Titus 1:5

Titus chapter 1, verses 1 to 5, our focus on verse 5. Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, that cannot lie promised before the world began, that hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me, according to the commandment of God, our Savior. To Titus, my own son, after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain our God. elders in every city as I had appointed thee. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this evening. There was a certain hog farmer that didn’t want anything to do with the church because he considered them all a bunch of hypocrites. And he could name two or three people he knew who were certainly not walking according to what they professed to be. One day the pastor came to the farmer and was going to buy a hog from him. He looked over the entire herd of swine, and then he pointed to a scrawny, sickly little runt and said, I want that one. The farmer protested vigorously. He said, oh, they’re much better hogs than that. I raised some fine hogs here. But the preacher insisted, I want that one. And after he made the purchase, the pastor said, I’m going to show everybody the country. kind of hog you raise. I’m going to show them this one. Disturbed, the farmer said, Hey, that’s not fair. I raise fine hogs. An occasional runt doesn’t ruin my whole stock. Which the preacher replied, I’m only following your example of condemning a whole church based on the stunned spirituality of a few. Sadly, the inconsistent lives of Christian. allow the world at times to mock the Christian faith. The problem on Crete was what we call the problem of the gap. What a person professes, doesn’t match up with their walk of life, their actual behavior. This is a common problem. Because there are times where those who profess faith in Christ don’t follow what the Bible teaches. We forget that we are to be servants of God, and we become self-centered and serve our own interests. The truth of the gospel we saw in chapter, or verse one here of chapter one, leads to godliness. It leads to practical godliness in the life. And yet many professing believers at times are pretty much. much like the world. You look at verses 12 and 13 here. He said, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the cretians are always liars, evil be slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Sadly, there are times when even those who profess faith sort of look pretty much like the world. And that’s pretty, sad testimony for Christ. That’s not the way things should be. And he says, you’ve got to rebuke them sharply for this. This has to be corrected. So Paul has left Titus behind to do this work of correcting, this work of establishing the church, putting things in order in the churches. Let me begin by saying this tonight. You see the need for spiritual reformation among the people of God. Now notice in verse 5, he says, for this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting. Here is the purpose of Titus being left on the island of Crete. Sometime before the writing of this letter, it seems that Paul evidently had visited Crete and had preached the God. gospel, Titus must have been with him. And then Paul, as the apostle, moves on to another area to preach, and he leaves behind Titus to straighten out some of the issues with regard to these loose congregations that were there. People had come to faith in Christ. People were gathering together. And we see that one of the purposes of an apostle is to plant churches. But also we see that the purpose of men like Titus and Timothy were to water and to help the church to grow. So Paul would get things started, leave behind someone to further the reformation of that church, establish things better. Paul calls himself a master builder who lays the foundation. And he would plant, and others would build on what he has done. And that is what we see. But perhaps we can see here the difference between an apostle and a pastor. An apostle may function as a pastor for a time, but he doesn’t normally stay at one location very long. He’s constantly looking to other areas to establish churches. Whereas the pastor may be planted at a church for quite a while. out and continue to work with the church. This letter, no doubt, was a reminder to Titus of the things that were most necessary to take care of. Set in order the things that are wanting or lacking that remain to be done and appoint elders in every city for the congregations that were gathering. Those two are the two main issues. So here’s his purpose for Titus. being left at Crete. Now we learned from this that each church struggles with imperfections. The word set in order signifies a need to straighten something out. Something has become crooked. And so there is a correction of the wrong that is found. There is no perfect church. There never will be this side of heaven. There’s always some blemish that seems to crop up that has to be addressed. You can’t read through Paul’s epistles without seeing the need to correct and straighten out problems that arise within a church. Even the apostles, even though there are master builders, even though Paul is certainly the great missionary, and there’s much wisdom and much effort put into establishing these churches, and yet they’re still not perfect churches. They still have their flaws and their problems. Satan certainly isn’t going to be rest at rest when the kingdom of God is advancing. He’s always going to be trying to stir up trouble and bring strong opposition to the advancement of the kingdom of God. So there’s always a sandballot or a Tobiah or someone to throw a monkey wrench in, you know, to try to stem the tide, to create problems and trouble in the church. If Paul sows the field with wheat, Satan would love to toss a few tears in among them. The people of God, even though they have come to know the Lord, are still sinners. They still do wrong things at times. And there’s a proneness to transgression. some fashion, even though the spirit may be willing, sometimes the flesh is weak and we stumble. This is why when the apostle Paul establishes a church in an area, there are sometimes serious imperfections among the people of God. You know, Paul dearly loved the saints at Corinth, which were brought to faith through his preaching. But you can’t read First and Second Corinthians without shuddering at the obvious sin. that pop out and have to be corrected. The church was split apart by terrible divisions. One was of Paul, one was of Paulus, one was of Seifus, one was of Seifus, and he has to address that issue. Sexual immorality is in the church according to Chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians, where we have a man living in incest with his stepmother. He has to warn people about temple prostitutes, form foreign temples, false gods, and tell them to avoid fornication. Don’t get caught up in this. The people of God are suing one another at the law court. We don’t know exactly what the issue was, but there was problems here. There was confusion over marriage and divorce, and the principles related to that. Evidently, some considers themselves more holy. If they didn’t marry, some were deserting their unsaved mates after conversion. The Lord’s Supper was being perverted, according to 1st Grymthians Chapter 11. They had a feast before the Lord’s Supper. Some people were being gluttonous. Some people were actually getting drunk. Paul has to say, you know what, eat at home. When you come to the Lord’s house, let’s be careful about coming to the supper and perverting things. And then there is always this one-upmanship with regard to spiritual gifts. Well, my gift is better than your gift. Paul has the right whole chapter about love. How these gifts are not the key issue. The key issue loves is the grace that supersedes all things. Some of the women were unruly in the church. Speaking out, perhaps challenging the prophets who were given divine revelation, they needed to remain silent, he says. doubts filled some of their minds about the resurrection from the dead. They were influenced by some false teachers. Now, this is just 1st Corinthians. I didn’t even touch about 2nd Corinthians. So you can see the problems he had. It’s a young church. They’re coming out of heathenism. And there’s a lot of issues that have to be addressed. But I’ll stop here. If you read the book of Revelation, you see Christ addressing the seven churches of Asia Minor. And he usually says something commendable about each of the churches. But then he says, but I have somewhat against you. These are problems that need to be straightened out. At Ephesus, he says, well, I can appreciate you challenging those who say they’re apostles and are not. I can appreciate you challenging those who say they’re apostles and are not. You’re dealing with those who are teaching false doctrine, but you’ve left your first love toward Christ. At Pergamos, there was false teaching, the doctrines of Balaam, Balaim and the Nicolaeans were being taught. At Thyra, there was false teaching and even fornication. At Sardis, he says there’s much spiritual deadness in you. And Laeoedesia was a lukewarm church when it came to spiritual things. So he mentions these faults. It’s also surprising how quickly some churches turn from the truth. Paul is amazed at how quickly the Galatians had turned from the truth of the gospel to a false gospel and so forth. Here’s the secret. There are no perfect churches. Each one needs reformation and guess what? We need constant reformation. We’re always having to reform and and bring ourselves into agreement with what the scriptures teach. There was a man that once came to the famous Baptist pastor, C.H. Spurgeon, and he asked if his church was a pure church. He said he was looking for a pure church that he might belong to. And Spurgeon replied it. He didn’t know for sure about his own church. He did know there were many good people in it, godly people, saintly people. But there might possibly be a Jewish. us, he said, as there was among the disciples. He said, there might be some deceivers. There might be some who walk unruly, just as there were in the churches at Roman, Corinth, and Galatian, Philippi, and Thessalonica, and so forth. On the other hand, he thought, you know, this church is not the one church that you should join. He didn’t know if there was such a perfect church for this man to join, but he says, if you do join, if you do join, if you do decide that if you do find it, he says, don’t join it or it will be ruined. Basically saying, you know, you’re not perfect either, and when you join the church, you’ll spoil it. So each church struggles with imperfections. The key thing is, it is to be reforming. It is to be addressing these sins and taking care of them. Now, disorders in the church must be removed in dress. He says, set in order. these things. These things cannot be allowed to go on. This is what he’s telling Titus. You have to correct these things. Obviously, many of Paul’s epistles address these particular disorders, both doctrinal and practical. There are things that need to be repented of. There are ways that need to be changed. And this is what the minister here is to be doing. You know, Paul had to address the man living in incest, as I mentioned in 1st Corinthians chapter 5, the church was kind of proud about their libertarian spirit. Look how liberal we are about this matter. And he says, hey, you’ve got to address this right away. This man needs to be excommunicated immediately from the church. There is, you know, open sin when there is adultery or homosexuality or deserable. of a maid or refusal to assemble to assembly church or drunkenness should cause great sorrow and the church must address these issues and not let them continue. Doctrinal error is much more difficult at times because sometimes it’s very subtle and you have to, you know, you’re not always catching it immediately. And you’ll notice that it, you know, Jude talks about it creeping into the church unaware, you know, these guys slip into the church and began to spread false teaching. you’ll notice from verse 9 he talks about holding the faith holding fast the faithful word as you’ve been taught that this he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers there are gainsayers and he says in verse 11 his mouth may have to be stopped who subvert whole households teaching things which they ought not for filthy Luke or sake. So here are people who are pulling them whole household, whole families away from the truth. Sometimes there are personal disputes in a church which threaten its peace. We don’t know why the Corinthians were going to the law court over one another, with one another. We don’t know if it was over property rights or personal disputes in business or what the case may be or loans. But he says if you can’t sell this matter on your own, you take it to the church, don’t go before the world and settle this matter. But the point is, get it settled. At Philippi, there were two women that Paul mentions in chapter 4, verse 2. I beseech Eudius, beseech Sinti, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. Evidently, they were at odds with one another. Sometimes such personal disputes are not settled to the satisfaction of all concerned. and the confession of faith talks about the fact that no church members upon any offense taken by them having performed their duty required of them towards the person they are offended at ought to disturb any church order or absence themselves from the assemblies of the church or administration of any ordinances upon the account of such offense at any of their fellow members but to wait upon Christ and the further proceeding of the church. sometimes there are disputes in the church and you can’t immediately settle them between you and this other person. And sometimes, you know, maybe the elders don’t handle it as properly as they should. And there’s some patience that sometimes has to be exercised in waiting for the Lord to settle. Because if someone is doing something wrong, Christ himself will judge them and chasten them and correct them. Now let me make this observation. he’s not that Paul doesn’t abandon the church because it has defects or failures. He doesn’t immediately cast it aside. He left Titus behind to continually work to correct problems. Now, you should not quickly condemn a church outright because it doesn’t do everything perfectly or because it’s lacking in this area or that. Paul shows great patience toward the people of God, and we should also. We have to bear with some imperfections sometimes in the church. And as far as your conscience will permit, you should demonstrate patience yourself and pray for the change that is needed because you want to see reformation. Yes, there may be a point when either fundamental doctrinal error causes you to leave an assembly because some churches actually become synagogues of Satan. or maybe a church will refuse to deal with sin in its midst and has no intention of reforming. And that may leave you to the same situation. What I’m saying here is this is this is a grave matter. We shouldn’t do it lightly. But sometimes churches will have their flaws and we have to live with some flaws. But the key is are they trying to reform? Is there progress? Is there some type of effort being made to correct the wrongs that are being done? So you see the need for spiritual reformation among the people of God. Secondly, you see the need for spiritual leaders to oversee the reformation of the church. The second part of verse 5 says this. Ordean elders in every city as I had appointed thee. Now the first thing it stands out is that last phrase, as I have appointed thee. Titus here is acting according to apostolic authority. He has no right to go in here and just bring about his own changes according to his own personal inventions or thoughts about the matter. He’s carrying out the apostolic teaching, what Paul told him to do. This is what of course we must all. always do is to follow what the apostles in this written scripture tell us to do. Now we see the appointment of elders here. The word elder is a word that has a Jewish Old Testament background to it, or was used to refer to those who were men of good reputation and wisdom who watched over the affairs of town or a village, perhaps even a synagogue. And the idea is transferred here to the churches. Each church is a community of God’s people, and it needs oversight. The term elder implies, of course, that these would be experienced Christians. We think about elderly men. We think of men that are, have grown in wisdom and have some knowledge about life and things of this nature. An elder would certainly imply that kind of thing only in the spiritual realm, that they would be spiritually mature, if you would. Not a spiritual teenager, not a spiritual youngster, someone mature in the faith who can lead the people of God, who has some discernment and wisdom. Elders are men who are be able to be able to. respected because they’re able to lead and to counsel wisely. Now you’ll notice that Paul also calls elders bishops in verse 7 here, for a bishop must be blameless, he says. So when he gets the qualifications of the elder, he calls him a bishop. We should recognize it’s the same office. Maybe a slightly different view on the function, but it’s the same office. Elders, pastors and bishops all were further the same office in the scripture. A bishop is an overseer. An elder certainly implies the wisdom and discernment. The bishop, the idea of overseer, the word pastor, is a shepherd idea of overseer. The word pastor is a shepherd idea connected with it. A pastoral view of a shepherd. you were a shepherd of a flock of sheep. So all three of these sort of give us a little different view of the office, but they all really refer to the same thing. God’s flock has to be led and cared for and kept safe from the wolves of the false teachers who come along in all kinds of other dangers. So the elders must see that everything of the church is done decently in order, and according to the principles. of God’s word. So that there’s sound doctrine and godly living. Now you’ll notice he talks about a plurality of elders here. Elders in each city. The work of the Christian leadership of the church normally is shared. Commonly, the church is led by a group of men sharing that leadership. It depends, of course, on the size of the church, how many elders the church. may have, but there are many advantages to having more than one elder because someone is going to be more competent in one area than they are in another. Maybe someone can counsel well and maybe someone is exceptional in their teaching and so forth. So each has his own strengths and weaknesses and gifts so that you end up complementing one another and that’s the best situation for the church. the work of the ministry is a heavy load to carry. Trouble seldom come one at a time. And sometimes you have more than one, and sometimes you need, you know, men that can handle those, you know, one putting out the fire over here and one putting out the fire over here. And they can stand together. A two or a three-cord strand is hard to break, as the Proverbs tells us. And so, you know, have three men that are standing for the truth. And they can oppose the false teaching a lot better. So a shared leadership also keeps Christ’s headship over the church, I think, from being obscured. Sometimes there’s a danger where you have one man who ends up being like the dictator of the church. You don’t want to have that situation. We want to have a situation where we realize that there’s a shared responsibility, and and always Christ must be looked as the head of the church. This being said, we should recognize that there are often two classes of elders, at least one to do the work full-time. If you look at 2 Timothy chapter 5, just a few pages back, excuse me, 1 Timothy chapter 5, and verses 17 and 18, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who, labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture said, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And the laborer is worthy of his reward. In some cases, it’s best to have someone like full-time to pastor the church. We usually call them pastors. Even though the terms are all synonymous, we usually call them pastors and the elders, but they’re all the same. and so he can apply himself to the word of God. The book of Revelation, you’ll notice when the churches are addressed, it speaks about to the angel of the church, literally the messenger of the church, the one who brings God’s word. And so they are singular there in that particular situation. But normally we have a plurality of elders. Now, the appointment of elders. He talks about appointing elders. How’s that to be done? Well, let me say this first to begin with. It’s Christ who gifts the church with pastor-teachers. That’s part of the gifts that he gives upon his resurrection, according to Ephesians chapter 4. What the church must do is recognize the men who have been gifted. That’s really what the church has ended up doing. Christ will gift men, and then the church recognizes the gifts of those men. Now, Titus is the gifts of those men. here is instructed to appoint these elders. The question is, does Titus do this himself? Does he do it all alone? Does he just appoint these men? Does he personally search out men who possess the gifts and qualities for the office and ordain them to the office without the congregational input? Or is it that Titus must instruct the Assembly of believers in these matters so that the people of God appoint qualified men? we don’t have a definite answer in this text, but I think the other portions of scripture indicate to us, and I’m inclined to believe this is true in this case as well, that each congregation is involved in the calling of qualified men to be elders. In other words, the congregation chooses the men who are going to be elders over it. They’re not appointed to where someone, you know, some hierarchy puts them on top of the church and say, we should. you’re going to have to live with his elder. The church itself will choose the elder. Of course, recognize those of their gifted. I believe that Titus was to see that the people of God were instructed as to their duty and that they did the ordaining themselves. However, it would seem that Titus here would have the ability maybe to approve or disapprove of the selections made. In other words, he would oversee it and say, no, wait a minute, this person doesn’t have this qualified. and you’re missing this quality you may point out some issues that they may have overlooked. But an important implication of this is that no man may be ordained, I think, to the eldership on whom the present elders of the church can’t lay hands. So that the elders of the church, if you were adding new elders, they would have to approve of the elders, as well as the congregation approving that these men should be elders. So Titus here, is sort of the guide them and to try to oversee this situation. So the church and the elders should sort of agree about who’s going to be another elder in the church, a new officer. That the church has a right to select its overseers can be gleaned from several New Testament accounts. The account of selection of deacons, you’ll notice, in Acts chapter 9, shows the authority of the church. extends to the election of the officers. The church selected out the men who were to be deacons. In Acts chapter 13, the Holy Spirit instructs the congregation of Antioch to separate Barnabst and Paul for the missionary work he has called them to do. It’s not the elders themselves that make these. He calls the church to separate these men for this issue. In Acts chapter 14. verse 23, the Greek word for ordaining elders in each church suggest a vote by the stretching forth of the hand, as though there was some type of selection or voting taking place by the membership of the church with regard to those who would be elders. You’ll notice that when Paul talks about excommunication from the church, it’s not the elders who are. putting these people out, but it’s the church. He calls upon the church to do so in Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Thus the churches, I think, have a right to select their spiritual leadership, but the present elders should provide some oversight with regard to this selection like Titus does here. Now we see here the necessity of elders. Titus here is given a task to do because it’s important that it be done. There are groups of people like the Plymouth brethren who denounce all hierarchy in the church at all. They say that no Christians should be above another Christian. No one should rule over another. And they argue that we’re all priests unto God. Evidently, they need to read the Old Testament more carefully and realize there were a chief priest and elders of the priest, according to scripture. And so there were priests over priest. And so the Bible teaches the necessity of elders in every city. The church must have spiritual leadership for progress and its health. When there’s no church government providing oversight and watch care for the church and for your soul, then you have everybody doing what’s right in their own eyes and you can have total chaos. So you should rejoice that God, is gifted men. And the scripture tells us that Christ has called out, you know, pastor teachers and men to lead the church. And that’s an important gift the church is given. I’ll make this observation. This passage is a rebuke to those who flatter themselves because now they have a knowledge, a smattering of knowledge, that they no longer need under the authority of elders. They can do without them. They can, can, can, can, you know, they can lead themselves. That’s contrary to what this passage of scripture says. You need elders. In the mid-1800s, there was a Texas ranger named, a rancher, excuse me, named Samuel Maverick, who refused to brand his cattle. And when the neighboring cowboys came upon a cowl that was unbranded, they said, oh, it’s a maverick. The word entered the English language came to refer to a person who would make an independent stand and refuse to conform to the standard. Sadly, there are many what I will call spiritual mavericks today who are not branded as members of a particular church, and they become, you know, they just go about from one church to another, or they just are spiritual tramps, if you would. They really don’t have any roots anywhere. Paul sees the ordaining of elders for the people of God as a priority. You need oversight. Need someone to provide oversight. Those who are not under a settled ministry here, you can’t have a consistent faith without some type of oversight being provided. So I think that’s important that we see this as an important aspect for each tree. church. Well, the hog farmer was upset because of the runt that the pastor bought, and he was going to show, well, this is an example of what the hog farmer raises. He didn’t want that, even though he would blame the church for a few inconsistent Christians. The people of God need reformation, and they need elders to help them in this regard. Well, that’s close with a way. order.