devout self-controlled and holding fast the faithful word or you could translate that able to teach. So first hospitable. We're going to go through these really really quickly.

When that word is used hospitable, what do most people typically primarily think about? They think, I think, most people think, well it applies to my wife, it applies to women. It's not wrong, but brothers and sisters, here is Paul saying, no, actually a man, a pastor must be hospitable too. Not just you, ladies. In fact, I would argue it's going to be very difficult for a wife to be hospitable when her husband's not.

Now this is a key qualification for a pastor. If a man's home, if a man's life aren't opened up to others, how can you know if verse 6 is true? You won't know if verse 6, which we talked about last Lord's Day, if it's true. How can you read the resume of a man's household if his household is off limits to be read? How can you verify that he's a man of high character if his life is off limits?

And so as my former pastor, Pastor Brett Koprenica, who is very hospitable, as he says, an elder is not one who is exclusive and private, but open and involved in the lives of others. An elder sees his home as a place for service, encouragement, discipleship, fellowship, and personal involvement. This is where the gospel becomes personal and welcoming. Leadership is not for the reclusive." So hospitality does involve the household very much, yes. But it is more than that.

It's pastors calling up sheep. It's pastors meeting with sheep. It's pastors giving the sheep their time while also guarding the time to prepare an hour long sermon. A pastor must be among his sheep. He must rightly administer the word to his sheep.

And to rightly administer the word to his sheep, he has to know his sheep. And to know his sheep, he must be among them. And they must know him. For a pretty brief season of my life, years ago, brief season, I attended a church where the man who would come to preach on the Lord's Day, come to preach from the pulpit, he was flown in from a different state on a Saturday night. He would wake up, preach, and then he'd be flown out Sunday afternoon.

And he would do that week after week after week after week. It was a large church. He was a very good speaker. He was an exceptional preacher. But he wasn't a pastor.

He wasn't a pastor. He didn't know his sheep. His sheep didn't know him. And to be quite honest, he didn't care about his sheep that much. A pastor must be hospitable.

A pastor must also love what is good. That's the next virtue. That phrase loving what is good is just one word in the Greek. Loving what is good, just one word, could be translated a friend of good. It's got the word phylo.

It's one thing for a man to put up with what is good. It's one thing for a man to agree with what is good. But it's another thing for a man to love what is good. To be a friend of goodness. And so what God calls good, a man of God, a woman of God for that matter, What God calls good, all of us in this congregation, you are to call good.

What God calls good, you are to call good. You don't get to be more pure than God. You don't get to have better taste than God. You look at God's Word, what kind of taste does God have? That should be your taste.

So if you have the opinion that well, any kind of fiction, any kind of story, I don't want any part of that. God loves stories and you must too. If you have the opinion that you know songs like we sang this morning, Psalm 136, that had a verse in there where God slew kings. We're singing a song about slaying people? I don't know about that.

You should know about that. God loves that line. He wrote it in his book. Your taste has to be conformed to the taste of God. What God calls good, you must call good.

So if you have issues in your life where you're struggling, what kind of taste should I have? Ask God and let your taste be His. Your tastes, your sensibilities, They need to be shaped by the taste of God and not the tastes of the world. And if that's for all of us, which it is, then how much more so for your pastors? To love what God loves and then to hate what God hates that's going to come out and what he teaches it's going to come out what he says from here in the pulpit what he says in his household that will eventually then come out into this body.

Loving one is good, loving one is good according to God. Next, a pastor must also be sensible and just, sensible and just. That word Just could be translated righteous or correct. A pastor may not use unequal weights and measures. He doesn't hold up one standard for his congregation and then not apply the same standard for himself.

That's not being just. And another word for sensible there is thoughtful or prudent. And so really if you put these two things together, it's one way of saying his life isn't disordered. He doesn't live a confusing life. If the pastor of a church, friends, you know this, if a pastor of a church is confusing, what do you think is going to happen to the church that he pastors?

His people will be confused. They will not think well. Their thoughts will not be sensible. Their thoughts will not be just and well ordered. And the church will not be put in order.

The pastor must be sensible, able to think, able to work through consistent applications of God's Word for God's people as needs arise. It must be just, righteous in that application, applying it to him and his household just the same as yours. You need your pastors. Hear this, You need your pastors to apply God's Word to your lives in thoughtful and sensible ways. Not just kind of vague, ethereal generalities.

That'd help nobody. But Brothers and sisters, I was just talking to my dear friend in Kansas City this week about how of all the things that we do as a pastor, he pastors in Kansas City, We were both saying, of all the things that we do as pastors, that's the thing that gets us into the most trouble. It's the thing that gets us into the most trouble is instead of going from just kind of vague general applications when we know our people, we know what we're wrestling with, we know what's going on in our community, we seek to righteously, justly, sensibly apply the word of God, so we get in the most trouble. In our circles, in the reform circles, and I'm glad for this, doctrine is loved. The teaching is eaten up.

Amen! Shundi! But when it comes to picking up the doctrine and then doing something with it that it comes out your fingertips when it comes to the rubber actually meeting the road that's when the trouble begins that's when the complaints start to happen That's when the saints begin to get uncomfortable and in that moment they got three options one Pastor could be wrong. Absolutely check that to You can disagree with the pastor and instead of fixing yourself, you take it out on him. Or three, you say, I need to repent.

There's three options. Paul says, first to the pastor, And then to you, you need pastors who will sensibly and justly, thoughtfully and righteously apply God's Word to your life. You need a man who is just, who loves the law of God, who delights in the law of God and who preaches law and gospel. Because the people of God, you need both God's law and God's gospel. If there's no application, there will be no real order in the church.

And so a pastor then who is to administer order in the church must therefore sensibly and justly work hard to apply the word of God to the church that there might be order. A pastor must apply. Next, the pastor must also be devout and self-controlled. Now that word devout is probably better translated holy. If Tom was here, I'd say another win for the KJV.

But he's not here. I said it anyway. He should be set apart holy. Why should a man of God be holy? Because all of God's people are to be holy as he their father and heaven is holy you know that verse right be holy as I am holy that's Leviticus chapter 11 verse 45 that's first Peter chapter 1 verse 16 and so as an elder if an elder is to be an example of the flock this is obvious as God's steward he should be holy so that his people would learn to be holy too.

His people are the holy people of God. And so the pastor calls the people of God to be as God has declared them to be. God has declared you to be holy, so walk it out. There's new creations in Jesus Christ. We love our Savior.

The Savior says to each of you and to me, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. You will be devout. If you love me, you will obey me. You will be devout. You will obey me.

You will not be trying to obey me to, of course, earn your way into heaven. No, no, no, no, you will obey me because I have already earned it for you in my life, death, and resurrection, and ascension. And so we as a church follow the Lord Jesus. We ask that He would work into and out of us the fruits of the Spirit. Do we not?

Do we not pray for that? We do! You should be reading. You guys remember Galatians chapter 5? You remember the fruits of the Spirit?

What's the last fruit of the Spirit? Self-control. The fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. The fruits of the Spirit, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And so I think very much that here in Titus chapter 1 at the end of verse 8, that this is Paul reiterating what he's already said to the Galatians in Galatians chapter 5.

The church belongs to her groom, Jesus. The church belongs to her groom, Jesus. The church belongs to her groom, Jesus. The church therefore loves her groom, Jesus. And therefore the church obeys and submits to her groom, Jesus.

And one of the fruits of submitting to King Jesus is that you get self-control. You get the spirit in you so that you can obey. So you can become disciplined. And each in their own timing. I've got four girls and all four of those girls respond differently to spankings, they respond differently to potty training, they respond differently to words.

They're all Browns though. They all belong to Grant and Carissa Brown. They have the name of Brown on them. There's an expectation, there's a love, and there's an obedience because they're brown. How much more so for the children of God?

There is a name. You belong to God the Father as His children. And so the expectation that you love to meet, that you love to obey, is that you be self-controlled. You can obey in Christ. You can put to death that which is earthly in you, so that you can hold fast to the faithful word, right?

You can kill sin. You can put to death these things. You can be self-controlled. So that what? What's the last qualification?

Verse 9. So that you can hold fast to the faithful word. So you're not constantly grabbing onto other things and other promises. No. Right here.

You've tasted and you've seen that the Lord is good. And you don't need to go anywhere else, for who else has the words of life? Nobody. And that's the final qualification that Paul gives. A pastor must hold fast the faithful word.

Which if you were to go to 1 Timothy chapter three, Paul sums up by saying, able to teach. And Paul says the same thing here in verse 9, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching so that he will be able both to exhort and sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. Now, that verse is huge. I'm not going to cover the whole thing this morning. Paul is going to go on to say in verses 10-16, Paul is going to finish Titus chapter 1 by telling Titus that there are deceivers, there are false teachers that are out there and they need to be rebuked.

They need to be corrected. They're destroying people's lives. They're upsetting whole families. They're going to destroy the church. But the way that you rebuke them, the way that you correct them, the way that you reprove them is by holding fast to this word, by having elders who teach the full counsel of God's word, all of it.

We're going to come back to that verse when we deal with the second half of Titus chapter 1 in the weeks to come. Because the way you deal with false teachers is verse 9. But because a pastor is responsible for administering the word in sacraments, he must be able to teach. Right? We've already been over this, but I have to remind you, no teaching, no preaching, no administration of the word, but no administration of the sacraments.

And if there's no administration of the sacraments and no word there's no order no life no love no gospel in this church So that's what a pastor must be. That's what a pastor must not be. So beloved, I want to end this morning where we ended the last Lord's Day. When you look at this list and when you're honest about the ways that you've sinned, that you have fallen short of the glory of God. What's the question that might pop into your mind?

I can tell you the question that's popped into my mind a lot. Who is sufficient for these things? When I read these qualifications, who is adequate for these things? Which is the same thing that Paul asks in 2 Corinthians 2.16. Who is sufficient for these things?

And you know who is, don't you? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior Jesus Christ, He is sufficient, He is adequate. I just want to show you really quickly how He is. His will is perfect.

Even in the garden, His will was the will of the Father. Jesus is not quick-tempered. He does judge sin. He does overturn tables. He does drive out the wolves.

And he also calls out right now to you through me, repent and believe in his gospel. Trust in his finished work on the cross in your place. Confess him as Lord and Savior and you would go home justified. Children, you would go home justified. Far from being quick to anger, Jesus the Lord and Savior has taken the anger of God the Father toward your sin upon Himself in His cross.

He's bore the wrath of God for you, children. Jesus is not addicted to wine, rather, He gives us this feast, His body and His blood, that we would be hungry and thirsty for Him and Him alone, and that we would be satisfied. He alone fills us with the Spirit. Jesus is not pugnacious. Jesus is no bully, rather.

He is the master of all masters, the Lord of lords and King of kings, who did not count in equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, and taking on the form of a man, taking on the form of a bond-servant, he took on flesh, then he went to a cross so that pugnacious sinners would be cleansed and made new. He went to a cross, took on flesh, went to a cross so that those who are fond of sordid gain would see what Jesus did for them in His perfect life, in substitutionary death, in justifying resurrection. Sinners who love sordid gain would see that and believe upon that and be changed by Him So that the rescued sinner, for the rescued sinner, no longer in love with sordid gain. No, no, no, no. All is loss in comparison to knowing Christ Jesus is Lord.

King Jesus is hospitable. I mean, that's not very difficult to see, is it? You're here. I know you. And you know you better than me.

Not a one of us deserves to be sitting around here at God's table, seated at His table, in His household, no longer enemies, but now friends, even more than that, children. His children bought with the precious blood of his son Jesus, declared beloved and righteous at his sight. That's hospitality and then some. Jesus loves what is good. It's the only reason that you stand righteous in God's sight, you know, don't you?

Because Jesus never sins. Because Jesus has and always will love what is good. And therefore it is His righteousness ever flowing from Himself that will make you right with God right now and now and later and then forever. His righteousness flowing to you because he is a lover perfectly of what is good. Saints the amazing promise of 2nd Corinthians 521 is that by faith your sin is expiated to Jesus, dealt with at the cross, and his righteousness, his goodness was imputed to you.

And a great exchange occurred at the moment of your conversion so that you would forever belong to the household of God wrapped in robes of righteousness, literally clothed with the good garments of salvation, clothed with the garments of your older brother, your great king, your great shepherd of Jesus. Like you literally wear the household clothes every day. And you partake in the household meal every day. Jesus is good. And the Lord Jesus is sensible.

He's given us his perfect word so that Peter can say with full confidence in 2nd Peter chapter 1, you have all that you need for your life and for godliness in Christ and his word. The Lord Jesus is just. He knew that in order for you to be pardoned of your sin, He knew that in order for you to be able to say, praise be to God at the end of the assurance of pardon, do you remember that? We read the assurance of pardon just an hour ago. An hour ago, we confessed our sins and then we read the assurance of pardon and you said, praise be to God.

Jesus knew the only reason that you can say that and mean it and know that it's true that you have been pardoned of your sin. He knew the only way that that could happen is if he bore the wrath of God for you. He knew that God is a just God. And Jesus who is God, knowing that God is just, he bore the penalty, he bore the righteous indignation, the just wrath of God. In the Son, God's justice was appeased.

For you, for the elect, for the world, and the death of the Son. But the death is not where we end the story, is it? In the resurrection, Jesus proved in the resurrection and the ascension, Jesus proved that all that He came to do and reconciling the world to Himself had been accomplished. And so in turning to Christ, you a sinner die in Christ. You know that right?

You must die in Christ. That you might be raised in Christ. That's what conversion is. You trust Christ, you die with Him. And in your trusting of Christ and dying with Him, you're raised up to newness of life.

And all who are raised in Him are made new creations, born again, given the Spirit so that they would live what? Devoutly and self-controlled lives because Christ is at work in them. Jesus Christ is all these things and more beloved. I hope you see that. Christ holds fast the faithful word, doesn't He?

I mean, He is the faithful word. Manifest. So who is sufficient for these things? What's the answer? The Lord Jesus.

Run to Him. Cling to Him. Cry out to Him. Trust Him. Obey Him.

He is greater than your sin. He is your great pastor. He is your great shepherd. The king of love, my shepherd, is, whose goodness faileth never, and nothing lacketh, I am his, and he is mine forever. And so through all the length of days, your goodness fails me never.

Good shepherd, good pastor, may I see your praise within your house forever. Let's sing that right now, would we? Aaron, keep coming.