Setting Things in Order | Titus 1:5-9 (Mark Evans 7-9-2023)

The main ideas from this information are: - The book of Titus gives advice on how to appoint elders in every town to put things in order in the church. - The qualifications for elders include being above reproach, faithful to one's spouse, having children who are believers, and displaying a number of positive character traits. - The office of elder involves being a pastor, presbyter, and teacher, and the office of deacon involves sympathy and service. - The church is meant to be cared for by a plurality of leaders, and the appointment of church leaders is how Christ builds up His church. - The qualifications for elders serve as a guide for all believers to aspire to and pray for in their church leaders. Well, if you have your Bibles, do feel free to make your way to the book of Titus as we continue on our sermon series in this wonderful epistle. And today we'll be in Titus chapter 1, verses 5 through 9, Titus chapter 1, verses 5 through 9. And these are the words of the God who makes known the end from the beginning. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant, or quick-tempered, or a drunkard, or violent, or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he might be able to give instruction and sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict it. And the grass withers, and the flower fades, and let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we do praise You that You have revealed unto us the love of Jesus Christ for the church, and that You have revealed unto us how the Lord Jesus Christ continues to build up His church through these very ordinary means of grace. And so we do pray, Father, You would give us ears to hear, You would give us the eyes to see that we might go forth in obedience unto Him. In Christ's name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Well from our Old Testament reading, we just heard that advice from Jethro. Jethro, who by the way is in the running for best Old Testament name, but on top of that, we heard Jethro's very sage advice that he gave to Moses. He told Moses, Moses, you are not able to govern and shepherd God's people by yourself. From the very beginning, God has always purposed for His people to be cared for by a plurality of leaders. And so Jethro expanded on that advice to Moses. We heard him say, look out for this particular kind of man. Jethro was very clear. He didn't just say, grab any warm body. That will do. No, he said, look out for a particular kind of man, a man with these qualities, these attributes, looking for a few good men. And very much the same way, that is what we have in our text this morning from the book of Titus, that Paul gives to Titus this very sage advice on how to set God's house in order and to do so by looking out for a particular kind of man. So the plurality of leaders that we saw in the Old Testament is very much now carried forward to the New Testament. It's the way that God has purposed for His church to flourish. And so today, we're going to look specifically at how Christ builds up His church through the appointment of church leaders. And so we'll walk through this text today, actually, not in three, but in four parts as we look at the task. Secondly, the office. Thirdly, the qualifications. And lastly, what is the charge that is laid upon Titus? But despite those four points, we are really considering the very simple, very important point, which is that Christ Himself cares for and builds up His church through the work of ordinary church leaders. And so with that, let's dive in and look firstly at what young Titus is charged with in order to promote a healthy church. And we see firstly this task that Paul levies on Titus found there in verse 5. He says, Titus, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remain in to order. So should Titus ever wonder, why was I left on this island? All he would need to do is pull up in his mind verse 5, right? He should print out verse 5, tape it to his bathroom mirror so that every day, every morning, it reminds him of his purpose statement, why Paul has left him behind, to put things in order. Word for order found there in verse 5 contains the Greek word ortho, a word meaning straight. You can probably hear how we carry that word over into English, words like orthodontist or an orthopedist, these practitioners whose aim is to set things straight, right? An orthodontist sets teeth straight, an orthopedist sets bones straight. And that is Titus' task. He has to set things straight and in order. You can easily tease out, of course, the consequences if Titus were to fail to do this, all right? Titus says if an orthopedist fails to set bones correctly and straightly, then the human body will suffer and it will improperly grow. And so too for Titus. If he fails to set things in order, then the church body will suffer and it will fail to grow properly. So that is Titus' great task. It is the reason why, when Paul sailed away from Crete, that Titus is left there on the shore waving goodbye to Paul. So as verse 5 continues, it gives us more precisely how Titus is to set things straight. I'm sure a young medical student enters med school with both some eagerness and some ignorance, perhaps thinking, I know that I'm supposed to set bones straight, but how exactly do I do that? What are the mechanics of that? And so too for Titus, he may well be thinking, Paul, I hear you. I got it. I'm supposed to set things straight and in order for the church, but how exactly do I go about that? Well, verse 5 continues and it clarifies the orthopraxy for Titus. You see, Paul tells him there, Titus, appoint elders in every town as I directed you. So we find that it is by and in the act of appointing elders that accomplishes much of this task of setting things in order for the church. And just as a tangent, we don't have time to discuss it today, but a shout out to Presbyterian government. Notice, Titus is to do this not just in one town, but in every town along the way in the island of Crete, a reality that speaks to the connectedness of churches found in Presbyterianism. All right, tangent over. So that is Titus' task, right? Put things in order, how? By appointing elders. And that leads us to consider our second point. Okay, well, what exactly is this office of elder that Titus is on the lookout for here? And this is where our book of Church Order helpfully distills the Bible's teaching on this office of elder into three simple descriptions, that an elder is a pastor, a presbyter, and thirdly, a teacher. Those are not so much three different offices, those are more like the three hats that an elder is to wear. So firstly, an elder is to be a pastor or a shepherd. He is charged with oversight and care of the flock. As 1 Peter 5 commands of elders, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. The Scripture is, of course, full of images of shepherds and what shepherds do. The shepherd, for instance, protects the sheep from wolves coming in from the outside, even putting himself in harm's way to protect the sheep. A shepherd also leads sheep to the still waters, to the green pastures of the gospel. A shepherd will also leave 99 sheep to go find the one wandering sheep. So great is his care for the flock. A shepherd will also use his rod of correction, his staff of guidance, in order to govern and to lead sheep. We can lastly say that a shepherd, of course, knows his sheep and his sheep know him. As the Lord Jesus Christ himself said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them. So this full-orbed shepherding is what an elder is to embody. He is to know, protect, lead and feed the flock that is entrusted to him. Secondly, an elder is also a presbyter, that's the literal Greek word. It just means old man. But the idea more so being that while age is no guarantee of wisdom, wisdom generally comes only with age. And so the idea is that the elder is mature, not simply in terms of years, but more so in terms of spiritual maturity and sets a worthy example before the church. As Paul instructs Timothy, he tells him, set the church an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, purity, essentially saying your entire life and your walk is to be exemplary. That if believers were to follow you, they would, although imperfectly, be following the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So great is your maturity and your example set before the flock. And lastly, an elder is a teacher. That will be covered more later, but for now we can know one of the elder's great tasks is to feed the sheep. We see its vitality in John 21. You might remember Jesus asked Peter and tells him, not once, not twice, but thrice, feed my sheep. That was his charge to him. And of course the primary way the elder does that is by word and sacrament, this great soul food that an elder as teacher has both the knowledge and the competency to dish out. And so we can bundle up all those items and see that the elder must embody these things. He must possess the wisdom and spiritual maturity to be a good shepherd, providing oversight and care for the sheep. He must be exemplary in his life and his conduct, and he must possess an ability to teach. Now the scripture also recognizes that amongst elders there's a diversity, a variety of giftings. So as 1 Timothy 5 says, there will be elders who particularly labor in preaching and teaching the Word. And so this is why in our denomination we have the one office of elder with the distinction of teaching and of ruling elders, right? These two different forms both having equal authority. So there's a word on the office of elder which raises the immediate question, which is what are the qualifications of this office? You can already tell if the elder is charged with this great and awesome task of caring for the flock, it only follows that there would be high qualifications for such an office. You're probably aware that we have a security team here at Cornerstone, men who every Lord's Day they stand ready to provide us with security. But what you may not know is that those men have all gone through what's affectionately known as quals, qualifications. That is to say that these men have been tested in their ability to shoot with accuracy in order to be qualified. And that's a good thing, right? If a man were so incompetent that he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a sidearm of his pistol, then all of us would be in great jeopardy. In a sense, how much more so for the church? The church must have men who by the grace of God are qualified. And so on that note, it is a good time to interject the second office of the church, this group of men who, as Timothy says, are tested first. And that is the office of the deacon. For the church has two and only two offices, no popes, no archbishops, no cardinals, no CEOs, right? The only gifts are that of elder and that of deacon. As Reilly often pointed out, that the qualifications of deacons are remarkably similar to that of an elder. And there is much overlap in terms of their character and their attributes. In one place, you see that as in 1 Timothy. Paul outlines all these qualifications of elders and then he simply says, likewise deacons, and very much continues that line of thought, with the main difference being the elders' ability to teach and to instruct from the word, though deacons likewise must be able to hold to sound doctrine. And that difference of teaching arises from their difference in function. Our book of Church Order rightly calls the office of deacon one of sympathy and service, especially in terms of helping one another out in their time of need. Another analogy often used of deacons is that they are like shock absorbers, such that when a disruption hits the church, which it will, the deacons are there to absorb the shock and serve through it. You see this in Acts 6, when there is that disruption between the Hellenists and the Hebrews and it starts to impact the church, it's the deacons that rise up and they serve through it in these very practical ways, without which the ministry of the Word would have greatly suffered. It's not for no reason that Christ Himself is called a deacon in Romans 15. This Greek word just meaning servant. And as their name is, so goes their office of service. So with that in mind, back to Titus as we dive into this full repertoire of qualifications. Now just a word, if you're not an elder, if you're not a deacon, if you're not a male, do not tune out, because it's often pointed out that nearly all of these attributes are commended for the Christian life. As Timothy says, it's a noble thing to aspire to this. And so you'll see it's as if Titus gives us this great bullseye for all of us to aim at and to aspire to. And I will only add, the other great benefit is this will help tune your antenna to look out for, to watch for, and to pray for these kind of men, for our congregation in particular. Right? Hear those words of Jethro, look out for these kind of men. And so let's simply march through these qualifications for church officers one by one. So firstly, verse 6, he must be above reproach or blame, simply meaning he is not open to the charge of wrongdoing. He conducts his life in such a way and with such wisdom that it cuts off all accusations of blame. Obviously, this does not mean sinless perfection, but it does mean there's such a holy consistency to his life that he brings no reproach upon himself, upon the office, and above all, upon Jesus Christ. And so practically speaking, that would mean that if this serious charge were brought against him, the reaction of all would be, no, I don't think so. That's not possible. That just goes against his long-standing, well-tried character. Secondly, verse 6, he is a one-woman man. The normal context for that, of course, is marriage with case-by-case providential allowances for another situation. But the main idea is that he is in every way sexually pure and undefiled, all right? That means in terms of controlling his body, where his eyes go, and what he looks at, his conduct with other women, his inner thoughts, and his outer words. All of these would be marked by a robust purity and fidelity. Thirdly, still in verse 6, you see there his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. And 1 Timothy 3 helps us here as it gives us this plain logic, that a man cannot manage his own household. How then, if he can't do that, would he manage the household of God? All right, it's quite simple, in that the way a man governs his home is a great indicator as to how he will govern God's house. All right, in this case, past performance is an indicator of future results. And so Titus says his children must be believers, which I do take to mean not only professing Christians but that their profession matches their conduct, right? God's children don't live in such a way that they are insubordinate or rebellious. It's quite the rebuke to our modern day that the so-called PK, the so-called pastor's kid, is often synonymous with being a wayward and rebellious child. And Titus knows nothing of this sad reality. Fourthly, verse 7, we see how he expands on this idea of being above reproach. You see there, he says, the leader cannot be arrogant. That is, puffed up, self-willed, stubborn. And you can see why. You see those words there, God's steward, in verse 7. If you are God's steward, then being self-willed is in direct contradiction to caring for God's house. All right, the arrogant man, by definition, is not a steward of God's house. And next, you see, he must also not be quick-tempered or given to anger, right, a boiling tea kettle. Arrogance is surprisingly more closely tied to anger than we realize. Because this is the truth. The man who is quickly angered often believes that he deserves better, right, that his will should prevail, and he becomes angered when things don't go his way. And so Paul says, around the clock, not just in public places but in his own home, in private, with those who know him best, he must be patient and slow to anger. As Proverbs says, whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty. He who rules his spirit better than the one who could take down an entire city. And moving on, you see next, the leader must not be a drunkard, literally addicted to wine. As Ephesians says, be not drunk with wine, that is debauchery, instead be filled with the Spirit. And so the church officer is to be that in its fullest. As Acts says of deacons, choose men full of the Spirit, because you cannot be full of the Spirit and full of spirits, as they say. And next, verse 7, you see, he must not be violent, or more accurately, a pugnacious person. Let's simply put, a bully, right, someone who throws his weight around and uses intimidation and coercion to get his way. If you've been in church for more than two weeks, you well know, it only takes one such person to ruin an entire session, to ruin an entire church. And so the leader must not be domineering, right, the kind of guy who always has to have his way, and is quarrelsome to that end. As leaders very often have to submit to one another, you see how vital is this attribute. And lastly, in this sequence, the officer must not be greedy for gain. I like the King James here, not after filthy lucre, right, dishonorable gain. Scripture is chock full of men who instead of feeding the sheep, feed themselves, who seek personal profit off of God's kingdom. And 2 Peter clearly warns against this instance when he says, false teachers who in their greed will exploit God's people. They look at God's people like commodities to be traded in order to enhance their personal wealth. And so we have just reviewed when an elder and by proxy a deacon are not to be characterized by. And that is very helpful to see what a man must not be. We learn things very good by contrast, by negation. But Paul continues, and you'll see now he shifts in these next verses towards what the leader is to be. In a sense, you can more so say we've just reviewed these disqualifications, and now we have the more positive qualifications. And that's a helpful category to keep in mind, right? It's often the case that a man may not be disqualified, but neither is he necessarily qualified. He's kind of in that gray area of still growing into these qualifications. But Paul is quite clear. He wants Titus to look out for not merely the non-disqualified, but for the eminently qualified. And so leading off, in verse 8, Paul says, look for the leader who is hospitable, and that Greek word philoxenia, lover of strangers, this man who sees strangers and he welcomes them. He shows them kindness. He opens up his heart. He opens up his home to welcome the outsider, all of which, of course, just imitates our great God who welcomes the stranger and foreigner into His family. Secondly, you see he is a lover of good. This is a very underrated virtue. This means that all of his affections are properly ordered toward the good. Conversely, that will mean that the leader must and should hate evil. He would abhor what is evil and positively delights in the good. Like the psalmist says, oh, how I love your law. So in other words, he doesn't merely just tolerate or conform to God's standards. No, instead he's got this burning zeal and love of the good. Good as defined by God's Word. Next verse 8, you see that he is self-controlled. Very much the opposite of drunkenness, being quick-tempered, being violent that we reviewed earlier. And so positively, he is in every way sober-minded in his words, in his thoughts, in his actions. And he carries himself with composure and control. I think Proverbs puts so well the danger of not having self-control when it says the man without self-control is like a city without walls. Now what is the city without walls? Well, in the ancient time, in some sense today, that is a defenseless city. That is a city that could be easily ransacked. So Proverbs is just saying, so it is with a man of no self-control. He would be easy prey for Satan. And so if the elder cannot guard himself, how much less would he be able to guard God's house. And next, we see that the leader is upright and holy, or literally righteous and holy. That is to say that the fullness of his life is a holy life, a life lived out in accordance with God's word and in obedience to it. And more so the point is that such holiness would be evident, obvious in the fruit of his life. As James tells us, that our righteousness can be and is put on display in our works. The tree is made known by the fruit. And so the expectation is that you could look at a leader's life and you could see these fruits of righteousness that come from an upright and holy life. And lastly, in this sequence of positive qualifications, verse 8, you see the leader is to be disciplined. This is a unique Greek word that pairs power with the word self. In other words, to be disciplined is to have power over oneself, a kind of self-mastery by the Spirit's help. Rather than lust controlling him, he controls his lust. Rather than passions controlling him, he controls his passions. And discipline pervades his whole life. So practically that would mean that his finances are disciplined, his body is disciplined, his appetite is disciplined, his daily devotions are disciplined, his tongue is disciplined, and on and on you get the idea. It spreads into every compartment of his life. So there is a word on these qualifications, both negative and positive. And I think what stands out among many things and where the modern church has so grossly derailed is that Scripture so clearly prefers character over charisma in her leaders. Rather than looking for the talented, popular, charismatic guru or the intelligent innovator, instead, Scripture plainly commends character over charisma. So we've seen what Titus is to do. We've seen how he is to do it. Let us lastly look at his charge in verse 9. Kids, kids, I'm sure that you have played the game of tug-of-war before, right? Two teams tugging on that rope. And generally you know that so much of that game hangs upon who's got the strongest grip. Who's got the best grip strength? Well, kids, you should know it's the same with your soul. How good is your grip strength upon God's Word? How tightly, how firmly can you hold on to God's Word so that it's not tugged away from you? And so is the charge to the elder in verse 9. As it says, you see there, he must hold firm to the trustworthy Word. And of course, just the very nature of that command means that it is possible to not hold firm to God's Word. And we absolutely deceive ourselves if we think otherwise. The briefest glance at church history will show how precious doctrines, doctrines like the divinity of Christ, the creation of the world, ex nihilo, the authority of Scripture, justification by faith alone. In our own day, the simple truth that male and female, he created them. How the church has so often struggled, even failed, to hold firm to the trustworthy Word as taught. And that is why the elder is commanded to keep a close watch on his life and on his doctrine. All right? No one wakes up one day and says, I'd like to be a heretic today. I'd like to fall away from the faith today. I'd like to apostatize. I'd like to lead sheep astray to the pit of hell. No, it happens slowly and imperceptibly. It's being drifted out to sea. And so you can see why the elder must hold firm, right? The purpose of his tight grip is for teaching, you see in verse 9, so that he can give sound instruction and to rebuke those who contradict. So his tight grip enables this twofold goal, one formative, one corrective. Firstly, the formative is that he gives instruction, exhortation. You could even say encouragement from the storehouse of God's Word, right? This is what the ministry of God's Word is to be, life-giving and edifying and building up God's people. Like Ecclesiastes says, the words of the Lord are like the goads of the shepherd. The ministry of the Word, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, prods us along to those green pastures, to Jesus Christ himself. And for that to happen, you see, verse 9 says that that doctrine must be sound doctrine. That word sound, a Greek word for hygienic. You can imagine if sheep are drinking from unhygienic, polluted, poisoned water, they will suffer. And so the leader must not simply be teaching, he must teach sound hygienic doctrine. So that is the formative task, but there's also this corrective task in verse 9, and that is he must be able to rebuke or to refute those who contradict sound teaching and expose their falsehood. And this is not optional, right? The leader is required to refute such gang sayers. And so 1 Peter warns that just as there were false prophets of old, there will be, count on it, false teachers in the New Covenant. And so the elder must be posted on the watchtower, ever ready to contest such false teaching from within the walls of the church and tearing down every lofty opinion that would raise itself against the knowledge of God. So that is his charge, both to build up and to tear down, a balance we often don't strike well, is it? And more so, there is the word on the leader, his office, his qualifications, and his charge. And upon hearing it, no doubt, the only proper response, the first response, is who is sufficient for these things? Who would dare to boast in light of these verses? And that way, it ought to cause us to boast more and more in the Lord Jesus Christ, our good shepherd, our good shepherd without equal. Because isn't it true that everything we just said is so imperfectly embodied in man, and yet it is perfectly exampled in Jesus Christ? For he was the one woman man, right? Perfectly devoted to his bride. He is the one and never greedy for gain, but became poor for our sakes. He is the one who held so firmly to God's word that zeal for his father's house consumed him. He is the hospitable man who welcomes sinners, strangers, aliens into the family of God by giving himself up for them upon the cross. And so the church's great hope is as the church follows earthly under shepherds, they look to the great shepherd of their souls, Jesus Christ. And so if you're here this morning and not a Christian, see how just great of a shepherd the Lord Jesus is, that he not merely governs the sheep, but he gave himself up for the sheep. And he calls out to you today to turn from your sin and to come unto him, and he will have you and claim you as his own. And so as we begin to close, let us lay up in our hearts two uses of this great text. Firstly, it would be to pray for your leaders. Pray for all current and future leaders of Cornerstone. A very simple way to do that is just pray through Titus 1 or 1 Timothy 3 and pray that these men would be marked by these qualifications and that they would faithfully be able to discharge their duties outlined in these verses. It was said of the great Charles Spurgeon, when asked what was his secret weapon in ministry, he just smiled and simply said, my people pray for me, and may it be so here. Secondly, it would be follow and support your leaders. Follow and support your leaders. As Hebrews said, as we read earlier, obey your leaders and submit to them as those keeping watch over you. But then you might have caught that curious phrase as it continues, let them do this with joy, not groaning, because that would be of no advantage to you. All right? In other words, if the leader is not able to go about his work joyfully, it's actually to your disadvantage. If he can go about it with joy, it's to your advantage. Not so much his, though it would be, but it's to your profit. Because isn't it true that a joyful leader is a leader ready to serve, ready to love, and ready to sacrifice? Of course, we need only look to the Lord Jesus Christ for that truth, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross and despised the shame, and in doing so bought the church with His own blood. He is the great Shepherd of our souls. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we do praise You for these gifts that the risen Christ has given, that when He ascended on high, He gave pastor-teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, deacons to serve the church to express the mercy of God. We praise You for these earthy gifts, and indeed, we can see how imperfect they are in their frailty. And so it all the more causes us to boast in the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of our souls. And so we do pray that we would look to Him and be strengthened in order to endure. In His name we pray, amen.