And our culture is becoming more and more like that airplane that flies into a bank of clouds and you can't see out and you can't see down. You might think you're ascending instead of descending. You don't know that you're headed straight for the side of a mountain.
A tragic ending is just ahead. Titus, find me some men who will go back to the instrument panel who will effectively stand up and accept both the positive and the negative aspects of Bible exposition. Many will tell the truth to save the lives under their care.
It's true that we live in a culture that seems unaware of where it's ultimately heading and the danger that it's in. People pursue their own desires and agendas, but they seem to do so with no regard for God. The same was true in the time of the early church. So, when Paul wrote a letter to a young pastor named Titus, he challenged him to be the kind of pastor who would speak with clarity regarding God and his word. He also challenged Titus to raise up a team of elders to serve in the church, men with that same purpose.
Here's Stephen Davey to teach you more. Paul shifts from what an elder is to what an elder does. Notice verse 9, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching. In other words, a true shepherd isn't going to let go of the faithful word.
You could translate it, the word that is faithful, the word that is trustworthy. He's not going to let it go. He's going to revere it and read it and study it and memorize it and obey it and believe it and teach it. He's literally going to love the word, the words of God. It is faithful.
It is trustworthy. And he never wants to go far from it. He wants to live in it. And so he's going to set the example then for the flock in relation to this book, in being constantly nourished on the words of faith and sound doctrine, 1 Timothy 4 verse 6, to long for the pure milk of the Lord as the baby longs to be fed, 1 Peter 2. In being commended to the word of God's grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are being sanctified, Acts chapter 20 in Ephesians.
So that's his love and his longing. A pastor preaches and teaches the word of God. An elder believes he is fully convinced that the Bible is alive and capable of bringing about true and genuine reformation of soul, heart, and character. And so he clings to it because without it, none of that can happen. Anything else is a shepherd leading a flock to parched, dried out grass and ground rather than the green pastures of God's inspired word.
So a firm grip on the word of God allows an elder to get his arms around the work of God. The church in our generation, it is joining more and more a host of others in this mass appeal in a quest for relevancy which does nothing more than make their ministry superficial and self-focused where the highest goal of meeting together for worship is the enjoyment of the spectator rather than the pleasure of God. When we sing a song, we ask, hey, did we like that one? We leave the service and say, hey, was that really good for us? Did we like that? Was that enjoyable?
Was it entertaining? The highest goal in that kind of church, the focus is on the fulfilled life of the listener rather than the transformed life of the listener by means of the word of God into the image and character of Jesus Christ, our Chief Shepherd. So apart from the clear commitment and exposition of Scripture, the church then is going to be driven along with the winds of the most recent fads and trends. It's going to be driven by entertainments and storytelling which John Piper in his wonderful little book called The Supremacy of God in Preaching which is required reading at our seminary, he describes the average evangelical service in these words. He simply calls it the slapstick of evangelical worship.
It's quite possible, and I'm coming to believe this more and more, it's quite possible that the evangelical church in our world at large is now set up to melt down at the first signs of genuine persecution for standing for the gospel, which I believe is just around the corner. I want you to notice that Paul said the elder must cling to the trustworthy word which is, note this, don't miss this phrase, in accordance with the teaching. In other words, it tracks back to and is in agreement with the apostolic doctrine.
We're not coming up with anything original. If anybody says, hey, I've got something brand new for you, it's after the period at the last chapter and last verse of Revelation, just turn them off and tie up your shoes and run. This teaching of the apostles was the core around which the New Testament church was formed and committed, Acts chapter 2, verse 42. Any teaching that didn't correspond with the progressing revelation through the apostles, you're holding it in your lap. That apostolic truth, which then ended with the last apostle, John, and his last revelation, anything that disagrees with, denigrates, detracts from this record of apostolic truth and preaching was considered by the church spurious and dangerous and even devilish according to Paul in Galatians chapter 1, verses 8 to 9. There's only one apostolic body of truth. It was delivered already through the apostolic community. There's only one Lord it reveals to us. There's only one way it reveals to us. There's only one baptism. There's only one spirit, one hope, one faith, Ephesians 4, 4, and 5. Anything apart from this God-breathed resource is simply wrong. Anything that disagrees with what it says about what it says is wrong. Are you ready for that kind of stand?
Are you ready for that kind of heat? There are not many gods. There's only one true and living God. There are not many faiths.
I personally bristle when I hear that. There are not many faiths. There's only one faith. Everything else is speculation and eternally dangerous error.
You ready for that kind of stand? Listen, if one group of people believe that two plus two equals four and another group of people believe that two plus two equals five, none of us would say, isn't that nice? There are two answers. There are two viewpoints. What matters most is what two plus two means personally to them. Now, my algebra teacher never gave me that kind of latitude. It was either right or wrong. She didn't care what two plus two meant to me personally either. I don't even know if she cared about me personally.
But she certainly didn't give any points for getting close. Are you willing to communicate that kind of conviction out there in a world that is now saturated in pluralism? Best expressed in one man's biography I read recently where he said that the house of God, if there is one, has many doorways.
G.E. Lessing, an 18th century German critic, played an instrumental role in Europe popularizing pluralism, which has now become the theology of our American culture. All you have to do is talk to somebody out there and you'll hear them say, well, that God's good for you, but I've got a different one, or that belief is good for you, but that's not good for me. Can't we just agree that even though we believe contradictory truths, we could still both be right? That is the theology of our thinking, so to speak.
G.E. Lessing was a good storyteller and he often used a story that he created to promote his viewpoint. See if this sounds anywhere familiar to what we're hearing today. He said this, a father had a magic ring which he was bound to give to one of his three sons when he died. Not wanting to be accused of favoritism, he made two imitation rings just like his. After his death, each son received a ring, and each son thought he was the one who owned the genuine ring. Well, the three troubled sons began to argue with who actually owned the genuine ring, and finally these three agreed to go to Nathan the Wise and explain what was going on.
After hearing their tale, Nathan the Wise responded that each of them was to think that his own ring was the true ring and not try to persuade anyone differently. That sounds really nice, doesn't it? I mean, can't we all coexist?
It's certainly non-confrontational. I mean, can't we put the cross next to the star, next to the crescent moon? The trouble with that story is at the end of the day there was only one magic ring, and the other two were fakes. I guess I had hoped they'd never need the magic. There's only one gospel.
All others are fraudulent. And to use this analogy, there's no magic in them. There's no hope of redemption or forgiveness.
There's no supernatural cleansing power and hope for heaven and a rescue from sin and myself and hell. Titus makes sure that you find men who will cling to that kind of apostolic truth in that kind of manner. Make sure they hold fast. They won't let it go. Don't let go of the gospel. Make sure they're convinced because as soon as they take on the mantle of a shepherd, the heat is going to be turned up beyond their imagination. The pressure will be on to soften the edges of repentance and the claims of discipleship. The heat will be on to compromise the exclusive claims of Christ alone by faith in Him alone.
Anybody made out of chocolate isn't going to survive. And I've got to tell you, every time I see a preacher interviewed on television, I cringe because so often you will hear, well, what about all those Muslims? What about this sin or that sin?
And they will say, well, it's not up to me to say. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. In fact, the challenge is even greater than simply believing it. I want you to notice that Paul gives Titus two aspects of what they're to do with the Word of God. The first aspect is positive. Look at the middle part of verse 9. So that, all right, he's going to cling to the word that is trustworthy that tracks all the way back and agrees to the apostolic truth. So that, first of all, he's going to be able to exhort in sound doctrine.
That's the positive side of this. The word exhort carries the idea of urging the listener to respond, to receive, to apply the truth. This is more than me transferring information from my notes to your notes. That's not the goal of exhortation. Exhortation is ultimately oriented to a verdict. To exhort means to seek by God's Spirit to influence the mind and the heart, the conscience of the hearer.
It is life or death. That's exhortation. In fact, the word Paul uses here, translated exhort, is from par kalu'o, to call alongside.
It's also a noun for him, uses of the Holy Spirit, the par kleitos. He is the one who encourages and he convicts and he reforms. A modern equivalent for our thinking would be the idea of having a good coach.
Tough when he needs to be tough and comforting when he needs to be comforting. A good coach knows what his players need. Even though they might disagree, I don't know about you, but I never had a soccer coach in high school ever say out on the practice field, the guys, the real reason you're out here today is for you to feel good about yourselves, so why don't you give the player next to you a big hug. After we hug, I want you to feel good in those new cleats that you've got on. You didn't work them in like you were supposed to over the summer.
If you don't want to do any laps, that's really fine with me. In fact, I'm going to give the whole regimen of discipline and training up to you and you do whatever you feel is right for you because at the end of the day, I want you to have happy thoughts about soccer. Not hardly. My soccer coach used to work for Hitler.
I'm fairly convinced of it. I mean, he would work us to the bone and we would be praying for the rapture, but he also knew how to encourage us and motivate us and stretch us. He talked strategy and teamwork. He would tell us about the teams we were going to be up against, and after we were dead tired and sprawled out on the side of the soccer field, he'd tell us why it mattered.
He was a good coach, and it paid off. True biblical exposition is exhortation. It actually joins the truth of the Word of God with the activity of the Spirit of God in bringing about through its truth transformation in the child of God so that this truth becomes a way of life. You would notice that Paul describes this doctrine as sound. It is sound doctrine. The Greek word hugaino gives us our word hygiene. It literally means healthy doctrine. It's good for you. It will save your soul and protect your path and your feet, your mind, your heart.
In old days, doctors referred to someone as sound of wind and limb. Good lungs, healthy body. So sound doctrine, that's the idea, produces a healthy Christian, and doctrinally healthy Christians live healthy lives, make up a healthy church. They're thinking correctly.
They're living correctly. That's the biblical definition of health. And behind it all is a commitment to sound biblical exposition. So Titus, now I want you to go and find men who will love the Word like this.
They're going to love it enough to study it and deliver it and stand by it so that the body will be sound and healthy as doctrine is sound and healthy. That's the positive aspect. There's a negative aspect I want you to see.
This is the second aspect. Notice further at the end of verse 9, and he's not finished there. A lot of pastors say, hey, that's great. I'm just going to go encourage everybody.
I'm going to be a good coach. Oh, and, and to refute those who contradict. His ministry is both constructive and confrontive. John Calvin, the reformer, wrote that a pastor needs two voices, one voice for gathering the sheep and another voice for driving away the wolves and the thieves. Now Paul is going to spend several verses detailing this confrontive ministry and I'll save our… most of our thoughts for then, but let me at least say for today's study that the word translated refute is a bit surprising. I've already addressed it somewhat, but I'll tell you the word refute means to literally show people their sins, define that sin, and summon them to repentance. Paul knew that Titus needed men who would be willing to both deliver the truth and expose the error.
We need it more today than ever, and the heat is turning up, isn't it? To call something sinful or in error or in need of saving is to be considered unloving and judgmental and even divisive. Who, what right do you have to judge me to call that a sin, to tell me I need to be saved, to say I'm a, I'm a sinner? You're just being judgmental. Listen, calling cyanide poison is not being judgmental. It's being protective. Telling your child that that neighbor's dog will bite him is not being unloving.
Putting a fence up so the dog can't get to your child and your child can't get to the dog is not being divisive. It's being protective. Telling someone they need to be saved, that they are following a false prophet or a false god or a false messiah is not being unloving.
In fact, it is being loving enough to try and warn them of hell and save them for heaven, right? And our culture is becoming more and more like that airplane that flies into a bank of clouds and you can't see out and you can't see down. You might think you're okay. You might think you're flying trim. You might think you're ascending instead of descending. You don't know that you're headed straight for the side of a mountain. A tragic ending is just ahead. Titus, find me some men who will go back to the instrument panel who will effectively stand up and accept both the positive and the negative aspects of Bible exposition, men who will tell the truth to save the lives under their care.
That's what he's saying. I can remember personally the first rumblings I had in my gut spirit – it sounds more spiritual – of anger and sadness, kind of all mixed together. And what God was doing in my own heart to eventually accept the role of an elder, as I listened to a false teacher deliver a message to his congregation. It happened when I was a freshman in college. I was going to be a history teacher.
It was one of the few grades I got. I said, God's leading. So I went away to study and the little college I went to didn't have a campus and you had to walk to different buildings and I would often walk past this little stone chapel off on the side of Main Street, beautiful gardens, beautiful, beautiful chapel, sat about a hundred people. And I was curious what they believed.
I wanted to know what that guy in there was preaching. And so I decided to skip church where I was supposed to be and I've already confessed that so we're okay, I think. But I decided to go to that church for their morning service. And I didn't plan it but it just so happened to be Easter Sunday morning. I slipped into a pew, beautiful mahogany hand-carved pew, slate floor, beautiful little chapel, people around me well-dressed, waiting for the service to begin looking at their programs. The organ was playing somewhere in the background. We stood and sung a hymn. I didn't recognize it. It didn't seem all that bad, although it didn't say anything about Jesus or God as character or anything about that.
Sounded good. And then a doctor so and so, I can't remember his name or I'd tell you, stood to speak and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He rambled on and on, literally giving reasons why Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead. And I can still feel what I felt 35 years ago sitting there looking around at these people and that false teacher up there who of all Sundays on Easter was telling people why Jesus was dead. And I could feel it right here.
I still have it. And so does every elder, shepherd, leader. Why? Because there is an aspect of believing the truth where you want to warn people.
You're angry over error. You pity the poor sheep who have nothing to eat. You want to do everything you can. And it has been my great duty and delight to wear the mantle of shepherd, to both battle the wolves as well as exhort and encourage the flock along this saving, healthy, true path that ultimately will lead to heaven. Chuck Swindoll, the chancellor of Dallas Seminary has pastored churches for more than 50 years now, still pastoring. Marcia and I had a chance to hear him talk about what he had learned in 50 years of ministry at the National Religious Broadcasters, but he wrote recently some words that I have in one of his newest publications, Insights on the Book of Titus that I'm enjoying. He included private words from his own journal, which I believe will encourage everyone who wears the mantle of a shepherd, but it will also reassure the flock. He wrote this, If God is pulling his people toward their spiritual destiny, and he is, I suppose that makes the spiritual leader his rope. Though the tension gets almost unbearable and sometime I fear my own rope is coming unraveled, no one should pity me. While one end drags the church through each difficulty, the other end feels the firm reassuring grip of an ever faithful God.
And for reasons not even I can explain, there's no place I'd rather be. Maybe that's why this is not a job. This is a calling. That's the heart of a true shepherd. According to Paul's own letter to Titus, Jesus Christ will not be pleased with someone else.
The church, you, the flock, the priceless possession of God deserve nothing less than that. This is a calling for men either vocationally or voluntarily to wear the mantle of a shepherd, to add to their own pressures and job constraints they already feel, for men to view this as a life, to be diligent in the word of God, men who will be driven above all things by the pleasure of God, men who are dedicated to the people of God. Titus, I want you to go and find me some men like that who will not melt.
Go find men who will answer this call. True leadership isn't about avoiding the heat. It's about standing strong when the fire comes. Let's be Christians who don't melt under pressure, but remain steadfast in every circumstance.
That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Today's message was called Chocolate Soldiers. Do you have a need or concern that you'd like us to pray about? We have a team of dedicated people who pray for every request that comes in, and we'd be honored to pray for you by name.
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