Titus 1:8

Titus chapter 1, verses 4 to 9, our focus on verse 8. 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 I left thee in Crete that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just holy temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. May God bless to us, he is sacred and holy word this evening. There is a terrible type of tree that is a terrible type of tree that is a sacred and holy word. It grows into Australia. It’s called by the natives the stinging tree. Try to imagine how a monster nettle, if you would, weeds with stinging hairs. You want to get an idea of the characteristics of this particular tree. Thankfully, it has unpleasant odor, so most natives and animals stay away from it because of that. At first, the stinger prick of the trees, thorns, don’t trouble you at all. You don’t feel pain at all immediately. But within a few minutes, you will be in agony, and for the next several months, if water ever touches the wound, you will certainly be suffering. The stinging tree is not the kind of tree you’d want to plant in your backyard. There’s a lot too many negative aspects associated with it. But suppose you wanted to plant a tree in your backyard and you decided you were to plant an apple tree. It wouldn’t be enough just to have a tree that didn’t have any negative characteristics like the stinging tree. Well, you might say, well, it doesn’t have any fungus growing on the trunk or any ants boring in its bark or any tent worms nesting in its branches. There’s no stunted growth, though it remains a dwarf, and it doesn’t have any unpleasant odor. You could have the most beautiful specimen of an apple tree, but if it doesn’t produce fruit, what good is it? It’s not going to benefit you. Now, when it comes to ordaining elders, it’s not enough that the man doesn’t have any negative characteristics. No negative characteristics in his family life, no negative characteristics in his personal life, versus six and seven. he must also have the fruit of spiritual graces, as verse 8 indicates to us. So he must have something positive. Remember, as we go through this list of qualifications for elders, that these things should actually be in the lives of every Christian, but they have to be in a greater sense in the life of those who would hold the office. of elder in the church. An elder, we’re told, should be a lover of hospitality. The word hospitality in the Greek here means a lover of strangers, literally. It means to be hospitable to those who you do not know. It often carries the idea of entertaining in the home, but it’s not limited to that particular thought. Hospitality is an expression of love for God, and the people God should have that toward one another. In scripture, hospitality is not simply having your friends over to your house for dinner. It particularly extends to strangers or those who are in need in some capacity. It has less to do with having a bountiful table and more to do with an open door to those with physical or moral or emotional or spiritual needs so that you’re open and accessible to these people. Now, in the days of the apostles, the amenities of the people of God were rather ruthless, and often your property and your possessions could be confiscated. even by the government at times. You read in the book of Hebrews about what they had lost and suffered for the cause of Christ. You might be driven out of your city, your town, even your country, because of your faith. Christians were banished. They were exiled as well as in prison. Now, Christians were to cheerfully receive these outside. outcast and relieve them of their necessities until they could get back on their feet again because what would usually happen is these families would be destitute and when they move somewhere else they would try to find other believers to which they could join and so the believers here would try to compensate for their loss and help them in some capacity banishment and confiscation of property isn’t a common occurrence in our particular day, at least or not in our country. Extreme cases such as this would be rare. But Paul’s point is that an elder should be leading the way and providing such hospitality, an example of the flock in this regard. Now, while an elder may not be called to be called. upon too often to lodge another believer. Still, he must be a man of hospitality. He must be willing to deny himself in order to care for others. An elders should be generous or hospital to the people of God when he is able to comfort them in their sorrows, when he is able to encourage them in their sicknesses, when he’s able to help them through their trials, when he’s able to help them through their trials, when he’s able to instruct them, or admonish them or perhaps disciplines them if they are wondering, when he feeds the hungry, when he clothes the poor, when he gives drink to the thirsty, when he houses traveling ministers or things of this nature, that’s all part of this hospitality. Now, in the book of Hebrews, you recall that the writer of Hebrews gives us a general duty toward hospitality, not directed to elders, but he says in Hebrews 13, to the people of God in general, be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels. So it’s a duty for all Christians. The word entertain is the same word hospitality there. So you never know how important or far. reaching a simple act of kindness may be. We have the account of Abraham and Lot, who unaware, entertained angels. In Abraham’s case, when the three men came, traveling along, he invited him to stop, and he wanted to prepare a meal for them and washed their feet and so forth, take care of them. One of them, however, was the Lord appearing in human form, and two of them were the angels that went down to Sodom and were taken in by lot, who was also showing hospitality at the time, didn’t realize that they were angels, at least not to begin with. So a faithful service to the people of God in hospitality is something that is the duty of all Christians, particularly though of the elder. Now, God rewards those who take in his people and care for them. the widow of Shunan, how they lodged the prophets of God. Elijah and Elijah and God rewarded them both and blessed them both. I always say what you gain in fellowship and spiritual exchange more than compensate you for any loss you might have financially in that regard. Jesus said, verily, I say unto you in as much as you have done it under one of the least of these my brother and you have done it unto me in Matthew 2540 when you feed a hungry brother when you lodge a stranger who is a brother when you clothe a naked brother when you visit a sick brother all these things we could put under the category here showing hospitality should be a lover of hospitality in this sense he says secondly here that an elder should be a lover of hospitality in this sense he says secondly here that an elder should be a lover of good men. Now the question may be raised, well, shouldn’t you love everybody? Shouldn’t you love all your neighbors, not just the good people, the good, you know, Christian people. Well, in answer to that, of course the answer is yes, we should love everyone. But in answer to that, in particular the scriptures command, as we have opportunity, we’re to do good unto all men. And then he adds especially to the household of faith. So if I could just put that into this category, yes, you ought to love all your neighbors as yourself, but especially you ought to love the good men who are faithfully following the Lord. So there’s a particular and special manner in which we should love them. We should be a true companion of all those who fear and know the true and living God. an elder should be an example in the way he shows love to these kinds of people. All the people of God are the household of the saints, and thus are brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we should show that in a special way, I think. I’m reminded of the story of David, who was still a young shepherd boy, too young to be in the army, when he goes to visit the army of Saul and check up on his brothers and see how they’re doing, bring some supplies. And the mighty giant Goliath comes forth and he presents his challenge and defies the army of the living God. And David is provoked. And remember how he wanted to go out and fight him, even Saul when he heard, he heard of the living God. about him wanting to do it. When he talked with David, he said, but you’re just a youth. And this giant’s been a warrior since he has been a youth. What chance are you going to have against this guy? But when the Philistine looked at David, remember coming out, he looked on him with contempt. But David fought this one-sided battle from a human perspective, because, as he put it, who is this uncircumcised heathed heathen or Philistine? that he should defy the armies of living God. And he proclaimed all who were there that day out loud, I come to thee, meaning Goliath, in the name of the Lord of Host, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defiled, this day the Lord will deliver thee into my hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee. And of course, by the power of God, and with the use of his slingshot, he fells, Goliath, uses Goliath, sword cuts off his head and he carries back to the camp, that bloody head in his hand. And then we read that immediately at this point, the soul of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was knit to the soul of David, and he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan shows what it is here to love a good man. It was an unselfish love. because we find that Jonathan was willing to give up his place as the next in line to Israel to make way for David. He gives David some of his raiment, his royal garments, and his sword, as a symbol, really, of this love and devotion he has to him. In the New Testament we read about the Galatians, who were so thrilled with the message of the gospel and the joy that they had in Christ, where they saw Paul, and I guess his affliction has something to do with his eyes, at least this verse seems to suggest it. The love of Galatians for the Apostle Paul was such that they were willing, as Paul put it, to pluck out their own eyes and give them to him in Galatians 415. We ought to be a lover of good men because of what we see of Jesus Christ in them. Whatever image of Christ we find in Belief, believe, that we have around us should provoke such a spirit. We ought to love those that love Christ. They ought to be dear to us. Lover of good men. An elders should be sound-minded. We have the word sober here that’s used. Now, literally, this means sound-minded. I see the word sober here that’s used. Now, literally, literally, this means sound-minded. I suppose we could say not drunk, but that’s not really its basic meaning here. But obviously, if someone who is drunk, loses control, and cannot think seriously. But that’s not the text, the idea of the text. It means to be prudent, self-control, discreet. A person who’s not swayed by sudden impulses over which he doesn’t exercise control. control. So he’s not a person who acts rashly. Not someone who’s blown about with every wind of doctrine that comes along. Every new thing that comes along, you know, he’s off and running. No, that’s not the kind of guy you want as an elder. You want someone who is grounded and steadfast in sound doctrine to be in this position. You cannot be someone given to wild and foolish ideas. He has to have self-control. And he has to act in a sensible manner. You know, I went to seminary, and you’d be surprised sometimes of who shows up at seminary. And one of the things that shocked me is I was going through my first year of seminary, as the students there, some of the students there were not very seriously minded. You would think if you were going to seminary, your whole purpose would be to focus on the study of the Word of God and spend your time on that. And unlike some of the ones that attended there, I had to work full time and I’m, you know, I’m working 40 hours a week and I’m going to the seminary sleeping four hours, four and a half hours a night. It was quite an ordeal. And I was committing, I had to commit my time to the study of the Word of God while I was there. But there were those who were not. And so they were not seriously minded. They weren’t qualified to be an elder. Thankfully, two-thirds of the people that start seminary never finish it. And we can be thankful that, you know, in some ways, God leads people out, and they don’t end up completing the task. But this is the idea of soberness. Be sound-minded. Church leaders are sort of like cities that sit on hill. People are watching. They’re watching the pastor. They’re watching those who are the elders of the church. They’re always exposed to view. And when we do something wrong or foolish, then it brings disgrace on the gospel of Christ and on the church itself. Every fault then gets magnified. So we have to have a wise and serious carriage about us as the people. of God. I’m not saying that a pastor should not be jovial or in good spirits. But I’m saying that we have to be serious-minded when it comes to the things the Lord because our doctrine needs to be taken seriously. If we’re not serious, then that what we say is not going to be taken seriously. I’m reminded of Job, as he gives us his account, the prudence, the sound-mindedness of Job. His deportment was such that when he came to the gate of the city and took his place as one of the judges there, it had a profound effect on the people who were present. Young men saw him and they went and hid themselves, Job says. The aged arose and stood up before his presence. Even the rulers became silent, we read, when he appeared. All men listened to his words, heard what he had to say, and blessed him because of what he had to say, because of what he said was wise and proper and good. He was held in very high esteem. And so the elder, in being serious-minded, should have that same type of capacity. Here’s a good reason to pray for your elders. Paul did for Timothy. That the Lord would give them wisdom in all things, that they would be able to be seriously minded about the things of God. I’m reminded of the phrase about David. behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. That’s the way the elder should be. Behave himself wisely in all his ways because the Lord is indeed with him. So the elders should be sound minded here. We also read here that the elder should be just. Just as sort of a positive expression of the negative, blameless. That’s the negative, being blameless that we read about earlier. Here, the positive side of that is being just. Blameless, we said, was one who, it means one who cannot be rightly held accountable. In other words, he cannot be charged with something. He’s unreprovable in that sense. To be just is to act in a right or just sense, a righteous sense. Now, Paul here does not seem to be referring to our justification in this particular case, being declared righteous before God on the basis of Christ righteousness, because all men are justified that are believers. All Christians are justified. All Christians are justified. But he seems to be speaking here about your word walk. And the implication is here before men, the elder should be judged to be in compliance with the commandments of God. When people look at your life, they should see someone who is following, let’s say, the Ten Commandments, as far as how they live their life. They’re obeying the Lord and being just in all their dealings. This involves love toward God, love toward our neighbor, but that involves, of course, right behavior toward both. An elder, being just here, also, we could look at it in the sense that he is ruling over the house of God. There are going to be disputes. They’re going to come before the elder. And the elder has to be able to be fair-minded. He has to be able not to take one side or the other without weighing the issue carefully and making a proper decision. Remember how Paul said that the people of God are not to go to the law courts against one another, but to find someone who is wise in the congregation so that they can handle these disputes. Why are you going before out believers, Paul says? Is there not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brother. Well, an elder often has to do that. Hopefully, he can bring about a reconciliation between two individuals who are at odds with one another. But in order to do that, he has to be someone that both sides trust is going to be fair. And he’s going to do what is right. And then we read here that an elder also is to be holy. Holy. Again, this can be related to blameless. Certainly the elders should be free from known sin and certainly obey the law of God, as we’ve already mentioned. However, let me direct your attention to a different aspect of holiness, which is often overlooked. Holiness is not first and foremost purity, but it’s dedication to God, first and foremost. We know from the account of the law that there were vessels in the temple and the tabernacle that were holy. And that had nothing to do with these vessels being not sinning or not obedient to the Lord. But the primary idea was they were dedicated to the Lord. They were set apart for the Lord’s use, separated for God. separated for God’s use. In this manner, the elders should be certainly holy. He is set apart for God’s service. Think about this. He set apart for the worship of God, for God’s word, for the ordinance of God, all these things that he’s going to be involved in. The word ordained that we read about in verse 5, you ordain elders in every city that I of being ordained is to be set apart for a purpose of serving God. This being the case then, if we’re set apart unto God, we certainly should have purity of life, as he stands before the Lord in a special way to serve the Lord God. So an elder should see himself, though, as someone who has been called by God to do the work of the ministry. He has to be dedicated to God’s service in the church. This is not something to enter into lightly. It’s not something that you should enter into if you want to be doing everything else under the sun. You’re dedicating yourself to the work of the church and the ministry of the church. And even elders who were not full-time elders, there’s still a sense. in which the priority will be to serve the church. Yeah, they may work a secular job, and that takes their time and things like this. But a priority is that they’re dedicated to this work. They’re committed to it and to helping the people of God. Now, it’s true, there is a general commandment regarding all God’s people, be you holy for I am holy. But the elder in this area has certainly to be an example of this. So the bishop here or elder must be someone who is dedicated to the worship of God. Someone who is willing to take the pain and effort to oversee the church of Jesus Christ, to commit himself to the teaching of the Word of God, to commit himself to watching for the souls of God’s people. and I hope we see that this is not something that everybody should enter into. It’s not something it should be done lightly, and not everyone should look upon themselves as able to do this. The man has to desire the office of an elder. The Bible says, if any man desires to be an elder, well, it’s not something we drag someone into that position, but they have the desire to do it, and God has to put that level. desire there to be one who oversees the people of God. There is a weight. There is a burden to this. And I don’t know unless you’ve been in this position that you really understand the weight that is on the minister for the elders of the church to be making the right kind of decisions for the people. God, you’re affecting people’s lives by the decisions you’re making, by the doctrine you’re teaching. and you don’t want to be wrong in what you’re doing. And this is not an easy task, but it is a rewarding task. I thank God that I have the opportunity to study the word of God every day. That’s not a curse, it’s a blessing. But it is demanding when one must get up and now teach that word and make sure that you’re actually teaching it correctly. and faithfully as it is revealed. So the elders should be holy, and he has to be dedicated to the cause, as well as spiritually pure. And then we see that elder should be temperate. Now literally in the Greek, this means to have power over. And what does the elder have power over? He’s supposed to have power over himself here, is the idea. There has to be some kind of restraint, some control of self that the elder has. Once again, this is closely related to the things that are mentioned in verse 7. It doesn’t need to detain us long. But an elder must be a man that is able to curb and bridle himself. We touched on this. If a man can’t control his self. children in the home, they’re unruly, and then obviously he’s not fit for the office. Well, if he can’t control himself, he’s not fit for the office here. He must be able to master his will to moderate his affections, to be even keeled. You know what, a keel on a ship is that long rudder like that. piece that’s underneath the ship that holds the ship in sort of holds it up it keeps it steady but you don’t want to tilt the ship one way too much or the other way and so we talk about being even keel here’s here’s the pastor who cannot lose his temple and become a raging maniac he must not be given to silly humor so that the matters of the Christian life are not taken seriously. That’s the way he is all the time. People aren’t going to take him seriously. His sorrow cannot be so great that he can’t function. It is interesting that if you read the book of Leviticus and some of the Exodus, I guess, as well, when one of the family members of the high priest dies, you know, they weren’t supposed to, when when Nadav and Abahue were struck dead, Aaron had to be very careful about his grief. He wasn’t supposed to leave the tabernacle. He was supposed to be very careful about it and hold his peace, which he did, but it had to be difficult. And they were not to mourn just for anybody that, you know, this was this was one of those situations where there was great demand upon them to control their emotions in this position. And when it comes to your desire for food, your desire for drink, your desire for pleasure, these things have to be kept in check, so that these things do not dominate your life. If a person can’t control his eating habits, if a person, you know, can’t control his eating habits, if a person, person can’t, you know, is always pursuing his own pleasures and things of this nature, then he’s not watching over himself as he should be. He’s not temperate. Christian work demands self-denial. You have to give of yourself to do the work of the ministry. An elder must in a sense daily crucify his afflictions and lust. The ministry is hard work if it’s done right. I’m reminded of how Paul talks about those who labor in the work, deserve double honor and so forth. There is work involved in the ministry. It can be quite demanding. There are many at times that during vacation, I was counseling someone, or I was at the bed of the hospital you know, visiting someone who was taken in. It doesn’t matter whether I was supposed to be on vacation or not. I had a duty to perform. I had something I had to take care of. And so we have to realize there are demands upon the minister, and he has to have self-denial on this. He can’t be selfish about these things. He that will rule the church of Christ has to be able to rule his own spirit. And so the elder has to to be temperate. Now let me close tonight. We looked at these positive qualifications by saying this. Just as a stinging tree is not something we’d want to put in our backyard. It has a negative aspect about it. We wouldn’t just want to put a tree in our backyard and didn’t have any negative aspects. We want to have some positive aspects. Positive things about it. And so when it comes to an elder. It’s not just the absent of negative things that’s important, but it is the real positive virtues that are important. These God-given gifts that we should have. You know, what I fear is that men that are talked about here to be elders are out of fashion in our religious environment today. And I say that because it seems that such men are given such little account, whereas men who have egotistical bet to them seem to be valued highly. If they come along and tell you they are somebody and so forth, they seem to be valued highly highly. Sadly, the modern church, it has been tainted by subjectivism of the world. It does not value these men. The position of elder is not taken seriously as it should be today. It becomes a popularity contest. Christians whose first reaction to a man is to ask, well, how does he make me feel are ill prepared to appreciate the qualities required in an elder? People put more stock in a man’s entertainment value than his faithfulness. More stock in if he has qualities of a CEO for a business than having the fruit of the spirit in his life. People were thinking, is he amusing, is he attractive, is a crowd pleaser, is he popular, is he witty? Does he have great intellect? What about his moral qualifications? What about his spiritual qualifications? Scripture indicates here that Paul is concerned about how you match up to these qualifications listed in this text. And if we were going to put someone into office, these are the qualifications we ought to be looking at. We have to match this test. Yes, such men are out of fashion. But you know what? They’re the only ones that are truly worthy to be placed in this office. Maybe that explains why the church today is in such a poor condition. Because we have ignored what God has said and we’ve placed men in office who were not qualified for that office. Not sound in doctrine, not temperate, not blameless, not looking out for the people of God, not a lover of good men, not sober, and so forth, not just, and that’s what happens. So we should take that to heart. When we think about eldership, when we think about who should be in an elder, in a church. It’s not a popularity contest here. It’s a matter of, does this person match these qualities? Because if they don’t, you may love them in the Lord, but they’re just not ready for this task. And I hope that we would weigh that carefully in any decision-making we make in this capacity. Well, let us close.