In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'Order in the Church,' he explores the instructions given by the Apostle Paul to Titus, focusing on setting things in order within the church and appointing elders. The sermon delves into the qualifications required for elders as outlined in Titus chapter 1, emphasizing qualities such as being blameless, the husband of one wife, and having faithful children. Additionally, elders must not be quick-tempered, self-willed, or greedy for money, but should be hospitable, lovers of good, sober-minded, just, holy, and self-controlled. Brown highlights that while these qualifications are specific to elders, they are also virtues every Christian should embody. The sermon underscores the importance of truth and sound doctrine in the church, with elders serving as stewards of God's word, capable of exhorting and convicting those who contradict it. The presence of multiple elders is stressed as crucial for maintaining order and ensuring the church thrives in a chaotic world. The sermon also addresses the broader implications of order within the church, extending to family and society, and the role of the church in standing as a beacon of light and truth in the world.

Please open your Bibles to Titus chapter 1 and find verse 5. We'll be beginning in verse 5 in Titus chapter 1. Chapter 1. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey Word of God. Titus 1 verse 5, For this reason I left you in Crete that you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you.

If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife having faithful children, not accused of dissipation and or insubordination, for a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the word, the faithful word, as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict and to convict those who contradict. For there are many insubordinate, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth to the pure all things are pure but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure but even their mind and conscience are defiled They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us such clear and excellent direction for your church and for our own lives to stand out as lights in the world. Lord, thank you for your word. It's so helpful and we pray that you would take it and plant it deep within our hearts.

Amen. Please be seated. So the news of the weekend of the attacks and the counter-attacks remind us again that we live in that time where there will be wars and rumors of wars, times of chaos. This is the normal fair of the world until the Lord Jesus comes. And yet as we as we turn to the Word of God this morning We really are reminded of the solid things to set our affections on, the things to look for, the things to become.

And of course the message of Titus is that it was God the father's eternal purpose to save sinners through the sending of his son Jesus Christ and to transform them into the image of his son and this is what Titus is all about The apostle Paul spoke of this in Romans 829. He also did predestinate us to be conformed to the image of his son. When we get to Titus, we've really arrived at a very important letter. Every major doctrine is in this letter. Paul is writing it at the end of his life.

He writes 1st Timothy, then he writes Titus, then he writes 2nd Timothy, and just in just days, maybe months, his head will be lifted from him as he would be beheaded. And Paul is at the end of his life and I I think most people agree what Paul is doing here is he is securing the integrity of the church he's setting down foundations And these are foundations for all churches and for all people. And he's he's really consolidating what every church needs to have in order to thrive in a world like Crete. We actually live in a world like Crete where all men are liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. And so the context of this letter is really a culture that's out of order and actually a church even that is out of order and the whole theme is that the church should live by the truth that the truth which accords with godliness in the hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promise before time began and you can't look at Titus without thinking what does the church look like and What Titus is arguing is that the church wears the doctrine, the church adorns the doctrine.

You wear the doctrine like you wear clothes. You choose clothes for a particular reason because they glorify God and then you put them on because they they speak of the goodness and the glory of God. You wear doctrine, you adorn the doctrine and when Adorning the doctrine is really the result of walking in the truth, loving the truth and living by the truth and because God has he has redeemed us to transform us to bear fruit. You might think of it in terms of when a branch is grafted into a healthy tree. It begins to bear fruit according to the life of that tree not of the roots that it once had.

And this is how the life of Jesus Christ flows to the believer. Godliness is the result of truth that is embraced. And so the true believer is converted. And this idea shows up multiple times, at least six times in these three chapters. Here's an illustration of it.

One day George Whitefield, that great evangelist, encountered a drunk man on the street and that man speaking in his drunken language he said, I'm one of your converts. And Whitfield said, well you must be one of my converts, but you certainly cannot be a convert of Jesus Christ. And Titus is telling us that the Christian life is not particularly about making a public decision or in a moment of emotion, but it's actually a manifestation of a transformed life. And he makes that case for the inward change that shows outwardly that real faith produces real change. And he's he is outlining this change and it's it's really the result of living by the truth and setting things in order for the glory of God and that really begins in the church of Jesus Christ And what you'll notice here as we walk through these qualifications or qualities of elders, I want you to notice how simple these are, how ordinary, how beautiful these things are, and it's these things that are the most powerful things in the world and in your life and in your family and and notice just the the local quality that's spoken of here It's something that is worked out every day in your local church, in your family, and in your town.

That's really a summary of the three chapters of Titus. And it's the truth that is the operating system of the believer. And what you find in these verses is a very steady and quiet faithfulness over the long haul that's visible in a person's life. Now remember Paul writes this letter in the probably the early 60s of the first century. It's a very short book, just 46 verses.

And it's written to Titus and the people on this very large and beautiful island of Crete. It was a very low trust culture because all Cretans are liars and and the Apostle Paul is is desiring to set things in order in the church. What is he setting in order? My understanding of this is he's identifying everything that needs to be set in order in the life of a church and in the life of an individual. This is really helpful.

Every man and woman ought to really dial into what's here. It's it's just very, very helpful. I actually made up a list of of 15 things that characterize this this simple, quiet, ordinary, faithful life that the apostle is calling us to. And I'm going to go by them very quickly, but we'll be visiting these as we go through this book. The first is live according to the truth.

That's one. One. Second, set in order the things that are lacking in your life and in your church. A third, appoint qualified men to lead the church. Yes, these boring, sober-minded men.

Fourth, understand what mature manhood and womanhood look like. And you find that in these verses. And then fifth, silence the false teachers. That's in chapter 1, 10 through 15. Sixth, identify true Christianity.

That's in 1, 16. They profess to know God, but by their works, they deny them. That's how you can tell whether you have been converted or not. Number seven, adorn the doctrine. That's chapter two, verses one through 10.

Eighth, older men live steady lives. That's two verse one. Ninth, older women teach the younger women, chapter two verses three through five. Tenth, young women keep the home fires burning, chapter two verses three through five. Tenth, young men live differently, soberly, exemplary.

Let the other silly young men be embarrassed because of your life. 11th, employees, bond servants, be faithful. 12th, deny ungodliness. 13th, respect civil authority. 14th, be rich in good works.

15th, maintain godly friendships. Well, those are the kinds of things that the apostle is desiring to set in order in this church, in these churches. But again this is ordinary steady faithfulness living in the midst of society by the truth of God which is very very simple. And this letter to Titus would help all of us to repair the church, to repair our families, and to live a life that's a blessing in civil society. And here's the truth, You can mend what is broken in your family and in your church and you can to some degree mend what is broken in your civil society and plant the things that flourish.

So it really is a very helpful book. Okay the purpose of the command is to set things in order. Setting all these things in order that I that I've just mentioned verse five. For this reason I left you in Crete that you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. So the reason is to set in order and then there's a need for elders.

Now he's speaking really about the ethical quality of a local church, beginning with the elders there. But let me just say this. God designed local churches for his people to grow up in them and and and I want to use the term grow up in two ways just the natural growing up in a local church where sound doctrine is proclaimed but it's also the place where you grow up, you actually grow up and face things that are really true so that the people of the church would be like lights in darkness. They would be establishing a new community, a very different kind of community in the world, a people for God's own possession. God calls his people a treasure in 1 Peter.

And all of this arises out of living according to the truth which accords with godliness in the hope of eternal life. This is the kind of person, this is the kind of man, this is the kind of woman that the apostle is describing. So he's coming to Titus who knows churches in Crete and I would just say there are probably three kinds of churches. There are ordered churches, there are disordered churches, and there are associations that are not churches at all, even though they might call themselves churches. And the apostle is desiring to set things in order.

Some things were out of order. It was still a true church, but it was a church that needed to be set in order. Have you ever grown tomato plants? A young tomato plant gets bent over and all tangled up, but a good gardener comes and he puts a steak next to it and he sets it up and that tomato plant is more healthy. You can think about the church in Crete, and really, you know, even every church, it's like a puzzle that's nearly finished, and there's some puzzle pieces still missing, and someone needs to find the missing piece and fit it into those those gaps in the puzzle.

So Paul is not saying to Titus shut these churches down they don't have everything in order. He's saying no, here's how you set things in order. And it really begins with qualified men to lead the church. So these churches didn't have elders. That was one of the problems that they had yet it was a true church something was lacking as a result and and so he lists these qualities there are 11 or 12 of them depending on how you count them.

There are five negative qualities and let's just say there are six positive qualities and this is all to say something particularly about the church. God created the church to create a people for life and godliness according to the truth. That's really why we are here. He says to appoint elders. Now this is the same word used of the apostles who appointed deacons in Acts chapter 6 verse 3 These elders were not elected.

They were appointed by by the Apostles and then and then here With Titus The King James Version says ordain elders. It's really not the most helpful word. It's not the best word choice. There was really no special ordination. This was an appointment.

And notice the elders is in the plural. This means that a church should have more than one elder, elders plural. This is the whole idea of the plurality of elders, which is very critical to understand. And then we need to understand the seriousness of it. He says, as I commanded you.

In other words, it's not an option for a church to just sit on its hands and not have elders. They need to be making progress in that direction. And then he says elders in every city. What does that mean? Well it doesn't mean that every city has elders over the city.

The Old Testament has elders who are over cities but the New Testament doesn't speak of it that way. He's talking about elders of local congregations. By the way he's not talking about elders over satellite campuses that are scattered around and you know the functionality of elders is spoken of really all over the New Testament. And For example, the Apostle Paul says, if anyone is sick, let him call the elders of the church, the elders of the local church, the people who know that person who is sick. And he uses the word overseer or elder.

It's the word presbyteros. There are three words in the New Testament that are synonymous for elders. Two of them are in this passage. One in verse five and the other is in verse seven. In verse five we have presbyteros, in verse seven we have episkopos which speaks of oversight, kind of like an estate manager or a household steward.

This is what the Greek dictionaries use to describe this. And the idea of episkopos is an orderly person who can oversee orderliness in the church as a result of his wisdom and and his character. So Episcopal probably refers to an oversight of a household because the church is the household of God and then of course the Apostle Paul tells Timothy if a man does not know how to manage his own household how will he manage the church of God it's the idea of a steward will encounter that word in this text The third word that is used for elders is the word we use for pastor or shepherd. It's a different word. Ephesians 411 Acts 20 verse 28 and 1st Peter 5 to speak of the shepherding quality of an elder.

Of course, Jesus Christ is the chief shepherd and every church shepherd should learn to become like Jesus Christ. Now these three words, presbyteros, episkopos, and poiam and shepherd they they're all clustered together all three of them in Acts chapter 20 verse 17 verse 28 and twice twice in verse 28 You have these three synonymous terms that are used to speak of an elder. And so when Trent comes back, you can call him the bishop. He's, but he's not just a bishop. He's also an overseer, but he's not just an overseer.

He's a shepherd. Well that's the idea that you find here. These are all the same office. Now in any, in any enterprise you always need leaders. You find a leaderless society and you ain't got a society.

All societies of any kind whether it's a company or some institution they just flat don't function without leaders. It's just a reality of the world. The home is like that, the church is like that, the state is like that, commerce is like that, everything is like that. You have to have leaders. And now we're going to jump into these qualities but notice this.

These elders these leaders, overseers, shepherds. When you hear the description, they're not celebrities. They're not supermen. They're not even really, in this list, they're not even amazingly gifted men. Let that sink in.

They are men who have particular qualities. Now there are no gifts or abilities listed in Titus, But there are two abilities that are listed in 1 Timothy chapter 3. He must have the ability, he must have the skill to lead his own house. And that proves him able to lead the church of God. And the second is that he must be able to teach.

Those are the two skills that are listed but they're not here in Titus so I'm not going to speak of them when we get to 1st Timothy we'll continue to talk about. You'll notice there's overlap in these two lists. So let's talk about their requirements for elders. And first is the element of blamelessness in family life in verse six. If a man is blameless, and then the apostle is communicating what kind of blamelessness he's talking about, what sphere of life is he talking about if a man is blameless the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of dissipation or in subordination So his blamelessness is in the area of his wife and with his children.

The term means nothing to take hold of. That he's above reproach in the area of his family life. He's not a perfect man, he's not a perfect husband. He's not a perfect father. He's not Superman, but there is no public scandal that you could bring against this man.

His sins, which he is a sinner, but his sins don't define his character in his family. And like for example, you could not bring a valid moral indignation to bring against this man. And to be above reproach I think also means something else. An elder cannot bring moral controversy with him in the eldership. This is why when a pastor commits adultery, he's lost it forever in the church because his wife and his children and his church will never see him again the same way.

There was a moral controversy in his life. So maybe just say it like this, if there was a charge against him among the people who know him the charge couldn't stick because they know him. They see his manner of life. Now, there's no place that shows who you really are like your home life. And I think that's what he's saying and then he says he is the husband of one wife and the language here means he is a one woman man he's speaking about marital faithfulness This man does not have a wandering eye.

He's not flirtatious. He's not distracted by other women. And You know, if an elder starts having feelings for another woman, that man is in danger. The whole church is in danger. Everything he's ever done is in danger.

And of course, we've seen various manifestations of this. So you should think about his wife. Notice the countenance of his wife. Does she look like she has a good shepherd? Does she say that she's being nourished and cherished and washed by the water of the word or is she just being an actress?

There are actually things going on in his home and she's putting on a really good act. That's not helpful for the pastor or the church. If a pastor has a wife and that pastor is misbehaving, then that wife should go to the other elders of the church and talk about it. I think this implies pornography. Does it mean that a man must be married to be an elder?

And you know my position is it's very helpful to have to be married when you're an elder. There are, I could list many many reasons it is it is very helpful. But does that mean that a man ceases to be an elder if his wife dies? Is it lawful to have a widower who is an elder? My view is that a man can be single according to these qualifications.

That's a controversial matter for many people. But his marriage is a testing ground. That's the first thing. Now this is for elders but one of the things I want to point out going through these these various qualities is that the Bible actually commands all these qualities for every Christian and I'll just give you a couple of examples Hebrews 13 for marriage is honorable among all and the bed undefiled but fornicators and adulterers God will judge first Corinthians 7 to now nevertheless because of sexual immorality let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband. So the Bible actually commands marital faithfulness for people who are not elders.

And then the next qualification under this blamelessness in family life heading is faithful children. Having faithful children not accused of dissipation or in subordination. And the key requirement here is children who are honorable and obedient to their parents. Other translations say that they must believe that term believe, belief, pistis. It really it can be used in two different ways and one is is a technical term for what it means to a believer but the other really has to do with a quality of faithfulness and I believe that's what he is talking about.

It's faithfulness in his children. There are several reasons I believe that if an elder was required to have all of his children to be believers, you know, to have made a credible profession of faith. Every time that elder has a new baby, they get disqualified. Because conversion does not happen because of parents necessarily. It happens because God works.

Now parents have a very, very pivotal role to help their children to be converted. And frankly, you should pray for and expect and live like and work in such a way that your children would be converted, that they would have such good shepherding that they couldn't deny the goodness of God. That's why in most real Christian homes, not all, in most Christian homes, the children, they grow up and they become believers because they've actually seen it and and and they they understand what true Christianity looks like. On the other hand, if you have a family that's in disarray, undisciplined, stewarded poorly. That's what dissipation or insubordination means.

In other words, it's faithfulness as opposed to dissipation and insubordination. He's talking about wild and dishonorable rebellious unholy children. That's what disqualifies an elder. It's reckless kind of kind of living and these you know these children, they refuse submission and authority, and they refuse honor. So, faithful children is critical for an elder.

But again, these things are commanded for parents to secure for every parent. These are not just for elders. Ephesians 6, 4, And you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. And then Paul says to the Colossians church, he's in Colossians 3, 21, fathers do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. So the way that parents operate, not just in eldership, but also in the family, so that you're not discouraging your children, so that you're not turning your children into wrathful people because you are such a jerk.

That's what he's saying. So I love what Jonathan Edwards said. He said, every family, every family ought to be, as it were, a little church consecrated to Christ and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. So faithful children. This is under the heading of blameless in family life.

And then next he is blameless as a steward. As a steward of God, and this is very important, He is a manager of the situations revolving around the church. And He is a steward of the church. It's not his church, it's God's church. He is a steward of God.

He's not a steward of himself. And he uses resources wisely, not for his own good, but for the good of the church and it's I think it's I think it's legitimate for people to say I've said it I know I've heard many of you say it. We talk about Hope Baptist Church as my church. That's not the same thing as it's mine and I'm gonna do with it whatever I want. But this church is your church and and you're part of it.

So he is blameless as a steward. So verse 7, for a bishop must be blameless in his stewardship. And again you encounter this idea of blamelessness that is desirable for every believer. Philippians 2 14 do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation among whom you shine as lights and the world Here blamelessness is something that every Christian should aspire to. 1st Thessalonians 5 22 says it this way, may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's a that's sort of a position of blameless that he's talking about. You have been forgiven, you've been washed, you have been declared righteous, so there are two kinds of blamelessness. One is earthly and practical, the other way is positional in terms of salvation. And so then another area of blamelessness is under this heading, not self-willed, not self-willed, not arrogant, not overbearing, not lording it over. This is a man who is so stubborn he can't hear other people and he's not willing to compromise on things that are actually debatable matters.

The self-willed requirement, I think could be characterized by a self-loving spirit. He just loves himself so much that he's always right about everything. And this kind of reminds me of diatrophes, diatrophes in 3rd John 9. Diotrophes who loves to be first. That's not helpful in a church, but rather humility.

Again, this quality is for every believer. You don't want to give up any of these qualities for you and your children. Philippians 2 3 let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. You see how this is something for every Christian. You know this isn't highfalutin theology.

This is something that every believer generically should be characterized by. And then not quick tempered. I think that this covers two different kinds of quick-temperedness. One is maybe characterized by his proneness to anger. He's an angry man And you should be very careful not to appoint an angry man.

It's a man who has a general disposition of anger that shows up. And I would just ask, you know, all the men here, are you an angry man? Because if you're an angry man and you're not an elder, it really, really matters. It matters for everybody in your life, particularly. It's so harmful to your wife and your children and to your fellow church members if you are an angry man.

The other side of this is he's not the kind of man that just flies off the handle in a fit of emotion. So I think you have two kinds of manifestations of the angry man. Sort of the slow burning kindling anger that a man might sustain for years. And there's also the sort of the flashpoint kind of anger. I can't help but think that the Cretans would understand this really well.

After all, the Greeks believed that Zeus was born on Crete and what was Zeus's favored weapon? The thunderbolt. When he was enraged he would thunderbolt his enemies and he would sometimes transform people into animals when someone showed disrespect or if they broke some sacred law or challenged Zeus's authority he would just you know turn you into a mouse or something. But again, this whole idea of quick temperedness is not some highfalutin thing just for elders, this special class of society. James 1 says, so then my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and what slow to wrath for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Philippians 3, 4 says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of mind each other each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not for your own interest but also the interest of others. So he is not a quick tempered man and then next he is not given to wine. That means that he's not a drunk. He doesn't use alcohol or substances, other substances, mind-altering, maybe mood-offering pills to cope, to help him escape, you know, just to improve his mood, to feel relaxed.

He's not drunk. He's not a drunkard. Now, I think most of us here understand what the Bible says about the use of alcohol. On the one hand, it is lawful. God actually calls it a blessing on the other hand it's very very dangerous but he is not given to wine in other words he doesn't need it That's why Paul tells the Ephesians, he says, be not drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Your spirit shouldn't be filled with some altering substance, but it's the spirit that should be altering you and and then the next one not violent the King James says not a striker in other words he's not he's not pushing people around. He's not a bully. Is he talking about physically punching people, striking people? There are some pastors that you can see them on video every once in a while they hit somebody and this is probably both literal and and figure and figurative when when the Apostle Paul gets gets to speaking to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3, he uses a qualifier, he says, not violent, but gentle. Jesus spoke of this for all believers.

He said in Matthew 5, 9, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. In Romans 12, 17-18, he says to all the believers in that Roman church he says repay no one evil for evil have regard for good things in the sight of all men if possible as much as it depends on you live peaceably with all men So he's not a violent man and neither should any of us be violent men or women. And the next is not greedy for money. Shamelessly greedy. He's always, he's, he's, actually the terminology is greedy of faith, filthy lucre.

He's, he's always involved in some kind of a get rich quick scheme. He might be gambling. He might be gambling. But this man is not greedy for money. The greedy for money man, he's not opposed to dishonest gain.

He's not opposed to breaking the rules for his own gain. Again, this is a quality of every believer. Hebrews 13, 5, let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have for he himself has said I Will never leave you or forsake you Timothy Paul says to Timothy for we brought nothing into this world first Timothy 6 7 and it is certain that we can carry none nothing out and having food and clothing with these we shall be content but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." You know there was a there was a preacher in LA when I was growing up and he would always say it's not the love of money that's the root of all evil it's the lack of money he was a prosperity gospel preacher and that that's when he would ask you for money okay and then you have this word but that appears in verse 8 positive virtues positive virtues first of all he is hospitable and there are many places in the Bible that speak of this first Peter 4, 6, Romans 12, 13 and 1st Timothy 3, 2.

This man has an open home, he has an open life. The term actually means lover of strangers. He's not paranoid and he's willing to minister to people, you know, even in his home. And then next, he, the next positive quality, loving what is good. He is a lover of what is good.

So what is good? Our confession has a chapter on good works that really helps you understand what good things are. What the confession says in that chapter is what is good is what God explicitly says is good. That's what good is and There are things that are explicitly good. And Paul speaks of this for every believer.

He says, finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report. If there's any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Loving what is good. In the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 22 and 23 one of the fruits of the Spirit is goodness and of course faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. These things that we've already covered are really manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit.

And then sober-minded is the next. This is repeated in 1 Timothy 3.2. By the way, sober and sober-minded is repeated 10 times in Titus and in Paul's letters to Timothy. Now sober-minded, what is that? It doesn't mean that this man is humorless.

You know, we have an elder who's a funny elder, and he makes everybody smile. He's not talking about a morose, uptight, soberness. That's not what he's talking about. But He's talking about a person who is level-headed in everything. Romans 12-13 speaks of this very clearly.

Everyone who is among you, not to think more highly of himself than the ought but to think soberly. 1st Peter 5 it be sober vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour. So a sober man is very very important. And then a just man that this has to do with uprightness and righteousness. And in Leviticus 1936 we learn that this is for every believer.

This is what God is like. He is just. In Deuteronomy 32, 4 we read this, He is a rock, His work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. He's a God of truth and without injustice righteous and upright is he that's God. Well, we have been called to be imitators of God and then he is to be holy.

Holy. Holiness in the Bible is used in two different ways. One way is set apart, something very distinctive and different, and the other is something that is pure. That's how holiness is communicated about in the Bible. And I would just say that both of these ways of holiness are implied here that he's a set-apart man he's set apart for God he's taking his orders from God as much as he can and But he also is a man whose the bent of his heart is toward holy things, not unholy things.

By the way, no church needs elders who are looking at pornography. It's not helpful to them and it's not helpful to the Church of Jesus Christ. The Barna Organization has done some remarkable, they've spent out some remarkable statistics where you have the majority of evangelicals on their list, they look at pornography all the time but this man is holy and then next he is self-controlled that means he's disciplined that means that this is a man who's orderly within himself. When he is not being seen, he has an orderly life. He has a self-controlled, disciplined life.

Now, all of these qualities can be traced back to the fruit of the Spirit. So they really are for every person in the church. Now so does that mean that every man should be an elder? Every man who has these qualities should be an elder? Well, the answer to that is no, because there are other qualifications for elders.

One is that the man must aspire to the office. In other words, he must have a desire to do the work. And the work can often be disappointing. The work can often be hard. And so a man has to somehow get over that, that people might not like him.

By the way, do you think people love Titus coming into the church and saying, this church is not in order, we need to set some order in this church and here are 15 things that need to be set in order. Titus might not have been the most popular guy in the room every day. Because he, well this is a man who aspired to the office he was willing to take the junk you know sometimes the sheep will bite you and sometimes they'll be really nice to you but frankly it doesn't it doesn't matter as far as you're concerned because You have a job to do and God defined the job and he already told you up front that there might be biters and devourers in the church. It's just going to happen. It's normal in the church.

So he must aspire but he also must have a giftedness in two areas that every man doesn't have. And the first area he must be able to teach. Every man is not the teacher, the elder teacher in a local church. They are teachers. They teach their children.

They teach one another. But there's a matter of giftedness. And the other side of that giftedness is that he must be gifted. He must know how to shepherd his family. But there's more to that.

He also in order to be an elder, just because he wants to be an elder, just because he has the character qualities of an elder, just because he aspires to the office, doesn't mean that he is an elder because he ought to have the affirmation of the church and he ought to have the admonition of I mean sorry the endorsement of his fellow elders and the church. So aspiration giftedness affirmation of his family and affirmation of the church and the other elders. Those are critical too. That's why every person, every man is not an elder. I wish God would just stamp out in terms of reproducing, just reproducing lots of elders.

You know, if I knew a hundred qualified elders who needed to find a church, I could place them in a second because the church always needs elders. We need more elders. We really do pray that God would give our church more elders. It's very helpful to have more than two elders in a church and I hope that you're praying earnestly that God would give us more elders in this church. It's a very very critical thing.

Elders are very vulnerable when they don't have elders and they're also vulnerable when they don't have enough elders. That's our church. I don't think we have enough elders just frankly. I'm so thankful for my fellow elder. We work together so well, he's a blessing, he's a joy to my heart, and he's a real, live elder.

And I'm so thankful for him. So then, we turn to the heart of an elder's responsibility after all these qualities and that is verse 9 and this is so critical he is holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. All of this to say is that an elder must have these qualities and he must hold fast to the word of truth. He's the kind of man that's not jerked around by the culture. He's not the kind of man who gets steered by corrupt people in the church and he's not being steered by his own passions and his own inclinations.

His North Star is the Bible, and he is required to exhort and convict those who contradict the Bible. That's what elders are supposed to do. So his own ideas take a second place, but he holds on to the word of truth. So I'll finish these verses next time around. But first of all, without order, the people of God are in danger.

Secondly, the qualifications are for everyone. And by the way, the apostle tells the church that they are examples to the flock. So as they follow Christ, everybody should follow the elders. And the benefit of this is in local assemblies. This is not an abstraction.

He's talking about local churches where people look into one another's eyes and they know one another's names, they know their frames, they know their troubles, they know what's going on, and they're loving one another in the church. This kind of faithfulness is not dramatic. Anything dramatic in these qualities? Not really. It's repetitive but it's durable and I've said this before but It's really the description of a steady, boring man who's sober-minded and is thinking according to the Word of God.

These things are so vital for the Church. Well, we'll continue on with this passage next time, and we'll speak of this requirement that he would cleave to the word of God and also confront and silence false teaching. And You just might think about the kinds of false teaching that roams around all around us through podcasters, through books, through all kinds of personalities who are on the internet, all kinds of lifestyles. The apostle Paul, he is gonna talk about that we should be rebuking these people and also that we should uphold biblical patterns in the church. And then he's going to turn to the family.

There's a lot of false doctrine about the family in our culture. And the Apostle Paul is attacking it like a lion. I think it was Calvin who said, a pastor should have two voices, one voice to call the sheep, and the other voice to bite the wolves and send them a flight. So here you go. Every day normal church life profiled right here in Titus.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. We're grateful for the clarity and the distinctiveness of its message and how helpful it is for all of us. Lord I pray that you would set things in order in my life and all of our lives together in all of these areas by your word in our families in our church life and in every part of our life. Amen.